Aurora Over a Dead World

Chapter 45: Mandatory Repair Situation

"...Wow, how did they end up in this state?" Delilah says, confused, looking at my prosthetics. After long hours of walking, Eirwen carried me to the academy and went to speak with Director Astrid about everything that happened.

But before she left, she brought me to the teachers’ lounge. Unfortunately, Delilah was here. I wonder if this woman has no life outside this school, because it’s pretty late at night.

"I had an incident with a student. Since you’re nosy and want to help, just do it with the right arm. I hope you understand, but I barely know you—I can’t trust the repair of my prosthetics to a stranger," I tell her as she picks up some tools and approaches.

"Alright!!!" She says with a smile, taking my arm and resting it on the table.

’Is that why she has such absurdly deep dark circles under her eyes?’

"Don’t you sleep, Delilah? It’s so late, why are you at the academy at this hour?" The academy is so silent because it’s empty; it’s strange to see someone here at this time.

"I’m just studying a few things. It’s normal—Astrid lets me stay at the academy until whatever time I want to leave, so I usually spend a lot of time here," she says animatedly.

Click

Delilah skillfully disconnects the forearm part, leaving only the half that reaches the middle of my arm and the end of my elbow.

’She’s so skilled with technology...’ I’ve never seen anyone disconnect my arm with such ease, even with the right tools and proper experience.

"They look like severe frost damage. How strange... they’re very deep. Some parts need to be completely replaced, others can be salvaged..." Delilah looks behind me and stares at my spine.

"Your spine... it looks far too perfect compared to your arms and legs. Why?" Her curiosity calms me down a little. Up until now, she seemed far too perfect, knowing everything about my arms and legs.

"My spine isn’t just a prosthesis. It’s directly connected to my flesh, as if it’s part of my natural skeleton. It stores all the electricity needed for the prosthetics to function."

"So it’s like a naturally warm engine, meaning if I can withstand a temperature, it can too." That was the reason it wasn’t frozen. I was still enduring the cold, even though it was extreme. But one or two more hours and I would have had problems, and my spine would have too.

"Oh! I get it. It’s like an engine on a winter day running at full power!! It’s naturally warm on the inside." She picks up a box with various random parts and starts replacing some of the mechanisms in my right arm.

"You know, if I didn’t know we were far away, I’d think you’d entered the Frozen Lands, hahaha." She makes a joke. I give a polite laugh.

’...What a joker... as if I would enter the Frozen Lands and... wait...’ I look at Delilah and just stare at her.

’How... does she know...’ I keep staring at her for a few seconds until she notices my gaze.

"How do you know what the Frozen Lands are?"

"...Huh?"

"...Tell me. As far as I know, that’s not something a mere teacher would know." Contrary to what the population is told, the world below Aurora Island isn’t just ruins.

There are several "extreme" areas—forests, frozen environments, small deserts, lakes, etc. These areas aren’t "good." They are literally the environments where the most powerful monsters exist in a "natural" way.

Because many monsters represent humanity’s collective fears, and nature, for example, has many things humanity is or has been afraid of, so monsters of that kind live in those areas.

But the public doesn’t know these areas exist. Aurora Island is well-fenced off, and no civilian can look below the island, so no one knows what’s down there beyond what is reported as the ruins.

Extreme areas are only cataloged for people with at least Vice-Commander level access, meaning the only way to know about them is by having that level of data authority, or by having passed through one of those environments.

"H-Hahaha, I don’t know what you’re talking about. It was just a figure of speech. But you also mentioned knowing about them. Why?" She gives me a smile and turns the question around. I look at my arms. If I were in good condition, I would force her to tell the truth, but I’m in a vulnerable position.

"Yeah... I think you’re right... it’s nothing. Just ignore it. I was just surprised for a moment..." I decide to let it go for now. I don’t think she’ll answer me. Delilah has always seemed like a rather strange woman to me.

’I need Nexus to do a deeper investigation into who this woman is... maybe she once belonged to the army... or has some political influence she’s hiding...’ I let her continue the repairs on my arm until it’s functional again.

When it starts working again, I ask her to step away, wanting to repair the rest myself. Later, I’ll take apart the arm she repaired and fix it again on my own.

"You’re quite skilled at doing that with only one hand," she says, watching me quickly repair the other arm.

"Years of practice." I give her a dry response, rotating the internal lock and removing some small parts to replace. They were badly damaged, so I’ll have to discard them later.

"I see... do you need me to do anything?" she asks, trying to be helpful.

"..." I just ignore her, connecting the pieces and reattaching the arm in place. Now with both arms working, I move on to repairing my legs, which ends up being much easier since I have two hands to manipulate parts and tools.

"So... I took a look and noticed you’re teaching some of our biggest talents. That’s incredible. What are your students like? My students are great. My class really loves me, and they’re very obedient and focused," she tries to make conversation again.

"..." I ignore her to make it clear I don’t want to talk to her.

"You know, when you show your students that what you have to teach matters, they end up realizing that learning it and focusing will help them. It’s hard, but afterward, each class becomes something that holds their attention," she ignores the fact that I ignored her and keeps talking.

"I don’t know what I’d do if my class were unruly, but since everyone is so well-behaved, I like to reward them with my absolute best—"

"Delilah, could you leave here, please? I’m busy and I want silence. I’m sleepy and I get stressed when I don’t sleep," I lie to make her leave.

"...Okay, sorry for talking too much. It’s just that I thought it’d be nice to have a conversation to distract you a little. You know, it’s tricky when you’re handling delicate parts and you’re sleepy, and you end up dozing off for a second—"

"..." I stare at her, and she finally leaves, stopping her talking. As soon as she closes the door, I look at one of the monitors.

"Nexus, I want to use Commander Nadir’s authority. Access that woman’s private files—her files as a teacher. I want to see what this suspicious woman’s classes are like."

"[Wait a moment. I will confirm if this is within your access.]"

’Nexus needs to check?...’ The Nexus on my phone behaved differently from the Nexus on the computer, since the behavior changes depending on the user login. But still, because of the AI recognition, the fact that I asked for something should have already revealed that something.

Checking means there’s data with restrictions, which also means Astrid is hiding or protecting this woman from something.

’Why? Since when does Astrid care about a mere teacher?’ Even if she helped with things related to the [Simulator], Astrid still wouldn’t keep her data private.

"[Access partially granted. What do you want to know?]"

’If it’s partial... then there must be content limitations...’ Asking the wrong questions will get me unsatisfactory answers, so I need to think carefully.

"What are the rewards? The way Delilah spoke about her students’ behavior sounds strange to me. No one is so ’automatic’ that they pay attention to every single class a teacher gives, even if she’s good."

"There will always be one or two problematic students."

"[Delilah rewards her students differently, usually in private, away from any form of technology that could record data, so we don’t know for sure, and her class never answers, being relatively evasive.]"

"...What’s the age range of her class?"

"[20 years old. Delilah is a teacher who teaches physics, chemistry, biology, robotics, and especially classes on historical devices and modern devices. Generally, her classes will never have students under 20 years of age, as they are seniors learning to use certain devices that are a mandatory course.]"

"...Does the entire class really behave?"

"[Yes.]"

"And is there anything strange about that?"

"[Yes, but there is no concrete data. There are rumors that she rewards students in inappropriate ways for their attention. That theory has no logical basis because her class has 15 men and 17 women—it would be impossible for her to actively attract all of them with her body, aside from her personality not fitting the profile of someone who would do that.]"

"Wait, where did that theory come from?"

"[It arose from rumors among students, but it’s also notable that many students are afraid of her. Outside of school hours, Delilah often seems almost like a zombie—far too silent, with an extremely tired visual appearance, but with an overly positive attitude that falls into a certain social uncanny valley.]"

’I can’t judge someone just for being strange... but something about this woman really unsettles me... if Astrid is protecting her, then it shouldn’t be anything too bad, but there’s no doubt something is behind all of this...’

"Well... Delilah is a beautiful woman, and there are many who usually make sexual jokes about teachers, so this theory might have started among students. However, it seems even the students notice this teacher is strange."

"...Undoubtedly, there’s something to this that I’d like to know..."

"[Do you need anything else?]"

"...A new set of parts. I’m not going to use anything that woman used to fix me. I’d rather replace everything... actually, I’d rather buy entirely new prosthetics..." I had hoped I’d never have to replace my prosthetics, and I was quite disappointed when I lost one to save Eirwen.

But now? Something makes me uncomfortable, especially using the parts that woman brought. I’m paranoid. I’d rather replace everything and feel a little sad about losing the prosthetics I used for years than use something from someone I don’t trust. I’ll obviously keep only the spine and the tail, which don’t need to be replaced. But the arms and legs will be swapped immediately as soon as the new ones arrive.

’Besides, I can just keep the old prosthetics at home to remember the old days...’

"[Okay, I’ll use the delivery system to place an express order for fast delivery.]"

"Perfect... oh, and put it on Astrid’s tab."