"Yes, yes, Griseo is so good. Take this." Lin squatted and spoke gently to Griseo, placing the gift box he'd been holding into her hands. It seemed he had intended to deliver gifts from the start. After doing so, he greeted the others and walked away.
"Has Griseo seen Mr. Lin without his helmet?" Ato asked pointlessly after Lin was out of earshot.
"He treats that damn helmet like a treasure; no way he'd take it off," Mobius complained, then paused. "Wait, then how did Griseo recognize him?" Lin current tone was nothing like his usual self. How could a child recognize the usually quiet brother?
But Griseo didn't care what they were discussing. She opened the gift box to find a high-quality, exquisite paintbrush. Seeing it was a brush and not something strange, the others breathed a sigh of relief. This Lin had left such an impression that they expected anything he gave to be something bizarre.
"I thought Mr. Lin would give a cuter brush." Klein yawned as she watched Griseo touch the handle of the brush like a prized possession before carefully putting it back.
"Cute brushes aren't as good as professional ones. He considered practicality over appearance..." Mobius stopped halfway. She realized that in this regard, this person and Lin were actually the same; he wasn't as flippant as he appeared. This made her take another look at the dazed, silent Griseo.
"Griseo," she called out.
"Auntie Mobius."
"It's Big Sister Mobius."
"Auntie Mobius."
"..."
Ignoring Blanca and Ato's suppressed laughter, Mobius pointed at Lin back as he talked to others: "How did you recognize him?"
"The color... is the same."
"Color?" Mobius blinked, then smiled and pointed at her own face. "What color am I?"
"Green." Unsurprising.
"Then what color is Lin?"
"..."
Griseo looked at Mobius in confusion, appearing to have something to say but unable to.
"What's wrong?"
Griseo shook her head. Her gaze shifted back and forth between Lin and Mobius, her confusion growing, yet she still couldn't get a word out.
"Could it be a color you don't know?" After all, Griseo was still young.
But Griseo kept shaking her head. She ended up saying nothing, just clutching her gift and Blanca hand, her head hanging. Occasionally, she would look back at Lin with a face full of confusion.
...
"Yo, Spaciel, long time no see."
Spaciel, who was missing an arm, was eating cake with a fork. Having only one arm made eating a bit difficult, but he was patient and not picky, eating wherever he went. He looked quite relaxed. Seeing Lin approach, he smiled and set down his fork: "What made you want to do all this suddenly?"
"I'm not Lin." Lin leaned beside him, picking up a cocktail and staring at his blurred reflection in the glass. "I do whatever I want."
"Perhaps so." Spaciel didn't press the issue, nodding. "Then, unknown sir, what can I do for you? Lin and I aren't exactly on great terms, are we?"
"Not on great terms? You wouldn't have let him use the serum then." Lin downed the drink. His reflection in the glass returned to normal. He set the glass down leisurely. "As for why I'm looking for you... Old Spaciel, remember that time? You were riding on him, crying like crazy, punching a helmet that was a hundred times harder than your fist."
"...How could I forget."
"A lot happened after that... but forget it, it's a long story. What have you been thinking since then?"
What have I been thinking? Spaciel fingers curled into a fist. Much time had passed. Even for someone deeply sentimental, the pain should have faded. But fading isn't forgetting; even now, when Spaciel thought of his wife and daughter, his heart would throb. Pain, regret, sorrow... emotions like a vast ocean drowning a person, making him lose himself. Why was he asking about this?
"You used to say I... that Lin was an empty shell. He had nothing, his heart was empty, which is why he could execute his programmed justice. You weren't wrong. But when more and more things are packed into that shell, and he looks less like a machine and more like a person..."
"No, just forget I said anything. Holding this banquet is just for fun; I wanted to see some people from Lin memory." Lin smile showed no issues, but Spaciel gave him a suspicious look, finding his words bizarre.
"But I still find it strange. Since you aren't Lin, where did the real Lin go?" Returning to the fundamental question, Spaciel stared intently at Lin.
"...Old Spaciel, you didn't actually hate me then, you hated someone else, right?"
"What does that have to do with what I asked?"
"You hated your own powerlessness, not inventing the serum in time, feeling like you caused your family's departure."
"..."
"So we really are alike..."
While Spaciel pondered those words, Lin flashed a flippant smile and slapped Spaciel hard on the back: "Lin is still in this body, of course. Heard of 'Fusion'? It's the most noble way of summoning..."
After Lin bombarded Spaciel logic with a bunch of talk, he took a glass of wine and went off to cause more trouble, with Prometheus following like a little tail, monitoring him for any out-of-line behavior.
"By the way, what stage have those two reached now?" Lin swirled the dark liquid in his glass. He looked up at the crystal chandelier, murmuring softly. "Hope they haven't fallen for each other, haha, that'd be too weird. I couldn't bear to look... surely not?"
"Hmm? Big Brother Lin, what are you saying?" Pardo, her mouth full of chicken and face oily, asked while her cheeks were puffed out.
"Nothing. Eat up, Pardo. You're at the age for growing." Lin walked over and picked up a chicken leg himself. "Let's have a contest to see who eats more?"
"Okay!" Pardo agreed happily. Although Lin was often with her, he usually just strictly set training schedules. A relaxed chat and meal like this had never happened before.
"Hehe, no need to eat so fast, no one's competing with you..."