Chapter 275

Chapter 275

Space is often compared to the ocean. They share many similarities, but there's no need to elaborate on that here.  

Right now, only one commonality matters.  

"Whether it's space or the sea, one can drift."  

I blinked. Under the dim lighting, I could see the wrecked interior of the spaceship.  

And there, slumped in his seat, was Mushir al-Kashura. His full-body prosthetic remained utterly still, as if conserving power.  

Kashura moved only his head to look at me.  

"You’ve done something truly foolish, Luka. You're the one who will die first."  

"If I have to die alone, I'd rather take you with me."  

I spoke from where I was crumpled in the corner. My whole body creaked in pain, as if someone had beaten me senseless all night.  

'Damn it, I'm really about to die.'  

My condition was the worst it had ever been.  

My ears were ringing, blood dripped from my nose and eyes, and my chest ached with every breath. It was the aftermath of traveling at relativistic speed. Considering I had survived without a spacesuit with only this level of damage, Kashura’s ship must have been exceptionally advanced.  

"You still don’t understand. You're not going to die. You and I will become one. Without pain or discomfort, our consciousnesses will merge naturally."  

"It won’t be 'Luka' anymore. It'll be 'Mushir al-Kashura.' That's what death is. When someone as smart as you lives too long, you start missing the obvious. Your thinking drifts further and further from common sense."  

Kashura remained silent. The glow in his artificial eyes flickered faintly.  

"……I suppose it might seem that way from your perspective. In that case, I’ll change the name. From now on, I'll call myself 'Lukaus Custoria.' By defining your existence through language, your consciousness will maintain continuity. That way, it won’t be death—just transformation."  

I frowned.  

"That wordplay is disgusting."  

"Don’t let emotional intuition cloud your judgment. See the essence of things. If I had acted on emotional intuition… you would have already been torn to pieces by my hands."  

I leaned against the wall.  

Giiiiiik.  

The ship’s gravity control system powered down, and my body lifted slightly off the ground.  

"Looks like your ship is failing, too. Things really aren’t going your way, huh?"  

I chuckled. I wanted to get under his skin, but… I knew the truth. He had more control over his emotions than anyone I had ever met.  

'But that doesn't mean he doesn’t have emotions.'  

Mushir al-Kashura was inhuman in a different sense. He possessed patience and rationality that bordered on the superhuman. He lacked even the impurities and unnecessary stubbornness that a human should have.

Kashura was detached in the worst possible way.  

"Your interference was a success. I'm still debating whether I should be impressed by your sheer determination. Well, at least we've avoided immediate death. I managed to steer us off course just before we entered relativistic speed—though it cost us half the ship."  

Kashura had deployed three repair drones, which were working to restore the control room. They started by fixing the most critical damages, gradually bringing systems back online.  

"What's out there beyond the Niger planetary system? The Empire's reconnaissance ships avoid it, and even you seem reluctant to go beyond the outer edges. You wouldn't even risk approaching the eleventh planet, Vern."  

One of Kashura’s glowing artificial eyes turned toward me.  

I knew I was being shameless. But there was no point in maintaining dignity or courtesy when dealing with a psycho trying to fuse my brain with his.  

"‘Certain death.’ I won’t say more than that. I am human, after all—my decisions aren’t entirely devoid of emotion."  

"Hah, that’s almost reassuring. So you do have some humanity in you. Good to know—I was getting sick of your unnervingly polite inhumanity."  

As soon as the minimal repairs were done, Kashura retracted all mechanical controls into the floor. He was thorough, ensuring I had no way to interfere. Everything was handled digitally.  

Viiiiiing.  

A holographic projection finally materialized in the center of the control room. The map of the Niger planetary system appeared first.  

"……This is bad. We’re completely adrift. This is an uninhabited zone. No trade convoys, no ships pass through here. Even a distress signal won’t reach anyone."  

"Then I guess your legend ends here."  

"As does your life. If the medical equipment were still functional, I would have extracted your brain and linked it to mine by now. That might have led to another way out."  

For the first time, Kashura showed a faint flicker of emotion. The fact that I had managed to draw this much out of him was almost worthy of self-praise.  

Kashura and I shared the same space, drifting in a lifeless void aboard a wrecked ship.  

One day. Two days. Three.  

Time passed. Kashura was completely absorbed in repairing the ship, but it was clearly no easy task. Every day, drones capable of extravehicular activity worked tirelessly to restore what they could.  

"At this rate, you’ll die before I do. Weren’t you so eager to witness my downfall?"  

Kashura said as he inserted a straw into my mouth. I sipped the water and laughed.  

"I can watch from the afterlife. You should conserve the water. Even with a purification system, it has its limits."

"Your brain is important to me."  

"Ridiculous. Even now, you're obsessed with my brain."  

I let out a hollow laugh.  

Even with water, I was starving and wasting away. The ship’s storage compartment had been breached, and all the food had been sucked into space.  

Kashura, on the other hand, was enduring by putting himself in a near-hibernation state. He only woke for a couple of hours a day before slipping back into dormancy.  

By now, I had grown familiar with the structure of Kashura’s ship. From what I could see on the holographic display, a few facilities were still operational.  

'He's making sure that area never loses power. Even the backup capacitors are prioritized for that sector.'  

To conserve energy, I kept my eyes closed most of the time and tried to sleep as much as possible.  

'But at this rate, I won’t last even fifteen days, let alone a month.'  

My condition was deteriorating. To recover, I needed proper nutrition—especially protein.  

Viiiiiing.  

At the designated time, Kashura woke up, his artificial eyes flickering to life. He examined my condition carefully.  

"……There’s no helping it. You've reached your limit."  

Kashura sent his drones beyond the control room.  

It was then that I realized what he had been keeping powered until the very end.  

The answer was obvious in hindsight, but the fact that it had taken me this long to figure it out meant my mind was already failing.  

'The brain storage chamber.'  

Somewhere on this ship, there was a facility for preserving spare brains. After all, Kashura was a monster who replaced parts of his own brain as needed.  

Through my blurred vision, I watched as his drones returned, carrying something.  

My consciousness flickered in and out. Even though I had slept plenty, my mind wavered. Everything felt hazy, like a dream.  

Chiiiiik.  

A sizzling sound.  

"Eat. It should be quite nutritious."  

Kashura’s auxiliary arm moved, forcing a spoon into my mouth. On it was meat.  

Instinctively, I chewed and swallowed. And then… my mind slowly cleared.  

"Ugh, ngh—!"  

Before I could spit it out, Kashura clamped his hand over my mouth, forcing me to swallow.  

'This lunatic…'  

He had fed me human flesh. Not just any human flesh—a brain.  

Kashura had taken a preserved brain, sliced it in half, and cooked it. The remaining half still wobbled inside a glass container.  

"If you look back on human history, cannibalism was surprisingly common. In extreme situations like this, it has even been permitted under certain conditions. Swallow it, Luka. The deed is done."

I glared at him, then forced the half-regurgitated meat down my throat.  

Only then did Kashura remove his hand from my mouth.  

"You… just how deep does your depravity go?"  

"There have been cases where people have survived by amputating and consuming the least essential parts of their bodies in survival situations. This is no different."  

"This is a brain. A human one…"  

"A part of me. A section of lesser importance. It holds less value than you do."  

A chill ran down my spine.  

There was no way I could comprehend Mushir al-Kashura’s morality or values.  

In my short life, I had met all kinds of people—aliens, unfathomable criminals, and monsters in human form.  

But Mushir al-Kashura was unique.  

If he had been like one of the Empire’s corrupt nobles, his mind shattered, his soul rotted beyond recognition, I could have understood. Their depravity—their indulgence in human flesh and perverse pleasures—was abhorrent, but at least it made sense in a twisted way.  

'But even now, I can tell… Mushir al-Kashura’s mind is intact.'  

This monster was something beyond my comprehension. A complete unknown, even more so than Kinuan.  

'It’s not the act of eating human flesh that unsettles me.'  

I could accept cannibalism if it came down to it. The concept wasn’t difficult to grasp.  

But Kashura had fed me a brain that had once been connected to him—a brain that had held his consciousness.  

A wave of visceral revulsion surged through me.  

"Even in this situation, you still refuse to give up on my brain."  

"You’d do well to avoid starving to death. Ideally, I want to use your brain in its optimal state, but I’ve already prepared for the worst. If your vitals weaken too much, I will immediately extract your brain and preserve it in a containment unit. Even if there’s some damage, it’s better than nothing."  

"Kh… Haha… Hahaha!"  

I shut my eyes and laughed. Not because it was funny—I didn’t even know why I was laughing.  

I was starting to see something beyond mere disgust and hatred. He wanted my brain this badly? I almost wanted to scream at him to just take it already.  

"I think… in some twisted way, I’m starting to respect you. So let’s make a bet, Kashura."  

I opened my eyes and met his gaze. Kashura tilted his head slightly.  

"A bet? That could certainly add some excitement to our dull drifting existence."  

"I know you're repairing the ship. At some point, you will finish the repairs."  

"That’s correct."

"And whether it’s the Empire or someone else, people will be searching for us. They’ll be combing through the Niger planetary system."  

"That’s likely. And?"  

"When your ship is repaired and you've made all the necessary preparations for fusion… I'll cooperate. I don’t know what the process entails, but if I consciously accept it, wouldn’t that make it easier? You already know—take away my pride, and I’m as good as dead. But I do keep my promises."  

Kashura’s artificial eyes widened slightly.  

"Hmm. I see what my victory condition is. And what about yours?"  

"If, even in this attempt, you fail and lose me again—then give up on my brain. Let it go. Stop chasing me."  

"Persistence is one of my greatest strengths."  

"Which is exactly why I need this condition. I don’t want to spend my life being hunted by you. Since I’ll be surviving by roasting and eating your brain for a while, I think I deserve at least this much."  

Kashura was silent for a moment. His eyes flickered in alternating patterns, as if exchanging thoughts between separate processors.  

"……I will uphold our agreement. Can you swear that you will do the same?"  

He was taking the bait.  

"You already know what kind of person I am."  

"That’s true. Then the bet is sealed, Luka. The loser will submit."  

For the first time, Kashura, who had been conserving energy all this time, stood up. As he looked around, the lights in the control room surged to full brightness, and the monitors flickered on.  

A cold chill ran down my spine. Something was wrong.  

"Luka, you were right. I do know what kind of person you are."  

Kashura walked to the center of the control room, where a swarm of holographic interfaces surrounded him. The ship’s status, previously flashing yellow and red, turned a stable green.  

"……You tricked me."  

The ship had been fully repaired for a while.  

"There’s no point in resisting now. Our bond has deepened, and you have psychologically acknowledged your defeat. That completes the conditions for fusion."  

He was right. More than anger at being deceived, I felt a grim sense of acceptance in my loss.  

Wuuuuuuuung.  

The hum of the ship’s engines resonated through the hull.  

"It’s true that the medical facilities onboard were destroyed. But I have hidden sanctuaries scattered throughout the Niger planetary system. Once we reach one of them—my victory is assured."  

Kashura was smiling. He didn’t need to make a sound—I could hear his smile.  

Because now, we had a bond.

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