Humans are a group of foolish existentialists governed by emotion. In the history of mankind, which can be summarized on a single sheet of paper, the most common sights are victories guided by reason and opportunities lost to emotion.
This is good, that is good... boasting about anthropocentrism, individuality, freedom... garbage that can't even realize its own value and doesn't even count as the rosemary in a meat grinder—these are the mainstream of humanity.
It's as absurd as if the father of existentialism were the gloomy child of a nouveau riche family governed by religious sentiment.
The fact is, when the local treasury runs out of money, someone wins the lottery jackpot. When someone in a dorm is no longer there, the others get recommended for grad school. When a wife cheats, she looks for a way to strip her husband of everything.
Bowing ten thousand times to a divine statue won't turn plain water into wine.
However, rather than the reality of crouching on a street corner for a day to pick up enough money for a single piece of candy, humans would rather believe in an apocalypse where they pay to offer their own daughters to the clergy.
Thinking makes humans unique, but emotion makes the only difference between a human and a beast the fact that they've swapped fur for clothes.
Oh, don't misunderstand. I'm not criticizing humanity. In fact, I absolutely love these people who stomp into a shithole with their eyes blindfolded, whom I see in that guy's memories.
Who else could I be? I am the messenger of "God."
Ding, ding, ding...
Lin used a hammer to drive in the tent stakes. He had found some materials to set up a temporary tent, planning to spend the night directly beneath the rift.
"I've really troubled you." Einstein and No. 3 walked over, carrying some items.
Lin shook his head. This was a problem he had caused, and currently, he was the only one capable of fighting. The ELF' weapons had long since been consumed as materials during the construction of the settlement.
"Want some wine?" Einstein tossed a bottle. Lin caught it casually and glanced at the label.
...To be honest, he had only ever seen this brand in Eden's wine cellar.
"I didn't expect to find such good wine either. You can't take it with you when you're born or when you die, so it can only benefit us." Einstein threw over a corkscrew and took a decanter from No. 3. "I'm not much of a connoisseur, and you have no sense of taste. It really is a bit of a waste of a good thing."
Lin noticed that they all loved asking him to drink. Even if he couldn't taste anything, they didn't seem to care.
He had heard Eden say before: drinking alone is for the taste of the wine; drinking with others is for the atmosphere. That was probably the logic.
"No, Doctor! What if he loses control after drinking!" No. 3 stood in the middle to intervene.
"..."
Einstein gave Lin an apologetic look, then patted No. 3's head. "No. 3, actually, humans don't lose control just because of alcohol. Being able to do that kind of thing only means they had the intention from the start. If Lin really had such thoughts, we wouldn't be able to stop him."
Besides, Lin didn't have those kinds of feelings. In all the world, there probably wasn't a man more safe to be alone with, except for a eunuch.
Lin calmly opened the bottle, poured the wine into the decanter, and said to No. 3, "Can't you just watch from the side?"
"You—you even want me to watch the process! How perverted!"
"..."
Lin somewhat missed Prometheus Prototype. At least she was far more normal than her sister, whose head was full of filth.
While waiting for the wine to breathe, Lin finished the remaining work. No. 3 brought over a small round table, and they sat around it. Noticing No. 3's gaze, Lin poured her a small glass as well.
No. 3 held the wine glass in her tiny palms and sniffed it, seemingly pondering how much she should drink.
Speaking of which, do ELF get drunk?
"Out of all those world bubbles, you happened to fall into this one. It really is a coincidence." Einstein smelled the aroma of the red wine, a hint of melancholy hidden deep in her eyes. "I thought I'd live here with these little ones for the rest of my life. I didn't expect to be able to talk to anyone else again... and an acquaintance at that."
"You don't want to go back?"
"...Me? I'm not quite sure." Einstein rarely spoke in such ambiguous terms. She looked at her reflection in the wine and laughed self-deprecatingly. "Lin, is everything we fought for truly meaningless?"
Even after seven years, Einstein hadn't forgotten everything that happened at the Tenth Branch. She might never forget.
The efforts they once made were all in vain. Humanity had driven itself into a dead end with its own hands.
In such a world, humanity seemed only fit to welcome the despair of the entire race. Even living in this world bubble with the ELF, Einstein felt an unprecedented sense of freedom.
The ELF had different personalities, but they were all kind, good children—and before this, they were merely tools of humanity.
Einstein found it hard to imagine what her state of mind would be if the ELF were also used as weapons to suppress humans.
Perhaps deep down, she truly rejected returning to the proper world. That was why it took her seven years to barely repair the Star Gate, yet she had never once thought about how to solve the issue of it being unusable.
"If you don't want to go back, you don't have to," Lin said plainly.
Einstein lowered her head in silence.
Lin understood very well how that felt, so he didn't want to make choices for others. He had no right to make choices for others.
Burp...
A cute burp broke the silence. The two turned to see No. 3 holding an empty glass, her cheeks flushed and her eyes hazy as she burped.
Burp!
No. 3 burped again, then... fell over and went to sleep.
She snored sweetly, sleeping very peacefully.
After a brief moment of silence, Einstein couldn't help but laugh. The heavy atmosphere was instantly swept away.
"I only installed the eating modules for these little ones when I was bored. Unexpectedly, it makes them more human."
"..."
It wasn't bad, after all.
They slowly finished the wine. Lin drank most of it, as Einstein really couldn't hold her liquor. Back in Fire Moth, she was a researcher who didn't care much for socializing at the table; she'd just drink a bit when the mood struck.
"What exactly could that thing be?" Einstein looked up at the rift. The scene inside seemed unchanged.
"I don't know."
"Maybe something will fall down. For example... an angel?"
"...The kind that recognizes its master?"
Einstein looked at Lin in shock. "You've actually watched that? Are you the type of person who watches those things?"
Lin felt that the fact she had seen it was even more surprising.
"I just found it and watched it randomly when I was bored." Lin calmly swirled his glass, staring at the aged liquid inside.
"Really?"
"...Dr. Einstein, you seem to have some misunderstandings about me." Including that gossip she told the ELF. Lin felt Einstein's perception of him had skewed.
Thinking of the girl waiting for him by the lake, Lin closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and opened them again.
Perhaps the alcohol was kicking in, as Einstein smiled playfully. "Don't tell me you've never imagined an angel falling from the sky who obeys your every word?"
"That's impossible." Lin spread his hands coldly. "Rather than an angel, this world is more likely to drop a demon."
Whoosh!
A person fell into his arms.
"..."
"..."
The two looked down at the person in Lin arms, then looked up, staring at each other in silence.