Chapter 218: Sacrificial lamb.

Terka raised one eyebrow, apparently surprised.

"You remembered me?"

"It only came back to me recently."

"Why didn't you say so the moment you arrived?"

"I was curious how well you could see through my imitation. You did quite well."

As discarded every expression and mannerism he had used to imitate a human.

No, to recreate the presence of a true Avikan, he took Terka as his model and magnified his own aura even further.

His presence began to surge outward with equal force. As the two "Avikans" faced one another with their true natures fully exposed, everyone on set held their breath like shrimp caught between fighting whales.

And Hetty Ram, the being with by far the weakest presence, stood motionless in one corner of the frame like part of the scenery. Her body trembled instinctively, but her gaze alone remained steady.

"I see. Ha ha. Mischievous as ever. Now then, this is a nuisance, so let's get rid of that woman first and talk afterward."

Yu Myeong felt something strange.

Until now, he had felt nothing for any human other than Hetty. Yet in Terka's presence, fear and wariness began to stir within him.

Was it because his senses reacted to one of his own kind?

Even so, the emotions were exceedingly faint compared to those of a human.

"No. That woman must be kept alive."

"Why?"

"That human is 'special.' She is an extreme anomaly within the data I've gathered on humanity."

"Oh...? You must have been very diligent with your 'collection.'"

Collection.

The reason he had been dispatched to this planet.

As had originally been an Avikan anthropologist. He had taken part in a research deployment project intended to gather information on the peoples of other planets.

His memories had been sealed because, to gather information without prejudice, the consciousness of "As" had needed to remain dormant.

"But why did you search for me so violently?"

"Violently...? Ha ha. What an amusing thing to say. You call killing insects like these violent?"

"Even so, if anthropologists like us were sent to candidate worlds to collect information about other species, treating the research subjects this carelessly would..."

Terka gave a low laugh colored with exasperation.

"You truly haven't changed. Still the scholar. Do you honestly believe that was the Avikan government's real intention?"

"Then what was it?"

"The New Colony Project."

"Colonization...?"

"Exactly. We've already stripped the Bambua colony bare. Bambua has less than fifteen years left."

The information that had remained indistinct in As's mind rapidly took shape.

As civilization advanced, reason steadily overcame emotion. Before long, the Avikans possessed almost no emotions beyond intellectual curiosity.

That alone might not have been an issue, but even their capacity for pleasure had withered. It became a serious problem.

So they began colonizing other peoples and extracting their emotions.

Pleasure came from intense emotion.

Selfishness, intoxication, self loathing, jealousy, sexual desire, primitive and vivid emotions became the principal ingredients of the pleasure elixir. Yet the amount of "pleasure" that could be harvested from killing a single individual was limited, while the quantity consumed by the Avikans was immense.

The people of Bambua, who had long served as livestock on Avikan pleasure farms, were nearing extinction.

"Don't tell me that was why they used our instinct for imitation..."

"Correct. Our species imitates, and more specifically, adopts the form best suited to blending into a group. By compiling the data gathered by the scholars sent to each planet, it becomes easy to determine which species is most suitable for conversion into elixir."

It had never been research.

As had been sent to select potential targets for invasion.

His thoughts spun wildly.

Even after losing his memory, he had remained obsessed with collecting more information because he had originally been an anthropologist.

And the organ that recorded all the information an Avikan acquired for imitation was—

"Give me your eyes."

Just as he had expected.

?The gaze.

The theme that ran through the entire screenplay.

As recorded vast amounts of information about Earth through his "eyes."

The images shown through As's "gaze" during the first thirty minutes of the film were the information about the world recorded through his eyes.

And that information could be extracted.

Through the eyes.

"You want my eyes...?"

"You know all the information is stored in the retinas."

"Hmm..."

"Of course, as a noble scholar, you may disapprove of the project. But this project has been authorized by the Avikan government. If you refuse to cooperate willingly, I will have no choice but to take them by force. I would prefer not to do that."

As did not waver.

Once his memories returned, he had already sensed the danger of the situation. He had not known the exact reason, but Terka's actions had been far too extreme for someone seeking him purely for academic purposes.

Trying to appear as natural as possible, he focused every sense on Terka's movements and atmosphere, imitating his manner as he spoke.

"Of course not. I should cooperate in matters necessary for our homeworld."

"Hmm... Living abroad for so long has changed you considerably."

"However, my analysis is not yet complete."

"Even after all this time?"

"Because of the 'exception' I mentioned."

As pointed toward Hetty.

"That human is ordinary, yet she falls outside the data profile of Earth's population. I am on the verge of determining whether the flaw lies in my analysis as a whole or solely in that individual. Give me time to collect the final data."

Terka made an expression too strange to be called a smile.

"Then leave one eye with me."

"...One?"

"Yes. It takes time for the analyzer to extract the data, doesn't it? If I begin with roughly half of it, we'll save time. One eye should be more than enough for you to finish the work."

As and Terka's gazes burned against one another.

To an Avikan, the eyes were more precious than any other organ.

Knowing that no one could be pleased at being asked to leave one behind as collateral, As stared fixedly at Terka as though trying to discern his true intentions.

Their suffocating gazes crossed.

In moments, each read the other's position.

"Fine... Then take the left."

At last, As spoke with apparent reluctance.

Terka produced a hideous machine.

A suction device with a deep hollow interior like the mouth of a cave.

"There will be no bleeding, but it may hurt somewhat. Once you finish the work and return to Avikan ? NоvеIight ? (Original source) with me, it can be reinserted in no time, so don't worry."

"...Understood."

The camera closed in on As's face.

The suction device slowly approached his eye.

Whirrr—

An ominous sound rose from the depths of the opening and assaulted his ears.

As opened his eye unnaturally wide.

And then—

"Urgh—"

A brief but agonized scream rang out.

?Pop.

The machine pulled away from Yu Myeong's eye.

Everyone knew it had only been acting, yet the crew still peered inside with uneasy expressions, just in case.

There was nothing there.

"Whew... That made my heart stop."

"For a second, I thought it had really pulled his eye out."

When As revealed his identity and confronted Terka, everyone had been overwhelmed by the scene.

The sight of two hurricanes circling one another, relentlessly measuring each other as they barely brushed past, had made their palms sweat despite the fact that they never openly fought.

"All right, next we'll shoot the suction device approaching from As's point of view."

After filming ended that day,

"So it was the eyes. That's why the first thirty minutes were shown through As's 'gaze'..."

"You weren't even here then. Where did you hear that? Go write a spoiler article about it now."

"Oh, come on! I told you I don't do that anymore!"

Derek seemed to have found the shoot unusually exhausting. The moment it ended, he sought out Phoebe, apparently hoping to relieve his stress by teasing her.

Ever since she had watched Derek's confrontation with Yu Myeong, however, she had been unable to deal with him as she once had.

She had always considered him the embodiment of an obnoxious bastard, but since that scene, he had begun to look somewhat impressive.

"...I almost got overpowered."

"Almost? Are you sure? Looked to me like you did."

"Tsk."

Phoebe tried to tease him, only to shrink back when his face hardened.

"Can't you read the mood? I'm handing you material for an article."

"What...? You actually want me to publish that? Seriously?"

"Yes. Because it's true."

"You're serious... that you nearly got overpowered?"

"Yes. Terka and As need to possess at least equal charisma. But once he became the 'real As,' the pressure was tremendous."

"You didn't look shaken."

"I gritted my teeth and held on. I'm completely wiped out now."

Derek looked exhausted, yet his face was filled with delight.

It was the smile of someone who genuinely found acting fun.

"You're fighting on Yu Myeong's side now, aren't you?"

"...You knew?"

"It's been all over the place lately. And you're the person sent by Yu Myeong's president."

"...That's not the only reason, you know. Once I saw the real thing, I wanted to support him."

"Same here."

The open smile he gave her then looked incredibly handsome even to Phoebe.

Then Derek ruined the moment as he noticed her moved expression.

"Ah, falling for me would be troublesome. There are already too many."

He would be so much better if he could just stop doing that.

Derek gave her one more lead.

"If you want another story, look into Fable."

"Fable?"

"The relationship between George Housley, Fable, and the gossip magazines."

Her ears practically perked up.

After a moment, she asked,

"Don't tell me the reason everything is this noisy right now is..."

Derek said nothing more and walked away.

?The next day, they filmed the scene of As and Hetty returning home.

As wore a bandage over one eye, while Hetty clung to his arm.

She was sobbing uncontrollably, despite not shedding a single tear when death had stood directly before her.

Instead, As was the one comforting her.

"It's all right. On Avikan, removing and reinserting an eye is routine when exchanging information. It doesn't even hurt that badly when a suction device is used."

"Then... once you return to your planet, you'll be able to put it back?"

"...Hetty. I'm not going back."

"You're... not?"

At those words, a faint hope she could not conceal appeared on Hetty's face amid her many worries.

She had believed she would never see the man she loved again, yet now he was telling her he would not leave.

She could not help feeling glad.

At the same time, she worried for As, who would have to live the rest of his life with only one eye. Her expression revealed her fear that asking him to stay might be nothing more than selfishness.

"Hetty, listen. After some of my memories returned during the previous abduction, I immediately began separating the data."

"Separating...?"

He lifted one hand and slowly indicated his left eye, then his right.

"One eye holds your information. The other holds the information on every other human."

"...!"

"Computer drives can be partitioned, can't they? To an Avikan, the eye serves both as an input device and a storage unit. I wondered whether I could divide the information and store it separately. Avikans don't know this is possible. I devised it myself by applying knowledge from Earth."

"How could you... do something like that...?"

"Ha ha. Humans may still be primitive, but every now and then they display a peculiar creativity. Perhaps maintaining my imitation for so long caused some of it to rub off on me."

Then As said,

"I didn't give them your information."

"Only mine...?"

"Yes. Avikan has no data on you. And I can simply imitate someone other than As. So let's run away together."

For the first time, As confessed to Hetty with genuine emotion.

"I still don't know whether this feeling is the same thing humans call 'love,' but you truly have become special to me."

"As..."

"......"

...?

As's next line did not come.

Had he forgotten it?

Actors forgetting lines was common on set, but it was nearly impossible to believe Yu Myeong had forgotten one.

For months, he had shown the crew an image of absolute perfection as an actor.

"Cut. Yu Myeong, are you all right?"

"Director, I don't think this is right."

"...What isn't?"

"As is telling me this isn't the choice he would make."

Kyler's expression turned grave as he hurried over.

The screenplay had been inspired by the person Yu Myeong.

Kyler had repeatedly said that he would actively incorporate Yu Myeong's thoughts, but until now, Yu Myeong had never seriously objected to the script.

And yet now, he spoke with As's face.

"Hetty wants people to hear her play the piano."

"She does."

"If Earth is conquered by Avikan and humanity disappears as sacrifices, then the 'people' who would listen to Hetty's music will disappear too. Would As really choose that ending for her?"

Kyler looked as though something had struck him.

In the original screenplay, Hetty alone mattered to As, so he intended to disappear with her.

But Hetty's upright nature could never agree to hand the rest of humanity over as sacrifices.

That was how the story had been intended to end in tragedy.

But...

Kyler had fully considered Hetty's character.

He had failed to consider Hetty's "music."

And the fact that As loved her music as well.

"Then what does As say he intends to do?"

Kyler asked with the solemnity of a man receiving an oracle.

And Yu Myeong truly gave him an answer.

"He should hand over the eye containing Hetty's information, not the information on the rest of humanity."

"...What?"

"Her name is Hetty 'Ram,' after all."

A sacrificial lamb.

As's daring plan, in which he offered up the person he loved most as the sacrifice, began to unfold.