Please Let Me Live a Lazy Life!

Chapter 17: I Want to Live a Lazy Life (2)

It was not like Tanaka didn't like people (he was especially fond of the ones that were strong enough to carry him around), but sometimes, they were just so exhausting to interact with...

"...Were we talking about something?" Tanaka finally continued his line of thought as he looked around his room with a confused expression. His room was relatively neat if only under the combined effort of Nanami and their father. All his books were in his wall-to-wall bookshelf, his random experiments in the far corner of his room where all manners of alarms and safety measures were installed, his consoles and his video games were underneath the T.V. in a semi-organized pile, and his black-framed glasses were perched nearby on top of his nightstand. The only things out of place were the extra pillows that had fallen on the floor as he was taking his mid-brunch nap, which he left alone because he still had enough pillows on his bed, regardless.

He made the effort to reach for his glasses though the act of doing so was unbelievably pathetic. Tanaka tried to keep the bottom half of his body in one spot as he stretched his arm and his torso towards the frames. He managed to grab onto it, only to pitch over face-first into his comforter. There was a muffled grunt and Basim, who was watching the whole proceeding, laughed seeing the struggling Japanese.

As he allowed the young man to recompose himself, he answered the other's question with a perfunctory smile, as if he hadn't laughed at the silly scientist a few seconds ago; "I was congratulating you on your research breakthrough. After all, cold fusion energy is very difficult to be made available, much less affordable."

Tanaka rocked back into his original position before putting on his glasses, trying to recall their conversation through squinting eyes. He briefly wondered why the weight on his nose and his ears now felt unfamiliar, even though he had been wearing lenses since middle school.

In any case, he did remember Basim congratulating him, though the memory was a little fuzzy for some reason. After recollecting the details of his research, the first thing he told his friend was, "I'm sorry."

The older man was the leading figure in petroleum exportation and distribution while Tanaka was the leading researcher in cold fusion technology and energy. Once his findings were peer-reviewed and published, his research and himself would be considered a threat to the crude oil industry. After all, a lot of wealthy people in the world had a lot of shares and interests in the petroleum industry and no matter how much money they had backed up, no one liked to lose money, especially big money.

Basim also had businesses in other areas as well, but his conglomerate held a lot of interest in the development of petroleum technology and extraction. For someone like his friend to congratulate him on the progress of a rival and inexhaustible energy source that could undermine his way of life or, at the very least, make him lose a lot of money...

Despite this, Basim looked very unbothered by the young man's successes and even looked more amused by the other's sincere apology. As Tanaka was usually well adored by his family, rarely did he have to worry about things like earning money or budgeting. To say he was more spoiled than an emperor's favorite concubine would be an understatement, but even so, the youngest child of the world-renowned Maki Clan had little wants beyond a place to sleep and food to eat. As long as he had enough money to ensure his comfort, everything else was up in the air. Whether it was in an apartment, a house, a car, a trailer, or even a tent, as long as there was a comfortable place for him to take a nap in, he would be happy. Therefore, the older man didn't try to explain the fact that outside of his contribution to the petroleum industry, he still would have enough assets to party and live well for several lifetimes.

"There is nothing for you to apologize for," Basim responded with a fond expression. Besides, ever since that day in the hospital, he had long made plans to gradually migrate his corporation away from the petroleum industry in order to support his little Japanese friend. "You must be excited," he then added, changing the subject so that the other wouldn't dwell on the matter too much.