The doorbell rings through the quiet room. Hurin answers the intercom immediately, as if he had been waiting for this exact moment.

"Delivery!"

Responding to the lethargic voice with a quick "Coming!", he unlocks the front door.

The delivered package is incredibly large, taking up the entire entryway. He presses his seal on the requested signature line, bows to the delivery person, and closes the door.

He clicks out the blade of a box cutter and begins opening the cardboard. He struggles with the excessive packaging but manages to unpack it all.

His heart races as he catches a glimpse of a sophisticated human face through the film. He peels it off carefully, making sure not to leave a single scratch.

He places the thick instruction manual—as bulky as a dictionary—held by the exposed android onto the shoe rack and starts the boot-up process first. Having studied the procedure on video sites many times, he knows the steps by heart without needing the manual.

As it powers on, the faint sound of a motor and fan can be heard.

It apparently takes several tens of minutes to fully boot. In the meantime, he connects the charging plug on the android's body to an outlet with a cable. It stands on its own by default, so it doesn't take up much space. Hurin exhales a satisfied breath.

While he is breaking down the cardboard boxes, the android's eyelids open.