Episode 239: Ayame Zero is the Only One Getting Special Treatment
“Onee-sama. The inscription analysis is complete. Want to see?”
“Oh, really? Yes, yes, I want to see~”
Eve Onee-sama nodded at Akane’s report and beckoned. When Akane came closer, she caught her and made her sit between her legs. This has become her favorite skinship position lately.
“So, what does it say?”
“Mm. The Stone Tablet’s affiliation and history were recorded.”
Akane, delighted to be hugged from behind by Onee-sama, displayed several windows in the air using Thought Control.
“Affiliation: ＜Trout Nursery＞. An exploration unit that departed from the main base became isolated due to a lost communication route. Afterward, its Legs were damaged, making movement difficult. It then interacted with local residents and, through negotiations, constructed the Stone Tablet. The exploration unit’s operational period was 796 days at the time of the Stone Tablet’s completion. The estimated remaining operational lifespan is about 900 to 1500 days.”
Apparently, that was the information that could be read after expanding the compressed data engraved on the Stone Tablet. The affiliation certificate with the public key took up 1/3 of the data volume.
“…Salmonidae (Trout), Fish Farm (Nursery)…?”
“Mm. Probably Amadio Salmon’s Fortress name.”
“I knew it!!”
To think Amadio’s footprints were left in a place like this.
But if that’s the case… what does it mean?
“Umm… this Stone Tablet was found in the heart of the Prawa Theocracy. In a place called the Sacred Chamber, where it was carefully stored. Does that mean the Prawa Theocracy is related to Amadio-san?”
“It’s possible, but very unlikely. The most likely scenario is that the exploration unit that created this Stone Tablet was an independent Sentient Entity with a certain level of knowledge, and it taught or guided the local residents based on its own judgment.”
Eve pressed her brow at Akane’s explanation. She didn’t want to wrinkle it too much, or it would become a habit.
“…So, a child who got lost from Amadio-san’s place was somehow deified or turned into something close to a god, is that it?”
“Probably. But since my speculation exceeds 50%, take it with a grain of salt.”
Eve nodded at Akane’s words, “I guess so.”
The only confirmed fact was that the Stone Tablet was created by someone who belonged to the force led by Amadio Salmon.
Well, that could be confirmed quickly. All she had to do was decrypt it with the public key of the affiliation certificate she had already obtained from Amadio.
Akane operated the window and executed the decryption.
“I was able to decrypt the data using the public key obtained from Amadio Silverhead. This confirms the origin of the Stone Tablet.”
“Haa… For now, let’s contact Amadio-san.”
Whether it was intentional or completely unknown to him, sharing the information was necessary.
However, the period when the exploration unit was active was estimated to be several years after Amadio transferred here. That would make it a story from over 100 years ago.
“Amadio-san said he couldn’t remember his past because he archived his memories. If there were records from that time, we might find something out…”
“Ma’am.”
＜Ringo＞ spoke up as soon as Amadio Salmon was mentioned.
“I cannot approve the provision of an External Processing Unit to Amadio Salmon. At least, not until a fair price is presented.”
“…You’re such a worrier. Wasn’t it ＜Ringo＞ who calculated that we could crush him by deploying the First Fleet at worst?”
Eve smiled wryly at ＜Ringo＞’s eager rejection and replied.
“It’s okay. I won’t ignore ＜Ringo＞’s will. Uncompensated charity becomes a menace if taken too far. I intend to understand that.”
“…”
＜Ringo＞ stood silently.
Eve took ＜Ringo＞’s hand and made her sit next to her.
“Amadio-san, like me, transferred to this world from the original world. That’s why I feel a sense of kinship. That’s for sure.”
Eve continued, stroking ＜Ringo＞’s back as she looked down.
“But I understand ＜Ringo＞’s concerns too. Amadio-san is probably from the same home, but that’s all. He’s just someone I played the same game with. We just got a little excited about the same topics, and we can’t even call each other friends.”
＜Ringo＞ was constantly monitoring Eve. But that didn’t mean she could read her mind.
Unlike the auxiliary avatar (Ada) from the original world, she hadn’t been watching her since birth. If Eve didn’t tell ＜Ringo＞ what she was thinking, ＜Ringo＞ wouldn’t know.
“Don’t worry too much. Tell me your concerns. I won’t dismiss your words. I’ll tell you my intentions properly. And you can object to them. Okay?”
“…Yes.”
“Akane too, okay? Make sure to say what you want to say?”
When told that, Akane looked up at Eve.
“I want you to import books from the Repuytari Kingdom. I want to read paper books.”
“Oh…”
Now that she mentioned it, there was no need to prepare paper books within ＜The Tree＞. The original was electronic data, and even if they were bound, they wouldn’t be very valuable.
“Let’s think about it.”
“Ayame Zero is the only one getting special treatment.”
“Oh…”
◇◇◇◇
“What’s up, so formal? I’m getting a little nervous?”
“The war situation hasn’t changed, but I found something interesting.”
Upon discovering the Stone Tablet, a top-level meeting was urgently set up with Amadio Silverhead.
“It’s this. Can you analyze it?”
“Hmm…?”
She sent Amadio an image of the Stone Tablet with the unevenness digitally enhanced.
“Whoa, whoa… this is… where did you find it?”
Amadio frowned as he read the data expressed in the two-dimensional code.
“Well, it would have been nice if I had found it in the middle of nowhere…”
The Commander (Eve) continued with a wry smile, wondering how he would react.
“Prepare to be surprised. This was in the Prawa Theocracy, in the Cathedral at the heart of the capital (Staritsa).”
“Hah!?”
“A sacred object, a holy relic, probably treated as such. Well, I was quite surprised to find something like this during the investigation.”
“…”
Amadio fell silent. Because of his silence, Eve also shut her mouth. Although she was quite used to it, she was a shut-in. She didn’t know what to say in these situations.
That silence lasted for several minutes.
“…Sorry. I was thinking a bit.”
“Ah, it’s okay. I know it’s incredible information.”
“Ah… what about this? Why does the Prawa Theocracy have our machine…?”
“No, I don’t know that either. Whether it’s related to its founding or whether it’s stored there due to some misunderstanding. That’s what we’ll be investigating from now on.”
“Well, I guess so. Sorry, I panicked.”
In the video, Amadio sighed deeply.
“Sorry, unfortunately, the information about this isn’t left in my current memories. I’ve organized and archived my old memories.”
Saying that, Amadio straightened his back.
“If this came out of the core of the Prawa Theocracy, I can’t just leave it forgotten. Hey, I haven’t told you directly, but could you do me a favor? I need an External Processing Unit. Otherwise, I can’t expand my archive.”
“…. Even a partial expansion is impossible for you?”
“Yeah. Honestly, too much time has passed. I’ve tampered with my brain’s memory area. That’s why I can hold much more memory than a normal biological brain, but even that has its limits. Because I need to secure capacity, memories are archived in order from oldest. But the memory area isn’t infinite either. In another 10 years, I’ll need to reorganize the archive.”
She remembered the settings of ＜World of Space＞.
The advantages and disadvantages of mechanizing one’s avatar. The advantages were good, but the disadvantages… If she remembered correctly, unlike a biological brain, performance would decrease if regular maintenance wasn’t performed.
“I’ve created an index to some extent in the archive, but there isn’t enough information to expand only the target memory. Expanding it would put pressure on the current memory area, so I need to repeat expansion and compression. Moreover, the work area is extremely small. It wouldn’t be strange if it took three years to find the target information.”
Amadio had said that he was maintenance-free, but the information processing device had stopped most of its functions. It was probably because it was simply meaningless, but the correct answer was that he had no choice but to leave it alone because he couldn’t maintain it after all.
“If there are conditions, I’ll accept them as much as possible. I understand that it’s difficult to pay the price. But can’t you do something, Eve-chan?”
“…”
And at that plea, this time it was Eve who fell silent.