“It looks like Duke Kernel has left… Ouch…”
Spirito said as she entered Ina’s room, while holding her bandaged abdomen, which was cut by Krengel.
“Request that you rest until your abdomen is repaired.”
Qualia’s thoughts were proactive when it came to reading when others were ‘pushing themselves’.
But Spirito frowned a little.
“Worried too much about others as usual. What about you? Are you all right?”
She asked as she looked all around him.
From Spirito’s point of view, there was nothing strange about Qualia’s whole body.
“Ace asked the same question. There have been no abnormalities detected in this hardware from consulting zero point one percent of Shutdown’s power.”
Qualia saw nothing wrong either.
He meant what he said, but Spirito still seemed somewhat worried.
“…I just get this feeling that maybe you’re hurt or something.”
Her innocent looking face seemed gloomy, as she continued looking at Qualia.
His eyes reminded her of the dark humanoid weapon that appeared subliminally when Qualia executed his return.
“You started something about returning from being a human to being a weapon or something… And not physically, like, in an existential way that even magic can interfere with. A weapon called Shutdown.”
“Affirmative.”
“Then… Maybe there are symptoms that can’t be seen?”
Spirito asked again, with a doubtful expression.
“You’re still human, right?”
“Affirmative. Qualia is classified as a human. Spirito, tha-nk you, for earlier.”
Spirito’s face turned red at those words, that while clumsy, were honest.
“Y-y-you’re welcome!”
Liebe watched Qualia from the side.
He had no idea about Qualia circumstances from his old world, or the origins of super technology that could not be explained with magic or skills, so needless to say, he looked on with confusion.
“What do you mean weapon? Return from being human? What are you talking about?”
“The individual known as Qualia once operated as the humanoid autonomous combat android Shutdown. This is classified as a weapon. Similar to what people of this world know as weapons.”
“…”
Liebe accepted it, in large part due to him being a ghost. He was used to such heresy.
Next to Ina, were an artificial intelligence and a ghost.
“Is that why you could move instantly like that? Because your body returned to being that weapon or something?”
“Affirmative. The return mechanism to become Shutdown was activated just zero point one percent. That was what made the Teleportation feature possible.”
“…So, abandoning being human.”
Liebe was also no longer dominated by feelings of hatred enough, that he understood why Qualia took a step away from being human to recover some of Shutdown’s functions.
“…You could’ve just left me.”
“That was not the optimal solution in regard to Ina’s recovery. Or for Ina’s ‘tasty’. Or considering the fact that Ina trusts you the most.”
Liebe could tell that basically, Qualia abandoned his humanity for Ina and himself. Liebe had never met a human like that.
He could not help but be silent. He had never met someone so willing to abandon body and heart for his sister.
“…It’s in the past.”
Spirito thrust her voice behind Liebe.
He looked at her injured right leg. It had healed, but it was still bandaged just in case.
“I was with Qualia then. I couldn’t stop it. I’m more responsible than you… So I have to think about what I can do now. I have my sister, Ace, who is down there doing something, Qualia, and Ina, and I have to think about how to get our daily lives back, and not allow the situation to get any worse.”
Spirito did not waver. It was clear how she stood in comparison to Liebe.
“I don’t know what a sheltered member of the royal family like me can do, but I know that moping in regret is wrong, at the very least… So I’m not doing that. It’s a waste of time. You’re going to disappear soon, right?”
“…”
Liebe was still disappearing. He would not be around to see the next morning. Even two people with no knowledge of ghosts could predict that,
“Then do what you can. Stay with Ina as her older brother. Or are you doing something else? Even if you’re a ghost, you’re still right here, right?”
“…What I can do…”
Liebe thought about what Spirito said, just as Ace entered Ina’s bedroom.
She was using her small body as best she could to transport plates with rice shaped in the form of a triangle, and wrapped in edible seaweed.
“You were cooking down there, Ace?”
“I thought about what I could do. As a result, I thought acquiring ‘tasty’ would be good when someone is tired. There were recipes, and when considering my technique and the available ingredients, I prepared ‘onigiri’.”
“That’s a food eaten by people in the far east, known for their peculiar swordsmanship. I had it when I was training.”
Ace continued balancing the food with her small body as she first stopped near Qualia.
“Qualia, request that you take ‘tasty’.”
“Request accepted. Thank-you.”
Qualia took one, and Ace turned to Spirito, who also took one and brought it to her mouth.
And then choked.
“…Hnn… Ace, wait, this is kind of…”
Spirito’s expression turned muddy, as she hit her chest and struggled to make it go down her throat.
It was clearly the opposite of tasty.
“You usually use salt in onigiri… But this isn’t salt. What did you mix in here…?”
Ace also tasted it, and her eyes opened very widely.
“Yes, this is not tasty. It clearly does not taste like salt.”
“You definitely mixed in the wrong seasoning… Did we even have something like this…”
It was bad enough that even Ace immediately rejected it.
But then they noticed something,
“…Eh?”
Spirito turned that way, Ace stayed quiet with her usual emotionless expression, and Liebe was at a loss for words.
Qualia was eating that bad onigiri like it was nothing.
“Error. Contrary to expectations, there is no tasty being taken in.”
Spirito accidentally dropped hers, and pointed out what was going on.
“Qualia… Your sense of taste…”
No, it was not correct to say his sense of taste was gone.
“There are no abnormalities with this hardware. No abnormalities with the tongue. But there are no ‘tasty’ values being perceived.”
The element of taste was momentarily gone from Qualia’s consciousness.
Basically, he was returning to the machine with no sense of taste.
There was no need for a humanoid autonomous combat android to have a sense of taste in a world where humanity had gone extinct. And as if to suggest that, another abnormality showed itself in Qualia.
It did not fly past the other three. For just a moment, a dark steel head was superimposed on Qualia’s.
He had only gone zero point one percent closer to Shutdown. He had only abandoned his humanity zero point one percent.
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