The trio left the mansion at night.
Lobelia did not want to go through the annoyance of someone trying to stop them, so she arranged for a wagon in secret.
“…”
Qualia kept looking back and forth between the forest path painted black by the darkness of the night, and the starry sky.
He never grew tired of admiring them, and eventually, Lobelia spoke to him from the seat in front.
“Is a forest at night that strange to you, Qualia? I think normally people would be holed up in the wagon, wondering what to do if monsters or bandits attacked.”
“Request explanation. Is it common for beings in this world to not be active at night?”
“Well, it doesn’t go for everyone, but most humans and monsters sleep at night. Like Ina over there.”
“Situation understood. Overwriting perception.”
The wagon had been speeding along for an hour, and Ina seemed to be sleeping comfortably.
“So apparently your old world was busy at night too.”
Lobelia spoke about Earth. It was something that could in no way be real, and a taboo topic that was written away as a result of a muddy memory.
But Qualia had no intention of navigating around taboo.
Feeling bad about being mocked as a madman when he spoke of the old world was not something included in the behavior standards of an artificial intelligence in the first place.
“What were you like in your old world? Were you human?”
“Negative. Artificial intelligence.”
“…What is artificial intelligence?”
What was artificial intelligence?
Qualia had never heard such a question, and paused for a moment to consider it.
“Machines originally created by humans, which transcended humans in terms of intellectual abilities.”
“Machines… Mechanical things that move on their own with magic?”
“Negative. There was no magic. They were constructed solely with chemical reactions of matter.”
“Hm… It sounds like a different process from magic dolls.”
“Request explanation. What are magic dolls?”
“We’ll talk about it some other time. So? What did the artificial intelligence do day by day?”
“Fulfill its duty, as a weapon to destroy other artificial intelligence.”
“Weapon? You were a weapon?”
“More precisely, the humanoid autonomous combat android Shutdown. Shutdown was equipped with many functions to destroy its targets.”
Lobelia stopped for a moment, to try to catch up with the bigger picture she was struggling to see.
“…Is your role in this world to destroy something too?”
“Qualia reached the conclusion that said role was finished with the destruction of that individual and stoppage of its functions.”
In the old world, he was a bloodless machine of destruction, so there was no lingering attachment to be had.
“Qualia’s role is to detect ‘tasty faces’. That is why Qualia will perform tasks for the guardian knights.”
“Depending on who you’re dealing with, that might mean killing people, you know?”
“Affirmative. If the living beings that are supposed to be protected are in danger of their vital activities being disturbed, eliminating threats takes precedence. But in all other circumstances, the goal is incapacitation.”
Qualia glanced at a sleeping Ina, as he outputted what he learned as a human.
“Qualia is a human, so that means having heart too. Unnecessary destruction leads to death of the heart. That would take away Ina’s ‘tasty’ face.”
Ina’s eyelids opened as she faced outside, and she closed them again, as if she was feeling reassured.
And then, the conversion continued.
“Can I ask you something?”
Asked Lobelia, sounding interested, and with her chin resting on her hands.
Maybe she was beginning to have to fight against drowsiness as well, as her eyelids were closing a little.
“What would you do if I did something, or gave you a ‘wrong’ order?”
“Point out what is wrong, and incapacitate you if you refused to correct it.”
“…I see. Following ‘Princess Lobelia’s’ bad intentions would make Hello World pointless. If I ever turn into someone who takes away people’s smiles… Have at it.”
“…Detecting ‘tasty’.”
Qualia detected what he wanted from the expression of Lobelia, as she used her arms as a pillow in a corner of the wagon.
That was not the vigilance of a princess, it was the ‘tasty’ face of a girl.
“Hey, this is no time to be captivated.”
To be more precise, it was a reassured expression, like one of a person who met someone she missed.
“…Proposal. Qualia possesses insufficient battle data, so there is a problem with the quality of calculated optimized solutions in battle.”
“You’re surprisingly humble… You parried Arrows easily, and your movements were certainly above average.”
“Qualia needs a lot of combat data. The quality of optimized solutions in battle is proportional to the amount of data. Request a model with high combat abilities for both humans and monsters.”
“Hm… So you want a teacher?”
Lobelia put a finger on her chin as she offered a proposal.
“A monster would be tough, but I can arrange for a human right away. A swordsman with the nickname Holy Sword.”
“Request explanation. What kind of individual?”
Lobelia stopped touching her chin and moved it a little to point at herself.
“My little sister.”
They would then reach the capital early in the morning.
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