“Sorry! I miscalculated…! I didn’t expect Spirito to have something like that in mind…”
After they returned to the mansion, Lobelia put her hands together and apologized.
Qualia was naked from the waist up, as Ina tended to him, but he looked back at Lobelia without any particular intention to blame her for anything.
“But there are almost no bruises left on Master Qualia’s body.”
“That was purposeful on her part… She’s actually a kind girl.”
“Analyzing situation. Spirito did not use one hundred percent of her specs. Furthermore, she gradually increased her performance.”
Lobelia then addressed Qualia with a bitter look on her face.
“Qualia, don’t think too deeply about all that ‘as your teacher, I don’t approve of you working for Hello World’ stuff. I’ll talk Spirito down.”
“Proposal rejected.”
“Oh?”
This sound left Lobelia’s mouth, as she received a response she did expect.
“Qualia’s work will stay suspended until Spirito says ‘I give up’. That was the deal with Spirito.”
“So you don’t want to break your promise…”
Whether it was because his pride obligated him to fulfill a promise, or he handled it like a machine and input breaking the promise as a prohibited action, Qualia was stubborn.
Lobelia nodded with her mouth closed, but then made her opinion known.
“…However, if there’s an emergency, that takes precedence. Got it?”
“Proposal accepted.”
But then, there was a thud behind them.
Everyone’s eyes turned that way, and saw a small person with a surprised yet deflated look on her face.
“I-I heard there were new maids recently, but you’re one too, Qualia!?”
“Affirmative.”
Earlier, Spirito had the face of a cool-headed swordswoman, but it was now as stiff as it could be. She was clearly caught off guard.
But she soon recomposed her breathing, and faced Qualia with an intense look on her face.
“Fine then. Qualia, we need to speak in private.
■ ■
The sound of warm water running echoed.
This was a space with all the equipment to wash away dirt from human bodies. A bathing room.
Even though this was a space where people would have to get naked, and men and women rarely entered together, Qualia and Spirito were now alone inside it.
“Y-y-y-y-y-y-y-you didn’t run away… As your teacher, let me start by commending you for your courage…”
Spirito was there first, and she waited in the bath with her arms crossed.
She had a towel wrapped around her chest to hide it, but she had her slim limbs and shoulder blades exposed in front of a boy. Her face was as red as a lobster, and it looked as though she was about to cry, as she faced Qualia.
“B-but it’s a bath… Isn’t it against the rules to enter a bathing area clothed…”
“Error. Ina designated purging clothes in front of girls to be a prohibited action.”
Contrary to Spirito, Qualia opened the door with his clothes on, and submerged himself in the bath up to his shoulders with no hesitation.
“Wait, actually entering the bath in your clothes has to be against the rules!”
“Situation understood. Adding prohibited action. Entering bath with clothes on not allowed.”
Qualia got out of the bath and stood still.
Suffice to say, his clothes were dripping, but Qualia did not seem bothered by it.
Spirito looked on at this with a quizzical look on her face, as none of this seemed right to her, but then she referenced the fact that Qualia’s eyes had been closed this whole time.
“And open your eyes… You’ll slip and fall.”
“Error, opening eyes would lead to seeing you naked. That would be a detrimental action for you, a girl. Optimized solution to the coefficient of friction already calculated.”
“I’m the one who told you to come here! I’m not going to call you a pervert or anything!”
Said Spirito, despite looking embarrassed, but Qualia’s eyes stayed closed.
“Request explanation. Why was Qualia called to the bathing area? It is wrong for a boy and a girl to speak in this place.”
“W-w-w-well… When you have something important to talk about, you can put out your chest and be frank in the bath… Y-yes, my teacher taught me that…!”
She hurried to reply, as she hid her chest that was not big enough to be ‘put out’.
Still, although Qualia’s eyes were still closed, an analytic task was completed at just the right time.
“Analyzing situation. You are not classified as one to use your female body to arbitrarily attempt to control Qualia.”
Among the things Qualia learned, one was the threat of women using their allure to manipulate the hearts of men. Since he had a human body, this was not a threat he could ignore.
And so, as an artificial intelligence, this was the thing he was most cautious of in this situation.
“I wouldn’t do something so vulgar… I just want to be frank.”
As Spirito squinted and expressed that her resolve was strong enough for her to be there half naked, she steered the conversation into the main topic.
“Fighting you all day made me realize something, your potential is incredible. Especially your abnormal ability to evolve so quickly.”
“Qualia has been learning from your combat data.”
Qualia took Spirito’s refined swordsmanship, and used it as feedback for his next optimized solution in a matter of seconds.
This meant that their precision rapidly increased, and he became stronger to the point that even his opponent could tell.
But development did not stop at large scale learning.
“…I accept that, so I want to tell you something.”
Spirito went from a girl embarrassed about being half naked, back to her swordswoman expression.
“I’ll be blunt. Don’t join Hello World.”
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This girl still won’t learn huh😮💨
I’m sure she’s got her reason but she underestimating the MC still