“Hyah… S-sorry… B-b-butt… Ah.”
Spirito’s cheeks were so pink, it looked as though she was about to erupt.
Qualia’s hands caught Spirito, and one was holding her small buttocks. It was through the towel, but it was more than enough to send her past her critical point.
It was a total anaphylactic shock of the mind. Spirito was panicking and still holding her abdomen, as Qualia held her.
But then, a change came from Qualia.
“Error. Due to actions that are detrimental to Spirito, discarding acquisition of visual information and tactile information… Discarding failed.”
“Q-Qualia…?”
“Error. Error. Error. Static in calculations. Error. Error. An unexpected error has occurred.”
Qualia’s body was stiff, and he was unable to take his eyes off Spirito’s half-naked body.
Her dripping wet body, her slender body that felt as though it would break if he touched it.
Her clavicle, the borderline in the towel covering her flat chest.
The forbidden territory that almost exposed the top of her thighs.
And the soft and warm feeling he detected in his left hand, even through the damp towel.
He was unable to handle it all, and reflexively took some distance from Spirito.
And then he took a big slip. It was the moment his precise and minute optimal solutions broke down.
“Q-Qualia…?”
The iron mask had been torn off, and there was a naive boy who was bewildered by a female body.
As Qualia sat up, his eye movements were so broken, that they even broke Spirito out of her stupor. When it seemed he would look at Spirito’s bare skin, he quickly looked elsewhere. When it seemed he would close his eyes, he quickly opened them again.
This continued as his eyes spun like a broken machine.
“Situation unclear… Error… Situation unclear. Detecting abnormalities in all neurotransmitters.”
It was an unclear error whose origin or true form he did not know that did not exist when he was an artificial intelligence.
This storm continued to sweep over Qualia’s CPU. All he understood, just barely, was that Spirito’s half-naked body was causing intense static to his perception.
“Oh? Is this your first time seeing a girl’s naked body?”
Lobelia stood up from the bath with an intrigued look on her face, and approached Qualia.
And then, Qualia’s eyes moved over to her.
“Negative. Three days ago, learned external and physical characteristics of the female body with a magic book…”
Unlike Spirito, there was a fluid sway in Lobelia’s chest. Two pure white suns that the towel could not hide completely.
Qualia could not stop his eyes from wandering, but they then fixated on them.
“Unexpected error occurred. Touching Lobelia now, touching Spirito now, would be a detrimental action to you…”
“Oh? Aren’t you closing your eyes anymore? Don’t you think where you’re looking is ‘not tasty’?”
Lobelia was a little embarrassed, and held the towel, but still leaned forward to look him in the eyes, and poked his cheeks, as Qualia sat completely still.
“You pervert artificial intelligence! Finally acting like a boy, are you!?”
But rather than tormenting him over it, she looked at the boy whose face was bright red, and felt convinced that he really was human.
“I’m getting uncomfortable…”
Said Spirito, but she still grabbed Qualia’s hand and helped him stand up. When it seemed he would slip again, she held his hand tightly and stopped him.
But to Qualia, even the softness of her small hand created static that numbed his thoughts. Not that he wanted her to let go.
“But that makes me feel relieved somehow. I don’t know why.”
“Thank, you. Error… Static in calculations.”
“No, thank you. If it weren’t for you, I would’ve hit my head.”
Qualia and Spirito could finally talk while looking each other in the eye.
As Qualia saw her honest and gentle eyes, the static of libido inside him faded a little.
“I haven’t actually thanked you for everything. It’s thanks to you that I can move forward. That’s why I said ‘I give up’ to you.”
Spirito thought her towel was slipping, so she grabbed it and looked away with her red face.
But at this point, Qualia’s eyes were closed again.
“…I told you yesterday too, but I was the one who called you here. I’m not going to pester you for seeing me naked.”
“Negative. That comes with the risk of taking ‘tasty’ away from you. Qualia being here is wrong.”
As Qualia walked away from the bath with his eyes closed, Lobelia sent him warm words.
“Thinking so much about people’s smiles is a strong point of yours… You remind me of Love.”
■ ■
Afterwards, Lobelia sat in the backyard.
“Hey Love. Qualia really is just like you. I wish I could see you two interact.”
Lobelia whispered alone, but her words were directed to the cross in front of her, to her old friend.
“But what really makes you two the same, is that you had the same dream. You both love ‘tasty smiles’, and work really hard to make everyone smile and protect their smiles.
The cold wind shook Lobelia’s fine blonde hair.
In the trimmed grass, next to ‘R.I.P. Love’, two flowers also shook. If Qualia saw Lobelia now, he would certainly call this ‘not tasty’.
Lobelia was also aware of this, and slapped her own cheeks.
“…I need to work harder too. To fulfill my tall dream of not letting anyone have their smiles taken away for no good reason.”
Lobelia vocalized this small decision, and faced the ground.
There, was one mystery regarding Love that Lobelia could not solve. The second flower offered to her.
“I wanted to ask this before too, but… Who is that flower from?”
Every time Lobelia visited this grave, there was a good chance that there was a flower there.
This day was no exception. One of the flowers was from Lobelia, but what about the other?
Spirito did not know Love, so it could not be her. Qualia and Ina just got there the previous day, so they could not be it either.
She tried to catch who was leaving flowers a few times, but always came up empty. They were just there before she knew it.
This time, it was a sunflower.
“Hn?”
But something was different that day. The sunflower was accompanied by a letter.
“To Princess Lobelia, friend of Love.”
The letter was addressed to Lobelia, not Love.
The alias written on it was also new to Lobelia.
“An ‘ancient magic stone’ has been diverted to the beast people terrorist group Azure Skies. This could destroy the capital. Investigate immediately – Anonymous.”
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