Qualia visited Ina’s room, but he was equipped with the common sense of knocking before entering.
“Master Qualia, what is the matter?”
Ina once again hid the diary she just happened to be writing on, and turned to ask Qualia a question that she seemed to have just remembered.
“Ah, you received Princess Spirito’s approval about Hello World?”
“Affirmative.”
Ina’s ears stood up straight.
“…Great. You are one step closer to fulfilling your dream!”
Ina felt happy like it was something that happened with her, which contrasted with Qualia’s unemotional face. But something was strange.
Qualia’s expression and voice were still monotonous, but as Ina went from feeling joy to calming down, she did not miss some subtle differences.
“Are you feeling ill?”
“Affirmative. As you say, there is a malfunction in Qualia’s calculation function that is estimated to have occurred when Qualia spoke to Lobelia and Spirito in the bathing area.”
“B-bathing… Ah…”
Ina’s ears stood up again, seemingly indicating that she figured it out.
Her face turned red. The reaction of an honest girl that just realized something ‘bad’.
“Princess Lobelia… And I even said to be careful about that sort of thing… Did that make you start thinking about very lewd things?”
“Unclear, but static appeared in the calculations. And thoughts of Lobelia and Spirito naked started appearing.”
“…Girls don’t like hearing that.”
As Qualia saw Ina’s ‘not tasty’ face, he strongly wished to prioritize fixing this.
But Ina looked a little resigned, and gently touched Qualia’s cheek.
“But don’t go reaching any conclusions that you are a failure, or anything of the sort. In fact, I would say that this is healthy. You will need to use those feelings to love the person you will come to like one day.”
Ina’s face felt to Qualia like it was a little distant, which also felt ‘not tasty’.
“Error. Word ‘like’ not registered.”
“By like I mean, the feeling of wanting to spend the rest of your life with someone, and walking through life with them.”
“‘Like’ understood.”
And then, Qualia opened his eyes widely like he suddenly thought of something. And Ina’s face turned red as Qualia stared a hole through her.
“In that case, it is perceived that Qualia ‘likes’ you.”
“…! Wai, wai, waiwai…!”
Ina was caught off guard, and stumbled as she took some distance from Qualia.
Hearing that pure ‘like’ made her react as though something had a grip on her heart.
“Mumu… I-I think Master Qualia’s memory is still in a state of confusion… You need to think a little more before saying you ‘like’ someone.”
“Situation understood.”
“…You said we were like family before… Master Qualia, lately… You have been a little too direct… I’m happy, but…”
The last sentence was too quiet for even Qualia to pick up.
As Ina looked away while squinting, Qualia waited for the redness in her face to disappear, and eventually asked a question in order to understand ‘like’ better.
“Request explanation. Is there a ‘like’ relationship between Lobelia and Spirito?”
“I think they are both very important to the other as family. It’s a little different from the kind of ‘like’ I was talking about.”
Added Ina, although she was unable to explain it very well.
But at least, Qualia understood that this ‘like’ did not equal family. There was the example of the Sandbox family as well.
“Request explanation. Do you have a familiar relationship like Lobelia and Spirito have?”
Ina was quiet for a moment.
“…I had.”
Ina sounded sad, as she looked out the window and continued.
“Before I was even aware of my existence, my parents were killed by humans. And then my brother and I joined a small beast people community called Azure Skies. My brother was the only person I could count on back then.”
“Request explanation. Your brother…”
“…Three years ago, he was killed by humans.”
Ina responded with a sad smile, before Qualia could finish.
“That means you are all I have now, since you called me your family.”
Neither knew that at this time, Azure Skies was holding a meeting in the outskirts of the capital.
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