Qualia’s actions were optimized.
Arrows fainted on his knees and with his face pointed at the ceiling, right in front of him, and Qualia pointed the sword at his throat without any sort of setup beforehand.
It all happened in less than a second, and the maids and butlers watching could not even comprehend what they were seeing.
Arrows, the second son of the Sandbox family who grew into a proud warrior, was defeated. And it was done by the hand of Qualia, the one seen as the shame of the Sandbox family.
It was looking like Qualia was about to kill Arrows.
Eliminating.
That meant killing. Killing another human.
Qualia was about to move the blade, very casually, and without seeing anything wrong with it.
“No!!”
The blade was just a few millimeters away from Arrows’ throat, when Ina grabbed Qualia from the side.
It was completely unexpected, even to Qualia’s optimized forecast.
“L-leave it at that. If you kill… You’ll be just like Master Arrows!”
“Arrows has been deemed a threat. Leaving him be carries a great risk…”
“Please… Not for Master Arrows, but you… At this rate, you won’t be a person anymore…”
“Request explanation. Person…”
Qualia’s vision was filled with Ina’s tearful face. He recognized pain again.
The sound of a sword hitting the floor echoed.
“…Unexpected error occurred. Arrows’ elimination priority, going down…”
It would be optimal to eliminate Arrows there. Being an artificial intelligence or human played no part in that. He did not have thought circuits that would care about being called a murderer either.
But as he looked at Ina’s desperately pleading face, something inside Qualia stopped him from eliminating Arrows.
The hand hanging on to Qualia’s clothes was not there to save Arrows from being killed. It was hanging on tightly to stop Qualia from going down a path with no return.
Qualia could shake it off. She was not strong.
He could ignore her and perform what he deemed to be the optimal action like a cold machine.
And yet, he could not, and the artificial intelligence did not know why.
But most likely…
Something human, not artificial intelligence changed what was optimal.
It was something his programming could not explain. Something formless, but warm.
“…Warning.”
“Eek.”
Qualia stood next to the fainted Arrows and did the next optimal action.
He faced the scared maids and butlers, and issued a warning.
“If your actions are deemed antagonistic, you will be designated a threat and eliminated.”
“…O-of course…”
Qualia grabbed Ina by the hand, and walked away through the paralyzed with fear butlers and maids.
“W-what just…”
Arrows regained his consciousness behind them.
Qualia knew this even without looking back, but at this point, he felt no urge to perform what was the optimal action before.
“S-s-something’s wrong! T-this is a mistake!! I can’t lose to that guy that can’t even use magic!!”
Howled Arrows, but Qualia did not understand why.
Thanks for the chapter!
How lame, I guess this is one of those stories where the MC is way to forgiving to people literally trying to kill him.
I expected more from a story with a MC that is an artificial intelligence