Chapter 133
“Everyone, fighting!!”
Flora, Tessa, Claire, Sophie, Anna. They were still unfamiliar names, but they were employees who'd work for our company, the maid ladies. Watching them after they'd changed into suits, I guess it really did start to feel like a company.
The maids got into the car together and went home. Our Rolls-Royce was a five-seater, but they were all so tiny that they rode comfortably. I sat on the lap of Claire, the senior maid, and this is a little weird to say, but her back was incredibly soft.
Of course, it really is a company, after all? Up until now, Ophelia had been doing all sorts of things on her own and working incredibly hard. There was too much outside work for her to handle alone, so Ophelia had seemed pretty exhausted, but now she'll be able to rest.
Of course, over the next few days, while receiving training from Ophelia, I'll get used to the internet too and learn things step by step through handover.
“Have you finished changing?”
-“Yes, Head Maid.”-
“Very well. Then I'll start explaining the work contents.... What is it, Claire?”
The senior maid Claire, who had been in the center at the time of summoning, quietly raised her hand and got permission to speak from Ophelia. Then she scurried over and whispered to her.
“Is that the case for everyone?”
When Ophelia asked everyone about what she'd been told by Claire, the maids all nodded in unison. I wondered what was going on.
“Princess, come here for a moment.”
“Mm? What is it?”
Ophelia called me over from where I was sitting on the sofa beside her, stood me beside her, and opened her mouth.
“Basically, fluctuations may happen from moment to moment depending on the princess's fatigue. I will allow one minute per day, and it can accumulate.”
“Thank you, Head Maid.”
“Wuing.”
After she finished talking about all those mysterious conditions and such, Claire carefully approached me first, knelt down, and met my eyes.
And then she suddenly stretched her hands out.
ㅡsquish
“Huuuu.... You're so cute....”
“Wuing....”
She suddenly started mashing and kneading my cheeks like crazy.
“O-Ophelia..?”
“It's a reward measure for managing the stress of the staff under my command.”
“No, why me..?”
“If you dislike it, I will forbid it.”
At Ophelia's words, the maid ladies waiting behind her all gasped and sucked in sharp breaths. And then they stared at me with expressions that said, Wait, are you really going to forbid this? Then I'd be so sad??, their eyes watering as they looked at me with gloomy, sniffly faces, as if saying, If this happens I can't work, I quit.... Not quite that far, but they were just looking at me with very dejected expressions.
“A-alright....”
So that's what one minute per day meant? I worked all day, and if the reward ended just because they got one minute with me, it felt a little stingy...? But then there'll be more people later, so with just thirty of them, thirty minutes a day would keep piling up....
“Claire, you've used 48 seconds.”
“Thank you, Princess.”
“Is there anyone else among the others who will use their allotted time right away?”
“Ah, me..!”
Flora was the youngest-looking among the newly made maids. Her long light-brown hair and green eyes were huge and round. She seemed about seventeen, but wearing that adult-looking suit made her look grown-up too. And since Flora was the youngest, she'd sat next to Ophelia in the car.
ㅡhug
“Haa, this is nice....”
“Ehehe....”
Flora hugged me tightly and nodded and nodded. She used up 33 seconds, looking completely satisfied, then returned to her seat.
“Thank you, Princess.”
“Hehe... I didn't even do anything....”
“Very well. I'll arrange a place where you can formally have an audience with the princess later, so for today let's go attend class.”
-“Understood, Head Maid.”-
Somehow, when it's something that needs to be right, they're perfectly synchronized like machines, but at other times they feel so naturally human.
“Everyone, fighting..!”
“Kyaa~”
“You're so cute, Princess~”
“Heehee....”
* * * * *
“Jeez.... Is this for real?”
“Yes, it's the content of an official report, so it wouldn't be fabricated. Besides, there are also plenty of eyewitness reports from ordinary users on SNS as well. After checking it myself, I confirmed that the company really exists, and most of the photos were genuine, unedited ones that hadn't even had their location data removed.”
“Damn, that's incredible. This is the technology of a single company?”
“I wouldn't say it's the technology of a single company. It's rare for a startup to roll out technology this advanced on such a large scale so quickly. In fact, the founding date of this company, 'Eve Project,' is mid-January. It seems there may have been government involvement....”
“Hmm, indeed. Did they perhaps find something at Silence Laboratory?”
“I don't think so. Here.”
The materials handed over by the subordinate contained a certain SNS account and related information. And there was also a video the subordinate had painstakingly obtained, one that had been deleted online and was now hard to find.
“This is.... what is it?”
“It's footage shot during the raid on the dungeon called Desert Mausoleum. It seems they had already produced a machine capable of matching the performance of an A-rank attacker hunter by then. It even showed up in their recent operations.”
“No, I get that, but what's this photo of the little girl?”
“That is....”
Photos of a tiny little girl eating, sleeping, playing, and laughing, making up more than half of the materials the subordinate handed over.
“It seems that girl is the owner of those machines.”
“That's certainly interesting.”
Quantum Harbor, the world's largest future-oriented hunter equipment research institute and Hunter Guild. And Elric Marcus, the engineer and entrepreneur who founded Quantum Harbor's parent company and ranks among the world's richest people.
ㅡflip
He looked with interest at the photos and video materials of machine soldiers belonging to the company named Eve Project that had recently appeared. The company itself had actually existed two months earlier, but the industry it had been involved in was steel-related technology development and cybersecurity consulting.
If you asked whether the two were completely unrelated, that wasn't true either.
“This girl, Eve, also took part in Silence Laboratory's preliminary survey. As outside personnel called in by Nova, that is.”
“That's right. After the Korean Dungeon Investigation Association's official preliminary investigation, Silence Laboratory has changed its name to Invaded Outpost. The inside is just an ordinary dungeon swarming with medieval-style monsters, apparently.”
An alliance of seven U.S.-based tech companies known as the Seven Big Tech, along with the world's largest asset managers, BlackRock and Vanguard.
Orbit Club, regarded as the strongest among quasi-national powers.
Including the 'Starwell Syndicate,' an oil-tank alliance spread across the Middle East, it is a faction with the strongest power among both non-awakened and awakened alike.
Even Quantum Harbor, which exerts the greatest influence in future-tech development, still considers the 'mana-powered artificial hunter' industry to be dream technology, and yet Korea pulled it off first.
Naturally, from Elric Marcus's point of view, it was a situation he couldn't help but find interesting.
“Sarah, what do you think?”
“What do you mean? You want to say that's the work of a golemancer?”
Sarah McClain, an S-rank golemancer ranked 47th in the world Hunter rankings and the hunter who benefited the most from Quantum Harbor's tech patronage, shook her head at Elric Marcus's question.
“I've been checking too since a few days ago. They say there are more than 20 golems active at once. Not tank golems, but attacker golems—do you think it's possible to give simultaneous commands, with battle instructions tailored to each situation?”
“Hmm, maybe they made a really good autonomous judgment AI?”
“Elric, if it were an AI you made, what then? Do you think you could make a battle AI that moves flawlessly in a standoff where even one second feels long?”
“If the data center were as wide as the Corn Belt, maybe. It'd be nice if the cooling were good, and a quantum computer would be nice too.”
“So you're saying it can't be done?”
“Hmph....”
Elric Marcus scratched his head at Sarah McClain's words.
“One.... It seems like just one might be enough.”
The eyes of the genius of the century, Elric Marcus, flashed.
* * * * *
“Eve, are you done?”
“I can't pee....”
“Aww, poor thing~ You can't pee~?”
“N-no....”
Today's Hunter class is a lesson where we go into the gate owned by Aegis. The teacher said they'd be inside the gate for a while, so anyone who wanted to go to the restroom should go now, but it feels like it'll come out and yet it won't, so it's super uncomfortable.
The gate is on the school's back mountain... or rather, it's more like the school itself is on a mountain.
Anyway, it's in the middle of a forest full of trees. Of course there's a path to the school's back gate, but around here it's nothing but trees.
At this rate, am I going to have to go into the forest and pee..?
That would be a total princess disqualification. If I were a boy, it'd be easy, but girls can't really do that. Besides, I'm not alone; other people are all here too, so it'd be much more embarrassing.
“Sigh, it still won't come out....”
“If you need to go, tell your unnie~ I'll sneak you away.”
“Eek, there's a restroom inside the gate?”
“No? We have to do it so no one can see us in the forest....”
“Waaah....”
But then again, I don't know if it's right to tell Yeonwoo unnie that I need to pee. If not her, I'd have to get help from someone else, and whoever it is, that's not easy either.
Anyway, today's about doing a live combat test inside the gate and getting feedback on anything that might be problematic. The golems we're bringing today are the five veteran soldier golems under Minyum's command. And there's Doggy too.
They're not summoned yet, but when I asked Ophelia, she said they're waiting outside the gate. If I call them, they can pop in anytime.
I guess it'd be better to summon them after I go into the gate too.
Pickup is a little difficult, but it seems Ophelia's truck will arrive at the parking lot outside the school later.
“All right, everyone's gathered, right? Check that there aren't any problems and then we're going in~”
“Yes, teacher~”
“If you don't listen to the teacher inside the gate, you might come out with something broken. Seriously, be careful~”
“Eek....”
“Eve, don't be scared. I heard from the seniors that the difficulty here is super low.”
“R-really..?”
“Yeah.”
Maybe because she'd heard about it, Choa doesn't seem particularly scared. But Choa has two skills and she's good at fighting, right? They said her body is really sturdy too.
“It's okay, Eve. I've got my ability.”
“Ah, Sana unnie.”
“If this were the Middle Ages, they'd have mistaken you for a witch and burned you at the stake.”
“Mm.”
Our raid team's healer, Sana unnie, is very confident. Well, yeah, with a healer, what could happen?
ㅡflash!
After the A-class raid party went inside, a red light blinked at the end of the drone filming them from a distance.
ㅡclick....
As the camera's aperture blades closed to adjust the amount of light, the recording came to an end. The palm-sized drone, its propeller noise completely silenced by a skill, quietly slipped out of the forest.
“Did it succeed?”
“Of course.”
“Nice, then there won't be any problems next time either.”
A group of Awakened who weren't hunters, disguised as Chinese tourists, flew a drone from the outskirts of Cheonggyesan to film the Aegis-owned gate.
“So, what's the exact plan?”
“No idea. They say they'll keep sending over some parts every day, and if we assemble them and fit in mana stones, the nearby gates will go berserk or something.”
The exchange student event at Kannagi High School that will be held soon. The calculation was that if trouble occurred while foreign student hunters were present, it would deal a major blow to Aegis's standing.
“It won't be found out, right?”
“Just run back to the home country. As long as we get paid, that's all that matters to us.”