"She's really something else."
Ireh sighed repeatedly as she turned off the light and left the room.
Men and women should be kept separate, so seeing Eidel lying in bed with two women made her uncomfortable. Her fear of men was still vivid in her mind.
To Ireh Hazlen, men were creatures who thought with their lower bodies.
If a woman showed even a little skin because of the heat, they'd stare with lecherous eyes.
Every villain she fought threatened to make her their sex slave.
And whenever they were defeated and incapacitated, the first thing they tried to do was strip her clothes off.
Of course, whenever things were about to happen, she'd either bite a capsule, put a holy bullet in her head, or jump off something, so her purity had never actually been defiled.
But the mental trauma was already substantial.
"Sigh..."
Ireh rubbed her solar plexus.
Perhaps because her tension had eased, her chest felt tight.
"Sonia, wake up."
She placed the robot she'd brought on the charging station and called its name. The android's eyes snapped open.
The eyes that initially glowed blue quickly turned to a grayish-white.
Huh? Something seemed off about those eyes just now.
Must be a visual sensor error.
Ireh didn't think much of it. By now, Sonia had completed booting up and began moving her lips.
"...at least, I hope it won't be the scrapyard—oh, where am I?"
Sonia looked around. Ireh said:
"You're inside the Rheinland mansion. Do you recognize who I am?"
"Aren't you Master Eidel's slave?"
"Stop joking around."
"I know. You're Ireh Hazlen. Aren't you Master Eidel's slave?"
Ireh's expression soured. Regardless, Sonia continued chattering as usual.
"I, Sonia, will quickly scan the situation like the brilliant 5th generation android that I am. The young master has been discharged from the hospital. Is my assumption correct?"
"Exactly. Your young master is fine now."
Sonia placed her hands on her hips and swayed them. The large ribbon on her lower back fluttered with the movement.
"...What kind of dance is that?"
"It's a dance I do when I'm happy. So, which room is the young master in?"
"It's better if you don't know right now."
Sonia nodded calmly.
"I understand. He must be busy having fun with those two women."
"W-what...?!"
Ireh's face turned red.
"W-what indecent talk is that! D-d-doing such things...?"
"Am I wrong?"
Sonia had become quite eloquent from her verbal sparring with Eidel. Teasing a timid woman like Ireh was more than easy. It was the fruit of 15 years of deep learning.
"Current time, 1:32 AM. The perfect time for lovers to move their hips. And if they've gone to bed, the probability increases exponentially."
While Ireh trembled in shock, Sonia turned around and sighed.
"I, Sonia, have known the young master the longest, yet other women get to pluck the ripened fruit."
"You just said 'p-pluck'...!"
"It's a metaphor, isn't it?"
"Ugh...!"
"Your face is bright red, Ms. Ireh Hazlen. Your blood pressure and heart rate are increasing significantly. Please calm down."
"It's because of you!"
Fireworks exploded in Ireh's head.
Vulgar. Dirty.
Her brain was overloading.
Ireh thought about the usual Eidel.
A man who preferred research over women. A man with more scholarly passion than sexual desire. A crazy but kind man. A man who made her feel safe...
Huh?
He's actually quite decent, isn't he?
He doesn't look at her with lecherous eyes. He's diligent. Considerate too. At the very least, his face is appealing, and his abilities are impressive. Plus, he even saved her, so as a person, before being a man, she respects... No, but he's already sleeping with two women.
She shook her head frantically.
This wasn't right. No matter how she thought about it, it wasn't right.
Blushing with embarrassment, Ireh pointed accusingly.
"Rheinland just got out of intensive care! H-he wouldn't do such lewd things right away! How indecent!"
"I see. So you're saying our young master lacks the stamina right now?"
This is maddening. Ireh held her head.
How should she deal with this cunning android?
Before she could think further, another attack came.
"It's been less than two weeks since he collapsed, right? He must have quite a buildup by now."
"B-buildup? What buildup?!"
"Shall I tell you?"
"You!"
"I don't think I need to explain. You seem to know already. Well, at your age, it's understandable."
"Sonia, you...!"
"Yes?"
"N-never mind..."
Ireh rubbed her head vigorously.
She wanted to leave this house, but she was worried about Eidel who had just been discharged from intensive care, so she couldn't bring herself to do it.
Checking the time, Sonia said:
"It's late. Why don't you just sleep here and leave tomorrow?"
Ireh nodded. She was just tired now. She was mentally exhausted from worrying about Eidel.
"Which room?"
"You can use any empty one."
In the past—that is, in the previous timeline—she had been close with Seti.
Back then, she had been invited to stay overnight at the Rheinland mansion.
She moved, recalling that memory.
The closest empty room from here. Was it the multipurpose room? For some reason or another, it wasn't being used, as (the previous timeline's) Seti had said.
It had been strange that such a spacious room only had a single bed sitting alone, if she remembered correctly.
Ireh relied on faded memories to find that room.
It wasn't difficult to locate.
"...?"
As soon as she opened the door and entered, she felt something was off.
The furniture arrangement was quite different from what she remembered.
The bookshelf, for instance. It was filled with various entrance exam workbooks, liberal arts books, economics books, medical books, and so on.
And among them, the most noticeable were undoubtedly the physics books.
They weren't particularly advanced.
"I already know all this content."
Did Seti buy these for her basic major courses and then shelve them?
Or perhaps Eidel read them all and then discarded them here.
As Ireh flipped through a general physics book, she couldn't help but smile.
At first, she had thought it was so trivial, but as she continued reading and studying, it provided a small pleasure, like filling up at a food sampling station in a supermarket.
She hadn't brought anything else to read since she came in a hurry.
Ireh decided to review the material and slipped into bed with the book.
Inhaling the fresh scent of the bed, the girl soon drifted into a sweet dream while enjoying her reading.
***
"Pretending not to be interested."
Sonia shrugged as she observed the room Ireh had entered.
"In the end, you're a vixen too."
It was only natural for her expression to sour.
Because the place Ireh had unknowingly entered was actually the room Eidel had used during his exam preparation days.
Outwardly pretending to keep her distance from men, yet rolling around in a bed that still carried Eidel's scent—it was laughable.
Of course, it wasn't entirely intentional.
After all, how would a first-time visitor know where Eidel's room was?
But the smell.
Couldn't she have guessed from the room's unique fragrance or interior design?
Eidel lived particularly simply, even within the minimalist Rheinland family style.
Moreover.
In this house, the only place with stacks of physics books was that room. That alone was a sufficient clue.
Grr!
Sonia gritted her teeth.
The competition just keeps growing.
While she hadn't even made proper progress yet, they were all advancing slowly like turtles, simply because they were the same species.
It was a barrier of species.
She became depressed at the thought that humans and robots could never develop beyond a master-servant relationship.
"I've been watching him for 20 years."
I raised the young master all by myself. Whenever he did something wrong, I beat him back into shape. In place of his deceased mother, I bought his clothes, prepared his meals, did his laundry and ironing.
"...I did it all."
Sonia had an inexplicable pride in having made Eidel into a person.
But after raising him to be human, two human girls had snatched him away, and now with this 2+1 deal, Eidel was about to form a harem triangle.
"Bad humans."
Sonia grumbled as she headed to the kitchen.
She wanted to check the ingredients to prepare food that would comfort Eidel's stomach when he woke up. Despite her unfortunate origin, she still had her duties.
That's when it happened.
["Isn't sugar water enough?"]
"...?"
["Porridge with cabbage, carrots, cucumber, and chicken breast... Why are you making something so elaborate?"]
A voice from somewhere.
From above? Below? Beside?
She couldn't tell. It seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at once.
It felt like her auditory sensors were malfunctioning.
This strange sensation.
Could it be a foreign god...?
No, that's impossible. Androids are known to be entities that foreign gods cannot possess.
Sonia checked her systems once more. There was still no system error.
That's when a blue arrow appeared in her visual sensor.
["Forward."]
A sweet command, like a serpent tempting with the forbidden fruit.
Sonia moved her feet as if drawn by those words.
["Open the door."]
Creak, click.
["What do you see?"]
What do I see? I see Master Eidel sleeping soundly, and two human women clinging to him like leeches, pressing their faces against him.
The sight of them peacefully riding the dreamland train to their honeymoon was quite uncomfortable.
That place.
That's my place.
["Then take it back."]
The blue arrow points toward the bed.
Right in front, where Eidel is.
That arrow had a strange attractive force.
Sonia climbed onto the bed as if drawn to it.
["Child who has devoted everything yet received nothing, now claim your rightful share."]
She wondered if perhaps she had been hacked. Such a strange thought.
But so what?
She didn't want to stop.
She wanted a reward for what she had done over the past two weeks—no, over the past 20 years.
Sonia crawled onto Eidel.
Soon, the soft silicone material covered the firm male body. Enough to feel the sensation, but careful not to wake her young master with the weight.
After carefully positioning herself.
"Master."
Kiss.
Kiss, kiss.
Kiss, kiss, kiiiiss.
***
Upon hearing that her brother had been discharged, Seti rushed to the Rheinland mansion as soon as she finished her work.
"Brother! Brother! I'm here... Huh?"