EX: Fruits of Her Labor
“Sister, what are you doing in the central control room?” Yuuneia asked her adopted older sister Reiaane, also known as Rei, on their way to the control room of Lalakie.
“There’s something I want to look into a little.”
“Oh, a mission! What fun!”
Yuuneia clung adoringly to Rei’s arm, although in Rei’s very young form, it looked like Yuuneia was the older sister.
Rei gazed at her sister with a gentle smile.
Finally, they reached the end of the long hallway, and a heavy door appeared.
“Queen Reiaane detected. Unlocking the central control room.”
A synthesized voice, the Lalakie central core, spoke from the darkness.
As it did so, the door opened soundlessly, and soft light shimmered down from the ceiling and walls.
“How may I assist you today, Queen Reiaane?”
The voice was completely monotonous.
“I’d like to see all our materials about the Heavenslight Protection.”
“Displaying materials.”
Several documents flickered into view in midair.
Rei scanned the endless flow of information, her expression intent.
“Wow, that’s a lot! They all sound very complicated, too. Do you understand these, Sister?”
“Yes, to a certain extent,” Rei responded absently to Yuuneia’s innocent question.
“…Hmm, I don’t see anything. Perhaps there really is no way to miniaturize it, just like Mr. Satou said?”
Rei had evidently taken note of Satou’s casual comment that “it would be theoretically impossible to miniaturize” the Heavenslight Protection and decided to do more research on the subject.
“Request accepted, Queen Reiaane. Searching materials… It is impossible to miniaturize the Heavenslight Protection. Displaying search results.”
The central core took Rei’s murmured comment as an order and pulled the information she was seeking from the lengthy materials, displaying the results.
“Even with different verification methods, the results are all the same.”
Rei’s brow furrowed as she skimmed the words.
“Sister, your forehead’s wrinkling up.”
Yuuneia innocently poked the spot between her sister’s eyebrows.
Rei gently moved her hand aside, putting a smile back onto her stiffened features.
“You don’t like the materials, Sister?”
“It’s not that, exactly. It’s just…”
As she responded to Yuuneia, several memories suddenly flashed through her mind.
My younger self. I was crying. Mother protected me. A terrorist attack. A powerful magi bomb. Mother defended us. A powerful wall that kept Mother and me safe. A barrier given to us by the gods. It could only mean one thing…
“…When I was younger, Mother used the Heavenslight Protection in front of me. That’s right—I saw it with my own eyes!”
“Sister?”
“Central core! Display the accessories belonging to my mother the queen! There should be one that protected her!”
“Searching materials… Displaying relevant Artifacts and Sacred Treasures.”
Forgetting to explain things to the confused Yuuneia, Rei quickly looked over the images.
“Yes! There it is! Display the details about this necklace!”
“Displaying information about the Heavenly Necklace.”
It was a Divine Treasure that the gods bestowed on the Lalakie royal family.
Unlike the delicate necklaces popular in modern Japan, this one was heavily laden with majestic decorations.
“There’s no doubt about it. This necklace can use the Heavenslight Protection. Do we have research materials about this necklace? Display all of it.”
“Theoretically impossible. And yet, it exists in reality. Does not compute.”
Normally, the central core responded to the queen’s requests right away. Now, however, it seemed confused by the contradictions found in its own information.
“Central core?”
“…Queen Reiaane, I have inspected the contradictory points.”
“Did you figure anything out?”
“According to my analysis, the Lalakie royal family may have deliberately hidden this truth.”
Rei frowned at this revelation.
“If it was hidden, does that mean there’s no information about it left?”
“Searching materials.”
Several lights flashed rapidly on the small tower that was essentially the central core’s body.
“You can do it!” Yuuneia cheered for the hardworking machine.
“Good idea. Let’s cheer for it.”
Rei smiled and joined her sister in encouraging the central core’s processing.
“Search complete. Research materials located.”
“Great work, central core!”
Yuuneia’s praise was sincere.
“The research materials are located in an encrypted file in the royal family’s private archive.”
“Why would they be in a place like that? Display them, please.”
Rei tilted her head as she gave the order.
“Due to the high security level of this document, I cannot permit anyone but Queen Reiaane to view the file. Requesting all other company to exit the room.”
“…Okay. I’ll wait outside, Sister.”
Yuuneia’s face clouded for only a moment. Then she forced a smile and started to leave.
“You don’t need to go anywhere. Stay here, Yuuneia.”
“Sister?”
Yuuneia looked puzzled as Rei called her back.
“By the authority of the queen, I grant Yuuneia temporary viewing permission.”
“Authorization accepted, Queen Reiaane. Displaying documents.”
The central core projected the materials in front of the two sisters.
Evidently, during the golden age of Lalakie, the researchers of the time were studying Sacred Treasures under the queen’s orders.
“This says it’s made using the divine stones bestowed by the ‘Eight Gods,’ like the ‘sun stone’ and the ‘wise spring stone.’”
“Stones…from the gods…”
Doing her best to be of use to Rei, Yuuneia wrote down Rei’s mutterings on a memo pad brought to her by living dolls.
“Yuuneia, write down the names of the stones, too, please.”
Rei smiled lovingly at Yuuneia and gave her an additional request.
“Of course, Sister.”
Yuuneia’s smile beamed brightly back at her. She was obviously happy to have her sister rely on her.
For a while, Rei continued to read the documents while Yuuneia took down notes. She even drew accurate copies of the complicated blueprints and circuit diagrams. She had a surprising knack for note-taking.
“We’re done. Close the documents, please.”
“…Queen Reiaane. That top-secret information has now been registered in my search index. If someone else were to visit, there is a possibility that they would find the information that the royal family was concealing.”
“I see…”
Rei thought for a moment, then decided to put the information back into hiding.
“Then please erase the search index and the cache data.”
“I shall erase my own related memories as well.”
The central core’s lights blinked furiously, then turned off as if there was a sudden power outage.
After a surprisingly long silence, the central core reactivated.
“How may I assist you today, Queen Reiaane?”
It was the same question the central core had posed when they first entered the room.
“Oh, I don’t need anything. We were just taking a little walk.”
“Very well. If you require any assistance, please let me know.”
“I will, thank you.”
Rei felt vaguely guilty as she left the central control room with Yuuneia in tow.
“Hmm, this is very difficult.”
Rei stretched, taking a break from her careful reading of the complex documents.
“Sister, we still have the pastries Lulu left for us. Let’s eat them together.”
“Perfect. Thank you.”
Yuuneia, who’d been waiting for the right time, placed a tray of tea and pastries on the table.
“How’s your mission going?”
“It’s a little tough, but I’ve figured out the most important points.”
While the theory was so complex that she could only follow about half of it, Rei had compared the regular Heavenslight Protection and that of the Heavenly Necklace. She determined that the latter included special amplification circuits, and at the center were the gems from the “Eight Gods” that the documents called “divine stones.”
“The problem is…”
She had no way of getting her hands on the divine stones.
And the Heavenly Necklace that Rei’s mother wore was lost in the destruction of the Lalakie dynasty.
“…I don’t have the materials it requires. If I had even just one kind…”
As far as she could tell from their notes, it would still work with a single kind of divine stone. It just meant that the device would need to be bigger, and it would require more magic power per unit of time.
“Not to worry, Sister. This is Master Satou. I’m sure all he needs is the method and he’ll find a way to make it work.”
“Good point, Yuuneia. You’re right.”
Knowing Satou, the diagrams and notes would be plenty useful, even without all the resources required.
Rei could say that with total faith in Satou.
“You look happy, Sister.”
Yuuneia was delighted to see Rei smiling.
“I hope Master Satou comes to visit again soon.”
“I agree, Yuuneia.”
In their house on Paradise Island, the sisters smiled at each other fondly.
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