Mushoku Tensei Redundancy (LN) - Volume 2 - Chapter 3

Chapter 3:

The Day the Doll Walked (Part 3)

MEANWHILE, Sylphie was looking after their fourth daughter, Christina. 

“Well done, Chris, that’s it! Let go and come to Mama.”

“Mrmm! Mamaaa, come here!” Unlike Lily, who had started toddling early, Chris still struggled to walk even while holding onto things. The moms had been working with her. Unfortunately, Chris still didn’t seem to like it. She shook her head, lip wobbling.

“Come here, Chris! You know, one step, two step,” Sylphie encouraged.

“Mrmm! Mrrrm… Mama…come here…”

“No, Chris. Look, I’m right here.”

Chris started fussing. She wasn’t actually incapable; she was just being a baby. Finally, with a strangled sound, she closed her eyes and burst into a tottering run into Sylphie’s arms.

“Good girl! Well done, Chris. I’m proud of you.”

“Mrmm…”

Sylphie hugged Chris like she always did and stroked her hair. Chris clung on to her tightly, sniffling. Where Lily was active and full of curiosity, Chris liked to be coddled. Moreover, she didn’t really like going outside. Eris took her out now and then, but usually ended up coming back straight away because Chris stuck to her like glue and started wailing at every little thing. Nowadays, she mostly stayed at home while the others went on their walks.

“Oh, Chris, you do need a lot of attention! I wonder where you get that from,” Sylphie said.

She definitely meant Rudeus.

“Mama, Dada home?”

“No, Dada’s not home yet.” Chris was a daddy’s girl. She cried all the time, ever since she’d been born. When Rudeus picked her up she stopped straight away—the total opposite of Arus. Lately, Rudeus’s lap had become her exclusive spot.

“Wah!” Chris suddenly cried out.

“Hm?” Sylphie said. Then she heard a noise from the front door. Someone must have come home.

“Dada?”

“I don’t know…but I don’t think it’s Dada.” Rudeus had been out since the previous day. He hadn’t given her the exact day that he’d be home, but he had said it would be two or three days. Probably not him.

“Sis?”

“It’s a bit early for your sisters, too.” Roxy or Lucie wouldn’t be back from university just yet, and it was also too early for Aisha, who was off with the mercenary band. Could it be Eris, back from her walk? But she’d taken Sieg, who’d want to play, so they’d surely be a bit longer. What about Lilia, who’d gone shopping with Arus along to help her? No, they’d only just left. Lilia might have forgotten something and come back to get it. It could also be Zenith. Sylphie thought she was asleep in her room, but maybe she’d slipped out into the garden.

As she ran through these possibilities, Sylphie sat Chris on a cushion and said, “Stay there, Chris.”

Feeling a little puzzled, she headed for the front door. It was ajar, but it wasn’t the door that drew her attention.

Someone was standing in front of it. The afternoon sun shone through the open door, illuminating a black-haired girl from behind. Most people familiar with her might have said, “Nanahoshi?” and offered her a friendly greeting.

But the moment Sylphie laid eyes on her, she frowned. 

“You…aren’t Nanahoshi, are you?” she said. 

The girl contorted her mouth into a little smile. In the shadow cast by the light behind her, it looked like an uncanny slit had opened in her face.

“No, I am not. How did you know?”

“Nanahoshi comes to our house a lot,” Sylphie replied. “When she opens the door, she has a routine. She knocks twice, then, if no one answers, she hesitates a little, then opens the door a crack and quietly calls out, ‘Is anyone home?’”

As she spoke, she concentrated mana in her right hand. It was the obvious thing to do for Sylphie. Something had invaded her house wearing the face of someone she knew. For the moment, she didn’t feel any hostility from the girl in front of her. She even spoke politely, though there was no feeling in her voice. Sylphie wasn’t naive enough to assume that meant she was a friend.

“Who are you? If you’re one of the Man-God’s servants, you’ll have to get through me.” As she spoke, her mind was racing. 

How could she distract the girl in front of her so that she could get Chris from the living room and Zenith from upstairs and escape? She’d run through what she’d do in the event of a home invasion numerous times—could she actually pull it off? She hadn’t noticed any sounds of battle, but maybe Byt, who grew around the gate posts, was already dead. Just now she had put mana into her ring to signal to Eris and Roxy. Would they notice? She wondered if Orsted and Alec over at the office were aware of the situation. Should she run? Or should she stall for time?

Sylphie shoved all these thoughts away behind a stony expression as she stared at the girl.

“I do not yet have a name,” the girl said, in response to Sylphie’s question.

“Huh…?”

“May I ask what your name is?”

“I’m Sylphiette Greyrat,” Sylphie replied automatically, taken aback by the sudden question.

“You must be Master Sylphie, Master Rudeus’s wife.”

“That’s…right.” Sylphie confirmed it reflexively. Wondering if it would have been better not to answer, she kept a wary eye on the girl. She didn’t appear to be armed. In fact, she looked wide open to attack. Still, Sylphie couldn’t let her guard down. There were any number of people out there who could overpower her with their bare hands.

“Will knowing I’m here make you angry with Master Rudeus?” the girl asked.

“What?”

“Why is it that you are unable to accept me, Master Sylphie?”

“I don’t understand. What are you talking about?”

She’s trying to confuse you. Don’t listen. It could be some sort of trick. The thought flashed through Sylphie’s mind. She moved to take a guarded step back.

At once, the girl shouted, “Danger!” Her hand shot out with a speed that surpassed Sylphie’s. Her opponent was clearly quicker than her, but Sylphie had anticipated that.

Just because she couldn’t see her didn’t mean she couldn’t fight back. She would finish her step, then, twisting to the side to evade the attack, beat her back with magic. In an instant, she decided what to do—

“Ah!” Then, she saw Chris on the floor at her feet. Where had she come from?

Without Sylphie noticing, Chris had crawled from the living room to the front door. She’d ignored Sylphie’s instruction to stay put. By some twist of fate, she was right where Sylphie had been going to step. By the time she realized, it was too late. With a desperate yank, she tried to avoid treading on Chris, but she lost her balance. Her upper body wobbled. She wasn’t going to be able to avoid Chris. Then, her eyes caught sight of the strange girl’s arm shooting out with terrifying speed.

***

The house was eerily quiet when Rudeus arrived home. He went past Byt, who was wound around the gate, Aisha’s vegetable garden, and Dillo and Leo’s kennels. There was no one around. He opened the front door, which was unlocked, to find the hallway sparkling clean and the door to the living room ajar. It was quiet save for the sound of a baby crying: Chris. It was a cry of anguish, full of sorrow, as though she’d suffered a great loss. Rudeus knew that cry well—as soon as he drew near, it would stop.

Even with the crying, the house still seemed unnaturally quiet.

At the front door, he told the mercenaries, “Wait outside for my orders.” 

He entered. It was quiet in the hallway too. He glanced sideways at the mirror next to the door and saw his own pale face staring back at him. What was that smell? It definitely wasn’t pleasant. It was the sort that would make you queasy if you breathed it in too long. The sort of smell that attracted flies if you left it alone. Rudeus let it lead him down the corridor to the living room. That was where the crying was coming from, and he was also sure it was the source of the smell. The door was shut tight. Bracing himself, Rudeus opened it.

An unbelievable scene met his eyes. First, he saw the table. Chris lay on top of it on her back, bawling. Someone was half crouching as it leaned over her—the black-haired doll. Its hands were dirty, covered in something the color of dried blood. The brown substance was still moist and gave off a powerful stench that made him want to gag. 

“Oh, for goodness’ sake, you’ve got poop on your hands,” Sylphie said.

“It is insignificant. This level of dirt will not impede my functionality.”

“No arguing. Here, wipe your hands. Then roll up the dirty diaper like this and put it in this basket to be washed later.”

“I see. I have learned that dirt is to be washed off promptly,” said the doll. Sylphie wiped its hands for it. The brown stain she was wiping away and the source of the smell wafting into the hallway was apparently Chris’s poop. 

Chris was lying on the table with her dirty diaper off, still bawling, until she noticed Rudeus.

“Dada! Dada’s back!” She stopped crying and gave him a sunny smile.

“Wait, what…?” 

Rudeus had imagined what he’d find. Sylphie fighting. His family battered and bruised or lying unmoving on the floor. The doll clumsily changing a diaper wasn’t any of the possibilities.

“Oh, Rudy. Welcome home.”

“Sylphie, are you…? I guess you’re not hurt.”

“No. Why would I be?” Sylphie replied. Behind her stood the expressionless doll. It looked so creepy lurking there with its inhuman face that Rudeus half expected a sword to suddenly sprout from Sylphie’s chest. When he looked at the doll, it moved ever so slightly into Sylphie’s shadow. It was like it was using Sylphie as a shield. That gave Rudeus a slightly different impression. It was almost like it was afraid of him.

“Sylphie, I want you to get away from that.”

Instead, Sylphie moved to stand between him and the doll. “Why?”

“Zanoba and I made that figurine, but we lost control of it. I’m not certain, but I think it overheard us talking and came to either eliminate you or replace you.” As he explained that, he realized its current behavior didn’t quite line up with what he’d said. “I mean, it looks like I wasn’t exactly right about that.”

The fact remained that he didn’t know what the figurine wanted. He stared it down, not dropping his guard.

“Huh!” said Sylphie. “That’s not quite the story I heard.”

“What story?” Rudeus asked, unsettled. 

Sylphie smiled. “I’d actually like to talk to you about it. Sit down.”

“Okay…” Rudeus did as she said, sitting down on the floor and crossing his legs.

“Hm?” Sylphie cocked her head at him. “Rudy, I think you need to correct your posture.”

“Really?! Oh, um, okay.” Rudeus, picking up on a note in Sylphie’s voice, changed his pose. The note was one of anger, which meant the only way he should be sitting was on his knees, ready to grovel.

Once Sylphie was satisfied, she said, “Go ahead, then,” and ushered the figurine forward. 

It looked down at him with its inhuman face. “Master Rudeus, are you going to scrap me?”

“Yeah, of course,” he replied immediately. 

The figurine didn’t so much as twitch. Rudeus knew that the doll’s materials—its skeleton made from the same material as the magic armor, and its artificial flesh that allowed it to perform at the same level as a Saint-tier sword fighter—made it so dangerous that he would have to destroy it if it wouldn’t listen to him. Now that he was wearing the magic armor and had opened his demon eye, he was more than a match for it, but he couldn’t let his guard down.

“I…do not wish to be scrapped,” the doll said.

That was when it hit him. The doll was frightened. It was just standing there, its face showing no expression and its voice flat, but it was afraid.

The doll turned to Sylphie. Its eyes were cold and ­artificial, but for some reason, the look it gave her seemed like a plea for help.

“It sounds like Rudy hasn’t worked it out yet,” Sylphie said. “Explain it to him from the beginning.”

The doll looked to Rudeus, then to Zanoba who had also come into the house. Then, it started to talk in a flat voice.

“Master Rudeus and Master Zanoba, you said that Master Rudeus’s wives would be angry if they found out about me. Master Elinalise told me that Master Rudeus’s wives are Master Sylphie, Master Eris, and Master Roxy. Master Eris told me that Master Sylphie once said she was unable to accept Nanahoshi. Master Elinalise called me by the name ‘Nanahoshi.’ I thought about this and concluded that I must closely resemble Master Nanahoshi, and this is why I am to be scrapped. However, I am not Master Nanahoshi. I thought that there must be something I can do to change your mind.”

Its voice was flat as ever, but its distress was palpable. The doll’s mind was desperately casting around for a solution.

“I do not wish to be scrapped. Master Rudeus, you and Master Zanoba were happy when I was born, and I wish to be of further service to you both. If I am scrapped, I cannot do that.”

Sometimes, magicians using summoning magic brought disaster upon themselves when they summoned something too powerful. As a rule, the beasts called up with summoning magic did not defy the summoner; they were faithful to their master. It was what they did for the summoner that brought the disaster. This doll had magic of that sort built into it. Of course it did, since it was based on Perugius’s summoning magic. It thought and behaved like one of Perugius’s twelve spirit servants, and his spirits had their own consciousness. From the moment they were summoned, their cognizance guided them to act for the sake of their lord, to survive so that they might serve him longer.

“I therefore decided to ask Sylphie, who I predicted from the information I had obtained would take the greatest exception to my existence.”

It wasn’t that there was a flaw in the three laws of robotics. The doll’s nature as a summoned spirit had simply prevailed over them.

“I wished to know what I could do to earn her acceptance,” the doll finished.

When it had suddenly wandered into the house uninvited, Sylphie had been more alarmed than necessary. It had never had hostile intentions and had responded to Sylphie’s open hostility with a terrible attempt at a smile, hoping they could talk. When Sylphie lost her balance and almost trod on her daughter, the doll had reached out to stop her from falling, then asked her kindly if she was unhurt. The shock of nearly being stepped on made Chris soil her diaper, and again, the doll was considerate and offered to change her. As it helped, it made its case to Sylphie, explaining that it didn’t want to die, that it would fix whatever was wrong with it—that it just wanted to be of service. 

“So, please, do not kill me,” it said. “Please.”

Sylphie had been deeply moved.

“Rudy, I’m not angry with you,” Sylphie said. “I knew you were making something like this. She’s a lot more ­human than I expected, but she’s a good girl. Even if she is a little flawed, I want you to keep her.”

That concluded the doll’s story. Now they were just waiting for Rudeus’s response.

At some point, the corners of Rudeus’s mouth had turned down. His arms were folded, and he was looking at the floor. His shoulders were shaking.

There was a choking noise. Sylphie looked behind Rudeus and saw that Zanoba’s whole body was quivering. With a cry, he charged at the girl.

“I had no idea you felt that way! All of it, it was all for us! Forgive me! I was wrong to say you were out of control! Forgive me!” Zanoba clung to the doll with tears streaming down his cheeks.

As Rudeus watched, he also gave a sniff. His eyes were glistening. From his pocket, he pulled out a handkerchief and blew his nose loudly. Then, he stood and took the doll’s hand.

“Zanoba is right. Of course you ran away after we talked about scrapping you right in front of you. Of course you wanted to do something about it. I understand. I don’t mind if it makes Sylphie angry. Zanoba and I will complete you, then we’ll use you like we ought to.”

“I, too, shall face Julie’s fury!” Zanoba agreed. 

Both of them clung to the doll and sobbed. The expression on her face looked, to Sylphie’s eyes, like she was confused as to why they’d accepted her even though she hadn’t solved what was wrong with her. 

In any case, the matter was settled. Feeling glad, Sylphie let out a sigh of relief, then patted Chris, who was fussy because Rudeus wouldn’t pay attention to her. That was when a thought occurred to her.

“Rudy, I just have one last question. Why did you think I’d be angry about this?”

A violent shiver ran over Rudeus. Turning to her, he returned to his knees. He cleared his throat once, then began to explain.

“The truth is, the doll’s, uh, anatomy down there, is very elaborately—”

Now, Sylphie was angry.

***

The scrapping of the doll was called off, and it was decided that any automata manufactured would be maintained for as long as possible. Accordingly, the girl who’d been at the center of the affair became an official model: Automata Unit One.

From now on, she would work on experiments at the laboratory and in the Magic City of Sharia and would be included in Rudeus’s various plans.

It was sometime later when the doll’s secret became known to Nanahoshi. When she learned that the doll with her face was capable of sexual acts, she didn’t hide her look of disgust. Rudeus’s groveling and assurances that he’d promised Sylphie he wouldn’t use the doll for such purposes appeased her, at least for the moment.

“Oh, whatever. What’s her name, anyway?” Nanahoshi asked.

“I…haven’t given her one yet,” Rudeus admitted.

“Yeah? Can I name her, then?”

Thus, Nanahoshi chose a name, and Automata Unit One became Ann. She also gave her the Japanese-sounding name “Nanahoshi Hajime.” That way, if Nanahoshi’s friend ever appeared in the future, they could learn what had happened to her. If Nanahoshi’s friend asked Ann’s name, she would give the Japanese name and explain her connection to the original Nanahoshi.

Her official name was Automata SS-01 Ann. Rudeus hadn’t made up his mind about whether or not to call Unit Two “Betty” or Unit Three “Chloe”—but that was beside the point. SS, the other part of the name, stood for Seven Star. This story was how the historic first model in the Seven Star Series was created. Over many long years, her number of younger brothers and sisters would gradually grow to a whole family. 

But, just to be clear, the rest of them didn’t have nipples.