Mushoku Tensei Redundancy

That day, Elinalise was out shopping.
Hand in hand with her son Clive.
Elinalise had already birthed and raised many children but holding hands and going out with her own child was still fun.

Especially with Clive who looked so similar to his father.
His hair and his lips both resembled Cliff.
And although she had no basis, the way he thought himself the best was exactly like him too.
Remembering how Cliff had looked when they had first met, Elinalise began to drool... *Ahem* smile happily.

"Okaa-san, pumpkin! Buy the pumpkin! The pumpkin!"
"Hmm, you"re right. Pumpkin is quite delicious this season..."
"Not like that! If you eat pumpkin you know, you grow taller!"
"Who taught you that?"
"Lucy-chan!"

Elinalise"s son Clive was a pretty boy.
Especially his eyes and features were quite like Elinalise, there was no doubt that he"d be popular with both human and elf girls in the future.
But unfortunately he got his stature from his father and was quite short.
Clive had quite a complex about it and at home he would talk about how he wanted to get taller all the time.

"I wonder why you want to get taller so much?"
"It"s a secret!"

Clive"s face got a little red as he said that.
But Elinalise already knew the reason.
It was Lucy.
Clive was in love with Lucy who was two years his senior.
He wanted to get taller so that Lucy would think he was cool.

"Hmm?"

It was then that Elinalise"s long ears picked up a familiar voice.

(Oioi, Isn"t it common sense when you get something from someone to give something back huh?)
(I wanna know what kinda voice you"ll make for us girlie.)

The voice was coming from a back alley behind a bar.
Looking into it, you could see a girl being held by two men.
They were someone Elinalise recognised.
And for a change, this time it was the girl that she knew.

"By voice do you mean like this?"
"You"d think so right? But people can make a much better sound you know?"
"Come on, come to the inn with us and let"s have a listen? It"s cool right? Let"s go."

The woman didn"t seem like she was completely against it.
But as far as Elinalise knew, she wasn"t that fond of this kind of invitation.
What she wasn"t showing on her face is that she was troubled.

"Hey, cut it out."

Elinalise, shopping  bag still in hand called out to them.
The men immediately turned to look.

"Huh? What"s your problem?"
"That girl is a friend of Rudeus. Go find someone else to hit on."

The two men turned their l.u.s.tful eyes towards Elinalise.

"By someone else... Missie, how about you?"
"Eeh, to say that in front of my little brother? How dirty."
"Your brother? You flatter yourself."

Elinalise had an embarra.s.sed smile and a hand on her face.
From their joking att.i.tude she could already tell they were outsiders.
Most likely traveling adventures.
If they were from around here, there"s no way they would still be here after hearing Rudeus"s name.

"Who are you... Hmm?"

In front of her appeared Clive red in the face.
With a tree branch he had picked up in hand.

"Dont touch my mother!"
"Clive, I appreciate the thought, but you mother can handle people of this level no problem. Get back."
"Waaa..."

Elinalise lifted Clive up and placed him behind her back.
Elinalise reminded herself to praise Clive later and drew her sword.

"This level? Even though the two of us are A rank?"
"Hmm... Impressive at that age, you two must have some amount of talent."
"Haha, you sure are composed. You must have some confidence in your skills."
"No, unfortunately I"m simply mediocre."

The two men drew their swords.
They looked very familiar with them.
Elinalise carried her sword around for self defence, but unfortunately she didn"t have her s.h.i.+eld.
Considering the opponent"s strength, 2 vs 1 was not in her favour.

"Rest a.s.sured, after I teach you a lesson, I"ll show you a good time."

Elinalise returned her sword to its sheath.
The two had looked somewhat scared before, but now they were looking towards Elinalise with l.u.s.tful eyes.
After seeing the two seperate from the girl, Elinalise took a deep breath.

"KYAAAAA! HELP!! KIDNAPPERS!!! AAAHH!"

A scream echoed through the alley.
The loud noise startled the two.

"Wha!"
"W-we aren"t kidnappers...!"

But Elinalise"s voice continued ring out.
Once Elinalise could see that no one was coming from the empty path, the back alley fell silent.

"...Heh, trying to give us a fright. There"s no way anybody would be coming. We"re behind a bar in the middle of the day."
"I"ll let you scream as much as you like on the bed..."

But then.
Doors all around began to open one after the other.
And out came men.
Groups of wild men, all in jet black coats.
On their backs was a yellow crest that somewhat resembled a tiger.

They were the Rudo Mercenary corp.
As part of their work, they helped carry in the alcohol that the bars planned to sell that night.

"Elinalise Anego!"1

"Who the h.e.l.l do you b.a.s.t.a.r.ds think you"re laying your hands on!"
"You a.s.sholes pickin" a fight with the Rudo Mercenaries!?"
"You wanna go! We"ll take you!"

Those normally courteous young men who would protect the peace, when dealing with outlaws or those that hurt others, would become quite ill mannered.
And on top of that, there were more than 10 people heading towards them.
If it was Rudeus he would have apologised the second he saw them trying to intimidate him.
No, Rudeus would probably have apologised the second he saw the doors open.

"......W-We apologise!"
"We were ignorant of your greatness... We have only arrived today."

It took longer than two seconds for the men to throw away their swords and apologise.
Congratulations, Rudeus"s honour has been upheld.
Rudeus isn"t a coward or a chicken after all.
Yes, if a large number of wild men come out of a building, anyone would apologise.

"Anego, what should we do?"
"They haven"t done anything yet, so let"s let them off with a warning. Take them somewhere nearby and teach them a lesson."
"Yes ma"am! Alright then, you lot, come over here!"
"No, but we... um..."
"I said get over here!"
"Umm, I have somewhere I have to be..."
"You can afford to miss it!"

After confirming that the adventurers had been dragged into the bar, Elinalise walked up to the girl.

"Nanahos.h.i.+, it"s been a while... Was it already the day you were supposed to wake?"

The girl was Nanahos.h.i.+.
The expressionless girl nodded.

"I awoke last night."
"Is that so... Well talking here would be dull. Let"s hurry on."

Elinalise said that and took Nanahos.h.i.+"s hand.
It was then she felt something was off.

"Oh, Nanahos.h.i.+, when did you cut your hair?"

As far as Elinalise could remember, Nanahos.h.i.+ had long hair.
But now it was cut to around the nape of her neck.
Elinalise was puzzled.

The girl called Nanahos.h.i.+ pursed her lips and smiled.
It was a somewhat distorted smile.
It was a troubled smile, as if hiding something hard to say, or perhaps plotting something...
Seeing that, Elinalise, with her wealth of experience, guessed something.

"There seems to be some reason... If you"re fine with me, I wouldn"t mind listening. Are you free?"
"I currently have no important tasks.”
"Well then, how about we head to that cafe?"

Elinalise took the hand of a slightly sullen Clive and picked up her shopping.

"Clive? Oh, what are you so annoyed about? What? Are you sad you couldn"t protect your mother? Go tell that to the girl you like, not your mother... Nanahos.h.i.+, what do you want to do? Are you coming along?"

And as told, Nanahos.h.i.+ followed her to the Cafe.

"In any case, that was rather dangerous. I"m glad it was behind that bar so that help could come quickly."

A few minutes ago, the two had entered the cafe.
They had ordered the same fruit juice.
Nanahos.h.i.+ had imitated Elinalise"s order.
Incidentally, in front of Clive was a somewhat fancy dessert.
Lately sugar had been appearing rather cheap on the market so people had been using it to make preserved fruits.

It seemed to be Nanahos.h.i.+"s first time in the cafe as she was looking rather curiously.

"So, what happened?"
"There have been numerous occurrences, it is difficult to choose a single one. Please refine the question."
"...Did you always talk like that?"

Elinalise was puzzled, but she knew that going through hard times could often change the way people speak.
If a person changes so does their outlook.

"Then please tell me everything from the beginning."
"From the beginning?"
"Yes, from the very start."

Nanahos.h.i.+ blinked twice and began talking.

"I awoke on the dais. When I awoke Zan.o.ba-sama and Rudeus-sama came up to me."
"Oh, intruding on a lady"s room, what am I to do with those two."
"The two of them, seeing me without clothes, looked exceedingly happy."
"Huh...?"
"After that the two of them touched my limbs and exposed chest, proceeding to check every corner of my body. After that they began to argue whether or not they would use me. After they were satisfied with me, they came to the conclusion to dispose of me and proceeded to put me to sleep on the dais and then proceeded to sleep themselves."

Elinalise"s thoughts stopped for a moment.
The image she had in her head was of Rudeus and Zan.o.ba stripping a sleeping Nanahos.h.i.+ with vulgar looks on their faces, waking her up and forcing themselves onto her.
Having seen those kinds of men plenty of times, Elinalise could imagine it quite easily.

"A-and you didn"t resist?"
"Resistance was meaningless."
"True, they are Rudeus and Zan.o.ba... Was Pergius-sama not present?"
"It was only the two of them."

Elinalise didn"t know much about Pergius"s personality.
But she did know that Pergius wasn’t in his castle all the time.

"W-was this the first time?"
"Yes. But Rudeus-sama and Zan.o.ba-sama had planned this for some time, it seemed like they had preparations in place"
"Are you saying it"s possible they have been aiming for you since way back?"

For them it would be simple to know when Pergius would be out.
And be extension, when such a day would line up with when Nanahos.h.i.+ would awake.

"..."

Elinalise was a calm woman.
She was a woman who, due to her vast experiences, had the composure to remain calm in a situation such as this.
But to her, being betrayed by those she trusted was quite shaking.

But how could Rudeus...
Putting aside the unpopular Zan.o.ba,
Rudeus was surrounded by his children and wives who both loved him and he loved back.
The man who put his life on the line and fought Orsted for the sake of his family.
Rudeus who does all kinds of things with Sylphy and Roxy at night.
Rudeus who had Eris do all kinds of things to him at night.
How could he... To Nanahos.h.i.+...
She who was frantically searching for a way to return to her homeland.

There was a part of her that thought that it was impossible.
That it was some kind of mistake.
Rudeus had been sincerely helping her.
Much to Sylphy"s jealousy he continued to help Nanahos.h.i.+.
He went to the Magic Continent and fought the Demon Lord Atofe to save her.

But just looking at Nanahos.h.i.+"s expression.
Removing the uneasy smile from before, she was constantly completely expressionless, like a doll.
She neither smiled nor cried
Even her hair was now short. Only barely up to her shoulders.
The hair that she had looked after so carefully.
It was now somewhat dried.

Elinalise wasn"t especially close to Nanahos.h.i.+.
But she had still known her for quite some time.
And over that time she had gotten to know what kind of expressions she made.
She had never seen Nanahos.h.i.+ so shocked before.
 Nanahos.h.i.+ couldn"t possibly be making it up.

She couldn"t tell what was the truth.
It could be a trap by someone to try and take down Rudeus or Zan.o.ba.
Right.
There were all kinds of magic tools to change one"s appearance.
That said, to use it, one would have to infiltrate deep into the Sky Castle. It would be impossible to imitate Nanahos.h.i.+.
The only people capable of that would be those who knew Perguis"s schedule to some extent and could determine when the Sky Castle would be mostly empty.
There weren"t many people who fit that.

She was confused.
She was fl.u.s.tered to an extent that she had never felt in these last few years.
What should she do. What was the truth.
She knew only one thing.

"It must have been hard."

Elinalise stood up and moved next to Nanahos.h.i.+ and embraced her tightly.
What she knew was that the the girl in front of her carried a scar on her heart.

"Elinalise-sama, the conversation isn"t..."
"It"s fine, I"ve heard enough.
You had to talk about something difficult.
I don"t quite believe it but... Mmm.
Betraying someone"s trust is unforgivable. I will properly punish Rudeus."

Therefore Elinalise put off finding the truth for now and decided to comfort Nanahos.h.i.+.

"Has Rudeus committed some kind of crime?"
"Yes, a terribly hateful crime."
"What would that be."
"He hurt you. No, not just you. Depending on how they feel, he could have also hurt his wives... Sylphy, Roxy, and Eris."
"I am uninjured."
"No, they have hurt your heart."
"Heart..."

Elinalise suddenly felt something odd while holding Nanahos.h.i.+.
She somehow knew something was off around her heart.
Elinalise often held people in her arms so she could tell.
She had never felt someone chest that felt like this.
There was no tangible sense of discomfort, but there was almost something inhuman about it.


"Found it!"


A loud voice rang out in the previously quiet cafe.
Looking at the entrance, you could see a man in a grey coloured robe pointing towards Elinalise"s group.
It was Rudeus.
Following behind him was Zan.o.ba.
It wasn"t just the two of them, they were also with some of the Rudo Mercenaries.

"Catch it!"

Hearing Rudeus"s shout, Elinalise strengthened her hold on the girl and right before she was about to shout back at him to wait a minute...
The person within her arms moved.

The girl shook off Elinalise"s arms with strength she didn"t think possible, and with unbelievable speed she flipped the table and jumped towards an open window.

Nanahos.h.i.+"s figure had disappeared.
With tremendous speed.
Speed on the level of a Saint Cla.s.s Swordsman.
n.o.body present could follow.

The Rudo Mercenaries were also taken aback.

"Boss, Zan.o.ba-sama... It"s too fast. We can"t keep up with that."
"It"s true. That"s the automaton that s.h.i.+shou created. The average swordsman can"t compare to it in speed or power."
"Don"t go praising it now… For the time being, it doesn"t seem like it"s capable of acting in secret yet, let"s spread out and search. As long as we know where it is, Zan.o.ba and I will do something about it."

Rudeus issued instructions with tired look and walked up to Elinalise.
He stroked the head of the bewildered Clive who was still clutching his fork and confirmed that he was unharmed.
He walked towards Elinalise and extended a hand.

"I"m sorry about that Elinalise. Are you alright? Did it do anything to you?"
"...No, I"m fine."

Elinalise gripped his hand and stood up.

"So just what happened?"
"Well there isn’t much to tell..."

After witnessing what just happened, Elinalise felt relieved.

She was misunderstanding something after all.

 

Eris"s job in the house was taking Leo and the children on walks.
Of course, she would also teach the children swordsmans.h.i.+p, she also had a cla.s.s at the school.
But when it came to『Household Jobs』Eris only had walks.

As long as there was nothing pressing, they would head out early afternoon.
Of course, taking everyone out would be dangerous so she at most took 2~3 people.
When Leo would go out for a walk, Lara would get on his back as if it was natural so she would really only be taking one or two people.

Today, Lara and Sieg were riding on Leo"s back and the still young Lilly was on Eris"s shoulders.
And so, walking around the town and letting the children play somewhere suitable was Eris"s daily routine.

Just a little while ago it was only Lucy, Lara, Ars, and sometimes Clive.
Back then Lara would often have her hair pulled by the boys of the neighbourhood until Lucy would stop them.
But lately because of Eris"s training, Lara has been able to fight back.
When Eris had turned away for a second Lara was standing with a cut on her face and a bleeding nose.
Nearby were the boys she had fought with crouching down and crying.
Lara and Eris"s eyes met and still expressionless she thrust out her fingers in a V declaring her triumph.

When Eris saw that she was somewhat troubled.
When she was younger she often got into fights was scolded for it.
A n.o.bleman’s daughter shouldn’t be getting into fights, if someone says something to you, you return it with words, or so they’d say to her.
She wondered if she should scold Lara.

But she ended up praising her.

Lara didn"t speak very much.
That shy girl standing up for herself was something to be proud of.
"Good job", "As expected of my daughter", was the kind of thing she said.

Of course, if Sieg or one the others had made someone obviously weaker than them cry, she would get mad.
She"d spank them until their behind was red.
But those boys were older and bigger than Lara.
And so Eris thought to herself that complementing her was right after all.
Thinking that Lara would be going to school next year, giving her nothing but praise might not be so good, but Eris didn"t think that far ahead.

That said, today they weren"t at the usual park, they were heading somewhere different.
There probably wouldn"t be any fighting.
There wasn"t any meaning to it, just a whim.

"Don’t go too far from the bank!"

Today they had come to the river to play.
Lara and Sieg had taken off their clothes and jumped in with Leo.

Eris was watching Lilly.
Lately she had begun to toddle around.
Maybe because the river excited her, she walked up to it nervously and put her hand in and shrieked at the cold and ran into Eris"s arms; she had already repeated it a number of times.

"Kyaa! Mama! Mama!"
"What is it? Is the water scary?"
"Cold!"

Hearing her half-baked answer, Eris let a smile slip and pet Lilly"s head.
Lilly and Lara looked quite alike but Lara was somewhat more docile.
But Lilly was much more investigative than Lara. Whenever she found something, she would be exceedingly curious.
Just then, it looked like Lilly found something.

"Mama! Sparkles!"
"...Sparkles?"
"It"s sparkling!"

Looking where she was pointing, beyond the s.h.i.+ning surface of the river, something else was sparkling. 
A fish.
A small fish about the size of a finger was swimming around.

"It"s a fish."2
"Annoying!"
"Not annoying. A fish. Try saying it. Fi-sh."
"FIs.h.!.+ Mama, come on, catch it! Catch the fis.h.!.+"
"Yes yes... Let me see it."

Eris rolled up her sleeves and looked in the river.
After a few seconds there was a splash.
And suddenly the fish was in Eris"s hand.
The fish had no idea what happened and simply moved it"s mouth bewildered.

"Here."
"Yay! Yay!"

Eris gave the fish to Lilly.
The fish then seems to realise the danger it was in and suddenly began to flop around.
It jumped off Lilly"s hand and fell back in the river.

"It got away..."
"Huhu, it thinks it can... Hm?"

But in the middle of their exchange Eris sensed a presence.

"...Something"s coming."

Something was heading towards them from the city.
Quite fast.
It would have to be Rudeus wearing the magic armour『MK.2 revised』or something of the same level.

"Leo. Go get the two of them! Have them put their clothes on too."

Hearing Eris"s shout, Leo barked and began to push Lara back up the bank.
Lara was unaffected.
She probably already knew what was going on from talking to Leo.
Sieg grumbled that he still wanted to play but Lara grabbed his hand and they climbed out of the river and began to dry themselves.

"Lara, help Sieg put his clothes on!"

Sieg had only recently been able to put on his own clothes.
Doing up a single b.u.t.ton was quite slow and without help, he"d take quite a while.

Eris was somewhat impatient.
She didn"t feel any hostility from whatever was approaching but it was a bit too fast to grab the children and run.

Even if it was an enemy, she could probably win, but it would be better to have the children run.
The three children would run on Leo"s back and she would confront the enemy.
Orsted"s office was also close by.
The place where both The North G.o.d Kalman III and The Dragon G.o.d Orsted were staying.
There was no doubt that they would be safe there but...

"...Huh, what?"

But seeing what was approaching, Eris let out a confused sound.
Because it was a face she knew.

A girl with black hair.
Nanahos.h.i.+.

"If it isn"t Nanahos.h.i.+."

Nanahos.h.i.+ was about to keep running right through but hearing her name, she suddenly stopped.

"Good morning. I apologise but may I inquire as to what your name is?"
"It"s Eris. What, did you forget?"
"Eris-sama. I have committed it to memory."

Eris felt something was off.
Her hair was short, she was extremely fast, and her speech was different.
But Eris hadn"t known Nanahos.h.i.+ a particularly long time, she probably just thought that this kind of thing happens sometimes.
Well, Eris never was someone to worry about the small things.

"What"s up, you"re running real fast, are you chasing someone."
"Yes... No, correction. I am running away."

Nanahos.h.i.+ looked behind her and answered as such.
Behind her was an empty plain.

"Mama! Mama! Amazing!"

Seeing Nanahos.h.i.+"s speed, Lilly walked up to her.
She was poking Nanahos.h.i.+"s leg with a sparkle in her eye.

"Kyaa!"

Nanahos.h.i.+ lifted her up from under her arms and Lilly let out a happy cry and laughed.

"Good morning."
"Haha!"

Lilly was grabbing Nanahos.h.i.+"s hair and rubbing her face.
Eris didn"t know why Lilly and Nanahos.h.i.+ were so close but thinking that Lilly was being somewhat rude, she took Lilly from Nanahos.h.i.+ and put her on her shoulders.

"Yaa~. Mama, can I have it?"
"No. That"s rude."

Lilly sounded disappointed but Eris didn"t put her down.
Seeing that, Nanahos.h.i.+ grabbed a bunch of her hair.

"Do you want this?"
"...Yeah."

Seeing Lilly"s restrained nod, Nanahos.h.i.+ tore off a few strands and handed them to Lilly.

"Here."
"Yaay!"

Lilly took it and her face lit up again.
Eris didn"t know why Lilly was so happy... But for now she reasoned that black hair was quite uncommon.

"Eris-sama, may I ask a question?"

Nanahos.h.i.+ then looked at Eris and asked that.

"What is it?"
"Eris-sama is Rudeus-sama"s wife ‘Eris-sama’ correct?"
"That’s right."

Being called his wife, Eris puffed up her chest in pride and answered.
Hearing it from someone else, she was definitely proud.
Having given birth to the eldest son, and looking after the children like she was, she was most definitely confidant that she was his wife.

"Eris-sama, would you knowing of my existance cause you to be angry at Rudeus-sama?"
"Existence...? I wouldn"t get mad just from you being around."

Although she didn"t know the reasoning behind the question, Eris still answered.
Nanahos.h.i.+ was Rudeus"s friend. She wouldn"t get mad from them talking.
If he laid his hands on her, or asked to make her his fourth wife, she"d probably be a little mad though...

"Then what about Sylphy-sama or Roxy-sama?"
"I don"t think they"d get that mad... Oh but maybe..."

Eris remembered something Sylphy once said.

"Sylphy once said that she just couldn"t agree to Nanahos.h.i.+ being around."
"Agree you say? What kind of agreement would that be?"
"I don"t know. But that girl truly does love Rudeus so it probably has something to do with her feelings."

Eris had no hesitation in saying that she loved Rudeus but even she had to concede to Sylphy"s dedication.
Sylphy would end her own life if it was for Rudeus"s sake.
Of course, Eris was also prepared to die fighting to protect Rudeus.
But that was something she wanted to do.
With the things that she absolutely didn"t want to do, she probably wouldn"t be able to hold out.
Even if it was for Rudeus.
But Sylphy would. She would hold out for Rudeus.
Eris had to yield to that part of Slyphy.

"Understood. I would like to talk to Sylphy-sama. Do you know where she might be?"
"She should be at home today."
"Very well. I thank you for answering my questions."

Nanahos.h.i.+"s mouth warped into a smile as she bowed and she turned around and began walking towards the town.

"I wonder what all that was about."

Eris folded her arms, put her feet shoulder width apart and let out a "hmp" from her nose.
It was the pose that Ars had often been imitating.

"...Mama."

Eris turned around and saw blue and green hair peeking out of Leo"s back.
It was Lara and Sieg.
Thinking back, even though someone they knew came along, the two hadn"t said h.e.l.lo.
That was something rare.
Normally Leo would take the initiative to walk up to people and they would greet them, but this time Leo had remained in the back the whole time.

But right when Eris though that, Lara answered her question.

"...That person wasn"t Nanahos.h.i.+."

Hearing that, Eris remembered her unease and her face stiffened.
On her shoulders, the hair that came from Nanahos.h.i.+ that Lilly was holding suddenly stiffened and straightened out.

"......"

She didn"t know the cause of her unease but she knew she should hurry home.
But then she remembered the children and changed her thoughts.

"We"re heading to the office now. You two get on Leo."

For now, she"d take the children somewhere safe and then head home.
She helped the kids onto Leo"s back and began towards the office.

When Eris arrived at the office the atmosphere was quite heavy.
She also recognised the large number of Rudo Mercenaries gathering outside.
And it wasn’t just them, Zan.o.ba and Julie, Elinalise and Clive, and the North G.o.d Kalman III Alexander were all there too.

But the normal unpleasant aura was gone.
It seemed that Orsted was out.

“Eris! Why are you here!?”

And then, Rudeus walked out from the group.
Eris was relieved upon seeing him.
And at the same time, confirmed that her unease from before wasn’t imagined.

“I ran into someone strange on our walk.”

Hearing Eris’s answer, a danger could be seen in Rudeus’s eyes.

“What kind of person?”
“They looked like Nanahos.h.i.+.”

Rudeus immediately looked like he wanted to ask something.
Like were they were or what happened.
But more so, was concern for the person in front of him.

“I see… So, did they do anything to you? n.o.body was injured right?”
“The children are fine.”

Rudeus looked worriedly at the kids.
Lara, Sieg, and Lilly, playing with her hair.

“What about you? You’re not hurt or anything?”

After confirming that the children were unhurt, Rudeus began to confirm that Eris didn’t have any wounds.
Searching her from head to toe, touching her face, turning her around by the shoulders, and right about the time Rudeus’s hands reached her b.r.e.a.s.t.s a fist landed in his chin.

“I’m fine! Can you not understand that much by looking!”
“Hyii…”
“She didn’t do anything to us, but since Leo realised that she was a fake, we decided to retreat to here.”

Eris said that and looked at Leo.
And for some reason Lara looked especially proud.
Eris pat her on the head and turned back to look at Rudeus.

“So, just what was that?”
“Umm…”

Rudeus began a detailed explanation.
That the Automaton that he and Zan.o.ba made ran away.
And how by the footprints around the teleport magic formations they had concluded that it was in the Magic City Sharia.
After that the two had followed it through the formation, woke up Julie who was lazing around in the workshop and enlisted the help of the Rudo Mercenary corp to search.
Using the incident with Elinalise as a starting point they had found it once but lost it again.
They had received reports of sightings over town and so after using his clairvoyance eye from the city walls, they confirmed that it was heading towards the office.
Concluding that its goal was the office they went ahead.
And while observing the direction the doll was coming from with the clairvoyance eye, Eris had arrived.

“She didn’t seem all that bad though.”
“For now yes. But if we don’t find it quickly, we don’t know what will happen…”

Rudeus’s tone was resolute.

Rudeus believed that the doll had a flaw.
In the Automaton’s core were certain Directives.
Ensure Human Safety, Obey Commands, Self-Preservation.
In other words, the three laws of robotics.

But the doll had disobeyed orders and ran.
Which meant that there was, at the least, a flaw with the『Obey Commands』Directive.
For now, its interactions with Eris and Elinalise only ended with a conversation.
There hadn’t yet been any casualties but thinking that it was because of the『Ensure Human Safety』Directive would be wishful thinking.
If the『Ensure Human Safety』Directive wasn’t in effect, there was no telling if it would suddenly start a ma.s.sacre.

“Eris, could you tell me in detail what you talked about with it?”
“In detail? It was mostly just small talk… If I remember right—“

Eris tried to remember the conversation she had with the doll.
But the more she talked the stiffer his face got.

His and Zan.o.ba’s conversation, Elinalise’s conversation and Eris’s conversation.
Putting those together, he came up with a hypothesis of the doll’s actions.

When talking with Elinalise, it had constantly asked questions about his wives.

Last night, Rudeus had said that they would dispose of it because it would make his wives mad.
The doll had heard that.

The『Obey Commands』Directive didn’t seem to be functioning
But if the『Self-Preservation』Directive was in place it wouldn’t be abnormal for it to take defensive manoeuvres.

But what would count as self-preservation?
In other words, to dispose whatever was threatening its existence.
What was threatening it?
That would be Rudeus’s wives.

It didn’t attack the sleeping Zan.o.ba and Rudeus most likely because they were registered as Masters.
It may be contradictory but with a bug in it, contradictory actions wouldn’t be odd.

Therefore the doll began to look into who his wives were.
And thought that it should erase them.

That said, all it did was talk to Eris, who should have been a target.
Which would disprove the theory.
No, maybe not.
Looking at the contents of its conversation with Eris, it seemed to be investigating which of his wives needed to be eliminated.
In other words, which one was the biggest threat to its existence.
It probably planned to eliminate the biggest obstacle.
And its conversation with Eris made the biggest obstacle perfectly clear.

“And after hearing where Sylphy was it headed back towards the city.”

Hearing that, his face went completely white.

“Sylphy’s in danger!”

Rudeus began running towards the house, but immediately turned around and headed back to the office.
Once he was back in the office, he took a deep breath.
Once he had calmed down and caught his breath, he look at the surroundings.
The Rudo mercenaries, Zan.o.ba, Julie, Alek, Elinalise and Clive, and his own children.
Rudeus first turned to the bored looking Alek and lowered his head.

“Alek, I’ll be leaving the children and Julie here. Can I leave them to you?”
“Yes, of course.”

First, ensure the safety of the children.
If Orsted was here, he would have had Alek do something else but it couldn’t be helped since he was out.
For the time being, since Alek was protecting them, they would be fine.
Julie was against being left behind, and since the doll walked past her while she was sleeping it would probably be fine, but it was decided that she would stay back on standby.

“Eris and Elinalise, I’d like you to head towards to school.
There’s a chance that it might go for Roxy.
There’s already a group of the Rudo Mercenaries stationed at the school so meet up with them.”
“Got it.”
“Understood.”

There was already a search group at the school lead by Rinia.
The doll said it was heading towards Sylphy but they still didn’t know what it was going to do.
It was better to have backup on the chance something did happen.

“Half of the mercenaries are to head to Aisha and give a detailed report.
Let her know that on the chance that things go south to request a.s.sistance from Pergius-sama.”
“Yessir!”

If they could borrow Pergius’s power, they could probably capture the doll in an instant.
Rudeus didn"t think it would get this serious, so not only had he yet to contact his house, he regretted the fact that he had delayed telling everyone else.
Although it wasn’t certain they would need to rely on him yet.

“The other half of the mercenaries are to head back to Zan.o.ba’s workshop.
“Understood.”

The doll had been moving all around but it’s possible that it was all a diversion and it’s real goal was to escape from Rudeus.
It could head back to the Asura Empire the way it came and simply run away.
There was a part of him that thought it would be fine to let the dangerous existence leave them… but it was something he had created himself. He had to take responsibility and deal with it until the end.

“Zan.o.ba, you’ll come with me to the house and ensure Sylphy’s safety.”
“Roger that.”
“Alright, everyone, begin operation!”

On Rudeus’s command, everyone scattered.

The people left in the office were the children, Leo, Julie, and Alek.

“Now then, until your father returns, you can play with onii-san over here.”

Almost the instant their parents disappeared,
The smiling Alek began to talk to worried looking children.

1. Elder Sister/Boss Lady
2. "It"s a fish"=Sakanada | "Annoying"=Sakanade. It"s a pun. They sound similar.