“Mr Grant, happy birthday!” a white robot came towards us, looking like an overgrown wasp, but without the antennae. “I've been preparing a gift for you for a month, please listen...”

And the servant machine sang a children's song with sirens and clicks, stomping in time. The guy rolled his eyes, but stopped anyway, folded his arms over his chest and listened, lest he offend the robot. And insulting a robot in our sophisticated technological age was a dangerous and undesirable thing to do.

I used to call these artificial intelligence machines ‘robot-worshippers’. There was one such developer who added some features to certain models that were very difficult to remove later, but these robots were collected and cost as much as a couple of small kingdoms on the neighbouring continent.

If such a robot got the idea to ‘please’ its master, it would stop at nothing until it had fulfilled its purpose. Some of them could pursue a goal for years until, for example, they performed the dance of frozen chickens in front of a particular audience.

“I see you liked my gift,” we heard from behind us.

I turned sharply and almost bumped into Kai Asanor's elbow with my nose. Backed away, remembering the first and last time I'd seen him, when I'd had to wear his cloak all night.

“Did you tell him to compose this?” Grant asked with a smile.

“Who else would?” grinned Kai and walked over to hug Circul.

Little claws clattered across the floor, making the hairs on my arms stand up.

“Oh, hey, Barg,” Grant crouched down to catch and squeeze the pug, who was spitting drool in all directions as he ran towards him.

I almost knocked the young man off his feet by getting behind his back. The grey pug stepped away from the president's son's hands and looked at me with interest, and so much anticipation flashed in his eyes that I swallowed involuntarily, ready to grow wings and fly to the sky, just to get away from those fangs.

Barg went at me and I ran in a circle around Grant and Kai, chased by the dog and screaming.

“He'll just sniff you...” Asanor tried to reassure me.

“I'm afraid of dogs!” I shrieked and took a third lap around the amused couple, praying that the chain wouldn't get tangled at the wrong moment.

With a bark, smelling a new game, the pug pounced on my slippers.

“Not the heels!” squealed I and ran faster.

Grant was choking with laughter, the dog was barking, Kai remarked melancholically, “I'd look at this picture for ages.”

The white iron robot immediately suggested, “Sir, I can make a two-hour film for you, if you like.”

“No, you better catch Barg, or Siri will break Taehee's record for running laps around our pug,” Kai said the last word with such tenderness that I felt sick for the second time that morning.

The robot-worshipper laughed, “As you wish.”

And I was finally rescued from the slobbering jaws of the dog. The pug simply switched to the body of the mechanical servant, panting and licking the white plastic fingers that gently lifted him from the floor and carried him off into the distance.

Relieved, I lowered the water guns I had used to shoot the dog.

“Oh, my pistols... I lost them when I was about nine years old and couldn't find them,” Kai's eyes lit up with nostalgia.

I immediately pointed these pistols at Kai's styled hair and said threateningly, “Take me to the dining room. Hurry! I'm hungry.”

Grant burst out laughing next to me, but I wasn't amused, I actually realised why I'd been so angry all morning. I was starving.

“We can't start breakfast until everyone's here,” Asanor said with a smile, raising his hands in surrender.

“Why?”

“That's the rule in our family,” Kai almost sang.

“I'll starve,” I exhaled, hanging my head and walking back to Grant, the chain jangling pathetically on the floor following me.

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“What lovely feet... it's been a long time since I've seen such lovely bare feet walking around the house. Not since my first wife died...” someone suddenly said from behind.

I turned and met the cunning, dark gaze of an old man leaning on a stick.

Immediately president Circul himself appeared from behind his shoulder, “Father, I told you about Siri.”

“I remember, remember,” the old man looked at me once more with great curiosity.

“Children,” Rizor nodded to us and walked towards the dining room doors, which opened.

An old man followed the president, then Kai and a tall, blond secretary with white-lensed glasses. I wanted to run after them, but Grant held my hand, “Watch out for my grandfather.”

“What about him?”

“He's a funny one. If he likes someone, he'll ridicule them to death.”

I looked at Grant and he sounded so serious. He was staring at me with his black eyes, waiting for my answer.

“Trolling, I guess it's a family thing, huh?”

“Yes, it's in the blood of all the Circuls and Asanors,” Grant smiled.

All business, the president warned us, was to be discussed after breakfast. I looked sadly at the full plate of oatmeal, garnished with mint leaves and a square of butter, and grimaced inwardly. I'd never liked oatmeal. But hunger took its toll, and I had to make sandwiches with jam and chew the thick porridge.

For the first few minutes, while everyone was silent, I stole glances at those present.

The president sat regally at the head of the table, with grandfather and Kai to his right and Grant and me to his left. Grandpa-Asanor was a likeable figure, and if it hadn't been for my neighbour's warning, I'd never have thought he could have a bad temper. He crunched his nuts and poured melted chocolate over his porridge.

“Grant, how did you live in the residence?” asked the president suddenly.

I stopped eating immediately, looked down at my plate and froze, afraid to even breathe.

“It was all right, father. Almost nothing terrible has happened, apart from the attempted assassination,” the guy replied calmly, spreading jam on his toast.

“I heard you two were fighting and crying on the second day,” said Kai, looking at us ironically.

“No such thing.”

“Is that so?” grandfather reacted at once. “I have beautiful pictures of the two of you with tears in your eyes sitting in the library reading books on moral education.”

“Midi,” Grant exhaled irritably, but so quietly that only I could hear him.

Yeah, looks like the housekeeper leaked the photo compromise after all.

“We didn't have a fight, it's just that Siri accidentally poured detergent over us while we were doing the dishes...”

All eyes turned to me and I glared at Grant and kicked him under the table to shut him up.

“But to tell the truth, there was nothing left to wash. You'd broken all the plates before...” Circul Junior continued, looking at me with a wickedly gentle smile.

“If you grumbled less and helped more, there'd be more plates left alive. Besides, I wasn't the only one who broke things. Remember the kitchen cupboard door you tore off? Who fixed it for you?”

Now it was Grant's turn to step on my foot.

“And maybe if you kicked less when you slept, my arms and legs wouldn't hurt and nothing would fall out of them,” I hissed. I was angry because even oatmeal couldn't satisfy my hunger.

Grandfather looked at us with amusement, Kai laughed, enjoying the spectacle, and the president gazed thoughtfully ahead.

“You have no idea what a sourpuss he is,” I complained to the old man, finding a grateful listener in him.

Grant blushed, embarrassed or angry, but he pinched my leg just above the knee. I kept quiet, and the topic of conversation shifted from our peaceful life together to the upcoming presidential election.

As I understand it, the President believed that the attack on his son was due to the upcoming changes in the country. It was the end of his second term, so they wanted to force Rizor not to run for a third.

The constitution of our state allowed for an unlimited number of elections, so the presidency was not limited in terms of time, it was the will of the people to keep the president in power or to elect a new one.

Our last constitutional guarantor was the head of the country for twenty-seven years until he died. He was a good president, of course, he created and passed a lot of ridiculous laws, but he never closed Virtul, which was a big plus for him.

“If a civil war breaks out, you can't leave that position,” Grant looked at his father, I hadn't seen him so serious and thoughtful in a long time.

“How did you manage to make such a mess on the eve of the elections?” Grandpa Asanor hit the floor with his stick.

“I'm just like you, father,” Rizor replied laconically.

“Why did you have to close the game? You could have at least waited until the end of the year, when you wouldn't have to worry about ratings.”

The president raised a tired gaze to his father, turned it to his son and spoke with an undercurrent of sadness, “There was no time to delay.”

There was a moment of silence in the dining room, as if everyone was trying to work out what these words referred to.

Why was there no time to delay? I looked at my enemy and clenched my fists under the table. I didn't care about global problems and universal catastrophes, my world had been taken from me, and no argument or good reason could make me understand why it was necessary – why it was so necessary to kill the desire to live in me.

“Mister Rizor, you have a meeting in forty minutes,” the secretary reminded him.

“Well,” the president threw his napkin on the tablecloth and stood up. “Grant, go to the lab today. Let's see if we can get the bomb off.”

The guy nodded, said goodbye to his father, and went back to his scrambled eggs and onions.

“I think I'll go too. I should at least show up at the university once in a while, it's my last year,” Kai waved at us with a carefree smile. “Have a nice day.”

We were left alone with Grandfather in the dining room. I swallowed, uncomfortable under the eldest Asanor's eagle-eyed gaze, Grant finishing his breakfast as if nothing had happened, his world centred on his plate, and I shivered because Grandfather's unblinking gaze was intimidating.

“Dear, if you have a problem, all you have to do is give me a sign, and we'll solve it quickly...” Asanor winked at me and stood up heavily, shuffling towards the exit, muttering to himself as he walked, “She looks like her. She looks exactly like her. What's with all the coincidences?”

I gave grandfather a dazed look, then elbowed Grant. He turned to me and said with the most innocent expression, “Welcome to my family, Siri.”