“Good Morning Miss Shea!” Shiro called out to Shea as she came down stairs to the shop with her coffee in hand. “Were the eggs to your liking?”

“They were absolutely delicious! I can’t believe you were able to make such tasty food from what I had in my kitchen.”

“All the ingredients were there, just waiting to be put together”, Shiro said with a smile in his voice.

“So, what are you guys working on today?” Shea asked Ram and Rom.

Ram and Rom looked up from their work at her and shrugged slightly before going back to work. Via Alfred, I answered for them, “Much of the same, I’m afraid Miss Shea. We are crafting the weapons and daily tools that Miss Jada suggested and showed us but sales have not been great.”

“Yeah, the location isn’t the best for a store. We’re a couple blocks away from the market district so we don’t get too many people coming this way.”

Elita, who had been sitting in the corner honing her blade, stood up. “Shea, we need to get going to the Guild if we’re going to get any of the good quests.”

“Ah, Miss Elita, If I may, would you be so kind as to accompany Shiro and myself to the Guild shop? We are in need of more small shadow crystals and mana infused plasma, if we are to work on Master Prime’s new product idea.”

“I know that you’re controlling Alfred, Prime... So why do you talk like you’re not?”

“Miss Elita, is it not more difficult for people to wrap their minds around the concept of one person with multiple bodies than it is to mentally think of each body as an individual themselves?” Alfred asked while fingering his metal moustache. “Especially when each of those bodies performs a different function and displays as an individual?”

“I find it very useful,” Shiro offered, “I know in the back of my mind that Mister Alfred is being controlled by Master Prime, but I still feel different about Mister Alfred. Like they aren’t quite the same person and I can speak with Mister Alfred as a colleague, while Master Prime is still... well, Master Prime.”

“I suppose there is some truth in that,” Elita conceded, “but it still creeps me out a bit.”

Rom finished inlaying the magic circuits and uploading the magic “firmware” that I had developed for the [Inventory] bag to a large metal plate. She then handed it over to Alfred and got to work on the next task. Alfred took the plate and set it neatly on the table to get a “second” look at it.

“What’s with the plate, Alfred?” Shea asked.

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Alfred looked over and took the coffee mug from Shea and set it onto the plate. “This, Miss Shea, is an [Inventory] Plate.”

“My mug!” she called out, reaching for the mug, but it didn’t go anywhere. “Oh, does it not work?”

Without looking, Rom grabbed the mug and handed it back to Shea. She then set a spare block of steel on the plate, touched the plate’s edge, and the embedded circuits lit up with magical energy as the block voxelated and vanished.

“You have to give it a bit of mana, you see. This way we don’t send things into the [Inventory] by mistake”, Alfred explained, giving a pointed look over at Shrapnel. “We still can’t retrieve anything from [Inventory] space, though, only Master Prime can do that for now.”

“I thought only Prime could make these sorts of devices,” Shea asked.

“Initially, that’s true”, Alfred replied, “but once Master Prime has developed a magical script and [commit]ed the changes to our mental code base, dear Rom can load that script into the magical circuits that she crafts. We proxies can’t actively develop any new scripts, just install ones that have already been made. ...and only Rom has been upgraded to have that ability.”

“I really don’t understand any of that,” Shiro admitted.

“Me neither, buddy,” Shea shrugged as she handed him her mug. “Anyone seen Sparky? I haven’t seen him all morning.”

“I wouldn’t worry too much,” Elita said, “he’s a wild beast, after all. Not a pet.”

“That’s what worries me,” Shea huffed.

“Okay, whoever's going, let’s go or I’m leaving without you,” Elita ordered.

Alfred knocked on the door to the adjacent room, “Miss Jada, we’re heading out to the market. Do you require anything?”

The door opened up and Ravage sat, just in the apartment, in cat form. Alfred looked down at Ravage, then at the height of the door knob and decided not to question it.

“Jada yis still sleeping,” the cat said, “Ravage will let her know. Leave the bug one so she can talk to meyew later if needed.” Ravage then transformed into maid mode and gently closed the door without waiting for a response.

“Very good Miss Ravage,” Alfred said to the closed door.

“Mrow,” he heard from within.

Shrapnel came online and flew off the shelf where he stayed, to land on the workbench facing Jada’s door. He then transformed into bot mode and sat on the edge, swinging his legs back and forth. Shea headed up the stairs to retrieve her Adventurer kit with Shiro following after her.

“I can do my own dishes, Shiro”, Alfred heard her say.

“Habits and duty dictates, I'm afraid, Miss Shea,” came the response.

“He’s settling in well, but I can’t help feel like there’s more that we should be doing for him. We can’t house every Automata that comes along. We’ll have to come up with something else,” I said, dropping the Alfred act for a moment.

“Where is there to go? You can’t help everyone, Prime,” Elita said looking over to Alfred.

“I know... but that doesn’t mean I stop trying. Oh. Ram found Sparky. He’s sleeping in the forge. Again.”

“Come on, ya rat!” Elita yelled in the direction of the forge. “If you don’t come with us, you don’t get any experience!”

Flame burst from the forge opening as Ram poked the squirrel. When it died down, the coals inside were red hot and Sparky came out shaking the soot off his fur. Elita held her arm out and Sparky bounded across the shop from forge to counter to workbench to Elita and sat expectantly on her shoulder. She pulled an acorn from her pouch and handed it to him.

Ram stoked the hot coals and shoved a length of steel into the center to bring up the temperature in preparation for crafting spear heads.

Shea came bounding down the stairs with Shiro following after her. “We’re ready!” she announced.

“Finally!” Elita said, exasperated, before heading out the door.

Alfred pulled the cart along and headed out after her with Shea and Shiro. After my first experience in the market on my own as “Prime”, we decided that it would be safer for Shiro and the proxies to be out if they were accompanied by an organic— or at least someone that could pass for an organic.