I looked up at the woman next to me, and struggled briefly with whether or not to tell Reya about everything that had transpired, but decided against it. It’s not like any change affected her, as she had been holed up in her conference room while everything was going down.
Instead, I rested my head against my knees once again and sighed. “Master, you had no control over what happened.”
I could almost hear the implied, ‘so stop being depressed about it,’ in X’s voice. Yeah, I know. I’m not depressed, just extremely disappointed. If things had gone differently… if I hadn’t placed any trust in other people, things would have gone differently.
I got up from the couch and walked past Reya, making a point not to look over at Lucina or Akahime. “Where are you headed?” Reya asked, and I turned back to look at her.
Something in my gaze made her flinch. I smiled and said, “My room. I need some time to myself.”
I left the area and heard Reya say, “Does he meditate? Why is this the first I’m hearing of this?”
“Because you’ve been holed up in a cave for the last two days.” Lucina remarked. “And you smell like it too, that’s probably why he left. Why don’t you go and freshen up a bit?”
“Lucina, you asshole!” Lucina and Akahime’s laughter stung my heart as I continued towards my room.
---
I don’t know why I was caught in such a foggy state. I brushed past a couple of servants, causing them to turn back and curse at me. I just need to take care of things from now on by myself.
I strode through the castle with purpose, and X’s form appeared in my AR vision. “Master, we have been over this before. In order to be a successful ruler, you will need confidants. People who can do things for you.”
I waited until I had gotten back to my room before giving an incredulous look to the program as I said, “Who can do more things than I can with you?”
X shook its head and said, “Sometimes it’s not about whether or not you can do different things, but whether or not it would be more efficient to leave it to them.
I thought about it for a moment. Correction: I thought about it rationally for a moment. I knew that my feelings towards Akahime were irrational, but i couldn’t quite figure out why.
Despite the lack of time we spent together, it had felt just as though we had known each other for months. X’s theory about time dilation affecting my sense of time passage made sense, but it didn’t seem…
Suddenly, a realization hit me. X, search for a virus in my system. Things progressed way too fast with Akahime to be normal. I shouldn’t be having these feelings.
“Master, I appreciate your overactive imagination, but there is no human in this world that can bypass Judgment’s defenses.”
If you’re so sure of that, scan my Judgment Panel and see for yourself. The apparition sighed and touched a pale, slender finger to the device on my forehead.
A finger which she immediately recoiled, grasping it as though it had been burned. “There’s… there’s a program in there. A foreign one, but why… it’s not-” I started chuckling, drawing an upset glare from the A.I.
So much for being an impenetrable fortress. You do realize that most of the technology that uses Judgment software to run their programs comes out of this empire, right? If you combine that with the amount of time that the system has been around for, it doesn’t surprise me that they’ve discovered a way to bypass your defenses.
X was staring at my panel, and put its finger on top of it once more. This time when X removed the digit, a black string of code had been pulled out from my panel, and was dangling in the air.
“I will send this to the mainframe to be analyzed and countered. It is as you said, you have been hacked.” A vindicated smile grew on my face, but a frown immediately followed.
Don’t send it there. If my theory is correct, and the other Judgments draw from the mainframe for information, then we eliminate a weapon we can use against them.
“So you would just like me to analyze it and keep it from the mainframe? What if someone-”
If the royal family wanted to try and hack the system, they would have done it already. The system is too profitable to live under. When you’re left to the mercy of a mechanical being, it carries far less inherent risk than that of a human overlord.
“You think so, Master?” I know so. Machines can’t get angry, not for real, anyway. And certainly not for the asinine shit that humans get mad for. What exactly did the virus do, anyway?
“It caused your brain to release endorphins upon seeing certain members of the imperial family, namely Akahime and her father, Goto.”
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That explains a lot. When had she had the chance to hack me? Was it the very moment we met, or somewhere down the timeline? Well, at least that’s settled. Now, on to our- A knocking at the door paused my train of thought, and I got up to answer.
I opened the door, and immediately frowned. “To what do I owe this pleasure, Imperial Princess Akahime?”
Akahime wore a sad smile on her face as she walked into my room. My eyebrow raised involuntarily. Does she still think I’m under her spell?
“I’m so sorry!” She shouted at the top of her lungs after waiting for the door to close. She bowed at a 90 degree angle, making a spectacular L-shape with her body.
“Wait, what are you talking about?” I asked as calmly as I could. I knew it was irrational of me to take out my anger on her in her current state.
The one who had wronged me was the previous incarnation… or at least, I hoped. There was always a chance that Akahime’s character was just fatally flawed from the beginning and no amount of second chances would fix her fucked up outlook on life.
She raised her face to look at me, tears starting to form in her eyes. “I am so sorry for the way my previous incarnation treated you, Joshua. She left me this.”
The girl sent me a file, and I rolled my eyes. Not this shit again. X, check it for any sign of that virus that you just removed from me.
“As you wish, Master.” I stood there, looking directly into Akahime’s eyes in silence as X did its job. “Scan complete. There was no virus.”
This would have been so much easier if there was one. With a sigh, I opened the file and watched a video of Akahime, standing in front of a camera, speaking candidly about her previous incarnation.
I was about to dismiss it as a waste of my time, but that’s when she finally got to the point about me. “Anyway, before I finish up the ninth incarnation’s fifth debriefing, I should tell you about a wonderful man we encountered yesterday.”
I mentally stopped the playback and my eyes moved over to look at Akahime, but the girl meekly averted my gaze. Turning my attention back to the paused video, I restarted it again. “Well… wonderful may be a bit of an overstatement.”
My brows raised at the girl in front of me. “He’s certainly full of baseless confidence, and I think at times he may be a borderline highly functioning psychopath, but he’s special. He genuinely doesn’t care that we are a princess, and isn’t vying for our power. It’s mostly because he has Lucy riding him, but that’s a different thing entirely.”
The hologram of Akahime laughed, and I just stood there indifferently. “Anyway,” the hologram finished her outburst, “the fact of the matter is that he’s special. Not just because of how he treats us, but because of what he’s capable of. He’s a special source of entertainment. Don’t let him go. If you fuck up, fix it. Ninth iteration, out.”
Judgment, are we being recorded right now? “By nine security cameras and Akahime’s own Judgment Panel, Master.”
Loop the feed of me watching the footage she gave me. “They will know you tampered with it.” X appeared behind Akahime, and placed an augmented hand on her head.
They can’t prove anything they can’t see. Akahime started speaking after noticing I was done with the video. “Once again, I’m-” I slapped her face, perhaps harder than I meant to, and she staggered backward. “...What?”
I looked down on her, and a tinge of regret for even thinking fondly of this person began to grow inside my heart. “Don’t play dumb. Did you think showing me that would make me forgive you? I found the program you used on me, by the way. Nifty little thing there, being able to hack Judgment.”
Akahime’s eyes widened as I spoke, and a small grin grew on her soft lips. “Huh, so I can’t play it off as my predecessors fault anymore? What gave the virus away?”
I sighed and shook my head, as my worst fears about the rotten princess had been confirmed. “Let me ask you a better question: did you really think that having someone fall in love with you in two days was a realistic thing?”
She huffed indignantly and put a hand on her leather clad hips. “No, I suppose not. Oh well. No harm, no foul. You got me back with the slap. Let’s let bygones be bygones and have a productive relationship for both kingdoms from now on. Ok?”
This time it was my turn to smile. “You wish, princess.” She took a step back, and I took one forward.
“Do you happen to know what the charges are for illegally hacking a person, and creating a virus without Judgment’s express permission? I’m sure you do. You’re a princess, after all.”
Her face visibly paled, and she sat in a dogeza in front of me. “Please, please reconsider. I have my whole life ahead of me! I know!”
She started to strip and a virtual collar appeared on her neck. “I’ll become your slave in exchange for this to be swept under the rug. I’ll even sign any contract Judgment creates for you!”
She desperately revealed her breasts, an image which I took no excitement in any longer. “How about it, Master?” She spoke in a seductive voice, glomming onto me.
I simply brushed her aside and stepped out into the hall. “I have no need for people that betray me. In fact, I’m more curious to see what your father thinks about this.”
Somehow, the imperial scion paled even farther. “Don’t! He had nothing to do with this!”
I smirked, letting the hatred creep into my voice. “I’m sure I could find some way to pin blame on him. His face was included to affect me, after all.”
“Why!?” Akahime had put her clothes back on, and walked brusquely after me. “How did I do anything worse than what that idiot Reya did to you when you first met!? You let her off with a contract, why not let me do the same!?” She grabbed my arm tightly, and I tensed.
I turned and grabbed her by the collar, pulling her in close. “Reya, for all her flaws and idiocy, is genuinely trying to make her nation better. She genuinely believes that what she is doing is right. You just use your responsibility as an excuse to do fuck all and then sweep your probelms under the rug of a mutual understanding.”
I released her with a push, and she fell to the floor. “Don’t try and touch me again.” I kicked open the door to the throne room, and a very startled Emperor Goto dropped a document he was reading.
“Ah, Joshua. To what do I owe this pleasure?” He had a genuine smile on his face, which threw me off. Did he genuinely have no idea about what his daughter did? I guess great rulers really did make for awful parents.
“The pleasure is all mine, Emperor.” I did a small bow, and looked up. I was confused to see Reya sitting next to Goto, but it didn’t deter me from my purpose.
Not even Akahime bursting through the door behind me could stop the words coming out of my mouth: “Emperor Goto, I’d like to make a deal with you.”