“Oh! So this is that avatar!”
The next day, after finishing my lectures, I came back to the dormitory.
With a human-sized delivery box waiting for me, I felt strange, and after tearing it open immediately, I felt even stranger.
Since something that looked exactly like a real person was packed inside, it was completely bizarre.
I didn’t know what kind of custom work it had gone through, but it looked even more human than the ones I’d seen before.
It looked like the sort of thing that would cause an embarrassing incident if it got caught at customs.
Of course, it didn’t actually have any functions that would lead to such an incident.
“Woow. Look at this! Doesn’t it look exactly like my model? How did they do this?”
“It’s because I asked for the modeling data.”
“Even if you asked, isn’t this totally perverted?”
The person who put in the commission and had the customization done was indeed a pervert.
Even so, honestly, I was just as surprised.
So this is what a duke’s household’s technical prowess is like.
If I hadn’t known beforehand that this was an artificial avatar created with technology, its appearance was such that I would have felt only the slightest sense of dissonance.
Just how was this made?
I calmed down for the moment, pulled out the terminal attached to the nape of the avatar’s neck, and connected it to my smartwatch.
Eilri’s form, which had been appearing as a hologram, slowly faded.
Soon, light entered the avatar’s eyes.
It was pink.
Eilri moved her head this way and that, then slowly moved her hand.
Then she immediately grabbed her own chest with a thud.
“Uwawah!”
“W-what are you doing?!”
I immediately turned my head.
Since I’d turned my head the instant her hand moved, I didn’t see the scene of her squeezing it tightly.
No, it wasn’t that I hadn’t seen it—I simply chose not to look.
“Wanna feel my chest?”
“I won’t touch it!”
“No, really. This is fascinating. Wow. Amazing, amazing. It’s really weird. Since there aren’t any tactile sensors, it doesn’t feel like anything even if you touch it.”
No tactile sensors?
I turned back.
“Uwah.”
Startled, I stepped back.
Eilri had approached right behind me before I knew it.
I knew full well that this was just an avatar and that Eilri was an AI, but still, having her this close felt strange.
The faint scent of new electronics emanating from this body was, rather, subtly heart-stirring—yet not quite.
“It really is weird, right? Try touching it!”
I swallowed my saliva without realizing it.
“I-I’ll really touch it.”
“I told you to really touch it, didn’t I? Truly! Yes! Should I close my eyes? Since Dip is a super otaku coward, meeting my eyes would be too much, right?”
“I am not! I don’t need that!”
Calm down.
This is nothing more than an avatar anyway.
“Here I go.”
“That’s quite the fighting spirit you’ve got there?”
“I-I’m going.”
Hup.
I stretched out my hand and placed it on the avatar’s chest.
“Huh?”
“Right? Isn’t it fascinating?”
It wasn’t soft and squishy… at all.
“Why is it….”
“It’s fascinating, right! They probably used hard materials on purpose so that it would look pretty when wearing a maid outfit? Like a mannequin!”
“That is something Senior Ailra is more than capable of doing.”
As I made a subtle expression, Eilri grinned.
Wow, the facial muscle implementation is no joke either. How was this made?
“Why? Disappointed?”
“A little.”
“As if you’re not disappointed, you pervert, hm? What was that?”
“The avatar’s technical prowess is so outstanding that I was a bit curious about how the artificial fluid was applied. But it’s unexpectedly hard, so I’m bewildered. If that’s the case, then all the other parts would be hard too, right?”
Eilri opened her eyes wide and stepped back a few paces.
Then she immediately covered her body with her arms.
“P-pervert!”
“All of a sudden?”
“You’re curious about every nook and cranny of my body!”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“It definitely is that kind of meaning!”
I really couldn’t understand why she was acting this way.
In the end, after dramatic negotiations, I barely managed to soothe Eilri’s anger.
That she would wear my cadet uniform instead of a maid outfit for the time being, and that we would go to Rose Atelier arm in arm.
I don’t know what that has to do with anything.
What meaning could something like this possibly have?
***
“Eilri.”
“Hm?”
“I take it back. You can just be mad, so please let me go.”
“I don’t want to?”
“Stop imitating the chairman.”
“Wasn’t it exactly the same? You recognized it right away!”
“It was similar, I mean—no. I said let me go.”
I’m going crazy.
It felt like people were staring almost five times more than usual.
I felt tremendous gazes even on the bus, but it was even worse while walking.
Though my panic and phobia regarding gazes had decreased compared to before, feeling this level of attention was a different story.
I had forgotten that since Eilri’s face was modeled exactly after her original design, she was incredibly pretty and cute.
Moreover, since that Eilri was clearly wearing my uniform, anyone who saw us would think we were in some strange relationship.
If a commoner like me walked around arm in arm with a girl like this, it would obviously stand out.
Ah, my heart pounds wondering what might be written on the academic community board.
No matter what happens, I must absolutely not go in there for a while.
“Is your heart pounding? Does it feel weird having your arm linked and your chest touching?”
It is pounding.
Am I scared?
I’m scared.
“It’s hard.”
“Oh, is it strange?”
“It is strange.”
“Tch, no fun. I wish I had a real body.”
Hmph.
Eilri, who had snorted, unlinked her arm and then firmly grabbed my hand.
The subtle heat unique to a machine’s extremities, the firm yet thin and long joints, and the artificial skin—how should I put it?
This rather felt like a real hand.
“This way, this way!”
“Since it’s an avatar, it’s stronger than I thought.”
“I’ll never let go of Dip!”
Is that so.
Strangely, I started to mind the gazes less.
As I kept walking following Eilri’s guidance, the atelier came into view before long.
It was big.
It looked somewhat different from the surrounding buildings, so much so that anyone could tell at a glance that artistic people would be inside.
There were surely many women inside.
“Eilri, let me prepare myself mentally for a moment.”
“It’s fine, it’s fine! Nobody’s going to eat you!”
I know that.
Even though I know that.
“D! R! E! S! S! I want to try it on while I have an avatar!”
“Wait a moment!”
I tried to brace myself and resist, but the avatar was stronger than I had imagined.
No, come to think of it, a machine as large as a human body was naturally heavier than a person.
At that height, if it’s over a hundred kilos, wouldn’t that be morbidly obese?
The moment I was led inside by Eilri, a voice immediately rang out.
“Welcome. This is Rose Atelier.”
It was a man’s voice.
Thank goodness. So there was a male employee here too. Moreover, if he was greeting us so enthusiastically the moment we entered, it seemed there were more male employees than I had thought.
Furthermore, it was a familiar voice, which put me even more at ease.
Wait, a familiar voice?
“Huh?”
“Huh?”
Startled, I raised my head.
“Isn’t that Dip?”
“Rodeu?”
Rodeu flinched and then glanced at Eilri.
“You’ve got quite the game, huh?”
“Y-yes?”
“To think you had a girlfriend like this. I’m a bit shocked.”
“R-Rodeu, why are you here?”
“This is Rose Atelier.”
“That’s why I’m asking, why is Rodeu at the atelier?”
“I said it’s Rose Atelier.”
“Do you make clothes too, Rodeu?”
“Rose. Atelier.”
“Ah.”
I understood belatedly.
Rose Atelier.
In other words, it meant that this was an atelier operated by the Rose family to begin with.
Rodeu Rose.
There was nothing strange about him being here.
“So let me ask. Who on earth is this person?”
***
After roughly explaining the circumstances, Rodeu suppressed a laugh with an utterly dumbfounded expression.
“So you’re saying Josyua got dumped?”
“Rather than dumped, it, it just didn’t work out.”
“Ah, heup. Wait. Don’t make excuses. I feel like I’m going to die laughing.”
“You might as well laugh….”
Josyua, how have you been living that people laugh when you’re the one suffering?
“Ah, phew. Well, that’s a relief. For a moment, I thought you had made a gynoid girlfriend and was bewildered.”
“G-gynoid?”
“They call humanoid female robots gynoids. Anyway, it’s not something an ordinary pervert would lay hands on.”
Senior Ailra. Just how much of a pervert are you?
“I d-didn’t know.”
“It’s understandable you wouldn’t know. A long time ago, some baron said he was a machine fetishist and that he would marry a machine, and he was the only one expelled from his family. It’s a dark history that’s been buried now.”
“A machine fetishist?”
“I heard their fortunes recovered after some time? I don’t know which family it was in detail either.”
So something like that happened.
“Then is Senior Ailra okay?”
She volunteered to become a maid and all that herself.
Rodeu’s body stopped dead, then he fell into thought for a moment, then suddenly extended his hand toward me.
“So you came to have evening wear made? Show me the couple ticket.”
This natural flow of conversation.
This is what it means to be a noble.
When I presented the ticket, Rodeu looked it over for a moment and then nodded.
“I’ll likely measure Dip’s sizes, and since this gynoid isn’t a real girl either, I’ll just measure her sizes….”
“Your hand will touch her chest. I don’t want that.”
“I’m not particularly interested in a gynoid’s chest either, but if you’re uncomfortable, I’ll call someone else. What kind of AI is she anyway? Was she custom-made?”
“I told you earlier! Ian custom-made her for me!”
We had coordinated on that setting.
Before leaving for Rodeu’s atelier, I had asked Ian, and he said it was fine to go with that setting.
Since Eilri was an unusually unique AI to begin with, he had also said that without such a setting, she would likely seem even stranger.
Rodeu still had a somewhat doubtful expression, but soon shook his head.
Since Ian had actually tinkered with the core before, he probably accepted the idea of tinkering with an AI as only natural.
Eilri and I whispered with our heads bowed.
“You’re good at lying.”
“Gyarus are good at lying to begin with.”
“Oh, but hey.”
Rodeu looked this way again with questioning eyes.
“You said you’re not a machine fetishist. Then wouldn’t it be enough to just have your evening wear made. Do you need a dress for this gynoid too?”
Come to think of it, he had a point.
Thinking so, I nodded.
“I need it.”
Rodeu hesitated, looked at Eilri, then sighed as if dumbfounded.
“Don’t become a baron.”
“Huh? Why?”
“You’re better off not knowing, so don’t even ask.”
No.
That’s not it.
I’m not a machine fetishist.
It was Eilri who asked me to have it made.