by Yuu Miyazaki
The Allekant representative, appearing to shrink slightly as the others turned their gaze on him, looked around the table for a few moments before he haltingly began. “Uh— I would like to propose that we discuss…the usage of artificial intelligence in Asterisk, including the matter of rights.”
“Artificial intelligence?” The Le Wolfe president scowled suspiciously.
“Yes. That’s right. With the recent advances in meteoric engineering, there has been tremendous progress in the field. It won’t be long before we see AI that possesses something close to human sentience—that much is beyond doubt. However, it’s unlikely that any country will be able to address the subject with legislation in a timely manner. We need only to look to the history of our own kind, the Genestella, for an example. And that’s why I propose that, since we are relatively unfettered, we take in the AI as a sort of model for the rest of the world…”
“Are you talking about welcoming sentient machines as our fellow students at Asterisk? And granting them the same rights as humans?” the Gallardworth president asked in mild astonishment.
“Yes. And if possible, having them participate in the Festa…”
“Dumbass. That’s insane.” The Le Wolfe president coldly shot him down. “I don’t give a shit if you eggheads want to put machines in school uniforms. But if you’re saying they should fight in the Festa, that’s a different story.”
“I agree,” Claudia said. “This proposal seems awfully far-fetched. There are so many problems that come readily to mind. The age requirements for the Festa, for instance. If we apply the thirteen-to-twenty-two requirement literally, wouldn’t they be obsolete by the time they can participate?”
“And how will you determine if they possess sentience?” the Gallardworth asked. “I think you’ll have to begin with establishing standards for that. Well, I imagine that some sort of regulations will become necessary in the future.”
“So all of you lot are against the idea? How dreary.” Puffing her cheeks out in a sulk, the little girl crossed her arms and looked around the table.
“What, Jie Long is in favor of this crap?”
“But of course. It will make things more interesting, I should think.”
The dragon girl consistently acted solely on personal whims. Despite her duties as a representative, she prioritized her own will with hardly a second thought for the interests of the school. She even seemed to enjoy herself when things took a turn for the chaotic.
The reason a person like her could remain student council president, it was said, was her overwhelming prowess in combat.
Each school had its own method for selecting members of the student council. Seidoukan, for instance, held elections; at Le Wolfe, the top-ranked student had the right to name the student council president. And at Jie Long, the selection process was a simple tournament. The strongest of the self-nominated candidates become student council president.
All this meant was that in Jie Long, the largest school of the six, there was not a single student who could stop her.
In any case, Seidoukan, Gallardworth, and Le Wolfe voted nay. Even with Jie Long, there were only two votes in favor, including Allekant, who had proposed the idea.
“The transferal of authority papers from Queenvale indicate that they vote with the majority,” the Gallardworth president said. “So that makes four votes against. The proposal fails.”
“I see… Too bad.” The Allekant president’s shoulders fell, although this outcome had been perfectly obvious.
Allekant, of course, stood to gain the most from his own proposal. It never could have passed without prior discussion. And at any rate, the Rikka Garden Summit did not have the final say in the decision.
Above the gathered student council presidents, there was an administrative committee whose members were selected from the respective integrated enterprise foundations backing the six schools. Even if a measure passed here, it would be taken up by the administrative committee, where the will of the Rikka Garden Council was given some weight but was not absolute. This proposal would definitely have been rejected there.
But the Allekant president wasn’t done…
“Then it would be acceptable to you if such machines were used strictly as weapons only, whether or not they’re sentient?” he mumbled, still hanging his head, and the atmosphere around the table tensed.
“What exactly do you mean?” Claudia asked.
“Well, think about it. They won’t be granted rights as students, and they have to be treated as machines regardless of sentience. Isn’t that what you all just said? Even if they do look human, machines are machines—just tools. And in the Stella Carta, there are no terms restricting the usage of tools—that is, weapons.”
“So you wanna use automated Puppets as weapons?”
“Hmm. Indeed, there is no clause in the Stella Carta to forbid this.”
There had never been any reason to forbid it. A combat Puppet controlled by a person was one thing, but an automated one that could perform only simple tasks would be no match for a Genestella on the battle stage. You’d have a scrap heap in the blink of an eye.
But…what if a Puppet was programmed to have the same level of cognitive ability as a human being?
“I see. So this is what you really had in mind,” Claudia said, laughter in her eyes.
That first proposal was bound to be rejected. It had been the Allekant president’s plan all along to lead the conversation to this juncture.
This young man was no mere figurehead after all.
“Well… All right. I suppose we need to discuss this more seriously,” the Le Wolfe president said, sighing for the third time this meeting.
The Allekant president courteously bowed his head. “Thank you very much. Now I’ll be able to report back with some good news.”
The July sun stung his skin, unrelenting even in the late afternoon.
Sweating lightly, Ayato ran through the courtyard, trying to thread himself along the shadows of the trees.
“Oh man,” he panted. “I don’t think I’m going to make it.”
He could just see the brooding face of Julis, who was especially strict about punctuality.
There was a reason for his tardiness: their homeroom teacher, Kyouko, foisting class chores on him. He hoped that Julis would understand if he explained.
It had been two weeks since Ayato had agreed to become Julis’s tag team partner and officially registered for the Phoenix. They were immersing themselves in training every possible day. After all, he had never fought in a tag match before, and he still knew almost nothing about the rules of the Festa. He had a mountain of things to learn.
Julis seemed to have no experience with a tag match, either, so the two of them were figuring things out as they went. But they did not have the luxury of time. Only one month remained until the start of the Phoenix.
“At the very least, we have to learn to fight together at close range, or she could end up roasting me along with our opponents…”
He left the courtyard, and just as he was about to run across the corridor connecting the middle school and college buildings, Ayato suddenly felt someone else’s presence.
A girl emerged suddenly from behind a pillar. He slowed down in a panic, but it was too late.
The girl noticed him a moment after and looked at him in surprise. A collision seemed unavoidable.
Faced with no other option, Ayato tried rather forcefully to change direction. A maneuver beyond his capacity sent motes of light flying like sparks from metal, and a pain akin to an electric shock jolted through his body, but he still accomplished it.
His relief, however, was short-lived. Somehow, there in his new evasive trajectory was the girl’s face.
“Huh?”
“Eek—!”
This time, there really was no avoiding it. Ayato and the girl spectacularly slammed into each other.
Fortunately for both, Ayato had managed to slow down considerably and the impact wa
s not so severe. Still, he had just run into a girl with all his weight. He broke his fall and got up immediately to see to the girl now seated on the ground. “Hey, are you all right? You’re not hurt?”
“Oh yes… I’m…fine,” the girl replied in a tiny voice and looked up at Ayato with a bashful smile.
“I’m really sorry!” Ayato bowed deeply in apology and peered at her again. Seeing that she had no obvious injuries, he let out a sigh of relief with his hand to his chest.
In the same moment, he came to the grave realization that he was seeing too much and immediately averted his gaze.
The girl had one knee raised and her skirt had flown up completely. The clear sight of her underwear and its cute pattern burned into his eyes. His face spontaneously went red.
Noticing the problem with a gasp, the girl hurried to fix her skirt and hugged herself tightly, trying to curl into a ball. Her tearful, timid demeanor was reminiscent of a small animal. She seemed unaware that this had the effect of accentuating her generously sized breasts.
Again, Ayato had no idea where to look.
She was wearing a middle school uniform, so Ayato deduced that she was younger than him. Her large, round eyes and small, pointed nose made a charming combination. While her entire body emanated a shy quality, she was quite a beautiful girl.
She wore her silver hair tied up in two pigtails at the sides while the rest spilled down her back. Unusual hair colors—he thought of Saya—were not uncommon among Genestella. He guessed that the girl was one.
The shapeliness of her body was obvious through her uniform, and she wore a scabbard at her waist that appeared to house a real blade.
“Um…anyway, I’m sorry. I was in a hurry, but I should have been more careful.”
Ayato extended his hand to her, his gaze still averted. The girl stared at his hand indecisively for a few moments, then hesitantly took it.
Now on her feet, the girl brushed dirt from her uniform as if to hide her embarrassment and bowed curtly. “N-no, I’m sorry, too. I can’t seem to shake my habit of walking without making a sound. Even though my uncle always scolds me for it…”
Hearing that, Ayato drew a breath in sudden realization.
True, he was in a hurry, and he could have been more careful. But this was the first time he had failed to notice someone until they had come so close to him.
But it was more than that. They had collided precisely because they had both moved in the same direction in an attempt to dodge the other. But if she could move like that…
“Um, is something wrong?” The girl tilted her head inquisitively when Ayato suddenly grew quiet.
“Oh, um, it’s nothing… Wait a second. There’s something in your hair.”
A little dry stick, about the size of a pinkie finger, was tangled in her lovely silver locks.
“I do…? Wh-where?” Bewildered, she grabbed at her hair, but she couldn’t see the stick. She kept feeling for it in all the wrong spots.
The flustered girl was strangely adorable, and part of him wanted to watch her a little while longer—but he couldn’t.
“Here, hold still.” Smiling awkwardly, Ayato reached out and gently removed the piece of branch, careful not to pull her hair.
“Th-thank you.” Her face was so red that he thought it might begin steaming at any moment. She lowered her head, unable to say anything more.
Then she peeked up at Ayato and immediately looked back down at the ground as soon as their eyes met.
“Um, so…” As he stood there wondering what was next, a voice boomed from the direction of the middle school building.
“Kirin! What are you doing over there?!”
“Oh! I’m sorry, Uncle! I’ll be right there!” The girl tensed, then gave Ayato a rushed bow. “S-see you later…!”
“Uh, okay.” Ayato glanced over to see a man on the far side of middle age standing at the entrance of the middle school. The girl ran toward him.
While the man had a sturdy build, he did not seem to be Genestella, as Ayato could not sense any prana from him. The girl had called him “Uncle,” but it was not easy for unaffiliated people, even family members, to gain access to the campus. So he might have some connection to the school.
Ayato was absentmindedly pondering this—until he remembered what he was doing here and checked the time.
As he’d feared, it was now well past when he’d promised to meet her.
He felt a cold sweat run down his back. Just as he began to break into a dash, he received a call on the mobile device in his pocket.
With an ominous premonition—or rather, a near certainty—he opened an air-window to see the irritated face of who else but Julis-Alexia von Riessfeld glaring at him.
CHAPTER 2
THE OWL’S SECRET SCHEMES
“Burst into bloom—Livingston Daisy!”
As her imperious voice rang through the training room, swaths of flame burst into the air around Julis.
They swirled like tornadoes and coalesced into disks—more than ten of them. The projectiles were chakrams of searing heat, their fiery blades spinning.
“Go!”
Shedding sparks, the disks rushed at Ayato, who awaited the attack with his sword ready.
Almost too swiftly to see, the giant, single-edged sword with jet-black markings on its blade sliced the first wave of chakrams in half, and they dissipated like blown-out candle flames.
In the meantime, however, more had moved around to fly at him from the left and right. He had to marvel at their perfect coordination as he took a backward leap to dodge the whirling blades.
As if they had anticipated this maneuver, still more death disks fell upon him from above with tremendous speed. And there were three more rushing at him from the front, with another trio close behind. A layered attack with varied timing.
It was an outstanding feat just to control over a dozen objects moving in three dimensions. That Julis could manipulate them with such precision was a testament to her skill, not to mention an exceptional spatial awareness.
Ayato twisted to dodge the attacks from above, then turned and channeled his momentum to swing at the chakrams flying at him from the front. But instead of cutting through the projectiles, he struck with the side of his blade, sweeping them away.
They knocked into each other in midair, altering their trajectories. The chakrams grazed past him, slicing his training gear with a slight burning smell—but nothing more.
“Whew…” Ayato exhaled and readjusted his stance with his greatsword, the Ser Veresta.
“Unbelievable. You always pull off the most ridiculous stunts like it’s nothing at all.” Julis glared at him with mild exasperation. “Now, I’m highly interested in how you’ll avoid the next round.”
And as she spoke, a dozen more chakrams of fire swirled around her.
“I’m not sure I have any tricks left that will impress you, Julis.”
“No? Then what will you do?” She carefully spread out the chakrams on all three axes to prepare for her next attack. While she was actually arranging an intricate battle formation, there was a beauty to it that called to mind a flower garden.
“Well… How about something like this?” As soon as the words left his mouth, Ayato broke into a full sprint toward the young woman. Keeping his body low, he rushed fiercely into the garden of fire.
“What—?!” Caught off guard, her reaction was momentarily delayed. She hastily moved the formation, but it was obvious that she couldn’t catch up to his speed.
Ayato danced his way through the flames and was quickly closing his distance when he noticed it—the gleeful smile on her face.
“You fell for it! Blossom, Gloriosa!”
Suddenly, magic circles appeared at Ayato’s feet, and pillars of flame burst out to block his path. Five pillars surrounded him, as if he was captured in the clawed hand of an enormous monster. A fixed ability?!
Stregas and Dantes often had certain powers that could be activated only when speci
fic conditions were met. Such abilities, it was said, were often used as traps. Case in point: this.
“Heh. Finally, I win.”
He heard her triumphant voice from beyond the flames, but couldn’t see her face. The pillars turned inward toward Ayato, pointed like talons, and closed in to crush him in their grip.
Even then, Ayato calmly ordered his breathing in an instant.
“Amagiri Shinmei Style Middle Technique—Ten-Thorned Thistle!”
Changing his grip to hold the greatsword in his right hand, he twisted dramatically and made a rotating sweep. Then, after he had swung through with his right, he transferred the sword to his left and spun again with a backhand slash.
Two sets of streaks ran through the pillars surrounding him, and in the next instant, all five had been extinguished.
Paying no heed to the residual flames sizzling against his skin, Ayato swiftly closed the distance.
As Julis stood stunned, he thrust his sword at her chest—and in that same instant, a shrill alarm sounded in the training room.
“I thought I’d win today for sure,” Julis grumbled, arms crossed, cheeks puffed out in displeasure.
Sitting on the cool floor, Ayato looked up at her sheepishly.
This was Julis’s exclusive training room. The two of them had it to themselves. With a high ceiling, it was nearly as spacious as a gymnasium. Of course, not just anyone was granted a facility like this. It was one of the perks of being a Page One.
“I have to admit, losing so many times is putting some dents in my confidence.”
“But Julis, you are really strong.”
“Don’t try to flatter me. I couldn’t land a single blow on you today. As usual.” Still sulking, she turned her angry glare on Ayato.
“I’m not flattering you. Really, you almost had me.”
He had been perfectly lured to the exact spot of the trap—an inexcusable blunder. With any other weapon than the Ser Veresta, he really could have been in trouble.
And Julis was a remarkably fast learner. When they had started training together, she could hardly keep up with Ayato’s movements. Now she was deftly using her powers to constrain his maneuvers. She was no match for Ayato once he managed to get into close range. At this rate, however, it was clear that would become only more difficult.
