The 15-meter giant robot immediately captured the attention of the children.
Its design was, after all, that of a famous anime protagonist’s robot.
“W, woooah—!”
“It’s an awesome robot! Super cool!”
“I, I want to touch it too!”
The kids rushed to the window, and the more active ones bolted out of the classroom straight to the playground. The fact that it was during class, and even more, during a parents’ observational session, didn’t really matter.
As all the students buzzed with excitement, even the parents were so bewildered that they couldn’t process the situation properly.
Eventually, under the giant robot, a crowd of children gathered, and a bit late to their senses, the parents started snapping pictures of the robot with their phones.
“Dad, Dad— can you buy me that one too?”
“…Sorry, son.”
“Why—! That guy is just an ordinary office worker, and he has something like that! You’re a big shot, so you can buy it!”
Hearing the child’s whine, several parents made awkward faces. They glanced at Eight, who, judging by just his face, was definitely not ordinary, but how on earth were they supposed to explain to a little kid that this man calling himself an ordinary office worker was lying?
In the end, all they could do was show their incompetence and disappoint the kids.
Meanwhile, Eight, oblivious to the feelings of deprivation and frustration he had inadvertently gifted to the countless children and parents, stood there blankly, looking unfazed.
“Hey, mister! Can’t you just give that to me? Or can’t you sell it to my dad?”
“That’s not possible.”
“Why!? My dad has a lot of money!”
Hearing the naive student’s words, Eight pondered how to explain without hurting the child’s feelings. He gently patted Regalia’s head and spoke.
“This is a gift for our Lia. A one-of-a-kind gift in the world.”
“Wow… I’m so jealous.”
I wish I could be born as that kid— such sinful thoughts popped up here and there, while Regalia, who had been smiling ever since the giant robot appeared, cautiously grabbed Eight’s hand that was patting her head.
The image of her holding her dad’s hand looked just like someone moved by a gift.
But the reality was completely different.
‘…Boss?’
‘─We’ll meet again later.’
Feeling the tightening grip of the child’s hand, which seemed like it was going to crush him, Eight groaned. He never imagined the Boss, just a little kid, could have this much strength.
But of course, he couldn’t moan in pain in front of the kids. So, Eight just smiled and looked back at the Boss. The Boss smiled back at Eight.
The adorable father-daughter laughter filled the classroom.
*
Soon, the 15-meter giant robot that had appeared at the elementary school spread across the internet and news worldwide. Given that incidents like this happening in City E were not new, one might have thought they’d be used to it, but this time it was particularly exceptional.
Anonymous: According to the video, someone just took it out randomly during a parent observation meeting!
Anonymous: What kind of nonsense is that???
Anonymous: Right;;
Steampunk is the best in the world: A super robot actually exists… Is this real?
Anonymous: Didn’t they all fail while trying to build them in other cities?
Steampunk is the best in the world: Yeah, they did fail. The money wasted was more than a regular battleship, lol.
Giant robots, super robots are dreams and fantasies for many people. Even if their practicality is absurdly low, it doesn’t matter. I mean, we’re in a world where 1.8-meter superheroes exist. A multi-meter tall super robot would just be a huge target.
Of course, even knowing it’s just a target, there are still those who are willing to try to build super robots, and that’s the problem—every attempt has gone up in smoke.
For those chasing their dreams, the giant robot that appeared in City E was like something out of a fairy tale. Especially considering it wasn’t some mere 1:1 model that just looked similar, but it actually moved by itself.
“─What the hell—! I just finished building it!”
And naturally, if there’s a first place, there’s bound to be a second.
If there are those who dream of these ideals, there are also those who try to make those ideals a reality.
“Who the hell did this first…!”
Steelstone.
Translating to Eastern style, this engineer—roughly like the equivalent of Stone Dullard—was fuming as he watched clips of the super robot posted online. It was huge, and while it moved by itself, he absolutely refused to acknowledge it as a super robot.
Because in the videos, there was no sign of the energy needed to move that giant body.
“Synthesis, right? This is?”
However, it was too absurdly atypical to call it synthesis when there were too many videos from various angles, many filmed by numerous witnesses. Since the number of witnesses reached dozens, if not hundreds, he couldn’t simply dismiss it as fake.
While he wished he could run to City E to confirm its existence, he couldn’t leave the city where he currently resided—its rulers wouldn’t allow it.
Instead, he watched tons of videos uploaded by influencers and journalists who had gone to City E, and through their footage, it became evident that the giant robot had completely disappeared, whether it vanished into the sky or sank into the ground; it just completely concealed itself.
‘So predictable…’
Steelstone thought the robot in those videos must be fake, and that it was hiding because it was afraid of being exposed.
It must be so. Otherwise, why would it go through the trouble of making such a cool thing and then hide its identity?
But…
Despite being filled with doubts about it being a lie, Steelstone hurriedly hammered away.
‘As soon as possible-.’
He had to finish this thing.
Clang-!
Steelstone stared up at the huge creation that seemed to stretch indefinitely as he began to attach metal sheets.
The colossal robot he had dreamed of creating his entire life—the ultimate weapon he had been crafting with investments from countless entrepreneurs—had to reveal itself to the world.
*
“I’m sorry.”
I haven’t done anything wrong.
Honestly, I still don’t know what I did wrong this time.
But the Boss in front of me didn’t want that answer.
“I told you not to cause any trouble, not to ruin the normal school life here…!”
“Well, I thought this much was okay…”
“Seriously! Which family has someone who carries around a giant robot as if it’s normal?”
“I couldn’t turn the Boss into a lying little girl!”
“I don’t care! And people don’t think that toy is real either!”
I maintained silence for a moment before bowing my head at the right moment. My mind fed me big data that perfectly timed my apology.
The Boss, seeing that bow, spewed out her anger at first but slowly began to calm down. It was indeed an apology that was successful in quelling the wrath of many professors.
“Should we erase the kids’ memories? If you allow it—”
“Do you think I see me as some kind of psychopath? Commanding the erasure of kids’ memories just to maintain my normal school life?”
“I thought you would. Truly, you are the Boss. I believe that day will come when the people of City E will come to know of your great mercy.”
Gradually changing the topic from the giant robots to memory erasure, I was moving further away from the main discussion, making the Boss forget the reason for her anger.
After some time had passed, the Boss too seemed to have forgotten why she was mad and just looked puzzled.
“Hmm… Well, now that I think about it, it doesn’t seem so worth getting angry about. You can go back now. Good job out there.”
“No, thank you, Boss. I’m glad to be of help to you.”
“I won’t be asking again next time, so keep that in mind…”
I sighed deeply as I left the meeting room and returned to the laboratory, where I smiled at Arima, who was waiting for me.
He seemed to roughly understand the situation and started to chuckle.
“Did it all end? The Boss must have been pretty angry, right?”
“To some extent, yes.”
“Yeah. I knew the Boss would be that mad.”
“…Did you help me knowing that?”
“Eh? You didn’t know?”
Seeing Arima feigning innocence, I felt a bit annoyed. If he knew the Boss would be angry, he could have at least given me a heads up. Isn’t he a wizard? Telepathy shouldn’t be that hard for him.
As I built up pointless anger for a moment, Arima reached out to me.
“Hey, give it to me.”
“What?”
“What do you mean what? The potion to return to my original state.”
“Ah, that—”
I understood and reached out my hand.
“I’ll make it for you. Please bring me the materials.”
“…Huh?”
“Arima, you’ve turned into a female, so you don’t have a single Y-chromosome left, right? Without the original DNA material from you, you can’t revert back.”
“No, wait… really?”
“Really.”
At my words, Arima looked at me with a bewildered expression. I looked back at him as if asking what’s wrong. As a result, he broke out in a cold sweat and replied.
“…I, I cleaned my room this morning.”
“Yes. Seems you have a tidy personality. But?”
“W-Well, I use magic to clean, and this magic is really effective?”
“Don’t tell me…”
“I cleaned my room with magic this morning as well.”
It didn’t take much thought to understand what that meant.
It meant that Arima no longer had any materials left to turn back to a male.
Thus, it meant he could no longer revert back to being a man.
“─Good luck then.”
“E-Eight—! You can do something about this, right!? Huh?”
“Yes. I don’t know how.”
“Oh, come on—! Just once!”
Seeing Arima clinging to me, I couldn’t help but burst into laughter.
Karma’s a bummer.
Let him struggle a bit.
Who knows? If he suffers from menstrual cramps a month later, maybe a kind scientist might feel sympathetic and whip up an antidote.
Though I guess there’s only an evil scientist here.
