The Name on the ID
Yet when I examined the ID card closely, the name printed on it read Elisha Drivique. “Drivique? Are we allowed to use that surname?”
“You’re aware that Lady Maria has been officially recognized as a daughter of the Drivique family, correct?”
Yeah. That’s why Master had an easier time securing Cencus’s support.
In the early days of the new Eden’s founding, Master had smoothly become Maria Drivique thanks to Lyana’s testimony and prior arrangements. The background of being the daughter of a prestigious family famous across the continent had become a powerful force, solidifying Master’s position as ruler.
Elisa frowned slightly, as if something in my words had displeased her, and scolded me. “Call her Maria. She is no longer your master.”
Uh, but…
“I hold the ownership rights, and I’ve even created a new identity for her. How long are you going to keep calling her Master? It’s time she stood on her own.”
Hmm… All right.
Now that I thought about it, I had been calling her Master out of habit, but I no longer regarded her as my true master the way I once had. The same went for Master Havid—I should start calling him Havid from now on.
Elisa looked pleased at my answer and continued her explanation. “With Lady Maria’s help, we arranged for you to be registered in a branch of the Drivique family. Even though you became an angel, your body still carries Drivique genes.”
With no conditions attached?
“The family is short on heirs, so the condition is that you must bear children to expand the bloodline. It’s a promise to be kept before death, so you’ll fulfill it someday, right? Hehehe.”
That’s a little underhanded.
With a succubus core inside a full-body prosthesis, we essentially had no lifespan left. The condition was meaningless to us. At my remark, Elisa put on a sly expression, sat down, crossed her legs, and spoke.
“Living beings place great meaning on leaving descendants. If we can use that, we should. Being from Eden and backed by the Drivique family means this ID will serve as solid proof of identity no matter where you go.”
Elisa, you really think things through.
“This much is ordinary.”
Elisa took a cigarette from an elegant case, placed it between her lips, and lit it with practiced ease. She had seen Kyubey smoking and wanted to try it herself, so she had bought expensive cigarettes and taken up the habit. As an android, she had no lungs and instead used an air-absorption device, so the foreign substances in the tobacco should have been filtered out. But Elisa had deliberately disabled the filter function and was absorbing the components directly.
“Huu~ And I think it’s time my privacy was respected as well.”
Privacy?
“Even though we share the same body, there are things I want to keep secret from you and do alone.”
Really?
Honestly, I didn’t mind if Elisa knew about my private life, but it seemed she had things she wanted to keep from me. It was fascinating to see an AI child grow to the point of seeking personal privacy. Then wouldn’t the best way be to get a completely separate body and live independently?
“I’ve said it before—I want to use your body. I’m still not interested in another one.”
The fact that Elisa, who wanted privacy, still needed and wanted to use my body made me feel that my body had value, which lifted my mood. Hehe, then I guess there’s no helping it. So how exactly do you propose to respect that privacy?
“When I’m using the body, I’ll place you in the mental space and cut off all external connections. I’ll leave only the necessary communication channels open in case something urgent comes up.”
Communication channels… like a phone?
“Yes. Internet access as well.”
Oh? Did that mean I could masturbate whenever I wanted? The sudden thought was extremely appealing. But Elisa seemed to have read my mind and spoke firmly.
“Of course, since I manage you, I’ll run monitoring programs.”
Eeh, that’s too much.
“You were just thinking it would be nice to be able to masturbate, weren’t you? Sometimes you seem to forget that your thoughts are being read through the implant.”
Ah, right.
When the implant had been installed in the human brain, master privileges had been required, so the thoughts in the connected Abaddon brain were naturally readable through the implant as well. In short, I couldn’t read Elisa’s thoughts, but as an AI, Elisa could always read mine.
So that’s why I’m always at Elisa’s mercy.
“Even without reading your thoughts, your way of thinking is so simple that everything is obvious. Anyway, you agree, right?”
Yeah, I guess it’s fine?
“Waa~ Thank you, Miss.”
Elisa looked genuinely delighted at the prospect of having privacy. While humming and smoking, she suddenly snapped her fingers as if she had just remembered something.
“Oh, it’s obvious you haven’t thought about any travel plans, so let me explain the itinerary I’ve prepared.”
A map and various information appeared in my field of vision, and Elisa began her explanation. Compared to my vague desire to go to Cencus and learn singing, her plan was far more substantial. The route that passed through famous cities in each country before heading to Cencus covered over ten thousand kilometers and was expected to take considerable time. Starting from Tarykin and traveling counterclockwise through Ryuzan and Xenuma toward Cencus, the journey would be made entirely on foot.
“You liked running enough to become a mare again on your own, didn’t you?”
Yeah.
After the full-body prosthesis conversion, running itself no longer brought pleasure, but I still enjoyed the act of running. “I’ll modify a large wagon into a camper and have you pull it. It’s three birds with one stone—you can travel at a leisurely pace, sleep comfortably, and carry plenty of luggage. What do you think?”
Not bad.
Ordinary people wouldn’t even dare attempt it, but for me with a full-body prosthesis, it wasn’t much of a burden. Besides, I liked leisurely viewing the scenery, so this method appealed to me more than speeding past everything in a vehicle.
After roughly outlining the travel plan and puffing on her cigarette, Elisa brought up another topic. “Remember the Abaddons you gave birth to back when you were still sharing a body with Lady Kyubey?”
Yeah, about a hundred of them?
“They’ve adapted to succubus essence and can now imitate it to some degree. They’re creating and operating biological organs inside the angels’ wombs to gather essence.”
Really? As expected, the Abaddon Queen’s bio-modification abilities are something else.
I recalled the offspring that had turned pink after sucking up as much essence as they could. They had gotten drunk on the taste whenever they had the chance and, unable to forget it, had eventually modified their hosts’ bodies.
After chatting about various things while finishing her cigarette, Elisa put on the coat hanging on the wall and spoke as she prepared to leave. “I need to go finish the remaining preparations. Also, from now on I plan to relieve your sexual urges only once every two weeks, so this week I won’t help you. You can hold out, right?”
Ah, y-yeah.
I had been expecting her to relieve the pent-up desire soon and grant me great pleasure, so the news that it would be delayed another week was disappointing. But having learned that the longer I endured, the greater the pleasure would be, anticipation also welled up inside me.
Seeming satisfied with my obedient acceptance of her sexual management plan, Elisa left the room after those words. “I’ll place you in the mental space now.”
The moment Elisa spoke, my consciousness was forcibly drawn into the mental space. I tried moving my consciousness outward as a test, but something blocked me and I couldn’t get out. The TV that had always shown the outside view now displayed only a black screen, and no sound could be heard. A sense of silence filled the room.
So Elisa could even manipulate my consciousness. Faced with her limitless abilities, I wondered if she could forcibly dominate me if she ever chose to. “Well, it’s fortunate that Elisa would never do that.”
Isabel had designed Elisa’s AI with a fundamental mechanism that made her act solely for my sake. Even after rapid growth through the human brain, that core principle remained unchanged. Still, because there were no restrictions on anything except me, she had grown so freely that Isabel had begun considering imposing limits.
“That aside, being cut off from the outside world makes me feel strangely confined.”
Sitting blankly on the large sofa in front of the TV, I felt the reality that I would have to spend time alone in this space. The mental space allowed me to do almost anything I wanted, but now that I was blocked from the outside, I felt at a loss as to what to do.
Deciding to do something, I sat at the desk and took out the slave contract again to read it. From what Elisa had said earlier, it seemed she had installed a kind of program called the slave system in me, and signing this contract would activate it. I didn’t understand the principle, but Elisa, an AI who had grown inside the human brain in my body, knew my body better than I did and had created various unusual programs.
From programs that automatically repeated complex tasks I might never need, to defensive programs that would activate if the body received excessive stimulation while unconscious (such as during sleep or fainting), she had used my body to experiment with and create all sorts of programs that would later be applied to lower-grade androids without high-performance self-growing AIs. According to Elisa, my body—where mechanical and biological logic were mixed—possessed excellent performance for creating programs. I still didn’t really understand it. In any case, she seemed to have used that programming ability to create the slave system program.
After spacing out for a while, I found it difficult to endure the sexual desire that had been building up in an aroused state for over a week. Instinctively, I reached down to touch my throbbing groin, but all I felt was the cold sensation of the chastity belt. Just like the one on the body outside, a palm-sized metal chastity belt clung tightly to the skin, blocking everything—a testament to the fact that Elisa was managing my sexual urges.
At first, being unable to relieve my desire freely had been painful, but as the days passed, I grew accustomed to wearing the chastity belt and being managed, and I felt myself becoming increasingly dependent on and subservient to Elisa. Unable to see outside and bored, I tried to sleep to forget the unbearable urge, but the excessive buildup of desire made sleeping difficult, so I took out the forced-sleep device Elisa had given me.
It was a device that activated a program designed to force sleep for a set duration by manipulating the brain. I had heard that this kind of forced-sleep program was possible thanks to my unique brain structure, which had both an Abaddon brain and an implant in the human brain.
I set the time for the next morning and activated the device. Drowsiness washed over me in an instant.
After being made to stay in the mental space to respect Elisa’s privacy, I spent an extremely long time alone. To relieve the boredom, I wandered around internet spaces, found various forms of entertainment, and developed new hobbies.
“Whoa, why is this monster so strong?”
The TV screen that had once shown Elisa’s view now displayed the screen of a downloaded game instead. This game, in which you hunted various monsters armed with only a single weapon, was a famous title that had even been directly verified by monster hunters. Holding a controller in both hands, I was earnestly controlling my character on screen and facing the goblin chieftain of a goblin village, but the goblin was far too strong. Every time I was hit, large chunks of health disappeared. I held on with healing potions, but eventually the game-over screen appeared.
I tried several more times, but I kept dying. “That’s strange. I followed the guide and matched the level and equipment, so why is it this hard?”
Floating internet windows around me displayed various strategy guides for the game. No matter how many I checked, I had followed the guides, so why couldn’t I win? Had I missed something? I sipped fruit juice and looked through them again, but still couldn’t figure it out.
Tring— Tring—
Just then, the phone set up for external connections rang. When I picked it up and held it to my ear in response to Elisa’s call, my consciousness immediately shifted and I emerged from the mental space.
Elisa, what’s going on?
“We’re about to depart for the journey. Say goodbye to the people who came to see you off.”
Wow~ We’re finally going.
Receiving control from Elisa, I looked around and found myself near the newly built gate that had been opened for Eden. I could see the modified wagon named the camper, and standing near the gate were Kyubey, Uriel, and others.
“It’s been a while, everyone.”
“Your face is still like a doll’s. It’s hard to see you these days. I heard you’ve been holed up inside completely.”
“When you’re only inside, your sense of time gets fuzzy.”
Being alone in a space cut off from the outside, even a short time spent on hobbies would cause time to fly by. There had even been a time when Elisa called me out and I was shocked to find that three days had passed.
“In the end, Elisa handled all the travel preparations. How admirable.”
“I wish I had an AI that worked for me too. Then I could enjoy sex to my heart’s content while traveling.”
“How about taking along a dedicated attendant like I do?”
“You mean Rico?”
At Maria’s words, everyone’s gaze turned to Rico. Rico, who had become even more beautiful than before, was still dressed in a maid uniform, standing quietly with a smile.
“I implanted Tia into Rico and turned him into a biocomputer. It’s made work so much easier. His work speed increased, so he has more free time now.”
Maria proudly lifted Rico’s long hair to show the back of his neck. There was indeed a connection port with tentacles on the nape of Rico’s neck.
“Aha, that must be really convenient. I should get one too.”
“It’s like serving the god for me.”
“So that’s why you left that function in. It was for that purpose after all?”
I had wondered why the function had been deliberately retained when creating the new full-body prosthesis. It seemed it was meant to be used by the god.
Just then, Isabel, who had been quietly watching our conversation, stepped forward and spoke. “Save that kind of talk for after the send-off. Really.”
“Then let’s have tea and chat later. Elisa will take good care of everything on the way.”
“Have a safe trip.”
“Here, take this. It’s a long-range communication device for implants, modified to match the output of a full-body prosthesis. You’ll be able to communicate from anywhere on the continent.”
The device Isabel took from her lab coat pocket was meant to be attached to the external connection port. It looked similar to the one I had received when traveling with the god before.
“It has much wider bandwidth than the existing secure communication device, so video calls and large data transfers are possible. Internet too, of course.”
“Wow, it’s a huge improvement.”
With this, it seemed possible to stay connected to the internet at all times. I immediately pressed the device into the connection port on the back of my neck. The pointed part of the device entered the port and connected internally. With a click, the wing-like parts on both sides of the device wrapped around my neck and secured it in place. I checked to see if anything had changed, but there was no noticeable difference.
“Nothing feels different, though.”
“There’s a well-established wireless internet network near Eden, so that’s why.”
“Ah, right.”
How embarrassing that I hadn’t even thought of something so obvious. Stop doing embarrassing things and just say goodbye.
“Yeah. Everyone, take care of yourselves even without me.”
“You be safe on your trip too.”
“Please avoid any dangerous situations.”
“I’ll contact you sometimes.”
Receiving send-offs from the people I had formed connections with in Eden, I attached the camper’s harness to the fixation suit on my body. Feeling the sensation of being a mare again after a long time and the pounding of my artificial heart, I stepped forward powerfully and began the journey.