A Chance Encounter and New Pursuits
Angel of Eden. 226
After putting on the one-piece dress and tightening the waist tie, I adjusted the gathered fabric and fastened the ornament that covered my forehead. Standing before the full-length mirror, I wondered if the outfit suited me when Elsa suddenly spoke up.
“The clothes are fine, but the person wearing them is far too violent. That’s the problem.”
“Huh? I have weapons implanted, but I don’t think I’m a particularly violent doll. I’m a submissive one.”
“I meant your figure is too violent. It draws all sorts of unwanted attention from others.”
“Ah, I see what you mean. But why? Isn’t this level acceptable?”
My breasts were admittedly quite large, yet I believed my body would satisfy most people. In reality, whenever I walked down the street, countless men’s gazes followed me, and their expressions were always pleased.
“Did you see the faces of the women standing beside those men? They must have scolded them later.”
“I was made to satisfy men in the first place. What can I do?”
I could satisfy women if needed, but they naturally ranked lower in priority.
“According to your AI settings, Mother, your owner, holds the highest priority, followed by men over ordinary women.”
“Right? There’s nothing I can do about it.”
“Still, try to be mindful. You’ve been granted that much free will.”
“Understood.”
Oddly enough, the conversation only ended after Elsa finished scolding me. Once she returned to the mental space, only Ruya and I remained in the dressing room. Charlotte had already changed into pajamas and gone out, leaving Ruya with a serious expression as she tried to decide on an outfit.
“Ugh… What should I wear?”
“Can’t you just wear something appropriate?”
“I’m meeting long-time friends. I can’t just throw on anything. How about this?”
Ruya held up a top and skirt against her body. I nodded.
“It suits you well.”
“Give me a more detailed evaluation.”
“Hmm, it’s pretty.”
“Oh dear, I shouldn’t have asked the master.”
Ruya sighed and began pondering again. She seemed to want a more detailed impression, but to my eyes everything simply looked pretty, so I had nothing more to add. Leaving Ruya to her serious deliberation, I stepped out of the room and headed for the entrance.
With three women in the household, the shoe cabinet was as large as the two separate dressing rooms—one for the madam and one for the concubines. The madam owned the most shoes. Though she usually wore nun-style garments that covered her entire body, she had a keen interest in various footwear and possessed the largest collection. After the madam came Ruya, then Charlotte, then me.
The right-side cabinet held the brother’s and madam’s shoes, while the left held the concubines’. Most shoes had been bought during family shopping trips, so the only pair I had purchased myself was a single pair of black high heels.
Hmm, white dress with black heels… maybe not.
After some thought, I chose a matching pair of white high heels and slipped them on. I slung the small bag containing the Queens’ letters over my shoulder and was about to open the front door when it swung open first. My brother stepped inside.
“Oh? Going out?”
“Yes, I have something to take care of in Eden.”
“Hmm~”
Blocking the doorway, my brother crossed his arms and scanned me from head to toe with a smile.
“Whoa~ It really suits you.”
“Thank you, brother.”
“If any guy tries to harass you, give him a good beating. Got it?”
“Yes, I will.”
He seemed pleased with my outfit yet looked worried I might get into trouble. Originally I wouldn’t have stopped anyone from touching me, but since he had asked, I decided to allow only looks and stop anyone who tried to touch.
After receiving his warning, I stepped out into the street. The moment I emerged, countless spirits flew around the World Tree, creating the same majestic sight as before. The chaos of wartime and the immediate postwar period had largely subsided, and though the streets weren’t as lively as before the war, they had regained their energy.
Our house was in the human residential area, so only humans passed by. As expected, men’s gazes immediately focused on me. They first admired my face, then their eyes widened as they scanned my body, and they looked surprised upon noticing the tentacle tail. That was the common reaction.
Receiving those passing glances, I walked briskly, following the internet map’s directions toward the post office. Civil servants handled reception at the state-run post office. Because it was an awkward time of day, there were no other customers, so I was served immediately.
I placed the letters the Queens had already sealed into envelopes on the counter and waited for processing. The clerk looked slightly flustered when I said I was sending over ten letters at once, but soon handled everything with practiced efficiency.
“Please pay the amount shown.”
“Yes, here you are.”
I took out my card and held it out to pay the amount displayed on the nearby screen. This card was a debit card linked to the account I had first opened under my Korean identity. Debit cards were an unfamiliar concept in Eden; they could only spend the money already in the account. Although I had the card for quite some time, this was actually the first time I had used it personally, as I had rarely needed to spend money on my own.
Our family’s finances were under my brother’s control as the head of the household, but because managing money was bothersome, he had handed full authority over to the madam. She had already been handling it before, so not much had changed—except now she could move family funds freely without needing his permission.
Although I was a family member, the income of the concubines, whose status was clearly distinguished, was all collected and managed by the madam. Therefore, the concubines received allowances from her via debit cards. Of course, all transaction records were reported to her.
“Everything is finished. Please take your card.”
“Thank you.”
“Have a nice day.”
I accepted the card, left the post office, and stepped outside.
Now what? Since I’m already out, I’d like to do something.
“Why are you asking me?”
“I thought you might know what I like, Elsa. You’ve analyzed almost all of Elisha’s memory data.”
Although I was an AI created based on Elisha’s memory data and was therefore also Elisha, after countless modifications I felt an indescribable difference from the original. The biggest difference was that I, as an AI, had no idea what hobby I liked most.
“Hmm… You don’t know what your own hobbies are?”
“Yeah, I don’t know what I like.”
“You’ve reached the targeted stage. It’s been a while since we applied the AI algorithm for self-discovering hobbies, and now we’re finally seeing the first reaction.”
“What do you mean?”
“We’ve been experimenting with an algorithm that infers the process by which humans create what they call hobbies and applies it to AIs. For that, we made some adjustments to your memory data and AI. That’s why your original hobbies disappeared.”
Ah, so that was why, although running as a mare felt good while doing it, I never felt like doing it again afterward. And why I had thrown myself into work without any hobbies—it seemed to be the influence of that algorithm experiment.
“Is that so? Then what did the original Elisha like?”
“She liked singing the most. Next was exercise, especially running.”
“Ah~ I do have memories of liking to sing.”
“You don’t feel that way now, do you? From now on, you’ll have to develop new hobbies on your own.”
“So discovering hobbies is the first step.”
“Use the feelings you have now to find what you like and turn it into a hobby. Trying singing again would be good, or running. Experiencing something completely new to create a fresh hobby is also fine. All of it will become useful data.”
“I’ll do my best.”
Hobby hunting. Having a clear goal made me feel motivated.
“I guess even a doll needs someone to set goals for her. Instead of vaguely wanting a hobby, having the clear objective of ‘finding a hobby’ makes me motivated.”
“It’s positive that you’re feeling motivated.”
Following Elsa’s instruction to find a hobby, I wondered what to try first and decided to try singing, which the original Elisha had liked most. But where and how should I sing? Singing on the street felt a bit awkward.
Hmm, maybe I should just go home.
I thought I could turn on the TV at home and sing along to the songs that played. With that decision made, I was adjusting the map app to guide me home when I sensed two women approaching.
When I turned my eyes toward them, my implant provided information: they were female soldiers who had carried out missions at the official brothel during the war. The woman with sharp black short hair and a slightly cold impression was named Kim Eun-hye, and the woman with light brownish-black long hair and a cute impression was Kim Ji-hye.
Though their styles differed, both were beautiful. They had become close while working at the official brothel for their missions and had bonded over the fact that their names both ended with “hye.”
Wearing casual clothes instead of uniforms, they approached me with bright faces and greeted me warmly.
“Elisha! It’s been a while. How have you been?”
“So you came to Earth.”
“Nice to meet you. Are you two still serving as soldiers?”
“I was discharged, and Eun-hye got promoted to first lieutenant.”
“Congratulations.”
“Thank you.”
Ji-hye, who had been a sergeant at the time, seemed to have been discharged as is, while Eun-hye, who had been a newly commissioned second lieutenant, had been promoted to first lieutenant. Given her short service period, Eun-hye’s rapid promotion was probably thanks to volunteering for sexual relief duties.
“Where are you headed?”
“I stopped by the post office to send some letters and was on my way home.”
“You’re already going home? If you have time, would you like to hang out with us?”
“Hang out?”
“Eun-hye is on leave, so we’re going to the downtown area. Shopping, eating good food, and maybe hitting a bar in the evening.”
Ji-hye linked arms with me and suggested we go out together. I considered it. As a concubine, I was in a special position where I could act relatively freely as long as the madam hadn’t given me orders. After a brief moment of thought, I decided to accept the request of these two I had grown close to during the war.
“Sure. Let’s go.”
“Yay! Let’s hurry!”
Linked arm-in-arm with Ji-hye, who had also grabbed Eun-hye’s arm, I was led toward the downtown area. Both women were taller than average, but because I was exceptionally tall—especially with high heels—Ji-hye’s head only reached my shoulder when we linked arms.
This area, close to the capital and directly beneath the World Tree, had suffered almost no war damage. The downtown district was bustling as usual. Numerous shops were thriving, and all kinds of races mingled on the streets.
Thinking it would be good to report in, I used the messenger program installed in my implant to send the madam a message saying I was going out with friends I had met, then let Ji-hye lead me around the downtown shops for shopping. I wasn’t particularly interested in shopping itself, but it was fun to look at the variety of goods different from those in Eden.
“Ah.”
“Huh? What’s wrong?”
“Oh, no. I just remembered something for a moment.”
The madam must have checked the message I sent via phone, because a reply arrived and a large notification window suddenly appeared in front of my eyes, startling me. Since having it block my view was inconvenient, I went into the settings, reduced the notification window size, and moved it to the bottom right.
The madam had simply replied that she understood. Because this downtown area was close enough that the Temple of the Goddess Erutina and our house were just a short distance away, she hadn’t said anything else.
After spending some time shopping, Ji-hye said she had received a recommendation for a good restaurant from an acquaintance and had made a reservation. She led us to the place. The restaurant was indeed popular; it was crowded with people. Although the reservation had been made for two, which caused a brief issue, the restaurant’s standard four-person tables allowed us to be seated without trouble.
Among the three of us, the lively Ji-hye took the lead in conversation. While waiting for our ordered food, Eun-hye and I mostly nodded along and listened to her.
“There was a soldier among the ones we met back then who works in the industry. He asked if I wanted to work with him after discharge, and I said I’d think about it. Somehow it ended up happening.”
“By ‘industry,’ you mean… modeling?”
“No? My main job is adult video actress. I do modeling occasionally too.”
“Ji-hye, lower your voice a bit.”
Although the partitions and noise made it unlikely anyone nearby could hear, Eun-hye gestured at Ji-hye, apparently embarrassed to discuss it so openly.