After the Worst of the Worst
"W-what?!"
The claymores kept going off. One, two, three, four—blast after endless blast, until the shuttered door blew open.
"Is there a human in there?!"
Marx's voice came through. Leyre called back that there was.
"Get away from the door! It's gonna blow!"
She had barely finished declaring the explosion before the door shattered clean off its frame.
"Human, you all right?!"
Marx burst into the lab with a grenade still in hand, and there—
"Oh my~ We've been found out, haven't we?"
—stood Agrippa, still halfway through changing, with Leyre beside her.
Marx was so dumbfounded that her mouth curled, disappointment written all over her face.
"I came running because I was worried... and you were playing around with a maid?!"
"Th-that's—! There wasn't anything else I could do, locked up in here... and Agrippa started it..."
Marx glared from Agrippa to Leyre and back again, then let out a sigh.
"Ah, forget it. Just get out here. I don't know what happened, but every last maid got sealed in. I came to pull you out first."
"Ah~ That was probably because of this~ Someone—no idea who—some human just dripping with malice set a trap to lock every door~"
Agrippa held up the paper they had seen earlier. Marx let out a flat hah and looked utterly done.
"What a ridiculous human... Wait. A compact nuclear reactor?"
"Ah! I meant to take that someday. It'd definitely help with the power supply."
Leyre said it, but not knowing exactly where the thing was remained the problem. If a nuclear reactor was still running, that meant it was still producing electricity—and that it would carry them until a proper, steady supply came online. It was something they absolutely had to take.
"Not knowing where it is, that's the problem..."
"...It's somewhere in this building. We have to get the maids out first, so hurry up and come out."
As Marx said, Leyre and Agrippa stepped out of the lab for the time being.
"No maids missing?"
Once everyone had been rescued, Leyre gathered them in the corridor for a headcount.
"Nope~"
"No one."
Hias was there. Toria was there. So were plenty of the background maids. Leyre sighed in relief and called it a mercy.
"Everyone get a decent haul?"
The maids nodded and rolled in carts piled high with books, packed into plastic bins so they'd be easy to move. Leyre opened a box, checked the volumes, and nodded at how respectably the collection had come together.
"Good. Plenty of proper books in here. Then now..."
He picked up the paper that had been lying on the lab floor and held it out for the maids to see.
"Looks like there's a compact nuclear reactor somewhere in this place. Still running well enough to drop the shutters on all these doors."
"We have to find it?"
"Yeah, Hias. If we find this, the power supply ought to run a lot smoother later."
"Wouldn't it be... underground? Judging by this building's floor plan, there seems to be a large space below."
When Toria said so, Leyre agreed it was a good thought.
"Then let's head down."
As expected, the compact nuclear reactor was in the basement. It stood about Leyre's own size.
All they had to do now was take it...
"Oh, for—why are those things down here too?"
Scrapped Units were wandering the area. A great many of them. At a glance there were no fewer than a hundred, drifting around the reactor with no purpose left in them.
"I've never seen scrapped units gathered like this... Can we even take it?"
Leyre was worried. There weren't enough maids here to simply overwhelm them, and using the bombs Marx carried was out of the question with the reactor sitting right there. A chain reaction might blow the whole building away.
"...Human. I've got a proposal."
"What?"
"Go pull aggro."
With that, Marx gave him a shove and sent him stumbling in among the scrapped units.
"Huh?"
Leyre dropped between them with a strangled yelp.
The scrapped units that saw him—
—charged straight at him. Leyre scrambled up at once and ran, desperate not to be caught.
"Aaaaaah, Marx!!! What the hell are you doing?!"
"I've got a plan, all right? Maids! Cut down every scrapped unit chasing the human, now!"
"Just you wait, Marx! I am going to chew you out so hard!!!"
"I'll look forward to it, human."
Somehow, the look on Marx's face said she genuinely meant it.
While Leyre drew the scrapped units' aggro, the maids cut down every unit that came after him, one after another. The scrapped units cared only about Leyre. They had no interest whatsoever in the other maids, so putting them down was almost easy.
"Marx, if you truly care about Master, isn't this far too reckless?"
Toria asked as she smashed scrapped units flat with her enormous legal code.
"I believe in the human. He absolutely will not die."
"That is an entirely separate matter from this...!"
"And I'm looking forward to it..."
A rapt expression crossed Marx's face.
"To whatever punishment an angry human decides to give me..."
"..."
"Praise is nice, but a punishment now and then doesn't sound bad either..."
Her intentions had twisted off in a very particular direction.
Agrippa with her shovel, Hias with her rifle from a distance, Toria with the legal code, and Marx—unable to use her bombs—with brass knuckles instead. They cleared the area for roughly twenty minutes.
"Hah... hah..."
Just as Leyre's stamina was about to give out completely, the last scrapped unit fell. Once he was sure it was safe, he got well clear of the reactor and collapsed where he stood.
"Haaah... I really thought I was going to die..."
"You worked so hard, our baby master~"
Agrippa stroked his head and soothed him.
"Hey, Marx! It was a good strategy, but... hah... you'll admit it was way too reckless, right?"
Marx came over.
"But it worked, didn't it?"
"Argh, I swear, I'm gonna just—"
Leyre seized her by the collar and hauled her up. Marx only giggled, delighted, looking down at her human. At Leyre.
"Still. Good work, human."
By way of thanks, she lifted his hand and pressed it to her chest.
"...I'll accept that apology."
She even guided his hand inside her clothes, and Leyre's will to stay angry evaporated on the spot. Right. Breasts were apology enough. Bare breasts, in particular, made for a thoroughly—exceptionally—appropriate apology.
That was what Leyre decided.
"Hah... but now the problem is how we take that reactor with us..."
"What's the problem? We just take it, don't we~?"
When Hias said that, Toria shook her head.
"A nuclear reactor is dangerous. Mishandle it, and it has enough force to scour this entire stretch of ground. We must move it with the utmost care."
"...Wait. Then with the technology and knowledge we've got right now, we can't take it at all?"
The thought struck Leyre, and he said it aloud. The maids looked at one another, then nodded.
"Ah."
Leyre let out a heavy sigh. Clearing the scrapped units had been necessary, so it wasn't wasted effort—but the fact that they couldn't take the reactor right now was crushing. If they could haul it off, they could use electricity immediately. Until a proper supply was running, they could at least power the essentials. It was a bitter shame.
"Is there a maid somewhere who actually knows about that thing...?"
He asked them. No one knew, so the silence held.
"Figures... hah..."
Even so, he couldn't just stay collapsed on the floor, drowning in despair. Leyre got to his feet and declared it to all of them.
"We're leaving for now. We'll build up knowledge from the books we salvaged and put together equipment that can generate power. The nuclear reactor..."
He looked at it once more, then turned away.
"We'll come back for it when we get the chance."
"Still... I'm glad Marx found those weird experimental things. Inventions?"
"Credit goes to the maids who were with me. We found them together."
"Yeah? Good work, Marx. I'll forgive you for using me as bait earlier."
He stroked her head as he said it, and Marx flushed, looking thoroughly pleased.
"The rest of you who went with Marx, come here too. I'll praise you."
He praised the maids who had gone with her as well, and every one of them beamed.
"...Master? Everyone worked hard. I believe it is unfair for only those individuals to receive praise."
When Toria said so, Leyre nodded that she had a point.
"Then I'll pet everyone's heads! Come here!"
He stroked every head in reach and told them they'd worked hard.
"Ehehe..."
"You did well too, Hias. And from now on, don't throw a fit about monopolizing me like last time, all right?"
"Okay! Got it, Master!"
"Oh my~ And why aren't you doing me, baby master?"
Agrippa asked.
"I already praised you plenty, and loved you plenty, didn't I?"
Agrippa thought it over, then laughed—ahaha—and nodded.
"That... is true, isn't it? Mm~ I'll let this one go~"
"All right. Shall we head back?"
The maids hauled the carts heaped with books and supplies.
"...Getting back is going to take a while, though."
"Let's all head back to base."
Night.
After the grueling work of hauling books and supplies, they decided to rest for one night in the Abandoned Cathedral. To save energy, most of the maids had gone to sleep. Only Marx and Leyre were still awake.
"Human, can't you praise me a little more? Like last time?"
Marx pressed in on him, flushed, breathing hard, already worked up.
"...Right now? Everyone's asleep. Someone might hear."
"Then we just sneak off somewhere nobody is."
"I'm completely wiped today. Can't it wait till next time?"
Marx seemed a little angry. Pouting, she caught Leyre's hand and started off somewhere.
They ended up in the chapel, where moonlight poured through the stained glass.
"H-hey?!"
"Let's go somewhere quiet. Then nobody will catch on."
"That's an order, so stop...!"
Marx halted on the spot. At the word order, her thought circuits stalled for a moment, busy processing it.
"My head hurts..."
"Whew... Thank god. Orders still get through."
"Human... using a command is a dirty trick..."
"What else can I do? I'm exhausted today. So next time I'll praise you a whooole lot, so..."
Leyre stepped in and kissed her. It was a long kiss. The intensity, after so long without it, blew Marx's mind clean out.
"Just hold on a little longer, yeah?"
"...Okay."
Marx gave in. Leyre took her hand, meaning to leave.
"Then let's go back to bed."
But he walked straight into something soft in front of him and stopped dead, held there against it.
"...What?"
Soft. It smelled good—a warm, toasted-rice sweetness. It yielded under him. Then this was...
"A chest?"
Leyre slowly lifted his head, and there—
—stood a nun.
