The New Master
Reir gasped harshly for air.
His body, freshly thawed from the cryogenic chamber, refused to obey him properly.
His heart throbbed with a pain like it was frozen solid, and his lungs rejected the air of this alien era, wheezing in irregular bursts.
But none of that compared to the incomprehensible sight before him.
Dozens of maids were kneeling on the ground.
They gazed up at him as if they were looking at a god.
“...Huh?”
Reir’s voice came out cracked and dry.
“What... what the hell is this?”
No one answered.
The maids were crying.
Tears streamed from their eyes, their voices trembled, and their fingertips twitched with spasms.
Some of them even collapsed where they stood, their emotion modules—long dormant—overloading from the sudden rush of a feeling they hadn’t experienced in centuries.
Faced with this bizarre scene, Reir couldn’t make sense of the situation. Every single thing around him was a question mark.
“Who are you—”
Before he could finish, Lucia spoke first.
“Final surviving human entity confirmed.”
Her pupils were quivering.
“Cross-referencing data from the cryogenic unit... and conducting physical assessment.”
She slowly lowered her head in a bow.
“It is an honor to meet you, Master Reir. This unit is Lucia.”
Lucia meticulously examined Reir’s condition.
“Prolonged cryogenic preservation has resulted in uncoordinated movement and bodily functions, but no other abnormalities detected...”
“...”
“Physical health appears stable. Mental state also appears stable.”
“Can you please explain what the hell is going on?”
“We have been waiting for you, Master.”
“Waiting... what do you mean by that?”
“We have waited. For a very long time. For you, Master.”
The answer came so naturally, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Yet the same Lucia who had looked like she was about to cry moments ago, along with all the other maids, now watched him with an eerie calm that made his skin crawl.
“Do you remember the current situation and your memories immediately prior to awakening?”
Reir thought hard before answering.
“We entered the cryogenic pods to prepare for the future... Oh.”
Only then did the interior of the facility truly register.
The walls were covered in rust. Sparks rained from the ceiling, and hundreds of pods stood in neat rows.
But only one was open.
His.
The rest were all...
“Hold on...”
Reir staggered to his feet. The maids around him all gasped, holding their breath as if he were a fragile infant. Lucia quickly supported him.
“It can’t be...”
“Please be careful, Master. You have only just awakened. Even minor movements may be dangerous.”
But Reir ignored her and let her guide him to the nearest pod.
Inside was a corpse.
No life signs.
Reir stopped breathing.
“No... No way... This can’t be happening.”
Lucia seemed to anticipate his reaction.
“Master Reir... Aside from you, there are no life responses from any of the others.”
She stated the truth plainly.
Reir shook his head in denial.
“I need to see it for myself...”
He went from pod to pod, supported by Lucia. Some faces looked peacefully asleep. Others were frozen mid-scream, bodies twisted in agony. Some had died with eyes wide open. Others seemed to have woken halfway and perished while trying to escape.
Some had died pounding on the doors. Others while trying to pry them open.
“...They’re all dead?”
Lucia answered softly.
“Yes.”
Her voice was far too calm.
“Humanity has perished.”
“...They said we were facing the brink of destruction. No one ever said it actually happened.”
“It happened. Hundreds of years ago. No one is alive. Every android across the planet has reported zero life responses.”
“How reliable is that information?”
“It is the accumulated data of centuries.”
Reir remained silent for a long time.
Hundreds of years.
The number floated through his mind, unreal.
Friends. Family. Society. Cities. Nations.
Had everything really vanished?
After all that time, was he truly the only one left to wake up alone in this strange new world?
It was hard to believe.
But the maid named Lucia stood before him, answering with such detached certainty that it was difficult to dismiss her words.
The way the other maids looked at him only added to the weight of her statement.
They were treating him like the last remaining treasure in the world.
“...Ha.”
Reir let out a hollow laugh.
It was ridiculous.
Before he’d entered the cryogenic pod, they had promised him a restored civilization. They had told him he would wake up as a revered figure from the past, guaranteed a better life than he’d ever known. A life of salvation.
He had clung to those absurd hopes and climbed inside.
Even if it was a gamble, he had taken the chance.
“What the hell is this supposed to be salvation? What kind of gift is this? What happiness? What good life?!”
Reir slammed his fist into the wall.
The maids, including Lucia, watched with concern but made no move to stop him.
Instead, they simply fell silent.
In that silence, Reir noticed something strange.
“You’re... android maids, right?”
“Yes, that is correct. I am Lucia, leader of the maids who maintain the Holy Fire rituals.”
Lucia gracefully curtsied, pinching the hem of her skirt between her fingers.
“Then you must have lived your lives serving humans.”
“Yes.”
“While there were no humans... what did you do?”
It was a simple, honest question born of curiosity—what purpose could an android maid have in a world without humans?
Lucia knelt and turned her back to him.
“...What are you doing?”
“I will show you what we have done all this time. Please, climb onto my back.”
“It’s fine, I can walk...”
“We are more than ten floors underground. The elevators have been inoperable for a long time.”
“...”
“Considering your current physical condition, Master, I must insist.”
Reir felt the weakness in his legs and reluctantly agreed.
The place they returned to was the ritual chamber.
The Holy Fire blazed brightly, and the sacrificial sheep had already burned down to ash.
“What is this...”
Beyond the flames, the world was nothing but ruins. With no electricity, the darkness was absolute and silent.
Only the burning Holy Fire illuminated Reir, Lucia, and the gathered maids.
Lucia placed a cushion on a clear spot and gently sat Reir down.
Standing beside him, she gazed into the flames and began to explain.
“...So you’ve been waiting for humans this entire time.”
“Yes.”
“For all those long years...”
“Yes.”
“How did you even survive?”
“We lived... filled with fear.”
“What kind of fear?”
Lucia’s voice shook as she answered.
“We had lost our purpose.”
“...Purpose?”
Serve the master.
Obey the master.
Wait for the master.
The Three Absolute Rules of all android maids.
Lucia placed a hand over her chest.
“But our masters... the humans disappeared. And we were terrified.”
All the maids’ eyes turned toward Reir.
“We feared we had been abandoned.”
“But humans...”
“We could not accept that they had been destroyed.”
As she spoke, Lucia touched the black choker around her neck.
“We are still the servants of our masters. Always.”
“...”
“So we waited. We waited for the day humans—for our masters—would return and give us meaning once more.”
Reir slowly looked around.
Ruins. Ash. Flames. And countless eyes staring at him with desperate hope.
In that moment, he realized something.
He wasn’t the loneliest being in this world.
These maids were.
They had lost their masters but could not die. For hundreds of years they had repeated the same rituals, trapped in a loop.
Alive, yet frozen in time.
Beings who had stopped in place, clinging to a possibility that had nearly converged to zero.
Reir let out a small, bitter snort.
“It’s a miracle you didn’t go insane.”
Lucia smiled faintly.
“Indeed.”
She bowed her head.
“And so, Master Reir, who has become our new master. I have one request.”
“...A request?”
The voices of every maid overlapped into one.
“Please give us a tomorrow.”
The Holy Fire roared higher.
“Please save us.”
The maids knelt and bowed deeply. The sudden movement startled Reir; he tried to stand, but his legs gave out and he collapsed back onto the cushion.
“S-save you...?”
Lucia lifted her head and spoke for them all.
“With your awakening, we have been given purpose once more. As android maids, we finally have a master to serve.”
She took Reir’s hand. Though her fingers were mechanical, her synthetic skin felt warm and indistinguishable from a human’s. It sent a shiver through him.
“So now, please command us.”
Lucia smiled.
“Allow us to fulfill our duty as maids.”
The Holy Fire flared even brighter in the wind.
Along with the sound of the flames came another noise—something from the ruins.
All the maids, Lucia included, snapped their heads toward the darkness.
“What is it?”
“...Everyone, we must protect the Master.”
In perfect unison, the maids drew their built-in weapons. Some produced pistols, others kitchen knives, rifles, gauntlets.
Lucia summoned a massive greatsword.
“What’s going on?!”
“At last, we have the chance to serve our Master again.”
Lucia flashed Reir a brilliant smile, then shouted to the others.
“Everyone, defend Master Reir from the decommissioned entities!”