The First Duty
"Is there a sunny place somewhere?"
Leyre had risen that morning, finished the simple breakfast Hias brought him, and taken a quick bath. Only then did he settle on the first thing he meant to do.
"A sunny place, you say... Do you mean somewhere fitting to lay people to rest?"
Lucia asked from beside him. The room was packed with maids, every one of them alight with anticipation for the long-awaited service they would finally be permitted to give.
Eyes sparkling, faces bright with excitement—the sight weighed on him, but Leyre forced himself to stay calm.
"Yeah. All those people in the cryogenic units underground... I want them to rest somewhere peaceful. At least in death."
A faint smile touched Lucia's lips.
"Understood. Then please give the order."
"Please give the order, Master."
The other maids cried out with her, their voices soft and refined.
Leyre's mouth trembled as he issued his first command.
"T-take stretchers and carry the people out of the cryogenic units. I'm going to bury them."
"Understood, Master. We will obey your command."
"We will obey your command."
Lucia answered, and the rest of the maids echoed her in turn.
The underground cryogenic facility. Leyre went down with the maids and set his hand upon one of the units.
"The forced-release command should be..."
He dredged the phrase up out of memory and entered it into the main control board. After several failures, a soft chime rang out.
Forcibly opening the units.
The units began to open, and the bodies tumbled out onto the floor. The maids rushed to them at once and started loading them onto stretchers. A few checked for signs of life, just in case, but as expected, not a single one had survived.
Except Leyre.
"Master, there is something I wish to ask."
Lucia approached, her heels clicking.
"This facility did not stir for centuries. Then it opened with the earthquake, we met you, and now it has begun to run again... What is the reason?"
"Ah..."
Leyre tapped his temple, turning his memory over, then shook his head as if nothing would come.
"I don't know. All I was ever told was that the system would activate in the far, far future. Beyond that, I really don't. I was only a participant."
"I... see."
Leyre sighed as he watched corpse after corpse carried past on stretchers.
"Maybe one of them knew something. I couldn't tell you what that something was."
He shook his head.
"Well. It's only me now, so it hardly matters anymore."
"...Whatever the case, we will never regret having met you, Master."
Lucia's voice was firm.
"From your very first command, you chose work for the good of others. You are that kind of person."
"...Thanks for the compliment."
"Big Sister Lucia, Master! Everyone's loaded up!"
Hias shouted from across the room.
"It seems they have all been loaded."
"Then let's go. You said there's a park nearby, right?"
"Yes. Maids still tend it. The scenery is beautiful, and the sunlight reaches it well."
Leyre nodded, pleased by the sound of it.
"Then... let's go."
"Master, we could do this ourselves..."
The maids around him tried to hold him back.
"No. Humans died. A human ought to see to the funeral himself."
Shovel in hand, Leyre dug into the earth with sweat streaming off him, and every maid—Lucia and Hias among them—hovered in anxious dread that he might collapse.
"I want to bury them with my own hands. So you keep watch, and make sure there aren't any Scrapped Units around."
"...Are you really all right, Master?"
Hias crouched until her eyes were level with his, worry plain on her face.
"I told you, I'm fine. Smothering me isn't good for me either. And using my strength now and then is how a body stays healthy."
With that, he kept driving the shovel into the ground.
"Even so..."
"...Hias."
Lucia came over.
"Hm? What is it, Big Sister Lucia?"
"Let us trust Master. He is a good man, so we ought to believe in him."
"Mmm..."
"Now, everyone. Master will exhaust himself digging. Let us prepare drinks and a meal for him."
Lucia called it out to the maids.
"Do as Lucia says! That'll be plenty!"
The moment he gave the order, the maids moved as one. Every one of them except Hias and Lucia went off in search of food and drink.
"Uh... I didn't actually think they'd all go."
The flawless coordination left him slack-jawed.
"The two of us are quite enough to guard you, Master."
"Big Sister Lucia's ridiculously strong, you know, even if she doesn't look it~"
"Mmm..."
Leyre took that as given and threw himself back into the digging. One by one, he dug, buried, and covered the earth, over and over. Between graves he ate and drank what the maids brought, replacing every bit of energy and water he could.
"Huff..."
But nothing could mend the deeper exhaustion. By the time half of them were in the ground, the work had begun to overwhelm him.
"This is hard..."
"Master, truly, we should—"
"No..."
Even so, he did not stop. He drove the shovel into the soil once more.
"I have to."
He heaved the dirt aside.
"It's what I owe them. The duty of the last human left alive."
Because he was human—because being human meant a sense of what was right, and an obligation that came with it. He could not have said where the feeling rose from. Only that it demanded to be carried out.
"Master..."
Lucia worried, and she was moved. So this was her new master. She thought him truly splendid. Anyone else would have dumped the whole task on the maids. Of course, it stung a little that he would not put them to work, and it was a shame they could not serve—and yet the sight of him living out justice and humaneness struck her as beautiful all the same.
"Master, you're amazing, you know?"
Hias felt the same. She came over and stroked his hair.
"Amazing, amazing! Our Master!"
"...Thanks, Hias."
Leyre went on with the work in silence.
"Hah... it's done."
At last he had laid every final body in the earth. Leyre stepped back from the graves lined up in a row and knelt at their center.
"Hah..."
He bowed twice, and then a half bow more, drew a long breath, and spoke.
"We humbly pray for the repose of the departed."
The maids echoed him.
"Ah—could you bring what's left of the food, and a table with it?"
"Pardon? A table... Do you mean a dining table?"
Lucia asked.
"Yeah. I think we ought to hold a memorial rite as well."
"A memorial rite..."
Lucia searched her memory for the meaning of the word. When she realized it was a kind of ceremony for the dead, she nodded.
"Understood. A funeral, then."
"Yeah."
Before long Lucia returned with a simple memorial table, and Leyre conducted a modest rite, following what he could remember. When every part of the funeral was finished, he rose to leave.
"A-a human... really came back...?"
An unfamiliar voice drifted in from nearby.
An android who looked like a maid was approaching—a giant of a woman, easily over six feet, with hair the color of red. A teddy bear dangled from one hand. Her hair was tied low, braided, and drawn down over one shoulder, and her chest was as imposing as the rest of her frame. Strangely enough, she wore a maid's headband, yet her clothes were black rather than a maid uniform.
"The maids suddenly started rushing all over, saying they had to prepare food for their 'Master,' and I wondered what was going on... A human really did come back..."
She faltered. Faltered again. Little by little she drew closer, her eyes traveling over Leyre as if checking, piece by piece, whether he was truly human.
Hias's gaze sharpened. In the next instant she pulled a rifle from beneath her skirt and leveled it at the red-haired giant.
"Who are you? You're not one of us."
"Ah, th-that's..."
"Hias, she does not appear to be a hostile unit. If she were, she would have attacked long ago."
"She's outnumbered from the start—only an idiot would attack! She could still be hostile and just watching her step!"
"Human... m-may I... touch you?"
The red-haired giant came nearer. Lucia stepped in front of Leyre, on her guard.
"What are you thinking? To lay a hand on our Master."
"I-I was only curious, that's all... R-really!"
The red-haired giant scratched her head, looking bashful.
"Let her come closer."
"Pardon?"
"You said she isn't hostile. Then I think we can get along."
"..."
Lucia looked from the giant to Leyre and back, worry in her eyes. Soon she nodded and stepped aside.
"Nice to meet you. I'm Leyre."
"N-nice to meet you... I'm Karin..."
Karin came up and touched his cheek.
"Wow... this really is skin..."
Then her hands wandered over the rest of him.
"?!"
She slipped a hand straight down into his pants and fidgeted.
"So this is how it feels..."
"Th-that girl just went and touched a place even I haven't gotten to yet!"
Hias was furious. Karin drew her hand back and sniffed her own fingers.
"Nn... mm... so this is the smell... How strange..."
"..."
Inwardly, Leyre wondered if she was out of her mind.
"Ahem."
Lucia fixed Karin with a terrifying glare from the side.
"Ah, ah... oh dear... Did I go too far? Ha, haha..."
"Karin. You. If you are an android maid as well, then greet Master with the courtesy he is due."
"H-he's not my master, though..."
"Greet him."
Under Lucia's firm, charismatic, wordless threat, Karin shrank.
"O-okay..."
And she gave in.
"N-nice to meet you... I'll introduce myself again. I'm Karin..."
Karin bowed her head.
"I'm a maid who was made for... this and that..."
She laughed, awkward and shy.
