036. Rinne (2)
036. Rinne (2)
Evening.
While walking through the residential block corridor, I spotted a familiar figure from behind.
A small frame. Red hair tied in two tails. Denim shorts that made it hard to know where to look.
To put it simply, Rinne.
That very Rinne was tiptoeing through the corridor, surveying her surroundings with a cautious demeanor.
......Yet the fact that she didn't even notice I was right behind her meant she really wasn't cut out to work as a military biodroid.
That aside, what was she doing here at this hour?
And not just anyone, but the one girl who'd holed up in the basement and never came out.
My wondering didn't last long. I noticed that Rinne was clutching a full armload of something.
"What are you carrying around?"
"Aack!"
When I spoke to her casually, Rinne shrieked.
She didn't stop there—Rinne dropped the things she'd been carrying onto the floor.
Thanks to that, I suppose, I was finally able to identify what those items were.
Nothing special, just books.
Specifically, they looked like the kind of light novels Rinne would enjoy.
Just as I realized that, Rinne turned around and screeched.
"Why the hell did you scare me like that! I nearly had a heart attack!"
"Hey now. Watch your mouth when speaking to your Commander."
Besides, you don't even have a liver.
I held back from saying that since it felt like it might count as biodroid discrimination, and Rinne snorted at me.
"Ha, who exactly is the Commander here~? All I see in front of me is a skinny pretty-boy~?"
......Hm.
If I fired back by bragging about how much I could lift on the big three or something, I'd just be getting dragged into Rinne's bratty little-girl routine.
Instead, I started questioning Rinne.
"Shut it. What are you doing here at this hour? And what are these books?"
"None of your business."
Her way of speaking was somehow suspicious.
Ignoring Rinne as she snapped at me, I took another look at the books that had fallen to the floor.
Only then did the titles of the books catch my eye.
「Beyond the Cradle」
"......Huh? I've read this series."
Without any particular thought, I spoke in a barely audible voice.
That was because I figured Rinne wouldn't care at all whether I had read this series or not.
But, for some reason.
—Umjjil.
Rinne flinched, her shoulders trembling.
Then, as rigid as a wooden puppet, she turned her head toward me and asked.
"Wh-what are you talking about. You've read this? Beyond the Cradle?"
"Yeah. I've read it."
"How many volumes did you read?"
"That's... I think I read up to the volume where the protagonist gets assigned a blonde biodroid?"
"Volume 3."
Rinne declared without a second of hesitation.
Then she asked, sounding thoroughly suspicious.
"Before, you talked like you had no interest in light novels, didn't you?"
True.
And I really wasn't interested.
But I had never said I'd never read a light novel. In fact, I had clearly said that I had read some. I had a classmate who really loved light novels and practically forced them on me.
Beyond the Cradle was one of the series I'd read while trying to get a feel for light novels.
......Of course, I lost interest and quit pretty quickly.
I quit, but.
"Beyond the Cradle was pretty fun, actually."
"Wh-what......?"
"I said it was fun."
If it hadn't been fun, I wouldn't have been able to read up to volume 3.
...Of course, I still didn't really understand what that friend meant by light novels being fun.
In other words, I had zero interest in the lovey-dovey daily life scenes with the beautiful girl characters, and I actually skipped them every time they appeared.
Nevertheless, the reason I gave Beyond the Cradle a relatively good review was because the novel itself resonated with me in several ways.
For one, the protagonist had become a Commander for a sick family member, which felt similar to my own situation. Back then, I'd also decided to become a Commander for Sion.
On top of that, I also liked the relationship between the Commander and the biodroids as depicted in the novel.
In other light novels, that relationship was often portrayed like something between a mindless beautiful girl slave and a slave master, but Beyond the Cradle was different.
How should I put it? Their relationship felt much more nuanced and realistic.
For instance, at first, they despise each other.
And yet, they come to understand each other and eventually join forces.
It was immersive enough that I could read up to volume 3 while ignoring the parts I didn't like.
"Th-thanks for enjoying it, I guess."
I'd rambled on more than necessary, hoping that showing some familiarity with the series might make Rinne warm up to me, and she gave a brusque reply.
It was a slightly odd way of phrasing it.
"Why are you thanking me?"
"Ha? I didn't thank you!"
"But literally three seconds ago, you said so yourself."
"If I said I didn't, then I didn't."
She clearly said it...... No, let's drop it. This pointless argument.
More importantly.
"Why did you bring these books out late at night?"
I asked again the question that had fizzled out a moment ago.
At that moment, Rinne was picking up the books that had fallen on the floor.
Without even looking back at me, Rinne answered curtly.
"Can't you see? I'm on my way to throw them out."
Huh?
"You're going to throw them out?"
"That's what I said."
"No...... why would you throw these out? They look perfectly fine."
"Whether someone throws out perfectly fine stuff or not, is that any of your business?"
Well. That really wasn't my business.
But even so, it was not a decision I could easily understand.
First of all, it couldn't be that she was throwing them out because she had finished reading them. This girl wasn't the type to immediately dispose of books she'd read. Judging by the state of her basement when I'd dropped by before, she was the type to hoard everything she could, read or unread.
It was hard to believe she'd come out to clear space, either.
If she were throwing out books to make space, she'd have picked the most boring ones to toss. But judging from Rinne's reaction just moments ago, she'd enjoyed this novel too.
Furthermore, there were absolutely no other series among the books she was trying to throw away.
It was exclusively the Beyond the Cradle series, and she had meticulously brought out the entire set from volume 1 all the way to volume 15.
Why was that?
Did she have some kind of bad blood with the author?
While I was even entertaining such thoughts, Rinne let slip a remark.
"...It went on hiatus."
"Huh?"
"This novel went on hiatus."
Ah.
"So you're throwing it out because of that?"
"Yep. If you get it, then move. Don't cling to people and make a nuisance of yourself."
Rinne snapped as if issuing an ultimatum.
However, contrary to Rinne's wishes, I didn't move out of the way at all.
In that state, I spoke to Rinne.
"Then give them to me."
"What?"
"I said give them to me. Those books."
"These?"
Those.
"......Why?"
"Just because. Seeing them again made me want to finish the series."
"Ha? I told you it got discontinued."
"Even so, the volumes you're holding now, up to volume 15, were published, right? I'd like to read at least up to there."
I asked again in a tone that suggested I had a considerable interest in the Beyond the Cradle series.
To be honest, I didn't really have any interest.
It was true that I had found it reasonably fun up to volume 3, but it was a light novel in the end.
Even if I came across this series in a bookstore, I would never have bought it.
The reason I was asking for the books despite that was simple.
It was because I wanted to use these books as a starting point to get closer to Rinne.
I didn't even need us to become friends. I'd be satisfied with just one thing we could talk about without being at each other's throats.
In that sense, I poured on the lip service again.
"I especially liked the heroine from volume one."
"Do you remember her name?"
......Hm.
"Roxy? Right?"
"What. You remembered."
For real?
Rinne asked me again as I stood there baffled.
"It got discontinued right at the point where it's all about whether he gets together with that Roxy or not, you know? Are you really okay with that? Doesn't it make you hate the author enough that you don't want to read it?"
"I said I'm okay with it."
Then I added,
"Do you think the author wanted to put it on hiatus? Maybe they couldn't write, or something unavoidable happened and they had no choice. They probably stopped with tears in their eyes. I understand."
"......Really?"
"I said so."
Info) Actually, I don't think that at all. I'm the type to fly into a rage when a novel or comic I was enjoying gets discontinued.
I simply wasn't that attached to Beyond the Cradle, so I didn't feel nearly as angry about it.
Hiding those inner thoughts, I delivered the decisive blow.
"And you never know, right? If the writing goes well later, they might resume the serialization. They must be trying to write somewhere."
Looking back, that was a bit of excessive lip service.
On top of that, I wondered if I'd aimed that lip service in exactly the wrong direction.
Judging by how she was throwing away the books simply because it was discontinued, Rinne must have liked the novel itself, but harbored deep resentment toward the author.
If I defended the author in that context, Rinne was bound to get upset.
I was sure that would be the case.
But, unexpectedly, Rinne didn't get angry or anything.
No, rather than that.
'A deeply moved face?'
She looked incredibly happy, as if her entire life had just been affirmed.
It was a reaction I couldn't understand at all.
No, seriously. Why was this girl suddenly acting like this?
Had she secretly been hoping that the serialization would resume someday?
Had she liked the writing so much that she stormed out to throw it all away in a fit of rage, only to be swayed by my hopeful theory?
My puzzlement was short-lived.
Rinne thrust the books she'd been clutching toward me with a whoosh!
"Alright."
"Huh?"
"You take them. These books."
"Ah, aah, thanks."
I accepted the books into my arms.
The books were fairly heavy—fifteen volumes, after all. Rinne could carry them easily because she was a biodroid, military model or not, but for a human like me they were a little much.
......And so, a belated thought also occurred to me.
Did I have the time and stamina to read this massive volume of weeb novels?
Now that things had turned out like this, I'd have to read them.
My regrets were also short-lived.
"Hey."
Rinne stopped me as I stood there awkwardly.
"What?"
"I heard you made Laika stronger?"
It was a slightly out-of-the-blue topic.
But I had no time to be flustered by it.
Because right after that, as if possessed by some spirit, Rinne brought up something so utterly unexpected.
"Could you make me a little stronger, too?"
***
Make me stronger too, just like Laika.
In other words, she wanted me to raise her combat capability as a military biodroid.
Without any context, out of nowhere, Rinne had asked this of me.
To me, it was a completely incomprehensible request.
Up until now, Rinne had acted as if she had zero interest in combat.
More than that, she had been the epitome of a freeloader who didn't even perform the minimum duties of a military biodroid.
And yet, suddenly, she was asking me to make her stronger. There was no way I could know the reason.
Nevertheless, I decided not to press her for the reason.
......It wasn't that I wasn't curious about what Rinne was thinking.
I was, in fact, intensely curious. What had gotten into her that she'd voluntarily asked me to strengthen her?
The problem was Rinne's insolent and impulsive personality.
If I started grilling someone as impulsive and contrary as Rinne, there was a very real chance she'd snap, "If you don't want to, then forget it!" and take it all back.
For now, I figured it was safer to take the win and learn her reasons gradually.
And so.
"Alright. I'll make you stronger."
I promised her confidently.
But then, Rinne, the very person who had asked, questioned me suspiciously.
"......Can you actually do it?"
"Of course I can."
"How?"
Well.
The details would inevitably vary, but the general methodology for strengthening a military biodroid was well established.
1. First, run a precision analysis on the body and identify its stats, skill status, and so on.
2. Then, go through adjustments such as giving suitable skills, equipment, and parts.
3. Have them carry out training or live combat missions of appropriate difficulty.
By simply going through these three stages, any military biodroid could at least pull their own weight.
In the first place, any model that couldn't pull its own weight via this method wouldn't even be supplied to the military.
That was exactly the point Rinne had doubts about—and the one I hadn't considered.
"That method won't work."
"What?"
"I said it won't work."
"Why?"
"Because even if you do a precision analysis, you can't properly pull up the specs to begin with."
"......Why not?"
"That's obvious. Because I'm not a military biodroid."
Having said that, Rinne asked quietly.
"......Even someone like me, can you really make me stronger?"
That was everything that had happened last night.