077. Sweet Commander (2)
077. Sweet Commander (2)
※ This chapter contains somewhat explicit illustrations. Please be advised when reading.
The next day.
Was it because I'd been so busy the past few days? Unusually, I had nothing scheduled for today.
Once I handled the daily accounting, the rest was effectively free time.
On these sudden days off, I usually rested.
Hearing that, you might think, "Isn't resting a little too luxurious for someone who's a commander at Krädel?"—but that wasn't the case. Rest is important.
Humans were not designed to work 365 days a year.
Even in combat, working without rest would eventually make a person collapse. There was no reason to bury myself in work nonstop at a rear base too.
Especially when I worked alongside biodroids whose physical specs were, without exaggeration, a hundred times better than mine.
To keep up with their pace, when a break did come up, I needed to rest thoroughly and refresh my mind and body.
...That's what my head knew, anyway.
When I woke that morning, instead of lounging around on the bed in my quarters, I put on my dress uniform.
That's right. Dress uniform.
Normally, I wear a work uniform for duty on base and a combat uniform for combat, but today, I wore my dress uniform.
It wasn't because of a sudden urgent business trip.
Nor was it because high-ranking generals had scheduled a visit to the base.
As I said earlier, today was a rare day with absolutely nothing to do.
And what I did on such a leisurely day, even wearing my dress uniform—
"Alicia, good morning."
I decided to visit Alicia.
For your information, Alicia was working in the command-and-control room today as well. The handover of duties wasn't quite finished yet.
I had appeared before this Alicia in my dress uniform and greeted her.
Of course, I didn't just greet her.
I tried in various ways to win Alicia's heart.
It wasn't particularly difficult.
I had, after all, lived for ten years with a young female guardian—Sion.
And at the Academy, I had watched countless girl-crazy Sweet Commanders in action.
I knew more than enough about what to say and do to butter up a girl.
For example—
"Alicia, aren't you hungry? Want some chocolate? (Sweet)"
1. Feeding her something sweet.
"Alicia, a girl shouldn't be lifting something this heavy. I'll carry it for you. (Sweet)"
Pressing gender roles on her while showing off my strength would only backfire.
"Alicia, leave this kind of problem to me. I have this handled. (Sweet)"
3. Showing off competence and taking over work.
"Alicia, are you free later? It's nothing, really... just... hasn't life been hard lately? I thought I'd offer an ear. (Sweet)"
4. Volunteering to be an emotional dumpster.
And yet, should I say Alicia's reaction was tepid?
No, actually, it wasn't even tepid.
Alicia responded to every sweet advance in exactly the same cold tone as usual.
"That still does not make me want to accept your thing, Commander."
In the end, until quitting time came, Alicia did not grant me permission to use her body (eyeball).
But that was fine.
If anything, I thought it would be stranger if a character like Alicia succumbed immediately just because I acted sweet for a day.
Like slowly boiling a frog, my strategy was to gradually turn up the heat over time so that, without even realizing it, she would grant permission for "(the Telescope) to be inserted."
In that sense, the first day wasn't entirely without results.
Just before she left work, I dashed over like the wind to open the door for her, and Alicia gave me a faint smile.
It was the sort of smile that said, "What will this man do next...?"
Even if only for a brief moment.
"...Pfft."
She smiled.
Alicia's smiles were extremely rare.
It had already been nearly half a year since we met, yet I could count the times I had seen her smile on one hand.
If I managed to draw out such a smile on the very first day, it wouldn't be strange for Alicia to feel like granting me permission to use her body (eyeball) at least once.
It might have actually happened.
If only I hadn't caused an accident that night.
It really was an accident.
It was an accident, but...
To explain exactly what kind of accident occurred, I first need to go over the layout of Krädel's living-quarters building.
As everyone knows, the barracks building consists of three floors.
1st Floor — Multipurpose Room (effectively a storage room)
2nd Floor — Biodroid Living Quarters / Enlisted Shower Room
3rd Floor — Commander's Living Quarters / Commander's Private Shower Room
The enlisted shower room on the second floor was a shower room in name only; it was closer to a row of shower stalls.
On the other hand, the 3rd-floor commander's private shower room is much more spacious and comfortable than the one on the 2nd floor.
Furthermore, it is equipped with a high-end facility that the 2nd-floor shower room doesn't have—a bathtub.
...For the record, I still did not understand the point of soaking in a bathtub.
I suppose I'm more of a shower person. Or rather, I don't really know the difference between a shower and a bath.
The feeling of, "You get clean either way, so why go through the hassle of preparing a bathtub that's also a pain to clean?"
But for girls in the prime of their youth, the act of soaking their bodies in hot water apparently had considerable value in itself.
For this reason, a few of the biodroids, instead of using the 2nd-floor shower room, would go out of their way to use the 3rd-floor commander's shower room for a half-bath.
I checked the component breakdown.
[Bath Faction]
Alicia, Sumire
[Shower Faction]
Laika, Rinne, Eve (New!)
...If it seems like it's divided by the size of a certain body part, you must be mistaken.
Anyway, getting back to the main point.
Because I shared the third-floor shower room with some of the biodroids, there was always some risk of an awkward accident.
You know, an accident where I walk in without thinking and there are naked, well-endowed women inside.
You might think, "Couldn't you just lock the door from the inside?", but that didn't work.
The third-floor facilities used biometric access, so they would always open for me. That was different from the second-floor shower room, which even the Commander could not open, for the sake of the soldiers' privacy.
If I really let my guard down for even a moment, I could encounter the kind of naked-"kyaa!" situation that seemed to appear in Rinne's favorite novels.
Despite that,
for nearly six months since I was assigned to Krädel, no accident had occurred.
Of course, even the Bath Faction did not literally bathe every single day, so there simply had not been many opportunities for an incident.
But what played an even more significant role was, literally, that I made an effort.
So that my soldiers wouldn't face any discomfort in their daily lives.
So they wouldn't suffer the discomfort of being exposed naked to their commander.
So there wouldn't be any unpleasantness stemming from men and women living together.
It was thanks to my maximum effort and attention that I had reached six months without an accident.
So, what was the problem?
Maybe I had committed too hard to the bit.
I had gotten too committed to the misguided idea of prioritizing Alicia above everything else.
And if I had to shift the blame a little, about one percent of it was Alicia's fault.
Even though her listed specs still made her an S-rank sniper despite being combat-incapable—I learned that part later—she had been frightened by a mere cockroach.
She got scared and let out a shrill, uncharacteristic scream—"Kyaa!"—from inside the shower room.
"Alicia, what's wrong?! I'll save you! (Sweet)"
Faithful to the concept, I entered the shower room where the scream had come from, and—
"......."
I came face-to-face with Alicia, who was looking at me as though I were more disgusting than the cockroach.
* * *
The next day.
Unlike yesterday, today I had a moderate amount of work.
Therefore, Alicia's cooperation was desperately needed.
"Alicia, this."
"......."
"This has to be dealt with today—actually, within thirty minutes. I wanted to handle it myself, and I tried everything I could, but I eventually concluded that I need you to find the data before I can resolve it...."
"......."
"Can't you do something to hel—"
"Leave it and get lost."
Far from cooperating, she was not even treating me like a person.
If I measured the Phase Resonance Rate, for all I knew it had probably dropped back to where it was on the first day we met—or even lower.
When I already needed to be raising her opinion of me somehow,
I had gone and done the most off-putting thing I had done in six months.
What should I do?
How could I make up for last night's mistake?
Hours passed while I drowned in work without finding an answer.
"......."
Alicia left the command-and-control room without even saying, "I'm leaving for the day."
I started preparing to leave too, when—
"U-um... Excuse me...!"
Something entered the command room.
It turned out to be Sumire.
"The repairs on Rinne that you requested last time are completely finished. I came to explain the materials we used and the precautions you should take... but... um...!"
Sumire bowed her head deeply.
"I-I'm sorry. I'll come back another time...!"
"No, why would you? Just tell me now."
"B-b-b-b-b-but right now, Commander, your face looks incredibly terrifying...!"
I did? What's so bad about my face?
I checked the mirror provided in the command room.
...Mm. Indeed, I was making a face that would rightly frighten someone.
Immediately understanding, I apologized to Sumire.
"Sorry. It's not like I'm mad at you. It's just... because of the Telescope."
"Th-The Telescope...?"
Sumire, who had been looking only for a chance to flee, turned back towards me.
Come to think of it, Sumire was almost fanatical when it came to making parts. She voluntarily gathered materials and made all kinds of things even when nobody paid her for it.
A story about a Telescope—an exclusive component used only in specific models—was bound to interest someone like Sumire.
"It's nothing much."
I briefly explained the situation to her.
That Alicia was actually an S-rank sniper.
That she had lost her Telescope, so I was planning to produce a replacement using my eyeball.
That the other party was refusing because she disliked the lewd side effects.
That I had even acted out of character to somehow win Alicia's favor, but it had backfired.
"...I see."
At last, she looked as if everything had clicked into place.
Envious of that relieved expression, I asked her on a whim.
"Could the side effects be prevented, by any chance?"
As soon as I said that, Sumire waved her hands as if troubled.
"Oh, n-no... That's a structural issue, so resolving it is virtually impossible."
"There's no other way to make the Telescope either, right? No alternative parts?"
"Yes. I think the current method is the most realistic and simple."
But it wasn't realistic or simple at all.
I muttered that to myself, but only for a moment.
Examining Alicia's old data, Sumire let out a soft, "Oh."
"What is it? Did you think of something?"
"No. I... still can't think of a way to suppress the side effects, but..."
After a brief pause, Sumire asked me.
"If the goal is simply to soothe Alicia's anger and win her over, how about giving her a birthday present and apologizing?"
"A birthday present?"
"Yes. Um, looking at the data, it says today just so happens to be the day Alicia was manufactured and received her first mission... so, her birthday as a biodroid."
"Huh."
My jaw dropped at what Sumire told me.
Perhaps she'd belatedly noticed my expression. Sumire asked in a fluster.
"Y-Y-You obviously already knew, right? I'm sorry for butting in..."
I shook my head.
"No, I had no idea. And it's not something to be sorry about."
"I-I see. I'm sorry for saying sorry without reason..."
This conversation isn't going to end, Sumire.
Anyway, a birthday present, huh?
A birthday present worthy of giving to Alicia...
"...I can't think of anything."
"U-Uh, you can't?"
No.
If you were giving someone a present, naturally it should be something they liked. The problem was that I had never actually seen Alicia show much enthusiasm for anything.
Or rather, I had trouble picturing such a reaction from her.
The Alicia I knew clocked in at 8:59 like a machine, worked like a machine, and left at exactly six like a machine. She was practically an operations-management machine.
...Well, technically speaking, her body was indeed a machine.
But at least the brain inside her head was that of an actual girl.
"Can a brain really be that soft and squishy?"
"What do you think, Sumire? What do you think I could give her to make Alicia happy?"
Sumire answered without a moment's hesitation.
"...How about alcohol?"
"Alcohol?"
I checked again.
Well. I knew that.
"Does Alicia like alcohol? I've never seen her drink it."
"I-I've never seen her drink it in person either... but I'm certain she would like it."
Sumire continued as she said this.
Alicia had undergone a considerable number of modifications designed specifically for a sniper.
Those modifications all served one purpose: suppressing her senses and emotions to reduce the overload on her brain when she activated her sniping skill.
In short, it meant her body itself was desensitized.
"Then is the reason Alicia has such a blunt personality...?"
"Yes. I believe a certain part of it is the influence of her body. Looking at it in that context, alcohol, which moderately activates the senses... how should I say... I think it would suit her palate very well."
Sumire spoke with conviction, which was rare for her.
A moment later, her face turned bright red and she added,
"A-And... maybe while drunk... she might grant you permission... saying it's okay to insert it..."
No, I think getting permission while someone's drunk is a bit wrong.
And please use the object properly. Say "the Telescope."
...Well, anyway.
"Thanks for the advice. It was a big help."
I was grateful for the explanation.
But Sumire shook her head wildly.
"N-No, it was nothing. More than that, I truly hope you reconcile and get her permission. That way, I'll be able to try making a Telescope out of the Commander's eyeball, too. E-Ehehe...!"
Leaving behind Sumire, who was looking forward to that absurd part of it, I headed for the black market near Krädel.