Sleeping Princess

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Voytek headed out of Mobile Arsenal Platform【Astraea】on a pickup truck and came back after a while.

He brought a large cargo container back with him.

After parking it within the hangar, he took out a capsule from inside the container and carried it all the way to the medical bay.

Kou and the rest gathered before the capsule.

A beautiful young girl who looked to be about 7 to 8 years old was ‘sleeping’ inside the capsule.

Her hair was completely gone from her head.
Overall, she gave off a sickly impression.

「I plan on imparting all my memories to her.
I’m counting on you to take good care of her, Kou.」

「This girl is your daughter?」

「That’s right.
She is akin to my daughter.
I…… I once served her family, and this girl was my last owner.
Though that’s already more than a thousand years ago.」

「Your last owner huh……」

「This child was injured during the war back then.
She underwent treatment inside this medical capsule, but another war broke out soon after the last one ended, so the capsule was hidden away.
A lot of the populace during that time became casualties of the war.
And then, it was decided to turn humanity back into quantum data once more.
The survivors ended up getting their memories erased and subsequently digitized, and this facility was left forgotten in a dormant state for more than a thousand years.
I have never encountered anyone who held the right to reactivate it… until now, that is.」

「That’s……」

「I have always watched over her clan.
Unfortunately, this child was overlooked when everyone else was turned into quantum data.
I was already approaching my operational limit more than a thousand years ago, but I went dormant along with the facility.
I only managed to wake up about 200 years ago and proceeded to travel the world in search of hope.」

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「So she’s the last member of the family you treasure, huh, Master.」

「My actual last wish was to find someone who could resuscitate her.
The one who can inherit this facility will also obtain the ability to do so.」

Master had a distant look in her eyes.

Kou felt like he could somewhat understand.
Yes.
Master wouldn’t have gone to all that trouble just to find someone to hand the facility over to, Kou thought.

She had someone she wishes to save no matter what.
It was a very convincing reason.

「Once this child opens her eyes again, she would no longer have any parents or siblings to look after her.
It’s also doubtful if she can still preserve her former memories.
Without the support of AI, even her personality wouldn’t have been preserved.」

The brain of the sleeping girl had a memory aid implanted within it.
They were basically nanomachines that expand the original functions of the human brain.
It can be said that they were a more high-performance version of the language learning nanomachines Kou took when he first came to Planet Asia.

Master was planning on uploading her data to the aforementioned nanomachines.

「We don’t know what would happen once my memory data gets uploaded to her.
Perhaps it’s actually better for her not to wake up in the first place… What do you think?」

「……I don’t think I can answer that, Master.」

「Right.
I don’t think anyone can offer a definite answer.
And that’s why I’m entrusting the decision to you.
Since you are a Development Engineer, you should have the right to resuscitate her, Kou.」

『I’ve confirmed that Kou indeed has the corresponding authority.』

Astraea followed up Master’s words.

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「I see.
That makes me quite relieved.」

「Alright, I understand.」

It was cruel to tell her to live while enduring her suffering.
Kou wanted very much to tell Master to continue living with him, but he refrained in the end.

「Master, thank you for choosing us nyaa.」

「Right.
We will never forget your grace.」

「Leave everything ta us.」

Their three new companions also extended words of gratitude to Master.

Master narrowed her feline eyes and smiled happily.

「Now then, Kou.
I’m sorry.
I’m sorry that I am unable to tell you a lot of things myself.
I will start porting my data over now.
That’s while I am still functioning… No, while I’m still alive.」

「Thank you for everything, Master.」

「Likewise.
Thank you for fulfilling my dearest wishes, Kou.」

Master affectionately licked Kou’s cheek and approached the capsule.

Kou stroked the back of his neck with a pained and reluctant expression.

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Aki and Nyanta helped Master enter a small case that was sucked into the back of the machine.

Her body was going to be decomposed within.

「How much of Master’s memories she will inherit will depend on her and the support nanomachine’s capacity.
The process will take a day at the shortest, and three days at the longest.
The longer the process takes, the more memories of Master she would inherit.」

Kou nodded in response to Aki’s explanation.

「Master didn’t choose to revive us right away when she woke up from stasis.」

Nyanta murmured with a serious look on her face.

「She was resolved to wander around this devastated world to look for a qualified Development Engineer by herself.
She wouldn’t hand us over to an ambitious person.
But she also wouldn’t hand us to an unreliable one.
We’re glad that you were able to meet her.」

「Ambitious people huh…… Yeah.
I think you can pretty much do as you like in this world after obtaining this place after all.」

An automated weapons factory with advanced ancient tech.
Kou wasn’t yet fully clear about what exactly it was capable of, but he was sure it had the potential to be dangerous depending on how it was used to disseminate tech from the Interplanetary War era.

「It would have been easier for her if she had some helpers.
But she didn’t choose to wake us up in the end.
That’s because once you get revived from cryo-sleep, it would be really difficult to be placed back into such a state again.」

「Meaning?」

「It’s because there was no one who’s able to properly run and manage the cryo-sleep facility.
But since you’ve come, we were able to successfully get woken up.」

「I’m not sure if that’s something to be happy about or not.」

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「What’s the difference between eternal sleep and death? That can be said for this child as well.」

Aki stroked the capsule with a faraway look in her eyes.

「We now have a definite purpose again.
And now, we just want to do our best……… nyaa.」

「That ‘nyaa’ came pretty late y’know.
You sure you’re not forcing it just because it sounds cute?」

Kou felt like he just got a glimpse of Nyanta’s real character.

「I just wanted to lighten the serious atmosphere a bit nyaa.」

「Geez…… What’s the purpose you’re referring to anyway?」

「Of course, it’s to support Kou.
And maybe helping upgrade Unit 5 too nyaa?」

「Oh, right! That almost slipped my mind.」

「I’ve looked over TSW-R1 Unit 5’s data, and the results are pretty interestin’.
They did really good makin’ such a machine with this era’s current tech limitations.」

It looks like Voytek had already taken a shine to Unit 5 as well.

「I guess I’ll have to learn a lot from now on.
I’ll be counting on your help starting tomorrow, everyone.」

「Please leave it to us.」

Kou felt reassured after seeing Aki’s gentle smile.