"Memorizing Master's features."
A voice completely flat, without any hint of emotion, came from Astarte.
"You didn't need to stare that long to remember," Cid said, sounding a bit annoyed.
"I don't know," she replied. "Astarte memorized Master's features, but during the confirmation process, they didn't match the stored memory. Is Astarte malfunctioning?" It was the same flat voice, but Cid caught a tiny hint of surprise and confusion.
"Then just stop trying to confirm it," Cid said, looking at her like she was being difficult. He treated her like the emotionless artificial being she was pretending to be.
I know you're annoyed that scammer priest sent you to watch me, so you're messing with me on purpose. But you didn't have to make up such a dumb excuse. You're not really an artificial life form, stop acting like one.
"Command acknowledged... Master."
After getting Cid's order, Astarte lowered her head, not letting Cid see the mix of emotions flashing in her eyes.
Astarte felt something was wrong with her. She hadn't told Cid everything just now. She had lied.
It was true she'd memorized Cid's features. But when she tried to confirm them, his face hadn't been unclear or wrong. She still saw Cid's face. It was just... somehow, she felt it was different from the one she remembered.
If you thought of her like a computer resetting a password, the face she saw then was like a pixelated photo. The face she saw now was like the same photo, but super high-definition, with no pixels. Her senses told her they were the same person, but her feeling insisted they looked different.
And more than that, looking at the second "photo," Astarte felt an urge she couldn't understand. If she had to describe it... Cid's face seemed... beautiful. She wanted to keep looking.
But Astarte's internal knowledge told her this was impossible. That kind of feeling shouldn't exist for her.
Is there a difference between normal people and artificial life forms?
Yes, many. For example, living beings with a spirit have an appreciation for beauty, an urge to seek it out. Artificial life forms don't.
To an artificial life form, pain is data, comfort is data, sweetness is data, bitterness is data. It's all just information from the outside world. They don't feel any difference between these signals because they have no emotions. Only beings with emotions judge these signals, deciding they dislike one feeling or like another.
If an artificial life form thinks something is beautiful, that can only mean it has started developing emotions.
So... what was that feeling?
Astarte didn't know, but for the first time, she felt a strong desire to find out what it was.
"Astarte, you don't have to follow me all the way," Cid said, looking back at her as she trailed behind him. "You can head back first. I'll be fine alone."
He really didn't want Astarte following him home. That would mean if he couldn't catch this whole group of scammers tomorrow night and wipe their memories about the gold cross, his current home might become a target.
Astarte lifted her head and looked at Cid. Her rather robotic way of thinking couldn't process his words into action since it wasn't a direct command.
Seeing Astarte acting like she didn't understand, Cid sighed inwardly.
Okay, I knew getting this world-class collector's item wouldn't be that easy. Of course, a professional scam crew wouldn't just let me walk off with their treasure without watching me. This girl was obviously sent to keep an eye on him in case he suddenly snapped out of the scam.
"Astarte, tell me about the ship I'm supposed to take. And what's the Church like?"
Since he couldn't get rid of her, Cid decided to try and get some information out of Astarte. He wanted to catch these scammers without making a big scene, wipe their memories, and hand them over to the Guard.
Asking about the ship details to avoid getting on the wrong one, and wanting to know about his "future workplace," seemed like good excuses. Even if Astarte lied to stick to the Church story, people often base lies on the truth unless they've planned out every single detail from the start.
This time, Cid's words included "tell me," which Astarte's processing identified as a command. So, Astarte spoke.
"Order acknowledged. The proof Master holds, according to Astarte's memory, allows entry onto any vessel upon presentation. Astarte does not possess information regarding the Church's situation."
Cid narrowed his eyes. It sounded like she said nothing useful, but with his amazing brain, he analyzed the hidden information she'd accidentally revealed.
First, the cross really does work as a free pass for travel because it represents the Church. But because of that, its use would definitely be reported to the Church by the company to verify the user. The Church needs to check if the person using it is someone they actually gave it to.
After all, while not many crosses are lost, some are out there, mostly because their owners got killed.
If the person who killed the owner then used the cross for free rides, wouldn't that be a huge slap in the face to the Church?
So, there must be criminals from this group working inside the shipping company! That's the only way they could stop the report from reaching the Church.
Second, if I'm using the cross to leave, it means I'll be on a regular commercial ship, not some private or illegal boat. This proves again that there are inside agents, and probably quite a few of them.
I mean, if they can use commercial ships for human trafficking, they must have a lot of people on the inside. Maybe even some high-up managers in the shipping company. But it doesn't matter. I don't need to catch everyone. I just need to catch the ones who know this cross is in my hands.
Heh, leave it to me to figure out so much from just one sentence! Hahahaha...
Looking at Cid, who had suddenly lowered his head and started chuckling, Astarte tilted her head, confused about what was happening.
When Cid snapped back to reality and saw Astarte staring at him, he realized his old habit had surfaced again.
"Astarte, wow, I never knew my identity was so amazing! I might even become the Holy Son! Do you think... when I get to the Church, will I have trouble fitting in because of my status?"
Cid smoothly ignored his sudden laughter. He changed the subject, playing the part of a teenager trying to show off to a girl, while also hinting at worry. He hoped Astarte would just assume his earlier laugh was some chuuni kid getting lost in fantasies about his grand future.
"Command recognition error," Astarte stated blankly, offering no real answer. "Artificial life forms cannot provide an answer to this type of query. Requesting new command."
Cid's question contained an implied command "Do you think..." implies "Tell me what you think...", which Astarte's system recognized as an order to speak. But the question itself about fitting in wasn't something she could answer.
A normal person would probably say something nice, trying to be encouraging. They wouldn't just tell someone they won't fit in.
But for an artificial life form, questions without hard data, questions based only on yes/no possibilities and heavily influenced by personal factors, were impossible to answer. Because artificial life forms don't have emotions.
….
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