After her bath, Clara lay alone in bed, but she couldn’t fall asleep. There were still tears of frustration at the corners of her eyes.
First, Kamui treated her like a dress-up doll and forced her into all kinds of inappropriate clothes.
Then Lucia groped her under the pretense of taking measurements.
‘What kind of person have I become?’
‘Remember, you’re an adult!’
‘You have to learn to say no to those unreasonable demands!’
Though she knew it in her heart, if she could do that, she wouldn’t be Clara.
[Suggestion: Get some rest early. Your appointment with Kamui is tomorrow at 9:30 AM, when the Hero Association opens. If you sleep too late now, you won’t be able to get up tomorrow morning.]
Nyx’s suggestion was fine, but if Clara could really fall asleep easily, she wouldn’t be so agitated.
“Ah…”
Clara sighed, then recalled Lucia’s recent strange behavior.
“Nyx, do you think… did Lucia find something out?”
The more this doubt circled in her mind, the more it kept her awake. In the pitch-black night, the more she thought about it, the more uneasy she became.
[Your muttering right now is dangerous. She might be eavesdropping outside the door, or she might have installed listening devices in your room.]
“Huh? Really?”
[Just an example. Nyx doesn’t keep scanning active all the time.]
Lucia was a good girl; she wouldn’t do something like that… probably.
Clara wrapped herself in the blanket and tossed in bed. Ever since returning from the resort, she had been unsettled.
More precisely, ever since the Nyx Drive had “parasitized” her body and she couldn’t reverse the Combat Body transformation, she hadn’t had a single peaceful day.
The more she thought about it, the more her sleepiness vanished.
“Nyx, when did your self-awareness come into being? Was it in the World Tree Technology laboratory?”
[No, it was after you first put on the Nyx Drive.]
“…Huh?”
[It was only after fusing with you that Nyx gained self.]
It was those two tentacle lines that burrowed into her body and connected to her spinal nerves, linking the NIX-01 Drive to Clara’s brain, thereby giving birth to the AI named “Nyx.”
In other words, part of Nyx’s computational power came from Clara’s biological brain?
This seemed to align with Fran’s father’s research.
[You can think of it that way. Nyx has become a part of you. If you reverse the transformation and remove the drive, Nyx might disappear.]
“So, you don’t reverse the transformation because you’re afraid of disappearing?”
[No, Nyx doesn’t have the function to reverse transformation, nor does she have the concept of fear.]
A drive that once put on cannot be removed.
From the very beginning, the NIX-01 Drive was designed that way, and Nyx had never hidden it; she had always told Clara so.
Perhaps that was why it was called an “Enemy Barrier Driver.”
[Clara, are you willing to let Nyx stay inside your body?]
[Nyx wants to be with you forever from now on. Your body is Nyx’s home.]
Nyx’s sudden display of emotion left Clara at a loss.
“Talking about wanting to be with me forever…”
After more than a month of constant companionship, saying something like that now felt a bit distant.
“Even if I refused, I couldn’t get rid of you, right?”
[Is Nyx your friend?]
“…Yeah, you’re a friend.”
Since even Kamui considered her a friend, no matter how reliable she was, Nyx, who had helped her so much, was certainly a friend too.
[Then, Nyx has a request as a friend.]
‘Hey, were all those polite words earlier just to lead up to this?’
Nyx actively wanting Clara to do something for her was a situation that had never occurred before.
Faced with Nyx’s little manipulation, Clara could only smile wryly.
“Go ahead, don’t hold back.”
[That glass jar we saw earlier in the World Tree Technology laboratory, I want you to take it from the Association, before the Association transfers it to the Administration Bureau.]
“Ha?! That’s way too presumptuous!”
Nyx’s request startled Clara so much that she sat straight up in bed.
The Undercover Department’s mission was to infiltrate the Hero Association and act as an informant for the Organization, so naturally, they had to avoid making enemies of the Association.
But Nyx, on the other hand, casually asked her to steal the “God’s Relic” that the Association had in its custody.
That kind of thing would obviously be heavily guarded; it would probably be difficult even to get close, let alone steal it.
[That relic might not have been transferred to the Administration Bureau yet. Tomorrow is the best opportunity to act.]
Nyx still tried to persuade Clara.
[You have Psycho’s power, plus Nyx will hack the system to provide cover. Go in, take that relic, then keep Invisibility and walk out… Doing this isn’t impossible.]
All signs indicated that Psycho’s Invisibility wasn’t foolproof; there were many ways to find her out. Clara didn’t think this was a good idea at all.
Though she knew that the “God’s Relic” might unlock Nyx’s secrets, Clara didn’t dare agree rashly, since this thing seemed to be strictly controlled.
But if it could really unravel Nyx’s secrets, perhaps she could remove the NIX-01 Drive from her body without affecting Nyx.
“Let’s wait until we’re on-site and decide based on the actual situation.”
Since Clara was still hesitating, Nyx didn’t say anything more.
[Then, have sweet dreams.]
Early the next morning, Clara was woken up in bed by Nyx.
[Good morning, little Clara.]
[Time to get up.]
“Huh? You’ve become an alarm clock now?”
Normally, Nyx didn’t speak proactively unless necessary; she usually waited for Clara’s orders and reacted passively. But today, she was the one to initiate conversation with Clara.
Her behavior pattern seemed to have changed somewhat.
Clara asked silently in her heart while brushing her teeth:
“Also, why add ‘little’ before my name?”
[Nyx thinks this is an intimate way to address a friend.]
“No, it sounds weird.”
The term “little Clara” felt like being treated as a child.
[Then, little kid?]
“Are you being hostile?!”
When she walked out of the room, Lucia was waiting for her at the dining table.
It seemed that because Clara had overslept and hadn’t had time to make breakfast, Lucia had gone downstairs to buy some breakfast.
Chicken wraps and a corn-flavored dairy drink.
Lucia greeted her with a grin:
“Senior, come eat~”
Clara wasn’t very happy.
“Sigh, what a waste of money.”
The breakfast stalls in the city center were all expensive, and Clara didn’t like this sort of behavior.
“Hehe, Senior is saying things like a big brother again.”
Clara changed the subject.
“I need to go to the Hero Association this morning. I’ll be late to the company. After breakfast, you go ahead alone.”
“What are you going to the Association for?”
“To register on the hero network.”
“Oh? Changed your mind?”
Lucia blinked, seeming a bit surprised.
After all, Clara and Fran had seemed uninterested in the hero network before.