Lunch break.
After gulping down her unpleasant diet meal replacement, Fran found Clara and Lucia, who were sitting together, picking at their boxed lunches.
Clara’s lunch consisted of a small cake and milk, while Lucia had a boxed meal.
All of it was from the Rowland Convenience Store upstairs, and it was all the cheapest stuff.
“Hey, aren’t you two eating a bit too carelessly?”
Clara could only sigh helplessly and share the woes of a working person.
“The company doesn’t have a kitchen, and takeout in the city center is expensive. Otherwise, I’d much rather cook for myself… Unless we go back to the dorm every noon to make lunch?”
Lucia nodded in agreement.
Back at Nightmare, there was a staff cafeteria and employee meals were free, but there was no such place in the Dreamwitch Underground Garden. After a few days of boxed lunches, Clara and Lucia’s wallets were starting to feel the strain.
Fran knew about the siblings’ situation, and could only force a bitter smile.
“Just order delivery from now on, and have President Chessia reimburse the expenses. If she refuses, I’ll treat you myself… But she’ll definitely agree. She’ll just tease you about it for a bit.”
“Okay, I’ll ask her later…”
Clara stuffed the remaining pound cake into her mouth, then washed it down with a bag of milk.
She then asked, “Fran, did you come here for something?”
“Yeah, since we’re going to the seaside resort, have you two prepared swimsuits?”
With the trip confirmed, preparations for next week naturally had to begin.
“…No, I didn’t bring a swimsuit.”
Lucia replied, blushing slightly.
After all, she’s a conservative college student who doesn’t even like wearing dresses. Swimsuits were a bit much for her. Back in high school, she did have a school swimsuit, but since she was a late bloomer, it no longer fit.
“Mm, I don’t have one either.”
Clara shook her head in a daze.
Fran hadn’t expected Clara to have a swimsuit anyway. She’d only been a girl for half a month, and had never been to a swimming pool or anything like that. If she did have a swimsuit, Lucia would have to question her motives—like whether she’d been secretly visiting the pool without telling anyone.
“Alright! Then let’s go buy them after work today!”
Fran made the decision on her own, leaving Clara a bit surprised.
“Huh? Isn’t that kind of rushed?”
“You need to be well-prepared! Especially you, Clara—your clothes aren’t just for us. When the time comes, all the fans watching the show will see you too…”
Fran said this as she unwrapped a lollipop and popped it into her mouth, pointing at Clara.
“So your swimsuit has to be carefully chosen! And you’ll need several sets!”
It felt a little like being a celebrity, but Clara couldn’t really picture it yet.
“Leave that to Nyx’s recommendations.”
The voice came not from any of the three, but from Fran’s pocket.
Fran pulled out her phone, and a projection of a dark-skinned, white-haired unicorn girl appeared above it.
“I’ll select different styles of swimsuits for all three of you, based on your body types and appearance, scouring the entire net, and guide you to the right shops.”
Nyx was genuinely trying to help, but Clara still refused.
“No thanks. Nyx’s suggestions are never reliable.”
“Nyx only makes reasonable recommendations based on the circumstances and collected information.”
Her tone sounded a bit aggrieved, but as a self-learning AI, Nyx’s advice had indeed lacked common sense in the past.
“Um, I’ve been meaning to ask since I first saw her,” Lucia said, setting down her lunchbox and peering at the hologram in Fran’s hand, blinking her eyes. “Who is this big sister? She looks kind of…familiar?”
Nyx’s dark skin and white hair looked very much like the Snake-Eyed Witch they’d met at the Expo Center, and with the obvious nonhuman unicorn feature, it was hard not to make a connection.
Clara wasn’t sure how to answer, but Nyx spoke for herself:
“Hello, Nyx is a high-performance assistant AI developed by Dr. Fran Livka. I can provide intelligence queries, product searches and price comparisons, purchase spaceship tickets, or even generate software’s underlying code in real-time. Nyx can arrange all aspects of your life.”
She deliberately kept her usual indifferent tone, just like those emotionless, selfless weak AIs, but both Clara and Fran knew it was just an act.
Say what you will, a weak AI couldn’t lie so smoothly.
“Huh? She can even generate software? Miss Fran, you’re amazing!”
Fran was much younger than Lucia, but Lucia genuinely admired her.
As a mechanic, Lucia was handy with hardware, but struggled with software programming—she couldn’t even type very fast. If she had Nyx’s help…
…
Getting showered with praise, Fran could only play along with Nyx’s lines.
“Yeah, she’s my assistant AI, but her mainframe isn’t here. The phone just runs a terminal app.”
Lucia would never guess that Nyx’s mainframe was right there.
Inside her own big brother’s body.
But Fran Livka really did know a lot about AIs.
Her late father was a renowned expert in the field, and her nemesis, the Clockwork Angel Alice, was also an S-Class Hero who happened to be an AI.
Even if only for revenge, she had to learn about this field.
That’s why Nyx’s performance piqued Clara’s curiosity.
Yet even now, half a month since the company opened, she still hadn’t tried connecting to the Nyx driver again, and was still tinkering with her devices…
After all, the incident in the modifications department had left a deep scar, and it had taken the tech department days to repair everything afterward. This time, she’d have to set up plenty of safeguards.
Nyx, however, offered, “If Miss Lucia needs it, Nyx can be installed on your phone too.”
“Oh, really?”
Lucia looked to Fran, since Nyx was, in name, Fran’s AI.
“Sure! Well, even if I said no, she’d just sneak over by herself…”
Fran had no way to control this super AI—she’d just installed herself on Fran’s phone on her own, and sometimes chatted with Clara behind her back.
They’d even plotted that incident together.
With Nyx’s terminal app installed, Lucia excitedly cradled her phone.
“Miss Nyx, about the software generation part… Could you help me with a few things?”
… Lu… cia… Miss…
However, Nyx on Lucia’s phone didn’t seem to function well.
Without projection capabilities, she could only appear on the screen, but both the image and voice lagged badly, even glitching out.
Nyx immediately “escaped” back to Fran’s phone.
“Sorry, Nyx can’t run on such outdated hardware.”
“…Huh?”
As a result, Lucia’s shopping list just got a little longer.
Premium Chapter
Login to buy access to this Chapter.