When I went to Aoi-san's room, One-oh-one-chan was already there.
It seemed she viewed Aoi-san as her superior officer. At the very least, she appeared to be intent on looking after her.
"Your Excellency! Do you have any orders for me?"
"Hmm... for now, take the snacks on that shelf. Be sure to share them with your friends, all right?"
"Understood, ma'am!"
...What was this, exactly?
It looked like a scene of a neighborhood big sister and a little girl trying to be helpful. Except for the part where Aoi-san was a brain in a tank.
"Hey, is One-oh-one here? Oh, Big Sister Claire, 'sup."
A girl who looked like quite the delinquent bowed to me. It was Tatiana-chan, an Esper the military had dispatched as a candidate for Leo's wife.
That said, Leo was seventeen and Tatiana was fourteen. A three-year gap in the teens felt massive. Leo treated her more like a little sister than a lover, and the rest of us—boys and girls alike—did the same.
"Tatiana! I got snacks from Her Excellency!"
"Oh, Big Sister Aoi, thanks!"
Tatiana acted like a hoodlum, but she was a polite enough kid.
"So, what's up, Big Sister Claire?"
"Ah, right. Aoi-san, I heard the Replacement Body is finally ready."
The lights on the case housing Aoi-san's brain flickered rhythmically.
"I see. I appreciate your help."
Apparently, this had originally been a project to reconstruct a body for Luna-chan. There was a specific reason it had been put on hold, however.
"I mean, if it fails, I'll die," Luna-chan had explained. "And if they try to make a clone of me, a clone with a completely different rare ability is born. Like one that creates black holes with ESP and swallows everything in the vicinity."
Talk about a public hazard.
We all thought it for a moment, but in Luna-chan's case, she possessed the still-unexplained ability to convert herself into soul information. It wasn't something even she could fully control.
This was no different. Soul transfer was categorized as 'something that works, but the mechanism remains unknown.' Luna-chan was confident, but the high command hadn't given their consent. If Luna-chan were to die and the Mother AI stopped functioning, the Empire would likely fall. I wouldn't have had the courage to give the go-ahead, either.
Luna-chan herself had said, "If it's that much trouble, I don't really need a physical body. As I am now, I can go tease Leo-kun whenever I want."
I hoped to give her a body and go out somewhere together one day. For now, however, it was Aoi-san's turn.
Ten soldiers moved the container holding Aoi-san with extreme care to prevent any damage to the brain. I'd heard the tank had a built-in seismic dampening system, but they still took no chances.
When we reached the battleship's research sector, Leo was waiting. When he was in work mode, Leo looked different—more soldierly, more sharp.
"Major Kamishiro! The transport of Lady Aoi is complete!"
"Second Lieutenant Claire! Understood!"
The researchers connected Aoi-san to the equipment. Luna-chan appeared on the room's large display, while at the back of the room, a woman's body was visible inside a capsule.
She had black hair and looked to be of Japanese ethnicity. It wasn't a clone, but rather a body grown from cells and then repaired using nanomachines. For some reason, unlike a clone, this method resulted in the body remaining in a state of death. It was essentially a vessel where only the cells were kept alive—a medically meaningless state.
"All right, moving the soul. Aoi-chan, I'm knocking you out for a second."
"Yes."
The researchers watched with grim expressions.
"Subject! Vital signs stopped!"
"Initiating transfer."
"Subject has reached brain death!"
"Replacement Body! Commencing activity! Disconnecting life support and switching to autonomous breathing!"
"Incredible... we are witnessing the very moment history changes," whispered the eldest researcher, likely a professor from a prestigious university.
"Eh, I was experimented on in my own body hundreds of years ago. It's not exactly era-defining~" Luna-chan quipped, but the professor wasn't listening. He was trembling with emotion.
"Extract her from the life support capsule!"
"Do it!"
The professor was completely in charge now, but since he was a professional, I decided to let him lead.
The woman was lifted out of the fluid and promptly gagged, vomiting up the liquid. I immediately reached out and covered Leo's eyes.
"What was that for?" he asked.
"Because it irritates me."
It wasn't just because the woman was naked. I simply didn't want any more women getting close to Leo. There was jealousy involved, certainly, but the situation had evolved beyond that.
Leo didn't really realize it himself, but he was popular to an abnormal degree. Abnormally so. If Princess Veronica hadn't been around, the girls at the Officer Academy would have been tearing each other apart over him.
But it was more than that. It wasn't about missing out on the Ugly Ranking or any of those trivial things. It was at the point where any woman he met seemed to be drawn to him like a magnet. I honestly didn't know what would have happened if Veronica-chan weren't here.
I had a bad feeling about this. After all, he was a Savior Hero, the strongest pilot, His Excellency the Grand Duke, and wealthy by any standard. It was impossible for him not to be popular. Marriage proposals were flooding even Brother-in-law Sam's office.
Stranger and stranger women were starting to orbit him. Aoi-san, in particular, was already in a politically delicate position. I could only pray she didn't get sucked into Leo's gravity.
Once Aoi-san was moved to a bed, the procedure was officially over. The plan was to keep her in the ICU for observation, hooked up to various sensors and monitors.
I left the lab with Leo.
"Hey, Leo. What do you think will happen to Aoi-san now?"
"The Fairy wouldn't fail, so I'm sure she'll be fine."
Leo trusted Luna-chan implicitly. Of course, she was a precious ally, but I couldn't help thinking there was always a chance of failure. Maybe Leo was just an optimist.
Actually, it was probably because our leader was so optimistic that we had managed to survive this long.
A few days later, Aoi-san was moved to the general ward. I went to visit her with Leo. When we knocked, a raspy voice called out to us.
"Come in."
Aoi-san managed a faint smile.
"My nerves... haven't quite... formed properly yet... so I can't... speak... very well..."
"Don't push yourself," Leo said. "You should be resting."
"There is something... I must... tell you..."
"Did something happen?"
"The Mother... she is... afraid of... Leo."
I looked at Leo.
Maybe, just maybe, we were finally on the verge of ending this war.