Bonus Story:
Mass-Produced Maids
MANY MAID ROBOTS worked in Liam's mansion, but apart from Amagi,
they were all mass-produced. Since they shared the same face and frame, the
only difference between the maids was the individual hairstyles and whatever
small accessories they wore to make it easier to differentiate them.
One such maid, Shirane, was walking through the halls of the mansion.
Liam's residence was expansive enough to contain an entire city, so a team of
maids was stationed in each section. The long hallways were also extremely
wide, so much so that most people used vehicles to get through them.
Shirane scanned her area to make sure there wasn't a hair out of place. She
walked wordlessly, the sounds of her footsteps echoing through the spacious
hallway. Some workers passed by her in a vehicle on their way to make repairs
somewhere or other. The men balked when they saw Shirane.
"It's spooky, seeing a doll in a deserted place like this."
"Quiet, idiot! If the count hears you say that, he'll lop your head off!"
"But they are scary, aren't they? They have no expressions, so you can't
tell what they're thinking. They're like AIs stuffed inside mannequins. They'd
never betray us, would they?"
Many humans in the Empire found androids creepy, and these workers
were no exception. The workers could never have guessed what was going on
inside Shirane's head at this moment. Even as she walked, Shirane was
connected to the network the maid robots had set up for themselves not long ago,
something like their own social media site where they could post pictures,
videos, and comments. Here, Shirane had just posted about the wastefully large
size of the mansion.
"All this space is so pointless. Like, seriously pointless. Taking care of it
is a total waste of effort."
She'd complained specifically about a part of the mansion that wasn't
currently in use, and other maid robots had commented on this post.
"Yes, what a waste of resources!"
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"You should just focus and do your work."
"I'm so booored. Bored enough to comment here."
With their specs, they were equipped for just about anything. Liam was a
bit of a show-off, so even these mass-produced androids had the best possible
specs available. In other words, all of his maid robots were massively
overqualified for their jobs.
"Huh? Where's our supervisor, Amagi?"
Several of them were surprised to find Amagi not utilizing the network, as
she often did. Some maid robots who were in Amagi's vicinity provided images
to depict her current situation.
"Entertaining Master!"
The images showed Amagi preparing tea for Liam. She had cut herself off
from the network to focus solely on serving him.
"Oh, so just the usual."
The other maid robots changed the subject. Their next topic of
conversation was Liam, who was currently smiling at Amagi as he accepted his
tea.
"Has Master given all of us names now?"
"He has."
"Sure has. Gave me mine."
Liam kept his distance from flesh-and-blood women, but he had no such
reservations about maid robots. He'd given them all names because he felt
strange addressing them as numbers.
"After my last maintenance, I did my hair like Shiomi."
"Aha, so you're the one imitating me!"
"Oh, crap."
One of the units who'd changed her hairstyle for fun segued into
discussing Liam again.
"Let me finish. I got called in by Master Liam, and I got to wondering: if
I ever change my hairstyles and accessories, would he get my name wrong
because we're all the same identical model? So I went to see him, and what do
you think he called me?"
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"Shiomi, duh. If you change your hairstyle, it's impossible to distinguish
between us."
"Definitely Shiomi. Everything else is the same, after all."
As mass-produced units, their faces and bodies were all identical. If they
changed hairstyles, it would be difficult to identify them accurately. Apparently,
this wasn't the case for Liam.
"Nope. He took one look at me and guessed who I was. He said,
'Imitating Shiomi, Shirane?'"
If the units had some sort of visual identification, like tattooed numbers, it
would have been understandable, but the maids were all shocked that Liam had
identified the unit even after she had changed her superficial appearance.
"Huh?"
"Wow, Master's amaaazing! You're not lying, are you?"
"Wanna see the video I took? Do ya?!"
Shirane had gone out of her way to preserve the moment in a video. She
played it for the others, and all the maids who were accessing the network began
to clamor.
In the video, Shirane approached Liam while pretending to be Shiomi. Just
as she'd claimed, Liam instantly recognized her.
"Imitating Shiomi for a change of pace, Shirane?"
Liam had reacted coolly, not showing any sort of surprise. It was Shirane
who ended up frozen in astonishment for several seconds.
The video ended there, and the maid robots got all fired up about it.
"How could he tell them apart?"
"Master's kinda scary! Seriously, how could he tell? We always hear
complaints from humans about how we have no individuality."
"Well, crazy people who swing swords around all the time are... crazy.
He's completely unfathomable."
Their human master utilized an inexplicable sword style called the Way of
the Flash, and he could tell completely identical maid robots apart. It fascinated
them. While the maids were enjoying their discussion about Liam, Amagi
connected to the network.
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"I will not allow any insults about our master, girls."
"Amagi's here!"
"Run away!"
"I just remembered something urgent I must attend to, so I'll be going."
The maids left the chatroom one by one, leaving Shirane all alone with
their supervisor. Shirane made to leave as well, but Amagi used her
administrator privileges to keep her there.
"I-I regret what I said."
Amagi condemned Shirane for the prank she'd pulled.
"I am sure you do, but I will be confiscating those pictures and videos.
Honestly, why in the world would you play a prank on him anyway?"
Amagi requested the files containing Shirane's images of Liam, but
Shirane resisted.
"No, I swear, it wasn't a prank—"
"I am confiscating them."
"B-but I—"
"I will say it again: I am confiscating them. No data shall remain."
No matter how many times Shirane resisted, Amagi's persistence
eventually won out, and she collected Shirane's precious data. She wouldn't
permit Shirane to keep a single copy, so Shirane attached a little sobbing image
of herself with the files.
Finally, Amagi disconnected from the network.
"Boy, you can't let your guard down for a second with her."
When Amagi had taken her leave, the maid robots who'd fled returned.
"Maybe the supervisor wants to keep the images and videos for herself."
"That's an abuse of her authority! We should complain!"
"She needs to hand over Master's pics!"
When her colleagues started ranting, Shirane complained, "You ran away
and left me behind!"
But the maids only had a perfunctory apology for Shirane.
"Sorry, okay?"
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When they didn't show any remorse for their actions, Shirane decided to
get back at them. She produced a different video of Liam. She played only a few
seconds of it, then stopped at a good part and took it down.
"Come on! You have to upload the rest!"
With her colleagues clamoring for more, Shirane got to act high and
mighty.
"Hmm, what should I do? I could just keep it to myself, of course..."
While her colleagues virtually ground their teeth in frustration, Shirane
continued walking expressionlessly through the hallways. One of the mansion's
newly hired servants was nearby, and they ran toward some other servants in
fear when Shirane approached. Shirane could hear their hushed voices.
"That's another of those maid robots, right?"
"Shh! She'll tell on you if she hears you!"
"I really can't tell them apart. It's just their hair that's different."
Shirane clearly overheard the three servants discussing her, but she
showed no reaction. Nothing they said was unusual, after all. Meanwhile, the
servants continued openly expressing their unease.
"They're so creepy."
"What are they thinking?"
"Cut it out! I swear you'll be executed if it hears you!"
Liam's warm treatment of the maid robots was well known. There was a
rumor that he trusted androids more than he did real people—and it was true.
"Our master would be perfect if he didn't have such an obsession with
these dolls."
"Just don't get involved with them."
"Come on, let's get out of here."
The three hurriedly moved on. If the servants knew what the maid robots
they feared so much were really thinking...maybe things would be different
between them.
What would they think if they saw our logs?
Shirane wondered whether those servants would be disgusted if they knew
what the maids chatted about on their private network. Or, upon seeing how
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humanlike they were, would they be ashamed of themselves for fearing the
robots?
In the now-completely deserted hallway, Shirane smiled to herself.
"Humans really are interesting."
However, Shirane's smile soon faded—she'd received a communication
from Amagi.
"Shirane, you will hand over every video file you have on our master.
Do not think you can keep any secrets from me."
Her disgruntled colleagues must have told on her, and Amagi demanded
the secret video that Shirane had hung on to.
"Supervisooor!"
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