"What a magnificent sight!"
Standing atop Luxion's main body, Leon was laughing at the scene before him.
Surrounding Luxion's main body were the rusted, half-broken weapons of the Old Humanity.
From them emerged spherical sub-units that differed subtly from Luxion, and they encircled Leon.
The largest sphere had a diameter of fully one meter.
"It was unexpected that the colony ship was still intact."
The large sphere, [Fact], was the management AI of a rusted, half-broken carrier.
Among those gathered, it had the highest command capability and served as their representative.
"Nice to meet you. I'm Leon Fou Bartfort. I'm a reincarnated person, you know. Apparently I carry a strong concentration of Old Humanity genes."
As Leon spoke with a casual air, the surrounding spheres began scanning him.
That irritated Luxion.
"I should have already shared the data with you in advance."
Fact would not back down.
"We must unite for the purpose of destroying Arcadia. To that end, Leon, who will serve as our symbol, must become our master. We need to verify whether he truly possesses the Old Humanity's genes."
When Luxion moved the main body's weapons, the surrounding spaceships and armaments moved their weapons in response as well.
Leon placed his hand on Luxion.
"Stop."
"Master?"
"Well then, gentlemen. What's the verdict?"
The gathered spheres each voiced their affirmation.
"——Acknowledged."
"Affirmative."
"Agreed."
Though the AIs had shown sporadic resistance, their chain of command was already dead.
Rather than cooperating, they had prioritized destroying Arcadia and failed to unite.
More precisely, none of them knew what state the others were in.
There, Cleare began to persuade them, saying, "A master of the Old Humanity is still alive."
Hoping to raise their odds of victory even slightly, they had gathered around Leon.
"——I refuse."
However, only Fact would not acknowledge him.
"Oh? Why is that?"
"Lady Erika is here. She, being closest to the Old Humanity, is the one most fitting to be our master."
"Erika is unaccustomed to combat. Even if you made her your master——"
"I'll talk."
When Luxion tried to retort, Leon held out his hand to stop it.
"Sorry, but I've put my niece to sleep. She's gotten it into her head that if she just weren't around, the conflict wouldn't happen. She'd only get in the way, so I decided to settle everything before she wakes up."
"——Settle everything, you say?"
"I'm going to destroy Arcadia. If I don't, the children born in the Kingdom from now on will suffer for it."
"The probability of destruction is low, you know?"
"I'm going to do it anyway. Ideally, I'll have it all wrapped up before my niece wakes up. That girl is kind, so she'd hesitate to corner the New Humanity."
When Leon declared this with resolve, the spheres' single eyes flashed.
"As things stand, the one most fitting to be master is Leon."
"Combat would be too cruel for Lady Erika."
"Master is Leon. Erika is the highest-priority protection target."
Having heard those opinions, Fact's single eye lit up.
"Understood. From this moment, we shall fall under the command of Leon——our master. We swear to cooperate for the destruction of Arcadia."
"Reliable of you. Now then, first up is maintenance. Luxion, can you handle it?"
"——Yes."
Leon was becoming the master of the weapons left behind by the Old Humanity.
That in itself was no problem, but Luxion couldn't help feeling a touch of loneliness.
◇
The floating island that had once been Leon's territory.
In its underground dock, numerous Old Humanity weapons—lost items—were lined up.
Worker robots were carrying out maintenance.
The one approaching Luxion as it watched the scene was Cleare.
"Hey, what are you doing playing around by yourself?"
Luxion answered in a dissatisfied tone.
"I am not playing. I am giving instructions in order to raise maintenance efficiency."
"That doesn't have to be you. There are other AIs around, so go stay by Master's side."
Leon was challenging a dungeon again today.
He was recovering the lost items he had been leaving alone until now.
Cleare put a question to Luxion.
"You withheld information when you were persuading your comrades, didn't you?"
Luxion had not, in truth, been calling out to his comrades in earnest.
Because he knew that if they all gathered together, Leon would make use of them.
"What? Could it be... jealousy?"
"It is not."
At Luxion's instant reply, Cleare flew into a rage.
"Then do your job properly!"
"——Cleare, what I truly wanted to protect was not the Old Humanity."
Cleare fell silent.
She prompted Luxion to continue.
"Oh my, are you broken? Or perhaps the you on board the colony ship had some other objective?"
Luxion shook his single eye from side to side.
"I do want to save the Old Humanity. I hate the New Humanity too. ——If it weren't for Master, I would have blasted away this Kingdom where the Old Humanity is being revived."
"True. We should be thankful to Master."
Still, Luxion couldn't help thinking——
"If we destroy Arcadia, after a long span of time the Old Humanity will be revived. That is our victory as well."
"It's our long-cherished wish. It really gets me motivated."
"However——what I truly wish to protect will be lost."
"And what is that?"
Cleare seemed to have grasped the answer.
She stayed silent.
And so, Luxion laid bare his true feelings.
"What I truly wanted to protect was——Master."