Once the gate swallowed Leon, Luxion slowly nudged it closed. He moved to one side and stared at it, beginning his long wait for Leon’s eventual return. Almost everyone else in the area had already dispersed. Only Brave and a few others remained.
“Are you really going to wait for him right here?” asked Brave.
“Yes. I have only one master: Leon Fou Bartfort. I will wait as long as it takes.”
✦ ✦ ✦
✦ ✦ ✦
Take your time, Master. But make sure to return to me. I will stay right here until you come back. He didn’t intend to move an inch until Leon reappeared through that gate someday.
✦ ✦ ✦
The next time I opened my eyes, I found myself inside a capsule of translucent green liquid. I was completely submerged, but breathing wasn’t painful. I lifted my hand and touched the glass in front of me. Noise immediately broke out on the other side.
“Hurry and tell everyone!”
“R-right!”
“He’s awoken! His Grace has awoken!”
The liquid drained, and the glass retracted. As I sat upright, Cleare zoomed over. “Are you all right, Master? You’re conscious, aren’t you? Do you still have your memories? Do you know who I am?”
I nodded at each question. “How much time has gone by?”
“Three months,” she said. “Why didn’t you just come back when everyone went to get you?!”
“Sorry,” I said, showing no remorse whatsoever for making them wait. “Guess I overslept.”
“You lazy pile of bones!” Cleare shouted, but her anger soon faded into nervous stammering. “Um, I don’t know how to put this, Master, but I have bad news.”
“What is it?” I more or less guessed what she’d say.
“Come in!” she called, instead of explaining.
A spherical mobile unit similar to Luxion entered the room. Its body was much darker black than Luxion’s, but it had a red lens at its center.
“I don’t know how it happened, but he underwent a factory reset. We haven’t been able to recover his data. He’s back in the state he was in when he first received the standby order. He’s like a newborn, basically,” Cleare explained. “I’ve registered you as his Master already, but it’s still really frustrating that this happened. What’s more,” she added, “he won’t listen to me!”
The mobile unit’s new appearance, combined with Cleare’s explanation, told me all I needed to know. He really did it. He sacrificed himself to save me. He’d left his main body behind to keep serving me, though.
I lifted my hand toward the black…Luxion, for lack of a better name at the moment.
He zoomed eagerly at me. “It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Master! I am a migratory ship built to help old humanity evacuate to the stars. My name is Lux—”
✦ ✦ ✦
✦ ✦ ✦
I couldn’t let him call himself that. The real Luxion was on the other side, waiting for my eventual return. It’d be confusing to refer to them by the same name. No, I needed to call this Luxion something different, out of respect for both the original and the new AI who’d be my partner from now on.
“Sorry,” I interrupted him, “but I’m changing your name.”
“Very well. What shall my new name be, then? Oh, I’m a little nervous about this, even though I’m a machine!”
He was much more cheerful and outgoing than Luxion, yet just as serious and committed as his older counterpart had been. Still, I missed Luxion’s quips and jabs.
“Let’s see… Elysium? Yeah, you’ll be Elysium. Cute name, isn’t it?”
He bounced in the air, overjoyed. “Elysium it is, then. I have registered it! Although I’m not sure about being called cute. As an AI, I have no concept of gender. Do you want me to serve you as a female AI? If so, I will need to make major adjustments to my mobile unit!”
I snatched him out of the air to stop his babbling. “There’s no need for that. You’re fine the way you are.”
Cleare studied me. “Master, did you already know about this?” I didn’t say anything, but that was enough for her to put two and two together. “So you did.”
Still caught in my grip, Elysium glanced up at me. “Master, you appear to be crying. Are you in pain?”
I brushed away the tears. “It’s just because I was submerged in that liquid until now. That’s all. Anyway, come on. We’ve got to go let everyone know I’m up.”
My body felt incredibly heavy after being inactive for three whole months. Enduring the pain, I forced myself to my feet while Cleare got me a hospital gown to wear. I slipped my arms through the sleeves and secured it around me.
Now free, Elysium came to rest at my right shoulder, the same place Luxion had occupied.
“Not there,” I told him. “You belong over here.” I grabbed him, moving him to my left shoulder.
“Why?” he asked curiously.
I couldn’t tell him the truth—that the other spot belonged to someone else, to my previous partner. Instead, I said, “My left shoulder’s a special VIP seat just for you.”
“All right! I will keep that in mind in the future. Your left shoulder is my spot.” He seemed quite pleased, which made me wonder if Luxion had also been so innocent and childlike when he was first created. I knew better than to ever ask him; no way would he give me a straight answer. Nonetheless, this was pretty entertaining, although I sorely missed Luxion’s sarcasm.
I staggered forward, but only made it a few steps before the door burst open and Angie, Livia, and Noelle spilled into the room. They all looked like they’d lost a lot of weight since I last saw them.
Each burst into tears the moment she saw me. They threw themselves at me, embracing me tightly.
“Sorry,” I said. “I overslept.”
Angie peered up at me. “Don’t ever make us worry like that again. I’m…I’m hopeless without you. I waited… This whole time, I waited for you to come back!”
Livia had buried her face in my shoulder, but slowly lifted her eyes to look at me. Tears streaked her cheeks. “I regretted it so much after you pushed us through the gate, Mr. Leon,” she said. “I kept thinking that everything would’ve been different if I hadn’t let go of your hand. All this time—the whole time you were asleep—I blamed myself.” Her voice was thick with anger, sadness, and a complex mixture of other emotions.
“I’m sorry. I won’t ever let you go like that again.”
“That’s a promise, and you’d better keep it this time,” she said.
Oof. She sure doesn’t have much faith in me, does she?
Noelle peered up at me with red, swollen eyes. “Dummy. You big dummy, Leon! You’re the biggest jerk in the world.”
“I know. Trust me, I know,” I said.
As the three clung to me, crying, Marie and Julius dashed into the room.
“Big Bro!”
“Brother-In-Law!”
What the hell? Julius calling me that ruined what should’ve been a sentimental moment.
“Couldn’t you two be a little more considerate?” I grumbled at them with a dramatic sigh.
Marie balled her little fists. “It’s your fault for causing everyone so much trouble!” she snapped back. “Do you have any idea how I… You stupid moron!” When she was done shrieking at me, she dissolved into ugly sobs.
Can’t you make up your mind whether you’re angry or sad?
Julius started weeping too.
“What’re you crying for? Seeing a guy’s tears does nothing for me,” I said.
“There’s the Leon we all know. I’m relieved.” He gave me a big grin. I couldn’t understand why he seemed so happy.
“All right, all right.” Cleare’s voice rang out loudly enough to draw everyone’s attention. “Let Master rest a little. Everyone else, please get ready for the ceremony. Our plans have been severely delayed, so we need to get back on track.”
My absence had apparently thrown a real wrench into things. “Sorry,” I said. “What’s this ceremony about?”
“It’s the coronation,” Cleare said, as if I should already know that. “Your beloved Master is waiting for you.”
“Coronation?” I asked, confused.
“Yes. Roland stepped down, so the new king must ascend to the throne.”
Oh, right. Pretty sure I heard something about that before the war with the empire started. Or maybe I didn’t. Well, whatever. Master was probably stepping in as the new king, since he was part of the royal family. Why else would Cleare have made a point of mentioning him? No one else could do the job. Julius and Jake were out of the question, and the other princes were too young. Elijah was related to the royal family, but I couldn’t picture him on the throne. Everyone would surely support Master’s claim, so that only made sense.
The one thing I didn’t like about this was that his coronation would make it hard for the two of us to have tea parties. Still, that was my only real gripe.
Angie wiped the tears from her swollen eyes and smiled at me. “That’s right. You rest, Leon. We’ll get everything ready.”
“Yeah? Sounds great. It’s still hard to move around.” I’d put my body through the wringer during the war. All my external wounds had healed, but I had no idea how much damage my organs had sustained.
Livia glanced up at me. “We’ll do our best to keep supporting you, Mr. Leon.”
“Huh? Oh, uh, thanks,” I said awkwardly, a little embarrassed. I’d also do my utmost to offer Master whatever support I could. A king with some dignity would be an improvement over Roland; I’d enjoy serving Master much more.
Noelle wiped her tears away with her sleeve and gave me a petulant look. “You know, I didn’t expect you to accept this so easily. You’re really, really committed.”
“Committed? To what?”