Lud and Sven were married. The two became husband and wife and chose to spend the rest of their lives together. That was why Sven wished for something else to change. She wanted to replace her mechanical body with human flesh and blood and to grow old and die with Lud. To make that wish come true, she decided to turn to Meitzer, the man who claimed to be her father.
Then... In a room of the small bakery Tockerbrot in Organbaelz...
After the wedding ceremony, Sven and Lud left the banquet early and returned to the shop, which was also their home. It felt like the first time they had been together in a long while. Meitzer had arrived days before, immediately followed by Sophia, Daian and Blitzdonner. Tockerbrot was a shop, but it was possible to have too many visitors.
“Master...”
But they were alone tonight, of course. The residents of Organbaelz weren’t so insensitive to not allow the newlyweds privacy on this special day and night.
“Sven, you don’t have to call me that anymore. Now we’re, um...”
“Oh... right.”
The two looked down in embarrassment.
Th-this isn’t good...
Sven was a maelstrom of emotions. When Lud had proposed and they swore their love for each other, she had been excited, but also surprisingly calm. As time passed and she returned to her senses the pounding of her heart wouldn’t cease.
They say one never knows what will happen in life, but until a few years ago, Sven had been the artificial intelligence inside a military weapon, so she had never imagined she would become an artificial human and marry her former pilot.
It’s a little late to realize it, but I’ve done something incredible...
She had no regrets. Zero, zip, zilch. She was just thankful for her happiness, a joy that was more than she deserved. That’s why she was afraid to tell him. She was afraid the iron hammer of God would fall to condemn her greed and foolishness in hoping for more.
“Um... uh... it’s a little sudden, so... let me call you Master for a little while longer.” She was stalling for time.
“Yeah, I see.” Lud scratched his head in embarrassment.
He’s precious to me...
Sven’s emotion was so intense she nearly wept. Everything about him was precious to her. That was why she couldn’t turn away from a certain reality.
“Master... I may be able to become human.” She had to tell him about this possibility.
“What?” Lud was at a loss for words.
It was understandable. He had sworn to accept everything about her, whether she was machine or human, and he had committed his love to her on that basis. To tell him this on the very night they fulfilled those vows overturned previous circumstances.
“Become human... You mean your body?”
“Yes. My body is a machine frame encased in synthetic flesh, with pseudo body fluid running through it and no organs that resemble the human heart or brain. Instead, as you know, my source of power is a rezanium reactor.”
Sven and her sister machines Rebecca and Lillie were categorized as humanoid Hunter Units. They were weapons reduced to the size and shape of human beings. Like a human being, Sven laughed, got angry, cried and loved, but she was pure machine.
She didn’t need to eat, sleep or even breathe. She didn’t age, so she didn’t grow. Sven didn’t know exactly how many years she would remain operable. Dying meant all her functions would stop and she would not restart, but she would stay as she was until then.
“I want to be a human being, the same as you.”
“Sven...” Lud spoke with great kindness at her touching determination.
“You don’t need to force yourself.”
“Master...”
Aw, this guy...
Sven could tell what he was thinking. Even among the people who had celebrated with them today, only a handful knew she was a machine. Those who knew or might have guessed included Daian from the Royal Weapons Development Bureau; Jacob’s father Blitzdonner, an intelligence agency operative; and Lud’s former superior officer Sophia, who was like a sister to him. No one else knew.
However, the day would come when the world would notice. Maybe not today or tomorrow, but what about in five years? Even when the young apprentice Milly and the boy Jacob grew into adults, Sven would remain unchanged. Someday they would notice. They would see she wasn’t human. Then people would look at Lud with suspicion.
He was worried about that, so... No, she thought he worried about that so he was reassuring her that she didn’t need to force herself.
Master is sensitive when it comes to these things.
Yet again she was impressed by how perceptive her partner was.
“Master, you don’t understand. I’m not saying this for the reason you think.” She didn’t want to be human out of fear of what people might think. “It’s because I saw Major Blitzdonner and Charlotte together.”
Charlotte was Jacob’s mother and Blitzdonner’s wife.
“They parted over ten years ago, but when they were finally reunited, they were as comfortable with each other as if they were together yesterday.”
The two had been estranged and Charlotte hadn’t even known whether Blitzdonner was alive or dead. Nonetheless, Charlotte had welcomed Blitzdonner home as if it were only natural. She had smiled with joy, despite the intervening time and even though they both had changed.
“I was envious. They are living their lives and aging together... and I realized that I want that too.” Sven took a step closer to Lud. She took his arm and they sat together on the sofa. “When you become an old man, I want to be an old woman by your side so we can stay together like this.”
Machines don’t age or die. Humans fear aging and death. Sven wasn’t human, and she desired both. Because there is death, there is also life. Because there is aging, there is growth. Wanting to be human and eventually die also meant she had a craving to live as a human being.
“Do you?” Lud’s reply was brief.
That was enough for Sven to understand what he thought.
“Yes.”
Lud had sworn to accept everything about her, so he also accepted her desire to be human.
“But how can you do it?”
“Well, about that...”
Even if he understood she wanted to be human, the problem of how to accomplish it remained. If machines could simply become living organisms, tomorrow trucks would turn into cows.
“That man... The one claiming to be my father...”
“Meitzer?”
“He asked me if I wanted to be human.”
“He did?”
Meitzer had asked her as they said goodbye. That was why he had unexpectedly visited Tockerbrot. He wanted to confirm her desire to become a human being.
“I couldn’t answer right away. The question was too big. But now I can answer, so...”
“Who is Meitzer?”
“Well...”
Meitzer had known the truth about Sven from the start, and he even understood parts of her that she didn’t understand herself.
The name Douglas Meitzer was false. He used that name as the commander in chief of the army in Noa, a nation on the new continent. Sven and Rebecca had superhuman combat abilities, but when they had faced Meitzer together, they couldn’t even scratch him.
“He, uh... took a direct hit from a grenade and remained unharmed.”
Lud’s face contorted as he remembered what had happened a few days ago. Tockerbrot had suffered extensive damage during the battle. Meitzer had stopped the blast with his own body, partially saving the shop.
“He wasn’t unharmed. He was destroyed and then immediately revived.”
For one moment, Sven had seen it. His body was broken, torn, and burned, but then miraculously healed.
“That man is a combination of the uncanny and bizarre. Having seen that, it seems quite likely that I can become human!”
“Yes, I see what you mean.”
While they had no idea exactly what Meitzer was, and despite the fact that he was dangerously invulnerable, he had put himself at risk to protect Lud and Jacob that day.
“I don’t know who he is, but he doesn’t seem ill-intentioned.”
“Do you really think so?”
“Yes.”
Lud thought back. Meitzer had helped Lud find the courage to accept everything about Sven. He might be a problem for Sven, but the way he looked at her was the way a true father would.
“Is there still time?” He looked at the clock on the wall.
“I’m not sure.” Sven followed Lud’s gaze. It was very late at night, but he might still be awake.
A short time later, Lud and Sven visited the church atop the hill. They wanted to consult someone else about what to do. But...
“Bring more alcohol!”
After the two central participants had left the wedding celebration, the attendees had set about drinking and singing.
“Stop her! Stop that woman!”
“I can’t watch any longer!”
The children Jacob and Milly had left, along with Charlotte, who had to work the next day. Only the adults fond of drinking and partying remained.
“Gueh!”
“Sh-she can hold her liquor!!”
“What?! Is that all you got?! Did I win?”
Amidst the guests now rambunctious with drink was Lud’s former superior officer Sophia von Rundstadt, who was wildly swinging around a bottle.
“Hey, Langart! What’s up? Why’d you come back?” Blitzdonner called out to the two from a distance, where he was guzzling liquor as if the tumult didn’t concern him.
“What’s going on here, Major?”
“Hmm?”
Blitzdonner hadn’t lost control of himself, so Lud thought the major could explain why Sophia was so out of control. Instead, the man responded with a face and voice that said, “Do you really need to ask?”
“Master, Major Rundstadt must have, um, strong pent-up feelings about everything that’s happened.”
“Oh... well, she is a responsible person.” Lud responded in agreement with Sven.
Blitzdonner looked exasperated.
“Your husband doesn’t get it.”
“Yes, he’s slow that way,” Sven replied with a resigned look.
Ever since she was a small child, Sophia had had a crush on Lud. But in the military, she was his superior officer. Allowing her emotions to disturb military order would have placed the two of them in danger, and others as well. She had thoroughly hidden her feelings, and had missed her chance to let Lud know how she felt about him. In the meantime, Lud met and fell in love with Sven.
“My master can guess what’s in another’s heart, but when he’s personally involved, he’s as thick as a brick.” She leaned close to Blitzdonner and whispered so Lud wouldn’t hear.
“Yup. That’s about right.”