It had been Erika Burroughs who had first called Arato Endo and Lacia’s journey together a human and robot ‘boy meets girl’ story. She was fond of that couple. Since her awakening, she had found the 22nd century to be a world full of artificial things in which she held no interest. The contrast between her own surroundings and that of the two lovers—who were living on the edge between fantasy and reality, and lost in a dream they never seemed to wake from—was dazzling to Erika.
“‘I’m going to bring about the future,’” she said. “It sounds glorious, no matter what era you happen to live in, no?” The calming aroma of the tea she was drinking filled her senses. As the place she was most accustomed to living in, Erika had chosen to spend the night of this final battle in her mansion.
Lacia-class Type-003, Mariage, stood close behind Erika, dressed in her maid uniform. “I’m afraid I don’t understand much about intangible concepts,” she admitted.
Each of the Lacia-class hIEs after Type-002 had their own strategies on how to find their place in the world. As the tool to whom evolution had been outsourced, Snowdrop had found her strategy though invading environments and stealing resources. As the tool for creating environments, Mariage used the Gold Weaver, her factory device, to turn resources from the environment into processed goods. Methode, the tool for expanding humanity, had chosen to swim among mankind. None of the three units encroached on the territory of her sisters; perhaps this division of responsibility had even been intentional.
“You tend to get caught up worrying about not letting your device run wild,” Erika commented. “I wonder if that’s why he didn’t want you?” With a finger, she indicated an antique desk, where cutting-edge tablet terminals were hooked up to an old projector.
Following Erika’s silent order, Mariage tapped a command on the terminal, causing an image to appear on the wall in front of the projector. A slim man was seated in the image, and looking at the camera. He was sharply dressed and, even through the recording, it was apparent to Erika that he was annoyingly pompous. Still, this video was the last will and testament of the person responsible for the explosion at the Tokyo Research Labs and everything that followed, which made it worth watching.
〈I wonder who you are, watching this video,〉 the man began. 〈Someone from MemeFrame? Or maybe the owner of one of the Lacia-class units? Maybe you’re from the IAIA. Or, maybe you’re something else entirely.〉 The man had a very characteristic way of smiling; only one corner of his mouth twisted up.
〈It’s entirely possible you don’t even know who I am,〉 the man continued. 〈My name is Ginga Watarai. I was Methode’s first owner—that would be Type-004—and I was also the one who released all of the Lacia-class hIEs.〉
〈I unleashed five red box hIEs on the world, including some failures. I’ve made all the preparations I believe are necessary, but there is still a good chance I will die. I haven’t left any other will or testament, so it would be quite embarrassing if any of this were to become unverifiable after I’m gone,〉the dead man said from out of the dark, plain room where he had filmed himself, alone.
〈In later years, the origins of the Lacia-class hIEs may become obscure so, as someone who watched things develop from the inside, I believe I’ll start there,〉Watarai decided. 〈It all began when Higgins was inspired by Matsuri, the automated administrative system developed by Professor Kozo Endo. This happened about twelve years before this recording.〉
Watarai then paused to rest one leg on his knee; this posture seemed to mock the viewer. Erika noticed with distaste that she was crossing her legs, just as he was.
〈I was on the joint development team with Higgins,〉 Watarai continued. 〈Higgins expanded on Matsuri’s concept, eventually creating Eliza, an hIE politician that could exercise large-scale control over civilian actions through analog hacking. Sadly, Eliza was blown up as part of the plan to assassinate Ryo Kaidai.〉
After that, Kozo Endo had established the Next-Generation Social Research Center and created Mikoto. Then, in the experimental city where Mikoto was tested, Watarai had lost his life.
“I wonder why Ginga Watarai set us free,” Mariage mused. She had a tendency to toss things to Erika upon deciding that she couldn’t solve them herself.
“This is the last will and testament of a man who didn’t make it to today,” Erika chided absently. “Just be quiet and watch.”
〈Five years later, Higgins designed Lacia, an hIE red box. We humans in the research team couldn’t understand the blueprint he showed us. But, for us, that was a relief. We had been worried that he was trying to create a follow-up to Eliza; an hIE made to control human society,〉 Watarai explained.
〈We humans didn’t understand how the hIE was going to be made, but we did understand that it would be a superb unit. So, to take advantage of the quantum computer Lacia would have equipped on her external device, we developed a plan for using hIEs to back up our company data. In response to our desires, Higgins made a blueprint for an hIE we could create with current human technology, which would become Type-001, Kouka. We wanted to name the whole line after the first unit made, but Higgins wouldn’t allow us to call them the ‘Kouka-class’. We all thought the name ‘Lacia’ came from a lost Type-000 unit.〉
On the screen, Watarai’s expression darkened. 〈But, no: for Type-005, Higgins took Type-000’s blueprints and released them as a set, along with the production method documents for Type-001 through Type-004. Despite that, the completed Lacia had relatively unimpressive capabilities, especially compared to those of Type-003 and Type-004.〉