“You’re gifting this to me?” Ana asked as she peered at the wooden box I’d placed on the table.
“Yeah. I’m sure it will be useful to you.”
Ana thanked me and then waited for a moment before I urged her to open it. “Is this...a stuffed bear?” she asked with a puzzled look, which made sense since Ana, a grand duchess, was not of the age to be receiving stuffed animals.
“It’s not just any stuffed animal. Start by pressing this button,” I said, showing her a button hidden under the ribbon tied around the bear’s neck.
“Huh?! It moves?!”
After activating it, the stuffed animal began to move, greatly surprising Ana. Bridgette was also surprised and leaped in front of Ana to protect her, most likely thinking she was in danger. It was truly impressive how she could move so fast and without a single sound that it was like she practically teleported.
“Th-This a mechanical doll as well?” Bridgette exclaimed.
The word “golem” didn’t exist in this world, so I explained to Bridgette that this was just like the “black steel knights.” It wouldn’t be long now before His Majesty decided on the punishment for House Lillard, which meant Lady Francess would be transferred to our custody as Ana’s secretary, meaning she’d be around Ana a lot of the time. In preparation, I’d made this golem as a way to stop any potential assassination attempts by her. Its ultimate directive was to protect Ana at all costs, so it was programmed to even ignore Ana’s orders if it determined her life was in danger. Even if Lady Francess somehow tricked her into disabling it, if she tried to attack Ana, the bear would still activate to protect her life.
Though it looked like your typical, run-of-the-mill stuffed brown bear, it was installed with a very powerful barrier to block physical and magic attacks, which would deploy in emergencies. Even by my last world’s standards, the barrier it produced was on the stronger side since it could protect against all elements and had extreme durability. It could easily shrug off Lady Francess’s magic and even the focused fire from my golems. Even if she was suddenly rained down upon by a hail of arrows and a storm of spells while she slept, she wouldn’t even be scratched.
“I...highly doubt anyone would be able to remain asleep until the moment they’re under siege by an entire army in their bedroom. Surely an army at the gate of the estate would be sufficient to wake them,” Bridgette said with a deep sigh.
I’d also worked hard on the different types of sensors I’d put inside the bear. For example, there was one that could even detect greater stealth magic, which meant there was absolutely nothing to fear in regard to Lady Francess’s ability to hide her presence. Without any supplemental golems to help, the sensors were able to function at roughly three kilrometres. With communication with detection and guidance supplementary golems in the sky, that range could extend all the way to thirty-six kilrometres. This way, no matter where Ana was, she would never be out of range.
“You’re not going to use that technology to spy on her, are you? If you do...” Bridgette’s eyes turned to slits.
Like hell I’d do that! What kind of person do you take me for?
“The only one who can admire the madam as she lounges in her room is me! Simply looking at her soothes my heart. The only one who’s allowed that healing is me! I absolutely won’t forgive you spying on her!”
What?! There’s a side of Ana I haven’t seen yet?! I want to see her like that! But peeking in on her without her permission isn’t okay, and I don’t want her to hate me... Grr... This isn’t fair, Bridgette!
“By the way, is it capable of attacking as well?” Bridgette asked.
Of course it is, and it can fire shots with extremely high precision. Even without supplementary golems, it can accurately attack within a three-kilrometre area. With supplementary golems, it can go up to thirty-six kilrometres. If you held up a coin, it could easily shoot it wherever you were in its range.
With both its precision firing and detection abilities, even if Ana were to be attacked inside a building in the middle of the city, the stuffed bear could accurately dispatch the assassins by shooting them through their heads. It was also capable of attacking with very powerful offensive magic, and was strong enough to escape magic barriers or even cages made of orichalcum. If the attack was changed from a focused beam to a spread attack, it could easily eliminate thousands of soldiers in an instant.
I also took into consideration how to make it feel good while holding it, so I put cotton under the fur, but underneath that was a bundle of metal. Though it was quite hefty, the vector, scalar control mechanism made it light enough for a woman to hold it with ease in a single hand. Because of this control mechanism, it could ignore inertia and go faster than Mach four. It also had magic weapons for close-combat warfare inside it, making it powerful in close-quarters combat. Out of all the golems I’d made so far, this might have been the one with the highest specs. I used every ounce of my technology to make something for Ana’s safety.
“Oh my, you’re a noble?”
The bear had a skirt that it lifted up by the sides to curtsy, just as a noble would do. Ana wasn’t listening to my conversation with Bridgette at all. Her attention was completely focused on the moving bear. It made sense since she loved these kinds of cartoonish bears.
“It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance. I’m the grand duchess of the Grand Duchy of Sevensworth, Anastasia.”
She’s so cute! So incredibly so! She’s introducing herself to the golem! That’s so cute!
“Where do you hail from?” Ana asked, excitedly trying to become friends with it.
“Sorry, it’s not able to talk. I’ll add a speaking function sometime soon.”
“O-Oh, I’m terribly sorry. I had no idea you weren’t capable of speech,” Ana said very apologetically to the bear, thinking she’d been insensitive to it.
I couldn’t help but smile even more. How is she so cute? Seeing her apologize to a golem is just too adorable. Since I’d designed it to be her bodyguard, I hadn’t equipped it with any speaking functions. However, now I clearly needed to. I’ll give it a high-functioning AI so that Ana can enjoy talking with it. It’ll be a lot of work, but this is for Ana. I’d work myself to the bone for her sake.
“Sir Gino. Does this cute bear have a name?” Ana asked, smiling excitedly, her eyes sparkling.
Ana’s heart had been stolen by the bear, which was toddling around on two legs.
“The bear’s yours, so you can give it whatever name you’d like.”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Come out, Charlotte.”
“Yes, madam.”
At Ana’s call, the stuffed bear climbed out of the bag on Bridgette’s back. If someone attacked Ana and thought Charlotte was nothing but a stuffed animal, they’d be in for a world of hurt since she could easily change the tide of battle to our favor. Whenever other people were around, Charlotte wouldn’t move at all and would behave like a regular stuffed animal. It was only when nobody else was around that Ana would call her out of the backpack.
When I’d given her to Ana, she’d been dressed in only a simple skirt, but now she wore a lavish dress studded with jewels. Ana loved her so much that she’d gone through the effort of having it specially made.
The backpack she rode in was something that Ana had made herself as a present for Bridgette. Charlotte was a very important part of Ana’s security detail now, and I wanted her with Ana whenever she left the mansion, but of course, to everyone else, Charlotte looked like a regular stuffed bear. Apparently, a grown woman walking around with a stuffed animal was very embarrassing, and Bridgette had always been red in the face when they walked outside, which was what prompted Ana to come up with this idea.
“Heh heh, what do you think of this backpack? The young madam herself made this ultimate masterpiece with her own two hands. Look at this wonderful craftsmanship and embroidery! Isn’t it great?! She gave me such a wonderful gift!” Bridgette said smugly and with pride, grinning at me in an obvious attempt to show her superiority.
I had to admit that the craftsmanship and embroidery were truly wonderful. I was so jealous that I began grinding my teeth. Originally, Bridgette planned not to use the backpack at all and instead put it in a display case, but when Ana heard that, she looked a little down that after all her hard work, Bridgette wasn’t even going to use it. Naturally, Bridgette did a complete one-eighty and put a cover over it instead to prevent it from getting dirty.
“Heh heh. You’re cute as ever, Charlotte.”
“You’re much cuter, madam. Here, have a cookie,” Charlotte said.
“Oh, thank you very much. That makes me so happy,” Ana said with a bright smile before eating the cookie.
Rrgh! How dare you get so friendly with Ana! You’re not even alive! This was my fault for giving it a friendly personality. I should have made it so that it wouldn’t talk outside of conveying important information. Though I was happy that I’d made Ana safer and that she loved her present, I wanted the two of us to enjoy this teatime we were having. I wished she would spend more time talking to me than Charlotte.