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“Damn it... Dad!” Kyouhei ground out with a horrified expression. “I thought you were an idiotic pervert with no morals, but I didn’t think you’d get into the slave trade—actually, wait, he hasn’t necessarily. Calm down. Calm down, Kyouhei Nanbu; think positive! Just thinking about the worst-case doesn’t help! Right, uhm, maybe it’s organ trafficking! Wait, that’s even worse!!”
The shock had Kyouhei pulling a double act all by himself.
Well, you couldn’t blame him.
There was a nude girl right there.
He’d have been lost for words if she’d politely greeted him by the door, but anyone would panic if they’d been confronted by someone appearing out of a coffin like this.
And...
For better or worse, the girl was beautiful. Her features made it obvious that she wasn’t Japanese. They were finely chiseled, with clear shadows cast across her face and prominent eyes. Her nose was well defined. She also had blonde hair and blue eyes, and her skin was as pale as snow. Judging by her features alone, she could be Nordic.
“This is bad this is bad this is bad this is bad...!”
This was no trivial matter. He didn’t know if she’d been kidnapped, smuggled into the country, or was to be experimented on. To put it bluntly, this would make the papers.
As he was thinking this, the girl spoke:
“Hm, wer bist du?”
“Eh?”
Kyouhei’s ears had just been subject to a foreign language he didn’t know. He looked back to the coffin, where the girl had come from, and she was standing there looking blankly at him.
“Wer bist du?”
She probably thought he just hadn’t heard, so repeated the same thing again, slowly.
“Ah... uhm...”
“Hm, der gesicht ist Japaner, dann...”
The girl knit her brows as if trying to look something up mentally. Her eyes and lips curved childishly before she finally seemed to have found what she was looking for. Then, her sparkling eyes looked at Kyouhei once more.
He felt his cheeks reddening.
She was cute.
He hadn’t taken much notice because of the situation, but this girl was gorgeous.
And naked.
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She didn’t seem much bothered by this state of affairs, as she freely bared herself before him. Kyouhei then realized how uncouth he was being by staring so unreservedly at a naked girl like he was, and hurriedly averted his eyes.
When suddenly...
“...You are Japanese?” Fluent Japanese ushered forth from her cherry-petal pink lips out of nowhere.
“Eh?” Kyouhei looked back at her in surprise. The blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl was taking no notice of his embarrassment or discomfort, and had left the coffin and puffed her chest out—this might be wearing thin now, but she was naked—as she stood there proudly.
“My name is Pamil! The first child of the thirtieth king of Bergmann, Dolph Terrill Balor Bergmann, and first in line for the throne: Princess Pamil Terrill Karl Bergmann! Your head’s too high!”
“...Huh?”
Kyouhei’s mouth hung open. He had the feeling he had just heard an unbelievable combination of words, but...
The two of them looked at each other, before finally:
“...Youth, why do you not prostrate yourself?”
“...I’m sorry? Ah, are... are you talking to me?”
“Do you find my actions strange? Do I not appear the part? Are you saying I’m not a proper princess? I’m sure I did everything as the manual said...” The girl asked him with an unhappy expression on her face.
“Princess...?”
“Indeed. For I must act precisely as Princess Pamil does if I am to fulfill my role as her double.”
“...No... but?”
“This is my first boot, so it’s likely there are some bugs. Therefore, youth, I ask you, how was it? Am I not the picture of a princess? If not, then say how I am not.”
The blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl pirouetted in front of him.
Her golden hair cascaded down her back in waves and bounced upon the alluring surface. It was, should Kyouhei put it bluntly, a little like one of those , and it made his heart race faster and faster.
“Ah... Uh, first of all, who are you? Your name’s Pamil? Where are you from?”
“Have I not explained?” the girl asked. “I am a substitute.”
“A substitute...?”
“The phrase ‘body double’ may be easier to understand.”
Kyouhei was speechless.
“My formal title is FR-MC09 ‘Pamil IX.’ The most common word that is close to my existence is ‘android.’”
“An... An android? Like a robot?”
Kyouhei looked at the girl once more.
Her face was adorable, and didn’t seem to be a manufactured thing at all. Her white, yet ever so slightly pink skin was completely like that of a person. And while it was modest, the swell of her chest looked soft and... (you get the picture).
“No... It’s just...”
The girl called herself a robot, but Kyouhei had never heard of someone making a machine to be so lifelike. If technology had progressed that far, even he should have heard about it in the news or on TV. Well, technology advanced rapidly, so it might not be too strange, but...
“You don’t look like anything but a human.”
“Of course! If I didn’t I wouldn’t be able to be a body double!” the girl declared proudly.
Kyouhei sighed at the circular logic.
However...
“...I see,” he said, nodding with a stiff expression.
The girl clearly had a screw loose and was so far from Earth that she was picking up signals from Cygnus or Andromeda. Not only did she call herself a princess from somewhere, but actually claimed to be that princess’ body double robot. She really was too far out there, but trying to make sense of a space cadet’s ramblings wouldn’t help at all.
Just as Kyouhei decided this, the android beauty put her face right next to his and asked him:
“So, how was it?”
Kyouhei felt his heart speed up as he gulped.
This position was bad; to describe just how bad would lead to an 18+ certificate. Her chest was... (you get the picture).
“You still have not answered my initial question. How was it? Why do you not prostrate yourself? Do I not appear the part?”
A normal princess wouldn’t just appear naked in this dirty warehouse, young lady. He wanted to use that rebuttal, but with her being such an airhead, careless words would be dangerous, so he remained silent. Regardless, she seemed to make a judgment from that on her own anyway:
“I must not then... Hmm, this is not good, I was built with being Princess Pamil’s body double as my raison d’être! Youth, make your observations. What issues were there?!”
The girl moved even closer, putting both hands on the nape of his neck. The distance Kyouhei had been worried about to begin with grew even smaller; they were so close they could feel each other’s breath on their skin.
“No... I...”
“What was wrong, the refinement? The appearance? Or my actions or word choices? Please, tell me, youth!”
“Uhm... Ah... I’ll tell you... just... I have... one request... first,” Kyouhei managed to get out as he trembled.
“Hmm, an agreement. Very well, what is it?”
The girl suddenly let go of him and tilted her head.
Kyouhei marshaled his willpower, turned away from her, and spoke:
“For now... put some clothes on, find something around here that’ll work.”
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And so, that’s how it happened.
The high school student Kyouhei Nanbu, who loved peace and quiet above all else, met with the (self-proclaimed) body double android of the first in line for the throne, Princess Pamil Terrill Karl Bergmann, FR-MC09 ‘Pamil IX’... just about like that.