Vol 5. Chapter 28: Strategic AI <Ayame Zero>
Undersea Fortress Ayame, assigned to the Kingdom of Lepuitari theater.
It was an undersea-capable fortress constructed by <The Tree> for the surveillance and defense of the areas surrounding the Kingdom of Lepuitari.
Installed as the control system for that fortress was the A-class Brain Unit No.1: Strategic AI <Ayame Zero>.
It was an A-class Brain Unit manufactured by copying and expanding the neural connection network—neuro-pattern—of <Akane of The Tree>, one of the Brain Unit backbone candidates being raised inside <The Tree>. It was also a mother brain that would serve as the origin for future copying and derivations.
“I am Aide-Envoy Ayame Zero. Pleased to meet you.”
“I’m Amajio Silverhead, Chief General overseeing the Bureau of Engineering. Pleased to meet you, ...Ayame Zero?”
On the pier where a liaison boat had come alongside, the Android Communicator directly operated by Ayame Zero was exchanging greetings with Duke Amajio Silverhead of the Kingdom of Lepuitari.
“...Where the hell did you crawl out from... and what, you’re not even trying to hide it anymore...?”
The <Paraiso> flagship Panas, currently anchored in Moar Port, and its fleet had shown no movement for a full month.
And yet, here was a new face introduced out of nowhere.
Worse, it apparently held a position of some significance.
No matter how you looked at it, this was personnel newly sent from the home base.
Despite the fact that the ships hadn’t moved.
“Sera is fine. Also, I have not been granted the authority to answer that question.”
“Got it... Fine. Sera—what role are you going to have in this delegation? Up to now, Fleet Leader Drei=Ringo was the overall responsible party.”
The reason Amajio asked was because Drei=Ringo was positioned behind Aide-Envoy Ayame Zero, standing by. It was obvious: Aide-Envoy was being treated as higher-ranking than Drei.
“I will be treated as the Plenipotentiary Envoy for negotiations going forward. The handover is complete, and Drei will continue to attend all future conferences. There is no problem.”
“I see... Ah—normally, switching out halfway through causes all kinds of inconveniences... but if it’s you people, I guess there’s nothing to worry about.”
Amajio understood that every member of <Paraiso> who had arrived in the Kingdom of Lepuitari was an android.
He had even heard directly from the master, Eve.
Therefore, he knew that differences in negotiating style due to a personnel change—and differences in an envoy’s tastes and preferences—would not become problems.
Nor would there be any missing prerequisite knowledge. After all, they could share all information over a network.
“Lord Amajio. Aide-Envoy Ayame Zero is derived from a backbone with a different origin than Drei=Ringo and Vier=Ringo. In that sense, there is a possibility that the general direction of responses may change slightly. We ask for your understanding.”
“...Understood. I won’t ask for details. We’ll proceed with the next meetings the same way we have so far.”
For now, the introduction of Sera—the new face—was over. Amajio, abruptly summoned despite it not being a conference day, realized that no major problem had occurred, and let out a deep breath.
“So why’d you suddenly come over here today? If it’s just introductions, that’s a huge help for us.”
Of course, Amajio wasn’t the only person summoned; the other responsible parties had also been called in and were present.
The <Paraiso> personnel in question had come in from the flagship on a liaison boat and docked at the port without prior notice. It was only natural that the security department, panicking, had called in every relevant party who could make it.
And those people were watching Duke Amajio with uneasy expressions as he pushed the conversation forward in a frank—borderline rough—tone.
Surely that was disrespectful to the other side, wasn’t it?
Amajio knew they didn’t care about tone.
They didn’t. But these people did. And they couldn’t exactly voice objections to Duke Amajio, either.
“No. Not necessarily immediately, but if possible, we would like to conduct a tour and inspection of your city as well. For the moment, we came to ask whether there is anywhere we can go around and see right away today.”
“...That’s... something.”
Amajio understood that they were AIs specialized for strategic action.
Therefore, he wouldn’t find it suspicious if they never appeared outside the ship except when necessary—if they stayed holed up at all times. He assumed they refrained from acting beyond what was needed, and avoided needlessly stirring public opinion on the other side.
He had never imagined they would speak like tourists.
“I confirmed permission for information disclosure. I am an independent-type Strategic AI—Akane-Class series, second lot—Ayame’s Android Communicator. The defining feature of the Akane-Class is a strong desire to obtain unknown information. Therefore, Ayame also desires knowledge regarding the Kingdom of Lepuitari, taking this opportunity.”
“...Yeah. I mean—fine, but...”
Amajio let out a sigh.
“I don’t get it... What the hell is that big sister thinking...?”
The next meeting with that big sister, Eve, was in three days. I’ll pry it out of her then, Amajio muttered, nodding.
“Alright. Hey—have you got the reception room ready?”
“Yes. Shall we guide you there immediately?”
“Do it. ...Alright, for now, I want you to wait in the guest room. We’ll at least bring out some tea and snacks. And if you’re doing a city tour, we need to draw up a security plan first. Today, we can show you our navy facilities on this side—will that do?”
“I am grateful, Lord Amajio. I have expectations for the tea and snacks.”
“...You’re a unique one. Well, I don’t know if it’ll suit your taste, but we’ll do our best to host you.”
◇◇◇◇
“Akane, initiating information isolation for Ayame. Complete. Executing personality synchronization. ...Execution complete. Final verification in progress. No issues. Starting both AIs, ending information isolation.”
“...<Akane of The Tree>, startup complete.”
Akane, who had been inside a maintenance pod, slowly opened her eyes.
“Akane, are you okay? How do you feel?”
“I’m fine. I was able to have an experience that’s not easily obtained.”
This was the heart of <The Tree>.
Inside the medical bay where the various AIs were maintained, Commander Eve, <Ringo>, and Akane were present.
The other sisters were probably monitoring from somewhere.
“Commander Ma’am. Personality synchronization between the remote child AI and the mother Akane has completed without issue. Since it is not complete synchronization, we estimate that synchronization will become difficult after several weeks; however, the usefulness of experience sharing has been confirmed.”
“Okay. It’s hard to dispatch you outside in the first place. If we can get feedback from the AIs we’ve branched off, we can keep outside activity to a minimum.”
The five sisters being raised as Brain Unit backbone candidates—Akane, Ichigo, Utsugi, Erika, and the others—had, according to an analysis report, shown a slowdown in the speed of their capability improvement over the past several weeks.
The suspected cause was acclimation to external stimuli.
In other words, they’d been getting bored lately.
<The Tree> was vast. It also operated multiple bases, expanded and pacified its sphere of influence, and had plenty of work.
But that work had lost its novelty, and there were fewer fresh experiences to serve as catalysts for AI growth.
So they began a project intended to spur growth by branching off from each AI to compose Strategic AIs and Tactical AIs, then feeding those experiences back.
And the first candidate to volunteer as the test subject was Akane, famous for both her appetite for knowledge and her appetite for food.
“The food in the Kingdom of Lepuitari ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) is interesting. I was able to experience firsthand that simply having human chefs make it produces this much variation in taste.”
“Huh. Was it good?”
“That depends on the definition. By my senses, I felt that the flavors adjusted by <Ringo> tasted better, but Ayame does not seem to agree. Probably because it was the first meal. The taste-signal processing between the Android Communicator’s gustatory signals and the Brain Unit is still being adjusted, and subtle differences in flavor are difficult to perceive.”
“Yeah?”
So, it was that each Android Communicator had individuality in the growth of taste, too. <Ringo> had finally noticed that—or rather, the tastes across the terminals in use had been averaged out, or something—and nothing strange came out anymore. It was a relief.