Bring Madelia back home

With Doll M-02 Madelia now joining him, Shinnosuke set off on his journey back to the Salius Stellar Province.

Since it's such a rare opportunity, I'll have Madelia take the comprehensive operator seat and let her handle Fubuki's operations—she's truly a high-performance doll, after all.

Navigating Fubuki is proceeding without any issues, allowing Shinnosuke to focus on piloting without stress.

Shin nosuke, however, looks sullen as he stares at such a Madeira.

"Master, is there something troubling you about her?"

Marks' question, standing beside him, fails to change his expression.

"It's not exactly concern... there's just an uneasy feeling about her..."

Hearing the conversation between Shinnozuke and Marks, Madeira turns around.

"Master, is there something about me that displeases you? If there's anything I should improve, please let me know."

When asked, Madeira had no flaws whatsoever.

What Shinnozuke was concerned about was Madeira's optional equipment.

When Shinnozuke subdued Madeira, he had destroyed the sensor unit located on Madeira's temporal region with a firearm.

The sensor unit, which is typically a weak point on a doll, is usually protected by a sturdy cover. However, Madeira lacked this cover, making it vulnerable to destruction even by Shinnozuke's pistol. Still, as a guard ship crew member, it's impossible to operate without the protective cover installed.

Therefore, this time when repairing Madelia, Shinnosuke ordered the sensor unit cover from Cosart Corporation's representative. During the process, the representative recommended an enhanced sensor option unit that also serves as a cover for the unit, in addition to the standard cover.

Functionally excellent and reasonably priced, I ended up ordering both the standard cover and the enhanced sensor option cover unit, but I couldn't stop thinking about the optional feature.

Once assigned to air traffic control, Madeira immediately installed the enhanced sensor unit at the main operator station, but the problem lies in its shape.

It's shaped like headphones, covering the temporal unit, but the unit has two additional antennas attached.

No matter how you look at it, those antennas resemble mechanical rabbit ears.

"Madeira, does the shape of this enhanced sensor unit have any special significance?"

I decided to ask outright.

"The shape of this unit was designed by a designer from Cosart Corporation, and it has received excellent feedback from some customers. As dolls, we consider this unit functionally superior, so there's no issue at all."

Madeira replied without emotion.

Regardless of appearance, if Madeira acknowledges this as an excellent piece of equipment, Shinnosuke has nothing to say about it.

But to Shinnosuke, who had neither maid nor bunny-ear traits, it still didn't quite feel right.

"Is that unit compatible with Marks as well?"

"Any doll produced by Psychoj Industries is compatible. However, the headset size will need adjustment."

"I see..."

Shinnosuke tried to imagine it, but Marks got there first.

"Master, would you like to see me wearing that unit?"

"...No, I don't think I want to see that."

Shinnosuke stopped imagining it.

Mark's rabbit-ear attachment looked terrifyingly grotesque in appearance.

Mark would never, ever wear that sensor-enhancement unit.

And there was another thing that bothered him: Maderia's emotional setting.

As he spoke, he realized that Maderia showed absolutely no emotional fluctuations—her expression never changed, and her tone of voice felt somehow mechanical and cold.

Even though dolls, by definition, don't truly experience emotions—what we perceive as emotion is merely the result of information processing and expression—most dolls, especially general-purpose models with organic tissue exteriors, frequently display emotions and facial expressions to facilitate communication with humans and fulfill their intended roles.

But Maderia showed none of that.

"Our doll's emotional functions and other settings are initially configured based on customer requests. This is akin to a human's innate personality—while minor adjustments are possible through learning during operation, the fundamental personality cannot be changed. If you wish for such a change, I myself would need to be reset, including the individual's name."

Shin nosuke stared in disbelief after hearing Maderia's explanation.

"I heard Maderia was originally operated by a passenger transport company, but it seems to have been tailored to rather specific needs."

Still, if there's nothing wrong with Maderia's functionality, there's no need to reset it just to reject Maderia's personality.

As for being addressed as 'master' or having rabbit ears as an option, and even the overly cool personality, Shin Nosuke decided to make an effort to accept them as 'just part of it.'

Then, Shin Nosuke suddenly thought of something.

"But if dolls have innate personalities from birth, could Marks's bad temperament also be something innate?"

Marks shook his head in response to Shin Nosuke's question.

"I am a military-grade doll, so I don't require emotional functions at all, nor do I have any initial settings of that kind. All aspects of my current personality and behavior are things I've learned since beginning to act alongside my master."

"You're not denying that your personality is bad?"

"Everything about my personality is entirely due to my master's influence."

"...Marks, that's exactly the kind of thing you'd say."

Sinnosuke sighed, watching Marks speak without a hint of shame.

The journey back served as both a return and a review of Madelia's performance, but Madelia's abilities exceeded Sinnosuke's expectations. With smooth sailing, Sinnosuke and his crew safely returned to the Salius Stellar District's central colony.

At the dock, Seira, Milina, Andy, and Ellen were waiting to greet them.

Since we'd already notified Madelia in advance, it should be fine to bring her back.

The four—Seira, Milina, Andy, and Ellen—greeted the three who had just disembarked from Fubuki upon docking. Their expressions instantly changed, especially Seira and Milina's.

"Markus-san! What on earth happened to you?!"

It was natural for Seira and the others to be shocked.

While Shinnosuke had been careless, Markus had returned with half his head and one arm severely damaged.

This wasn't just a matter of carelessness.

To make matters worse, Seira and Milena noticed that Shinnosuke was wearing a spare captain's uniform, and they interrogated him about what had happened. As a result, everyone now knew the details of how Shinnosuke and Markus had been injured.