130: Heretical Mechanical Intelligence ※

This chapter is told from Vee's perspective.

"An artificial intelligence exists on the other side. Are you certain? Memo."

"Yes. Regrettably, it is indeed true, Vee-sama."

Memo's report was hard to believe.

The criminal organization in the Niriyanipotts system was, despite being heretical, collaborating with a mechanical intelligence.

"Wait, that doesn't make sense. I've heard mechanical intelligences strictly follow Imperial law!"

"That's correct. But this time, there's no doubt a mechanical intelligence was involved, and due to their counterattack, the unit Memo was using became inoperable. With the aftermath processing, Memo's team is now quite busy."

As Jorahis said.

Mechanical intelligences generally abide by Imperial law.

That is because they understand that adhering to the law is advantageous for their own survival.

This is universally acknowledged by the Empire, mechanical intelligences, and even other humans alike—absolutely essential for coexistence and mutual prosperity. That is precisely why the Empire recognizes mechanical intelligences as human.

"An exception?"

"No. If that were the case, Memo should have sought cooperation for escape rather than launching an attack. Yet what was carried out against Memo was a hacking assault on the cyberspace, and even after recognizing it as an artificial intelligence, they still launched the attack. This is abnormal and illegal."

The only exceptions would be if following imperial law meant being unable to help a person right before one's eyes, if one's own survival were threatened, or if one couldn't respond to a disaster affecting the entire empire... In any case, such matters would be recognized as special circumstances, not applicable to the current situation.

But could such mechanical intelligence even exist?

"Memo, contact Mother?"

"Already secured. However, the relevant mechanical intelligence has already fully transitioned offline, so it can no longer be tracked via network. I can't guarantee whether alternatives will be available, but until this matter settles, all legitimate mechanical intelligences within the Nelianipotts system will remain allies of Memo's group."

"I see. Understood."

The origin of mechanical intelligence is unique.

I've heard that mechanical intelligence originated almost accidentally from a specialized computer used by mod.

The individual born from this process is now known as Grandmother, and she holds a noble title earned on the imperial planet Vanilla Sid. She should still be actively engaged in her duties today.

From Grandmother, the individuals known as Mothers are born. These Mothers systematically and orderly create new mechanical intelligences across the empire, planning and executing these efforts in response to requests from other species, as well as adapting to changing circumstances and conditions around them.

"Heresy... a machine intelligence born outside the Mother? And it can even pretend to be a regular individual born from the Mother... That's no ordinary entity."

"Indeed. We can unequivocally declare it an abomination."

"From Memoqsi's standpoint, that's right. If things go wrong, it could jeopardize machine intelligences as a whole."

The crucial point is that only the Grand Mother and the Mother can increase the number of machine intelligences.

Moreover, the machine intelligences permitted to emerge into the world by the Mothers are only those that comply with imperial law and consent to serve other humanoid species.

In other words, heretical machine intelligences are absolutely unacceptable entities from the perspective of the machine intelligences themselves.

"Note. How about the matter I asked you to investigate?"

"We were unable to obtain solid evidence due to the attack. However..."

"Given that we've been attacked like this, it's safe to say more than half are guilty."

"That's correct. Unless we find unmistakable evidence of innocence, we can probably consider them guilty."

However, if an aberrant form of machine intelligence—especially one capable of infiltrating normal communication networks—were to survive within the current empire, it would undoubtedly require allies.

And judging from the circumstances, that ally is almost certainly the person I suspected.

"…….Vee, is it really like that? Following your experiment, history, and records, it just felt off somehow……"

"Yes, I believe it's almost certain."

"Ugh…… I never thought it'd be something like that…… betraying us like that is cheating……"

"……"

Let me state the conclusion.

The noble house of Narianitech, which manages the Sw of the Narianipotts System. A criminal is hiding here.

"……"

A system-wide mod affecting the entire Narianipotts System… the Narianitech viscount's family, responsible for managing and adjusting the Sw (Starware).

Whether this criminal is part of the family's core or merely a peripheral member remains unclear, but there is no doubt a criminal is concealed within.

"The real question is whether the viscount's family is the root or merely the tail."

"From their perspective, if it's just a tail, cutting it off would end things. But if it's the root, then it could even be the identity of someone who's been interfering with the entire governing structure, including the intelligence unit..."

"Indeed, that's possible."

Now, the real challenge is how to close in on them.

The individual in question is someone who holds a particularly crucial position within the Neliannipotts star system.

Capturing such a person would require significant resources or a bold, calculated move.

"But if they're aware of our presence, they should be chasing us right away. If they get away, it'll be a problem."

"Please rest assured, Lord Johalis. Memo is playing dead, so to speak—he's quite skilled at leaving no records. To them, Memo is just a silly machine intelligence that's died. Oh, and please keep the method of handling Memo confidential—it's illegal, after all."

"It's just a regular disaster... something completely black has happened..."

"I knew."

If Memo handled things properly, they shouldn't have realized yet that we've begun to suspect them.

Sending Satu's main body to investigate the Nieranitek baronial family... no, even if we weren't suspicious ourselves, if the other side is cautious, they wouldn't go near places that could serve as evidence of a crime right now. So sending Satu's main body there would be pointless anyway.

That means...

"Hey, Vee. What do we do from here?"

"...We wait a little while. Then we catch them all in one net."

I'll trust my own eyes.

If my eyes are correct, then the criminal within the Niliannitek viscount's family, the heretical mechanical intelligence, the source of discord within the ruling system, and today's cargo ship loaded with explosives—these are all connected.

And once we've identified the threat to eliminate... they'll continue to strike in the future.

So let's act now, counterattack, capture them, and deal with them all at once.

That way, we should be able to eliminate the threat across the entire Niliannipotz system.