Together with You
“Boxxo… Don’t be leavin’ me again…”
Ever since we were rescued from the underground room, we’ve been resting in a corner of the fortress. Lammis, all her tension melted away, had leaned against me and fallen asleep.
After I disappeared, she must have been searching for me around the clock without much sleep.
“Lammis depends on you quite a bit, huh? The way she’s so bent out of shape… This must have reminded her of what happened back then.”
Back then? Hulemy just piqued my interest. “Too bad.”
“Right, you don’t know what I’m talking about. Well, I guess I can tell you. Lammis and me are from the same village. Childhood friends, and all that.”
I see. They seem like polar opposites, but they do say people with opposing personalities get along surprisingly well.
“Anyway, it’s a common story. A small, nameless village, wiped out by a monster attack. Lammis and me are among its few survivors… Well, in any case, both her parents died.”
I’ve always thought Lammis’s words and actions were kind of infantile, and that she needed attention. Maybe she’s been subconsciously seeking someone to depend on—a substitute for her parents.
“As for me—well, I can handle myself, but ever since then, she’s regretted being unable to do anything besides cowering in fear despite having the strength to make a difference when it counts. She was always a slow-witted girl who wouldn’t hurt a fly. But now she’s gone and become a hunter? Idiot.”
Her words were sharp, but her voice was full of concern.
Lammis’s Might certainly fit the bill for hunters, but I’ll be honest: She’s not cut out for fighting. When she’s working at her inn job or helping clear debris, she looks like she’s truly enjoying herself. If I could, I’d tell her to give up the dangerous hunting life.
But she feels strongly about this. She has a reason she can’t give it up. I’d like to help her if I could, but…
“Boxxo, do you have a moment?”
“Welcome.”
Oh, Director Bear is here, too? At a glance, the raid on this base consisted of around ten members, and I can see the Menagerie of Fools among them. Their captain and vice captain are keeping an eye on me as they take a rest.
“Lammis is asleep? The exhaustion must have gotten to her. Let her sleep for a while, then. I must apologize for this incident. I had received prior information revealing that this band of thieves was after you. Tomorrow, I had planned to request that you act as a decoy to round up the whole lot at once, but then things got out of hand. Still, we should have helped you, but at my orders, we decided to tail you instead. This may have been to corner the thieves, but it still put you in danger. You have my apologies.”
Director Bear bowed deeply before me. That was about what I’d figured, so I was neither shocked nor indignant. In hindsight, their nonintervention in my kidnapping allowed me to meet and subsequently save Hulemy.
If they hadn’t kidnapped me, there’s no telling what might have happened to her. Nobody needs to be sorry for anything.
“Welcome.”
“In light of the trouble this incident has caused you, you shall be rewarded for your efforts. Additionally, should anything happen to you in the future, Boxxo, I promise you that the Hunters Association will spare no effort in lending you our aid.”
The simple fact that I now have a powerful link to Director Bear is more than enough reward.
“Geez, let us go already. Are you bastards really just gonna swipe all the loot I’ve hoarded?!”
That angry shout must have come from their boss. I look over and see them all bound up in ropes. One of them lay on his side unmoving—a corpse. He was the lookout. Despite seeing a dead human body, it isn’t shocking, or even a little disturbing.
“What’s this? More worried about your money than your life? You seem awfully calm about all this. Don’t worry—the Hunters Association will put these piles of money to good use.”
His fingers tracing the brim of his hat, Captain Kerioyl speaks to them slowly and loosely, rubbing at his sleepy-looking eyes.
I’m glad to be rescued, but now I’m indebted to the Menagerie of Fools. I’ve got a bad feeling about this. By the way, Captain, most of the coins they hoarded are inside me now. Though if he knew that, he’d probably be upset.
Anyway, whatever the case may be, the kidnapping affair has come to an end. Now Lammis and I just have to wait for morning and go home, with me nestled comfortably on her back.
Now, then! I think it’s time to reward the hardworking hunters with a lavish feast. Since I have a new mode to heat up frozen food, I can sell grilled rice balls, karaage fried chicken, french fries, fried rice, fried soba noodles (or yakisoba), and even fried octopus dumplings known as takoyaki. It’s all from a vending machine manufacturer that’s also famous for their frozen foods, so it’ll all taste good, guaranteed.
Personally, I recommend the karaage.
“Oh hey, Boxxo changed shape. And what are these new food pictures? They look great!”
“I’ve never seen any of this stuff before!”
“All of you, calm down. They could be dangerous, you know. Let me, the captain, be the first to try them.”
“No fair, no fair! Captain, that’s no fair!”
“You’re a tyrant! Organizations that don’t value their subordinates never see any new blood!”
As Captain Kerioyl pushes through the line of hunters in front of me, the Menagerie members cling to him, stopping him from moving.
“Ahhh, dammit. I’m docking your pay, all of you!”
“What lunacy is this? Boxxo, there appear to be no prices displayed beneath any of these items. Could it be that you’re treating us?”
“Welcome.”
“Thank you very much. Then I will have this meat lump.”
Filmina, the vice captain, ignores the captain and crew as they goof around and pushes the button for karaage.
“Thank you.”
“H-hey, Filmina, you can’t just waltz on up ahead of us!”
“Vice Captain Filmina, that’s not fair!”
“This meat is almost unbelievably soft. When I bite into it, all the juices come flowing out… Ahh…”
Robbed of her stoic demeanor, Vice Captain Filmina puts her hand to her cheek and breaks into a smile. The other hunters, seeing her blissful expression, all at once run out of patience. Their hands extend toward me, one after the next.
All right, all right, you don’t need to fight over me. Everyone can have as much food and drink as they want. I can’t provide any alcohol, but I can give you everything else.
“You’ve got all these people flocking to you. They look so happy. Any person would have a hard time pulling this off,” says Hulemy, her black outfit curiously closed in the front, as she raps her knuckles on my body. Though it was a casual remark, I feel a warm sensation. Maybe I don’t have actual senses like that, since I have a mechanical body, but I want to believe this feeling, this warmth, isn’t just my imagination.
As the hunters continue to eat and drink, I’m simply happy to provide. This sensation is less a sprouting of my self-awareness as a vending machine and more natural human emotion. As long as I can hang on to these feelings and values, I can press on as a vending machine, come what may.
“Boxxo… Let’s be…together…forever…zzz.”
Lammis is curled up in slumber like a kitten, wearing a blissful expression on her face.
Okay. Until the day comes when you’re the one to leave me, let’s be together.
We arrived back at the settlement without any accidents on the way.
Karios and Gorth, the two gatekeepers, are there to welcome me safely back from the hideout, overjoyed as though they were the ones that had been rescued. When we went back to the Hunters Association after that, customers began coming out of the woodwork. It became such a crowd that I couldn’t see my surroundings.
It would seem that going even one day without tasting my products proved too much for some; many people buy much more than usual. As I gaze over the lines of customers, I glimpse Miss Acowi, the money changer, with a suspicious glint in her eyes.
She’s scribbling something into a notebook. She must mean to retrieve the silver coins I’ve accumulated so many of.
Despite the fact that I had returned early in the morning, the lines of customers didn’t disperse until nighttime. It was practically the middle of the night before I sold to the last person.
“Good work again today, Boxxo.”
A familiar voice echoes behind me. Lammis, a smile on her face, comes up and stands next to me.
Normally, I would be surprised—what had she come out so late at night for? But there’s a reason I’m fine with it. She’s been there all along. The whole day, right nearby.
She still left when someone asked something of her, but aside from that, she never went farther than fifteen feet from me. Right now, she’s wrapped in a sleeping bag, with only her head poking out. Her smile is so wide, it looks like someone put two big, curved pieces of fish together on her face.
My kidnapping must have really gotten to her. She seems to have decided she’ll sleep outdoors tonight so she doesn’t have to leave me alone. Hulemy and Munami tried to persuade her otherwise, but she remained stubborn and unyielding.
Director Bear seemed worried, too. He put up a guard at the Hunters Association entrance—which didn’t normally have a guard—just to keep watch for us.
“I’m sure you’re really tired as well, Boxxo. You have to sleep, too.”
“Welcome.”
Let’s call it quits for today and turn out the lights.
She probably won’t leave my side for a while, but there’s no other vending machine out there being worried over so excessively. I’ll stick with her until she decides otherwise.
“Can I talk to you until I fall asleep?”
Of course. I can’t do anything but listen, but I’ll listen as much as you want.
As she goes on about this and that, her voice happy, I shift my gaze to the night sky spread out overhead. It may seem like we’re outdoors, but this is a dungeon, and there are no stars up there. Even though there’s a sun.
My Japanese common sense doesn’t apply to this fantastical dungeon scenery, and as I gaze at it, I start to really feel as though I’ve returned home.
Without knowing any of that, Lammis continues to talk, her full smile never leaving her face, her words carried up and away on the night’s breeze.
