Remembering their first meeting, Sogo Doma shuddered.
He, Sogo Doma! A straight-up heterosexual!
Getting pinned down by a guy? No way that would ever happen. It was all Ryunosuke Akasaka's fault!
Probably.
Shaking his head, Sogo Doma snapped out of his thoughts.
Of course.
It was still the past—the past, that rainy day. Sogo had cupped his chin and pointed at Akasaka's long, straight black hair. "The evidence is that you always sleep soundly in those girls' arms, even if you've had to use a ventilator a few times..."
Ryunosuke Akasaka: "..."
Try having a fear of women. MMP, without a ventilator, he'd have kicked the bucket. And now he had another condition: Sogo-phobia.
"Beep beep beep..."
"Lord Ryunosuke says he doesn't want to deal with Mr. Sogo, and throws a pillow at him."
Sogo Doma: "..."
He wanted to say, Akasaka, you're getting more and more girly. What the hell is with throwing pillows? But just as Sogo was about to send the message, he suddenly fell silent.
Wait.
A serious question had just occurred to him.
"Akasaka, why did the maid butler's smart program suddenly appear on my phone? Where's my security guard?"
For once, Ryunosuke Akasaka was silent for a few seconds.
"Beep beep beep."
"I already said it's a free gift, so please don't worry about it. That's what Lord Ryunosuke says." Looking at the message on LINE, Sogo Doma's forehead sprouted a # symbol.
"This isn't a matter of whether I should worry about it. It's already an invasion of my privacy!"
Ryunosuke Akasaka: "..."
He really couldn't keep it from him.
A while later.
Only then did LINE receive a message: "The Smart Maid needs to evolve through knowledge. It can only do that on the internet."
Has this guy gone crazy? That was Sogo Doma's first thought when he saw the message. He couldn't help it; he was paranoid to begin with.
If he created a Skynet, a Brain Computer, or a Red Queen, Sogo Doma felt like he wouldn't be able to keep himself safe.
Still.
After testing the Smart Maid's intelligence with Turing, Sogo Doma relaxed a little. That was it?
It had the beginnings of something, but it was nowhere near as advanced as Jarvis.
Let alone a higher-level intelligent life form than Jarvis, like X-Vision or Mouhuan...
"Phew." Though he felt relieved, this sort of thing was absolutely unacceptable. "Ryunosuke, I don't remember teaching you to make something this dangerous..."
"Eh?" Before he could finish, a message came through on LINE.
"Wasn't it Mr. Sogo who said not to fixate on the connection between zeroes, ones, and intelligence, and to remember the difference between them? Even basic intelligence can learn step by step. Besides,
weren't the last few lines of code for the Smart Maid written by Mr. Sogo?"
"Huh?" Sogo Doma: (@?@)
"That's why I came by specially today to thank Mr. Sogo for his guidance. That's what Lord Ryunosuke says."
W-wait!
Don't blame everything on me! When did I ever teach this guy to write programs?
Sogo Doma was full of grievances.
Then his Level 4 memory began to kick in.
Scene after scene flashed before Sogo Doma's eyes. It had probably been about a week ago.
To dull his own ability to remember, he'd decided to drink himself senseless. After all, physical amnesia was just a fantasy. It hurt.
Naturally, with Sogo Doma dead drunk, how could he remember the way back to school?
"I stumbled and staggered my way back to school, Umaru was worried and full of questions, Erina was fretting away, though that wasn't important. I was so bored, I was drunk..." Humming his mangled version of a song, Sogo Doma wobbled down the dark street.
After wandering aimlessly for a while, he suddenly stopped and focused. The house in front of him seemed familiar!
"Ding-dong, ding-dong!"
The doorbell rang for a long time, but no one answered.
Luckily, even a drunk Sogo could be patient... Well, sure, you could still be patient when you were drunk.
"Coming!" The incessant ringing finally caught the owner's attention. If he didn't answer, the neighbors were going to call the police!
"Who is it?" Ryunosuke Akasaka didn't seem to be in a good mood when he opened the door. He'd just thought of a line of code, and the doorbell had rudely interrupted him.
However, before he could lose his temper—
"Urgh!" The person outside spat out a mouthful of booze.
Ryunosuke Akasaka: "..."
Sogo Doma looked up. "Oh, it's Akasaka. What are you doing at my place this late?"
Ryunosuke Akasaka...
This is my place! My place!
Sogo Doma strolled right into the house, found somewhere to sit on the floor, then called out to Ryunosuke Akasaka:
"Don't mind me. Have some snacks. I had a look around, and there's nothing good in the house to, to offer you. I'm going to sleep."
Ryunosuke Akasaka: "..."
Sorry your house doesn't have anything to offer me.
Still.
Looking at Sogo Doma, sound asleep, Ryunosuke Akasaka shook his head, covered him with a blanket, then went back to coding.
Click-clack, click-clack.
He typed, deleted, and typed again, but couldn't get it right. Ryunosuke Akasaka rubbed his hair vigorously with both hands.
"Ha~!" Sogo Doma, who sobered up remarkably fast, happened to walk by and said, "I just woke up and found myself in an unfamiliar place. I—I haven't lost my virginity, have I?"
He was a little worried. Sure, you were a cross-dressing guy and could do whatever you wanted, but Sogo Doma was absolutely straight!
"Sogo Doma!" Damn it, after letting him into the house, this was the thanks he got? Ryunosuke was so angry his eyes turned red.
"Oh, it's Akasaka." Sogo Doma stepped closer, his tone a little gentler.
"I should've left you out on the street..."
"Got it, got it!" Sogo Doma had already reached the screen in front of Ryunosuke Akasaka. He glanced at the code. It was for a smart program.
Wait!
Now wasn't the time to look at code. What did he mean, "Oh, it's Akasaka"? If it had been this guy, had he really pinned him down? He looked himself over from head to toe. Nothing seemed amiss.
But that didn't prove anything!
Just thinking about how Akasaka had acted in the past made him shudder.
At first.
"Good. You're hired, but we can't sign a contract with you, given your age... So you can only be my assistant—something like a butler..." He'd sounded rather serious.
"I agree!" After some hesitation, Ryunosuke Akasaka had accepted. His family situation seemed to be... well, hardship wasn't relevant here. But Sogo couldn't be bothered to pry into his private life.
In the days that followed.
One holiday.
The beach.
"Definitely a young boy." Watching Ryunosuke Akasaka awkwardly change into his swimming trunks, Sogo Doma felt a little disappointed. "Damn it. How long until the curse that says 'they're so cute, they must be boys' wears off?"
But...
When a crowd of buxom older women surrounded Ryunosuke, Sogo Doma was satisfied.
"Wow, what a cute kid." One.
"Let big sis give you a hug." Two.
"A child's skin is so soft." Three.
"H-help me!" Ryunosuke turned around.
Sogo Doma: "That's more like it."
A few girls were rubbing lotion on him, while another had him resting his head on her lap and was picking his ears.
Ryunosuke Akasaka's call for help failed, and he passed out in a blaze of glory.
Afterward.
The girl who had picked Sogo Doma's ears handed him a hundred thousand yen and glanced at him.
"You've met a real talent."
"I thought so too!" Sogo Doma said with a laugh, counting the money.
See? One outing, and he'd earned nearly half a month's wages.
Before you continue