Counterfeit

"Moo~"

As I watched the Tunneler Swarm Creatures basking in the sun on the grassland, carefree as real cattle and sheep, a question often came to mind.

They were parts that had fallen from the Tunneler, that mechanical giant. Did they count as living beings?

The students of Star Torch Academy treated them as wonderful partners, not as unfeeling metal objects.

The Roy people had lived alongside them with affection for thousands of years.

To the Roy people, the Tunneler Swarm Creatures had long been part of everyday life.

But... that wasn't how it should be, was it?

The Tunneler's nerves had become the lively Sun Spirits.

But the Tunneler Swarm Creatures were merely lumps of metal that had fallen from the giant. By any reasonable measure, they shouldn't count as living beings.

And yet, watching them roam and run freely across the grassland, I sometimes forgot something.

I forgot that they were mechanical creations at all.

Just watching them live on the grassland brought me a sense of peace.

I cherished those peaceful moments.

But whenever I wanted to set my doubts aside and simply watch them, she would appear before me.

She told me that neither the sky I was gazing at nor the Tunneler Swarm Creatures nearby meant anything.

The sky beneath Lahai Luo was false, and those lumps of metal weren't living beings.

Whenever she "reminded" me of that, I could find no words to argue.

Because what she said was true.

Here and now, beneath Lahai Luo, there was only a false sky and false life.

Here, only her words were real. Only they carried absolute authority.

The people of Lahai Luo never seemed to care whether the Tunneler Swarm Creatures were self-aware.

They simply spent time with them and grew close to