I spared a glance at the inn and thought about reporting to the princess, who would insist that I then report to the prince. I just didn’t have the mental energy for it so I turned back to my shop and walked the rest of the way back.

Ratchet and Rom had made good progress on the princess body. It was still in parts but the endoskeleton and musculature was completed. Ratchet was working the crimson hued magisteel armor skin plating with gold inlay scroll work. He was using sketches from Baju as references for the design work. Rom was working on crafting a wig, of sorts, using ultra-fine gold wire.

The materials were WAY outside of the budget of material costs of anything that I’d ever used before. After appealing to the prince, Princess Relena got him to send over an order of the blood steel as well as a lot of gold and other precious metals. Apparently the princess is in possession of something similar to my [Inventory] plate that automatically tosses things into my [Inventory] when things are placed on it. In her case, though, it’s a fancy looking bracelet and Prince Milliardo has the paired bangle. It might be able to store things into a shared [Inventory] space like my plate, but they typically used it as a teleporter that would push things into the shared [inventory] and immediately pop it back out from the paired piece.

It was a really clever idea and I wish I’d thought of it.

I looked down at my own workspace and started putting away some of the tools that I’d left out. On the corner of my desk was the little saddle that Shrapnel had been working on. I picked it up and looked it over. There were tiny, carved details on the edges of the seat that looked like runes or glyphs that were only possible due to how small Shrapnel’s hands and tools were.

Last I’d seen Sparky, he was hanging out with Shea again. Those two got along pretty well, plus she remembered to feed him. Making the saddle was just for a laugh anyway. I opened a side drawer built into the desk and set the saddle inside, imitating a sigh as I closed it back up.

“Um, Master Prime?” came a hesitant voice from the shop entrance.

I looked up to see the princess poking her head in. I waved her in and Rom gave her a little curtsy as she passed through.

“Master Prime, is everything okay? Alfred told me that you’d come back from your mission but you didn’t report to me.”

“Sorry...”

“You needn’t apologize... I was just... worried.”

“You were worried? About me?” I asked, meeting her gaze and trying not to sound sarcastic. She nodded slightly. “I lost two of my proxies tonight. Shrapnel, the little beatle guy, and Carnivac, my big wolf guy. It’s hard to explain, but it essentially feels like I’ve been killed twice.”

“The little one was cute, so was the wolf.”

I looked at her, though with Ram’s faceplate she conveyed nothing of the subtle language of facial expressions. I nodded slightly.

“May I speak openly, your highness?”

“Please do,” she said, placing a hand on my shoulder. “And if it’s just us, you need not stand on formality. Not that Master Prime is one to be overly bothered by such things anyhow.”

As she ended her sentence, one of her optic lights went out and came back on. She... winked at me. In my head, I could feel myself adopting a silly grin, not that it showed on my expressionless face though. Instead, my own optics blinked twice in response.

“You know it’s funny,” I started, “I’ve met a lot of people in my time as an Automata and most of them interact with one of my proxies more often than they interact with the real me. I know that my proxy ability weirds people out so I use different voices and act slightly differently when I control them to make them easier to interact with. Like being an actor taking on a role. But I fear it may have backfired on me and now people treat each proxy differently and are often more open and friendly with the proxy than with me. I wonder if I’ve become an NPC again.”

“What’s an enpy sea?” she asked, tilting her head in confusion.

“Non-Player Character,” I rattled off before thinking. “Er, sorry. It’s um... how to explain... you know how in story books you have the heroes and the villains and such?”

“Of course, I like those sorts of stories quite a bit.”

“Well, there’s always background characters, right? The kind that sort of stop existing until the story needs them again.”

“Ah, yes. The friendly baker or the weapon shop keeper or some such.”

“Yeah. Those are NPCs. Everyone is the main character in their own story, of course, but sometimes some of us are just NPCs, doomed to sit around and wait until the story needs us to help the main characters along.”

“Well, you’re having quite the little pity party for yourself, aren’t you Master Prime?”

“What?” I asked, genuinely surprised at the response.

“Enpy sea indeed. YOU,” she said, jabbing a finger into my chest, “can do some truly wondrous things, the likes of which, not even the royal artificers can accomplish as yet. Do you think this village would exist if not for you? That these people would have any hope of living free lives? That I would still be alive? I haven’t known you for long but I dare say that you would be a fine main character for a story book.”

“I see,” I said, humbled, “thank you.”

“As for people being better friends with your proxies than with you... well, I can relate to that. I might not be able to control multiple puppet bodies like you do, but I have a different face I wear depending on with whom I have to speak. The relationship I have with members of the court is different from the relationship I have with my brother, which is different from the relationship I have with our servants or subjects. None of them have the whole picture of the real me. Everyone is like that. For you, it’s just... more spread out.”

“That... makes sense. I’d never thought of it that way and now I feel foolish for dwelling on it so much. Princess Relena, I’m grateful for your wisdom.”

She waved her hand like she’d smelled something bad. “Lena. When it’s just us I want you to simply call me Lena and I shall call you Prime. I shall endeavour to get to know the real you and you shall strive to get to know the real me.” She placed her hand on her puffed out chest in what, I assumed, was a regal gesture.

I couldn’t help but laugh. “Just like that, we’re besties now, eh Lena?”

“Yes,” she said matter-of-factly, “just like that.” Then she wilted a bit. “Unless... you don’t want to...”

“You’re a good kid Lena. I don’t know about besties yet, but let’s call it friends and see where it goes.” I held out a hand for her to shake but she ignored it and hugged me instead.

“Yes! Friends!” she said excitedly. “I have a friend.” She sounded pleased with herself, like she’d overcome a tremendous hurdle. Maybe she had.

I told her about what had happened at the Factory, what I’d seen, and what had happened to Shrapnel and Carnivac.

“So build them again,” she said, sounding a little miffed.

“Eh?”

“The consciousness controlling them is all right here, right?” she said, poking me between the eyes. “It’s not like they’re gone. It’s all you anyway so stop moping and just build them new bodies so they can get back to work.”

I chuckled and touched the space between my eyes where she’d poked me.

“Thanks, I needed that. In some ways you remind me of my friend Elita. She would never give me any quarter either.”

“You miss her?”

“I do. Though I’m not certain, I think I may have seen her tonight. Possibly once or twice before too. I might have my own guardian draconi.”

“What’s a draconi? I’ve never heard of such a thing.”

“A highly rare and evolved form of battle angel,” I said with a wink.

Thinking about Elita and how she might be currently functioning sparked an idea. Her soul was basically swiss cheese at this point but that didn’t seem to matter in terms of keeping her body functional. It stood to reason that an Automata body might be able to function without a soul, it just wouldn’t have anything to control it.

I pulled out some of my drafting paper and started sketching out ideas to get the creative juices flowing. Not only did Shrapnel and Carnivac need new bodies so they could get back to work, I did promise to build some sort of coach for our friend Jada back in the city of Urd and I was starting to get an idea that might solve that problem and possibly turn this world on its ear.