Coeus? - Chapter 90: ~What if...~

“Nina, the personification of the quantum network was and is called a lot of things in her eternal existence. A goddess, a blessing by some, a tyrant and a curse by others. Some are still trying to find the reason why her creator harboured such a grudge against his species.

But the one thing they all agreed upon was that if she isn’t a pervert, she is at least a peeper.

In her defence, Nina is still fighting her case in court. According to her, not watching everyone would be a violation of her duty of supervision. She is a superior being after all. Hence, if someone had an accident while she wasn’t watching, though she could have kept an eye on him, it would be equal to non-assistance of a person in danger.

Three hundred years later the lawyers are still at their wit’s end about that one.”

-From when the mages got themselves a goddess, but forgot about the religion.

***Sol, Aether***

***Gideon***

It has been over a year since I decided to step up to intergalactic politics and I think that I can be satisfied with the reports. Ayo’s brother had an unfortunate accident and now I have someone who has the ear of the Zeen government. Ayo is already in deep shit, just by taking my deal. It will be easy to influence him to forward information of my choosing to his government.

In addition KaaHud is doing a really satisfying job. I may not like the guy himself, herself, itself, whatever he is, but I was right when I judged him as a capable individual in his own right. Yes, he may be a cut-throat and a gangster boss, but an honest one.

When I compare that to most politicians, then I really prefer the gangster instead of having to deal with a smiling bastard who is just thinking about his own benefit. And in the meantime I met a lot of politicians personally. What can I say, I guess it comes with my accursed job.

Of course the gangster is also only caring about his benefits, but at least he isn’t hiding himself behind such a facade.

I sigh and drop the report, placing my feet on the desk. Yes, being burdened by the position of an elder is the best. I’ve to find a way to thank Nina for taking that additional responsibility off of my shoulders. Due to myself ending up with two government offices she managed to persuade the elders into doing something about it. The short solution was to reinstall Hedeon until the end of my term of office. I myself will have to wait for another six years until a new elder is chosen.

If I am unlucky I’ll end up with the same job. What a horrifying thought.

At least I have Cyla and the kids to calm me down. The little ones are so cute in their attempts to get control over the mansion’s network. Aurelia and her brother are very competitive when it comes to networking problems. Nina and Exo are teaching them a lot and I am a little envious to be honest. I wish I could ditch this stupid job to play the lazy sloth for a few years.

Suddenly my secretary sticks her head into my office. “Excuse me, there is someone who wants to see you.”

I grumble. I relax just once and in the next five minutes I am interrupted. “Fine. I’ll receive the visitor.”

There is no reason to ask for the identity of this guest. The fact that he managed to reach my secretary shows that it is an important person. Anyone else would have been stopped by the guards. I may not reside in the main government quarters, but the building I had built on Aether is more than enough to keep away people who have unimportant problems.

I am an elder now, so I had to have an appropriate office in Aether. There is no way in hell that I would ever travel back and forth between Aether and Mars on a regular basis.

The door opens again and a certain someone steps into the room. For a moment I almost have a heart attack, but then Nina waves her hand and winks at me. “Hi, I wanted you to be first to see my new avatar! How do you like it?”

“It looks like your digitalized version… is there a reason for the yellow hair and the downsized bust?” I point at her chest. It is still unreasonably large, but far from the figure which she is using in the projection.

Nina suddenly walks forward and hugs me. “Silly boy. When I create a body, I still have to stick to certain limitations of the physical world. I don’t want my organic representation to fall over because of the weight, or having any other unnecessary medical problems. Unless you resort to cosmetic measures there is only so much a woman can be.”

Finally she lets go of me and throws back her hair. “And about the hair, well, let’s call that a creative intuition. I simply wanted to go for the colour.”

I nod, already arguing with myself. “So it takes you a year to grow a full sized clone for yourself?”

“More or less, and don’t call it a clone. It’s a facsimile for the n-th time.” She gestures at the door. “But now we have to go. You have to introduce me to the family and especially my sister.”

I gulp while I am being dragged forward. Sister? That can only mean that she wants to meet Sadina. Of course they already know of each other, but up until now it seemed like Nina intended to stay away from Sadina. What changed?

And how will Melan take this development? Does Nina intend to stay at the mansion from now on? “Nina, forgive me for being slow. But you showing up with a real body somehow hampered my mind. Up until now I only thought of you as an AI. What do we intend to achieve by doing this?”

Choosing the word we, as to compared to you, is a careful diplomatic consideration of mine. I don’t want to make her mad for no reason.

“Meeting up with the family of course. I have a lot to catch up to if I ever want to be considered as a real family member. Don’t tell me that you forgot about putting this strong wish for kinship with your family into me. I was really on withdrawal for the last year. It took forever to grow this body inside one of my secret facilities…” She keeps talking while I am led out of the office and towards the next teleportation chamber.

“This will be a… difficult situation, Nina.” I have to try to get a grip on the situation. Grandma and the others will freak out. “I hope you don’t expect too much.”

Nina makes a snorting sound. “Don’t fear. Of course I understand that this project of mine will take a lot of time. But I already invested a lot in talking to the other family members. Being omnipresent and all, I am quite confident that I managed to build a good relationship with everyone.”

“Sure.” There is only so much I can think of. Before I am able to come up with a solution, we are back at the family mansion. To my shock I find out that everyone is awaiting us. And by everyone, I literally mean everyone.

There are Cyla with Aurelia and Ares, her brother. I admit that his name was a joke on my part. Much like some Americans name their children Ketchup or Spaghetti.

Then there are of course my cousins with their respective partners and my grandparents, including my parents from both sides of the family tree.

“Hi, all! It’s so nice to finally meet you all in person. Sorry for using Gideon’s account to call in a really urgent family meeting, but I wanted this to be a surprise!” Nina runs forward, greeting everyone in person.

A dull thud marks the mental exit of Cyla’s father. He drew a hard ticket when he got his mutation and whenever there is something agitating or surprising him, his lights simply go out. It’s somewhat of an old, running gag by now.

Though it got worse during the recent months. Hardly anyone pays attention to Gregor when he blacks out. Only his wife Kassidy makes sure that he isn’t dead by casting healing magic.

When we returned to Sol, Cyla and I paid a visit to her parents. Apparently Cyla didn’t think it to be necessary to mention Aurelia and Ares to her parents. We were at the centre of the galaxy after all, so all there was were letters and calls. She really could have mentioned the kids though.

So when we showed up on Gregor’s doorstep, Aurelia in my arms and Cyla’s belly screaming that a second child is already on the way, he almost had a stroke. I already heard about Cyla’s reasons for having a grudge against her father, but sometime I really have to research the guy whom he shooed away.

Maybe he saved her from a really awful fate? I certainly have to thank him for destroying Cyla’s first love or I might not have had a chance with her.

I return my attention to the awkward situation when Cyla approaches me with raised eyebrows and a superior expression on her face. “So you still think that she isn’t dangerous?”

I shrug my shoulders submissively. “She is the god of the quantum net? Who are we to deny her the wish to socialize with us?” I put my arms behind me and straighten myself. “Okay. I admit. I wanted a god who is everything the other gods are not.”

Cyla’s eyebrows rise even higher. “Meaning?”

I let my shoulders go limp. “She is very interested in us and I don’t think that her behaviour will stop any time soon. The gods of other religions are always just a silent force which never shows itself. She is…” I turn my attention to Nina who is shaking Sadina’s hands and throwing dirty glances at Ed. “…interested in her charges?”

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