……
The evening breeze was indeed much cooler.
Eyes closed, I listened to the sound of wind brushing the grass past my ears, and gradually grew calm.
The sunlight had dimmed before I noticed.
Only the sky had not yet been lit with stars, and still held a wash of pale violet and deep blue.
Once I settled, it felt much more comfortable.
I had never lived like this.
With Alice’s voice gone from my side, the quiet actually had a few measures of ease in it as well.
Was I too impatient?
I was always comparing myself with Alice, afraid of holding her back.
But no matter how I looked at it, not long ago I had still been nothing more than a waste who had hardly even cooked a few meals with her own hands.
Eden was my hometown in this world.
It had given me the illusion that I could survive here easily.
Once I left Eden, I became a useless, lazy burden again.
Reality was always slapping me in the face without mercy.
Watching a show and actually doing it yourself were very different things.
At least one or two hours of hiking had used up almost all my stamina.
Asking me to think about starting a fire on top of that was already nearly impossible.
And yet.
It was strange.
Compared with the first time I had crawled up from underground and seen nothing but desert, I did not seem to fall apart as easily.
Lapis.
Perhaps because lying there a while had restored some stamina, or because the cool had made me feel a little lighter, I sat up from the ground all at once.
[“Yes, Miss Yulin.”]
Hearing Lapis’s voice was so familiar.
She still answered the instant I silently spoke her name.
Eden was not, in fact, that far from me.
If I want to lighten the burden of moving, is there a good way?
……
After a slight pause, Lapis said, [“If I may speak frankly, Miss Yulin.
[“Without the support of a stable singularity core, the compression or transferred-space capability you hope to achieve — something like a [storage crystal] or [warehouse crystal] — can only be solved through psionic techniques.
[“At present the Construction equipment lacks the relevant drivers and cannot resolve this problem for now.
[“If you store luggage inside the Construction equipment, the Construction equipment will consume [ether initiation factor] to achieve compressed storage. Each deposit or withdrawal will consume some. This does not match your original intent.]
[“However, we can change our approach. Perhaps the goal can be reached by enhancing your own strength or by using a transport machine.
[“The following plans are feasible:
[“1. Use a powered exoskeleton as bodily assistance. Mechanical support and power-assist can greatly reduce physical load during long-distance transport.
[“2. Manufacture an all-terrain transport vehicle. Seventy-two models matching your requirements have been matched, ranging from miniature to large, including types that can be ridden.”]
……
That was right.
What was I agonizing over?
The me of now was already completely different from the me who had first met Alice.
Even if I was thinking of saving, at least in this regard, I should not be saving, should I?
While I was browsing the blueprints, Alice came up in front of me with an armful of branches stripped of bark.
She seemed about to say something to me, but seeing that I looked absorbed in something, she set down the firewood in her hands and began stacking it.
The flint was what Alice had chosen while we were still on the engineering vehicle.
There were probably more convenient, waterproof igniters available to us, but for Alice an ordinary flint was enough.
Before long, in a wreath of blue smoke, she had the campfire lit.
A powered exoskeleton.
That looked like the plan that suited me best.
As for a vehicle…
In my original world I had gotten a license long ago, but most of my “driving” had been spent on arcade machines.
A vehicle.
I probably could not drive one.
I climbed slowly to my feet and drew in a quiet breath.
If I was still thinking of saving now, of not using the metal case — then when would I use it?
Thinking that, I moved the metal case to an open spot and slowly raised my hand toward it.
Construct MK-2 powered exoskeleton.
[“Received. Loading quantum model: MK-2 powered exoskeleton.
[“[Ether initiation factor] cartridge connected. Executing Construction sequence.”]
Zzz—
The silver-white metal case unfolded across the ground at once on my command.
Metal plates splitting from the case enclosed a circle on the earth.
At the center of the circle was a regular metal cube, with a slender steel needle at its top.
Electric light flared from the needle and raced across the ground, but was confined within the circle the plates had formed.
Then, in that light, the grass on the ground, the soil, and the small stones buried in the soil broke down and vanished one after another.
When the brightness faded, the metal case had returned to its original shape, leaving only a pit in the earth.
[“Printing…
[“Construction complete.”]
So this was the legendary powered exoskeleton?
I looked at the other black carrying case on the metal case and thought that.
But just as I was about to walk toward it, I suddenly felt something soft underfoot.
I looked down—
“Ah!!!”
“Yulin-chan?!”
Right after that came the sound of Alice rushing over in a flurry.
Bugs.
Bugs…
In the pit dug out by Construction, fleshy worms the color of the soil wriggled at my feet, and I did not dare go near the pit at all.
Unlike trembling me, Alice first came to my side with concern, then, finding I was only afraid of these worms, opened her hand quite calmly.
“It’s fine, Yulin-chan. These aren’t poisonous, and they don’t bite. We have them in the fields back home too.”
“Mm… mm.”
I knew what Alice was saying, actually.
These worms, about as thick as a thumb and as long as a palm, looked a lot like the earthworms of our world.
But looking at that kind of slimy thing wriggling left and right in the dirt, it was hard to fight the discomfort in my head… right…?
After a slight hesitation, I said to Alice, “Alice, can you help me bring those two cases back?”
“Sure~”
Saying that, Alice jumped into the pit almost without hesitation, and before long came back hugging my cases.
Under her feet, right under her soles, soil-colored worms curled and struggled where they had been stepped on.
Looking closer, those were not the only kind of worm in the pit.
In that instant, I, who not long ago had been lying on the ground wanting only to sleep, could think of nothing but how to get off the ground.
Right.
Get off the ground.
There was a tree, wasn’t there?
I was not very good at climbing trees, but there would always be a way.
“Yulin-chan?”
Seeing me frozen there, Alice lifted the two cases in her hands a little and tilted her head at me.
“Mm. It’s nothing. Go ahead and busy yourself, Alice.”
“Okay.”
All right.
Change of mood.
Time to look at this legendary [powered exoskeleton].
In my impression this thing had only ever appeared in sci-fi films and the occasional high-tech news piece.
With a stir of excitement, I put the metal case back under the tree.
The HUD in my field of view annotated the carrying case in my hands, which was not all that heavy.
A window popped up beside it, explaining the use of the powered exoskeleton in animation.
Following the instructions, I set the case on the ground and opened it.
Inside there were only two recesses shaped like footprints.
Was it… like this…?
I eased my feet into the case, excited and a little uneasy besides.
For some reason I kept wondering whether this thing would even work properly.
Probably because I had taken part in making it myself…
A click.
The moment my feet settled into the footprints, a metal latch sounded inside the case.
I could clearly feel something lock around my feet, and for a moment I did not dare move.
Then the metal plates near the “footprints” lifted at an angle, split, and became a string of linked metal rods.
Before I could react, those rods climbed my feet, climbed my waist, climbed my back, and at last reached from my shoulders onto my arms.
It felt like putting on a layer of hard armor.
The metal rods fixing my back and limbs along my legs left me unable to move for a moment.
They were so strong.
Then the carrying case split to both sides as well, becoming round metal discs that climbed the rods and settled at every joint of my legs and arms.
Right after that, two curved metal plates, one large and one small, stopped at my waist and my neck.
Along with the sudden loosening of a body that had been locked stiff, the ache in my waist and neck from the long trek eased at once under the support.
Was that… it…?
I lifted my arm without thinking and looked at my hand.
Turned it.
Raised it.
Lowered it.
Everything was so natural, as if the exoskeleton fixed to my body did not exist.
For a moment I could not feel it at all.
I even doubted whether those thin metal rods were still there.
Then, the instant I lifted a foot toward Alice…
“Ohhhhh!…”
Amazing.
Amazing!
I could not feel myself using any strength at all.
The moment I lifted my foot, a sense of support, and of my foot being drawn up by something, made me feel as if my whole body were floating.
It was a little hard to get used to.
But it was truly effortless.
I was sorry.
I had actually doubted Eden’s technology.
I was far too weak.
A peaceful night passed in the wilderness.
With the power of the exoskeleton, I, who had not been good at climbing trees and had no stamina, actually used a few branches to put up a frame and set a bed in the tree.
The stars at night were truly beautiful.
The quiet night wind was much gentler than in the desert, and in the warm current of the campfire it felt very pleasant.
Even so, I still did not sleep very well.
Probably because I had slept too full those days in the car.
In the morning a thin mist floated over the grassland.
The sun still hung high, but it only lit a wash of pale white across the sky.
When clear birdsong woke my eyes, a drop of dew reflecting firelight fell from a leaf and landed right on the top of my head.
“Yulin-chan, you’re awake?”
Whenever I opened my eyes, I would hear Alice’s voice at just the right moment.
I would think that now and then.
How closely was she watching me?
Every time I sat up, she noticed at once.
A thread of blue smoke drifted among the green leaves of morning.
Alice stood by the fire, stirring the ashes with a stick in her hand, gradually putting the campfire out.
Breakfast today was berries Alice had found who knew where, paired with plant roots she had gathered who knew where.
The roots did not look like much, but they tasted like sweet potato, and were actually quite good.
And so I was already beginning to miss life in Eden, life on the engineering vehicle.
Still, it was all right.
Alice was here with me.
A breakfast like this was something Alice had made specially for me.
She herself chose the higher-calorie Eden energy bars, because for me, weak in the morning, something lighter was better.
MKR4-003 and the little cart were no longer with us, but we still had drone-chan, didn’t we?
[“Good morning, Miss Yulin.
[“After parting with you yesterday, up to June 23rd, 07:00, the engineering vehicle has refurbished 1,200 km along the old line.
[“From the results of the lower-layer survey, the engineering vehicle is advancing along the line toward deeper underground. At the current pace, it is estimated to approach the Ring-Star Railway main line today at 20:32. At that time, locating and searching for the Bapluntas will proceed more quickly.]
[“This is the map updated as of June 23rd, 07:00. Please receive it.”]
It was only a brief video message.
Even though MKR4-003 looked in my field of view as if she were truly standing in front of me, I more or less understood and was used to it.
While marveling at how advanced the technology was, I glanced at the map.
To be honest, I still did not quite understand how much the tunnel map had to do with us on the surface.
I set my feet in the carrying case.
The familiar feeling returned.
Once the powered exoskeleton covered my body, there was a lightness, as if I were being held up by clouds.
“Yulin-chan, time to go.”
Having put the campfire completely out, Alice checked her pack one last time, slung it on, and smiled at me.
Then we set out.