Chapter 703 - 703: You Give Me Your Body, I'll Give You My Memories. Fair Trade

Sunlight streamed through the floor-to-ceiling windows, evenly spilling across the living room floor.

The second sunrise had arrived inside the pocket universe.

"Mm..."

Origami groggily crawled up from the sofa and started fishing around on the floor for her clothes.

"This is Kurumi's. No, wait, this one's Taihou's. Whose is this one...?"

After rummaging around for a while, she found that everyone's clothes had become mixed together beyond recognition. She simply summoned an Angeloid and changed into a fresh outfit instead.

"Commander, you pervert!"

Seeing Setsuna leisurely drinking coffee in the distance, she could not resist walking over and punching him twice.

Unfortunately, with her body completely drained of strength, even her punches felt soft and weak.

"Didn't you bring this on yourself? So, how was it?"

Setsuna pulled the silver-haired girl into his arms and teased her.

"Too much!"

Origami puffed out her cheeks and rubbed her stomach.

Setsuna had said that equipping an Astral Dress would increase attack speed and critical hit rate, and he had been telling the truth.

After she, Nia, and Kurumi put on their Astral Dresses, he truly showed them what an anime-sized serving meant.

"If anyone else saw me, they might even think I was pregnant with the Commander's child."

"Mm... although that wouldn't exactly be bad."

"There are already enough children in the capital. I don't need a few more."

Setsuna pinched her cheek.

"But I don't feel any stronger at all. I can't even sense an increase in spirit power or mana."

Origami was deeply disappointed as well.

No matter how she tasted it, all she could perceive was its original flavor. She simply could not comprehend Kirie's ability to treat it like a feast.

"I told you, that's her special ability. Only vampires from her world can do that."

Setsuna answered with a laugh.

He had not expected them to become competitive with the heroine from an eroge world.

"Ehh..."

Origami shook her head.

"I hope Ruan Mei figures it out soon. If I had that talent too, imagine how strong I could've become from the moment I first met the Commander until now."

"Maybe I'd even be stronger than Mio!"

She counted on her fingers for a long time and felt as though she had lost out on a fortune.

"Impossible."

The Spirit of Origin beside them squeezed closer into Setsuna's arms.

"I've spent far more time beside my husband than any of you... so naturally, I would become stronger than you too."

"Spending more time beside the Commander doesn't mean you've done it more often! Every time, I can..."

"Says who? You often beg for mercy halfway through and withdraw. Have you forgotten?"

The two immediately began arguing back and forth, leaving Setsuna with black lines practically covering his face.

"Could you two stop obsessing over such a weird question?"

"This is important. Doesn't the one who's spent the most time with the Commander and been intimate with him the most naturally have more weight?"

Mio stretched out a fair arm and traced circles across Setsuna's chest.

"...Fine."

Setsuna gave up.

"More importantly, I need to take a bath. Commander, help me."

Origami wrapped both arms around Setsuna's neck and acted spoiled.

"This is all your fault. I'm exhausted now and don't even have enough strength to stand, so the Commander has to take responsibility all the way to the end."

"Help me bathe, change my clothes, and feed me breakfast.—And I mean actual breakfast, not Kirie's kind!"

"Me too! My husband—Commander!—"

A still-groggy Kurumi, Taihou, and several Spirits squeezed over as well.

"All right, all right."

Naturally, there was no reason to refuse such a small request.

Setsuna scooped Origami up in a princess carry.

"Regretting it now? Are you still going to act that cocky next time?"

"Mm..."

A flush crossed Origami's face. She turned her head away and stubbornly refused to admit defeat.

"I was wrong. I'll do it again next time."

...

Two hours later.

The Angeloids had restored the room to spotless condition.

"Phew—"

Setsuna lounged comfortably on the sofa and ate a few snacks.

It was halftime.

Hopefully, after learning about Kirie's ability, the others would stop getting strange ideas.

Or coming to him to "play cards" under the pretense of conducting research.

"My husband, do you have any plans this afternoon?"

"Would you like to come play with us?"

Mio leaned over and asked.

Aside from the parties, spending time beside the Commander watching movies and shopping was important too.

"Not for now."

Setsuna thought about it.

"If I have time, I want to go find Herta, then check in on Yoshino, Mako, and the others."

"Oh, you mean that scientist?"

Mio tilted her head back in recollection.

"She seems a little easier to get along with than Ruan Mei? Although I don't really understand what goes through the minds of those geniuses."

"She needs an injection of humanity too."

Setsuna answered.

Ruan Mei, who had originally possessed the least humanity of all, had gradually begun changing after being injected with an excessive dose of it.

At the very least, she would no longer casually grab random passersby for experiments without reason, and she could properly complete the tasks assigned to her.

The same logic applied to Herta. The colder, more aloof, and more indifferent someone was toward everything, the greater the sense of conquest and contrast when humanity was injected into them.

Unfortunately, Herta still seemed to be locked in some kind of struggle with little Herta. Setsuna had no idea what experiment she was busy with now.

"Indecent."

Mio huffed and lightly punched Setsuna twice.

"It's not like I'm a good person anyway. I've always been willing to face my own desires directly."

Setsuna spoke frankly. Wasn't the whole point of the pocket universe to let oneself go without restraint?

"You're awful..."

While he was still flirting with the Spirits,

Bang—

"Commander, someone requests an audience."

An Angeloid bowed and came forward to report.

"Hm? Who?"

Whoosh—

A purple figure suddenly condensed into existence not far away.

She seemed to walk straight out of the void, approaching Setsuna with elegant, measured steps before giving a slight curtsy.

"Commander, greetings. It has been quite some time."

"I wonder what sights you encountered while Trailblazing other worlds. Did your journey go smoothly?"

She had purple hair and golden eyes. Her upper body was wrapped in a fitted black-and-purple dress that perfectly accentuated her graceful figure, the curves of her chest faintly visible beneath the fabric as though they might break free at any moment.

She wore thigh-high boots over black pantyhose, while a hood rested atop her head and long hair flowed down her back. Mysterious and elegant, she radiated endless temptation.

It was Black Swan, who had come to the Starsea Empire in search of memories.

"Oh, it's you?"

Setsuna had initially intended to have an Angeloid serve her tea, but then remembered that Black Swan was technically a memetic life-form without a physical body.

"What do you need?"

"Mm..."

Black Swan sat before Setsuna, her deep golden eyes examining him. After not seeing him for some time, she could sense that the man before her had accumulated many more "stories."

As a Memokeeper of the Garden of Recollection, being unable to touch this portion of his memories filled her with particular regret.

"I'd like to learn more about you, Commander, and about your memories from other worlds."

Black Swan gave an entirely expected answer.

"Oh?"

Setsuna leaned back and looked at her with a smile.

"Again? Didn't I already tell you that if you want memories from me, you need to offer something of equal value in exchange?"

"...I understand."

Black Swan nodded.

"But you are the Commander of the Starsea Empire, and an existence equal in standing to an Aeon, perhaps even higher."

"After becoming a Memokeeper, I abandoned my physical body, replacing matter with mind and spirit. Therefore, I cannot offer you any physical material from reality in return."

She paused.

"So I thought about it for a long time. The only things I can exchange with you are my memories and abilities. As long as it is something within my power, you may order me to do anything you wish. I will not refuse."

"I get to choose for myself?"

Setsuna laughed.

Black Swan truly could not think of anything equivalent in value to the memories of an Aeon. As a memetic life-form, she was effectively separated from the material world.

"Uh, come on. Even if you wanted to sell yourself to the Commander, you couldn't, right?"

Gudako leaned over and smacked her lips.

"If an ordinary person received some enormous favor from the Commander, they could at least say, 'I have no way to repay such great kindness except by offering myself to you,' then warm the Commander's bed or something... but you don't even have a physical body?!"

"At least someone like Murasame has a spiritual body you can actually touch. But you're a memetic life-form made entirely of information. Uh, you're probably something like the Data Integration Thought Entity that the Great Moe God mentioned?"

A memetic life-form that had discarded matter and flesh was essentially a life-form composed of "memories" and "information." It had once been difficult for them to understand, but after spending some time with Yuki Nagato, they had more or less developed a basic grasp of the concept.

"...Sell myself?"

Black Swan froze for a moment before awkwardly shaking her head.

"You certainly put things directly. That would be rather too... In any case, I truly am incapable of doing that."

"But I will not refuse anything else."

"..."

Setsuna stared at her and thought for a moment.

Then an idea suddenly occurred to him, and he generously extended a hand.

"It's fine. I'm in a good mood today, so I can agree to this little request of yours."

"However, you'd better prepare yourself mentally."

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