Editing Amaryllis in the Ice Country:Chapter 3 (section)

===Part 2===

After Vicia’s operation is done, we proceed to diagnose another ten or so, and the morning work is finally done.

“There’s a lot of people today…”

Viscaria slumps into the sofa, letting her neck creak. Waste materials will gather in the Mind Circuit of the robots keep focusing their attentions too much, corroding it.

“You alright? You’ve been working non-stop recently.”

“No way. I feel better off than you having to drive the icemobile for more than 100 hours a week.”

“Don’t force yourself.”

Viscaria is basically the expert in technology, so we just end up leaving everything to her. We can probably install her repair manual in us like a pill, but we probably will freeze up due to a lack of specs.

“Spare Ops is probably at its limits…”

Over the past hundred years, we have been providing maintenance and care for the ‘Snow White’, for the ‘Spindle’ of the main computer, the ‘cradle’ of the masters, and the ‘REM forest’ that contains the Snow White—every day, we made checks, cleaning and repairs on them. But no matter how well we manage to maintain them, the ‘Snow White’ is still a large piece of metal. Its body is slowly being corroded, breaking down. And so, on a certain day seventy years after we went underground, the spare parts to repair the Snow White have finally worn out.

We didn’t know what to do. If this kept up, the Snow White would malfunction. Our beloved masters would die. Is there any way to obtain the parts—after thinking so hard, we finally thought of one.

To extract.

We extracted the parts that form a robot’s body, refined them, and used them on the Snow White, so that the maintenance of the Snow White could continue. In this sealed underground world, where resources are limited, there was no other choice.

But there was undoubtedly an issue to this. Robots that had been ‘extracted’ would be unable to move due to the defects of their parts. To resolve this issue, we used ‘replacement parts’ made of similar materials to replace the parts that were ‘extracted’. The villagers’ bodies were then replaced by replacement parts every passing day.

—And once everything is switched to replacement parts.

Viscaria once explained this to us.

—They aren’t parts of official specifications, so no matter how we try to process them, they will not mesh perfectly, and the rate of deterioration will be hastened. Thus, patients who have been ‘extracted’ will malfunction easily.

Even so, the villagers rushed forth, hoping to be ‘extracted’. I too have seventeen parts swapped with ‘replacement parts’, two on the head, two on the right hand, three on the left hand, one on the right leg, two on the left leg, and seven on the body. At first, the ones who offered to be extracted was limited to just adults, and in the end, even the little children bravely offer their parts. At this point, a child has an average of 4.2 parts extracted, while an adult has an average of 11.3 parts.

Pin pon pan pon. The cowbell-like chime rings, indicating the end of the rest period.

“Now it, it’s time.”

Viscaria gets up from the sofa, and adjusts the collar of her white robe.

“Amaryllis, what’s our appointment for the afternoon?”

“Eh, three cases starting at 1pm, four cases starting at two, and then—”

At that moment,

“Wait, what are you saying!?”

A young girl’s voice rings.

“I-I-I-I-I won’t go to a hospital.”

“Are you an idiot!? Stop forcing yourself here, trashy!”

“I-I hate the, hospital. Hate it, hate it.”

And then, it’s followed by a familiar “Gaaa peee.” Noise. Viscaria and I exchange looks.

“Emergency patient first.”

Viscaria lowers her beret, and shrugs.