Editing Amaryllis in the Ice Country:Chapter 7 (section)

===Part 2===

—Haa…

And so, I crawl into my bed at home on the day.

The Village Meeting’s about to start in the day. Even after a week, I still can’t make up my mind.

The topics to be discussed at the Village Meeting can be roughly classified into two parts.

1. Proposal to have humans survive… to continue to maintain and manage the ‘Snow White’.
a. However, there are some duties all villagers will have to do.
i. Double the frequency of ‘extracting’.
ii. Cut down supplies frequency by half.
iii. Stop all parts exchange during the diagnosis.

2. Proposal to have humans wiped out… to stop the ‘Snow White’, and destroy humanity.
a. From thus on, all villagers will have the following benefits.
i. Stop ‘extracting’.
ii. Double the frequency of parts.
iii. Issue standard parts for treatment.

The contents of the meeting are just that simple.

Given the dire lack of parts, there’s no way to continue maintaining the Snow White from thus on except for more ‘extractions’ from the villagers. In other words, if we are to continue protecting humanity, the villagers will have to die. Conversely, if we protect the villagers, humans will have to die.

—Ahh.

I’m tormented by this cruelty.



To protect with our lives, or to live by killing?



—Why did it end up this way?

Is it worth protecting humans by sacrificing the wives?

Do we want to have humans continue to survive, even if it means sacrificing the children we love?

But if we destroy the Snow White here, what is the purpose of the past hundred years.

In any case, we robots, created by humans, must judge over our makers; is this really forgivable?

—What do I do?

Over the past week, I had been asking this question to myself.

“Haa…”

I sigh for the umpteenth time for the day, and turn around. I finally make it back to my room, but I just can’t calm down.

To let them live on, or to wipe them out—which option do I choose? And, the reason behind it.

Of course, I do want to choose ‘Proposal to have humans survive’. Over the past hundred years, I have been living for that, moving on with the goal to serve our masters again. Just thinking of giving up on my prior way of life, and destroy the Snow White is something I am terrified to think about.

—But.

There are two problems to this. One, the maintenance of the Snow White requires a large amount of sacrifice. If we continue to carry out extraction at this rate, the number of martyrs in the village will continue to increase. Having more cave-ins will also result in more sacrifices. Even if we do choose to remain in the village and protect the Snow White, that will mean a slow approach to our deaths, and there’s a very high chance that the villagers will die off before the end of the Ice Age.

Second, which the Chief did mention, is the reason why we worked so hard to protect our masters. The people asleep inside the Snow White are the ones who sacrificed a large number of their kind to survive. Are they really the judge masters worthy of our loyalty, the masters as kind as the Principal? Are they the enemies of our masters, the ones who sacrificed them? Even so, to destroy the Snow White and kill off the masters who cannot resist is too—

—Ahh, seriously…!

I continue to rack my Mind Circuit, unable to consolidate my thoughts. If this kept up, I wouldn’t be able to speak up at the meeting today.

Almost all the villagers will be attending the meeting, save for a few who are being repaired. Like me, the rest aren’t able to get a conclusion, so the scale remains tipped in an unknown direction. If this keeps up, the possibility of the Chief’s proposal—the Proposal to wipe out humans—being passed will be very high, given that he has the most trust from the villagers. Also, I lack the reasoning and resolution to refute that.

“Yo, coming in now.”

The door opens without a knock. Poking her face in is my big sister, wearing a beret.

“What’s with the long face? That’ll ruin that cute face of yours.”

“But…”

My heart just feels heavy thinking about what’s going to happen today.

“What will you choose, Viscaria?”

“I think I’ll vote to wipe them out.”

I suddenly lift my head.

“Oh, you’re surprised? I do have some reservations about it, but considering how bad the predicament of the village is at this point.”

“Predicament…”

The lack of villagers’ parts is at its limit. If we continue extracting at this rate, there will surely be many more villagers who will stop functioning due to a lack of parts—death.

“What will you say for your speech?”

“Of course. I’ll say this, we villagers will be wiped out due to a lack of parts. As the lead technician, I support the proposal to wipe out humanity.”

“I see…”

Everyone can say whatever they want for today’s Meeting, if they want to. This affects the future of the village, and our own futures. Of course, I too have a chance to speak up.

She then continues on,

“I can’t stand seeing the lives that can be saved vanish before my eyes…”

Such a grumble is befitting of her, a technician and a doctor. If the Snow White is broken into parts, we might be able to save a hundred. She knows this more than anyone else.

“That’s what I think too. If the Snow White can’t work, it means it’s at the end of its lifespan. Even if we do continue to take care of her for a hundred years, if the Ice Age doesn’t end, the fate of human extinction won’t change either.”

Viscaria states it very clearly. At such moments, she has an outstanding ability to make decisions.

“But we worked hard for our masters until this point, right?”

“I know. But aren’t the ones sleeping inside that Snow White the bad ones who killed our masters? It’s their fault that the surface entered the Ice Age.”

“This…”

“The ‘masters’ I love and respect are the ones who really treasure the robots, and will continue to repair them no matter how many times it is, until the moment the robots break down, and say ‘thank you very much for all this time’. When I was in the repair factory, I had so many kind people around me. My masters aren’t inside the Snow White, but in my memories.”

Saying this, Viscaria presses her chest.

She’s straightforward, but there’s a lot of gloominess on her face, and as she bites her lips, her expression is somewhat pained. I know this is a conclusion she has made after much pondering, so I have no intention to refute.

“Well, it just has to be a choice to make after much consideration. I can’t say either of the choices are completely correct.”

“Actually—”

She lowers her beret, and mutters a wish, a prayer.

“It’ll be best if there’s a chance for both humans and robots to be saved.”