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

===Part 3===

Viscaria leaves, and I still remain gloomy.

There’s only half a day until the Village Meeting. While it’s not necessary to state my view at the Meeting, as a villager, and as the Vice Chief, I want to treat this matter responsibly. I really hate voting for the majority or going along with the others.

—I’ll choose to wipe them out. To destroy the Snow White.

Viscaria had stated clearly. This is a decision befitting of her, and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.

—To stop the ‘Snow White’, and destroy humanity.

The Snow White uses the latest parts, so once it’s taken down, it will instantly solve the issue of a lack of parts in the village. Visea’s ‘popping pain’ can be treated immediately, old man Sugi can walk freely, Leaves can make voices from the throat, and Pinetree can see the light of day again. All the villagers who have done extraction can regain their original functions, whether it is that their limbs are immobile, or that they are blind or deaf; the village will probably regain its joy and life. This isn’t selfishness from the villagers, but instead, just taking back ‘what originally belongs to us’. The villagers who have been protecting the Snow White for more than a hundred years have the right to live on, so I think.<ref>Sugi, short for Japanese Sugi Pine, Japanese Red Cedar. Scientific name Cryptomeria.</ref>

—But.

Is it really fine? To abandon what we have been protecting with all our lives, and to ensure our survival? Our masters created us from one; are we just going to let them die? There are babies inside too. Are we going to treat them equally? Then, are we going to just save the babies? Just save the ones who never participated in the ‘massacre’? Choose them one by one? Do we have such a right?

The more I think, the more confused I get.

And at the end of the frustrations, that voice will always show up in my mind.

—Good work.

That’s the Principal who often took care of me when I was still a nanny robot.

—Go have a rest.

The Principal has always been thinking for my sake, comforting me with words from time to time. Even after becoming an old man, even after his back is slouched, his hands trembling, Principal always have an earnest smile on his face. Principal’s popular with the children, surrounded by them immediately once he appears. When I broke down, Principal objected to scrapping me, and had me repaired. To me, the original image of the ‘master’ is the kind face inside the bedroom, with the curtains fluttering in the spring breeze.

—Principal…what, shall I do?

Principal’s kind smile continues to linger inside my Mind Circuit. Over the past hundred years, I kept working for that smile, protecting the Snow White. For that, I have no regrets or grudges, and am I am proud of it.

Principal’s kind smile, the children’s innocent sleeping faces, the amicable mothers—such memories of the era of nanny robots can’t be wiped away at all, and I find it hard to make a decision. There are two ends of the scale. One side is the nice sleeping faces of the children in the village, and the other is the innocent sleeping faces of the kindergarten children. The scale continues to shake, not tilting to either side.

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

Viscaria’s right. If there’s such a way, that’s definitely the best one. But because we can’t do it, we’re troubled, lost till this point. It’s not like this fantasy of a solution is there whenever we want it.

“Ahh, every problem will be solved if the Ice Age can end.”

I continue to say something that isn’t possible, and feel increasingly downhearted.

And so, after thirty minutes of me being busy over nothing passed.

—Wait.

I lift my face.

—If the Ice Age ends.

The reason why the Snow White was built was because the surface was unsuitable for humans to live on. So, there’s a need to wait until the Ice Age ends, and have the Cradle return to the surface to be ‘reawakened’. That will become a new dawn for humanity. Right, if the Ice Age ends—

—Huh?

At that moment, I get up with an idea.

—How’s the situation on the surface?

Once I realize this possibility, the electric signals race through my Mind Circuit. Sparks fly everywhere, and the shattered information start to piece together as a whole. This is a phenomenon called ‘realization’ in humans.



—Such cracks appear when there is a difference in temperatures.

There are some strange cracks appearing on the icemobile. Back then, Viscaria said,



—Maybe it’s because the recent difference in temperatures causing it. I intend to focus on Treating frostbites during the next ‘body checkups’.

There has been a sharp increase in the number of frostbite cases. Back then, the one who was told of the ‘difference in temperature’ wasn’t anyone else, but me.

Difference in temperature.

In other words, that’s the change in temperature—if the temperature ‘underground’ changes, does it mean that the temperature on the ‘surface’ is changing too?

—Right.

It’s an optimistic guess. Even if this is an illusion born out of my wish, called ‘I hope so’, but at this point, I, who’s at a complete loss, thinks of this as a great idea. Even if it’s a roll on the dice, there’s value in going to check it out.

“Alright!”

I stand up, grab my coat, and run out of the house.

—To the surface!