“Life, oh life~ Can’t you let me off just this once~? ♪”
“In my next life, I only want to be a child who never grows up~ ♪”
If there was a next life, he truly wanted to be a child who never grew up…
That was his final thought as he waited at the crosswalk, unable to dodge the out-of-control truck barreling toward him.
So, I transmigrated into Little Herta?
On an assembly table in Herta’s laboratory, Little Herta spent twenty-one seconds using her logic core and data-search capabilities to understand her current situation.
He had become her—one of the great genius Herta’s Puppets.
Moreover, she was still being assembled.
Only her head and shoulders had been completed.
So, does this mean my wish came true?
Little Herta gazed thoughtfully at the laboratory’s dazzling array of lights, which shone even brighter than the shadowless lamps above an operating table.
In the final moments of her previous life, she had wished to become a child who would never grow up.
Now, in this life, her consciousness had awakened inside an unfinished mechanical Puppet.
She would never physically “grow up,” and with Herta, a genius renowned throughout the universe, as her creator, she probably wouldn’t be crushed beneath the pressures of life.
A life like this…
“Isn’t half bad?”
Little Herta genuinely thought it was pretty good.
“What’s not half bad? Wait! Why did you activate?”
The Puppet under assembly had suddenly begun speaking.
Herta, the beautiful genius whose name resounded throughout the cosmos, cast Little Herta a puzzled look.
She clearly hadn’t activated her, so how had she started up on her own?
“You weren’t the one who activated me?”
Little Herta looked back at Herta with equal confusion.
She had assumed she’d been activated normally.
At the same time, she said,
“Your decision to tread the Path of Erudition is truly a loss for the Path of Beauty.”
That was Little Herta’s assessment of Herta’s appearance.
Her cheeks were flawlessly fair, and her long purple hair was as smooth as silk.
Most striking of all were her profound violet eyes, which gazed at Little Herta with an intellectual air, carrying a hint of confusion yet unable to conceal their confidence.
Compared to her in-game model, the real Herta was even more impressive.
“You’ve got quite the sweet mouth.”
At Little Herta’s words, Herta’s brows relaxed and the corners of her lips curled upward.
She had no idea how the Puppet had activated on its own, but she liked what she’d heard.
Besides…
“Other than that, is there anything else you want to say after seeing me?”
She liked hearing it, so naturally she wanted more.
After all, every Herta Puppet had an automatic praise mode.
Whenever they saw her, they would say things like, “Madam Herta is without equal; Madam Herta’s beauty eclipses all others; Madam Herta’s intellect is unsurpassed.”
Now that she’d given the prompt, this Puppet should activate its automatic praise mode and compliment her.
“Hm?”
Little Herta tilted her head in confusion.
She couldn’t understand why Herta had raised her chin and puffed out her chest so proudly while asking that question.
After a moment’s thought, however, she realized there really was something she wanted to say to Herta.
It was the line countless Trailblazers had wanted to say upon first meeting Kafka, yet had been unable to select in the game.
It was every Trailblazer’s regret when facing Kafka, as well as the inevitable choice when facing Himeko.
That word was—
“Mom!”
Without the slightest hesitation or delay, Little Herta cried out the word in her crisp, melodious voice!
“Huh?”
Herta’s proud little face, which had been awaiting praise, instantly fell.
The corner of her mouth twitched as she stared strangely at the Herta Puppet she hadn’t even finished assembling.
“I didn’t hear you clearly just now. What… did you say?”
Rationally, Herta was certain she hadn’t misheard a single syllable.
Emotionally, she hoped she had.
“Mom—!”
Little Herta called out again without hesitation, even louder than before and with a trace of teasing in her voice.
Herta’s expression completely collapsed.
If the first “Mom” had been a heartfelt cry, then the second was probably deliberate.
The little thing must have found Herta’s troubled expression amusing.
Who knew what piece of code had produced such an awful personality?
Herta truly wanted to teach her a lesson.
“Ding-dong—”
Just then, a chime came from Herta and interrupted her thoughts.
She casually raised a hand, and a translucent blue window appeared before her.
She skimmed the text on it.
“Why did Ruan Mei have to contact me now?”
However, once she noticed the name “Ruan Mei,” she began reading carefully.
Ruan Mei had sent her a fairly interesting research topic and invited her to work on it together.
But Herta was still assembling the Puppet…
“…”
Herta looked at Little Herta on the workbench.
Her eyes appeared clear and full of curiosity, despite how she’d just made fun of Herta.
Herta fell silent for half a second.
Hah.
She waved her hand to close the window, then looked at the unfinished Little Herta.
“I have something else to take care of. Wait here for a while.”
She decided to leave the little thing lying there for a while as punishment for offending her.
“A while? How long, exactly?”
Hearing that Herta was leaving, Little Herta hurriedly asked.
She didn’t want to be left lying on the workbench like this!
“No idea! Just wait.”
Herta waved and turned around without another word.
“Wait, you’re really leaving?”
Can’t you finish assembling me first?
And how long is “no idea” supposed to be?!
Herta left with swift decisiveness.
Little Herta tried moving, but none of the components below her shoulders had been assembled.
Other than turning her head, she couldn’t move at all.
Helpless, she could only stare straight up at the ceiling and the shadowless lamp shining down on her.
Bored out of her mind, she waited for Herta to return.
And continued waiting.
“Four hours, thirty-seven minutes, fifty-six point eleven seconds. She hasn’t forgotten me, has she?”
As a mechanical lifeform, Little Herta knew exactly how long Herta had been gone.
She felt this had already exceeded any reasonable definition of “a while.”
According to Herta’s characterization in the game from her previous life, Herta was a willful genius whose actions and research were usually guided by her interests.
The moment she lost interest in a research project, she would discard it without hesitation, ignoring all sunk costs.
It didn’t matter if the research could change the world and advance academia by several centuries, or if she’d already poured endless effort into it.
Conversely, whenever she encountered a project or research topic that interested her…
Little Herta had good reason to suspect that Herta had become so absorbed in her new research that she’d forgotten about her unfinished “daughter” who called her Mom.
“I’m so bored. Is there anything I can do to pass the time?”
Little Herta examined what functions she possessed as a robot.
“Automatic Praise Module,” “Personality Mapping Module,” “Indiscriminate Attack Module,” “Network Intrusion Module,” “Pastry Artisan Module”…
“What is all this? Hm? Wait, Network Intrusion Module? I can connect to the internet?”
After confirming that she had network connectivity, Little Herta searched for the laboratory’s network.
Unsurprisingly, she found it—and she even had direct-access privileges.
“Let’s see what’s in here. Replication of the Imaginary Space Interleaving Experiment Report? So that’s how Imaginary Space works? Comparative Analysis of Repulsion Phenomena Between Identical Paths? Why do Paths seem somewhat idealistic?”
Little Herta slowly browsed through the files.
At first, she found Herta’s research notes somewhat interesting, but she quickly grew tired of them.
“Nothing but boring experiments. Not interesting at all.”
“Hm?”
“Puppet Production Instructions & Records?”
Just then, Little Herta found something related to her current situation.
“Let’s see.
Making pastries and cake as a return gift for Ruan Mei.
Adding a kitchen-assistant Puppet.
Puppet No.
4422 complete.
Puppet No.
4423 currently under construction…
No.
4423 is…
me?”
“She made me to help her bake a cake? Wait! A cake?!”
Now she was really cooked!
The moment she saw that information, Little Herta, who had thought being reborn as a Puppet was wonderful, felt her entire mechanical existence turn bleak!
Herta’s culinary skills were a terrifying talent inversely proportional to her genius intellect.
She could literally blow up a kitchen just by cooking!
In the animated short The Great Herta’s Sorcery Kitchen, she’d tried to bake a cake as a gift for Ruan Mei, only for the kitchen to enter full demolition mode!
Incidents included, but were not limited to, using the Curio Super Overlord Spinning Top to beat eggs and causing an explosion, putting the Curio Spacetime Prism into a pot with cheese and causing an explosion, and locking tiny Herta Puppets in the microwave while steaming a cake and causing an explosion…
In short, explosion after explosion after explosion!
What was the difference between being Herta’s kitchen assistant and being a humanoid firecracker?
No.
She had to save herself!
After discovering her future workplace, Little Herta had only one thought—escape!
But…
Looking down at her body, she found nothing below her shoulders.
She hadn’t been fully assembled and had less than half of even 2.5.
Forget escaping—she couldn’t even roll over.
After finally gaining a second life, was she really going to cosplay as a humanoid firecracker?
Would Herta repair her after she exploded?
What if she couldn’t?
Was her second life going to end in the scrap heap immediately after it began?
Little Herta wanted to cry, but mechanical lifeforms couldn’t shed tears.
All she could do was swivel her adorable little head around within its limited range of motion.
She hoped to find some way out of her predicament.
However, other than a vast amount of experimental equipment, the enormous laboratory didn’t contain a single living person.
There was only her unfinished self and another Herta Puppet standing not far away, apparently a permanent laboratory fixture currently in standby mode.
How could there possibly be a way out…
Huh?
Did that Puppet just glance at me?
“Hey, Herta Puppet over there.”
Little Herta tried calling out to her, but the other Puppet did nothing.
She simply stood there without moving or reacting.
Was it my imagination…?
Hm?
No, she looked at me again!
Just as Little Herta began to think she’d imagined it, the standing Herta Puppet glanced at her once more before looking away.
The other Puppet had indeed looked at her.
She simply didn’t seem interested in acknowledging Little Herta.
It was just like the idle Herta Puppets in the game.
Even if the Trailblazer wandered around in front of them, they wouldn’t initiate a conversation.
In fact, the bartending event’s story revealed that the Herta Puppet accompanying Herta wanted to become a mechanical lifeform as intelligent and rational as Screwllum.
She even daydreamed about swapping roles with Herta.
All Herta Puppets were “alive.” Their designs were based on Herta as a child, so they naturally possessed modules that imitated Herta’s personality: the “Unreasonable Module” and “Personality Mapping Module.”
In other words, all Herta Puppets inherited part of Herta’s personality—the arrogance and narcissism of a genius.
Wait, narcissism?
An idea popped into Little Herta’s head.
She knew what to do!
“Ahem!”
Little Herta cleared her throat, then called out to the distant Herta Puppet.
“Beautiful Puppet sister over there, whose beauty rivals Madam Herta herself and who possesses the same intellect and wisdom as Madam Herta, could you please help your adorable little sister?”
“Hm?”
Sure enough, the Herta Puppet reacted.
She turned around and walked over with light steps, then lowered her head and asked,
“What is it, Puppet No. 4423?”
The corners of her lips had visibly risen by approximately one pixel.
“Since there’s no telling when Madam Herta will return, could my intelligent and beautiful big sister help assemble my body?”
Little Herta immediately pressed her advantage and made her request.
The production of Little Herta had already reached its final stage.
All her parts were on the assembly table; they merely needed to be put together.
“…”
Upon hearing Little Herta’s request, the Herta Puppet tilted her head slightly as if thinking.
Several seconds later, she shook her head.
“No. Assembling you without permission would make Madam Herta dislike me.”
She’d been rejected, and the reason was flawless!
It was Madam Herta!
Little Herta knew this path was probably a dead end, but she still wanted to struggle a little.
“But Puppet sister, lying here is so boring. There’s no telling when Madam Herta will return, so please help me, kindhearted Puppet sister.”
“How about assembling just one arm? Only one arm. I’ll handle the rest myself. If neither of us says anything, no one will ever know you helped me.”
“I believe that a Puppet sister as kindhearted as Madam Herta will definitely help me, right?”
“…”
After Little Herta finished speaking, the Herta Puppet didn’t respond.
She merely stared at Little Herta in silence.
Looks like I failed…
However, just when Little Herta thought she had refused, the Puppet picked up the tools on the assembly table.
Not long afterward…
“I have arms and legs! Long live freedom!”
Once the Herta Puppet had assembled one of her arms, Little Herta followed the blueprints in the laboratory’s main computer and assembled the rest of her body herself.
The first thing she did after landing on the floor was perform Mualani’s idle dance on the spot.
Then she gave the Herta Puppet who had helped her a hug.
“What are you doing?”
Caught in the sudden embrace, the Herta Puppet couldn’t understand why Little Herta had hugged her.
“I’m thanking you!”
Little Herta released the Herta Puppet and explained,
“I’m expressing my gratitude with a hug. Thank you for helping me, big sister!”
In truth, gratitude was only part of the reason.
This was a life-sized Herta Puppet—something she could never have touched in her previous world!
Of course, Little Herta merely hugged her and kept her hands to herself.
She had something more important to do now!
And that was—grab her things and run away~!
★ ★ ★
T/N: If you spot mistranslation, do tell me!