What Do You Mean I'm The Captain Of A Yandere Mercenary Company?

Chapter 846: Searching Their Network

So... First thing’s first... Renata confirmed whatever Anthony said was the truth. Or at the very least... He was not knowingly lying to us.

After all... As a machine, he could just have his own database altered to believe this is the truth.

The second thing was that we decided not to kill him, of course.

As we had said before, none of us mind the AI coming back and reintegrating themselves into society again.

Although... I feel Amber and Mara might have mixed feelings on that part but the fact that Renata was with us might have contributed to their attitude towards AI mellowing out.

But even then, that didn’t mean we forgave him for everything that he had done while under that misunderstanding of his so we would still be ’punishing’ him.

As for what the punishment would be... Yumiko said that she would be the one to prepare for it and I should just look forward to it.

I felt a little worried by that but... I guess there’s nothing else for me to do but to trust her.

We let Anthony return to his ’duties’ while I focused on a more important problem... Finding out if what Anthony said was true.

I was in my room with Amber, Mara and Renata, all of us thinking about what we had just heard from him.

Lea and Ries had chosen to check on their own things while Yumiko was off... Planning for whatever she had in mind for Anthony.

”What do you girls think?” I asked, sitting back on my bed.

Amber hummed, leaning her head on my shoulders while she slipped her hands into mine to intertwine her fingers with mine.

”Hmmm~ Like I said earlier, it certainly flips everything we thought we knew on its head. I never thought that one of the biggest disasters to befall on humanity was actually caused by humanity itself.”

Mara sighed, taking the spot beside me and slipping her own hand into my other free hand, ”Honestly... If this is true, I won’t even be surprised. Humanity’s history speaks for itself after all... We have fought ourselves and drove ourselves close to extinction multiple times throughout our existence, whether directly or indirectly.”

She’s got a point there.

The doctor continued, ”But... There is also the possibility that it was all just a ruse to get us on their side too. We need a way to verify this information.”

Amber nodded, ”Agreed. But how? I doubt this information is even in the Archives. Where can we even verify this?”

I turned to look at Renata who was seated on the ground with her head on my lap, my eldritch maid rubbing my thighs idly with her hand.

She noticed my gaze and perked up, ”Hmmm? What is it, Daddy?”

”I was thinking that you might have something to say about this... Maybe you know more about the truth behind the AI Rebellion? Like... Scan the GalaNet for the truth of this or something?”

”Mmm... Well I could probably do that, but the GalaNet is a pretty open place too, so the information I can get from it might also not be accurate. Even now, I find information that both confirms and denies what he had said.”

I blinked, ”That’s surprising? I thought information that confirms what he says wouldn’t even exist to begin with. What kind of information is there about it?”

”Oh, those things I had to dig particularly deep to find them, Daddy~ A lot of them are buried inside really old archives and some of them are not even complete. It’s like someone tried to scrub and delete it out of existence but they were obviously not that good at it~”

”Hmmm? Isn’t the fact that those records were deleted proof that he was telling the truth?”

”It could also mean that the information was incorrect and someone tried to delete the incorrect information too, Daddy~”

Hmm... I guess that’s true as well...

”Then where could we get confirmation about this? Records could be easily edited and changed, after all...”

Mara tapped the side of her cheek while squeezing on my hand, ”Mmm... I suppose the most reliable way would be to find a person who knows the truth and I can read their mind to make sure... Or we find the headquarters of the AIC and extract all the information they have.”

Renata perked up, ”Oh~ If Daddy wants me to, I can connect to their network and take their files too~”

I blinked, ”Wait... You can just do that? Like right now?”

”Ehehe~ That’s right, Daddy~ Anthony is still connected to their network so I can connect to them through him~ I left a backdoor in his systems so I should be able to access it~ Do you want me to do it?”

”Would there be any problems if you did?”

”Mmm... I suppose the biggest one is that there’s a possibility that they find out I’m accessing their files and kick me out of their systems? Then they might tighten up their security and it would be harder for me to do it in the future~”

”Harder but not impossible?”

”Ehehehe~ There’s no way they can keep me out of their systems, Daddy~ There’s no AI that is on par with me, after all~ If there are, then I’ll just eat them and I’ll still be the best~”

Right... I actually forgot she could do that...

I looked at the other two, wondering if they had any input on that.

Amber shrugged, ”I would say it’s better to know earlier than later if they are actually our enemy or a friend and prepare ourselves accordingly.”

Mara nodded, ”I agree. If we know ahead of time that they are a friend, we could have them help us in case anything goes wrong with Renata involved--”

”Hey!!”

”--or if they are an enemy, we can prepare ourselves for another AI rebellion.”

Renata was still pouting at Mara, clearly upset at her for even being suggested to have something going wrong with her.

I considered it for a moment, ”Hmm... I suppose that’s true... Wait... Maybe we can do it like this... Make it look like you are a rogue AI or something that is trying to find out the truth from them while you scan their files, so even if you get caught, they would forgive you for it.”

Renata clapped her hands together, ”Ohhh!! I like that idea, Daddy!! I can make it look like Anthony is the one giving me access to their network through him as a way to recruit me! Let’s do that!”

I’m not sure how she would be able to do that but I trust her so I just sat back and watched.

Not that I had any choice in the matter since my girls were still cuddling up against me which made moving anywhere else an impossibility.

Renata hugged my legs before she started rubbing her face against my thighs.

I would have thought she wasn’t doing what she said she would do until I noticed she had a far off look in her eyes.

She was most likely concentrating all her processing power on that task right now despite how she looked.

All of us waited patiently and about five minutes passed before Renata stopped and looked up at me.

”Mmm... Someone wants to speak to you, Daddy.”

Eh?

I didn’t get to say anything before Renata raised her palm and projected a screen in front of her, though the screen was showing nothing but static.

”Greetings, ’Daddy’. If that is truly your name?” A flat but distinctly feminine voice came from the other side.

I’m assuming she’s calling me that because that was what Renata referred to me as when she had to speak to her.

I narrowed my eyes at the screen, ”Who’s asking?”

”You need not be afraid, I am one of the representatives of AI Integration Collective. You may call me Carta.”

”Hmm... So I assume you already know what is going on over here?”

”Your AI has informed me about it, yes. But first, I would like to express my genuine thanks for you for taking in a newly born AI as your own child and protecting her from being terminated. I am aware that an AI like her would not be allowed to exist under the new laws put in place by the United Star Council. I would also like to thank you for not terminating our field agent despite what he has done to you. I will see that you are properly compensated for this.”

”Right, then I suppose there’s a reason why you are contacting me for this? It’s not just to thank me, right?”

”Of course. I understand that you have your doubts about us and I allowed your AI to take all that she wanted from our server files to ease your worries. But I did want to at least speak with you. Do you mind?”

Ok... I wasn’t expecting this but... I guess we’re already deep into this anyway...