Amelia's Story

Wh-What's going on?! Are we under attack? An air strike? Some sort of demolition?!

...Explosion... Grounding... Reclamation...

Th-The culprit is still on site...!!

Reinforcements are still on their way...

I have no other choice but to do something about this myself...!!

An overheating bug caused by bypassing the circuit...

...Amelia...?

That means...

Ah, Rohne. Please wait for a moment.

Design-wise, it is prone to contact errors...

Hmm, good. I have recorded everything.

Amelia, is that...

Yes. It is the mayor's latest invention.

Of course... I knew it...

What do you mean you knew it? How rude!

It was merely a small malfunction that occurred during testing.

A small malfunction? There was an explosion.

A larger explosion occurred during the previous test.

And an even larger one during the test before that.

An explosion of this scale is quite minuscule.

I don't think that's how you should be looking at it...

By the way, are you okay? You were in the middle of that explosion.

Do not worry. I am fine.

These may look like everyday clothes, but they have heat-resistant and bombproof properties.

Sigh... I can't imagine how many of these you must've experienced...

Amelia, I think Miss Elena goes a little too far with you.

What do you mean?

Please explain in detail what you mean by that.

S-Sorry? Umm, so...

She's always forcing dangerous inventions onto you.

It is a great privilege to be the first to try out inventions.

E-Even though they malfunction?

It is an honor to be of service to Miss Elena.

But... they blow up...!!

It is a special experience that nobody else gets to experience.

I assure you, explosions are art.

Amelia... You're usually pretty normal...

But what's with your obsession with those weird inventions...?

Ahem, please do not look at me like that.

Sorry...?

Please do not look at me as if you wish to claim Miss Elena's inventions for yourself.

You may beg, but I will not let you have them.

Miss Elena has them bestowed upon me. They are mine and only mine.

...Geez, you're such a normal elf usually...

I can't believe that I lost it...

Something that should never have happened has happened...

Umm, Amelia?

If I declare a state of emergency, lockdown all streets, and launch search operations immediately—

Amelia? Amelia!!

Ah... Chief Canna?

Aw... You finally looked at me.

What's the matter? You're acting as if something terrible has happened.

You muttered something scary about an emergency and a lockdown... That startled me.

Ah, it is nothing. Nothing at all.

Okay. If you say so.

More importantly, have you been able to check the document that I submitted for approval?

If you are talking about the supply request form, I processed it before lunch.

Yes, I saw it had been approved, but what about this?

Hmm... There don't seem to be any issues with the date or approval lines.

Not those. I mean the actual number of supplies that have been issued.

Here... 200 rounds of ammunition had been requested, but you approved 200 boxes.

Is there a war you're preparing for that I don't know about?

Oh... I apologize. I have made a mistake.

And please have a look at this too. It's also a little strange.

The rations? This is correct.

There were 0 blocks requested in the first place.

Really? How strange. I'm pretty sure I had a request for 100 boxes put in.

Well, no matter. Can you add them now?

Blocks, yes. We have more than enough in stock.

Do you need any regular food? We also have a sufficient stock of that.

No, that's alright. If we have that, it'll be troublesome since we'll have to plan a menu.

Blocks are good and easy!

I'm pretty sure nobody really likes them though.

They all say that, but they'll still eat them.

Okay... If you say so, Chief Canna.

Thank you. Heh, looks like even you're capable of making mistakes, huh, Amelia?

Did something happen?

Please stop digging for answers.

It's just that you look like an elf who's lost something important and is in a panic.

I-I have no idea what you're talking about.

Hmm...

Oops...

Have you lost something important?

N-Not at all!

There's no way I can say that I've pathetically managed to misplace my custom-made Mayor SD Figure!

Amelia, you're stuttering just like Rohne...

Again, nothing happened. Absolutely nothing, okay?!

I just can't admit that I brought it to deal with the stress of all the overtime... and then lost it!

Umm... I'm not completely sure what you're dealing with, but would you like some words of comfort...?

You're not the mayor, so I'll decline...

I-I see...

Sigh... I still haven't found it. That means someone must have taken it.

I have no choice but to mobilize the troops, set up roadblocks, and conduct searches...

The mayor's seal is required to declare a state of emergency, which I have, so...

Hello? Amelia?

Are you busy with something? I picked this up nearby...

Wh-What?!

Th-That's my customized Mayor Elena SD Figure!

...Ner, let's take this somewhere else for a second.

Ner, um... where did you find that?

It was lying over there, by the bushes.

I am pretty good at finding items lost near trees or bushes.

Were there any witnesses?

I doubt it. If there were, they probably would've taken it, right...?

Oh my... Thank goodness...

You seem really flustered. Is this something important to you?

On second thought, it does seem to resemble someone...

Th-There's no way... It's just an ordinary toy, it doesn't look like anyone.

You sure? It looks like Elena to me.

Especially that large, white robe, right?

That's exactly right! I tried to recreate the robe Miss Elena wears on her days off!

Oh...

Uh oh...

Nooo...!! I said it!! I had to pretend I didn't know, but I blurted it out!!

You totally got Miss Elena's greatness! So I... *Facepalm*

I-I couldn't stop myself!

It's not wrong of me to respect my boss or anything...!

You respect your... boss...?

How is that possible...?

Sorry? Isn't it just natural to respect your boss? It's not that hard, right?

Elena, for example?

Firstly, she's the mayor and she's wonderful enough to entrust me with hands-on responsibilities.

Is she not just passing off her own responsibilities to you?

She's also kind enough to let me handle her precious inventions first.

She is just making someone else do the dirty work.

And on top of that, once she's in the zone, she's so locked into her work that she won't even look up, no matter how many times you call her.

It sounds like she finds other elves annoying...

Hmm... I see.

And? Does Elena know that this is how you feel?

She still doesn't realize how intensely my feelings burn for her...

Ah, these feelings of yours are still a secret then?

What are you writing in your notebook, Ner?

Oh, nothing, I am just taking some notes. It holds no meaning, so please do not worry about it.

That aside, I think you and I might just become good friends.

And as friends, let us have a little talk about Elena, shall we?

What is her latest invention? What documents has she signed?

I-I can't tell you that...!

You will tell me all the secrets of your amazing and respectable boss, won't you?

I-I can't! I really can't...!!

We're inspecting all our tanks today.

We're in a foreign land, so we need to make sure we're prepared.

In principle, yes.

As you said, Master, we are a race that travels through dimensions.

So for elves, we take a more active stance on defense.

Hit them before they hit us.

Don't you guys say that on Earth, too? That the best defense is offense?

A strategy is simply a strategy, and sometimes it fails.

There was more to it than just the outcome...

Our defenses were vulnerable after the dimensional travel, and the timing was bad...

Excuse me! Earth is the villain here! They invited us with the intention of tricking us in the first place!

Sending an invitation and then ambushing is a cowardly tactic, even by elven standards!

Look. This is what the invitation looked like.

No, it's because just thinking about what happened triggers me all over again!

Say one more stupid thing and you'll get a taste of our active defense.

It's an invitation from Earth, so it can't be elf language.

You can't read it either, Master?

Basically, yes.

We were sure they were asking us to rule over them...

Instead, we were captured and suffered terribly on Earth.

That's right. We were kept underground where there was hardly any light...

Soldering, gluing eyes to dolls, and sewing all day long.

Our engineers were dragged here and there, and forced to divulge their knowledge.

If Miss Elena hadn't created the Dimensional Gate Chip, we might still be stuck there!

She did indeed. If only Miss Elena had been our leader from the beginning!

Then we wouldn't have been fooled by the golden disk disguised as an invitation.

Yes, our analysis concluded that it was launched in Earth Year 1977.

Just hold on. Please wait.

Let me adjust the output device's power... and synchronize the frequency...

There. All done.

It's Miss Elena's new invention. It's called the Elias Magnifier.

The Elias Magnifier temporarily enlarges everything except the target.

As a result, only the target becomes smaller.

Size is a relative concept, you know.

Anyway, what can I do for you?

...I wish you'd come just a bit sooner.

Oh well, I'll just clean up here then.

Excuse me? Throw it away?

I've been organizing all the inventions Miss Elena sent me in the conservation room.

Later, I'll build the Elena Memorial Science Museum and donate all of them to it.

No... not really.

I'm helping her because I lost a duel.

I'm ashamed to admit it, but I once used to be a copycat inventor, copying Miss Elena, whom I greatly admired...

We had a duel with our finest inventions, and I ended up being defeated.

No, I wasn't even defeated, I had to forfeit.

There was no way I could show THAT.

I'll give you credit for not running away, copycat!

I'm sure you're prepared to face the consequences of copying inventions that are not your own?!

It won't be so easy this time, Miss Elena. Even for you.

This robot here will show that I'm not just a copycat inventor...!

...Hang on! I was so excited to have a duel with Miss Elena that I brought Elena-tan: Mark XVII by mistake!

I-I can't show Miss Elena a robot that I modeled after her!

I-It will...!

What? Show me this robot already! Are we dueling or what?

E-Er... Whatever, I choose death!!

...What the heck?

...That's how I chose defeat and protected my honor.

That's also how I became Miss Elena's assistant.

It doesn't matter since I ended up being at Miss Elena's side now.

I can't wait to discover what invention Miss Elena has in store for me tomorrow!

W-We're only 3 layers up! You're playing dirty!

I can't take this anymore, Rohne!

A-Amelia...?

You're late again with the quarterly departmental financial report!

I-Isn't it due tomorrow...?

It was due this morning!

This isn't the first time you've had me work overtime! Keep this up and I might just turn into an Overtime Elemental!

I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! I'll make sure to submit it on time from now on!

I-I'll get it to you right away!

Sigh... Okay, it looks like there are only about seven things that need attention.

I-I didn't think there would be any...

I can see how much effort you've put in, so I'll let it slide just this once.

If you're late again next time, I'll turn you into Rudolph.

No, not R-Rudolph! Anything but that...!

For the sake of my parents back home, not Rudolph...!

Oh, that's right, you come from Earth, don't you, Master?

It's illegal to mention that name in Monatium, Master.

Yes, that big geezer!

There is a mayoral special decree that prohibits anyone from uttering that old fart's name.

Um, I don't think you should say such negative things about Monatium's mayor...

Robots like MaestroMK2 are rumored to be collecting reports of anyone badmouthing her, you know...

I told you not to say that name!

Well... when we were enslaved on Earth, we had to work for that old man, too.

We had to get ready to make our deadlines as the days drew closer to December 25th...

December was especially rough. We worked 18-hour days with no sleep.

Inventors like Miss Elena and Amelia kept getting dragged away for this or that...

Rudolph is a punishment that's even worse than crunch time.

It's so horrible that I can't even find the words...

Earth was a truly terrible place.

That old tub of a man in those commercials is all fake!!

I hate working overtime! I hate working on weekends! Let me go home!

A-Amelia, it's all over now... Please calm down...!

Why is there a bed in the office! What? More overtime tonight?! NOOO!

Stop reliving the past and come back to us, Amelia!