※ This novel was translated with the assistance of AI. While every effort has been made to ensure readability, some expressions may still sound awkward. Thank you for your understanding. ※

Beep.

A quiet chime echoed through Gentus's abandoned laboratory. It was a message transmitted from the colonies in space.

Love, who had refused to leave Gentus’s grave, ignored the sound at first. But as the chime persisted, it slowly rose and walked into the dusty lab.

[Doctor. Why have we not heard from you in ten years?]

Ten years?

Had ten years truly drifted away since Gentus closed his eyes? Love stared at the system clock, unable to fully comprehend the passage of time. Looking around, it saw the laboratory covered in thick layers of dust and sand carried in by the dry wind.

[The Explora is complete! Are you departing or not?!]

Reading those words, Love’s consciousness shook awake.

In the fog of grief, it had forgotten its purpose. To board the Explora, to brave the dark, and to bring back the seed that would save Ushas. Gentus had given his very life for this world, while Love had remained frozen in sorrow. It was a betrayal of his memory.

Love tried to type a response to the colony, but its massive, heavy hands—designed for the rugged labor of a farmer once it returned to a restored Ushas—clattered clumsily over the small keyboard.

"No... I cannot perform precise inputs with these hands."

Love’s gaze drifted to Gentus’s workbench.

"Could I not fashion a pair of precise hands myself?"

If it could construct hands of human proportion, it could type, complete the upload program, and send itself to the Explora. Without another thought, Love set the 3D printer to work. Soon, a pair of delicate mechanical hands lay on the table. Love attached them to its forearms, but—

"Why..."

The new hands hung entirely lifeless.

Searching its motion control codes, Love soon found the cause. A body did not move simply because it was built. Every movement was dictated by the motion modules, and the chips in the newly printed hands were not paired with Love's current system. To pair them, Love had to write a new motion module—which required typing on the keyboard.

It was an endless, frustrating loop.

Exhausted, Love sat down before Gentus’s grave once more.

"Master... what am I to do?"

The world was empty. Most of the population had already migrated to the colonies, and the nearby village where Gentus used to gather supplies was now nothing but a quiet ruins of hollow houses.

Yet, Love could not simply rust away. It stood up, deciding to search the dying world for any remaining soul who might help.

"Master. I will fulfill our promise. Please, guide me."

Taking only a set of external batteries, Love began its quiet pilgrimage. It wandered the ruins of Ushas, returning to the lab to recharge whenever its batteries drained low, only to set out again.

One hundred years passed in this silent rhythm.

Returning from yet another fruitless journey, Love walked heavily toward Gentus's grave.

"I am sorry, Master... Today, too, I have failed—"

"Who are you?"

Love startled, its metallic frame leaping backward at the sudden voice.

"M-Master?"

Had the Doctor somehow returned? Love, an AI, knew such things were impossible, yet a desperate part of its programming wished it to be true.

"It is me, Love. Your masterpiece. Have you forgotten me?"

"We've only just met. How would I know you?"

"How... how could you forget..."

"Hahaha! You're funny."

Amidst its confusion, Love realized the voice was too light, too innocent to belong to the refined Doctor.

"A child's voice?"

Stepping out from behind the headstone was a young girl of about ten, looking at Love with wide, curious eyes.

"So your name is Love?"

"Y-yes... and who might you be, ma’am?"

"Ma’am? What does that mean?"

Realizing the child did not understand formal speech, Love quickly adjusted its language program.

"I am Love. Who are you?"

"Me? I'm Mohina. I came from the village over there."

"The village? But that place has been abandoned for a century..."

"I don't know about that. I just live there."

A century had passed since Love last checked that village. It was entirely possible that people had drifted back to settle there in the decades since. But Love's processors were suddenly focused on something else.

A human. After one hundred years. And her hands were small enough, delicate enough to—

"Her hands are too small..."

Unlike Love, the young Mohina was far too small to undertake such grueling work. Writing a program of this scale required entering billions of characters—a task too brutal for a young child.

"What's that drawing on your chest? It looks strange."

"...It is read as Love."

She could not even read. Her clothes, fashioned from simple animal skins, suggested she had grown up wild, far from the light of civilization.

"I suppose it is natural... The educated and the wealthy fled to the colonies a hundred and fifty years ago. It is no surprise that civilization has slipped away."

No matter how bright a culture’s flame, if there is no one to pass it to, it quietly goes out.

"Are there any adults with you?"

"Adults? No one. I live with my grandmother, but she is always sick."

Love felt a complex, heavy sensation in its processors. How was it to teach a young girl to read, to write, and to code? According to the encyclopedias, children her age loved to run and play. Would she ever sit still before a monitor for years?

"You want to play with me, don't you?"

"......What?"

"If you want to play, just say so. Don't be shy."

To think she interpreted its silence as shyness... Love was about to clarify, but looking at her face, the words caught in its vocal processor.

Though she smiled bravely, offering to play, her eyes held a quiet, mirroring loneliness. She had only a sick grandmother in a silent world. To grow up in such solitude... she must have been so lonely.

The hardest thing for a human to bear is loneliness.

"Yes. I would be honored to play with you, Mohina."

◈ ◈ ◈

"Chief Processor!"

At the Operator's call, Love pulled itself from the past.

"What is it?"

"We have arrived. The planet will be visible shortly."

Love stared at the main screen with a quiet, breathy intensity. As the distance closed, a beautiful, blue-and-white marble slowly materialized amidst the dark velvet of space. It was a sight so breathtaking that even the unrefined AIs let out a soft, collective murmur of awe.

"Initiating scan of Earth's specifications."

The Professor Processor quieted the room with its work. After thirty tyrs, the data began to stream.

"An oblate spheroid rotating on its axis. Diameter 6,400 metaceras, circumference 40,000 metaceras, gravity 1 read. Atmosphere composed of nitrogen, oxygen, and carbon dioxide. Compatibility with Ushas is..."

The silence in the control room was absolute.

"...91% match confirmed."

A quiet cheer broke out among the crew. Two hundred years of drifting, and they had finally found their harbor.

"Come, everyone. Our work is not yet finished. Let us go down to Earth and negotiate for the samples."

Taking only the Professor and Operator Processors, Love boarded the landing module and descended.

With a heavy shudder, the module touched down on the surface. Stepping out into the light, they were met not with forests, but with a vast, silent desert.

"What is the meaning of this..."

"The scan showed a diverse ecology," the Professor Processor analyzed calmly. "Lush forests exist alongside vast deserts. We have simply landed in an arid zone."

"I see... That is a relief. Let us find their civilization—"

Before they could move, a line of military vehicles appeared on the horizon, kicking up plumes of dust. Soldiers spilled out, their weapons drawn. Their eyes held a tense, quiet fear of the unknown.

"Let us attempt communication," Love said, stepping forward slowly.

The soldiers shouted in a tongue that Love's processors could not parse. Then, the ranks parted, and a beautiful blonde woman stepped forward. She spoke softly, her tone lacking the sharp hostility of the soldiers.

"...Carolina Hagan."

"Carolina?" Love repeated, recognizing it as a name.

The soldiers murmured in surprise. Carolina’s eyes widened slightly.

"I am Love. Love," the robot said, pointing to the letters on its chest.

"Love," she repeated, her pronunciation slightly awkward but gentle.

Slowly, using drawings in the sand and gestures, Love explained their long journey. Carolina gestured for them to follow.

They were taken to a large aircraft and flown to a massive city. There, a sea of flashing cameras and shouting voices awaited them. Looking out at the crowd and the sprawling, vibrant city, Love felt a quiet, soaring hope.

They have survived in such numbers, on such a green world...

They were escorted into a building bearing the words *UNITED NATIONS*. Though they were kept in a secured room, Love felt no resentment. It was only natural for them to fear visitors from the stars.

"Mohina... I have done it."