Gun Princess Royale - Book 3 - Princess of the City (web version)

Chapter 1 - Part II

– II –

Initially it was a surprise, but the more I thought about it, the more sense it made to me.

The Cat Princess was a mechanical, remote controlled body.

I didn't know what it was like for the operator to experience their surroundings through the interface with the avatar, but it was possible they lacked the tactile sensitivity a human or Simulacrum possessed. In other words, the Cat Princess's Meister didn't feel her surroundings as much as I did. This was something I only realized while grappling with the Cat Princess aboard the VTOL.

When I felt the knife in her back pocket, I was able to steal it from her without being discovered. As we continued to scuffle, she made no mention of the knife, so I went further and succeeded in removing the gun from the holster she wore under her jacket. It wasn't easy, and I honestly feared she would notice my intent, yet she didn't. Uncomfortably hiding the small gun in the band of my denim trousers, while keeping that side of my body facing away from the Cat Princess, I once again waited for her to notice she'd been disarmed but she remained oblivious to the fact.

It was then apparent that as realistic as she was – which included breathing – she didn't possess the same degree of touch sensitivity as a real person. She wasn't aware of all the changes in pressure to her body, and that certainly surprised me. It also made me curious as to how a Meister operated the mechanical avatar. What was the experience like for them? How did they view and feel the world around them? If the result was limited like the Cat Princess demonstrated, then their perception of their surroundings was woefully trivial compared to how clearly I could experience my environment.

I decided it was something I'd ask Erina or Ghost about later.

Scratch that.

I'd ask Ghost about it later when we were alone.

With the Cat Princess glowering at my back, I followed my sister and Pearson out of the waiting lounge and into the innards of the apartment complex. The landing platform was constructed on one corner of the six-sided building, but it wasn't located at the top of the megascraper. In fact, the middle of the hexagonal pyramid towered a dozen or more floors above the platform. After a short walk down an opulent hallway, we arrived at a bank of elevators and caught one up several floors. Exiting the lift car, I trailed behind Erina and Pearson, and came up to a pair of doors at the end of a short corridor. I expected Erina to unlock the doors, but instead she touched the doorplate to the right of the jamb, and with Mirai's acute hearing, I listened to a chime sound faintly somewhere ahead of us.

When one of the doors unlocked and then opened gently, my eyebrows rose dramatically to the ceiling and try as I might I couldn't bring them back down.

A young woman in a traditional maid outfit poked her body out into the corridor.

No, no, no. Allow me to properly elaborate upon that observation.

A young woman in a traditional French Maid's outfit, with a bodice that clung tightly to her well-endowed chest, poked her body out into the corridor. At sight of Erina, she opened the door fully, revealing the rest of her, and I ran my gaze quickly over her short skirt, and slender shapely legs perched atop a pair of black high heels. Her long, auburn hair was arranged into what I guessed was a thick braid, and I judged her to be a little older than me, though still in her teenage years. It was then that my eyebrows lowered, when I found myself wondering if she was a Menial, and perhaps this was all the employment she could find herself after graduating from second tier education, otherwise known as high school. When I realized what I was thinking, and I flinched in shame as I averted my gaze.