"With everything that has happened, we've decided to transfer Korilis over to you. If you are willing, we will give you all of the land in that township."

Valerie wrinkled her face at the king and sighed. "What are we going to do with land to your kingdom? Won't we have to maintain everything? That sounds like it would be more of a pain than it's worth."

"Well," the king said, "we would still be able to maintain things if you'd like, but you would get all of the tax revenue, and the land will be functionally yours to do with as you pleased."

The dragoness sighed. "It still sounds like an ocean of responsibility to place on me, and I want nothing to do with that responsibility."

Bery grabbed onto Valerie's arm. "We could have someone else look over it. I am kind of interested...It's the town I grew up in. And besides, I think we should invite them over to eat at least."

The king perked up at the mention of food, but he didn't say anything. He waited for Valerie to speak instead.

Once again, Valerie sighed and shook her head at Bery. She squeezed the kitten's cheeks with her fingers. "You know that acting cute can only get you so far, right?"

"Don't lie," Emary said from behind the two of them. "I've seen enough this week to know that you would let her get away with anything if she begged for it. You are going to turn such a nice Bery into a spoiled cat."

Bery pouted and crossed her arms. "I won't become spoiled! No amount of buttering me up will make me into someone like that."

Valerie chuckled and kissed her kitten's forehead. "Well, I guess there you have it. We should discuss this matter over some food."

///

Yuri focused on her cleaning duties while the others were outside. She grabbed pieces of gold with her wooden fingertips, and she inspected them with her glowing eyes. They acted like their own little flashlights. What Valerie said about this taking a long time to do was completely accurate, yet the robot kept finding new ways to be efficient.

She'd made her own coffers to hold each piece of gold. There were many gold pieces of varying sizes and weight, so she had to make different sized slots inside of each coffer. Some of the gold pieces were older than anyone could imagine, and Yuri presumed that they likely dated the kingdom that this mountain resided in.

Though, Yuri cared much less about their origins than she did about sorting each piece where it was supposed to go. She worked diligently without taking a single break. Her processor thought of new ways to make the process go even faster without ruining the quality of her work.

Calculating the usage of mana to speed up identification of gold pieces… Notice, the core of Y.U.R.I does not have enough mana to maintain such a process for a long time.

Still, the robot remembered the face of the kitten begging her not to slave away. Yuri had the perfect excuse to rest herself. She could figure out a way to use up her storage of mana, and while it regenerated, she would task herself with resting.

The robot sensed the opening of the mountain door, and she stopped what she was doing momentarily. She walked up the steps towards the main castle, placing one foot after the other, and she entered the long hallway.

By the time she got to where the others were, she could see other humanoids. Scanning...Surprised expressions. Calculating best way to introduce myself to these people.

Bery grinned and gestured towards Yuri. "This is our friendly golem named Yuri! Please be kind to her as she is a little shy of people."

"Administrator Bery. This is a false presumption."

The face of the crowned humanoid shook with surprise. His eyes widened like robot censors, and he pointed at Yuri with awe. "I can't believe that you have something like this! Do you realize how much this thing…"

Bery stopped the man. "She is not a thing. She is Yuri, and she is perfectly capable of understanding emotions."

The king scratched his head. "Right, I apologize. Yuri, was it? I am King Vernan."

Yuri scanned the king up and down. "Acknowledged." The robot turned her head towards Bery. "What is the purpose of this humanoid king's visit?"

"We were hoping to discuss that right now. Although, it looks like we'll be needing to use up some more of that kraken."

The king and his royals gasped. "Such a high quality ingredient like kraken? Please, Lady Bery, that is wasted on us."

"Bery is okay," the kitten said, "and you don't need to be so modest. Today is a day that should be celebrated."

King Vernan frowned. "You are just like those townspeople said you would be…"

Emary shook her head. "You should have seen her before, but I'm surprised that you actually went to Korilis yourself."

"Of course I would go myself. I wanted to see the territory where the last foolish king lost his life. I wanted to meet you people and speak to you on my own. If I couldn't even do that, then I would be the most foolish king ever."

The elf's eyes widened with surprise. "You really are different than that last guy. I never said it when I saw him speaking to my father before, but I disdained him. He was so self centered, and everything he did...you could easily read his ulterior motives by simply looking into his eyes."

Valerie shrugged. "He was an ant at the heart of an ant hill and no one to be taken seriously. It may have been one of my kind that influenced him, but the only ones who are capable of being influenced to such a degree already have a negative heart. Their hearts are so full of blackness that they can't even see the light."

Emary nodded with a sly smile. "It seems that despite all of that, Bery can still see the light."

Valerie crossed her arms. "Well, that's because she is the light anyway. Calling her anything less than a beautiful guiding light in a sea of darkness would be an affront to how amazing she is as a kitten."

Bery bit down onto Valerie's arm. "If you keep talking about me like I'm not here, I will get angry."

"I have already told you this before, but a kitten's teeth still needs more sharpening."

The group laughed while Yuri added the data into her processor. Fundamentally, Yuri had no idea what it meant to tell a joke and inspire humor in others, yet her processor seemed to glean with delight at the prospect. And so the robot started.

"Administrator Bery, what do you call a humanoid with two cat ears and a cat's tail?"

Bery tilted her head and pressed a finger against her chin while looking at the robot. "Are you talking about me?"

"Yes, you call her Kanai'nside the Hoard." Yuri followed up her blank joke with robotic laughter.

Bery giggled more at the robot's reaction to her own joke than the joke itself. The kitten grabbed onto Valerie's arm and Yuri's wooden arm. "Come on, you two. We have to make our guests feel at home."

Valerie chuckled and looked at the robot. "You should work on your jokes for entertaining guests. I've never heard of a golem jester before."

"Acknowledged. I will calculate a more humorous response that will make your funny bones rattle."

"What's a funny bone?" Bery asked.

"Acknowledged. Many differences in culture detected from my creators. I will diligently study the history of this world in order to calculate the best jokes."

Bery shook her head again in exasperation. "Jokes aren't something to be calculated, you know? They are just something you say at the correct timing in order to make people laugh."

They finally reached the dining room, and the king looked around at the place in surprise.

"It's smaller than my castle's dining room, but it has more interesting things. Who sculpted those dragons on the wall?"

Valerie's eyes glared at the man. "We aren't here so that you can learn where I got my stuff. For the record, even if I remembered, I wouldn't tell you."

Yuri's system remembered the dragon statues and thought of ways that she could make more, but she calculated that it would not be best to bring it up now after seeing Valerie's eyes. The robot had no idea why, but the thought of angering Valerie made Yuri's circuits rattle.

Instead, the robot made herself scarce in the corner of the room and watched all of the guests as an observer. She calculated each of their movements and what it meant. Each subtlety that she could observe would make her more useful to Lady Valerie and Administrator. Since when had her program deemed those two the ones that she would follow? The robot had no idea where this feeling came from.

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