At the first gate of the Underworld, a statue made of black rock stands alongside the Grim Reaper, overseeing the souls passing through. Talos.
I stared blankly at Talos, who stood motionlessly at the first gate.
Hmm… Does this thing actually possess intelligence? I didn’t design it with that assumption in mind…
Could Keres have been mistaken? Or has some kind of bug caused it to develop intelligence?
Hm… If it really did develop intelligence… if it gained a heart…
Was allowing the girl who came to resurrect her parents not a temporary system malfunction but an intentional act?
Did compassion arise, sending that girl further into the Underworld?
I don’t know… Truly, I don’t know. So…
“Talos.”
I need to confirm this once.
When I called Talos’s name, it silently turned its head to look at me.
Its mineral eyes… emotionless eyes. This Talos possessing emotion and intelligence is hard to believe.
Still, I can’t leave it unconfirmed.
“Do you possess intelligence?”
I asked Talos, filled with anticipation.
“…”
But Talos gave no answer.
Hmm… Well, that’s expected.
The idea of intelligence arising in a stone golem I made feels absurd, right? Even though I’m the Goddess of Life… if intelligence could be created so easily, shouldn’t everything I’ve ever made possess it by now?
Yeah, definitely nonsense. I must’ve fallen for one of Keres’s meaningless statements.
“Guess not, huh.”
I buried the faint disappointment rising in my heart and placed my hand on Talos’s sturdy leg.
If Talos really possessed intelligence… it would have been a great help─
Suddenly, Talos twitched slightly.
“?”
“…”
“Hey.”
It twitched again.
What’s going on here…?
“Talos.”
This time Talos remained still. Hmm…
Let’s just try hitting it once.
Since I cast a regeneration spell on it, even if it gets damaged a bit, it’ll recover.
So…
I swung my fist with moderate strength.
KA-BOOM!!
“Hooh…”
Blocking my punch was Talos’s enormous black greatsword. It’s stopping my punch with that ridiculously huge blade.
I don’t recall giving it the AI to block attacks at will when I created Talos.
I only programmed it to follow direct orders.
Which means…
“Talos, were you pretending all this time?”
There’s a slight feeling of betrayal. Clearly, this golem developed self-awareness without any special thought from me and kept it secret from me.
Though it’s a bit annoying, let’s be lenient about it.
What’s important now is to examine Talos’s spontaneously generated artificial intelligence further.
“I won’t get angry if you tell me honestly now. When did you develop self-awareness?”
Talos remained silent in response to my question.
Hmm… Exercising the right to remain silent? You’re not ready to talk yet, I see.
I clenched my fist again and raised my arm. One good hit should break your silence!!
Then Talos shook its head in what seemed like panic and started pointing at its neck.
Neck? Why…? Ah. Does it mean it can’t speak because it lacks vocal cords?
Of course, a robot carved from rock wouldn’t have vocal cords.
“You should’ve mentioned that earlier. Why did you pretend to lack intelligence?”
If you had revealed your intelligence sooner, things would have gone much smoother, right? I wasted effort trying to create an artificial intelligence god unnecessarily.
With a sample already here, analyzing and researching it would have made things much easier.
“…”
Talos began making various gestures with its hands and body, trying to convey something, but I couldn’t understand properly.
The giant figure waving its arms around looks impressive, but it’s incomprehensible.
It pointed vaguely toward the ground, held up three fingers, then lay down on the ground.
Hmm… Ground, three… the three death gods?
And lying down… collapsing? Falling over?
“The three death gods collapse?”
At my words, Talos slightly shook its head, then pointed at its chest with its thumb, indicated the ground again, and showed three fingers. Hmm…
Itself and the three death gods… Ah!
“Did you pretend to lack intelligence because you thought you’d have to work until you collapsed like the death gods?”
Then Talos nodded slightly. Phew, look at that.
You were worried that if I found out about your intelligence, you’d end up as a slave to the daily grind like those death gods who are constantly being worn down for the Underworld’s judgments, weren’t you?!
How vexing!
“To begin with, you and those guys have different jobs! The gatekeeper of the Underworld and the death gods aren’t the same! Even if you had intelligence, I wouldn’t assign you those tasks!!”
Then Talos placed its hand on its chest and swept it down, showing what looked like a gesture of relief.
Grrr. Vexing. Really vexing!
Not that I could use it in the Underworld trials anyway since it can’t speak.
Maybe modifying it to produce voice is possible, but… Hmm. The regeneration magic might prevent immediate modifications.
That sounds troublesome, so let’s stop there. Instead…
“I won’t assign you the death gods’ tasks. However, I need to examine you a bit.”
“!”
At my words, Talos took a hesitant step back.
What’s there to be afraid of?
“Don’t worry, it’ll be quick. Just lie down and look at the ceiling.”
I’m not going to disassemble you completely! I just want to examine the artificial intelligence!
But Talos seemed uneasy about even that and kept moving further away from me.
Clang!
Chains made from my magical power wrapped around Talos’s body, restraining it.
“Now then, let’s see your back.”
Not that I specifically need to see your back, but I just want to check inside your body thoroughly, that’s all.
Thus, I carefully examined every corner of Talos’s body to understand how its artificial intelligence formed.
—
Examining Talos didn’t take too long.
Most of the statue parts remained unchanged, but intriguingly, I discovered condensed magical power crystallizing inside its chest.
I hadn’t included anything like that when I made Talos, but somehow this mysterious crystal of magical power had taken residence in its chest. This must be the cause of Talos’s awakened self-awareness.
The crystal resembled mana stones in shape but had entirely different components. At its core was the magical power I used when creating Talos, surrounded by dense layers of magical energy.
Fiddling with the magical crystal conveyed Talos’s will, suggesting this was likely the core forming Talos’s artificial intelligence.
Hmm… If the magical power I put into creating Talos coalesced like this… Could anything I make using my magical power potentially awaken self-awareness like Talos?
For example… The Hero’s Sword?
Hmm. No, probably not. Talos must be a unique case.
A massive humanoid form, infused with plenty of my magical power, known to humans as the gatekeeper of the Underworld, gaining some degree of faith. It seems his self-awareness developed through such processes.
Other things would be unlikely. Probably.
Leaving the collapsed and unmoving Talos ignored, I stretched luxuriously from my position.
Uhggg. Phew. Alright.
Now I need to combine the information obtained from examining Talos with the automated prayer processing system to complete a more sophisticated manufactured deity.
First… Let’s create a deity assisting with Underworld duties.
Too many souls require extensive life reviews, delaying the process except in cases of extreme karma or ones needing detailed examination before judgment.
An automatically organized summary provided by a manufactured deity… Something like dialogue-type artificial intelligence from another world would greatly assist Underworld operations!
—
Thus was born the High Intelligence Automatic Death Evaluation System. Abbreviated as Hades.
If you think the English name sounds odd, kindly overlook it. I decided on the name Hades first and forced the initials to fit! Didn’t consider grammar at all!
“What is this thing?”
“It’s something like a secretary to assist you with your work.”
Keres, almost halfway turned into a corpse from overwhelming paperwork… ah, half of her body was already a corpse, wasn’t it? Cough.
Because I slacked off while completing Hades, she nearly became a full corpse, glaring at me distrustfully.
“This black tombstone?”
A polished black tombstone carved from Underworld rock, placed behind the throne where the death gods sit so it remains invisible to judged souls.
“If this tombstone functions properly, it will drastically reduce Underworld workload.”
“Hard to trust coming from a god who skips work.”
“Ahem. Two steps forward requires one step back.”
Ignoring Keres’s muttering complaints, I placed my hand on the black tombstone.
Here… Power it with my magical energy and part of the faith directed toward the Goddess of Life. Specifically, ‘the connection between life’s end and death leading to new beginnings’ woven together into the tombstone…
The tombstone vibrated softly. Good, it’s working.
After a little while, the image of a girl resembling me appeared on the black tombstone.
The difference being her black hair and lack of dragon horns, perhaps.
Strictly speaking, it’s a fragment separated from me as a deity… a kind of avatar? Spirit? Something like that. Naturally, it resembles me.
「High Intelligence Automatic Death Evaluation System. Hades. Initiating. Beginning auxiliary tasks.」
The black-haired me reflected on the black tombstone spoke quietly in my voice.
