302. Forced Job
"Don't wanna," says Ben annoyedly to Yajima who comes to Magnolia and meets him in the guild.
"I haven't said anything," says Yajima.
"You don't need to say it, I know you want to give me a job. That's the only reason you'll come to Magnolia to meet me and not Master," says Ben.
".... You're not wrong, I have a job from the Council for you," says Yajima.
"And I don't want to do it. My babies were just born and you want me to leave them? Are you crazy?" asks Ben with a crazy villain face.
"I think you are the crazy one here," says Yajima.
"Oi old man, what if they forget about me because I leave for too long? A job from the Council won't be finished in a day or two. My kids have just started to call me Papa, you know. What if they forget my face and don't recognize me anymore? Do you want to take responsibility, huh? Or do you want me to destroy The Council if my children don't recognize me?" asks Ben with a raised tone.
"No, but unfortunately, you can't refuse. We have agreed that you must do one request from us once per year when you become a Wizard Saint. The Council has decided to use this year's chance to ask you to do this job. There's no way that our youngest & most competent Wizard Saint will refuse this, isn't he?" asks Yajima slyly.
"What the f-," says Ben, censoring his curse word by himself.
Yajima is confused, so Ben explains, "I have kids now, so I can't say bad words."
"That makes sense, but also not at the same time," says Yajima, but Ben doesn't care.
Ben is displeased now, but he can't refuse now that The Council has used this card. There was an agreement between The Council & all Wizard Saints when they were about to become Wizard Saints. They must do any of their requests once a year, and the only ones who can avoid this are the Gods of Ishgar.
"What do you want?" asks Ben begrudgingly.
"The leaders of all Nations in Ishgar will have a meeting in a month. We want you to guard the meeting along with 2 other Wizard Saints," says Yajima.
"Who?" asks Ben.
"The new Wizard Saints, Jessica & Ellie," says Yajima.
"So you want us newbie Wizard Saints to do this important job instead of the senior members?" asks Ben.
Jessica & Ellie are the Mages that become Wizard Saints through the tournament. So they are still new, newer than even Ben. The 3 of them are the newest to get the title among all Wizard Saints.
"Yeah, somehow it happens," says Yajima.
"Why don't you send Jura or the old men?" asks Ben.
"They have different jobs. Well, we can send Jura if you want to take over his job to manage some official stuff that you Wizard Saints have negle-," says Yajima.
"When is the meeting?" asks Ben, changing the topic.
"Next month, from 20th to 24th February," says Yajima.
"Alright, I'll be there right on the meeting day, and I'll return right when the meeting ends," says Ben.
"No, you can't, you should make sure that everything is safe before the leaders arrive and until they return," says Yajima in frustration.
Ben grumbles because his plan fails and he needs to spend extra time there. After that, he signs the agreement to take the job, and then he leaves the guild building with Bella who waits in the hall. He needs his daily dose of his babies after such a tiring meeting, so he goes home.
"Papa's home," says Ben cheerfully as he enters his house, very contrast to his pissed-off face before.
"Babies!" calls Bella as she flies ahead of Ben.
The babies are playing on a soft mattress in the family room with Mira watching over them on the side. They are rolling around, trying to crawl and play with their toys. Then as Ben enters the room, they try to crawl toward him happily.
Both Ariel and Gabriel wear identical white clothes today. They have a lot of identical clothes in different colors. Every day, they will wear different colored clothes, but the 2 of them will always wear the same color.
Ben waits for them to arrive and even cheers on them with Bella. Ariel arrives first and he hugs her happily while waiting for Gabriel. After Gabriel arrives, he lifts them quite high, and they giggle happily.
He plays with his babies for an hour until they get sleepy. Mira takes them to the bed and Bella also joins them. She says she will guard them, but Ben & Mira know she just wants to sleep beside the babies because now they have a bigger box, and Bella can sleep there with them.
While the babies go to sleep, Ben goes to his workshop behind his house. It's his personal workshop where he used to do many things. Right now, he has an important project that is almost finished.
In the middle of the room filled with tools and boxes is a big table. On the table is a 30x30 cm square metal cube with many magic letters engraving on it. Ben touches the cube and flows his magic power into it, then the letters glow blue.
The cube suddenly gets separated into 8 parts on each corner of the same size. The parts are floating close to each other and being connected by blue light threads. Then in the center of the 8 parts is a blue ball which is a lacrima crystal.
The 8 metal cube parts with magic letters engraved on them are floating around a glowing blue crystal ball. It just looks like some alien technologies made in a Sci-fi movie. And Ben is very satisfied when he looks at it because who won't?
Anyway, Ben stops admiring his unfinished work and starts to resume his work. He takes apart the cube parts that are actually composed of many smaller parts of different materials too. Then he starts to add or modify the magic letters on these parts.
This project has been running for almost a year now. He started it after Mira get pregnant, but it hasn't finished to this day because he was very busy, and there are many things to do. It has entered its final phase and Ben needs to finish it before he leaves for the job.
"AI Chip, run a simulation using all these changes," asks Ben.
AI Chip runs a simulation in Ben's head and points out many things using all its data. It even gives some advice that Ben takes note of. But Ben also finds some things that can be improved that aren't detected by AI Chip.
Even if AI Chip is amazing, it is still a tool to help Ben. All its processes are based on the data it has. But it doesn't have things that Ben has like feeling, instinct, senses, etc. That's why Ben can find things that AI Chip can't by using his senses or feelings, and AI Chip can find things that Ben can't by using all its data. They are working together to get the best result.
For the next few days, Ben keeps working on the cube while also spending time with his family. He still can't get satisfying results even after days. But he keeps working and finally he gets the result he wants a week before the meeting begins.
Everyone in the Cooper family's house is gathering in the front yard. They all are looking at Ben who is standing on the highest roof point. Ben takes out the metal cube that he has been working on for a year and raises it to the sky.
Ben flows his magic power into the cube and then creates many magic circles of different sizes around the cube. Then the cube gets separated into 8 parts with a lacrima crystal in the middle like before. It is such a complicated process that no one there understands what he does.
Ben suddenly says, "AI Chip, start the connection!"
[Performing connection to the cube.]
[Connection formed. No problem is detected.]
Ben grins and says, "Activate Spell: AI Clone!"
[Activating AI Clone starts.]
[Activation succeeds, AI Clone has been made. Please input a codename.]
Ben smiles and says, "Jarvis."
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