The reason I ended up making a toy robot was like this.

After waking up in a room that felt like a five-star hotel, I finished a luxurious breakfast and was promptly summoned by Regalia. After all, the only reason I could stay in this mansion was due to her curiosity about me.

In her room, I started spilling the beans about Earth, a world devoid of superpowers or hybrid beings.

However, sadly, my storytelling skills weren’t enchanting enough to captivate her, and the idea of a world with only science and humans didn’t strike her as special.

“Hmm… that’s boring. Is there nothing interesting?”

“How about the story where the president almost got shot?”

“A gun? You’re telling me the president could actually get shot? That’s ludicrous! Does everyone over there just lack strength? Or are the heroes so weak that they can’t even block bullets?”

“Both, actually…”

“Ugh… I had a little interest in this other world, but it seems there’s nothing special after all.”

Wagging her tongue like an old man, Regalia seemed to lose her interest and started to look away. Seeing this, I became restless and flustered.

As one of her guards mentioned yesterday, my stay in this mansion depended entirely on her kindness and curiosity. If she lost interest, I could be kicked out of the mansion that very night…

Thankfully, Regalia didn’t just throw me out after losing interest; she returned with a bunch of toys in tow.

“Listening to stories is boring. Let’s play with toys instead!”

“Uh, sure?”

“You’ll be a hero robot who lost its powers and is getting revenge on the villains. Got it?”

Looking at that absurd roleplay setup, I glanced at the toys and noticed there wasn’t a doll in sight typical of her age group. Instead, she had a pile of toy robots that boys would usually play with.

There’s no chance Regalia could be a boy. I clearly remembered how the guard addressed her as “young lady” last night. So that meant her preferences must lean towards boyish toys.

“Don’t you play with dolls?”

“Dolls? Why should I play with such weak things? The trend nowadays is robots! Super robots! Isn’t that great?”

“Hahaha—my nieces love playing with dolls, so I thought…”

Exactly. After chatting with Regalia a few times, I understood her taste wasn’t all that peculiar. After all, it was a world where supernatural beings like heroes and villains actually existed, so it’s not strange for a girl to lean in that direction.

I looked at the robot she handed me. It was small enough to fit in one hand but excessively refined for a toy. Its arms and legs moved, and the gloves could even be removed, with something resembling a lens twinkling in its eyes.

It was way too well-crafted to simply be a toy.

“This robot has a sad background…”

“Really?”

“Curious? Let me tell you. It all started at my 5th birthday party.”

‘…Isn’t that just a few years ago?’

Seeing her remember an event from just 2 or 3 years back like it was ancient history made me chuckle, but I hid my amusement and focused on her story. After all, she was my only way to survive.

“On my birthday, government officials and heroes, who you’d usually only see on TV, even came to greet me. Some brought gifts they thought I’d like. This is a gift from one of them.”

“A gift?”

“Exactly. Originally, it was supposed to shoot beams from its eyes and hands, but it stopped working a year ago. I kept it, hoping to meet the person again to ask them to fix it.”

“Oh… I see.”

Now I understood why this robot was so intricately made and of high quality. Living in a mansion like this likely meant she had plenty of money and power. Naturally, to impress a girl like her, there would be no thoughts of cost-effectiveness—only a craftsman’s spirit creating the perfect toy bit by bit.

Gazing at the robot for a moment, I remembered it had stopped working a year ago and began examining its structure.

‘Ah, found it.’

“So, what are you doing there?”

“Can I try fixing this?”

“…You really think you can fix it?”

Upon hearing me say I could fix the robot, Regalia’s eyes turned mischievous before lighting up with curiosity. It seemed she found it amusing.

“If you break it, you’ll have to take responsibility, you know?”

“I probably won’t break it. Hopefully.”

“Alright then. Kitty? Bring me the repair tools.”

“Yes, young lady.”

After a short wait, I received the tools brought by the guard and started taking off the robot’s gloves to check inside. Sure enough, something that appeared to be a battery was nestled within.

Around the battery lay rusty, dusty circuits and components.

“It’s been said it stopped functioning all of a sudden a year ago…”

Usually, when something stops working like this, it’s just a matter of the battery dying, but fortunately, the battery seemed to still have some life left. Since it was supposed to shoot beams, it seemed the circuit that supported its output had likely broken.

Using my wire cutters, I reshaped the wiring inside the robot, adapting it for reactivation. If I lacked any parts, I used pieces from the outside. I fiddled with it for a while.

Kiiing-.

“Oh, it worked!”

“What? How did that happen?”

After slotting the battery back into the fixed circuit, amazingly, the robot started moving on its own. Just as Regalia had said, it stood up on its own, raised its arms, and began to shoot beams from its eyes.

Ziiiiiing-!

“It’s… moving! It’s really moving!”

Regalia was overjoyed to see the moving robot, and I couldn’t help but feel happy too. Seeing a child smile brings a good mood, and if she found her value in me, I could stick around a bit longer.

However, when I saw the beam shot across the sky, that previously high-spirited feeling sank like a stone. The beam shot through the clouds, creating a long streak.

“Uh, um…”

“Wahhaha-! Rdx-13! Fire again!”

—Fire.

Ziiiiiing-!

Watching the toy robot set the garden on fire as it obeyed Regalia’s command left me speechless. I thought it would just shoot a toy-level beam.

‘Jeez, is that why incompetents have nothing to do…?’

As I stared blankly at the robot, the guard watching me gasped in astonishment.

“What on Earth…?”

Why are you surprised again?

*

The guard stationed next to Regalia frowned as he watched a stranger stick so close to the young lady. A penniless nobody hanging around her like that?

‘What an utterly useless incompetent…’

If the young lady wasn’t kind-hearted and didn’t possess a natural ability to read hearts, that guy would have been tossed right out on the street like so much garbage. If she had lost interest, he’d have been kicked to the curb just the same.

However, the kind young lady, sensing the guy was anxious, decided to play with him. Bringing a bunch of toys she used to play with back then.

“This is from a long time ago—”

“Oh, I see…”

‘He’s ignoring the lady’s words, huh?’

The guard scowled as he watched the man tinkering with the robot, clearly frustrated. What was he even thinking, trying to fix it?

That robot was a meticulously crafted art piece, made of parts handmade by a craftsman. It was a type of weapon made by the combined powers of three or more psychics.

A toy in the shape of a robot, but one almost indistinguishable from an actual weapon.

Could a powerless person like him actually fix it? It seemed impossible. It would be a stroke of luck if he didn’t break it even more…

“Ah, it’s done.”

However, unbelievably, he succeeded in fixing the robot. I had no idea how he managed it. The very lady who hadn’t expected much was now blinking in shock.

Ah, it’s cute that she’s surprised.

But the surprise didn’t last long—she was smiling with joy as she played with the robot. The guard instinctively felt that Regalia would never let that lousy guy go now…

*

Name: Rdx-13

Ability: Crystal Energy

Description: A model of a giant robot from the TV animation “Attack on Daidis,” unlike the original, its eyes and hands shoot beams instead.

*

After fixing the toy robot, Regalia looked at me with eyes that sparkled in disbelief.

“Are you a scientist!?”

“Huh? No, I’m more of…”

Closer to an engineer.

But Regalia ignored my words, flailing her hands excitedly.

“—Eighth! I’m giving you the eighth position!”

“What does that mean…?”

“It means I’m inviting you to the secret organization I created!”

I barely had time to think about what kind of secret organization that was or what being ‘eighth’ even meant. I have a knack for reading the room, especially in situations like this.

“I look forward to working with you, Boss.”

“Ooh—! You know me already!”

How could I refuse when I’d just found a way to eat and sleep for free? I had to remember that I was an incompetent illegal immigrant with no identity or abilities.

Now that I had a new job, I grinned and turned to my new boss.

“So, what kind of organization is this?”

“Heh-heh— it’s an evil organization.”

“…What do you mean by that?”

“Evil organization.”

Regalia replied, moving her finger back and forth as if to emphasize her point.

“It’s a so-called villains’ group.”

…Maybe I should have thought it through a little more before accepting?