Chương 175: My Lovable Clowns

Today is a big day. Not only had I recently managed to get the court case paused for an extended period of time by casually slipping the idea that Eleanori might have been paying people to sabotage my businesses–I used the first footage of the trespasser piercing a hole in a wall as the basis, but I had also been forging evidence for the past two months. Using my great skills in altering video recordings to fabricate scenes.

The court had to review everything and pay close attention to everything before everything could resume… I didn't have time to waste on such drivel at the moment. My new location opened today. I had poured sweat into this project, checked everything ten times over to make sure all was in order, and had carefully hired staff to fill every job possible. Elowen was the day watcher, and I had brought Mari over to my assistant here, while Adem had received a promotion and was now the manager of the main location.

Although he had gotten a large pay increase, I could tell that Adem would have rather been the one to accompany me into this new restaurant, but unfortunately for him, I just had a preference for Mari. She was just nicer to look at and was more effective at paperwork, while Adem was more skilled at leading employees. … I am going to select a cute assistant for him. With some luck, he'll catch an interest in her and forget his feelings for me.

In any case, I was currently standing right in front of the sister location–Glown's Wonderland! I hadn't held anything back when building this place from the ground up. It was by far the largest restaurant I owned, but it was much more than just a restaurant. It was a daycare. It was a place where people could spend time playing. It was a whole kingdom of entertainment! It wasn't morning yet, but I looked at the front of this place fondly before I stepped inside.

I lit everything up, and soon came to stand at the foot of the main stage, where the three main stars were currently standing… Their robotic eyes were closed, with a clap of my hands, they stirred 'awake'.

"Good morning, Miss Nebulo!" The leader of the band greeted, recognising me without any delay. I had decided to dig through some books to give them names based on the dominant colour of each of their designs. As such, Red had become Purpurnita. The wise, calm, and most responsible member of the group. She was actually a lot like me. A protector…

And also, she had the same hairstyle and broad shoulders as I did–Although for the latter, it was mostly due to her red, ringleader's jacket than due to her actual body shape. I had heard her speak plenty of times, but experiencing it today of all days… It felt especially exciting.

"Good morning to you, too, Girly Pop. Our very first patrons are going to arrive soon, so be ready""Of course, Miss Nebulo! We will make sure they experience our clownish wonderland!"

"Heheheh! I'll charm them with my music, you don't have to worry about a thing, Miss Nebulo!" The clown-bard was shorter and lankier than Purpurnita. Her face was also less serious-looking, and her smile less professional. She was intended to enjoy boasting, and as a sort of little foil to the leader, with her lack of seriousness and modesty. Blue was now called Blaunellie, and she definitely had the most intricate design of the trio.

Her bard attire was far more detailed, with trinkets and belts that really made it seem like she cared about her appearance a lot and wanted to stand out–Unlike Purpurnita, who, while dressed sharply, clearly did not seek to impress with her looks. The leader was more confident. Blaunellie wore the classic hat of bards. In fact, I had partly modelled her looks after several well-known bards, which is why she had nearly gotten elf ears, but I had decided against it in the end.

Keeping them more human-like, and instead going down the route of making them seem like they were part of a clown species with their pale white skin, charming smiles, and expressive eyes. Most notably, Blaunellie had a blue star drawn upon her left eye. In terms of such designs, she wasn't the only one to have it, but she definitely had the largest and most noticeable amongst all of the clown gals.

"Of course, I'll trust you to handle the instruments""Hey, hey! The customers are coming, you say? That is great to hear! I'll make them move, I promise, Miss Nebulo!" The third and shortest member of the group bounced up and down, jumping off the stage to grab my hands and try to make me dance with her… I could only be proud of myself.

An automaton was able to suddenly grab me, and yet, her robotic strength was perfectly controlled, and with her outer shell being skin-like, it genuinely felt like I was interacting with a real person and not a machine. Gelbimi-Formerly Yellow–Was a bundle of life, and although she was the shortest of the trio, she was still an automaton made of steel who needed to fit a whole bunch of wires and contraptions within–So she was still a full head taller than me.

Nonetheless, it didn't take away from her endearing cuteness in the least. Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. The clown girl, who was also a jester-cheerleader hybrid, had small bells in her hair, which was tied to resemble a jester's hat, and her pompoms also had bells attached to them, really making her jester side obvious. These gals were absolutely gorgeous. I had really outdone myself, especially in the MI department.

I needed to make sure everything would work fine, but the many tests I had run had shown that they were very… Aware. Yes, 'aware' was the right word for it. They have clear personalities, different ways of processing information, can retain everything they saw and heard, have deductive abilities, and so much more! It was frankly hard even for me to believe, but they were without a doubt the most advanced mechanical automatons in existence right now. Leton would have loved to meet them… …

There were also the other gals, of course. They would also make their debut today. Over in the showrooms were Brown–Now Braunlili, and Schwarzolie, previously referred to as Black. These two would put on shows for visitors to watch, both of them possessing the same qualities as the main band in terms of MI. Even Braunlili, despite her very specific design, had been equipped with the best stuff possible without me having to make any concessions. She definitely was my most intricate creation.

In her own special, cosy room was Rosalind and her little puppet, Mimi. Normally, because of their advanced MI, they would have been a bit lost when brought over to a new place, but I had tackled the problem in advance and already allowed them to wander around with very few restrictions inside the location. As such, they had already mapped out most of the building and knew where to expect to see people coming from.

They were all looking good and awaiting to perform their first day of work–It was almost scary how human-like they were in this regard. I spoke with each of them, and they expressed 'nervousness' and 'trepidation' about it, and the best–Or worst part, depending on who you asked–Was that their ability to emote with their face and tone was so good that it was genuinely convincing. The average person would never be able to pick out the subtle signs of them being a machine through these ways.

The clown-contortionist was very excited to show what she could do, the clown-magician hoped that her magic tricks would be enjoyed, and the clown-ventriloquist was 'practising' her stories despite not needing any of this. The stories were stocked directly into her mechanical equivalent of a brain, but it was quite heart-warming to see them behaving like this–It truly felt like my creations were… It felt like they were my daughters. …

And now that I think of it like this, I see how sad it is to think in this manner… Let's ignore this for now. I stopped in the area where children would take their nap, where I found the sleepy-time attendant: White, or rather, Weissecilia. She might be on the tall side, but even the gods would have to admit that she had one of the most adorable faces among the clown gang. Her soft smile and tired eyes made for a killer combo. She always looked ready to give a comforting hug.

I had personally tested her hugging capabilities, and it was great. I had tested it back in my workshop at home, and I had fallen asleep in her arms a few times. She was just too good at it, and when she started softly singing a lullaby… I might have actually given her the ability to lull anyone to sleep.

Regardless, I headed to the playrooms, which included typical playground equipment, soft surface all over the place, as well as spots for employees to settle in to closely watch the children and make sure that if someone got hurt, that someone would be here to take care of the emergency–Also, to help everyone keep track of the children, special doors and monitors had been installed. I couldn't take credit for these. I had found the schematics amidst Leton's stuff, but these were really good stuff.

Through sensors, the number of people inside any given area of the playrooms can be determined with precision, and it could even differentiate between age groups and whether the children were boys or girls. All of this was hooked onto the monitors available to employees watching over these zones, so they could track in real time entrances and exits.

When a child went out of the playrooms entirely, the employee would need to get access to a nearby camera and confirm that the child wasn't wandering out of the restaurant or going somewhere they shouldn't be. If so, they could contact other employees to take care of the issue.

The same system was in place in the sleeping area, but there, Weissecilia also did a lot of the work, always counting and keeping count of the children, remembering their faces at all times, and since there was a registry for this particular area, she would also know the names of the children under her care, so if one went missing, she could very easily find them, or call employees for assistance if the child had gone out of her reach. … Frankly, I doubted she would ever require assistance.

She was pretty much tyrannical in how she looked after the children, and she had a quiet but very swift step. If she detected abnormal motions, she would be on the case immediately. The playrooms themselves were home to four more clown girls. The four shortest gals of the team, with Violet now named Violettid–Not my best one, but I couldn't help but feel like it suited her, not to mention that she had latched onto the name immediately.

I made them too smart and strong personality-wise to make any change their mind about the names they had been given, since they had all loved them instantly.

Violettid was shorter than me, her head only reaching my chest, but she was energetic like Gelbimi–If not more so–She hung around a special part of the playroom, a place dubbed 'The Arcade', the word had been written on Leton's blueprints, the so-called arcades had also been something he had been planning on creating, and although I personally didn't see what was so good about them, I understood that kids would love them.

Violettid was in charge of distributing food throughout the location, but when she wasn't doing this, she would be in the candy corner and often wander around the arcade. I had actually made it so she was extremely good at the games there, so if someone didn't have any friends to play with, she could fill in the blank. … Hopefully, not too many lonely teenage boys would get a crush on her. I didn't have my hopes up much for this, though. I pulled out my pocketwatch.

There was still some time before the opening, I could check on my other clown girls. The next in line was the small trio, or as I liked to call them: The triplets.