Shopping district

"So, how is it ? Do you like it ?"

A gentleman in his early 50's was at the entrance of the hallway. He had dark brown hair, with some white hair starting to show, a proud moustache and brown eyes. he was wearing a dignified dark gray suit with dark green jacket, a pocket watch inside. He was removing his frock coat and top hat that a valet droid was waiting to receive.

"It's indeed a great gift. I'm sure it will work like a charm as soon as I get it dressed and set with all the commands. Thank you Father."

Helena smiled, while grabbing Alois' hand to make him come closer to the front, to his great pleasure.

'What the hell ?! why are you touching me ?!'

"Oh, come on Helena, where are your manners ?, the man had a sorry look on his face, You're not a child anymore, please, act at least a bit more you age."

"I know..., she was making a disappointed face, sorry Father. I'll try to act in a better way."

She watched her father going into the direction of his favorite room, the library, and as soon as he was out of view she started running to the entrance.

"Follow me Aloïs !"

She was showing a beaming smile to his face while fastly getting outside with the valet droid trying to give her a female coat.

'As if I could do anything else but follow...'

Aloïs was still seeing the spamming logs about him not being allowed to go to far away from her...

[Requesting mission completion : follow owner to specific location. WARNING : STRAYING AWAY FROM OWNER IS NOT ALLOWED

Main mission ongoing : follow owner. WARNING, STRAYING AWAY FROM OWNER IS NOT ALLOWED.

Other mission (1) : protect your owner from assassination attempt.

Other mission (2) : Spy the staff member of the Rosewood family]

Alois was still wondering what kind of mission that was. The girl hadn't ask him for those two yet they had appeared by themselves after he was acknowledged by her. Was this some kind of hidden mission that was implemented by her father prior to his activation ? Also what was he supposed to do to spy the staff members ? Weren't they all androids ? Or was it different for a rich family ? did they use actual human worker for some of their work ? it would be quite expensive since an android could be purchased for a reasonably low price from what he could remember and people from the middle class could afford it when the lower class simply lived by themselves outside of the cities... or was it something else ?

While wondering about all those peculiarities, Helena finished putting her coat and getting a car from the stables. Yes, it was a car coming from a stable because the car was made to look like a horse carriage with a damask engraved brass and see through green power circuit horse android powered by a horse soul. their was no driver as the programming implemented in the android let it get a perfect map of the city and driving regulation. there was also another soul core installed inside the carriage itself for regulating the temperature, and adjusting the movement transmission to the cabin.

"to the shopping district" Helena gave the order to the horse droid and he gave an acknowledgement by a head and ear move while stomping the ground as if readying itself for the move.

Alois when inside with the girl, unsure what he should do in here. the inside of the car was as refined as the outside, with velvet cushioned benches, emerald green damask tapestry walls and even something that looked like a bar in a corner.

'sigh... I wonder how much this kind of fancy droid is worth...'

[Checking android...]

'...'

'Wait.

My system can do that ?!' Alois was stunned by what he could see in his vision field. Lines of text were progressively shown.

[Analyzing status...

Check complete : custom vintage horse carriage car.

owner : Barnaby Rosewood

capacity : 500kg

maximum speed : 88km/h

core : 89% synchronized (stable, good)

soul crystal : horse (main), goat (auxiliary)

program : -mapping provided by Golden Arrow Company

-driving function by Herbert Drive Programming]

'So... I can assess what kind of android i see around ?'

This was an interesting skill ! Alois was just about to try it on the small fridge box that was on the side of the car when the carriage stopped. They had arrived.

Helena went out of the carriage, her "happy" follower just behind.

"Stay here until I come back."

The horse android showed his acknowledgement of the order before parking itself on the side of the road. There wasn't a lot of car circulating around. There was some bus system (that were far less fancy looking than the vintage horse carriage car, with simple red british bus look minus the driver) and some simple cart that people attached to their android for allowing them to transport themselves or their finding in the shopping district. There was a lot of people though.

Many were of the middle class but you could see that a portion of the district was clearly oriented for the more fortunate. It was almost as if one section was for the middle class and than progressively you would get fancier shop until getting to the other section that was for the high class. there was a portion of the district that was clearly getting people of each extreme though and it was the part about mechanical and android repair shop. A whole street seemed to be just for that.

Weirdly enough, some "customers" seemed to be android themselves. Designed as humanoid, with many having simple pure white porcelain face instead of brass and silvery fancy design. The white porcelain faced seemed to be some mass produced droid while the fancier and more extravagant designed one were probably custom made for their owner. The majority of them had full clothing suit on, often butler or maid attires, but also clothing matching the personal taste of their owner. The most pricy looking android usually had their owner around them as well, probably as a way of showing their wealth. The mass produced one were going for trivial task, simple groceries or putting order from their owner. The fancier one were accompanying there owner for more extravagant needs or simply taking a walk around the various shops, stopping for a coffee or tea then going back to their shopping.

The shopping district was like a wonderful dream in Alois eyes. It seemed so beautiful yet maybe too beautiful to be real. The lights, colours, peoples, droids all of it was almost intoxicating... or was it ? Was he even able to get mentally intoxicated now that he was just a soul stuck in a machine ?

No matter, for now he was just struck by all the visual show of the place yet, his system didn't let him watch to his heart content :

[WARNING : STRAYING AWAY FROM OWNER IS NOT ALLOWED]

'F*cking piece of sh*tty program...!'