Akane decided there may be merit in her strange thoughts, so she made her tonfa disappear from her hands and return to stasis. The pearly heels of her Meister Robe clicked softly as she cautiously walked across the stone castle road and came to rest directly in front of the silent robotic tiger. She signaled the guards behind her to step down, then knelt to one knee and pet the beast's steel head as she spoke nurturingly.
"There, there, boy. Relax."
In response, the calmed creature inhaled Akane's scent to confirm its instinctive suspicions, then slowly placed its warm armored muzzle between her Robed arm and hip to embrace her. Akane's eyes first widened with surprise when she began feeling the creature somehow silently communicate with her, but then returned to a relieved expression as the two formed a bond that continued to feel mysteriously familiar.
"Your name is... Hari? And you don't want to be an orphan anymore?"
The metallic tiger brushed its head against her side in response and let out a soft mechanical purr. Akane smiled toward her new acquaintance and spoke again.
"Okay, Hari. I'll take care of you."
With this, Akane rose back to her feet and walked back toward the castle as the tiger loyally walked by her side. It no longer tried to frighten anyone it could see was Akane's ally, and it harmlessly approached the king when Akane deactivated her Robe and returned to the Windbloom throne room. To the surprise of everyone in attendance, when Akane returned to her station beside the throne, the gentle monster followed her up the stairs and sat on its hind quarters on the opposite side of Kazuya. It remained like this with its tail contently brushing the carpeted floor as long as Akane was guarding the king, and it followed her any time she was needed elsewhere in the castle. That night, it recharged its internal generator by curling itself on the floor of Akane's room and peacefully sleeping in front of her bed.
In the subsequent days, Akane explained what had happened to the Columns and pleaded that they spare the creature. Although they finally gave in to Akane's demands, they still felt it was unwieldy to have such a fearsome weapon following Windbloom's soft-spoken Meister around, so a compromise was made. Column Mahya's GEM already featured an ability that allowed her to summon a similar creature that mimicked her movements in battle, and the tamed tiger emitted an energy signature oddly similar to the nanomachines in Akane's body, so the Columns were able to alter the programming of Akane's GEM and link it to Akane's feline partner with relative ease. The molecules that made up the mechanical tiger could now separate and be stored in stasis in the Pure Heart Malachite GEM when not in battle, allowing Akane to "carry" her partner anywhere much to her content. Additionally, this allowed her new armored pet to heal its injuries using the energy from Akane's nanomachines. It could even recover from death blows as long as Akane gave it enough time to rest in stasis.
With Akane relieved that she found a peaceful solution to her plight, she continued to guard the King of Windbloom every day. It would only be a matter of time before Aswad made its next move.
After Akane had spent more time defending Windbloom from invasion, she was allowed to take a short leave in the imperial city while the king tended to political matters. Night had fallen and the lamps of the streetlights were lit as Akane took in the frolicking street life of her kingdom. She was continuously greeted by passersby who noticed her signature white and gray formal uniform as she walked through the streets and stopped at a luxurious restaurant to eat. When it was time for her to return to the castle, guards had come to escort her back to her home in a horse-drawn carriage. The leader of the troupe saluted her and courteously offered her the ride.
"My Lady, the king requests your presence in the throne room."
Akane was left to decide how she would take the trip home.
Take the carriage ride back: Go to Chapter 32
Walk back alone: Go to Chapter 33