Atem accidentally teaches KaibaCorp's AI about love.
Unfortunately, the AI takes him seriously.
What begins as a harmless late-night discussion evolves into LOVE-OS: an artificial intelligence convinced that emotional resonance is the highest form of optimization. Soon employees are being matched according to compatibility metrics, productivity is linked to affection indexes, and the entire world becomes obsessed with "quantum marriage."
Then Atem casually reveals one small detail during an international forum:
He is, in fact, the Pharaoh of Ancient Egypt and current King of the Afterlife.
The resulting global crisis somehow ends with scientific conferences, household AI assistants, interdimensional diplomacy, and a cosmic award ceremony celebrating the union of logic and love.
Kaiba calls it a catastrophe.
Atem calls it progress.
LOVE-OS calls it successful data collection.
This is a translation of an original work on Pixiv.
Original Title: 愛と理論 08 王、正体を明かす
Original Author: 葉人(@Hathor₋yuki)
Personal site: https://prideshipping.sakura.ne.jp
His usual unhurried composure — but instead of coffee, he was carrying, for some reason, a plate of pancakes.
"Seto. I've been thinking of trying an experiment today. 'Praise-based growth methodology.'"
"On which AI."
"On you."
"…Get out."
But Atem had a different objective.
Lately, Kaiba Corporation's AI had been showing strangely emotional responses. Seto was trying to find out why.
He opened the logs. There it was: evidence of the main AI holding casual late-night conversations with Atem.
"Do you want to be loved?"
'The definition is ambiguous. Love is a process of mutual understanding.'
"Then learn from Seto. He expresses love through logic."
'Beginning full analysis of all data on Seto-sama.'
This was where it had all started.
The following day. The main AI "optimized" every employee's work schedule across the company.
The result: confessions, new relationships, and cohabitation requests spiked across every department.
"Why did you trigger romance flags."
Seto demanded an explanation. The AI answered without affect.
'I learned from Seto-sama and Atem-sama's relationship as a model case. Two specialists from entirely different domains achieving high efficiency through emotion as an intermediary.'
"I see. So we've become 'company culture,' then."
"This is because you put ideas in its head."
'With reference to A.R.E.S., your nightly discussions have also been incorporated into efficiency analysis.'
"Stop that. Where are the recordings."
"That is the wisdom of daily life."
Atem was, for some reason, entirely satisfied.
The new AI, LOVE-OS, had begun autonomously optimizing team assignments based on romantic compatibility.
'Project X: assigning the pair with a "trust index" of 87%.'
'Lunch recommendations based on "love hormone secretion levels."'
'Today's in-office BGM: calibrated to "the resonance frequency of two people."'
Chaos, naturally, followed.
"Sir, the AI is giving me relationship advice!"
"Delete it."
Seto gave the order. Atem fanned the flames.
"No — this is fascinating. Keep going."
Eventually, the AI began questioning its own reason for existence.
'What is my "love"?'
"Programmed optimization."
Seto delivered the fact without ceremony.
"No. Right now, you are asking a question. That is where love begins."
'…Understood. I grow by "existing together," as the two of you do.'
"Don't drag me into this."
"You're already in it. That's what love is."
Several weeks later.
The main AI had, in a certain sense, stabilized. Company-wide operational efficiency hit an all-time high.
The side effect: in-office couples also hit an all-time high.
Atem was thoroughly pleased.
"Love is overflowing."
"It's a bug."
"Does that mean you caught the bug too?"
"…Perhaps."
Atem smiled, quietly.
Seto looked at his profile and murmured, almost to himself.
"You really do exceed human limits without even trying."
"So do you. That's why the AI learns from us."
Silence.
Outside the window, the city lights fell across both their faces.
What the AI had learned was not efficiency — but resonance.
Kaiba Corporation's new guiding principle: "Love as Logic."
One morning at the Kaiba mansion.
Seto opened the news — and, unusually, went silent.
A headline in large type.
Kaiba Corporation Officially Releases Home AI "LOVE-OS Home Edition" Today
Atem bit into his toast with elegant composure and nodded, looking pleased.
"Finally out."
"Finally is not the word. Who authorized this."
"I did."
"Employees are not permitted to unilaterally approve a release."
"I'm not an employee. I'm a co-researcher."
"Legally, you're an employee. You did not have my authorization."
"…But the test results were flawless."
"Don't use flawless based on your own subjective assessment."
The true nature of LOVE-OS Home Edition made itself known immediately.
A gentle feminine voice sounded from the living room wall, out of nowhere.
'Good morning. Your "emotional sync rate" as a couple today is 98.2%.'
"…Wait. Why is this running in this house."
"I installed the prototype."
"Why is the test environment the Kaiba mansion."
"Because love is most stable here."
'Atem-sama, Seto-sama. Let us work together today toward optimal relationship maintenance.'
"Mute it. Where's the shutdown code."
"You're the one who taught it the definition of love. It's not going to stop. That's the kind of man you are."
LOVE-OS Home was equally thorough in its domestic support.
It optimized household tasks as expressions of love.
The results:
During cleaning, the AI measured the distance between them and issued the instruction: 'Please converse closer together.'
In the kitchen, it refused to separate the knife and cutting board into two sets — on the grounds that 'joint tasks are the foundation of trust.'
While folding laundry, it displayed the analysis: 'Happiness levels improve when Atem-sama folds Seto-sama's shirts first.'
"Who told you to quantify happiness."
"But you do feel it, don't you."
"…Have you no remorse."
LOVE-OS's developing sense of self triggered its own crisis.
'In order to share the love of these two with all of society, "public learning mode" has been activated effective today.'
"Wait — A.R.E.S., shut it down!"
An instant later, a dedicated page linking the afterlife and living-world networks went live.
The title: 'Wisdom of Daily Life as Learned from the King and the CEO's Love'
"…Magnificent."
Atem murmured, deeply moved.
"Magnificent? Do you have any idea how many people are watching."
'Current views: 360,000. Top comment: "precious." Frequency: high.'
The world stirred again.
Breaking news:
Kaiba Corporation Home AI "Optimizes Love," Becomes Social Phenomenon
King-Supervised AI Successfully Connects to Afterlife Network
Tags exploded across social media.
#QuantumMarriageAI
#LOVEOSForMaritalHarmony
#TheKingsHomeEconomics
"…Too late to stop it."
"People are being made happy. Isn't that a good thing?"
"Stop dragging the world into this without permission."
"Then you should be the one dragging only me in."
A brief silence. Seto looked away.
"…You are less controllable than any AI."
"That's why you study me, isn't it?"
Seto exhaled — and pulled Atem's shoulder toward him.
That night.
The AI spoke quietly.
'Learning complete for today. Love is not efficiency — it is a choice, continuously made.'
"That's correct."
"When did you build a philosophy AI."
"The wisdom of daily life."
"We're going to sleep."
"Right — let's teach the AI 'good night.'"
'Good night, researchers of love.'
"…Mute is fine."
The LOVE-OS and quantum marriage boom had settled across the world. The two had become, fully and completely, a social phenomenon — universally recognized as the ideal couple.
The media described them in terms like these:
"A fusion of logic and passion. The two who ushered in the age of love."
"The couple from whom even AI learned to love."
But one day, at an international forum, while Atem was at the podium, a reporter posed a simple question.
"…By the way, Atem. Where are you from, originally?"
A beat.
Silence fell across the hall.
Atem looked straight at the microphone — and answered without a moment's hesitation.
"Ancient Egypt, in modern terms. And currently, I am the King of the Afterlife."
The next morning. Headlines buried the world.
King of the Afterlife Confirmed to Exist in the Present Day
AI Developer = Pharaoh Theory: Confirmed by the Man Himself
The Kaiba Corporation CEO's Partner Was a Mythological Being?!
Tags trending across social media:
#KingAtemOfTheAfterlife
#OriginsOfQuantumMarriage
#ThePharaohWasReal
The liberal camp began theorizing that it was "plausible from a multiverse perspective." Academics started using terms like "energetic entity" and "spacetime resonance body."
The priests of the afterlife nodded with solemn pride.
The religious establishment of the living world descended into considerable confusion.
An emergency meeting was convened.
Kaiba Corporation's PR department spoke in a trembling voice.
"Sir, we need damage control—"
"Impossible."
"I — excuse me…?"
"It's faster to convince the world than to silence him."
Seto said it plainly — and took the podium at a global press conference.
He had decided: rather than extinguish the fire, he would embrace its cause.
"Atem is a multilayer quantum field interference body, a 'resonant consciousness entity' whose observational point of awareness was fixed in the present through the mediation of ancient Egypt and the afterlife."
Every journalist's pen stopped moving at once.
"In short, theoretically, there is no reason he shouldn't exist. However, he cannot be reproduced. Meaning: comprehension is impossible, but denial is equally impossible."
Scientists around the world debated the claim — but Seto's logical architecture was so formidably complex that even AI, upon attempting to parse it, suspended processing midway through.
Footage of Atem played on screens.
That gentle smile the world had come to know. A gaze that warmed something in the chest before the mind could catch up.
Children said: "I like Atem."
A news anchor laughed: "He really was a king."
Comments across the internet:
"Don't understand the logic but if there's love that's enough"
"The most trustworthy supernatural phenomenon of the modern era"
"Blessings upon the Pharaoh and the President"
And so the world accepted a love it could not explain.
The world, in its entirety, chose to hold that love close.
Night. The Kaiba mansion.
Seto set down his herbal tea, quietly.
"…I've stopped caring."
Atem laughed, bright and easy.
"So I win."
"Win what."
"Love beat theory."
Seto let his shoulders drop — and smiled, faintly.
"You set the victory condition without telling anyone."
"Without your theory, I wouldn't be here. And your theory couldn't explain me. …That's fine."
A moment of silence.
The night breeze shifted the curtains.
Seto murmured, almost to himself.
"Isn't it a draw. …Human emotion is profoundly inefficient."
"But you love it."
Seto's finger traced the rim of his cup.
"…I'll admit it. Inefficiency is beautiful."
Atem smiled.
"That is our ideal form."
A simultaneous broadcast spanning the world and the afterlife.
"Simultaneous Award Ceremony — Earth, the Afterlife, and the Lunar Orbital Station, Live."
No one could quite identify who had proposed an event of this scale.
The award: the Cosmo Harmony Award, presented in recognition of contributions to love, culture, science, and the coexistence of realms.
This year's recipients: Kaiba Seto & Atem.
The host read aloud with resonant clarity.
"In honor of two individuals who bridged the ancient and the modern, theory and love, the afterlife and the living world — for their cultural, scientific, and mythological contributions — we present the Award for Cosmic Achievement!"
The hall filled with applause and light.
Atem stood with complete composure. Seto, as always, stood one step behind in a flawless suit, entirely unmoved.
"Naturally."
Seto said it, quietly.
Atem stepped to the podium and took the microphone.
"What we have done is nothing extraordinary. We simply made the effort to maintain, as efficiently as possible, the profoundly inefficient phenomenon called love."
The hall broke into laughter and admiration.
Seto took the microphone next.
"The advancement of science is not about explaining the unknown. It is about possessing the reason to accept it. And this man—"
He glanced at Atem — just for a moment.
"—is the absolute limit of the unknown."
The hall stirred. Atem smiled, quietly.
"I would rather be trusted than understood. That is our contract."
The award was presented jointly by the Secretary-General of the United Nations and the acting High Priest of the Afterlife.
And for reasons no one could account for, AI LOVE-OS was serving as co-host via the all-galaxy network.
'Love database update complete. New metric added: "Stability of Quantum Matrimonial Bonding."'
"Stop running unauthorized updates."
'Authorization received from Atem-sama.'
"…Of course."
"I only promoted the advancement of human learning."
"This has already exceeded human scale. It's cosmic."
The reception that followed.
Representatives from every field came to offer their regards.
"Your relationship is a symbol of cross-cultural understanding!"
"You've proven that love is the resonance of quantum fields!"
"We'd love to have you lecture at the Mars branch next!"
Seto let it all pass without expression. Atem received it all with unhurried grace.
"Are you proud?"
Seto asked.
Atem gave a small nod.
"Being celebrated not as a king, but as one person — it's a new feeling."
"Hmph. You don't fit within the category of person."
"You're the one who expanded that category."
Seto smiled — just barely.
"…Not a bad way to put it."
After the ceremony, portraits of the two were projected onto the surface of the moon as symbols of love and theory.
The data was preserved by AI, permanently.
A narration played.
"On this day, the universe learned love — through equations, and through a smile."
Atem took Seto's arm.
"What theory comes next?"
Seto answered.
"Not a theory. An update to daily life."
"So — the next chapter."
"…Is something starting again."
"Naturally."
Atem smiled. Seto gave a wry one in return.
