บท 7: Birth of Queen

"Welcome back, Master Richard. So, how was your presentation?" Uncle Jon asked as Richard entered the house.

"What do you expect?" Richard replied with a smile, throwing the car keys to the man.

Richard hadn't just gone and presented the glasses to the Baxters. The entire family knew, and while his mother didn't understand why he would seek support from the Baxters when her company was more than capable of bringing out his potential, she still supported him.

In return for the support, though, Richard had told his mother everything with the exception of his reincarnation and the fact that he had her actual memories.

He told her everything he did, including a sugar-coated version of how he got all the equipment in his workshop.

---

Two months had passed since Richard joined the Baxters in their quest to create a functional inter-dimensional portal. Everything was going well in terms of the project itself, but relationship-wise, everything was going to shit.

The Storms didn't exactly trust him, though they were friendly towards him. Reed didn't care because he was just happy that there was finally someone who could function on the same wavelength as he did.

Then there was Victor Von Doom, aka the future Dr. Doom. Honestly, Richard didn't understand why he was involved with the making of the portal.

He had already confirmed that Latveria was a real country here, so it would make sense that he should be there ruling over the nation. Unfortunately, that wasn't how things were here.

Latveria was still under oppression from their leaders, and a minor civil war was going on in the country. The civil war was called minor because it was just a small resistance group that was nearly squashed by the leaders of the country.

Doom was just a fresh graduate from MIT, which meant that things were going to play differently in this universe.

Doom was the only guy in the entire group to treat him with open hostility, and it wasn't because he didn't trust him or anything.

Nope, this was simply because Richard was smarter than he was, or at least appeared smarter. Doom was just a guy with both a god complex and an inferiority complex.

It was a weird mix, but it was true. The guy believed that all were beneath him, but once he encountered anyone better than him in any way, he immediately became jealous of said person.

Apart from having to deal with Doom, all was going well. At home, there wasn't really anything that Richard could say was going wrong.

His mother was back in England for business and would be staying there for a while. The butler, Uncle Jon, was not around because his wife was recently diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, but Richard had already helped cure it.

The cure wasn't a drug per se, but it did cure her. Richard had simply used nanobots in her treatment. They were extremely small and could do what was needed.

Uncle Jon wasn't around simply because he had to be with her for now, so in essence, Richard had the entire mansion to himself for a few weeks.

Taking full advantage of that, Richard had decided to finally put to the test a certain project that had been bothering him. No, it wasn't the liquid project.

That project was still on hold since he still didn't have a good solution for it. This project was something that he could easily achieve for now.

At the moment, Richard was sitting on a couch inside a sitting room, looking at a blue human-like figure standing before him.

The being standing before him looked exactly like a human; if it wasn't for the unnatural shade of color, no one would have even noticed. The being had a feminine figure and had a small crown tattooed on its forehead.

"Wake up!" Richard called out, and instantly the being opened her eyes.

As soon as she opened her eyes, everything about her changed. The being that once stood like a lifeless statue behaved as though Richard's words had breathed life into her.

She looked around the room, then back to Richard, who was sitting on the couch before her.

Tilting her head a bit as though observing something, she moved her shoulders as clothes and hair immediately sprang out of her body to cover her, thus making her look more like a woman than ever.

"Hello, Sir. My name is Queen. How may I be of help to you?" the woman asked with a professional smile.

"Good day, Queen. So, how do you feel?" Richard asked.

"Perfect," she replied, the smile becoming more genuine, which in turn made Richard smile.

"That fits you better. It seems my work here is done, then," Richard commented on her smile.

Queen was Richard's new project. Though she may look human, she wasn't actually one, which could be easily told by her skin color.

Queen could be described in simple terms as an inhabitant of the Digital Realm. She was an Artificial Intelligence, but considering her background, it wouldn't make sense to call her just an A.I.