"Excuse me. That, Blaine's ... What is it?"

　So, Ursula stopped recording -- his doing Lookes like of the playing the theremin-- and he asked me a question.

　Ursula, that is "Blaine's Empty Burial" ok.

"'Blaine's Empty Burial'?"

　Yes. "Blaine's Empty Burial" is a dream that Rick talked about. This is recorded in the second volume of "Phyllis's Londonderry Air."

"Uh-huh...... Who's that Rick?"

　Oh, excuse me. Rick is the name of Liz's son.

"Um, I'm sorry to repeat myself. Liz is who?"

　I'm really sorry about that. The main character she is. The main character's name in "Phyllis's Londonderry Air" is Liz.

　"Phyllis's Londonderry Air" tells the story of Liz, a mother who has an only son, Richard MacLachlan, aka Rick, who was an anti-Light Race.

　As I mentioned earlier, Liz was persecuted by her ally, the Anti-Light Race, after Rick changed his mind. The story painstakingly depicts Liz's experiences and feelings when she was forced to turn to the conciliatory faction herself in the form of being involved in her son's actions, and the depiction of Liz's own changes in thought that appear as the story progresses is also full of reality.

　Liz herself dies in the final chapter of the second volume, and in the third volume, Rick takes over as the narrator. It depicts the post-war period and the post-apocalyptic world.

　Liz lost her husband in the war shortly after their marriage. The war at this time was sparked by a struggle between small communities of "Old Humans" for control of the buffer zone, with little involvement of the "Light Race." Her marriage itself was not unhappy, but her recollections tell us that the couple's days were very brief. This is also directly related to the fact that Rick spent a very short time with his father.

　The title "Phyllis's Londonderry Air" is a reference to the lyrics of an Irish folk song called "Londonderry Air". It is about a wife whose husband died as a soldier and sends her son to the battlefield. It's like Liz and Rick's position.

　The reason why Rick was an anti-Light race before was because it was the main idea of the community he belonged to, and it was the result of his highly social, collaborative, orientation. Here, Rick's survival strategy unique to "Old Humans," which is don't to "be hostile to and have to do things that are detrimental to friends and colleagues," is honestly exposed.

　I deciphered that Rick's youth, who was still a teenager at the time, probably had an influence on this.

　"Old Humans" are characterized by the transition of their lives from birth, growth, decline, and death.

　The structure of their species is very simple. They are born immature in both intelligence and function, grow up to reach the peak of their abilities during the breeding season, and learn and adapt to the outside world. After the breeding season, in order to pass on resources to the next generation, the material body is genetically designed to follow a downward curve in function and intelligence as the body ages. In other words, "Give way to the next" is fundamental.

　As long as their species is an organism that bears this fact, we had to judge their character by properly taking into account the fact that they have "growth and decline". This was one of the most recurring points in the story.

　After leaving Liz, Rick has grown a lot. That is, of course, mentally and physically.

　By getting to know many values and others, Rick changed his way of thinking.

　As a result, he changed his position to the conciliatory faction, looking for a way for "Old Humans" and "Light Race" to coexist.

　Two of his closest friends, Roger Gilbert, aka Gil, who had psychopathic traits, and Sally, a female android who closely resembled Gil in appearance, thinking, and speaking, were two major influences on his conversion.

　Right. In the battlefield of the setting that Rick experienced, a middle-class artificial intelligence client-type android like Sally was allowed to be deployed as a soldier in the anti-light race squad.

　I believe that this is the setting in which the author's vision is most expressed.

　"Phyllis's Londonderry" Air was written about 100 years ago when the topic of "whether or not to allow stand-alone high-class artificial intelligence androids to respect their individuality as ego bodies" was first raised at an international conference.

　Yes, this is something that has been recorded as a historical fact. This is something that can be confirmed at "Revelatory" as well.

　Rick noticed. After seeing how similar Gil and Sally are, he realized that there might not actually be much difference between the Old Humans and the Light Race.