Endless Debt

The visitor must be a somewhat reserved person. Even if this is her home, when she comes back, she will knock on the door first to signal to the people in the house that she is back. Whether there is anyone in the house or not.

Bologg stared at the dark iron door, the key and the lock cylinder were inserted, and with the clear mechanical sound, the iron door was pushed open, and a figure that Bologg would never have expected appeared in front of him behind the door.

"Are you a guest?"

A cold and stiff voice sounded, and she looked at Boluogo, and then at TEDA. There were layers of halos in her blue eyes, like glowing gears, superimposed on the pupils.

"The field staff of the Order Bureau will stay with us for a while and use it as a base." TEDA explained.

The girl nodded, took the bag in her hand, and walked to another room.

"Wait a moment."

Boluogo frowned and called the girl. She also cooperated and stood there. In her cold blue eyes, the halo shrank and turned. She seemed to want to reveal her doubts, but in Boluogo's view , this is really a bit too weird.

Standing up and walking towards the girl, Boluogo observed her closely. She was shorter than him, and her petite figure was completely hidden under the dark green cloak and windbreaker. It was different from the first time he saw her. This time she Wearing the same dark green hat, he hid his face in the shadows.

"I seem to have seen you in a border sanatorium before."

Boluogo looked at the girl. He could clearly feel the ether surging in the girl's body, as well as the faint mechanical sound, just like the movement of a mechanical watch. The complex mechanical structure supported her body, driven by the ether. , rotate and run.

She tilted her head slightly, and even the halo in her eyes shrank, Aimu said doubtfully.

"Are you trying to strike up a conversation?"

Boluogo was stunned, and he didn't react for a while.

"Aren't all humans like this? When talking to strangers of the opposite sex, they usually start the conversation with such words, and then establish a deeper intimate relationship. After all, this kind of thing often happens in the animal kingdom. In order to attract females, males will show off Despite all the various methods of courtship, humans are just advanced animals."

Unlike her cold appearance, Aimu was very talkative and took the initiative in speaking in an instant. However, the things she said made Boluogo feel overwhelmed, and at the same time, they continued to impact Boluogo's thoughts. .

"But the strange thing is..." The halo in Aimu's eyes shrank into an oval, which showed that she was frowning in distress, "The act of striking up a conversation is done when you have a good impression of the opposite sex."

As she spoke, she knocked on her shoulder and made a slight iron sound. Aimu looked at Boluogo, and the halo in his eyes almost deflated into a line.

"I know that humans have many weird habits... don't you?"

The deflated halo stretched back into a circle, and it rotated back and forth rhythmically.

Suddenly the halo stopped rotating, as if the eyes were widened, and the halo also enlarged a bit. Aimu covered his mouth slightly, pretending to be surprised on his cold face.

"Wow, sir, isn't it? You actually..."

"Wait a moment!"

Boluogo's voice was a little higher, interrupting Aimu's words. A familiar but ghostly feeling came to his heart. Boluogo remembered that the last time he felt like this was the first time he went to the Undead Club. hour.

The moment Aimu spoke, the situation in front of him began to escape Boluogo's control. This strange guy took the initiative so easily, and he didn't know what to say to refute.

The atmosphere fell into an eerie calm, until Teda couldn't help laughing.

"Border sanatorium? That should be Aimu. She needs to go to the border sanatorium for inspection and maintenance regularly." Teda did not expect that this was not the first time the two met. "I am good at the cold and sacred alchemy matrix, but it involves something deeper. The soul spirit of the upper level requires the assistance of the medical department."

"Aimu?"

Borlog whispered, thinking that this must be the girl's name.

Hearing her name, Aimu took off her hat, revealing her fair face. Her skin had a strange texture. It looked like human skin, but compared with human skin, it lacked a lot of blood. Like an extremely delicate mask.

"Hello, I'm Aimu."

Aimu took off her gloves, stretched out her hand, and looked at her palm. Just as Boluogo saw at that time, it was cold and dark.

"Bologo Lazarus."

Boluogo held her hand, and there was only the cold feeling of metal, no human warmth.

"Don't worry, I was just joking. Don't humans like people with a sense of humor?"

Aimu suddenly became serious. Her face did not have too many expressions, but the halo in her eyes was changing rapidly, indicating the ups and downs of her emotions.

"Is this humor?" Bologo wondered.

"Oh? Isn't it?" Aimu said in a surprised tone, covering his chest with his hands, as if he was deliberately performing, imitating human body movements, and then apologized, "I rarely communicate with other people, these things I saw it all in books.”

“There’s always a gap between theory and practice, right?”

Aimu was probably raising her eyebrows at herself, and Bologger saw the aura in her eyes briefly distort into the shape of a star. Boluogo began to wonder how many shapes the halo in Aimu's eyes could take.

"Excuse me, is there anything else?" Aimu asked.

"do not have much left."

Boluogo shook his head. He needed some time to adapt to this strange situation.

Aimu retracted his hand, nodded to TEDA, and then walked into another room, not knowing what he was busy with.

Boluogo stared blankly at her leaving back. His mood was very complicated and difficult to describe. He turned his head and looked at Teda. No words were needed. Teda knew exactly what Boluogo wanted to ask.

"She is my result, an alchemy doll with self-awareness. The body is made of a variety of expensive alchemical metals. Under the complex mechanical structure, I also implanted multiple alchemy matrices to maintain the operation of the alchemy doll.

To a certain extent, she is a walking humanoid virtual realm, and the scope of the virtual realm's influence is only her body... It's a bit too complicated to explain to you. You just need to know that she is the most perfect work of my life. Just fine. "

Teda looked at Boluogo's increasingly confused eyes and put away his enthusiastic mood in order to let go of this layman who had only read "Golden Discourse".

"Aimu Ajedet? I have only seen such an alchemy doll in books. I thought she would be more... dull?"

Boluogo thought this was really amazing.

"After all, she is my most perfect work. Her self-awareness is different from that kind of self-disciplined doll," Teda gradually stopped smiling and said in a serious tone, "Also, her name is not Yazhedet, she is My name is Aimu.”

"Don't you have a surname? I thought you would give it your own surname, Ajedet. Aren't you alchemists all like this? You like to name creations after your own names, as if they are your descendants." Logo said.

"This is different. If it is a cold dead thing, I don't mind giving it my own name, but she is different. She is conscious."

Teda was silent for a few seconds, then firmed up his thoughts again and said coldly.

"She has self-awareness, but she is not a 'life', she is just a 'tool' maintained by a mechanical and alchemical matrix. If she is given a name, she will have feelings.

You should understand that too much emotion can distort her essence. "

"Distorting the nature of the tool?"

Bologo probably understood what TEDA meant.

He remembered the chat he had with Jeffrey a long time ago. At that time, he was still in the internship period and didn't know the whole picture of the extraordinary world. Every day, he was beheading demons one after another under Jeffrey's instructions.

I remember that day that I drove the demons into the barn, locked the door, and set fire to everything. The two of them were leaning against the fence under the blazing fire, Jeffrey said at that time.

"Dingos are just dingoes, no one cares about them, but when you give one of them a name, it's not a dingo anymore."

After such a long time, Boluogo understood to some extent what Jeffrey meant. A name is a gift that qualitatively changes the identity of something in its group.

With names, vague concepts have clear directions. Under excessive emotions, the essence of the things represented by names will also be distorted.

"This is the consensus of many alchemists. If we want to create life, we will never give it a name. With a name, there will be emotions, and emotions will affect our judgment. This is very important to rational alchemists. It's fatal." Teda said quietly.

“When I was a student, I heard my teacher tell a similar example. An alchemist created a humanoid creature of flesh and blood, which he named ‘Mully’.

That thing was just a creation of flesh and blood, an experiment, and a tool, but he regarded it as a family friend. Until 'Muli' was driven by hunger and killed many people, he still protected 'Muli' and said It's just a little hungry. It's not usually like this... In fact, we all understand that this is an experiment that is out of control. "

Boluogo nodded in approval. TEDA was driven by fanaticism, but still remained rational. Should he be said to be a former minister? Even after creating such a perfect individual, he still restrained himself.

"But... Aimu, what's going on with this name?" Bologo asked.

"This is the name she gave herself. Yes, she is a cold individual who feels she needs a name to refer to herself."

When Teda mentioned this, he became interested, and his tone was surprised and scared.

"That was a day that I will remember forever. She suddenly told me that she needed a name. After knowing that I could not give her a name, she took a name for herself."

"The awakening of individual consciousness?" Bologo said.

"From that day on, she became self-aware, which represented a breakthrough in my research, but I was very uneasy and scared."

"The non-human individual gains self-awareness and wisdom."

Boluogo thought of the symbol of the sublimation furnace core. He knew that the icons in the Bureau of Order had their own meanings. The chains and six swords representing the Bureau of Order refer to the six major families when it was first established, and their role in the Sixth Bureau. The ultimate reached in the Grand Mystical School.

The snake wrapped around the fruit, which represents the core of the sublimation furnace, represents human greed and extravagant pursuit of wisdom and truth.

"In the story, God created humans and allowed them to live in paradise on earth, until one day humans were tempted by poisonous snakes and ate the fruit of wisdom." Boluogo murmured, feeling the same as Teda disturbed.

Now all this is very similar to the story in the book. Teda created the alchemy doll, and she longed for the fruit of wisdom and got a name for herself.

What's next?

Boluogo did not continue to think about it. This kind of thing should be left to TEDA to worry about, and then he thought of another thing.

The ether surged, and a cold touch came from the arm. A delicate silver snake crawled out from Boluogo's cuffs. Under Boluogo's control, it came alive, as if it had real life, and even spat words at TEDA. .

"Bailey said her junior sister did this. Is she here too?" Boluogo asked.

Boluogo's understanding of alchemy is only at the introductory stage, but he also understands the talent required to create such a stable distortion product.

"Huh? Snake scale liquid."

TEDA recognized the silver snake at a glance, and then a more confident smile appeared on his face.

"Didn't you already meet her?"

"What?"

When Boluogo was wondering, footsteps came, and Aimu came over with snacks and tea, placing them on the small table nearby.

She took off the cloak and coat that covered her body, as well as her gloves and hat. She had nothing to hide in the alchemy workshop.

Aimu was wearing casual clothes, and his exposed skin had a transparent gelatinous feel. While simulating human skin, he could also vaguely see the looming steel bones under the skin, with a swaying glow floating on them.

There are small gaps at the joints of the body, and the sound of mechanical rotation can be heard faintly. At the same time, the glow of ether flashes from time to time through the gaps.

Only then did Bologg see clearly that only Aimu's calves and forearms were covered with iron-weary paint. There was a glimmer of light under the swollen chest, and a large amount of ether was rolling in it.

The core of constant motion steadily and continuously outputs ether, spreading to every inch of the body, allowing Aimu to continue running.

This was a scene that Bologna could not describe.

The cold steel body was actually more human than human to some extent. She stretched her body a little, and then served tea to Boluogo and Teda gracefully.

Aimu had read through the knowledge of these etiquettes in books and memorized them by heart. Her posture was standard as if she had studied it specially. While pouring tea, she did not forget to wink at Boluogo, and the halo in her eyes made waves.

Due to technical limitations, Aimu's expression was a bit stiff, but the moment they looked at each other, Boluogo always felt that this guy was smiling evilly.

"Aimu, she is now considered my student," Teda looked at Aimu with admiration, "She is the most talented and potential student I have ever encountered."

Aimu didn't say anything. She stood behind Teda. In her blue eyes, the halo rotated and shined rhythmically.

Boluogo watched all this, and there were many things swirling in his heart, but Boluogo knew that it would be useless even if he said it now.

After calming down, Boluogo positioned himself as an absolutely indifferent spectator.

He could see the hidden things in TEDA's eyes. TEDA thought he was rational, but it was obvious that he had fallen into a whirlpool.

I've been in a bad state these past two days, as if I've been drugged. I can't wake up no matter how much I sleep during the day, and I suffer from insomnia at night. There's only one update today, and I'll try to resume double updates tomorrow.