Chapter 81
Lady sneezed, then rubbed her nose, hesitating as she thought about whether robots could catch colds.
She leaned against the side of the wall and stood there, feeling her way around.
She was certain that the research institute had a secret room where she had created her own equipment. She didn't know why, but she was so sure of this.
So she has to figure out a way to find that secret room, where there might be a lot of information about herself.
Lady wanted to know what she really was, which was the reason she came back specifically.
As for whether to stay here long-term, Lady honestly hasn't decided yet. She doesn't know what kind of life she likes. So she wants to figure out who she really is, and then consider what she should do.
She had a feeling, a strange feeling, that if she could find the place where she was created, she would know many, many important things.
Lady stared at the metal wall, a cold glint in her eyes. Her second mode of thought switched, suppressing her emotional responses and allowing rational thought to take over. At the same time, she began analyzing the sounds she heard.
The sound of gears turning, the sound of steam surging.
She couldn't go in from the front, because that would mean walking through the room. Those two didn't seem to have a habit of going to bed early; they were still awake. If she went in at this hour, some things she considered secrets might be revealed.
This feeling is really not good; all I can do is hide and keep an eye on what's going on inside.
It was a truly pitch-black night, completely devoid of any light. The darkness felt icy, making her feel as if she were immersed in cold water. Strange and uncomfortable.
Lady suddenly released the wall, letting herself fall flat on the ground. There was no grass around, so she could only lower her body to eliminate her scent.
The door was pushed open, and a girl named Leili came out.
She carried a kerosene lamp and a book, her expression as indifferent as the last time I saw her.
Speaking of which, this child was indeed quite ordinary, because compared to Lady, this girl was rather plain. Of course, it's not that she wasn't pretty, but her light dark circles and a few freckles on her face only made her look pretty. She was far from Lady's perfection.
But this is what a real person looks like; that's how her sister saw them in the painting too. The two sisters looked at each other. Not someone as perfect as herself, without a single flaw. She really hated herself for looking like this, as if...
Lady watched her walk past. The child hadn't received any counter-surveillance training and didn't have the habit of looking around when entering an open space. So she didn't notice Lady, who had eliminated her presence.
She slowly raised her hand, then struck her own elbow hard with her other hand.
Rational thinking made her subconsciously want to kill the child with a dart to reduce her chances of being exposed to zero, but a sliver of emotion prevented her from taking the action, which had already progressed to the point of being fully executed.
She always felt fear at times like this, her body would move before she could think, and even if she tried to stop it, she would need to react in time.
Lady fears that one day she will hurt someone she doesn't want to hurt. She also understands that to completely avoid this, she must understand what she truly is and what situations will trigger her subconscious actions.
She wanted to understand what she really was. He might know about the abandoned pawn, but now that guy had been swallowed up by the forbidden zone of life.
As she was thinking this, Riley turned to look at Lady.
She made a sound when she hit her own elbow, and that sound made the guy realize that someone was hiding there.
The two stared at each other for a long time before falling silent.
“My father is sleeping.” Leili paused and said, “I gave him sleeping pills. If you’re here to kill him, don’t leave too many traces. I’ll make it look like an accidental death.”
Lady was stunned for a moment, then realized why the child wanted to leave now.
In the morning, he said that he wanted to kill that guy as soon as he saw him, so he guessed that the guy would come to assassinate him at night.
Then she helped make the preparations, left now, and would come back to handle everything when it was all over.
It seemed as if she desperately wanted to kill her father.
But you couldn't tell from her voice how much the child disliked her father, and from what you heard, it was clear that he had always been a good person and had a comfortable life. Her father didn't have any particular quirks; on the contrary, he had always taken good care of her.
They take care of it as seriously as if it were a machine they are looking after.
"Why?" Lady didn't try to explain that she wasn't there to kill him; she just wanted to understand why this child wanted her to eliminate his father.
“For no reason, just do it if you want.” Leili paused and said, “I really dislike that person. He was only sad for half a day when my sister died. Then he became interested in research reports related to her, and only asked me to bury the body when it was almost completely decomposed. Do you want to go see if that guy with the same name as you is buried yet?”
Lady was stunned for a moment, then suddenly saw her run over and grab her wrist.
"Sure, sure." Lady hesitated for a moment, then took the opportunity to quietly bring her emotions back to normal. That way, she could communicate with others normally.
“Let’s go together then, sister,” Leili said, pulling the child who was confused by the way she was addressed.
elder sister?
The way it was called was strangely familiar, as if I had been called that for a long time.
But when was that? She didn't know; Lady couldn't find a similar memory in the library of her own memories.
Lady felt inexplicably terrified that she had forgotten things that should have been remembered.
Why did I forget those things? It was as if a voice was roaring at me again and again, as if rebuking me for forgetting those things.
But inexplicably, I somehow forget those things.
I honestly don't remember any of it, it's just a sense of familiarity.
"Is it okay if I call you 'sister'?" she suddenly heard the child ask. She turned her head, smiled at Lady, and said, "You and my sister have the same name, which is quite rare. So, can I call you 'sister'?"
"If you'd like..."
"That's wonderful!"
Lady looked at the child and suddenly felt a little surprised by her feelings.
I was unexpectedly warmed and happy.
You will feel genuine joy, as if you have met an old friend.
"Yes, that's wonderful," she said softly, a smile unconsciously spreading across her face.
Yes, that's really great.
What time exactly is it? It seems like the child is pulling me forward as well.
I don't know, I can't remember, my head hurts so much.
This is good, really good. It's a rare sense of peace, and it makes me feel the beauty of being alive.
Ark watched as Raleigh pulled Lady past him and sighed softly.
He cast an undetectable spell on himself, so they didn't notice him.
The reason he followed was because he was a little worried about this guy; it was too difficult for a child to live in this world.
So he wanted to first understand if this girl could protect herself. Based on the time he'd spent with her, he could roughly tell that she was strong enough in combat, but clearly lacked social experience. Even her personality was ridiculously inconsistent, using suppression of emotion or reason to adapt to different situations.
It's really worrying, especially since she came to this research institute in the middle of the night, though the reason is unknown. It just makes me uneasy. So I followed her, hoping to help if anything goes wrong.
However, what he witnessed made him begin to worry about the researcher. Although Ark didn't have a good impression of people who only cared about research, that guy was genuinely a good person. It would be a real pity if he were to be drugged and killed by his own daughter one day.
So Yak followed behind, but it was hard to find their way in the rainy night, until they reached a tree.
The two little guys walked a very, very long way, even leaving the center of the research and development area. The one leading the way clearly knew the patrol routes of the guards, and they walked for a very long time without encountering anyone blocking their way.
It was as if those guys were deliberately avoiding the two children.
The tree wasn't in a good location; it was quite out of the way. But in a city of metal, such a tree stood out—not large, just a slender little tree. If it weren't for the fact that it was surrounded by metal, it wouldn't have been particularly noticeable.
This is their destination after traveling so long; they stopped here.
“My sister is buried inside.” Leili paused and said, “No one ate her flesh because it was already rotting when it was found, so it was used as fertilizer for the big tree.”
Lady stared at the tree for a very long time.
The fact that no one eats the body of the dead is actually quite unusual, because eating the body would mean the person is passed down through generations. Being buried under a tree signifies her imprisonment there. The soul has no liberation, neither entering heaven nor hell, nowhere to wander.
But there was no soul in it, for some inexplicable reason, Lady thought. The tree was empty, just a tree that had grown unusually large because it had consumed people.
"What do you feel about this?" Riley turned to Lady and asked, "Does it remind you of anything?"
"Remember?" Lady pondered the unspoken meaning of those words, and after about half a minute, she understood: "You mean you think that your sister and I... might have something in common?"
“Who knows? But even if we have something in common, you’re not my sister. My sister is buried under the tree.” Leili paused and said, “Coming here so late at night, are you looking for something?”
"How did you figure that out?"
"I brought you here, but it seems your focus isn't on this tree. You seem to be trying to find something hidden here. The same thing happened over there earlier. If you really came here to assassinate someone, you could have come in from the second floor. You were here this morning, so you know there's a ventilation shaft up there. Use some poison in the ventilation shaft, it's easy. Or you could come down yourself; there's only an untrained researcher and a minor here. You have many ways to accomplish this."
"You're still so smart." Lady had barely uttered the words when she suddenly realized something was wrong.
Even though I've never met this guy before, I blurted out that he sounded like a classmate I've met many times.
This shouldn't be happening, but she knew she had given that answer unconsciously. She felt her mind was in turmoil, and her heartbeat was becoming erratic.
"Ha, I knew it." Leili said as if she had expected it. "As expected, you are still my sister."
"What's the meaning?"
“You’ll find out soon enough. I’ll take you to that secret room while my father is unconscious. You’ll find out then.” Riley turned around and looked at Lady intently. “It is indeed a perfect creation. No wonder my father was so fascinated by the research on you. I’m also very interested in what kind of structure could create such a perfect doll.”
The child seemed to be a completely different person in front of his father and when he was alone outside, which gave Lady a bit of a creep.
In other words, the saying "like father, like son" is actually true.
It's possible that the child actually had a great interest in alchemy and doll making, but developed a resistance to these things because of the death of his sister.
But in essence, he was still a very intelligent genius, a guy with talent and interest in alchemical dolls.
"Please." After a long silence, Lady said softly, nodding slowly.
“Leave it to me, after all, I’m your sister.” Leili suddenly reached out and touched Lady’s face: “This face is really nice, much prettier than before… But it’s all my father’s fault, all his fault for leaking the research data. Even such a pretty face has become a bit ordinary.”
"What's the meaning?"
“Oh, you’ve never seen them before? But that’s for the best, after all, seeing hundreds of people exactly like yourself isn’t a very good experience.” Leili hesitated for a moment, then said, “If we don’t consider your thinking ability and only focus on your performance as an alchemical puppet, then it’s still an excellent design. This design has now become a project for combat puppets in the royal palace. In other words, there are hundreds of people with almost identical bodies to you involved in the city’s security control. But you are special, after all, those guys are just empty shells, sister, they are just empty shells, but you have a soul.”
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