Chapter 865 – 865. Puppeteer’s Heart (3)
The doll girl was given the name ‘Archis’.
Although the range of action of Arcis, which was supplied with a power source called magic power by a cable connected to its back in a glass box, was extremely narrow, it did not hinder the newly born doll girl from learning the world.
The man who created himself and served him as his master taught Archis many things.
Who she is and what the place called Earth is like, she teaches the basic common sense of this world as if she were teaching her ordinary daughter.
It was clearly not about making machines or tools, but about treating people.
“Master.”
When something was in doubt, Arkis called Allen right away.
“Call me Father.”
“Yes. Father.”
Archis accepted all of Allen’s knowledge.
It was only natural that Archis, who gradually learned the knowledge of the Earth, began to question his own existence.
“Who am I?”
“…”
Allen was surprised inside.
It was because Archis’ growth was faster than he expected.
“You are Archis. She is my daughter.”
“I can not understand.”
“…”
“Master is not my father. In order for me to be the Master’s daughter, I must have the Master’s DNA biologically. But I am not even a creature, let alone possess the Master’s DNA.”
The doll girl’s body consists of hundreds or thousands of mechanical parts, magic circuits, and magic crystals that serve as power sources.
There was no element that could be called a father in Archis’ knowledge.
“…”
Allen made no reply.
His expression looked very sad as he was just quietly watching, but Archis could not understand the feelings of the owner who created him.
What that expression was and why it was sad were too dark for a newborn doll to understand.
“You made me Although not your biological father, I crafted your body and created you. It doesn’t contain my genes biologically, but isn’t it the same that it was made by my hands?”
“… Okay.”
Archis understood.
It was not very difficult to understand Allen’s words, not simply in a dictionary sense, but in an idiomatic way.
However, it was impossible for the newly born doll self to understand the feelings of Allen, who still had an expression of regret and sadness.
Allen didn’t want anything from Archis.
Rather, as he began to equip himself and his concept of himself became clearer, Archis could not find the meaning of his own existence.
He didn’t know why he looked after him warmly and cared for him like a human being, or why he sometimes put on a sad face.
He acts as if he wants something, but he doesn’t express what it is.
It has been seven years since Archis was created and the doll’s ego was clearly established.
“Archis.”
“Yes. Father.”
“How much is left now… Cool!”
As Allen continued to speak, he suddenly coughed up blood.
“Father!”
I checked the condition of Allen, who was vomiting blood.
“… It is in very bad condition.”
Exterior scan alone could not determine the exact state of the body.
Allen’s condition, which had been in poor health recently, was getting worse and worse.
Although he was old, it was only natural that Allen’s health, which he had poured all his energy into during the production of Archis, would gradually deteriorate due to overwork.
His death, already senile and weak, was slowly approaching.
Allen, now unable to walk, had to spend the rest of his life under the care of Archis.
“Archis…”
“Yes. Father.”
“I failed.”
Allen lay on the bed and calmly recalled his past.
What did you fail?
Archis silently waited for the words of his father who had created him.
“Why did I make you… Do you know?”
“I do not know. He said, ’cause my dad never told me. But…”
“But?”
“Based on the information given, I’m just guessing on my own.”
“Will you tell me your guess?”
“… Wasn’t it because I wanted to see my daughter who had died before?”
In Allen’s desk, which he often cleaned up, and in his room, memories with his daughter still remained like traces.
Putting that information together, it wasn’t too difficult to guess.
“… Hehe. Cool!”
Allen smiled proudly at the words of Arcis, who answered right away.
Then, it was ironic that he coughed up blood due to hard breathing.
It was because he was quite proud of the process of the doll he had created, now acting on its own, guessing, and drawing conclusions.
“Okay. In the end, I made you because I wanted to see my daughter’s face and Arcis’ smile once again. But… In the end, it failed.”
Until the end of her life, she ran hard, but the moment Allen achieved her own goal never came.
“Because you never smiled at me.”
“Sorry. Father.”
Archis apologized for not fulfilling his role, the significance of his existence.
“No. I’m not blaming you. It was just my greed. You… It’s not Archis…”
The Archis in front of him, this doll girl was not his own daughter.
No matter how perfect the exterior was reproduced, it was only the exterior, and there was no way it could perfectly reproduce the inner world of the daughter.
“Huh, uh…”
The crackling sound of breathing meant that Allen’s death was right in front of her nose.
“Finally I… I couldn’t teach you ‘the heart’.”
She taught the laws of the world and various knowledge and raised her doll girl, but teaching the human mind was an impossible part for Allen as well.
“Mind.”
What is mind
I know it’s a dictionary meaning.
A person’s inherent character or character.
A word that refers to a person’s thoughts, feelings, and memories.
However, there was no way that such a thing would happen to him, who was nothing more than a doll.
It was a doll called Archis who could send consolation and apology to the Master’s words lamenting his failure, but could not sympathize with them.
“Can you live well alone without me?”
“I am not alive.”
Just as he gave orders, he was nothing more than a tool to carry them out.
I do not use the expression ‘living’ for dolls that do not have biological activities.
“No. You are alive.”
Allen said with a laugh.
She picked up the scrawny plate, which was drying up and left only her skin and bones, and stroked Archis’ head.
“I hope that one day the day will come when you will be able to say ‘I am alive’… Even though I couldn’t, someday someone will show up to tell you about it.”
These were the words of a helpless old man who was sure of this.
“I loved you. My daughter…”
With those words, Allen Mendel met her deathbed.
◆ ◆ ◆
Allen died, and Archis, left alone with her, chose her wanderings.
Ironically, Doll Girl inherited all of her deceased Allen’s legacy.
Originally, it was impossible to know how a doll that was not her person could inherit her inheritance, but Allen registered Archis as his daughter from the moment he intuited that her own lifespan was coming to an end. I finished all the preparations for her.
After disposing of all his property and having an account like a human, Archis wandered aimlessly, not knowing how to use the money.
The doll girl, who was always in her house, was the first to go outside and analyze and organize the myriad information collected through her own sensors and lenses.
“Are you that doll?”
One day, someone came to visit Archis.
He was a man who belonged to the world’s largest military company, which Allen had created and developed in the past, called ‘Mendel Industries’.
He introduced himself as a former colleague of Allen who created Archis.
“Come with me.”
However, Archis did not follow him to ‘Mendel Industries’.
The doll girl knew her worth all too well.
It is a world where thousands and tens of thousands of people are dying all over the world on a daily basis.
If he, not a human but a doll created by humans, went there, he could predict how he would be treated without reasoning.
There was a masterpiece called himself in development as an automatic combat doll that moved unmanned, but there was no way that the military company ‘Mendel Industries’ would not keep an eye on it.
‘Perhaps they were waiting for their father to die.’
Perhaps the reason why his existence has been concealed so far is because Allen, who created him, was desperately trying to stop it.
Ironically, the doll girl, who was judged by everyone to be impossible, unprofitable, and worthless, was being treated as the best weapon that all military companies drool over.
‘I need the strength to protect me.’
In this way, Archis repeated the process of disassembling and assembling munitions acquired through smuggling, understanding and analyzing their composition, and was able to manufacture weapons himself.
Other dolls made of the same body based on their own insides.
And even weapons to arm the puppets.
It was possible because of the legacy Allen left behind.
He battled the monster for the first time, and based on the battle data, he supplemented his vulnerabilities, strengthened his strengths, and slowly increased the size of the puppets that followed his orders.
However, that capital also had limitations.
Archis made up for the lack of capital little by little through a mercenary life.
He didn’t need money to eat and sleep, but he also needed a considerable amount to purchase his own power source, magic crystals.
As such, the existence of Archis began to spread as rumors little by little.
If you give him money, he says there is a girl who will start sweeping the battlefield commanding an army of puppets.
It was the moment when the nickname ‘puppet master’ started to become famous little by little.
In a battlefield full of bloody winds and unreasonable deaths, Archis met a man.
“Shit… !”
A man who struggles to escape the battlefield somehow, helping his comrades who are bleeding from having their limbs eaten by monsters.
White silver hair and red eyes were rare appearances in Archis’ memory data.
It wasn’t just because of his unusual appearance that the man stood out to Archis.
In the midst of a disaster where many people were begging for their lives and running away in a disaster where they were caught up in the attack of a huge monster and were dying, it was because of the only action that they were carrying their colleagues on their shoulders and moving their steps.
“Run away…”
The silver-haired man’s shoulder was slung like a burden, and a colleague muttered in a dying voice.
The colleague, who had already shed too much blood, was sensing his end.
When he pushed the body of the white-legged man who was carrying him with weak force, his colleague’s body collapsed to the ground in vain.
“What are you doing! You crazy bastard!”
“I’m done. Can’t live You go too.”
“Not yet, not yet! I’m not dead, so don’t scream and move!”
“Haha, you’re the crazy bastard.”
My colleague laughed as if it was absurd.
His legs were horribly crushed and his shape was unrecognizable, and his complexion was already pale from lack of blood.
It wouldn’t be strange if I closed my eyes right away.
“Wait. I’ll stop the bleeding right away.”
The silver-haired man took his medicine out of a pouch worn around his waist.
His act of trying to heal a colleague right away was an act that was incomprehensible to Archis.
‘Why?’
There is no way he can survive even if he stops the bleeding and gives medicine to his body, which is already confirmed to be dead.
It was the same as pouring water into a pot that had already sunk into a pit.
Foolish behavior that makes no sense.
“What are you doing?”
In the end, Archis, who came right in front of him, asked the silver-haired man.
The man didn’t answer.
Eventually, Archis asked again.
“You are already dead. Giving medicine to a dead body doesn’t bring it back to life.”
“…”
The white-silver haired man continued not to respond to Archis’ words.
Rather, she continued to do the meaningless actions the doll girl said.
The white-haired man’s hand trembled as he poured the medicine into the mouth of his already deceased comrade.
Archis realized it belatedly.
That the man in front of me knew that too.
But why is it that he continues the meaningless act of giving medicine?
Arcis, unable to understand the feelings of a person named Ra, because he wanted to deny the shock and loss of his comrade, kept looking at him.
He wondered why he had to do that, even though he knew it was inefficient and illogical.
‘I’m curious?’
Archis was unaware that it was a curiosity he had never experienced before.
That was the moment when 25-year-old Eun-hyeon first met Archis, a doll girl, and four years after she was chosen as an apostle of the goddess.
