Chapter 867 – 867. Puppeteer’s Heart (5)
“… What are you talking about?”
Erin’s guess, this time Eunhyeon asked back as if she couldn’t understand it at all.
“Um… I can’t explain in detail, but… Is that just how you feel?”
Just a simple feeling.
“… You mean just a feeling?”
“Can I just say that?”
Cecilia and Doran, who had been quietly listening to the story, were quite taken aback by Erin’s absurd guess.
However, Eunhyeon didn’t listen to Erin’s words so easily.
“Can you elaborate?”
“Umm…”
Erin moaned softly at Eunhyun’s question.
She picked and picked words and phrases to make the thoughts that came into her head more fleshed out and put them out of her mouth.
Erin’s senses fit more often than she thought.
There was no rational logic or unfounded disorder in her thoughts, but she was rather good at reaching the essence and core faster than anyone else with that much free thinking.
Like the wild senses of an animal, it stabs the core well.
To put it mildly, Erin seems like a very ignorant and stubborn person who goes straight ahead, but she has always been on the right path.
Perhaps she just does as she pleases, without any awareness that the direction she is walking and the choice is the right path, but in the end, she always has a positive result.
So, Eun-hyeon asked her about Erinn’s feelings in more detail.
“If it were me. I would have waited.”
“You would have waited?”
“Huh. Until Hyun gets better.”
“… Am I okay?”
However, it wasn’t that I couldn’t immediately understand Erin’s words as she explained them out of her mouth.
Eunhyun tilted her head as she did not understand Erin’s explanation.
“Am I okay?”
“Hyeoni refused the position of successor to the puppeteer that the puppet named Archis offered. That’s why she left Hyun-i.”
“…”
Eun-hyeon was at a loss for her words to rebut her Erin’s words.
It was as she said.
Archis tried to pass on all the knowledge and skills the girl possessed by handing over the position of successor to the puppeteer to himself, but Eunhyeon refused the doll girl’s offer.
She couldn’t afford to accept the offer herself.
Even if she inherited her puppetry from a girl, there was no way she would be able to craft and adjust her precise puppets and weapons like her.
Even with her dull talent, it was more efficient for her to pick up a sword and annihilate her enemies directly.
So, Archis announced her separation from Eun-hyeon.
However, there was still room for refutation of Erin’s speculation.
“… Archis had a mission.”
It was a mission to find his successor.
“Huh. So I wasn’t sure either, Hyuna. Did you ever think that that was a lie?”
“… What?”
Erin’s question brought a considerable shock to Eunhyeon.
It was a fresh shock, like being hit with a hammer that I hadn’t even thought about.
She is that she never thought about it.
“Archis… Lie? It can’t be.”
It can’t be.
“Why? Why do you think so?”
“Archis… Because it’s a doll.”
Archis is a doll.
If there was an algorithm of complex patterns called ‘lies’ inside, Eunhyun would have noticed right away.
However, as Eunhyeon accompanied Archis for a long time, she could not notice it at all.
Eun-hyeon had thought that Archis had never lied to her.
“Don’t you think Archis would have hidden it well?”
“…”
She immediately tried to answer that he couldn’t be, but he couldn’t.
Could it really not have been?
No matter what happens, he doesn’t deny it by saying, ‘It can’t be like that’ or ‘It doesn’t make sense’, and because he has the personality of examining all possibilities and thoughts, he himself is not sure.
If there was even a 1% possibility, Eunhyeon had a temper that could not be denied blindly.
“Archis… Do you think he must have lied?”
“Huh. I am?”
At least Erin thought so.
“…”
Eunhyun was worried.
If the assumption is made that Archis can lie, then Erin’s guess will be credible.
“Then why did Archis build the labyrinth and wait for me when he decided to act separately from me?”
Did he act strangely, saying that he would stop accompanying him and wait for him, even lying to him in an attempt to find a successor?
“You said it before. Hyun-i couldn’t afford it.”
“…”
“Perhaps he thought that he would not accept his proposal as it was? Maybe that’s why he made up his mind to wait until he came back.”
He firmly believed that one day Eun-hyeon would definitely come back to him.
In fact, he took over the successor position of the puppeteer while revisiting the labyrinth of Archis.
Could it be that, in a sense, things went the way Archis intended.
“Me… Wait…”
“This is my idea, Hyuna.”
“Huh?”
Not paying attention to Cecilia or Doran’s gaze, Erin, who had been chattering in Eunhyeon’s arms, watched the little doll girl still lying in the glass box.
It was far from vigilant or hostile gaze.
It wasn’t kind of like favor, but if I had to ask, it was more like curiosity.
Erin, who was extremely wary of developing special relationships with women other than her wives, was clearly different from her usual attitude.
“That doll. He obviously has a crush on you.”
“… Oops. That never is.”
Eun-hyeon listened to Erin’s guess as she spoke earnestly, and in the end, she burst out laughing because she couldn’t contain it.
The doll, Archis, herself?
That could never be the case, she was sure.
“Hmm…”
However, Erin did not easily agree with his opinion despite her Eun-hyeon’s attitude.
“Well, I don’t think that’s possible, but if you wake up Archis again, you’ll find out.”
“Yeah, it’s not like that.”
Erin nodded her head in agreement.
◆ ◆ ◆
What is mind
She is the father and creator who created her, something that even Allen could not teach.
Searching through all the knowledge and memories stored in her tiny memory of herself, it was something she couldn’t find.
“What is the heart?”
“There are various expressions. Wouldn’t it be an overall expression of thoughts, spirit, emotions, feelings, will, and determination?”
“How do I learn the mind?”
“How do I know that?”
Eunhyun said with a dull expression as if it was annoying.
“The mind is just like a guidepost that guides a person’s consciousness into action. Just like making them point their hands towards rice when they feel hungry, or make them crawl into their beds and blankets when they want to sleep.”
For example, the most basic human needs such as appetite and sleep.
It is their minds that motivate humans to act to satisfy their needs.
“I don’t have that desire?”
It was a natural story.
Archis, a doll, not a human, did not feel the need for sleep or appetite.
It wasn’t that I had a desire for fame or power.
“Archis.”
“Why.”
“Why are you alive?”
“… ?”
This time, Archis couldn’t answer.
Even after hearing Eun-hyeon’s question, the girl’s memory wasn’t quite sure what the question meant.
‘Live? I? I’m alive?’
The word “Alive” Is used when a human maintains vital activity by circulating blood through breathing.
It was not suitable for Archis, a doll.
“Am I not alive?”
“What are you talking about? So you, who is talking to me right now, are you dead?”
“The expression ‘alive’ is used only for those who have life, such as humans and animals, but it doesn’t suit me.”
“You are alive. It’s not like you’re moving forever for nothing.”
“…”
That’s right.
This is because Archis has parts that maintain his body and magic crystals that provide power.
The reason why the doll girl makes dolls, makes weapons, equips herself, and kills monsters in exchange for money is to maintain her status quo.
“Even though you eat and sleep like humans, you are not much different from humans, although the concept and process may be different.”
Then, why is he continuing to do these things to maintain this state?
It was because of the will of his father, Allen, who created him.
– Even without me, can you live well on your own?
Live
Again, that word momentarily occupied Archis’ memory.
Allen’s voice, stored in an unforgettable memory, came to mind as if it were being played once again.
-I am not alive.
In response to Archis’ answer, who did not understand Allen’s words, Allen smiled bitterly and reached out his skinny arm to the girl, kindly handing it to him.
-No. You are alive
-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.
Why do my father’s words come to mind now?
Archis’ face was expressionless, but inside the girl, she was quite confused by her own memories.
No logic, rules or orders were given, but the will left by her father, Allen, came to her mind so suddenly that it filled the girl’s memory.
As if to put an end to the confusion, or to instill confidence, Eunhyeon continued.
“You are alive. Like humans.”
“…”
It was a very short word.
However, those words dug into the doll girl’s memory and caused great confusion.
Why?
Why are you confused?
Excessive amount of computation that cannot fully fill the memory and cannot fully interpret it.
Why, why, what is it to be alive? What is mind
You ask yourself the same questions over and over again, and draw conclusions about them.
After repeating self-updating more than 300 times, Archis realized.
“Oh, I see.”
This confusion, the warm kindness that Allen gave her, and her gratitude to Eun-hyeon for telling her that she was ‘alive’.
Archis could understand all of those feelings.
“This is the heart…”
“Hmm?”
Eunhyeon looked quite surprised at the attitude of Arcis, who suddenly started to smile broadly.
“You…”
A bright smile that could not be shown as a doll, shown while working together for a long time.
She was the smile of her daughter whom Allen, who created the girl, wanted to see so much, but it was a sad smile that she could no longer show.
‘Sorry. Father. I found out too late.’
If she had realized and understood this emotion, ‘heart’ sooner, she would have been able to show Allen the smile of her daughter, who resembles her own.
Understanding his feelings, Archis apologized to his father for his foolishness.
And at the same time, he thanked Eunhyeon for teaching him emotions and mind.
“Thank you. Thanks to you.”
“No. What… I haven’t done anything…”
Eunhyeon scratched his head shyly at the suddenness of Arkis expressing his gratitude with a pure smile.
“I have something I want to suggest to you.”
“What.”
“Would you like to learn puppetry from me?”
It means that she will pass on all the knowledge and skills she has, as well as the dolls and weapons she has made.
And in a sense, it also meant that he wanted to give all of himself, including himself, to Eun-hyeon.
It was a clumsy emotional expression of a doll girl who realized that it was emotion and mind belatedly, but Eun-hyeon did not recognize the meaning of the doll girl.
“No. Bothered.”
All of Arcis’ knowledge and skills are like a girl’s exclusive ability that she collected, tuned, and created.
Even though her Eun-hyeon learns and learns it now, the current Eun-hyeon did not have enough time to learn it all and use it as her own.
“…”
Damn!
As soon as she showed her intention to refuse without a second’s thought, Archis’ hand flew and hit Eunhyun on the back.
“Ah! Why do you hit me!”
When she was suddenly beaten, Eun-hyeon let out her screams.
Although she is said to be a small girl, Archis’ back smash, which has a power that exceeds twice that of an ordinary human male, boasted tremendous attack power.
Hearing his screams, Archis turned her head away from Eun-hyeon.
“Noisy. Bad guy… I don’t worry for even a second.”
Eunhyeon did not hear the little grumbling of the girl who realized that it was her heart.
