Chapter 868 – 868. Puppeteer’s Heart (6)
“Okay, now that you’ve had a good rest. Shall we resume our work?”
“Hmm.”
“I see.”
After taking a break and chatting, the three stood up again.
“What are you two going to do?”
“Hmm… I don’t have anything to do right now? What about your sister?”
“So do i. If it’s okay, Master, may I take a look at your work here?”
“It’s not that funny…”
Eunhyun scratched her head and glanced at Cecilia and Doran.
The two nodded as if they were okay.
“It’s okay. Then see you there.”
“Thank you.”
“Hee hee, thank you! Thank you! I’ll be watching quietly so I won’t be disturbed!”
Erin really liked watching Eunhyun beside her, who was intensely focused on something of hers.
Seeing the three begin to focus on reorganizing Archis’ body, Erin and Lily also held their breath and watched the game.
◆ ◆ ◆
“I don’t think I can go out with you anymore.”
One day, Archis suddenly declared a breakup.
“… Okay. I see.”
However, Eunhyeon calmly accepted that fact.
“Aren’t you surprised?”
“Well what… Because we can’t be together forever.”
Anytime, anywhere, for any reason, parting always comes.
Although the doll girl named Archis is free from the limitation of lifespan unlike humans, it could not be guaranteed that she would be with Eun-hyeon forever.
Eun-hyeon had only Eun-hyeon’s circumstances, and Archis could have his own circumstances.
So Eun-hyeon didn’t catch her doll girl despite Archis’ breakup.
Because she thought there must be some reason why she couldn’t act with him.
“The mana built into the magic stone is gradually starting to show its bottom.”
The magic stone installed in Archis’ body is the heart that supplies the power source necessary for the girl’s movement.
The heart that had been maneuvering for decades and providing magic power to Arcis was finally starting to come out.
“… Are you okay?”
“Are you okay.”
Archis replied with a calm smile.
Of course, as Eun-hyeon, I couldn’t understand her calm attitude.
“What is okay? You now… You’re going to die now.”
“Die…”
It wasn’t as bad as I thought.
Because it meant that she was still alive.
Her heart doesn’t beat and blood flows like humans, but she herself is alive.
“I can’t help it. My heart… It’s because I’ve reached my limit.”
The word ‘heart’ expressed in old fashioned ways.
She felt as if she was proving that she was alive, so she didn’t feel strongly about it.
“Can’t you remake a heart?”
“If that was possible, it was possible right away.”
The magic crystal, which serves as the heart of the girl, was the remains of the monster dropped after defeating the monster that devastated the earth.
It is impossible to artificially produce magic crystals, and they can only be obtained by defeating monsters.
Even magic crystals, which subjugate and drop lower-level monsters, are on a different level in terms of the amount and quality of the magic they contain.
As the heart of Arcis, in order to maintain its immense power, a high-level magic stone with a high level of magical power was required.
Theoretically, if he could get a higher-grade magic stone, Archis would be able to move again.
“If you subjugate a high-ranking monster…”
“Are you okay. You don’t have to do that for me.”
In order to subdue the higher-ranking monsters, Eunhyeon and Archis were not strong enough.
If so, the subjugation must be carried out in cooperation with others, and even if they survived at the end of the subjugation, I did not think that Eunhyeon and Archis would be able to fully obtain the magic stones, the spoils of war.
“You have work to do.”
“…”
“Like him, I have work to do. No. Should I say it’s something I want to do?”
“What do you want to do?”
It was the first time Eunhyeon had heard it.
“I will find a successor.”
Heir.
Eunhyeon recalled a proposal the doll girl had made to her in the past.
It was a suggestion that he should not learn how to make dolls.
However, Eun-hyeon rejected it.
He couldn’t afford to learn it himself, and even if he did, he didn’t have the confidence to use it better than Archis.
“An heir who can inherit all of the puppetry I have, the knowledge and skills. I… I will leave behind the fact that I lived here, in this era.”
He wanted to engrave evidence of his existence into history.
It was the wish of Archis, who was able to think like a human and hold a wish like a human in his heart and in the memory of a doll.
It further grew into a ‘mission’.
“That’s the first ‘mission’ I set for myself.”
Just as Eunhyeon has a mission, the mission Archis has.
It was to leave his mark.
I don’t really want to leave my existence as a record or literature.
Archis wanted to continue to inherit the title and ability of ‘puppet master’ and leave them in people’s memories, reproduced by his knowledge and skills.
He wanted to appoint a suitable person as his successor.
“It’s so grandiose.”
“You’re telling me to dream big, right?”
At Arcis’s joke, like a human, Eunhyeon smiled and nodded her head.
“Okay. It’s okay to dream big.”
“Actually, this is not something that has been decided. I’ve been thinking about it for quite some time.”
“Then why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I was originally going to ask you.”
“… Ah.”
Eunhyun made a realization on her face and sighed lightly.
He recalled that Archis would teach him how to do dolls, so he suggested that he learn.
However, Eun-hyeon rejected it.
“Originally, I was going to ask you to be my successor. Of course, you rejected it without thinking for a second.”
“Archis… But that…”
“Are you okay. Because I know why. So you’re trying to find A successor other than you.”
“…”
Eunhyun said with a firm expression.
He never meant to say no in the first place, but he couldn’t help thinking that the reason the girl was leaving him was because he had rejected her.
‘Actually, it’s not just because of that that I want to leave you…’
Arcis’s real intention was that he did not want to show Eun-hyeon that he was approaching a stop like a candle that was slowly losing its light.
Eun-hyeon is afraid of ‘separation’ in any form.
Unlike other humans, he cannot choose his own death.
Chosen by the goddess to protect the lower world and help many people, he was always in a position to let people go, and he experienced numerous separations in various forms.
He only comforted himself by reminding himself that there was nothing he could do about it.
Of all the breakups Eunhyeon experienced, Archis did not want to remain as a painful and sad memory.
“Goodbye then.”
“… Okay.”
Although she nodded with a sad expression, Eunhyeon had no choice but to let Archis go.
We didn’t talk to each other any more.
However, the two intuited that this was the last greeting they could share with each other.
“… It’s like a person.”
Archis, who had become alone, blankly looked up into the sky and mocked himself.
He couldn’t help but laugh at the thought of himself feeling strange.
“Is this, loneliness?”
He thought he wouldn’t feel it all the time, but he thought it would be okay since he was always alone.
For some reason, I felt empty.
Archis had to hurry to carry out the plan he had laid out beforehand.
“You have to hurry. I do not have time.”
In fact, Archis’ words about finding another successor were lies.
There is only one successor, Eun-hyeon, that the doll girl had planned.
But right now Eunhyeon couldn’t afford to accept Archis’ offer.
Then let’s wait until he finds himself.
Archis found a suitable dungeon and subdued the monsters to take control of the interior.
And in the deepest part where the core of the dungeon is located, he created a ‘doll’s room’ where he and his puppets are sleeping.
This doll’s room was a room he had prepared for Eun-hyeon, who would come someday.
And he released the magic beasts who were not killed yet alive throughout the labyrinth.
“We should lay some traps.”
It was because someone other than Eunhyeon could have come to this place by any chance.
If it was Eun-hyeon, it would be easy to break through, but there were also many vicious traps that would be the worst for those who are not familiar with hunting or dismantling.
A well-sweetened rumor that many things could be obtained by clearing this labyrinth was also encouraged to spread among humans.
So that the name ‘Arcis’ labyrinth’, which the puppeteer made, can flow into Eun-hyeon.
“When will it be?”
Arcis estimated the moment Eunhyeon would come.
Even if it came very late, it didn’t matter.
Just don’t forget yourself and come visit me.
He never thought anyone else would be able to find him.
“But now that I think about it, it’s a bit embarrassing.”
If he had learned and inherited his puppetry right away, wouldn’t there have been no need for such troublesome things and lies?
“I’ll have to tease you when you come.”
Archis deliberately created a ‘blacklist’ and entered Eunhyun’s name and appearance into the data.
Imagining a situation where his own puppets regarded him as an intruder and attacked him somehow made him amused.
And he decided to leave a message from him in case he incapacitated his puppets after all the trouble.
He conveyed various thoughts and feelings, and at the end, he spoke with sincerity.
“For coming to me, even if it’s late, and making me decide to accept all of me… Thank you so much. My one and only friend.”
◆ ◆ ◆
Weiying
As soon as the Philosopher’s Stone, which contains vast magical power, was installed near Archis’ chest, it emitted a dazzling red light.
The dense magical energy flowing from the Philosopher’s Stone spreads throughout the doll’s body and supplies it with power.
As if supplying blood and oxygen to the human body, the heart pumped and operated the body of the doll.
“Boot, start.”
A small, thin voice flowed from the doll girl’s mouth, announcing her own physical condition.
“Utilization rate 47%.”
The girl’s voice, reciting her state unconsciously, was indeed a mechanical voice programmed to describe the internal processes in her body.
“100%. Booting complete.”
Eventually, with a mechanical voice, the creaking doll girl stopped moving, and she began to move her head and look around her.
It was clearly different from before, not the rigid movement like a machine, but the gentle turning of the head like a human.
‘Arcis’, who was sleeping inside the doll girl, woke up again.
Archis, who looked around him, found a white-haired, red-eyed man among the strangers, the only one that remained in his memory.
He was convinced again that his choices and predictions were not wrong, and opened his mouth with a smile.
“You haven’t changed at all?”
After about 400 years have passed, the two are reunited again.
