Leave a comment

The person who peeked out at us was a girl of about fifteen, with shoulder-length orange hair. She had a cute face and was wearing a naive, innocent smile like a small animal. Her outfit was…

“A maid?”

She wore a navy blue long-sleeved dress with a matching mini-skirt, an apron with lace detailing on the chest, a white headpiece, and a red ribbon tie. The design seemed more focused on appearance than practicality, but there was no doubt it was a maid uniform.

“Why would there be a maid in a place like this…?”

Eren, gripping her spear more tightly, looked at the mysterious maid with obvious suspicion. Though her reaction was understandable, she seemed to have temporarily set aside her own identity as a maid after stuffing her soiled uniform into a bag.

“Hmm?”

Meanwhile, the unknown maid, half-exposed from behind the door, scanned our faces one by one with a slightly puzzled expression. When her eyes landed on me, they suddenly widened in surprise. Without any hesitation, she threw open the door and exclaimed loudly.

“Oh my! It’s been so long, Lady Clara! I’ve missed you! You’re as beautiful as ever, and I’m so glad to see you looking well!”

With a beaming smile, she snapped to attention and saluted with precision.

“Wh-what!?”

I couldn’t help but let out a bewildered cry. While I’ve grown accustomed to being mistaken for my mother, I’m still taken aback at times—especially in this case. Who on earth was my mother, that she would have had connections with such a mysterious maid?

Setting aside those thoughts, I figured it was best to correct this misunderstanding immediately.

“Um, you’ve got it wrong. I’m not Clara—”

I began to explain, but the maid suddenly clapped her hands together as if something had dawned on her.

“Ah, yes, of course! It’s been more than twenty years since then, hasn’t it? But Lady Clara, your appearance hasn’t changed at all—no, in fact, you’ve become even younger and more beautiful. Which means…”

The maid nodded repeatedly as if she completely understood and then spoke in a knowing tone.

“Ah, Lady Clara, so you’ve finally given up your humanity. Congratulations!”

She spread her arms wide, as if welcoming me to her crazy world.¹

“I have not given up my humanity!” How did she even reach that conclusion!? And more importantly… “From what you’re saying, it sounds like you’ve been here for over twenty years, right? Who exactly are you?”

She looked like a girl in her mid-teens, but if her words were true, she must be much older.

“Hmm? Why are you asking? It’s me, Coppelia, the automaton who’s the assistant and janitor of this laboratory.”
“An automaton!?”

I’ve never seen such a lifelike, indistinguishable-from-human automaton, not even in the academy’s alchemy department. Stunned, I stared intently at the girl who called herself Coppelia. Eren tugged on my sleeve.

“Um, Lady Jill, what exactly is an automaton?”
“Oh, well… It’s like an incredibly intricate marionette, I suppose. Normally, they can only perform tasks like playing the piano or writing letters…”

“Hmph! Don’t lump me in with such toys. My skeleton is made of orichalcum, my brain is powered by a philosopher’s stone, and my heart is a dragon gem. In theory, I’m a perfect maid who can operate indefinitely without maintenance,” she declared proudly, her chest puffed out with confidence.

‘Even if it’s maintenance-free, if there’s a software issue, that could be a problem… Actually, isn’t it a defect if she can’t even tell the difference between me and my mother?’ I thought, but decided to play along for now.

“So, beyond this point, there’s an alchemy laboratory, correct?”
“That’s right. Though alchemy is just one of the areas of research. As Lady Clara knows, the true research goal is immortality.”
“…Immortality?”

I couldn’t help but let out a groan. Immortality has been the eternal desire of rulers and women since ancient times, but in this world, if you don’t mind the methods—such as sacrificing large numbers of people to absorb their life force or merging with demons to become a magical creature—it’s somewhat achievable. However, because of this, it’s a forbidden, taboo subject in every country.

This wasn’t a topic I could brush off lightly.

“Master is still unable to leave the other side of the seal, but I’ve been terribly bored lately due to that brainless beast upstairs. I’d love to hear some news from the outside world after so long, so please, come in, don’t be shy.”

Coppelia seemed to have completely lowered her guard, opening the door to the ‘laboratory’ wide and beckoning us inside.

After exchanging glances with Eren and Vier, I decided to take advantage of her misunderstanding and allow myself to be invited in as ‘Clara.’

Judging by her appearance, Coppelia didn’t seem to have much combat ability, so even I, let alone Vier, could likely subdue her if it came to that.

“I see. Well then, I’ll take you up on that. Also, we might have another person joining us later.”
“Is that so? In that case, I’ll leave the door unlocked.”

Coppelia nodded without any sign of suspicion.

Well, I suppose it wouldn’t matter whether the door was locked or not if Bartholomew really wanted to come through. But it’s better than forcing our way in like robbers.

And so, we followed Coppelia through the door.

Author’s Note:

Coppelia’s name is as is (´・ω・`)

Basically, she’s not a homunculus, but a mechanical device with electric sparks running through her body.

By the way, she doesn’t have a conscience circuit or the Three Laws of Robotics.

Knocking etiquette is the same as in the modern day: two knocks for the bathroom, three knocks for close friends, and four knocks if it’s your first time visiting.

Leave a comment

Lying on Vier’s back, we stealthily made our way along the edges of the room, avoiding the clash between the Nue and Bartholomew as we headed toward the stairs leading to the next floor.

Fortunately, it didn’t seem like one of those hellish scenarios where you can’t descend until you defeat the floor boss. Despite the intense tremors, blinding flashes of lightning, clashing magic circles, and resounding roars behind us, we managed to escape down a staircase about three or four mertes wide, leaving that chaos behind.

From a quick glance, it was clear that Bartholomew had the upper hand—or rather, he was practically toying with the ten-mertes monster without a scratch on him. As he pummeled it with his bare fists, he shouted, “Does it hurt? But this pain is nothing compared to the betrayal of the princess who trusted you!” It seemed like he could handle it on his own, so I decided it was safe to leave.

Just to be cautious, I left a note at the top of the stairs that read, “We’re heading down first. – Jill,” and we continued our descent.

For a while, the noise, vibrations, and falling dust made me anxious that the entire floor might collapse, but the structure seemed surprisingly sturdy. The stairs were also quite long—if I had to guess, they stretched over a hundred mertes in a zigzag pattern—so the commotion from the upper floor didn’t seem to reach us below a certain distance.

We descended for what felt like an eternity, but there didn’t appear to be any monsters on the stairs. Taking a brief rest at a landing, we prepared ourselves for the next floor.

First, I gently lowered the still-unconscious Eren from Vier’s back, propping her up with her knees bent and shoulders squared as I tried to wake her. Sometimes this method doesn’t work, but luckily, this time it did.

“—Huh!? Huhhh??? What? Where am I? Who is this place? …Lady Jill, how did we get her? We were just walking down a hallway…”

Eren, now awake, looked around in confusion, a big question mark practically hanging over her head.

It seemed that the events surrounding the boss room had been erased from her memory due to sheer terror. While it might not be ideal, it was probably better than her developing PTSD or having a panic attack. In a way, it was a relief.

After giving a vague explanation to Eren and letting her grasp the awful situation in her pants, I calmed her down as she cried out in confusion, “KYAAAH, NOOO!?” I handed her a set of spare clothes I had stored away (it wasn’t a maid outfit, just a simple dress), and since there was no one else around, we quickly stripped down, wiped ourselves clean with damp towels, and changed right there.

“Ahh… I feel like a new person,” I sighed contentedly. There’s something so refreshing about putting on new underwear.

Eren, meanwhile, was on the verge of tears as she bundled up her soiled clothes. “Ugh, I need to wash these in private; this is so humiliating.”

“Well, when we get back, we can just throw out these bad memories and replace them with new ones. If there’s anything else you want, don’t hesitate to ask since you’ve been through so much,” I consoled her while finishing my own change.

That said, my outfit had features like stretch adjustment, temperature control, auto-repair, and self-cleaning, so after a quick rinse and shake, it looked as good as new. I only had to change my undergarments before getting back into my original clothes.

Eren, flustered, responded, “Oh no! Just knowing you care means everything to me, Lady Jill. It should have been my duty as your maid to handle things better…”

“No, really. Not just with what happened this time, but having you here with me, Eren, makes me feel so much stronger. If I were alone, I don’t know how lonely I would have felt.” As I said that, Vier gently licked my cheek. “Hehe, that’s right. And I’ve got Vier too.”

“I’m glad you feel that way. Still, it’s been a while since we’ve gone on an adventure with just this group. If only that fool Bruno were here, half a loaf is still better than none.”

Eren, seemingly having regained some of her spirits, threw out that sarcastic remark.

“You’re right. We’ve come such a long way from home, haven’t we? When we can take a long break next, maybe we should all go back home through the Consul’s Teleporter.”
“We could?! I haven’t been back to the village in so long, I’ve been worried about how the little brats are doing.”
“It’s already been two years. Maybe Chad and Andy have even gotten married by now.”
“No way, those two? Not a chance.”

As we chatted about these trivial things, we slowly returned to our usual selves, and with our magic staff and spear in hand, we started descending the stairs once more.

♦♢♦

After descending about another fifty mertes from the landing, which felt much longer than it should have, we finally reached the end.

“A door?”

The staircase gradually narrowed as we went down, eventually becoming just two mertes wide. At the end of the stairs, we were met with a sturdy wooden door of the same width, blocking our way. It looked like the entrance to an ordinary mansion, complete with a doorknob and a brass knocker.

The situation was suspicious to the max, but there was no point in going back. We had to move forward to continue our journey. Taking a chance, I used the knocker to knock on the door.

Knock, knock, knock, knock!

Since it was our first time here, I followed proper manners and knocked four times. The sound echoed surprisingly loudly.

Then, we heard the light, quick footsteps of someone running on the other side of the door.

“Yes, yes, sorry to keep you waiting!”

With a slightly sweet, girlish voice, someone responded as the doorknob turned (it wasn’t locked?), and the door was opened.

“—who is it?”