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–––Olivia’s Perspective

It’s already late at night. Annabelle has been reading the blueprints and checking that there are no malfunctions in Natalia’s body.

Her arms and legs are detached now and Chris is examining them. The limbs are relatively simple compared to the torso and head, so I thought maybe I could help Chris too, but I abandoned that idea the moment I saw them open. That really isn’t something I should touch.

“Miss Annabelle, I’m done checking the limbs. Other than superficial scratches, everything is in working order.”
“I see. I haven’t found anything either, which leaves the Sorcery Core as the only possibility.”

A Sorcery Core is like an automaton’s heart, the most essential piece.

“That’s accessed through the chest maintenance cavity… so only Natalia or her master can open it. Olivia, come here.”
“Y-yes!”

I’ve just been watching this entire time, but there’s finally something I can do. I almost let out a weirdly high pitched voice in response.

“Place your hand on Natalia’s chest, then twist a little to open it.”

I do as Annabelle tells me, and the moment I touch Natalia’s skin a magic circle appears. I turn my hand imagining a doorknob there, which makes the magic circle burst and a small hatch appears out of nowhere and opens up. A plume of blue dust comes out as well.

I look inside and see a lot more blue dust, some of which has clumped together.

“Is this Natalia’s Sorcery Core then?”
“No, according to the blueprints she has a highly efficient Sorcery Core that creates that dust as a byproduct of refining mana. Apparently it needs to be cleaned once a month though.”

Annabelle says that while looking at me, but I’m a bit confused. Natalia never asked me to do anything like that for her.

“Anyway, it’s Natalia we’re talking about, so she probably always did it on her own.”

I’m… the worst.

I keep talking about how much I love Natalia, but I know so little about her. She’s always helping me and watching over me, but I’ve never fulfilled my duties as her master.

“Then… this dust didn’t accumulate over a long period of time, did it?”

I’m starting to get lost in my own thoughts, but Chris’ voice brings me back to reality. Right, blaming myself can wait. We need to save Natalia now.

“I suspect that creating that barrier necessitated a large amount of mana, which led to a drastic increase of mana dust which clogged her conduits. If we clean the dust she might reactivate.”

In that case there’s only one thing to do!

“Miss Annabelle, please let me do that!”

Everything they did so far was so out of my knowledge that it made me useless. But this is something I can actually do! Or no, this is something I have to do!

“The Sorcery Core is a very delicate part, so make sure to be extremely careful.”
“Okay!”

I focus more than I have ever before, moving a brush carefully to clean the clumps of dust.

–––Natalia’s Perspective

Everything is white around me when I wake up. Though it didn’t quite feel like waking up either, I didn’t feel like my eyes opened. Is this a dream then? My mind is too fuzzy to really tell.

Exactly where am I? Or did I die again? Did Olivia manage to escape at least?

“Would you like to know?”

Woah?!

“Hey, we met the other day. Let me introduce myself again, I’m Flute, a demon.”

She popped out of nowhere, but she’s the same demon Lacks summoned in the forest.

“It’s fine, no need to get aggressive. I’m not here as your enemy.”

That’s what she says, but I can’t trust her.

“No, I actually mean it. I’m even grateful to you.”

Is she reading my mind somehow?

“We’re inside your consciousness, and we demons are half mental constructs. That’s why I can be here with you now.”

So she’s here like the grim reaper?

“Oh no, you’re still alive.”

Really?

“Yes. Though magic automatons with a living soul are extremely rare, so I wouldn’t be opposed to taking over as your body’s new pilot.”

Demons can tell when automatons have a soul in them?

“Do you really have to ask? Pacts with us revolve around souls and their worth. We’re essentially specialists of souls.”

I don’t think making pacts with demons is common at all, but there’s no point in bringing that up here. Either way, my consciousness… I try looking around, but Flute is all I can see.

“Is something the matter?”

I was just wondering if there was anyone else here, like the consciousness meant for this body before I took over.

“If you got here before the body developed a consciousness of its own, then there was never an opportunity for that to happen. As far as I could see, you’re the only one here.”

I see. I feel like that takes a heavy burden off my back. But anyway, am I really alive?

“Yes, you’re really alive.”

Then why am I stuck here?

“Your magic automaton body’s capabilities are far above what a human mind can control. You might slowly get accustomed to them over time, but trying to understand everything at once will just overload your mind with information and you’ll break down. To combat this, a limiter has been put in place to control how much access you have to your body’s functions, depending on your mental state. It seems that was added quite late in your creation though.”

Something added late in my creation to protect my mind… I guess that’s what Ophelia tampered with after the fight with the golem. I see, I’m still being protected then. Thank you, Mistress Ophelia.

“But when you decided to push your mana throughput to its limit of your own will, the limiter kicked into action, and eventually clashed with your thoughts. That led to an emergency shutdown in your Sorcery Core, not to mention that the way you pushed things created a huge amount of mana dust, which is stopping the Sorcery Core from restarting. On top of that, you spent all the mana you had available, so your body has no means of moving right now.”

So basically this happened because I didn’t think about what my body was doing and focused only on making that barrier. That was a pretty bad move, even by my standards.

“Though considering you were trying to survive a Comet Wolf’s Nebula Breath while protecting your master, I can’t really fault you for doing that even if it wasn’t the ideal move. Speaking of which, your dear Young Lady is currently working hard to get all the mana dust out of you.”

Olivia? Olivia is safe then?

“Yes, she got away without as much as a scratch. You should be proud.”

I see, at least she’s alive then. Does that mean that I’ll wake up once she’s done cleaning?

“No, not exactly. The way you pushed your Sorcery Core eased multiple limits. As a result, you’ll probably be assaulted by an excessive amount of information once you wake up. For a human soul… that could result in an irrecoverable shutdown and your soul will vanish.”

So I ruined the limiter Ophelia made for me, and now I’m in danger of vanishing because of that. That’s a bit ridiculous to think about, but I brought this onto myself. What should I do though?

“Oh, what’s this I’m hearing? You want the help of a demon? I’ll need proper payment for that though.”

…

“I’m joking, I’m joking. I told you, I’m actually grateful to you. Let me explain. Lacks had a magic device that allowed him to delay payments for pacts, and so he continuously forced me to do his dirty work.”

Forced pacts? That actually sounds horrible.

“I know, I never expected such a magic device could even be built. But he got so hellbent on getting revenge from you that he slipped and messed up his pacts, and then even made a really vague demand. He was always terrified of your magic device, so I merely gave him the power to neutralize that, but the idiot really thought he was far stronger. It was funny how confident he got even though he was only slightly stronger than an ogre.”

That’s true, if I had fought him one on one I’m sure I could’ve won, though it would’ve taken some time.

“Thanks to that I got some satisfaction from watching him struggle, and I was liberated from that accursed magic device. That’s why I’m here to return the favor and help you reactivate safely.”

…I see.

“Also, Lacks was eaten by the Comet Wolf some time later. I’m a bit disappointed I couldn’t kill him myself, but in a way that’s the perfect way for a b̲a̲s̲t̲a̲r̲d̲ to go¹.”

He had it coming. He really reaped what he sowed. That’s more than well-deserved.

“I agree. I feel like he could have whimpered in agony for just a little more though.”

I have to say I’m of exactly the same mind. I swear I’m not a ****** though.

“Oh, that’s a shame.”

Anyway, let’s get back on topic. What should I do?

“Right, like I mentioned your Young Lady is cleaning all the dust as we speak. Soon enough mana will start flowing into your body again. That’s when the influx of sensations will reach your soul.”

And that much information would overload any human soul, right?

“If you receive all of it at once, yes. I’ll try to block most of it, and only let a little pass at a time so you can get used to it. Once you can handle all of it you’ll wake up like normal.”

Got it. To be honest I really thought you were an enemy at first, but I can actually sympathize with you if you were being forced into all those pacts.

“I swear on my pride as a demon that I’ll help you wake up.”

Alright. I’m counting on you.

“Oh, enough chatting, I think they just finished cleaning the dust.”

Good good, time to shine, me. I can’t keep Olivia waiting.

“Brace yourself.”

..! AAAAAAAaaaaaaAAAaaaaaaaaaaaAa! What’s this?! It hurts! My head is splitting apart!

“Only your consciousness is here, it might feel like it’s your head, but that’s not what’s happening. That’s just your soul trying to cope.”

This is no time to argue about technicalities! I thought you said you’d let it flow little by little!

“I am, this is only a tiny bit of what’s coming. This just goes to show how incredible this magic automaton’s functions are.”

AaaaaaaaAAAHHHHHH!
uuUUUHHH!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

“Ahh, I like those screams. They’re so calming.”

Y-y-y-you’re actually enjoying this?! I’ll never forgive you!

“Oops, I forgot to mellow this one out.”

GYYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

“Break a leg, if you want your soul to survive.”

1. Silva: For a demon, I half-expected her to be evil but she seems quite likable so far.