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Plum was unable to process the meaning of Natalia tearing off her own hand.

“I can’t comprehend, Sister. What are you-”
“Just shut up!”

She was quickly silenced with a shout, still not understanding the situation. But a moment later her question was answered.

Natalia’s exposed nerve threads from her hand connected directly with Plum’s, forming a far better connection. That would allow her to channel mana more efficiently, and hopefully take control over the Sorcery Core.

“Guh!”

But that also increased the chances of Natalia being taken over.

«Remove obstacles»
«Enable regeneration functions»

Plum could tell Natalia’s mana had entered her system, and that there was some backflow. She did not know what kind of effect the burden of conflicting orders would have on Natalia, who had a proper personality, but she knew it was dangerous.

And also, she doubted that would make Natalia stop either way. Plum could understand that her master and older sister cared about her a lot, but she still felt like their actions had no reason behind them. She was just a tool with no value, having not yet developed a personality like her master desired. There was no need for them to put themselves in danger for her.

And yet both of them were there…

“Gah!”

Natalia’s face contorted in pain as she continued pouring mana, trying to overtake Plum’s Sorcery Core. Witnessing her older sister bearing with the pain like that, Plum’s thought process, or rather her information processing unit, began to shift a little.

(These are her…)

Just like how electric signals through nerves communicate the thoughts in living beings, mana does that in magic automatons. Now that Plum and Natalia’s nerve threads were connected, they could also feel each other’s thoughts.

(Large pieces of information found in her mana stream. Unable to identify.)

She did not know how to properly process those new feelings, and seeing how much Natalia was already suffering, she could not ask Natalia about it. So Plum decided to try understanding those waves of strong emotion on her own.

«Even as an automaton or construct, Plum is still my dear sister»
«I’ll save her no matter what»

They were like a powerful torrent, breaking past any barrier.

«I don’t want to lose someone important again»

And others frail, like they were about to break apart.

As Plum continued trying to process that unknown stream of information, something strange happened as her eyes started seeing something different.

There was a woman with long black hair who smiled softly, and Natalia stood next to her. Plum could also feel the emotions Natalia had for that woman. Plum quickly understood that it was a fragment of Natalia’s memories. And she also realized that she had already experienced something similar herself.

(I… Sister… Master…)

She wanted to be with them again. Not out of duty, but purely out of her own desire. That was how Plum felt now.

“She’ll lose her source of power and won’t be able to move, but if the rest of her body is intact then it shouldn’t affect her memories at all! I’m sure you can do it if you’re so close to it!”
“You heard her. It might be a bit painful, but can you handle it?”
“I can. So Sister, please save me.”

So when Natalia made that slightly daring question, Plum replied with certainty.

“Nicely said!”

Natalia seemed really happy as she grinned widely, flattening her hand like a blade and plunging it into Plum’s chest.

I flatten my hand to look like a blade and stab it into the spot where Plum’s Sorcery Core is located. The white flesh surrounding the area feels like gross wet mud. Eventually I feel something hard by my fingertips, which seems to be beating softly while containing a large amount of mana.

This is it.

I grab the object, convinced that it’s my objective, and pull it out in one go. I look at my hand later and see a chunk of metal the size of a walnut, emitting a soft light.

“Nuugghhhhhhh!”

The White Salamander gets even more violent. But it’s the end for it. I use all the strength I can muster to crush the beating Sorcery Core inside my hand. A red chunky liquid like gore splashes out from inside. That’s probably the part that came from the original White Salamander.

The resistance on my nerve threads quickly dissipates, the white flesh starts to fall apart, and the Steel Silk becomes loose again. Eventually the White Salamander falls down, the movement tipping Plum’s body to one side.

“Sis…ter…”
“That must’ve been hard.”

I gently carry Plum with one arm just as she runs out of power. Now she can finally return to her master.

Holding Plum, I jump off from the White Salamander’s remains that are falling apart.

“Plum!”

Carrying her too far with just one arm is too hard, so I end up having to lower her to the floor gently, and Christina and Ruri run up to me.

“I’m so glad. Other than her Sorcery Core, there’s no major damage.”

Christina says with relief, which also makes me feel better.

The Sorcery Core was lost, but we got Plum back. Now we just have to repair her limbs and find a new Sorcery Core, and she should be able to go back to living like before.

Clap clap clap!

Suddenly I start hearing claps, so I turn around. There’s a young man wearing good clothes that’s snickering with delight.

“That was a good show. I never imagined there existed another magic automaton with even more intricate construction.”

He looks at me like he’s appraising some item.

“Arrold!”
“Oh hello there, isn’t that you, Lady Christina? Thank you for your business with the Platiboros Company the other day.”

After Christina’s shout, the man she called Arrold makes an exaggerated reverence.

That name… isn’t he the guy who sold her the Sorcery Core? That makes him the main culprit. That man is my enemy.

“I have some new products I’d love for you to try out, but sadly I don’t believe I can spare the time for that. I’ll be taking my leave now.”

Everyone here knows that he’s just putting on an act, and doesn’t actually mean any of that. Somehow that kind of attitude really pisses me off. Does he actually think he can get away from here after annoying everyone like that?

There’s no way for him to escape though.

“Do you really believe we’ll let you go after everything you’ve done?”
“Yes. I doubt any of you will be able to stop this magic.”

Multiple magic circles appear around his feet, and then the air behind him starts to distort and a black hole opens.

“!”

This is the same strange feeling I had earlier when we entered.

Though I can actually tell what it is now that I’m seeing it. It’s similar to my magic storage, a spell that distorts our dimension in some way.

What does that mean in this situation? Should we run? Should we try to stop it? Or wait…is it a teleportation spell?!

I’ve never heard of such a spell before, but this feeling and situation tells me there’s no other possibility.

“Sadly I couldn’t retrieve the experimental Sorcery Core, but I got some interesting data anyway, so I’ll be seeing you then.”

The black hole opens even wider, enveloping Arrold as he bows again.

“Don’t count on it!”

I get carried away by my anger and shoot my right arm at him.

“You’ll die here!”

My arm flies like an arrow, and the magic blade I create ahead of it stabs Arrold’s chest.

“Gah-h?!”

He looks confused about what happened as blood spews from his chest and mouth. At the same time, the black hole closes, swallowing my arm.

I know I should pull my arm back, but it’s already too late. Just like how it happened in the classroom before, any object obstructing dimensional magic will get blown up violently, and not even my incredible resilience can last through it.

There’s a hard to describe sound, something between a crack and a twang, and then all the strength I’m putting into my arm becomes loose in an instant. I wind up my nerve threads and see that the front side of my arm that was stabbing Arrold is completely gone.

I…I really screwed up¹!

“Oh no, that looks really bad. Can you heal that?”
“I have a certain amount of self-reconstructing functions, but this might be a bit too much for that…”

Ruri asks me, sounding half worried and half baffled.

I’ve gotten hurt many times in the past, but I never had a mutilated part, and I doubt I can heal something like this by myself.

“Either way, we can worry about that later. We need to get away from here now.”

It could get messy if we’re caught here. Not to mention that I’m not human, and there’s no way they’ll react well to a Servant monster acting without their master present.

After that we take Plum and hurry out of the slums, sometimes using Illusory Magic to move more stealthily.

1. Silva: Congratulation, you just gave him one more piece of important data. Given how he’s successfully escaped, I doubt he’s actually dead yet