The metal-walled room gleamed with a cold, hard luster.
Five or six workers sat around a long table eating. They wore uniform gray clothes, had dark black hair, and both their bodies and hair were covered in a fine layer of yellow dust.
One worker knocked his spoon against the rim of his bowl and spat, "[Khaenri'ah profanity], they only tell us to dig out the site right when the experiment is about to start. What were they doing before?"
The worker sitting at the head of the long table, whose clothes were made of finer material with hemmed cuffs—evidently the leader of the group—swallowed the food in his mouth before speaking. "They say it's because they captured that Moon God ahead of schedule. That's why it's so rushed."
Another worker shoveled food into his mouth and asked vaguely, "Isn't an experiment the same no matter where it's done? Why do we have to run so far south?"
The leader picked up his water cup and took a sip. "Probably to guard against those guys above."
"The Scarlet King?" someone next to him interjected. "What's there to guard against with the Scarlet King?"
The leader put down his cup, his gaze sweeping over everyone, and lowered his voice. "The ones even higher up..."
No one spoke further. It wasn't that they had any special taboo about "above," but rather, at that moment, a Seelie glowing with soft white light and trailing two long braids from its head floated into the room.
It was the very Moon Spirit that had squeezed out of Columbina's confinement room.
The Moon Spirit hovered silently in the air, drifting leisurely along the inner walls of the room. The eyes of the people at the table followed it around, and the chewing motions in their mouths slowed down.
The Moon Spirit didn't seem to find anything special, so it floated out the way it came, disappearing into the underground passage as if nothing had happened.
After a few seconds of silence, someone picked up the conversation again.
"The Seelie here... don't seem to look like that, do they?" a younger worker asked.
"I thought the photos of Electro Seelie sent over from Inazuma were unique enough," another chimed in. "I didn't expect there to be even stranger varieties."
The leader picked up his spoon and tapped the side of his bowl. "Ignore it. Eat your food. Where were we..."
Kelvin had changed into a well-fitted black outfit, and his right eye socket once again held that signature monocle. The eye behind the lens was bloodshot and held little emotion.
He had received an invitation from a colleague and arrived at a brightly lit room. The light came from luminescent minerals neatly arranged on the ceiling, illuminating the interior as if it were day.
There was only one person in the room: a slightly chubby researcher wearing black robes.
"You called me here to study a machine," Kelvin said, standing at the door, his gaze sweeping over the empty room. "Where is the machine?"
A smile piled up on the black-robed researcher's face, his eyes revealing an uncomfortable, slimy quality. He took a few steps forward, grabbed Kelvin's arm, and dragged him deep into the room, stopping only in front of a wide experimental table.
"Right here. What's the rush?" The researcher's voice carried an excitement he couldn't suppress.
Lying flat on the experimental table was a humanoid figure. Motionless, stark naked, with the physique of a young girl. The luster and texture of the skin were astonishingly delicate. If not for the bowl-sized hole gaping open in the abdomen, clearly exposing various conduits and precision structures gleaming with cold metal light, Kelvin would have almost believed it was a real human girl.
His gaze moved upward, landing on "her" head. The loose brown hair, the exquisite features—even with eyes closed tightly, that familiar silhouette instantly pierced into Kelvin's memory.
It was Coppelia.
Kelvin's breath hitched for an instant, and his feet involuntarily took half a step back.
The black-robed researcher didn't notice his subtle reaction, or perhaps simply didn't care. He leaned over the experimental table, extended his hand, and traced his fingertips up the curve of Coppelia's calf, reaching the thigh, while making "tsk tsk" sounds of admiration.
"Scared? I was startled too when I first took over." The researcher chuckled, his gaze wandering greedily over the mechanical body. "This machine is made too realistically, isn't it? Look at this texture... much better looking than those clumsy iron lumps we build. Heh heh."
Kelvin looked away. "I won't participate in this research."
"Why?" The researcher turned to look at him in surprise.
"I'm afraid she'll suddenly wake up and punch me." Kelvin pointed to his own chest. "If that happens, I'll be crippled if not dead."
"Relax, she can't get up." The researcher waved his hand, pointing at the empty abdominal cavity. "Her old core has already been removed; she's just an empty shell now. Without energy, she's just a pile of parts."
He leaned closer to Kelvin. "The technical content of this machine is very high. You really won't take a look? Maybe you can figure out some new ideas."
Kelvin didn't take the bait, instead asking, "I really don't know what the higher-ups were thinking, sending you to be in charge. Who doesn't know that you, of all people, love to cut corners the most?"
The researcher gave a sheepish smile, though he didn't deny it. "The higher-ups didn't say to dismantle her. They ordered us to replace her with a more powerful core and hand her over exactly as is in three days."
"If we can't dismantle her, why did you call me here?" Kelvin frowned.
"Replacing the core is simple." The researcher's hand restlessly patted Coppelia's knee again. "When the deadline comes, just stuff any high-energy substance into this hole, and she'll be able to run and jump, appearing as if even the conduits don't need connecting!"
"Isn't it still early before the deadline? During this time, we might as well..." He rubbed his hands together, his eyes drifting toward the experimental table again, the implication self-evident. "...thoroughly study the details of these biomimetic structures... Heh heh heh."
Kelvin was silent for a few seconds, his fingers pressing against the bandages beneath the black clothes on his chest. "My ribs were broken not long ago. I need to rest and can't overexert myself."
The excitement on the researcher's face faded, revealing a disappointed expression. "Fine then. I'll just have to..."
Before he could finish his sentence, he glimpsed a white shadow swaying in from the door out of the corner of his eye.
Kelvin turned to look as well.
It was that strange Seelie, glowing white and dragging two long braids. It floated into the room, seeming attracted by items piled on a table in the corner, and drifted straight toward it.
On that table lay a square metal tray. Piled messily inside the tray was a set of clothes—an exquisite dress dominated by gold and black tones, a pair of stockings, a pair of shoes, and a palm-sized ancient bronze mirror.
"Where did this Seelie come from?" the researcher muttered, temporarily putting aside his thoughts of "research" to walk toward the white creature. He waved his arm, making a shooing motion. "Shoo, shoo! There's no scrap for you to pick up here!"
Kelvin also took a few steps closer, helping to wave it away.
The white Seelie didn't react to their movements at all. It left the tray, changed direction, and floated toward the experimental table in the middle of the room.
It stopped above Coppelia's body, then performed a strange action.
It flipped its entire body over, head down, aimed at the open hole in Coppelia's abdomen, and dove right in. Only its rounded rear half and two long braids remained outside, swaying gently on their own.
Kelvin was closer to it; subconsciously, he stepped forward and reached out, wanting to grab the exposed part and pull this bizarre thing out.
Just as his fingers touched the Moon Spirit's cool, smooth surface, on the experimental table, Coppelia's originally flat legs suddenly bent upward at the knees.
Kelvin's eyes widened instantly.
The next second, he jerked backward violently.
But it was too late.
The mechanical girl on the experimental table had opened her eyes at some point. Within her pupils, orange tinged with red, burned a cold fury.
Her body lunged forward with a speed difficult to see clearly. Arms raised, the five fingers of both hands transformed in an instant, turning into sharp claws that grabbed respectively at the throats of Kelvin and the black-robed researcher!
____
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