Endless Debt

After experiencing many twists and turns, the two finally managed to set up a basic post that fully meets the Field Operations Department's requirements for a base.

Palmer said he wanted to enjoy the fruits of his labor, and rested on a single bed. In reality, he just didn't want to work. He would never miss a chance to blatantly become a salary thief.

Bologue took a stroll around the Alchemy Workshop to understand the environment, while Aimou followed beside him, explaining things.

"The rooms on the first floor are mostly warehouses, storing many supplies, also considered as part of the living area, including the kitchen and such."

Aimou explained carefully to Bologue like a guide, "The second floor is the experimental area. It's best not to come here often since many experiments are conducted here."

"The third floor is the teacher's private domain. Without his consent, he doesn't allow anyone to step onto the third floor," Aimou supplemented, "But usually, the teacher himself doesn't go to the third floor either; he typically rests in the experimental area on the second floor."

"Is there anything on the third floor?"

Bologue asked, thinking that if Teda had any secrets, they must be hidden on the third floor.

"I don't know, I haven't been there." Aimou shrugged, and the halo in her eyes dimmed.

The two arrived at the center of the first floor, and looking up, they could see the ceiling above them being pierced through, reaching the top of the third floor. Within it stands a thick black spire, shimmering brightly, accompanied by the surge of Ether, and mechanical buzzing sounds coming from inside the spire.

"This is the hub tower. It penetrates the entire building, providing energy for experiments while also maintaining the stability of the Void Realm," Aimou introduced.

"Unless necessary, please do not get close to here, especially your partner."

Aimou stood with arms akimbo, becoming serious. When she's serious, the halo in her eyes stops rotating and solidifies in place.

"Are you warning me?"

Bologue looked at her confusedly. From her words, Aimou was indeed warning him, but paired with her actions and cold tone, it gave Bologue a strange feeling.

"Hmm? Isn't this warning enough?"

Aimou consulted with the demeanor of an actress who botched her performance, seeking the director's opinion.

"If you want to warn me, your tone should be stronger, not cold." Bologue said.

"I see..." Aimou touched her throat, "My vocal cords are still being optimized, so I can only use this tone for now."

This sounded rather fascinating, as for Aimou, everything in her body could be adjusted.

"Also...why did you stand akimbo?"

Bologue continued, Aimou's posture resembled an angry female character from a romance drama.

"I read in novels that when female characters are angry, they stand akimbo and scold," Aimou said.

"What kind of novels are you reading?"

"Using your human classification, it should be romance novels," Aimou scrutinized Bologue up and down and continued, "Such courtship-filled novels should be quite suitable for handling a man like you, right?"

"Ah..."

Bologue felt a headache. He felt like he was dealing with a strange being. Although she had a human appearance and thought similarly to humans, it was clear she hadn't been in this world for long and her cognition mostly came from various books.

It could be said that while her theoretical knowledge was sufficient, her practical experience was entirely lacking.

"Theory requires practice." Bologue said.

"I am practicing now, what about the practice effect?" Aimou asked excitedly.

"Failed, utterly failed."

Bologue gave Aimou's human imitation behavior a big cross.

However, Bologue didn't dislike Aimou. She indeed was like a creature newly born into this world, with zero practical experience. Her actions sometimes seemed foolish and awkward, but Bologue quite liked this naive feeling.

He had witnessed too much dreadful darkness; sometimes a healthy mind needs something warm to balance.

"Is that so?"

With the halo in her eyes dimmed low, Aimou leaned against the side, feeling a bit down.

"It's alright, you can learn slowly, we'll be staying here frequently."

Upon hearing Bologue's words, the deflated halo was propped up again. Though Aimou's facial fluctuations were minimal, her mood was easily speculated through the changes in the halo.

To Bologue, Aimou was like a child kept by Teda for too long, filled with curiosity about the outside world, repeatedly reading the world's brilliance in books, then awkwardly learning and mimicking.

Just like someone born in a desert, learning how to operate a sailboat.

Today, Aimou was very joyful and lively. In this closed little world of the Alchemy Workshop, there's rarely any change, and the arrival of Bologue and Palmer undoubtedly stirred waves like a falling meteor striking a silent atmosphere.

"Speaking of which, you have a familiar scent on you."

Aimou suddenly leaned close to Bologue, making a sniffing gesture.

Bologue instinctively became alert, then slowly relaxed, with a somber gaze.

Recently, too many people have been mentioning "a familiar scent" to him, and each instance was terrible to the point that Bologue had developed a conditioned response to those words.

"Can you show it to me?" Aimou extended her hand, inquiring.

She didn't explicitly state what it was, but Bologue understood her meaning directly, and the thing Aimou referred to also began to stir strangely at that moment, even though Bologue hadn't summoned it.

Bologue raised his hand, and a small silver snake peeked out from his sleeve, coiling around Bologue's fingertip, extending its tiny body.

With the injection of Ether, it became increasingly lively, like a real snake.

"This is your creation." Bologue said.

"Hmm-hmm, I didn't expect to see it again."

Aimou seemed happier; she reached out to stroke the Silver Snake. Despite it being a cold, ether-driven lifeless object, in Aimou's eyes, it seemed to possess real vitality.

"Actually, the day you arrived, I sensed it, but you and the teacher had important matters to discuss, so I didn't interrupt."

Strangely, Aimou seemed ignorant and naive in some aspects, but in other aspects, she was truly like a human, she could even read the atmosphere.

Bologue really wished Palmer could also learn to read the atmosphere.

"This thing is quite good, thank you."

Bologue thanked Aimou; he really liked this Alchemy Armament. It was versatile and deceitful, and it significantly helped Bologue solve the issue of carrying metal with him.

The Summoning Hand could only manipulate substances that physically existed, which made Bologue highly susceptible to the environment during battles. To compensate for this shortcoming, he often carried a pile of steel plates with him to serve as the metal for summoning.

But with the Deceitful Snake Scale Liquid, it was different. This bizarre aberration, coupled with its own propagation ability, allowed Bologue to always be in a metalliferous paradise, swinging deadly Iron Swords and hurling swarms of Iron Spears.

The only defect was that the proliferation of Deceitful Snake Scale Silver also required Ether, and the more it proliferated, the greater the Ether consumption. Even though Bologue was a Condenser with a "Narrow and Sharp" tendency from the Commanding School, during high-intensity battles, the Ether often fell into depletion.

Most importantly, the depletion of Ether would also limit his Resurrection.

"You're welcome. This thing only shows its value when placed in the hands of a suitable person." Aimou said.

"I'm quite surprised that a creation would also try to create something," Bologue stared into Aimou's eyes, gazing at the halo in the blue eyes, "This thing is your creation."

The halo quivered slightly, and Bologue thought she might be raising an eyebrow.

"Why did you want to create this thing? Was it just to learn Alchemy?"

Bologue continued to inquire, finding Aimou very intriguing, remarkable in many senses. She not only had a self-awakened consciousness, believing she needed a name, but she was also continuously learning, optimizing herself, and even creating her own creation.

Teda was probably immersed in the joy of research and teaching and had not realized these things. But in Bologue's eyes, except for the physical shell, Aimou was almost indistinguishable from a human.

Learning, using, and creating.

This inevitably intrigued Bologue limitlessly about Aimou and made him start to ponder what was hidden under her cold cheek.

"Hmm..."

Aimou began to think, while Bologue continued to stare into her eyes.

Bologue realized that when Aimou operated stably, the halo in her eyes would move back and forth slightly, and when she was thinking, the amplitude of the halo's motion and the speed of back and forth would gradually increase.

Now the halo in Aimou's eyes was moving back and forth rapidly, and suddenly the speed dropped drastically, returning to its normal state, Bologue knew she had finished thinking.

"Humans are very fragile."

Aimou said, still with that expressionless face, her tone cold, and the halo also solidified.

"A fragile life composed of fragile bones, fragile flesh, fragile nerves, fragile will.

Humans need to eat periodically to sustain life, and in their short life span, a considerable part of time is spent sleeping, needing oxygen for the flesh to breathe. Once separated from oxygen for a time, they suffocate and die."

Under Aimou's narrative, the human flesh appeared so feeble.

"Yet even with such a shell, they still created so many interesting things... and me." Aimou looked down at her pitch-black hands.

"I think humans create so many interesting things, probably in the hope of leaving traces in this world?"

"Traces?"

"Traces proving their existence."

Aimou worked hard to use vocabulary to express her thoughts, which was somewhat difficult for her.

"Every life is bound by the destined shackles of death, all things decay, but the world remains like the engravings on a tombstone; as long as these traces remain in the world, life has not truly perished."

"Did you create it? You want to leave a trace. Do you think you will die?"

Bologue seriously asked, during the long years in the Black Prison, Bologue had seriously contemplated many things, like a philosopher.

Sometimes Bologue thought that maybe humans are the only beings aware of their inevitable death, but now Aimou also understands the existence of death.

For an Alchemy Puppet, death doesn't exist, awaiting Aimou was only destruction, cessation, but she regarded this fate as death.

"Nothing can be eternal, not even me shaped by multiple Alchemy materials, nor the traces humans desperately try to leave, everything will vanish."

Aimou embraced the Silver Snake with both hands, her voice carrying a touch of joy.

"But I still want the traces to last a little longer, just a little longer."