Bologue shook his head. He needed some time to adapt to this strange situation.
Aimou withdrew her hand and nodded to Teda, then walked into another room, busy with something unknown.
Bologue stared blankly at her departing figure, feeling very complicated and indescribable. He turned his head and looked at Teda, who understood what Bologue wanted to ask without words.
"She is my creation, an alchemy puppet with self-awareness, her body composed of various expensive alchemy metals. Beneath the complex mechanical structure, I’ve also implanted multiple alchemy matrices to maintain the puppet’s operation.
In a way, she is a walking humanoid void realm, and the range of influence of the void realm is limited to her body... Explaining it to you might be too complicated; you only need to know that she is my life’s most perfect masterpiece."
Teda eyed Bologue’s increasingly confused gaze, suppressing his own enthusiasm to spare this layman who had only read the "Golden Thesis."
"Aimou Yazhede? I had only read about such alchemy puppets in books. I thought she would be more... robotic?"
Bologue found all of this to be truly astonishing.
"She is, after all, my most perfect creation. Her self-awareness is different from that of those autonomous puppets," Teda gradually lost his smile and spoke seriously, "also, she is not called Yazhede, she is simply called Aimou."
"No surname? I thought you’d give her your surname, Yazhede. Don’t alchemists like to name their creations after themselves, as if they were your offspring?" Bologue asked.
"This is different. If it were a cold, dead thing, I wouldn’t mind giving it my name, but she’s different; she has awareness."
Teda was silent for a few seconds, once again asserting his thoughts coldly.
"She has self-awareness, but she is not ’life’; she is merely a ’tool’ maintained by machinery and alchemy matrices. If she were given a name, it would generate emotions.
You should understand that excessive emotions would distort her essence."
"Distort the essence of a tool?"
Bologue roughly understood what Teda meant.
He remembered a casual chat with Geoffrey long ago when he was still an intern, unaware of the full picture of the Extraordinary World, spending each day following Geoffrey’s instructions to slay one Demon after another.
He recalled the day he drove the Demons into a barn, locked the door, and set everything on fire. The two of them leaned against the fence amidst the blaze, and Geoffrey said at the time.
"A stray dog is just a stray dog, and no one cares about them. But when you give one of them a name, it is no longer just a stray dog."
After so long, Bologue somewhat understood Geoffrey’s meaning: a name is a bestowal, transforming the identity of something within its group.
With a name, an ambiguous concept gains a clear direction. Under excessive emotion, what the name represents may also be distorted in its essence.
"This is a consensus among many alchemists. If we are to create life, we would never name it. With a name comes emotion, and emotion affects our judgment, which is fatal to rational alchemists." Teda said quietly.
"When I was still a student, I heard my teacher mention a similar example. An alchemist created a humanoid flesh creature and named it ’Muli.’
That thing was merely a flesh creation, an experimental subject, a tool. But he regarded it as a family member or friend. Until ’Muli’ was driven by hunger and killed many people, he still defended ’Muli,’ saying it was just a bit hungry and usually didn’t act like that... We all actually knew that the experimental subject had lost control."
Bologue nodded in agreement. Teda might be driven by enthusiasm, but he still maintained rationality. Should I say that it’s fitting for the former minister? Even after creating such a perfect individual, he restrains himself.
"But... Aimou, what about this name?" Bologue asked.
"She gave herself this name, that’s right, a cold individual thinks she needs a name to represent herself."
Mentioning this, Teda became interested, his tone both amazed and fearful.
"It was a day worth remembering for life. She suddenly told me she needed a name, and upon knowing I couldn’t grant her one, she gave herself a name."
"The awakening of individual consciousness?" Bologue said.
"From that day on, she had self-awareness. This marked a breakthrough in my research, but I also felt uneasy and fearful."
"A non-human individual gained self-awareness and wisdom."
Bologue thought of the symbol of the Sublimation Furnace Core. He knew the icons within the Order Bureau all had their meanings, representing the chains and six swords in the bureau, referring to the six major families at the time of its founding and the extremes they reached within the Six Secret Energy Schools.
The entwined fruit snake representing the Sublimation Furnace Core symbolized human greed and craving for wisdom and truth.
"In the story, God created humans and let them live in a paradise on earth until one day, humans, tempted by a poisonous snake, ate the fruit of wisdom," Bologue mumbled, feeling the same unease as Teda.
Now all of this is so similar to the story in the book. Teda created the alchemy puppet, and she craved the fruit of wisdom, giving herself a name.
Bologue didn’t continue to ponder. This matter should be left for Teda to worry about. He soon thought of another matter.
Ether surged, and a cold sensation came from his arm as a delicate Silver Snake crawled out from Bologue’s sleeve. Under his control, it moved vividly, as if possessing real life, even flicking its tongue towards Teda.
"Belli said it was made by her junior sister. Is she also here?" Bologue asked.
Bologue’s understanding of Alchemy was only at the introductory level, but he also knew how much talent it required to create such a stable aberration product.
"Hmm? Deceitful Snake Scale Liquid, huh?"
Teda immediately recognized the Silver Snake, then a more confident smile appeared on his face.
"Haven’t you already met her?"
Just as Bologue was puzzled, footsteps approached. Aimou walked over with snacks and tea, placing them on a small table to the side.
She took off the cloak and gloves that covered her body. Inside the alchemy workshop, there was nothing to hide.
Aimou wore simple clothes, her exposed skin having a translucent gel-like texture that both simulated human skin and faintly showed an iron skeletal structure beneath, with shimmering light flickering above.
There were tiny gaps at her joints, faint mechanical sounds could be heard, and from time to time, the glow of ether flickered through the gaps.
It was this moment that Bologue truly saw Aimou. Only her lower legs and forearms were covered with Iron-Repelling Paint; ethereal light emanated from beneath her prominent chest, with vast ether swirling within.
The perpetual core consistently and steadily emitted ether, spreading to every corner of Aimou’s body, keeping her in operation.
This was a scene Bologue could hardly describe.
The cold Steel Body, to some extent, seemed even more human than humans. She stretched her body slightly and elegantly served tea to Bologue and Teda.
Aimou had browsed and memorized such etiquette knowledge from books, her posture as standard as if she had undergone special training. While pouring tea, she didn’t forget to wink at Bologue, the halo in her eyes rippling with waves.
Due to technical limitations, Aimou’s expressions were somewhat stiff and rigid. Yet, the moment of eye contact, Bologue always felt fellow was mischievously smiling.
"Aimou is now considered my student," Teda said, gazing at Aimou with appreciation, "She is the most talented and promising student I’ve encountered."
Aimou didn’t say a word. She stood behind Teda, her azure eyes with rhythmically rotating, radiant halos.
Bologue observed all this, with many words swirling in his heart, but he knew saying them now would be futile.
After calming down, Bologue placed himself in an absolutely indifferent observer’s angle.
He could see the hidden things in Teda’s eyes. Teda believed he maintained rationality, but clearly, he had already fallen into the whirlpool.