"Now, let's get to the point, Child. Do you have a specific question, or should I... investigate in my own way?"
The brass pocket watch was already dangling in her hand, its gears meshing together to emit a barely perceptible tick-tock.
Child was somewhat surprised by the professional air Fran exuded, which dispelled his initial thought of "just asking casually."
"Hmm... For the past few months, some blurry human figures and strange noises have been flashing through my mind at night. They feel ancient yet familiar, as if calling me back to my homeland..."
Fran listened to Child's description with her head bowed, her fingers occasionally stroking the brass pocket watch in her hand.
"How is your sleep quality?"
Although asking this question to a mechanical construct had a certain inherent absurdity, out of professional ethics, she decided to start with what she was familiar with.
"It should be... quite good? Before this, I almost never dreamed."
"But after those fragmented images and sounds started appearing, my rest has been somewhat affected. I sometimes feel inexplicably tired."
The ability to sleep, and his own perception of his "sleep" state, indicated the biomimetic module was well-made.
Fran assessed the technological level of Child's body and asked, "Mr. Child, which method of divination are you more accustomed to? Tarot, pendulum, or perhaps the Eastern Six Lines?"
"I have no preference. Let's proceed with the method Dr. Fran is most skilled in."
Child gave a light, easygoing laugh.
"Alright, then we'll use dream divination."
Fran lightly clapped her hands, decisively skipping the three divination methods she had just mentioned.
Tarot cards, pendulum chains, Six Lines coins—she hadn't prepared any of those. She was just mentioning them earlier.
Well, strictly speaking, Fran was wearing a bracelet. But the [Far Caress], appearing as black tentacles, hardly seemed suitable for pendulum readings...
"There's a small bed in the divination room. Lie down. I need to enter your dream."
"Okay. But I'm still quite alert right now... falling asleep might take a bit of time." Child lay down on the soft grey velvet bedding, feeling somewhat concerned.
His routine was very regular, so it was difficult for him to feel sleepy during the day.
"That's not a big problem. During our initial contact, I already used the Swaying Heart-Clock to confirm your spiritual body can be affected by mental influence."
Fran took out a slender wand from her medical kit, removed the sapphire glowstone set into its tip, and casually replaced it with a piece of black Originium crystal.
A deep, soft hum began, its rhythm slow and soothing, like a lullaby.
"Thoughts meander, move like string—pluck, resonate, echo. Wandering spirit, sink into a moment of twilight, fall into a breath of peaceful slumber..."
The nameless song drifted from Fran's lips into Child's mind, and drowsiness washed over him.
He slowly closed his eyes and fell into a deep sleep.
"[Shepherd's Song] works well. Probably because an animating spirit exists within Child's body; he's not a purely mechanical construct."
Fran wasn't very familiar with this Originium Art, but fortunately, it worked as long as you could sing. And this doctor happened to have some knowledge of music...
"Purely mechanical beings don't have the concept of 'falling asleep.' 'Standby mode' is a more fitting term."
If gentle, conventional methods couldn't make Child sleep, Fran would have had to resort to crude physical means. Like unplugging him... Oh, and maybe removing the backup power source first.
Having completed the preparations, she held the chain of the brass pocket watch and suspended it above Child's forehead.
"Alright, let's see what's been haunting your dreams. Hmm... It wouldn't be electric sheep, would it?"
Using the brass pocket watch's ability to perturb the spirit, Fran peered into Child's dream.
Pale mist swirled, making everything around her hazy and indistinct.
When everything cleared again, she found herself in a finely decorated workshop.
Shelves on both sides of the room held tens of thousands of parts, arranged with a pathological neatness.
Gears, escapements, rotors, and countless delicate doll limbs and organs.
"A very beautiful room. Arranged with the characteristics of an obsessive-compulsive perfectionist. But if the patient enjoys it themselves, it's probably a type that doesn't need treatment."
Fran looked at a set of four artificial prosthetic eyes in a transparent cabinet, carefully examining the state of their irises.
Each eyeball was lifelike, with clear colors and the soft texture of real flesh.
"Every single component is etched with tiny prayers, using some kind of ancient script." A flicker of excitement showed in her amber eyes.
"It's a pity this is a dream. Otherwise, I'd be tempted to move this entire doll workshop back home..."
Fran moved between the tall shelves, occasionally picking up an unfamiliar part to examine.
"Using miniature cult rituals to replace integrated circuits and corresponding control components is, in a way... a genius idea."
"Hmm?"
Fran noticed that several cabinets on the shelves had been opened and not closed, with some parts even spilled on the floor without being tidied up.
This contrasted sharply with the initial impression of exquisite, meticulous order.
"The user was in a very agitated state. Hmm... or perhaps in a hurry."
Perhaps an outsider was stealing parts. Or maybe the master of the doll workshop encountered some urgent situation, leaving him no time to clean up afterward...
While pondering, Fran suddenly pressed herself against the wall, turning her ear and crouching down.
She heard faint sounds from deep within the room and followed them to a workbench lit by a warm yellow lamp.
A middle-aged man with speckled grey hair was wearing a protruding monocle, intently adjusting a doll laid out on the machine table.
His face was ashen and gaunt, with deep, heavy dark circles under his eyes, but his pair of brilliant blue eyes shone brightly, burning with a fanatical light.
"The bone and flesh of the Blood Kin, the Hunter's Creed, the Sun-Forging Alchemy, the Blank Soul, and the great Pioneer's Enlightenment..."
His voice was low and hoarse, as if he might run out of breath at any moment... yet it carried a trace of pure satisfaction.
"My child, I have inscribed everything I can bestow upon you. You will be perfect, no longer inheriting the deep-rooted flaws within us. Mourn us... no! Forget us..."
"Forget your forebears who perished due to their arrogance."
The man laughed, maddened and intoxicated, his expression tragic, yet a few cold tears fell.
"But." He gritted his teeth abruptly, the light of life in his eyes suddenly dimming.
"Even if the Great Pioneer falls into eternal slumber, even if humanity perishes, 'our' civilization will still endure..."
...
As the doll master collapsed powerlessly to the ground, the entire dream suddenly became unstable. Everything began rapidly losing logic and disintegrating into more abstract forms.
"Oh, I didn't get a good look at what the doll on the table actually looked like."
Unperturbed by the collapsing dream around her, Fran walked straight to the doll body displayed on the table.
Sunny and handsome, with brown hair and blue eyes—it was undoubtedly Child.
"So, Child actually comes from some lost era or epoch... That makes sense. The White Cup cult's current technology couldn't possibly create such an exquisite doll. He can only be a 'relic.'"
"However, ordinary dream-walking should be disordered and chaotic. Why was this one so clear, as if I were really there?"
Fran glanced sideways, a hint of relaxed amusement in her tone.
"Not willing to come out and see me? I'm not that scary, am I?"
"Baa!"
A familiar bleat sounded.
A pure white fawn walked out slowly from the shadows.
She shook her branch-like, glazed antlers and looked at Fran with a gaze that was half affectionate, half fearful.
"You should be careful; if you baa here, you might turn into an electric sheep... Well, even though you're a deer."
Fran walked over to Luyala and gently stroked the soft fur on her neck.
"Nah?"
Although she didn't understand Fran's meaning, Luyala obediently switched her call.
"Nah." She gestured with a hind hoof to one side, the fluffy white tail on her rump twitching.
"Follow you?"
Understanding Luyala's meaning, Fran followed behind her.
In the collapsing, disintegrating dream, the places they stepped turned pure white, like falling snow or frost. The figures of the woman and the deer gradually faded into it.
---
"Whew." Long eyelashes fluttered open, revealing amber eyes.
Fran returned to reality from the depths of the dream.
"As I thought, Luyala has been near me all along. But due to some trait, she seems only able to manifest in the dimension of dreams."
And Child. This Error-Purger lad's origins were far more mysterious than imagined. I really want to take him apart and have a look...
Looking at Child, still fast asleep with no sign of waking, Fran bit her lip slightly. Dorothy's prying eyes might be present in the Calcite Room, and Child could wake at any moment.
After careful deliberation, Fran opened her medicine box and began searching for dissection tools.
Child wasn't like Haida, who visited Fog Street Clinic regularly. Time waits for no one. If she let him go today, who knew when the next opportunity like this would come...
"First, cut open the scalp's biomimetic layer with a scalpel. Hmm... fresh and healthy flesh, realism close to the T-800 Terminator."
Wearing rubber gloves, Fran set about opening his cranial cavity.
After some time, she found and opened the maintenance access panel, revealing the intricate, nested machinery within.
"Good thing I didn't slack off while learning [Mechanical Prosthetics Technology]. Even after not using it for a while, my skills haven't rusted too much..."
"Come to think of it, it's been consolidated into [Mechanized Biology] now."
She examined the components and discovered something amiss.
"Although the designer included self-diagnostic systems, allowing for a degree of self-repair of the mechanical systems... the materials themselves have deformed and lost calibration over the long passage of time."
"Fortunately, living metal can solve this problem perfectly. And I just happen to have about ten grams of sample in the box."
Fran immediately began administering the cure. As an excellent and dedicated doctor, sometimes one must give their all even if the patient isn't human...
---
Mirror of Enlightenment Club, Chamber in the Mirror.
Before Dorothy lay a round mirror placed horizontally. Ripples of silver shimmered on its surface, showing the scene within the Calcite Room.
She had been observing ever since Fran received Child. Faced with a strange Mirror-Wiper from another land, this was the necessary caution. She believed the other party was aware of it...
In the image, Fran took out the wand and began humming the lullaby of [Shepherd's Song].
"She replaced the gem on the wand. Is it some kind of relic? Or simply a medium for casting?"
Although there was only the image without sound, Dorothy still sensed a certain serene, soothing rhythm.
Fran suspended the brass pocket watch above Child's brow.
"Was the wand just a tool to aid sleep? The true medium is the pocket watch... Is she planning to use dream divination?"
Compared to conventional methods, insights gained from dreams are more elusive yet more profound. Even Dorothy only began attempting to delve into dreams after officially becoming a Mirror-Wiper.
Fran woke from the dream first and then started rummaging through her medicine box.
"Merely entering a dream, and the spiritual fluctuation is so intense... Even the calcite flowers in the divination room resonated. It was as if a huge dream creature was swimming past..."
By now, Dorothy was largely convinced of Fran's identity as a Mirror-Wiper. This level of dream divination was enough to be called a Lamp cult secret technique.
The scene in the image continued.
Fran took out a scalpel, a circular saw, forceps... from her medicine box and placed them on a kidney-shaped surgical tray for later use.
"What is she planning to do...?"
Just as Dorothy was still puzzled, she saw Fran in the mirror gently press the blade... and cleanly cut open Child's scalp.
The bloody gash on his head revealed pale skull and a network of bluish-red blood vessels.
"Cough!"
Dorothy's pupils contracted sharply, a wave of icy coldness rising through her limbs.
Come to think of it, besides the Sun-Forging "Fire-Chasers," the most common cultists in Attilan were Red Cup followers... Could she be a Lustful Dancer in disguise?
+++
T/N: Hey readers~! New Translator here! Before I say anything, I'd first like to thank the original author for creating this wonderful story. Without them, I wouldn't have the chance to share this adventure with you. I hope my translation does justice to their work, and that together, we can enjoy this story.
With that said, I'm happy to let you know I'll be uploading daily chapters. And for those who wish to support my work and gain early access, I've set up a Patreon where advanced chapters will be available.
[email protected]/PeakTL