Seeing the conflicted look on Venti's face, Lucas added, "How about this—I'll restore your Holy Lyre in exchange for sparing Scaramouche's life."
"Restore it?" Venti scoffed, giving a helpless smile. "The techniques for crafting the Holy Lyre have been lost for ages, not to ntion it's shattered to pieces. There's no way you could fix it."
"How do you know if we don't try?"
Lucas gathered up the fragnts of the Holy Lyre and began applying the alchemy techniques he had learned in the simulator. The Holy Lyre's craftsmanship might have been ancient, but its materials were relatively simple. And since Lucas wasn't creating a new instrunt but rather restoring an existing one, as long as the molecular structure remained, he could bring it back to its original form.
"There," Lucas said, handing the fully restored lyre back to a stunned Venti. "Good as new."
"Is this... real?" Venti turned the lyre over in his hands, examining it from every angle. "This isn't so kind of illusion, is it?"
"No illusion, just alchemy," Lucas replied calmly.
"Alchemy?" Venti murmured, genuinely impressed. "You really are full of surprises."
In the ga's storyline, after the lyre had been damaged, Venti had only managed to pass it off as whole with illusions, which showed just how hard it was to truly restore.
"Just a basic skill I picked up," Lucas said humbly, lifting Scaramouche's unconscious form in his arms. "Now, can I take him and leave?"
After a mont's hesitation, Venti sighed and waved his hand. "Fine, take him. He's learned his lesson anyway. Do with him what you like."
"Thank you," Lucas said with a nod and quickly made his way out, carrying Scaramouche.
Venti watched them leave, a curious expression on his face. "First, he takes all those photos of , and now he saves this pretty-faced Harbinger... Could he actually be interested in n?"
"Over here! Elental traces just appeared in this direction!"
At that mont, hurried footsteps sounded as Eula and a group of Knights of Favonius rushed over, drawn by the lingering elental energy in the air.
"Hey there!" Venti waved at them cheerfully, holding the restored Holy Lyre. "I just—"
"Seize him!"
Before he could finish, Eula seized his shoulder firmly. "We've caught the thief red-handed—a bard, huh? At least you're a sowhat cultured thief."
"Wait, wait! This is a misunderstanding!" Venti cried out, a smile frozen on his face. "I'm not the thief!"
"Save it," Eula said sternly. "You can explain everything back at headquarters."
"I'm innocent!" Venti's pleas of protest faded into the night air as he was led away.
---
Inside the Serenitea Pot.
Lucas didn't bring Scaramouche back to his lodging, as showing up with an injured Harbinger would surely attract unwanted attention.
Instead, he headed to the Serenitea Pot, a safe, hidden space where Raiden Mai had already set up various facilities, making it an ideal place to tend to Scaramouche's wounds.
Though Lucas possessed the [dical Sage] skill and had restored Scaramouche's body countless tis in the simulator, those procedures had always relied on high-end equipnt and resources provided by Snezhnaya.
Currently, the Serenitea Pot's setup was far too basic for such an intricate repair. Unlike the Holy Lyre, Scaramouche's body was a complex, precision-made puppet. Lucas's level of alchemical skill was nowhere near enough to guarantee a full restoration, and even a minor error could have fatal consequences.
Just as he found himself at a loss, Raiden Mai appeared beside him, seemingly out of nowhere.
"Scanning in progress..."
Raiden Mai's eyes scanned Scaramouche rapidly, analyzing him with an unfeeling expression. "Unit 0000 detected. Initial model, damage level at 78%, beyond self-repair limits. Core is critically damaged and irreparable. Estimated ti until complete failure: one hour."
Of course!
Lucas suddenly rembered that Raiden Mai, like Scaramouche, was also a puppet created by the Raiden Ei. If anyone could restore him, it would be her.
"Is there a way to save him?" he asked urgently.
Raiden Mai hesitated briefly, then nodded. "If it is your wish, there is one solution."
"And that is?" Lucas pressed.
"All puppets rely on their core as the essential component," she explained, tapping her chest. "If my core is implanted in him, he will be restored."
"And... what would happen to you?" A feeling of unease stirred in Lucas.
"I would cease to function, just as a human would die without a heart." Her tone was calm, almost indifferent. "Would you like to initiate the process? All you need to do is remove my core and implant it into him."
"No..." Lucas shook his head firmly. "Trading one life for another? I can't do that."
After all, while Scaramouche resembled the one from the simulator, he wasn't the sa person.
Based on what he knew, Scaramouche was, at best, a cunning and untrustworthy individual.
"Wait!" A thought suddenly crossed his mind. "If it's only a matter of having a core, then couldn't I... create a new one?"
"That's correct." Raiden Mai nodded. "But there's only one core here."
"No..." Lucas's face lit up with a smile. "I think I can make another."
Repairing Scaramouche was indeed challenging, but crafting a replacent puppet core using alchemy alone simplified things considerably.
"Mai!" Lucas called, struck by an idea. "Could you let examine your core?"
To recreate an object with alchemy, he needed both the materials and an understanding of its structure. With sothing as complex as a "puppet core," seeing the internal layout was essential.
"Of course."
With no hesitation, Raiden Mai began to unfasten her collar.
Despite knowing she was a puppet, Lucas couldn't help but feel a little self-conscious about watching her perform such a gesture in front of him.
Especially given that her body was so lifelike, with skin that even felt and appeared real.
"Please proceed," Raiden Mai said, her face impassive. "To access my inner compartnt, you'll need to input a code."
"A code?" Lucas's cheeks flushed slightly. "Not to ntion, I don't even know what the code is. And if I did... how exactly would I input it?"
There didn't seem to be any obvious interface for it.
"My model number is LD0413. The password is 0413," Raiden Mai explained. "You input the code by pressing specific buttons according to the numbers."
"Buttons?" Lucas looked at her in confusion. "Where are these buttons?"
"In order to make puppets as lifelike as possible, all controls are integrated into the body," she said with a slight pause. "Wherever you think the buttons might be, that's where they'll be."
Where they "might" be?
Lucas froze for a mont before it dawned on him.
"Is... is that really how it works?" he murmured, realizing what she ant. "So, I press four tis on the left, and then thirteen on the right?"
He couldn't help but wonder if the buttons would hold up under that much pressure.
"No, the left side controls the first two digits, and the right side the last two," Raiden Mai continued in her usual calm tone. "So, four on the left, and thirteen on the right."
Incredible technology! Lucas wondered how Raiden Ei had co up with such a "creative" solution.
"Uh... could you... press them yourself?" he asked, hoping to dodge the task.
"Puppets are unable to self-operate in this way," Raiden Mai replied, shaking her head. "Also, I should ntion that unit LD0000's damage level is continuing to rise."
"Fine! I understand!" Lucas forced himself to focus and pressed the designated "buttons."
However, the buttons weren't quite what he had pictured... In fact, they didn't resemble buttons at all.
But when pressed, they did pop back like buttons, more or less.
"Pressing down one centiter will ensure proper input," Raiden Mai added. "Please proceed; puppets do not experience pain."
One centiter down?
Lucas swallowed and pressed with a bit more force, feeling her body give way slightly as he pushed the "button."
With a soft sound, Raiden Mai let out a barely audible hum.
"What's wrong?" Lucas imdiately stopped, concerned he might have broken sothing.
"It's simply the feedback sound indicating a successful input," she replied. "This sound can be changed if desired to sothing like 'Ah,' 'Oh,' or even 'Mmm'—"
"Let's... stick with the default," Lucas quickly resud pressing, eager to avoid any further awkwardness.
Finally, after seventeen inputs and seventeen feedback sounds, he succeeded in opening Raiden Mai's inner compartnt. Unlike a human body, her internal structure was complex, revealing a pulsing core that glowed faintly, resembling a beating heart.
"Please be careful," she said, with a rare trace of concern in her voice. "Once removed, I will imdiately cease functioning. If it isn't reinstalled within thirty minutes, my system will shut down completely."
"I understand." Lucas nodded, carefully extracting the core from her chest.
As soon as the core was removed, Raiden Mai's gaze lost all life, her body going limp like a machine suddenly cut off from its power source.
Lucas wasted no ti, diving into his analysis of the core's structure. Fortunately, though intricately designed, it didn't require particularly rare materials. Most components could be found within the Serenitea Pot.
He retrieved Scaramouche's damaged core and confird that its design was nearly identical to i's. Using the broken core as a base, he began reconstructing it through alchemy.
Of course, given that Raiden Ei had originally created it, not all materials could be easily sourced. The most crucial component, Athyst, was exclusive to Inazuma and a highly rare Shogunate resource, unavailable on the market.
Thankfully, Lucas still had a Philosopher's Stone on hand, which could substitute any material needed in alchemy synthesis.
Like a wild card in a ga, the Philosopher's Stone could act as any required component.
Success!
With Raiden Mai's core design analyzed, Lucas managed to create an identical core. He quickly installed it into each puppet's chest cavity.
"Rebooting..."
Seeing Raiden Mai co back to life reassured Lucas; his heart finally cald down.
Scaramouche, however, remained unconscious.
"What's going on?" Lucas asked anxiously. "Why hasn't Scaramouche woken up yet? Is sothing wrong?"
"Replacing the core was the most critical step," Raiden Mai explained. "I'll take over from here and handle the remaining repairs."
"Thank you. Please restore him to the sa..." Lucas's voice trailed off as darkness closed in, and he collapsed.
Although he didn't operate with "magic points" or "stamina bars," performing alchemy twice in rapid succession had drained him. Now that the imdiate danger was past, his exhaustion caught up with him, and he fainted on the spot.
Raiden Mai swiftly caught him as he fell, murmuring, "Restore him to be just like ... Understood, Master. I will fulfill your instructions."
Gently, Raiden Mai carried Lucas to the adjoining rest room and laid him down to recuperate. She then returned alone to the room where Scaramouche lay, his eyes closed as he lay motionless on the hospital bed. i's expression grew pensive as she looked at him, and she murmured to herself:
"First, let's get rid of... the unnecessary parts."
Just like in the simulator, Scaramouche's body as a "puppet" was constructed with many modular components that could be added or removed as needed.
However, unlike the simulator, after countless years, Scaramouche had chosen to reinforce his self-image by attaching certain "male accessories."
Naturally, this "addition" was purely decorative—there was no functional chanism to operate it.
Seeing this part, even the typically stoic Raiden Mai couldn't help but twitch at the corners of her mouth.
What... is this? A teapot?
It looked like sothing a kindergarten student would put together for an arts-and-crafts project. Though Mai had never seen a real one, she was certain this shape had no resemblance to anything a human body would naturally possess.
And the positioning was strange too. In fact, it wasn't exactly "attached" at all—more like it had simply been tucked into place.
Now, seeing this absurdly unnecessary piece, Raiden Mai coolly raised her tool, and with one clean cut, removed it entirely.
---
Author's Note: Okay, let's reach 1100 p.s. and I'll post the next Chapter with surgeon raiden mai imdiately ??
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