Chapter 523: Abandon the Weak Flesh, Embrace the Steel Body 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

Hughes turned his head to glance at Nora’s body, then looked toward her original self. “Big Nora has no objections either.”

Even Monica couldn’t stand watching anymore; she glared fiercely at Hughes. “You can’t bully Little Nora!”

Hughes didn’t continue bantering with the two. After a moment of thought, he squeezed out some of his blood and smeared it onto Nora’s neck.

Fresh blood trickled down from the severed edge of Nora’s neck. Hughes took a step back and slowly withdrew his hand.

He no longer touched the wound. The Nora standing in place wobbled slightly, then turned around and faced Monica.

She extended her hand forward. Monica, following her intuition, leaned her head toward her.

Under Nora’s astonished gaze, Nora carefully placed Nora onto Nora.

Then—

“I… can control myself now?”

“Yes.” Hughes nodded. “And I didn’t give Big Nora any command just now. She went to find you on her own.”

Nora’s eyes flickered slightly as she looked at her hands. “Y-you mean… you want to stay with me? You’re not planning to abandon me, right?”

【√】

Feeling the emotion that surfaced within her heart, Nora smiled.

Then—plop—she fell straight to the ground.

Nora hurriedly picked herself up and placed her head back on her neck. Yet, after a moment, she took it off again, hesitated, and turned toward Hughes.

“It seems my blood can only maintain the link for a short while. Maybe applying more could help? I’ll need to run further tests.”

“Then… can I still go to the battlefield?” Nora asked in a trembling voice, then quickly lowered her head and whispered, “Sorry, I got a bit too emotional.”

Ever since her death, she had never brought up that subject again. To be fair, Castel had already helped her greatly; they owed her nothing. Nora felt she had no right to ask for more.

But now, with hope within reach, she simply couldn’t suppress the pounding excitement in her chest—

Even though her heart wasn’t actually attached to her anymore… well, never mind.

“Ahem, perhaps I could be of some help in this matter.”

Everyone turned in surprise toward the speaker—Richard.

Richard first looked toward Hughes and gave a slight bow. “My Lord, regarding Lady Chloe’s shell, we’ve made some progress. It’s not yet fully resolved, but there’s hope now. And coincidentally, Miss Nora’s condition seems rather suitable.”

“I wonder, how much do you all know about the Mechanical Sanctum?”

Most people shook their heads. Even within the Church, the Mechanical Sanctum was an obscure group. It wasn’t even a true supernatural order, as it possessed neither a Supernatural Path nor any Transcendents. Many had never even heard its name.

“The Mechanical Sanctum is a religious organization composed purely of ordinary mortals. They possess some peculiar technologies—mostly involving human modification. Simply put, they merge the human body with machinery.”

“Unfortunately, the difficulty of this process is extremely high. Most of the techniques have been lost; even the Mechanical Sanctum itself only preserves a few fragmented remnants.”

“I’ve tried to study them,” Richard continued, “but my work is still at a basic level. Letting a human consciousness control machinery is barely achievable, but replacing human organs with mechanical parts… that’s far harder.”

At that, Richard looked toward Nora, a trace of emotion flickering in his eyes. “But Miss Nora, you don’t need to maintain biological life. You already possess a certain degree of undeath. That makes it much simpler.”

“I could design a mechanical body for you—a vessel you could inhabit and control.”

“The strength of a mechanical body far surpasses flesh. Adding weaponry would be easy too—it could completely solve issues like the Dragon’s Breath Cannon being too cumbersome to carry. If you still wish to fight, I think this would be an excellent choice.”

As Hughes listened, his mind couldn’t help but conjure vivid imagery:

Nora’s head embedded within a massive suit of steel armor, cables and tubes connecting at her neck; mechanical legs shaking the battlefield with every thunderous step; her voice, laced with electrical noise, roaring from the loudspeakers; the colossal machine charging forward as electronic chains engraved with the Holy Text swung in rhythm—

W-wait… why did that look so cool?

Nora was clearly tempted, but she glanced wistfully at the version of herself still holding her head and shook her own. “Mr. Richard, I appreciate your kindness. I’m willing to cooperate with your research. Perhaps one day I really will step onto the battlefield in a steel body as you describe. But for now, I’m not ready to abandon my own flesh.”

“Just as she never abandoned this head of mine.”

Hughes felt a surge of emotion.

He’d always said that she was Nora’s weakness, but he hadn’t expected that neither of them could abandon the other. Perhaps… the things one cannot abandon are what truly define a weakness.

“For now, Nora, stay here in Castel. Richard and the other researchers will help you find a way to maintain control of your body for longer. Monica—you’ll join the research as well.”

Monica’s eyes lit up. “Boss, you’re finally letting me into a real research project?”

Indeed, Hughes had previously allowed Monica to enlist and go to the frontlines, but he had never permitted her to join the research division.

Back then, she, Chloe, and Gaia had caused 120% of the test site’s explosions—even blowing up the areas outside of it.

Hence, Hughes had only ever allowed Monica to contribute ideas, not to conduct direct experiments.

After all, while it might be hard for an external enemy to destroy Castel, Monica really could blow the whole island sky-high.

“You… sigh, try to be more careful from now on. Gaia has matured a lot lately, and Chloe’s no longer as careless as before. You should also rein yourself in a little.”

Whether Monica actually listened was uncertain—but that day, her joyous laughter echoed across the entire test field.

“Name?”

“Grigori. They call me Grisha.” The boy looked nervously at the girl recording his information.

“All right, Grisha. Have you ever been to school?”

“No…”

“Then, can you read or write?”

“I…” Grisha opened his mouth. He wanted to say that Lady Nora had taught him some spelling, but in the end, he kept silent.

His literacy was pitiful—his own name came out crooked when he tried to write it. Reading was still far beyond him.

“I can’t read.”

“Have you ever been exposed to any other faiths before? For example, the Holy Text of the Silent Sanctum?”

“The priests from the Silent Sanctum sometimes came to preach in our village, but, but I…”

Grisha’s face turned bright red, his embarrassment almost tangible as he stammered like a mosquito’s buzz. “I-I didn’t really understand any of it…”

The girl’s pen paused midair. Grisha looked at her anxiously.

She wasn’t going to drive him away, was she?

Instead, the girl smiled.

“Not bad. Among this batch, you’re actually the most promising one.”