The Tin Knight-Chapter 49: The Tin Knight and The City of Clockwork (8)

Hearing Sophia’s question, you tilted your head.

The “you” Sophia was referring to likely meant the “Tin Knight”.

In other words, Sophia was asking about the era when the Tin Knight was still active—or the time when he was human.

You decided to answer honestly.

[The ‘Tin Knight’ answers that he doesn’t know well either!]

It was true that you inherited the Tin Knight’s power, but most of it was skewed towards combat-related elements.

While combat techniques engraved in the body, experience, and insight as a warrior remained, you didn’t inherit the Tin Knight’s memories or knowledge, so you couldn’t answer questions about the Tin Knight’s past life.

“Oh my.”

Sophia covered her mouth with her hand.

It was a somewhat exaggerated gesture, but it suited her quite well.

“Do you have no memories?”

[The ‘Tin Knight’ answers that’s correct!]

“I see. ‘The soul of a human that enters a magic doll often develops mental abnormalities, unable to overcome the disconnect from its original body.’ Just as I read in the book.”

[The ‘Tin Knight’ insists that he is perfectly fine!]

“Isn’t memory loss also one of the abnormal symptoms?”

Hmm.

You paused for a moment.

The reason you had no memories wasn’t for that reason, but explaining specifics would be quite troublesome.

Besides, insisting on memory loss might make things convenient in various ways.

[The ‘Tin Knight’ asks if she knows anything about his past self.]

“I have some guesses, but I’m not certain.”

[The ‘Tin Knight’ says even speculation is fine.]

“Hmm, to explain that, there’s somewhere I’d like to stop by for a moment... Ah, I see it.”

At Sophia’s words, you turned your gaze.

While the details were different from what was in your memory, there was a building that was generally similar.

If you had a sense of smell, you might have been able to smell paper, ink, and dust.

“Well then, shall we go in?”

In front of the largest bookstore in Tik-Tok, Sophia smiled.

***“What? You want to read books here? Come on, don’t talk nonsense! I thought I might get one last customer before closing, but some weirdo shows up.”

The owner’s response, which was grumpy as if mocking them, changed to, “Oh my, please feel free to take your time reading. There are chairs over there for you to sit on. What? You’re asking if we’re not closing? Haha. It’s fine. I can just stay up all night reading books too! Hahaha!”

All it took was one hefty leather pouch to cause this change.

You felt puzzled by Sophia’s sudden action of handing over half of the funds borrowed from Dorothea.

[The ‘Tin Knight’ asks if that’s not too much to give!]

“Reading books at a cheap price is like devaluing the knowledge contained in those books. Well, expensive doesn’t always mean good books, so you need to be flexible according to the situation to some extent.”

Winking playfully, Sophia picked up a book.

It was a language-related book recommended by the owner.

Sophia started to focus on the book silently, and you, with nothing to do, looked around the bookstore.

Since it was a rare opportunity, you thought about reading an interesting book if you found one, but...

[The ‘Tin Knight’ laments that he can’t understand the letters!]

At the very least, you needed to understand what was written on the cover to even choose a book, but everything looked like scribbles, so there was nothing you could do.

It wasn’t like someone was explaining the content to you, like when you made a contract with Dorothea.

[The ‘Tin Knight’ asks what the relationship is between his past story and coming here!]

[The ‘Tin Knight’ points out that it’s not polite to suddenly start reading in the middle of talking to someone!]

[The ‘Tin Knight’ appeals for attention!]

No response.

No matter how many protest messages you sent, Sophia remained silently absorbed in her book.

It was very contrasting to Dorothea’s immediate reaction of telling you to be quiet because her head rang when you sent three consecutive messages when she was nearby.

With no choice, you decided to practice mana manipulation while settling in a corner.

You needed to familiarize yourself with the various changes brought about by the improvement in your mana circuits.

After about forty minutes had passed like this.

“Hmm. I understand roughly.”

Sophia got up.

After returning the language book to its original place, Sophia picked up another language book from the same section and started reading it while standing.

Thinking, “I guess that’s how it is,” you resumed your practice.

And ten minutes later.

Sophia exchanged the book she was reading again and started flipping through the pages.

You tilted your head.

The speed at which she was turning pages seemed too fast.

Before one page finished falling to the end, the next page was already starting.

In less than ten minutes, Sophia repeated putting three books in and out of the bookshelf, then moved and started doing the same thing from the books tucked in the farthest corner of the bookstore.

“Hmm?”

The store owner looked puzzled for a moment but soon lost interest and turned his gaze away.

It seemed he thought she was just skimming through several books to find one she liked.

You looked at Sophia’s eyes.

Usually, when people read books, their eyes move in a zigzag pattern, tracing the lines of the text.

But while constantly turning pages, her pink eyes showed almost no movement.

To put it more bluntly, it was as if she was just directing her gaze once at each page, like putting a dot on it.

Even then, from the middle, she often looked at two open pages at once.

How should it be described?

It gave the impression of capturing the entire page in her field of vision rather than reading the book.

Just like a scanner.

“Hmm. Good.”

Sophia closed the book.

It was the last book among all the books in the bookstore that Sophia hadn’t touched.

You, who had finished fine-turning your mana manipulation and were thinking about new training menus for Adelaide, turned and stared at Sophia.

[The ‘Tin Knight’ complains about how long it took!]

“Hmm, are you angry?”

[The ‘Tin Knight’ argues that anyone would be dissatisfied if someone suddenly became engrossed in reading in the middle of a conversation!]

“My apologies. I originally intended to resume the conversation after reading only what was necessary, but it’s been so long since I held a book that I got carried away without realizing it.”

[The ‘Tin Knight’ shows a magnanimous attitude, saying that he, being generous, will forgive Sophia!]

If it were Dorothea, she would have pointed out not to talk nonsense, and if it were Adelaide, she would have made a sour expression without affirming or denying, but Sophia just smiled and affirmed clearly, saying “Thank you.”

This chapt𝒆r is updated by frёewebηovel.cѳm.

The sharp response you expected never came, leaving you slightly disappointed.

“Well then. Shall we continue our earlier conversation?”

Sophia’s gaze briefly shifted towards the owner.

After confirming that the bookstore owner sitting at the counter was dozing off, Sophia spoke, “As expected of a city famous for producing magic dolls even within the Empire, there was quite an extensive collection of related books. While manufacturing methods and detailed know-how seemed to be treated as industry secrets and were somewhat hidden, basic structures and characteristics were well introduced.”

Sophia approached the bookshelf and, while touching the cover of one of the books, said, “‘The core of a magic doll is the element called artificial or synthetic soul. This intelligence device, which can be created by a mana-handling craftsman or mage, was developed for the purpose of creating obedient and versatile familiars instead of homunculi that strongly inherit the nature of the base animal, spirits who are fickle or arrogant, or even vengeful undead, full of resentment towards the living.’”

Sophia’s hand touched another book.

New phrases flowed from her mouth, “‘The synthetic soul can be called the brain of a magic doll. The higher the skill of the creator, the greater the cognitive function and judgment. Although it can only show extremely passive movements at the beginning of creation, a synthetic soul that has accumulated many experiences sometimes exhibits spontaneous behavior. Whether to judge this as growth or as a functional disorder due to unnecessary information accumulation differs among experts.’”

Next book. And the next.

“‘There are various theories about who first developed the synthetic soul, but the most likely one is that the origin was the ‘Tower of Protection’, one of the magic towers of the Aeolia Magic Country.’

“‘The synthetic soul is a magic entity and requires mana for its existence to be maintained. A synthetic soul that does not receive mana supply begins to evaporate gradually, and while this speed can be somewhat slowed down in a dormant state, there is still a limit.’”

The vampire, who couldn’t read a single letter just like you until entering this bookstore, seemed to have put the contents of all the books in this bookstore into her head in just a few hours.

“The content is diverse, is it not? And yet, among all these books, there wasn’t a single one that had the content I expected.”

Sophia, moving away from the bookshelf, brought her face close to yours.

Her pink eyes gleamed with an eerie intensity.

“—The origin of magic dolls. Where magic dolls were first made, when they were made, and why they came to be.”

Sophia pointed her finger at your breastplate, or more precisely, at the vessel containing the soul inside it.

“I’ll give you the answer. Where were they made? In the Kingdom of Ionia. When were they made? In the Dark Ages. Why were they made? Out of necessity. They needed to survive against enemies threatening humanity, they needed to secure power—even at the cost of sacrificing human souls.”

[The ‘Tin Knight’ wonders who these enemies were!]

“I can’t answer that.”

Sophia playfully said, “That’s exactly what I was investigating when I got sealed.”

“Using human souls as material for magic dolls was taboo among taboos even when I was human. The era when it happened most frequently was about five hundred years before I was sealed, which would be about a thousand years ago in the Dark Ages from now. So, I thought if Sir Tin Knight was perhaps from that time, you might know something... but if you have no memories, it can’t be helped.”

[The ‘Tin Knight’ is shocked, asking if that means he’s a thousand-year-old antique!]

“Who knows? It’s just that ‘the era when they were made the most’ was then. There’s a possibility you could have been made later.”

You tilted your body with your arms crossed.

[The ‘Tin Knight’ grumbles that it seems like only questions have increased!]

[The ‘Tin Knight’ demands a satisfying answer!]

To your complaints, Sophia smiled brightly.

“I sympathize. That’s why I plan to investigate further in the future.”

—even if someone finds it uncomfortable.

The last words, muttered lowly, strangely stuck in your memory.

***“Hmm? Oh, are you done with your business? Haha, thank you for your patronage.”

The dozing shop owner smiled brightly when you said you were leaving.

He seemed relieved that he could finally sleep comfortably.

The street was dark.

When you first entered the bookstore, some establishments including bars were still open, but now even those had closed.

Well, except for special cases like Albert that openly focused on entertainment and tourism, it was already praiseworthy to work a few extra hours after sunset.

[The ‘Tin Knight’ asks if she’s ready to prove her usefulness!]

“To some extent. The rest is about collecting information while moving through crowded places. If I become a walking map and encyclopedia of trivia, wouldn’t Dorothea find it convenient and make use of me?”

[The ‘Tin Knight’ evaluates that navigation is certainly useful!]

On the way back to the inn.

– ...Clang...

A faint metallic sound from afar stopped your steps.

You turned your head.

– ...Clang... Thud... Boom...

There was no doubt.

In the darkness where everyone was asleep.

Someone was fighting.

Judging by the sound, it was multiple against multiple.

Your eyes lit up.

It had the scent of a side quest.

The problem was that Sophia was beside you...

“Sir Tin Knight. Let’s go take a look. I’m curious about what’s happening. Ah, it would be too late if we match my speed. It would be better if you could carry me.”

You stared at Sophia blankly.

[The ‘Tin Knight’ warns that it could be dangerous!]

Sophia answered, “Either way, I won’t die, and you won’t lose. So shouldn’t it be fine?”

You were silent.

It was truly a crazy thing to say.

In other words.

[The ‘Tin Knight’ expresses agreement with Sophia’s words!]

It was exactly to your taste.