“…What a peculiar-looking city.”
You nodded in agreement with Dorothea’s remark.
Tik-Tok, the City of Clockwork.
Magic dolls guarded the city gates where guards should have been, horse-shaped magic dolls pulled carriages instead of living steeds, and small, bird-shaped magic dolls popped out of clocks to announce the time. It was a scene utterly different from any you had witnessed before.
It was as if the film of an entire era had been swapped out.
Adel’s eyes sparkled as if she were at an amusement park, while Sophia, in her own way, seemed quite intrigued by the scenery, looking around and nodding as if in understanding.
Dorothea, too, had entered a rare tourist mode, but she was also the first to snap out of it.
“Ahem, anyway, let’s get going. We might be staying in this city for a while, so we can sightsee later.”
“We’re staying for a while?”
“I don’t know how long it’ll take to modify this guy.”
At Dorothea’s answer, Adel showed a hint of delight.
Your party’s travel pace was on the faster side. It was rare for you to stay in one place for more than three days. Since your routine was a swift cycle of arrival, resupply, and departure, proper sightseeing was practically impossible. The prospect of a longer time limit seemed to please Adel greatly.
After arriving in a city, the party’s routine was usually the same. First, secure lodging. Then, those with business in the city would wander about. The rest would either relax in their rooms or take a light stroll.
You, for the record, were firmly in the wander-and-stroll camp. Since the concept of fatigue didn’t apply to you, you found it more enjoyable to move around, even without a specific destination, than to wait in a room.
This time in Tik-Tok, however, the fact that you only had one body seemed like it might become a problem.
“Alright, I’m taking this guy to a workshop.”
At Dorothea’s declaration, Adel and Sophia spoke up.
“Oh, after you get back from the workshop, I’ll go with the Knight! I-I get nervous if he’s not watching over me…”
“Could I borrow the Knight as well? Being of a delicate constitution, I’d feel much safer with a strong companion.”
Dorothea looked dumbfounded, but she didn’t coldly refuse their requests.
“Do whatever you want. I’ll be back in my room once I’m done at the workshop. The rest of you can negotiate with this idiot.”
[The ‘Tin Knight’ puffs out his chest, declaring this to be the burden of popularity!]
“……”
Dorothea glared at you with half-lidded eyes, but as if deciding it was pointless to even say anything, she silently turned and started walking.
Leaving the waving Adel and Sophia behind, you began to follow Dorothea.
*
On the way to the doll workshop, you struck up a conversation with Dorothea.
[The ‘Tin Knight’ says it’s more fun now that the party has more members!]
“I’m not a fan of all the commotion.”
[The ‘Tin Knight’ insists that to break the stereotype of necromancers being gloomy, you must actively engage with people!]
[The ‘Tin Knight’ warns that you might develop a habit of babbling to corpses and spirits if you’re not careful!]
“Hah, as if that would…”
Dorothea suddenly trailed off.
[The ‘Tin Knight’ points out that this is the reaction of someone who’s been struck by a nerve!]
“That’s not it, okay!? I was just reminded of my teacher for a second.”
Teacher.
It was a title Dorothea often used. In fact, you’d never heard her use any other title when speaking of her personal life.
[The ‘Tin Knight’ wonders what kind of person Dorothea’s teacher is!]
“What kind of person, you ask?”
Dorothea chose her words for a moment, then spat them out.
“For starters, she’s not what you’d call a proper person.”
[The ‘Tin Knight’ is shocked by such impious remarks!]
“What do you want me to do? It’s the truth. She’s the kind of person who doesn’t bat an eye at dozens of people dying, who acts like worldly power and authority can go to hell, and who casually throws her one and only pupil into the jaws of death. She pawns off every little detail of her daily life onto her familiars, you know? There’s no way a person like that is ‘proper.’ You should have seen it—a skeleton soldier stirring a ladle in front of a pot, doing laundry by the river.”
Dorothea continued to grumble with a scowl, but to you, she somehow looked like she was enjoying herself.
[The ‘Tin Knight’ asks if you were raised by your teacher since you were young!]
“Well, yeah.”
[The ‘Tin Knight’ is curious about Dorothea’s parents!]
“They passed away when I was young.”
Dorothea answered nonchalantly, and you paused for a moment.
Then you found your own reaction strange.
You could have easily guessed that Dorothea’s family situation wasn’t great, just from the fact that she never brought them up. The early death of one’s parents was a common enough trope in ‘stories.’ In the many games ‘you’ had played, there were countless characters with similar backgrounds.
So, there was nothing particularly new about it.
You just had to consume the character’s story as content, like you always did.
And yet, why?
Why, for a moment, did you feel an emotion called â â â ?
Your once-drifting perspective seemed to lower slightly, and the space in your chest, once filled only with thoughtless, reflexive impulses, grew a little heavy.
Without looking back at you, lost in your own questions, Dorothea continued walking and speaking.
“Faced with two corpses, I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t even think about making a grave or cremating them. Even if I had, I wouldn’t have been able to do it. I just spaced out like that, nearly starving to death, when my teacher showed up. ‘Your parents’ corpses and souls seem to be of rather fine quality, so I’ll be taking them,’ I think she said. As far as first impressions go, you’d be hard-pressed to find one worse than that.”
Your deliberation didn’t last long.
Perhaps you didn’t want it to.
Your perspective drifted upward again, and the weight in your chest lightened.
You replied as you always did—flippantly, with an attitude of pure, unadulterated fun.
[The ‘Tin Knight’ testifies that your teacher is more than qualified to be a final boss!]
“I like that. It suits her. After I pass this damn graduation exam and our relationship becomes one between two witches, not a teacher and pupil, it might be fun to go and pay her back.”
[The ‘Tin Knight’ insists on being included!]
“What do you mean, ‘included’? You have to participate, obviously. You seem to forget often, but you’re my guard, you know?”
[The ‘Tin Knight’ protests his innocence, claiming he has never forgotten!]
“I doubt it. Your usual behavior doesn’t inspire much confidence.”
Chatting like that, you walked for some time.
Finally, you arrived at your destination.
“…There are more shops than I thought.”
Dorothea blinked.
The place you arrived at after asking passersby for directions wasn’t a specific shop, but an entire street.
Lining both sides of a wide road, shops displaying various magic dolls were situated as if competing with one another.
[The ‘Tin Knight’ asserts that the correct course of action is to compare several places and choose the cheapest one!]
You shared the shopping wisdom you knew, but Dorothea’s reaction was lukewarm.
“Cheap things are cheap for a reason. You should pick the one with the highest final specs, why would you choose based on price?”
You were shocked.
A sense of duty to impart the strict teachings of capitalism to this witch, who knew nothing of the world, washed over your entire body.
[The ‘Tin Knight’ warns that spending money recklessly will lead to big trouble!]
“It’s my money I’m spending, not yours. Or should I spend less and do a half-assed job on your enhancements?”
[The ‘Tin Knight’ bows his head respectfully, saying that it seems best to follow the witch’s will!]
On second thought, it might be fine for her to remain ignorant of the ways of the world.
You must have been out of your mind to argue with your sponsor.
“Let’s start with that shop over there.”
You and Dorothea entered the very first shop on the left.
It seemed like it would be a fun shopping trip.
*
“Oh, my apologies, customer. That doll is such an old model, it’s difficult for us to repair it.”
“Goodness, no, where on earth did you find an antique like this? I can’t fix it, but I’d be willing to buy it. What for? A museum, of course!”
“Customer, how about this latest model magic doll? We’ll take care of disposing of your old model for you—w-wait! Let go of my hand, gack!”
To get straight to the point, it wasn’t fun at all.
The shopkeepers, realizing Dorothea had a considerable amount of cash, threw out desperate sales pitches, but most of them were recommendations to buy a new magic doll. They said you were too old-fashioned to be easily fixed, and that even if they forced it, it would be a waste of money with little to show for it.
When the owner of the last workshop on the street also shook his head, your shoulders slumped.
“‘Best in the Empire,’ my ass. They’re all a bunch of quacks, aren’t they?”
Dorothea, for her part, looked thoroughly irritated.
Most of the shopkeepers had been polite, but in a few shops, once they realized Dorothea had no intention of buying a new product, they had openly disparaged you and mocked Dorothea’s taste for keeping a magic doll like you around.
Of course, those shopkeepers had to pay the price, screaming as they were afflicted by Dorothea’s ‘curse of stubbing their pinkie toe every time they turn a corner,’ but getting revenge doesn’t always make the anger disappear.
“…Fine, then I’ll find one even if I have to force it.”
Her jaw set, Dorothea entered a dark alleyway.
After confirming no one was around, she tapped the ground with her staff, spreading her mana.
Similar to what she did in the labyrinth, a few spirits flocked toward her. Dorothea questioned them.
“If you know of a doll workshop with the skill to repair this one, tell me.”
Most of the spirits remained silent or departed, but one spirit alone confidently led the way.
Contrary to your expectation that it would lead you out of the alley, the spirit went deeper and deeper into it.
Deeper, and deeper, to a place where the light barely reached.
A vaguely gloomy atmosphere, and the wary, hostile gazes felt from all around.
Your knowledge knew a word to describe such a place.
The slums.
Thanks to Dorothea’s magic, the residents of the slums couldn’t see the spirit guiding her.
However, they could see Dorothea quite clearly.
To be fair, her appearance stood out even just walking down the street.
Some of them approached with lewd smiles, but they quickly backed off upon seeing you behind Dorothea.
You, who had been planning to physically smash anyone who started trouble, were a little disappointed.
At the end of the path was… to put it nicely, an atmospheric shop, and to put it badly, a place that looked like a half-abandoned warehouse.
Even the sign itself was half-erased, making it impossible to tell the shop’s name.
Dorothea glared daggers at the spirit, but far from being intimidated, the spirit seemed to scoff, its posture proud.
Perhaps feeling a sense of trust from that self-assured demeanor, Dorothea opened the shop door without another word and went inside.
With the creak of old hinges, the interior came into view.
“Hoh.”
[The ‘Tin Knight’ observes that the inside is cleaner than expected!]
Contrary to the exterior, which looked like it could offer a haunted house experience with a half-spoonful of exaggeration, the shop’s interior was quite respectable.
The various magic doll parts gleamed as if well-maintained, and there wasn’t a speck of dust on the display shelves.
“Welcomsh—”
With a slight lisp, the man sitting at the counter stood up.
He was quite tall, looking to be around 180 cm, and beneath his gray short-sleeved shirt, his tanned forearms were visible, covered in all sorts of scars.
The man looked Dorothea up and down, then asked bluntly.
“Who sent you?”
“Sent me?”
“You’re telling me you just wandered into this corner of the world? No way… Tsk, were there a few loose-lipped bastards?”
As the man muttered coarse curses to himself, Dorothea asked without a hint of intimidation.
“This is a doll workshop, right?”
“I do that, too. You can assume I handle pretty much anything to do with scraps of metal. So, what do you want?”
“This guy, can you fix him?”
“Hmm?”
The man’s gaze turned to you.
One second, five seconds, ten seconds.
And then one hundred.
After staring at you for just under two minutes, the man finally laughed as if amused.
“Hee-yah, where’d you get something like this? I’ve fixed magic dolls that were used back when the Empire was founded, but this thing looks even older than that.”
“Just tell me if you can fix it or not.”
“I’ll have to open it up to know for sure. To be honest, there’s not much point in fixing the exterior on this type. It looks like it has a self-repair function anyway. Adding anything weird would just be redundant. If you want to fix it, you have to overhaul the inside.”
Looking a little surprised, Dorothea blinked.
You did, too.
This man was the first person to notice you had a self-repair function just by looking.
Pleased by their reaction, the man grinned.
“Well, even if you’re an unexpected guest, as long as you have enough money, you’re a valued customer. So, what’s your budget?”