A Doll Seeking Freedom(3)

My mind is in chaos.

Thoughts chasing thoughts, making it difficult to sort them out easily, I let out a groan.

“My head hurts…”

I understood all the words the librarian was saying, but I only understood them, nothing more.

I just understood but couldn’t comprehend, so I looked back at the librarian with an expression still full of questions.

“…?”

“Sigh…”

The librarian with an innocent expression as if she knew nothing.

Having gained only a throbbing headache from looking back unnecessarily, I turned my head again. Then I asked Mira, who seemed to be observing the situation between me and the librarian with a seemingly indifferent expression.

“Would it be alright if I skip this class for a while? I think the students will train well on their own even without me, so you don’t need to worry.”

“What?! Ah, yes. Of course, there’s no problem. This situation is an unexpected exception even for me, so it’s fine if you go up first. But the danger of this person is still…”

“She won’t cause any problems, so you don’t need to worry. No, rather than a person, as you heard, she’s a homunculus, and even if something happens, I’ll make sure to handle it well.”

“If you say so…”

When I persuaded Mira with the determination that I would cut her throat if necessary, Mira nodded to me, relaxing her suspicious expression a little, though not completely.

Perhaps she believes in me because she knows my skills.

Either way, I was grateful for Mira’s words allowing me to skip this class, so I bowed my head to express my thanks to Mira and took the librarian’s arm to lead her.

“Let’s continue our conversation in my office first. It would be difficult to have a proper conversation here.”

“I understand. Then, as Mother says…”

The librarian simply agreed with my words and followed me.

The most important thing right now was a place where others couldn’t overhear our conversation, so I was satisfied with the librarian’s attitude and led the way while holding her arm.

However, unfortunately, these confident steps of mine and the librarian’s didn’t even last a few steps.

“Wait…!”

A voice that seemed to barely shout, drowsy. At that voice, which could clearly identify who it was just by hearing it, I abruptly stopped walking.

And as I stopped, three familiar faces landed in front of me from the sky.

“I’ve been listening to everything, so stop for a moment… Mo-, I mean, Big Sister…!”

As expected, the identities of the three figures were Isolde, Morgan, and Myu leading them.

How flustered she must have been for Myu, who always performed near-perfect acting, to almost make the mistake of calling me Mother.

Glancing slightly, I could see she was even sweating. She seemed to have tried to hide it, but it was obvious to me because her behavior was so different from usual. Although Isolde and Morgan standing behind her didn’t seem to notice it.

I let out a small sigh looking at Myu, who was busy trying to hide her cold sweat and being wary of the librarian behind me, unable to utter her next words despite stopping me.

It seemed that the number of people to talk with had increased by three more.

---

My office located on the third floor of the main building.

After getting permission from Mira and stopping the sword training class midway, a heavy silence had settled in the office where we had arrived.

“…”

“…”

“…”

Contributing to the silence was the awkwardness between the librarian, who was almost a stranger, and me, Myu, Isolde, and Morgan, but the main reason was that no one was thinking of speaking first.

The librarian was just sitting there with vacant eyes as if she wasn’t thinking anything, Myu was silent, probably judging that it would be impolite to express her complaints when I hadn’t opened my mouth first, and Isolde and Morgan had firmly established their positions as almost third-party spectators, so in the end, no one could speak first.

And because of that, inevitably, I had to be the first to open my mouth.

“Haa…”

As I exhaled the breath that had been pooling in my lungs and made a sound in the quiet office, gazes focused on me.

I had already finished sorting out most of my complicated thoughts while walking here to think, and during the silence that had continued until just now, I had completed that sorting perfectly.

Therefore, as I turned to the librarian, I put one of the questions I had prepared in advance into my mouth.

“There are mountains of things I want to ask, but let’s start with the most important ones in order.”

“Yes, by all means.”

“Alright, then first I’ll ask, you are indeed the librarian of the Library of Records established in the underwater kingdom, correct?”

“To be precise, I’m the former librarian, but that’s correct.”

The librarian affirmed my question with a polite gesture.

And as soon as she affirmed, I immediately followed with the next question.

“If you’re really the librarian from there, why did you leave the library? As far as I know, weren’t you created by the Goddess Iriel and given orders to protect the library?”

The librarian was a homunculus created by the Goddess Iriel when she made the library, and according to historical records, she should have received orders from Iriel to protect the library. So how on earth did she come out like this, acting in violation of those orders?

To be honest, it was a bit awkward for me to say this as I considered Myu my own daughter, but homunculi mostly recognize themselves as tools and prioritize the orders of their creator.

Of course, homunculi also have emotions and self-awareness, so it’s not that there are no cases of refusal, but it was rare for them to refuse orders unless it was really necessary.

Especially since the librarian’s mother was the Goddess Iriel. If her mother was Iriel, I didn’t think she could refuse even more.

That’s why I asked this question. And the answer to my question was quite shocking.

“Because I was annoyed.”

“…Hm?”

“No, to be more precise, it would be more correct to say I was angry.”

I correct myself. It was an answer that naturally evoked a question in return, beyond shocking.

I was momentarily stunned and made a stupid expression at the librarian’s words, and the librarian continued speaking with her eyes slightly closed as if recalling something.

“Unfortunately, I can’t tell you the details. It’s an order engraved in my foundation when I was created, so this is the one thing I can’t disobey. But what I can clearly tell you is that I’ve been mentally oppressed by my former mother for a long time, and with this latest order from Mother, I finally couldn’t stand it anymore, violated the order, and left the library. That’s the simple explanation for my actions up until now.”

“I-Is that so?”

In other words, summarizing the librarian’s words, Iriel had been giving unreasonable orders to the librarian continuously, and finally, the librarian who had lost her temper ran away.

…In a way, the librarian’s words could sound like the complaints of a pubescent child.

Of course, the original reason could be something I couldn’t even imagine as important, but hearing it now with that omitted, the librarian’s words sounded a bit childish.

Therefore, I was at a loss for words at the librarian’s statement and could only give a light agreement, but knowing that if we continued like this, the earlier silence would settle again, I barely squeezed out another question I had prepared in my head.

“Ahem…! Then why did you call me mother earlier? Isn’t your mother the Goddess Iriel?”

“Ah, that is…”

The second question was why the librarian was calling me mother.

If she was a homunculus I had created from the start like Myu, I could understand, but the librarian was not a homunculus I had created, and she was a homunculus that had existed since ancient times.

There was no reason for her to call me mother, so I was curious about this, and the librarian trailed off for a moment at my question.

An expression as if she didn’t want to put the answer to my question in her mouth.

But soon, the librarian opened her mouth with a face that seemed to have made up her mind.

“Well… Although I said I came out to find freedom, just wandering around without any purpose would be too risky in many ways, so I wanted to find someone I could rely on. And after all, since I’m also a homunculus, even though I dislike my former mother, I can’t help but be drawn to that energy…”

“I see, so that’s how it was.”

“…Yes.”

I didn’t listen to the end, but I realized what the librarian was going to say at that point without needing to hear more.

She couldn’t guarantee her own safety and might perish if she wandered around recklessly, so she instinctively needed a guardian to replace Iriel.

And in finding such a guardian, she was inevitably drawn to someone with an energy similar to her mother Iriel, so she came to me, who could be said to be the closest to Iriel.

However, after understanding the librarian’s words for a moment, I soon frowned slightly at an important fact I remembered.

“It’s true that I’m deeply connected to the Goddess Iriel as you say. But I’m sorry to say, because I’m so deeply connected to the Goddess Iriel, I think the risk of being caught is actually greater if you stick with me.”

I am literally the human being watched by Iriel.

Moreover, one of the phrases I received from Iriel on my way here was ‘[So that your heart doesn’t crumble, I, Goddess Iriel, will dwell within you.]’, so it would be fair to say that the Goddess Iriel’s eyes were literally inside me.

In fact, she might have already been caught at the point when she met me, but I warned her because I thought it would be better to tell her this.

After all, it seemed she had run away due to her own dissatisfactions, so I hoped she would run away as much as she could rather than being caught by Iriel. Although I don’t know how long she could hold out against Iriel anyway.

However, to these words of mine, the librarian just smiled brightly and answered as if to say not to worry.

“It’s alright. My former mother isn’t very interested in me anyway. And since my former mother only observes you, not others, you don’t need to worry about me being caught.”

“Hmm?”

This is the first time I’m hearing this.

No, come to think of it, the thought that I was no different from Iriel’s eyes was just my subjective opinion, so the librarian’s words are probably correct.

I narrowed my eyes slightly at the somewhat doubtful words, but soon relaxed them.

The librarian had seen Iriel for much longer than I had, so wouldn’t she know better than me?

Besides, even if those words were wrong, it would only be the librarian getting caught, there was no loss to me, so it was fine.

Seeing her so confident, she seems to have confidence too.

Therefore, I nodded adequately to the librarian’s words.

“Alright, then the rest of my curiosities aren’t that important right now, so I’ll listen to them later. Originally, the academy classes come first now, so I’ll go back to the practical training ground.”

As I wasn’t the type to cruelly turn away a homunculus who had run away after suffering from oppression, the conclusion I would reach was already decided.

The librarian’s expression brightened at my words.

She had said she didn’t have a name and wanted me to give her one, so I could do that after finishing all of today’s classes and going to the temple later while asking the rest of my questions.

Moreover, I should keep her with me as I’m also curious about the goddess’s oppression that she hid and what appears to be a book from the Library of Records that she brought.

“Mother is really kind after all…”

“How troublesome, another homunculus has increased.”

“I agree.”

And at this decision of mine, Myu dropped her head with a resigned expression as if she had expected this, and Isolde and Morgan showed faces with little interest.

I let out a small laugh at their reactions, all three showing their impressions as they were, then soon regained my composure and left the office.

“Then I’ll really go to the last class now. Myu, I leave the three of them to you.”

“Yes, leave it to me, Mother.”

Myu nodded her head reliably.

I turned away from Myu’s face and immediately started running at full speed towards the practical training ground I had temporarily left.

After all, as a professor, I can’t be careless with classes even if I trust the students.

Leaving only a light breeze behind, I disappeared from the spot.

---

The office where only the four remained after Aria left.

Myu, who was sitting in her seat with an indifferent expression, momentarily neglected her surveillance of Isolde and Morgan who were fidgeting and playing behind her, and glanced at the librarian.

‘Should I say it? Or should I not…’

The concern Myu was having while glancing at the librarian was none other than whether to establish the hierarchy or not.

She was made by Mother’s hands, and that librarian was just a rolling stone that came looking for a guardian.

And for whatever reason Mother was related to the goddess, she was calling her mother just because of that one reason.

So even if the other side was older, there was a need to let her know that she came first.

‘Because we’re homunculi…’

Homunculi are dependent beings. No matter how much self-awareness and emotions they have, that doesn’t change.

Especially with someone like Aria who is close to an ideal mother figure, it wouldn’t be strange to depend on her to the point of fanaticism.

That’s why Myu was seriously contemplating this, but the one reason Myu couldn’t step forward was:

‘I don’t want to do anything that Mother might dislike…’

What if Mother dislikes it if she does this? And before that, although Myu herself hadn’t realized it, because she was so upright by nature, Myu instinctively felt reluctant to engage in acts that fell into the category of such evil deeds.

Therefore, Myu was struggling in what seemed like an endless cycle of concern, but before Myu could reach a conclusion, suddenly, the librarian who had been sitting still with a blank face turned her head towards Myu.

“You’re a homunculus too, aren’t you? And made by Mother at that.”

“Uh, um… yeah.”

What could be the reason for suddenly speaking? Could she be trying to strike first? Is this rolling stone trying to uproot her from the ground?

Anxiety arose at the thought that it might be possible.

Wondering if she could perhaps ask for help from Isolde or Morgan, with whom she had a little friendship even if it was short, Myu turned to look at them, but seeing the attitude of the two who were already putting up a wall as if they didn’t want to be involved in this, she gritted her teeth inwardly.

Just like demons, they become cold-blooded like ice when it comes to troublesome matters.

Myu eventually chewed on her complaints towards the two and looked back at the librarian, and then the librarian took one step, coming right up to Myu’s face and grabbing her shoulders.

An obvious intent to attack no matter who saw it. Because of this, Myu unhesitatingly drew out her staff immediately, and.

“Ugh…!”

“Please take care of me, Big Sister.”

“I won’t be easily… Huh?”

At the librarian’s words that were heard the next moment, she froze in place.

Meeting her gaze, she saw the librarian’s eyes filled with sparkling respect.

It seemed that the librarian was a kinder and more well-behaved homunculus than Myu had imagined.