episode_0205

My ability, Liar.

To maintain usable output, it required constant charging.

The method of charging was to utter lies, either to others or to myself.

The greater the emotional fluctuation stemming from the lies, the more effective the charge.

However, one couldn’t just casually blurt out lies to others.

Thus, in most cases, I handled it alone.

“I confess to myself. I have never once told a lie in my life.”

Immediately after the short, echoing sentence, a blue screen appeared before my eyes.

-Ding!

[A small amount of lie has been recovered.]

[Current remaining output: 24.3%]

The status window detected the lie and processed its karma.

My lips knew no sin. They merely added whispers to meager numbers.

A mechanical sound echoed in my ears again and again.

“I ate stew for lunch today.”

-Ding!

[A small amount of lie has been recovered.]

[Current remaining output: 24.8%]

“I am currently outdoors.”

-Ding!

[A small amount of lie has been recovered.]

[Current remaining output: 25.2%]

“I dislike games.”

-Ding!

[A small amount of lie has been recovered.]

[Current remaining output: 25.7%]

Yet, at the end, I always threw out the same phrase.

Simply to reflect on my own existence.

“I am not human.”

-Ding!

[The lie is…]

The status window’s message stretched out.

I gazed at the characters written beyond it with sunken eyes.

Unlike the previous ones, an alien sentence was written there.

[It is not a lie. Output will not be recovered.]

[Current remaining output: 25.7%]

An affirmation of the recent soliloquy.

I remained deep in thought.

“……”

Yes, I was not human.

I was merely a doll imitating it.

***

Homunculus.

An artificial human created based on alchemy.

In current academic circles, it was considered impossible, a theory relegated to the realm of eccentrics.

Yet, they say human tenacity can overcome walls.

There was a man who ultimately challenged the realm of the gods.

‘Geppetto Snakers.’

Within the field of alchemy, a lineage known as a distant prestigious family.

Geppetto’s genius was praised as unprecedented.

Not only within his family, but throughout the history of the continent, it was unparalleled.

Perhaps due to his unique reclusive nature, he rarely came forward, but he was a famous name in academia.

The birth of an unprecedented alchemist. Geppetto had already reached the pinnacle at the young age of twenty.

As alchemy gradually began to bore him, he encountered a certain theory.

None other than the theory of creating life.

‘Homunculus.’

A field of study that challenged the realm of the gods.

It couldn’t be compared to ‘chimeras’ originating from black magic or mana.

Because it was a theory pioneered solely on the basis of alchemy, without defiling the essence of life.

For Geppetto, who was in an academic slump, it was irresistibly attractive.

For geniuses, by nature, tend to venture beyond the ordinary.

He immediately began to immerse himself in Homunculus research.

-It’s not about making a perfect doll.

-It’s about making a doll as perfectly close to human as possible.

-I will go beyond a doll… to sculpt humanity itself with my own hands.

-I will achieve that truth.

An arrogant beginning.

The man’s research continued for a long time. The pen he held at twenty was only put down after a full thirty years.

-Finally… it is complete.

Geppetto had sculpted a perfect creation unlike anything the world had ever seen.

However, two flaws existed in this creation.

-It’s a mystery.

The first was the intervention of an unknown personality.

According to the original design, the doll was supposed to awaken around the time of academy admission.

Until then, it was meant to remain unconscious and undergo the process of establishing a self.

The creation should not have awakened.

‘However.’

The doll opened its eyes three years earlier than its scheduled date.

As if a soul had descended into it from somewhere, its self was already established.

Geppetto named this phenomenon [Possession].

This was one of the scenes I also remembered.

‘When I opened my eyes… I was submerged in a transparent liquid.’

How terrifying it was at the time.

I thought I was having a nightmare.

After realizing I had been possessed, I even wished it *had* been a nightmare.

No matter how many times I looked back, the memories from the initial period of possession were not pleasant at all.

It was a time when everything was just chaotic…

‘Anyway.’

That was the doll’s first flaw.

Next, the second was…

‘Tears.’

A doll does not cry.

It was from the Book of Truth, Chapter 3, Verse 14.

Meaning that God does not permit tears to artificially created beings.

Even Geppetto’s creation could not escape the concept of a doll as described above.

Because for some reason, tears did not well up in the body I had possessed.

Simultaneously, the paradox that humans cannot tread upon the realm of God.

-How truly strange.

-So identical, yet.

-Even though it bleeds like a human, makes expressions, and feels emotions… it is not permitted tears.

-Child, you are a failure. Yet, you are also a masterpiece that will be remembered as the greatest in my life.

-Therefore, I shall call you Pinocchio.

It was a vivid memory.

At first, I even had such a suspicion.

The suspicion that Geppetto might also be involved with cultists.

Because if he had created a weapon named Yuda to destroy the world, the situation would roughly fit.

But it wasn’t. If such an aura had been detected, the family would have been wiped out long ago.

Not only Geppetto, but even the servants employed by the family were flawless.

A lineage with no connection to black magic itself.

‘Moreover…’

Because Geppetto was a notoriously extreme alchemist.

Perhaps due to his origins, he regarded everything outside of alchemy as inferior.

Truly a racist of the academic world. It was said that in his youth, he even earned the epithet ‘mad dog’…

For such a Geppetto to dabble in black magic was absurd.

He was the kind of person who would bite off his tongue and die rather than rely on demonic energy.

‘Anyway.’

At the mansion, I was called Pinocchio.

The name Yuda came later.

I organized my complicated thoughts and gazed at the man before me.

A thin build, a middle-aged man with dark green hair and a beard.

Our gazes met.

“……”

Silence settled throughout the laboratory.

Was it perhaps due to the somewhat shocking content of the conversation?

The companions standing nearby all seemed unable to follow the flow.

Even if they had roughly heard our conversation, it was too sudden.

It must be something that needed time to process. I calmly clenched my fist.

Then, I parted my lips.

“There’s always been a part I found questionable.”

The Snakers family.

The time I actually spent here was not long.

A few months after possession, needing to adapt, and then a few months just before entering the academy.

Even a rough calculation showed it wasn’t even half a year.

‘I was busy.’

I spent most of my time wandering outside.

Fighting the succession war, founding Astro, expanding my influence, recruiting members…

I didn’t even have time to visit the mansion. There was even a time I was missing for over a year.

Despite that, not even a slight reprimand came from the family.

Even though I was a created doll, I was the one who took on the role of the eldest son.

However, instead of managing me, they merely watched from afar.

As if they were observers.

“It was always strange.”

Even within the mansion, the family remained indifferent.

You could say I was treated almost as if I didn’t exist.

“The Count didn’t even pretend to know me. The other servants were the same. Even if they did interact with me, it was as if they were attending to a guest with no relation to them…”

“Pinocchio. The reason is because you were a completed creation.”

“I find that hard to understand. If I were a completed creation, shouldn’t there have been much more active follow-up research or information gathering? Instead, the Count didn’t intervene at all.”

“That is a philosophy.”

Geppetto replied with indifferent eyes.

His pupils were lifeless, like death itself.

“That’s how works of art are. Until they are complete, they belong to the creator, but the moment they are complete, they leave the creator’s hands. From then on, they belong not to the creator, but to the world.”

“……”

“No matter what judgment is passed on that artwork, or what repercussions arise, it cannot be controlled. The creator merely observes the ripples in the world. Therefore, creation is akin to a concept of standing by.”

“In other words, it means you let go once it was completed.”

“I respected the will of the creation. So it could act as it pleased.”

“A strange philosophy.”

“It’s aesthetics, Pinocchio.”

Geppetto replied without even looking back at me.

Well, I didn’t care about this old man’s view of art.

I was merely seeking answers.

-The Snakers family. -Go there. To the place where you originated.

Advice received from the Dean.

A voice that told me to seek my origins if I wanted answers.

He wouldn’t have left such words without meaning.

I asked.

“More importantly, there is something I wish to ask.”