Almandine heard the beeping indicating the scanning was completed, but she didn’t hear any instructions from Bahyun, so she stayed where she was, not moving around as he had asked her to. She thought there might be other scans being done. After a long moment of silence, she came down from the scanner, which looked like a board with complicated magic circles drawn on it, with a puzzled expression.
Bahyun was usually a person who worked with a focused mind. It was unusual for Almandine to find him staring at the screen without blinking and doing nothing for almost half an hour, as indicated by the time display in the corner of the screen. He snapped out of his blank-minded state when nudged by Almandine.
He looked desperate, burying his face in his palms as if he had witnessed something terrible. The screen displayed her scanning results, so she naturally knew that it must be her problem that was bothering him. She waited for a while, but Bahyun remained soaked in desperation. Rarely, she asked, “What happened?”
“Nothing.” Bahyun said, rubbing his face before pulling away his palms face and sitting up straight with a forced smile, “ All done! I’ll walk you to the door. Go back and get some rest, okay? Do you need me to do the groceries for you?”
Almandine didn’t answered, but silently gazed at him until his smile stiffened. Then, she asked indifferently, “Tell me the truth.”
“What truth? You know I would never lie to you.”
“You are lying now.” Almandine’s eyes softened after being cared by Bahyun for many months. She didn’t seem to be pressing him for an answer with her gaze, but her crystal-clear, bright eyes made him uneasy about hiding the truth. He worried that it would hurt her if she knew it, but he also don’t want to lie to her. Finally, he gave up to her gaze.
His eyes fall upon the 52-inch screen divided into a few frames representing different kind of scans. The details were clear, and he understood their meaning within seconds, which made his chest tighten even more.
“The FayOra stone serves as your core, and dark energy acts as your bloodstream, forming a complex magic circuit that mimics a human body. The magic circuit can be divided into many parts, each responsible for attack, defence, movement, sensing...and one of them is for energy refilled, to recharge the mana you use. This means that you don’t have a high mana storage in your body; the circuit would utilizes the mana from the air and surroundings to power you up. That’s why you can use magic spells that consist of light energy, because the energy doesn’t necessarily need to enter your body to be used by you.”
“After you lost half of the FayOra, the magic circuit that formed you began collapsing, and the part responsible for refilling energy kept drawing mana from the surroundings to compensate for you loss. So your attacks became less powerful than they once were, I believe you noticed this as well when you fought the dark beast.”
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She did notice her combat ability had weakened ever since she fought the first dark beast. If it weren’t for the fact that the dark beast she fought was weak and saved by Bahyun later that day, she would have been dead from exhaustion at that moment.
“Your body’s imbalance forces the circuit to grab as much energy as it can to maintain your body’s function. That’s why your appetite was huge; it tries to replace your body parts with the elements and chemicals you consume. But you don’t have a flesh body like us, the things you consume can’t stay long in your body. That’s why you looked thin even though you eat so much, and you’re getting even skinnier...” Bahyun assumed it was just his illusion at first because he found it hard to tell if someone was skinnier than before unless there was a very significant difference. But now it was confirmed by the scanning results, Almandine was indeed getting skinnier, and now he could even feel her skeleton when he held her arms.
“These things won’t happen if your circuit design had considered backups from the start, but...” Her creator treated her as a weapon, not a person. Weapons just need to know how to fight, and if maintenance costs to much effort, they could always get a new one. Plus, Mages are only on duty for ten years, so Almandine, who was a replica to counter a Mage, only needed to be designed to live that long...Thus, if Bahyun is not mistaken, Almandine was designed to have only a ten-year lifespan from the day she was born.
And Morganite was going to retire soon.
Almandine’s creator was indeed a genius to have created such a miracle. It could have been an honored guest if it hadn’t yearned to conquer this world.
Bahyun didn’t considered himself a genius. He was just a hardworking student with a great interest in magic, and he had the advantage of a previous life, making him seem like a genius, but in reality, he wasn’t. He couldn’t create an Almandine from scratch, he didn’t even have the confidence to fix this girl.
Almandine noticed the sadness beneath his eyes. She finally understood the word “sorrow” as described in the book.
She looked at her hand for a moment, her expression seeming vacant.
“So, I’m going to die soon?”
Bahyun wished he could answer her with a solid “no”, but he lost his voice when he tried to speak.
Almandine saw sorrow deepen in his gaze, but she gave him a smile. It was a slightly curled-up lips that were supposed to look gentle and warm but somehow seemed mocking, probably due to her default facial expression setting.
“Bahyun, I feel happy.”
Bahyun though he misheard her words, but she repeated them sternly. “I feel happy, Bahyun.”
“I have lived for almost ten years, with at least nine of them trapped in the fringe of both world. Nine years were lost to me when I was just trying to jump from this world to another through the portal. So, in fact, I have truly lived for not even a year.” Almandine said, looking at him with brighter eyes, “And throughout this short moment of life, I fought the Mages under master’s orders, and in most of the time, I have met you.”
“You taught me, took care of me, encouraged me, protected me, and shaped me into a nearly normal person form a being that knew nothing. So, I’m happy.” Almandine gave Bahyun, who was stunned in place, a hug, “I’m happy, to have the chance to know this world before I’m gone. I know how to smile now, and I know you.”
“There a book that says if a person who soon dies finds themselves having a great experience throughout their lives, filled with laughter and sadness, ups and downs, then it would be a life with no regrets. I’m happy if this shall be my ending, I have no regrets.”
Tears rolled in Bahyun’s eyes as he hugged her tightly, “No...This shouldn’t be your ending!”
I won’t give up. Bahyun sworn to himself silently, First, complete the halved FayOra in her body, then replace the circuit with human’s nerves and flesh...