Chapter 111

Chapter 111

“Roxana.” Nix gently called out to her while she continued to scrutinize the puppet. “It’s a bit strange to be this close together.”

As if to add to that point, his face really did appear to be a jumble of awkward expressions. It was a gamut of emotions that seemed wholly unnatural for a living doll.

Roxana lowered her gaze a bit as she too was feeling rather uneasy. She, of course, had never imagined she would ever see her brother in the flesh again. The closest she had come to doing so had been the hallucination she saw during her coming-of-age monthly evaluation when she was 15. But that Achille had looked horrendous and was of course nothing but a delusion.

While Roxana was still deep in thought, her late brother’s puppet replica spoke again. “It’s as if I’m meeting an old friend from long ago.”

Despite the seriousness in Nix’s tone, she couldn’t help but chuckle. “A puppet pretending to understand human emotions is simply too amusing.”

Her smile continued to mock him. Roxana reclined a bit deeper into her seat while gazing cynically at the blue-eyed doll. “Will you try to convince me next that not only your body but your soul is also Achille’s?”

Although she was willing to laugh along with his nonsense, she refused to get taken in no matter what he said.

“Well... To tell the truth...” He hesitated as he watched her carefully to see how she would react. “Noel ordered me to act like your brother so that we could keep you here for as long as possible.”

Now the Agrece was laughing more openly and knowingly as she had already deduced as much. What she had not expected was to hear the puppet tell her all this outright. Perhaps he could sense that she could not and would not be deceived, so decided it best to reveal Noel’s scheme.

“But I honestly don’t know how I should behave. It’s not like this body has memories.”

“That goes without saying. After all, you aren’t Achille.”

“And all that stuff about puppetism and whatnot is actually too complicated, so I can’t help you with that either.” Nix’s confession was of no consequence to Roxana, but what he did say next managed to capture her attention. “The truth is, from the moment I met you, I’ve felt genuinely happy and an odd sense of longing has manifested within me. I know that sounds strange, but it really is the truth.”

She could not detect any deceit in his gaze. Despite the circumstances, what he had said did sound sincere.

“And when I told you last night that I had been looking forward to meeting you, that was the truth as well.”

Roxana continued to listen while awaiting the end of Nix’s truth parade.

“I didn't actually come here today on Noel’s order, but simply because I wanted to see you again. I just wanted some time for you and me.”

Her icy gaze bore into him as if suss out the truth. She resigned herself to continue listening without saying a word.

“The Gold Master told me so much about you that I couldn’t help becoming curious. Of course, I’m sure it must sound preposterous to hear a puppet express developing such a feeling as curiosity.”

She simply stared at him in silence.

“But it’s true. Ever since I came into being, I’ve been curious about what sort of person I was before this ‘life.’”

Roxana’s face became cold and rigid like a thin sheet of ice as she pondered what her late brother’s puppet was trying to get at.

“You might think I’m being ludicrous, but I think of myself as completely at peace with this human form. After all, my life did start in this shell.”

He smiled at her as if to say he both sensed and understood her apprehension.

“Noel quite literally reanimated Achille, then provided me with a heart so I could feel things other puppets can’t.”

She was of the impression that this much was true since she had also noticed he was quite different from the other Vertium puppets.

His smile slowly became bittersweet before he went on. “According to Dante, I’m a defect. Please give me your honest opinion. Do I seem more like a human or a doll to you?”

Again she did no more than stare at him silently.

“I’ve heard that the composition of man requires two components: a body and a soul. If that is indeed all it takes, then what percentage do you think having Achille’s body accounts for?”

She offered him no answer.

“I’m only asking you because I really don’t have any idea myself,” he said.

Listening to a doll grapple with its own existence was indeed a first for the Agrece woman.

“If I found the answer, do you think it would help explain all these emotions I feel when I’m around you?”

Roxana had not expected Nix to wish to discuss such a subject, so she simply sat still while allowing the silence filling the room to congeal around them. On the other hand, her gaze was unfathomable to him.

He once again cut through the silence with a smile. “Why not stay here for a few more days? You know, to learn more about me.”

With the earnest air from moments prior now gone, Nix spoke more breezily. “The fact that you accepted our master’s invitation must mean that you’re curious, no? And I’m sure there are things you’d like to learn about from him.”

He tilted his head as if inviting her to answer. As far as his beauty was concerned, it was clear to any observer that there was no discernible form of trickery whatsoever on his face. His gaze held such innocence that one could imagine darkness turning to light the moment he stepped into any room.

Roxana, however, remained stoic. “I’ll admit everything you’ve just told me was fairly interesting...”

Clack.

She set down her teacup before continuing. “But it wasn’t quite what I would consider worthy of my time. I’ll be going now.”

And with that, she swiftly rose from her seat. Nix stared at her seemingly transfixed in his seat. As she turned to make her exit, there wasn’t so much as a hint of hesitation nor regret in her demeanor. But before she could step through the door, she threw out one fleeting final remark.

“Serve a different tea tomorrow. My tongue is numb from how sweet this one tasted.”

In the end, she had indirectly agreed to his proposal.

* * *

“So was it a fruitful meeting?” Dante entered the sitting room shortly after Roxana’s departure.

Nix was still sitting at the table lost in thought while supporting his chin with one hand while the other held his teacup. “I suppose you could say it went as expected. She agreed to stay here a bit longer.”

“Master Noel will be pleased to hear that.”

“Yes, I imagine so.”

Then without warning, the puppet burst out in laughter. “Humans really are the most foolish of creatures.”

Dante frowned as it was unclear if the puppet was making fun of him specifically as the only human in the room, or if it was a dig at humans in general.

“She acted so cool and disinterested, then changed her mind the moment I expressed some manufactured feelings. Honestly, what’s the big deal about this body? It’s really just a husk yet she behaved so oddly.”

Just as had been the case in the banquet hall, the blue-eyed being seemed to be surrounded by some sort of invisible barrier. It was almost like a blockade that could muffle sound, thus not even Roxana’s butterflies could effectively spy on the doll.

“It’s obvious she was very close to the owner of this body when he was alive. I simply took advantage of that fact, then it was all downhill from there.”

He finally placed his cup on the table. Pretending to be Achille-like had merely been an act for his bereaved sister’s benefit. After all, the puppet made from his body had little to no idea about how the original owner of his body had behaved in real life. The only information he had gathered was from the little Noel had thought to tell him. The rest was purely the product of his own fertile imagination.

He had also encountered another Agrece once before while he had been on his mission to locate his master’s “Luna,” but that was to be expected since he had gone into the Agreces’ territory.