Chapter 9: Seven

Heavy breaths rang in the room. Her emerald eyes jumped around the place, a dead body, a severed head, no blood, and a Gear in her grip. She released the weapon and threw it aside. Soon, she had crossed the room and the house and thrown herself outside of the shack.

However, a moment later, she was forced to a stop as she glanced around her.

"What. . .where am I. . ."

Lights filled her vision, lights and sounds she had never heard before. There was talking, yelling, clanks of metal, and soon, she was looking up.

It was a giant domed city. A giant domed city of iron, and a film of mana covered its construct. Yet, a brick tower pierced through its roof and into the white clouds above, reaching higher than even she could see. She was on the outskirts of such a city, not even residing within, and all around her were dilapidating shacks made of wood and metal, some like little boxes and others rising high, and then there were humans in mismatched clothing—moving about in daylight through an asphalt road.

The place was beyond crowded.

There was a honk and she turned her head to see the mass of a white truck headed for her. Rose moved her body, quickly jumping out of the way like the rest of the slum-folk along the road and ignoring the curses of the driver of such a motor.

This was a world, a place she did not know.

She quietly settled her mind, shocking herself at the composure the hum of her core brought to her, listening to it reminded her of her own safety, and returned inside of the shack. She had to get a grip first. She entered the workshop, the weapon had disappeared, and she looked to the core and the woman.

A few moments later and she managed to put the thing back into the homunculus. Brown eyes blinked open, took in the room with the dead body then back at the girl in front of her.

"Did you kill him?" The voice of the woman was soft, somewhat unperturbed. There was a tenseness to it but that seemed only due to disbelief, not mercy and grief.

"Yes," Rose told the truth, eyes trailing down.

The woman looked at her and smiled. A smile she thought was one of relief and comfort.

"Please," Maria said, and Rose thought she would cry if their bodies could, "Please. . .kill me too. . ."

The girl's emerald eyes widened and she looked at the woman with narrowed eyes.

"Why?! You're free now!"

"I have 5 years of memories. . .memories I do not want. . .memories I don't want to live with any longer. . ."

"I could reset you!" Rose exclaimed, she felt she could, no, she knew she could. "I could reset your memories and programming!"

She couldn't make her free from restrictions. That would require her core to be re-built from the ground up, and that process would wipe her current self from existence. But it was possible to reset her to an earlier state, a state before she met Lux.

But the homunculus asked her a rather simple question.

"And what then?"

"Wha-what then?. . .what then. . .?" Those words left her mouth, quieting with each instance until there was nothing left.

Maria laughed lightly then pointed to her neck.

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"Look at my neck, look at this mark of a Slave Series—a single human that takes a look at me will just order me again, claim me as theirs, and that's that—I'll forever be the same. One look and I'll be captured and sold."

Rose fell silent at those words. The homunculus was right. Unlike her, who held no markings as per being an N. Series, Maria's branding could never be removed and she certainly couldn't set herself as the Master, that would require her core to be rebuilt—deleting the woman named Maria. Even trying to hide the marking with clothing would make no difference, if any human accidentally commanded or asked her for something or another, her cover would be blown and her body would move on its own.

There was simply no escape. Rose understood that. She was a very logical person, after all. No matter how much she remunerated, there was no escape. No path to victory. Maria could not even struggle for freedom, so she chose her own happiness: Death.

Rose listened momentarily to her humming core and calmed herself.

"Alright. . ." She took a breath and forced out the words, "I'll kill you."

There was something terribly wrong, Rose thought as she detached the core from the woman.

"My name is Maria—do you have. . .did your owner give you a name?" A pale, blue light shined between them, highlighting both of their faces as the older woman asked that question, smiling. She wasn't beautiful but, in that moment, Rose thought she was the most beautiful person she had ever seen.

"Rose," She replied.

The woman smiled, eyes full of warmth. "I envy you, Rose."

Rose placed her hand on that face.

"Sleep well, Maria."

With those words, Rose severed the connection between the doll and her core and Maria fell over. She stared at the scene for a few moments, taking it all in and calming her emotions.

She looked at the woman then at the orb—there was still residual energy left inside. She thought it better that it didn't go to waste and brought it to her chest. A blue light shined and the core in her hand grew duller. Yet, as she absorbed the mana of the dead homunculus, draining her energy into her being, five years of memories entered into her.

Her body shook and the core fully shattered.

She saw the life of the homunculus in her mind. From being told she had been taken from a trash heap, fixed by the boy, then staying by his side as per the sigil he had engrained in her. Their relationship had been simple—she was initially like a mother to him then, more of a mother than his own, and as the boy grew, his mind worsened at failure after failure, he had spent 3 years in a Mage Academy and he had come back with nothing to show for it. His family, the Luthers, a respected family of Mages that lived within the domed city of Alos she had seen, disowned and kicked him out. A few months of struggling and he finally found his way to the slums. Then, the day came when he broke down and ordered her to be his wife. And that was the same day Maria lost what little freedom she had as a homunculus.

Rose sat down, looking between the corpse of the man with eyes of hatred and that of the woman. She sighed. Save for the baggage the memories carried, there was also a slew of information on this world, specifically the city and the slums, that it contained.

"I see," She thought, her mind settling down with the hum of her core, "Before anything, I need. . .a way to make a living."

It wouldn't be funny if she lost all her charge and collapsed. She needed mana orbs. She needed to buy them. And she needed a way to continually make lixels—what she came to know as the currency of this world. And as she looked at the Constructor in front of her, she thought she knew just how to go about that.

Rose stood up and walked to the man. His detached head still had a shocked expression but she bent down to his body and began to remove what she needed.

She went through the memories she had gained. She stripped off the bracelet, the pad, the most important asset on him, and wore it to her own left wrist. She took off his blue jacket and wore it over her sweater. Then, she took his 'peace-maker,' otherwise crudely known as a gun.

Finally, she rummaged through the bin at the back of the workshop, taking her eyes off the other that had both metal and scraps. At the end of the day, she had found black leggings that seemed to fit her well enough, socks of white, a strip of the same color to tie her hair into a ponytail and sandals made of wood.

When all was set and done, she looked over herself and an insight came. The hum of her core still resounded in her mind but she was a homunculus that took no orders from humans. She was a homunculus that was free. And, she wondered, how and why that came about, along with all the slew of things she didn't know she had or could do.

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