Memories of happily running through the mountains, forests, fields, and meadows together for the past eight months pass by like a kaleidoscope. Lulu, whose entire field of activity was the kitchen of the mansion, thought that that short time was somehow enjoyable.
His dying face was at ease.
Raising her head, Lulu started walking again. After confirming the owner’s death, a command activated in his head.
You need to return to the automaton manager.
Originally, he was supposed to return to the mansion, but in this situation, Lulu’s return proves his death.
So, I decided to carry out the first order that is planted in all automatons.
It was Lulu who stopped walking in the maze and looked back once, but that was all there was to express disturbing emotions. For safety and functional reasons, automatons are not equipped with advanced computational functions and emotions to the extent that they mourn someone’s death.
And Lulu had work to do.
I have to move We have to get out of here.
After a while, Lulu had to find a way to go up to the first floor as she had hoped.
And it was so nice to meet other adventurers while wandering around on the first basement floor.
“Ask for help.”
“Ughhh?! What is this?!”
Surprised adventurers were frightened when they saw the little doll waddling out of the darkness.
“It’s an automaton. oh my god! In the dungeon!”
“I am the automaton of the previous adventurers. I hope you can tell me the way to go up to the ground.”
“You, the owner?”
“He died. It is on the second basement floor.”
At those words, adventurers gathered around Lulu with interest.
“B2 floor? There’s a second basement floor here?!”
“This is a new discovery! where are you? Where is the entrance?”
Lulu looked up at them for a moment and said.
“If I tell you that, will you show me the way to the surface?”
People looked at each other at the rare bold question of the automaton. It seemed ridiculous because it was not a horse.
“Then, you just have to go that way. We were just coming down.”
Lulu looked at the maze alley pointed by the adventurers, then turned and pointed at the wall behind.
“I came by drawing a line. If you follow it, there are stairs that go down to the second floor. X marks are blockages. There is a dungeon boss you defeated on the 2nd floor. The deceased colleagues are also in the same room.”
The faces of the adventurers were stained with greed.
“Then did your party all die trying to catch it?”
“Did you defeat the boss mob? Great. guide you there Automaton.”
Lulu quietly looked up at them. Automaton Lulu, who suffered a lot while living in the dormitory of Kane and the Adventurer Guild, found the gaze of predators in their faces and eyes.
looking at me as food
Lulu stepped back.
“I must go to the surface. We must return these people to their families.”
“What are you talking about? The doll will do what it tells you to do.”
The man who was watching from the side poked him in the waist and stepped forward. Then, she looked down at Lulu and held out a coin.
“You lost your master, right? Would you like to come back with me as a caretaker? I’ll be your new master. I’ll make repairs and change all your clothes to new ones. How are you?”
What is this person talking about?
Lulu couldn’t understand.
“Why are you saying that? I have to return to being a janitor.”
“Kuh-! Can’t you?”
The man watching from the side giggled.
“Yumma, don’t you think it’s that easy to seduce an automaton? I’ll try.”
“He was good at flirting before?”
“You idiots, fall for automatons you know well and tricks like that. And what are you going to do with such a small thing?”
“You are still moving. I also have a large bag on my back, so I wonder if I can use it instead of a porter.”
At that time, the adventurer who was examining Lulu’s backpack said.
“By the way, this bastard, why did you come up with such a bari-bari? What’s inside?”
The man who arbitrarily opened the bag and took out the contents opened it and threw it away screaming when a dwarf face appeared.
“Ouch! Is that a human head?! crazy!”
Catch Bob’s falling head in a hurry, and Chan Lu Lu hugged him dearly. Adventurers draw their swords.
Sreung! Sureureung!
“Cutting off people’s heads and carrying them around! It’s a mad automaton! Back off! Be alert!”
“Aww! dirty!”
“You devil’s doll! Did you kill all of them!”
Lulu, who held Bob’s head in her small chest, would have had a devastated face if there was any expression on her face. But I couldn’t do that, so I spoke out forcefully.
“I didn’t.”
“no! you did! This devilish thing!”
“I didn’t!”
“Shut up! You monster! Give me that bag!”
As the adventurers attacked, Lulu took out a scroll from her pocket and tore it up.
“light.”
Flash!
Since it was a dungeon, I prepared a lot of light scrolls. Naturally, the porter Lulu also had it.
Surprised by the sudden flash of light, the adventurers tightly closed their eyes and swung their swords wildly.
“Wow! Yumma! it’s crazy!”
“Oops! Mi-sorry!”
“Where did this f*cking doll go?!”
“damn! They ran away!”
“it’s okay. Don’t be exhausted, let’s find the second floor. If what he said is true, he looks like he can blow his nose without touching it.”
The adventurers spat out curse words and started walking along the line drawn on the wall.
Lulu, who watched the scene in the near darkness, turned her body with a limp. After that, he did not talk to the adventurers even when he encountered them. Rather, he launched a preemptive attack with a light and started to run away.
After spending dozens of hours on the first floor, Lulu came out and hurriedly hid herself without having time to get sentimental looking up at the dark night sky.
It was because there were many adventurers camping around the dungeon.
Wheein!
Lulu, who walked all night through the cold winter wind and greeted the day, suddenly stopped. He realized that he hadn’t chosen a destination because he focused only on walking and avoiding adventurers.
Lulu took a map out of her pocket and turned it around before looking around.
No matching terrain could be found on the map.
“I am lost.”
The ability of automatons to learn is just like humans. No matter how good my memory is, I can’t remember it all at once, and I have to read, learn, and practice several times to master it.
Teaching skills to such automatons required great persistence and effort, so automatons that knew how to do something tended to be expensive.
Anyway, Lulu didn’t know how to read a map.
After staring at the map for a long time, Lulu soon folded it well, put it in her pocket, and started walking.
“We need to find a city. You must return to the janitor. We need to return these people to their families.”
Lulu, who was walking in the cold wind day and night, making fun of her lame legs because she was short, wandered in the field in the middle of winter, looking for traces of people.
Fortunately, the season was winter, so there were few monsters, and wild animals like wolves attacked quite a bit, but Lulu properly used her ax and scroll to drive them away or split their heads.
Podeudeuk… … ! Podeuk!
Suddenly, Lulu entered the snowy area. I couldn’t figure out the direction, so I walked and walked, and then I found myself in a strange place. Then, by chance, I found the traces of the wagon passing by in the snowy road, and I was delighted to see them, and I followed them while examining them from afar.
Roads will lead to people everywhere.
* * *
A month after escaping the dungeon like that.
Lulu discovered Gearco City.
It was Argon, the ark city located in the north.
From noble mtl dot com
“You’re from Stein?”
“yes.”
“Where is Stein? Aren’t you in the East?”
“and! It’s a place where it takes more than a week to ride a wagon.”
“Automatons are great. Did you come on foot? that distance? this winter?”
Seeing the automaton in disarray, the guards at the gates of Argon licked their tongues. Lulu unpacked and got off the bag after almost a month. It was Lulu’s treasure that she protected from adventurers and wild animals.
“I also brought the adventurers who died in the dungeon together. I want to find my family.”
The guards heard the strange sound and rushed to the bag.
“Uhhhhh!?”
“Sah, it’s a human head… … !”
Since it was winter, hair that wasn’t badly damaged fell out of the bag.
The guards, whose eyes were sharpened, pointed their spears in surprise, but the automaton Lulu was intoxicated with a deep sense of accomplishment.
“I did it. I’ve done it. Praise him.”
One of the senior guard calmed down his comrades and crouched in front of him. Then he put his hand on his head and patted it.
Guard Walter looked at the ruined automaton with a deep gaze.
“Yeah, that’s wonderful. Good job. Please don’t praise me.”
That evening, a vicious but warm rumor that started in a city bar quickly spread throughout the city.
It was about an extraordinary automaton that brought back the heads of adventurers who lost their lives in the dungeon.
Crank, who had been working on the farm, entered the inn where he was tied up and heard the rumor. At first, I thought there was something strange going on.
Until the guards arrive… … .
“Is there someone called Crank here?”
Armed guards entered and searched for him, and Maria, anxious to find something, called for a young man who had been eating bread and water alone in his room.
“I am the crank.”
“I want you to follow me for a while.”
“Have you had a crank accident?”
“ha ha ha!”
Shop regulars teased him, but Crank, who couldn’t remember anything, only scratched his head. Maria asked, worried.
“what’s the matter? What happened? Aren’t you a kid who’s going to have an accident?”
“Oh, not because of that. There is someone looking for it.”
Leaving Maria’s concerns behind, they took Crank and headed for the guards. It was time for work, but most of the guards who had finished their shifts were still gathered there.
“I brought the crank!”
Everyone turned their heads.
“Wow, that dude, he’s so tall.”
“Is that guy a crank?”
A slightly nervous crank looked around, but the 3rd Guards Captain, who was taking care of the situation, approached. He had an old face, but a strong body.
“Are you a crank? Have you ever been to Stein?”
“Yes, I was there until the fall.”
The captain of the 3rd Guard looked up at him for a moment and muttered.
“To think this could happen just before retirement. One more story to tell my grandchildren. Bring him.”
Before long, Crank opened his eyes wide. Appearing in front of him with a limp leg was a small automaton.
“Lulu?”
“Nice to meet you. crank.”
Crank, who was kneeling in front of him, couldn’t keep his mouth shut while watching Lulu’s face. Soon his face hardened.
“What is it? What happened?”
Lulu spoke once again about the story she had told the guards. Crank’s face was messed up.
“Hey, I need to check. Come and see.”
The guards entered a room with Crank. There, people’s heads were placed neatly.
“That automaton brought it. There are colleagues who were together at Stein. … .”
The guard fell silent when he saw the large young man sobbing with his arms resting on the desk and his head bowed.
After a while, he rubbed his eyes with his sleeve and pointed at people.
“Dwarf Bob, Peter, priest pot, I don’t know the rest.”
“Right. I checked.”
When we went outside again, Lulu was talking to the person who had been called from the management. A security guard reported to the 3rd Guards Commander, who was crossing his arms.
“you’re right.”
“Come over here and see. I have something to say on this side.”
The person called from the automaton janitor looked up at the crank.
“This automaton has lost its owner. so… … .”
“Is Kane dead too? What about Lorna? It wasn’t there!”
Lulu, who had been silent for a while, answered Crank’s wide-eyed question.
“The master did not want to return to the mansion. He wanted to be buried in the early night. So I left it in the dungeon and came out. Lorna I don’t know. The body could not be identified.”
“okay… … .”
The janitor who was watching intervened.
“So, it is a principle to collect and dismantle an automaton that has lost its owner and has nowhere to go to prevent accidents that occur when there is no one responsible for the action. It is an order to return to the manager for that.”
Everyone looked at him. the man spoke
“But at Argon’s automaton caretakers, we give the automaton the last option for a variety of reasons. Lulu.”
Lulu turned her head. the man asked.
“Do you really want to disintegrate? Is there anyone who can entrust you?”
Lulu looked at the crank now. Following his gaze, everyone was now looking at him. In fact, Crank felt his heart sink.
“The adventure I had with you was so exciting. If I get a chance, I want to run around a bit more. Those meadows, fields, and forests.”
Lulu held out a small hand to him.
“Would you like to be the Master?”
Crank, who hesitated a little, eventually grabbed the hand. The officials who were watching laughed heartily.
“Good. yes. Crank, do you have coins in your pocket?”
I rummaged through my pockets and found the wages I had received from working on the farm. The janitor picked up a silver coin and put it in Lulu’s hand. and said with a smile
“When you have a soul someday, you will need a ticket to heaven. Write it then.”
The janitor now turned to the crank.
“This automaton now belongs to you. I’d like to take it and fix it and try it. For repairs, you can consult at the Automaton Maintenance Guild. Parts are also sold in the janitor’s parts department, so please use them.”
“Don’t worry about those people you brought. I will definitely find my family and let them go.”
Lulu bowed her head to the 3rd Guard Captain to express her gratitude.
After that, Crank, who left the guard with Lulu only when it was getting dark while filling out some documents and decorating the protocol, looked down after feeling a little bewildered. Our eyes met with Lulu, who was looking up.
“I will leave it up to you. master.”
He looked down at Lulu for a moment, then bent down and picked up the little automaton.
“Amazing. Did you come in this state?”
“yes. It took a month.”
“one month?!”
When he arrived at the inn on foot while talking about what had been accumulated, Maria greeted him with surprised eyes.
“Eggmoney! what is that?”
“I brought it for a reason. It is my automaton from today.”
“Yes?”
Crank also didn’t organize the situation well, so he said that and went up to his room.
Krank sat on the floor with Lulu sitting on the bed and stared at the little doll. Somehow he seemed to have lost his mind.
Then Crank, feeling hungry, groped the floor and began chewing on raw carrots from the farm’s greenhouse.
“Aww! Misguided!”
However, her eyes are fixed on Lulu.
How do I do this?
My head is complicated.
Then Lulu opened her mouth.
“Master, give me a new name.”
“A new name?”
“Yes, it is important. I am no longer the mansion’s kitchen assistant doll. It is an adventurer’s automaton. We need a new name.”
Crank, who was quietly watching Lulu, lifted up the carrot she was chewing and said casually.
“Then how about a little cute carrot?”
“Carrot.”
Carrot raised her head.
“My name is Carrot now. I want to go on an adventure with you.”
Crank, who was chewing on a carrot, made up his mind.
“okay. good.”