Free Web NovelChapter 408: I Would Like to Join My Mother and Become your Honored Pet as well
Rahab placed a pale hand on the girl’s dark hair and patted it with maternal affection, her yellow eyes softening as she gazed down at her.
"I should have introduced you properly. This is one of the replicas I made sometime ago. I created several of them, you see, as backups. Contingencies. In case I ever lost my original body in a battle or an accident, I would have a vessel ready to receive my soul and continue my existence without interruption."
Rahab paused, her hand still resting on Nyx’s head, and her expression grew thoughtful.
"Unfortunately, the best one out of all of them—the one I poured the most care and energy into—developed a mind of her own. She turned sentient on her own, without my intervention or my intention."
"Unfortunately?" Benjamin made an awkward expression at the wording.
Rahab continued: "And she has been calling me mother for about a century now, ever since she first opened her eyes and looked at me."
Benjamin blinked. "A century? That’s... not tallying with the short stack in front of me."
Rahab looked down at Nyx and smiled, a genuine warmth in her expression that Benjamin had not yet seen from her: "Meet my self-proclaimed daughter, Nyx. She is fierce, loyal, and utterly devoted to my wellbeing. I apologize for the stabbing and the general attempts on your life."
Then Rahab straightened and turned her attention fully to Nyx.
"And yes, Nyx," she continued, her voice taking on a more explanatory tone, "a blast of that magnitude was enough to threaten my soul. It shook me to my very core. But it was not enough to kill me. I am far too stubborn and clever for that."
She gestured toward Benjamin with an elegant sweep of her arm.
"This is Benjamin Mark, my new Master. He has taken full responsibility for penetrating my body and messing me up in ways that I cannot even begin to describe. He is a man of his word, a man of action, and a man who does not shy away from his obligations... I think. Ah, and speaking of obligations—" Her eyes lit up with sudden inspiration. "I know! Master, you should take responsibility for Nyx too! Since you molested her before you did me, it is only fair that you extend the same commitment to her that you have extended to me!"
Nyx, for her part, let out a long, weary sigh that seemed far too world-weary for someone of her apparent age.
Her tentacles stirred around her body, wrapping themselves more tightly against her pale skin like a security blanket made of dark, living fabric.
The tension in her small shoulders began to ease, and the hostility in her yellow eyes faded into something that looked almost like resignation.
"Well," she said, her voice softer now, quieter, "as long as mother is not dead and not unhappy, I do not mind."
She turned her gaze to Benjamin, who was still standing there with his mouth half-open, utterly unprepared for the direction this conversation had taken.
"If there is a vacancy," Nyx continued, her tone remarkably steady for a girl who had just been screaming and crying, and trying to commit a gruesome murder, "I would like to join my mother and become your honored pet as well. I promise I will obey your commands. I will not stab you again unless you ask me to. And—" She paused, her eyes darting around the clearing as if searching for something. "Now, where is my own collar? I believe I deserve one that matches mother’s. It is only proper."
Benjamin stared at her, then at Rahab, then back at Nyx.
And, in the depths of his mind, a switch flipped.
[Wait a minute...]
His mental voice echoed through the private space he shared with his Sys, his thoughts racing as pieces of information began to click together like tumblers in a lock.
[Sys. I am beginning to understand something here. Looking at these two pale-skinned women—these mother-daughter clones—and listening to their words, I think I am finally seeing the pattern.]
There was a pause. A long, deliberate pause from Sys.
{I think by now, even one as slow as Master should know the truth.}
Benjamin bristled at the words.
[You are my assistant, not my coach! Tell me these things more clearly if you have already figured them out! Do not leave me here to struggle through the connections on my own when you already have the answers!] freewebnøvel.coɱ
{My, my, such impatience. But Master will not grow if I spell everything out for him. How will he ever learn to trust his own intuition if I am always there to hand him the solution on a silver platter?}
[Thank you for your consideration!] Benjamin shot back, his internal voice dripping with sarcasm.
Nevertheless, he had already arrived at the conclusion on his own.
He lifted his head and looked at the two pale-skinned figures standing before him — Rahab with her red cloth and her custom collar, Nyx with her tentacles and her tear-stained cheeks — and he spoke aloud, his voice carrying the weight of revelation:
"So... I may be wrong, but..." He paused, letting the words hang in the air. "You are Daitentamono and Tentamono, right?"
Rahab and Nyx exchanged a glance, a silent communication passing between them in the span of a heartbeat.
Then Rahab tilted her head, her yellow eyes filled with genuine, unfeigned confusion. freewёbnoνel.com
"Hm? Did we look any different?" she asked, as if the question itself was strange to her. "I was called Daitentamono when my former master created me, yes. That was my designation. But she soon grew tired of the name, or perhaps she simply preferred something else, and so she chose Rahab for me. And when Nyx gained consciousness, she was also identified as Tentamono by the same standards, the same classification. But I used the same idea on her. I gave her a name of her own. Nyx."
Nyx nodded slowly, her small hands clasped in front of her. "That is correct. I am Tentamono by classification, but Nyx by name."
Benjamin stood there, in the middle of the torn meadow, with the evening wind cooling his bloodied skin and the weight of truth settling over him.
