The eccentric doctor never makes a misdiagnosis!

"Well then, let's get down to business, Child. Do you have specific questions, or... would you like me to investigate in my own way?"

A brass pocket watch had somehow ended up in her hand, making a barely perceptible ticking sound as the gears meshed together.

Chapter Sixty-Six: The Puppet Master

Child was somewhat surprised by the professional demeanor of Fran, which made him abandon his original idea of ​​"asking casually".

"Hmm... In recent months, at night I've been seeing blurry figures and strange sounds inexplicably flashing through my mind. They're distant yet familiar, like they're calling me back to my hometown..."

Fran listened intently to Child's description, his fingertips occasionally stroking the brass pocket watch in his hand.

How is your sleep quality? (Search ≥¤: old> 耙⊙而※≌4≈｛三【○№晽°、？)

Although asking a mechanical creation this question had a strange sense of humor, out of professional ethics, she decided to start with what she was familiar with.

"It should be pretty good? Before this, I almost never dreamed."

"But my rest was affected after those fragments of images and sounds appeared, and sometimes I felt inexplicably tired."

The fact that he can fall asleep and has some awareness of his "sleep" indicates that the bionic module is well done.

Fran, assessing Child's skill level, asked, "Mr. Child, which divination method do you prefer? Tarot, pendulum, or the Eastern divination method?"

"I have no preference, so let's do it the way Dr. Fran is best at."

Childe chuckled lightly, appearing magnanimous and cheerful.

"Okay, then let's use dream divination."

Fran gently stroked his palm, decisively skipping over the three divination methods he had mentioned earlier.

She hadn't prepared any of those things: tarot cards, pendulum pendants, or divination coins. She had only mentioned them briefly.

Oh, strictly speaking, Fran was wearing a bracelet. But the black, tentacle-like "Reaching for the Moon" bracelet doesn't look like it's for testing pendulums at all…

"There's a small bed in the divination room. Lie down. I need to enter your dream."

"Hmm. But I'm still quite energetic... It might take a while to fall asleep." Childe lay on the soft gray velvet bed, a hint of worry in his voice.

His daily routine is very regular, so he finds it difficult to feel sleepy during the day.

“This is not a big problem. In our recent contact, I have confirmed with the Pendulum Heart Bell that your spirit can be influenced by the mind.”

Fran took out a slender cane from the medicine box, removed the azure brilliance stone inlaid at the top, and casually placed a jet-black Originium crystal on it.

A deep and gentle humming then began, with a soothing rhythm, like a lullaby.

Thoughts swirl and dance like strings—plucked, resonating, echoing. The bewildered spirit sinks into the dim light of dawn, trapped in a moment of peaceful slumber…

The nameless song wafted into Childe's mind, and weariness washed over him.

He slowly closed his eyes and fell into a deep sleep.

"The effect of [Song of the Shepherd] is quite good. This is probably because Child has a spirit within him and is not a purely mechanical creation."

Fran wasn't familiar with this Originium Arts technique, but fortunately, it would work as long as he could sing. And this doctor happened to have a considerable interest in music…

"Purely mechanical devices don't have the concept of 'going to sleep.' 'Standby' is a much more accurate term in comparison."

If gentle, conventional methods fail to put Child to sleep, Fran will have to resort to more forceful physical means. Like unplugging the power... oh, and perhaps disabling backup power beforehand.

Having completed her preparations, she grasped the chain of the brass pocket watch and suspended it over Childe's forehead.

"Alright, let me see what's bothering your dreams. Hmm... it can't be the electric sheep, can it?"

Using the disturbing effect of the brass pocket watch, Fran began to peer into Childe's dreams.

A thick fog enveloped everything, making the surroundings hazy and indistinct.

When everything became clear again, she found herself in an exquisitely decorated studio.

The shelves on both sides of the room were neatly arranged to an almost pathological degree, displaying tens of thousands of parts.

Gears, escapements, pendulums, and countless tiny puppet limbs and organs.

"A very beautiful room. It has the characteristics of obsessive-compulsive disorder and perfectionism in its arrangement. However, if the patient enjoys it, it should be the type that does not need treatment."

Fran II looked at the four sets of artificial eyes in the transparent cabinet, carefully examining the condition of their irises.

Each eyeball is incredibly lifelike, with a translucent color and a soft texture that is visible to the naked eye.

“Each component is etched with tiny prayers in some ancient script.” A hint of excitement shone in her amber eyes.

"It's a pity it was just a dream, otherwise I would have liked to move this doll workshop back home..."

Fran walked among the tall shelves, occasionally picking up an unfamiliar part to examine it.

"Using miniature esoteric rituals to replace integrated circuits and corresponding control components is, in a way, a brilliant idea."

"Ok?"

Fran noticed that several cabinets on the shelf had been left open without being closed, and some parts were even scattered on the floor without being tidied up.

This is quite a contrast to the previous impression of being exquisite and neat.

"The user is very irritable. Hmm... or maybe he's in a hurry."

Perhaps an outsider is stealing the parts. Or perhaps the owner of the doll workshop has encountered some emergency, leaving him no time to deal with the aftermath...

Fran, who was deep in thought, suddenly pressed himself against the wall, tilted his head and leaned forward.

She heard a faint noise coming from deep inside the room, and followed the sound to a workbench lit by a warm, yellow light.

A middle-aged man with mottled white hair was wearing protruding monocles and was intently adjusting the puppets on the machine.

His face was ashen and withered, with deep, heavy dark circles under his eyes, but his pair of bright blue eyes shone with a fervent light.

"Bloodline of the bloodline, the hunter's commandments, the alchemy of the sun-forging, the blank soul, and the enlightenment of the great forerunner..."

His voice was low and hoarse, as if he might die at any moment... yet it carried a trace of pure satisfaction.

“My child, I have inscribed for you everything I could give. You will be perfect, no longer inheriting the deep-seated flaws we bore. Mourn us… no! Forget us…”

Forget your fathers who died because of their arrogance.

The man was frantic and intoxicated, laughing with a tragic expression, yet a few cold tears also fell.

“But.” He gritted his teeth, and the spark of life in his eyes suddenly dimmed.

"Even if our great pioneers fall into eternal sleep and humanity perishes, 'our' civilization will still endure..."

……

As the puppeteer fell helplessly to the ground, the entire dream suddenly became unstable. Everything was rapidly losing its logic and disintegrating into more abstract forms.

"Oh, I haven't seen what the puppets on the machine actually look like yet."

Fran paid no attention to the gradually collapsing dream around her, and walked straight to the doll body placed on the platform.

Sunny and handsome, with brown hair and blue eyes, it's definitely Child.

"In other words, Childe actually comes from a lost era or time... That makes a lot of sense. The White Cup Order's current technology simply cannot create such an exquisite doll. He can only be a 'relic'."

"However, dreams are usually disordered and chaotic. Why is this one so vivid, as if I were actually there?"

Fran glanced slightly to the side, a relaxed smile playing on his lips.

"You don't want to come out and see me? I'm not that scary, am I?"

"Bah!"

A familiar chirping sound rang out.

A small, pure white fawn slowly emerged from the shadows on one side.

She swayed her long, glassy horns, which resembled branches, and silently gazed at Fran with a look that was half affection and half fear.

"Note that if you bleat here, you'll turn into a 70% electronic sheep... well, even though you're a deer." +3&∮6℃≌

Fran came to Luyala's side and gently stroked the soft fur on her neck.

"Na?"

Although she didn't understand Fran's meaning, Luara obediently switched her vocalizations.

"Hey." She flicked her hind legs to one side, and a fluffy white tail on her rump twitched.

"Should I go with you?"

Fran understood Luyala's meaning and followed behind her.

In the collapsing, disintegrating dreamscape, the place she stepped on was dyed pure white, like falling snow and frost. The figures of a person and a deer gradually disappeared into it.

-

"Hoo." Long eyelashes opened and closed, revealing amber eyes.

Fran returned to reality from his deep dream.

"As I thought, Luara has always been near me. However, due to some trait, she seems to only appear in the dimension of dreams."

And then there's Child. This refutationist's background is far more mysterious than I imagined. I really want to take him apart and see...

Looking at Child, who was still fast asleep and showed no signs of waking, Fran bit his lip slightly. Dorothy might be watching from among the calcite stones, and Child could wake up at any moment.

After careful consideration, Fran opened the medicine box and began looking for disassembly tools.

Unlike Heda, who regularly visits the Fog Street clinic, Childe is not in a hurry. If he gets away today, who knows when the next opportunity like this will come...

"First, use a scalpel to cut open the bionic layer of the scalp. Hmm... fresh and healthy flesh and blood, with a realism close to that of the Terminator T-800."

Fran, wearing rubber gloves, began to open his skull.

It took her some time to find and open the maintenance access panel, where she saw the intricate machinery nested within.

"Fortunately, I didn't slack off while learning [mechanical prosthetics technology]. Even though I haven't used it for a long time, my skills haven't become too rusty..."

"Speaking of which, it has now been integrated into [mechanical biology]."

As she examined the parts, she discovered some clues.

"Although the manufacturer designed a self-checking device that can perform a certain degree of self-repair of the mechanical system... the material itself has deformed and become inaccurate over a long period of time."

"Fortunately, living metal can solve this problem perfectly. And the box just happened to contain about ten grams of sample."

Fran then began to treat the symptoms. As an excellent and dedicated doctor, sometimes one must go to great lengths even when the patient is not human…

-

The Mirror of Enlightenment Club, the Mirror Hut.

In front of Dorothy was a round mirror placed horizontally, its silver ripples reflecting the calcite stones.

From the moment Fran received Child, she had been observing him. This was the proper caution one would show to a stranger wiping lenses from a foreign land. She believed he was aware of this as well…

In the scene, Fran takes out his cane and begins to hum a lullaby in the style of "The Shepherd's Song".

"She replaced the gem on the cane. Was it some kind of relic? Or was it simply a medium for casting spells?"

Although there was only visuals and no sound, Dorothy still felt a certain tranquil and peaceful rhythm.

Fran hung the brass pocket watch above Child's forehead.

"The cane is just an aid to falling asleep? The real medium is the pocket watch... Is she planning to use dream divination?"

Compared to conventional methods, the insights gained from dreams are more elusive, yet also more profound. Even Dorothy only began to explore dreams after officially becoming a mirror polisher.

Fran was the first to wake up from his dream, and then began rummaging through the medicine box.

"It was just entering a dream, yet the spiritual energy fluctuations were so intense... even the calcite flowers in the divination room resonated with it. It was as if a gigantic dream creature was swimming past..."

At this point, Dorothy was basically convinced of Fran's identity as the Mirror Man. This level of dream divination was enough to be considered a secret tradition of the Lamp Cult.

The scene in the video continues.

Fran took out a scalpel, circular saw, tweezers, etc. from the medicine box and placed them in a kidney-shaped surgical tray on one side for later use.

"What are you trying to do...?"

Just as Dorothy was still wondering, she saw Fran in the mirror lightly press the blade... and deftly slice open Child's scalp.

The gash on his skull was bleeding profusely, exposing the pale skull and a network of bluish-red blood vessels.

"cough!"

Dorothy's pupils suddenly contracted, and a chill ran through her body.

Speaking of which, besides the "Fire Chasers" who believe in the Sunforge, the most numerous people in Atilan are the followers of the Crimson Cup... Could she be a hedonistic dancer in disguise?