“Captain! Over here! There’s a doll that looks like a totem!”
“Damned curse casters.”
The moment the train arrived at the Clockwork City station…
The Dwarf guards surrounding the platform rushed in and began inspecting the train.
Not long after, they successfully discovered the totem.
It was a wooden puppet carved from wood.
A small amount of demonic energy was detected inside.
It was concluded that this totem had indeed cast a wide-range curse over the entire train.
The guards immediately destroyed the totem and collected the fragments.
After that, inspections of all passengers were conducted.
Of course, Mi Jeong and I couldn’t avoid the inspection either.
“Is this… a Blood Ghoul?”
“Yes.”
“We’ll have to do a saliva test.”
“Understood.”
There was a bit of chaos for a moment, but it quickly calmed down.
Blood Ghoul test kits are widely available all over the world.
The test quickly proved that Mi Jeong had no Blood Ghoul virus.
If they are a Blood Ghoul with no fangs, there’s no problem carrying them around.
But since the fear of Blood Ghouls is so great, if I were to advertise them as a Blood Ghoul around town, that would definitely be a problem.
With her hood properly on and promising to stay hidden, the guards no longer busied themselves with Mi Jeong.
“What about you? What’s your job?”
“I’m a mercenary.”
“You don’t look like one…”
“I carry a dagger too.”
“Whoa! A knife just popped out of your pants!”
But they still seemed uncertain about me, causing the inspections to continue longer.
I must’ve looked really suspicious.
Surrounded by smelly bearded dwarves, I desperately wanted to leave and bury my nose in Cornelia’s crown.
“What are those marks on your arms and nape? There are a lot of them.”
“Our dog still bites quite a bit.”
“Ah, I see. You have a puppy.”
“No, it’s her.”
“…?”
After a while of torture, I was finally released.
The guards seemed to conclude I was not a curse caster.
Only after escaping did I realize they hadn’t caught any suspicious individuals.
The curse caster had sent an avatar onto the train.
So, it’s highly likely the real one was outside the train.
Even if they were inside, they could shapeshift and easily escape like a bug.
‘I can’t catch them. Let’s get on with our business.’
If it were someone I knew, I could roughly predict their movements to catch them.
But since this was a new face I’ve never encountered in 12 rounds, I didn’t have a clear way to catch them.
The Dwarf guards would take care of it, I guess.
“This place really feels nostalgic.”
The moment we stepped out of history…
An awe-inspiring view of countless factories spewing smoke along the riverside unfolded.
This is the Clockwork City.
The city with the richest natural resources in the North and the largest industrial city.
It has so many resources that if you just dig anywhere with a shovel, oil will gush out.
Coal pops out, and natural gas leaks out.
They literally make money just by digging in the ground.
Using those abundant resources to run factories, the variety is quite vast.
Iron works, textile factories, construction material factories, shipyards…
You could say this city’s practically self-sufficient in everything but food.
But the real feature of Clockwork City emerges when you leave the factory district and enter the bustling streets.
Here appears a category of magical engineering that has only developed in Clockwork City.
A street lined with displays of clockwork machines.
“Wow.”
Mi Jeong couldn’t help but exclaim.
Every store was filled with unusual machines.
From pocket watches to machines that write automatically, and even jukeboxes that play music.
And that’s not all.
On the well-maintained road, machines resembling tractors rolled instead of carriages.
The store doors opened and closed automatically, while steam-powered boats emitted smoke as they passed under bridges.
It felt charming since I hadn’t visited in a while, but…
“Wow. Seriously freaking noisy.”
“…Yeah. My ears hurt.”
It’s always a loud city, no matter when you come.
No matter how much lubrication you add, clockwork machines inevitably creak.
That’s why you won’t find clockwork machines outside this city.
Of course, while the noise is a trade-off, clockwork machines have advantages over other magical engineering.
They can create more complex and precise devices.
In theory, using clockwork machines, you could even create computers.
Though they’d be huge and not very efficient…
“The real clockwork dolls have completely disappeared.”
Clockwork dolls.
Humanoid clockwork machines that were once a sensational hit.
At the very beginning of the story, if you rushed to Clockwork City right after the regression, you’d see a mesmerizing scene filled with clockwork dolls.
There were maid clockwork dolls, butler clockwork dolls, and even coachman clockwork dolls driving carriages.
There were even movements to develop artificial personalities to fit inside clockwork dolls.
But that was just a passing trend.
Clockwork dolls quickly fell out of favor due to their terrible fuel efficiency.
Even aristocrats found them too burdensome to use.
Even so, I know some places still offer custom orders.
Apparently, there’s occasionally a demand among both humans and beast-folk…
It seems there are always people with unique tastes in any world.
“Let’s quickly wrap up our business.”
I didn’t plan to stay long.
This place is crazy noisy even at night.
Unless you’re a dwarf who can drink beer until they pass out just putting their head on a pillow, you can’t survive in this city.
“…Water. It’s scary.”
“Close your eyes. Hold my hand. I’ll tell you when we get to the stairs.”
Thanks to Mi Jeong’s fear of the strong river, I had to tightly hold her hand every time we crossed.
As we passed through the dizzying bustling streets of Clockwork City and delved into the alleyways, we gradually came across shabby streets.
At the end of this journey was a store.
The sign was rusted and almost about to fall.
All the windows and doors were blocked.
It looked just like a closed workshop.
But this is the legendary craftsman…
Cern’s residence.
“Hmm…”
Knock knock knock.
I didn’t get any response despite knocking on the door.
By this time, Cern probably has significantly advanced dementia.
He would likely be in a state of confusion.
“I guess there’s no choice.”
I placed my finger on the keyhole and cast the unlocking spell.
The moment I did, magical energy flowed into the hole, and I heard a click, clack pleasant sound.
Clunk.
The lock opened, and the door creaked as it swung open.
Inside unfolded the view of a dark house.
“Wait.”
“…”
Mi Jeong tried to use flame magic, but I stopped her.
This isn’t a ruin; I just need to turn on the lights.
As I fumbled along the walls and pressed the switch, the surroundings brightened up.
Contrary to the exterior, the inside resembled a well-kept mansion.
It seemed to be well-maintained; the furniture and walls were spotless without a speck of dust.
“Cern old man! You’re not dead already, right?”
I called out loudly as I walked down the hallway, heading deeper inside.
Cern should be in the master bedroom.
Even though the exterior looked tidy, it was quite old, and the floor creaked under my feet the entire time.
As I turned the corner of the hallway…
Shock detected!
“Ah! You scared me.”
I bumped into a pale-faced woman.
After a brief scare and a moment of shock…
I quickly realized that this was not a human but a clockwork machine.
Recalculating route…
“Oh, it’s Linda.”
As I made eye contact with her, she turned slightly, continuing to gaze into space.
Her front looked quite convincing, almost making one mistake her for a human, but behind her, there was a tangled mess of gears moving erratically.
This was Linda.
The clockwork doll taking care of Cern.
Of course, calling it care was an exaggeration; her tasks were limited to delivering meals to his room on a regular basis and cleaning along a set path with minimal interactions.
Ding! It’s cleaning time. Starting dusting.
Linda started dusting without a care that two strangers had entered.
She evidently had no settings for intruder responses.
‘That’s a bit odd.’
Usually, if you put that much effort into appearance, the software would be exceptional.
But she had far worse software performance than those clockwork dolls that were popular in the past.
Voice recognition and simple conversations were already basic qualities back then.
Could there be a reason they equipped her with such lousy software?
Shock detected. Recalculating route…
“Mi Jeong, move aside.”
“…Okay.”
Just a pointless luxury that isn’t worth much now.
Ignoring Linda as she passed by, I reached the master bedroom and turned the doorknob.
Inside was a Dwarf elder, lying on the bed with eyes wide open.
Cern.
Once called the best clockwork machine craftsman.
He was about 60, which isn’t especially old for a Dwarf.
But from overwork, he suddenly developed dementia one day.
Now, he could only lie in bed all day.
“Old man! Let’s do a commission!”
“…”
Even waving my hands in front of him brought no response.
He was in no state to handle mechanical work or even have a conversation.
What kind of commission could I possibly ask of such a senile old man?
But I have my tricks.
A privilege of a story writer.
I know a sort of Easter egg.
“If you say, ‘There’s a ghost in the machine,’ he’ll regain his wits.”
Without the knowledge of this Easter egg, Cern would merely be a faded glory of the past.
But if I give him the command, he’ll return as a living legend.
So, what does it mean there’s a ghost in the machine?
I have no clue.
It’s just the way things are according to the setting.
I leaned in close to Cern’s ear and whispered the command with my hands clasped.
“There’s a ghost in the machine.”
“…”
He twitched.
Cern’s body trembled slightly.
Then, his eyes, once fixed on the ceiling, moved to lock onto me.
The nearly-dead old man was nowhere to be seen.
A spark of life filled the eyes of the Dwarf, now ablaze with enthusiasm.
And then Cern…
“KYAAAAAH!!! There’s a ghost in the machine! There’s a ghost in the machine!!!”
He screamed like a lunatic, rolling his eyes back.
Whoa. It seems his condition worsened.
Cern, who bolted up from the bed, dashed to the window, flung it open, and…
“People of the town!!! There’s a ghost in the machine! Get a spirit caster! Please summon a spirit caster!!!”
He began shouting loudly outside.
“KYAAAAH! EEK EEK EEK!!!”
“Oh man, what a struggle it was to get him back from the window.”
Being a Dwarf craftsman meant that his compression muscle was no joke…
After finally pulling him away from the window, I closed it, and Cern flopped back onto the bed, panting.
“I’m scared of ghosts.”
“This is going to drive me insane…”
Something’s gone wrong.
When he should’ve asked, ‘So, what’s your commission?’ upon hearing the command…
Normally, he would’ve been like that in previous rounds.
But why did it seem like his dementia got worse this time?
What kind of variable has come into play this time…?
My head hurts.
“…Old man, he’s broken.”
“I’m not broken! I can fix him!”
There’s a way to fix him, of course.
Dementia isn’t an incurable disease in this world.
Among the spells, there exist spells that alleviate dementia symptoms.
But how am I supposed to find a curse caster in Clockwork City?
They are typically treated as frauds and cultists here.
Oh, if only a curse caster would just drop down from the sky.
“Hey!”
“…?”
Just as I was thinking that…
The door swung open roughly, and a clear voice rang out.
That voice sounds somewhat familiar.
Stepping in from behind the door was a girl in a nun’s outfit.
“Did someone say they were looking for a spirit caster? I am the recognized spirit caster by the church? Wait, no! I’m the spirit nun! The basic fee starts at 1000 gold but… huh?”
As she confirmed my face, her color drained instantly.
It’s definite.
She was the one who caused the curse chaos on the train.
She looks younger than before, but it’s common to have avatars with better bodies than their originals.
“You! The curse caster from the train!”
“Oh, no, that’s not it!”
It seems the heavens have granted my wish.
They even sent me a spare curse caster.
I will use her wisely.
