"From now on, you’ll be called No. Two. Your profession... a Tailor," Lucilia said, as this Puppet Girl used threads.
She and Alka then led this new member of the Puppet Legion to the deck.
Everyone had been waiting for quite some time.
"Her hair color is the same as mine," Chadite remarked, looking at No. Two before her.
"It’s not just the color; her features are also very similar," Julia observed after taking a closer look.
Really? Chadite couldn’t quite tell if their appearances were that similar.
Crouching down and tilting her head, Chadite looked at No. Two before her and asked, "What’s your name? What’s your profession? What abilities do you have?"
No. Two looked at Chadite, paused for a moment, then said, "My name is No. Two. I am a Tailor, and I can control my hair."
As she spoke, the silver hair on top of her head extended, shot out, and wrapped around Chadite’s arm.
These silvery strands grew longer with the influx of Magic Power. They became incredibly resilient and also possessed strong Magic Power conductivity.
Then No. Two swung along the strands twice, landing on Chadite’s shoulder.
Looking at Chadite’s silver hair, the same color as her own, No. Two reached out to touch it.
Seeing this, Alka narrowed his eyes slightly.
No. Two displayed atypical actions. Furthermore, her response to Chadite’s question was remarkably lively, and she showed a clear desire to be closer to Chadite.
Why was this happening?
The others weren’t very knowledgeable in this area and didn’t notice anything amiss. They simply watched No. Two, asking her various questions.
Yet, this change was too peculiar. So why?
Alka recalled the entire process of creating No. Two in his mind. He tried to pinpoint if he had done anything unusual during the process that caused No. Two to behave differently from the other Puppet Girls.
She was more intelligent, more lifelike.
This was a good thing. Alka wanted to understand the underlying principle so that future Puppet Girls he created could be more distinctive.
The Flesh-and-Blood Spell, the inspiration from the Treasure, and the transformative changes due to the Puppet Girl’s touch were all variables Alka couldn’t control. He couldn’t even mimic or understand them.
The same process yielded different results, so there had to be some controllable factor.
However, after standing there recalling for a long time, he couldn’t figure out what, if anything, had gone wrong.
There was nothing special about his creation process.
"You seem troubled? What are you thinking about?" Julia, standing beside Alka, noticed him looking dazed and asked with curiosity. "What’s there to be troubled about? Shouldn’t you be happy?"
Upon hearing this question, Alka openly expressed his doubts.
The others heard Alka’s words too. They all turned their heads.
"Yes, now that you mention it, No. Two is indeed different from the other Puppet Girls," Chadite said, gently tapping No. Two on the head, who was perched on her shoulder.
No. Two even responded to that.
"Is she smiling?" Jason rubbed his eyes, making sure he wasn’t seeing things.
No. Two smiled at Chadite’s action.
Jason couldn’t resist reaching out to tap her head as well, but No. Two leaned closer to Chadite.
Although she made no further movement, it was clear she was averse to Jason’s touch.
Seeing this, Chadite waved her hand as if shooing away a fly. "Go away, go away! She doesn’t want you to touch her."
Jason, seeing No. Two’s clear aversion, couldn’t help but scratch his head. "Why?"
Everyone could see No. Two’s uniqueness; even Lucilia was completely baffled.
"So, which part of the process went wrong?" Lucilia couldn’t help but ask. "Or has your technique improved? Practice makes perfect, perhaps?"
Faced with Lucilia’s question and her puzzled gaze, Alka shook his head. "This isn’t about repetitive work. How could practice alone lead to an advancement in knowledge?"
"Besides, I really don’t know. I don’t recall doing anything out of the ordinary during her creation."
"The materials... could it be an issue with the materials?" Julia pondered for a moment and suggested a possibility.
"If there’s anything different about these materials, it would be the Silver Threads. They were left behind by the thread-ball monsters thrown by the Silver Lion Sea Beast."
"But the problem is, No. Two is clearly drawn to Chadite. What does that have to do with the Silver Thread Sea Monster?" Alka asked.
"They both have silver hair, silver strands of hair," Pororo suddenly commented from the side.
"...That seems a bit far-fetched, doesn’t it?"
Chadite scratched her silky silver hair. She looked at No. Two, who was snuggled close to her head and beaming at her.
She began to recall the day they fought the Silver Thread Sea Monster. That was already two weeks ago. They were about to leave the shipping lanes at the edge of the Sea of All Beings.
"Could it be... my hair?" Chadite suddenly voiced a thought.
She remembered that day. Her head had been covered in Silver Threads the same color as her hair. While Lucilia and Ling were trying to separate them, they had accidentally pulled her hair several times.
Could it be that some of my hair got mixed in with those Silver Threads and was given to Alka? Is that why she’s so close to me and more humanlike?
Lucilia also recalled the events of that day and said, "Indeed, I did pull out some of Chadite’s hair several times that day." Tʜe source of this ᴄontent ɪs Novᴇl_Fire(.)net
"So, did you separate her hair out?" Jason asked her.
"I..." Lucilia began to recall her actions that day. Since Chadite’s head was covered in so many Silver Threads, she had carefully picked out one silver strand at a time to put into her hand. After identifying one, she would pinch it and place it in her collection. Then, with an "AH!" from Chadite, she realized she’d pulled out some hair. She’d apologized... and then put the hair... also in her hand with the threads.
"Ah! I put her hair in with the Silver Threads!"
Mystery solved. So, hair really had been mixed into the Silver Thread material.
Listening to Lucilia, Jason turned to Alka. "Didn’t you sort through them?"
Alka looked at him and said flatly, "There were several thousand strands of varying lengths. How was I supposed to pick out one or two hairs mixed in with all that?"
"Alright then." It seemed Alka was partly to blame as well.
But could it really be because of the hair?
It’s just hair, after all. Alka couldn’t understand.