Among the knowledge bestowed upon Morpheus by the Holy Grail, the most useful to him right now was that concerning the construction of the human body.
However, Morpheus was in no hurry to put it into practice. Instead, he calmed himself and sought out a quiet spot, where he began operations that would seem utterly incomprehensible to others.
He was digging up soil.
This was within the grounds of the Einzbern castle. With Illya's permission, he could naturally come and go as he pleased in this place.
"Mr. Morpheus, please have some tea." As a maid, Leysritt approached from behind with a tray in hand. On it were a teacup and teapot, filled with already brewed tea that emitted a faint, pleasant aroma.
"Thank you, just set it over there." Morpheus said without turning his head. At that moment, the soil before him had taken on a human shape under his manipulation, and he was sculpting it with great care, striving to adhere as closely as possible to normal human proportions.
Leysritt carefully observed the earthen creation before her. It roughly bore the features of Irisviel, but many parts appeared crude and unrefined.
"Can this really bring Lady Irisviel back to life?" Leysritt inquired.
"I'm not entirely sure right now. While I'm confident it can be done eventually, this body is just an experiment for now. Gods created humans from clay, and the homunculus-based magecraft used by humans is essentially built upon that foundation. I'm not very familiar with this type of magecraft, so this is all rather last-minute cramming for me."
"Homunculus..." Leysritt fell silent for a moment. She herself was a homunculus, and a failed one at that. She had been created originally to serve as the Lesser Grail, but as a failure, she would have been disposed of if not for becoming Illya's maid.
The Einzbern family never allocated resources to failures; they simply discarded and scrapped them.
But could a homunculus really be achieved with mere soil?
She had heard the myth of gods creating humans from clay, but could such a thing actually be true?
"Whether it's true or not doesn't matter; what's important is the legend itself. Many myths feature stories of creating people from clay, suggesting there's some connection, perhaps even truth, in them." Morpheus smiled, and under his control, the clay figure before him became increasingly lifelike.
Realistic hair, realistic eyes, realistic lips, and so on... every proportion was made as authentic as possible. This was entirely a body crafted by Morpheus based on Irisviel's appearance as he had seen it!
"Mr. Morpheus, why are you so familiar with Lady Irisviel's body... I mean, even the parts beneath her clothes?"
To Leysritt, this seemed quite strange, as Morpheus surely hadn't truly seen Irisviel before. His familiarity with Irisviel's body might even surpass that of her husband, Kiritsugu.
"Thanks to someone who transformed himself into Irisviel, the data he provided naturally included all that information, so I can sculpt every part of Irisviel with ease." Morpheus spoke in a calm, natural tone, showing no embarrassment whatsoever.
He even seemed somewhat proud: "I can confidently declare that every detail is handled perfectly. If I were to make a body pillow of Irisviel, it would absolutely be the most realistic!"
"Miss Illya probably wouldn't approve of such a thing, Mr. Morpheus," Leysritt couldn't help but remind him.
"I'm just expressing how familiar I am with Irisviel," Morpheus said, lightly tapping the ground. At that moment, the statue before him underwent a miraculous change with the tap.
The statue's fingers twitched slightly, followed by the entire arm, then the limbs, and so on, all beginning to move.
This unpainted statue now acted like a robot, moving with somewhat stiff actions, attempting to step out of the magic circle.
However, the moment it stepped out of the magic circle, the statue's movements halted, as if a machine whose power had been cut, falling into dormancy.
"Was that a success?"
"A failure," Morpheus shook his head with a sigh. "If it were that dark-skinned woman from the Anglican Church's Necessarius, she could surely make this statue move with human-like actions..."
"It's just simple soil, without any other materials, and even lacking magecraft circuits inside. Is this really considered a failure?" Leysritt couldn't help but ask.
"It failed, but for me, it adds some experience. As long as I keep trying, I'll succeed eventually, and it won't take much time." Morpheus smiled, stretched lazily, took a sip of the tea Leysritt had brought, and then asked, "Has Illya come by?"
"Miss hasn't returned recently. She's said to be busy handling school matters. Since it's her first time truly attending school, there's a lot she needs to learn, including how to interact with those children." Leysritt said, showing a trace of worry: "I hope Miss can hold back her anger and not kill someone if bullied; that would be troublesome to deal with."
"She won't do that now, rest assured. I can't guarantee she won't retaliate, but she won't kill anyone. At most, she'll use magecraft to make them suffer a little misfortune." Morpheus said, turning to look at Leysritt and falling into thought.
Hearing this, Leysritt couldn't help but sigh: "You really trust Miss, Mr. Morpheus."
As she spoke and saw no response from Morpheus, she looked at him and noticed him staring at her, which puzzled Leysritt. She asked, "Is there something on me?"
"I suddenly wondered if I should examine an Einzbern homunculus. Are there any discarded ones here? They don't need to be functional... just pure corpses."
"Your description is quite peculiar. Calling those rejects 'corpses' isn't inaccurate," Leysritt said, nodding. "There are some, but not many. The main rejects are concentrated at the Einzbern main house; this is just a frontline base for the Holy Grail War."
"I don't need many; one or two will suffice. I just want to reference them."
Seeing Morpheus say this, Leysritt led him deeper into the Einzbern estate, to a basement-like area where discarded homunculi were stored, tossed aside like garbage.
Morpheus approached, looking at these creations that resembled dress mannequins, and sighed: "This is such a waste."
Leysritt said nothing; she was here only to assist Morpheus, and whatever he planned to do was beyond her influence.
As for the other one, Sella, she had gone to the Emiya residence to care for Illya.
Thus, Leysritt watched as Morpheus unceremoniously began dismantling the discarded homunculi, studying their internal structures.
...
"Miss Illya, you must remember: no using lethal violence against ordinary people!" Sella reminded Illya once more. Illya's life from childhood had been fraught with hardships, especially under the Einzbern family's deliberate guidance, leading her to exhibit clear violent tendencies.
But now, to integrate into ordinary life, these behaviors had to change.
"I won't, don't worry. If someone hits me, I'll just hit back!" Illya said, even waving her fist: "Yeah, with my fists!"
"Absolutely no using magecraft or sorcery to enhance your strength!" Sella reminded again.
"I won't; I'm not an idiot. It's just teaching someone a lesson. Forget killing... I won't even injure them. At most, make them feel a bit of pain." Illya said again: "And even if I do use magecraft, I have plenty of other ways to handle trouble!"
"Other ways?" Sella frowned slightly, feeling she had oversimplified the issue.
"Curses! I won't curse someone to death or anything, but cursing them to have diarrhea is fine, right? Make them have diarrhea for a while, like an hour or so."
Sella realized she had indeed underestimated, and reminded: "Diarrhea for too long could lead to dehydration and death."
"Really?" Illya looked at Sella in surprise. Seeing her serious expression, Illya thought for a moment and pouted: "Then constipation it is. Make them constipated for a while, like stomach pain first, then constipation for half an hour!"
Sella had wanted to say more, but after thinking, this punishment seemed relatively minor and not life-threatening, so she finally nodded, adding: "No more than half an hour!"
"Yeah, I won't let the curse last that long!"
"Actually, I think curses like 'buying instant noodles without the seasoning packet' would be better," Rin Tohsaka, who had approached, timely joined the conversation. "Or forgetting toilet paper in the bathroom."
Illya looked at Rin Tohsaka, silent for a moment, then gave a thumbs up.
"As expected of Rin; you're way more wicked than I am!"
Rin Tohsaka couldn't help but freak out: "What do you mean I'm more wicked? These are just normal things that make someone feel unlucky!"
Sella watched from the side and sighed deeply. She felt that just one Holy Grail War not only failed to meet the Einzbern family's expectations but also led Illya to make a bunch of rather problematic friends.
This Rin Tohsaka was clearly the Tohsaka family's heir and a noble, so how could she have such ideas?
"I think curses like mistaking salt for sugar could work too... relieves anger without any danger." Shirou Emiya, approaching from the side, decided to offer his opinion, causing Sella to facepalm again.
Lord Kiritsugu, your adopted son seems quite problematic too!
And most importantly, that one called Morpheus... clearly, these curse magics she didn't know about were taught by him!
If this continued, Illya might turn into a witch from some novel!
...
At that moment, Morpheus, whom Sella was secretly criticizing, was diligently analyzing the Einzbern family's homunculus technology.
"So, homunculi can move because their internal magecraft circuits serve as wiring, combined with magecraft structures to achieve humanization...
"For me, I don't need magecraft circuits like that, but some of the humanization methods... I can certainly incorporate them. If I apply these techniques to the clay figure..."
Morpheus analyzed the Einzbern family's technologies, pondering how to integrate them into his current magic.
But halfway through, Morpheus suddenly thought of an idea.
"Right, Leysritt, these things are completely useless now, correct?"
He turned to ask Leysritt behind him.
"Yes, they're fully discarded. Even tossing them in the trash heap wouldn't matter."
"If tossing them in the trash is fine, then using them however I want is okay too, right?" Morpheus's eyes lit up as he said this.
Haven't you already dismantled these homunculi? Leysritt thought to herself, nodding: "Yes, you can use them as you wish, Mr. Morpheus."
"Perfect, then. I'll take these homunculi. With these, the next experiment should successfully revive Irisviel!"
"Can you confirm direct success already?" Leysritt asked in surprise, not expecting that just looking at the Einzbern homunculi would lead Morpheus to declare success.
"Let me ask you: what's my goal right now?"
"Reviving Lady Irisviel."
"Exactly. While I do plan to delve deeper into magecraft, with this knowledge acquired, I have plenty of time to study it later. No need to master it all now."
As Morpheus spoke, he hoisted the homunculi corpses and headed outside.
"Though my techniques aren't proficient yet, that lack of proficiency is only when facing pure clay creation. But if I combine my magic with these discarded homunculi, I can skip the parts I'm weakest at and directly reconstruct Irisviel's body."
Between explanations, Morpheus had returned to the initial sculpting spot. He tossed the corpses onto the ground, then fed arms, legs, and other parts into the magic circle. Next, he used the soil he had originally shaped to fill in the damaged areas of the homunculi.
Since his own skills weren't up to par for success, he could simply substitute with viable alternatives... it was that straightforward!
***
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