"Hall...... Homunculus? Dwarfs? Midget? ”

The moment Sarah whispered the word, Maca's expression was a little confused. Of course he'd heard the word, perhaps...... When Muggles see the goblins in Gringotts, they blurt out the word subconsciously.

However, Sarah bowed slightly, and then shook her head.

"'Holmonks' is a special word in alchemy, and although it has other meanings elsewhere, in alchemy, it has only one ......."

At this point, Sarah opened her arms slightly and looked up at Maca as if to show herself.

“…… Android. ”

Maca whispered the answer herself.

"Yes," Sarah nodded silently, "if the Philosopher's Stone is the pinnacle of material refining, the artificial soul is the pinnacle of spiritual refining...... And when alchemy dolls are infused with souls, they are no longer alchemy dolls, but a new kind of life. ”

When she said this, her expression was still calm, but there was a faint loneliness in it. For her confession, Maca didn't know what expression to use for a while.

"Life...... "Maca was silent for a moment, and then she added, "So, who is it...... Well, what about the 'made' of you? ”

This is undoubtedly a very awkward statement, especially when it is impossible to understand the listener's mind. What kind of mental activity an artificial human created by an alchemist would have, without knowing much about the principles of creation, it is difficult for Maca to figure out at least.

But Sarah herself seemed unconcerned.

"It's Phillips, a paranoid fool......" she smiled blandly, but on that childish face, the smile seemed to see through the world, "well, the ancestors of the Hohenheim family." ”

"Ah, too......"

Probably because the word "android" was so impactful that it was only then that Maca secretly realized that Sarah was from the Hohenheim family, and Hohenheim was a highly renowned master of alchemy.

However, the creation of an android is something that no one dares to imagine easily.

"I remember that he was born more than a hundred years later than Nicol Lemay, right?" Maca couldn't help but sigh, "In this way, the history of magic still has a lower opinion of him...... Your presence alone is enough to make him shoulder to shoulder with Monsieur Lemay. ”

But Marca's emotion was not approved by Sarah.

"No, the historians of magic are not wrong about Phillips," she stepped aside and sat down directly on the floor, "he is arrogant, conceited, eccentric, foul-spoken, and though gifted, he never listens to the opinions of others. In this world, it is not possible to solve everything by individual talents alone. ”

“…… So, he made a defective product like me, and then ......"

As she spoke, Sarah hugged her bent knees, as if to find the courage to continue.

"And then in that hostel in Salzburg, it was up to me, a defective product made by his own hands, to end his life in a hurry."

"You killed him?" Maka said with a little surprise.

"Yes," said Sarah's voice, a trembling slightly, but so clearly in the quiet room of requirement, "from the moment I opened my eyes in the absence of anything about the world, Phillips had only spoken to me three times—"

……

In 1541, in the northern suburbs of Salzburg, in a small tower house.

In less than two months, Phillips will be 48 years old. But this man left his wife and children in his hometown of Switzerland and wandered alone for more than 20 years.

He was a Muggle-born wizard, and his abilities were unremarkable when it came to magic. However, the heavens gave him a great talent for alchemy.

Since the day he graduated, he said goodbye to his family and embarked on a journey to find the ultimate in alchemy.

From his initial visits to other alchemists to his current scathing rejection of other scholars, Phillips has changed no less.

But in any case, his alchemical knowledge continued to grow, gradually reaching a peak in his alchemical career.

And his biggest goal now is to solve the supreme problem of alchemy that only exists in ancient legends - the refining of artificial souls.

At this moment, in the very center of this room, an extremely complex and exquisite refining array was flashing with a dark red light. And in the middle of this refining array, a petite girl wearing only a thin white robe lay quietly on it, bathed in the red light that pulsated like a heartbeat.

The formation of the body was not a problem for Phillips, and even Potions had a similar method of making the human body. The question is whether the endowment of artificial souls can be successful in one fell swoop.

The tiny crystal, glittering red, hung above the girl's body, sinking little by little as time passed—and so far, everything had gone well.

In fact, just such an artificial soul crystal took Phillips nearly eight years. Failure was commonplace, and he was mentally prepared to spend more time, but at such moments, his heart was still throbbing.

"This time, it must be successful—"

Phillips gritted his teeth and stared at the crystal, watching it sink in the sink.

Today should be the last day.,The crystals will blur when they touch the shell.,And completely merge into the girl's body.。 Then, it was the awakening of the girl that Phillips had been waiting for for almost eight years.

It's almost ...... It's almost there...... It's not ......

Suddenly, an invisible wave suddenly spread out from the refining array, knocking Phillips to the ground. But he didn't have the heart to get up again, because at this moment, he saw the girl's eyelids twitch slightly.

It was a pair of turquoise eyes, which looked like two transparent and brilliant gems, almost exactly like Phillips's mother.

In the middle of the refining array, the girl who was lying flat slowly sat up on the floor, rubbing her worried eyes as if she had just woken up.

Then, as if noticing someone nearby, she turned her head to look over. At the same time, her long, light flaxen-colored hair slid down her shoulders, covering her slender, fair arms.

Phillips, who was in a state of agitation at this time, had not yet noticed a small but unoblivious anomaly. He just kept his eyes wide open, trying to carve this scene deeply into his heart.

Sarah...... Your name is Sarah! ”

This was the first thing the girl had heard since she was born, but unfortunately, she still didn't understand anything. For example, she was born like a newborn baby, but her shell was made into the shape of a girl who was ten years old at most.

The girl tilted her head, and more strands of hair swept softly across the ground behind her, spreading across the floor.

Phillips looked at the girl in front of him and took a few deep breaths. Since the room had not had a window open for days, the air in the room was extremely muddy, but he didn't have time to pay attention to it.

Now, he just wanted to take a good look at his masterpiece, because it might be the pinnacle of what he could do as an alchemist.

But as he stood up and wanted to take a closer look, a question flashed through his mind—why wasn't she crying?

Even any Muggle knows that the first thing a newborn baby does is cry out loud. Of course, this is due to the fact that a newborn baby needs to breathe for the first time when it is born from its mother's womb, and androids do not have this problem.

However, as a baby's instinct, crying is also the first way they will experience catharsis in this life. If the girl he created was normal as a new life, it would have been instinctively tearing open her throat and crying after opening her eyes.

"Is there something wrong...... No, it can't be...... The most difficult step has already been successful. How could it be...... Damn it...... Why! ”

Phillips staggered back a few steps as if he had been struck head-on by someone, and fell to the floor again. He muttered to himself in a voice that only he could hear, his face mixed with all kinds of emotions.

Across from him, the newborn Sarah just looked at the eccentric uncle in front of her with a flat face. She could feel a sense of intimacy emanating silently from the other party, which made her, who still knew nothing, feel a little relieved.

After a long time, Phillips raised his head again and looked straight into Sarah's face. He threw himself on all fours as if he had gone crazy and slapped Sarah in the face.

"Smack!"

"Cry! Cry for me! No - even if you don't cry, you can fight back! You can be angry - you see, I hit you, don't you know to be angry? Don't know to be afraid? You-"

The slap was so hard that Sarah fell to the cold floor, her long hair covering her face and the slightly swollen fingerprints on her delicate cheeks.

But in the next moment, Sarah sat up on the ground again, her blue eyes peeking out from between her sliding hair, her gaze still clear and pure.

In the midst of that sight, Phillips' fist landed heavily on the floor.