"Have you known Perturabo for a long time?"

[It depends on your definition of time: it can be sixteen years, or it can be less than sixteen hours.] 】

"Interesting...... So what does my brother look like in your eyes? ”

【…… Top? 】

“…… What? ”

[Spinning top.] 】

【A...... A spinning top. 】

——————

As the genetic protogenone of the Human Empire, the daughter of the Emperor, the Lord of the Second Legion, the Honorary Captain of the First Legion, and the future Tyrant of Avalon: there is no doubt that Morgan is bound to be a complex figure.

But at the same time, it can also be a collection of very simple elements.

Just like a merciless tyrant on a throne or a bitter father behind a throne, looking at the same thing from different angles can lead to diametrically opposite results: nothing is absolutely flat, they are all complex and three-dimensional multifaceted existences.

This is true of mortals, of kings, even of the gods of the clouds.

And Morgan, of course, will not be an exception.

On the one hand, the Lord of the Second Legion is definitely a complicated woman, and I am afraid that even she herself will not be able to see her as she is, after all, the countless perfect fantasies from the countless pupils have already covered her, and she cannot see the despicable nature hidden under the layers of concealment.

A silent counselor, a quiet confidant, a powerful heir, a wise witch, a goddess who drinks victory, a tyrant whose blood stains gold......

Layer upon layer, no one cares what Morgan really looks like, and the gift from the Lord of Humanity allows Queen Dawn to easily influence everyone around her, with an invisible charm that is even more exaggerated than all her brothers combined: she can master any kingdom in the stars if she wants.

On the other hand, this gift is also mercilessly corroding her cold heart, leading the terrifying figure who could not hesitate to swing the knife at her brother's soul to a future that no one can predict and decide.

Morgan is complicated, of course: it is not only the silent calculation of the emperor, but also the unintentional influence of the public, and it is her own unrepentant choice made in the midst of greed and plunder.

But Morgan, on the other hand, is quite pure: no matter how much the outside world thinks corrupt her heart, the nature of the Spider Queen is always that of a soul that shivers in the cold night, the one who will do anything to protect, strengthen, and reward her own selfishness.

Greedy, selfish, indifferent, cautious......

From this point of view, Morgan has never changed, she has always looked at the world with absolute malice and meticulousness, looking at the crowd smiling or kneeling in front of her: maybe sometimes, she will release the kindness in the eyes of others, but kindness is definitely not the nature of her heart, but a kind of imitation and coaxing of the beautiful atmosphere of the outside world.

In the eyes of others, she may be a docile mother, a loyal primordial, or a friend worthy of deep friendship: but that doesn't stop her from being a selfish figure even when she has these identities.

As for those acts of kindness.

Maybe it was just a coincidence or a deliberate coincidence.

And coincidence doesn't change anything, does it?

At the very least, Morgan's nature hadn't changed the moment she arrived at the Veil of Fate: she had come with a malice towards Perturabo, and that subtle malice was enough to fool the eyes of another genetic agent with a combination of skill and talent.

As for the reunion with Kellyfanie, quietly leading the conversation, so that all of Perturabo's rational observations are interrupted by [coincidences] again and again, it is a matter of course: it is much easier than accompanying Johnson to practice swords or Magnus to explore subspace.

The Lady from Olympia was far more talkative than she thought, and the Iron Lord was far more sensitive and thoughtful than she thought: Morgan would have been worried that Petula would not care about the two of them at all, but this worry proved unwarranted at the first second.

She uses one strand of soul to pull the conversation with Kellyfanny, and the other to keep an eye on the legions of bad boys who are out with her for the first time so they don't get her in trouble.

The third wisp rose high in the sea of souls, carefully watching Perturabo's every move beside them, and watching the Lord of Steel wits and courage with the cheerful air in all seriousness.

It's a fierce showdown!

The three strands of soul are far from the whole of Morgan's spiritual power, and all the remaining control of the Spider Queen is used to press her lips so that the laughter does not leak out.

It's much more difficult than talking to Peturabo.

Thinking of this, even the Lord of the Second Legion couldn't help but be a little dumbfounded.

When he thought of the room he was in before he came to meet with Petura, constantly speculating and preparing for the possibility of various situations and how to deal with them, Morgan even wanted to laugh at his past self.

Of course, her efforts were not entirely in vain: at least, as things stand, her initial silent assessment of Perturabo was pretty standard.

——————

Moments before the Second Legion's fleet was about to arrive at its destination, Morgan was still thinking about how to get along with her Iron Brothers: by the way, she also thought about the blood relatives she had been with.

Although she has seen a lot of genetic prototypes, the ones that can impress her more are none other than Magnus, Perturabo and Johnson.

Some because of time, and some because of ...... Ability.

There is no doubt that these three are very different from each other, and if you count Morgan himself, who is different from the three of them......

Well......

Her genetic father is really a biological dye vat......

In Morgan's mind, she used to refer to her brother with various utensils.

Johnson is the sword.

Sharp, ruthless, hair-picking, but in some way will be taken advantage of.

There is no shortcut to getting along with the sword, if you want to get it, you must go through a hundred mining, a thousand beatings, and ten thousand refining, you must go through the fire and cold with it, and you must not have the slightest retreat and weakness on the way, you must endure: even if you have forged it, as long as your smugness prevails, it can strike back at any time and cut your throat.

This is the relationship with Johnson, and it is the sadness that even Morgan does not want to look back.

Compared to Johnson, Magnus is simply too simple.

Magnus is the book.

It's concise, important, and catchy, but you can't decide who its author is.

As Morgan walked through the land of Prospero, her crimson blood gave her the impression that she was an open book, and she could read all of him with a casual pinching of her fingers: his wisdom, his dreams, his depravity and madness, in the most direct and clear language, deeply shocked the young mind of the Spider Queen, who was only nineteen years and a dozen months old.

What's more, the author, who amused himself in all his misery, did not bother to cover it up with a pseudonym, and generously recommended his own work to Morgan: all of which Magnus did not know.

He is just a book, a book that has already been written, and the profound words have soaked the original pure paper, defining the whole content from the prologue and the epilogue.

Morgan didn't even need to turn to the next page, she just scanned the chapter called Prospero and could imagine the rest of the story.

So, she fled, not even caring about the original greed and scheming, nor the proper etiquette and bloodline, and hastily escaped from the scroll written by the Lord of All Changes, and came to a place where people could barely feel at ease.

If she could, she wouldn't open the book again in her life.

——————

Compared to Morgan, Johnson or Magnus, Perturabo is particularly interesting.

He's like ......

A spinning top.

——————

"Spinning top?"

As a woman who was enough to be judged as [wise] by the two genetic protogens, Kellyfanie rarely had doubts: but now, she did feel genuine doubts.

"You said my brother Peturabo...... Like a spinning top? ”

[It's just a rough analogy, although some details don't match, but on the whole, it's true.] 】

[Have you ever played with a spinning top?] 】

“…… Perturabo had built one for me, but I don't see it...... There is something similar between him and that thing. ”

Kellyfanie had prepared a refreshment table next to the railing, and she had placed the verdant colors of Olympia on the cream-white carved beams, making it worthy of any elegant party: when the weather was nice, Morgan and her close friends sat on either side of the chair, with an easy view of the vast scenery more than a dozen kilometers away.

At this point, one of Ms. Olympia's arms rested on the railing, while the other was on the table, pressed against her chin, allowing it to think slowly.

She thought about it, then straightened up, glanced at the shadow of the room in Peturabo, and lowered her voice.

"You're not talking about him being fat, are you?"

"Peturabo's not fat, he just has some ...... Stocky. ”

【…… Yikes! 】

Morgan was amused, and her flamboyant laughter shook the shadows in the room.

[No, that's not what I meant. 】

[I just think there are a lot of similarities between the two. 】

Kellyfanie blinked, and couldn't help but look into the room again.

[Rest assured, he can't hear it.] 】

"Really?"

[Of course.] 】

"That'...... Tell me about it! ”

Kellyfanie laughed: the face that was already a little vicissitudes of life, there was an easy anticipation of excitement.

[Have you ever played with a spinning top? 】

"Of course."

[Do you know how it works?] Do you know why it's spinning? 】

"Hmm...... Let me think. ”

"I remember Perturabo and I talking about friction, gravity, axiality, force analysis, momentum moment theorem, and rigid body dynamics, among other ......"

"Well, actually, he wrote me a book, almost a few hundred pages thick, to tell me how the spinning top spins."

[That's right, you see, the seemingly simple spinning top, a very ordinary children's toy, but rich in such complex knowledge and wisdom, can be called the five cars of learning, how many people in the world can tell or even see its inherent delicacy and complexity? 】

[And...... Even if you see it clearly, so what? 】

[Even though its operation and existence are rich in such exquisite structure and knowledge, its only function and value is to do meaningless things over and over again under the whip of those who do not care about these things, spinning an eternal and unchanging spiral. 】

[Until the moment it breaks.] 】

[The only contact it has with the outside world is that the sharp tip of the screw and the hard ground are wearing and consuming each other, hurting the ground and hurting itself. 】

Its only interaction with others is whipping again and again, and that is the only way to make it spin and give it strength, but no one likes to be whipped, which is destined to make it angry and unwilling until it is finally scarred and dilapidated. 】

So, when we look at a spinning top, what do we see? 】

[An inwardly subtle, but outwardly extremely vulgar and even cumbersome existence, as the crystallization of all kinds of knowledge and primitive wisdom, the only role is to monotonously rotate, and then make people happy. 】

[The only thing the outside world can give it is the whip that keeps whipping, and the only thing it can give to the outside world is the increasingly worn screw tip and the scars it causes. 】

[All it can do is spin, keep spinning, and beyond that, it can't do anything, not even the slightest rest.] 】

[It suffers from the scourging, but it cannot do without the scourging: for it knows that it is worthless without the scourging.] 】

[In the end, it will even actively look for whipping, looking for motivation and rhetoric that can paralyze itself.] 】

[Until the whip breaks.] 】

[Until the tip of the screw collapses.] 】

[Even the most savage external forces cannot resist the raging fury that has accumulated in its monotony day after day. 】

[Until it finally gets out of control, in a future that no one can predict, it follows a route that has no reason and logic to speak of, and vents its strength and inertia. 】

[Until all those powers disappeared, until this originally exquisite creature could not even maintain its savage instincts, until it could no longer get up, and collapsed on the dirt that I don't know, no longer valued by any gaze, and no longer had any value. 】

[Until it rolls down in all directions.] 】

[Until it rolls to the ground.] 】

——————

Until it, rolled into my hands.

——————

Kellyfanie blinked.

She took a sip of her tea.

"You...... Talking about spinning tops, right? ”

[Of course.] 】

——————

"What the hell were you talking to Kellyfanie before I went in?"

It wasn't until Kellyfanie was sleepy and Peturabo and Morgan met all the way from the temple on the surface to the long corridor of the Polaris that the Iron Lord couldn't suppress his curiosity.

When Morgan heard this, he just glanced at her brother and smiled.

[Peace of mind. 】

[I didn't say Li Xingxing, and she didn't say Olympia. 】

“…… I don't care about that. ”

Perturabo vetoed it angrily, but his countenance was visibly slackened by the words.

He hummed softly, and his broad chest seemed to echo with an ancient ballad from Olympia, in which he followed his blood relatives all the way through the tarmac and the long passageway, little by little, towards Morgan's throne and living room.

It's time to cut to the chase.

The meeting between the two Protogens will not be unpurposeful, in fact, the reason why Perturabo initiated this invitation is because of the Emperor's order, and he, as a creative Proto, will make his own suggestions to the [Spear of Eros] in Morgan's hands.

But before that, Morgan wanted to show him something else.

"Welcome, Your Excellency."

As soon as he stepped into the throne room, a cold voice caught Perturabo's attention.

"Who is she?"

[My maid. 】

[Aniah, Ania - Alstolem. 】

Morgan whispered, but the Iron Lord didn't listen.

The Iron Lord frowned as he looked at the short, thin Handmaiden, thanks to his innate wisdom and inexhaustible knowledge in his brain, Perturabo saw through the so-called Handmaiden at second sight.

"She's a robot."

[Sort of. 】

“…… Morgan. ”

"Don't tell me, you're also involved in some areas that our father didn't allow."

Perturabo's voice was eight tones higher for a moment, but this did not make Morgan feel half panicked in the slightest, the genetic queen just clapped her hands gently, and her maid walked quietly in front of her, the smoothness and naturalness of her gestures made Perturabo's brow furrow more and more furrowed.

"You're experimenting with AI?"

[Don't talk nonsense, my brother Perturabo. 】

The silver-haired genetic agent lifted her maid to the table next to her, deftly pressed a hidden switch, and the next moment, the clothes in front of her connected to the skin, spreading out in all directions, revealing the presence inside.

The Iron Lord's brow softened slightly.

He could clearly see that inside the maid's body, there were still some organs, and they were still functioning: for example, the entire digestive system and the lower part of the spine were still clearly visible, apparently innate.

But on the other side, a soft soft metal partition sits in the position of the lungs, which divides the two kingdoms of machinery and flesh: her respiratory system and the upper half of her spine have obviously suffered severe damage, and have all been replaced by sophisticated metal instruments, and at the same time, her arms and legs are also a two-way combination of metal cables and the original body, and there are even many traces of artificial strengthening.

[My fleet passed through the Altolem system about three Terra Standard Months ago, where I received a distress letter from a colonial ship. 】

[But by the time we arrived, it was too late, and the raging storm tore apart the unqualified hull of the colony ship, killing the millions of colonists inside, and my heir only found the child in the captain's room. 】

[It was a lowest-tier colonial ship, and everything on it was barely qualified, so when the storm destroyed its hull, they had no chance of surviving. 】

[The pharmacist identified the child as about fifteen years old, but not even 150 centimeters tall: but she was a blessing in disguise, because the other children who were stuffed with her into the small life-support devices were too large to destroy the inferior devices, and thus died.] 】

[But her situation is also extremely unoptimistic: when we found her, a steel bar pierced her lungs, breathing pipes and upper half of her spine, she was in fact a dead person, but there were still faint brain waves and will, but her soul had not completely dispersed. 】

[So, on a whim, I decided to save her in this way. 】

[I asked the mechanical priest in the army to replace the broken organs with instruments and maintain her life, but this only lasted her biological life, and her soul and consciousness could not be restored, and she became a vegetative person.] 】

So, I used a different idea. 】

Morgan closed the maid's body, then opened her skull so that Perturabo could see that within the skull, supported by a metal cable, there was still an intact human brain: it was shrouded in an invisible shield that was extremely hard and served as a double layer of protection.

[As you can see, Perturabo, her brain is undamaged, and the real problem is with her soul: when we find her, her soul has been torn apart with the passage of life, and it cannot be restored.] 】

[So, I separated the insignificant fragments from my soul, and then pieced together the few souls she had little by little, filling in the missing parts with the fragments of my soul. 】

[In the end, she was "resurrected".] 】

“……”

"It sounds like neither biology nor physics."

[In this galaxy, are there fewer things like this? 】

“……”

"So, what's her state now?"

Morgan shook his head.

"I don't know. 】

[She can eat, sweat and even excrete, and has additional sexual functions such as smell and taste, but on the other hand, she does not breathe and does not feel pain. 】

[In terms of soul, although the main part of her soul is still her own soul, and her large and small brains do not have any problems: this means that she retains her previous cognition, memories and even physiological habits, as well as some ways of thinking. 】

[But in fact, she is essentially just an extension of me, although my soul fragments are scarce, they occupy a great weight, and none of her thoughts and emotions can be separated from the influence of my soul fragments: it can be said that I can control her every move at any time, and even let my own soul temporarily rest on her. 】

[In other words, she still maintains her memories, cognitions, and habits as a human being, but it is my soul that allows her to think and act as a human being.] 】

[She kept the original mouse, monitor, keyboard and even decoration style, but the console was replaced by mine.] 】

[So...... I can't tell you exactly what she's doing, after all, it's something I'm doing on instinct. 】

"Your instinct led you to stuff your soul fragments into a mechanical artifact?"

[This can also be regarded as a physical creation.] 】

"What's the difference?"

【…… It doesn't seem to be. 】

That's why I've come to you, my Perturabo, I don't have the corresponding knowledge, it's a bit esoteric to me. 】

The Iron Lord touched his chin, and he was silent for a while.

"I can do make some changes to the opposite: I can swap out the mechanical parts for the best handmade ones and add 100 million ignition parts to her."

"But, for a while, I can't give you a definite answer."

"What the hell are you...... What's been made? ”

(End of chapter)