9 Chapter 8: A Journey that Starts from a Question.

Carman continued to talk to Ryuzu for hours, carefully painting the image of a curious yet naive mechanical prodigy in her mind. He did not want her to question how he could understand and speak English, so he said he had met an old man on the streets that had taught him the language a few months ago, but the man had disappeared before completely teaching Carman.

Telling Ryuzu that the common language in the area was Fontainian, Ryuzu quickly asked Carman to translate some common phrases for her to memorize. Starting with simple things such as indroductions, every day items, and inquires, Ryuzu learned quickly, but sometimes took time to fully master the different use of inflections and different ways to address people in regards to status or relation to the speaker. While learning, Ryuzu commented on the similarities between Fontainian and the French language from her world.

Ryuzu was perplexed about how her storage unit has ended up in a sealed off room, feeling that as masterpiece of Clocksmithing, she would have been fought over and probably stolen several times.

Carman decided to tell her a half truth, claiming that the box that transported her had just appeared out of thin air like a magician had pulled a cloth from over it. He however didn't say that it was him who had made the container appear in this world. While she was skeptic initially, she chalked it up to a tear in the dimensional fabric of her world.

Finally, Ryuzu decided to ask this runaway boy who has repaired her, "after so many grown adults tried and failed to find and resolve the problem on my core, how did you know how to repair me?"

Carman replied, "I've recently been learning under a clockwork engineer who works on repairing constructs from simple toys to complex security Mekas, in every repair job he has taught me to always check the power core for any lose screws, bolts, springs, or gears, a change in the alighnment of those core mechanisms can cause the whole machine to stall. I decided to have a look there since it seemed less complicated than digging through your main logistical processers."

"That cannot be all, young man I observed as you altered my visual processers, adding a function that even my creator failed to produce, and he was considered an unrivaled genius in the field of Clocksmithing. I could see from the various schematics you had strewn about you that you managed to take a design from a completely different machine and adapt it to not only work with my current equipment, but also miniaturized it. Do you not understand the level of understanding and intelligence that takes?" Ryuzu said in shock at Carman's nonchalant manor. "Seeing and replicateing a design you have seen is one thing, what you did was alter the whole design while keeping the desired effect, that takes a whole other level of talent and understanding, not to mention the near perfect installation and repairs you achieved."

Carman blushes a bit at Ryuzu's comments, if it hadn't been for the artificial increase to his mental stats he doubted he would have come up with such a perfect design and likely would have scrapped the idea all together. He also had his skill [Steady Hands] to thank for his near perfect assembly and installation of Ryuzu's new hardware.

Ryuzu leaned closer to Carman carefully looking at his face, while he was a scruffy and rough around the edges appearance wise, he didn't look too plain, and while it was clear to her that he had been hiding some things she believed it was likely related to the fact he was a run away.

"Monsieur Carman, allow me to formally introduce myself though it may seem redundant," said Ryuzu in near perfect Fontainian, astonishing Carman, " I am Intial Y-Series Unit 1, Ryuzu, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance. I have a minor request that I hope you may indulge."

"What is it? If I can help I will." Said Carman.

"As the only person who managed to repair and even improve upon my design, you are the only clocksmith who has proven themselves competent enough for me to consider serving them. As such, I request that you allow me to formally register you as my master." Ryuzu said as she performed a small curtsey.

While he had partially been expecting it, Ryuzu's request still hit Carman hard. While he couldn't deny how much he wanted to work with her like Naoto did in the original story, he also thought of the many complications that her presence could cause, from finding a better place to stay, to fighting off greedy nobles. And as a person from the modern day, Carman had many reservations about owning another sentient being, even if said being was mechanical.

Ryuzu frowned slightly at Carman's silence, "is there something wrong? Do you not wish to own such a high class automata? Or does my perfection scare you?"

"It's not any of that, it's just there are many factors to consider. First, this is the first time we have met and you are asking me such a loaded question, second there are problems in my life I am currently dealing with that I don't want to pull you into, or risk having a greedy noble hire an assassin to slit my throat at night because they want to get their hands on you." Said Carman, trying to explain his reluctantce.

"I see." Said Ryuzu, " it seems you have yet to understand my full set of capabilities, rest assured, with my power, no noble will be able to lay a finger on you while I am around, and if they do manage to do so, I will end the bloodlines of every person involved. I guarantee that compared to spending just over two centuries isolated with nothing to do except silently listen as fools tried to repair me to no avail, the struggles you face will nothing more than an interesting challenge for me. I promise to follow and assist you through thick and thin until the day my cogs stop turning and crumble into dust."

Carman continued to convey ways that being Ryuzu's owner would be a bad idea for a few minutes, but after Ryuzu shot all of his concerns down, he gave up and let Ryuzu register him as her master.

"Please give me your right hand." Said Ryuzu, Carman put his hand in hers and she stared at Carman's hand for a bit while she registered the changes made to her registration system. "Master Carman, it seems that you have made a change to my registration process, I understand the facial recognition functions, but why would you make me require a drop of blood from you?"

"It's because people can change their appearance to look like me and learn to act like me, but the hardest thing for them to do would be to match my blood. Blood is a powerful catalyst and is used, from what I've heard, in some parts of Liyue to create unbreakable contracts. Here in Fontaine, engineers learned how to make Meka recognize the energy signatures from samples of a person such as hair, a lost tooth, and even blood." Carman said as he retrieved a small vial he had cleaned after collecting from the scraps of Livre's work. Taking a small sewing needle, Carman punctured the skilln on his pinky finger and squeezed a dropp of blood into the vial before inserting it into a compartment that has opened on Ryuzu's chest. As soon as he has inserted the vial, Ryuzu suddenly grabbed his hand and started dressing the small puncture wound before wrapping it in a pice of cloth she had gotten out of nowhere. Grasping the sides of Carman's face, Ryuzu looked him dead in the eye and said, "Although I have to overlook it this time please refrain from causing yourself harm in front of me, do you understand?"

Nodding in confirmation, Carman watched as the mechanisms in Ryuzu's eyes shifted and she started looking at every inch of his face, memorizing it. After a few seconds, Ryuzu's eyes returned to normal.

"It is done, now Master Carman, what shall we do?" Asked Ryuzu.

Yeah there is no way I am going to stand this. Thought Carman as he responded, "well first of all, I want to set some ground rules, if we are going to be working together there are a few things I want you to understand."

"Please proceed master, I am willing to comply to whatever rules you set, so long as they do not demean or run counter to my basic functions."

"First, always try to de-escalate conflicts with other people before resorting to violence, second please refrain from commenting on other people's intelligence I understand that you are simply stating observations, but people with bruised egos tend to become aggressive and may cause trouble for us, and there are to many troubles on our plate."

Nodding her head slightly, Ryuzu waited to see if there were any more rules that Carman was going to vocalize.

"The final and most important rule, you have to consider yourself equal to me. I am not interested in a master-servent relationship. That makes me feel like I am one of those annoying nobles, I need a friend I can confide in, and someone I can trust to tell me when I am going in the wrong direction. So no more "master" or "sir," just call me Carman."

Hearing this last rule, Ryuzu was speechless, she had literally been designed to serve, to be subservient despite her sentience. She made a small pouting face, her cheeks puffing out slightly while feeling indignant towards the notion that she should do something she considered highly disrespectful and consider herself, a servant automata, on the same level as Carman.

Carman knew it would take some time for Ryuzu to accept it, but he would be damned if he was going to follow the trope of getting a slave after entering another world like some weak hearted isekai protagonist. While she sat there silently, Carman decided to go over his skills, which despite having unlocked and seeing notifications regarding learning new ones, he had yet to go over and read their descriptions and effects.

Closing his eyes, as to not seem to be staring off into space, Carman mentally called his system and navigated to the skills tab within the skills page. Reading though the skills, he was surprised to see he had Elemental Sense. How come I haven't seen or felt anything yet? Why can't I sense anything?

After pondering this issue, he chalked it up to his lack of proficiency in using the ability. Opening his eyes, he found Ryuzu patiently sitting in front of him observing him.

"Ma..Carman, it seems you were lost in your thoughts for a while, is there something that is troubling you?" She asked.

"Not really, I just was pondering some personal matters, I should probably start saving up to start renting a place, since this room probably isn't going to fit our needs." Carman said as he started looking around the slightly cramped room.

Ryuzu tilted her head in response, "you are aware that as an automata, I do not have as many needs compared to a biological person? The amount of space I require is minimal, this room, while admittedly tiny and not as grand as a person of your status should reside, still serves our needs perfectly well. But if you insist, I can also assist in gathering the funds needed to rent a residence."

"Let's put that aside for now and go outside, I think I need a bit of fresh air, and I'm sure you would like to stretch your legs after spending so long inactive." Carman said, stretching his arms and back.

Moving over to the hole that was the only enterence and exit from the room, Carman realized there was a minor issue, while his body was small and easily made it through the hole, Ryuzu was much bigger and could not move more than her head through the hole.

He has to stifle a laugh as he watched poke her head through the crack, her face in her usual deadpan as she said, "I have a solution, please step back from the wall."

After telling Ryuzu to be sure not to break it, Carman backed away, suddenly at the edges between bricks and mortar, sharp curved black blades poked out like shark fins over the surface of the ocean. The blades ran in blocky zig zag up by about two meters before running along the top of the top layer of the bricks and retracting back to the other side. With a grinding noise, the section of wall was pushed forward from the other side enough to let Ryuzu through. Grabbing the chunk of wall, Ryuzu then carefully fit it back into place, with almost no gap showing where it had been cut. Pushing the crates back in front of the hole, Ryuzu turned to Carman and said,"Shall we get going? Or do you plan to stare at me and the wall all day?"

-to be continued.