Lian carefully tidied his appearance in front of the dressing mirror in his room.
The Communication Pearl on the table showed Sephy’s exhausted face.
“Aren’t you going to put on some makeup or something?”
She watched Lian clumsily tying a hairband on himself through the scene in the Communication Pearl and asked him that.
“I don’t know how to do that. Or are you saying you can guide me?”
“I can. I also have similar books in my Tower’s collection. If you want to do it, I’ll go find them and guide you step-by-step.”
“Forget it… You never even wear makeup yourself. If I let you coach me based on a sudden whim with last-minute preparation, it would be a wonder if you didn’t turn me into a painted mess.”
Lian knew Sephy was teasing him. So, he simply tied his washed hair as usual and then copied Feiyin’s technique to comb his hair—it wasn’t hard for him.
After several days of practice, he was basically able to replicate the hairstyle Feiyin had arranged for him on the first day.
After tidying his face, he checked his attire. He was wearing the Maid uniform that the Butler had forced him into when he first entered the Palace.
After Milin left last night, he had specifically retrieved this outfit and washed it thoroughly, then used Magic to speed up the drying process and ironed it flat.
The Honglian Palace did not mandate a uniform for its Maids, even for Maids in different positions or locations.
Therefore, every Maid basically added small changes to her clothing with embroidery or added accessories to highlight her personality.
Lian naturally lacked the leisure and the necessary skills to do such things, but he had chosen this outfit because he actually liked it.
He didn’t just find the lotus petal sleeves on the shoulders incredibly cute; even the apron and wide skirt, which had once made him feel very embarrassed, didn’t look so unpleasant anymore.
He stood on his tiptoes and spun in front of the mirror, the hem of the skirt dancing lightly with his movements.
The more he looked at his current self, the more satisfied he felt—
“Tsk, tsk… You aren’t admiring your own beauty, are you? Have you adapted that quickly?”
“I-I have not!” Sephy’s laughter dragged Lian out of his immersion.
His ears burned, and he coughed twice before explaining, “It’s because I have to be by that child’s side today, so I have to tidy up properly! I can’t face that child looking all slovenly, can I?”
“Sure, sure. Let’s go with that then…”
Sephy laughed a few times, but her voice was significantly weaker than before.
“Sephy, are you all right?”
Lian could not ignore the deep fatigue revealed in her voice. He picked up the Communication Pearl from the table and found that Sephy was slumped limply against the bed made of stacked books.
She didn’t even seem to have the strength to climb onto the bed, so two Doppelgangers ran over and lifted her up.
“I’m fine… I’m doing great.”
She responded that way, but in reality, she could barely lift her eyelids.
As she was carried to the bed by the Doppelgangers, the view from the Communication Pearl automatically switched to a top-down perspective.
Every time Lian saw Sephy, she was in a drowsy state. This time, however, it was more severe than ever before. After observing her for these past few days, Lian had a general theory as to why she became like this:
“How many of these Doppelgangers do you have in total? Don’t tell me you’re using your own Magic Power to drive and control them?”
Whether in the Palace or the city, Lian could see her Doppelgangers everywhere.
Moreover, these Doppelgangers were performing various tasks with startling efficiency… Even the robots that had been put into practical use in his original world were far from reaching this level.
Lian had witnessed Sephy use the almost “omnipotent” Magic of this world to realize the scene he saw now… but the problem was that in his understanding, the “omnipotence” of Magic did not come without a price.
Compared to powerful but simple Spells, Spells with complex effects required more Magic Power—this was an iron rule Lian had been told since the first time he learned about Spells.
And the person who made him remember this rule was none other than Sephy herself.
If the number of the Doppelganger driving the Steambus that day wasn’t just a random number, then Sephy had at least over four thousand Doppelgangers.
To have these Doppelgangers perform such precise actions, Lian could hardly imagine how much Magic Power it would consume.
For example, Lian could flatten a mountain with a single Fireball—but the Magic Power consumption of doing so would definitely not be more than controlling ten Doppelgangers at the same time.
If that number increased to a thousand or even four thousand… he might not be able to manage even if he gave it his all.
Although there was a significant gap in their understanding of Spells, Lian felt that his and Sephy’s total Magic Power should be roughly equal… or hers might be slightly higher. Thus, he felt it was incredible that she could do such a thing.
“Not many… what do you take me for? If I could do that, I would have beaten the Demon King to a pulp by myself already. They are driven by Magic Stones mined from the Mountain Range of the End on my side and from your mines in the Foothills Province. For the most part, they act autonomously according to designed procedures…”
“What if the power of the Magic Stone runs out? Or what happens if a specific unit malfunctions?”
“Then another unit that is fully charged, free of malfunctions, and closest to it will recover it—taking it back to the Tower or the nearest Magic Stone Base Station for recharging.”
“So there are charging stations. Then, can every one of them use that Spatial Transfer Magic like the one you used when you picked me up from the Tavern that day?”
“How is that possible… the consumption of that kind of Spell is outrageous. Only a few Integrated Units can use it. So your luck that day was really good… it just so happened that the one who found you drunk was one of them. However, I set the priority for searching for information about you very high. Even if the one you met wasn’t her, the Doppelganger who found you would have looked for the nearest Integrated Unit to pick you up.”
Her answer made Lian’s heart feel conflicted again. Were these thousands of Doppelgangers actually using the search for him as one of their primary tasks?
And just how long had they been searching… before they finally found him drinking his sorrows away in that Tavern that day?
“…So according to that logic, you only spent Magic Power when you created them, and you don’t need to control them personally?”
Sephy’s explanation finally allowed Lian to breathe a sigh of relief—at least her logic for controlling these Doppelgangers didn’t completely overturn his understanding of how this world worked.
“That’s not exactly it either. Since I can switch between them, it’s because I’ve established a link with them using my Magic Power. Additionally, during the autonomous process, things that those Integrated Units can’t judge or things that go wrong still require me to personally judge and correct them… anyway, the consumption is still quite large.”
“…Then why are you still so tired? I understand that transferring from the Sage’s Tower to the Northland requires a lot of energy, but that shouldn’t be much for you. And if you’re just linking a few thousand units with Magic Power, that consumption should roughly—”
“…”
Sephy’s silence and shifting gaze suddenly made Lian feel that something was wrong. He immediately noticed the question Sephy had glossed over in the conversation:
“Sephy, tell me the truth. Exactly how many Doppelgangers do you have?”
Sephy’s evasive gaze showed she still wanted to avoid the question, but Lian’s stern tone made her realize she had to answer. Thus, she could only show an awkward smile:
“I haven’t counted carefully… but the total should be over ten thousand?”
“You’re truly insane!”