Chapter 243
Chapter 243: The Figurine Room
"Will this really work?"
"Yes—release your energy slowly."
"...Alright then, I'll... I'll give it a try."
Cocotte swallowed, then looked toward the Heart before her.
She extended both hands. A full, brimming energy gathered in her palms, welling up like a clear spring.
The breath of nature seeped quietly outward, wreathing itself around her.
The 2 streams of jade-green spring water trained onto the Heart of the Divine Tree Yadh, rolling past Cocotte and drifting slowly toward the Heart's core.
When they made contact, Cocotte's body gave a faint tremor, and she felt a surge of magnificent vitality.
Then she carefully turned both hands over, and the spring streams instantly sped up, pouring into the interior of the Heart.
The Divine Tree's Heart, bathed in a rich wellspring of natural energy, grew more rhythmic—and seemed stronger too.
Once both streams had flowed entirely into the Heart, Cocotte let out a long breath and carefully opened her eyes.
"Is it done?"
Viktor, standing nearby, watched the relief wash over Cocotte and said quietly:
"More or less."
Cocotte gave a nod, her expression still serious.
The interior of the Divine Tree began to tremble. Countless lush green branches extended from the surrounding wooden walls, forming one green fruit after another.
In the next instant, natural energy flowed rapidly along the branches, and the fruits swelled quickly—expanding at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Once the fruits had stopped growing entirely, they radiated a faint rosy glow, their jade-green shells looking crisp and translucent.
Cocotte stared at these ripened fruits—and then it seemed to hit her all at once. She froze in place.
She whipped her head around, eyes going wide, and demanded in a loud voice:
"Viktor!"
"You brought me here just to have me make children for you!?"
Viktor, however, had both hands in his pockets and remained perfectly unfazed:
"Don't phrase it in a way that invites so much misunderstanding."
He extended a hand and hooked his index finger. Countless branches responded to the gesture, swaying continually beneath the Heart of the Divine Tree Yadh.
The jade-green fruits dropped simultaneously.
The transparent jade-green shells shattered under gravity, and the tender, newborn Elves' bodies were exposed to the open air.
They were vacant-eyed, sluggish in their movements.
1 by 1 the Elves, like puppets, were casually manipulated by Viktor and made to walk toward Cocotte.
Cocotte stared at the walking-dead Elves before her, her mind filled entirely with confusion.
She could see clearly that these Elves had not a single thought.
They were like marionettes—no consciousness whatsoever, incapable of any action without being commanded.
A question suddenly flashed through Cocotte's mind:
What possible use could these consciousless, action-incapable Elves have?
"Marei."
Viktor stood at her side and called the name in an unhurried tone.
As though summoned by it, a branch beneath the Divine Tree began to tremble, and Marei Dim's white spiritual form crawled out from within one of the hanging dewdrops.
It circled through the air a couple of times, leisurely selecting among the Elf bodies.
Then its eyes lit up with a brilliant light, locking onto 1 particular form.
It settled lightly to the ground.
The fluid, liquid-like body began to rise—the liquid on its surface swiftly shifting into the shape of that Elf.
The Elf's limbs gave a jolt. It stood upright, its gaze came into focus, and in an instant it had become a perfect gentleman.
Having done all this, it placed one hand elegantly over its chest and gave Viktor a deep bow:
"Your instructions, sir."
Cocotte stared at the inexplicably branch-emerging Marei Dim, her eyes going perfectly round.
What... what kind of creature was this?
Cocotte was deeply puzzled—but she clearly sensed that the white spiritual form before her was absolutely not an Elf.
Even though it had taken on an Elf's appearance, Cocotte was an Elf herself, so she could still identify the difference without much difficulty at all.
At that point, Viktor looked at Marei Dim and spoke:
"As you can see."
He swept his arm outward, and the Divine Tree's dense branches slowly parted.
The countless human and Demi-human bodies crafted earlier hung suspended from the branches, connected to the Divine Tree by a single cord of binding.
They dangled silently in midair, utterly unresponsive.
Cocotte stared at those bodies in a daze and felt a wave of dizziness.
Yet as she fixed her gaze on them, she could sense—emanating from the human and Demi-human forms—the same quality as the Elves.
These bodies had not a single thought. They didn't even have faces.
All of a sudden, Cocotte rubbed her eyes.
Wait. Was that an illusion?
She could have sworn she just spotted a Cat-girl who looked exactly like Viktor's younger sister.
But the Demi-humans mixed in among the crowd made it all the harder to tell.
Viktor gave a light flick of his wrist, and those doll-like bodies dropped completely to the ground.
He continued to regard the blank-faced forms and said: "Control them. Give them 'movement.'"
"Of course, not these 4."
Viktor extended his other hand and pointed into the air several times, sending 4 of the Demi-humans back to their original positions.
As though they were his most prized collection.
This time Cocotte truly saw them clearly.
Among them wasn't just Viktor's younger sister—
There were 3 others bearing distinct facial features—Demi-humans Viktor clearly knew!
Cocotte stood rooted to the spot, profoundly shaken inwardly.
Marei Dim, however, took none of this to heart.
It turned slightly away, and with fingers as precise as a sculpting blade, it opened the abdomen of 1 body and drew from within a mirror as pure and crystalline as a snowflake, capturing every aspect of each figure in its reflection.
The faceless humans and Demi-humans reacted as though shocked awake by a current—silently raising their heads, though their blank expressions remained unchanged.
Cocotte caught this subtle change.
Those bodies still hadn't been given any consciousness—they were merely moved by an external force, Puppets with no self-awareness whatsoever.
Yet unlike before, these near-lifelike Puppets grew more fluid in their movements, as though life had been breathed into them.
Viktor looked at Marei Dim with calm composure, a trace of detachment in his voice:
"You should know what your work is."
Marei Dim gave a nod and bowed to Viktor once more.
Behind it, those blank-faced Puppets mirrored Marei Dim and dropped to 1 knee in unison.
"Of course."
"In accordance with your wishes."
Viktor gave a nod and turned to look at Cocotte.
Cocotte was thoroughly bewildered—even now she had no idea what Viktor was planning to do.
"Do you remember the Dungeon from before, Cocotte?"
Cocotte jolted. Hearing Viktor say that, something in her chest lurched violently.
Those once-painful memories began to resurface in her mind.
1 person. 1 night. 2 hands. 1 miracle.
Cocotte thought of that evening—herself, alone, throwing open nearly 20-something Pocket Dimensions.
Those barren Pocket Dimensions were like the loneliness within her—vast and empty, visited by no one.
The only sign of life was the flowers and green grass she had planted herself into every corner of those spaces.
She had exhausted herself until she collapsed flat on the ground, like a wrung-dry little fish. Her cloud had struggled to heave her up, only to lose its footing from sheer exhaustion and slam her head into the ground, raising a round lump.
All she could do was smile bitterly and clamber laboriously onto her cloud's back, healing herself in solitude.
It was as though she had never been so tired in her life—her entire body and soul wrung completely dry.
The memory cut off abruptly, and Cocotte's body gave an involuntary shudder.
She suddenly realized—the overtime Viktor had mentioned. Was this what he meant?
As though seeing through Cocotte's thoughts, Viktor regarded her with calm steadiness and said in a firm tone:
"Like before—create more Pocket Dimensions."
"Marei Dim will assist you."
After Viktor finished speaking, Marei Dim gave Cocotte a very polite, gentle smile.
Cocotte looked utterly devastated, as though she'd been petrified and struck by lightning simultaneously—frozen in place, her eyes wide.
Then Viktor's voice followed:
"But—don't get any funny ideas."
This was directed at Marei Dim.
The instant the words fell, white lightning crackled across the space above the Heart of the Divine Tree Yadh, and a vicious storm raged through the entire space.
Within the storm, a deep blue great dragon gradually took form through the combined force of Magic Power and natural energy—flesh and bone reshaped anew—the great dragon riding the storm's power, suspended in midair.
Its abyss-deep massive eyes stared directly at Marei Dim. The pressure it exerted was like a mountain, impossible to look at squarely.
Feeling the crushing terror of that presence, Marei Dim narrowed its eyes and met the great dragon's gaze.
Cocotte, however, was only growing more confused.
What the—the Storm Dragon King?
She knew this thing far too well.
The first time she'd met Viktor, the 2 of them had together witnessed this beast's grandeur.
Back then... Viktor had just arrived at the Magic Power Gorge...
What came after was a bit gory.
Cocotte quickly shook her head, cutting off the memory.
But how had the Storm Dragon King ended up inside the Divine Tree Yadh—and fused with the Divine Tree's Heart?
What on earth was going on here?
Both of Cocotte's eyes were full of question marks.
Whatever strange things Viktor had been getting up to behind her back.
"And you as well, Cocotte."
Viktor turned his head to look at her and reminded her:
"Don't slack off."
"Yes, sir!"
Hearing that, Cocotte snapped immediately to attention.
She had absolutely no desire for Viktor to be in a bad mood one day and fuse her with some strange entity as well.
At least when she wasn't slacking, she wasn't slacking.
After Viktor finished giving instructions for everything, a gust of fierce wind suddenly swept through the entire Divine Tree space.
Cloud and mist rolled through, obscuring the entire space.
When the white mist dissipated, Viktor had already vanished without a trace.
Seeing Viktor depart, Marei Dim turned its head and looked at Cocotte with a smile.
Its eyes seemed to burn with a flame of blue soulfire, gradually rising.
"It seems we're colleagues now."
"I look forward to working with you, Your Majesty."
Cocotte looked at Marei Dim and felt a chill.
"Colleagues? I have no desire to be colleagues with something that can't even be identified by gender."
"Yet that is the reality of things."
Marei Dim gave a light laugh—and then a length of flesh curled up from behind like a tendril, swallowing it whole.
In the next instant, Marei Dim appeared in an entirely different form.
He wore a black formal suit, stood tall and upright, had white gloves on both hands, and carried a black ebony walking cane—every inch the gentleman.
He lifted his tall top hat and gave Cocotte a bow.
Cocotte looked up toward the top of his head—and found the head of a Crow there instead.
Well... strange as it was, as long as it wasn't taking on an Elf's appearance, she could manage.
Cocotte relaxed again and crossed her legs on her cloud, maintaining her distance from Marei Dim.
At that point, Marei Dim had already raised his head and was looking toward the enormous Heart of the Divine Tree Yadh, saying:
"Hmm... Mr. Viktor says my task is to arrange these 'cast members' and design certain scenes."
"I'm not entirely sure what he wants, but..."
A flash of fervent light crossed his eyes. He spread his arms wide and adopted an expression of utter rapture:
"I have complete confidence in my ability to direct this grand performance."
Cocotte shuddered all over and quickly turned away with a sigh.
How on earth had she ended up working alongside a lunatic like this?
Life was hard. Life was truly, genuinely hard...
***
Gwen followed behind Heni, moving through the Manor.
Leah had said Heni had a way to find Viktor—though Leah herself wasn't sure why.
Gwen watched Heni in her loose, wide-cut robes and felt a nameless feeling stirring within her.
She had a strong urge to part Heni's robes with her own hands and see what Heni's body looked like beneath the clothes.
However, Gwen, with the iron will of a Knight, did not allow that impulse to become anything real.
Heni led Gwen along and said:
"Miss Gwen, I've been wanting to ask you something for a while."
Gwen felt a mild puzzlement, tilting her head and watching Heni, who had come to a stop.
Seeing that, she stopped as well.
Heni turned slowly, gazed at Gwen with genuine seriousness, and asked:
"Do you... have feelings for Professor Viktor?"