Chapter 168: Frederica Endymion (1)
"What is this? Are these homunculi Frederica started making but never finished?"
The flask, which was about the size of a flowerpot, contained the face of a middle-aged man who bore a striking resemblance to the historical records and depictions of Frederick Endymion, as recorded by the Alchemist Guild.
In contrast, the large flask that could hold a human body contained a female figure that looked like Frederica's much older sister. Unlike Frederica or No. 3, who had no pubic hair, this figure had fully grown pubic hair.
'Come to think of it, is pubic hair also an optional feature...?'
From what I'd heard, when creating homunculi, body hair other than essentials like head hair, eyebrows, and eyelashes was considered an optional add-on, and it cost an absurd amount of money.
It was so expensive that even Frederica and No. 3 didn't have pubic hair, despite being created for very specific purposes.
"Frederica really is something else. First, she transitioned from a male body to a female one. And now, that wasn't enough—she's even made a mature version of herself..."
I dusted off the flask and inspected its contents. Unlike No. 3 or Frederica, whose skin was flawlessly smooth without a blemish or scar, the mature Frederica had more natural features. There was a small tear mole near her eye, and her fingertips lacked fingerprints, giving her a subtle sense of realism.
'And yet she just leaves her original body like this.'
The neck of Frederick Endymion, the hero who defeated the Demon King in the past, was now unceremoniously preserved in a small flask. Whatever had happened to him, his neck was crudely crafted compared to modern homunculi. His esophagus and trachea were poorly formed, with a simple, rough cut where it had been severed, and the muscle structure seemed absent.
From my experience with dissecting severed body parts in my line of work, the simplicity of the organs made it hard to believe this was once human.
"...Type 0, Origin..."
Just as I was about to touch the flask and confirm my suspicions—
"I brought the blanket."
"Ahhh!"
Startled, as if caught doing something I shouldn't, I nearly dropped the flask containing Frederick Endymion's head but managed to catch it at the last second.
"What's wrong with you?"
Erin, holding the blanket, stepped inside and looked at me curiously. Ignoring her question, I hurriedly returned the flask to its original position and shook my head as if nothing had happened.
"Even if it's just lying around in storage, you shouldn't play with the hero's remains like that."
"Heh... yeah, I guess."
"And by the way, the boss is calling for you. She said she'll treat your fractured jawbone with a regeneration potion."
My jaw, cracked from being headbutted by Erin's horns, still throbbed painfully whenever I touched it, so I figured it was best to get it treated.
'And I do have a few things I want to ask Frederica...'
"I need to get back to work, so you'll have to head to her office on your own."
"I'm not a kid; I'm not going to get lost in here."
Erin donned her helmet again, covering her face. As I watched her, I felt a mix of regret at not being able to see her cute face and a strange satisfaction in knowing only a few of us had seen her without the helmet.
As Erin hurried off, I stared at her retreating figure for a moment before heading toward Frederica's office.
Knock knock knock.
"Come in."
Although Frederica's expression was still wary, she seemed less angry than before. At least she wasn't yelling at me like earlier.
"Well... Delphine was right. It wasn't intentional on your part; the drug's side effects left you in a compromised mental state. It couldn't be helped."
"Yes."
"And as the researcher, it's my responsibility to restore anything that went wrong during the experiment."
Frederica took a glass half-filled with water, drank it all in one gulp, and then closed her eyes.
'What's she doing?'
After holding the water in her mouth for a while, she leaned over the now-empty glass and let the liquid flow back out of her mouth.
Drip...
As her saliva mixed with the water, the clear liquid transformed into a glowing, milky-white substance, shimmering faintly inside the glass.
Before I could process what Frederica was doing, she wiped her lips with a handkerchief and handed me the glass she had just spat into.
"Drink it. It'll heal your concussion and fractured jaw in no time."
"…Your spit? And it's so thick?"
"It's not spit. It's something from my body… Let's call it a trade secret. Just think of it as the highest-grade healing potion."
"…"
"Honestly. Even noble families come begging for just a single drop of this stuff, throwing money at me. But look at you, sulking as if I'm offering you something disgusting. Fine, if you don't want it, wait a few days, and your injuries will heal naturally. Your choice."
She called it a healing potion, so I should probably drink it, but first, I needed to get some answers about something that had been on my mind.
"Frederica, I'd like to ask you about something from 300 years ago."
"Read the Hero Chronicles or some other legendary tales. Isn't everything you want to know written there? I was just a side character, anyway, handing out all-purpose potions whenever the party was in a pinch."
She added with a shrug that those stories were pretty accurate to what actually happened. I decided to press her about what I'd discovered earlier.
"What's this 'Type 2' I saw?"
"Hm? You saw that? Oh, right, it's in the storage room."
She answered as if it were no big deal.
"That was the body I used to join the hero's party 300 years ago."
"You mean you joined them in a homunculus body?"
"That's right. My original body had a congenital genetic disorder, and by the time I began learning alchemy, my physical condition had deteriorated to the point that I couldn't leave a sterile lab."
"And that original body… is it by any chance…?"
"Type 0. It should be next to it."
Her casual response left me dumbfounded, and I had to ask, "Frederica, were you originally a woman?"
"Does that look like a man to you?"
"No, no. I just thought you were originally a man who discovered some perverse fetish and decided to transform into a cutesy girl, saying, 'Oh my, I'm Frederica the adorable maiden!'"
"What the hell do you think of me?!"
I thought it made sense. People lose their minds after living for 300 years. I've even had colleagues who'd say ridiculous things like, "I want to be reborn as a cute girl" or "I want to become a beautiful female knight." So I just assumed Frederic Endymion—no, Frederica Endymion—was one of them.
I tried to justify it by thinking, "After living as a middle-aged man for so long, maybe she wanted to switch to a fresh, young girl's body." But now she's telling me she was a woman all along?
"Then why did you live as a man back then…?"
"Because it was safer to live as a man in those times. Of course, the sharp-eyed mage in the party caught on to my behavior and speech patterns, but eventually, he didn't care."
The mage she mentioned must have been the only female member of the hero's party from 300 years ago.
"But didn't Frederick Endymion remain active even after that?"
"That was just a decayed imitation body we created for public appearances. Back then, we didn't have the technology to mass-produce homunculi as quickly as we do now. It only lasted a few hours at most, and it took over six months to prepare. Eventually, it was retired, and I focused solely on research."
"So, the body in the storage room is your original?"
"Yes. I've been using my current body longer than that one, though."
Suddenly, Frederica seemed like a completely different person.
"And as for Type 2, it wasn't a true male body. It was an asexual body, like No. 3, but designed to look male. Of course, that body is gone now, so I can't show you."
With that, I tilted my head back and chugged the so-called healing potion she'd given me.
Gulp. Gulp. Gulp.
"Ah…?"
"What? I told you to drink it."
"Y-yeah, but seeing myself actually drink your spit like this…"
The liquid she'd spat into the glass, which I initially thought was thick and viscous, turned out to feel more like ordinary water once it hit my tongue. It had a faint sweetness, like lightly sugared water. But the moment it went down, I felt a rush of intense mana surge through my body. The pain in my jaw disappeared instantly, and the fogginess in my head cleared up completely.
"Wow… this power…!"
I had no idea what was in Frederica's spit, but just drinking it not only healed all my injuries, it also revitalized my mana circuits. My mana was flowing so powerfully that a faint blue aura began emanating from me.
"Maybe I gave you a little too much? I guess you weren't as badly injured as I thought."
To be fair, when Erin headbutted me, I instinctively tilted my head back to lessen the impact. The real issue, though, was the slight reaction stirring in my lower half.
'Damn it. Now that I'm aware of this…'
When I thought of Frederica as some old man, I'd stripped her and touched her body like I was grudgingly picking up food that had fallen on the ground—something I didn't want to do but had to. But now that I knew she was originally a woman, her sweet scent, glossy lips still glistening from her saliva, and the soft ass I'd touched earlier were flooding back into my mind…
"I'll take my leave now."
"Alright. You seem healed, but take it easy until tomorrow just in case."
Trying to avoid another incident like before, I carefully hid the reaction in my lower body and awkwardly shuffled out of the office. I returned to the storage room assigned to me.
'Still, this body looks better than my current one…'
Frederica's original body, Type 0, was floating naked in its flask. I wiped the dust off the glass, revealing her bare breasts and pussy submerged in the clear liquid. The shape of her nipples and her soft-looking breasts, along with her neatly closed pussy partially hidden by a tuft of pubic hair, were identical to the body No. 3 had reproduced.
'Is this thing usable?'
I inspected the flask and noticed a large red button labeled [Emergency Release Button. Do Not Press.]
"This kind of thing always makes you want to press it, doesn't it?"
But touching someone else's stuff in storage was a surefire way to get into trouble, so I resisted the urge and pulled my hand back.
"If I want to lie down comfortably, I'll have to move this."
Feeling no respect for the hero's severed head now that I knew it was just a manufactured homunculus, I decided to turn the flask containing Frederick Endymion's head away so it wouldn't look at me.
Slip!
Crash!
As I adjusted its position, my hand slipped, causing the flask to tilt. The edge of the flask struck the glass wall of Type 0's container, cracking it. Liquid began to leak out.
"Ah, shit!"
This was bad. Really, really bad.