"Mmm hmm, interesting, very interesting..."

Just as Tiran walked through the door, he saw Li engrossed in a thick stack of papers, completely absorbed. No, perhaps the word "absorbed" was an understatement to describe her thirst for knowledge...

Tiran raised his hand, hesitating for a long while before deciding not to wake her up. Even he couldn't bear to watch this child... Maybe she should pay a little more attention to her appearance. If someone saw her face as she reached the climax of reading the material, they might think she was experiencing something... else entirely.

In the end, it was Li herself who finished reading the analysis report in her hands, only then realizing Tiran waiting impatiently nearby. A look of confusion appeared on her face as she asked, "What are you doing here?"

"...Didn't you summon me?" Tiran sighed, thinking to himself how even the mighty Milanía Overlord could have such a frustrating day. When will my powers be restored?

"Oh right, there was something I wanted to tell you." Li suddenly remembered, looking up at Tiran. "What was it again?"

"Chirp."

Tiran gritted his teeth, clenched his fists in frustration, and thought to himself that sometimes you just have to bow your head when you're under someone else's roof. If only he could defeat her right now... wait, come to think of it, he had never really found a way to deal with her even when he could defeat her in the past.

"It's about this child!" Li's excitement returned when she mentioned Chirp. "Physically, there's no difference between Chirp and an ordinary humanoid species in terms of muscles, blood, and fur. However, the capacity for magical energy within Chirp's body far surpasses anything we can currently produce, even the highest level of magitech cannons... No, it's on a completely different level. It's possible that Chirp can't even be compared to Forbidden Magic..."

In reality, when it comes to magical energy, any creature... not to mention ordinary humans, even non-human creatures such as chickens, cows, sheep, and pigs, all have magic energy within their bodies. The only difference is the quantity.

If the magical energy within a chicken and a sheep is compared to a small bottle cap of water, an average person would probably have about a glass to a bottle's worth. Magic-users like human magicians or beings like Elves who can use magic could have the equivalent of a basin or a bucket, or even more. As for Dragons, they naturally possess powerful magical energy on a scale that can be compared to lakes.

But when compared to Chirp, according to the test results, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say it's like an ocean.

From a normal perspective, this is almost impossible to achieve. Even Holy Rank magicians, who have reached the highest level of magic mastery, would not have an absurdly large magic energy reserve. Their magic quality only improves due to their understanding of the Holy Rank laws.

To possess such an immense amount of magic energy, one might even have to reach the realm of gods.

God...

When Li said this word, she hesitated for a moment. From her perspective as a scientist, it felt a little uncomfortable to mention this word. But she reasoned that gods were simply beings that weren't yet comprehensible, and there might be a chance to study them further.

As a magitech engineer, this kind of opportunity was as tempting to Li as exposing a breathtakingly beautiful woman to a notorious playboy. Tiran wondered if the child's drool would start dripping out as she spoke.

"Normal organisms cannot possess such a capacity for magical energy. Even with the current technology in Sainz, it's impossible to create an alchemical being like Chirp who can physically interact and have independent consciousness for an extended period of time. So, the ancient magitech civilization's technology is simply... um... too..."

Hmm, in the end, I can't think of an adjective to describe it.

"That Hermes, a fool without foresight, only wants to use her as a battery. If we could reverse engineer the ancient technology from Chirp, that would be the real treasure... Ugh, Tiran, hand her over to me..."

"Stop it." Tiran pressed his hand against Li's face, his expression dark. "Stop it right now! If you keep thinking about these things, I promise your fate will be the same as Hermes."

Li paused, a brief expression of regret and disdain flickering across his face, as if saying, "What's the point of preventing me from studying that child?" Then the excited expression and the cute blush on his cheeks quickly faded, and he returned to his initial indifferent face.

"Tsk."

"You just made that sound, didn't you? I heard it!" Tiran slammed the table and glared.

"No, you're mistaken." Li shook his head.

"Whatever, then tell me, what's been going on with Chirp these days? Why is she always in the study holding a book?"

Li furrowed his brow and rubbed his chin with his small hand. "Probably studying."

"What the hell! You're so casual about it when it has nothing to do with research?!" The princess was so angry she wanted to flip the table. So, in your eyes, I'm only here to provide experimental materials?

"Calm down, don't forget that you can't beat me now." Li raised one hand expressionlessly, and Tiran immediately felt a force pressing on his shoulder, forcing him back into the chair.

Hey, hey, isn't this too rude?

"Listen to me, I looked up that ruin Sainz mentioned. The library in the Knowledge City has some records about it. It used to be the institution where the human empire of the mythological era conducted confidential research. Although there are no detailed records, the one you brought back is probably their creation."

"Meow, meow, meow? They make cat-eared lolis?" Tiran was shocked. So, in the mythological era, there were supporters of my Lolita doctrine, and they could even create artificial lolis? That's amazing!

Wait a minute, it wouldn't hurt to sacrifice Chirp a little bit under guaranteed safety, in case the reverse engineering of this technology is successful...

—Stop, you beast! That's your daughter, after all!

—I, your fellow Daoist, am willing to dedicate everything to the realization of a new era where everyone strives for goodness and is moe under the brilliance of healing beautiful girls. How insignificant is a mere daughter?

"You're thinking too much. Even if we analyze that kind of technology, it couldn't possibly be used for such boring things!" Li ruthlessly shattered Tiran's fantasy. "Don't make a disgusting face."

"Can't I even think about it?"

"Absolutely not!" Tiran's words only managed to provoke Li again. Just imagine the technology you've worked so hard to research being used to mass-produce lolis, and Li felt that something noble inside him was being insulted.

"Alright, fine," feeling uncomfortable under the gaze of a girl half his height glaring at him, Tiran quickly waved his hand. "Go on."

Finally calming down the flames of anger, Li sat back down. "My speculation is that there's some kind of mechanism left inside Chirp that the original designers inputted, something like automatic learning. Ask her later, and she should feel some kind of suggestive command in her mind."

"But it's still a bit strange... If they had the ability to leave behind this kind of autonomous learning mechanism, why didn't they just directly input knowledge? The knowledge and technology from the mythological era... would definitely cause a sensation if it were to be passed down to now."

As he spoke, Li furrowed his brow again, murmuring with a headache.

"Hmm? What did you say?" Tiran couldn't hear clearly.

"It's nothing. Given the current conditions, this is the best I can do. The child doesn't need to worry. The self-learning mechanism will surely meet the requirements, and at a certain point, she will stop. As for your power, I haven't figured it out yet, but if possible..."

Sensing Li's gaze falling on her again, Tiran shuddered and shook her head desperately. "No, no! I will figure it out myself!"

"I think you'd better..."

"Ah, goodbye!"

Bang! Frantic footsteps and the sound of a heavy door slamming shut.

...

Meanwhile, in the corridor connecting the northwest corner tower of the castle.

"Are you going home?"

Mimi paused for a moment after hearing this, put down the cloth she was using to wipe the windows, and lightly descended from the ladder, turning to look at Ellie, who was clutching the hem of her maid dress, a bit embarrassed to meet her gaze.

"Yes, yes! I'm sorry, Mimi sis. Actually, I don't want to, but my mom said that my sister is getting married and asked me to come home..."

Ellie lowered her head, and her voice became weaker as she went on, until it was just a buzzing sound like a mosquito.

Her face turned red. It was just after the New Year, and the maids who had gone on vacation had just returned. It was the busiest time for them, and Ellie was well aware that taking leave at such a time was highly inappropriate.

Seeing the child struggling to find her words, Mimi couldn't help but chuckle softly, gently patting her small head. "Go on, the castle will be fine without you... Oh, by the way, did you say your sister is getting married? Tell Justice to allocate fifty gold coins from the castle's account, and put it on my tab as a wedding gift for your sister."

"What, what? Can I do that? Thank you, Mimi sis!"

If Aya were here, her eyes would probably pop out. Why her! So it turns out that the cold and harsh attitude she always displayed, resorting to punches and kicks, was only reserved for me!

"Hey, demon, looks like you're not that bad after all."

Ellie hopped away happily, her golden pigtails swaying behind her. At that moment, Angel, who had suddenly appeared at the other end of the corridor, poked her head out and stared at Mimi with a wistful expression.

"That child is very diligent in the castle, and it's no big deal to make some accommodations for her... As for you, you've been following me all morning. Aren't you tired? And you're supposed to be a maid, so why not do something?"

Even though Mimi disliked Angel, she couldn't be bothered to get angry anymore. She didn't know what was going on in Angel's mind, but she had been following her around every day, and at first, there were a few clashes, but eventually Mimi just ignored her.

"You're clearly a demon... Are you being nice to humans for some ulterior motive? Tell the truth, are you planning to use her as a sacrifice or drain her life force?" Fiona still peeked her half-head out from behind the corner, looking wary as she stared at Mimi.

"I've never done anything like that... Whatever," Mimi couldn't be bothered to explain and rolled her eyes before continuing to clean the windows. "You can think whatever you want."

"..."

Well, Angel could actually see that Mimi had no "evil" intentions at all. In her eyes, the evilest thing this demon did was probably secretly rummage under the bed for those treasured princess doujinshi...

But a demon that doesn't do bad things? This was quite different from the education Angel had received.