*?*
Both king and father? It seemed Richard the Lionheart held great weight in their hearts...
But seeing how readily the Magus divulged everything, Li Ye quietly lowered Richard the Lionheart's importance in his estimation.
"Then what about his strength? Has Richard the Lionheart ever displayed his power before you? Or rather, is Richard the Lionheart a Servant?"
Even after experiencing the Grand Order of Fate, Li Ye knew very little about Richard the Lionheart, whom he had yet to encounter, whether it was his Noble Phantasms or the possible classes he could possess.
That was assuming Richard the Lionheart had appeared as a Servant. If he were alive, the situation would be different. Though he would lack the enhancements of becoming a Servant, his own abilities would not be restricted.
His armaments and Noble Phantasms would not be restricted either, and so on.
"The King is of noble status, but I can sense that he is not a Servant—"
As though she had let go of something, the Magus revealed information about Richard the Lionheart with almost no hesitation.
Not a Servant, but a living person?
Though Li Ye did not know Richard the Lionheart's specific details, he still knew the period during which Richard the Lionheart had been active in ordinary history.
From 742 to 814 AD.
That was several hundred years before the present year, 1272!
Not everyone could merge with a Holy Lance like the Lion King, become a god, and gain an extraordinarily long lifespan.
This made Li Ye even more suspicious of the identity of this so-called Richard the Lionheart.
Setting aside Richard the Lionheart, who was shrouded in mist, Li Ye wanted even more to know just how large the remaining Crusaders were.
Just as Li Ye was about to question her about the current state of the Crusaders, he stared at that face identical to Aleka's and paused slightly.
"You, how long ago were you born?"
Staring at the Magus's exceedingly familiar face, Li Ye suddenly asked.
Judging by her adept use of magecraft and her handling of familiars, the Magus did not seem like a novice. Aleka, too, seemed like a seasoned Magus.
Li Ye did not know whether the Crusaders possessed a means of rapidly acquiring skills, but if they could even rapidly develop skills, he was rather curious about the Crusaders' ability to mass-produce troops.
They could mass-produce Artificial life and grant them powerful skills and Mage Circuits, obtaining a group of formidable Magi or warriors within a short time.
"Three sunrises ago—"
The Magus answered Li Ye's question very cooperatively, but only answered it. She never offered explanations for anything Li Ye had not asked about.
Three days?
Hearing this, Li Ye raised his brows even higher.
Honestly, this time frame was within what Li Ye could accept, but he could not help being amazed regardless.
"How many others were born alongside you?"
Since there was one Aleka, there could be two or three more Alekas.
After confirming that the Magus and Aleka were closely connected, Li Ye had already tentatively categorized Aleka as the Magus's sister.
"I belonged to the second batch. Including me, only seven of us survived to the end."
The Magus's gaze focused, as though the subject had touched upon something she cared about.
The second batch, born three days ago. Then the first batch could not have been much earlier—
Li Ye stroked his chin and asked curiously, "Do all of you look the same?"
"We used the same template, so naturally we look the same."
The Magus spoke with an unexpected trace of nostalgia.
As though she had recalled some memory that made her feel at ease.
The same template? So there really was an original Aleka—
Li Ye immediately understood the connection between Aleka and the Magus, but a new question surfaced. "Then how did you grow to this level in just three days? Or were your other sisters the same?"
"Through basic training, we successfully acquired the knowledge that came with our bodies."
That was what the Magus said.
Built in?
Hearing the Magus's incomprehensible answer, Li Ye drew a sharp breath before recalling the template she had mentioned earlier.
If they had used the original Aleka as a template for large-scale replication and cloning, then being born with knowledge was only natural, was it not?
Li Ye knew that his meager knowledge of magecraft alone could not confirm this, so he did not dwell on the matter and continued questioning her.
"Then what role did Magie Friedman play in the process of your births?"
Before his words had even faded, Li Ye's eyes were covered in gem-like color.
Li Ye had activated the Eyes of Death Perception.
Every Line of Death on the Magus's delicate body entered Li Ye's sight.
The Magie Friedman whom Li Ye had killed yesterday had been able to remotely enter Aleka's body and control her seamlessly. Li Ye could not be sure whether there were others among the Crusaders with the same ability.
From the Magus's account that she and Aleka both belonged to the second batch, with seven in total, the first batch was likely about the same number, perhaps even fewer.
The survival rate seemed very low.
Yet even so, more than a dozen powerful Magi could be controlled like puppets and sent into self-destructive battles.
It was precisely because of this that Li Ye felt there was a risk of error in conversing with Artificial life like the Magus.
Just like with Magie Friedman. If Magie Friedman had not taken the risk of speaking herself, Li Ye might not have discovered that Aleka had already been replaced.
Thus, Li Ye activated the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception to see whether a death point like Magie Friedman's would appear on the Magus's body.
Naturally, Li Ye found nothing unusual on the Magus.
"Magie Friedman? She was merely an insignificant cultivator, someone who acted on the King's orders and could not even withstand a single curse."
The Magus described her as though she were a passerby, someone who remained a passerby even though she had created their lives.
Even as their creator, Magie Friedman was still merely an insignificant cultivator in their eyes. Meanwhile, Richard the Lionheart, as their King, was the father figure they recognized. Was that a way to emphasize their loyalty?
Li Ye glanced at the Magus. Though she came from the same template, aside from looking identical to Aleka, she was unlike her in every other respect. Her secrecy regarding information alone was an obvious difference.
"Now that Magie Friedman is dead, do you Crusaders still have the ability to create more lifeforms of your model?"
"The template is dead. I was the second, and I am also the last."
Hearing that the template was dead, Li Ye thought of a question he had overlooked.
"So the Heroic Spirit Summoning Circle was also among the knowledge you were born with?"
Unlike other magecraft knowledge, Li Ye knew the Heroic Spirit Summoning Circle very well.
This was by no means a super-scale summoning ritual that a single Magus could support. Just as someone in Jerusalem had needed the Holy Grail to summon Ozymandias, only someone as powerful as the Lion King could sustain the cost required by a Heroic Spirit Summoning Circle with their own power.
Moreover, a Heroic Spirit summoning could not be performed with merely a summoning ritual. The complex techniques behind it required an extremely powerful vessel to support them.
The Magus clearly did not possess such conditions.
"That was a summoning ritual bestowed upon us by the King. It was not among the template's knowledge."
The Magus shook her head.
"Then how did you carry out the summoning?"
"By using the Ley Line to pay the magical energy required for the summoning, as well as the magical energy required for activity."
The Magus honestly revealed the Command Spell on the back of her hand. The crimson patterns intertwined, emanating an eerie aura.