Beatrice, a New Unit of Flow

The Steam Engine, which had never had much of a temper, suddenly fell silent—eerily silent.

It even forgot to spray Zoe with water. Just moments ago, it had been furious, chasing after her and cursing.

Zoe and the others perked up, a flicker of delight flashing through their eyes.

The Mechanical Cathedral's ritual might have been absurd, but it actually seemed to work!

But before they could celebrate for long, after a stretch of silence, the Steam Engine suddenly began making a series of noises!

Every component in the entire machine clattered against the others, producing a teeth-grinding racket. It was as if it had suddenly burst out laughing, pointing its furnace door this way and trembling along with its "laughter," as though it were laughing so hard it could not straighten up.

Hey! Hey! Hey! Caw! Caw! Caw!

The expressions on Zoe and the others' faces instantly became spectacular. There was no need to communicate with the Machine Soul, nor did they need a stoker to translate. Anyone could sense its will—if it were not a Steam Engine, it would probably have been rolling on the ground with laughter by now.

At this point, even if Zoe's face had been smeared with engine oil, it could not hide the blush steadily creeping across it. She practically wanted to find a crack in the ground and crawl into it.

No, on closer look, her face had already gone blank. She directly used her supernatural ability to slip away!

Gaia, standing nearby, sighed helplessly and was about to leave when she suddenly felt someone tug at the hem of her clothes.

The technical priest beside her, who was kneeling on one knee with a pair of pliers raised in one hand, pointed at Beatrice and whispered, "Lady Gaia, look over there."