Artificial Humans

"Then let's name him Mordred!"

After racking his brains for days, Leon still couldn't think of a name worthy of his child.

As for names like Imperator and Augustus, their meanings were too solemn, and he felt his child wouldn't live up to them.

He wanted to leave those for his future self.

The child's father was hopeless at naming, so the responsibility fell to the mother.

Morgan already had a name in mind for the child in her womb.

"How about Mordred?"

At that, Leon silently stared at Morgan for a long while. Under his gaze, she grew embarrassed and shifted her eyes, looking distinctly uncomfortable as she turned her face away from him, almost as if trying to escape his attention.

"W-what? Is there something on my face? Or do you not like the name?"

"Nothing. It does sound rather powerful."

In his previous life, Leon had played a Type-Moon mobile game and watched a few movies and television shows about King Arthur. How could he not understand what that name meant?

Mordred was Morgan the Witch and Artoria's "illegitimate child" in the game—a homunculus made from her sister's blood. Morgan, resentful of her younger sister, had created her to overthrow her rule.

Her eventual fate had played out just as Morgan had arranged: she rebelled, toppled the kingdom of her "father," Artoria, and was ultimately killed by Artoria at the Battle of Camlann.

But what did Morgan mean by suggesting this name to Leon now?

Did she want to use the child to overthrow his Britain? Or did she want the child to become Wu Zetian and rule Britain?

It seemed Morgan still hadn't given up on her ambitions.

Leon couldn't help feeling that all the time he'd spent by her side these past few days had been wasted. In the end, he hadn't managed to warm her cold heart.

Thinking of the story in the second chapter of the game in his past life, he knew that Morgan's obsession with Britain couldn't possibly be abandoned so easily.

No matter. He'd just play along with her.

For a moment, Leon's mind raced, but his expression remained unchanged.

"Fine. Mordred it is."

Mordred had no direct blood relation to Artoria now. She was the child of the Lion King—him.

Leon refused to believe that, with his careful guidance, Mordred could still grow up to be the same disaster as in Type-Moon.

If Mordred had been a rebel before he came to Type-Moon, and she still rebelled after he arrived, then what was the point of him coming here?

"Come to think of it, there's something I'd like to ask you about."

Mordred's name brought a question to mind. It had been nagging at Leon for days, and he'd wanted to ask Morgan about it all along. Now that they'd even named the child, he couldn't hold back any longer and voiced his confusion.

"Ever since I came into this world, I've known my constitution was unusual. There's never been a precedent for naturally passing on my bloodline, yet after being together for barely ten days, you became pregnant. Isn't that a little too fast?"

Leon gently and carefully caressed his wife's still-flat stomach. His tone was as calm as ever, but Morgan stiffened.

"What's strange about that? You're blessed by destiny, and I gave you my blessing. Isn't it perfectly normal to conceive a child?"

Even a three-year-old could hear how stiff Morgan sounded, let alone Leon. It was obvious something was wrong.

"Just your blessing? You didn't do anything else?" Something like human alchemy, synthesizing a life-form, or making a homunculus.

Leon remembered that Morgan's Magecraft was extremely advanced. The original Mordred had been a homunculus she created.

Under the pressure of her husband's unchanging expression, Morgan grew increasingly uneasy. She knew her answer had sounded far too suspicious, only giving him more reason to doubt her.

Morgan took a deep breath, calmed herself, then nodded and admitted the truth to Leon.

If she confessed now, then, from what she knew of Leon, the consequences wouldn't be too bad.

That was right. The child in her womb had been made using alchemy.

She'd started planning this from the moment she first met Leon. Everything that had happened afterward had gone far more smoothly than she'd expected.

After Leon returned victorious from his campaigns against Scotland and Vortigern, she'd obtained his genetic material.

Her experiments at first had failed several times because she wasn't familiar with Leon's genetics. Fortunately, the raw materials were practically inexhaustible. She'd stored some of her own for emergencies, and she certainly wasn't short on Leon's—she could get fresh material every day.

She'd placed her most successful creation in her womb, then couldn't resist telling Leon the good news the very next day.

Looking at it now, she'd acted too hastily and let a clue slip. Her husband was simply too suspicious and paranoid.

"I'm sorry, Leon. I wanted so badly to be your wife that I resorted to this."

After hearing Morgan's explanation, Leon immediately understood.

It was basically artificial insemination, or something like in vitro fertilization.

And this counted as Magecraft?

The only thing Leon couldn't understand was how Morgan had managed to break through the genetic barrier so easily. Hadn't that golden hunk put some kind of restriction on his genes and those of his brothers?

Or were his genes uniquely stable and excellent, making him the most special and important one to that golden hunk?

Leon couldn't figure it out in such a short time, but he guessed it was probably the latter. After all, his brothers were hopeless and nowhere near his level.

But as he listened to Morgan talk about the wild things she'd done with homunculi and the like, an idea he'd long kept buried in his heart spread like wildfire. He could no longer suppress it.

If Morgan can use my genetic material to make little people, then could I... use her techniques to create his Astartes in advance?

He didn't need many. A few hundred would do.

An Lushan had eight thousand Yeluohuo, Li Keyong had the Thirteen Taibao, and Zhu Yuanzhang had more than twenty adopted sons. It seemed perfectly reasonable for him to have a few hundred Astartes too, right?

At the thought, Leon grew excited.

There was potential here.

This idea had real potential!

"Morgan, how many have you made? Is the technique mature?"

Seeing Leon take an interest in her alchemy, Morgan knew he'd calmed down for the time being and wouldn't punish her too harshly. She hurriedly replied, "I've only had three successful cases so far. The technique isn't very mature yet."

"Take me to see them." Leon's words were firm and left no room for refusal.

"All right. They're in my workshop."

Morgan mentioned her Magecraft workshop. Leon didn't react, and she couldn't tell whether he was confident in his own strength or simply unaware of how dangerous it was to casually enter a Magecraft practitioner's workshop.

To put her husband at ease, Morgan immediately opened a mirror door and led him into her secret base.

In Morgan's mysterious laboratory, the light was dim, but everything remained visible. Leon looked around and couldn't see any source of light. There were only bottles and jars filled with all manner of strange things: fantastical plants and animals, living specimens and dead ones. It had everything.

Normally, Leon would have inspected everything carefully, but he couldn't settle down now and had no patience to pay attention to any of it.

With Morgan leading the way, he entered a room at the very back.

Three enormous, person-tall cultivation tanks stood in the center. The one in the middle was empty; its contents had already entered Morgan's womb.

The tanks on either side were filled with transparent, pale-green liquid. A blue orb the size of a fingernail floated in each one, shimmering with light and radiating an air of mystery.

"So these are my children..."

Leon gazed at the tiny blue dots, his eyes glimmering with an inexplicable light.

He'd thought there would be babies inside, but they weren't even embryos yet. They could only be considered fertilized eggs.

He turned and asked Morgan, "The children... will they grow up in there?"

Morgan explained, "No. These are life-support devices, meant to stabilize their vitality. The cultivation equipment isn't finished yet. To develop properly into adults, they'll need to be implanted into a mother's body and nurtured there."

Leon hurriedly asked, "They only need a mother's involvement?"

If so, there was a lot he could do.

He had people to spare.

"They need my body." Morgan saw Leon's expression and immediately understood what he was thinking. She added, "Though they're artificial life-forms created through alchemy, they're still made from your bloodline and mine. Only my body can successfully nurture them."

She glanced at Leon's stomach, then added, "Of course, you could do it too, if we implanted a uterus in you—"

"Ahem. No need to say any more."

Leon hurriedly cut Morgan off, afraid she'd say something that would shatter his worldview.

As for using another woman to carry his children, he didn't even need to ask to know Morgan wouldn't agree.

The numbers were a little low for now, but it was still a good start.

The technology could continue to be researched and developed. Once it was mature, he'd be able to raise an army across the world.

If Old Man Huang could do it, so could he.

Leon put that thought aside. For now, he had another question for Morgan.

"What did you mean by 'fresh every day'?"

The way she'd put it made him sound like he was always desperately burning with desire.

Hearing that, Morgan knew her husband had already forgiven her, and she immediately felt much more relaxed.

"It was my fault, it was my fault. Leon, just forgive me, okay? I'll make it up to you after the baby's born."

Looking at Morgan's alluring figure, Leon swallowed. Ever since learning that his wife was pregnant, he'd held himself back for days to protect mother and child.

Today, he'd give her some more raw material.

"If you want me to forgive you, we don't actually have to wait until after the baby's born..."

"Merlin, I have a favor to ask of you."

By the time he left Morgan's workshop, it was already late at night. Morgan had been exhausted and gone to bed early, but Leon was too worked up to sleep.

Feeling bored on his own, he had someone drag Merlin out of bed and bring him to the palace to keep him company through the night.

Merlin forced himself to stay alert, wondering what sort of mischief Leon was planning this time.

"What important matter could have prompted you to summon me at such a late hour, my king?"

"Merlin, do you know anyone who's good at handling government affairs? Preferably someone mature, level-headed, and attentive to detail. Find him and bring him here by force. I'll reward you handsomely."

Even though his father helped him manage the day-to-day affairs, some matters still required him, the king, to make the final decision.

Leon wanted a deputy king to handle government affairs for him, so he could devote all his energy to making little people with Morgan.

When Merlin heard this, he looked at Leon and saw the sincerity on his face.

"My king, how would I know anything about that?" Merlin spread his hands. Do whatever you like.

"What about your Clairvoyance? Can't you spy on everyone in the world?"

"Clairvoyance can't see into people's hearts."

Leon immediately cursed him. "You gill-breathing mongrel."

Merlin didn't care in the slightest. He had no emotions, so what could insults do to him? He simply enjoyed watching Leon lose his temper.

Previously, the Lion King had used Artoria and the people of Britain to threaten him indirectly. Now that Leon had no cards left to play, he couldn't keep Merlin in check. It was Merlin's turn to mock him in revenge.

That was what Leon got for dragging him out of bed in the middle of the night.

Seeing that Merlin wasn't going to help, Leon didn't argue with him any further. Instead, he brought up something else.

"Merlin, who was that gemstone merchant you mentioned before? I want to meet him."

The gems and pearls used at Leon and Morgan's wedding had been no small amount. Their value would have been enough to buy three or four city-states.

Since the merchant was so rich, Leon wanted to squeeze him for another fortune to fund his research.

Merlin had refused to help Leon get his own back over the first matter. He didn't dare refuse him again. He could push Leon only so far before risking his anger and the destruction of their agreement.

"My king, I know him, but we aren't close. If you want to meet him, I can notify him."

Since the gemstone merchant had funded the wedding for free, he must have wanted something in return. Leon figured he wouldn't refuse to meet him.

A few days after Merlin told him about the matter, he brought a gemstone to Leon during a quiet moment.

"My king, he agreed to meet with you."

"The nerve."

Merlin's reply immediately angered Leon.

I want to meet him, and I need his permission?

Who dared be so insolent in his presence?

After his initial anger passed, Leon grew interested in meeting this brazen fellow and seeing what gave him the confidence to be so arrogant.

With Leon's permission, Merlin tossed the gemstone in his hand into the air. Magic burst from it, stirring a windless gust through the hall.

The gemstone was like a heart. Veins spread out from it, forming a human shape, then grew into bones and muscles. Finally, a layer of skin wrapped around it. An aged face took shape, and a black formal suit covered its body.

Leon sat on his throne and watched the gemstone merchant make his rather ostentatious entrance.

The man was tall and sturdy. Beneath his solemn black clothes, he stood ramrod straight. He looked old, perhaps somewhere in his fifties or sixties, and his short gray-white hair had been messily combed back. He had a beard.

Leon found him somewhat familiar.

The old man opened his blood-red eyes, and his expression immediately came to life. Though he was old, he seemed as vigorous as a young man. His gaze brimmed with arrogance as he studied the imposing figure on the throne.

"Pleased to meet you, Lion King. My name is Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg. I greet you once again."

"I should've known. It's you."

The moment he heard the old man's introduction, Leon remembered.

It's you—the Kaleidoscope!

The Jeweled One!

Leon was genuinely quite interested in this Second Magician.