"My name is Lazar. I live at No. 2, Building 13, Cloudtop District 4... Today is the 73,901st day since the fall of Morning Star.
"His Majesty Evans, the great Mechanical Emperor, gave me the name 'Lazar' when I was still an infant. They say it once belonged to a dear friend of his, and that he hoped I would become a great Alchemist too... But I'm sorry to say I disappointed him.
"—I received that honor because my parents sacrificed themselves to cover their companions during an expedition.
"Heh. The same old opening... If anyone ever finds my diary, please forgive me for rambling. For an old 'man' over 250 years of age, even the soul is close to decay. If I don't write these things down now and then, I might forget who I am."
Inside a house filled with machinery, the "man" named Lazar turned his somewhat rusty wrist and set aside the pencil slotted into his hand.
His torso was made entirely of brass, while his limbs and head were pieced together from various metals... Even the damaged sections of his brass torso had mostly been sealed with pig iron, barely keeping the system inside from exposure to the air.
From a distance, he looked like a battered robot covered in patches.
Yet a human soul was entirely in control of that battered robot. Every metal component was the result of mechanical modification.
Now, with a series of creaks, Lazar rose with some difficulty. He stepped forward with his right foot, pulling along the four wheels beneath his left leg as he slowly made his way toward a cabinet on the other side of the room.
—The Exosuit below his left knee had been damaged during an expedition into Afternoon Town about thirty years ago. Its