The puppet's skin is made of a material somewhere between ceramic and jade, with a warm, lustrous sheen on the surface. There are no obvious joint marks at the joints, as if it were carved from a single piece of material.
The proportions of the limbs are very harmonious, the fingers are slender, the curvature of the knuckles is natural, and even the details of the nails are made, with a light sheen in the light.
Its face is also complete. Although its eyes are still closed, the curve of its brow bone, the line of its nose bridge, and the outline of its lips are very clear. Together, they form a quiet and dignified face.
Herman glanced at the puppet's figure again.
Although the opening in the chest reveals the internal structure and the large thunder cannot be seen for the time being, the outline of this puppet can still be seen outside the edge of the opening. The proportion of the shoulder width and waist, the width of the hips, and the lines of the legs all have obvious female characteristics.
It seems Professor Malin is not only skilled in Alchemy, but also has excellent aesthetic sense; the puppet's appearance could probably be displayed as a sculpture in the Muggle world.
Herman withdrew his gaze and walked to the bookshelf.
Most of the books on the bottom row did not have gold-embossed titles on their spines; instead, there were some handwritten labels pasted on top, the handwriting messy, looking as if Professor Malin had pasted them on herself.
He pulled out a book and flipped through it. It was about the basic properties of alchemical materials. The content overlapped with the book " Basic Identification of Alchemical Materials " that he had read in the library, but it was more in-depth and had several handwritten annotations.
Herman put the book back and picked up another one next to it. This one was about the classification and application of magical conductors. It had a narrower scope than the library's book, " A Study of Magical Conductors and Carriers," but it explained each category in more detail.
He tucked the two books under his arm, found a seat next to the bookshelf, and began to read the first one.
But his attention was never fully focused on the pages of the book.
Every now and then he would look up and glance in Professor Malin's direction, watching how she operated the circuits, how she adjusted the angle of the tools, and how she used her fingertips to sense the state of the threads.
Professor Malin's movements never stopped.
She stood in front of the humanoid puppet for nearly twenty minutes, using several different tools. Sometimes she would use tweezers to hold a thread and gently pull it, sometimes she would use a metal rod to tap a certain node, and sometimes she would simply touch the lines that flowed with silver-blue light with her fingertips.
After each adjustment, she would take a small step back to observe the overall effect, and then move closer to continue.
As Herman watched her work, he suddenly recalled the scene from his last visit here.
There were several mannequins in the room that day, but he just glanced at them and moved on, assuming they were ordinary props for practice.
But now, looking at the exquisite detail of the humanoid puppet before him, and recalling the shapes of the mannequins scattered throughout the room, he roughly understood.
Professor Malin's main research area, or at least the project she has devoted the most energy to recently, is probably humanoid puppets.
Or, in the Wizarding World's terminology, it should be called an alchemical puppet.
In the world of ordinary people, they should be called robots.
Herman silently equated the words "robot" and "puppet" in his mind, and then couldn't help but smile.
That's pretty much it. Robots are powered by electricity, while puppets are powered by magic. It's just that around 1990, robots didn't even exist yet, but puppets had already been created. Who says the wizarding world is backward?
He looked down and turned a page, but his mind was already wandering.
He was curious about the functions of Professor Malin's puppet.
If it could just move, it wouldn't need such a complex internal structure. Those densely packed lines and the central core don't look like they're just for driving limbs.
Perhaps it can cast spells, after all, the magic within it is stronger than its own.
Perhaps it can act autonomously and complete certain commands without the owner's intervention.
Perhaps its skin feels just like a real person's, and its joints are so flexible that it can perform any movement a human can make.
Perhaps it can still speak, and the sound can come from some vocal structure in that chest cavity.
Herman's thoughts wandered further and further, and a picture began to form in his mind: a tall golem standing in the center of the room, moving on the control panel according to Professor Malin's instructions, its slender hands able to handle alchemical materials with an accuracy of a fraction of a millimeter.
Then his thoughts took a turn and drifted in a less conventional direction.
If the appearance could be made more realistic, the skin could be made of a material closer to real people, body temperature could be simulated, facial expressions could be added, and some voice synthesis could be added.
When Herman thought of this, he laughed at himself inwardly. His idea was so foolish, so naive.
Professor Malin could certainly make it more realistic; she'd already created the robot. Surface decoration and texture should be the simplest part for an Alchemy.
But Professor Malin was clearly not the type to veer in that direction. All her energy was focused on the internal structure and magic system, and the realism of the appearance was probably just something she did incidentally, a result of her personal aesthetic obsession.
However, Herman turned another page, his gaze unconsciously sweeping over the words, but his mind was on something else.
It seems I still need to learn Alchemy, and learn it well.
Once you've learned it, you can make it yourself. You can become a big-breasted robot maid, serving tea and water, tidying up the house, and even helping with alchemy materials. She might not be as useful as House-elf, but at least she'll be pleasing to the eye.
He silently marked this idea as a long-term goal in his mind, and then forced himself to bring his attention back to the pages of the book.
After an unknown amount of time, Herman gradually immersed himself in the ocean of knowledge in the book, no longer paying attention to Marlene's operations. After all, the puppets were mainly based on circuits, and their appeal was still limited.
The descriptions of material properties and magical conductors in the book unfolded before his eyes like a quietly flowing river, each page carrying a reassuring sense of logic.
He turned page after page, occasionally picking up a quill to write a couple of lines of annotations in his notebook. The rustling sound of the quill pen gliding across the paper mingled with the occasional metallic clang of Professor Malin adjusting the puppets in the distance, creating a peculiar harmony.
Professor Malin's end finally stopped.
She took a half step back, flexed her wrists, and then raised her wand and gently tapped it against the chest of the humanoid puppet.
The dense lines on the puppet's chest began to light up one by one, spreading outward from the core, like a heart slowly beating, pumping light into every vein in its body.
The translucent silver-blue threads trembled slightly as the light flowed through them, emitting a very faint humming sound, like some kind of precision instrument completing a self-check before starting up.