The World Is Mine For The Taking

Chapter 1317: Epilogue 24 - The Virgin Queen And The Mad Woman (3)

"Grant your wish?" she tilted her head, the motion slow and almost absentminded, like she was trying to recall something buried deep but coming up empty. "What wish? I don’t think I’ve ever really wished for anything."

Her tone carried a quiet certainty, yet there was a faint hesitation underneath it, something that didn’t quite line up with her words.

"You did, Your Highness," I said, keeping my voice steady. "Deep down, you wanted a normal life... didn’t you?"

That was the truth. Just like the King, the Queen had long grown tired of everything tied to the throne. Responsibility, expectations, appearances, all of it. From the very beginning, she had been placed in a position where her value wasn’t measured by who she was, but by how well she could stand beside the King and look the part.

A decoration. That was all she had ever really been treated as.

More than anything else, more than power, more than status, what she wanted was simple.

She just wanted out.

"What are you talking about?" she asked, her brows drawing together slightly, though her voice lacked its usual firmness.

"If you want," I continued, meeting her gaze without hesitation, "I can give you the thing you’ve always wished for."

The moment those words left my mouth, I caught the subtle reaction of her throat moving as she swallowed, her composure slipping for just a fraction of a second before she steadied herself again.

"You..." she started, then paused, clearly choosing her words more carefully. "I’ve never asked this before. Honestly, I probably shouldn’t. But Myrcella trusted you without hesitation, and that alone says a lot. Still... you’re not normal, are you?"

"You could say that," I replied with a faint shrug. "Right now, what you want is to get away from all of this. From this place, from everything that’s been weighing on you. Give me some time, and I’ll make sure Myrcella wins this battle."

"Battle?" she repeated.

"In the future," I said, "I can see someone coming for your life. There will be people who want the throne, and they won’t hesitate. The way they’ll do it is simple. They’ll attack the castle directly and bring everything down with it. And you’ll be right in the middle of it."

Her expression stiffened, though she didn’t interrupt.

"So," I continued, "if you’ll permit me... stay with me for a while. Let me handle things. We’ll make sure you stay safe."

"How are you going to do that?" she asked.

We didn’t waste much time after that.

The Queen and I made our way to Leonamon Company, heading straight toward the lab where Filia spent most of her time. The moment we stepped inside, the atmosphere shifted. The place was alive in its own way, filled with the constant hum of machinery, the faint clinking of tools, and the low murmur of people working.

Filia was there, of course, completely absorbed in her work. Zoey, Chloe, and even Zes were assisting. The scale of what they were doing wasn’t small by any means.

Anne stood out immediately. As an automaton from another world, she had become the foundation for everything Filia was building. Every design as well as every improvement traced back to her in some way. Filia wasn’t just copying her, though. She was refining the concept, pushing it further, making something that could pass as human without raising suspicion.

"L-Leon... what is all this?" the Queen asked, her voice faltering as her eyes moved across the room.

"My automaton army," I said plainly.

There wasn’t really a point in sugarcoating it.

"Right now, we’re building it as a countermeasure," I added. "If the Republic of Andras tries to invade again, we won’t be caught off guard. We’re short on manpower, so this is the solution. We’ve already started talks with the Dwarven Queen to help with large-scale production."

I gestured around the room briefly before shifting my focus back to her.

"But that’s not what matters right now," I said. "This is."

I stepped toward one of the covered units and grabbed the cloth draped over it. With a single pull, I revealed what was underneath.

A woman stood there.

At first glance, she looked completely real. There was nothing mechanical about her appearance, and there was nothing that gave away what she truly was.

The Queen froze.

"I-Is that... me?" she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

"Yep," I answered. "It’s not fully synced yet, though. We still need to feed it your data so it can behave exactly like you. Automatons don’t naturally have emotions, so we had to find a workaround. What we came up with is transferring real data into them."

Her eyes lingered on the figure, taking in every detail.

That explanation wasn’t simple, even if I made it sound like it was. At this point, Anne was the only one who actually possessed something close to genuine emotion. Her existence didn’t follow the same rules as the others. Her system hadn’t changed, yet she behaved differently.

Calling it an anomaly didn’t quite feel right.

If anything, she was unique.

Still, Filia had managed to replicate something close to that. By embedding real human data into an automaton, she could create something that acted like a real person.

"If we transfer your data into this automaton," I said, bringing her attention back to me, "you’ll be free. You can go wherever you want or do whatever you want. Meanwhile, it will take your place as Queen. It’ll handle everything, and no one will suspect a thing."

"T-That’s... honestly terrifying," she admitted, her voice trembling slightly.

A small breath escaped me, something between a sigh and a quiet chuckle.

"Technology’s always been like that," I said. "From the start, it’s been scary. But that’s how progress works. It’s risky, it’s unpredictable, but people keep pushing it forward anyway."

She stayed silent for a moment before finally speaking again.

"What kind of data... do we need?" she asked.

"Nothing complicated," I replied. "Just a little blood."

Her gaze snapped to mine.

"With that, I can make everything work," I continued. "And once it’s done, you’ll be out of the castle for a while. No one will notice anything’s off."

After laying everything out and making sure she understood the plan, I left her to process it all.

Getting her out of the castle would keep her away from whatever was coming. That alone made it worth doing.

***

Once that was settled, I headed down to a different part of the facility.

There was someone there I hadn’t checked on in a while.

Someone I had been... working on.

"Sara," I called out.

For a split second, there was nothing.

Then—

"Haaaa! Masterrrrrrrrrr~!!!"

The voice came rushing in before the person did.

She practically launched herself at me, appearing out of nowhere with way too much energy for one person to handle. Her arms wrapped around me without hesitation, her entire body leaning into the motion like she had been waiting for this exact moment.

It was almost impressive how fast she moved.

"Easy there," I muttered, barely keeping my balance.

She didn’t seem to hear me.

Her behavior was... something else. If I had to describe it, she acted more like a dog than Latifa ever did. There was this unfiltered excitement in everything she did, like she didn’t bother holding anything back anymore.

Then again, considering everything I had done to her...

This outcome wasn’t exactly surprising.

"Master~!" she repeated, her voice practically overflowing with enthusiasm.

I let out a quiet breath, glancing down at her.

This was definitely my doing.

As for why she ended up like this...

That story goes back about a year.