Chapter 279: Technological Revolution (2)
"I heard you requested a meeting."
The owner of the hospital director's office in the Azelion Imperial Hospital opened his mouth with his usual cold expression. Hesperon, who was sitting across from him, nodded solemnly.
"Yes. It's about the prosthetic eye in my eye…"
He spoke and raised a hand to stroke the eyepatch covering his right eye.
After losing his eyeball on the day of the Riley attack, a prosthetic eye that had been installed arbitrarily at the hospital was placed in his right eye socket.
It was an action taken to prevent the left-right balance of the face from collapsing if the empty orbit was left as it was. Since the prosthetic eye had been prepared at the imperial hospital, it was a high-end product that could not be easily found.
It could be said to be a magic tool that used magic stones as its core and had all sorts of beneficial effects related to health attached to it.
"I wanted to replace it."
Therefore, the hospital director frowned subtly when he saw the pearly white orb that Hesperon presented.
A smooth orb with a pearly white color, the size of a normal adult's eyeball.
It did look extraordinary enough that, he, who had vast knowledge in various fields, could not figure out what the material was, but he didn't feel any special power from it.
'It's not carved with magic circles, nor is it a cursed item. And, there is no magic stone in it in the first place.'
To put it bluntly, it was nothing more or less than an ornament.
The hospital director, who was gazing at it quietly, turned his gaze back to the patient.
Anyway, he had a duty to do his best as a doctor.
"The cultivation of your artificial eyeball is almost finished. Of course, it won't restore your vision in your case, Hesperon-nim, but you will at least be able to look perfectly the same as before on the outside."
The movement of the pupils, as well as things like focus adjustments.
The director continued calmly, saying that he wouldn't need to wear an eyepatch anymore if that happened.
"Of course, it's not difficult to replace your prosthetic eye, but you're going to have an artificial eyeball implanted soon, so do you really need to do it?"
Hesperon nodded firmly to his words.
Unlike before, he needed to do it now.
"Yes, please."
"I understand."
When it seemed like his intention was firm, the director did not say anything further and agreed.
As if he was willing to follow the patient's wishes as much as possible, since such a minor problem would not have a big influence on the treatment results.
'It'll be a different response if he refuses the implantation of the artificial eyeball later, though.'
He was sorry to have him waste his effort, but it was inevitable since it was not something that would restore his vision, anyway.
Since it was his eye, shouldn't he choose the most efficient and helpful one?
Right after undergoing a simple procedure and replacing the prosthetic eye.
Hesperon, who had returned to his personal room inside the hospital as if nothing had happened, stared quietly into the mirror.
'…As I expected. Even the grand mage can't recognize it in this state.'
The pearly white sphere that was in his right eye socket.
The identity of it, which even the director had failed to discern, was the prosthetic eye that he had taken from Yullyeongja, known as "Callicas's Mechanical Eye".
It just looked like a bead of a unique material right now, since all of its mysteries and functions had stopped when it had crossed the dimension, unless someone was to take it apart and look inside.
'I didn't need to go all the way to Earth, pretending that I was trying to keep it a secret.'
Since, what was more important than the procedure itself, was how to operate it after that.
In its current state, it was just a half-baked item that could only be used on Earth.
'If that were the case, it would be better to just break it down and use it as nutrients for Howard. The best thing would be to create an environment that would allow me to collect field usage data as well as do regular maintenance and analysis, though.'
And the most optimal candidate for that was Hesperon.
He was in a situation where he was missing an eye, and…
"Phew, then… shall we begin?"
He had a secret plan that would allow him to bypass even such dimensional limitations.
Hesperon, who took a deep breath, closed his eyes and focused his mind on his right prosthetic eye.
"..."
A magic tool from one world could not be used in another.
That was an absolute law that an individual could not do anything about.
However, wasn't there another major premise that came before that?
That the existence called an Awakened one was an exception even from those dimensional laws.
'Then.'
What if the magic tool and the Awakened one could be completely bound together as one?
What if he could make it recognize it as a part of his own body, transcending the relationship between user and tool?
'It's impossible for others, but…'
He had an ability that would make that possible.
Soon, his ability, "Chain of the Oath", was activated and began to communicate with the prosthetic eye that had stopped operating.
———!
A sharp pain that started from his eye and traveled all the way to his brain.
He felt an extreme resistance that surpassed everything he had experienced so far.
He had experienced this before when sealing his right arm. But just as he had felt that time, as the level of the target increased, the difficulty also rose. The initial stage alone was very difficult.
Moreover, wasn't that prosthetic eye completely deactivated right now?
Naturally, it would be even more difficult to communicate with it.
'But… I already expected this much.'
That was why he needed Howard's "Technological Revolution".
An ability that allowed him to intervene in the system that made up an item from another dimension and modify part of it.
'If the problem is that the laws of each dimension are different, then I can just tweak that part so that it becomes compatible!'
Reorganizing the internal structure to allow some of the functions that would not have been able to be used to be used.
Of course, it was impossible to completely reactivate it since he had not had this ability for long, but…
He could still do small things, for example—.
He could at least give a little breath of life to the completely silent functions.
Buzz—
A small vibration was felt on his eye socket as the conditions that he had set in advance were met.
A subtle operating sound that was not heard outside, but was felt by him through his skull.
'It's done.'
At that fleeting moment.
The "Chain of the Oath", which had rapidly infiltrated the inside, did not miss the opportunity.
'Now, come here.'
Encounter, Negotiation, Coordination, Compromise, Coercion, Control…
The process of taking complete control of the target and binding each other as one was also carried out at lightning speed after that.
And, at the same time that series of processes ended, countless green symbols appeared in his right field of vision, which had been completely dark. Then, they began to quickly scroll up.
And a sentence that was located in the center.
"…It was a success."
Hesperon, who had been staring blankly at the sentence, turned back to the mirror again.
The smooth surface of the prosthetic eye, which had been a simple pearly white, was now showing a fast stream of various symbols.
Like a computer that had just started booting up.
A few seconds later.
<...>
The vision that had been only half there was instantly opened up, and everything on all sides began to enter his vision at once.
"The individual has implanted a new body part. Skill 「Mechanical Eye: Callicas」 is acquired."
Actually, if you thought about it, Yullyeongja, who had lost his sight after Hans had torn away his spiritual body, and Hesperon, who had gained power by offering his eyes as a sacrifice, were in quite similar situations.
In the sense that it wasn't just a physical injury but a permanent loss of sight for a more spiritual reason.
In that sense, this special prosthetic eye was a perfect solution for that.
In the first place, the principle behind this was not by passing through the optic nerve, but by directly projecting the image taken by the camera into the brain and creating an image in the mind.
"But… I didn't think it would be this much."
An exclamation escaped his lips when he slowly looked around.
It was not simply that his field of vision had been restored to be like when he had both eyes, it had far surpassed the operating range that humans naturally had, as well as the viewing angle depending on the focus.
'Huh? This even has x-ray vision?'
Furthermore, he could even turn his eyeball to see through his own head and see behind his back.
It was like having eyes in the back of his head.
Not to mention that his vision could become a microscope and a telescope at times.
'Come to think of it, I heard that an ostrich's vision was 25. Maybe that's what it feels like?'
Hesperon, who had turned his gaze forward again, looked at the mirror.
The smooth surface, which had been like a bead when it was deactivated, had completely disappeared. And, a mysterious pupil, which had appeared sometime, was now naturally located at the center of the prosthetic eye.
A blue halo that surrounded the iris, and the geometric patterns that were filled inside of it and emitting light.
"…Magnificent."
It was a one hundred percent objective impression with no subjective feeling.
Such a cool cyborg eye was a romance that no man could resist!
He even felt a renewed sense of gratitude towards Yullyeongja, who had taken care of everything for him until the very end.
He then glanced at the sentence that had appeared in the corner of his right field of vision.
The "Chain of the Oath" included not only synchronization, but also the additional effect of strengthening the target.
It seemed like it was recognizing such things as updates.
However, perhaps because of that, there was something that was a little bothering him…
<...>
'Stop doing useless things. Okay, stop it.'
The performance of the prosthetic eye's secondary personality, its AI, which would have been moderately passive originally, had also increased.
Of course, it didn't matter that much since it had been firmly subjugated by the "Chain of the Oath".
'A black flame dragon dwelling in my right arm, and an AI dwelling in my eye. I feel somewhat complicated.'
Still, the AI… his nickname for it, "Callie," named after the dimension it was from, would not run wild on its own like the "Yearning Right Arm", so it was not all bad.
"Okay, then let's try out its performance in earnest."
Having new abilities meant that he had to test them out himself.
Hesperon was about to go outside of his personal room, but he stopped for a moment and then…
'Hmm, it would be better to hide it for now. It could draw unnecessary attention.'
After a short period of contemplation, he covered his right eye with the black eyepatch again.
Of course, he could easily see through his eyelids and the eyepatch, so there was no problem with the functions.
"Now, shall we go! I should go on a walk and check everything out first…"
And so, New Hesperon, who had evolved even further than before, strode forth magnificently.
"Hmm?"
The hospital director, who had finished his paperwork and rounds in the rooms today, suddenly stopped in place.
It was because of someone who had entered his vision after he had unconsciously turned his head to look out the window.
His head, which had been still for a while, slowly tilted to the side without him even realizing it.
The person whom Crown Princess Riley had specially requested.
A man named Hesperon was behaving suspiciously near the promenade.
Sometimes, he seemed to be staring blankly into the distance, and sometimes he would focus while looking down at the flower beds.
Each time he made eye contact with someone, he would be startled and avert his gaze, and then he would scowl unpleasantly while looking at the wall of the toilet next to him.
In the end, he closed his only eye tightly, and then sighed and stared blankly up at the sky.
"...Hmm."
It was a unique pattern of behavior that he had not seen him show before.
The hospital director, who had been seriously watching that figure, slowly stroked his chin.
Come to think of it, he had come to him earlier with a strange-looking prosthetic eye, and had asked to replace his old one, right?
Seeing him acting like that right after that made him suspect that maybe there was a mental problem.
'Well, it makes sense. The reason he was hospitalized this time was because of the perpetrator who had left him with a permanent disability in the past. But I was somewhat relieved that he had shown a relatively normal appearance so far.'
Furthermore, he was still continuously under the influence of a curse.
It was strange that he had looked normal until now.
'I should also prepare for a psychological counseling session tomorrow. Come to think of it, I heard he wanted to go outside, I should think of a way to find a compromise… hmm?'
As the director was writing something frantically on the chart that he was holding.
His gaze, which had been glancing at Hesperon, stopped again.
Or more precisely, it was at his right eye, which was still covered by the black eyepatch.
"...That's strange."
Then, he uttered a word as if he was talking to himself.
But when he looked at it again, there was no particular part that seemed strange.
That was why it was even stranger.
'The flow of magic power is also calm…'
His gut feeling was that there was something strange, but his reason could not find anything strange.
'…Is it just my imagination?'
His worries continued until the person, who had been acting strangely, completely disappeared from his sight.
However, the hospital director, who had frowned slightly, sighed and moved his feet again.
He was too busy to keep wasting his time on an ambiguous problem.
Meanwhile, Hesperon, who was the subject of his worries.
Right after returning to his personal room after finishing a light walk that was also a test of the prosthetic eye's performance. He gave his first instruction to the AI, Callie.
"Hmph hmph."
No matter what anyone said, he was a proper gentleman.