The next day came without sleep. Homunculi did not sleep.
Rose stood at the corner of the room as she had been commanded, quietly watching over the sleeping girl with the slowly rising sun shadowing them both.
The disgusting taste of yesterday's food, the meal she had been forced to eat, lick, and swallow down from the carpet floor, was still fresh in her memories. It was now an impossible thing to forget. Unless her core was to be directly interfered with, she was a being who would forever remember. That, she now learned, had its ups and downs.
She placed a hand on her forehead. The injury she had sustained when her head crashed against her plate was gone. Indeed, she healed fast.
The early parts of the earlier day had been rosy, then terrible, then ridiculously atrocious. She had watched her owner's relief at clearing the scene through her own grief. A person who shared the same face as hers was only all too happy to see her suffering.
It was hard to look at her master the same way again.
"Is this my role?" She muttered, wondering if that was her reason for existing. Was she merely something created to suffer in place of another? Was that what being a body double entailed?
She sighed, eyes blinking through the glamorous window at the other end of the room. Staring below the hill the estate sat upon and into a city slowly being illuminated by sunlight.
Her eyesight was impeccable. A mixture of low, medium, and high-rise blocks and rectangles and squares made out of concrete dotted the land. There were pedestrians and what her core recognized as motors traveling the morning's streets. It wasn't a detailed sight, she couldn't make out faces, nor exactly what the figures' clothing were, but she could see past the distance.
Her vision was well beyond that of a human. In fact, everything about her was. She could survive longer without oxygen, her brain was sharper and she required no sleep. Even sustenance could be disregarded as long as she had a Mana Orb to recharge with. All of this she knew to be true as data floated in her mind with the hum of her core. Everything was undoubtedly well beyond a normal human of her stature. Everything but her status.
The very realization of this confused her. She had been born not long ago but she had already found herself puzzled by the slight world she saw. Was this her views or had her creator imprinted this upon her core as well? She became curious.
'In this world, the word of a human is law.'
She knew a bit about the world. At least, her creator had been kind enough to imprint some information into her. And that bit she did know did not seem kind to homunculi. She was, in the end, a product.
She quelled her thoughts as her master awakened.
"Good morning, N.37." There was a light smile plastered upon a face similar to her own.
Rose, however, realized the girl no longer called her by her name and that fact pained her. She had, in the span of a night, been stripepd down to her product number. Why? She thought. Yet, as much as she could think away forever, she didn't. She bowed and spoke up.
"Good morning, master."
She was dressed in clothing similar to a maid's. The attire she had been given the day prior was gone. They hadn't been able to stand to see a complete spitting image of their relative in the form of a homunculus. They needed her, she surmised, but they did not want her. She stood, relegating that thought to the back of her mind.
"Are the orders from last night void, master?" She asked.
The lady hopped from the bed. Her white, loose, pajamas fluttered with her black hair and she made her way to the front of the homunculus.
Idris nodded. "Yes, you may recede all orders from the day prior."
Her sigil shined with the hum of Rose's core. An order that directly canceled, or erased, another could only be done through the power of the owner. Rose felt her mind clear as if it had reset. She smiled at the feeling it gave her. No orders made her as free as the girl before her, she thought.
"Alright," Idris said, "Help me try on some dresses. Today is the day."
Of course, she was never free.
"Is this alright?"
"No no, it doesn't match my eyes in the least bit."
Her master fluttered around her, using the homunculus as a model to outfit herself. It was a better idea than simply a mirror. She could see all sides, everything as she pleased. With an order and a thought in her mind, her sigil translated whatever pose she wished to test.
Rose found enjoyment in the process as even she perused the items per her strange tastes.
"What about this?"
"We're going to a ceremony, and you want to wear leggings? Is your taste in fashion that bad?"
Rose shrugged.
"What of this?" She plucked out a jacket of green. "It matches our eyes, I believe?"
"Now you're simply being ridiculous!" Her master rebutted with a small laugh.
It took an entire morning to pick out a matching set of an outfit due to the sheer magnitude of the closet that had been prepped with two of everything. In the end, they chose a black dress that matched their hair, stockings, a small, dark, green hat—one of those you would only see at high-class parties—that matched their eyes, and a pair of heels.
They bathed. Ate. And returned.
Yet, at the end of it all, Rose found that she was the only one dressed.
Her master, instead, stuffed her own outfit into a bag and switched to something more plain. A pair of blue jeans, a white shirt, and a pair of sunglasses as well. Even her hair had been neatly tucked into the hood of a green hoodie. Everything came together to give the lady a safe, recused, presence.
"Hmm?" Rose tilted her head. Had she missed something or another? That seemed impossible. She couldn't forget anything she saw or heard.
"Just follow me and don't speak unless I allow you to."
Another order quickly came about and the homunculus could only follow its command.
It was an odd feeling to walk in heels.
The hum of her core rang within her.
She could feel the turbulence of the mana rolling through her skin, her veins, and her heart. She smiled and bowed to the family before her. Her legs shook not because of their stares but due to the discomfort of heels—which she had decided she very much disliked.
"Good morning," She said, rising back up with bleak emerald eyes that continually collected data from her surroundings.
They were dressed in ceremonial attire. The father, the person that had her behave like a dog, wore a clean suit she thought complimented him well. The mother, with black hair and emerald eyes resembling her own, wore a dark, blue dress and scowled at her sight. Then there was her master's little sister and brother, who curiously blinked at her, then went back to standing oddly by their parents. The lady herself stood behind her with a hoodie over her head.
As nervous as Rose felt, her heart did not beat any more wildly than it ever did—which was none at all.
"Is everything ready, then?" The commanding voice of the man rang as he ignored her entirely.
Her master nodded. "Yes, father, we can depart now."
Rose listened to the prior order of Idris, following the group outside of the estate into a front garden enclosed by a circular, asphalt, road and iron gates ahead.
The place was lined with motors. Those metal transporters, boxed things on wheels that looked sleek under the burning sun. The window of one of them reflected back her dolled face along with her emerald eyes. The door hefted open, forcing her to step back as it lifted like a latch to the sky and she was met with a stinging glare of eyes the same color as her own.
"Stick to the plan, brother, don't do anything reckless," Her master said behind her and soon ordered her in, "Sit there. No matter what, do not move."
The sigil shined and Rose's body moved beyond her control. She wondered why such an order, that she wouldn't mind to do of her own will, needed the control of a Master Sigil. Still, she entered the thing and sat upon the passenger seat coated in leather. To her left was the brother of her master, tapping a floating, translucent, blue screen in front of him and holding the steering wheel of the motor.
"Very well," Idris said with a smile as the latch of the door closed, "This is goodbye, then."
Tapping twice on a bracelet strapped to her arm, a screen popped up to her face. Some quick taps later and a voice came.
"Is it all ready?" It was her father's.
"Yes, yes, we're all prepared," She said as she began to walk away, "We can begin."
Rose watched her master make way from the slew of motors. She watched as the girl went to the back of the estate. Why was her master leaving. . .? She thought, a part of her feeling a sudden emptiness.
There was a small hum as the motor started, she stared through the frontal window, watching the others follow their own from all sides.
"Alright," The man at her side said before sitting back into the chair, "Auto drive, on."
There was a small beep and he released his hands from the steering wheel, watching a blinking map at his front before turning his head to her.
Rose looked on as he stretched his arm towards her. She watched as his hand reached below the skirt of her dress and she quickly felt the warmth of his grasp upon her thigh as he caressed it. Her mouth opened to deny him, or beg that he stop, but nothing came out. She wanted to bolt from the place, but the very action of moving to leave her seat went counter to her orders and she felt her very thoughts forcing her down.
Still, she shook her head, eyes locking with the man's.
"What? Are you denying me?" He seemed to find her action amusing. "Really? Do you know that a homunculus cannot refuse the orders of a human?"
She knew, of course. Her eyes widened as he spoke his next words.
"Kiss me," He said, hand moving even further up her dress, and she found her breasts being fondled.
Fear engulfed her as her body moved on its own and their lips soon connected with their tongues intertwining. The very warmth he gave through his hands and through his lips sent shivers running across her frame.
As they separated, he smiled.
"A shame the real you is such a bitch or I could have. . ." He stopped himself and soon cursed, "Dammit, Idris."
His hands continued their movement under her clothing. Rose wondered if the man would undress himself at any moment and take her right then and there. She wondered what manner of love he held for his sister.
Yet, the sight of fire in front of her dragged her out of that thought and him off of her. They both looked forward with shock upon their faces, and he tsked.
"They came too fast."
A bird's cry reached her ears and she saw the image of a burning phoenix piercing through the morning sky and diving right for her. It burned red and orange, its visage flickering like an illusion until the window of the motor shattered and glass shards flew.
She wanted to escape, but her orders were to remain seated. The homunculus had little time to think before fire drilled into her chest.
She looked to the left to see the male protected by a small barrier of mana.
She wanted to scream as fire engulfed her world, but her orders were to remain silent.
As she heard the sound of her core shatter, on that day, Rose died.
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