Chapter 277

Chapter 277: Chapter 277

Over the following week, Marshall planted an entire forest across his isolated island and built a small laboratory near its center.

With Greed repeatedly transporting materials from the Cake Tower, he finally completed the first member of his new Seven Virtues series—Diligence.

Ever since acquiring his so-called "curse," Marshall’s understanding of Life had improved by an absurd degree.

It felt as though he had gone from a student who could barely pass the subject to someone who could glance at a problem and immediately understand the answer.

Research bottlenecks that once left him racking his brain for days could now be overcome almost effortlessly.

Even Marshall hadn’t expected that creating an entire person from scratch could become this straightforward.

"Can you talk? Come on, say it with me. Da—ddy—"

"..."

Diligence stared at him in confusion before finally opening her mouth.

"Are you sick in the head?"

"?"

Marshall’s jaw dropped.

For a moment, he was every bit as confused as she was.

Wait.

Wasn’t she his creation?

Why had the first thing out of her mouth been an insult?

"My apologies, Master. I was still processing the information package and failed to respond appropriately." Diligence straightened slightly. "My language functions are fully operational. If my previous response offended you, I apologize."

"..."

Marshall rubbed his chin and slowly walked several circles around Little Ultear.

He checked her repeatedly.

There’s no mistake.

He had definitely made her himself.

So why did she already seem a little rebellious?

"Whatever. I created this mess myself, so I suppose I have to live with it no matter how badly it turns out."

In the end, Marshall compromised with his own creation.

She had already been born. Tossing her back into the workshop and rebuilding her from scratch would be far more trouble than it was worth.

The Seven Virtues Marshall envisioned were fundamentally different from the Seven Sins.

Their bodies weren’t constructed from Magic Power or Curse Power. Instead, they were woven entirely from physical matter.

The closest comparison would probably be... an unusual kind of clone.

Diligence even needed to eat in order to provide her body with the basic energy necessary to survive.

In almost every physical sense, she was already nearly indistinguishable from an ordinary human.

Compared with Guga and the Seven Sins, this design came with both advantages and disadvantages.

The advantage was potential.

Diligence possessed a far higher growth ceiling and vastly more possibilities for future development.

The disadvantage was that her starting point was much lower. Her current strength was weak, and if she truly died, resurrecting her would be far more complicated than simply reconstructing one of the earlier Apostles.

Marshall looked her over again.

"So, Diligence, how do you feel? Is your body moving properly? Anything you haven’t adapted to yet?"

"Why do you call me Diligence?"

Marshall blinked.

She continued with a perfectly serious expression.

"That sounds like a designation, not a name. Am I not allowed to have a name of my own? That seems rather inhumane. As for my body, it feels fine."

"?"

Marshall opened his mouth.

Closed it.

Then opened it again.

He suddenly had no idea how to respond.

Was this artificial human’s sense of independence a little too developed?

"Fine. What do you want to be called?"

"You’re the Master. Shouldn’t you be the one naming me?"

"..."

Marshall stared at her for several seconds.

"Fine. From now on, you’re Tia. You can take over the position of Ultear Maid."

"Understood. From now on, I am Diligent Tia. Thank you for naming me, Master."

Marshall could clearly feel that Diligence was considerably sharper than the Seven Sins.

Was it because she possessed a genuine physical body?

"All right. Tell me what you can do. Have you managed to learn any Magic?"

Unlike the Seven Sins and Phoebe, Marshall hadn’t embedded a fixed Curse Technique or spell into Diligence.

He had left the choice to her.

When creating her soul, Marshall had packaged the entirety of [Setsuna Shikan]—the accumulated body of knowledge stored within his Domain—and inserted it into her as information.

In theory, Diligence therefore possessed a backup of everything Marshall knew.

But that knowledge hadn’t been directly engraved into her soul as usable abilities.

Whether she could actually understand any of it, much less learn the corresponding Magic, was something even Marshall didn’t know.

The process felt remarkably similar to training an artificial intelligence.

Marshall had dumped an enormous knowledge base into her and left her to process the information herself.

How much she could understand and what she ultimately learned would depend entirely on her own ability.

In other words, Diligence possessed almost limitless possibilities.

The Seven Sins had fixed Magic, while only their personalities developed unpredictably.

Diligence went a step further.

Almost everything about her future was uncertain.

Marshall had completed the initial groundwork, but even he had no idea what kind of person would eventually emerge from it.

And because Diligence’s soul template had been created by combining elements from both Marshall and Ultear, she would inevitably carry traces of both of them.

Thinking about it that way...

this really did feel suspiciously similar to raising a daughter.

"I had to prioritize," Diligence explained after thinking for a moment. "Domestic skills were placed first in my learning sequence, so I ended up mastering those before anything else. By the time I realized something was wrong, it was already too late."

Her eyes shifted toward Marshall.

"With the remaining time and processing capacity, I barely managed to learn Fire Magic, Water Magic, Ice Magic, and Make Magic. That is probably the extent of my current magical abilities."

The entire time she spoke, Diligence wore a distinctly judgmental expression.

Marshall could practically read the accusation written across her face.

’You created an artificial human with this much potential... just because you wanted another servant to clean your house?’

’What kind of person does that?’

Marshall nodded shamelessly.

Excellent!

His design had worked exactly as intended.

Why should he feel guilty about prioritizing domestic skills in his own creation?

He had created her specifically to look after him!

Was that selfish?

Maybe.

Did he care?

Not particularly.

"Then let’s test the strength of your Magic."

Marshall had already spent nearly ten days on the island.

What had originally been a completely barren patch of land had undergone some simple magical landscaping.

There was considerably more greenery now, although the island as a whole still looked rather desolate.

Fortunately, that meant they barely had to leave the laboratory before finding plenty of open space for magical testing.

After running Diligence through a series of basic exercises, Marshall reached a straightforward conclusion.

Every spell she had learned was only around LV1, firmly within beginner territory.

As expected, there were trade-offs.

Unlike the Seven Sins, who emerged with their abilities already developed to a high level, Diligence would have to learn Magic the same way ordinary beginners did—from the ground up.

Marshall was still extremely satisfied.

What he had accomplished was already remarkably close to having a child from scratch.

The fact that Diligence could independently learn several forms of Magic after only a few days proved that his understanding of Life Magic was moving in the right direction.

"Not bad at all. You’ve only been training for a few days and already picked up this much. You’ve got a promising future ahead of you. Truly worthy of the name Diligence!"

Marshall pointed toward the laboratory.

"Now I’ll give you an opportunity to demonstrate your talents."

He smiled brightly.

"Go clean the house."

"...Yes, Master."

As Diligence turned away, Marshall could’ve sworn she rolled her eyes.

Rather than feeling offended, he became even more excited.

Such a distinctly human little gesture was exactly what he wanted to see.

It meant Diligence had genuine potential.

Perhaps one day, she really could become practically indistinguishable from a naturally born human.

Marshall was already wondering whether he should incorporate a reproductive system into Diligence’s future development when his terminal suddenly received a new message.

The timing was almost comically perfect.

It came from Diligence’s mother—

Ahem.

From Ultear.

Marshall opened the message.

[Marshall, something terrible happened! Grimoire Heart is planning to attack next week while Fairy Tail is conducting its S-Class Promotion Trial on Tenrou Island! Hades intends to completely destroy Fairy Tail!]

Marshall stared at the screen.

"?"