At that very moment, she was gazing at Felix, and Felix was gazing back at her.
Their eyes met, a silent exchange in the dimly lit dormitory. The moonlight caught the crystalline surface of her eyes, making them shimmer with an unnatural, yet captivating, light.
"Hello there, Orianna," Felix said softly, extending a hand towards her, palm up, a gesture of welcome and reassurance.
"Hello, Father. It's wonderful to meet you," Orianna replied, her voice surprisingly sweet, though with an unmistakable metallic timbre. She took Felix's offered hand, her fingers cool and smooth against his, and gracefully rose to her feet. The movement was fluid, yet with an underlying precision that bespoke her mechanical nature.
Her voice, while pleasant to the ear, had a distinctly robotic cadence, the intonation flatter and more even than even an AI assistant like Siri. However, Felix could discern something in it that Siri and its ilk could never truly express: genuine "human" emotion, a nascent warmth that resonated despite the mechanical delivery.
Her hand, though cold, had a surprisingly smooth and refined texture, the metallic surface intricately engraved with delicate patterns that seemed to catch the faint light.
As he helped her up, Felix felt a definite strain. She was, after all, a fully metallic construct. He estimated her weight to be around a hundred kilograms, a significant mass for her slender frame.
Once standing, Orianna, with her hands delicately holding the hem of her metallic skirt, performed a perfect, elegant curtsy to Felix. Then, with a graceful wave of her right hand, the segmented metal shell that had served as her packaging, still lying open on the floor, immediately began to contract and fold in on itself. With a series of quiet clicks and whirs, it transformed into a gleaming metal sphere, about half a meter in diameter. Gears on the sphere's surface spun into life, and embedded crystals began to emit a soft, silvery-blue light. The sphere then rose smoothly into the air, hovering silently beside her.
So, that was her renowned Ball, her magical implement.
The Clockwork Windup, Orianna, had finally, fully revealed herself before him.
Seeing this, Felix could finally voice the question that had been brewing in his mind for some time, a question that felt both absurd and pressingly important.
"Orianna," he began, trying to keep his tone even, "why... why did you call me Father?"
However, he did not receive the straightforward answer he had hoped for.
"Father is Father," was her simple, unwavering reply, delivered with that same sweet, mechanical tone, as if it were the most obvious truth in the universe.
Next, Felix began to inquire about her abilities. The demure Orianna answered all his questions without reservation, telling him everything she knew, allowing Felix to gain a general understanding of her capabilities.
The Clockwork Windup, Orianna, indeed possessed human-level intelligence. However, because her core consciousness operated on a foundation of magitech and soul-based technology—her design emphasizing the formation of personality rather than raw calculation—she did not possess computational power comparable to a computer.
This highlighted the fundamental difference between magitech and conventional science. For an intelligent core, the former excelled in aspects of spirit and soul, while the latter excelled in processing speed and calculation.
Felix, however, believed this was something that could be upgraded.
By using magic to simulate electronic technology, he could theoretically create a CPU. If he could then unify the programming language of this CPU with her soul-based consciousness core, this "magitech CPU" could become a secondary brain for Orianna.
This would allow her soul-consciousness to focus on personality and emotion, while the CPU handled complex calculations. Orianna could then become a "super-artificial intelligence," possessing both human-like thought patterns and the logical and computational power of a supercomputer. A truly formidable combination.
In terms of knowledge reserves, Orianna behaved much like an amnesia patient. Her memory of past experiences was a complete blank, yet she possessed a sufficient grasp of everyday common sense and, crucially, her innate skills.
Furthermore, she was indeed exceptionally proficient in the precision mechanical engineering of magitech.
Although Orianna was a ranged champion in "League of Legends," the Orianna standing before him in reality possessed considerable close-quarters combat capabilities.
Her metallic shell was far more durable than he had imagined; physical attacks at least up to the level of conventional missiles would likely be unable to breach it. Moreover, she exhibited a strong resistance to magical effects.
Driven by her Hextech crystal heart, the Clockwork Windup also possessed immense motive power, capable of exerting force equivalent to several tons, perhaps even tens of tons, at maximum output.
Additionally, she could fire magical projectiles from her palms—the equivalent of her basic attacks in the game.
She also possessed an anti-gravity system that allowed her to hover and, at maximum power, achieve flight, though her speed could not exceed the sound barrier.
Most importantly, as a mechanical being, the Clockwork Windup was capable of self-upgrading. With sufficiently advanced technology, she could infinitely enhance her strength, integrate a wide variety of external weaponry, or achieve even greater speeds. The potential for growth was immense.
But the Clockwork Windup's most potent abilities lay not within herself, but within her spherical mechanical companion, the Ball.
All of Orianna's "spells" revolved around this magical implement.
The Ball was an autonomous mechanical entity with a degree of its own intelligence. It would follow Orianna and assist her. Orianna could issue specific commands to the Ball, causing it to produce magical effects—"Command: Dissonance," "Command: Attack," "Command: Protect," and "Command: Shockwave" were merely the four most iconic examples. In reality, it was capable of much more.
Having learned about Orianna, Felix felt a surge of profound surprise and exhilaration. This seemingly delicate and somewhat rigid mechanical girl before him was undeniably powerful. In the world of Harry Potter, she would, in most situations, be more than capable of protecting the currently less-than-formidable Felix. Even if faced with Voldemort or Dumbledore at their peak, she possessed sufficient power to ensure his escape.
However, he now faced a significant problem: how to conceal Orianna and her Ball?
A girl standing at one meter sixty-two, and a metallic sphere half a meter in diameter, were utterly impossible to hide from his classmates and especially not from the keen eyes of Dumbledore. Yet, how could he possibly explain Orianna's existence to others?
Finally, after much thought, Felix came up with a tentative solution: the Shrinking Charm.
It was the first spell he had truly learned, and the one he was currently most proficient with.
He planned to use the Shrinking Charm to reduce Orianna to the size of an action figure. Then, he could carry her around as if she were merely a toy.
In his view, if the Wizarding Chess pieces in the Harry Potter world were alive, then him having a moving figurine shouldn't be too out of the ordinary or cause too much alarm.
The only potential issue was that the Shrinking Charm typically didn't work on living creatures. How it would affect a mechanical lifeform like Orianna was unknown.
"Well, let's give it a try," Felix murmured to himself, drawing his purple wand and aiming it carefully at Orianna.
"Reducio!"
Fortunately, the Shrinking Charm did work on mechanical life. Orianna successfully shrank down to the size of his palm, and her Ball likewise became a tiny metallic sphere.
The miniature Orianna, now no bigger than a doll, delightedly clambered up Felix's arm and onto his shoulder. Then, with a tiny, joyful leap, she landed on Himari, who had been watching the proceedings with wide, curious eyes. Orianna began to "ride" the small white cat, clearly having a wonderful time.
Himari, sensing the same contractual bond between Orianna and Felix that she shared with him, also seemed to happily accept this new, tiny companion, and the two began to play together on the bed, a miniature clockwork girl and a magical cat. Their games continued until Felix gently scooped them both up, Himari by the scruff of her neck, and placed them on his pillow.
Just before drifting off to sleep, Felix whispered a question into the quiet dark.
"Orianna, now that you've come to this world, what is your wish?"
The tiny, doll-like figure on his pillow turned her luminous golden eyes towards him. "I want to be with Father forever," she said, her miniature voice still carrying that sweet, mechanical tone. "And then... I want to see this world properly."