The existence of a soul was something absurd.
The idea came when Lant was ten years old. At first, Lant thought that the location of the soul was inside the head of a living creature. This happened when he saw humans who died after having their heads cut off. But when he saw some animals that lived even without their heads, his belief about the location of the soul began to change.
When his father was lying weak in the hospital, Lant met people with diseases who died suddenly. He also saw an accident victim whose head was bleeding profusely, but doctors were able to save him through surgery. On the other hand, Lant still remembers when his mother shot a gun into her own head and died in front of him.
Then, where is the soul?
Is it in the stomach? In the heart? Will humans live even if other parts of their body are cut off or organs are removed? But why did his mother get shot to death? And why do people with heart disease die? Why are people who lose their sanity called mentally ill?
After his father died of a terminal illness, Lant, who was torn between his relatives, had to drown out these thoughts and focus on surviving. It's silly to think of a human trying to preserve a soul without knowing how souls exist and how they work.
Until two years later, his father's only friend-Professor Raegis-adopted Lant. He was met with Lavent at the age of ten. Just like him, Lavent often thought about the existence of the human soul in all contexts that Lant had never thought about previously.
Unlike Lant's previous family, Professor Raegis supported Lant's absurd thoughts. Professor Raegis then built a small laboratory at home to support Lant and Lavent. Every long vacation, they conducted small experiments by collecting several types of insects in glass cups lined up, immersing their minds in the imagination when looking at the lives of other living things, as if they were monitoring a soul.
All the insects that had lived at a certain time, slowly died at different times until there were only hundreds of corpses left. The insects died in different positions, just as Lant had seen in the hospital. While Lant shuddered in horror at the thought of the glasses being a massacre scene, Lavent smiled broadly as if witnessing death was fun.
Lant stepped back. "Do you think the soul is the same as life?"
Lavent slowly turned to Lant who had a pale face. Rather than a question, the words just now felt like a test from a ten-year-old child. Yes, Lavent knew that Lant was an excellent child. Even during the first time he lived with him, Lavent accidentally caught Lant reading his father's college textbook that discussed humans or solving complicated problems that adults could not solve.
Reflexively, Lavent almost touched his head. Moments ago, he had seen a female praying mantis eating a male's head during the mating process. "I don't know. I once read in a book that humans who lose their souls lose their lives, but until now, there was nothing about the meaning of soul and its relation to life."
"Hm? When a human dies, they lose twenty-one grams of body weight. A scientist said that is the weight of the soul. When a human loses his soul, he dies."
"Are you thinking of canalizing the dead person's soul to bring him back to life?"
Lant laughed when he saw the look on Lavent's face. "Not really. I was just thinking that the human population is declining. Wouldn't it be better if humans could create artificial humans who can think like normal humans? If artificial humans can think and feel like humans, then maybe this world that is losing its existence can slowly rise."
Lavent snorted. He pointed at the corpses of the insects in the glass. "Humans are nothing more than these insects. No matter how long they can survive, they will eventually die. It's just that artificial humans are different. The robot waiters I've met in restaurants or the trolley machines that count groceries automatically, they're just slabs of metal with batteries and programs in them. There's no way they can think and feel like humans. Besides, artificial humans are more useful for warfare."
Lant's face hardened when he heard Lavent's last sentence. "Aren't they both alive? They could have felt like living beings, right?"
"Alive?" Lavent knitted his brows, then laughed. "It is doubtful that slabs of metal driven by programs and batteries can have life, or have feelings, for that matter. To me, they're just a piece of metal that will rust. Without the program we're running, they're completely useless. Do you think we can make artificial humans that can do reproduction?"
"No, I don't. That's not what I meant." Lant immediately shook his head, then he turned to the pile of dead insects. "But, it's possible for artificial humans to have feelings, right?"
"Foolishness. Where do you think human feelings are? The heart? The brain? If we make artificial organs, and then arrange them in the position of a human, will they live like us? At the end of the day, they're just slabs of iron arranged, held together by bolts, and driven by a program."
Lant could not deny Lavent's words. In fact, as Lavent said, there was not a single study that had succeeded in making artificial humans like real humans with feelings and minds. Even so, Lant did not want to give up.
As Lavent said, adult male deaths have already decreased due to the existence of artificial humans deployed for the military. On the other hand, this also had a huge impact on the booming industrial sector, causing the infertility epidemic to slowly spread.
In addition, the research on artificial humans was only focused on warfare because none of the researches succeeded in creating artificial humans with feelings and thoughts of their own. They looked like a hunk of iron driven by a program and would break down when they had a bug.
However, Lant is different.
Lant knew that researching the soul was like waiting for the death of a living being. They would wait for whatever would happen to the creature as if they were recording the traces of its soul at work until death arrived.
It was not moral research, but a curiosity and ambition that had been embedded in his brain since childhood. After Professor Raegis's death ten years ago, his relationship with Lavent was strained. The last time they met was when Lavent decided to enter the military academy, while Lant chose to remain in the laboratory. The place grew over the decades until he was thirty-five.
After waking up from his short and deep memory, the thirty-eight-year-old Lant slowly opened his eyes. The familiar scent and air touching his skin brought him to his senses.
When he turned his head, the first thing he saw was the writing on the computer screen.
IVY. Intelligence, Voyage, Young.
The first program he had completed, and a new beginning that no one knew existed.
With one slight movement, Lant touched the screen, then smiled warmly.
"Soon... you will be born and my next task will be to protect you."