Clementine's eyes slowly fluttered open. She looked up hazily trying to focus on the blurry figures that danced past her eyes.
She had survived. Clementine breathed out happily, the noise coming out a little choked, her throat was incredibly sore.
"Wa...Water please." Clementine weakly whispered.
A hand reached out to pass a small glass cup full of water. Clementine drank it eagerly pulling herself up to sit on the bed. After finishing her water she looked up to be face-to-face with an intricately embellished brass automaton. The automaton was created to vaguely imitate the human form with a flat brass face with small grooves to indicate eyes. They were segmented in a way that reminded Clementine of wooden dolls. At the center of the automaton was a beautiful glowing blue sphere.
Clementine choked on the remaining water. She coughed violently trying to expel the water from her lungs. The strange automaton glided over and gently whacked her back in motion to assist her in ridding the water from her lungs.
After Clementine stopped choking her mind was assaulted by memories. The memories rushed to her head so quickly that she thought her brain would split. Her head was aching with all the information that she received. As the headache receded Clementine took some time to process what had just happened.
She had transmigrated into the body of Clementine Ives, the small evil cannon fodder that shared her name, from the romance steampunk novel she had read earlier. Clementine cursed internally, she had only gotten up to five chapters of the story, and her character was implicated and killed in an accident by the evil cabal that held an iron grip on society. She didn't know their true identity or their purpose she only knew the fake name of the main villain. Her character was of little importance to the plot, only existing to make the female lead look better by comparison.
Looking around at her surroundings she had to guess that this was likely the third chapter, her character had butted heads with the female lead for the third time and had hastily tried to create a new invention only for it to blow up in her face and send her to the hospital.
She laughed helplessly, she related a lot to this little cannon fodder. They were both orphans who had been taken under the wing of the most renowned inventor and engineer of this generation. The original had desperately wanted to prove her worth to not only her teacher but to others who mocked her, as such this silly cannon fodder had butt heads with the female lead, who hid her noble identity but still used it to enter the prestigious academy through the back door to work under the professor. Clementine sighed, the original host's goal to oust the female lead from the academy was doomed to fail because she had no power over the aristocrats especially the female lead who came from a very powerful family, and because the female lead was destined for greatness due to her importance and status in the story.
Now that she was living in this body Clementine had decided to avoid every single one of the main leads, interacting with them could lead to her death or create a butterfly effect that could tear the original story apart. It wasn't worth the trouble nor the effort, she could live happily as an inventor under her teacher. She didn't need to deal with the story anymore, she refused to die to highlight someone else. Making up her mind Clementine looked up at the automaton that had returned to its base by the end of the room.
"Excuse me I would like to leave please." Clementine pleaded.
The automaton looked at Clementine and glided over to her bedside scanning her entire body.
"Patient condition is optimal. The patient can be cleared to leave. Wait while the paperwork is filled." A deep robotic metallic voice echoed from the automaton. The automaton glided away for a minute before returning with Clementine's clothes.
Clementine thanked the automaton politely taking the pile of clothes before turning away and heading into the bathroom to change.
Looking at her appearance in the mirror Clementine was surprised to see that she looked exactly like her original body. Not only did she share the same name and a similar background but her appearance had remained the same. It was slightly freaky.
She dressed herself in the cream-colored Edwardian blouse with a high collar. A black embellished under-bust corset with two brown leather belts. A long Edwardian black coat with puffy sleeves and flared at the back almost imitating a skirt, it had some leather straps accessorizing it. Next was a long navy blue pleated skirt. She put on her leather riding boots and finished her outfit with a few gear accessories and goggles which she rested on the top of her head.
Coming out of the bathroom Clementine saw the automaton waiting for her holding up some paper and a quill for her to sign. She did so eagerly wanting nothing more than to leave this hospital and return home to write down her game plan.
After signing out Clementine left the hospital hailing a carriage service and asked them to take her to the Cogsworth Institute of Mechanical Arts. The carriage driver obliged and Clementine paid the gentleman 4 Bronze Sprockets which was roughly the equivalent of $25 in her old life. The ride was uneventful for the most part until a bloody man fell into front of the carriage and the driver had to reign back the automaton horses back harshly to avoid killing him.
"You bastard what you trying to do! I'm not falling for your darn scam! I didn't hit you so don't even think about asking for reparations!" The driver yelled hoarsely.
The man didn't respond as he continued to slump forward on the road bleeding all over. The driver cursed some more and was about around the body when Clementine jumped out of the carriage. She observed the man noticing a fatal wound, his stomach was slashed to hell and back and if he didn't receive medical attention soon he would likely die.
"Excuse me sir let me take him to the carriage. I'll pay extra for his fare and the cleaning service." Clementine beseeched.
The carriage driver huffed allowing Clementine to carry the man into the carriage. He urged the automaton horses to go once more. Clementine looked at the man, even though his face was incredibly pale due to blood loss he was incredibly attractive.
He was incredibly tall (Clementine had to fold his legs in slightly to fit him on the seat) if she had to guess he was likely 6 feet and 10 inches tall. His physical physique is a harmonious blend of athleticism and grace. His aura was imposing and commanding as though he was accustomed to issuing orders to many people. He had sun-kissed, tousled chestnut hair framing his incredibly chiseled jawline and sharp facial features. While Clementine didn't know what his eyes looked like she guessed that like the rest of him, it would be incredibly enticing and raise his attractiveness to an even higher level.
His clothes were of extremely high quality, they made him look like a noble, and Clementine hoped that he was just a wealthy merchant instead of a noble. There was a lot of dried blood sticking to his attire which did ruin its crisp appearance.
The man grumbled and just hearing his smooth masculine voice, Clementine nearly jumped him but she managed to hold herself back remembering how injured he was. Hearing his painful grunts Clementine placed her hands on his wounds applying a large amount of pressure in an attempt to stop the bleeding.
Eventually, the carriage arrived at the front of the academy's gates. Clementine struggled as she carried the injured man out of the carriage and towards the gates. Clementine quickly tossed the carriage driver some extra Bronze Sprockets and slowly carried/dragged the man towards the dormitory.
As she arrived at the dormitory Clementine looked around searching for the guard, it was against school policy to bring men into the girl's dormitory but this was extreme circumstances. Clementine sighed in relief as she couldn't find the guard. She dragged the groaning man into the elevator which was a high-tech fusion of steam and ether tech. When she arrived on the 5th floor she walked towards her door unlocked it and walked in with the man in tow.
She dropped the man on her couch feeling incredibly exhausted after carrying this man halfway across campus. Her brow was covered in sweat as she removed the man's coat and shirt to reveal his injuries, they were much worse than she realized he would need stitches.
Realistically it would have been better for her to take the man back to the hospital but the hospital was less likely to prioritize common folk, they paid much more attention to the rich, and she wasn't sure about his identity so he couldn't wait at the hospital.
The original host's pet project was to improve the medical automaton's speed, medical abilities, and effectiveness. While the original host had made little bits of progress, Clementine found this to be easy. In her old world she was recognized as a genius inventor, inventing was as easy as breathing to her, there was no machine she couldn't understand after some time. Clementine looked around at the multiple scraps around her dorm gathering them all up as she quickly worked building the medical automaton depicted in the original host's memories. After ten minutes Clementine had finished building the automaton all that was left was an ether core to activate it which Clementine found hidden safely in a special drawer.
Ether cores were incredibly rare and expensive items that only the noble class or extremely rich merchants were able to afford. The original host was given this ether core by her teacher half a year ago but the original host was too scared to use it. Clementine held none of this uncertainty placing the ether core at the center of the automaton where a human heart would rest. There was silence as nothing happened and the automaton remained inactive.
Suddenly a bright blue light emerged from the ether core and spread throughout the automaton. Its eyes flashed to life and they looked forward at Clementine.
"What is my objective." The deep robotic voice echoed.
"I want you to sew up this man here." Clementine prompted.
The automaton nodded rushing away to grab a needle and embroidery thread from Clementine's bedroom. Unfortunately, while Clementine was able to make a medical automaton she didn't have the medical equipment necessary so the medical automaton would have to make do.
With a needle and thread in hand, the medical automaton got to work sewing up the man. Its arms moved so fast that all Clementine saw were after images, even though it was moving fast its work was perfect.
The man groaned in pain. Clementine grabbed his hand and gently squeezed it.
"I'm sorry I don't have any anesthetics. You're just going to have to deal with the pain for a little bit." Clementine whispered sadly.
Clementine held the man's hand until the medical automaton finished sewing him up. Seeing it finish its work she gave it an order to watch and attend to the man during the night. She pulled her hand out of the man's grasp heading to her room to go to sleep.
As soon as her head had hit the pillow her eyes shuddered slightly before closing as she drifted off to sleep.
Wait a minute didn't the female lead save the male lead who was in a similar situation as the man on my couch?!
Did I just save the male lead?!
F*ck!