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Professor Layton cast his eyes upwards towards the looming tower of St Mystere as it disappeared into the clouds high in the heavens. Their adventure had accumulated to this one moment and now the pressure was on to find the Golden Apple and the murderer of Simon.
There was a lot that the Professor didn’t understand about this case - the cogs, the missing pieces of memory, the loud clanging noise. Not to mention the incomparable similarities between Lady Dahlia and the late Baron’s wife. But it was Layton’s mantra that every puzzle had a solution and he was determined that he would find these answers within the skyscraper that was sat before them.
It would be no small feat, of course. The tower was immense and the clouds swirled menacingly as it travelled up into the sky. He was convinced that the only person who could have built such a thing must have been the Baron himself, as only a man such as he could have possessed the money to do this.
Layton cast his eyes down on the intricate lock that barricaded the door, as well as the child standing in front of it, whom at this moment was scratching his head. The Professor didn’t worry though - Luke Triton was the smartest child of his age that Layton had ever come across, and a basic puzzle like this wouldn’t stump the pint-size genius. In fact, the mentor was sure that his mentee had already solved it - he was just drawing it out for a bit of extra fun.
Soon enough, Layton heard as he said, “Solved it!”
The small boy in front of him turned and showed a cocky grin. The Professor smiled back and ruffled Luke’s hat.
“I never doubted you for a second.” He said as he pushed open the door. Luke had never failed him, never faltered in this long journey of theirs. He treasured his apprentice dearly - the young, blue boy was almost like a son to him (had Layton ever had the time for one). Their friendship was strong and everlasting and the Professor would sooner put his own life on the line than to see this young boy hurt.
He cast his mind back to the gloomy town of Misthallery where he first met Luke. Clark Triton was a good friend to him for many years and Layton was grateful for Luke to have brought them together again. The Mysterious Spectre seemed so long ago now…and here, another puzzle stood before them, waiting to be solved.
The door inside creaked slowly open, groaning with years of rust and weight that they bore. The Professor heard his apprentice audibly gulp as the two of them peeked into the shadows that loomed in patience. He chuckled, trying to dissipate the tension for Luke’s sake.
“Don’t you worry, Luke. There is nothing in here which will cause us harm, I’m sure of it.”
“I-if you say so, Professor.”
“…you’re not scared, are you, Luke?”
“No Professor! A-a true gentleman is never scared. Besides - we’ve faced worse, right?”
“That is true, my boy. This is nothing in comparison to what we’ve already faced.”
The Professor stepped into the threshold and his apprentice followed after. The air was musty and full of dust after years of being closed away, and Professor Layton found himself stifling a sneeze. The walls were ageing and the carpets almost grey. It was clear nobody cared for these lower levels, and who could blame them? With a building this tall it would be a mammoth task to upkeep every single floor.
‘Although,’ Layton mused, ‘I could see Rosa giving it a fair crack. Nothing has ever slowed that woman down.’
He smiled at his joke, but it was short-lived. A loud creak from behind informed the two that the door was shutting. Luke gasped and ran towards it, but it was too late. It slammed close and some intricate clicking and whirring told them the puzzle was resetting, thus locking them inside.
“Well, there we go, Luke. We’re in here whether we like it or not now.” The Professor surmised, and Luke sighed.
“Alright Professor. I’m ready. Let’s get to climbing!”
“Atta boy, Luke!” The Professor grinned, and the two took a confident step forward.
The floorboards creaked and groaned, shrieked and wobbled. Layton held his breath for a moment before realising it was too late. The ground beneath them cracked and with a yelp they were both falling down, down, down.
-
BANG-
Layton sat up with a start at the cue of a loud noise and immediately regretted the action, holding his head in his hands for a moment whilst he adjusted to his surroundings. It was dark, but there was a little lamp in the corner that provided him a small glow. Machines were working away, clunking and hulking - evidently the source of the loud bang that had awoken him. The walls near these great machines were lined with keys. The Professor looked up to where they had just fallen, and was glad to see it wasn’t too much of a distance. They should be fine- wait…LUKE!
The Professor swivelled around and his eyes flitted over the debris until he saw a blue hat. He scrambled up in a less-than dignified way and hopped over the debris until he could reach his apprentice.
“Luke! Oh goodness, are you alright? Luke? Speak to me!”
He gently lifted Luke from the ground and grimaced at the sight. The boy was knocked out cold, and there would definitely be a nasty bruise to be formed on his head later, but…he wasn’t breathing.
“Shit!” Layton swore, for what was probably the first time in years, but he didn’t care. He put Luke on his back and began pressing down on his chest in compressions, one..two..one..two..
“Please, please…” Layton felt tears prick at his eyes as he begged to whoever would listen. “Please be okay…”
“That won’t work.” An eerie voice called from the shadows. The Professor whirled around, a rock in hand, ready to harm whoever dared come near. The voice stepped out into the light and Layton faltered as he recognised who it was. The mysterious man they had witnessed kidnapping Ramon…now looking slightly surprised and yet oddly calm at the scene before him.
“I don’t believe it…it’s Number One.” The man said softly, looking down at Luke. Layton’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion.
“What…what do you mean? Why won’t he wake?” He asked desperately. The man looked at the pain in his eyes and sighed.
“He’ll be alright, your friend there. I promise you that. He is not dead, only asleep.”
“Asleep?” Layton said incredulously.
“Yes, that’s right. Bring him over to this table here and I’ll explain everything.”
The Professor hesitated, thinking over his options, before deciding that he really had none other than to believe this man at his word. He knelt down and gently picked up his apprentice, taking the blue bakers hat in one hand, and then lifted him over to the table the other gentleman indicated to.
“Would you like to sit?” The man asked, but the Professor shook his head. “No, thank you.” He replied rather curtly. The man shrugged. “Suit yourself - but I hope you don’t mind if I do. These old bones don’t work like they used to.”
He sat, and leaned back with a small groan of relief. The Professor’s eyes flitted between him and his apprentice, who lay motionless on the table.
“My name is Bruno. I work for the Reinhold family. I’ve been managing the village from this here tower for many years now.”
“Managing?” Layton asked, and then his eyes widened as an audible click was heard in his head when the pieces fell together.
“I see…so you’ve been managing the ‘life’ here at St Mystere?”
Bruno raised his eyebrows at the change in tone at the word ‘life’. “You’ve caught on quick, good sir.”
“The cogs dotted around the village, coupled with the keys I can see hanging on the wall-“ he pointed to the side of Bruno where many of the villagers portraits were hung up, shiny keys alongside them, “-it didn’t take me long to work out that the inhabitants of this village are really robots.”
Bruno tilted his head slightly downwards. “I bow to your superior intellect, sir. You have worked out much on your own.”
“So…the village? This whole place is merely a test, isn’t it? Set up by the Baron.”
“Yes, sir. The Master believed that one day an heir would come forwards who would be worthy of his fortune. He had me build this village and all who dwell inside it in preparation for that day. Then he hid his greatest treasure, the Golden Apple, away at the top floor of this tower.”
He made eye contact with the Professor. “I was told to protect it with my life.”
The Professor nodded solemnly. He understood the charge of protecting something so dear. Which brought him back to the matter at hand.
“What has this to do with Luke?”
Bruno looked down at the child and his gaze softened. “You know him as Luke? I know him as Number One. He was the first robot I ever built.”
Layton’s jaw fell. For the first time in his life, he received an answer he was unprepared for. A puzzle that completely threw him off guard. Luke was…a robot?
“When I was given my mission by the Baron I knew it wouldn’t be an easy task. So I decided to start small. I drew up the blueprints for a boy…one who would have a very important role to play with the Golden Apple. He wasn’t like the others who I eventually came to build. His mind was far more evolved - the villagers of this place were built to test the minds of those who came here seeking the Golden Apple. But this child was built to already know the answers - his intellect was far more superior than any other that came after him.”
Layton looked down at his apprentice with disbelief. As much as he wished what Bruno was saying to be false, it explained so much. Luke’s affinity with animals, his puzzle-solving abilities… Layton always knew that Luke wasn’t like the other children his age, but now he knew the truth - he simply wasn’t like other children.
“But…this doesn’t explain how he left the village? And…does my friend, Clark Triton, know that the boy isn’t his?”
Bruno sighed heavily.
“That is a slightly longer story. You see…Number One ended up becoming too real. He was able to grow and learn. At the age of two he was already so well-developed. It was almost as if I had created life itself.”
Bruno shifted in his seat uncomfortably.
“I…couldn’t tell the Master of my invention. The death of his wife meant he was wracked with grief. Had I told him of Number One I knew he would stop at nothing to have me recreate his wife in the same way. But the truth is, sir, no one should have this kind of power. We suffer loss in our lives for a reason - so we can grow and become more appreciative for what is around us.”
Layton nodded. He knew all too well what Bruno meant. Deep in the corner of his mind the swish of a lab coat made itself known, as well as a laugh that tinkled like a bell.
“I left St Mystere immediately with the boy in hand. I was on my way to Misthallery when on the road I came across a kindly young man and his wife. They said they’d been wanting a child for many years but were unable to conceive. I gave away Number One, convinced I would never see him again.”
A distant memory made itself known to Layton. It was him and Clark back when they were lads, at Gressenheller University.
“Would you ever want a child, Hershel?”
“Haha…what brought this on, Clark?”
“It’s just a question. I was curious is all.”
“Hmm…well, perhaps one day I would. But I want to be a proper archaeologist first. And it would have to be with the right person, of course.”
“Yes, of course.”
“What about you? Would you have a child, Clark?”
“If I could, Hershel. If only I could.”
Layton finally sat down in the chair next to Luke with a heavy heart. Everything was explained now. All the pieces fit together. There was only one thing that remained weighted on his mind - how could he possibly break the news to Luke, a boy with so much love for the world in his heart?
“I see your ethical dilemma there.” Bruno said knowingly, without Layton having to voice his concerns. He nodded, keeping the brim of his hat covering his eyes.
“You don’t have to tell him you know.”
“But he’ll have questions, won’t he?” the Professor asked, putting a hand on Luke’s head gently.
“No. The villagers, as well as Number One, are unaware of their true existence. They continue to live in complete bliss of their true forms. Whenever one of them breaks down I bring them back to the Tower to be fixed up. Honestly, when the rumours of this being a haunted and evil place began, I helped encourage them to ward the more curious away.”
“So what you’re saying is when Luke wakes up he’ll have no recollection of what happened?”
“None at all, sir. He’ll think he’d banged his head a bit too hard is all.”
Layton sat for a few minutes and mulled it over. How would he feel if he woke up one day to learn that he wasn’t human? That his parents weren’t his at all? That he was created to be part of a system, an elaborate plan to keep a guarded treasure safe, and that other than that he had no purpose on this plane of existence at all. Built to simply be…a cog?
The Professor knew then that he couldn’t tell Luke the truth. He couldn’t tell all these terrible things to a child. Luke deserved a childhood like anyone else - and if it’s true that he can grow like a real boy, then he should have no reason to need to know any of this until he was an adult, until he was good and ready.
“Alright. I will refrain from telling him. I think the truth would be worse than the lie I shall live.” The Professor concluded, nodding to Bruno. The man tilted his head and took off his hat, taking out a key that was much like the others on the wall, except gold instead of silver.
“I never threw his key away, just in case… give me a minute to fix the young lad up. I can see you’ve been friends with him a long time, so I think it would be best for ye to look away whilst I do it.”
Layton nodded and turned his head away. He didn’t want to see his apprentice being opened up like the hood of a car - instead, the Professor busied himself with a black, worn notebook that sat on a small side table.
“Here we go. He should be awake in about a minute.” Bruno said with a smile. Layton turned back to the table and outstretched a hand - Bruno politely took it and they shook in silence. Then, Bruno handed over the key to Layton.
“You should take this. If the boy ever suffers like this again, I’m sure you’re smart enough to help fix him. But I wouldn’t worry too much - these robots were built to be long-lasting, so it takes a lot to hurt them.”
“Thank you for everything Bruno.”
“You’re most welcome, uhh…”
“Professor Hershel Layton.”
“You’re welcome, Professor Layton.”
The Professor sat to the side of Luke and waited for a few seconds. Then, he looked up to Bruno with a puzzled face.
“You said Luke had been created to play an important role with the Golden Apple. What did you mean by that?”
Bruno smiled and tapped his nose. “Ah - I can’t give away everything, Professor. You’ll have to work that one out for yourself.”
Layton smiled as Luke stirred next to him. “I think I already have.”
-
When the Golden Apple turned out to be the Baron’s daughter, Flora Reinhold, Layton wasn’t all that surprised. Ultimately, it confirmed his suspicions about Luke’s true purpose; something that Luke had accomplished despite being away from his St Mystere for so many years.
To be a friend.