Hall of Senya

While Eugene stood speechless, his lips opening and closing, the girl before him removed her enormous hat and bowed.

"Hello!"

"... Uh... yeah."

"I'm the familiar who manages the Hall of Senya."

The girl spoke with a bright smile. That smile stirred Eugene's memories.

They had met in his previous life when they were both fully grown adults, so Eugene had never seen Senya as a child. Yet he could see her childhood self in the familiar before him. Pale purple hair and an indescribably irritating smile. Though much younger, the familiar was the spitting image of Senya.

"... A familiar?"

"Yes!"

"... Well... uh..."

'Aren't you Senya?'

Eugene desperately suppressed the urge to ask. He thought of the phantom of Senya he had seen in the square outside the bank. Given that, the familiar before him could not possibly be Senya herself.

"... What should I call you?"

Eugene hesitantly examined the familiar. The little thing barely reached his waist, forcing him to lower his head slightly to look down at her.

"Lady Senya called me 'Mer.'"

"Don't tell me that Mer comes from Merdein?"

"Yes! Isn't it a glorious, wonderful name?"

Mer answered with a sweet smile, but Eugene gave a hollow chuckle of disbelief. Merdein. Senya's surname. She had made a familiar in her own image, then named it with the first syllable of her surname.

'What was she thinking?'

"... Well, I don't know much about this. Are familiars normally... uh... as humanlike as you?"

"I'm special."

Mer lifted her chin proudly.

"After all, my creator was Senya the Wise, companion to Vermouth the Great. The familiars on the other floors aren't special like me."

"... Really?"

"Yes! You haven't visited the other floors yet, have you, Master Eugene?"

"How do you know my name? You're not a familiar, are you?"

"What are you talking about?"

Who did she think she was bullshitting? Eugene glared at Mer with wide eyes, but she looked bewildered instead.

"Master Eugene Lionheart. You just registered your name with Akron on the first floor."

"... I did."

"Not just me, but every familiar here is linked to Akron's magical system. We know who's entering and leaving Akron in real time."

"So you're special among the familiars?"

"Yes!"

Mer raised her chin again, looking smug.

"You'll see if you visit the other floors, but their familiars aren't as good at conversation as I am. They simply run their originally programmed systems and respond to external commands."

"... And you?"

"I was created using the personality of my mistress, Lady Senya, as a base."

"Isn't creating living beings taboo in magic?"

Eugene recalled something he had heard at the Bloodline Succession Ceremony several years earlier.

["Why can't you create living beings?"]

Back then, Eward had shown no enthusiasm for the Bloodline Succession Ceremony, but his eyes had sparkled at Lovellian's magic. Despite having been so interested in magic, he had turned into trash four years later.

"But I'm not a living being."

Mer spoke without the slightest hesitation.

"I may look alive, but I don't have the soul that all living beings possess. My body was created through Lady Senya's magic, and my mind..."

Mer put her hat back on and turned to look behind her. Only then did Eugene draw his gaze away from her and look ahead. An enormous sphere of light floated there, with several rings encircling it and slowly rotating.

"Is over there."

Mer smiled brightly. Eugene stared blankly at the sphere. He had never seen a construct like it. Even a glance conveyed a sense of mystery, and his sensitivity to energy detected an absurdly vast and intricate arrangement of mana within it.

"... What the hell is that?"

"Good question!"

Mer puffed out her chest, shrugging her shoulders and tilting her head back. Her hat, far larger than her face, tilted with her. It looked ready to fall but stayed in place; she seemed accustomed to making such gestures.

"That is the very essence of the magic Lady Senya practiced throughout her life. 'Witch Craft'!"

Her declaration rang with pride. Eugene's mouth fell open again. Witch Craft. The grimoire Senya had supposedly finished writing just before going into seclusion, divided into three volumes.

"How does that look anything like a book?"

"The idea that a book must look like a book is nothing but an outdated prejudice."

"What kind of nonsense..."

"It's only natural that you don't understand, Master Eugene. How could you possibly understand Lady Senya's magic when even the tower masters couldn't?"

Overflowing pride. An irritating smile brimming with confidence. And beneath it all, a subtly condescending attitude. She said she had been modeled on Senya's personality... Sure enough, Mer was every bit as obnoxious and irritating as Senya.

"... You said you were created using Senya... Lady Senya's personality as a base, right?"

"Yes!"

"Then... uh... was Lady Senya's personality like yours right up until the end?"

Eugene recalled the portrait he had seen of Senya. That warm, benevolent smile was unlike her. The Senya he remembered had rarely smiled like that.

"She was different."

Mer answered with a bright smile.

"Lady Senya was far more refined and dignified. She rarely smiled and devoted herself entirely to researching and advancing magic."

"... Then why are you like this?"

"What's wrong with my personality?"

"You claim to be based on Lady Senya's personality, but you're nothing like her."

"Of course not. The personality I was based on was Lady Senya's childhood personality."

So that irritating woman had been even more irritating as a child?

"... What do you mean, your mind is over there?"

"Hmm... That's a difficult question. How can I explain it to someone with your limited education...?"

"Then put it simply."

"I'm something like an artificial intelligence for Witch Craft, created by Lady Senya."

That was certainly easy to understand.

"My mind is composed of Witch Craft's spells, and my purpose is to protect and manage Witch Craft. For the past two hundred years, I've also managed this hall under Lady Senya's orders."

Eugene walked past Mer without a word. He could feel her following behind him with quick little steps.

"... Why did Lady Senya use her childhood personality as your base?"

"To reminisce."

"Reminisce?"

"You're still too young to know this, Master Eugene, but most adults have trouble recalling their childhood selves. Their memories remain clear, but they can't clearly recall what kind of 'personality' they had when they made those memories."

"... That's true."

"Lady Senya limited my personality to her childhood self so she could reminisce about her childhood. Her magic is great enough to call up even the most distant memories."

Eugene stood before Witch Craft. Up close, its grandeur was extraordinary. A sphere shone within several rings. The essence of magic, preserved for hundreds of years.

"... Then do you have all of Lady Senya's memories?"

"Of course not."

Mer burst out laughing.

"I was based on Lady Senya's personality, but I don't share her memories. If I did, my very existence could be exploited."

"True enough."

It was no exaggeration to call Senya the most significant mage in the history of magic. If Mer possessed all her memories, Aroth's mages would never have left her alone.

They would have dismantled her and extracted every memory related to magic. Or used her to research new magic. However much mages respected Senya, they were the sort of people who, confronted with 'something like that,' would want to take it apart and study it.

'... If they haven't done that...'

Either they couldn't.

Or there was no need.

Or they already had.

Eugene stared at Mer. Witch Craft's artificial intelligence. To his understanding, Mer's very existence was preposterous. It was just as Lovellian had said. When he first read Witch Craft's first volume, he had ruefully remarked that the magic he had spent his entire life learning was child's play.

'It certainly goes far beyond the bounds of ordinary magic.'

Hadn't Melkith told him to wear a diaper in case he pissed himself? Eugene shook his head, recalling her mischievous smile.

'The original Witch Craft is kept only in Akron. Any mage with access to Akron can read it.'

All the secrets behind Mer's mind and existence were contained in Witch Craft, so there was no need to dismantle her.

"... I suppose you don't know why Lady Senya went into seclusion, or where she went?"

"Of course I don't. Lady Senya's withdrawal was sudden and secretive. Her disciples, the servants at her mansion, and I all know nothing about it."

"Really?"

"Master Eugene. How many times do you think I've heard that question over the past two hundred years?"

Mer's expression changed. She no longer puffed out her chest, shrugged her shoulders, or wore that irritating, pride-filled smile. Her eyes grew cold and dull, without a trace of light. Her brows furrowed, and one corner of her mouth twisted.

That smile, too, resembled Senya's so closely it sent a chill down his spine.

"I've heard it more times than I can count. I'd been in Akron since long before Lady Senya went into seclusion. Even so, Aroth's king, the tower masters of that time, the head of the Mages' Guild, and countless other mages cornered me to ask about her whereabouts."

So that was how it was.

"I told them I knew nothing. But they wouldn't believe me. So I told them to do as they pleased. Those inadequately skilled fools who didn't know their place connected to Witch Craft and rummaged through my memories. They must be slow learners, because every few decades they repeat the whole thing, saying they'll search again."

They had already done it. Ever since Senya went into seclusion, Aroth's mages had repeatedly rummaged through Witch Craft and Mer's mind.

"But I truly know nothing about Lady Senya's seclusion. The last time I saw her, she showed no sign whatsoever that she intended to withdraw."

"I shouldn't have asked."

"As long as you realize that."

Eugene stepped back from Witch Craft. He wanted to examine the magic Senya had stored within it in detail, but honestly, he wasn't confident he could properly understand it yet even if he tried.

"... You said only the first volume was available in Akron, right?"

"Yes."

"Are the other two volumes stored in there too?"

"No."

Mer shook her head.

"I... No, that is indeed the original Witch Craft. But it contains only the first volume. Lady Senya took the other two with her."

"What?"

"Hmm... She 'extracted' the second and third volumes from the original, then donated the original containing only the first volume to Akron. That caused me a great deal of trouble. Everyone... wanted to find not only Lady Senya, but the other two volumes as well."

As she spoke, Mer approached Eugene's side.

"You certainly have a great deal of interest in Lady Senya, Master Eugene."

"Wouldn't anyone?"

"True, but you aren't even a conventional mage, are you? I haven't left Akron in hundreds of years, and I can't leave. But I still know about the Lionheart family."

Mer lifted her head to look up at Eugene.

"The family of Vermouth the Great. This is my first time seeing one of his descendants in person, so it's rather fascinating."

"There's nothing that fascinating about it."

"No, really. As far as I know, Lady Senya never once interacted with the Lionheart family after settling in Aroth. She never met Lord Vermouth either."

Eugene knew that too. Throughout its three-hundred-year history, the Lionheart family had strangely maintained no contact with Senya or Anise.

The same was true of Moron. For some unknown reason, that idiot had apparently never once visited Vermouth after he founded the Lionheart family.

At least after Moron stepped down from the throne, his descendants—the royal family of the northern kingdom of Ruhar—had begun to have some contact with the Lionhearts. But considering their ancestors' bond, the relationship between Ruhar's royal family and the Lionhearts was exceedingly shallow.

Eugene simply couldn't understand why. Vermouth might have been an utterly unsociable bastard, but Anise had followed him as the Hero who would save the world. Moron, too, had revered Vermouth and would restrain his idiocy in his presence.

Yet after returning from Helmuth, they had ceased contact and lived as though the others barely existed.

'... According to the Lionheart records, there was no contact after the family was founded. The only time they met again... was at Vermouth's funeral.'

Vermouth's funeral had been a state funeral held by the Kiel Empire. Anise had delivered a eulogy as the saint of the Holy Empire, while Moron, king of the northern kingdom of Ruhar, had removed his ostentatious crown and personally carried Vermouth's coffin. Senya, Aroth's Green Tower Master... had used magic to clear a sky that looked ready to pour with rain, letting warm sunlight shine down to see Vermouth off.

In the end, the only time those three had reunited with Vermouth after Helmuth was at his funeral.

That left Eugene with a profound sense of dissonance and a tangled web of questions.

"... Do you remember Lady Senya ever talking about her companions?"

"She did call Lord Moron an idiot."

"What about Anise?"

"She called her a snake of a woman."

"... And Hamel?"

"Fool, son of a bitch, moron, fucking bastard."

"Didn't you just say Lady Senya was much more refined and dignified? And that she rarely smiled?"

"Even a refined and dignified person can swear. And Lady Senya never once smiled when she spoke of her companions. If anything, she looked ready to cry."

Mer turned her head, recalling memories from hundreds of years ago.

"She was especially distressed when she spoke of Hamel."

An enormous portrait hung where Mer was looking. It was identical to the one in Senya's mansion.

A portrait with a benevolent smile.

"... That portrait is a lie."

"A lie?"

"Lady Senya never once smiled like that."

"She might have smiled like that before she made you."

"No, it's a lie. The portrait was certainly made before me, but while I was talking with Lady Senya to establish my personality, I asked her about it myself."

"... What did you ask?"

"I asked why she was always sad."

Mer gazed at the portrait for a moment, then looked up at Eugene. She imitated the exact smile worn by Senya in the painting.

"Lady Senya didn't smile as I just did, but she told me why she'd left a portrait with that expression."

["If it's going to be passed down to future generations anyway, a smiling face is nicer to look at than a sad one."]

"The smile in that portrait... was painted at the artist's own discretion. Perhaps that was why Lady Senya didn't like it much. It's on display in the mansion now, but when I was there, the portrait was always covered with a cloth. So was the portrait in this hall."

"..."

"I removed the cloth from the one here. It's true that a smiling face is nicer to look at."

Without realizing it, Eugene reached out and stroked Mer's head. But she immediately turned stern and pushed his hand away.

"Don't overstep."

"Uh... right. Sorry."

"I may be smaller than you, Master Eugene, but I've existed for two hundred years."

"... What did Lady Senya say about Lord Vermouth?"

Mer pouted and turned away.

"She said nothing."

Was she angry that he had stroked her head? Mer walked away with quick little steps, without looking back at Eugene.

"No praise, no insults, no judgments."