Chapter 16
A Tool, Not a Person
Echidna Philiasee.
Age: Unknown.
Formerly affiliated with Philiasee, but expelled by her sisters due to ideological differences.
Reason for expulsion: Hopelessly obsessed with handsome faces and prone to falling in love at first sight.
She had messy black hair and dark circles beneath her eyes that made her look as though she wore gothic makeup.
Black lips, skin so pale it seemed never to have received a single ray of sunlight, and the typically gloomy aura of a witch.
When she remained still, one might have considered her fairly beautiful, but the peculiar atmosphere surrounding witches ruined everything.
So, did she seem like a witch?
“Hello. I’m Echidna.”
Her childish manner of speaking, completely at odds with her appearance, shattered even the distinctive atmosphere of a witch.
“Ehehe…”
She smiled as though she were naturally friendly, but it was so painfully awkward that even the smile came across as sinister.
Everything about her made it difficult for her to mingle with ordinary people.
She had unconditionally accepted the moment she saw Zed.
However, Ferda still needed to explain what she would be doing, so he entered the witch’s house and sat down with her.
“You said you would accept unconditionally, but do you actually know what kind of work this involves?”
“No. But I don’t mind.”
Echidna’s dark pupils churned like a storm-tossed sea.
“I-I would be happy just to travel with such handsome gentlemen and such a cute young lady… Ehehehe. If you order me to, I’ll become a dog.”
The distinctive madness of a witch gradually seeped into her voice.
Luri grimaced, while Zed recoiled with an uneasy expression.
Only Ferda remained calm.
“Echidna Philiasee. You are creating golems, are you not?”
“Huh? Ah, yes. I am. Why?”
“Could you continue that golem research at Valdrova Castle?”
“O-Of course. I can do that. Hehe. If you order me to, I’ll become a dog. Woof, woof.”
She repeatedly agreed without asking a single question.
Even Ferda found the sight unexpected.
‘I thought she would have been somewhat better in the past, but it seems this was when she was at her worst.’
By the time Ferda had first learned of her, she had apparently regained some measure of sanity.
“Lord Ferda.”
Luri lightly poked him in the side.
“Did you truly come all this way merely to recruit some woman who makes golems?”
“U-Um, I can hear you.”
“Yes. They are merely golems.”
“I-I said I can hear you.”
Golems were enormous creatures made from mud or stone.
They could do little more than walk in a straight line. Aside from their size and durability, they were practically corpses.
There was a reason calling someone a golem was considered an insult.
“Do you have any golems you have made here?”
“Huh? I-I do, but… it isn’t finished yet, so it’s a little embarrassing…”
“That does not matter. I am not the one who will be embarrassed.”
“Ah! Then… I’ll show you!”
Echidna clapped her hands twice.
The wardrobe suddenly flew open, and something leaped out from inside.
It was a wooden puppet shaped like a well-built man.
Its eyes were large and sparkled as though they might shoot out gemstones, while its lips were sleek and sharply defined.
Its face and body looked like something a child might draw while imagining the perfect prince.
Noticing the three of them staring at it, Echidna twisted her body bashfully.
“Ehehe. It’s still unfinished, so it’s embarrassing…”
“The face does appear to require some refinement.”
“No. The doll itself is already complete.”
“…This is complete?”
Zed could not hide his astonishment.
That was the finished product?
The golem creaked as it walked outside, then turned its head slightly toward Echidna.
Echidna smiled brightly.
Creak—creak—
The wooden golem moved with the sound of stiff joints grinding together.
It reached toward the cupboard, selected a tea, and began preparing it.
What was astonishing was that the golem had accurately chosen a specific item.
“There are countless varieties of tea in that cupboard. Why did it choose that one?”
“Well, the way it works is… Ah, this is a rather tedious subject, so instead of explaining every detail… Um, hmm…”
Echidna clenched both hands and stamped her feet anxiously.
Ferda opened his mouth, thinking he might answer in her place.
“In other words—”
“Wait! I-I think I can explain it!”
It took her almost three minutes merely to choose her words, and sweat poured down her face.
At last, Echidna organized her thoughts and spoke.
“To put it simply, it observes my mood and brings me the tea I like. I’m in a good mood today, so it selected Darfling.”
“The golem… did that?”
Luri asked in disbelief.
Echidna scratched her head shyly.
“Ehehe. I wanted to make one capable of doing that, so I’m currently developing the magic.”
“You are creating magic… Does that mean you draw the runes yourself?”
“Yes, exactly, little miss! I studied it veeeery hard!”
Even Luri, who normally looked down on humans, felt genuine wonder this time.
To create an intricate magic circle, one needed to learn the process of compressing meaning into symbols: rune-making.
Across the entire Serdes Continent, fewer than ten artisans were capable of creating original runes.
This woman was not merely a golem-maker or a gloomy witch.
‘A Rune Maker.’
She was a witch with the power to create new magic.
Luri looked at Ferda again.
Unlike the disgust that had filled her gaze at first, it now contained awe.
“How do you know people like this?”
“I happened to learn about them.”
Naturally, Ferda remembered Echidna because of the hatred she had inspired in him.
She was one of the people who wasted their talents to a truly infuriating degree.
‘I nearly coughed up blood because of her.’
Echidna Philiasee was absurdly obsessed with handsome men.
Her longing was so intense that it had guided her toward awakening a Red Circle.
However, because of the gloomy nature of witches and her abysmal social skills, Echidna eventually found herself in a situation where she could not meet any men at all.
Where another person might have thought to overcome the witches’ gloomy reputation or improve their social abilities, Echidna had reached a different conclusion.
—If I can’t get a boyfriend, can’t I just make one?
She found the idea of turning a man into a specimen or puppet, as other witches did, rather distasteful.
With a way of thinking that lay somewhere between human and witch, her solution was to create something resembling a human through golem-making.
Her efforts led her to master magical command formulas and rune creation.
Eventually, she became a Rune Maker.
‘She used rune-making—something even I could not accomplish when I was an Archmage—merely to create a boyfriend.’
Ferda felt as though he might cough up blood even now.
She had developed an ability capable of overturning the world merely because she wanted to manufacture a boyfriend.
‘However, thanks to that, she proved that golem soldiers capable of responding to flexible command structures were possible.’
Homunculi were artificial life-forms considered the pinnacle of alchemy.
They could learn their tasks through experience and perform work in areas humans could not.
However, they could only be produced in limited numbers and could not be completely controlled like ordinary tools.
Golems, on the other hand, could be mass-produced but were incapable of complex movements or carrying out complicated commands.
Echidna’s golems combined the advantages of both.
‘Driving the magical beasts from the Far Eastern front would not be impossible.’
Her technology had the potential to become as revolutionary as the magical engineering led by Burnell Marquis.
“Then it appears our discussion is complete. I shall give you your letter of appointment.”
“A-A letter of appointment?”
“You will be appointed as a chief researcher of Valdrova Castle. There is already another chief researcher, but his field differs from yours, so the two of you will not need to concern yourselves with each other.”
“Ah… I-Is that so?”
There was one other chief researcher.
At those words, Echidna’s dark eyes rolled nervously before she spoke in a shy voice.
“Is he… a man?”
Ferda nodded.
Her face flushed, and her fingers fidgeted.
“He is.”
“Is he… handsome?”
Echidna’s eyes sparkled as though she had asked the most important question of all.
“He looks like an ordinary scholar who wears glasses.”
“Oh, is that so? Well, it doesn’t really matter…”
Echidna sounded disappointed.
Her eyes slowly drifted toward Zed.
A born seducer, Zed reflexively gave her a charming smile.
“Ehehe. Ehehehehe…”
As a lecherous aura began to seep from her, Zed’s expression gradually stiffened.
He wanted to retreat, but there was nowhere for him to go.
“Can you depart immediately, or do you require time to prepare?”
“No. I have spatial storage magic, so I can put everything inside and leave right away. Hehe…”
Spatial storage was a fifth-tier spell.
That meant she was at least a Fifth-Circle mage.
It also meant that her obsession with handsome men was truly extraordinary.
“Excellent. Then the three of you will take the carriage and depart for Valdrova Castle ahead of us.”
Zed abruptly turned his head.
“You’re not coming with us?”
“There is still one more person I must recruit.”
“Then let’s go together. I am your attendant, after all.”
“There is no need.”
“No, don’t say that…”
Zed forced an awkward smile.
“Let’s go together. Please.”
There was genuine desperation in that final word.
He was begging Ferda not to leave him alone with that woman.
‘That cannot be allowed.’
Ferda knew what Echidna’s completed golem would look like in the future.
It would bear the form of Zed Swallow.
It was Zed Swallow’s appearance that caused her to become hopelessly devoted to a single man.
Therefore, the two of them needed to remain together for the time being.
Zed had to stay beside her if Echidna’s madness was to subside.
What kind of future her obsession might bring upon Zed remained uncertain.
Ferda had no interest in finding out.
He would deal with it somehow.
And so, Ferda successfully recruited three talented individuals.
Burnell Marquis, pioneer of magical engineering.
Zed Swallow, the master thief.
Echidna Philiasee, the Rune Maker.
As for the final person remaining—
“The Sage of Water, Helus Phobidas.”
He was the only individual among the previously listed candidates whom Luri already knew.
A late-blooming mage in his mid-forties.
He was renowned for seeing through the nature of things with his brilliant wisdom and insight, earning him the title of the Sage of Water.
He had built a mansion in a rural village and lived there.
He belonged to no organization, following an ascetic belief that one must always remain alongside water.
“How do you intend to persuade a man who refused even the astronomical fortune offered by the Arken Empire?”
Ferda’s current recruitment record stood at two successes and one pending decision.
The previous candidates had been difficult to predict because Luri knew nothing about them.
This time, however, she knew enough to make a reasonable judgment.
Luri believed Ferda would find it difficult to persuade him.
‘He does not seem likely to assert his authority or threaten the man into coming…’
She could not suppress her curiosity about what ingenious idea Ferda might have prepared.
Ferda answered,
“I have no interest in the Sage of Water.”
Luri frowned.
“Then why did we come here? You wrote ‘Sage of Water’ on the list, came all the way to the Sage of Water’s house, and now you claim you are not here to recruit him?”
“The person I seek has no name. I merely used Helus Phobidas’s name as a substitute.”
“Did you deceive me?”
Luri narrowed her eyes and glared at him viciously.
“Only halfway.”
Ferda glanced up at the mansion.
The windows were wide open, and the rear entrance used by the servants had been left partially ajar.
As he observed it, Ferda asked,
“Where do ordinary women usually go to wash clothes?”
“Why are you asking me?”
Ferda looked her up and down.
Before him stood an expressionless girl dressed in a maid uniform.
“Are you not a servant, at least?”
“Servants have ranks of their own. Besides, I handle everything with magic. I am not some little girl who beats laundry with a paddle beside a stream.”
“A stream, then. Thank you.”
Following Luri’s unintended advice, they headed toward the nearby stream.
Just as she had said, it was not difficult to find.
“You damned, idiotic girl! You cannot even do that properly?!”
In a place where only the quiet flow of water should have been heard, the abuse of a middle-aged woman rang out.
A fat, middle-aged woman and a painfully thin girl stood there.
Their clothing was exceptionally clean for rural villagers, clearly marking them as servants of a noble household.
The fat woman jabbed her finger repeatedly at the girl’s laundry and shouted,
“After you beat and wring the clothes, you have to put them in there! Why must I explain this to you every single time before you understand?! Beat them! Wring them! Put them in! Do you understand?!”
The blonde girl cautiously nodded.
“Good grief! What kind of divine punishment did I receive to be stuck teaching an idiot like this…?”
The middle-aged servant struck her chest and grimaced.
The girl showed no sign of fear.
She stared down with vacant eyes and silently began repeating the task she had been ordered to perform.
“Is she causing you trouble?”
The middle-aged servant jumped in surprise and rose to her feet.
Her eyes quickly swept over Ferda before a smile appeared on her face.
“Oh, my lord. My apologies. I have shown you an unpleasant sight. Haha. I was attempting to educate one of our foolish servants and accidentally raised my voice…”
“You call that education?”
“Of course, a noble lord such as yourself may not understand. Unless you shock someone like this, how could they possibly learn? That is why I must treat her this way.”
Ferda’s eyes shifted toward the girl.
He rested a hand against his chin and let out a quiet sound.
“…That did not appear to be education. It looked as though you were merely venting your irritation. Besides, there is no need to educate that child.”
“What do you mean?”
“Have you not considered that your instructions were simply wrong?”
The middle-aged servant blinked.
“My apologies, my lord, but I do not understand…”
“From what I saw and heard, you instructed her to repeat the process of beating and wringing the laundry. However, it appears that you never told her where she should place it afterward. Had you explained that as well, she would undoubtedly have continued working.”
“Goodness, must I really explain every little thing? Any normal person would develop some awareness and learn to manage on their own. She is simply unbearably stupid…”
The middle-aged servant glared at the girl.
The girl appeared uninterested in their conversation and continued kneading the fabric over and over again.
“Yes. The problem is that you regard her as a person.”
“What do you mean? Are you saying this girl is some kind of tool?”
“Had you considered what you were handling to be a tool rather than a human being, perhaps you would have acted differently. Do you not think it unreasonable to expect a tool to think for itself?”
The servant looked unable to comprehend his words.
Luri, who had been listening quietly, also failed to understand what Ferda meant.
“What kind of tool eats and sleeps? If she were a tool, we could simply throw her into a storage room or discard her…”
“Then why have you not discarded her?”
“Do you think she would disappear merely because I wanted her gone? The Sage of Water treasures her.”
“Hmm. Is that so?”
“I don’t know where he picked up this filthy little stray.”
The servant continued pouring out curses without pause.
Ferda listened calmly before asking,
“If you dislike her so much, yet cannot easily cast her away, how about transferring her to me?”