Chapter 39
"And finally."
Fila placed the doll on the workbench.
It was the wooden doll she had shown me last time.
But it had changed considerably.
It now had the elaborate human form of a ball-jointed doll.
It was so finely made that it looked like a living person shrunk down to size.
It was about the size of two palms placed side by side. The joints of its arms and legs connected smoothly, making it look as though it could actually move.
It had a face.
Its eyes were closed, and it wore the face of the host whose body it had most recently taken.
It had long silver hair and a black gothic-lolita outfit, with a lace-trimmed headband, puffed sleeves, and a long skirt layered with frills.
"After it was sealed, it took this form. Usually, being able to materialize one's own form means that the soul is of a high caliber. The doll reflects the form the soul takes when it envisions itself."
Fila picked up the doll and turned it this way and that.
"Amazing, isn't it? It moves just like a real person. Look."
Fila bent the doll's arm. It folded and unfolded smoothly. It was neither wood nor porcelain, nor did it have assembled joints.
Beneath skin like a person's, it had a skeleton.
"Would you like to see?"
I took the doll and moved it from side to side, then turned it upside down.
There were no panties on the inside when it was upside down.
It had a realism unlike that of a doll.
'Is this what monsters are attracted to?'
Fila's pupils wavered as she watched what I was doing.
"Why are you turning it upside down?"
"It looked so real that I wondered if it might actually be..."
Fila's cheeks flushed, as if she was or wasn't convinced.
She hugged the doll to her chest.
This, too, was a valuable item.
"I suppose I'll have to make a scabbard separately."
"If you bring one, I'll enchant it for you."
I picked up the magic sword.
"Fila."
"Yes?"
"I have a favor to ask."
Fila tilted her head.
"Would you accompany me into the forest?"
Fila's eyes widened.
"The forest? Me, you mean?"
"Yes. I need the help of a mage as talented as you."
Fila fidgeted with her fingers.
She repeatedly tried to say something, then swallowed it back.
"W-won't it be dangerous? If someone like me comes along, I'll only hold you back..."
"It has to be you, Fila."
"I-it has to be me?"
Fila looked at me in confusion, then laboriously nodded.
"I-I'll go."
Fila's lips moved.
"Could I make some preparations first? I-I have a customer coming soon."
"Then..."
Knock, knock.
No sooner had I finished speaking than a knock sounded on the workshop door.
Fila startled and shoved me, and I was inadvertently pushed toward her bed at the back of the workshop.
"P-please stay here for a moment. I-it'll be over soon."
Fila, nearly in tears, drew the bed curtain and hid me.
The bed was a mess. As when I had visited last time, blankets had been piled up in layers, making them thick. They were more like carpets than blankets.
Since she had no quilts, she seemed to use these carpets as blankets.
A notebook and quill lay on top of the bedding, with black ink stains beside them.
The notebook was open, and a small magic lamp illuminating the inside of the curtained bed cast light on the writing.
Crooked, uneven handwriting.
The notebook, written in her own hand, was difficult to understand at a glance.
But one sentence matched my memory, and I read it instantly with a sidelong glance.
[The kids told me to learn Explosion Seed. They said they'd become my friends if I did.]
It was a diary.
Just as I was closing the diary.
Creak.
Along with the sound of the door opening, a woman's footsteps entered the workshop.
"Are all the prepared items ready?"
A businesslike woman's voice.
"Y-yes! Here's the recipe and the items made according to it. I-I packed them carefully, too."
Though fidgeting nervously, Fila handed the prepared goods to the woman.
"I've confirmed them. The results will be notified once the review is complete."
"Y-yes. Thank you. P-please get home safely!"
Fila bowed deeply as she saw the woman out of the workshop.
"E-Eck? She's gone. You can come out now."
Fila pulled back the curtain, and when I emerged from the bed and looked at the workbench, all the parchment stacked on it had disappeared.
"Who was that?"
"Ah, she came from the lord's castle."
Fila placed a hand on her chest and took a deep breath.
"Today is the day they collect the inventions I'm submitting for the qualification exam."
"Exam?"
"Yes. I have to submit results at set intervals to renew my appointment under the lord. If I pass, I can receive a budget from the lord's castle."
A mage directly under the lord.
A qualification granted to a mage recognized by the lord within his territory. It provided research funding, as well as immunity from punishment for laboratory accidents.
Fila clasped both hands tightly.
Her eyes sparkled behind her glasses.
"I'm really confident this time. I organized the recipes neatly, and the finished products came out stable. I think I can pass. No, I have to pass. This is my last chance."
Then she looked up at me.
"If I pass, it'll be thanks to you, Eck."
"What do you mean, thanks to me?"
"No, I mean it. If you hadn't helped with my experiments, I wouldn't have seen the proper effects. What good would it have done to test an aphrodisiac on my body as a woman? Hehe."
Fila grinned as if she had already passed.
I gave a bitter smile as I watched her face.
"...."
I kept my mouth shut.
Fila would fail.
Progressing through her personal story revealed why she would end up accompanying Elena.
When she met Elena, only a few months remained before her qualification was put on hold. After searching desperately for a solution, she took Elena's hand.
I knew why she failed, too.
Someone stole Fila's invention before it could be submitted for review.
Her submission was switched, and Fila failed the review as a result.
Fila lost her qualification and her position as a mage directly under the lord.
It was better that way.
'I can't say it feels very good.'
And I would use that.
Fila was one of the few companion characters who stayed with Elena all the way into the latter half of the story.
It would be a waste to keep a talent like this tied down at the lord's castle.
Even if Fila had something hanging below her, considering what lay ahead, it was an extremely trivial matter,
and my intense aversion to Fila was a personal problem to begin with.
In truth, she was no different from a pretty-looking man; I was the only one making a fuss over it.
'It would be a shame to let her talent rot over something so trivial.'
"Just in case."
That was why I said this.
"If you happen to fail, I will sponsor you, Fila. The workshop, research funds, materials—I'll cover whatever you need."
"W-what? Huh?"
Fila's mouth opened and closed.
"Y-you don't have to go that far. I will pass. But thank you for saying so. Hehe."
She fidgeted with her fingers.
She swallowed nervously, and greed appeared in her eyes.
"So that means E-Eck will take me in even if I f-fail? I-I'm happy."
"Then you can wait for the results without worry. Don't be sad even if you fail."
"Okaaay."
Tears welled up in Fila's eyes.
She took off her glasses and wiped the corners of her eyes with her sleeve.
"Th-thank you, Eck. Thank you so much. You're the first person to treat me this well since I left my family."
"I simply don't like seeing a capable talent struggle over money."
"C-capable?"
"You're a mage directly under the lord. Haven't you already proven your skill? Fila, you are an amazing mage. At least, that's what I believe."
"Hehe. Ehehe."
Fila turned away from me and rubbed her face with both hands.
A drop of saliva fell from beneath her hunched upper body.
'She's still as weak to praise as ever.'
"Then get ready to go to the forest."
"Yes! I'll be ready in a moment!"
She answered with a broad, silly smile.
But just as she was about to take off her robe, she suddenly stopped and turned back with a flushed face.
"J-just let me change clothes... C-could you go outside? O-of course, I'm not telling you to leave against your will... I mean..."
"...I'll wait outside."
I left the workshop and waited by the door.
***
The street outside the city gate was deserted.
Until just a little while ago, the street had been bustling with adventurers, but now no one remained except a few people training on the drill ground.
The road leading to the forest.
Fila followed alongside me.
When she came to stand beside me in step with my pace, her face relaxed considerably.
Excited by her outing for the first time in a long while, she took the lead, and her long pink hair swayed behind her like a tail.
Each time it did, her robe was pressed against the cleft between her buttocks and hips, making my eyes sting.
'I suppose I have to get used to things like that.'
I repeated inwardly, 'Fila is a man.'
But the more I thought about Fila, the more her past replayed in my mind.
The memories related to it surfaced as well, along with what I had unintentionally read in her diary.
Fila Emoson.
A mage from the Red Magic Tower.
Fila had been the top student, and her outstanding talent had earned her recognition as a candidate capable of leading the magic tower.
But mages implanted a spell formula called a 'Seed' into their bodies, and implanting a Seed maximized the efficiency of its associated magic.
Just as implanting the Seed of fire magic let one produce flames without casting a spell, one's lifelong path was determined by which Seed one chose.
Since an implanted Seed could never be removed, it had to be chosen carefully.
Fila implanted the Seed of explosion magic.
Explosion magic.
The most obscure of the obscure.
Its power was top-tier, but it was extremely difficult to control, making it the worst Seed for research environments, and it caused friendly fire in combat as well.
Fila chose it.
No—she was chosen for it.
'Explosion magic isn't so bad.'
'If anyone can handle it, it'll be you, Senior Fila.'
'You're the top student anyway.'
She had been deceived by the warm words of her classmates and juniors—the first such words she had ever heard.
Fila was a loner, gloomy, and inarticulate, yet she received all the professors' attention.
Her talent had been an eyesore to her classmates.
And so the promising future of the top student went up in a futile explosion.
From top student to outcast in an instant.
A mage who couldn't do research had no place in the magic tower.
'That was her own responsibility, too.'
Fila had fallen for her classmates' empty words despite knowing explosion magic's weaknesses.
It was unfortunate, but I felt no desire to comfort her.
'What good would pity do?'
And I already knew her future.
If so, there was only one thing I could do for her.
***
Bang!!!
Fila thrust out her staff.
A powerful force exploded in the middle of the pack of wolves blocking the forest path.
Leaves flew in every direction like they had been caught in a storm, while blood and flesh flew chaotically onto nearby branches.
When the smoke cleared, nothing remained in that spot.
The wolves that survived tucked their tails and fled.
Fila hugged her staff, hunching her shoulders tightly.
"This is my magic. Not very impressive, is it? There isn't even a corpse left, so I can't collect materials or magic stones."
A smile bordering on a servile grin hung at the corners of her mouth.
"B-but I can use other magic, too. It won't be much help for hunting, but I'm s-sure it'll be useful."
Her excuse carried resignation toward her own magic.
I looked at the blast crater.
"How high can you raise its power?"
Fila lifted her head.
"Huh?"
"I'm asking because it looks useful. How much higher can you raise it?"
Fila's hand tightened around her staff.
Her lips moved, but she swallowed the words before they could come out.
A tremor shook her eyes behind her glasses.
"I-I've never tried maximum output."
She held out her staff, her voice trembling thinly.
"I-I'll try it now."
"It's not urgent, so you can do it later."
"I-is that so?"
The tension drained from Fila's shoulders.
But her fingers gripping the staff were still so tight that their tips had gone white.
Explosion magic was powerful.
It had been looked down on precisely because of its overwhelming destructive power, so there was nothing better suited to the wars to come than explosion magic.
During this hunt, I would fill in the confidence Fila lacked.
When this hunt was over, Fila's view of me would have changed.