A Tool, Not a Person

Echidna Philiaz.

Her age was unknown.

Though she belonged to the Philiaz, her sisters expelled her for having incompatible ideals.

Reason for expulsion: a weakness for handsome men and a tendency to fall in love at first sight.

She had black, disheveled hair and dark circles that made her look as though she were wearing goth makeup.

Her lips were black, and her skin was so pale it seemed not to have received a single ray of light.

And she had the typical gloomy aura of a witch.

If she stayed still, one might have thought she could ensnare people with her beauty, but the witch's distinctive air ruined everything.

So, if one asked whether she looked like a witch,

“Hello. I'm Echidna.”

Her childish way of speaking, so contrary to her appearance, shattered even the atmosphere unique to witches.

“Hehehe…….”

She smiled as though she were a kind person, but it was so awkward that even her smile felt gloomy.

Everything about her made it difficult for her to fit in with ordinary humans.

She had accepted Jed without hesitation.

However, since they needed to discuss what work she would be doing, Ferda entered the witch's house and faced her.

“You said you would do anything, but do you actually know what it is?”

“No. But that's all right.”

Echidna's dark pupils rippled like a stormy sea.

“I-I'm so happy that I get to be with such handsome gentlemen and a cute young lady…… Hehehehe. I'll be your dog if you tell me to.”

The madness unique to witches gradually seeped into her voice.

Luri frowned, while Jed felt uneasy and shrank back.

Only Ferda remained composed.

“Echidna Philiaz. You're making golems, aren't you?”

“Huh? Ah, yes. Why?”

“Could you continue making those golems at Valdrowa Castle?”

“O-Of course. I can do that. Hehe. I'll be your dog if you tell me to. Woof, woof.”

She kept accepting everything without asking a single question.

Even Ferda was taken aback by this.

‘I thought she would at least be a little better in the past, but she was at her worst around this time.’

When Ferda had first come to know her, she had already been such a wreck that she seemed almost well-adjusted by comparison.

“Lord Ferda.”

Luri discreetly poked him in the side and said,

“Did you really go to recruit some woman who merely makes golems?”

“I can hear you over here, you know.”

“Yes, merely a golem.”

“I told you, I can hear you.”

A massive creature made of mud or lumps of stone.

Aside from their size and durability, golems were little more than corpses, capable only of moving and walking in the simplest manner.

It was no wonder people used “you damned golem” as an insult.

“Do you have a golem you've made here?”

“Huh? Ah, I do, but…… It's not finished yet, so I'm embarrassed to show it…….”

“That doesn't matter. I'm not embarrassed.”

“Oh! Then…… I'll show you!”

Echidna clapped her hands.

The inside of the wardrobe suddenly flew open, and something sprang out—a wooden doll shaped like a well-built man.

Its eyes were enormous and glittered as though they might shoot out jewels, while its lips were finely sculpted.

Its face and figure looked as though a child had drawn them while fantasizing about a prince.

Seeing the three of them staring intently at it, Echidna twisted her body from side to side.

“Hehehe. It's not finished yet, so I'm embarrassed…….”

“You do need to refine the face a little more.”

“No. The doll itself is complete.”

“……This?”

Jed could not contain his astonishment.

That was supposed to be the finished form?

The golem creaked its way outside, and its face turned slightly toward Echidna.

Echidna smiled sweetly.

Screeech—screeech—

The wooden golem moved with the sound of stiff gears grinding together.

It took tea from the cupboard and began brewing it.

What was astonishing was that the golem had precisely selected a single item.

“There are so many kinds of tea in the cupboard. Why did it bring that one?”

“Well, you see, the way it works is…… Ah, it's a rather boring story, so I shouldn't explain it all, um, er…….”

Echidna clenched both hands and stamped her feet.

Ferda opened his mouth, intending to answer for her.

“So—”

“Wait. I-I think I can do it!”

It took her about three minutes just to choose her words, and she was sweating profusely.

At last, Echidna finished organizing her thoughts and spoke.

“Simply put, it watches my mood and brings me the tea I like. Today I'm in a good mood, so it brought Darjeeling.”

“The golem…… does that?”

Luri asked as though she could not believe it.

Echidna scratched her head sheepishly.

“Hehehe. I wanted to make one like that. So I've been creating the magic for it.”

“Creating magic…… Does that mean you draw the runes yourself?”

“Yes, that's right, little miss! I studied that sooo much!”

Even Luri, who had always looked down on humans, felt genuine awe this time.

To create intricate magic circles, one had to learn rune-making, the process of compressing meaning into runes.

And the ability to create runes belonged to a craftsman's realm—fewer than ten people across the entire continent of Cerdes could do it.

She was not merely a golem maker or a gloomy witch,

‘A Rune Maker.’

She was a witch with the power to create magic.

Luri looked toward Ferda again.

Unlike the disgust filling her eyes at first, they now held awe.

“How do you know such people?”

“I happened to learn about them.”

Naturally, the reason Ferda remembered her was rooted in hatred. She was one of the people wasting her talent to an appalling degree.

‘I nearly coughed blood over it.’

Echidna Philiaz had a serious weakness for exceptionally handsome men.

Her longing had been intense enough to lead her to the Red Circle.

However, because of her characteristic witchlike gloominess and poor social skills, Echidna had reached the point where she could not even meet a man.

Unlike those who thought she should improve her witchy gloominess or social skills, she had thought this instead.

-If I can't date someone, why not just make myself a boyfriend?

She felt uncomfortable turning men into taxidermy specimens or using them as puppets like the other witches did.

Her answer, born of a mindset somewhere between human and witch, was to use golems to create something resembling a human.

Her efforts eventually led her to master spell commands and rune creation, and she became a Rune Maker.

‘I couldn't even master rune-making as a great archmage, yet she used it merely to make a boyfriend.’

Ferda still felt as though he might cough blood.

She had developed an ability capable of overturning the world solely to create something called a boyfriend.

‘But thanks to that, I learned that golem soldiers capable of responding to a fluid command system were not impossible.’

The artificial life form known as the homunculus could be considered the pinnacle of alchemy.

It could learn its duties through study and perform tasks in areas humans could not.

However, its production was limited, and it had the disadvantage of being impossible to control completely like a human.

Golems, on the other hand, could be mass-produced, but they could not perform complex movements or commands.

Echidna's golems possessed the advantages of both without any of their drawbacks.

‘Driving monsters from the Far Eastern Front won't be difficult.’

Technology as innovative as Marquis Vernel's magitech could now be brought to light.

“Then I believe we've settled everything. I'll give you your appointment letter.”

“Y-Your appointment letter?”

“You will be Valdrowa's chief researcher. There is already another chief researcher, but you specialize in a different field, so you won't need to concern yourself with each other.”

“Oh, i-is that so?”

There was another one.

Upon hearing that, her black eyes rolled from side to side before she shyly opened her mouth.

“Um…… is he a man?”

Ferda nodded.

Her face flushed, and her fingers fidgeted.

“He is.”

“Um…… is he handsome?”

Echidna's eyes sparkled as though she had just asked the most important question in the world.

“He looks like an ordinary scholar who wears glasses.”

“Oh, is that so? Well, it doesn't matter…….”

Echidna looked disappointed.

Her eyes stole a glance at Jed.

A born womanizer, Jed reflexively gave her a bright smile.

“Hehehe, hehehehe…….”

At the sinister air, Jed's face gradually stiffened.

He wanted to back away, but there was nowhere to retreat.

“Can you depart right away? Or do you need time to prepare?”

“No. I have a subspace storage spell, so I can put everything away and leave immediately. Hehe…….”

A subspace storage spell was a fifth-tier spell.

That meant she was at least a fifth-Circle mage.

And it meant her obsession with handsome men was truly extraordinary.

“Good. Take the carriage and head to Valdrowa Castle ahead of us, just the two of you.”

Jed whipped his head around and asked,

“Aren't you coming with us?”

“There is still one person left to bring here.”

“Then let's go together, shall we? I'm your attendant.”

“There is no need.”

“No, don't do that…….”

Jed smiled awkwardly as he said,

“Let's go together. Please.”

The desperation in his plea was unmistakable.

He was essentially begging Ferda not to leave him alone with that woman.

‘That won't do.’

Ferda knew.

He knew about the perfected golem Echidna would create in the future.

He knew it would take the form of Jed Swallow.

He knew that it was Jed Swallow's appearance that would make her fall into single-minded infatuation.

‘So I need to keep them together for a while.’

To calm Echidna's madness, Jed had to remain by her side.

What kind of future that obsession would bring Jed, however, was unclear.

And Ferda did not care.

Jed would manage somehow.

* * *

Thus, Ferda succeeded in recruiting three talents.

The pioneer of magitech, Marquis Vernel.

The master thief, Jed Swallow.

The Rune Maker, Echidna Philiaz.

And the last person remaining was,

“So it's Helus Fovidas, the Water Sage.”

He was the only person among those previously mentioned whom Luri knew.

He was a late-blooming mage in his mid-forties.

However, he was famous for seeing through things with his brilliant wisdom and insight, which had earned him the name “Water Sage.”

He had built a mansion in a rural village and lived there.

He was an unaffiliated ascetic who believed he must always be with water and desired nothing else.

“How do you intend to persuade someone who would refuse even a fortune from the Arken Empire?”

Ferda's current recruitment score was two successes and one on hold.

He had not known his previous opponent, making prediction difficult, but this time he had someone whose reactions could be predicted to a certain extent.

Luri judged that Ferda would have difficulty persuading him with his abilities alone.

‘He doesn't seem like the type to bring him in by asserting authority or intimidating him…….’

She was so curious about what ingenious idea he had that she could hardly stand it.

Ferda answered,

“The Water Sage has no interest.”

Luri furrowed her brow.

“Then why did we come here? You wrote down ‘Water Sage,’ came all the way to the Water Sage's house, and now you're saying you aren't trying to recruit the Water Sage?”

“The person I'm looking for has no name. I only used the name Helus Fovidas as a substitute.”

“Did you trick 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 back door used by the servants was left ajar.

As Ferda watched, he asked,

“Where do ordinary housewives usually do their laundry?”

“Why are you asking me that?”

Ferda slowly looked her up and down.

He saw an expressionless girl wearing a maid's uniform.

“Aren't you a servant, for starters?”

“There are ranks among servants. And I solve everything with magic. I'm not some little brat who pounds laundry with a washing bat by a stream.”

“A stream, then. Thank you.”

Following Luri's advice—or rather, her not-quite-advice—he headed for the stream.

Just as she had said, he found them without difficulty.

“You damn, useless idiot! You can't even do that?!”

In a place where the only sound was the quiet flow of water, a middle-aged woman's abuse rang out.

There was a fat middle-aged woman and a painfully thin girl.

Their clothes were impeccably neat for country folk.

It was immediately clear that they were servants of a noble.

The fat middle-aged woman poked the girl's laundry with a finger and shouted,

“After you beat and wring the laundry, you have to put it away. Why do I have to tell you every time before you understand?! Beat it! Wring it! Put it away! Do you understand?!”

The blonde girl carefully nodded.

“Oh, heavens, I'm actually sitting here trying to teach such an idiot! What did I do to deserve this…… Oh, heavens!”

The middle-aged servant thumped her chest and scowled.

The girl did not look frightened.

She stared down at it with hollow eyes, then silently resumed doing what she had been told.

“Is she a troublemaker?”

The middle-aged servant sprang to her feet in surprise.

Her eyes quickly swept over Ferda, and a smile spread across her lips.

“Oh, my lord. I'm sorry. I showed you an ugly sight. Haha. I merely raised my voice while educating one of our dim-witted servants…….”

“Was that education?”

“Of course, a noble lord like yourself wouldn't understand. You have to shock someone this way before they finally understand, don't you? That's why I do it like this.”

Ferda's eyes shifted slightly toward the girl.

He rested his chin on one hand and murmured,

“Hmm. That looked less like education and more like you were simply losing your temper. Besides, there is no need to educate that child.”

“What do you mean?”

“Don't you think the problem is that your orders are simply wrong?”

The middle-aged servant blinked and asked,

“I'm sorry, my lord. I don't understand…….”

“From what I've seen and heard, you made her repeat beating and wringing the laundry. But it seems you never told her where to put it afterward. If you had told her that, she would certainly have continued working.”

“Goodness, do I really have to explain every little thing? If she were a human being, she would develop some intuition and learn to use her judgment, but she's hopelessly stupid…….”

The middle-aged servant glared at the girl.

The girl merely repeated the kneading motion, as though she had no interest in their conversation.

“Exactly. That's the problem: you think of her as a human.”

“What are you talking about? Are you saying this child is a tool?”

“If you had thought that what you were handling was a tool rather than a human, things would have been different. Isn't it unreasonable to expect a tool to think for itself?”

The servant wore an expression that showed she did not understand.

Luri, who had been listening quietly, did not understand Ferda's words either.

“What tool in this world eats and sleeps? If she were a tool, I could toss her in a storeroom or throw her away…….”

“Why haven't you thrown her away?”

“Do you think she'd let herself be thrown away? The Water Sage cherishes the thing.”

“Hmm, is that so?”

“Some stray mutt of a girl. I don't even know where he picked her up.”

The servant continued spewing curses without pause.

Ferda listened to it calmly, then asked,

“If you dislike her so much and find it difficult to throw her away, how about transferring her to me?”