Eustar hesitated for a moment, closing his mouth. Then, with a slightly troubled expression, he frowned and grinned.

“Don’t tell Muge that I told you this.”

“Is such a promise necessary? You’re the only one I could hear this story from anyway. You should rather tell me not to pretend to know in front of Olga.”

He nodded belatedly as if realizing that, and kissed Laila’s forehead with a smack. Laila touched the spot where Eustar’s lips had been and looked up at him with deliberately blank eyes.

“Why do you keep doing that?”

“Don’t you like it?”

“It’s not that I don’t like it.”

“Well, because right now, I have something I want to do more than talk about Muge or Felix. But Laila, you seem to be more curious about those two, so…”

Eustar trailed off and glanced at Laila’s face as if checking her reaction. Laila was blinking with an innocent expression, completely clueless about what he was saying.

Eustar burst into laughter with a deflating sound and said,

“…So I’m holding back this much.”

“I don’t understand what you mean.”

“I know. Um, I’ll explain later. Where were we?”

“Why Olga was created.”

“Ah, right. Um, Muge… Actually, Muge wasn’t the first human-shaped magical tool created. As far as I know. There were at least three more ‘human’-shaped magical tools created by magicians before her.”

Laila was so surprised that she unconsciously curled her fingertips. It was shocking not only that Eustar referred to Muge as a ‘magical tool’ without any hesitation, but also that she was neither the first nor the only one.

— All magicians want to become gods, my child.

She recalled what her mother had once told her. Was this what that meant? Those who want to become gods, those who create something almost indistinguishable from humans while being human themselves.

Eustar continued,

“The magician who first created a human-like… magical tool that moves and understands speech did so to have it attend to minor personal chores. As Muge said earlier, magicians tend to be a bit heavy-bottomed.”

“Couldn’t they just take in disciples?”

“That’s different. A disciple isn’t an errand boy. You have to teach them magic, and even a magician’s disciple is still a magician in their own right, right? You can’t keep them as just a disciple forever and only have them run errands. And there wouldn’t be any disciples willing to remain like that.”

Laila nodded. Eustar caressed her cheek with a thoughtful expression and slightly parted his lips.

“The first human-shaped magical tool created wasn’t very perfect, I hear. It was just like a large puppet, and another magical tool was needed to control it. But it must have been quite novel… or maybe everyone was just bored, because experiments to create ‘humans’ started to become popular among magicians.”

“Living humans?”

Eustar slightly tilted his chin.

“That’s right. In other words, their initial intention was… to create ‘human’ itself with their own hands. Something that speaks, thinks, and moves, of course, but also cries, laughs, eats, and sleeps. A lot of ancient research materials on homunculi were used in the process.”

Homunculus. Laila mouthed the word for a moment before speaking.

“Wasn’t that already a failure before the Dark Ages?”

“That’s right. But the work of creating ‘humans’ was resumed, and this time it was much more serious. They must have needed a lot of materials, right?”

“And then?”

Just as Eustar was about to answer, Muge’s mocking voice cut through that brief silence.

“And then what? Looking at old stuff like homunculi now, as if that would give any answers. That was immediately pushed aside, and instead, those who claimed to be smart clung to that problem until their hair turned white. Using tremendous amounts of materials to become human bone and flesh, as well as gold and crystal… the ‘first one’ came out. By the way, its name was also ‘Muge’.”

The two people lying side by side suddenly sat up. Muge, with her long hair tied up reaching her waist, twisted the corner of her mouth upwards with her arms crossed.

“If you’re curious about the secret of birth, you should ask the person involved. Why are you whispering in strange places?”

Laila’s cheeks turned slightly red.

“You didn’t seem to like it very much.”

“Of course, it’s not a pleasant story. But Kristrad, I can tell you if you ask. Because you’re a witch.”

Laila wanted to ask what that had to do with anything, but Muge didn’t give her the chance.

And Laila had a vague idea of why she said such a thing. ‘Witch’ and ‘created human’. Muge must have said that because she thought both couldn’t belong to the category of ordinary humans.

Muge said,

“The first Muge had male characteristics by human standards. I heard he was quite good at running errands and had a loyal personality, but the problem was that this guy consumed too much magical power. It took too long to charge. So he was scrapped.”

Laila’s expression hardened.

“Scrapped?”

“Well, should I say executed?”

“Died, no… You mean killed?”

“I’m not sure if you can say ‘killed’ for something that’s not even human. If you’re asking in the sense of ‘was its movement stopped’, then yes. That’s what they did.”

Eustar stared intently at Muge. Without words, Muge noticed that he was reproaching her and smiled with a hint of mockery.

“And the second one, it didn’t have a name. And it was quickly scrapped. This time they made it with female human characteristics, but while it charged magical power quickly, it was completely out of control. Maybe the magician who made it forgot something. It went berserk and ran wild, and an elder barely managed to calm it down. After that, the research on creating artificial humans itself cooled down, but there was one eccentric guy in the midst of it all. An old magician named Sigrid.”

Laila recalled the strange spirit she had seen earlier. It had definitely mentioned the name ‘Sigrid’.

Muge let out a short sigh.

“That’s the name of the magician who created me. He had been involved in creating artificial humans from the beginning, and even after other magicians gave up after the second failure, he didn’t give up and continued his research alone. With neither male nor female characteristics… In the end, he thought choosing the appearance of a child was the best option. Well, it could have just been that old man’s preference. Anyway, he found out that the smaller the body, the more efficiently energy could be controlled, and he modified the initial research to create a magical power diagram similar to how human children consume calories.”

Then she showed one of her feet.

“Young humans have a lot of basic energy and it disperses well. That’s why they run around screaming so mindlessly. The crystals inside my body, the structure for magical power transfer, is laid out in a similar way. Instead of preserving the energy charged once, it’s divided very meticulously to flow throughout the body. If you don’t understand what I’m saying, just take it as it is. After completing me, Sigrid gained an elder position. That old man was such an eccentric that he didn’t have a single acquaintance to recommend him as an elder, but thanks to me, he inadvertently achieved his long-cherished desire.”

Laila didn’t even realize that she had been holding her breath while listening to Muge’s words. Her tone, which seemed devoid of emotion yet caustic, stabbed and cut like an invisible knife.

Perhaps Muge was looking as if the old magician Sigrid, who had created her, was right in front of her eyes. Always, forever.

“After gaining the elder position, Sigrid sent me to the royal palace of Sierow. He must have thought that if I became a royal magician, his own position would become more solid not only in the city but also in the royal palace. Later, when magicians started leaving the royal palace one by one to hole up in the city… Sigrid sent me a message to come back, but I didn’t listen. I stayed alone in the royal palace. Among humans.”

“…Why?”

Muge’s gaze moved for a moment. It was just for an instant, but Laila thought she looked like a sulky child. However, that expression didn’t last long.

Muge said,

“Are there any humans who want to be under parental control when they’re all grown up?”

The silence passed slowly. At least it felt that way to Laila. Finally, when Muge let out a long sigh, the tense atmosphere shattered in an instant.

“Is that enough now? It’s not even an interesting story. No thrilling conspiracies.”

Eustar said,

“You know that’s not the kind of story we were hoping for.”

Muge snorted as if to say ‘what difference does it make’ and turned away.

“Follow me. It seems something has come up.”

When the three of them arrived back at Muge’s room, the invisible ‘door’ was already open. The scene of a dimly lit library, tinged red as if at sunset, was floating in the air.

‘Could there be a sight more surreal than this in the world?’

Laila thought.

“Come out.”

As Muge spoke, the strangely shaped spirit named ‘Perleung’ flew up with a peculiar sound. When Laila tried to peek inside, the spirit suddenly squawked and twitched its wings.

“Oh my, a witch!”

Startled, Laila stared blankly at the spirit. The spirit then looked at Muge, whining.

“Miss Olga, that witch is trying to eat me.”

“No human would salivate at the sight of you, so get a grip. Just bring the records.”

At Muge’s cold words, the spirit seemed quite shocked. Its hunched back as it turned away was ambiguously cute or creepy.

Eventually, the spirit unrolled a scroll—which looked at least five times larger than the spirit’s body but didn’t seem to cause any difficulty—and said in a crisp voice,

“As Miss Olga said, I found that there was an outcast magician about a hundred years ago! A magician excluded from the canon, named Ernes.”

Eustar asked,

“What does it mean to be excluded from the canon?”

The spirit giggled. It was a laugh that seemed to be mocking him.

Muge lightly tapped the spirit’s forehead with her fingertip as if scolding a small animal and turned to Eustar.

“The canon is the rule of the city. Being excluded from that rule means, in other words, being completely ostracized among magicians. No one approaches him, and no one treats him as a fellow magician. Even if he remains in the city, he’s no different from an invisible man. Because no one will speak to him or even try to make eye contact.”