“Did you do some cleaning? That’s rare.”
“I just left the windows open... Here, take it. It’s just some leftover stuff, so I won’t charge you.” Maria handed her a small vial containing a light purple liquid.
Angeline wrapped it carefully with a handkerchief before stowing it away in her bag. “Thanks, granny.”
Maria sat down in a chair in the corner and nodded towards the kettle hanging over the fire. Angeline dutifully (if somewhat listlessly) prepared two cups of tea.
Maria watched over her work. “It’s eerie to see you so weak. What sort of dreams are you having?”
“That’s the problem... I can’t remember. I just know they’re bad dreams...”
“That’s a pain... Do you have any idea what could be causing it?”
“I don’t know... It isn’t as though I did anything that should have made me so tired, and I don’t have anything bothering me... Ah, did you figure out anything more about Solomon?” Angeline asked.
Maria sighed. “Well, I’ve got a rough idea as to why you’re human despite having an elven mother.”
Angeline poured hot water into the teapot and set it on a tray. “Really? You’re pretty smart, granny.”
“Of course I am. Are you mocking me or something? Cough.”
Angeline giggled and handed Maria her cup of tea. “I can’t work like this, but I have nothing else to do... So I thought I’d look into Solomon.”
“You won’t figure anything out. Not someone like you, and especially not in your free time. Many smarter people have tried and failed.”
“Yeah, that’s why I came to you, granny,” Angeline said nonchalantly.
Maria blew on her cup and took a sip of tea. “For starters...I looked into the relationship between Solomon and Vienna. I searched through forbidden historical records, epic poems, and folktales, among other things... It looks like it’s true—they did work together to battle the old gods.”
“So they did... Then why did they become enemies?”
“It would be reasonable to think that Vienna’s attitude changed once Solomon began to grow arrogant with the power he had seized. Vienna was one of the old gods too, but she was known as the goddess of affection and was especially fond of humans. Seeing how Solomon subjected those humans to his tyranny... Cough... It’s not strange that she would turn on him.”
Certainly, the false Benjamin that she’d fought in the capital had said that Solomon had grown jaded with humanity and taken it upon himself to guide the masses. Someone like that would have no mercy for those who defied his authority. But would that be enough to make an enemy of Vienna, who had been his comrade for so long?
“But, in the, um, Ni... Nica...”
“Nicaillu Chishma?”
“Yes, that. It said they were ‘drawn’ to one another...”
“But they could never be together. It’s not rare for a man and a woman to have a falling-out.”
“Are you speaking from experience? Did you ever have someone like that, granny?”
“Silence. Don’t change the topic,” Maria scolded her before taking another sip of tea. “In any case, though they were helping one another, the nature of their mana was diametrically opposed. Vienna held a pure white mana like the elves, and Solomon, a mere human who had managed to create the demons, held a mana that was pitch-black in nature. Perhaps it was this opposite nature that drew them to one another... But they couldn’t come together in the end.”
“Um... Because their souls were black and white?”
“That’s right. They had terrible compatibility. But, if you mix polar opposites well enough, you’ll get something right in the middle. A human’s mana is neither black nor white. Demons are masses of pure mana. If that corrupted mana was mixed just right with an elf’s purifying mana... I bet you’d get a close approximation of a human. And that does explain why a demon’s soul and an elven mother resulted in your birth.”
“I see... So that’s why I’m human.” Angeline found this logic to be compelling. Two opposite forces that should have never been able to mix had achieved a good balance, and the result was her. She drank some tea as she mulled this over. “Did you learn anything else...?”
“I can’t make heads or tails of Schwartz’s objective. If you were the successful trial he was looking for, I don’t see why he’d let you get away and become his enemy. He’s not the sort of guy who would make such a mistake.”
“I guess so... Mom said the same thing.” Angeline leaned back in her chair and clasped her hands behind her head.
If the man had intended to use her as a weapon, he’d failed long ago. On top of this, his base in the imperial capital had been completely destroyed, and the real Benjamin had been rescued. It was for this reason that Schwartz’s true goal remained a complete mystery.
Maria thought for a moment before looking at Angeline. “Schwartz... He had collaborators, did he?”
“Hmm? Yeah. A necromancer who took on the form of the crown prince, and this adventurer named Hector... There were some Inquisitors too, but one of them died, and the other was being controlled. Then, there was the archduke’s...third son, I think? He was being tricked too, though.”
“Anyone else?”
“Um... Well, apart from them...”
Were there any? Angeline felt that perhaps there had been... She folded her arms as she tried to remember. The ones she had named had been the members she’d actually fought herself, but she got the feeling that there had been someone else too. The one who had created that peculiar space that had been the stage of their last battle had not been Schwartz or the fake Benjamin—Kasim had explained that to her after the fact. Tracing her hazy memories that far, the answer finally came to her.
“Ah...that’s right. As I recall, there was some archmage named Salazar. He was the creator of the time-space prison that I was sealed in, apparently.”
“Salazar? Cough... You mean old ‘Snake-Eyes’?”
“Yeah—that guy kept shape-shifting continuously, and he was always yammering on about nonsense.”
“If he had Salazar on board... Did he entice him with new space-time magic? Or was it ‘the flow of events’...? Did Schwartz actually make headway on that nonsensical theory...? No, if he discerned something that none of us know about... It’s not impossible...” Maria muttered to herself, her brow furrowed.
“Granny?” Angeline called out timidly.
The old archmage’s face snapped up to look at her. “I have something new to think about. Give me some time.”
“Huh? Okay, I will...”
Angeline didn’t really get it, but it seemed like Maria had a new lead. Though Angeline was bewildered, she decided to stay put. Even if she hurried home now, there was nothing for her to do there. “I’ll brew some more tea...”
Maria gave no answer to that—she was completely immersed in her own thoughts. Angeline shrugged, then went to make some more tea. She put some withered-looking tea leaves into the pot and poured in hot water.