But Nacht wasn’t having it. “I’ll say it one more time. This isn’t your father.”
Aisha knew that Nacht’s eyes could see things that her own could not. She was sure that her mistress was telling her the truth. But still. Despite that, Aisha simply couldn’t be as certain as Nacht seemed to be. Without intending to, she had contradicted her mistress. She was horribly confused. What should she do? What would be the correct thing to do? She stood there, uncertain, while Nacht continued to speak.
“You’ll understand once I destroy it,” she said.
Nothing could resist Nacht if she were to lay her hands upon it. She could easily send Aisha’s father’s neck flying if she wanted.
“Wait...!” Aisha said. “P-Please, Mistress! Don’t do it! I still... I still haven’t...”
It was a sudden, impossible reunion. Aisha didn’t have the first idea as to what was happening, but it felt too sad for it to end. Seeing her father die before her eyes a second time would be too much to bear.
Aisha heard her mistress sigh. “All right,” Nacht said, her voice heavy with disappointment. “I’ll give you some time before I expose this detestable illusion for what it is. Think carefully until then, and try to find your answer.” Nacht removed her crimson nails from where they had been digging into the flesh of Aisha’s father’s neck. But she did not return to Aisha’s side. “But if, when the time comes, you decide that you’d prefer to play with this doll, then you are no longer my servant.”
They were, without a doubt, words of parting. And so saying, Nacht left Aisha all alone.
~ ‡ ~
A girl sat on the roof of a church-like building decorated with an emblem of a dragon, sulking miserably despite the perfect weather. Her dress, Night’s Embrace, fluttered ephemerally in the breeze, enshrouding her in its darkness.
“Haaaaaah...” Nacht let out a long, dispirited breath. Anyone who happened to see her there and hear her sighs couldn’t help but fall into misery themselves. She was just that dejected. She sat looking up at the sky with empty eyes, her arms outstretched. If someone looked up at her from below right now, they would get a clear view of her rose-pink panties, but that was the furthest thing from her mind.
There was only one thing that could have sent Nacht into such a deep depression. “Aisha hates me...” she whimpered in a voice that sounded hardly anything like her own. She had been saying those words over and over dozens if not hundreds of times, her mind playing out frantic worst-case scenarios over and over again. “I said something terrible to her... She’ll definitely be angry...”
To Nacht, who reigned over the workings of the soul, death was quite close to her own domain. The people who’d made that doll had brought insult to death itself and deceived her Aisha. Before she knew it, she had become enraged, and in the end, she had even lashed out at Aisha. Aisha hadn’t even done anything wrong. Nacht had been the one trying to force her own perspective on the situation.
“Haah...” she sighed again, disappointed with herself. She should have found more proof and persuaded Aisha properly. She hadn’t been thinking about what proof Aisha would accept or what methods she would approve of. That was her own fault.
Unfortunately, Nacht didn’t know the true nature of the doll in question. None of the methods she knew of for giving personality or memories to a doll seemed quite right. If it was created by a spellcaster, it would most likely fall into one of the categories of doll, golem, or puppet.
A doll seemed the most plausible, given the ones Nacht had seen going to war or laboring in the special development zone in their human forms. Dolls, after all, could be mass-produced. They were matter given form by magic, with their strength dependent on the materials that made them up. It was a relatively easy way for a mage to gain some fighting power. A master of Dollcraft could turn a lump of clay into a servant with a level above 100. Depending on the materials, it wasn’t out of the question for them to pass for a human as well.
Even so, they were no more than dolls. They couldn’t be given the memories of someone from the past and act exactly as that person once did. Moreover, Aisha had arrived at the city only today when the doll had adopted her father’s words and mannerisms. Nacht could think of no skill or item that could accomplish such a feat.
“But I didn’t need to do that...”
This was a phenomenon even Nacht didn’t understand. It was only natural that Aisha would feel something, even if it did amount to blasphemy against her beloved father. Nacht could see the movement and color and shape of one’s soul clearly, but Aisha could only see the doll with her naked eyes. She had no way of discerning that it was an empty, soulless husk. Of course she would doubt Nacht’s words and fight back. Nacht should have known that, and yet she’d allowed herself to say some truly unkind things. And then, she had run away, too afraid to look at Aisha. It was pathetic. Nacht felt like she was going to cry.
But make no mistake. Everything she’d said to the girl was true.
“Summon Sin Avatar: Envy of Leviathan.” When Nacht spoke those words, a darkness seemed to well up from somewhere far underground, coalescing into the shape of a woman. She had long, translucent hair that seemed to be made of seawater and was veiled in a sweet, tantalizing aroma. Her eyes were a deep crimson, with rings of dark dots encircling her pupils that bewitched all who gazed into them. Everything about her, from her appearance to her ineffable presence, was both unsettling and utterly captivating. She had the freedom to choose her own form and appearance, but today, she had chosen to look just slightly older than Nacht. This was Levi.
“Hey! You called for me, Mistress?” the devil said in an affected prideful voice. “It’s been quite some time. Did something come up?”