Deathbound Duke’s Daughter: Volume 1

by Terasu Senoo

  Eduard knew a friend who was very knowledgeable about dragons. The man in question would undoubtedly be happy to lend it to him.

  In the end, Eduard and Erika didn’t read any more that day. Instead, they had a fun chat about all the wondrous creatures which inhabited the world.

  ☆

  The next day, Erika stopped by Eduard’s study again. Once more, she opened a thick book atop the usual loveseat.

  Eduard took a peek at her new field of study.

  “You’ve picked a book on alchemy today. Are you interested in wands?”

  “I am.”

  “They’re made of beautiful stones, so they must be fun to look at.”

  “Yes. The tips and wicks are fun, too.”

  Her book was open to a page detailing the composition of all sorts of wands. Eduard was impressed that she understood something so complex.

  He carefully took out a wand he had gone through great efforts to make and proudly held it out for her to see.

  “When I was a child, I always wanted a fancy wand like this one.”

  “Ah! Eduard, that’s an Urðr-Sight wand, isn’t it?”

  “Oh? You could tell just by looking at it?” Eduard’s eyes widened.

  The wand’s elaborate design did make it hard to mistake for any other, but no normal five-year-old child should’ve been able to name it. Not only was it outrageously rare and expensive, but it was also of little renown. It was different from commonly known wands like Glámr-Sight.

  Eduard was shocked that his little sister had identified it so easily.

  “Yes,” Erika replied. “It’s a wand that an alchemist can’t make alone. He would need a skilled magician to make the wick for him.”

  “That’s right. Don’t tell me you’ve memorized that entire book?”

  “No. Just what I’ve been taught.”

  “Hmm, I see.”

  “And I only know the most common combination of materials to make it.”

  “Then, what about this one?” he asked, pulling out another.

  “Oh, that one I know.”

  Whatever wand he took out, Erika would fluently list the type and composition.

  Eduard stared at the young child, not quite knowing what to say. It wasn’t easy to memorize the composition of over thirty wands at her age. Had their father hired a talented, enthusiastic home tutor for her?

  It was at times like these that Eduard would feel somewhat suspicious, but he made sure his thoughts never lingered.

  ☆

  The day after that, Erika was in Eduard’s study again.

  “Oh dear, it’s a book on golems today? Are you interested in that too?”

  “Eduard, I want to know how to make a golem!”

  “You already want to make your own?”

  Eduard was surprised to hear such an aggressive request from his usually reserved sister. What’s more, she wasn’t asking for something pretty like a wand; she was asking for a comparatively plain golem. Sure, golems were very useful tools to alchemists, but it was rare for them to hold the interest of a young girl.

  “They’re cute, just like dolls... Is that strange?”

  “No, you’re fine. Do you know the language for golems?”

  “Err... yes! I do!”

  The current golem description method was based on a set of seventy-two letters. These letters could be interpreted through seven different systems, and each system had seven different forms of syntax. That meant there were forty-nine ways to describe an action for a golem. The systems ranged from easily legible to highly obfuscated, with the syntaxes divided by use into ones suited for industrial work, ones suited for beginners, and many more.

  With seventy-two letters, it was possible to describe practically any golem one could imagine.

  “For starters, I want to know how much of it you understand, Erika. Could you try writing out a description that will make a golem walk?”

  The process to walk was the most basic one, and it was the first lesson for beginners. It could be described in five letters.

  Erika began writing her answer on the notepad Eduard had opened for her. She went through the first page, then continued on to the second. Erika spent far longer writing than Eduard had anticipated.

  “Are you done, Erika?”

  “Yes, I think I have it! Will this work?”

  “This is...”

  The pages were filled with five of the seven systems, all seven syntaxes of each. Erika had described thirty-five out of forty-nine methods to make a golem walk. Absurd for any ordinary child.

  “I’m sorry. That’s all I could think of, but I don’t know which one is right.”

  “They’re all correct. I can’t believe you described thirty-five walking processes correctly...”

  “Hm?”

  “Err, nothing. You just surprised me a bit. You’re amazing, Erika.”

  “I learned a lot when I was little, though I don’t really remember those times very well,” Erika said, smiling like she was recalling a happy memory.

  It was at that point that Eduard finally noticed. There was no way that father of theirs would have forced such a niche and fragmentary education onto his daughter. Then who could have taught her? Only one individual came to mind.

  Their late mother, reputed to be an oddball, had secretly given special lessons to his little sister. Perhaps she’d taught her the seventy-two letters alongside the spoken language when the girl was still an infant. The wand composition was surely the same.

  Maybe Erika only read the books in the study to confirm the knowledge she already remembered.

  It has to be that woman’s fault.

  This was clearly not normal. Eduard couldn’t hide his shock at the devil’s brainwashing his sister had undergone, but he would feel sorry for her if he acted so flustered right where she could see.

  Eduard got a grip on his conflicted emotions and softly smiled.

  “Alright! Golems can take on all shapes and sizes, but I’ll show you the simplest one.”

  She’s looking forward to it, so making a small golem for Erika comes first. I can confirm our mother’s deed later, Eduard decided. They moved to the desk in the study and got right to work.

  Eduard took a small ostracon shard from the drawer and passed it to Erika.

  “Use the athame to carve letters into the ceramic. Mold the clay into whatever shape you want, but leave two holes in it. The shard goes into the first one...”

  Erika started working just as Eduard instructed. She dexterously maneuvered the athame, a silver blade much like a butter knife, carving letters into the ceramic surface.

  While she was doing that, Eduard took a box of clay from his leather bag. Erika was done carving the correct letters by the time he had it ready for her to use.

  “Yes, that looks good.”

  “So I need to mold this into a human shape?”

  “That’s right.”

  Erika delicately shaped her simple golem. As Eduard had told her, she left a large hole in its chest and a smaller hole in its stomach. Once she had made a clay doll about the size of her palm, she finally embedded the pottery shard into its chest.

  “Next, you must breathe in your blessing. Give it just a little mana.”

  “Mana?”

  “Maybe that’s a bit difficult to understand. Watch how I do it.”

  Eduard blew a soft gust of air over the doll. It immediately rattled to life, walked three steps, and stopped.

  “Aaah!”

  “Now, if I light this small candle and put it in the hole... voilà!”

  Eduard used his oil lamp to set a small wax candle alight, then inserted it into the golem’s stomach. Step by step, the earth-colored doll began to march along the desk. It moved almost like a living being, bringing sparkles to Erika’s eyes.

  “That’s incredible, Eduard!”

  “A description, a blessing, and heat. That’s all you need for a golem to move. Those are just the basics, though. Of course, the
re are all sorts of applications.”

  Inevitably, the golem reached the edge and fell. Its soft clay splattered as it hit the floor. Erika hurried to salvage it, but the candle inside had been snuffed out.

  “It can’t think and decide to stop on its own?”

  “You’re not allowed to incorporate that sort of thing. You may only give a golem imperative and conditional statements.”

  In all actuality, if they made use of an artificial spirit created through Hafan technology, it would be possible to imitate thought. An artificial spirit, as the name implied, was a spirit made by a magician to mimic the ones found in nature. While the craft allowed for imitations of thought and memory, the production of golems that included these had been banned for hundreds of years now.

  “Otherwise,” Eduard continued, “it would make having an incorrect description much more dangerous. Besides, if the golems thought and moved on their own, they would take jobs from lots and lots of people.”

  “I see. You know everything, Eduard.”

  Lovingly sheltering the broken golem in her palm, Erika looked up at Eduard with eyes of admiration. Such undue reverence caused him to feel a little awkward.

  “No, that’s simply common knowledge. Regardless, it’s all a matter of trial and error. Do you want to play around with the technique some more?”

  “Okay! I’ll try doing a bit on my own!”

  “Sounds good.”

  Erika turned back to the desk, filled with determination, while Eduard took out his remaining boxes of clay so she could make as much as she wanted.

  It was apparent that Erika had some grander scheme in mind and, instead of immediately shaping her golems, she took up a piece of chalk and began drawing out blueprints on a small blackboard.

  She really is earnest and meticulous, Eduard thought as he watched over her warmly.

  “Eduard, you go over there! It’s still a secret! You can’t see!”

  “Aww, but then I’ll be lonely. Very well, I’ll take a short break on the sofa. Could you come get me when the golem is done?” With that, Eduard lay his body down and patiently waited.

  How many hours had gone by? It hadn’t been his intention, but before he knew it, Eduard had fallen asleep.

  I’m not usually this lax. What’s wrong with me today?

  Once he awoke from his nap, he surveyed his study. His sister was gone from her station at the writing desk. The two kilograms of clay had been completely used up. He’d had over thirty small pottery fragments, and they were gone as well.

  Did Erika really use all of it for her experiments?

  The next moment was filled with the echoes of a heavy sound, like a massive hammer striking the earth. Eduard turned to see a huge shadow outside the window. It was a golem.

  Is that a miscreation? No, even if it is growing by mistake, it would need to have started out considerably large to reach that size. How did a small girl make that in such a short amount of time?

  The large golem was nearing the end of the hedge maze out back. If it had been clumsily put together, it would have smashed straight through the shrubbery that formed the winding corridors of the maze, but the large golem was surprisingly light on its feet.

  It’s very well made and frightfully well thought out, Eduard mused as he rushed out and chased after the golem. Along the way, he noticed around thirty smaller golems sitting single-file on the turf.

  “That means...”

  The limb proportions of the smaller ones closely resembled the first golem Erika had made. Apparently, Erika had first made the small ones, then employed their services to manufacture the large one. She really did think this through.

  Then where is the girl herself? Eduard’s eyes wandered when suddenly he heard a voice from on high.

  “Eduard! Up here!”

  “Oh, there you are, Erika!”

  Erika was clutched in the right hand of the golem, and Eduard could hear his heart thrumming in his ears. She was clearly in a dangerous position.

  “I simply had to try making a large one, and it turned out like this.”

  “W-Wow, that’s incredible. But don’t you think you should come down from there?”

  “Well, umm, there must have been a mistake in the escape conditions for the walking loop.”

  “Don’t panic. Wait right there!”

  It was a common mistake for beginners. She had no control over the large golem, and it simply continued to walk. It would fall into the lake if it wasn’t stopped soon.

  Eduard immediately threw open the leather bag he always kept within reach and picked out a wand.

  Even if I smash it or invoke met, Erika will still be in danger. Hmm... Then what about Castling?

  Eduard quickly snatched up one of Erika’s small golems near his feet and swung the Castling wand. The warmth he felt in his arms told him he had successfully swapped the small golem for Erika.

  “What sort of magic did you use? Oh, a Castling wand.”

  “Yes, you got it right again.”

  “Good thinking, Eduard.”

  Eduard smiled. Good thinking? I should very well say that about you. Just look at what you made.

  He embraced his little sister, his eyes filled with a look of pure, childlike admiration. Feeling the warmth of her body up close finally restored composure to his pounding heart.

  “Next, we’ll have to do something about that one.”

  “Right.”

  Eduard drew his Disintegrate wand from the holster at his hip.

  The wand’s tip was a regular, dodecahedral magnetite crystal. Its shaft was carved from the axle of a water wheel that had seen over ten years of use. The wick was aqua regia; twenty liters of the potent substance had been compressed with spatial magic. The wand’s surface was engraved with seventeen ancient letters that could no longer be deciphered in the modern era.

  “A Disintegrate wand? You’re going to destroy him?”

  “Don’t worry. Believe in me. The heat source you used was charcoal from the fireplace, I assume?”

  “That’s right.”

  Eduard fought to hide his fear, wondering if she knew even the composition of a wand as dangerous as this one.

  “Now, let’s see how this works.”

  Collecting himself, he carefully took aim at the golem’s back and activated the spell. A black beam that could deconstruct anything in the world pierced through the golem’s abdomen without hitting anything else. He had destroyed its heat source, the charcoal, while keeping the damage to an absolute minimum.

  With its driving force gone, the large golem quickly had its heat snatched away by the chilly outside air. At last, it came to a stop.

  Eduard extracted the ostracon from the golem and handed it to Erika.

  “Thank you so much, Eduard. The Disintegrate wand sure is convenient.”

  “Perhaps. But it’s incredibly dangerous, so I can’t let you touch it.”

  “Yes, I understand.”

  Eduard smiled softly again, not letting his unrest reach the surface.

  I should properly report this matter to Father. We have to keep a closer eye on Erika. She might just take after Mother, like me.

  If that was the case, he needed to be all the more attentive to make sure his precious sister didn’t end up like their late mother or even himself. At the very least, he would clean and cover up his mother’s trail so Erika could never retrace her footsteps.

  In his heart, Eduard knew he would have to find and erase every last trace their mother had left behind at the academy.

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  Copyright

  Deathbound Duke’s Daughter: Volume 1

  by Terasu Senoo

  Translated by Roy Nukia

  Edited by Taylor Fonzone

 
; This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  Copyright © Terasu Senoo 2017

  Illustrations by Munashichi

  All rights reserved.

  Original Japanese edition published in 2017 by Futabasha Publishers Ltd.

  This English edition is published by arrangement with Futabasha Publishers Ltd., Tokyo

  English translation © 2020 J-Novel Club LLC

  All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property.

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  The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher.

  Ebook edition 1.0.1: June 2020

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