The sudden announcement from Count Sergien shook the empire.
And the man sitting in the dark room was shaking as well. Long, white fingers tightly held onto a handkerchief.
In the darkness, his blue eyes were fierce enough to scare anyone away. It was like he had lost all reason. He put his hand on his neck and breathed heavily as if someone was strangling him. After a long time, he looked up. The man with bloodshot eyes licked his lips.
“Juno…”
***
Juno grabbed the book and looked at Peter. One year has passed since she arrived here. She read about half of the books in the workshop, and her relationship with the old man wasn’t bad. We’re a good teacher-and-student pair, and we never had to work as if we were a couple.
She kept wondering about who asked him for that favor but pushed that question to the back of her mind. The more she learned about alchemy, the more she was curious about it. Sitting across from her, Peter Sergien examined a doll’s brain, which he had been working on since they both used the workshop.
“Teacher.” She knew he wasn’t a man who wouldn’t give her an answer because he was angry. “Why do you make dolls?”
“Hm?”
“You can use alchemy for other things, so… Why do you only make dolls?”
When Juno first learned of alchemy, it was to fix Hebe. What she knew best at the moment was alchemy in its application to dolls, but alchemy itself wasn’t limited to just that. In fact, it’s only a small part. However, because of Peter Sergien, the alchemist of the current era, most people think of a doll when they hear about an alchemist.
“To store memories,” Peter said.
“Huh?”
“I want to keep memories. Well, I can’t necessarily call it a memory in the first place.”
“I see…”
Peter smiled. “Is there a problem?”
“I didn’t expect it to be for a sentimental reason.”
Peter snorted at her answer. “What did you have in mind?”
“I thought you wanted to feel like a god. That kind of thing.” In the past year, she saw Peter Sergien as a man brimming with confidence and full of conceit, to put it mildly.
Peter frowned. “I’m not interested.”
“It sounded like it was possible given what usually comes out of your mouth.”
“I hate the gods.”
“What?” Juno stared at Peter’s expression. That wasn’t the look of someone who just “hated” gods.
“To tell you the truth, I think it’s right for me to say I want to defeat the gods.”
She felt she touched something she shouldn’t have. “Aren’t you technically an agent of a god by being an alchemist?”
“Yes.”
Juno laughed because she didn’t want to ruin the mood for no reason.
Peter winked at her and said, “Go study.”
There was one more thing she wanted to ask: the future direction of her studies. “…Am I allowed to research something other than a doll?”
“Has something caught your interest?”
“Yes.” She opened the book she was holding and pointed to a particular page. “This!”
“Weapons? Why?”
There was no particular reason, but Juno wanted to have at least something to protect herself with. She shrugged. “I wanted to try and create one with self-defense in mind.”
“What will happen when you make it?”
“Huh?”
It was a simple question, but the implications weren’t. What did she mean by “making weapons”?
“As I started making dolls, there were more dolls in the empire, correct?”
“Yes.”
Peter Sergien’s dolls were used by most noble families, and half of the royal family’s servants were dolls. Dolls are used by everyone. They were very helpful in many ways. Just as the dolls in the mansion had their own roles, so did the dolls sold to the public. Depending on the need, there were dolls available on the market for tasks such as housework and business affairs. There was no need to worry about things like betrayal, fraud, or even death. Dolls were used throughout the entire continent.
“And you know we can’t stay like this forever.”
Juno nodded. As they spoke, numerous letters arrived at the mansion, all addressed to Peter Sergien. He had shut off his mansion for a year. Dolls were indispensable in people’s lives, and only alchemists like Peter Sergien could fix dolls once they “died”. In addition, several household items were made by alchemists, so he couldn’t keep the mansion closed as it was.
“As long as we live in an empire and people continue to use these goods, they will seek us out.”
Juno nodded again. Alchemists could specialize in almost anything, but it took a lot of effort to hone their skills. Endlessly studying, researching, and experimenting.
A lot of money was spent on such. Why do alchemists sell their inventions on the market? It was because they needed money. Juno’s spending over the past year was greater than her expenses in the eighteen years she lived at House Trish’s mansion.
“But you don’t want to shut yourself away and study. Or throw away all this money and hide, right?”
“What are you trying to say?”
“If you want to become the head of this family after my death, you need to have good results.”
She was surprised. “Me?”
“I don’t have children. All I have is a wife and an apprentice.”
Juno was the only person here where both those words applied. “But…”
Peter smirked. “Yes, women cannot become the head of the family in this empire. However, there’s an exception to that rule, isn’t there?”
Her eyes widened. “When there are no relatives… The widow becomes the head of the family…”
Peter continued to smile. “Indeed. If I die, this family name will be yours.”
“…I can be an actual Sergien?” Juno remembered everything about House Sergien she had learned in the past year. It was the most famous, influential, and richest family on the entire continent. It was envied by everyone and the source of many rumors.
“Only if you pursue the path of an alchemist and carry on the legacy. It can’t be just for wealth.” Peter stared at her as if looking forward to her answer.
Of course, Juno wanted anything but money. I want the reputation of an alchemist. She wanted not to be known as just Peter Sergien’s wife, but as Juno Sergien.
Peter turned his gaze back to the doll and said, “Are you going to follow in my footsteps and continue making dolls? Are you going to make weapons like you said you wanted? Or will you do something else?”
The easiest choice was to do what she did best, which was making dolls. But that won’t do.
Juno said, “Well… You haven’t revealed the existence of human-looking dolls like John or Hebe because you fear the consequences.”
“Yes. I showed the world that dolls only move when given an order.”
She recalled the dolls who appeared to have thoughts and feelings in this mansion. What would happen if that kind of doll was on the market? It should never happen. Then, the memory of how she held his hand came to mind. That means…
“So, John and Hebe are alive to you since they think and move around?”
“…To some extent.”
Peter’s confirmation made her smile. Her teacher secretly regarded the dolls as family. Even if he didn’t, he cared for them. Since you said you made dolls for the memories. He wasn’t a person with no emotion. Maybe Hebe would be happy to hear that. And John too, of course. No, all the dolls in this mansion would be pleased. They loved their creator, their father, Peter.
“And that’s why you don’t reveal your current research to the public, right?”
“Correct. The dolls I made before are enough.”
Juno decided not to specialize heavily in doll-making. “…If I want to surpass you, I have to go beyond the horizon.”
If Juno was a child, it wouldn’t be a problem. But at first glance, I’m the young wife of an alchemist. A woman who was sold to become Peter Sergien’s wife. That was what everyone knew, which meant Juno will be held to a higher standard. She had to develop and show greater results than Peter Sergien.
Otherwise, no one would see Juno as Juno Sergien.
