On the road.
After bidding farewell to Emilia, Lillian quickly departed the Sanctuary with Puck and headed toward Roswaal's mansion.
Puck only had a few hours left in his current form—enough time to return. Lillian also planned that once Beatrice's matter was resolved, he would return to the Sanctuary and push through the final third trial in one decisive effort. After that, he would head to the royal capital to begin preparations for his own plans.
Of course, whether Echidna would allow him to participate in the trial was uncertain. If she refused, he would need to reconsider his approach.
"…After you leave, you probably won't be able to return for quite some time, right?"
While speaking with Puck, Lillian traveled at great speed, his rapid pace leaving the latter clicking his tongue in amazement.
"That's right," Puck said, sitting on Lillian's shoulder and comfortably narrowing his eyes as the fierce wind of their movement blew against him. "For a while… I won't be able to."
"So what will happen to you? Will you die?"
"Hey, what kind of nonsense are you saying? I won't die, meow," Puck rolled his eyes at Lillian. "I can materialize in the outside world because there's a magical circuit between my daughter and me. I exist continuously by relying on her magical power. But after regaining my memories, the amount of magic I consume has become far too great."
Puck sighed softly.
"So I had no choice but to find an excuse to leave my daughter."
Lillian said, "What will you do next? Without a supply of magical power, you shouldn't be able to survive, right? Like Beatrice, you're an artificial spirit created by Echidna. Artificial spirits can't absorb ambient mana from the atmosphere—they can only draw from others, correct?"
Like Beatrice, Puck was an artificial spirit. Beatrice had survived until now by using the forbidden library as a medium to draw magical power from those within the mansion. Puck did the same, drawing Emilia's magical power through the crystal. Now that he had left her and their contract was frozen, he could no longer draw from her.
"That's true," Puck admitted, "but I won't die. I'll simply revert to the small existence I was before forming a contract with my daughter. I'll return to… the place where my daughter and I first met—the Great Forest of Elior. There, within some vessel of possession, I'll fall into slumber and wait for the day I'm awakened again."
"Awakened again… by Emilia?"
"Of course. Our contract is only temporarily frozen. In the future, if that child seeks a new contract, and her partner happens to be a spirit, she'll definitely come looking for me."
There was no doubt in Puck's tone, as though he were stating an unquestionable fact. Indeed, the bond between the two was incomparable to any other. However, the current Emilia did not yet possess sufficient power. Unless she not only regained her memories but also recovered her strength, she likely would not be able to supply the immense magical power Puck required.
"By the way, didn't you say you would tell me some history from hundreds of years ago?" Lillian said. "There are many things I want to know."
"Then ask. I'll tell you whatever I know."
Puck had lived during that era and naturally knew many secrets. In fact, Geuse probably knew even more, but he had dissipated before he could finish speaking. There had been nothing Lillian could do—at the time, he could not control the burning of the golden flames.
"Do you know about the 'Witch of Vainglory, Pandora'?"
Lillian voiced the question that concerned him most. He was deeply interested in this hidden witch who had always remained in the shadows.
"Pandora…" Puck murmured. "I didn't expect you to bring her up, meow."
"She truly exists, doesn't she? Even though there are no records in the texts and the common people know nothing about her, she does exist—and she once did many significant things, correct?"
"Pandora does exist," Puck said. "And she is… the one most likely to still be 'alive' among all the witches."
"…."
Alive, of course, meant that her physical body still existed—unlike the other witches, who were already dead and remained only as lingering souls.
When Pandora was mentioned, Park's playful demeanor disappeared. His expression grew solemn, and from the way he looked ahead, he clearly harbored deep wariness toward that existence.
"You know about the old sins?" he asked.
"I don't."
"Before the seven witches—Envy, Greed, Gluttony, Sloth, Pride, Lust, and Wrath—there were two Old Sins: 'Vainglory' and 'Melancholy.'"
"Melancholy…"
This was another unfamiliar name. Lillian had never known that besides Vainglory, there had been another.
"People only know about the Seven Deadly Sin Witches today because the seven once joined forces to drive out those two Old Sins," Park explained. "The Witch of Vainglory, Pandora, used her authority to do many things the other witches could not accept. As for Melancholy… strictly speaking, Mother—cough—Echidna's death was also related to him. He attacked first and gravely wounded Echidna. Only afterward was she killed by the Witch of Envy."
The seven witches joining forces to expel the two Old Sins, Vainglory and Melancholy…
This was information Lillian had never heard before, and it instantly sparked his interest.
"In that case, the one who took part in the expulsion should have been Satella—not Envy, right?"
"Exactly."
No wonder, Lillian thought. At the tea party, when Envy appeared, the other witches—aside from Echidna—did not immediately attack. It was because they had once fought side by side. Although Envy had killed them, Satella herself was innocent and had been their comrade. That explained why they tried to stop Echidna's attack before determining whether the one present was Envy or Satella.
"Later, after the expulsion ended, Satella went berserk. She split into the Envy personality and devoured the world."
Puck sighed as he spoke. "If that hadn't happened, the witches wouldn't have ended up as they are today."
"I think their current fate isn't necessarily a bad thing," Lillian said.
In his view, if the witches were all still alive, the world would probably descend into chaos. Take Daphne, the Witch of Gluttony—for example. The three great mabeasts she created centuries ago had already plagued the continent for hundreds of years. If she had lived several more centuries and created even more, humanity would surely suffer even greater misery.
Then there was Minerva, the Witch of Wrath. Her insistence on saving anyone who was injured would distort causality and bring about countless natural disasters. The other witches—Typhon of Pride and Carmilla of Lust—would likewise cause no small amount of disorder.
Thinking about it, the only one who could be certain not to bring turmoil to the continent if she were alive would be Sekhmet, the Witch of Sloth. Her extreme laziness made her unwilling even to speak or show expressions, let alone harm others—that would simply be too troublesome.
"However, according to what you said, Satella's rampage back then hardly seems like a coincidence," Lillian pondered. "Is it possible that the Witch of Vainglory and that Melancholy secretly did something that caused Satella to lose control?"
"It's possible," Puck said. "That Pandora is extremely terrifying—not just because of her schemes, but also because of her authority."
"Authority…"
Looking ahead, Puck said uncertainly, "Even now, no one knows the full extent of her authority. But one thing is certain—she possesses the ability to make whatever she says become reality."
"Word… manifestation?"
Turning spoken words into reality sounded almost absurdly fantastical.
If such an ability truly existed, the conditions for using it must be extremely strict. Otherwise, wouldn't she be invincible? If that were the case, when the seven witches united to drive her out, she could have simply said, "You all die," and ended it.
Even so, the ability was still terrifying. Lillian had originally thought she could only alter how others perceived the world—for example, causing Geuse to mistakenly kill Fortuna. But now it seemed Pandora's power was far stronger than that. Even with limitations, the unknown nature of her ability made it impossible to counter.
"In any case, she's still alive," Puck said with a worried expression. "She's probably somewhere in the world, plotting something. I just hope my daughter won't be harmed."
That was probably unlikely. When Pandora attacked the forest, her target had certainly been Emilia—not Geuse, Fortuna, or the village elves. That meant Emilia must still be within her sights.
Which raised another question: since he had interacted with Emilia several times, had he also already caught Pandora's attention…?
The thought gave Lillian a headache. He hadn't even dealt with the Sin Archbishops yet—being targeted by Pandora on top of that would be far from good news.
Putting aside such worries for the moment, Lillian asked about the other Old Sin.
"What about the Witch of Melancholy?"
"More accurately, he's a Warlock of Melancholy," Puck said. "Melancholy is a man named Hector."
"The Warlock of Melancholy, Hector?" Lillian was slightly taken aback. He hadn't expected one of them to be male, considering the other eight were all witches.
"So what kind of person is this Hector? What is his authority?"
This time, Puck fell silent for a moment before shaking his head. "I'm not very sure either."
"… "
"Hector can be said to be even more mysterious than Pandora. His strength is tremendous. Four hundred years ago, he suddenly ambushed Echidna for no apparent reason and severely wounded her in an instant. Roswaal—well, the 'first-generation' Roswaal—was also injured by him to the brink of death. The ability he used seemed to involve gravity control, but no one knows the details."
"So powerful?"
To grievously wound Echidna instantly was no small feat. Although she wasn't a combat-oriented witch, she was still a witch and by no means weak. To be defeated so swiftly spoke volumes about Hector's strength.
"Because he was left with only a single life, Roswaal had no choice but to research reincarnation magic, and in the end he succeeded—surviving to this day by possessing the bodies of his descendants generation after generation."
So basically, body-snatching…
As if trying to lighten the mood, Puck added, "Did you know? One generation of Roswaal even lived an entire lifetime in a female body."
"… "