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“You say you’re Ophelia’s daughter, but what does that have to do with me? I cut ties with her, twice. First when she abandoned her position as a royal sorceress and went to become an adventurer. Then when she brought some random hoodlum and said she was marrying him.”

It’s going really wrong.

“I could’ve crushed that adventurer at any moment, but I let them go out of pity. And somehow they said it was all my fault.”

Please, stop already.

“But now you call yourself my granddaughter? You feel no shame coming back here? Stop acting so spoiled already.”

I really feel like punching him in the face¹, but then I feel Olivia restraining my arm², and I manage to calm down³.

“I see…”

Olivia replies softly, like she’s thinking about each word she uses.

“Don’t ever come here again. If I see you again, I’ll destroy you and anyone involved with you and leave nothing behind.”

The glint of his eyes doesn’t seem encumbered by age at all, the severity of his words making me and all the guests freeze still. Even though he’s retired, his voice is so powerful that no one can doubt he actually means that threat.

“I understand, we’re leaving then.”

Olivia gives a quick bow and then pulls my hand to take me out of the hall, as I’m still in shock. Then we return to the room, gather all of our things, and leave the mansion after giving Clarissa and Akane a quick recap of what happened.

After Olivia’s exit, no one really felt like keeping the party going on, so it was called off and everyone went home. Many of the gossip-loving guests had rather colorful comments about the party as they left, so it seemed like it was all a big failure…but it was not.

“You did well, father.”

The retired Marquis Gardeland was in his room looking out the window, when Otis, accompanied by his wife, thanked him.

“Hmph, all I did was speak some words. You should be with Oswald, the whole party was supposedly organized to celebrate his progress after all.”
“He was fully aware of the plan. And I’ll make it up for him later.”
“I can’t believe how cruel both of you are. Olivia was such a good girl.”

Only Lorraine was full of indignation there. She had been fully on board with the plan at first, but after meeting Olivia she had tried to stop it. The girl had lost both her parents, but still did the best she could with life, which Lorraine could not help but admire. She even would have let her son Oswald marry her to restitute Olivia’s position as noble.

“Yes, she was a very good girl. But that’s why we must cut her off from the world of nobles⁴.”
“Well…that’s true…”

The daughter of the Pynemo family had tried to invite Olivia to join her in the Magic Academy, but since Olivia rejected the offer, the Gardeland family remained on the sidelines. But now that Olivia had graduated and would likely become an adventurer of renown, other nobles would soon appear trying to employ and make use of her.

Ophelia had disliked the way her nobility chained her down, so she rejected her ancestry and went to build a name for herself through her own efforts. Her daughter Olivia had been deeply impressed by that and wanted to follow in her footsteps, but nobles would soon try to hold her back.

To prevent that, Otis had come up with a plan.

“I’m sure everyone understands that employing Olivia means making an enemy of our family now. No one will try to chain her down now.”

Otis had already spoken about it with other nobles allied to him⁵.

The whole party was an excuse to stop those nobles with less ties to the family. Even if they saw house Gardeland as an enemy, they would not dare incur the wrath of the previous Marquis.

“I just can’t help but feel worried.”
“Don’t worry, there’s already someone willing to lay down her life to protect Olivia⁶. She’ll keep Olivia safe no matter what, and she’s already very important in Olivia’s life.”

As Otis said that, Lorraine had to reluctantly agree. It would be too egotistical to put someone in a birdcage before they could flap their wings properly.

“Hmm…”

The previous Marquis continued looking out the window at the dark night outside.

Ophelia’s black hair had often been compared to the darkness of the night. Her daughter’s hair was also a beautiful black color, though the shape resembled her father’s more.

‘Thank you very much.’

When Olivia passed next to him while leaving the party, she whispered that in a low voice only he could hear.

Those words alone told him that Olivia had noticed what their entire plan was.

He was rather astonished by how perceptive she was, considering how much she struggled with studies and her straightforward personality.

“Just don’t follow in her footsteps too closely.”

The old man muttered that to the window, in a voice so low that his son and daughter in law could not hear. There was no one to hear that, but that did not matter. Then again, it was unbecoming of an old man to have his worries be noticed by the younger generations.

In his carriage on his way back home from the party, Knox Teg Lauftonier recalled what he saw there.

A magic automaton so elaborate it could be mistaken for a human was nothing short of impressive. It was hard to think there was anyone else from Ophelia who could accomplish such a feat.

Knox and Ophelia had met each other in the past, back when she was still a student, though even at her young age she already had a high mastery of magic and was highly innovative, something Knox clearly noticed.

But it was hard for them to really see eye to eye, as she was fully in support of magic automatons that possessed a will, while he firmly stood against them.

Creating a fully autonomous magic automaton was almost like building an artificial human, one capable of thought and emotion. But at the same time, they would never be seen as human⁷.

Their bodies would still be mechanical and not organic, and they would be forever bound to their creator’s orders. Even if they were given more freedom, the creator would still imprint them with their personal beliefs, which could lead to someone building as many people who supported their own ideals as they wanted. And Knox felt disgusted at the thought of creating life just for the sake of an echo chamber.

1. Robinxen: Do it.
2. Robinxen: Do it anyway.
3. Robinxen: Coward.
4. Robinxen: I see so it wasn’t a public humiliation… well it was but… by necessity.
5. Robinxen: Ah I see, at least they’re aware of the truth.
6. Robinxen: So they recognise the automaton as an individual.
7. Robinxen: Honestly this is a respectable position ethically, you are in essence creating a class of slave by allowing fully autonomous constructs, although it’s not a position I would like to agree with it is one that I think is the more realistic of the two. I love true AI as a concept but I just don’t think it’s right to artificially create on a whim like that.