Prologue

Her earliest memories were filled with her brother, and little else.

He was much older than her, and so he doted upon his little sister. He was the sort of brother who’d give her anything she wanted. He would do his best to put up with all of her bratty little demands and tantrums, and he always put her needs above his own.

Of course, that alone wouldn’t be enough to make the memories so vivid.

When her brother died, she’d only just grown old enough to understand the world around her.

She began to spend a lot of time reminiscing about him, and it wasn’t long before every wonderful memory of the past became connected to her brother. She even began to come up with new memories that fit the narrative she’d made in her mind. Eventually, those recollections of her brother began to mix with her ideas about the perfect man, and an image of the strong, cool, and kind brother was born in her mind.

Everyone embellishes their past in this way, and it never causes problems so long as the fantasies stay beneath the surface. But in her case, the delusion was shattered in a brutal fashion when she was still a sensitive young girl.

Her family was an old and noble one. For this reason, she was sent to the prestigious Constant Magical Academy. It was there where the “customs” of her family ensured that she learned the truth about her brother.

“Fujiko, you must become the head of the Eto family. Especially now that your pathetic, useless brother failed and died!”

Her mother’s cold words seemed incredibly strange to Fujiko Eto.

—The whole family loved brother, didn’t they?

—He got really good grades, but he died in an unfortunate accident, right?

—The rest of the family never talked about him because they were very sad, right?

She had many questions, but instead of answering them, her mother took her hand wordlessly and brought her down to the basement of the family mansion.

Fujiko had never been inside the basement, because she had always been told it was forbidden. She’d been curious enough to try going down there several times, but the entrance had always been locked.

Her mother took out an old key, and used it to open the basement door. A cold draft came from the gap in the door, but she was surprised to see that there was no sign of dust, indicating that the room had been used recently.

What she saw inside was a horrific sight for a young girl just about to enter middle school.

Inside a glass case laid her brother’s corpse. Unlike the brother in her memories, his body looked weak and frail. She had grown up so much since his death that of course he would look that way to her now. But this disillusionment had much more to do with the way she’d let her own fantasy grow out of control, and while she felt no fear, a corpse was still a corpse.

He looked like he was sleeping, but the expression on his face was different than a living human’s. Fujiko couldn’t bring herself to approach him. Quite simply, at her young and sensitive age, a corpse felt “filthy” to her.

“What I’m about to tell you, you must never repeat to anyone. Ever.” Fujiko’s mother, who was now standing behind her, began to speak.

Fujiko turned around and looked up, and saw an expression on her mother’s face that she’d never seen before. It was somewhere between sadness and anger. In her mother’s left hand was a magically-created ball of light, which cast eerie shadows on her face. Fujiko twisted her face in fear, and her mother put her right hand on her shoulder and gripped hard.

“You mustn’t cry! You must look at him!”

Fujiko simply trembled, unable to speak. The grip on her shoulder weakened, but her mother continued with her expression unchanged.

“For generations, the Eto family has served as the surveyors of the god Mureet. A surveyor is a very important position for one who serves Mureet. We are to be adventurers, traveling all over the land and reporting our findings to our god. And yet, he...” Her mother turned the hand with the ball of light so that it illuminated the coffin. Even at her young age, Fujiko thought it cruel that her mother refused to say his name.

“When several ruins were discovered at the Academy, he was terrified at what he saw there. He abandoned his duties and fled! I don’t know what it was that he saw, but I’m sure it was just some weak monster, or perhaps a trap that forced him to hallucinate... It was likely nothing more than that. Pathetic... just pathetic... The excavation of the ruins was a failure, in the end... He was forced to take responsibility, and they cast a necromantic spell on him at a public trial. That’s usually the method they use to make criminals confess! Fortunately, we didn’t have to attend the trial, but... it seems it really was just a trap, or something similar. He was always a timid boy... the kind of boy who just wanted to play dolls with you... The last trial will be held when you leave for school, and after that, his body won’t be kept here anymore.” Her mother’s words cut off.

Fujiko looked up and saw that she was crying. As young as she was, she couldn’t understand the complex feelings of an adult. All she felt was fear, cruelty, and insanity.

—My brother was a pathetic man.

—He wasn’t very cool, but...

—He died because he was weak.

—School is a scary place.

—But this is what will happen to me if I lose.

—If you’re weak, terrible things happen to you. But God is wrong to make you do all these terrible things. Brother was kind... pathetic, but just because you’re a pathetic wimp doesn’t mean you should have to die.

—That means that God will betray me, too.

—And if I’m weak, Mom will treat me the same way...

—I have to be strong.

—I have to be... even though I’m a girl.

From that moment on, Fujiko held those confusing feelings deep within her heart.

Once she came to the Academy, she never let the others know her true thoughts. On the outside, she played the role of a pious, ladylike young girl — as she’d grown up in a girl’s academy, she believed this was what it meant to be a strong woman. But in secret, she started studying every type of magic she could get her hands on, including black magic.

She learned necromancy, and by stealing a part of her brother’s body, she was able to reanimate his head. It was then that she’d learned that her mother’s words had been true, but at that point, it no longer bothered her.

And so, Fujiko became the school’s Madonna, and its most powerful secret ruler. If nothing else had happened, she would’ve gone on to become a surveyor, a spy for the black mages, and possibly someone who would change history.

But the appearance of the Demon King at the Academy would change her fate forever.