☀️ Arselia and Akonia

- Ayame,” Nihonka replied to the bow with a polite nod.

— I think a more straightforward and serene name would suit you better. Ayaka, Ayumi, or Ayano, for example. — Gaheris glanced first at the doll, then at the shopkeeper, before his gaze returned to Ayano. — Well. Unfortunately, I am not a wizard, but merely a collector and businessman, and therefore I cannot tell you much about the true nature of this doll. I found it paired with Lolita... Excuse me,” he approached the shopkeeper and pointed at her with an open palm, “this is my assistant, Lolita, she is in charge of the shop. I confess, I don't know her real name, so for practical reasons, I had to give her a new one. So, I found them in the vicinity of Risserland a little over two years ago. I suspect that geography of the empire may not be your strongest subject, so I will say that this is a regional city to the northeast of here. "Sakuyа" was in the same condition as it is now, while Lolita was exhausted. It was clear that she had traveled a long way and suffered greatly before that. I fed her, washed her, dressed her... I gave her a roof over her head, but days, weeks, months passed, and her speech and emotions remained locked away. Fortunately, her ability to satisfy basic human needs remained, as did her ability to perform simple commands. For this reason, I gave her a job in my shop. — Glancing at Lolita again, he continued. — I will not hide the fact that I had aesthetic and mercantile intentions. The thought of having Lolita in the halls of "Phantom" could not fail to excite my aesthetic and entrepreneurial sense. I justified myself by saying that such a job was still better than if she just stared at the ceiling. Who knows, maybe interacting with customers could restore her humanity? This, unfortunately, did not happen, which only fueled my interest in this mystery. For this reason, I went to Risserland again, where, like a madman, I asked everyone I met about this doll. After a few weeks, I managed to find out that this doll came from some "Mirror Workshop." The craftsman there, known in narrow circles as Krait Adalbert, was famous for his amazing, lifelike dolls. This place became the next place of my pilgrimage... What I found there exceeded all my expectations. I found out that this craftsman was not an ordinary person, but a wizard, and that the realism of his dolls was based on the fact that he placed human souls in them. To my disappointment, I could not find out anything else, as by the time of my visit, the wizard was already dead, and his workshop was in disrepair, forgotten by everyone. — Gaheris paused to catch his breath. — What connects "Sakuyа" and Lolita, I still could not find out, although I really wanted to. The only thing that shed some light on this mystery was one of my experiments. Once, I hired an exorcist and very theatrically asked him to save the soul trapped in "Sakuyа" by expelling it. The result was that Lolita, for the first time in all our time together, showed strong emotions and rushed with all her might to protect the doll... By the way, you might be interested in why the doll has that name. It's very simple. — To the doll's annoyance, the man lifted the hem of her dress and showed Ayano the inscription "Sakuyа" on her back. — This is just a name invented by Krait Adalbert, and it probably has nothing to do with the soul trapped inside.