Schwartz and Weiss

Schwartz (シュバルツ, Shubarutsu) and Weiss (ヴァイス, Waisu) are a magic tools modeled to look like. Their purpose is to assist the librarians of the Royal Academy's Library.

Schwartz and Weiss were made to appear like larger versions of shumils. They have golden eyes, like most natural shumils do, and also have a golden feystone embedded in their foreheads. Schwartz has black fur, while Weiss has white fur.

While the pair might appear like living beings, they are in fact magic tools. They have no true personalities to speak of, acting rather robot-like at most times. They have the ability to speak, but despite made by a noble for the use of nobles, their sentences are short and direct, likely as a limitation due to them being only automata, rather than actual living beings.

They are capable of lending out and retriefing books and carrel keys, as well as bringing returned books back to their respective place among the shelves.

When Rozemyne inquired how many books the Royal Library holds, Schwartz was able to give an estimate of the number of books and documents stored on the library's first floor.

Schwartz and Weiss are so old that the exact details of their origin is shrouded in mystery. The legend holds that they were created by a past princess a long time ago. The knowledge of how to create such sophisticated magic tools able to walk, talk and work like them has either been kept private by their creator until their death, or has since been lost to time.

Apart from the magic that gives them their abilities, the two magic tools also contain many expansive feystone that power a number of sophisticated wards that prevent any but their master and those that have their master's express permission to even touch them. One downside of these protective enchantments is that once someone is given permission to touch them, that person will be exempt from any of the wards and is thus able to steal or damage them at will. Thus a master is well adviced to only give this permission to people they trust deeply.

At one point in Solange's youth, the most recent master of the pair gave them outfits made purely for cuteness without considering how they might interfere with work. Their large hats kept falling off and their billowing sleeves made them knock over the stacks of gold payed as deposits. Despite these hindrances, the two magic tools attempted to continue their work unperturbed, neither trying to take off the cumbersome accessories, nor complaining even a single time. Their outfits were replaced with more practical ones within a couple of days. Since then it has become the norm to keep make their sleeves only reach their elbows.

Following the civil war and the resulting purge among the Nobility practically all surviving nobles of any worth were called back noble society to contribute directly toward their home provinces. This resulted in most nobles and all archnobles abondoning the library, leaving the mednoble Solange as the sole librarian.

Due to their sophistication, Schwartz and Weiss unfortunately used up a lot of mana. Even if Solange had been able to dedicate her entire mana to keeping them active, it is doubtful it would have been enough. But as the sole oversee of the library, Solange had to keep many vital magic tools active and thus shortly after the last archnoble left, the two shumils ceased to function. Even so Solange kept pouring as much mana as she could spare into the two to make sure the wards could keep them save from theft or meddling. This dormant period lasted so long that when Rozemyne entered the academy, most nobles assumed the two shumils were merely inanimate dolls belonging to Solange, rather than the priceless artifacts they are.

Upon registering for access to the library, Rozemyne was so overjoyed to finally be in a true library, that she started to spontaneously pray to Mestionora the Goddess of Wisdom without first cutting off the manaflow to her ring, resulting in a powerful blessing sweeping the entire room. Despite the wards that should prevent unauthorized mana from getting through to the two magic tools, this blessing ended up recharging them to the point where they became active again. Since it was Rozemyne's mana that reactivated them, they recognize her as their current master and follow her every order to the best of their abilities. Rozemyne ordered them to aid Solange, taking a huge load off of the professor's shoulders, since she now no longer has to work the entire library on their own.

It is tradition for a new master to provide Schwartz and Weiss with a new set of clothes, to mark the passing of the torch.

Schwartz and Weiss are currently a very popular topic among students and professors alike. While the professors marvel at the sophistication and speculate how they might have been created, the young students - particularly the female ones - gush over the cuteness of the two shumils. Since their reactivation, many students who up to that point only ever sent servants to retrieve materials from the library have since started to show up in person to "coincidally" catch a few glimpses of the pair.

Solange is convinced that the reason why the wards did not stop Rozemyne's mana was because the young girl is blessed by the Goddess of Wisdom. So far none of the professors she shared this theory with have agreed, leaving the true reason of how Rozemyne became their new master as much a mystery as their origin and creation process.

Due to how powerful and sophisticated the anti-theft wards on Schwartz and Weiss are, Solange suggested that Rozemyne should take the pair of magic tools to the Ehrenfest Dormitory for their measuring so it could happen in an area under Rozemyne's control and only give her most trusted companions permission to touch them.


 * Cambridge Online Dictionary