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The Light Novel series is the source material for the adaptation of the Anime and Manga series. The information and terminology on the article will be based on the source material rather than the adaptions. |
Schwartz (シュバルツ, Shubarutsu) and Weiss (ヴァイス, Waisu) are a pair of magic tools modeled to look like Shumil. Their purpose is to assist the librarians of the Royal Academy's Library.
Apperance
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.[1]
While they are clothed, they look almost like real shumil, except for the feystones in their foreheads and their size. Once their clothes are removed, the places where their limbs join their torso look like those of a stuffed animal rather than the real feybeasts. They have extensive magic circles embroidered around their entire torsos, made from golden mana-dyed thread.[2]
They wear clothes provided to them by their master until a new master takes over and provides them with a new set. During their debut, they were still wearing dresses made by the master prior to Rozemyne, which are one-piece dresses mostly in the opposite color of their furs with highlights in their fur colors and fitted with many expensive feystones.
After changing into new clothes prepared by Ehrenfest, Schwartz is dressed as a male while Weiss is dressed as a female. Schwartz wears a white short sleeve shirt with a black vest lined with magic circles, completed with a pair black slacks and a bowtie made from dyed cloth. On the other hand, Weiss wears a black maid dress with a white apron lined with magic circles, completed with a dyed scarf. Since all functional magic circles are embroidered on the vest and apron, the clothes underneath are interchangeable. Both of them also wear the "Library Committee" armband made by Tuuli at Rozemyne's request.
Personality and Abilities
While the pair might appear like living beings, they are in fact magic tools. They have no true personalities to speak of and act in a robotic manner. They have the ability to speak, but despite made by a noble for the use of nobles, their dialogues 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 retrieving books and carrel keys, as well as bringing returned books back to their respective place among the shelves.[3]
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.[4]
They appear to be capable of learning to at least some degree, since they came to understand the meaning of being measured for clothing apparently on their own due to going through the process so often.[2]
They are incapable of leaving the library on their own. Only their current master can take them outside, which requires direct physical contact, like holding hands for example.[2]
As long as both the magic tools and the person in question are within the library, Schwartz and Weiss can sense the presence and the exact location of all their masters.[5]
After the central magic tool of the library was filled with mana from a ritual, that also contained considerable amounts of Rozemyne's mana, the girl once again becomes the master of Schwartz and Weiss, making it very likely that the shumils are in some way connected with this magic tool, even though the connection is clearly not strong enough to power the pair without magic being poured directly into their feystones as well.[6]
The pair of magic tools are instantly aware of any person who enters the library and can recognize whether this person is their master, a secondary master, someone authorized to enter or a trespasser, even when they have no line of sight to them. If they feel trespassers, they will hunt them down and kill them.[7]
Defensive Enchantments
Apart from the enchantments that allow them to act almost like sentient beings, the pair has also been fitted with sophisticated protection mechanisms to prevent theft and damage. Only their current master and those explicitly authorized by them are able to freely touch them. To give permission, their current master merely needs to say so out loud within ear-shot of Schwartz and Weiss.
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 advised to only give this permission to people they trust deeply.[8]
When someone unauthorized touches them, they will immediately feel a tingling sensation that grows in intensity by the moment and quickly reaches painful levels, eventually becoming too strong for anyone to bear. There have also been reports of people being repelled before even making skin-contact with the magic tools or even being "blown away" by mana, making it likely that the defensive spells contain a component that reacts to the intentions of the offender, mildly deterring those that act out of good intentions or mere curiosity, while warding off those with ill intentions with a level of violence proportional to the malice sensed.[2]
They are also fitted with enchantments specifically designed to ward off outright attacks, capable of absorbing the energy of incoming magical attacks and reflecting it back at the attacker. It is unclear how exactly this mechanism works, but when the defensive spell is active, both the eyes and the feystones set into the buttons of their clothing light up.[9]
History
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.[1]
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 paid as deposit. 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. This forced the librarians to assign a person to keep an eye on them all the time, and 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.[8]
Following the civil war and the resulting purge among the nobility, the three archnoble librarians that served as the previous masters for Schwarz and Weiss were sentenced to execution for being affiliated with the defeated princes. Knowing their days were numbered, they poured as much mana as they could into the two shumils to the point of putting their lives on the line, in a final act of dedication. Despite the enormous amount of mana their final act provided, it was only enough to keep the two magic tools running for one year.[10]
The library was then left with only the mednoble Solange as the sole librarian. Due to their sophistication, Schwartz and Weiss unfortunately consume a lot of mana to operate. Even if Solange had been able to dedicate her entire mana to keeping them active, it is doubtful that it would have been enough. However, as the sole overseer of the library, Solange had to keep many vital magic tools active, and the two shumils eventually ceased to function. Despite this, Solange kept pouring as much mana as she could spare into the two to make sure the wards could keep them safe from theft or meddling.[11]
Due to the pair being dormant for longer than any student will need from enrolling to graduation, hardly any current students knew about Schwartz and Weiss being animated magic tools and those who saw them in the shelf mostly assumed they were inanimate dolls belonging to Professor Solange, prior to them being reawakened by Rozemyne.
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.[1] The normal way of passing ownership of the magic tools is for the current master to give permission to touch them to a successor and allow them to register their mana like with any other magic tool. In this way, it is also possible to have multiple mana providers at the same time, to share the burden of mana around.[10]
Story
See Story Tab
Known Masters
The two magic tools can only have one primary master at a time, whom they will call "milady" regardless of their gender. In addition to the primary master, they can also have multiple secondary masters at the same time. While the magic tools will follow the commands of all their current masters, they will prioritize those of their primary master.
| Name | Authority | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Zent Rauchelstra | Primary | Creator of the magic tools long ago. She formed them in the image of the golden shumil who vets Zent Candidates trying to obtain the Book of Mestionora. |
| Unnamed Werkestock Archnoble | Primary | One of the three former Werkestock archnoble librarians was the primary master of the magic tools, until they were executed during the purge. Before their demise, they pushed themselves to the brink of death to supply the magic tools with as much mana as possible, allowing them to function for one more year. |
| Solange | Secondary | Professor Solange is currently the sole librarian of the Royal Academy Library. She was made a secondary master to facilitate her work and participate in charging the magic tools before all other librarians - including the other masters - were either recalled to the Sovereignty or executed in the purge. |
| Rozemyne | Primary (Former) Secondary |
Lady Rozemyne of Ehrenfest accidentally turned a prayer to Mestionora into a true blessing, which ended up recharging the two magic tools, who recognize her as their new master.
In Rozemyne's third year at the Royal Academy, the Sovereignty sends the archnoble librarian Hortensia to the Royal Academy, and Rozemyne happily agrees to turning the shumil over to her. To accelerate the transfer of mastership, Rozemyne avoids the library until the amount of Hortensia's mana inside the magic tools exceeds that of Rozemyne's and the transfer is complete.[12] Later in that year, Rozemyne performs a Dedication Ritual at the Royal Academy as part of a joint research project with Dunkelfelger, dedicating the gathered mana to the royal family. The ritual provides more mana than anticipated, so even after the feystones the royal family brought are full, there is still some left over mana. With the permission of Zent Trauerqual, Rozemyne pours this mana into the central magic tool of the library, which unexpectedly makes Rozemyne the master of Schwartz and Weiss again, until Hortensia can regain the mastership.[6] |
| Hildebrand | Secondary | After receiving an accidental shock upon touching one of the shumils, Prince Hildebrand's retainers pointed out that as a member of the royalty, the prince should be the master of the magic tools. Upon learning the responsibility and burden that comes along with the position, Hildebrand declined becoming their primary master, but was happy to become a secondary master.[13] |
| Hannelore | Secondary Primary (Former) |
Due to their shared love in books and Hannelore's admiration for the library magic tools, Rozemyne offers to make her a secondary master of Schwartz and Weiss early in their second year at the Royal Academy. At a tea party in the library, Rozemyne makes good on her promise and registers Hannelore to became a secondary master, a few days after Prince Hildebrand has been registered<.ref name="P4V6C18">Ascendance of a Bookworm Light Novel. Part 4 Volume 6. Chapter 18: A Tea Party of Bookworms</ref>
During the transition period from Rozemyne to Hortensia as the primary master, due to poor timing the two shumil end up with more of Hannelore's mana in them than either Rozemyne's or Hortensia's making the Dunkelfelger girl their accidental primary master for a short time.[12] Just a few days later, however, Hortensia is able to dedicate more of her mana to the shumils and finish the transfer of mastership.[14] |
| Hortensia | Primary | In Rozemyne's third year, the Sovereignty dispatched Hortensia to serve as an archnoble librarian in the Royal Academy and specifically take over mastership of Schwartz and Weiss from Rozemyne.[15] Like Rozemyne and Solange, she too is a bookworm.[16]
A few days later due to poor timing, Lady Hannelore ends up donating mana to the shumil before being informed of or meeting the new librarian and thus donates more mana than either Rozemyne or Hortensia have inside the magic tools, making her the primary master by accident and delaying the transfer to Hortensia a little longer.[12] Once Hortensia realizes that she is only able to have ownership of one of the three archnoble librarian keys, she is able to dedicate enough mana to Schwartz and Weiss to finish the transfer and become the primary master of the magic tools.[14] |
Etymology
| Name | Japanese | Romaji | Assumed Etymology |
Assumed Translation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Schwartz | シュバルツ | Shubarutsu | schwarz (DE) | Black |
| Weiss | ヴァイス | Waisu | weiß (DE) | White |
Trivia
- Schwartz and Weiss will call their master "Milady" (Hime-sama) regardless of gender, perhaps due to the fact that their creator being a princess.
- In the original texts, all spoken dialogue by Schwartz and Weiss are written only in Hiragana to emphasize their robotic nature. For example, "Milady"(Hime-sama) is written as "ひめさま" instead of the usual "姬樣".
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Ascendance of a Bookworm Light Novel. Part 4 Volume 1. Chapter 15: Registering at the Library
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Ascendance of a Bookworm Light Novel. Part 4 Volume 2. Chapter 7: Measuring Schartz and Weiss
- ↑ Ascendance of a Bookworm Light Novel. Part 4 Volume 1. Chapter 16: Schwartz and Weiss
- ↑ Ascendance of a Bookworm Light Novel. Part 4 Volume 2. Chapter 2: Onward to the Library
- ↑ Ascendance of a Bookworm Light Novel. Part 4 Volume 6. Chapter 19: Going Home
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Ascendance of a Bookworm Light Novel. Part 5 Volume 2. Chapter 11: Preparing for Ditter
- ↑ Ascendance of a Bookworm Light Novel. Part 5 Volume 10. Chapter 5: Rescuing Solange
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Ascendance of a Bookworm Light Novel. Part 4 Volume 2. Chapter 5: My First Tea Party at the Royal Acadaemy
- ↑ Ascendance of a Bookworm Light Novel. Part 4 Volume 2. Chapter 8: The Battle for Schwartz and Weiss
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Ascendance of a Bookworm Light Novel. Part 4 Volume 2. Chapter 10: The Prince's Summons
- ↑ Ascendance of a Bookworm Light Novel. Part 4 Volume 2. Prologue
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 Ascendance of a Bookworm Light Novel. Part 5 Volume 1. Chapter 12: Finishing the Archduke Candidate Lessons
- ↑ Ascendance of a Bookworm Light Novel. Part 4 Volume 6. Chapter 14: Changing Schwartz and Weiss
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 Ascendance of a Bookworm Light Novel. Part 5 Volume 1. Chapter 17: A Request from Royalty
- ↑ Ascendance of a Bookworm Light Novel. Part 5 Volume 1. Prologue
- ↑ Ascendance of a Bookworm Light Novel. Part 5 Volume 1. Chapter 4: The New Librarian