The Ancient Magus' Bride (2015)

[魔法使いの嫁]

Volume 3

Author/Artist: Kore Yamazaki
Publisher: Blade Comics

Synopsis:
Chise is gravely wounded and an enraged Elias begins to go berserk.

Story/Characters:
With Elias going beast mode, we learn the name of our villain. He's Cartaphilus, a.k.a. Joseph, a.k.a. the Wandering Jew. (If I recall, the anime leaves out the lines identifying him as the Wandering Jew and giving a brief summary of his backstory, but if you didn't recognize the name "Cartaphilus", that's the first thing that'll come up.) We'll get more on his circumstances farther down the line, but for now all we need to know is that he's immortal and only capable of being slowed down by what would otherwise be fatal attacks. When Ulysse is holding the wounded Chise, she gets a vision of his past that better fills in the blanks of his backstory. This comes just as Cartaphilus rolls out the chimera he made using Isabel's body. Just when Chise had managed to get Elias to cool down a bit, it's her turn to get heated up, but where Elias was running the risk of losing what humanity he has, Chise stands a very likely chance of dying, not only from her injuries but from the toll using magic has on her. Enter Will-o'-Wisp for the assist. One of his main tasks is to get Ulysse to realize his true nature and assume his responsibilities as a church grim. However, when accepting what he is at last, Ulysse's offers to become Chise's familiar, which she accepts and gives him the new name Ruth. (I know Ruth is a girl's name and I'd like to think Yamazaki knows it as well, and you'd think Chise would too if she apparently knows the Hebrew meaning, but that meaning is the whole reason behind the choice. Words have power, after all.) The newly dubbed Ruth does what needs doing and with him out of Cartaphilus' reach, the villain withdraws.

In the quiet that follows, we find that Ruth has readily adapted to life at Chise's side, but Elias has himself locked away. Silkie gives Chise some money and sends her off into town, where she runs into Angelica. As Elias' way of teaching is so round-about, whenever Angelica shows up we get a more conventional explanation of how magic works. Angelica brings up something that we'll see from other corners, particularly Renfred, that Chise's current situation isn't exactly the best for her development and that simply being Elias' pet isn't a good thing. Chise's dependence on Elias is going to be a running issue, but it's little surprise that someone who was cast adrift as she was would latch on so strongly to the first solid object she could find. When Chise gets back home, she goes into Elias' room, where she finds that he's been having trouble controlling his form ever since the incident with Cartaphilus. (His recovery at the time didn't stick.) I've always liked the Beauty and the Beast dynamic of the series and here we have Elias at his most beastly so far and yet Chise fully accepts him without fear or reservation. It has an otherworldly feel to it that I really appreciate.

While Chise is sleeping, Elias' instincts almost get the better of him, triggering a dream with Chise of her traumatic childhood. Elias is gone by the time she wakes up and so she and Ruth go out looking for him. Along the way, they encounter an old man who is "haunted" for lack of a better term by a leannan sidhe, a type of Fae that can act as a muse in exchange for drinking the person's blood (basically a vampire and Ruth even calls her as much). Ruth notes that it's unusual for someone like her to be following around an old man, as he wouldn't survive being fed upon. We then get to learn about the circumstances. The old man, Joel Garland, is a retiree who briefly managed to see the leannan sidhe one day while tending to his rose garden, prompting the two to be attracted to each other (though he only had that brief glimpse). The leannan sidhe insists that she doesn't love him because "loving" someone for her kind means draining them of every last drop of blood they have, so she refuses to "love" him, though she's never left his side ever since the day they met.

With that episode ended, Ruth has found Elias, so Chise heads over there to find him submerged in a pond, drawing on the natural energies to put himself back in sorts. Chise complains to him about never telling her anything about him and he concedes that he will tell her but that he needs time to sort it all out first. She agrees to this, but before anything else can happen, Lindel's familiar shows up to escort Chise to the dragons' sanctuary. The main purpose is for her to make her own staff, so she fulfills her promise to Nevin to make said staff out of one of the branches of the tree he grew into. That evening, Lindel asks about Chise's past and in turn he tells about his own, particularly about how he met Elias and we have that first encounter with the Night that Walks as our cliffhanger.

Art:
Best mode Elias looks pretty cool and the spider chimera is suitably freaky. I particularly liked the scenes where Chise and Ruth make their pact and Chise visiting the monstrous Elias in his room. It's really cute seeing Joel and the leannan sidhe together and I also like how she is around Chise (particularly the shot where Ruth goes off and she's piggybacking on Chise). Also, the image for the cliffhanger is very nice.

Other:
We get an afterword comic where Yamazaki answers some questions, such as a change made between the original release and the tankoubon version (regarding a retcon over Angelica describing herself as a witch, which was changed to "mage" as witches are something quite different in the Mahoyome universe), what language Chise speaks in the story (English, which she had to learn before her auction), details on the magical utensils Chise uses, and an introduction to some of the types of Fae that have appeared in the story so far.

Conclusion:
The big bad has come out of the shadows and Chise gains a new companion. I really like the dynamic with Chise and Ruth, a mix of pet and master plus brother and sister, but I also want to compliment how the story handles Chise's relationship with Elias when he's at his most monstrous (that we've seen thus far, at least). The story with the leannan sidhe is quite touching and the return to Iceland sets the stage for some important backstory. There's not much here to be dissatisfied with. As with the volumes before it, this belongs in your collection.

Rating:
Own It