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Introduction
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Philomela Sargant (フィロメラ・サージェント, Sājento Firomera; "Philomela Sergeant"[4]) is a student at the College and a classmate of Chise Hatori. She is often seen in the company of Veronica Rickenbacker, to whose lineage her own family has sworn fealty to.
Appearance[]
expanding it.Philomela is a young woman with light hair that is pulled back into a ponytail. She wears what appears to be the standard female uniform with a tie, along with a black band that has a ribbon bow. Her bangs are cut into a slant, starting on the right and slanting downwards.
Chise and Ruth both note she has a strange smell about her.
Personality[]
expanding it.Philomela seems reserved, rarely speaking to anyone outside of Veronica, who she speaks to respectfully. However, due to the upbringing and lessons of her clan, she doesn't have a strong will. She believes that all she can do is be silent, obedient, and accept thing as they are.
She has a habit of clamming up when things look bad, a habit that Rian has warned her against because it makes her look worse.
The reason for her downtrodden and quiet personality seems to stem from the situation with her family, where she is often treated as someone who "stole their lineage" and would be punished if she so much as spoke out of turn to her grandmother, who disdains her lack of initiative and sees her as more of a contemptible doll that can only nod her head.
History[]
expanding it.In the past, Philomela used to be a somewhat more outgoing child, often playing with Rían.
Plot[]
College Arc[]
expanding it.Philomela first appeared spying on Chise before vanishing into smoke once Chise felt her watching her before they shared a class together. But when she collapsed into her arms later in the day, Chise carried her over to a bench and tried to give her some form of medicine to help her. Philomela asked what she would expect in return, but Chise only asked to know if it helped in the end. Before Veronica brings her to her next class and they share a lunch table with May and April Attwood.
Some time later, she is investigating the tea for anything out of the ordinary, but only discovers that it has a bit of magic infused into it before heading back to the Nurse's Office. While outside of the door, she overhears Zoe asking Alexandra about Chise. Later on, as the group chases after Zoe Ivey, she follows them in secret to eavesdrop only to be caught by Ruth.
She reveals that she was spying on them as a means of practice due to it being her clan's primary skillset, and while she did not do so with the intention of telling anyone what she learned, if pressed she would reveal the information as she didn't have the authority to refuse an order despite Chise asking as a favor. Rian then constructs a binding spell in order to prevent everyone from speaking of the matter. As the group then heads back, Chise gives her consent to tell her own secret as the spell didn't prevent it and if she needed to, while Lucy mentions that she dislikes people like her who helped end her clan.
Some time later during a PE class, Chise compliments her for climbing boulders and her response grabs Veronica's attention. She then mentions it would be a great chance for her to make friends with her, leaving her to ask if it was an order. That night, as she covers the Atwood twins with a blanket, she receives a letter from a black crow seemingly made of some kind of magic that commands her to return home.
Leaving a letter behind for Veronica, she then departs for her home and happens to be immediately chastised due by some of the residents there who feel that her time in the College is wasted and that she has no right to be a member of their family after "stealing their lineage" in their own words. She then calls upon an entity known as Alcyone to inquire into how Chise was able to notice her when she was using her magic to hide, leading them to deduce that it was due to the scent of her soul rather than a magical signature or physical scent.
Her grandmother reminds her that she would normally have no need to attend the College and that it was only because of Veronica that she was allowed to attend, before punishing her for raising her head in her presence and then ordering her to sit so they can return to the matter for which she was called for.
After Liza Quillyn, the principal of the college, had locked down the College in order to find the potential attacker, Philomela became even more paranoid. Being pressured by her grandmother, she began sapping many more students, including Jasmine St. George, leaving them in noticeable pain and gradually rendering them unconscious. This goes on for a bit until the Grimoire attacks Chise through one of the afflicted students and gets more than it bargained for, causing its connection to the students to burst and everyone to suddenly get well again.
During the Christmas festival, Philomela completely snaps and starts fusing with the Grimoire and mutates into a pitch-black abomination and starts rapidly absorbing the magic of every student she comes across and rendering them comatose instantly, starting with her roommate Veronica Rickenbacker, a daughter of the Rickenbacker family that she’s tasked with accompanying, and her childhood friend, Rian Scrimgeour, being another victim. She threatens Liza into unsealing the College so she could leave and go back to her grandmother or she would sap many students and teachers’ magic in the process.
Arriving back at the Sargant mansion, she gave her grandmother back the Testament of Carnamagos with enough stolen magic. As Philomela’s body was starting to crumble, she asked her grandmother if they could finally bring back her late parents. Lizbeth did not respond and orders Alcyone to take Philomela to the underground by sundown while she is preparing the ritual to resurrect her son Adam and not her daughter-in-law Iris.
As her grandmother left to the underground, Philomela began to collapse due to consuming so much magic from her collegemates with Alycone putting the unconscious girl in her lap. Later on, Chise, Lucy, and Isaac came to Lizbeth's study room to save their friend, but corrupted Philomela attempted to kill them in return. Luckily, Chise's ancient runes were able to protect. When Lucy discovered her stolen spiders in the room, she furiously lashed out on Philomela about her family's death. This caused Philomela began to have mental breakdown, feeling terribly remorse for being forced by her grandmother to witness the slaughter of Lucy's family by the werewolves and she could not do anything about it. She felt trapped within Lizbeth's grasp. Feeling deep sympathy for her friend, Chise decided to dig into Philomela's memories and help her put her pieces together. When the three asked what Philomela really wants, she tried to ask for their help, but the darker half of her persuaded her to see her deceased parents again.
When regaining her coconsciousness, her body had return to normal with only her elbow-length arms remained mutated and her fingers were chopped off. Philomela went to the underground to see her grandmother in order see her parents being revived, but not without Ruth, Chise's familiar, telling her this is not what she truly wanted. When she finds Lizbeth in the dungeon preparing to initiate the ritual, the latter asked her to enter the ritual circle. For the first time of her life, because of Chise's influence on her, she started to question her grandmother if she was sure this will bring back her parents. Lizbeth immediately has her restrained by a couple of her guards and reveal that she is going to sacrifice her granddaughter in reviving her son.
Just as Philomela accepted her fate, Chise comes to her rescue along with Lucy, Isaac, Elias, and Ruth. Chise brought out a flaming war hammer and breaks the ritual circle that she’s in and save her. With Chise saving Philomela, the latter is able to reunite with her guardian familiar, Alycone, who had broke free from Lizbeth's curse thanks to Elias.
Lizbeth, being furious about their inference, allowed herself to be corrupted by the Testament of Carnamagos and attempted to kill them all, and she ends up fatally impaling Alcyone. This unleashes a doppelganger of Adam, who is actually a curse left behind by late Adam as a final act of spite against her that he left to kill whoever destroyed Alcyone, which he figured in advance would likely be his own mother. However, before Shadow Adam can strangle her, she was absorbed by the god entity that she summoned within the ritual.
As Ruth, Morrigan, and the female werewolf were holding off the god entity as it was going on a rampage in the underground, Philomela, Chise, and the others were figuring out how to take it out as it cannot be killed through normal means. Philomela figure out that they need to cast the ritual spell with the Testament of Carnamagos in order to banish the god entity from their world. Since the Testament of Carnamagos would only respond to previous readers, only her and Lizbeth are the only ones able to cast the spell. However, the book was swallowed by the god along with Lizbeth. Philomela is willing to risk her life to get the book back, but was stopped by Lucy. They then turned to Elias, knowing that he will turn into two beasts fast enough to evade the god entity's vines. Philomela and Chise rode on Elias' half, while Lucy and Isaac rode on another. As Lucy and Isaac were distracting the vines, Chise demanded Morrigan to cut the entity's eyes, where Philomela manage to locate the book and her grandmother, which Morrigan applies with pleasure.
As Morrigan cut the eyes open, Philomela catches the book and was preparing to cast the spell, but was interrupted by Lizbeth as she entered her granddaughter's coconscious. She attempted to mentally break her in order to prevent her from banishing the god entity. However, because of Philomela's friends, she is finally able to stand up against her grandmother and banished her from her coconsciousness with an ancient ruin that Chise and Alycone gave her in the College. She then finishes the spell and successfully banishes the entity by summoning the outer god Shub Niggurath, causing all the students who previously had their magic stolen at the college to recover.
Afterwards, she approached her deceased guardian, Alycone, who had turned into a bird then was reduced to dust. Philomela feeling immense despair of losing the last family member that truly care her. She then approached her near dying grandmother on Lucy’s behalf on why she had the Websters killed since Lucy deserves to learn the truth she has been searching for ever since it happened. Her vile grandmother refused to tell Philomela why she ordered the werewolves in slaughtering the Webster, stating that fewer people know, the better, before being decapitated by a werewolf cub she kidnapped. The cub then snatched the Testament of Carnamagos and made a run for it. Ruth attempt to pursue the cub, but the female werewolf put him to the ground in protecting her child then chase after him. The students eventually fell uncoconscious, leaving Elias and Ruth take them back to their home where Silver Lady took care of them.
Shishigari Arc[]
expanding it.Skills and Abilities[]
Philomela's clan specializes in espionage. As a result she has an arsenal of spells and magical abilities related to doing so.
- Hiding: Her family's magic allows her to hide herself so thoroughly that both her physical presence and magical signature are nearly undetectable. However, entities that are closer to the other side or practitioners like witches or magi can track them via the scent of their soul.
- Intangibility: She seems to have some form of intangibility through turning into a form that's similar to smoke, allowing her to move quickly as well as vanish. She often uses this to spy on others.
- Muffling Spells: She has a number of spells that can muffle sounds to a great degree, preventing detection.
Relationships[]
Veronica Rickenbacker[]
Philomela seems to regard Veronica rather respectfully, and it's noted that she is never far from her.
Rían Scrimgeour[]
Philomela happens to be Rían's distant cousin due to their bloodlines intermixing. They used to play together as children.
Chise Hatori[]
Philomela takes an interest in Chise due to the latter's nature as a mage. They eventually form an amicable bond after Chise saved her from being sacrificed by Lizbeth's ritual.
Lucy Webster[]
Lucy is Philomela's classmate.
Isaac Fowler[]
One of Philomela's classmates.
Alcyone[]
expanding it.Lizbeth Sargant[]
Lizbeth was Philomela's grandmother. However, Lizbeth was cruel to her own granddaughter and gives a even worse treatment than her own son, Adam, Philomela's father.
Adam Sargant[]
Adam was Philomela's father.
Iris Sargant[]
Iris was Philomela's mother.
Quotes[]
expanding it.Trivia[]
expanding it.- According to the The Ancient Magus' Bride Official Complete Book, Philomela's height is roughly 155cm (5'1").
References[]
- ↑ The book cover for Volume 10 & 11 reveals a colorized version of Philomela.
- ↑ The book cover for Volume 10 & 11 reveals a colorized version of Philomela.
- ↑ Mahou Tsukai no Tsukai Manga — Vol. 15 Chapter 75.
- ↑ Official Anime Site