Elsa came out with something that completely overturned conventional wisdom: "Magi-craft doesn't fail because magic patterns are different."
"Magi-craft has no effect even on living things like people or animals that lack mana—in other words, those that cannot use magic. Why do you think that is?"
"Ah."
Jin recognized once again that this had been a blind spot.
Even with living organisms that possessed no mana, magi-craft simply did not work on them as long as they remained alive.
"...Then why is that?"
"That is my hypothesis. I haven't been able to verify it yet, though..."
"By all means, tell me."
"Mm....What exists in living things, but doesn't in non-living things? I thought we needed to figure that out first."
"That's certainly sound logic."
It made total sense, Jin agreed.
"So, what is it?...Life, certainly, but then that leads to the question: what is life?"
"True enough."
"What about a tree branch?...While attached to the parent tree, magi-craft doesn't work, but once you snap it off, it starts working....I examined several real-life cases like that."
"Mm-hmm."
Jin felt that Elsa's approach was steady and grounded. He urged her forward.
"So, thinking, thinking, and thinking about what else there could be besides life, I couldn't come up with an answer....And that was when Jin-nii returned 'from the future.'"
"...Ah, that time."
"Right. And Jin-nii shared your experiences with everyone. Among them was the talk about the 'spiritual lifeforms.'"
"Ah, I see."
"That made me wonder if maybe it was something else. That is, a 'soul.'"
"A soul?"
Jin found himself repeating her words in surprise.
"Yes, a soul....It is terribly vague and hard to grasp, though."
"A soul... huh..."
"You could rephrase it as something of the same nature as those spiritual lifeforms. In any case, magi-craft does not work on things that possess a soul."
Elsa provided an additional clarification.
"I'd like to set aside metaphysical or philosophical arguments for now, like 'Does a tree have a soul?'"
"I suppose that's fair."
"That's why I said it's just a hypothesis. It hasn't been verified yet."
"...I understand completely."
Without thinking, Jin pulled Elsa's shoulder close to his side.
"Jin-nii?"
"...No, I was just thinking about how wonderful you are, Elsa."
A peerless healer, a first-rate magi craftsman, and Jin's beloved wife. And four hundred years ago, she had been a good mother... surely.
On top of that, she was someone who could engage in such debates and explore logical theories with him.
Jin felt an overwhelming affection for her.
"...A soul, is it? In that case, let me follow up on your hypothesis with one of my own."
"Jin-nii?"
"This is just something that popped into my head right now."
With that preface, Jin began sharing the thought that had occurred to him after hearing Elsa's hypothesis.
"The spiritual lifeforms had complete understanding and Domination over free ether. Because of that, their very existence seems to be sub-ether-like, or perhaps of an even higher order."
"Mm."
"Here, strictly within the scope of what we can comprehend, we might infer that a 'soul' is a 'sub-ether'-like 'existence' or 'phenomenon.'"
"...Mm."
"A 'soul' exists superimposed over the physical body... or rather, the 'material' core entity."
"I understand."
"Because a 'soul' is 'sub-ether'-like, magic, which is a 'free ether'-like phenomenon, has no effect on it....What do you think?"
After pondering for a moment, Elsa offered a counterargument.
"If that were the case, it would mean that magic in general wouldn't work on the physical body. But in reality..."
"Ah, right."
Elsa explained that while it was understandable why spells like Fire worked because they triggered physical phenomena, it would make it strange for Healing-type magic to work.
"That's true too... Hmm, this is difficult."
"Still, 'souls' and 'sub-ether' might be keys to getting closer to the truth. For example, healing magic might be 'sub-ether'-like."
"Hmm, could that be it?"
"That is why it is important to keep researching without giving up."
"I suppose you're right."
In the end, they were unable to reach a definitive conclusion, but having spent such an unexpected moment together with Elsa, Jin was thoroughly content.
The following day, September 2nd, after breakfast, Jin was called by Reinhard and headed over to his workshop. Naturally, Mini-Reiko was riding on his shoulder.
"Reinhard, what is it?"
"Hey, thanks for coming. Actually, I wanted to hear your opinion, Jin."
"Oh?"
"Stearena made Lime, so I thought it was about time I finished up what I was working on too."
Ah, so he was making something after all, Jin noted with an inward nod.
"Here, take a look."
What Reinhard proudly presented to Jin was a slender, female-type automata.
"Oho."
True to Reinhard's craftsmanship, while she was slender, her curves were distinct and well-proportioned.
"This... isn't a replacement for Neon, is it?"
The previous Neon had been an automata crafted to look identical to Berche, but this one did not resemble anyone in particular.
"So, what did you want to consult me about?"
"First, I was wondering what to do about the hair color."
Right now, it remained pure white. Jin thought it looked fine as it was, but Reinhard seemed to feel otherwise.
"You gave yours green hair, right, Jin?"
"Ah, that's what you mean....Are you going with that too, Reinhard?"
The automata of the Hourai Island faction—or rather, the ones Jin had made during this period—had all been given green hair.
"Yeah, that would be fine too, but I'm thinking a unique color might be nice."
"Even if you say unique..."
Hair colors possible on Planet Ars included black, dark brown, brown, orange, red, gold, silver (ash), and white.
On the other hand, colors that did not naturally occur included blue, green, purple, reddish-purple, and yellow-green.
"Even with red, as you can see with Beena, the saturation is low."
"Well, it's not going to end up looking like paint pigment, after all."
"I'm thinking of trying purple."
"Purple, huh..."
It reminded Jin of the hair dye popular among elderly women he had once seen back in Japan.
"Wouldn't a light purple look refined?"
Reinhard asked, unaware of what was crossing Jin's mind.
"Ah, wisteria purple, then."
Hearing "light purple," Jin replied reflexively.
"Wisteria purple?"
"Yeah. In the world I was in, that kind of color was compared to the flower and called wisteria purple."
"I see. Similar to how deep purple is called violet, then."
Since Planet Ars had purple violets as well, color names like that existed here too.
"Well, colors can always be changed, so I'll try out this 'wisteria purple' for now."
Reinhard smiled as he said that.