Pani Guldmarg

**Pani Guldmarg** (パニ・グルドマルグ *Pani Gurudomarugu*) the "**Alchemy Scholar**" (錬金学士 *Renkin Gakushi*) is a Viveenyan alchemist whom certain countries on the other planet class as an 'Enemy of the world.' Her bailiwicks beyond alchemy include engineering, astronomy, and magic.

## Appearance

Pani is a short humanoid women with tapered ears. She keeps her hair tied back in two buns and wears slender rimless glasses. Over her trouser suit, which comprises dark trousers of "a mysterious material", a light shirt, a dark cummerbund, and vertically-striped socks, she wears a pitch-black collared cloak and rolls its sleeves up to her elbows, revealing the shirt's cuffs. Her left hand is adorned with a glove and bracelet.

## Chronology

### Background

At some point over Pani's one hundred-and-fifty plus years of existence, Pani comes to command a floating alchemy workshop—the Aerial Studio—after which she gains a reputation for defenestrating her failed experimental creations whilst on the move. One such reject is the golem "Clear Bright Doll" Medeon I, who can turn invisible and create copies of himself. Medeon I will later be 'tamed' by the Geldwood Church; whether this is brought to Pani's attention has yet to be clarified.

A hundred years prior to a certain clash between a holy knight and a necromancer, the Geldwood Church and a faction of the Byandy Empire jointly open the interplanetary path between their world and Terra Mater; little is known about the imperial faction, but, in light of the empire's broad rejection of the Geldwood faith, it may have been acting covertly. The empire abruptly collapses around this time. Sometime during the succeeding decades, Pani allies with Utsurojuza, one of Byandy's surviving Imperial Court Sorcerers.

If not before, then by the time of the clash—detailed below—myriad authorities have deemed Pani an 'Enemy of the world' on account of her activities and defenestration habit, the latter of which often risks letting potentially dangerous entities run amok among innocent populaces. Pani has meanwhile expanded the scope of her activities to include astronomy with an focus on habitable planets, of which she independently discovers 275 candidates. Of these candidates, she is especially interested in Terra Mater. Pani appears aware to some degree of Earth's present status, since she refers to Earth's development of programming languages.

### Post-Collapse

Interplanetary travel does not occur again until Utsurojuza's fellow imperial sorcerer Corpse God clashes with Geldwood's Sir Shagrua Lugrid and Recuria Lofilardo and feigns his death via the secret art of reincarnation. When Shagrua absconds from the Kingdom of Nyanild days later, Geldwood declares that his body has been possessed by Corpse God and must be stopped. Pani soon detects Shagrua's presence within the Abandoned Peninsula, Byandy Empire's former domain, and assumes that Geldwood has noticed the same. Whether Geldwood truly has yet to realize that Corpse God is alive and well on Earth, however, cannot be so easily assumed.

Pani asks Utsurojuza to find and escort Recuria to a meeting spot in the port of the Republic of Zurodakka's capital where her Studio is anchored. Though she does not explain why she wants to meet Recuria, she does explain that Corpse God is alive and provides context about the interplanetary link—the mechanics of which Utsurojuza is slow to understand, much to her chagrin. He nonetheless sets off for Recuria. Unexpected circumstances cause Pani to 'pick up' Utsurojuza and Recuria directly rather than wait for them at port, piloting the Studio itself to their camp in one of Zurodakka's forests.

In anticipation of striking a deal with Recuria, Pani entices her to accept her offer of friendship by divulging a top-secret piece of information: Corpse God, she says, lives on the "reverse side of the sky."

Recuria agrees to be Pani's friend, anxious to hear more. Pani uses an instrument to project a three-dimensional model of Earth's Solar System and enlarges the projection of Earth, explaining to Recuria that, out of all the potentially habitable 'heavenly bodies' she has identified, this is the sole one to which their planet is connected via an unfathomably wide path. If both planets' "great beyonds"—i.e. afterlives—are similarly linked, that might explain how Corpse God managed to transmigrate his soul, or, in other words, how he managed to migrate without Ordom's involvement.

Pani tells Recuria about the last instance of interplanetary travel, about Easlies Swordfrail and company are striving to prevent the 'hole' (path) from being reopened by guarding the Byandy Empire's ruined capital, and about the possibility of Shagrua encountering Easlies et al. What that might mean in the eyes of the Church and consequently for Shagrua slowly dawns on Recuria, with Pani voicing it: Shagrua is about to become entangled in a struggle over the hole.

So is Medeon I, though if Pani has also detected him within the Peninsula, she does not mention it. Regardless of whether Pani has been tracking Medeon I or not, Geldwood has dispatched him to the ruined imperial capital; it is during Pani's meeting with Recuria that Medeon I, or one of his copies, skewers Easlies with a stake.

## The Aerial Studio

Pani's Aerial Studio resembles a carriage wheel "the size of a small village" rotating parallel to the ground. It has at least one hangar for at least one flying boat; the boat's hull is framed with iron but is constructed with a material that does not resemble stone or wood.

## Trivia

* Pani's 'enemy of the world' designation does not prevent Pani from conducting transactions with willing commercial cities.
* Pani believes that the Geldwood Church is keeping secret the existence of the Viveenya, i.e. her "long-lived race."
* Ryohgo Narita first introduced the idea of a floating alchemy workshop in his *Baccano!* series in the form of a sea-going vessel, upon which the immortal alchemist Majida Battuta forever sails the seas.
* Pani's Aerial Studio is eerily reminiscent to a flying saucer, which is typically associated with aliens and UFO sightings reported on Earth. Given her knowledge on human programming language and her access to World War I memorabilia, its possible Pani has visited Earth using the Aerial Studio as a means of transport.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 *Dead Mount Death Play* (Manga): Volume 6, Episode 6.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 *Dead Mount Death Play* (Manga): Volume 7, Episode 7.
3. ↑ *Dead Mount Death Play* (Manga): Volume 3, Chapter 20.
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 *Dead Mount Death Play* (Manga): Volume 8, Episode 8.