In Episode 9, we learn that Philomela has been running around without a soul. That cannot be good, especially when she was handling a book that warps minds.
The Ancient Magus’ Bride (Mahou Tsukai no Yome) spoilers ahead!
Summary
- In Ep.9, it is discovered that Philomela’s soul was outside of her body for some time now.
- The lack of a soul probably helped the book warp Philomela. Her mental health and memories likely also suffered.
- Philomela wanted to become untraceable, but she went too far. At least the soul is now back inside her.
Episode 9 reveals a scary truth: Philomela had removed her soul from her body, giving it to Alcyone instead. Philomela did it to become truly untraceable because she was certain that Chise could smell her soul. In the meantime, we are left to wonder just how bad it was for Philomela to have her soul elsewhere.
The Book
Running around without a soul is probably bad. Nothing is stated clearly in the anime just yet, but we can see that Alcyone returned the soul and hoped for it to heal some of the damage that the book did to Philomela. Perhaps, it did help a little, but that raises the question of whether Philomela would have been able to handle the book better with her soul in the proper place. After all, the book is known to warp minds and bring people to insanity. Without her soul, Philomela was probably even more vulnerable than an average person. No wonder the book warped her so badly.
General Mental Health
Having no soul is definitely not very good for mental or spiritual health. Philomela had been suffering for months, from what we can gather, ever since one of the victims of energy theft stole Chise’s energy. Philomela would not even leave her room. While Chise’s torrent of energy could have contributed to it, we assume that having no soul also took a toll, especially mentally and spiritually. Although we would not be surprised if Philomela’s body also deteriorated faster and, therefore, was easier to overtake for the book.
Memories
Philomela realized, while already in her grandmother’s estate, that she did not remember her parents. How much of this is due to time and how much to trauma is still unclear, but some of it could be because of the soul. In general, we do not believe that running around without a soul is a good idea, and we are glad that Philomela has her soul back.