Laura Stuart

Laura Stuart (ローラ＝スチュアート) is the Archbishop of Necessarius and also the Anglican Church. Despite being the Archbishop, she looks like an eighteen-year-old girl with long blonde hair that's 2.5 times her height; other than that, few details about her are known. She speaks funny Japanese, courtesy of Tsuchimikado Motoharu teaching her, though it was mentioned on a few occasions by Aleister and Stiyl as sounding 'weird', with Stiyl going further telling her it was a mistake to think of Tsuchimikado, who goes after his own sister, as a 'normal' Japanese person and learning Japanese from that source. Stiyl went further and commented that "the way you speak is still weird" when Laura switched from Japanese to English during a "heart to heart" communication spell. .

She loves baths and has a collection of the latest designs of baths from Academy City, courtesy of Aleister as a gift to sweeten relations between the two sides, in addition to other technology such as the latest design of washing machines given to the Necessarius female dormitories.

Personality
She might sound simple and irresponsible, but behind her smile lies a cold and calculating personality, with Stiyl mentioning she does things on both ends of the scale that it balances out to the point where it's impossible to tell whether she's good or evil as she is described as "no one is better than her in manipulating human feelings, rationality, interests, ethics, and necessary values" and ''"the hidden dragon among magicians, she’s somehow able to get to the top, and it’s not done cheaply." ''. An example of this is Laura being the one who designed the "John's Pen" mode of Index and lied to people that Index must get her memory erased every year, as a attempt to maintain control of the grimoire library Index holds. She does as many good things as she does evil things. On the balance of good and evil, she’s keeping an intricate balance.

Another example of Laura's viciousness is when Index is under the control of Fiamma, she plans to forcibly use the remaining controller to prevent Fiamma having access to the girmoire collection Index have, even if it would put even more intense burdens onto Index. Stiyl rejects this move and delibrately stays with Index to prevent Laura doing anything, and plans to kill Laura if it means saving Index. Laura then activated her controller blocking Fiamma's signal, forcing Index into John's Pen mode and tries to fight back. Laura then coerced Stiyl into fighting Index, saying she is giving him a chance to do something to solve the problem at hand, and she'll step in with the controller regardless if he fails. All that was done with a seemingly sincere smile on Laura's face showing no outward malice.

Laura prefers to work behind the scenes if possible, and let others like Kanzaki or Stiyl deal with meeting with other factions face-to-face. She is also a close friend of Elizard, the two having known each other for years.

Chronology
As head of Necessarius, she spent many volumes only doing dealings with other leaders such as the Roman Catholic Church's Pope, Academy City's General Superintendant Aleister, and the leaders of the Knights and Royalty Faction of UK. Even during the events of the civil war in UK she still kept herself in the background, only getting herself out of trouble if it should come her way.

Laura have been the Head of Necessarius and Anglican Church for at least ten years as of volume 16, as shown when in a flashback where the Knight's Grandmaster and William Orville were talking about people that might seek to use Villian for their own gains, and one of the first people the Grandmaster thinks of is Laura. This further shows her physical appearance is not an accurate indication of her real age.

The Knight's Grandmaster also stated Laura's magical ability is the strongest in the Anglican Church and Necessarius, even including Saints like Kanzaki Kaori, after stating Laura was possibly one of the few in England that can stand up to him when he has the Blessings of Archangel Michael through the Original Curtana. Laura have been shown to use rune magic, and is capable of using magic power through her hair to destroy everything around her through a massive explosion that only harms what she wants, with the explosion capable of knocking out fully armed Knights and destroy the various bindings put on her all at once.

After the WWIII it is revealed that a "Specialized Counter-Crowley Division" exists within the Anglican Church and that they have detected the magician Aleister Crowley's life signature when he attacked Fiamma. Her internal monologue reveals that the reason of "why" she sided with Academy City was to tip the balance of power of the world towards the science side; and after that she can forcefully take everything from them; tipping completely the balance of power towards the Anglican Church. Laura further thinks to herself that even if by that move causes another world war then that's completely acceptable; when we have the whole power of the world as a prize then nothing is a problem. .

Design evolution
Laura Stuart's design (originally called Laura Cornwallis), according to Kiyotaka Haimura, is based on the concept of what Index would look like in her college years. This concept is furthered by Haimura's design of her hair clip, basing it off the badge on Index's habit.

Trivia

 * As shown in the Orsola Aquinas Rescue Arc, Laura has a persecution complex regarding her shaky command of japanese; while this is shown only once in the anime we have that in the novels she unwillingly addresses her fears time after time, even to the extent that Aleister poked fun at her.
 * As noted in her design evolution, Laura, according to Haimura, was based on what Index would look like in her college years. Many fans have speculated that Index and Laura are related due to their similar appearances, though there is no evidence in the novels for this assumption.

Quotes

 * (In vol 7, while trying to imitate a magic marker while it's drawing on a paper piece) : "Chiu chiu chiu~"
 * (In vol 9, after being offered a language tutor by Aleister) : “Uu! I’m not bothered by it! Why would I bother about a language used by a small country in the Far East?”
 * (In vol 9, after interrogating the keeper of the British Museum in regards to her Japanese) “DON’T TELL ME THAT THE ENTIRETY OF LONDON HAS HEARD ABOUT THIS!!??”
 * (In vol 10, while taunting Lidvia Lorenzetti) “What, Lidvia, I thought that you’re going to catch both of them? When the obstacle ahead is even higher…after crossing all these, to trample me, who created these difficulties, won’t you feel even more delighted?” 
 * (Quoted directly in Light Novel vol 12) : "With this *cutting-edge drum or something*, we can forget stuff like troublesome laundry work!"
 * (In vol 16) "HA! ARE YOU SAYING THAT A MINI-SKIRT SANTA COSTUME THAT CAN MAKE PEOPLE TREMBLE WOULD MAKE ME A PERVERT!?”
 * (During Light Novel vol 17) : “Tah dah!! It’s the hitchhiking plan!! Hey, you. The guy driving that filthy truck! Would you be interested in going for a drive with a beautiful girl!?” -- Poor attempt at hitching a ride.
 * (During Light Novel vol 18) : “O-okay. Now where is the boy who Kanzaki needs to service while wearing an exceedingly erotic outfit? I heard he was here in England, so I’d like to see him at least once” -- During the aftermath of the coup d'etat