Silvia

Silvia (シルビア) is a character introduced in Toaru Majutsu no Index. She is a Royal Maid and a Saint. She is the companion of Ollerus in his travels.

A woman with kind of a mean streak, her role in the story was small, being introduced in a side story, but later becomes more prominent just as Ollerus has, when he opposes GREMLIN and his nemesis, Othinus.

Background
Silvia is the Head Maid of the Royal Family, as such, she also has the role of being the priestess who passes down the divine right to rule from God to the Royal Family. As part of the Royal Maids, her duty was to intercept assassins. In her apparent attempts to intercept them, Silvia destroyed equipment in Buckingham Palace, bringing complaints regarding her actions. As a result, Silvia came up with a barrier to suppress her own power.

She was traveling the world to hone her "Bonne Dame" skills when she met Ollerus; how they met and the circumstances behind it are unclear, but it appears they've known each other for a while and have become a duo.

Personality
Silvia comes over as callous and sadistic, especially to Ollerus, but still has a good side, like when Ollerus brought to their apartment one-hundred children he rescued from human traffickers and she decided to let them in and find them homes, even though she was angry at Ollerus about the whole thing.

Silvia is quite cruel to Ollerus on the surface and scolds him for being an "idiot to the core", but still cares for him deep down and feels an urge to protect him, and it is heavily implied she is in love with him. Indeed, when she found out what had happened to Ollerus after Othinus has turned his Fairy spell on him, Silvia becomes determined to avenge him despite Ollerus still being alive. Silvia’s wrath would later be visited upon Touma, who has sided with Othinus and was the only person Othinus came to understand and care for, in order to make Othinus suffer as she slowly kills him before she kills her.

Silvia enjoys teasing people around her when she sees a chance to, regardless of how powerful they are. These usually enraged them because she points out things they're sensitive about, such as Leivinia Birdway's thoughts about Touma, or Brunhild Eiktobel regarding people's opinion on Valkyries.

Appearance
Silvia is blonde woman with blue eyes who wears a thick dark-coloured jacket and a work apron. She wears goggles on her forehead for some reason.

Debut

 * Main article:Toaru Majutsu no Index Light Novel Volume SS2

Silvia first appears in Volume SS2. She is seen chiding at Ollerus after he returns from destroying a child trafficking organization and bringing to their apartment about one-hundred children. Since he had no idea what to do with them, he brought them with him until they can find homes. There, Silvia berates him for making promises he can't keep and straddles him to the doghouse in their apartment's yard with rope, applying painful pressure to his crotch. Despite that, Silvia takes the children in. After dealing with that trouble and finding one-hundred blankets so the kids could sleep, Silvia goes back to Ollerus, where they discuss that some of the one-hundred children were marked and shared certain characteristics — that of Gemstones. Ollerus disappears later that day.

Later, Silvia placed most of the children in foster homes. Some remain not because they can't be adopted but because they want to thank Ollerus personally. She thinks that she has no reason to stay in the apartment now that Ollerus is gone. Plus, she has been repeatedly called back to the United Kingdom and isn't getting paid for staying with Ollerus and cleaning up after his mess, as in a typical Master–Servant relationship. However, she has a very stupid reason to stay (love). Ollerus then returns, and she greets him rudely, as always.

World War III Arc

 * Main article:World War III Arc

Having observed the Third World War from the sidelines besides Ollerus, Silvia appeared at the end of Volume 22 to rescue a dying Fiamma of the Right from the snow after his defeat at the hands of Aleister Crowley.

Baggage City Arc

 * Main article:Baggage City Arc

She appears accompanied by Leivinia Birdway to help a fellow Saint, Brunhild Eiktobel, deal with artificial Valkyries sent after her by GREMLIN to acquire certain knowledge Othinus needs to craft Gungnir — a feat Brunhild accomplished with a 70% powered replica. They do manage to steal the knowledge by distracting Brunhild's mind, but the three set out to pursue them to their headquarters and get back the stolen knowledge.

Ichihanaran Festival Arc

 * Main article:Ichihanaran Festival Arc

Eve of the Festival
With Ollerus, she and him, along with Fiamma of the Right, Brunhild Eiktobel, and Leivinia Birdway, come into Academy City to oppose Othinus and GREMLIN, who plans to capture Fräulein Kreutune, despite the fact that they could've intercepted them outside of Academy City, though chose to have the battlefield in Academy City in order to interfere with GREMLIN's teamwork, as Thor noted.

During the Festival
With Leivinia Birdway and Brunhild Eiktobel, the former takes her them to a location in School District 12, after Leivinia was tricked by a ruse by Touma to distract them from getting Fräulein. Here, she mocks the building trying to imitate a Buddhist temple, not having any actual magical symbol, to which Brunhild agrees. As they converse about the queer religious building in the city of science, Leivinia calls for their attention if they had found any signs of Marian Slingeneyer yet. Silvia tells that she should already know the answer when they have not come upon any traps on the way in. Leivinia asks if they were tricked to which Brunhild says that they were most likely have, and states that Touma has indeed grown if it had in him to plot like this in the sitauation that he was in. Silvia tells Leivinia not to be upset, saying that after Leivinia tricked him so much, she shouldn't have any right to get mad when her returned the favor just once. However, Silvia adds on how she understands why she is panicking, as what Touma did costed her the perfect chance to apologize to him. Her reply only makes Leivinia angry, threatening her. Brunhild then asks why they should do next. They conclude that since Touma had no reason to make them think that he had connections with Marian, then he must've done so in order for him to distance them from something—something that they would come across naturally had it not been for the efforts of Kamijou Touma.

While continuing on their way, Silvia and the others passes by Kumokawa Maria and Tsuchimikado Maika. She questions Japan's term for maids, but Brunhild states that they are just costumes for the festival and pay no mind to it. However, her opinion quickly changes as the beauty contest from Eiri High School is broadcasted, having a girl wear a sexy valkyrie bikini outfit, much to her chagrin. Of course Silvia rubs it into to her by saying that it too was a festival costume. Brunhild then mentions that it is because she doesn't like that image forced into her, especially since there are already perverts like that wearing bikini all year. Silvia smugly comments on how nobody would depict Valkyries in such a way if no one had ever wanted them to be sexy, citing their roles in Norse mythology, as spouses of warriors, servers of alcohol, and dancers of bewitching moves. Silvia stops talking however just before Brunhild really did become angry. All the while this is going on, Leivinia keeps silent, still frustrated.

As the battle between Accelerator and the revived Kakine Teitoku rages in School District 7, it is heard by the group. Leivinia becomes interested by the ruckus, as it could be their only lead even if it is a decoy. Brunhild talks about of who lies behind the fog of war, as a battle against them might become draw out. Leivinia replies that it might Touma, saying that he might be working with someone and that she sometimes can't event predict how his mind works. Silvia smiles and asks if Leivinia is simply a sulking child that was after the older neighborhood boy she relied on moves on and leaves her behind, and asks if she is surprised that she underestimated the person she looked down on. Leivinia deems that Silvia is simply making fun of her, and gets angry. Silvia continues and says that Leivinia's anger is misdirected and childish, and should consider herself lucky that Touma didn't get her back much worse than what she did him. In that restaurant where they rested, the air had killer intent. Silvia keeps on talking and implies that Leivinia is just manipulating Touma in order for him to safely drop out of this dispute with GREMLIN. However, at that point Leivinia attacks, but is quickly restrained by Brunhild. Silvia is hit, but with only a single drop of blood of trailed down the corner of her mouth, who kept on smiling. Leivinia demands to know where Ollerus is, to which Silvia says that he is preparing. With that, Leivinia stays her hand, and tells them that they should go.

Leivinia soon finds Fräulein Kreutune in the multi-level overpass, and is forced to engage against Kamijou Touma for her fate. Silvia and Brunhild that was supposed to support her, are confronted by Thor of GREMLIN and Misaka Mikoto of Academy City, respectively. Silvia does not mind Thor procrastinating to make of fun of Mikoto, and tells him that she wished that she had been on his side this time. Thor tells her that it is not too late, but Silvia says that it is unfortunate that she can't. She takes out her rope, and says that even though she is jealous, she should not act based on her own personal desires. Hearing this, Thor says that his enemy is pathetic. Silvia says that hearing that is painful, and adds that the sad thing about maids is that they can't fight for honor like a king or knight. Thor prepares to strengthen himself with Mjölnir, and then shoots out 10 meter arc fusion blades from his fingertips. Thor says to her that he wants to finish it quickly, as he doubts a fight with someone as pathetic as her will be any fun at all.

As Silvia fights Thor with her ropes, she notices on how, despite Thor being the God of Thunder, her opponent seems to be holding. She points it out to him, and Thor confirms it, disappointed on how the battle is going and how he has to hold back. Silvia laughs at his statement, saying that she is probably the top ranked magician when it comes to that. Silvia twirls her ropes into a variety of quickly-changing looks. And with the loopings of those ropes, Silvia grasped the air with it. Silvia's techniques sent out multiple swirls of shockwaves, powerful enough to destroy a building. Thor tries to stop this attempt by heating up the air with his arc fusion blades and expand it explosively. But it is futile as Silvia is a specialist in barriers, a trick she learned in order to suppress her own power. Thor notices that is a modern western magic sigil based on a Christian Angel, which Silvia confirms. She states that she creates a wall of Telesma along the rope which makes up a hand that "grab the air," and informs Thor to go nuts as she is skilled enough not to get anyone involved. This is not an easy task for Thor, as she is using several angel's sigils in her ceremony. Suddenly, the entire block of overpass they were on was spun around by Silvia's power, and kept on spinning. She charges towards Thor, who in a desperate attempt to even the odds, once again call on the power of Mjölnir. Lightning strikes him, and power surges in his limbs. Using the arc fusion blades, he used them as electric boosters by by explosively expanding the air to forcibly accelerate the movements of his own body, and his body spins. Silvia closes the distance and attacked with her fists, but Thor manages to avoid all of them, knowing full well of the danger of even blocking a Saint's attacks. He escapes by propelling himself backwards with his boosters, but fell from the great height that Silvia had put them on. However, Silvia kept on charging towards him, running upon the blocks of road that had been destroyed in midair. Then her spinning allowed for a giant mass of concrete and asphalt to move horizontally and vertically, and dropped it down upon Thor. The roads were back in place, and Silvia believed that she had slammed Thor between the road and the support below.

Thinking that Thor has been defeated, she walks away to aid Brunhild, but suddenly the road wobbles, and Silvia discovers that Thor was lifting up the road. He reminds her that he is based of Thor, and tossed the piece of road straight into the air 15 meters up. Silvia realizes the reason why he tossed her 15 meters into the air, his arc fusion blade. Silvia tries for her ropes again, but it is too late, and the claws reach the road and cuts it up apart.

After Touma beats Leivinia, all fighting by the Saints and their opponents stops. Silvia says that she just received the justification to abandon the job that she didn't want to do in the first place. Thor suggests that the Saints could manage, but Silvia says that Leivinia was needed against Fräulein since only she knew the spell, and she didn't trust them enough to share how to do it. With Leivinia down, there is no point in even trying to contend against Fräulein. Silvia complains on how she wished to be on Thor's side, as she would have an all-out fight without worries. Thor responds by saying that it is not too late, but Silvia just calls him an idiot, saying that she is not like him, since she has comfortable bonds with an unreliable bastard. And Thor responds saying that he slightly envious of what she has, as he had given everything of his all to make it as far as he has.

And thus, they walked away from each other. She tells Thor to be careful of Fräulein, but Thor says he knows, and tells her that they are people who gathered due to their dislike of calling her a wild beast and throwing her in a cage. He concludes that they are fools, but they shall risk their lives regardless, and will rescue Fräulein.

As they leave Academy City, Silvia complains on how what they did was a complete waste of time. Leivinia replies that it couldn't be helped, and states that even if they did want to get Fräulein, she can't be used to lure Othinus anymore. Silvia asks her if she is still affected by being forced to fight Touma, saying that even if she cannot accept how it ended and even if it was based on Touma's reasoning she cannot understand, she cannot complain after she lost, infuriating Leivinia. Silvia continues to tease, comparing her to a little sister that got scolded by a big brother whom she thought would always listen to her, and whom tried to talk things out to her after all she did to him. Leivinia threatens to use her full Major Arcana on her, to which Silvia points out on how Leivinia didn't use it against Touma, knowing that it would give her an advantage, showing a big grin all the while. Brunhild then interrupts, asking about Ollerus, whom Silvia said earlier was preparing. Silvia replies that he is dealing with their true purpose, one that has nothing to do with Fräulein Kreutune, and told them that the preparations are complete.

Magic God Othinus Arc
Silvia and Brunhild Eiktobel are in a log cabin somewhere arguing about the meal Silvia was preparing. Brunhild then brings up the topic of their counterattack on GREMLIN, to which Silvia says that she has already passed the message along. Brunhild says that they need no wait any longer, to which Silvia agrees. There, they began eating what Brunhild describes as their Last Supper. Brunhild then asks a question, surprising Silvia with her sudden talkativeness. She asks Silvia about the fairy tale books scattered on the table, to which Silvia just mentions that it is they're "trump card" against the Magic God. Brunhild does not press further about for more information, instead she asks that since the preparations are complete and the time has come if there is any reason that they need to stay where they are. Silvia then says no, and quickly they pick up their gear and leave the log cabin.

The two of them are later seen in a convoy of ships heading for Tokyo Bay, supposedly sent by the Anti-GREMLIN Alliance to support Japan during the attack of Tokyo by GREMLIN. Here, the convoy of ships are intercepted by GREMLIN member Hel, she takes out her revolver, immediately alerting the sailors there. As one of the sailors demand her to lay down her weapon, his voice later disappears. A woman then talks to Hel, saying that they have silenced the men who do not know of magic, and mocks her for using such a large spell against them. She then asks if she wants to actually do battle against an expert. Another woman's voice speaks up saying that she is not the type to enjoy fights. Hel asks who are they, to which Silvia introduces herself as well as Brunhild Eiktobel. Hearing this, Hel pulls the trigger of her revolver upon the ship, and though the bullet merely grazes the metal of the ship, it suddenly bursts into flames. She then speaks of how her spell works, but then the fires are put out, and a sound of shattering glass can be heard. Here, Silvia reveals that she has used her barrier magic to stop it, and tells her that if she wants to kill the crew of the ship, she first has to kill her.

Hearing of this, Hel begins to analyze more residual information of deaths in the location, making countless candle-like flames appear before her, signifying each death that has passed there. Here Hel promises to kill Brunhild hearing of her boasting being the queen of the underworld, mocks her for it, as she too have been once called Hel. Thus their battle begins.

VS the World
As Touma and Othinus were finished making their way through Odense they are confronted by Silvia and Brunhild Eiktobel. The former of which seeks vengeance of Othinus for what she had done to Ollerus after being with the Turn into a Fairy spell. Ollerus is however still alive, but is unable to show himself to them, as according to Silvia, is not in the shape to do so and describes what had happened to him as a horrific scene. As Silvia savagely beats an overwhelmed Touma, Brunhild readies herself to execute the former Magic God, but before she can do so, Silvia throws Touma’s body over to her as she did not want Othinus to die until she had taken the one precious thing from her. As Silvia returns her attention back to the assault on Touma, Brunhild once again readies herself to kill Othinus while Silvia is distracted. This however, gives Ollerus to strike both Saints down. Despite now having the power of less than that of an average magician, he is able to overcome this limitation through sheer willpower. His uses the opportunity to make both Saints collide into each other, knocking them unconscious, though at the cost of his arms. Ollerus then parts to take both Saints so he can try and persuade them when they wake up.

Abilities
Silvia is a Saint, and as such very powerful. Carissa and Knight Leader think that she would have caused them trouble if she had been in the United Kingdom during their coup d'état.

Saint
Silvia is a Saint, which allows her to call upon God's power as she has the bodily characteristics similar to the Son of God. This is exemplified during her battle with Thor, when she used her tremendous power to lift a large section of an overpass into the air using the spinning of her ropes, as well as to create multiple powerful shockwaves.

She has claimed that her Saint rank is higher than that of Brunhild Eiktobel.

Barriers
Due to her destructive nature in catching assassins in Buckingham Palace, Silvia endeavored to create barriers to surpress her own power. A barrier specialist, Silvia can rapidly spin and twirl the ropes she owns to form sigils of any angels she wishes to use, allowing for her to create a barrier for a summoning ceremony. Silvia builds up power for each consecutive sigil she "writes" using the ropes off the power of the previous one.

This creates a wall of Telesma along the ropes providing a barrier for her, enough to even stop Thor's arc fusion blades, as well as use it to make up a "hand to grab air," which would then would allow her to create multiple shockwaves.

Design evolution
Silvia's design remains static throughout the series. Haimura summarizes Silvia as a domineering wife.

Quotes

 * (Silvia, reacting to Ollerus bringing in one-hundred children): "You damn dust-covered ruined noble... If that was really how the world worked, things wouldn’t be so haaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrdddddd!! [...] You can say all the self-important things you want, but how do you think we’re going to feed all of them, hmm!? You’re always making these promises you can’t keep! Come here a second!! I think I’ll tie you up with rope and make you straddle the dog house!! Since you don’t seem to know what it means to anger Bonne Dame Silvia, I need to carve it into your body!!"
 * (Silvia, talking about Ollerus): "Well, that’s just who he is. He’s an idiot to the core. And whenever I look at that idiot, I get the idiotic idea that I should protect him. Thanks to that, I haven’t gone back to England and just stay here."
 * (Silvia, as she greets Ollerus in SS2): "Hey, welcome back, you dumb bastard."
 * (To Leivinia Birdway, from NT6): "You look like a girl after the older neighborhood boy she relied on moves on and leaves her behind. Then again, he did manage to trick you despite being shot in an unexpected accident. So are you just surprised that someone you have been looking down on was thinking things through more deeply than you thought? But that is just how people are. People always think about a lot more than other people think they do."
 * (To Thor, from NT6): "All we need to rob Fraulein Kreutune of her power is a spell that adds a pinch of sand to the pure water that has such special behavior. But that is Leivinia Birdway's specialty. She did not fully trust us. She wanted to keep that technique a secret, so there is nothing we can do now that she has been broken."
 * (To Leivinia Birdway, from NT6): "So if you reversed that, does it mean little Birdway-chan who has a little sister but not a big brother is the type to imagine an ideal big brother? And now you're upset that you were scolded by the person you thought would listen to everything you had to say and that you could always rely on when you were in trouble? But still he tried to talk things out with you even after all you did to him. I'd say there's a real connection there."