Chapter 11
For lunch at Serendia Academy, most students used the dining hall in one of the school buildings.
The academy's dining hall had first-rate chefs and attendants. Each pot also underwent a simple poison test, so students could eat with peace of mind.
However, a very small number of wealthy students brought their own chefs and attendants into the dormitories, had them cook in the dormitory dining hall, and ate in their rooms. Apparently, the Second Prince, Monica's protection target, followed that pattern as well.
(S-so I don't have to go to the dining hall, right...?)
Using that excuse to herself, Monica slipped out of the classroom as inconspicuously as possible when lunch break began.
All the students in Monica's class moved smoothly toward the dining hall, but Monica went against the flow and left the school building.
Monica had a handful of nuts in her pocket. She planned to eat them somewhere with few people around.
Monica had always been good at finding places where there weren't many people. When she attended Minerva, she used to hole up in secret hiding places to read books and do calculations.
The weather was fine today, and the wind was not strong, so Monica decided to take a walk outside.
Serendia Academy's grounds were very large, and its gardens were beautifully maintained. The summer flowers had finished blooming, and the buds of the autumn roses were beginning to swell.
In general, schools attended by nobles set autumn as their enrollment season, while schools attended by commoners usually set it in spring.
Nobles were busy with the social season from spring through summer, while commoners were busiest in autumn, when the harvest festivals were held. Thus, they chose those seasons for enrollment to avoid the busiest times.
Monica was from a commoner family, but she had never attended a school for commoners. Her father had been extremely knowledgeable, so he taught her everything she needed to know. After his death, following a long and winding series of events, she was adopted by one of his disciples and enrolled in Minerva, an institution for training mages.
Therefore, Monica was not accustomed to communal life. Even when she attended Minerva, she had never had any real friends.
Even so, her talent for magic had given her a place at Minerva. She had been allowed to hole up in a laboratory.
But Monica could not display that talent at this academy. Serendia Academy did offer magic-related subjects as electives... but if she demonstrated magic there, it would cause a terrible commotion.
Monica's stage fright meant she could use magic only without chanting.
And if she demonstrated wordless magic here, everyone would discover that she was the Silent Witch.
Monica sighed and touched the ribbon in her hair.
(...I haven't even been able to say "thank you"...)
The words she wanted to say always stuck to Monica's throat, only to be swallowed without ever becoming a sound.
(...I can't even talk properly with my classmates... How am I supposed to get close to the prince?)
To guard the Second Prince, Monica had to get close to him... but he was a third-year student, while Monica was a second-year student. They were not even in the same year.
(...If Lewis-san really wanted me to guard him, he would have forced me into the same year as him... No, if he truly wanted to ensure his protection, he should have sent a man. After all, the men's and women's dormitories are separate.)
Lewis Miller was overbearing and had an abysmal personality, but he was capable.
Lewis must have understood that this protection mission absolutely could not fail.
And yet, for a plan to protect the prince, it had far too many holes. Sending Monica to this academy in the first place was reckless.
(...Could Lewis-san have some other plan in mind...?)
Still thinking about that, Monica crossed the garden and happened to spot a large fence behind the school building. The area beyond it should still have been part of the academy grounds, but the iron gate was locked to keep anyone from going farther.
A sign hung on the gate: "Old Garden, currently under maintenance."
(...This could work...)
Monica raised the head she had kept bowed all morning and looked up at the iron fence.
It was fairly tall, but it was still less than twice Monica's height.
(...This much...)
After making sure there was no one around, Monica activated her magic without chanting.
A small whirlwind sprang up around Monica's feet. She controlled the wind with magic and gave the ground a light kick. That alone sent her body sailing easily over the iron fence.
What she had just used was an application of aerial magic commonly used by the Magic Corps and similar organizations. True flight magic allowed its user to fly through the sky at high speed, but Monica was fatally lacking in balance and athletic ability, so she could not use it. She could somehow manage a leap over a fence of this height, though.
(...Even that height was plenty scary...)
Clutching her pounding chest, Monica hurried through the Old Garden. An enclosed space like this was the perfect hiding place.
A sign said the garden was under maintenance, but the trees were not as overgrown as Monica had expected. There were hardly any flowers to be seen. Apparently, all the flowers had been moved to the flower beds in the main garden. Only autumn wildflowers were blooming.
(But it's quiet and nice here...)
She felt that she could spend her time here in peace.
Monica's spirits lifted slightly as she searched for a stone that would be just right for sitting on.
But those buoyant steps came to an abrupt halt after she rounded an azalea bush.
At the back of the Old Garden, someone was sitting on the edge of an unused fountain and reading some documents. The person was too far away for Monica to make out his face, but his beautiful honey-colored hair was seared into her memory.
The man noticed Monica and raised his head.
"Who are you?"
"Eek...!"
Monica immediately turned and tried to run away, but her feet tangled, and she stumbled over a stone.
"Myaa!"
With a foolish cry, Monica took a spectacular tumble. The nuts flew out of her pocket and scattered everywhere.
"W-w-whoa..."
As Monica flailed about, trying to get up, she heard a soft chuckle overhead.
"This place should have been locked... It looks like a little squirrel wandered in."
Monica thought in a near panic.
Why was someone in a place that was off-limits? (Setting herself aside.)
It was highly suspicious for someone to be entering a place that should normally be inaccessible. (Setting herself aside.)
Could this person perhaps be an intruder? (Setting herself aside, as usual.)
──Monica's confused train of thought eventually arrived at a single conclusion.
(Could this man... be an assassin after His Highness's life...!?)
Once she started thinking that way, the stack of documents in the man's hands began to look like assassination orders.
Ah, that's right—this man must have been devising a way to assassinate the Second Prince in this very place.
And if this man was an assassin, there was no way he would let Monica, a witness, escape.
A foot pressed into the dirt with a soft crunch. The man was approaching Monica.
"Eek...!"
Half in tears, Monica used wordless magic to summon wind. It had no power to kill, but the powerful gust made the man stagger. The documents in his hands were swept into the air and fluttered down like snow.
The man pressed down his hair, crouched, and picked something up.
What he picked up was not one of the scattered documents. It was a nut that had spilled from Monica's pocket.
"It looks like the wind scattered some of your snacks."
Saying that, the man gently lifted Monica's trembling hand and placed the nut he had picked up in it.
"This is all I could gather. Will you forgive me, little squirrel?"
"...Ah."
The man had picked up Monica's nuts before the documents he had been holding.
If he were an assassin, he would never have shown such kindness.
Then Monica noticed that the documents scattered around her feet were filled with rows of numbers. They were not assassination orders at all. They were simply ledgers.
"Ah, s-s... I-I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"
Monica hurriedly crawled across the ground and gathered the scattered documents. Fortunately, the ledgers listed the dates of each expenditure, so she could determine their approximate order by looking at their contents.
While Monica gathered the documents, the man leisurely picked up her nuts. Apparently, he was not very concerned about the documents.
Monica brushed the dirt from the documents and rearranged them in chronological order. Her being drawn to the numbers in the process was almost instinctive. Whenever Monica saw a sequence of numbers, she could not help but trace it with her eyes.
(...Ah.)
After giving the documents a quick look, Monica felt a prickling sensation in her chest.
For Monica, who regarded numbers as absolute, calculations that did not add up were unbearably unpleasant. They were like a single stain on a perfect painting.
And the documents Monica had just gathered were covered in "stains."
"I'm sorry. Thank you for picking those up."
Saying that, the man placed the remaining nuts in Monica's hand.
Only now did Monica realize that the young man was wearing the academy's uniform, just as she was. He was a student here.
Keeping her head bowed, Monica held out the documents she had gathered and said in a trembling voice,
"Th-th... th-th..."
"Hmm?"
"There are... thirty-nine discrepancies."
After saying only that, Monica thrust the documents at the young man, turned on her heel, and fled.
The young man left behind watched Monica's retreating figure in silence for a while. Once she disappeared from view, he slowly flipped through the documents in his hands.
"...Thirty-nine?"
The young man murmured, narrowing his blue eyes slightly.