Chapter 15
Felix led Monica by the hand to the archives room right next to the student council room.
The beautifully decorated, locked cabinets were crammed full of documents.
"The cabinets at the back contain the rosters of students from past years. Next to them are the current students' rosters, and next to those are the teachers' records. Records relating to school events are over here."
After explaining what was stored in each cabinet, Felix stopped in front of the one at the far right.
"This is the cabinet for financial records."
Felix took a ring of keys from his jacket pocket, unlocked the cabinet, and removed some documents.
The archives room contained a worktable and chairs. Felix set the documents down there, then looked at Monica and smiled.
"I'd like you to review the accounting records from the past five years."
Most people would have frowned, wondering why they had to do something like that.
But the ledger before Monica had her practically itching to get started.
Lately, she'd been doing nothing but studying history, languages, and the like, leaving her few chances to work with numbers.
All the work Monica had stockpiled at the mountain lodge had been distributed among other people by Lewis Miller.
In short, Monica was starved for numbers.
"U-um, i-is that really okay?"
When she asked in a voice brimming with undisguised joy, Felix nodded. "Of course."
"As for your classes, I'll speak with your teacher. Could you finish it by lunch...?"
"Yes!"
As soon as she answered, Monica began flipping through the ledger with gusto.
Monica's eyes shone brightly as she threw herself into work with enthusiasm for the first time in a while.
＊ ＊ ＊
(...Now then.)
Watching Monica's profile as she got to work on the ledger, Felix casually let his ring of keys fall from his pocket.
The keys gave a light jingle, but Monica showed no sign of noticing. Still, he'd dropped them along the path between the worktable and the cabinets, so she was bound to notice them when she moved to the cabinets.
Felix departed the student council room, leaving Monica behind in the archives room.
In the hallway, the overly serious Cyril Ashley was waiting right beside the door.
The student council room's door was built to be highly soundproof, making it difficult to eavesdrop. Even so, it was easy to imagine Cyril pressing his ear to the wall and doing his best to listen in on the conversation inside.
"Your Highness, that little brat..."
"I gave her a task."
The moment Felix said this, Cyril's eyes flew wide and he recoiled. When silent, he had the intelligent, cool features of a handsome man, but his emotions were far too volatile.
"Your Highness! If you needed someone to do some work, you could have ordered me—Cyril Ashley—instead of entrusting it to a little brat like that...!"
"Could you finish reviewing five years' worth of accounting records by lunch?"
Cyril's words caught in his throat, but he quickly composed himself and answered.
"...If that is your command, Your Highness."
Both Felix and Cyril knew how extensive the accounting records were. Even if they started now, finishing by lunch would be a close call.
Someone accustomed to student council paperwork might make it in time, but anyone else would need another half day.
"Your Highness, are you perhaps having that little brat review the accounting records? Even though she isn't even a member of the student council?"
Cyril knit his brows in confusion, but then his expression changed as though he'd realized something, and his face lit up.
"I see! This is punishment for that little brat who disrespected you, Your Highness! If she fails to finish in time, she can be punished for disobeying your command!"
Without saying whether Cyril was right or wrong, Felix simply gave him his next order.
"She won't be able to attend her morning classes. Could you tell Monica Norton's homeroom teacher that I need to borrow her?"
"Yes, Your Highness!"
Having been given an assignment, Cyril headed for the faculty room with a spring in his step, almost skipping.
As Felix watched him go with a faint smile, a tiny, tiny voice came from his breast pocket.
"...Is that really all right?"
A small lizard poked just its head out of Felix's breast pocket. Its scales were pale bluish white, and it had deep blue eyes. Such coloration was utterly impossible for an ordinary lizard.
Felix merely lowered his eyes to look at the lizard in his breast pocket.
"Do you have a question?"
"You dropped the keys on purpose, didn't you?"
The lizard whispered to Felix, opening and closing its tiny mouth.
Felix chuckled deep in his throat.
"Will, what do you think of Monica Norton?"
"I think she's an unusual human."
"Well, that's true too... The important point is which faction she's with."
Monica Norton had been going in and out of the off-limits old garden, and had even witnessed Felix sneaking out of the boys' dormitory at night... It was hard to believe she was merely an ordinary person who happened to be there.
"There are three possibilities. First, she is an overseer Grandfather sent to keep an eye on me. Second, she is a bodyguard sent by His Majesty. Third, she is an assassin who came to take my life."
"I don't think it's one or two. If she were acting on orders from Duke Crockford or His Majesty, she would be... well... far too... um..."
That's right, Monica Norton was, by anyone's standards, a complete incompetent.
And Duke Crockford would never use someone so inept. The same goes for His Majesty.
That left the third possibility—the idea that Monica Norton was an assassin after Felix's life—as the most likely one, but...
"For someone who came to take my life, she's awfully inept, isn't she?"
"...Yes."
"For starters, she didn't seem to know what I looked like."
If Monica Norton had been an assassin after Felix's life, she could have attacked him in the old garden.
To top it off, when Monica saw Felix sneaking out of the boys' dormitory, she made the spectacular blunder of saying, "I thought you were an assassin after His Highness."
"Your Highness, isn't it also possible that she's just an ordinary female student who doesn't know anything?"
"That's why I tested her."
If Monica Norton had come to this academy with some sort of purpose, she would surely rummage through the documents in the archives room... using the key Felix had dropped.
"You see, I've stretched an extremely fine thread across every cabinet door in that archives room. If she opened one, I'd know at a glance."
If Monica had used the key she picked up to search through the documents in the cabinets, Felix would immediately know which documents she had been looking for.
That was why Felix had told Monica which cabinets held which documents.
"Now, shall we wait until lunch? By noon, her mask will come off."
"...And if it doesn't?"
At the white lizard's question, Felix narrowed his blue eyes and smiled.
"I rather like small animals. Don't you think it would be amusing to keep one in the student council room?"
Felix's tone made it hard to tell whether he was joking or serious, and the white lizard smoothly slipped back into the depths of his pocket.
"...I'm sorry I can't transform into a small animal. I will strive to improve."
Felix laughed aloud—a rarity for him—and left with a light step.