Chapter 28
"Ah, yes, Neil told me. I heard you're practicing dancing."
When she showed up at the student council room later than usual, Felix said that with a broad smile.
Monica had completely forgotten to report that she would be practicing dancing after school, but it seemed that the thoughtful Neil had contacted Felix. He was an unassuming but highly capable boy.
Felix put the quill he had been holding back in its stand, then turned his attention to Neil.
"So, how is practice going? Do you think you'll pass?"
Neil's gaze wandered from side to side, and sweat beaded on his cheeks despite the room not being hot.
"U-Um... I suppose it depends on how hard we work from here on out..."
"Your Highness, if even the kindhearted Maywood of General Affairs has been driven to say that much, it must be an utterly hopeless spectacle."
Cyril, who had been working on something else nearby, declared this in a stern tone.
Monica could only shrink in on herself, unable to say anything in reply.
Cyril was absolutely right. Today's practice had been a disaster. It was difficult to say that she had made any progress at all.
They had started with basic steps, but Monica tripped over her feet and fell once every few attempts. Glenn, on the other hand, seemed to have good coordination and learned the steps quickly.
Neil and Lana both said that the best way to learn this sort of thing was to learn it with one's body, but Monica could not imagine her body remembering anything.
Ah, if only she could memorize numbers as easily as she liked! As she lamented this silently, Bridget, who was writing documents at a seat by the window, spoke without lifting her face from the papers.
"A student council officer, who should be a model for the student body, falling behind in class... There is a limit to how disgraceful this is."
"I-I'm so... sor..."
"Are you aware that you are causing trouble for Maywood of General Affairs?"
As Monica apologized with a trembling voice, Bridget piled on even sharper words.
The fact that she was causing trouble for someone because of her own shortcomings made Monica's legs freeze.
That's right. Because she couldn't dance properly, she was causing trouble for both Lana and Neil.
Glenn had been terrible at first, but since he had good coordination, he would soon improve beyond Monica's level.
Then Monica would surely cause trouble for Glenn as well. If Glenn failed too because he had been paired with Monica...
"Um, I-I don't think of it as trouble..."
The kindhearted Neil said this while anxiously fumbling for words, and Elliot, who had remained silent until then, twirled his quill and joined in.
"Miss Bridget is right. A student council officer is a model for the student body. Someone who cannot even pass a ballroom dancing exam has no business being an officer. What example does that set for the other students?"
Elliot narrowed his drooping eyes menacingly as he looked at Monica, then raised one corner of his mouth.
"At this rate, this will become an issue of Your Highness's responsibility for appointing her, won't it?"
It had been Felix who appointed the hopeless Monica as treasurer... Therefore, if Monica caused some kind of problem, it would also be the responsibility of Felix, who had chosen her.
Because of her, not only Lana, Neil, and Glenn, but even Felix would be troubled.
That fear and pressure threatened to crush Monica's small body.
I'm sorry for causing trouble. I'll try. I'll do my very best. Please forgive me──such words raced endlessly through her head, but her throat seized up and no voice came out.
As Monica's lips moved soundlessly, Felix spoke quietly.
"Didn't I tell you before? If she makes a blunder, I'll take responsibility."
Whenever Felix spoke, the atmosphere in the student council room changed.
Felix smiled gracefully and declared:
"There's nothing to worry about. Miss Norton is someone I believe in. I'm sure she'll live up to my expectations. Isn't that right, Miss Norton?"
His final words were directed at Monica, accompanied by an exceptionally bright smile.
No, I can't do it, she screamed inwardly, swallowing the words at the very last moment.
Since Prince Felix had told her he expected her to live up to those expectations, Monica had no choice but to do so.
Even so, she could not bring herself to nod readily and lowered her head. Felix stood up and came to stand in front of her. Then he placed a finger beneath her chin and made her look up.
His mysterious blue eyes gazed down at Monica with a languid air.
"You'll live up to my expectations... won't you?"
His slightly plaintive voice would have made most girls blush. But Monica nodded frantically, wearing the expression of a threatened victim.
Monica gathered up every last bit of vocabulary she possessed.
When stating one's intentions, a logical and clear explanation was essential.
"F-First... I think I'd like to begin by analyzing the tempo of the music we'll be using and comparing it with our stride length, then analyzing and memorizing the angles of our feet, hips, and shoulders during the dance!"
Cyril narrowed his eyes at Monica's words, which sounded logical at a glance but were not logical in the slightest, and groaned.
"...Little girl, move your body before you use your head."
He had a point.
＊ ＊ ＊
Back in her attic room, Monica fell facedown onto her bed, sniffling miserably. Her legs hurt from all the unfamiliar exercise.
"Monica, you look like a decrepit old granny."
Nero jumped onto Monica's back as she lay face down and pressed his paw pads into it with a soft, kneading motion. Apparently, he was giving her a massage.
"Ugh, ugh... My whole body hurts..."
"They say getting muscle soreness quickly is proof that your body is young. Lucky you."
Where did he even learn things like that?
Nero pressed his front paws firmly against Monica's sticklike legs, which had neither fat nor muscle.
"I was secretly watching from the window, y'know. Is dancing some kind of competition where whoever steps on their partner's feet the most wins?"
"Ugh, th-that's not it... You know that from the illustrations in the novels, don't you...?"
"That's exactly why it was such a shock. I only knew dancing from the illustrations. I never realized it was such a brutal sport."
Nero leaped onto the desk and deftly turned the pages of the open novel with his front paw.
Then he tapped one particular sentence over and over with his paw.
'...Julia surrendered herself to the music... It was a time just like a dream. The two of them took each other's hands and stepped to the rhythm of their hearts...'
"So these characters stepped on each other's feet according to their hearts. Damn, this totally changes how I interpret this scene."
"...That's not what it means... Oh, come on..."
Monica puffed out her cheeks and glared at Nero, but he merely swished his tail back and forth teasingly.
"Anyway, can't you use magic to fix this in a jiffy? You can use magic without chanting, right? Couldn't you secretly use magic to make yourself better at dancing?"
Magic that would make her better at dancing... If such a convenient thing existed, how wonderful it would be. But magic was not omnipotent.
"...Controlling a body and making it perform specific movements is theoretically possible, but in this country, it would be considered forbidden magic."
Using magic to move a person's body or temporarily strengthen their muscles—in other words, casting magic on the human body—was considered taboo in this country.
Human bodies had no resistance to magical power, so doing this could cause side effects such as magic poisoning. For the same reason, the use of healing magic was also forbidden.
There were even records of past experiments in which a massive amount of magical power was needed just to close a small cut, resulting in the death of the caster, while the person being treated died of magic poisoning.
As Monica explained this, Nero's whiskers twitched.
"Hmm? Wait a minute. 'In this country'? ...Does that mean it's allowed in other countries?"
Monica thought about Nero's question for a moment.
Nero knew little about human affairs, and it would probably be better for him to know what kinds of magic humans were capable of using.
Monica straightened her posture and spoke with a serious expression.
"...Body manipulation, bodily control, physical enhancement, healing... Any magic applied to the human body is considered forbidden magic. The mages' associations across this continent have standardized the handling of forbidden magic, but... there is one exception."
Monica paused, tightening the fist resting on her lap just slightly.
"...The Eastern Empire."
The empire bordering the Kingdom of Ridill to the east was the largest and most powerful country on the continent.
The Empire had only recently undergone a succession, replacing its ruler about a year ago with a young emperor barely past twenty. The young emperor detested old customs and had introduced one new policy after another──one of them was the lifting of the ban on medical magic.
In other words, the emperor had granted limited permission for research into magic that affected the body.
The mages' association within the Empire naturally objected to this policy. But there were rumors that the head of the Imperial association had subsequently died under suspicious circumstances.
...In other words, there were all sorts of things about it that smelled fishy.
"I think physical enhancement and healing magic will develop in the Empire from here on out..."
The lifting of the ban on medical magic in the Empire had also had a major impact on mages in other countries.
Apparently, more and more mages were abandoning their heavily regulated homelands and moving to the Empire.
The flight of talented mages to other countries was a serious headache for every nation, and it had been brought up several times at the Council of the Seven Sages.
More than anything, Monica herself had mixed feelings about the lifting of the ban on medical magic.
"Humans sure have it tough."
Nero snapped the cover of the novel shut and muttered thoughtfully.
"...Yeah."
Monica murmured and closed her eyes.
For a moment, she thought she could faintly see her father's back behind her eyelids.
＊ ＊ ＊
That night, Monica had a nostalgic dream.
She dreamed of looking up at her father's back as he sat at his desk. Her father was always doing complicated calculations, and Monica used the equations as picture books.
Her father was a man of vast knowledge.
Mathematics, physics, pharmacology, medicine──of all the fields her father had mastered, biology was the one he was best at.
──The human body is made up of an enormous number of numbers, you know.
If they could analyze the equations that made humans human, they could save many people suffering from illness.
That was why her father devoted himself to research day after day.
Monica had rarely been able to play with him, but she had been happy enough simply reading the books he had collected and occasionally listening to him talk about his research... She had been happy, and yet.
The scene in the dream changed.
Her father's back was swallowed by red flames and disappeared from view.
Her father was burning. The vast amount of research material he had compiled, the equations he had written out──all of it was burning.
(Stop! Stop! Stop!!)
She wanted to scream, but the words clung to her throat and could not become a voice.
As Monica stood there in a daze, a man looked down at her.
The second prince of this country, whose white Serendia Academy uniform suited him perfectly. Felix Arc Ridill.
'You'll live up to my expectations... won't you?'
Monica stared vacantly up at Felix as he whispered with a sweet smile.
This is a dream.
Felix had nothing to do with her father's death. Today and the memories of the past had merely become hopelessly mixed together.
Even so, whenever someone placed expectations on her, the dark feelings she had experienced in the past tightened around Monica's heart.
A dim anger took control of Monica's heart.
How could she possibly say that she would live up to those expectations?
(...Even when I lived up to expectations, Father was never rewarded for it.)