Chapter 3
"There was a pitiful girl with no family in a certain monastery in Count Kerbeck's territory in the eastern part of the Kingdom of Ridill. The former Countess of Kerbeck saw the image of her late husband in that pitiful girl and adopted her. The girl was cherished by the former countess and grew up happily, but the elderly countess fell ill and passed away. Having lost her guardian, the girl was despised by the members of the count's family and worked to the bone as the count's daughter's servant. Then, when the count's daughter was accepted into Serendia Academy, the school attended by the children of nobles, the pitiful girl enrolled alongside her as her attendant...
That pitiful girl is the role you will play, Monica-dono."
As Louis laid out this preposterous backstory with utmost seriousness, Monica, drenched in cold sweat, spoke in a faint voice.
"Um... y-you've piled on so much that I can't make heads or tails of it."
Having barely taken in any of the backstory, Monica heard Louis say with a composed expression,
"With circumstances this complicated, no one will pry too deeply. Incidentally, I based the backstory on this book."
Behind Louis, Lin, still dressed in her maid's uniform, smoothly produced a book.
The author's name was Dustin Günther, Nero's favorite novelist lately.
Lin spoke as she offered the book to Monica with deferential care.
"It is a romance in which a heroine bullied by a count's daughter catches the prince's eye and eventually falls into a forbidden romance with him. The count's daughter's vicious and underhanded bullying methods are exceptionally elaborate, making this a most fascinating book."
As Lin explained this, Nero, up on the shelf, swished his tail back and forth with great interest.
There were several Dustin Günther books in the cottage, but they were all old. The book Lin was holding, on the other hand, was his latest work. It was only natural that Nero would be interested.
As Monica fumbled awkwardly, Lin gently placed the book in her hands.
"I shall lend it to you. Please use it as reference material."
What was she supposed to use as reference, and how?
Monica flipped through the pages halfheartedly.
If it were a spellbook, she could read for hours, but she was not familiar with this sort of light entertainment novel, so none of its contents would stick in her head.
The casually selected page showed the heroine with her skirt torn by the mean count's daughter, crying in secret. This count's daughter was quite the villainous young lady. Everything she did was vicious.
"Um... according to the backstory Louis-san came up with, I believe I'll be enrolling alongside Count Kerbeck's daughter..."
"Yes, of course! I explained everything to Count Kerbeck and asked his only daughter, Isabelle-jō, to cooperate."
Monica's eyes flew open.
"E-even with such an outrageous backstory!? What about the trouble this will cause the Kerbeck family...!"
After all, if they were to stick to Louis's backstory, Count Kerbeck and Isabelle-jō would end up as villains.
Seeing how much this troubled Monica, Louis said with an air of complete confidence,
"Does Count Kerbeck's territory sound familiar?"
"Huh? Um..."
Monica was good with numbers, but she was not particularly good at remembering people's names or place-names.
Even so, the words Count Kerbeck's territory struck a faint chord in Monica's memory.
"Ah... the dragon subjugation..."
"Precisely. Three months ago, the region where you drove off the Black Dragon of Worgan... that very region is Count Kerbeck's territory. The count is deeply grateful to you. He says he would gladly do anything for 〈Silent Witch〉-dono."
Count Kerbeck was deeply grateful to 〈Silent Witch〉 and had prepared a banquet to thank her for subjugating the dragon.
But Monica had declined and fled back to the cottage as though running away. Thus, Monica had never met Count Kerbeck or his daughter.
Monica had been secretly terrified that declining the banquet might have offended him, but the count had apparently taken it as proof that "〈Silent Witch〉-sama is such a remarkably modest person!"
"I have already told Count Kerbeck and his daughter about the backstory I just described."
"Th-that backstory... the one where I'm the former countess's adopted daughter, despised by the count's family...?"
"Yes, that one. When I told him the backstory, Count Kerbeck got completely into it, saying, 'Well, isn't it just like a ballad?'"
"H-he got into it...?"
"Isabelle-jō, for her part, was positively beaming and said, 'So this is the villainess who is all the rage these days!'"
"I-is it really that popular...?"
Apparently, the novel Louis had used as reference material was wildly popular in the royal capital. Isabelle-jō was such a devoted fan that she even had the latest releases shipped in from the capital.
"Isabelle-jō is working hard on her role even now, so that she can become the villainess who bullies you."
"............"
"So, you will infiltrate the academy, devote yourself to guarding the Second Prince while being bullied by Isabelle-jō, and so on. What, the role of a bullied girl should be right up your alley, shouldn't it?"
"............"
Monica could not answer. She was half-conscious by that point.
In the first place, once Louis had secured Count Kerbeck's cooperation, he had never intended to let Monica escape.
＊ ＊ ＊
Even after Louis and Lin had left the cottage, Monica remained slumped on the floor in a daze.
Louis had said he would come to pick her up at the same time tomorrow and told her to pack her belongings, but honestly, she had no idea where to begin.
"Hey, Monica. You still breathing? Hellooo?"
Nero's front paw gave Monica's leg a series of soft pats as she sat there limply.
Normally, the soft sensation of those squishy paw pads would have soothed her, but Monica had no room for that sort of comfort now.
"What am I going to do...? I can't...! A school for nobles... It's scary... I can't do guard duty...!"
Monica had once attended Minerva, the foremost institution for mage education.
Knowledge of magic had once been monopolized by the nobility, and even now, most aspiring mages were children of nobles. In particular, the overwhelming majority were younger sons who could not inherit their families' titles, along with noble daughters.
That was why commoner children who aspired to become mages either ended up running errands for noble students or became targets of bullying. Monica was one of the latter.
Monica's severe shyness and constant fearful, fidgeting behavior made her easy prey for the children of nobles.
Things had become especially unbearable after she learned to use magic without incantations, when jealousy and resentment were added to the mix. As a result, Monica spent nearly all her time in the laboratory of the professor who had always looked after her, devoting herself entirely to the study of magic.
Monica had graduated from Minerva at the age of fifteen after skipping grades, but during her final year, she hardly attended class at all, instead shutting herself away in the laboratory.
If her professor had not recommended her for membership in the Seven Sages, she would probably still be hiding in that laboratory now... though even after becoming one of the Seven Sages, she was still hiding away in a mountain cottage like this.
"I can't... I can't do it... What am I going to do, Nero...?"
"Then why don't you run away?"
At Nero's suggestion, Monica trembled violently and shook her head so hard it looked as though it might come off.
"If I run away, they'll p-probably... k-kill me...!"
"Scary! Would he really go that far? What was his name again? That, uh... Lunlun Louis, or something?"
"Nero... if you call Louis-san that... he'll turn you into cat hot pot, so please stop..."
Monica covered her face with both hands and hung her head.
Louis Miller, 〈Barrier Mage〉, was a beautiful young man who suited aristocratic manners perfectly, but he was also one of the country's foremost battle mages. Monica knew that beneath those white gloves were impressive calluses from punching.
"If I run away... Louis-san will chase me all the way to the ends of the earth...!"
"Hey, is that guy really human? Maybe he's not one of the Seven Sages at all, but a warden of the underworld?"
"That's how scary he is!"
Monica understood that there was no escape left for her. Even so, scary things were still scary.
As Monica sniffled miserably, Nero wagged his tail and suggested,
"All right, then let's look on the bright side. You're going to guard a prince from now on. Princes are, like, really handsome, right? All sparkly and stuff, right? Human females all love princes, right?"
"...I don't really know."
"The Seven Sages go to ceremonies and stuff, right? Haven't you seen the prince's face?"
Monica slowly shook her head.
Because Monica was prone to stage fright and disliked crowded places, she always kept her robe's hood pulled low and stared at the floor throughout ceremonies, holding her breath until they ended. She had not even properly seen the king's face when he was seated on the throne.
"Hey, Monica. I was thinking..."
"...Yeah?"
"Not knowing what the Second Prince, the person you're supposed to guard, looks like is kind of a fatal flaw, isn't it?"
"...What am I going to do?"
If Monica were to tell Louis Miller outright that she did not know what the Second Prince looked like... he would surely greet her with a breathtakingly beautiful smile, bring his fist down on her head, and shower her with every insult he could think of. Imagining it, Monica collapsed face-first onto the floor and dissolved into soft, helpless sobs.