Chapter 4
Louis Miller, the 〈Barrier Mage〉, who had managed to foist the job of guarding the Second Prince onto Monica, was staying in a village near the mountain cottage where Monica lived.
This village was a full day's journey from the royal capital even by carriage. While stuffing his cheeks with stewed meat, Louis sighed, thinking, Ah, I want to get home soon to my beloved wife.
It wasn't that Louis disliked eating in public dining halls, but he did not want to attract attention at the moment, so he had his meals brought to a private room at the inn.
Across from Louis, his contracted spirit, Lin, was quietly reading a book. As a spirit without a sense of taste, she did not join Louis for meals.
The cool beauty in a maid's uniform read expressionlessly, but eventually she shut her book with a snap and spoke.
"Louis-dono, I have a question."
"What is it? While we're eating?"
"Why did you ask 〈Silent Witch〉-dono to guard the Second Prince?"
Assuming it was a question about the book, Louis narrowed his eyes slightly and wiped his mouth with a napkin.
"State your opinion, Lynnsbellfield."
"After having a magic tool he made with great care destroyed in three days, Louis-dono, consumed by anger, tried to vent his frustration by taking it out on the timid 〈Silent Witch〉-dono."
"What do you take your master for?"
"I understand you to be a twisted person who enjoys bullying the weak."
Louis's temple twitched beneath his smile as his contracted spirit delivered that assessment without the slightest hesitation.
"Bring the person who spread that assessment of me here. I'll trample them so thoroughly that their head will sink into the floor."
"Your master, Gideon Rutherford-dono."
Louis Miller, arrogant and condescending to everyone, had few people before whom he could not hold his head high. One of them was his master, the aged Gideon Rutherford.
Louis clicked his tongue ill-manneredly, then shook his head with theatrical exaggeration. His handsome face assumed a mournful expression, but that single click of his tongue had ruined the whole effect.
"Oh, how lamentable. Everyone misunderstands me."
When Lin echoed, "Misunderstands?" Louis replied with utmost seriousness.
"Of course bullying the strong is more fun than bullying the weak."
It was a dangerous line of thought. More importantly, he had failed to deny the part about being twisted.
Lin tilted her head with an expressionless face. In the book she had just been reading, characters tilted their heads that way when they had a question. She had simply imitated the gesture, but combined with her blank expression, it made her look like a doll with a broken neck.
"Louis-dono, who has been relentlessly tormenting 〈Silent Witch〉-dono, certainly had the look of a scumbag who enjoys bullying the weak, though."
"〈Silent Witch〉 is weak? What are you saying?"
Louis snorted derisively at Lin's objection.
A graceful smile played around Louis's mouth... but his eyes glittered brightly behind his monocle, shining with an almost combative light.
"The person who once beat me so thoroughly in the magic battle held to select the Seven Sages was none other than that little girl."
Louis Miller specialized in combat using sorcery and had once served as commander of the Magic Corps.
Having participated in countless dragon subjugations and slain more than a hundred dragons, he was one of the most formidable battle mages in the country.
It was the 〈Silent Witch〉, then only fifteen, who had defeated him in a magic battle.
"I, Louis Miller, the 〈Barrier Mage〉, can state this with certainty: that girl is a monster."
Louis emphatically declared the small girl who could not meet people's eyes and was always looking down, trembling and fidgeting, to be a "monster."
Louis folded his fingers together, rested his slender chin on them, and narrowed his eyes.
"His Majesty ordered me to guard the Second Prince in secret, but I did not take His Majesty's words at face value."
"What do you mean?"
"I believe His Majesty's true intention was for me to secretly monitor the Second Prince."
The Second Prince was an exceptionally capable person. He excelled at both academics and swordsmanship, and despite still being a student, his considerable diplomatic skill had earned him the trust and confidence of nobles both within and outside the kingdom.
Above all, his beautiful appearance, inherited from his mother, and his gentle smile were said to charm everyone who saw them.
He handled everything flawlessly and was highly skilled at winning people's hearts.
That prince, the grandson of Duke Clockford, the most powerful grand noble in the country, was Felix Arc Ridill.
(...But I can't fathom him.)
Beneath the Second Prince's gentle, affable smile, Louis sensed something horrible stirring—an unsettling quality that made him uneasy.
Yet whenever Louis tried to uncover the source of that unease, Felix smoothly slipped away with his gentle smile.
"The Second Prince is quite a crafty one. We can't outmaneuver him through conventional means."
That was why Louis had chosen Monica as his collaborator.
That girl, whose monstrous talent and timid personality were utterly at odds with each other—everything about her was mismatched.
"I told you, didn't I? I want to bully the strong."
"So you mean to bully both the 'strong' Second Prince and 〈Silent Witch〉-dono at the same time?"
Louis did not say whether that was correct. He merely smiled beautifully.
His beautiful smile, which would probably have charmed most women, was no less captivating than the Second Prince's... but Lin showed no particular reaction and spoke calmly.
"I understand. I revise my assessment of Louis-dono to 'a twisted person who enjoys bullying the strong.'"
"Revise the 'twisted person' part as well."
＊ ＊ ＊
──Time rewinds to two days before 〈Silent Witch〉 Monica Everett was forced to accept the Second Prince's guard duty and collapsed in tears.
In a room in the men's dormitory of Serendia Academy, one of the Kingdom of Ridill's most prestigious schools, Felix Arc Ridill, the Second Prince of the Kingdom of Ridill, reclined on a sofa and listlessly watched his attendant open a gift.
The royal crest was used on the wrapping. In other words, the gift was from his father, the King. Yet Felix's gaze toward the wrapping was cold.
The only person in the room besides Felix was his young attendant. The attendant took a brooch wrapped in silk from the package, inspected it, and respectfully held it out to Felix.
"What is the stated occasion?"
"It is said to be a gift to celebrate your advancement to the next grade."
"I see."
With little apparent interest, Felix picked up the brooch with his gloved hand and held it up to the light.
The large sapphire set in its center revealed faint magical script deep within its royal-blue surface when held to the light.
"As I thought, it's a magic tool. Will, can you tell what sort of spell formula has been incorporated into it?"
As he spoke, Felix placed the brooch in the hand of the attendant behind him.
The young attendant called Will shifted his extremely pale blue eyes as he read the spell formula inside the sapphire.
"...It appears to be a defensive barrier. It must be a magic tool meant to protect Your Highness."
"Is that all it does?"
"...No. There are other spell formulas incorporated into it as well. Presumably, when the defensive barrier activates, it transmits Your Highness's current location elsewhere."
As Will explained, Felix lightly brushed back his honey-blond hair, put on an obviously troubled expression, and sighed.
"That is troublesome. It would be awkward if it activated accidentally while I was out enjoying the nightlife."
"..."
"In that case, let us do this."
Felix fastened the brooch to Will's chest.
Then he pulled a sword meant for self-defense out from beneath the bed and swung it straight down toward the attendant's crown as he stood there in confusion.
A film of white light sprang up between the wide-eyed, frozen Will and the sword Felix had brought down, catching the blade.
When the film of light finally vanished, the sapphire pinned to Will's chest gave a faint crack and split.
"Oh, so that's what happens."
Murmuring in a voice utterly devoid of interest, Felix sheathed the sword.
Will removed the broken brooch from his chest and took the cracked sapphire out of its setting. An exceedingly intricate spell formula was engraved on the setting.
"...An advanced composite barrier spell. It is not something an ordinary practitioner could create. The only person who could make something like this would probably be Louis Miller, the 〈Barrier Mage〉."
"Hmm?"
Felix knew that Louis Miller was aligned with the First Prince, even among the Seven Sages.
Why had the King given Felix a magic tool made by Louis Miller of the First Prince's faction as a gift to celebrate his advancement?
"Come to think of it, one member of the Magic Corps had infiltrated the dining hall staff, and another had infiltrated the cleaning staff... Are they Louis Miller's agents as well?"
"Shall I dispose of them?"
"Yes. Take care of them as you see fit. They are presumably here under the pretext of guarding me, but if they start sniffing around too much, hint that they will make an enemy of House Clockford."
The academy was under the authority of Felix's grandfather, Duke Clockford. Even the King could not interfere easily.
...That must have been precisely why the King had moved Louis Miller.
Felix plucked the brooch from Will's hand, rolled it around in his palm, and smiled faintly.
"It seems His Majesty has issued me a warning."
Will never dared say, "Then you might want to refrain from going out at night."
To Will, Felix was his absolute master.
Thus, even when Felix fastened a magic-tool brooch of unknown effectiveness to him and swung a sword down at him, Will did not complain.
Felix sat down on the sofa, crossed his legs elegantly, and carelessly tossed the shattered sapphire onto the table.
"This appears to have been defective."
"...I shall report that to His Majesty."
Will gathered up the remains of the brooch and wrapped them again.
Watching this, Felix gave a small yawn. Then he smoothly pulled off his scarf and loosened his collar. His exposed pale neck was dotted with red marks left by a recent tryst.
"I returned late yesterday, so I'm sleepy. I'll take a nap. Wake me when it's time for the tea party. It's Miss Bridget's tea party today, so skipping it would be a hassle."
With that, Felix closed his eyes without waiting for Will's reply.
Will bowed and said, "I understand," then began silently gathering up the fragments of the brooch again.