Chapter 59
After leaving the student council room, Felix checked that no one was around and tapped his breast pocket with a finger.
When the white lizard Will poked his head out of the pocket, Felix quietly gave him an order while keeping watch.
"Earlier, you said that the Spirit King had been summoned, didn't you?"
"Yes. I sensed a gate opening nearby for the summoning of the Spirit King."
"Infiltrate the faculty room and find out whether the staff have been discussing it."
Even as the student council president, it would look suspicious for me to linger in the faculty room without a reason. So Will, who could slip in unnoticed, would be best for the job.
"What will Your Highness do?"
"I'll look around outside to make sure nothing is amiss."
"Very well. If anything happens, summon me at once."
Will crawled out of Felix's pocket and swiftly slithered down the hallway toward the faculty room.
After seeing him off, Felix went outside the school building. Unfortunately, he had not learned detection magic, so he had no choice but to rely on his instincts as he searched... but there was one place he wanted to check first, no matter what.
──It was the old garden—the place where he had first met Monica.
Felix knew that a large-scale barrier protecting the academy had been built into the fountain in the old garden. He had been interested in its spell formula and had even secretly duplicated the key to the old garden so he could spend time there.
The spell formula for the large-scale barrier created by Lewis Miller, one of the Seven Sages, the 〈Barrier Mage〉, was a work of art even to an amateur's eyes.
A spell formula that complex and intricate was not something one could see every day.
(And if there had been an emergency serious enough to summon the Spirit King... if the academy had been attacked from outside, the barrier should have activated.)
In any case, there was no harm in checking the barrier.
With that in mind, Felix headed for the old garden, took out the key he had secretly duplicated before, and opened the gate.
(Come to think of it, I forgot to ask how the little squirrel got through the gate.)
There might even be a hidden passage known only to Monica.
As Felix proceeded with that thought in mind, he sensed someone ahead and stopped.
(...Someone is by the fountain?)
He hid in the shade of a tree and, concealing his presence, cautiously peered toward the fountain. There, he saw a robed man working on something inside it.
The man at work was a young man with chestnut hair tied in a braid and a monocle. Felix recognized his face.
(...〈Barrier Mage〉 Lewis Miller? Why is he here?)
If this was a routine inspection of the barrier, the academy should have been notified beforehand. But Felix had heard no such notice.
Another thing that concerned him was the fact that the outer rim of the fountain had been shattered to pieces.
(The outer rim of the fountain should be a barrier protecting the large-scale barrier... and it's broken? What happened here?)
Lewis was in the fountain, repeatedly muttering an incantation as he adjusted the barrier.
A powerful gust of wind swept through, and a young woman in a maid's uniform descended from above.
Felix had heard that Lewis Miller had contracted with a high-ranking wind spirit. That woman must be the spirit.
"Lewis-dono. The escort is complete."
"Well done. Next, go retrieve the remains of 〈Spiral Flame〉 from the warehouse in the west."
"You really work your spirits hard."
"I can't leave this unattended. This barrier... it needs to be almost completely rebuilt. Even if it was necessary to neutralize 〈Spiral Flame〉, that was quite reckless."
Felix frowned at their conversation.
He had heard the term 〈Spiral Flame〉 before. If he remembered correctly, it was the name of an assassination weapon with extraordinarily high lethality.
...Had it been planted in the warehouse to the west?
It was Felix himself who had been in the western warehouse until moments ago.
(Judging from their conversation, someone was after my life, and Lewis Miller secretly saved me?)
But from Lewis's words, it seemed that Lewis had not acted directly. Someone else had neutralized 〈Spiral Flame〉.
(...Who could that have been?)
Felix held his breath and focused intently on Lewis and the woman's conversation.
Lewis looked down at the fountain with a thoroughly fed-up expression and sighed.
"There's no way to repair this fountain anymore... Well, even if someone from the academy sees it, they'll probably just assume it broke from age... Still, even if it was to protect the Second Prince, summoning the Spirit King just like that..."
Roughly ruffling his neatly arranged chestnut hair, Lewis muttered bitterly.
"The 〈Silent Witch〉-dono really does go too far."
(......Huh?)
The name that leaped from Lewis's mouth made Felix's heart lurch.
(The 〈Silent Witch〉 summoned the Spirit King? She saved me?)
A scene from several months earlier resurfaced in Felix's mind.
A flock of wyverns, each shot between the eyes. Their massive bodies descending as silently as falling snow.
Magic that was impossibly silent and beautiful.
The 〈Silent Witch〉, wielder of that magic, summoned the Spirit King?
To save me?
(I want to see it.)
Like a young child who had just learned that shooting stars existed, Felix's heart began to race.
How majestic and beautiful would it be to watch that wielder of beautiful magic summon the Spirit King?
(The 〈Silent Witch〉 was in this area? Did she happen to be passing by? Or had she infiltrated the academy some time ago? The person I saw at the ceremony was small... but wait, that person isn't necessarily a woman. One of the Seven Sages, the 〈Thorn Witch〉, calls himself a witch despite being a man, so the 〈Silent Witch〉 could be a man as well. If so, they might be infiltrating the middle school division... No, perhaps they are among the teachers? Wait, calm down. It is also possible that they were not infiltrating the academy at all, and merely happened to be passing nearby.)
Felix realized his thoughts were running ahead of him more than usual.
To Felix, the 〈Silent Witch〉 was someone he practically idolized.
I want to see them. I want to meet them. Just once, I want to see them use silent magic.
Felix instinctively covered his upturned mouth with a hand.
When he stifled a soft breath in his palm, he felt his cheeks flush—utterly unlike him.
At this rate, he looked just like a boy searching for his first love.
(Ah, I may have finally found it.)
Felix pressed down hard on his pounding chest through his uniform.
(Something that I, of all people, can become absorbed in.)