Book 2: Chapter 4: A Witch with Her Lonely Meal Meets An Assassin (?) (1/2)
Most Serendia students would have their lunch at the school cafeteria.
The school's cafeteria was staffed with top-notch chefs and waiters. In fact, every single dish has been tested for poisoning, so they can eat with ease.
However, a number of wealthy students would bring their own cooks and waiters into the dormitory. After having them cook in the dorm's cafeteria, they would eat their meal in their own rooms. Even the second prince, who was the subject of Monica's protection, also had such behavior.
T-Then, I don't really need to go to the cafeteria…
After making excuses for herself, Monica sneaked out of the classroom just at the lunch break start.
All the students in Monica's class were moving towards the cafeteria, but Monica went against the flow and went out of the school building.
She had put a handful of nuts in her pockets, so she could eat it in a less crowded place.
For Monica, finding quiet places has always been her specialty. At the time she was still a Minerva student, she always spent a lot of time holed up in her secret hiding place, reading and doing calculations.
Since today's weather was clear and not too windy, Monica then decided to take a walk outside.
Serendia Academy occupied a very large area, and its gardens were beautifully arranged. Now the summer flowers were over, the buds of the autumn roses were beginning to swell.
In general, the season of admission for schools attended by nobles usually set in autumn, while for commoners was set in spring.
The reason for this was because nobles were busy during the social activities from spring to summer, while commoners were especially busy during the harvest festival in autumn. Therefore, they tended to avoid those periods to make it for admission.
Although Monica came from common families, she had never been enrolled in commoners school. Since her father was very knowledgeable, she was taught everything by him. But after his death, she went through many twists and turns before being adopted by someone who was her father's apprentice and enrolled at Minerva, an institution for training magicians.
It was also one of the reasons Monica was not used to living in a group. Even after becoming its student, she didn't have any people that could be considered as friends.
Despite that, because of her talent for magic, she was given a place at Minerva. Only to make her shut herself in the laboratory.
But, despite having studied in that school, she was still unable to display her talent here. Although Serendia Academy itself has a system to let its students choose their curriculum… but, that would be a problem if she had to perform her magic in public.
Monica, who has a social anxiety disorder, can only use magic with no chanting.
Also, if she performed her no-chant magic there, her identity as [Silent Witch] would be exposed.
Monica let out a sigh and touched the ribbon pinned in her hair.
I haven't… even been able to thank her.
The words she wanted to say were always stuck in Monica's throat then swallowed without being spoken.
Let alone talking to my classmate properly… now I had to get close to the second prince, what am I supposed to do?
To protect the second prince, she must get close to him. But he was in the third year while Monica was in the second year. There's already a difference in grade, to begin with.
If Louis really wanted me to be the second prince's secret guard, he should have at least transferred me in the same grade as him. Well, if he really needs a reliable guard, he should have sent a man. I mean, boys' and girls' dorms were located separately.
Although Louis Miller acted so outrageous and has an awfully bad personality, he himself was very competent.
He also knew that he couldn't fail this mission.
And yet, there were too many holes in the whole plan of ”to protect the prince”. In the beginning, sending Monica to that school was already reckless.
Maybe Louis has other plans in mind…
Thinking about this, Monica crossed the garden until reached the back of the school building. There, she found a large fence. That place was supposed to be part of the school grounds as well, but because the gate was closed, she can't go any further from this.
There was a sign on the gate that said, ”Old garden, currently under maintenance.”
If it was this place…
After looking down for the entire morning, Monica lifted her head to look up at the iron fence.
It was pretty tall in its own right, but it was still no more than twice Monica's height.
I think this height was still okay…
Monica made sure that no one was around before she invoked her magic with no chanting.
A small whirlwind swirled around her feet. After manipulating the wind with her magic, she lightly kicked the ground. With just that, her body lightly flying over the iron fence.
This was an application of flight magic which was often used by the Magic Corps. Originally, flight magic was used to fly at high speed, but Monica, who was fatally lacking in a sense of balance and motor skills, was unable to use flight magic. However, she could manage to use it to jump over a height like this.
Even at this height, doing this was still scary.
Holding her throbbing heart, Monica walked quickly through the old garden. This kind of enclosed space was the perfect place to hide.
Although there was a sign saying that the area was under maintenance, the trees were not as desolate as expected. However, there were hardly any flowers around. Apparently, all the flowers had been moved to the flower beds outside. What was blooming here were only autumn wildflowers.
But it is nice and quiet.
Thinking that she would be able to relax here, she felt a little better. Then she began looking for a good stone to sit on.
However, her buoyant steps came to a halt when she turned her gaze at one of the azalea bushes.
Behind it was someone sitting at the edge of the now unused fountain reading some papers. The distance between them made it difficult to see his face, but his beautiful honey-colored hair could be seen.
The man noticed Monica and turned his head.
”Who is there?”
”Hiiek!”