Book 2: Chapter 6: Silent Witch Become a Captive (1/2)
In the attic, there were no curtains, so when the morning sun came, it would shine directly into the room.
When Monica woke up, she took the coffee pot out of her luggage bag before fixing her appearance.
When Monica left her cabin, the only things she packed in her luggage bag were a coffee pot, a mill, coffee beans, and her black cat, Nero. Having lived her life without interacting with people, she hardly has anything important.
She activated her no-chanting spell and filled the coffee pot with drinking water.
Water that has been produced by spells cannot be used for drinking because it contains a small amount of mana. Since the human body can't store too much mana, consuming a large amount of water containing mana will lead to mana poisoning. That's why Monica usually fetches water from a well.
However, a small amount would not be a problem. As a Seventh Sage, Monica has a higher tolerance for mana than most people. So she will not easily suffer from mana poisoning.
Monica poured that water into the pot, ground the coffee beans in the mill, and set them in the pot.
He also took out a small iron tripod, placed a pot on it, then started a fire with no chanting spell.
To maintain a certain level of firepower and positional coordinates, some precise techniques, and manipulations were required.
Nero, who had been lazily lounging on the bed in the form of a black cat, looked at Monica in exasperation.
”Aren't you wasting too much of your skill, using that just for a coffee?”
”A-After all… I can't just use the kitchen without permission.”
After making excuses in a low voice, Monica poured a cup of coffee from the pot.
The hot, bitter coffee flowing over her tongue woke her up with a clear head.
Suddenly, the words of her late father came to her mind.
——Start by cutting down on the useless things. Then, the remaining number will be quite simple.
What did he mean by useless things, I wonder.
For example, to Monica, coffee in the morning was not a useless thing, it was an important thing. But to someone who doesn't like coffee, it may seem useless.
If it was a mathematical equation, I'd know the answer right away.
Deciding the things that considered ”useless things” in people's minds was very difficult.
Monica puffed into her cup and glanced at the ribbon and nuts still on the desk.
Until now, Monica had never cared about her hair. So, if it had been the Monica of the past, she would have been able to say that ribbons were a useless thing.
It was the same with the nuts. She was not very interested in eating, so if she didn't have any nuts, she would just skip lunch altogether.
Monica picked some nuts from her desk and chewed on them. She didn't usually taste them, but now she felt like eating them with much delicacy, so she tasted them thoroughly and swallowed them.
”Hey, what kind of things that considered not useless things to you, Nero?”
”Oh? What's up? What's with the philosophical questions all of a sudden? Wow, am I smart and cool enough to know the word ”philosophical”? Praise me!”
”Yeah, great, great.”
When Monica complimented him crudely, Nero said, ”I got it!” then pointed at Monica with his right paw.
”For me, your compliments are not useless things. So praise me more! Praise me! If you want, write a ballad, write a novel, paint a portrait for all posterity!”
The last part was quite absurd, but the fact that Monica's compliment was not a useless thing to Nero made Monica a little happier.
”Glad… to hear that…”
”Also, it's better to enjoy useless things… ‘Life is full of waste. Then why don't we enjoy it?' Dustin Günther wrote about it in one of his novels.”
For Monica, who was struggling to survive, enjoying useless things was quite a challenge.
Even then…
”I… I'll give it a shot…”
With that, Monica picked up the ribbon on her desk.
——You know, Monica, the harder the challenge, the more fun it becomes.
The words of her late father came back gently to Monica.
＊ ＊ ＊
Lana Colette was sitting in her seat, resting her head on her hand and flipping through a thin booklet. Her hairstyle and hair ornaments were different from yesterday.
Monica checked Lana's appearance and approached her, berating her trembling legs.
”Um…”
”What?”
Kept facing the booklet, she moved her eyes to look at Monica. Then, her eyes widened.
”What the heck with that hairstyle!?”
Monica's hairstyle was not like the one Lana had done for her yesterday, nor was it her usual pigtails.
It was an avant-garde hairstyle, with unnaturally bulging-out hair on top of her head along two pigtails forcibly affixed to it.
”Um, I wanted to do it like you did for me yesterday.”
”Even your pigtails were still better than this hairstyle!”
”……huh?”
After being yelled at by Lana, Monica pulled a ribbon with a pin from her pocket and offered it to Lana.
”Umm… thank you… very much… for what you did yesterday.”
Remembering her practice with Nero yesterday, Monica thanked him in a faint voice.
Her speech sounded like she was about to die, but she managed to finish it.
However, when Lana saw the ribbon Monica offered her, she snorted and turned away.
”I don't want it. That stuff's not popular anymore.”
Lana's brusque attitude prevented any further conversation.
If it had been the usual Monica, she would have just backed off here.
But Monica stayed there, struggling to squeeze out her voice.
”C-Can you teach me… H-How to do it like yeshterday?”
She bit her tongue.
Monica, who was facing down completely red up to her ears, didn't notice that.
Lana's mouth was twitching as if she was trying to hold in her laughter.
”I-It can't be helped! Come on, sit down here!”
Lana said haughtily then pointed using her chin.
Monica did as she was told, brought her own chair and sat down on it, and Lana quickly undid Monica's hair.
”Gosh, how did you manage to get such a strange haircut, I wonder! It's just unbelievable! Hey, do you have a comb?”
”N-No.”
When Monica said it in a weak voice, Lana tugged on Monica's hair.
”You don't even have that and now you say you want to learn from me?”
”I-I'm sorry…”