Silent Witch

Book 13: Chapter 8: Three Days Before the Operation

Nearly a month had passed since Monica had been approached by Bridget for cooperation when at last Nero awoke from his hibernation.

It was Lynn, the contracted spirit of Louis Miller, who happened to visit the attic room at that exact moment.

Lynn, who hadn't visited in a long while, seemed to have already heard from Louis about the tumultuous magic duel.

Mumbling sleepily and rubbing his eyes with his front paws, Nero listened as Lynn spoke fluently about the magical battles.

"And so, the fierce battle between four men over the honor of the Silent Witch' has now begun. In the presence of the public, the men fall to the cunning schemes of the evil demon lord Hubert Dee. Then, the Silent Witch' arrives, unleashing the sealed forbidden powers to thoroughly pulverize Hubbard D"

"What's that all about? All this exciting stuff happened while I was asleep!"

"Um, um, uhh"

Monica interjected hesitantly, and Lynn, with a doll-like expressionless face, asked, "Yes?" as if it were nothing at all.

"It's just, some of the facts seem to be different"

"Yes, I may have taken some liberties with the story," Rin admitted without a hint of embarrassment, prompting Monica to cover her face with her hands.

Nero, now fully awake, sparkled his golden eyes with excitement.

"Darn, I regret hibernating through it all. If I were there, I'd have crashed the party."

"Yes, I also deeply regret not being present at the scene," Lynn agreed.

Surely, the situation would have become uncontrollable if these two had been there.

After all, Lynn is a high-ranking wind spirit, and Nero, though he hides his true form, is a black dragon. If these two had intervened in the magic duel just the thought would have been terrifying.

It's a good thing Nero was hibernating and that Lynn wasn't there at the time Wait a second?

Monica suddenly remembered.

She had heard through the grapevine that the magical duel's barrier was assisted by Louis Miller. That is to say, Louis was there.

When traveling long distances, Louis usually relies on Lynn's flight magic. Although Louis himself can use flight magic, humans don't possess enough mana to endure long flights.

On the day of the magic duel, Louis was there, but Lynn wasn't? Come to think of it, Lynn hasn't been around much lately

With a slight concern, Monica asked Lynn.

"Um, Lynn, have you been busy lately?"

Lynn nodded briefly and replied matter-of-factly.

"Yes, I've been preoccupied assisting with Louis' schemes."

"Is it okay for you to say that?"

"There hasn't been any order to keep silent."

Most likely, there was no gag order, but it wasn't something to be casually spread around.

This beautiful maid seemed to lack the ability to read the room or to perceive others' feelings.

Nonetheless, Monica wondered what Louis was plotting. While she couldn't help but be curious, she feared that asking too much would also involve her, so she refrained from delving deeper.

Lynn received a status report from Monica, tucked it into her apron pocket, and placed her foot on the windowsill.

"Then, I shall take my leave," she said.

With that, the maid in her uniform gracefully leaped out the window, carried by the spring night breeze.

As the jet-black maid's uniform and the vivid golden hair blended into the night and disappeared from sight, Monica quietly closed the window.

"Nero."

At her unusually solemn voice, Nero twitched his whiskers.

"I'll tell you what happened while you were hibernating."

"That's something you don't want the Sis Maid or her backer, Loulouinpappa, to hear, right?"

Monica nodded and began to summarize the events that occurred while Nero was asleep.

The shady incident of the cursed dragon, the involvement of the Duke of Crockford.

The fact that the Abyss Shaman and the Thorn Witch, both fellow sages, have agreed to assist in investigating the Duke of Crockford.

And that she, along with Bridget, would infiltrate the Duke of Crockford's residence.

After hearing the summary, Nero stroked his chin with his front paw, like a human, and hummed thoughtfully.

"Bridget Ah, I remember. She's the prickly woman who ignored my sexy pose."

"Sexy pose? Wait, what are you talking about?"

Ignoring Monica's question, Nero continued to muse to himself.

"So the prickly woman suspects the glittering prince is an imposter And Monica, what do you think?"

"To be honest, I'm half-convinced There's definitely something off about Prince Felix But I can't quite believe they could conveniently find someone who looks exactly like him"

After all, Felix's face is one of golden proportions, a rare beauty Monica herself admires. Such a person isn't easily found.

As Monica pondered, Nero widened his eyes in wonder.

"Can't something like that be easily done with magic? You know, like the creepy squishy clay guy at the school festival."

Nero is probably referring to Yuan's body manipulation magic. That man had distorted his face like clay to disguise himself as someone else. Indeed, with that magic, it would be possible to impersonate the real Felix.

But that's not possible.

"Body manipulation magic is considered forbidden in the Ridill Kingdom. It seems to have been decriminalized in the Empire a few years ago but according to Bridget, Prince Felix's personality changed ten years ago, so the timeline doesn't quite fit, I think."

To Monica's knowledge, research on body manipulation magic was, until just a few years ago, limited to enhancing body parts, stopping bleeding, or erasing scars.

"Besides, the Duke of Crockford advocates for war with the Empire, so it doesn't seem likely that he would bring in Imperial technology"

Nero hummed in response to Monica's words.

Then, as if hit by a sudden thought, he tapped Monica's knee with his paw.

"I've got it. Surely this glittering prince must be the real prince's twin brother. I've read about such a trick in a novel."

"Surely if there were royal twins, it would be recorded somewhere."

"Tch, true."

Nero gave up easily and swung his tail in disappointment.

Monica exhaled slowly and pulled a letter from her pocket.

It's from the Thorn Witch' Raul Rosenburg, detailing the meeting place for the undercover operation happening in three days.

And it acknowledges Monica's request to bring along "one more companion."

Climbing onto Monica's shoulder to peek at the letter, Nero grinned smugly.

"So, this one more companion' is me, right? First a servant, now a gardener. I'm up for it."

"No, Nero, you'll be staying behind this time."

"N-Nyani!?"

The "one more companion" Monica had written about in her letter was none other than Bridget.

"I'll be mostly absent during the three-day holiday I'd like to ask Nero to guard Prince Felix during that time."

"Tch, if that's the case, I can't help it but hey, make sure to prepare plenty of books to kill time. Or better yet, borrow every Dustin Gnter's works you can get from the library."

"Yes, yes."

While nodding along, Monica felt a small sense of urgency clinging to her thoughts.

What is it? I feel like I'm missing something.

Monica retraced her memories of recent events one by one.

The magic duel incident, the New Year's ceremony, the homecoming, the cursed dragon incident, the school festival, the night out in the pleasure district

"Ah"

What she barely touched upon in her memory was just before encountering Eig in the pleasure district, during her visit at the Star Oracle Witch' Mary Harvey's residence.

"Ive foreseen many futures of the kingdom, especially on the royal family but for the past ten years, Ive been unable to read Prince Felixs destiny."

The number ten years coincided with Bridget's claim about when Felix fell ill and became unreachable.

Bridget speculated that the real Felix might be confined in the Duke of Crockford's residence.

But a worse suspicion crosses Monica's mind.

Could it be that the real His Highness is

A compilation of Nero's nicknames for the characters

Loulouinpappa (other) Louis

Sis Maid Lynn

Orange Curls Isabelle

Glittering Prince Felix

Chilly Guy Cyril

Loud Boy Glenn

Fluffy Lady Eliane

Prickly Woman Bridget

Among these nicknames, Nero seems to have a sense of malice only towards Louis.

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