"‘The more a person has been oppressed and hurt, the more will he understand the pain of others'—You know, I hate that person who says that line the most."
Looking into Monica's muddled face closely, Yuan shoved his finger into Monica's mouth, then stirred it calmly.
Hearing Monica's groan, Yuan's smirk broadened, turning it into a crescent moon.
"But from my understanding, the more a person has been oppressed and hurt, the more he knows how to trample and hurt others. Isn't that the case with you, The Human Hating Silent Witch?"
His slim fingertips carefully traced her rows of teeth. He then teasingly plucked Monica's small tongue with his fingertips.
"I guess you didn't hide any self-poison behind your teeth."
"…*groan*…"
Monica let out a weak groan and Yuan released his fingers from Monica's tongue. After that, he trailed his finger over Monica's frail body, then continued by stroking up Monica's neck and thin belly as he enjoyed the small shiver she gave each time.
"Now, I wonder what should I do with her… Since my job is done, you don't mind if I have a little fun with her, do you?"
"Have you confirmed that matters?"
"Yeah, I've confirmed it at a close range after pretending to be getting rid of a spider from him. It's the work of the traitor Arthur… That person's prediction was right."
What were they talking about? That thought raced in Monica's mind as she tried hard to hold in her consciousness.
Considering how many times he's got a chance to kill Felix when he approached him, everybody had thought that the goal of the man called Yuan was to assassinate him, even Monica also did think so. And yet it ended after he's done confirming on some matter.
What did he want to confirm to even have taken the trouble and effort to kill Eugene Pittman, took his place, and approached him as Cyril Ashley?
Did their goal to approach His Highness was truly to confirm on some matters? But, for what reason? Also, who's that Arthur person?
With her dulled thought, Monica can't connect all these pieces of information even when she wants to. It's just like scooping water with bare hands, even you could contain it, the clues she had assembled, in the end, will slip away through the fingers gaps. Even so, she still holding her consciousness, but then Yuan stroked her cheek caressingly.
"Now, what should I do with this girl? I'd like to teach her various things, from pain to ecstasy… but that person might desire to have her talent on his side."
"I think feeding her some drug and discipline in between regularly would prove a better choice to make her obey."
"You're right. It might be troublesome if she put some resistance later. Let's do your suggestion."
"Well then, I will prepare the drug…"
Heidi took out a small medicine bottle from her pocket and opened the lid. The drug was different from what she used on the handkerchief earlier, it was more potent and addictive.
Once a person ingests the drug, he will be filled with a strong sense of intoxication, but when the drug wears off, he will experience withdrawal symptoms and crave more of the drug. The end result of a person who is addicted to this drug is… a cripple.
Monica quickly gritted her teeth and tried to resist.
However, with no strength in her mouth, Yuan easily pried it open and Heidi was placing the medicine bottle near Monica's mouth.
The thick, viscous liquid was about to fall into Monica's mouth.
…n-no…
Tears welled up in the corners of Monica's eyes—and then, *shatter*, the window crashed open and a man jumped in. He's a wavy black-haired man with glittering golden eyes, dressed in old-fashioned clothes.
In the situation where a bottle of medicine was hanging near her face and the lips of her were wet, Monica let out a faint voice.
"Ne… Ro…"
Nero, who had been transformed into a human, used his inhuman leaping ability to leap from the window frame to Monica at once and mercilessly kicked out at Heidi, who was attempting to drug Monica.
Yuan reacted as quickly as he could and pointed his knife at Nero. However, Nero grabbed Yuan's wrist holding the knife and punched him hard in the face with his other hand.
Nero lifted Monica up from the floor and sniffed her.
His nose immediately noticed the source of the strange smell. It was the drug that Heidi had tried to feed Monica. And some small amount of that highly viscous liquid had spilled on Monica's lips.
Nero bent down and licked the potion off Monica's lips.
Heidi's eyes widened in disbelief when she saw the scene.
"That drug would rob people's consciousness in one lick, how can you…"
"A drug on this level won't work on me."
Nero snorted as he glared at Heidi and Yuan while holding Monica tightly.
"You lowly human, how dare you to hurt my master… I hope you're prepared to be shredded without leaving a speck of single dust," spoke Nero as he let out a deep hissing sound like a lizard. His transformation was almost released because of his anger. And his skin, which had taken on the appearance of a human, was now overlapped with something black. Both Yuan and Heidi who watched that deformed figure can't utter any word.
At that moment, a voice that could only be heard by Nero and Monica resonated directly in their eardrums. It was Lynn.
"Sir Nero, we have yet to confirm Cyril's safety. And Sir Louis is still swearingly looking for him at the moment. So, please endure it for a while longer…"
Lynn must have been listening to all their conversations in this classroom. Moreover, she also coordinated with Louis to find Cyril.
Unfortunately, Nero couldn't care less about Lynn and Louis' circumstances.
"I don't want to. Besides Monica, I don't care what will happen to other humans."
Nero's golden pupils narrowed into vertical slits which were impossible for humans. And that inhuman gaze was preying upon both Heidi and Yuan.
"I have no interest in both of you and I won't listen to your pleading. So, die."
Inside his vicious mouth were glaringly sharp teeth.
Holding Monica in one hand, Nero bent forward and rushed over on Yuan, then grabbed his face using his other hand.
But Nero furrowed his brows after getting an unpleasant feeling when Yuan's head almost touched the wall behind.
"What's this…"
The feeling when his fingers dug into Yuan's face was like grabbing clay.
Nero released his grasping and Yuan put his hands on his warped face. There was no longer any trace of Cyril Ashley's face on his face.
"Aw~, you're so mean. Sculpting this face is not easy, you know."
His warped lips had made his voice sound distorted. As if patching skins onto his skull, he kneaded his face to arrange his distorted skin with both of his hands. When he's done, what appeared there was not the face they knew. Monica couldn't tell if that flat face which was not common in this country, belonging to Yuan himself or a stranger's face.
"What was that. It's so gooey and it's so gross."
But when Nero was planning to crush the newly appeared Yuan's face, Monica managed to squeeze her voice out of her half-dazed consciousness.
"…N-Nero…be careful… he's using a body modification spell…"
A body modification spell is a spell to strengthen or manipulate the body by pouring mana into it. However, because of the side effect of mana poisoning, its usage was forbidden in this country.
Monica had read a book about body modification spell that was available within the Seven Sages' authority. According to it, the spell can only be used on the skin to stop bleeding or remove an old scar.
I've never seen or heard a spell that can manipulate the shape of a face at will.
When Nero saw Yuan was using a spell that was out of their understanding, he knew he can't let his guard down. So he stopped his attempt and watched closely at Yuan's and Heidi's movements, especially at Yuan's body modification spell.
On the other hand, Yuan and Heidi didn't try to attack right away. They must have realized that Nero was not an ordinary person. They were on alert and searching for a way to get out of this situation.
So Yuan approached a new proposal.
"Hey, dark-haired guy. Wanna make a deal with me? I'll give you the antidote of that drug for that Silent Witch, but in exchange, will.you.let.us.go?" said Yuan as he took a small bottle from his pocket, flashing it toward Nero.
But what appeared on Nero's face was only a vicious smile.
"I only make a deal with someone I acknowledged. If you have the antidote, I just have to take it by force and kill you."
"Oh, I'm so scaaared~ I will do this, then~"
The small bottle slipped off from his hand. It fell and broke after hitting the floor and the liquid inside scattered across… in an instant, the classroom was filled with white smoke. It had a pungent smell which was probably some kind of poison.
"For your information, Heidi and I have some resistance toward poisons, so this smoke won't affect us… but what about her? I guess it will be painful for her."
"!"
Nero immediately turned his gaze toward Monica in his hand. Unlike Nero who's had resistance toward poisons, Monica's resistance was the same as a normal human. Especially when she had been subjected to another drug, so taking any other poison would only worsen her condition.
Maybe because she had inhaled some smoke, she was writhing, scratching her throat in agony.
Nero clicked his tongue and jumped out the window to escape from the poisonous smoke while Yuan's high-pitched laugh echoed at his back.
"Farewell, Silent Witch, and you too, Mr. Knight. I hope you find the horrible truth shrouding around us, if that happens, let's meet again in the future."
＊ ＊ ＊
Nero carried Monica to the old garden which was less crowded. As the day ended and the sun had already set more than halfway, the night breeze blew in the garden. Nero wrapped Monica's body in his robe, sat down by the broken fountain. Then, a yellow bird came down and transformed into a beautiful maid.
Lindbergfield, a contracted spirit of Louis Miller, placed her hand on the ragged breathing Monica's mouth.
"I supplied her some clean oxygen to ease her breathing."
"Will it restore Monica's condition?"
Nero stared at Lynn doubtfully to which she responded with a shook.
"It can only aid her breathing, not curing her poison. From her condition, she was not afflicted with a strong poison. The effect of the poison should be gone after resting for a half-day and she will back to normal."
While Lynn was giving Nero an explanation, Monica weakly opened her eyes to ask her.
"…Lynn… h-have you found… Cyril…"
"We've taken him in our care. The case of he had another comrade might only a bluff."
"…H-How… is His Highness escorting…"
"No problem, it's been handled by Sir Louis. He's been secretly watching him around very closely while complaining about how cold it is."
"…T-Then… h-have you captured those two…"
Considering the situation, the best option was to have one of Louis or Lynn guard Felix, while the other one is to chase Yuan and Heidi.
Despite being aware that it will let them escape, Louis still sent Lynn to go to Monica's place instead of chasing them. It was an unusual choice, considering how his behavior was.
"Sir Louis ordered me to assist Silent Witch as first priority. He has considered that losing you would prove more damaging than letting the enemies escape."
"Louis must be angry… letting the enemies escape…"
"He might appear angry, but I could sense he also worried about you."
"…ahaha… that's very Louis-like."
Monica regulated her breathing as she gave her a wry smile. Just breathing alone has made her very nauseous at first, but it was much better now. Maybe the poison was not so potent in the first place. After resting for a bit, she should be able to walk again.
As Monica shifted her body to see how far she could move, Nero hugged her tightly.
"With the maid woman here, we can use her flight spell to move you to your attic room. But you have to rest for now. It will be trouble if you collapsed in the midway."
"…no, I have to go… to Lana's room… I need to make a preparation…for the ball."
Hearing Monica's words, Nero gawked at her.
"Hah!? What can you do with that weak body?!" shouted Nero at her and Lynn also nodded in agreement.
"Please rest assured, you can leave the guarding of the second prince at the ball to us. In the meantime, you should take proper rest."
"I'm sorry… for making you guard the second prince when it's not your responsibility… but this is my selfish request."
In the almost crying state, Monica's face crumpled and she muttered.
"And I might not be there in the next year's ball."
Like Yuan had told her. Monica Everett of the Silent Witch treats humans mercilessly. And it was a fact she can't refute. She was a witch who is terrified of human beings, because of it she can be so cruel toward them and only see them as nothing but numbers.
Monica closed her eyes, thinking about all the treasures she had obtained.
Lana gave her a letter and a ribbon.
Felix gave her a necklace.
Casey gave her a handmade handkerchief.
Even the white rose ornament attached to her chest was given by someone.
All of these things were not something they had addressed to Silent Witch. But a gift for a little girl named Monica Norton. At some point, she might not be able to part with the identity of Monica Norton and the time she spent as her. Despite being aware that she had lied to everybody.
I'm sorry, I'm sorry. At least… please let me be Monica Norton while I'm only at this school.
To which person did she apologize?
Is it to Louis who gave her the mission?
Is it to Nero and Lynn for the troubles she had caused to them?
Or, is it to her friends whom she had lied to?
Perhaps it was to all of them.
But I still want to be Monica Norton… even only for a little longer.
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