TLN: I changed the term "Lidil" to "Ridill."
Louis Miller, the "Barrier Magician," who had forced Monica to work as a bodyguard for the second prince, was staying in a village near the cabin where Monica lived.
After all, it would take a whole day to get from this village to the capital by carriage. Louis exhaled a sigh, "I can't wait to get back to my home where my beloved wife awaits."
It wasn't that he didn't like to eat in a public restaurant, but he didn't want to stand out too much right now, so he had his meals brought to a private room at the inn.
Across the table, his contracted spirit, Lynn, was quietly reading a book. She was a spirit with no sense of taste, so she can't accompany him to eat.
The cool beauty in the maid's uniform was reading a book expressionlessly, but eventually closed the book with a snap and opened her mouth.
"Lord Louis, I have a question."
"What is it? I'm still eating."
"Why did you ask Miss [Silent Witch] to guard the second prince?"
Louis was expecting a question about the content of the book, so he narrowed his eyes a little and wiped his mouth with a napkin.
"Give me your view, Lindsberghfield."
"In my opinion, Lord Louis, after the magic tool you put so much effort into making was destroyed in three days, you were so angry that you tried to vent your anger by taking it out on the weak-minded person, which is Miss [Silent Witch]."
"What kind of a man do you think your master is?"
"I have heard that he has character disorder who likes to bully the weak."
Without a moment's hesitation, his contracted spirit said this to him, and Louis was smiling with a furrowed temple.
"Bring the person who blurted out that assessment to you here. I will trample him thoroughly until his head sinks into the floor."
"That person was your mentor, Lord Gideon Rutherford."
His mentor, Gideon Rutherford was one of the few people he can't handle even for the proud Louis.
Louis clicked his tongue ungracefully and shook his head in a dramatic gesture. His neat face had a sad expression on it, but his earlier remark had ruined everything.
"Oh, how lamentable. People have been misunderstanding about me."
The word "misunderstanding" that Louis said to Lynn was said in a stern manner.
"It is always more fun to bully the strong than to bully the weak, isn't it?"
The idea was too far-fetched. Above all, He's not denying the part of his character disorder.
Lynn tilted her head with a blank expression. In the book she had just read, all the characters who had been questioned had tilted their heads in this way. This gesture, which she was simply copying, combined with her expressionless face, made her look like a doll with a broken neck.
"Lord Louis, when you were bullying Miis [Silent Witch], you had the face of a scumbag who enjoys bullying the weak."
"You say Miss [Silent Witch] is weak? Who are you talking about?"
Louis snorted at Lynn's rebuttal as if it were a mockery.
He gave her a graceful smile… but the eyes behind his spectacles shine brightly and somewhat belligerently.
"In the past, I've been completely defeated by such a little girl in the magic battle of the Seven Sages selection."
At that time, Louis Miller has more experience as a commander of the Magical Corps, specializing in fighting with spell casting.
Having defeated many dragons and buried more than a hundred of them, he was one of the top two combatant magicians in the country.
But, in a magic battle, he was totally defeated by the [Silent Witch], who was 15 years old.
"I, Louis Miller, the [Barrier Magician], assure you. That one's a monster."
Louis emphatically proclaimed that such a little girl, who couldn't make eye contact with people, always kept her head down and was scared out of her wits, was a "monster."
Louis laced his fingers together, rested his thin chin on it, and squinted.
"His Majesty ordered me to secretly protect the second prince, but I can't just take His Majesty's words literally."
"What do you mean?"
"Keep a close eye on the second prince… that's what I believe His Majesty meant."
The second prince has always been an excellent person. He has excellent academic and swordsmanship skills, and even though he was still attending school, his high diplomatic skills have earned him the trust and confidence of both domestic and foreign nobles.
Above all, his beautiful appearance and gentle smile, inherited from his mother, have been reputed to charm the people who saw him.
He managed everything without a hitch and was very good at controlling people's minds.
He, whose grandfather was Duke Crockford, the most powerful noble in the country, was Felix Ark Ridill.
But no one knows his true nature.
Underneath his friendly, soft smile, there was something horrible stirring.
—That was the kind of creepy feeling Louis sensed in Felix.
However, whenever Louis tried to find out what the discomfort was, Felix always smoothly fend him off with a soft smile.
"The second prince is a very shrewd predator. Using a straightforward manner won't make him back down."
That's why Louis chose Monica as his helpers.
That girl who has a freakish talent that didn't match with her shy personality had made everything look a little out of place.
"I've told you. I like to pick on the strong."
"So what you want to say is, you want to bully both the Second Prince and Miss [Silent Witch] at the same time, which are belong to the ‘strong ones'?"
Without correcting her, Louis just gave her a beautiful smile.
It was such a beautiful smile that most women would be charmed by, and it was no less than the second prince, but… Lynn was not particularly impressed and said matter-of-factly.
"I understand. I will revise my assessment of you to ‘the person with personality disorder who likes to bully the strong'."
"You should also correct the part about the personality disorder."
＊ ＊ ＊
The story was set back two days before Monica Everett, the [Silent Witch], broke down in tears after being forced into a task to protect the second prince.
In the dormitory room of Serendia Academy, one of the most prestigious schools in the Ridill Kingdom, Felix Ark Ridill, the second prince of the Ridill Kingdom, leaned back on the couch and lazily watched as his chamberlain unwrapped a gift.
The gift was wrapped in a package with the royal family's crest. In other words, the gift was a gift from his father, His Majesty the King. However, the look Felix gave to the gift wrapping was cold.
Aside from Felix, the only person in the room was a young man who was his chamberlain. He took out a silk-wrapped brooch from a package, inspected it, and respectfully presented it to Felix.
"What kind of occasion this time?"
"It's a gift for your advancement to the higher grade."
"Oh…"
Muttering without much interest, Felix picked up the brooch with his gloved hand and held it up to the light.
Looking through the light of the large sapphire in the center of the ring, one can see the faintest hint of magical writing behind the royal blue.
"As I thought, it was a magic tool. Will, do you know what kind of magic formula is built into it?"
Felix then placed the brooch in his hand onto the hand of the chamberlain behind him.
The young man, a chamberlain called Will, flickered his very light blue eyes to see the magic formula in the sapphire.
"I believe this magic tool had contained a defensive barrier to protect you, Your Highness."
"Are that the only effect it has?"
"Actually, there are other formulas built into this. Perhaps, when the defensive barrier is triggered, it will transmit His Highness's current location to some remote location."
When Will explained this, Felix brushed his honey blonde hair lightly and let out a sigh with a very annoyed look on his face.
"That would be a problem. It would be terrible if it was accidentally triggered in the middle of my night activities."
"……"
"So let's do this."
Felix pinned the brooch to Will's chest.
He then pulled out a self-defense sword from under the bed and swung it straight at the head of the bewildered chamberlain standing there.
A white layer of light formed between Will, whose eyes were wide and rigid, and the sword Felix swung down, which caught the sword.
Once the layer of light disappeared, the sapphire on Will's chest cracked with a soft snap.
"Oh, so this is how it works."
Felix put away his sword, muttering in a voice that didn't seem to be interested in it at all.
Will removed the broken brooch from his chest and took the cracked sapphire off its pedestal. The pedestal was engraved with a very detailed magic formula.
"This is a combination of advanced barrier formula. It's not something that an ordinary magician can create. I think only Louis Miller, the "Barrier Magician", can create something like this."
"Oh…"
Of the Seven Sages, Felix recalled Louis Miller belonged to the First Prince faction.
Why did the king give Felix a magic tool made by Lewis Miller of the First Prince faction as a gift for his advancement?
"Come to think of it, there were some members of the Magical Corps mixed in among the cafeteria staff and the janitors… I guess they're one of Louis Miller's pawns."
"Would you like me to dispose of them?"
"Yeah, just make sure it's taken care of properly. I'm sure they call it protection, but… if they start sniffing around too much, let them know they're making an enemy of the House of Crockford."
This school was under the power of Felix's grandfather, the Duke of Crockford. Even His Majesty the King can't interfere easily.
—That's probably why the king decided to send Louis Miller.
Felix snatched the brooch from Will's hand and rolled it around in his hand with a faint smile.
"Looks like His Majesty have been keeping eye on me."
"Then please refrain from playing around at night"—those were the words that Will never said to him.
To Will, Felix was his master, and that's for sure.
So, even if his master had pinned a magic tool brooch with no idea how effective it would be, and had swung his sword down on him, he would never complain.
Felix sat back down on the couch and gracefully crossed his legs, tossing the shattered sapphire onto the table in a careless manner.
"Looks like this one was defective."
"I will inform that to His Majesty."
Will picked up the remnants of the brooch and rewrapped it.
Watching this unfold, Felix let out a small sigh. He then pulled off his scarf and loosened his collar. The white nape of his neck was exposed, revealing the red remnants of his night's affair.
"I'm still sleepy after having returned late yesterday. I will take a nap. Wake me up when it's time for the tea party. Miss Bridget's holding a tea party today, and it would be troublesome if I ditched her."
Without waiting for Will's response, Felix closed his eyes.
As for Will, he bowed and said "Certainly," then began silently collecting the pieces of the brooch again.
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