[V11C7] The Silent Witch Returns

——”A large-scale dragon disaster has occurred in the capital. Return as quickly as possible.”

Monica Everett and Silas Page had received this message on their way back from the business trip to Lugaroa.

Their carriage rushed back to the capital as fast as it could run, but they still arrived a full two days after the large-scale dragon disaster.

“What in the world…”

These were Silas’s first words as he looked up at the gates to the capital.

The towering stone walls were covered in brown rose vines, which extended everywhere, both inside and outside the walls. Knights could be seen swinging scythes to cut them apart, leaving piles of withered plants at the roadside.

Next to those piles were the carcasses of earth dragons and wyverns. The area was cordoned off with ropes to prevent citizens from scavenging the remains for dragon scales.

Monica observed the scene and contemplated the meaning of this.

(A simultaneous attack by earth dragons and wyverns? …I also see some fire dragons in the distance…)

The message given to them only mentioned “a large-scale dragon disaster.”

Thus, Monica had imagined the possibility of a herd of earth dragons or a flock of wyverns. But three different dragon species attacking at the same time? That went far beyond her expectations.

(Those must be Raul-sama’s roses… which means he fought on the front lines? For an incident of this scale, it would be safer to have Louis-san cast a barrier over the entire capital…)

Could it be that something bad had happened to Louis? A bad premonition crossed her mind.

“Hey, Nee-san, see the palace… Doesn’t it look like part of it is missing?”

Upon hearing Silas’s question, Monica moved away from the gate to get a clearer view of the palace.

The brilliant white building in the distance still towered over the capital with its several spires. However, as Silas had mentioned, one of those spires seemed to be damaged.

Monica felt all the blood draining from her body.

“That’s where the Jade Chamber is…!”

There had been several wyverns among the attackers. Could they have been responsible for this?

On second thought, Monica realized that the damage was too great to be caused by wyverns. Bradford accidentally hitting the palace with an attack spell would be a more plausible explanation.

What on earth happened in the capital while they were away? It didn’t seem possible to describe this incident as just a dragon disaster.

Right as the anxiety began to build in Monica’s chest, a member of the Magic Corps ran up to them.

“Silent Witch-sama, Dragon Slayer Mage-sama, I have a message from the Barrier Mage. ‘As you can see, we can no longer use the Jade Chamber. Please come to the second floor conference room of the Magic Corps headquarters‘… That is all.”

＊　＊　＊

The Magic Corps headquarters was a sturdy building adjacent to the Ridill Royal Palace, somewhat similar to a mix between a fortress and a castle.

Due to its proximity to the palace, a few decorative elements were added to maintain appearances, but only the bare minimum. The building was big enough to shelter citizens in the case of an emergency, with multiple lookout towers installed.

There was a spacious training ground for Magic Corps members in front of the main entrance, which almost always had several people practicing magic. But after the recent incident, there were no trainees in sight. Everyone seemed to be rushing in and out of the building.

One of them, a young man in a blue robe that differed from the standard Magic Corps uniform, noticed Monica and ran over to her.

“Monica!”

He called her name in a loud voice while waving a hand. It was Glenn Dudley, the disciple of Barrier Mage.

Glenn seemed to be wearing a brand-new robe, unlike his casual wear during the usual meat deliveries. There was also a short staff hanging from his belt.

“Hello, Glenn-san. Oh…”

Monica had heard about Glenn participating in the Magic Corps’s training since his master Louis was the former captain of the Magic Corps.

However, it was clear that Glenn did not come for training today. While Monica was curious about the reason, she decided to first introduce him to Silas.

“Uh, this is Glenn-san, Louis-san’s disciple…”

“Barrier-niisan’s disciple…?” Silas replied.

After greeting Silas with a casual “Hey,” Glenn anxiously turned back to Monica. He seemed unusually restless today, even considering his usual high tension.

Monica also turned to Glenn and voiced her doubts.

“Did Louis-san call you here too?”

“Yeah, he told me to come just a few moments ago, so I flew over with flight magic… Wait, Monica, you didn’t hear about what happened to him?”

“I just got back to the capital, so no… Um, what happened?” Monica asked, tilting her head.

“Apparently… something pretty awful,” Glenn whispered in an unusually serious tone.

＊　＊　＊

Glenn slammed open the door of the second-floor conference room in the Magic Corps headquarters, shouting in a booming voice.

“Master! Is it true that you’ve gone bald…!?”

The next moment, a chair came flying from the back of the room, hitting the wall right next to Glenn’s head. The sturdy-looking chair broke apart with a deafening crash.

Monica, who was behind Glenn, could only let out a gasp, as Silas muttered “Impressive…” while observing the wreckage.

Meanwhile, at the back of the conference room, Louis, still in the posture of throwing the chair, glared at Glenn with a glint in his ashen-purple eyes.

“Glenn, I must warn you that I am incredibly irritated right now… In other words, watch your damn mouth, brat.”

His gentlemanly tone turned into the growl of a fierce beast in an instant.

Louis sat back into his chair with a loud thud. Only then did Monica, Glenn, and Silas notice his change in appearance, widening their eyes in surprise.

The Barrier Mage’s trademark long chestnut braids had been cut short.

In place of the speechless Monica, Glenn began explaining in teary eyes.

“B-But, that’s what Ryn-san said when she came to get me…”

“…That incompetent maid of mine?”

“She said ‘Louis-dono’s meticulously grown hair has passed away’ or something like that.”

Monica could practically hear Ryn’s emotionless voice echoing in her head.

“That damn spirit…”

Louis gritted his teeth with a sinister creaking sound.

Averting her eyes from Louis’s intimidating aura, Monica observed the other people in the room.

The conference room was about twice the size of the Jade Chamber, where the Seven Sages usually held their meetings, and there were six individuals already seated.

Three were Monica’s colleagues in the Seven Sages: Louis, Bradford, and Raul. In other words, Mary and Ray were absent. The fourth was Melissa, the only former Sage in the room.

The remaining two were unfamiliar faces: a man in his forties with black hair streaked with white, and a young man with curly brown hair.

Both of them wore mage robes, with the older man having the staff of an advanced mage placed beside his chair, and the younger man having the staff of an intermediate mage.

(I wonder who they are…)

The perplexed Monica took her seat, as Raul, sitting to her right, greeted her with a smile.

“Hey, welcome back, Monica!”

Monica turned to Raul, only to widen her eyes in shock again. Raul appeared to be wearing his usual outfit of a robe thrown over casual wear, except that his head was wrapped in bandages.

“Raul-sama… Y-Your head… Were you injured…!?”

“Oh, this? …Well, I had to use the Rose Fortress for the first time in a while, and I couldn’t stop.”

Monica remembered back to the incident when she saw Raul behaving like the First Thorn Witch. Back then, Raul could not return to normal of his own accord, and was only able to regain consciousness with the help of the Key of Knowledge.

According to Raul, he would also return to normal after running out of mana, but that was not an easy solution for the guy with the highest mana capacity in the country.

Raul had employed the Rose Fortress to defend the capital from the large-scale dragon disaster, but apparently, it attempted to keep expanding even after all the dragons were dead.

“And that’s why my sister rushed over and smacked me on the back of my head with her staff.”

The vivid image of Melissa shouting “Hiyah!” as she swung her staff passed through Monica’s head.

Monica anxiously glanced at Melissa, who was seated to Raul’s right.

“Um, Melissa-oneesan, couldn’t you just put him to sleep with an enchanted flower…?”

“We can’t afford to waste mana in emergencies. Just a matter of conserving resources.”

And thus, Melissa’s frugality resulted in Raul getting a large bump on the back of his head. How merciless.

As Monica went speechless, Louis had finished locking the door and returning to his seat, scanning over everyone in the room.

“Now then, since we have a few new faces here, allow me to give a brief introduction. The gentleman there is Clarence Hall, the Astronomy Mage, a disciple of the Starseer Witch.”

The black-haired man in his forties gave a formal bow.

As far as Monica knew, Mary Harvey had multiple disciples, all assigned to observatories throughout the country. Among them, Clarence was apparently Mary’s top disciple, making him one of her most trusted confidants.

“Next, we have Hugo Galletti, the disciple of the Artillery Mage.”

The young man sitting beside Bradford nodded respectfully. He seemed to be an intermediate mage who had yet to obtain an alias.

“Lastly, the one here pretending to sit on an invisible chair is my foolish disciple, Glenn Dudley.”

“Master! Please! I want a chair!”

“Oh, what’s that? You want to be turned into a chair?”

Louis growled back, causing Glenn to go pale and vigorously shake his head. He had been performing a wall sit next to Louis since the start of the meeting.

Mary usually admonished Louis for such behavior, so perhaps her absence made him less inclined to conceal his violent tendencies.

The exasperated Bradford promptly interjected.

“Oi, Barrier Mage. Seeing him like that is pretty distracting, so just let him have a seat.”

“A seat? But where? In case you forgot, we are missing a chair.”

As a reminder, Louis was the person responsible for destroying that chair. Meanwhile, his disciple was still stuck in the wall sit posture, trembling all over with teary eyes.

“Glenn, you can decide. Either I turn you into a chair, or you sit on the floor.”

“The floor!”

Freed from his torture, Glenn sat down on the floor and hugged his knees. Louis put on a face that seemed to say, “There, problem solved.”

After watching everything play out, Silas mumbled to himself from his seat to the left of Monica. There was a complicated expression on his stern face.

“…Those two are quite the pair, huh.”

Monica put on a wry smile and subtly averted her eyes from Louis.

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