[V12C20] Settled

Monica sat on her bed, gazing absentmindedly at the white rose made out of paper.

According to the silver-haired man, this was supposed to be a charm to give her courage.

(Why did he give this to me?)

Monica thought back to his words upon giving her the paper rose.

She did not feel the joy of receiving a gift or sorrow at being unable to remember, because the sheer surprise won out over those emotions. Never in her wildest dreams did she expect someone would say such things to her.

However, his words seemed to remain hovering in the air, refusing to settle in her heart.

Monica felt similarly about the lovely memories written in Lana’s letter. They just felt so detached from her.

Reaching out and accepting those words and memories seemed like a daunting task.

As Monica continued to stare at the letter and paper rose, lost in thought, there was a knock on the door.

“Monica-chan, I’m coming in. I brewed some coffee and brought some snacks!”

Karina entered the room carrying a tray with coffee cups and some slender-looking baked treats.

Lana usually joined them for snack time, so her absence seemed unusual. Noticing Monica’s confusion, Karina explained with a cat-like smile.

“President Colette said she would pass because it’s too embarrassing.”

“…?”

“Because you can’t meet face-to-face right after sending a letter, or something like that.”

This didn’t make much sense to Monica, but Karina had already sat herself down and picked up one of the snacks, which was long and narrow like a wooden stick.

“I found this in the cupboard, and the weird shape caught my eye. Let’s give it a try!”

“…Ah, um, th-that’s…”

Right as Karina was about to bite into the snack, Monica suddenly muttered something.

Those words did not form a coherent sentence, but Karina paused, inferring the intention from Monica’s anxious expression.

“What’s wrong? Oh, were you saving them for something?”

“Ah…uh, b-because…”

What if she accidentally performed a weird mistake? What if they found her stuttering creepy? What if she was wrong to begin with?

All of those what ifs swirled around in Monica’s head, constricting her throat and preventing the words from coming out.

Speaking was scary. Being hated was scary. Everything was scary.

It was then that Monica saw the paper white rose in her peripheral vision.

——This is… a charm to give you courage.

After burning the white rose into her memories, Monica grabbed the snack with trembling hands.

“L-Like this!”

Monica dipped the tip of the snack into her coffee cup with a plop. Then, she brought the moistened part to her mouth.

The hard-baked dough had absorbed just the right amount of coffee, softening to an ideal texture and melting away into her mouth.

Karina blinked her eyes a few times in surprise, then carefully poked the snack with her teeth.

“Oh, you’re right! This is super hard! It might chip my teeth!”

Next, Karina imitated Monica by dipping the snack into the coffee. She bit into the softened snack and puffed out her cheeks like a squirrel.

“I see, I see, so it’s meant to be soaked in a drink. The shape is different, but we have something like this in the Empire too. Thanks for letting me know!”

“…Y-Yeah.”

“Waha, it’s delicious!”

Monica continued nibbling on the snack as Karina stuffed her mouth.

Her heart was thumping a bit faster than usual.

(I said it. I really said it.)

She managed to convey her thoughts via dialogue, albeit far from confidently.

Monica glanced at the white rose lying at her side.

Perhaps now, the words of the silver-haired man had settled somewhere in her chest.

＊　＊　＊

After giving the paper rose to Monica, Cyril took a nap on the first-floor sofa. By the time he woke up, the sky outside the window was tinted in the crimson hue of sunset.

He was not fully refreshed, but further napping would probably keep him awake at night.

As Cyril got up and tied up his hair, he noticed Thule and Pikeh running over to him with something in their hands. The two weasels had somehow managed to carry a small glass bottle with their tiny limbs.

“Cyril, Cyril, we found something amazing,” Thule said.

“It’s unmelting ice,” Pikeh added.

“Don’t go rummaging through other people’s houses.”

After scolding the boasting weasels, Cyril took the bottle and observed the contents. It contained pinkish hard candies.

Cyril recalled how Raul had made a similar-looking candy at his workshop in the Roseberg mansion.

——This is the Roseberg family’s secret candy! Eating it will replenish a bit of mana!

Cyril distinctly remembered this, because he had pointed out that making a secret recipe in front of guests was basically asking for it to be stolen.

Raul apparently considered them nothing more than a snack, but mana-restoring candies had immeasurable value since House Roseberg monopolized the recipe. In all honesty, they were not something money could buy.

Cyril looked around the room, trying to find where the bottle needed to be returned. It was then that Lana rushed out of the kitchen in a panic.

“Ashley-sama, have you seen a bottle with candy anywhere?” Lana asked.

“…I must apologize, it seems my weasels Thule and Pikeh took it without permission.”

Since they could not speak in front of Lana, Thule and Pikeh bowed their small heads as an expression of apology.

Lana took the candy bottle from Cyril with a sigh of relief.

“Oh, I see. Apparently, this candy is a medicine that helps Monica recover mana.”

Anyone who had their “precious things” stolen also had a shadow clinging to the back of their neck. This shadow allowed Gluttonous Zoe to drain the victim’s mana.

Melissa must have prepared this candy to counteract Monica’s mana deficiency.

Meanwhile, Lana returned to the kitchen with the bottle in hand.

(My head feels a lot clearer after that nap… We should start removing Monica’s shadow now.)

Monica’s mana would be drained continuously until they helped her. The sooner they did it, the better.

Cyril tapped the shoulder of Glenn, who was sleeping on the other sofa.

“Dudley, wake up… Glenn Dudley!”

“…Master, are you seriously putting jam on meat…? How stupid can you be…?”

Glenn opened his eyes slightly and muttered something, before closing his eyes again.

Cyril grumbled, “Come on,” and tried to pull the blanket off of Glenn. However, Glenn hugged onto the blanket at the last moment, resulting in a tug-of-war.

“Wake up already!”

“Ugh, five more minutes…”

Normally, Glenn would reluctantly leave the bed once Cyril started shouting. This was their morning routine at the boys’ dormitory of Serendia Academy.

However, Cyril needed to refrain from shouting because it would scare Monica. After a moment of thought, he turned to Thule and Pikeh.

“Thule, Pikeh… do it.”

At Cyril’s command, Thule and Pikeh happily jumped on top of Glenn and went on a rampage. They began pulling his hair, tickling his nose with their fluffy tails, and so on.

Forced awake, Glenn stuck out his lower lip and pouted.

“Ugh… I’m still tired…” Glenn complained

“If you oversleep now, you won’t be able to sleep at night,” Cyril retorted.

“Don’t worry. I can still sleep at night even after a long nap.”

“If you sleep so much, then why do you have trouble waking up all the time?”

Cyril let out a sigh, recalling the struggles of his student days.

Then, he glanced at the second floor, wondering if Monica was awake.

The best way to avoid frightening her would be to remove the shadow while she was fast asleep. However, that would backfire if the shadow removal caused any pain or discomfort. Monica would be terribly frightened to wake up in front of them.

Assuming they perform the shadow removal with Monica awake, they would need some way to convince her. Cyril pondered these difficulties for a moment, then turned his attention back to Glenn.

“First, we should take a look at the shadow removal spell. You still have the envelope Lady Melissa entrusted you with, right? Please don’t tell me you misplaced it or something.”

“Of course!”

Glenn reached into his robe, which was hanging on the back of the sofa, and pulled an envelope from a pocket.

He promptly tore off the seal and retrieved the piece of paper inside. However, he froze immediately upon seeing it.

“…Vice President,” Glenn muttered.

“What’s wrong?”

“…Uh… Well… I… I don’t get this at all…”

Glenn’s expression was utterly blank, resembling the face he often displayed when looking at the reading questions in the basic magecraft exams.

“Let me see,” Cyril said, taking the document from Glenn with a wry smile. He quickly began reading through Melissa’s magical formula.

“Man, it’s a good thing you’re here. I wouldn’t be able to make heads or tails of this…”

“…”

“Vice President?” Glenn asked, puzzled by his lack of response.

For some reason, Cyril looked incredibly tense, and his face had gone pale.

“…I…” Cyril muttered.

“Huh?”

“…I can’t understand it either.”

Not only was the magical formula extremely complex, but it was also lengthy. Even the studious Cyril could only comprehend about a quarter of it.

In all likelihood, only a handful of advanced mages could make sense out of it in a single read-through.

Had Melissa really entrusted this to them, thinking they could analyze the formula in less than a day? It was clearly too complicated for a layman.

Understanding magical formulas of this level was a skill only acquired by specialists in the field, after years of dedicated study.

(…Could it be?)

When Cyril and Glenn volunteered for the Gluttonous Zoe retrieval operation, Melissa’s response was this:

——Once you’ve removed the shadow on the Silent Witch, come here tomorrow at noon. Then I’ll fill you in on the operation.

Cyril clenched the piece of paper with additional force, causing it to wrinkle.

“…She tricked us,” Cyril muttered.

“Huh?”

“We will only be allowed to participate if we can understand this… This is a test on our mastery of magecraft.”

Cyril clenched his fists and remembered back to the meeting. The ‘esteemed noble’ had been there as well.

“Lady Melissa is intentionally excluding us from the operation… and he is in on it!”

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