At night, two days before the upcoming school festival. Monica was invited to a luxurious mansion, in there, she sat squirming uncomfortably on the couch, attended by the handsome servant boys. While Louis Miller, the [Barrier Magician], crossed his legs arrogantly, after receiving a drink from the handsome servant boys.
Across from her sat a silver-haired charming beauty, who was also attended by a group of handsome servant boys as she sipped her glass of wine. She was the owner of the mansion, Mary Harvey, the [Star Oracle Witch], a Seven Sage who was similar to Monica and Louis.
With the charming innocent girl and the gracefulness of a mature woman, the [Star Oracle Witch] was a beautiful woman whose age was unknown. However, it has already been more than thirty years since she was appointed as the Seven Sages, making her the oldest of the current Seven Sages.
Through Louis, Monica has been invited to this mansion this morning.
Mary was eager to talk to Monica, but she was working on a top-secret mission outside her mountain cabin at the moment. Which the details could not be talked about. To hide this fact, instead of wearing the Serendia Academy uniform, Monica dressed in simple casual clothes and slipped out of the dormitory with the help of Louis to visit Mary's mansion.
"U-Um… I-I'm very grateful for invi, invi, invi, invite—"
When Monica uttered the words of greeting with a tense face, Mary giggled like a tinkling bell.
"Oh dear, you don't have to be so tense. Okay, how about a glass of Perle Dande red wine? You're already a fully grown adult, so you can drink wine, right? Maybe a light sip will help ease your tension~"
The handsome servant boy quickly came to stand beside Monica with a bottle of wine in his hand, but Louis dismissed it with a wave of his hand.
"I would advise not doing so if you wish to have a proper conversation. Miss [Silent Witch] can be quite a handful when she is drunk… I once accidentally gave her some drink at my house and the result was a disaster."
"Uu…"
Monica clutched her chest at Louis' harsh words.
It happened when Monica was staying at Louis Miller's mansion in preparation for her mission to escort the second prince, and there, Monica accidentally drank some of Louis' treasured wine… what happened later was devastating. Though the rest was drunk by Louis himself.
"Aw, that's too bad~ Guess juice will do then."
"T-Thank you…"
Monica sipped the juice poured by the handsome servant boy and scanned the room.
Mary Harvey, the [Star Oracle Witch], was born from the Marquis family and had served the kingdom as one of the Seven Sages for many years, so it was quite fitting that her mansion was gorgeous and opulent. The windows were especially impressive. The glass used here was so luxurious that allows one to see the outside scenery clearly. It may have been made this way because she needed it for her "prophecy," but it was extravagantly nonetheless.
"U-Um… S-So, what do you want to talk about?"
When Monica asked timidly, Mary sipped her glass and smiled softly.
"Oh please, there is nothing serious here. I just wanted to chat with you for the first time in a while~"
With that, Mary moved her half-closed eye toward Louis and looked at him.
"Though I believe I didn't give you an invitation, I will permit it in consideration of your beautiful face, Louis. I do love beautiful things, after all."
"Hahaha, I am so flattered to hear that."
Louis might have said he was flattered, but his manner said the otherwise. Which made Mary let out a sigh sadly.
"Such a pity. If only you were fifteen years younger, I would've made you my personal servant."
"Oh, how kind of you… Maybe you could expect me grown some beard in the next meeting."
"You're not cute!"
"What do you expect from a grownup man to look cute?"
When Louis responded brusquely, Mary put a fan to her mouth with a sorrowful look on her face and said, "This's why I don't prefer grownup men…".
Both Mary and Louis have rather stubborn personalities, but they were unquestionably beautiful. Watching them chatting and laughing while being served by handsome boys was quite a sight to behold.
It made her wonder why she had been invited here. She was the only one who didn't fit in this place. Even the servants would find it hard to relate Monica to the Seven Sages like Louis and Mary.
As Monica fidgeted with her glass, clutching it with both hands, Mary gave Monica a friendly smile.
"I'm actually happy to have you around, Monica. We are the only girls among the Seven Sages, aren't we? So I want to get to know you better."
"R-Right…"
Monica gave a vague response, and Louis was about to say something but held back.
He probably wanted to say something like, "Isn't it too much to call yourself a ‘girl' at your age?" Even so, he showed her some consideration to the extent that he swallowed those words.
After all, Mary Harvey was presumably the oldest of the Seven Sages and the only one in the kingdom who was dubbed as the "prophetess".
The Seven Sages had their own specialties in magic which was stood above among the other magicians. Just as Monica was skilled in no-chant spells and Louis in barriers spells, Mary Harvey, the [Star Oracle Witch], was skilled in astrology.
It was relatively uncommon for people to study astrology, but Mary's astrological accuracy was unsurpassed among them. Moreover, the king trusted her immensely and dubbed her "the prophetess". At the meeting of the Seven Sages, she was the one who mainly presided over it.
Monica suddenly had a thought. Could Mary want to reprimand Monica in a roundabout way for the fact that she kept skipping the Seven Sages' meeting?
After all, it had been almost two years since Monica had been appointed as the Seven Sages. And her attendance in the meetings held every month or two can be counted in one hand.
"Um… I-I'm sorry I have been skipping the meetings lately…"
Monica made the first move and apologized, and Mary smiled broadly.
"No need to apologize. In fact, it's always ended up with Louis and the [Jewel Magician] exchanging sarcastic remarks, while the [Thorns Witch] happily eating vegetables, and the [Cannon Magician] snoring in his seat. Just for your information, the [Abyss Shaman] attendance rate is less than half of yours."
This fact alone almost made the image of the Seven Sages shattered into a million pieces.
"You don't have to be so nervous, even I would say you're the most diligent person among the Seven Sages. Right, the other day, thank you for helping me calculate the observation records for my students~ Really, you've been a life saver~"
When she was holed up in the mountain cabin, Monica took on the task of calculating the star orbit observed by the astronomers who were Mary Harvey's students. It was one of the most difficult tasks that Monica had ever taken.
It was such a challenging job for her, so Monica remembered it well.
"If I recall correctly, it was a decade-long record of a single star… right? I've recalculated it several times, after all. What happened to that star now?"
Mary can predict the future of a country or a person by the color of the star, the number of times it blinks, its orbit, and its distance from other stars.
What Monica can do is calculate the results of the observations, but she has no idea whose fate is implied by the results. So she simply calculated the orbit from the observation results and provided the results to Mary.
However, she knew one thing: Mary had been sensing a strange movement of a certain star for about ten years.
"Incidentally… whose star is that you've been want to foresee about, Lady [Star Oracle Witch]?"
"It was the second prince's, His Highness Felix Ark Ridill's star."
Monica gulped involuntarily while Louis' eyebrows twitched just a little without changing his expression.
Perhaps noticing their reaction, Mary put her hand on her cheek and let out a sigh of depression
"I've been foreseen many futures of the kingdom, especially on the royal family… but for the past ten years, I've been unable to read His Highness Felix's destiny."
At Mary's words, Monica's heart stirred quietly.
Mary's star oracle was not all-powerful, and she herself was well aware not everything can be foreseen.
Still, the fact that she was unable to read Felix's destiny at this moment gave Monica a strange feeling of uneasiness.
An assassination attempt by Casey, an intruder at a chess tournament… Amidst all the disturbing things happening, the school festival was approaching in two days.
…I have a bad feeling about this.
As Monica held her chest and cast her head down, Mary leaned forward to peek at Monica's face.
On the surface of Mary's somewhat unfocused light blue eyes, Monica's figure was reflected there.
"Um… Lady [Star Oracle Witch]?"
"Why look so gloomy? Alright, as thanks for helping me with my work, how about I foresee your destiny a little bit?"
Mary rose slowly to her feet and stood at the window, dragging a thin silk robe with her. She then looked up at the stars in the night sky with her clear eyes—then declared Monica's destiny she foresaw.
"I can foresee your love life is on a roll right now! Moreover, you might end up spending a passionate night with a nice gentleman~☆"
Monica hung her head, looking like she was about to throw up, and covered her face with her hands.
"…I-It's still too early for meee!"
Just a few days ago, she had received a proposal of engagement based on chess. While Louis was, that's a bit too crude for a prophecy from the Seven Sage, muttered in amazement.
