*creak* After he opened the door opened, the sight of a row of bookshelves that were evenly spaced within the store appeared before her.
Each gap between the bookshelves was so narrow that one person could barely pass through.
Without hesitation, Felix made his way between the second and third bookshelves from the right. And Monica hesitantly followed behind him.
Monica could smell the unique scent of old paper and insect repellent herbs in the store. This was different from the night city filled with the scent of makeup, perfume, and alcohol, which eased Monica's mind a little.
Glancing at the books on the shelves as she walked, she noticed the books were crammed with academic books related to medicinal herbs and medicine. This was not Monica's area of expertise, but she could somehow tell that the books were kept in good condition.
Eventually, after passing through a narrow gap in the bookshelves, they arrived at a small counter where a man was sitting, writing by the light of a lamp.
The man with brown skin and stiff black hair was wearing a pair of glasses, and maybe with some foreign blood flowing in his veins. His almond-shaped eyes and deeply chiseled face made it difficult to tell his age. He could be in his twenties or forties.
Perhaps because of the creaking sound from walking, it had made him noticed their presence, but the man didn't raise his head up from his papers.
"Good evening, Porter."
Felix called out to him, but the shopkeeper didn't raise his head up. He seemed so engrossed with his writings as if he cannot hear the voices of his customers. Eventually, he stopped his writing, putting back his quill pen into the inkpot then opened his mouth.
"Evening…"
He said as he nodded briskly before continuing with his writings. From the looks of it, he seemed to be writing some manuscript instead of ledgers.
The eccentric attitude of the man, who refused to change his curt attitude even towards the obviously aristocratic Felix, vaguely reminded her of Claudia.
"Monica, this is Porter. He's the owner of this store and a novelist. He spends about half the year traveling from place to place stocking books. It's lucky we met him today."
"That's right. I just got back from stocking up the other day. Got a few books you might enjoy."
"Really?"
Felix spoke in a lively voice with a lit-up face.
Porter pointed with his quill to a bookshelf by the wall where the books that Felix would enjoy were.
After heading to the corner where Porter pointed, Felix picked up the book before letting out an "Oh!" word in a cheerful voice.
"‘Minerva's Spring' Back Number.'
Monica turned pale when she saw the magazine Felix had picked up.
Every six months, the magician training institute Minerva publishes a magazine that summarizes the research results of its students and professors called "Minerva's Spring'. Naturally, as a scholarship student, Monica's thesis has been published several times.
W-W-W-W-W-W-Why, of all the book, His Highness was picking up that book!?
While 80% of the articles in the magazine were related to magic. The other 20% consisted of the professor's essays and the student council's trivia on how to live a comfortable life as a student.
Maybe His Highness is a big fan of the professor's essays on hair growth…
It must be, it has to be. Or maybe he's just looking for some wisdom on how to live a comfortable student life. I can't think of any other reason. As Monica was thinking this to herself, Felix, who was flipping through a magazine, said with a childlike manner as his eyes gleamed.
"There's a [Silent Witch]'s essay in it!"
D-D-Did he just says S-SIlent Witch!? S-Silent Witch!? What? I must have misheard it… I'm sure…
While Monica looked like falling apart at any moment, Porter stopped moving his pen and opened his mouth.
"All three of the books there have articles regarding the Witch of Silence in them. Also, The most recent one contains her recent contribution."
"Porter! You did a splendid job!"
Felix's voice was clearly agitated. Yes, he was excited. Monica had never seen Felix's eyes shine so brightly in these past months.
While Monica was stunned, unable to take in the various shocks, Felix laughed, slightly embarrassed.
"Are you surprised? I'm actually interested in magic…"
"Um, but you said you didn't take any basic magic classes…"
"Because of some circumstances, my grandfather forbade me to study anything related to magic."
Felix's words came as a surprise to Monica.
Granted, a royal family member is demanded to have more skills in politics and languages than in magic. Nevertheless, many members of the royal family of the Ridill Kingdom have a talent for magic, and there have been several excellent magicians in the royal family in the past generations.
The current king is also said to be an earth magician, and Felix's brother, the first prince, was a graduate of Minerva.
It just didn't make any sense to Monica why they would go to the trouble of banning them to study magic.
To Monica's bewilderment, he continued to flip through the magazine, without hiding his good mood.
"A grimoire is usually expensive and thick in size, right? Moreover, depending on the item, you need to have qualifications to read or buy it. That's why sneaking them in and hiding them in my room is quite difficult."
So, he decided to use Minerva's Spring, which was relatively easy to get hold of.
However, the papers published in Minerva's Spring were strictly selected. To understand them, one needs to have the knowledge of an intermediate-level magician.
How much knowledge does Felix possess about magic? While Monica was wondering about this, Felix was still flipping through "Minerva's Spring" and seemed to be more talkative than usual.
"I had read the previous article on the coordinates of the [Silent Witch]'s wide range magic formula, and it was brilliant. I can't believe she wrote that as a student. To put it simply, by not incorporating the tracking technique into the wide range magic formula, the spell can be activated with a pinpoint in the exact target location to increase the accuracy. Because her calculation method to pinpoint the exact coordination is so ground-breaking, it had reduced so many steps in creating the magic formula…"
Monica was paying "attentively" with a stiff face.
… well, yes… that's right… the current tracking formula has many shortcomings, so before improving the tracking formula, I wanted to make a compact wide range magic formula without incorporating the tracking formula first… Waaaaah, he really understands it!
While Monica was flinching, Felix looked at her before suddenly realizing his embarrassing behavior.
"Forgive me, I'm actually a big fan of her. When it comes to the [Silent Witch], I can't help but be rather talkative."
"…F-Fan!?"
"Although she's the youngest among the Seven Sages and doesn't have as many flashy accomplishments as the [Barrier Magician], I think she's made a significant contribution to the field of basic magic in our Ridill Kingdom. In addition, her no-chant magic is… well, it was very beautiful."
As Felix uttered the last word, he looked somewhat enraptured.
But Monica was no longer concerned with that.
Has he ever seen me use no-chanting magiiiiiiiiic?! When exactly has he seen me?! Doesn't this mean that… he knows who I am!? There's no way… right?
"I have never seen such beautiful magic in my life… Oh, I wish I could see that no-chant magic with my own eyes again."
As Felix let out a wistful exhale, Porter muttered to himself.
"You know, I'm currently writing a scene in my new novel about a foolish man who falls in love with a stage actress. And Abram, a friend of the main protagonist Bartholomew, who's in love with the stage actress Catherine says:
"Oh, I'd like to see her play again with my own eyes."
…and your expression was exactly like that."
"Well, you might be right, Porter. Yeah, maybe that's what they call first love."
F-First love…
Finally, Monica's whole body convulsed. Maybe because she was too shocked, her head and her facial muscles were not working properly.
What should I do? I wanna escape to the world of numbers.
"Surprised? This is what I am obsessed with right now."
"U-Um… Y-Your… I mean Eig, have you ever met with [Silent Witch]?"
When Monica asked with an ashen look on her face, Felix nodded, his cheeks rosy with fascination.
"Yeah, at the inauguration and New Year's ceremonies. But she always wears a hooded robe and few people know her real face. She always leaves the party after the ceremony, so I never had a chance to talk to her nor seen her face in person."
Thank God, he hasn't found out who I am yet… Monica patted her chest. But it was too early to be relieved.
"But if I become the king, I can meet her whenever I want, so it's not a problem. The Seven Sages are the king's advisors, after all."
It was a big problem. Once he became king, he'd be able to talk to her directly… maybe even get a glimpse of her true face.
You should definitely not do that, please don't do that, I'm not the kind of person who can be consulted by the king, in fact, I apologize for being the [Silent Witch]… I'm soryyyyyyyyyyy
Monica finally turned over, clutching her stomach.
What should I do? I feel like I'm going to throw up everything I ate at the [Star Oracle Witch]'s mansion here.
For the time being, Monica made a firm vow to keep her attendance at the ceremony to a minimum and to never take her hood off.
