Chapter 73: Barney's Lie

Eugene Pittman was a professor who taught range magic in Minerva and was also the advisor to the Chess Club. With his mild personality, he was somewhat indecisive. The typical unreliable gentleman.

But that Pittman—or rather, the person who had been impersonating Pittman—was grinning, with his mouth curved up like a crescent moon.

"Wow, I guess Minerva's kids are really smart, huh?"

His voice was distinctly different from that of Pittman. It was too low for a woman and too high-pitched for a man, almost sweet and sticky, like burnt honey simmered in a pot.

The person who took the appearance of Pittman grinned with a mouth like a crescent moon and lifted one hand to chant quickly.

He's a magician!

When it comes to the magic battle, Barney, who can use shortened chanting, has the overwhelming advantage. But just as Barney began to chant a shortened spell, the fake Pittman was chanting as well as he lunged at Barney. His hand moved like holding a whip and struck Barney in the stomach.

"Gah…"

The fake Pittman then pointed the tip of his finger at Barney, who winced as he held his stomach.

"Be bound, lightning chain."

Upon completing the last verse of his chant, an electric shock shot out from the fake Pittman's fingertips. It bound Bernie's entire body like a chain, causing him a sharp pain all over his body.

"Guhaaaaa…"

Unable to bear the intense pain, Barney convulsed on the floor, wincing.

The fake Pittman put his hand over his mouth and chuckled.

"Oh dear, an assassin doesn't necessarily use magic as his only weapon, you know? Magic sure is useful, but not very efficient."

Assassin. That one word was enough for Barney to understand the purpose of this man. Perhaps this man has switched places with Minerva's teacher and infiltrated Serendia Academy to assassinate an important person.

And of all the important people, only one person who will always show up at this chess tournament came to mind.

… his goal is to assassinate the second prince, Felix Ark Ridill.

Should the second prince be assassinated, it would definitely destroy the political balance in the country. That alone must be prevented. More importantly, his pride would not allow this guy who talked like a fool to continue to beat him up.

Barney silenced his voice and tried to do a shortened chant. However, the fake Pittman caught on immediately and stomped over his head. Which stopped Barney from chanting as his face slammed into the floor, and his glasses cracked and tumbled across the floor.

His nose and mouth are in pain, with some blood coming out of them.

"Don't you think magic is inconvenient? They are quite powerful when activated but the need of using chants each time used makes them inferior to simple violence like this. I do like guns, but they make a lot of noise, so they aren't really suitable for assassination."

Following by twirling his fingertips, the fake Pittman chanted some line. It was a water spell.

"Death by drowning is awful, you know? The corpse is going to be soggy… just like this face I borrowed."

Barney turned pale as he realized what he meant by those words.

The real Eugene Pittman had been drowned in this same water ball, unable to escape.

"You can't chant in the water… what better way to kill a sorcerer? Now, go die in a water cage, helpless and struggling."

Just as the fake Pittman was about to swing his finger down, the door to the waiting room opened.

A small figure could be seen behind the door, it was a frightened-looking Monica.

"…Barney!?"

Monica screamed at the sight of Barney lying on the floor covered in bruises.

The fake Pittman clicked his tongue and directed his fingertip where the water ball had been floating from Barney to Monica. It was impossible for the dull Monica to avoid it, which naturally, lead her to be trapped in the water ball helplessly.

"…It would be a problem if you start screaming. Unfortunately, you're going to die right there, little girl."

Inside the water ball, Monica was struggling, breathing air bubbles out of her mouth.

This water ball has "a strong inward barrier" which made it easy to enter but hard to escape. Once a person was trapped inside, it would be difficult for that person to escape.

No matter how skilled the magician was, without the ability to chant, there was nothing she could do but wait for death.

—Right, if she was a magician who needed to chant.

There was a cracking sound like glass breaking. When the fake Pittman turned around, he was startled looking at the water ball barrier that trapped Monica had a crack, and now it was leaking out of water.

"How did you…!"

As soon as the fake Pittman shouted, the barrier shattered completely, leaving Monica fell to the floor, with water spraying all over her. After coughed heavily, she then cast a spell without chanting.

She created an invisible mass of wind, then swung down over his head, slamming the fake Pittman's body down on the floor relentlessly.

"Guha… wha… how… who did…"

In the state where his body was pressed down onto the floor, the fake Pittman was scanning his surroundings with bloodshot eyes.

I see…

Looking at the fake Pittman's behavior, Barney was secretly convinced. The fake Pittman hasn't realized that the wielder of this wind magic was Monica.

After all, people believed that one cannot use magic without chanting, that much was common sense.

And yet, the sole abnormal magician in the world who had ignored that common sense— and that abnormal [Silent Witch] was such a tiny girl, who could imagine that?

When the thought of Monica was the user of the no-chant spell slipped off from his mind, what left for the fake Pittman was perhaps wary of the magicians lurking in his surrounding.

Monica slightly raised her head to look at the fake Pittman. With just that gesture, she cast her next spell. It was an elementary electric shock spell. The power was not very high, but it was enough to render one person unconscious.

The fake Pittman jolted convulsively and stopped moving as his eyes went white.

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Monica let out a sigh of relief and slowly stood up to look at Barney.

"…Um, are you okay?"

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"It's nothing serious."

Actually, it hurt a little to the point of bringing tears to his eyes, but Barney held back his tears and rubbed the blood from his nose with his hand.

While doing so, he picked up his glasses that had fallen to the floor. The lenses were cracked, but it was better than nothing. After putting them on his nose, he could see Monica's face looking at him worriedly.

He never thought that the day would come when he would be helped by Monica like this.

As he bit down on his bitterness, he heard a knocking sound coming from the window. A small yellow bird was perched on the window frame. When Monica opened the window, the little bird flew into the room, and the next moment, it transformed into a human form.

That figure looked familiar to him. He was a handsome man with golden hair and an out-of-place flamboyant formal dress. He was clearly not a human, but a high-ranking spirit.

"You've handled the assassin brilliantly, Miss [Silent Witch]."

"… Lynn, this man may possibly be a diversion, so please keep an eye out for suspicious conversations elsewhere. Also, I want you to tell Nero to look out for any magical reactions in the surroundings for a while."

"Yes, ma'am."

After listening to the exchange between the spirit and Monica, Barney finally understood why Monica was enrolling in this school.

In the first place, with how shy Monica was, there was no way she would voluntarily enroll herself into Serendia Academy. She was probably on an escort mission for the second prince—a top-secret one at that. And that must be the reason why Monica was here, at this school.

After transformed into a beautiful blond man, the spirit took out a rope of nowhere and tied up the fake Pittman.

As she watched, Monica glanced at Barney and opened her mouth.

"Barney…"

"What is it?"

Monica smiled somewhat sadly when she heard Barney's blunt reply.

"…I think my fake school life will be over now."

The assassination attempt would surely be treated as a major incident. Since there have already been casualties of Minerva's people, they would be able to cover up this incident.

Considering Monica had captured the assassin, her true identity would soon be known. Then, she would no longer be able to stay at Serendia Academy.

After taking all of that situation into an account, she heard footsteps from a distance. Perhaps someone had come to investigate the situation here.

Barney who heard it, quickly spoke up.

"Make that spirit back into a bird. Hurry!"

"Uh, eh…"

Monica was confused by his instructions, but the humanoid spirit beside her quickly reverted to its bird form.

Barney hid the spirit which had turned into a bird. Almost at the same time, two people came into the waiting room.

They were Cyril Ashley and Neil Clay Maywood, the student council members of Serendia Academy.

"What the hell is going on?!"

"A-A-Are you okay, Miss Norton? Your whole body is completely soaked!"

The room was in such a chaotic situation, Pittman sprawled out with the whites of his eyes, Barney with an injured face, Monica completely soaked… no matter how one looked at it, it was totally not a normal situation.

Cyril removed his coat and put it over Monica, then asked Barney.

"Minerva's Captain Barney Jones. Explains the cause of that injuries."

Cyril looked at Barney with suspicion. Under these circumstances, he would suspect Barney had done harm to Pittman and Monica, which was not unreasonable.

But Barney answered calmly.

"I had suspected Eugene Pittman had been replaced by an assassin. When I discovered his true identity, he attempted to attack me but I was able to turn the tables on him. Miss Monica Norton was a victim who happened to be in the waiting room at that time…"

Cyril and Neil's eyes widened in disbelief at Barney's confession. Barney looked down at the fake Pittman, adjusting his tilted glasses.

"This imposter may not be disguising but using whatever spells to change the body directly. He also said something that implied had murdered the real Eugene Pittman. We need to contact Minerva as soon as possible."

Since the Ridill Kingdom forbade the use of spells that could change the body directly. The places where this assassin had obtained that technique to change his body could only be a few. And the first one that came to mind was:

—The Eastern Empire, the only country that had lifted the ban on the use of medical spells applied to the body directly.

Now the Empire had been involved, this matter has become a major incident.

Perhaps sensing this, Cyril gave Neil instructions with a grim face.

"I'll keep the scene under control and have Bernie Jones elaborate for further details. General Affairs Manager Maywood, please report about this incident to His Highness."

"Yes, sir."

"Also, take Treasurer Norton to the infirmary. I'm sure some of her friends were among the spectators. Bring them with her."

Neil nodded briskly and asked Monica, "Can you stand up?"

Monica glanced at Barney, still covered with Cyril's coat.

"Barney… Um… Er…"

Why did he keep quiet about the fact that she had defeated an assassin and was the [Silent Witch]—that's what Monica's eyes expressed.

Barney smiled his usual fearless smile and muttered as he adjusted his tilted glasses with his fingertips.

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"You better be grateful to me for the rest of your life."

Cyril and Neil looked dubious, unsure of the true meaning of these words.

In which Monica responded by bowing deeply to Barney before left the waiting room, accompanied by Neil.

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