Cyril, who was very busy, seemed to have other work to do and quickly left the area after that. In normal situations, Cyril often accompanied Felix, and this should have been the original plan, perhaps something unexpected had happened?

Feeling bad that she couldn't help Cyril, Monica turned her focus back to Felix and saw him left the exhibition classroom accompanied by several nobles. He was apparently leading the nobles to another exhibit class.

"Miss [Silent Witch]. Please be careful not to get too close to the second prince."

She was hearing Lynn's voice directly in her ears. Probably she's vibrating the sound directly into Monica's eardrums like she did in the entertainment district.

"I discovered this during our time in the entertainment district. The second prince has a very keen instinct towards his pursuer. Fortunately, the place he's heading to seems to be a room with a window, so I can monitor him from the top of the tree. If I see anyone suspicious approaching, I will report it to you, and please keep it at a reasonable distance."

Monica was never good at tailing people, and it would be better to follow Lynn's lead here. Otherwise, it would be just another example of what happened in the entertainment district.

Ever since the incident at the chess tournament that had happened, the security in the academy had been strengthened, and there were guards posted all over the place. The security was so thorough that it was doubtful that Monica needed to be vigilant.

I don't want to get too close to His Highness and cause him to think I'm suspicious… yeah, I guess I should watch my distance.

After confirming that Felix had entered the classroom, Monica moved a short distance away from it. Just then, she caught sight of Lana walking around the corner of the corridor and coming towards her.

When Lana noticed Monica, she ran up to her, waving her hand. Upon arriving, she noticed the white rose ornament on Monica's chest, before giving her a meaningful smile.

"Oh… I see I see…"

"Hmm? Is there something wrong?"

"Yup, I'll make you look even prettier at the ball, so look forward to it."

Lana seemed to be enjoying herself. Monica nodded vaguely, not understanding why Lana seemed to be in a good mood, before asking her how she fared herself.

"Lana, are you done with your final costume check?"

"Yes, everything is perfect. Anyway, my father's carriage should be arriving any minute, so I'm heading out to pick him up. Do you want to come with me? I wish to introduce you to my father."

Lana's father, Baron Colette, is said to be an astute merchant who has amassed an enormous fortune. However, since he was not a person who frequented the palace, he must not have known Monica's face.

As Monica wondered if it was safe to meet him, Lana's face suddenly tightened. Her eyes narrowed sharply, and her brow wrinkled. Monica followed Lana's gaze, wondering what was going on, and let out an ‘ah' in a small voice.

Standing in front of Lana's line of sight was a student of Minerva's who was once Monica's friend. Barney Jones.

Barney looked at Lana and Monica in turn then opened his mouth, lifting his glasses with his fingertips.

"Oh, you're not wearing makeup today? I guess that's more like you."

Even though Barney's tone was stinging, she feel it was somewhat awkward.

Lana tightened her grip on Monica's hand as she glared at Barney.

"Monica, let's go."

"L-Lana, wait…"

Monica was thankful that Lana was concerned about her, but she had something she really wanted to talk to Barney about.

After all, she hadn't spoken to Barney since after being attacked by an assassin at the chess tournament a few days ago.

"There's, something, I wanted to talk about, with Barney…"

When Monica spoke in a choppy manner, Lana looked into Monica's face with concern.

Not wanting to make Lana worried, Monica lifted the edge of her lips awkwardly.

"I will be fine."

"…If he did something to you, scream as loud as you can and say ‘this dorky glasses just shoved his face up into my skirt!.' That way, you can socially crush him without using violence."

Barney's cheeks twitched when he heard Lana uttering such a disturbing thing in a serious manner. But Monica only gave Lana a wry smile, trying to placate her.

"Don't worry… I'm fine now."

She was still nervous, but even so, right now Monica didn't feel terrified at the idea of facing Barney. It was probably because Lana had shared with her some courage to face Barney.

"Lana, you should go meet your father."

"… well, if you say so."

Lana nodded reluctantly, stuck her tongue out at Barney, and left.

Looking off at the back of her heroic figure, Barney creased the bridge of his nose and muttered.

"…You sure got yourself a pretty dependable friend, don't you?"

In response to the sarcastic Barney, Monica nodded with a bit of a shy smile.

"Yeah, she's my proud friend."

After having his sarcasm passed off that way, Barney let out a bland sigh and shrugged his shoulders.

"Let's change the place first. I don't want to stand around talking in this place."

"Y-Yeah. I'll take you to a less crowded place."

Monica started to walk away, and Barney followed silently behind her. Without any conversation between them.

Back in their school days, they used to walk side by side in the corridors of Minerva, talking about trivial things and subjects… but now, the distance between them, the way they don't look at each other, is their current relationship.

Such a relationship did make her feel a little sad, but it didn't hurt her heart anymore.

＊ ＊ ＊

Monica led Barney to the backyard where she had previously used to eat lunch alone.

"People rarely come to this place…"

"I suppose this place does look like something you'd like. I bet you've been eating alone here anyway, haven't you?"

"N-Not for a while…"

But it's different now. She has been eating in the cafeteria together with Lana, Claudia, and sometimes with Neil and Glenn.

Monica fidgeted around, kneading her fingers, as she glanced at Barney before starting to breach the conversation.

"Did you come here following your teacher as his associate, Barney?"

Maybe like what Roberto did, she thought he was accompanying his teacher, but Barney shook his head.

"No, after what just happened, there is no teacher from Minerva who wanted to come to this year's festival."

An incident a few days ago claimed the life of one of Minerva's teachers. And the death of Eugene Pittman has created an uproar in Minerva now.

Surely, under such circumstances, it was only natural that Minerva's teachers would not want to participate. Although it was wrong to feel this way, Monica was a little relieved. Because the biggest concern for Monica was bumping into Minerva's teacher she was familiar with.

"…wait. Then how did you manage to be able to attend here…?"

"Who do you think I am? I'm a member of the House of Count Ambard. So long I asked the invitation to the school, they should have no reason to refuse my request."

"R-Right…"

Monica may not know much about it, but Barney's family, the House of Count Ambard, is one of the most prominent families in the Ridill Kingdom. Barney was very proud of this fact and used to say "Our Count Ambard Household is…" or the like.

As she reminisced about this, Barney interrupted her with a somewhat indifferent tone.

"You said you wanted to talk to me about something, didn't you? Since it's you, you're probably going to say, ‘Why didn't you reveal my true identity at that time?'"

"…Mm."

After Monica fought off an assassin who was impersonating Eugene Pittman, Barney had hidden Lynn away, gave false information, and told them that he was the one who fought off the assassin so to hide Monica's true identity. Because of his lies, Monica's true identity was not revealed and she's still able to stay at the school.

—Even so, Barney should have no reason to cover Monica.

But Barney answered her question fluently as if he's been prepared this line for a long time.

"I've been thinking your reason for enrolling in Serendia Academy. At first, I thought you were just doing it for fun, assuming now you are the Seven Sages. But, after remembering about the enrollment of the Second Prince in this academy, and the incident of an intruder at the chess tournament, it's more plausible to conclude that you've been dispatched to this school to guard the Second Prince."

Monica bit her lip and nodded when Barney stared at her for confirmation.

Normally, she should keep this mission a secret, but it was useless trying to fool Barney now.

"You came to this academy to guard the Second Prince as your duty as the Seven Sage, so it's only natural for a noble of the Ridill Kingdom like myself to help you at that time. And for that reason, I did cover your identity, Lady Everett."

Barney especially emphasized his reason for helping her was not because Monica's his friend, but because it's his duty as a noble to help the Seven Sages. He then stared at the now silent Monica before smiling sarcastically.

"Did it convince you, Lady Everett?"

Sure enough, Barney never thought of Monica as his friend. He persistently pushed that fact on Monica over and over again. It was as if he's trying to make her think that way. Probably her words as his friend will not reach Barney anymore. Even then, there was still one thing that she really wanted to ask him.

"…I still have one question, but you don't have to answer if you don't want to."

"Oh, what would it be? As a member of the House of Count Ambard, I will do my best to answer any question the Seven Sage ask."

Monica only closed her eyes once in response to Barney's sarcastic remark, but then she opened her eyes, looking straight at him.

"…Barney, why did you participate in the chess tournament?"

Barney's expression fell when hearing such a sudden question. Monica's been wondering this question ever since she reunited with Barney. Looking back at what happened in Minerva when she's still a student, Barney always ridiculed it as a ‘game for people with so much spare time.' And insisted that people who were enrolling in the Magician Training Institute Minerva should use their time to master spell instead. So when she met Barney and saw him participated in a chess tournament, it really surprised her, albeit in a different way.

As if he had been hit with a sore spot, Barney made a bitter face at Monica's question.

Looking at his reaction, Monica wondered if she had said something horrible, or if she had hurt him again.

"Um, if you don't want to answer. I'm sorry if I asked you something weird…"

"You see… I'll be dropping out from Minerva soon.."

"…eh?"

The unexpected words made Monica stunned, her lips were half-open.

Surprisingly, Barney responded to her with a weary smile… a smile that looked like he had given up on something.

"You see, my brother died in an accident last month. And it's not caused by a conspiracy or assassination or anything like that. He just went for a long ride to show off, but because he's not good at equestrianism, he fell off from his horse and broke his neck… a stupid way to die, as befits him."

Monica didn't know any circumstances inside Barney's household. But she had heard that he's the second son of Count Ambard and his brother will inherit the household. That's why Barney, who can't inherit the house, has been studying hard in Minerva to become the Seven Sages and obtain the Count Magician rank which was equal to the Count rank.

Now that his brother was dead… as the next line of the successor, he will take over his brother's position to inherit the house.

"…Barney, did you really had given up to become the Seven Sages?"

"Yeah, in the upcoming winter, I will return to my hometown to concentrate on my studies to become the next Count. And for that reason as well, I took partake to play in a chess tournament a bit."

Just because he's born as the second son, his achievement was not recognized, which welling up his anger and his craving for acknowledgment. He's been suppressing his dissatisfaction and squeezed his body very hard to pile up so many achievements so as to get recognized by others. But what will he think when all those efforts were crumbled in an instant. And becoming the head which he had wanted so much ever since his childhood was coming in an unexpected way, surely he would not be happy about it, or so she thought.

"To be honest with you, I was relieved. I really was."

"…eh?"

"This way, I could give up my goal to become the Seven Sages."

Monica silenced, and Barney, in his deeply weary face, muttered to himself.

"Actually… maybe for a long time, somewhere in my heart, I've given up on becoming one of the Seven Sages."

Barney's words were hard for Monica to believe. Because she had seen Barney's efforts more closely than anyone else. At how hardworking he was and how talented he was. Even many had believed that he would become a first-rate magician in the future.

"…was it because of me?"

Monica asked in a hushed voice, and Barney gave her a sneer. Either he's mocking Monica for her stupidity, or he himself…or maybe both.

"That's right. It's all your fault. It's all happened because you mastered the no-chant spell and showed everyone how talented you are… She might have done it to tell how much different our talent was. A talent that I couldn't possibly reach nor I could possibly dream on, or so I thought."

Barney let out a dry laugh and turned his eyes behind his glasses to look at Monica.

"Even so, you still smiled so innocently at me, hoping to get my praise. I couldn't help but think, ‘are you mocking me!?'"

No matter how much malice and hatred he laid out, Barney's tone was no longer has any vigor behind it. After all, he had already given up. He had given up on the future he had envisioned for himself as the Seven Sages.

"You kept saying that I was your friend, but I never intended to make you my friend…"

Monica had already given up on having Barney's expectation.

But it still pained her when the memories of him reached out his helping hand to her or when they've been studying together were denied outright. Even then, Barney spoke to the hanging down Monica.

"…what I want is to have a rival with an equal standing."

Monica blinked and slowly lifted her hanging head to look up at Barney.

When Barney saw Monica's dumbfounded face, he snorted and laughed in a sarcastic way, just like he always does.

"As a capable person as I am, sooner or later, I'll make a name for myself as the greatest Count Ambard of all time. Right, I suppose our rank is equal now, isn't it, Count Magician Everett."

"…eh? Uh, um… yes?"

When Monica nodded vaguely at his change in attitude, Barney folded his arms and smiled haughtily.

"One day, I'll become a competent count that you'll want to rely on. And when I do, please don't be ashamed to rely on me."

Barney said this throwaway line as if he had nothing more to say before turning his back on Monica.

Monica and Barney will probably never be friends again.

But not all their relationship has been cut. Even after a broken friendship, there are always new relationships that can sprout.

Monica bowed her head to Barney's back as he walked away.

"…I deeply thank you for your cooperation in this mission. Lord Barney Jones of the Count of Ambard."

Barney stopped, turned his head back at Monica, and smiled. A nostalgic smile as if to say, "you're so hopeless without me," as he once did to Monica, who cried, "Barney, help me."

"That's right. You should be thanking me for the rest of your life."