INTERMISSION
Meeting of the Dazzling Family of Villains
Isabelle looked up. A swarm of pterodragons blotted out the blue sky, casting her in shadow.
Dragonraids happened often in Kerbeck, but a swarm of pterodragons attacking en force was rare. Nevertheless, Isabelle was not filled with terror or despair.
For before her very eyes was the only one in the world who could use unchanted magecraft: the Silent Witch.
The witch held her staff aloft. A glittering gate opened up in the sky, sending wind lancing toward the pterodragons, striking them down.
Their brows shot through, the dragon corpses fell—but they didn’t collide with any buildings or people on the ground. Instead, they floated over and piled themselves in an open area.
What other mage could not only kill every dragon present, but even shift them out of the way like this?
Her body atremble, Isabelle cried out in emotion.
“She’s…she’s just so cool!”
…And that was where the dream ended.
Waking up in her room in her family’s estate, Isabelle sat up in bed and exhaled.
It had been two months since the slaying of the Black Dragon of Worgan and its winged minions, but what she felt that day still made her heart pound.
She brought her hands up to her cheeks, relishing the irresistible bliss, chuckling to herself.
Soon, she would meet the Silent Witch she so adored.
“Ah, I simply cannot wait!”
She hugged her pillow and swung her legs.
“How come you’re in such a good mood, Isabelle?” asked Henry at the breakfast table as soon as he saw her face.
Isabelle took a sip of her black tea and smiled. “Heh-heh. I had the most wonderful dream this morning.”
“The one where the Silent Witch saves Kerbeck?” he replied without missing a beat.
For the last two months, the Silent Witch was all Isabelle had dreamed about.
“That’s right,” she said with a nod.
Then Henry’s eyes, quite close in color to Isabelle’s, began to sparkle. “That’s so cool…!” he said. “I wish I could help her, too. Aw… If I was born one year earlier, I could have enrolled in the intermediate course…”
Once autumn came, the Silent Witch would be enrolling at Serendia Academy as part of her mission to protect the second prince—and Isabelle had been requested to provide support.
The Barrier Mage had been the one to come to her with the idea. “Please bully her as you see fit,” he’d said. “She’s less likely to be found out that way.”
In other words, Isabelle would act like the villain in their story, torturing the Silent Princess to lend her a layer of camouflage. At least, that was the conclusion the Nortons had come to in their family meeting.
And so she’d been researching day and night how to carry herself as the perfect noble villainess.
“We should invite the Silent Witch here once your mission is complete, Isabelle,” her mother had suggested with an elegant smile.
Her father, the count of Kerbeck, had agreed. “Good idea,” he’d said, stroking his beard. “Also, the cover story the Barrier Mage gave us involves the Silent Witch being taken in by my mother…”
Monica Everett, the Silent Witch, was to play the part of the previous Countess Kerbeck’s adopted daughter while she was undercover at the academy. In other words, she’d be treated as Count Kerbeck’s younger stepsister.
The count looked around at his family, his face the picture of seriousness. “So when she arrives here at our invitation, should I greet her as my sister?”
The entire family immediately voiced their disapproval.
“Objection! Objection, I say,” said Isabelle. “The Silent Witch may be playing the part of my aunt, but in all other cases… I would prefer to call her my elder sister!”
“Me too!” chimed in Henry. “I want to call her my big sister, too!”
“Dear, the Silent Witch would be troubled to suddenly have an elder brother like you.”
Opposed by not only his son and daughter but even by his wife, the count nodded deeply. His next words held every bit as much gravity as any other important decision he might make.
“Hmm. I see your point. Then let us never speak of this joke again. Now, on to our next matter. We must discuss if the proper form of laughter for an evil count is closer to ‘heh-heh-heh…’ or more of a ‘keh-keh-keh…’”
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