Silent Witch

Chapter Volume 2 7: Golden Ratio

Just before her wrists were bound by Cyril Ashley's ice chains, Monica had activated her no-chant magic.

The spell contained a very thin protective barrier incorporated with a concealment spell to prevent him from noticing her magic. In other words, Monica was using her magic without his notice to protect her wrists, especially so that she would not get frostbitten.

This person is probably at least an intermediate-level magician… No, perhaps he has already reached the advanced level.

The chains that bound Monica's wrists were sturdy and intricately constructed. It was a feat that no low-level magician could pull off.

The only thing that bothered Monica was the cold air that Cyril was constantly emitting from his entire body. While standing next to him she felt a slight chill in the air, when she distanced herself the chill was so weak that it didn't bother her. This person would be very useful to have in the room on a hot day.

"E-Er… u-um… w-where are you… g-going to take me to…?"

Monica who has met Cyril that has such a high-handed attitude had a difficult speaking after meeting him for the first time.

Cyril looked over at Monica and frowned uncomfortably.

"Stop your nonsense. Just shut up and follow me."

"I-I'm sorry…"

"Is that way of speaking supposed to be making fun of me?"

The cold air surrounding Cyril grew a little stronger. The air was both intimidating and chilling, causing a shiver to run through her body as her neck felt a shudder.

"The person you are about to meet is a noble one, whom a little girl with a commoner's aura like you would never be able to meet even if you had run laps around the garden handstand while barking."

Who would want to meet a freak who circles the yard a hundred times handstand while barking? Or so Monica thought, keeping her mouth shut.

Eventually, Cyril stopped in front of a magnificent door on the fourth floor.

He then snapped his fingers, causing the ice chains that bound Monica's wrists to dissipate as if they were melting into the air.

"Please refrain from showing any disrespect."

After warned Monica, Cyril knocked on the door.

"I have brought Monica Norton with me."

"Come in."

After neatly retracting his previous haughty attitude, Cyril opened the door in a graceful manner and motioned Monica to come inside.

"E-Excuse m-me…"

Inside such a large room, a scarlet carpet was spread over it. All the rooms in Serendia Academy were much more extravagant than those in ordinary schools, but this room stood out among them all.

In the back of such a room, a male student was sitting in front of the office desk.

It was a young man with honey blonde hair that shines in the light coming through the window and beautiful eyes that look like blue mixed with a little bit of green.

"I'm sorry to call you unannounced, Miss Monica Norton."

"Y-You are… the person… from yesterday…"

And that young man who had picked up Monica's nuts in the old garden was looking at her with the same gentle smile he had then.

When Cyril saw Monica dazed in surprise, he then glares at her.

"How dare you show that mannerism to him! Do you know who this man is?"

"Cyril, would you excuse us for a moment?"

The blond youth said calmly, but Cyril shouted, "You must not!" in an urgent voice.

"I couldn't leave you alone with this strange girl. If anything happens to you…"

"Thank you for your concern. But I'm fine."

"But…"

As Cyril continued to insist, the young man narrowed his eyes just a little.

His calm expression remained intact, but just by narrowing his eyes slightly, causing Cyril to feel an invisible pressure.

"Do you not trust me?"

"That's not true! I believe in you more than anyone!"

"Then, did you take my feelings into it? You know, I hate wasting time with these useless arguments."

In response to Cyril's desperate plea, the blond-haired young man said in a calm manner. However, when he said the last word, it was low and heavy.

"Please forgive me, I've overstepped my bounds."

Cyril bowed deeply and walked out of the room, just before he closed the door… he glared at Monica with eyes so sharp as if he were going to shoot her to death.

Confirming that the door was closed, the blond young man then smiled at Monica.

"Did you have eaten your lunch properly, little squirrel?"

"Um… T-Thank you very much… f-for helping me at that time."

I did it. I am able to thanks him properly.

Monica's goal for today was to say her thanks to Lana and this young man for yesterday. Having accomplished that goal so quickly, she was delighted inwardly.

In response to Monica, the young man smiled kindly and lifted a stack of papers on his desk.

"I'm sorry to call you unannounced, but I had something I really wanted to talk to you about."

"W-What could it be?"

In her mind, Monica was afraid that he would ask her how she got in and out of the old garden, but the young man said, "here," and showed her a document. It was numbers that were familiar to her. It turned out to be the document Monica had picked up yesterday.

"You said yesterday that there were thirty-nine flaws in this?"

When Monica nodded weakly, the young man dropped his papers on the desk.

"You were right. I could only find thirty-eight flaws, but when I reviewed them carefully, it turned out there are thirty-nine flaws as you said before. As student council president, I'd like to thank you."

"N-No. I-It's not necessary…"

Hearing his compliments honestly made Monica felt delighted. While squirming and kneading her fingers in embarrassment, she suddenly noticed the inexplicable word before slowly lifted her head.

"You… are student council… president?"

"Yes."

The young man nodded with a smiling face, stood up quietly then gracefully bowed in front of Monica.

"I apologize for the delay in identifying myself. I'm Felix Ark Ridill, the 75th student council president of Serendia Academy. It's a pleasure to meet you, little squirrel."

"………"

The kind boy who picked up the nuts for her yesterday was actually the student council president.

In other words, he was the second prince and the target of Monica's protection.

The moment Monica understood that fact, she thought…

"Thank goodness…"

It was one word.

But as Monica patted her chest with relief, a question popped up in Felix's mind before he tilted his head.

"What makes you feel relieved?"

"Oh, well, yesterday I saw you leaving the boys' dormitory in disguise… I thought that person who kindly picked up the nuts was a bad person who wanted to kill His Highness, but if it was His Highness himself, then I'm relieved."

"…….."

"……ah."

Monica held her mouth as quickly as she could, but it was too late.

In Monica's mind, there's Louis Miller who said, "That was a pretty loose tongue you got there. Why don't you change your title from the [Silent Witch] to the [Gibberish Witch], my colleague?" then laughed loudly. That's how fatal her slip tongue was.

"Hey, I wonder where did you see that?"

At Felix's words, Monica felt a rush of sweat break out all over her body.

It would be another matter to saw him during the daytime, but observing the boys' dormitory windows from the girls' dormitory window at night when there's no light was very difficult. Unless one has night vision like Nero or casting night vision and farsightedness spells like Monica, it would be impossible.

"Can I take your statement as an indication that you have been sneaking out of the girls' dormitory in the middle of the night and wandering around outside the boys' dormitory?"

"No, y-you've got it wrong. I just happened to see it when I opened my window…"

"I believe last night was a moonless night. Thanks to that, the stars looked more beautiful."

In a roundabout way, he told her that she wouldn't be able to see him from the window because it was too dark.

As Monica's mouth repeatedly closing and opening, Felix took a step closer with a smile on his face.

"So you saw someone leaving the boys' dormitory at night? Indeed, that could have been a suspicious person. But that wasn't me, though. Could you describe what that person looks like? Also, I think we need to tighten up security at the school."

"I… I couldn't see his face because he was wearing a hooded cloak. B-But I did catch a glimpse of his dark hair."

At Monica's words, Felix chuckled and pinched his honey blonde with his fingers.

Or perhaps what he meant was to prove it in a way of how scholars do.

"Y-You can always dye your hair or wear a wig to cover it up, but…"

"But?"

Monica clenched her fists and assured Felix, who calmly urged her to go on.

"The dark-haired man from yesterday and His Highness… h-have the same body sizes."

"You know, it's not uncommon for people to have similar body sizes."

"It's not similar, it's the golden ratio!"

"…huh?"

Once Monica was set on fire, instead of retracting her stuttering habit, she had a bad habit of losing sight of her surroundings. And now it was like that.

Just in time, there was a movable blackboard on the wall for the meeting. Monica drew a simple picture of a human figure on it and drew a rectangle at the head.

"I am confident in my ability to accurately guess the length of most things I see. For starters, the shape of Your Highness's head had a horizontal to vertical ratio of 1:1.618. This number is a golden ratio that humans find to be the closest thing to be the most beautiful. The more accurate number of the golden ratio is 1:1.61803398… It goes on and on, but I won't go into it here. The person I saw last night was wearing a hood, so I can't measure the exact number, but if I do a rough calculation based on what I can see above the hood, it fits this number!"

"………"

Without paying attention to Felix's reaction, Monica drew a horizontal line at the navel of the picture on the blackboard. In other words, it looked like a diagram of the human body divided into upper and lower parts. She wrote "1" above the navel and "1.618" below the navel.

"Even with clothes on, the length of the legs can be used to determine the approximate position of the navel. And the ratio of the upper half to the lower half of the torso of last night's person and Your Highness was also in this golden ratio when the torso was divided at the navel. What's more! When the lower body is set to 1, the total length of the upper and lower body is 1.618. It's like everything has been calculated in the golden ratio! People like this don't pop up very often! If I could get it measured with a measuring tape, my theory would prove to be… cor… rect…"

Monica, who had been breathing hard, finally came to her senses.

What have I done…

As Monica wobbled in front of him, still clutching the chalk, Felix was…

"The last time I took measurements, the numbers were…" mumbled casually and did some calculations.

Then, with a satisfied look on his face, he clapped his hands.

"Oh, It's really 1:1.6."

"………"

"I have received many compliments on my appearance, but this is the first time I have been complimented in this way."

Hearing his tone was somewhat amused rather than sarcastic made Monica to be greatly perplexed. And so she frantically racked her brain for excuses, trying to think and think again, then… after much hesitation, she came up with this excuse.

"The golden spiral is based on the golden ratio, which has a radius of Fioretti's sequence. This is a very beautiful number sequence that was discovered by a mathematician named Fioretti about six hundred years ago! How can it not be beautiful!"

Did she intent to follow up with this kind of excuse?

If Louis Miller had been here, he would have been grinding her head with a long lecture, but Felix just smiled then looked over at Monica.

"You praised the sequence more than I did, didn't you?"

"I-I-I'm sorryyyyyyy!"

"So, you're not going to deny it?"

She knew that it would be disrespectful if she nodded here.

Still, Monica can't betray the "numbers".

"I don't know of anything more beautiful than numbers…"

Felix let out a breath and brushed his slightly long bangs lightly.

"In honor of your enthusiasm for numbers, I will give you an honest answer. The dark-haired person you saw yesterday was me. I was sneaking out of the school to have some fun at night."

"H-Have some fun at night?"

Monica's idea of having fun at night was drinking in a sparkling restaurant with a beautiful lady. Is that mean, his highness is doing that too?

To be honest, Monica wasn't interested in how this second prince was playing around, but since he was the subject of her protection, she couldn't just overlook it. If someone attacked him while he was out having fun at night, it would be a disaster.

"Wouldn't it become a huge problem if the second prince was caught sneaking out and having fun at night? I hope you can keep this secret between us. If you do, I won't ask where you were watching me from last night."

Of course, she had no intention of telling anyone, so Monica nodded vigorously.

Oh, thank goodness. Looks like I won't be blamed and expelled from the school.

Felix took Monica's hand, which was secretly patting her chest, in a very natural gesture. Monica's whole body instantly tensed up and her body began to shaking slightly.

"Um… I-Is there something else… you need from me?"

"Yep, I'm not sure you're worth sharing a secret with me, so… let me see if you deserve my trust."

With that, Felix held Monica's hand as his blue eyes gleaming mysteriously.