Silent Witch
Volume 12 Chapter 16: His Merciless Queen

A thrill coursed through Hubert as his prey finally emerged in the hunting ground.

But he had one concern. That was…

“Hmm, hmm, hmm, hey, this fog is your doing, right? …Don’t you need to remove it?”

The fog that he had spread around this area was probably to prevent Monica’s figure from being projected on the stage of the audience seats. But in general, a magician’s power was limited to cast two spells simultaneously. That means, while the fog is up, Monica can only use one magic. And she has to keep releasing a decent amount of mana to maintain the fog. This way, Monica can’t fight with all her might. That’s too boring.

When Hubert pointed that out, Monica answered expressionlessly.

“…One hand suffices for you.”

He was rather pleased than angry by the provocation that was unthinkable from the cowardly Monica.

“It makes me so happy. You were so scared and timid three years ago, and now you’ve learned to provoke like that… but you’re not the only one who’s different from three years ago.”

Hubert swung his right hand and a flame arrow was born without chanting, and it rained down on Monica.

She immediately blocked it with a chantless barrier. It was hard as expected from the defensive barrier of the Seven Sages.

Hubert added a chant and slammed a thunder spear into the barrier. The simultaneous attack of the flame arrow and the thunder spear made Monica’s defensive barrier creak. It was only a matter of time before Hubert pushed through. But Monica was not flustered and muttered in a quiet voice.

“…You need a chant for the thunder spear, don’t you?”

“Do you have time to talk nonsense? The barrier will break if you keep this up.”

“…”

At that moment, the fog that surrounded them thickened. So much that they couldn’t see each other’s figures. He felt Monica’s intention to release the barrier at the same time. She was going to attack in this fog.

Hubert quickly put up a defensive barrier and was on guard for Monica’s attack.

Right now, Glenn was unconscious beside him. A little further away were Cyril and Roberto.

If Monica attacked and Hubert dodged or deflected it with a barrier, the stray bullets could hit Glenn and the others. So Monica shouldn’t be able to attack recklessly.

But Hubert didn’t care what happened to Glenn and the others, so he declared.

“Come on, just get with it already. Are you going to keep hiding like this? …If you don’t do it, I’ll use a wide-range magic that will involve all of them. Five… four… three…”

Before the count was over, an ice spear flew out of the fog. It looked like a normal ice spear, but it contained a lot of mana and high power.

That will pierce through the barrier.

But the launch speed was not very fast. Hubert could barely dodge it with his physical ability.

Even if Monica had incorporated a tracking formula into this ice spear, the effective time of the tracking formula was only about two to three seconds. It could only correct its orbit once. Then, he could just avoid it by flying away with his flying magic. The tracking formula would lose its effect after three seconds.

…If it was an existing tracking formula.

“What the—?!”

The ice spear kept chasing Hubert even after more than three seconds. As if the ice spear itself had a will of its own.

Hubert hasn’t heard of such a high-performance tracking magic.

Monica’s voice came from the fog.

“It’s a high-level tracking formula that I developed recently. The duration is ten times that of a normal formula… about twenty to thirty seconds.”

I see, with such a high-level tracking performance, he didn’t have to worry about involving Glenn and the others.

Hubert’s body tingled with excitement.

Monica Everett, who had just developed new magic, was challenging him!

Could there be a more exhilarating than this?

“…Hahaha, you really are the best woman!”

Monica was now maintaining two magic, the fog, and the ice spear. This left her with no room for casting additional magic.

On the other hand, Hubert was only activating his flying magic, but he had to focus on avoiding it, and he had no leeway to pay attention to anything else.

The moment the tracking of this ice spear ends, I’ll strike!

Hubert counted while avoiding. The remaining time is about ten to twenty seconds. The ice spear chased Hubert persistently, but it was not fast enough to catch up with Hubert’s flying magic. He lowered his altitude a little so that he could land quickly.

At that moment, a crimson light flashed in front of him. Red washed over his vision, followed by a searing agony in his right eye.

“Gaah!?”

He lost control of his flying magic and Hubert rolled on the ground. He was lucky that he had lowered his altitude, and the impact was not that bad, but the ice spear that had been chasing Hubert pierced deeply into his back as he fell to the ground.

Not only that, several flame arrows pierced Hubert’s back.

He screamed as if his throat was torn by the pain, but he didn’t stop thinking and tried to grasp the situation.

What pierced my eye? A flame arrow? But Monica couldn’t use more magic to cast a flame arrow. Then who…? Glenn Dudley? Cyril Ashley? Roberto Vinkel? …No, no, no… that arrow… it was mine!

A sound of footsteps on the ground was heard. Raising his hand to his throbbing right eye, Hubert met the merciless gaze of a witch above him.

Monica held a ring with a large jewel in her hand. A magic formula was floating in it. It wasn’t a mere ring… it was his magic tool.

“Right thumb, middle finger, ring finger. Left index, middle finger, little finger… six rings adorned your fingers before the duel, Senior Dee. But now you only have one left on your right middle finger. You hid the rest of the rings around here, didn’t you?”

Hubert chuckled, a low rumble in his chest.

“No rule against it. This is a magic duel, after all.”

Why is it called a magic duel, not a magic match?

To begin with, “magic” means “to cause some phenomenon by using mana”. One of the means to do that is to chant and weave a “magic” formula.

Roughly speaking, “magic” is a large category that includes spell magic, curse magic, astrology, summoning magic, and so on.

And the technique of making and using magic tools is also classified as “magic” in the large category.

Within the magic duel’s bounds, any means fueled by mana are fair game. That means, using magic tools to fight is also naturally permitted.

But not many people like to do that. Magic tools are very expensive, and attack-type magic tools are mostly disposable and lose their effect after one use.

That ring was a set of six magic tools that Hubert made himself. The ring he kept in his hand acted as a control center, and the other five rings were the launchers of the flame arrows.

The usage was very simple. He just had to channel his mana to the ring in his hand. That alone would make the other five rings shoot flame arrows.

He’d meticulously reduced their power and divided the launchers into five rings, allowing for ten uses each, far exceeding the typical disposable nature of magic tools.

Hubert secretly used this to lead others to believe he could cast chantless magic.

And Monica, who noticed that, analyzed and collected one of the rings while buying time with the ice spear…

“You rewrote its formula, huh?”

The six rings were always linked. So, by possessing one of the rings, Monica could rewrite the magic formula, transferring ownership from Hubert Dee to Monica Everett.

Of course, not anyone can do that. It would take hours for an ordinary person to fully analyze a magic tool and even more time to rewrite it.

And this monster… did it in mere seconds!

A tremor of excitement coursed through Hubert.

Ah, this witch who looked down on him mercilessly was indeed an abnormal monster.

She’d dismantled the traps he’d set up and claimed the ownership of his magic tools, all with a nonchalant coolness.

“I’ve rewritten Louis’s defensive barrier before… It took me almost a minute to remove the dummy formula for rewriting prevention.”

She said that and rolled Hubert’s ring in her palm, muttering with the look of a boring toy.

“It took me only five seconds to remove the dummy formula that you put in your magic tool… This is almost like a child’s trick.”

In the dark forest covered with thick fog, the Silent Witch whispered mercilessly with her eyes gleaming green.

“Was this your desperate attempt to mimic chantless magic? A mere parlor trick?”

Even something as revered as chantless magic was nothing but child’s play to this witch. Her arrogance ignited a spark within Hubert’s chest. Ah, has there other women who had ever stirred him so?

“I like your mercilessness and arrogance… You really are the best. So, my queen, order me to ‘bow down and kneel before the overwhelming power.'”

At Hubert’s words, Monica, who previously had a picture of stoicism, lowered her eyebrows, a flicker of confusion crossing her face. Gone was the merciless witch; in her place stood the usual timid young girl.

“Um, kneeling isn’t necessary… just promise… to cooperate with the mission… and keep my identity secret…”

“If you want to make me obey, then discipline me, my queen. You had to exert force on me to do that.”

Silence.

Monica channeled her mana into the ring and she took the initiative. The rings which were hidden around and Hubert’s right-hand ring glowed red. Flame arrows erupted, surrounding Hubert.

With a single sentence, Monica granted his wish.

“Do it.”

Hubert’s laughter tinted with pleasure echoed as the flame arrows rained down on him.

Author’s note:

In previous chapters V1C2, I hinted at the subtle difference between “magic” and “spell.” This distinction also applies to terms like “magic sword” and “magic army” used later in the story.

Essentially, engaging in activities beyond “spell magic” qualifies something as “magic” if it originates from mana. To put it extremely, you can also consider magic sword belongs to the magic army. This includes methods like curse magic, magic tools, and even the fire breath of dragons or Nero’s black flames.