The Speedrun Manual of Miss Witch

"Young Mistress, do you need me to help you change?"

"No need."

"Alright… Breakfast is ready…"

"I know."

"Mm… Then I will withdraw first. Young Mistress, please call me if you need anything else…"

"No need. You can go attend to other matters."

Roswell family mansion, in Avena's room.

A maid retreated to the door and left after opening it.

Only after the maid left did Avena get up, take off her nightgown, and change into a comparatively plain dark brown dress. She walked to the window and looked out at the garden in the courtyard below, watching the gardeners working there, feeling a little complex.

Her father had repeatedly assured her that Forte had not gone up to harm Ciel, but when pressed for details about what exactly happened to Forte, Charles avoided the subject, clearly deliberately hiding something.

But Charles was indeed sending people to help Avena search for Ciel. However, after searching for three days, Ciel seemed to have vanished into thin air, completely disappearing.

It was Tara who had left with Ciel in the end… Logically speaking, as someone from the same organization, Tara would not betray Ciel. And after Ciel resolved the matter, she should have come to find her.

Could something else have happened?

Avena's gaze was slightly worried. She took a deep breath. After putting on her glasses, she left the room and walked towards the dining room.

Opening the dining room door, Charles was currently sitting at the head of the dining table. A breakfast that had barely been touched was placed before him. Only after Avena entered did he begin to eat, somewhat for show, seemingly deliberately waiting for Avena.

"Good morning."

Avena slightly nodded to Charles. She sat in her seat and slowly began eating her breakfast.

The atmosphere in the dining room was somewhat silent. Several times Charles wanted to put down his knife and fork and say something, but he didn't. Finally, Avena looked in Charles's direction and asked, "Is there any news?"

"…Basically all my trusted people have been sent out to search. The team is led by Seraphim. You've met her. She's also met that Miss Ciel."

Charles shook his head. "Still no news for now."

Avena had asked him to look for Ciel, but she couldn't describe Ciel's appearance, hair color, or height in detail. She couldn't apply for a search warrant publicly, nor could she directly put up missing person posters or reward warrants.

For this search, it basically relied entirely on Seraphim and some trusted subordinates' investigation. The progress was slow… However, based on the current clues, she should still not have left the city.

"Thank you."

Avena nodded, then continued to eat her breakfast in silence.

Charles opened his mouth, but in the end, he chose to put the cut fried egg into his mouth.

He really wanted to talk to his daughter about something, but he didn't know how to start. At most, he could only ask a couple of questions like "Are your injuries better?" or "Is the food to your liking?"

After a couple of sentences, the conversation died.

Avena, on the other hand, would proactively initiate conversation, but it was basically always about the progress of the search for Ciel.

This made Charles feel a little uncomfortable… But when he thought of Forte's frenzy before death and the words "Ciel" carved on his body and bones, Charles's slight dissatisfaction quickly disappeared.

Charles was not willing to let breakfast time pass so meaninglessly. He could only rack his brain to think of topics that Avena might be interested in. He knew that improving their father-daughter relationship was not something that could be done overnight.

Soon, Charles thought of a piece of intelligence he hadn't paid much attention to before. He said, "When you returned to Ansu, did you go to see Princess Windsor?"

"No."

Avena shook her head and said, "She probably didn't know I was in Ansu City at that time."

"After Forte died, something went wrong with Windsor's mind,"

Charles raised his finger and gently tapped the area just above his temple with his index finger. He said, "She developed moon sickness."

"Moon sickness?"

Avena looked in Charles's direction and asked with some curiosity, "Why? Was she too shocked?"

"Moon sickness" is a colloquial term describing a person's state of mind being as unstable as the phases of the moon. Generally speaking, ordinary people call such people "imbeciles" or, more simply, "crazy fools." However, because Windsor's status is special, the term used must be more subtle.

"No, the regular doctors at the Royal Medical Association diagnosed her with 'atavistic deficiency syndrome,' but… Windsor couldn't possibly have this symptom, because she is the Queen and Forte's… uh…"

Charles hesitated for a moment, then continued, "Finally, she was sent to the Holy Oracle Society for examination. The result was a little unexpected."

"Atavistic deficiency syndrome" is a symptom of idiocy that can easily appear in children born from inbreeding. Of course, this was absolutely impossible for Windsor.

"What is it?"

This topic did seem to pique Avena's interest. She stopped her actions and pressed Charles for an answer.

"Her frontal lobe was completely hollowed out… This was most likely done by her teacher. Her teacher Lafayette has disappeared and seems to have secretly left Ansu City,"

Charles shook his head and said, "However, the Queen doesn't have the energy to deal with these things right now. She has more important matters to attend to."

With Forte's death, the two most important forces in Ansu City, the "Queen's Sword" and the "Royal Orchestra," are now leaderless. Only with Charles's intervention can they be somewhat suppressed, preventing anything from going wrong.

[Translator's Note: I changed Royal Melody to Royal Orchestra.]

But besides these, there are more things that need to be properly handled.

"Oh, by the way, Princess Vitalis seems to have returned quickly after hearing the news of Forte's death. If you have time, you can go see her,"

Charles thought for a moment and said, "After all, if you just keep staying at home like this…"

Charles stopped there, realizing he had taken on a preachy tone again. Then he said, "If you're bored, you can invite her over for a meal. She should not refuse."

"Mm. Thank you."

Avena nodded.

In fact, it wasn't just Charles. At this moment, Avena also didn't know how to communicate with Charles. They were like familiar strangers, and the conversation would become awkward after only two or three sentences.

The main reason was that their personalities were indeed not very suitable for chatting with people. Both of them tended to kill conversations.

Just as the atmosphere was about to freeze, a knock on the door saved the situation.

Knock knock knock——

The dining room door was opened. The butler walked in and slightly bowed beside Avena, saying, "Miss Avena, Commissioner Lucy from the Deton Group is visiting. She says she is your friend."