CH 284

Tail [Part 1]

Joanna’s POV

The effect of my charm magic is getting weaker.  It had caused  a panic in my heart.

It all happened after the rumors started to spread throughout the academy that Lady Emma Stuart was in critical condition.

The effectiveness of magic that manipulates the psyche varies from person to person. Not only that, this kind of magic has the drawback of activating the enchanted target’s self-defense mechanism when [Life] is involved.

This drawback seemed to have been triggered to a great extent by the wave of emotions everyone felt since Lady Emma Stuart was on the verge of her death. Everyone was engulfed in fear, grief, and regret as if they themselves were dying. Even worse was that the self-defense mechanism became even more apparent in proportion to one’s guilt. And since the people who would speak more ill about her were the ones who were strongly affected by my charm magic, my plan ended up backfiring on me after they were engulfed by guilt.

This bunch had always been easily led around by the nose by rumors in the first place. It was easy to cast the magic on them, but the same went for dispelling it.

It was hard to believe that only one young lady from a Count household held this much influence. And at this sort of timing, at that.

Even though I had finally managed to take half of the students under my control by distributing cotton cloth, my several months of effort were ruined in just a few short hours.

I was running out of time here.

If I didn’t find that quickly, this body and the Empire would be in serious trouble.

“Lady Joanna, no further entry is permitted beyond this point.”

Someone spoke to me from behind.

This kind of thing had never happened before.

To think that my movements inside the Royal Castle would be restricted…

“M-My apologies. I got a little lost…”

Tch, I don’t have time for this. I looked back irritatedly and saw Arthur Bell. He was a Duke’s son who followed the second prince closely as his guard at the academy.

His refined handsomeness can rival even the second prince.

I heard that he was a frivolous playboy, unlike the prince, who was said to be cold-hearted and straight-faced from the information I got beforehand, so I thought he could be manipulated easily and had cast strong charm magic on him once.

It ended in failure.

The physical appearance of this body was not particularly beautiful. I had managed to keep my appearance presentable by casting charm magic.

Those affected strongly by magic would devote themselves to me to the point of adoring and deifying me. And even if the effect was weak, those who came in contact with charm magic would see me as beautiful even with this appearance.

However, this Arthur Bell would always tilt his head and look confused whenever he heard someone praising me beautiful. In other words, my charm magic didn’t work on this person at all.

There was no person like this in the Empire. To think that MY magic had no effect whatsoever on a person… Truly unbelievable.

“Fufu, getting lost is an amusing excuse, isn’t it? You have been treading the shortest route to the treasure house with such confident steps in this labyrinthine Royal Castle.” Despite smiling, the words coming out of Arthur Bell’s mouth stung.

“What is it… It’s just a coincidence.”

When I left my assigned bedroom, I knew I’d been followed by several knights. But I should’ve already shaken them off.

Currently, my charm magic worked better in the Royal Castle than in the academy, where rumors of Emma Stuart were running rampant.

I had put those knights tailing me completely under my control.

I didn’t sense any presence other than those knights. How did Arthur Bell notice what I was doing?