Louis Miller

Louis Miller appears in “Secrets of the Silent Witch”, a fantasy series set in the Ridill Kingdom.

He holds the epithet “Barrier Mage” and is officially recognized as one of the kingdom’s Seven Sages, its highest-ranking magicians.

He is famed as a hardcore battle mage, ranking second in history for solo dragon kills.

Despite his elegant manners, he is a reformed delinquent with a very rough, violent core.

His同期 (same-cohort) within the Seven Sages is Monica Everett, the “Silent Witch”, whom he both respects and resentfully calls a monster.

He is ten years older than Monica, yet refers to her as “my fellow cohort” because they joined the Seven Sages in the same round of selection.

Louis is contracted to the upper wind spirit Rynzbelfeid (“Ryn”).

He also takes Glenn Dudley as his disciple and is married to Rosalie Miller, daughter of the former Seven Sage known as the “Water Management Mage” Bardland Verde.

In the spin-off work “Barrier Mage’s Rise to Power”, Louis serves as the protagonist, showing his youth and rise.

He is also a main character in the author’s practice work “Amnesiac Military Doctor Rosalie Verde”, which later fed into “Secrets of the Silent Witch”.

The author describes Louis as a character who “pushes what sounds like impeccable logic but is actually outrageous nonsense, all with a smile.”

On the surface, Louis is a polite, refined gentleman with careful speech and noble manners.

In reality, he is a former delinquent with a violent mindset, who enjoys solving problems with overwhelming force.

He is sharp-tongued and smiles while delivering brutal comments.

He often hits his disciple Glenn and his subordinates, though it’s framed as “correction” rather than cruelty.

He does not enjoy bullying the weak; instead, he prefers bullying the strong, such as dragons and top-tier mages like Monica.

Because of this twisted preference, he is sometimes treated as a “broken personality” even among the already eccentric Seven Sages.

Louis is extremely competitive, stubborn, and hardworking, someone who grows by pushing back against obstacles.

Thanks to this nature, he dominated all magic-related subjects at Minerva, and eventually became the youngest-ever captain of the Royal Magic Corps.

His teacher Gideon Rutherford calls him a “genius of effort”, emphasizing that his talent lies in relentless training rather than innate prodigy.

During his Minerva days, his diligence and improvement were highly praised by the faculty.

He has androgynous, well-shaped features, long hair as part of noble etiquette, and is often mistaken for a woman, which he dislikes.

As a child, that beauty was almost exploited by the owner of a brothel, who seriously considered making him a male prostitute.

Louis believes that, compared to the other Seven Sages, he is actually one of the more “normal” ones.

From an outside perspective, however, he is still extremely abnormal, just in a different direction.

Monica Everett

Louis has a complicated relationship with Monica Everett, the “Silent Witch”.

In the Seven Sages’ magic selection battle, he was utterly crushed by her, leaving him with lingering frustration.

He openly calls Monica a “monster” in recognition of her absurd magical talent.

At the same time, he frequently drags her into dangerous missions, such as the black dragon subjugation at Worgan, or casually dumps troublesome assignments on her.

Although he is ten years older, he calls her “my fellow cohort”, because they became Seven Sages at the same time.

Notably, he only uses this polite “cohort” phrasing to her face; when she is absent, he never calls her that.

Louis acknowledges that in real combat, he cannot win against Monica’s overall capabilities.

However, he also points out that in formal magic duels, where her silent casting dominates, he has to rely on loopholes and underhanded tactics to keep up.

Royal Faction Politics: Lionel and Felix

Louis was a classmate and close friend of Prince Lionel (the First Prince) at Minerva High Division.

He respects Lionel so much that he gave his own daughter a name with a similar sound.

He openly declares himself part of the First Prince faction, but this is largely out of dislike for the Second Prince and his maternal family.

He is not an unquestioning loyalist; rather, he supports Lionel because he trusts him as a person and detests his political rivals.

When Louis first met Felix Arc Ridill, the Second Prince, six years before the main story, he felt an instinctive distrust.

Furthermore, because Louis was seen as friendly with Lionel, the Second Prince’s maternal grandfather, Darius Knightley, Duke of Crockford, deliberately blocked Louis’s recommendation to the Seven Sages.

This political sabotage angered Louis and solidified his stance as a declared supporter of the First Prince faction.

Because of this factional tension, protecting the Second Prince became politically difficult, forcing Louis to rely on Monica for that mission instead.

Rosalie Miller and Family

Louis is an extreme wife-lover who deeply adores his wife Rosalie Miller.

He pursued the status of Seven Sage, noble manners, and a house in the capital almost entirely to qualify to marry her.

Rosalie’s father, former Seven Sage Bardland Verde, set a nearly impossible condition:

“Rosalie can only marry a man who has intellect, refinement, a house in the capital, and the potential to become a Seven Sage.”

Louis took these conditions literally and reshaped his entire life to meet them.

In front of Bardland, he behaves with impeccable manners, which became one of the reasons he underperformed in the Seven Sages selection battle against Monica.

Ironically, Rosalie herself is actually drawn to Louis’s delinquent side, not his polished noble persona.

She does not particularly like the overly refined Louis; when his behavior or appearance reverts to his old delinquent style, she becomes noticeably flustered.

When Rosalie became pregnant, Louis was so overjoyed that he wrote to Monica announcing, “I am going to be a father”, radiating pure excitement.

Ryn, his contracted spirit, immediately mocked him as a “silly airhead drunk on happiness.”

Their daughter Leonora is born during the main storyline, and Louis adores her to the point of obsession.

Unfortunately for him, Leonora hates him like poison and bursts into tears whenever he tries to hold her.

Leonora is friendly with every other man around (such as Glenn and Lionel) but not with Louis.

People jokingly say that she “sees through his true nature” and “has very good taste in men.”

Childhood

Louis hails from the northern region of the Ridill Kingdom, a harsh, frigid, and poor area.

He grew up in a brothel in a remote village, under constant hardship.

Because the local water could not be trusted, people relied heavily on alcohol, and Louis became a formidable drinker.

From a young age he worked as a bouncer and guard for the brothel, developing strong practical combat instincts and body techniques.

One day, Gideon Rutherford, a professor from the magic academy Minerva, happened to visit.

Gideon dropped a magic textbook, which Louis picked up and read.

Within just one week, Louis managed to learn actual magic from that textbook alone.

Impressed, Gideon gave him a recommendation to enroll at Minerva, changing Louis’s life trajectory.

“Minerva’s Bad Boy”

During his early Minerva days, Louis was still rough, violent, and rebellious.

He frequently caused problems, gaining the notorious nickname “Minerva’s bad boy.”

A typical line from this era is:

“If you don’t want to be slowly stewed, offer me your jam, you brats.”

He extorted jam from others, got into fights, and generally behaved like a delinquent with magic.

However, he also relentlessly honed his skills and, under Gideon’s guidance, started to explore barrier magic.

At Minerva, Louis met people who would shape his life:

his future wife Rosalie, his senior disciple Carla, his close friend Prince Lionel, and future subordinate Owen from the Magic Corps.

To counter his mentor Gideon’s magic, Louis specialized in barrier techniques, which gradually became his signature.

By graduation, he had transformed from a lawless troublemaker into a dangerous but highly competent mage.

Rise in the Magic Corps and Road to Seven Sage

After graduating from Minerva, Louis joined the Royal Magic Corps.

There he earned the title “Barrier Mage” and steadily climbed the ranks.

He eventually rose all the way to captain of the Magic Corps, making him one of the youngest people ever to hold that position.

During this period, he also contracted the high-ranking wind spirit Rynzbelfeid, dramatically boosting his combat and mobility.

Louis accomplished multiple dragon subjugations, raising his reputation as an elite battle mage.

He also took in Glenn Dudley, who had caused an incident at Minerva, as his disciple, insisting on personally reshaping the boy.

At the age of eighteen, Louis decided that he would become a Seven Sage.

From that point, he pursued the shortest possible route, building up achievements and political weight to qualify for selection.

By age twenty-five, he finally received the opportunity to participate in the Seven Sages selection trials.

However, Gideon forcibly inserted Monica Everett into the selection as well, infuriating Louis.

Gideon believed Monica’s power needed state-level protection and public recognition, using the selection as a stage to showcase her.

But his deeper motive was also to apply pressure on Louis (and fellow candidate Adolf Fallon) and prevent them from getting too reckless.

Louis, having spent years structuring his entire career toward this one goal, was understandably furious at this sudden interference.

He then fought Monica in the selection’s magic battle and suffered a devastating defeat, which he has never quite gotten over.

Overall Strength and Magic Style

Louis is a universal-type mage with exceptional combat instincts and ridiculous practical effectiveness.

He ranks second in history for solo dragon kills and is feared as a combat junkie among the Seven Sages.

His core specialty is barrier magic, and his defensive capability is considered among the best in the kingdom.

Even Monica’s already overpowered defenses are surpassed by Louis’s barrier strength.

He can casually form emergency barriers with abbreviated chants that are strong enough to withstand Monica’s spirit king summoning.

At full power, his maximum-strength barrier can only be broken by extreme attacks such as Bradford Firestone’s sixfold-enhanced magic or his senior Carla’s “Star Lance”.

Because of this, some nobles privately refer to Louis as a “guardian deity of the kingdom.”

His barrier formation is not only strong but extremely precise, allowing advanced shapes and coverage.

Normally, barriers can only be deployed as flat planes or hemispheres.

Louis, however, can trace the surface of a collapsing building, covering it exactly with his barrier to prevent debris from falling.

He is also highly skilled in sealing techniques, which are closely related to barrier magic.

Among the Seven Sages, he is the only one capable of handling first-class sealing barriers, so he often manages the sealing of grimoires and ancient magical artifacts.

Offensive Tactics

Despite being a barrier specialist, Louis’s combat style is incredibly aggressive and dirty.

His basic tactic is to surround the entire area with a sturdy barrier, cutting off all escape routes, and then spam magic from within.

He further weaponizes his barriers in various physical ways:

he coats his staff or limbs in barrier layers to punch and kick, wraps his body to perform high-speed ramming with flight magic, or shrinks barriers to crush enemies.

Louis dislikes using these brutal methods in formal or elegant settings because he considers them “not refined enough.”

Still, in real battles he is perfectly willing to abandon pretense and do whatever it takes to win.

Thanks to his time as a brothel guard and in the Magic Corps, his hand-to-hand combat is exceptional.

He often fights with staffs or axes to conserve mana and can, even with no magic, easily subdue ordinary mages.

If he envelops his fists in barrier magic and punches, he can shatter Monica’s defensive barriers in close combat.

This makes him terrifying in melee, even for top-tier magicians.

Versatility and Comparison to Monica

Louis is not limited to wind or barriers; he can handle multiple elements at a solid practical level.

He also uses flight magic at a mastery level, ranking among the best in the country.

He can perform spirit king summoning, a highest-level spell that even more than half of the current Seven Sages cannot use.

Combined with Ryn’s flight specialty, Louis’s long-distance mobility and rapid deployment ability are top-tier.

Because he can do almost everything to a high standard, Louis is classified as a “universal-type” mage within the Seven Sages.

Monica is also a universal-type, but with her magic heavily optimized for pure spellcraft and theory.

Louis, by contrast, is a practical universal-type, tuned for real combat, dirty tricks, and survival.

Even Monica—who is harshly critical of other people’s magic—acknowledges him as “someone who can perform almost any magic at or above a certain standard.”

In basic magic, Louis’s casting speed is inferior to Monica’s, since she can cast silently.

However, in terms of raw power, his spells are generally stronger.

Fighting the Seven Sages

Louis’s combat talent is not just raw power but also his fearless creativity and unscrupulous tactics.

In one incident, he single-handedly fought five other Seven Sages (excluding the non-combatant Mary Harvey) plus Glenn.

He initiated the fight after receiving a surprise attack that cost him more than half his mana right from the start.

Even so, he stayed at least even with them by exploiting loopholes in the formal magic duel rules and even taking spectators hostage as leverage.

Because Monica has access to silent casting, she is almost unbeatable in strictly regulated magic duels.

Yet Louis notes that in actual field combat, with all dirty tactics allowed, even Monica cannot easily prevail against him.

Due to his versatility, mobility, and general usefulness, Louis is often assigned all kinds of errands and side jobs.

After Glenn graduates from Serendia Academy, Louis starts pushing many of those tasks onto Glenn instead.

Drinking and Sweets

Coming from the frigid northern region where water was unsafe and alcohol was a safer option, Louis became a heavy drinker.

He can consume large amounts of alcohol with little visible effect, impressing and horrifying people around him.

At the same time, he is a massive sweet tooth.

He dumps huge quantities of jam into his tea or wine, going so far as to consume an entire jar of jam per day.

He can cook for himself and is not completely hopeless in the kitchen.

However, he tends to ruin the final product by drowning it in jam at the end.

Despite this unbalanced diet of strong alcohol and absurd sugar intake, he remains perfectly healthy, baffling everyone.

Even his contracted spirit Ryn occasionally comments on how unreasonably robust he is.

Voice and Famous Lines

In the anime adaptation, Louis is voiced by Junichi Suwabe (in-universe casting reference).

His lines are often cool on the surface but deeply unhinged once you listen carefully.

Some of his signature quotes include:

“The match begins before you even sit at the table, my fellow cohort.”

“The strongest shield is the strongest blunt weapon.”

When disciplining students or subordinates, he cheerfully declares:

“It is time for a corrective beating, you little brats.”

From his bad boy Minerva era, a well-known line is:

“If you don’t want to be slowly simmered, pay tribute in jam, you brats.”

These quotes perfectly capture his mix of polite phrasing, smiling cruelty, and violent logic.

In the spin-off “Barrier Mage’s Rise to Power”, Louis is the main protagonist, and the story focuses on his youth and ascent.

His days in the brothel, his time at Minerva, meeting Rosalie and Lionel, and his early dragon hunts are all explored there.

In “Amnesiac Military Doctor Rosalie Verde”, which the author wrote as a practice run for “Secrets of the Silent Witch,” Louis is a major supporting character.

Rosalie is the true main character in that story, but Louis’s personality and relationship with her are already clearly established.

Within the main series, Louis’s path to becoming a Seven Sage is structured to contrast sharply with Monica’s.

Monica was discovered at age twelve for her silent casting and, largely without personal initiative, drifted upward to become a Seven Sage by fifteen.

Louis, on the other hand, decided at eighteen that he would become a Seven Sage and then deliberately built his career toward that end.

He carefully stacked accomplishments—Magic Corps captaincy, dragon subjugations, high-level spirit contracts—until he reached eligibility at twenty-five.

When Gideon inserted Monica into the Seven Sages selection, Louis felt his carefully prepared path was being hijacked at the last moment.

This resentment colors his dynamic with Monica, even as he grudgingly acknowledges her extraordinary power.

In another related story, “White-Winged Harpyia”, Louis’s name never appears, yet the narrative still manages to emphasize how absurdly unreasonable he is as a person.

His reputation as a smiling, barrier-wielding menace precedes him, even off-screen.

Finally, Minerva’s later history includes a student labeled as the “second generation Minerva bad boy”, considered comparable in troublemaking to Louis’s younger self.

The running joke is that the first generation (Louis) was worse in terms of sheer danger, while the second generation is worse in terms of creepiness.