The Extra’s Academy Survival Guide - Chapter 151

Anyway, my goal at that point wasn’t to defeat Krepin. As I said, if I didn’t bring down the name of the house and his prestige first, even if I defeated him, I wouldn’t be able to clean up the mess that remained.

Whoosh.

Dust rose inside the library. Krepin quickly blew it away as he raised his left hand once again.

It was a power that I didn’t understand the mechanics of. However, as I had played through Act 4 before, I had a rough idea.

He couldn’t fully utilize the power of the Evil God, as it was in an incomplete state. However, he was still able to control the ‘Physical Power’ around him at will.

Gravity, inertia, friction… At least with his magic power, he was able to control the flow of physical energy.

It might have felt as if he was undefeatable, as the flow of energy in this world was at the palm of his hand.

However, to manage such power, he had to concentrate for a long time and accumulate magic power over a long period. It was enough to say that it was a power that was used in quick battles.

At that moment, the full powers of the Evil God hadn’t been fully released. It was the best time to defeat him, but the order of things was already set.

I gathered magic power in my hand.

Boom!

As the magic power gathered, I was ready to send it straight to a single point.

Intermediate fire magic, Point Explosion.

Krepin Rothstaylor quickly reacted to the speed of my magic power, taking a defensive stance. Unfortunately for him, the direction of my attack wasn’t Krepin.

Booom!!!

The floor collapsed as a roar engulfed the entire mansion.

Unfortunately, the peaceful and enjoyable social gathering had to end there.

* * *

Boom! Crumble! Crash!

The explosion from Ed’s magic was heard all the way downstairs.

It could also be heard in the main hall, where the banquet was in progress.

The nobles, who were having small talk while clinking their glasses of high-quality wine, let out confused noises for a moment.

With a rumbling sound and a tremor, part of the outer wall started to crack. Surprised by this, the crowd started to murmur.

Eventually, a loyal vassal—who seemed to be quite the veteran—came out, calming the situation. But Krepin, who was in charge of the event, was nowhere to be seen.

Everyone—including Selah, who was chatting with the people, Clarice, who was enjoying the dinner, and Sinir Bloomriver, who was alone on the terrace—looked up at the sky in puzzlement.

Most people didn’t know what was happening, so they first decided to stop the party and wait until the servants figured out the situation.

“…Hmm.”

Meanwhile, Princess Selah calmed her breathing.

It was a sudden situation, but that wasn’t the only suspicious thing. More importantly, it was suspicious that both Krepin Rothstaylor and Ed Rothstaylor were missing at the same time.

“This wine is quite good. I think I may have drank too much.”

Selah spoke as she handed the barely touched wine glass to the waiter next to her. It meant that she wasn’t going to drink now.

She went out to the terrace to take a break from the alcohol. When she turned her head to look at the outer wall, it seemed that there was an explosion that took place on the upper floors.

“Hmm…”

Selah was lost in thought. Eventually she burst into laughter as she opened the door and went out.

* * *

Fwoosh.

The sound of dust falling.

The floor of the study was collapsing, and several books and documents were rolling on the floor.

“He said that he could feel an oddly large amount of magic power reacting underneath Duke Krepin’s personal study. But… According to the structure of the mansion, beneath his study is supposed to be the kitchen. There’s no way you should be feeling such a large amount of magic power in a kitchen, where the servants are working.”

According to the information Yennekar found, there was a space underneath the study where a strange reaction to magic power could be felt.

According to the design of the mansion, there was supposed to be a kitchen the same size as the study beneath it. Compared to the kitchen’s size, however, the study was much too small.

There was a high chance that there was a space next to the kitchen that wasn’t added to the blueprints.

Needless to say, the entrance to it would be in Krepin’s study. It would have been better if we had found the entrance, but since the situation wasn’t favorable, the floor ended up being completely destroyed.

Booom! Crumble! Crash!

“Kyaaaaah!”

As the ceiling collapsed, some of the startled maids ran out of the kitchen. However, I couldn’t see it. There was a large wall that stood in the way, and only the sound of them could be heard.

As expected, the floor of the study only covered the gap between the kitchen and the secret space next to it.

The place I ended up falling into was part of that secret space.

“Keheuk…!”

“Yennekar, are you alright?”

“Y-Yeah…!”

A small space made of bricks. There was only one passageway there that led to somewhere.

The dark passage ran all the way down. Judging by its depth, it seemed that it was connected to an underground space.

It definitely seemed like we found it.

Fwoooosh!

The dust rose up again as Krepin stood up from inside.

He clenched his left hand tightly, trying to compress the air around me. However, I reacted quickly, rolling my body to one side.

Crunch!!

The stone next to me couldn’t withstand the pressure, bursting.

Seeing how naturally I dodged it, Krepin was amazed.

“Your reaction is amazing. It’s as if it’s not your first time facing me.”

Of course. I had fought against Krepin multiple times before, so I was used to him. He was by no means an easy opponent, but compared to the Evil God Mebula, he appeared cute.

“Do you know what your mistake was?”

I got up as I patted my clothes and quickly spoke.

“The thing that bothered me the most was that this mansion was entirely your domain. The servants and guards are all Rothstaylor people, who act under your command.”

“……”

“But would you ever allow them to come into such a space? You gave up your best advantage.”

What I needed to do now was not to subdue Krepin. Everything had an order.

I grabbed Yennekar’s hand, dragging her along as I threw both of us into the underground passage.

“Waaaaaaaaah?!”

Surprised, Yennekar held onto me tightly as we ran down the passageway together. We continued to run all the way down the stairs.

It was a secret space that was created for him to hide everything. There was a high chance there would be much evidence of Krepin’s evil deeds.

* * *

Tadadak! Tadak!

There was no way he could stay still when Ed was running down the passageway.

Krepin Rothstaylor quickly grabbed his sword as he tried to move.

However, he couldn’t chase after him.

Boom!

Kwakakakakak!

It wasn’t raining, but lightning had struck.

As if to block Krepin from heading to the entrance, a lightning bolt struck the ground right in front of him, raising the dust.

“Keheum…!”

Krepin quickly covered his mouth with his sleeve as he withstood the aftermath. When he blew away the dust once more, there was a girl standing there fixing her collar, which had fluttered upwards.

Her white hair was beautifully tied into two parts. Despite her petite body, the pressure she had was impressive. Her eyes, which usually looked as if she would fall asleep, suddenly came back to life and were filled with energy.

She fixed her large witch hat as she chewed on some jerky. She then shoved her hands into the pocket of her coat. After a while, she finally spoke in a soft voice.

“I am sorry.”

Pababak!

At that moment, four swords made of light appeared in the air as they flew straight into the ground.

The grips of the massive swords were all around her in what seemed like a defensive line… It was not something that could be easily cast.

High-ranking light magic, Sword’s Grip of Light.

There were also all sorts of intermediate barriers that were set up like a spider’s web, creating an impenetrable defense.

“From now on, you can’t enter here.”

The rare genius wizard, Lucy Mayreel.

Appearing like a bolt of lightning and taking over the space in an instant, she didn’t even show any signs of exhaustion even after creating dozens of intermediate magics and a high-ranking magic.

“What… Did you just do…?”

“Why? Are you upset?”

Her words sounded as if she were provoking him.

However, if you listened to her calm and pure voice… you wouldn’t feel that intention at all.

Lucy didn’t tend to provoke her opponents in battle to shake their composure. That was because she didn’t need to do so in the first place.

She was simply stating the facts as they were.

“Then… try to get through.”

It was a barrier that appeared in just a few seconds, but it was like a wall of steel that even high-ranking spirits couldn’t fully penetrate through.

Krepin stared at Lucy’s blank eyes as he furrowed his brow.

* * *

On the other hand, Lortel was sitting cross-legged with her arms crossed in the carriage that departed from Oldek.

While staring at the Sage’s Seal for some time, she had a strange feeling that something was happening in the Rothstyalor Mansion.

All kinds of ledgers filled the wagon. There were still many things left for her to check.

Nevertheless, Lortel still headed out to Oldek without having the time to spare.

* * *

Passing the empire’s capital, Kroelon, Princess Penia had a serious expression on her face as she took out a horse from the stable at night.

The imperial horseman tried to deter the princess with a puzzled and worried expression, but a commoner wouldn’t be able to stop her.

She put a luxurious saddle on the most powerful and sturdy horse before riding it. The hem of her dress made her uncomfortable, but it would be a waste of time to change clothes.

Princess Penia then ran out of the Imperial palace without permission, taking only four escorts.

A report was quickly sent by the soldiers who saw what was happening, but it was already too late.

There was only one place that everyone was traveling to.

Rothstaylor Mansion, where Krepin Rothstaylor was hiding something evil.

* * *

Tadadak! Tadak!

I ran down the stairs for a while holding Yennekar’s hand.

Taking advantage of the chance Lucy had created outside, I had to quickly figure out what this secret space was.

The fact that it had been so tightly hidden meant that it was probably a place where Krepin held all sorts of secrets for his plan.

After running down the dark passage for a while, the sound started to echo.

It was finally time to enter the underground space. At that point, it would be easier to just think of it as a basement.

I held onto Yennekar’s wrist, running as I spoke.

“Listen, Yennekar. You have to remember everything you see here. It’ll be much more credible if we testify together, rather than claiming me as the sole witness.”

“Wh-What is further inside?!”

“I don’t know that, either! We will have to see!”

“Eughk!”

In any case, there was a high chance that there were piles of evidence of his efforts to summon an Evil God.

Whatever it was, as long as I could get out with a piece of evidence, everything afterwards would be manageable.

At some point, the stairs leading down ended and a long hallway appeared.

It seemed like the tunnel was made of bricks. Since there were no natural lights, there were only torches that were lit up through magic continuing down the passage.

Yennekar and I ran straight down the passage.

After running for a long time, a large wooden door finally appeared. It felt as if we had finally arrived.

There wasn’t anything else to think about. There wasn’t any time to prepare myself.

I just kicked the door open.

Bang!

The door opened with a rattling sound, and we could see the structure inside from a glance. At first glance, it didn’t look much different than the study upstairs.

It was a fairly large space that was filled with bookshelves. One side was filled with various tools for experimentation.

There were a couple of desks with evidence of researching various magic circles. There was another door on the opposite side of the room, past the lab.

At that moment, we didn’t have the time to go through each document. Yennekar and I only briefly looked at everything as we ran straight to the next room. First, it was necessary to familiarize ourselves with the overall structure.

“Huff… Huff…”

Yennekar wasn’t good at using her body. It seemed that she was already physically exhausted.

Bang!

After opening the second door… The two of us couldn’t help but stop.

“Eugh…Heub…!”

Spreading out on both sides of the narrow corridor were countless prison cells. Solid iron bars were lined up vertically.

Rooms used as a prison… I could see more than ten. I could feel Yennekar’s wrist trembling.

“Are you okay?”

“Y-Yeah… Let’s keep going.”

Yennekar felt something with her senses as she consciously didn’t look inside the prison.

I looked over at one of them with a glance. The inside of the prison was particularly rotten… And what was inside was as expected.

A prison was a facility meant for imprisoning people.

So, what I saw inside was, in a way, obvious.

As we went through the hallway and reached the end, we finally found an open hall.

In an underground space where I thought a single ray of light would never reach… A ray of moonlight came down from the sky.

Was it because he thought it would be nice to have as much light as possible down there? Making a small hole in that deep underground space, in the inconspicuous ceiling… It was a space where he had ventilation in mind.

In the center of the large circular hall… There was the shape of a person.

“…Ah…Heub…!”

Yennekar couldn’t stand it any longer. She felt nauseous.

It was in the shape of a human… And it was clearly standing on its feet. However, it had been pierced through the chest with a greatsword.

It looked as if it had been pierced by a greatsword that fell from the sky. Now that I thought about it, she wasn’t standing on her own. Rather, the sword had pierced through her. The sword was stuck into the floor as it held up her body.

I was familiar with that abundant, flowing blonde hair.

That… When I entered the main entrance of the Rothstyalor Mansion, the first thing I saw was a huge portrait…

Thinking about the fact that it was the same beautiful hair I had seen there, a streak of goosebumps ran down my body.

The size and appearance were all similar.

However, the condition of the body was strange.

No left arm.

No right leg.

One eye had a scar, as if it were cut by a knife.

There were marks all over her body that looked like stitches.

Only the remaining eye was comfortably closed. Even though she looked to be in a gruesome state, she seemed to be sleeping comfortably.

“Ed… That person… Is your…”

I had no choice but to open my eyes and look at her. No matter what anyone said, I couldn’t deny it.

She was the woman who was once called House Rothstaylor’s shining jewel.

I struggled to calm my pounding heart.

If it was just a corpse, I had already seen countless of them, to the point I was sick of it. I’d already seen thousands of people die in just a few seconds.

Maintaining composure was my specialty. Whatever the circumstance, I would always grind my teeth and remain rational.

“Evil Gods. It’s said that they descend with blood as the price.”

I opened my mouth slowly.

“In order to use the Evil God’s power as if it was his own, he had used his blood-related daughter as an experiment.”

Yennekar covered her mouth, holding back tears. Seeing the countless wounds on Arwen’s body, it seemed like she was left speechless.

“He was forced to use his own daughter. But if that didn’t work, was he planning to use his other children as well?”

After muttering those words… I stood still for a while.

It was a period of silence that was meant for Arwen, who had left the world painfully.

“I’m not sure about that. Those words are only half true, Ed. Did you forget?”

I had no idea that I would be answered.

It was an unbelievable sight.

The girl who was pierced by the sword with almost half of her body missing.

The one remaining eyelid lifted slowly, revealing her bright eye.

As if it were natural, her mouth and throat were still moving.

“It’s been a long time, Ed. You’ve grown a lot.”

Her voice was just as I had imagined. When Tanya became an adult, would she sound like that as well?

“I… Look a lot worse than the last time you saw me, right?”

Could I answer her?

With that thought, Arwen Rothstaylor calmly spoke to me.