The Extra’s Academy Survival Guide - Chapter 268

After showing them the letter confirming the authority Ed Rothstaylor had lent her, Bell Maya was quickly escorted by a government employee to the reception room reserved for distinguished guests.

Bell sat in the room holding Lortel’s hand tightly, while paying close attention to everything around her.

With the vassals being sent to the Elte Company to help Ed, she was the only one protecting Lortel. Since they could be attacked at any given moment, she could never lower her guard.

“I have heard rumors of the famous vassal of the Rothstaylor Estate that takes care of its internal management on her own. Since the young master of House Rothstaylor has lent you his authority, it seems the rumors were true. You have risen to the position of a mistress of the mansion, despite being a commoner.”

An elderly gentleman entered through the doors, speaking in a calm voice.

“It’s an honor to finally be able to meet the person who has such impressive rumors going around about them.”

He wore a merchant cap, monocle, and perfectly sized shirt and pants. He wore a navy blue coat over the outfit. His appearance looked both elegant and sophisticated, even his gray hairs suited him perfectly.

The director of Oldek’s Government Office, which was directly connected to the Empire’s Capital, Might.

“Rumors always tend to be exaggerated. It’s an honor to meet you, Director Might.”

Bell wasn’t a vassal of House Rothstaylor, but rather an employee that was hired on. She also wasn’t born a commoner. She was born to House Flanchel.

However, it couldn’t be helped that such details were skewed because of the rumors.

“I’m surprised. You are much younger and more beautiful than I expected. As you are a messenger of House Rothstaylor, you should be treated accordingly. But I must ask, who is that cute child next to you?”

Bell remembered Ed’s instructions as she carefully spoke in a quiet voice.

“This is Lady Lortel, an important guest who is currently being entrusted to House Rothstaylor.”

Director Might was more knowledgeable than anyone else about the power dynamics within Oldek. There was no chance that he wouldn’t recognize that name.

At first, he thought it was some kind of bad joke. He could only smile awkwardly. However, when Bell’s expression did not change, his own slowly began to harden.

Lortel held onto Bell’s arm tightly, looking anxiously back and forth between Might and Bell.

Might’s expression slowly began to harden.

“There is much to explain. But most importantly, I came to tell you that you will soon need my help, Director.”

Bell took the initiative in the conversation. Might was clearly shaken by the sudden situation, but as he listened to Bell, he slowly regained his composure.

Bell glanced at the clock and said, “Before I start explaining the situation to you, it is best you quickly continue with your proper procedures in preparation for a valuable guest. As you do that, I will explain.”

* * *

Booom!

The vassals of House Rothstaylor broke down the wooden doors of the building and stormed into the lobby.

Meanwhile, another magic power arrow was sent flying into Slogg’s office. Each arrow was like a massive bomb.

“Ahh, shit…!”

Slogg shouted at the two other merchants who were there with him, but they were too shocked to think straight.

“We need to go downstairs, now! All the way underground!”

“Slogg Keldricks!”

Puelann was stuck to the floor. He could barely control his body. He was one of the Six Head Merchants, and the one in charge of the distribution of minerals in the southern part of the empire. Slogg clenched his teeth as he grabbed Puelan’s arm, helping him up.

Meanwhile, Kaldeheim quickly managed to stand up on his own.

“This isn’t what you said! You said Ed Rothstaylor would be cautious in how he attacks us…!”

“Let’s talk about what’s right and wrong later!” Slogg yelled with a frown on his face.

It was certainly different than he had anticipated. He knew that Ed Rothstaylor’s strength and influence could not be looked down on. Nevertheless, Slogg was able to act strongly against him because he knew his tendencies.

However, seeing him blatantly attacking the company without caring for the aftermath was the exact opposite of what he had anticipated.

Even though he was protected by the imperial family and the saint, it was completely irrelevant to having any justification or grounds to act like he was.

To cut the neck of a famous and innocent merchant without any legitimate reasons… While he could do it, there would be a significant negative impact on his reputation. It would be a great shame to House Rothstaylor’s name, which had only recently begun recovering and growing in power.

Not only that, Ed Rothstaylor was a teacher. If public opinion of him deteriorated and his reputation was destroyed, so was his career. The image of a ruffian who casually used violence was fatal to an instructor.

Ed Rothstaylor was a man who had a lot of fame. That meant there was a lot he had to lose. He wasn’t someone that could act recklessly. He could only move within the bounds of the law in an appropriate manner.

That was why Slogg was confident that he could drag him into his own battlefield. A world hidden in the dark, filled with backstabbing and scheming. A world where eyes wouldn’t focus on Ed Rothstaylor, which could potentially harm his reputation.

Ed Rothstaylor hadn’t broken any laws in the past. That was why Slogg was so confident. But…despite everyone’s eyes gathering towards him, he was acting as if he didn’t care.

What he was doing was the exact opposite of Slogg’s analysis of Ed Rothstaylor’s actions and tendencies.

“I told you that I put everything into you! What is this…?!”

“It’s not that I didn’t assume the worst situation either! In the basement of this building is a means to extinguish this fire.”

Slogg threw his coat aside as he rolled up his sleeves.

“Puelan, Kaldeheim. You two run underground and grab the supplies from the B-3 warehouse. They’re too valuable to leave in the hands of the regular employees.”

“Wh-what is it?”

Whatever the case, Puelan and Kaldeheim had already bet everything on Slogg. Through thick and thin, they had to stick to Slogg’s side.

“It’s something that can overcome this situation. Ed Rothstaylor’s purpose is to catch me, so I’ll try to stall for time while you two run downstairs.”

Kaldeheim swallowed his dry saliva as he looked out the broken exterior wall.

Ed Rothstaylor was standing on the roof of a carriage behind the iron gates of the Elte Company. Seeing Ed slowly step down and walk towards the Elte Company, putting his bow aside and patting his clothes, made him completely terrified.

Mercenaries were guarding the interior of the building, but he was sure that they wouldn’t be able to stop him from entering.

“Two people are necessary to bring it. Since we’re all on the same boat, cast aside your useless thoughts and come back right away.”

Slogg gritted his teeth as he spoke. Puelan and Kaldeheim nodded, breaking out into a cold sweat. They then quickly ran out of the office.

There was no retreat. With Ed chasing after them, there was no point in running away. They needed to find a solution.

* * *

As I entered the lobby of the Elte Company’s Headquarters, I saw various merchants who had been overpowered. They lay down on the floor, completely defeated. Some seemed unsure if it was a dream or reality.

They could never have imagined that in the middle of Oldek, the heart of the Empire, there would be such destruction at the headquarters of the Elte Company, the biggest company in Oldek.

It wasn’t hard to overpower the merchants. Since they want to keep their lives, they wouldn’t fight back much in the first place.

The problem was the mercenaries who signed contracts to protect Elte’s headquarters and branches.

“Wh-what’s happening…? I-it’s him…!”

“R-run! We’re being attacked!”

Mercenaries who had been on guard outside and upstairs began to gather in the lobby, shock on their faces.

Daggers, swords, crossbows, wands…they were holding various weapons. However, it wasn’t easy for them to attack us.

That was because they were unsure of how to react upon seeing the symbol on my chest.

“Wh-what are you doing?!” A merchant, who was lying on his stomach, shouted in fear. “S-Shouldn’t you be making time for us to escape?!”

They were trusting their lives to the mercenaries. Since they signed a contract with the Elte Company, it was only right for the mercenaries to protect the Elte Company—no matter who the opponent was.

The mercenaries rushed in, shouting in unison.

Fwooosh!

I concentrated magic power into one hand, casting all of the mercenaries aside with beginner wind magic.

I didn’t want to hurt them more than necessary, so I lowered my strength as much as I could. Either way, my goal was Slogg. It was better for me if they chose to run away rather than fight.

Gathering magic power in my body, I started to use Elementalism.

Fwooosh!

Like I told the vassals in advance, they quickly pushed everyone in the building into the hallways.

The large amount of magic power that filled the lobby started to get bigger and bigger. It began to tear apart the ceiling and destroy the pillars.

Merchants and mercenaries fell to the floor, their eyes wide open. After gathering my spiritual resonance, I cast it outside.

Fwooosh!

Suddenly, a giant lizard’s eyes looked inside the building from the main gate. From the lobby, all you could see was its massive eyes. That was because the lizard was larger than the entire building itself. The scorching heat was a characteristic of that fire spirit.

The sound of burning flames spread throughout the building…

The high-ranking fire spirit, Takan.

A high-ranking fire spirit that a large number of mid-rank magicians would fail at even scratching its skin.

Not only the merchants of the Elte Company, but even the passersby around the building started to scream and run. It was like a bomb had exploded in the middle of the city. The sheer size of a high-ranking spirit was enough to make people run away in fear.

“Sh-shit…! Wh-what…the hell…!”

The mercenaries began to panic. Their bodies began to tremble, unable to stand back up. They could either face an opponent they could never win against or run away.

“Th-the back gate… Run towards the back gate!”

Those who chose their lives over their pride as a mercenary ran away.

The merchants watched them run away, dumbfounded. At the same time, they couldn’t blame them. That was because they knew that if they were in the same position, they would also run away.

The mercenaries no longer even thought of stopping the vassals I had brought with me. They simply clenched their teeth, running away. They likely had never imagined seeing a high-ranking spirit in the middle of the city.

“First, we need to find Lienna. I will chase after Slogg myself,” I ordered my vassals.

Lortel’s chief secretary, Lienna Clemson, was probably being detained by Slogg. From what I know, Lienna would not betray Lortel.

However, Slogg had said he found information about Lortel from Lienna herself. Whether he tortured her or used blackmail, he surely did something cruel to force Lienna to open her mouth.

He definitely kept Lienna within his reach. I was sure that if we scoured the building, we would find Lienna.

After the vassals responded in unison, they ran around the building searching for her. I gathered magic power once more, destroying the lobby’s ceiling with the intermediate fire magic, Point Explosion.

I had no intention of wasting any time. We were in the middle of the city. The longer I dragged things out, the worse it would get. I needed to finish things in twenty minutes.

The hole in the ceiling made from the explosion led to the upper floors of the building, all the way to Slogg’s office.

The merchants were completely overpowered and lost all sense of fighting spirit. The mercenaries had also fled to save their lives.

There was still some time left before the government office heard of the situation and intervened.

I cast wind magic, jumping up to the very top of the building. Slogg was a merchant. He was not capable of fighting. In a situation where one must fight for their life, he was not even an opponent.

When I jumped up to reach Slogg’s office, the only thing I found was a destroyed wall and an open door leading to the hallway. He must have run out into the hallway from there.

I ran out through the open door, looking down the hallway. At the end of the hallway, I saw Slogg running away for dear life. I gathered magic power at the tip of my fingers. It wasn’t regular magic power. It was Celestial Magic Power.

Celestial Magic, Forced Collection.

Celestial Magic had the characteristic of being completely irrational. The moment something was in my sight, I could force it to come towards me without any way to stop it.

As I cast my spell, Slogg was suddenly forced back over to me despite having run far away.

“Aghhh!

I then grabbed him by the collar, shoving him into the wall.

Crash!

Thud!

“Argh!”

Slogg fell onto the floor as he cried out in pain. However, in that short period of time, Slogg pulled out a magic engineering device from his pocket. It was a shock-wave emitter.

Since merchants normally didn’t have combat abilities, they held onto magically engineered devices for self-defense. However, I was already well aware of that.

Unfortunately for him, magic engineering was my specialty. I had already made the device that Slogg pulled out hundreds of items. All I needed to do was stare at the device to cut its internal magic power circuit. That was because I could clearly see the internal structure of the device.

Click, clunk.

“Th-this damn thing… Why isn’t it working…?! This…cost me so much…!”

I grabbed the device Slogg was holding, throwing it aside. The device then broke into pieces as it rolled across the floor. Slogg looked up at me. He quickly tried to move away from me, but the wall was stopping him.

Though struggling, Slogg spoke with a smirk on his face. “Young Master Ed… You’re making a mistake right now.”

I remained quiet.

“You may think that I am terrified and in a panic to fix this situation, but let me tell you something. Honest to god, this isn’t even something I need to worry about. So, take your vassals and leave. Can’t you see that this isn’t going to help Lortel Kehelland? This is only going to hurt her in the long run.”

Slogg clenched his teeth as he raised his voice.

“Didn’t Lortel tell you already? A battle between merchants is a battle of justification and legitimacy.”

I continued to listen to him without saying a word.

“For you to use force to push me aside and hurt me, do you really think this will help Lortel Kehelland…? Do you think the other merchants here are going to follow her? Unfortunately, they won’t. Rather, they will only be in constant fear of her, as you may show up at any given moment.”

Slogg slowly stood up with his hands against the wall. All he could do was run that tricky mouth of his.

Slogg was a merchant who made a living with that mouth, after all.

“Merchants are people that act on efficiency and rationality. They may lower their heads as if they follow Lortel at first, but they will soon realize that this isn’t a business based on economic logic and rationality. Rather, it is a business based on power and fear.”

Merchants acted on money, not on power. While the two were together often, they were fundamentally different.

“How long do you think the merchants will continue to follow Lortel when she only has House Rothstaylor’s prestige backing her? It won’t take long before crucial personnel choose to leave. They need a leader that is good in business, not one who reigns with political power and force.”

Lortel’s efforts to make a deal with the Holy Father Building was a move to win over the merchants of the Elte Company. After all, it was a place where merchants gathered to make money. The best way to win them over was with ‘business.’ So, once the deal was set, she would have a leash on them.

“If you kill me now, I will be remembered as the innocent merchant who was killed by House Rothstaylor, forced to leave my position unfairly. And Lortel will be remembered as the one who was at fault. The one who claimed her seat through force.”

“Is this really what you want? Is this something you can handle? Something like this… It’s totally basic. I thought you would know at least this much.”

Seeing me stay silent until the very end, Slogg began to speak more drastically.

“I thought you would know better than others that power earned without justification and legitimacy will eventually collapse… I never imagined you would end up making the worst possible decision. But it’s not too late…”

“Slogg Keldricks.”

I gathered magic power into my hand as I brought it to his face. Slogg gulped down on his dry saliva.

“The one without justification is you.”

“What…? What are you saying…? I took the position of the Golden King Elte fairly and…”

“You said it yourself, merchants only care about gold coins.”

There were a few things that Slogg had said that were true to some extent, but there’s no chance that I didn’t think about them in advance.

“Do you think they’ll recognize a man who tried to ruin a massive project for the Elte Company just to protect their position as the Head?”

“…Are you talking about the deal with the Holy Father Building?”

Slogg lowered his head as he laughed in vain.

“That hasn’t even been approved yet…. You think you can act like this just because of something that hasn’t even come to fruition yet?”

The deal with the Holy Father Building Lortel was working on hadn’t fully come to light yet.

Rather, it wasn’t the time to talk about it coming to light. After all, I had only promised to connect Lortel with the Holy Father Building.

No one could guarantee that it would develop into a proper deal.

“Even if she’s in contact with the Holy Father Building, until that deal is made, it holds no political significance. And there’s no sign of it being made anytime soon. Do you think us merchants will believe in something without a visible contract as proof?”

“Even if I guarantee it myself?

“I know the power of House Rothstaylor, but your voice alone cannot influence the entire Holy Capital Karpea.

No matter how powerful a duke was, they couldn’t move the entire Empire alone. There was no way that Slogg wouldn’t know that. That was why Slogg kept trying to convince me otherwise. He was no idiot. He was well aware that Lortel had no real justification for dragging Slogg down.

“I’m sorry, but the Holy Father Building and the Elte Company have already finished a contract. However, you burned it up. To keep your position, you were willing to burn the Elte Company’s profits. Even if that might not be true, that’s what we’ll say.”

“Slander. That’s a decent strategy but… Even if you say that yourself, no merchant will believe it.”

“Yes, you are right. Slogg Keldricks.”

Slogg grunted in pain despite the grin on his face. At the moment, it was clear that we didn’t have any justification to drag Slogg down.

“Which is why we need to have someone who is even more influential than me say it.”

Slogg laughed as he listened to me. He slowly lifted his head, and his eyes widened. However, after thinking for a moment… he let out a quiet, trembling voice.

“What…did you do…?”

* * *

Slam!

An employee stormed into the room, quickly apologizing. That was because they had to meet with the director urgently, despite him being in a meeting.

The director, who had been talking with Bell, listened to the quiet whispers of the employee.

The director’s eyes started to widen. As he listened to the employee, he stared at Bell. Bell sat there quietly, closing her eyes.

Director Might quickly stood up from his seat as he flipped through the various reports in the desk drawer.

It was a list of official meetings scheduled with various influential figures in the empire. It was reported to him every morning, but as he looked down at one of the papers, he began to wipe his eyes in disbelief.

Bell, who was watching him, then began to speak slowly. “It seems an important guest is coming.”

Bell remembered the question Ed had asked Tanya.

“If we send a letter to the Holy Capital Karpea now, how long do you think it will take to arrive?”

The Holy Father Building publicly announced the Saint’s schedule every month.

As the Saint was someone who was praised and treated highly by the people in the Holy Capital, her schedule was publicly announced…and she was always accompanied by escorts.

That was why most people in their line of work were at least somewhat aware of Saint Clarice’s schedule.

“This is…”

Merchants called Saint Clarice a “walking city.” Wherever she went, large crowds of believers followed. They all crowded her, praying to hear advice or even just a word from her mouth. Crowds that were large enough to fill three to four large squares in the biggest of cities.

There was no one in this world who had enough influence to casually ask such a Saint to go somewhere.

But the Saint was coming to the city of Oldek herself, completely disregarding her official schedule… He couldn’t believe that fact in the slightest.

When he woke up that morning, it was like a bomb had suddenly been dropped on the city he was in charge of.

In the silent reception room, only Lortel, who was unable to grasp the situation, was looking around with a puzzled expression on her face.