The Extra’s Academy Survival Guide - Chapter 270

“It’s been a long time since the Golden King Elte left this world. It’s about time to get rid of the name ‘Elte Company’…”

Slogg remembered the declaration he had made in that same conference room.

It was now time to carry out that resolution.

“The sun…is so bright.”

It was a voice that occasionally lost strength. Slogg struggled to speak, holding onto the table with a pale complexion.

Slogg closed his eyes as he spoke quietly, “Yeah… Whatever the case… The sun will always rise. The days of Elte Kehelland are gone, so it’s now time for the old generation to leave.”

He seemed to be acknowledging that the next head of the company was to be Lortel Kehelland.

His calm felt completely unnatural. The wealthy merchant who had once struggled for survival by screaming, swearing, and spitting out lies to deceive me… was now whispering.

In that quiet voice, he continued to speak.

“How much do you know, Ed Rothstaylor?”

“I know that you never had the intention of being the head of the company.”

“I thought I hid it well, but you’re rather quick-witted…I even managed to trick that foxlike Lortel…”

Slogg was a merchant who had survived Oldek for decades. He knew better than anyone else what would happen if one attacked a prestigious aristocratic house.

Nevertheless, he pushed ahead with his ridiculous plan. He tricked everyone, even his closest allies, by claiming that there was “someone behind him” who never actually existed.

With blood pouring from his waist, Slogg opened his eyes again for a moment. As he opened his mouth to speak, blood started to pour out.

“It seems…you have a lot to ask me…”

The blood flowed across the table and then splattered onto the floor.

Throughout the whole ordeal, something strange had been gnawing at the back of my mind. It had taken too long to gather each clue one by one. The pieces had seemed scattered and chaotic. It was no easy task to bring them together and make sense of them. But when I thought back on it… there were quite a few clues I could piece together.

“Ummm… To be honest, it’s not an efficient spell. There are too many things to prepare, and there are many conditions to use it… Though, I’m sure you know those basic details already…”

“In any case, it doesn’t seem like her life is in any danger.”

What Lucy had said after looking at Lortel’s curse…

Why use such a non-dangerous and inefficient curse to suppress Lortel? There were so many more certain and effective ways to silence her, such as assassination and kidnapping.

“Did he just come here to provoke us? Why did he come all the way here? He could have just written to us…?”

“But we won’t just give her up. Slogg should know that as well, so why did he come so far…?”

These were the questions Tanya had after Slogg had come all the way to the Rothstaylor Estate.

Why go to the enemy camp to provoke us as if to make it obvious that he was the enemy? There was no reasonable return for such a risk.

Not only that, but it was the same even after arriving at Oldek. I had Bell stay next to Lortel to protect her, but Slogg took no action to secure her himself. Despite knowing that Lortel was unable to do anything, he didn’t try and do anything against her, like claiming embezzlement.

It seemed reasonable to take action only after confirming that Lortel was incapacitated. It seemed as if he was, strangely enough, taking his time… As if he was waiting for something.

All of his seemingly contradictory actions eventually led me to ask one question.

“There is only one thing I haven’t figured out. Why would you suddenly act like this? You are a veteran merchant of Oldek… So why would you do something so reckless?”

To keep his fellow merchants and allies on his side? To make sure they never doubted his actions?

Slogg smiled at my words. “I can’t say… I…am just trying to end my generation.”

He looked up at the bright blue sky. He was still laughing, a smile on his face.

“The days of Elte Kehelland, the Golden King, are now over. For decades, I have been helping him on his journey, but now it’s time to close the curtains on his stage.”

I listened without responding.

“All of the people that Elte left behind, I will take them all with me. Tell Lortel Kehelland that.”

His grave tone made it seem as if he had suddenly turned into someone else.

“Congratulations. It is now your time.”

The puzzle pieces were falling into place. Slogg Keldricks intended to hand over the seat to Lortel… But he would clean up the remnants of the old generation first.

He gathered everyone in the company who wanted to betray Lortel. He made sure to hold hands with the disloyal Head Merchants before falling into hell together.

The more urgent the situation became, the better. The more Lortel was pushed into a corner, the better it was. If her situation got worse, more people were likely to betray Lortel. Slogg made sure to find every single one who had the possibility of betraying her and bring them to his side.

“I didn’t realize you thought that much about Lortel.”

“Keuk… That’s hilarious. I hate that girl. She’s been blessed with money ever since she was a little kid.”

Slogg took a quick breath, exhaling deeply, and closed his eyes slowly.

“I’ve been a middleman all my life. And now… I’m just finishing the job.”

Decades before Elte, the Golden King, brought Lortel to the company and raised her to become a merchant, Slogg had been helping Elte as his henchman. That meant he was also part of the inner circle, and watched Lortel grow up.

He had seen the girl from the slums survive under such a strict and cold-blooded merchant, only to be reborn as a merchant herself.

He had seen her try to keep her sense of humanity while being taught the knowledge of a merchant from her father, who never once acted like one.

A girl who started with nothing, struggling to survive… How did Slogg feel about the girl who had survived while working underneath the Golden King? That was something that only Slogg knew.

Slogg had always been a middleman. He had lived his life by fulfilling his duty with his head lowered and knees bent.

“Yeah. I thought it was strange. The moment Ed Rothstaylor, the careful and experienced aristocrat, attacked the headquarters in such a splendid and unpredictable fashion… I should have realized.”

Slogg Keldricks hoped to fall to the bottom as splendidly and grandly as possible. Only then would he be able to ensure everyone against Lortel was brought down with him.

This was why the Saint was called before the citizens of Oldek as the Elte Company’s building crumbled down.

“I thought it was going to be a slow bureaucratic battle. I never imagined things would wrap up so nicely like this…” He coughed again before he could finish.

What a troublesome man. The fact that he had tried to keep it all secret until the very end…

“If you had been honest with Lortel, you wouldn’t have had to endure so much. Since this was all part of her becoming the next head of Elte, she would have cooperated.”

“That’s something you can say because you don’t know the Elte Company,” Slogg said. “In the Elte Company, do you know what everyone memorizes like verses from the Bible? From the newly hired to the most executive members?”

Slogg went into another fit of coughs before speaking. “In this world…there’s no such thing as a perfectly balanced two-arm scale.”

This was what relationships were like. For Lortel to become the new head, he needed to gather everyone against her and have them fall. To do so, he needed Lortel to be completely incapacitated for some time so that he could weed out those who opposed her.

If Slogg had told her that, would Lortel have trusted him and followed along?

“Merchants live an extremely exhausting life.”

Even after decades of working together, they still could not trust one another. They tried to stay in each other’s good graces, but never truly cared for one another. They were like parallel lines that would never meet. That was why Slogg had moved on his own.

Pretending to support Persica. Pretending to help Dune betray Lortel. Showing his hostility towards Lortel by gossiping with the other merchants. He occasionally expressed his desire to be the new head of the company. He continued to suggest that one day, they would get rid of her.

Perhaps it was after seeing Lortel get rid of Elte Kehelland that he had come up with his plan. The timing seemed to match.

The Elte Company was full of merchants who were like snakes. Even just a moment’s hesitation was seen as weakness and would be enough to get yourself betrayed.

He needed to make sure to deceive everyone. That old fox, Slogg Keldricks, was well aware of this.

“You still seem to have a lot to ask…” Slogg struggled to laugh, as his body was in tremendous pain.

“When will Lortel’s curse be lifted?”

“The effect will fade soon. One day, she will simply wake up free of the curse.”

“Why would you use such a cumbersome curse…?”

“Perhaps…”

From the vacant space in front of the building, we could hear the sounds of people praising the Saint. Slogg listened to them as his eyes closed once again.

“Perhaps I was just a little curious…what that girl was like before becoming a merchant…”

* * *

Puelan and Kaldeheim went into the underground warehouse that Slogg had mentioned.

After kicking the door open, there was only a dark, empty space. They were told that there was definitely a means of overpowering Ed Rothstaylor there, but there was nothing in sight.

At that moment, two strong men hiding in the dark grabbed Puelan and Kaldeheim’s arms, bending them back and shoving them to the floor.

The two men who were on Slogg’s side were now unable to move thanks to the help of mercenaries hired outside of the Elte Company.

The two merchants were shocked, looking at each other with trembling eyes. They slowly recognized the person who seemed to be in charge of the two mercenaries.

Lortel’s chief secretary,Lienna Clemson.

Only at that moment did they realize they had fallen into a trap.