The Extra’s Academy Survival Guide - Chapter 295

‘Her name is Bell Maya. As I mentioned, she’s the illegitimate child of House Flanchel, and the surname Maya is taken from her mother’s side. As is the case with most aristocrats’ children born out of wedlock, her life likely hasn’t been a smooth one.’

Austin, abbess of Cledric Monastery, looked down at the small child Elris had personally brought in to introduce.

The short, neat hair was sharply cut, and the body, curled into a defensive posture, was like a hedgehog facing a natural predator.

The dagger she clutched tightly to her chest bore a seal in the shape of a lynx. It was the seal of House Flanchel, settled in the remote northeast of the continent.

She had already heard of Baron Flanchel’s final days. The dagger this girl held to her chest like a treasure was likely a memento of her father.

‘Originally she was to be sheltered at an orphanage over in Kohelton. But illegitimate or not, blood is blood, and it gives me much to consider. I think it might be more fitting to entrust her to Cledric Monastery after all.’

Elris, who served as head maid at Silvenia Academy, took in orphans with sorrowful circumstances and supported the facilities that gathered them in all manner of ways.

And those who went about saving people out of goodwill in this line of work were bound to cross paths one way or another. So it was with Elris and Austin.

‘That’s a deep wound on your arm.’

‘It came to that.’

The abbess Austin glanced sidelong at the wound exposed on one of head maid Elris’s arms.

It seemed she had clashed considerably with the girl herself in order to take in this small child called Bell Maya. The size of the wound faintly visible on her arm was about the same as the dagger the girl held so dear.

As though she had endured many hardships, the hem of the girl’s dress was thick with dirt and dust, torn in many places.

This girl, who trusted neither Elris nor Austin, bared her teeth as if waging war against the whole world. The ruin of House Flanchel had left a deep wound on this child.

It wasn’t a great problem.

Cledric Monastery was full of people who carried complicated pasts and bitter wounds. There was always room enough to take in a child who had become a victim caught between nobles’ petty struggles for profit.

‘The teachings of Telos turn no one away. It wouldn’t be such a bad thing for this child to learn something about the value of life at Cledric Monastery… tsk, tsk.’

Austin, known as the old crone of Cledric Monastery, had already passed ninety by this point. Even the head maid responsible for Ophelis Hall at Silvenia Academy had no choice but to show deference before this seasoned old woman.

She was regarded almost as a great elder of the Telos Religious Group. Had she gone to the Holy Capital rather than remaining at this remote monastery, ordinary people would have scarcely been able to approach her.

‘That said, I do wonder whether becoming a servant of god at this dull monastery by the sea is the life this child wished for. Telos takes as servants only those who follow him of their own will.’

To devote oneself to god’s will had to come from one’s own volition. It was a statement with room for differing interpretations depending on how one read scripture, but at least Austin thought so.

‘So we’ll keep her here at Cledric Monastery only until her wounds heal and she decides her own path in life. Once she’s grown up a bit and gotten her head straight, well… how about having her do odd jobs at Ophelis Hall, where you are, Elris?’

‘Ophelis Hall?’

‘Yes. Silvenia Academy is fairly close to Cledric Monastery. And she has noble blood in her, after all. She has likely picked up quite a bit of noble culture by watching from the side. Rather than spending her adolescence spending dull days reading scripture, she would be better off spending her time at an academy that shines in fuller color.’

For Austin to dismiss reading scripture and prayer as dull was a radical thing for a religious person to say. But Austin was thinking thoroughly from Bell Maya’s perspective.

‘…This child is far more aggressive and… feral than she looks. A maid of Ophelis Hall must always be graceful, reserved, and faithful to her duty. Does this child have the makings of such a maid? I’m rather skeptical.’

‘You never know how things in this world will turn out. Now, child. Bell, was it?’

It was an unbelievable sight, but this aged abbess was puffing away at a cigarette. A devout servant of god, dressed in a nun’s habit and smoking a cigarette, made for a truly incongruous picture.

‘Well, child? What do you think? One thing you must keep in mind: no one can make the important choices of your life for you. Whatever it is, you must choose it yourself.’

‘……’

Seated on a bench in a corner of the monastery hall, holding her defensive posture, she radiated hostility toward all of humankind.

This tiny girl had grown up seeing far too much of the noble world’s filth at a young age.

That was why neither Elris nor Austin found it easy to ask anything of this little girl called Bell Maya. It was a fleeting conviction, perhaps, but they believed the wounded deserved a fitting recompense.

They knew well that the world didn’t turn so conveniently, but surely there was no sin in merely wishing it would. The patron god Telos taught that goodness was the very foundation that set the world right.

Austin walked over, step by step, and lowered herself. Bell Maya startled and thrust out the blade of the dagger she clutched to her chest, but this old woman who had seen it all paid it no mind. It was as though she’d lived a life in which she’d have few regrets even if she were stabbed to death by that dagger right then and there.

‘Child. Life must feel hollow and hard. Everyone must look like an enemy, and loneliness must have clung to your life like a part of your own body. Your short life has surely been filled with nothing but struggle.’

‘Don’t come any closer.’

‘All those cold feelings you have felt are real. The world is full of malice. Your judgment not to trust anyone carelessly is truly wise. Trusting an old nun who spouts seditious remarks while puffing on cigarettes, or a curt head maid whose thoughts you cannot read, would be truly foolish.’

‘That disposition of yours, to doubt everything, will become a pillar that lets you endure in this cruel world. Even if someday you come to hold gentleness and warmth, you must never forget the coldness lodged in one corner of your heart that you feel now. Warmth makes people happy; cold makes people clear-eyed. And we must become people who hold not one of the two, but both.’

Do you understand what this means?

At the words that followed, the hostility-filled eyes of the girl wavered before she knew it.

This old nun Austin seemed to have realized a great many things through a lifetime of weathering it all.

‘If you endure this arduous life, the day will come when you meet someone worth trusting and following. I and Elris failed to earn your trust, but someday a person you judge worthy of your trust and loyalty will appear too.’

‘Are you telling me to waste my years doing maid’s work, waiting on others hand and foot?’

‘Oh dear. The kind of work hardly matters. You do not seem to understand what gives a life value. In that case, may I ask you just one thing in return?’

Austin, holding a benevolent smile, slowly stroked Bell’s hair.

Young Bell did not resist the old nun’s touch. There was strength in the hand holding the dagger, but she never thrust it forward. She did not know why, but it was not easy to remain hostile toward this nun.

‘You, in what will you take pride as you live?’

After that, Bell stayed at Cledric Monastery until she had fully recovered, but she never opened her heart completely to Austin.

The fighting instinct carved into that mind didn’t fade so easily.

Still, that brief question the old woman had tossed out clung stubbornly to the heart of this naive girl. Why she had attached so much meaning to a single unremarkable whisper, she couldn’t fathom even now.

***

Bell Maya opened her eyes. She was in the main hall of the Rothstaylor Mansion.

After Saint Clarice entered the mansion, those remaining at the encampment outside would wait a while to see how the situation inside changed. From Bell’s standpoint, it meant a brief moment of rest.

Having dozed for about twenty minutes leaning against the main hall railing, Bell rose again and straightened her attire. To keep one’s appearance neat even in the most extreme circumstances was the mark of a first-rate maid.

‘I’ll just need to hold out another six or seven hours before wrapping this up. Before then, how many people are left who might attempt a breakthrough?’

Few people could break through the mansion Bell controlled by force. If she truly holed up and held out for days, someone might eventually resort to extreme measures, but Bell had never intended to hold out that long in the first place.

Only two people could break through this fortress of a mansion without taking damage: Lucy Mayreel and Saint Clarice.

She had dealt with both, so it was fair to say there were now virtually no military variables left.

But variables outside of force… what about those?

For instance, the most cunning and deep-thinking person among those who had set up their encampment before the mansion… the head of the commercial union ‘Three Golden Coins.’

She wasn’t the type to resolve matters by force. She was a schemer who laid invisible traps in deep abysses and snatched her opponents by the back of the neck.

No matter how veteran a strategist Bell Maya was, she could not outmaneuver someone who actively served as the Union President of Oldek.

Machinations and schemes were thoroughly that woman’s domain. If she set her mind to making a move, the odds were high that Bell Maya wouldn’t be able to counter it.

“……”

And yet Bell Maya didn’t seem the least bit worried. As though she had some measure prepared.

……

***

“The head of ‘Three Golden Coins’ has come in person! It seems she rushed straight from Oldek the moment she heard the news!”

At the vassal’s report, Yennekar’s expression transformed.

The front of the Rothstaylor Mansion had become something like an enormous diplomatic conference ground.

The imperial guard, the Holy Father Building’s knights, the mercenary band hired by ‘Three Golden Coins,’ and even the mansion’s own soldiers… all manner of groups in every sort of dress were tangled together, breeding chaos.

The insurrection of a single strategist was causing an upheaval. Things were spiraling out of control.

“Saint Clarice…! Saint Claaarice…!”

One of the accompanying Holy Father Building knights was praying desperately, as though he could not accept the saint’s defection.

The sight was so absurd that the on-site supervisor, Baroness Yennekar, felt her mind growing dim.

Still, the news that Lortel had arrived on the scene was welcome. It seemed she’d judged that dispatching only a mercenary band wasn’t enough to set her at ease.

“……”

The standoff at the mansion was hopeless as it stood. Resolving the situation without further upheaval would not be easy. As a last resort, they could storm in while accepting the loss of the mansion itself, but that was the final card.

The situation looked troublesome at a glance, but no one was better suited to resolving such problems than Lortel.

Even without grounds for it, everyone secretly knew: no matter how brilliant a strategist Bell Maya was, she couldn’t possibly be above Union President Lortel.

She would surely find the way to break this deadlock. Such expectation hung thick over the encampment.

Soon, a carriage ringed with large gold-trimmed ornaments rolled into the encampment. Who its owner was, was as plain as day.

The carriage opened, and a girl with reddish-brown hair braided to one side stepped out.

She was the most respected person in the commercial city of Oldek, yet her appearance was plain.

Those who had risen to the rank of great merchants invariably adorned themselves with all manner of jewels to display their authority, but Lortel Kehelland never showed her authority to the world through such things. Her navy skirt and pure-white blouse were plain, and the reddish-brown robe pulled low over them was close to the color of her hair.

To stay hidden in the dark was her motto. Had it not been for that enormous carriage, no one would have even known the Union President herself had come.

She usually carried an air of ease, looking out over everything with playful, sly-fox eyes, but this time, she had worn a cold-blooded gaze from the moment she appeared.

It was surely because she’d already heard the news, that Bell Maya, the strategist Ed Rothstaylor trusted most, had struck him in the back and seized the mansion.

For Oldek’s merchants, betrayal was an everyday thing.

For the one you trusted most to drive a dagger into your back was hardly such a remarkable event. So she wasn’t flustered by the situation itself.

But the fact that the target was Ed Rothstaylor… that had struck a raw nerve in her.

“It’s been a while, Senior Yennekar.”

“L-Lortel… you must have set out early this morning.”

“It was the day I was to renew contracts with the trading partners over in Kohelton. Well, it’s been postponed. It was a fairly important appointment, and yet you’ve made me come all the way out here…”

Bell Maya.

The defection of someone whose loyalty was second to none had shocked many. Of course it had.

But the only one rational enough to think first of a way out of this situation was, after all, Lortel. She didn’t easily trust anyone, not even Bell Maya, who had been the very byword for a loyal strategist.

“I’d like to read through all the materials you have. The situation reports, the mansion floor plans, the management logs, even records of conversations exchanged verbally, I want to check all of it. Will it take more than five minutes to bring them?”

Lortel smiled brightly. A strange tension settled over the encampment.

When this young vixen got involved in a situation, one way or another it always came to a conclusion. It was a fact the key figures of the Kroel Empire all knew well.

In a certain sense, she was an even more fearsome enemy than Lucy.