The Extra’s Academy Survival Guide - Chapter 296

Looking purely at the facts, Yennekar Palerover found Lortel Kehelland rather uncomfortable.

It had been that way during her time enrolled at Silvenia, and even after graduation they’d had to wage a war of nerves whenever the chance arose, so it was only natural.

After the trip to Pulan, she’d strangely felt herself softening toward Lortel, and things had settled into a lull, but after the incident in Oldek, a sense of crisis came rushing back at times.

Above all, the fact that Lortel herself was growing into a bigger figure with each passing day was a great burden.

In truth, Yennekar was not suited to high office. She received the broad goodwill of her subordinates through her human side and benevolent nature, but truly capable people earned fear rather than respect.

And Lortel fit that description perfectly. The great merchants who remained in Oldek were too busy watching her mood to do anything else.

A fearsome person, but in the current situation, it was like gaining a thousand soldiers and ten thousand horses.

Lortel Kehelland was a symbol of terror as an enemy, but as an ally there could be nothing more reassuring.

It was understandable why Oldek’s merchants held such ambivalent feelings toward this young union president. In the world of merchants there were no eternal enemies, nor eternal allies.

“Lortel Kehelland… has come to the encampment, you say…?”

“Yes. She’s gone into the trading company’s tent and is poring over the materials she received from House Rothstaylor’s vassals. It seems she’s being given all of it, the mansion’s interior floor plans, the recent internal affairs, everything.”

“…It gives me a complicated feeling. It was always like this whenever we took that vixen of a woman in as an ally.”

Penia Elias Kroel was dressed simply. She hadn’t yet held her coronation, so she wasn’t of the rank of emperor, but she was already treated as a figure of equivalent standing at the Kroel imperial palace.

The regent Lucktiel, a former imperial chancellor, was currently handling those duties in her stead, but every final approval came from Penia.

That meant that for her merely to come to this place was nothing short of an unbelievable upheaval.

A fair amount of time had passed since House Rothstaylor’s strategist, Bell Maya, launched her insurrection. By now, the situation had escalated to a truly unmanageable level.

The tent where Penia resided was no longer a tent at all. It felt like an entire building had been unfolded.

The interior, too, was packed with all manner of luxurious goods, to the point that it was hard to believe this had been a hurried trip.

In the midst of it all, perched on a chair heavily inlaid with gold engravings, Penia rested her chin in her hand.

“For things to have gotten this big… what on earth is that maid thinking…”

Yennekar could only nod along.

***

Stepping out of the tent and into the center of the encampment, Yennekar quietly gazed for a long while at the Rothstaylor Mansion, where the force of the defensive magic circles had reached its peak.

‘If I wanted to break in, it wouldn’t be impossible.’

The defensive magic circles ringing the Rothstaylor Mansion were the work of dozens of high-ranking magicians, plus magic circles Ed Rothstaylor had personally inspected.

Even that Lucy Mayreel would have to bring high-ranking magic to bear if she wanted to break those magic circles through firepower. For Yennekar, whose force was far weaker than Lucy’s, she’d have to mobilize a high-ranking spirit, the fire spirit Takan, or the lightning spirit Flick.

‘The others gathered at the encampment, I’m not sure about, but at least I could minimize the damage. I know the detailed interior structure completely… If I break through the outer wall of the vegetable storehouse on the east side and enter through the servants’ passage, the property damage would be kept to a minimum. But…’

Bell Maya had anticipated and countered even Lucy and Clarice. There was no way she would fail to predict this very line of thought from Yennekar.

The thought that surely some countermeasure was already in place came creeping in.

‘Uuugh… let’s just admit it. Using my head isn’t my field.’

Yennekar pressed firmly at her temples and let out a groan.

In any case, wasn’t Lortel, practically an expert in this area, holed up in a tent right now, turning the gears of her mind?

She hated to admit it, but Lortel never lost in situations like this. Even when she appeared to lose on the surface, she was a sly old serpent who always made off with the real gains.

So long as Ed’s safety was at stake, there was no ally more reliable than her on this particular matter.

‘Yeah… It’ll work out…! Don’t get tense…! I’m the one who has to clean up this mansion situation…! Panicking and stammering won’t get anything done…! Anyway, it’s settled into a lull… so it’ll resolve well…! Yeah…’

Yennekar clenched her fists and pressed her lips tight.

A temporary alliance it is, Lortel Kehelland. So thinking, she stoked her resolve.

***

‘Bell Maya. Illegitimate child of House Flanchel. Spent her childhood at Cledric Monastery, and once she was of working age, worked as a maid at Ophelis Hall the whole time. Recently, head maid of the Rothstaylor Mansion and strategist to Ed Rothstaylor.’

“H-hiik…”

In the middle of the tent prepared by the laborers of the commercial union ‘Three Golden Coins,’ seated at a modest wooden table, Lortel was turning the gears of her mind.

With all manner of materials spread across the table, chin in hand and eyes glaring, she looked like a demon in the flesh.

Bell Maya had struck a raw nerve in her.

The price of dragging Oldek’s union president, whose time did not come cheap, all the way out here would have to be paid.

“U-Union President…”

Chief secretary Lienna was trembling.

In the course of handling Oldek’s affairs, there were occasions when Lortel turned serious once or twice, but she always wore a sly smile and took an easygoing stance.

To see her like this, earnestly poring over materials with fire in her eyes, was a rare sight.

‘Bell Maya…’

‘You’d betray the Ed who sheltered you?’

‘Wreck the mansion?’

‘All I have to give someone like you is dismissal from your post and debt restructuring.’

Approaching the scene with the air of a judge ready to pass sentence, Lortel was a demon incarnate.

The timid chief secretary Lienna could only tremble whenever she saw Lortel like this. Bringing in the tea, she bowed her head and held her tongue, afraid she might somehow be a disturbance.

Lortel Kehelland’s head ran hot, but her heart was cooled stone-cold.

She was poring over the situation reports, the mansion’s internal documents, and even the materials Yennekar had separately provided.

It came to hundreds of pages by count, but she took only fifteen minutes to scan it all and pack it into her head. To be able to instantly judge what was important material and what was not… digesting documents at a speed that transcended the limits of cognition was nothing to her.

And so she fell into quiet thought, chin in hand.

‘I have to bore into Bell Maya’s way of thinking and its blind spots. She’s absolutely not the sort to pull something like this over cheap puppy love, and there must be a reason she took Senior Ed hostage and dragged this situation out.’

Among the materials Lortel was flipping through were some confidential internal documents. They’d been handed over at Yennekar’s discretion.

In any case, Lortel Kehelland was already a person deeply entangled with the Rothstaylor Mansion, so she was in a position to share even internal secrets with them.

Lost in deep thought with her chin in her hand, Lortel was like a statue. Lienna knew well that she mustn’t carelessly disturb Lortel once she’d entered this state.

‘Let me organize my thoughts. Everyone gathered at the encampment right now must be pinning their hopes on me. It means I’m the only one who can clean up this situation without any damage.’

Heat began to rise in each and every one of Lortel’s brain cells. She gathered all the information she possessed, organized it, assigned meaning to each piece, and conjured the most ideal way to break this situation.

See through the inner self of this person, Bell Maya.

Living as a merchant of Oldek, seeing through to the bottom of a person was something she’d done sickeningly often.

Drawing together all the information gathered through ‘Three Golden Coins’ internal network and the materials received from the Rothstaylor Mansion’s insiders, she would discern the way of thinking and the blind spots of this Bell Maya.

‘The Rothstaylor Mansion’s internal situation. The conduct of head of house Tanya Rothstaylor. Noble opinion in the Kroel Empire, and the mansion’s internal financial situation.’

All the materials merged in her head, then split apart, the flood of information reorganizing itself.

‘There was information that Margrave Bellefros and Marquis Antel had opened negotiations to recruit Bell Maya. They’d surely have tried to take her on better terms, so there’s plenty of room for her to be swayed depending on the sum.’

‘Bell Maya is an excellent strategist, but for the Rothstaylor Mansion, still weathering an era of upheaval, she may be somewhat expensive labor to handle. I roughly figured as much, but looking at the financial management tables, it’s worse than I thought. Tanya must have agonized over it.’

‘The reasons for an insurrection from within narrow down to a few, too. Was she put up to it by Marquis Antel or Margrave Bellefros? Of the two, Marquis Antel is the likelier. He’s the sort to be wary of House Rothstaylor rising in influence within the Kroel Empire.’

‘In that case, I think I understand why they tried to recruit Bell Maya, too. Did they cut a deal, hoping she’d sow chaos in House Rothstaylor from the inside?’

Lortel’s eyes narrowed, the ghastly aura around her deepening another notch.

Countless inferences wove together like a spider’s web, and the cold pouring out of her began to fill the tent.

Trembling, Lienna barely managed to set the tea down beside Lortel.

‘If I knew a bit more about the mansion’s internal situation, I could try opening negotiations. If it’s simply money she’s after, I could resolve it at my level. But I sense something deeper than that behind it.’

‘What in the world shook the loyalty of that iron-willed head maid? Merely a great deal of money?’

People driven into a corner could sometimes be won over by nothing more than a large sum. Lortel, who had experience winning over the strong-willed head maid Elris with money, knew that fact better than anyone.

But Bell Maya didn’t seem to be cornered. Surely some other reason was hidden behind her actions.

Leaning back against the chair, she stoked the heat in her head once more.

The instinct of a merchant who had seen it all flowed through her brain.

Organize the situation. Build a hypothesis. Self-check. Present the solution.

There was not a single obstacle in the flow of thought that followed. She had dealt with every kind of situation that demanded the impossible be made possible.

The absurd objective of romantic feelings for Senior Ed. The cornered financial state of House Rothstaylor. The expensive labor cost. The checks from surrounding noble houses. Authority. The head of house, Tanya, who had vanished. Baroness Yennekar, flustered as though she knew nothing. A lull dragging on with no purpose. The gathered garrison forces. Saint Clarice. Princess Penia. And me, Union President Lortel… An encampment where the empire’s key figures were gathered in one place. As though to flaunt the mansion’s authority, the key figures had assembled in one spot.

And then those thoughts converged to a single point and reached a conclusion.

‘…’

Soon, she let out a small chuckle, like a sigh escaping.

‘Well now, you used your head. You meant to make even me, seated in the Oldek union president’s chair, into a chess piece?’

Tok.

Lortel took a sip of the tea Lienna had brought and set it back down.

Lienna had thought Lortel hadn’t even registered that she’d come in. Lortel, once she entered a state of intense focus, was often like that.

But Lortel, having taken a sip of tea and set it down… wore her usual sly-serpent smile.

“I’ve reached a conclusion, Lienna.”

“Oh… have you! Union President! Everyone at the encampment outside the tent is waiting only for your decision, Union President Lortel!”

“Yes…. I’m sure they are. It was certainly a hopeless situation, after all.”

“Yes. So what shall we do…?”

“Hm? I just told you. The conclusion.”

“…? Yes?”

Lortel stretched grandly, drew a breath, and spoke.

“There’s no solution. Let’s go home.”

The conclusion Lortel delivered with a bright smile only made Lienna’s expression stiffen.

***

“Well now, Senior Yennekar. I know people are pinning their hopes on me… but no matter how I think about it, I can’t come up with a way to resolve the situation without causing damage. The world can be cruel. There are plenty of problems that simply cannot be solved.”

“…Huh? Huuh?”

“Well, what can you do. Even with this many big names crammed into this narrow encampment and not one able to offer an answer, what sharp method could I possibly have?”

The master of machinations, Union President Lortel, who produced a way out of any situation, had arrived!

In a situation that felt like a rope of salvation had been lowered, vigor returned to the encampment. But the conclusion Lortel delivered was, in one sense, only natural, and in another, utterly unexpected.

“By the way, I mentioned it earlier, didn’t I? That I had a contract renewal scheduled with the merchants of Kohelton. This is directly tied to next quarter’s sales, so it’s hard to just let it slide. I’d better go and see to it even now.”

“No… no… Lortel…! Ed’s being held captive, I tell you! Ed is in danger right now…!”

“Exactly so…. It’s an agonizing, heart-wrenching grief that brings tears of blood… but our commercial union is a key trading partner from the Rothstaylor Mansion’s standpoint too. If we waver, that means House Rothstaylor’s backing wavers, so for Senior Ed’s sake as well, I simply can’t skip such an important appointment. As long as I’ve come all this way, it would be nice to at least see Senior Ed’s face once, but given the circumstances, it’s not easy.”

“No, that’s not what’s important right now… Lortel…!”

Yennekar stood there with her mouth agape, looking as if she had been struck by lightning, while Lortel patted both her shoulders with a sorrowful air.

“Senior Yennekar. You’re also the one responsible for breaking this situation, in your capacity as a vassal of the Rothstaylor Mansion…”

“Huh? Uh… r-right. That’s true…”

“I’m so worried, seeing you placed in such a troublesome and difficult situation! But… just as you have your role, Senior Yennekar, I have mine too…! I’m in a situation where I must go and faithfully fulfill my duty. Please… be sure to mete out justice to that cruel, wretched, ungrateful Head Maid Bell Maya! We may have often held sharp attitudes and opposed each other, but it’s precisely in a crisis like this that we must trust one another!”

“…? Uh…? Th-that’s…”

“Well then…! I’ll be off now! Good luck…!!!!!!”

And so saying, Lortel gathered up all the commercial union’s laborers who had been at the encampment and left the Rothstaylor Mansion behind.

It happened in an instant.

“……L-Lortel…?”

Leaving Lortel, who had whisked herself off the scene so coolly it made one wonder if it was even allowed, far in the distance… Yennekar dropped to her knees and braced herself against the ground.

“What am I… what am I supposed to do… huaaaah!”

Lucy Mayreel, dealt with. (Sleeping.)

Saint Clarice, dealt with. (Betrayal.)

Lortel Kehelland, dealt with. (Went home.)

Bell Maya had already known.

That something like a countermeasure against Lortel Kehelland had never been necessary in the first place. Because she’d known full well of her insight.

Yennekar, now left with absolutely nothing to lean on… lay sprawled on the ground, sunk in despair.

As if to comfort her, the grassland wind merely swept past her shoulders.

So this was solitude…

This tiny girl had, at last, come to learn the bitterness of life.