The Extra’s Academy Survival Guide - Chapter 298

“I see… so normally the annex maids manage it. I understand entrusting the management to the lower ranks since interior cleaning is hard work, but since this could also be a point of connection to the outside, I’ll need to inspect it more thoroughly.”

“…….”

“The auxiliary chimneys you can see from outside the mansion, do they all start from this fireplace? To think I’m only realizing now that it’s a passage wide enough for a person to move through…. When you only focus on internal security, these sloppy little spots tend to escape your notice….”

If asked to name the true power of House Rothstaylor, most would point to Ed Rothstaylor… but in fact, all the official authority was concentrated in Tanya Rothstaylor.

The head-of-house title belonged to Tanya, the personnel dispatched to the imperial court all moved under Tanya’s command, and in fact all authority over the disposition of house members rested with her as well… She was, in effect, like one who wielded absolute, unchecked power.

Ed Rothstaylor and Tanya Rothstaylor were in a relationship of mutual respect, simply acknowledging each other’s strength and authority. But examined point by point, the lawful master of this mansion was indeed Tanya.

And that very duchess, Tanya Rothstaylor, was crammed beneath a fireplace with a low-ranking maid. Above them was the chimney opening, through which a refreshingly open sky came into view, looking as though it had been cut into a neat square.

Charged with the crime of merely having brought Tanya her tea, the low-ranking maid exploring the mansion alongside the peerless duchess, who must never be treated carelessly, wore a look as if she might cry.

The difference in authority between the two was beyond what even the metaphor of heaven and earth could capture. Should the low-ranking maid so much as accidentally leave a scratch on Tanya’s body, she’d have to relinquish every position and leave the mansion. And even that would be a merciful punishment.

It was a position where she had to tremble at her fingertips over her every move, yet Tanya, as if it were all of no concern, simply explored the damp, dark spaces inside the mansion to her heart’s content.

Once you came to hold a duchess’s authority, the actions hemmed in by restrictions multiplied this way and that.

The desire to examine every nook and cranny of this magnificent, sprawling mansion burned like the chimney itself, but there was no way she’d be permitted to climb into a fireplace with her face smeared full of soot.

That was why… while Tanya spat out exceedingly businesslike remarks with her mouth, her eyes were pouring out starlight.

She’d spent her whole life pressed beneath work out in the sunlight, so she harbored a romantic longing for spending her own private time in dark, damp spaces no one sought out.

“M-Mistress. It seems we may be able to slip out of the mansion while the chance presents itself.”

“Tut! How could one who calls herself the master of Rothstaylor, in a crisis of this magnitude, think only of saving her own skin and flee with her tail between her legs? Do you mean to make me out to be such a coward?”

“N-no. I’m sorry, Mistress. It’s only that… roaming around every nook and cranny like this might actually be dangerous….”

“Don’t worry. I’m prepared for any threat of consequence~.”

“I’m not sure if you’ve grasped the situation, but… it seems Head Maid Bell Maya has….”

“Yes, yes…. Bell must have betrayed us. It pains my heart so.”

Tanya patted the dust off her collar and crawled out of the fireplace.

“Hmm… the interior’s quiet, and the way the air clings to you isn’t bad…. But the fact that you turn into a heap of ash going in and out is a major minus. Not yet a space to rival a wardrobe, then….”

“Mistress….”

Having emerged once more into the interior of the east-wing guest room, Tanya was brushing the ash off here and there on her clothes.

The low-ranking maid startled and tried to brush off her clothes for her, but Tanya waved her hands to stop her and headed for the window.

“Mm-hm…. The people from the Holy Capital are all still here… and the ones who came from Oldek have all gone back? At this rate, word will spread externally too, won’t it?”

“M-Mistress Tanya…?”

“Shall I tell you something useful? If you mean to do maid’s work for a noble house for a long while, there’s plenty you’ll need to know.”

They had several more hours to kill in the guest room anyway.

Tanya brushed off the hem of her skirt, perched on the tea table by the window, and hummed a tune. The light filtering in seemed to stroke her hair.

That easygoing air of hers was entirely unlike her ever-serious older brother. She’d been an emotional sort since her Silvenia days, but after taking high office she seemed to have developed a complex inner life that hadn’t been visible before.

The low-ranking maid knew it well.

Tanya Rothstaylor was small of frame and somewhat flighty in her conduct, so there were many moments she didn’t look like a person seated at the top of a great noble house.

But blood did not lie. When the most crucial moment came, this girl would display the temperament of a politician more than ever and set about securing the real gains. That temperament was less the product of study and more the manifestation of instinct.

There was a reason behind it all when Ed Rothstaylor ceded the head-of-house seat to her. For all that she went around saying she wanted to retire, she was, in the end, a person born with the nature of a politician.

“You see, nobles all carry a hidden purse in their hearts and live thinking only of how to drag down those above them. The bureaucrats of Kroel’s imperial castle are the same, and the nobles over in Kohelton or Lihel are hardly any different. Don’t believe talk of being benevolent, or thinking only of the people of their domain.”

“Th-that’s….”

“So they try to drag down, or outright win over, our house members holding posts in the imperial capital. Margrave Bellefros in particular has crossed the line. Well, given he’s a figure who’s been out on the front since the days of the demi-human war in the north, a young head of house who looks ignorant of the ways of the world must have seemed an easy mark. And finally….”

And finally, he’d been sneakily trying to recruit even the mansion’s most crucial figure, the head maid, under the guise of a fine offer. He called it scouting, but it was, in effect, no different from quietly inducing defection beneath the surface.

To one’s face, he exalted the great deeds of mighty Rothstaylor, while beneath the surface he scattered other schemes in his bid to seize a place.

With Margrave Bellefros baring such ambitions, it was plain to see that even the other minor nobles were wavering along with him.

To fly into a rage here, bellowing How dare you climb above your station, was the strategy of amateurs. Authority didn’t come from a loud voice.

The surest way to make others recognize the difference in standing was to engrave upon them what happens when you cross me.

Whoever raises the banner of rebellion against the great House Rothstaylor shall make an enemy of the entire continent.

That the key figures of the Holy City Karpea, the union president of Oldek, and finally even the core personnel of the imperial castle would come running in a single stride was something she would present not as mere theory, but as reality.

The intent underlying the act of permitting Bell Maya’s insurrection was, in the end, like a warning to those minor nobles carrying their useless hidden purses.

It seemed Lortel was the only one who had caught on, but with this sort of thing, the result was what mattered in the end.

Rumble, thud.

A tremor was rising up from the direction of the mansion’s main hall.

Perched on the tea table, chin in her hand, Tanya let out a deep sigh.

“There’ll be some repair costs for the mansion. In the end, I’ll just have to hope it all comes out in the black once everything’s tallied….”

Even in a crisis where she could not see an inch ahead, this girl could still let out such a frank sigh. That alone was no ordinary thing.

This girl, romping innocently about the mansion, had, once you peeled back a layer, the temperament of a vixen swishing dozens of tails behind her.

The more time passed, the less the low-ranking maid could understand this tiny girl’s inner self, so she could only keep her head bowed low.

“Anyway… is this all the chimneys the mansion has…? Is there nowhere else to go in…?”

“Y-yes….”

“What a shame, somehow….”

“…….”

Truly, she was impossible to figure out.

***

Whip!

Bell flicked the blade of her rapier and stepped up onto the railing. The skirt of her maid’s uniform was fluttering.

Bell Maya already knew it more than well enough. She could not subdue Yennekar Palerover by force.

The rapier swordsmanship she’d learned during her days at Ophelis Hall was a technique premised on duels against people. Its main thrust was overcoming insufficient physical scale with technique and agility.

But Yennekar Palerover was simply an opponent of overwhelming scale.

Of course, Yennekar herself was nothing more than a tiny girl in build, but the spirits she poured out with a single gesture ranged from house-sized to nearly the size of a small hill.

From Yennekar’s standpoint, wanting to minimize damage to the mansion, she wouldn’t use magic on too vast a scale. Even so, even dragged into a simple war of numbers, Bell Maya could never beat Yennekar.

The problem was that Bell Maya knew that fact.

That was exactly where the reason Yennekar couldn’t relax her guard lay.

Bell Maya was not the sort to throw herself into a losing fight and die gallantly. She was the sort who didn’t fight losing battles in the first place.

If she’d come out onto the battlefield, the odds were high she held some sharp trick close to her chest.

Fwooooosh!

“Bell…! If you’re so set on fighting… then first I’ll subdue you, even a bit roughly, and hear your reasons after…!”

The host of spirits coiling around Yennekar’s body revealed themselves one by one. A deer, a tiger, an eagle, a leopard… a number so great that counting each one was meaningless.

Fwip!

Bell instantly swung her hand and unleashed the intermediate freezing magic ‘Ice Spear.’ The count was considerable, but no matter what, it couldn’t withstand the sheer volume Yennekar poured out.

To win against an accomplished Elementalist, one had to subdue the summoner’s own body. Yennekar knew that well, so she never once stood on the front line in battle.

Wooong!

‘No need to overextend! Even dragging it into a simple war of attrition, I can subdue Bell within five minutes!’

Everything was designed in Yennekar’s favor. It was a situation so simple in its battle structure that yawning wouldn’t be out of place.

‘But… Bell knows that too…! She’ll be sure to aim for my body, the one commanding the spirits…!’

Stay still and you win.

For the strong, what mattered was shutting down variables. Because the weak tried to create variables by every possible means.

Fwip!

Shooting down part of the spirits rushing her, Bell Maya leapt straight down from the railing. As expected, rather than fleeing to open up distance, she meant to charge swiftly toward the summoner’s body.

The sight of her landing on the main hall’s first floor, maid’s uniform fluttering, was like the falling of a flower from a cliffside.

Twisting and bending her body, tumbling down as if in acrobatics, the instant she landed on the marble floor her eyes flashed.

‘She’s abandoned the high ground! Something’s coming! Subduing her before that is the best move…!’

“Pesci!”

Fwooosh!

A great lion made of wind charged at Bell Maya, mane streaming. It was the moment it meant to sink its teeth into Bell’s leg.

In that instant, Bell’s response deviated entirely from Yennekar’s expectations. She shut her eyes tight.

Had she given up on countering?

No.

Fwooosh!

Pesci, on the verge of crushing Bell’s body, was suddenly enveloped in an enormous gust of wind and sent flying. After slamming into the main hall’s outer wall and rolling across the marble floor, Pesci was reverse-summoned and vanished.

“……?”

Raising her eyes once more, Bell gave her rapier a single flick.

‘The Storm’s Blessing…!’

It was the unique spirit formula of the high-ranking wind spirit Merilda, automatically responding to unexpected attacks.

No matter how excellent a combatant Bell Maya was, there was no way she could form a contract with a high-ranking spirit.

The number of people with magic power affinity vast enough to contract a high-ranking spirit without any knowledge of Elemental Studies… Yennekar had seen only one in her life. Lucy Mayreel.

‘It looks like a spirit formula… but examined precisely, it isn’t… She’s only applied thoughtography recording magic to reconstruct the flow of a spirit formula. The response is slow, and the power is far lower than when Ed himself uses it…!’

But how could Bell Maya, with no knowledge of Elemental Studies, pull off such a near-miraculous application?

The moment Yennekar saw the left hand of the quietly resettled Bell Maya, she could not help but go wide-eyed.

The mansion’s head maid, Bell Maya.

Every defensive magic circle bound to the mansion was now in her grasp. And someone had personally designed those defensive magic circles, reviewed them through the implementation process, and helped with the final touches.

The dark-red magic power lingering here and there in the defensive magic circles was familiar. It was… a substance of a different nature from ordinary magic power.

‘It’s not an application of thoughtography recording magic…! It’s Celestial Magic…!’

Yennekar quickly steadied her stance.

Bell Maya was the closest confidant Ed Rothstaylor trusted most.

Just what authority had been placed in her hands? The dark-red magic power lingering near her body was flowing out from the mansion’s defensive magic circles.

Magic circles using Celestial Magic Power were inscribed in the mansion, and she had been granted the authority to wield them. Considering it was inscription magic whose very existence Yennekar had not even known about, it must have been a trump card meant to be drawn only in a final crisis.

The existence of those inscriptions was likely top secret within the mansion. Had the opponent been anyone but the mansion insider Yennekar, she’d never have drawn out that hidden card.

“Lady Yennekar. I’ve lived nearly my whole life as a maid.”

Glaring with ghastly eyes, she took up the power handed down to her directly by her master. It was a power that could be wielded nowhere but within the mansion. Because every bit of it flowed out from the magic Ed Rothstaylor had personally inscribed upon the mansion.

But that was enough. Because the duty of those called maids was to protect the mansion.

“And whether or not you’re aware… the maid you face outside the mansion and the maid you face inside the mansion she protects are entirely different people. Her resolve, the power she holds, all of it is of another order.”

The majesty of Elris, gripping Ophelis Hall’s defensive magic circles and taking on Taylee’s party single-handedly, came to mind.

A weighty meaning lingered in Bell Maya’s words.

By rights, the mansion is a maid’s battlefield.

If you’ve stepped into the opponent’s nest, you must hold a resolve to match.

How many magic circles bearing Celestial Magic were inscribed in this main hall? In other words, how many shots was she loaded with as her trump card?

That… was something only Bell Maya, the true power holder of the mansion, knew.

Boom!

Whoosh!

Soon, the enormous inscriptions visible beyond the chandelier on the main hall’s ceiling began to glow.

Dark-red magic power blanketed the area, and the spirits charging at her all halted their movements.

It was the Celestial Magic ‘Time Prison.’

Yennekar quickly opened up some distance and escaped the aftermath of the magic power, but the spirits that had failed to respond in time were all frozen, rolling about the floor.

Bell Maya, coolly flicking her rapier amid them all, truly looked the part of the mansion’s guardian.

No, if anything, it was the reverse. By this point, the illusion even began to set in that the mansion was protecting her.

“…….”

Yennekar’s mind was spinning. And in an instant, she reached a conclusion.

“Takan. Get ready to enter the mansion.”

She shrugged off her shawl and tossed it aside, shook her head, and gripped her staff firmly.

“I think I need to do this properly.” A deeper seriousness was settling into Yennekar’s gaze.