Side Story 45: A Proud Maid (7)
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.
-x-X-x-
Side Story 46: A Proud Maid (8)
Bell Maya's endless mansion defense had already ripened to its peak, yet the inside of the mansion was endlessly quiet. So quiet that the chaos outside felt like an overblown fuss by comparison.
Saint Clarice steadied her heart as she walked down one such corridor.
'…I haven't fallen for Bell Maya's sweet talk. I'm going to meet the captive Senior Ed inside, share the situation with him, and then…'
There was no one around to hear her, but the sight of her rationalizing to herself was pitiful in the extreme.
Passing the main hall staircase and reaching the upper floors, she saw a path leading all the way to the very top. The way each section was thickly plastered with all manner of perilous defensive magic circles was striking.
Excepting the imperial castle of the Kroel Empire, the place with the most stringent guard would be this very Rothstaylor Mansion. Saint Clarice immediately came to feel that this was no idle rumor.
Even setting aside these thorough defensive magic circles, the very people guarding the mansion were Lucy Mayreel and Yennekar Palerover. Seizing this place by sheer force alone would be no easy task.
Quite literally, unless it was through the defection of an insider.
"..."
Holding a tangled tumult of feelings, Clarice stood before the guest room. The guest room door, carved in intaglio with birds scattering feathers, looked lavish at a glance.
Before opening the door, Clarice took one deep breath. Inside was Ed Rothstaylor, completely incapacitated, awaiting help… so weakened that whatever was done beside him, he'd never notice a thing, lying asleep.
Of course, she didn't harbor a single speck of self-interest, but she still found herself seized by the feeling that she ought to brace her heart for some reason.
Clarice pressed her lips tight, swallowed dryly, and finally took a step into that swirling torment.
Creak
"Oh, Saint Clarice."
"…?"
And then, from beyond the door, Ed Rothstaylor, who had been sitting on the sofa by the window reading a book, offered a cheerful greeting.
Only then did Clarice realize she'd been deceived by Bell.
***
'This is bad, this is bad... It can't get any bigger than this... Really, I have to do something…!'
Yennekar's pupils were spinning like whirlpools.
Honestly, she hadn't imagined the situation would come to this. Even while shrieking in panic, in one corner of her heart she'd held the thought that maybe it would somehow resolve itself.
And no wonder. It was Lucy, and Clarice, and Lortel.
No matter how brilliant a strategist Bell Maya was, there was no reason to think she could handle so many outstanding figures all on her own.
So she'd held a strange hope in one corner of her heart that it would work out somehow.
But here was the reality. Her comrades, worth a thousand soldiers and ten thousand horses, had all (voluntarily) bent the knee under Bell Maya's schemes.
As an insider, Bell Maya knew the members of the Rothstaylor Mansion all too well. Truly, information was more fearsome than force itself. Because she was as close as family, she had been able to hold them all in the palm of her hand.
"Terrifying... Bell is terrifying...!"
Come to think of it, the same was true for Yennekar. The person she feared most was neither Silvenia's headmaster nor the powerful figures of the imperial palace. It was when her mother, Saila Palerover, got really angry, that was the most terrifying.
Knowing one another well was that frightening a thing.
'But now there's truly no way out... The person who can move most actively in the encampment right now is me.'
Yennekar lifted her head.
The figures of the distressed encampment members came into full view. In the old days, Yennekar too would have been among them wearing a worried expression, but it was different now. Somewhere along the way she'd become a member of the nobility, taking on the duties that came with her station.
She couldn't just sit idle, leaving it to someone else to solve. The time for being a princess in a fairy tale ended with her school days.
"..."
Holding a tangle of complicated thoughts, Yennekar pressed her lips tight. Standing there like a lost lamb, sweat trickling down her face, wouldn't solve a thing.
Now she truly had to step forward herself. She had to accept that.
"Hoo…."
Yennekar collected herself, then entered the imperial tent where Princess Penia was and spoke.
"I'll enter the mansion myself."
It was time to take a step forward.
***
"Takan. Support me from the outside while I break in from within."
[ Are you really alright with this? It looks hard to control your strength while breaking through magic circles of that caliber. ]
"It'll be fine if you adjust the firepower from outside as you support. Inside, I'll mainly use mid-ranking spirits."
To break through a defensive magic circle of that scale and enter, damage to the mansion was an unavoidable necessity. Fortunately, since the interior was all but devoid of people, there'd be no casualties, but the property damage couldn't be ignored.
A saving grace was that Yennekar Palerover knew the interior structure well. She could roughly estimate where and how to enter to minimize damage as much as possible.
And above all, the important thing was that Yennekar Palerover was an insider of the Rothstaylor Mansion. Right now, that position mattered.
'I can't mobilize the outside forces at the encampment. If the mansion's going to be damaged, I have to do it myself. That's the only way to wrap it up as an internal affair of the mansion.'
Even if the mansion got wrecked all the same, it carried an entirely different meaning whether it was done by an insider of the mansion or an outsider. If it had to be done, Yennekar doing it was the correct judgment.
'And… for some reason, I feel like if I do it, Ed will forgive me...! Yeah…!'
Yennekar couldn't help feeling a little sheepish even as she monologued. Ed Rothstaylor was in fact an extremely generous person toward Yennekar, so it wasn't wrong, but it felt like taking advantage of Ed's warmth, which gave her an odd pang of guilt.
But the intent was good, so what could she do? Yennekar was moving thoroughly to rescue Ed and clean up the situation.
"You're really going to enter the interior?"
"Yes, Princess. I can't leave it any longer than this. I'll break through the outer wall of the rear servants' passage, counter the defensive magic circles, and approach the main hall."
"The guest room is on the top floor, as I recall. If you're going in anyway, wouldn't it be better to enter from the upper levels?"
"Th-the upper levels of the mansion… have the valuables storehouse, and the corridors are full of all sorts of antique artworks…"
Yennekar swallowed back welling tears as she spoke.
"Um... even if I'm a noble, I don't have the confidence to pay for all that... If I end up buried in debt, my family back in Pulan... uhk…"
"... I doubt Ed Rothstaylor would saddle you with such debt."
"E-even so, it's a matter of conscience... Just because the other party forgives you doesn't mean you can be reckless about it…"
Yennekar clenched both fists and thrust out her chest as she spoke.
"D-don't worry, Princess. I'll minimize the mansion's damage, counter the magic circles, and subdue Bell too. I'll wrap this whole thing up as an internal disturbance of the Rothstaylor Mansion…"
"S-Saint Clarice is already inside, though…"
"A-anyway... I'll handle it! Just trust me and wait!"
Compared to her Silvenia days, Yennekar's newly heightened sense of responsibility was a deeply moving thing.
And yet, no matter how she had received a noble title, a person's nature did not change so easily... that oddly precarious feeling never quite faded.
Even so, the judgment itself was correct. If she really meant to force her way into the mansion, having an insider do it was unconditionally the right call.
At this point, the strongest combatant among the people of the Rothstaylor Mansion was Yennekar Palerover. That much couldn't be denied.
When Penia gently closed her eyes, before long she could feel Yennekar drawing up her magic power.
It was the moment a peerless Elementalist of innate talent threw herself onto the scene to finally catch the maid who had raised an insurrection.
At this juncture, when the key figures had all fallen for Bell's schemes (she'd done basically nothing), Yennekar was, in effect, the last remaining hope.
***
Boom! Crack!
Fwooosh!
The personnel of the encampment were all dumbstruck, watching the flow of Yennekar's magic power.
They had heard tales of the prowess of the Rothstaylor Mansion's Elementalist, Yennekar Palerover. But seeing that power manifest with their own eyes was an entirely different matter.
Yennekar Palerover broke straight through the mansion's rear outer wall and entered. Soon the mansion's defensive magic circles stirred up a storm of magic power to push the intruder back, but a single swing of the oak staff gripped tight in her hand neutralized them all.
Outside the mansion, the house-sized fire lizard Takan was supporting her with firepower. He was said to be holding back to minimize damage to the mansion, but a few flares of his flames alone wrapped an entire servants' corridor in fire.
"And that's him holding back…?"
The soldiers of the Holy Capital swallowed dryly.
Had Saint Clarice not been shielded by the Holy Blessing, the worry wouldn't have been Bell, it would have been whether she'd be hurt by the aftermath of Yennekar's magic power.
Crunch! Crack! Whoosh!
Crushing the magic circles carved into the corridor one by one, Yennekar turned her head slightly toward the encampment's personnel.
Glimpsed amid the rising smoke, Yennekar's figure was like a queen reigning among the spirits.
Considering her usual self, always fidgeting like a lost large dog, the majesty was at a level that simply defied comprehension.
"That an Elementalist of that caliber is a mere vassal at the Rothstaylor Mansion?"
It was indeed the truth.
She was an Elementalist of a caliber that would be revered anywhere in the empire, yet at the mansion where Ed and Lucy resided, she was merely one meaningful asset among others.
The swarm of rising elemental spirits filled the mansion's corridors.
What was the queen of spirits, who commanded each of them like slaves, thinking now?
"I-I broke a lot more than I expected…! H-how…! C-can I even pay for all this?"
She was thinking about money.
Her mind already felt dizzy, but for now wasn't the time for idle thoughts. Having entered, she had to push through to the main hall's central staircase and storm the guest room where Ed would be.
Once she pressed deeper into the interior from here, she'd be out of sight from the outside. Yennekar took a deep breath, nodded to the personnel outside, and trudged inward.
"Dris!"
Fwooosh!
When the low-ranking wind spirit Dris, shaped like a sparrow, swept down the corridor, every defensive magic circle on the scene began bursting all at once.
They were inscriptions of the intermediate fire magic 'Single-Point Blast' that Ed had carved himself. Normally, with no magic power supplied at all, the magic circles were as good as nonexistent, but when someone with authority activated the central defensive magic circle, the spells took effect all at once.
Each one packed considerable power, enough that a moment's carelessness meant being struck down in an instant.
Crash! Crack!
Crushing every magic circle one by one as she went was far too inefficient an act. Bell would already have noticed that Yennekar had entered the mansion.
So rather than drag things out, she had to resolve it swiftly and decisively.
"Tables and seventeen flowerpots…! Twenty-one exterior glass windows…! The scorched carpets…! Ah… for now, I can still keep it all within two gold coins…!"
Meanwhile, the calculator in Yennekar's eyes was spinning furiously. She thought it might honestly be easier to fight if she'd been dropped into the middle of a monster field.
By this point, really, she ought to have realized.
No matter how much she smashed the mansion, the obligation to compensate for the damage fell on Bell, if anyone, there was no reason for Yennekar to shoulder it.
And Bell had already amassed an astonishing fortune for someone her age.
But regrettably, Yennekar Palerover was in no state to think that far ahead...
The first reason was that shifting responsibility onto someone else was impossible for the kind of person she was. The second was that the weight of her title had made her anxious. The third was that she was wrapped up in her duty to rescue Ed no matter what.
As a result, it was as plain as day where Yennekar's thinking would flow.
'If I can just reach the main hall…! Five gold coins…! I can wrap it up within five coins…! I can do it…! If it's me…! I'll smash Ed's precious mansion to the absolute minimum…!'
Bang! Crash!
Even as she ran out of the servants' passage and down the guest corridor toward the main hall, the calculator in Yennekar's head was spinning furiously.
A world where you had to think of money and responsibility with every single action. So this was it, was this the world Lortel Kehelland had lived in? How peaceful a life she'd led, she who had spent her days admiring the highland scenery of Pulan.
Monologuing things that would've drawn nothing but a snort from Lortel had she heard them, Yennekar pushed through the guest corridor with the most bewildered look in the world.
"Aaaah! Dris! Leave the statue alone! No!"
"Kyaaa! The grandfather clock…! It was a gift from House Radek...! They'll be hurt if it breaks…"
"The carpet! The carpet! The carpet's on fire! Lacia! Put it out, please…"
... Yennekar Palerover was already out of her mind.
She was skilled enough to counter the mansion's defensive magic circles, but by the time she neared the main hall, she was already worn to a frazzle.
"Haah... haah…"
If she just opened the stone door right in front of her, at last it would be the main hall. From there she'd race up the stairs and storm the guest room to take Ed back.
But the color had completely drained from Yennekar's face.
"Seven... eight... nine coins…? I-it's still fine. It's still fine for now…"
[ Lady Yennekar, I'm sorry... that grandfather clock from before seems to have completely broken.... ]
"Uuk… then twenty-seven coins…. No… make it a generous thirty coins…?"
[ The mid-ranking spirit Lord Lakerd... smashed the stained glass in the parlor as well. ]
"Th-that was...! made by an Oldek craftsman himself...! Fi… fifty-seven coins…."
[ Also... the ancestral portrait on the guest-room outer wall... ]
"S-stop...! Stop… It'd be better to think about it later now… uuk… uuk... uuuu…"
Yennekar pressed her forehead against the stone door, mashing at her temples.
Crash-crash-crash! Boom!
Before long, the blast magic circles she'd passed went off belatedly somewhere back down the corridor she'd come through.
Yennekar wore an expression like her soul had left her body, and simply decided to forget everything.
"F-first, first I have to put the situation in order… yeah... that's what matters…"
[ Lady Yennekar.... ]
"They say a true adult is someone who knows how to justify the means for the sake of the end. Today I... I've become an adult…"
[ It's not exactly wrong, but... it's bitter to hear.... ]
"N-no, wait. But the mansion getting wrecked... come to think of it, wasn't it the spirits and not me…? Dris, or Letika, Takan, Lakerd, Eras... strictly speaking, couldn't it be seen as you all being the ones who broke it…"
[ …? ]
"Spirits are beings subordinate to nature, so in a way it could even be seen as a natural disaster… couldn't it…? All of this was just one accident that happened amid the flow of great nature… It's truly unfortunate and regrettable, but it was force majeure…"
[ My lady. If you really start thinking like a grimy, jaded adult... we'll only grow sadder. ]
Flapping its tiny wings, Dris let out a sorrowful sigh.
It was probably just something the spirit said in passing, but the fact that Yennekar looked cornered enough to warrant it was pitiful all the same.
Yennekar caught her breath, regained her senses, and opened the stone door once more.
In any case, it was time to set aside the stray thoughts. Now was the time to give her all to rescue Ed.
Creak
The door leading to the east corridor opened, and the main hall came into full view.
The marble floor, polished to a gleam, was so spotless that the ceiling's chandelier was reflected upon it.
The display cabinets lined along the outer walls were, for some reason, empty, and the paintings that had filled the walls had all been cleared away too. She didn't know why, but for Yennekar, who hated breaking valuables, it was a fortunate thing.
The main hall, always so crowded with servants and vassals coming and going.
Today, seeing it empty with not a soul in sight felt uncanny to Yennekar, who had frequented this place as if it were her own home.
"If I were Bell, I'd be waiting here for the intruder…"
There were more exterior staircases leading to the upper floors, but in an emergency they were all sealed. One could force entry, but the blast magic circles inscribed within would collapse them all.
It was a conclusion Yennekar, who knew the interior defensive magic circle layout precisely, could readily reach. At this point, to reach the mansion's upper floors with the least possible damage, there was no choice but to use the main hall staircase.
In other words, if she just sealed off this one spot... every passage leading to the guest room would, in effect, be blocked.
Clack, clack.
And then, before long, she saw someone walk out from the stair landing up above.
Bell Maya.
The one who knew the traits of the mansion's members through and through, and in effect the very perpetrator of this insurrection.
Yennekar owed Bell a great deal and shared many memories with her, so she did not particularly want to oppose her. Even so, with the situation having come to this, she had to subdue Bell by force.
"You've come, Lady Yennekar."
"Bell…."
There was an elegance to her lofty bearing as she looked down at Yennekar from atop the main hall's second-floor railing.
Having lived her whole life holding pride as a maid, she never lost her graceful comportment in any situation. The same held true even now, even with an insurrection raised and Yennekar storming in to subdue it.
For Yennekar, who couldn't accept this farce, the very fact of facing off against her like this was far from welcome.
But Bell had finished readying her stance, as if to say her preparations to fight were complete. Magic power hung about the rapier in her hand, and with the magic power around her opposite hand she wielded the mansion's defensive magic circles as if they were her own.
Right now, this mansion itself was beneath Bell Maya's grip.
At last, the time had come to face the cause of this whole affair. It felt like a long way around, but in any case, someone had to face it. And now, in this very spot, everything had to be settled.
The opponent was clear.
The Rothstaylor Mansion's foremost strategist.
Ed Rothstaylor's closest confidant, Head Maid Bell Maya.
"You cannot pass beyond this point."
"…No… why are you going this far, Bell…"
"I won't say much. If you wish to reach the guest room, you'll have to go through me."
Before she was a seasoned strategist, Bell Maya was also a combatant with quite considerable fighting ability. Her rapier swordsmanship could trade blows even with seasoned warriors, and she could wield intermediate magic.
Even a top operative of an average mercenary band had no choice but to defer before Bell Maya. She wasn't only intelligent, she'd reached a considerably high level in pure martial force as well.
But even so, she could never overcome Yennekar Palerover.
Yennekar knew that clearly too, which was why she could only hesitate when she saw Bell take up such a serious battle stance.
-x-X-x-
Side Story 47: A Proud Maid (9)
"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.
-x-X-x-
Side Story 48: A Proud Maid (10)
'Bell. Do you know why I rate you so highly? It's because you can bring me plans like this.'
'I don't think it's a particularly well-structured plan. For the most part, I'll be responding by improvisation.'
'No, I'm not talking about the polish of the plan.'
'?'
Setting down the report in which Bell's plan was laid out, Tanya spoke with a beaming smile. Though the most capable strategist of House Rothstaylor stood before her, the manner she showed was less that toward a subordinate and more that toward kin.
'Occupying the Rothstaylor Mansion, taking on a bad name, cutting your own salary, by any measure, it's a plan with nothing but losses from your standpoint, isn't it, Bell? People who bring such a plan of their own accord, when no one's forced them to, are rare.'
'Thank you for valuing my loyalty. I'll strive to contribute even more greatly to the Rothstaylor Mansion going forward.'
'Oh my, you still don't get it, Bell. What I want isn't some loyal hound mechanically laying everything it has at House Rothstaylor's feet. Hoo… hoo…'
Tanya had a cat's tongue, poor at drinking hot things. The sight of her seated before the fireplace, blowing and blowing to cool her black tea, made her look like quite the handful.
She held the rank of youngest-ever duke and led this enormous house, yet here and there in her conduct she still showed a side befitting her age, a truly wondrous girl.
'You still don't understand why I rate this plan so highly?'
'May I ask your meaning?'
'Acting of your own accord on something no one ordered leaves ample room for interpretation. You say it's an expression of loyalty to House Rothstaylor, Bell… but from where I sit, it isn't that at all.'
Bell looked at Tanya with a dubious air.
Bell had been prepared to cut her own salary, take on a bad name, and bear all sorts of disadvantages for House Rothstaylor's sake. If it helped House Rothstaylor, she figured there was nothing to hold her back.
In a sense, that was only natural. If one was to hold the post of head maid of the Rothstaylor Mansion, loyalty to the head of house and the house members was something that had to come with it as a matter of course. That was her duty, her obligation.
Tanya, who had denied that obvious notion, tapped at the documents Bell had organized and spoke in a languid voice.
'Bell. You still think you're moving on blind loyalty, don't you? You're a strategist who's perfect in every way, yet when it comes to self-assessment, there's a part that's lacking.'
'If you have doubts about my loyalty, I'll prove it in my own way.'
'I'm not doubting it. I just want to tell you clearly about your own principles of action. Bell, you think and act on your own. You submitted a plan with nothing but losses for yourself not simply because you're loyal to the Rothstaylor Mansion… but because you yourself judged it to be the right thing.'
Bell stood with both hands gracefully clasped at her waist. The sight of her, with the dignity of a maid lingering in her every gesture, was the very picture of a veteran.
Watching Bell quietly, Tanya understood better than anyone why this young woman drew such a high salary.
'You actively resolve the crisis your master faces, and if something is needed for that, you mobilize it by any means necessary. You repay the trust you've received and give your all to the duty you've been assigned. You believe that is what makes a truly capable maid, and you live while proving it yourself. That must be the value you have taken pride in all your life.'
Tanya spoke casually, fidgeting with her fingertips, but Bell could only go wide-eyed and fall briefly into thought at those casually tossed-out words.
'That's your pride, Bell.'
The naive girl who led the mansion at such a young age was seeing through to the deepest part of Bell's inner self with the utmost nonchalance.
As though to say it'd be stranger not to know it.
***
Boom! Fwooooosh!
The dust that had risen once now blanketed the main hall, carried on the updraft born of magic power.
Yennekar, who had thought she knew Bell's full capabilities well, revised her assessment of her entirely. The rapier in one hand was nothing more than a minimal means of self-defense.
Having been personally delegated the authority to use Celestial magic circles by Ed Rothstaylor, freely commanding the magic circles within the mansion, she was less a swordswoman than a magician.
It was the most powerful protective authority, permitted only to the closest confidant strategist who had to guard the mansion down to the very last in an extreme crisis.
'Mid-ranking spirits can't counter it. I need to mobilize a high-ranking spirit at minimum. The mansion damage… there's no choice but to apologize to Ed and Tanya!'
Yennekar's eyes went wide as she drew up her magic power.
At the same moment, Bell Maya leapt from within the cloud of dust. Closing the distance in an instant, her figure filled Yennekar's vision.
Watching the maids of Ophelis Hall drill their rapier swordsmanship, there was a saying that it was like watching a flower field lashed by a fierce gale.
The hems of the maids' garments, moving fervently as they traded blade-strikes. The way frill-laden skirts streamed could, at times, look like flower buds bursting into bloom.
The swordsmanship of Bell Maya, who had spent nearly her whole life training at Ophelis Hall, was no different.
Lowering her stance, evading the flames a spirit spat out, leaping high to twist and bend her body in midair, romping this way and that, her hems billowed along with her.
Like a carp with great fins swimming through the depths of the sea, her movements as she plunged forward, calculating even gravity itself, were hard to follow with the eye.
Crack! Whoosh!
The instant she landed, she clenched tight the magic power-wreathed fist of her left hand.
The low-level Celestial Magic 'Distortion.'
It was magic she'd seen any number of times already in sparring matches with Ed. The power to seize and twist the spatial axis, momentarily contracting and then expanding it, disregarded even the providence of reality itself.
The low-ranking spirits caught up in its aftermath instantly lost their magic power and reverted to a fluid state.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Crack!
Even as Yennekar gathered magic power at her feet to keep trying to open up distance, Bell Maya never once allowed it.
The way to deal with a skilled Elementalist was to keep applying pressure to the summoner's body without pause. Once your focus was consumed by dealing with the spirits, you would be crushed beneath the endless tide of spirits and subdued in the end. If it became a battle of attrition, you would lose without fail.
Because Bell knew that well, she did not give Yennekar even the slightest opening to call forth a high-ranking spirit.
Once Yennekar started drawing out high-ranking spirits one after another, even a Bell in peak condition couldn't handle it.
Retreat and pursuit. Within the endlessly repeating war of distance, the number of spirits began, little by little, to dwindle. With Bell's strength alone, she couldn't pursue Yennekar and reduce the spirits' numbers at the same time, but right now, this mansion was on Bell Maya's side.
'I really… can't beat her one-on-one.'
Yennekar bowed her head and admitted it.
When it came to protecting the mansion, there'd be no one who could beat this head maid.
'If only… I hadn't summoned Takan in advance.'
But a maid's domain was solely the interior of the mansion.
Yennekar, who had given the order for Takan to be summoned and support her from before she ever entered the mansion, had been one step further ahead.
Fwip-fwip! Crack!
The main hall's front doors shattered, and beyond those enormous wooden doors, an eye came into view.
A vertically slit reptilian eye. Its blazing, fiery body could be seen far beyond.
Although the main hall doors of the Rothstaylor Mansion were by no means small, the form of that fire lizard Takan didn't fit into view as a whole. The more Yennekar's spirit affinity grew, the more the power of that monster Takan grew as well, exponentially.
Fwip! Whoosh!
Flames surged up into the mansion's interior.
Bell at once wrapped herself in the Celestial Magic 'Time Barrier.' It was magic that momentarily hid her body in the gap between timelines, isolating her from all external harm.
Absolute defense. Celestial Magic was always that unreasonable. It came close to cheating, rewriting law and providence however it pleased.
Crack! Fwooooosh!
But Takan's intervention was despair itself.
No matter how many Celestial magic circles Ed Rothstaylor had personally inscribed, subduing a high-ranking spirit in a short span was impossible.
The moment even a little time was lost, that summoner would add a second and then a third high-ranking spirit without end. The instant Yennekar was given time to chant a high-ranking summoning formula, defeat was sealed.
And so it was the moment Bell, having sprung out from within the Time Barrier, was about to cast Time Prison at Takan.
"...!"
The scene she looked out upon, magic power fully charged, already held a Yennekar whose oak staff was wreathed in magic power enough to summon a high-ranking spirit.
It took less than half the time she'd anticipated. Baroness Yennekar Palerover, too, had already grown far more seasoned than Bell had expected.
Takan wasn't even dealt with yet, and the next high-ranking spirit was coming.
The forms of the high-ranking spirits Yennekar commanded rose one by one to mind. Each and every one was an out-of-spec existence against which a counter was outright impossible.
But the next high-ranking spirit was already poised to come crashing in. This was the stage where she had to formulate a plan for how to respond. Lamenting alone would change nothing.
What would be the next high-ranking spirit to come crashing in?
Merilda? Kidax? Velosper?
In a situation where she couldn't predict what spirit of what attribute would arrive, Yennekar, magic power gathered, let her gaze gleam sharp.
"I'll acknowledge you, Bell. In this Rothstaylor Mansion, taking you on with halfhearted restraint will only make the damage worse for nothing. I have to take a sure means."
"...!"
In that instant, Bell realized it.
It wasn't a high-ranking spirit.
***
Fwooooooosh!
The idea that one could break through the Rothstaylor Mansion by force alone was reckless. Among the upper classes of the Kroel Empire, that was already common knowledge.
There was no one who didn't know it.
Not simply because the Rothstaylor siblings had broad connections with the Kroel Empire's key figures. Purely and simply, it was because the forces guarding the Rothstaylor Mansion formed an unbreachable wall.
But that even that had been underestimated… who could have known it?
There was no one ignorant of the existence of Lucy Mayreel, the peerless archmage who wielded the highest-rank magic with nothing more than a flick of her fingers.
That was exactly why the other half bearing the twin wings of House Rothstaylor… the Elementalist Yennekar Palerover, might have looked relatively easy by comparison.
Just how arrogant and presumptuous a notion that was, only those who had faced that terror themselves could know.
The various garrison forces gathered at the Rothstaylor Mansion that day saw the sun die.
There is a black colossus that, merely by manifesting, blots out every source of light and dyes the world in darkness.
The figure of that demon, great enough to make even the mansion look like a toy, everything cloaked over like a shadow, looked as though it heralded the end of the world.
Those who had never once seen an ultimate spirit didn't know the oppressive force of that existence.
It was a hidden weapon never summoned even once since graduating Silvenia, never drawn out save in a truly extreme crisis.
When the ultimate dark spirit Glasskan raised its head, the lights of the world began, one by one, to go out.
The coming of night. Before this spirit of darkness, even the sun bows its head.
"What… is that…."
Do not carelessly raise the banner of rebellion against the majesty of House Rothstaylor.
As if to proclaim that very fact, the roar of the black colossus that had lifted its head blanketed the area.
The emotion that most powerfully overtakes the human heart is primal fear. Only that fundamental fear, that one might, with a single misstep, die, is the special remedy that quells the seditious hearts of any force that would dare raise rebellion against an imperial ducal house.
The ceiling of the main hall where Bell and Yennekar faced off was blown away.
What came into view above was the night sky. It was daytime, and yet, a night sky.
Darkness without a single star. As if to symbolize this deep darkness in which nothing could be found, Glasskan's right arm was blanketing the sky as seen looking up from the main hall.
Even the main hall ceiling, which had been covered over with Celestial Magic, was blown entirely away. As if to say that before an ultimate spirit, petty tricks using magic circles meant nothing at all… that monster had finished readying itself to smash everything in the world.
Fwooosh!
The hair of Yennekar, gripping her staff and gathering her magic power, was streaked white here and there. It meant she was giving her all.
The queen of spirits had come to this place. The hottest flame, the fiercest wind, the deepest darkness and the brightest light, all of them pledged their loyalty to her. The wellspring that composed the world, the spirits of every element, bowed their heads wholly before that girl.
The girl who always wore a gentle, comforting smile, with but a single lowering of her gaze, a deep chill ran through the entire main hall. The intent lingering in each and every one of those glances was, to all the spirits manifested in the main hall, an imperial command to be prioritized above all else.
Only then did the garrison soldiers realize. Her gentle, warm nature was a composure she could afford precisely because she was strong.
'Glasskan…!'
Feeling her brain and bloodflow accelerate, Bell looked up at the manifested giant of darkness.
With things come to this, even resistance was impossible. A fully manifested ultimate spirit was a foe too much even for Ed Rothstaylor himself.
It was as Bell steadied her breathing and looked up at the slowly descending arm of Glasskan.
Fwooosh! Whoosh!
In that instant, a single ray of radiance bloomed up from Glasskan's right arm.
That radiance, surging up in a flash, held a strength of light so mighty it could purify even this enormous spirit of darkness.
An ultimate dark spirit. On the entire continent, only a handful of people possessed the Holy Power needed to resist that deep darkness.
But against the saint's inscription, etched by mobilizing all the Holy Power of the Telos Religious Group… even that power did not avail.
Crack! Whoosh!
Saint Clarice, springing out from the main hall's second-floor railing, was casually drawing out Holy Magic against that enormous spirit of darkness. Even the deepest darkness was, to her, nothing more than an object to be purified.
"Wh… what?"
Whoom!
And then, before Bell, fallen into a state of exhaustion from the recoil of the Celestial Magic, a man landed. It seemed he'd leapt down from a window over by the guest room.
A figure whose authority pierced the heavens, yet this man, clad in nothing but simple blue trousers and a single shirt… wore a complicated, subtle expression.
Boom!
When he thrust out his hand and seized control of the area, the spirits that had dominated the surroundings were swept away in an instant by the aftermath of his magic power.
"That's about enough, Yennekar."
Yennekar caught her breath.
"E… Ed…?"