Chapter 12
Chapter 12
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 12
Chapter Title: Pitiful Maid Katarina (1)
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After somehow shoving some impromptu creative cooking down Ethan's throat and sending him off.
I tidied up the disaster of a dining hall and used Clean magic to wash the dishes spotless before diving straight into today's quota of vegetable prep.
First, I used the mana left over from cleaning the dining hall to neatly peel a few heads of garlic. Then, with my mana reserves completely drained down to the dregs, I dumped five plump garlic cloves into my mouth.
All to refill Lilith's nearly 250 mana pool in one go.
"Mmph, mmmph...!"
The pungent aroma and spiciness still weren't something I could get used to, making it pure agony, but this was unavoidable training if I wanted to survive.
The only way to make this hellish moment even a little less painful was to chew and swallow as fast as possible.
With the mindset of choking down poison, I somehow chewed through the five cloves crammed in my mouth a few times, then shoved the spicy lump down my throat.
Right after, the sensation of my depleted mana flooding back washed over my entire body.
"Mmmph...! Gulp, urgh...!!"
A wretched gag reflex that even a high school girl's body could barely endure swept through me as a bonus.
Thankfully, I held it back through sheer willpower, avoiding the catastrophe of puking everything up.
The five cloves that made it into my stomach replenished my mana and boosted my mana capacity along with it.
Current Mana: 245 / 245 +1
...Five garlic cloves for a whopping +1 to mana capacity.
"Fuck... What a fucking letdown..."
On the first day, half a clove was enough to boost capacity, so at least there was some fun in the growth.
But now Lilith needed to force down five just for a measly +1. She'd entered the ultimate inefficient growth phase.
In fact, at this point, leveling up would be way faster growth than grinding mana capacity.
Not that I'd ever played it like this in my past life—level 2 with triple-digit mana capacity.
But right now, I couldn't level up even if I wanted to. I was a debt slave maid who couldn't even leave the estate.
This kind of growth was essential to max out level-up efficiency for whenever the chance came.
"Huff, huff, huff..."
Those damn senior maids... Someday, given the chance, I'll beat the shit out of every last one of them...
Sure, I'd chosen to chew garlic for mana growth myself, but if it weren't for those bitches, I wouldn't be suffering like this.
Whatever the outcome, the pain I was enduring was all their fault.
Thinking otherwise would make it impossible to endure.
I pulled three potatoes from the sack and cast Clean on each simultaneously.
Now completely familiar with triple casting, the three potatoes shed their skins and turned into perfect round lumps.
"Ha, haha..."
...Who would've thought I'd get used to multi-casting by peeling potatoes of all things.
Triple casting was something you didn't learn at the academy until your second year.
A dry laugh escaped at my growth veering way off the standard path in every sense.
I peeled the rest three at a time with triple casting.
Including curses for those damned seniors who'd thrown me into garlic hell.
-Shwick!
"Aeria."
-Shwick shwick!
"Alicia."
-Shwick!
"...Katarina."
Potato after potato tumbling into the pot like those bitches' heads.
I muttered threats no one could hear as I watched.
"Just you wait, you sluts. Before I leave this estate someday, I'll make sure to fuck you all up..."
-Crash!
"...Ahhh!"
"...?"
While cursing those damned senior maids under my breath and peeling potatoes, a sudden thud came from the kitchen, like someone tripping.
Followed by a high-pitched groan that sounded like a woman's.
...And for some reason, a voice I'd heard before.
"...What the?"
Ethan should've gone back to his room by now.
The voice wasn't his anyway, but that didn't mean I could relax.
I'd been blasting magic in the kitchen, including triple casts.
No one—not just Ethan—could see me using magic.
Hoping it was Isabel, I cautiously pushed open the half-open door.
Unfortunately, my desperate wish missed the mark again.
Lying there on her butt in front of the kitchen door wasn't Isabel, but another maid.
"...Senior Katarina?"
The short, pink-haired junior maid from Blackwood Manor.
One of the seniors who'd dumped work on me, Katarina, was sitting on the floor looking up at me.
"Hic, hiiik...!"
For some reason, with tears welling up ready to burst.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Katarina Lane.
The junior maid who'd had to start her day earliest in the manor—until Lilith began working in the kitchen.
With Lilith taking over kitchen duties, she could finally enjoy a slightly more leisurely day like her peers.
"......"
But for some reason, today she was wandering the manor halls before 4 a.m., slipping out of the dorm early.
'Something's off...'
The junior maid assigned to the same shift as them two days ago.
Katarina had sensed something strange about this girl who finished all the work and clocked out before she and her cohort even arrived.
Her peers Aeria and Alicia just said they had a hardworking junior and took it easy.
But Katarina—who'd shouldered all her cohort's duties for the past year, handling the real workload—didn't find it relaxing at all.
'No way she processes that mountain of veggies in just one or two hours...'
Even Katarina herself, back when she did the same job, had to slave away all day without rest, arms constantly moving.
No matter how fast your hands were, finishing everything in two hours was absurd.
And she'd handled that workload solo for two straight days without collapsing.
Katarina, with two years as a maid, would pass out from exhaustion after something like that alone.
Yet junior Lilith showed no signs of fatigue.
She looked spaced out right before clocking out in the morning, but after rest, she'd regain her form before afternoon.
To Katarina's experienced eyes, there were too many oddities about Lilith.
'Is she sneaking someone else into the kitchen to help on the sly...?'
Hard to imagine a junior maid having that authority, but it was the most logical guess right now.
Any other explanation was beyond a mere maid's imagination.
So Katarina had hidden in front of the junior maids' dorm since 3 a.m., waiting for Lilith and Isabel.
-Creak.
Around 4 a.m., she quietly tailed Lilith as she stepped out.
-Rustle.
"Hm?"
"......"
There was one close call midway, but the manor's predawn darkness hid her small frame well enough.
She followed Lilith right into the Blackwood Manor's dining hall.
'Doesn't seem like she's meeting someone here...'
Maybe she was supposed to meet her helper in the dining hall.
To check, Katarina waited longer at the entrance for others to show.
Confirming no one else came, she stealthily slipped inside after Lilith.
"...go ...see ...or something!"
"......Hid ...and wait...."
"No way! ...Wanna watch ...you cook...!"
Voices leaking from the kitchen as soon as she entered the dining hall.
Recognizing Lilith and someone else, Katarina pressed her ear to the prep room door.
She quickly figured out who Lilith was talking to.
It was the voice of Young Master Ethan, who'd been stirring up the whole manor since waking from his curse recently.
'Wh-why is Young Master Ethan here?!'
Realizing it was one of the voices every Blackwood servant had to know, Katarina felt a chill run down her spine.
She had no idea why the young master was in the kitchen at this hour.
But the snippets she'd overheard revealed the truth behind everything.
Ethan Richard Blackwood was a noble's son.
In this world, nobles were born with the bloodline to wield magic—it was common sense. So Ethan could surely use magic too.
If he'd been helping Lilith peel veggies with magic these past two days for some reason, it all fit perfectly.
Abnormally fast work speed? Explained if it was magic, not hands.
...And that's where the problem arose.
Not that it was intentional on Katarina's part, but effectively, they'd made a noble young master do kitchen work.
With guests in the manor now, no public punishment yet—but once they left and kitchen shifts ended, it was coming.
Forgetting servant duties, dumping all work on a junior, and daring to dirty a noble's hands with food prep.
Her cohort might slide, but Katarina—with the stolen heirloom pinned on her—faced execution.
A whirlwind of complicated thoughts churned her fragile mind.
'Wh-what do I do?! How do I fix this?!'
I never planned for it to go this far from the start!
I'd always shouldered my cohort's work, never meant to dump on the junior!
I didn't even steal and hide the young master's heirloom!
But the Blackwood Duke's family wasn't forgiving enough to hear her out.
As Katarina clutched her head in front of the kitchen door, Ethan's voice drew closer.
"...What's wrong with just showing me. I wanna see you cook."
Ethan muttering to himself, heading from the prep room to the dining hall.
Katarina's heart pounded; she had no mental fortitude left to face a noble young master.
In panic, she crawled under the nearest table, behind the tablecloth.
'WhatdoIdowhatdoIdowhatdoIdo...'
Until Ethan returned to his room after eating Lilith's cooking, and Lilith cleaned with magic and went back to the kitchen.
Katarina spent a full 30 minutes huddled under the tablecloth, brainstorming an escape.
Perhaps in this dire moment where her life hung by a thread.
Desperately seeking a way to atone for her sins and survive.