Chapter 7
Chapter 7
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 7
Chapter Title: Magic Training for Survival (2)
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A maid's morning starts early.
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Because waking up before the master was the basic virtue every maid had to possess.
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"Good morning, Alicia."
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"Good morning to you too, Aeria~."
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Katarina, who had gotten out of bed a little later than usual, heard her fellow maids' voices as she cautiously stepped out of her room. She felt their gazes piercing her entire body, as if they had been waiting right there at her door, while she carefully took her steps toward work.
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"Oh my, is Katarina heading to work right now too?"
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"Y-Yeah..."
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"Must feel nice to have slept so soundly for once."
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"Y-Yeah, well..."
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In truth, she hadn't slept soundly at all. She had been feeling a strange pang of guilt in her chest ever since last night's events.
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The junior maid, Lilith, who was starting work in the kitchen with them from today.
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It hadn't been her own will, but Katarina still felt like she had taken part in luring the girl into a trap. Because of that, she had tossed and turned uncomfortably all night, and even though she was two hours later than usual, her eyes carried not the refreshment of a good sleep but a subtle weariness instead.
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"Our Katarina is so kind-hearted, I was wondering if she'd be pricked by her conscience again and come in super early~."
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"N-No, that's not it... I'm fine..."
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"Good, that's how it should be. Wouldn't want to go back to how things were before, right?"
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A maid's morning is fast.
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But among those quick mornings of quick maids, there was one maid whose morning was even quicker.
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That was Katarina Lane, the maid 'ostracized by her peers.'
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A year ago, she had tried and failed to expose the wrongdoing of her fellow maid, Aeria.
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She had attempted to report Aeria, who was trying to steal valuables from Young Master Ethan's room after he passed out from a curse. But due to Aeria's schemes, Katarina ended up taking the blame instead. She lost the trust of both the master and the head maid in the mansion, and for the past year, she had been forced to live as Aeria's slave.
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She always handled everything alongside her peers Aeria and Alicia, taking on all the dirty work herself. As a result, she was buried under far more tasks than her peers or even the other maids. For her, the past year had been nothing short of hell.
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"Don't do anything stupid again, just behave. As long as you obey, I'll at least treat you like my dog."
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"Y-Yeah."
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"Right? No need to make a fuss among us peers now that we have juniors below us."
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"...Yeah."
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Katarina could easily guess who these two meant by "juniors."
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The junior maids who had joined a year after them.
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It referred to the two who had just shed their probationary status and officially started as junior maids. It also meant that from now on, Aeria's attention would shift to those two girls instead of her.
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To Isabel and Lilith.
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"That Isabel girl seems quick and capable, so she looks useful in all sorts of ways. What do you think, Katarina?"
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"Yeah... I, I think you're right, Aeria..."
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"Lilith seemed pretty dumb, though? She actually believed that thing about starting at 4 a.m."
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"If she's dumb, she's that much easier to use, so whatever."
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Deep down, she wanted to protect those two, but she knew all too well that doing so would bring the arrows of her peers' ire right back at her.
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Feeling guilty, she had no choice but to go along with this injustice.
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She had already lost all trust in the mansion due to the theft incident a year ago, and the massive debt from that had bound her to a servitude contract with the Blackwood Family. On top of that, she was ordered to work alongside Aeria in every assignment as a "monitor."
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She no longer had the strength or the will to help anyone else.
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"She's been prepping alone for two hours, so she must've at least finished a sack or two of potatoes, right?"
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"Whatever. If she's a bit slow, our Katarina can help out. Isn't that right?"
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"Yeah, Katarina's the expert at work among us."
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"Yeah... If she hasn't finished, I can help..."
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In the end, Katarina realized that even with new scapegoats, her own position wouldn't change much. But she had no means to resist Aeria anyway.
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Her relatively small frame shrank under the pressure from both sides as she moved her feet. Three hours before breakfast prep began, she entered the kitchen with the other two.
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"Lilith, you in there?"
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"Sorry~. Overslept a bit. Must've been tough working alone without us~."
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"......"
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The two brazenly lied without a hint of shame as they strode into the dining area.
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Katarina quietly followed behind them with hunched shoulders. The response from Lilith that she fully expected from the kitchen depths never came.
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"Why no answer?"
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"She didn't notice our lie and skip work, did she?"
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"...That dumb-looking girl?"
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"......"
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In the increasingly ominous atmosphere, the three stepped into the prep room together. As soon as they confirmed the mana lamp in the inner kitchen was lit, the tension eased.
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"Oh, she did come in."
-Creak.
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"Lilith, you answer when a senior calls. What the hell are you doing that you can't even..."
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"Huh...?"
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"......"
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The moment they opened the kitchen door, mountains of vegetables assaulted their eyes.
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Hundreds of potatoes, onions, carrots, and more—not a single one missed—perfectly peeled. The three stood dumbfounded, staring at the sight.
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Only then did they notice Lilith, a beat late, sitting blankly on the kitchen floor.
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"Lilith?"
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"...Ah."
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Hearing Katarina's voice, Lilith seemed to snap out of it, composing her expression as she stood up.
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Seeing her so nonchalant, the three were at a loss for words. Lilith, ignoring their reactions, calmly stated what she had to say.
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"I've prepped all the vegetables in the kitchen, seniors."
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"A-All of them...?"
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"All of them, you mean..."
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"The potatoes, onions, carrots, garlic, and all other vegetables for breakfast, lunch, and dinner are done. Seniors, just let the mansion's cooks know the ingredients are prepped."
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"......"
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"I'm tired, so I'll head out first. Good work, seniors."
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Even as she boldly left her post during work hours, no one could stop her—not with those mountains of perfectly prepped vegetables. Amid their stares, only Katarina noticed the faint, bitter garlic scent brushing past her.
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◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
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The second day after my duties shifted from serving to the kitchen.
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I arrived at the kitchen at 4 a.m. again today and muttered unconsciously upon seeing the piled-up workload just like yesterday.
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"Ah, I want to die..."
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Workloads stacked to almost the same level as the vegetables I'd prepped yesterday while munching garlic.
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Having to prep this many vegetables meant shoving almost the same amount of garlic into my mouth as yesterday.
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The memory of holding back vomit for nearly an hour and a half last dawn while force-feeding myself garlic naturally resurfaced.
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It still felt like the garlic stench lingered in my mouth. Even after rinsing it multiple times with Clean magic.
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The silver lining was my noticeably grown max mana compared to yesterday.
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⚔ STATUS ⚔ ✨ Magic Power: 202 / 202
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From a max mana of 21, it had grown nearly tenfold. In terms of growth alone, it was absurd.
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Level 2, yet max mana already in the triple digits.
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Even when playing Luminor Academy in my past life, I'd never seen growth this insane.
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In other words, it meant I'd achieved this much through a day of gut-wrenching agony yesterday.
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I had no idea how many garlic cloves I'd eaten. After roughly a hundred, I stopped counting.
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I'd even spammed Clean magic so much that I ran out of unpeeled veggies to cast it on.
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Considering all that, this growth was only natural.
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And I'd probably have to do the exact same thing today.
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"Haa..."
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The problem was that with my increased max mana, I couldn't expect the same growth rate as yesterday.
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To fill 202 mana, I'd need at least four garlic cloves. Unlike yesterday, when half a clove topped off my tank—the starting point was different now.
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Of course, lower efficiency didn't mean I could skip it.
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The issue was that I'd accidentally prepped even the veggies for dinner yesterday.
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The senior maids had seen me finish over a thousand veggies for all three meals in two hours and now expected the same today as a given. If I didn't prep perfectly again, they'd suspect even yesterday's work.
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Worse, the suspicion might lead to me using magic.
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Getting caught using magic at barely Level 2 would be a disaster. I could only use Clean right now anyway, and even with high max mana, I couldn't properly utilize it yet—so I had to keep my magic a secret.
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Luckily, the seniors just thought I was fast-handed, not imagining magic.
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...Though the shortest senior had given me a meaningful look.
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Still, I probably wasn't caught. Even if she suspected magic, imagining over an hour of veggie prepping with it—while force-chewing garlic every time mana dipped—was near impossible.
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It was so far beyond common sense that it actually made it safe. As long as the Blackwood Family didn't suspect.
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"Gotta do all this again, haa..."
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During yesterday's dawn training, I'd grasped the knack for dual-casting, so time wasn't an issue.
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Only the fact that I'd have to stuff nearly the same amount of garlic down my throat tormented me.
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But I couldn't leave the veggies untouched, so I pulled a bunch from the garlic sack to replenish mana with Clean first...
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-Rustle.
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"...Huh?"
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Did I just hear something?
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In a crisis where someone might catch me using magic, I froze and listened toward the sound.
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Soon, a clearer noise came from the inner storage room.
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-Thud!
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"......"
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The sound of something heavy hitting the floor.
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From the storage room inside the kitchen—meaning someone was in there. For my mana training, I had to check.
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I couldn't prep veggies with magic if someone else was around.
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"Fuck... what now..."
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Holding the mana lamp carefully in one hand and a kitchen knife in the other, I entered the storage.
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In case it was a thief or intruder.
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The moment I opened the storage door, I shone the lamp inside, thrust my knife forward, and yelled a warning at the round silhouette in the light.
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"H-Hands up! Move and I'll... stab you!"
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Hearing my voice, the round, ball-like figure tensed and squirmed in the darkness. Then, two short sticks shot up above the large spherical silhouette.
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"N-No! I-I didn't do anything!"
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Ah, fuck.
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Why the hell is this guy here?
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"I-I was just hungry and came in... Th-Then the door opened suddenly and someone came in..."
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"......"
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"P-Put that down! You're our house maid, right?! I-I'm telling Dad!"
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The moment the mana lamp lit up the squat face in the dark, curses flooded my mind.
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Ethan Richard Blackwood. Nicknamed 'Pig Prince Ethan'.
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My proper first encounter with the damn loathsome pig.