Magic Training for Survival (2)

A maid’s morning comes early.

Because waking up before her master is a basic requirement for any maid.

“Good morning, Alicia.”

“Good morning to you too, Eiria~.”

Katarina, who had woken up slightly later than usual, carefully stepped out of her room upon hearing the voices of her fellow maids. She felt their gazes on her as if they had been waiting for her, and with a hesitant step, she began her way to work.

“Oh, Katarina, are you just now heading to work?”

“Y-yeah….”

“Must’ve been nice to finally get some proper sleep.”

“Well, sort of….”

In truth, she hadn’t slept well at all. The events of last night had left her with a strange sense of guilt weighing on her heart.

Lilith, the junior maid whose workplace had been reassigned to the kitchen alongside theirs starting today.

Though it wasn’t her intention, the thought that she had played a part in trapping Lilith kept Katarina tossing and turning all night. Even though she had arrived two hours later than usual, her eyes showed not the satisfaction of rest but a peculiar exhaustion.

“Our Katarina is so kind-hearted, I was worried she might be feeling ‘guilty’ again and came to work early~.”

“N-no, that’s not it….”

“Yeah, that’s good. You wouldn’t want to go back to how things were before, right?”

A maid’s morning moves quickly.

But among those fast-moving maids, there was one whose mornings were even faster.

That was Katarina Rain, the maid ostracized by her peers.

A year ago, she had tried to expose the wrongdoing of her fellow maid, Eiria, but failed.

While attempting to report Eiria for stealing valuables from the unconscious Young Master Ethan’s room, Katarina ended up being framed for the crime instead. Having lost the trust of both the master and the head maid, she spent the past year living as nothing more than Eiria’s slave.

Forced to do every task alongside Eiria and Alicia, she bore the brunt of all the dirty work, making her life far more grueling than that of any other maid. For her, the past year had been nothing short of hell.

“Don’t go doing anything stupid again, just stay quiet. If you behave, I might at least treat you like my pet.”

“Y-yeah.”

“Good. Don’t act out and end up going back to how things were before. Now that we have underlings, there’s no need to embarrass ourselves in front of our peers, right?”

“…Right.”

Katarina could easily guess who these so-called “underlings” referred to.

The junior maids who had joined a year after them.

Two girls who had only recently shed their probationary status and officially begun working as junior maids-Isabelle and Lilith. From now on, Eiria’s attention would shift from Katarina to these two.

“Isabelle seems quick and efficient, so she’ll be useful in many ways. What do you think, Katarina?”

“Y-yeah… I, I think you’re right, Eiria….”

“Lilith, though, she looked kinda dumb, didn’t she? She actually believed us when we told her to come in at 4 AM.”

“The dumber they are, the easier they are to use, so it’s fine.”

As much as she wanted to protect the two, Katarina knew that if she did, the arrows of her peers-which had only just begun to fade-would inevitably turn back toward her.

So, despite her guilt, she had no choice but to go along with this injustice.

After losing the household’s trust in last year’s theft incident, she had been saddled with an enormous debt and bound by a servitude contract to the Blackwood family. On top of that, she had been ordered to work alongside Eiria at all times under the guise of “supervision.”

She no longer had the strength-or even the will-to help anyone else.

“She must’ve been preparing for two hours alone, so she’s probably at least finished peeling a potato or two, right?”

“Well, whatever. If she’s a bit slow, our Katarina can just help her out. Right?”

“That’s true. Katarina is the most skilled worker among us.”

“Yeah… If she hasn’t finished, I’ll just help….”

In the end, Katarina realized that even with new scapegoats, her position wouldn’t change much. But since she had no means to resist Eiria anyway, she had no choice.

Her petite frame shrinking under the pressure from both sides, she followed the two into the kitchen to begin preparations for the breakfast that would be served in three hours.

“Lilith, are you in there?”

“Sorry~! I accidentally overslept a little. It must’ve been tough working alone without us, huh?”

“…….”

The two walked in, brazenly lying with practiced ease.

Katarina followed behind them with slumped shoulders, but strangely, Lilith’s voice-which she had expected to hear immediately-didn’t respond.

“Why isn’t she answering?”

“Did she realize we lied and not show up?”

“…That airheaded girl?”

“…….”

Amid the slightly tense exchange, the three stepped further into the kitchen. The moment they confirmed that the magic lamp in the inner kitchen was on, the heavy atmosphere dissipated.

“Oh, she is here.”

-Creeeak.

“Lilith, when your seniors call you, you answer. What were you doing that you couldn’t even-“

“Huh……?”

“…….”

The sight that greeted them upon opening the kitchen door was a mountain of vegetables.

Hundreds of potatoes, onions, carrots, and more-all perfectly peeled without a single one missed. The three were momentarily stunned, unable to do anything but stare at the scene.

It took them a beat too long to notice Lilith sitting on the kitchen floor with a dazed expression.

“Lilith?”

“…Ah.”

Hearing Katarina’s voice, Lilith seemed to snap out of it, quickly schooling her expression as she stood up.

Her composed demeanor left the three at a loss for words, but Lilith paid no mind to their reactions and simply delivered her message as if nothing were amiss.

“I’ve prepared all the vegetables in the kitchen, Seniors.”

“A-all of them…?”

“All of them, as in…?”

“The potatoes, onions, carrots, garlic, and other vegetables for breakfast, lunch, and dinner-I’ve prepared them all. All you need to do is inform the chefs that the ingredients are ready.”

“…….”

“I’m tired, so I’ll be heading back first. Good work, Seniors.”

Despite brazenly abandoning her post mid-shift, no one could stop her-not when faced with the sheer volume of prepared vegetables. Only Katarina, among the three, noticed the faint, lingering scent of something bitter as Lilith brushed past her.

⁎ ⁎ ⁎

The second day after my reassignment from guest service to the kitchen.

Arriving at the kitchen at 4 AM again, I muttered under my breath as I stared at the mountain of work left untouched.

“Ah, I wanna die….”

The workload was nearly identical to yesterday’s-meaning I’d have to chew through a similar amount of garlic again.

The memory of forcing down garlic for an hour and a half yesterday while fighting nausea resurfaced in my mind.

I could still almost taste the garlic, despite having rinsed my mouth clean with Clean magic multiple times.

The only silver lining was the noticeable increase in my maximum mana capacity.

『Current Mana: 202 / 202』

From a measly 21, my maximum mana had grown nearly tenfold-an absurd rate of growth by any standard.

I was only Level 2, yet my mana pool was already in the triple digits.

Even in my past life playing 『Luminor Academy』, I had never seen such insane growth.

In other words, the agony of my organs twisting yesterday had paid off.

I wasn’t even sure how many cloves of garlic I’d eaten. I stopped counting after it passed a hundred.

I had even spammed Clean magic until there were no more unpeeled vegetables left to use it on.

Considering all that, this level of growth made sense.

And today, I’d likely have to do the same thing all over again.

“Sigh….”

The problem was that with my increased mana capacity, I couldn’t expect the same efficiency as yesterday.

Filling up 202 mana would require at least four cloves of garlic-far more than the half-clove it took yesterday.

Still, even if the growth rate had slowed, I had no choice but to repeat the process.

Accidentally preparing all the vegetables for dinner yesterday had backfired.

Seeing me finish a thousand vegetables for three meals in two hours, the senior maids now expected me to do the same today. If I didn’t deliver, they’d undoubtedly grow suspicious about yesterday’s work too.

Worst case, they might even suspect I used magic to peel the vegetables.

At Level 2, being caught using magic would be disastrous. Right now, Clean was the only spell I could cast, so no matter how large my mana pool was, I couldn’t properly utilize it yet. I had to keep my magic a secret at all costs.

Fortunately, the senior maids seemed to believe I was just fast at peeling, not that I’d used magic. Though the shortest of the three had given me a strange look.

Still, I probably hadn’t been found out. Even if they suspected I could use magic, imagining that I’d spent over an hour peeling vegetables with it was near impossible.

Especially since I’d been forcing myself to chew bitter garlic every time my mana ran out.

My actions were so far from normal that there was little risk of exposure-as long as the Blackwood family didn’t catch on.

“Still, to have to do all this again… Ugh….”

Yesterday, while training my magic, I had also figured out the trick to simultaneous casting, so time wasn’t the issue.

It was the thought of shoving the same amount of garlic into my mouth as yesterday that tormented me.

But I couldn’t just leave the vegetables unpeeled, so I grabbed a bundle of garlic from the sack and prepared to use Clean magic to replenish my mana-

-Rustle.

“……Huh?”

Did I just hear something?

Afraid someone might catch me using magic, I paused and listened carefully in the direction of the sound.

A moment later, a clearer noise came from the inner storage room of the kitchen.

-Thud!

“…….”

The sound of something heavy hitting the floor.

Since it came from the storage room, that meant someone was inside-someone I needed to check on before proceeding with my mana training.

I couldn’t risk using magic to peel vegetables if someone else was around.

“Goddammit… What now…?”

Holding the magic lamp in one hand and a kitchen knife in the other, I cautiously entered the storage room.

Just in case a thief or intruder had broken into the pantry.

As soon as I opened the door, I thrust the knife forward, shining the lamp inside and shouting a warning at the round silhouette illuminated by the light.

“H-hands up! Move and I’ll sh-shoot… stab you!”

Hearing my voice, the round figure in the dark flinched, then raised two stubby appendages into the air.

“N-no! I didn’t do anything wrong!”

Ah, fuck.

Why is this bastard here?

“I-I was just hungry, so I came in… Then the door suddenly opened, and someone came in….”

“…….”

“P-put that thing down! You’re our family’s maid, right?! I-I’ll tell Dad!”

As soon as the lamp revealed the chubby face in the darkness, curses sprang to mind unbidden.

Ethan Richard Blackwood. AKA “Pig Prince Ethan.”

My first proper meeting with this damn bastard.