Chapter 145

I Became the Maid of the Lout Prince - Chapter 145 [Spirit Affinity Lecture (2)]

As soon as I heard Agnes’ words attempting to slander me as a crazy bitch from our first meeting, about a dozen insults that I almost hurled back at her flashed through my mind.

Arrogant bitch, self-absorbed, pathological liar, attention seeker, obsessive-compulsive, socially inept, loner, 145cm (T/N: 4’ 9”), A-cup…@@novelbin@@

Along with various other negative descriptors that could describe her, they almost spilled out of my mouth. Fortunately, I didn’t pour those insults that popped into my head out towards Agnes in front of me.

After all, I approached her to build a friendly relationship, not to engage in childish verbal arguments or exchange blows.

For the sake of naturally improving our relationship, it was best to pretend I hadn’t heard her clearly in this situation.

“…Pardon? I’m sorry, Miss Blaze. I didn’t quite catch that…”

“The crazy bitch who used Mana Blast in the evaluation battle.”

…She’s still going on about it even though I pretended not to hear.

Well, I suppose it couldn’t be helped if she misunderstood. Only Ethan and I knew that the method I used in the final evaluation battle was the only way I could defeat Luke.

It wasn’t so strange for other regular students to misunderstand why I used a wide-AoE spell like Mana Blast instead of quickly settling the match with Magic Arrows.

Still, I thought Agnes, who calls herself the future Archmage of the Crimson Tower, would have figured out why I won that way, but it seems she’s not at that level yet.

“…I thought someone like you, Miss Blaze, who calls herself the future Archmage of the Crimson Tower, would have figured out why I won that way, but it seems you’re not at that level yet.”

“What?”

…Oops, I meant to keep that to myself.

But, well, it didn’t really matter if she overheard. What’s she going to do if it rubs her the wrong way? [Only on Galaxy Translations! / Axiomatic]

After all, between us, Agnes was clearly the one who provoked me first, and I have a personality where if someone does something shitty to me for no reason, I feel compelled to give them a reason.

“What did you just say?”

“Did you really expect a kind response after spitting out an insult like ‘crazy bitch’ to someone’s face in your first meeting with them? I may be Young Master Ethan’s maid, but I’m not your maid. Naturally, I don’t need to show you any particular courtesy, Miss Blaze.”

“……”

“You noticed I used Mana Blast, but the fact that you don’t understand the reason behind it shows that you’re not really all that great despite being the top student of the Magic Department.”

“Ugh, ugh…”

Agnes glared at me angrily in response to my words, but she closed her mouth, seemingly at a loss for words.

Then, she immediately started pondering, chewing over the meaning of what I had said.

Given her strong pride, it was characteristic of Agnes to spend all night searching through books to find out about “things she didn’t know,” so my seemingly meaningless words would probably keep bothering her for a while.

Of course, I wasn’t going to tell her the reason that I had no other finishing move besides Mana Blast. After all, explaining that reason would be tantamount to revealing my weakness.

“…Hmph. You probably used such a large-scale spell because you were annoyed that a woman from the Technical Department picked a fight with you. What other reason could there be?”

“Well, think what you will.”

“…You probably wanted to set an example of how miserably crushed someone would be if they challenged me. It’s obvious.”

“For the top student of the Magic Department, your range of thinking doesn’t seem to go beyond that of an average student.”

“…Ugh!”

That response was quite satisfying as I gently prodded Agnes, who was trying to act like she knew everything while testing out possible answers one by one.

Yeah~. It’s no use glaring at me like that~. I’m absolutely not going to tell you~.

It might seem foolish to pick a fight with Agnes, who fights the second-ranked student in the same department every final evaluation battle and crushes them with overwhelming power, but I had my own reasons to be confident.

As her middle name suggests, Agnes was from a branch family of the Elizabeth family, a noble lineage.

The Elizabeth family was truly obsessed with magic, selecting the most outstanding seeds from numerous branch families to continue their line.

Agnes was one of the most talented individuals among her peers, coming from a branch family of a lineage so obsessed with magic that they would eliminate even members of the main family from successor candidacy if their magical abilities were lacking.

This meant that even if I provoked her like this, she couldn’t openly cause me direct harm. …At least, not until next year’s first-semester final evaluation battle.

Whatever happens in next year’s final evaluation battle, that’s for my future self to deal with.

{That woman seems to have a personality quite similar to yours~. I feel like you two would get along well!}

“That’s a bit harsh.”

Meanwhile, Sally, who had been watching the exchange between Agnes and me, muttered these suspiciously dubious words while oddly directing her gaze towards Agnes.

Somehow annoyed by those words, I spoke to Sally with a slightly irritated tone.

“You think our personalities are similar? Then, are you going to forget the month you spent with me and go cling to that woman now?”

{No~! Your mana still tastes much better! Her mana feels like it would be really unpleasant for some reason!}

“…Well, if you say so.”

She basically implied that she’d continue to use me as a mana source in the future, but it was still a somewhat pleasing answer, so I wasn’t too upset.

She’s annoying and troublesome to deal with every day, but she seems to have some loyalty, at least.

“Spi…rit?”

Meanwhile, Agnes, who had been observing my conversation with Sally, quietly muttered a word in a somewhat dazed voice.

As soon as Sally noticed Agnes’s reaction, she approached her to start a conversation.

{What?! Is this your first time seeing a spirit?}

“It, it talks…? Could it be a high-ranking spirit…”

{Hmm~? So you’re the type of human who can hear my words, too? I thought I sensed something like that from your mana!}

“H-how?! Getting into a contract with a high-ranking spirit is absolutely impossible with a first-year’s mana capacity… Even I could theoretically only manage up to intermediate spirits at best…”

“I’m sorry to interrupt the conversation, but Sally and I aren’t exactly in a contract.”

{I’m not in any kind of contractual relationship with this one, okay? I’d appreciate it if you didn’t make strange misunderstandings!}

“Wh-what…?”

As Agnes said, it would be difficult to be in a contract with a high-ranking spirit at our current level. We’d need to reach at least Level 20 or so to be able to contract stably.

If I were going to make a formal contract, I wouldn’t have contracted with such a noisy spirit in the first place; I would have chosen a quieter one. [Only on Galaxy Translations! / Axiomatic]

Sally just followed me from Grainstone to here because she said my mana was delicious. There wasn’t any special bond between us.

Agnes seemed even more surprised and flustered by the fact that we hadn’t been in a contract.

“Both of you aren’t in a contract, but a high-ranking spirit is following a human around…? Impossible… This has to be a joke…”

“……?”

“I, I spent a whole month training in the Spirit Forest trying to get in a contract with a low-ranking spirit, so why is it only this crazy woman that…”

From what I gathered, it seems Agnes had visited the Spirit Forest during the summer vacation.

Well, it wasn’t that unusual, as most high-ranking mages visit that place at least once in their lifetime. Mages and spirits have good synergy, making them great for cooperative attacks, and above all, they have a mutualistic relationship.

With the help of spirits, mages can use spells that would be difficult to cast alone. On the other hand, spirits can constantly receive delicious mana from high-ranking mages.

It truly was a mutualistic relationship, making it possible to form contracts and work together.

Of course, in my case, I wasn’t particularly trying to use the spirit to cast high-level magic; my primary goal was the ‘Luck +2’ attribute attached to the ‘Fire Spirit’s Blessing.’

“Impossible… Why am I the only one without a spirit? I want one the most, so why does everyone else have one except me…”

“……”

“Not to mention, it’s a high-ranking fire spirit…? It’s following a human without even making a contract…? Why her…?”

Meanwhile, Agnes had been muttering to herself as if in a daze ever since she saw Sally accompanying me.

As someone who had already played through Luminor Academy, I fully understood why she was reacting this way.

Agnes was a character with extremely low Spirit Affinity, so despite her overflowing mana capacity, she couldn’t contract with spirits for a long time. She only managed to start contracting with low-ranking spirits around the time she graduated from the academy.

Regardless of her desire to get into a contract with spirits, the spirits weren’t very welcoming of a contract with Agnes.

After all, Spirit Affinity was a stat heavily influenced by the Charm stat. In Agnes’s case, she was one of the heroines with an extremely low Charm stat.

Of course, Charm wasn’t simply a measure of a character’s appearance, so it didn’t necessarily mean that Agnes was ugly.

…But it would be a bit strange if Agnes, who was short, flat-chested, and didn’t even have a particularly good personality, had a high Charm stat.

Anyway, in practice, Charm only affected the success rate of support magic, so it was a somewhat useless ability for Agnes, who mainly dealt with offensive magic.

At least in terms of ‘spirit contracts,’ this moment proved that I was far more capable than her right before her eyes.

“Are you envious?”

“Wh-what…?”

“Actually, I originally had no intention of taking any spirit-related courses this semester. I didn’t particularly visit places like the Spirit Forest wanting to contract with spirits, and I haven’t separately learned the spirit language of low-ranking spirits either.”

“……”

“However, I thought I needed to learn a little if only to get closer to Sally. Although this relationship wasn’t something I sought out, it seemed Sally and I were destined to be together for a while.”

“Ugh, ughhhh…”

Agnes was seething with frustration and resentment at my blatant statements right in front of her.

If she hadn’t slandered me by calling me a crazy bitch from our first meeting, I might have been willing to teach her how to get along with spirits… but now that the strategy to befriend her had failed, there was no need to teach her.

…You ask how I’m going to deal with that crazy woman who’ll be all fired up at next year’s first-semester final evaluation battle?

That’s for my future self to handle, not something for my current self to worry about.