Chapter 9

Chapter 9: Where Do I Find a Big Thigh to Cling To?

Theresia’s brain crashed for several seconds.

“Sorry.” It took her a while before her thoughts started moving again. “May I ask what you just said?”

“Be my servant for a few days. That will be the price for buying you the arcane machinery.” Pulcheria looked perfectly natural about it.

“By being a servant, you mean...”

Pulcheria explained as though it were obvious. “You follow me around and do a few small chores—I see you sitting here every time I come to the library, so you probably don’t have much to do most of the time, right?”

Theresia shook her head. “No, what I mean is... why would you make that kind of request?”

“Because I couldn’t think of anything else to make you do on such short notice, so I decided to make it broad. Be my servant.” Pulcheria shrugged. “Don’t worry. I’ll just find you a few random things to do. If you don’t want to, it actually doesn’t matter if you don’t do anything—because that amount of money really isn’t much.”

Theresia felt as though her heart had suffered a violent shock. “But that’s half a year of my living expenses and tuition...”

“Huh? Then tuition for your History Department is pretty cheap.”

“It’s the same as yours.” Theresia stretched out a trembling hand and showed her a number.

“Isn’t that number just the basic tuition? Don’t you have to pay rent for spell practice spaces, practice material fees, and things like that?”

Theresia hunched her neck, seized by the urge to crawl beneath the table entirely. “May I ask, though this is rude, how much your tuition is, Senior...?”

After Pulcheria stated a number, Theresia was shaken all over again. “Could it be that you’re actually... very rich, Senior?”

“I suppose I’m doing all right. That money is about a week’s income for my family.”

“Rich lady! She’s a rich lady!” Theresia covered her face. “If you’re that rich, you definitely don’t care about the money for the arcane device, right? Please, please just give me one!”

“Then the time you spend as my servant will have to be extended.”

“Okay... wait, didn’t you just say I didn’t have to do it?” Theresia was shocked. “Senior, you just said this bit of money wasn’t much to you.”

Pulcheria rubbed her chin. “Mm... Although I can give it to you, now that I think about it, I’ve been reviewing for exams recently, so there are a lot of things in my daily life that I haven’t been able to take care of. Having a servant would be quite nice...”

Theresia hesitated for a while before slowly forcing out a sentence. “Although nobles doing maids is common in noble circles, there are maids who won’t let themselves be done, you know.”

“You’ve been reading too many strange books in the library, haven’t you?” Pulcheria sighed. “In any case, be my servant for one week and help take care of the books I use to study in the library. That’s all—having to find those books every time I come to the library and then return them when I leave is annoying as hell.”

“Senior, why don’t you use magical facsimiles?”

“The precision of facsimiles is too low, and a lot of ancient books use ink that can’t be copied that way.”

“Mm, if it’s just something like that, I think I can do it.” Theresia breathed a sigh of relief. “After all, that’s my actual job...”

“Then I’ll add taking care of my food, clothing, lodging, and travel on top of that—I’ve never met a maid so willing to add work for herself before.”

“Wha...” Theresia was greatly alarmed. “No, no, no, actually, that job just now was still very troublesome, and I don’t think I can take good care of you, Senior...”

“I’ll cover your meals for the week.”

Theresia’s face turned solemn. “May I ask when work begins?”

***

After listening to Theresia recount everything she had experienced that day, Margaret couldn’t help lowering her evaluation of her roommate’s intelligence a little further in her heart.

“If you want to rely on an arcane device to increase your combat strength, why didn’t you just go find someone from the Summoning Department next door to help?” Margaret suggested. “As long as you bring encapsulated summoning spells into the exam hall, wouldn’t that be much cheaper than an arcane device?”

“The Summoning Department’s encapsulated magic is cheap, but it’s basically impossible to buy now.”

“It sold out that quickly?”

What mages valued most would always be the depth of their magical attainments. In comparison, combat strength was not something every mage cared about. Not every mage would take the initiative to study combat magic, but while the combat exam still existed as an objective reality, many mages would temporarily search for ways to strengthen their combat ability during these few days.

Among them, the most popular choice was the summoners’ encapsulated spells. These spells were sealed away for one-time use, making them one of the most economical choices. Every year, large numbers of mages chose to purchase these encapsulated spells and summon elemental creatures during the exam to assist them in combat. Although Potsdam Royal Magic Academy had a tradition of combat exams, the Empire had already established hegemony, so more and more mages naturally devoted their energy to places outside of war. Besides, even if they did not study combat spells, there would always be those poor warriors willing to risk their lives.

Therefore, the teachers in the academy gradually came to tacitly accept this kind of last-minute cramming, indirectly allowing arcane technicians and summoners to make a killing every year during this season.

“Exactly. They sold out incredibly fast, so I had no choice but to rent arcane armor.” Theresia sighed. “And my arcane armor will only be lent to me on the day of the exam. Those arcane technicians are probably planning to rent it out, take it back as soon as the combat is over, and then hand it to the next person. By the time it’s my turn to use it, who knows how many people will have sat inside it.”

After imagining the scene Theresia had described, a look of disgust also surfaced on Margaret’s face.

“But even so, the rent for arcane devices is still ridiculously expensive.” Theresia slumped dispiritedly over the desk in the dormitory. “Honestly, why does the History Department even have a combat exam like this?”

“Because the History Department has still produced quite a few outstanding and famous mages, hasn’t it...? Isn’t the legend of the History Department about those Legendary Mages who braved mountains of blades and seas of fire to perfect the continent’s history, and were finally honored as Legendary Mages by every nation on the continent?”

“If it weren’t for those people, maybe the History Department would be like the Philosophy Department and wouldn’t need to study combat...”

“The problem is, those philosophy people actually have extremely high combat strength. Many of their mental spells have been blacklisted by the Mages’ Round Table.” Margaret was quite clear about this. “Every year, many people from the Philosophy Department deliberately come to our School of Theology to provoke us in order to prove their learning.”

“Uwaa... I don’t want to hear anything else about exams! Margaret! Shall we go eat at the cafeteria tonight? Since I can save a week’s food money now, I want to eat something a little better!”

Margaret helplessly turned off the fire-element magic that had already been activated in the kitchen, then put the prepared ingredients back into the constant-temperature magic array.

“There’s really no helping you. But going to the cafeteria once in a while isn’t bad either.”

“Yay!” Theresia cheered.