bookworm

Interrogation
I was seated in a chair right in the middle of Sylvester’s office. A cold sweat ran down my back as my eyes flitted from Sylvester, to Ferdinand, to Karstedt.
Urk. Why does everyone look so mad and scary?
“Clear the room,” Sylvester ordered. “Aside from Rozemyne, only the three of us are needed here.”
“Lord Sylvester, will you not need someone to explain what happened while she was sick and unconscious?” Rihyarda asked.
“Stand down, Rihyarda. We can ask for more details later on if we need them,” Sylvester replied, furrowing his brow as deeply as Ferdinand usually would. My retainers all obeyed, shooting me worried glances as they went.
Nooo! Don’t leave me here to die!
Just hearing the door shut mercilessly behind them made me want to burst into tears. It was like I was attending one of those pressure interviews where the employer tries to weed out the weak by emotionally breaking them. I searched around for an escape route, but Ferdinand shook his head.
“We have no choice. You spoke to the prince without your retainers, and thus we can conclude that royalty would rather they not know what you discussed. We want to respect that decision as much as possible.”
“In other words, you want me to tell you absolutely everything I spoke about with Prince Anastasius...?”
“Yeah,” Sylvester said. “We need to know everything if we want to plan out Ehrenfest’s next moves.”
So he said, but I didn’t feel too good about disclosing Anastasius’s love life after he had mustered the courage to speak up about it. Plus, who knew what he would do to me if he found out?
“What we discussed was highly personal, such that I do not think Prince Anastasius would appreciate me telling anyone,” I said.
“This wouldn’t be necessary if you were a normal noble, but you defy expectation at every turn. You must tell us everything. Nothing can be hidden, else you will continue making the same mistakes,” Ferdinand replied. He honestly had a point—I would definitely need some pointers on how to proceed from here. It was extremely likely I was doing some abnormal things without realizing it.
I nodded, at which point Sylvester took his seat. Karstedt moved to stand behind him, while Ferdinand sat in his usual chair to record the meeting like a scholar, tapping his fingers against the desk.
“Now then, care to explain how you have developed such a close relationship with royalty, despite having spent only half a term with them?” Ferdinand asked. “Given that Prince Anastasius sent out your retainers, you must have discussed something quite personal.”
“Wait, what? A close relationship...?” I was so stunned that I couldn’t help but echo the words. We were anything but close—I had promised to never approach him myself, meaning I only spoke to him when he summoned me, and our discussions were solely focused on Eglantine. “I am merely the victim of circumstance. I could not defy the orders of royalty, so I did not have any control over what happened.”
“Seriously?” Sylvester asked, glaring at me despite the fact my answer was completely serious.
Sorry, but facts are facts.
Ferdinand started flipping through the letters stacked on the table, clearly unsatisfied with my answer. “When did you first make contact with the prince?” he asked. “Our reports say it was during whirl practice, but if you remember anything before then, say so now.”
“Um... I guess you could say it was when I greeted him at the fellowship gathering. He complained to me, saying that I was nothing like the rumors he had heard.” I went on to detail the rest of our conversation, which made all three of my guardians cradle their heads at once. Sylvester in particular let out a groan as he was rubbing his temples.
“Nobody told me anything about that, Rozemyne. Did you really pick a fight with royalty?”
“Hm...? I just got a little annoyed, since he kept complaining. I didn’t pick a fight or anything like that,” I replied, my eyes shifting about the room. It was then that Ferdinand gave me a smile that chilled my spine.
“What you said contained more irony and sarcasm than anything I have ever heard you say before. It hurts my head to think you spoke like that to a prince,” he said.
I sucked in a tiny gasp, at which Karstedt sighed and shook his head. “The prince must have been outright stunned for someone to have spoken to him like that during their very first meeting.”
Oopsie... It seems I was making mistakes from the very beginning.
“Okay, I finally understand. That’s why Prince Anastasius was acting so spiteful during whirl practice. I picked a fight with him first.”
“We need more details. It seems that your perspective varies greatly from the reports we’ve received,” Ferdinand said, impatiently tapping the letters.
I explained the events of whirl practice: Anastasius had accused me of plotting to get closer to him, spurring me to respond that I would make sure to avoid him completely from then on.
Sylvester glared at me; then he started rubbing his forehead in an unsuccessful attempt to loosen his tightly furrowed brow. “I’m starting to sympathize with the prince here,” he said. “He had no idea what a disaster he was walking into. You must be the most bizarre person he’s ever met in his life, Rozemyne.”
I don’t want to hear that from you, Sylvester. You big weirdo.
“I thought it an efficient way of avoiding trouble—a way to inform those after Prince Anastasius that I wasn’t a rival.”
“Your heart was in the right place, since a weak duchy like Ehrenfest meddling in royal affairs would cause nothing but problems, but like always, your methods are terrible. Try to phrase things more diplomatically,” Sylvester said, going on to mention that I would need to undergo socializing training in the spring. Just thinking about it was depressing. “Still, how did your unthinkably blatant refusal result in him talking to you more?”
“Like I said, it just ended up happening. The next time we met was at a tea party with the music professors. Lady Eglantine was in attendance, so Prince Anastasius forced his way in to join her. Naturally, when they asked me for permission to let the prince attend as well, I couldn’t exactly decline.”
Sylvester nodded, holding his stomach a little. “Yeah, that was a good decision, at least.”
I went on to explain how Anastasius had ordered me to compose a song and then rejected it in a very stuck-up and princely manner. He had then stormed out of the room in a fuss, causing Eglantine to rush after him.
“Oh, and the professors spoke to me about your student days in the Royal Academy, Sylvester. It seems Prince Anastasius is acting no different from you when you were pining for Florencia.”
“Forget everything they said right now!” Sylvester exclaimed, now cradling his head for a different reason than before. “Gaaah!”
I shook my head in refusal. My retainers had attended that tea party, meaning even Rihyarda had heard the story. “Forgetting is out of the question, but I can at least keep it a secret from Wilfried and Charlotte for you.”
“Everyone above a certain age in Ehrenfest knows of Sylvester’s history, but this is valuable information about the prince. His heart is set on the girl from Klassenberg, hm?” Ferdinand asked me, a gleam in his light-golden eyes. It seemed that my guardians had been completely unaware, despite this being common knowledge in the Royal Academy, so I could see why information gathering was such a prominent business there. I told them what I knew, including what I had heard from the music professors.
“Is this valuable information then?” I asked. “Lady Eglantine is the daughter of the late third prince who died in the civil war, and she became who she is now after her grandfather, the previous Aub Klassenberg, adopted her.”
Sylvester, Ferdinand, and Karstedt all deeply inhaled, their eyes wide.
“Her grandfather has told the princes that Lady Eglantine wishes to return to royalty,” I continued, “and so both the first and second prince are asking for her hand in marriage. It seems that whoever she picks will gain an enormous advantage when it comes to taking the throne.”
“Rozemyne, you are in much too deep... I imagine this is information only nobles very close to royalty know. Sylvester, choose now which side you will pick. Rozemyne’s current position in all this means we are going to be wrapped up in the business of royalty whether we like it or not,” Ferdinand said.
Sylvester put on a stern expression in an instant, causing me to slump my shoulders. Ehrenfest had managed to avoid any harm during the previous civil war precisely because it had remained neutral. But now, due to my getting too close to Anastasius, it was very likely we were going to be involved in any future incidents.
What if our duchy comes to harm or is even destroyed because of me...?
“Rozemyne, we haven’t heard about your summons from the prince yet. You met with him again after the tea party, right?” Sylvester asked.
“To explain that, I must first begin with Schwartz and Weiss...”
“You mean when you became their master while registering at the library? The reports on that didn’t make any sense,” Sylvester said, urging me on.
I nodded as I started on yet another explanation. “Wilfried told me I couldn’t register in the library until all the first-years had finished their written lessons, so I made them study as hard as they could. I was so overjoyed when they all passed that I completely lost control of my emotions, and since I was still not used to controlling my mana after the jureve, my prayers of gratitude ended up becoming a blessing that activated Schwartz and Weiss.”
“That is about what I expected... They surely had a master already though. Did you steal them through sheer mana capacity?” Ferdinand asked.
It was then that I realized very few people knew about the changes in the library. Those who had graduated in the past and were familiar with the old Royal Academy took Schwartz and Weiss moving around as a given, whereas most current students didn’t even know they existed. I explained to Ferdinand that the Sovereignty’s purge had gotten rid of the archnoble librarians, leaving only a sole mednoble librarian who wasn’t capable of properly supplying them with mana.
“They were skilled individuals who knew their books well and often provided me with support, but... I see. They are gone now,” Ferdinand said plainly.
Sylvester rested his head against his desk and let out a heavy sigh. “I knew the purge was causing problems all over the place, but if they can’t even get librarians for the Royal Academy, the Sovereignty must be in a real mess.”
The Sovereignty was composed of the winners of the civil war, and since Ehrenfest had remained neutral, our connections to them were weak. On top of that, few Ehrenfest students had grades impressive enough to warrant their invitation to the tea parties of those in higher-ranking duchies, so information of that sort was in short supply.
“Professor Solange was truly struggling without Schwartz and Weiss. I suggested that I provide some assistance myself, but archduke candidates cannot move to the Sovereignty. In the end, we agreed that I would only provide mana while I am attending the Academy. The prince said that I may do as I please while I am there.”
“Seems like you adopting Rozemyne was the right idea after all, Sylvester. If she were merely an archnoble and my daughter, the Sovereignty would’ve taken her already,” Karstedt commented as the realization dawned on him.
“Yup. I’m a genius alright,” Sylvester boasted, puffing out his chest at the adoption having been his idea or whatever. I personally would have enjoyed moving to the Sovereignty and working in the Royal Academy’s library.
“Still, to think you would become their master without even touching them. You truly are something else...” Ferdinand mused aloud. “But in any case, Hirschur’s report said she discovered many magic circles woven onto the two magic tools. We shall discuss those in depth later.”
“Oh, that reminds me—I actually have a bunch of packages for you from Professor Hirschur. She wants you to repair the magic tools you made for her in the past. Also, it turns out we need your help with Schwartz and Weiss.”
Traces of a pleased smile played on his lips. Now seemed a good time to tell him about the other things I had for him.
“As for gifts, I have brought songs dedicated to the Goddesses of Light and Wisdom that I composed alongside Rosina. I would appreciate it if you considered arranging them. The song for the Goddess of Light is to be given to Lady Eglantine by Prince Anastasius.”
Sylvester frowned. “You didn’t mention that, Rozemyne...”
“Did I not mention it just a moment ago? I said that Prince Anastasius told me to compose a song, only to then say he didn’t want it and storm out in a fuss. It is no surprise for someone in love to act so strangely, and seeing as he sent me the request before anyone, I thought it best to deliver the song to him anyway. Would you rather I just give it to Eglantine directly?” I asked, causing Ferdinand to rub his temples.
“You should first ask the prince what his intentions are. Do not make this decision on your own.”
“Hm? But I can’t do that,” I replied, shaking my head. “I promised not to contact him myself, remember?” I wasn’t about to break a promise with royalty.
“Rozemyne, do you truly intend to ignore the request of a prince for such a trivial reason?!”
“I’m not ignoring him—that’s such a misleading way to phrase it. I am merely... waiting for him. I am patiently waiting for Prince Anastasius to contact me. He will come to me when he remembers that he needs it.”
“Have you finally lost the last of your wits? The prince would never come to you.”
“He’ll come. I mean, he came to the library when I was reading once and dragged me away,” I said, feeling the frustration of not just an afternoon, but four whole days of reading time being taken from me all over again. My three guardians looked at me with shock.
“Rozemyne!” Sylvester exclaimed. “Do you mean to say he didn’t summon you while you were in the library, but that he actually came to get you in person?! You made him come to you?! That’s insane!”
“Hm? But I didn’t want to talk to him myself. As I’ve said enough times now, I promised not to contact him, so...”
“Rozemyne, take back that promise,” Ferdinand said. “Do you want the prince appearing and dragging you off every time he needs you? Do you want people to determine you are important enough for the prince himself to approach you? Your actions here are paving the way for unthinkable rumors, and you will make so many annoying enemies that you will no longer have any time to read.”
Now aware that forcing Anastasius to summon me for matters that could be easily solved through ordonnanzes or letters would eat into my precious reading time, I pressed my hands against my cheeks and shrieked. “I’ll take it back as soon as I return to the Royal Academy! I don’t want to lose even more reading time!”
“Good grief... With your utter lack of social skills, it may be best for everyone if you did remain holed up in the library at all times,” Ferdinand said, his exhaustion unmistakable. My appreciation for him immediately shot through the roof.
Someone else agreeing it’s a good idea for me to stay in the library? Heck yeah! We should make this a yearly holiday! I never want to forget this moment!
I was so overwhelmed with glee that I abruptly stood up and shot both hands into the air. “Aah, goodness! You’re like a god to me right now, Ferdinand! Praise be to—”
“I need no prayers. Sit.”
That’s too bad, I guess.
“Rozemyne, have you made any more blunders with royalty?” Sylvester asked, his voice almost an agonized cry. “Please, tell me that’s all you’ve done!”
I detailed the events after Anastasius had come to take me from the library. He had dragged me away, I downed a potion, and then my head went so fuzzy that I passed out.
“Why did the prince take you away?” Ferdinand asked.
“Love has consumed him,” I replied. “He wanted to know what Lady Eglantine and I discussed at our tea party.”
I explained that Eglantine was afraid of becoming the catalyst for another war and that she didn’t want either prince to escort her during her graduation ceremony. I also mentioned that Anastasius had realized something after hearing these wishes.
“Let’s see, what else...? I taught Prince Anastasius my song dedicated to the Goddess of Earth. Also, since I said some pretty rude things to him, I offered to give him a hairpin for Eglantine as an apology. He happily accepted. That’s about it, though.”
“Wait. Why did you not speak to us before offering to make him a hairpin?”
“Hm? It just came to mind as a way to earn some points with him while sending a letter of gratitude for his concern and informing him I would be absent from the Academy.”
My guardians all raised their eyebrows at once, shocked that I had managed to bungle things up even further in the three days they had given me. Ferdinand stood up from his chair with a clatter, walked up to me with a chilly smile, and then pinched both my cheeks.
“Rozemyne, did I not teach you to think before you act? To not immediately do whatever comes to mind? I had thought you learned the importance of maintaining contact and talking things over, but it seems my teachings were not at all sufficient. Or have they simply melted away along with your mana clumps over the past two years?”
“I’m sho showwy!”

He yelled at me not to make decisions on my own when uncertain, and to instead send messages back home for consultation. Wilfried was doing this already; he had apparently sent many questions to Ehrenfest when looking for ways to contain me. I clapped my hands together, having not realized that was an option, and my guardians all put their heads in their hands as one, now completely aware they hadn’t prepared me enough for the Royal Academy.
“You were asleep for two years. This is understandable. We will need to educate you on proper socializing before next year,” Ferdinand said. It seemed my current behavior was the result of us having prioritized my grades and the Dedication Ritual when bringing me up to speed.
“Under normal circumstances, an Ehrenfest first-year would never deal so closely with royalty. It is unthinkable,” Ferdinand continued. “Furthermore, you have problems with your health, and I thought it would take you much longer to finish your classes. My plan was to cover for your poor social skills by allowing you to enjoy the library for a brief period once your classes were over, then call you back prior to the start of the socializing season and have you return only when the Interduchy Tournament was on the horizon. And yet...”
“Seems like you surpassed his expectations,” Sylvester said with a smirk.
Ferdinand responded with a cold glance. “You are the one who will struggle to clean up this mess at the Archduke Conference, Aub Ehrenfest,” he noted dryly, but Sylvester’s focus was entirely on me.
“I’ve gotta say, Rozemyne, I’m impressed you’ve managed this many disasters in such a short space of time. Socializing season hasn’t even started, and you’ve done all this?”
“Sylvester, shall we not linger on the past?” I asked. “Now is the time to face the future.”
“Idiot. The past’s gonna stick with us whether we linger on it or not. Our relationships with royalty and the greater duchies are going to have a big impact on Ehrenfest’s future,” he said with a glare. I could already see him making me chirp “pooey” again, so I rushed to change the subject.
“In that case, shall we discuss these matters with Benno and the guildmaster, Gustav, to urge things in a direction that benefits Ehrenfest? Rinsham, hairpins, and pound cakes all received much attention at the Royal Academy. I imagine the prince giving the woman he’s pining for a hairpin will serve as extraordinarily good marketing, but perhaps that is just me.”
“It will, but even so: You idiot! How could you be so thoughtless?! I told you not to act carelessly when it comes to gifts and selling stuff. Why’re you pulling this crap outside of the Archduke Conference?!” Sylvester barked. He was completely right—my offer to make a hairpin for Anastasius was much too premature.
“Sorry... Should I go turn him down?”
“I’m mad precisely because it’s not easy to turn down a royal.”
“Sylvester, ‘not easy’ is a gross understatement—it is impossible,” Ferdinand said with an exhausted headshake. “We have no choice but to exploit this situation for the benefit of the duchy. It is true that a Klassenberg candidate wearing a hairpin during her graduation ceremony will serve as valuable marketing.”
“Oh, if we’re going that far, how about we print and sell a love story about them alongside the hairpin? That should spread printing in an instant,” I suggested.
While we didn’t want to spread our learning materials to other duchies just yet, since we needed to maintain our superiority when it came to grades⁠—we were more than interested in the spread of printing on the whole. A love story about royalty was perfect in this regard. Gossip always spreads faster than anything. If we printed it on a single sheet of paper, similar to a flyer, we could keep the price down too.
The more I thought about it, the better an opportunity this seemed to be. We could sell more sheets whenever there’s breaking news, so that people were able to purchase only the sheets they’re interested in, and then we could start selling binders of sorts to store them in. It might even be fun to try to gather all the sheets printed in a year or something.
“Rozemyne, are you saying that you intend to side with the second prince from now on?” Ferdinand asked.
“Hm? No. I am on Lady Eglantine’s side. It seems to me that I could write a best-selling story about her regardless of which prince she chooses, or even if she chooses neither. Plus, considering how valuable her hairpin and rinsham marketing is going to be, I imagine she is our best chance at spreading them among high-status women.”
The pound cake was also likely to sell well among women who frequently attend tea parties. To summarize, Eglantine was gorgeous, of a high status, and interested in both rinsham and hairpins. She was the best advertising billboard that I could ask for.
Despite my list of reasons, Sylvester just shook his head. “You’re thinking too much like a merchant, Rozemyne. Your mind is focused entirely on profit.”
“I’m afraid I still don’t understand what else nobles hope to get out of situations like this. Should I not be siding with Lady Eglantine?” I asked, looking at Ferdinand. He mulled things over for a moment before lowering his eyes and giving a slow sigh.
“Your decision is not fundamentally poor. If we are to believe your words, then the question of who becomes the next king rests largely in the hands of the greater duchy Klassenberg. It would not be a mistake to side with Eglantine rather than one of the princes, but it is down to Aub Ehrenfest to make the final decision,” he said, looking Sylvester’s way.
I frowned slightly as Sylvester fell into thought like this was some huge problem to debate. The fact that I couldn’t bring myself to care about faction politics really showed that I wasn’t much like a regular noble at all.
“I think we can decide who to stick with later,” I said.
“Rozemyne?”
“What matters right now is what we should do when people come asking about rinsham, hairpins, plant paper, and pound cake at the Archduke Conference. Prince Anastasius and Lady Eglantine are both interested in these things, and I imagine business deals will take priority over any faction squabbling.”
As long as Eglantine didn’t make her choice right away, things would remain more or less the same for a while longer. It was a decision that would sway the battle for the throne, but we had no way of knowing who she might choose. For that reason, it seemed better to focus on rapidly approaching problems we could actually deal with ourselves.
“Unlike the Plantin Company’s many plant paper workshops, the Gilberta Company has only one workshop for rinsham at the moment, and it takes a considerable amount of time to make but a single hairpin. There is much that we need to discuss before we can start exporting either product as an Ehrenfest specialty. Should we make new workshops? Hire more merchants to move the product? Is there anything that will conflict with my magic contracts with Benno? If so, should we nullify those contracts? Should we aim to sell the production methods? How are we going to provide lodgings for the visiting merchants? How will we maintain the peace? How will we distribute the profits? As I said, there is much to discuss.”
It was in our best interest to have a great number of merchants come to Ehrenfest, but before we could do that, we needed to ensure we had enough products available, otherwise we risked aggravating merchants who had traveled from far away only to leave empty-handed. The city’s peace would easily fall apart if a bunch of outsiders fought over a sparse supply, and while I did not have the mindset of a noble, all the people who would struggle as a result were those close to me: the Gilberta Company, the Plantin Company, and the city guards. That was why I wanted to stop those problems before they even began.
“Rather than worry about where the Sovereignty will stand years from now, we should be focusing on problems we will encounter without fail this coming spring,” I concluded.
Sylvester nodded in agreement. “True. Summon Benno and Gustav. I need to speak to them before this spring’s Archduke Conference.”
We were still in the middle of winter, before the regular hunting of the Lord of Winter. It wouldn’t be easy to call even commoner merchants over in this state.
“Rozemyne, inform Benno and the others that they are going to be receiving a letter of summons from Aub Ehrenfest. It would not do for us to summon them without a warning,” Ferdinand said, no doubt recalling how much the merchants had struggled with their sudden summons from Giebe Haldenzel. I remembered being told how much pain they had gone through having a business discussion with archnobles, due to Elvira wanting a workshop built in her home province of Haldenzel. It had apparently been such a terrible situation that even Ferdinand gave Benno his sympathy.
“Furthermore, organize and give a full report on who will be accompanying Benno to the castle,” Ferdinand continued. “The scholars will need to make that many letters of invitation.”
“Very well,” I replied. “Sylvester, I believe the Gilberta Company has a new representative now. Would you like me to call them also?”
“Sure. I’ll leave the finer details to you. That’ll be better for you anyway, right?”
“I thank you.”
“Right. Rozemyne, you’re going back to the temple tomorrow. We need to prepare before the Lord of Winter becomes fully active.”
“Okay.”
Returning to the Temple
Dinner was basically a gathering of the whole archducal family, with even Ferdinand and Bonifatius in attendance. Charlotte asked me what kind of place the Royal Academy was, so I passionately regaled her with tales of the library and of Schwartz and Weiss.
“Magic tools in the shape of large shumils, you say? They must be very cute.”
“Indeed. They are quite popular among the girls there. I need to provide them with new clothes as their master, and everyone has come together to think up designs. The current plan is to dress one as a boy and one as a girl, with both wearing Library Committee armbands. I plan to wear one such armband myself.”
“Matching armbands? I would love to see them walking around the library in clothes that match your own. I cannot wait for next year.”
Once my lively conversation with Charlotte had reached its natural conclusion, Bonifatius eagerly asked me about my ditter match. Knights certainly did seem to love ditter, and I could see Karstedt’s eyes gleaming with interest from where he stood behind Sylvester.
“I’m told you used a surprise strategy to beat Dunkelfelger,” Bonifatius said. “What’d you manage to pull off?”
“It was an unorthodox technique that will not work again. First, I had our knights hunt a small feybeast that could be bound with light without dying and that wouldn’t struggle too much.”
“Couldn’t your opponents have killed a feybeast like that in a single hit?” Bonifatius asked, frowning as he thought it over.
“Indeed,” I replied, proudly puffing out my chest, “which is why I hid it inside my highbeast for protection.”
“Inside your highbeast?!”
“Yes. Our opponents would need to surpass my mana capacity to destroy my highbeast and steal our treasure, so we were unlikely to lose for as long as it was kept inside.”
Given the dazed expressions on Karstedt’s and Bonifatius’s faces, it certainly seemed to be a strategy that most knights would never consider. Ferdinand, however, nodded along in agreement. “To think that bizarre grun could be used for such a purpose,” he said, sounding clearly impressed.
From there, I explained how we had launched a surprise attack on the enemy when they came back with their treasure. Bonifatius listened carefully, his brows knitted once again.
“It sounds to me like you ambushed your enemy in the middle of the arena like normal. How’s that a surprise attack?”
“The current trend in the Royal Academy is to play speed ditter, and so neither of our teams had played treasure-stealing ditter before,” I explained. “Nobody expected to be attacked while transporting their feybeast back, and thus it became a surprise attack.”
Bonifatius’s face hardened at my words, as though he found them completely unthinkable. “Slack,” he muttered. “They’re far too slack.”
I had to wonder what kind of a hellscape ditter games had been back when treasure-stealing ditter was the popular version to play. Just thinking about it scared me.
“However, our half-baked surprise attack was only half successful,” I said. “Ehrenfest’s apprentice knights lacked any coordination whatsoever, whereas Dunkelfelger immediately put their formation back together.”
Karstedt nodded in response, stroking his chin with an expression that suggested he knew what I was talking about. I decided to take this opportunity to make my request.
“Father, perhaps this is not the place to say this, but I believe some improvements need to be made to the apprentice knights’ training. Speed ditter has been chosen over treasure-stealing ditter for years now, which has led to a total lack of coordination on our end. Learning about cooperation and formations during written classes simply does not translate to actual ability.”
“That explains why the apprentices have been getting so much worse lately,” Karstedt replied. “There’s also the fact we’ve been prioritizing them less to focus on the archducal family’s guard knights. I’ll see about fixing this.”
The higher-ups in the Knight’s Order generally all served as the archducal family’s guard knights. It made sense they would slack on training the apprentices when they themselves were being constantly pushed to their limits by Bonifatius’s brutal training regimen. Plus, considering there had been an attack on the castle itself, training the guard knights was a much greater priority.
“I cannot say whether Dunkelfelger’s competence is down to its Knight’s Order or Professor Rauffen himself, but their knights displayed a level of coordination that we simply could not match,” I said. “Ehrenfest will struggle to win any ditter games in its current state, even with increased mana capacities.”
The only ones who had shown any sort of coordination were the apprentices serving as guard knights for the archducal family. I mentioned this, and a glint appeared in Bonifatius’s eyes; after all, he was the one who had trained them.
“Hrm... If you’re this concerned, Rozemyne, I can start training the apprentices next. I’d say the guard knights are all in good shape now.”
“Absolutely. Please do. You have done a wonderful job training Angelica and Cornelius, so my expectations are high.”
“Hm? Hm! You can count on me!”
Bonifatius accepted my request with a confidence-inspiring grin. Considering that the higher-ups no longer needed to endure his merciless training and could now focus on the apprentices again, I was certain our knights were about to get very strong very quickly.
“So the ambush failed, huh? What happened next?” Sylvester asked, encouraging me to continue my story. All eyes fell on me again.
“We then launched a second surprise attack. I figured that if we made Dunkelfelger’s treasure feybeast go on a rampage, they would no longer be able to hold back against it, and they would need to draw their attention away from our knights. That was why I grew their feybeast to a massive size.”
This reveal was met with a unified “What?!” from all those in attendance. Everyone widened their eyes, so I decided to elaborate.
“I poured a few drops of Ferdinand’s ultra-nasty—ahem—extremely effective rejuvenation potion onto a ruelle dyed with my mana, which I then asked Judithe to throw at the feybeast. I was sure it would eat the fruit on its own, but she succeeded in shooting it directly into its mouth. Impressive, no?”
Sylvester shot me a glance, as though he felt uncomfortable speaking at all. “So you healed the enemy feybeast and increased its size so it would go on a rampage?”
“Precisely. Cornelius and Angelica were able to recover their mana in the time our opponent spent dealing with the abrupt chaos and then launched full-power attacks at the feybeast that secured our victory.”
As an awkward silence fell over the room, Ferdinand alone nodded with great interest. “That is quite an interesting technique to use during your first game of treasure-stealing ditter. Your ideas continue to surprise me.”
“Professor Rauffen said it was reminiscent of the tricks you used to pull, Ferdinand. What were your own techniques like?” I asked. In response, he agreed to show me some of his documents on ditter strategies at a later point in time.
“An interesting approach for sure, but unfortunately not something we can use against the Lord of Winter,” Karstedt noted. I shrugged; that was too bad.

When I returned to my room in the castle after dinner, I found that a bath had already been prepared. My attendants started to undress me.
“Milady, we’re also going to take off your magic tools today,” Rihyarda said.
My body went heavy the very instant the tools were removed. I couldn’t move like I wanted to anymore, though I wasn’t completely infirm, so it was safe to say I was at least thirty percent of the way back to being normal. My legs wobbled, but I could actually stand on my own.
Rihyarda and Ottilie carried me to the bath.
“Lady Rozemyne, I am ever so grateful you accepted Hartmut as your retainer, though I cannot help but worry that my foolish son is being a burden to you. Has he been helpful so far?” Ottilie asked. She was Hartmut’s mother, and now that I thought about it, I could see the resemblance.
Holding back the urge to say he was obsessively working to strengthen my sainthood, I instead explained that he had compiled results from the previous Interduchy Tournaments, and taught Philine and the other apprentice scholars how to gather information, among other things. He was a fine senior apprentice.
“He seems truly obsessed with you, Lady Rozemyne. Please do not hesitate to stop him should he ever overstep his bounds. For your sake, I can easily envision him crossing lines that should not be crossed. That is why I cannot help but worry,” she stressed.
It seemed that Hartmut truly did see me as a saint, a noble who gave blessings without restraint or hesitation, who was brimming with humility and merciful to all. I steeled my resolve to shatter those delusions as soon as possible, only to be struck with a sudden realization.
Wait a second. Shouldn’t he have figured out the truth once he saw how I actually am in the Royal Academy? It didn’t seem that way to me though. Strange...
I floated around in the bath for a while before Rihyarda urged me into bed, forcing me to sleep without the magic tools on. “We had to leave them on while you were in the Royal Academy because there were others around,” she explained. “You need to spend tonight without the tools so that you can truly understand the situation you’re in, milady. You overexert yourself to the point that I struggle to even watch.”
I couldn’t argue back. The fact that I wore my magic tools at all times in the Royal Academy meant my recovery had seldom crossed my mind. Now that they had been removed, however, I couldn’t avoid the truth: despite having woken up two months ago, I was still a long way from being completely better.
“Spend today resting. You’ll be returning to the temple tomorrow, and from there, you’re going to be plenty busy again.”
“That’s true...”
I needed to write to Benno and the others so that we could meet and discuss everything that had come up. I also wanted to check on the orphanage and the workshop, the Dedication Ritual was coming up, and Ferdinand would certainly want my help with his paperwork.
“It is precisely because I must stand down once you leave for the temple that I am so concerned,” Rihyarda added.
“You have been with me every waking moment since I arrived at the Royal Academy. Please use this time to relax at least a little.”
“I am grateful for your consideration, milady, but I must request that you take great care of yourself. Here in Ehrenfest, your health is our greatest priority; Royal Academy affairs will no longer distract us from that.”
With that, Rihyarda put out the lights. It was an early bedtime for me.

The next day, I was told we were waiting for the blizzard to ease before we departed for the temple. I made the necessary preparations to leave at a moment’s notice, and then I started writing my letter to Benno.
In the letter, I explained that rinsham, hairpins, pound cake, and plant paper were all going to be discussed at the next Archduke Conference, since they were now trendy topics of conversation at the Royal Academy. I also warned that, when the blizzards calmed, the archduke was planning to summon the Merchant’s Guild, the Gilberta Company, and the Plantin Company to a meeting. To conclude, I mentioned that I was going to be in the temple due to the Dedication Ritual starting next Earthday, and that I would want to speak to him in person on the next clear day.
I wrote similar letters to Otto and Gustav, making sure to include the hairpin order in my letter to the Gilberta Company: “Please use the highest-quality thread possible to make a red-themed koralie hairpin for a girl to wear at her coming of age ceremony.” Once they were done, I stuck the letters in the pocket of my jacket and nodded to myself.
I now had some extra time on my hands. Rihyarda must have deduced that I was thinking about what to read next, as she grabbed the key to the book boxes and opened one in particular at Ottilie’s direction.
“Lady Rozemyne, you have been gifted two books by Lady Elvira,” Ottilie explained. “They were printed in Haldenzel.”
Joy welled in my heart over new books being introduced to the world. In my hands were two knight story collections made with plant paper, both with simple covers that contained only their respective titles—one read Hand-Selected Knight Stories and the other Royal Academy Stories. Packaged alongside them was a written warning from Elvira, saying that the books were never to be taken out of my room in the castle, as Ferdinand would require the archduke’s permission to enter it.
I started thumbing through the books. The first was a collection of Elvira’s favorite knight stories, only with the illustrations changed to reflect Ferdinand. Someone other than Wilma had drawn them, but it only took me a single glance to realize they were based on him. I wasn’t sure whether this was simply because the artists had taken inspiration from that one illustration Wilma had made as thanks for the art materials I once gave her or whether this was a direct request from Elvira, but Ferdinand was shining about thirty percent more brightly in these pictures than in any that had come before them.
Hand-Selected Knight Stories was all about knights, as one would expect, but every tale had a romantic twist. According to Ottilie, Elvira had sold the first volume in secret at a tea party with women from her faction. It was so well received that she had immediately begun working on Royal Academy Stories, a collection of school romance stories that Elvira and her friends knew from their time as students. Elvira had written the manuscripts herself, with help from some volunteers.
“I was unaware Mother has such literary talents. To think she’s been a writer all along...”
“Lady Elvira has loved to write compositions ever since her time as an apprentice scholar. She has been very lively as of late, saying she has finally found the perfect hobby.”
“Are you reading the books as well, Ottilie?”
“Oh, yes. I am quite enjoying them.”
Elvira had established plant paper and printing workshops in her home province just to make books about Ferdinand. Her enthusiasm was intense to the point of overwhelming, and each page I turned only made her dedication clearer.
As a slight criticism, Mother, not every boy in Royal Academy Stories should be modeled after Ferdinand.
Just as I finished one of the collections, an ordonnanz flew in and said it was time for us to leave for the temple. I shut the book before leaving the room with my retainers, who were coming to see me go. Ferdinand, Eckhart, and Justus were already waiting for me, so I moved to join them with Damuel and Angelica.
“Are you coming with us to the temple, Angelica? Should you really be on guard duty outside the castle before coming of age?” I asked. My eyes turned to Ferdinand, who looked down at the practically buzzing Angelica and gave a slight nod.
“While she hasn’t yet had her coming of age ceremony, she is already fifteen. She is motivated, she finished the classes everyone was so worried about... and most importantly of all, you need at least one female knight with you.”
My parents had chosen my retainers for me at my baptism ceremony, but I was now old enough that I needed to pick for myself. I had been told that I could pick a new adult female knight after the Dedication Ritual should I wish to.
“I can finally do guard duty again!” Angelica exclaimed. “Please let me serve!”
“If you have permission from both Father and Sylvester then I suppose I do not mind,” I replied, taking out Lessy. Ella climbed in first, opting to sit in the back as usual, while Angelica chose the passenger seat where Brigitte had used to sit. I explained how to attach the seat belt while Ferdinand arranged for his work things to be loaded onto the back seats.
Um, he’s pretty brazenly adding more boxes to my highbeast than I did for my luggage. That doesn’t seem right to me.
“Is everything ready, Lady Rozemyne?” Damuel asked. Once I nodded, he raised a hand to Ferdinand, who then looked at Norbert standing at the ready by the doors.
“Open the doors,” Norbert instructed.
They were flung open in an instant. The blizzard was certainly calmer than before, but snow continued to fall. The most I could see were a blue cape and dark-yellow capes as figures leapt into the murky whiteness. I slammed my foot against the accelerator, desperate not to lose sight of them, as those gathered called out their farewells.
“Lady Rozemyne, I can’t believe how comfortable your highbeast is,” Angelica said as we made our way to the temple.
“Eheheh. I know, right? Lessy is cute and practical. He’s the best,” I replied, glancing at the cooking utensils, luggage, and work stuff packed next to Ella on the back seats. “Just to note, my attendants at the temple are gray priests and shrine maidens, but they are just as dedicated to serving me as you and Damuel are.”
Nobles held a lot of prejudice toward the temple. Damuel had been assigned there as a form of demotion after being punished for not following orders, while Brigitte had become my guard knight precisely because she was resolved to suffer through anything for Illgner’s sake. Neither had been in a position to be particularly harsh toward my attendants, which was exactly why I was cautious about new guards entering the temple.
“I don’t understand... What do you want me to do, Lady Rozemyne?”
“I merely ask that those in my service refrain from treating the commoners with blatant disgust, if possible.”
“Um, disgust? Blatant...? I think I get it!”
She totally doesn’t!
“Angelica, I want you to be friendly with the priests and shrine maidens who serve me in the temple,” I explained as clearly as possible, eyeing her reaction all the while. In an instant, her forlorn yet beautiful expression blossomed into a genuine smile.
“Okay! I understand. You can count on me!”
When we arrived at the temple, my attendants greeted me with Fran standing at the lead. “Welcome back, Lady Rozemyne,” they said together before assisting Ferdinand’s attendants with removing the luggage from Lessy. Wilma was helping Ella with her work stuff, while Monika carried my personal belongings.
“Lady Rozemyne, may I help the others?” Zahm asked, also wanting to help Ferdinand’s retainers. I responded with a brisk nod; Ferdinand had packed more than enough into Lessy, who I couldn’t put away until it was all out.
Fran and Fritz moved to take the luggage inside the temple. “I shall go help as well,” Gil said, but I raised a hand to stop him.
“One moment.” I handed him the letters in my pocket. “Deliver these to the Plantin Company as soon as you can, while the blizzard is still weak. Tell them this is a letter for the Gilberta Company, and this for the guildmaster. He should understand the gravity of the situation if you mention that the archduke will soon be summoning him.”
“As you wish. I will leave at once.”
Gil was the closest person to the Plantin and Gilberta Companies out of all my retainers, since he had gone with them to Illgner and Haldenzel. He had seen their struggles up close and, as a representative of the workshop, was often wrapped up in the unreasonable demands of nobles. It was for this reason that, when I gave him the three letters, he paled and immediately rushed off.
Thanks to all the assistance we had, moving everything inside the temple was a quick process. I decided it best to leave the rest to Ferdinand’s attendants and moved to return to my own chambers with my attendants.
“Rozemyne,” Ferdinand said, pausing midway through giving instructions to the attendants carrying his boxes. “I am told you are not up to date with the orphanage and workshop, considering that you were moved to the castle so promptly after awakening. Prioritize communication with the lower city over assisting me tomorrow. Ensure that you are prepared enough to answer any questions about business with other duchies.”
“Understood.” It was my job to protect the gray priests and everyone in the lower city from being forced into unfair deals.
Nicola was already waiting with tea and sweets when I arrived at my High Bishop’s chambers, having returned ahead of me. I took this opportunity to introduce Angelica as the guard knight who was going to be serving me here in Brigitte’s place.
“I want to be on good terms with everyone who serves Lady Rozemyne,” Angelica said, a heroic sparkle in her eyes.
Fran and the others faltered somewhat, unsure how to respond to that. It certainly wasn’t a very noble thing for her to say, and so their eyes wandered about the room as they searched for an appropriate reply. It was only when Damuel started rubbing his temples and sighed that Fran knew for sure that her statement had been abnormal, and a forced smile soon worked its way across his face.
“I am Fran, Lady Rozemyne’s head attendant in the temple. It pleases me to know she has a guard knight as noble as yourself, Lady Angelica. I pray in gratitude for your assistance,” he said politely.
Damuel stood with Angelica by the door and started going over everything she would need to know when on guard duty in the temple. This was pretty much just an introduction—there were a lot of things she wouldn’t understand until she saw them and went through the motions herself, so a verbal explanation ultimately wasn’t going to be enough.
“Fran, I request a report of what happened in my absence.”
“Understood.”
Several children had caught colds in the orphanage but recovered without incident. Winter handiwork and printing in the workshop was going fine as well.
“The Plantin and Gilberta Companies are being summoned to the castle when the blizzards stop and spring approaches, so I intend to meet with them before the Dedication Ritual, as soon as the weather lightens up enough for them to visit,” I said. “Please prepare the orphanage director’s chambers such that a meeting can be held there at any time.”
Gil returned not long after I was done listening to everyone’s reports, completely covered in snow and shaking from the cold. I requested that he stand near the furnace so that he could warm up as he gave his report.
“Master Benno said that he’d expected the letter sooner or later,” Gil said. “He will contact both the guildmaster and the Gilberta Company and is likewise interested in a meeting once the blizzards start to ease.”
“I imagine he will send Lutz over soon to get a feel for things, so you should also help prepare the orphanage director’s chambers, Gil. Go and get changed first though. We cannot have you catching a cold now when there is so much to do.”
“Understood. As you wish.”

Just as Ferdinand suggested, I spent the next day looking over the orphanage, starting at third bell. During my previous visit I had only taken a quick look around, but this time, with the reports I had previously received from Wilma and Rosina, I started to ascertain what the children knew, who had picked up which skills, what their specialties at work were, and so on. I encouraged the artists to continue their practice and praised the apprentices who could now handle workshop labor on their own.
“I see Delia is taking care of the youngest children with Lily and Wilma,” I said.
“Lily can’t spend all her time looking after them, and it was only natural given my experience with Dirk,” Delia said, having been nodding along in agreement. She had spent her time in the orphanage as Dirk’s older sister and played a considerable role in raising all the new young children delivered to the temple. It was a relief to know she had found her place here.
“How has Dirk been lately?” I asked. “Has he had any problems?”
Delia fell into thought for a moment. “He’s become a bit rebellious lately, so he doesn’t listen to what I say all that much.” She turned around to where Dirk was poking his head around a corner. His reddish-brown hair swayed a little as he moved, and it must have been my imagination, but he actually looked a lot like Delia.
“I always listen to everything Delia says,” he called out. “I’m a good boy, Lady Rozemyne.”
“Geez! Don’t lie, Dirk!” Delia exclaimed. She sounded angry, but there was a playful smile on her face. It seemed they had developed a healthy sibling relationship, which was of course nice to see, but it also made me a little upset. I couldn’t help but wish I had spent just as much time with Kamil.
After we had finished talking about the orphanage, Fritz came to tell me about the workshop. He had primarily handled operations while Gil was absent from spring to autumn. It seemed the best workers always accompanied Gil, leaving Fritz with the arduous task of training new workers.
“We are likely going to be establishing more workshops once trade begins with other duchies,” I noted. “You will want to train an ace team of experts to send to these other locations.”
“Master Benno warned me I would need to do something of the sort. He said to prepare for when nobles began establishing new workshops en masse, so I’ve gathered the gray priests used to receiving direct orders from nobles. The problem is going to be getting them used to living with commoners,” he explained, at which point the gray priests who had been sent to other locations gave small smiles.
“The culture in the temple differs from that of the outside world,” I said. “I suppose that comes as no surprise, though, since there are cultural differences even among commoners; the lower city, Illgner, and Haldenzel are all completely dissimilar. I would suggest you send those who specialize in trying new things.”
The smiles the gray priests gave in response were so brimming with confidence that I could immediately tell just how much they had grown through their work in the outside world.