Elvira and Lamprecht Attack
“Gil, Lutz—I would like you to print this on the program’s back cover,” I said, holding out the stencil that Wilma had made for me.
It was the day after I had met with Tuuli. Seeing her had warmed my heart but the loneliness had already set in again, so I was clinging to Lutz in the hidden room. Gil and Damuel were the only other people with us.
“How many do you need?”
“Mm... We’ll be preparing thirty seats for attendees, so I guess we should make enough to accommodate people buying one to view, one to store, and one to share? That will be ninety in total.”
“Say what?! That’s way too many!” Lutz yelped in surprise before shooting me a confounded look. I personally thought that ninety wouldn’t be enough, though that was just a gut feeling.
“If we don’t finish the wax stencils in time then these programs will be the only printed merchandise we can sell at the concert, so I’m pretty confident that they’ll sell well.”
“Is that confidence founded in anything? If you’re wrong then we’re wasting a ton of resources here,” Lutz responded, shooting me a glare very similar to Benno’s that said he wouldn’t permit any money to be wasted. He was becoming more like a merchant each day, and I couldn’t help but feel proud.
“Wilma and the other girls’ obsession should say it all. Those who didn’t come to the concert will wish they had them. Even if we don’t manage to sell them all, their reputation as the first printed product means it won’t be long before their price shoots up crazy high—maybe in, like... a few decades? Possibly a century.”
“‘A few decades’?! That doesn’t prove your point at all!” he barked back in disbelief. In my opinion, it was the most solid proof that one could ask for, but Lutz apparently just didn’t get it. Either way, I was willing to compromise.
“We can print ninety, or we can round up to one hundred. Go with whichever your heart tells you.”
“Why’s the second number even bigger?!” Lutz exclaimed. Really though, I didn’t think that one hundred would be enough either.
Gil, seeing that I wasn’t about to budge on the issue, gave Lutz a slap on the back. “Lutz, I don’t think you’ll ever convince Lady Rozemyne to change her mind on this.”
“I know that. I just needed to let it out to make myself feel better.”
As today was Damuel’s day off, I couldn’t go to my hidden room or visit the workshop, so I went to the High Priest’s chambers with Fran and Brigitte to help Ferdinand with his work. He had taken on most of my High Bishop work, so I pretty much just ended up helping him do a small portion of the stuff that was supposed to have been done by me in the first place.
“...It seems that our expenses for summer are much lower than they were for spring. Though our income has gone down a bit, too,” I observed.
“What other reason could there be for that than the High Bishop being replaced?” Ferdinand replied without even lifting his head from his paperwork. But I couldn’t understand how that alone would make such a dramatic difference.
“...Um, what exactly was the old High Bishop using all of this money on?”
“He could not distinguish the temple’s money from his own. But if you wish to know everything that he secretly spent the money on, I am afraid that not even I know the full extent of his embezzling,” Ferdinand said, briefly glancing my way before looking back at his work.
Ferdinand had only started managing the temple’s finances about two years ago. He had inherited the position of High Priest after his predecessor left for the Sovereignty, and they had apparently been in a horrible enough state to make him feel dizzy. When it came to ability, the blue priests who had been raised in the temple and had lazily passed their days without putting much effort into anything were leagues below Ferdinand, who had been educated in the Royal Academy and trained to be the archduke’s right-hand man.
“...It sounds like you had it rough, Ferdinand.”
“I intend to make the temple budget clearer and properly managed while you are the High Bishop,” Ferdinand said, just as an ordonnanz flew in through the window. It circled the room once, flapping its wings, then landed on Ferdinand’s desk.
Nobles used ordonnanz—flying birds shaped from feystones—to communicate. They were apparently simple to use, and something that a student of the Royal Academy would master before the end of their first year. As such, children who were too young to attend the Royal Academy would have to communicate through their guardians. In my case, that was Rihyarda while I was in the castle, Ferdinand while I was in the temple, and Elvira whenever I was at home. If someone needed to send me a message, they would send an ordonnanz to one of these three depending on where I was.
“Lord Ferdinand, it’s Lamprecht. My sincerest apologies, but I request a meeting with Rozemyne. There is a small matter regarding Lord Wilfried that I would like to briefly discuss with her,” the ordonnanz said three times in Lamprecht’s voice before returning to the shape of a feystone.
Oh yeah, Wilfried was calling me unfair or something before I returned to the temple; maybe it’s about that. I can’t think of anything else it could be...
“Rozemyne, when will you be available for a meeting?” Ferdinand asked.
I personally didn’t mind when the meeting was held given that it was just supposed to be a brief conversation, but in the world of nobles, you couldn’t just say that now was a good time. Ferdinand had always scheduled a date around three days in the future whenever I requested a meeting with him.
“...Well, I suppose three days from now will do.”
“Agreed. Now then, face the bird and speak.”
Ferdinand made his wand appear, then lightly tapped the feystone while saying “ordonnanz” to make it twist into the shape of a white bird. I faced it as instructed, and immediately felt a small wave of nervousness wash over me; it was like I was leaving someone a voicemail.
“Lamprecht, it’s Rozemyne. I shall be awaiting your visit three days from now, in the afternoon.”
Once that was done, the ordonnanz flew away. I had assumed that would be that, but then it returned in the blink of an eye. “Can the meeting be before noon? I don’t get to see you very often, and I would like to share lunch with you afterward. It seems that Mother wants to join us, too.”
It seemed that the whole thing about Wilfried was just a cover; his actual objective was meeting me for lunch.
“I imagine that Karstedt or Cornelius bragged to him about the Italian restaurant,” Ferdinand said with an amused smirk, which reminded me—Elvira had only ever eaten Ella’s sweets, not her actual cooking, while Lamprecht had eaten neither. But their head chef was still learning the recipes from Hugo in the castle; the only way for them to eat the food would be for them to come and visit me, since I had Ella with me.
“I’ll prepare the same menu that Father, Eckhart, and Cornelius had,” I replied to the ordonnanz, and a few moments later Lamprecht sent back his thanks in a tone that leaked both his relief at getting what he wanted, and his embarrassment that I had seen right through him.
And so came the day of the meeting. Since Elvira was going to be joining us, I had brought one of the freshly printed programs for her to check, as well as several illustrations that Wilma had drawn.
Ella and Nicola were working hard to prepare the food. They even had male helpers, since we had been training some priests so that we could send them to the new orphanage in the monastery, which was useful as we wouldn’t need to worry about them getting exhausted when it came to the more physically taxing parts of cooking.
“Heya, Rozemyne. Good to see you’re doing well. Sorry about coming down like this; I was worried you might be sick,” Lamprecht said once Fran had guided him and Elvira into the room. They were both wearing bright smiles—Lamprecht because he was looking forward to the lunch, and Elvira because she knew that Ferdinand would be attending as my guardian.
“It is good to see you well, Rozemyne. I have no doubts that your good health is thanks to Lord Ferdinand’s consideration. We truly are blessed to have him.”
Once we had exchanged the lengthy greetings that all nobles gave, Lamprecht and Elvira were offered seats and a selection of tea. Nicola then carried in a plate of tea-flavored cookies, wearing an anxious expression as she set it on the table. Lamprecht eagerly leaned forward as I took the first sweet and bit into it; there was no escaping the noble tradition where hosts had to test their food for poison.
“These are (langues de chat). They’re only light snacks, but as we are due to have lunch soon, please take care not to eat too many,” I explained.
No sooner had the last word passed my lips than Lamprecht reached for a cookie. His expression looked so much like Cornelius’s did whenever sweets were involved that I couldn’t help but chuckle.
Lamprecht scarfed one down, then widened his eyes. “Has Cornelius tried these?”
“No, this is the first time that I am serving these to visitors, so Cornelius has not had one yet.”
“I see...” Lamprecht replied, brimming with smugness.
Ferdinand took this opportunity to set down his tea and ask about the excuse that Lamprecht had made to visit. “Lamprecht, what is this business with Wilfried that you mentioned?”
Lamprecht gave a deliberate nod, then started to give a roundabout explanation full of vague noble euphemisms. Ferdinand was nodding as he listened, but I couldn’t understand a word.
“Excuse me, dear brother, but your language is simply too complicated for me to understand.”
“Huh? Erm...” Lamprecht furrowed his brow, not sure how else to explain, so I looked toward Ferdinand.
“Wilfried thinks it unfair that you are not being forced to study like he is,” Ferdinand explained. Wilfried was apparently a ball of energy who spent his time running away from his tutors, and from his perspective, I was getting to walk around without tutors and even leave the castle whenever I wanted.
“Lamprecht, I advise that you inform Wilfried just how much of a fool he is being. Of course Rozemyne is being tutored. I have been instructing her personally while she is at the temple, and now that she is also being educated in Karstedt’s estate, she is waiting for Wilfried to learn the alphabet.”
Sylvester had seemingly decided that Wilfried would benefit from having a rival, given how much of a sore loser he was, so I was going to be learning history and geography with him once he had memorized the alphabet.
“I don’t mind studying all day as it means I can read books. Please tell Wilfried that I am eager for him to learn his letters as soon as possible,” I said, causing Lamprecht to cradle his head.
“You two are never going to get along...” he sighed.
I found it hard to disagree.
Wilfried wanted nothing more than to avoid studying, while I was willing to spend days—or perhaps even weeks—holed up in my room reading books. But considering that I was currently being denied access to a stack of exciting books, I was actually more envious of Wilfried’s situation.
“Given that the archduke is pressing us for details about his son’s studies, we can only hope that Lord Wilfried learns them soon. If possible, I would like Rozemyne to study with Lord Wilfried even just once in the meantime so that he can see just how enormous the gap between them is...”
“She does not have the time for that,” Ferdinand replied as the manager of my schedule, immediately shutting down Lamprecht’s request for my help. “There is much that Rozemyne must accomplish post haste. She has to practice magic in preparation for when she gathers the ingredients she needs, perform her duties as the High Bishop, and run the orphanage and its workshop—not to mention stay healthy in general. Wilfried’s success ultimately comes down to him and those around him; it is not Rozemyne’s job, but rather yours as his retainer.”
Lamprecht was sitting with his mouth agape. “Lord Ferdinand, is that not too much work for her? She is but a child—one who has only just been baptized...”
“And that is why I refused your suggestion. Do not give her any more work than she already has.”
Having Ferdinand list out everything that I needed to do made me feel even more busy than I actually was. I was pretty much just doing what he told me to, and since I was forbidden from working myself, I usually needed to leave the actual work to other people. When coupled with the fact that I never passed out in the temple because Fran was there to manage my health, I really didn’t feel that busy at all.
“In Rozemyne’s case, I know that she will consume and take in knowledge from whatever books are placed in front of her without needing to be prompted, so her studying can be done during her spare time.”
“Bwuh?! No, please! Give me more time to read books! My spare time isn’t enough!” I protested, only to have Ferdinand quickly shoot me down with a dismissive sneer. It seemed that I couldn’t expect him to show me any consideration. ...So mean.
“Aside from the studying, it seems that Wilfried finds it unfair that only Rozemyne gets to talk with their father at the dinner table.”
Dinner at the castle involved us discussing what we had done that day, and since Wilfried was always slipping out of class and running around the castle, most of his time at the dinner table was spent being scolded by his mother while Sylvester watched on without saying anything in particular. I had guessed that Sylvester couldn’t scold his son in good conscience since he had done the same as a child, but neither could he support the bad behavior, so he had no choice but to remain silent.
“I suppose I do have conversations with him, but that’s because I need to report on the printing business. Perhaps Wilfried should be given some work of his own to do?” I suggested.
Kids his age from the lower city would already be starting apprentice work. Maybe he would learn to be more responsible if he was given some simple jobs to do.
“Also, isn’t Wilfried progressing quite slowly for someone his age? The child of a merchant would already know how to read and write before their baptism, and would be able to understand simple math. Even kids in the orphanage can do that. Do you not think it a mistake to spoil him and only start teaching him after his baptism just because he’s the son of the archduke? I think it would have been better to start teaching him from a much younger age.”
“Wilfried was taught from a young age and still learned nothing, which is precisely why Sylvester was so shocked when he toured your orphanage.”
That reminded me—Sylvester had been pretty surprised when he saw the karuta and the picture books, but it seemed that his focus hadn’t been on the products themselves, but rather on the kids who had learned to read them over a single winter. We had already proven that kids who studied using karuta and picture books learned incredibly quickly, but their progress depended on them having rivals to compete against, or at least friends to play with.
“It might increase the burden on Wilfried’s attendants, but I will prepare a karuta deck for him.”
“There is no need for you to take Wilfried’s education upon yourself, Rozemyne. Good grief... Did I not just say that you are already overworked?” Ferdinand asked with a frown, but even he had to agree that Wilfried’s inability to read or write was problematic for everyone. It was pure coincidence that I would benefit by getting to study (and thus read books) sooner.
Fourth bell rang to announce the beginning of lunch, at which point Ferdinand stated that it was best for a family to eat together and returned to his own chambers.
Lamprecht was chowing down faster than I had ever seen him eat before, and Elvira mentioned that she hoped our head chef would be coming home soon, so I could tell that they were both more than satisfied with the food.
After lunch, Elvira and I began discussing the concert. It seemed that they were experiencing a serious ticket shortage. Her intention had been to only invite women from her own faction, but ladies from other factions had expressed interest as well.
“Many of them had never shown any prior interest in Lord Ferdinand, but now it seems they have all changed their minds,” Elvira ranted, but it was only natural that the ladies would have avoided Ferdinand for their own protection while Sylvester’s mother was working against him. It seemed that those afraid of Veronica had kept a respectful distance from Ferdinand, rarely engaging with him in public. In other words, now that Veronica was gone, everyone who had been restraining their feelings was finally free to let them loose.
“...How many seats should we add?”
“Well, I imagine that just about every noblewoman in the city will be attending, so perhaps we should begin by rethinking where the concert is going to be held.”
There were roughly three hundred nobles living in the Noble’s Quarter of Ehrenfest, counting only those who had been baptized; if we estimated about half of them to be women, then we were looking at one hundred and fifty attendees. There would certainly be some among the crowd who weren’t particularly interested in Ferdinand, but this was an event being attended by a throng of archnobles. It was the fate of a laynoble to follow after those superior to them, so I could imagine that many laynobles would be taking a hit from the ticket costs.
“Mother, I suggest that we add thirty more seats, and then prepare a standing gallery at a heavily discounted price for everybody else. Having to stand while watching will provide an excuse for those who don’t wish to buy tickets, and a standing gallery should mean that fewer laynobles will need to break the bank to buy more expensive tickets.”
Those in the standing gallery would be attending the concert all the same, so they wouldn’t be put to shame by the archnobles who recommended they attend. The price would be comfortably affordable too, thanks to the programs being sold separately.
“Watching while standing? The thought never occurred to me,” Elvira replied. “But the tickets certainly are expensive. It would be for the best to give those who can’t afford them the opportunity to refuse.”
With that done, I told Elvira which songs Ferdinand would be playing at the concert and showed her the finished program. It was using black-and-white art from a cut-out stencil, but since that was still new technology here, she was head over heels for the illustration. I jotted down on my diptych that we would be needing a lot more copies printed—one hundred more, to be precise—as I continued my report.
“The programs will be sold separately from the tickets, and the money we make from them will be added to our donations.”
“Then I shall buy one at once. Buying this program is a form of donating—it is a moral, highly commendable act, is it not?” Elvira asked, her dark-brown eyes gleaming with excitement. I could already imagine her going out of her way to buy every single illustration of Ferdinand ever released under the guise of donating to a good cause.
Forgive me, Father. Forgive me...
“You sure come up with good ideas at the drop of a hat, huh, Rozemyne?” Lamprecht said in an impressed tone as he continued to shovel langues de chat into his mouth despite having only just eaten lunch.
I looked at him, then remembered the security problem that we were bound to have. “Excuse me, dear brother. I would like for the Knight’s Order to station guards in the concert hall, but who should I ask to make that happen? Father? Or perhaps Sylvester?” We would be hosting even more people than expected, which meant that our need for guards was more urgent than I had thought.
“Knights in the concert hall? Oh my. For what purpose?” Elvira asked.
“I believe that more than a few ladies will pass out from the excitement, or alternatively just completely lose control of themselves. I think we should even prepare a medical room to take them to.”
“Hold on a second, Rozemyne—this is just a harspiel concert, isn’t it?” Lamprecht asked dubiously.
I gave a nod. “It is. I wouldn’t have been worried either had I not seen how women reacted to Ferdinand playing the harspiel; Wilma and Rosina were both drooling over him less than a verse into his first song.”
It wasn’t hard to imagine someone like Elvira who was already obsessed with Ferdinand just absolutely losing her mind.
“I think it would be easier for me to just demonstrate,” I said, before standing up from my chair, unfurling one of Wilma’s illustrations and spreading it out so they could see.
“My my myyy! What do we have here? Allow me to take a closer look!” Elvira abruptly stood up from her chair with a clatter, and briskly walked to my side of the table. She still moved with grace and elegance, but her sheer speed was nothing short of intimidating.
I looked at Lamprecht as I held out the illustration to Elvira. “Imagine one hundred ladies in a state like this, and think of the chaos that would ensue without the Knight’s Order.”
“...I’ll try asking Father. The resting room close to the large hall should be suitable for medical situations. Anything else you need?”
“I would like you to prepare a stage similar to the one used in the Starbind Ceremony, to prevent the audience from getting too close to Ferdinand while he plays.”
I thought back to the idol concerts on Earth and listed off whatever safety precautions and other bits of advice I could think of. Meanwhile, Elvira was sighing and gasping in awe as she pored over the illustration.
“Rozemyne, may I have this?”
“I intend to use that illustration as a base for printing once I complete the wax stencils, so I’ll have to ask you to buy a printed version on the day of the concert. If I am unable to finish the stencils in time, then you may have it.”
“Very well, then,” Elvira said as she reluctantly handed back the illustration. She was staring at it so intently that I decided to give her a copy of the program, just to keep her mind occupied.
“The printing business is all about reproducing exact copies of things en masse. We already have one hundred copies of this program, for example, and I intend to make even more, so I ask that you encourage everyone to bring their money pouches and spend freely.”
...Please do your best to make this concert a success, dear mother.
I was listening to a report on Johann and Zack’s progress in my hidden room; they were gradually bringing new parts to the workshop, and the waxing machines were slowly coming together. While we were waiting for the machines to be finished, I asked Lutz and Gil to begin making wax that had just a bit of pine resin mixed into it to increase its pliability.
“How much is ‘just a bit’?” Gil asked, but Lutz immediately put a hand on his shoulder.
“That means we need to experiment using different amounts of resin while also changing the type of wax to make a bunch of products so that we can pick the best one. That’s what Myne did for ages to get the paper-making ratios right.”
“For real...?” Gil asked in disbelief. Up until now, he had only ever had to follow instructions to the letter, and he started to head back to the workshop to research with an exhausted look on his face.
Once I had seen them off, I got to work reading through the remaining letters that the High Bishop had hidden in the book room. It turned out that they weren’t all innocent love letters—in fact, quite a few looked pretty suspicious. Some concerned bribes, others involved under-the-table deals with nobles, and a bunch were requests for flower offerings.
“So Viscount Gerlach was connected to the High Bishop. I knew it.”
Ferdinand had made me put a veil on before I could greet certain people during Spring Prayer, and I could see now that most of them had connections to the High Bishop. I wrote up a list of people to be wary of as I continued reading the oh-so suspicious-looking letters.
“I should probably show these to Ferdinand. Fran, please send word to him.”
“As you wish.”
The letters could potentially prove useful in Sylvester’s or Ferdinand’s future political endeavors. I wanted to keep the love letters hidden, though, so I put them back on the bookshelf.
“Ferdinand, I have something for you.”
I entered Ferdinand’s room with Fran, who was carrying the box shaped to look like four books. He immediately gave it a dubious look.
“What in the world are these? They must not be normal books if you are bringing them here.”
“They were books stored on the bookshelf that only the High Bishop can open... or so they appear. In reality, this is just a box that has been shaped to look like four books. Inside are a bunch of letters that serve as evidence of his crimes. Will they be of use to your plots with Sylvester?”
Ferdinand opened the book-shaped box and furrowed his brow. He took out a few letters, checked who they were from, and then gave an evil smirk. “There certainly are a good number of these, hm?”
“You can have them all. All I ask for is the box; I love things like this,” I said while pointing at the book-shaped box decorated with leather and gemstones.
Ferdinand dismissively waved his hand, an exasperated look on his face. “All I desire are the contents. You may use the box as you wish. Just give me a moment to remove the letters.”
“I thank you ever so much.”
At that, one of Ferdinand’s attendants started packing the letters into a regular wooden box. Ferdinand stopped writing and set his pen aside, having apparently reached a stopping point in his work.
“Rozemyne, is your schedule free for the rest of today?”
“Yes. I’ve received today’s report from Gil and Lutz, and I have given them instructions. It seems that Hasse’s orphanage has started to show signs of progress. But in any case... do you need my help with something?” I asked.
Ferdinand shook his head and began to clean off his desk. “No, I merely wish to continue your magic training as soon as possible. If you do not learn to create a highbeast soon, then it won’t be ready in time for the Harvest Festival. Follow me to the castle.”
“Allow me to get changed, then.”
I returned to my chambers and was changed from my High Bishop robes to my noble clothes, wrapping a belt over the top that Ferdinand had given to me. Nobles apparently needed belts to hang magic tools off of. The balled-up feystone I had dyed with my mana had been embedded in a gold bird cage ornament similar to the ones worn by Ferdinand and other nobles, and was hanging from my belt.
“Shall we go, Lady Rozemyne?”
Once Brigitte had set me on her highbeast, we flew off toward the castle’s magic training area. I would have to make my own highbeast this time for sure.
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