Ascendance of a Bookworm (LN) - Volume 3.2 - Chapter 10

Preparing for the Harvest Festival 

Having been told to participate in a Harvest Festival meeting that was being held in the castle’s main building, I hopped into Lessy and followed after Ferdinand, accompanied by Ottilie and four guard knights. Ferdinand glanced my way and grimaced each time a passing scholar balked at my Pandabus, and just as I was starting to enjoy that, we reached the meeting room. 

“Eckhart, Justus—I appreciate you both waiting for us,” Ferdinand announced once we were inside. 

The room was small, containing six chairs around a modest-sized table, and nobody else was there but the two men kneeling in wait. I already recognized Eckhart, so I could guess that the slender guy with gray hair was Justus. 

“Rozemyne, this is Justus,” Ferdinand explained, immediately confirming my assumption. “He’s Rihyarda’s son, and shall be accompanying you to the Harvest Festival as a tax official.” 

“May I pray for a blessing in appreciation of this serendipitous meeting, ordained by the fruitful days of Schutzaria the Goddess of Wind?” Justus intoned. 

“You may.” 

Once the tedious noble greetings were complete, the two men stood up, and Justus steadily looked down at me with his brown eyes. He gave a sympathetic grin upon seeing me tilt my head a bit, then spread out a map on the table, thus beginning the discussion about the Harvest Festival. 

They double-checked the schedule, then we went over everything that needed to be done. Fran had already drilled this all into my head, but since I had never attended a Harvest Festival before, I didn’t have a clear mental image of the proceedings. 

“Regarding the number of carriages, will two per person suffice?” Ferdinand asked. 

“Eckhart and I will be fine with just one, but will two be enough for Lady Rozemyne? We men can travel relatively light, but women always end up bringing a considerable amount of luggage. I imagine she will need multiple attendants just for changing clothes,” Justus said. 

Ferdinand glanced my way with clear amusement. “Rozemyne, how many attendants do you intend to bring?” 

“Since I will be attending as the High Bishop, I suppose I’ll be bringing my temple attendants? If so, that will be Fran, Monika, Nicola, and Ella. Should I also have Rosina come along as my musician?” I asked. 

That was apparently so few people that Justus widened his eyes, surprised that this would be enough for me. Most attendants in the castle were specialized in a very particular field, but those in the temple were jacks of all trades. For this reason, I wouldn’t need too many people to support myself. 

“Oh, and Ferdinand—I won’t need any carriages. I can just use my Pandabus to—” I began, only to be shot down before I could even finish my sentence. 

“No. You will need a great deal of mana for gathering the ingredient, and enlarging your highbeast for such a long period would only waste it,” Ferdinand explained. “Furthermore, if you become involved in something dangerous, those accompanying you will be in danger as well, and I cannot prepare enough guard knights to protect all of your attendants. Finally, if you were to lose concentration due to poor health, we would be utterly incapable of progressing until you were better. The carriage will be necessary for the times when you cannot use your highbeast.” 

Point taken. In the event of something dangerous happening, my temple attendants would be the ones most at risk. It would be best not to bring them anywhere unsafe. 

With the number of carriages decided, Ferdinand moved on to warning me about how to behave during the Harvest Festival. “Listen well, Rozemyne—you are not to separate from these two. Do not wander about without any guards or attendants. There will be an abundance of food served, but do not eat any before your attendants have tested it for poison. When seventh bell rings, leave the celebration to sleep, regardless of who tries to keep you there. Respond to all questions from the town chiefs and mayor with vague answers, and avoid giving them concrete information where you can. If you are ever at a loss, leave everything to Eckhart and Justus. Do not mess this up. Furthermore...” 

Ferdinand went on, sounding like a schoolteacher giving a long list of warnings to students about to go on a field trip. He had so many precise instructions that I was now actually less sure about what to do. 

Eckhart was listening intently, clearly trying to absorb everything that was being said, but Justus just gave a teasing laugh. “I see that you are as high-strung as always, Lord Ferdinand. I was quite worried when I heard that you had taken a small child into your custody, but I see you are playing the role of a proper guardian. Consider me impressed,” he said, indirectly conveying that Ferdinand had such high standards—even of children—that he had expected him to have cast me aside already. I could tell from his tone that he was joking around. 

Ferdinand glared at Justus, then looked back at me. “I hope that brief list of instructions will suffice.” 

Since about a thousand people would gather from the neighboring towns to live in the winter mansion, the Harvest Festival would be a large-scale event, starting in the afternoon and continuing until seventh bell. As the High Bishop, I would be involved from the very beginning, when the baptisms and coming of age ceremonies were held. 

The blessings for those two ceremonies are similar, but just different enough to be confusing. 

“The festival itself ends at seventh bell, but that is when the town chiefs and mayors begin their reception. This Harvest Festival, you shall be visiting the same locations that the previous High Bishop did. This will inform them that there is a new High Bishop, but also means that your receptions will have been catered to your predecessor. These are not the kinds of receptions you should be receiving yourself, so you are to firmly state that it is time for you to sleep and leave the premises at once. Do not accompany them under any circumstances,” Ferdinand said, uncomfortably refusing to elaborate. 

Judging by what I knew about Bezewanst, as well as the understanding looks on Justus and Eckhart’s faces, I could imagine that these “receptions” would be of the steamy nighttime variety with drinks and women prepared. 

“But if you refuse a reception, the townsfolk will no doubt flounder and begin to doubt themselves, wondering what it was you disliked, what they did wrong, and what they should do next year. To that end, Eckhart, I ask that you receive the receptions in Rozemyne’s place. Make this sacrifice for your beloved little sister’s sake, and accompany the mayor and town chiefs in her stead.” 

“As you wish, Lord Ferdinand.” 

Once people learned that the new High Bishop was the adopted daughter of the archduke—a child with incredibly high status—they would apparently flood me with requests, seeing me as easy to exploit. It didn’t help that the previous High Bishop had certainly been willing to participate in such underhanded deals. Thus, Eckhart would be the shield protecting me from the waves of people, all while Justus kept a sharp eye on getting the proper taxes from them. 

“Men, if you take your eyes off of Rozemyne for even a moment, she will end up causing problems, nearly dying, and doing any number of unpredictable things with significant consequences. You will need to give her your utmost attention at all times. And Rozemyne, you are to accompany these two without ever stepping out of line. Understood?” 

“Yes,” I replied. 

That marked the end of our discussion on the Harvest Festival. Ferdinand immediately took out a few sound-blocking magic tools and set them on the table. Everyone reached out to grab one, so I did as well. 

“We will now discuss the true purpose of our meeting: the gathering of ingredients,” Ferdinand said, and both Eckhart and Justus tensed up. The ingredient gathering was apparently going to be done without anyone else knowing. 

I tensed up as well. 

“Rozemyne, noble children who possess large quantities of mana are given magic tools to absorb it as soon as they are born. Under normal circumstances, it would be unthinkable for you to have been so gravely injured by the Devouring that mana hardened within your core. We are preparing the jureve before you attend the Royal Academy in part to hide the fact that the Devouring put you on the verge of death in the past,” he said, revealing my secret past like it was nothing. 

I inhaled and looked at Justus and Eckhart, but they were just nodding as though they were already aware. 

“They know everything already. After all, they are the two I sent to investigate your background.” 

“Wait, does that mean...?” 

“Gatherin’ info in the lower city was dang good fun— Ahem, I mean, it was a very invigorating experience,” Justus said with a smile, his manner of speech turning on a dime. “’Specially since there basically wasn’t any information on Myne in the whole city. Even knowin’ from the magic contract that you had a connection to the Gilberta Company, it sure wasn’t easy. You bet it was a fun challenge,” he continued, sounding entirely like a commoner despite sitting properly like an archnoble. 

Now knowing that Justus was used for spy work, I looked him over again. His appearance certainly didn’t stick out. His face was average and his hair a common color, and he looked ordinary enough that he could easily disappear into a crowd. He was slightly on the shorter side but not short enough that he would stand out, and even a slightly taller pair of shoes could make up the height difference. And considering that he could also hide his slender build by wearing extra layers of clothes or something like that, he was pretty much perfect for intelligence work. 

“Lady Rozemyne, my line of work demands that I be able to mimic men of all statures. I adapt to their speech patterns, movement, lifestyles, and attitude as is necessary to acquire information. Thus, I believe I understand the difficulties you are experiencing mimicking an archnoble and living as the archduke’s adopted daughter. The magnitude of your efforts are not lost to me, and I applaud you for them,” Justus said, explaining that he was willing to accompany me as a tax official out of respect for how hard I was working. 

As much as I appreciated that, I also found the whole thing a bit confusing. Would an archnoble really need to go out of his way to visit the lower city just to gather information? I cocked my head, and Ferdinand looked at Justus with exasperation. 

“As always, Justus frames everything to be in his favor,” Ferdinand said. “Rozemyne, know that he is an eccentric man. He loves gathering information and materials above all else, even to the point of dressing as a woman to collect information at a tea party. He became a scholar largely because their work principally involves the accumulation of data, and in this case, he is simply glad that he gets to gather both information and materials at once. Feel no gratitude toward him whatsoever.” 

Justus had learned at a young age that attendants and servants acted in an entirely different manner when away from their master, saying things that they otherwise wouldn’t have. This led to him developing an interest in collecting information. Eventually, Rihyarda ended up yelling that he should become a scholar if he loved gathering information so much, using his enthusiasm to collect valuable intelligence for Sylvester. 

“I did gather information for Lord Sylvester as my mother suggested, but it was always Lord Ferdinand, his right-hand man, who properly used it. He connected seemingly irrelevant facts, using them to defeat the nobles opposing him back when he first entered the Royal Academy. The thrill of seeing that shocked me to the core.” 

Rihyarda’s wish for her son to serve Sylvester ultimately went unfulfilled as Justus elected to serve Ferdinand instead, since he was always the one effectively using the information he brought. And when Ferdinand ordered him to infiltrate the lower city—a place that nobles normally never visited—to investigate me, Justus had been so excited that he couldn’t sleep. The fact he was excitedly telling me all this just showed how much of a weirdo he really was. 

“My information gathering bears fruit daily now that you have appeared by Lord Ferdinand’s side. I feel more gratitude than I could ever express,” he said, which really didn’t make me happy at all. 

“Lord Ferdinand, will you not be accompanying us to gather the ruelle?” Eckhart asked, peering at the map. 

Letting out an exceptionally perturbed sigh, Ferdinand traced his own planned journey across the map with a finger. “I would like to accompany you, but with this schedule, I am uncertain that I will be able to find the opportunity.” 

“Ferdinand, do you like gathering materials as much as Justus does?” I asked, a bit surprised by the regret in his voice. 

At that, Ferdinand glanced over at Justus and grimaced. “I prefer not the gathering itself, but rather thinking of what can be created with new materials. Do not lump me in with Justus, who gets satisfaction just from collecting rare materials.” 

“Rozemyne, while Lord Ferdinand was studying in the Royal Academy, he and the apprentice knights fought feybeasts and feyplants to gather the feystones and materials he needed for his magic tool designs. I accompanied him on such missions many times,” Eckhart said, and the mental image of Ferdinand exterminating the trombe flashed through my mind. If he did stuff like that all the time to gather materials, then he might have had a wilder student life than I’d ever expected. 

It was rare for me to hear about Ferdinand’s past so I wanted Eckhart to continue, but Ferdinand promptly silenced him with a glare. “A more sizable group would be necessary in a location where large feybeasts wander, but as you need only a fruit from a feyplant, smaller numbers should suffice. Correct, Justus?” he asked. 

Justus gave a firm nod. “Indeed. A ruelle tree is a feyplant located on the outskirts of Dorvan that bears fruit on nights with full moons. I collected them once before on a full moon in the summer, and they were quite rich with Wind. There is no mistaking that gathering one on the Night of Schutzaria will provide us the best autumn ingredient for a jureve that one could ask for.” 

Apparently, the information we had on what materials could be gathered within the duchy had all been put together by Justus. He really did love gathering materials, and collected whatever he could regardless of the time or place. Ferdinand had narrowed down our options from the times and places recorded in order to determine where it would be best for me to gather my own materials. 

“People always call the information I gather useless, and yet Lord Ferdinand always finds the perfect use for it all,” Justus said with a half-smile. “In any case, Lady Rozemyne is still too young to have the schtappe that would normally be used when gathering a ruelle. She will need a knife magic tool to use in its place.” 

“I am preparing one now. It should be finished soon,” Ferdinand replied. He was apparently in the middle of making a magic tool for me. As always, he had a sharp eye for detail and was taking care of every little thing. 

With that done, Justus explained to me how the gathering would be done, going through each piece of equipment I would need and explaining its purpose—the leather bags, the gloves, the knife, and so on. 

“Lady Rozemyne, once we arrive at the gathering site, please approach the ruelle tree with your highbeast. You should then touch a ruelle with your bare hands and pour mana into it until it changes color. Once that happens, cut it off with your knife magic tool, and that’s it. If you were to put on leather gloves that block mana during that last step then it would make the material a bit worse for your own potion, but others would be able to use it for brewing as well.” 

“Understood. I will do my best.” 

At that, we had gone over everything there was to discuss about the Harvest Festival and the gathering. We returned the magic tools to Ferdinand, then Eckhart and Justus left the room. We would next meet at the temple on the day I departed for the Harvest Festival. 

“I have called Kantna over as well. Sit where you are in silence.” 

“Okay.”