Ascendance of a Bookworm (LN) - Volume 3.2 - Chapter 11

Hasse’s Contract 

Kantna, the scholar-official in charge of Hasse, entered the room. He was an older guy of average height and build, but the phrase “small fry” came to mind the moment I saw him. You could tell just by looking at him that he was a spineless nobody who survived by ingratiating himself with his superiors. 

His eyes flitted between Ferdinand and me as he tried to determine whether we had good or bad news for him. Even that made him seem like a sneaky small fry. He was definitely the type to boast to those beneath him while brown-nosing those above him far more than was even necessary. 

Once we had exchanged noble greetings, Kantna sat down in the chair that Ferdinand had offered him. His eyes were wandering even more uneasily than before. 

“Lord Ferdinand, may I ask why you have called me here today?” 

“You cannot tell even with the both of us here?” Ferdinand asked, lowering his voice a little. 

Kantna began desperately searching his memories, making a face as though he genuinely didn’t know. Perhaps he had forgotten what his job was or had been relocated, or maybe, somehow, he was just flat-out unaware that we were involved with Hasse. 

“I beg your pardon, but nothing comes to mind.” 

“...I am talking about Hasse,” Ferdinand replied. 

Kantna’s eyes flickered for a moment, but his smile remained unfaltering. “Hasse, sir? What has happened in Hasse?” 

“The archduke instructed that an orphanage and a printing workshop be constructed in Hasse. Rozemyne and I have been making progress on this task. I recently sent a few merchants I favor and one of Rozemyne’s attendants to survey the town, and according to them, you were quite uncooperative.” 

“Why, that is quite shocking for me to hear...” Kantna continued to smile but his eyes lost focus a little, as though he was running a bunch of calculations through his head. It was clear as day that he was desperately trying to think of a way to save his skin. 

“I heard that you were so uncooperative, in fact, that they found themselves considering the possibility that you actively intended to sabotage the plan.” 

“There must be some mistake. Perhaps the merchants are plotting something themselves? They are easily corrupted by money, after all.” 

Do you know what the word “hypocrite” means? I almost asked, but quickly swallowed the words. I was here to learn how nobles dealt with each other; now wasn’t a good time for me to interject. 

“So you are suggesting that they lied to me?” 

“Rather, I imagine that we misunderstood each other at some point, perhaps. After all, merchants live solely for profit. They are surely not adjusted to the way we nobles think,” Kantna said with a plastered-on smile. He kept mentioning the merchants over and over, entirely as though he had forgotten that Gil had been there as well. 

Ferdinand always told me I was terrible at reading the room, and he was right. I tossed aside my restraint and just started speaking. “Are you saying that my attendant is also not adjusted to how nobles think?” I asked, deliberately not mentioning that Gil really wasn’t adjusted to how nobles thought since I wanted to see how he would react. 

Kantna’s eyes widened in surprise and he blinked rapidly, having not expected me to speak as well. “That is not what I...” he began, before quickly trailing off. 

I wanted to follow up by asking “Then what did you mean?” to drive him into a corner, but I gave up on the idea when Ferdinand smacked my leg beneath the table. 

Ferdinand lowered his eyes, then raised his head and put on a thin smile. “I understand your position, then, and will move on to our main point. You signed a contract with the mayor of Hasse to purchase two orphans, did you not?” 

“Erm... Y-Yes, I did. What about it?” 

“Rozemyne took a liking to those orphans and dragged them away from their orphanage somewhat forcefully. Only later did we learn that the mayor had already signed a contract with you. I summoned you here in case you were unfamiliar with what had happened. It pains me to have so brazenly stolen what was rightfully yours,” Ferdinand said, putting on a worried expression that was so obviously fake to me it was laughable. “It seems, though, that your jealous wife has been probing others to learn why you recently left Ehrenfest. I imagine you would not be so foolish as to buy an orphan on the cusp of coming of age with her at your back, so your actions must have been driven by some pressing circumstances. Am I correct?” 

I internally applauded the sheer evil of Ferdinand threatening Kantna while appearing to worry about the situation he was in. 

The blood drained from Kantna’s face almost instantly, but the fact that he was still managing a smile despite being as pale as a ghost was very noble-like. “Oh yes, oh yes. Very pressing circumstances indeed. But if Lady Rozemyne has taken an interest in the orphans, then I shall gladly let her have them. Consider the contract null and void. I will just need a moment to retrieve the papers,” he said, before practically fleeing the room. 

Once the door was closed, I looked up at Ferdinand. “You certainly know a lot about Kantna’s wife, don’t you?” 

“When negotiating with nobles, the victor is often determined by who knows more about the other. The information Justus gathers is so disorganized that identifying the valuable parts among it all is a challenge, but the rewards are great.” 

Justus gathered all sorts of information with great aplomb, while Ferdinand had a fearsome memory and a talent for using the right info at the right time. One could say that, as a duo, they were terrifyingly invincible. Justus had mentioned that only Ferdinand could use his information properly, and that was probably because a normal person would have enormous trouble picking out what was useful from a huge mess of trivia. 

I personally had no intention of making either of them my enemy, but they had already investigated me in the lower city and I had no idea how much they knew. I somehow got the feeling that I had more weaknesses to exploit than you could count, and that Ferdinand would probably be able to squish me like a bug in a fraction of a second. 

“Fear not, Ferdinand—I will never in my life make an enemy of you, no matter what.” 

“What inspired you to say that...? Has Eckhart or Justus given you any strange ideas? All of you are so unbound by rationality that I struggle to understand your actions at times.” 

...I’m pretty sure we all just think you’re scary, Ferdinand. 

I later learned in conversation that, unlike pathetic ol’ me who decided to obey Ferdinand out of sheer terror, the other two had resolved to serve him for the rest of their lives out of sincere respect from the bottom of their hearts. For that reason, Eckhart told me not to lump myself together with him. 

Sorry, Eckhart. I don’t think I’ll ever understand the urge to serve someone like that. 

Kantna returned with the contract while Ferdinand was still frowning over my sudden declaration. He held it out, nervously looking at Ferdinand’s furrowed brow and displeased expression. “This is the contract.” 

“Ah yes, my thanks. We shall pay for the contract nullification, so take care not to demand money or orphans from Hasse,” Ferdinand said. 

All we needed to do now was bring the contract to Hasse to show the mayor, then all this orphan business would be done. I sighed in relief at the worst finally being over, but then Kantna glanced at Ferdinand and started speaking in a smarmy tone. 

“Still, this is somewhat troubling. As we discussed, there are profound circumstances behind this contract; I signed it not for myself, but for another,” he explained. 

I had thought that Ferdinand only suggested there were profound circumstances to silence Kantna and give him an excuse for his wife, but apparently Kantna really had been searching for an adult woman at someone else’s request. 

“Who put you up to this?” I asked. “Will I need to discuss this matter with them as well?” 

We had nullified the contract so that the people of Hasse wouldn’t see us as villains, but I didn’t want Kantna and whoever he had signed it for to think of us in that way either. I had a feeling that nobles being mad at us would be even more of a pain than the mayor being mad at us. 

“I would very, very much like to carefully and politely discuss this with them as well,” Ferdinand added. 

“Lady Rozemyne, I, er... I am not sure this is a topic fit for your ears,” Kantna stalled, beginning to sweat and pleading with his eyes for Ferdinand to save him. Apparently this was a conversation that he couldn’t have with me around. 

“Rozemyne, that will be enough for today. You may join Wilfried in his studying. Brigitte, Angelica—take Rozemyne where she needs to be,” Ferdinand said, waving his hand to urge me out of the room. 

I nodded and left. 

Once outside, I traveled to Wilfried’s room in my Pandabus. There I found him engaged in a tepid karuta battle where everyone else was stuck waiting on him. The ten seconds that followed the reading of each card seemed to drag on forever, and Wilfried looked bored as he sat among the art cards, surrounded by his sycophant attendants. 

Rihyarda was quietly standing by a wall, looking over the entire room. She was probably identifying which attendants were useless and next on the chopping block. The anger burning in her eyes made her silence all the more scary. 

“Wilfried, I know you are in the middle of a game, but I believe I’ll be joining you,” I said. His attendants had been counting to ten as slowly as they possibly could, so I gave them an intimidating smile, counted to ten normally, and then immediately grabbed the art card. Some cards were for letters that Wilfried had only just learned today. 

“Wha?! Rozemyne, you’re going too fast!” 

“Wrong, dear brother. You’re too slow. Surely you saw the art cards you were familiar with when they were lined up at the start, no? How are you incapable of grabbing them immediately once the writing card has been read aloud? Remember, I am counting to ten before I move.” 

I ultimately beat Wilfried despite joining midway through the game, and looked over his attendants while counting the karuta. Him, him, and him are getting cut for sure. They simply don’t have what it takes. 

“Would you like to play another round? I will even consider it your victory if you can just grab the cards with the letters you learned today.” 

“Hmph. That’ll be too easy.” 

I let him win the first round, but then mixed up the order of the art cards for the second so that he would have to look for them. 

“Ngh...! One more round!” he declared. 

I had successfully sparked a competitive fire in his heart. We played several more rounds of karuta, and over time, Wilfried developed a solid grasp on all of the letters used in his name. 

“That was the wrong one, Wilfried. As penalty, you have to give up one of the cards you got before.” 

“What?!” That one card proved to be a deciding factor, and Wilfried stomped the ground in a tantrum once he’d lost. 

“You would do well to study hard before we play again,” I remarked. 

“I got a lot of cards this time. Next time, I’m gonna get ’em all!” 

“Oh? I think you underestimate me,” I replied, but in truth, it already felt like Wilfried was on the verge of beating me. The kids at the orphanage had eventually started beating me, and I felt like the same was about to happen with Wilfried. 

Mm... I feel like Wilfried actually has some pretty high base stats. I guess his memory in particular seems to be solid. But maybe this is just because he pours all his energy into the stuff he’s interested in, just like Sylvester. 

“Shall we move on to learning numbers through playing cards, then?” I suggested. 

“...Numbers, huh?” 

I lined the cards up from one to ten as Wilfried watched on with a grimace, obviously having a bad history with numbers. 

“You had to count to ten several times while we were playing karuta, did you not? I have lined up the cards in numerical order, so touch them from left to right, counting each one as you go.” 

“One, two, three...” 

Wilfried was able to read up to ten without any problems, so I tried reversing their order to increase the difficulty, then had him grab the numbers as I read them aloud. After that, we played Sevens. It took him a while to be able to quickly count the numbers on the cards, but after that, he was playing just fine. 

“Rihyarda, have you decided which attendants to replace?” I asked, since she had spent the entire studying session carefully watching Wilfried’s retainers. 

She looked around the room and smiled. “Of course, milady. You said to replace those who lose thirty times, but never said not to replace those who lose fewer times than that. I will remove every single lazybones not taking this seriously enough.” 

“There certainly are many who do not understand the gravity of our situation,” Oswald agreed, looking over the room. Florencia had told him to his face that she was wrong to have ever trusted him, which obviously meant that he was in more danger of being replaced than anyone. He understood that well and was now running himself ragged under Rihyarda, so much so that he was like an entirely different person. 

Hopefully both he and his liege continue to grow... 

A little before sixth bell, Rihyarda received an ordonnanz from Ferdinand, announcing that it was time to return to the temple. He couldn’t enter the northern building without permission, so he would be staying in the waiting room until I was ready. 

“That’s that, Wilfried. I must return to the temple now. I believe that, if you continue practicing as you have been, you will be able to play the harspiel soon.” 

“Yup,” Wilfried replied with a big grin, his face full of confidence. He had memorized a tune that morning and hadn’t forgotten it come noon, so it was safe to say his harspiel practice was going smoothly. As practice, he played one bar from the sheet that Rosina had taught him over and over again until his fingers moved smoothly across the strings. It was only five notes, so the clunky, faltering noises soon became fluid. 

“This is way easier than I thought,” he said. He was checking off his list of tasks to complete much faster than expected, and so long as he didn’t get bored and quit partway through, he was on track to learn everything he needed to before his winter debut. 

“The only requirement for success is that you start trying in the first place. Keep it up and keep working through your list. In fact, you should show it to Sylvester and Florencia tonight at dinner; I’m sure they’ll praise you for your efforts. Anyone can tell how hard you have been working.” 

“Alright.” 

I returned to the temple and praised my attendants to no end. If not for their perseverance, Wilfried would have plummeted right down into the pit of eternal failure. They were the real hard workers here. 

“Well done, everyone. I’m overjoyed at how things turned out, and I am proud to be your mistress.” 

“We are used to your incomprehensible requests coming without warning,” Fran replied with a half-smile. I took this opportunity to ask them what they had thought of Wilfried as attendants. 

“Compared to the pre-baptism children who come to the temple as soon-to-be apprentice blue priests, he was nothing out of the ordinary. The fact that he listened to us at all made him much more obedient than most,” Fran replied, and I got a little headache at the thought of the apprentice priests and shrine maidens we would be dealing with in the future.

The next day was a normal one; I practiced harspiel as I always did, then went to help Ferdinand. When I arrived, he held out a sound-blocking magic tool for me. 

“Regarding what Kantna said after you departed yesterday...” Ferdinand began, before proceeding to explain that there were dramatically fewer gray shrine maidens being provided to nobles than before. 

In the past, all you had to do was ask the High Bishop for a shrine maiden and it was a done deal, but Bezewanst had gotten rid of all the unattractive ones to cut down on food costs, and the remaining good-looking ones had been given work in my workshop and the orphanage. This meant that there weren’t any left for the nobles, and those who tried asking blue priests for their gray shrine maiden attendants found themselves being significantly overcharged. The blue priests were reluctant to let go of their attendants because, apparently, they found it difficult to ask either Ferdinand or me for new ones. 

As for the nobles themselves, they also found it hard to ask Ferdinand to send shrine maidens their way since, unlike Bezewanst, he had no interest in flower offerings whatsoever. Plus, as gray shrine maidens were especially favored for how inexpensive they were, nobles didn’t believe it was worth paying the exorbitant prices the blue priests were asking for. The result was nobles being sent out to find orphans of suitable ages from the orphanages in nearby cities. 

“How do you respond to this, Rozemyne? Will you sell the gray shrine maidens to nobles?” Ferdinand asked, eyeing me carefully as if ready to judge my response. 

“If there are gray shrine maidens who would much prefer to be a noble’s concubine than continue to be a shrine maiden, then... while I feel resistance to it myself, I would be willing to consider it as an alternative form of employment for them. That said, I have no intention of ever selling gray shrine maidens who don’t want that kind of life. They support my workshop right now, and ultimately, I am the one who determines how the orphans are to live.” 

Ferdinand nodded at my reply with a strict look in his light-golden eyes. “In that case, what do you intend to do about the nobles buying orphans from nearby orphanages?” 

The idea of orphans being bought and sold made me sick, but that was because I was applying the morals from my world to this one. Now that I was aware of this, I didn’t feel quite as much disgust as I used to. 

“...Benno informed me that the city orphans are raised by the mayor and his people, which makes them shared property essential to buying resources for the winter. It is not my place to abuse my authority and interfere with this,” I said. “I am unable to save all of the orphans in the duchy in any case, and it is best that I do not try to get involved in matters outside of my field.” 

It would be easy to take all of the orphans from Hasse using my authority as the archduke’s adopted daughter, but I had no idea how many problems that would cause or where. And Hasse wasn’t the only place with orphans. I simply did not have the power to save every orphan in the duchy. 

On top of that, as the High Bishop, what I needed to think about more than anything else was the temple’s orphanage. It would be wrong for me to thoughtlessly try to extend my reach to the orphanages of other cities, so while I would do what I could in the monastery in Hasse, anything else was out of sight and out of mind. It was hard to accept this, but unless I sucked it up and grew as a person, I wouldn’t be able to survive here. 

“A respectable response. It is good to see that you are learning,” Ferdinand replied, giving a satisfied nod. A mean-spirited smile then crept onto his face as he continued his line of questioning. “In that case, Rozemyne—what will you do regarding the orphans still with Hasse’s mayor? They are in your sights now, are they not?” 

I bit my lip, then shook my head. “Unlike temple orphans, city orphans are made citizens and given plots of land when they grow up. Girls can use these plots to engineer marriages, and from what I have learned, I believe that many can find more happiness living as a citizen in a region they’re familiar with than spending the rest of their lives in the temple as a priest.” 

Each orphan was faced with two choices: they could reject their current lifestyle entirely and be reeducated from the ground up, living a futureless life serving nobles as a priest or shrine maiden, or they could continue as they were, enduring a life that was harsh and full of struggles but at least made sense to them. Only they themselves could say which they would prefer, and personally, had I been given the option, I would have rather stayed with my family than become the archduke’s adopted daughter. 

“I have already given them a choice. The moment they chose to remain with the mayor, they ceased being a matter of concern for me,” I replied, knowing that this was the proper answer for the daughter of an archduke to give. 

Ferdinand nodded in approval. Upon seeing his satisfaction, I sighed in relief at having not made any mistakes, then slowly lowered my eyes to the floor. 

Ah, I hate this... I feel like a part of me was just painted over and turned the color of a noble.