Ascendance of a Bookworm (LN) - Volume 3.4 - Chapter 14

Mount Lohenberg 

One day had passed since my return from Illgner. 

I made my way to Ferdinand’s chambers at third bell to assist him as usual, and upon my arrival, I spotted Eckhart. It seemed that he now had the hang of serving as a guard knight in the temple, but rather than standing in front of the door as my guard knights did, he was being made to help out like everyone else. Judging by how unfazed the blue priests and attendants all were, this was already a common sight here. 

“Ferdinand, should you really be making Eckhart do paperwork? Isn’t he your only guard knight?” 

“You, Rozemyne, require a guard beside you at all times, especially with the increased activity of priests as of late. But I have no such need myself; I can make do on my own, even in the case of a surprise attack. You, on the other hand, collapse without even needing someone to attack you. Could the difference between us be any clearer?” 

There was nothing I could say to that. I really did collapse on my own, so having someone watch over me was crucial. My hope had been that Damuel could do scholar work even on days where Brigitte was absent, but Ferdinand quickly shot that idea down. 

“Justus should be coming later this morning. Finish your work before then so that we can discuss this season’s ingredient,” Ferdinand said. 

“Right!” 

With that, I worked my way through the load of math that had built up over my several days of absence. 

Upon returning from Illgner, Fran had commented with a weak smile that he hadn’t expected a simple change in environment to be so exhausting. Thankfully, now that we had returned to the temple, it appeared he was beginning to recharge. 

Just as Ferdinand said, Justus arrived at the temple in no time at all, a good deal sooner than fourth bell. His eyes shone with excitement as he walked up to Ferdinand’s desk with a skip in his step, looking every which way for something of note. 

“Good morning, Lord Ferdinand. And welcome back, Lady Rozemyne. How was Illgner? Did you perhaps stumble upon anything interesting while you were there?” he asked, sounding rather giddy. He then went on to express his excitement about our upcoming lunch, having a chance to speak with me, and getting to see the workshop for himself. 

“I would rather you not make my plans for me. I intend to visit the orphanage today, not the workshop.” 

“May I tour the orphanage, then? I am deeply curious to visit this place blessed enough to have received your compassion. From what I remember, the orphans can all read and write. Is this true?” Justus asked with an unfaltering smile. He was a noble, so he knew full well that my response had been meant as a complete—albeit indirect—refusal. 

Had I continued to follow the social script like a proper noblewoman, I would have conceded here and Justus would have invited himself into the orphanage, but I didn’t want to get stuck changing my plans for him. I dropped the euphemisms and this time refused him outright. 

“You may tour the workshop and orphanage when Ferdinand is available to accompany you, but until then, you must wait. I feel that you are otherwise likely to wander around on your own and cause problems for me.” 

“Oh, is there anything there you don’t want me seeing?” he asked, intrigued. 

I shot him a firm glare. A forceful guy like Justus barging into the orphanage to satisfy his curiosity would only make Wilma’s androphobia worse. 

“Due to aggressive blue priests, there are gray shrine maidens in the orphanage who have grown to fear men entirely. Men are not allowed to enter the girls’ building as a result, but I am aware that you are not one to obey such rules.” 

“I see, I see...” Justus murmured, nodding along while looking not at all dissuaded. “So I could go inside as long as I’m dressed like a woman?” 

I could tell from the look in his eyes that he was serious—that he was fully prepared to cross-dress if doing so would get him into the girls’ building. I shook my head and crossed my arms in the shape of a large “X.” 

“No! I hereby forbid you from entering the orphanage at all.” 

“What?! That’s nothing short of cruel!” he wailed, but I had no intention of allowing a weirdo who would dress up like a woman to get into the girls’ building anywhere near the orphanage. Who knew what kind of negative influence he might have on the children? It just wasn’t safe for me to let Justus’s curiosity run rampant; as the High Bishop and orphanage director, I needed to protect the orphans no matter what. 

As I steeled my resolve, Ferdinand let out an exaggerated sigh and waved his hand to silence us. “Save this nonsense for later. We have more pressing matters to discuss.” 

At that, he cleared the room of attendants. The priests left silently, leaving only those who would be participating in my gathering—guard knights included. 

Ferdinand pointed at a southern mountain on a spread-out map. “Our next destination is to be Mount Lohenberg. The summer ingredient shall be at its most mana-rich five days from now, and for this reason, we shall be leaving in four days’ time.” 

It seemed that, had I not been well enough to promptly return from Illgner, Ferdinand had been prepared to come and pick me up. 

“Ferdinand, what are we gathering this time?” 

“A riesefalke egg. Riesefalkes are birds said to ease the wrath of Leidenschaft, the God of Fire. An egg from them will be your ingredient.” 

“Wait, what? If these riesefalkes are able to calm a god, doesn’t that make them a holy bird or something? And we’re stealing their eggs? I feel like that must be heretical. I mean, really...?” I mused aloud, only for Ferdinand to shake his head. 

“Fear not—riesefalkes are not particularly holy birds; they are simply a species of feybeast. We will also have means of dealing with Leidenschaft’s wrath,” he said. Then, his expression turned quizzical. “Why are you so hesitant about this? Did you not kill a schnesturm for its feystone in the winter? If one considers the talfroschs in the spring and zantzes in the autumn, a mountain of feybeasts have already been slain for your ingredients. Why would a single egg bother you now?” 

“You have a point...” I replied. The road to my jureve was already paved with feybeast corpses, and when thinking about it like that, stealing a single egg was hardly something to kick up a fuss about. 

“That said, if we do not take care to keep the feybeasts on Mount Lohenberg alive while retrieving the ingredient, Leidenschaft’s wrath will burst. Refraining from killing them will prove to be the most challenging aspect of this season’s gathering.” 

“What happens exactly when his wrath isn’t kept under control?” 

“Ah, yes—in such a case, the mountain will explode with fire.” 

That’s called an eruption, isn’t it...? Does this mean Mount Lohenberg is a volcano? If so, what does killing feybeasts have to do with it erupting? 

“Riesefalke eggs hatch by absorbing the mana within the mountain,” Ferdinand continued. “A shortage of eggs will consequently lead to an excess of mana.” 

Justus nodded, providing his own explanation. “When too much mana builds up, Leidenschaft grows irate and begins shooting out fire. You can trust us here; I previously gathered too many eggs at once and nearly made it happen.” 

“Excuse me?!” I exclaimed. I assumed for a second that I had misheard him, but it seemed this wasn’t the case. 

Ferdinand rubbed his temples and let out a heavy sigh. “That was not a pleasant day...” 

“Indeed. At the time, I truly thought all hope was lost,” Eckhart added. 

With that, both Ferdinand and Eckhart looked incredibly distant. Justus had apparently put them in quite the terrible situation. He was top-class when it came to gathering information, but in most other areas he was genuinely dangerous—in more ways than one. 

“Now, now,” Justus interjected. “Let’s not forget that our experience back then is proving useful to us here.” 

“I do not wish to experience that ever again. Thus, I am being as thorough as possible with our preparations,” Ferdinand shot back. I could trust that he would use that... unpleasant incident... to ensure we didn’t have a similar problem when gathering my ingredient. 

“I shall leave the preparations to you, Ferdinand. Thank you once again.”

Four days passed. 

After finishing lunch, we immediately prepared to depart for Mount Lohenberg via highbeast. Ferdinand, Eckhart, Damuel, and Brigitte were going to be accompanying me. Justus had wanted to come along as well, but his hopes were quickly dashed; Ferdinand harshly shut him down and used his connections with the castle’s scholars to push an enormous load of urgent work onto him. 

“There is no end to the problems that Justus causes, wandering over to whatever interests him and paying no heed to the impact his actions may have. He has already caused one such issue on Mount Lohenberg in the past. He is too risky to have with us, especially when this is a race against time,” Ferdinand said bluntly, making no attempt to hide his frustration. 

There were no towns near the gathering spot this time, so time really was of the essence. None of us were bringing attendants, and the knights were treating this as seriously as a military march. Our meals would be composed of field rations, we were to bathe exclusively via the use of cleansing magic, and I would be forced back to health with potions if at any point I grew sick. 

The most I could do in terms of getting a decent meal during our trip was ask Ella and Hugo to make a packed lunch for me. I consulted Ferdinand on ways to keep the food from going bad on the journey, at which point he lent me a small magic icebox. It seemed there was already a packed lunch inside, and I put mine in alongside it before storing the icebox in Lessy. 

Ferdinand had told me to minimize my luggage so that I could make Lessy as small as possible, but thanks to him, I was having to carry extra regardless. 

...Not that it really matters. I still find it annoying for some reason, though. 

“Please take care, Lady Rozemyne. We shall ensure your bed is prepared and potions are available for your return. Come back as soon as you can,” Fran said before we left, making it clear that he expected me to be bedridden by the end of all this. He was probably right, but I was hoping to get through this gathering session having drank as few potions as possible. 

And so, with my worried attendants seeing us off, we departed for Mount Lohenberg. Eckhart took the lead, I followed behind with Damuel and Brigitte on either side of me, and Ferdinand stayed at the rear. 

It had been unbearably hot the past ten days, as one would normally expect in the summer. It felt as though I was melting beneath the sun’s rays, and flying high in the sky on my highbeast only made the heat worse. I was the only one who felt that way, though, as the knights were all wearing magic armor. The effectiveness varied a little based on the individual’s mana, but those wearing it could apparently barely feel the heat or cold. 

It seems like it’d be so hot inside those full sets of armor that I start to melt just looking at them, but they actually negate the heat completely! Hmph! I don’t think that’s fair at all. 

We raced on and on to the south, passing over the Central District with its many farms to reach land with more forests and hills. Eventually, we began seeing more and more mountains, and another short while passed before we saw an especially tall mountain that stood out even among the others connected to it. 

Is that it? Ferdinand did say Mount Lohenberg was the tallest mountain of its mountain range. 

A verdant forest of towering trees stretched out from the base of the mountain. Perhaps due to previous eruptions, this was reduced to only small, sturdy trees and grass from about halfway up. Near the summit, there were no traces of plants at all, leaving only a bare and rocky surface. Thankfully, there was no smoke or anything to indicate an eruption coming anytime soon. 

Eckhart’s highbeast—a wolf with wings—began descending toward the ground, and so I did the same with Lessy. When we arrived at the base of the mountain, the summer sun was beginning to set. 

“Our work begins early tomorrow morning, and the gathering will ideally be performed when the sun is at its brightest. As for tonight, Rozemyne, we will all be sleeping inside your highbeast. Enlarge it once you and Brigitte have cleansed yourself with magic,” Ferdinand explained. “I... would not like a repeat of what happened during the spring.” 

His last statement came out exceedingly bitter. It seemed he was ashamed of previously having let us girls sleep in the highbeast on our own, given that it led to us getting kidnapped and thrown into a risky situation he had been unable to do anything about. 

As we discussed our plans for tomorrow, Ferdinand and I ate our packed meals while the other three had their rations. Then, once everyone was done, Brigitte and I climbed into Lessy to cleanse ourselves. 

“Now then, Lady Rozemyne—I will perform the cleansing spell,” Brigitte said before whipping out her schtappe and chanting something under her breath. I hadn’t been sure when it would take effect, which meant I was engulfed by a massive droplet of water before I could even hold my nose. 

“Nghugubghh?!” 

Am I going to drown?! 

Cleansing magic posed no real danger to anyone, since the process only took a few seconds. As much as I knew that, in the moment, I truly thought I was going to die. When you couldn’t breathe, a few seconds seemed to last forever. 

“Are you alright, Lady Rozemyne?! My sincerest apologies.” 

“Ngh... I’m okay. I just didn’t know when to hold my breath.” 

Brigitte hurriedly apologized, a look of sheer horror on her face, but the water had already vanished and I was completely fine. It was a little weird for all the water blocking my nose to have disappeared in an instant, but other than that, my whole body felt clean and refreshed. 

“Please do get back on track, Brigitte. We must summon the men when we are done.” 

I halted Brigitte’s apologies by reminding her that we were in a hurry, then enlarged Lessy so that we could all fit inside. Once Brigitte was done cleansing herself, I opened up the door so that the others could carry their things in. 

“Ah, so this is Rozemyne’s highbeast, hm?” Eckhart muttered to himself. He looked around and touched a seat, commenting on how soft it was out of surprise. 

“I believe sleeping in here should be much better than sleeping outside—not only are the seats comfortable, but you will have space to stretch your legs. So, Ferdinand? Isn’t my Lessy amazing?” 

“The word that comes to mind is ‘bizarre.’” 

Why does he have to be so hardheaded?! Why can’t he see the glory of my Pandabus?! 

I silently cursed Ferdinand as he looked around inside with a grimace. Even though he appreciated how efficient Lessy was, he was annoyingly reluctant to change his opinion on him. He needed to fix his stubbornness, if you asked me. 

As I watched the knights settle on which order they would perform night watch, Ferdinand noticed me and started shooing me away. “Rozemyne, there is no need for you to watch us. Tomorrow will not be easy. Rest well so that you are not dead weight to us,” he said, and since he was several times scarier than Rihyarda, I hurried off to bed.

Brigitte woke me up just as the sun was about to rise. I sat up in a daze and climbed out of my Pandabus, where I found the knights preparing their rations. 

“These seem kind of bland,” I commented after trying some. 

“Naturally. They are made from powdered grains and vegetables, soaked in salt and wine, drained of water, and then hardened into balls,” Ferdinand replied. 

“Well, I think they would last longer and taste better if you added a bit more salt to them.” 

The knight rations were brown balls about the size of ping-pong balls, and they were eaten after being soaked in warm water for a bit. Their nutritional value and long-lasting nature made them desirable to have, but they were far from delicious. 

“In situations where one does not have the time to soak them, it is possible to fill your stomach by simply biting into one and washing it down with water. Adding more salt would make that less feasible. You only have yourself to blame for soaking yours in too much hot water.” 

We left as soon as we had finished breakfast, mounting our highbeasts and traveling up to what looked like a gaping wound in the side of Mount Lohenberg that was wide enough for an adult to climb through without issue. Since normal highbeasts needed to keep their wings spread out, there wasn’t enough space inside to keep riding them, meaning the knights were forced to walk instead. I would need to shrink Lessy as much as I could and follow behind. 

“Ngh, it stinks...” 

I had been anticipating the smell ever since learning Mount Lohenberg was a volcano, but it seriously took no time at all for the overpowering stench of sulfur to hit us. We hadn’t even entered the chasm yet, and the grimace Damuel was wearing spoke to just how bad the smell was. 

“Complaining is pointless. You will get used to it soon enough,” Ferdinand replied. There was a potion that dulled one’s sense of smell, but using it would apparently make it harder for us to notice any approaching feybeasts. 

Ferdinand entered first despite wearing a similar pained expression to the rest of us. Brigitte followed, then me, Damuel, and finally Eckhart. Everyone slowly traveled down the side of the chasm, finding footholds on its uneven rocky surface, while I casually hopped down in Lessy. 

“Do not wander off ahead of us, fool. Who knows what might be down there?” 

“Sorry.” 

Soon enough, the light trickling in from the surface faded. Everything went dark, making it hard to see where we were putting our feet. The ventilation became a lot more restricted, too, with the air becoming thick and damp as the slope evened out. 

“There is no more light ahead. Use this,” Ferdinand said, taking out a potion once everyone had reached the flat ground. He dripped some into his eyes like eye drops, then handed the potion to Eckhart, who did the same. 

Soon enough, everyone had done it except me. 

“Rozemyne, open your eyes,” Ferdinand said, reaching the potion toward me. 

“I, um... I do not like eye drops very much.” 

“They are necessary when walking about down here; whether you like them or not is irrelevant. Eckhart, hold her down.” 

My eyes were forced open and the potion dripped into them. Something inside it made my eyes tingle. A sharp smell built up in the back of my nose, and a bitter taste spread through my mouth. 

“Guhh... I hate eye drops. Please make these taste better as well.” 

“What manner of eye drops have a flavor?” Ferdinand remarked. “Enough nonsense. We’re moving on.” 

It’s not nonsense! They do have a taste! 

As heated as his response made me, I was aware that only some people could taste eye drops, and he evidently just wasn’t one of them. This was an area where we would never be able to understand each other. 

The eye drops were apparently a magic tool used to see in the darkness, and Ferdinand was right when he said they were necessary for moving about down here. My vision was covered with a dark-orange filter, like the area was being lit by a dim light bulb in the middle of the night, but at least I could see. 

After advancing for a bit, we came across a spring where we set up camp to rest. Much like the rest of the chasm, it stank of sulfur, which led me to assume it was just like a natural hot spring. I wanted to try sticking my hands into it. 

“Ferdinand, would it be okay for me to put my hands into the spring?” 

“Now is not the time to play around, fool. What would you do if a feybeast were residing inside? And what is the point of doing so in the first place? If you wish to wash your hands, ask one of the knights to perform cleansing magic on you.” 

“Well, it’s not that I want to wash my hands... I just thought it looked warm and would feel nice.” 

I mean, who wouldn’t want to get into a hot spring? 

But my suggestion was shot down with a condescending scoff. “Why would you ever want to enter such a foul-smelling spring? You will come out reeking as much as it does. If you really are so eager, you may be pleased to hear that the riesefalke eggs are located in the spring deepest within the chasm, meaning you are going to have to climb into one whether you like it or not.” 

“Wait, really? The eggs are being incubated in a hot spring?” 

So, like... they’re hot spring eggs? 

As the name suggested, hot spring eggs were eggs traditionally slow cooked in the waters of a hot spring. This gave the white a nice custardy consistency while simultaneously making the yolk firm yet creamy. In an instant, my objective shifted from stealing an ingredient that calmed the wrath of a god, to obtaining a tasty snack. 

“Ferdinand, could it be that riesefalke eggs taste incredibly delicious?” I asked out of curiosity, only for him to look at me with utter bafflement. 

“What? They are an ingredient for potions. You pour mana into them to turn them into feystones. They are not food.” 

“O-Oh, right. Of course.” 

Aw, too bad. I wanted to try eating some... 

After a short break, we continued our advance, the temperature steadily increasing as we went deeper into the cave. The heat and humidity was initially comparable to a summer’s day after rain, then to a bathroom right after a hot shower, and finally to the middle of a large commercial hot spring. 

“It sure is hot...” I observed during our next break. 

“Naturally,” Ferdinand replied coolly, still wearing the armor that negated all the heat. 

Even though I was riding inside Lessy, I seemed to be more exhausted than anyone. 

“Wrap a towel from inside the icebox around your neck,” Ferdinand said. 

“Right...” 

I wiped my face with a cold towel we had prepared the night before, then wrapped it around my neck. The chilly sensation cleared my foggy mind a little. 

We had reached an area that was almost entirely a hot spring, and the air was thick with steam. I even spotted some reptile-looking things sleeping in the water, which made me realize that Ferdinand’s warning earlier hadn’t been unfounded. 

“So long as they do not attack us, we may leave them be. It is important that we kill as few feybeasts as possible here.” 

“Why is that, exactly?” 

“The feybeasts draw mana from Mount Lohenberg as well. Hunting too many will cause mana to build up within the mountain, which will in turn cause fire to shoot out in an expression of Leidenschaft’s wrath.” 

I could guess that Justus had killed a bunch of feybeasts while getting the eggs last time. There was no way Ferdinand would be this informed otherwise. 

“The riesefalke eggs absorb mana much like the feybeasts. This, along with the heat, causes them to hatch. We have brought one Fire feystone of equivalent size to the egg as well as several other Fire feystones of various sizes, all of which are empty in terms of mana,” Ferdinand said, glancing down at a leather pouch on his hip. I could guess from how lumpy it was that the feystones were inside. 

“What purpose will empty feystones serve?” 

“When put in elementally rich locations, empty feystones draw mana from the environment. We shall exploit that behavior to steal an egg.” 

“So we need something that will drain just as much mana as the egg does?” 

“Indeed,” Ferdinand replied, offering a nod before starting to move again. It was apparently time to continue our journey. 

I put the now-warm towel back into the icebox before pulling out a cold replacement to wrap around my neck again. 

We walked for a bit longer, the intense heat and humidity making it increasingly difficult to breathe. My nose had gotten used to the sulfur stench such that it no longer bothered me, but there was no adjusting to the temperature. At this point, it was definitely more like walking through a sauna than a bathroom; even inhaling was painful, as the hot steam filled my lungs. 

“The spring is beyond that hole. We shall wait here for the mother bird to leave,” Ferdinand said, pointing at a dark hole nearby. This gathering would be a race against time in which we needed to grab the egg in the brief window when the mother bird went to hunt for food. I was a little nervous, since I already lacked speed and stamina, and the heat was just draining me further. 

As we waited, worries about how I would do swirled around in my head. It was hot enough that even staying in one place was physically exhausting, but we kept quiet so as to not disturb the feybeasts around us. 

I honestly couldn’t say how long we waited. It felt like forever, but perhaps it hadn’t been long at all. I came back to my senses when I heard a loud flapping noise come from deeper within the cave. It gradually faded into the distance, at which point Ferdinand smoothly stood up. 

“It is time.” 

The moment we started dashing toward the hole, however, the surface of a nearby hot spring rippled and something leapt out. Even with the orange eye drop filter over my vision, I could see that it was a blazing red, entirely as though it was covered with burning fire. It was as tall as Ferdinand, looking like a mix between a giant salamander and a frill-necked lizard, and was blocking our way in an attempt to protect its own eggs. 

“I would really appreciate you moving!” I cried. “We’re not here for your eggs!” 

Of course, feybeasts couldn’t understand language, and the creature was already in a fighting stance. I knew it would be easy enough for Ferdinand or Eckhart to take down, especially considering all the much larger and deadlier feybeasts we had fought in the past, but here we needed to be careful about how many we killed. 

“Eckhart, you know how to gather the egg. Damuel, keep watch for the riesefalke’s return,” Ferdinand said, fixing the lizard with a glare while removing the pouch on his waist and tossing it toward Eckhart. “I will capture this feybeast without killing it. You all can hurry and retrieve the egg we need.” 

“Yes, sir!”