Georgine Departs
One day, while helping Ferdinand in his chambers, an ordonnanz arrived from Sylvester. Ferdinand listened to it, then turned to me and said that Georgine was being seen off tomorrow.
“Finally...” I muttered without thinking.
Whatever faction it was that opposed Elvira and our allies had been working doggedly in the shadows, and while I didn’t want to be rude to our guest, I seriously just wanted them gone as soon as possible. It felt as though I had been deprived of seeing the Gilberta Company and the Plantin Company for a surprisingly long time, not to mention it had been forever since I last visited Hasse.
“Everyone, we are heading to the castle right after breakfast tomorrow to see off our guest,” I announced to my attendants and guard knights upon returning to my chambers.
While we were discussing our plans, an ordonnanz for Brigitte flew in. Given the time, it was probably from Illgner, and as expected, the bird spoke a message thrice in Giebe Illgner’s voice.
“It seems the new type of paper is ready, but they do not know how to test the ink on it,” Brigitte said. “They will therefore be sending completed samples to the castle for you, so that those in the workshop may test it for themselves and decide whether to proceed with mass production.”
Clasping my hands together, I responded with an impressed whistle. I had expected it to take them a lot longer than a single month to discover the right balance of ingredients, so Lutz and Gil must have been working hard.
“Lady Rozemyne, how shall I reply?” Brigitte asked, creating an ordonnanz to send in response.
I faced the bird and spoke. “You have already finished the new paper? I would expect nothing less from my Gutenbergs. I have business in the castle tomorrow, so I shall collect the paper at once.”
We arrived at the castle much sooner than third bell. Rihyarda was there waiting for me, immediately whisking me away to change my clothes, redo my hair, and put a veil on me. I was then escorted to a waiting room, where I would be stuck until it was time to see off Georgine.
When I stepped inside, I found Ferdinand in a change of clothes with work spread out before him, despite having returned to his estate in the Noble’s Quarter.
“You’re working now of all times, Ferdinand?”
“There is still time before Georgine is due to leave. Why would I not use it productively? Anything less would be inefficient,” he said while directing Eckhart around.
“Should I work as well, then? I have a package from Illgner to fetch, but I’m not sure where to go for it. Could you tell me? One of my most important jobs is checking the quality of their new paper, after all.”
“I received no such report from Illgner,” Ferdinand said with a glare.
I gave a big nod. “I knew that you would want to hear about this, so rather than asking Rihyarda to pass the message on, I thought I would simply tell you myself. This is new paper made with new ingredients, you know. Don’t you want to see it before anyone else? I know I do. Not to mention, I helped you just recently by transporting all of your luggage in Lessy, so you should return the favor and help me with my work,” I said, putting my all into securing his assistance no matter what.
Ferdinand grimaced, then stood up as he gave his response. “Very well, but only if you continue to carry my luggage moving forward as well.”
That wasn’t an issue at all, especially considering that he probably would have tossed his luggage into Lessy either way. My Pandabus was just too useful and he knew it.
“I thank you ever so much, Ferdinand.”
It seemed that the main building of the castle had a storeroom for boards, paperwork, and the like sent from provincial nobles, separate from the one used for storing collected taxes. Scholar-officials managed the mail as well, stacking up everything received through the teleportation circles and then separating them based on their contents. It instantly made me think of the post offices back on Earth.
“Lord Ferdinand, we did not expect you to come here directly. Is something the matter?” one surprised scholar asked, walking over as we arrived. It seemed that Ferdinand normally sent his own scholars to collect his mail, and that this was not at all somewhere members of the archducal family usually visited themselves.
“Has there been any mail from Illgner addressed to Rozemyne?”
“Yes, we just recently received a parcel for her. Here you are.”
Ferdinand smoothly took the box and checked the address card attached to it with string before opening it. Inside was the newly made paper, a letter, and a small metal card that he promptly took out.
“Rozemyne, write your name on this card. It will serve as a record that you received this parcel.”
I signed my name on the metal card using a mana pen that Ferdinand let me borrow. He glanced over it before putting it back in the box, which he then returned to the scholar.
“Now, we are done here.”
“Right. Thanks for your help.”
And so, I climbed into my one-person Pandabus with the letter and new paper held securely against my chest. I had only touched the paper a little, but it was firm and felt silky smooth. If we were able to print ink on it well enough, it would be perfect for playing cards.
I need to contact Heidi through Benno... She’ll definitely love having new paper to work with.
I hummed cheerfully on our way back to the waiting room, getting straight to reading the letter once we were inside. It was from Lutz and Gil, saying pretty much the same thing as the ordonnanz—they wanted me to deliver the paper to Heidi so that she could research which ink would pair with it best. They also mentioned that the gray priests were actively making paper and having an all-around good time.
As there was still some time to spare, I decided to tear one of the new sheets of paper into tiny squares that we could use when testing the ink. This could usually be done by folding the paper and then ripping along the newly formed creases, but would paper this firm fold cleanly enough for that? If not, I would need to go through the effort of drawing out straight lines and then using a precision knife to cut along them.
I started off with a single mountain fold, and despite how firm the paper was, it bent just fine without breaking or cracking. Then, I repeated a sequence of valley and mountain folds to make a wave-like shape.
“Oh, now it looks like a (harisen).”
Harisens were large paper fans typically used to hit people over the head in Japanese comedy routines. The paper was just firm enough to maintain the fan shape, and when I experimentally slapped it against my palm, it made a pretty satisfying thwack sound.
“Rozemyne, what is that? What is its purpose?” Ferdinand asked, having been distracted from his work as he watched me swing around the harisen with a confused look on his face.
“Eheheh. You use it like this. Hyah!”
Springing into action, I swung the harisen straight down at Ferdinand’s head. But despite my attempted surprise attack, he deftly raised his left forearm to block the fan before using his other hand to snatch it away. Then, he promptly struck me over the head with it.
“Eep!”
“Ah, I see. So that is what this is used for,” Ferdinand said, slapping the harisen against his hand with a satisfied grin. He looked so pleased with himself that it actually irritated me.
“Ngh... Give it back.”
“You can have it back when we return to the temple. Now stop playing around and help me with my work,” he replied.
And so, I was stuck doing math until it was time to see off Georgine. I tied up my sleeves with some cord that I asked Rihyarda to fetch for me so that my long sleeves wouldn’t get dirty, and after working for a while, Wilfried joined us in the waiting room.
“Rozemyne, what are you doing over there?” he asked.
“I’m helping Ferdinand with his work, just like I do at the temple. Would you care to join us?”
“No, I need to practice my farewells to Auntie. I’ll have to help you some other time.”
As we continued our work, Oswald taught Wilfried a lengthy noble farewell that went like so: “I pray that you live well with the divine protection of the gods until Dregarnuhr the Goddess of Time weaves the threads of our fates together once again.” Put simply, it meant “I hope to see you again,” and it was used to politely say goodbye when you had no immediate intention of making an agreement to meet again soon.
Eventually, Norbert came to inform us that Georgine was departing. We all headed to the front entrance of the castle, Ferdinand getting Eckhart to carry me there since he didn’t want to risk her seeing my highbeast and kicking up a fuss.
By the time we arrived at the gate, Ferdinand’s expression had morphed from a stony poker face to a polite, handsome smile—one that remained for the entire duration he spoke to Georgine.
“I pray that you live well with the divine protection of the gods until Dregarnuhr the Goddess of Time weaves the threads of our fates together once again,” I said, speaking the same farewell without so much as wavering.
Once everyone had finished, Wilfried must have had a sudden thought, as he broke formation and ran up to Georgine. “We didn’t get to talk much this time, Auntie. I hope we can spend more time together soon!”
Everyone had carefully cultivated an atmosphere that made it clear Georgine wouldn’t be coming back for a long time, but with a single sentence, Wilfried had torn that to shreds. Florencia looked down at him, her indigo eyes opened wide with surprise, while his attendants were covering their mouths with their hands.
I could feel an especially icy aura radiating from Ferdinand. That same handsome smile was still on his face, but just standing next to him had me quaking in fear.
Despite the shocked reactions of everyone around her, Georgine appeared to be feigning ignorance. “I see. I had no idea that you wished to speak with me more,” she said with a small, happy smile, bending down to meet Wilfried’s gaze. “In that case... perhaps I should return next year, at around this same time?”
“Yes, please! I can’t wait!”
While Wilfried rejoiced, gleeful innocence in his dark-green eyes, Georgine elegantly turned her head to look at Florencia. “It would not be a bother for me to accept this invitation, would it?”
The proper response would probably have been, “Did you not hear what literally everyone else just said to you?” But nobody seeing her off was even close to being a high enough status to get away with saying something like that.
Florencia, having failed to predict her son’s spur-of-the-moment action, had only one answer to give: “Not at all. We would love to see you again soon.”
And so, it was decided that Georgine would return to Ehrenfest next year.
Ferdinand’s smile vanished the instant Georgine’s carriage was out of sight, giving way to a deep scowl. His golden eyes shone with cold anger as he glared down at Wilfried, the only one present who looked at all pleased. “Do it, Rozemyne,” he said, holding out the harisen he had previously confiscated from me.
Why did he bring that here...? I wondered. But as much as I wanted to know, the idea of actually asking right now terrified me, so I simply nodded and took the fan from him. Wilfried had shocked his parents, put his attendants through agony, and angered Ferdinand... Far be it from me to not exploit this opportunity.
I raised the harisen high into the air, then brought it down on Wilfried’s head with a sharp crack. “You big idiot! You shouldn’t have said that! Learn to read the mood!”
His eyes widened in shock. “Why did you do that?!”
“That’s what I should be asking you! How big of an idiot do you have to be to give Georgine an excuse to come again next year?!” I shouted, spotting Sylvester and Florencia nodding in agreement out of the corner of my eye.
“Wha...? All I said was that I wanted to speak with her more!”
“And that’s the problem! What farewell were you taught today? When is that particular farewell used? And why do you think your parents, the archducal couple, chose that farewell of all farewells?”
Wilfried blinked in confusion, but Oswald had already explained all this to him in the waiting room.
“Rozemyne, we can continue this discussion inside,” Ferdinand chided. “And do not get so excited. You will collapse.”
With that, he began walking off. I followed after him, swallowing the urge to ask, “And who was it that gave me the harisen in the first place?”
Sylvester promptly took the lead, bringing us to a small meeting room that was closest to the main building’s front entrance. We took our seats, and for some time, nobody offered anything except the occasional sigh, all fixing Wilfried with cold, quiet eyes.
Eventually, Wilfried couldn’t take it anymore. With his brow furrowed, he hesitantly broke the silence. “I’ve thought about it, but I still don’t understand. I wanted to speak to Auntie more, but I guess Mother and Father don’t?”
At this, literally everyone sighed—including the mother and father in question, of course.
“Correct,” Sylvester replied. “We don’t want archdukes from other duchies and their first wives in the castle, even if we are siblings. It’s precisely because we’re related that it’s hard for us to figure out what information they’re getting, where they’re getting it, and how they plan to use it.”
“We taught you that particular farewell for a reason,” Florencia added. “You must not act on your own before higher-status individuals, as doing so creates openings that can be exploited in ways we don’t always understand. It seems we will not be able to send you to the Royal Academy until you have learned a bit more about the world.”
The Royal Academy was attended by nobles from both larger duchies and higher-ranked duchies than Ehrenfest, not to mention royal children from the king’s family who directly ruled the Sovereignty. Those were people Wilfried would need to bow and be endlessly polite to, but up until now, he had only ever needed to bow his head to his parents.
But even with his mother openly expressing her worry about his future, Wilfried still didn’t seem to comprehend the idea of someone being higher in status than him.
Sylvester crossed his arms. “Someone of a higher status than Wilfried, huh...? Bonifatius is the only guy who comes to mind...”
But Wilfried had already been respectful to Bonifatius, who had cared for him during the last Archduke Conference. That defeated the point.
“Wilfried, you aren’t very polite to Ferdinand even though he’s an older member of the archducal family,” I interjected. “I’ve always thought that was a bit rude. Maybe you should call him ‘Uncle’ and be more courteous to him, just like you called Georgine ‘Auntie’ and were courteous to her. You can learn to kneel by paying your respects to him.”
At this suggestion, Wilfried looked at me, wide-eyed. “Rozemyne, Ferdinand isn’t my superior. Grandmother told me all about him being beneath me!”
“Ferdinand has since returned to noble society, and he is of a higher status than you within the archducal family. What about that does not make sense to you?”
“But... Grandmother said—”
“Wilfried. Over a year has passed since your grandmother was imprisoned as a criminal. Why are you still paying any mind to the things she told you?”
His expression was suddenly overcome with shock, at which point Oswald hurriedly stepped between us. “Lady Rozemyne, we were planning to disclose that information to Lord Wilfried when he is a little older...”
“Oswald, did the events of autumn last year not teach you what happens when Wilfried is kept from reality?”
It took me a second to fully comprehend what Oswald had meant. And when I looked around, I noticed that Sylvester was shutting his eyes tightly, as if wincing at me having revealed the truth.
I gazed at him and Florencia. Ferdinand had long been drilling complex noble social rules into my head, and I wasn’t even their successor. Why were they letting Wilfried stagnate like this? The thought made my heart and mind grow icy cold.
“We were previously able to beat everything Wilfried needed to know into him right before his winter debut, but procrastinating until the very last moment should not be the norm. My adoptive mother and father would not be so foolish as to repeat the same mistake by not teaching him until right before he is due to enter the Royal Academy, would they?”
I hoped that everyone would forgive my sharp tone, but it was because Wilfried’s grandmother had forged documents to get Count Bindewald into the city that I had ended up separated from my family. She was also the one responsible for Ferdinand being forced into the temple, having abused him so much that he truly believed his life was in danger. To be honest, even though I hadn’t ever met the woman, I hated her with a passion.
“Wilfried, I won’t tell you to stop acknowledging your grandmother, but I don’t approve of you disrespecting my guardian just because she didn’t like him. Ferdinand is a member of the archducal family. If anyone here does not know their place, it is you.”
Sylvester made a deliberate show of nodding in agreement. “Rozemyne’s right here. Ferdinand was clearly of a lower status before when he was a priest, but now he’s back in noble society, and he’s my half-brother. Wilfried, you shall henceforth respect him as your uncle.”
“Father, you can’t be serious!” Wilfried protested. But Sylvester simply ignored him and looked at Oswald.
“Oswald, you will need to teach Wilfried how to be respectful from the ground up. Rozemyne, got any ideas for the best way to raise him here?”
“I think it would be best for you, Florencia, and his attendants to think about that yourselves. As I have mentioned before, I am busy with many other things, and thus do not have the time to dedicate to educating Wilfried once again. A great deal of work has piled up while Lady Georgine’s visit was restricting my movement.”
The last time this was a problem, I had offered my assistance out of sympathy for Wilfried, thinking it unfair that he was being disinherited when it was his environment that was at fault and wanting Florencia to regain control over his education. But his debut was now over and his parents were overseeing his schooling again, so I didn’t see why I should have to dedicate any more of my already precious time to him.
I need to contact the Plantin Company, get the new paper to Heidi, call the Gilberta Company over to get Tuuli’s latest hair stick... I mused, listing off everything I hadn’t been able to do because of Georgine.
“Ferdinand, would it be problematic at all for me to visit Hasse now?” I asked, subtly suggesting that we abandon this meeting and return to the temple. He understood my intention at once, immediately standing up from his chair.
“Not in the least.”
“So, why do you wish to go to Hasse?” Ferdinand asked once we were back at the temple and en route to his chambers.
“I recently received a letter from Hasse asking for a meeting with me, mentioning that they were hoping I could purchase some orphans to fund their winter preparations. As they did not receive a blessing during Spring Prayer, their harvest was notably poor compared to last year, so they are hoping to build up as much funding as they can as far in advance as possible.”
Ferdinand nodded. “I will need to accompany you, then. Set the meeting for the afternoon the day after tomorrow.”
“Will do. Oh, and can I send some gray priests to Hasse this winter?”
“To what end, exactly?”
“Well, the truth is... the letter they sent me was very crudely written. I think they would have only themselves to blame if they sent something similar to another noble and ended up getting scolded for their rudeness.”
I wasn’t even referring to their handwriting being bad. This time, they had actually used noble euphemisms, writing very fancily and even using the phrase, “We shall prepare offerings of sweet fruits and beautiful flowers to you, O servant of the gods, and ask only that you hear our needs in return.” But that actually meant, “We’ll give you women, beer, and money if you just please do what we want,” which really wasn’t appropriate to say to a little girl such as myself.
“It seems very likely that they’re using set phrases adopted over Bezewanst’s long tenure as High Bishop, and I doubt anyone in Hasse knows exactly what they’re saying. Would it not be wise to tell them? I don’t believe there are any commoners who know what that really means.”
“...I see. Such a brazen attempt at bribery would certainly shock any new associates of theirs,” Ferdinand said, tapping a finger against his temple. This was a headache-inducing situation for him, too.
“Exactly. And that’s why I want to send two or three gray priests to Hasse’s winter mansion this year. Could we not just claim it’s to keep an eye on them? Like we’re making sure there aren’t any lingering signs of treason, or something like that?”
“Such an excuse would indeed hold weight during winter this year.”
“In that case, I would like to use this opportunity to have the gray priests teach the new mayor Richt and anyone else who might be writing letters how to properly do paperwork, and what noble euphemisms actually mean.”
“Truthfully, that is not a bad idea. I would not like to receive any such letters myself,” Ferdinand said, granting his permission with an exasperated look. With that, I triumphantly clenched my fists.
Whew. I need to write my response to Hasse right away.
When I returned to the High Bishop’s chambers, I wrote a letter to Richt detailing the date of our meeting and one to Hasse’s monastery telling them to prepare rooms for the incoming orphans.
“Monika, please contact Wilma. I require enough living necessities for five people to be taken from the orphanage’s spares in preparation for the afternoon the day after tomorrow. I imagine Hasse has enough that they could provide these themselves, but it is better to have extra than not enough.”
“As you wish. I will go to the orphanage at once.”
“Fran, I need someone to contact the Plantin Company in Gil’s absence. Do you think Fritz is suitable for the job?”
He paused for a moment in thought, then nodded. “I believe he is capable.”
“Could we ask the Plantin Company to visit tomorrow afternoon, then? I would like to give them the new paper I just received from Illgner.”
Now that Georgine was gone, I no longer had any restrictions holding me back. I gave order after order, making my way through all the business that had piled up while I was restricted to the temple. And perhaps because I had barely met the woman during her stay, I was already forgetting about her. In no time at all, her presence had entirely faded from my mind.
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