Ascendance of a Bookworm (LN) - Volume 3.5 - Chapter 11

Charlotte’s Baptism Ceremony 

On top of my usual yearly duties—handling winter preparations for the orphanage and my chambers, arranging winter handiwork, and making the necessary printing arrangements—I now had to rigorously study winter socializing under Ferdinand, teach my mana compression method to the archducal family’s guard knights and a part of the Knight’s Order, and study baptismal practices day and night to grant Charlotte’s first wish. 

I was absolutely pooped. 

Ferdinand was going to handle the mana registration medals and speak from the bible, but noble baptism ceremonies were a lot more involved than lower city ones. Not to mention, this was a baptism being held during winter socializing, when all the nobles in Ehrenfest were gathered together. I was becoming more tense by the day, determined not to fail. 

And in the end, I managed to learn everything that I needed to. 

I had worked so, so very hard, to the point that my head was now a complete mess. But I had no intention of letting Charlotte know how much this had drained me. Why? Because I wanted to act all cool and casual about it. I wanted her to be like, “Wow! You’re so cool, big sister!” 

Autumn ended with me nearly having worked myself to death, and then came winter. 

The lower city’s winter baptism was held amid the falling snow. It was then that I genuinely started to believe the gods of this world were real, because wow, they sure were rewarding me for working so hard. Despite the cold weather, my family had come to the doors of the temple. They peered inside with worried expressions, a warmly wrapped Kamil wobbling about around them. 

W-Wow! Look, everyone! My little brother is adorable! In fact, he’s so cute that I’m worried someone might kidnap him. Because, I mean, I want to kidnap him! I’m the kidnapper! It’s me! Look at those precious little cheeks! Praise be to the gods! 

A single glance at Kamil wiped away all of my exhaustion. He even looked up at me and waved his hand about. Tuuli had probably gotten him to do that, but I didn’t care; he was waving me goodbye. 

Aah, geez! What should I do?! I’m so excited, I don’t even think I’ll make it back to my room! 

As I trembled atop the staircase shrine, overcome with emotion, some gray priests mercilessly shut the doors. But even then, I could still see my little brother’s overwhelming cuteness when I closed my eyes. 

“Rozemyne, do not stand there in a daze. Return to your chambers.” 

“Oh, Ferdinand... All this excitement is making my head spin. I’ll need a moment to rest.” 

I leaned against the podium on which the bible was usually placed and felt the pleasant chill of the ivory stonework. As it cooled me down, I shut my eyes and started to digest just how adorable my little brother was. 

“You are too excited to move?” Ferdinand asked incredulously. “How much of a fool are you?” 

He was the last person I wanted a lecture from right now; he looked as though he was suffering from a serious mana hangover, no doubt having used my compression method too much. Either way though, I was serious about not being able to move. 

“If you wish to rest, drink a potion and return to your chambers. At this rate, you will not recover in time for Charlotte’s baptism ceremony.” 

“Well, we don’t want that.” 

I opened my eyes again, only to see a scary-looking Ferdinand right in front of me. He picked me up so suddenly that I jerked in surprise, then he climbed down the staircase and handed me over to Fran, who was worriedly waiting at the bottom. 

“Fran, ensure that she recovers before it is time to depart for the castle.” 

“As you wish,” Fran replied with a diligent nod, walking away with me in his arms. 

As soon as we were back in my chambers, I was made to drink a potion and then sent to bed with a collection of wooden boards, all of which contained essential details about the baptism ceremony. 

“There is also reading material available, so rest in bed at your leisure until it is time to leave.” 

“O-Okay...” 

I picked up one of the wooden boards and started to read; it was impossible to defy Fran when he wore such a chilly smile. 

And so days passed with me doing nothing but studying for the baptism ceremony and giving instructions to people. Before I knew it, it was time for us to leave for the castle. 

This year, we were going to arrive the day before the baptism ceremony. Fran had mentioned that this was due to Ferdinand delaying our departure for as long as possible, since he imagined that I would find it easier to relax in the temple than the castle. Thanks to him, I could take on Charlotte’s baptism ceremony at full strength. 

Rihyarda and Ottilie changed me into my ceremonial High Bishop robes first thing in the morning. Then, after making sure my new hair stick from Tuuli was properly in place, I exited my room. 

I arrived at the grand hall even earlier than last year, making sure I was there before Charlotte, and was promptly taken to a waiting room. Cornelius was serving as my guard knight, wearing his Royal Academy cape and brooch. 

The front gate to the castle’s main building was visible through the waiting room window, and I could see carriage after carriage starting to arrive. Nobles and their families would step out of one carriage, with their attendants alighting from another close behind. Some of these attendants—presumably the music teachers—were carrying instruments. 

“There certainly are a lot of people...” I murmured. 

“This sudden influx is only natural, since all the nobles in Ehrenfest gather on the first and last days,” Cornelius said with a small smile as he, too, looked out the window. Highbeasts were swooping down from the sky and landing as well, making things even more crowded. I could imagine the grand hall was already filled with people. 

“I see you’ve arrived, Rozemyne.” 

Ferdinand entered the room, also wearing his ceremonial robes. There was a brief period of waiting before a scholar came to get us, announcing that it was time for our appearance in the grand hall. 

When I entered with Ferdinand, everything was set up the same way as the year before, with the altar at the middle of the stage. The audience was again divided down the middle: on the left facing the stage were the archducal couple and their retainers; on the right were the musicians with harspiels and the families of the kids to be baptized with their magic rings. 

The two of us walked down the center of the grand hall, Ferdinand taking a single step for every three or four of mine. We climbed up the stage and sat down, at which point he grumbled something about how slow I was. It was a bit late for him to be complaining about that, though. 

Sylvester the archduke climbed up the stage once we were seated. 

“Once again, Ewigeliebe the God of Life has hidden away Geduldh the Goddess of Earth. We must all pray for the return of spring,” he announced, marking the beginning of winter socializing. The nobles held up their shining schtappes and prayed for the Goddess of Spring to heal as soon as possible. 

Sylvester then discussed the incident during autumn’s hunting tournament and the resulting punishments. He announced that Wilfried was no longer guaranteed to become the next aub, that his memories had been searched, and that the guilty nobles had been punished. 

The punishments themselves weren’t particularly severe, since the nobles had acted within a legal gray area without committing any substantial crimes. There was a demotion here, a pay drop and a fine there... But they were being revealed as criminals to all of noble society, and everyone knew this would erase their chances of receiving important positions or promotions henceforth. 

That would serve as their true punishment. 

Once the detailed reports were over, it was finally time for the baptism ceremony and winter debuts. The archduke returned to the audience, while I moved to the center of the stage and stepped up onto the box prepared for me, taking care not to tread on my robes. 

Ferdinand then came up next to me. “We welcome the new children of Ehrenfest,” he said, his voice resounding through the grand hall. 

The musicians all started to play at once, then the main doors slowly opened and the children lined up behind them started walking inside. Charlotte, as the daughter of the archduke, was at the very front. I could see her expression stiffen as she noticed all the eyes on her. 

Charlotte was wearing what one would expect for a winter baptism: warm, fluffy white clothes, the decorations and embroidery of which were red, the divine color of winter. Her red collar made of wool and the red flowers on the hair stick I had lent her made her blonde, almost silver hair stand out even more than usual. 

Her worried indigo eyes fell on me, and I returned a small smile. 

Do your best, Charlotte. I’ll be doing my best, too. 

The children briefly stopped in front of the stage. I gestured for them to climb up, maintaining eye contact with Charlotte as they all formed a line. 

Eleven children had their baptism ceremonies this year, five of whom were being baptized now. The process was largely the same as last year, the main difference being that I was performing the ceremony as High Bishop. 

Ferdinand’s voice resounded clearly throughout the grand hall as he regaled the audience with tales from the bible. When he was done, I called the children over one at a time, starting with the laynobles and ending with my dear little sister. 

“Charlotte,” I said, and she approached with a happy smile. 

I pinched the mana-detecting magic tool between thin pieces of mana-blocking leather and held it out. She gripped it, and the watching nobles applauded as it began to shine. I then took out a medal, pressing the magic tool against it like a stamp to register her mana to it. 

“Five gods have granted you their divine protection: Light, Water, Fire, Wind, and Earth. If you dedicate yourself to becoming worthy of this protection, you will surely receive many more blessings.” 

Once the mana registration was complete, Ferdinand briskly took the medal and placed it in the organized box. At the same time, Sylvester climbed up onto the stage carrying a magic ring used for emitting mana. He slid it onto Charlotte’s finger with a gentle smile, no doubt overjoyed at how much his beloved daughter had grown. 

“I grant this ring to you, Charlotte, now that you have been recognized by the gods and the people as my daughter. Congratulations.” 

“I thank you ever so much, Father.” 

Charlotte happily stroked the red feystone ring that was now on her left middle finger. Sylvester raised his head, his eyes signaling for me to continue, so I nodded and gave Charlotte a blessing. 

“May Geduldh the Goddess of Earth bless you, Charlotte.” 

With that, the red light of a blessing shot from my ring and onto her. In truth, these blessings had proven harder than anything else I had needed to practice for this baptism ceremony, since it was extremely difficult for me to adjust how much mana I put into them. 

According to Ferdinand, my emotions had a considerable impact on my blessings, for better or worse. Had I not restrained myself, then I would have subconsciously given Charlotte a much larger blessing than the other noble children. Such favoritism wouldn’t be acceptable for the High Bishop at a baptism ceremony, so I had been forced to spend a ton of time learning to exercise more control. 

My training had evidently been successful though, as I ended up giving her a blessing that was pretty much equivalent to the ones everyone else received. I internally let out a sigh of relief. 

This time, Charlotte poured mana into her own ring, and the floaty red light flew my way as she thanked me for the blessing. The crowd of nobles clapped at the spectacle, and thus ended my little sister’s baptism ceremony. 

“Now then, we shall offer our prayers to the gods and dedicate our music to them.” 

The winter debut followed the baptism ceremony. We would be rejoicing over the baptized children entering noble society, praying for the gods to continue providing their divine protection, and playing harspiel while singing in dedication to them. 

A chair was placed in the middle of the stage, and just like last year, the laynoble children were the first to perform. I would call a name, and the summoned child would nervously come and sit down. Their music teacher would then bring up their harspiel and hand it to them with brief words of encouragement. 

At the end of each performance, I would give the same response: “You have done well. The gods are surely rejoicing.” I would then call up the next child, all the while sweating at the thought of accidentally mixing up their names or the order in which they were to perform. 

“Charlotte,” I eventually called. As the archduke’s daughter, her performance came last. She sat in the chair, accepted her harspiel, then got into position. 

Ooh, she’s good. That’s my little sister for you! 

Unlike Wilfried, who had just barely scraped by after skipping out on years of practice, Charlotte had clearly taken her studies as a child of the archduke quite seriously. Her playing was exceptionally beautiful, and as her older sister, I would need to continue practicing myself so that I didn’t fall behind. 

“You have done very well,” I said. “The gods are surely rejoicing.” 

“Thank you.” 

With that, Charlotte descended the stage, thus ending the winter debut. Ferdinand delivered the closing words, then the two of us exited the grand hall together. 

“Ferdinand. Milady. We must get you both changed during the Gifting Ceremony,” Rihyarda said. 

Our work was done as High Bishop and High Priest, but now we needed to participate in society as nobles. The Gifting Ceremony had nothing to do with us, since it was simply when the archduke gave capes and brooches to the new students going to the Royal Academy, which meant it was an ideal opportunity for us to get ready. 

After the ceremony, they would announce when the students were due to leave for the Royal Academy, so Damuel and Brigitte were currently serving as my guard knights. 

“Hurry, everyone!” Rihyarda barked while briskly walking forward, compelling Damuel and Brigitte to start jogging down the hall. I made Lessy move faster as well to keep up with them. 

We entered the room and found Ottilie waiting with my clothes ready. She and Rihyarda took me out of my High Bishop robes, then changed me into an outfit that was predominantly red. 

“Come now, milady. You must hurry.” 

Once my hair had been smoothed down and my hair stick was put back in, Rihyarda practically drove me out of the room. I got into my highbeast and sped to the dining hall where lunch was being prepared. 

“You did wonderfully as the High Bishop. Lady Charlotte is surely overjoyed,” Rihyarda praised. And so I entered the dining hall with a goofy grin on my face. The Gifting Ceremony was complete, and everyone was waiting for my arrival. 

“My apologies for the wait,” I said as I took my seat. 

“Worry not, Rozemyne. It was Charlotte who so desperately begged for you to be the one to bless her during her baptism. Preparing in time was quite the ordeal, was it not?” Florencia asked with a kind smile, commending my efforts. 

“Not at all. I would do anything to grant the request of my darling little sister,” I replied with an elegant smile and a shake of my head. 

In reality, it really had been an ordeal—so much so, in fact, that I had felt half dead while performing the ceremony. But I put my all into it nonetheless, entirely so that I could secure the praise and respect of my cute little sister. 

“You were an excellent High Bishop, Rozemyne. And so lovely,” Charlotte said, her indigo eyes sparkling with admiration. “I hope to be just like you one day.” 

Yes! This is what I wanted! My hard work has been rewarded! 

After lunch, we returned to the grand hall to begin socializing. This was when we exchanged greetings with the adults. 

I had missed out on the socializing last year: granting a huge blessing during my debut had resulted in lunch and the Gifting Ceremony being swapped around, and then I was promptly scooted out before the nobles could greet me. This year, however, my attendance was mandatory; we three children of the archduke needed to travel the hall together to show the other nobles that, despite the issues Wilfried had caused, there were absolutely no problems between us. 

I looked around to see all the nobles laughing in conversation, then hurriedly clutched my stomach. It wasn’t that I had eaten too much during lunch; rather, it was hurting from the stress of thinking about what was coming next. 

Just how many people in here are my enemies...? Mother’s list couldn’t have covered them all, and enemies I don’t know about are absolutely the scariest. 

While I had memorized every name on the list that Elvira had given me, I hadn’t yet paired them with faces. Wilfried and Charlotte had also been given lists covering the former members of the Veronica faction, but it was unlikely they had managed to memorize all the names in such a short space of time. 

“Lady Rozemyne, Lord Wilfried, Lady Charlotte—I wish you all a good afternoon.” 

We started off greeting members of the Florencia faction and making casual conversation, so the pain in my stomach eased a little. It helped that I was putting my all into this; as Charlotte’s older sister, I needed to be her guide into women’s society. 

But after we had finished speaking to those in the Florencia faction and started talking to the nobles prodding for information about the hunting tournament incident, well... my stomach was in constant agony. 

Nobles would approach Wilfried with wide grins spread across their faces, but I would step forward to block them, shielding him and Charlotte behind my back while giving the standard formal greetings. I didn’t fail to keep up my elegant smile, even when I knew those we were speaking to were on the blacklist. 

“We are anxious that a soft cloth has drifted to the Ivory Tower,” the nobles would say, to which I would reply, “Schutzaria the Goddess of Wind protected him such that he would not leap out from beneath the lion. Isn’t that right, Wilfried?” This prompted them to leave with a bemused, “Ah, I see,” but the thought of more conversations like that coming one after another made me feel sick. 

“Rozemyne, what was that noble saying?” Wilfried asked me quietly, despite having nodded along in agreement just a second ago. I looked around to make sure that our guard knights were surrounding us before whispering back. 

“They’re wondering if you meeting with Lady Veronica in the Ivory Tower is a sign that you joined the former Veronica faction.” 

“What did you tell them, dear sister?” Charlotte asked. 

“That there was obviously no chance Wilfried would ever leave Aub Ehrenfest.” 

Wilfried simply blinked at me. “That’s confusing... Why do you know euphemisms like that, Rozemyne?” 

“Because Ferdinand beat them into my head specifically for today.” 

He had told me to stand in the line of fire, since Wilfried didn’t understand the euphemisms and Charlotte had no prior experience speaking with nobles due to having only just been baptized. It was my job to handle these interactions in their place, which meant learning all sorts of subtle insults and ironic expressions that those here would most likely be using to refer to the incident. 

“All because of my mistake...” Wilfried murmured, visibly frustrated. “Forgive me.” 

“Um, Rozemyne... Did my request perhaps put you in a difficult situation?” Charlotte asked. 

“Oh, don’t worry about that,” I replied to Charlotte. “This was all something I needed to learn sooner or later as the High Bishop.” 

Despite my attendants and guardians surrounding us, the socializing continued to be painfully stressful. But it eventually came to an end, and as we were enjoying the delicious-looking food that was lined up in the grand hall, seventh bell mercilessly rang. 

“We should be taking our leave. It is now time for the adults to converse.” 

“Yeah. Father, Mother—please excuse us.” 

“Good job today. May you sleep well with Schlaftraum’s blessing.” 

After exchanging the noble form of “goodnight” with the archducal couple, we started heading toward the doors leading out of the grand hall, all the while performing the same greeting with those we passed. We happened upon Bonifatius on the way, so I called out to him. 

“Good evening, Lord Bonifatius.” 

“May you sleep well with Schlaftraum’s blessing.” 

“Thank you.” 

The three of us continued saying goodnight to those we knew, until we eventually exited the grand hall. We had one attendant and four guard knights each, and I felt my heart lighten just from knowing that nobody was staring at us anymore. 

“I’m glad that ended safely,” I said. “That should be the most time we spend around adults for a good while.” 

“Right. Tomorrow’s karuta in the playroom,” Wilfried added. “I’ll show you how much I’ve improved after a whole year of training.” 

“I’ve improved too, and so has everyone else, dear brother.” 

I explained to Charlotte what the playroom was like as we walked through the main building and started making our way to the northern building. But when we were between the two, something caught my eye. I could have sworn that I saw a window move slightly. 

“Oh?” 

“What is it, Lady Rozemyne?” Damuel asked. 

“I believe that window just moved. Would you take a closer look for me?” 

“As you wish.” 

“I’m sure it was just my imagination,” I reassured Charlotte, but I had Damuel check things out just in case. 

“It’s unlocked...” he muttered. But no sooner had the words escaped him than the window was flung open. Ten adults covered entirely in black cloth leapt into the castle, weapons in hand. 

“Eep!” 

“Who are these people?!” 

The guard knights moved at once to protect their charges, turning their schtappes into weapons and encircling the attackers to block them in. They glared at the intruders, who glowered back in turn. 

Charlotte and I were on the side closer to the northern building, while Wilfried was closer to the main building. We were separated. 

“Leave this to us! Half attack, half defend!” 

Damuel and Brigitte joined with two of the guard knights protecting Charlotte and two protecting Wilfried, then they all charged the attackers with their weapons drawn, starting a chaotic brawl. 

“Wilfried! Run to the main building and call for help!” I yelled. “Lamprecht, hurry!” 

In an instant, Oswald picked up Wilfried and rushed toward the main building. Lamprecht and another guard followed after them, weapons in hand. 

“Rozemyne, we should hurry to the northern building! There is a barrier there!” 

I hurriedly turned around and saw two of Charlotte’s guard knights running to the northern building with her, having no doubt been trained to flee there in times of danger. But right now, we didn’t have any knights who could respond to new attackers. 

Sweat trickled down my cheeks. I undid my seat belt and leaned out the window of my Pandabus to yell again. “Charlotte, wait! It’s dangerous!” 

Moments before Charlotte reached the hall to the northern building, three more attackers clad in black leapt through another window. The two guard knights defending her responded instantly, but there was no one to stop the third attacker from picking her up and leaping back out the window. 

“Charlotte!” 

“Kyaaah!” 

There was a loud flapping noise; then a winged horse came into view just outside the window. I swallowed hard, taken aback by the sudden appearance of a highbeast. This meant we were dealing with nobles. 

The kidnapper holding Charlotte got his highbeast to spread its wings wide, and then they shot up into the dark, wintry sky.