Ascendance of a Bookworm (LN) - Volume 3.5 - Chapter 5

Conditions for Compressing Mana 

Eckhart and Karstedt inhaled with surprise, but Ferdinand simply raised an interested eyebrow. “Continue,” he said. 

“First, it must only be shown to those who have already learned the method taught in the Royal Academy,” I explained. “This is a life-and-death technique, so I have absolutely no intention of showing it to people who can’t already compress mana on their own.” 

Ferdinand, Eckhart, and Karstedt all nodded along slowly, as if my first condition were only natural. Damuel alone stood there awkwardly, clearly more concerned about whether or not he would be punished than what we were talking about now. 

“Second, my technique may be taught only to those in the same faction as me. I have no intention of helping my opposition to get more mana.” 

It was purely because of my mana capacity that I had been accommodated as an apprentice blue shrine maiden and then adopted as the archduke’s daughter, despite being a commoner. I wanted to preserve my superiority in that regard at least a little, and even I knew that it wouldn’t be safe to aid my enemies like this. 

“Restricting my technique so that only those in the Florencia faction increase their mana capacities would help to destabilize the Georgine faction, would it not?” I continued. “And with Sylvester set on Wilfried becoming the next archduke, this should be a good way of showing that he’s firmly on our side.” 

Georgine’s supporters were desperate to absorb Wilfried into their faction, but having both him and the archduke deny these ties, as well as making it clear that Wilfried was a member of the Florencia faction, would cause any rumors about such an alliance to die out over time. The only reason such hearsay existed in the first place was because there was a lot of uncertainty in politics and Wilfried wasn’t yet properly educated, so all we needed to do was tie him to his parents more. 

“Would that not give you full control over the selection process?” Ferdinand asked. “I cannot say I would feel safe leaving such an important matter to your discretion.” 

“I’m still not all that familiar with noble politics myself, so I feel the same way.” 

I barely knew anything about which nobles had connections to which. It already took everything that I had to memorize the names of all the nobles related to my own family, and to put together a blacklist based on Bezewanst’s letters. But neither group was necessarily set in stone, and the value of what was at stake would surely cause people to become desperate, so I didn’t want to be in a position where it was solely my call whether or not any given noble was trustworthy. 

“Instead,” I continued, “I propose that nobles should need the approval of six different people: the archducal couple, as they hold the highest authority in Ehrenfest; you, Ferdinand, since you can use your wealth of knowledge to make rational decisions not influenced by emotion; Father, because he is the pillar of our military as knight commander; Mother, as she is the de facto leader of the Florencia faction; and lastly me, since I am the one providing the mana compression method.” 

Most of the people listed were quite simply my guardians; if someone had all of their approvals, then it was hard to imagine they would turn out to be one of my enemies. That was about as much insurance as I could ask for. 

“Oh? That is quite a number of people. Is the archducal couple not enough for you?” Ferdinand asked with a slight, amused grin. 

“I personally think Sylvester would prioritize his feelings as a father, freely giving away the information no matter what faction gets involved with Wilfried, and I similarly believe that Florencia’s motherly affections would allow her heart to be swayed.” 

Karstedt gave a deep frown. “Rozemyne... are you saying that you don’t trust the archducal couple?” 

“I do trust them, but they are parents; I feel as though they’ll put their children above all else. Just as my... Just as Mom and Dad did for me.” 

Perhaps due to having met my lower city parents before, Ferdinand seemed to instantly understand what I meant. A complex expression arose on his face—a mixture of reminiscence and bitterness. “So you base your expectations of parental emotions on them...” he said. “You will find that such a perspective does not hold water in noble society.” 

“Everyone has their own thoughts on parenthood, so I don’t really care whether or not it holds water.” 

My personal opinions were rooted in my experiences with my Earth mother, who had given me all the books I could ever want, and my commoner parents, who stood up even to nobles to protect their children. 

“Furthermore,” I added, “no matter how thorough we are, our selection process won’t matter if the method leaks to other duchies, will it? I was thinking of using a magic contract to prevent the people we teach from then passing it on to others, but do there exist magic contracts of a large enough scale to cover not just Ehrenfest, but the entire country?” 

“...Such contracts do exist, though they are enormously expensive,” Ferdinand replied. This was the man who referred to large golds as small change, so just how much could they be? I was honestly afraid to ask, but without a contract like that, there was no way for us to exclusively boost Ehrenfest’s mana level. 

“Money or mana—pick one. I intend for this method to be known only in Ehrenfest, and if you aren’t willing to pay for magic contracts to ensure that, then consider this discussion over.” 

“The contracts can be arranged,” Ferdinand replied carefully, wearing the same frown that he always wore when contemplating matters of money. “It will certainly be worth using a portion of Ehrenfest’s budget.” 

“Ferdinand, could you make it such that not even married couples or siblings could teach the method to one another?” 

“Naturally, since there would be individual contracts for each noble. But why?” 

“I mainly don’t want this knowledge spreading haphazardly. Mana compression is so dangerous that several professors are present while it’s being taught, even in the Royal Academy, and accidents occur no matter how thorough the preparations are. Aren’t you the one who mentioned this to me?” 

I hadn’t forgotten when Ferdinand asked how I was still alive, or when he mentioned that it was exceedingly rare for children to successfully learn their own style of mana compression. I didn’t want something that dangerous to end up spreading like wildfire. 

“This mana compression method is so effective that it allowed me to go from being an apprentice blue shrine maiden in the temple to the archduke’s adopted daughter. I can imagine parents desperately forcing it on their mana-sparse children in a last-ditch effort to avoid them being sent to the temple, which I certainly wouldn’t want to happen.” 

In noble society, children with less mana than was desired for their house’s status were sent to the temple, or given up to be adopted by other houses of lower status. There was a chance that parents wanting to avoid this fate might force my mana compression method on their children, which would result in a massive surge of pre-baptism deaths. 

“Pre-baptism children are not considered to be people,” Ferdinand responded. 

“That’s just from a political standpoint, though. Regardless of whether or not they’re considered people by the duchy, they’re still alive. And under no circumstances do I want real, living children to be put at risk like that. This is something that I simply will not tolerate, and I wholeheartedly refuse to concede on the matter.” 

As I made my position clear, Ferdinand tightly knitted his brow and lowered his gaze. When he looked up again, there was a piercing sharpness in his light-golden eyes that would permit neither weakness nor deception. “Would your opinion remain unchanged even if some children who could have become nobles were instead sent to the temple?” he asked, his voice lower than normal. 

“I would much rather the eleven blue priests we have now than ten dead children and one noble,” I said, meeting his gaze head-on. There was an enormous difference between joining the temple and living as a noble, but even knowing that, I wouldn’t budge. 

“I see.” His eyes softened, then he placed a thoughtful hand on his chin. “As usual, I cannot understand why you would be so adamant about something that brings you absolutely no personal gain, but very well—I shall honor your wishes. Your mana compression method shall be taught only to those who meet your conditions, and they shall sign contracts that prevent them from sharing the technique among even their family members. Any other conditions?” 

“I will charge a teaching fee as well. That much is reasonable, considering how valuable the information is, yes?” 

“Hm... I did consider that myself, but would it not prevent laynobles from participating?” Ferdinand asked, tapping his temple and muttering some speculation about the optimal price. I could see Damuel pale out of the corner of my eye. 

“If your goal is to evenly spread the increase of mana,” I said, “why not charge laynobles less, raising the price more for each rank above that? Archnobles are born with enough mana that they can suffice without the method, so only those who feel there is value in the knowledge will need to buy it.” 

The color returned to Damuel’s face, but now it was Karstedt who had gone pale. He began counting on his fingers, then started cradling his head. Perhaps I would need to implement a family discount. 

“I shall accept your conditions. Now, Rozemyne—what is the principle behind your mana compression?” Ferdinand asked, a grin arising on his face. 

But I merely smiled back at him and shook my head. “That can wait until you have signed your magic contract and paid your fee, Ferdinand.” 

“I see you’ve learned to be cautious.” 

“Anyone could guess that you’re plotting something when you look at them with that villainous smirk of yours.” 

Ferdinand scoffed, then turned to look at Damuel, silently asking me what we should do with him. I directed my attention toward Damuel in turn; he looked like a criminal on trial and awaiting his sentence. 

“I taught you of my own volition, so I will ask for no fee,” I began. “But, I will have you sign a magic contract stating that you will not pass what you have learned on to anyone else, just like the others. Is that acceptable?” 

“Of course,” Damuel said, the smile on his face making it exceedingly clear that he was mostly just pleased about not needing to pay any money. 

Karstedt sighed in relief. “With Ferdinand speaking to you so casually, it seems that I have nothing to worry about.” And with our discussion about mana compression over, he began his return to Ehrenfest by highbeast. 

Just how brutal does noble society have to be for my talks with Ferdinand to seem casual...? Or is Ferdinand the brutal one here? Honestly, I don’t even want to think about it. 

We took some time to rest after having seen Karstedt off, with plans to leave for Illgner the next day. We had at least this much leeway, since the province was relatively close to Dorvan. 

“Rozemyne, as I am going to be accompanying you to Illgner, my own tax official will suffice. Justus shall be returning to Ehrenfest ahead of us. Do you have any issues with this?” Ferdinand asked. 

“Not at all.” 

I could guess that Justus had been told to investigate the unsettling air around the Georgine faction Karstedt had mentioned, plus he probably wanted to start preparing for the mana compression stuff. Justus was one of Ferdinand’s loyal retainers anyway, and not sending him to work at a time like this would be a waste of his talents. 

“Excellent. I have much to do today, and it would be an inconvenience to have you wandering about the winter mansion causing problems, so I ask that you take this and spend the rest of the day reading in your room.” 

“Understood! I won’t leave my room at all!” 

Yippee! A whole day of reading! 

Hugging the bundle of papers that Ferdinand had given me to my chest, I giddily returned to my room. When I arrived, Fran pulled back a chair for me, which I eagerly hopped onto. 

The papers were a dossier on the Georgine faction, containing the names of noble wives who attended tea parties hosted by its members, and descriptions of the almost-neutral laynobles who were friendly with them. As I leafed through it, I saw that entire family trees of the noble wives had been written out, and the last page concluded with the following lines: “I hope this proves useful to you, Lord Ferdinand. Say hello to Rozemyne for me.” 

“Mother...” 

Elvira had evidently written out this dossier and gotten Karstedt to deliver it, warning us about the upcoming danger to help us avoid whatever might happen. I could feel the love of a mother in these pages, and tears started to well up in my eyes. 

...I need to go over these and memorize all the names. 

And so I gave the dossier a very thorough read-through. As expected, many of the people on my blacklist for being friendly with Bezewanst were listed here, so I knew more than half the names already. Trying to keep track of the complex family trees, however, was enough to make my head spin.