Court Etiquette and Hirschur’s Visit
We exited the library and stepped into the hallway, which connected to the buildings for scholars and attendants. Wilfried and I instructed the apprentice scholars and attendants serving as our retainers to go to their respective buildings, while we returned to the central building with our apprentice knights and the first- and second-years.
When we got back, Judithe and the second-years headed for the auditorium, Philine and her group went to the laynoble classrooms, and then Roderick and his group went to the classroom for mednobles. We archduke candidates went to the same hall as usual, but proper court etiquette was extremely nuanced and changed in subtle ways depending on one’s status, so a separate classroom was being used for archnobles.
Once we arrived, our adult retainers said they would return for us later, then left.
“You sure look motivated, Rozemyne,” Wilfried noted as we headed inside.
“But of course. My grand return to the library relies on me passing these classes as soon as possible. I intend to have my court etiquette studies over and done with by the end of the day.”
Despite all my efforts so far, the closest I had gotten to my dream was touring the first floor of the library. I hadn’t even been able to read a single book! I was going to pass these practical lessons and then hole up among the bookshelves, no matter what it took.
“I’d even give up my life if it meant finally gaining complete access to the library...” I added.
“Er, well... It’s good that you’re motivated,” Wilfried said, sitting on one of the seats labeled “thirteen” before muttering something about how things probably wouldn’t go as well as I was expecting.
“First-years are expected to know court etiquette for greetings and the proper way to behave at tea parties,” our professor—a woman called Primevere—began. “As I’m sure you’re all aware, once your lessons are over, tea parties between duchies will be held for diplomatic and social purposes. A common and shared understanding of etiquette is necessary so that you do not displease each other at these gatherings. You have all been educated in the basics, but there is a tendency for archduke candidates to become slack over time, and their status as the highest authorities in their home duchies often makes them inexperienced at maintaining a polite form. To that end, we will be holding a faux tea party here in class, with the idea being that a member of the royal family has invited you. We will see how your court etiquette withstands a meeting with an individual of such superior status, and I am sure the experience will serve as a useful reference for you all moving forward.”
In our mock tea party, Professor Primevere would be posing as the theoretical royal in question, while three assistant professors would observe our etiquette and mark us based on the contents of our conversations, our expressions, the manner in which we ate and drank, and so on. Due to how thorough these checks were going to be, we were divided into two groups: archduke candidates from the first to tenth duchies, and candidates from the eleventh to the bottom duchy.
“We shall begin with the higher-ranked archduke candidates,” Primevere announced, prompting the higher-ranking archduke candidates to stand. Their first task was to greet the royal who had invited them to the tea party, starting with the highest-ranked student.
It was clear from the way the highest-ranking candidates held themselves that they had plenty of prior experience to work with; they lined up smoothly, then started the greetings without hesitation. Philine had mentioned that court etiquette teachers tended to be gentle and overall quite relaxed in nature, and that few students ever failed, so I initially watched the proceedings without much interest.
“Please try again from the very beginning.”
“...What?”
Much to my surprise, however, one student after another received a failing mark at the very first stage. Primevere merely shook her head at them, wearing a calm smile that left no room for debate.
“That is simply not good enough for a tea party with royalty. Archduke candidates must be better,” she said. “Future archdukes will invariably have meetings and tea parties with the royal family at the Archduke Conference, so it will do you well to focus as much as possible.”
It seemed that passing this class right away was going to be harder than I thought. I straightened my back and watched as the higher-ranking archduke candidates all steeled themselves. No matter how closely I examined them, however, I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with their greetings—they all seemed very much by the book. Each student was made to repeat themselves at least once, and thus began a somewhat awkward tea party.
The way Primevere’s staring them down and making them repeat themselves over and over... it feels like one of those job interviews where the interviewer is deliberately trying to psych you out. Is she just seeing how they react to being bossed around unfairly, since archduke candidates are used to being of a higher status than those around them?
The others and I were watching from a considerable distance away, so we couldn’t hear the exact contents of their conversations. I could, however, tell that some of the students had already wilted under the pressure of being made to repeat themselves again and again. They began each attempt with nervously wavering eyes, desperately trying to ensure they weren’t doing anything wrong to avoid being failed again.
“This seems even harder than expected...” Wilfried muttered to me under his breath. Primevere wasn’t making the students repeat themselves anymore, but those serving as attendants behind her and the other professors were now writing on their boards. It would probably be wise to consider them part of the “interview” as well.
“It seems Dregarnuhr the Goddess of Time has woven today’s threads with exceptional speed and grace,” Primevere intoned. It was a euphemism that pretty much meant, “Time flies when you’re having fun.”
With that, the faux tea party came to a close. The higher-ranking archduke candidates said their farewells before going back to their seats, while those playing the roles of attendants cleaned up after them, then began replacing the tea and sweets for us lower-ranking archduke candidates. Meanwhile, the professors looked at the boards they had been writing on and started announcing the results.
“Ninth, you must take care to remain graceful. Pay more attention to how you move your fingers.”
“My apologies.”
“Third, do not speak only of yourself; also listen to those around you.”
“Second, you are an archduke candidate of a greater duchy. Act confidently and carry yourself with more dignity.”
“Seventh...”
Judging by the professors’ feedback, the most important thing to remember was to keep one’s composure no matter how tense the situation became. One needed to wear a confident smile at all times and refrain from ever looking down at the floor—the very same rules that had constantly been drilled into me since I started my life as a noble.
Remain graceful. Watch your surroundings. I should be fine as long as I follow Mother’s teachings.
“Lord Wilfried and Lady Rozemyne of the Thirteenth. Please enter.”
The exam was already well underway by the time we were called. We had been told ahead of time that it included waiting elsewhere and arriving at the tea party, so I straightened my back as elegantly as possible before extending a hand to Wilfried with a pleasant smile. He blinked in surprise, having not expected my request for him to escort me, then took my hand at once. It would have been difficult—if not impossible—for me to gracefully stand up from my seat without his help.
When the two of us arrived before Primevere, Wilfried greeted her first. He knelt, crossed his arms in front of his chest, and bowed his head. “May I pray for a blessing in appreciation of this serendipitous meeting, ordained by the harsh judgment of Ewigeliebe the God of Life?”
“Try again.”
Wilfried momentarily lowered his eyes, having expected that response, then repeated the greeting as instructed. Primevere made him do it twice more, watching him quietly all the while. I could see that he was gritting his teeth in frustration.
“That is enough, Lord Wilfried,” Primevere eventually said with a small sigh, waving a hand to dismiss him. He stood up and silently left.
It was my turn to step forward next. I met Primevere’s watchful gaze, smiled once, then knelt gracefully before crossing both arms in front of my chest. “May I pray for a blessing in appreciation of this serendipitous meeting, ordained by the harsh judgment of Ewigeliebe the God of Life?”
“Try again.”
“As you wish.” I deepened my business smile, then gave the greeting again, this time speaking even more politely than before.
“You may.”
I was able to secure passing marks on my second try. As I moved to my seat at the tea party table, Wilfried, who had been waiting to escort me, muttered a frustrated, “You managed it after a single repeat, huh?”
“The trick is to imagine her not as a professor, but as true royalty,” I advised, all the while maintaining my polite smile and continuing to face forward.
“I did,” Wilfried replied, though I could tell he wasn’t truly aware of what I meant. He had barely ever interacted with people of a higher status than himself, so even though he thought he understood how to treat Primevere as royalty, he didn’t get it in the slightest.
“Lord Wilfried. Here is your seat,” said one of the professors.
Wilfried instinctively moved in the direction indicated to him, forcing me to pinch his arm and smile harder. That seemed to get the message across, as he immediately turned and started guiding me to my seat instead. I made sure to courteously raise a hand to the professor along the way.
I clearly needed to give Wilfried some advice, but we naturally couldn’t exchange many words with the professors and those playing the roles of attendants watching our every move. Brevity was crucial.
Unlike the archduke candidates of the higher-ranking duchies, who had truly never had anyone they needed to bow their heads to, Wilfried was no stranger to being reprimanded for his mistakes. This was partly the reason he had ultimately grown used to bowing his head to Ferdinand, someone he had once hated. So long as he used these experiences to his advantage, this lesson would surely be easy for him.
“Wilfried,” I whispered, “Ferdinand is here watching us.”
Upon hearing those words, Wilfried straightened his back in an instant. He was still facing forward with a smile, but his eyes had started to wander nervously. It seemed my message had proven effective.
“This is my seat. Thank you ever so much, Wilfried.” I expressed my gratitude with an encouraging smile once he had escorted me to my chair. Wilfried returned a smile brimming with newfound confidence, then went to his own seat.
“Lady Rozemyne,” one of the attendants said while pulling back my chair for me. It was much higher than I had expected, causing me to blink in surprise.
Climbing up onto the chair was certainly an option, but doing so would hardly be graceful. I gazed up at the attendant and placed a hand on my cheek in a textbook gesture of worry. It had worked on Fran and many others, so it would surely work on someone trained to be an attendant...
Or so I thought. The attendant merely blinked back at me in confusion, not even attempting to lift me onto the chair.
Is this part of the exam? I wondered, still maintaining the worried pose. What’s the best move I can make here?
The ideal situation would have been for the attendant to lift me up right away, but it seemed they were testing me to see what I did with an attendant who was slow on the uptake. It was clearly unacceptable for me to climb onto the chair myself, and asking for her to pick me up directly was far too demeaning for the daughter of an archduke. I could never, ever admit weakness like that.
Is the right answer to find a way to overcome my weakness, or to complain about the attendant? Hm... I’m theoretically dealing with royalty here, so...
The attendant and I stared each other down, and soon enough, I realized that I was the only one who hadn’t yet taken my seat. I could tell that I was being watched not only by the archduke candidates attending the mock tea party, but also by the higher-ranking archduke candidates who had already finished theirs.
“Is something the matter, Lady Rozemyne?” Primevere asked.
I turned to face her, my hand still on my cheek. “Professor Primevere, we are to act as though this is a tea party being hosted by royalty, correct?”
“Yes, that is certainly correct,” Primevere replied, an interested smile playing on her lips. This was probably the most important part of the exam for me, in which case it was crucial that I maintain my noble air and not break my poise. I was a guest invited to a tea party by royalty; there was no need for me to cover for a mere attendant.
“Professor Primevere, is this attendant a recent hire? I am rather surprised they would make a mistake such as this, but please do not scold them too much,” I said.
It was exceedingly rude for a host to not understand the circumstances of their guests. Each time Elvira had arranged a tea party, she had made sure to stress to me the importance of catering to those you invited, whether that be meeting their preferences, adjusting their seating arrangements, or managing any personal treatment they required. In this regard, it was important to inform the on-duty attendants what would need to be prepared and what would need to be done on the day of. The rudeness of an attendant was, by extension, the rudeness of whomever they served.
In the case of this tea party, the host was expected to know I was smaller than average and would thus struggle to sit down on my own. Preparations should have been made to ensure I was not inconvenienced, so by asking whether the attendant was a recent hire, I was indirectly pointing out that the host had neglected to gather information properly, inform their attendant of what to do, or adequately train them in the first place. In a sense, I was accusing them of minor laziness.
“Oh my. What a disaster,” Primevere exclaimed. She rang a bell while directing the attendant behind me to step down, and in an instant, another attendant arrived to help me onto my chair. The fact that everything had been settled with a single ring of a bell suggested she had indeed gathered information in advance and informed her attendants about my issue, so in this case, the problem was nothing more than a single incompetent attendant.
“I do apologize for the inexperienced attendant, Lady Rozemyne.”
“Think nothing of it. It has been difficult to acquire high-quality attendants as of late,” I replied with a graceful smile, now sitting on my chair. It was then that I noticed the attendant standing behind Primevere write something down.
With that, the tea party truly began. I treated it like a group discussion with food and drinks included, throwing harmless softballs to the kids who were silently nursing their tea to get them involved, pretending to listen to those raving passionately about one thing or another, and flattering the host by praising the tea and sweets she served.
All in all, I worked pretty hard. A few problems arose in the form of clearly manufactured accidents, no doubt to see how we would react in the moment, and I made my decisions while looking around to see what the others were doing.
There were a few instances where Wilfried was goaded slightly, much like he had been when we initially greeted Primevere, but he handled it much more smoothly and with a courteous smile. My warning that Ferdinand was watching really had worked.
“Lord Wilfried and Lady Rozemyne of the Thirteenth have passed,” Primevere soon announced. “They would do fine at any tea party held in the Royal Academy.”
In the end, Wilfried and I were the only ones to pass court etiquette on our first day. I contained the joy swelling within me, doing my best to keep my smile elegant.
“I am honored,” I replied.
The faux tea party was over, but I could still feel Primevere’s eyes on me. I made a mental note to save my excitement for when I was back at the dormitory, and so I continued acting with grace even after leaving the classroom.
“I PASSED COURT ETIQUETTE!” I yelled to Rihyarda with a beaming smile the very second the dormitory door shut behind me. The sudden outburst was enough to shock my gathered retainers, while Wilfried’s retainers looked at their charge with worry.
“And you, Lord Wilfried...?”
“I passed too, but only thanks to Rozemyne. Her words really did work wonders,” Wilfried noted, making his gratitude more than apparent.
Rihyarda blinked, her curiosity quite evidently piqued. “Wilfried, my boy... what did she say to you?”
“I simply told him that Ferdinand was watching us,” I said.
While I was asleep, Wilfried had not only led the playroom, but also performed both Spring Prayer and the Harvest Festival in my place. This had meant spending time with Ferdinand whether he liked it or not, and since Rihyarda knew this all too well, the revelation of my warning made her cackle.
“Bwahaha! I said it would all pay off one day, my boy, and it seems that day came a lot sooner than we expected!”
“Yup.”
I went to the common room after getting changed into new clothes, where I observed the others making study documents and purchasing information. I was trying to refrain from making any study documents myself, since that would mean stealing work from the laynobles. Instead, I simply pointed out when their handwriting wasn’t good enough, or when their grammar was poor.
While everyone was using trial and error to figure out the best way to make money, I planned ahead for my next class. What could I do to hasten my grand return to the library? I had passed court etiquette, which meant I now needed to focus on my dedication whirl, music, highbeast, and schtappe acquisition practical lessons.
We were just practicing the dedication whirl this year, so I really doubted the professors would expect much from us. I decided to simply focus on the fundamentals; the most important thing for me was ensuring I didn’t accidentally pray to the gods and cause any unnecessary problems.
When it came to music, I had already been invited to a tea party by the professors, which surely meant I was above average. I just needed to negotiate a passing grade in exchange for publicizing a new song or two.
My first highbeast class had been suspended after Fraularm collapsed, but things would most likely continue from where they had left off. According to Hirschur, a passing grade would be awarded once a student could take their highbeast outside and fly one loop around the Academy grounds, so I had nothing to worry about.
As long as Professor Fraularm doesn’t collapse again, that is...
I was sure I could avoid any trouble by getting Hirschur to assist Fraularm next time, but I really doubted she would ever interrupt her research to take on extra, unnecessary work. The only way I could secure her help was by making it somehow worth her while.
And tomorrow is schtappe acquisition...
The first-years would all enter a place known as the Farthest Hall to gather feystones known as the Divine Will, which served as the main building block for schtappes. I was worried that I would be unable to properly gather one, but Cornelius assured me that everything would be fine; I would apparently understand why the moment I got there.
That said, there was more to the lesson than simply acquiring the feystone—I would also need to build a schtappe and learn the basics of using it.
“Where is Lady Rozemyne?” came Hirschur’s voice. She had rushed into the common room right as I was summarizing my thoughts on how to pass my lessons. I blinked at her in surprise. For someone the older students had said only came to the dormitory on the first and final days of each semester, she sure was appearing a lot.
“What do you need today?” I asked, drawing her attention to me.
“I just heard from a student that the library’s magic tools were revived,” she said, striding over with a fervent look of excitement on her face. “How did you manage it? I am certain they were surrounded by a protective magic circle that prevented anyone but their master from touching them.”
In the past, those who had touched Schwartz and Weiss unprompted were apparently thrown back, which told me a bit about what crazy things protective charms could do. How had she figured out I was the one responsible though? It could have been any one of the Ehrenfest students in the reading room.
“Why do you think I am the one who revived them?” I asked.
Hirschur rolled her eyes. “Because the Ehrenfest first-years were seen touring the library with two large shumils, one black and one white. It does not take a genius to deduce who among them was responsible. You, Lady Rozemyne, are the only person who continually commits such unprecedented acts, and you failed to inform me of this one.”
“I didn’t think activating Schwartz and Weiss was something that demanded your attention, especially considering how busy you are,” I replied.
Judging by the excitement lurking in Hirschur’s eyes, I could guess she cared less about being kept up to date as our dorm supervisor, and more about experimenting on Schwartz and Weiss. As their new master, I had to protect them from her.
“Schwartz and Weiss cannot leave the library.”
“...I believe they can, if you are with them.”
“I will not let you disassemble them,” I said with a glare.
“Goodness me. I would never do such a thing. I simply want to remove their clothes.”
“...Do you have a thing for removing the clothes of magic tools, Professor Hirschur?” I asked, getting on the defensive in case she was even more of a weirdo than I thought.
“I am a professor specializing in the creation of magic tools,” she shot back with a wry smile. “It is only natural that I would want to learn more about two special magic tools, the designs of which remain a mystery to the world. As far as I know, the parts of their bodies hidden by their clothing offer clues as to how they were created. I simply wish to see those parts for myself.” There was no mistaking the scholarly look in her eyes, but she still wanted to see them without their clothes on; my fears were more than justified.
“As their new master, it is my duty to protect Schwartz and Weiss. There is too much work at the library for Professor Solange to reasonably handle alone,” I said.
Hirschur knitted her slender brows together as she pondered the situation, then began tapping her temple with a finger, just as Ferdinand always did when he thought things over.
Oh my gosh. Ferdinand really did get a bunch of his quirks from Professor Hirschur.
As I cackled on the inside, Hirschur seemed to have a sudden epiphany. Her head shot up, her lips curved into a grin, and the eye behind her monocle glimmered with interest. “As I recall, Lady Rozemyne... it is tradition for Schwartz and Weiss’s master to award them with new clothes, correct?”
“...Is that so?” I replied, doing my best to play dumb. Hirschur had been in the Royal Academy for a very long time, but I had no idea how much she knew about the subject. It seemed that my momentary hesitation was all she needed to confirm her suspicions, however, as her smile immediately broadened.
“Do allow me to accompany you while you are measuring them and changing their clothes,” she said. “Naturally, I will not touch them, nor remove the clothes myself.”
As far as I was concerned, that excuse was no better than saying something like, “Just let me follow you into the shower. Don’t worry though, I won’t strip you myself.”
Before I could protest, however, Hirschur continued. “If you allow this, I will serve as the presiding professor for your remaining magecraft lessons. You are not allowed to enter the library until you have passed all of your classes, correct? I assure you, it will take you a very long time to secure a passing grade in your highbeast lessons with how much Fraularm currently resents you.”
She’s... She’s a demon! Hirschur is a demon seducing her students to the dark side!
After an intense battle of wits, I ultimately succumbed to the whispers of a demon who would make my life easier all the way to graduation.
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