Moving to the Castle
Time seemed to pass in the blink of an eye, and soon enough, it was time to leave for the castle. I prepared my Pandabus and called for Rosina, Ella, and Hugo to climb inside, at which point Ferdinand’s attendants started loading it with boxes of work stuff. It seemed that Ferdinand intended to stay in the castle and continue his temple duties while observing my high-density cramming lessons.
Talk about a workaholic...
“I will be returning for the autumn coming of age and winter baptism ceremonies. Do not fail to prepare for both,” Ferdinand said to his attendants. Deciding to follow his example, I turned to my own attendants.
“Even after being asleep for two years, I awoke to no problems whatsoever. I trust you all to perform your duties while I am away for the winter. Be well.”
“We pray for your safe return.”
I climbed into Lessy and followed Damuel’s highbeast up into the air. Then, with Ferdinand staying close behind, we made our way to the castle.
Angelica and Cornelius were kneeling in wait when we arrived, while Norbert came over to greet us. “Welcome back, Lady Rozemyne,” he said. “It is good to see you well again.”
“I am glad to be back.”
“Norbert, have this luggage brought to my office,” Ferdinand instructed.
Norbert rang a bell that he must have pulled out from somewhere, and in an instant, servants came pouring out of the castle to take the boxes we had brought from Lessy. Ferdinand called for me without even sparing them a glance.
“Rozemyne, come to my office once you are finished changing. I have books and documents that you will need to read.”
“Okay. I’ll try and be quick.”
“No, do not rush. You need to develop the grace and dignity expected of a ten-year-old.”
...Okay, you’ve lost me. What exactly is “the grace and dignity expected of a ten-year-old”?
Deciding to ignore that which I didn’t understand, I instead focused on Cornelius and Angelica. Cornelius was fourteen now, and it only took a glance to see he wasn’t a little boy anymore—he looked much more like an adult, and while he wasn’t super muscular, he was about as tall as I remembered Lamprecht being. He had resembled Elvira a lot in the past, but now that he looked more masculine, I thought he was a bit closer to Karstedt.
“I am glad to see you are healthy, Lady Rozemyne.”
“You picked up Lessy’s feystone, didn’t you? I’ve been wanting to thank you for that, Cornelius.”
“Such praise is wasted on me. I am a failure of a guard knight—one whose mistake forced you to sleep for two years.”
“Oh? But you saved Charlotte for me just like I wanted you to, right? To me, this all happened just the other day, so please allow me to express my gratitude. I thank you ever so much, Cornelius.”
“I am honored.” He looked up to meet my gaze, and we gave each other small smiles.
Angelica was the next to speak. “I have been awaiting your return, Lady Rozemyne.”
She was fifteen and due to have her coming of age ceremony at the end of winter. Her light-blue hair was bundled in a ponytail that swayed each time she turned her head, and she looked at me with deep, ocean-blue eyes. Her dainty and pretty features had only gotten prettier, and while I knew from Damuel that Bonifatius had been training her hard, I couldn’t tell that just from looking at her.
Her looks have always been deceiving though, so I guess that makes sense...
“I’ve been worried about you ever since I learned how much time has passed,” I replied. “Did you manage to pass the fourth and fifth grades?”
“Fear not—thanks to Lord Bonifatius, Damuel, and Cornelius teaching me, and Stenluke learning alongside me, I just barely managed to scrape past them.”
“Just barely...? Well, erm... I’m glad to hear you have been doing your best.”
My apprentice guard knights were both looking very much on the verge of adulthood. I made my way into the castle, heading toward my room with them and Damuel.
“Rozemyne, use your highbeast,” Ferdinand said.
“Hm? But I can walk to my room just fine.”
“You are far from healthy. While you are able to move thanks to the magic tools, your body is so weak that even sitting up in bed should be beyond you. Walking around the temple is one thing, but the castle is much larger. Use your highbeast.”
I noticed a rush of tension shoot through my guard knights as Ferdinand repeated his warning. Cornelius’s eyes were wavering with worry, and so I immediately brought out my one-person Pandabus and got inside.
We were making our way to the northern building when I suddenly froze in place. We were right before the hallway where I had been attacked, and an overwhelming fear washed over me as I remembered the kidnapping.
“Lady Rozemyne, is something the matter?” Cornelius asked.
It seemed I was the only one showing any hesitation. I quickly continued forward, hoping my guard knights wouldn’t notice my stiff expression.
“...My apologies. I just remembered that the attack took place here.”
“That is understandable,” he replied. “There was a time when both Lord Wilfried and Lady Charlotte seemed apprehensive about walking down this hallway as well. Even we guard knights remained tense for quite some time afterward.”
It was a relief to know I wasn’t the only one.
When I arrived at my room, Rihyarda and Ottilie were waiting inside to welcome me. “We are so glad to see you well,” they said, their tearful eyes speaking to just how worried they must have been.
“Lord Wilfried and Lady Charlotte are in the middle of studying right now,” Rihyarda explained, “though they are so eager to come and see you that they are practically fidgeting in their seats.”
“Everyone has been waiting for your return,” Ottilie added. “Lady Elvira has been sending new rinsham and the like to your room, and Lord Bonifatius is so excited to see you that he mistakenly came a day early, much to his devastation.”
I’ve barely interacted with Grandfather, so I don’t really know him that well, but is he actually a bit of a goof?
The two changed my clothes as they talked, then I made my way to Ferdinand’s office with Rihyarda and my guard knights.
“Excuse me,” I said upon entering.
Ferdinand glanced at Rihyarda before pointing to two boxes. “Rihyarda, could you take these to Rozemyne’s room? They are filled with documents that she needs to look over before leaving for the Royal Academy.”
“Certainly, my boy.”
“Rozemyne, I believe I already gave you the overview. Study the documents in line with their listed importance. They are notes and transcriptions from my time in the Royal Academy, in addition to newer material organized by Damuel. And here is a schedule from now until you leave for the Royal Academy. Review it sooner rather than later.”
“Okay.”
I looked over the schedule while Rihyarda gave instructions to the servants behind me. It was mostly packed with studying, which wasn’t actually so bad considering that this was pretty much just reading time. What was bad, however, was the physical training and dedication whirl practice.
“Sit down and read these before dinner tonight,” Ferdinand said.
“What are they?” I asked, sitting on the chair that he gestured to and tilting my head. The board had a long list of names on it.
“They are the names of every duchy in the country and their current rank.”
“Um, I know a lot about Ehrenfest, but I don’t know much about the country itself...”
“Ah, yes, I suppose your studies two years ago were predominantly focused on Ehrenfest.”
Ferdinand stood up, opened a locked box, then placed two maps on the table. They were hand-drawn, and judging by the handwriting marking the locations, I could guess he had made them himself. “This is an old map, and this is a new one,” he explained once they were both spread out.
There had once been twenty-five duchies, but due to the civil war that had taken place in the Sovereignty, they had since been restructured. Now there were twenty-one duchies: four greater duchies, nine middle duchies, and seven lesser duchies, plus the Sovereignty in the center of the country where the royal family ruled.
Ehrenfest seemed to be a border duchy at the northeasternmost point of the country. Despite being decently sized, its population and ranking made it clear that it was basically as close to being a lesser duchy as a middle duchy could be.
Frenbeltag to the west is where Florencia is from, right? And to the south is Georgine’s Ahrensbach.
I started by focusing on the parts of the map with names I could recognize, and it was then I noticed something extremely important—there was an ocean to the south of Ahrensbach. Perhaps it was the land of tasty seafood.
Maybe they have kombu and wakame! Aah, I might even get to eat sashimi again if I ever go there!
I had long since given up on eating Japanese-esque food here, but now my eyes glittered with newfound hope. My new mission was to make friends from Ahrensbach in the Royal Academy and acquire seafood from them, but just as excitement swelled in my heart, I remembered the cruel reality and sadly slumped over.
The political situation right now won’t exactly allow for that, will it? Tch.
“Ehrenfest’s influence and power is about the median, as you can see,” Ferdinand said, pointing at the board in my hands.
It seemed Ehrenfest had previously been at the bottom of the rankings due to being a country province without any specialty goods. We had risen up to just below the middle thanks to having emerged from the Sovereignty’s civil war unscathed, but that was simply because other duchies had lost power, rather than having anything to do with our own merits.
“However,” Ferdinand continued, “our students have been doing increasingly well at the Royal Academy over the past few years. I imagine our ranking will be a place or two higher next year.”
“Um, Ferdinand... The Royal Academy is a place for kids, right? Why would their grades impact the duchy’s influence?”
“Those who graduate from the Royal Academy will either work in the Sovereignty or in their home duchy. Better grades show that the duchy is raising more skilled individuals, and generally indicates it will wield more influence in the coming years.”
I gave an understanding nod, and so he continued explaining the situation in greater detail.
“Angelica, Cornelius, and Ernesta received higher grades in the knight course thanks to your mana compression method, and some of those who learned with your study materials in the winter playroom have since begun schooling as well. It seems other duchies have been probing us to find out why our performance has improved so suddenly and so drastically.”
“That’s nice.”
“A lukewarm answer. Do recall that you are about to be attending this school yourself,” Ferdinand said with an annoyed glare, but I was only going there under duress after being emotionally blackmailed. I just wanted to survive the year without having to deal with any funny business, so I wasn’t interested in anything except what I absolutely needed to learn.
“I’m going to the Royal Academy because I don’t want to end up in the same grade as my little sister, but I don’t have any interest in the place myself. I’m not in great health right now, so I’m not even going to give my studies my all. I just want a passing grade fit for an archduke candidate,” I explained, hoping that would be enough for Ferdinand to allow me to cram less. No way could I give studying my all when I couldn’t even move without the aid of magic tools.
Unfortunately, Ferdinand seemed to have some kind of attachment to Royal Academy grades. “That simply will not do,” he said.
“It’ll have to. My options are limited here, and there are some things that I just don’t want to do. I haven’t got enough leeway to work hard for someone else’s sake right now.”
Ferdinand looked at me with slight surprise, then fell into thought. “I suppose Charlotte alone is not enough motivation for her...” he muttered. A shiver ran down my spine as I realized he was about to corner me again.
“I-In any case, you certainly know a lot about what’s going on at the Royal Academy, don’t you?” I asked, trying to swiftly change the subject. I had assumed that not even Justus could infiltrate the Academy, but Ferdinand was evidently getting his information from somewhere. He rubbed his forehead and gave me a deeply exasperated look.
“You are the one who instructed the students to gather information at the Royal Academy, are you not? Damuel organized everything they gathered; I merely reviewed the report. He paid them a flat fee and said that he wanted you to pay extra based on the value of the information they brought.”
Oh yeah. I asked them to gather information.
That said, I hadn’t asked them to spy on other students or anything like that. I just wanted to know what books were there and what kinds of stories other duchies had. My explanation had apparently been lacking though, as what they were bringing me wasn’t at all what I had expected. I decided it would probably be best to confer with Ferdinand about the value of the information, since I would consider certain things more worthwhile than he would.
“Thanks to your efforts, Ehrenfest now has its own specialty product; we will only grow in strength from this point onward. Furthermore, when archduke candidates are attending the Royal Academy, the morale of students from their duchy always rises. Charlotte and Melchior will follow after you and Wilfried, which in turn means Ehrenfest will have archduke candidates at the Academy for quite some time. We would like for you to motivate the other students and raise the duchy’s overall grades yet further, and judging by what I am told about the winter playroom, that is your specialty, correct?”
I couldn’t help but blink in confusion. I hadn’t said anything of the sort, as far as I remembered, nor did I even believe I was particularly good at that kind of work.
“Actually, that’s not my specialty at all. I just thought teaching kids to read would lead to more people reading books, and more people reading books means more people that might be interested in writing books. That’s all,” I explained, puffing out my chest with pride.
I was thinking about getting more people to write books, and getting more people interested in reading to encourage the opening of a library at the public’s expense. The thought of increasing the duchy’s influence in the country by raising our overall grade point average hadn’t crossed my mind for even a second.
“...It seems I yet again underestimated your passion for books,” Ferdinand murmured, placing a hand on his forehead and slowly shaking his head. My answer had apparently come as a considerable surprise to him. “However, I now understand how to motivate you properly. I have not mentioned this in detail before, but the Royal Academy has a library with the second-largest book collection in the entire country. It is incomparable in size and scope to the book rooms you are familiar with in Ehrenfest.”
“Whaaat?! The second-largest?!” I exclaimed, suddenly struck with the urge to leave for the Royal Academy at once.
As he watched me eagerly wiggle in place, Ferdinand’s lips curved into a slight grin. “You will surely be allowed to spend your time outside of classes in the library, though naturally, you will need grades befitting an archduke’s child.”
“Of course. It’s only normal to have one’s reading privileges taken away as punishment for bad grades,” I replied. My mom had used that method all the time back in my Urano days to ensure I kept up with my studies, and that memory alone made me nostalgic for the time I had spent in that world as a student. I would go to the school library at lunch, then visit another nearby library when all my classes were over.
Maybe I could get into a similar routine at the Royal Academy—visiting the library during lunch and after my classes, just like I used to. That realization blew away all my despair about going to the Academy, and now the place shone like a beautiful castle in my mind.
“I’m going! The Royal Academy’s library awaits! I’ll do everything I can to go there!” I declared, throwing myself into my studies with a sudden change of heart.
“Milady, it’s about time for you to get changed,” Rihyarda called as I was busy studying. I looked at Ferdinand, certain that I hadn’t done nearly enough to visit the library without being chastised, but he merely pointed at the board.
“You have made good progress today. Study up to this point by tomorrow.”
“Understood. I thank you ever so much. See you at dinner,” I said, beginning to stand up, but he raised a hand for me to pause.
“Tonight’s dinner is going to be in celebration of your recovery. Karstedt’s family will be in attendance, Bonifatius included. Although it is true he was somewhat careless while handling you, it is extremely likely that the antidote would not have been given to you in time had he not found you so quickly. He has been exceptionally worried about you over the past couple years, and that includes him worrying about how he almost killed you by accident. Please make sure to thank him—for his help, that is.”
In all honesty, when it came to Bonifatius, my thoughts were kind of dominated by the fact he had violently shaken me around in a bag, then launched me toward a tree at such tremendous speed that I surely would have shattered every bone in my body had Ferdinand not caught me. Still, it was true that I probably would have died anyway had he not come to rescue me. Thanking him was probably for the best.
“Okay. I’ll write out a letter of gratitude before dinner.”
“If you are going that far, then be sure to thank him for training the guard knights as well. He has been quite active in improving the entirety of the Knight’s Order, with a particular focus on the guard knights protecting the archducal family, all to ensure you are not put in such danger again.”
Ferdinand was underplaying it somewhat, but I could tell Bonifatius had been working like crazy to boost Ehrenfest’s military might over the past two years.
“Additionally, when you hand him your letter of gratitude, you would do well to ask him about physical enhancement magic. To Bonifatius, it comes as naturally as breathing. I believe he has been teaching one of your guard knights to use it as well.”
Grandfather and Angelica, huh...? They do seem like they would get along great as a muscle-headed duo. Is that heartwarming or terrifying? I’m honestly not sure.
“Milady, it has been decided that I will accompany you to the Royal Academy as your attendant,” Rihyarda said on the way back to my room. Students were allowed to bring one adult attendant to their dorms with them.
“My my... I will feel much better with you at my side, Rihyarda.”
She had been serving as my head attendant while simultaneously overseeing Wilfried’s studies, so I could imagine she was chosen because she was capable enough to manage the entire Ehrenfest Dormitory if necessary. When I mentioned this to her, however, she merely laughed.
“Ohoho. No, milady—I was chosen in case you decide to hole yourself up in the library and need to be dragged out. That was Ferdinand’s biggest worry.”
“O-Oh my... My goodness... I would, ahem, I would certainly return to my room upon closing time. Ohohoho...”
Back in my Urano days, I would almost always leave the library when it got late—that is, aside from one occasion when I was so busy reading in a corner that I missed closing time. That had only happened once, though. They had nothing to worry about as far as I was concerned, but it seemed they had stopped trusting me long ago.
When we arrived at my room, Cornelius knelt in front of me. “Lady Rozemyne, as I will be attending this dinner as well, I humbly request to be relieved of guard duty for the rest of today and permitted to temporarily leave your person.”
“Certainly, Cornelius. I am looking forward to eating with you soon.”
He couldn’t sit at the table in his knight armor after having received an invitation from the archducal couple. To put it simply, he needed to change into fancy noble clothes with those massive sleeves.
I entered my room with Angelica, while Damuel stood guard outside the door.
“...It feels lonely without Brigitte here.”
Brigitte, who I knew so well from all the time she had spent guarding me in the temple, was nowhere to be seen. There was no helping that, considering her age, and I was happy about her marriage, but there was no escaping the inevitable sadness when someone you were close to just... left. In the temple, the only one I could talk to about this was Damuel, but I felt hesitant to bring it up around him for obvious reasons.
“Brigitte is Giebe Illgner’s family, after all,” Ottilie said with a calm smile, going on to explain the situation a bit more in detail while changing my clothes.
Illgner had apparently been put in an incredibly tight spot due to the death of the previous giebe, Brigitte canceling her engagement, and her former fiancé subsequently antagonizing their family. The nobles who had previously served the giebe mostly moved elsewhere, and with dramatically fewer nobles to support the land, the giebe’s family had needed to gather together to protect the province.
“In order to help end this terrible situation, Brigitte agreed to become your guard knight, Lady Rozemyne, and obtained your support. It is only natural she would hope to marry and expand her family. At the moment, she is doing her best to support Illgner as the paper-making industry introduces more and more changes.”
“Lady Elvira found Brigitte a good husband so that your connection with Illgner would stay strong, milady. He will do right by her,” Rihyarda added. Elvira loved romance and was quite a socialite, unlike me, so I could imagine she had found someone who was excellent for both Brigitte and her home.
“If this is the path Brigitte has chosen to walk, then I am fine with it. Speaking of which... has a replacement female knight been found for her yet?”
“At the time, nobody had ever seen you before, so most declined due to the fact they would need to enter the temple. Now, however, there are quite a few knights who wish to serve you. You may choose whomever you feel comfortable entrusting your life with,” Rihyarda said.
Ottilie nodded. “Angelica is due to graduate this year, so starting next year, you will also need a female apprentice knight to accompany you at the Royal Academy.”
“It would be best to pick an archknight or a medknight with a high mana capacity. Now that Brigitte is gone, your only adult guard knight is a laynoble.”
Rihyarda wasn’t wrong, but I was pretty comfortable with the current situation and didn’t really want to change things. Damuel may have been a layknight, but just as one would expect of someone who claimed to be more of a scholar, he was excellent at tutoring the two apprentices and keeping everyone on good terms. My guard knights got along so smoothly because Cornelius and Angelica—an apprentice archknight and medknight, respectively—recognized Damuel’s good qualities and trusted him despite his layknight status. I cared more about someone who could work well with that dynamic than someone with a lot of mana or status.
“I will discuss this with my guard knights and make my decision later. Not even a strong archnoble with plentiful mana would be worth ruining the cooperation my knights have right now.”
I don’t want everyone to be all prickly and hostile with each other... All I want is a comfy atmosphere to read books in without having to worry about everyone around me.
No Comments Yet
Post a new comment
Register or Login