Ascendance of a Bookworm (LN) - Volume 4.2 - Chapter 16

Interrogation 

I was seated in a chair right in the middle of Sylvester’s office. A cold sweat ran down my back as my eyes flitted from Sylvester, to Ferdinand, to Karstedt. 

Urk. Why does everyone look so mad and scary? 

“Clear the room,” Sylvester ordered. “Aside from Rozemyne, only the three of us are needed here.” 

“Lord Sylvester, will you not need someone to explain what happened while she was sick and unconscious?” Rihyarda asked. 

“Stand down, Rihyarda. We can ask for more details later on if we need them,” Sylvester replied, furrowing his brow as deeply as Ferdinand usually would. My retainers all obeyed, shooting me worried glances as they went. 

Nooo! Don’t leave me here to die! 

Just hearing the door shut mercilessly behind them made me want to burst into tears. It was like I was attending one of those pressure interviews where the employer tries to weed out the weak by emotionally breaking them. I searched around for an escape route, but Ferdinand shook his head. 

“We have no choice. You spoke to the prince without your retainers, and thus we can conclude that royalty would rather they not know what you discussed. We want to respect that decision as much as possible.” 

“In other words, you want me to tell you absolutely everything I spoke about with Prince Anastasius...?” 

“Yeah,” Sylvester said. “We need to know everything if we want to plan out Ehrenfest’s next moves.” 

So he said, but I didn’t feel too good about disclosing Anastasius’s love life after he had mustered the courage to speak up about it. Plus, who knew what he would do to me if he found out? 

“What we discussed was highly personal, such that I do not think Prince Anastasius would appreciate me telling anyone,” I said. 

“This wouldn’t be necessary if you were a normal noble, but you defy expectation at every turn. You must tell us everything. Nothing can be hidden, else you will continue making the same mistakes,” Ferdinand replied. He honestly had a point—I would definitely need some pointers on how to proceed from here. It was extremely likely I was doing some abnormal things without realizing it. 

I nodded, at which point Sylvester took his seat. Karstedt moved to stand behind him, while Ferdinand sat in his usual chair to record the meeting like a scholar, tapping his fingers against the desk. 

“Now then, care to explain how you have developed such a close relationship with royalty, despite having spent only half a term with them?” Ferdinand asked. “Given that Prince Anastasius sent out your retainers, you must have discussed something quite personal.” 

“Wait, what? A close relationship...?” I was so stunned that I couldn’t help but echo the words. We were anything but close—I had promised to never approach him myself, meaning I only spoke to him when he summoned me, and our discussions were solely focused on Eglantine. “I am merely the victim of circumstance. I could not defy the orders of royalty, so I did not have any control over what happened.” 

“Seriously?” Sylvester asked, glaring at me despite the fact my answer was completely serious. 

Sorry, but facts are facts. 

Ferdinand started flipping through the letters stacked on the table, clearly unsatisfied with my answer. “When did you first make contact with the prince?” he asked. “Our reports say it was during whirl practice, but if you remember anything before then, say so now.” 

“Um... I guess you could say it was when I greeted him at the fellowship gathering. He complained to me, saying that I was nothing like the rumors he had heard.” I went on to detail the rest of our conversation, which made all three of my guardians cradle their heads at once. Sylvester in particular let out a groan as he was rubbing his temples. 

“Nobody told me anything about that, Rozemyne. Did you really pick a fight with royalty?” 

“Hm...? I just got a little annoyed, since he kept complaining. I didn’t pick a fight or anything like that,” I replied, my eyes shifting about the room. It was then that Ferdinand gave me a smile that chilled my spine. 

“What you said contained more irony and sarcasm than anything I have ever heard you say before. It hurts my head to think you spoke like that to a prince,” he said. 

I sucked in a tiny gasp, at which Karstedt sighed and shook his head. “The prince must have been outright stunned for someone to have spoken to him like that during their very first meeting.” 

Oopsie... It seems I was making mistakes from the very beginning. 

“Okay, I finally understand. That’s why Prince Anastasius was acting so spiteful during whirl practice. I picked a fight with him first.” 

“We need more details. It seems that your perspective varies greatly from the reports we’ve received,” Ferdinand said, impatiently tapping the letters. 

I explained the events of whirl practice: Anastasius had accused me of plotting to get closer to him, spurring me to respond that I would make sure to avoid him completely from then on. 

Sylvester glared at me; then he started rubbing his forehead in an unsuccessful attempt to loosen his tightly furrowed brow. “I’m starting to sympathize with the prince here,” he said. “He had no idea what a disaster he was walking into. You must be the most bizarre person he’s ever met in his life, Rozemyne.” 

I don’t want to hear that from you, Sylvester. You big weirdo. 

“I thought it an efficient way of avoiding trouble—a way to inform those after Prince Anastasius that I wasn’t a rival.” 

“Your heart was in the right place, since a weak duchy like Ehrenfest meddling in royal affairs would cause nothing but problems, but like always, your methods are terrible. Try to phrase things more diplomatically,” Sylvester said, going on to mention that I would need to undergo socializing training in the spring. Just thinking about it was depressing. “Still, how did your unthinkably blatant refusal result in him talking to you more?” 

“Like I said, it just ended up happening. The next time we met was at a tea party with the music professors. Lady Eglantine was in attendance, so Prince Anastasius forced his way in to join her. Naturally, when they asked me for permission to let the prince attend as well, I couldn’t exactly decline.” 

Sylvester nodded, holding his stomach a little. “Yeah, that was a good decision, at least.” 

I went on to explain how Anastasius had ordered me to compose a song and then rejected it in a very stuck-up and princely manner. He had then stormed out of the room in a fuss, causing Eglantine to rush after him. 

“Oh, and the professors spoke to me about your student days in the Royal Academy, Sylvester. It seems Prince Anastasius is acting no different from you when you were pining for Florencia.” 

“Forget everything they said right now!” Sylvester exclaimed, now cradling his head for a different reason than before. “Gaaah!” 

I shook my head in refusal. My retainers had attended that tea party, meaning even Rihyarda had heard the story. “Forgetting is out of the question, but I can at least keep it a secret from Wilfried and Charlotte for you.” 

“Everyone above a certain age in Ehrenfest knows of Sylvester’s history, but this is valuable information about the prince. His heart is set on the girl from Klassenberg, hm?” Ferdinand asked me, a gleam in his light-golden eyes. It seemed that my guardians had been completely unaware, despite this being common knowledge in the Royal Academy, so I could see why information gathering was such a prominent business there. I told them what I knew, including what I had heard from the music professors. 

“Is this valuable information then?” I asked. “Lady Eglantine is the daughter of the late third prince who died in the civil war, and she became who she is now after her grandfather, the previous Aub Klassenberg, adopted her.” 

Sylvester, Ferdinand, and Karstedt all deeply inhaled, their eyes wide. 

“Her grandfather has told the princes that Lady Eglantine wishes to return to royalty,” I continued, “and so both the first and second prince are asking for her hand in marriage. It seems that whoever she picks will gain an enormous advantage when it comes to taking the throne.” 

“Rozemyne, you are in much too deep... I imagine this is information only nobles very close to royalty know. Sylvester, choose now which side you will pick. Rozemyne’s current position in all this means we are going to be wrapped up in the business of royalty whether we like it or not,” Ferdinand said. 

Sylvester put on a stern expression in an instant, causing me to slump my shoulders. Ehrenfest had managed to avoid any harm during the previous civil war precisely because it had remained neutral. But now, due to my getting too close to Anastasius, it was very likely we were going to be involved in any future incidents. 

What if our duchy comes to harm or is even destroyed because of me...? 

“Rozemyne, we haven’t heard about your summons from the prince yet. You met with him again after the tea party, right?” Sylvester asked. 

“To explain that, I must first begin with Schwartz and Weiss...” 

“You mean when you became their master while registering at the library? The reports on that didn’t make any sense,” Sylvester said, urging me on. 

I nodded as I started on yet another explanation. “Wilfried told me I couldn’t register in the library until all the first-years had finished their written lessons, so I made them study as hard as they could. I was so overjoyed when they all passed that I completely lost control of my emotions, and since I was still not used to controlling my mana after the jureve, my prayers of gratitude ended up becoming a blessing that activated Schwartz and Weiss.” 

“That is about what I expected... They surely had a master already though. Did you steal them through sheer mana capacity?” Ferdinand asked. 

It was then that I realized very few people knew about the changes in the library. Those who had graduated in the past and were familiar with the old Royal Academy took Schwartz and Weiss moving around as a given, whereas most current students didn’t even know they existed. I explained to Ferdinand that the Sovereignty’s purge had gotten rid of the archnoble librarians, leaving only a sole mednoble librarian who wasn’t capable of properly supplying them with mana. 

“They were skilled individuals who knew their books well and often provided me with support, but... I see. They are gone now,” Ferdinand said plainly. 

Sylvester rested his head against his desk and let out a heavy sigh. “I knew the purge was causing problems all over the place, but if they can’t even get librarians for the Royal Academy, the Sovereignty must be in a real mess.” 

The Sovereignty was composed of the winners of the civil war, and since Ehrenfest had remained neutral, our connections to them were weak. On top of that, few Ehrenfest students had grades impressive enough to warrant their invitation to the tea parties of those in higher-ranking duchies, so information of that sort was in short supply. 

“Professor Solange was truly struggling without Schwartz and Weiss. I suggested that I provide some assistance myself, but archduke candidates cannot move to the Sovereignty. In the end, we agreed that I would only provide mana while I am attending the Academy. The prince said that I may do as I please while I am there.” 

“Seems like you adopting Rozemyne was the right idea after all, Sylvester. If she were merely an archnoble and my daughter, the Sovereignty would’ve taken her already,” Karstedt commented as the realization dawned on him. 

“Yup. I’m a genius alright,” Sylvester boasted, puffing out his chest at the adoption having been his idea or whatever. I personally would have enjoyed moving to the Sovereignty and working in the Royal Academy’s library. 

“Still, to think you would become their master without even touching them. You truly are something else...” Ferdinand mused aloud. “But in any case, Hirschur’s report said she discovered many magic circles woven onto the two magic tools. We shall discuss those in depth later.” 

“Oh, that reminds me—I actually have a bunch of packages for you from Professor Hirschur. She wants you to repair the magic tools you made for her in the past. Also, it turns out we need your help with Schwartz and Weiss.” 

Traces of a pleased smile played on his lips. Now seemed a good time to tell him about the other things I had for him. 

“As for gifts, I have brought songs dedicated to the Goddesses of Light and Wisdom that I composed alongside Rosina. I would appreciate it if you considered arranging them. The song for the Goddess of Light is to be given to Lady Eglantine by Prince Anastasius.” 

Sylvester frowned. “You didn’t mention that, Rozemyne...” 

“Did I not mention it just a moment ago? I said that Prince Anastasius told me to compose a song, only to then say he didn’t want it and storm out in a fuss. It is no surprise for someone in love to act so strangely, and seeing as he sent me the request before anyone, I thought it best to deliver the song to him anyway. Would you rather I just give it to Eglantine directly?” I asked, causing Ferdinand to rub his temples. 

“You should first ask the prince what his intentions are. Do not make this decision on your own.” 

“Hm? But I can’t do that,” I replied, shaking my head. “I promised not to contact him myself, remember?” I wasn’t about to break a promise with royalty. 

“Rozemyne, do you truly intend to ignore the request of a prince for such a trivial reason?!” 

“I’m not ignoring him—that’s such a misleading way to phrase it. I am merely... waiting for him. I am patiently waiting for Prince Anastasius to contact me. He will come to me when he remembers that he needs it.” 

“Have you finally lost the last of your wits? The prince would never come to you.” 

“He’ll come. I mean, he came to the library when I was reading once and dragged me away,” I said, feeling the frustration of not just an afternoon, but four whole days of reading time being taken from me all over again. My three guardians looked at me with shock. 

“Rozemyne!” Sylvester exclaimed. “Do you mean to say he didn’t summon you while you were in the library, but that he actually came to get you in person?! You made him come to you?! That’s insane!” 

“Hm? But I didn’t want to talk to him myself. As I’ve said enough times now, I promised not to contact him, so...” 

“Rozemyne, take back that promise,” Ferdinand said. “Do you want the prince appearing and dragging you off every time he needs you? Do you want people to determine you are important enough for the prince himself to approach you? Your actions here are paving the way for unthinkable rumors, and you will make so many annoying enemies that you will no longer have any time to read.” 

Now aware that forcing Anastasius to summon me for matters that could be easily solved through ordonnanzes or letters would eat into my precious reading time, I pressed my hands against my cheeks and shrieked. “I’ll take it back as soon as I return to the Royal Academy! I don’t want to lose even more reading time!” 

“Good grief... With your utter lack of social skills, it may be best for everyone if you did remain holed up in the library at all times,” Ferdinand said, his exhaustion unmistakable. My appreciation for him immediately shot through the roof. 

Someone else agreeing it’s a good idea for me to stay in the library? Heck yeah! We should make this a yearly holiday! I never want to forget this moment! 

I was so overwhelmed with glee that I abruptly stood up and shot both hands into the air. “Aah, goodness! You’re like a god to me right now, Ferdinand! Praise be to—” 

“I need no prayers. Sit.” 

That’s too bad, I guess. 

“Rozemyne, have you made any more blunders with royalty?” Sylvester asked, his voice almost an agonized cry. “Please, tell me that’s all you’ve done!” 

I detailed the events after Anastasius had come to take me from the library. He had dragged me away, I downed a potion, and then my head went so fuzzy that I passed out. 

“Why did the prince take you away?” Ferdinand asked. 

“Love has consumed him,” I replied. “He wanted to know what Lady Eglantine and I discussed at our tea party.” 

I explained that Eglantine was afraid of becoming the catalyst for another war and that she didn’t want either prince to escort her during her graduation ceremony. I also mentioned that Anastasius had realized something after hearing these wishes. 

“Let’s see, what else...? I taught Prince Anastasius my song dedicated to the Goddess of Earth. Also, since I said some pretty rude things to him, I offered to give him a hairpin for Eglantine as an apology. He happily accepted. That’s about it, though.” 

“Wait. Why did you not speak to us before offering to make him a hairpin?” 

“Hm? It just came to mind as a way to earn some points with him while sending a letter of gratitude for his concern and informing him I would be absent from the Academy.” 

My guardians all raised their eyebrows at once, shocked that I had managed to bungle things up even further in the three days they had given me. Ferdinand stood up from his chair with a clatter, walked up to me with a chilly smile, and then pinched both my cheeks. 

“Rozemyne, did I not teach you to think before you act? To not immediately do whatever comes to mind? I had thought you learned the importance of maintaining contact and talking things over, but it seems my teachings were not at all sufficient. Or have they simply melted away along with your mana clumps over the past two years?” 

“I’m sho showwy!” 

He yelled at me not to make decisions on my own when uncertain, and to instead send messages back home for consultation. Wilfried was doing this already; he had apparently sent many questions to Ehrenfest when looking for ways to contain me. I clapped my hands together, having not realized that was an option, and my guardians all put their heads in their hands as one, now completely aware they hadn’t prepared me enough for the Royal Academy. 

“You were asleep for two years. This is understandable. We will need to educate you on proper socializing before next year,” Ferdinand said. It seemed my current behavior was the result of us having prioritized my grades and the Dedication Ritual when bringing me up to speed. 

“Under normal circumstances, an Ehrenfest first-year would never deal so closely with royalty. It is unthinkable,” Ferdinand continued. “Furthermore, you have problems with your health, and I thought it would take you much longer to finish your classes. My plan was to cover for your poor social skills by allowing you to enjoy the library for a brief period once your classes were over, then call you back prior to the start of the socializing season and have you return only when the Interduchy Tournament was on the horizon. And yet...” 

“Seems like you surpassed his expectations,” Sylvester said with a smirk. 

Ferdinand responded with a cold glance. “You are the one who will struggle to clean up this mess at the Archduke Conference, Aub Ehrenfest,” he noted dryly, but Sylvester’s focus was entirely on me. 

“I’ve gotta say, Rozemyne, I’m impressed you’ve managed this many disasters in such a short space of time. Socializing season hasn’t even started, and you’ve done all this?” 

“Sylvester, shall we not linger on the past?” I asked. “Now is the time to face the future.” 

“Idiot. The past’s gonna stick with us whether we linger on it or not. Our relationships with royalty and the greater duchies are going to have a big impact on Ehrenfest’s future,” he said with a glare. I could already see him making me chirp “pooey” again, so I rushed to change the subject. 

“In that case, shall we discuss these matters with Benno and the guildmaster, Gustav, to urge things in a direction that benefits Ehrenfest? Rinsham, hairpins, and pound cakes all received much attention at the Royal Academy. I imagine the prince giving the woman he’s pining for a hairpin will serve as extraordinarily good marketing, but perhaps that is just me.” 

“It will, but even so: You idiot! How could you be so thoughtless?! I told you not to act carelessly when it comes to gifts and selling stuff. Why’re you pulling this crap outside of the Archduke Conference?!” Sylvester barked. He was completely right—my offer to make a hairpin for Anastasius was much too premature. 

“Sorry... Should I go turn him down?” 

“I’m mad precisely because it’s not easy to turn down a royal.” 

“Sylvester, ‘not easy’ is a gross understatement—it is impossible,” Ferdinand said with an exhausted headshake. “We have no choice but to exploit this situation for the benefit of the duchy. It is true that a Klassenberg candidate wearing a hairpin during her graduation ceremony will serve as valuable marketing.” 

“Oh, if we’re going that far, how about we print and sell a love story about them alongside the hairpin? That should spread printing in an instant,” I suggested. 

While we didn’t want to spread our learning materials to other duchies just yet, since we needed to maintain our superiority when it came to grades—we were more than interested in the spread of printing on the whole. A love story about royalty was perfect in this regard. Gossip always spreads faster than anything. If we printed it on a single sheet of paper, similar to a flyer, we could keep the price down too. 

The more I thought about it, the better an opportunity this seemed to be. We could sell more sheets whenever there’s breaking news, so that people were able to purchase only the sheets they’re interested in, and then we could start selling binders of sorts to store them in. It might even be fun to try to gather all the sheets printed in a year or something. 

“Rozemyne, are you saying that you intend to side with the second prince from now on?” Ferdinand asked. 

“Hm? No. I am on Lady Eglantine’s side. It seems to me that I could write a best-selling story about her regardless of which prince she chooses, or even if she chooses neither. Plus, considering how valuable her hairpin and rinsham marketing is going to be, I imagine she is our best chance at spreading them among high-status women.” 

The pound cake was also likely to sell well among women who frequently attend tea parties. To summarize, Eglantine was gorgeous, of a high status, and interested in both rinsham and hairpins. She was the best advertising billboard that I could ask for. 

Despite my list of reasons, Sylvester just shook his head. “You’re thinking too much like a merchant, Rozemyne. Your mind is focused entirely on profit.” 

“I’m afraid I still don’t understand what else nobles hope to get out of situations like this. Should I not be siding with Lady Eglantine?” I asked, looking at Ferdinand. He mulled things over for a moment before lowering his eyes and giving a slow sigh. 

“Your decision is not fundamentally poor. If we are to believe your words, then the question of who becomes the next king rests largely in the hands of the greater duchy Klassenberg. It would not be a mistake to side with Eglantine rather than one of the princes, but it is down to Aub Ehrenfest to make the final decision,” he said, looking Sylvester’s way. 

I frowned slightly as Sylvester fell into thought like this was some huge problem to debate. The fact that I couldn’t bring myself to care about faction politics really showed that I wasn’t much like a regular noble at all. 

“I think we can decide who to stick with later,” I said. 

“Rozemyne?” 

“What matters right now is what we should do when people come asking about rinsham, hairpins, plant paper, and pound cake at the Archduke Conference. Prince Anastasius and Lady Eglantine are both interested in these things, and I imagine business deals will take priority over any faction squabbling.” 

As long as Eglantine didn’t make her choice right away, things would remain more or less the same for a while longer. It was a decision that would sway the battle for the throne, but we had no way of knowing who she might choose. For that reason, it seemed better to focus on rapidly approaching problems we could actually deal with ourselves. 

“Unlike the Plantin Company’s many plant paper workshops, the Gilberta Company has only one workshop for rinsham at the moment, and it takes a considerable amount of time to make but a single hairpin. There is much that we need to discuss before we can start exporting either product as an Ehrenfest specialty. Should we make new workshops? Hire more merchants to move the product? Is there anything that will conflict with my magic contracts with Benno? If so, should we nullify those contracts? Should we aim to sell the production methods? How are we going to provide lodgings for the visiting merchants? How will we maintain the peace? How will we distribute the profits? As I said, there is much to discuss.” 

It was in our best interest to have a great number of merchants come to Ehrenfest, but before we could do that, we needed to ensure we had enough products available, otherwise we risked aggravating merchants who had traveled from far away only to leave empty-handed. The city’s peace would easily fall apart if a bunch of outsiders fought over a sparse supply, and while I did not have the mindset of a noble, all the people who would struggle as a result were those close to me: the Gilberta Company, the Plantin Company, and the city guards. That was why I wanted to stop those problems before they even began. 

“Rather than worry about where the Sovereignty will stand years from now, we should be focusing on problems we will encounter without fail this coming spring,” I concluded. 

Sylvester nodded in agreement. “True. Summon Benno and Gustav. I need to speak to them before this spring’s Archduke Conference.” 

We were still in the middle of winter, before the regular hunting of the Lord of Winter. It wouldn’t be easy to call even commoner merchants over in this state. 

“Rozemyne, inform Benno and the others that they are going to be receiving a letter of summons from Aub Ehrenfest. It would not do for us to summon them without a warning,” Ferdinand said, no doubt recalling how much the merchants had struggled with their sudden summons from Giebe Haldenzel. I remembered being told how much pain they had gone through having a business discussion with archnobles, due to Elvira wanting a workshop built in her home province of Haldenzel. It had apparently been such a terrible situation that even Ferdinand gave Benno his sympathy. 

“Furthermore, organize and give a full report on who will be accompanying Benno to the castle,” Ferdinand continued. “The scholars will need to make that many letters of invitation.” 

“Very well,” I replied. “Sylvester, I believe the Gilberta Company has a new representative now. Would you like me to call them also?” 

“Sure. I’ll leave the finer details to you. That’ll be better for you anyway, right?” 

“I thank you.” 

“Right. Rozemyne, you’re going back to the temple tomorrow. We need to prepare before the Lord of Winter becomes fully active.” 

“Okay.”