I Want to Found the Library Committee
As soon as I got back to the dormitory, I conveyed to my attendants that I wanted to welcome Solange with a tea party and get the Library Committee made. I would naturally need them all to be active for the occasion.
“I now call on your aid in these desperate times,” I intoned.
“Lady Rozemyne, we will of course assist you in holding a tea party, but...” Lieseleta trailed off, making troubled eye contact with Brunhilde before looking over at Rihyarda.
Lieseleta and Brunhilde would normally say “As you wish” and then immediately get to work ironing out the details, but here they were hesitating. I also looked at Rihyarda, hoping to glean the reason behind their unusual behavior, and she returned my gaze with an expression so stern that I reflexively straightened my back. She was exuding the exact same aura as Benno and Ferdinand normally did right before scolding me; I could sense the thunder she was about to unleash.
“What is your reason for lavishing Professor Solange?” Rihyarda asked. “Up until now, you have kept to yourself and done your best not to make any waves. Do you truly intend to use your authority to pressure someone of a lower status to conform to your desires? What will Professor Solange think when someone she has just met makes such a forceful approach?”
For my part, I didn’t quite see how lavishing someone with food connected to using my authority to force their hand.
“Is it common for nobles to use lavish parties to force other nobles to obey their demands? Ferdinand and Sylvester once told me it was very noble-like of me to make a request after treating them to food. Am I misunderstanding something here?”
Rihyarda squeezed her eyes shut before letting out a long sigh. “Not entirely. But in this case... Yes. You misunderstand.”
“My apologies,” I replied, shaking my head. “I am by no means an expert here.”
Rihyarda looked away from me, instead turning her gaze to Lieseleta and Brunhilde. “It is easy to forget, since Lady Rozemyne has wisdom far beyond her years and is receiving such excellent grades here in the Royal Academy, but she is deathly lacking in social experience due to the two years she spent asleep. My boy, Ferdinand, has also given her a lopsided education due to his arcane priorities. You two now understand that well, correct?”
Lieseleta and Brunhilde both nodded.
“Lady Rozemyne,” Rihyarda continued, “you mentioned that you once treated Lord Ferdinand and Lord Sylvester to a feast before making a request, which they then accepted, correct?”
“The meal wasn’t intended to curry their favor, but that is what happened, yes.”
My commoner upbringing really clashed with noble common sense there...
“In that case, you are not mistaken to think that the feast was a means to earn their favor before you made your request. Such behavior is acceptable because you are of a lower status than them, meaning they could refuse you regardless of whether you lavished them or not. If you were to do this with Professor Solange, however, you would in essence be giving her an order that she cannot refuse. This is because, in this situation, you are the one with higher status.”
In essence, a lower-status individual treating their superiors was equivalent to a harmless show of gratitude, while a higher-status individual doing the same to a subordinate was akin to saying: “I’m above you, yet I’m still pouring this much time and money into securing your favor. You know what’ll happen if you refuse, right?” In other words, it was a blatant threat—a demand for immediate oral confirmation, which could then be used against the lower-status individual should they later attempt to back out.
“I wasn’t thinking about it like that at all...” I murmured.
In my mind, the sweets were nothing more than a means to casually butter up Solange, while the tea party itself would serve as an ideal opportunity for me to mention just how much I could aid her if she accepted my help. I certainly hadn’t intended to use my authority to threaten her.
“I am more than aware that you have an intense love for books and wish only to involve yourself with the library, but Professor Solange and those around her do not yet understand you well enough,” Rihyarda explained. “Your suggestion to host a tea party is especially troubling for Lieseleta and Brunhilde, because while they recognize your intentions and are obliged to make the necessary arrangements as attendants, they also realize they are setting up something that Professor Solange is unable to escape from.”
I swallowed hard at those words. On the one hand, I was relieved that Rihyarda had stopped me before I charged ahead with my idea, but on the other, something didn’t seem quite right.
“Actually, Rihyarda... I was told that professors are higher in status than students in the Royal Academy. Does that not apply to Professor Solange also?” I asked. Assuming this was indeed the case, making a request during a tea party would surely be acceptable.
Rather than Rihyarda, however, it was Lieseleta and Brunhilde who shook their heads at me. “You are correct only on paper, Lady Rozemyne,” Brunhilde noted.
“Indeed,” Lieseleta continued. “That rule is primarily applicable to the professors who teach classes. Professors from other duchies cannot hope to know the political minutiae of all their students and vice versa, so in the classroom, the positions of professor and student primarily dictate interactions.”
“However, milady... Recall what Professor Solange once said,” Rihyarda added. “Did she not mention that many students completely ignore her requests for them to return their books? Do you think she could flatly refuse the appeal of an archduke candidate who is openly lavishing her, simply due to her position as a professor?”
Now that she mentioned it, I could remember Solange looking extremely troubled while refusing my help. Rihyarda had probably noticed that and came to stop me.
“In other words, I was troubling Professor Solange so much that you found it necessary to intervene, Rihyarda?”
“It is not normally the place of attendants to make themselves known in public settings, but you were causing her so much grief that I wanted to pick you up and leave at once,” she replied, making it more than apparent she had been sweating bullets from the library all the way to the dormitory. “Even with all that aside, you should not be telling Professor Solange that you wish to help her in the first place.”
“Wait, really? Why not?”
“It only complicates matters when the person attempting to help is of a higher status. Try to see the situation through her eyes. Suppose that Lord Sylvester offered to help you with your work, then forced you to use methods completely unlike those you are used to and started wandering around without ever giving you a moment to yourself. How would that make you feel, milady?”
I could already picture Sylvester strolling around the temple and the workshop, complaining about how we ran things and ordering us to do this or that. It was so stress-inducing that I barely contained my scream.
Please, never come again!
“Ngh... I understand your point. As far as Professor Solange is concerned, I must be the biggest pest in the world.”
“I didn’t mean anything quite that extreme, but yes, you are to Professor Solange as Lord Sylvester is to you,” Rihyarda observed. I suddenly realized that I had just indirectly called Sylvester the biggest pest in the world, and so I hurriedly attempted to correct myself.
“Er, actually... Not at all,” I said, shaking my head. “I am endlessly grateful to my dear adoptive father. I would never consider him a burden for helping me, nor would I wish he would stick to doing his own work. Ohohoho...”
Rihyarda chuckled along with me, commenting that Professor Solange would have needed to hide her true feelings in a similar manner. I started to feel a little depressed about how troublesome I was clearly being.
“The perspective you must consider is as follows, milady: what would Lord Sylvester need to do for you to feel comfortable trusting him with work?” Rihyarda asked, but she was pretty much begging the question there. I would never, ever feel comfortable trusting Sylvester with any of my work. Ever.
“...I give up on the Library Committee,” I conceded.
“Now, now. There is no need to get so glum. How about you try replacing Lord Sylvester with my boy Ferdinand in this scenario? He is already helping you with your High Bishop work, correct? He also gives you advice and is likely altering various processes to make things easier for you. What are your thoughts on that?”
I imagined Ferdinand lurking around the workshop and giving the gray priests instructions. Thinking about it, a lot had changed over the past two years, what with Justus managing the workshop at times and the Gutenbergs being sent to Haldenzel. Not once had I considered that a bother though.
“I’d actually be more concerned without Ferdinand helping me...”
“Precisely. It is not necessarily the case that the help of a higher-status individual is unwelcome. The key here is to think about the wants and needs of the person you wish to assist, but at the moment, milady, you are thinking only of yourself,” Rihyarda chided. “Do you not think Professor Solange would be more willing to welcome your help if you made it clear your actions are going to benefit her?”
“That makes sense,” I replied with a nod. “In that case, I won’t follow through with my tea party idea.”
“No, Lady Rozemyne. The tea party is important. I ultimately think holding one is a wise move,” Rihyarda said, causing me to blink in surprise.
Brunhilde smiled. “In the end, it is easier to accept help from someone you know than someone you do not. Tea parties exist precisely to bridge the gaps between individuals. You must first start by socializing so that you may deepen your bonds with others.”
“Wait, Brunhilde. Think about this for a moment,” Lieseleta interjected, raising a hand and glancing between the two of us. “I agree that holding a tea party is a good way to strengthen one’s connections, but will this not burden Professor Solange? She is currently the only person running the library. What will happen while she is gone?”
Lieseleta’s astute observation turned my enthusiasm from a burning flame into mere embers. Despite all the information I had found out about Solange over the past few weeks, it seemed that nothing had stuck with me.
Talk about being self-centered...
How could I have forgotten that Solange was running the library alone? It was hard to imagine she could entrust things to Schwartz and Weiss while she attended a tea party. My selfish desires might have resulted in the library being shut down for an entire day.
“Sorry...” I said, hanging my head. “I didn’t even come close to thinking all this through enough.”
“If you understand that, milady, then start figuring out what to do next. Also—and this is the most important part—make sure to discuss any ideas you have with us first. You should tell us what you want done, why you want it done, and what your thoughts on the matter are.” Rihyarda got on her knees so that her eyes were just slightly below mine, took my hands in hers, then lowered her head. “It is the job of an attendant to understand the will of whomever they serve without any words being exchanged. However, we have not yet served you for long enough, so we cannot understand you on our own.”
Even after being adopted by the archduke, I had spent most of my time in the temple and then gotten knocked unconscious for two whole years. Rihyarda was my head attendant and the first one to be introduced to me in the castle, but even then, I really hadn’t spent much time with her.
“My boy Ferdinand warned me about your health, gave me advice, and afforded me some potions, but I still know far too little to serve you as I should.”
“I think you have been the best attendant I could ask for, Rihyarda,” I said. In my eyes, she arranged everything I needed without fail and ensured that things were running smoothly, but she slowly shook her head.
“All the work I’ve done for you is that of a third-rate attendant, milady.”
I stared at Rihyarda blankly, failing to understand what she meant. If she was third-rate, then did first-rate attendants even exist? Her dark-brown eyes seemed to be even more serious than usual.
“Making life comfortable is the bare minimum expected of an attendant. Third-rates do not implicitly understand the will of those they serve, and so they act only when ordered; second-rates immediately understand the will of those they serve when ordered, but not before; and first-rates act with precision before even receiving an order.”
“And by those standards, you consider yourself third-rate...?” I asked. It took me by complete surprise how strict Rihyarda was when it came to attendant work, but both Lieseleta and Brunhilde were watching on with hard expressions; they both agreed with and respected her.
“I have served many lords and ladies over my many years. First Lady Gretchen, then Lady Gabriele... I served Lady Veronica for a time, then Lord Karstedt at Lord Bonifatius’s request. After that came Lady Georgine, then Lord Sylvester...” Rihyarda began. I didn’t even recognize the first couple of names she listed off, which went to show just how long she had spent in service. “I am confident that I was able to perform first-rate work back when I came of age, but for now, at least, that confidence has left me. You were raised in the temple, milady, and your thoughts and actions differ inconceivably from the young noble ladies I have served and come to know in the past.”
It seemed that even when she used all her knowledge and experience to try to predict my intentions, I would still take her by surprise, catching her off guard with thoughts that she simply could not fathom even after asking me directly.
“The way you prioritize books over your health, your approach to improving the students’ grades, your understanding of tea parties... There are countless situations where I simply cannot grasp your thoughts and intentions,” Rihyarda continued. “Of all the people I have served over the years, none have posed more of a challenge than you.”
From her perspective, I was extremely unbalanced and near impossible to predict. There were times when I effortlessly led those around me and easily accomplished feats that most adults struggled with, but also times when I was ignorant of things even baptized children knew about, sending all those around me into a panic.
“I cannot predict the gaps in your knowledge, nor can I guess what you lack or need to improve on. With you, I am in a constant state of grasping at straws,” Rihyarda finally concluded.
Not once had it occurred to me that I was placing such a heavy burden on Rihyarda. I thought back to everything I had done since coming to the Royal Academy and cringed as a newfound sense of guilt washed over me. Most people I had been with up until now understood my obsession with books; Lutz and Ferdinand even knew that I had lived another life before becoming Myne, so they would stop me the moment I started doing something blatantly abnormal. Here, however, there was nobody to correct my misunderstandings. That much should have been obvious, but it had taken me until now to realize. The blood drained from my face. I knew from experience that my authority could make even minor misunderstandings blow up into serious incidents.
“What I am most afraid of, milady, is following your orders to the letter, and then bringing about a result entirely unlike what you wanted. Attendants exist to support those they serve, but if we cannot understand your intentions, we cannot do good work. So please, milady—communicate with us.”
Now that Rihyarda mentioned it, there weren’t even any people here to nag me about providing regular reports. It dawned on me that I was slacking on the whole “keeping everyone informed” side of things.
“In that case, Rihyarda, I wish to establish a library committee and serve as a committee member. What should I do to accomplish this? Please tell me how an archduke candidate should make such a request.”
Rihyarda looked at me with a difficult frown. “First, milady, you must make it perfectly clear what you want from Professor Solange. What is this ‘Library Committee’? What purpose does it serve, and what do you want to do as a member? Keep in mind that when it comes to running the library, she already has enough help from Schwartz and Weiss.”
During the winter, the library was largely tasked with registering new students, lending out books, and managing the carrels. The work done during the other seasons did not require the help of an archduke candidate.
“Milady, I recall your discussion with Professor Solange. Do you simply want to help with the menial work, or do you hope to do something more? You spoke much about organizing the books, but your explanation was quite vague.”
I fell into thought. Trying to be sneaky or hide my intentions under layers of euphemisms probably wouldn’t work; I simply needed to say what was on my mind.
“I greatly dislike how the books in the library are arranged almost at random, without a clear organizational structure in place. I want to introduce the Rozemyne Decimal System and organize all the books in accordance with it, thereby making reading materials easier to find, then recover any lost books.”
“...That is much more than providing simple assistance, milady. What you are proposing amounts to outright running the library,” Rihyarda said, quite clearly exasperated.
Lieseleta and Brunhilde, meanwhile, were looking at me with conflicted expressions exuding both weariness and worry. “Lady Rozemyne,” they said, “I imagine Professor Solange was quite troubled to hear you framing such large-scale reforms as basic help.”
In an uncharacteristic development, it seemed I had tried to do something very brash and thoughtless.
“Will reforming the library really be that much of a struggle?” I asked. “I was hoping it would be a fairly simple process once I got to know Professor Solange better.”
Back in my Urano days, my work helping out as a library committee member and my general friendliness with the librarians had resulted in me receiving quite favorable treatment. The books I wanted to get were almost always prioritized, and newly returned ones were always put to one side before going back on the shelves in case I wanted to take them out myself. All in all, it had been a grand old time, but it didn’t seem like the library here was going to be quite so generous.
“If you wish to be so deeply involved in managing the library, milady, it would be much easier for Professor Solange if you made the request as Schwartz and Weiss’s master. Have her negotiate with the Sovereignty for permission to grant you special authority. If she succeeds, you can manage things however you like without it being an issue.”
Rihyarda had phrased it quite casually, but I got the feeling that managing the library with permission from Solange’s superiors was a lot different from founding a library committee.
“Milady, are you thinking that you would rather work with Professor Solange as friendly associates, rather than under orders from the Sovereignty?” Rihyarda asked.
“Yes. I want to be able to have discussions with her about what is best for the library when it comes to organizing books, and about the ideal method to implement. I wouldn’t want to simply order her around,” I responded.
Rihyarda gave an understanding nod. “In that case, you should convey your thoughts to her and convince her of your case, such that she will be compelled to request from the Sovereignty permission to implement the reforms. And to that end, socializing is going to be necessary.”
First came talking to Solange about running the library. I clenched my fists with determination and announced: “From this point on, I will visit the library every day to make Professor Solange feel more comfortable about having a tea party with me!”
“Milady, the tea party will never happen if you only ever read books... Please divert at least a little of your attention to other matters.”
It seemed that the road to becoming an official member of the Royal Academy’s Library Committee was still a long way off. For now, I supposed that I would need to make do with everything being unofficial.
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