Ascendance of a Bookworm (LN) - Volume 4.3 - Chapter 3

Winter Socializing

As I began living in the castle again, I received so many invitations to meetings that Ferdinand and my attendants had their hands full just trying to organize them all. The requests were from nobles wanting to get involved in the printing and paper-making industries, but since I couldn’t tell who was acceptable for me to meet with, Ferdinand and the others were handling that also.

In the meantime, Elvira dragged me to a tea party alongside Florencia and Charlotte. Once there, I was bombarded with so many questions about printing and mana compression by wives looking to promote their husbands and houses to me that my head started to spin.

For the first time, I learned that Elvira and Florencia always held meetings after their tea parties to dissect everything that was discussed. They double-checked the rumors, examined the topics flying around, and organized what they wanted more details on. Charlotte and I were accompanying them to find out more about gathering intelligence.

“Rozemyne, Charlotte. Which topics did you take an interest in?” Elvira asked.

“I was surprised to hear how many were about my sister. The air feels much different from last year.” Charlotte responded at once, but I needed time to think; I hadn’t yet paired the names and faces of the nobles who had attended with us.

“As for me... It seems mana compression has become quite the hot topic. Have all those requesting to be taught the method been looked over?” I asked.

“Indeed. We have already made preparations for many to learn it; we just await your permission. In that regard, how were Wilfried and his retainers at the Royal Academy?” Florencia asked, as worried about her son as one would expect. I went ahead and explained that he was working hard and doing his best to keep the dormitory together.

“That said, I still cannot say whether it would be best for him to learn my compression method. I believe the final decision will depend on how the tea party with his cousins goes.”

“I am ever so worried. It was Lady Detlinde who invited him, correct? The Ahrensbach archduke candidate who looks just like Lady Georgine, with blonde hair and green eyes? She also looks much like Lady Veronica.”

I had never met Veronica, but she apparently had blonde hair and green eyes also. Thinking back on the nostalgic look Wilfried had given Detlinde, I could understand why Florencia was so worried.

“He will surely be fine,” I said, attempting to console Florencia. “We carefully discussed everything that could come up at the tea party. Not to mention, he has been consulting Lord Ferdinand for help.”

This time, however, Elvira furrowed her brow with worry. “I am personally more concerned about Lamprecht. He was not given permission to marry the Ahrensbach archnoble. It was a necessity due to interduchy politics, but I do hope that Lord Wilfried is not attacked by Lady Detlinde in response to that.”

Veronica had been in power for a long time during the period when Lamprecht was attending the Academy, and socializing with Ahrensbach had been highly encouraged. Times had changed, however; in the current political climate, there was no helping the archduke not giving his approval. It was important to show utter sincerity to one’s significant other to indicate that any such decisions weren’t due to a sudden change of heart, but all in all, refusing a marriage due to interduchy politics was actually the most peaceful way to end things.

“Ahrensbach is of a higher status than Ehrenfest, and her parents were never pleased about her pairing with Lamprecht,” Elvira remarked. “I was deathly surprised, then, when Ahrensbach latched on to their relationship so firmly. The next Archduke Conference is going to be quite the stir, I fear.”

“We must start planning around this now,” Florencia agreed. “My brother in Frenbeltag will likely be requesting support once again.”

“There will also be discussions about trade among duchies, correct? Royalty and greater duchies alike are interested in Rozemyne’s trends. We simply do not have enough information here.”

Sorry... I didn’t know Ehrenfest knew so little, and Sylvester just told me to “spread the trends” without any further instruction.

“Still, now that Rozemyne is awake, I feel our faction is swelling in size all at once,” Charlotte noted. “This is perhaps due to everyone learning that we can once again proceed with mana compression and the printing industry.”

“Charlotte is correct. Mednobles and laynobles are flocking our way, since they must join our faction to learn the mana compression method,” Florencia said. I didn’t know enough to be able to compare the situation to the previous year, but our faction numbers were apparently shooting up.

Elvira smiled. “Skillfully flaunting what rewards await your allies is very important, Rozemyne.”

And so, as we attended tea parties for girls, I was taught how to gather and organize information, as well as how to instruct scholars to gather intelligence in my place. Charlotte listened in with a serious expression, as she would need to do the same next year when attending the Royal Academy. As her older sister, I had to focus to maintain my lead.

“Rozemyne, it is important that you also gather as much information as you can during Royal Academy tea parties, and that you report what you learn to us,” Florencia said. “We need to know as much as possible before the Archduke Conference.”

I could practically feel the question mark pop up above my head. “Will I not be returning right before the Interduchy Tournament?” I asked. “That is the day before the graduation ceremony, so will I even have time for tea parties?” Ferdinand had said they wouldn’t be sending me back to the Royal Academy until the very last minute due to my poor socializing skills, so I hadn’t thought I would have the time to gather information at tea parties.

“I believe it is better for Rozemyne to return sooner than that, both to gather information and to prepare for the Interduchy Tournament itself. The socializing period is when archduke candidates are needed most, would you not agree?” Florencia asked Elvira.

“Lord Ferdinand does not seem comfortable sending her back early. She is likely to cause problems there, no?”

Florencia and Elvira exchanged glances before simultaneously rubbing their temples, agonizing over how to deal with me. I apologized internally.

Sorry for not really getting how nobles think yet. I’ll do better next time!

I clenched my fists, resolving to follow their lessons well, and it was then that a recent warning from Ferdinand echoed through my mind: “Nothing good comes from you trying so hard.”

“Rozemyne, how many workshops can be made from spring till autumn?” Ferdinand asked, having summoned me for questioning once all of my meeting requests had been sorted through. Many nobles wanted permission to construct paper-making workshops, but we were limited in how many we could make at once, since there were only so many instructors at our disposal. That is to say, we didn’t have many workers who could teach others.

“A printing workshop can only be established once all the parts for a printing press have been made, most of the Gutenbergs have been mobilized to handle the setup, and all the techniques have been taught,” I explained. “I do not believe all these criteria can be met this year—we have not sent orders for any new presses to be made, and I am planning to go to Haldenzel in the spring.”

Printing workshops needed the cooperation of a local smithy and a carpentry workshop, as well as the assistance of the Merchant’s Guild in preparing the ground floor. The best we could do this year was decide the order in which we would fulfill the requests in the future.

“I would like to postpone meeting the nobles who wish to establish printing workshops so that I might instead prioritize meeting with those who wish to establish paper-making workshops,” I concluded.

“Are you not limited in how many of those you can make?”

“I believe we can establish a decent number of workshops if we simply teach them to create volrin paper with the current recipe, rather than spending a year to develop specialized paper as we did in Illgner. Though of course, considering how much traveling the Plantin Company will need to do, we will not be able to prepare that many.”

When establishing a paper-making workshop, a member of the Plantin Company absolutely needed to be sent to install a local branch of the Ehrenfest Paper Guild in that province. There also needed to be an instructor present to teach the actual process. The problem was, there weren’t many members of the Plantin Company capable of doing such work, nor were there many gray priests who could serve as instructors. Even borrowing instructors from the workshops in Hasse and Illgner would allow us to set up at most three workshops per year.

“Are there many nobles who wish to distinguish themselves by creating their own specialized paper?” I asked.

“They may do the research on their own,” Ferdinand said, no doubt thinking it would be more entertaining that way.

Maybe this is hard for a mad scientist to understand, but not everyone loves research.

“I understand your position,” he continued. “In order to accelerate the construction of workshops, I will consult Illgner to see whether they can spare any instructors. This is our highest priority.”

We were due to be meeting with Giebe Illgner, so I decided to speak with Damuel. I took out the two sound-blocking magic tools I was borrowing before turning to him amid the rest of my guard knights and attendants.

“Damuel, if you would find seeing Brigitte again too painful, I do not mind giving you the day off.”

“...I will do my job.”

“Are you certain?” I asked, having noticed his face stiffen at the mere mention of her name. “Are you not suffering from, uh... a broken heart?”

Damuel widened his eyes. “Lady Rozemyne, where did you even learn that phrase?! Oh, it must have been at those tea parties...” He had jumped to a conclusion, despite me having known the phrase from elsewhere. I waited for a response as his eyes searched for words which he eventually found. “It is less that I have a broken heart, and more that I regret my actions. My crass thoughtlessness resulted in Brigitte bringing shame upon herself. I regret that beyond words.”

“I heard from Ferdinand that your marriage would have been problematic due to your status, but I still do not entirely understand what he meant. What exactly would have been problematic?”

“I did not understand myself until I was scolded by my older brother. I had failed to realize that my superiors and family understood the situation differently.”

As it turned out, he had planned to continue living in the Noble’s Quarter and serving as a guard knight even after marrying Brigitte. He had thought it was obvious that he would continue as my guard knight until I relieved him of duty myself, considering that I had protected him in the past and taken him under my wing despite his grave mistake.

However, his family and others hadn’t thought the same. As far as his brother Henrik was concerned, by not going to Illgner, Damuel was foolishly abandoning the incredibly good fortune that had connected his laynoble family to land-owning mednobles.

“My brother called it sheer foolishness for me to think of marrying Brigitte, for I did not know how to lead a life that would satisfy the younger sister of a giebe. And most of all, while marrying into her family in Illgner would see me rise to the status of a mednoble, her marrying into mine would result in her being brought down to the status of a laynoble.”

Damuel had not thought through the consequences that would arise from Brigitte becoming a laynoble, and it was only when Henrik had started to list them one by one that he truly understood. For one, she would need to interact with her friends, family, and quite literally everyone else in an entirely different manner than what she was used to. She would also need to learn laynoble social practices, and her children would be treated as laynobles too.

“That would certainly be a considerable burden on her...” I muttered, biting my lip at the thought of status having driven a wedge between my own family and me, preventing us from treating each other as equals. They had needed to kneel before me, use polite language, and speak as though I were someone else entirely.

“Furthermore, Brigitte’s former betrothed used the canceling of their engagement to begin sending abuse, and at the time, there were almost no laynobles supporting Illgner as government officials. I had heard that Giebe Illgner had resorted to flying around his own land, though I had not understood what was truly going on.”

Damuel had been largely unaware, having traveled between the temple and the knight dormitory without ever really visiting the family estate. Henrik, however, was a scholar. He knew the situation well, since it was such a popular topic of conversation, and thought it obvious that Brigitte would use her marriage as an opportunity to return to Illgner and support her older brother.

“Would it truly have been feasible for Brigitte to live in the Noble’s Quarter as a laynoble, unable to even properly consult her family for help when she needed it...?” Damuel continued. “It was not until my brother told me I was expected to quit my duties as a guard knight and marry into her family that I realized how little I had considered how much her life would change with me.”

Serving as a guard knight was an honorable position, but one far above what a laynoble like Damuel would normally hold. It turned out he was actually the target of much jealousy due to having learned my mana compression method and increased his mana so considerably. Many were saying he should be replaced with a mednoble or an archnoble.

“I can never be relieved of duty, since I know of your full past in the temple, but only a few are aware of that. Neither my brother nor Brigitte knew, and so she too thought it was obvious that I would marry into her family. They could never have considered these facts that we take for granted,” he concluded, hanging his head.

“To think that a difference in status would pose such incredible difficulties... I had assumed things would work out simply due to your mutual love.”

“Embarrassingly enough, I had as well. I had assumed it would all work out so long as I could match her mana capacity. I simply did not think things through enough, and despite having proposed to her myself, I ultimately refused her on the basis of not going to Illgner.”

What in the...?! You turned her down? Sorry! I thought for sure it was the other way around. That was prejudicial of me.

“I’m sure you’ll find someone perfect for you soon, Damuel.”

“Do you say that knowing my mana capacity has grown great enough that there are practically no laynoble women who can match it?” he asked, staring at me flatly. I promptly averted my gaze.

“Um, w-well... As children learn the method, there will soon be many laynobles with capacities compatible with your own. You will soon have cute girls all over you. P-Probably.”

“They will be too young. By the time your classmates are of marrying age, I will already be midway through my twenties,” Damuel said. He was despondent, but I had heard such an age gap wasn’t particularly rare among nobles. He would be fine so long as he continued to push himself, though he would certainly be the one putting in the work.

“You have until then to raise your mana, save money, and develop the charms of an adult man. You can, er... manage. I will do all that I can to support you.”

“You’re not going to introduce me to someone in the same way that Lady Elvira found someone for Brigitte?!” he asked, looking at me with such sympathy-inducing eyes that I felt obligated to ask whether he wanted me to speak to Elvira about finding someone for him too. He responded with an immediate, “Yes, please.”

That worked for me.

On the day of my meeting with Giebe Illgner, I entered the meeting room with Ferdinand, my attendants, and my guard knights, Damuel included. Already waiting inside were Giebe Illgner and his wife, as well as Brigitte and her husband. Brigitte appeared to carry herself in a much softer and more feminine manner than before, perhaps because she was now married. I was relieved to see that the calm smile on her face was one of contentment.

Brigitte’s husband, the only person here I was meeting for the first time, stepped forward and knelt before me. “Lady Rozemyne, may I pray for a blessing in appreciation of this serendipitous meeting, ordained by the harsh judgment of Ewigeliebe the God of Life?” he asked.

“You may.”

“I am Viktor, husband to Brigitte. It is an honor to meet you.”

Viktor had a peaceful disposition, and the way he carried himself made it immediately apparent he was a scholar. His skills were no doubt essential in Illgner, where scholar-officials were very desperately needed. He seemed to fit in not just with Brigitte but with Giebe Illgner too, making him pretty much a perfect match.

Talk about a catch. Good job, Mother. I’m impressed.

I nodded to myself as I looked over Viktor, and it was then that I noticed a familiar face standing behind Giebe Illgner with a diptych in hand. The way he conducted himself wasn’t quite the same, but there was no doubt in my mind—it was Volk, the former gray priest. Never had I expected to meet him here in the castle. My eyes widened in surprise, and he returned a warm smile upon noticing my gaze. It was improper for me to speak to him here, however, so I turned my attention to Brigitte.

“It has been a long time since we last spoke, Lady Rozemyne,” she said.

“I am glad to see you are doing well.”

“My one regret is that I did not wait for you to awaken before I married.”

Brigitte had personally wanted to delay her marriage until then, but Elvira had suggested she speed things along so that Illgner could get the help it needed as soon as possible. It was in their best interest to develop their trade and secure sales while they lacked business rivals, and they were advised to make as much paper as possible before Haldenzel started printing.

“Although we married, we have had no time for newlywed life—Illgner is suffering quite happily as Lady Elvira and the Plantin Company push your businesses further and further,” Brigitte continued.

Viktor smiled and nodded. “We have invested our all into developing new paper, since Illgner was fated to lose its advantageous position when you awoke, and other provinces began establishing their own workshops.”

“It is thanks to your support and paper-making workshops that laynobles have returned to the province and made operation feasible, Lady Rozemyne. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts,” Giebe Illgner’s wife added, kneeling in front of me as well. “We would like to gift you this paper. It is newly developed and made from rinfin, a tree far more common in Illgner than volrin. It may serve as material for the waxed paper the Plantin Company seeks. Please use it for your research.”

She presented me with paper so thin it was almost see-through, carefully stacked and wrapped in cloth so that the sheets would not be damaged by the hard, smooth paper that was Illgner’s specialty.

I carefully pulled away the cloth and picked up a single sheet. The craftsmen had gotten much more skilled during my two-year slumber, and seeing the expertly made, super-thin paper made me break into a smile. This was a far cheaper alternative to the trombe paper we were currently having to use, which would naturally lower the cost of printing as well.

Books are going to become cheaper! Heck yesss!

“I thank you ever so much. I will start experimenting at once to see if this can be used as wax stencils in the workshops,” I said, wishing to happily rub the new paper against my cheek but contenting myself with just touching it normally.

Brigitte lowered her voice. “Lady Rozemyne, I do not know if this information will be useful, but paper made from the nanseb feyplant acts in a very similar fashion to a magic tool.”

“Paper made from feyplants has retained such attributes in the past. What did you discover?” I asked, being deliberately vague so as to not explicitly reveal that trombe paper was harder to burn.

According to Brigitte, their workshops were ripping up torn sheets, boiling them, and then using them to make new paper. When they ripped up nanseb paper, however, they found the scraps would very slowly start moving toward the largest piece.

“We are reporting this quirk in hope that you or Lord Ferdinand may find some proper use for it,” Brigitte said.

“We shall buy the paper. Do you have any with you now?” Ferdinand asked without missing a beat. His burning passion for research had not yet cooled; he bought the paper in an instant, not even asking its price first.

“We have brought ten sheets for demonstrative purposes, but we must sell the paper through the Plantin Company. You will need to wait until spring before we can give any to you.”

“I see. The Plantin Company will soon be summoned by Aub Ehrenfest, and I will negotiate its sale then. You will be contacted when the date is decided.”

Giebe Illgner had thought they would need to wait until spring for the nanseb paper to be sold, and so he was visibly pleased to learn this was not the case. In stark contrast, Ferdinand hardened his expression. Viktor straightened his back at once, while Volk re-adjusted his grip on his diptych and stylus.

“Giebe Illgner. Now that Rozemyne has awoken, we are to begin spreading the paper-making industry throughout Ehrenfest,” Ferdinand announced. “To that end, we must send out members of the Plantin Company and gray priests from the temple workshop, as we did when establishing things in Illgner. However, we lack the necessary personnel. We want you to lend us three or four of your paper-making craftsmen so that they may begin teaching others.”

“That is... quite a difficult request, Lord Ferdinand.”

Rather than Giebe Illgner, Viktor was the first to answer. He was largely in charge of the paper-making industry in Illgner and explained that they lacked the manpower required to comply with such a request. At the same time, he expressed his hesitancy to aid with the creation of rival businesses.

“Viktor, you are not wrong in what you say, but Illgner exists as it does now entirely thanks to Lady Rozemyne’s knowledge and technologies,” the giebe interjected. “If she wishes for our help, I am prepared to meet any request she may have. Lady Rozemyne, please tell us what you need,” he said, encouraging me with a smile.

Brigitte nodded in agreement with her brother. I could feel a sudden warmth in my chest; I was glad to have people willing to accept my requests.

“I wish to establish more paper-making workshops, but we do not have enough people to accomplish this in multiple provinces. We hope to borrow workers from Illgner to solve this problem,” I explained. “That said, while we lent Illgner gray priests for an entire year to research specialty paper, we will only be teaching the other provinces how to make volrin paper. We plan to visit several locations from spring to autumn, and our stays in each one shall remain brief, so you will not need to teach them to make any other kinds of paper.”

“Establishing more paper-making workshops is our highest priority due to upcoming business with the Sovereignty,” Ferdinand added. “Other provinces can use local materials to produce new forms of paper at their leisure, but your supremacy will not falter.”

Viktor’s expression softened. “I now understand the true significance in Lady Rozemyne supporting Illgner with gray priests for one year. We shall do what we can for Ehrenfest.”

And so it was decided that we would discuss it in more detail together with the Plantin Company, when we met with them to purchase the nanseb paper. Good luck, Benno. You’re about to be surrounded by nobles again.

As I sent Benno a silent prayer, Damuel stepped away from the door he was guarding and approached Rihyarda with a stiff expression. A message had apparently come for us, and if the way Rihyarda’s eyebrows shot up when she received it was anything to go by, it was an important one. She walked over to Ferdinand at once.

“Excuse me for interrupting the meeting. The Knight’s Order has sent word that the Lord of Winter has appeared.”

Ferdinand stood up immediately, his chair scraping the floor behind him, and all of my guard knights except Damuel braced themselves. I thought back to my previous experience hunting the Lord of Winter—it was a task that had involved most members of my family, Karstedt and Eckhart included. I wanted to assist them with a blessing, even if it would only help a little.

“Ferdinand, will you need my blessing?” I asked, looking up at him.

“It would help. Apologies, Giebe Illgner, but we must bring this meeting to a close.”

“Understood. We cannot take any more of your time. If you’ll excuse us...” Giebe Illgner replied, standing up with his wife. Viktor patted his own wife on the shoulder with a wry smile.

“You look on edge, Brigitte, but I believe you are a knight no longer,” Viktor said. “It seems the familiar faces and atmosphere made her forget that fact,” he continued, eliciting a smile from Brigitte that was both embarrassed and sad.

“We will leave so as to not interfere,” Giebe Illgner said. “We pray for your success in battle.” He and everyone else began to leave, but there was still one more question on my mind.

“Volk.”

He turned around, looking stunned, having never expected me to actually address him here.

“How are things with your wife?” I asked. “Have you found happiness in Illgner? I sometimes find myself worrying about that even now.”

Ferdinand shot me a sharp glare, but I hadn’t been able to help myself. Volk was the first gray priest I had ever sold to another—not as a laborer, but as a free man, so that he could get married. His life in the temple meant he had known nothing of either family or marriages, and so I often wondered how his life was going now.

Volk knelt gracefully before me. “I took your sage advice well to heart, Lady Rozemyne. Rather than endure all of my problems in silence, I regularly speak with Carya so that we may work together and find compromises. While you were asleep, we were blessed with a child, and I was able to learn the true meaning of the word ‘family.’ I experience moments of joy each day, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for guiding me down the path of happiness.”

He spoke with pride, wearing the expression not of a gray priest serving his lord but of a father supporting his family.