Ascendance of a Bookworm (LN) - Volume 4.4 - Chapter 15

Report on the Archduke Conference

“Welcome back.”

Florencia gave a soft smile upon seeing Wilfried, Charlotte, and me lined up in front of the teleporter room. “I see you have all come to greet us,” she said.

Sylvester led us out of the room with a similar grin. “A lot happened, but I’ll give the details at tomorrow’s meeting. You’re all going to be in attendance.”

Ferdinand had been summoned to the Ehrenfest Dormitory on several occasions during the Archduke Conference, while Norbert and several others had been gathered to handle some behind-the-scenes matters. These developments had given me cause for concern, but in the end, the archducal couple returned with bright smiles and no signs of exhaustion.

“Father. Welcome back,” I said to Karstedt, who had accompanied the archducal couple as the commander of the Knight’s Order.

“Mm. You look well, Rozemyne.” Karstedt cracked a weak smile, looking so much wearier than Sylvester that I couldn’t help but wonder what had happened. I gave him a concerned look, but he merely pushed for us to leave, since more guard knights, attendants, and scholars would soon be returning.

The next day, Wilfried, Charlotte, and I went to the room where the meeting was being held. Those of us old enough to attend the Royal Academy needed to attend, since the results of the Archduke Conference would no doubt have a massive impact on our lives as students. I hadn’t participated in the last meeting due to being asleep in the jureve, while Charlotte was starting at the Royal Academy next winter, so this was a new experience for us both.

“This is also when they announce any changes to the duchy rankings,” Wilfried said with a confident smile, having participated in the previous post-conference meeting. “I’m so excited. We must have gone up since last year.”

“That certainly would be nice,” I replied from my highbeast.

Charlotte was walking along in silence, no doubt tense about joining this meeting for the first time. In attendance were the archducal family, our retainers, representatives of the Knight’s Order, and the higher-ranking scholars. Only once everyone was ready did the archducal couple enter.

“The meeting shall now begin,” Sylvester said. “There’s a lot for us to talk about, considering all the developments we’ve seen over the past year. I’m guessing Ehrenfest is going to continue changing and growing in power, and for that reason, I want to use this opportunity to boost our ranking as much as possible. For that, I need your help.”

Sylvester’s scholars stepped forward to announce this year’s rankings. Ehrenfest was now in tenth place, meaning we were going to be using the tenth-ranked dormitory door and rooms from now on. Considering how low we had ranked in previous years, that was pretty good.

“Our grades in the Royal Academy have gone up significantly. In fact, if we were judged purely on our grades, we would’ve ended up a rank or two higher,” Sylvester continued. The reason we hadn’t risen beyond tenth place was apparently because we had yet to accumulate much influence; we had only recently started to spread our trends and weren’t sending too many people to the Sovereignty. “If our business with the merchants from other duchies goes well this year, we should be able to get an even higher rank next year. Aside from the obvious necessity of ensuring these transactions go smoothly, we need to make sure our efforts here are established as more than just a temporary trend. The aim is to solidify our current trends and then introduce new ones on top of them.”

As Sylvester went on, he actually started to sound a little passionate; he was almost certainly heated because the other duchies had dismissed our trends as temporary and inconsequential. One could hardly blame them, considering that Ehrenfest had produced exactly zero trends before this point, and it was easy to imagine that the duchies we had overtaken were especially eager to bad-mouth us. Rather than dishearten Sylvester, however, it seemed that these insults had only served to motivate him more; he gazed across the meeting room with sharp eyes and then clenched a fist.

“Ehrenfest is inventing new kinds of paper one after another and making considerable progress in preparing the printing industry. We’ll use these as weapons to reach an even higher rank!”

Sylvester’s declaration inspired applause throughout the room. After spending decades with a reputation as a backwater duchy, Ehrenfest had gone all the way from rank thirteen to rank ten. The elders who remembered our days at the very bottom of the rankings were elated to say the least.

“And to maintain this momentum, I want our archduke candidates in the Royal Academy to continue helping our students boost their grades,” Sylvester said. “Of course, this is an endeavor that’ll require hard work from children and adults alike. Ferdinand, explain this to everyone in more detail.”

Ferdinand nodded, stood up from his seat, and then gazed across the meeting room. “Based on what the archduke candidates have told us, a great number of professors were replaced after the civil war, and even the classwork has changed a great deal from what it used to be. To our understanding, the biggest change is that the apprentice knights are now tasked with competing in speed rather than treasure-stealing ditter,” he began, next going on to describe the poor state the knights graduating from the new Royal Academy were in. “The Knight’s Order is currently putting the new recruits and apprentices through special training to make up for what has been lost. A sizable social gap has even developed between the knights and scholars, having no doubt resulted from the lack of treasure-stealing ditter games to cooperate for.”

Ferdinand emphasized that things were completely different from the days when duchies would band together to place magic tools and brew rejuvenation potions, and that he wanted officials in every field to train their recruits up to a more proper standard. The scholars had noticed this change themselves and were nodding along. It seemed that treasure-stealing ditter, which had ceased due to the lesser duchies lacking the population to support it, was highly important for training students.

A scholar stepped forward. “I shall now give a report on the newly settled business deals,” he said. “As we discussed, it was decided that we will sell our new products to Klassenberg and the Sovereignty.”

We had evidently been rather successful at promoting our new trends during the Archduke Conference. For duchies that hadn’t managed to negotiate for hairpins, rinsham, or plant paper, Sylvester had smoothed things over by selling them the pound cake recipe.

“We delivered verification paper, as Lady Rozemyne has so aptly named it, to the two duchies,” the scholar continued. “Scholars delivered the other halves to the guildmaster of the Merchant’s Guild, such that it may properly handle merchants from other duchies.”

Oh yeah... We went with “verification paper” to avoid everyone finding out we make it from nansebs.

“There are many duchies who wish to do business with us next year,” the scholar went on. “To that end, we must build as many rinsham workshops as possible before the next Archduke Conference, such that we may take on as many business partners as possible. We will need to discuss this matter with the guildmaster.”

Sensing that they were about to place far too great of a burden on the lower city, I immediately interjected. “Rinsham is not especially hard to produce, so it is only a matter of time before other duchies begin making it for themselves. By establishing too many rinsham workshops in Ehrenfest, we are only setting ourselves up for mass unemployment later down the line. We must consider our actions carefully; after all, we have products other than rinsham and hairpins to work on.”

“Since we have other trends to capitalize on, can we not just have the workers move on to them after the rinsham trend dies down?” the scholar asked, looking quite perplexed. It was true that we would need to start producing our next products once the other duchies learned to make and consequently stopped purchasing our rinsham, but it was unreasonable to expect workers to change jobs so easily.

“Having someone begin a new job when their old one disappears may sound simple, but it is much harder to put into practice. If we found there was no more work for scholars and asked you to begin doing the work of a knight from tomorrow onward, would you be able to perform adequately from your very first day? You may be able to handle the work done by scholars, but nothing more, I imagine. Commoners are the same. Please keep this in mind when constructing new workshops.”

When it came to the lower city, I intended to be a barrier shielding the commoners from the nobility’s unreasonable demands. The scholar, seeing that I would not budge on this matter, responded with a somewhat dissatisfied nod.

“Moving on,” Sylvester interjected. “I assume you’re all most interested in Wilfried and Rozemyne’s engagement. I do have an announcement on that.”

The atmosphere of the room sharpened; this decision would affect the strength and influence of the duchy’s various factions, so in a sense, this was the most relevant news to all those gathered. I could feel the adults listening more intently now than when the ranking was announced, which came as a huge disappointment; they were still playing faction politics when we needed to unite and work together. This all seemed even more foolish because I had successfully stamped out political infighting in the Royal Academy by distracting the students.

Hmm... I wonder whether I could do the same thing here, uniting Ehrenfest’s nobles by making them focus on something outside the duchy...

Sylvester’s dark-green eyes scanned the room. Those who hadn’t attended the Archduke Conference—approximately half of all the present nobles—watched with bated breath as his mouth opened to speak.

“The king has granted his permission, meaning the engagement now has official backing. Those who would decry it now, know that you will be decrying the king himself.”

Now, neither the Leisegang faction nor the remnants of the former Veronica faction could openly protest the engagement. I could sense a change in the eyes of all those gathered; it was better to think of one’s next move than bemoan something already set in stone.

Ehrenfest is in no position to endure any infighting right now, but, well... that’s just my opinion.

“The king also approved Prince Anastasius’s engagement to Lady Eglantine of Klassenberg. As a result, Prince Anastasius will now be politically beneath Prince Sigiswald.”

Anastasius and Eglantine would apparently be ruling the Sovereignty’s Central District, which had expanded after absorbing the territory of surrounding duchies after the civil war. I understood this as them becoming the giebes of the Sovereignty while retaining their status as royalty to handle the magic devices, which meant Anastasius had finally taken a step away from being the next king... but who knew how much of an impact this would actually have.

I started to ponder the matter, only to realize that nobody else around me was doing the same. In fact, they all wore completely unmoved expressions. They were all a lot more invested in my engagement, perhaps because the lives of royalty had no real direct impact on them.

“There’s more,” Sylvester continued. “At the insistence of Ahrensbach, two more marriages have been settled. Lamprecht and Freuden will each be bringing their brides to Ehrenfest.”

To nobody’s surprise, a stir ran through the meeting hall. Ehrenfest had been minimizing all contact with Ahrensbach ever since Count Bindewald, an archnoble from Ahrensbach, had entered the temple without permission, attacked Ferdinand and me, and allowed his soldiers to be used in an attack on the castle. Sylvester had even outright rejected their marriage on the grounds of our mana shortage and spoken out against marrying Ahrensbach nobles.

“Because so much time has passed since their proposals, the two brides will come to us at the end of summer to take their places here as soon as possible,” Sylvester said. His eyes were leaden, and the lack of celebration in his voice implied that Ahrensbach had forced this matter through. If a greater duchy said they were sending two brides over, a middle duchy like Ehrenfest had no choice but to accept.

Especially since we refused to do business with them this year...

This was no doubt a political maneuver made with next year’s business dealings in mind, plus the women were probably spies sent to infiltrate Ehrenfest. Lamprecht’s wife would be in the perfect position to extract information from her new family: her new father-in-law, Karstedt, was the knight commander; her new mother-in-law, Elvira, was the head of the printing industry; and her husband’s lord, Wilfried, was the son of the archduke. There was also me, her ordinary soon-to-be sister-in-law.

Oof... That explains why Father looked so tired when he got back.

This was quite a serious situation indeed. Karstedt and Elvira didn’t look happy at all, despite the fact their son was getting married.

According to Sylvester, these marriages were being performed at Aub Ahrensbach’s insistence, and while Freuden’s bride was only a mednoble, Lamprecht’s was Aub Ahrensbach’s own niece. Out of consideration for interduchy politics, the ceremony was going to be a simple one held at the duchy border gate with only the couple’s families and the archducal family from each duchy attending.

“Lamprecht and Freuden, their parents and siblings, and the High Bishop and High Priest will need to make their preparations. Take care here.”

Lamprecht’s expression clouded over at the thought of his coming future, but I saw a few smiles among those gathered. They were from those of the former Veronica faction, who wanted more diplomacy with Ahrensbach. They had been worn down after losing their figurehead and getting excluded from trends and mana compression, but these marriages would surely revitalize them. The faction war within Ehrenfest was no doubt soon to reignite.

I need to get the duchy’s rank up ASAP. Pressure from above is a serious pain in the neck.

As I mulled over the situation at hand, I couldn’t help but sigh. It was clear that Lamprecht’s marriage was going to turn Ehrenfest politics on its head once again.