Ascendance of a Bookworm (LN) - Volume 4.4 - Chapter 8

Disappearing Ink and Returning to the Castle

The spring baptism ceremony had begun.

As I made my way to the shrine, I glanced at the children who weren’t any smaller than me out of the corner of my eye. Hearing the crowd whisper as I walked was nothing new, but since this was a baptism ceremony, they were all children... and children were a lot more direct than the adults at the coming-of-age ceremony.

Hey! Don’t say, “HOLY CRAP, SHE’S SO TINY!” I can hear you! And don’t point at me like I’m some freak of nature. If my guard knights were here, they’d pick you up and throw you out!

I walked on, feeling a bit like an animal at a zoo, and climbed atop the podium. Ferdinand then began his speech on the gods, after which I ended the ceremony by blessing the children. I didn’t see any of my family at the door, maybe because the coming-of-age ceremony had only been a week ago.

Oh well... Tuuli has work too.

“And now that is done,” Ferdinand said to me.

“Are you planning to lock yourself up in your workshop again?” I asked. “We’re going to be hiding in the temple until Count Leisegang leaves the city, correct? I heard so from Eckhart.”

Great-Grandfather and Count Leisegang had been planning to marry Ferdinand and me to make him the next archduke and minimize the amount of Ahrensbach blood in the archducal family. They had apparently been convinced that Ferdinand was aiming for the archducal seat, considering that he had put me under his protection, played a considerable role in my adoption, returned to noble society after Veronica’s expulsion, and then officially become my guardian.

Ferdinand, having been probed by Count Leisegang over his plans for marriage, had subsequently shattered Great-Grandfather’s plotting by having Wilfried and me get engaged. It seemed odd to me that we were hiding away and refusing to attend meetings despite this, but reining in nobles plotting to put their ideal archduke on the seat was apparently the job of the current archduke and the planned future archduke—that is, Sylvester and Wilfried. In other words, it wasn’t something for us to concern ourselves with.

Eckhart had explained it to me like so, while eyeing the door to Ferdinand’s locked workshop: “Were Lord Ferdinand ambitious, he would have remained in the castle instead of returning to the temple. There, he would have acquired all the backing he needed simply by accepting the proposals he was given and remaining silent. But he instead demonstrated his loyalty to Lord Sylvester by minimizing contact, relaying information to the archduke, and subsequently leaving any cleanup to him. There is no better way to display one’s complete lack of involvement with politics than locking oneself away in the temple.”

It seemed that I could also display my position, that I would follow Aub Ehrenfest’s orders, by similarly avoiding contact and remaining in the temple.

“As Eckhart explained, I have no intention of opposing Sylvester,” Ferdinand said. “The same goes for you, no? And you are always more lively in the temple. Remaining here is far from a discomfort for you, is it not?”

“True. I have no interest in the next archduke, and remaining in the temple is not discomforting in the least. I must say, though—the same goes for you, Ferdinand. You are always more lively when you can do your research.”

The blue priests could now properly assist him with his work, and since most of the work inherited from the former High Bishop had since been completed, Ferdinand could much more easily acquire free time in the temple. He curved his lips up into a slight smile to signal his agreement; the fact that he didn’t audibly agree was probably because nobles weren’t really allowed to say they preferred the temple to the castle.

“I think it’s fine for you to spend your time here on your research, at least. You can lock yourself away in the workshop if you wish,” I said.

Ferdinand raised an eyebrow. “I would appreciate not being interrupted for such trifling matters as food, but... Putting that aside, there is something I must discuss about that ink of yours. I will be visiting your workshop after lunch; prepare for my arrival,” he said, his expression hardening ever so slightly. His research on my special ink must not have produced good results.

I asked Fran about my plans for the day and then agreed to the visit.

Ferdinand arrived after lunch, bringing with him a box filled with various jars of ink. I opened my workshop’s door to allow him and Eckhart inside. Justus was absent, since he was visiting the Noble’s Quarter to get updates on the situation there. My guard knights, Angelica and Damuel, came in as well.

After instructing the guard knights to wait by the door, Ferdinand got me to hold a sound-blocking magic tool. “I made the same ink and performed various experiments,” he began as he lined up the various jars one after another. Each one had a unique label tied to it with string, but what was written on them caused me to blink in surprise.

Rozemyne. Ferdinand. Minus 1. Minus 2.

“I recognize the names, but what are the minuses?” I asked.

“The ink I made with one or two fewer elements. It is clear that the mana dust added in the final stage is responsible for the unusual ink; nothing else caused similar changes,” Ferdinand explained. He had evidently managed to make ink with one and two elements removed from his mana.

How does one remove elements...? That sounds pretty tricky.

“My results showed that the ink would not swell or disappear unless one has all the elements,” Ferdinand continued. “Rozemyne, try writing with my ink as well.”

I took the pen presented to me and wrote on the cloth. This ink, unlike my own, bled a little. Then, after a moment, it started to swell up.

“As expected,” Ferdinand observed, looking at the line I had drawn with great interest. “If one has the elements, mana colors, and quantity, the ink does not bleed much at all. There is no mistaking that those with all the elements will see such swelling no matter whose ink they use.”

Ferdinand seemed satisfied as his theory became confirmed with evidence. I tilted my head at my line on the cloth; using his ink hadn’t resulted in a clean marking.

“It seems to bleed more than when you used my ink, Ferdinand.”

“That is likely due to the difference in mana. You have less mana than I do. It is only natural that you would have an easier time writing on cloth dyed with your mana using ink made with your mana.”

To think that ink made with someone else’s mana made this much of a difference... I now understood why it was so much more efficient to make magic tools for personal use with one’s own mana.

Hence Ferdinand making everything he needs himself.

“This ink is the product of sheer circumstance,” Ferdinand said, “due to you wanting to avoid embroidering and thus creating mana-rich ink to use on cloth dyed with your mana.”

“It seems so.”

“We shall use this ink solely for creating the outfits and make the production method a secret. It is too dangerous to unveil. There are countless ways in which ink that disappears but can nonetheless activate magic circles could end up being misused,” Ferdinand noted, his light golden eyes watching me quietly.

I nodded slowly in agreement. “One could easily use it to modify magic contracts in secret or stealthily place attack-orientated magic circles anywhere. It is quite dangerous indeed.”

“I find it concerning that you would think of such malevolent tricks on the spot. Perhaps you are the scary one.”

“But you’re choosing to hide the production method precisely because you considered the same things, aren’t you?” I asked.

Ferdinand grimaced and nodded. “Only someone with all elements can create disappearing ink. Likewise, only someone with all elements can use it. This restricts its usage to select members of royalty, Sovereign archnobles, and archducal families throughout the duchies. If someone of such high status elected to misuse this ink, it could result in an entire duchy—or even the country itself—being turned on its head.”

He was right—there was no need to introduce something so dangerous to the world. I wasn’t a fan of danger or violence, and there was no harm in keeping something that could be misused a secret.

“I agree entirely. All I care about is escaping the need to embroider my clothes.”

“Good grief... I appreciate that you understand the dangers involved and will cooperate with keeping it secret, but an engaged woman still needs to know how to embroider. Escapism is not healthy,” Ferdinand said, shaking his head and rubbing his temples as if to say that I was making his head hurt.

“I will arrange for the library’s magic tools to be embroidered as before,” he continued. “It is possible that their clothes might be examined by their next owner, as we have examined those provided previously, so we will draw the magic circles with your ink and then embroider the circles atop them using thread dyed with your mana. Under normal circumstances, having another do the embroidery would weaken its effects, but that will not be relevant with you having first drawn them with ink. That said, I expect you to embroider at least one of the circles yourself, both as bridal training and to learn more about magic circles. Is that understood?”

My shoulders drooped with utter despair as he fixed me with a stern glare.

“In the end, I couldn’t escape embroidering... Was there even a point in brewing the ink, then?” I asked, with a hint of melancholy.

“You need only embroider a single circle now. Is that not significant enough?”

Ferdinand placed the ink back inside the wooden box; then, he turned around and gestured for me to return the sound-blocking magic tool. It seemed that our secret conversation was over.

“Eckhart, Damuel, Angelica. We have elected to keep the production method for this ink a secret. You are to speak of it to nobody. Is that clear?” Ferdinand asked, addressing the three guard knights who had seen the ink being made up close. None of them had all of the elements, so there was no risk of them making the ink themselves, but we certainly didn’t want them spreading the method.

Ferdinand received a sharp “Yes, sir!” from all three guards, after which Angelica proudly added, “I don’t even remember what I saw, so you don’t need to worry about a thing.”

Ferdinand was rendered speechless for a solid moment, having never expected that a noble could watch the brewing of a magic tool up close and remember absolutely nothing of the process. This silence was his response when his mind shut down at something that he found utterly impossible to comprehend, but after years of dealing with me, he was able to recover much faster.

In the end, Ferdinand elected not to think too hard about it. He glanced at Angelica, indicated his understanding in as few words as possible, and then changed the topic. “Incidentally, Rozemyne—Fran came to deliver his report. In it, he mentioned that you have begun something strange with the lower city merchants again. You have your sights set on dyeing now, hm?”

I cocked my head, unsure what he was trying to say. I had entrusted the report to Fran, and I was pretty sure he hadn’t left anything out.

Ferdinand gave an exasperated expression at my confusion. “If you are starting something which could possibly become a new trend, speak first with Lady Florencia or Elvira. This will only cause confusion.”

“Understood.”

I wasn’t sure whether it would draw enough attention to become a new trend, considering that we were just reviving an old method, but I decided to give the report regardless.

For the two days we needed to wait for Justus to return, I spent my afternoons swimming in a veritable sea of books. My brain became a soup of letters, and the floaty sensation in my head was amazing. I made the most of the bliss until Ferdinand inevitably summoned me.

“It seems that Count Leisegang has finally left the castle,” he said. Count Leisegang had been awaiting our return to the castle for as long as he possibly could, desperate to arrange a meeting with us, only to eventually cave and leave.

“All nobles other than the Leisegangs have given up on making you the next aub,” Justus explained. “Your repeated proclamations to the children in the Royal Academy that you do not intend to take up the position proved effective to say the least, as did your former guard knight Brigitte speaking of your lack of ambition for power.”

It seemed they were beginning to settle for keeping me in Ehrenfest as the archduke’s first wife, such that I wouldn’t end up being wed to another duchy. Their relenting was thanks in large part to Sylvester’s hard work and efforts in convincing the others.

“Now would be a good time to return to the castle,” Justus concluded. “There are going to be meetings before the Archduke Conference, and the aub wishes to discuss the infrastructure of the lower city.”

“Very well,” Ferdinand said. “Rozemyne, we shall return tomorrow.”

“Okay. Oh... Wait.”

“Is something the matter?” Ferdinand asked, furrowing his brow as he put up his guard.

“What shall we do with my personal chefs? I have given Hugo time off to prepare for his marriage, and while we can bring Ella with us, I am worried about sending an unmarried woman to the castle kitchen, especially since she knows all my recipes. I would not like her to be taken away.”

Ferdinand thought for a moment and then nodded. “She will certainly be targeted if she is left alone. Considering the possibility that she may be put in a state where she cannot get married, it would be wiser to leave her in the temple. Perhaps you could negotiate with Sylvester, offering him a recipe or two in return for temporary access to one of the castle’s chefs.”

“I could do that?” I asked.

“There is only a short period of time between now and Spring Prayer. He would rejoice at the opportunity to acquire a new recipe or two at so little a cost.”

I ultimately followed this advice and decided to leave Ella at the temple. The less danger she was in, the better. I informed her that she was going to stay behind, then had Fran and the others prepare my things.

“Farewell, Lady Rozemyne. We await your safe return.”

“May we meet again at Spring Prayer.”

After saying my farewells, I soared through the sky on my way to the castle, riding in Lessy with Rosina and my luggage.

“Welcome back, milady.”

My retainers welcomed me upon my return, with Rihyarda at the lead. The guard knights exchanged places with Damuel and Angelica, who had earned themselves a break.

“What have you learned in my absence?” I asked. “I wish for a report on what has happened in the castle.”

It seemed that Cornelius, Leonore, and Brunhilde—all of whom were related to Count Leisegang—had been called by their parents and other family members, who interrogated them all about the situation. They had ultimately managed to calm even the most outraged of nobles by conveying that I had no intention of becoming the next aub to begin with and that this wasn’t a marriage I was being forced into.

“I heard from Lamprecht that Lord Wilfried is exceedingly depressed at the moment. The nobles are insulting him, saying that he is forcing his way to the aub seat despite his criminal history by exploiting your reputation as a saint,” Cornelius said.

Rihyarda grimaced. “Please cheer up my boy Wilfried. Help him get through this. You are engaged to him, after all, milady.”

“I find myself unmoved,” Hartmut said. “It is the truth that Lord Wilfried committed a crime that should not be forgotten, and also that he is exploiting the Leisegangs’ support for Lady Rozemyne to regain the political capital he lost committing said crime. He knew before accepting the engagement that he would receive such fair and accurate criticism. And if, for whatever reason, he did not, then he was simply being too naive.”

It was a harsh perspective that was likely shared by most nobles... or rather, most Leisegang nobles. Rihyarda, in contrast, saw the situation through much more forgiving eyes. That was to be expected, considering that she had served Sylvester for such a long time and had known Wilfried since his birth.

The previous Count Leisegang’s beloved daughter had been disrespected after he allowed her to wed the archduke candidate set to become the next archduke. Despite having been wed as the first wife, the butting in of Lady Gabriele of Ahrensbach had knocked her down to second wife. On top of that, the archduke candidate had been removed from the candidacy for fear of causing discord throughout the duchy, thus becoming Count Groschel.

At the same time, the archduke at the time had instructed that Count Leisegang wed his youngest daughter to Bonifatius, to bring back order to the duchy. Bonifatius, however, had shown no attachment to the archduke seat and actively surrendered it to his younger brother.

The younger brother in question had taken as his wife Veronica, the daughter of Lady Gabriele, who ended up mistreating the previous Count Leisegang’s grandchildren. The giebe boasting the most profitable land was slowly being pushed further and further away from the center of power. The months and years he spent enduring this humiliating abuse were long and painful, and in the end, he felt as though he had brought shame to his ancestors.

As far as Hartmut was concerned, there was absolutely no chance that they would ever accept Wilfried, who had been raised by Veronica.

“Someone who cannot endure criticism and does not strive to prove they are superior is not suited to become aub,” Hartmut continued. “For as long as he is due to wed Lady Rozemyne, he must strive to be fit to stand beside her. As things currently stand, he will be an embarrassment.”

“Hartmut, that is enough,” I said. “Predicting criticism is not always enough to maintain calm when receiving it. What matters is what Wilfried does next. Although, more importantly, has Count Leisegang truly given up? Judging by the fact he remained in the castle for as long as possible, it does not seem to me that he has...”

Brunhilde, who had been asked to check up on Great-Grandfather as his relative, stepped forward to explain. “Leonore and I were invited to visit him, and while there, we were asked endlessly about your tastes and preferences, Lady Rozemyne. After that, he expressed the concern that you were being threatened by the archducal couple to not become the next aub, just as Lady Veronica had abused Lord Ferdinand to prevent him.”

Brunhilde had firmly rejected the idea and emphasized that I was on good terms with the archducal couple. Leonore, as Count Leisegang’s niece, had likewise conveyed that I did not wish to become the next aub.

“When I informed him that you were not used to noble society due to your temple upbringing and that you have no intention of becoming the next aub, he was exceedingly moved.”

“He was... moved?” I asked, confused. It was hard to imagine such a response about me being raised in the temple, considering how it was seen by most nobles.

“This is something Father told me, but it seems that your absolute perfection astounds him,” Hartmut said. “You have an ideal bloodline, an immense mana capacity, and a record of impressive accomplishments despite the circumstances of your birth. He said that no one in history has been more deserving of the title of ‘saint.’ How should I say this...? Your reputation as a saint has spread much more rapidly thanks to the previous Count Leisegang’s efforts.”

Leonore smiled upon hearing this—not because she was pleased, but because she was utterly exhausted knowing that her efforts to convince him had been for nothing. “It seems he will be supporting you with all that he has, so that you will not need to worry about your upbringing. We refused for your sake many times, saying that this was not what you wished for, but Great-Grandfather is hard of hearing, and is thus very skilled at picking up only what he wishes to hear in these discussions. It is therefore impossible to say what he heard, and what he didn’t...”

Eep! G-Great-Grandfather?!

My head started to hurt as I realized he was continuing to scheme in the shadows for my sake.

Once my retainers finished reporting what they had learned, Hartmut brought me several stacks of documents. “These are from when the Royal Academy dormitory was remodeled,” he said, “and these are from when the castle and the Noble’s Quarter were remodeled.”

It seemed that these documents had been collected after Elvira received my message. She had compiled a team of scholars, which naturally consisted of Hartmut and Philine, as well as Wilfried’s and Charlotte’s scholars. They had worked together to pore over old documents and find everything that was relevant to the remodeling.

“Thank you. I shall share my documents as well, then. Here are records of my meeting with the Gilberta Company, and records of my meeting with the Gutenbergs. I would like for these to be delivered to Elvira. Hartmut, I ask that you organize the information relevant to printing and the lower city infrastructure, while Philine, I ask that you organize the information relevant to dyeing.”

Fran had written the records for his reports to Ferdinand, and so he had described the entire flow of the meetings. I passed the documents to Hartmut and Philine in turn, requesting that they cut out only the relevant parts from within.

Hartmut flipped through the pages and then furrowed his brow slightly. “Did a scholar of yours in the temple write these?”

“Yes. They were written by my attendant, Fran. In the temple, attendants do scholar work as well. Fran and Zahm served Lord Ferdinand as his attendants before they served me, and they are well-trained, as you can no doubt tell from these documents.”

Hartmut flipped back to the front of the documents and started going through them again, this time with a more serious look in his eyes. “Indeed. I never would have expected a gray priest of the temple to be this skilled,” he said.

Philine looked my way after hearing the phrase, “gray priest of the temple.” Her worried expression made it clear that she wanted to ask about Konrad, so I smiled to ease her worries.

“Philine, Konrad is doing quite well. He is smiling more often and eats his fill every day. I went to see him in the orphanage myself and found that he has made a friend his age, and that he is learning to read and do math.”

Philine clasped a hand against her chest with relief, but then she blinked in surprise. “Erm, Lady Rozemyne... What do you mean by that? Konrad is learning to read and do math?”

“My orphanage has full sets of playing cards, karuta, and picture books, so children learn to read and do math even before their baptism. Thus, Konrad is being taught to do both by the other orphans.”

Philine widened her eyes in stunned silence, while Hartmut likewise turned my way, looking surprised.

“Lady Rozemyne, if the children in the orphanage know how to read and write before their baptism due to those learning implements, wouldn’t that mean they are receiving better educations than laynoble children?” Hartmut asked. Philine nodded repeatedly in agreement, having barely been able to read or write following her baptism.

I internally compared the orphanage children to those in the castle’s playroom. “I don’t know exactly what kind of education normal nobles receive, but I believe they are as well-educated and well-mannered as mednoble children, save for matters related to mana. That said, no precise comparisons can be made, since their studies and future prospects following their baptisms are so dissimilar.”

I had made the karuta and playing cards for the orphans to begin with, and it was only because Sylvester had been impressed with their results when he did his tour that they had ended up being used in the castle playroom. There was nothing strange about the orphans who had been using them first being able to read, write, and do math... Or so I thought, but apparently nobles didn’t think that orphans were capable of an education at all, even when they had access to the same resources.

“If not for the taboo of the temple, I would suggest we host a classroom to educate laynoble children at a low cost, but that seems still too hard to implement. I am postponing my plans for a temple classroom for later.”

“A temple classroom...?”

“I plan to one day teach all commoners to read, write, and do math, although I am speaking ten, perhaps twenty years in the future,” I said, glancing down at the documents in front of me while explaining my long-term hopes. At the bottom of the page I was reading was a calculation detailing how much time and mana it would take to remodel the lower city.

Hmm... Mana will probably be a bit tight for a few years, but it’s not impossible.

“Um, Lady Rozemyne. What is this dyeing?” Philine asked.

I glanced back up. “They are methods that used to exist in Ehrenfest. I learned of them when discussing the purchasing of multicolored cloth for Schwartz’s and Weiss’s outfits with the Gilberta Company. They will be consulting with dyeing workshops to see if those old methods can be revived.”

Such was the cover story we had gone with. I explained tie-dyeing and resist-dyeing to Philine, but since she didn’t know what they looked like in practice, it didn’t mean much to her. It was Rihyarda who reacted to them.

“Tie-dyeing and resist-dyeing, hm? How nostalgic...” she said.

“You’re familiar with them, Rihyarda?”

“They were in fashion when I was a little girl. I may even have a few outfits dyed in that style, though I would need to search my closet at home.”

It seemed that nobles tended not to throw away sentimental outfits or outfits given to them by the one they served. This was an unexpected place to learn about old dyeing methods.

“I would like to see what manner of cloth was produced with these old dyeing methods,” I said. “Please do show me them when you have the time.”

“Yes, certainly.”

Brunhilde let out a dissatisfied noise at our promise. “What is the point in such old things?” she asked. “I think it would be best for you to use your time inventing new trends, not falling back on old ones.”

“My goal is to create a new dyeing method using old techniques. Whether the results are worth it will depend on the skill of the craftspeople and our eyes for fashion. Will you assist me in creating trends, Brunhilde, not just spreading them?”

“You wish for me to make a trend alongside you?” Brunhilde asked, her eyes widening as if that thought had never occurred to her. She had only ever focused on finding good things and spreading them to push trends, but since Florencia and Elvira, among others, were superior to her in both age and faction, she had never even considered creating a trend herself.

“I have faith in your social acumen, Brunhilde. You deftly chose the pound cake and teas to be given to Lady Eglantine, and the scents of the rinsham, no? I believe you will be able to select from a series of dyed clothing what will be most liked by noblewomen.”

Brunhilde gave a proud smile and nodded, her amber eyes developing a strong light now that she had the goal of creating a new trend from the ground up. “I will select the most suitable cloth for you, Lady Rozemyne. I would very much like to start a new trend with you.”