Ascendance of a Bookworm (LN) - Volume 4.4 - Chapter SS1

The Miracle of Haldenzel

I looked over my land as the giebe; before me was the spitting image of a new Haldenzel summer. Rocky surfaces were bared to the sky, flowers bloomed in a variety of colors, and short trees clustered together. It was far from how the province usually looked in the middle of spring.

So this is what spring in Haldenzel is truly like, acquired through a proper Spring Prayer...

Upon hearing our song celebrating the coming of spring and the beginning of the hunt, Lady Rozemyne had noted its presence in the High Bishop’s bible as a request for the melting of the snow and the coming of the Goddess of Water. I had pushed the women to sing along on a whim, purely for the sake of amusement, and this simple change had caused a magic circle to appear on the Spring Prayer stage. Then again, Lady Rozemyne alone had kept her hands on the stage and offered prayers and gratitude throughout, so perhaps she was the true cause of everything that had happened.

The magic circle had risen into the air before being sucked into the chalices, forming massive pillars of green light. An instant later, the laynoble women on the stage had collapsed and Spring Prayer was thrown into chaos. The province’s elites had gathered to discuss what had happened, but as they had never seen the magic circle before, it was impossible for them to determine what effects it might have. Their impromptu meeting had come to an end when the women recovered, and after a night of violent thunderstorms, Haldenzel awoke to find that the once snow-covered province was as green as any early summer’s day.

The snow is nowhere to be seen... The feybeasts will most likely become active now.

I mounted my highbeast and took flight, staring down at the shrubs and boulders where feybeasts usually made their nests. I was grateful that the melting of the snow had come early, but the weather was much too different from usual; we needed to gather information on how far the effects of Spring Prayer had reached, as well as how fast it was accelerating the breeding and growth of the summer feybeasts. Although we would normally seek help from any commoners who were skilled at hunting, there was simply no time. We needed as many knights with highbeasts as possible.

Our knights alone won’t be enough...

Thankfully enough, the Knight’s Order had accompanied the archducal family to Haldenzel. I requested assistance from Lord Karstedt, the knight commander and my little sister’s husband. It seemed a fair trade, since it was inevitable that the archduke and surrounding giebes would ask him about this incident, and I was sure the Knight’s Order would appreciate an opportunity to perform an investigation on the province, which was usually closed off and resistant to outside influence. It was also their duty to weaken the Lord of Winter by diminishing the number of feybeasts.

“I wish to investigate the area around the border gate to Klassenberg with the Knight’s Order, while at the same time hunting feybeasts,” I said. “The events here will no doubt be discussed at the Archduke Conference, for business reasons, so I am sure the aub will find them of much interest.”

Lord Karstedt easily accepted the request, and so we divided the labor between ourselves. We did not want the Order to pillage our province’s valuable ingredients and cause problems with the commoners, so they and I were going to the north, where fewer people lived. Our own knights would go to the south.

“Kieferdeckes!”

The snow had completely melted even near the border gate on the far northern border, and the nearby feybeasts had begun to move. I let out a shout and readied my bow, while Lord Karstedt immediately equipped a suitable weapon and started shouting orders.

“Scatter! Don’t let a single one escape!”

Kieferdeckes weren’t particularly strong, but they lived in clumps and would scatter upon noticing a predator. They laid eggs from the end of spring through to the end of summer, and considering the damage they often did to crops, hunting them now would make autumn much easier for us.

As we advanced our hunt, the border between Haldenzel and Klassenberg came into view. Under normal circumstances, one could not identify the duchy barrier without touching it, but its presence was now blatantly obvious. Klassenberg’s side was buried under thick snow, while ours was a lush green.

“So this is the strength of Verdrenna the Goddess of Thunder...” I said, unable to contain my awe, swallowing hard as I sensed an impossible power not visible to the naked eye. I had so often spoken the names of the gods when performing large-scale magic, but the effects of those spells had never given me a feeling of such divine magnificence before. “I was surprised when I saw the expanse of green from the castle, but to think it would reach all the way to the duchy border...”

We landed by the border gate and observed the border, which now stood as proof of the gods’ divine powers. Unlike the gates to Frenbeltag or the old Zausengas, the gate to Klassenberg remained firmly shut and there were no knights stationed there. On the Haldenzel side, there was an open space for hunters to set up camp and a small shed that kept firewood.

“Lord Karstedt, shall we rest?” I asked. “We came here without pause, hunting feybeasts along the way, and there is firewood ready.”

“Good idea. It’s a bit early, but we should have lunch while there aren’t any feybeasts around. Men, preparations.”

The knights climbed down from their highbeasts and did as they were instructed, lighting fires and boiling water to soften their rations. Lord Karstedt and I sat on nearby rocks and watched them work. Behind them was the closed border gate.

I wonder whether they’ll open it now... Some students had mentioned that the aub had received many business requests from other duchies during the Interduchy Tournament, and refusing one from Klassenberg was hardly an option.

“Lord Karstedt.” I tossed him a sound-blocking magic tool, which he caught with ease and firmly grasped. “What’s the likelihood of this border gate being opened?” He stood guard over the aub at almost all times, so I was sure he would know something about the matter.

Lord Karstedt glanced over at the gate and then fell into thought for a moment. “We plan to open it as soon as possible. Once that happens and merchants start traveling through, Haldenzel stands to gain much.”

I couldn’t help but furrow my brow; it sounded as though they thought we should be thankful for that. An important aspect of interduchy diplomacy was ensuring that any merchants traveling between the two duchies were completely safe while following up on business deals; it was an entirely different matter from the traveling merchants who wandered around without belonging to any one duchy in particular. Far from bringing wealth to Haldenzel, we would probably be held accountable whenever a merchant fell victim to a feybeast attack.

“This land has many feybeasts,” I commented. “The merchants will surely be under constant threat.”

“That’s why Haldenzel’s hunters are going to be hired as guards,” Lord Karstedt replied. “They may be commoners, but they’re used to dealing with feybeasts. Were you not saying that you needed more work for commoners, to secure more money and food for winter? Surely this is in your best interest.”

His response sounded a lot more like the aub’s words than his own, and they almost certainly were. An indescribable sense of disgust welled up inside of me; did he realize just how long ago I had mentioned our struggles? I had thought that Lord Karstedt and the aub had sent Rozemyne here out of consideration, since they knew about our hardships, but apparently not.

I allowed a troubled smile to reach my face, but nothing more. “It seems to me that your Dregarnuhr no longer weaves, Lord Karstedt.” I had sought help over five years ago, when Lady Veronica was still the dominant political power. Despite the fact that Haldenzel saw smaller-than-average harvests to begin with, she had used every option available to her to sever our connection to Leisegang, the breadbasket of Ehrenfest. The situation had eventually deteriorated to the point that my people faced starvation, and it was then that I requested the aub’s help through Karstedt.

“Please contain Lady Veronica’s tyranny. If that cannot be done, please deliver mana chalices to us once again. If you cannot manage that, then please, at least send us extra food for the winter. I do not mind if you simply purchase the feybeasts we hunt to weaken the Lord of Winter at a slightly higher price. Just, please. Any help at all.”

Haldenzel and Leisegang had formed an inseparable bond over the generations due to the Lord of Winter; Haldenzel played a key part in its defeat each year, and the speed at which it was defeated heavily influenced the next year’s harvest. I had thought that Lord Karstedt would understand, since his wife was a Haldenzel and his mother a Leisegang, but it had taken years for my request to be granted.

“Chalices filled with mana to wet the dry ground, food support from Leisegang following the imprisonment of Lady Veronica, money from the printing industry... All of my wishes from back then have been granted by Lady Rozemyne,” I said.

Haldenzel had changed dramatically over the past five years or so. If not even Karstedt, who was married to Elvira and closer to Haldenzel than most from the Noble’s Quarter, could understand this, suggestions from the archduke would certainly be of zero use to us.

“If the gate is opened and our hunters are assigned to guard the merchants coming through it, I suspect that the next Lord of Winter will be considerably larger than you have grown accustomed to,” I remarked. “Do you and the aub think the same?”

Guarding merchants would restrict our hunters’ movements to the roads and use up time they normally would have spent hunting feybeasts all throughout Haldenzel. This meant the Lord of Winter would grow in size, which would in turn place a greater burden on the knights whose duty it was to hunt it. To make matters worse, if the coming of spring was delayed as a result, it would impact every harvest in the duchy.

“Guarding the merchants of other duchies or hunting feybeasts in the summer—I would like the archduke to carefully consider which of these takes priority before the border gate is opened. I have faith that he will not blame Haldenzel for the consequences of whatever decision he makes as Lady Veronica once would have.”

Although I spoke with a smile, there was no truth to my words; I did not have faith in the archduke at all. If whatever choice he made resulted in an inconvenience, he would doubtless push all the blame onto Haldenzel. That was exactly why I needed to emphasize my position ahead of time and come up with a strategy to avoid the worst-case scenario. Such was my duty as the giebe.

“This year, I would like to pour my all into grasping the influence of the ritual. Adding the opening of the gate to this sudden change in weather would only complicate these efforts, but if you know of anyone who might be able to answer our questions at this moment in time, I would greatly like to hear his advice,” I continued. Although I spoke through euphemisms, my point was more than clear: it was impossible to tell whether Haldenzel could handle the workload that would come with opening the border gate, and if the aub thought otherwise, I wanted to hear his reasoning. “I can only pray that the aub’s Dregarnuhr has not likewise kept him five years in the past.”

It was then that a knight came to report that the water had started to boil. Lord Karstedt and I put our rations in our bowls and then handed them over. They were soon returned, the hot water having macerated the food.

It’s a little salty...

My first impression was not a positive one, but I continued eating nonetheless. The food eaten in Haldenzel tended toward slightly different flavors than that of the Noble’s Quarter, and complaining about the simple rations carried by knights had little meaning when there were no alternatives. They were easy to carry and enough to fill one’s stomach, but not something that was eaten for the taste.

As we ate in silence, Lord Karstedt took his sound-blocking magic tool and looked over at me. It seemed that he had something to say, so I gripped my magic tool in the hand I was using to hold my bowl.

“At the moment, the merchants have two safe options: going through old Zausengas’s border gate or through Frenbeltag. I’ll advise the aub not to open this border gate unless Klassenberg demands it. I would guess there’s just as many feybeasts on their side,” he said.

It was known that Klassenberg invested few resources into hunting feybeasts in its border towns, which meant it was relatively common for feybeasts to cross the barrier. At times, the archduke would even send us an emergency warning that an especially strong feybeast had entered our territory.

“Klassenberg will also need to shape up before merchants are allowed to pass through here. I don’t know how fast a greater duchy can act when it comes to a matter like this, but I assume they would not want merchants going through it this summer,” Lord Karstedt continued. He was identifying that the roads had narrowed through lack of use, and that there were few cities or towns along the way for merchants to use as resting spots. “That said, if news of this ritual spreads and you start hastening the coming of spring by yourselves, there should be cities and towns around here in five years’ time.”

Five years’ time? The fact that Lord Karstedt could ignore immediate problems to focus on the far future made him appear quite the optimist, but that was to be expected of someone from the Noble’s Quarter. I had endured this harsh environment all my life and did not share his optimism in the least.

“Thick snow disappeared from all the plains, forests, and mountains over a single night,” I said, “yet there was no flooding. Where did all the water go? Is there a risk that the summer rays might cause a drought? Will the feybeasts breed and grow faster than before? And when will the end of autumn come now that spring has begun so soon? There are too many unanswered questions for me to start planning five years into the future.” His expectations were unreasonable when understanding our current situation would require so much time and observation.

“It was a ritual that melted the snow; I doubt you will encounter any water-related issues,” Karstedt replied. “Have you investigated your province’s past to see how this was handled back when the ritual was done properly?”

“We suspect that the details of the ritual were changed when our ancestor was entrusted with the position of giebe.”

Approximately two hundred years had passed since Eisenreich was crushed for treason against the king. Ehrenfest had been born from its ashes, and once the king had redrawn the barrier lines and replaced the archduke, the new aub had assigned giebes to oversee the land. Naturally, ruling was done differently from the Eisenreich era, as Aub Ehrenfest worked to avoid any possible associations with the fallen duchy.

My ancestor had been entrusted with the position of giebe when Ehrenfest was founded, and it was reasonable to assume they had tried to distance themselves from Eisenreich in a similar manner. It was even possible that, in a small act of defiance, the commoners had failed to teach their new giebe the proper method for conducting rituals. For those of us in the present, it was impossible to know exactly what had happened; there were records of my ancestor struggling to adapt to Haldenzel but nothing from before that.

“I would like the aub to check the castle for any records from the Eisenreich era, specifically any that might cover the ritual,” I said.

“I’ll ask, but he’s busy preparing for the Archduke Conference, so you’ll most likely have to wait until after that’s done. That said... maybe there are records still in the temple,” Karstedt suggested. It seemed possible, but then I recalled what Lady Rozemyne had said.

“According to Lady Rozemyne, the ritual was described only in the High Bishop’s bible, which contained the correct lyrics and several pictures,” I explained. “That said, the sudden arrival of spring came as a surprise even to her.” She had noticed that our ceremony and the lyrics we sang differed from what was mentioned in the bible, but she did not seem at all informed on the particulars of the ceremony.

“I know. Rozemyne was apparently so afraid of the thunder that she couldn’t sleep. Elvira mentioned receiving such reports from her attendants,” Lord Karstedt said with a chuckle, then asking me to keep this a secret to preserve Lady Rozemyne’s honor. I found this news strange, to say the least; the fact that Elvira and Lord Karstedt had been discussing their child almost made them sound like a normal couple.

When the previous Aub Ehrenfest had fallen ill and Lady Veronica had further secured her hold on power, Lord Karstedt had taken one of her attendants as a second wife and a noble of the Veronica faction as his third. As his first wife, Elvira had found it quite distressful that Lord Karstedt was neglecting her as he became wholly devoted to his new wife, and soon enough, she stopped speaking about him entirely when we visited the Noble’s Quarter for winter socializing and the summer Starbinding. It was apparent that he was not a prominent figure in her daily life, since she would speak of her growing children and nothing more.

Since when did this change...?

I looked at Lord Karstedt, who was finishing the last of his rations. There was only one possible explanation: Elvira had found a new lease on life while looking after Lady Rozemyne as her own child. This change hadn’t come about simply because she had found a new hobby in writing books or because she was putting on airs for the formal event that was Spring Prayer; my little sister’s relationship with her husband had improved in the real sense.

“Speaking of which, Lord Karstedt... I heard you were bragging about your wife to Lady Rozemyne.”

“Nguh...!” Something flew from Karstedt’s mouth as he went into a sudden coughing fit. The guards around us looked over in surprise as he tried to compose himself with a hand over his mouth.

Hm... I suppose it’s true, then.

He had told Lady Rozemyne to be quiet about it at Spring Prayer but hadn’t denied the words themselves. This had taken even Elvira by surprise; although she had teased him with the most composed expression she could muster, she had been blinking much faster than usual.

“Lord Claudio,” Lord Karstedt said once his coughing had subsided, fixing me with a glare as he sipped from his water flask. He was thrown off more than I expected; how long had it been since he had last called me by my name? As the knight commander, he normally stood behind the archduke during both winter socializing and the summer Starbind Ceremony. Our family exchanges of information were generally done through Elvira, meaning we rarely spoke directly like this.

“Should you not deliver your words of praise directly to Elvira, not to Lady Rozemyne?” I asked.

“I appreciate your considerate advice,” Lord Karstedt shot back. There was a slight defiance in his ice-blue eyes that reminded me of days long past, back when he had grumbled about the engagement arranged by his parents.

“I realize it has been quite some time since you and I have spoken as ourselves, unburdened by our respective positions as knight commander and giebe. Is there anything that you wish to say to or ask me, Lord Karstedt? I am sure that an opportunity like this will not come again any time soon.”

I had stated my requests as Giebe Haldenzel and given my advice as Elvira’s brother; there was nothing more I wanted to say. Lord Karstedt, however, had not raised anything himself. He started to ponder my question. The hard frown on his face told me that he was going to take a while, so I cleansed my bowl and such in the meantime. Once I was done, I glanced over to see that he was slowly stroking his mustache.

“Well... What do you think of Rozemyne’s engagement?” he asked. “I’m curious, since you were softer on Lord Wilfried and Lady Charlotte than I expected.”

“Are you asking for my thoughts as Giebe Haldenzel or my personal opinion as Claudio?” I replied with a grin, returning his question with one of my own.

Again, Lord Karstedt paused for a moment, pondering an answer. “This will be our only opportunity to talk, so I want to hear your opinion as both,” he said. “You don’t need to worry about being polite; I want to hear your true thoughts.”

“As a giebe, I want the most competent candidate to become the next aub. I would be even more grateful were that aub to be family. It is my honest opinion that Lady Rozemyne is the most suitable choice, considering that she came first in her class in the Royal Academy despite being occupied with her High Bishop duties and introducing various profitable industries to the duchy.”

To attend the Royal Academy, one needed to store mana in feystones which they would then use during classes. And yet, Lady Rozemyne had participated in religious ceremonies between terms and even lent feystones filled with her mana to blue priests. Even Lord Wilfried and Lady Charlotte were using feystones she had given them for Spring Prayer, so it was easy to see that she was unique among all the archduke candidates.

“And thus, I am exceedingly disappointed that this engagement will prevent her from becoming the next aub,” I continued. “I assume this thought is shared by the Leisegangs and all the nobles who support Lady Rozemyne.”

“The most competent candidate, hm...? Well, I suppose you would think that if you looked at her grades in isolation,” Lord Karstedt murmured, nodding in a way that suggested he didn’t entirely agree with what he had just heard. I raised an eyebrow, prompting him to continue, but he provided no further explanation.

“I find it unfortunate,” I said, “but as Giebe Haldenzel, I also understand it was a natural result.”

“Oh?”

“I know that Rozemyne is not Elvira’s own daughter. Truth be told, when I heard that my little sister would be performing the baptism, I doubted my ears. The thought of your infidelity enraged me.”

As Elvira’s older brother by blood, I had seen Cornelius and all her sons while they were still infants. The fact that I had not seen Lady Rozemyne once before her baptism was enough for me to know she was not my little sister’s daughter. It was possible that she was the daughter of Lord Karstedt’s third wife, considering her age, but her true origins were completely unknown.

“Trying to establish an aub who does not have relatives of the same mother is exceedingly dangerous,” I explained. “Still, were Lady Rozemyne healthier, I would have agreed with Leisegang’s position that she should be the next archduke with Wilfried as her groom.”

Lady Rozemyne was so weak and sickly that it wasn’t even known if she could birth children. A ruling archduchess in such a situation was commonly succeeded by a male sibling of the same mother or his children due to their similar mana capacities, and that was the issue—this archducal family did not come from the same mother. Nobles of the Leisegang faction thought that Lady Rozemyne was Elvira’s daughter and that Bonifatius’s children could therefore provide support if necessary, but that was not the case. If she was indeed the daughter of the third wife, then her blood relatives were instead the Joisontaks—that is, the house that had already been destroyed and its members executed for assaulting the archducal family.

“In the sense that he lacks relatives of the same mother, I consider Lord Ferdinand to be similar,” I continued. “Old Man Leisegang is supporting him purely to expunge Ehrenfest of Ahrensbach blood, but having Lord Ferdinand and Lady Rozemyne as the archducal couple would introduce too great a risk. They would eventually need to choose their successor, and if she ultimately cannot bear a child, there would be inevitable tragedy and even war.”

For those reasons, it was not a mistake to make Lord Wilfried the next archduke with Lady Rozemyne as his first wife.

“In that case, Lord Claudio, what are your personal thoughts?”

“I think it depends on Lady Rozemyne. What matters to me as an individual is what she thinks of this engagement and whether the archduke is forcing her into it.”

How was her sibling relationship with Lord Wilfried and Lady Charlotte? Did she intend to stand above Lord Wilfried? Was she opposed to the engagement? Those were the questions that had played on my mind. I had made a few probing remarks while guiding her to her seat, but she had indicated her intention to support her future husband. Furthermore, while I had thought the archduke had forced temple work exclusively onto his adopted daughter, in reality, his children by blood were participating in Spring Prayer as well. I had seen Lord Wilfried and Lady Charlotte display clear respect for their sister.

“On that note,” I continued, “I saw no indication that she disapproves of or has any distaste for Lord Wilfried. Lord Wilfried was also not as foolish as I was led to believe. He understands that mana and religious ceremonies are linked to the harvest. As long as he continues to embrace Lady Rozemyne’s uncanny nature and mana quantity and continues to be supportive, I imagine he will do just fine as the next archduke.”

Of course, because Lord Wilfried already had a black mark on his reputation, it would require great effort on his part to be accepted as the next archduke. It was a task that would take him quite some time, but I didn’t consider it impossible.

“Rozemyne’s uncanny nature...? Hm. Few others seem to comment on that. Instead, they focus only on how surprisingly competent she is,” Lord Karstedt said, sounding a bit surprised.

“It must be because she was raised in the temple. I could sense her feelings for the gods, and her approach to rituals is quite uncanny indeed. It is almost as if she holds a perspective that is fundamentally different from our own.”

After seeing all the snow vanish overnight, she had just commented that the goddesses had done a good job, as if nothing extraordinary had happened at all. Whether this nonchalance had come from some iron spirit or her extreme faith in the gods, I could not tell, but there was no denying that she was abnormal.

“If we are to continue summoning spring early by performing this Spring Prayer each year, Lady Rozemyne’s perspective is going to be essential,” I went on. “The culture may shift to focus more directly on the temple and its ceremonies that have thus far been scorned and looked down upon. Lord Wilfried will need to show the strength of character required to embrace the vast changes Lady Rozemyne will establish.”

“So you are not inherently opposed to their engagement... That is good to know.”

“I am not entirely happy with it either, but if the aub made this decision to keep Lady Rozemyne in Ehrenfest then he has taken the right course of action. Her wisdom and skill are beyond her years; she would have been stolen by a top-ranking duchy in the blink of an eye.”

Lord Karstedt nodded and then stood up. “I’ll make sure the archduke hears your thoughts. I’m sure they’ll enhearten him.”

“I appreciate that, but I must warn you, tensions in Ehrenfest will not ease for some time. Old Man Leisegang and his lot will never agree to the aub’s will and actions here. You have a Leisegang mother; do you think you could strengthen your bonds with your family and contain them?” I asked, watching Lord Karstedt as he used waschen to clean his bowl and such. He searched for words before eventually shaking his head.

“I am the knight commander. My duty is to protect the archduke, not manage faction politics. And as Rozemyne’s father, I will not be so foolish as to personally approach the Leisegang faction during this sensitive time.”

“I see. So this is a hardship that Elvira will face alone.”

“Protecting the duchy and the aub are my top priorities. Family must come second. Elvira understands this, and as a woman of Haldenzel, she is more than capable of enduring these fights alone when necessary. She has rare qualities that make her better suited to being the first wife of a knight commander than any other... although I only realized this after Rozemyne pointed it out.”

“Oh...? And it was after this sudden realization that you began to brag about your wife to Lady Rozemyne, I presume.”

Lord Karstedt shot me a glare before tossing back the sound-blocking magic tool. It seemed that our rest was over. I couldn’t help but chuckle as I placed the magic tools back into my leather pouch, reflecting that this time had proved more productive than I expected. It was good to see that my little sister’s marriage had evolved into something so heartwarming.

“I shall now gather the blenrus fruits,” I said. “They are valuable enough that only the people of Haldenzel are allowed to gather them, and for that reason, any of you who attempt to poach some will be killed on sight. You knights may rest here and wait for the gathering to be completed.” After confirming that my threat was understood, I summoned my highbeast. My plan was to give fruit to Lady Rozemyne, to express that Haldenzel was in her debt, and to Lord Wilfried and Lady Charlotte, to express our respect for the current archducal family. “Now then, Lord Karstedt. Shall we go?”

“Oh? Am I considered to be a Haldenzel?” Lord Karstedt asked. He had gone to sit back down on the rock where he had eaten lunch but was now frozen in a slight squat, staring at me in complete surprise.

I returned a similar look of surprise. “Are you not Elvira’s husband and Lady Rozemyne’s father?” I asked, urging him on with a smile.

“It would be an honor.” Lord Karstedt formed and then mounted his own highbeast, and together we headed to the nearest blenrus feyplant. “What are you planning, Lord Claudio? Given how I’ve been treated in Haldenzel, I hardly thought I was considered family.”

“We simply disliked you for ignoring Elvira. You are still family. I would not have permitted you to come otherwise.”

“So you say, but your actual reasoning is that you need some assistance, since gathering fruit for three people is too much for you to do on your own. Am I correct in that assumption? You’re making the same face that Elvira always does when her true reasoning differs from what she’s saying.”

He was indeed correct; it seemed that Lord Karstedt actually did pay attention to Elvira. It was a surprising development that made me reevaluate how I saw him, but only slightly. He had spent many years overlooking my little sister. I wanted him to continue treating her better.

“Just on the other side of this boulder,” I said. “We’ll set our highbeasts down here. Also, hold this.”

We protected the few precious blenrus trees we had using barriers, which saved them from being destroyed by feybeasts or looted by outsiders. Only those who held the seal of my people were capable of passing through. I gave one such seal to Lord Karstedt, passed through the barrier myself, and then circled the boulder. There stood a golden, glowing blenrus tree, with a dozen or so fruits hanging from its branches. And at its base, I saw something unbelievable.

“Blenrus sprouts...?”

Before my very eyes were several sprouts, all gleaming a similar bright gold. I swallowed hard, unable to believe what I was seeing. It was impossible. Never before had I seen a blenrus sprout, despite having been born and raised in Haldenzel. It was precisely because new blenrus feyplants never grew that we protected them with such strong barriers. We had tried burying their fruit in the earth, scattering seeds, and even grafting, but our efforts had all been in vain. And yet, the golden sprouts before me were those of new blenrus trees, as their colors and the shapes of their leaves confirmed. This, too, was doubtless a miracle from the goddess, brought forth by Spring Prayer.

“Lord Claudio, is something wrong?”

“A miracle has occurred in Haldenzel...”

I could feel a warmth rising in my chest. A gentle breeze informed me of the beginning of a new era, and my heart quivered with emotion as I realized that I was experiencing the very moment in history when Haldenzel would be changed forever. I swallowed again, but this time, overjoyed tears began to well up in my eyes.

We will continue to perform Spring Prayer.

It was a mana-intensive ceremony that placed a heavy burden on the women of our province, but Lady Rozemyne had informed me that there was a way for men to help as well. As the giebe, I needed to ensure that the miracle-spawning Spring Prayer would continue. I needed to bring true wealth back to Haldenzel.

I reached out for the blenrus fruit, taking great care not to step on the sprouts. My initial plan had been to pick one for each of the three children, but I decided on two instead. I wanted to give my thanks to Lady Rozemyne, who had given life to such a wondrous miracle.

“Praise be to the gods. Glory be to the gods...”

It was on that day that I did something I had never done before—I prayed to the gods from the very bottom of my heart.