Ascendance of a Bookworm (LN) - Volume 4.4 - Chapter SS2

Preventing Destructive Reconstruction

“Heya, Gunther. Welcome back,” a soldier I recognized said as we passed through the east gate. “How was Hasse this year?”

“The job’s not done ’til we reach the temple, and we ain’t there yet. Let’s pray there aren’t any problems on the way,” I replied. As we led the carriages into the city, I scanned the stalls lined up on the main street for something to eat. “Hey, Leckle. Go buy some of those sandwiches.”

“Commander. We’re not at the temple yet. Maybe we should wait until after our guard duty is over. That way, we won’t have to rush our food.”

“You lot might be able to take your time, but I need to tell the other commanders and the guild heads about what Lady Rozemyne told me. I don’t have time to waste on a slow lunch,” I declared, fixing the man with a glare. He pretty much leapt out of our formation and rushed over to the stall, soon coming back with two sandwiches. Several thin slices of meat had been slapped between the bread.

“You’re not the only one Lady Rozemyne informed of the danger, commander. I want to help too,” Leckle said, handing one sandwich to me while taking a big bite out of the other.

“Glad to hear it.” I gave him enough coin to pay for both sandwiches, and the next thing I knew, all the other soldiers returning from Hasse had rushed off to buy lunch too.

“Trying to get a head start, eh, Leckle?”

“We’re gonna earn points with the High Bishop too!”

“Commander, I’m the fastest guy outta any of these losers! Please, trust me with your messages!”

It was exciting to finally be back in town, sure, but it was poor discipline for them all to rush away at once. I glanced around cautiously with my sandwich in hand.

“Commander, what should we do?” Leckle asked. “Now might not be the time to just go and tell everyone...”

“We’ll tell the Plantin Company when we drop the priests off at the temple and give the carriages back. They should pass that on to the guildmaster.” I knew plenty of people in the Plantin Company and the Merchant’s Guild through Myne. The merchants would probably do something once I made it clear this was a direct warning from her. “As for the head craftsmen and the commanders at the other gates... I want you all to split up and tell ’em that I’m holding a meeting tomorrow. I’ll make it all clear then.”

“Tomorrow will be too late, commander. How about fifth bell today?”

“They’ll gather in no time if we tell ’em their houses are potentially bein’ destroyed because of noble business.”

“Maybe, but the foremen are gonna hear about this before you know it, and they’re not gonna wait until tomorrow for an explanation.”

My soldiers tapped their chests and volunteered to deliver the messages, not showing any exhaustion from their journey back from Hasse. It was a sight that warmed my heart. Myne was fighting alone in noble society, keeping her connection to us a secret while still making sure we stayed safe. I needed to make sure the lower city stayed clean after the remodeling was done. What kind of a father would I be otherwise?

“Alright. Fifth bell. You lot divide the city among yourselves. Good luck.”

“Yes, sir!”

I bit into my sandwich. The meat was tough and salty, a far cry from the fancy dinner I had eaten at the monastery last night, but that thought was quickly blown away as a bunch of warnings Myne had given me popped back into my head.

“I’m not gonna let them cast that big-ass magic that’d flip the lower city upside down,” Leckle muttered to himself beside me, his words matching my thoughts exactly.

I gave a hard nod. “Right. We’re damn lucky Lady Rozemyne fought for us, otherwise we would’ve lost our homes without even knowing what was happening. Just thinking about it sends a chill down my spine. We can’t let her warnings go to waste. I’m gonna protect this city no matter what.” It was the promise I had made to Myne, but as I steeled my resolve once again, Leckle pointed at himself with his thumb.

“I’m gonna protect it too, commander.”

“You’re not the only one who gets to show off, sir!” added another soldier. “I’m gonna be the one to protect the city!” More and more voices called out after him, all young men boasting that they were going to keep our homes safe. It was impossible for us to lose now.

“Okay,” I said with a grin. “Let’s do this.”

“Yeah!”

The temple gate came into view, as did the people waiting there for us. “Is that... Lutz?” I said to myself. Unless my eyes were fooling me, he had come as the Plantin Company representative—the person who took back the carriages and gave us our payment. I was used to him staying in Hasse after our trips to do business, so this was my first time seeing him wait by the temple. Still, I was lucky to have someone I could actually sit down with and talk to properly here.

“Thank you, honorable soldiers. I accept these carriages in the name of the Plantin Company and wish to express how grateful we are that you completed your guard duty successfully. Here is your payment from Lady Rozemyne,” Lutz said. He was wearing the kind of expression and speaking as politely as you’d normally expect from a boy born into riches, holding out a bag of money as the gray priests climbed down from the carriages.

Nobody would ever believe this kid’s from the south side of the city...

I accepted our compensation as the commander of the north gate. Since the Plantin Company were the ones who had hired us to guard the priests, they were the ones who paid us too. It wasn’t as simple as dividing the coins between ourselves, though—the money was instead added to the gate’s finances, where any expenses were subtracted, and then whatever remained would get added to our wages. Only the money that Myne gave us in Hasse went straight into our pockets. It was a nice little bonus we could keep secret from our families, which was exactly why the soldiers loved taking up this job so much.

“We got an important warning from Lady Rozemyne at the monastery,” I said. It was only a small reaction, but Lutz’s merchant smile became more defensive when I spoke Myne’s name. “You and the Merchant’s Guild probably know about this already, but...”

After listening to my explanation of what the nobles were planning and the warnings Myne had given me, Lutz went pale. “Seriously...?” he murmured in a quiet voice that only I was able to hear. “The Merchant’s Guild informed all the merchants in the city of the scholars’ message that large-scale remodeling is going to be done, but we didn’t know that even the southern side needed to be clean, nor that everything is going to be flipped upside down...”

Seems like Myne didn’t use the temple to tell them everything...

According to Tuuli, Myne couldn’t use her hidden room in the temple anymore, which meant she couldn’t speak to the Plantin Company as freely as she’d used to. That probably explained things.

“Lady Rozemyne probably thought the Plantin Company wouldn’t be able to keep an eye on the south side of the city too,” I guessed. “How many people have the Merchant’s Guild told already?”

“Northern citizens with connections to the Othmar Company, the western market, the eastern stores, and all the merchants with permission to open stands on the main street.”

“Right. If they’re able to handle all that, we can focus on the south. Oh, and there’s another message that you lot from the Plantin Company need to pass on to the Merchant’s Guild: keeping the stores clean ain’t enough; they’ve gotta keep the streets around their homes clean too.”

Lutz didn’t say anything in response. He just nodded, clearly tense.

“We’re planning on getting the gate commanders and the heads of all the guilds together at fifth bell to pass Lady Rozemyne’s warning on. It’s gonna be in a conference room in the middle of the city. You can come along with the Merchant’s Guild if you wanna know the details.”

“Understood. You have my sincere gratitude for this valuable warning.”

After telling Lutz our plans, we left the temple. We barely had any time if we wanted to make sure everyone knew about this.

“Listen up, everyone. Once you’ve finished spreading the word, come back to the gate, then head home for the day. Pass the info on to anyone you bump into on your way back. ’Course, you can drop by any taverns you come across too.”

The soldiers scattered from the central plaza. It wouldn’t take them too long to get the word out, since most craftsman guilds were in the middle of the city anyway. In the meantime, I headed to the central soldier building to deliver our payment to a clerk and then used my authority as commander to reserve a meeting room.

“Hey! Your soldiers are spreading some sick as hell rumors! What’s going on here?!” a burly foreman demanded.

“Yeah, explain!” another shouted. “I don’t have a clue what this is about!”

As expected, the foremen who had overheard the message were getting here before anyone else. Getting the clerk to send them over here had clearly been the right move.

“I told the heads of the guilds to come here, not you lot,” I said.

“You really think we’re gonna sit around when nobles want to break all our houses down?!”

“Yeah, no way! Now get talkin’ already!”

More and more foremen were gathering, and they were pushier than ever. The problem was, the important people hadn’t arrived yet. “I scheduled this meeting for fifth bell so the city’s higher-ups can all come at once. I don’t have time to do this whole thing twice. Either shut up and wait or get back to work.”

“Like hell we’re gonna wait, moron! I wanna get this over and done with so I can figure out what to do!” an older man yelled. “C’mon! Spit out what you know!” He stepped forward and furiously moved to grab my shoulders, so I gave him a hard elbow to the chest before flinging him over me and onto the ground. The conference room fell silent in an instant.

“Last chance,” I said to the forming crowd. “If you don’t keep quiet, I’ll kick you all out and you won’t learn a thing. I’m the soldier here, and you best remember that.”

By fifth bell, the heads of the guilds and other gate commanders had all arrived. I recognized some of the people from the Merchant’s Guild, who had come even though they must have been real busy. Freida, Myne’s old friend, was among them, looking all around with curious eyes. She had grown up to be a real beauty. I hadn’t seen her in a while, but she must’ve remembered me because she smiled when we made eye contact.

As expected, there were also a ton of uninvited craftsmen. Some were stuck outside the conference room, but that wasn’t my problem; they could ask their bosses to explain the situation to them later. I relayed everything Myne had told me, approaching this under the assumption that the nobles had misled everyone with their half-assed warning. I made sure they knew that, while our homes and our lives were going to be safe this time, they would seriously upend the entire city if we didn’t keep things clean.

“Huh? Whaddaya mean, ‘upend the entire city’?” someone asked.

“I mean exactly what I said. They’ll come back and start changing the two ivory floors made with the archduke’s magic, which means all the wooden extensions we live in will vanish for good.”

“Hold on a moment! Are those nobles insane?!”

“They can’t do that! That’s going way too far! You’ve gotta be lying to us! Burn you!”

The foulmouthed foremen spat swears at me, calling me a liar, but those who had actual experience with nobles—the commanders and the employees of the Merchant’s Guild—had gone completely rigid. I glowered at the foremen and puffed out my chest.

“That’s enough! If you’re here to whine, do it outside! You’re getting in the way of us talking! I know a lotta you live in the south and don’t know how terrifying nobles and their mana really are, but this is the kinda crap they’d pull without a second thought!”

The men barked laughs, still not convinced. Freida stood up and turned to look over them. “I am the daughter of the Othmar Company, and I work for the Merchant’s Guild,” she said. “This man is not lying to you. I have been taught that this entire city was built long ago with archducal magic. I believe it would be simple for the archduke to reconstruct this city or make it disappear entirely, with a bit of preparation. Such large-scale magic may happen without us knowing it, and in the blink of an eye, our homes might disappear forever and we along with them.”

A visibly rich girl explaining the origins of the city in such polite language was enough to get the foremen, who were uneducated and ignorant, to shut up.

“And to be clear,” I added, “nobles think of us like stray dogs; they wouldn’t give two craps if we all died. We’re nothing to them.”

The foremen must have finally started to feel the danger, as they were now giving each other uneasy looks.

“But we were lucky this time,” I went on. “Rozemyne, the High Bishop, knows us soldiers from our trips to Hasse. It was out of concern for us that she explained how we can keep the city clean.”

“Really? How?” the foremen asked, leaning forward. The heads of the guilds all did the same.

“What I’m about to say needs to be told to everyone. Commanders, tell your soldiers. Guilds, tell your foremen. Foremen, tell your craftsmen. And everyone, tell your family and neighbors too—especially older folks who babysit and don’t go outside much, or those who are sickly and stuck in their beds all the time.”

I went on to list all the instructions Myne had given me. On the day of the reconstruction, we either had to stay inside our buildings or leave the city entirely to avoid getting wrapped up in things. That was easy enough.

“What’s important is what comes next,” I continued. “There’re gonna be places to get rid of garbage and waste so the city doesn’t get dirty again. We soldiers are gonna keep watch, but the best thing here would be for neighbors to keep each other on track.”

The south gate commander crossed his arms and fell into thought. “We’ll need to discuss the details, but it seems like we might want to criminalize disobeying these orders. If someone refuses to listen, we should capture ’em, take their citizenship, and kick ’em out of the city.”

“What?! Citizenship?!” a foreman exclaimed.

“Whoa now! You’re gonna label people as criminals just for tossing out their trash?!”

The southern commander eyed the outraged voices in silence and then nodded. “Unlike before, tossing out trash now runs the risk of destroying homes. Families, tens of thousands of ’em, are gonna be on the line here. Right, Gunther?”

“Yeah. North, south... It’s all the same to them.”

The southern commander looked over everyone in the room. “If we want to protect this city’s peace, we need to kick out dangerous people and make sure nobody follows their example. What’s the point in letting people play with fire when the nobles are clearly ready to turn everything we know on its head at a moment’s notice?” He waited for anyone to protest, but nobody did. “Alright. Once the city’s been reconstructed, tell everyone that tossing trash out the old way is a crime punishable by expulsion now.”

Once the meeting was over, the foremen were the first ones to rush out. The heads of the guilds and the Merchant’s Guild promised to be thorough about telling everyone too. The commanders and some soldiers ended up staying behind, and we had dinner at a nearby tavern, where we ironed out the details on boosting our patrols and getting rid of criminals.

We split up at seventh bell. I hadn’t signed out for the day, so instead of making my way home, I started down the pitch-black road to the north gate. A night guard saw me a short while later and ran over.

“Commander, we heard everything from Leckle and the others. This certainly is something. They signed out and then left right away. You should get home too. Tomorrow you can... come in late, and patrol your neighborhood on the way.”

They had all done their jobs properly, then. I asked the night guard to spread word on what we had decided in the meeting before turning around and making my way home.

“Oh, Gunther. I expected you home earlier. You usually return from Hasse around noon,” Effa said once I was finally back. She glanced toward the bedroom. “Kamil’s already fast asleep.”

I crept into the bedroom to see his sleeping face. He was in a deep enough slumber that I wasn’t worried about my shuffling waking him up.

“How was Lady Rozemyne? You saw her up close, right? Did she say anything?” Effa asked from the kitchen. I could tell from her voice that she had gotten real impatient; I was blessed to get to speak to Myne, but she could only look at her from the temple doors.

Guess the work stuff can wait...

I set my things down and went back to the kitchen. “It was just like Tuuli said and what we saw outside the temple. She doesn’t look any different from before she went into that long sleep. She’s still... our little Myne.”

“Gunther.” Effa shot me a reproachful glare, but I didn’t see the issue. Kamil was out like a light; he wasn’t going to overhear us.

“She had the same look in her eyes too,” I said. “Not only has she not forgotten us, she’s still working hard in noble society to protect us in any way she can. It’s just like she promised.”

“Did something happen to... Lady Rozemyne?” Effa asked. She had fumbled over her words after a quick glance toward the bedroom, since she was fiercely upholding her own promise not to refer to Myne by her real name at home. She was just as stubborn as her daughters.

I gave her the details. “Myne opened a way for us to protect the city. What kinda father would I be if I didn’t make use of that?”

“Is there anything I can do?”

“Yeah. Make sure Kamil and all our neighbors know about Myne’s warnings.” We needed to stay on guard as a family and as neighbors.

Effa nodded in response, her face pale. She knew better than most people just how brutal nobles could be.

The same warnings and advice passed through the city, with commanders telling their soldiers, the Merchant’s Guild telling all the merchants, and the guilds telling all the foremen, craftsmen, and apprentices. Everyone then spread this information to their family and neighbors, while we soldiers went out of our way to inform the sick and elderly, who weren’t always made aware of such goings-on.

Myne’s warning was spreading faster than I expected. As it turned out, the knowledge that messing up would result in everyone’s homes being destroyed and that refusing to properly throw away waste was being criminalized was all the threat we needed to convince people to pay attention.

“The remodeling’s gonna happen at fifth bell, three days from now. The knights just got word from the knight commander. Seems like he wants us to tell all the residents,” I said. The knights staying at the north gate had given us the specific date a few days after Effa had told me the Gutenbergs were back from their trip.

“We know what to do,” one soldier said. “We’ll tell the commanders, the Merchant’s Guild, and the craftsman guilds. Then we’ll tell people we see on patrol.”

“Right. I’m counting on you all.”

The soldiers all dispersed. Unlike the nobles, we didn’t have any tools for long-distance communication; instead, we had to run around to deliver messages. Thankfully enough, we didn’t need to call a meeting this time. People just needed to know the date and time.

On the day of the remodeling, we started closing the gates at fourth bell, not wanting any outsiders to wander in and pay the ultimate price.

I started making my way home from the north gate with the morning-duty soldiers. We warned everyone we saw on the way to get back inside before fifth bell. The stands on the main streets connecting the west and east gates were all packed away, making the roads feel a lot wider than normal. The workshops and stores were empty too; they had apparently all decided to close at noon. An air of tension and stress had spread through the city. The residents still on the streets were rushing home in such a panic that you’d think sixth bell had already rung and marked the end of the workday.

“We’ll come and tell everyone when it’s safe to go outside again,” I said. “We don’t know how long this’ll take, but keep your windows shut and don’t go outside until we say so, no matter what. Seems like even humans’ll disappear if they get caught in this spell.”

Once we had finished spreading the word, we returned to the north gate. Fifth bell rang not long after. We all gathered around the windows and gazed down at the city, wanting to see the archduke’s magic. We waited with bated breath for who knows how long. None of us knew when the remodeling was going to happen or what it was going to look like.

Eventually, Myne appeared in the sky above the city with some knights. It was definitely her; there was no mistaking that weird-looking animal, and as soon as I saw it, I pressed my face against the tiny window to get a better look. That was definitely the archduke and his guards coming out to cast the wide-range spell. They flew from the temple to the sky far above the central plaza, which made them harder to see from the north gate.

“They’re so far away, I can’t recognize anyone but Lady Rozemyne...” I muttered.

“You can tell which one’s Lady Rozemyne, commander?” a soldier asked.

Leckle snorted. “Anyone who’s been to Hasse would recognize her. She’s the only one with the weird ride,” he said, proudly pointing at Rozemyne through a different window, where two other soldiers were pushing and shoving each other to get a better view. As the commander, I was lucky enough to get my own window.

“The archduke’s adopted daughter’s here, so... it must be about to start.”

“Might be that Lady Rozemyne asked them to wait a little longer after fifth bell to give everyone time to get home.”

So much time had passed since fifth bell that I couldn’t blame the soldiers for thinking that. As we stared up in the sky there came a sudden flash, and a huge burst of something fell down from Myne’s ride.

“Something fell...?”

“Hard to tell from here, but it was pretty big. Anyone caught up in that would probably die in an instant.”

Getting everyone inside really had been important. A chill ran through me as I watched on, and it was then that I saw someone who wasn’t Rozemyne start drawing some kind of pattern in the air.

“It’s the archduke! That must be the archduke! It’s starting!”

“He can draw in the air?! Look! It’s shining!”

We didn’t know what the drawing was, but even from here, we could tell it was intricately crafted from a bunch of fine patterns. Once it seemed to be done, the glowing pattern duplicated until thirteen identical circles filled the sky above the city. They moved as though they were alive, which made the soldiers shriek in a combination of surprise and awe. As commoners, we would normally go our entire lives without seeing a noble use magic. This was completely beyond our understanding.

“Whoa!”

A flood of softly glowing water exploded from all thirteen of the mysterious patterns at once, so massive that I was convinced it would sweep away the entire city. It smashed down from above, and a huge wave crashed against the north gate and the windows we were gawking through, completely blocking our view for several moments.

By the time we were able to see again, the entire city was drowned in a storm of swirling water. It reminded me of when I would play around as a kid, pouring buckets of water over bug nests and watching them flood. It was just like that. We were bugs to the archduke. He could flood all of our homes and make the whole city disappear on a whim, with no more effort than someone just playing around. There was that much of a gap between us. I could feel his power on my skin, and goosebumps popped up all over me.

Is this gonna be alright...?

A lot of people used their first floors to store things they didn’t usually take outside. Wasn’t it bad that they were now all underwater? The moment I thought that, however, the water disappeared all at once.

“What the heck was that?!”

We had no idea what had just happened, but the water made by magic disappeared as suddenly as it had appeared. The once ash-gray bottom two floors were now pure white, and the city glittered so brightly in the sun that it was almost hard to look at.

“Did the city used to be this clean...?” I said to nobody in particular. That magic was something else.

“Can’t believe nobles can actually do this kinda thing. What the heck...?”

“Yeah. Makes sense they’d get ticked if we messed up their city right after they used magic like that to clean it...” someone noted. Everyone agreed on the spot: we had to protect this clean city.

As we kept staring out the windows, a soldier rushed in. “Commander, the knight is calling for you,” he said.

“Alright. I’ll be there right away.”

The knight posted at the north gate informed us that the remodeling was complete. There were now holes for disposing of waste on the street, which we were to throw all our waste and garbage into from now on. We just needed to keep the citizens on track.

“Understood.”

I opened the door leading out of the north gate with some subordinates. The gleaming white street that spread out before us smelled clean, like the water had even washed away the foul-smelling air. The moment I stepped outside, I glanced down and saw that I had left a dirty footprint on the street. I looked back on instinct and had everyone wipe the bottoms of their shoes right away.

From there, we rushed around the city and called out to everyone.

“It’s over! You can come out now! Find the garbage hole nearest to your house and start helping us protect this clean city!”

Windows opened one by one as people heard our shouts. Children cheered and rushed out so quickly that I could guess they had been waiting by their doors. It felt as though everyone, every single person, was looking at the reborn city with a hopeful smile on their face.