Ascendance of a Bookworm (LN) - Volume 4.5 - Chapter 16

Fealty and the Dormitory

Light brimming with black and gold mana clashed in front of me. I instinctively shut my eyes tight as my vision blurred, and a wave of nausea suddenly washed over me.

“Welcome to the Ehrenfest Dormitory, Lady Rozemyne,” came a voice.

I slowly opened my eyes to see two knights. As expected, I was in the dormitory’s teleportation hall. I needed to hurry off of the circle to make way for Wilfried, who was going to be arriving after me.

Upon leaving the room with Rihyarda, I found my other retainers waiting in the hall outside. Only Philine was absent, since she was in my grade and was in the process of preparing her room.

“Welcome, Lady Rozemyne.”

“Now then, milady. Spend some time relaxing. I will go and prepare your room,” Rihyarda said, directing my retainers with her eyes while watching the male servants carrying my luggage. I climbed into my highbeast and made my way to the common room with my retainers while Rihyarda leapt right into action.

“It’s been so long since I was last here, but I don’t feel particularly nostalgic...” I mused.

“That’s because our dormitory was made to look just like the castle,” Judithe said with a smile. “I don’t really feel like we’ve gone anywhere special either. That’s why first-years are able to adjust to the dorm so fast.”

Judithe’s parents were knights who served Giebe Kirnberger. She had been baptized in Kirnberger and then entered the castle for the first time for her winter debut.

“It was so different from the giebe’s summer mansion and so much bigger,” she continued. “I couldn’t believe what I was seeing! I was nervous enough already, and then there were so many nobles I didn’t recognize... But after going to the winter playroom every day, I started to feel a lot more comfortable!”

Three winters in the winter playroom had made Judithe feel more at ease, and by the time she was old enough to attend the Royal Academy, she could enter the castle without any worries.

“At first, I worried that I was going to have to conquer my fears all over again at the Royal Academy, but the dormitory here is so similar to the castle, and I already knew so many of the other children from the playroom. In the end, adjusting to the new environment was easy.”

Judithe had only seen the seniors during the few days they spent in the playroom, but this meant she had at least recognized them when she came to the Royal Academy herself, which had done wonders to make her feel at ease. I was listening to her with great interest, having never realized that the playroom fulfilled such a role.

“I see the winter playroom plays an even more crucial role than I thought,” I said.

“This is especially true now, Lady Rozemyne. Ever since Lord Wilfried and you first came, there’ve been games and sweets to look forward to, and instructors to help us with our studies,” Judithe said.

I went into the common room, but unlike last year, there was basically nobody here. What caught my eye first was the new bookcase. There weren’t any books in it yet, but it towered imposingly in the corner of the room, making its presence known.

“That is the new bookcase, I see.”

I ran over to it at once, my heart swelling with excitement. It was a stocky, ornately carved bookcase fit for decorating an archduke-owned building such as the Ehrenfest Dormitory. A closer look revealed that it had a glossy finish and was polished to a sheen. It was so glossy, in fact, that I could actually see my face in the wood.

I gazed up at the sizable bookcase with an awed sigh as a delighted tingle shot through my body. It still didn’t have any books in it, though.

“We should fill these shelves as soon as possible,” I said. “There is nothing quite as wonderful as a bookcase packed from top to bottom with books, you know.”

“In that case, I shall help Rihyarda unpack and then bring our books here,” Lieseleta said, entrusting tea to Brunhilde and quietly stepping out of the common room. Brunhilde could probably tell that I was on the verge of rubbing my face against the polished wood, as she called out that the bookcase could be admired just as well from the tables.

I looked around the common room as I sipped my tea, although my attention was primarily focused on the bookcase. I could remember how busy things had been last year, with all the seniors coming to welcome the first-years, but now there was barely anyone here. An eerie quiet still blanketed the room.

“What are the students of the other years doing?” I asked.

“Preparing for their lectures,” Brunhilde answered. “Unlike first-years, the older students have much to prepare. Now that you and Lord Wilfried have arrived, they must go gathering.”

“What...?”

“They must gather the ingredients needed for their brewing lessons,” Leonore explained. “That should not take particularly long, though.”

Students would need to gather the herbs and feystones and such they were going to need for their practical lessons ahead of time, and the Royal Academy grounds were brimming with ingredients that were easy to use in brewing recipes, that were abundant in mana, and that contained numerous elements. Of course, the students also had the ingredients they had gathered in the castle’s forest back in Ehrenfest, but they would be using those for purposes other than classroom brewing. The ingredients used in lectures were standardized for the sake of convenience during lessons.

“Up until now, apprentice knights of the higher years would gather together, then sell their harvested goods... But this year, everyone is going together, so the knights can practice fighting while protecting others. I’ve been gathering for days as a sixth-year,” Cornelius said. It seemed that the third-years had gone yesterday, and today it was the second-years’ turn. The first-years didn’t have brewing lessons and didn’t need to gather, so the consecutive days of the knights going out to gather ended today.

“Lady Rozemyne, it must be because of all my training with Lord Bonifatius, but my aim is much better than it used to be,” Judithe said, her violet eyes sparkling with excitement. “It’s so much fun getting feystones now. I’m so much stronger.”

“It was wonderful to see you working so hard to beat Damuel,” Leonore giggled. “I am hoping to find a way to incorporate all of the strategies I’ve studied into future ditter games, but that seems easier said than done. The biggest challenge this year is going to be filling the power gap that Angelica has left in the wake of her graduation.”

She may have been deadweight for the written lessons, but she was the apprentice knights’ powerhouse when it came to practical lessons.

As we continued our conversation, Wilfried arrived in the common room. As he was being served tea by his retainers, I pointed to the new bookcase.

“Behold, dear brother—the new bookcase that Sylvester has prepared for us. What books shall we put on its shelves? If you have any requests, I would be more than glad to hear them.”

Wilfried looked at me, then at our retainers, and then sighed. “Nobody cares about that bookcase as much as you do,” he said. “Do whatever you want. I can’t imagine anyone will try to stop you.”

The joy of getting free rein over the bookcase warmed my soul, which almost seemed to sparkle with heavenly light. In my eyes, even Wilfried seemed to sparkle, as if divine rays were raining down upon him from the heavens. He had never seemed so heroic and cool in his life. Thank goodness I was engaged to someone who would allow me to do what I wanted with books.

“Wilfried... I thank you ever so much!” I said, so overcome with emotion that my body started to tremble. Everyone inhaled sharply, and Hartmut swiftly put his hands on my shoulders.

“Lady Rozemyne, please calm down. You are getting too excited.”

“My apologies... I am just so overjoyed.”

We moved on to discussing today’s gatherings. As we talked, a second-year wearing highbeast riding gear and some warm-looking clothes came into the common hall. A short while later, another arrived as well. At the same time, an ordonnanz flew in from Rihyarda, informing me that my room was ready.

“Alright, Rozemyne,” Wilfried said. “Go change into your riding gear. It’s time to gather.”

By the time I got changed and returned to the common room, all of the second-years and apprentice knights were gathered together. The second-years were dressed in layers upon layers of thick, fluffy clothing, while the apprentice knights wore only their full feystone armor and their capes.

Oh yeah. The armor knights wear protects them against the cold too, or something...

“Second-years, prioritize gathering. We shall stay on the lookout for any feybeasts,” Cornelius said. The apprentice knights moved at his orders and exited the common room with the second-years sandwiched between them.

I was driving my single-person Pandabus, as usual.

Hm...?

We passed the entrance leading to the hall of the central building and moved farther into the dormitory. Apparently, there was another exit that we were going to use.

Although I had used the meeting rooms in this part of the dormitory before, never had I gone this far inside. We proceeded along a hallway and turned a corner, and there was another entrance hall.

Two apprentice knights opened a set of double doors to reveal a snow-covered forest; rather than being enchanted with teleportation magic, the doors simply led outside the dorm. As the falling snow was swept into my face and the cold wind pricked my cheeks, I instinctively wrapped my arms around myself.

“Take out your highbeasts in order,” Cornelius instructed. “We’re moving.”

The apprentice knights took the lead, climbing onto their highbeasts before flying up into the air. The second-years followed after them, in order. Philine was only a laynoble, but she was used to bringing out and traveling by highbeast due to commuting between the temple and castle so often. She was something of a natural, especially when compared to Roderick, a mednoble who wasn’t used to using his.

Experience always matters most, huh?

Once we were high up in the air, I noticed a circular clearing among the trees near the dorm. I could see a faint pillar of yellow light, which would have been hidden among the snow had we been much farther away.

“That is Ehrenfest’s gathering point,” Leonore said from her highbeast beside mine, pointing at the glowing light. We started our descent, and for a moment, the area contorted, as if we were going through a magic mirror. For some reason, the faint yellow part now had a ton of plants growing throughout. Along the edge of the pillar were towering trees that bore fruit of some kind. It was like the season had changed in a heartbeat.

Upon seeing the sudden change in scenery, the second-years looked completely taken aback. “What’s going on here...?” one asked.

“My brother Eckhart told me this clearing was originally where one would put one’s treasure during games of treasure-stealing ditter,” Cornelius explained with a slight smile. “Snow has been blocked from falling here to prevent the games from being affected.”

As it turned out, every dorm had a good gathering spot where snow never fell. Feybeasts would come for the plants and fruit, which made them excellent places to hunt feystones too.

“Take care not to enter the gathering spots of other duchies, no matter what,” Cornelius said. “There are measures in place—presumably from the days when these areas were used for treasure-stealing ditter—that will cut you down on sight. Like this.” In an instant, he morphed his schtappe into a sword and sliced through a feybeast that had charged toward us. The feybeast started to melt until, soon enough, a gleaming feystone dropped to the ground.

“These plants are needed for rejuvenation potions. Also, be sure to pick up these yellow fruits.”

The third-year guard knights taught us second-years what we were going to need for our brewing lessons, all while looking out for any threats. We took out our schtappes, chanted “messer,” and then used our knives to start gathering.

“Judithe, eliminate the zantze on that branch. Traugott, there are two on the right. Be careful,” Leonore said, having successfully learned to better her vision with enhancement magic. She kept a watchful eye on our surroundings, warning of any nearby feybeasts and giving instructions on who should hunt which one.

It was thanks to the apprentice knights that we were able to gather peacefully, and upon our return to the dorm, they started selling the feystones they had collected from defeated feybeasts to other students, who would need them for their lessons. Apparently, this was a valuable way for the apprentice knights to make money.

“So the ingredients we gathered today used to be part of your income as well,” I observed.

“Yes,” Cornelius replied, “but learning how to escort others is an important part of our training.”

Cornelius was evidently fine with the new system, but he was a rich archnoble. It was important for apprentice scholars and attendants to experience gathering for themselves, and for apprentice knights to get experience fighting while protecting others; but if our current approach was depriving students of an important source of money, it probably wouldn’t last long.

“Rozemyne, how about we pay the apprentice knights as much as they would have earned from the gathering, to cover their guard duty?” Wilfried asked. “This is important for everyone’s grades, so surely the expanded budget can cover it.”

“That’s a good idea, Wilfried. I shall do the calculations,” I said. He had made the suggestion before I could, and the faces of all the laynobles and mednobles lit up at once. As expected, it was important to them.

Not long after our return to the dormitory, it was time for dinner. I needed to get changed out of my highbeast riding clothes, so I returned to my room, where Rihyarda and the others helped me get ready.

Over dinner, we discussed how we would welcome the new students coming to the Royal Academy tomorrow. The plan was to prepare sweets for them and ensure that all of the seniors were present for their arrival, but first and foremost, we needed to decide on the roles that Wilfried and I would play.

“I believe the archduke candidates should remain seated,” came a suggestion from Isidore, one of Wilfried’s apprentice attendants.

“That does indeed seem wise,” Brunhilde agreed. “Being served tea and sweets by archduke candidates would only scare the first-years stiff. Lady Rozemyne, Lord Wilfried, perhaps you could explain the rules of the dorm and the ways we spent our time last year.”

The rules of the dorm, hm? Maybe I should explain how the bookcase is meant to be used...

In this world, books were valuable enough to be chained to bookshelves. Their value had gone down a little in Ehrenfest due to the continued expansion of our printing industry, but they were still expensive; I didn’t want anyone taking and selling them without permission.

“So, Hartmut... Do you think I should make a list of rules and instructions for using the bookcase and its books?” I asked.

“I would even go as far as to call it necessary,” he replied. “The majority of the books are going to be your belongings, Lady Rozemyne, so it is important that you explain how they are to be used.”

To me, the rules were obvious—don’t take the books out of the common room, put them back where you found them, take extra care not to damage them... Even so, I needed to take extra precautions to ensure that everyone was properly taught how to treat the bookcase, and normalizing my rules was the first step to making them a universal culture.

I nodded to myself, certain that this was going to work.

The next day, the first-years teleported over with their respective attendants. The seniors accommodated them with aplomb, exchanged greetings with them, led them to their seats, and offered them sweets, all while explaining how to use the dormitory’s facilities, what time meals were served, and so on.

As an archduke candidate, Charlotte was the last first-year to arrive. She sipped from her teacup with her retainers surrounding her, and I used that opportunity to speedily explain the rules for using the bookcase and such.

“Sister,” Charlotte began, setting down her cup and shaking her head at me slightly, “when hosting another, you must start with idle small talk, not lectures. You abruptly began your conversation with Aurelia during the dyeing competition by asking about how many books were in Ahrensbach’s libraries or some such, no? That simply will not do. A normal person would not appreciate your sudden explanation of using a bookcase.”

It seemed that I should have focused my initial conversation with Aurelia on dyeing or fashion trends, and my conversation here in the Royal Academy on lectures or the dormitory.

“But Charlotte, the bookcase is part of the dormitory. And is a discourse on books not equivalent to a friendly greeting?”

“No.”

Charlotte shot me down in a heartbeat, but books really were the ideal conversation starter. For me, asking what books the other person had read lately or talking about new finds in the local library had often immediately followed any greetings back on Earth.

“I’ve never heard of any greetings like that,” Wilfried said. “Who would you even say that to?”

“I’ll use them when I meet with my bookworm friends.”

“Talk about weird...” Wilfried remarked with a smirk. I pursed my lips; it seemed that my greetings were viewed as nonsensical in this world, since there were so few books here.

I’ll normalize these as greetings one day! Just you wait and see!

“Oh, that reminds me. Wilfried, Charlotte, I have asked Rihyarda to prepare a meeting room so that I may extend my gratitude to the children of the former Veronica faction who warned us of the ambush,” I said. In an instant, the smiles on Wilfried’s and Charlotte’s faces turned into more serious expressions. “I had intended to thank them on my own, as they attempted to inform me specifically. However, if we are to use this opportunity to work on absorbing the children into our faction, it would be best for the three of us to go collectively. What do you think?”

“Naturally, I will attend,” Charlotte said.

“Same here,” Wilfried agreed.

I glanced at the corner where the children of the former Veronica faction were gathered. Their situation was a lot better than it had been at the start of last year, but it felt as though faction politics had once again erected walls within the dormitory.

“Milady, everything is ready.”

“Thank you, Rihyarda.”

As I stood up, Hartmut called across the room. “Matthias, Roderick, come with us to the meeting room, so that we may discuss what we talked about before.”

Matthias and Roderick tensed up, their eyes scanning the crowd. The other kids nodded, no doubt having deduced the context from Hartmut’s ambiguous hinting alone. We three archduke candidates left with our retainers, with all of the children following behind us being of the former Veronica faction. Those who were unaware of the circumstances merely watched us go with stunned looks on their faces.

Once we were inside the meeting room, I gestured to the provided seats, and everyone started sitting down with hard expressions. There were over ten children of the former Veronica faction, which was quite a lot. In the midst of them, I saw Roderick clenching his fists. There was so much intensity in his scorched-brown eyes that I could tell he was dying to say something.

“Thanks to your courageous actions, an attempted ambush ended in failure, and the Starbind Ceremony between Ahrensbach and Ehrenfest ended peacefully,” I said. “You all have my gratitude. I thought it best to thank you here in the Royal Academy, as doing so back in Ehrenfest would certainly have caused problems with your families.”

“Your gratitude honors us,” Matthias replied. His dark-purple hair swayed a little as he bowed his head. He was serving as a representative of the group, perhaps because he had inspired the others to act in the first place.

Matthias was the youngest son of Viscount Gerlach, a central figure in the Veronica faction. He was an apprentice medknight, and much like Traugott, he was frustrated about falling behind due to not knowing my mana compression method. He was also bothered by the fact that he was unable to choose his own faction until he came of age.

“Aub Ehrenfest informed us that you were even willing to teach us your mana compression method as a sign of your gratitude,” Matthias said.

“He informed me that he requires a severe condition for that to happen,” I replied. Giving one’s name to a member of the archducal family, thereby becoming name-sworn to them, was an extremely brutal demand. It was apparently rare for even the most loyal of retainers to name-swear themselves to their charge; Ferdinand was the weird one for having both Eckhart and Justus. “I apologize for not having the power to sway him.”

“There is no need to apologize. Aub Ehrenfest has graciously said that, as time passes, the severity of the condition may soften. We are only required to give our names if we wish to learn the method now, during our growth period,” Matthias said with a troubled smile.

All of a sudden, Roderick stood, his fists now trembling even more than before. His cheeks were flushed, but his eyes carried unmistakable resolve. Everyone present instantly knew what he was about to say.

“I... I want to give my name to you, Lady Rozemyne!”

“Roderick, please consider this carefully...” I said. “Becoming name-sworn is too grave of a decision to make on an impulse.”

Getting more mana was certainly important for nobles, but I didn’t think it was worth literally giving someone else control over your life—especially when that “someone else” was me.

“Lady Rozemyne is correct,” Matthias said. “This is not something to be decided so impulsively. Roderick, use your head a little.”

“Lord Matthias, I—”

“The moment we give our names to someone, we sever our ties with our parents for good. We’ve been in the Veronica faction our entire lives; even if you give your name and end up as Lady Rozemyne’s retainer, everyone will treat you as a traitor, and who knows how the factions are going to look in a few years’ time,” Matthias said, furrowing his brows in a pained expression. “There... was a man once. He was starstruck by one set to become the next aub, and his heart burned with the desire to serve them forever as a loyal giebe once they took the aub seat. But the situation changed. The person whom his heart was set on lost their running for the seat overnight.”

Someone in the crowd swallowed hard. That wasn’t an impossible scenario; Veronica had held power for decades, only to suddenly lose it all. Only a few years had passed since then, and it was entirely possible that the balance of power would flip once again.

“Lady Rozemyne attended the Royal Academy last year, and in the span of a single winter, she formed connections with royalty and many archduke candidates from the top-ranked duchies,” Matthias continued. “Considering that her influence will aid our duchy in ways that were once unthinkable, I can agree that becoming name-sworn to her is an honorable and worthwhile move, but...”

He paused.

“We still do not know whether that influence will ensure power. I would not be saying this if you were giving your name to Lord Sylvester or Lady Florencia, the archducal couple, but Lady Rozemyne, Lord Wilfried, and Lady Charlotte are all underage, and we do not know what the future might hold. That is why we cannot afford to make such rash decisions, Roderick. We will lose our parents, and they’re the only backing we have right now.”

Roderick paled. His eyes were uneasy and flitted from Matthias to me, but I said nothing.

“Think carefully, okay...?” Matthias concluded, his voice tinged with bitterness. He had no doubt repeated those words many times already, and they carried a weight that made it sound entirely as though he was actually speaking to himself.