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Ascendance of a Bookworm (LN) - Volume 4.5 - Chapter 18




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The Second-Year Fellowship Gathering

Had the person sitting in the place of royalty at the end of the room been a Sovereign archnoble, he would have been much older. It seemed safe to conclude that he was indeed a prince.

Nobody told me a prince was going to be in attendance, though.

I cocked my head. If my guardians had known about this, I was sure they would have warned me or at least told me to be on guard.

Rather than wearing black as the Academy mandated, the small figure—the word “small” came unbidden to mind every time I saw him—was dressed in red and white, the divine colors of winter. He was at least wearing a black cape, to mark that he was from the Sovereignty, but he stuck out nonetheless. Even Anastasius had worn mostly black, so it hadn’t occurred to me that royals were allowed to break the dress code.

“Here are your seats,” a servant said.

Just like last year, the Small Hall had four-person tables arranged at equal distances apart. We were taken to the three tables for Ehrenfest, at which point Wilfried took his seat at the table to my left and Charlotte took hers at the one to my right. Brunhilde pulled back my seat for me before resuming her position, standing behind me with my guard knights. Hartmut, meanwhile, was seated beside me as my scholar.

“Hartmut, did you know that a member of royalty was attending this year?” I asked in a hushed voice. He discreetly shook his head.

“I did not, and it seems we are not the only ones. Many of the other duchies seem just as surprised, so we can assume that nobody was informed.”

It was nice to know I wasn’t alone in my ignorance. I always had the feeling that I was missing out on important information, since I didn’t spend much time in the castle, but that wasn’t the case here.

“However,” Hartmut continued, “I recall there being rumors in the Royal Academy last year that a royal was going to be baptized. Word said it was the son of the king’s third wife, the half-brother of Princes Sigiswald and Anastasius. If those rumors were true, he would only have been baptized this autumn.”

“He was baptized this year?” I asked. “Someone must know about him, then.”

“Nobles in Ehrenfest debut during winter society, but royals are officially debuted during the spring Archduke Conference. I expect that he has not had a formal debut yet.”

That explained why he was so tiny. I had thought that maybe he just looked small because he was seated so far away, but this made a lot more sense.

That said, why is there a newly baptized prince here in the first place?

Hartmut had only confused me further. Thankfully, once the archduke candidates from all the duchies were seated, a Sovereign scholar introduced the small prince and explained the circumstances.

“This is Third Prince Hildebrand,” the scholar said. “He was baptized this autumn and welcomed into the royal family. Under normal circumstances, he would be attending the Academy much later, but the king instructed him to attend this year as part of his royal duties.”

To summarize, there was a rule that there must always be at least one member of the royal family attending the Royal Academy. If there was no one of proper age, a graduated adult would be sent instead. It would have been more proper for Anastasius to return, but it seemed that he was exceptionally busy with his duties as the second prince. He needed to fill with mana the land he had been given for his marriage and the royal magic tools that had fallen out of use.

In other words, Prince Anastasius is so eager to marry Lady Eglantine that he’s putting his all into getting his land ready and refusing to return to the Royal Academy. That has to be it, right? I mean, reviving those old magic tools has to be a harder job than being stationed at the Academy.

Now that he was an adult, Anastasius had chosen to work hard over the winter rather than stay at the Royal Academy. Hildebrand was being thrown into the deep end as a result, having to attend the Academy so soon after his baptism. He was merely here for political reasons, however; it wasn’t as though he would actually be going to classes yet. He would presumably be spending most of his time in his own chambers.

I wonder why this rule was put into place... Is it for emergencies or something? Maybe to ensure someone’s always there to settle disputes?

Last year, when Dunkelfelger had made a fuss over my bringing Schwartz and Weiss out of the library, Anastasius had been contacted and arrived almost instantly to arbitrate the dispute. He had also spoken to Solange and me later on to learn more about the situation.

There certainly are a lot of people here; who knows what kinds of problems might arise? Royals must have their hands full with this stuff. And for the royal family to be sending a literal seven-year-old to the Royal Academy, they must be in dire straits.

Once the scholar’s announcement was over, everyone prepared to give their greetings, as they had done the year before. Again, Klassenberg was first. It seemed not to have any archduke candidates now that Eglantine had graduated, so an older-looking boy stood up and went to greet the prince instead.

The event continued as expected: the representatives of each duchy would stand up to greet the royal and then go down the side to greet every duchy of a higher rank than theirs. Dunkelfelger was the next to go up, then Drewanchel... Only after the ninth-placed duchy had greeted the prince was it our turn.

Wilfried and Charlotte stood up while I was helped down from my chair. Wilfried then looked at Charlotte and me.

“Rozemyne. Charlotte. Let’s go.”

Wilfried escorted us to the prince’s table at the far end of the hall, moving slowly enough for me to keep up. When we reached Hildebrand, we knelt down, crossed our arms, and bowed our heads.

“Prince Hildebrand, may we pray for a blessing in appreciation of this serendipitous meeting, ordained by the harsh judgment of Ewigeliebe the God of Life?”

“You may,” came a distinctly childlike voice.

Up close, I could see that Hildebrand had bright purple eyes and a faint blue tinge to his silver hair. He also had a cute face. Perhaps a boy wouldn’t much appreciate being called cute, but he looked especially young—as expected, considering that he had been sent to the Royal Academy so early. Not to mention, unlike the arrogant expression of royal dignity that Anastasius had so often worn, Hildebrand was wearing a bright smile that actually put me at ease. He was far from the archetype of the exceptionally manly man.

 

    

 

With the prince’s permission, we poured mana into our rings and granted a blessing. I made sure to add just a sliver of mana, all the while eyeing Wilfried and Charlotte to make sure I didn’t go overboard. Ferdinand had insisted that I not give in to my emotions and offer an excessive blessing like I had during the graduation ceremony.

Okay. Perfect.

I nodded to myself, having successfully managed to give a blessing as small as my siblings’ ones. Hildebrand then said for us to raise our heads, at which point Wilfried continued the greeting.

“It is an honor to meet you, Prince Hildebrand. We are Wilfried, Rozemyne, and Charlotte of Ehrenfest, here to learn to become proper nobles fit to serve Yurgenschmidt. May the future be bright.”

Hildebrand looked at each of us in order, although he seemed to regard Charlotte with particular interest. “I am told that Ehrenfest’s archduke candidates are exceptional—that one came first-in-class and another achieved the rank of honor student, all while aiding their classmates in raising the overall grades of their duchy,” he said briskly in his higher-pitched voice. “King Trauerqual has high hopes for all of you. Do continue your efforts.”

I could sense that he was completely focused on repeating the exact words the adults had instructed him to say, and as someone who had memorized all sorts of phrases for ceremonies, I knew just how hard he must have worked to reach this point. I wanted to tell him how well he was doing and to keep up the good work, but that seemed rude to say to a prince. I decided to settle on an expression of gratitude instead.

“We thank you.”

And so, our first meeting with Hildebrand ended without incident. It admittedly caught me a little off guard, since Anastasius had gotten all up in my face about me being a “fake saint” the year before, but we headed to the next table nonetheless—the table belonging to Klassenberg.

“Once again, Dregarnuhr the Goddess of Time has woven our threads together and blessed us with a meeting. This is Charlotte, my youngest sister. She is attending the Royal Academy as a first-year student,” Wilfried said. “May our futures be bright.”

Charlotte went on to give her first greetings. Wilfried hadn’t introduced himself, and I had been told not to introduce myself either, so I could only assume we had already introduced ourselves to this person the year before. Perhaps they were an archduke candidate rather than an archnoble.

I can’t exactly ask them which, so I’ll just check with Hartmut later.

According to Hartmut, they were not an archnoble, but rather the son of Aub Klassenberg’s second wife. He explained that I had greeted the boy last year, but I couldn’t remember him at all, so I responded only with a simple smile.

I mean, how am I supposed to remember someone I’ve only ever greeted once? Especially when I never really expected to see them again.

“For Lady Eglantine to have not reintroduced you to him despite your friendly relationship, it may be the case that she did not interact with him either. It is not unusual for the child of a second wife to rarely socialize.”

Oh, right. That reminds me... I’ve pretty much never spoken to Nikolaus.

Archnoble and archducal families generally took second wives to stabilize faction politics, compensate for a first wife unable to produce children, or simply increase their number of children. It wasn’t uncommon for half-siblings to barely interact.

The next duchy for us to greet was Dunkelfelger. We headed over to Lestilaut’s and Hannelore’s tables, where Wilfried spoke to them as our representative and Charlotte performed the blessing given at first meetings.

“Lady Hannelore,” I said, “thank you ever so much for the splendid Dunkelfelger book you lent me. Even the aub asked me to express his thanks to you.”

I told her how stunned I had been to learn that Aub Dunkelfelger himself had delivered the book at the Archduke Conference, but at the same time, how grateful I was that it being sent so early meant I had a lot of time to read it.

Hannelore blinked several times. “It must have been heart-stopping to have received a book from the aub himself. Father loves to surprise people, and, erm... I often find myself in a cold sweat after one of his tricks. I am relieved that he did not bother you,” she said with a troubled smile, her light pink pigtails swinging as she shifted.

Aub Dunkelfelger had apparently proclaimed that he would deliver the book personally to surprise me. He sounded like someone who loved mischief, but for him to have lent us a book that might as well be considered a treasure of their duchy, he was probably a really good person too.

“The offering of a book could never bother me,” I replied. “I had a splendid time with it, and as thanks, Lady Hannelore, I intend to let you borrow a book from Ehrenfest. I thought it would be nice for us to trade new books when returning the ones we have read.”

“I thank you ever so much, Lady Rozemyne. I am quite looking forward to it.”

Hannelore and I exchanged a smile, enjoying our fun conversation, at which point Lestilaut gave me a doubtful look. “Someone in Ehrenfest managed to read that book?” he asked.

“Yes. I was awestruck by the depth of your duchy’s past,” I replied. The fact that so many of their stories involved battle maniacs who kept on fighting until they won more or less explained why Professor Rauffen was so insistent on challenging us to ditter rematches—he had so much history at his back.


“Hmph. As you should be,” Lestilaut snorted. “We are completely unlike Ehrenfest, a pitiful duchy with only a mere two hundred years of history.”

“Brother!” Hannelore exclaimed and gave him a reprimanding tug on his sleeve. She then looked at me; her cute red eyes washed with worry. She was no doubt concerned that Lestilaut had offended me, but I just smiled at him and nodded.

“It is true that our duchy’s history pales in comparison to yours and that our history books are thin in comparison,” I said. “That is why I so appreciated the book I was graciously lent, and I would certainly love to read more of Dunkelfelger’s splendid books.”

My intention was to lead into a lengthy discussion, during which I could review Dunkelfelger’s book and get even more books from them, but Wilfried cut me off and Charlotte gave me a subtle pull on my sleeve.

“Perhaps this could be discussed when we come to lend Dunkelfelger our book,” Wilfried said. “We should not tarry too long when others are waiting.”

Oh, right... We’re in the middle of greeting the duchies.

I was so excited about being reunited with Hannelore and so eager to speak with her that I had forgotten where I was. I promised to invite her to a tea party soon and then made my way over to Drewanchel’s tables.

“Lord Wilfried, Lady Rozemyne, I congratulate you on your engagement,” Adolphine said. “I doubted my ears when Father returned from the Archduke Conference with the news.”

Adolphine was speaking as the duchy’s representative, but also with her were my classmate Ortwin and two other archduke candidates. Her wine-red hair that flowed down to her chest in majestic waves had a pleasant sheen, almost as if she had used rinsham. A careful examination of the duchy’s other students revealed that they all had glossy hair too.

Upon seeing my eyes move, Adolphine stroked her hair and smiled.

No, it couldn’t be... I only gave them one bottle.

They must have analyzed the rinsham I had given them at the tea party. The actual process for making it was simple, so I had figured the production method would be exposed eventually, but this was much sooner than I had expected.

Drewanchel being a duchy of mad scientists might just make it a bit more terrifying than I expected.

I looked up at Adolphine and swallowed hard. Meanwhile, Wilfried and Ortwin seemed to be having a much more positive conversation, talking about the games they played for socializing.

“Here’s to another good year, eh, Wilfried?”

“You can bet on it. I’ll show you how much better I’ve gotten at gewinnen.”

For some reason, Adolphine was giving me a meaningful smile. “Lady Rozemyne, the scholars that we sent to the Archduke Conference returned in quite an excited frenzy,” she said. “It seems that Ehrenfest has magic tools that even commoners can use—scraps of paper that move on their own, worming their way toward any larger pieces. Quite interesting. Even our scholars were taken aback by the concept.”

“Oh, it is nothing that deserves so much attention,” I replied with an evasive chuckle. I was starting to feel they would dissect anything they managed to get their hands on.

“I did not observe any such paper in the Royal Academy, and it was not presented at the Interduchy Tournament either, was it?” Adolphine asked. “Is there perhaps a reason for this?”

“Perhaps it is because our aub considered it unworthy of publicizing,” I replied.

It wasn’t at the Interduchy Tournament because commoners make it, and nobody in Ehrenfest really sees it as a magic tool. I can’t say that, though!

“It is surprisingly difficult to grasp what is and isn’t normal in one’s duchy,” Adolphine said. “This is something I have learned well since coming to the Royal Academy. Lady Rozemyne, I pray that we can spend much time together this year.”

Or in other words, you want to wring information out of me? Okey dokey. Time to contact my guardians. That didn’t take long.

“I share your prayers,” I said with a smile, but I could feel my face stiffening. Adolphine’s eyes turned to rest on Charlotte for a moment before looking comparatively at Ortwin.

“You are a first-year, are you not, Lady Charlotte?” Adolphine asked. “I foresee us being close friends as well.”

“I would be honored.”

It feels like someone extremely dangerous just targeted Charlotte for something! Aah! Ferdinand! HEEELP!

I moved to the next table, hoping to protect Charlotte from Adolphine’s gaze. Once we had finished greeting the fourth and fifth duchies, it was time for us to speak with Ahrensbach the Sixth. Only Detlinde was there as an archduke candidate. The small girl we had seen at Lamprecht’s wedding wasn’t present; she was about as tiny as me, so as expected, she wasn’t old enough to attend the Academy this year.

“Too long has passed since our last reunion,” Detlinde said. “You all seem to be doing well. How has Aurelia been faring in Ehrenfest? We have been ever so worried that she may not be fitting in, haven’t we, Martina?” She turned her attention to a girl who looked a bit like Tuuli—her attendant, based on where she was standing.

“Lady Bettina seems to have been in contact, but we have heard nothing from my sister Aurelia. I’ve been so worried about her,” Martina said, lowering her eyes sadly. She was similar enough to Tuuli that just seeing her upset made my heart ache.

“Aurelia is enjoying her life in Ehrenfest,” I said. “She has prepared a new veil, and we have had tea together. Isn’t that right, Charlotte?”

“Indeed,” Charlotte agreed with a smile, having met Aurelia at the dyeing competition. “She is a sweet and positively delightful person.”

Martina placed a hand on her chest in relief, while Detlinde blinked several times, her dark-green eyes betraying her astonishment. “Aurelia? Sweet?” she muttered to herself.

Why does that come as such a surprise? In what world is Aurelia not sweet?

I also blinked in confusion, sensing that the Aurelia we knew was somehow different from the one Detlinde was familiar with.

“On that note,” Detlinde said, moving the conversation along swiftly, “I realize I did not properly congratulate your engagement at the Starbind Ceremony. Please, allow me to rectify that. Congratulations.”

She spoke with a soft smile, which was weird, to say the least. It felt as though she was genuinely blessing our engagement, and she looked so friendly that I wanted to ask what all that nonsense last year was about. That she was even acknowledging me alongside Wilfried seemed incomprehensible, and in truth, it actually made me feel a little uncomfortable.

“All of you are my cousins in Ehrenfest,” she continued. “I hope that we can get along well.”

The seventh, eighth, and ninth duchies following Ahrensbach were visibly on guard against us, considering that our rank had risen so suddenly. They had scarcely even noticed us last year, but now they were shooting us warnings and insulting us through euphemisms.

Hate to break it to you, but Wilfried won’t pick up on those kinds of slights at all. And they won’t make me shrink back either!

We finished greeting the higher-ranking duchies, which meant it was time for the lower-ranking duchies to begin greeting us. This was annoying in its own sense. The eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth duchies were especially hostile toward us and spoke with empty smiles, since we had pushed them all down in our ascent. To translate a few of their insults:

“Luck and chance do not last forever.”

“Good times are but fragile illusions—they will shatter sooner or later.”

“Do you intend to speed through your classes once again? I only hope that your grades do not suffer as they have before.”

How pleasant.

Of course, we needed to protect our dignity and our reputations, so we offered responses that essentially meant, “Our success is not an illusion; we will ensure the good times continue.”

“We thank you for your encouragement,” I said to one of the students greeting us. “Please look forward to seeing our grades published; I believe you will find them quite impactful.”

After exchanging various other insults with smiles on our faces, it came time for us to speak with Frenbeltag. This was Charlotte’s first time meeting Rudiger. Her eyes widened in surprise, and she glanced several times between him and Wilfried, presumably noting how similar they looked.

However, since Charlotte had the same indigo eyes as Rudiger, she seemed to resemble him even more than he resembled Wilfried—at least from a color perspective. I was sure she could easily pass herself off as his sister.

Not me, though. I don’t share their blood.

Rudiger must have noticed the way Charlotte was looking at him because he offered a smile. He knelt down, crossed his arms, and then bowed his head. “Lord Wilfried, Lady Rozemyne. Once again, Dregarnuhr the Goddess of Time has woven our threads together and blessed us with a meeting. And the same for you, Lady Charlotte. May I pray for a blessing in appreciation of this serendipitous meeting, ordained by the harsh judgment of Ewigeliebe the God of Life?”

“You may.”

Rudiger gave Charlotte a blessing and exchanged greetings with her. Then, once that was done, he looked at Wilfried. “I heard about your duchy’s archduke candidates taking the lead in Spring Prayer for the sake of the people and suggested we do the same in Frenbeltag. As a result, we were able to secure a larger harvest than usual,” he said.

It had apparently taken Rudiger a lot of courage to tell his family that he wanted to go to the temple, but after hearing that Wilfried had done the same in Ehrenfest and with great results, the archducal couple had decided to try it—perhaps out of desperation, if nothing else.

Rudiger’s mom is Sylvester’s older sister, after all... I can see the similarities between them, at least a little.

Thanks to these new efforts, Frenbeltag had apparently seen a larger harvest, and the increased tax revenue had made things easier for the duchy.

“Hope has returned to the once bleak eyes of our nobles,” Rudiger said with a slight, pleased smile. “It brings me more joy than anything. Your advice is much appreciated. Mother was overjoyed as well.”

As a duchy on the losing side of the civil war, I knew that their archduke had been executed, but their duchy surely must have suffered in other ways as well. As one example, I was aware of Aurelia being treated unreasonably harshly in Ahrensbach due to her mother being from Frenbeltag. This had no doubt made bringing wives and husbands into the duchy that much harder.

In truth, it was impressive that they had managed to resign themselves to getting involved in religious ceremonies. I had charged eagerly into the temple to get my hands on books, but they had scorned it their entire lives. Sure, their decision to work with the temple despite their disdain was probably because they were so desperate—any port in a storm, as they say—but still.

“I hope that our friendship with Ehrenfest can remain so firm,” Rudiger said, carefully eyeing me for my response. He looked a lot like Wilfried when I had told him to test Frenbeltag at the tea party, before teaching them our methods.

“We are cousins and neighbors; a friendship is only natural,” I replied, causing both Rudiger and Wilfried to exhale in relief.

Once the greetings had finished, lunch began. The soup actually tasted good this year, perhaps because the chefs had adopted our recipes, but the sweets... Well, once again, they were no better than clumps of sugar.



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