Ascendance of a Bookworm (LN) - Volume 4.5 - Chapter 5

Visiting Groschel and the Starbind Ceremony

The lunch meeting in the Italian Restaurant ended with great success, and to reward Freida and the Plantin Company for working so hard over the past two years, I taught them the production methods for gelatin and ring binders, respectively.

“So this helps organize large quantities of paper? It seems quite useful...” Benno said, having already shifted to using plant paper for everything he could. He seemed especially interested in the binders and said that he would start producing them as soon as he could, although he would want to get one of his own first.

“And we of the Othmar Company will need to prepare workshops to make gelatin, I suppose.”

“The smell is quite intense,” I warned, “so I would advise that you build it near a farming town with many pigs.”

“I thank you ever so much. We shall consider it.”

Finishing the gelatin would really broaden the scope of what kinds of products they could make. I purchased Leise’s improved recipes, and things ended without the exchange of much more money.

“Rozemyne, the final checks are done! We can head to Groschel!”

Wilfried contacted me by ordonnanz right after the spring coming-of-age ceremony was over. He spoke with the exuberance of a job well done, and not long after, Elvira sent me an ordonnanz as the person in charge of the printing industry. Since the final checks had now been done, I would be heading to Groschel once the summer baptism was over.

I told my plans to the Plantin Company right away and asked them to contact the Gutenbergs. At the same time, I had the Gilberta Company prepare clothes for the gray priests. I also contacted the workshop through Gil and updated Ferdinand on the situation.

After contacting my castle attendants via ordonnanzes, I formally decided on bringing Brunhilde along with me, since we were going to her family home. I would also need two apprentice scholars and two guard knights.

And so, two days after the summer baptism ceremony, we departed for Groschel. We met up with the Gutenbergs at the front gate of the temple just as we had done when heading to Haldenzel. Since there were so many of them and they had so much luggage, I was using Lessy in his coach bus form.

“Wow, the heck is this thing?! It’s so cool!” Heidi exclaimed, her eyes sparkling. She practically dived into Lessy before anyone else, leaving all the luggage to her husband Josef, and squealed with joy as he hopelessly shouted for her to come back out and help him. “So soft! So fluffy! So nice to touch! What in the world is this made of?!” she asked while patting the inside of my Pandabus all over.

Ingo looked at Lessy with mild repulsion—and at Heidi too, for that matter—but upon seeing Benno, Damian, and Lutz casually checking and loading their luggage alongside Zack and Johann, he clenched his fists to pump himself up and joined them.

“Lady Rozemyne,” Gil said. He had just arrived at the front gate with the gray priests and the workshop’s luggage.

The gray priests were wearing secondhand clothing of a quality similar to what Plantin Company apprentices would wear, since they were going to be doing work outside of the temple and cooperating with scholars. Upon returning from Hasse’s monastery, I had noticed them sometimes checking their necks and pulling on their sleeves.

“They find formal clothing a bit uncomfortable, since they’ve only ever worn work clothes and priest robes. They may need a little time to adjust,” Gil explained with a half-smile. He had gone on enough trips with the Plantin Company that, unlike the other gray priests, he was completely used to wearing outdoor clothing. “There is something nostalgic about this. It feels like such a long time since I last went on a lengthy trip with you, Lady Rozemyne.”

“I suppose the last time was when we went to Illgner,” I replied. He hadn’t come to Haldenzel for their Spring Prayer, so it really had been a long time since we last went somewhere together. The realization made me look forward to the journey ahead just a bit more.

After everything was loaded into Lessy, Angelica climbed into the passenger seat and the Gutenbergs onto the back seat. The first-time riders wore stiff, anxious expressions, while those who had ridden before swiftly put on their seat belts and relaxed. Heidi was an exception to both groups—she was curious and wiggling around more than anyone.

“Farewell. Remember to prop Wilfried up during even the smallest of conversations and avoid causing any problems. Ensure this does not become another one of your rampages,” Ferdinand said.

“I know. I have sent Hugo to your kitchen, so you should be able to enjoy a few new recipes in my absence.”

Ferdinand and Fran saw us off as I took Lessy up into the air. We met up with Elvira and the others at the castle before heading to Groschel under the protection of the Knight’s Order. Wilfried and Charlotte were sitting this one out, so we were having some layscholars come with us instead. I could see Damuel’s older brother Henrik flying among them.

Groschel was some distance beyond the river west of Ehrenfest. It had once been part of the Central District, but when the archduke candidate previously set to become the next archduke had married Gabriele of Ahrensbach, thereby taking himself out of the running, he had been given some of the archduke’s land to become a giebe.

Had Gabriele never married into Ehrenfest, that archduke candidate would have become the next archduke, and Brunhilde might have been an archduke candidate right about now. In short, Groschel was the home province of both Veronica and the late High Bishop Bezewanst. Its giebe’s current wife was of direct Leisegang lineage, and he had refused to accept Bezewanst’s belongings following his death.

“Welcome, Lady Rozemyne. And Brunhilde, it is good to see you well,” Giebe Groschel said. We exchanged our long formal greetings and then, while Elvira was speaking to the giebe, Brunhilde went to prepare my room. She apparently wanted to console her family by showing that she was serving me as a more than competent attendant.

After watching Brunhilde go, I introduced the Gutenbergs to the scholars Giebe Groschel had chosen to be in charge of his province’s printing industry. Setting things up in Illgner and Haldenzel had both required lengthy stays, so the Gutenbergs were going to be staying in the side building used during Spring Prayer and the Harvest Festival.

Once the introductions were over, everyone but Benno and Damian carried their luggage to the side building and started preparing their rooms.

“What about the workshop luggage?” Benno asked. “Should we set it down for now?”

“If possible, I would like it brought to the workshop by the end of today,” I replied. “Unloading it from my highbeast only to put it back in tomorrow would be a waste of time. Now, I would ask that someone guide me to the workshop.”

“Erm... You’ll be visiting the lower city, Lady Rozemyne...?” one of the layscholars asked, balking at the very idea. That attitude wouldn’t do. Benno, Damian, and the more experienced scholars were already discussing our next steps.

“But of course,” I replied. “I inspected the state of Illgner’s and Haldenzel’s printing workshops myself. Plus, Wilfried has already been here in Groschel and checked the workshop personally. Is there anything strange about me following in his footsteps?”

“I suppose not, but... we layscholars so often serve as liaisons between commoners and the nobility that I never thought archnobles and archduke candidates would carry out such tasks themselves.”

“It is important to make sure everything is in order, and you are all going to be accompanying us,” I said, giving an order to the scholars. Philine and Hartmut obeyed at once, so the layscholars naturally followed suit. “The Gutenbergs have work first thing tomorrow, correct? How long will signing contracts with the Plantin Company take?”

“I do not think that is a matter you need to worry about, Lady Rozemyne.”

“I cannot return to Ehrenfest until the job is done. I will not leave my precious Gutenbergs alone without any security.”

As land that had once been part of the Central District, Groschel was quite different from Illgner and Haldenzel, provinces where the nobles practically lived among the commoners. Here, the castle came off almost like a second Noble’s Quarter, and the inside was strictly delineated from the lower city. Perhaps it was unwise for us to approach this province in the same way we had the others. Sensing that, I put on my most pressuring smile, indirectly telling the scholars to consider the Gutenbergs my archducal property.

“Lady Rozemyne, I do not believe you will need to attend this meeting,” Brunhilde said, expressing resistance to the thought of me sitting at the same table as commoners. However, if the nobles here in Groschel wanted to join the printing industry, they would first need to understand how everything worked.

“As the scholars here are unused to this work, I will need to observe this as a figure of authority. You accompanied us here to see Groschel’s new industry begin with your own eyes and under the influence of your own guidance, did you not?”

“...I shall accompany you.”

Although Giebe Groschel, Brunhilde, and the laynobles raised in the Noble’s Quarter were all surprised, I climbed into Lessy with the Gutenbergs and went to the printing workshop in the commoner’s district. My Pandabus seemed to have deeply unsettled the commoners, and the older guy who seemed to be the foreman welcomed us with his mouth agape.

“These are the Gutenbergs, who shall henceforth be directing you,” I said. “They will only be staying here in Groschel until the Harvest Festival. Use this time to master their techniques so that you may run the printing workshop yourself once they are gone.”

After the introductions were finished, the parts for the printing press were carried in and set down. Then, once that was done, it was time to visit the paper-making workshop. It had been constructed right beside a small river, and after we brought in some tools, I introduced Gil and the other gray priests.

The next day, discussions over the Plantin Company’s contract began under my supervision. It took several days to iron out all of the details, and I used that time to bring my retainers and the layscholars—Henrik included—to the workshops, where I demonstrated my willingness to interact with commoners. Brunhilde was initially taken aback by the prospect of entering the lower city, but when I said that the printing industry was going to be our next trend, she bit her lip and forced herself to come along.

“I see your passion for trends is well and true, Brunhilde. I am moved.”

“My, were you testing me, Lady Rozemyne?” Brunhilde asked, narrowing her amber eyes. I looked at her head-on and gave a firm nod.

“Indeed. I wanted to see just how much I can rely on you, and it seems I can trust you with practically all matters related to trends. That is relieving to know.”

Brunhilde gave me a conflicted smile, half glad to have been recognized and half uncertain about being praised for essentially conceding to accompany me to a workshop. Meanwhile, Damuel was smiling sympathetically at Henrik and the others, who were blinking in shock at how differently I handled things than all the archnobles they had worked with.

“Lady Rozemyne is something of an iconoclast,” Damuel said. “Even when you think you have grown used to her revolutionary ways, you will soon find yourself surprised yet again, Brother.”

“I know that now. It seems that adjusting will prove quite difficult...” Henrik said with a bemused smile, but he had been selected specifically because he was a young scholar who was fairly used to dealing with commoners. We went to the workshop several times over the next few days, where I would arbitrate between the Gutenbergs and the craftspeople, Hartmut would consult the Gutenbergs, and Philine would ask the craftspeople questions. It wasn’t long before Henrik was talking and asking questions in the same way.

Looks like he’s just as adaptable as Damuel. They really are brothers.

“I had the scholars for this job selected based on their ability to heed the advice of commoners,” I said. “You shall be treasured for your role here, Henrik, as you are capable of speaking to commoners without lording your status over them. I am glad to have you working in the printing and paper-making industries.”

After hearing me praise Henrik, the other scholars got used to things fairly quickly. If they continued growing as they were, we would soon have an entire group of scholars who could actually speak with commoners.

On my last day in Groschel, Giebe Groschel, with whom I had only spoken during meals, looked me in the eyes and said, “I see. Now I understand why Brunhilde and Elvira said you think in fundamentally different ways from us.” That was probably his way of saying that I was completely unlike a proper noble, but I didn’t care, since I was getting the results I wanted.

The time soon came for Benno and me to return to Ehrenfest. We departed in my Pandabus, leaving the other Gutenbergs in Groschel to continue their work.

Word came in that paper-making workshops had been successfully established in many parts of the duchy. The days passed steadily as I continued sending Plantin Company workers and gray priests to various provinces and coordinated with the paper-making instructors in Illgner via ordonnanzes.

“Hugo and Ella have their Starbinding tomorrow, don’t they?” I asked.

“There is a ceremony in the Noble’s Quarter as well, so we must plan accordingly...” Fran said with a light sigh. Since two of my personal chefs were getting married, Nicola would be alone in the kitchen tomorrow. Monika would go to help her, but then we would need a female attendant to take care of me.

“Don’t worry about it,” Hugo said, having been called over by Fran. He was grinning from ear to ear, not even trying to hide how thrilled he was. “We already did all the prep work needed for Nicola to handle things on her own tomorrow.”

Still, that didn’t change the fact that Nicola was going to have her hands full tomorrow, especially since she would need to judge when the ceremony was close to finishing and prepare lunch for me.

“Tomorrow is no doubt going to be a struggle for her, but she was smiling happily in celebration of the wedding. She said she will do her best for you two. Hugo, show some spirit as well and protect Ella from the taues.”

It was a customary part of the lower city’s Star Festival to throw taues at newlyweds once the ceremony in the temple was over. The grooms would need to protect their brides from the fruit and run to their new homes, but that was easier said than done when there were so many jealous bachelors and bachelorettes among the crowds. Hugo knew this all too well, considering that he had been among them during the previous years’ ceremonies, throwing taues as hard as he could.

“You can count on me. I’ll laugh off all those sad, single men who can’t even secure themselves a bride. I’m the star of the show now,” Hugo said with a grin. It was good to see him so motivated. Ella had much to do in preparation for her big day, so she had today off work, but I was hopeful that I would get to see her in her bridal getup tomorrow at the temple.

I noticed that Damuel was glaring daggers at Hugo, having not taken too kindly to his words as one of the aforementioned “sad, single men,” but I boldly elected not to draw attention to it. I had already hired Elvira’s expert services for him; there was nothing more I could do.

The day of the Starbind Ceremony arrived, and I started my preparations early in the morning.

“Lady Rozemyne, I am leaving for the orphanage.”

“Take care of the children, Fritz.”

Gil was still in Groschel, so Fritz graciously offered to take the orphans to the forest to gather taues. He was used to it now, since he had previously taken them during my trips to Illgner and Haldenzel.

“Now then, Lady Rozemyne. Let us head to the chapel,” Fran said. I took extra care not to step on the hem of my skirt as I went with him, and along the way, Damuel leaned over and whispered to me.

“Lady Rozemyne, will Lady Elvira be introducing me to someone tonight?”

“I suppose only Mother knows the answer to that.”

“You could have asked her ahead of time...”

Elvira was extremely busy running her estate, expanding her faction, working on the printing industry, and preparing to welcome Lamprecht’s bride. I could only pray that she hadn’t forgotten about Damuel.

“The High Bishop shall now enter,” Ferdinand said from inside the chapel, signaling the gray priests standing outside to open the doors for me. That was the end of my chat with Damuel, and I entered the chapel with Fran carrying the bible for me.

I walked straight forward as the bells chimed, passing by the new couples and the blue priests before climbing up onto the stage. Ferdinand then started reading from the bible, his voice resonating throughout the chapel. It was a passage describing the God of Darkness marrying his queen, the Goddess of Light, and while various problems occurred after their marriage, they overcame them by uniting their strength. It was the perfect story for the Starbind Ceremony.

As I listened to Ferdinand from the podium, I gazed down across the lined-up couples. The Starbind Ceremony was always fun since everyone wore the divine colors of their birth season, which turned the crowd into a veritable rainbow of colors.

I could see Ella and Hugo in the frontmost line. Ella was looking up at the podium and wearing an emerald-green dress, since she was born in spring. Her brown, almost red hair was adorned with the hairpin that I had commissioned for her from Tuuli. It wasn’t so fancy that it made her stand out among the other brides, but it was just fancy enough to draw attention. I normally only ever saw her in work clothes, so seeing her all dressed up made her look especially cute, and especially prim and proper compared to the other brides, no doubt due to being influenced by Nicola’s proper manners at the temple.

Ella seems fine, but how about Hugo?

Unlike Ella, who gave a calm smile when our eyes met, Hugo was standing in his dark-green clothes with a rigid expression that exuded anxiousness. His proud grin from yesterday was nowhere to be seen. A sharp pang of concern suddenly struck my chest, but then I saw him look down at his soon-to-be wife and receive a teasing smile. It was so heartwarming that I immediately stopped worrying.

No need for me to worry about him when he has a cute wife doing all the worrying already. Hope you two keep flirting forever!

Those were the thoughts that ran through my mind as I started reciting a prayer to bless the gathered couples.

“O mighty King and Queen of the endless skies, O God of Darkness and Goddess of Light, hear my prayers. May you grant your blessings to the birth of new unions. May they who offer their prayers and gratitude to thee be blessed with thine divine protection.”

When I finished speaking the prayer of the married supreme gods, black and golden lights flew out from my ring and rained down on the married couples. I could see Hugo’s and Ella’s eyes open wide; this was their first time seeing one of my blessings.

“Your future will no doubt be bright now that you have obtained the blessings of the King and Queen gods,” Ferdinand declared, at which point gray priests pushed open the creaking doors leading outside. The bright summer rays reflected off the pure white stone of the chapel, brightening the room up in an instant. The silencing magic tools lost their power at the same time, and the newlyweds began chattering excitedly.

“Alright, a real blessing!”

“We got a blessing from the High Bishop! Now we just gotta escape the taues...”

“We’re gonna win no matter what! I can feel it!”

The grooms pumped themselves up before leaving the temple, ready for the upcoming festivities. Hugo excitedly turned around to look at me, while Ella looked up at him.

“High Bishop! Thank you for the wonderful blessing!” Hugo shouted, his voice echoing throughout the chapel. His abrupt yell made the other married couples stop and call out their own words of appreciation. This was far from my first blessing here in the temple, and people always shouted with surprise, but never before had they faced me head-on and actually thanked me directly. I couldn’t help but smile.

“May you all have happy lives,” I said. Hugo and the other couples cheered at my response, making the atmosphere even livelier than before.

“Alright. Let’s go,” Hugo said to his new wife. “Today, I’m gonna protect you no matter what.”

“Not just today though, right? You’ll protect me forever, won’t you?”

“Of course.”

Hugo picked Ella up and ran out of the chapel. With any luck, he would make it all the way to their new home just like that.