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Ascendance of a Bookworm (LN) - Volume 4.6 - Chapter 11




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I Want to Do Library Committee Work

Library, O library! I’m finally freeee!

On this most glorious of mornings, Brunhilde helped me put on my Library Committee armband—all while groaning about how poorly it suited my outfit—and then I made my way to the dining hall.

“Let us go to the library at once,” I said.

“Unfortunately, you must wait until tomorrow when you have retainers available to accompany you,” Cornelius replied, refusing me instantly. It seemed that today was ditter practice, and all apprentice knights were going to be participating as part of their practical lessons. “Please spend today in your room with Philine. You will not have any guards this morning, so do not leave until we return for lunch. Leonore will return in the afternoon, but even then, one person is not enough for you to go to the library. You may venture only as far as the common room. Is that understood?”

I responded with an obedient nod; Cornelius’s dark eyes left no room for disagreement. I understood that my selfishness simply wouldn’t fly when it came to apprentice knights attending an important class, but still. It kinda sucked.

And after I worked so hard to pass all my classes... Tch.

“Lady Rozemyne, it was for times like this that Lord Ferdinand gave you books,” Hartmut noted. “Might I suggest reading them today and studying magic circles and tools? You will need to learn both in order to construct your perfect library.”

“You’re as wise as ever, Hartmut.”

There was no helping that I couldn’t leave the dorm, but I could at least read the book that Hartmut received from Ferdinand. Excitement coursed through me and my heart throbbed at the thought of laying the groundwork for my dream library.

“You managed to complete Lord Ferdinand’s task flawlessly before, Lady Rozemyne, so I am confident you will succeed again,” Hartmut said. Indeed, I had technically completed the task of combining the two magic circles into one, using the book as guidance. If everything was correct, books that weren’t handed in by their due date would return to the library automatically.

And I worked extra hard to make sure they return to their proper place on the shelves too! Although I did need Hartmut to walk me through about seventy percent of the process...

Hartmut had said that I was expecting a little too much out of a single circle, but this was supposed to be my perfect library—I couldn’t just quit when things got tough. Plus, combining several circles into one had been my task in the first place; I was just pushing that a little further than expected.

“Now, milady... It’s time for your new book.”

I waited in my room after breakfast, and soon enough, Rihyarda came over with the book from Hartmut. She set it on my desk, in front of both Philine and me.

“What book are we reading today, I wonder?” Philine mused aloud. “Oh, Lady Rozemyne. There is another note wedged between the pages.”

It was from Ferdinand. Apparently, by embroidering a slightly modified version of the tools used to quiet voices in the temple onto some carpet, one could give it sound-dampening qualities.

So this task involves embroidery too...

Philine must have noticed my frown as she gave a few words of encouragement, saying we should work hard since it would be lovely to read in a quiet environment. She had continued transcribing books and gathering stories in the Royal Academy while I was away for the Dedication Ritual, and she had been surprised by how loud and busy the library became once final exams approached.

“The library is generally occupied by those of the lower-ranking duchies, but there were constant battles for the carrels and study guides,” Philine recalled. “It made it quite difficult for me to be there.”

As a laynoble, Philine was at the bottom of the totem pole, so she would instead take the books to the dormitory and transcribe them there while I was absent.

“I had the deposit money that you gave me and even brought Judithe so that I would not be in danger carrying the books back to the dormitory,” she continued. “The laynobles of the bottom-ranking duchies were not so fortunate, however; they had no choice but to study in the carrels, which put them in a terribly rough situation.”

The library Philine spoke of sounded entirely different from the one I knew. I was aware that things got busy there, but not that it was chaotic enough to warrant having a guard knight.

“There would be less fighting over carrels if one could take out books for free, but...” My voice trailed away. All the disorder that Philine had described was because the students were too poor to borrow the books they needed. We could remedy that by removing the deposit, but this would result in there being fewer books available on the shelves. Resolving the problem seemed difficult—if not impossible—without producing enough books that people could always get the ones they wanted.

I wonder when I can start spreading the printing industry... It’s hard to say without observing Drewanchel and the Sovereignty first.

No matter how much I thought about it, there wasn’t much I could do for the Royal Academy library. Supplying mana to Schwartz and Weiss was about it.

“Lady Rozemyne, is something wrong?”

“No, not at all. Let us read.”

This magic circle wasn’t particularly hard to make; I simply needed to change the area of effect for the sound-dampening and that was that. Hartmut had definitely given us the books in the wrong order, and it was as I contemplated this that Judithe came to get me for lunch. Her morning classes had ended.

Oh... It’s not that he messed up the order—he gives me the books based on how long he thinks it’ll take me to read them. Which means... Ferdinand must be the one pulling the strings here, not Hartmut.

I had a feeling that the books were divided into three groups: those that would take me half a day, those that would take an entire day, and those that would take several days. It was the same way he had divided up the documents for Hirschur.

He’s treating me the same as Professor Hirschur! I’m actually kinda shocked...

I spent my afternoon practicing the harspiel and studying for next year and then excitedly headed to the library the next day—while wearing my armband, of course. Judithe and Leonore were coming along as my guard knights, Hartmut and Philine as my scholars, and Rihyarda and Lieseleta as my attendants.

“Milady returned.”

“Reading books, milady?”

Schwartz and Weiss walked over to greet me, and I stroked the feystones on their foreheads to resupply them with mana. Solange’s blue eyes widened when she saw us, and she approached as well a moment later.

“My. You certainly are early...” she said. “You truly never fail to surprise, Lady Rozemyne.”

“Professor Solange, Schwartz, Weiss—I have finished my second-year classes and will try to come to the library as many times as I can before the Dedication Ritual.”

“This is even earlier than last year, is it not?” Solange asked.

I nodded in response. Last year, circumstances had prevented me from passing highbeast creation right away, but there had been no such issues with my practical lessons this time. Next year, however, I was going to be taking both the scholar course and the archduke candidate course. I expected that it would take me a lot longer to gain access to the library as a result.

“I wanted to come to the library as soon as possible,” I said. “I have Schwartz’s and Weiss’s clothes to deliver. When shall we change them?”

During the Archduke Conference, the Sovereignty had apparently expressed some concern over whether Ehrenfest would be able to handle making the shumils’ clothes. Ferdinand was satisfied with our results, though, so I trusted they would suffice.

“Milady. Amazing.”

“New clothes.”

Getting clothes from their new master was apparently very important to Schwartz and Weiss. I could somehow sense that they were excited.

“I wish to borrow a room in the library so that I may change Schwartz’s and Weiss’s clothes. I understand that it is proper for their master to do this in their own quarters, but I fear that taking them outside will result in another incident like the one last year,” I said. It was better to prevent problems before they occurred.

Solange looked around and then smiled. “I can lend you my office if we schedule for before the students begin to arrive,” she said. It warmed my heart; she had refused my request last year, so it seemed that our bond was deeper now.

“When would be a good time?” I asked. “Lieseleta, do you have a preference?”

“Me?” Lieseleta said, taken aback.

“Indeed. You worked immensely hard on embroidering their outfits. Is it not natural that you should be there when we change their clothes?”

Lieseleta began contemplating the matter. Seeing her dark-green eyes pierce the empty air as she frowned made her look very much like Angelica when she was thinking of ways to grow stronger.

“Your other retainers and I are most likely to be free in the afternoon three days from now,” she eventually replied. “Professor Hirschur does not have a class then either.” I was amazed not only because she knew Hirschur’s schedule, but also because she had the forethought to know that Hirschur would simply abandon whatever lesson she was teaching otherwise.

“That day will do,” Solange said. “I will also be free then.”

And so, the matter was settled.


“Professor Solange, regarding our plans for a tea party in the library—Lady Hannelore has said that she will be free in the mornings starting next week,” I said. “Would that work for you?”

“That is soon enough to not be a problem. As you can see, we have barely any visitors,” she replied, laughing as she looked over the empty reading room.

“In that case, we may do it early next week. I suppose it would be best for us to meet after Schwartz and Weiss are changed; I wish for Lady Hannelore to see the new clothes as well,” I said. “Ah, I’m just so excited. I cannot wait for the two of us to serve on the Library Committee. Behold—my armband.”

I showed off the band on my arm, which Solange regarded with a curious expression. “You said a Library Committee member is someone who assists with library work, correct?” she asked.

“Yes. We will assist you when things get busy here, as they did toward the end of last year.”

My time spent helping at the library and prompting Ferdinand to send out all those reminder ordonnanzes had been more fun than I could ever describe. I was looking forward to doing it again this year, but Solange met my swelling excitement with a look of concern.

“I’m truly grateful for your enthusiasm, Lady Rozemyne... but the time you are here is when we have the fewest students. There will be nothing for you to do.”

What a nightmare! She’s pretty much saying she doesn’t need the Library Committee!

Still, I understood what she was saying—the library only started to get busy after I returned to Ehrenfest for the Dedication Ritual. There really wouldn’t be much for me to do right now, when there were so few students around.

“You are doing more than enough by supplying Schwartz and Weiss with mana,” Solange said. “I could not bother an archduke candidate to do any more.”

I slumped my shoulders. As much as I wanted to help out as a member of the Library Committee, Solange had turned me down. Persisting any further was equivalent to threatening her with my status, and that was the last thing I wanted to do.

Upon seeing my disappointment, Hartmut knelt down to whisper to me. “Were you not going to ask what manner of magic tools are used in the library? Perhaps improving them could serve as one of your duties in the Library Committee.”

“Hartmut, I thank you ever so much,” I said, looking up with newfound enthusiasm the moment I heard that. There were still ways for me to do committee work fit for an archduke candidate without getting in Solange’s way. “Professor Solange, are there any magic tools in the library that you feel need to be renewed or changed?”

“Why do you ask?” Solange replied, resting a hand on her cheek.

I puffed out my chest. “Because I intend to make a library of my own one day, and to that end, I want to know how this one is managed.”

“Oh my, your own library? That’s such a grand and wonderful dream.” Solange chuckled and then told me all about the library’s magic tools. There were several in addition to the lights that pulled students from their reading hypnosis when it was time for class—in fact, there were even magic circles carved into the building itself to make it the perfect environment for books.

What the heck?! That’s amazing!

According to a book I had read during my Urano days, preservation was a massive issue in stone monasteries and churches. Papyrus was cheaper than parchment but would rot or go moldy within a number of years, so those overseeing their collections would need to either rewrite these texts received from afar on new papyrus every few years or have them transcribed onto parchment. Storing books was also an issue because they couldn’t be placed against the buildings’ stone walls; otherwise, moisture that gathered on the stone would damage the books. Lining the walls with wood paneling had consequently become a necessity.

In this world, however, all of these problems were solved in an instant using a single magic circle.

“I regret that I cannot show you the building’s magic circles directly, but there is a book about magic circles in the royal palace’s library,” Solange continued. “Furthermore, I seem to recall the Sovereignty’s treasure vault similarly using magic circles to control the humidity and temperature.”

Sounds like Sovereign magic circles are super high tech. Ehrenfest could learn a thing or two from them.

Then again, considering that those magic circles all required mana to maintain, I understood why Ehrenfest would struggle to copy them. Simply losing a few nobles would be enough to make them entirely unsustainable.

“Running the library is far more manageable with Schwartz and Weiss,” Solange said. “They’ve already taken charge of carrel usage and the lending out of our reading materials, which was simply too much for one person to oversee with everything being done by hand.” It seemed that there were a lot of things she hadn’t been able to do when she was running the library on her own. Hearing that made me really want a Schwartz and Weiss of my own for the Rozemyne Library.

“I am in the middle of researching a magic circle to make books return automatically on their due dates,” I explained. “I simply need to decide where on the book is best to place it.”

“That is quite a convenient idea, but putting a magic circle onto every book would require an exorbitant amount of mana. I am wholly confident you could maintain that many, but I do not believe I could.”

It would take a sizable quantity of mana to attach a circle to each book and then ensure it ran properly. They would need to be improved.

“In that case, are there any other magic tools you would suggest, Professor Solange?”

“Perhaps the tool we spoke of previously—the one that would speak in Lord Ferdinand’s voice. He played such a key role in getting students to return their books last year. I understand that he will not always be free to help, so a magic tool with his voice would prove quite useful.”

Magic tools for recording voices already existed, but Solange would never normally have the chance to request a recording from Ferdinand. Still, seeing her regretful expression confused me a little—I agreed that it was impressive how many students had responded to his message, but surely she could use somebody else’s voice instead.

“Would a professor of the Royal Academy not suffice?” I asked. “I am sure Professor Rauffen’s voice would achieve the same effect.”

“The students are already familiar with the voices of all the professors; it is hard to imagine anyone being even nearly as effective as Lord Ferdinand.”

“Everyone certainly did come running... Very well. I shall ask him.”

There’s a chance he might refuse, but then maybe I could ask Angelica for a recording from Stenluke...

With that settled, we headed to Solange’s office so that I could retrieve the feystones Ferdinand had given me. Solange no longer needed them now that I was able to come to the library.

“These feystones were a great help,” Solange said. “Please do thank Lord Ferdinand for me.”

“Yes, I will. And speaking of which... are you familiar with a ‘gramps’ figure?”

“‘Gramps’?” she repeated. “No, I am not aware of anyone who is addressed as such.” I had figured that she would know, considering that this was a matter related to the library, but apparently not.

“When I supplied mana to the Grutrissheit in the hands of the Mestionora statue on the second floor, Schwartz and Weiss said it would please this ‘gramps’ person, whoever they are. It absorbed quite a bit of mana,” I explained.

Solange looked down in thought. “A magic tool even older than Schwartz and Weiss, perhaps?”

“Hm?”

“This library has many magic tools, more than half of which are no longer kept running. One of them may be the ‘gramps’ they spoke of...” Solange muttered. She gazed toward the back of her office before sighing and shaking her head. “Unfortunately, there is much I do not know about this library and its history. As a mednoble, my role here was simply to assist the archnobles... and their abrupt disappearance meant that I never properly succeeded them. There are many things that I know only in part, that I may be mistaken about, and that I do not know at all.”

Archnobles carried out very different duties than mednobles, and their execution had occurred with so little warning that they had not properly trained any successors. A single mednoble didn’t have the mana required to supply the magic tools that had previously been supported by several archnobles at once, so at the moment, only the bare minimum were being kept running.

“I may learn more when the Sovereignty thrives again and we are sent archnobles who will allow me to enter their rooms,” Solange said, her eyes lowered sadly. She then looked at me and forced a smile. “Now then, enough of that. You may enjoy reading at your leisure, Lady Rozemyne. That is why you are here, no?”

I gave the feystones to Rihyarda and then returned to the reading room with Solange. The moment I opened the door, my eyes widened in surprise—the previously empty reading room now had around ten people inside. They had just arrived, it seemed, and they were just as surprised to see us.

At the center of the group was none other than Prince Hildebrand, whom I had assumed would be staying in his room at all times. He blinked his bright purple eyes at us several times and then looked around, making his blue-tinged silver hair sway to and fro. “I came because I was told there are no students in the library at this time of year. What are you doing here?” he asked.

Hildebrand had apparently sneaked here under the impression that nobody would notice him—which made him the best prince ever, as far as I was concerned. I could only hope that he would continue growing into a bookworm.

“Do you not need to be attending your classes?” Hildebrand asked. “You are... an archduke candidate from Ehrenfest, correct?”

He remembers me? Even though we’ve only met once?! Wow!

Not only was Hildebrand a bookworm—he was exceptionally smart as well. I couldn’t believe he remembered me after seeing me just once at the fellowship gathering. This was my second year at the Royal Academy, yet I still didn’t know the names and faces of all the archduke candidates. I could remember the ones among my classmates at most, but even then, I was sure I would forget a few during my absence for the Dedication Ritual.

“I passed my lessons early specifically so that I could read in the library,” I said. “I intend to come here to read on a daily basis, but I shan’t interfere with your business, Prince Hildebrand. I would ask that you pay me no mind and enjoy your reading.”

We had met by coincidence, and the last thing I wanted to do was interfere with this young prince’s reading. I wanted him to go and read more. More more more. And in the future, when he grew up to be a bookworm, I would want him to increase the library’s funding and purchase more books to fill its shelves.

After greeting the prince, I swiftly turned away from him. “Schwartz, where might be the documents for improving magic circles and producing magic tools?” I asked. “Weiss, please guide Prince Hildebrand.”

“Milady’s books. Over here.”

“Understood, milady. Guiding Hildebrand.”

I followed Schwartz and my attendants up to the second floor, where I then began reading. I was focusing on the documents on magic tools, and it was then that I realized that the majority of the new research papers had Hirschur’s name on them.

She’s something of a problematic professor, but I can see precisely why Ferdinand embraces her as his teacher. Maybe I should ask her about the magic tools too.



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