Ascendance of a Bookworm (LN) - Volume 4.6 - Chapter 17

Healing and Reinforcements

After a brief discussion, it was decided that I would go to heal the gathering spot. Three guards wouldn’t be enough for such a task, so we opted to bring with us the idling apprentice knights who had barely helped defeat the beast and quickly obtained their minor share of the ingredients.

We entered the yellow glow of the gathering spot and saw the clear line between the lush greenery and the black sludge where the ternisbefallen had rampaged. In total, about a quarter of the clearing was entirely destroyed. It was a serious amount of damage.

“This is nightmarish,” one of the apprentices said. “We need to remedy this havoc, else our studies are going to suffer.”

I nodded in agreement while pondering whether I could even handle performing this healing ritual. Unlike the one after the trombe attack, I actually needed to grow plants to some degree; otherwise, the students would immediately face problems in class.

“I will heal enough that Ehrenfest does not fall behind in its classes,” I said. “I trust that you will all step in if any feybeasts appear.”

“Right!”

Upon landing in the gathering spot, I turned to look at Philine in the back seat. “Philine, you must not leave,” I said. “Wait here until my return.”

“Understood.”

And so, I climbed out of my Pandabus alone. I didn’t want to step into the swamp of black sludge, so I had stopped right before it.

“We retainers shall stay by Lady Rozemyne. Everyone, secure the perimeter,” Leonore instructed, having the highbeast-riding apprentice knights disperse and stand guard. She and Hartmut were standing to my left and right, respectively, while Judithe guarded my back. We couldn’t see any feybeasts around at present—they had all fled while the ternisbefallen was rampaging and flinging black sludge everywhere—but we were better safe than sorry.

I formed my schtappe, closed my eyes to concentrate, and then visualized Flutrane’s staff. It had a long, slender grip dotted with small feystones, and at the very tip was a large green feystone about the size of an adult’s fist surrounded by a frame of gold. It was the first divine instrument I had used.

“Streitkolben.”

No sooner had I spoken the word than Flutrane’s staff appeared in my grip. I stuck it into the ground, took it firmly in both hands, and slowly began pouring mana into it.

“O Goddess of Water Flutrane, bringer of healing and change. O twelve goddesses who serve by her side. Please hear my prayer and lend me your divine strength. Grant me the power to heal your sister, the Goddess of Earth Geduldh, who has been wounded by those who serve evil. I shall offer this divine note to thee, casting ripples of the highest order. May you fill the world with your royal color to mine own heart’s content.”

The large feystone embedded in the staff emitted a bright flash. I was familiar with this feeling of a storm growing around me as my mana stirred. My hair was blown by the wind, and as my clothes rustled, I knew that the healing ritual would succeed.

A moment later, there came a second flash from the ground beneath me, and light the same color as the staff’s feystone began running across the earth in lines. They were all of uniform thickness, and they flowed from the base of the staff like water running through canals.

“Huh?! Wha?!”

Surprised cries came from all around me, and I stared at the green light, debating whether to cancel the ritual. This was different from the one I had performed after the trombe appearance—back then, my mana had spread across the black earth at once and caused tiny sprouts to pop up. These green lines were completely new to me.

What should I do...?

The green light continued flowing as I agonized, and soon enough, the lines had formed a complete magic circle. It must have been here to begin with, as it was exactly as large as the gathering spot.

“Lady Rozemyne, I will record the pattern of this magic circle. Details of it are going to be necessary for my report,” Hartmut said. As the only scholar here who could move freely, he soared up into the air on his highbeast.

There was another flash, this time from the magic circle, and the black sludge left behind by the ternisbefallen vanished in a rush of steam as though it had suddenly evaporated. Auburn clay covered the land underneath, but only for a few seconds; mana soon filled the ground and replaced it with dark earth.

This is a bit weird, but at least it seems like the healing is working...

Small sprouts began to bloom atop the dark earth. It seemed that the healing ritual was working as expected, and with much relief, I started pouring in more mana. The plants needed to grow to form the herbs and such needed for classes.

Grow! Grow! Growww!

“The sprouts...” Leonore whispered in shock.

As the sprouts bloomed one after another, the magic circle on the ground seemed to rise up into the air ever so slightly. I doubted my eyes at first, but a closer look revealed that it was indeed floating the width of two fingers above the ground. It continued to rise—I could tell from the way it was moving up the staff—and the sprouts appeared to be growing to match its pace.

“Ooh!” one of the apprentices cried in awe. “This is amazing!”

“I’ve never seen a ritual like this before!” added another.

You’re not the only one!

I gritted my teeth and swallowed back the urge to yell. The staff was sucking out more of my mana than I expected—so much that I wondered whether I would even have any left by the time the sprouts had grown enough to provide herbs.

That could prove dangerous. I need to do something before it reaches that point.

I removed one hand from the staff and reached for the feystones and bottles hanging from my hip. There was the ultra-nasty potion I had in reserve, but I couldn’t quite get it. I probably wouldn’t have been able to open it with one hand either.

“Leonore, hand me a potion from my belt,” I said.

Leonore, who had been watching the sprouts grow with widened eyes, looked over at me with a start and then frowned upon seeing my face. “Lady Rozemyne, you are pushing yourself quite hard, are you not?”

“I need the bottle with the green feystone. Hurry. I dare not stop in the middle of this.”

Leonore opened her mouth to say something only to close it again and simply purse her lips at me. She retrieved the bottle I had requested, opened it, and then placed it into my free hand. I chugged its contents at once. The taste was as awful as ever—it burned my nose, numbed my tongue, and made tears well up in my eyes. I wanted nothing more than to wash it away, but I had nothing on hand that could serve that purpose.

Gah! This vile potion is going to kill me before it even kicks in!

I knew that the terrible flavor reflected just how effective its rejuvenation properties were, but even as my mana started to regenerate, the staff sucked it right out of me again. I managed to keep the flow steady nonetheless, and the plants and trees grew before our eyes.

“Ooh!” Judithe exclaimed from behind me. The trees and such were growing as fast as a trombe. The magic circle passed my calves, my knees, and then came up all the way to my thighs. Once it reached my hips, some of the plants stopped growing any further. I assumed this meant they were tall enough already, and since the magic circle no longer needed to pour mana into them, its ascent began to accelerate.

Once the magic circle reached the top of Flutrane’s staff, I saw a stream of mana flowing directly from the green feystone. The stream pushed the massive glowing magic circle of green lines higher and higher, and the trees grew along with it. Branches formed and diverged, leaves grew in abundance, and some even sprouted flowers.

“Lady Rozemyne! This is amazing!”

By the time all of the plant life in the gathering spot was back to normal, the magic circle had risen to the highest point of the cylindrical area. It flashed one final time, emitting a bright green light, and then vanished. I no longer needed to provide any mana, so I slumped over, leaning on Flutrane’s staff to support myself.

“Healing’s done...” I said, exhausted.

“I truly cannot believe it,” Leonore said. “Have you been doing this for the temple all this time?”

“In the temple, I stop with the sprouts. But this is Ehrenfest’s gathering spot—an important place for classes—so I devoted even more mana to it. I am glad everything is back to normal.”

The scholar course required ingredients for their classes, but they weren’t the only ones. Knights depended on the gathering spot too, since they needed rejuvenation potions.

“Amazing! This is all thanks to you, Lady Rozemyne!” Judithe chirped. She turned around with a broad smile across her lips, but her expression dropped the instant she saw me. “Lady Rozemyne! You look so sick!”

“The healing consumed more mana than I expected,” I replied. “I needed to drink a rejuvenation potion, and I may have overexerted myself a little. In fact, my head is kind of spinning...” It certainly didn’t help that I had so little experience being without mana. My body couldn’t keep up with the unusual flow.

“Let’s hurry back to the dormitory. Okay?”

“But I need to fly Roderick back. We should go back to the ternisbefallen and—”

“Don’t worry about that; I’ll explain the circumstances via ordonnanz. Your health is more important than Roderick’s convenience, Lady Rozemyne.”

Leonore gave a brisk nod of agreement and raised a fist to gather the apprentice knights. “Lady Rozemyne is feeling unwell, so we shall return to the dormitory posthaste,” she said. “Half of you will accompany her as guards, while the others will return to assist with the gathering. Philine, produce your own highbeast. Lady Rozemyne, please put your highbeast and the divine instrument away. I will fly you to the dormitory.”

It was much too risky for me to use my own highbeast—there was a good chance that I would pass out on our way back to the dormitory and end up in a fatal freefall. Leonore must have realized this, and she was now shouting out orders in preparation for our return trip.

Once everything was ready, Leonore picked me up and climbed onto her highbeast. Before we could depart, however, something burst into the gathering spot. Leonore tightened her arms around me, and the surrounding apprentices produced their schtappes as more and more black-clothed individuals came into view.

“Lady Rozemyne!”

From amid the apparent strangers, a familiar voice called out to me. It was Rauffen, and his blue cape caught the wind as he rushed over on his highbeast. Accompanying him were a squadron from the Sovereign Knight’s Order—I could tell this from their black capes—and several professors, among whom was Hirschur.

“I came with the Sovereign Knight’s Order to deal with the ternisbefallen,” Rauffen said, not even dismounting his highbeast. “Where is it?!”

I glanced up at Leonore, then turned back to Rauffen and said, “We killed it.” They had come all this way for us, but the hunt was already over. Our students were busy harvesting ingredients as we spoke.

“I see. May I return to my laboratory, then?” Hirschur asked.

“Hold on, Hirschur. Ehrenfest may not be in danger anymore, but we need to figure out how a ternisbefallen ended up on the Academy’s grounds in the first place,” Rauffen replied, not even sparing a glance for the professors who were now holding Hirschur in place. “And you.” He fixed me with a grimace and shook his head. “You’re being far too casual about this. How did any of you even manage to kill a ternisbefallen? Students shouldn’t know how to use black weapons.”

He must have been referring to the God of Darkness’s blessing. Cornelius and the others hadn’t known about it, and I hadn’t seen it mentioned in Eckhart’s or Ferdinand’s notes, so it seemed safe to conclude that one did not learn about it during Royal Academy classes. Rauffen’s confusion was understandable, but there was a perfectly reasonable explanation.

“I am the High Bishop of Ehrenfest,” I explained.

“And...?” Rauffen replied.

“I am good at saying prayers.”

“Prayers?”

Rauffen and the other professors furrowed their brows, confused. Maybe the knights used spells for their black weapons instead of prayers, but such a detail was the least of my concerns. I was feeling sick; I just wanted to get back to the dormitory and sleep.

“I used a prayer to obtain the God of Darkness’s blessing, which our apprentice knights then used to kill the ternisbefallen,” I said. “If you find that hard to believe, I would recommend that you meet with our other students, who are currently retrieving ingredients from its body. Now, if you will excuse me, I wish to hurry back to my dormitory.”

I was about to leave when Rauffen said, “Wait a moment, Lady Rozemyne. Ternisbefallens drain the earth wherever they go, and we followed its black trail into here. Why, then, is this gathering spot untouched?”

“The gods helped. I am the High Bishop of Ehrenfest,” I repeated, now holding one hand to my head in an attempt to stop the world from spinning around me.

Rauffen must have interpreted my response as an attempt to evade the question, as he narrowed his eyes into a glare. “You keep leaning back on your status as Ehrenfest’s High Bishop, but the temple doesn’t have power like that. What did you do, Lady Rozemyne?”

“I performed a healing ritual. Ehrenfest needs this gathering spot, so I put my all into restoring it. Of course, I dared not overstep and touch the land outside of the barrier, since that is all under Sovereign management.”

Such was my way of saying they could handle the rest themselves; my only concern was ensuring that the Ehrenfest students wouldn’t struggle with their classes. In truth, I had also wanted to heal the patch of earth that I had accidentally drained with the God of Darkness’s cape, but now that the professors were involved, doing that secretly was out of the question. They would just need to heal it along with the rest of the land the ternisbefallen had ravaged.

“Those of the temple are responsible for healing the earth—that much is true,” said an elderly professor who had come to my highbeast creation class. He stroked his chin and peered down at me. “But how did you perform the ritual when there is no divine instrument here?”

“I simply made one. Is that not the obvious solution when one needs something one does not have?” I replied lazily, feeling too sick and desperate to leave to muster anything else. I would understand their surprise if we were blue priests without schtappes, but nobles could just make the instruments themselves.

“You can make Flutrane’s staff too?!” Rauffen exclaimed. “Not just Leidenschaft’s spear and Schutzaria’s shield?!”

“The process is the same for them all—simply imagine the instrument and say the relevant chant.” The important thing was to thoroughly visualize what kind of tool the divine instrument you wanted to create was. Having a clear mental image was just as necessary when forming a weapon, so it was all the same to me.

“I know the temple performs healing rituals, but why is all the plant life back to normal too?” a Sovereign knight asked.

“I don’t know what to say. Is that not what a healing ritual normally does?”

It seemed that even Sovereign priests were unable to regrow plants. It made some sense, now that I thought about it—back when the former blue priest Shikza had attempted to do the ritual, simply attempting to grow some grass had proven too much for him, but there was no need for me to mention that here.

“And why do you know the spell for morphing schtappes into staves?” Rauffen asked. “Specialty weapons are taught in the knight course, not second-year classes.”

He was correct in that regard. Morphing my schtappe into a staff wasn’t something that I had learned from Ferdinand either, since he had only ever taught me defensive spells. Indeed, the source of my knowledge was far more peculiar.

“I served a tour of duty in the Raise Angelica’s Grades Squadron, so I know more or less everything that is taught in the knight course’s written lessons,” I explained. I had read over the documents we received from Eckhart and Ferdinand countless times, and paid close attention while Damuel, Cornelius, and the others desperately tried to teach Angelica. All things considered, I probably knew the syllabus better than she did.

Hearing my response, Rauffen’s eyes began to sparkle with joy. “Does that mean you plan to do the knight course alongside your other courses next year?!” he exclaimed. “I look forward to our ditter rematch from the bottom of my heart!”

“No,” I replied without missing a beat and shook my head. “As I said previously, I will not be taking the knight course.”

Rauffen’s eyes opened wide. “But why?!” he leaned toward me and shouted, so worked up that spit flew from his mouth.

“I could never handle the course’s practical lessons,” I explained. The written lessons were straightforward enough, but as was blatantly obvious by this point, I struggled enough just trying to move around.

“Motivation’s all you need!” Rauffen shot back, persisting nonetheless. “You’ll get through it with guts and more guts!” It was such an appropriate response for someone from Dunkelfelger, a duchy that was all about tackling their problems head-on and fighting until they won, but it wasn’t a culture that I wanted anything to do with. I was fundamentally incompatible with it.

“I do not have the necessary motivation,” I replied, “nor do I have ‘guts and more guts.’ But above all else, I do not have the stamina. Simply coming here to give a blessing and perform the healing ritual has brought me to my limit, so please”—I let my body go slack—“let me return to the dormitory.”

Leonore, who was still carrying me, shot Rauffen a glare. “Professor Rauffen, any further questioning will put Lady Rozemyne at great risk, so please stand down,” she said. “I ask that you speak to her another day. Furthermore, although we slew the ternisbefallen, we still do not know how it got here. Such beasts are of course not native to the Royal Academy, so I ask that you investigate its appearance. It is possible that there are more lurking about, so you must warn the other duchies to be on guard.”

Rauffen straightened up and nodded. “Yes, we can discuss Lady Rozemyne attending the knight course later. As you say, the ternisbefallen business comes first.”

“Erm, Professor Rauffen...” I said. “There is not a single thing for us to discuss.”

“You there! Apprentice! Take me to the ternisbefallen.”

“Yes, sir!”

My words were drowned out by the commotion, and the knights who had been set to return to the beast did so with the professors and Sovereign Knight’s Order in tow. After seeing them go, Leonore motioned for us to start toward the dormitory.

Upon our return, we were surrounded by those who had stayed behind and bombarded with questions. Answering them all was a job for my retainers and the apprentice knights, so I allowed Rihyarda to carry me to my room.

“Have you had a potion?” Rihyarda asked. “Ah. In that case, get right to bed. You’re burning up all over.”

Rihyarda started changing my clothes for me, with assistance from Brunhilde and Lieseleta. I started muttering about reporting the events of the day back to Ehrenfest and the importance of communication, but she shook her head at me with a look of exasperation.

“Lord Wilfried and Lady Charlotte are here and perfectly capable,” Rihyarda said. “And since Hartmut was with you, he can write your report for you. You need only focus on your rest, milady. At this rate, you’ll miss the tea party in the library you were so looking forward to. And don’t forget—the prince is going to be there. If you do not attend after personally inviting him, the repercussions will harm Ehrenfest in its entirety.”

Rihyarda was right—now that I had invited Hildebrand, I couldn’t risk getting bedridden and missing the tea party. I had no choice but to shut up, crawl into bed, and close my eyes.

The letters were apparently sent to Ehrenfest while I slept. Wilfried’s was brimming with excitement over his first time participating in a hunt, Hartmut’s extolled the virtues of the Saint of Ehrenfest and her masterful control over the divine instruments, and Charlotte’s was crisp and businesslike, covering my discussion with the Sovereignty and a report from Rauffen in addition to everything else.

“Apparently, each report was so different that Aub Ehrenfest assumed they were referring to a series of events rather than just the one and became quite panicked,” Philine said. “To summarize the responses we received, we did well in how we reacted to such an abrupt situation. It was all very favorable... except for their order that you return home, Lady Rozemyne.”

Philine gave me a sympathetic look as I sat in bed and started reading the responses from Ehrenfest. I couldn’t detect any anger from them, nor was I being chastised, but they did stress that I was to return home as soon as my tea party with royalty was over. Something gave me the impression that they were waiting to give me the scolding of a lifetime... but maybe it was just my imagination.

“It’s that time already...” I muttered. “Please inform Lady Hannelore of Dunkelfelger that I will return the book I am borrowing from her when we meet for our tea party—and that I will be bringing a new book for her.” I had wanted to invite Hannelore to a personal tea party and discuss the book at length before returning it, but there would be no time for that now.

“I believe this order to return is so that Ehrenfest does not socialize with the prince alone while students of all the other duchies are busy,” Philine said. “Perhaps you will be allowed back as soon as the Dedication Ritual is over, and then you will be able to socialize with people other than the prince.”

“All I want is to hole up in the library for the rest of my days...”

Sadly, that dream was going to be a lot more difficult by the time I returned. No longer would my days be blissful and spent buried in books from dawn till dusk. There was only one word for what I felt: despair.

As I slumped my shoulders, Philine consoled me, saying that she would gather stories from many duchies while I was away. Then, she told me what the Sovereignty’s report had covered.

“As Leonore had read, ternisbefallens are native to Werkestock. They do not dwell near the Royal Academy, so it is suspected that someone connected to the duchy brought one here.”

It was supposed to take many years for a ternisbefallen to grow as large as the one we had encountered, and if one were to work backward from the assumption that someone had brought it to the Academy when they were a movable puppy, it would have arrived around the time of the purge, when the Werkestock Dormitory became sealed off.

“However,” Philine continued, “this hypothesis seems unlikely. Had the ternisbefallen truly been on the Academy’s grounds for such a long time, one would expect it to have wreaked havoc near the Werkestock Dormitory. This was not the case.”

A black trail also revealed that the ternisbefallen had come to the Ehrenfest Dormitory from the general direction of the Werkestock Dormitory, and that it had done so in a suspiciously straight line.

“The path that the ternisbefallen took led it past both the Ahrensbach and the Frenbeltag Dormitories, and yet it showed no signs of approaching either of their gathering spots,” Philine said. She then went on to note that the Sovereignty had warned all of the other duchies about the ternisbefallen and told them what its most recognizable traits were in case another appeared. “The official instructions if another is spotted are to contact the Knight’s Order from the dormitory and then buy time for them to arrive. Students have been warned not to hunt it without permission as we did.”

It seemed that crude tactics performed without experience were the root cause of many serious injuries. Rauffen’s approach made sense to me, but I didn’t really understand why they had refrained from teaching everyone how to imbue their weapons with Darkness. Instead, they had forbidden Ehrenfest from using the blessing at all, despite the potential of there being more mana-draining feybeasts about.

“Is there a reason they aren’t just teaching everyone the spell?” I asked. “By doing that, the apprentice knights could fight too.”

“Perhaps because they do not wish to encourage those who would attempt to fight it. By ensuring the students have no means of combating such a beast, the Sovereignty can ensure they have no choice but to move carefully and wait for help should they encounter one.”

I nodded my understanding. That certainly was one way to keep the students under control. No matter how doubtful or dissatisfied one was, they had to do as the Sovereignty ordered.

“I see... And how is Roderick?” I asked. “Did he retrieve his ingredients?”

“Roderick? He is currently striving to make his name-swearing feystone, although he was quite glum to learn just how much mana is required to create one. He’ll need to make a few rejuvenation potions first,” she replied, giggling. His innocuous trip to gather the feystone had certainly escalated into something massive, but overall, it had ended without issue.

I sighed, relieved that things were back to normal... including the fact that I was bedridden.