Ascendance of a Bookworm (LN) - Volume 4.7 - Chapter 1

Post-Return Discussion

As the swirling of the teleportation circle faded, I slowly opened my eyes. Cornelius’s back was the first thing I saw; he had stood in front of me and to the side as my guard. Rihyarda let go of me now that I wasn’t in danger of toppling over from nausea.

“Welcome back, Lady Rozemyne.”

“And so I have returned, Angelica, Damuel.”

Standing in front of the crowd gathered to welcome me were my two guard knights. Damuel looked exhausted, perhaps because he was receiving training from Bonifatius once again.

Cornelius walked over to them and began the process of swapping out guard knights. “I request that you both take my place guarding Lady Rozemyne,” he said. “I must return to the Royal Academy at once.”

“Won’t that be a struggle?” Angelica asked quizzically and turned around. She was looking at my guardians, which included the archducal couple, the knight commander couple, Ferdinand, and Bonifatius. Cornelius let out a small groan after following her gaze.

“Oh my, Cornelius,” Elvira said, scooting forward to stand between the guard knights. “But do we not have much to discuss? Perish the thought of you leaving so soon after your return; please do spend at least one night with your family.” She was smiling on the surface, but her dark eyes were locked onto Cornelius with deadly intensity.

“Mother... I sent my reply the other day, and I still have classes to attend. Once they are done, I will come home to talk,” Cornelius said, his face twitching as he took a step back, trying to get as far away from Elvira as he could. He finished the guard exchange, then swiftly turned and stepped back onto the teleportation circle.

Elvira looked as though she had something to say, but she ultimately saw Cornelius off with a giggle. “Next time, come home with a bit more manly resolve, dear. And with your partner, of course.”

Cornelius shimmered and disappeared with a grimace. He had been talking about how he wanted to enjoy his last year as a student to its fullest, but in reality, it seemed that he just wanted to avoid Elvira’s probing.

“His partner?” I repeated. “Have you finally learned who she is, Mother?”

“We may discuss this in detail during a tea party. There is much I must ask of you as well,” she replied and then returned to her place in the crowd. Rihyarda subtly pushed me forward, and I moved to greet my other guardians.

“I have returned from the Royal Academy,” I announced.

“I never expected you to finish your classes this quickly, Rozemyne,” Bonifatius said, praising me with a grin. “My granddaughter really is in a league of her own.”

I was overjoyed to receive his praise, but my achievement was solely down to me wanting to visit the library sooner, so I wasn’t entirely sure how to respond. Unable to puff out my chest with pride and boast, I opted to be humble and say it was all thanks to Ferdinand’s teachings.

“Rozemyne, I’m going to be eating dinner with the rest of you tonight, so how about you tell me how you slew that ternisbefallen?” he continued. “Your scholar’s report said you were the star of the show.”

Hartmut had sent his report while I was bedridden, so I hadn’t gotten the chance to read it. Thanks to Philine, I was aware he had extolled my saintly virtues, but that was about the extent of my knowledge. I also knew that I hadn’t participated in the fight much at all; my attacks had consistently missed, and I certainly didn’t want to speak with Bonifatius about that.

“Of course,” I said. “We can discuss how splendidly the apprentice knights handled the matter. Thanks to your training, Grandfather, they have learned to coordinate a bit.”

For a moment, I considered making a pinky promise with Bonifatius, but I realized that doing so would leave me with a broken finger and immediately gave up on the idea.

Sylvester was the next to step forward. “I’ve been waiting for you, Rozemyne. Come to my office once you’ve gotten changed,” he said. For some reason, his voice was completely devoid of energy. Last year, he had stomped his feet and looked downright furious, but now he seemed kind of dead inside. It was probably just my imagination, though.

Or did something happen while I was away, I wonder...?

I briefly returned to my room with Rihyarda and my guard knights, then headed to the office. Ferdinand, Sylvester, and Karstedt were awaiting me inside.

Ferdinand was the first to speak. “Rozemyne,” he said, eyeing me carefully while tapping a finger against his temple, “I believe we must begin by ensuring we both have the same understanding of the word ‘peaceful.’ I ask, what does it mean to you?”

I blinked in surprise, having been prepared for some intense lecturing. Still, I gave his question a serious ponder.

“To me, it means days when I can hole up in the library and read,” I eventually replied. “If not for this order to return home, my life would have been the very embodiment of peace.”

My return to Ehrenfest had been ordered right after my lessons had ended and I could begin visiting the library. As far as I was concerned, it was perfectly reasonable for me to grumble and demand that they give me back my library and reading time.

Sylvester let out a heavy sigh. “We didn’t call you back on a whim, you know.”

“Rozemyne,” Karstedt added, “do you know why we ordered your return?”

I placed a contemplative hand on my cheek. There were three mistakes that immediately came to mind: blasting holes in the canopy of my bed with my water gun, terrifying everyone during the bookworm tea party, and passing out despite being the host. However, the letter regarding my water gun modifications hadn’t contained any criticisms whatsoever.

“I was summoned back right after the ternisbefallen incident, so maybe because I joined the battle without consulting anyone and ended up collapsing...” I ventured. “Would that be it?”

“...What do you mean, ‘maybe’?”

“I’m just struggling to understand what I’ve done to deserve a scolding. I don’t think I’ve made that many mistakes, especially compared to last year,” I said, tilting my head. It was a response that made all three of my guardians sigh.

“First,” Ferdinand said, lining up the reports from the Royal Academy, “is the way you write your reports. You can write proper reports for the printing industry and for temple matters, so why are your reports on Royal Academy affairs so poor? For what reason do you concentrate on topics of such little importance?”

I actually had a clear answer to that question. “My scholars already send you reports on what they feel is important, and it seemed kind of pointless for me to focus on the same things. I thought it would be better to go out of my way to write about the details that Hartmut skipped.”

It seemed that my concern had been wasted on them. I had also been writing my reports with the same mindset as when I was in school back on Earth and would write letters to my guardians, but that evidently wasn’t what Ferdinand and the others wanted. Instead, they needed my reports to be a lot more analytical in nature.

“I thought you would all appreciate an insight into what your children are getting up to at school, so I made my reports similar to a diary of sorts that covered more personal topics,” I continued. “If you find this unsatisfactory, I would rather you tell me exactly what kind of report you want instead.”

“I see,” Ferdinand said. “That would explain why your reports were so overly emotional. Henceforth, write them as you do for the printing industry and focus on the improvement of our students’ grades, the spreading of trends, and the activities of your so-called Library Committee.”

With that, I finally understood what kind of reports my guardians wanted. If they needed them to be written from a work perspective, mine certainly weren’t cutting it.

From there, my guardians pointed out various other problems with my words and actions. The most substantial were centered around how I handled the members of my Library Committee. I had promised to give Hildebrand an armband without seeking permission, refused to immediately hand over the magic tools, registered him as an assistant, and tried to make him take on work.

“But he’s a Library Committee member!” I said. “What will he do if not work in the library?”

“As far as the reports say, the only work that your committee has been given is to supply mana,” Sylvester said flatly. “Prompting students to return their overdue books is not your job.”

I hung my head, feeling dejected. He was right. Solange had already seemed hesitant about giving work to an archduke candidate such as me, yet I had taken things a massive step further by suggesting that we entrust work to a literal prince. And to add insult to injury, I had done it all without consulting her first.

I’m sorry, Professor Solange!

“Ngh... Professor Solange kept saying how helpful and overall wonderful those ordonnanzes from Ferdinand were, so I just assumed having a prince take up the role would be even better,” I said. “The perfect person for the job, I thought.”

“It is not up to you to decide who should take on which jobs,” Ferdinand replied. “A royal may give you any order they like, but you must not give an order to a royal.”

After considering their words, I concluded that I had been treating Hildebrand as a comrade in arms when he was actually like the son of a CEO in a company where I was on the lowest rung of the corporate ladder. And of course, while giving work to a colleague was perfectly acceptable, giving work to the small child who was just visiting to play certainly wasn’t.

Okay, that explains why everyone froze up!

I cradled my head in regret, finally understanding what a colossal blunder I had made. Only then did I realize the consequences that the prince continuing to hang out with us in the Library Committee would have, and it made me want to cry. Even during my Urano days, there was never a time when I had needed to interact with someone whose status was so much higher than my own.

“In that case, what should I do now?” I asked. “Would it not be a problem for me to ignore Prince Hildebrand when Lady Hannelore and I are discussing our workloads, especially when he wishes to join in our conversation? I imagine the prince will end up feeling left out, but what am I supposed to do about that?” I had simply paid close attention to his expression when talking about the armbands and reacted accordingly, but perhaps it would have been better for me to ignore it.

Ferdinand gave a very sharp frown. “You always swiftly and accurately identify what the person you are speaking to wants or needs based on minor gestures and expressions during conversations. That is not bad in and of itself—one could even call it a virtue. However, you never consider the context of whom you are speaking to or account for the intentions of those around them. That is why everyone always struggles to follow up your actions.”

I always placed all of my focus on the person I was speaking with and was more than willing to befriend anyone, regardless of whether they were royalty or from a greater duchy. However, according to Ferdinand, that generally led to me troubling those around us or creating much greater problems.

“You have what it takes to become a powerful weapon if you can learn to start taking context into consideration,” Ferdinand said, “but for now, you are little more than a danger who makes the future entirely unpredictable. This is especially true when royalty is involved; it has become impossible to say where Ehrenfest will stand in the years to come.”

I averted my eyes, aware that Ferdinand had told me to avoid interacting with royalty by any means necessary. Although I understood what my guardians were trying to say, I couldn’t make any promises.

Ferdinand, upon noticing my attitude, looked at me with a frown. “Do not look away from me, Rozemyne,” he said. “Just what are you plotting this time?”

“I can’t avoid dealing with Prince Hildebrand now. It’s too late for me to promise anything.”

“And why is that?”

“Because I plan to continue being friends with him. I was also invited to visit the palace library, and there’s no way I can throw away my chance to secure permission for that.”

Solange, Hannelore, and Hildebrand—a librarian and two bookworms. They were the three people I wanted to be friends with more than anyone in the Royal Academy, and from this point onward, I wanted to involve myself with them as much as possible. I would accept advice from my guardians on how to go about getting closer with my new friends, but I wasn’t willing to stop interacting with them entirely.

“You can forget about the palace library,” Sylvester said with a harsh expression. “You passed out just from hearing its name, didn’t you? If you actually went there, you’d probably collapse, fire off random blessings, and who knows what else. I’m not going to give you permission to go there until you learn to control yourself. And either way, since you’re underage, you won’t be able to go to the royal palace without a guardian.”

“Isn’t that way too cruel?!” I exclaimed, desperately looking between my three guardians, but they were all wearing expressions that made it clear they would not accompany me. This was bad—the self-restraint I had abandoned so long ago was suddenly something I needed quite severely. But how could I restrain myself when faced with the palace library? I had no faith that I could.

“The palace library...” I mumbled to myself. On the surface, it seemed as though I could go there after learning some self-restraint, but I knew it was just a thinly veiled attempt to keep me away from it permanently. After all, how could they evaluate my progress when it was impossible to gauge another person’s self-restraint in the first place?

But I wanna go...

“At the very least, we can hardly let you go until you’ve stopped collapsing out of nowhere,” Karstedt said. “You caused an immense amount of stress for Prince Hildebrand and his retainers this time, didn’t you?”

In short, he was asking me whether I wanted to traumatize everyone in the palace library. I slumped my shoulders. I didn’t want to do that, no. It was more than obvious to me by this point that my collapsing in front of people wasn’t good for their hearts and that the follow-up was especially rough.

Gaaah. The palace library is so far away now...

“You did not seem to understand the distance you needed to keep between yourself and royalty, but that should not cause any further problems as long as you commit the fact you are not equals to memory,” Ferdinand said. “Now, let us move on to the ternisbefallen.”

Wilfried’s report had mostly been about his excitement over his first battle, Charlotte’s had offered a more businesslike perspective as she hadn’t been there in person, and Hartmut’s had focused on the repairing of the gathering spot while praising me again and again for my saintly behavior.

Ye gods, Hartmut—were you possessed when writing this?!

“It was hard to believe they actually focused on the same event,” Ferdinand continued. “Tell us what happened, in your own words.”

And so I did, although it felt as though I was just filling in the details that were missing from Charlotte’s report. Ferdinand must have felt similarly, as he was actually adding notes to her report as I spoke. I tried not to look at Hartmut’s report at all.

“Still, I am impressed that one of you recognized the ternisbefallen from Roderick’s description alone,” Ferdinand noted. “It is an exceedingly rare feybeast found in Werkestock; I would not have expected a student to recognize one.”

“Leonore seems to have researched them while going through feybeast documents in preparation for last year’s ditter games at the Interduchy Tournament,” I explained. “She said they were too dangerous to be used in ditter, so they were one of the feybeasts she hadn’t taught to the other apprentice knights.”

“I once read the same documents,” Ferdinand said. “I also once heard about them from a Werkestock apprentice knight—although Werkestock has now been split between Ahrensbach and Dunkelfelger and no longer truly exists.”

I went on to detail the fight with the ternisbefallen. I described how I had rushed to the battlefield to grant the Darkness blessings, how my attacks had all missed, how I had used the divine cape, and how I had regenerated the gathering spot.

“When Professor Rauffen came with the Sovereign Knight’s Order, he asked me a lot of questions, but my head was so fuzzy by that point that I didn’t manage to give any proper answers,” I said. “I ended up leaving while they were planning a date to interrogate me on the details, but Professor Hirschur seems to have worked things out for the time being.”

“What did he ask, and what did you answer?” Ferdinand probed. But when I repeated our exchange, my guardians grabbed their heads and groaned.

“He didn’t seem satisfied with my answers, and it seems like I’m going to be summoned for an inquiry soon,” I said.

“I would imagine so,” Ferdinand remarked dryly.

“But what else could I have said to him?” I asked. I knew the prayers from reading the bible, which was necessary for me to do as the High Bishop, and I could perform the healing ritual because it was done as part of my work in the temple. That was all there was to it; I had no more details to give.

“We will need to emphasize during the hearing that your prayer differs from the spell that the knights use.”

“Hm?”

“The spell that knights use is forbidden from being taught at the Royal Academy.”

“But why? Isn’t it important to know for when dangerous feybeasts like ternisbefallens show up?”

“Perhaps, but there is something far more dangerous than feybeasts: humans.”

According to Ferdinand, the spell for making black weapons had stopped being taught at the Royal Academy long ago. After a political upheaval that caused a mana shortage not unlike our own, some archdukes had tried to enrich their duchies by invading others with black weapons. It was an especially dangerous situation for some, as there was very little a lesser duchy could do against an invading greater duchy. Others were inspired by the invasion, and the upheaval soon devolved into even greater chaos. From that point on, it was forbidden to teach everyone the spell for making black weapons in the Royal Academy. Instead, only the Knight’s Orders that oversaw territories where feybeasts that absolutely needed black weapons to be defeated were taught it.

“How come Cornelius and the others didn’t know the spell, then?” I asked. “Isn’t it necessary for them to learn it?”

“It used to be that the Knight’s Order would teach apprentice knights once they entered the knight course and received their divine protection from the gods. Now, however, we only teach it to the fully grown knights we’ve determined we can bring with us on missions.”

“What inspired that change?”

Karstedt glanced at me and then shrugged. “As you know, we have more nobles who used to be blue priests, and the education level dropped after the civil war shook up the Royal Academy courses. For safety’s sake, we only bring knights who can properly coordinate on missions. We only teach the spell to those who’ve earned our approval.”

Ah! It’s all because of Shikza.

That reminded me—Ferdinand had scolded Karstedt for not training the newbies properly and told him to rethink how he managed them. It was after Shikza’s little rampage that the rules for training newcomers had been modified, meaning that those a little older than Angelica would know the spell, but it was completely unknown to those in Angelica’s grade and below. The current newcomers were so bad at coordinating that they wouldn’t be taught it for a very long time.

“So, what’s the difference between spells and prayers?” I asked.

“Hrm.” Karstedt considered my question for a moment. “Well, prayers are too long to use in battle. You also wouldn’t want to risk messing up a word and then having the prayer fail to activate, so they were compacted down into spells.”

It seemed that the spells used by knights were in fact prayers that were being slowly shaved down over time. There wasn’t much room for them to be modified, unlike a full-on prayer, but the speed and lack of room for error was most important.

Huh. I guess you learn something new every day.

“Ah, right, right. This is for you, Ferdinand,” I said. “It’s a gift from Hartmut. He drew the magic circle that arose when I healed the gathering spot with a blessing.”

I handed over the drawing in question. Both Sylvester and Karstedt leaned closer to peer at it and then swiftly looked away, probably unable to understand it. Ferdinand alone traced his finger across the lines. “Rozemyne, did you pour your mana into this?” he asked.

“It rose up on its own when I performed the earth-healing ritual,” I replied. “What does it do?”

“It is a necessary component of the area functioning as the Ehrenfest gathering spot. As you might imagine, it is quite complex, with many effects woven into it,” he said, his mouth softening a little as he spoke. I could tell that he was extremely happy to see it, which made me happy in turn—namely because it meant he would probably lecture me less. Hoping to improve his mood even further, I peered at the magic circle and asked what effects he meant.

“Hold it, Rozemyne.” Sylvester, sensing that Ferdinand was about to begin an impromptu lesson on magic circles, quickly interjected with a frown. “Isn’t revitalizing the earth the Sovereign temple’s job?”

“I took matters into my own hands, since the other Ehrenfest students needed ingredients for their classes. And if my retainers had their classes stalled, it would impact my ability to visit the library.”

Maybe it was a job normally done by the Sovereign temple, but it hadn’t been a situation where I could just casually sit around. At the same time, I emphasized that I hadn’t completely stolen all of the work; the ternisbefallen hadn’t rampaged exclusively in the Ehrenfest gathering spot, so there was plenty of cursed ground in the forest.

“The problem’s not about whether you left them work—although I can’t deny that you helped out the students,” Sylvester said.

“This is an extraordinary magic circle,” Ferdinand noted. “To use it completely, dozens of Sovereign blue priests and shrine maidens would need to work for days on end. I am impressed that your mana sufficed.”

“It didn’t suffice at all,” I replied. “I needed to chug rejuvenation potions while I was restoring the earth, but it felt like my mana was being sucked out as soon as it recovered. It was really rough.”

“‘Rough’ should not even begin to describe it,” Ferdinand muttered as he continued to examine the circle, but what was done was done. “It seems that you fully regenerated the gathering spot, but did you bring any ingredients from it back with you?”

“I don’t believe so.”

The magic circle was one thing, but I hadn’t even considered bringing back any newly grown ingredients. They were there for classes.

“Instruct Hartmut to send some from the regenerated portion of the gathering spot,” Ferdinand said. “I wish to see if your mana has caused them to change at all.”

“You truly are Professor Hirschur’s disciple, Ferdinand; it seems that you prioritize your research just as much as she does,” I observed. “She came along with the Knight’s Order, but when she saw the hunt had ended without any particular injuries, she tried to return to her laboratory right away.” I added that I would have liked for her to be a little bit more worried about us, but that just made Ferdinand lower his eyes ever so slightly. “Ferdinand...?”

“Back in the Royal Academy, whenever I slew feybeasts in the forest with the apprentice knights, Hirschur would come to check on us out of concern. Her interruptions seemed such a waste of time that I would shoo her away and tell her not to bother us unless someone was injured. That is likely why.”

“So it’s all your fault!”

Ferdinand and Hirschur’s experiences had completely warped their idea of trust. At this rate, Raimund was in genuine danger. But as I worried about him, my three guardians collectively sighed.

“Forget about the Ahrensbach student; worry about yourself.”

Ah. Sorry...

Even from that point onward, I didn’t receive much in the way of a lecture; my exhausted guardians simply ended the meeting after informing me that they’d be sending me back to the Royal Academy after the Dedication Ritual, since they wanted to minimize my contact with royalty. It was actually kind of strange—not that I wanted them to yell at me or anything.

But why, I wonder? I almost want to ask, in case they’ve just forgotten. But doing that would definitely earn me a scolding of some kind, so I won’t.

They were sending me back earlier this year, since they wanted me to start working on my socializing skills once Hildebrand was confined to his room again.

I can’t say I care all that much about returning to the Royal Academy when my days are going to be spent socializing rather than in the library, though...

The only part of socializing that actually appealed to me was attending tea parties with Hannelore where we could discuss books, but I doubted anyone would permit such a meeting when I was more or less guaranteed to collapse again.

Sigh... Life never goes the way you want it to.