Ascendance of a Bookworm (LN) - Volume 4.7 - Chapter 5

Winter Life in the Temple

I was staying in the temple, having received an order from the archduke to investigate the bible, and now I was pouring my all into reading. At the moment, I was partway through the book that Hannelore had lent me. Fey creatures like feyplants and feybeasts were more common in Dunkelfelger than anywhere else, it seemed, so everyone there had to grow strong.

The book featured many different fey species and grand descriptions of the ways they were defeated, mixed in with poems extolling the gods. Rather than knight stories, it was like reading a hunting log with poems attached. The gods that appeared were exclusively Leidenschaft’s subordinates, and the book’s contents gave me the same testosterone-heavy locker-room vibe that emanated from Rauffen.

Dunkelfelger’s love of ditter has never been clearer to me than at this moment.

I also read the love stories that Clarissa had given Hartmut. They were more or less common knowledge in Dunkelfelger, I was told, but unlike the deeply romantic knight stories that Elvira loved so much, these were primarily about women tasking burgeoning knights with hunts to prove their strength. They were more like The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter than anything.

The men of Dunkelfelger expressed their love by enduring the impossible demands and fighting until they defeated the feybeast, whereupon they brought its feystone back and offered it to the woman they loved. No matter how much plotting their women did, no matter how far through hell they had to trudge, the knights’ love never faltered as they charged forward. One had to tear up at how wholesome it all was.

Good luck, Dunkelfelger men!

Ferdinand finished socializing and returned to the temple as I was reading the borrowed stories. It seemed that he planned to spend our time until the Dedication Ritual studying the magic circle Hartmut had drawn out. Preparations for the ritual were being left to Kampfer and Frietack, so in essence, he now had some much-needed time off.

“I’m going to be really busy at the Royal Academy after the Dedication Ritual, Ferdinand—will you not also be able to rest then?” I suggested. “Everyone always seems to be talking about what a gremlin I am, so you might as well make the most of your time not having to deal with me.”

“You fool,” he shot back, a particular coldness in his golden eyes. “Those days are the most stressful of all for me. I must read one report after another about the chaos you are creating out of my reach. How could I ever rest then?”

“Eep. I’m sorry...”

Letting me keep to myself and read all day, as I was doing now, sounded like the solution to everyone’s problems—but things were never that simple in the Royal Academy. Ferdinand turned to his own attendants, took some sheets of paper from them, and then handed them to me.

“Speaking of the Royal Academy,” he said, “we have received the order for the Gilberta Company, alongside a number of questions from Charlotte. They require a response from you.”

I started inspecting the order form; Brunhilde had written out every possible detail with great care. Picking the thread and the appropriate design was going to be much easier thanks to her efforts.

“I shall call for the Gilberta Company when the blizzard next eases,” I said. “I can use the opportunity to order my spring outfits as well.”

I wanted to see Tuuli again; it had been way too long. Not to mention, with neither Hartmut nor Philine here, I could probably soften the atmosphere of the meeting a bit.

My thoughts must have been clear on my face, as Ferdinand gave me a conflicted half-smile. “I have some inkling of your intentions here, but there is no time to do anything about it. Simply send the letter of invitation and the order form alongside it as soon as you are able.”

“Right.”

I gave the order form to Monika and asked if she would tell Gil—who was overseeing the winter handiwork in the orphanage—to contact the Gilberta Company. I watched her leave out of the corner of my eye and then picked up Charlotte’s report.

“Lady Hannelore of Dunkelfelger invited me to a tea party. It seems that she wishes to recommend Royal Academy Love Stories to her friends while we are there. It is your book, Sister, but may I allow others to borrow it? From Charlotte.”

Hannelore had really enjoyed Royal Academy Love Stories and wanted to recommend the book to her friends during a tea party. She would then hold a second tea party at a later date, during which they would discuss their thoughts. I could guess she had mentioned this to Charlotte so that we could make the necessary preparations.

Gaaah, I’m so jealous! I want to be at the Royal Academy, having tea parties with Lady Hannelore!

“Rozemyne, she is simply asking whether she can lend out your book,” Ferdinand said. “Is there truly that much to think about?”

“Ngh... It’s just too cruel that the tea parties I want to attend most are being held while I’m not there. Way too cruel...”

“It was wise of them to schedule the tea parties in your absence—you would doubtless end up collapsing from excitement if you attended them. Did we not agree that it is Charlotte’s job to spread the books?” he asked, giving me an exasperated look.

I pursed my lips. I understood what he was saying—I couldn’t just attend and collapse at every tea party—but still... Was it really so wrong for me to want to attend a tea party where I might make more bookworm friends? Either way, I was a big fan of spreading books in the Royal Academy, so I wrote to Charlotte expressing my approval.

“You may lend them as you will, Charlotte. Please spread them all across the lands. Incidentally, I would suggest that you bring many apprentice scholars with you and collect love stories from the gathered attendees. I am looking forward to seeing what you end up with. From Rozemyne.”

Ferdinand would send my response to her via the castle.

Gil delivered the order form and arranged a meeting with the Gilberta Company for the next time the blizzard weakened. I would gaze out my window every morning to check the weather, excited to see Tuuli again. Until then, however, there were temple matters to attend to—I needed to arrange a lunch meeting with Ferdinand, who was locked away in his workshop again, since his and my attendants had come to me to express their concern.

Ferdinand allowed me into his room with a very unwelcoming smile that made me want to return to my own chambers at once. Really, if anyone here had cause to be frustrated, it was me—my time spent here was time not being spent with my books.

“Please show some restraint with your research,” I said firmly. “Your attendants are so troubled that they asked me to hold this lunch meeting. Not to mention, if you inspire Raimund to likewise abandon everything for his research, everyone will suffer.”

Ferdinand glared at me, his brows tightly knit. “I was informed that we are having this lunch because you have refused to even look away from your books since returning to the temple. You are the one who needs to be more considerate.”

Apparently, Ferdinand and I were equally problematic in the eyes of our attendants. We turned to them just in time to see Eckhart and Damuel clap their hands over their mouths, trying to suppress their laughter.

“So, is Raimund completing his tasks at a good pace?” I asked. Our discussions over lunch normally focused on what Ferdinand was researching at that moment, since he barely responded to anything else.

“Indeed. He has potential. Some of his improvements have been really quite interesting...” Ferdinand replied. He tended to use his abundance of mana to brute force his way through magic circle-related obstacles, so he found these more efficient alternatives to be quite intriguing. Raimund must have been quite the genius to receive praise from Ferdinand, of all people.

“It doesn’t have to be right now,” I said, “but could you task Raimund with improving the mana efficiency of a small teleportation circle? Something like the magic circles that are used for taxes, except for books.”

“To what end?”

“I will distribute them to printing guilds, so they can send the books they produce to me.”

“There are still very few books in print. If you wish to receive copies, the guilds can send them alongside their taxes.”

“It may be true at the moment that only a few books are produced each year, but we should resolve the issue before the number of workshops increases dramatically.”

I needed to get the flow of goods sorted so that I could properly exploit the legal deposit system I had set up. At the moment, it applied only within Ehrenfest, and the giebes could simply bring copies of the few books they printed with them during winter socializing. As more books were printed and the industry spread to other duchies, however, things would only become more complicated. I needed my teleportation circles to be in use before then, so that my legal deposit system didn’t end up deprecating into a law that was entirely disregarded.

“Hmph.” Ferdinand gave a dismissive scoff upon hearing my impassioned explanation. “You make it sound as if your reasoning is grand and important, but in truth, you cannot wait until winter to receive new books from the provinces.”

That’s... entirely correct. He saw right through me.

“Working with Sylvester has taught me that ‘grand and important’ excuses are highly effective,” I replied with a smile.

Ferdinand pressed a finger between his eyebrows and gave a heavy sigh. “Good grief... Why must you learn only the wrong lessons from that man? In any case, who will supply the mana needed for the teleportation?”

“For now, I intend to entrust that duty to the scholars working in the industry. In the long term, it could become a job for those with the Devouring or for gray priests who have mana, such as Konrad. I have always wished to create employment opportunities for the gray priests, so I am thinking that I might be able to use my position as orphanage director to provide them opportunities within the Plantin Company. I also want there to be a way for those with the Devouring and for the children of nobles without magic tools to survive. This will provide a reasonable excuse for taking children without magic tools to the orphanage, no?”

There were so few nobles now that even people without much mana seemed to hold some value, but I was told that we didn’t want the number of nobles to increase like that. And if such people didn’t have the means to survive, I just needed to provide jobs that would allow them to support themselves.

“...I will consult Sylvester,” Ferdinand eventually replied.

“Please do.”

And so, I started putting forward my new ideas, which Ferdinand corrected or outright rejected. This process continued every lunchtime for three days until, eventually, the blizzard subsided enough for the Gilberta Company to visit.

After lunch, I went to the orphanage director’s chambers. The view outside the window was nothing but white; although the blizzard was calmer than usual, the snow never ceased to fall. Still, it was comfortably warm inside—the fires in the kitchen had been lit since morning as Ella and Nicola made sweets, and the furnace on the second floor was burning as well.

I sighed in relief and went up to the second floor, where I awaited the arrival of the Gilberta Company. They ended up coming fairly early, having most likely decided to travel while the snowfall was light. Otto, Corinna, Theo, Leon, and Tuuli were in attendance, and after we exchanged noble greetings, I gestured for them to sit. It was then that I noticed Leon and Tuuli asking Fran where they could set down a number of wooden boxes.

“Did the order form arrive safely?” I asked.

“Indeed,” Otto replied. “And thanks to your early notice, Lady Rozemyne, we had enough time to prepare ourselves and were able to begin without issue. I never would have imagined that we would receive yet another order from royalty this year. Your craftswoman has already begun creating the hairpin.”

Otto turned to look at Tuuli, who seemed a lot more grown up than the last time I had seen her. She nodded with a reserved smile; it seemed that my magic letter had proven useful.

“But unlike last year, I’ve also needed to order an armband. Is that not too much?” I asked. My fear was that requesting the armband for Hildebrand alongside the hairpin Sigiswald wanted to give to Adolphine would end up being too strenuous.

Corinna smiled and then nodded at Tuuli, who immediately took a wooden box, set it on the table, and carefully opened it. It contained not just one, but three armbands.

“Why are there so many...?” I asked, looking up in surprise.

Tuuli beamed a proud smile. “These are spares. When you first said that you intend to give one to your friend in the Royal Academy, I considered the possibility that you might want more in the future and decided to make them in advance. How many would you like now?” she asked, her blue eyes carrying a glint that seemed to say, “Aren’t I amazing?”

Tuuli, you ARE amazing!

As I trembled with awe, Corinna smiled and said, “Tuuli has quite the business foresight.” In a shocking twist, Tuuli had also predicted there being more orders from royalty or top-ranking duchies this year, so she had been coming up with new hairpin designs since spring. Thanks to this preparation, she was able to start work on this year’s hairpin without any fuss.

Tuuli gave a bright smile. “I predicted that you would have more big orders for us, Lady Rozemyne, and prepared accordingly.”

My darling Tuuli is an angel. She’s just so reliable!

Her expression practically screamed, “You can count on your big sister!” And with that proud smile, she fetched another wooden box. “Furthermore, this is the spring hairpin that I made for you, Lady Rozemyne. How is it?”

In a second shocking twist, she had even already made my spring hairpin for me. It evoked the image of delicate new leaves, as per my order.

“If you intend to wear clothing to suit this hairpin, might I suggest choosing from this selection of cloth?” Corinna said. “We have prepared three pieces similar to those made by the three craftspeople you ordered from previously.”

At her signal, Leon took three pieces of cloth out from a wooden box and spread them across the table. The same craftspeople who had come out on top in my “Renaissance” competition had dyed new cloth based on the pieces I chose for my winter outfit, and to my dismay, they were all nearly identical. I didn’t have a clue which one was Mom’s.

And to think I was planning to make her a Renaissance for sure...

I glanced over at Tuuli while debating the choice in my head and noticed that her eyes were locked in a particular direction. Perhaps she was staring at Mom’s cloth. I followed her gaze and went to pick the one I thought she was looking at.

...Nope!

No sooner had I picked up one of the pieces than her eyes began to fill with panic. I pretended to look it over carefully, set it back down, and then picked up the next piece. Again, Tuuli seemed to fret—this time, she looked gravely unwell.

But what about this one?

I picked up the third cloth, and in an instant, her eyes began to sparkle. As I started to examine it, I noticed that she was clenching her fists and leaning forward ever so slightly. This was it for sure.

“I want you to make my spring outfit with this cloth, and the craftsperson who dyed it shall become my first Renaissance,” I told Otto with a serious expression while Tuuli grinned from ear to ear. Otto agreed, though his wry smile indicated that he had cottoned on to what had just happened.

Now, Mom has my exclusive business too. Yippee!

After settling on a design with Tuuli and Corinna, I placed the order and then asked about the lower city. Given that my apprentice scholars weren’t present and I was getting fewer and fewer chances to see those from the Gilberta Company, this was the perfect opportunity to dig deep.

“Otto, I hear that the daughter of a Klassenberg merchant joined the Plantin Company as a lehange,” I said. “I need to report this to Aub Ehrenfest, as it will impact trade and various other matters. Please do tell me of the details.”

“As you wish,” Otto replied. He grinned and glanced at Corinna, who let out a tiny giggle. “Her name is Karin. She is contracted with the Plantin Company for roughly one year.”

“Roughly one year, you say?”

Lehange contracts were usually three years, so I couldn’t understand why this one was an exception. It seemed that the dates hadn’t even been decided yet, considering that he had said it was roughly one year. I could only blink in confusion, and that was when Otto dropped the bombshell.

“Yes. Because marriage is being discussed.”

Wait, marriage to whom? Huh? Benno?!

“There are many things you have invented in Ehrenfest that are being sold not just to nobles, but to commoners as well,” Otto began.

It seemed that the merchants from Klassenberg and the Sovereignty who had come during the summer had been shown many things by the guildmaster, who wanted to form as tight of a connection with them as possible. He had shown them the more stable carriages, the Italian restaurant, and the pumps by the wells while they were staying at the high-quality inns and the homes of major store owners.

“It was immediately obvious who made the pumps, since their name is carved into them,” Otto continued. “They asked about you and Zack, which led to them learning of the Saint of Ehrenfest, who gives true blessings and produces new products one after another, and the work of the Gutenbergs, who were granted titles from the saint and work to realize her goals. At the same time, they learned of the Plantin Company, the store that you favor most and that you granted a name and independence to.”

In other words, they had found out about my connection to the Plantin Company almost instantly.

“Klassenberg sensed that a sizable business opportunity with Ehrenfest was in the cards, so their striving to form connections isn’t the slightest bit strange,” Otto said. “Of course, the simplest way to achieve that aim is through marriage.”

To the merchants of greater duchies, the owner of the store I favored most being a bachelor must have been a dream come true. One had even formally proposed a political marriage through the guildmaster.

“Benno refused, though,” Otto explained. “He was concerned about leaking information and never intended to marry in the first place.”

“Figures...” I replied.

And then, when the merchant had finished his business and returned to Klassenberg... he had apparently left his daughter Karin behind at the inn.

“What in the world?!” I exclaimed. “Talk about a heavy-handed approach!”

Karin had gone to the Gilberta Company to sell her clothes and accessories, saying that she did not wish to bother the Plantin Company and would chase her father down while using her own money to stay at cheap inns. Otto had spoken to Karin in person during this visit, trying to learn as much about Klassenberg as he could while looking over her clothes and accessories.

“After my time as a traveling merchant, I know just how hard it is for a young woman only a few years of age to travel alone. However, Karin gave a fearless smile at first. She said that while it would be expensive, she could ride a boat across the river and catch up with her father in Frenbeltag before he arrived there. I was shocked. Her father had told me on his last visit that he was not using boats on the way back. And when I mentioned this to her...”

The blood had drained from Karin’s face, apparently. The route back she had expected to take—or perhaps the route she had initially been told about—was incorrect. She had no idea what route her father was going down and thus had no way to catch up to him. Otto subsequently determined that leaving her to fend for herself was too dangerous, so he had stopped her from fleeing the store and contacted Benno to have a discussion with the guildmaster.

“Benno showed more resistance to her leaving the city than anyone, as his father had died outside the city on business,” Otto said. “The guildmaster pointed that out, which settled the issue almost at once.”

As a result, it was decided that Karin would stay in the Plantin Company and work as a lehange until next summer, when her father was due to return. Benno would take care not to leak any valuable information to her, and if things got bad, he would take responsibility and marry her, solving the problem by making her family.

“Benno is desperately trying to avoid leaking any valuable information, while Karin is with equal desperation striving to gather as much as she can, so that she might become Benno’s bride,” Otto concluded. “It really is quite amusing.”

“Karin wants to marry Benno...?” I asked. I had assumed that she was just going along with her father’s decision, and as I stared in surprise, Corinna gave a dreamy smile.

“Oh, something must have happened at the end of autumn,” she said. “The look in Karin’s eyes changed completely. My brother is doing his best to keep his distance, but somehow, I get the feeling they are going to be bound by the end of winter. Watching them squabble from the sideline, it feels as though they were made for each other.”

Benno was apparently continuing a defensive war against Karin, doing everything he could to prevent her from learning about the orphanage workshop and printing in general. I was a little concerned to hear about their adorable(?) squabbling.

“Will she not learn of these things naturally while working as a lehange?” I asked. “I trust Benno, but I feel uneasy when dealing with a Klassenberg merchant, of all people.”

Just doing this business deal with the greater duchies had sent Ehrenfest into a panic. I trusted Benno’s skill, but I wasn’t sure how long he would actually be able to last.

Otto’s expression suddenly turned serious. “Worst-case scenario, Benno said that he’d even eliminate Karin, if needed. That’s how much resolve he steeled when having her live with him. He wants you and the archduke to know this, Lady Rozemyne.”

Benno wouldn’t lie about something like that; he had been fully prepared to deal with everything when he first took Karin into the Plantin Company.

“Understood,” I said. “I will leave Karin to Benno.”