Ascendance of a Bookworm (LN) - Volume 4.8 - Chapter 11

Sitting Out the Archduke Conference

Spring Prayer was over, and our full attention was already devoted to planning for the Archduke Conference. We held a discussion at the Italian restaurant with Ehrenfest’s major store owners, including Benno and the guildmaster, where we went over our findings from last year, what we had improved since, how many merchants could feasibly be taken in, and so on. We also settled some printing- and publishing-related details with the Plantin Company, including the bottom lines we needed to meet. Elvira was due to attend the Archduke Conference as a scholar of the printing industry, so we would deliver all of this information to her, whereupon she would rewrite it from a noble’s perspective.

After finishing our meeting with the lower-city residents, we returned to the castle and talked things over with Sylvester.

“These are terms that Ehrenfest must not compromise on when forming our agreement with Dunkelfelger, and these are terms that Hartmut says we can be more flexible with,” I explained. “If we can establish this as our precedent, future negotiations with other duchies will become that much easier.”

We had already ironed out the finer details with the Plantin Company, including how we would manage translation royalties and the lending, printing, and selling of any books. I would use my modern knowledge as a basis and adjust it bit by bit to suit Yurgenschmidt’s ways.

“Furthermore,” I continued, “the Merchant’s Guild advises against forming any new trade agreements. Ehrenfest simply does not have the capacity to accept more merchants from other duchies.”

Last year, we had accepted eight companies from Klassenberg and eight from the Sovereignty. We had put up our guests in high-class inns and intended to do the same this year, but twenty companies would apparently be our limit.

“So they say, but we need to increase trade if we’re going to negotiate a printing deal with Dunkelfelger,” Sylvester noted. He then scrunched up his face and added, “It’s one thing to turn down others, but turning down Dunkelfelger won’t be easy.”

“I said the same thing to the lower-city merchants,” I replied with a big nod. “We tried thinking of some good work-arounds, at which point Benno of the Plantin Company suggested that we distribute new confirmation paper. This way, we can give Dunkelfelger some of the spaces we originally would have given to Klassenberg.”

“Wait, so we’d accept fewer merchants from Klassenberg? What’s the big idea?”

I explained Benno’s thoughts. “As per my previous report, a Klassenberg merchant left his daughter in Ehrenfest upon finishing his business here. She continues to be safe thanks to the hospitality of the Plantin Company, but in Ehrenfest, hosting someone who cannot carry out their own winter preparations is by no means a simple matter.”

Starvation was a very serious risk in cases when the blizzard continued for longer than expected, which was why households needed to prepare a season’s worth of provisions and then some for each of its occupants. Hosting even one extra person meant having to acquire a great deal more food, firewood, and the like.

“We do not want Klassenberg to think we will provide for any merchant left behind or that they can use such tactics to learn more about our new products,” I said. “We must do something to ensure that the Klassenberg merchants do not repeat their mistake, which is why Benno suggested that we limit how many merchants they can send and decrease the number of companies we do business with. Each merchant from Klassenberg we reject frees up a space for a merchant from Dunkelfelger.”

We could only accommodate twenty companies this year, and if we accepted the same number from Klassenberg and the Sovereignty as before, that would only leave us with four slots. By bringing Klassenberg down to six slots, however, we could accept six companies from Dunkelfelger in total. Benno had worn a very intense smile as he suggested this; it seemed that he was finding the Karin incident to be truly irritating.

“It is up to you, Sylvester. You may elect to have each duchy send only six companies, or you can reduce this even further to five so that Drewanchel can be included as well. Ehrenfest can accept no more than twenty, but you may fill those spaces as you please.”

“Alright,” Sylvester eventually said. “I’ll give it some thought.”

Our upper limit was so low because Ehrenfest’s lower city only had so much space. As it stood, no other cities could accommodate our visitors—but we hoped to remedy this by fixing them up.

“Is Groschel still not ready?” I asked. “We would have far more leeway if other cities could house the merchants as well.”

“They’ve petitioned for entwickelns, but these things don’t happen fast.”

“I see. In that case, what if we sell the production method for rinsham at a high price, to cover for how little trade we can accommodate? Doing this will impact our duchy’s long-term profits far less than if we reveal how to make plant or identification paper. Besides, Drewanchel already seems to be researching our rinsham at length.”

We wanted to spread as many trends as we could, and it was ideal for us to prepare our cities, develop trade, and increase foot traffic as quickly as possible. The issue was that Ehrenfest wasn’t yet used to receiving visitors from other duchies, and this was causing a mountain of problems. To be frank, it was all but impossible for us to fully develop our trade right away.

“There’s no way that Ehrenfest can produce enough rinsham to supply all of Yurgenschmidt, and the rising cost of vegetable oil is already a problem within our own borders,” I said. “I truly believe that we are better off selling the production method for a high price while we still can. Ehrenfest’s future is in the printing and publishing industries, not beauty products.”

I didn’t mind surrendering rinsham to other duchies, but I wanted Ehrenfest to monopolize printing for a while longer. Printing and publishing would always drift toward the most populated areas—although it had started in Germany back on Earth, it was in Venice that it had properly flourished—but I was determined to keep our duchy at the center of them both for as long as I could.

To formulate a price for the production method, I told Sylvester the ballpark figures based on the profits we had made so far. I also added that once other duchies figured out the production method, its market value would plummet to zero.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” he said. “Anyway, what about the plan to send out Italian restaurant chefs for the Archduke Conference?”

“I consulted the Othmar Company, and they said that they can send three chefs without issue, considering the season. They will even be able to sell recipes that their chefs have invented. I traded some of my recipes for theirs, and they were quite delicious.”

After trading for Leise’s newly invented recipes, I had asked Freida if she could somehow obtain rohres from Dunkelfelger. I explained that pound cake with rohre tasted especially good, and they had decided to import some alongside vize at the next opportunity.

“I’ll think about buying new recipes later,” Sylvester said. “Right now, what matters most is getting enough chefs ready.”

Regarding the duchies we couldn’t afford to make a deal with, our plan was to sell them recipes and/or the rinsham production method, depending on how much they were willing to pay. Given how many people would be trying to make contact with Ehrenfest, we would need many chefs.

Securing more attendants was easy enough—we could always contact giebes and scrape together more from among Ehrenfest’s nobles—but the chefs had to be familiar with my recipes and skilled enough to earn a double thumbs-up. I was aware that the lack of suitable chefs had proven an issue last year, which was why I had asked Freida to put extra effort into training more. Now, we were fully prepared.

“Charlotte might be the one flooded with proposals this year,” I said, which made Sylvester twist his lips to show he was not amused. If we could continue to produce trends, thereby proving that our achievements weren’t just temporary, then it was only natural that other duchies would start wanting to form long-term bonds with us. “If she receives enough proposals that we have the leeway to choose between them, please try to respect her will as much as possible.”

Sylvester gave me a look as though he wanted to say something... but then simply lowered his eyes and nodded. “Yeah.”

Our meetings continued all the way up until the day before everyone was due to leave for the Archduke Conference. The attendants were the first to teleport, Norbert included. As the head attendant, he would be staying at the Royal Academy from the beginning of the conference until the end this year.

Incidentally, Melchior’s move to the northern building meant that the section of the main building where the archducal couple lived would be completely closed off, with everyone focusing on the Archduke Conference instead.

The next to move were the scholars and a portion of the knights. I made my way to the teleportation hall to see them off. Hartmut, who was now an adult, was leaving alongside Elvira as a scholar of the printing industry.

“I am Lady Rozemyne’s retainer, and I understand her feelings about books better than anyone,” Hartmut had said to Elvira when asking to serve as her assistant. Most printing industry scholars were laynobles to facilitate communication with commoners, but for the Archduke Conference, it was better to have archnobles to make negotiations with other duchies run more smoothly. Elvira had said that having an archnoble like Hartmut would prove very helpful.

“Thank you for assisting Mother,” I said. “I trust that you will carry out your work as skillfully as always.”

“I shall strive to meet your expectations, Lady Rozemyne.”

“With such detailed documents at hand, we will be more than fine,” Elvira said. “I, too, am very much invested in the publishing of new books. You may trust us both, Lady Rozemyne.”

This year’s negotiations would predominantly involve Ehrenfest purchasing love stories from other duchies to print in Haldenzel. Elvira was motivated, so yeah, it was surely fine to trust her.

Last to leave was the archducal couple. I said my farewells to Karstedt, who was serving as their guard knight, while Wilfried, Charlotte, and Melchior said their farewells to the archducal couple.

“We’re trusting all of you with the Mana Replenishment while we’re gone,” Sylvester said.

“Yes, Father. I will practice a lot,” Melchior replied with a nod and a smile. His response earned a chuckle from his two siblings.

“I cannot imagine you will get too many opportunities, Melchior,” Charlotte noted. “Back when I first participated in Mana Replenishment, I could not even move for some time afterward.”

“Just focus on learning to use a little more mana each time,” Wilfried added.

Upon hearing these warnings, Melchior looked up at his parents with worry in his eyes. They both agreed that he shouldn’t push himself, which only made him tense up even more.

“Everything will be fine if you listen to Bonifatius. Oh, and Ferdinand—make sure you don’t force them to meet your own crazy standards,” Sylvester said, warning Ferdinand against falling into his usual Spartan habits. These were his parting words to us, as he headed to the teleportation hall with everyone else immediately after.

“Rozemyne,” Ferdinand said, “as you are going to be balancing two courses from this year onward, you would do well to study as much as you can. You will cease to have time to socialize once you return for the Dedication Ritual.” And with that, my fate was sealed. My days in the castle this year were to be spent studying for my third-year lessons.

“Ferdinand, were you not just told that you shouldn’t hold us to your crazy standards?” I asked.

“These are not my standards but yours. There is no problem.”

Ferdinand sure is an expert at spitting sophistry with a straight face, isn’t he?

The scholar course’s written lessons wouldn’t be a problem, since I already knew the content. My concerns were about the archduke candidate course, which was said to be much tougher.

Charlotte’s eyes widened when she heard that I was going to be studying for the archduke candidate course. “Uncle,” she said, “I would like to learn alongside Sister.”

“Me too,” Wilfried added. “I can’t study for the archduke candidate course on my own, since I don’t have any study materials.”

Ferdinand stared at them for a moment, seemingly as surprised as I was; neither of us had expected that Wilfried and Charlotte would want to study as well. It was only after tapping his temples in thought for a moment that he offered a response.

“The goal of these studies is for Rozemyne to finish her classes in time for the Dedication Ritual, and I have no intention of teaching either of you content that she already knows. If you end up falling behind, then you will simply have to watch. You may attend the lessons if you agree to those terms.”

Wilfried and Charlotte were overjoyed to have received this approval—and their bright expressions weren’t lost on Melchior, who earnestly said, “I want to join too, Uncle.”

I would have approved my little brother’s participation in a heartbeat, but Ferdinand didn’t like his plans being interfered with. Wilfried and Charlotte were manageable, since he had spent several years with them already and knew how well they would listen to his instructions, but Melchior was more or less a fresh face. Ferdinand gazed down at him, his brows drawn together in a frown.

“I promise to be quiet and not get in anyone’s way,” Melchior added.

“You will be removed the very instant you break that promise,” Ferdinand replied. He spoke without the slightest trace of warmth... but he had still given his permission.

Melchior cheered with everyone, openly elated. Seeing his innocent celebrations brought a smile to my face, but Ferdinand just heaved a frustrated sigh. The fact that he had conceded to the idea despite how annoying he evidently found it showed just how much his stony heart had softened.

The old Ferdinand would have rejected Melchior on the spot and said that allowing him to participate was a waste of time, for sure.

Retainers weren’t allowed to be present for our archduke candidate course study classes in the castle, in the same way that they weren’t allowed to attend our classes in the Royal Academy. We each had one of our guard knights stand at the door, while Ferdinand dispersed the rest until fourth bell, asserting that they would be in the way otherwise.

“That reminds me—who are the professors for the archduke candidate course when archduke candidates can’t move to the Sovereignty?” I asked. It was even more of a burning question now that we were in a classroom of only archduke candidates. “Do the lessons even have professors?”

Ferdinand, who had been preparing the usual feystones, narrowed his eyes as he thought back on his own experiences. “In my day, it was a royal—that, or a former archduke candidate married to royalty. At the time, there were many who could fulfill the role of professor... but now, I am not so sure.”

As we were aware, the civil war had resulted in a drastic reduction in the number of royals. It seemed that not even Ferdinand knew who would be teaching us.

“You will see for yourself when you go to the Royal Academy,” Ferdinand concluded. “For now, let us begin by separating the elements of mana. You will not be able to move on to archduke candidate practical lessons until you are able to do this.”

Apparently, separating mana like this was something that all third-years were taught to do. One would divide it according to its elements and then reform it.

“As you know, it is easiest to control mana for which you have an aptitude,” Ferdinand said. He went on to explain that most laynobles didn’t have many elements in their mana, which made splitting and fusing it quite the challenge. That said, those with only a single element could quite easily separate it from given bits of mana.

“Archnobles and archduke candidates, in contrast, have many elements,” Ferdinand continued. “They often find it easy to combine mana of their elements once taught how to, but they have great difficulty removing elements from their own mana, which is normally mixed within them at all times.”

Feystones of each element were prepared for us, and we touched them one by one to understand the feeling of pulling mana of a singular element. We were then tasked with making a feystone while trying to keep the mana of separate elements from mixing.

“If you learn to control your mana freely, then you will be able to fill an empty feystone with mana of a pure, singular element,” Ferdinand said. “The especially dexterous will even be able to replace the element of a feystone entirely. Separating elements from feystones acquired from fey creatures will also become a trivial matter.”

I touched the feystone I was provided with and got to work separating the elements of my mana, but when I showed my attempt to Ferdinand...

“They are mixed. Do it again.”

The three of us received the same disheartening response over and over again. Charlotte was the first to tap out, as she was the least used to controlling her mana. She had also only recently learned to use mana compression, which meant she had the smallest capacity of us all. Wilfried was trying his best, but he also dropped out once he started feeling sick.

“Drink a rejuvenation potion and recover your mana,” Ferdinand instructed. “There is Mana Replenishment to be carried out after dinner.”

Wilfried mumbled something in response while reaching for a rejuvenation potion on his belt.

“You presumably have mana to spare, Rozemyne,” Ferdinand said. “Focus.”

I focused on my feystone, while Ferdinand glared at me. The task he had given us was surprisingly hard, since controlling one’s elements felt nothing like controlling one’s mana in general.

Maybe I can base this on an established method for separating a mixed substance, I thought, racking my brain for ideas. The clearer a visual one had, the easier it was to control one’s mana. Separation... Separation... A centrifuge, maybe? Oh! Back in high school, we learned about paper chromatography during biology! Can I use that knowledge here?

In the end, I decided to swing my hand around and picture the elements going into different fingers.

“Rozemyne, what is that hand motion?” Ferdinand asked.

“My way of visualizing the separation process. I’m separating my mana while doing this.”

“It is... unsightly.”

Ferdinand thought very little of my idea, but I didn’t care; it ended up working like a charm.

Mana Replenishment was performed after dinner, though it seemed to have been quite a struggle. Charlotte was just going to be sitting and watching any of our practical lessons that required mana from tomorrow onward, though she would participate fully in any that didn’t.

“Once you have learned to separate and combine mana, what comes next is neutralizing feystones with mana and turning them to gold dust,” Ferdinand said. “Of course, as you have mistakenly done this countless times already, Rozemyne, there is no need for me to teach you. We shall instead move on to practicing entwickeln.”

Ferdinand was holding a small box containing the kind of feystones used for foundational magic. In class, students were tasked with using them to create a miniature city—but in order to accomplish that, one first needed to draw a blueprint of sorts.

“In practice, the most common approach is to use existing buildings and make only small changes to them,” Ferdinand said. “One cannot risk failing when it comes to a large-scale effort such as creation magic. Not to mention, trying to prepare blueprints from scratch is an exhausting endeavor.”

One could always have scholars help with the blueprints, but it was absolutely crucial that an archduke be knowledgeable enough to identify any potential errors. Thus, we were all made to practice drawing them together. Our first task was to make our ideal room.

“I’m good at blueprints,” Wilfried crowed as he eagerly got to work. He was presumably designing something from scratch, whereas Charlotte intended to recreate her existing room in excruciating detail. Melchior was holding his pen with a smile, but given how shaky his lines were, his attempt probably wouldn’t function as a room.

My ideal room, hm?

The first thing that came to mind was a room with bookcases on every wall and an abundance of reading material on every shelf—my own personal library from my Urano days. It reminded me of my inglorious death back then, and I couldn’t help but groan. It was weird just thinking about it.

“Rozemyne, is this truly that difficult for you?” Ferdinand asked.

“The first room I envisioned was overflowing with books,” I replied, “but then I imagined them all tumbling down and crushing me to death, which made me question whether it truly is ideal...”

“In any case, complete the blueprint in time for our lesson tomorrow.”

Ferdinand dismissed my agonizing with a cold remark and set the question as my homework. This brought us all the way up to fourth bell, which marked the end of our class for the day.

We all made our way to the dining hall for lunch. Bonifatius was surely struggling as he dealt with the office all on his own, but he was helping out anyway. As we ate, he said that not offering his assistance would have been shameful, especially when I was coming first-in-class while doing temple work on top of everything else.

“I will strive to meet your expectations, Grandfather.”

Even while eating lunch, my head was filled with thoughts of a book-filled room. My top priority had to be ensuring that the books wouldn’t fall from their shelves during an earthquake. Everything else could come later.

As I continued to mull things over, the door to the dining hall opened. It seemed that we had a visitor. “Lord Ferdinand, there has been an urgent summons from the Archduke Conference,” the messenger said. “Please head to the Royal Academy at once.”

Our preparations for the Archduke Conference had been severely lacking last year, but even then, none of us had received a summons. Ferdinand appeared gravely serious as he quickly finished his meal, while Justus instructed the attendant and the knights with him.

“Bonifatius, if you will excuse me, I must depart. I leave the rest to you.”

“Go on. I’ll take care of them.”

Ferdinand exited the dining hall at a brisk walk. It was unusual to see him in such a rush, and I could hear the drone of urgent conversation outside the room after he went. My heart pounded in my chest; his harsh expression had somehow resembled the one he had made when facing down the Sovereign knight commander in the Royal Academy’s library, which made me feel even more uneasy than I could put into words.

Apparently, Ferdinand returned the same night he was summoned. Our lessons continued the next day as though nothing had happened, and seeing his usual stony face in all its expressionless glory made me sigh in relief. It was a quiet sigh, of course; I didn’t want to risk him hearing me.

“So, why did you get summoned yesterday?” I asked.

“It does not matter. It is over,” Ferdinand replied, but he was clearly more displeased than usual.

Our lesson continued, but the atmosphere was exceedingly tense. Melchior seemed to be a little frightened by the intensity that Ferdinand exuded, while Wilfried was wearing a stiff expression, trying to gauge how our teacher was feeling.

Eventually, it came time for us to have lunch. Bonifatius must have had exactly the same thought as me when he saw what an absolute state Ferdinand was in, as he asked, “Ferdinand, what incident brought you to the Archduke Conference yesterday?”

“It is over.”

“It does not seem ‘over’ to me,” Bonifatius replied with a glare. “Something is weighing on you, I assume. Spit it out.”

Ferdinand sighed. “Ahrensbach has petitioned the king for a male archduke candidate of adult or near adult age to be married into their duchy.”

“Wait, what?” I asked. “Would they be marrying Lady Detlinde?”

“Who else?” Ferdinand asked, fixing me with a stern look that made me shut my mouth at once. He had a good point—Ahrensbach only had two archduke candidates. One was Detlinde, and the other was a little girl called Letizia, who was too young to even be attending the Royal Academy.

“They requested it, but we declined for several reasons,” Ferdinand continued. “My absence would leave Ehrenfest with even fewer adult archducal family members; I am your guardian; my relationship with Veronica... No woman from Ahrensbach would make for an equal trade, as there are none who can take my place and work as a representative archduke.”

It seemed that Sylvester had valiantly fought against Ahrensbach’s archducal couple and refused their petition. In response, they had expressed their suspicion that Ferdinand was still suffering from Veronica’s grudge against him, since he was continuing to serve in the temple.

“Georgine ultimately asked for me to share my stance in person, as she thought it obvious that I would rather be married to the next aub of a greater duchy than continue serving as the High Priest against my supposed will in Ehrenfest.”

So, that was why Ferdinand was summoned.

“But you aren’t serving as the High Priest against your will, are you?”

“Hence why I am saying the matter is over.”

This response calmed me down... but several days later, Ferdinand was summoned again, this time by the king. I saw him off, sympathizing with his struggle of getting dragged to and fro. He shook his head with exasperation and stepped onto the teleporter to the Royal Academy.

“He’s been gone a lot longer than last time...” I mused aloud. “Has he gotten caught up in something?”

Two days had passed since Ferdinand had been summoned, but he still hadn’t returned. We couldn’t continue our preparatory lessons for the archduke candidate course without him, so I was being made to practice sewing for my bridal training and focus on my harspiel practice. To be honest, studying for my practical lessons sounded way more preferable.

“Rihyarda, could Grandfather not teach me?” I asked.

“Lord Bonifatius has his own work to do as the acting archduke,” she replied. “He does not have time to spend on your extracurricular lessons.” The duchy’s key scholars were going to the Archduke Conference, and there weren’t many scholars staying behind in general, so he was apparently in quite a rough situation.

“I shall assist him, then.”

“You cannot fool me, milady. You are making the same face that Lord Sylvester makes when attempting to escape his duties.”

Eep. She saw right through me.

I had no hope of deceiving Rihyarda when she had spent decades honing her eyes and keeping Sylvester, a regular offender, from running away yet again. In other words, I would need to rely on a more direct attack.

“Rihyarda, I would rather read than sew, even if the book is not an enjoyable one. I just want to prepare for my next year at the Royal Academy. Please do allow me to read.”

“Lady Rozemyne has to leave partway through the term for the Dedication Ritual, so she needs to study at every opportunity,” Philine and Roderick added, trying to back me up. “Also bear in mind that she’s taking both the scholar course and the archduke course next year.”

Rihyarda shot the idea down with a stern expression. “She finished studying for the scholar course at the Royal Academy, if you recall, and studying for the archduke candidate course is on hold until my boy Ferdinand returns. Tell me, what will she even be preparing for?”

I slumped my shoulders. Rihyarda had an unrivaled understanding of all my activities in the Royal Academy, meaning I had no choice but to continue my embroidering.

Bonifatius joined us for dinner, as per usual. He looked exhausted, maybe because he was having to shoulder all the work alone without Ferdinand here to help.

“Grandfather, are you doing okay on your own?” I asked. “I can always help out, if you like.”

“No, no. There’s no need to worry. I am fine,” Bonifatius replied, dismissing the idea with a wave. Then, he looked up with a start. “Hrm... Wait. I... I see. You would help me, Rozemyne?”

“Yes. I assist Ferdinand with his work in the temple, and Sylvester in the winter, so I do believe I can be of at least some help to you.”

“Rozemyne, you’ve been helping Father in the winter?” Wilfried asked, staring at me in surprise. I explained the situation to him—that I had been summoned back to Ehrenfest quite some time before the Dedication Ritual and had assisted Sylvester in the interim—at which point he turned to Bonifatius with determined eyes. “Lord Bonifatius, I would like to help as well. At this rate, Rozemyne will take all the archduke work for herself.”

“Worry not—I shall do nothing of the sort,” I replied. “In fact, I would prefer that you take my share of archduke duties as well. My ultimate aim is to read, not work—do take care to remember that.”

In any case, I didn’t expect them to have the leeway to educate Wilfried when they were already suffering from a lack of manpower. I watched as Bonifatius fell into thought for a moment and then nodded.

“Very well, then,” Bonifatius said. “If you’re to be the next archduke, then you’ll need to learn this work sooner rather than later. Sylvester struggled a great deal due to his father passing away while he was still so young.” He had very deftly omitted the fact that Sylvester’s struggle was mostly related to his tendency to shy away from his work.

Wilfried was motivated, so it was decided that he and his scholars would all help out as well. Bonifatius was confident that having adult scholars on board would ensure that the process went smoothly.

“I admire your willingness to train a successor while you’re so busy yourself, Grandfather,” I said. “I cannot help but view you in contrast to Ferdinand, who immediately cuts off anyone he deems to be useless.”

Ferdinand was still quite new to the idea of training successors. He had started off with Kampfer and Frietack in the temple, but even then, he tended to do all the work on his own, since it was much faster. There was no way he would take the time to teach a kid while caught up in such an extremely busy period.

“I see. So you admire me, huh?” Bonifatius muttered, nodding to himself again and again with a broad grin.

Melchior raised a clenched fist into the air and said, “I want to help too!”

“I understand that you wish to join us,” Charlotte interjected, “but you are still too young to help Lord Bonifatius.”

Upon hearing this, Melchior slumped over in disappointment. “I know that I’ll only slow things down, but I want to be with all of you...”

“I am sure there are some things that Melchior can help with,” I said.

Charlotte let out a sigh. “Sister, it will take you and Lord Bonifatius quite some time just to find work for him to do. Melchior, please sit this one out. In return, you may study in the corner of the office. I will sit nearby to ensure that you do not interfere. Will that suffice?”

I was moved—Charlotte had put forward precisely the kind of solution that a big sister would come up with to help her little brother after living with him for such a long time. I was a fake in comparison; I tried to grant Melchior’s wishes in any way that I could, but Charlotte actually acknowledged and respected the feelings behind them, even when she refused him. When it came to our big sister power levels, she was miles above me.

“I accept this,” Bonifatius said. “Study well, son.”

“Sir!” Melchior replied happily.

Charlotte watched on with a warm smile that reminded me of the one that so often graced Florencia’s lips. It left no room for doubt that they were mother and daughter.

We started helping Bonifatius in the afternoon the very next day. We had spent the morning focused on our studies, and after finishing my harspiel and dedication whirl practice, I headed straight to the archduke’s office. Our presence would probably make things harder to begin with, so I needed to delegate the workloads as much as I could in the morning.

“This work here can be done by Wilfried, this by Charlotte, this by Melchior, and this by me and my retainers,” I said. “As for this work, I am afraid you will need to do it yourself, Grandfather. Of course, Charlotte and Melchior are only here to study today, but as their scholars are present as well, do not hesitate to distribute work to them.”

Bonifatius’s eyes widened at the now-organized mountain of paperwork. “You know what level of work their retainers are capable of doing?” he asked.

“Not exactly,” I replied. “I only know the ability of the apprentice scholars I’ve seen working in the Royal Academy. I intend to use today to gauge how the others do, and if they perform well, we may trust them with more work from tomorrow onward.”

I didn’t really know how much work Wilfried’s scholars could be trusted with, so the pile for my retainers was taller than any other. Considering how fast my retinue worked in the temple, however, I was fairly confident that they could have this workload finished by the end of the day.

Once the work was distributed among archduke candidates, I started distributing mine among my retainers. “These are for Roderick, these are for Philine, these are also for Philine, these are for Roderick, these are for Damuel...”

“Wait, Rozemyne,” Bonifatius said. “Was that not a knight’s name?”

“Hm? Yes, but I don’t see that as an issue; all of my knights, save for Angelica, do the work of scholars in the temple. Erm... Or is that a problem in the castle?”

Damuel wasn’t the only knight capable of doing scholar work—Cornelius, Leonore, and Judithe all helped out in the High Priest’s office when I was there.

“Hmm...” Bonifatius frowned. “There’s no precedent for using knights as scholars, but it shouldn’t be an issue during the Archduke Conference. Given the shortage of manpower, I can’t imagine anyone protesting. We should use what we can.” He had a surprisingly flexible attitude, and my affection points for him were shooting up.

“I am glad that we get to work together, Grandfather.”

We all spent the afternoon doing our work, but the archduke’s office wasn’t big enough to hold Bonifatius, Wilfried, Charlotte, Melchior, me, and all of our retainers at once. For this reason, we moved to a meeting room and worked there instead. Charlotte was busy watching Melchior practice math.

Bonifatius turned to Melchior’s retainers and said, “If you all do your work properly, Melchior will not feel so useless. Your tasks today are for the sake of your lord. Do them well.”

It wasn’t long before Charlotte’s and Melchior’s retainers were delving into their paperwork for the day. Bonifatius was instructing Wilfried’s scholars as they continued their work.

“Now then, I suppose we should begin as well,” I said.

“Do we really have to do scholar work here too?” Cornelius asked with a grimace. “The other guard knights are either standing behind their archduke candidate or guarding the door, like Angelica.”

“There is only a manpower shortage during the Archduke Conference,” I replied. “Lord Bonifatius said that he will allow this.”

My retainers had so much more work to do than anyone else, but we got through it much faster because my guard knights were helping and we were all so used to the process from our experience in the temple. The other scholars were having to learn new things to get the work done.

“I have finished this, Lady Rozemyne,” Leonore said. “May I ask you to look it over?”

“Is the math here correct?” Judithe asked.

“This part... Hm, the flow of money doesn’t seem quite right. We should investigate it carefully,” Damuel said, having discovered what seemed to be embezzlement. We ultimately decided to wait until Sylvester and the others got back before looking into it any further.

At fifth bell, we took an extended break and enjoyed the tea and sweets that our attendants brought in for us.

“You’re all so amazing. I want to be useful soon too...” Melchior said, looking at me with respect in his eyes while eating a sweet. Receiving such praise from my little brother really did warm my heart. I needed to keep up the hard work now and forever.

“Ferdinand certainly is putting your knights through their paces at the temple, huh?” Bonifatius asked. “To be honest, I never thought knights could manage to do scholar work so effectively.”

“Back at the Royal Academy, I kept hearing that her scholars are on another level than mine, but I never thought her knights would be this impressive too,” Wilfried said. Charlotte was nodding along with him.

“Lord Wilfried, it is not the duty of a knight to do paperwork. Please do not take after Lady Rozemyne and start making unreasonable requests of us,” Lamprecht said, eliciting a firm nod of agreement from Cornelius. “There is much you can learn from observing how Lady Rozemyne trains her scholars, but you should allow your knights to stick to their own duties.”

“Indeed,” Bonifatius added. “Wilfried, you must have your scholars do more work.”

Wilfried shook his head in protest and said, “But I am. They are doing more printing work by the day.”

It was true that printing was going to be Ehrenfest’s primary industry going forward, but Wilfried wasn’t actually that involved with it. Out of all of our retainers, the only one deemed fit enough to accompany Sylvester to the Archduke Conference was Hartmut.

“If you are motivated, then I can ask Elvira to send more and more work your way,” I said. “Most of the scholars involved in the printing industry are laynobles, and she has been talking about wanting to have more archnobles and mednobles to bring to future conferences. Perhaps you could train them in preparation for next year?”

Our plan was to announce printed goods during next year’s Archduke Conference, and chaos was bound to ensue. The more people we had there, the better.

“If we can send as many of our adult retainers as possible, I am sure it will make all the difference for us in the future,” I continued. “It will also be heartening for our retainers to have a grasp on how the Archduke Conference functions before we must go there ourselves. I am very much looking forward to Hartmut’s report.”

Wilfried looked over his own retainers, a competitive fire burning in his eyes. “Alright,” he said. “I’ll make sure mine are good enough to attend the Archduke Conference next year.”

Okay! Perfect! New recruits for the printing industry!

We got used to the new work over the next few days and soon reached the point where we could talk casually during breaks. According to Cornelius, the grades of the apprentice knights were steadily rising thanks to the Rozemyne Mana Compression Method.

“Matthias is very impressive, then, for keeping up with them while working so desperately to compress his mana on his own.”

Leonore nodded. “He can give orders in my place and possesses more mana than average for a mednoble. We would ask you to take him as a retainer, but he is unfortunately of the former Veronica faction,” she said with a troubled smile. “We have been struggling to find a suitable guard knight to replace Traugott.”

“Gerlach’s son, hm?” Bonifatius asked with a grimace. “Rozemyne, no matter how skilled this boy is, and no matter how much you might wish for his service, you must not take him as a retainer unless he gives you his name. He is too dangerous otherwise.”

The way that Bonifatius spoke made it sound as though he knew something that I didn’t. I gazed at him quizzically, urging him to elaborate, but he just shook his head and repeated that the former Veronica faction was dangerous before changing the topic.

“More importantly—your mana compression method is something else, Rozemyne. Well done for thinking that one up,” Bonifatius said, describing how much progress the knights were making amid some generous words of praise. “That layknight guard of yours”—he glanced over at Damuel—“probably wouldn’t have lasted this long if not for that technique. He was lucky that his growth period ended so late, and when coupled with your mana compression method, it meant he could increase his mana capacity far more than anyone would expect from a laynoble.”

I seemed to recall my omega blessing being the primary reason for Damuel making so much progress, not his late growth period, but that was a secret between Karstedt and me.

“Is Damuel still growing?” I asked.

“No, his capacity has been relatively stagnant over the past year or two. No matter how late it started, his growing period must have stopped by now. Of course, that just means his vessel has stopped developing. He can keep compressing his mana to fit more into the space he’s working with, and he can get better at fighting by using his noggin.”

It seemed that Damuel now had the average mana capacity of a low- or mid-tier mednoble. Considering how small it had originally been, that was a massive upgrade.

“I wouldn’t expect any more dramatic improvements from him,” Bonifatius continued. “The boy’s reached his peak. Knowing this, will you still use him as your guard knight?”

I noticed Damuel tightly clench his fist out of the corner of my eye and nodded at once. “His mana is not his main strength. If not for Damuel, my retainers would not be anywhere near as organized as they are now. I have no intention of relieving him of duty, whether that be now or in the future.”

“I see. Then I will continue whipping him into shape.”

Damuel met this news with a hard expression, but he would suffer even more without Bonifatius’s training. The road ahead was going to be tough for him, so I wanted him to keep working hard. He knew too many of my secrets; if circumstances ever led to him being let go, there was a very real chance that everyone around me would try to silence him for good. I didn’t want to have to stress over that.

“Please whip the other apprentice guard knights into shape as well. They are now coordinating more, but they still fail to understand the contribution scoring system,” I said, explaining Judithe’s reaction to the fish slaughtering.

“I see,” Bonifatius replied. He looked over the gathered apprentice knights with a wide grin. “Seems like I’ll need to rethink their training.”

“Grandfather, what was the Royal Academy like when you were there?” I asked on another day. The civil war had resulted in many tremendous changes, and things were now very different from when Ferdinand had attended. I was wondering whether going all the way back to Bonifatius’s years would reveal even more dissimilarities.

I mentioned the old diary that Solange had allowed me to borrow and the various ways that things had changed compared to when it was written. Then, I asked Bonifatius what he remembered about his days in the Royal Academy.

“The Academy, huh?” he said. “The most I remember is people running around for treasure-stealing ditter.”

According to Bonifatius, the scholars would desperately start making rejuvenation potions from the very moment they learned how to—and when they weren’t making such potions, they were creating magic tools necessary for ditter. Attendants would focus on the information war, with some even flying around on highbeasts to refill magic tools and the knights’ rejuvenation potions. My initial assumption had been that Bonifatius was the type of person to charge ahead of everyone else to strike first in battle, but as an archduke candidate, he had instead focused on taking command and moving troops.

“Of course, I made sure to show off the power of my fists whenever the opportunity arose,” Bonifatius made sure to note. He went on to explain that he had been friends with archnobles from Dunkelfelger and the now-gone Werkestock, and that he had sometimes taken the apprentice knights out hunting. “Oh, that reminds me—I once destroyed a shrine on the Academy’s grounds in the heat of a ditter game.”

“That’s terrible!” I exclaimed. “Wait, so is one of the Academy’s twenty mysteries actually about you?! The one about the delinquent students who played pranks at the shrines to the gods dotting the Royal Academy’s grounds?!”

“No, no. A story like that can’t be about me,” Bonifatius said, rushing to defend himself. “I only broke one, and I reported it immediately. It should be repaired by now. On a more important note, what’s this about twenty mysteries? It’s news to me.”

I didn’t expect him to know about it, but I told him one of the twenty mysteries I had heard from Solange. Melchior and Charlotte, among others, listened with great interest.

“Wait, what do you mean it should be repaired by now?” I asked. “Did you not check, Grandfather?”

“It’s not my fault. There are rarely any opportunities to return to the Royal Academy after you graduate.”

Rihyarda chuckled as she refreshed my tea. “You mustn’t be deceptive, Lord Bonifatius. Did you not visit the Royal Academy every year for the Archduke Conference when serving the previous archduke as the knight commander?”

“Rihyarda!” Bonifatius exclaimed with an awkward grimace. She was about his age, meaning she was old enough to know his past—and his secrets.

“I shall check on the shrine in your place then,” I said. “Do you remember where it was?”

“Hm... I would expect it to be covered in snow during the winter. It should only be visible during the Archduke Conference, when the grounds are clear.”

In short, I was unlikely to be able to find it while I was actually at the Royal Academy. How unfortunate. Incidentally, I took this opportunity to ask him whether he knew anything about the forbidden archive.

“I can’t say I recognize that name,” he replied. “I always sent scholars to get what I needed from the library and never went there myself.”

To me, Bonifatius had always come across as something of a maverick who would break boundaries wherever he went... but it turned out that he had been a surprisingly ordinary archduke candidate.

“Lord Bonifatius,” Rihyarda interjected, “would it not be more accurate to say that you rarely used the library at all?”

“Rihyarda.”

Bonifatius fell into a sullen silence. His pouty expression was admittedly quite cute, and everyone who had been listening couldn’t help but laugh. It turned out that it was hard to talk about your past when someone who shared that knowledge was standing nearby.