Ascendance of a Bookworm (LN) - Volume 4.8 - Chapter 19

The Welcoming Feast

A short while after the peak of summer, Georgine and Detlinde’s entourage arrived in Ehrenfest. Carriages appeared one after another, and out of each stepped a variety of retainers. I could see Raimund among them, presumably as a result of our request for his attendance.

Servants carried in gifts for Ehrenfest by the boxload, while two women wearing Ahrensbach veils alighted from one of the carriages. Formal greetings would take place at the welcoming feast later tonight.

I pray that this visit ends peacefully... unlike the last one.

We couldn’t let our guard down; Georgine’s previous visit had seemed a success at the time, but then the former Veronica faction had caused the Ivory Tower incident and attacked Charlotte and me not long after. I slapped my cheeks to keep myself alert.

It seemed that I wasn’t the only one feeling tense—my guard knights were especially on edge, since they had failed to protect me last time. Cornelius was wearing the furthest thing from a friendly smile, while Damuel checked all the locks on our doors and windows for any foul play. As for Angelica, she had relentlessly practiced the motions necessary to draw Stenluke even while wearing formal attire. Judithe and Leonore seemed nervous as well.

The welcoming feast began after sixth bell.

Hugo and Ella were our chefs for the day, and they had put their all into making a range of Ehrenfest dishes. Our cuisine could quite easily be described as some of the trendiest in Yurgenschmidt at the moment. Most of what we were serving had already been shown during the Archduke Conference, so we didn’t need to be too secretive, but we had also added a few undisclosed items to the menu to advertise our duchy as an even more valuable partner. Sylvester had said that it was essential we show just how much Ferdinand was worth.

The plan was for the Ahrensbach group to enter after the archducal family, starting with Georgine and Detlinde. All of the archduke candidates in the northern building had been told to gather together and move as one.

It was rare for us to have visitors from other duchies at the castle, and it was a first for both Charlotte and Melchior. I wasn’t worried about Charlotte, since she was already expertly socializing with nobles of other duchies at the Royal Academy, but Melchior barely had any experience to rely on. Not even a year had passed since his baptism, and as it stood, he was just like Wilfried when Georgine had previously visited.

“Melchior,” Wilfried said, “don’t utter a word more than what you absolutely have to. Speak the greeting we discussed and nothing else.”

“Yes, Brother.”

Wilfried was being quite firm, not wanting his younger brother to make the same mistake he had made before. Melchior listened with a solemn expression as Wilfried explained the trouble he had caused in the past.

“Do you know whether Lord Ferdinand prepared a new feystone?” Brunhilde asked in a whisper, her voice tinged with concern. Given all the ingredients in his workshop, it wouldn’t have taken him long to make something according to Ahrensbach’s specifications, but I imagined that he probably hadn’t.

“He will manage somehow,” I said. “He did seem confident.”

He had flatly declared that he could solve any issues with a smile and some honeyed words, which I took to mean an over-the-top expression and a horrifyingly clichéd one-liner. It was going to be such a strange contrast to his usual stone-faced persona that I started to worry my sides might explode from laughing too hard.

Ferdinand was already in the grand hall when we arrived, speaking with the nobles congratulating him with a perfect fake smile. He looked so kind and gentle—and so unlike his usual self—that I wanted to shout “LIAR!!!” at the top of my lungs. Wilfried and Charlotte could only stare in awe; they likewise knew how harsh Ferdinand was after our lessons together.

“Uncle’s socializing face sure is something else.”

“Indeed. One cannot see even a trace of the dry expression he wears while giving out work and checking the results,” Charlotte added. “He is an excellent example not just for brewing and administrative work, but for socializing as well.”

I certainly didn’t want her trying to become more like Ferdinand, but I couldn’t bring myself to say it out loud. Still, if you start walking around all deadpan and giving such fake smiles while you’re socializing with others, I’ll cry! I swear I will, Charlotte!

“Rozemyne, Wilfried, Charlotte, Melchior. You all wait here.”

“Lord Bonifatius.”

“I don’t usually attend formal meetings with other duchies to make it clear I’m retired, but I was asked to be here to serve as your guard,” Bonifatius explained. He then puffed out his chest and said, “Stay close, so I can protect all of you at once.”

After hearing this impassioned declaration, Angelica and Cornelius casually moved to protect me from Bonifatius.

“We are here today to welcome our esteemed guests from Ahrensbach,” Sylvester said, officially marking the beginning of the feast. The doors of the hall were opened at once, and in came Georgine and Detlinde, with their retinue trailing behind. They were both wearing veils, although they were thin to the point of seeming transparent—perhaps because it was summer.

Georgine carried herself with all the boldness of a queen, as usual, while Detlinde walked a few paces behind, smiling sweetly at the surrounding nobles. The nobles responded with friendly expressions while murmuring among themselves.

“Now that I see her, that girl really does look like a spitting image of a young Veronica,” Bonifatius said quietly from the corner where we archducal family members were waiting.

“You think so too?” Wilfried asked.

I hadn’t actually met Veronica, so I couldn’t offer any thoughts on the matter, but Bonifatius had known her since her baptism and considered the two of them to look exactly alike.

Is Ferdinand going to be okay?

I turned my attention to Ferdinand, who was on the stage alongside his retainers, the archducal couple, and their retainers. Detlinde gave him an affectionate smile, which he returned in kind. To most, it must have looked like he was rejoicing over his engagement and welcoming our guests from Ahrensbach. No one would guess that he felt sick just looking at her.

At this very moment, Ferdinand was demonstrating the same advice he had always given me for living as a noble: do everything with a smile, no matter how much you hate it, and show absolutely no weaknesses or openings to those around you. I wondered whether he would find somewhere in Ahrensbach where he could at least have a little peace and quiet. The thought of him living in another duchy, always having to hide his true feelings behind that fake smile, made my heart ache.

I really hope he can get along with Detlinde. The last thing I want is for his life to be spent in nothing but misery.

After ascending the stage, Georgine and Detlinde exchanged greetings with the archducal couple. Melchior and Charlotte then followed with Bonifatius, since this was Charlotte’s first time meeting Georgine, Bonifatius’s first time meeting Detlinde, and Melchior’s first time meeting them both.

“May I pray for a blessing in appreciation of this serendipitous meeting, ordained by the vibrant summer rays of Leidenschaft the God of Fire?”

“You may.”

Melchior blessed Georgine as well, then stepped down from the stage at once. He returned to where I was, then boasted that he had done exactly as instructed.

“You did very well,” I said, mussing his hair.

Once the greetings were done, Georgine began speaking about Ferdinand and Detlinde’s wedding as the representative of Ahrensbach.

“By the king’s grace, we are granted this opportunity for a close relationship between our two duchies. I am overjoyed that my daughter Detlinde will take someone as exceptionally wise and skilled as Lord Ferdinand. Of all the nobles in Yurgenschmidt, he was chosen by the king as the best candidate to support Aub Ahrensbach in these trying times, when we have only female archduke candidates in our care.”

From there, Georgine casually mentioned that every greater duchy agreed it was a crime to let someone as accomplished as Ferdinand rot away in the temple—an obvious criticism of Sylvester.

She’s acting the same as before—politely dunking on Sylvester with a smile—but she seems far livelier this time...

“Now, the feystone,” Georgine said.

Detlinde nodded and gracefully started toward Ferdinand. Walking half a step behind her was her apprentice attendant Martina, holding a small box.

Ferdinand swiftly knelt, prompting Eckhart and Justus to do the same, their heads lowered. Then, once everyone was ready, Martina carefully and gently opened the box. Detlinde took the feystone from within and presented it to her future husband.

“The supreme King and Queen of the heavens have ordained this union,” she said, starting the greeting that turned into effusive praise for the gods. I could actually decipher her words, since they were partly taken from the bible. If my understanding was correct, she had just said something to the tune of “Your life is in my hands, and only I can save you; do show me the utmost gratitude.”

I’m not the most confident when it comes to noble euphemisms, but given how Ferdinand just smiled even harder and Justus subtly moved to hold down Eckhart, I’m probably not too far off the mark.

“I offer this feystone to my God of Darkness,” Detlinde concluded.

Ferdinand respectfully accepted the feystone being offered to him, placed it inside a box that Justus had prepared, then held out his own feystone. “O my Goddess of Light...” he began in a gentle voice and with a saccharine smile. His actions were straight out of the romantic knight stories that Elvira held so close to heart.

The women present all sharply inhaled at once. It was easy to see that there were many passionate readers of Elvira’s books in the grand hall.

“From amidst the eternal darkness shone a solitary light,” Ferdinand said, continuing his lengthy speech in a low, resounding voice. It seemed that his words weren’t taken from the bible, so I didn’t have a clue what he was saying. I might have stood more of a chance with a transcript and enough time, but I simply couldn’t keep up otherwise.

I don’t understand... It’s kind of poetic, I guess? He said something about light dancing among the flowers when the darkness passed... so he’s probably expressing happiness? Right...

Elvira didn’t know what Ferdinand actually thought about the situation, but she listened with a combination of a dreamy gaze and a sharp glare. I was confident that his words today would appear verbatim in a love story before long. I would use that opportunity to actually decode them.

Although these “honeyed words” were incomprehensible to me, Elvira and the others were positively enraptured, while Detlinde was listening with flushed cheeks and tearful eyes.

“Brunhilde, is the feystone acceptable?” I asked.

She nodded carefully and explained what Ferdinand was saying. In summary: “I am truly glad to have been engaged to you. In order to show my resolve to overcome any challenge for the sake of our marriage, I have secured a feystone of all elements.” From there, he had emphasized what great lengths he had gone to for each ingredient.

“It seems that he gathered the rarest materials he could despite their engagement having been decided only a short time ago,” Brunhilde noted. “And when he puts it like that, his feystone is the embodiment of sincerity.”

The heck?! I totally would have fallen for that if he hadn’t already told me how he really feels! Never trust Ferdinand when he smiles! Never! He’s so scary!

“Oh my... To think you would go so far for my sake, Lord Ferdinand...” Detlinde’s green eyes were brimming with tears as she accepted the proposal feystone, looking like a young maiden who was truly smitten.

Aah! Detlinde fell for his trick! I mean, this is what we wanted... but I still feel pretty bad for her. I want to yell out that she’s being deceived.

But almost nobody could recognize my pain. Ferdinand stood, having made every woman in the hall more or less swoon. The audience clapped to bless the engaged couple on the stage before shining their schtappes, and with that, it was time to socialize.

Georgine was surrounded at once by the former Veronica faction. This was the point when Ferdinand would circle the hall and greet everyone with his new fiancée, so he was surrounded by them as well. His fake smile was in full force, to the point that I started to worry he wouldn’t be able to maintain it. I couldn’t make any overt moves myself, though. Instead, I scanned the hall—and that was when I discovered Raimund wandering around aimlessly.

“Raimund,” Hartmut called out.

Raimund quickly approached with a smile. “I was ordered to come at the last moment,” he said, “but I’ve been a bit worried, since I’m only close with a few of the others. I was surprised enough to learn about Lord Ferdinand getting engaged to Lady Detlinde, but I thought I was going to pass out when I heard that he plans to take me as a retainer.”

Serving as his retainer meant serving the archducal family directly, and such a role would secure Raimund a much better position in his own family, where he had mostly been ignored. This was an excellent opportunity to most, but for someone who wanted to focus on research and nothing else, it was actually quite troublesome.

“I am relieved to know that Ferdinand will have a familiar face with him in Ahrensbach,” I said. “Please do look after him there; do not simply indulge in research and lose sight of your health.”

Raimund gave a troubled smile, evidently unable to promise that. I couldn’t blame him, though—I would have reacted the same way when it came to books. Still, this was all the more reason for me to record some reprimands for Ferdinand to take with him to Ahrensbach.

“Incidentally, I was speaking with Ferdinand the other day about your next task to complete.”

“Please go on,” Raimund replied, his eyes sparkling. He listened intently as I explained our idea of modifying sound-recording magic tools to be smaller, then said, “I cannot say much without any blueprints or the tool itself, but this does seem interesting.” I detected a healthy dose of optimism in his voice.

“Hopefully you have the chance to speak with Ferdinand during this visit,” I said. “That may be a challenge, though, since he has so many prior engagements.”

“Rozemyne,” came a familiar voice; Ferdinand was suddenly standing beside us with Detlinde in tow. “I have invited Lady Detlinde to my estate, but it would be unacceptable for us to be alone, no? I would like you and Wilfried to accompany me, if you have the time.”

“Could we perhaps have Charlotte and Melchior join also? We cousins have so few chances to all come together,” I said. The thought of only bringing Wilfried made me feel uneasy, since I was far from being an expert at socializing, and he was usually too oblivious to pick up on subtle insults. There was also the fact that I hadn’t attended one of their tea parties for cousins at the Royal Academy. By bringing Charlotte, I could ask her to cover things for me.

“I do not mind. This is a rare opportunity indeed, and I understand that you would appreciate the extra company. What do you think, Lady Detlinde?” Ferdinand asked, wearing the kind expression of one concerned about his fiancée’s comfort.

Detlinde returned a positively overjoyed smile and said, “Everyone is welcoming me so warmly. I am just so happy. I thank you ever so much for your concern.”

Ferdinand nodded, having received the approval that he wanted, then looked at Raimund. “You come as well, Raimund. There is something I must show you, considering that you will serve as my retainer in Ahrensbach.”

“I am honored.”

Despite my initial concerns, Ferdinand managed to maintain his fake smile to perfection until the very end of the welcoming feast. All in all, things had gone very well.

Or so I thought. Ferdinand summoned me the next day to inform me that Detlinde had asked for a hairpin.

“I said that I would prepare one for her,” Ferdinand explained, “but she said that she wishes to order one herself. Rozemyne, can you contact the Gilberta Company?”

“I can, but when will we call for them? You have many prior engagements already, no?” I asked. The former Veronica faction was making full use of the circumstances and swamping him with invitations, from what I remembered. Was there even time for a meeting about hairpins?

Ferdinand let out a heavy sigh. “It would be ideal to speak with them while she is visiting my estate. I do not trust myself to keep the conversation going otherwise.”

For tea parties and meals, it was up to the host to oversee things and come up with topics of conversation. Those who attended as guests only had to come up with responses, which Ferdinand was very much used to, but now he had invited Detlinde to his estate and needed to decide what they would talk about. It seemed that his plan was to make do with a single topic and waste as much time as possible on selecting a hairpin.

“You may spend your time having a rousing conversation with Raimund,” I said. “For your sake, Charlotte and I shall speak with Detlinde about hairpins and trends and such.”

“Thank you,” Ferdinand replied—albeit after a hesitant pause. His light-golden eyes watched me for a moment, then his shoulders relaxed. “In fact, while we are here, could you assist me with one other thing?”

I nodded at once and gave a very emphatic yes. It was rare for Ferdinand to ask for help.

“I wish to borrow your temple attendants on that day,” he said. “I barely have any in my noble estate.”

As it turned out, Ferdinand’s estate was more or less right next to the castle. His father had prepared it for him, and Ferdinand had lived there briefly before his baptism, after being brought home from the Adalgisa villa. The estate had been formally bestowed upon him when he came of age, but as he had almost immediately entered the temple, he rarely ever used it. Only the bare minimum of personnel were kept there to maintain things, and since Detlinde was only going to be there for a day, he had decided that it was a better idea to simply borrow gray priests and chefs from the temple.

“My attendants and chefs have been moved there already, but we still do not have enough people,” Ferdinand explained. “I did not plan for Charlotte and Melchior to be there as well. Can you lend me Fran and Zahm?”

He could have managed with Detlinde as his only visitor, but with so many archduke candidates now joining them, he was short on manpower even with all of his temple attendants.

“Of course,” I replied. “You can borrow Fran and Zahm, as well as Hugo and Ella.”

“Thank you, Rozemyne,” Ferdinand said, his brow growing tighter as he expressed his gratitude. Maybe it was simply due to the shadow that fell over his face as he started rubbing his temples, but he looked utterly exhausted.

“You don’t look so good, Ferdinand. Don’t push yourself too much.”

“There is nothing to be worried about,” he replied monotonously. “I already have enough rejuvenation potions prepared.”

In truth, that just made me even more worried.

From there, I briefly returned to the temple to ask Fran and Zahm about helping Ferdinand at his estate in the Noble’s Quarter. They both agreed without issue, having served as his attendants in the past.

“You may trust us with helping the High Priest.”

“Due to your retainers visiting so often, we have grown able to serve archnobles and members of archducal families without fear. You may rest easy.”

I prepared a carriage and sent them off, heartened by their words, then sent a letter to the Gilberta Company—I needed to inform Otto that an Ahrensbach archduke candidate wanted to order a hairpin. He replied that he would send an adult hairpin maker rather than Tuuli, who was still underage, but the subtext was clear: “As you’ve already been targeted by Ahrensbach in the past, it’s best to keep your family hidden lest they be viewed as a weakness to exploit.” I naturally followed his advice, not wanting to expose Tuuli to any danger.