Ascendance of a Bookworm (LN) - Volume 4.8 - Chapter 8

Spring Prayer and Leaving for Leisegang

This year, Wilfried was due to leave for Spring Prayer before I even finished the spring baptisms. There was a lot for him to balance; he needed to head to Leisegang as soon as he was done here to do some final checks for the printing industry.

“I’m going to be traveling by highbeast as you do to perform ceremonies in both the morning and afternoon,” Wilfried explained. “I need to finish things quickly so that I can go to Leisegang.”

“I do not mind you copying me, but did you remember to pack rejuvenation potions?” I asked. “Doing two ceremonies in one day is quite a heavy burden.” He was going to be using feystones containing my mana, so perhaps the task ahead wouldn’t be quite as taxing on him, but there was still reason to be cautious.

Wilfried glanced at Ferdinand, then nodded. “Yeah, I did. I prepared some, since I can make them myself now.”

So... you’re rejecting the kind potions that Ferdinand often gives us?

The flavor was still pretty awful, but they were much more effective than the potions we learned to make in class. I decided to have Lamprecht carry some with him just in case and told him to ensure that Wilfried didn’t push himself too hard.

“Is he really going to be okay?” I asked Ferdinand. “It certainly isn’t easy doing the ceremony twice in one day.”

“This is nothing compared to when you visited several places in one day back when you were an apprentice blue shrine maiden,” he replied. “He has stamina and feystones, whereas you had neither. There is nothing to worry about. Simply let him be.”

I would take the chalice from Wilfried when he returned and start doing Spring Prayer ceremonies in the Central District, but this year, there was a lot for me to do before then. Hartmut and Cornelius also wanted to accompany me now that they were adults and could leave the Noble’s Quarter for work.

“No,” I said. “Both of you are staying.”

“But why?”

There were three main reasons: I didn’t need noble scholars with me while doing religious ceremonies, bringing more people meant bringing more food, and we didn’t have space for everyone to sleep. That was why all of my retainers except the guard knights I absolutely needed to bring were going to be staying behind. Hartmut glared enviously at Damuel, who was due to accompany me, before clapping his hands together in apparent realization.

“Very well, then, Lady Rozemyne. I will learn the work of a tax official so that I may accompany you during the Harvest Festival.”

“What? Retainers can do tax work?”

“Given the shortage of manpower, I am sure the aub will relent after a little pleading.”

Okay... Yeah. I can see that happening too.

The “shortage of manpower” he was referring to stemmed from the fact that Sylvester and Ferdinand trusted so few people to accompany me. The former Veronica faction had previously had an iron grip on all important jobs, including those dealing with taxation, and although the key members had since been replaced, a considerable number still remained. I could already imagine Sylvester being introduced to the idea of Taxman Hartmut and agreeing on the spot.

Well, I guess I would feel safer with Hartmut than someone I don’t know... Though I would feel more nervous in another regard.

“In any case, Hartmut—you’re staying behind. To focus on learning to do tax work, I suppose. Cornelius, I understand how much you want to accompany us, but I only need Damuel and Angelica as guards. My apologies, but you will need to remain here as well.”

“Lady Rozemyne, why am I the only adult knight being excluded...?” Cornelius asked, grimacing. Unfortunately for him, no expression of displeasure would change the reality of the situation.

“The primary reason is that there aren’t many rooms for nobles in the winter mansions of commoners,” I explained. Normal blue priests didn’t go to these ceremonies with loads of guard knights in tow, so there were generally only three or so rooms set aside for them. Having several noble guard knights accompany me would doubtless be a recipe for trouble.

Damuel could stay in a room for attendants when needed, but Cornelius was a blue-blooded archnoble—the kind of rich boy who would ask to bring attendants to dress him in the morning. He wasn’t the kind of guard knight you wanted with you when dealing with commoners.

“Not to mention, we have already decided on you, Leonore, and Angelica coming with me to Leisegang. We want the right people doing the right jobs—Damuel in the Central District, and you in Leisegang.”

Our trip to Leisegang would see us staying at Count Leisegang’s summer mansion, since we were there not just for Spring Prayer, but for the printing industry as well. Cornelius was far better suited to accompany me there than Damuel, especially since he was a blood relative. Bringing attendants there was considered normal, and they would have plenty of rooms.

“Understood.”

It wasn’t long before we left for Spring Prayer. Everything from here was business as usual—we asked Hasse’s mayor Richt whether there were any problems, performed the ceremony, then went to the monastery to hear the report from the gray priests and switch personnel. I then handed them the manuscript to be printed next year.

“We have safely received ink and paper from the Plantin Company, and printing is progressing smoothly,” one of the gray priests informed me. “There has been an unexpected development, however—the townspeople recently asked us how we were spending the winter here, and when we spoke of our work, the men said that they wish to help with printing as their winter handiwork.”

“I cannot provide an answer now, but I will consider the matter and prepare a response in case Richt sends a formal inquiry,” I replied. “Having more hands would certainly be appreciated, but is there not a risk that the blizzards will prevent them from returning home? We would need to begin storing more food if so, which is no trivial matter.”

“Indeed. We certainly would not want fighting over food in such an enclosed space.”

The subject was postponed for now, since no progress could be made until it was time to prepare for winter. That marked the end of my conversation with the gray priests and shrine maidens, so I moved to my room.

If the people of Hasse wanted to print, we would need to raise the city’s literacy rate. That likely wouldn’t be a problem, though—they would become more familiar and comfortable with books through their work, which would make them more likely to take their studies seriously. Perhaps now was the time to start thinking about holding lessons. The only problem was that I would much rather start them in the nearby Ehrenfest temple than the faraway monastery. In order to do that, however, I would need some kind of excuse to justify it.

As those thoughts ran through my mind, I changed from my High Bishop robes to the outfit made with Mom’s cloth. I even put on my matching hairpin from Tuuli.

I’m gonna show these off to Dad. Eheheheh.

After eating dinner, I made my way over to the table where the soldiers were seated. They weren’t drinking, since they were on the job, but they were wolfing down Ella and Hugo’s food while laughing uproariously among themselves. My fleeting interactions with the soldiers who came to guard the gray priests—and with Dad in particular—were very special to me. I wouldn’t miss them for anything.

“Hello again, everyone. Would you mind telling me about the lower city?” I asked. “You honorable soldiers who patrol every nook and cranny must be able to provide me with information that I cannot get from my Gutenbergs.”

One of the soldiers wasted no time in seizing the opportunity to speak. “High Bishop! The truth is, the commander’s wife is your Renaissance!”

“It was a big deal when you chose to give her your exclusive business last winter,” another added. “Did you know who it was?”

“Oh my! Truly there are strange coincidences in this world,” I replied, doing my best to feign surprise. Of course, it was no coincidence at all—my choice had come entirely from watching how Tuuli reacted to the provided cloth.

From there, the soldiers began talking about how the Renaissance contest had proceeded—Dad had presumably spoken about it nonstop at the time. They explained that Mom had worked harder than ever before after the choice was narrowed down to three candidates, and that her efforts were ultimately rewarded.

“The commander really lost it when you didn’t give her the title the first time,” one soldier noted. “We all prayed that she’d get selected next time, and our wish came true. Thank you for picking the commander’s wife as your Renaissance. We owe you our lives.”

“Quiet, you lot,” Dad interjected, though his blatant smile made it clear that he was enjoying the conversation. He looked at me and said, “High Bishop, my wife Effa worked very hard for this. She wanted you to wear the clothes she dyed herself. She discussed what cloth would suit you with my daughter, your hairpin maker, and thought very hard about what she would produce.”

My expression softened as I pictured Mom and Tuuli discussing what designs to use. “This is the outfit made from that cloth,” I said, raising my skirt a little in demonstration. “This is what Effa dyed for me.”

The soldiers whistled, and some looked at me with wide eyes, surprised to see that I was actually wearing it. They had probably assumed that Dad was exaggerating when he told them the story. His overbearing love for his family was common knowledge, and he had a tendency to stretch the truth when it came to bragging about them. It brought back very pleasant memories.

“Oh, right. The commander’s daughter works for you too, doesn’t she?” one of the soldiers asked. “Have you met her before?”

“Indeed. I am always wearing her hairpins. This one was made by Tuuli as well,” I said, brushing my fingers against it.

Dad beamed and started boasting to his men about how Mom was challenging Ehrenfest’s new dyeing method and Tuuli was making hairpins for princes. They were already tremendous feats, but somehow, he still managed to exaggerate them.

“For the millionth time—we know, commander. Have you managed to get drunk on the fruit juice?” the soldiers asked, grimacing in a way that confirmed they really had endured the story countless times before.

“Alright, I’ll talk about my son then,” Dad said, having not learned his lesson at all.

“We’ve heard all about him too!”

“Oh, but I have not,” I interjected. “How do the children in the lower city spend their days? In what ways do they differ from the children of the orphanage?”

“The lower-city kids are a more rambunctious bunch than the orphanage’s children,” one soldier said, waving his hand while the others nodded in agreement. “They go around doing whatever they want.”

The orphanage’s children, in contrast, always stayed in neat lines when going to the forest, listened to what the adults said, and greeted the soldiers at the gate. They were striving to talk like the people of the lower city, but when put on the spot, they would instinctively revert back to polite speech.

“No lower-city kid is that polite,” the soldier continued. “They even play pranks on those of us who are the dads of their friends.”

The soldiers reminisced about their youth and about what their own children did, while Dad told me that Kamil had started gathering in the forest and was socializing with the orphanage children through Lutz. “My son said that the kids his age at the orphanage know a lot of stories about knights and the gods,” he said.

Hold on a second... Aren’t Dirk and Konrad the only kids his age at the orphanage?!

I was overjoyed to have found a link between Kamil and myself. It also reminded me that Wilma had reported that the lower-city kids were a good influence on Konrad. I would need to ask her for more details about that.

Seventh bell rang. The bell itself was located in Hasse’s winter mansion, so the sound was far more distant than I was used to in the temple.

“It is time to sleep, Lady Rozemyne,” Fran said from where he was standing behind me. I nodded in response and started saying my farewells.

“Unfortunately, I must now take my leave. Once again, we are expecting a lot of merchants to come to the city of Ehrenfest during the summer. I imagine it will prove quite the struggle, but please put your all into managing them, for the peace of our duchy. Rest well.”

My Spring Prayer had come to an end, with me learning some truly wonderful intel, and that meant it was Charlotte’s turn. “I see your highbeast is based on Weiss,” I said to her. “It is white, and I recognize the golden feystone on its forehead.”

“Schwartz and Weiss are the shumils I am most familiar with, after all.”

“I think it looks simply adorable.”

“My aim is to change its size freely as you do with yours, Sister, but I am finding this rather difficult.”

Charlotte was under the impression that one could change the size of their drivable highbeast on a whim and was now trying to accomplish this herself, despite how much time and mana it required. She had only seen the tiniest amount of success so far.

“There is not much you can do but practice,” I said. “Take care to keep rejuvenation potions at hand until you master it, and when your mana runs low, drink one at once.”

After seeing Charlotte off, I waited for Wilfried to report on the final checks he was doing in Leisegang and prepared to leave myself. Cornelius, Leonore, and Angelica were going to be accompanying me as my guard knights, while Ottilie and Brunhilde were coming along as my attendants. The question was, who were best suited to join us as my scholars? This had to do with the printing industry, so I wanted to bring them all, but Philine was a laynoble, and Roderick was of the former Veronica faction.

“Philine, Roderick—you might find Leisegang to be very unwelcoming and even hostile toward you,” I said. “If you would prefer, you are welcome to stay at the dormitory. The choice is yours.”

“I shall come with you,” Philine said flatly and without the slightest hesitation. “No retainer of yours should miss anything to do with printing.”

“I feel the same,” Roderick added. “I do not want to miss an opportunity to learn about printing. I am not yet doing satisfactory work as your retainer, Lady Rozemyne, so I am in no position to withdraw over a little hostility.”

Roderick was going to the temple every day, seemingly in competition with Philine, and his attempts to complete the work given to him by Ferdinand were being met with responses similar to the ones she had originally received: constant rejections and demands that he do it all over again. His failings had made him feel discouraged at first, but Philine had reassured him that there was no need for him to worry about it, since everyone had walked the same path.

Unfortunately, Angelica had then declared that she had not walked this path and never would, while Hartmut had noted that he was able to do the work just fine from the very beginning. The troublesome duo had managed to knock Roderick back down into the depths of despair with these remarks, so as of late you could often find Damuel shooing them both away before they could do any further damage.

It was around the time that Charlotte was getting back when Elvira, the head of the printing industry, sent me a detailed list of dates for our upcoming trip. In turn, I passed this information on to the Gutenbergs, who were doubtless almost finished with their preparations.

“This is due to be another long expedition, but I thank you for your cooperation,” I said on the day of our journey to Leisegang. The Gutenbergs had come loaded with work tools, which I made sure were tagged appropriately before being loaded into Lessy one after another in quick succession.

The gray priests heading to the paper-making workshops were busy working under Gil and assisting with the final preparations. As they went about their various jobs, I noticed them occasionally tugging on their clothes, evidently still not used to wearing them. Meanwhile, Fran and Monika were loading important luggage for Leisegang’s Spring Prayer.

“Zack, I thank you ever so much for developing the mattress,” I said. “It is so comfortable that I am loath to leave my bed each morning. I imagine it will not be easy preparing the High Priest’s bench, but I trust you to do well.”

“You may count on me,” he replied. “Everyone in our workshop is positively determined to do a perfect job for the High Priest. Thank you for the referral.”

Despite being the archduke’s younger brother, Ferdinand had never before ordered that any such goods be made for him. Now that he had requested this bench, however, workshops were rising up and competing to get his exclusive business.

“The Smithing Guild is asking for mattresses to be registered as the pumps were, but I ask that we be allowed to monopolize them for the rest of the year at least,” Zack noted.

“I am not concerned with when you give the blueprints to the Smithing Guild,” I replied, “though I do believe it would be in your best interests to publicize them and train new smiths before you get so caught up in all the orders that you lose track of everything.”

Although I was the one who had ordered the mattress and come up with the idea, it was Zack and his smiths who had gone through the necessary trial and error to make it a reality. I would naturally start taking some royalties once the blueprints were given to the Smithing Guild, but I wasn’t in any particular rush for that to happen.

“Thank you from us all,” Zack said. “As you continually order new goods one after another, Lady Rozemyne, I do not expect that we will need to monopolize the mattress for long. Furthermore, as my other smiths always take on this work during my absences for these trips, I am confident that they will improve drastically.” He made this last remark with a wry smile; he always seemed to disappear to other provinces just as the workload was becoming more intense, which meant his disciples had to work their fingers to the bone to keep up.

Johann shrugged. “That’s true for my workshop too. While I’m off on these trips, I need to leave them with work whether I want to or not.”

“Incidentally, how is your disciple doing?” I asked. “Danilo, was it?”

“He’s making steady progress. The young Groschel craftspeople really moved him, it seems.”

Danilo had apparently become quite cocky from everyone at the workshop saying he was the only one good enough to take over from Johann. He hadn’t given much thought to the news that those in Haldenzel were becoming more and more skilled, but his attitude had soon changed when he saw those from Groschel and witnessed that there were other craftspeople capable of making letter types just as exact as his own. His complacency was now gone, having been replaced with a determination to better hone his talents.

“We’ve also finally completed the pulleys for those bookcases Ingo ordered,” Johann continued. “Danilo and the others have been tasked with making them in bulk, and that should be done by the time we get back.”

Johann went on to note how much they had struggled to make pulleys that could support the weight of the bookcases and allow them to turn smoothly and without clattering. I was looking forward to seeing the final product and was eternally grateful for their hard work.

After confirming that the Gutenbergs and all of my temple attendants were inside my Pandabus, I had my guard knight Judithe sit in the passenger seat, then headed to our meeting spot at the castle. Ferdinand was leaving the temple at the same time as us, but he had a different objective: he was heading to Haldenzel with some scholars to investigate its ceremonial stage.

“Hopefully you discover something new,” I said.

“Simply seeing the magic circle will be enough,” Ferdinand replied, a smirk playing on his lips. It was good to see that he was enjoying himself.

Awaiting our arrival at the castle were our soon-to-be companions: the Haldenzel scholar team and the Leisegang printing team. Also due to accompany us were Wilfried, Charlotte, and their retainers, to make it clear that I wasn’t the only one carrying the printing industry.

“Everything ready, Rozemyne?” Sylvester called.

I turned around to look at him, only to be met with more faces than I was expecting. It was already known that Elvira was going to Leisegang as the head of the printing industry, but also standing by were Karstedt and about five other knights.

“Since there are so many archduke candidates mobilizing here, we decided to have the Knight’s Order join you, much like they did for Haldenzel. They’re Karstedt’s family on his mother’s side—a perfect fit, don’t you think?” Sylvester said with a grin. He then glanced over at Wilfried, his eyes tinged with concern. “Rozemyne, as your siblings have Ahrensbach blood, they’ll need to keep their guard up in Leisegang at all times. That said, Wilfried is going to be the next archduke; he’ll need to learn to deal with them eventually. His future will change a huge amount depending on whether or not he can make them his allies.”

Sylvester wasn’t expecting anything as extreme as a physical attack, but he knew that the trip was going to be emotionally taxing.

“I shall shield them as best I can,” I replied. “Wilfried and Charlotte did much to protect me during winter socializing, after all.”

“Thanks. I don’t know where he gets it from, but Wilfried possesses this blind optimism. I can’t help but feel nervous for him.”

I turned my attention to Wilfried and saw that he was busy talking to Ferdinand. “Do not lower your guard, no matter what happens,” Ferdinand said to him.

“Are you sure?” Wilfried asked. “There was nothing out of place when I went to perform the final checks. In fact, everything went perfectly smoothly.” He puffed out his chest... only for Ferdinand to unceremoniously tear that pride to shreds.

“Of course it did, fool. Anything short of perfection would mean that Leisegang was unprepared. They would never expose such weakness to you. And above all else, if you had reported that their work was incomplete, Rozemyne would not be going there right now. Seeing her is what they desire more than anything.”

Wilfried remained silent, unable to offer a response.

“There are many in Leisegang who strongly wish for Rozemyne to be the next aub,” Ferdinand continued. “Their blood relatives in Rozemyne’s service have made it perfectly clear that she has no desire to take up such a position, and that she intends to marry and support you, but there are some who still cling to this unfortunate dream. They are your enemies, and you are journeying into hostile territory. Carve this into your heart and do not, under any circumstances, make any blunders. Do you understand me?”

“Yes, Uncle...” Wilfried replied with some hesitation. Even from afar, I could tell that he was biting his lip and staring down at the ground.

Sylvester sighed. “There are some things he just doesn’t understand well enough yet. Go give him your support, Rozemyne.”

I nodded and walked over to Wilfried. “I understand that Ferdinand may have sounded somewhat harsh, but his words come from a place of concern for you. He wouldn’t have bothered to say anything unless he cared.”

Wilfried made a doubting expression. I understood why he was so skeptical, but for Ferdinand to have said all that, he truly must have been concerned.

“I suspect you will understand once we arrive at our destination,” I said. “I, too, have been told to take great care and to shield you from the Leisegangs.”

“Shield me, huh?”

One threat who immediately came to mind was that old fox, my great-grandfather, who despised Veronica’s bloodline. We needed to be careful.

“Rozemyne... Do you think I’m going to be okay?” Wilfried asked, looking worried.

“Of course.” I gave my chest a confident thump. “Because I’m going to be there with you.”

“Well, now I’m even more worried...” He pursed his lips at me in an exaggerated show of displeasure, then gave me his usual smile.