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

Clearing Regrets from Ten Years Ago

“Heisshitze, what’s all this fuss about?”

“We were discussing our first ditter game with Lord Ferdinand in almost ten years,” I replied. This earned me a glare from the knight commander, but he was the one who had interrupted our impassioned exchange of praise for my opponent.

“Change of guard.”

It was the middle of the Archduke Conference, and a discussion between Dunkelfelger and Ahrensbach was being held in Dunkelfelger’s tea party room. We guard knights not yet on duty were all packed into a waiting room.

“Has the discussion about old Werkestock concluded?” I asked, sitting up straight.

The biggest concern of this year’s Archduke Conference was the rebel attack that had occurred during the Interduchy Tournament, with Werkestock being at the center of it all. Dunkelfelger was managing the old duchy alongside Ahrensbach, so the Sovereign Knight’s Order had opened an inquiry into what we knew about the ternisbefallens before investigating the provinces where the rebels had once lived.

The Order’s findings had already been reported at the conference, so discussions were now focused on adjusting their countermeasures based on the thoughts and reactions of other duchies. Even so, the atmosphere in the waiting room was calmer now than it had been when these talks first started. I had gotten a bit carried away myself, but I hadn’t forgotten my role here.

“Old Werkestock has been covered, but there are many other things to discuss,” the knight commander said with a hard stare. “After all, Prince Hildebrand’s engagement to Lady Letizia was announced so soon after his debut. Stay alert.”

After heeding this warning from the commander, we exited the meeting room. Outside, we met up with the cart-pushing attendants who were similarly changing places with their coworkers.

Prince Hildebrand’s formal debut had taken place during this year’s Archduke Conference. He was closer to Dunkelfelger than his siblings, owing to the fact that his mother was our own Lady Magdalena, the king’s third wife. Henceforth, our duchy would serve as a crucial pillar of support for Prince Hildebrand, and negotiate with Ahrensbach while keeping in line with the Sovereignty.

“This is going to take a while,” a knight muttered, looking like he’d rather be doing anything else.

I gave a small nod of agreement; it was exhausting beyond words having to remain completely on guard and aware of one’s surroundings for extended periods of time. About a decade had passed since the civil war, and each year, more knights blind to the world of surprise attacks and abrupt betrayals joined the Order. Many expressed their wishes to be like the other knights and stand around without a care in the world, but we had no need for statues—especially those who were so eager to embarrass themselves.

“Excuse me. Please allow us to refresh the tea.”

I entered the tea party room with the attendants and gazed around, asking myself question after question. How many from Ahrensbach were here? How many people had mana capacities close to my own? Had any dangerous magic tools been brought in during our switch? We measured up the Ahrensbach guard knights, and they did the same with us; it was something of a standard procedure for both sides.

After scanning the room for enemies, I turned my attention to Ahrensbach’s archducal couple. There was a significant age gap between Aub Ahrensbach and his first wife, Lady Georgine. This had blown me away when they first attended the Archduke Conference together, but I was very much used to it now.

“Now, as we know, the engagement between Prince Hildebrand and Lady Letizia was announced...” began Lady Sieglinde, the first wife of Dunkelfelger.

As the knight commander had expected, the topic of the engagement was broached as soon as everyone had settled down with their tea. This was a matter of great importance for both of our duchies, so I made sure to listen as well while performing my duties as a guard knight.

Lady Letizia was the granddaughter of the archduke’s previous first wife, and she had apparently moved from Drewanchel to become the next aub. Prince Hildebrand moving to Ahrensbach as her groom was recompense for the series of punishments following the civil war forcing the duchy to reduce its successors to archnobles.

I was already aware from the circumstances surrounding Lady Magdalena’s marriage, among other things, that Prince Hildebrand was being raised as a vassal... but I didn’t expect the engagement to be settled this soon.

The agreement was that Lady Letizia, who had both Ahrensbach and Drewanchel blood, would marry a prince with Dunkelfelger blood. This made it clear to all that Lady Letizia would become the next aub. The royal family must have benefited greatly from unifying Ahrensbach and Dunkelfelger, the two duchies that managed old Werkestock.

“This shall bring peace and stability to the next generation,” Aub Ahrensbach said, stroking his beard with visible relief. “I feel as though a great burden has been lifted from my shoulders.”

Ten years had passed since he lost his successors in the civil war. I could only imagine the panic he had endured as the archduke. All had seemed well on the outside—our archducal family was populous, and our duchy had suffered few casualties in the war—but he had wrestled with problems that nobody in Dunkelfelger could even imagine.

“However, this makes it that much harder to select a husband for my daughter Detlinde,” Georgine said, her brow deeply furrowed. “He would need to be someone who can serve as a temporary aub in a dire situation.”

She had a daughter approaching her sixth year in the Royal Academy who could not secure a groom, while Lady Letizia’s position was not yet solidified. It seemed that Ahrensbach had so few archducal family members that they wanted her to marry as well, broadening the family and providing support for Lady Letizia.

To think that, during this uncertain time, Lady Georgine must worry about the future of both her daughter and her duchy...

I respected her attitude as the first wife of a greater duchy, but few would want to marry into the family of a female archduke candidate who stood absolutely no chance of becoming the next archduchess. It was possible that she might find someone within Ahrensbach, but she would be hard put to find an archducal family member from another duchy who could actually carry out the duties of an archduchess’s husband. Most older students in the Royal Academy had already decided on a partner, and while women could simply enter other duchies as a second or third wife, married men were completely removed from the equation.

For a male archduke candidate to marry into the family of a woman not due to be the next archduchess, he would need to be either completely in love with her or mired by some circumstances that prevent him from having a normal marriage.

Although I appreciated their struggles, I wasn’t too concerned about them. This matter was none of my business—that is, not until Aub Ahrensbach named a potential candidate.

“Personally, I would welcome Lord Ferdinand of Ehrenfest as her groom. Do you know of him?”

Lord Ferdinand?!

I stared at Aub Ahrensbach in a daze, feeling the blood rush to my head. Never had a more genius idea been put forward. I had shared classes with Lord Ferdinand in the Royal Academy, and there was no denying his talent—he had come first-in-class every single year he attended, he was an exceptional scholar and unrivaled at ditter, his harspiel playing was literal music to the ears, and he was by no means unsightly. That the archduke had considered him for this position was truly commendable.

That said, Lord Ferdinand was also a man of great misfortune. He had no mother and thus no support among the nobility, which the first wife of the previous Aub Ehrenfest had used to ostracize him. It was safe to say that his father had been his only blood relative, and after his death, those who envied Lord Ferdinand for his overflowing talents had forced him into the temple.

Our encounter at the most recent Interduchy Tournament had marked my first time seeing him in public in a decade. And given that the engagements of archducal family members were announced at the Archduke Conference, it was clear to see that he was still without a wife.

Is this not a tremendous opportunity to save him?! We could free him from his mistreatment by getting him to Ahrensbach!

Just as I was clenching my fists in excitement, however, Aub Ahrensbach slumped his shoulders. “He has everything we need, and my hope was to save him from his unfortunate abuse in the temple and have him see the light of day once more. The problem is, they were not particularly... open to the suggestion.”

Aub Ahrensbach had sought to free Lord Ferdinand from the temple and grant him an opportunity to fully use his talents, but Aub Ehrenfest had declined on his behalf.

“But of course,” Lady Georgine replied. “I sincerely doubt he could speak his mind before the aub. We suggested that Aub Ehrenfest leave his seat so that Lord Ferdinand could offer his true thoughts on the matter, but even that was refused. Lord Ferdinand ended up leaving after saying only a few words himself.”

It seemed that Ehrenfest intended to keep Lord Ferdinand chained up—to prolong his suffering. The very idea infuriated me.

“I have been attempting to contact Lord Ferdinand ever since he came to my attention at the wedding between my niece and an Ehrenfest noble,” Aub Ahrensbach explained. “We learned that he was visiting for the Interduchy Tournament and strove to speak with him personally, but...” He trailed off and shot Aub Dunkelfelger a look, the meaning of which I understood at once. Before those from Ahrensbach had managed to discuss things with Lord Ferdinand, we of Dunkelfelger had whisked him away to play ditter.

This can’t be... I’m responsible for Lord Ferdinand missing out on such a bright future.

It had never been my intention, but it seemed that my actions had put Lord Ferdinand in a very unfortunate position. I wanted to shirk my guard duty and bemoan my foolishness, but then Lady Georgine’s voice reached my ears.

“Dunkelfelger still communes with him, no? Could you perhaps introduce him to us, if you have any personal connections? I feel so terribly bad for the man...”

“Indeed,” Aub Ahrensbach said. “I intend to ask the king to get involved in return for us embracing the Sovereignty’s investigation. If possible, I would appreciate Dunkelfelger’s input as well.”

I was moved that Lady Georgine would try so hard to save Lord Ferdinand from his troubles, and I was grateful beyond words for Aub Ahrensbach’s willingness to petition the king himself. This was a chance to bring some much-needed good fortune to Lord Ferdinand that I wasn’t going to miss. I could hardly contain my excitement.

“Lady Sieglinde, I must ask that you assist Ahrensbach!” I declared. “This is our second chance to save Lord Ferdinand. It will also make amends for Lady Magdalena dishonoring him all those years ago!”

Lady Sieglinde glared at me with her red eyes. “You are the one who dishonored him back then,” she barked. “You acted on your emotions without thinking ahead, first troubling Lord Ferdinand and then many others. Have you already forgotten how furious Lady Magdalena was?”

I didn’t know what to say. Back in our Royal Academy days, I had planned to rescue Lord Ferdinand from Ehrenfest by having him marry Lady Magdalena, an archduke candidate from our duchy. The two had been both friends and foes when it came to forming ditter strategies, but they had not at all been in love; Lord Ferdinand had simply wished to leave Ehrenfest.

Still, Lord Ferdinand’s living conditions had simply been too cruel to bear, and many of us Dunkelfelger knights had fervently wished to have such a strong ditter player in our duchy. In the end, we had asked the previous archduke to have him marry Lady Magdalena. We pushed, and pushed, and pushed... and eventually, the aub accepted, praising the idea as an opportunity to both rescue someone from misfortune and show the duchy’s respect for good ditter players.

And that’s when things got bad.

We had convinced the aub but not Lady Magdalena, who had erupted with anger when the previous aub spoke to her about the marriage. She had then exploited the situation to her advantage, initiating a secret plot she had come up with to marry the man she loved: the fifth prince at the time, now the ruling king.

“Why should I throw my whole life away to save an archduke candidate from a backwater duchy?” she had asked. “There is someone else I wish to save. If, as you say, Lord Ferdinand is unhappy with his situation, then he need only use that intelligent head on his shoulders to eliminate the first wife of Ehrenfest. That he has not done so is his own choice. Do not wrap me up in the drama of a bottom-ranking duchy.”

Lady Magdalena’s bonding to royalty had marked the end of the civil war, and ultimately, Dunkelfelger had benefited far more from this than it would have from her marrying a single archduke candidate from Ehrenfest. Lord Ferdinand had not been formally engaged despite all the probing into the matter, so the ordeal was concluded with a simple letter to Aub Ehrenfest. It was the natural decision to make as far as the duchy was concerned, but personally, I had always regretted not being able to save Lord Ferdinand.

“This is why I wish to use this second chance to save Lord Ferdinand from Ehrenfest,” I explained. “Lady Magdalena’s marriage to King Trauerqual prevented Lord Ferdinand from leaving his duchy and is the reason he has spent the past ten years in its temple.”

“It will ease your guilt, but that is all,” Lady Sieglinde said. “Tell me, what do we gain from helping him?”

I racked my brain for an answer, then desperately grasped at the first straw I could find. “Lord Redmond. His daughter Clarissa intends to marry an Ehrenfest archnoble, so he wishes for Ehrenfest to establish more connections with the duchies surrounding it. If we can accomplish this by having Lord Ferdinand wed into a greater duchy—”

“Again, Dunkelfelger has no interest in aiding individuals. The needs of the duchy outweigh such personal concerns,” Lady Sieglinde stressed, shaking her head at my appeal. No matter how much I wanted to save Lord Ferdinand, I needed to retreat for now and seek out a justification she would agree with.

I saluted, then promptly turned around.

“And that’s how it is,” I concluded, having brought all the other knights together in our duchy’s dining hall to discuss my situation with Lady Sieglinde. It was beyond me to do this alone, but with everyone putting their heads together, a good idea would surely come.

“Despite it all, the benefit of the duchy still matters less to me than using this second chance to save Lord Ferdinand,” I continued, then held up a cup of vize and declared, “This time for sure, we will free Lord Ferdinand! Our mission is to support Ahrensbach and ask that the king free him from Ehrenfest!”

“Aye ayeee!”

The knights raised their cups in a resounding cheer, then we all downed our drinks together. The burning sensation of the alcohol on our throats roused our spirits at once.

“Hm... Seeing as Prince Hildebrand will be marrying into Ahrensbach, we could argue that we’ll want Lady Detlinde to marry someone we have influence over,” one of my knight buddies said, also thinking about how to convince Lady Sieglinde. The recent ditter game against Lord Ferdinand had no doubt revitalized them.

“Right. Lord Ferdinand is not one to concern himself with power and status. He wouldn’t so much as consider opposing Lady Letizia or Prince Hildebrand after marrying into Ahrensbach.”

“He is educating Lady Rozemyne as her guardian, so he should be able to serve as Lady Letizia’s educator as well. Could we not get Drewanchel on our side if we focus on that?”

It would be more reassuring to have not just Dunkelfelger, but other duchies on this quest as well. I decided to follow up on his idea; we needed to spur Drewanchel to action too.

“Given that the borders can’t be redrawn, we share a fate with Ahrensbach and must strengthen the bond between our duchies,” my friend noted. “Lady Sieglinde surely understands this. Ahrensbach says it cannot devote the necessary resources to hunting feybeasts, but perhaps having Lord Ferdinand on hand would change this.”

“In other words... we could slay feybeasts together? We could even play ditter!”

“Calm down, Heisshitze. That would benefit you, not the duchy, remember?”

My argument needed to be grounded entirely in how this marriage would assist Ahrensbach and facilitate a closer relationship between our duchies. I nodded along with this explanation, all the while imagining myself slaying feybeasts alongside Lord Ferdinand. Excitement stirred within me; it would be like being transported back to our golden years at the Royal Academy.

“If we can have Ahrensbach in our debt, then we will secure the upper hand in negotiations for priority trade access to Lanzenave commodities.”

“And with Lord Ferdinand in Ahrensbach, we can get Ehrenfest’s trendy goods without having to rely on their underdeveloped trade routes. He was behind Lady Rozemyne’s various inventions, you know.”

“Really? That’s our Lord Ferdinand for you!”

It was the peak of stupidity to constrain a man of such genius to the temple, which was why we had all resolved to fight for his freedom. Our collaboration had given life to ideas that I would never have come up with on my own, and our next course of action was now clear. If we could get support from Drewanchel, then even Lady Sieglinde would agree to our proposition.

“Let’s go, everyone. This time, we will rescue Lord Ferdinand from the temple. He’ll suffer in Ehrenfest no longer!”

“Aye aye, sir!”

Together we swore a solemn oath... and soon after, our efforts were rewarded. At the end of the Archduke Conference, a united effort from several powerful duchies secured a royal order for Lord Ferdinand to be wed into Ahrensbach.