Ascendance of a Bookworm (LN) - Volume 4.9 - Chapter 10

Viscount Dahldolf’s Estate

I had been champing at the bit to detain Viscountess Dahldolf, so now that we had the evidence we needed, I was out of the High Bishop’s chambers the instant Ferdinand gave the okay. Hartmut was accompanying my guard knights, having said that it was his duty as the next High Priest to reclaim the bible for my sake.

“You are right that we need to get my book back,” I agreed.

“Yes,” he said. “Our saint absolutely needs her bible.”

At times like this, Hartmut made for a very strong ally. I enhanced my body with more mana than usual and sprinted outside at max speed. I was already gasping for breath by the time I reached the doors, but surrender wasn’t an option.

I’m getting my book back no matter what. I won’t even hesitate to hold a bloody carnival if that’s what it takes!

I jumped into my highbeast and grabbed the wheel, ready to take off, and then... stopped. In my rush to reclaim the bible, I had completely neglected one crucial detail: “Um, Ferdinand... where is Viscount Dahldolf’s estate?”

“Wha?!” Judithe exclaimed. “Lady Rozemyne, you ran off without even knowing where you need to go?!”

“That doesn’t matter right now,” I replied—a response that caused my guard knights to all slump their shoulders. “The important thing is that I’ve got the will to succeed.”

Ferdinand was beside me on his own highbeast, having only needed to walk at a brisk pace to keep up with my running at full tilt. “Follow after me,” he said. “I expect that you would only cause problems if you arrived there ahead of me.”

Upon our arrival at the Dahldolf estate, it became clear that knights had already been assigned to watch the premises. They came over to Ferdinand when we landed and whispered that, as expected, only Viscountess Dahldolf was inside. Snow had yet to fall proper in her home province, so the rest of her family was still at their summer estate.

“Is she attempting to minimize collateral damage, or is she simply acting alone so that they do not interfere...?” Ferdinand muttered to himself, then gave the knights their next instructions. I watched them out of the corner of my eye from the front entrance, then got Hartmut to knock on the door.

Listen, I’m only having Hartmut knock because I don’t want Ferdinand grumbling about my “unladylike” and “uncouth” behavior. It’s not because I’m so short that I can’t reach the knocker. I’m serious!

As I was glaring at the cow-shaped knocker far above my head, the door opened to reveal a diligent-looking old man—Viscountess Dahldolf’s head attendant, perhaps. He stared at my retainers in surprise, then looked down at me and blinked several times. “If it isn’t Lady Rozemyne,” he said. “Might I ask what business you have here? The giebe has not yet arrived, and I do not believe you have a meeting scheduled with my lady.”

For obvious reasons, we hadn’t made an appointment before coming here to capture the viscountess.

“I wish to see Viscountess Dahldolf,” I replied with a smile. “Will you take us to her chambers?”

“I cannot allow anyone inside unless they have a meeting. You must know that, Lady Rozemyne,” he said with a polite yet firm tone.

In lieu of a response, I took out my schtappe and bound the man with bands of light. Ferdinand had said that we could restrain anyone who opposed us, and I wasn’t going to let anyone get between me and my bible.

“Lady Rozemyne?!” the attendant exclaimed. He wobbled in place for a moment, no longer able to move his arms, then collapsed to the floor, his expression a mixture of shock and confusion.

“So, where might Viscountess Dahldolf’s chambers be?” I asked, giving him one last opportunity to cooperate.

“I cannot answer.”

Even while bound, the man refused to divulge any information. He was a model attendant without a doubt—and for that reason, I stopped wasting my time with him and continued into the building. “It’s unfortunate that you will not answer, but all noble estates are built similarly. I assume she is in the residential area of the estate, and finding her should not take long.”

“You may be the archduke’s adopted daughter, Lady Rozemyne, but do you truly believe that you can get away with the crime of restraining an attendant and entering a noble estate while its lord is absent?” the man asked, a determined glint in his eye despite his current predicament.

I glanced back at him and giggled, feeling the mana coursing through my body. “My, my... Is this not how the Dahldolfs operate themselves? Viscountess Dahldolf restrained my guards and infiltrated the temple while I was absent, when she had not scheduled a meeting with me, and stole something that I hold dear. I believe you have no right to criticize me when I am simply doing the same.”

“What?!” the attendant exclaimed, his eyes wide like saucers. Perhaps he was crying out in surprise at my revelation—or perhaps he was crying out because I was now Crushing him. I was only doing it lightly, of course; this man wasn’t my enemy, and he was a valuable source of information.

“Where is Viscountess Dahldolf’s room? Answer.”

“Ngh... Grk!”

I was barely even Crushing him, but all of a sudden, his eyes rolled back into his head and his mouth began to foam. He had fallen unconscious.

Well, whatever.

This didn’t change what I needed to do. I started toward the third floor, where the lady of the estate’s chambers tended to be.

“Rozemyne, should you not be using your highbeast?” Ferdinand suddenly asked, sounding very much annoyed. Before I could answer, however, there came a series of resounding explosions from somewhere above us. It definitely wasn’t what one would expect to hear in a noble estate.

“That came from the lady’s quarters! Hurry!” Eckhart shouted.

“Judithe, Angelica, stay with Rozemyne!” Ferdinand barked, then bolted up the stairs with his guard knights. Their speed was on another level.

I frantically produced Lessy, climbed inside, and raced after them.

“Do it, Eckhart!”

“Understood!”

I caught up just in time to see my guard knights readying their schtappes while Eckhart kicked down the remains of the door he had just sliced through. The next thing I knew, my nostrils were assailed with a stench so foul that it almost made me vomit. Ferdinand and Eckhart were standing in the doorway in wide-eyed shock.

“Rozemyne, stay back!” Ferdinand shouted.

“Right!”

Still in my Pandabus, I jumped away from the entrance to the room. Damuel and Cornelius could see inside as well, and they looked sick to their stomachs.

“What can you see?” I asked.

“Corpses,” Damuel replied simply. “There is blood sprayed all across the room and pooling beneath the bodies of three women. It seems that their heads were blown off, given that their necks now end in disfigured stumps.”

“Guhhh! Too much information!”

I squeezed my eyes shut and stared down at my feet. For as much as I had gone on about starting a bloody carnival, I hadn’t actually envisioned that much blood.

This is too real—and so much more brutal than I expected.

“She must have killed them and herself upon noticing our arrival. Her resolve was too strong...” Ferdinand said with a sigh as he stepped into the room. Justus, Eckhart, and my male retainers followed after, while I tucked myself away in a corner of the hall, away from the terrible sight. My female knights stayed behind to guard me.

Actual bloody carnivals sure are scary...

“Lady Rozemyne, Viscountess Dahldolf appears to have left behind a note,” Hartmut said, bringing over a message that had clearly been scribbled in a hurry. It cursed my house and ended with a defiant “I shall not let you have my memories. Try to find what you’ve lost, if you can.”

If we couldn’t find it, then Ferdinand and I—the two most responsible for Shikza’s death—would be disgraced, and the archduke would face problems for having lost the duchy’s only bible. That alone was enough to satisfy Viscountess Dahldolf, it seemed. She had fallen into despair upon seeing how her house responded to her son’s execution and wanted to take revenge against Ferdinand and me—even if doing so cast her entire house into ruin. Her seething hatred and raw emotion seeped through every word on the page, which was dotted with blood.

“So she dragged her family into this against their will...” I said.

“And the attendants who died with her, I imagine. They must have been involved in this plot for her to go to such lengths to ensure their memories cannot be read.”

The viscountess had killed not only herself, but all those involved in the bible switching. It was clear to see that our search was far from over.

“Well, now we have no idea where our bible might be,” I said. I had assumed that we would find it after capturing Viscountess Dahldolf, but she had very thoroughly obliterated any leads we might have been able to follow. Now, we had no idea where to look.

“Given the abruptness of the suicide,” Hartmut noted, “we can conclude that she did not expect our visit. The bible is possibly still in this estate—or if not, there may be clues as to where she sent it.”

Finding the bible on our own would prove difficult. We couldn’t open Viscountess Dahldolf’s hidden room without Viscount Dahldolf’s assistance, and it was unlikely that we would get much help from her highly diligent servants. Reading the servants’ memories from top to bottom was an option, but doing so would inevitably make this incident public.

What should we do? We’ll need the viscount to actively help us with our search, but I can’t imagine he’ll ever agree to that.

“Rozemyne, tell the knights outside to assist us, then return to the castle ahead of me with your guard knights,” Ferdinand said. “Secure a meeting with the aub, explain the circumstances, and ask him to summon the giebe. I will preserve this scene and gather information before following after you. We know that three people died here, but I must confirm that one of these corpses truly belongs to Viscountess Dahldolf.”

Standing around wouldn’t get me any closer to finding the bible, so I promptly sent an ordonnanz to Sylvester asking for an urgent meeting, then sent another to Rihyarda saying that I would be returning to the castle. From there, I asked the knights keeping watch outside to assist Ferdinand, then brought my guard knights with me to the castle.

Sylvester had sensed that my ordonnanz meant serious business—likely because Ferdinand had already told him about the bible being stolen, and Karstedt had given him a report about Egmont’s memories. He summoned us as soon as Ferdinand arrived at the castle, and his office had already been cleared of people when we entered.

“What happened?” Sylvester asked, a sharp look in his dark-green eyes.

Ferdinand stepped forward. “Viscountess Dahldolf and a number of her attendants are dead. I can confirm that it was not a murder, and that the viscountess’s attendants perished from her mana. She exploded their heads and then her own, such that none of their memories can be read.”

“This can’t be happening...” Sylvester muttered. He tightly shut his eyes, then sighed. “We’ll need to call the giebe over right away, investigate his house’s involvement, and take care of them. This... is not going to make our winter plans any easier.”

He was referring to the purge of the former Veronica faction. Eliminating the Dahldolfs at this juncture would no doubt elicit a response of some kind from the former Veronica faction’s nobles. Sylvester frowned, unable to predict how that would impact their winter plans.

“Sylvester, are you going to execute all of the Dahldolfs for this...?” I asked.

“They stole our bible and tried to assassinate my adopted daughter,” he replied. “It’s only natural that the whole house is deemed guilty by association.”

“It may be natural, but... isn’t punishing innocent people the reason Yurgenschmidt is currently suffering a noble shortage? Isn’t killing by association the reason so many duchies aren’t able to manage themselves properly?” We had already called the excessive purging dumb for how it crippled the country, so it would be even dumber if we added to the problem ourselves.

“What would you do instead, then?”

“Use Schutzaria’s shield to confirm whether they hold any malice, bind them with name-swearing if not, and allow their house to continue doing its job?”

Just as there were magic tools that only the aub could operate, there were magic tools that only giebes could operate. Our duchy’s average mana level was going up thanks to my compression method, but we still didn’t have that much leeway when it came to manpower.

“The children in the Royal Academy can avoid death by offering their names, no?” I continued. “I feel that any adults who are proven not to be hostile should receive the same choice.”

My suggestion was met with a firm headshake—not from Sylvester, but from Karstedt. “That would mean that all those we executed by association in the past were killed unnecessarily,” he said.

“Father, one member of a house holding malice does not mean that the entire house is malicious. We must make it so that crimes belong to the individual and the individual alone, otherwise this chain of hatred will never end. We can check for ill intentions with Schutzaria’s shield, so let us be the ones to break the cycle.”

My suggestion would have been more problematic if we were taking the Dahldolfs at their word, but Schutzaria’s shield meant that we could actually see how they were feeling on the inside. It seemed smart to use the tools at our disposal and increase our support base.

“Still, that feels like a weak punishment for trying to assassinate an archducal family member...” Sylvester said.

“Oh, have you forgotten already?” I asked. “If we retrieve our bible, then this incident never occurred, and there will be no reason for us to publicly charge them. We can have them give their names in secret and conclude the matter there.”

Sylvester fell into thought, examining me through narrowed eyes that seemed to reach deep into my soul. He was making his archduke face, and my back straightened on instinct.

“Rozemyne, why are you going to such lengths to protect House Dahldolf when its viscountess tried to assassinate you?” he eventually asked. “If you allow them to live, the same thing might happen to you again. Eliminating them is the best choice for your own sake.”

“Offering them a means to survive will motivate them to help search for the bible.”

We knew nothing about Viscountess Dahldolf, so it was far more efficient to have people more familiar with her personality and preferences search in our place. If we gave the remaining Dahldolfs the chance to avoid execution, the viscount would surely mobilize his entire house to assist us—which would make searching the viscountess’s hidden room and questioning the servants all the easier.

“As it stands,” I continued, “executing those who hold no malice is a poor move. We should give them the chance to stay alive—to dedicate themselves to helping us.”

Purging the house entirely would tie up some loose ends, but the cost was far too great. Some would lose their mind and act out of desperation when it became apparent that their entire family was about to be executed, but if we offered them a lifeline, we could expect the giebe to do everything in his power to protect his house and its land—as was his job.

Karstedt was looking at me with exasperation, but Sylvester grinned with amusement. “Hm... Alright then,” he said. “To be honest, I’ve already been pulling my hair out over how many nobles we’re going to lose in the former Veronica faction purge. I’ll screen the Dahldolfs with this Wind shield of yours and offer them a chance to prove themselves.”

As we wanted to keep the whole bible incident from reaching the public, we needed to keep our meeting with Viscount Dahldolf a secret. Sylvester had said that it was necessary for us to go to the viscount’s estate, and the plan was to meet in a particular room so that we could return stealthily when our business was complete.

“The aub said that he plans to elude his retainers, but how exactly will that be possible?” Leonore asked, confused.

I didn’t know any more about Sylvester’s escape tricks than she did; I simply waited in place, as instructed, and gazed outside. We were in a guest room with a large balcony that was currently bathed in sunlight.

“Done and done,” Sylvester said, having appeared out of nowhere with Karstedt in tow. “Let’s go.”

“How did you get in here?” I asked, conscious that the door to the room had remained firmly shut the entire time.

“A combination of servant hallways and secret exits that only the archduke can use. Few others would be able to pull off such a flawless escape.”

I shook my head in complete disbelief as he puffed out his chest. Was this really something to boast about?

Sylvester pulled open the door to the balcony and turned around. “Alright, Rozemyne. Make your highbeast. Mine would stand out too much, so Karstedt and I will ride with you.”

It was true that Sylvester’s highbeast would completely undermine our efforts to act in secret; he was the only person who could use a triple-headed lion, so traveling on it would make our movements obvious. I made Lessy a little bigger before allowing Sylvester and Karstedt inside.

“Ooh!” Sylvester exclaimed, his eyes sparkling as he peered all around. I could tell that he wanted nothing more than to bombard me with questions, but because Judithe was still in the passenger seat, he showed some restraint to maintain his archducal gravitas.

Once everyone had their seat belts on, I took to the sky.