Ascendance of a Bookworm (LN) - Volume 4.9 - Chapter SS5

Winter Resolution

“C’mon, Kamil. Hurry!” Dad shouted as he ran down the stairs.

“You’re telling me to hurry?!” I shouted back, running after him with everything we needed clutched to my chest. “We’re late because you wouldn’t get out of bed!”

It was a sunny day, and that meant one thing: parues. We had meant to leave to gather some earlier, but it had taken Mom and me ages to get Dad to properly wake up.

“We’re outta time. Kamil, get on the sled.”

“But Dad...”

“Quick! Won’t be any parues left at this rate!”

There was no point arguing with him. I gave up and climbed onto the sled, which Dad then pulled along as he started running. I gripped the edges so that I wouldn’t fall off, and puffed out my cheeks.

This sucks. I’m totally old enough to run now.

I was well aware that this was our best option—we were late, and there was no chance of me keeping up with Dad all the way to the forest—but still. I wanted to get off the sled before my friends spotted me; everyone would laugh if they saw me getting pulled along with all the stuff.

Bet they’ll think I’m a baby who can’t fend for himself. But it was Dad who overslept, not me!

“Gunther!” came a voice when we reached the gate. “Gatherin’ parues when you’re this busy? Must be rough.”

“Can say that again,” Dad replied. “Anything happen that I should know about?”

Dad was talking to a guard. We needed to hurry if we wanted to get any parues, but I stayed silent and just watched them; Dad had told me before not to interrupt his conversations at the gate, since they were to do with his work.

“There were a lot of new faces in the orphanage group that came by. Lutz and Gil were there, so I let ’em all through, but... do you know anything about all this, Gunther?”

“Probably some top secret archduke business. I’ll ask if we cross ’em in the forest.”

It was normal for Dad to be busy during the winter—there was always snow to shovel and drunks to deal with—but this year he had even more on his plate than usual. The north gate had received some special jobs from the archduke himself.

If the orphans are here, does that mean Dirk and Konrad are gonna be in the forest too? I can’t wait to see them.

During autumn last year, when I’d gone to the forest with Lutz for the first time, I’d ended up meeting Dirk and Konrad. They were both orphans and were about my age, and they understood me no matter what we spoke about. The orphanage where they lived also had all the toys and picture books made by the Rozemyne Workshop. Lutz had said that I couldn’t discuss these toys—not even my favorites—with any of the neighbors, so I was real glad to finally have another chance to rave about them.

I’d once had another older sister, Myne, but she’d died a long time ago. Nobles and the temple had apparently been involved, and my parents had told me that the High Bishop was giving me toys from her workshop out of sympathy. It was a nice gesture, but we were still wary about having any kind of contact with nobles, so I wasn’t allowed to talk about them or the toys.

I couldn’t remember the first time I’d found out about Myne. But one thing I remembered clear as day was Mom, Lutz, and Tuuli happily talking about her, saying “Myne” this and “Myne” that. They’d stopped the moment I asked who this “Myne” person was—and that was when I’d realized that she was someone I wasn’t allowed to talk about. I’d already promised Dad that I would keep my mouth shut, so I didn’t plan on bringing her up again.

Back when I’d first gone to the forest with Lutz, I’d been told that I could talk about toys with the orphanage kids, but not about Myne. That was all well and good, but what could I have even said about her? I’d never actually known my other sister.

The next time I’d seen Dirk and Konrad in the forest, I’d made sure to bring karuta cards with me. Dirk had sometimes beat me, but I’d always won against Konrad. That had all changed when spring came around, though. Konrad suddenly became a much better player, and winning against him became way harder. Frustrated, I’d started practicing with Mom a lot more often, and sometimes with Tuuli when she came home.

“Dirk! Konrad!”

We arrived at the forest and saw the orphans all gathering together. It was just as the guard had said—there were a lot of unfamiliar kids among them. It must have been their first time looking for parues, as Lutz and Gil were teaching them how to go about gathering them.

“Lutz! Gil!” Dad called. “Want to gather together? You’re gonna be offering what you find to Lady Rozemyne, right?”

Lutz frowned a little and said, “Well, I dunno if she’s coming back this year...” Lady Rozemyne usually returned to the temple midway through winter, but it seemed that wouldn’t be the case this year.

“Actually, we’re gonna be putting any parues we find in the ice room,” Gil added with a grin. “Lady Rozemyne always looks forward to ’em, so we want to keep as many as we can.”

It also turned out that Lady Rozemyne loved parues enough to get excited about eating them every year. There was a place in the temple that was basically winter all year round, and parues kept there wouldn’t rot even in spring.

The temple sure has some weird places.

“Kamil, you can go gather parues with the orphanage children,” Dad said. “I need to speak with Gil.”

“Got it.”

Dad and Gil went off somewhere. It was probably to do with work again. Meanwhile, Lutz and I went over to the orphanage children. Dirk and Konrad were teaching the new faces how to gather parues.

“And that’s why we take turns getting the fruit,” Dirk concluded.

“Must I really dirty my hands...?”

“Aw, shut it, Bertram! How many times have I told you? Those who don’t work don’t eat!”

The new kids all seemed strangely cocky. Some were lounging about, not even pretending to listen to Dirk’s advice.

Can’t he just exclude anyone who doesn’t wanna pay attention?

“Things look pretty rough...” I noted.

“Oh, Kamil. Been a while,” Konrad said when he noticed me. “Things have been way busier, what with us getting so many new kids at once. Seems like Dirk and Delia are always mad about something or another back in the orphanage. I wish you could see it; they shout in the same way and everything.”

In the past, Dirk and Konrad had complained about having nobody to play with, since there were so few young kids in the orphanage. But now they had more than they knew what to do with. There were maybe ten kids in total—and, according to Konrad, there were some even younger ones still at the orphanage.

Where’d they all come from...?

“I wish we could play karuta here in the snow,” Konrad said. “We’ve all been practicing together, so you’re going down the next time we play.”

He was surprisingly confident for someone who normally lost and then sat around pouting. I actually started to worry. Of course he and Dirk were getting better when they had this many people to practice with.

“I’m getting better too,” I said. “Even beat Renate the other day.”

“Renate?”

“A girl from the Gilberta Company.”

Before I could say anything else, Dirk and Lutz called out to us. “Hey, Konrad! Kamil! Can you help us show these kids the ropes?”

I didn’t waste a moment before making my way over. First, I’d need to demonstrate how to climb a parue tree.

It had been just before winter when I first met Renate. Tuuli had taken me to the Gilberta Company—and as it had been my first time going to the north part of the city, I’d worn some clean clothes she’d made for me that looked a lot like the ones worn for baptisms. The buildings there were way more colorful than the ones where we lived.

“They’re so pretty, aren’t they? The old paint was washed off when the archduke cleaned the whole city at once, so the buildings had to be repainted,” Tuuli explained. She then giggled to herself and added, “Remember when Mr. Deid was grumbling about how much work there was to do?”

The archduke’s magic had cleaned all the wooden walls in the city and turned our roads and the stone parts of our buildings a sparkly white. This had actually been pretty bad for the rich because it had stripped the paint from their establishments along with all the grime.

“I heard that things were especially tense when they had to prepare for the merchants of other duchies showing up. I’m sure Dad was always having to patrol the area.”

I couldn’t really remember how the city had looked before, but everyone always spoke about the change being so dramatic. One thing that had stuck with me, though, was something that Dad had said when patrolling with the other soldiers: “The archduke was planning to shoo us all out and remake the city from scratch, but Lady Rozemyne stopped him. Now, we’ve gotta make sure it stays clean.”

“This is the Gilberta Company, where I work,” Tuuli said when we arrived. “Be sure to speak politely from here on out.”

We took the stairs on the side of the building up to the second floor, then Tuuli announced that we were here. She spoke and acted so, so differently from when she was at home. I straightened my back—just like she and Lutz had taught me—as a servant let us inside.

“So you’re Kamil, huh?” the boss of the Gilberta Company asked. “Welcome.”

He went on to introduce me to his family. There was Mrs. Corinna, Lady Rozemyne’s seamstress who Tuuli respected so much, and their children, Renate and Knut. There was also Mark and the boss of the Plantin Company, who were here today by coincidence to help with teaching Renate.

I was told to play cards and karuta with the other kids; Mark and the boss of the Plantin Company even joined us. Knut was so young that he wasn’t even a challenge, but I lost about half of my games against Renate.

“Told you, didn’t I?” the boss of the Plantin Company said with a grin. “I’m not winning ’cause I’m an adult—you’re losing ’cause you’re not good enough.”

Renate puffed out her cheeks and looked at me. “Join the Gilberta Company, Kamil. We can keep playing until my win rate is one hundred percent. How does that sound to you?”

“Uh...”

I didn’t know how to respond. But as I sat there, at a loss for words, Mr. Otto joined in with a smile. “Good thinking, Renate. That’s my daughter for you. Kamil, how about you come work for us as a lehange?”

Surprised that the boss himself was inviting me, I glanced over at Tuuli. She worked as Lady Rozemyne’s hairpin maker here at the Gilberta Company, and she was even being trusted to design outfits and pick out cloth for her. Her status had shot through the roof as a result; where we lived, someone becoming this successful before coming of age was pretty much unheard of. Everyone looked up to her, and I was lucky to have her as a big sister.

I wonder... Would joining the Gilberta Company help me become amazing like Tuuli?

I was kinda tempted. Dad was inviting me to join the soldiers and help him protect the city, but working with Tuuli sounded a lot more fun.

Before I could even try to respond, however, the boss of the Plantin Company shot out a hand. “No. Kamil would do a lot better working for the Plantin Company. You’re more interested in books and toys than hairpins, cloth, and rinsham, right?”

Just like that, my heart turned to the Plantin Company. Lutz was, like, the only other person as successful as Tuuli where we lived. He had become a leherl at a major store despite being born into a family of woodworkers, which made him just as incredible.

I really loved the toys and picture books that Lutz brought me. I cared a lot more about them than hairpins or cloth, that was for sure. Those kinds of things were for girls.

“I’ve heard from Lutz that you want to start getting involved in the orphanage workshop and going to a bunch of places, right?” the boss of the Plantin Company continued.

I only really wanted to go to the workshop because Dirk and Konrad were there, but the idea of learning how the toys and picture books were made was pretty appealing. Thinking about it like that, the Plantin Company seemed way better. Lutz had said that they got to read the finished books before anyone else too. That sounded great.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” the boss of the Gilberta Company cried out. “How come you’re always trying to steal away the gems I find, Benno?! Wasn’t Lutz enough?!”

“As if you need anyone but Tuuli! We’ve gotta put people where they’re gonna do best!”

I was trying to decide what to do, but the two bosses had ended up in a full-on argument. Renate was telling me to hurry up and decide already; apparently, they wouldn’t stop fighting until I made up my mind.

Unsure what to do, I turned to Tuuli for help. She came over with a gentle smile and gave me a pat on the head. “Don’t worry, Kamil. You have plenty of time to think it over before your baptism,” she assured me. “The profession you choose will shape your whole life, so you need to figure out what you want to do yourself. Taking inspiration from others is fine, but you can’t make excuses like saying that you only made your choice because someone else told you to. You’ll only end up full of regrets, and you won’t be able to work your hardest when you’re blaming other people.”

Tuuli then looked over at the two bosses, still wearing her warm smile, and said, “In other words, you two—please let Kamil decide for himself. Don’t rush him.”

“Ahaha. That must have been rough. They’re both so stubborn,” Lutz said, having been warming his parue-chilled hands by the fire while listening to my story. He was always there to pat my head and cheer me on, and it made me wish that I had a big brother like him.

“Lutz... are you, uh... going to marry Tuuli?” I asked. “She’s about to come of age, isn’t she? Feels like everyone’s getting real excited about that.”

Most girls started looking for husbands and preparing for marriage when they were about to come of age—and it made sense that Tuuli would pick Lutz, what with how often they hung out. Even our families agreed that they would make a lovely couple, which was another good sign, since family connections had a big impact on marriages. There was also the fact that, even with all their success, it was unlikely that either of them had the money to marry someone else from a major store.

“Well, I get that everyone’s excited, and us ending up together is the safest option... but who knows? Might not happen for a long time. Tuuli had her heart broken, you know.”

“What?!”

“Oops... That’s supposed to be a secret.”

“Come on, Lutz! You’ve gotta tell me now! Who was it?! I mean, Tuuli’s so good at sewing and works so hard and...”

There wasn’t a boy alive who wouldn’t find themselves staring at Tuuli, so how could anyone have turned her down? I was probably a little biased, but I also genuinely believed that. Maybe it had to do with her social standing and our family or something, since our parents talked about that a lot.

In the end, Lutz refused to tell me any more, no matter how many times I asked. “I wanna talk about you, not Tuuli,” he said with a grin. “You’ve made your decision, right? I can see it on your face.”

I grinned back at him. “I want to work with the Plantin Company. I’d prefer working with books and toys over protecting the city or selling hairpins.”

“Ah, Myne... You sure raised him into a bookworm, huh?”

Lutz mumbled something too quietly for me to hear. I asked him to repeat himself, but he just shook his head. He had way more secrets than I’d ever expected.

“If you really want to join the Plantin Company, then you should go ask Mr. Gunther and the others for permission to study there,” Lutz said. “This is a good time as well, since the blizzards are calming down now.”

“‘Study’?”

“I had a hard time becoming a merchant as the son of a carpenter, and now you’re gonna have a hard time as the son of a soldier. We’ll let you stay at the Plantin Company for about ten days and give you all the training that you’ll need.”

I could already read and do math thanks to my toys and picture books, but it turned out there was a lot more I needed to know about the mindset of a merchant and the way their world worked. Taking Lutz’s advice was definitely my best option, since he had already gone down this path himself.

“I’ll speak with Mark and Master Benno,” Lutz said, “but I’m pretty sure they’ll take you in a heartbeat.”

“Really?!”

Lutz grinned and nodded. “The store gets busier in the spring, and next year’s going to be even rougher than usual with our upcoming trip to Kirnberger. I’ve got more free time in the winter, though. I’m underage and can’t go to the castle yet, so yeah.”

At the end of winter, Master Benno and the leherls had their hands full going to the castle—but Lutz was done as soon as he finished preparing the books and study materials from the Rozemyne Workshop.

“You’ll need to work on your language, posture, and etiquette,” Lutz continued, listing all the areas I’d need to receive training in. “But first and foremost, be sure to get permission from your mom and dad. Life’s hard when you don’t have your parents’ support.”

He seemed to be speaking from experience, but I wasn’t worried. Mom and Dad would definitely understand. It was like the doorway to my future was suddenly wide open, and that realization made me so thrilled.

“Lutz, I’m going to do my best.”

“Yep. Have at it.”

There was a quiet thwump as a parue landed in the snow nearby. The new kids were getting the fruit off the trees way, way faster than Lutz and I could. The same was true for Dirk and Konrad.

“How come it looks so easy for them?” I asked.

“Who knows? Oh, look. Mr. Gunther’s waving. Looks like you’re up, Kamil.”

“Right!”

I climbed the parue tree to switch places with Dad. “We’re almost done, Kamil. You take care of the rest,” he said as he passed me on his way down.

I took off my gloves and grabbed the first parue by its stem, trying to warm it up. Dirk looked over from a nearby branch while I was waiting and said, “You seem in a good mood, Kamil. Aren’t your hands freezing?”

“They are, but... Dirk, when spring comes, I might get to go to the orphanage to see the Rozemyne Workshop. Lutz said that Lady Rozemyne will give me her permission if I join the Plantin Company.”

“Really?! I can’t wait!” Dirk exclaimed, smiling in excitement. The thought of one day getting to work with him and Konrad sounded amazing.

Light started to stream in through the branches above us, marking the end of our gathering. The parues began shining like jewels, and the trees waved back and forth like they’d suddenly come to life, making loud rustling sounds.

I climbed down at once and watched as the parue trees started to disappear. The new kids seeing it for the first time were in complete shock. The trees stretched up, up into the air, then swooped down and vanished entirely.

It was time for everyone to return home, so we put our basket of parues on our sled and started making our way back. Dad wanted to make sure the orphanage kids got back safely, so we accompanied them as far as the gate. Getting back into the city was harder than leaving it, and since the noon guard wouldn’t be the same person who had seen Lutz and the others out, the new orphans probably would have been denied entry. Dad was going to speak to whoever was on duty to make sure they were allowed through.

“Things are a bit tense right now, so the guards wouldn’t have let you all through just because they recognize you and Gil,” Dad explained to Lutz. “Make sure you come to me before doing this again. They’ll trust me more.”

“Thanks, Mr. Gunther.”

Just as he’d promised, Dad spoke to the guards and got all the orphanage kids into the city without issue. We passed through the gate, and the orphans headed back to the orphanage.

On our way home, right before we turned a corner, Dad gave a parue to Gil. “Get this to Lady Rozemyne,” he said.

“I’ll store it in the ice room and make sure she gets it.”

“I’m counting on you.”

Nooo... My parue...

They were so hard to gather, but Dad always gave one to the orphanage for Lady Rozemyne. It was weird—Dirk, Konrad, and everyone in my family seemed to love Lady Rozemyne way too much, even if she did employ a lot of us.

That night, after dinner, I told my parents that there was something on my mind. They exchanged anxious looks in response, then Mom started pouring tea. Dad moved about in his seat a little, took a sip from the cup that was set on the table for him, then gave me his full attention.

“What is it?” he asked, his voice several times lower than usual.

I was worried they would refuse, but I clenched my fists and looked at them head-on. “Mom. Dad. I want to make books with Lutz!” I announced. “I want to work at the Plantin Company and spread new books everywhere!”

All of a sudden, Mom and Dad got all teary-eyed. I couldn’t understand why. I’d expected them to refuse, or Dad to question me about why I didn’t want to be a soldier.

“Do you not want me to...?” I asked, tilting my head at them.

“No, no,” Mom said, wiping her eyes. She stood up, came to my side, and began stroking my head with a conflicted expression. “If making books is what you want to do, then I won’t try to stop you. I’m on your side. Just do your best.”

Dad nodded in agreement. In other words, I now had permission to study at the Plantin Company.

I’m gonna make books! I’m gonna grow up to be just like Lutz!