Ascendance of a Bookworm (LN) - Volume 5.3 - Chapter Pr

Prologue

Ehrenfest’s game of ditter against Dunkelfelger had come to an end. There had been some unexpected developments, such as an interruption by the Sovereign Knight’s Order, and the royal family’s decision to question all of the involved parties, but the match had ultimately ended with Ehrenfest’s victory. Rozemyne would not be married into Dunkelfelger.

Matthias sighed in relief, glad to have protected his sworn lady... but it was too soon for him to rest easy. He had noticed a faint scent during that questioning—something that everybody else had most likely missed.

“Can I ask you all to come with me to a meeting room?” Matthias said. “I wish to discuss today’s events.” He had gone around the dining hall to gather together Laurenz, Leonore, and Judithe—as well as Brunhilde, who had also participated in the ditter match.

“What about me?” asked the young Theodore, but he served Lady Rozemyne only within the Royal Academy. His true lord was Giebe Kirnberger, so he could not participate in these important discussions.

However, Matthias was hesitant to be so direct. He knew how upset Theodore would get about being left out, so he instead said, “I would like to keep this among those who participated in the ditter game.”

“But will you not want the perspective of someone who was in the audience?” Theodore asked.

Matthias fell into thought, trying to figure out how he could get Theodore to give up without hurting his feelings... but then Leonore heaved an impatient sigh.

“Theodore, as you only serve Lady Rozemyne here in the Royal Academy, we must draw a line. We do not want our every word to be leaked to Giebe Kirnberger. Or would you like to commit to becoming Lady Rozemyne’s retainer?”

Theodore had a lot of potential as a knight, and with Rozemyne already having a shortage of guards, her retainers were eager for him to join them formally. But after a moment spent in thought, Theodore refused the offer.

“My goal is to become a knight of Kirnberger,” he said.

After dinner, Rozemyne’s five retainers who had participated in the game of ditter gathered in a meeting room. Matthias confirmed that the door was shut tightly behind them, then turned to Brunhilde.

“How is Lady Rozemyne?”

Brunhilde was an apprentice attendant and could access Rozemyne’s room on the girls’ floor. Matthias could still remember how ghastly pale Rozemyne had looked while she was being carried away. He wanted some kind of update on her situation, like whether she was feeling better, or whether she had at least awakened.

“She is not doing very well...” Brunhilde replied. “Her illness resulted partly from her drinking too many rejuvenation potions, so that means of recovery is not an option here. All we can do is wait for her to awaken. In truth, she developed a fever while we were eating... It seems she is struggling even to breathe.”

At the moment, Rihyarda was off eating her own dinner, while Lieseleta and Gretia were placing a cold washcloth on Lady Rozemyne’s forehead and wiping away her sweat.

Brunhilde grew increasingly pale as she continued, “If only I had not fainted during the match... I could have stopped Lady Rozemyne from consuming too many potions.”

Her voice was full of regret, but an archattendant who had received so little combat training could not be blamed for having fainted in the face of an attack from Rarstark, Dunkelfelger’s strongest apprentice knight. It was an understandable reaction, if anything. Her priority had been to stay inside Rozemyne’s shield, and she had not been trained to defend herself or avoid attacks. The apprentice attendants had only been expected to manage the rejuvenation potions and recognize the different types of offensive magic tools.

“In that case,” Judithe said, “I’m to blame for failing as a guard knight. I allowed Lord Lestilaut to get into the shield and was unable to protect Lady Rozemyne. If I hadn’t taken out my weapon, then I wouldn’t have been knocked out of the shield...”

She was shaking her head in disappointment, her expression clouded, but Matthias did not think she was at fault either. Any guard knight worth their salt would take out their weapon upon seeing their lord or lady in danger. It was precisely what they were trained to do and something they did without thinking.

“I expect that anyone in your situation would have been knocked out of Schutzaria’s shield,” Matthias said. “In fact, you would have failed as a guard knight if you hadn’t tried to protect her.”

Laurenz nodded. “Even if you had stayed inside to protect her from Lord Lestilaut, Lady Rozemyne probably would have drunk a rejuvenation potion anyway. We needed her shield to protect us from the intruders’ attacks and as a place to heal the knights.”

Brunhilde frowned. “Laurenz, that is precisely what we should have stopped her from doing. Lord Ferdinand surely would have scolded us all as failures of retainers, were he here.”

Neither Matthias nor Laurenz understood what she meant. Was this really worthy of such a harsh criticism? Matthias remembered that Rozemyne had used Schutzaria’s shield to protect the students during the ternisbefallen attack last year, and they hadn’t been criticized for that. On this occasion, the shield had been absolutely necessary for warding off the attacks from above, healing the wounded knights, and protecting the noncombatants from the audience.

“But why? If not for Schutzaria’s shield, we would have been—”

Brunhilde shook her head. “Recall that Dunkelfelger does not have Schutzaria’s shield to rely on. Is it not due to the weakness of our apprentice knights that we could not heal ourselves or protect those in the audience without Lady Rozemyne’s assistance?” It was a sharp criticism delivered with narrowed eyes.

Despite what Brunhilde said, Matthias believed that she was ignoring one important detail: it had been Rozemyne’s desire to both make and maintain the shield. “Lady Rozemyne made her shield with a wish to protect everyone. Are her noble actions and spirit not to be respected?”

“They are. However, Lady Rozemyne’s health and safety come first. We, her retainers, failed to act upon that fact.” Her firm amber eyes fell on Matthias and Laurenz. “This is not like when she was overflowing with mana and needed to give some to others. We, the students of Ehrenfest, forced her to go beyond her limits and use more potions than was prescribed to her by Lord Ferdinand, her personal doctor. We know Lady Rozemyne is frail enough that even attending tea parties causes her to collapse, so why did we not intervene? Why are we treating what happened as normal instead of reflecting on ourselves or regretting our misdeeds?”

Brunhilde’s revelation came as such a shock to Matthias that he felt as though someone had just punched him in the back of the head. She was completely right—they were all well aware of Rozemyne’s poor health. And while she had more mana than most, her supply was far from infinite. She, too, would run out if she used too much at once.

And yet, even though Rozemyne had needed to use rejuvenation potions just to maintain the shield, Matthias had not been at all worried about her giving blessings or using mana. He had felt concerned upon seeing her ashen face, but he had not stopped to question how his dependence on her had caused it.

“Brunhilde... I’m ever so sorry...” Leonore said. “We ended up in this situation because I made Lady Rozemyne’s shield an integral part of our plan...”

“Lady Rozemyne was motivated to use it, and it likely was essential to our victory. I would not have volunteered to participate in the match if not for that shield. That said... the battle ended the moment Lady Hannelore left Dunkelfelger’s base, did it not? We should have dispelled the shield then and there, making Lady Rozemyne’s health our top priority. As her retainer, I am ashamed that I was unable to.”

The apprentice knights had been free to leave the training grounds as soon as the battle was over and could have spent time recovering somewhere safe. Those in the audience could have defended themselves, for the most part; that was why all students were taught to use geteilt. As for Charlotte, her guard knights could have flown up to protect her.

Brunhilde’s regrets must have stemmed from her being an attendant, Matthias thought. Her viewpoint was different from that of the knights.

“I regret my actions as well,” Leonore said, then shot a worried glance in the direction of Rozemyne’s room. “I should not have let her heal that unconscious Dunkelfelger apprentice. She was in a much worse state than he was.”

Matthias blinked. It was his firm understanding that a retainer’s duty was to grant the wishes of their lord or lady and nothing more. Yet even Leonore, a guard knight, was agreeing with Brunhilde.

What is causing them to think like this?

This wasn’t just a difference between attendants and guard knights; Leonore and Judithe both agreed with Brunhilde’s position. Rather, it was something more fundamental separating his thinking from theirs. This was far from ideal; contrasting ideas of the role of a retainer would possibly lead to misunderstandings or conflict in the future. Matthias wanted to understand their thoughts and intentions before that happened.

“So you say,” he interjected, his voice cracking out of anxiety, “but Lady Rozemyne wished to heal the knight, and he was certainly wounded enough to need it. Is it not the duty of a retainer to grant the wishes of their lord or lady?”

“That is not always the case,” Brunhilde replied flatly.

Leonore looked contemplative for a moment, then muttered, “I suppose the two of you should know this now that you are name-sworn...” She looked at Matthias and Laurenz. “What I am about to tell you was told to me by Cornelius, as it happened before we all entered Lady Rozemyne’s service. Four years ago... Lady Rozemyne’s retainers worked only to grant her wishes, with no other thoughts in mind.”

Rozemyne had gone off on her highbeast to save Charlotte, who had been kidnapped by Viscount Joisontak. Her guard knights had separated from her as ordered, determined to grant her every wish—and, during that brief moment, Rozemyne herself had been kidnapped.

Leonore continued, “Her guard knights put her wants above all else, and the consequence was their lady spending two years in a jureve.”

No matter how much gratitude they received from Charlotte, her retainers, or the archducal couple, the guards’ charge remained in a coma. As time passed, her presence in the minds of the people grew increasingly thin, and she became more and more forgotten.

“Their lady eventually awoke to find that life had continued without her. She had missed two years of education and growth, and noble society would not wait for her emotions to stabilize. How do you think Lady Rozemyne’s guard knights felt seeing their lady, whom they had failed to protect, being sent to the Royal Academy before she could catch up to the present?”

Just imagining their pain put a bad taste in Matthias’s mouth. Neither he nor Laurenz could say anything.

“We cannot allow history to repeat itself,” Leonore concluded. “To that end, you must understand that simply granting the wishes of whomever you serve is not enough. Lady Rozemyne in particular is extraordinarily creative and motivated, but she does not have nearly enough stamina to keep up with herself. To complicate matters further, her warped understanding of noble culture, due in part to her upbringing in the temple, means she is often not on the same page as the rest of us.”

Matthias and Laurenz listened carefully. Roderick had told them how to serve their new lady as members of the former Veronica faction, but this was something more elementary—it was a lesson on how to serve the being that was Rozemyne.

“You must be careful about Lord Wilfried as well,” Brunhilde noted. “That boy always looks down on Lady Rozemyne.”

From there, she launched into an anger-fueled rant; it seemed that Wilfried was guilty of quite a few infuriating offenses that only retainers would notice. Each was trivial on its own, but just as an ever-growing stack of rocks would eventually form a mountain, his list of sins had created such a downward spiral that the girls serving Rozemyne were openly furious.

There have been a few occasions when he’s annoyed me as well...

Brunhilde continued, “My opinion of him improved slightly when he accepted this game of ditter, but from the halfway point of the match through to the discussion with royalty, he only seemed to care about Lady Hannelore this, Lady Hannelore that!”

“Well, uh... I think we should be a bit more considerate here,” Matthias said. “Ehrenfest only won because he got Lady Hannelore out of her base after she was left there all alone.”

“I will take that into consideration, but Lady Rozemyne was still white as a sheet. I am furious that he had the time to worry about an archduke candidate from another duchy but not about his own fiancée as she fought to protect everyone from Ehrenfest all on her own.”

“I expect he was at least a little worried about her,” Laurenz said, trying to protect Wilfried—but Brunhilde shot him a glare so fierce that he started to wonder whether looks really could kill.

Leonore gave Brunhilde a consoling pat on the back while looking between Laurenz and Matthias. “Lord Wilfried was celebrating our victory alongside everyone else, was he not? He expressed his relief that the royal family’s interrogation ended without any unreasonable demands or complaints. Yet he offered not a word of gratitude to Lady Rozemyne, nor did he express any concern for her health, even though she maintained the shield for everybody else’s sake. His only words were that... collapsing is normal for her.”

Thinking back, that was true. Matthias had definitely been worried about Rozemyne, but even as she was carried away half-conscious in the presence of the royal family, his only thoughts had been “This always happens” and “She should wake up before long.” He inhaled sharply, having not realized just how much time had warped his perspective.

“I think that was because Lord Wilfried didn’t want to worry anyone,” Judithe said. “Even I could tell that. He can’t give detailed reports while Lady Rozemyne is asleep, and—”

“Even so,” Brunhilde said, interrupting her, “a full year has passed since their engagement. Lady Rozemyne is always working herself to death for Ehrenfest, but not once has he even deigned to prepare a get-well present for her. I am so, so frustrated with him! This is normal, he says? How can it be when this is her first time collapsing from using too many rejuvenation potions during a game of ditter? He should know better! SHOULDN’T HE?!”

Brunhilde was getting heated again, her eyes blazing with anger. It was clear how deeply she cared about her lady. Plus, if even Brunhilde, someone who usually disguised her true feelings so well, was this openly furious, one could only imagine how Hartmut would react.

I don’t even want to think about it.

Matthias quickly elected to push Hartmut from his mind and instead proposed improvements for their relationship with Wilfried.

“In that case, we could prompt Lord Wilfried to visit her by suggesting as much to his attendants.”

“A kind gesture should not need to be coerced; it is pointless unless it comes from the heart,” Leonore said, sounding no less angry than Brunhilde. “That said, while Brunhilde is rather mad about it, I am not too concerned about whether he visits her. Boys are not allowed on the third floor of the dormitory and, in a political marriage, it is best not to show your partner any weakness to begin with.”

At this sudden declaration, Matthias saw Laurenz twitch in fear.

“My issue,” she continued, “is that Lord Wilfried seems to bemoan the interruption of our ditter game and view it as having somehow ‘soiled’ our victory. Dunkelfelger put aside all excuses and sentimentality to acknowledge their defeat, yet that boy still sought a rematch in the presence of the royal family, saying he was unsatisfied with the resolution! It is absolutely unfathomable.”

Leonore’s anger was so extreme that her usually indigo eyes had started to change color.

In response to her rant, Matthias gave a small nod of agreement. Wilfried always went on about not wanting to protest the decisions of others and how those at the bottom of the rankings should obey those at the top—so why, Matthias wondered, had he decided to throw all that out the window at the worst possible moment?

Leonore sighed. “The boy is a blithering fool—that, I already knew—but I thought he would at least have the intelligence to recognize our enemy’s strength after we had just faced them in battle. Does he genuinely wish to protect Lady Rozemyne? He should be using any means necessary to succeed and thanking the gods for every victory. To prioritize anything else is appalling, is it not?”

It was Laurenz who offered a response. “I mean, as a guard knight, I have to agree that our half-baked victory was kind of—”

LAURENZ, YOU FOOL! Don’t talk back to them! No! STOP!

But alas, Matthias’s internal screams did not reach his unfortunate friend. Laurenz was unable to even finish his thought before Leonore interrupted him with a calm smile.

“Laurenz, it appears you are not fit to be a guard knight. I shall consult Lord Bonifatius and have him increase the intensity of your training together.”

“Wha?” Laurenz blinked, not understanding her intentions.

Leonore looked to Judithe and said, “Judithe, state the way of the guard knight!”

“Prioritize the safety of your lord or lady above all else, no matter what!” came her sharp, crisp declaration. “Use any means necessary to protect them!” And she was far from being insincere; after she had spread her cape to protect Rozemyne from Rarstark, it was clear that she believed and practiced those words without compromise.

“Laurenz, chant those words to yourself day in and day out,” Leonore said. “Chant them until every fiber of your being knows that protecting Lady Rozemyne is far more important than the nature of one’s victory. You may have given your name, but if you cannot protect your lady without being ordered to, then you will be of no use as a guard knight.” She was wearing a smile, but her words were gravely serious and scathing enough to burn one’s ears.

Laurenz was already shrinking back from Leonore’s fury. “I apologize. I did not understand what it means to be a guard knight,” he said. “However, Lord Wilfried is not Lady Rozemyne’s guard knight, so—”

“He may not be her guard knight, but he is her fiancé, and their engagement is entirely for his sake. He cannot become the next aub without Lady Rozemyne by his side, and it is hard to say how much authority he will wield as an archduke candidate of the disgraced former Veronica faction now that the purge has been carried out. Do you understand that, I wonder?”

“I wonder myself...” Brunhilde agreed. “It is precisely because their marriage is political that Lord Wilfried must be especially careful about how he acts. It would have been so easy for him to gain some favor with Lady Rozemyne by gifting her a single book on her sickbed or even writing her a letter.”

Through his engagement to Rozemyne, Wilfried now had the grounds to make the nobles of the Leisegang faction his allies, thereby allowing him to become the next aub. Those were the rumors, at least; Matthias couldn’t remember hearing anything of the sort from within the former Veronica faction. He instinctively spoke, having noticed that their factions had contrasting interpretations of events.

“Is that how it looks to the Leisegangs? In our faction, it was said that Lord Wilfried is becoming the next aub to maintain balance now that the Lady Veronica faction has been weakened more than intended.” He was merely hoping to show that there were misunderstandings to be corrected, but his efforts earned him disappointed sighs from Leonore and Brunhilde.

“My, my... How embarrassingly naive. If the nobles of the former Veronica faction truly believe that, then Lord Wilfried will never improve his attitude.”

“His attitude...?” Matthias echoed.

“Even during the royal family’s inquiry, Lord Wilfried obeyed the advice given to him by Oswald and stifled our opinions, forcing Ehrenfest to comply meekly with everybody else’s desires,” Leonore said. “And this was far from the first time, wasn’t it?”

Brunhilde nodded in agreement. “He only listens to his retainers; not once has he ever considered or even asked for our opinions. Is it really so unreasonable that we want him to speak with us or with Lady Rozemyne before he responds to people...?”

Matthias swallowed hard. During the inquiry, Leonore had suggested that Ehrenfest take advantage of Dunkelfelger’s request and participate in the questioning of the intruders. Matthias had been in full agreement... but Wilfried had chosen to obey Oswald and say as little as possible to those ranked above him.

Aah... I also remember being taken aback by what Lord Wilfried said, though it was for another reason than these two.

But those thoughts had been pushed from his mind until now—after all, what he had noticed after the incident the girls were referring to had been far more important. He was racking his brain, trying to remember what it was, when Judithe got between him and Leonore.

“Brunhilde, Leonore, please calm down!” she said. “You’re making Matthias and Laurenz really uncomfortable. They may have given their names, but they’re still from the former Veronica faction; it must be hard for them to endure people criticizing Lord Wilfried so openly. Right?” She was looking at the two boys expectantly... but Laurenz merely grimaced.

“Judithe, don’t make things worse for us.”

Matthias gave a half-smile. He consoled Judithe, who hadn’t quite managed to read the room, and then said, “My silence wasn’t out of discomfort; I just remembered something else about the inquiry that stood out to me.”

“Oh? Something else?” Brunhilde asked, blinking in surprise.

“Back when Lord Lestilaut stated his intention to petition the king, Lord Wilfried argued that the matter was not worth such serious action...”

Members of the Sovereign Knight’s Order had mobilized without an order from the king. As a guard knight, Matthias thought it was important to find out what had inspired their rash insubordination... yet Wilfried had outright rejected the idea. He was going to be Ehrenfest’s next archduke—was he not worried that a similar incident might arise from within his own Knight’s Order? It had felt like he was literally incapable of picturing such a serious danger.

“Also, did anyone else smell something sweet in the air?” Matthias asked. At last, he had broached his primary reason for gathering everyone in the first place.

At once, everybody fell into thought, drawn in by his serious expression.

Laurenz was the first to look up. “You’re not talking about the rinsham that girls use, right, Matthias? Whose smell caught your interest?”

“Laurenz, come on. I wouldn’t bring up such a topic at a time like this.” Matthias couldn’t tell whether Laurenz was joking or being serious, so he just silenced him and turned to the others. He made eye contact with Brunhilde next, but she shook her head.

“I did not notice anything in particular. Even if something had caught my attention at the time, I would not have remembered it unless it were especially strong.”

All of a sudden, Leonore’s head shot up. “Matthias, don’t tell me...”

Matthias caught her gaze and nodded. “It is highly likely that trug was used on the Knight’s Order.”

“Come again?!”

“As I went to say farewell to Prince Anastasius, I noticed a sweet, familiar scent in the air. I traced it as best I could and found that it was coming from the knights tied up on the ground. At the time, I struggled to place it... but after returning to the dormitory and seeing the fireplace, Lady Georgine’s smile suddenly arose in my mind.”

From there, Matthias had immediately connected the dots—but it seemed that nobody else had noticed. The thought sent a chill down his spine. Brunhilde and Judithe were both wearing stiff expressions as well.

“Through the purge, it came to our attention that trug is a dangerous plant,” Leonore said. “However, none of us are familiar with its scent or the like. You are the only one who could have noticed, Matthias.”

Judithe nodded. “The incense could have been burning right in front of me, and I still wouldn’t have known that it was trug... It really is dangerous.”

“The fireplace being lit during that summer party was a cause for alarm, but during this season... burning trug would be simple, wouldn’t it?” Laurenz asked.

Matthias nodded. At this time of year, a person could easily burn trug without anyone suspecting a thing.

“I know very little about it myself,” Leonore said. “I can only hope the Sovereign nobles investigating those three knights will notice.”

After hearing her harsh words for the former Veronica faction, Matthias had assumed that Leonore would immediately doubt him, but she was actually trusting his opinion. The discussion proceeded as if everyone accepted that trug had been used on the Sovereign knights.

“I should note that I’m not entirely sure of my assertion,” Matthias clarified. “I might be mistaken.” Really, he hoped that he was; the very thought of trug having been used on the Sovereign Knight’s Order was nightmarish.

However, Leonore was far more pragmatic. “In the past, Lady Georgine used trug as part of a scheme to harm Lady Rozemyne. This time, it was used to interrupt a game of ditter during which Lady Rozemyne’s engagement was on the line. It would not be unreasonable to assume that there is something connecting two mutual opponents of our lady.”

Rather than being concerned for the sake of the Knight’s Order, Leonore was focused on how the trug was being used in relation to Rozemyne. Matthias realized then that her perspective was completely different from his own. Maybe such an extreme sensitivity to danger was needed to be a guard knight.

“You were right not to mention the trug then and there, Matthias; Dunkelfelger or the royal family might have begun to suspect that Ehrenfest was responsible. We cannot take action without our lady, so for now, let us wait for her to awaken and recover.”

Matthias nodded. Leonore, Lady Rozemyne’s head guard knight in the Royal Academy, was fully focused on granting her lady’s wishes—but her approach was entirely her own.