Ascendance of a Bookworm (LN) - Volume 5.3 - Chapter SS2

Suspicions and Gewinnen

Today really had been packed, what with the Interduchy Tournament’s awards ceremony and dinner with Uncle. I’d also learned a lot from watching some triple-layer acceleration brewing—something I could only describe as “superhuman.” It was seventh bell when I finally returned to my chambers. I took a bath, then started to prepare for bed.

“That’s all for tonight, everyone,” I said to my student retainers. “Oswald can take care of the rest.” They still needed to get ready for bed in their own rooms, so I urged them all to leave.

“Lord Wilfried,” said Oswald, my head attendant, “what did you think about how close Lady Rozemyne and Lord Ferdinand seemed today?”

I cocked my head at him. We had just eaten dinner with Uncle in the tea party room. Uncle had also checked Rozemyne’s health, which was presumably what Oswald was referring to now that we were alone.

After a moment of thought, I said, “It was impressive how they gauged each other’s health at a glance. I didn’t notice that Uncle looked sick or that Rozemyne had a slight fever.” I also hadn’t given any thought to Rozemyne’s post-jureve problems. Two years had passed since she’d woken up, so I’d assumed she was all better, but Uncle had said she was still relying on magic tools.

“Did you truly feel nothing else? You looked very surprised when Lady Rozemyne spoke to you.”

“Aah, that. It was because they act so differently around each other. They seemed nothing like they do with Mother, Father, or us.”

Uncle was always so stone-faced; I was pretty sure today was the first time I’d seen his expression soften. The same went for Rozemyne—I’d never seen her so relaxed and vulnerable before. It reminded me a lot of the first time I saw her treat Cornelius as her brother.

“Is that truly all...?” Oswald asked.

“I guess I don’t need to hide this from you, but... the way Rozemyne acted with Ferdinand made me think of how I used to be with Grandmother. Relaxed and dependent, I mean. That’s why I didn’t know what to say. Those two hate Grandmother.”

My grandmother Veronica was said to have done cruel things to both Uncle and Rozemyne. I knew that, but still... Grandmother was the first family member I’d ever known, and my admiration for her was everlasting. In her care, I’d never had to endure massive workloads or work to tight deadlines; I could spend my days doing whatever I wanted. I’d never expected that to last—I was an archduke candidate, after all—but I was still nostalgic for the unshakable love she had showered me with back then.

“Hold on a moment,” Oswald said. “Do you mean to say that you felt nothing about their public displays of affection?” His tone and expression of disbelief were enough for me to gather that I’d surprised him with my answer, but I didn’t have a clue what he’d wanted me to say.

For some reason, I started to feel annoyed. “I told you I was surprised, didn’t I? And that wasn’t a show of affection; it was a checkup. Uncle is Rozemyne’s personal doctor. You’ve never said anything about it before, so why would it be surprising now?”

“Lord Ferdinand has moved to Ahrensbach and is no longer her primary doctor, so their physical contact was clearly excessive. They were also acting much too close for two people who are already engaged to others. Be more cautious of these matters in the future, Lord Wilfried—especially now that you have developed mana-sensing.”

Mana-sensing was one of the secondary sexual traits that children developed between the ages of ten and fifteen. It provided a way to identify whose mana quantity was similar to your own, and in terms of rearing children, it gave you a good idea of who would make a good marriage partner.

My mana-sensing had developed this winter, after my return to the Royal Academy. I was used to it now, but I remembered how anxious I had been when I first started to feel other students’ mana. I could tell whenever a person with a similar mana quantity was close, so I’d needed to exercise a lot of self-control not to look around whenever I sensed someone.

“You remember that Rozemyne hasn’t developed it yet, right?” I asked. “What am I supposed to feel for someone whose mana I can’t sense at all...?”

It was hard to feel “that way” about someone when you didn’t know their mana quantity. Not having a similar amount would make it harder to have children, so pairing with someone whose mana you couldn’t sense generally resulted in an unhappy marriage. On an instinctive level, most wouldn’t even consider someone whose mana they couldn’t sense as a potential partner. I didn’t want to be told to view children like Rozemyne or Charlotte, whose mana-sensing hadn’t even developed yet, in that kind of way.

“Normally, one would not need to be so sensitive about interactions with children whose mana-sensing has not yet developed,” Oswald said. “However, Lady Rozemyne is already a third-year and engaged; she must think more carefully about her interactions with the opposite gender. And above all else, Lord Ferdinand must understand that he is no longer her guardian or her primary doctor.”

“But...”

Your whole world changed a lot before and after developing mana-sensing. It was precisely because you could tell who was a potential marriage candidate that you felt nothing for children who couldn’t. I really didn’t think Rozemyne would understand the distance between the sexes if she got an explanation now, of all times. After all, not even I thought anything about her contact with Uncle.

“Lady Rozemyne may struggle to grasp this, but as an engaged woman, she must be more self-aware. Otherwise, she will receive one proposal after another from duchies wanting Ehrenfest’s printing and trends—and you will need to pick up the pieces.”

All at once, I remembered everything Lord Lestilaut had said to me and the way Prince Anastasius warned and scolded me. My mood darkened... but Oswald continued anyway.

“To be frank, she should refrain from drawing so much attention to herself and acting in such a way that other duchies will consider her the next aub. You have suffered much due to their criticism... It is my honest opinion that she shows you absolutely no respect despite your engagement.”

Oswald went on to explain how, when the Zent had participated in our joint research, Rozemyne had taken charge instead of trying to prop me up. He added that she had also ignored my position when buying illustrations from Lord Lestilaut and taking charge during the negotiations. Then, to conclude, he said that she should have let me represent Ehrenfest when our joint research with Dunkelfelger received an award.

“I’m not sure about all that,” I said. “Rozemyne knows more about the printing industry than I do, and she started that joint research to begin with. There was no place for me on that stage.”

Rozemyne had tried to give me the credit, but I’d naturally refused. It just wasn’t right. She was incredible—and if I wanted to be incredible too, it only made sense that I would need to work for it.

“You are the next aub, Lord Wilfried, which makes you our duchy’s representative. As your sibling and your future wife, respectively, Lady Charlotte and Lady Rozemyne have a duty to offer you their successes. Lady Rozemyne chose not to support you, so we must assume that she wants to rule Ehrenfest herself.”

He was acting like my decision to turn down Rozemyne’s offer was a mistake, and that made me mad. It was like he was saying I wasn’t good enough to be an aub on my own—that I could only manage by stealing the achievements of my little sisters. Lord Lestilaut and Prince Anastasius had already hurt my pride, and now Oswald was doing the same.

Stop! You’re my head attendant; don’t make me feel even worse!

“To be honest, Lord Wilfried... I am concerned about Lady Rozemyne’s status as your father’s adopted daughter. I expect he might see the purge as an opportunity to make her the next aub instead. The Leisegangs certainly will. I strongly suggest you approach Aub Ehrenfest and say that, while your engagement to Lady Rozemyne should remain, he should disown her so that she returns to being an archnoble.”

“That’s ridiculous,” I said. “We’re not going to disown her. And she’s not going to be the next aub either.”

Some time ago, Rozemyne had outright told Giebe Leisegang that she had no intention of becoming the next aub. She had said the same thing to Lord Lestilaut. It boggled the mind that someone would still doubt her enough to want her removed from the archducal family entirely.

“In the first place,” I continued, “Rozemyne is too sickly to rule. Father—”

“I am told that Lord Ferdinand’s medicine improved her health. You must also realize that people’s feelings and situations change over time.”

“What brought all this on?” I asked Oswald, glaring at him. He was being too persistent about doubting Rozemyne.

“The purge. Through it, many of the nobles in support of you and the current aub were arrested. Even those who had committed only the slightest of crimes were challenged. It is hard to believe that Aub Ehrenfest truly desired this. I expect the Leisegang nobles pressured him into...”

Now he was criticizing Father too? That really ticked me off. That purge had been necessary for getting rid of all the dangerous nobles hiding in Ehrenfest!

You should know, Oswald! You should know how hard that choice was for him!

Feelings of defiance were surging through me, and my urge to shoot Oswald down just kept getting bigger. But at the same time, I didn’t know how to change his mind or even convey how angry I was feeling.

“I don’t want to hear another word from you,” I snapped. “I’m going to sleep!”

The next day, I got ready for the coming-of-age and graduation ceremonies. A weird magic circle appeared during the whirling in the morning—and at lunch, Rozemyne received an ordonnanz from the royal family summoning her to a meeting. The afternoon brought even more surprises, with the High Bishop making a bombshell declaration that Lady Detlinde was a Zent candidate, and the unprecedented graduation ceremony ended in chaos.

“Lord Wilfried,” Isidore said upon our return, “you have letters of invitation. How will you respond to them?”

“Now, so soon after the ceremony?”

That seemed suspicious. Socializing season and now the graduation ceremony were over and done with. Everyone was either home already or preparing to leave, so it was very unusual to have received one invitation, let alone several.

Isidore showed me the letters. “These ones are from the lesser and middle duchies that intruded upon our ditter game and are now seeking amends.” Then, he showed me one more. “And this is an invitation to gewinnen from Lord Ortwin of Drewanchel.”

Those who had interrupted our match at the urging of Sovereign knights hadn’t been punished by the Zent, but that didn’t mean they’d been forgiven by the students of Dunkelfelger, where ditter was sacred. The lesser and middle duchies had apparently tried to apologize to them during the Interduchy Tournament, only to be sent away before they could say anything. We were evidently their next port of call.

“Ah, we did have a lot of visitors during the Interduchy Tournament,” I mused aloud. “These duchies didn’t have time to speak with Father after Dunkelfelger refused them, and this is their last chance before the Archduke Conference.”

Unfortunately for them, Father had already returned to Ehrenfest; Mother still wasn’t feeling well, so they had departed together straight after the graduation ceremony. That was probably why the invitations had come to me—I was the next archduke, after all—but it wasn’t my place to handle these kinds of diplomatic matters.

“Turn them all down,” I said. “We have nothing to say to them without Father here. Now, what’s that invitation from Ortwin about?”

“We were so busy with this year’s joint research that we didn’t have much time to socialize. Let’s play one last game to send the year off.”

It was an exciting offer, but Oswald grimaced when he read it. “Do you intend to accept?” he asked me. “For him to have sent this invitation now and at such short notice, he must have some ulterior motive. I expect nothing but trouble...”

“You’re always telling me never to refuse invitations from top-ranking duchies, aren’t you?” I retorted. “Rozemyne gets to have a tea party with Lady Hannelore. It should be fine for me to meet with Ortwin.”

Rozemyne had received an invitation to exchange some books and illustrations discussed during the Interduchy Tournament. Father had approved their meeting before he left, so it wasn’t like socializing was forbidden right now. I understood not to do anything that would impact interduchy relations while he was gone... but surely some gewinnen with a friend was acceptable.

“But, Lord Wilfried—”

“I said I’m going.”

Last night had really strained my relationship with Oswald. I didn’t want to listen to his annoying lectures, and it was hard not to think he was looking down on me when he was being so overprotective. It all made me feel so defiant; even now, I was being unnecessarily argumentative with him. I hated acting like a child throwing a tantrum, but something about him just didn’t sit right with me.

“Oswald, Lord Wilfried could do with some time to unwind,” interjected Barthold, an apprentice scholar formerly of the Veronica faction who had given me his name. “He is going to be in a very difficult position when he returns to Ehrenfest. Do permit him this opportunity to play with his friend.”

Oswald gave a resigned nod and stood down. I definitely felt more stubborn when Oswald and I were facing each other down, so it was a relief to have Barthold arbitrating. He had given me his name and showed me nothing but dedication, which gave me a lot of confidence. Nobody served me with more care and consideration.

On the same day that Rozemyne went to her tea party with Lady Hannelore, I made my way to Drewanchel’s tea party room. Ortwin greeted me when I arrived.

“Hey, Wilfried. I’m glad you could make it on such short notice.”

“We didn’t get to play much gewinnen this year, so I’m glad we have this chance.”

As we spoke, I noticed that I could barely feel Ortwin’s mana. He definitely had more than me, especially when you took our grades and the duchy rankings into consideration. I was suddenly motivated to compress my mana and catch up to him—and also a little bit proud that I could sense the mana of a greater duchy archduke candidate to begin with.

“Here you are,” he said, offering me a seat.

I sat down, and we exchanged gewinnen pieces to make sure they didn’t contain any leftover mana. There were no issues to speak of, so we returned them to one another and each started setting up our side of the board.

Ortwin instructed an attendant to prepare drinks, then activated an area-affecting sound-blocker so that our retainers wouldn’t be able to hear us.

“So,” he said, “now that you can sense people’s mana, are you going to start preparing an engagement feystone? You don’t yet have one for Lady Rozemyne, right?”

“An engagement feystone...?” I replied, trying to hide my nervousness. “Hm, I don’t know. I’ll probably do that when Rozemyne develops mana-sensing too.” It wasn’t news to me that you had to give a feystone to your fiancée, but I hadn’t even thought about giving one to Rozemyne. Maybe it was because we were so young when we got engaged—or because nobody else had mentioned it.

“Ah, and that hair ornament was to tide her over. It sparkled brilliantly even during whirling practice.”

“Huh? E-Er... yeah, that’s the idea.”

I was even more nervous now. To me, Rozemyne’s rainbow feystones were just a hair ornament from Uncle, but to everyone else, they were a placeholder. In other words, my engagement feystone had to be even better.

Hold on. I need to compete with Uncle’s charm?

A shiver ran down my spine as I pictured the omni-elemental rainbow feystones and the protective magic circles they contained. I touched the charm on my wrist; it was from Uncle too. Having it on had given me courage before, but now it felt more like a burden. I was overcome with an urge to remove it and then get Rozemyne to remove hers too—and it was then that I remembered what Oswald had said to me.

“Lord Ferdinand has moved to Ahrensbach and is no longer her primary doctor... Be more cautious of these matters in the future, Lord Wilfried—especially now that you have developed mana-sensing.”

I see... I really should have been paying more attention to these things.

Instead, I’d simply indulged in nostalgia and acted surprised when I saw how comfortable Uncle and Rozemyne were with one another. I shouldn’t have assumed it was okay for them to act so close just because they hadn’t seen each other in so long.

“Wilfried, what did Lady Rozemyne say?” Ortwin asked, snapping me back to reality.

I couldn’t just sit in a daze; we were partway through a game. I hurriedly moved a spear piece and said, “What about Rozemyne?”

“The royal family summoned her to be questioned during the graduation ceremony, didn’t they?”

I took in a sharp breath and frowned, not having expected our conversation to take such a turn. It was true that Rozemyne had gone to a royal villa to answer Lady Eglantine’s questions, but I wasn’t supposed to mention that to anyone. Our archducal family had spread the word that she had simply fallen ill again.

“Why do you...? Ah. Lady Adolphine.”

I’d worked out the answer to my question before it even passed my lips. Ortwin’s elder sister, Lady Adolphine, had attended this year’s Interduchy Tournament and graduation ceremony as the fiancée of royalty. She had presumably been there at lunch when the Sovereign High Bishop made his announcement and it was decided that Lady Eglantine would check with Rozemyne.

“That’s right,” Ortwin said. “But she was sent back to our dormitory when the ceremony ended, so she didn’t hear the report that came after.”

Oh. That’s why he invited me for gewinnen.

I sighed, now regretting my decision to come here. Oswald had warned me that there would be some kind of ulterior motive. I should have listened to his advice.

“The details will presumably be announced during the Archduke Conference,” I said.

“We can’t wait that long—not when the Starbind Ceremony comes first. If we assume Lady Detlinde does become the next Zent, she will most likely eliminate the current royal family. What will that mean for my sister if she’s married to Prince Sigiswald? Our only chance to act is now, before their wedding.”

My heart stirred. Ortwin cared a lot about his family and didn’t want to leave his sister in a dangerous position.

He continued, “Rozemyne received an abrupt summons from the royal family. Either you went along as her husband-to-be, or your archduke went instead. This was no trivial matter, though, so I assume you still would have received a thorough report in the case of the latter. I mean, you’re the next Aub Ehrenfest, aren’t you?”

It was Uncle who went with her...

Rozemyne hadn’t taken me or even Father, the archduke. Instead, she had gone with Uncle, who wasn’t even in Ehrenfest anymore. Everyone had been glad about him accompanying her—he was reliable, so I understood why—but was it not strange to have entrusted that duty to someone now living in another duchy?

Was our... No, was Father’s choice wrong? Or is Ortwin mistaken?

My desperate struggle to figure out whom to trust brought a lump to my throat and put me in a cold sweat. I didn’t know what to say, so I tried to buy time by staring at my gewinnen pieces.

Conscious of my silence, Ortwin raised an eyebrow at me, his light-brown eyes searching for the truth. “Were you not told anything? I heard that Ehrenfest beat Dunkelfelger at ditter, but could it be that Lady Rozemyne wished to move there after all...? If you stopped that from happening, I could see her not wanting to share intelligence with you.”

I assumed that was also information he’d gotten from Lady Adolphine. He knew about our ditter game and the intruders, but he was filling the gaps in his knowledge with too many assumptions.

“Rozemyne wanted to stay in Ehrenfest,” I said with a stern look. “I protected her.”

“In that case, she must be exploiting her position as your fiancée while at the same time planning to eliminate you and become the next aub.”

I took a second sharp breath. That was more or less exactly what Oswald had said. Did even those of other duchies think that Rozemyne wanted to take my place?

“Or, what, is she already set to be the next aub?”

“No!” I exclaimed. “Rozemyne is sickly and adopted. She’s not fit to rule.” But even as the words left my mouth, I remembered what Lestilaut had said to me—that Rozemyne was a much better candidate than I was.

Ortwin blinked at me in confusion. “Aren’t adopted children more fit to rule than most? They’re brought into the archducal family specifically because the aub recognizes their great potential and ability. Or is that not the case in Ehrenfest?”

Another gasp. I was already aware that, in Drewanchel, the aub adopted especially talented nobles. It was a complete meritocracy, and it wasn’t rare for adopted children to become the duchy’s next ruler. Their house and family would even support them in such cases. Father had said that he adopted Rozemyne to make printing a duchy-wide industry, and House Leisegang was supporting that.

“I can’t imagine she’d keep striving to come first-in-class if she didn’t intend to be Ehrenfest’s next aub,” he continued. “It must require an immense amount of effort, especially to beat all the top-ranking duchies.”

Rozemyne had the support of the Leisegangs and, as Ortwin said, she had now come first-in-class three years in a row. She was the only one whom Uncle had told to aim so high. He hadn’t even asked that of me, the archduke’s biological son. Was there some significance to that?

Could it be that... that... no one actually wants me to be the next aub?

At last, I realized the full weight of what Oswald had said to me.

“As your sibling and your future wife, respectively, Lady Charlotte and Lady Rozemyne have a duty to offer you their successes. Lady Rozemyne chose not to support you, so we must assume that she wants to rule Ehrenfest herself.”

Did both Ortwin and Lord Lestilaut assume Rozemyne would become the next aub because she wasn’t doing the right thing? The thing she should have been doing?

If even Ortwin agrees, then Oswald is right to be so concerned.

I was speaking with an archduke candidate from Drewanchel, a greater duchy. It was hard to imagine him being wrong about this. At the very least, he was surely more correct than Father or Rozemyne. As all this dawned on me, I could no longer deny that I was wrong to lose my temper with Oswald. His warnings hurt to hear, but he was putting my future first and foremost.

Slowly but surely, my frustration with Oswald was turning into a strong distrust of Rozemyne.

Rozemyne is my fiancée, but she isn’t devoted to me at all. She also needs to learn to keep her distance from Uncle.

Once I got back to the dormitory, I would apologize to Oswald and reopen that discussion. I needed to learn what Rozemyne lacked and what I needed to keep an eye on.

“Ortwin, thanks to you, I’ve realized something very important.”

“You have?” he asked, baffled.

I lowered my voice and said, “As thanks, I’ll tell you something important. I’m not allowed to elaborate, but know this: I’ve heard that Lady Detlinde isn’t qualified to become the next Zent.”

I couldn’t say anything about the magic circle, but I wanted Ortwin to know that Lady Adolphine wouldn’t have any trouble marrying into the royal family. His expression softened in relief, and at last he moved a piece.

“Thanks, Wilfried. Now I can send my sister off without worrying.”

Perhaps because his guard was down, Ortwin made a minor mistake. I wasted no time exploiting it... and thanks to that, I managed to win our last game of gewinnen for the year.