Ascendance of a Bookworm (LN) - Volume 5.4 - Chapter 1

Returning Home and Everyone’s Situation

“Hraaah! Rozemyne! You’re back!”

No sooner had I teleported back to the castle than I was met with a deafening roar. It was Bonifatius, of course, and he was charging right at me with open arms! His every step produced what might as well have been a resounding boom, and I recoiled in shock despite myself.

Before I could be thoroughly crushed, my retainers sprang into action. Angelica and Cornelius each seized one of Bonifatius’s arms, while Damuel grabbed his cape. Then, in a combined effort, they pulled him back and shouted, “Calm down! You’re scaring her!”

After eventually coming to a stop, Bonifatius gave me an anxious look, trying to gauge what I was feeling. “I... I’m not scary. Right, Rozemyne?”

I shook my head. “I was just surprised to see your incredible speed, Grandfather. I am glad to be home.”

Under normal circumstances, Karstedt, Elvira, the archducal couple, and the rest of the gang would all be here to welcome me, but I could only see Bonifatius, the archducal guard knights, and several other knights from the Order. Sylvester had also directed us archduke candidates to return at the same time rather than in order of our academic year. For some reason, this break in tradition left me feeling a bit uneasy.

“Rozemyne, you should get off the magic circle so that Charlotte can teleport over,” Wilfried said. He had arrived immediately before me and was standing off to the side, surrounded by his guard knights.

I nodded in response, then moved out of the way with Rihyarda. My guard knights soon gathered around me in the same way that Wilfried’s had gathered around him.

“Welcome back, Lady Rozemyne.”

“Thank you, Damuel, Cornelius, Angelica,” I replied. “Oh, and where might Hartmut be?”

“Ottilie is keeping an eye on him while he bemoans not being here. Only we knights received permission to come greet you.”

“Mothers certainly are strong. Containing him cannot be an easy feat.”

While my guard knights were telling me about Ottilie’s battle with her son, Charlotte arrived with her attendant. Her guard knights moved to protect her, then Bonifatius raised a hand to get our attention.

“Right. Let us get you all to your rooms. Fear not, for I am going to guard you until you reach the northern building!”

At his signal, Wilfried and Charlotte began to mobilize, their guards staying in formation around them. I started to follow, only to notice that Bonifatius was standing still and offering me his hand.

“Grandfather... is that really safe...?”

“Don’t worry. You can take his hand,” Cornelius assured me. “We’ll make sure he doesn’t hurt you.”

“Cornelius!” Bonifatius shouted, a fierce look in his eye, but Cornelius merely shrugged without so much as faltering.

“That wasn’t my concern...” I muttered. Still, I grabbed one of Bonifatius’s fingers, and together we started making our way to the northern building. “I attended my first awards ceremony this year. I went onstage and was celebrated for coming first-in-class. Oh, I also received praise straight from the Zent himself.”

Bonifatius rejoiced as sincerely as if my achievements were his own. Unlike last year, however, he wasn’t just looking at me; he was extremely wary of our surroundings.

“Grandfather,” I said, “could it be that things are especially dangerous at the moment?”

“They’ve calmed down, but a group of archduke candidates returning all together is a significant event. Nobles might come to plead for a reduced sentence or even use that as a cover to attack. People will probably assume you’re easy targets, since you didn’t punish the students at the Royal Academy. Caution is needed.”

“Is it only dangerous in the castle with all its nobles? Or will it also be dangerous outside?” Now that I was back in Ehrenfest, I’d planned to go straight to my new library—but if simply moving from the main building to the northern building was being treated with this much caution, I doubted that would be possible.

Bonifatius shook his head, wearing a stern frown. “I hate to say it, but the only place you can all move around freely is the northern building. At the very least, you’ll need to be patient until the feast celebrating spring ends and the nobles start leaving. Melchior’s been waiting there all winter. As his big sister, I’m sure you can manage too.”

The start of the purge had inevitably made things more dangerous, which was why Melchior had been told not to leave the northern building without permission. He had even been forbidden from going to the playroom, meaning he was essentially under house arrest.

“Spend some time with Melchior,” Bonifatius said to me. “I’m looking forward to dinner with you all tonight.” He then pointed toward the northern building... and there was Melchior, standing with his retainers at the very edge of the hall.

“Welcome home, Brother, Sisters!”

“Staying in the northern building all on my own was really boring. I didn’t get to see Mother or Father anywhere near as often as when I was in the main building. Then, to make things even worse, I got told that I couldn’t go to the playroom. I’m not allowed to be around the other children in case someone whose parents were detained goes crazy and does something.”

We had accepted Melchior’s invitation to tea and were listening to him vent about his winter while our attendants took our things to our rooms. The plan had originally been for the purge to happen during the second half of the season, but the intelligence we’d received from Matthias and the others had made it necessary to start it much earlier. As a result, almost immediately after we students left for the Royal Academy, Melchior was locked away in the northern building.

He had apparently been very forlorn having to spend his first winter after his baptism alone in the northern building. Florencia had tried to weave visits in between the busy periods, but it had still paled in comparison to when he’d seen her every day. It hadn’t been long before he started to feel depressed.

“I mostly only ever got to speak with my retainers, so I’m glad you’ve all come back,” he concluded.

I nodded. “We cannot leave until the feast celebrating spring is over, but that doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy ourselves in the meantime.”

And so, we played karuta, cards, and such until our attendants called us for dinner.

The entire archducal family was present, and we discussed what had occurred at the Royal Academy. Melchior was overjoyed to finally be having a lively meal again; his eyes sparkled as he listened to us speak about our duchy’s books spreading through the student population and the importance of prayer being recognized due to its connection to obtaining divine protections.

“Many more students obtained honor-level grades this year than last,” Florencia said. “It is wonderful that you were all rewarded for participating in so many research projects.”

“I’m impressed you managed to hold the dormitory together,” Bonifatius added. “I thought for certain it would collapse. Good job.”

Sylvester nodded. “You all did more as Ehrenfest archduke candidates than we had ever hoped. As your father and the archduke, I am proud of you all. Now, I want you to use your leadership skills to help guide the duchy out of the internal chaos this purge has created.”

“Understood!”

We spent dinner being showered with praise—but as everything began to wind down, Sylvester’s expression turned abruptly serious. “This was our first meal together in a long time,” he said. “I chose the topics carefully so that we could all enjoy ourselves, but two days from now, at third bell, we’re going to have an archducal family meeting. It won’t be pleasant, but we’ll need to get through it together.”

Two days from now. Third bell.

I swallowed hard. The prickliness in Sylvester’s eyes seemed to embody the entire atmosphere of the castle right now.

Over breakfast the next morning, I introduced my new retainers from the Royal Academy to my retainers who had stayed home in Ehrenfest. Theodore wasn’t present—as per our agreement, he only served me at the Academy—but everyone else was here.

“Matthias, Laurenz, Muriella, and Gretia have given their names to me and are now my retainers,” I said. “The plan is for Muriella to one day entrust her name to my mother, Elvira, instead.”

“Matthias and Laurenz, huh?” Cornelius repeated. “The sons of Giebe Gerlach and Giebe Wiltord, respectively.” His face twisted in the slightest grimace; Matthias’s and Laurenz’s families had been central figures among the nobles who had given their names to Georgine.

“Cornelius, do not glare at them,” I said, protectively moving in front of the four. “They have given me their names already.”

He sighed and patted my head. “I gathered from the Interduchy Tournament and graduation ceremony that they won’t directly act against you, but many nobles are still calling for their punishment. On the other side of things, there are just as many voices saying their punishment should be reduced.”

“Cornelius isn’t doubting their loyalty or suggesting that they mean you harm,” Damuel interjected. “He’s just worried that any anger and dissatisfaction meant for them will end up being directed at you instead.”

I whispered my thanks to Cornelius. It didn’t surprise me that the situation in Ehrenfest wasn’t as calm as in the Royal Academy, but things were apparently a lot grimmer than I’d expected.

“You all know Hartmut from when he came to the Academy for the ritual, correct?” I asked my retainers from the dormitory. “Ottilie is his mother and my attendant. As for Damuel, Cornelius, and Angelica, they are my other guard knights. Those of you who are knights as well should follow Damuel’s instructions when it comes to work. Damuel, choose the order in which the knights will visit the temple, Matthias and Laurenz included. Scholars may distribute work identically to last year, while apprentice attendants may continue cleaning up.”

After delegating work to my retainers, I took the magic tool given to me by Ferdinand out of my luggage. I was also very curious about the mana-resistant leather bag containing a second magic tool and a top secret note.

“I shall open this in my hidden room,” I said.

“Do lend me the magic tool once you have listened to its messages,” Lieseleta chirped. “I will make it into a shumil.”

I smiled and nodded. Then, I entered my hidden room, set the leather bag down, and played the first magic tool that Ferdinand had given me.

“It starts with chidings, as I recall... but I’m sure that’s because he saved all the good messages for last!” I declared, pumping myself up. “I believe in you, Ferdinand!”

I touched the feystone, and the recordings began to play. There were nothing but criticisms from start to finish.

“So mean, Ferdinand... You could have put at least one line of praise in here. It didn’t need to be a rare and valuable ‘very good’ or anything like that—a simple ‘not bad’ would have sufficed...”

Crestfallen, I opened up the leather bag and took out the other magic tool and a piece of paper.

“Hm...?”

The bag was empty now, but it still felt strangely heavy. I dug around inside, wondering whether there was something I’d missed, but to no avail.

“Wait, does it have a false bottom?”

I hadn’t noticed due to the weight and shape of the magic tool, but the underside of the leather bag was hiding a secret. I opened the note and could tell from the handwriting that it was from Ferdinand.

“As per your request, this magic tool contains words of praise. Keep it inside the bag at all times and ensure that nobody else hears its messages. Further, only use it within the library’s hidden room. If you violate any of these rules, the praise will automatically be deleted.”

“Hold on, what?! When did you come up with this?!”

He definitely hadn’t mentioned making a magic tool that could delete its own recordings. I read the note over and over again, then returned the tool to the bag.

“I’m glad I didn’t touch the magic tool first...” I muttered; it would have been so easy for me to accidentally break one of the rules and cause such rare words of praise to be deleted. “Thankfully, I’m naturally drawn to reading above all else.”

I was very curious about the praise, but Ferdinand had gone out of his way to record it on another magic tool so that other people wouldn’t hear it. Plus, I would be profoundly upset if my own impatience caused all of the messages to disappear. I decided to keep it inside the leather bag and not take it out of my hidden room; the last thing I wanted was someone accidentally touching it and activating the trap.

“Lieseleta,” I said, “this magic tool contains nothing but harsh words. Turning it into a shumil might just result in the most critical stuffed toy known to man. Are you sure you want to birth such a creation?”

“Of course,” Lieseleta replied, accepting the magic tool with an overjoyed smile. She adored any and all shumils—even a tiny Ferdinand one that would do nothing but admonish you.

Wow... Her love of shumils is unrivaled.

“Lady Rozemyne, where is the magic bag?”

“Still in my hidden room. It contains a second magic tool that speaks words of praise, but Lord Ferdinand rigged it with a trap that will erase them all if they’re played at the wrong time or place.”

Rihyarda cackled. “How like him. He must be shy about saying nice things.”

That may be so, but that’s no reason to create an elaborate self-deletion trap!