Ascendance of a Bookworm (LN) - Volume 5.4 - Chapter 11

Reobtaining Divine Protections

While everyone else was searching through the magic tools, I dedicated myself to making charms. I was going to need a lot of them, since I intended to give them to my lower-city family and the Gutenbergs, so I was thankful that Ferdinand was providing the materials. I would need to give the guildmaster one as well, considering that I was summoning him alongside the Gilberta and Plantin Companies.

“Okay. That should be enough for now.”

After giving up my reading time to make a bunch of charms—I was still surprised that I’d given up my reading time to begin with—I arranged for everything that was required for the divine protections ritual to be taken to the temple. The ritual itself would take place tomorrow.

“Lady Rozemyne,” Leonore said, “I repeated the ritual after graduating, so I will go to the training grounds instead of participating tomorrow.”

“As did I,” Lieseleta agreed. “For that reason, I would prefer to focus on business in the castle.”

“And what will you do, Judithe?” I asked.

“I don’t think I’ve prayed enough yet, so I’ll pass this time,” she replied. “I could go to the training grounds as well—or, if you need guards, I could still go with you to the temple.”

“I will have more than enough guards, so you may train instead. Hm... I suppose I should contact Ottilie and Brunhilde as well.”

I sent them ordonnanzes and received two refusals in response. Ottilie hadn’t bothered to pray enough to warrant her repeating the ritual. Brunhilde was much too busy working with Groschel and sorting out the training of attendants—not to mention, she would be repeating the ceremony after her graduation anyway.

“Well, Gretia... since you’re required to participate, don’t forget to come to the temple,” I said.

“Understood.”

We were reasonably confident that Roderick had become omni-elemental as a result of swearing his name to me, but we didn’t yet have any concrete proof. The plan was for those who were name-sworn to perform their rituals after the adults.

I wonder if Mother will come...

If she did, we would be able to investigate whether changing whom a person was sworn to would impact the divine protections they received. Muriella would need to repeat the ritual again, but we really needed the data.

I sent an ordonnanz to Elvira, asking what her schedule was like. She replied that she would have some time in the afternoon. “I shall accept a new sweets recipe in return,” she added teasingly. “Now that Cornelius has graduated, I no longer have a means of obtaining them.”

It was decided, then: I would give her the recipe for mousse, which we had also provided as this year’s reward.

The next day, my retainers who were going to be performing the ritual gathered before third bell even rang. I opened the door to the workshop in my High Bishop’s chambers, handed out feystone brooches so that everyone could come inside, then began preparing the magic circles and such for being moved.

“Lady Rozemyne, shall we take these to the chapel?” Fran asked.

“Please. I’ve also told Hartmut to go there after delegating the paperwork. Ideally, our ritual will be largely identical to the one performed at the Royal Academy.”

Because moving everything to the chapel involved manual labor, we called Gil and Fritz from the workshop to help Fran. They soon met up with Hartmut’s attendants, and the luggage was gone in the blink of an eye.

“Monika, has the orphanage been informed of our business?” I asked.

“Yes, milady. They have been told not to enter the chapel today.”

I needed to focus on making sure nobody entered the workshop, so the rest of the preparations were being left to Hartmut and Damuel. Muriella, Roderick, and Philine were acting as their scholar assistants.

Once the luggage was all en route, I retrieved the feystone brooches from everyone, closed the door to the workshop, and then headed to the chapel. Hartmut and the others were already there, carrying out the preparations as instructed.

The shrine was adorned with cloth and fruit, the incense burners were lit, and a faint, sweet scent drifted through the air. A red carpet stretched toward the altar, and the cloth with the magic circle on it was spread out. The circle at the Royal Academy had been embroidered, but this one was simply drawn with ink; it seemed that not even Ferdinand had wanted to go through that much effort.

“To test whether this magic circle functions and protections from each element can be obtained one at a time, I would like Angelica to try using it first,” I said. Because the circle was only drawn on, it was possible that parts had faded or rubbed away over the years—or maybe it needed to be in a certain position to be used at all. “I shall observe her ritual, but everyone else will perform alone, as is standard in the Royal Academy. Perhaps the ritual is meant to be more private, or maybe complete focus is required.”

Someone needed to watch Angelica to ensure that she actually chanted the prayer, but everyone else could perform alone. We all shot her looks of concern. She had steely determination in her eyes and was exuding confidence, but that didn’t mean a thing. At times like this, nobody had any faith in her.

“I will have Hartmut perform after Angelica,” I said.

“Not me?” Cornelius asked, curious. This first performance was only a test, so it was fine for Angelica to do the honors, but tradition would dictate that we then go in order of status.

“Yes, as Hartmut needs to return to his High Priest work,” I said. There were plenty of people who could stand in for Cornelius and guard me, but Hartmut was the only one who could give out orders as the High Priest. Plus, even though we were performing these rituals now, that was only to appease Wilfried and Hartmut. Things in the temple were very busy at the moment, what with the baptism ceremonies and Spring Prayer right around the corner.

“I see,” Cornelius replied. “It certainly is more efficient to have Hartmut go first—but, for future reference, disturbing the proper order of things is seldom received well in noble society.” He was accepting my methods while at the same time taking care to remind me that most others would find it extremely offensive.

“I will return to my workshop after observing Angelica’s ritual,” I said. “Hartmut will perform next, then Cornelius, Matthias, Laurenz, Muriella, Gretia, and Damuel. Report to me once everyone is finished; Muriella will need to repeat hers after Mother arrives.”

“Understood.”

After confirming that everyone followed, I pointed to a crate by my feet. “In this box are some mana rejuvenation potions. Do not forget that the circle must be completely and utterly filled with your mana.”

That was the last of my advice, so everyone stepped outside the chapel, leaving Angelica and me alone. The guard knights would be keeping watch while the rituals were performed.

I took a rejuvenation potion from the crate and held it out to Angelica. “Now... let us begin. You will speak the names of the specified gods so that we can confirm whether the ritual works. If all goes well, you will receive the divine protections you desire.”

“Right.”

Angelica accepted the rejuvenation potion from me, then stood atop the magic circle. She knelt in the direction of the altar, touched the circle, and started channeling her mana into it.

“I am one who offers prayer and gratitude to the gods who have created the world,” Angelica began. She then chanted the names of the seven primary gods, speaking slowly and carefully so as not to make any mistakes.

The symbols for Fire and Wind, her affinities, began to shine—then, two rather short pillars of light shot up from the magic circle. Seeing someone else perform the ritual made me realize just how weird my own had ended up being. Every element had started to shine from the start, and the pillars that had followed had been twice as large as Angelica’s. Comparing with others truly was important.

My ritual must have been pretty unique. The pillars of light just kept growing when I obtained the divine protections of the subordinate gods.

Next, Angelica started praying the names of the subordinates. “Steifebrise the Goddess of the Gale. Angriff the God of War. Let me be granted the protection of those divinities who grace my prayers with their approval.”

Is she seriously only praying to the two gods she cares about?!

Angelica must have wanted nothing more than the divine protections of those two gods because she ended the prayer immediately after speaking their names. The pillars of light didn’t grow in response—on the contrary, they were sucked back into the magic circle and vanished entirely.

“I think that was a failure,” I observed.

“So I do need to memorize the names of all the gods...” Angelica muttered, her expression clouded. “That isn’t good.”

Today, I’d discovered that filling the magic circle with mana didn’t mean a thing if you disregarded the traditional method of the ritual or tried to shorten it. That was probably why, even now, third-years at the Royal Academy had a shared class devoted to memorizing the names of all the gods. The time-honored process likely would have faded into obscurity had it not been made absolutely necessary.

“Let’s try again,” I said. “See if the ritual will work if you repeat after Stenluke.”

Life returned to Angelica’s eyes. “As you will,” she replied. “I entrust everything to Stenluke.”

“Master, I will comply because this is an experiment, but you must learn to do this yourself,” Stenluke chided in his very familiar voice as Angelica chugged the potion I’d given her. His reason for cooperating made me wonder whether he was somehow taking after the personality he was based on.

I’ll make sure to send Ferdinand the results of my research.

“Here we go,” Angelica said. She got back into position atop the circle, her mana now recovered, and started again. “I am one who offers prayer and gratitude to the gods who have created the world.”

It seemed that, at this point, even Angelica could remember the names of the seven primary gods without issue. The problem was the subordinates.

“O subordinates of Darkness, Chaosfliehe the God of Warding, Verbergen the God of Concealment...” Angelica repeated after Stenluke. They were gods whom she had never prayed to, so the magic circle didn’t react at all.

Incidentally, both of those subordinate gods had given me their divine protections. The fact that I was supposed to have Chaosfliehe looking out for me made me wonder why I was still getting bounced from one tragedy to another.

“O subordinate of Fire, Angriff the God of War...”

That was the first name to get a reaction; the blue pillar representing the God of Fire rose up a little. Erwachlehren the God of Guidance also reacted, and the pillar grew taller. Seeing this brought a smile to Angelica’s face. She must have been feeling motivated because her voice became more upbeat as she continued to repeat after Stenluke.

“O subordinates of Wind, Dregarnuhr the Goddess of Time, Steifebrise the Goddess of the Gale...”

This time, the yellow pillar rose. It seemed that Angelica had received Steifebrise’s protection. I had thought she would also receive the protection of Ordoschnelli the Goddess of Couriers, given her association with speed, but that ultimately wasn’t the case.

No other names produced a reaction from the magic circle, and Angelica reached the end of the ritual without incident.

“Let me be granted the protection of those divinities who grace my prayers with their approval.”

The blue and yellow pillars stretched up into the air, spun around, then scattered the light of their blessings over Angelica. The mana that had been filling the magic circle then streamed along the carpet to the shrine, where it was absorbed into the statues of the gods.

“That was a success,” I said.

If my own ritual was any indication, then Angelica had absolutely obtained some divine protections. I couldn’t tell whether she had received the protection of the Goddess of Wind, however.

“Did you obtain Schutzaria’s divine protection, by chance?” I asked.

“I did. The yellow pillar vanished when I attempted this at the Royal Academy, so I think it worked this time.”

So the pillars just disappear if you don’t get the divine protections of their primary gods, huh? The more you know.

Angelica had experienced something rare during her first attempt at the ritual. Rare, but not particularly desirable—nobody would want to see their hard-earned pillar of light vanish without giving any divine protections.

“Your success today was because of Stenluke,” I said. “Be sure to grant him mana, praise him, or some such.”

“Right. It was because of you as well, Lady Rozemyne, since you granted me Stenluke in the first place. I can’t wait to go to the training grounds to see whether I’ve gotten any stronger. I also want to try beating Master, even just once.”

Angelica was practically buzzing with excitement, but while her new divine protections would have an immediately noticeable effect on her mana efficiency, that itself didn’t make her any stronger.

Unless the protection of Angriff actually does work like that...

The knights reporting on Angriff’s divine blessing hadn’t mentioned anything of the sort, so I wasn’t convinced that she would receive a sudden buff or anything. Still, needing to expend less mana when using Stenluke was a huge deal to Angelica.

“There are plenty of guard knights here at the temple, so you may go to the training grounds,” I said. “Be sure to tell Grandfather that you’ve obtained divine protections. Perhaps that will encourage him to come to the temple as well.”

Bonifatius seemed pretty openly against the temple, but maybe hearing about Angelica’s progress would change that.

I exited the chapel to find my retainers waiting outside, watching over the door in their assigned order. “Angelica succeeded, and the ritual seems to be working as intended,” I announced. “Hartmut, in you go. Come to my chambers after to report your results.”

“Understood,” Hartmut replied. “If you’ll excuse me...” He waved to Cornelius and then entered the chapel.

“Cornelius, you can wait here, since you’re next in line. Angelica, you may head to the training grounds. Everyone else, return to your duties for now.”

Roderick, Philine, Muriella, and Damuel went to help in the High Priest’s chambers, while Matthias and Laurenz guarded me. Gretia was waiting in the High Bishop’s chambers.

As for Angelica... she had already vanished.

Once we were back in the High Bishop’s chambers, I went straight to my workshop. I gave Gretia a feystone brooch so that she could enter as well, then told her to guide my retainers through to me as they returned from their rituals. Gretia would need to be present during any reports from my male retainers so that I wasn’t alone in the workshop with a boy.

“I’ll prepare sound-blocking magic tools so that you won’t hear what divine protections everyone obtained,” I said to Gretia. “Oh, and Fran—return to your normal duties. Gretia will handle our visitors.” He would normally be working in the High Priest’s chambers, but he had waited to welcome me back from the ritual.

Fran declined with a smile. “It would not be acceptable for you to be alone in the High Bishop’s chambers without a single temple attendant.”

“Lady Rozemyne, what are you making in the workshop?” Gretia asked.

“Charms.”

She gave me a curious look. “Were you not also making charms in the library’s workshop?”

“The ones I made yesterday were for the Gutenbergs. I need some for nobles as well.”

Ferdinand had given me ingredients when clearing out his temple workshop, but he had prioritized putting the ones with high mana capacities and multiple elements in my chambers. That meant I could make charms better suited for nobles here than I would have been able to in my library.

“Please bring Hartmut to me when he returns,” I said.

“As you wish.”

Inside the workshop, I chose the least mana-expensive of all the charms I was wearing and started to replicate it. I would need two kinds: one that reflected mana attacks and one that reflected physical attacks.

If we can offer some protection against an ambush, I’m sure the guard knights can deal with the rest.

Bonifatius had trained the absolute heck out of the archducal family’s guard knights. As I understood it, the only thing they wouldn’t be able to deal with was an attack they couldn’t see coming.

After finishing the charms for Wilfried and Charlotte, I exhaled. My two siblings both had plenty of mana thanks to the compression method, but Melchior wasn’t going to compare to them anytime soon. Simply controlling his mana was too much for him at the moment, so I would need to make him an even less demanding charm. After all, I’d always told Ferdinand not to use me as a benchmark when dealing with kids.

I remember everything perfectly. Wow, am I amazing or what?

“Lady Rozemyne, are these the charms you intend to give Lord Wilfried and Lady Charlotte for Spring Prayer?” came a voice.

“Oh, Hartmut.” I put down the ingredients for Melchior’s charm, stepped down from my stand, then went over to my desk. “You’ve finished your ritual, I take it?”

Hartmut looked at my newly made charms and smiled. “You know, I will also be participating in Spring Prayer...” I didn’t really mind the thought of giving them to him, but this was my chance to make a request of my own.

“Consider them yours,” I replied with a grin, “but only if you stop that weird prayer of yours. Teaching that thing to kids must be blasphemous.”

To my surprise, Hartmut refused. He said that the children of the former Veronica faction needed to know who had saved their lives and that, if they remained ignorant of this fact and continued to complain about me, no amount of hard work would be enough for them to return to noble society. In his words, the prayer was an act of kindness to save them from that fate.

“Still, there must be other ways you could teach them that,” I retorted. Doing it through prayer just didn’t seem right.

Hartmut cast his eyes down in thought, then looked up again with a suspiciously dashing smile. “Understood, Lady Rozemyne. Your wish is my command. I do not know how the children will behave toward their ‘enemies’ in the archducal family, nor can I say how nobles will respond to their aggression, but... As long as I receive your charm as a gift, their futures mean nothing to me. I shall stop at once.”

W-Wait, what? Would getting rid of that prayer really cause such chaos? Is keeping it actually important for the children’s futures? Hold on a second.

My head was starting to spin. Maybe he was right. Continuing the prayer was the right move!

Before my thoughts could veer any further out of control, Gretia put a hand on my shoulder. “Lady Rozemyne. Stay strong. Teaching the children to feel grateful to the archducal family is admirable enough, but teaching them a modified prayer will only do them harm.”

“R-Right...” I muttered. “Thank you, Gretia. You have cleared away the fog that was clouding my mind. Hartmut, you are to stop reciting that prayer at once. Is that understood?”

Hartmut gave a regretful shrug and agreed.

“Moving on.” I gave Hartmut a sound-blocking magic tool, then prepared a pen and some paper. “Did you receive any divine protections from the subordinate gods?”

“Yes, my lady. From my elements, I obtained the divine protections of the Light subordinate Gebordnung the Goddess of Order, the Fire subordinate Anwachs the God of Growth, and the Wind subordinate Ordoschnelli the Goddess of Couriers.”

“Since you clarified that those are from your elements, can I assume that you obtained protections from other elements too?” I asked, taking notes.

Hartmut nodded, beaming. “I obtained the Life element through the divine protections of Dauerleben the God of Longevity and Schlaftraum the God of Dreams.”

“I’m told that having the Life element is rather rare, so that’s interesting.” Perhaps because he had participated in the Harvest Festival and the Dedication Ritual, Hartmut had obtained divine protections from subordinates I would never have expected.

“I obtained this many new divine protections after not even a year of performing religious ceremonies,” he said. “It seems that I would do well to participate in them even more fervently. A few more years of praying here and I may surpass Lord Wilfried.”

There weren’t many ceremonies in the temple that involved offering up one’s mana, which explained why Wilfried, who had spent years supplying mana to the foundational magics, had ended up obtaining more divine protections than Hartmut. Of course, Hartmut wasn’t all too pleased about this fact.

“Wilfried gives his mana on a daily basis, so you won’t have an easy time catching up to him,” I said. “I look forward to seeing which divine protections Charlotte obtains next year.”

I’d gathered all of the information I needed from Hartmut, so I told him to leave the workshop. Before I could resume work on Melchior’s charm, however, Cornelius was brought in by Gretia. I used the sound-blockers to ask him the same questions.

“Just like Leonore, I obtained divine protections from Angriff the God of War and Steifebrise the Goddess of the Gale,” Cornelius informed me. “I’m relieved to have maintained my honor as your guard knight.”

Cornelius had started to feel a little anxious after his fiancée, Leonore, received Angriff’s divine protection before he did. Men had their pride, I supposed.

He must want to look cool in front of Leonore.

I smiled at Cornelius, feeling heartened. He must have noticed the meaning behind my look because he averted his gaze and said, “I also obtained the divine protection of the Darkness subordinate Verdraeos.”

“So you have the Darkness element now, then. Congratulations.”

Verdraeos was the God of Deliverance—entrusted with dispelling the Goddess of Chaos, if my memory served me right. He was certainly a suitable god for a knight to receive divine protection from.

“It was a pleasant surprise,” Cornelius said. “I didn’t expect to get any new elements.”

“Mother is going to be here this afternoon; perhaps you could report this to her as well. Or shall we instead send an ordonnanz to Leonore?” I asked, eyeing him while chuckling to myself.

Cornelius waved me away and refused. Then, after pinching my cheek, he left the workshop.

“I wonder... why does everyone pinch my cheeks?” I mused aloud, rubbing my face. It really smarted, but I tried my best to resume brewing Melchior’s charm.

I guess the name-sworn group is next. I’m eager to see how things went for them.

“After I chanted the names of the two supreme gods and the Eternal Five, the symbols of every single element began to shine,” Matthias reported while gripping a sound-blocker. The magic circle had reacted before he had even spoken the names of the subordinate gods, which reminded me of what Roderick had said happened during his own ritual.

Matthias continued, “Fire, Wind, and Earth were my only affinities to begin with, so I didn’t expect all of the elements to shine from the start.”

Most mednobles only had two elements, but Matthias had three. I still remembered what a surprise it had been to see that his name-swearing stone was tricolor. Matthias’s grandmother was an archattendant who had moved with Gabriele from Ahrensbach to Ehrenfest, and she had greatly influenced the mana of the rest of their family. Giebe Gerlach had been none too pleased about the Leisegangs lording themselves over his kin, who possessed archnoble-level power.

“I personally wouldn’t have minded waiting for my graduation to perform the ritual,” Matthias said, “but I assume you are having all of your name-sworn repeat it now to see whether our being sworn to you has made us omni-elemental.”

I nodded. “That was the case for Roderick, but I wanted more evidence. We should know for certain after Muriella swears herself to another and repeats the ritual.”

“Doing that will prove fairly demanding...” Matthias murmured.

Yes, the process would place a tremendous burden on Muriella, but she was the only one who had received permission to swear her name again. The answer to our question—whether one’s elements were dependent on the person to whom one was sworn—would surely have a massive impact on the children currently in the orphanage and the playroom.

“Roderick felt a small boost after his name-swearing—enough that he was able to brew with a little more success,” I said. “Did you notice anything after yours?”

“In retrospect, I suppose I did start to feel the slightest bit more capable at brewing with elements I didn’t have an affinity for...”

Based on that response, the impact of elements gained through name-swearing was largely insignificant. Those who were closer to being laynobles than standard mednobles—like Roderick—noticed the change well enough, but for someone like Matthias who was closer to being an archnoble, the improvement was almost negligible.

“Incidentally... which subordinates did you gain divine protections from?” I asked. Roderick had gained all of the elements after swearing his name to me, but he hadn’t obtained any new subordinates. Would the same hold true for Matthias?

He smiled a little. “I obtained divine protections from Angriff the God of War and Verdraeos the God of Deliverance.”

As we continued our conversation, I noticed Fran waiting at the door with Gretia, who informed me that it was fourth bell. “Fran says it is time for lunch,” she explained. “Please come out of the workshop when you are done.”

I concluded things with Matthias and exited the workshop as instructed. Among those waiting for me were Laurenz and Muriella; they had evidently returned from the chapel.

“I had just finished my ritual and was drinking a rejuvenation potion when fourth bell chimed,” Laurenz reported. “Muriella decided that she would wait until this afternoon to perform hers.”

“Very well,” I said. “I will wait until then to hear your results. Muriella will start the ritual, then Gretia will perform hers, so I will entrust Philine with guiding visitors to my workshop instead.”

Fran and Monika were preparing lunch when an ordonnanz flew into the room. The white bird landed in front of me and then said, “This is Leonore. Lord Bonifatius will accompany Lady Elvira to the temple.”

Grandfather?!

It continued, “My apologies. He decided that today would be a good time to visit.”

Any noble would speak to the benefits of obtaining new divine protections, so I could see why he had decided to come. Perhaps I was to blame for having told Angelica to brag to him, but I hadn’t expected him to react so suddenly. There would be plenty of tea and sweets, since we were already expecting Elvira, but I wasn’t ready emotionally.

I need to do my best to show him all the temple’s good points.

Bonifatius was far from being an advocate of the temple, so I needed to make the most of this chance to win him over. He was a member of the archducal family to boot, so changing his opinion would surely influence the rest of his generation as well.

Hmm... This is a lot of pressure.

After briskly finishing lunch, I returned to the workshop with Philine and Laurenz and got straight to questioning the latter. “Quickly tell me which divine protections you obtained,” I said. “I’m afraid we won’t have time to speak like this once my mother and grandfather arrive.”

Laurenz gripped the magic tool and gave me a teasing smile. “Do you mean to say that you would rather spend more time with me, Lady Rozemyne?”

I sighed, and my eyes flitted to Philine. “I merely thought it would be best to have this conversation while Gretia is away.”

Laurenz said nothing in response; he merely raised an eyebrow at me to indicate his confusion.

“Gretia gets uncomfortable when boys tease her,” I explained. “So don’t go taking that same tone with her, Laurenz.”

In fact, Gretia was uncomfortable around boys in general; she wanted to stay as far away from my male retainers as possible, according to a report from Lieseleta. She would also grimace whenever Laurenz tried to joke with her as he did with me.

Laurenz faltered, then sighed and adopted a more serious expression. “I’ll take more care with her.”

As it turned out, Laurenz had ended up with identical results to Matthias: swearing his name to me had made him omni-elemental, and he had obtained the divine protections of Angriff and Verdraeos. If considered alongside Cornelius as well, that made him the third person to have received Verdraeos’s protection.

Leonore didn’t get that one, but maybe it’s the easiest of the Darkness subordinates for a knight to receive. Wait, no... I got it as well. I don’t see the connection.

Laurenz interrupted my thoughts with a mutter. “If more people learn that you can get more divine protections by praying in the temple, my little brother and the others might not have such a hard time after they’re baptized as the aub’s charges...”

“Yes, though such great change will not come anytime soon,” I noted. “Hm... Please do tell Bertram how much praying has benefited you. Since you are his brother by blood, he should be more inclined to believe you.”

I saw Laurenz off to the orphanage, then Philine entered again. She had with her a very nervous-looking Muriella, who accepted the sound-blocker with trembling hands and then stammered, “L-Lady Rozemyne, I, erm...”

“You became omni-elemental, I assume. It’s a result of the name-swearing.”

“Oh, I see... On top of that... I obtained the divine protection of Bluanfah the Goddess of Sprouts. I’m glad, since I spent so much time praying to her with Lady Lueuradi...”

Students from various duchies had started praying after participating in our Dedication Ritual, but Lueuradi was the only third-year among them who had obtained a new divine protection from a subordinate god. She and Muriella seemed to be fairly close friends. They both wanted the protections of gods who often appeared in love stories, so they both wore charms around their necks at all times. Muriella had shown me hers.

“Please continue to work hard for more divine protections,” I said. “Furthermore, once Mother arrives, you will need to give your name to her and repeat the protections ritual. I imagine it will be beyond strenuous, but I trust that you have the strength to endure it.”

“Yes, my lady...” Muriella replied, looking a bit tense.

Gretia had yet to return from the chapel when Elvira arrived with Bonifatius and Leonore. Bonifatius had his retainers with him, so they made for a much larger crowd than I’d expected. I couldn’t help but feel a little hesitant as I welcomed my mother and grandfather both.

Fran poured us all some tea while Nicola brought in the sweets we had prepared. Bonifatius watched them with a hard expression.

Perhaps trying to ease the atmosphere, Elvira let out a chuckle. “I was ever so surprised when Leonore told me you wanted to come along, Lord Bonifatius.”

“It seemed a good opportunity to see the temple while at the same time acting as your guard,” he replied. “This is no place for a woman to be alone.”

“Oh, but I am quite fine on my own. Rozemyne and Cornelius come here often, and it was Karstedt who furnished the rooms.” She had received a very thorough description of the temple after Karstedt and Eckhart scoped the place out, so she no longer held any reservations about visiting.

“The temple is well cleaned, and—thanks to my superb attendants—you are both perfectly comfortable,” I said. “Would you not agree?”

Bonifatius drank the tea that Fran had poured for him, ate one of the cookies that Nicola had brought over, then gave a curt nod. He seemed to understand that life here wasn’t all that different from life in the castle.

“Moving forward, the temple will be hosting more children, including Melchior and those from the playroom,” I said. “They can study for their written lessons here, but I am afraid they will lack for physical training. I would like you to remedy that, if you are willing.”

“You want me to train... the children of the former Veronica faction...?” Bonifatius murmured.

“Indeed. Most of them will be sworn to the archducal family. They have quite literally entrusted us with their lives so that they can serve as our retainers. How could we not train them in return?”

Those who were living in the temple were a lot more likely to end up serving Melchior or me. I’d struggled to secure retainers while I was asleep in the jureve because none of the children had really known me, and it had been up to them to decide whom they served. Meeting with them often was therefore very important.

“Moreover,” I continued, “your grandson Nikolaus has entered the temple as an apprentice blue priest. Please grant his wish to become a knight.”

“I... shall consider it.”

“I thank you ever so much.”

Even if he only came by every now and again, Bonifatius’s presence would instill hope in the kids who wanted to be knights. Not to mention, Melchior’s and my guards could take turns watching their training.

“Incidentally, Grandfather... have Angelica’s divine protections made her any stronger?”

“It wasn’t by much, but she’s become faster. Stenluke also seems longer than before. Although most people wouldn’t even notice these things, for someone as skilled as Angelica, those slight improvements meant everything. I still won, of course, but it was reasonably hard-fought.”

Angelica had moved faster and attacked more ferociously than Bonifatius was used to. He maintained that he hadn’t even come close to being defeated, but her improvements had been enough to make him curious about the rituals we were performing and the steadily increasing strength of my retainers.

“Mother, Grandfather—since you’ve come all this way, would you like to perform the ritual for obtaining divine protections? Grandfather, with all the time you’ve spent offering mana to the foundational magics, I am sure you will receive protections aplenty.”

“No, I don’t think I will...” Bonifatius replied, his expression dark and menacing all of a sudden. I was shocked to realize just how much he hated rituals.

Elvira giggled and stepped in to explain things. “Rozemyne, as much as I would love to participate, not even I, a writer, can recall the names of all the gods. It was decades ago that I learned them and the prayers in class. Lord Bonifatius and I would both need a lot more time and practice before we could perform the ritual. Isn’t that right, Lord Bonifatius?”

“Right. I am interested, since Rozemyne says that performing Mana Replenishment is enough to secure more divine protections, but... I’ll give it a try once I’m better prepared.”

Elvira hadn’t forgotten the names she needed to know for her love stories, but she couldn’t remember all of the minor gods. To her, even the words and order of the prayer were hazy at best.

Well, that’s fair.

After all, even Damuel had said that he would need to relearn the prayer for the ritual. For nobles who had memorized the names of the gods decades ago and then had no use for most of them since, it seemed entirely reasonable that some review would be needed.

“Rozemyne, we have here a letter from the aub,” Elvira said. “He has granted me permission to assist with this ritual and said that he will entrust this business with Muriella to us.” She handed the letter in question to Philine, who then passed it to me.

At once, I started to read this new correspondence from Sylvester. It could be summarized quite simply: “I’ll turn a blind eye to any less than traditional dealings with Muriella, but only if you immediately share your results and allow me to perform the ritual too.”

It makes sense to have him redo the ritual sooner rather than later. He’ll benefit greatly from being able to use his mana more efficiently.

Making sure the archducal family had more mana at its disposal was one of our top priorities at the moment. In an ideal world, Bonifatius would join Sylvester and secure new divine protections alongside him.

“Grandfather, will you be here when Sylvester comes for the ritual?” I asked. “It would be very convenient if you could attend, but you would need to learn the prayer and the names of the gods in quite a hurry...”

“Hm... I would think so,” he replied, then looked at the letter with a deep frown. “That said, I didn’t think Sylvester would be willing to come to the temple. I suppose I’m just not as young and sprightly anymore...”

I wanted to shout, “That isn’t the problem!” at the top of my lungs, but I just barely managed to hold my tongue.

I mean, Sylvester came to the temple wearing blue robes and tagged along for Spring Prayer forever ago. He was even pumped up about hunting in the lower city’s forest. I don’t think age has anything to do with it.

You couldn’t pay me to reveal that my first meeting with Sylvester had been in the temple, but it was news that would shock anyone else speechless. An archduke putting on a disguise to participate in Spring Prayer was just unthinkable. Only now that I was accustomed to noble culture could I appreciate the pure craziness of Sylvester’s past actions.

“Now then, Mother—let me give Muriella to you so that we can report back to the aub. Grandfather, could you wait here?”

Name-swearing wasn’t something to be mentioned in public, so I’d made sure to speak indirectly. We would perform it privately in the workshop.

“I want to see this ritual for obtaining divine protections again,” Bonifatius said, a stern look on his face. “Would it be problematic for me to watch one?” He was still somewhat on guard against the temple and its rituals, but he seemed interested.

“Damuel is about to begin his, so you could ask for his permission to attend.”

I was well aware that Damuel would never refuse Bonifatius—not in a million years. He was a noble sacrifice, thrust in the firing line to spare Gretia from having a man intrude on her ritual. If we sent word ahead of time, he’d at least be able to prepare emotionally.

“The ritual is not to be performed in public, and you are surely too considerate to enter the chapel alone with two women,” I continued. In the temple, it was seldom appropriate to leave men and women alone together. “Damuel is my only male retainer who has not yet performed the ritual, so please ask him.”

Bonifatius nodded.

“Cornelius,” I said, “guide our grandfather to the chapel, if you would. Do not let anybody else attend the ritual, though; Damuel would not be able to concentrate with too many eyes on him.”

“Got it,” Bonifatius replied in his stead. “I’ll get my retainers to wait outside the chapel. Come on, Cornelius.”

And with that, Bonifatius practically dragged Cornelius out of the room. I watched them go, then took Elvira and Muriella into my workshop. Leonore accompanied us as both an observer and a guard.

I unlocked a box sitting atop one of the shelves, then peered at the name stones neatly arranged inside. After a moment, I picked out the one belonging to Muriella and said, “Muriella, I return your name to you.”

From there, I pretty much performed the name-swearing ceremony in reverse. I sucked the name stone’s mana back into me and watched as the white cocoon surrounding it slowly disappeared, revealing an equally white box. As expected, Muriella’s name was inside.

“I am honored,” Muriella said. She looked closely at her returned name, then inhaled slowly and knelt before Elvira. “Lady Elvira, I ask that you accept my name. I spend my days immersed in your stories, and through them I feel the visits of Bluanfah. From the very bottom of my heart, I desire nothing more than to weave beautiful stories with you—to spread them through the world and reach as many people as we can.”

“O Muriella, my kindred soul. I accept your name,” Elvira answered, extending a hand to the white box. She then poured her mana into it all at once, as I’d instructed.

Muriella had expected another wave of pain... but it never came. She looked up at Elvira in shock, not having suffered at all.

“Thus concludes the name-swearing,” Elvira said. “Muriella, would you please repeat the protections ritual?”

“Yes, my lady.”

We left the workshop to find that Gretia had returned from performing her ritual. She had apparently been very taken aback when, upon coming out of the chapel, she had found herself standing face-to-face with Bonifatius and his retainers.

“Damuel was very troubled when he heard that you granted Lord Bonifatius permission to watch his ritual,” she said.

“I thought it better that his ritual be intruded upon than yours, Gretia. Damuel is an honorable sacrifice whom we shall not soon forget.”

Gretia placed a hand on her ample chest and sighed in relief, having no doubt just pictured Bonifatius bursting into the chapel during her ritual. “I must find a way to express my thanks to him later...”

“You could offer to be his bride,” I suggested with a cackle. “He’d genuinely cry tears of joy.”

Gretia shook her head with a solemn expression. “I am too uncomfortable around men to ever want a husband. I will refuse to marry unless you order it.”

Too bad, Damuel. She didn’t consider you for a second.

“Thanks to Muriella’s assistance, we have determined that one’s elements are tied to the person one is sworn to,” I announced. “On top of that, everyone obtained additional protections. Many even obtained new elements. Our experiments here have produced outstanding results.”

Hartmut had obtained the Life element and divine protections from various subordinates. Cornelius had obtained the Darkness element and protections from primarily fighting-related gods. Matthias and Laurenz had essentially become omni-elemental after swearing their names to me. Gretia had as well, and she had obtained the protection of Verbergen the God of Concealment.

As for Muriella, she had ceased being omni-elemental once she was no longer sworn to me. Her elements were now being influenced by Elvira’s instead, though she still had the divine protection of Bluanfah the Goddess of Sprouts.

I gave Roderick a report consolidating all of these findings—with the names redacted, of course—and told him to deliver it to Sylvester in the castle.

“Hm... The ceremony was interesting enough,” Bonifatius remarked. “I’ll work on remembering the prayer and the names of the gods.”

“As will I,” Elvira agreed. “It would be wonderful to have the divine protections of Bluanfah the Goddess of Sprouts and Grammaratur the Goddess of Language.”

Both appeared to be satisfied—Bonifatius because he had seen Damuel’s ritual, and Elvira because she had obtained a new, loyal vassal and found out about Cornelius obtaining the Darkness element. It was great to see such optimism from two members of an older generation that reviled the temple. Perhaps their enthusiasm would help shift the general opinion among nobles.

“Even after seeing it with my own eyes, I’m struggling to believe that someone can receive new elements,” Bonifatius said, then shot a glance at Damuel, who was slumped over in disappointment. He knew which protections Damuel had obtained because he had been there for the ritual, whereas I knew because I’d put together the report for Sylvester.

There isn’t much I can say except that they were very appropriate for him.

Damuel had obtained the divine protection of Liebeskhilfe the Goddess of Binding and the Light element with it. From the Wind element, which he had already possessed, he had obtained the protections of Dregarnuhr the Goddess of Time and Jugereise the Goddess of Separation. He had prayed desperately to Liebeskhilfe in the past, hoping that he would get to marry Brigitte, but he hadn’t prayed to Jugereise at all. The fact that she had given him her protection anyway no doubt meant she had taken a liking to him.

“I’m never getting married...” Damuel murmured, his grievance made all the more serious by the vacant look in his eyes.