Ascendance of a Bookworm (LN) - Volume 5.5 - Chapter 1

Apprentice Blues and the Orphanage Children

By the time Spring Prayer was completely over, it was midway through the season. The bitter weather had given way to vibrant greenery that seemed to thrive more by the day.

Amid the dazzling sunshine, carriages from the castle arrived at the temple’s front gates. Their doors opened, and the children soon to be blue-robes gracefully alighted. Gone was the anxiety they had shown during their tour; instead, they were overflowing with vigor as they climbed the temple steps.

As an archducal family member, Melchior had come by highbeast rather than by carriage like the others. I welcomed them all as the High Bishop; henceforth, they would be living here at the temple.

“Right,” I said, “let us go to the High Bishop’s chambers and perform the fealty ceremony.”

To become a blue-robe, one first needed to perform a rite wherein one would vow to serve the gods. It brought to mind memories of when I’d performed it myself, only this time I would be leading the prayers.

After swallowing my nerves and carrying out the fealty ceremony, I started giving the children their robes. Hopefully they would work hard and grow as people.

“Now, allow me to explain life in the temple.”

Everyone would eat breakfast at second bell, then go to the High Priest’s chambers with their attendants to receive work and instructions from Hartmut or his attendants. That was also when they would report on the day before and detail the progress they had made. From there, they would work in their chambers and study religious ceremonies until third bell, when they would move to the orphanage to study noble matters such as written lessons and the harspiel under Wilma’s and Rosina’s tutelage.

Fourth bell was lunch, then the children would generally be allowed to spend the afternoon as they pleased. They could train; go to the workshop to help out or speak with merchants; transcribe books; study to be a knight, scholar, or whatever they wanted to be when they were older; study the printing and paper-making industries; and so on. They could even go to the castle, as long as they got permission first.

“Sixth bell marks dinnertime,” I said. “This is probably earlier than you are used to, but those in the orphanage would need to wait even longer if we took our meals any later. As for when you go to bed, however, that is up to you. Are there any questions?”

One boy raised his hand. “Are the children in the orphanage following the same schedule?”

“Not exactly. They must clean the temple, gather in the forest, work in the orphanage, and perform other such duties. That said, you will get to spend time with them during evenings when your work has been completed, and on rainy days.”

The coming of spring meant the orphans would be going outside more, which also meant they wouldn’t have as much time to study. I intended to have their work called early on some days so that they would at least have some evenings for studying, but everyone in the orphanage needed to be treated equally—hence why the blue-robes would receive time off as well. No matter whether they were nobles, commoners, or the children of criminals, they would each receive as much work—and as much food—as the others.

“Can we go to the forest too?” Nikolaus asked, a hopeful glint in his eye.

I shook my head and plainly replied, “Blue-robes are not allowed to go to the forest, I am afraid.” If we allowed the children of nobles to go and something happened to them, the blame would swiftly fall on the commoners—specifically Gil, Lutz, the eldest resident of the orphanage, and the guards who had allowed them to pass. I wasn’t going to take any chances.

“Now, head to your rooms with your respective attendants and get changed,” I said. “The children in the orphanage are waiting for you, so please make the most of this opportunity to spend time with them.”

To help the blue-robes ease into their new lives at the temple, they hadn’t been assigned any work today. Well, they would need to tour the temple’s facilities after lunch, but that was about it. I’d also wanted to spend a while introducing the Rozemyne Workshop’s books, which were stored in the temple’s book room as well as in the orphanage, but everyone else had rejected that idea.

They said that my impassioned recommendations would make the children less likely to read the books. Is that mean or what?

“Rozemyne, will you be going to the orphanage too?” Melchior asked, blue robes in hand.

I nodded in response; I wanted to hear the children’s thoughts about spring life, since it meant leaving the orphanage more often.

“Shall we go together, then? There is something I wish to report as well.”

Melchior then went to get changed. In the meantime, I asked Hartmut how work in the temple was progressing. Frietack had done his very best over Spring Prayer, but we still weren’t up to date.

“Losing those blue priests has had a much greater impact than I expected,” I said.

“But we now have new apprentice blue-robes and can pile work onto their attendants,” Hartmut replied with a beaming smile. “It was losing Lord Ferdinand that wounded us the most. Oh, have the specifics of the Archduke Conference’s Starbind Ceremony been decided yet?”

“It seems that the Sovereign temple will prepare the divine instruments, offerings, and such. I will merely be holding our bible and wearing my ceremonial robes.”

Each bible needed to be registered with its owner’s mana, so you couldn’t just borrow one from somebody else. Even if the Sovereign High Bishop had given me permission to use his, there wouldn’t have been much of a point; so much of the text was invisible, it wouldn’t be of any use.

“Do not forget your most important helper, Lady Rozemyne. I will be attending as High Priest to support you.”

“I did not forget you, Hartmut; I simply knew that you would come along no matter what I or anyone else said.” After seeing him force his way into the Royal Academy’s ceremonies, I couldn’t imagine a reality where he stayed in Ehrenfest and patiently awaited my return.

Next, I turned to my knights. “Speaking of the ceremony—the royal family has permitted me to bring some guards, but they must be dressed as blue priests or shrine maidens. I would like my adult knights to accompany me, but are you all willing?”

“Absolutely,” Angelica replied without missing a beat. “I am your guard knight, after all.”

Cornelius and Damuel agreed as well; they had already worn robes for the Dedication Ritual. Leonore nodded too.

“Furthermore,” I continued, “at the royal family’s instruction, I am to spend the rest of the Archduke Conference hidden in the library’s underground archive. I will need guards and attendants there as well, but only archnobles can enter. Cornelius, Leonore, I intend to ask you both to guard me, but Ottilie is my only choice for attendants. Would it be wise of me to give her this duty? I am particularly concerned about Clarissa.”

Clarissa was due to attend the Archduke Conference, where she would play a key role in our negotiations with Dunkelfelger. We naturally wanted Ottilie to keep an eye on her, but that wouldn’t be possible if she was accompanying me to the underground archive. It was a potentially dangerous situation, indeed.

“My mother is your retainer,” Hartmut said. “It is only natural that she should join you. My father is going to be there as well, and Clarissa would never do anything to bother you. Well, probably not.”

You had me in the first half... but what was that last part, Hartmut?!

As unease washed over me, Leonore smiled and said, “Fear not, Lady Rozemyne. Lieseleta may not be able to enter the archive, but she can take care of everything else, from preparing tea to managing your chambers. In my opinion, it would be best for Ottilie to join you.”

At times like this, when I needed to leave the temple and carry myself as a proper noble, Rihyarda’s absence became all the more painful. That said, the archducal couple had it a lot worse; they wouldn’t get to hide away in an underground archive.

I sighed. “If only Damuel could read through the old documents with me...”

“From the very bottom of my heart, I am glad that I cannot enter an archive for royals and archduke candidates,” Damuel interjected, trembling. “I would die of stress.”

If entering an archive was too much for him, was he really okay with attending the two royals’ Starbinding? He would need to don blue robes and stand atop the shrine in front of every single archducal couple in Yurgenschmidt. The answer was probably no, but I decided not to say anything. Giving him a way out would leave me with one fewer guard on the day.

Well, I’m sure he’ll survive. Good luck, Damuel.

“Because I’m underage, I wasn’t able to help with Spring Prayer,” Philine muttered, overcome with disappointment. “I won’t be able to attend the Archduke Conference for the same reason. No matter what I do, I can’t be of any use to you...”

“That isn’t true,” Damuel said, trying to cheer her up. “We need people to look after the temple while Hartmut and Lady Rozemyne are away. You’re a huge help to all of us.”

“I’m glad to hear you say that,” Philine replied, her cheeks blushing crimson as she smiled up at him. Was she... beaming? She seemed positively radiant.

W-Wait, what? She practically has hearts in her eyes! Doesn’t she like Roderick? I’m pretty sure Damuel said she likes Roderick!

As I stared at them in confusion, Melchior reentered the room, having finished changing. I would have liked to leave Hartmut here in his chambers so that he could continue with his work, but he insisted on coming with us to the orphanage; after witnessing me break and reform my feystone for the children, he was convinced that I might once again do something extraordinary out of the blue. I tried to explain that nothing was going to happen, but he refused to believe me. I couldn’t understand why.

I started toward the orphanage with Melchior, walking at his slow pace. He told me that his reports about Spring Prayer had surprised Sylvester and that he had been praised for passing on the soldiers’ messages.

“Right now, I’m memorizing the prayers you taught me so that I can join in with the Harvest Festival.”

Everyone in the castle was up to their eyes in work, but there wasn’t anything that Melchior could do to help out. This had made him feel useless and isolated, which had made him want to come to the temple as soon as possible.

“By the way, did you get a report too?” he asked.

“About what?”

“The silver cloth they found in the former Giebe Gerlach’s estate.”

Laurenz and Matthias had assisted with that investigation, but they hadn’t yet reported their findings to me. They were on duty tomorrow, and my intention was for us to discuss the matter then.

“Lord Bonifatius said that it was strange,” Melchior continued, “so the scholars examined it. Turns out he was right. Um... I didn’t really understand why, though. I thought you might be able to explain it better.”

Yeah... The most I know is that it was weird. There isn’t much more I can say.

I promised to give him a better explanation once I was abreast of the situation myself, and it was then that we reached the orphanage. Inside, we could see children in blue robes playing with the orphans.

“Melchior,” I said, “please go play with the others. I need to speak with Wilma.”

“Okay.”

I watched as Melchior mingled with the other children, then asked Wilma about the recent state of the orphanage. She shot a worried glance toward the stairs before she answered.

“Some of the children have lost motivation since the others left.”

The children growing up without magic tools of their own were having to expend their mana using the tools in their families’ estates. Most had assumed that only the heir of each house would receive a tool and be treated as a noble but, because everyone was gathered in the orphanage, they had soon realized the truth: some houses gave magic tools to the younger siblings as well.

“They had stayed strong by telling themselves that their families still needed them,” she continued, “but when nobody came, they lost the will to work hard.”

The disheartened children boasted more mana and status than the laynoble children who had been taken back, but they didn’t have magic tools. On top of that, they were no longer needed by their parents; even if they returned home, they would simply be made into servants and spend their time fueling their houses’ magic tools. Working hard in the orphanage wouldn’t magically turn them into nobles, so they were now wasting each day with their heads in the clouds.

“Hartmut,” I said, “even if the children were given their magic tools now, it would still be too late for them, right?” Konrad had needed to give up on becoming a noble after losing his.

“Not necessarily. It would depend on their mana quantities and the number of rejuvenation potions they had access to. That said, forcibly rejuvenating one’s mana and trying to force it all into a magic tool will place a tremendous burden on one’s body, and the combined cost of the magic tool and the rejuvenation potions will not be cheap. It was by this means that the apprentice blue priests were returned to noble society after the civil war.”

Of course, those apprentice blue priests had needed some financial support from their family to be able to afford the method. I had been on the verge of giving up, but I at least wanted to try Hartmut’s suggestion.

“However,” he continued, looking down at me, “I cannot allow you to shoulder the burden of preparing magic tools and rejuvenation potions for every child in the orphanage. You will only be High Bishop for three more years; we cannot continue to support abandoned children in that fashion once you are gone, and it would violate the orphanage’s code of equality. Not to mention, what would drive you to go to such lengths for the sake of children from the former Veronica faction? If you stick your neck out for them, expect to be swarmed by families who believe their children deserve magic tools as well. Under no circumstances can you put orphans as your highest priority.”

I clapped my hands together in realization. “Well, consider it from another angle: I am going out of my way to save not just those of the former Veronica faction but all of the children under my jurisdiction in the orphanage. It does not matter what faction they are from, nor whether they are nobles or commoners with the Devouring—I will assist them all, preserving the orphanage’s code of equality.”

“Lady Rozemyne...” Hartmut said, his eyes wide. Then he shrugged. “We cannot come to a decision ourselves; the aub must choose whether to execute your idea. Perhaps you could invite him to reobtain his divine protections.”