Ascendance of a Bookworm (LN) - Volume 5.5 - Chapter 4

Work in the Underground Archive

“We practically blinked and you were gone,” Sylvester complained. “You didn’t even give us any notice. D’you know how much trouble that caused us?”

Apparently, after my abrupt departure, Sylvester and Florencia had been subjected to a barrage of questions by the nobles sitting around them. Pale-faced, they had repeated again and again that such information was known only to the royal family—but that hadn’t been enough. The commotion had followed them all the way back to the dormitory.

I was sitting in the common room, at Sylvester’s order, with literally everyone from Ehrenfest who had come for the Archduke Conference watching me. Being stuck with so many adults was more than a little intense; unlike the other students, they weren’t at all used to royalty-related matters and other strange incidents, so they were staring at me with stiff expressions.

Sylvester shook his head, exasperated. “Under normal circumstances, we would have spent the time after the ceremony weighing up the other duchies while arranging tea parties and meals, but that was obviously out of the question. I demand an explanation. The conference starts after lunch, and I’m not looking forward to it.”

“I incorporated into the ceremony some ancient practices the Sovereign temple found written on similarly ancient documents,” I said. “The Sovereign High Bishop lacked the mana to perform them himself, so the temple asked me to act in his stead. It was at the royal family’s behest that I agreed.”

From there, I explained the irritating exchanges that had occurred, and stressed that I had spoken to Anastasius before taking any action. I had been willing to leave the ceremony to the Sovereign High Bishop and go home, but the prince had personally opposed the idea.

“Today’s incident only happened because Prince Anastasius told me to oblige the Sovereign temple,” I said. “Thus, if you have any further complaints, please address them to the royal family. The ancient text I was shown listed the steps of the ceremony and nothing more, so I did not know what would happen before I performed it.”

“You performed the ceremony without even knowing what it would do?!” Sylvester exclaimed. Florencia looked equally shocked.

“Yes,” I replied with a nod. “The text did not offer an explanation, but the royal family still decided that it was worth the risk. Any questions the other duchies might have should go to them.”

The royals had tasked me with carrying out the annoying request, so they could take care of the fallout. I didn’t expect them or the Sovereign temple to be able to give any satisfying answers, but that didn’t matter; there was no reason for Ehrenfest to go through all this trouble when it wasn’t our fault to begin with.

“In essence, the ceremony can be explained as simply as the ritual that Dunkelfelger performed during the Interduchy Tournament,” I said. “We used divine instruments to offer mana to the gods, and our observance of ancient practices produced the results you saw today.”

Sylvester started to look more convinced. He could probably remember Dunkelfelger’s demonstration.

“In truth,” I continued, “I’m more concerned about the Sovereign temple. They want to use these revived rituals to obtain a true Zent.”

“Do take care with the Sovereign temple,” Hartmut interjected. “Immanuel is not one to heed the words of others. I am certain that he will go to any length to obtain what he desires, and our common sense as nobles will not apply to him.” He spoke with a severe expression, having been on guard throughout the entire ceremony. His concerns had only increased after Immanuel predicted and attempted to block our secondary escape route.

He continued, “Immanuel seeks to control Lady Rozemyne, since she has the mana necessary to revive the ancient ceremonies that survive through the Sovereign temple’s records. Their ceremonies could indeed play an important role in the procurement of a true Zent, but such concerns fall to the royal family and the Sovereign temple, not an archduke candidate from Ehrenfest.”

Asking for my assistance might have been considered reasonable under more fortunate circumstances, but Ehrenfest didn’t have the resources to be fretting about such things. Ferdinand was now living in Ahrensbach, we were still dealing with the aftermath of the purge, and the duchy was suffering a lack of both mana and manpower.

Hartmut looked squarely at Sylvester. “There is a very real chance that Lady Rozemyne might be stolen from us—the royal family or the Sovereign temple need only find an excuse that the other duchies will accept. If we hope to prioritize her safety above all else, then we must consider refusing this request for her to help out in the library.”

Most of the adults recoiled at the mere thought of opposing the royal family. But as they murmured their disapproval, Sylvester closed his eyes and contemplated the situation.

“I know that many of you think it would be too rude of us to refuse the royal family,” he eventually said, “but I’m going to protest if necessary. I’ll even bring up how they extorted us to take Ferdinand.”

“I thank you,” Hartmut replied.

“You were phenomenal, Lady Rozemyne!” Clarissa exclaimed the moment we sat down for lunch. She had watched the ceremony as a member of Ehrenfest and was positively enraptured. “Your every movement was so transcendently elegant! And your dazzling white robes—oh, how you stood out amid that sea of weary blue! All eyes were naturally drawn to you, and—”

“Clarissa. Calm down,” Ottilie said. “That ‘sea of weary blue’ was Lady Rozemyne’s guard knights. In fact, you could barely even see her when she was surrounded.”

“Were your eyes not even open?!” Clarissa exclaimed, refusing to heed Ottilie’s warning in the slightest. “Did you not see Lady Rozemyne’s divine form? Did you not witness the divinity and compassion radiating from her expression? I am at a loss for words.”

As am I. Did you seriously assign that much meaning to a simple expression?

“When I saw Hartmut take Lady Rozemyne’s hand and guide her onto the stage, I felt Eifersuneid let loose his hair and spread his cape wide. Oh, but then Lady Rozemyne started speaking to the supreme gods, and my attention was drawn to her cute, captivating voice—a present from Kunstzeal, no less!”

Er... sorry, Clarissa. I can tell that you’re complimenting me, but I don’t have a clue what you’re trying to say. Is Eifersuneid letting his hair loose a good thing? Or is the part about his cape what matters most?

With written text, I could observe the flow of each line and then extrapolate the significance from there. That wasn’t an option when listening to someone speak; the words all came pouring out at once, and there was no time to analyze them when you were expected to give a prompt response. To make matters worse, sometimes a person would mention one of the gods, then start bringing up several more before you could even wrap your head around the first. It was all much too confusing.

Save me, Ottilie...

I turned to my likely savior, but she had already resumed eating—a sign that she had completely given up on calming down Clarissa. Meanwhile, Hartmut was adding fuel to the fire, peppering the conversation with small remarks about what he had seen from the shrine.

“Indeed, one can tell at a glance that Lady Rozemyne is a divine avatar of Mestionora,” he said, “and it seemed entirely as if the supreme gods were answering her call. How could anyone forget the cape of Darkness fluttering into the air? Oh, one could fill any number of books trying to capture the divinity of that moment when she recreated the night sky! Do you not agree that even Grammaratur would struggle to put into words the beauty of the scene?”

“Yes, truly!” Clarissa exulted. “The stars twinkled deep within the bosom of the God of Darkness, while the Goddess of Light...”

I don’t understaaand... I’m just going to leave them to their own little world.

One thing was crystal clear to me, though: Hartmut and Clarissa really were perfect for each other. I left them to their excited chattering and turned to Lieseleta, who had also gone to the auditorium to watch the ceremony.

“So, what did you think?” I asked. “Ceremonies at the Royal Academy are always so fancy, aren’t they?” I was hoping to secure her agreement as someone who had once been my fellow student, but she gave me a troubled smile instead.

“Lady Rozemyne, the word ‘fancy’ is less than ideal... I would suggest ‘wondrous’ or perhaps ‘mystical’ instead. It truly was a sight to behold.”

“Yes, mystical!” Clarissa exclaimed, her blue eyes sparkling as she butted into our conversation. “The mystical gods made their presence known! We could practically feel them among us! I would expect nothing less from you, Lady Rozemyne. You can converse even with the gods themselves!”

“That was not what we were referring to...” I said. “Clarissa, should you not save all this gushing about the ceremony for later, when you can more freely discuss it with Hartmut? For now, focus on your food. You haven’t taken so much as a moment to savor it.”

Today’s lunch was especially extravagant, serving as both a celebratory start to the Archduke Conference and an opportunity for the duchy’s nobles to socialize. Clarissa’s raving had gone from being amusing to an annoying buzz in my ears, which was why I’d indirectly suggested that she button it.

“Worry not—any meal is delicious as long as I can eat it while talking about you, Lady Rozemyne.”

“I see. Then should we ask the chefs to start preparing less appetizing dishes for you?”

“My apologies. I’ll eat quietly.”

There were audible sighs of relief as Clarissa finally stopped rambling. I couldn’t help but wonder how Dunkelfelger had managed to put up with her for so long.

It was the start of a new day. According to the reports I’d received, Ehrenfest had gotten plenty of very curious questions during the previous afternoon’s meetings, but they had all been avoided with the use of three template answers: “It was at the royal family’s request that she included those ancient customs,” “The pillar of light was identical in nature to the one that Dunkelfelger produced during the Interduchy Tournament,” and “Please ask the royal family for any further details.” We had also received more meal invitations than last year, but it wasn’t anything that we couldn’t manage, apparently.

“Hartmut, Clarissa, please perform your duties as scholars with the utmost diligence,” I said.

“Understood.”

I saw the adults off at third bell, then spent some time reading in my room. I would only be going to the library once everyone had reached their destinations and the halls were quiet.

“Lady Hannelore is going to be there,” I said, “so don’t forget to bring the third volume of The Story of Fernestine.”

The guard knights held a meeting while Lieseleta and Ottilie were preparing.

“Only archknights can enter the underground archive, so Leonore and I will accompany Lady Rozemyne,” Cornelius said. “Damuel, Angelica, stand guard outside the library while we are inside.”

“If anyone suspicious arrives, inform us at once,” Leonore added. “We will not be able to run or hide without first leaving the archive. Though I cannot even begin to imagine what manner of rampage Lady Rozemyne would unleash if the library were to be used as a battlefield.”

Damuel and Angelica nodded.

“I much prefer the sound of guarding the library to spending the day there,” Angelica happily declared, at which point an ordonnanz from Solange flew into the room. Hannelore had arrived.

“Let us go, then.”

And so, with my four guard knights and two attendants in tow, I made my way to the library.

“Here, milady.”

“Mana please, milady.”

Schwartz and Weiss had come to welcome me, so I stroked their foreheads and supplied them with mana. Lieseleta broke into a smile at the sight of the shumils, but Ottilie blankly stared at them; no amount of forewarning could have prepared her for seeing the library’s magic tools greet me as their lady.

“Lady Rozemyne. Welcome,” Solange said. “Everyone is waiting in the office. There are so many people today that I must ask you to bring no more than three retainers with you.”

As it turned out, Hannelore wasn’t the only one who had arrived; the royal family was here too. Damuel and Angelica stepped outside the library to guard the door, while Lieseleta smiled and stepped away to prepare tea. That left me with Ottilie, Cornelius, and Leonore.

I entered the office with my three retainers to find Anastasius, Eglantine, Hildebrand, and Hannelore. Also with them was a woman I didn’t recognize. Her hair was up and a very similar color to Hildebrand’s, while her eyes were redder than Hannelore’s and suggested a strong, cutthroat personality. She was probably in her mid-twenties.

“So, Rozemyne,” Anastasius said, “yesterday’s ceremony took an unusual turn. We expected as much, but it produced even better results than we had anticipated.”

What does that even mean...?

I didn’t know what Anastasius was referring to. It seemed to be positive, though, so I decided not to give it any more thought. Instead, I signaled with my eyes for him to introduce me to the new woman.

“Aah, this is Lady Magdalena, Father’s third wife and Hildebrand’s mother. As someone born in Dunkelfelger, she is well versed in ancient language and will be contributing to today’s translations.”

At once, I knelt before her and performed the usual greeting. “I am Rozemyne, an archduke candidate of Ehrenfest. May I pray for a blessing in appreciation of this serendipitous meeting, ordained by the pure rivers flowing from Flutrane the Goddess of Water?”

“You may. Lady Rozemyne... I have heard much about you from the princes and am delighted that we can finally meet. I look forward to working with you during this Archduke Conference.”

It was time to move. We passed through the closed-stack archive and went down into the basement. Hortensia took the lead, since she was an archlibrarian, with Schwartz and Weiss hopping along after her. Even now, status was important. I watched as the royals spoke with their retainers who had been waiting outside, then descended.

“I heard about this place, but I’m still surprised that it exists below the library...” Cornelius said with a noticeably stern expression. He then muttered that Leonore had been correct in saying that we would have nowhere to run if we were attacked.

Hortensia, Hannelore, and I slotted our keys into the metallic-looking wall, which was then covered in complex patterns as lines of mana darted along its surface. Then, with a creaking sound, it split into three rotating sections. Seeing the underground archive appear behind the transparent wall always made my heart race.

Schwartz entered, while Weiss waited outside—as was normally the case. Retainers weren’t allowed any farther, and everyone else surpassed me in status, so I needed to enter next to prove that it was safe. I took some paper and ink, then passed through the transparent wall.

“Milady. Not enough prayer,” Schwartz said, as usual.

“I’ll work on that,” I replied while placing ink and paper on the table.

“Hannelore. Not enough elements. Not enough prayer.”

Hannelore was likewise used to Schwartz’s remark. She ignored it and instead prepared some writing utensils.

“Oh, Prince Hildebrand?”

After turning to see who was coming next, I’d seen Hildebrand reach for the transparent wall with a tense look on his face. He had been knocked back during his previous attempt, but now he passed through without incident.

“Hildebrand. Not enough elements. Not enough prayer.”

“I got in...” Hildebrand muttered. He hadn’t reacted to Schwartz in the slightest; instead, he was merely staring at his hands, his expression a mixture of surprise and joy. After a moment, he turned to Magdalena, who was entering after him, and cried, “I got in, Mother!”

“Well done, Hildebrand. Your hard work has paid off.”

“Magdalena. Not enough elements. Not enough prayer.”

As it turned out, Hildebrand had told the king that he wanted to obtain more mana so that he could help out as much as possible, which had led to him being taught the royal family’s mana compression method. His mother, Magdalena, had taught him a Dunkelfelger mana compression method as well.

“I learned some ancient letters too,” he said, “since I want to be able to help transcribe the documents.”

Of course, there were other Sovereign nobles who could read the old language, but they weren’t able to enter the archive. Hildebrand would simply be transcribing the documents as they were, then his transcriptions would be translated at a later date.

Magdalena laughed. “King Trauerqual asked me to enter as well, so I took part in my first refresher lesson of ancient language in quite some time.”

Next, Eglantine and Anastasius entered.

“Eglantine. Not enough prayer.”

“Anastasius. Not enough prayer.”

“Hmm. Its message changed,” Anastasius said. “Repeating the divine protections ritual completed my elements after all. Sigiswald should receive a new evaluation as well.”

The royal family had also repeated the ritual—and, in the process, both Anastasius and Eglantine had apparently become omni-elemental.

“Is that really true, Prince Anastasius?” I asked. “You have every element now?”

“Indeed. You taught us that praying while performing Mana Replenishment would produce such results, did you not? Because I prayed to the gods without fail when supplying mana over the winter, I was granted four new divine protections.”

Meanwhile, Eglantine had gained two. They would be repeating the ceremony again next year.

“Oh my. You became omni-elemental as well, Lady Eglantine?” Hannelore asked. “Does that mean I might also be able to obtain more divine protections when I graduate?”

Eglantine placed a hand on her cheek and slowly shook her head. “I was omni-elemental to begin with.”

“Obtaining more divine protections and elements is important, but we stand to gain far more by transcribing and translating the documents here,” Anastasius continued. “Now, let us hurry and get to work. Eglantine and I have plans this afternoon, so time is of the essence.”

At his instruction, we began our work transcribing and translating the white slates. Anastasius, Eglantine, and Hildebrand transcribed them word for word while Magdalena, Hannelore, and I worked on translating them. The former group had only recently begun their studies, so it would have taken them much too long to attempt anything more.

We worked in silence, each taking breaks as we needed them, and eventually reached fourth bell.

“That will be all from us,” Anastasius announced. “I understand that working for so long can be tiresome, but I must ask that you all continue through the afternoon.” He then took his leave, along with Eglantine and their retainers.

Hannelore and I were going to eat our lunches outside the underground archive, in a specially prepared rest area. We were still underage, so we didn’t want any nobles to see us wandering around during the Archduke Conference. The royal family also wanted to keep it a secret that they were employing the services of mere students, as such news certainly wouldn’t benefit their reputation.

Magdalena and Hildebrand had originally intended to return to their villas, but they ultimately decided to eat at the archive as well. Their attendants were preparing their meals.

Magdalena picked up her cutlery. “It is a fair distance to the villa, and it would not be respectable for me, the third wife, to be seen wandering the Royal Academy during the Archduke Conference. Do allow me to join you.” It seemed that she had actively been avoiding the public eye in an attempt to prop up the first wife. If she drew more attention to herself, people would inevitably start pushing for her to be made the first wife instead—especially as she was from Dunkelfelger.

The Zent’s first wife is from... Gilessenmeyer, I think? It’s a middle duchy rather than a greater one, and it sits lower on the rankings at fourth. Of course people would prefer Magdalena.

Magdalena had spent years avoiding the Archduke Conference, so anyone who saw her now would assume that she was working in the shadows or leaking information to her home duchy. One could never tell when such rumors might surface.

“At this time of year, a picnic outside would be delightful,” Magdalena remarked. “But alas, there is no more troublesome foe than the shapeless being that is society. Lady Rozemyne, Lady Hannelore, do take care.”

I nodded and said, “I thank you ever so much for your warning.”

“Incidentally, Lady Rozemyne... I have been wanting to ask you about yesterday’s ceremony. I could not go to the auditorium myself, so I missed a seemingly wondrous event.”

Hildebrand and Hannelore both nodded in agreement, their eyes sparkling with interest. They were underage, so they hadn’t been able to attend either.

“I wanted to see it too,” Hildebrand said. “Father described the sight of the radiant light piercing the night sky as divinity itself.”

Hannelore giggled. “The scene was so beautiful that my brother returned with an overwhelming desire to paint it. I cannot wait to see what he produces. His overenthusiasm earned him a scolding from Mother, though—she said that he should wait until the conference has finished before obsessing over his art.”

“And, of course,” Magdalena continued, “a faint magic circle arose for a few moments on the stage where Prince Sigiswald and Lady Adolphine received your blessing. Some have even begun to say that the prince has been acknowledged by the gods as the next Zent.”

“A magic circle arose on the stage?” I repeated, freezing in place with my fork halfway to my mouth. The chunk of meat that I had been about to eat dropped back onto my plate, but I was so taken aback by this news that I didn’t even notice.

Hannelore’s eyes widened. “Did you not see the circle, Lady Rozemyne? Everyone from our duchy has been talking about it. You were performing the ceremony from the shrine, were you not?”

I paused, taking a moment to reflect on everything that had occurred. “I was facing upward—as is customary when praying—so I did not see the stage at all.”

“And nobody from Ehrenfest even mentioned it?” Magdalena asked, looking surprised. I certainly hadn’t heard any such news yesterday in the dormitory.

“Erm, it was only yesterday morning that the Sovereign temple told me to perform the ritual in the traditional style,” I said. “Ehrenfest knew nothing about it before it actually happened, so we spent most of our lunchtime discussing what I had done and how to answer the inevitable questions from nobles of other duchies. Furthermore, Clarissa and Hartmut...”

“We can extrapolate the rest,” Hannelore said. “They speak only of you, correct?”

Indeed, they were always fixated on my actions, and yesterday had been no exception. Their praise had become like a tiresome refrain, rearing its head again and again. Leberecht had ended up scolding them for it before they could even reach dinnertime.

“We received so many requests in the afternoon that, come dinnertime, everyone spoke only of how to deal with them. The ceremony itself received not even a mention. This is my first time hearing that a magic circle arose.”

It really feels like I’m the last person to find out, even though I was the one performing the ceremony.

If that truly had been the magic circle for selecting Zent candidates, then I could see why the Sovereign temple was so desperate to revive the ancient customs. Anastasius’s remark about the results having been even better than expected also made a lot more sense.

“I shall bring it up at dinner,” I said. “Ignorance about this subject will only bring me harm moving forward.”

After lunch, I was back to work, translating and modernizing line after line of the ancient slates. It really was fun being able to read entirely new texts.

“Lady Rozemyne!” Magdalena called, roughly shaking me by the shoulders. I looked up at her with a start, at which point she continued, “Your retainers have received an ordonnanz. Let us leave the archive.”

We did just that and reunited with Cornelius. He thanked Magdalena, then conveyed what the correspondence from Damuel had said:

“It seems that Lady Detlinde of Ahrensbach has come to the library.”

“She became a Zent candidate after triggering the magic circle during her coming-of-age ceremony,” Leonore added. “It could be that she came here to obtain the knowledge necessary to take the throne.”

Magdalena blinked. “But few even know that the archive exists.”

“That may not be true,” I said. “Lord Ferdinand viewed it not as a secret to be kept but as somewhere that any archduke candidate could enter, as long as they met the right conditions. If we assume that all manner of royals and archduke candidates once frequented the archive, then it would make perfect sense for others to know about it.”

“Yes, that might be the case...” Magdalena muttered, though she didn’t seem entirely convinced. Her lips then curved into a smile as though she had come to a realization of some kind. “I have long wanted to speak with this Lady Detlinde, who claims to be a Zent candidate. Leave this situation to me, Lady Rozemyne. You, Hildebrand, and Lady Hannelore may continue your work.”