Ascendance of a Bookworm (LN) - Volume 5.6 - Chapter 9

The Spring Coming-of-Age Ceremony and Sylvester’s Departure

After completing the samples, I returned to normal life in the temple. The spring coming-of-age ceremony was tomorrow, but a debate had arisen in the High Bishop’s chambers between my attendants and me. I’d asked them to tell Melchior and the other apprentice blues to take part in the ceremony... but they had refused.

“But why?” I asked, pouting at Fran. “This might not be so important for the other apprentice blues, but as the future High Bishop, Melchior absolutely needs to participate.”

Fran exchanged a glance with Zahm, who grimly shook his head, then said, “Lord Melchior and the other apprentice blues are underage. They cannot take part in the ceremony.”

Melchior’s participation would make the handover easier, and my aim was to get the other blues involved in a ceremony before the Harvest Festival in autumn. But minors weren’t allowed to participate, and my attendants were standing by that custom.

“Have I not performed rituals as the High Bishop despite being underage?” I asked.

“Yes, but as you said, that was as the High Bishop. Back when you were only an ap—” Fran stopped mid-sentence, not wanting to say “apprentice blue shrine maiden” in front of my noble retainers. We were falsifying my age on top of sanitizing my family register, so it was best to avoid bringing up the past so suddenly. “Back before you took your current role, it would have been unthinkable for you to participate. Lord Melchior will similarly need to wait for when he is made High Bishop.”

“It’s true that I wasn’t able to participate in the baptism or coming-of-age ceremonies,” I said, “but there must be exceptions. Back then, Lord Ferdinand ordered me to take part in both the healing ceremony after the trombe hunt and Spring Prayer.”

Playing the Ferdinand card ended up being a tremendous idea; as his former attendants, Fran and Zahm both faltered.

“That was due to there being a shortage of blue priests in the temple,” Fran eventually said. “There were no other options.”

“And now we have even fewer blue priests and an even more dire situation on our hands,” I replied. “I would not be making this suggestion if we had a satisfactory number of adults, but alas.”

No matter how much my attendants protested, I was determined to make this happen. The temple only had seven adult blue priests at the moment. So extreme was the shortage that underage archduke candidates were circling the duchy and just barely keeping the ceremonies alive. It would only take Wilfried or Charlotte deciding that they didn’t want to participate this year—whether because of the Leisegangs’ taunts before or because of the extra work brought about by Florencia’s pregnancy—for everything to fall apart. I assumed both would participate so that they could get more divine protections, but considering how much work everyone was already having to balance, I didn’t want to make them cover too much ground. In the worst-case scenario, the temple would need to figure things out on its own.

“In truth,” I said, “we are so desperately in need of manpower that we won’t have enough people unless we involve the apprentice blues. I would ask them to participate in the Harvest Festival not just for our sake but for their own as well. Unlike most other blue priests, those who came during spring cannot rely on their families for support; they will need to prepare for winter using only the duchy’s subsidies and their income from the Harvest Festival.”

We had taken money from the priests’ parents in the former Veronica faction, but we didn’t know how much of that Sylvester would dedicate to the orphanage and temple. The funds were meant to cover their education in the orphanage and Royal Academy more than anything else, so the priests would need to finance their own winter preparations by visiting the duchy’s provinces and farming villages for Spring Prayer and the Harvest Festival.

“Assuming that they travel to farming towns in the autumn for the Harvest Festival,” I continued, “the priests will need to perform baptisms, Starbindings, and coming-of-age ceremonies all at once. Is that not true? We cannot expect them to learn so much on the spot. Based on my own experiences, I would rather we give them an opportunity to get used to these duties sooner.”

I knew how nerve-racking it was having to think on your feet—after all, I’d needed to perform ceremonies immediately after becoming the High Bishop. I’d at least known what commoner baptisms were like after participating in one as Myne, but these kids hadn’t seen a single commoner ceremony in their lives.

“Next year, when I take my leave, how many blue priests will the temple need to replace me? They still cannot use their highbeasts, and they have barely any mana because they have yet to attend the Royal Academy. I suspect they will all need to participate, and with that in mind, it would be best to give them plenty of experience now, while I am here to oversee them.”

Melchior would be in quite a sticky situation if he had to send underage apprentices all over the duchy immediately after becoming High Bishop. I was the one who had proposed housing the children in the orphanage and the temple in the first place, so it was important that I also ensured their lives as apprentice blues were tolerable.

Fran nodded. “You do have a point, Lady Rozemyne. However, at the very least, please wait until the summer coming-of-age ceremony. We will need time to get everything ready, and the blue priests will surely have their own thoughts on the matter. Ceremonial robes will also need to be prepared, even if the priests are merely watching.”

I nodded, in full support of the idea. An entire season would give them enough time to prepare new ceremonial robes and communicate with the attendants assigned to the blue priests. Observing the summer coming-of-age ceremony and the autumn baptisms would be enough for the apprentices to grasp the flow of the ceremonies and how they should carry themselves.

“In that case, I will entrust the preparations and communicating with the blue priests to all of you,” I said. “Tell them that they may buy their own ceremonial robes, should they have the money. Those who don’t can have alterations made to the robes left by the previous blue priests and shrine maidens.”

Back in my day, I’d had no choice but to buy my own robes; the previous High Bishop had said that none of the temple’s spares would fit me before making various other excuses, more than a few of which had to do with my being a commoner. Because of the purge, however, we now had plenty more blue robes. They would only end up deteriorated if we kept them in storage, so it was better to put them to use if we could.

“Understood,” Fran replied. “We shall inform the blue priests’ attendants that their charges are to participate in the Harvest Festival, and instruct them to begin the required preparations and education. After that, we will gather the opinions of the blue priests themselves, all so that Lord Melchior and the other apprentice blues can observe the summer coming-of-age ceremony and the autumn baptism in preparation for the Harvest Festival.”

Our debate concluded with an agreement that my attendants would start their preparations now but only formally announce our plans after the spring coming-of-age ceremony had concluded.

So came the coming-of-age ceremony. I was pretty nervous, to be honest; Tuuli was going to come of age this summer, which was fine, but Lutz’s older brother Ralph was supposed to be coming of age today. Out of everyone from my Myne days who didn’t know I was now Rozemyne, Lutz’s brothers were the most likely to recognize me. I’d managed to avoid Zasha’s and Sieg’s ceremonies... but there was nothing I could do to escape this one.

Ralph won’t recognize me, right? I wondered, looking in a mirror and pinching at my outfit. I’d changed so much from when I was a little girl dressed in ragged clothes, and there was a good chance that he didn’t even remember his sickly neighbor who had died all those years ago; Lutz and Tuuli certainly hadn’t said anything about Myne since rumors of a tiny High Bishop had spread throughout the city.

I doubt I’ll even be able to recognize him, so... Yeah. This is going to be fine.

After reassuring myself, I went to the chapel with Fran and my guard knights.

“The High Bishop shall now enter!”

The chapel door creaked open, and all eyes immediately fell on me. It was unnerving. I ascended the stage with the bible in hand, listening to the whispers among the crowd.

Which one’s Ralph?

I squinted a little as I scanned the new adults. Ralph was sure to be somewhere among them, but they were all so mature that it was hard to tell them apart—especially when they were all dressed in green, the divine color of spring.

He has red hair, right? So he could be that person, that person, or that person... Mm, that guy looks a bit like him. Is that Ralph? I can’t really tell.

I was examining the Ralph look-alike, making sure not to let my noble smile slip from my face, when he squinted back at me and cocked his head to one side. He seemed to be sizing me up in turn.

Oh no. Has he noticed something? Have I made him suspicious?

I quickly looked down at the bible and started performing the ceremony as usual, maintaining the fake smile I’d managed to hone so well throughout my life as a noble.

“O Flutrane, Goddess of Water, hear my prayers. May you grace those who have newly come of age with your blessing. May those who offer their prayers and gratitude be blessed with your divine protection.”

That blessing marked the end of the ceremony. As the new adults filtered out of the chapel, Ralph stopped and glanced over his shoulder, looking at me one last time before finally leaving.

E-Eep... I really want to know whether he recognized me, but trying to find out might just make things worse. What should I do? I guess Tuuli or Benno would send word if something really bad happened. Maybe I should just wait and see for now...

After the spring coming-of-age ceremony concluded, a temple meeting was held with the apprentice blues in attendance. According to Zahm, who had taken care of the groundwork, the adult blue priests were just as fed up with the lack of manpower as everyone else, so they were fully in support of the apprentices helping out. The majority had actually said that they expected the apprentices to work, since they were being supported by the archduke.

I informed the apprentice blues that they would need to participate in the Harvest Festival due to both the lack of manpower and the need for them to fund their own winter preparations. This would require them to memorize prayers, obtain ceremonial robes, arrange carriages for their trips, and sort out chefs and food to be taken with them. I thought it was a bit unreasonable to expect so much of minors performing the ceremony for the very first time, so as a one-off, I decided to pair the apprentices with adult blue priests.

“Um, Sister... May I have a moment of your time?” Nikolaus asked, looking a bit concerned. He had likely only approached me because Matthias and Judithe were guarding me today rather than Cornelius, who would have stared daggers at him the moment he tried to get close.

“You may. Do you have a question?”

“Yes. Is Father going to help with my winter preparations?”

Some of the children had lost both of their parents to the purge, while others like Nikolaus had only lost one. He was clearly under the impression that his father had abandoned him, but that wasn’t true at all—Karstedt was already covering Nikolaus’s living expenses and would surely help with his winter preparations too, if asked.

“Might I suggest writing to him?” I said.

“I’m worried that he might refuse... Lady Elvira does not think fondly of me.”

That came as no surprise, considering everything that his mother, Trudeliede, had done. At the same time, though, Elvira was the kind of person to prioritize fairness even when her house was out of whack. My mother was amazing.

“Any reasonable request you put forward will surely be granted,” I assured him. “However, being ready for winter will not give you cause to skip the Harvest Festival. Pray sincerely so that you might obtain divine protections from the gods.”

“Of course. It’s been slow going so far, but I’m learning the prayers with my attendants. Just the other day, when Grandfather came to the temple to help us train, he told us to pray sincerely and secure more protections.”

I’d ended up missing him because I was brewing in my library, but Bonifatius had visited the temple to train the apprentices. During his time here, he had apparently praised Nikolaus as “a quality knight with a lot of promise.”

“Sister, could you send an ordonnanz of thanks to him? He was truly disappointed that you weren’t here.”

Wait, didn’t Matthias and the others make the same request of me before?

Matthias seemed to remember as well—it had happened around the time of the Gerlach investigation—and was now giving Nikolaus what I took to be a look of sympathy. Meanwhile, Judithe mumbled, “That’s why yesterday he...” There was a distant look in her eyes.

Did something happen between Judithe and Grandfather yesterday?

Confused, I returned to my room—whereupon Matthias reminded me to contact Bonifatius.

“In fact, I think you should do it now,” Judithe said, holding out a yellow feystone for me.

I accepted the feystone, though I was so bewildered by this point that there might as well have been a gigantic question mark floating above my head. Matthias and Judithe carefully discussed what the message should be, then I said exactly what they told me to say.

“It was so amazing of you to remember your promise to me and train the apprentices, even though you don’t like going to the temple. Thank you so much. I love you!”

Bonifatius’s response came not even a moment later:

“I am your grandfather; it is only natural that I would keep a promise I made to you.”

He hadn’t said much at all, but Judithe and Matthias still exchanged satisfied nods and a firm handshake. Philine quietly informed me of the circumstances a little while later; when Bonifatius was in a bad mood, he became merciless in his training of the knights. The purpose of my ordonnanz had been to rescue Damuel and Cornelius, among so many others.

The apprentice blues due to participate in the Harvest Festival could be heard muttering prayers to themselves as they wandered the temple’s corridors. Even the blue priests were working harder than usual, feeling inspired now that full-fledged nobles were treating divine ceremonies so seriously.

I’d decided to meet with the apprentices over tea so that we could discuss what they would need to bring on their first trip and what they would need to do to prepare. I also took the opportunity to note how I ordered my robe to be adjustable based on my growth over the years.

“Nikolaus was the only one who could afford new ceremonial robes, thanks to his father’s support,” one shrine maiden muttered. “I, on the other hand, have no choice but to alter robes worn by a past apprentice.” It was apparently her first time needing to adjust clothes that hadn’t been passed down to her by a family member, and the pain in her voice was hard to miss. She couldn’t hide the anxiety she felt about having a very finite supply of money for the first time in her life.

“Still, it is better than losing our lives or spending our days in the castle playroom,” another priest replied, “so I really am grateful to Lady Rozemyne and Aub Ehrenfest. At the same time, though... there are occasions when I can’t help but feel sad.”

I could understand why. Life in the temple was hard and solitary compared to a carefree life with one’s family.

“Indeed,” came a third voice. “I was always told that when I outgrow my clothes, I need only buy new ones. The idea of wearing one outfit for such a long time never occurred to me—though I suppose that is necessary here.”

“I expect you will all grow very quickly indeed,” I said, “and it would cost you far too much to buy new robes every year or so.” In the past, because minors hadn’t needed to participate in ceremonies, priests and shrine maidens had purchased robes only when they became adults. They had mostly finished growing by that point, so they wouldn’t need to buy new ones for years to come.

Of course, the same couldn’t be said of the young apprentices before me now.

“Lady Rozemyne,” one of the children said, “please tell us how to order clothes such that we can use them for years to come.”

It was time for me to break out my old alteration methods. I hadn’t sold the techniques to Corinna or anyone else, so I could easily have spread them on my own, but it seemed more beneficial to let the Gilberta Company reap the profits; the more I buttered them up now, the more cooperative they would be when I asked to move Tuuli to the Sovereignty.

I wrote a letter to Corinna, instructing her to sell my design for the ceremonial robes to the seamstresses working for the apprentice blues.

The summer baptism ceremony had concluded, and Sylvester’s departure for Ahrensbach was growing ever nearer, so I got Lasfam to send a brewing set and a magic tool packed with food to the castle.

We’d already finished making maximal-quality samples for Ferdinand to review, and I’d written a letter to accompany them. On the surface, it contained no more than some traditional seasonal greetings, a few words of sympathy for the funeral, a list of the ingredients that Sylvester would deliver, and a brief note that I would make more paper if our samples were good enough. But on the back, written in invisible ink, was the process by which we had made our paper. In essence, it was a step-by-step recipe for creating maximal-quality feyplant paper, including the interim by-products we created along the way.

Ferdinand would surely want to experiment with the paper himself, being the mad scientist that he was, so I’d made sure to include several unmodified sheets of each kind. Assuming that he’d now received a workshop as per our agreement with the royals, he would doubtless find some time to play around with the paper on his own and then send word to me of any further improvements he managed to make.

Over dinner on the day before his departure, I made sure to give Sylvester some very clear instructions: “Be sure to confirm with your own eyes that Ferdinand was given a workshop. It was a promise between the king and an aub, so there’s no reason it shouldn’t have happened yet. If you find that Lady Detlinde and Lady Georgine have dragged their feet and defied what is nothing short of a royal decree, ensure they are punished accordingly.”

They won’t be allowed to drag this out!

Sylvester rolled his eyes at me and said, “I can see why Wilfried got sick of this.” That wasn’t going to stop me, though. This workshop had been one of the conditions for my adoption; the royal family not keeping their end of the bargain simply wouldn’t fly with me.

“Oh, and ensure that the hidden room Ferdinand receives is a proper one—even if he tries to stop you!”

“Hm... That part could actually be somewhat fun...” Sylvester mused. I couldn’t help but sigh in relief as his frustration gave way to a hint of enthusiasm.

Florencia smiled and stroked her growing belly as she listened to our back-and-forth. “There is no need to fret, Rozemyne; Sylvester will do his job. After all, this is one of the few occasions when he will get to check up on Lord Ferdinand.”

I really hope so...

“Will you and Melchior be staying at the castle for now?” she asked.

“Yes. I intend to remain here for about three days so that I can supply the foundation. I cannot stay for any longer than that, as we need to prepare for the Starbind Ceremony.” I would need to harvest growy-stretchy trees with the orphans before and afterward, meaning I wouldn’t have time to relax in the castle.

“We have made plans to have tea with her, Mother,” Charlotte said.

“Oh? I do not recall receiving an invitation. Is this tea party only between you children?”

“Indeed. I am hosting a get-together for us alone.”

Wilfried gave a confirming nod. Our plan was to clear the room of our retainers and then exchange intelligence.

“It’s been so long since we’ve had a tea party together,” Melchior said. “I can’t wait. And that reminds me—I attended a tea party with the apprentice blues in the temple just the other day. I also toured the workshop where the orphans work. It was amazing to see books being made.”

Everyone listened closely as Melchior eagerly told us about his experiences. Judging by the reactions of the attendants serving us, the temple was gradually becoming less of a taboo.

“Farewell and take care,” I said to Sylvester and to Karstedt, who was resuming his usual position as the archduke’s guard knight. There were so many adults gathered, no doubt because they were attending the funeral of a neighboring aub, but Florencia wasn’t going to accompany them; her belly was now large enough that it wouldn’t be safe for her to go on such a long trip. Instead, she would stay in Ehrenfest and do as much administrative work as she could without endangering herself.

After seeing them off, I returned to my chambers with my entire retinue; all of my retainers had accompanied me to today’s send-off. Seeing them lined up was somehow nostalgic.

“It’s been quite a while since I’ve seen you all together,” I said, then let out a short laugh. “As I recall, the last time was when I announced my upcoming adoption and asked you all whether you would accompany me.”

Judithe gritted her teeth, vexed. “You know, I nearly cried when I heard that Lieseleta was going.”

“You nearly cried, did you?” Ottilie giggled. “I seem to remember you sobbing and wailing that she was ‘a meanie and a traitor.’ It really was something having to console you about being the only one left out when Brunhilde and I are staying behind too!”

In an instant, Judithe’s face went bright red. She had apparently calmed down after hearing that Philine would be staying behind until she came of age, and that offering her name now wouldn’t even guarantee her a place by my side.

“I’m sorry to have upset you,” I said, “but please know this: if you wish to follow me to the Sovereignty after coming of age, I will welcome you with open arms. Even if only for the short time before your parents decide on your engagement, it would warm my heart to have you beside me.”

Elvira had advised me to be honest and up-front, so that was exactly what I was doing. Judithe responded only with a shy nod and an embarrassed smile.

I continued, “Philine is going to serve as the orphanage director until she comes of age. Please help train the apprentice blues whenever you visit her at the temple.”

“As you wish.”

The only one of my retainers who had yet to reach a decision was Damuel. I turned to look at him... and was instead met with Clarissa’s beaming smile. She took a step toward me, looking as if she might burst into song at any moment.

“Yes, Clarissa...?”

“I’ve finally prepared my name-swearing stone! So, Lady Rozemyne... Please embrace my everything!”

I really don’t want to.

.........

Gah.

This was the second name-swearing that had been forced down my throat. At the very least, when we performed the ritual, Clarissa didn’t coo in delight as Hartmut had done; she winced at the pain like a normal person.

Wait, hold on... Nothing about Clarissa is normal. Don’t be fooled, Rozemyne!