Ascendance of a Bookworm (LN) - Volume 5.6 - Chapter SS2

Inquiry into the Commotion

“Aub Ehrenfest, we are in Ahrensbach,” Karstedt said, looking down at me. “Please behave in a manner more appropriate for an archduke.”

“It’s too hot here,” I complained, sprawled out atop the sofa. “At least let me relax in my own room.”

Karstedt wanted me to speak more like an archduke—I could tell as much from the polite tone he’d affected—but I silently refused. The commotion during the late Aub Ahrensbach’s funeral meant I was being confined to my room. I was in another duchy and the funeral was over, yet I couldn’t even explore.

I grumbled and pointed at a nearby chair, urging Karstedt to sit. He sighed and shook his head, exasperated, then turned to my other retainers. The knights gave wry smiles and said, “We shall guard the aub in your place” before standing behind the sofa, leaving him with no choice but to comply.

“You can’t be that uncomfortable,” Karstedt replied, speaking more casually now that I’d drawn him into a conversation. Then he pointed at his neck. “You have the magic circle Ferdinand gave you, right?”

The summers in Ahrensbach were unbearably hot compared to those in Ehrenfest, so Ferdinand had given us a magic circle to embroider on our underclothes before the funeral. It was so exceedingly simple that one could replicate it without issue, and even a laynoble could charge it.

“I was an idiot for assuming he was becoming a more considerate person,” I groaned. “The circle must have been a cruel prank of some kind. I spent the entire funeral trying to regulate how much mana flowed into it.”

The magic circle was in fact too simple. Letting my concentration slip for even a moment caused me to become so cold that I thought I might freeze.

“Hah. I assume that was deliberate so you wouldn’t fall asleep during the funeral. At the very least, it saved me the usual trouble of needing to mess around with a sound-blocker.”

It was true that during funerals and other painfully slow events, I sometimes got Karstedt to use a sound-blocker so that I could take a nap or start up a conversation when I got bored. Of course, that hadn’t been an option this time. Had I carelessly fallen asleep and lost control of my mana, I might have become the first person in Ahrensbach history to freeze to death during the height of summer.

“Besides,” Karstedt continued, “aren’t you glad you were awake? You’ll actually have something to report during this inquiry.”

“I can’t say it’s anything worth reporting. I tried to see what happened, but you got in the way.”

It really had been abrupt. Partway through the funeral, several of the black-capes near the front had stood up and started running. Not that they’d actually made it anywhere; their fellows had pinned them down in an instant. I’d tried to stand up to get a better look, but Karstedt had pushed me back into my seat and muttered, “An aub should not gawk as though this were a stage play.” The ceremony had then continued as if nothing had even happened, so to be honest, I was pretty much clueless.

“So, what was the commotion about?” I asked. “You must have seen.”

“You’ve asked a thousand times, and my answer won’t change: I’m not too sure either. I saw some knights stand up and charge, but they were caught immediately. Seemed to me that the Sovereign Knight’s Order had it all under control.”

Karstedt and the other knights guarding aubs had spent the rest of the funeral with their schtappes in hand, but nothing else of note ended up happening.

“I’m not going to have anything to tell them when they arrive,” I said. “They’ll probably spend most of the time explaining things to me.”

And even then, who knew whether they would tell me the whole truth? If something shady was happening behind the scenes, they’d explain it away with one convenient excuse or another.

“The unbearable wait sure doesn’t help. I’ve got one word to describe this: boring.”

After three days, even the ocean view from my window had grown tiresome. The water moved even when there wasn’t any wind, which was fun to watch, but knowing that I couldn’t get any closer had made me lose interest. There was so little to do here that I’d even finished the paperwork brought from Ehrenfest.

“We just received the signal,” said the guard standing by the door.

My time had finally come. I stood up right away while my attendants hurried to neaten my hair and smooth out my clothes. Karstedt stood as well and started directing those who would and would not be accompanying us.

“Ahrensbach wishes to enter.”

I got my retainers to clear away the fruit and plates sitting on the table, then said, “Let them in.” It wasn’t long before I was face-to-face with a messenger, whom I greeted as a model aub.

Heh. Perfect.

“Aub Ehrenfest. Our sincerest apologies, but we must ask you to cooperate with our inquiry.”

“At once,” I replied with a gravely serious expression. “There was an incident during an aub’s funeral; an inquiry is only natural.”

So, with my knights in tow, I went off with the messenger.

“We have but a few questions.”

The messenger had taken us to a fairly large meeting room, in which Prince Sigiswald and his retainers were waiting. That there was a representative of the royal family here came as no surprise to me. To the right of him were Ferdinand, Eckhart, and Justus, as well as some Ahrensbach scholars. If my eyes weren’t deceiving me, Ferdinand was looking more refreshed than when I’d seen him in the morning.

Lemme guess... He slept during the funeral.

Justus had predicted that Ferdinand would spend all night in his new hidden room—the result of a royal decree—playing with the brewing instruments and ingredients Rozemyne had asked me to deliver. His earlier pallor had doubtless been the consequence of an all-nighter.

Feeling exasperated, I turned my attention to those sitting on the prince’s other side. For some reason, Georgine was there, alongside her retainers.

Wait. Isn’t that where Lady Detlinde should be, as the next aub?

She had attended the Archduke Conference as an adult, so her absence was very noticeable. Excluding her from a public meeting in the royal family’s presence was as good as Ahrensbach declaring it did not view her as the next aub.

I can understand not wanting her to be here, considering how much she’s blundered, but this is just...

Such a public declaration that they didn’t trust the next aub would put Ferdinand, her fiancé, in a much weaker position. It was bad enough that his wedding had needed to be postponed, so this new development made me want to grit my teeth.

I’m guessing my sister is to blame.

There was nothing stopping her from sternly disciplining her daughter, but it seemed to me that she was choosing not to. In fact... had she predicted and even started using Lady Detlinde’s foolishness to her advantage? Behind the thin veil covering her face, her red lips were curled into a smile.

“Aub Ehrenfest,” Prince Sigiswald said, “we must ask that you tell us what you know of the incident.”

“My guards told me that several of the Sovereign knights grew violent before being taken down by their peers. But from my seat, I only saw the Sovereign knights near the front stand up.”

Prince Sigiswald exchanged a look with the Sovereign knight commander. “Is that truly everything?” he asked me. “You have nothing more to say?”

“The knights who turned violent were all from Ehrenfest,” the commander added. “Would you care to comment on that?”

My brow furrowed as I muttered, “So some of the emigrants went to the Sovereign Knight’s Order...”

Our duchy’s best had disliked my mother’s methods and moved to the Sovereignty to escape her—that much was old news—but because none of them had returned or even contacted us since, we had no idea how many were living there. We were just as clueless as to whether they were knights, attendants, or scholars.

“Excuse me?” the commander asked.

“Ah, my apologies. Since I was decreed aub, the only Ehrenfest citizens who have moved to the Sovereignty have been scholars. I did not realize there were Ehrenfest knights among the Sovereign Knight’s Order.”

They had presumably emigrated prior to my becoming aub. Mother had told me once that the knights who had refused to serve me when my elder sister was denied the archducal seat had moved to the Sovereignty. She had also said that our duchy had no need for those who wouldn’t devote themselves to me. But now, after what I’d experienced during the purge, I saw things differently. I couldn’t help thinking that the knights—the ones who had grown violent during the funeral—had given their names to my sister.

There must have been more going on with those knights than we currently know...

Maybe I was being overly suspicious, but there were more nobles name-sworn to my sister than we’d expected. It wouldn’t have been at all strange for something like this to happen without my knowing.

I turned to my sister. Though her veil stopped me from being able to make out her expression, I was certain she was plotting something.

“Oh my... You are an aub, yet you do not know which of your nobles moved away?” Georgine asked. “How inconvenient for them. Have you not been staying in contact with the Sovereignty?”

I raised an eyebrow. Her tone made it sound as though she were chastising me out of consideration as my elder sister, but we had never been close; the winter purge had made me realize that more keenly than ever.

“Ehrenfest has not encountered any issues as a result,” I replied, disregarding her warning. My hands were already full with my new child, renovating Groschel, and preparing for Rozemyne’s departure; looking into the Sovereign nobles due to return in the winter could wait.

Hmm?

All of a sudden, I got the feeling that someone was staring at me. I glanced across those gathered and saw Ferdinand, a stern look in his eyes that seemed to shout, “You are failing to keep up appearances!” or maybe “That explanation was not good enough!”

“As the royal family is aware,” I stressed, “our nobles in the Sovereignty do not return each winter, so we have not had any contact with them.” This hadn’t been a problem for us, but as I remembered, the Sovereignty had desperately wanted more information about Rozemyne and Ehrenfest as a whole. “Since becoming the archduke, I have sent only scholars who received Hirschur’s recommendation to the Sovereignty. That we sent knights in the past is news to me.”

One had to be an exceptionally talented knight to move to the Sovereignty. Chances were they had all trained under Bonifatius back when he was the knight commander. I made sure to emphasize that I wasn’t at all associated with them; no way was I going to take the heat for knights I’d neither met nor known about.

“Aub Ehrenfest, what do you think about people from your duchy causing such a serious incident?” Prince Sigiswald asked.

“As an aub, I do not have anything to say. Ehrenfest is unrelated to this matter.” I wasn’t going to spare a single thought for these unknown knights who weren’t even my citizens.

“But they were from your duchy. Can you really claim to have no connection to them whatsoever?”

The prince wore a smile that told me he intended to drag Ehrenfest into this mess. He was silently urging me to accept the blame, but I pretended not to notice. It was better to be considered dense or a fool than wrongly be held accountable.

“I would expect my elder sister to know more about those knights than I. They left my duchy so long ago that I do not even remember them, so they must have been from her generation or older.” I shot her a smile, resolved not to let her feign ignorance. It seemed very likely that the knights had given their names to her. “Did you meet them before you wed out of Ehrenfest? Or perhaps you met them in the Sovereignty while carrying out your duties as the first wife of a greater duchy.”

“Oh my. How bold to voice such unfounded accusations,” she replied. “In the first place, how many years has it been since I left Ehrenfest?”

“You have a penchant for maintaining relationships with nobles of other duchies; it would not be strange at all for you to have kept in contact with them in some way. I can only envy your popularity.”

Rather than backing down, I pushed even further, this time hinting at the winter purge. Even now, years after her move to Ahrensbach, she had a great deal of power over Ehrenfest—more than I ever would have been able to secure in her position. I was genuinely impressed by her skill and the depth of her tenacity.

“Oh? She continues to hold that much influence?” Prince Sigiswald asked.

“It has far more to do with politics than my so-called popularity. Sovereign nobles would obviously rather be connected to the greater duchy Ahrensbach than to Ehrenfest,” Georgine replied, not even attempting to deny her association with the knights. “Or at least, that used to be the case. Lady Rozemyne has brought her duchy to a higher rank and now enjoys the royal family’s good graces. Meanwhile, Ahrensbach has lost its aub and does not have anyone to replace him. Prince Sigiswald, as the next Zent, is it not clear to you which duchy the Sovereign nobles would prefer?”

“Indeed, much has changed in recent years,” he replied with a nod. “Nobody could have predicted that Ehrenfest would become this valued.”

Had it not been a surefire way to get me executed on the spot, I would have grabbed Prince Sigiswald and shouted at the top of my lungs, “Prince Anastasius told you to be wary of Ahrensbach, didn’t he?! We warned you!”

I mean, we made it pretty damn clear that trug might be coming from Ahrensbach, right?!

Of course, my only option was to remain silent; even with Matthias’s testimony and a scholarly assessment, we had no concrete evidence that trug was being used. The royal family was apparently looking into the matter, but I didn’t know whether they had made any discoveries. Picking a fight with Georgine and Ahrensbach was anything but a smart move and would surely cast suspicion on Ehrenfest more than anyone else.

Hmm... Prince Sigiswald might be playing dumb to keep Ahrensbach from figuring out the royal family is onto them. Yeah, that must be it.

They wouldn’t have glossed over our very clear warning. I repeated that in my head a few times, then started treating the Sovereignty with caution as well.

“We asked that the Sovereign nobles from Ehrenfest be ordered to return home,” I said. “Given what has happened, however, it might be best to refuse their entry. They seem to be at risk of causing another incident.”

“Aub Ehrenfest, do you mean to refuse a royal decree?” Prince Sigiswald asked.

“The order for their return was given to the Sovereign nobles, not to me. The onus is entirely on the Sovereignty.” It was my roundabout way of saying that if they really wanted to send the nobles back to Ehrenfest as planned, they would need to take responsibility for them.

Next, I turned to the Sovereign knight commander. “As I understand it, this is not the first time Sovereign knights have turned violent. There was also an instance during the winter, and those knights were not from Ehrenfest. It is clear, then, that the Sovereign Knight’s Order is at fault, not my duchy. Should we not question its leadership to prevent this from happening a third time?”

“You are correct. After the first incident, we relieved the knights of duty and returned each one to their home duchy—but that was evidently too light a punishment. This time, the culprits have been executed.”

“Already?” Ferdinand asked. He had been silently transcribing the inquiry since my arrival, but now there was a deep furrow across his brow. “Even though their testimonies would have been of the utmost importance?”

“Questioning them would have been a pointless endeavor. Last time, the knights merely repeated themselves as if oblivious to whatever we said. Besides, this incident was far more severe—they attacked during the funeral of an aub, while representatives of the royal family were in attendance.”

“That is precisely why they should have been questioned—so that we could ascertain the cause and prevent yet another of these disasters.”

I crossed my arms. Sparks were flying between Ferdinand and the knight commander. Ferdinand in particular came across as unusually harsh, considering both his expression and the remarks he was making. It seemed to me that these two knew each other from somewhere.

“I would have liked to do that, of course,” the commander said, “but the next Aub Ahrensbach ordered us to promptly execute any knight who would attack the archducal family.”

All eyes fell on him. Lady Detlinde had apparently declared that she would not tolerate the survival of anyone who would threaten her life. Nobody could protest her decision; archducal families were crucial to the running of the country’s duchies, so attacking one was a serious crime.

Still, executing one’s prisoners without even questioning them wasn’t normal at all.

“In truth,” the commander continued, “I started to suspect that you, her future husband, told her to give the order. Perhaps to keep the truth of this incident from ever being discovered.”

“Ah, that would be devious indeed...” Prince Sigiswald added.

Now they were both scrutinizing Ferdinand—the third person from Ehrenfest to have been suspected so far, alongside my sister and me. The whole situation made me want to grimace. I was genuinely suspicious of Georgine, but from an outsider perspective, she was still associated with our duchy.

Continuing to push is way too dangerous.

We were in a bad situation. But as I tried to find a way out, one of the Ahrensbach scholars raised a hand and sought permission to speak.

“Lord Ferdinand would never do such a thing. Rather, Lady Detlinde is the one who thinks and acts carelessly. That is precisely why we opted to exclude her from this inquiry.”

Prince Sigiswald nodded and said, “I see. Hmm...” It was a half-hearted response at best and appeared to do nothing to stop him from suspecting Ferdinand. I could no longer suppress my irritation.

“Ferdinand, Rozemyne, and my entire duchy have bent over backward to answer the needs of the royal family. Would you still question our loyalty and view us with suspicion?” I gave him the coldest look I could muster—and it must have been effective, for his eyes widened in response.

“I am simply listening to the testimony that is provided,” he said. “Ehrenfest is under no more scrutiny than any other duchy.”

“That is a relief. If our loyalty were questioned, we would need to respond.” Perhaps that meant we would double down on supporting them, or perhaps we would run out of patience and start keeping our distance. I wasn’t going to be any more specific. Either outcome would affect Ehrenfest’s relationship with the royal family.

I’d personally like to refuse the Sovereign nobles due to return to Ehrenfest, but that might not even be an option.

My brow furrowed as I tried to determine the best means of defense. The other duchies were unlikely to be up in arms about the incident; from afar, it hadn’t even been clear what happened. The offending knights had received a swift execution, and every single one of them had been from Ehrenfest—though they’d most likely been closer to my sister than to me.

Struck by a sobering realization, I shifted my attention to Georgine. “Could it be that this incident was an attempt to prevent me from meeting the Sovereign knights?” It was hard to tell when she was wearing her veil, but I could sense that we were looking each other in the eye.

“What do you mean?” Prince Sigiswald asked.

I continued, my eyes still glued to my sister: “Just this winter, the Sovereign nobles from Ehrenfest were ordered to return home. I simply wonder if someone wished to stop that from happening.”

“Do you have any evidence for this assertion?”

“Not exactly... It’s just a gut feeling.”

The mood lightened as though I’d just cracked a joke, but I didn’t care. Something inside of me screamed that I was right. Ferdinand gave me a look that practically said, “Stop messing around,” but I knew he would gather evidence to support my hunch.

Yep. It’s just a gut feeling.

But I trusted my instincts, and anyone who really knew me understood why. They had never failed me when it mattered most. Sometimes, it even felt as though someone up above were pointing me toward the right path.

Our back-and-forth continued until the prince was finally satisfied. “Thus concludes our discussion with Ehrenfest,” he declared.

As I stood to leave, I noticed there was still a broad smile spread across Georgine’s face.

Ah. It won’t be long now before we finally settle things.

That, too, was just a gut feeling. But I could tell the time was fast approaching.