Ascendance of a Bookworm (LN) - Volume 5.7 - Chapter 12

How to Protect Them

“So, what’s this discovery of yours?” Sylvester asked. We had eaten dinner and were now sitting in his office, which had already been cleared of people; Ehrenfest’s foundation was not something to be discussed in the presence of others. “Was there a trap on the key?”

“Our key was swapped,” I said. “The one I possess now belongs to Ahrensbach.”

“What?!” He frowned, then squinted down at the key I’d brought with me. I held it out to him and pointed at its small feystone.

“This feystone here should match the color of the duchy it belongs to. This is Ahrensbach’s color, is it not?”

I explained that I didn’t know why Ahrensbach had made the swap and that I suspected Georgine wanted to destroy Ehrenfest rather than become its aub. Now seemed as good a time as any, so I also slipped in a few complaints that the whole ordeal was giving me nightmares.

“You don’t know why we’ve got their key?” Sylvester repeated dryly. “Well, now they can make all sorts of accusations. They could say that we’re targeting Ahrensbach, that Ferdinand is trying to bring chaos to their duchy in spite of the royal decree, and that they have no choice but to invade us and retrieve their key.”

In one fell swoop, Ahrensbach would denounce Ehrenfest and show the rest of the country that they had good reason to attack us. Perhaps they would even drag Sylvester’s name through the dirt by claiming he had stolen the key while visiting for the funeral, using information about the temple fed to him by Ferdinand and me.

“Then this is serious!” I exclaimed. How was Sylvester acting so calm?!

“Yeah, it is. That’s why I’m putting so much thought into our defense plans. The problem is, we don’t know when they’re going to attack, and we won’t last long if we try to stay on high alert until they do. If you’re too worried to sleep, make some magic tools that could serve as traps. Your main focus should be preparing for the adoption, but... yeah. Would you say that you’re almost ready?”

I gave a vague smile. We’d just gathered everyone’s personnel together in a desperate rush to order my clothes; it would be a stretch to say that I was even close to being ready.

“Is there any way I can accelerate the adoption process?” I mused. “If we could get me into the royal family and on the throne, we’d open up so many more avenues.”

Above all else, I wanted the Zent’s transcription that was resting all alone at the back of the underground archive. Having a complete version of the Grutrissheit, free from all the random memories and containing only the knowledge essential to performing kingly duties, would assist me massively right now.

“Your move to the Sovereignty will depend on your preparations and your own enthusiasm. That said, protecting Ehrenfest’s foundation is my duty as an aub; getting the Zent to do it for me is out of the question, especially when it would also mean putting an even greater burden on you.”

“But... you should use every tool at your disposal.”

Sylvester shook his head, an unmistakable glimmer in his green eyes. “Look, Rozemyne... I won’t say you’re wrong to think that, but you need to understand that the Zent’s power exists for the sake of the entire country. There’s nothing wrong with the Zent choosing to help Ehrenfest, but becoming the Zent to protect our foundation? That’s a lot more problematic, if you ask me.”

Were I ever to become the Zent, I would need to protect every duchy. That included Ahrensbach, Klassenberg, and all the lesser and middle duchies that had slandered Sylvester and treated the temple with contempt. There was a chance that I would even need to isolate Ehrenfest if doing so would save the rest of the country.

“Rozemyne, do you really think you could manage as the Zent? Yes, you’re fiercely protective of those close to you, but you aren’t at all considerate of anyone else. A ruler who cares only about Ehrenfest and dismisses the needs of the country as a whole will earn more ire than you can even imagine. If such discontent is allowed to fester long enough, the people might even decide to eliminate you.”

I disliked socializing and faction politics so much that I was shirking them even here in Ehrenfest, and my lack of noble common sense meant that chaos followed me wherever I went. According to Sylvester, by becoming the Zent, I would cause that chaos to spread all across Yurgenschmidt.

“You chose to become my daughter to protect your family. Back then, your only other choice was to be executed, but you have so many more options now. There are ways to take down my sister without you becoming the Zent, you know. And more than that, protecting Ehrenfest’s foundation is my obligation, not yours. Knowing all that, would you still seek to take the throne?”

I stared down at my hands. Above all else, I wanted to protect the people I cared about—and to do that, I needed power. That had always been true. Even my search for the Grutrissheit had only been so that I could save Ferdinand from being deemed guilty by association. My answer to this question—to whether I wanted to take the throne and the heavy burden that came with it—was painfully obvious.

“I’ve got no desire to become the Zent and rule Yurgenschmidt; I just want more ways to protect the people I care about,” I said, speaking more casually now. “If someone else could take the throne, I’d give up my claim in a heartbeat. I wouldn’t take a position that would cut down my reading time and make it harder for me to get new books unless I absolutely had to.”

“Obviously not. That’s my whole point,” Sylvester snorted. Then he leaned back in his chair, looking similarly relaxed. “Hold off on going to the Sovereignty for as long as you can—until the date you agreed upon has passed and they’re starting to get antsy. I don’t care if they only want you on the throne for a month or two; you shouldn’t willingly become Zent when you neither want nor have the resolve to see it through.”

To become the Zent, I would need to make a public announcement during the Archduke Conference that I’d obtained the Grutrissheit, earn the recognition of the Sovereign High Bishop, and take over Yurgenschmidt’s foundation. Right now, I was a mere Zent candidate with a fragmented Book of Mestionora and only a partial understanding of what the role entailed.

He continued, “Make it clear that you obtained the Grutrissheit against your will, at the royal family’s command. And if you have anyone talented around you, force your work onto them; otherwise, you’ll get more and more tedious jobs forced onto you.”

“Sylvester?!” I cried, so taken aback that my voice cracked. “What are you saying?!”

His arms crossed, Sylvester turned away from me. “Those meetings during the Archduke Conference made it clear that not even the royals are all on the same page. Even if you did manage to obtain the Grutrissheit, I doubt they or the top-ranking duchies would really accept you as a Zent. At most, they’d use you for their own benefit. They don’t have any reservations about manipulating those of us from the lower-ranking duchies.”

“If you have more to say, then say it.”

“I guess this is the last time we’ll get to be truly honest with each other, huh? And more than that, it completely slipped my mind that indirect language doesn’t work with you.” Sylvester looked at me, his expression now as honest as his attitude. “I won’t mince my words: it turns my stomach that you, of all people, are being forced to carry the entire country on your shoulders. As a commoner, all you wanted was to read, and you were only baptized as a noble to protect your family. The most you should be doing is giving blessings in the temple while the orphans watch in amazement, spreading the printing industry far and wide, securing new books, and discussing business plans to develop Ehrenfest with your merchant friends.”

Those were the greatest freedoms Ehrenfest had given me—things I would absolutely never be allowed to do in other duchies. My chest heated up as it became clear to me that Sylvester understood what I wanted most.

“Does the country’s survival depend on you?” he said. “Maybe. But isn’t it the royals’ job to keep Yurgenschmidt going? They’ve been cocky enough, ordering Ferdinand to move to Ahrensbach and trying to snap you up when they don’t even have a Grutrissheit. The least they can do is bear the country’s burdens themselves instead of thrusting those on you as well.”

During the Archduke Conference, the royals had apparently insinuated that Ehrenfest’s shortage of nobles and mana was our own fault, since we had carried out an internal purge and ultimately failed to control a dispute between siblings.

That’s rich. They crippled the entire country with a purge, and it was a “dispute between siblings” that cost them the Grutrissheit in the first place.

Sylvester had needed to cut ties with Veronica and Bezewanst even at the cost of crippling his own support base, and our purge had played a necessary role in clearing out what had remained of the corruption they’d nourished.

It was true that Ehrenfest was experiencing a mana shortage and that our nobles were caught in a state of confusion, but even then, we didn’t regret having carried out the purge. The confusion wasn’t even our fault; someone had decided to take Sylvester’s greatest pillar of support, Ferdinand, away from us at a crucial moment. If not for those royal decrees, Ehrenfest would have been in a much better position right now.

“Rozemyne, when you get that Grutrissheit, slam it right in their faces and tell them to deal with their own damn problems. That’s what I’d do.”

I could already imagine it. “Consider it yours, then!” I would shout. “The royal family can deal with its own issues!” Then I’d throw the Grutrissheit straight at Anastasius’s face! I clapped a hand over my mouth, trying to hide the laughter that was slipping out of me, but it was too late; Sylvester had seen everything.

“Would that feel good or what?” he said with a grin.

“I wouldn’t want to damage a precious book, but... it really would feel amazing! I want to hit Prince Anastasius square in the jaw for his stupid remark that Ehrenfest should deal with its own problems.”

We laughed together, enjoying the thought.

Once things had quieted down, I gave Sylvester a studying look. “So... how can we take down Lady Georgine without me becoming the Zent?”

“If we pay no mind to the consequences, then there’s an option staring us right in the face. It has been for over a year.”

Sylvester’s expression then twisted into a severe grimace. If we had another solution available to us, why hadn’t we explored it yet...?

“It’s simple,” he continued, looking as serious as I’d ever seen him. “We order Ferdinand to kill her by any means necessary. That’s why he went to Ahrensbach in the first place. ‘Send word when you wish it done,’ he said to me.”

“That’s...”

“But I don’t want to put him through that. Would you? Would you let him dirty his hands, then act as though he has nothing to do with Ehrenfest? Would you leave him to face the consequences alone, declaring him an Ahrensbach citizen and claiming that the duchy’s internal strife has nothing to do with us?”

I frantically shook my head. “Never.”

“That’s why others tell me I’m too soft to be an aub,” Sylvester said with a wry smile—but I was glad he wasn’t the kind of person who could make such harrowing orders without a second thought, for his duchy or otherwise. “He told me to cut ties with him the moment I thought it necessary—to cast him aside even though we’re brothers—but it’s such a tough call to make. That you can’t make it either means you’re not suited to be an aub either—or the Zent, for that matter.”

“Is there no other way we can stop Lady Georgine...?” I asked nervously.

Sylvester folded his arms. “They won’t be nearly as reliable, but... I’ve got a few more ideas. The problem is, if we care about what happens next, we can’t attack her before she attacks us. We’ve got no choice but to bolster our defenses. The situation gets even more complicated when we consider how to make it benefit Ehrenfest and minimize the casualties... You don’t want the temple to turn into a battlefield with the gray priests and orphans in the firing line, do you?”

“Of course not! The temple is like my second home, and the Rozemyne Workshop is there too! I need to protect them at all costs. I’ll put everyone through evacuation drills before Lady Georgine makes her move.”

Sylvester nodded, having expected my answer. “That’s going to require a bit more work and mana. Thankfully for us, the snow is still thick enough to impede any carriages, and chances are that Ahrensbach only recently finished its feast celebrating spring. Danger might be on the horizon, but it won’t be getting here today or tomorrow. Instead of getting all worked up, we should think about how we’re going to overcome it.”

It was a long way from Ahrensbach to Ehrenfest’s temple. Sylvester assured me that if a small group was heading for us, the snow would delay it, and if a large group was on its way under the guise of getting Ahrensbach’s key back, they wouldn’t be able to hide.

“For now, we’ve made the call to keep two knights stationed at each gate,” Sylvester said.

“I’ve also told the soldiers to be on the lookout for silver cloth, in case anyone tries to sneak in through the lower city. They’ll send a warning signal to the Knight’s Order at the first sign of anything suspicious.”

“I see... Already executing a plan, are you?” Sylvester replied, stroking his chin. “By the way, where is the temple’s door to the foundation? Protecting the foundation is important, but I can’t blatantly assign knights to the temple and risk revealing its location. That’s why I want to have either you or Melchior always stay there with some guards. There might not be many of you, but we can compensate for that with some magic tools.”

“The door’s in the temple’s book room, behind a bookcase that can only be opened with the High Bishop’s key. Carved into the wall there is a statue of Mestionora. The bible in its hands can apparently be moved to reveal a keyhole.”

That same bookcase was where I’d found a box of letters from Georgine. It was possible that Bezewanst had noticed it when looking for a secure hiding place.

“Of course,” I continued, “I’ve yet to try it out, but I’m sure it works.”

“Are there any hallways one would absolutely need to pass through to get there from the temple entrance? I’m thinking of setting up a teleporter.”

Only archdukes were able to place magic circles that could teleport people. Sylvester must have wanted to stick one in Georgine’s way to get rid of her.

I started to envision the layout of the temple. There were three gates in total: the back gate on the lower city’s side, the front gate for carriages, and the Noble’s Gate connected to the Noble’s Quarter. From there, those who wanted to get into the temple proper had several options, including the chapel, the front door, the back door leading into the orphanage’s basement, the entrance leading to the Noble’s Gate, and the side doors for chefs and such.

And the path to the book room can change drastically depending on which entrance one uses.

“You could place it right at the entrance to the book room, but that’s about it. Only those who are registered with the temple can go inside. I remember crying my eyes out when the invisible barrier wouldn’t let me through.”

“Ahrensbach’s silver cloth can get them through the duchy barrier. I expect it’ll work just as well against that one.”

Using his mana, Sylvester had created a barrier around Ehrenfest City to keep nobles from other duchies from entering without permission. The problem was that it didn’t work against those wearing silver cloth—and it was easy to guess that anyone who used this method to sneak in would continue wearing the cloth all the way to the temple, to guard them against mana.

“In that case, won’t the silver cloth also block the teleporter you want to set up?”

“Yeah, but Georgine’s gonna have to remove the cloth no matter what to teleport to the foundation. I guess placing it right in front of the bookcase is best, then. To be safe, she’ll wear that cloth for as long as she physically can. Then, when she finally casts it aside, assured of victory... she’ll get teleported away!” Wearing the mischievous grin of a prankster celebrating his latest pitfall, Sylvester declared, “How’s that for a plan?”

It certainly was true that the silver cloth would get in the way when it came to dealing with the foundation. No matter what, Georgine would need to take it off eventually. The thought of her getting whisked away right as she thought she’d won brought a smile to my face—and it was on that note that we agreed to place the teleporter right in front of the bookcase.

“But, uh... won’t placing it there inconvenience the rest of us too?” I asked.

“Nah, I’ll add a restriction so it only teleports those not registered to Ehrenfest. The book room’s barrier shouldn’t accept anyone from another duchy in the first place, so the teleporter won’t impact anyone who enters the room properly.”

Archducal magic allowed one to distinguish between those who were registered to one’s duchy and those who weren’t. This meant pre-baptismal children would trigger the teleporter, but that wouldn’t cause us any trouble; the pre-baptismal children in the orphanage weren’t allowed to enter the noble section of the temple anyway.

“You can’t sew to save your life, right?” Sylvester asked. “I’ll get Florencia to make the circle, then.” He intended to ask Brunhilde and Charlotte to help out as well, but there was no need to waste that much time.

“The important thing is that she doesn’t notice the teleporter, right? Heheh. Leave the circle to me. I’ll just need your authority to activate it once it’s done.”

All we had to do was draw the circle with invisible ink. Sylvester would need to take care of the final activation, but I wouldn’t have any trouble doing the rest. It was guaranteed to be faster than sewing.

“You’ve got something devious in mind, haven’t you, Rozemyne? You’ve got that look on your face.”

“There are some things in the world you are better off not knowing.”

“Despite everything I said, you’ve still managed to end up at the center of all this...” Sylvester muttered—but he gave me his permission anyway.

“So, where should the teleporter take her?” I asked.

“The Ivory Tower. No question about it. I’ll prepare a room for her right next to Mother’s. No matter how much she struggles in there, she won’t be able to get out unless an archducal family member opens the door.”

He continued, “We should do our best to leave the temple unchanged and guide Georgine to the teleporter without giving her reason to believe something’s up. I mean, we know what she’s like: rather than making a huge scene and drawing attention to herself, she’ll try to carry out her plan in secret. She’ll create some grand distraction to keep the Knight’s Order out of the picture, then sneak into the temple.”

Considering everything Georgine had done behind the scenes thus far, Sylvester’s theory sounded spot-on. We grinned at each other, relishing the thought of her being sent to the Ivory Tower right as she thought everything was going her way.

“I still want us to evacuate the temple, though,” I said. “I don’t want anyone there to get hurt as a result of all this.”

“My top priority is capturing my sister and the rest of her faction. To that end, I’ll accept casualties in the temple and the lower city. If you don’t like that, think of a way to get her to the book room that won’t put anyone else in danger.”

It wouldn’t be unthinkable for Georgine to get someone to guide her to the book room, then murder them to cover her tracks. Thus, her guide would need to be someone she couldn’t kill.

Hmm... Something that can guide her... Preferably something that can fight back if necessary... Ah!

“I shall make my own Schwartz and Weiss to guide her to the temple’s book room!”