Ascendance of a Bookworm (LN) - Volume 5.7 - Chapter 16

Danger Beheld

“Huh? Where am I?”

In the blink of an eye, my surroundings had changed. Wilfried and Charlotte had been sitting opposite me a moment ago, but now they were nowhere to be seen.

“This is... a Mana Replenishment hall, isn’t it?” I recognized the pure-white room, the globular object floating at its center, and the complex patterns and characters spinning around it.

“Lord Ferdinand?!” cried a high-pitched voice. “Lord Ferdinand!”

I turned instinctively and saw a blonde girl rush across the room, her face blanched with horror. She was older than I remembered, but I immediately recognized her as Letizia. She came to a stop before Ferdinand, who had dropped to his knees. He was clutching his chest and coughing violently.

Ferdinand...

I sprinted over as well. Getting to him was easy enough, but when I reached out to help him, I couldn’t see my hands. No matter what I did, I wasn’t able to interact with him or Letizia. It almost felt like I was watching a movie. I called out, but they didn’t react at all. It was like they didn’t know I was there.

Ferdinand took something from his potion belt, stuck it in his mouth, and then held out the small cage containing his name stones. His hands were trembling. Sweat dripped down his forehead.

“Give this... to... Justus,” he said, struggling to get the words out. “Tell... him... to go. Now.”

Letizia accepted the cage, now white as a sheet, and then ran away. She must have left the hall; I couldn’t see her anymore.

Now alone, Ferdinand collapsed fully. He couldn’t even kneel anymore; he just lay there, making no attempt to get up.

FERDINAND!

I wanted to heal him—to give him the medicine he needed—but there was nothing I could do. His face twisted in pain. He must not have known that I was watching him.

“Ngh!”

He grunted and clutched at his chest, only to grab a fistful of his clothes. On closer inspection, there was a faint rainbow light glowing at his bosom. It wasn’t long before it spread to cover his entire body.

Wait, isn’t that from the charm I gave him?!

I couldn’t actually see the charm, but the glowing mana enveloping him was my own. That much was instinctively clear to me. The faint light spilling out of my charm and enveloping him seemed to be the only thing keeping Ferdinand alive.

Someone! Anyone! Hurry up and save him!

There was nothing I could do but watch. It was agonizing.

“Ngh... Hah...!”

Ferdinand was taking short, shallow breaths when footfalls resounded through the hall. He recoiled at the sound, still grasping his chest, and gracelessly struggled to sit up. Though he managed in the end, his breathing still worried me. He didn’t even have it in him to brush away the hair clinging to his sweat-covered forehead.

I turned to the source of the noise, keeping half an eye on Ferdinand, and saw Detlinde leisurely approaching. She was wearing a long silver shawl that covered her entire body. Ferdinand was clearly in a terrible state, but she sauntered across the room as if she didn’t see him at all, her heels clacking with each step. She exuded not even a trace of concern.

But why?

Her complete lack of shock or panic made my stomach turn. She must have done this to Ferdinand.

Stop right there. Don’t you dare get any closer to him!

I stood protectively in front of Ferdinand, trying to block Detlinde’s path, but it was pointless; she slid right through me. I’d only further proved that I wasn’t actually here.

“Strange,” Detlinde said, her brow slightly furrowed. “Lord Leonzio said the poison was instant—that it would immediately turn you into a feystone. So why are you still alive? This is terribly inconvenient for me.” Her dark-green eyes contained nothing but scorn.

Did she just say what I think she said...?

“Tell me, did the poison truly reach you?” Detlinde asked. “You do appear to be weakened, so perhaps you simply did not inhale enough. Or did you have an antidote ready in your mouth? Letizia was supposed to poison you, then I would merely discover your feystone, but alas—you have somehow managed to ruin my scheme. To think it was all going so well until now. Such a shame.” She placed a hand on her cheek, then stared quizzically at Ferdinand. “You know, I did promise Lord Leonzio that I would return Lanzenave’s feystone.”

“Lanzenave’s feystone.” Coupled with the disturbing look on Detlinde’s face, those two words gave me goose bumps. She had just declared that she didn’t acknowledge Ferdinand as a human being. Based on what she’d said, I could also guess that this Leonzio person was from Lanzenave.

“Know this, Lord Ferdinand: your secrets have been revealed to me. You are a failure, meant to be turned into a feystone and returned to Lanzenave before your baptism. ‘A seed of Adalgisa,’ was it? How does it feel to know that your mother did not deem you worthy of even becoming a feystone?”

Ferdinand was desperately trying to stay calm despite his ragged breathing and the triumphant grin bearing down on him, but the truth was clear to see. His past, a matter so sensitive to him, was being callously trampled on.

Detlinde continued, “Oh, how much it would embarrass me, the next Zent, to be engaged to such a creature. That is why I must be rid of you before our Starbinding. Mother gave me her blessing. In fact, she devised this whole plan for me.”

None of this made sense. In accordance with a royal decree, Ferdinand was continuously downing rejuvenation potions to save Ahrensbach from its mana crisis. The duchy’s archducal family was too small to manage on its own. How was Ahrensbach going to survive without the one person keeping it standing?

“You... cannot become the Zent,” Ferdinand groaned.

Detlinde just laughed. “You might not be aware, but I already know where the Grutrissheit is. Lord Leonzio told me. I shall obtain it with him at my side. Then, once I am the Zent, I will welcome him as my consort. No matter how much you love me, we cannot live together.”

Spread across Detlinde’s face was a smile brimming with optimism. I didn’t know whether it was because she had come of age or because she was dressing up for Leonzio, but her makeup was laid on much thicker than when she’d attended the Royal Academy. Her curved red lips seemed garish to me.

“You... are an aub,” Ferdinand gasped. “You dyed... the foundation. You cannot... be a Zent.”

“Ahaha! It was not I who dyed Ahrensbach’s foundation. It was my sister, meaning she is the duchy’s current aub. I am this country’s next Zent, remember. I saw no reason to waste my time.”

Detlinde cackled, then placed a hand over her mouth and sneered down at Ferdinand. “Once I take the throne, I shall nullify the decrees of the previous Zent and return my elder half-brother to our duchy’s archducal family. I will also be able to return my uncles, who have Benedikta as their successor. Ahrensbach will want for nothing.”

Ferdinand wasn’t the only one without a place in Detlinde’s future—Letizia was also absent. It was plain to see that she was in danger. I didn’t know how they had managed to manipulate her, but she would receive the blame for killing Ferdinand.

“Mother has made all the preparations,” Detlinde continued. “I do not understand why she desires a backwater duchy like Ehrenfest, but no matter. In her words, her goals will be much easier to accomplish once you are out of the picture. She is awaiting my ordonnanz as we speak.”

An indescribable anger blazed within me, aimed entirely at Georgine. She had obtained poison from Lanzenave, manipulated Letizia into using it on Ferdinand, and then sent Detlinde to confirm the results. Perhaps it was admirable for a noble to accomplish so much without once having to dirty her own hands, but the only emotion coursing through me was outrage.

“Hmm... Mother will give me quite the scolding if I report Letizia’s failure to turn you into a feystone. And you do not seem weak enough to die on your own...”

Detlinde reached down to her hip—and that was when Ferdinand decided to strike. He clenched his jaw and, with a groan, threw several magic tools he had taken from his belt. Barely a moment later, his schtappe was firmly in his hand.

“Eep!”

Detlinde shrieked as an explosion swallowed her and Ferdinand both. The shockwave blew her back a little, but otherwise, she was completely unaffected. The magic tools that had once turned the tide in a ditter game against Heisshitze were nothing to her silver shawl.

“As expected,” Ferdinand muttered.

“Goodness! How violent!”

Incensed, Detlinde took something from her belt and popped it into her mouth—one of the Lanzenave sweets Letizia had given me, from what I could tell. She rolled it around on her tongue, then grabbed a bag filled with powder and tossed it at Ferdinand.

Stop!

Ferdinand twisted his body as best he could to avoid the attack, but it was no use; the bag struck the floor beside him, then burst into an all-consuming cloud. His posture crumbled, then he collapsed in a heap. The hand gripping his chest slowly loosened and went limp. Only his light-golden eyes remained firm, glaring intensely at Detlinde even as his other features went rigid.

“The instant-death poison did not work on you for some reason, but this appears to be doing the trick. How strange.”

Detlinde took out the bracelets used to seal the schtappes of criminals, then reached down to put them on Ferdinand. The instant she touched his limp wrist, however, there was a tremendous crack. Detlinde’s hand was blown back by a burst of rainbow light.

“Eek!”

She stared at her fingers for a moment, then glared at Ferdinand and tried again, this time wrapping her hands in her silver shawl. The feystone-like bracelets were connected with a chain.

“There. Now you will not pose a threat to anyone, even if you do regain control of your body.”

Next, Detlinde moved one of her captive’s hands onto the magic circle used when offering mana. “A fragile woman such as I could never hope to carry you out of here,” she said. “Continue to channel your mana into the foundation until your vessel is empty. My sister, the aub, will surely appreciate it.”

She crouched down by the center of the circle and activated it. Ferdinand would continue to have his mana drained unless he managed to move his hand away.

“I wonder, how long will it be before your mana runs dry? I do hope I can obtain the Grutrissheit before then...” Detlinde said. Then she strolled out of the hall, wearing the bright expression of someone who had just completed a good day’s work.

Even once Detlinde was gone, the magic circle continued to drain Ferdinand. It must have been sucking mana out of the charm I’d given him too—the rainbow light surrounding him began to fade, as did the glimmer in his golden eyes. Gone were the hatred and anger; now they stared vacantly into the distance.

“Don’t give up! Not now!” I screamed, but the world around me had changed. I was back in the archducal meeting room, and everyone was gathered around me with looks of worry on their faces. Ferdinand was nowhere to be seen, nor was the magic circle draining his mana.