Ascendance of a Bookworm (LN) - Volume 5.7 - Chapter 9

The Foundational Magic

In the end, Bonifatius carried me to the archduke’s office as though I were a child. Karstedt and the vice commander of the Knight’s Order, who were both standing outside the room, blinked when they saw me in his arms.

I doubt they expected to see me all grown-up—and in a princess carry.

Karstedt shot Cornelius a worried glance; then he gave his jubilant father a brief, exasperated smile before adopting a more neutral expression and opening the door for us. “Lady Rozemyne, Aub Ehrenfest awaits,” he said.

“Indeed,” I replied. “Grandfather, I thank you ever so much for your support.”

Once he had set me down, I carefully made my way into the room where Sylvester—and Sylvester alone—awaited me. The door shut behind me, and instinctively I spun around. Or at least I tried to; before I could complete my turn, I tripped over my ankle and dramatically collapsed.

Sylvester barely attempted to hide his amusement, then erupted in laughter. “What’re you doing?! Here I was, all nervous, thinking we were about to have a serious conversation!”

“Ngh... I’m still not used to this body. You don’t mind me using my highbeast here in the castle, do you?”

He stopped guffawing—although he was still grinning from ear to ear—and came over to help me up. I took his hand, got back on my feet, and resolved to walk even more carefully.

“I couldn’t stop bumping into things and tripping over while I was getting changed this morning...” I griped. “Then my knees buckled when I tried to walk with Grandfather.”

“Makes sense that you’d want to use your highbeast...” Sylvester replied. Then he grimaced and said, “But do you really wanna be seen in that thing? Especially with your new, uh... look.”

“My Pandabus is adorable, okay?” I shot back, my cheeks puffed out. “It doesn’t look anything like a grun.” It made no sense to change my highbeast when Lessy was both cute and convenient.

“It doesn’t suit you anymore. Nor do the ways you act and speak. Anyone who sees you now is going to expect a genuine saint.”

“Wilfried said the same thing—and after seeing my reflection in the mirror, I agree with you both. But what can I do? Putting up an occasional front is manageable enough. Completely reworking one’s personality is not. I thought you, of all people, would understand that.”

Sylvester took one look at my smile—I was making it very clear that he hadn’t changed much either—then frowned and nodded. “Yeah, I guess you’ve got me there...”

I sat down opposite Sylvester and took a deep breath; the reason for our meeting was a serious one. He gave me a stern look in response.

“So, about my sister...” he began. “You know how she intends to steal the foundation?”

For an aub, having one’s foundation stolen was the absolute worst-case scenario. It meant losing one’s duchy and was a veritable death sentence, as the new aub would immediately kill whomever they had stolen the foundation from to prevent it from being taken back.

In such situations, it was very common for the rest of the usurped archducal family to be killed as well. Sometimes, one young member might be spared and engaged to a child of the new archducal couple—a tactic used to better control the previous generation of nobles—but Georgine was already from Ehrenfest; there was no reason for her to let any of us live.

On second thought, the mana shortage was pretty dire; maybe she would spare Sylvester’s children and imprison them in the Ivory Tower, where they would spend the rest of their days having their mana drained. But could that really be described as living?

“I do not have conclusive evidence,” I said. “But if we consider her theft of our bible, there can be only one explanation.”

“Wait, that’s what you’re basing this on? Not some new hidden passageway or magic tool you’ve come across?”

“I will start with my conclusion,” I said. Maybe there were other paths to consider, but the information I’d absorbed about the country’s temples and the role of the bible had made one thing clear to me: “The true location of each duchy’s foundation is directly below its temple’s chapel.”

“What?!” Sylvester choked. He froze in place for several seconds, then shook his head in total disbelief. “What?!”

“Of course, not just anyone can reach the foundation. It resides in an ivory room, separated from the temple through magical means.”

“I would hope so, but... To think it’s under the temple, not the castle...”

“It stands to reason that people came to assume the foundation was located in the castle; the magic tool passed down from aub to aub is a key necessary for teleporting to the foundation, and the door it must be used with is located in the archduke’s room. This misconception has plagued all those throughout history who have invaded a duchy’s castle and torn it apart in search of the foundation.”

Sylvester’s face twisted into a particularly severe grimace. If an aub died without passing down the magic tool serving as the key to their foundation, their successor would need to search for it. In most cases, it would be on the aub’s person or inside a hidden room, but they didn’t look like regular keys and were thus always miserable to find.

I continued, “But there is also a secondary key—one that was given to future aubs in advance of their succession. If a new aub found themselves unable to access the main key, this secondary key would allow them to carry out their duties while they searched.” By this logic, it shouldn’t have been necessary for anyone to supply the foundation from the Mana Replenishment hall while desperately trying to find where it was hidden.

“Rozemyne, this is the first I’ve heard of a secondary key. I certainly wasn’t given one. Don’t tell me Father gave it to Geor—”

“He didn’t,” I said, shooting down the idea before Sylvester could turn a truly terrifying shade of white. “How much do you remember about Yurgenschmidt’s founding?”

“A bit... Where are you going with this?” He probably thought I was derailing our conversation, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.

“I assume you haven’t forgotten that the first Zent also served as a High Bishop. It seemed only natural to place the foundation in a temple, where one prayed to the gods.”

Foundations were created alongside temples so that all prayers would flow into them, not just those from the Zent, and to make it easier for those prayers to reach the gods. Zents were also responsible for creating bibles and the divine instruments, which they would do while creating a duchy’s foundation. That such work was counted among their duties made it seem to me that only those who obtained the Grutrissheit would ever learn it.

“For some time afterward, the country’s aubs apparent also served as High Bishops,” I said. “You surely know this by now, but it was an important duty for obtaining divine protections and increasing mana capacities through religious ceremonies.”

“Yeah, makes sense.”

As generations had passed, the aubs apparent dedicating themselves to religious ceremonies in the temple had ended up politically weaker than the other archduke candidates who could spend time in the castle and unify nobles under themselves. Even when the aubs apparent became actual aubs, they were treated as mere figureheads who existed only to perform religious ceremonies. Over time, the connection between religion and politics weakened until archduke candidates started refusing to visit the temple entirely. The system the first Zent had created fell out of use, and its purpose was quickly forgotten.

“As much as I appreciate the history lesson,” Sylvester said, “what’s your point?”

“The key for opening the bible, which was originally always given to the future aub, is the secondary key meant for opening the door to the foundation in the temple.” That was why it hadn’t been too much of a problem in the past when aubs had abruptly died. “Lady Georgine exchanged many intimate letters with Bezewanst, the former High Bishop, so I suspect she learned something about this from him. He was the only one she knew who ever touched the bible.”

Normal nobles never went near the temple. Related classes at the Royal Academy only covered the basics, and public perception meant that few bothered to delve any deeper. I wasn’t sure whether Georgine had ever visited the temple, but Bezewanst had certainly visited the castle and the Noble’s Quarter, and the letters he’d shared with Georgine had made it very clear that he’d doted on her.

“You say that, but if Georgine really had known about all this, she would have tried to steal the foundation a long time ago. Before leaving for Ahrensbach, before I was made aub, when she visited Ehrenfest...”

“But what if she didn’t learn the truth about the foundation until after I’d taken over as High Bishop? It would have been much harder for her to get the key then.”

“Ah, right. Back when she visited, I gave her permission to take some of my uncle’s letters as mementos. Most of them were letters she’d written, but there were a few he’d written to her but hadn’t managed to send. That information must have been in one of those.”

Sylvester was now sitting with his head in his hands, looking completely exhausted. He had checked the letters and determined that it was safe to let Georgine have them, assuming that because Bezewanst hadn’t been a noble, he wouldn’t have been able to employ any magical trickery. But there were plenty of ways to use coded messages to convey information.

“Does that mean you have the key right now, since you’re the High Bishop?” Sylvester asked.

“It remains in the temple, but do not let that distract you from what matters most—Georgine has the means to obtain our foundation without coming to the castle or needing to probe you for its whereabouts. Considering that the bible incident was carried out by Viscountess Dahldolf, one of her name-sworn, we can say with all certainty that she is targeting the entrance in the temple.”

Sylvester heaved a weary sigh. “Yeah, there doesn’t seem to be any doubt about that. I was keeping an eye on the castle’s door to the foundation and even worked with Bonifatius to make sure the hidden passageways were all covered. It never even crossed my mind that she might steal it from the temple.”

Modern-day temples were run by blue priests without much mana at all, so Georgine wouldn’t have much trouble stealing our key. If she attacked our temple now, it would only be a matter of time before she seized the foundation.

“Knights guard the temple during Melchior’s or my visits,” I said. “But in our absence—during the entirety of winter socializing bar the Dedication Ritual, as well as during Spring Prayer and the Harvest Festival—there is very little protection to speak of. Remember also that we leave the bible and its key in the temple while we are away.”

Sylvester swallowed dryly. Thinking about it now, the temple was ridiculously vulnerable. There were guards present when we archduke candidates visited, but otherwise, a single key stood between an invader and our foundation.

I continued, “I trust you to decide what we should do with the bible’s key. You must also consider how to keep the foundation’s true location hidden and what you will disclose in order to protect it. Shoring up the temple’s defenses out of the blue would draw unwanted attention, but you must do something. It is an aub’s duty to protect his foundation.”

Once Spring Prayer concluded and I departed from Ehrenfest, I wouldn’t have any right to get involved with such matters. I needed Sylvester to decide whether it was safe for me to give Melchior the bible’s key.

“No matter how we plan to defend our foundation, I’ll make sure to involve the temple,” Sylvester assured me. “If my sister does intend to make her move, she’ll do it during the upcoming Spring Prayer...”

“What makes you so sure?” I asked, my lips pursed. Jumping to conclusions was a surefire way to get blindsided. “Last year’s purge crippled her support base here in Ehrenfest. She could wait until autumn, winter, or even next year.”

Still, there was an assured glint in Sylvester’s eye. “Every single duchy knows you were bedridden for an entire season. One professor even made a huge fuss, demanding to know whether you had ‘ascended to the towering heights,’ and was fired for her trouble. Not to mention, we haven’t yet publicized your return here in Ehrenfest. Georgine must be convinced that our temple’s guard is thinning out—and most of all, she’ll need to finish this before Ferdinand gets a room in the main building of Ahrensbach’s castle. She can only keep him away until the next Archduke Conference, when his Starbinding will take place.”

Oh, right... Ferdinand did say in his letter that moving had made it harder to gather intelligence...

“I can’t thank you enough for this information, Rozemyne. For the first time ever, I’m going to be one step ahead of my sister.”

“If she means to act during Spring Prayer, then perhaps she is already nearby. Crossing duchy borders is trivial with that silver cloth.”

Sylvester squeezed his eyes shut. “Lanzenave’s envoys were dressed in silver cloth. I can’t say whether it was the same kind of cloth we found, but if Georgine imports enough, we can probably assume she’s preparing for war.”

Mestionora’s knowledge didn’t include anything about the silver cloth—or about trug, for that matter. Either they were new products or the Grutrissheit simply didn’t contain information about other countries. Or maybe it did, but the information was in the section that had gone to Ferdinand.

As I stood up to leave, Sylvester had one more question for me: “By the way, Rozemyne—where did you even learn about all this?”

I paused, then smiled. “Where do you think?”

Sylvester stared at me for a moment, an indescribable look on his face. “Did you... Did you really find it?” He didn’t specify what he was referring to. There was no need. We both understood what he meant.

“Not the whole thing—just under seventy percent of it—and some crucial parts are missing. It’s rather troublesome.” I carefully made my way over to the door, then turned to Sylvester, stuck out my chest, and said, “I shall go straight to the temple. Given that Georgine’s lot had time to swap out our bible, they might have done something to the key as well. We can rule out poison, but the sooner I check it, the better. I could confirm the bible’s authenticity based on its weight, appearance, and smell, but I am still uncertain about the key.”

Sylvester clasped his head and groaned. “Make sure you’re thorough with it. I don’t wanna find any weird traps on the key I’m supposed to pass down to future generations.”

“Uh-huh. See you later.”