Ascendance of a Bookworm (LN) - Volume 5.8 - Chapter Pr

Prologue

So monotonous and unchanging was life in Ahrensbach that each day seemed to blend seamlessly into the next. Still, Justus knew from experience that even the steadiest streak of normalcy could crumble under the weight of a single momentous event. Several such examples came unbidden to mind: the moment he had proposed giving his name to Ferdinand to secure the man’s trust, the sudden death of the late Aub Ehrenfest that had seen Ferdinand expelled from noble society, the royal decree that had uprooted them all, and now...

“Lady Letizia?! Have you finished supplying mana already?!”

“Please open the door. I am in a hurry.”

Justus exchanged a look with Eckhart. Letizia was meant to be supplying mana, so why could they hear her on the other side of the door?

Although their lord, Ferdinand, had yet to marry Ahrensbach’s Detlinde, he was still supplying the duchy’s foundation. A short while ago, he had gone into its Mana Replenishment hall to help train Letizia and privately discuss something with her.

During Mana Replenishment, only archnoble retainers belonging to a branch of the duchy’s archducal family were allowed inside the archduke’s office. Eckhart and Justus had consequently been advised to rest, but instead, they were waiting diligently outside the door. They had been ordered not to let Detlinde pass and to inform their lord at once if she tried.

“Could something have happened...?”

“Surely not. You-know-who isn’t around.”

Detlinde had yet to make an appearance, so neither Eckhart nor Justus expected any trouble. Only when Letizia rushed out to meet them did they realize just how wrong they were. In her hand was the cage Ferdinand always wore on his hip. It contained the feystone for his highbeast and three name stones enveloped in what appeared to be white cocoons.

“Lord Ferdinand, he... he said to go...” she squeaked.

Justus took in a sharp breath, then struggled to breathe at all. He could hear a loud ringing in his ears. Letizia’s claim was unthinkable, but if she was telling the truth... Normalcy was about to crumble once again.

Life in Ahrensbach had seemed more frustrating than not: Detlinde was repugnant, Lanzenave’s envoys lorded over everyone, there hadn’t been any food shipments since Rozemyne’s disappearance, and Ferdinand was in a terrible state. Only now that it was gone did Justus realize it had actually been quite peaceful.

Lord Ferdinand...!

Justus snatched the cage from Letizia and peered inside. There was no mistaking it—these were their feystones. He couldn’t imagine Ferdinand giving them to anyone unless the situation was truly dire.

But what could the situation be? How did it come about?

As his mind went blank, Justus suddenly remembered a warning from his lord: “If ever my life is in danger, I will return your names to you. This will spare you the same fate—but more than that, it will allow you to inform Ehrenfest of anything we have learned. Carry out that duty without fail.” Given the circumstances, the words seemed more prophetic than ever.

Justus stared down at the cage in his left hand, then gave his chest a quick pat with his right. The slight crinkle he heard confirmed that the form permitting them to use Ahrensbach’s teleportation circle and the records to be given to Aub Ehrenfest were still in his breast pocket. Coupled with the name stones, he now had everything he needed to prove Ferdinand was in danger.

Do we really have to go? Right now?

Justus’s entire body began to tremble. His teeth chattered while his legs refused to move, not wanting to abandon their lord even when ordered to. He didn’t know what had occurred in the Mana Replenishment hall. Ferdinand was alive, at least, but he was clearly in grave danger, and neither Justus nor Eckhart could rush to his rescue.

“You,” Eckhart growled. “What have you done to Lord Ferdinand?”

“Eep...!”

The dark, menacing voice had come from Justus’s compatriot. Eckhart was grabbing at Letizia while her guards moved to protect her. A fight was ready to break out at any moment.

This idiot!

Seeing his colleague’s white-hot anger pulled Justus back to his senses. He couldn’t let Eckhart draw his weapon—and with that newfound resolve, his legs finally moved. He reached out and grabbed the furious knight by the collar.

“ECKHART! Forget this interrogation! Our orders come first, and what did our lord tell us to do?!”

The outburst took Eckhart by surprise, but it did nothing to soothe his anger. He gritted his teeth and glared at Letizia.

There was no time to wait for Eckhart to cool down; unless they made a quick escape, he would surely be imprisoned for turning his weapon on a member of Ahrensbach’s archducal family.

I can’t let that be how this ends.

Justus glanced between Letizia and the door, then turned on his heel and started running to the teleportation hall. Even when Strahl and Sergius sprinted out of the archduke’s office and gave chase, he ignored their shouts; slowing down and getting caught wasn’t an option.

“This way.”

Running through the castle would arouse suspicion, so once they’d shaken their pursuers, Justus urged his now silent companion down a narrow corridor meant for servants, then slowed to a more natural pace. He smiled and waved at the passing servants as if nothing were the matter while taking his name stone from its cage.

“Justus?!” Eckhart exclaimed.

“Unless I free my name stone, I’ll ascend to the towering heights before I can do as Lord Ferdinand instructed.”

Eckhart’s eyebrows shot up in anger as he cried, “Don’t say that!”

Paying his fellow retainer no mind, Justus got to work. The white cocoon unraveled as he extracted Ferdinand’s mana, exposing the name stone within. The mana enveloping him vanished at the same time. He normally didn’t think much about it, but its absence weighed heavily on him.

“I’ll carry out his last wish no matter what it takes,” Justus said. “If you want to die with him, that’s fine by me. I’m more than willing to give your feystone to Lord Karstedt or Lady Elvira when giving my report to Lord Sylvester.”

Eckhart grimaced at the thought of dying so shamefully and returning home a failure. Then he held out a hand and said, “Give it to me. Once we’ve delivered the information and evidence Lord Ferdinand gathered to Aub Ehrenfest, I’ll find out whether he’s still alive. If not... I’ll ascend with him.”

“Sounds good to me,” Justus replied; such a bold response was completely in character for his fellow retainer. One could identify one’s own name stone from its mana but not someone else’s, so he simply handed over the cage.

“This one,” Eckhart said in short order. His hand shook as he plucked out a name stone.

Justus retrieved the cage in silence and continued down the corridor at a brisk pace, though he cast a side-glance at his compatriot. Eckhart was undoing his name-swearing with tears in his eyes. He was trembling so violently now that one would notice even at a distance.

Eckhart had lost both his first wife, Heidemarie, and their unborn child when poison was mixed into their food. Back then, he had tried to follow them in death—but as he was a name-sworn, his life wasn’t his own. Ferdinand had ordered him to live for Heidemarie and to fill the void made by her passing.

Heidemarie had always declared with a smile that she and Eckhart would tend to Ferdinand as a married couple, so ever since her death, Eckhart had thrown himself entirely into serving his lord. It had become his life’s purpose to act as if she were there with him, doing the same.

This is going to hurt him more than it did me...

Eckhart needed to unseal the name stone proving his loyalty—the greatest indicator that he was willing to put his life on the line for his lord. Few would understand the true depth of misery he felt at having his lack of resolve thrust in his face.

And that leaves Lasfam...

Justus looked at the last name stone sitting in the cage. Lasfam was still in Ehrenfest; as a mere layattendant, he wouldn’t have been able to protect himself in Ahrensbach, so he had been told to wait until Ferdinand was married and secure in his position as the archduchess’s first husband. He probably felt worse than anyone about the Starbinding having been delayed.

Worst of all, I wasn’t even able to keep the promise I made him.

Justus’s words to Lasfam echoed in his mind: “I’ll make moves so that Ahrensbach’s retainers won’t reject you for being a laynoble. Lady Georgine’s plotting something—we hear only bad things about her—but I’ll make sure Lord Ferdinand remains safe.”

In the end, neither he nor Eckhart had managed to protect their lord.

I wonder if we’ll manage to return Lasfam’s name stone in time...

If something happened to the stone, it would mean that Ferdinand was dead. It was impossible to predict whether they would get it back to Lasfam before that happened.

Just thinking about Ferdinand passing away made bile rise in Justus’s throat. Unpleasant though it was, he had no choice but to swallow it down; otherwise, his tears, anger, and despair would spill out with it. He would end up crippled and unable to move, so he focused on methodically working his legs, telling himself again and again that his lord’s last wish took priority.

Upon reaching the door leading out of the servants’ corridors, Justus paused and sighed. He refocused and put on his usual breezy grin. The teleportation hall was near; he couldn’t give the knights there reason to believe something was amiss.

“Eckhart, your emotions are showing on your face. Grind that anger down. Our story is that we’re visiting Raimund for Lord Ferdinand.”

They would need to be on guard in case the knights had already been alerted of the situation by ordonnanz, but that seemed unlikely. Letizia had seemed confused and uncertain when bringing out the name stones, so her explanation of everything that had occurred would surely take a while. Moreover, anyone who wished to join the search for Eckhart and Justus would need to contact Ferdinand in the Mana Replenishment hall and then get permission from Detlinde. They had much greater priorities than contacting the teleportation hall.

“Oh, visiting the Royal Academy again?” asked one of the knights on guard outside the door.

“Indeed,” Justus replied. “We are returning work that has been checked and delivering these materials to Professor Hirschur. She has a tendency to snatch whatever ingredients she needs for brewing from our lord, her disciple. It never fails to be troublesome, I must say.”

As expected, the teleportation hall was still unaware; the two knights blinked in surprise at their unexpected guests but began activating the teleporter without question when Justus showed them his permission form.

“You aren’t with Lord Ferdinand this time, I see,” one of the knights casually remarked. “Is it not rare for you two Ehrenfest retainers to leave his side?”

Few nobles used the teleportation circle outside of term time and the Archduke Conference, so the knights guarding the teleporter were well aware that Raimund spent much of the year sequestered in the Hirschur Laboratory, that Ferdinand was treating him as a disciple, and that Detlinde had granted them permits to use the magic circle. Still, up until now, they hadn’t gone to the Royal Academy without Ferdinand.

Justus shrugged, hoping to ease the knight’s concerns. “He now has Strahl among his guards, and nothing is going to happen during Mana Replenishment; I see no reason to worry about our taking a moment away. Professor Hirschur often makes us brew with her, in any case, so this duty would prove too much for those who don’t know how to deal with her.”

“Come again?” The knight contacting the other end of the teleporter blinked a few times in surprise. “She makes knights and attendants brew...?”

“Indeed she does. Lord Ferdinand was made to help the entire time he was at the Royal Academy. I am an attendant, but I can brew on the level of a scholar. This errand might end up lasting all night—a terrifying thought.”

The knight chuckled. “Sounds like our joint research with Ehrenfest is going to be quite an ordeal.”

Once the Royal Academy had been contacted, the knights smiled and gestured Eckhart and Justus onto the teleportation circle. At once, the two retainers were enveloped in black and golden fire. There was a slight floating sensation... and with that, they left Ahrensbach’s castle behind.

Having arrived at the Royal Academy, Eckhart and Justus smiled at the knights on duty and then exited the teleportation hall. They started slow, then sped up when they were far away enough that their footfalls wouldn’t be heard.

Justus took out the magic letter he had kept on his person without fail since their arrival in Ahrensbach. It bore Sylvester’s signature and granted them permission to use Ehrenfest’s tea party room when circumstances became dire and they needed to flee.

“Eckhart,” he said, nodding toward a nearby table, “get that vase out of the way.”

Once the table was clear, Justus spread out the letter, transformed his schtappe into a pen, and then wrote his name and a request to meet Aub Ehrenfest to inform him of an emergency. From there, he passed the sheet to Eckhart, who signed his name as well.

Justus sealed the magic letter in an envelope, which transformed into a white bird and took flight. He and Eckhart then sprinted through the dormitory as if chasing it. There wasn’t a single person around to chastise them.

After leaving the dormitory through the entrance hall, the two retainers ran through the central building to Ehrenfest’s tea party room. They waited in front of the door marked with an eight until the guard who had evidently received their letter rushed to open it for them.

“We have contacted Aub Ehrenfest,” he said. “Please wait here.”

The knight then returned to the Ehrenfest Dormitory. Eckhart and Justus were unable to follow, since they didn’t have the necessary registration brooches. All they could do was wait in the tea party room for Sylvester to arrive.

Justus looked around, then rearranged the tables and chairs into something more suitable for their meeting. Once done, he flopped down into one of the seats. It wasn’t a graceful gesture by any means, but his body was too heavy for him to worry about acting like a noble.

“I wonder whether Lasfam’s still with us...” Eckhart muttered.

Justus looked at the cage. The name stone was inside and unchanged, which meant Ferdinand was still alive. It was good news, but Justus couldn’t help feeling wretched that he was sitting around doing nothing.

Our coming here won’t save Lord Ferdinand.

The information they held would secure their positions back in Ehrenfest and provide a strong enough basis for them to launch an attack on Ahrensbach... but it wouldn’t rescue their lord. There was nobody in the whole world who could save Ferdinand while he was trapped in another duchy’s Mana Replenishment hall—not Aub Ehrenfest, and not the Grutrissheit-lacking Zent.

Lord Ferdinand suffered so much for such a long time, and what does he have to show for it? No one cares about his predicament.

Justus was enraged. The Zent responsible for giving the royal decree had taken an enormous step back, and now that Rozemyne was gone, Ehrenfest had stopped sending intelligence, food, and potions. Their utter lack of consideration was unforgivable.

At that moment, Justus resolved to take action. Unless their meeting with Sylvester went especially well, he would return to Ahrensbach and take revenge on its archducal family. He didn’t care how much trouble it would cause Ehrenfest; as far as he was concerned, nobody in Ahrensbach deserved to be forgiven. Not Detlinde, who had made others perform her duties in her reluctance to carry out her role. Not the Lanzenave envoys, who had enabled her madness and made life increasingly difficult for Ferdinand. And not Letizia or those around her, who had put Ferdinand in grave danger despite everything he had done to tutor her.

Detlinde and Letizia would die. Justus was overwhelmed with a burning desire to assassinate them both and end Ahrensbach’s archducal family once and for all. The Zent could then scramble to hold together whatever remained of the greater duchy.

“Justus, what are you thinking about?” Eckhart asked.

“The traps I’ll set in Ahrensbach’s castle and where I’ll place them.”

“If you’re going to kill them, do it personally. You don’t want them exploiting the chaos to escape.”

“The plan is to leave one escape route open, then take them out right when they feel safe.”

Eckhart and Justus laughed at the thought. Perhaps an outsider would assume they were in good spirits, but their eyes were brimming with hatred, and as they fought to keep their emotions from exploding out, the atmosphere grew sharp and overwhelming.

The door suddenly clicked open, and several attendants announced their presence. “We apologize for our knight’s lack of consideration,” they said. “To think he would abandon our visitors without even serving them tea...” Then they began making drinks in preparation for the aub’s arrival.

“The knight cannot be blamed,” Justus replied. “We arrived at a closed dormitory without prior notice. That aside, when will Aub Ehrenfest be here?”

The attendants preparing sweets gave bemused smiles. “At once. We were put in quite a rush.”

“I’m here,” Sylvester announced nary a moment later. To both Eckhart’s and Justus’s surprise, he truly had arrived straight away.

Justus glanced at Lasfam’s name stone. It was still unchanged.

“The tea’s done, right?” Sylvester asked the attendants. “Clear the room and start getting ready for later.” Judging by the urgency in his voice, he was in as much of a hurry as Eckhart and Justus.

As the attendants filtered out, Sylvester placed two sound-blockers on the table—one each for his two guests. Once all three of them had one in hand, Justus spoke.

“Aub Ehrenfest, Lord Ferdinand has been—”

“Poisoned? Yes, Rozemyne told me.”

Eckhart and Justus both stared at him in shock.

“Lady Rozemyne told you? We were told she was missing...”

“And who told you that? We’ve been going to great lengths to keep that information under wraps.”

Sylvester was fixing them both with a demanding stare, but Eckhart shook his head. “Lord Ferdinand comes first,” he said, trying to change the subject.

Justus likewise attempted to ignore the question, so as not to reveal their source, but Sylvester was persistent: “We were withholding the news as per an order from royalty. So again, who told you? They might be spreading it further as we speak.”

“It was Professor Hirschur,” Justus answered, having no other choice. “She told us in exchange for assistance with her brewing.”

Sylvester frowned and said, “We’ll need to be careful with her.” He then heaved a drawn-out sigh, though it was clear from his slightly relieved expression that he was glad the information hadn’t come from somewhere more worrying. “Oh, by the by—these are from Rozemyne. They should make you look a little less haggard.”

Sylvester set two rejuvenation potions on the table, which Eckhart and Justus immediately accepted; they had been running low in Ahrensbach and struggling to decide when to use their remaining stock. The potions tasted awful, but they were extra reinvigorating.

“How in the world was Lady Rozemyne aware of what happened...?” Justus asked. “We used the teleporter and came here almost immediately after Lord Ferdinand was harmed.”

“She received his last testament,” Sylvester replied.

“What?!”

A person on the brink of death could use mana to broadcast their situation to another. Such broadcasts were sent unconsciously to whomever the sender had the strongest feelings for, and they allowed the recipient to experience whatever was happening as though they were actually there. In most cases, they occurred in the midst of a battle—and because the person who sent the broadcast was almost never saved, the phenomenon had come to be known as a last testament.

In other words, Rozemyne had seen something that Eckhart and Justus never would.

“Do you know where Georgine is now?” Sylvester asked. “According to Rozemyne, she’s the one who devised this plan to dispatch Ferdinand.”

Resisting the urge to grind his teeth, Justus replied, “She left her villa about ten days ago to perform Spring Prayer.” Her recent absence coupled with the fact she seldom communicated with Letizia meant that neither he nor Eckhart had even suspected she was involved.

“Then she could be in Ehrenfest by tomorrow,” Sylvester said, letting out another heavy sigh.

“Was Lady Georgine truly behind all this?”

“Yeah. Rozemyne said as much. She also told us that Detlinde threw the poison powder at Ferdinand.”

Lady Detlinde? But it was Lady Letizia in there with him.

Detlinde hadn’t entered the Mana Replenishment hall; Ferdinand had gone to extreme lengths to ensure she wouldn’t be anywhere near the aub’s office. There were some disparities between what Rozemyne had seen and what Eckhart and Justus understood—but before Justus could ask for more information, Sylvester grinned.

“By the way—Rozemyne’s heading out to save Ferdinand. As soon as the date changes.”

“Excuse me?”

Justus could only widen his eyes in shock. He was convinced that nobody in the world could save Ferdinand when he was trapped in the Mana Replenishment hall of another duchy. The very idea was almost laughable.

“Do you believe she’ll stand a chance?” he eventually managed. “She’s just a little girl.”

“Huh? Not anymore. She’s all grown up. You won’t believe your eyes when you see her.”

Eckhart and Justus hadn’t seen Rozemyne since the Interduchy Tournament before last, more than a year ago. She was sure to have grown since then, but that wasn’t what Justus had meant.

“Did she seem confident?” he asked.

“She outright Crushed Bonifatius when he first refused to help her, and made arrangements to leave under cover of darkness. Something she saw must have given her this confidence. At the very least, she believes it’s possible.”

Rozemyne had declared that she would save Ferdinand—and she was leaving tonight. Just knowing that there was still a chance made the tension drain from Justus’s body. His muscles began to relax, and the all-encompassing darkness that had descended upon him while he was waiting for Sylvester completely vanished. He was so relieved to have hope that he wanted to cry.

“Lord Ferdinand gave us a message for Lady Rozemyne,” Justus said. “He said that as long as Ehrenfest remains patient and does not make any drastic moves, both it and the country at large can be saved. Knowing that, will she still take action?”

“Do you think a mere message would be enough to stop Rozemyne?” Sylvester asked with an amused snort. “Once her rampage is over, Ferdinand is going to have the headache of a lifetime cleaning up the mess she’s made. And he’ll only have himself to blame for getting in trouble in the first place.”

Eckhart and Justus both gave wry smiles, recalling how Ferdinand would tap his temples when planning how to deal with Rozemyne’s unpredictable behavior. It was easy to imagine he would pinch her cheeks upon being saved and ask why she hadn’t listened to him.

That girl is just too interesting.

Once again, Rozemyne’s actions had easily exceeded anything Ferdinand could anticipate or plan for. Her outrageous decision to rush into Ahrensbach filled Justus with exhilaration; because of the opportunity she had created, his mind was flooded with thoughts of what he could do to help save his lord. Sticking to the proper channels wouldn’t achieve much. Instead, like Rozemyne, they needed to use everything at their disposal, paying no mind as to how much it would anger Ferdinand or disrupt their surroundings. The rescue operation was their top priority—and with so many tools available to them, there had to be something they could do.

Ah. And there it is.

It would infuriate Ferdinand and perhaps even frustrate Rozemyne a little, but it was now or never. In one fell swoop, they would assist Rozemyne, save their lord, and even repay him for their failures. The idea brought a smile to Justus’s face.

But beside him, Eckhart was wearing a hard expression. “Rozemyne’s plan constitutes an invasion of another duchy. Have you permitted that as Ehrenfest’s aub?”

“Yep. I’ve said that Rozemyne and her retainers can move as they like. It hurts to admit, but with Georgine’s invasion due any moment now, Ehrenfest can’t provide any more strength than that.”

Upon hearing that Sylvester had given his permission, Eckhart put his face in his hands and exhaled. At last, his unease was ebbing away. He took some time to breathe deeply before kneeling before Sylvester, taking the aub’s hand, and pressing the back against his forehead.

“You would invade a greater duchy to save Lord Ferdinand... I thank you from the bottom of my heart. It pleases me to no end that he has a man with such unwavering resolve as his brother. Truly it does...”

Outside of a formal occasion, it was extremely rare for Eckhart to bend the knee to anyone other than Ferdinand. Sylvester knew that and thus understood the depth of the man’s gratitude. His green eyes softened.

“I’ll accept your gratitude, but we haven’t saved him yet. The battle starts here,” Sylvester said, much to Eckhart’s surprise. He took back his hand, then gestured the knight back to his seat. “I’ve got a meeting with the royal family coming up. I’m hoping we’ll obtain their permission—but even if we don’t, Rozemyne won’t stop.”

“And you would accept that as the aub?” Eckhart asked, his expression becoming more rigid as he sat down again.

“You two came all this way while your lord was in danger. You must have brought something of value, right? Give it here.” Securing the royal family’s permission to invade Ahrensbach and smite Lanzenave would require concrete evidence, and Sylvester was confident that Ferdinand had gathered some.

Eckhart glanced at Justus, who took several sound-recording magic tools from his bags and then pulled the reports from his inner pocket. “These were meant to be used during the Archduke Conference to decry Lady Detlinde as unfit to rule Ahrensbach, but if you also mention their archducal family’s growing collusion with Lanzenave and the harm that has come to Lord Ferdinand, the royals shouldn’t be able to protest.”

Justus started going over the documents, at which point an ordonnanz flew into the room. It was a message from the first prince. Sylvester looked from the bird to the two retainers.

“Everyone’s gathering at Ferdinand’s estate. Well, I guess it’s Rozemyne’s library now. Go meet up with them. They went there to prepare instead of coming here.”

Sylvester then set registration brooches on the table—indicators that Eckhart and Justus were to be treated as Ehrenfest nobles. It spoke volumes that he had chosen to bring them to the dormitory before even hearing what his two visitors had to say.

He continued, “Rozemyne’s chances will shoot up if she has people who know the layout of Ahrensbach’s castle and can guide her to the Mana Replenishment hall. Save your lord. Save my little brother. I’m counting on you both.”

“We will. We’ll save him. No matter what.”