Ascendance of a Bookworm (LN) - Volume 5.9 - Chapter 14

Making the Bible

“If what Detlinde says is true and Leonzio is not the only member of Lanzenavian royalty here in Yurgenschmidt, then we must be quick,” Ferdinand said. “Rozemyne—we are going to my workshop.”

“Hm? Weren’t we going to spend today listening to reports from those who stayed in Ahrensbach...?”

“That can wait. Order for them to be given to Justus and Hartmut instead.”

Like in Ehrenfest, Ahrensbach’s teleporter was located in its training area, only it was much farther away from its castle’s main building. Ferdinand sent out several ordonnanzes, then put me on his highbeast and took flight.

“So we’re going to your workshop, right?” I asked.

“Yes, in the west building. If we hurry, we should be able to finish before dinner.”

By his “workshop,” Ferdinand meant his hidden room. We arrived at his chambers to find them in exactly the same state as before: torn apart from the Lanzenavians’ rampage. I couldn’t help but scrunch up my nose at the sorry sight.

“What a mess...”

The walls and decorations were marred with cuts and scratches, and there was broken furniture scattered all over the place.

“I asked for what remained of my belongings to be moved into a guest room,” Ferdinand informed me.

“Sergius has done just that so you have somewhere to rest,” Justus noted as he pushed a small trolley of Ehrenfest ingredients over to the workshop’s entrance. “The luggage we teleported earlier has been taken there as well. None of us thought you would need to use your workshop so soon.”

Cornelius was following along as my knight when he suddenly cried, “Wait, Lord Ferdinand! Are you and Lady Rozemyne going to be alone in your workshop? If so, I must protest, no matter the circumstances. If nothing else, allow a few guards to join you or some scholars to assist with the brewing.”

“Anyone who wishes to join us may do so, but I warn you—do not get in my way. I act only for a lack of time.”

Ferdinand took the trolley from Justus and proceeded into his hidden room. Eckhart stood outside as his guard, then pointed at the entrance with his chin as though telling us to hurry inside. I nodded and made my way through.

Wait. Ferdinand normally has a mana-dependent barrier blocking the entrance to his hidden room, right?

That had been the case for his hidden room in the temple, and it seemed unlikely that he hadn’t set one up here in Ahrensbach, where he was at much greater risk. I waited for Cornelius and the others to follow me inside, but they weren’t able to—as expected.

“Ferdinand, it would appear your barrier stopped Cornelius from joining us.”

“Yes, it certainly would appear that way...” he replied.

The magic tool used to communicate through the hidden room’s door flashed, and a single message from Cornelius came through: “Please disable the barrier.”

“No,” Ferdinand replied. “If you wish to enter, then obtain more mana. Eckhart, do not disturb us until dinner. Bind anyone who causes too much of a fuss.”

Ferdinand turned away from the door to look at me. “Rozemyne, come here. I should give you a medical examination now while there is nobody around to complain about it. Having a clear understanding of your health is of the utmost importance.”

At once, he started touching my cheeks and neck, as he normally did when inspecting my health. He carried out various checks, then grumbled that I’d gotten better at putting up a front.

“Should you not praise me for becoming more ladylike?” I asked, my lips pursed. I couldn’t believe he was complaining now that I was finally conforming to the demands of noble society.

In response, Ferdinand pinched my cheek and said, “Excellent work.”

“I can’t say this feels very sincere...”

“Your mana is even more unstable than I expected. That might be why so much escapes you when you pray... A blessing large enough to fly outside the city was not necessary for mourning the dead or healing the wounded.”

“I prayed for everyone who died, be they friend or foe. And because I healed the soldiers with my eyes closed, I was unable to see how much mana I was using.”

Ferdinand grimaced. “Was there really any need to mourn our enemies?”

“It might not have made sense by the standards of Yurgenschmidt, but it was important to me.”

“Another custom from over there, then...”

Classic Ferdinand. He’s as perceptive as ever.

“I would not normally criticize you for acting in a manner befitting a saint,” he continued, “but you must be more cautious of your mana quantity. An excessively large blessing can do more harm than good to manaless commoners. Take care to keep your eyes open if you ever need to heal them again.”

“Was it really that excessive?”

“It enveloped almost the entire city.”

That had probably been because I’d wanted to heal everyone in Ehrenfest who had taken part in the battle. But of course, anyone who hadn’t known that would have seen it as exorbitant.

“Then again, now that we can no longer use feystones to drain your overflowing mana, I suppose your prayers do have some merit...”

Ferdinand peered down at me, frowning. My sudden growth spurt, coupled with the jureve having dissolved my mana clumps, meant I posed a tremendous threat to everyone around me when my mana was this unstable.

“Insomnia, a reduced appetite, this newfound fear of feystones... Do you have any other symptoms?” Ferdinand asked.

“None that I’m aware of. If we have to start somewhere, I’d like to get rid of this feystone phobia. It really is quite inconvenient...”

His brow still drawn in a tight frown, Ferdinand asked me a series of questions—which feystones scared me most, what situations made me most uncomfortable, whether I was comfortable with any magic tools other than my schtappe, and so on.

“Unprocessed feystones are the scariest, then ordonnanzes,” I said. “Seeing what might as well be a living creature turn into a feystone just reminds me of...”

“Hmm... So you have no trouble with schtappes because they do not look like feystones. But you closed your eyes when using Flutrane’s staff, did you not? Was the sight of its feystone too much for you, even knowing it was just your schtappe transformed...?”

“I tried not to look because I didn’t want to remember everything I witnessed...”

“I see. Then you can use magic tools as long as you do not look at them. Let us try something.”

Ferdinand gave me a fruit—a schallaub, from what I could tell. I rolled it around in my hand.

“You seem fine with the ingredients themselves,” he said. “Channel your mana into it. I wish to see if you can stomach touching a feystone when you have witnessed its creation.”

Making a feystone... The very idea made me tremble. Ferdinand took my hand in his and encouraged me to rest on the nearby bench. It had been quite a while since I’d last used it, but it was just as hard as I remembered. The schallaub in my hand suddenly felt even more imposing for some reason.

“Um, Ferdinand. I...”

He sat down beside me and placed a reassuring hand on my shoulder. “If you find this too hard, then you may close your eyes or throw the fruit away.” His face was much closer to mine than I was used to, no doubt because I was taller now. There was concern in his light-golden eyes.

“You’re being unusually kind today. The Ferdinand I’m used to would have complained and told me to hurry up already.” It really was hard to believe this was the same man who had previously forced me to go without sleep and pushed me to the point that I ended up collapsing or bedridden.

“Would you rather I be strict with you?” he asked with a glare.

My answer was a resounding no.

“I knew you were sensitive to bloodshed and death, yet I still elected to push through the enemy and rescue Gerlach’s knights,” Ferdinand said. “Your current state was a consequence of that decision, and now you have a fatal weakness that must be overcome. It would surely aid us both if a few kind gestures could do the trick... but I doubt things are going to be that easy.” He gave me a few pats on the head. It was an awkward attempt at consolation, but it worked to ease some of the tension I was feeling. “It was because you agreed to stay with us and provided your healing that Gerlach’s knights survived. Do not forget that.”

“Right...”

I started channeling mana into the fruit, trying to turn it into a yellow feystone. But as the transformation began, my entire body went rigid.

“It is only a schallaub, Rozemyne—a simple fruit. There is nothing to be scared of.”

I clung to his words, but they weren’t enough; I couldn’t ignore the feystone that had appeared in my hand. I continued to force my mana into it, terrified, and it turned into gold dust in the blink of an eye.

“I-It appears I can make gold dust without issue...” I muttered. “Guess I can help Sylvester repair the Gerlach estate after all.”

“We are in a hidden room; there is no need to hide behind such a phony smile. I am sorry that I put you through something so unpleasant, but I now have the answers I sought, at least. Drink a potion and then rest until my preparations are complete.”

Ferdinand rose to his feet, surveyed the potions on his shelf, and handed one to me. He mustn’t have been lying when he’d told Cornelius that time was of the essence, as he then started rushing around the room, taking out and neatly lining up everything he would need for his brew. His hands didn’t stop moving for even a moment.

As I watched Ferdinand take out a sheaf of the fey paper I’d sent him before, I gave the potion he had given me a quick sniff. It didn’t smell like any of the rejuvenation potions I was used to.

“What kind of potion is this?” I asked.

“A valuable kind that I use when I must eat but do not want to. You will need to have some Ahrensbach cuisine soon, correct? Drink that now while you still can.”

I doubted Ahrensbach’s spice-heavy cooking would agree with me in my current state. I remembered the “healthy dishes” Letizia had given me after my two-day slumber and decided to drink the potion without a single complaint.

“Do we know where Lady Detlinde is right now?” I asked. “She can’t enter Ahrensbach’s dormitory or return to the Lanzenave Estate, correct?”

“The Lanzenave Estate contains a teleporter to the Adalgisa villa, where their princesses and the children chosen to become king stay. If she used that, then I would assume she is there now. It is located within the Royal Academy’s grounds—perfect for obtaining the Grutrissheit.”

Ferdinand went on to note that the original Zent who had welcomed Adalgisa had not wanted to put her quarters in the Sovereignty where he and those close to him lived.

“How do you know all of this...?” I asked.

“It flowed into my mind unbidden. If your bible lacks such details, then good. There is no need for you to know them.”

For him to have acquired that knowledge from the Book of Mestionora, it must not have been present in the portion I’d received. I performed a quick check and, indeed, there was no mention of Adalgisa.

“If you would, write down all the information you obtained,” Ferdinand said. He pushed a low table in front of me and placed atop it the paper he had taken out.

As I inspected the sheets, I noticed there was already so much information written on them. The thought that I was about to make a book raised my spirits a little.

“Grutrissheit.”

Ferdinand sat down next to me, then made his Book of Mestionora and opened it. I peered inside and saw that its text was full of empty spaces, which he pointed to as he said, “Rozemyne, I want you to search for these parts in your own bible.” He was on a section about country gates.

I started searching for the information Ferdinand wanted. In the meantime, he took and skimmed several of the sheets resting on the table, then plucked out one incomplete page in particular.

“Here,” I eventually said. By comparing our two Books, I’d managed to find the missing text.

Ferdinand inspected my bible, then started filling in the gaps on the sheet he’d picked up. He was quick, but writing everything out would still take ages.

“Might I suggest copying and pasting the text?” I said. “Your current approach will take far too long.”

“We do need to be cautious of time... but does your method truly work?”

“Eheh. Just watch.” I put the tips of my fingers on my Book of Mestionora, marking my selection area. Then... “Copy and place!”

“Rozemyne, the size of your letters does not match the rest of the text.”

“Wh-What?”

Before now, I’d only ever pasted onto completely blank sheets of paper. I wasn’t able to adjust the size to perfectly match already existing text.

“Th-They don’t quite fit, but... It’s readable enough, right?”

“It looks inelegant.”

“Right... Even I thought that.” The mismatched text looked aesthetically terrible and was, to be honest, flat-out hard to read.

“The text is legible, but the sizing will cause problems down the line. The magic circles will need to fit perfectly to be complete. Your new spell is unusable here.”

“H-Hold on a moment. Let me see whether I can shrink it down.”

“As I said, we need to be cautious of time. It will be faster for me to do it by hand.”

Ferdinand had given up on my idea in the blink of an eye, but I wasn’t going to crumble so easily. “It’s going to be really useful. Trust me.”

“I am not disregarding the idea in its entirety. We can experiment later, at our leisure. As I told you, we do not have the time right now.”

“But I invented it specifically as a way of saving time!” The thought that we weren’t going to use it now when it would prove most useful was actually depressing.

Ferdinand grudgingly turned his Book of Mestionora to face me. “In that case, attempt to plant the contents of your bible in mine. Having to show you each page would prove most tedious, so I would appreciate a method to skip that process. However, if you are unable to manage it, I must ask that you give up for now.”

“Got it. I’ll do my best. Copy and place!”

I tried to use my technique as I’d proposed. My mana was sucked into Ferdinand’s bible, and the missing text was successfully copied across.

“I did it, Ferdinand! I did it!” I cried, looking at him for confirmation that my method was pretty dang useful. “The letters are the right size, and the page is completely filled with knowledge!”

Ferdinand crossed his arms, his brow drawn in a contemplative frown. “It is convenient, but...”

“But what? Is there a problem?”

He remained silent for a moment, then deliberately stood up and brought over what appeared to be two test tubes. “Though I acknowledge the extreme convenience of your spell and accept it as the most logical use of our time... I must ask that you drink these before we continue.”

“What are they?” I asked.

“You have had them before. Drink them and you should have your answer.”

Confused, I drank the potions. The first was sweeter and went down easier than a rejuvenation potion, but I couldn’t remember having tasted it before. To be frank, I didn’t have the slightest idea what it might be. The second, though, was another story—it was the same potion he’d made me drink once when I’d ended up completely drained of mana.

“I didn’t recognize the first, but I remember the second,” I said. “Was there a reason you gave it to me now? I already have more than enough mana.”

“You did not recognize the first, hmm? I see. Well, in any case—fill in the blanks as I ask you to.”

Ferdinand took a deep breath as though steeling his resolve, then turned to the next page of his Book of Mestionora. I found the corresponding entry in my own bible and copied the content over using my special method. We repeated this process again and again.

“Ferdinand, are you okay?” I eventually asked. “You look a little unwell.” He kept holding his head and rubbing his arms.

“You need not worry about me.”

“How can you say that?! You’re acting very strange... Ah! Could this be because you haven’t rested properly since you were poisoned...? You should take a break before we continue with our work here.”

“You saw what Cornelius was like—if we leave this room, I doubt he will allow us to return. We have only until dinner, so I must ask that you prioritize the Grutrissheit for now. Once you have completed all the pages I need, I will carry out the brewing on my own.”

I wasn’t going to argue with the stern glare Ferdinand was giving me, so I quickly returned to the task at hand.

Copy and place. Copy and place. Copy and place...

“That will do,” Ferdinand said. “I should be able to manage the rest without you. Some of the steps to follow involve working with feystones, so I permit you to leave ahead of me.” He was putting on a brave face, but the way he was slumped over betrayed complete and utter exhaustion.

“Shouldn’t you leave early? You’re clearly unwell. Getting some rest before dinner could go a long way.”

“Forget about me. Just leave,” Ferdinand replied, waving me away. It was kind of annoying how stubbornly he was refusing to cooperate, but this wasn’t his first time trying to hide his poor health from others.

“If you are not unwell, then how about you transcribe your sections of the Book into mine?”

“Have you lost your mind? Absolutely not,” Ferdinand snapped, staring at me like I was the biggest idiot in the world.

“Have you lost your mind?” I retorted, my lips pursed in the face of this outrageous injustice. “I used my new technique to fill out some of your Book, so why shouldn’t you fill out some of mine in return?” He wasn’t the only one who wanted to read the whole thing.

Ferdinand grimaced and said, “I refuse. Your new spell requires an abnormal pronunciation and operates on principles unknown to me, so I expect it would take me far too long to learn.”

“I believe in you, Ferdinand. Do you remember how quickly you learned to make my water gun?” Bonifatius and the others had struggled to replicate it, but not Ferdinand. I was sure he’d pick up my new spell just as easily...

But he continued to refuse.

“If you cannot learn my spell, then I shall use it,” I said. “Lend me your Book so that I might reproduce its text.”

“Can you really do that on your own?”

“Let’s find out.”

I touched two fingers to Ferdinand’s open bible and used them to “select” the information I wanted. Ferdinand gasped and slapped my hand away before slamming his Book of Mestionora shut and making it disappear.

“Aah! What was that for?!” I cried. “It was working!”

“It is still too early for you. Wait until you have come of age, at the very least.”

“Huh...?” My eyes widened in response to this sudden change of attitude. “You want me to wait two whole years? That’s much too long—especially when I could just do it now.”

Ferdinand glared at me and shook his head. “I have my reasons for refusing. To do it now would be completely unacceptable.”

“You have your reasons, do you? Care to explain them to me?”

“No,” Ferdinand replied, not even attempting to play ball. Even when I peered into his eyes, silently demanding that he elaborate, he put a hand over my face and pushed me away.

“Do not get so close,” he said. “Do I really need to remind you that we are painfully short on time? Creating our magic tool should naturally come before filling out the gaps in your bible. And my request that you leave early was for your sake; I am about to take out my brewing feystones.”

“Ferdinand... is this Gervasio person that much of a threat?” I asked. His rush to make the Grutrissheit had started with the mention of that name. “He was raised to be the king of Lanzenave, right? Does that make him your brother?”

In an instant, the emotion vanished from Ferdinand’s face. He wasn’t angry or anxious; he just stared at me blankly before gazing down at his hand. “He is not my brother,” he said cautiously. “As far as I am aware, the two of us have never even met. But I do know about him.”

He must have been referring to knowledge he’d obtained from the Book of Mestionora. Maybe he’d stared down at his hand to read from it, having forgotten that he’d made it disappear.

“Gervasio was the omni-elemental son with the most mana out of all those born to the three Adalgisa princesses,” Ferdinand explained. “Thus, he was chosen as Lanzenave’s king.”

“In other words, he has more mana than you?” I found that hard to believe.

Ferdinand nodded slowly. “To my knowledge, he was head and shoulders above the rest during his pre-baptism measuring. By the time I was born, he had already been sent back to Lanzenave to rule.”

There was a slight pause before he continued, now staring into empty space, “My mother initially had me with the intention of turning me into a feystone, so she chose a partner who had the elements she did not rather than one with more mana. It meant I had the least mana out of all the Adalgisa seeds at the time, but as an omni-elemental child with balanced elements, I was best suited to become a feystone.”

A shiver ran down my spine, and tears welled up in my eyes. Ferdinand had most likely obtained his Book of Mestionora when he was a student at the Royal Academy. I doubted that he’d wanted the information he was sharing with me, and the thought that he’d received it at such a young age was just...

I stood up and instinctively reached out to Ferdinand. The next thing I knew, I was kneeling beside him on the bench with my arms wrapped around him. “You were not born to be turned into a feystone,” I said. “You were born to become an Ehrenfest archduke candidate. That’s why the gods intervened and made it so.”

“Rozemyne. Let go.” Ferdinand gave me a few hard pats on the back, frantically urging me to desist. I squeezed him even tighter in response.

“Not until you understand the value of your life. The previous Aub Ehrenfest took you in because he needed you, and right now, I cannot overstate how important you are to Sylvester and me. I won’t let go until you acknowledge it.”

“Fine. I understand. I understand perfectly well, so let go of me. You are far too prone to acting on your emotions. Not even I can believe it sometimes. As hard as this might be for you to understand, your appearance has caught up with you, and the world now sees you as a woman of marriageable age. Learn to act a bit more like a proper noblewoman.”

I’d already learned to be more proper—that was why I’d stopped asking Ferdinand for emotional support hugs—but that still wasn’t enough. My attempt to console him had only earned me a scolding.

“In any case, I must ask you to leave,” Ferdinand said. “I will continue making the magic tool. You should use this time to inform your retainers of your circumstances and start discussing how to minimize your everyday interactions with feystones. Discuss, even, brewing the feystone brooches for the Archduke Conference. This is not information to be shared with other nobles, so ensure that nobody from Ahrensbach is present when you hold these conversations.”

And with that, Ferdinand shooed me out of his hidden room. It seemed a little cruel that he’d just tossed me aside the moment he was done with me, but I supposed that was nothing new.

It’s fine. Ferdinand seems like he’s doing better, at least.

“Rozemyne,” Cornelius said. He ran over the moment I passed through the barrier and started checking that nothing was wrong with me. “What was he up to? He deliberately made sure we couldn’t be there for it.”

“He wasn’t ‘up to’ anything. You don’t need to worry. The most he did was give me a checkup because he was worried about my health.”

“No matter how little he did, it was unacceptable. An unmarried man and woman sitting alone in a hidden room is absolutely unconscionable.”

Cornelius went on to explain in great earnest what a shameless act we had committed. It was so unacceptable, in fact, that it was reasonable grounds for everyone to assume we had engaged in premarital relations.

As unfortunate as the situation must have seemed, we hadn’t had any other choice. I doubted Ferdinand would ever reveal that he had the Book of Mestionora, and we’d even used ours together, so we’d absolutely needed to be alone. On top of that, we’d discussed my other life and, as much as Ferdinand despised it, Adalgisa. I was certain he wouldn’t have said a word about any of that if someone else had been there.

“Ferdinand needed us to be alone so that he could do something of the utmost importance,” I said.

“You need to take better care and—”

“Though I cannot reveal what I discussed with Ferdinand or what he is brewing right now, I can tell you this: he forced me out the moment he had what he needed. There is little for you to worry about.”

Looking back, I’d tried to console Ferdinand and received a lecture for my trouble. I kind of regretted having done anything in the first place.

“On a more important note,” I said, “we must discuss the very relevant results of the medical examination Ferdinand gave me. Please gather all of my retainers.”

Cornelius looked between the hidden room and me before rushing out to contact the others. As he went, Eckhart said, “Rozemyne, is Lord Ferdinand not coming out?”

“He told me to leave because he was done with me, but he still needs to finish a brew. I should note that he did not look particularly healthy. He might also take some time to make a few restorative potions.”

“I see. Thank you.”

From there, I spoke with my retainers who were accompanying me and then started toward the guest room my attendants had prepared. It was then that Cornelius came rushing back.

“Hartmut just sent an ordonnanz—a scholar is calling for the aub. An urgent message has arrived from Ehrenfest.”

“Eckhart, tell Ferdinand,” I said. “I will go on ahead.”

I was slow enough on foot that Ferdinand would probably catch up to me before I reached the archduke’s office. I tried to speed up as much as I could, but alas, as I’d expected, he was far too quick for me.