Ascendance of a Bookworm (LN) - Volume 2.1 - Chapter 7

The Animosity of Lutz and Gil 

“Lots of stuff to carry this time, huh?” said Lutz with a shrug after coming to get me in the morning and seeing the clothes packed into my basket. The basket, which I normally used for gathering in the forest, had a bunch of clothes wrapped in cloth inside it. There was Fran, Delia, and Gil’s clothes, my blue robe and sash, and finally, the three pieces of clothing I had bought yesterday. 

The clothes I had bought were cute and kind of looked like a folk costume, but the lack of patches, the neat embroidery, and the long sleeves with lace on them would all stick out here. Kids in my part of the city simply did not wear clothes like that. Who knew what people would say if I walked around wearing them. 

After being warned off by my family, we settled on Lutz and me going to Benno’s store in our normal clothes, then getting changed in Lutz’s room. The longer you spent in the north, the more fancy and expensive things got. It was normal for the people up north, so there was no helping that. But if I wasn’t careful, I would be signaling that I carried expensive stuff on me, which would make my daily commute dangerous. 

Our apprentice outfits didn’t stick out since it was normal for parents to buy new clothes for their kids after their baptism, but we would definitely attract attention if we wore fancy new clothes out of the blue. It might be a good idea to ask Benno to give me a room of my own at his store. 

“And that’s the situation. Can you lend a cheap room to me as well?” I asked Benno to lend me a room while I waited in his office for Lutz to finish changing. Benno, who had been battling with a stack of wooden boards, glared at me with a thoroughly annoyed expression. 

“I can lend you a room, but cheap ones will be up in the attic, y’know? Do you wanna climb all those stairs each time you need to change clothes or store something?” 

I let out a little “eek,” remembering how exhausting it was just to climb up the five floors to get back home. “...I think it’ll be fine if I climb them really, really slowly.” 

“Something tells me that’s not true. And actually, don’t you have a room in the temple? What’ll you do when someone visits you?” 

“Visits me?” My plan was to go to the temple just to read and expend mana, which didn’t involve anyone visiting me. I tilted my head in confusion and Benno set down his pen to look at me. 

“Usually, Lutz would be taken to your room when he comes to get you. What happened instead?” 

“...Lutz waited at the front gate while a gray priest came to the library to get me. Ummm, so basically, I should negotiate to have the book room be made into my room?” 

“Are you out of your mind?!” 

“Sorry, I just said that because I really wanted it to happen.” I knew they would never let me live in a room filled with valuable books. My dreams were just dreams. 

“Ugh. Anyway. If you don’t have a room there, ask the High Priest to assign you one before the day is up.” 

“Why today?” 

“Lutz’s job for today is to tell Fran about how to manage your health, and he needs a place to do that.” 

“Okay. I’ll talk to the High Priest.” 

Once the conversation drew to a close, Benno rang a bell on his desk. A servant woman immediately appeared from behind the door. 

“Did you call for me?” 

“Help her change. Myne, you can use that screen to hide yourself if you want. You’re not gonna make it up to the attic.” 

...Wait. He’s telling me to change in his office?! I nearly yelled my thoughts, but swallowed them back down. Benno had picked up his pen and gotten right back to work after giving the woman his orders, and she was already setting up the screen to secure a changing space for me. They were both being so casual about it that me panicking would just be weird. I couldn’t think of a single way to get out of the situation smoothly. 

“...Um, Mr. Benno. You don’t need to do this for me, I’ll be fine if I go up the stairs slowly.” 

“Don’t waste your precious stamina before you even leave in the first place.” Benno crushed my weak resistance with a single line. 

Well... He is worried about me, and he’s doing this for my sake, and I’m just a kid, and it won’t be embarrassing if I don’t think it’s embarrassing, so... Aaah, no! It’s too embarrassing to pretend it isn’t! 

“Um...” 

“Which clothes are you changing into? These? Okay, they’re ready. Please come here.” 

“Try and finish before Lutz gets back, yeah?” 

Everything was ready for me to change before I could turn them down. I gave up and headed behind the screen. 

“...Well, I guess I will then.” I wanted the embarrassment to end as soon as possible. The older servant lady helped me change behind the screen fairly quickly. She took off my dress in one go and put the blouse on, which reached to my thighs and thus covered me enough to calm me down. 

I helped her do about half of the buttons, then she adjusted the skirt around my waist and tightened the bodice strings. She then put on the hairpin that Benno gave me, and with that I was fully changed. 

“Mr. Benno, it’s done. Thank you.” I came out from behind the screen with my removed clothes in my arms and Benno lifted his head to look me over from head to toe. 

“...Yeah, you look the part now.” 

“Wha? Wha? I look the part? Are you saying I look like a rich girl? Am I cute?” 

“Maybe if you kept your mouth shut.” 

“Bwuh?” I fell silent and started putting my normal clothes into the basket, at which point Mark entered with Lutz. 

“Excuse us, Master Benno. Oh, hello Myne. I see you have finished changing.” 

“Mr. Benno helped.” 

“.........Master Benno?” 

“Myne, you moron! You abbreviated too much! Mark, I just called Matilda to help her.” Benno scratched his head and jerked his chin in the direction of Matilda, who was folding up the screen. 

Mark nodded in understanding and guided Lutz forward. Benno glanced at Lutz, then nodded after seeing the wooden board in his hands. 

“Alright. Lutz, your job today is to go to the temple and talk to Myne’s attendant, Fran, about managing her health. You’ve finished organizing what you’re going to tell him?” 

“Yes, Master Benno.” Lutz gave a polite salute just like Mark might and left the room with my basket. The sight of him behaving just like a proper store employee made me feel like a mother watching her child do well at his first job. Aaah, Lutz has really grown up, huh? 

“Lutz, your posture and speech are both a lot better now, aren’t they?” 

“I’ve still got a long way to go, but yeah, this is part of my job.” Lutz beamed a proud smile. To be honest, I found it inspiring that he was working hard and feeling proud of himself. I had a lot to learn from him. 

“I need to learn to talk like a noble lady at the temple, just like you’ve learned to be polite in the store.” 

“...You think you can manage that?” 

“Benno didn’t say I was messing up, so I think I can manage it just fine. It’ll just take some time to get used to it. Um... Don’t laugh when you hear me talk at the temple, okay? Even if it doesn’t sound like me.” If Lutz laughed at me, my fancy speech would collapse in an instant. 

“Do I gotta talk politely too?” 

“Mr. Benno was unbelievably polite when he talked to the High Priest, who’s a noble. I think it would be smart to try and be polite at the temple.” 

“R-Right...”

When we reached the temple, all three of my attendants were waiting at the gate. At first I wondered how they had known to wait for me, but then Lutz told me the Gilberta Company had sent out a messenger. Apparently it was important to give advance warning for something as simple as returning home. Noble society sure was unbelievably tedious. 

Anyway... What should I say to them? “I’m home”? “I have indeed returned”? 

“Eheh, I bet you got in trouble.” 

“Bwuh?” I was planning on talking like a noble girl once returning to the temple, but Delia tripped me up before I could begin. I let out a silly-sounding noise and tilted my head in confusion as Fran forced his way in front of Delia. 

“Welcome back, Sister Myne. I have awaited your safe return.” 

“Fran, I have returned. Did anything happen while I was gone, perhaps?” I readjusted myself and spoke to Fran. He crossed his arms reverently in front of his chest and bent his knee. 

“All is well, with nothing of note to report.” 

“What do you mean, all is well?! Myne, you brought a visitor but didn’t have your attendants with you! I bet you were super embarrassed! Heh, and that’s perfect.” 

I hated to spoil her incredibly smug mood, but I didn’t remember embarrassing myself at all. In fact, Fran did his job so well that their absence was actually a big plus for me. 

“...Fran was there for me.” 

“Hmph! There’s not much a single attendant can do. You couldn’t even offer any flowers. I bet your visitor was super disappointed in you.” 

Um... Offer flowers? Is that a euphemism for something? If so, I don’t think I want to know what for. But either way, Benno left the temple very satisfied since he got to meet the High Priest, his gifts were appreciated, and he managed to secure a good deal for the distribution of the Myne Workshop’s profits. I wasn’t sure what was going on in her head, but it seemed like Delia wanted me to say that I had gotten into trouble. It was a pain, but the sooner this conversation ended the better. 

“Ummm, yeah, okay. I got in big trouble. It was awful.” 

“Eheh. I knew it.” 

“Sister Myne, what are you...?” whispered Fran. 

“Delia’s so annoying that dealing with her is causing me trouble. I’m just getting her off my back.” 

Fran lowered his eyes, understanding what I meant. I glanced at the basket of clothes on Lutz’s back, then looked at Delia and tilted my head. 

“Delia, what can I do to make you take serving me seriously?” 

“You think I would ever serve you?! Don’t be stupid! Gosh, I’ve never seen someone as dumb as you.” Delia gave a smug smile and turned around to go off somewhere. To be honest, her being so self-centered and rude was actually a relief, since I wouldn’t feel guilty if I had to ask the High Priest to send her away. 

“...Uh, Myne. Who was that?” 

“One of my attendants, technically.” 

“Seriously? That’s what counts as an attendant here?” asked Lutz, pointing at Delia’s back as she left. It seemed his plan to be polite was just practice, and had already fallen apart. I could sympathize with that. The same would happen to me if I wasn’t careful about it. 

“It is rude of me to interject, but I must state that she is an outlier.” Fran immediately protested, likely due to feeling that his profession had been insulted. Personal attendants such as mine were generally skilled like Fran, so maybe it was safe to call Delia an outlier for aiming to be the High Bishop’s mistress. 

“Fran is a much better attendant. Delia has problems, as you saw, but...” 

“Huh. Well, I’m glad they’re not all like her. That would be a nightmare,” said Lutz, nodding, which was the perfect time for the other problem child to strike. 

Gil glared at Lutz and pointed a sharp finger at him. “And what’re you even doing at temple, huh? You don’t belong here.” 

“Who’s that?” Lutz asked with a grimace. But his outfit and the context probably meant he already knew who he was. 

“My attendant.” 

“Please think of him as an outlier as well.” 

“So you’re her only decent attendant, Fran?! The heck is going on here?!” 

Fran immediately identified Gil as another outlier, but that didn’t really help his case. As Lutz had only seen my three attendants, Fran, being the minority, was the one who seemed like an outlier to him. As Fran and I held our heads in frustration, Gil looked at Lutz and barked in anger. 

“What’s with you, jerk?! You’re an outsider, you don’t know squat!” 

“I’m Lutz of the Gilberta Company. I manage Myne’s health. I came here to teach Myne’s attendants how to manage her health, but with immature kids like you serving her, I dunno...” Lutz looked incredibly disappointed, as he had been somewhat excited to practice being polite on the same level that Benno had been with the High Priest. 

“Sorry, Lutz. This is all because I’m inexperienced as a master.” 

“It’s an attendant’s job to support their master as they grow up, isn’t it? You don’t need people who can’t even do their job right. Cut off anyone that’s not motivated. That girl from a second ago is definitely just trying to give you a hard time.” 

Lutz was right, but as these attendants had been assigned to me by the second-highest authority in the temple, I couldn’t fire them that easily. 

“Well, I’m kinda being saved by her incompetence, so I’m not too worried about it right now.” 

“Her incompetence?” 

“Delia’s spying on me for the High Bishop. I would rather have an incompetent spy that tells me what she’s doing than a good spy doing stuff behind my back.” Delia was definitely better than a spy too good at their job for me to handle. Lutz shrugged, clearly not envious of my situation. 

“...Hey, shortie. You making fun of us? You looking down on us?” Gil glared at me and Lutz with his eyes contorted angrily. He was probably addressing me, given the “shortie,” but I had no intention of replying to him. 

“Fran, I have a request for you.” 

“Yes, Sister Myne?” 

“Hey! Don’t ignore me! Don’t make fun of me!” yelled Gil before giving my arm a hard pull. He was so much taller and stronger than me that I, with my four-year-old body and strength, could do nothing to resist the force of his pull. 

“Kyaaah?!” In the end I was flung sideways, where Lutz caught me in a hug. For a second I didn’t know what had happened and I sat on my knees in front of Lutz, blinking rapidly. 

I slowly looked around and saw Fran looking at me, his eyes wide and his arm outstretched. He had apparently reached for me, but not made it in time. Gil was looking between his hand and me in disbelief, having not expected to throw me that easily. 

“Myne, are you okay?” 

“I’m okay, since you caught me. What about you, Lutz?” 

“Meh. Is he really your attendant? Seems kinda like a wild animal to me.” Lutz’s voice was calm, but his eyes were burning with anger. His eye color was even a bit lighter than normal. It actually scared me to see just how furious Lutz was. 

“He’s not trained at all, but I don’t have the time, motivation, or investment to bother trying to fix that... Especially since I’m so weak and stuff.” 

“Alright, I’ll do it for you then,” said Lutz quietly as he stood me up, made sure I wasn’t hurt, then handed me over to Fran. He then immediately jumped at Gil and pounded him in the face as hard as he could. “You idiot! What if Myne got hurt?!” 

It was normal for commoner children to get in fights, but there was an unspoken rule that you should be very careful about who you fight with. Commoners relied on their bodies for everything. Going too far could destroy someone’s family or life, so only picking fights with someone your own size was like an iron law. And Gil had just broken that law. If Gil had stuck to badmouthing me, Lutz would have shrugged it off and let the argument end with words. But Gil had laid his hands on me, in front of Lutz even, who had been told by both my family and Benno to protect me. Not to mention that I was supposed to be Gil’s master. 

“Whaddaya think you’re doing?!” 

“That’s my line! What kind of attendant hurts their master, you stupid idiot!” In the commoner part of the city it was normal for someone to get beaten up after starting a fight, so I just silently watched Lutz smack Gil into the dirt, thinking that it would be nice if this would make Gil be more obedient. 

“Sister Myne, erm, should you not stop Lutz...?” 

“Why would I? It’s a master’s duty to discipline their servants. Lutz is just doing it for me right now. It’s really a big help. I don’t have the arm strength to fight anyone.” Or the motivation, I added on the inside, as Fran anxiously looked between Gil getting smacked and me watching it. 

“When disciplining servants, it is normal to send them to the repentance chamber, or limit their divine gifts for a day... Erm, you mustn’t encourage violence.” It seemed that the temple had very different forms of discipline than the lower city. 

“Lutz, that should be enough.” 

“Nah, he doesn’t get it yet. He’s still asking why I’m hitting him.” 

“Apparently you’re not supposed to hit people in the temple.” 

“Huh? How else are you gonna discipline someone?” 

“They do other things here,” I explained, which made Lutz click his tongue in frustration and let go of Gil. Aside from the first punch, he had just been smacking him with his palm, so Gil didn’t seem that visibly hurt. 

“Sheesh. Not only is he not doing his job, he’s even hurting you, Myne. He’s the worst. Too dangerous to leave around you. You should fire him.” 

“That shortie’s not doing her job either! She’s not giving me what she should be!” Gil stood up and glared at me, holding his cheek. It seemed there was yet more basic stuff about the temple I still didn’t know. 

“Well, Fran. What exactly should I be giving him?” 

“You don’t even know?! You’re the biggest idiot here!” yelled Gil before Fran could reply. Nothing would be accomplished with Gil yelling in the background and interrupting. He already knew I didn’t know anything about the temple, but he was still whining about it without explaining anything. Just how dumb was he? 

“You really are dumb, Gil. I just said earlier that I don’t know anything about the temple. I didn’t grow up here. I just don’t know this stuff. So why do you think I know? Don’t you understand by now that I was born a commoner in the lower city and don’t know everything you know? What exactly are you expecting from me?” 

“Ngh...!” Gil fell silent and glared at me, gritting his teeth. 

Lutz stood in front of me protectively and looked at Gil head-on. “You’re being all cocky about her having stuff she should be giving you, but you know what? You don’t deserve anything if you’re not doing your job! What’s wrong with you, thinking you should get stuff without doing any work?” 

“Gifts from the gods are given to everyone equally! Higher classes get the gifts first, but it’s still all equal! Working has nothing to do with it!” 

“Huh?!” I looked at Lutz in confusion, not understanding Gil at all, then asked Fran for clarification. “Fran. Would you please explain this to me? What exactly should I be giving him?”