Inauguration Ceremony
Ferdinand had told me to use the day after my baptism ceremony to rest. He had most likely told Elvira about this before leaving, given that she also instructed me to stay in bed for the day that morning at the breakfast table. And considering how sometimes my body reacted negatively to being forced back into being healthy with a potion, I was more than glad to comply.
“Rozemyne, do you have a moment?”
“Lamprecht? I do, though I can’t leave my bed at the moment.”
“I just came to check up on how you’re doing. Lord Wilfried is pretty worried himself, so...”
A glum-looking Lamprecht came to see me before he was due to leave for work, perhaps as a result of the harsh scolding he had been given. He had been so bright and lively yesterday that seeing him so down made me wonder just how hard Ferdinand and Karstedt had scolded him, which made my heart hurt a little. Had I been a normal child, my fall would have ended with a couple of scratches at worst. It wouldn’t have traumatized him like this.
“Ferdinand let it happen on purpose as a lesson to Wilfried, so please don’t worry about it too much.”
“I can imagine Lord Ferdinand wanted it to happen while he was still nearby, since he is capable of using magic and giving potions himself. This ended with no more than a scolding since you were healed almost immediately, but what if it had happened at the castle without any healers around? If you had died there, Lord Wilfried would be far more distraught than he is now.”
...Um, why is it that the brutal, cold-hearted rationalist Ferdinand suddenly sounds like a super good person?
“This is something that I should have taught Wilfried myself, without Lord Ferdinand needing to get involved.”
Lamprecht was deeply regretting the incident, but if you asked me, Ferdinand was the one who should be regretting traumatizing everyone. He needed to learn to be nicer to other people, myself included.
“Don’t worry, Lamprecht. As long as you and Wilfried are more careful from now on, everything will be fine.”
“Rozemyne... You were on the verge of death, nearly slain by our hands, and yet you express nothing but concern for us? What enormous compassion...” The light returned to Lamprecht’s eyes as his face was overcome by a mix of shock and admiration.
...Oh no. I feel like I’ve nudged him in the wrong direction.
“Um, Lamprecht, my dear brother, you have the wrong idea. I’m just used to that kind of situation, so a single slip-up doesn’t really mean much to me...”
“I see, so your empathy is just that profound.”
I feel like nothing I say at this point will change his mind. He’s just not listening anymore. Whaaatever.
I dropped the subject, giving up on Lamprecht ever understanding me. That was when he undid a bundle of cloth, from which he retrieved a book. “I asked Lord Ferdinand what he thought I should get you as a gift, and he gave me this, saying it would be perfect for you. I can’t say I follow, though.”
“That’s a book, isn’t it?!”
“He said this is a book you’ve never read before and could finish in a day, but Rozemyne, can you really read a book this thick?” Lamprecht asked dubiously, practically comparing me and the book. But it would be a piece of cake.
“I can read it! I will read it! Lamprecht, thank you ever so much!”
“I’m glad to see that you’re this happy about it. Well, I have to return to the castle. Rest well, Rozemyne. Okay?”
“Okaaay.”
Ferdinand was a brutal rationalist, but he was a good person. He may have correctly predicted that giving me a book I couldn’t actually finish in a day would lead to me faking being sick and avoiding going to the temple tomorrow, but that was fine by me.
Thank you, High Priest!
I spent the day rolling around in bed, resting for the first time in ages while reading a book about effectively mobilizing troops during warfare. A lot of the concepts were largely based around magic, which made them pretty hard to understand, but it was really fun trying to figure things out.
When tomorrow came, I felt great, no doubt thanks to the combined powers of Ferdinand’s healing and his potion, plus having spent a day reading a book in bed. I sent someone to tell Ella and Rosina that we’d be going back to the temple.
After breakfast, once I was ready to leave, my guards Damuel and Brigitte arrived. They knelt in front of me and crossed their arms over their chests.
“Good morning, Lady Rozemyne.”
“Today we are returning to the temple. I ask that you accompany me,” I said, and they both responded “Ma’am!” before standing up sharply. I went to stand up too, but Brigitte stopped me.
“Please wait here for a moment, Lady Rozemyne. I will send an ordonnanz to Lord Ferdinand.” Brigitte took out her shining wand and tapped a yellow feystone while murmuring “ordonnanz,” which turned it into a white bird. She then said “Lady Rozemyne is now heading for the temple” before swiping her wand through the air, sending the bird flying off.
It returned not long after and said “Understood” three times in Ferdinand’s voice before morphing back into a feystone. That had really surprised me the first time I saw it, but after living around magic tools for long enough, it just felt kind of normal. I was adjusting to my surroundings shockingly fast, if you asked me.
With our report concluded, Damuel and Brigitte escorted me into a carriage. Ella and Rosina would be following in a separate carriage for attendants.
“Please tell Lord Ferdinand that I said hello. And remember to take your duties seriously, dear.”
“Yes, Mother.”
Karstedt and Cornelius had already headed to the Knight’s Order, so Elvira was the only one to see me off. The carriage started smoothly and we headed to the temple, the pure-white buildings passing by on either side of us.
“Brigitte, have you ever been to the temple or the lower city?”
“Yes, milady, but only while passing through. This is my first time going through the Noble’s Gate with the intention of staying.”
Brigitte was in fact the little sister of Viscount Illgner—“viscount” being the title given to mednoble giebes—who ruled a province to the south of the city. As such, she had flown over the lower city on her highbeast and passed through in a carriage with her family, but had never actually stayed there or even stepped out of the carriage.
Damuel, having experience in the lower city thanks to me, grimaced a bit and tossed Brigitte some words of encouragement. “The temple’s not so bad, but visiting the lower city will be rough for a woman. Good luck.”
“Welcome back, Lady Rozemyne,” Fran said. He had waited for me at the temple’s front entrance. Given that I had been moved to the Noble’s Quarter as spring was starting to fade, and that we were now approaching the height of summer, it had been a long time since Fran and I had seen each other.
“I have returned, Fran. Has anything changed since I’ve been gone?”
“Your room has changed, and Gil has been working like a mad man. With that in mind, I would say that much has changed.”
“I’m looking forward to seeing that. Brigitte, this is Fran, my head attendant. Fran, this is Brigitte, a knight and one of my guards.”
Once I had finished introducing them to each other, I headed to the High Bishop’s chambers. It was at the far end of the temple’s noble section, and I remembered passing by it quite regularly during the winter Dedication Ritual.
“Monika and Nicola are preparing to cook in the kitchen now, and Gil is in the workshop. I believe you will all meet after your inauguration,” Fran said, before opening the door.
I walked into my new chambers. The decoration and furniture had been changed according to Rosina’s list, now looking much more feminine, and with fairy tale-esque flower designs decorating the entire room in shades of red. The chambers barely resembled what they used to look like.
There was one resemblance, though: the altar holding the thirty-ish centimeter tall god statue, bible, and candle, placed thirty centimeters apart from each other with the bible in the middle. I could guess that this was just a necessary part of the High Bishop’s chambers, which reminded me—back when I had become an apprentice blue shrine maiden, Ferdinand had said that vowing to serve the gods and being given robes was normally done before the altar in the High Bishop’s room. That meant any future blue priests and shrine maidens would say their vows here.
Hm... I wonder whether I’ll be able to handle that.
“This certainly is a cute room. It suits you well, Lady Rozemyne. And I never would have thought the High Bishop’s chambers would have so much money poured into them,” Brigitte said in awe, nodding to herself repeatedly. Karstedt had paid for the entire redecoration, so my wallet hadn’t been hurt by it at all.
Maybe I should give a portion of my workshop’s earnings to Karstedt to pay for my living expenses.
“The High Priest also instructed that rooms for male and female knights be prepared on either side of the High Bishop’s chambers so that Lady Rozemyne’s guards can stay the night. Two separate rooms, each with multiple beds. Please do inform me if there are any inconveniences,” Fran said, so I went to check out the rooms.
The male room was fitted as a guest room; it was simple, without a single unnecessary thing in it. According to Damuel, it was just like the men’s rooms in the knights’ barracks. Karstedt had ordered the rooms be made similarly since he figured staying somewhere familiar would be for the best.
I assumed the female room would also be the same as the barracks, but apparently when Karstedt had investigated the female half of the knights’ barracks, he discovered that the women had all changed their rooms to suit their personal tastes, leaving the original layout unrecognizable. Karstedt eventually gave up on catering the room to a wide variety of preferences and just ordered for it to be fitted like mine, figuring that a room good enough for the archduke’s adopted daughter would be good enough for a female knight of any status.
In other words, the room was feminine. Geduldh the Goddess of Earth was considered the symbol of femininity, and the room was themed around her royal color of red, with bright-pink flower decorations covering everything. It was so cute that I figured a tough woman like Brigitte might be put off by it.
“This certainly is a cute room...” Brigitte repeated the same thing she had about my room, but this time there was a tinge of surprise and worry mixed into her voice. She seemed a bit conflicted about how cute it was.
“Brigitte, um, if you don’t like the room...”
“You do not need to concern yourself with that, Lady Rozemyne. It is a guest room; all I will be doing here is sleeping, so there is no need to go out of your way to change the decoration. I will be quite fine,” Brigitte said, her amethyst eyes softening as she gave me a gentle smile. I knew better than to doubt the kind words of a cool lady knight.
I returned to my High Bishop’s chambers just as Monika left the kitchen. Ella had arrived, and Monika was going to do her normal work while Nicola helped cook.
“Welcome back, Lady Rozemyne.”
Once Rosina and Monika finished putting away my things and setting the harspiel in place, they changed me into my ceremonial High Bishop robes. Apparently these were the robes Ferdinand had ordered from the Gilberta Company.
“It seems that, due to a lack of time, they simply altered the previous High Bishop’s robes in a haste,” Monika said.
I nodded. That made sense. No way did we have the time to wait for cloth of this quality to be prepared from scratch. With the archduke’s mother as his older sister, the previous High Bishop had robes made from the highest quality cloth available. It felt wonderful to the touch, and was very light on me. Sadly though, the crest wasn’t the one I had spent so long thinking up for the Myne Workshop; instead, it was a lion just like the one on Ferdinand’s robes, signifying a child of the archduke.
...Dang. I really liked that crest, too.
I pursed my lips while fiddling with the crest, and Monika gave me a worried frown. “I know that it must be unpleasant to wear clothes worn by the previous High Bishop, but please bear with it for now.”
“Oh, that’s not it, Monika. I’m just a little disappointed that the crest isn’t my own—the one I liked a lot. I don’t care who made or wore an outfit as long as it doesn’t embarrass me or the people around me. Hate the person, not the clothes.”
I had spent years wearing nothing but secondhand clothing. If you were worried about who had worn a particular piece of clothing before you, then you wouldn’t be able to wear secondhand clothing at all. Considering that I had once worn an outfit made of literal rags sewn together in order to gather soot, I would probably receive divine punishment if I complained about robes this beautiful.
“You are such a wonderful person, Lady Rozemyne. Everything Wilma said was true,” Monika whispered, her eyes glittering, but I had no idea what had inspired her to say that.
I thought for a second, then snapped my fingers in realization. Fran and Gil had seen me walking around the lower city in my raggedy commoner clothes, but Monika only knew me as an apprentice blue shrine maiden, and now the adopted daughter of the archduke. She was convinced I had been suffering in silence as a high-status archnoble used to always wearing new clothes, and since Brigitte was here, I couldn’t correct her. I gave up on explaining and decided to just let her misunderstandings be.
“The robes seem to fit you perfectly. With that sorted, I will now discuss today’s plans,” Fran said once he had looked over my ceremonial robes, heading to a nearby desk. Apparently Ferdinand would be coming here later to discuss a few matters, and then the inauguration ceremony would be held in the afternoon. We also had a meeting planned with the Gilberta Company tomorrow.
...I’m finally going to get to see Lutz again.
By the time Fran had finished his explanation, Ferdinand was just arriving. It turned out that he would generally be coming to my chambers from now on instead of me going to his, since I was of higher status than him as far as the public was concerned. I thanked him for the book he had given Lamprecht, and for preparing the ceremonial robes, rooms for the knights, and so on.
“Still, I’m surprised I’m being inaugurated so quickly,” I said.
Ferdinand responded by saying that it was an exclusive ceremony performed within the temple, so there really wasn’t much to prepare. I double-checked the ceremony procedures, then asked why we were rushing it so much. Considering that it was a gathering of blue priests, I would have thought that they would be given at least a few days’ notice.
“This ritual is necessary for you to use the High Bishop’s chambers. Furthermore, if you are not officially inaugurated as High Bishop, I cannot give you the keys to the book room.”
“Oh, now that’s a big deal. We need to get this over with as soon as possible. I’m assuming those aren’t the only reasons, though...”
The keys to the book room were definitely important, but it was hard to imagine Ferdinand going through the effort of speeding things up for that alone. There had to be some deeper reasons here.
“The blue priests were informed days ago and pose no issue here; we knew thanks to the potion and healing magic that you would recover soon. But in any case, you should be more concerned with accelerating this small, internal ceremony than anyone else. Otherwise you won’t have enough time to finish what Sylvester spoke about, will you?”
“Wait... what did Sylvester say?” I asked, tilting my head in confusion.
Ferdinand drummed a finger against his temple and shot me an annoyed glare. “Were you not listening? I am referring to the eatery and the expansion of printing.”
“I remember Sylvester talking about building workshops in neighboring cities to expand the printing industry, but what’s this about the eatery?” I asked.
I knew from a hastily written letter Benno had sent me that, in return for letting Hugo and Todd train under Leise, he had let the guildmaster join in funding the Italian restaurant. But that was all; I didn’t know any details.
“Benno received a direct decree from Sylvester: he is to meet with a scholar-official, investigate the orphanage of a nearby city, and organize their findings—all before the Starbind Ceremony. Then, he will need to report these findings directly to Sylvester during a meeting at the Italian restaurant.”
“Whaaat?!”
“That is naturally too great of a burden for Benno. Help him where you can, especially now that the deadline has been accelerated by your adoption.”
Apparently Benno was so overworked that even Ferdinand sympathized enough to try to help out a bit. I nodded hard, feeling the blood drain from my face.
I need to finish this dumb inauguration ceremony as soon as possible so I can get to helping Benno!
The inauguration ceremony was held in the chapel, with the blue priests, their attendants, and all gray priests and shrine maidens who had come of age in attendance. It was being led by Ferdinand, who dryly stated that the previous High Bishop had been dismissed and that the archduke had decided on a new High Bishop. Meanwhile, I was behind a door, waiting for him to call for me.
“...And so, according to the archduke’s wishes, the new High Bishop will be his adopted daughter, Rozemyne,” Ferdinand said, the door in front of me slowly opening as he spoke. When it was completely open, I could see the rows and rows of gray priests standing silently in the chapel, and Ferdinand standing atop the steps.
“Offer your prayers to the gods and welcome her arrival. Praise be to the gods!”
While feeling nostalgic for the rows of Gl*co poses that I hadn’t seen in a long time, I took Fran’s hand and gracefully walked to the center of the chapel. I climbed the stairs to the highest point, which allowed me to look over the entire chapel.
There was a row of about ten blue priests closest to us, a few of whom were gaping at the sight of me. Those who knew me as Myne or had mocked me when we crossed paths in the halls all had their eyes wide open in shock, but some were just looking me over with blank, half-interested expressions—most likely the people who had never seen me as Myne and so didn’t recognize me. The stark contrast between their reactions made them easy to tell apart.
“Thank you all for coming on this auspicious summer day blessed by Leidenschaft’s shining rays. I am Rozemyne, and my father, the archduke, has entrusted me with the position of High Bishop.”
“The archduke’s adopted daughter? That can’t be right! She’s a commoner!” one blue priest shouted. Ferdinand repeated the same explanation that Sylvester had given at my baptism, but that wasn’t enough to convince the blue priest, who continued his furious protests.
“High Priest, you’re the archduke’s brother. You would have known if she was an archnoble. You wouldn’t have called her a commoner. None of this makes any sense!”
“If even the previous High Bishop—who frequently spoke of being closer to the archduke than anyone else thanks to his high birth—did not know, then it is unreasonable to expect that I would.”
There it is! The ultimate technique: “It’s all his fault, not mine”! The old High Bishop really is perfect for wrongfully pinning the blame on.
Ferdinand had to resort to the ultimate technique just like Sylvester had, but thanks to that, almost everyone accepted the situation, even if they didn’t fully believe it. The gray priests and shrine maidens in particular, who were used to obeying orders from above, accepted it easily without really thinking too hard about it. They would tell the kids in the orphanage about all this later, instructing them to call me “Lady Rozemyne” instead of “Sister Myne” from now on, so that I would be treated one hundred percent like an archnoble even in the temple.
“If you doubt that I am an archnoble adopted by the archduke, you may ask Karstedt, the commander of the Knight’s Order, or Aub Ehrenfest, my adoptive father, to see what they say,” I declared, indirectly telling them to shut up. And with that done, all that was left was to list my future goals in flowery language and then pray to the gods.
“O mighty King and Queen of the endless skies, O mighty Eternal Five who rule the mortal realm, O Goddess of Water Flutrane, O God of Fire Leidenschaft, O Goddess of Wind Schutzaria, O Goddess of Earth Geduldh, O God of Life Ewigeliebe! We offer you our prayers and gratitude,” I said, and the priests all took their positions.
“Praise be to the gods! Glory be to the gods!”
Once everyone had prayed to the gods, I took my leave, Ferdinand taking my hand as I walked down the steps. But about halfway down, I noticed one blue priest deliberately avoiding eye contact, instead looking at the ground. I stopped to take a closer look, and immediately recognized his middle-aged noble features.
“Oh my, are you who I think you are?”
“You know Egmont, Rozemyne?”
“He’s the one who made a mess of my book room, I believe. Is that right, Egmont?”
Heheh. Fooound you, I cackled to myself, and despite the fact I wasn’t even Crushing him, Egmont paled at once. He desperately flapped his mouth, trying to say words but failing hard as he looked around for help. It was then that he made eye contact with Ferdinand and, a light bulb popping up over his head, hurriedly began to make excuses.
“The previous High Bishop ordered me to do that! I didn’t do it by choice!”
There it is again! The ultimate technique: “It’s all his fault, not mine”! Goodness, High Bishop, you sure are popular.
However, no ultimate technique would keep working forever. The sin of messing up my precious book room was profound, and my anger for those who spited books was doggedly persistent. Neither would fade by trying to push the blame onto the High Bishop.
“I see. So the High Bishop ordered it, then,” I said.
Egmont nodded, his lips curling into a smile—a smile purely expressing the glee of having escaped anger. There wasn’t a shred of regret nor any indication of self-reflection. I gave a smile of my own, Crushing him just a little to show I was still angry.
“Your life is mine. Do not think I shall forgive you a second time.”
Despite having solved the situation with stunning restraint and perfect logic while avoiding an absolute bloodfest, the second we were back in my chambers, Ferdinand scolded me for going too far. It just didn’t make sense.
“That’s strange. You’re the one who taught me that the most logical and effective course of action is to beat a lesson into someone by emotionally traumatizing them.”
“...That is only the case when you are dealing with someone who will not listen no matter what you say,” Ferdinand replied with an uncomfortable frown. But as far as I was concerned, it would be a huge problem if Egmont had ignored me and messed up the book room a second time.
“At the moment, I don’t care whether or not he’s willing to listen. What I want is for all of the blue priests to know that it won’t end well for them if they touch my book room. And I accomplished that in quite a rational way, did I not?” I asked with a smile.
Ferdinand gave me a fake smile in return. “Your rationality is spurred by emotion, which makes it all the more terrifying. It is impossible to say what far-reaching impact your actions will have.”
“Oh? But your rationality is spurred by complicated plotting, and has quite a far-reaching impact on many things.”
As we smiled coldly at each other, I suddenly remembered something important: Egmont being traumatized didn’t matter, and now was definitely not the time to be having an evil staring contest with Ferdinand.
“Now then, Ferdinand—the baptism and inauguration ceremonies went perfectly, and we each took care of the dangerous people threatening us. I would like the keys to the book room now. I want to read as much as possible before meeting Lutz and the others tomorrow,” I said, breaking into an eager grin as I held out a hand.
Ferdinand shut his eyes tight and cradled his head in his hands. “If you collapse again, expect no potions or any healing from me.”
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