Upcoming Spring Prayer
Thus began Angelica’s first study group run by my guard knights. She would need to return to the Royal Academy for classes once the feast celebrating spring was over, so she had been engaging in fervent games of karuta in the knight dorms with the other apprentices while she still had the chance. Cornelius taught her how to move her hands to grab the cards she recognized as quickly as possible.
As for studying the fundamentals of warfare, we focused on a book that Lamprecht had brought me back when I passed out after my baptism ceremony. I hadn’t really understood it at the time, since it focused on the use of mana, but with Damuel moving the gewinnen pieces as he explained the passages, I started to feel like I was really grasping it. Gewinnen, incidentally, was a chess-like game where moving the pieces took mana.
“Okay, Damuel. In this case, should I move this piece here?” I asked.
“Correct, Lady Rozemyne. Another established tactic is to move this other piece here.”
Having the strategies explained with visual demonstration appeared to help Angelica a lot, and she even seemed moved by the fact that she was actually understanding things. “So that’s what the text meant there. If only they’d use gewinnen pieces during class...” she murmured.
Both she and Cornelius were now more interested in battle tactics than ever before, since during class, they only ever moved as their teachers instructed, without ever thinking more deeply about what they were doing. Now they were playing with the gewinnen pieces while carefully cross-referencing with their books.
Brigitte glanced toward Damuel. “Is this how you learned about tactics?” she asked.
“My older brother taught me himself, so most of my knowledge on strategy comes from gewinnen.”
Gewinnen was played quite frequently in the Knight’s Order, but since it required mana to play, it was mostly mednobles and archnobles who participated. It seemed that Brigitte had found it somewhat strange that a laynoble like Damuel both owned a set and was using the pieces so casually.
“There was a huge gewinnen boom in the Royal Academy dorms back when my older brother lived there. I have heard that Lord Ferdinand used the pieces to craft strategic theories for the Interduchy Championship’s feybeast hunts and ditter games, which he then explained to others. It ended up being the case that everyone understood the strategies without even needing to attend the lectures,” Damuel explained, making me realize that he probably admired and respected Ferdinand so much in part due to how much his older brother must have spoken about him.
...But seriously, the more I learn about Ferdinand, the more confident I become that he really can do anything.
“I imagine that, by the time Lady Rozemyne goes to the Royal Academy, everyone will already be using karuta and picture books. They are simply that effective,” Brigitte said. “If you ask me, you should raise the price even higher when selling them to other duchies. Establishing such large-scale trends will strengthen Ehrenfest’s position in the country.”
“I haven’t learned much about the country we’re in. Is Ehrenfest a comparatively weak duchy?”
“At the moment, I would say that we are right in the middle of the hierarchy, largely due to having maintained a neutral position during the civil war.”
Ehrenfest was currently higher up in the hierarchy thanks to not having been too disadvantaged by the civil war, but prior to that, had you ranked the twenty-five duchies that existed at the time by power, it would have been significantly closer to the bottom.
“That said, Ehrenfest has risen in the hierarchy exclusively because the duchies that lost the civil war now have less political influence,” Brigitte continued. “In other words, its position does not mean it has any real influence itself.”
“I see. In that case, I think we should keep the teaching materials as hidden as we can from the other duchies and make it our goal to boost Ehrenfest’s educational standards as much as we can.”
I later told Sylvester and Ferdinand about Brigitte’s assertion that the teaching materials could strengthen Ehrenfest’s political influence. To Sylvester, this was like a dream come true, especially considering how unstable the current balance of power was. At the feast celebrating the return of spring, he gave a strict order to all Ehrenfest nobles not to discuss their children’s better learning standards, how much they had developed over the winter, or that the Gilberta Company was selling them materials. He also made it clear that those bringing the materials to the Royal Academy were not to take them out of their dorm rooms under any circumstances.
Once the feast was over, the kids got together for one last gathering as they sadly prepared to leave. I had the laynoble parents sign an agreement to treat the materials well, but seeing the children’s smiles as they hugged the borrowed picture books and toys to their chests immediately eased any lingering concerns.
“Lady Rozemyne, I will have prepared many more stories for you by next winter. I promise!”
“Please do, Philine. I, myself, am quite looking forward to the new picture books. Do your best to write and learn as much as you can.”
At that, the giebes and the nobles living on giebe land all departed for their respective provinces. Angelica, meanwhile, would instead be returning to the Royal Academy. She had shown clear signs of development over the past few days, so all I wanted was for her to keep doing her best.
“I will return every Earthday,” she said.
“Do listen to your lectures and please practice with the karuta and gewinnen.”
And so, Angelica headed back to the Royal Academy with the karuta, picture books, and gewinnen set that her parents had bought for her. They had almost been moved to tears when their daughter unexpectedly asked for something to help in her studies, so much so that they quickly bought every kind of material available.
As the number of nobles steadily decreased, Ferdinand and I returned to the temple to perform the winter coming of age ceremony and the spring baptism ceremony. On the day after that, there was a meeting with the blue priests to decide who would be going where during Spring Prayer, with Ferdinand posting his planned routes for all to see. He and I would be splitting up and covering the Central District by ourselves.
Once the meeting was over, Ferdinand needed to discuss the more precise details of Spring Prayer and the gathering with me. I was resting in my room in the meantime.
As I sipped the tea that Nicola had prepared, she placed a plate of sweets in front of me. “You have been ever so busy lately, Lady Rozemyne. How is your health?”
“As of right now, I’m doing okay. But all of you are going to be accompanying me during Spring Prayer, and there will be many busy days of traveling via carriage. It will no doubt be tough, though I hope not too tough.”
“Of course, milady!”
A bell rang then from the other side of the door. Ferdinand promptly entered alongside Zahm, who was carrying a bundle of documents.
“Fran, Zahm—spread out this map. We shall be traveling by highbeast just as we did last year, visiting winter mansions in the morning and afternoon. The fact that we are staying within the Central District this time should give us more leeway.”
Once Fran and Zahm had prepared the map of the duchy, Ferdinand started shooting out instructions about Spring Prayer. During the meeting, he had made it sound as though the two of us would be dividing the land evenly between ourselves, but his current explanation involved me going across the entirety of the Central District.
“Um, Ferdinand... I’d assumed that you would be handling these areas yourself, and that I consequently wouldn’t need to visit them all,” I said, confused.
Ferdinand looked at me with exasperation. “We shall be traveling together, so of course you will need to. You should be able to piece that much together yourself. Furthermore, you were asked directly by the archduke to travel across the entire region. Had you forgotten that?”
“No, I remember, but the prayer only requires that we offer up a bunch of mana. Can’t you do that alone? I think splitting the work between us would make things go a lot easier.”
We had traveled together during last year’s Spring Prayer, and the journey had proven so brutal that I was forced to repeatedly use potions to recover my energy and mana. And yet, Ferdinand shot down my suggestion with a single dismissive laugh.
“This is work that you were asked to do and agreed to. Therefore, it is yours and yours alone. I shall follow merely to ensure that you do not cause problems. Furthermore, the current plan is for you to gather your spring ingredient along the way, but it is more than possible that unexpected problems will arise, as they did last autumn. It will be less of a headache for me to accompany you from the beginning rather than having to anxiously await an update or an ordonnanz summoning me out of nowhere.”
“Eep. Um, thank you for all your help back there, and, ah... Please do accompany me during Spring Prayer as well,” I said, remembering the disaster that had happened on the Night of Schutzaria. With Ferdinand there, disaster would be a lot, lot less likely.
“Incidentally, Rozemyne... Eckhart has said that he would like to accompany us during Spring Prayer. Your thoughts?”
“Eckhart is your guard knight, so he would be accompanying us anyway, wouldn’t he?”
“You misunderstand. Since I will be traveling as a priest, I am not permitted to bring a guard knight with me. He would officially be accompanying us as your guard knight rather than mine.”
The cover story would be that Karstedt, worried about his sweet little daughter leaving the Noble’s Quarter to travel the duchy, had used his authority as the Order’s commander to give me an additional guard.
“I see. Well, if we have to go through another battle for the spring ingredient, we’ll want as many fighters as we can get.”
“Precisely. Thus, I would like to bring Eckhart with us, assuming this would not bother you. We will also need to bring a scholar with us to observe the state of Hasse, but I imagine you would have no issue with Justus,” Ferdinand said. But despite having suggested Justus himself, the name was accompanied by a very displeased grimace.
“I would be relieved to work alongside someone I know, but why are you making a face like that, Ferdinand?”
“Because nothing good ever happens when Justus gets eager.”
The discussion ended with a sigh from Ferdinand, and with that, the party we were taking with us on Spring Prayer was decided.
“You have a meeting with the Gilberta Company today, and I must say, you certainly invited quite a few people,” Fran said as we walked toward my orphanage director’s chambers.
“It simply had to be done. There is much we need to discuss and settle all at once,” I replied with a smile. Today I had invited Corinna and Tuuli, as well as the usual Benno, Mark, and Lutz.
By the time we arrived at my chambers, the Gilberta Company was already there. Benno greeted me as their representative, and once he was done, I turned my gaze to Corinna and Tuuli.
“Corinna, I wish for you to sew an outfit, due by the next Starbind Ceremony.”
“...But you have not yet come of age, Lady Rozemyne. What is it you desire?” Corinna asked, blinking in surprise.
I grinned. “The clothes are not for me, but my guard knight, Brigitte,” I said, gesturing for her to come over.
“F-For me?”
“I shall purchase an outfit that makes you look more beautiful than ever. That is my payment to you.”
At that, I guided the faltering Brigitte to my hidden room. She nervously entered, having never been inside before. I also invited Corinna to accompany us, and Tuuli as her helper.
“Fran, please discuss the priests heading to Hasse with Benno.”
“As you wish.”
After leaving the rest to Fran, I brought Monika into my hidden room with the others.
“When I saw what you were wearing at last year’s Starbind Ceremony, Brigitte, it occurred to me that it was not bringing out your beauty as much as it should have. Thus, I set out to create my masterpiece: an outfit that would suit a tall woman such as yourself.”
I took the design illustrations that Monika had been carrying for me and spread them out on the table for Brigitte to see.
“This is known as a (halter dress), recognizable by the diagonal cuts that come down from the neck and leave the wearer’s shoulders exposed. I intend to have ribbon or some other kind of material wrapped around the arms, serving as decorative sleeves separate to the main gown.”
As far as halter dresses went, this was a more formal style, not held up by cloth or straps; it looked the same on the back as it did on the front, which ensured that the wearer wasn’t too exposed.
“It clings to the body all the way down to the hips. The skirt then uses a lot of extra cloth to make it all fluttery, which should give the outfit all the fanciness it needs.”
As much as I would have preferred to put her in a simple fishtail dress to emphasize her good figure, noble outfits were required to use an excessive amount of cloth. This dress was thus closely fitted at the torso to emphasize Brigitte’s sizable bust and toned back, but also deliberately excessive below the waist. After all, it was best to avoid taboos when designing clothes for noble women.
“This is certainly a unique design,” Corinna observed.
“The current trend in noble fashion is for shoulders to be adorned with fluff, spreading the dress out horizontally, correct? While that may make slender girls on the smaller side look cuter, vertical lines would complement tall women like Brigitte much better. So? What do you think, Brigitte? If you don’t like the dress, we don’t have to make it.”
As I glanced Brigitte’s way, she returned a gentle smile. “No, I like it. You thought up this design for my sake, Lady Rozemyne, and I knew more than anyone that the current trends did not suit me or other female knights. We put on clothes that do not look particularly good on us because we have no choice but to follow noble trends, but since this is a dress designed by the archduke’s adopted daughter, it will no doubt become a trend in itself,” she replied, accepting my suggestion not only for herself, but for all the other female knights who shared her build.
“Corinna, Tuuli—I ask that you work with Brigitte to pick the colors and cloth. Brigitte, I shall put five large silvers of my money toward this. Should Angelica pass her exams, then I will offer one small gold. Please consider this while budgeting for the clothes.”
I placed ink and paper in front of Corinna, saying that she could use it as she liked, and then handed Monika a magic tool resembling a gavel.
“Monika, once the measuring and discussion are both complete, please strike here with this; it will make the feystone outside the door shine. Meanwhile, I will be discussing other matters with Benno.”
“As you wish.”
Leaving those matters to Corinna and Tuuli, I exited the hidden room. The financial report on the teaching materials had already concluded outside, and it seemed they were almost done deciding on the means by which to take the priests to Hasse. The discussion had overall gone smoothly, since the journey back and forth had been made so many times already.
“Lady Rozemyne. I recently visited Hasse to see the current state of affairs...” Mark began. According to his explanation, following lengthy discussions that had taken place throughout the winter, the mayor’s faction had ended up isolated. “To farmers, the Spring Prayer not being performed is the same as being abandoned by the archduke. Anyone who hears that his wrath is only being contained by the new High Bishop, his own daughter, would naturally shift to supporting her over the mayor.”
The farmers around Hasse cursed the mayor’s thoughtlessness and collectively decided that it was better to rely on the archduke’s adopted daughter, the new High Bishop. The citizens in the enclosed winter mansion had all descended into a massive panic upon being informed that the former High Bishop was dead, that Kantna was no longer overseeing the town, and that the attack on the monastery was being viewed as an attack on the archduke’s family.
“It seems that the citizens had considered the monastery to be something built without permission by the new High Bishop, not realizing that such ivory buildings are constructed by the archduke’s family. They all said that they had no intention of attacking the archduke and had simply been following the mayor’s orders. Speaking of which—since we spread the rumor that someone would need to take responsibility, the mayor has been living quietly and in fear all winter.”
It was apparently common knowledge in the city of Ehrenfest that nobles lived in ivory buildings, which were never to be touched under any circumstances. I hadn’t known this, since I never went outside, but everyone else was supposedly aware.
“Thank you for looking into all this, Mark.”
“It is my honor to be of use to you. I took it upon myself to preemptively spread the rumor that the archduke would be sending knights and scholars come spring to arrest those responsible, so I imagine that they are currently experiencing stress and agony beyond words,” Mark said with a dark smile.
Strong loyalty sure can make people do scary things, huh? I thought, averting my gaze and instead glancing toward Fran. He had on a cold smile himself.
“I would like to once again ask the city guards to accompany the priests to Hasse, for safety’s sake. Lutz, please deliver this to the commander of the east gate,” I said, handing Lutz a letter detailing my request. I had considered giving it to Tuuli, but to the public, it would be pretty bizarre for me to give such a letter to a seamstress’s apprentice.
“As you wish.”
It was then that the feystone on the hidden room’s door lit up, indicating that Brigitte’s measurements had been taken. I opened the entrance for them, and the four stepped out.
As Brigitte informed me what kinds of cloth and colors she had ordered, I glanced at Tuuli. We exchanged a smile upon making eye contact, but there was no reason for me to speak to her here. I desperately worked my head to come up with some excuse.
“...And that concludes the order,” Brigitte said.
“I see. I’m glad to hear that you liked it. Now then, Corinna—I imagine it will be quite the task to put together such a unique outfit, but I trust your abilities. And Tuuli...”
Tuuli shot her head up with a beaming smile.
“Please design a hairpin to match Brigitte’s hair and her dress. I will summon you two again when Spring Prayer is over,” I said, wanting to have a more relaxed conversation with her when we weren’t so busy with the upcoming Spring Prayer.
Tuuli grinned, guessing my intentions, and then took out a box. “Lady Rozemyne, would you like a spring hair stick? I made one during the winter for you to wear during Spring Prayer.”
“But of course,” I replied. How could I ever refuse?
The hair stick that she took out was primarily adorned with blooming renfruhl flowers, which were like white crocuses that announced the coming of spring. It was also decorated with a bunch of leaves, the colors of which ranged from yellow to dark green.
Once Tuuli had put the hair stick in for me, I shook my head a little, causing the vine-like string of decorative leaves to sway through the air.
“It looks wonderful on you,” Tuuli said with a smile.
I loved that smile just as much as I loved my new hair stick.
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