Hasse’s Punishment
Before we left for Spring Prayer, the priests headed to Hasse in carriages that were provided by the Gilberta Company and guarded by soldiers. This time all the soldiers were lined up at the temple’s back entrance (which was the front entrance from the lower city’s perspective), because they heard rumors that Dad was being assigned to every one of these trips because he had taken it upon himself to travel all the way to the temple to greet priests.
“Gunther, I ask for your assistance once again,” I said with a broad smile as Dad knelt before me, a serious expression on his face.
“You may count on me. I will ensure that everyone arrives safely.”
“You have my trust. May we meet again in Hasse.”
While I was speaking to the soldiers, Marthe and Delia were saying their tearful goodbyes, having gotten very close over the winter. Thore and Rick, on the other hand, looked beyond excited to be returning to Hasse, while the priests newly assigned to the monastery looked nervous to be leaving Ehrenfest for the first time.
In the morning a couple days later, carriages transporting Ferdinand’s and my attendants and chefs headed to Hasse as well. The two-day gap was to account for a letter that Benno was delivering to Hasse’s mayor, outlining the date on which we would be arriving to punish those guilty of treason. We did not need to wait for a response, since it was an official decree with the archduke’s seal.
I would be heading to Hasse by highbeast come fifth bell, and by that time, the letter would likely have already arrived. The citizens were probably too scared and anxious to even think about eating lunch right now, and in all honesty, I didn’t feel so great either; I was being forced to announce the city’s crimes and condemn the mayor.
Still thinking about Hasse’s future, I set down my pen and passed a stack of writing-covered paper to Fritz. “This is the text for the winter picture book. Please deliver it to Wilma and request that she finish the illustrations while I am performing Spring Prayer.”
I had already asked Fritz and Gil to finish the autumn and winter picture books by the Starbind Ceremony, which took place halfway through summer. The autumn volume’s illustrations were mostly completed, with only the printing needing to be done now, but I had only just written the text for the winter volume.
With most of my attendants having been sent out early in the morning, the only ones left in my chambers were Fritz, who would be managing the workshop, and Fran, who would be riding with me on my highbeast. There were also several of the gray priests who normally worked in the workshop with us, all of whom had experience serving blue priests. This wasn’t coincidental, but was rather the result of a deliberate effort since Ferdinand would be eating lunch here, having sent his attendants and chefs to Hasse already.
“So, Fran—how is the food coming along?” I asked. “I’m sure Hugo is doing just fine, but I wanted to make sure.”
Since Ella had departed for Spring Prayer, today’s lunch was being prepared by Hugo and another helper, with Freida and the guildmaster’s permission. He had now finished training his replacement for the Italian restaurant, and so had jumped at the opportunity to help out here and strengthen his relationship with the archduke’s adopted daughter.
“It is an unfamiliar kitchen to him, but since it is not too dissimilar from the one in the orphanage director’s chambers, he is doing just fine. The High Priest will certainly be satisfied as well.”
“Eckhart and Justus, too, I would imagine.”
It hadn’t been necessary for me to invite Eckhart and Justus to eat, since we would be leaving at fifth bell after a post-lunch break, but they had already sent me an ordonnanz expressing how much they were looking forward to enjoying the food here, so declining hadn’t really been an option.
“More importantly, Lady Rozemyne, you will want to write the other letter soon if you wish to finish before the High Priest arrives,” Fran observed. And he was right.
I got to writing the letter that I wanted Hugo to deliver to Freida. In it, I thanked her for lending us the two chefs and added a seasonal menu for the Italian restaurant, noting that I would be coming to eat there once Spring Prayer was over. Once I was done, I sealed the letter and gave it to Fritz.
“Give this to Hugo when paying him for his work, if you would. Tell him that I wish for him to deliver it to Freida.”
A small ringing came from beyond the door, indicating the arrival of a visitor. It was the bell for Ferdinand. Fran opened the door, and in he came with Zahm, Eckhart, and Justus.
“My apologies for pushing lunch preparations onto you, Rozemyne.”
“It’s okay. You are allowing me to travel to Hasse by highbeast despite it being selfish to do so. You have my gratitude, Ferdinand.”
Eckhart followed in behind Ferdinand with a broad grin. “And sorry for having you prepare extra for us.”
Is it mean of me to wish that he looked at least a little guilty about this? He’s as big of an eater as Karstedt.
After finishing a meal made by Hugo for the first time in ages, it was time to drink tea prepared by Fran and discuss the upcoming visit to Hasse. We needed to get Eckhart and Justus up to date on the situation, so once I had made sure that everyone was touching the sound-blocking magic tools provided by Ferdinand, I started to explain. After all, the root cause of our problems had been my enthusiasm to spread printing via monasteries with orphanages and workshops that would be easy for me to visit.
“I was a fool,” I began.
At the time, I had only just been baptized and knew very little about how noble society functioned. I was so ignorant that I assumed we were going to hire construction workers from the lower city to build the orphanage and workshop from the ground up, and maybe we would have, had those been the only things I asked for. But no. I asked for a miniaturized temple. And since that meant blue-robed priests with noble blood would be visiting it, noble customs demanded that the monastery be constructed as an ivory building.
“Had I known more about nobles, I wouldn’t have asked for a monastery. I wouldn’t have made such a request during a meal that I had invited others to.”
Ferdinand nodded. “I imagine that Sylvester would not have acted so hastily either, had he not been so satisfied with the food. I should have given your limited familiarity with noble culture more consideration.”
It was normally his job to put a stop to Sylvester and me when we got ahead of ourselves, but at the time, he assumed that I had placated both Sylvester and him with food to make my demands from a position with more leverage. On the inside, he had even been happy to see me acting more like a noble, making use of plots and manipulation. Truly, incredible misunderstandings could occur when two people considered a situation from their own unique perspectives.
“As a result, a monastery was constructed in Hasse the very same day.”
Eckhart widened his eyes in surprise at the deep lore behind the monastery, while Justus leaned forward with excitement. “Oho. The truth is always full of surprises, huh? That’s why gathering information never gets old. So, what problems did this bring about? Tell me everything.”
Craftsmen from the lower city had worked together to furnish Hasse’s monastery and make it livable for the priests. I had tried taking the orphans inside as well, thinking that doing so would save them from brutal mistreatment while also lessening Hasse’s burdens.
“We did save two girls and their brothers who were about to be sold to nobles, but my actions put Hasse in an extremely dangerous position. I didn’t even know until people from the Gilberta Company told me that Hasse’s orphans were considered the shared property of everyone in the city.”
“Who could blame you for not knowing how orphans are treated there? Here in Ehrenfest, children orphaned after their baptism are looked after by their workplace,” Justus said, earning him a surprised look from Eckhart. It seemed that it wasn’t normal for nobles to know how commoner orphans were treated elsewhere.
“Unfortunately, Hasse’s mayor believed that he could do anything with the former High Bishop’s support. He mistakenly assumed that he had a powerful backer, and thus attacked the monastery in order to retrieve the girls.”
“Unbelievable! But the monastery is an ivory building that was constructed by Lord Ferdinand himself!” Eckhart exclaimed, his voice cracking a little in shock.
I nodded. Ivory buildings for nobles to live in could only be made by members of the archduke’s family who had his explicit permission, and so attacking one was treated the same as attacking the archduke’s family. I hadn’t known that either, but ignorance of the law was no excuse.
“No one was harmed thanks to the monastery’s protection magic, but nevertheless, Hasse had committed treason.”
“Then they must be destroyed at once!” Eckhart exclaimed again, whipping out his schtappe and rising from his seat. But Ferdinand stopped him with a sigh.
“Calm yourself, Eckhart. I am using Hasse as a learning experience for Rozemyne. Do not destroy it before she has gotten as much as she can out of this opportunity.”
“You are using it as a learning experience...?”
“Indeed. Now that Hasse has committed treason, it is a city with no future; it matters not whether it is destroyed or saved,” Ferdinand said with a laugh. “This makes it the perfect opportunity for Rozemyne to learn how to use her human resources, maneuver matters to reach her desired goal, punish criminals, and understand the consequences that her actions have.
“I gave her a task. If she does not wish to see Hasse destroyed, then it is up to her to engineer the development of a faction that opposes the mayor and isolates him as a traitor. What we will be doing here is executing the mayor and his faction; you need not destroy them yourself.”
Eckhart frowned in confusion and looked at me. “But commoners who would attack an ivory building are a plague to society. They do nothing but harm. Is removing them from this world not the just thing to do? Rozemyne, what in the world are you protecting them for?”
As one could probably tell from Eckhart’s words, my perspective on the world was entirely different from that of a noble. I tilted my head in thought and tried to explain the reasoning behind my actions, even though I did not expect him to empathize with them.
“I was raised to believe that rulers existed to protect their citizens. I do not understand what line of thinking leads you to so readily want to destroy an entire city of people you are supposed to be protecting. Once you kill someone, they are gone forever. Is it not better to let them live and repent for their mistakes?”
“Let them live? To what end?” Eckhart asked, furrowing his brow in confusion. He sincerely did not seem to understand what I was talking about.
“Commoners pay taxes to nobles, do they not? You can thus benefit from keeping them alive. The punishment I suggested to Sylvester was raising their taxes for ten years.”
“Hm... It seems that commoners and nobles are just fundamentally different,” Eckhart replied, stroking his chin in thought. He knew that I had been raised as the daughter of a soldier, so it seemed that he was chalking this up to our distinct backgrounds. “You are correct that the archduke protects his citizens; he gives them somewhere to live and ensures that the land is filled with mana. However, while commoners are accepted as citizens and allowed to stay here in return for paying taxes, what matters most is their obedience. There is no need to keep traitors alive who do not pay the archduke the respect and gratitude that he is owed.”
The archduke used his mana to revitalize the earth, both making and securing land for people to live on. It was apparently normal for those in a duchy who rose up against nobles despite being kept alive by their grace and mana to be executed on the spot.
“There are over a thousand people who live in and around Hasse, and even if you exclude the farmers who weren’t directly involved in the attack, that still leaves more than two hundred people,” I responded. “Were Hasse to be destroyed, would you not receive less taxes? Would it not ultimately disadvantage both the archduke and the nobles?”
Trying to convince a noble on moral grounds wouldn’t work, nor would trying to explain that commoners followed different values. Thus, I launched an attack on the basis of material losses—taxes. But, sadly, even that had no effect whatsoever.
“It would not disadvantage us at the moment,” Ferdinand replied instantly.
“It really wouldn’t be a problem at all,” Justus added.
They had both replied so quickly that, for a second, I could only blink in response.
Ferdinand furrowed his brow in displeasure, then continued. “We presently lack nobles and priests, and we do not have enough mana to fully vitalize the earth. We are being forced to spread our mana as thin as possible to preserve the lives of our citizens. We may have a bit more leeway with mana now that you have entered the temple and are performing Spring Prayer, but there are still more commoners exhausting mana than there are nobles providing it. In this regard, losing a single city would not pose any problems whatsoever. In fact, it would be beneficial to us.”
“H-Hold on a second!” I exclaimed, reflexively standing up in sheer disbelief at what I had just heard.
“Do not stand so abruptly. It is unsightly,” Ferdinand scolded, glaring at me before continuing. “I have listened to your point of view, and out of respect, I did not execute that rude, foolish mayor on the spot. Is this not to your benefit, allowing you to save the rest of the city as you so please?”
My first thought was to call Ferdinand cruel or even monstrous, but the reality was that he was being the most considerate of all the nobles here; he had listened to my opinion and was doing all he could to accommodate it. But Eckhart did not seem to be too fond of seeing Ferdinand restrained in this way, and was glaring at me with dissatisfaction.
“Rozemyne, the world will be better off without fools who bear weapons against the archduke’s family—the same people who keep them alive. There is no need to burden yourself with saving them. It would be better to wash your hands of the matter and get rid of them entirely.”
“Nah, Eckhart,” Justus chimed in, “I think milady’s got the right idea squeezing them dry over the next decade. It takes a lotta years before commoners are old enough to pay taxes, so we really don’t wanna lose too many of ’em. You know how quickly commoners die when even a minor disease starts to spread. We gotta plan for that kinda thing.” For a tax official, his answer was very much in character.
I slumped my shoulders over sadly; it seemed impossible for me to ever get used to how nobles thought about things.
“I believe it is about time for us to leave for Hasse. We shall execute the mayor’s faction as traitors and, in the process, see how many people that plot of yours has moved, Rozemyne. I can only hope that the anti-mayor faction has significantly grown in numbers,” Ferdinand said with a sneer. It was like a vise was squeezing my head.
We brought out our highbeasts at the temple’s front gate. Fran and Zahm would be sitting in the back seats of my Pandabus, while Brigitte would be in the front with me. At this point, it was as though Lessy’s passenger seat existed basically just for her.
“Milady, mind me loading this stuff into your highbeast?” Justus asked, having a gray priest carry over a large box that had a very intense-looking lock on it. It was big enough for an adult man to just barely be able to carry, which made it both too bulky to put on a traditional highbeast and the perfect size for me to sit on.
“Certainly, go ahead. I don’t mind.”
Fran and Zahm put the box into Lessy for me, but when I went to get in myself, Justus came over with a broad smile on his face. “Please allow me to ride in your fine highbeast as well, milady.”
“Justus!” Ferdinand shouted, his voice striking Justus like thunder. The exact same thing had happened during the Harvest Festival.
Does Justus seriously never learn? I wondered to myself. But upon seeing me hang my head, he simply broadened his smile.
“This box has been entrusted to me, and I cannot leave it unattended. You know how valuable it is, don’t you, Lord Ferdinand? Do you really think it would be acceptable not having a scholar on standby?” Justus asked, puffing out his chest as if proud of the plot he had concocted.
At that, Ferdinand’s expression darkened as though he was holding back the urge to let out a tremendous roar. Both he and Justus glared at each other for about ten seconds, then Ferdinand finally turned his gaze to me.
“Rozemyne, pay no mind to Justus during the journey. If you allow him to distract you then you will all surely fall from the sky.”
“And that means I’ve got Lord Ferdinand’s permission. Let me in, milady.”
“Wha? What? That was him giving his permission...?”
I looked between Ferdinand, who had now turned around to his own highbeast, and Justus, who was urging me on. Having no other choice, I opened a door into Lessy.
“Fran, please teach him how to fasten his seatbelt.”
“As you wish.”
Once the excited Justus had leapt into my highbeast, we departed. But he was asking so many questions about the interior that it was honestly kind of annoying. I politely answered his questions at first, but Ferdinand’s warning that we would fall from the sky was starting to feel increasingly legitimate.
“Justus, you are distracting me. Please be silent.”
“In that case, milady, this is my last question: By what means did you create a highbeast like this?”
“I’m not sure how to answer that. I just envisioned it and then made it.”
“That’s a shame. I wanted one for myself, if possible...”
Our journey to Hasse didn’t take much time at all, and we arrived in the blink of an eye. As we landed on the plaza, like we had done during the Harvest Festival, the people spread out to make space for us. But unlike before, they all knelt once they had stepped back, and the brief glimpses that I caught of their faces revealed nothing but grim expressions. The children appeared to have caught on to the heavy atmosphere as well, since they weren’t chattering among themselves as usual, instead clinging to their parents anxiously or kneeling like the adults.
I pressed my lips together tightly at the looming sense of dread; it was clear that everyone understood the situation. Would it really be possible to finish matters here with only the mayor’s death? I glanced up at Ferdinand as he walked slightly ahead of me, but I couldn’t glean his intentions.
“...We have been waiting since receiving the letter from the Gilberta Company,” Richt said.
He was kneeling atop the stage, in between several others who were likely the chiefs of the neighboring farming towns. I could guess that Richt had managed the winter mansion in the mayor’s place due to his punishment, so it made sense that he would be the one greeting us as well.
“Honorable High Bishop and High Priest, welcome to the city of Hasse,” Richt continued. “I thank Flutrane the Goddess of Water for this meeting from the bottom of my heart.”
We returned slight nods upon receiving his polite greeting for nobles.
Richt looked up and, given my height, we made direct eye contact. “High Bishop, I... that is, Hasse...”
“You have my sympathy, Richt, but as the letter said, Hasse must be punished. No matter what I might say to the archduke, that fact will not change,” I said.
At that, I turned to face the gathered commoners, holding a voice-amplifying magic tool much like the one that had been used during the harspiel recital.
“Attention, people of Hasse. Attacking the monastery has been deemed an act of treason against the archduke’s family. I asked for my adoptive father to spare you, but the fact remains that a crime has been committed—a crime so severe that even a noble would be punished for it. In this case, the mayor led the attack with the assistance of many citizens. Under normal circumstances, the entire city would be viewed as a hive of dangerous rebels and subsequently destroyed in its entirety.”
The crowd began to stir. I heard some curse the mayor, others exclaim they had nothing to do with him, and still others grumble that it wasn’t fair to punish them as well.
“However, I know that Hasse supports many farmers who merely live in neighboring farming towns. I imagine that some of you were blackmailed or deceived by the mayor. I pleaded with the archduke not to destroy the entire city for the crimes of a few, and he ultimately agreed to rethink the punishment,” I announced.
I heard a few shocked murmurs, then the pale expressions in the crowd quickly started to give way to smiles. I hurriedly continued before their hopes swelled too much.
“He rethought the punishment, but that is all; Hasse will not escape unscathed. Your punishment shall be ten years of increased taxes, and no priests will be sent here for Spring Prayer this year. I have saved your lives, but the punishment is by no means a light one. Forgive me for being incapable of doing more.”
Cheers spread through the crowd. I saw some people sighing in relief, and others joyously hugging each other.
“Not getting wrapped up in something we didn’t do is all that matters. Thank you very much, High Bishop,” Richt said.
But as the crowd grew excited, Ferdinand calmly stepped forward and took the voice-amplifying magic tool away from me. He then spoke into it with his cold, cold voice. “Deliver the traitors to us. They shall be executed.”
In an instant, silence fell over the crowd. It was so quiet that it felt as though I could even hear the sounds of people swallowing nervously.
Richt shut his eyes tightly, then nodded. “As you wish.”
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