The Jureve and Mana Compression
Several days after Wilfried’s fate had been decided, Ferdinand summoned me from my temple chambers, having received news from Justus. I had just recently seen Tuuli for the first time in ages—she had come by with the Gilberta Company to deliver a new hairpin—and I was so excited to have received a letter from my family that I practically skipped into his hidden room, only to be scolded when I asked what this was all about.
“Do you not remember the very reason we were gathering information? We discussed this only a few days ago.”
“I can’t spend all my time living in the past, you know. A few days ago is ancient history.”
Forgetting about things days after they stopped being relevant to me was just in my nature. I was the same way back on Earth, too—I would pass a test, then forget everything on the syllabus that I didn’t think was important. In other words, I had a very short and selective memory. There were just so many other, more substantial things that I wanted to focus on: the new paper, the new ink, my letter from Tuuli, my next toy for Kamil... I simply didn’t have enough free time to dwell on stuff that had already happened.
“This is not a matter of the past,” Ferdinand said. “The incident before was simply an information-gathering exercise for our enemies. In fact, I would say the true attack has yet to come.”
His unexpected revelation sent me reeling with shock. If that had all just been them gathering information, what in the world was going to happen now? I truly had no idea what went on in the minds of nobles; I could never predict what they were about to do next.
“Based on the information gathered, we have concluded that they were prodding us to see how we would react.”
“And that’s why they were so passive?”
“Indeed. We believe they were testing a variety of things: whose opinion Wilfried would trust most, how Sylvester would deal with one of his children committing a crime, how those around him would react, how the nobles within Ehrenfest would move, and so on.”
They had used Wilfried, a child, to harass Ehrenfest, all so they could sit back and see what happened. This was one nasty plot.
“Have you determined who it was that pulled such a baffling scheme?”
“We are referring to someone who knows not just the location of the tower, but also how to open it. Someone who does not care to save Veronica. Someone who was targeting Wilfried, but cared not whether he was disinherited or executed so long as it caused problems in Ehrenfest. Only the head of one faction in particular would do this.”
It appeared that Ferdinand had managed to identify our enemies: there was a serious gleam in his light-golden eyes.
“I wish to solidify Ehrenfest’s defenses sooner rather than later. To this end, Rozemyne, I ask that you teach me your mana compression method as soon as possible.”
“Like I said before, that can wait until my potion is ready. If everyone else gets a power boost while I’m stuck in this weak body, then I’ll be the only one in danger, won’t I? My health comes before the mana compression technique.”
Ferdinand stood up, shaking his head in defeat. “Very well. We shall brew the potion tomorrow morning in place of your usual duties.”
Tomorrow...? It certainly seems like he’s in a rush.
And so it was decided that we would make my potion tomorrow, from third to fourth bell. Ferdinand would normally make his plans at least three days in advance, but here he was, willing to disregard standard working hours and at such short notice. It was probably a testament to just how much danger we were really in.
The next day, I was taken straight into Ferdinand’s hidden room, just as we had arranged. I spoke to his back as he took out various ingredients and checked his instruments.
“Ferdinand, could it be that you’re in a really big rush to learn about my mana compression technique?”
He turned around to face me, looking completely stunned, as though he couldn’t believe what I had asked. Then, his expression shifted into a grimace. “How long does it take for your mana compression method to show results?”
“I have no idea. I used it subconsciously to keep myself alive. Damuel learned it at the end of spring, but to my understanding, his mana was continuing to grow around that time anyway. This is going to be the first time that an adult who’s no longer growing uses it, so I genuinely can’t say for sure whether it will even have an effect.”
“As I thought...” Ferdinand replied. “Those of us in your inner circle will experiment to see whether or not the method increases our mana capacities. In the case that it does, we shall have members of our faction try it as well, and from there we will teach it to those who join our faction in hopes of getting more mana. But if our wider goal is to increase Ehrenfest’s overall mana capacity, just how many years might that take? I would like to have made at least some progress before Georgine arrives for her visit next summer.”
It had taken Damuel half a year to increase his mana capacity enough for those around him to notice, but he was an unusual case. Ferdinand wanted to see if the method worked on adults whose capacities weren’t still naturally growing and how quickly it would show results. But if we wanted to do these tests before Georgine’s visit next summer, then we really didn’t have much time.
“I see why you’re rushing now...”
If Georgine was the kind of person to cause this much trouble just to see how we would react, then who knew what would happen if she got serious.
“This is why I would like to postpone the brewing of your jureve, if possible.”
“No! Absolutely not!” I yelled, shaking my head hard. “First you said you’d make it when we’d gathered the ingredients, then you said after Charlotte’s baptism—or really, after the Dedication Ritual and Spring Prayer—and now you’re saying we should postpone it until after Georgine’s visit? Just how long do you intend to make me wait? The potion brewing comes first, then we can do the mana compression.”
Caving here wasn’t an option: I knew that Ferdinand would just keep postponing it forever otherwise, and I wanted to get healthy again as soon as possible.
“How stubborn...” he muttered.
That goes for the both of us, bub. Say whatever you want, I’m not budging on this.
“I understand that you want to spread my compression technique out of concern that something might happen, but that is the very same reason I want to get healthy. As I am now, I wouldn’t even be able to run from danger! I’d just pass out!”
I cared more about my own well-being than expanding other people’s mana capacities. Ferdinand himself had said that we didn’t know who exactly was being targeted here, and if we wanted to address our weak points first, then my health was an obvious priority.
“I see... You do have a point,” Ferdinand said with a nod, my desperate ranting having finally gotten through to him. He picked up a large box and started making his way out of the hidden room. “We need space to brew your potion, so we shall first create a hidden room in your High Bishop’s chambers.”
“Hm? Why not just do it here?” I asked, looking around his material-and-instrument-filled room. He turned back to me and did the same.
“...Because there is not enough space in which to work, no?”
Stored in the room were several large instruments intended for experiments, stacks of parchment and boards covered with research notes, and so many materials that every single shelf was completely full. Ferdinand had a point—there was simply too much stuff. Plus, unlike my current hidden room, only those with a certain level of mana could enter. This meant cleaning attendants were unable to go inside, which was unideal since Ferdinand’s hidden room always ended up a huge mess like this whenever he had a breakthrough with his research or discovered some new material.
“In any case, you will need a hidden room to sleep in when you consume the potion. It does not even require that much effort to create a hidden room large enough for our purposes, so I would rather you simply get it over with.”
I apparently needed a hidden room with a barrier of my own for safety’s sake, since we knew that using the jureve would put me to sleep for a lengthy period of time.
“How big does the room need to be?” I asked.
“One as large as your room will do. Only you and I will register our mana with it; we need at least one person capable of entering your room while you are asleep.”
And so I made a hidden room in my High Bishop’s chambers. It wasn’t a very nerve-wracking experience, given that I had already done the same thing in the orphanage and the monastery. I placed my left hand—the one on which I wore my magic ring—on the feystone built into the door leading inside and poured my mana into it.
Once the door had my mana, a magic circle shining with pale-blue light arose above it. I poured more mana in, registering it with the feystone, at which point a red light began to streak through the magic circle. The same red light circled my wrist, forming various complex patterns and letters.
I’ll never get tired of seeing all this fantasy-esque stuff. It really gets my heart racing.
I excitedly watched as the mana coursed through the magic circle, at which point Ferdinand placed his hand onto mine and began pouring his mana in as well. Only then did I remember him mentioning that we would both be registering ourselves this time. The red light streaking through the magic circle shone brighter, perhaps due to the additional mana.
Actually... how does registering two people’s mana at once even work?
As I tilted my head, Ferdinand gripped his schtappe with his right hand while standing behind me and said “stylo.” His schtappe turned into a pen, which he then touched against the magic circle. The letters written in red started to disappear and reappear, moving all around as though they were dancing. Some letters jumped away from the magic circle, bursting in the air like small explosions. He was using his schtappe to manipulate them and gradually rewrite the magic circle, and the sight was so strangely beautiful that I was desperate to try it out myself.
“Ferdinand, it’s incredible how you can manipulate the letters like that. Could you teach me to write magic circles too?”
“That will have to wait until you get a schtappe of your own.”
“Aww...”
I slumped my shoulders sadly; it seemed that my days of writing cool magic circles in the air wouldn’t come anytime soon.
Ferdinand gave a nod. “That should do.”
With everything completed, he handed out brooches with feystones in them for his attendants to wear. These were apparently magic tools signifying that the wearers had permission to enter the High Bishop’s hidden room, and the attendants who had put them on busily started moving boxes packed with materials and such inside.
“Line that box up against the wall,” Ferdinand said, giving his attendants instructions while spreading out a large cloth in the center of the room. At a glance, the magic circle on it resembled the teleportation circles that tax officials used during the Harvest Festival.
“Ferdinand, is this a teleportation circle? It looks a lot like the ones used for taxes.”
“Yes, it is something similar. Step back.”
Ferdinand moved me away from the circle, then poured mana into it. It seemed that while the magic circle used for taxes was for sending items to the castle, this one was for retrieving items from elsewhere. He stuck his hand inside and began pulling out various things.
Wowee! He’s like the English nanny from those popular children’s books!
Out came a box large enough to be a stone bathtub, a cauldron big enough to hold my entire body, a long metal stick resembling an oar, a large table, and several more boxes. Ferdinand’s attendants carried away each item as it appeared.
“This is supposed to be my hidden room, but it almost looks like it’s turning into a second workshop for you, Ferdinand.”
“Actually, this is your workshop. You will need one for when you enter the Royal Academy regardless, so I saw little harm in establishing it now.”
Just hearing that I now had a workshop was enough to get me pumped. My dreams of the future swelled as I thought about adding bookshelves to fill with documents, or even going one step further and adding beautiful, beautiful high-density mobile shelving like all the fancy libraries had now.
“Rozemyne, return from whatever fantasies you are caught up in and put the seasonal ingredients that you collected into the mixing cauldron,” Ferdinand said, interrupting my elaborate planning of my future workshop to point at the large cauldron. I would apparently be mixing the ingredients with my mana.
“That’s one large cauldron. I could easily fit inside it.”
“What, would you like me to boil you?” Ferdinand asked, an actually serious look in his eyes. I hurriedly shook my head.
“No! I wouldn’t be edible, no matter how much you cooked me!”
“I have no intention of eating you and suffering the enormous stomachache you would no doubt give me. Rather, I was thinking about the high-quality mana I could harvest from you.”
“That’s even scarier!”
Eyeing Ferdinand cautiously, I undid the decorative cord on my sash and set it aside. I then wrapped my sleeves up so they wouldn’t get in the way, and stepped onto a wooden box to increase my height. In front of me was the large cauldron, and in my hand was an oar-like spatula; all I needed was a bandana on my head and I would have looked just like a school lunch lady.
“Put the feystones you gathered into the cauldron one by one, starting with the spring ingredient and then continuing in chronological order,” Ferdinand explained. “Wait until each feystone melts before placing the next one in.”
I followed his instructions, placing the green feystone I had made from rairein nectar into the cauldron before beginning to stir the contents. I could already feel the large spatula absorbing my mana.
“Could it be that brewing a potion actually requires a lot of mana?” I asked.
“Yes, depending on the quality of the potion and the quantity produced,” Ferdinand replied curtly, using balance scales to measure the non-feystone ingredients. I could only see him side-on, but it was still clear that he didn’t want me bothering him: there was a rare sparkle in his eyes as he measured the ingredients, making it apparent just how much fun he was having with this experiment. There were no two ways about it—he was completely absorbed in his hobby.
I, on the other hand, had already grown tired of making the potion; I was quite literally just standing atop a box and stirring the cauldron. It was boring. Aside from the feystone making clinking noises as it moved about inside, nothing was happening at all.
How long do I have to do this...?
My thoughts began to wander, and that was when the feystone abruptly started to melt. It drooped like molten metal, sticking to the bottom of the cauldron.
“Aah! Ferdinand! The feystone melted!”
“Put the next one in and continue to stir.”
I did exactly that, dropping in the blue feystone that I had made from the riesefalke egg. It didn’t make any noise due to the melted green feystone covering the cauldron, which also made it harder to move the spatula.
Stir, stir, stir...
Stir, stir, stir...
Perhaps due to the green feystone having melted, the blue feystone started melting sooner than I expected. Once it had broken down, I added the ruelle feystone, and then finally the schnesturm feystone.
Stir, stir, stir...
Stir, stir, stir...
“Ferdinand, my arms hurt...”
“Endure it. You are the one who wished to make the jureve as soon as possible.”
Ferdinand dismissed my complaints without a second thought as he peered into the cauldron, tossing in various ingredients that I had never seen before one after another. They had been chopped into tiny bits so that they would mix together better, which made this whole experience feel a lot more like cooking. Given how methodical and precise Ferdinand was being here, perhaps he had it in him to be quite the excellent chef.
Stir, stir, stir...
Stir, stir, stir...
“...I would like to rest for a little while,” I said.
“No. It is almost done,” Ferdinand replied, taking a small jar out from a box and pouring the thick black liquid inside into the cauldron.
I was surprised to see him adding something so dark into the vibrant four-colored mixture, but it didn’t seem to change the potion by even a shade. I took a closer look, wondering why this was the case, when the liquid in the cauldron started to rapidly expand out of nowhere.
“Eep! It’s going to spill out!”
“Do you truly think I would add enough for that to happen? Do not get so surprised over every step of the process.”
“But the potion’s gone from just barely covering the bottom to taking up like eighty percent of the cauldron, all in mere moments! That’d surprise anyone! I mean, there’s no way I can drink this much!” I yelled, pointing wildly at the concoction. I had assumed that we’d be making a little extra for a reserve potion, but I certainly didn’t need this much.
Ferdinand gave a casual shrug. “You will drink half a glass or so, but a jureve is generally not something that you consume—rather, it is something that you immerse yourself in,” he said, gesturing over to the ivory-colored stone box. The completed potion would apparently be poured into it, and then I was supposed to sleep inside.
This was certainly an unexpected development. Every potion I had encountered up to this point simply needed to be consumed, and with Ferdinand carrying a reserve jureve on his belt as we spoke, I had assumed this would be no different.
“...I won’t drown?”
“You have nothing to fear; I have never heard of anyone drowning while using a jureve. More importantly, though, you have stopped mixing. We are just adding the finishing touches, so you must not slacken here.”
As I got back to stirring the cauldron, Ferdinand added a drop of some other potion. It plopped into the middle of the concoction, which flashed brightly and then turned light blue.
“There, it is complete. Now it can be used at any time.”
With that, Ferdinand put a lid on the cauldron. He then covered it with a cloth that had a magic circle on it, which would apparently stop the potion from spoiling or reducing in quality. He sure had a lot of strange yet convenient tools lying around; I wanted to see a complete list of everything he had at some point.
“Ferdinand, how long am I going to be asleep after I use the jureve?”
“For you, I expect anywhere from a month to a season, but no exact prediction can be made. That is why I recommend you get your affairs in order ahead of time, such that even a long rest will not interfere with your business.”
“My affairs...? Like, write letters to my family and give instructions to my attendants?”
“Correct. As your guardian, I shall be taking over all printing industry-related matters while you are asleep. Contact Benno to ensure that this will not introduce any problems.”
My family would no doubt be shocked to learn that I was going to be asleep for maybe even a full season. I would need to give Lutz a letter describing the whole situation before I used the jureve.
Wilma could manage the orphanage on her own, while Fran and Zahm would surely be able to take care of all the attendant-related matters. It was leaving the workshop that I was most concerned about, but I doubted the industry would expand much while I was asleep; Gil and Fritz would simply be preparing stories to be printed, so I couldn’t imagine they would come across any problems.
While I was counting on my fingers everything that I would need to prepare before using the jureve next spring, as we had previously arranged, Ferdinand gave me an annoyed glare. “I have finished your jureve as promised, and that will have to be enough for you,” he said. “We are going to the castle tomorrow.”
“Are the contracts all prepared?”
“Yes. Just because your own planning and forward-thinking skills are poor, do not assume that mine are as well.”
And so, urged on by Ferdinand, I went straight to teaching everyone my mana compression method during the afternoon the next day. Sylvester’s office was cleared of everyone but those who would be learning the technique, and multiple boxes, capes, bags, and irons had been prepared just as I requested. There were ten of us in total: me, Ferdinand, the archducal couple, Karstedt’s family, and finally Damuel, since he also needed to sign a magic contract.
“Now then. Please sign your contracts.”
While everyone signed the contracts agreeing not to become my enemy or teach the mana compression method to anyone else, I started collecting their money. Archnobles were charged two large golds each, with my future plan being to charge mednobles eight small golds and laynobles two small golds. These prices would of course be halved from the second purchase onward in each family.
When I told Sylvester that half of whatever I made would go straight to Ehrenfest—in part to pay for the magic contracts—he practically wept with joy. Damuel didn’t need to pay, so he was simply signing a contract as a guarantee that he wouldn’t spread my technique.
Once that was all done, I began my explanation.
“If you would be so kind as to help, Damuel, it would be much appreciated.”
I demonstrated my mana compression method the same way I had with Damuel: stuffing a spread-out cape into a box, making it as compact as I could, and calling that the traditional method; then showing that they could fit even more into the box by folding the cape, and explaining that this was how they should go about compressing their mana.
“I see. Your visual example sure makes it easy to understand, and I feel like it’ll make it easier to compress mana too,” Sylvester said, closing his eyes and trying it for himself.
“Do you think it will also allow adults who have already passed their growth period to increase their mana capacity?” I asked.
“Seems like it,” he replied, the excitement clear in his voice. Sylvester had never actually folded a cape before, but after visually demonstrating the process and helping him to imagine it, he found it surprisingly easy to compress his mana. Karstedt and Elvira had their eyes closed and were focusing on doing the same.
“I am told that if you compress your mana too rapidly, you will essentially become drunk on it and feel sick,” I said, “so please don’t push yourselves.”
It was important to compress just a little bit of mana to free up some space, and then compress the new mana that flowed into that space. Repeating this process would increase your overall mana capacity.
That said, Damuel had mentioned that boosting the density of mana in your body too rapidly would make you sick. I was unwell and collapsed so often that it was hard to tell whether or not I also experienced mana sickness, but it was undoubtedly the case that compressing mana wasn’t good for the body. Damuel had pushed himself especially hard since he needed more mana by next summer, but under normal circumstances, one would want to gradually increase their mana density to give their body time to adjust.
“It seems like even I will be able to increase my mana capacity with this,” Eckhart commented.
“Wow! Wow!” Lamprecht exclaimed. “Seems like I had a lot more space than I thought!”
“I’m going to use this to get a ton more mana than the both of you,” Cornelius added.
The three of them wore stunned expressions as they moved about their mana. They were all rich archnoble children with attendants, meaning they too had never folded their own capes before. Forceful stuffing was the only mental image they had known, which meant my compression method would work especially well for them.
While everyone else reacted to the new mana compression technique with pleasant surprise, Ferdinand alone shook his head with a frown. “Unfortunately, it does not seem to be having much of an effect for me.”
As it turned out, he had already been using a similar mental image to compress his mana—exactly what I would have expected from someone so serious and methodical. It seemed that, during his stay in the Royal Academy, he had experimented extensively to increase his mana capacity as much as possible.
“In that case, I shall teach you the next step,” I said, the knowledge that Ferdinand hadn’t expected there to be more bringing a grin to my face.
I placed several of the folded capes into a bag, climbing onto it and crushing the capes down. Ferdinand’s eyes widened as he watched the bag compress to less than half its former size.
“So, Ferdinand? What do you think? This is the Rozemyne Mana Compression Method.”
“Hm... I shall try it.”
With that, Ferdinand closed his eyes and began compressing his mana. Then, after a period of focus intense enough for beads of sweat to have formed along his brow, he suddenly reached for a potion on his belt and started drinking it. No sooner was it all gone than he closed his eyes again and resumed focusing.
“What did you drink, Ferdinand?”
“A mana restoration potion. I can hardly compress my mana without first completely filling the space,” he said, speaking as though it were obvious.
My cheeks twitched. “Isn’t that, like, super terrible for your body?! I just said that compressing your mana too much would make you feel sick, so why are you doing something so dangerous?! In fact, why would you ever do something like that after I specifically put so many conditions in the magic contracts to make things safer?!”
Even Damuel had gotten mana sickness from the method, subsequently having to wait for his mana to recover naturally. What was Ferdinand thinking, using potions to recover on the spot?
Despite my obvious frustration, Ferdinand merely waved a dismissive hand in my direction. “I will stop if I feel there is any danger. There is nothing to worry about,” he said, immediately focusing himself again.
I had so little to do while everyone was compressing their mana that I started ironing the capes I had previously stuffed into the boxes. Ferdinand opened his eyes around the time I had finished ironing my third one, letting out a slow sigh while looking at me with a conflicted expression.
“...You are quite strong, Rozemyne. Mentally speaking.”
“What do you mean?”
“It requires backbreaking effort to compress mana as much as you do,” he said, scratching his hair frustratedly. When I examined his face more closely, I realized that he actually looked a little sick, though it was rather subtle. I furrowed my brow, at which point he started tapping his temple.
“These are just my personal observations, but I believe one’s mental fortitude will largely determine how much mana can be compressed through this method,” he continued. “For one, it will not necessarily result in change—knowing the method will mean nothing if you do not have the mental fortitude to execute it. Furthermore, due to it rapidly changing the density of your mana, it would be best to gradually increase the density over a longer period. Doubling the density with the Rozemyne Method in such a short time span is quite a sickening experience; it will require an extensive amount of time for one to grow accustomed to.”
For a moment, I couldn’t tell whether Ferdinand was actually being serious, but the look on his face told me that he was.
My eyebrows shot up in anger. “Didn’t I say pretty much all of that before we started?! Do you just not listen when people speak to you, Ferdinand?! Are you actually a fool yourself?!”
Someone please give me a harisen right now!
It would be some time before the results became apparent, but nonetheless, the core leaders of Ehrenfest all continued to compress their mana.
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