Cramming and Preparations
My cramming lessons with Ferdinand started the very next day. I spent my time after breakfast reading and reviewing what I had learned the day before. Then, when Norbert came to get me, I moved to Ferdinand’s office where I continued studying hard until noon. There were two desks lined up, on which were stacks upon stacks of documents all placed in a neat row. I was having geography and history beaten into my head, both of which were difficult to understand without hard data to look at.
Just you wait, O library of the Royal Academy... I’ll be there as soon as I can!
After lunch, I practiced the harspiel with Wilfried and Charlotte. It seemed the practice schedule Ferdinand had gotten me to follow before I went into the jureve was incredibly intense, because despite my two-year-long absence, it seemed I was already good enough to go to the Royal Academy, even when compared to how far Wilfried had come. I would need my fingers to adjust to playing again first, of course, and my time studying music on Earth had probably helped a lot, but still.
Thank you, Ferdinand! For the first time in my life, I’m genuinely grateful for your brutal teaching methods!
After harspiel practice, I would alternate between practicing dedication whirls and training with the Knight’s Order depending on the day.
Dedication whirls were apparently a religious act one performed at their coming of age ceremony, which was held on graduation day. One would express their gratitude to the gods through song and dance, celebrating winter turning to spring and new life being born.
Out of all the apprentice knights, twenty especially talented individuals would be selected to perform sword dances, while seven archduke candidates would be selected to perform whirls. Everyone else would sing and provide music. Being chosen to perform was a great honor for both the individuals and their duchies, so everyone worked their hardest in hope of somehow becoming one of the lucky few. I interpreted this all through the lens of graduation ceremonies being theatrical, thinking back to all the festivities on Earth that were exaggerated as well.
“I don’t even need to practice if there’s a selection process, right? I can just leave it to everyone else.”
“No, you fool,” Ferdinand scolded me. “Archduke candidates are forced to participate, and you can expect practical examinations at the Royal Academy. There are times when archnobles are selected to perform for grades that do not have enough archduke candidates, and if you do not at least match their talent, you will bring shame to the entire duchy.”
Dedication whirls were apparently far more important than I had expected. I clearly had no choice but to put my all into practicing so that I was ready for those practical examinations. Maybe my Urano experience would pay off a little here too.
“Can you whirl as well, Ferdinand?” I asked out of curiosity.
He responded with a dry, “Of course.”
I could imagine Ferdinand had performed a dedication whirl so perfect that it made all the female students faint, just like his harspiel playing had.
And so I practiced performing the dedication whirl alongside Wilfried and Charlotte. They had already been learning for about a year now, so they had the form down, and their dancing was pretty decent.
“The dedication whirl has two styles, one for men and one for women, but spinning is at the heart of them both, as I’m sure you can imagine,” our whirl instructor explained. It wasn’t about jumping or hopping around like in traditional dancing—it was all about spinning while gliding as gracefully and as beautifully as possible. “Establishing and maintaining tension is absolutely necessary. In that sense, it is fairly similar to watching a kreisel.”
Kreisels were exactly the same thing as spinning tops: toys that you spun and then watched as they kept their balance.
“When a kreisel spins, it almost looks as though it is frozen in place, no? And in that moment, there is a captivating feeling of tension. A proper whirl requires you to reach this point where you too look as though you are standing still, for this is when the atmosphere reaches its peak. You must remain perfectly balanced, else your whirl will cease to be beautiful, and the tension you exude will disappear in an instant.”
Now that I thought about it, I seemed to recall my traditional Japanese dance teacher having said the same thing back in my Urano days. My mom had made me go to these dance and ballet classes for three years on the off chance that I developed an interest in them. She had said that she would buy books for me if the teacher reported I was making good progress, and so I had tried my hardest in hope of getting as many as possible. Not being able to read books during lessons was exceedingly painful, but I was able to survive all three years nonetheless.
Not that any of that experience is helping me now, since I can’t move my body at all.
“What matters above all else, however, is having true gratitude for the gods in your heart.”
I see, I see... In other words, praying seriously might end up like my harspiel performance during my winter debut. I’ll need to be careful.
“I understand everything now,” I intoned.
Once we had covered the basics of the dedication whirl, we started with a few preparatory exercises.
Ow ow ow ow! My body’s even stiffer than I thought!
On training days, I went to the Knight’s Order, where I worked on mastering enhancement magic alongside Bonifatius and Eckhart. I would remove the supporting magic tool from one of my arms and practice strengthening that limb, aiming to eventually move it with just my own mana. That said, I apparently couldn’t say I had truly grasped enhancement magic until I could swing weapons and form my highbeast while using it.
After days of practice, I was finally capable of creating my highbeast while using enhancement magic on my unsupported right arm. The sight caused Angelica to stagger back and fall to the ground, her shoulders sinking in despair.
“Why can you use enhancement magic so easily, Lady Rozemyne? It took me a year and a half of training to form my highbeast while using it. I think I’ve lost all my confidence as a guard knight...”
“Bwahaha!” Bonifatius roared. “Rozemyne is a member of the archducal family! She has more than enough mana for other things even while using enhancement magic, and there’s no point envying the mana capacity of someone mana-rich enough to get adopted by the archduke. You’ve been working hard to boost your capacity while training to minimize how much mana you use when casting enhancement magic. Just continue as you have been—in fact, why not look to Damuel as an example? The man’s a master at preserving mana!”
Damuel was fully dedicated to using his mana as efficiently as possible, and so he would always try to expend as little as possible during combat. His fighting style was bland and rather straightforward as a result, but it was far less wasteful, even when compared to those of other layknights.
“Your teacher is correct, master,” Stenluke chimed in. “The master of my master has not yet grown used to enhancement magic, and so she wastes much mana while using it. You are certainly the more adept magic wielder here; there is nothing for you to feel down about.”
Angelica raised her head. Bonifatius had recognized her as his apprentice, and she had since become a knight capable of using enhancement magic that was rare to see even among archnobles. Stenluke seemed to be growing steadily as well; his blade was much longer than the last time I had seen him.
“You certainly have grown, Stenluke. Have you learned a lot about the world yet?”
“I had no choice, considering my master’s poor memory. My struggles know no end,” Stenluke replied. He was of course speaking about Angelica, but just hearing those words in Ferdinand’s voice made me feel as though I were the one being scolded here.
Just as a sad frown crossed my face, Bonifatius cleared his throat and held out a short sword. Judging by the sizable feystone in its hilt, I could guess it was also a manablade.
“Rozemyne, I am growing a manablade as well,” he said. “Could you pour some of your mana into it?”
“Um, Grandfather... The truth is, I’ve been forbidden from pouring my mana into the manablades of others.”
“Th-That can’t be!”
I hated to disappoint him when he was so clearly excited about it, but it just wasn’t something I could do without permission. I explained that Ferdinand had forbidden me from doing it again after the Stenluke incident, which caused Bonifatius to knit his brow.
“Permission from Ferdinand, hrm...?” he murmured, his voice almost a growl. I could sense that he was about to charge forward and smash his way through whatever barriers were stopping him from getting what he wanted, so I hurriedly tried to stop that from happening.
“But even with Ferdinand’s permission, I don’t think I could manage it until after I master controlling my mana again. I still struggle to use it properly, due to my time in the jureve.”
To use an analogy, it was like going from pouring water into a glass from a pitcher to pouring water into a glass with a bucket—it was a lot harder to control the flow. Enhancement magic required so much mana that it didn’t make too much of a difference, since a bucket worked just fine when you were pouring water into a washbasin, but manablades were a whole nother story. I essentially needed to pour my mana in by the spoonful, so a bucket wouldn’t do at all. It would take some time before I was used to working with my new increased capacity.
“Plus, Angelica’s manablade ended up sounding like Ferdinand because I thought she would need someone to give her strict guidance. I can’t think of anything that you need, Grandfather; you are more than strong enough already.”
“I see... More than strong enough, huh?”
Once training and practice were over, I took a bath to refresh myself and then had dinner. My last task for the day was to read in preparation for tomorrow, though Rihyarda always ended up having to snatch the book away to get me to sleep.
I was constantly learning new things, with more study materials piling up by the day. I naturally enjoyed reading them, but memorizing everything was quite the task.
Still, I’m not going to give up. I’ll earn Charlotte’s respect, become the best big sister in the world, and spend every day in the paradise that is the Royal Academy’s library!
The first-year lessons about magic didn’t seem that difficult; they were centered around the basics of mana and feystones. There were also elements associated with them, which were connected to the divine colors of the gods. All I needed to do was memorize which element was associated with which color, and as someone who already needed to have memorized the bible, I understood everything after just a quick review.
History, on the other hand, was considerably harder—there were so many kings with long, similar-looking names that my brain just turned to mush every time I tried to learn them. The only silver lining was that I already knew religious stories from the bible that led into the founding of the country, so that saved me a bit of time.
“You need only memorize the general flow of events for ancient history; more precise information is only relevant for the most recent decades,” Ferdinand explained. “In particular, you will need to learn about the civil war that occurred in the Sovereignty, what changes it caused, and who prevailed. This will be enormously important when interacting with others at the Royal Academy.”
I looked at the huge royal family tree that Ferdinand spread out in front of me. The royal family and their children had fought among themselves, with the strongest among them doing everything they could to become king. The civil war had started due to the first and third princes coming into open conflict, and the resulting battle was intense enough to split the country in two.
The first prince had ultimately lost the war, but the third prince was killed by an assassin the first prince had sent out before his death, resulting in them both dying. This reignited the flames of conflict, with the fourth and fifth princes picking up the fight with their respective allies behind them. The fifth prince won in the end, but perhaps due to having been exposed to life-threatening dangers throughout the fierce battles, he held no mercy for the fourth prince, subsequently enacting a large-scale purge against him, his immediate family, and the web of nobles who had provided him with support.
“Which resulted in the whole country losing a lot of power... Are the royal family a bunch of idiots?”
“Yes, but you are without a doubt the biggest idiot of all. Keep such thoughts to yourself. The Royal Academy is presently dominated by nobles who support the fifth prince—that is, the current king.”
“Sure, but he executed more than just his enemies, didn’t he? Did he really have to kill these princesses and all their children too?” I asked, pointing at a section of the family tree. Those who had died normally had a single horizontal line through their names, but each person who had been purged following the civil war was crossed out with a big “X.”
It made sense that the fifth prince would purge the men who could rightfully lay claim to the throne, but he had executed a princess from the previous generation and other women in the family as well, none of whom seemed to have much to do with the war of succession.
“It may appear excessive to you, but there was no need to allow seeds of war to grow,” Ferdinand explained. “Does it not make sense when you consider it insurance?”
“I can understand that, but we’re still recovering from the fact he purged so many nobles who played important roles supporting the country. I don’t see how that’s not going too far. At the very least, shouldn’t he have let this one princess live so that she could keep giving birth to strong children? He could marry her to a noble in his faction, perhaps use her to usurp the weakened rival faction... I really don’t think he needed to kill her.”
“Those are strong arguments, but this princess in particular sealed her own fate. She infamously had many affairs with multiple men in hope of obtaining children with as much mana as possible. By leaving her to her own devices, the fifth prince would run the risk of someone claiming one of her children to be the son of one of the dead princes, which could possibly lead to an entirely new war.”
Hearing about the royal family doing whatever they wanted without consequence made me sick to my stomach. So what if the princess had a bad reputation? So what if nobody knew whether she had given birth to one of the princes’ sons? It wasn’t much different from the blue priests, if you asked me.
“Now that both the royal family and the nobility have diminished greatly in size, both wish for nothing more than to increase the size of their houses. Due to the magic tools attached to your body, I believe your enormous mana capacity will not be immediately apparent to others at the Royal Academy, but regardless, take care to not be abruptly kidnapped while you are there.”
“What the heck?! That’s terrifying!”
“It is the reality of your situation. Under no circumstances are you to leave the sight of your guard knights or Rihyarda,” Ferdinand said. I nodded over and over again, my eyes brimming with anxious tears.
In between reading my study materials, practicing the dedication whirl, and training with Bonifatius to learn efficient enhancement magic, I needed to prepare to leave for the Royal Academy. First came deciding what outfits I would wear. Plenty of cloth had been prepared so that clothes could be made at a moment’s notice, but since nobody knew when I would wake up, nothing had started yet.
There wasn’t much time left before I needed to leave for the Royal Academy, so Elvira’s personal seamstress, Florencia’s personal seamstress, and Corinna (who was basically being treated as my personal seamstress) were all working together to make clothes for me. To that end, both Elvira and Florencia visited my room.
“To think you had students gather information on fashion trends in the Royal Academy, Rozemyne. You are so full of surprises,” Florencia said.
Among the information Damuel had organized from the Royal Academy students were detailed notes on what fashions were popular with archduke candidates from other duchies. An archnoble by the name of Brunhilde had recorded this information explicitly for Charlotte and me to reference when preparing our outfits, it seemed.
It wasn’t as though I had intended for this to happen, but Florencia nonetheless praised me for the foresight I certainly didn’t have. It felt as though all the information was benefiting someone in one way or another, so it seemed best to just have the students keep doing what they were doing.
Incidentally, not a single person had recorded any stories from other duchies for me. I had to admit though, the fault was all mine for not having provided clear instructions, instead writing nothing more than, “Please gather information in the Royal Academy.” When I had realized this and sadly hung my head, Cornelius had pointed out with a smile that nobody could have extrapolated that I wanted to gather stories from a request like that.
“Milady, the first thing we need to decide on is an outfit for you to wear during this year’s winter socializing.”
“Can I not just wear what I wore two years ago? For better or worse, I haven’t grown in the slightest.”
Rihyarda and I discussed which of my outfits needed to be made first. She wanted to make them in the order that I would be wearing them, but I wanted to prioritize those I would need at the Academy. I sadly hadn’t grown at all while asleep, but this meant I could just continue wearing my clothes from two years ago without issue.
Elvira, having heard both sides of our conversation, let out a sigh. “I now understand what Ferdinand meant when he said your perspective is frozen in the past, Rozemyne. Do listen. Going to the Royal Academy is a proclamation that you have become ten years old. Your skirts will need to be extended, and so even with your lack of growth, you cannot continue to wear your old clothes.”
Oh, good point... The skirts do need to be longer now.
Upon turning ten, girls’ skirts changed from being knee-high to shin-high. This was supposed to be a moment when one reveled in their growth, but I was the same on both the outside and the inside. On top of that, I’d missed my birthday celebration, so I didn’t feel even the slightest bit overjoyed about being ten. It just felt wrong.
“What else can we do but prepare a new outfit for you to wear while participating at the feast marking the start of winter socializing?”
“...I say we simply alter the skirt on one of my existing outfits. Mere alterations shouldn’t take that long to complete, right?” I asked, then called Corinna over from the group of seamstresses lined up against the wall. “Corinna, I would like for you to alter the skirt part here. Add new cloth to the inside so that it reaches my shins, then pleat the existing skirt like so and decorate it with flowers.”
I was suggesting we make something similar to a bubble skirt, like I had done with Tuuli’s baptism ceremony outfit back in the lower city. My socializing outfit wasn’t very important to me, so I wanted to get through it with only the simplest alterations possible.
Corinna had long since learned my simple alteration methods from Mom, and so she understood what I wanted at once. She took out a needle and thread, held the material together, then secured it with basting stitches to make a simple bubble skirt. From there, she had another seamstress bring her more cloth while she explained to Elvira and Florencia how she was intending to alter the outfit.
“If we stitch new cloth to the inside of the skirt and pleat it as Lady Rozemyne has explained, it will appear like so. Is this acceptable?”
“Oh my, how lovely. The shape is delightful, but you must use cloth of a color in fashion this year for the extended skirt,” Elvira said.
Florencia nodded. “Plus, if you are going to decorate the pleated skirt with flowers, would it not be ideal to decorate the chest area in a similar fashion?”
Corinna noted down Elvira and Florencia’s orders on a board, then took out the flower decorations she had brought with her and placed them on the suggested parts of the outfit.
“If we were to implement your suggestion, honorable archduchess, I believe it would look most attractive to line up small flowers next to each other like so,” Corinna said. “Do you have any preferences?”
My two mothers excitedly chatted amongst themselves while deciding on the size and colors of the decorative flowers, then selected which cloth to use from all those Corinna had brought based on color and quality. My measurements were taken in the meantime. There were no changes, as expected.
With my winter socializing outfit selected, I next needed to decide what to wear at the Royal Academy. There were no school uniforms, but it was a rule that students needed to be dressed primarily in black. This was apparently a show of respect to the all-absorbing God of Darkness, with the color also symbolizing one’s desire to greedily take in the knowledge being taught.
Black being the primary color was the only rule, however; students were allowed a fairly surprising amount of freedom with everything else. According to the information Brunhilde had gathered at the Royal Academy, there were some who wore frilly clothes with colorful embroidery, and others who wore tight-fitting clothes beneath bolero-esque jackets with wide fluffy sleeves, allowing them to adjust their sleeve size according to the classes they were attending.
“I would prefer an outfit with adjustable sleeves over one with impressive embroidery,” I noted. Long sleeves were nothing but an annoyance to me, but there were some classes like those on court manners that required them. The most practical and convenient solution I could think of was a long-sleeved bolero, which could simply be removed when the long sleeves weren’t necessary.
But unfortunately, Florencia, Elvira and Rihyarda all shook their heads at my suggestion, crushing my dreams at once.
“An archduke candidate cannot wear such an outfit.”
“Really...? But archduke candidates have to attend practical classes as well, no? Won’t the sleeves get in the way?”
“Conquering that challenge with grace is only natural for an archduke candidate, my dear,” Florencia said with a smile, refusing my suggestion without any further room for debate. I supposed it wasn’t too much of a problem; I would just need to bring a long cord of my own so that I could manually adjust my sleeves as necessary.
Aside from my proposed alterations, my opinions on the clothes were largely ignored; the three women decided what outfits I would be wearing almost entirely on their own. This was probably for the best though, since I didn’t want to end up wearing abnormal clothes that made me stand out completely from everyone else.
And so, thanks to the many seamstresses all mobilizing at once, my outfits were safely completed before winter socializing began.
“Rozemyne, what do you think about your personal chef and musician being sent to the Royal Academy with you?” Sylvester asked one day at dinner.
At the Royal Academy, students lived in dormitories that were separated according to duchy. The musicians who worked in each dormitory were selected from the personnel of five high-status nobles, while five chefs and their servants were chosen from the castle’s kitchens.
As Wilfried and I were the highest-status nobles in our dormitory, being archduke candidates and all, our personal musicians were naturally to be included. Ella and Hugo, however, weren’t castle chefs—they were my personnel who followed me wherever I went, so it seemed Sylvester wanted to get my permission before sending them off.
“You were planning to send them back to the temple while you’re at the Royal Academy, correct? That’d be a waste. We should use their skills as much as possible.”
“I don’t mind taking them along with me—after all, I’d prefer being able to eat food I’m familiar with. To be clear though, we won’t be teaching the chefs that come with them any new recipes.” I didn’t mind Hugo and Ella sharing the original recipes they had made while I was asleep, but my personal ones were business secrets that I couldn’t share without first receiving payment.
Sylvester nodded sadly, having clearly been at least a little hopeful about obtaining new recipes. “No helping that. Still, if possible, I want you to debut the recipes I bought from you at tea parties and archduke candidate gatherings.”
“Did you not want to keep those a secret?” I asked, remembering his strict orders to keep my study materials, picture books, and recipes hidden from other duchies. Perhaps this was him lifting the ban.
Sylvester deliberately crossed his arms. “Everything you make carries with it enormous influence, so I thought it best to keep them a secret until you entered the Royal Academy. You are to spend the next six years there as an archduke candidate, and I want to use this opportunity to boost Ehrenfest’s influence as much as possible,” he said, wearing the serious expression of an archduke. I couldn’t tell exactly what future he was envisioning here, but given our current relationship with Ahrensbach, I could imagine we would want as much power as we could get.
“From what Ferdinand has said, you want me to raise everyone’s grades in the Royal Academy, I believe?”
“That’s right.”
“What’s my budget for accomplishing this?” I asked. “If you genuinely want to raise the entire duchy’s grades, there are several plans I could execute, though they are much too expensive for me and the other students to finance ourselves. My options will change depending on how much the duchy is willing to dedicate toward this.”
Money was necessary for doing pretty much anything, and then we had to consider time as well. Had I woken up just a year earlier, there was a lot more I could have done to prepare for this.
“I am leaving for the Royal Academy so soon that there is not much I can do right now. Concrete preparations will need to start in spring. I will spend this year focusing on confirming the results of my study materials, comparing the gathered information to reality, and so on—in other words, getting up to date on the current situation. I will solidify my plans to increase the duchy’s overall grades once that is done, and I trust you to provide me the funds necessary to enact them.”
“...Alright. I’ll leave the Royal Academy to you and Wilfried. Do your jobs as archduke candidates and lead Ehrenfest to prosperity,” Sylvester said, once again speaking as an archduke.
Wilfried nodded with a stern expression. “Understood.”
My packing for the Royal Academy progressed smoothly under Rihyarda’s guidance, and autumn came to an end as Ferdinand continued cramming knowledge into my head through dense lectures. The falling snow signaled that winter had begun.
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