Ascendance of a Bookworm (LN) - Volume 4.01 - Chapter Pr

Prologue 

“Ferdinand, I think it’s about time you told me what happened over the past two years,” Rozemyne said with a firm look when the man in question arrived at the High Bishop’s chambers. She was clean and well dressed, no longer covered in the jureve. Her tone was bright and there was a liveliness in her golden eyes, but her muscles had atrophied so much over the past two years of sleep that they could no longer support her, so she was lying limp on a bench, completely immobile. 

Not a single person in recorded Ehrenfest history had slept in a jureve for such a long time, so she would no doubt be a valuable research subject when it came to analyzing the effects of using one for such an extensive period. 

Rozemyne noticed Ferdinand falling into thought after glancing down at her. “Well?” she asked, just barely managing to tap an impatient finger against the table. “Are we going to talk or not?” 

“...There is much we cannot discuss here. May we move to the hidden room?” 

Not even in the temple could one carelessly discuss what had happened in the castle. But rather than confirming the request with a nod, Rozemyne simply closed her eyes. 

“I don’t mind going to the hidden room, but I can’t exactly walk.” 

“A fair point. Have you felt any changes since waking up? Are you slowly regaining the ability to move certain parts of your body? Can you say how close you are to being as mobile as you used to be, preferably in the form of an estimated percentage?” 

As Ferdinand started listing off every question that came to mind, Rozemyne gave a smile so bright that it was blatantly fake. “You really are a (mad scientist),” she said. 

Ferdinand didn’t know what a “mad scientist” was, but he could tell it was an insult of some sort. Without a word, he flicked her on the forehead. 

“Ouchie!” She cried out as she usually would, but she couldn’t reflexively rub her head. Her movements were too sluggish; it took her some time just to raise a hand. 

...If she is in this state now, just how long will it take for her muscles to recover enough for her to move normally? What needs to be done? She will ideally return to her usual self soon, but it is possible the process will take too long for her to attend the Royal Academy in time. 

Ferdinand silently opened the door to the hidden room, pondering what medicine and magic tools could be used to get Rozemyne out of this situation. Fran and Zahm carried her inside on the bench, then promptly exited and closed the door behind them. The moment they were gone, Rozemyne’s expression morphed into an unhappy frown. 

“Just so you know, Ferdinand, I really feel like (Urashima Taro) right now!” 

“Who or what is that...? I do not understand your words.” 

“You were the first person I saw when I woke up, but you look exactly the same as you always do, down to the creases between your brows, so it didn’t really hit me that two years had actually passed. But Nicola and Monika are both of age now; they have their hair up, their skirts are long... And even Gil’s super tall now, so...” 

Both Wilfried and Charlotte had left her behind as well. Ferdinand was well aware of this, but he chose to remain silent. Given that Rozemyne had worked almost foolishly hard to be an excellent and respectable big sister, he didn’t even want to imagine how she would react to learning that her little sister was now taller than her. 

I suppose I will need to face the aftermath eventually, though... 

Ferdinand let out a heavy sigh, then immediately realized Rozemyne’s mana was likely wavering. Her voice became increasingly distraught, and her worried eyes shifted in color from their familiar gold to a violently shifting rainbow. 

“Everyone’s left me behind! I’m in a whole new world, and I don’t know anything! It feels so... so terrible! So scary!” 

“Rozemyne, calm yourself.” 

“I can’t! I mean, everyone is different now! Everyone but me...” 

“That is not true—your mana flow has changed over the past two years. But you are going to lose control over it if you do not compose yourself.” 

Ferdinand could already see Rozemyne’s mana stirring. Having expected this, he took out a feystone from his back hip pouch and pressed it against her forehead. It was filled with mana in the blink of an eye, as was the next he pulled out, and the next. 

Rozemyne gasped and opened her eyes. She blinked several times, then inhaled deeply to catch her breath. Only once her emotions were under control did she weakly stretch out a shaking hand to grip Ferdinand’s sleeve, just as she had done upon awakening in the jureve. 

“...Ferdinand, please tell me what happened over the past two years. Everyone is so different now that I’m scared to even go outside.” 

“That is quite a broad subject. Where am I to begin...?” 

“Did you catch the kidnappers? Is Charlotte safe?” 

The kidnapping incident had ended two years ago for Ferdinand, but to Rozemyne, it had essentially taken place yesterday. Only now did this thought occur to him; it seemed filling in the two years of missing experience would prove harder than he had expected. 

“Charlotte’s kidnapper was revealed to be a member of Rozemary’s family. He has already been executed, though he denied involvement in your kidnapping and the poisoning. Viscount Gerlach drew much suspicion for having previously owned the Devouring soldiers used in the operation, but there was no evidence against him; he was confirmed to have been inside the sealed grand hall when the attack was brought to our attention. It was concluded that the guard knights had not acted improperly, but for failing to protect their charges, they were punished with decreased salaries.” 

“I’m glad that was their only punishment... What happened with the winter playroom?” 

“Wilfried and Charlotte both did their best to lead using the instructions in your letters, according to the attendants there. Damuel confirmed this as well, having been tasked with bringing books to the castle and lending them out. It seems the two also received much assistance from a laynoble by the name of Philine.” 

The laynoble apparently idolized Rozemyne, and her efforts were often brought up by Damuel, Wilfried, and Charlotte. It seemed that Rozemyne recognized the name, as her worried expression instantly gave way to a slight smile. 

“I see. Philine did all that for us... She wrote a lot of stories, didn’t she?” 

“I believe so. The stories from the playroom were all written in the colloquial speech of children, however, and your attendants bemoaned that they could not be turned into proper books. In the end, they were somewhat useless,” Ferdinand said, recalling the struggles that Fran and Gil had endured. 

Rozemyne let out a giggle, then looked up in realization. “Ah! What happened with Hasse? Was Spring Prayer carried out okay?” 

“Charlotte performed Hasse’s Spring Prayer in your place, determined to fill the hole you left behind,” Ferdinand explained. It would have been more accurate to say he had ordered her to perform it, but it wasn’t untrue that she had wished to compensate for her big sister’s absence. 

“Did Charlotte have enough mana for that...?” Rozemyne asked, a worried look on her face. 

“Of course not,” Ferdinand scoffed. “She used the mana that had dissolved into your jureve. She and Wilfried performed the Harvest Festival and this year’s Spring Prayer in your place as well, so be sure to thank them. They have grown used to working with feystones.” 

“That’s good to hear. They’ve... sure grown up a lot, huh?” Rozemyne whispered sadly, lowering her eyes. 

Ferdinand didn’t know how to console her. The only words he could offer were a blunt, “Naturally. Two years have passed.” 

“...Right. Well, what about the lower city? I bet Dad and the others were really worried about me being asleep for two years...” 

This time, it was Ferdinand who lowered his eyes. Her family treasured their bond even after the walls of status had torn them apart; he could imagine they had been even more worried about her than he had, since they were not able to check up on her frequently as he was. 

“I do not receive reports on the status of your family,” he said. “My only information regarding the lower city is that the hand pumps have successfully begun to proliferate. Perhaps your attendants in charge of the workshop can give you the answers you seek.” 

“...I’ll ask Gil and Fritz later. Did the printing industry freeze without me? How did the paper-making in Illgner go? Things were going so well too...” 

Rozemyne was making herself depressed before she had even received an answer, so Ferdinand graciously told her what had actually happened in Illgner. 

“What? Volk is having a child?! I’m so glad he’s found happiness.” 

Upon receiving an update on the Harvest Festival, Rozemyne rejoiced as though she had found happiness herself. Ferdinand was endlessly baffled by her capacity to empathize with others. 

“As for the printing industry, Elvira refused to allow its stagnation, taking the initiative to establish printing workshops within her home province of Haldenzel. The Gutenbergs were all mobilized for this purpose, leaving for the province in spring and returning following the Harvest Festival. Benno gave me his report on the matter just recently.” 

“What? M-Mother got involved with the printing industry?” Rozemyne asked, her eyes widening with surprise. 

Ferdinand gave a firm nod. He had already been overwhelmed with work, so Elvira had willfully taken his place, absolutely dedicating herself to leading the industry her daughter had started. As an archnoble, she was not very informed on the business practices of commoners, so her unreasonable demands certainly put Benno through the wringer, but Ferdinand appreciated the relief nonetheless. 

“You owe much to Elvira’s motherly love,” he said. 

“I am grateful to her, but...” Rozemyne trailed off uncomfortably, looking up at Ferdinand with a hard-to-read expression. There was a pause as she struggled to find the right words, then she closed her eyes and murmured, “I’m surprised you gave her your permission.” 

“In all honesty, I did not have the time to personally involve myself with the printing industry; it was such a great boon that Elvira elected to handle it all for me.” 

“That makes sense—all my work did go to you, after all. You’ve done well. I’ll ask Gil and the Plantin Company about the printing industry later on. So... has the former Veronica faction calmed down yet?” 

Rozemyne had given Ferdinand praise and then changed the topic as though it were the most natural thing in the world. She hadn’t criticized him for entrusting some of his work to someone else, and it was perhaps due to this consideration that he then allowed himself to show a kind of vulnerability he would never dare show to anyone else. 

“The former Veronica faction has shown no signs of mobilizing. Viscount Gerlach has been deftly avoiding our attempts to prove his wrongdoings, and while I was told to trap and extract evidence from him, I was too busy with the work in front of me. As such, I have not captured the one who kidnapped you. Forgive me.” 

Rozemyne’s workload was immense—far more than one would expect a child to have. It had proven too much for Ferdinand to shoulder alone, and so he had needed to seek much assistance from others. Her temple work alone was a heavy burden, but she was also involved with ceremonies, the orphanage, the workshops, and the Plantin Company. All that, combined with him no longer having her services as a calculator nor her guarding against the castle exploiting his labor, meant the dam holding back the water had finally burst. 

Ferdinand had been summoned to the castle more frequently, where he would receive unreasonable demands from both Sylvester and Bonifatius. The latter in particular constantly demanded that he put into action some scheme or another to capture Viscount Gerlach, and that he do something to wake Rozemyne as soon as possible. 

Perhaps I would have been able to capture Gerlach by now had Bonifatius not been so invigorated... 

Eckhart had initially helped Ferdinand as his assistant, Damuel had worked in place of his charge, and Brigitte had provided her assistance where possible, but all three were abruptly snatched away by Bonifatius to engage in a brutal training regimen. Had Ferdinand kept them by his side, perhaps he would have had more options for trapping Viscount Gerlach. He had few retainers he could trust, however, and with Viscount Gerlach being extra cautious ever since he was summoned for questioning, Ferdinand lacked the leeway to properly lay out a trap to gather evidence from him. 

“We were able to block Georgine’s return, and we are currently working to prevent any official interactions between Ahrensbach and Ehrenfest, which I imagine is leaving them unable to make any moves. Lamprecht, however, is a cause for concern in this regard. There is a chance he may sow the seeds of conflict.” 

“Lamprecht? My brother?” 

Ferdinand furrowed his brow as he thought back to what had happened over the past two years. “At the end of the winter you fell into your long slumber, Lamprecht attended the Royal Academy’s graduation ceremony to celebrate his lover’s graduation. He had possessed less mana than her while he was at the Academy, so her father had been reluctant to bless their relationship, but your mana compression method had resulted in his capacity increasing a little over the winter.” 

“And that was enough for her father to accept their marriage?” 

“Yes. He was told that his mana continuing to grow would be enough. As such, when Lamprecht returned from the Royal Academy, he asked Sylvester and Karstedt for permission to marry her.” 

Rozemyne nodded excitedly and gestured for Ferdinand to continue, her eyes glittering with hope. Ferdinand truly did not understand why women were so enthralled with the romance of others. He sighed, then continued. She certainly wasn’t going to like how it ended. 

“However, as his lover is an Ahrensbach archnoble, his request was denied on the spot. He knew ahead of time that they would reject him based on recent Ehrenfest politics, and so after an unsurprised nod, he sent a farewell letter to his lover.” 

No matter how much a couple wanted to marry, it could never happen without their parents’ approval and the archduke’s permission. They were allowed to have personal relationships based on feelings up until their graduation, but after that, society ruthlessly clamped down on them. It wasn’t rare for marriages between nobles to contain no love whatsoever. 

“Lamprecht is Wilfried’s guard knight, I suppose... It would be problematic for him to marry a high-status Ahrensbach girl,” Rozemyne said. Her brow was furrowed slightly, but her tone made it clear that she understood the situation. 

“Under normal circumstances, a situation such as this would have ended with the farewell letter. Lamprecht’s lover, however, is the niece of an archduke, and during last year’s spring Archduke Conference, Aub Ahrensbach demanded to know why Sylvester had refused to permit the marriage.” 

“Yikes...” 

After being accosted at the Archduke Conference, Sylvester had managed to fend off Aub Ahrensbach with as many excuses as he could muster. For one, there were nobles other than Lamprecht who wanted to marry Ahrensbach girls, but with so few nobles at the moment, no archduke would want to allow their archnoble women to go to other duchies instead of producing powerful children for their home duchy. Ehrenfest was also weaker than Ahrensbach, so no matter how much Sylvester wanted to allow the two to be together, he couldn’t afford to lose a powerful archnoble by allowing him to marry into another duchy, nor could he permit Lamprecht to marry while denying others with similar ambitions. 

“It is expected that he will again be accosted during this year’s Archduke Conference,” Ferdinand continued, “so you will need to learn what you can about the current state of Ahrensbach politics after entering the Royal Academy.” 

“Haah... Well, I’ll do what I can, I guess.” 

Rozemyne’s blatant lack of interest prompted Ferdinand to rub his forehead. “Were you listening to a word of what I just told you?” 

“Yes, but since Lamprecht’s marriage is guaranteed to fail for political reasons, I’m a lot more interested in what happened between Brigitte and Damuel.” 

“You are more interested in a marriage between your guard knights than the marriage of your own brother...?” 

“Absolutely. I’ve spent a lot more time with them than I have with Lamprecht.” 

Ferdinand sharply inhaled at her unexpected reply. She had shown such devotion to Wilfried and Charlotte that he had assumed she treasured anyone who was legally her family, but as it turned out, it wasn’t blood or technicality that determined her attachment to someone, but the amount of time she had spent with them. This was his first time realizing that she clearly delineated between those who were her family and those who weren’t, which he hadn’t expected from the girl who treated everyone with such consideration that her family seemed to grow by the day. 

“Ferdinand, what happened with Damuel and Brigitte?” 

“I am sorry to disappoint you, but they did not end up marrying one another.” 

“Why not?!” Rozemyne exclaimed, her eyes wide with shock. “Didn’t they both love each other?! There aren’t any interduchy politics at play here either...” 

Ferdinand was equally surprised—not because the marriage hadn’t worked out, but because she had truly believed there was a chance it would actually happen. 

“Their hopes and dreams simply were not aligned. There was nothing that could be done.” 

“Mutual love isn’t enough for things to go well, huh...?” 

“There are countless things that depend on outside circumstances, are there not? Surely you understand this, having come of age once before in a past life.” 

“I read about it a lot in books, but, well... I’d never actually met a couple who didn’t have a good relationship after mutually falling in love.” 

This was enough for Ferdinand to realize that the world Rozemyne came from was only deceptively similar to his. There were many substantial differences, and he could guess that the way people perceived marriage was among them. 

“There were two possible paths they could have taken to make their marriage a reality: one was for Brigitte, the little sister of a landowning mednoble, to descend to the rank of a laynoble and live in the Noble’s Quarter; the other was for Damuel, the second son of a laynoble, to become a mednoble through marriage.” 

“What’s the problem with Damuel becoming a mednoble? Surely that’s an improvement for him,” Rozemyne said casually, which revealed just how little she knew about nobles. 

“That would require Damuel to step down from serving as your guard knight and move to Illgner. While that would be acceptable for an average layknight, his position is rather unique: not only does he owe both his position and his life to your kindness, but he knows too much about you to be safely let go,” Ferdinand explained. For obvious reasons, neither the public nor Brigitte knew Damuel possessed information about Rozemyne’s time as a commoner. 

“Can’t I just give him my permission to quit? Like, right now? Could they get married then?” 

“It is too late for that. Elvira introduced Brigitte to a new man, to whom she got married this summer. She has now returned to Illgner.” 

“That happened way too fast... I can’t believe it.” 

She had been more than ready to release Damuel and send him to Illgner despite everything he knew about her, all to ensure that their relationship worked out. Ferdinand had no choice but to respectfully applaud Elvira, who had sensed this danger and swiftly prevented it from happening before Rozemyne could wake up. 

Ferdinand had no intention of telling Rozemyne this, since she was so emotionally weak when it came to matters of death, but had Damuel chosen to go to Illgner, he would have experienced a sudden and mysterious demise by the end of the month. Keeping such critical information about the archducal family private was more important to Ehrenfest than the life of a single laynoble. 

“Speaking of which, your personal chef requested permission to get married,” Ferdinand added. “These arrangements could also not be made while you were asleep. They are still awaiting an answer, so I would rather you settle this matter than dwell on the past.” 

“I guess Hugo’s spring has finally come...” Rozemyne said, feebly attempting to smile. “I’m happy for him.” Despite her words, the expression on her face was the same one she had worn when voicing her fears about how much everyone had changed. 

“I imagine your attendants will know more about the orphanage and workshop than I do. It would be best for you to ask them any further questions.” 

“...Right.” 

Noticing the anxiety in Rozemyne’s stiff expression, Ferdinand paused in thought, wondering what he could do to ease her concerns. He knew many people who had used a jureve before, but they had slept from ten days at the least to a season at most; someone remaining asleep for two whole years was simply unheard of. And more than anything else, he had been watching her so closely over the years, so desperately praying for some kind of change, that he could not quite empathize with her feelings of worry over the changes she saw. Rather, he felt more empathy for her attendants and relatives, who had spent the past two years worrying themselves to death over when she would wake up, or whether she would wake up at all. 

“Rozemyne, I do not know what you are afraid of, but all of your attendants have been waiting for you to awaken. They followed the instructions you left behind and managed your chambers, the orphanage, and the workshop in your absence. They dedicated themselves to making new books and doing whatever work they could to ensure your happiness when you returned. You should not fear their growth, but rather celebrate it.” 

“You’re right!” Rozemyne replied enthusiastically, a big smile now spread across her face. It was the same expression she always wore, and it was for precisely that reason that Ferdinand let out a long sigh of relief.