Staying Home at the Castle
“Tomorrow’s Starbind Ceremony with Ehrenfest and Ahrensbach is going to be held at the border gate. Do not slack in your preparations,” Rihyarda said. “Now, the retainers who are accompanying Lady Rozemyne will need to be up and about by the time first bell rings, but those who aren’t may take it easier. That includes you, Philine.”
I nodded. We were in the retainers’ room, going over our plans at the end of the day. Ottilie and Leonore were going to be attending the ceremony, since they were family of Count Leisegang and could stay in his mansion, while I and a few others were remaining behind. Lady Rozemyne was in the temple, which meant there was no need for a night watch; Rihyarda locked the room once we had all stepped out.
I was woken up the next morning by the bustle of moving retainers. Just as Rihyarda had instructed, those who would normally wake up a little before second bell were already moving around. I could not afford to be the only one getting up late. I picked up my apprentice scholar clothes and carried them to the dressing room.
The dressing room was a shared space for laynobles and mednobles who did not have any personal attendants in the castle. If one came to the room while everyone was getting ready for the day, there would usually be someone there to help one get dressed and such. In turn, one would aid others in getting dressed as well. If nobody was there, it was possible to pay for a servant with one’s own funds... but now that I had left home, I didn’t have the money to spare for something like that.
“Philine, over here. You can do me next.”
“Of course,” I replied. I had gotten quite good at dressing the castle’s attendants over the past season I had spent here since Lady Rozemyne gifted me a room in the northern building.
After getting changed, I made my way to the room where attendants ate. Brunhilde had just finished her breakfast when I arrived and was preparing to leave in her highbeast riding clothes. “Oh, Philine,” she said upon noticing me. “You could have slept a little longer.”
Brunhilde was an archnoble, but she was very kind. She taught me the precise rules of the nobility and assisted me in more ways than I could count, maintaining that any retainer needed to know at least so much to avoid shaming their lady.
“I want to do what I can to help,” I explained. “I wish to see you all off as well.”
Court chefs made food for the attendants living in the castle, and while there was less variety than what the archducal family received, the flavor was still quite good. Castle servants handled the serving. Some of them carried themselves just like the temple’s gray priests.
Judithe lived in the knight dormitory, and she had been moaning about how she wanted a room in the northern building instead. It would have been nice for the knights to enjoy the same meals we were lucky enough to receive, but training new court chefs was apparently an arduous process.
“This excursion is a good opportunity to see how milady fares outside of the castle,” Rihyarda said. “At the same time, you must keep in mind that she does not understand much about our lifestyle. Serve her well, such that she does not blunder in Count Leisegang’s estate.”
Ottilie, Brunhilde, Hartmut, and Leonore all nodded before taking out their highbeasts and getting ready to leave. Among the crowd surrounding us were the archducal family, their retainers, the families of the grooms, and a portion of the Knight’s Order to protect the party. Everyone was busy with their respective preparations; an ordonnanz had come from the temple informing us that Lady Rozemyne was on her way.
“Ah, there she is. Wait...”
My eyes widened as Lady Rozemyne arrived in her highbeast, which was much, much bigger than I had ever seen it before. Its entrance stretched open once she landed, and Damuel hopped out with a large, wrapped item of some kind in his arms. I could see through the open doorway that there were many gray priests and much luggage packed inside.
“I was wondering how they were going to carry the divine instrument and gray priests to the border gate,” I said aloud. “To think she could make her highbeast that large...”
Judithe, who was looking at Lady Rozemyne’s highbeast with a similarly stunned expression, nodded in agreement. She was here to see everyone off as well.
“Alright,” Sylvester said. “Time for us to go.”
“May you return safely,” Florencia replied.
As the throng of mounted highbeasts took flight, Damuel alone returned to the castle, where he was going to be staying with the others and me.
“Welcome back to the castle, Damuel,” I said. “It seems you will finally be able to relax today.”
“Same to you, Philine. We won’t need to go to the temple for a while,” he replied.
I had been going to the temple every day, aside from when I had meetings or lectures that I needed to attend as an apprentice scholar. There was harspiel practice, assisting the High Priest, transcribing books, observing the orphanage and workshop, holding meetings with lower-city merchants... I was much busier in the temple than in the castle, and I could feel my scholarly skills developing with each passing day. No other first-year of the Royal Academy was entrusted with this much work in the castle.
Not to mention, Damuel is there too, so...
“I feel a bit uneasy in the castle, since there is so little to do,” I said.
“Fear not; I have a book from Dunkelfelger for you. Seems that Lady Rozemyne wants you to keep transcribing it,” Damuel replied. The wrapped item in his arms was no doubt the book in question. Lady Rozemyne had not failed to provide me with plenty of work.
“Will you be returning to work in the temple as soon as Lady Rozemyne returns?” I asked. “I would very much like to go as well.”
“Nah. Lady Rozemyne will probably end up bedridden once she gets back, so there’s not much point in you going to the temple until she’s better.”
Aah, I forgot to account for Lady Rozemyne’s poor health...
If she were bedridden, she would need knights to protect her but no apprentice scholars at her side. In fact, it was likely that our presence would only cause more trouble. Seeing us hard at work would almost certainly drive Lady Rozemyne to start overexerting herself.
I slumped over sadly, which made Damuel shrug his shoulders. “I’ll send you an ordonnanz when Lady Rozemyne recovers,” he said with a wry grin. “You’ll just have to wait in the castle until then.”
“Understood,” I replied. “Promise me you won’t forget, though.”
“You sure are serious about promises, huh?” Damuel chuckled. After giving me his word, he passed the valuable wrapped book to Rihyarda and Lieseleta, took out his highbeast, and then headed to the knight dormitory.
I got him to promise to send me an ordonnanz... I can’t wait.
I watched as Damuel went, smiling to myself all the while. Only when Judithe prodded my cheek was I drawn back to reality. “You sure like Damuel, don’tcha?” she said with a snicker.
“Was it showing on my face again?” I asked, rubbing my cheek.
Judithe snickered again and nodded. “You’re like an open book,” she said, having already sniffed out my feelings. Brunhilde and Lieseleta were aware as well.
“How could I not like him?” I asked. “He is so wonderful.”
“He certainly is the hero who saved you. I thought before working here that he was just a lucky laynoble making the most of going to the temple, but now I know he’s having a hard time keeping up with Lady Rozemyne’s craziness. And, well... he may be a bit dense, but he’s not a bad guy. You just keep working on him, Philine. I heard that not even Lady Elvira is going to be able to find him a marriage partner right away.”
Judithe went on to tell me about a conversation she had overheard between Damuel and Lady Rozemyne. Lady Elvira had apparently said that she could not find him a partner in the near future, and it seemed that Damuel had gotten rather depressed as a result, even saying that marriage was impossible for him. I certainly felt bad that he was having to wait, but I also hoped that his misfortune would continue at least until my coming-of-age.
“If you ask Lady Rozemyne for her help, Philine, I’m sure you’ll have Dregarnuhr the Goddess of Time’s divine protection on your side.”
“I would never do something so shameless,” I replied. “Damuel would only be disappointed.”
I... I just need to be close to my coming-of-age. I might have some hope then.
Judithe was cackling to herself while trying to taunt me into confessing. I shot her a glare, then turned and started for Lady Rozemyne’s chambers. Lady Rozemyne spent most of her time in the temple anyway, so her absence wouldn’t have too much of an impact on my usual duties.
Lady Rozemyne’s attendants would usually sort through the letters she received requesting meetings and such in the morning after breakfast, but all the happenings today meant it had needed to be rescheduled. Rihyarda was now going through them with Lieseleta, as per usual.
“Rihyarda, do you not think the number of requests from the former Veronica faction has increased dramatically?” Lieseleta asked. “There was a while when they were sending far fewer.”
“Something must have happened...” Rihyarda replied. “I shall see what I can learn.”
I listened to their conversation while transcribing the book from Dunkelfelger. Progress was slow, since it used a lot of old words and complicated turns of phrase. It was ridiculous that Lady Rozemyne could read this so smoothly.
By the time Rihyarda and Lieseleta had finished sorting through the letters, Damuel had returned from the knight dormitory. “I shall now guard the door,” he announced.
“Aah, Damuel,” Rihyarda said. “I must go to an associate’s to discuss some matters. You may contact me by ordonnanz if anything happens, since I’ll be staying in the castle nearby. Furthermore, Philine has an apprentice scholar lesson at third bell. There are many members of the former Veronica faction in the castle today, while most of the Florencia faction is absent, so please guard her.”
Just like that, Rihyarda had magnanimously assigned Damuel to me. My heart fluttered when he agreed to her request.
Whatever shall I do? I can hardly wait for my lesson now.
Once the letters were sorted, the attendants needed to clean the chambers. This was usually when I would decide between going to study in my room or participating in training with the Knight’s Order. However, since most of the knights were now headed to the border gate and those remaining behind were largely on guard duty, there was no training to attend. I cleared away my pen and paper in preparation for going to my room, only for Lieseleta to raise a hand to stop me.
“You can stay here, Philine. We are going to clean after today’s embroidering instead. There are always the occasional strands of thread that end up here and there, as I’m sure you can imagine.”
While Rihyarda was off gathering intelligence, Lieseleta began preparing to embroider Schwartz’s and Weiss’s outfits. Her embroidery truly was something to behold, and her stitches were ever so precise.
Angelica’s appearance certainly belied her true personality, but Lieseleta was quite surprising as well. She was quite reserved and calm during work, but she became lively and talkative the very instant she was off duty. I still remembered the first time I had seen her switch modes—it had been so seamless and dramatic that I thought she had turned into someone else entirely.
Because, I mean, Angelica doesn’t change like that.
“Judithe, why don’t you join us?” Lieseleta asked invitingly. “Damuel can handle the door. You want to embroider a cape one day, don’t you?”
Judithe’s eyes flitted from Lieseleta to Damuel. She wanted to carry out her duty as a guard properly, but it was clear on her face that she also wanted to learn embroidery.
“We probably won’t have any visitors today,” Damuel added. “Why not practice some embroidery so that you can give a better gift to your future husband?”
“No way,” Judithe eventually replied. “I’m aiming to be like Angelica. I’ll practice for my own sake, not because I want to please a man.” She had started speaking very openly around Damuel, to the extent that such casual exchanges were nothing rare. It was like they had grown close somehow, which did make me feel a little jealous.
I always end up acting so reserved around Damuel... Maybe it’s because I’m not a mednoble like Judithe and don’t have status over him. She doesn’t have any romantic feelings for him, I know, but he’s such a wonderful man that she might fall for him at any moment! How could she not?!
Damuel now had enough mana that he was capable of marrying even a mednoble like Lady Brigitte. I would need more mana to even earn his notice, so I was working hard to compress it as much as possible. I couldn’t help but hate my laynoble body for its painfully limited mana capacity.
At third bell, I cleared away my transcribing utensils and prepared to leave for my lesson intended to teach apprentice scholars who had finished their first year in the Royal Academy the basics of castle work. I was Lady Rozemyne’s retainer, but I had been told to attend nonetheless, since I was unfamiliar with the inner workings of the castle.
The schedule for today was to observe the working scholars. Lady Rozemyne was an archduke candidate, but she had very much wanted to participate with us; it seemed that she planned to take the scholar course as well.
I must work harder, else I will surely be called unfit to serve as the brilliant Lady Rozemyne’s retainer.
“You’re going to be late if we don’t leave soon, Philine,” Damuel said.
“I’m ready.”
And so, I made my way toward the main building with Damuel, savoring the joyous feeling that swept through me when he slowed down to match my pace. Unfortunately, the smile faded from my face when we left the northern building. I was happy to be spending time with him, but going to the main building always made me feel a bit anxious. Even though we were Lady Rozemyne’s retainers, we were often insulted from the shadows for being laynobles.
It was preferable for adults to visit the temple, so Lady Rozemyne would always bring Damuel with her, leaving castle duty to the apprentices. This had resulted in castle nobles referring to Damuel as a temple-only guard knight whom Lady Rozemyne kept around only because she could not bring archknights to the temple. Meanwhile, I was being called “the laynoble who exploited the saint’s compassion,” in reference to the fact that Lady Rozemyne had saved Konrad and granted me a room.
Hearing these insults had initially made me want to burst into tears, but over time, I grew used to them. Such harsh words were never pleasant to hear, but Damuel would console me and teach me how to ignore them. “They’re just jealous because you get to be Lady Rozemyne’s retainer and they don’t,” he would say.
Damuel is so kind and wonderful, isn’t he?
There were only a few apprentice scholars coming to today’s lesson. Roderick and I were the only first-year apprentice scholars, and we were joined by two second-years who hadn’t been able to participate the year before. Lady Rozemyne was an archduke candidate, so even though she intended to be an apprentice scholar, she could hardly be counted alongside us.
I had spent a winter in the Royal Academy with everyone who was due to attend. It was nice that I didn’t need to feel tense around them.
“Roderick,” I called.
“Ah, Philine!”
Roderick was an apprentice scholar who put his all into writing stories. We had competed to see who could write more for Lady Rozemyne during her long slumber, so I felt a little bad that only I had been chosen to serve her. Were his family not in the former Veronica faction, I was sure he would have been chosen in my place. He was a mednoble, after all, while I was only a laynoble.
“Good timing. Nobody else is here yet,” Roderick said. He glanced around and then pulled out a letter from his belongings. “Th-This is for you, Philine. I want you to read it as soon as you get back to your room!” he exclaimed.
I instinctively looked between the letter and Damuel, whom Roderick must not have counted, considering that he had said nobody else was here yet. Roderick was so relieved about having delivered the letter that he muttered, “I did it...” to himself several times over, but I wanted to cradle my head and scream.
If you’re going to do something like this, don’t do it in front of Damuel, of all people!
Damuel looked down at the letter. “A love letter, huh? Roderick’s a mednoble, so you shouldn’t miss this chance to raise your status,” he murmured and then let out a heavy sigh.
I sighed as well, doing my best to hide the letter. It had no doubt reminded Damuel of his lost love for Lady Brigitte and the lack of romantic approaches he was receiving.
The second-year apprentices soon arrived, and a scholar by the name of Kantna began his lecture on the castle. I walked through the main building feeling depressed, but I did not forget to write down the contents of the lesson for Lady Rozemyne.
Damuel and I returned to the northern building once the lesson was over. Upon our return, Judithe immediately shot me a look of concern. “You don’t look so good, Philine,” she said. “What has Damuel done?”
“Hold on!” Damuel exclaimed. “Why are you blaming me?!”
“I can’t think of anybody else who might be responsible.”
Lieseleta looked over at us as well. “Oh? Has Damuel done something to Philine?” she asked. “Do not tell me that he—”
“You’ve both got the wrong idea,” Damuel hurriedly interjected, shaking his head. “A first-year apprentice scholar named Roderick just gave her a love letter. That’s probably the reason. I have nothing to do with it.”
“I knew it was because of you...” Judithe muttered.
“Damuel, why did you not step in and stop him?” Lieseleta chided.
“Wait, why would I have stopped him?” Damuel asked. “I don’t understand.”
“It’s because you don’t understand these things that you are struggling to find a girl of your own,” Lieseleta said with a smirk.
“Ngh!”
I turned away from the chattering trio and returned to my room, where I promptly opened Roderick’s letter. It would be best to turn him down quickly.
Wait... what?!
The blood drained from my face the moment I read the contents. It was no love letter; Roderick had given me this to inform me of a planned ambush.
One sheet of paper was written in a hand that I didn’t recognize and described a plan to attack the temple priests sent ahead by carriage to prepare for the Starbind Ceremony. The writer had only overheard the plans for the ambush, so they had no actual evidence; all they knew was that the person their father served had wished for it. Even so, the writer advised that precautions be taken.
The other sheet was in Roderick’s handwriting and explained how this message had come into his possession. Viscount Gerlach’s son Matthias had apparently learned of the planned ambush and sent several requests to meet with Lady Rozemyne, but his status as a member of the former Veronica faction had resulted in each one being rejected. He had spoken with others, trying to determine who could get closest to Lady Rozemyne, and concluded that his best option was to send a letter through Roderick, who would meet with me during our apprentice scholar lessons.
It seemed they had made good on their promise in the Royal Academy to serve Lady Rozemyne even as members of the former Veronica Faction. I gripped the letter and ran back into Lady Rozemyne’s chambers without the slightest hesitation.
“Damuel! Judithe!” I cried, holding out the papers. “Please, protect Lady Rozemyne!”
Everyone’s expressions changed the instant they saw what was written. Damuel immediately sent an ordonnanz to Rihyarda, stating that there was an ambush planned and that she needed to set up a meeting with Lord Bonifatius posthaste. He then sent an ordonnanz directly to Lord Bonifatius, breaking decorum due to the urgency of the situation.
Lord Bonifatius sent a response before Rihyarda did.
“COME! NOW!”
It was brief, but the message was clear. Damuel entrusted the chambers to Judithe and sprinted out of the room with Roderick’s letter before the ordonnanz could even repeat once.
I pray that he makes it in time.
“Lady Rozemyne...”
Together with Judithe and Lieseleta, I prayed that Lady Rozemyne would not be put in harm’s way once again. We were unable to do much else, and so we had our lunch. It was the same delicious food as usual, but my mind was so elsewhere that it tasted almost like nothing at all.
Rihyarda and Damuel eventually returned, both looking notably relieved.
“Is Lady Rozemyne safe?!” those of us who had remained behind exclaimed in unison.
“Yeah,” Damuel replied. “Sounds like they managed to block the ambush.”
Lord Bonifatius had used a magic tool for contacting giebes to inform Count Leisegang of the planned ambush. The message had come just as they were finishing lunch, meaning Lady Rozemyne had not yet departed.
Based on the fact that Matthias had sent the letter, those in charge had deduced the most likely places for the ambushers to be and sent knights to guard them. This also made it clear to the would-be attackers that their plan had been discovered, and as a result, it seemed that Lady Rozemyne’s group had managed to reach the border gate safely.
“Lord Bonifatius is proud of the coordination that took place here today,” Rihyarda said, her eyes crinkled in a smile. “The bonds Lady Rozemyne has formed in the Royal Academy by breaking down faction walls are proving their value. Soon, the day may come when the unified power of children moves even us adults.”
I smiled in turn, pleased that Lady Rozemyne was safe. My celebrations were short-lived, however, as Damuel stretched and shot me a grin. “Still,” he said. “Too bad for you.”
“Hm...?”
“You didn’t get the love letter you hoped for, huh?”
His words struck me with such force that my vision spun. Lady Rozemyne’s safety had been all that occupied my thoughts, but Damuel seemed to think I had been fretting about a love letter. Was I really that much of a child in his eyes? I looked up at him, struggling to hold back my tears, which made him frantically wave his hands.
“N-Now, now! Th-There’s no need to cry, is there?” he stammered. “I mean, er, there’re plenty of fish in the sea. You’ll get another love letter or two for sure. No doubt about it.”
That’s not what I’m upset about!
Judithe and Lieseleta gave exasperated sighs. I knew deep down that Damuel was just showing concern for me, since he didn’t know how I really felt about him. He was a kind man, but he was doing the exact opposite of what I wanted from him.
Should I just say it now? Should I stop holding back and confess everything?
I balled my fists and glared up at Damuel, filled with determination. He was probably used to getting such stern looks from Judithe, but evidently not from me; I could sense how taken aback he was from his expression alone. After eyeing him carefully for a moment, I took a deep breath and—
“Damuel, I hope you don’t get a girlfriend or get married before I come of age!”
“H-Hold on a moment,” Damuel sputtered. “That’s just cruel, Philine! I’m dying here!”
“It’s only a wish. It can’t be cruel.”
“Yes, it can!”
Judithe and Lieseleta began cackling at how genuinely offended Damuel looked. I laughed alongside them, half relieved and half upset that he hadn’t understood me at all.
I wonder whether I should escalate things and go ask Lady Elvira for her help...?
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