Ascendance of a Bookworm (LN) - Volume 4.9 - Chapter SS1

Starting Life in Ahrensbach

We were now in Ahrensbach, and winter socializing was around the corner. There was a problem, though: Aub Ahrensbach had died just before we arrived. The archduke had apparently been in a shockingly dangerous state when he had sent his letter to Ehrenfest, and his true intention had been to have Lord Ferdinand here to fill the void left by his passing.

Aub Ahrensbach’s death meant that our original plan of using him to form connections with the duchy’s nobles was no longer an option. We were fortunate beyond words that Lord Ferdinand had formed a bond with Lady Letizia and her retainers on the way here.

The unfortunate circumstances had meant that Lady Detlinde was much too busy to welcome Ferdinand upon his arrival at the border gate. Lady Georgine had been sent instead, given her relation to Ehrenfest, but her grief over losing her husband was apparently so great that she had fallen ill on the way. Lady Letizia had then been summoned as an urgent replacement representative and sent to catch up to the carriage on her retainer’s highbeast.

Though anyone with a brain can tell that Lady Georgine’s lying.

She had worked tirelessly toward becoming the next aub, trapping her enemies in various plots and sparing no effort to secure her position. If someone told me she was still obsessed with Ehrenfest, I would believe them in an instant. She was crazy vindictive.

I had loved gathering information ever since I was little. It was more or less a hobby of mine, and in my eyes, every piece of intel was of equal worth. Some valued certain tidbits more than others, though. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure, as they say—and it was with this in mind that I made sure to collect even the most insignificant details.

As it turned out, Lady Georgine hadn’t agreed with my methods. “Your information is imprecise and entirely useless,” she had once said to me. It had been at that very moment that I lost all interest in sharing my information with her—and also my will to serve her.

Lady Georgine and I were in the same grade, and she had my big sister and mother both serving as her retainers. In the playroom, she had approached me and said, “You are taking the scholar course, correct? As a man, you will not be able to serve me as an attendant.”

Right. That’s an option...

In the end, I had decided to take the attendant course; my mother and sister were already serving Lady Georgine, and it seemed unnecessary for me to join them. Lady Georgine hadn’t taken this very well, though. “You are a traitor, Justus. I can no longer trust you,” she had said, and from that point on, she had started treating me quite harshly.

I hadn’t known at the time, but Lord Sylvester had been born not long before that, and my mother was going to be moved into his service instead. Lady Georgine viewed my decision to take the attendant course as a means to evade becoming her scholar and to serve her little brother instead.

To be honest, I didn’t care what she thought. I didn’t want to serve either of them. Lady Georgine put on the pleasant airs of a fine noblewoman, but she had a storm of very intense emotions raging inside her and would go to any length to destroy her enemies. Lord Sylvester, on the other hand, had spent three years plagued with sickness, then suddenly turned into a complete hooligan who sprinted all over the place. Neither person had any qualities that compelled me to serve them.

“Justus. Some tea, if you would.”

“Understood, Lord Ferdinand.”

Instead, the person whom I had chosen to serve—even at the cost of giving up my name—was Lord Ferdinand. He was a good lord who used my information well and gave me a fair amount of freedom.

Lord Ferdinand had been spurned by Lady Veronica, the previous first wife, to the point that she had tried to eliminate him on more than one occasion. Of course, Lord Ferdinand had evaded each attempt on his life. Ironically, despite how much she despised him, it seemed reasonable to say that she was the very reason for his genius; after all, she had pretty much forced him to develop extreme endurance, caution, and diligence.

“Sergius, may I be taken to the kitchen?” I asked.

Sergius was one of the Ahrensbach attendants assigned to Lord Ferdinand. I also needed to use this opportunity to teach him which tea and whatnot our lord preferred.

“It may take us some time to get there,” he replied, “but once the Starbind Ceremony with Lady Detlinde is complete, we will be moved to the aub’s living quarters in the main building. That should make things much easier.”

Lord Ferdinand couldn’t go to the aub’s chambers in the main building until he was married, so he was staying in a guest room for the time being. That much was normal, so I saw no reason to complain.

The problem is... when will the Starbinding actually take place?

We could say with all certainty that the announcement of the late aub’s death and the assignment of the next archduke would take place during the spring Archduke Conference, but we didn’t yet know whether the Starbinding Ceremony could also be held then. Lady Detlinde needed to prioritize dyeing the foundational magic with her mana and making it entirely hers.

She won’t be able to dye it while she’s at the Royal Academy, though. And it’s obvious that Lord Ferdinand’s mana is stronger.

The foundational magic was still dyed with the late Aub Ahrensbach’s mana. Children had similar mana to their parents, so manipulating it wouldn’t pose a significant problem, but once a couple married, they would start mixing mana and dyeing themselves in each other’s colors. This was problematic because of the likelihood that Lord Ferdinand’s mana would repel the aub’s, thereby making Lady Detlinde’s task even more difficult. They would probably postpone the marriage until after the foundation had been dyed.

“This hallway is for servants, but it also serves as a shortcut to the kitchen,” Sergius explained with a smile while leading the way. I memorized the path while listening to the conversations of the busily moving servants.

My main jobs this winter were to form connections with nobles and gather intelligence. Lord Ferdinand had specifically told me to learn anything I could about Lady Georgine. Aub Ahrensbach’s passing meant that the archducal living space needed to be cleared for the next archduke, and Lady Georgine was apparently in the process of moving her quarters. The servants were all running around—which made this the perfect opportunity for an infiltration mission.

Of course, I would need to dedicate some time to my preparations first. I still needed to master the locals’ accents, for one thing. Most nobles sounded pretty similar in how they spoke, since we all socialized together in the Royal Academy and during the Archduke Conference, but to mingle with the commoner servants, it was necessary to learn their way of speaking and the slang they used.

The commoners here in Ahrensbach seemed to speak a bit differently from those in Ehrenfest’s lower city, so I had to relearn how to talk. There were a few habits that were common to both regions, but for the most part, I would need to learn as much as I could from listening to the servants around me.

Looks like the servants here have uniforms too. That sure is a pain...

I wouldn’t be able to do any infiltrating without one.

Although she hadn’t come to meet us at the border, Lady Georgine had been there when we arrived at the castle. “I did not expect you to come as well, Justus,” she had said to me. “Is Gudrun not with you? I get so few chances to see her, and I miss her ever so much.” It was a warning that she knew about my female persona and would find me out the instant I attempted to cross-dress.

Working with Lady Georgine was something of a challenge, since she knew me from my days messing around in the Royal Academy.

“Incidentally, Lord Ferdinand... do you not need to practice the harspiel?” I asked while serving him tea.

His internal dialogue hadn’t escaped my notice—each time we had stopped at an inn en route to Ahrensbach’s castle, he had mumbled, “Surely there is another way...” It seemed that he had never actually come up with an alternative, though. He had asked me several times for ideas, but I hadn’t even attempted to think of any. As far as I was concerned, nothing could beat Lady Rozemyne’s harspiel suggestion.

Now that Aub Ahrensbach was dead, we needed a quick way to make allies—but Lord Ferdinand was all-around terrible at dealing with people. He could complete tasks given to him to perfection, but he looked at things too logically and tended to leave emotion by the wayside.

In contrast to his harsh character, his harspiel playing was incredibly soft, and people had been smitten with his singing voice ever since he was a student. They would play an essential role in our aim to open the hearts of the Ahrensbach nobles. Women were bound to look at him more positively afterward—if not find themselves completely enraptured.

Lady Rozemyne understands Lord Ferdinand real well.

I chuckled to myself, which made Lord Ferdinand grimace. He looked pretty averse to following Lady Rozemyne’s advice.

“I remember you being so graceful with the harspiel, Lord Ferdinand,” Sergius said. “I would love to hear you play.”

As it turned out, Sergius had gone to the Royal Academy at around the same time as Lord Ferdinand. He was one of the attendants who had asked to support Lord Ferdinand when we arrived in Ahrensbach, and although I didn’t fully trust him yet, I could see the respect and admiration in his eyes.

Sergius explained that there were some in Ahrensbach who knew how excellent Lord Ferdinand was and were enthusiastic about having him here to assist with work. Specifically, there were some higher-ups who considered certain duties too heavy to be entrusted to Lady Detlinde. The dream was for us to slowly get them on our side.

“As you are soon to be Lady Letizia’s teacher, I think it would be productive for you to demonstrate your talents,” Sergius continued. “Perhaps you could play during the welcoming feast. Or should we arrange for you to play on some other occasion?”

Ferdinand gave a defeated sigh, having at last given up now that even Sergius was against him. “I will play some harspiel at the feast. Now leave me be.”

“As you wish.”

His plan was to arrange the new song that Lady Rozemyne had given him, and with those preliminary arrangements complete, we left Lord Ferdinand alone. Only his guard knight Eckhart would be staying with him.

As I put together my room and unpacked my luggage, the only thought running through my mind was how I could go about getting my hands on a servants’ uniform.

“Sergius, allow me to wash up the teacups and such,” I said.

“I shall join you. I cannot yet allow you to move around on your own,” he replied. Though he was attending to Lord Ferdinand, he was also here to keep me under observation.

“I appreciate it. Memorizing directions is something of a weakness of mine.”

I got Sergius to carry the dishes, while I picked up the heavier items like the teapot, and together we made our way through the servants’ hallway toward the kitchen.

I don’t feel great about this, but... you gotta do what you gotta do.

I waited until we came across a servant, who moved to the wall to let us pass, then purposefully bumped into him, spilling some of the leftover tea and honey on his clothes in the process.

“Sorry!” I exclaimed. “That was entirely my fault.”

“U-Um... Think nothing of it, my lord,” the servant replied. “I will just have to wash my uniform.”

“Indeed, Justus,” Sergius added. “You do not need to worry. The servant is at fault for not being careful enough.”

I shook my head with a grave expression. “No, that won’t do. In Ehrenfest, even nobles have to take responsibility for mistakes like this. I realize that I’m in Ahrensbach now, but turning a blind eye to it all just wouldn’t sit right with me. Sergius, can you take this teapot for me? I need to go apologize to this man’s superior.”

“You know I cannot let you do that...”

“Understandable. How about if you accompany me there once we’re done?”

Sergius paused for a moment, then heaved an annoyed sigh and said, “Very well.” It was becoming even more apparent that he had been ordered not to leave me to my own devices.

“I realize this is an inconvenience,” I said, turning to the servant, “but you’ll need to come with us. I’ll apologize to your superior and get you a new uniform. You can’t be expected to work in that one.”

Naturally, a mere servant was in no position to talk back to a noble. We headed to the kitchen, where Sergius and I washed up our teapot and cups, then I pushed for the three of us to meet with the superior of the now cringing servant. There I explained the circumstances, apologized, and asked to be taken to where new uniforms were provided.

“There is no need for you, a noble, to go to such lengths for a servant,” Sergius noted.

“I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself otherwise, and Lord Ferdinand would have some choice words for me,” I said, forcing my way through with a smile. I then apologized to the servant once again, paid for his new uniform, and oversaw him receiving it.

Hm. Looks like they aren’t checking names or faces. Means I’ll just need some money and a noble to accompany me.

After confirming the process for obtaining a new uniform, I waited several days, then met with Eckhart and Lord Ferdinand. It was during our talk that I arranged for Sergius to be given a job of some sort that would give me time to work unobserved. I then changed the color of my hair, messed with my face, and dirtied my clothes enough that they resembled the servants’ uniforms.

“Eckhart, take this man to get a new uniform,” Lord Ferdinand instructed.

“Yes, my lord!”

And so, we went to the uniform room with a note from Lord Ferdinand. Eckhart used the same excuses as I had a few days prior, handed over the necessary fee, and then used the note to secure my new clothes.

“Ehrenfest nobles certainly are strange,” the person in charge of the uniforms said. “Surely there is no need for you to be so concerned about servants.”

Eckhart shook his head. “We have a saint in Ehrenfest who grants compassion even to orphans. Our lord would have harsh words for us if we were to treat the servants poorly.”

“They sound very saintly indeed,” the man remarked with a sympathetic smile while handing over the uniform.

“You have my utmost thanks. Now, I must return to work,” I said, separating from Eckhart once I was in my uniform and making my way to the servants’ hallway. From there, I headed to Lady Georgine’s villa. It was time for some reconnaissance.

I mingled with the working servants and gathered some intelligence, then slipped into a storage room used only by servants and changed back into my attendant uniform. From there, I used waschen to clean myself and remove the dye from my hair, then returned to Lord Ferdinand’s room as if nothing had happened.

“Justus, where were you?”

“Ah, Sergius. Did Lord Ferdinand not tell you?”

“He said that you had gone to the brewing room, but I did not see you there.”

“We must have missed each other. I made some recovery potions and then went to the kitchen.”

My excuse wasn’t wholly untrue; one of the kitchen servants was a gossipy woman who loved talking to anyone who would listen, so I had gone there to peel some potatoffels. She had given me a lot of useful information.

After brushing off Sergius’s questions, I presented some tea to Lord Ferdinand. “Were you able to finish the harspiel song?”

“Yes. I intend to debut it tomorrow,” he replied with a derisive smirk. He looked to be fairly confident in himself, so I assumed there was nothing to worry about—but he then placed a sound-blocking magic tool on the table, positioned behind the teapot so that only I could see it.

I took the magic tool while pretending to set down the sweet I was eating.

“Sergius—prepare a bath, if you would,” Lord Ferdinand said. “I wish to take one before dinner.”

“As you will.”

The moment Sergius turned around, Lord Ferdinand muttered, “Your report?” It was much harder for us to converse in secret now that we were in Ahrensbach, since we had even more eyes on us than expected, but the two of us and Eckhart were the only ones in the room right now. We needed to make the most of what little time we had.

“It seems that the people here don’t have very high opinions of Ehrenfest,” I said, preparing the bed and desk while I delivered my report so that it wouldn’t be obvious that we were talking when Sergius returned. “The general consensus is that we’ve been much too uncooperative, even though our own Lady Georgine is the first wife.”

People had a lot of sympathy for Lady Georgine, who had come from Ehrenfest but received practically no support since Lord Sylvester became the archduke. They thought it was unbecoming that, after receiving our very own saint with an abundance of mana, we had chosen to focus on climbing the rankings rather than helping those around us.

“I seem to recall Lady Veronica dedicating a large chunk of our budget to Ahrensbach, since she had valued the connection between our duchies so dearly. Now, I wonder who spread these rumors?” I pondered aloud.

“I imagine Ehrenfest was simply a convenient scapegoat for Ahrensbach’s discontent,” Lord Ferdinand replied.

“Indeed. Moreover, it seems that Lady Georgine’s faction contains many vassals from the late second wife. She was the mother of Ahrensbach’s successor and on bad terms with the previous first wife from the very start, it seems, but treated Lady Georgine well when she came to be the third wife.”

Incidentally, after the second wife was executed and Ahrensbach lost its successors, the first wife’s granddaughter had been adopted to serve as a successor instead. The second wife’s faction had apparently moved wholesale to support Lady Georgine.

“Their reason for choosing Lady Georgine was in part because they opposed the first wife, but also because they thought Lady Letizia was much too young. The mana shortage only made things worse. The duchy had already lost archduke candidates and was struggling to supply mana to its foundation when the priests tasked with filling its chalices were suddenly moved to the Sovereignty, creating another dramatic shortage for them to wrestle with. And on top of all that, Ahrensbach was entrusted with managing Old Werkestock, meaning it had even more land to oversee.”

Not to mention that, as the king did not own the Grutrissheit, he was unable to redraw the borders. Ahrensbach was stuck managing land that they didn’t even own, and the resulting burden was immense.

“The first wife prioritized most things above pouring resources into Old Werkestock,” I continued. “In the people’s eyes, what mattered most was keeping Ahrensbach alive. And then, in the midst of all this, Lady Georgine somehow acquired chalices of mana to be used for Werkestock. She thus earned the respect of the second wife’s faction and the people of Old Werkestock.”

“I see. Those must have been the outside chalices Bezewanst brought to the temple...” Ferdinand said, crossing his arms with a heavy sigh. I watched him out of the corner of my eye while making sure that nothing dangerous had been slipped into his bed.

“The people of Ahrensbach see Ehrenfest as cruel for ignoring Lady Georgine’s pleas, especially when our aub’s adoption of the Saint of Ehrenfest gave us so much extra leeway. Of course, we never actually had any leeway, but for the people living in Old Werkestock, their very lives depended on those chalices.”

“It is unreasonable for Ahrensbach to rely on Ehrenfest, of all duchies... but I suppose it was inevitable that they would react poorly to losing their lifeline on such short notice. Georgine’s support base is larger than I expected...” Lord Ferdinand replied, furrowing his brow as he fell into thought.

“Lady Georgine has the support of the second wife’s faction and those from Werkestock—and of course, neither she nor those backing her support Lady Letizia being raised as the next aub. Many in the villa consider it a problem that Lady Letizia will one day become the archduchess. They even say that there is no need for her to be trained as a successor when they already have Lady Detlinde. I got the impression that the king’s decree and the aub’s dying wish are still relatively unknown here,” I explained. “Those are my most important findings; I will wait for another opportunity to inform you who is on good terms with whom and which vegetables are the freshest.”

It was then that Lord Ferdinand stood up—a clear indication that Sergius had finished preparing the bath. “Justus, I entrust these magic tools to you,” he said.

“Understood.”

Lord Ferdinand played the harspiel during the feast, expressing his gratitude for having been welcomed into Ahrensbach. He started with several songs that were well known across Yurgenschmidt, then transitioned into several that he had received from Lady Rozemyne and arranged. The most recent told a tale of nostalgia for one’s distant homeland.

Just as Lady Rozemyne had anticipated, the women were enraptured by Lord Ferdinand’s singing voice and welcomed him with open arms. They surrounded him the moment he finished playing and started bombarding him with invitations for winter socializing. Our future here in Ahrensbach would depend on how many allies we could make, so it was crucial that he attend as many gatherings as possible.

“Your harspiel playing is as wonderful as ever, Lord Ferdinand,” one woman said. “Could it be that your ditter skills are just as sharp?”

“No, time has certainly dulled them,” Lord Ferdinand replied. “I was able to best Heisshitze with ease back in the Royal Academy, but my recent battle against him was much too close.”

“Lord Heisshitze?!” a knight exclaimed. “He’s still on active duty in Dunkelfelger, so you can’t have been too rusty!”

Lord Ferdinand gave an invincible grin; all this talk about his harspiel and ditter talents was starting to win over even those who had looked down on him as a motherless archduke candidate from the temple of a bottom-ranking duchy.

“Ohoho!” Lady Detlinde let out a proud chuckle from beside Lord Ferdinand. “He is my fiancé, after all.”

Ah... His smile broadened.

Upon hearing Lady Detlinde’s smug declaration, Lord Ferdinand had immediately donned the fake smile he wore when presented with someone he loathed. I discreetly made sure I had some stomach pain medicine on hand.