Ascendance of a Bookworm (LN) - Volume 5.1 - Chapter 8

Beginning the Archduke Candidate Course

Once our discussion with Hirschur was over, the room began to clear. I stayed put, however. I still wished to speak with Roderick, and, to that end, I took a sound-blocking magic tool from Rihyarda. Only once Roderick was gripping the tool did our conversation begin.

“Roderick, you said that you might know what caused you to become omni-elemental, correct?”

“I understood when Professor Hirschur said that we are all connected to you. It’s the name-swearing.” He brought a hand to his chest, and his eyes grew distant as he seemed to remember the ritual. “When I gave you my name, I was bound by your mana. I could tell in an instant that it could spare me—but that it could just as easily take my life as well. Thus, I imagine your mana had an influence on my divine protections ritual. You are... omni-elemental yourself, I expect?”

I nodded; Roderick already looked so confident in his deduction that I saw no reason to lie to him. “This certainly does seem to be because of me. I wonder... Does that mean those who gave their names to Ferdinand and Lady Georgine likewise gained elements through them?”

“Thinking back... I did notice that brewing became easier. It was only by the slightest amount, though—so slight that, at the time, I merely assumed that I was having a good day. I expect that knights such as Lord Eckhart feel the effects more keenly as they use the mana of their lord or lady to do battle.”

But now, receiving divine protections from the primary gods had reduced Roderick’s mana expenditure by a noticeable degree.

“Still, I would assume that those who gave their names to Lord Ferdinand and Lady Georgine were less affected, as they gave their names after the ritual,” Roderick continued. “Furthermore—and this is just my opinion—I do not think it wise to reveal that giving one’s name can lead to obtaining more elements.”

“And why is that?”

“Name-swearing is a ritual wherein one proves their loyalty by offering their life to another. I do not believe it should be done to seek more elements,” Roderick said, his voice almost a whisper. He had abandoned everything—even his family—to serve me; it made sense that he didn’t want his resolve to be wrongly interpreted as a self-centered attempt to secure more elements.

I nodded slowly. “I would not want to accept the life of someone who simply wants my elements.”

“However, the children of the former Veronica faction are currently being forced to give their names to survive. That is not normal.”

“Indeed...”

“And among those who must give their names to survive, there are surely some who would wish to give their name to you solely to increase their elements. I assume this is not something that you would appreciate.”

I was set on accepting the names of the four people who had chosen me after careful consideration, but he was right—I didn’t want to deal with anyone who was coming to me for elements.

“My greatest fear is that, if you publicize this information, the children of the former Veronica faction will earn even more ire from other nobles, and the cries for them to be deemed guilty by association will grow even louder. Having to swear one’s name becomes less of a punishment when it provides the chance to earn new elements while serving the archducal family.”

The majority of the former Veronica faction were laynobles and mednobles. Several of the mednobles might as well have been archnobles thanks to their Ahrensbach blood, but they only had one to three affinities. This name-swearing would allow them to have as many elements as the archducal family—and, upon swearing their names, they would also be in a position to learn my mana compression method. This surely wouldn’t please other nobles.

“Even so, this is going to be difficult to hide with so many children offering their names at once,” I said. “I will need to consult the aub. Roderick, the professors already know you have become omni-elemental but take care not to inform anyone else.”

I continued to pass all of my written and practical lessons the first time around as the weekend drew nearer and nearer. Each time I went to the auditorium or the Small Hall, I would see other students point at me and murmur things to the effect of “I heard she performed a large-scale blessing while playing the harspiel...” and “It was a larger blessing than I’ve ever seen before!” So many people had witnessed my blessing that it was pointless for me to try to deny it; instead, my only choice was to wait patiently until they eventually stopped talking about it.

I wrote a letter to Clarissa requesting a meeting and sent a report to Ehrenfest to give Hirschur an opportunity for her discussion with Sylvester. I also wrote a letter to Ferdinand, but I kept missing my chance to give it to Raimund, who was largely holed up in his dormitory.

Come the first Earthday, the first-years who had all obtained their schtappes hid away in their rooms, while the other students started going to the gathering spot to secure materials for their various classes. Normally, we would have started gathering soon after arriving at the dormitory, but the purge had understandably delayed those of us in our second and third years.

The quantity of herbs decreased considerably, so I went ahead and dumped some of my mana to replenish it—in part to prevent another unwanted blessing in the future.

And... that should do it.

Thus, time passed without incident, and the next week arrived. I would soon be attending the first class of my specialty courses, and with that thought in mind, I made my way to the dining hall for breakfast. Roderick was the only one waiting for me on the second floor; Theodore was not present.

“He must not have finished absorbing his Divine Will.”

“I am sure he will be out by the afternoon.”

This wasn’t much of a surprise; everyone absorbed their Divine Will at their own pace. As I peeked down the hallway leading to the boys’ rooms, I envisioned Theodore working hard, hoping to turn his schtappe into a weapon as soon as possible, and silently cheered him on.

After breakfast, everyone gathered to study in the common room. This would continue until all of our written lessons were over. The first- and second-years had managed to finish all of their classes in the first week, since they had so few to begin with, which meant they were this year’s fastest teams. Charlotte was especially relieved about this, as she felt she had now made up for her shortcomings last year.

Now, the third-years and above were in a tense battle to score the highest marks in their respective specialty courses. The attendant team was especially motivated.

I’ll do my best too!

“I see the archduke candidate course does not have its own specialty building...” I said. Knights, scholars, and attendants all got their own buildings, so why didn’t we? It was actually a little upsetting.

Rihyarda chuckled when she saw me purse my lips. “The central building is the specialty building for royals and archduke candidates. There is a classroom in a corner of the building for them. It was designed this way so that those with the most status will not have to travel as far as other students.”

That worked in my favor; I would have been in trouble if our classroom were too far away. And so, I made my way to the room that had been indicated in the advancement ceremony.

“Now then—study well,” Rihyarda said.

“I do not expect any issues,” I replied. “I studied with Ferdinand, after all.”

“I’m not so confident...” Wilfried mumbled. “I couldn’t keep up with you and Uncle.” There was no helping that, though. He naturally wasn’t able to visit the temple every day, and his smaller mana quantity meant he was inevitably slower at dyeing feystones.

“But you still prepared, and you have so many divine protections now. I’m sure you will find class much easier than your studies.”

“Hopefully...”

I entered the classroom with Wilfried and immediately saw that, unlike the Small Hall, there were a number of rather low desks lined up. If our lessons with Ferdinand were anything to go by, this was probably so that we could peer down when making our practice box gardens.

Though they’re still a bit too tall for me...

I would probably need a stand or something. After a quick glance around the room, I noticed that there was already one at the desk closest to the professor’s podium. That was sure to be for me.

Of course someone as astute as Lady Eglantine would come prepared. Though I do feel a bit awkward about being the only one using a stand at their desk.

I sighed and looked around again. Our classes thus far had all been shared with archnobles, but there were only other archduke candidates here—and not very many, at that. Thinking about how alone we were going to be from now on made me feel very sad.

“Lady Hannelore. How do you do?”

“Lady Rozemyne. Lord Wilfried. How are you?”

I promptly made my way over to Hannelore. As I understood it, Hirschur had spoken to her about her divine protections over the weekend; I was curious to know exactly what she had said.

“I’m told that Professor Hirschur went to question Dunkelfelger, but, erm... how did you fare, Lady Hannelore? She tends to lose sight of everything else when her research is involved, so I was a little concerned.”

“She said that she wished to test if your theory was true, Lady Rozemyne. I was ever so curious about why I received divine protection from various subordinates, but the theory explained everything. I feel very relieved now,” Hannelore said happily.

“So you were praying on a daily basis?”

“Um, well... I kept thinking about how much I wanted to receive Dregarnuhr’s divine protection, and I prayed often while keeping the charms that Cordula gave me on my person at all times.” She pulled up her sleeve to reveal a bracelet-shaped charm just like the ones I was wearing. It was set with a somewhat larger than normal feystone marked with Dregarnuhr’s sigil.

“In that case, have you also been praying to Angriff on a daily basis?” I asked.

“As for him... Ah. I do not think I prayed to him often, but Dunkelfelger’s culture is to praise the art of war; we often sing and dance before ditter matches, and, upon emerging victorious, we hold ceremonies wherein we dedicate our mana to the fighting-type gods. After we won the Interduchy Tournament, both my brother and I offered up our mana. Given that my brother also received Angriff’s divine protection, it seems likely that the ritual is responsible.”

Singing and dancing before a match, huh? That sounds a lot like those hakas you see at rugby games. Well, makes sense to me.

That explained why Dunkelfelger alone received divine protection from the fighting-type subordinate gods. They prayed before and after ditter games and put so much soul into these acts of devotion, so it only made sense that their faith would be rewarded.

“We theorized that apprentice knights earn these divine protections because Professor Rauffen incorporates these traditions into the apprentice knight course. Those who participate earnestly receive them,” Hannelore continued. Those who spoke the prayers or sang war songs simply because they were being told to apparently didn’t receive any such protections. “Lord Wilfried must have received so many because he prays a tremendous amount each day.”

“Seems like having our archduke candidates travel around the duchy for Spring Prayer to help with the mana shortage was the right decision after all,” Wilfried said.

Hannelore nodded with a smile, then looked at me as if suddenly remembering something. “In that case... how many divine protections did you receive, Lady Rozemyne?” she asked, now coming across as a lot more timid. “You pray on a daily basis as the High Bishop, so it must have been an extraordinary number... And the ritual made your mana overflow to the point that you gave a blessing during music class, no?”

“W-Well, that’s...”

Every archduke candidate in the room was now watching me; they must have been listening in on our conversation. Even I understood that being stupidly honest and revealing the actual number here would just cause problems.

“The precise number is a secret,” I replied. “Because, um... it is not something to be made so public.”

Hannelore looked around at everyone, nodded, and said, “So you received so many that you cannot even say.”

All of a sudden, everyone jumped and rushed to their seats. Eglantine, our professor, had entered with her many assistants. They were carrying large boxes.

I went to the front-row seat, where the stand was already in position. Wilfried was sitting some distance away, but, in a pleasant turn of events, Hannelore was right beside me.

“We’ve been put next to each other, Lady Rozemyne.”

“Indeed. It’s a fine day for learning.”

Eglantine, who was now standing behind the professor’s podium, was wearing her hair in a very complex style. She was also dressed in clothes that emphasized that, while she was our teacher, she was a royal first and foremost. Her black cape made her current position especially clear.

And she became a teacher to gather intelligence from me?

My heart sank a little as I recalled Hirschur’s words. It was sad enough that they wanted to probe me for information... but what was even sadder was that their suspicions were entirely warranted. I did have information that would interest the royal family. The bible contained instructions on how to become king. But revealing this would put me and many others in danger, so I had no intention of doing so.

“It is good to see everyone again,” Eglantine said. “I may now be your professor instead of a fellow student, but I am still glad to have this time with you all.”

Even when I was feeling so blue, Eglantine looked as pretty as ever. She wore a captivating smile and moved with elegant steps as though performing a dance. After giving the usual, lengthy noble greetings, she explained why she had been chosen to replace the older woman from the royal branch family that had previously led this course. She had come first-in-class among the other archduke candidates in her year, and the king had apparently deemed her the best suited to lead the future generation of students.

“Now that I have received this duty, I intend to do everything in my power to make you all proper archduke candidates,” Eglantine concluded. She then looked to her assistants, who began distributing the boxes they had carried in a short while before.

Once everyone had a box, the assistants briskly exited the room—presumably so that they wouldn’t learn the contents of our lesson. I recalled Ferdinand forbidding anyone but archduke candidates from attending his study sessions.

“Think of this as a more basic form of the foundational magic,” Eglantine said, making everyone look at the box in front of them. Looking at it from the top, it was a square about sixty centimeters wide, full of dry-looking sand that reminded me of a desert. At the very center was a magic tool about ten centimeters in diameter lined with marble-sized feystones of various colors.

This is pretty big.

It was about twice as large as the one we had used in our studies with Ferdinand. As I examined it for any other differences, the lecture began.

“Over the span of the third-year archduke candidate course, you will learn how to control the foundational magic,” Eglantine said. We were each going to form a city in our sandbox and then practice using a simplified version of the foundational magic. It was the same thing that Ferdinand had gotten us to do.

Which is good, obviously. I would be pretty confused if our class covered something else entirely.

“This box represents your duchy, and the magic tool in the center is a mock version of the foundational magic,” Eglantine continued with a smile. The dry sand was what one got when the ground ran out of mana, but by feeding it with our own mana, we could produce fertile earth. “First, take out your schtappes and dye your duchy with your mana.”

We formed our schtappes, as instructed—there was no better tool for modulating mana. I then channeled my mana into the very tip and touched it against one of the feystones. Although there were quite a few feystones on the magic tool, they were all connected, so you could dye them all at once by channeling mana into just one.

Okay. Let’s— Bweh?!

I was channeling my mana like I always did when dyeing something... but then I noticed that the magic tool wasn’t the only thing being affected. The entire garden was changing before my very eyes. Despite even my most frantic attempts, there was nothing I could do to stop my mana now that it was flowing. It kept dripping out of me like water from a broken faucet.

Oh no. What should I do? The schtappe isn’t doing its job. I can’t modulate my mana at all.

“Oh my. I was aware of the rumors, but you truly are skilled, Lady Rozemyne.”

“Lady Eglantine...”

“That is Professor Eglantine to you. Ahaha. Still... to think you would dye not only the magic tool, but the entire garden in so short a time...”

In the blink of an eye, the once desert-esque contents of my box had turned into black earth, from which sprouts had started to grow. And as my mana was continuing to flow out of me, the amount of greenery was steadily increasing. Eglantine was watching all this with an amused smile, her orange eyes sparkling as she remarked that, even after hearing the rumors about me, she was still surprised to be seeing this in the flesh. It just made me want to cry.

Don’t look so moved, Eglantine! I’m a problem child who can’t even manage her mana right!

Eglantine tilted her head, still watching my newly made garden. “Oh, whatever shall I do? My plan for today’s lesson was to have everyone dye their foundation and then fill their duchy with mana, but it seems you are already almost done. Would you like to progress to the next step? Or will you keep pace with the others and wait until the next lesson?”

I paused for a moment and then said, “I would like to finish the class sooner. I need to practice my mana control after this, and, in any case, I cannot leave until class ends and my retainers come to get me.”

I was given the next steps, which were to draw the necessary blueprints for making the border barrier and gates, and to prepare the golden powder needed for entwickeln.

“In the next class, I will teach you the names of the God of Darkness and the Goddess of Light,” Eglantine said. “That will open many avenues for you.”

“Right.”

Ferdinand had not yet taught me their names—and since the spells I used referred to them only as the “God of Darkness” and the “Goddess of Light,” anything I made with entwickeln fell apart after about five minutes. Surely the world could understand the profound despair I had felt upon seeing a model of my dream library crumble away before my very eyes.

Incidentally, when I had tried to mourn the loss of my library, Ferdinand had scolded me for wasting time and forbidden me from making another one. My next course of action had been to create my room and fill it with bookshelves... which had made him yell at me again, saying that I might as well have made another library.

These thoughts of the past floated through my mind as I completed my work.

Channeling mana into feystones and turning them into gold dust is easy-peasy.

As I gripped the feystones given to me and turned them to gold dust one by one, Hannelore, who was pressing her schtappe against the magic tool in her box, looked over in shock. “It certainly seems easy for you to turn feystones to dust, Lady Rozemyne.”

“Right now, it’s easier for me to blast my mana at things indiscriminately. Between you and me”—I reduced my voice to a whisper—“the divine protections ritual has left me completely unable to restrain my mana. Anything I do runs the risk of turning into a blessing.”

She widened her eyes, then giggled in amusement. “Oh my. If you were to give a blessing here like you did in music class, then everyone’s gardens might end up dyed with your mana.”

“I am taking care to ensure that that does not happen. In practice, I ended up becoming Schwartz and Weiss’s owner through a blessing.”

Were I to give a blessing right here and now, it was possible that I might overwrite everyone else’s boxes and make them my own. I couldn’t risk that happening.

Hannelore’s red eyes wandered for a while, then she gave me a small, troubled smile. “I was speaking in jest, but I suppose it would actually be possible for you, Lady Rozemyne.”

OH NOOOOOO!

“Oho... hohohoh... hohoho. I, too, was merely speaking in jest,” I said, venturing a smile while turning one feystone after another into dust. I was desperately hoping she would believe me.

Eeeh... Okay. She doesn’t believe me. She’s completely unnerved.

As I floundered in place, wishing that someone would save me, I heard Wilfried speak up from somewhere behind me. “Professor Eglantine, I finished dyeing the magic tool as well,” he said in a bright voice. “The divine protections really have made my mana easier to use—and less costly too.”

I turned around, my eyes brimming with tears, and saw Wilfried proudly showing off the garden he had made while Eglantine praised him. He was the very image of an honor student who knew no struggles in life.

Wilfried got a bunch of divine protections too! How come he isn’t suffering for it?!

After venting my frustrations on him, I prayed from the bottom of my heart to the gods who had given me their divine protections.

O gods, please don’t let Hannelore say she doesn’t want to be friends with me anymore!