Ascendance of a Bookworm (LN) - Volume 5.10 - Chapter 1

The Royal Academy at Night

“Kehrschluessel. Ersterde.”

Once the shimmering lights and the floating sensation were gone, I slowly opened my eyes. I’d cast the same spell that I always used to teleport between country gates, but my surroundings weren’t at all what I’d expected. There were no movable roofs or stairs; we were in an empty room with fully white walls and a single door. It reminded me a little of the teleportation halls that connected duchies and their dormitories, only the outer edges of the circle and the door glowed with the same faint rainbow light as the country gates.

The glow made me wonder whether the door in front of us could only be opened with the Grutrissheit. It appeared to be made of wood, so maybe a simple key would suffice, though I couldn’t tell at a glance.

“How strange... The same spell took us to an entirely new location...” Leonore mused aloud, seeming as curious as I was.

Matthias nodded in agreement. Then he turned to me and asked, “Is this truly the Royal Academy?”

I didn’t have an answer for him; this was my first time coming here as well. I could guess we were somewhere on the Academy’s grounds, but that was all.

Well, let’s investigate.

There was a chance that our current whereabouts would impact our plans moving forward. I used the Book of Mestionora to find our exact location... and discovered we were in the Royal Academy’s central building. We were farther back than where we usually went for the archduke candidate course, in an area that students were forbidden from entering.

Hmm... Ferdinand might know where we are.

I turned to ask him, only to remember that he wasn’t with us. He was still in Ahrensbach with the rest of the knights.

“I shall teleport our remaining knights,” I said. “Please step off of the magic circle and wait. Do not attempt to leave the room to investigate, and do not cause any fuss.”

I entrusted Cornelius with watching over everyone, then returned to Ferdinand with my other guard knights.

“Kehrschluessel. Ahrensbach.”

Once we were back in Ahrensbach, I told the remaining knights to line up on the teleportation circle. Then I whispered to Ferdinand, “This magic circle leads to a room in the Royal Academy unlike any of the gates. Do you know its location? Should we alter our plans?”

“No, there is no need. I teleported there before under... certain circumstances. But that does not matter right now. The knights appear to be ready.”

I wonder what circumstances would require someone to use the teleportation hall in a forbidden section of the Royal Academy...

Ferdinand’s past was as incomprehensible as always; I couldn’t even imagine what he must have gone through as a child and a student. I wasn’t going to complain, though. His experience had gotten me out of so many scrapes.

Relieved that there was no need to change our plans, I stood on the teleportation circle and said, “Kehrschluessel. Ersterde.” We arrived at the Academy in the blink of an eye, at which point Ferdinand cast his eyes over the knights.

“Do we have Verbergen’s seals?”

The scholars had rushed to make concealment charms at Leonore’s recommendation. The ones given to the knights used feystones, but mine was a magic circle drawn on fey paper.

“Let us head outside as quickly as we can,” Ferdinand said. “The last thing we want is to face more instant-death poison while we are in such close quarters.”

That much was true. The knights had fought in the Purge of Lanzenave and the Battle of Gerlach before coming here; though they were using cloth to cover their mouths, many of them didn’t have much jureve left.

“Do not speak until we are outside,” Ferdinand continued. “Rozemyne, is everything ready?”

At his signal, I pressed my Book of Mestionora against the door, which began to open with a low creak that echoed throughout the midnight Royal Academy. An eerie silence followed, and tension filled the air. Our immediate surroundings weren’t too dark thanks to the glow of the teleportation circle, but given the late hour, everything outside the room was pitch black. The darkness was so thick that it almost felt like it was seeping through the crack in the opening door.

Ferdinand gestured ahead of us with a firm chop of his hand, spurring Eckhart and Angelica to silently leave our front line and step into the hallway. Their armor stood out a little in the darkness. I enhanced my eyesight and stared intently at their backs while praying that we wouldn’t cross paths with the Sovereign Knight’s Order.

Once he’d taken a quick look around, Eckhart raised a hand, indicating that there weren’t any knights nearby. Angelica pressed onward in response until she reached a turn; then she shook her hand, signaling that there were people around the corner, and returned to us. This hallway contained the teleportation doors for all the villas and dormitories; of course there were Sovereign guards here.

“Is the conference building clear?” Ferdinand muttered.

Eckhart had already started advancing down the hallway. He confirmed that our second option was clear of any knights, then beckoned to Justus and quietly spoke his name. The attendant-slash-scholar approached one of the windows, intent on unlocking it.

A moment passed; then Eckhart waved again.

“Go in order and move without a sound,” Ferdinand instructed.

At once, the knights filtered out of the room. I was watching them go—one of my duties was to close the door again, so I needed to be the last person to leave—when Ferdinand suddenly whispered to me.

“If you wish to take your knights and return to Ahrensbach, now is your chance.”

I glared at him, unable to believe my ears. After everything we’d endured, did he really expect me to turn around and leave? Dunkelfelger had asked me to use the Grutrissheit to justify our being here. My complicated relationship with feystones meant I was even more of a burden than usual, but I could at least keep Ferdinand from having to expose his Book of Mestionora.

I eyed the teleportation circle, then shook my head and stepped out into the hallway. Ferdinand reluctantly came with me. Only once the door was locked did we regroup with the knights.

The familiar carpet beneath my feet told me we really were inside the Royal Academy’s central building. This was where one obtained the Book of Mestionora—where one could access the country gate and its teleportation circle. Though it had taken me this long to realize it, the truth was clear to me now: this really was Yurgenschmidt’s holy land.

Nobody spoke; we simply advanced through the ivory building lit only by reflected moonlight. The thrill of sneaking through a school put all sorts of strange ideas in my head, like skeletons leaping out of a science classroom. My limbs were trembling in anticipation of whatever was to come, and the silence made me want to cry out.

I watched as the knights climbed through the single open window one by one and vanished into the forest on their highbeasts.

“Are you sincere in your intention to come along?” Ferdinand asked.

“Would I be here otherwise?”

“Then I must ask you not to scream.”

Before I could utter another word, Ferdinand picked me up and jumped out the window. I nearly did scream but clapped a hand over my mouth in the nick of time. Ferdinand, in contrast, didn’t seem the slightest bit bothered as we plummeted toward the ground. He briskly formed his highbeast, sat me in front of him, and then flew off. The knights who had disappeared among the trees came out again to follow us.

I can’t believe knights do this like it’s nothing. They’re amazing!

“Rozemyne,” Ferdinand said. “Contact Dunkelfelger.”

If all was going as planned, then Dunkelfelger’s knights would already be stationed in their dormitory. We had been told to contact them after using the teleporter.

“Right...” I took out some fey paper Hartmut had marked with an Ordoschnelli magic circle and spoke into it. “Aub Dunkelfelger, this is Rozemyne. We have left the central building.”

Considering where we just were... and the fact that I can see the library over there... my target must be...

I used my stylo to write “Dunkelfelger’s common room” as the destination of my letter, then folded the sheet into an airplane and threw it toward the Dunkelfelger Dormitory. Its ivory hue tore through the night sky like a shooting star.

We were currently headed to the Ahrensbach Dormitory. Dunkelfelger’s knights would meet us there once they received word of our arrival. There wouldn’t be anyone inside, since the intruders were staying in the Adalgisa villa, and its location made it a much safer place to congregate than Dunkelfelger’s dormitory or the central building. Together, we would search for the Adalgisa villa, which was being kept hidden by Verbergen the God of Concealment.

“Are you really okay with going to the villa?” I asked Ferdinand. “If you think it might make you unwell, we can get someone else to lead the attack.” Everything I’d learned about the villa told me it wasn’t somewhere he’d want to return to, and it seemed unnecessarily cruel to make him relive what must have been deeply unpleasant memories.

Ferdinand heaved a heavy sigh. “You have suppressed your intense hatred of war to come here as an aub. Do you really expect me to run away? I would advise you not to fret about things that are best left alone, but I will say this: I relish the opportunity to tear that villa to pieces.”

“Hold it right there. What’s gotten into you lately? You keep saying all these violent and outlandish things, like when you proposed burning Ahrensbach to the ground and expressed your dismay that the royals and the Lanzenavians hadn’t wiped each other out.” He hadn’t rested much since his rescue, so maybe his exhaustion was getting to him.

“My thoughts have always been violent,” Ferdinand said with a wry smile. “I simply never went out of my way to voice them. You may rest assured that this is anything but a recent development.”

“How is that supposed to reassure me?!”

“Then believe whatever puts your mind at ease.”

Are you seriously acting like this doesn’t concern you?! These are your thoughts!

Ferdinand was far more violent than I’d previously assumed. Rather than avoid the Adalgisa villa out of discomfort, he wanted to utterly destroy it. His stony expression when speaking about Gervasio had worried me, but I could see that he was fully resolved to face his past.

“Speaking of which...” I said, “do you know where the villa might be? On the map, it was below and to the right of the Ahrensbach Dormitory... but it’s so dark out that even the dormitory seems invisible.”

By looking at the central and specialty buildings, I’d managed to get a rough idea of where we were, but our surroundings were a mess of darkness interrupted only by the dull shadows of the dormitories and the glowing cylinders that marked their gathering spots. I couldn’t even tell if we were headed in the general direction of the Ahrensbach Dormitory.

“If you failed to understand the map so spectacularly that even the Ahrensbach Dormitory is too hard to find, why did you assure Aub Dunkelfelger that you knew where the villa was?”

“Because I do—at least to some degree. I’ve just realized that the map and the territory aren’t one and the same, so I’m having trouble getting my bearings. It was down and to the right on the map... so we should go southeast, right?”

“Do you even know where southeast is? How can you be in such a sorry state when you wield the Grutrissheit and decided to lead this excursion?”

Ferdinand wasn’t impressed with my map-reading skills, but that wasn’t an issue—not when I could thrust the task onto someone else. “I do not need to know where southeast is when you are here to tell me. You located the Royal Academy’s shrines when investigating its twenty mysteries, did you not? The details were in Professor Hirschur’s documents. You could tell me their location even without a Grutrissheit.”

I must have won our little debate because Ferdinand grimaced and told me to face forward. I did as instructed with a victorious grin, and that was when I noticed the magic circle in the sky above. Even at night, it was easy to see.

The Ahrensbach Dormitory had at some point appeared in the distance. I could tell it was Ahrensbach’s because Dunkelfelger’s knights had taken up the space above it. They exuded such an immense amount of pressure that even birds and small animals in the forest retreated in fear of what they must have assumed to be mana-rich predators.

“I suppose it was unreasonable of us to expect some discretion...” Ferdinand muttered.

“Well, we are using Verbergen’s seal. I suppose it wouldn’t be fair to compare them to us. Not to mention, they’re loudmouthed—um, imposing—by nature. Ohoho...”

I tried to cover my slip of the tongue with an innocent laugh, but it was an awkward attempt at best. I was relieved, then, when an ordonnanz arrived to spare me any further embarrassment. It landed on my arm and spoke.

“Lady Rozemyne, this is Dunkelfelger. We have arrived above the Ahrensbach Dormitory. Where are your knights?”

The ordonnanz was partway through its second repetition when Ferdinand grabbed it and told me to look away. He sent a response while I stared into the distance.

“This is Ferdinand. We are using Verbergen’s seal, which has made us invisible to you, but we can see your forces. We shall rendezvous with you shortly.”

I watched the ivory bird soar through the night sky to deliver its message. Barely a moment later, our allies started to circle the dormitory. Were they searching for us?

They’re kinda like bees.

Indeed, rather than simply waiting for us, they were swarming like bees desperate to inform their fellows of an especially lovely flower.

“I see... Heisshitze is not the only one incapable of remaining still...” Ferdinand remarked, clearly exasperated. “Is this just part of their culture? Now that they are drawing so much attention to themselves, our attempts to be stealthy seem like a rather pointless endeavor.”

We had worn Verbergen’s seal so that we wouldn’t need to fight the Sovereign knights in the central building. Now that we were outside, however, it made sense to remove them; we didn’t want to risk Dunkelfelger hitting us by mistake.

Ferdinand stopped using his seal and then took his highbeast ahead of our front line. “Troops, remove your Verbergen seals!” he ordered.

Everyone did as they were told, and our allies roared in excitement when they saw us appear out of thin air. “They were right under our noses!” one cried. “I would never have noticed them!”

“Lord Ferdinand, where is the villa?” another asked. “Let us hurry there at once.”

“Heisshitze?” Ferdinand replied. “Why are you here? I see you came with more troops than we agreed upon...”

I was sure I’d recognized one of the voices, and now I knew why—Heisshitze had decided to join the fray. So much for my assumption that he would sit this one out after fighting in Ahrensbach and Gerlach. Maybe he hadn’t taken no for an answer.

“Lady Rozemyne, if you would guide us to the villa...” said Aub Dunkelfelger. As it turned out, he was leading his duchy’s troops. I went to greet him, but he raised a hand to stop me. “Traditional greetings are not necessary on the battlefield. I must ask that we make haste.”

The aub’s voice was bright, and... Yeah, he wasn’t even trying to hide his excitement. I turned to Ferdinand, convinced that one of us needed to say something to curb our allies’ enthusiasm. Otherwise, they would descend upon the villa the moment it came into view.

Ferdinand met my eye and took the matter into his own hands: “We will now move to the villa’s location and use magic circles of Anhaltung the Goddess of Advice to expose Verbergen’s concealment. Only once we have checked whether the villa’s barrier is active will we infiltrate it. Attempt to capture as many of the traitors as possible.”

Ahrensbach’s mana burden moving forward would depend on the number of criminals who survived this encounter. In other words, we needed these traitors to be held responsible for their crimes and imprisoned so that we could wring them for all they were worth.

“To elaborate,” Ferdinand continued, “we know that Detlinde, Alstede, and Leonzio are three orchestrators of this plot. Do not kill them unless it is absolutely necessary. Moreover, as they have antidotes and ways to counter instant-death poison, we should expect them to use it without hesitation. Are you prepared to deal with this?”

“Of course,” Aub Dunkelfelger replied. “We’ve used the intelligence from Hannelore’s sortie to make sure we’re ready.”

“Now, allow me to share what we know of the enemy. Detlinde and her entourage comprise roughly ten people, whereas Alstede and her husband brought only their attendants. There were twelve Lanzenavian envoys who greeted me, eight of whom wore feystone rings. These figures do not account for Gervasio, the king of Lanzenave.”

The king’s presence meant we could expect any number of retainers—that much was true in both Lanzenave and Yurgenschmidt. Leonzio was a Lanzenavian royal as well, Ferdinand explained, and would therefore be acting with several servants of his own. We had no idea how many Lanzenavians had come to Yurgenschmidt on Gervasio’s ship and relocated to the villa; Ferdinand had been poisoned at the time, and Letizia had been imprisoned.

“As it stands, we do not know precisely how many Lanzenavians are in the villa, but we know whom to expect: Ahrensbach’s former archducal family with their retainers, and Lanzenave’s royal family with theirs. There is a good chance they will be strong enough to escape bands of light made by the majority of our knights.”

“Worthy opponents, then. Excellent!” Aub Dunkelfelger boomed. He sounded very satisfied with this development, but I didn’t want to fight anyone powerful. In an ideal world, we would apprehend the intruders and then immediately tie them up.

“Rozemyne, form your Grutrissheit and make a show of pointing it over there,” Ferdinand whispered from behind me.

I shouted, “Grutrissheit!” and pointed my shining Book of Mestionora in the indicated direction. I wasn’t sure how, but Ferdinand must have decided that was southeast. “The villa we seek is this way!” I announced. “Let us go!”

“HRAAAAAAHHH!” the knights roared, sounding especially eager as Ferdinand took the lead.