Ascendance of a Bookworm (LN) - Volume 5.10 - Chapter 14

Machinations Complete

“Are you feeling refreshed, milady?” Rihyarda asked. “It is almost fifth bell, but you can rest for a little while longer if you need to.”

I pondered the question. It didn’t feel like I’d slept at all, yet I was completely refreshed. I saw no reason to go back to sleep and risk waking up feeling worse.

“I shall rise,” I said. “Is Ferdinand back yet?”

“He took lunch here, met with the aub to discuss various matters, and then sent ordonnanzes all over the place. As we speak, he should be resting in the villa with the Ahrensbach knights. He said you need not worry about Ahrensbach at the moment and that you should contact him once you are awake.”

The Ahrensbach knights couldn’t return home without registration brooches. Resting in the villa was certainly better than camping outside on the Academy’s grounds, but was Ferdinand even able to relax? He had so much history there that I couldn’t help worrying.

“Let us prepare tea first, milady. We shall eat a light meal in place of lunch.”

“Certainly. Could we have our postmeal tea on the first floor? I wish to hear Ferdinand’s report.”

“I shall consult the aub and return with his permission.”

“Sylvester’s here too?” I asked, unable to mask my surprise. I’d assumed that Florencia would be in charge here, given her experience providing rear support.

“If we revealed you to the public as you are now, it would cause a tremendous stir. For that reason, the royal family has been invited to Ehrenfest’s tea party room for lunch the day after tomorrow. We received instructions from Ferdinand, and the archducal couple is hard at work preparing.”

Rihyarda then stepped outside my bed-curtain. “Ottilie, contact the male retainers. Brunhilde, Bertilde, have milady changed. Clarissa, inform Ferdinand’s retainers that she has awoken.”

Though I couldn’t see them, the bustling that followed told me my retainers had sprung into action. Brunhilde and Bertilde helped me change. It was my first time seeing the outfit they’d brought me. As I gazed down at it, Brunhilde gave me a troubled smile.

“Back in Ehrenfest, the seamstresses are working with great haste to finish your fitted clothes. This particular outfit is from Lady Florencia’s personnel. To accelerate its completion, it was designed so that any minor adjustments can be made with laces. They also used cloth that had already been completed at the time of your fitting. We expect another outfit from the Gilberta Company to arrive tomorrow.”

I gazed at Brunhilde in the mirror; her hands were trembling as she did my hair. She must have sensed my eyes on her as she looked away and put a hand on her cheek, searching for the right words.

“Though I understand that this is the goddess’s divine power, it requires an immensely strong will to face you directly...” she eventually said. “The closer I get, the more I am overcome with awe, which causes my hands to shake against my will. Standing as close to you as we are, I can even see the light radiating from you.”

Bertilde nodded. “My sister is correct; at the moment, you are radiating divinity in the most literal sense. I am so glad to have had the chance to serve you today.”

Umm, Bertilde looks giddy with excitement—like she might start worshipping me at any moment. Hearing all this about divine power and the awe they feel just from being near me... Am I even human anymore?

Had these remarks come from Hartmut, I wouldn’t have thought twice about them, but my usually normal retainers were now gazing upon me in wonderment. It made me a little uncomfortable. Though I was filled with the mana of a goddess, I was still the same person on the inside.

“If everyone in the orphanage saw you as you are now, Lady Rozemyne, they would start praying as fervently as Hartmut,” Philine noted, looking dazzled as she watched me from a distance. “Wilma would doubtless start trying to draw you. One can’t normally sense the mana of another when it grows too distant, but all can feel the goddess’s power. Everyone who came here from Ehrenfest was drawn to your bedroom, though this passed when we did as Lord Ferdinand instructed and covered you with silver cloth.”

My mere presence was causing a stir. I sincerely hoped there existed a way for me to be rid of this unwanted mana; at this rate, it would severely disrupt my daily life.

“Damuel and I guarded you while you slept,” Judithe informed me. “It sounds like your battle was absolutely crazy. Laurenz said he nearly drowned in the auditorium! I wish I’d been there; I can’t even begin to imagine what it must have been like.”

Judithe had arrived at the dormitory with Damuel while I was asleep. Few other people would hear about the washing machine carnage in the auditorium and wish to have experienced it themselves.

“I, too, wish you had been there,” I replied. “I consider it a great shame that you were too young to accompany us; there was a moment when your unique talents would have greatly aided us.”

I went on to tell Judithe how she could have sniped Raublut atop the stage. She gave a proud smile in response.

Once I was changed, I went back under the silver cloth to block the goddess’s troublesome mana and prepared to move to another room for tea. Angelica was tasked with carrying me, since she specialized in enhancement magic.

I wouldn’t have been able to walk there; the silver cloth blocks so much light that I can’t even see my feet!

I’d proposed traveling in my Pandabus instead, but Leonore had calmly refused. Even if the aub permitted it, I wouldn’t be able to see through the cloth.

Still, I can’t believe I’m getting carried everywhere! I’m not a little kid anymore!

I trembled with embarrassment under the cloth until we reached our destination. Our meeting over tea was about to begin.

“I was told you slept well,” Ferdinand said.

As soon as my silver cloth was removed, Eckhart and Justus widened their eyes, then exchanged a few quick nods. I saw Damuel among the retainers lined up against the wall.

“As much as I appreciated it, I must ask—did you get much rest?”

“I required the assistance of a potion, but yes.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “Let me guess—the potion that wakes you up with a nightmare?”

“In a place as morbid as the villa, I was doomed to have nightmares anyway. Maximizing my rest was the best decision.”

So he didn’t get much rest at all!

As I was pursing my lips, the attendants prepared our tea and served us both food. Ferdinand must not have eaten much for lunch either.

“I was told the knights in the villa slept in shifts,” I said. “Do you have any updates on the prisoners?”

“They are still restrained in the villa. The Sovereign Order is entirely useless at the moment; we will decide the knights’ punishment during our meeting with the royal family. We must discuss how to follow the goddess’s decree that deaths be kept to a minimum.”

In other words, he wants to dump as much of the burden on the royals as he can.

“As the archducal couple is preparing to host our royal guests,” Ferdinand continued, “Charlotte has taken a position of authority in supporting the Ahrensbach knights. We will need to thank her later.”

During the Defense of Ehrenfest, Charlotte had done an excellent job of providing rear support in Florencia’s stead. She had picked up so many skills, and now she was putting them to use. It was very heartening.

“She excels at supporting others,” Ferdinand remarked. “I must admit, she is well suited to being a first wife.”

“Oh my. Do my ears deceive me, or were those words of praise? I shall convey them to her alongside a show of my appreciation.”

“Do as you please, but make it big. A greater gesture will aid Ehrenfest’s reputation.”

From there, we activated an area-affecting sound-blocker. I waited for our retainers to leave, then took a sip of Brunhilde’s tea and said, “Ferdinand, was it really okay for me to rest? I thought we had to return to the Garden of Beginnings after supplying the gates with mana.”

“I foresee no problems. Erwaermen perceives time in such a way that we could wait another ten years and it would not faze him. I assume he would prefer we return with a new Zent—or at the very least, with news that one has been selected.”

He had a point. Erwaermen barely distinguished the civil war of two decades ago from the present; it wouldn’t do him any harm to wait an extra day or two.

“Still, what happened with Gervasio?” I asked. “Was he captured upon his return?”

“No, but I intend to retrieve him eventually.”

“‘Retrieve him’?” That didn’t sound good. “What have you done to him, Ferdinand?”

“First, to buy us some time, I shot him in the hand the moment he finished drawing his magic circle, distracting him long enough for me to destroy it.”

“Right in front of Erwaermen?!”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. He’d attacked Gervasio right after being told that life needed to be treasured. And if what he was saying was true, then he’d already begun his sabotage by the time he’d rendezvoused with me in Klassenberg.

“My intention was to delay him, not take his life,” Ferdinand said. “And in any case, I gave him a potion to heal the wound.”

Is he proud of that fact?!

“Right... You said that was your first move, so what happened next? I was told you went to the Sovereign temple.” My retainers had given me a decent summary of his antics, but what he’d done in the temple was still a mystery to us all.

“I retrieved the Sovereign High Bishop’s bible, its key, and the medals of those who went to Lanzenave as kings. Immanuel was quite the bother while I was there. He lives, but I made sure to silence him.”

Wait... That sounded extremely violent.

I reflexively touched one of my charms through my clothes; Ferdinand might have used one of the magic circles that allowed one to inflict damage on another person without killing them.

“The bible and key have been entrusted to Hartmut, for he is both name-sworn to you and a fellow High Priest. An ideal outcome, no?”

I glanced at Hartmut, who returned a nod of absolute assurance. He looked so mature and, well... serious that the tales of his rant in the auditorium seemed unreal.

“And as for the medals...?” I asked.

“They are the domain of archduke candidates. I saw to it that Gervasio’s was destroyed, but the other one is now with me. We shall discuss it during our meeting with the royal family.”

“Huh? Wait, hold on. You destroyed it? But you told me he was alive.”

“You speak as though I deceived you. The medal was destroyed while he was at Gilessenmeyer’s country gate, so he merely lost his schtappe. That was why I went out of my way to stall him and kept such a close eye on his teleportation circle.”

“Ah...”

And of course, losing his schtappe meant Gervasio had also lost his Book of Mestionora. He wouldn’t be able to supply his country gate or use its teleporter to leave, which explained why Ferdinand would need to “retrieve” him.

Yeah, I don’t want Ferdinand as an enemy. That’s terrifying.

Ferdinand sipped his tea and continued: “It would have been ideal to capture the man behind Lanzenave’s invasion before our meeting with the royals—but for safety’s sake, we should starve him first so that he cannot fight back.”

Terrifying.

“Was it really necessary to play such dirty tricks on Gervasio?” I asked. “He didn’t seem like such a bad guy to me. It was another faction that attacked Ahrensbach’s nobles, and they were acting with Lady Detlinde’s permission. I seriously think we could have come to an understanding.” If we had met under better circumstances, we might not have needed to fight Gervasio at all.

Ferdinand gave me a look of grave concern. “Was your sense of self-preservation torn to ribbons with your memory? Think for a moment. He told us his goals were to save the Lanzenavians and reward those among the Sovereign knights who rebelled against Trauerqual, but he said nothing of the nobles currently living in Yurgenschmidt or those of us who got in his way. Though he strove to become the Zent, his mindset was that of a king of Lanzenave. It was impossible for us to know what he was truly thinking.”

Any noble would put up a front and play nice when a literal goddess descended upon the earth and demanded an end to the fighting. Ferdinand and Gervasio had seemed to be getting along when I’d returned from the goddess’s library... but apparently not.

“Gervasio was chosen and educated to become the king of Lanzenave, but he loathed going there; his aim has always been to rule Yurgenschmidt. Even now, his determination and tenacity are greater than you could ever imagine. You need not understand what he has been through—he survived the villa and endured tremendous hardships—but do not entrust your life to him so easily. Fool.”

“Sorry.”

Speaking out of turn had put me on the receiving end of an extra lecture. It probably wouldn’t happen again.

“Gervasio aside,” I said, “how will the other Lanzenavians be dealt with?”

“Our meeting with the royal family will decide.”

“That’s a long time from now. Are we not in more of a rush than that?” The day after tomorrow felt like an eternity away.

“Our most urgent aims were capturing the Lanzenavians and eliminating Gervasio before he could take the throne. Now that we have achieved them, the royals and the country at large can wait. Let them buzz about the activated gates and the announcement of a new Zent. Our recovery comes first.”

As far as Ferdinand was concerned, we were under no obligation to work through our exhaustion—not to satisfy the same royals who had made us wait three days when we’d tried to warn them of the coming crisis. We had only agreed to meet them so soon as an act of kindness to Magdalena and Anastasius, who had ultimately helped us when we needed it most.

“Not to mention,” he continued, “your outfit will not be ready any sooner than the date of our discussion. You will need the proper attire for a meeting with royalty.”

“You’re right about that. Though I think my appearance is absurd enough already—something I did not realize at first because of your unchanging stoicism.”

Ferdinand gave me a serious glare. “Doubt me all you want, but I did change my attitude while you were possessed.”

Oh, I see. I thought he’d continue down the lonely road of being a jerk, but even the Lord of Evil shapes up in the presence of a real goddess. Not that he’d ever do the same for me.

“How should I pass the time until our meeting with the royals?” I asked.

“Did I not tell you to practice dedication whirling?”

“To what end...? I might be used to moving in this body, but whirling is another story. I’d dance straight to an early grave.”

“Hence the need for you to practice. Returning to the Garden of Beginnings with the new Zent by whirling is advisable over returning there through the divine protections ritual. Others will not be able to replicate it so easily. As you are now, anyone would consider you the avatar of a goddess; can you imagine the embarrassment if you fell over like a certain someone?”

“This is literally the first I’m hearing about using a dedication whirl to return to the Garden of Beginnings!”

“Is that so?” Ferdinand asked, not moved in the slightest. “Nonetheless, I consider it the best way to transport the country’s new ruler to the Garden of Beginnings and to show our loudmouthed spectators what it looks like when a true Zent candidate whirls. It cannot be helped.”

“It can’t be helped?! You probably engineered it! Hmph!”

Ferdinand gave me the same sparkly smile he wore when he was thoroughly displeased. “Would there be a problem with that?”

“Fair enough. I shall practice my whirling.”

“Good.”

No, not “good”! You big dummy!

Not even my fiercest glare would sway Ferdinand, and there was zero chance of him taking back what he’d said. My fate was sealed.

“Do not wander about,” Ferdinand warned. “The influence of your divine power is so immense that you will trouble all those who cross your path. Practice in your chambers. As you had the skill to pass each of your Academy classes on the very first day, I suspect you will whirl satisfactorily once you learn to control your new body.”

My current objective was to whirl in a way that Ferdinand would deem “satisfactory”... but was there even time for that? My opportunity to rest was well and truly over.

“Perhaps I could use enhancement magic while whirling...”

“So your memory was devastated. Do you not remember how, during the temple’s Dedication Ritual, the mana you channeled into enhancements was sucked out alongside the rest of the mana flowing into the chalices? The magic circle will drain you entirely if you attempt to use enhancements atop it, and you will meet the same fate as a certain fool.”

I wanted to cheat a little, but I guess that’s not an option. Tch.

Ferdinand was watching me with exceptionally cold eyes. I had no choice but to give up and practice seriously so I could whirl on my own.

“Moreover,” he continued, “when the Ahrensbach knights come to the Ehrenfest Dormitory to eat, I would ask you to show your face, commend them for their work, and encourage them.”

“For what reason?”

“To show that you hold no malice toward Ahrensbach and still intend to serve as its aub.” Some were apparently saying that my decision to rest with Ehrenfest meant I didn’t trust the people of Ahrensbach. “If you smile at the knights and shower them with praise, enveloped in divine mana as you are, then silencing those fools will prove trivial. Our political maneuvering will become that much easier.”

“I suppose I can do that—for your sake.” I added praising Ahrensbach’s knights to my list of duties for the day.

“I would also like the authority to use the teleportation circles between the Adalgisa villa and the Lanzenave Estate so that I might bring supplies to the Royal Academy.”

“But of course,” I replied—just as he plopped a thick stack of documents in front of me.

“Look over these as well; they outline how our meeting with the royals will proceed and what we will ask of them. Memorize them all so you will not need to consult them when the day comes. We must gain what we can from your position as the avatar of a goddess. Our demands here are the bare minimum.”

I sighed, reached for the documents, and said that I would do my best. Ferdinand’s demands were always as tough as they were multitudinous, but I couldn’t complain when he was doing the most work out of any of us.

“I should also mention that I intend to eat here with the archducal family from now on,” Ferdinand noted. “I will say that I am meeting with you to report the status of the villa and Ahrensbach, but I will really be exchanging intelligence with Sylvester and Florencia.”

I nodded. That was fine with me. We needed as much time to discuss things as we could get.

Thus concluded our teatime meeting. Ferdinand returned to the villa without a moment’s hesitation, seemingly quite busy. He wasn’t the only one; there was a mountain of work for me to do as well, so with the help of my retainers, I made my way back to my chambers.

“Lady Rozemyne, it is time for dinner,” Brunhilde announced at sixth bell. “Please allow us to take you.”

And with that, I was subjected to the usual routine: a sheet of silver was thrown over me before Angelica picked me up. But as we started to move, I noticed something unusual.

“This isn’t the way to the dining hall. Where are we going?”

“Because you are bound to be exchanging sensitive information, the archducal family is eating in a separate room,” Brunhilde explained. “Lady Charlotte is managing the logistics. She is terribly worried about you.”

We soon arrived at the meeting room. The door was closed behind us, and the silver cloth wrapped around me was removed. Sylvester, Florencia, Charlotte, and Ferdinand—everyone was here.

“Rozemyne.”

“Sister.”

Florencia and Charlotte immediately lowered their eyes, taken aback in the face of my divine radiance. Sylvester, in contrast, was staring straight at me, the picture of curiosity.

“Talk about a glow-up...” he muttered. “How do you even shine like that?”

Florencia was quick to chastise her husband, but I was relieved to see someone acting normal in the presence of the goddess’s power. “I don’t know,” I said. “To tell you the truth, I can’t even see the light. Do I really look that different?”

“I thought Ferdinand was pulling my leg at first, but yeah, I can’t argue with you being called the avatar of a goddess...”

Karstedt was standing behind Sylvester and nodding in agreement.

“I’m the same on the inside, though,” I assured them both.

“Yeah, it didn’t take me long to figure that one out. You’re gonna want to avoid speaking whenever you’re trying to come across as a divine avatar.”

“Father, let us eat,” Charlotte interjected. “I am relieved to see the goddess’s power has not changed you, Sister. Are you feeling well?” The look in her eyes told me she was just as worried as Brunhilde had suggested.

“Yes, I got plenty of rest and now feel quite refreshed,” I replied with a chuckle. “I was told you have been arranging food deliveries to the villa and such while the archducal couple is preparing for our upcoming meeting. I thank you ever so much. If not for your hard work, I would not have been able to rest at all.”

I took the seat assigned to me and continued to speak with Charlotte. Much to my relief, we were having familiar Ehrenfest dishes instead of Ahrensbach’s intensely spicy cuisine.

Reports and intelligence were commonly exchanged over meals, so Ferdinand took the opportunity to update us on the villa and those in Ahrensbach: “With your permission and the feystone, Rozemyne, we recently activated the villa’s teleportation circle.”

We now had a transport link between the Lanzenave Estate and the Adalgisa villa. It was a little inconvenient, since the dormitory was still unusable and the villa didn’t connect straight to Ahrensbach’s castle, but it was drastically better than not being able to access the duchy at all.

“Letters have been sent, and your retainers should come with your belongings in a bell at most.”

We had consulted the royal family about using the Adalgisa villa and received permission from Sigiswald to do with it as we pleased. In his words, they had planned to let me have it anyway. Ferdinand informed us of all this with a smile that couldn’t have been more displeased.

“Wonderful,” I said. “I thank you ever so much, Ferdinand. Many of my retainers kept their belongings with mine, and it would seem they have been troubled without certain articles. It would also have been troublesome if Ahrensbach alone could not access the Royal Academy to... to... Um, is something the matter, Sylvester?”

He was staring at me. In fact, everyone else was too. Sylvester and Florencia exchanged bewildered looks with Karstedt, seemingly on the verge of a mental breakdown, while Charlotte seemed completely lost for words.

In the end, Karstedt gave Sylvester a grim look of resolve. It must have been a signal of some sort because the uncomfortable archduke then cleared his throat.

“Um... Rozemyne. Ferdinand told us he activated the villa’s teleportation circle, right...?”

“That he did. He’s registered to Ahrensbach’s Mana Replenishment hall. I never thought a goddess would descend and dye my mana, so we’re lucky to have him here.”

I’d only registered Ferdinand to the Mana Replenishment hall so I could save him; I certainly hadn’t expected it to benefit us here at the Academy. Because his mana was registered, he was now considered a member of Ahrensbach’s archducal family—its only member, for that matter. He was doing so much for me that I could not do on my own.

My response must not have been what Sylvester was looking for; he turned to Ferdinand instead as if concluding it was pointless to ask me anything else. “Ferdinand... Well, uh... does that mean what I think it means? Did you skip autumn and call winter early without even greeting the supreme gods?”

Rather than answer the question, Ferdinand cocked an eyebrow. “What in the name of the gods has gotten into you? Calm down, man.”

“‘Calm down’?! Are you serious?! This is insane!”

Yeeeah... I’m lost. I don’t have a clue what’s going on.

“Sylvester,” Florencia interjected with a polite smile, “you and the other men can go over this later. The rest of us are trying to eat.”

Sylvester shut his mouth, well aware that he had just been scolded, then shot Karstedt a glare like the knight commander was to blame. Ferdinand shook his head, exasperated, and went back to eating.

“Goodness, Father...” Charlotte muttered.

I met my sister’s eye, then chuckled. This whole exchange reminded me of the days before Ferdinand moved to Ahrensbach. There was so much we still needed to do, like meet with the royals, but it felt entirely like we were back in Ehrenfest as I remembered it. The tension drained from my shoulders, and my lips curled into a natural smile.