Ascendance of a Bookworm (LN) - Volume 5.10 - Chapter 8

The Battle for the Auditorium

I watched the door to the auditorium and the ordonnanzes passing through it while my knights stood ready to protect me. Being unable to see what was happening inside made me both uneasy and relieved; I was worried about how everyone was doing but also glad that I wouldn’t need to see another massacre like the one that kept reappearing in my nightmares. I clenched a fist in front of my chest and prayed the battle would end soon and without any of our knights needing to give up their lives.

The door opened, and several Ahrensbach knights came rushing out, all wearing harsh expressions. I could tell at a glance that they weren’t here to announce our victory. Rather, they had fallen back because they were wounded. I started tending to them as quickly as I could.

“How are we faring?” I asked.

“There were more Sovereign knights than we expected,” the knights explained while drinking rejuvenation potions in the safety of my shield. Our surprise attack with the magic tools had worked well, but many of the Sovereign knights were wearing silver capes, which was making things harder for us.

“We brought manaless weapons in preparation for this scenario, but Prince Anastasius’s group did not,” another knight added. “They have been taking weapons from our fallen opponents to compensate, but that is of secondary importance. The prince’s presence has given some of our enemies pause.”

Raublut had apparently instructed the Sovereign knights to “defeat the king’s enemies.” They hadn’t minded doing battle with Ferdinand and the others, but they refused to turn their weapons on Anastasius. It really had swung the battle in our favor.

“Is it possible that trug was used on those individuals?” I asked.

“We cannot tell from appearances alone,” one of the knights replied.

“However,” another interjected, “Prince Anastasius is furious with the Sovereign knight commander for betraying the Zent. He is interrogating him as they fight.” The prince was demanding to know why Raublut had turned against them and how long he had been planning his treachery.

“We need to replenish our stock of magic tools and rejuvenation potions, so Lord Ferdinand summoned reinforcements,” a third chimed in. “They should arrive soon.”

The knights rested a little while longer, then left Schutzaria’s shield to return to the battle. I could have joined them, but I would only end up scared and useless, which explained why I was currently on door duty. I would only enter the auditorium when the fighting stopped or when something like instant-death poison required mass healing or purification. Even so, I was desperate to know what was going on in there.

“Just sitting here is making me anxious...” I muttered, looking between the door and a sheet of fey paper that would make my waschen large enough to fill the entire auditorium. We had no way of knowing when our foes might use their poison.

Angelica gave me a nod of understanding. She was stroking Stenluke’s hilt and staring intently at the door to the auditorium.

“Lady Rozemyne, we have brought magic tools and rejuvenation potions,” came a voice.

“Hartmut, Clarissa, and even Justus...?” I muttered. “Should you not be watching the villa?”

“Lord Ferdinand ordered us to come here,” Clarissa declared, sticking her chest out. “It falls to scholars to manage magic tools.”

Hartmut was smiling alongside her.

I started checking the boxes my retainers had arrived with; their contents would need to be distributed to the knights who had used up their rejuvenation potions. But before I could get very far, a massive explosion shook the auditorium. It happened so suddenly that I almost leapt out of my skin.

Wh-What was that...?

It couldn’t have been one of Hartmut’s more violent magic tools—they were far too dangerous to use during such a chaotic battle—which meant the attack must have come from our enemies. I placed a hand on my chest and turned to the door.

“Milady!” Justus shouted. “I will call out if your healing is necessary!” Then he rushed into the auditorium.

I nodded and started instructing my retainers. “Prepare to join the fight. Now that Hartmut and the others are here, we can use our fey paper.”

My heart raced as I took several sheets from my leather pouch; I would have needed to close my eyes to use a feystone, which would have made my healing far too clumsy. I chose Flutrane’s and Heilschmerz’s magic circles based on the decoration near the edges of their pages, then gripped my schtappe.

Hartmut and Clarissa prepared their own large-scale magic circles, filled their schtappes with mana, and then immediately drank rejuvenation potions. If prepared in advance, fey paper could prove especially useful in battle; it allowed the casting of magic without having to rely on feystones or chants. There were downsides as well, though—it was costly to produce and required a lot of mana to activate. In the case of the latter, the brief moment required to activate it could cost a person their life. It had to be used at exactly the right moment.

Leonore and Matthias stayed in front of me with their shields raised. Angelica and Cornelius gripped their weapons and stood guard, while Laurenz waited outside the auditorium, ready to open the door at a moment’s notice. It had taken only a few seconds for everyone to prepare themselves, but those seconds felt like an eternity.

“Milady! Healing!” Justus called.

“Let’s go, Clarissa!”

“Right!”

Laurenz threw open the door for Angelica and Cornelius, who charged inside to secure the entrance. Clarissa dashed in behind them, moving faster than anyone would expect of a scholar, and started activating her enhancement magic circle. In the dreary darkness of the auditorium—there were far fewer windows inside than in the hallway—her magic circle shone like the sun.

I rushed into the auditorium next, relying on Leonore and Matthias to shield me. In my mind, it was a blistering sprint—but to everyone else, it was probably more of a light jog. It was best not to think too hard about it.

“Lady Rozemyne!” Clarissa called.

I used my schtappe to channel mana into my sheet of paper marked with Flutrane’s magic circle, which caused the circle to turn green. Then I swung my schtappe, launching the circle into Clarissa’s golden one. The two fused, then separated into myriad smaller circles, each of which shot out green sparkles that dyed the entire auditorium with cleansing light.

“Hartmut!” I shouted as I channeled mana into Heilschmerz’s circle.

“There you are,” he replied while activating his own enhancement magic circle. As it rose up into the air, I shot it with Heilschmerz’s magic circle, which produced the same result as a moment ago; the two circles fused, split apart, and then showered the room in green light.

“What in the world...?”

I noticed several confused voices as the knights stared up at the various magic circles. Though I wasn’t sure what had caused that massive explosion, it must have incapacitated a huge chunk of our force; even more people than expected started rising to their feet as the green light healed them. But the state of the auditorium surprised me even more.

“Huh? This doesn’t make any sense...”

The auditorium could switch between various forms. For some strange reason, it was currently in the form used during the graduation ceremony. I could see the stage where dedication whirls were performed and the altar that led to the Farthest Hall.

I used the glow of the green light to search for anyone I recognized. Someone near the altar must have thrown an explosive magic tool at the entrance; many were still collapsed in a circle around where it had presumably landed. Anastasius and his guard knights were on the ground together, and Eckhart was slumped against the wall on my right. He must have protected Ferdinand, who stood up almost immediately.

“Fer—”

I tried to call out to him, but his eyes shot wide open, and a sudden cry cut me short.

“You there! Die!”

Raublut’s voice echoed through the hall. At the same time, a dazzling wave of rainbow light shot straight toward me.

“Lady Rozemyne!”

“Geteilt!”

Angelica, Cornelius, and Ferdinand cried out, and in the blink of an eye, there were shields and knights all around me. I could only watch as the rainbow light slammed straight into our defenses, causing two of the shields from Ferdinand to disappear.

“Raublut...” I muttered.

The large man by the altar was glowering in our direction. He gave his cape a flourish—it was silver, not the pitch black of the Sovereign Knight’s Order—and channeled mana into his blade once again. It shone with a rainbow light that lit up the auditorium. The murderous intent in his eyes sent a shiver down my spine.

“I was sure that tool would dispose of my largest obstruction,” Raublut said, his tone completely flat. “To think there exists such potent healing... You are in my way. Disappear.”

His quiet yet inescapable malice seized me. He wanted me dead. I was so terrified that I couldn’t even move.

“King Gervasio will obtain the Grutrissheit,” the Sovereign knight commander continued. “There is no place in this world for those who would challenge or oppose him.”

Raublut prepared to attack again, but a burst of light stayed his hand. The statues of the gods and their divine instruments were now radiant, and a low rumble shook the auditorium as they started to move. They spun as though performing a dedication whirl as they slid to either side of the altar.

“What?”

“They’re moving?”

The knights looked puzzled, but I could guess what this meant. The statues had shifted during my divine protections ritual, and they had already moved aside by the time I’d emerged atop the altar after obtaining my Book of Mestionora from Erwaermen. The mosaic wall would open at any moment.

Gervasio’s coming.

I wasn’t the only one who had realized what was about to happen; Ferdinand wore a grim expression as an opening appeared in the far wall. The knights gazed up at the altar in silence.

“Here he comes!” Raublut declared. “King Gervasio, the true Zent chosen by the gods!” His voice betrayed a maddening obsession, which elicited a few despairing looks from the knights. They had just seen the statues move and the altar open up like the gods themselves were welcoming our enemy.

I wouldn’t blame someone for thinking this meant he was chosen by the gods.

“That is the entrance to the Garden of Beginnings. Nothing more,” I said, hoping to clear up any misunderstandings before they could take root. “One goes there when obtaining their schtappe or divine protections. I passed through the same opening after I was granted my Book of Mestionora.”

“Lady Rozemyne?!”

“Lady Eglantine also accessed the Garden of Beginnings when she obtained her schtappe, and anyone who is omni-elemental would have seen the altar open the same way. It is nothing to get so excited about.”

The knights on the verge of celebrating suddenly looked uncertain. My attempt to calm everyone down had succeeded, but I’d made Raublut even more furious in the process. His arms trembled out of anger as he swung his sword at me and screamed, “I will cut you down before King Gervasio returns!”

“Geteilt!”

Shields surrounded me once again. Several were from Ferdinand, though he hadn’t left Eckhart’s side while the weary knight downed a rejuvenation potion. The others were from my retainers—even Hartmut and Clarissa—who had stepped in front of me. They had anticipated the attack this time.

Raublut wasn’t going to back down. He poured more mana into his sword and roared again. “Crush those who would oppose the true Zent! Capture the Saint of Ehrenfest! For the sake of Yurgenschmidt, we will make her serve the Sovereign temple!”

The Sovereign knights surrounding him broke into three rough groups. The one on the left went for Anastasius and his guards, who were outside the range of my healing and still on the ground. But first, they would need to defeat Heisshitze’s knights, who were defending the wounded and distributing rejuvenation potions. The group beside them readied their weapons but stuck close to Raublut.

As for the group on the right, they readied their schtappe bows and quickly began shooting arrows at us.

“Huh?!”

My breath caught in my throat. They were targeting Ferdinand, but his shields were still protecting me. A volley of arrows flew in his direction... and struck the shields of Justus, Eckhart, and the Ahrensbach knights who had all moved to protect him.

“Shields for Lady Rozemyne!” Leonore demanded.

As glad as I was that Ferdinand wasn’t hurt, I couldn’t lose focus. Raublut swung his sword down yet again, and a growing mass of rainbow mana closed in on me.

“Geteilt!”

There was no time to recite the prayer to create Schutzaria’s shield. Though the mass of rainbow light smashed through Ferdinand’s many defenses, the next few layers were enough to scatter it. I was safe, but Cornelius and Laurenz let out pained grunts from the front line.

“Angelica, Matthias—take the front!” Leonore instructed without missing a beat. “Lady Rozemyne, create a shield of Wind!”

This was the same tactic we had employed during our ditter match against Dunkelfelger: relying on geteilt at first, then bringing out Schutzaria’s shield. On any battlefield, it was important to have somewhere our knights could stay safe.

“O Goddess of Wind Schutzaria, protector of all...”

My guard knights rearranged themselves while I chanted the prayer. Laurenz and Cornelius needed to down rejuvenation potions, but the group that had stayed with Raublut was now bombarding us with rainbow bolts of their own. They came in various sizes and were layered so there wouldn’t be a single pause in their assault. Laurenz and Cornelius had to hold up their shields before they could drink anything.

Some of our enemies’ attacks didn’t have much mana in them. Others had a lot. They actually hurt now that Ferdinand’s shields were out of the picture, but I continued to pray as the last of the geteilts absorbed them.

“Grant me your shield of Wind, so that I might blow away those who mean to cause harm.”

A pillar of yellow light shot into the air, causing the Sovereign knights to cry out in surprise, and Schutzaria’s domed shield appeared around us with a metallic snap. Our enemies’ mana attacks wouldn’t breach this defense. My knights started to relax now that they weren’t being overwhelmed anymore.

“Stay on your guard and drink your potions quickly!” Leonore said, narrowing her indigo eyes at Raublut and his allies. “We are up against the Sovereign Knight’s Order, not mere apprentices of the Royal Academy!”

Though the civil war had devastated the noble population and dealt a heavy blow to the quality of the country’s knights, the Sovereign Order still comprised the very best Yurgenschmidt could provide. My knights were considered some of the strongest students in their grades, but they wouldn’t stand a chance against veterans like Karstedt and Bonifatius. Our current opponents had plenty of experience as well, so defeating them wouldn’t be easy.

“We should aim to reunite with Lord Ferdinand,” Leonore continued. “But right now, both our forces appear to be pinned down.”

As well as a volley of arrows, Ferdinand and his knights were having to endure a slew of magic tools being thrown at them. Explosions rang out above their heads, and mana-immune silver needles shot in every direction, making things especially tough for them. The tools had come from Lanzenave, I assumed.

“Lady Rozemyne,” Leonore said. “Maintaining the shield is your top priority—I understand that—but would you be able to heal Prince Anastasius’s group? If we can return them to the battle, the scales should tip in our favor.”

I couldn’t deny Anastasius’s value in this fight; some of our opponents refused to attack a prince, and the guards in his service were Sovereign knights. By healing him and his force, I would return them all to the battle and free up the Dunkelfelger knights stuck tending to their wounds.

Helping them is our best move, but...

I paused, able to feel the barrage of rainbow slashes hammering against my shield, and then nodded. “I will do my best. But at the same time, I would advise you all to raise your shields; our opponents seem to be focusing their attacks on a single spot. That, or their blows are stronger and more impactful than any that have hit my defenses before.”

After confirming that my knights had their shields raised, I squeezed my eyes shut and made Flutrane’s staff. A proper chant would work better than a magic circle on a sheet of paper, which could only heal within a predetermined range. The problem was that the prayer was lengthy and required a certain degree of safety to perform.

“O Goddess of Healing Heilschmerz, of the Goddess of Water Flutrane’s exalted twelve, hear my prayers...”

I poured mana into Flutrane’s staff. Ferdinand’s group would probably need to be healed as much as Anastasius’s.

“Lend me your divine power and grant me the power to heal those who have been hurt...”

“Matthias, Angelica!” Cornelius cried out, almost interrupting me. My eyes were closed, so I couldn’t see what was going on, but I must have recoiled a little; Leonore yelled a reminder that I needed to focus. My throat bobbed in fear of the unknown, and my voice started to crack. It was hard to keep praying when my heart was pounding and my entire body was trembling.

“Play the divine melody and cast the blissful ripples of your pure divine protection.”

No sooner had the last words passed my lips than I dispelled the staff and opened my eyes. An enemy knight standing in front of Schutzaria’s shield struck Cornelius so hard that he was blown away.

“Wh-What is going on?!” I exclaimed.

“The Sovereign knights closed the distance during their barrage and then attempted to breach our shield as soon as you started your prayer,” Leonore replied. “Matthias, Angelica, and Cornelius are fighting them.”

I hadn’t felt anyone breach the shield, but I could see parts of our opponents’ silver cloth and weapons slip through as the fight continued. If we allowed any of them to pass through the barrier, my knights would be powerless to stop them. Any acts of violence would see them blown out of the shield, like Judithe when Lestilaut managed to get inside.

“Out of my way!” Clarissa roared. “No one’s disrespecting the Avatar of Mestionora on my watch!” She leapt around the battlefield and threw a magic tool at the enemies in front of our shield. It exploded right in their faces, releasing red powder that caused the knights to choke, clutch their faces, and start rolling around on the floor. It must have been negarosh.

Matthias and Angelica took advantage of the chaos to attack with their non-schtappe weapons.

“Clarissa! Use these next!” Hartmut called, tossing her various tools. “Don’t give them any openings!”

“Leave it to me!” Clarissa shouted in response, a proud grin across her face as she watched the suffering knights. Something told me the two of them would take care of anyone who tried to break through our shield.

I turned to look at Raublut, who was busy instructing his knights. He hadn’t moved a single step away from the altar they were guarding.

Judithe could have hit him from here.

I bit my lip as I eyed the distance between us. It hurt so much that Judithe hadn’t been able to come with us due to being underage.

“Hartmut’s magic tools appear to work against silver equipment,” Leonore observed. “Matthias, Angelica, step back for now. Laurenz and I will take the front.”

Matthias and Angelica did as instructed and moved to the back of our group. Hartmut gave them rejuvenation potions, and they settled down beside me.

“To be honest, I thought your blessings would make this fight a whole lot easier than this...” Matthias said despairingly. He glared at the Sovereign knights and drank his potion. “I never expected their experience to give them such an edge. It feels like we’re up against an army of Lord Bonifatiuses.”

I shook my head at his assumption. “Matthias, we aren’t the only ones the gods are willing to support. Ehrenfest and Dunkelfelger showed the entire country how to obtain blessings; the Sovereign Knight’s Order might already have incorporated them.”

Ehrenfest’s Order had learned from Dunkelfelger’s ritual and used it during the last Lord of Winter hunt. The royals and their retainers attended the Interduchy Tournament, so it wouldn’t be at all strange for the Sovereign Knight’s Order to have performed a ritual presented there as research.

“Should we use the ritual of the Goddess of Oceans?” I muttered. Perhaps we could gain an advantage by returning everyone’s blessings to the gods and then reapplying our own. It seemed worthwhile as long as we could prevent the Sovereign knights from performing their own ritual.

“Lady Rozemyne! We are ready to provide our support!” Heisshitze called the moment I created my schtappe. Anastasius’s group had recovered and rejoined the fight, which would give us some very important leeway.

But my relief lasted only for a moment.

“Crush them before they reunite!” Raublut shouted, instructing everyone to focus their attacks on us while stalling Heisshitze with a burst of rainbow mana. “They are most vulnerable when they are apart!”

I wish they were a little weaker, but... this can still work.

Praying that Heisshitze’s group would safely rejoin the rest of our forces, I made my schtappe, drew the Goddess of Oceans’ sigil, and then used streitkolben to turn my schtappe into a staff.

“O Goddess of Oceans Verfuhremeer...”

I swung my staff, and the crashing of waves interrupted the din of battle.

“What is she doing?! Stop her!”

“Everything feels so heavy now!”

“At least warn us!”

Troops on both sides of the battle had been using blessings to bolster themselves, and many stumbled when that power was suddenly taken from them. I pushed through the angry shouts and continued to pray.

“To the gods who granted us their blessings, with our gratitude and prayers, we offer our mana.”

I thrust Verfuhremeer’s staff up into the air—and with an especially loud crash, a pillar of light shot toward the ceiling.

That should do it. Now I just need to reapply blessings to our own troops.

I returned my schtappe to normal and opened my eyes. The auditorium was still; any enthusiasm for the battle had been sucked away with the gods’ blessings. It was the perfect chance to start praying... but before I could even open my mouth, a strange force seemed to weigh down on me, like an imposing foe had suddenly appeared. I started scanning the room, which prompted Leonore to ask if something was wrong.

“I feel something strange...” I replied, then pointed to the top of the altar. “An overwhelming kind of pressure... coming from up there.”