Ascendance of a Bookworm (LN) - Volume 5.11 - Chapter 14

Large-Scale Magic

“Wait, don’t go...!”

I woke up in the dead of night to the sound of my own voice. There was sweat running down my back, and my pillow was wet with tears. The most awful dream had jolted me awake... and worst of all, I couldn’t even remember what it was about.

I saw something... But what? And who was I chasing?

A grimace revealed my frustration. I’d come so close to recalling one of my lost memories, but not close enough. Leonore, who was on night watch, must have heard me wake because she soon peered through the bed-curtain.

“You do not look well, Lady Rozemyne. Would you like me to fetch the divine instruments? Lieseleta informed me that filling them with mana helped you feel somewhat better before, so we have them drained and ready for you.”

After dinner, my knights had gone out of their way to hunt more feybeasts so they could empty the divine instruments for me. I was touched by their consideration and asked that the instruments be brought over.

I’m hungry. I woke up feeling awful. My body feels so heavy. My mana’s come back...

I clutched my head and sat at the edge of my bed, channeling mana into the divine instruments Leonore brought me. That was when Gretia entered, dressed in simple clothes with her hair loosely bound. In my current state, only my name-sworn could touch me when I wasn’t wearing silver cloth, which put a huge burden on Gretia when it came to attendant work like bathing me or changing my clothes. Leonore had probably woken her up with an ordonnanz.

“I am sorry to have woken you, Gretia,” I said.

“You need not apologize. I was able to rest during the day. You appear to be drenched with sweat. Would you care for a bath?”

“Just a waschen for now. You may use one of my feystones.”

I gestured to some of the many feystones packed with my mana that I was keeping in my room. Gretia took one and cleansed me as instructed.

Once again, I channeled mana into the divine instruments as Leonore held them out for me. Schutzaria’s shield was last, but a strange sensation overcame me as I was filling it. I gazed around, keeping my hand on the shield.

“Is something wrong, Lady Rozemyne?”

“I sense something below us... Coming from the living room or dining hall, maybe. It feels like when Gervasio appeared from the tunnel behind the altar. This doesn’t mean he broke into Lessy, does it? I don’t remember hearing what happened to him...”

As I tried to pinpoint the source of the strange sensation, Leonore nodded as if she understood what was going on. She gave me a curious look, then giggled. “We are inside your highbeast, Lady Rozemyne; I doubt anyone could get inside without your permission. You are most likely detecting Lord Ferdinand, who is working in the living room. If you are still curious, would you like to check? Unless you are feeling unwell after providing so much mana, it might be wise.”

From there, Leonore turned to her side. “Gretia. My apologies, but could you change Lady Rozemyne’s clothes? Something loose-fitting that she can wear to bed. She will go back to resting when we return, and you may return to your room.”

“My thanks.”

Gretia changed my clothes and dressed me in my silver cloak. She had also put my hair up, though not too tightly.

Leonore and I were already en route to the living room when Angelica rushed over, apologized that she was late, and snatched me up off the ground. “Please await my arrival next time,” she said, her eyes sharp. “You have been ordered not to walk anywhere.”

I chuckled and simply let her continue to carry me.

Light bled out of the first-floor living room. We were just about to go inside when Eckhart stuck his head out and said, “Lord Ferdinand permits you to enter.”

“He knew I was coming?” I asked.

“Who else radiates divine power as she walks about?”

Hold on... Is divine power kind of like a cat bell...?

I went into the living room and saw that the space meant for post-meal tea had more or less been converted into an office. The private bedrooms I’d made were only large enough for a bed and somewhere to change one’s clothes, so Ferdinand had brought his work from the castle here.

“So? Were you unable to sleep?” he pressed.

“An unpleasant dream woke me, though I don’t remember the details. Then I channeled mana into a divine instrument and sensed something in this general area... It was like when Gervasio appeared atop the altar; I could feel someone, but their identity was obscured.”

“It would seem she sensed you this time, Lord Ferdinand.”

“Oh...?” Ferdinand gestured to the space beside him on the sofa, and at once, Angelica deposited me onto the empty seat. I was a little unsettled, maybe because I was feeling something I’d never felt before.

“Ferdinand, what happened to Gervasio?” I asked.

“Zent Eglantine’s knights managed to capture him. His memories were read, and his official punishment will likely be announced during the Archduke Conference.”

“So everyone’s safe and sound...” I sighed in relief. “That’s good to hear. I wouldn’t have known what to do if he’d somehow escaped.”

“‘Everyone’? No, not at all. Zent Eglantine and Lord Consort Anastasius each lost half of their guard in the process.”

“What?! How?!”

Ferdinand pulled several sheets of paper from the stack before him, seeming disinterested. “That is for the new Zent and her husband to consider. Should your focus not be on Alexandria?”

On closer inspection, the papers in his hand were the schematics for my new library city. All thoughts of Gervasio zipped out of my mind.

“Though I wish to incorporate as many elements of your ideal city as I can,” Ferdinand said, “you were much too focused on its library.”

“Well, of course. It’s the most important part of my city. Its beating heart, if you will. What else would we focus on?” Any city I constructed would need to have a giant library at its very center.

Ferdinand grimaced. “You plan to visit your library on a regular basis, I imagine. To minimize the danger of you moving between it and the castle, I would advise keeping the two close—both within the Noble’s Quarter, to be precise. The laboratory will remain there as well. One thing I will not permit, however, is your desire to connect the castle and the library with teleporters. I shall arrange for you to have separate sleeping quarters in the latter. That is all.”

Teleporters would make traveling between the castle and the library a breeze, but their omission didn’t surprise me; the kind meant for transporting humans could only be used with the aub’s permission. If, for whatever reason, I elected to use it alone, my knights would need to race all the way to its twin to reunite with me. And of course, they would face punishment for losing sight of their charge.

“Personal-use teleporters are out of the question,” Ferdinand concluded. “Instead, I would propose another approach.”

Back in Ehrenfest, the higher one’s status, the farther north one lived in the Noble’s Quarter. Alexandria would tweak this system by having the highest-ranked nobles live closest to the city center, ensuring their houses were as close to the library as one could get. Ferdinand went on to explain that by separating the library from the castle’s book room, we could make it more accessible for baptized children and apprentices.

“Really? But what you just proposed only benefits nobles...” I said.

“The library is too close to the castle for us not to impose restrictions—especially when you, the aub, intend to use it so frequently. For security reasons, we cannot allow too many vagrants to enter.”

“I get that, but... this is my duchy. Here in Alexandria, shouldn’t everyone have access to books?”

“Considering the current literacy rate among commoners, I think you are getting ahead of yourself. What you are proposing is a long-term goal. Even if we were to enforce it from the start, the pushback from the nobility would be immense.”

That might have been true, but he was straying too far from my vision. This was too important for me to compromise. I opened my mouth to protest, but Ferdinand raised a hand to stop me.

“Let me finish. Alexandria will come to be known as the duchy of a divine avatar. If we consider the entire city—the commoners included—then it would make more sense to put the temple first, not your library. And as we are creating everything from scratch, we can incorporate the strengths of Ehrenfest’s temple.”

According to Ferdinand, we would build the temple between the Noble’s Quarter and the lower city so that nobles and commoners could go there. It would contain workshops, an orphanage, and a place for blue priests to live, as well as a shrine for rituals and praying to the gods.

“Moreover,” he continued, “by allowing the wealthier commoners to attend the temple classrooms you once proposed, we can transform the temple into a library of sorts that even commoners can visit. The literacy rate in the lower city will improve, the commoners will learn how to treat books, and only then will we allow them in the main library near the castle. Keeping the masses on our side is crucial. If we are too heavy-handed, we will only inspire resistance to what we hope to achieve.”

To prevent our books from being stolen, we would implement the same deposit system as the Royal Academy’s library. Those who couldn’t pay wouldn’t be able to borrow. Ferdinand expected my library to be members-only for the first stretch of our journey.

So we need to pace ourselves.

I shouldn’t have been surprised; developments on this scale had taken hundreds of years back on Earth. As much as I wanted to skip ahead whole generations, our options were limited until printing became more widespread and the cost of books plummeted. Ferdinand was proposing the first step in our plan to make a library that even commoners could use.

“Opening the book room and temple classroom to the wealthy sounds like an excellent idea,” I said. “The children of merchants who do business with nobles will rejoice to have somewhere to practice carrying themselves. I am told there are few such instructors among the lower class.”

“Oh? Did you hear that from the Plantin Company?” Ferdinand asked, eyeing me carefully. Was he prying for fragments of my lost memories? Though my thoughts were blurred and unreliable, I dug through them as best I could.

“No, they were still the Gilberta Company at the time. My attendants were in the orphanage director’s chambers, and... Hmm? Aaah, I think I remember them training waiters for the Italian restaurant.”

Leon’s face arose in my mind. He was an apprentice back then. There must have been others there too, but I couldn’t remember them.

As I continued to rack my brain, I remembered that Leon had always grimaced at me. I wondered why that was.

“I see...” Ferdinand replied. “Is there a reason you want children who seek connections with nobles to be able to attend temple classes?”

“Oh, right. Once it becomes normal for merchants with noble connections to frequent the temple’s classes, craftspeople trying to secure patrons will attempt to follow suit. That much is clear from the Gutenbergs.”

Ferdinand nodded and wrote something on a nearby sheet of paper.

“Moving on,” he said, “though your planning was fascinating on a conceptual level, when put into practice, the library and printing industry would take far too much precedence. We must take a more realistic approach. First, we should rebuild the areas severely damaged during the Lanzenavians’ attack. The port, Noble’s Quarter, and temple, to name a few. Then, the guilds. You will want to hear their thoughts while finalizing the plans, I imagine.”

Then, Ferdinand gave a slight smirk. “This sounds like an excellent opportunity to train the scholars who are only used to giving orders, not receiving them.”

Well, it was true that we needed scholars who could work with commoners while also completing their duties. I saw no reason to complain.

“Performing a large-scale entwickeln to rebuild the entire city at once would put a tremendous strain on the commoners,” I said. “We should arrange meetings with them and then schedule the reconstruction piecemeal. Hartmut and Justus have the most experience with commoners, so we should assign one of them to train the scholars. As for the architecture, I would rather we base it on existing Ahrensbach buildings. The climate here is not the same as in Ehrenfest.”

Ahrensbach’s current architecture must have come about for a reason, I thought. Maybe the style used in Ehrenfest would make summers here unbearable.

“I was going to reuse the schematics the Plantin and Gilberta Companies provided for the entwickeln in Groschel...” Ferdinand said.

“Advise them against it, but leave the final decision in their hands.” It was important that the architecture match the climate, but the merchants would surely have their own preferences for the layout and the rooms and such. We would prioritize their needs above all else.

I continued, “The Gutenbergs cannot settle here until they have places to live and do business. We shall put them in the same part of the lower city as the Merchant’s Guild.”

“I suspect I already know the answer, considering how much attention you are paying to the details, but have you considered where their families are going to live?”

“Yes, of course.”

Ferdinand cast his eyes down, then suddenly rolled up the schematics for my new city.

“Hey!” I cried. “I wasn’t done looking at those! Spread them out again!”

“That is enough for now, lest you grow so excited that you end up bedridden again. It is almost first bell. Are you content enough to go back to sleep?”

I shook my head. “Sleeping will make my mana come back. I’d rather hold out for as long as I can.”

“And what of your hunger? It must be worse than before. You did not eat much for someone whose appetite has returned.”

I nodded glumly. “Do you have any ideas for what I can do?” Dinner hadn’t done much to satiate me, and now I was hungrier than ever.

“Some,” Ferdinand replied. He scanned the room before pausing and using a waschen on his hands. Then he poured just a drop of red potion onto his fingertip.

“Ferdinand...?” I asked, staring at him in surprise as he came closer. He pressed the drop of potion against my lips, then pulled away.

“Is it bitter?” he asked, wiping his finger with a handkerchief.

I licked my lips, expecting the same sharp taste as before. “No, not very.” It didn’t taste of much at all, though my tongue did sting a little.

“Good. Your hunger might be connected to the amount of mana you lost yesterday. Your body is attempting to warn you that your life is in danger, an indication that you have almost been drained.”

It made sense that nobody else had connected my hunger to my dearth of mana; any other noble would have drunk a rejuvenation potion long before their reserves dropped this low. My circumstances were special in that I needed to expend my mana practically nonstop. I wasn’t even giving my body time to recover as I rushed to eject all the mana that came back overnight.

“I, too, felt something akin to starvation when I was trapped inside Ahrensbach’s replenishment hall,” Ferdinand explained. “I suspect it was the result of my mana decreasing slowly rather than all at once. We should drain the rest of yours in one go, if we can. Unless you wish to endure an immense amount of pain.”

“It’s going to get even worse...? Oh gods,” I muttered, instinctively stepping away from Ferdinand. I couldn’t take any more of this.

“Not if you follow my advice. The more divine power we remove, the less it will hurt when your mana is redyed.”

“I see...” He seemed strangely motivated, but I wasn’t going to question it—not when there was a risk of my situation getting even worse.

“You asked me to draw healing circles for you, did you not? Could you not use that duplication spell of yours to create several at once? As I recall, the spell does not require the names of the gods.”

I cocked my head in thought. “It doesn’t, no, and the risk seems reasonably small. If nothing else, I won’t need to worry about another wayward whirlpool. That said, the spell only works on surfaces with mana. We don’t have a sheet of fey paper large enough for me to use several magic circles at once.”

“Would the ground not suffice? Barren though it might be, it does contain some mana.”

He was right—the earth did contain mana. The magic circles in the Royal Academy’s gathering spots were carved straight into the ground, so it wasn’t the craziest idea.

“It sounds feasible...” I mused. “Still, I don’t know how much I can expand the circles. We never had time to experiment with changing their size.”

“Aah, yes...” Ferdinand muttered, his brow furrowed. He must have remembered that it was his decision for us to postpone our research. “I thought we could restore Alexandria with a circle as large as the one above the Royal Academy... but perhaps that is too much even for your abnormal ‘copy and place’ spell.”

Excuse me?

“You should consider your own abnormality before slandering my work,” I shot back. “Besides, have you forgotten that the magic circle above the Academy was made by Erwaermen and the gods back in ancient times, when the gods were much closer to Yurgenschmidt than they are now?”

Long ago, a Zent had secured the gods’ aid through Erwaermen, then combined several magic circles based on Erwaermen’s feystone to establish what we now knew as the Royal Academy’s grounds. Creating our own massive circle for Alexandria sounded outright impossible.

“Something on that scale could never be performed in the modern era, when... when...” Words failed me as inspiration struck. “Or maybe it could...”

“Stop! I cannot permit you to seek help from Erwaermen or the gods. Let us think of another method. Would it not be more reliable for you to expand the feystone for this highbeast to its maximum size, inscribe it with healing magic circles, and then extend its range as much as you can using Clarissa’s magic?”

Despite having come up with the idea in the first place, Ferdinand withdrew at the slightest indication that I might get the gods involved. I fell into thought, then formed my Grutrissheit and started searching through it.

“Well, it seems we won’t need to ask Erwaermen or the gods for help...” I said. “Not when you have fragments of the former.”

“Aah, those...” Ferdinand raised an eyebrow at me.

“And we have more than enough divine mana right here.” I spread my arms wide. “Considering how much anguish it’s caused me, I think I deserve to use some as I please. Not to mention, you’re interested in reviving magecraft lost since ancient times, are you not?”

Ferdinand grimaced in response to my argument but took out some plain sheets of paper nonetheless. His interest was clear even as he muttered, “We do not have time to research this in full...”

“It shouldn’t be too hard if, rather than combining circles with various elements and purposes as they did at the Academy, we simply expand a restoration circle. Here. Look.”

I presented a section of my Book that described the ancient method of performing large-scale magic. Ferdinand peered down at it, then began dissecting the complex magic circles. He couldn’t use his own Book when our retainers were around.

“I see,” he said. “If this decides the range, we could cover all of Alexandria by placing the center of our circle at the foundation and using the border gates as endpoints. Can my fragments of Erwaermen take the place of his feystone?”

“They won’t be as durable—that is, they won’t last very long—but that shouldn’t be an issue if we use my divine power to turn them into feystones.”

Ferdinand shook his head. “Looking at these instructions, it would suit our needs better to keep the materials as they are—especially when this constitutes a single use. Moreover, as we have neither the time nor the resources to experiment, we should recreate the original magic circle as faithfully as we can. We cannot risk failure.”

Before I could even respond, Ferdinand set about writing. His pen moved at an exceptional speed, producing a long list of disconnected words. A memo, perhaps?

“Rozemyne,” he continued, not even looking up from his paper, “after breakfast, dismiss your highbeast and come with me to the castle. I need you to ‘place’ this magic circle inside the fragments of Erwaermen stashed in my hidden room. Otherwise, preserve your stamina. My scholars shall spread the word to the giebes while Hartmut returns the divine instruments to the temple. Order Roderick and Clarissa to inform those of the Noble’s Quarter.”

“As you wish.”

“Leonore, Eckhart—station knights from our guard at each border gate. You may decide who is best suited to the task. Once you are done, inform the other retainers that we are returning to the castle after breakfast.”

“Yes, sir!”

Ferdinand was giving out a fresh wave of orders when his voice started to sound distant. An uncomfortable heat was spreading through me. I clapped my Book of Mestionora shut, conscious that I must have overused it.

A look of concern on his face, Ferdinand touched my forehead, then my wrist. His features twisted in a grimace. “Though I can prepare the border gates on my own, I will need your divine mana and your duplication spell when we make the magic circle. The process would take far too long otherwise. That said, no matter how quickly we work, it will not be ready for activation until tonight. Can you endure one more day...?”

“Of course,” I replied with a smile. “Compared to when I thought I might be stuck like this forever, a single day is nothing.”

Ferdinand knit his brow. “Do not overtax your strength. We will need to brew when we reach the castle, so get some rest before then. I will need some too.”

His words hung in the air for a moment before he briskly started putting away his paperwork. Eckhart provided some assistance. I’d gone to bed straight after dinner, so I wasn’t feeling too tired, but what about Ferdinand...? He hadn’t slept, from what I could tell, and would probably resume his work as soon as he’d eaten breakfast.

He said the circle wouldn’t be ready until tonight, at the earliest. I just worry he won’t sleep at all.

For all my lounging in bed, I wasn’t able to get much rest. My mana had recovered, as expected, and the sensation reminded me of the days I’d spent battling my Devouring heat. I remembered the pain and discomfort I’d endured, unable even to leave my bed as my mana swelled. But for some reason, I couldn’t remember anyone else who might have been around at the time.

When, oh when will my memories come back...?

Ferdinand had said they would return with the new Zent’s coronation, but that was before the gods plagued me with their divine power. My recovery was more important—I understood that—but I wasn’t getting any better. The pain racking my body had found a friend in my starvation. I didn’t want to die without remembering those I cared about.

Well, today’s the day! I’m getting rid of this divine power, no matter what!

To keep fear from taking over, I urged my thoughts in another direction. Was the requirement for nobles to keep their emotions under control at all times a hangover from when they were closer to the gods and rampaging mana was more dangerous?

After breakfast, I returned to the castle. My retainers started carrying out their instructions while I worked with Ferdinand in his hidden room. He used a Lanzenave knife to shave down and gradually flatten Erwaermen’s white branches, onto which I would paste our healing magic circles.

“Those branches sure are small...” I mused aloud. “Maybe we could use normal-sized magic circles and then figure out a way to shrink them down.” Just the thought of needing to draw super tiny circles made my head ache.

Ferdinand gave me a chilly look. “Are you even more of a fool than I thought? There is no time. Give up and draw them.”

I don’t wanna! I’m bad with precise, detailed drawings! This is your area of expertise, so why don’t you do it?!

As much as I wanted to complain, Ferdinand was busy enough pouring feystones, gold dust, and expensive-looking ingredients into his brewing pot. I couldn’t ask him to draw the circles for me. My only choice was to manage on my own—but as I steeled my resolve, a piece of fey paper flew my way.

“See if you can duplicate this,” Ferdinand said, having thrust the paper toward me.

“Woo-hoo! I knew I could count on you, Ferdinand!”

Overjoyed, I accepted the paper—a completed magic circle—and got straight to work duplicating it. As the basis of our grand creation, I would need to prepare some circles for healing and others that would allow us to use Erwaermen’s branches. In my current state, it took barely any time at all.

“All done.”

“Then start preparing the feystones. They will serve as receptacles for the divine power and need to be in contact with Erwaermen’s fragments for the spell to work.”

I see, I see. So I just need to stick them together, right? That should make them easier to carry.

I gathered together the omni-elemental feystones for the border gates, channeled my divine mana into them, and then mashed them into disks. I needed a way to keep Erwaermen’s branches stable, and no better shape had come to mind.

I took the branches and started inserting them into the disks. They looked comfortable enough, and there was no way they would come apart from the feystones now. In my opinion, it was a huge success.

To create our giant circle, we would place a large feystone at the foundation, the center of our magic, and a smaller one at each of the border gates. We had already crushed the feystone I’d used to make Rainbow Lessy. It would serve as our main receptacle, so we’d turned it into a large plate and pierced it, too, with one of Erwaermen’s branches. All that remained was to draw the magic circle on its underside.

“Done,” I announced. “I used the feystones to lock the divine branches in place. Is that good or what?”

“Somehow, I doubt that was mentioned in your Book of Mestionora. Your methods continue to be as lighthearted and as abnormal as ever. I would never have come up with such an idea.”

“Your praise truly honors me,” I replied. For the sake of my mental health, I would interpret his remarks as a compliment.

“If you are done, rest on the bench. You look terribly unwell. I would rather you return to your room and spend some time in bed, but you did not bring enough retainers with you.”

By holing up with Ferdinand and assisting him with his work, I was giving my retainers a bit of a break. For as long as we stayed put, everyone but the few guards by the door could rest.

“You need sleep a lot more than I do,” I said.

“I do not have the luxury. There is too much I must prepare before we can drain the last of your mana. If all goes to plan, I will get a bell to rest before the circle’s activation. I should not need any more than that.”

I strongly disagree, but okay.

Ferdinand must not have slept a wink last night; he had dark bags under his eyes and a weary look on his face. Yet he continued to work, darting from one brew to the next even as our retainers took breaks. Given that he now had the royals under his thumb, he could easily have cast me aside and returned to Ehrenfest. Instead, he had chosen to bear these hardships with me.

“Ferdinand, why are you doing all this for me?” I asked.

“Come again?” He sounded genuinely bewildered, so I did my best to elaborate.

“You haven’t sworn undying and maddening loyalty to me like Hartmut. And when you gave me your name, it wasn’t to escape death like Matthias. You know I’d return it in a heartbeat, so why haven’t you asked for it back yet? I can’t grasp the meaning of you doing all these things for me.”

“The meaning?” Ferdinand seemed to ponder the question. “I chose to stay with you because we are like family. Is that not obvious?”

I didn’t know what to say. In what world would someone do all this for their family?

“But... isn’t that strange? My father, Karstedt, would do anything for Sylvester as the knight commander. And my brother Eckhart would do anything for you. But I can’t imagine either one of them going to such great lengths for my sake. I could see Mother or Cornelius getting involved to some extent, but they would still need to conform to the standards of noble society.”

No matter how much you cared about someone, your house and duchy came first. It was unthinkable that someone would pick a fight with the gods or give their name for the sake of another person.

“Besides,” I continued, “you put me under your protection all that time ago, didn’t you? That puts you even further from being my true family.”

Ferdinand grimaced. “Speaking of true family...”

“Yes?”

“No, never mind...” he said at length, shaking his head. He looked wounded.

“Um, Ferdinand...?”

“Having kept a close eye on the expenditure and recovery of your mana over the past few days, I can say this with all certainty: activating a magic circle that covers all of Alexandria will drain whatever remains of your mana. Go rest in your room. You no longer need to fear sleep.”

Ferdinand contacted the guards stationed outside, told them to summon Angelica, and rushed me out of the room.

He’s chasing me out?!

Though he looked calm, I could sense something bubbling beneath the surface. It wasn’t anger... Rejection, maybe? Hurt? In any case, I must have been to blame. My memories of him were completely intact... right? The more I thought about it, the more it felt like something important was missing.

Ferdinand turned on his heel, about to return to his hidden room. I wanted nothing more than to reach out and grab him—to ask what I’d done wrong—but instead just watched as he took his leave.

I squeezed my eyes shut as Angelica took me in her arms.

Once again, I awoke to the most wretched pain. I muttered a few curses at the divine power swelling in my chest, then asked Gretia to help me change. We would perform our large-scale healing immediately after dinner.

Time seemed to pass in an instant, and it wasn’t long before I arrived at the hall containing Alexandria’s foundation. Ferdinand was carrying me. We’d entered through a door in the aub’s room that only the aub’s key could open.

“I thought only the aub was supposed to come here...” I said.

“You are correct, but I cannot leave you on your own when we are about to drain your mana. I also hold the key we used to get here—the one I took from Detlinde. If not even that convinces you, then you would do well to remember that, at least in terms of mana, I am the current aub of Ahrensbach, not you.”

Indeed, that peculiarity and my divine power were the reason I couldn’t carry out my duties as aub. Only by performing our large-scale magic with the foundation as its center would we both drain my mana and redye me.

“Ferdinand, have you not considered taking the role of Aub Alexandria?” I asked, kneeling before the white branch that had already been put in place. “You could make the laboratory of your dreams.”

“There is no need. You have already agreed to make it for me, have you not?”

“Yes, but you could turn Alexandria into a city of research!” I exclaimed. “What happened to your ambition? Your desires? It feels like I’ve become the new Lord of Evil...”

“Is that so?” Ferdinand replied, his lips curling in a nefarious smirk. “My desires have a greater hold on me now than ever before.”

“Wait... Are you scheming to take over my city?! To bring all the books in the world to one place so you can add them to your collection?! How dastardly!”

“Do not project your own ridiculous desires on me.”

Huh? But... doesn’t everyone dream of conquering all the libraries in the world...?

“Ridiculous” or not, I wouldn’t be deterred. As one of my first acts as the new Aub Alexandria, I would ask Eglantine for transcriptions of everything being moved from the palace library to the Royal Academy.

“To achieve what I desire, I must first rid you of that divine mana,” Ferdinand said. “Let us begin.”

I realized then that he had made the last of our preparations while we spoke. I touched the plate-shaped feystone, which shone with rainbow light, and channeled my mana into it. Liquid rose from its surface until it resembled a water mirror.

The water stopped just before it could run over, and Erwaermen’s pure-white branch turned a rainbow of colors. Once it was fully dyed, a pillar of omni-elemental light shot up toward the ceiling.

That light should turn into a circle that covers all of Alexandria, but...

Inside the foundation’s hall, there was no way for us to check. Or so I thought. The water began to waver, and a view of the outside appeared on its surface. Had the light passed all the way through the castle?

“Ferdinand, this is—”

“Focus. The circle is not yet complete.”

“Right.”

The mirror went from showing a mass of nobles in the castle, raising and waving their schtappes, to the brightly lit Noble’s Quarter, the commoners’ lower city, and the pitch-dark ocean. The latter was only dark at first, of course; the rainbow light soon reached its surface, revealing an expanse of swaying waves.

I was starting to wonder how far the light would take us when it arrived at the border gate nearest to the country gate. Strahl and the other knights stationed there were gawking straight at us.

“They must see the magic circle being drawn in the sky...” Ferdinand mused. “Their expressions are rather foolish.”

“Were I in their shoes, I’d probably look even dumber.”

“Indeed.”

Could you at least pretend to disagree?

The water mirror passed the awestruck knights to show us Erwaermen’s branch sitting inside the border gate. Then it returned to the sky. The heat within me faded a little as the circle continued to stretch across Alexandria, draining more of my mana in the process.

“Where is it going this time?” I asked.

“To the Dunkelfelger border gate, most likely. It is closer than the others.”

Eckhart and several other guards were stationed there. Would we see them stare at us with funny looks on their faces? I certainly hoped so, but they weren’t the only ones at the gate; Dunkelfelger’s knights had rushed to the forefront of the group and were enthusiastically thrusting their fingers up at the sky. Eckhart was doing his best to stop them from touching Erwaermen’s branch.

Aah... Of all the gates, this one might be the hardest to protect. Godspeed, Eckhart.

I couldn’t help but laugh as the light moved on to the next gate. More of my mana was sucked out, and the hunger I was feeling transformed into starvation. My head started to spin.

“We must be approaching Old Werkestock,” I said, trying not to think about my health.

“Most likely. Laurenz and the others are protecting that branch. It will not be particularly exciting.”

“Can we expect to see knights from Old Werkestock?”

Ferdinand shook his head. “I closed the gate when placing Erwaermen’s branch. You will reopen it with Lord Trauerqual after the Archduke Conference, when he has been made the new Aub Werkestock.”

In hindsight, closing the gate made perfect sense. Some of Old Werkestock’s nobles had participated in the invasion of Ehrenfest, and those who had supported Georgine and Detlinde had gleefully obstructed Ferdinand while spreading unpleasant rumors about him.

Oh, it’s Laurenz.

He and several other knights were in a dark, barely lit room, standing in a protective circle around their branch of Erwaermen. As they looked up at us, their faces showed not jaw-dropping shock but admiration.

“No particularly embarrassing faces this time...” I sighed.

“The area around their gate has little in the way of obstructions. They must have an excellent view of the circle spreading across the sky.”

“Ah! One of the knights just started praying! I guess Hartmut’s lessons went a little too far...”

“They did not go far enough, in my opinion.”

No, no. This is plenty...

As soon as that thought crossed my mind, another branch appeared in the mirror, and the light returned to shooting through the sky. My mana was sucked out again, and the heat causing me so much discomfort vanished. It felt less like my fever had gone down and more like my mana was running so low that my body couldn’t produce any warmth at all.

But I can’t stop now.

We soon arrived at Frenbeltag’s border gate, where Matthias and some other guards were stationed. There were knights from Frenbeltag there too, but we weren’t welcomed with the same crazed enthusiasm we’d seen from Dunkelfelger. Instead, they stared up at the sky as if overwhelmed.

“That’s rare...” I said. “Matthias actually looks... proud.” Ever since the incident with his father, he’d spent his time frowning or wearing some other bitter, tortured expression.

“If you wish to see it become the norm, then become someone he can feel proud to serve.”

“Mm... That sounds tough. I don’t want him to be miserable, but I plan to devote all my time to overseeing my library and reading books. Um, all my time not spent carrying out my duties, of course.”

“Good grief...” Ferdinand uttered with a wry smile. “You never change, do you?” He turned to look at me, then took in a sharp breath. I was in such an awful state that not even he could mask his concern.

“We’re nearly done,” I said, stopping him when he reached out to check my temperature. Ehrenfest’s border gate was especially close to Frenbeltag’s, and it appeared in the water mirror before long. Cornelius was stationed there, to my understanding.

“Grandfather...?”

To my surprise, Bonifatius was at the gate. He had picked up Cornelius—an adult male and a knight at that—and was now swinging him about. It couldn’t have been as easy as he was making it look.

“I contacted Sylvester around noon,” Ferdinand explained, exasperated. “Bonifatius declared that he would watch our work from the border gate, since he was unable to attend the Royal Academy’s transference ceremony. I did not expect him to arrive in time. If nothing else, we were right to station Cornelius there; Bonifatius seems much too excited, and nobody else would have been able to contain him.”

I tried to laugh, but it came out as a scratchy croak. My dizziness got worse, and my breathing became so shallow that I actually had to focus on inhaling enough air. My hands and feet were going numb.

“Just a little longer, Rozemyne,” Ferdinand said. He was right beside me, but it sounded as though he were all the way on the other side of the room.

My vision blurred. We were in the final stretch. The light just needed to pass back over the dark waters and return to the castle. I tried to assure Ferdinand that I was fine, but my voice revealed the truth, and my hold on the feystone plate weakened.

“Rozemyne, lean against me if you must. Just keep your hands on the plate.”

Ferdinand sat beside me, placed a hand atop both of mine, and wrapped an arm around me as my body went limp. He was normally cold to the touch but now felt burning hot. My eyelids drooped, though I still clung to consciousness.

“O Goddess of Water Flutrane, bringer of healing and change. O twelve goddesses who serve by her side. Please hear my prayer and lend me your divine strength...”

Ferdinand started chanting a quick prayer. We must have completed the circle. I waited nervously for the divine power within me to respond, but nothing happened; I was almost completely out of mana. Though my body was cold and even moving was too much for me, relief spread through my heart when I realized it was finally over.

Ferdinand... The rest is in your hands.

As he continued to chant the prayer, the world around me faded into darkness.