Ascendance of a Bookworm (LN) - Volume Short Story-2 - Chapter 10

Gunther — Soldiers and Knights Gathering Intel

Description: A sales bonus story for Part 4 Volume 9 that takes place around the time Ehrenfest’s bible was stolen. It shows the incident in the temple from the perspective of Gunther, the commander of the north gate. Damuel and Angelica arrive at Rozemyne’s order, and the three gather what information they can in a bid to save the four kidnapped gray priests.

Author’s Note: Gunther’s attitude and enthusiasm make him a fun character to write. He has a growing relationship of trust with Damuel, who just keeps getting stronger, and works closely with him to protect his daughter. What a good dad.

“Hey. Gunther.”

I turned to look at Olis, my assistant. He was a competent guy who, for the price of five small silvers, kept things running at the gate when I escorted the temple’s priests to Hasse. I really did owe him a lot; if not for his hard work, there was a chance I wouldn’t have been able to reunite with Myne.

“Don’t tell me we’ve got another noble’s carriage at the north gate,” I said.

“That’s exactly it.”

“Gimme a break. The last one hasn’t even passed through!”

I groaned and, together with Olis, started making my way to the top of the gate, which would give us a good view of the entire city. The carriage houses between us and the temple’s front gate were especially helpful.

“The noble on board said there wasn’t anyone at the temple’s gate to let them through,” Olis groused. “No clue what’s going on. Shouldn’t there be guards stationed there at this time of year?”

I was just as confused. It was the time of year when nobles started showing up for winter socializing. They came from all over Ehrenfest, and many of them were weary and irritable by the time they reached our city. For that reason, the gate guards needed to be careful now more than ever. It was no time to just randomly disappear.

Had only one carriage not been able to pass through the gate, I might have assumed the noble was at fault, but this was our sixth complaint so far.

“So this is where you lot’ve been...” I said.

“We don’t wanna be anywhere near the knights or nobles.”

Two guards normally stood at the top of the gate, but right now, it was packed. Everyone had decided to evacuate here, it seemed.

I peeked out over the carriage houses below and spied two carriages being cleaned and mended. In cases where someone’s vehicle was in need of serious repairs, they could always switch it out or borrow a new one.

Under normal circumstances, noble carriages that entered the city would go straight to the carriage houses to be cleaned, then enter the Noble’s Quarter through the gate for nobles located past the temple’s front gate. The carriage houses were at their busiest in the height of summer and the end of autumn, when the most nobles were moving about. During other seasons, their patrons mostly comprised rich commoners.

“I see another carriage coming toward us,” I said. “Olis, should we tell the knights about it?”

“Yeah. If we wait too long and they start getting bombarded with questions, they’re bound to lash out at us in turn.”

Most of the carriages that passed through the north gate contained commoners with business in the Noble’s Quarter. As it stood, though, we were also having to deal with noble carriages that found themselves blocked at the temple’s front gate. The problem had persisted all afternoon.

“The heck is going on at the temple?”

When the first carriage had come to our gate, insisting that no guards were stationed at the temple, we soldiers had tried to go there to see for ourselves. The knights had stopped us, though; they had thought it might be a trick and assured us that we should stick to our posts.

The north gate was unique in that it had several knights among those overseeing it. Mere soldiers couldn’t act against their orders, so we’d elected to leave all this noble business to them. It can’t have helped that the nobles were in the worst mood—they’d traveled all this way to be denied entry at the temple, then treated with suspicion and subjected to an extra inspection upon coming to the north gate instead. We’d considered it wise to distance ourselves from both parties.

Meanwhile, I wanna run straight to the temple and make sure Myne’s alright!

“Commander, I think it’s about time we go check on the temple,” Leckle said.

“D’you think it’s safe?”

“Only a fool would assume there isn’t something strange going on there.”

Spurred into action by Leckle, I went downstairs to report that another carriage was headed toward us and to request permission to investigate the temple. Uncooperative nobles were explosively outraged with the knights.

“I did not come here by choice,” the most furious of the nobles said. “The temple gate being closed meant this was my only option. If you oppose my being here, then allow me to pass already!”

“A check is necessary for you to pass through the north gate,” one of the knights replied. “The four carriages before yours all agreed to our inspection. Even a giebe must cooperate.”

Truth be told, I thought there were plenty of reasonable solutions to the whole predicament: the frustrated nobles could always enter the temple from the lower city to ask about the absent gatekeepers, wait in the lower city until the guards returned, or simply comply with the knights’ inspections. But of course, nobles would never use a gate meant for commoners, they viewed questioning the gray priests as beneath them, they refused to wait somewhere as “disgusting” as the lower city, and they sincerely thought the knights’ precautions were an act of unthinkable insolence.

I get that using the gate for commoners is embarrassing and all, but c’mon... This is such a pain.

“Sir Knight,” I called.

“What now?” He turned and shot me an irritated glare, but I wasn’t about to back down.

“There’s another carriage on the way. May I receive permission to go to the temple and investigate the cause of this disturbance?”

The knight shouted at me to drop the subject at the same time that the noble told me to quit slacking and go already. The latter glared at the former, and an awkward silence hung over the pair. I assumed the noble had the higher status because the knight soon apologized.

“I would not have come to this commoner gate if my usual means of entry were available to me,” the noble said. “You. Soldier. Go to the temple and drag out the guards. I shall prepare to return to its gate.”

“Understood,” I said. “I will go to the temple, inform them of the problem, and request that replacement guards be stationed at the gate.”

Having at last secured the excuse I needed, I darted past the bitter knights and nobles and sprinted toward the temple. I ran past the carriages and checked that the temple’s front gate really was closed. Then I rushed to the gate on the lower city’s side.

“Ah! There you are!”

I spotted gray priests right by the temple’s gate. They must have stepped away for a moment on some unexpected business. It probably had something to do with unreasonable nobles—I was well aware of how they treated commoners and priests.

“Hey!” I called. “We’ve been told there weren’t guards stationed at the gate. What happened?”

I recognized almost everyone from the orphanage thanks to my time spent helping them visit the forest and prepare for winter, not to mention my trips to Hasse. They weren’t used to loud voices or violence, so I did my best to speak calmly.

“Ah, Master Gunther,” one of the gray priests said. “The previous guards were absent when we came to relieve them of their post. That’s all we know...”

The priests had just arrived, and they seemed just as confused as we were; asking them more questions would only be a waste of time. I decided to get right outta there.

“I don’t blame you, but we’ve got some angry nobles stuck at the north gate because of all this,” I explained. “Get ready for two of their carriages to arrive back-to-back.”

“We apologize for the trouble...”

I turned on my heel and ran to the north gate, where I told the driver of the frontmost noble carriage that the temple’s guards were back. He must have been pretty worn down by all the arguing at the gate because he headed straight to the temple, looking relieved.

Whew. Glad that’s all settled.

I took a breather in the north gate’s break room, thankful that nothing major had gone wrong. The temple was Myne’s home, in a way. I didn’t want any trouble there; something out of the ordinary could easily have snowballed.

We had just resumed our usual business when Olis burst into the room. “Gunther, knights that came by highbeast are calling for you!” I raced up the stairs without a second thought; it must have been urgent for them to have asked for me instead of the other knights.

“Lord Damuel, Lady Angelica.”

I recognized the knights who had summoned me: they were Myne’s guards. Lord Damuel had been with Myne since she was an apprentice blue shrine maiden; he’d walked her home from the temple and even fought a noble from another duchy to keep her safe. He was still protecting her now that she was Lady Rozemyne, and we’d spoken during our trip to Hasse. As for Lady Angelica, though I’d seen her at Hasse’s monastery and at Myne’s side, I’d never actually interacted with her. I only knew her name because Myne had used it.

In truth, I was a little relieved to recognize the pair. They weren’t the kind of people to give unreasonable demands. At the same time, though, I straightened my back—Lady Rozemyne’s guard knights had come here for a reason.

“Has something happened with Lady Rozemyne?” I asked.

“Good insight,” Lord Damuel replied. “Angelica, activate Stenluke.”

“Right!”

Lady Angelica placed a hand on her sword, and a bolt of tension shot through me. As a soldier, I wouldn’t stand a chance against her. I put my hands together to resist the impulse to draw my own weapon, but to my surprise, her blade remained at her waist; she kept her hand on its hilt and declared that she was ready. I didn’t know what for, but Lord Damuel nodded and began his explanation.

“Earlier today, when Lady Rozemyne and Lord Ferdinand were both absent, four guards were kidnapped from the temple’s gate. The perpetrators’ objective seems to have been to infiltrate the High Bishop’s quarters. We found traces of their presence. Lord Ferdinand predicts it was the work of nobles convinced that nobody would notice the disappearance of a few gray priests.”

I clenched my fists and swallowed a shout. It never ended. Nobles were putting Myne in danger again. Lord Damuel must have noticed my grimace because an extremely slight smile reached his gray eyes.

“Worry not,” he said. “Nothing happened to Lady Rozemyne.”

I was deeply relieved to hear that Myne wasn’t hurt.

“We request your aid in rescuing the four priests and locating those who disturbed the High Bishop’s chambers,” Lord Damuel continued. “Your orders are to mobilize the lower city’s forces, gather eyewitness accounts, and bring us any information you can find on suspicious carriages or wagons.”

Lord Damuel then made a cutting motion with his hand, which prompted Lady Angelica to release her sword. I thought that was strange, but he spoke again before I could think much about it.

“Gunther, Lady Rozemyne said that you would act quickly upon learning of our situation. I trust you will do her proud.”

Myne had so many high-status nobles in her guard, but still, she was counting on me. She thought we soldiers were better suited to the task of gathering this intel.

And what kinda father would I be if I didn’t prove her right?!

“Noble carriages started coming to the north gate after fourth bell, each reporting the lack of guards at the temple’s gate,” I said. “We allowed four through the north gate, and two returned to the temple’s gate when the change of guards arrived. There were no suspicious elements within said carriages.”

“And the carriages that entered the city in general...?”

“We would need to contact the other gates.”

I didn’t want to repeat our mistake of letting a noble from another duchy into the city. It was my duty as Myne’s father to get rid of any criminals who might pose a threat to her. At the very least, I needed to live up to my daughter’s expectations, so I turned from Lord Damuel to Olis.

“Olis! You heard all that, right? Split everyone into teams and gather any eyewitness reports you can on suspicious carriages that might have been carrying four gray priests. Leckle! We need to narrow down when the priests were taken. Speak with those who worked the morning shift. Check with the carriage houses and ask about the last carriage they saw going to the temple’s front gate. Come to the central meeting room when you’re done!”

“Yes, sir!”

I watched the soldiers speedily disperse before turning back to Lord Damuel. “I shall circle the gates and use my authority as commander to order those stationed there to assist us.”

“Let us take care of that; our highbeasts travel much faster than you can run. Angelica, is using Stenluke an option?”

“I’ll try.”

Again, Lady Angelica touched the hilt of her sword. I almost grabbed my own weapon in response, but then her blade began to speak. It repeated Lord Damuel’s explanation word for word.

What in the...?

Had that sword really spoken? And in the High Priest’s voice, of all things? Lord Damuel said it would do a fine job of bringing the other gates up to speed, and Lady Angelica nodded in agreement, declaring that she would leave the explaining to Stenluke. I wasn’t so sure about their plan; I was better accustomed to magic tools than most soldiers, but even I couldn’t believe what was happening.

Does he really wanna let her loose like that?! The others are gonna fall over themselves!

“Alright, Angelica—you take the west gate. I’ll go to the east one. We can reunite at the south.”

“Wait a moment!” I cried. “Please bring me with you. If an unfamiliar knight shows up and suddenly moves to draw her sword, the soldiers will be too shocked to listen.”

Lord Damuel paused as if contemplating something. “Would they not know us from Spring Prayer and the Harvest Festival?”

“Only a small portion of the soldiers accompany Lady Rozemyne to Hasse. Not every commander will recognize you as I do.”

I only knew Lord Damuel because he’d once kept Myne safe on her way home from the temple and because we’d fought together against a noble from another duchy. He and Lady Angelica weren’t known widely enough for an average soldier to see them and think, “Ah, they’re Lady Rozemyne’s guard knights.”

“In that case, let us use this opportunity to introduce ourselves. Gunther, if you would.”

“Understood.”

I was allowed to ride with Lord Damuel on his highbeast. He took us from the north gate to the top of the east gate, which was closer to us than the others. I wished Effa could have seen me, or maybe that Lord Damuel had brought Myne with him—never in my life had I looked more like a genuine knight. Still, I pushed those feelings down and gave stern instructions to the first guard we came across.

“I am Gunther, commander of the north gate. I’m here with orders from the High Bishop. Assemble the east gate’s commander and captains.”

“Yes, sir!”

The guard was shocked to see the knights’ highbeasts but ran off without another word. He was going to call for his commander in exactly the same way that Olis had called for me. I soon heard footsteps racing up the stairs.

“Please meet Lord Damuel and Lady Angelica, knights serving as High Bishop Lady Rozemyne’s personal guards,” I said. “They might visit again in cases when the High Bishop needs the soldiers’ aid.”

“Thank you for introducing them,” the east gate’s commander told me. He must’ve guessed that I was here purely for that reason. I nodded in response, at which point he knelt before the two nobles.

Lord Damuel explained the situation and conveyed Lady Rozemyne’s orders. I waited for him to finish, then reiterated the importance of speaking to the soldiers who’d worked the morning shift.

Six carriages marked with noble crests have passed through the east gate today—and none were suspicious, huh?

“Once you’ve learned what you can,” I said, “come to the central meeting room for a briefing between commanders.”

Our next destination was the south gate. As soon as we explained ourselves, the commander told us about a suspicious horse-drawn wagon.

“The guards on duty heard bumping coming from the back. They ordered the driver to show them his cargo, but he flashed a noble ring and continued on his way.”

The commander then turned to one of the captains, who nodded in support. “I was there,” he said. “The wagon was crestless, and though the noble’s ring wasn’t large enough for us to make out any details, it was real without a doubt. Rather than a bead, it bore a vivid gemstone that swayed with color. Some of us wondered whether it was stolen.”

That really was suspicious. I exchanged a look with Lord Damuel.

“Do you know where that wagon came from?” he asked.

“Not exactly, but it came to the gate from Craftsman’s Alley.”

“Can you tell us when you saw it?”

“Hmm... It’s been about as long as an apprentice’s study session.”

Lord Damuel furrowed his brow, unsure what the commander meant. I couldn’t expect a knight to understand a soldier’s way of speaking.

“He means as long as a child could study without getting bored,” I noted. “In other words, he saw the wagon very recently.”

“What?!”

“Damuel, should we go?” Lady Angelica asked, stepping forward without missing a beat and uttering her first words since we’d arrived. She looked ready to leave in an instant, but Lord Damuel quickly intervened.

“No, Angelica!” he barked. “We were ordered to gather intelligence! We should start our pursuit only once we’ve followed Lady Rozemyne’s instructions.”

“Understood,” Lady Angelica replied. She lowered her shoulders in disappointment but kept her blue eyes sharply focused on the land past the south gate. I’d never expected a noblewoman to exude the air of a deadly fighter. Still, her devotion to rescuing the gray priests at Myne’s orders meant a lot to me.

Normally, a noble wouldn’t even think about saving people from the temple.

I wanted to do everything I could to help Lord Damuel and Lady Angelica. Myne’s orders played a huge part in that, of course, but it was also true that the two knights in front of me were far better equipped to rescue the kidnapped priests. We soldiers couldn’t soar through the air, for one thing. The pair also refused to look down on commoners or gray priests, which was something I respected them for.

If my aim was to be useful, then the best thing I could do was ensure the information we’d gathered got to Myne as quickly as possible.

“Hmm... No noble carriages came through the south gate. Check for more eyewitness reports of them or of any suspicious wagons. We’re to gather in the central meeting room once we’re done. For now... let’s leave the rest to the soldiers here and make for the west gate.”

We repeated our explanation at the west gate. One of the captains looked up with a start and raised a hand.

“The soldiers on the morning shift saw a suspicious carriage.”

“Really?”

“Yes, before third bell. It was the sort of plain carriage a rich commoner would use, but it was being driven by the kind of arrogant attendants who usually serve nobles.”

In short, the carriage had contained nobles acting as commoners. There were telltale signs, no matter how much they might have looked the part.

“That must be the carriage we’re looking for,” Lord Damuel said. “It aligns with the intel we gathered from the south gate.”

“Bring the soldiers who worked the morning shift when you come to the central meeting room,” I said. “For good measure, check to see if anyone else saw our target. Can I ask how many other noble carriages came through here?”

“Four today. None were suspicious.”

Once I’d given out a few instructions and performed the bare minimum of my checks, I returned my attention to the knights. “Lord Damuel, Lady Angelica, I would ask that you consider going back to the temple while we continue the investigation. It might be best to consult Lady Rozemyne, then chase the wagon from the south gate.”

“Indeed, that might be wise,” Lord Damuel said, “but we gathered more information than expected with a single sweep. We might learn even more valuable intel if we stay a bit longer.”

Lord Damuel was a cautious man, it seemed—he wanted as much information as he could get before returning to his charge. He was a noble, but I still remembered seeing him when he was only a youngster; the look on his face had told me he was a devoted knight dedicated to protecting Myne. That was why I felt comfortable voicing my thoughts.

“I must stress that the suspicious wagon is getting farther away as we speak. The longer we wait, the greater the risk that we won’t find it. I will deliver our intelligence to the temple myself, if necessary. I ask only that the gray priests are rescued as soon as possible. Lady Rozemyne will be devastated if we lose them.”

“Well put,” Lord Damuel said, then leapt onto his highbeast without questioning me in the slightest. As always, he took even a commoner’s warning with the utmost seriousness. He might have grown older, but his personality and mindset had stayed the same.

“Gunther, I entrust the work here to you,” he declared. “Angelica, let us depart.”

“Understood!”

I ran around town, coordinated with merchants who were also gathering information, and learned what I could about the suspicious carriage. Then I took my findings to the temple as the soldiers’ representative. I wasn’t fortunate enough to see Myne, but Gil informed me that the priests had been rescued without incident.

“As I understand it, the High Priest was shocked that commoners could gather so much intel,” Gil told me, mentioning some of what he’d heard from the equally surprised noble retainers speaking in the High Bishop’s chambers.

One of the rescued priests stepped forward. “We were told that we were only able to be saved because of the information gathered from the gates. It was your support, Master Gunther, that spurred the soldiers to provide their aid. Please allow us to express our gratitude.”

“We did not think anyone would go to such lengths to rescue gray priests such as ourselves,” said another. He and the others wore expressions of cheerful reassurance. Their smiles made me proud to have helped them.

Aah... Myne really is doing a fine job.

Her voice and our promise suddenly rang through my mind: “I’ll always be your daughter. I’ll protect this city, and you, and everyone.” The sight before me was proof that Myne was keeping her promise and working hard as both the High Bishop and the orphanage director. My little girl who had once trembled in fear at the thought of spending winter in the temple had grown enough to lead her retainers in a charge to rescue the kidnapped gray priests.

That’s my daughter for you.

For some reason, seeing the priests so elated brought a tear to my eye.