Ascendance of a Bookworm (LN) - Volume Short Story-2 - Chapter 15

Lutz — Tuuli’s Worries

Description: A short story set during Part 5 Volume 4. Spring has arrived and the snow has just started to melt when Lutz is sent to the Gilberta Company. Ralph’s coming-of-age ceremony is on the horizon, and Tuuli fears he might recognize Myne.

Author’s Note: The idea for this story came to me when several readers asked whether those of the lower city were worried about Ralph’s coming-of-age ceremony. Rozemyne managed to avoid Zasha’s and Sieg’s ceremonies but couldn’t escape them all.

“Lutz, Master Benno wants to speak with you,” an apprentice told me. “Meet him in his office after lunch.”

“Right.”

Now that the snow had started to melt, I could once again travel between the temple and the store.

I’d spent the winter looking after Kamil, who seemed to have steeled his resolve to join the Plantin Company. He had visited a short while ago to study for becoming an apprentice merchant and was excited to potentially tour the workshop come spring. Master Benno appreciated his enthusiasm and had even muttered that he was glad not to have to worry about the Gilberta Company or the Merchant’s Guild nabbing him.

I rushed my lunch and went straight to Master Benno’s office. He must have returned to his work as soon as he’d finished eating. We would be intensely busy next season, so the more we prepared now, the better.

“Master Benno, it’s Lutz,” I called, knocking on his door. “You wanted to see me?”

Mark opened the door for me. I passed through and saw Master Benno, who was jotting the results of various calculations on his ledgers.

“Sorry to ask at such short notice, but could you go to the Gilberta Company?” Master Benno asked me. “Tuuli approached Corinna and Otto about something that was worrying her, and it seems they want your help. I’d go with you, but I’m far too busy. I’ll only head over if they absolutely need me.”

“Understood,” I said.

I grabbed a few things and set out, moving briskly down the snow-speckled streets. The Plantin and Gilberta Companies weren’t too far apart. It was warmer today than the day before, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t cold.

Still, spring is right around the corner.

The Gutenbergs’ trip, now a yearly occurrence, would come with the changing of the seasons. A lot had happened among us this past year: Heidi was pregnant with her second child, which meant she couldn’t come with us to Kirnberger, and Zack was getting married, so he wanted to send his disciple instead. There was plenty to worry about, such as whether Zack’s disciple was talented enough to accompany us and whether the other nobles would even agree to let him come, no matter what Myne thought.

That reminds me—won’t Myne be returning to the temple soon?

According to Gil, she was scheduled to come back after the feast held to celebrate spring. He hadn’t been in particularly high spirits when he’d told me, so I assumed we wouldn’t see her anytime soon. It was always obvious when Myne was around; Gil ended up in a great mood, and the better food passed down to the orphanage caused the gray priests to start looking forward to meals.

I wonder what Tuuli’s concerned about.

The Gilberta Company’s staff were also on their lunch break, and there was only one employee in front of the store. I went over to greet him.

“Oh, Leon. On lunch duty again? Master Benno asked me to stop by.”

“Long time no see, Lutz. I was told you were coming. Take the outside stairs.”

Leon was on watch today. He had taught me with the others way back when I was working for the Gilberta Company. I nodded and made my way up to the store’s second floor.

I used to rent the attic room here.

It certainly was nostalgic. Since my move to the second floor of the Plantin Company—where I now lived as an apprentice leherl—I’d thought I would never use these stairs again. I might have gotten a little too used to my current living arrangement, as I dreaded having to carry water all the way up to the sixth floor whenever I returned home.

I knocked on Mrs. Corinna’s door and relayed my business to the servingwoman who answered. She let me inside right away. The Gilberta Company’s leherls, who were relaxing on their break, all watched me as I removed my thick winter coat. Seeing their uniforms brought on another wave of nostalgia and reminded me just how far I’d come in my career.

“Master Benno asked me to visit you,” I explained once I was inside. “I was told you wanted to speak with me?”

“Is he not with you?” Mr. Otto asked.

“He told me he was too busy to come.”

“I see... I was hoping to hear his thoughts as well, but fair enough.” He got up out of his seat, and Tuuli did the same, though she looked strangely disappointed. “I don’t think it’s anything to worry about, but Tuuli was losing her head a little. Let’s move to the other room; this isn’t something we should discuss too openly.”

In other words, it had something to do with Myne. I suspected it was not about her noble persona but rather something from when she was in the lower city. That much should have been obvious from the moment I was chosen for this task instead of someone else from the Plantin Company.

Once we’d moved to another room, Mr. Otto urged me to take a seat. I sat down as a guest, and Tuuli poured tea for the three of us. She placed my cup with feminine grace, and it was then that I realized my hands had grown larger than hers.

I still sometimes went to the forest with the orphans, but Tuuli only ever worked inside, so her skin looked a lot paler than mine. She also had servants to do her chores, so her hands were largely unblemished—though the same was true for me. The scent of rinsham seemed to follow her around such that I doubted anyone who met her would assume she’d come from a poor family.

I’d never noticed all these things about her, since I usually saw her when we were both back home, and she tried not to stand out by wearing old clothes and speaking as she’d used to. Seeing her now, though, I realized she wasn’t anywhere near as clumsy as before. She fit right in as a member of the Gilberta Company—which explained why Mr. Otto had agreed to her visiting the castle when she came of age.

I wanna come of age too.

Age was the only area in which I couldn’t compete, which sucked. I continued to watch Tuuli, my head swimming with thoughts, until she eventually frowned at me.

“Um, Lutz... Is something the matter? Your staring is making me self-conscious...”

“Oh, it’s nothing. I was just thinking that you’re so fancy and elegant now.”

“R-Really?”

Tuuli sat next to me, looking a little embarrassed. Mr. Otto watched us with a slight grin on his face, though I couldn’t imagine why.

“So, Tuuli, what’re you worried about?” I asked. “It has something to do with Myne, I assume.”

“Mm-hmm. That’s right. Remember how I went home for winter this year? I made my dress with Mom—though I was making my hairpin on my own—and we started chatting about the coming-of-age ceremony. We were trying to decide whether I should go from home or from the Gilberta Company...”

Tuuli would come of age at the end of summer. Mrs. Effa had spent the winter making her the perfect dress, and Tuuli had come up with a design to suit it. They’d apparently had a lot of spare time on their hands this year, as they hadn’t received any urgent orders for the royal family.

Most people would count their blessings, but Tuuli said she actually felt bored not having Myne’s wacky shenanigans to deal with.

“And that was when it hit me—isn’t Ralph coming of age at the end of spring? I started wondering whether he’ll recognize Myne when she performs the ceremony. Now I can’t stop thinking about it.”

Myne had rarely ever gone outside, so even her neighbors had a hard time remembering her face. Ralph was different, though; he had spent a lot more time with her, owing to his closeness with Tuuli, and played a hand in making her recipes with the rest of us.

“I told her not to worry, but...” Mr. Otto shot Tuuli a look.

She pressed her lips together. “I mean... won’t it be really bad if he does recognize her?”

“It wouldn’t be great, but I doubt it’s even gonna come to that,” Mr. Otto said nonchalantly. “Nobody would remember the face of a kid they met maybe a few times a month around the time of their baptism. Aren’t you two the same way?”

I pondered the question.

Actually... I think I remember everyone.

As kids, we’d never had much reason to venture far from home. We’d spent most of our time with our neighbors and grown up alongside them. Only after our baptisms had we split up for apprentice work—and even then, it was rare to meet anyone from outside the city. We Gutenbergs were the odd ones for going from province to province.

And that’s why Johann still doesn’t have a single new patron.

Most customers came from spring till autumn, which was precisely when Johann was away for work. By this point, most people saw “Gutenberg” as a title for those who worked exclusively for Lady Rozemyne. She paid well, and working with the aub’s adopted daughter was great publicity for any workshop, but their repeated absences on long trips were inevitably bad for business.

“I remember everyone,” Tuuli said, snapping me out of my thoughts. “I wouldn’t forget a single person I grew up with—or anyone from the workshop I joined after my baptism.”

I voiced my agreement. It was common practice in the lower city to get work through your parents, and most people married within the same social circle, so you basically ended up knowing everyone around you. Growing up wouldn’t be enough to forget them.

“Mr. Otto, I think you only feel that way because you were a traveling merchant,” I said. “We’ve lived here our entire lives, and we remember almost everyone we’ve met.”

“Well, that’s interesting...” he mused aloud. “Was there anyone who passed away before your baptisms? If so, do you remember them?”

I thought back to everyone in our neighborhood who had passed away. Though some of their faces were fuzzy to me, not one of them had vanished from my mind. “Most of them were old, but I remember them all—even the kids who died when I was young.”

“But you remember them as they were at that age, don’t you? If you saw someone who looked like an older version of someone you knew had passed on, would you assume it was the same person? Surely not. Nobody in their right mind would immediately assume their death was a hoax.”

Myne was tiny to begin with, and she’d spent two years asleep, so she didn’t even look ten years old. Her appearance had changed considerably since her days as a commoner, and anyone who thought she might have faked her death would expect her to look on the cusp of coming of age. Her youth wasn’t strange to us, as we’d stayed in touch with her the entire time, but Ralph would find it much harder to piece everything together.

“Not to mention,” Otto continued, “the way Lady Rozemyne acts and dresses is completely distinct from anything we might have expected from little ol’ Myne back in the day. Would he really assume that some girl he once knew was behind all the blessings everyone in the city keeps raving about?”

I’d seen Myne give blessings in Haldenzel and Groschel, and yeah, she was barely even recognizable. But of course, the smug little grin she gave right after shattered the mystical, almost dreamlike feel of the moment.

“Not to mention, kicking up a fuss about the archduke’s adopted daughter being a commoner could easily be seen as sedition. Heck, if you think he might run his mouth, warn him in advance that they look pretty similar and that he shouldn’t say anything he might regret.”

“Lutz, would you do that for me?” Tuuli asked, genuinely worried.

I understood why she was so sensitive about Myne, though the thought of going home gave me pause. Our parents had more or less decided that Tuuli and I would get married, and Ralph gave me hell about it every chance he got. I would really much rather avoid him.

“I just really, really don’t want this to turn into a problem for Lady Rozemyne,” Tuuli continued, staring at me intently. She looked stunning, and that was coming from someone used to seeing noblewomen and rich merchant girls. I couldn’t blame Ralph for gasping and goggling when she returned home for winter.

Ralph might have dated a bunch of girls—in fact, he’s dating another as we speak—but Tuuli still means a lot to him.

Even though everything had changed, and they never met up or even spoke anymore, she had a special place in Ralph’s heart. It reminded me of the way that Myne still mattered to me, and the resemblance made me a little uncomfortable. Sieg told me it was normal for men whenever he saw Ralph on my case, which might have meant that he’d experienced the same thing.

“Okay,” I relented, “I’ll speak with Ralph the next time I go home. I’m going to be in Kirnberger during his ceremony. I don’t want anything to happen while I’m gone, so I’ll do what I can before then.”

“Thanks, Lutz. I appreciate it!”

Not much else I can do when Myne might be facing a problem.

I stood up with a sigh, which prompted Mr. Otto to shoot us both a wry smile. “You two really are alike, huh?” he said.

“How?”

“You both love Lady Rozemyne way too much.”

Myne was a frequent topic of conversation whenever we came together—the hairpins she ordered, the books she enjoyed, what we were printing... I wasn’t sure that I agreed with us loving her “way too much,” though.

I exchanged a glance with Tuuli. She looked as unconvinced as I felt, which told me we were on the same wavelength. I shrugged, she nodded, and we both rounded on Mr. Otto.

“Not nearly as much as you love Mrs. Corinna,” we said at exactly the same time.