Chatper 1: Falling apart
“I am leaving Lady Rozemyne in your care,” my assigned knight said to Damuel with a noble smile.
She looked quite relieved to be finally standing at the exit from the temple’s main building, since the female portion of the Dedication Ritual was over.
The evident change in her expression made me feel a bit down. My scheme wasn’t working as well as I had intended.
I couldn’t wrap my mind around it. Both Elvira and Cornelius had visited in the past. They might have had their reservations before coming, but once they witnessed for themselves that nothing bad had been occurring, they seemed fine. Elvira even voiced her surprise at the state of the temple.
Meanwhile, the two knights, whom Florencia had assigned to me and Charlotte, had seemed quite uncomfortable whenever we had interacted with my temple attendants. Despite seeing everything firsthand, they just wanted to leave posthaste, before the men started their portion of the ritual.
Even now, as Damuel was taking over as my guard knight, his female counterpart once again advised me to return to the castle just like Charlotte.
“I thank you ever so much for your service,” I sent her on her way with a noble smile of my own.
Sorry, but I would rather spend as much time here as I can.
With Damuel at my side, I could immediately relax my noble act. In the castle, my every word could have caused all sorts of long-lasting ramifications, creating problems for everyone around me. Not to mention, I had to be constantly aware of all those potentially dangerous nobles who might want to cause us harm or exploit my every weakness.
In contrast, here, we had a relaxing girls’ talk in the ritual chamber today. Mila came up with that wacky water gun of hers… Really, a toy gun for a weapon? I could only shake my head. At least make it look tough, like a real gun. And the biggest issue in the High Bishop’s chambers had been Tia struggling with letters. No far-reaching political implications, no factional problems, and no issues with public appearances.
I can just go back to my room and read in peace until Ferdinand finishes with his group. I smiled. “It’s good to be back home.”
Damuel nodded coolly, and we walked back to the High Bishop’s chambers.
Time flew by quickly as I leisurely read through the bible. Soon enough, Ferdinand arrived, accompanied by Eckhart. The latter stopped by the door, while the former marched straight towards me.
“Why have you filled so many chalices in a single session?” Ferdinand complained, immediately after sitting down and handing me a sound-blocker.
Is that a problem? His tone made me quite unsure about myself.
“Just so you know: I went really lightly, to not make it too taxing for Charlotte.” I smiled, pointing at my great restraint. “This year, it was just so much easier.”
We hadn’t overexerted ourselves. I might have temporarily lost control of my enhancement tools, but no one else had looked sick or tired.
Though, Ferdinand didn’t seem to appreciate my explanation. “I’m not talking about the strain. When you involve other archduke candidates, and then split the offering into separate events, the amount of mana offered becomes a political statement,” he explained with an admonishing voice.
“What? But you are an archduke candidate, and we already did it separately.”
This was definitely not my fault.
“I don’t compete against you for any seat, nor did I recently make any promises regarding the printing industry to any faction. And more importantly, back then, we didn’t do it in a single day. Thus, we avoided displaying the difference as so obvious that even the blue priests would comment on it,” he continued with the complaints.
“So you finished your whole portion as well?” I asked with a thin smile, shrinking in my seat.
“Yes.” Ferdinand nodded slightly. “Wilfried was a bit tired afterwards, but that’s just the price of him needing to cater to your whims.”
Sorry.
I couldn’t properly escape the constant expectations even in the temple. It was maddening.
Maybe next year, we put all archduke candidates together? I scratched the back of my head.
Every combination seemed to cause its own set of issues.
“Have you informed Mila?” Ferdinand wondered.
“Yes, she should arrive soon. She even produced a new weapon for you to see.”
It was a blatant attempt to steer the conversation away from my blunder, but I was pretty sure Mila had intended to use it as a diversion in the first place, so it wasn’t like I used the topic incorrectly.
“New weapon, you say?” Ferdinand remarked, scratching his chin.
“Right,” I nodded with a big smile.
I knew it. The mention of a new invention had piqued his interest.
“Does it have something to do with that tool for the playroom, the one that produces shapes similarly to the highbeast modeling?” he inquired.
The gray tool?
“I don’t know,” I shrugged.
Despite having read multiple books on the subject, my understanding of magic tools was hazy. It didn’t help that Ferdinand was giving me those books based on their intended reading time rather than the correct order for teaching the subject. Not that I complained about thicker books. He had my complete approval if it meant more reading material for me.
“Was that tool not how she makes her knife?” Ferdinand asked absentmindedly.
“I don’t know,” I shrugged again. “Is there something special about her knife?”
“It’s of no consequence.” Ferdinand waved his hand dismissively. “If you are interested in the knife, you can ask about it yourself.”
Wait, what? I’m interested? I wanted to use it to distract you! His dismissal confused me a lot.
As I was searching for a different distraction to save me from the lecture, Mila arrived with her attendant Iri. She received a sound-blocking tool as well and sat down with us. A small sigh escaped her.
I know the feeling. I smiled in support.
It was never fun being summoned for lectures.
“All the first years are bound to become honor students, with the archnobles and mednobles even passing every class on their first day,” Ferdinand summed up dryly. “Care to explain?”
“I wanted to avoid the bizarre occurrence of a sole mednoble passing everything ahead of everyone. This way, the archnobles are not outdone by someone of lower status.” Mila shrugged.
“You realize that there are archnobles and archduke candidates in other duchies too?” Ferdinand replied with a deadpan expression.
“Hey, I wanted to tone it down for schtappe fundamentals, but when I tried to coordinate with Charlotte’s scholar, Marianne, she got mad at me for lowering my efforts to match her, and forbade me from holding back. I couldn’t exactly disobey an order from a noble of higher status.” Mila turned her hands upside down.
“Certainly,” Ferdinand kept with his deadpan expression. “You are known for never challenging higher status.”
“I mean, I admit, it wasn’t like I wanted to disregard her order anyway,” Mila replied with a nonchalant demeanor.
Seeing her respond so honestly, I was taken aback. She really was brave. From memory, whenever I messed up something and awaited a lecture, I always just wanted to sweep it under the rug.
“And I presume you understand all the consequences of such a display on a country-wide stage.” Ferdinand eyed her closely.
“Our rank might improve, and we will be treated better?” Mila smiled weakly.
And the bravery was gone.
Ferdinand sighed. “Why did I ever expect you to think unlike Rozemyne?”
I didn’t appreciate how he was using me as a metric for thoughtlessness. Not to mention, wasn’t this a good thing? We worked so hard in the playroom exactly so our grades and rank would rise. I wanted someone to say it out loud, though, with my recent socializing blunders, I didn’t dare.
Mila remained silent too. Her face looked like she wanted to disagree, but apparently, she also didn’t want to argue. Instead, her head lowered. “I would also like to apologize for my interaction with Dunkelfelger. I generally try to avoid all archduke candidates, but the situation with them got messy.”
“Yes, the knights from Dunkelfelger always bring trouble,” Ferdinand grumbled with a small nod.
Mila stared at him with wide eyes.
What’s the problem? I was confused by her reaction, since it didn’t look like he wanted to chastise her for that.
“What’s with the surprised look?” Ferdinand seemed to notice as well.
“Apologies, again. I don’t want this to sound like a jab, but I didn’t expect you to be this reasonable about it,” Mila replied with a confused expression.
Ferdinand’s brows furrowed slightly. It seemed like he didn’t know how to respond.
“I just thought I would be berated for interactions with nobles from other duchies, even though they came to us because of those commoner rumors, which was outside of my control.” Mila’s eyes slowly shifted towards me.
Wait, will I be berated in the future? I didn’t like that prediction at all. After all, I planned to hide in the library, away from any potential trouble.
“I see that the Rozemyne in your version of the future was just as successful in her socializing as the one with us.” Ferdinand massaged his temple before looking at me. “We will add more etiquette training.”
But my reading time! I didn’t do anything! I looked at him pleadingly.
It was pretty unfair to be stared at for something a completely different Rozemyne had done. Why was I the one being punished? I had spent barely any time in the castle’s book room, and now it looked like it would diminish even more. This must have been a tragic misunderstanding.
“Regardless,” Ferdinand turned to Mila, “You once again expect specific outcomes without the original cause. I don’t berate Rozemyne for situations outside of her control. I berate her for her very own actions that cause such out-of-control situations.”
My shoulders slumped. It was probably fair.
“The messages I received from the Academy relayed your efforts to de-escalate both the interaction with Dunkelfelger knights and your socializing with nobles from Klassenberg,” Ferdinand divulged.
Good job, Cornelius. I was giving his efforts a hidden thumbs-up.
“I am grateful,” Mila replied with a sigh of relief.
However, it was quite short-lived.
“I don’t need to point at circumstances outside of your control. You caused plenty of problems by yourself.” Ferdinand stared her down.
“What?” Mila looked at him confused. “But I can’t think of anything else noteworthy besides that.”
“Oh, really?” Ferdinand asked knowingly. “What about the need for an Entwickeln for the lower city? That isn’t some future knowledge but a mere fact of the present. Yet, you withheld it for years.”
“Apologies.” Mila lowered her head. “I already explained it to Sylvester. A healthy Rozemyne is much more beneficial to the duchy.”
I nodded firmly in support before Mila continued.
“And it is not like there is a rush. Rozemyne’s trends will be spread next winter, after her enrollment, and any possible trade deals will be signed in the subsequent spring, during the Archduke Conference. The foreign merchants should come in summer; that’s like a year and a half in the future.”
“In all your unending wisdom, have you also accounted for the mana requirement for the ritual in Haldenzel?” Ferdinand crossed his arms.
Mila froze. “I… I was not aware that you had decided to hold it this year.”
As she was saying that, she was slowly shrinking in her chair.
“Do you expect the aub to schedule his administrative decisions to accommodate your own plans?” Ferdinand asked coldly.
“No, not at all. I’m sorry. If you need any mana for the ritual, I will supply as much as I can,” Mila offered hastily.
“No,” Ferdinand retorted. “You are barred from entering Haldenzel for the whole duration of spring. If the giebe asks you to attend, tell him your route doesn’t allow for such an arrangement. There are multiple political factors in play around the whole ritual. I don’t want you to interfere.”
Mila nodded silently, staring down at the floor.
“Alright.” Ferdinand nodded as well. “You will have plenty of work establishing the printing industry in Groschel and Leisegang.”
“What? Why two provinces?” Mila frowned a bit. “What’s the rush?”
Ferdinand turned my way slowly, which caused Mila to look as well. I didn’t like how the focus of lecturing suddenly shifted in my direction.
“Isn’t this great?” I smiled tensely. “We will get so many more books.”
They didn’t seem impressed.
I need a diversion, fast. “Ehm, oh, Mila, is your knife based on the same principle as that gray shaping tool in the playroom?”
Mila raised her eyebrow at my obvious attempt to escape this topic. Yeah, my mind had gone blank there.
Though, she still humored me. “No, I prayed to Geduldh to receive it.”
“You asked a goddess associated with compassion and warmth of one’s home to give you a knife?” Ferdinand muttered with a confused frown. “That doesn’t make any sense.”
“I mean, she is the Goddess of Earth, and to make a knife, you need to dig metal from the ground, no?” Mila shrugged.
“Seems right.” I shrugged as well.
“No, that’s not how magic works. You don’t use Geduldh when you want to construct weapons,” Ferdinand retorted with an exasperated voice.
“I didn’t construct a magic tool, I prayed for one,” Mila replied, though her voice was a bit unsure.
“Prayers don’t give you tools. You need a schtappe to transform it,” Ferdinand kept complaining.
“Rozemyne prayed to get Schutzaria’s shield.” Mila pointed my way.
Is that weird? I looked at Ferdinand.
“That’s not how…” He massaged his temple. “Show me the knife!”
Mila produced a knife in her hand. Eckhart and Damuel twitched.
Right, they can’t hear us. For a split second, it looked really scary. Especially Eckhart’s focused expression. I straightened my back, trying to look completely non-threatening.
“You didn’t use any incantation. So why do you compare it to Schutzaria’s shield?” Ferdinand complained.
“I didn’t say it’s the same principle; I just objected to the notion that you cannot produce tools with a prayer,” Mila insisted.
Ferdinand stared at her for a while. I would have already folded under such intensity, but Mila just kept her neutral expression. It was really impressive.
“How are you producing it without an incantation?” Ferdinand asked eventually. “It shouldn’t be possible even with a schtappe, and you produced those tools before acquiring one.”
“How do you produce arrows when firing from a bow?” Mila asked innocuously.
“That’s not… that’s just a part of the schtappe transformation. The weapon is already formed…” Ferdinand’s mind froze once again as he murmured in deep thought. “Is it possible you have never reverted the tool?”
“Maybe, I don’t know,” Mila shrugged.
Was she actually able to follow those incoherent murmurs?
“I don’t follow.” I raised my hand.
Mila gave me a supportive smile. “Let’s say I shrink the knife and hide it out of sight.” Her knife shrank to a cute tiny-knife version, which she hid between two of her fingers. “Just because no one can see it, it doesn’t mean it’s gone. Or, at least, that might be one of the explanations. It’s not like I can feel some tiny bit of metal on my body when I disappear the knife.”
“So you yourself have no idea how it works!” Ferdinand uttered with a cranky voice.
Is he sulking?
His eyes glanced at me for a moment. I immediately widened my smile, trying to act nonchalant without showing any of my thoughts.
“Is this something you copied from Rozemyne?” he asked after a small pause.
“Nope, it’s my own thing. I was trying to transform my mana without a schtappe for a very long time, though without any success. When trying to shape my mana into a pen, I even burned my own hand. After that failure, I prayed for help from Flutrane and Geduldh, and tadaaa, a pen.” Mila produced a pen in her right hand.
“Flutrane because of…?” Ferdinand narrowed his eyes.
“Well, ink is liquid, sooo…”
Ferdinand placed his hand on his face and sighed. It seemed like the logic behind the process was giving him a headache.
“I did bring a proper schtappe transformation, which is Rozemyne’s invention.” Mila tried to cheer him up by producing her schtappe. “Water gun.”
Once again, she was holding her toy gun made from green, transparent plastic.
“What kind of weapon is that?” Ferdinand looked over it with great interest.
With that, we had finally achieved derailing the whole lecture. Ferdinand was fully absorbed in his mad scientist work, as Mila explained the inner workings of the gun, comparing it to the design of the hand pumps. I was relieved.
Once Ferdinand seemed satisfied with the explanation, he turned off the sound-blocker. “Eckhart, produce your shield!”
Damuel reflexively stepped away from Eckhart.
After the target seemed ready, Ferdinand prompted Mila to shoot her weapon. Consequently, dozens of small spikes hit the shield, producing multiple mana explosions. I didn’t expect such a strong impact. It spooked me so much that I covered my ears. My temple attendants took a step back.
Ferdinand was completely unperturbed, muttering something under his breath. I wanted to yell at him for ordering such a demonstration inside my own chambers.
I expected a shot, like from a gun, but that’s more like a big shotgun! It reminded me of the barrage of arrows from Ferdinand’s bow during the trombe extermination.
“Annoyingly, it is too mana-intensive. Only Rozemyne and you can use it freely,” Mila complained.
“You expected otherwise, I presume.” Ferdinand looked at her knowingly.
“Of course, I did,” Mila grumbled. “I wanted proper self-defense, not stressing out about my mana pool every time I miss.” She pressed her lips into a pout.
“Water gun,” Ferdinand chanted and produced his own green toy gun.
“Nooo!” I shot up. “At least make it black and opaque so it looks cool. This toy is silly,” I protested.
His serious pose as he held a toy was just too jarring to look at. Ferdinand shook his head dismissively. Though, thankfully, he changed the look to a proper gun. With a black weapon in his hand, he shot at Eckhart’s shield as well.
“Yes, the upkeep is ridiculous. But it frees one hand when compared to the bow. A fascinating design,” Ferdinand nodded to himself, before turning on the sound-blocker. “What did you mess up to require coming up with this kind of bribe?”
I froze up. He knows! I thought he had forgotten about the lecture. If he realized this with Mila, it was certain that he was aware of my attempts as well. I wanted to bury myself.
Though, Mila just shrugged. “I was only worried about the news of Dunkelfelger’s archduke candidate showing up for that practice match. No public issues besides that.”
It must have been true. Compared to her tense smile at the beginning, she seemed much more relaxed.
“Really? Children of the former Veronica faction contacting nobles from Ahrensbach; students conducting a healing ritual in the gathering spot; Rozemyne receiving gratitude for lending a divine instrument from the temple. You can’t think of even one?” Ferdinand asked teasingly.
However, Mila was still unperturbed. I was genuinely impressed that she didn’t waver. “Yep, none of those are blunders on my part. I asked the children to gather intelligence, not to foster relations. Considering the threat from there, it is very unwise to know nothing about their internal situation.”
“And how do you know it’s not the reverse, with them divulging secrets to Ahrensbach?” Ferdinand asked suspiciously.
“I asked only a select few,” Mila replied confidently.
“Right, Giebe Gerlach’s son, am I correct?” Ferdinand sneered.
It made Mila sigh. “Correct. I understand it might sound silly, almost like trusting Veronica’s son.”
Ooh. That jab must have stung.
“And when it comes to the healing ritual,” she continued nonchalantly, “It brings us more ingredients, and subsequently, better grades. All while it is hidden from other duchies. There are only benefits to us and no downsides. I even pretended to bring Flutrane’s staff from the teleportation room to avoid unnecessary upheaval among the students in the dormitory from my producing a divine instrument.”
Would some version of popcorn sell among the nobility? The thought suddenly popped up in my mind as I watched them haggling. Though, no attendant could note it down for me as no one could hear us. Thankfully.
“If we want to talk about blunders, what about you destroying my teaching tool?” Mila narrowed her eyes.
“Someone had to make sure you didn’t send anything dangerous to the playroom,” Ferdinand retorted with a serious expression.
Really, safety? I was pretty sure he had been just curious. Never once had he mentioned any safety concerns to me.
“Then why didn’t you simply allow a layscholar to test it for you?” Mila asked suspiciously.
“A layscholar would have been unable to ascertain the nature of the sent tools. The other scholars were already struggling with the schematics of the book for teaching magic circles,” Ferdinand remarked dismissively.
“That thing is as simplistic as it gets. What’s there to not understand?” Mila asked in disbelief.
“You produced a book featuring magic circles without using magic circles. Do you not find it odd?” Ferdinand complained. “Why not just include a circle on each page, and then highlight your preferred part in them?”
“Because this is a teaching tool for children. Putting a bunch of circles into a tool would make it too demanding and unusable for those with less mana. I want them to learn, not to drain them. Instead of an actual circle on each page, I merely instructed the tool to trace the movement of my pen. The resulting effect is the same in both approaches, but my version can be used by an actual child.” Mila crossed her arms.
Wow, Mila really gave this quite a bit of thought. I had merely thought that her teaching tools were really useful when training for future practical lessons. But I hadn’t considered the mana requirements much.
My perspective was skewed by Ferdinand having me power this or that tool for him. In reality, the children would have probably struggled even holding a sound-blocker like us now.
Now that I thought about it, there was a reason why the past winter playrooms hadn’t prepared children for practical magic subjects. They actually needed to save up their mana for those classes.
“Any more improvements on the horizon?” Ferdinand asked with a sardonic expression.
“Yes, actually,” Mila smiled confidently.
Though, something about that smile didn’t feel right to me.
“One of our students at the Academy managed to obtain Angriff’s protection during the divine protections ritual despite lacking Fire. The only apparent distinction between them and others is that they had previously cast Angriff’s blessing. As such, we are postulating that use of prayers to the respective gods can earn their protections,” Mila divulged.
Praying to gods should help to gain their favor. I nodded. It sounded like a reasonable assumption.
“You mean that girl Henrietta?” Ferdinand remarked.
“What? How do you know?” Mila frowned at him.
“I didn’t,” Ferdinand smirked. “But since that ‘unknown’ noble must have been somehow connected to you to discuss these matters privately, someone from Joisontak seemed like a good bet. And this year, two students from Joisontak, who also happened to be knights, were scheduled to undergo the divine protections ritual. I happen to know that one of them possesses Fire.”
Once again, I was reminded that Ferdinand’s attention to detail was scary. Mila didn’t stand a chance.
“Please, just let her be. I promised that no one would bother her,” she pleaded.
“I wasn’t going to do anything.” Ferdinand’s eyebrows furrowed.
“I thank you ever so much.” Mila lowered her head with a serious expression, before getting more lively. “If you want a guinea pig, my brother is scheduled for the ritual next year, so we are planning to cram as many prayers as possible to see the impact. If he gets a few dozen protections, then we can unveil it to the country.”
Her declaration sounded quite big, though Ferdinand merely nodded along. My mind was fully expecting some kind of “fool, slow down.”
“I’m thinking about adding a praying regimen for all second-years to increase our sample size,” Mila mused, an excited smile forming on her face. “Or even better, we should also include the children in the playroom. That would give them, like, five years of preparation. If my hypothesis is correct, we might end up with a bunch of kids with 79 protections. Combine that with Rozemyne’s compression method, and Ehrenfest will boom!” she declared confidently.
Hey, this might help with the temple’s reputation. Florencia’s two knights showed up in my memory.
“The protections help with brewing and spells, right?” I was making sure.
“That’s right.” Mila smiled. Her excitement was so apparent. “Henrietta felt a tiny improvement. Imagine what we could achieve if every student with your compression gained dozens of those.”
“Have you considered the stability of everyone’s schtappe?” Ferdinand remarked.
“What do you mean?” Mila raised her eyebrow.
“The schtappe is attuned to you perfectly. If you apply too much compression and dozens of protections on top, it stands to reason that it might have some unforeseen effect,” Ferdinand mused, scratching his chin.
It sounded like his usual paranoid self, though hearing that made me a bit uneasy. I really hoped my compression wouldn’t cause a problem for anyone. Especially for me.
“What kind of effect?” Mila asked slowly, her yellow eyes completely fixed on Ferdinand.
I couldn’t put my finger on it, but the room got darker as if the atmosphere around us had itself become suddenly tense. She didn’t seem to treat it as a mere possibility.
“How should I know the outcome of your experiment?” Ferdinand retorted.
“You have more mana than anyone I know. Have you experienced any problems?” Mila kept her intense stare.
“Yes, the control of my schtappe suffered,” Ferdinand divulged nonchalantly.
Wait, compression can cause this kind of problem?! I had thought that after my jureve bath, I was finally free from these kinds of issues. It was completely unfair.
“How did you solve the issue?” Mila narrowed her eyes.
Why did she look at Ferdinand with such suspicion? She wasn’t even hiding it.
Though, Ferdinand didn’t seem to care about her attitude. “By relaxing my mana compression to retain the control,” he remarked dryly.
OK, that doesn’t seem so bad. I exhaled. For a moment, I was really worried.
“For how long was that necessary?” Mila wondered. She also seemed to relax her stance.
“Indefinitely, of course,” Ferdinand remarked as if it was obvious.
“What do you mean, ‘indefinitely’?!” Mila burst out.
“The Divine Will accounts for some growth, so you don’t have to worry. If you ease up on compression, you might acquire multiple protections and still be fine by adulthood,” Ferdinand tried to calm her down.
However, it didn’t help much. That response just made Mila more distraught. “I am in my first year of the Academy, the start of the regular growing period, and you are telling me to ease my compression? Why the hell are we acquiring the schtappe in the first year?”
“I didn’t make the rules.” Ferdinand shrugged.
For some reason, him saying that made Mila glare at him even more. “Then why did you learn Rozemyne’s compression method? That should have made it even worse.”
“The problem is less extensive if you have more mana and colors to begin with. During our time, the schtappe acquisition was in the third year,” Ferdinand explained.
For a split second, Mila widened her eyes, only to lower her head afterwards. “I see.”
Hearing the tone of her voice made my whole body shudder. Unlike me, Ferdinand seemed unperturbed.
“You knew I read only about the first two years of Rozemyne’s Academy life,” Mila whispered, clenching her teeth. “With me being clueless about her divine protections ritual… ‘everyone is born with their colors,‘ right? It must have been great fun seeing me trying so hard while knowing I would end up at the absolute bottom.”
Was I not getting something? What was the problem? Why was she suddenly so angry at Ferdinand? It was jarring, and I could only watch in confusion.
“Even if you stopped completely, the mere natural growth of your body should ensure you are on par with strong archnobles. It is quite a comfortable position.” Ferdinand shrugged, clearly not seeing it as a big deal.
Ehm, Ferdinand, you are not helping.
Mila looked up with a clearly fake smile. “In that case, you wouldn’t have a problem signing a magic contract that will forbid you from storing more mana in your vessel than me, right? For the rest of your life, of course. Hey, all the excess may go to the temple or the foundation, so you don’t have to worry, Ehrenfest still benefits.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Ferdinand retorted.
“Oh, what? Would it be inconvenient?” Mila asked with a teary voice, still holding her fake smile. “You only have to give up large-scale spells and ridiculously advanced brewing; and make smaller attacks during the winter hunt, on par with other ‘strong’ archknights. A nice, comfortable life.”
“Calm down. You are overreacting.” Ferdinand sighed.
“Sure, Mister ‘I have all elements since birth,‘ don’t mind us peasants!” Mila retorted, her voice still shaky.
“What was that supposed to mean?” Ferdinand eyed her suspiciously.
It seemed like she finally managed to get a reaction. Though, I wasn’t sure it was a good thing.
“You know well enough, Sir ‘even the aub lacks mana to enter my hidden room.‘”
“Cease your nonsense!” Ferdinand began to look really annoyed.
“I’m sorry, Lord ‘my teacher had to make a special tool just to measure my compressed mana.‘ You are certainly above such things as higher mana capacity.”
He glared at her in silence.
This isn’t good. I tensed.
“What? Did I say something, Your Excellency ‘no unmarried woman in the whole duchy has enough mana to match me?‘”
“That’s enough!”
“Sure, Your Highness ‘I have all the bestest ingredients and most potent potions,‘ I’m stopping.”
Oh, crap, Ferdinand is smiling! He is smiling! That meant he was really uncomfortable. Mila, be careful! I pleaded with my eyes as she was piling jabs at him.
“Uh, you sure made her mad,” I remarked absentmindedly.
Oops! I put both of my hands in front of my mouth. Nooo! I didn’t want to say it out loud. Ferdinand glanced my way, his scary smile widening a bit.
“You people have access to magic,” Mila kept fuming. “You can make everything in your imagination. This place should have been paradise! Instead, all you accomplished was making this disappointing shithole!” her voice teared once again. “Do you know how it feels to acquire the Divine Will even before the very lowest mednoble?”
Something in the Academy must have hurt her dearly. I wanted to ask about it. However, we had been barred from talking alone.
“Seeing your current tantrum, it seems like the best outcome for the safety of this duchy.” Ferdinand shook his head.
That’s not how you talk with… Whoa. What?
The air around Mila was shimmering similarly to a heat haze. Except, there was no heat. It looked as if the space itself was somehow distorted.
What is happening? Why is no one reacting? Ferdinand kept with his annoyed look. Alright, maybe mister poker-face isn’t the best person to use for confirmation of unusual phenomena. I turned to the knights, but they too didn’t seem alarmed. The only thing I gathered was that Eckhart seemed really displeased.
I looked at my temple attendants. They, too, didn’t seem to be shocked, which meant…
Am I the only one seeing this?
When I turned back to Mila, she was silent, holding a noble smile. That was when I noticed another weird thing: a really thin black thread extended out of her chest towards my hand. It felt as if I held a string from a marionette. It was genuinely spooky.
As I kept looking around for anyone who might have noticed, I realized that this whole time, the room was actually getting darker. It hadn’t just been the tense atmosphere.
Suddenly, Mila stood up. “Apologies, I need some air.”
All the weird visions were gone.
“That will be for the best,” Ferdinand nodded. “Return when you calm down, and can lead a normal conversation.”
Mila smiled weakly and returned the sound-blocker. “Iri, I will be right back,” she instructed her attendant to stay and left the room.
“Ferdinand, what happened? Why is she blaming you?”
It came completely out of nowhere.
“Who knows? It was mere incoherent rambling,” he shrugged me off.
Oh, no, no, no. You think this will work on me? He was clearly hiding something.
I tried to copy his lecturing gaze and stared at him intently. However, it had no effect.
Ferdinand just mumbled to himself, “At least, it is certain that she cannot cause any substantial problems.”
It seemed like he intended to ignore me on this topic.
Sigh. I give up. “I am a bit confused about your debate. So, are the protections harmful, or are they beneficial?” I tried a different approach.
“Naturally, they bring great benefit,” Ferdinand replied. “If you don’t overdo it.”
“Shouldn’t we then inform the royalty to adjust the curriculum?” I was still quite uncertain on what had happened, but it had sounded like getting a schtappe sooner could potentially cause problems.
“Based on what?” Ferdinand replied, annoyed. “For now, there is only one girl with one protection outside of her color. It’s something Dunkelfelger manages all the time. Such a thing has no negative influence on one’s schtappe. You would have to acquire maybe thirty or forty of those protections, all while keeping up with unusually strong compression, to feel any negative consequence. Mila was clearly overreacting.”
Wording it like that, it really did sound like jumping to conclusions. One additional protection was far away from multiple dozens, so I understood why Ferdinand got annoyed. Still…
“I mean, based on how excited Mila looked at the beginning, it felt like she planned to acquire all of them.” I shrugged.
“Like a fool.” Ferdinand sighed. “We were a neutral duchy during the civil war. The last thing we need is to bring royal attention to us and question their decisions. If you say that you want to change the curriculum, you are declaring that the Zent made a mistake.”
“Oh.” I realized the problem.
Ferdinand was giving me an exasperated ‘See?‘ look. “When it comes to royalty, you have to tread very carefully. I hope I don’t have to explain to you why you should avoid bringing any attention to yourself during your time in the Academy.”
“Certainly.” I nodded firmly.
“Still…” Ferdinand tapped on his temple. “If Mila wants to unveil the results of her brother next year, it might boost the general reputation of the temple, coinciding with your enrollment. It will be harder for others to paint your position in the temple as a flaw. It should also produce a more favorable impression among other duchies that struggle with mana.”
So it’s actually a good thing? Him using his scheming smile made it really hard to ascertain.
“But won’t Adeus’s schtappe suffer?” I wondered.
He had my compression method, and Mila had said they would aim for dozens of protections.
“Her brother is a mednoble. I don’t know why Mila expects him to dedicate enough mana in a single year to warrant dozens of protections.” Ferdinand shook his head. “It is bizarre how her mind always jumps to these fringe cases that might not even apply.”
“She enjoys magic, and you just informed her about a possible hard ceiling. You could have been nicer when addressing her concerns.”
Would it kill him to use some words of reassurance?
“She was completely unreasonable!” Ferdinand retorted.
“Well, I would also despair if someone announced that I couldn’t read the last few volumes in a book series that I was looking forward to reading.” My heart ached from recalling all the book series I hadn’t finished in my past life. It was devastating.
“When it comes to books, you are unreasonable as well.” Ferdinand scoffed.
“Am I?” I crossed my arms. “You were unwilling to sign that contract with her.”
“Are you actually siding with her on such a ridiculous demand?” he frowned.
“I’m not saying you should sign it. Rather, you should consider how it would make you feel to be restrained like that.” I didn’t think I was unreasonable in that regard.
“Rozemyne…” Ferdinand began with a softer tone, when Mila announced her presence and entered the room.
By this time, she was sporting a proper noble facade. Without a word, she walked towards our table. However, she didn’t sit down, nor did she take a sound-blocker. Instead, she placed three small objects in front of Ferdinand.
I blinked in confusion at the trio of tools. There was a custom-made brooch, a noble ring, and the third one looked like a highbeast feystone.
What?
“Lord Ferdinand, I thank you ever so much for your generosity in lending me these tools,” Mila said solemnly, still keeping her neutral noble smile.
What is happening? Was this how children felt when their parents filed for a divorce? I had never experienced it myself, but I had a really bad feeling about the situation. Did I mess up something?
“I also want to express my apologies. Because of certain trust issues, I can no longer keep using them. I emptied mana from the highbeast into a small chalice, and I scrapped any traces of mana from the ring. With the nature of the trigger mechanism on the charm, I didn’t want to risk emptying it inside the temple, and so I discharged it outside… one unlucky bird happened to paint a wall behind my back, but I cleaned that.” Her expression gained a tinge of awkwardness at the end.
Ferdinand placed a hand on his forehead. “You fool, how exactly are you planning to return home?”
“I will walk,” Mila replied dryly. “But I am grateful for your concern about my inconvenience. Thankfully, the trip will last only a few minutes, not for the rest of my life.”
A silent pause occurred.
“You can keep the ring and the highbeast—those were provided per the agreement between Karstedt and Giebe Joisontak,” Ferdinand said with a neutral voice, taking back only one of the items.
For a moment, Mila didn’t seem to know how to react. “Very well.” She eventually took the ring and the highbeast.
Ferdinand prompted her to take the sound-blocker. “What is with all these pointless theatrics?” he asked right after.
“There is no need for worry. I won’t ever have a cool schtappe like you, you can keep feeling special.” Mila widened her smile.
“I see that fresh air didn’t help you much with that attitude,” Ferdinand remarked with a deadpan expression.
“I merely realized that I do not wish to associate with you,” Mila replied coldly.
Ferdinand shrugged. “Does it mean treating you as any other mednoble?”
“That would most likely end with my execution,” Mila replied with a noble smile.
As she said it out loud, I realized the insinuation. Defiance to higher status could end in execution, without anyone even lifting their eyebrow. And well, she did express a lot of defiance in this conversation.
“I wonder whether it is wise to send you to the Academy in this state of mind.” Ferdinand narrowed his eyes.
“Ferdinand!” I exclaimed pleadingly.
It was pretty clear how much Mila wanted to be gone. She had the exact same expression as Florencia’s knights, who had wanted to leave the temple as soon as possible. I didn’t want to hold her in my chambers any longer.
Ferdinand glanced my way before waving his hand. “Very well. You can leave.”
“I thank you ever so much and commend you on your efforts. You managed to put the uninvited guest in their place,” Mila said and put down the sound-blocker.
“Iri, we can depart,” she remarked, before turning our way, still keeping her noble smile. “I pray that you live well with the divine protection of the gods until Dregarnuhr, the Goddess of Time, weaves the threads of our fates together once again. Lady Rozemyne, Lady Veronica,” adding a small nod at the end.
The door closed soon after.
I was stunned. Did she just…? I slowly turned Ferdinand’s way.
There was a stone-faced expression on his face, but he definitely seemed shocked as well by that farewell. Both his hands began massaging his temples. “What a bother,” he remarked silently before turning towards the knights. “Eckhart, bring me the documents from my chambers, and tell the attendants there that I will be leaving already.”
Eckhart nodded and hastily left the room.
“Isnt’t she supposed to have an adult mind?” Ferdinand grumbled after grabbing his sound-blocker.
“Please, don’t be harsh on her,” I pleaded.
This had escalated way too far.
Ferdinand shook his head, muttering to himself. “Hopefully, her head cools down over the rest of the winter.”
Personally, I felt miserable witnessing that exchange. It had been so intense that even the memory of that freaky hallucination seemed like a distant dream.
I rubbed my arms as I began to feel cold. An ominous thunder struck somewhere in the distance.
The weather really does have a knack for dramatic effect. I smiled awkwardly at the window.
Lightning during a snowstorm was quite a rare phenomenon.
“That insufferable brat!” Ferdinand exclaimed immediately after.
What? I watched him in renewed confusion. “Ehm, Ferdinand, that was just thunder, no?”
He looked at me with a slight confusion of his own. “Oh, yes, I must have been mistaken.” His expression relaxed a little as he leaned against his backrest.
I was glad that he seemed more relaxed. For a moment, he seemed really… “Wait, what exactly did you confuse with thunder?!”
“Do not start as well!” he complained with a cranky voice.
OK, no touching, geez. I really felt like I was in a split household.