Chatper 15: Issues with scholar research
With access to the underground archive secured and the sudden need for more language lessons, my schedule was officially full. Sure, I could have squeezed in even more activities if I had pushed harder, but I had come to the Academy for a vacation, not to reenact my workload from Ehrenfest.
“Estelle, how is your knowledge of old vernacular?” I asked during her next visit to the library.
If I personally couldn’t do more, the obvious answer was to hire more workers. Estelle seemed like a good candidate. Before her baptism, she had spent a season in the temple, and the books there had been one of her pastimes.
It wasn’t much to build on, but Estelle had a good memory, and compared to the rest of our dormitory, even that little experience should have made her the second most proficient reader among our students.
“It’s quite scarce, why do you ask?” she wondered.
“I finally managed to enter the underground archive, but it turned out the materials there are written in ancient language. I’m trying to teach Lady Marianne so she can aid me, but even I struggle to read them.”
Teaching a language without being proficient was kind of a mess. Especially when Marianne asked me about some phrase, and all I could give her was “I don’t know, maybe…” Not exactly confidence-inducing.
“If you are struggling, then I won’t be much help.” Estelle shrugged.
“Well, a little help is better than nothing. If you find it tedious, you could always just help operate our retrieving tool with your highbeast. Lady Natalie uses one with wings, and those sometimes get tangled with the rope. You can produce your highbeast without them.”
Or we can just ditch the ropes and make the lever. Estelle’s wolf had already cranked one on the circular saw without any problem. That alone would have been a great improvement, lessening the strain on my shumil.
“You are powering a ‘retrieval tool’ with a highbeast?” Estelle looked at me suspiciously, before her lips curved into a knowing smile. “Why does it sound like you don’t really have proper access?”
“Hey, we have Professor Solange’s permission. That’s way more important than what some stupid barriers say.” I crossed my arms with a pout.
“I guess studying ancient texts is quite benign compared to alternatives.” Estelle smiled and agreed to help us.
“Great.” I nodded enthusiastically. “Small warning, though. To enter, you have to keep your mana from leaking. We will put two bags on you, which isolates you somewhat, and Lady Marianne will have to lead you inside by hand.”
“Yes, that sounds completely like you have proper access.” Estelle sighed with an exasperated smile.
After my time in the library, I speed-walked to the scholar building to show up in time for the break in between Hirschur’s brewing sessions. She had been slowly preparing for the scholar presentation at the Interduchy Tournament, so her scheduling was that much more sensitive.
“The last week’s improvements have been quite negligible,” Hirschur grumbled while staring at the last two iterations of the recipe.
“Maybe this is the peak recipe already,” I uttered absentmindedly. Most of my attention was taken up by me grinding a few yellow crystals into powder. “I think you could have publicized even the very first version and no one would have batted an eye.”
Hirschur scoffed. “I have a reputation to maintain. Scholarly research is about pushing the boundaries of your field. What would everyone think if I produced something on par with your average scholar from Drewanchel?”
Well, it was nice that she had her standards.
“I can already hear Gundolf praising my past prime,” Hirschur muttered, tapping on the recipe. “Uh… I’ll try to add the powder after the color change…”
It sounded daunting. Especially since she was shuffling the steps at the end of the brewing process. Brewing without a mistake for hours for a mere chance of positive change? I’ll pass, thank you very much. I preferred good old random parts, made from garbage ingredients and slapped into some kind of product. Sure, it was exchanging magic materials and a lot of mana into a non-magic piece of metal that functioned as a simple stick, but it was easy.
“More protections in this domain would certainly be handy.” Hirshur grimaced in annoyance.
“Have you tried the ritual again?” I got taken aback.
“Yes, but still nothing. That Henrietta girl managed two protections in less time,” Hirschur complained. “Witnessing your results must have skewed my perception.”
Well, the one from Verdrenna was definitely out of the ordinary considering Henrietta had attended only a single ritual for that protection. But the other one was definitely earned the standard way, albeit with the help of rejuvenation potions.
“Interesting,” I mused. “As an archnoble, you should have way more mana to offer than a mednoble like Lady Henrietta.”
Maybe Henrietta prayed more genuinely? She had prior experience with praying; that’s how she had gotten her initial protections. Though, it was hard to pinpoint anything from so few examples.
“What’s your ratio of mana expenditure between brewing and praying?” I wondered.
Hirschur stayed silent.
OK, maybe that’s the answer? I produced a slight smirk.
“What about you, Mila? Have you not considered publishing your own research? Maybe that camera of yours?” Hirschur glanced my way.
“Let’s not make the target on my back even bigger than it already is.” I grimaced.
Sure, I had pretty much given up on acting invisible—to the point that I was fine with randomly teaching waschen during socializing—but that didn’t mean I wanted to make it worse for nothing.
I had already won my academic success. Taranese had even invited me to her group because of it. Publishing research as the only first-year wouldn’t give me any more benefits, only more weird looks.
“Oh, what gave you pause, the offer of a free medical checkup?” Hirschur chuckled.
“The… what?” I stared at her, my grimace frozen in time.
“I overheard a few tidbits. Some from Drewanchel would like to check for any abnormalities.”
The… WHAT?! Now, I genuinely appreciated Taranese for blocking my contact with them.
Was it some student’s idea, or maybe some professor’s? Actually, it doesn’t matter. I just had to be more on guard in general against anyone approaching me.
“It’s good that I don’t have any classes anymore,” I mumbled.
“Still.” Hirschur shrugged. “I don’t think publishing research would affect you negatively, even if it was an unusual occurrence because of your age. Your duchy might benefit.”
“I would rather for Ehrenfest scholars to step up with their efforts.” I sighed. Maybe we should do some brewing seminars back home. “It’s kind of pointless to rise on the back of one talented person, only for the duchy to fall back after they leave the Academy.”
“That is definitely true,” Hirschur replied with a serious tone of a teacher, before her smirk returned. “So should I expect the next year’s scholars to walk in the footsteps of Ehrenfest’s first-years?”
“I would like for that to happen.” I pressed my lips. “Though, getting a skilled scholar takes multiple years of systematic effort. Pushing ahead in one’s field isn’t as easy as just training a few basic spells for the practical classes.”
It was the difference between following a study guide and making a breakthrough that would be later written into a study guide. By definition, there was no study guide to follow.
“Oh my, there really are such plans?” Hirschur replied with a glint in her eyes.
It seemed she was really looking forward to some higher-quality crop from her home duchy.
Once Hirschur began with her brewing, I wandered to the section with Ferdinand’s tools. It seemed like a good place to gain some inspiration for projects that could be carried out by our apprentice scholars.
What could Marianne do? Wait, she is a first-year. I stopped myself from accidentally crushing her with unreasonable expectations once again.
No, this is the wrong approach. Instead of giving everyone ideas for advanced research, I decided to keep it simple, and focus on our training system. After each winter, all apprentices work to gain experience. But… Problem was that for the scholars, the work did not align.
The knights back home visited training grounds and trained hard. Not only was that beneficial for their work, but also in the Academy, where they fought in ditter during the Interduchy Tournament.
The same was true for the attendants. All their hard work during practice directly translated to their skills, which they used during the Interduchy Tournament.
But the scholars didn’t spend their year coming up with new research. They worked in administration. At best, they’d brew potions for their lords and ladies, or supply tools for various buyers. But even those tools were standardized items provided on demand. They merely followed the recipe.
The only ones actually focusing on magical research were those who saw it as their hobby, pursued in their spare time.
Balancing studying with working is always hard. The time in the Academy allowed me to experiment with brewing to my heart’s content. It was incomparable to when I had been forced to schedule around my work in Ehrenfest.
Maybe I could develop that idea of Charlotte’s patronage? Those willing could be supported by her for a certain amount of time, spending it on research instead of regular work. And as always, we could add a bit of competition between those involved, with some nice prizes for the most promising ideas.
Regardless of the outcome, the students should end up with something they could use as a basis for their research in the Academy.
I noted the idea in my writing pad and continued to study Ferdinand’s tools. There were still a lot of notes waiting to be copied, but I was confident I’d be done with it before the end of winter.
There is just so much to do. I sighed as I copied a map from the pile.
I had already held it in my hands multiple times, wanting to explore the spots, but it was hard to cut time from any of my other endeavors.
For one, there was a lot of brewing that needed to be done. I was behind on Erenit’s collection of charms. The time in my hidden room somehow always jumped ahead in a blink of an eye; it was almost eerie. Besides that, we were making very slow progress in the archive, so I couldn’t slack on that. Especially since I was the one who had pushed for that whole operation.
I was also the one who had asked others for help with the stockpile of shells. It was another group effort, so I couldn’t neglect my part. There was also the general knight training with me teaching advanced enhancements.
At least, we had almost wrapped up transcription work, so there was some more free time on the horizon.
You know what? I will inspect one of the spots. I nodded to myself.
There was no way to check everything on the map, but it would have been a crime if I hadn’t checked at least one thing from a “secret map.”
The next day, during late afternoon, I set out from our dormitory towards the wilderness in the west.
I hope I overlapped the maps properly, I thought nervously.
I could have chosen some easier spots, closer to the Academy, but my brain automatically assumed that the more obscure a place was, the bigger the treasure would be. However, since I didn’t know what I was looking for, there was a high chance I would miss it.
What if he marked something like a tree with red bark or anything of that sort? I kept stressing out.
Nevertheless, I flew ahead. I mean, I needed some fresh air anyway. Unlike with brewing, or hurting my brain with phrases from ancient texts, treasure hunting was a relaxing activity where I didn’t have to focus too much.
Snow, snow, and a lot of snow. I whistled absentmindedly. It had been some time since anything had taken my attention. Suddenly, I spotted an ordonnanz flying my way. I stopped.
After a few moments, it landed on my hand. “This is Adeus. Sent on time.”
I hastily adjusted my pair of compasses on a prepared scale and used it to make a circle on my map, with the center at the knight building. It was just in time, as I already saw another bird flying my way.
“This is Henrietta. Sent on time.” Hearing her voice, I added another circle centered around the library.
Thirty-two seconds later, another ordonnanz landed on my hand. “This is Estelle. Sent on time.”
I added the third, a bit wider, circle.
Their cross-section was a bit away from my goal on the map.
Alright, I must have already flown over the place. At least, my primitive GPS had said so.
Adeus was currently located behind the knight building at the Academy, Henrietta had needed to do some research in the Library, while Estelle was in our dormitory. I had asked them to send their ordonanzes at the same time to give myself some proper marker. Snowy woods, with nothing around, weren’t exactly the best for navigating.
“Thank you all.” I sent all ordonnanzes to their owners and turned around.
This time, I flew much more slowly, trying to spot any irregularities.
White, white, dark green, white, brown, white, white, everything white… I mused absentmindedly as my sight swung left and right.
Eventually, something caught my attention on my left. It seemed like a snowy structure. I blinked to make sure I wasn’t just seeing things. But yeah, it was there.
I landed on a small clearing and used waschen to get rid of the snow.
A shrine?
By the looks of it, the statue belonged to Steifebrise. I was staring at it, confused. It wasn’t exactly the hidden treasure I had expected. The gears in my head moved really slowly at the moment, until suddenly…
“How should I know the outcome of your experiment?” Ferdinand’s voice sounded in my head.
Figures. I groaned.
It seemed safe to assume that the other points on the map were shrines as well.
The realization was rage-inducing. All that talk of how he had had no idea about this “prayer” thing when, in reality, he hadn’t even used simple praying charms like us unwashed masses. No, no no, he is a proper noble; he has to visit official shrines like a highly important archduke candidate.
At that moment, I really wanted to punch something. Though, it was better to avoid such things when standing on top of a shrine. I definitely didn’t want to anger a goddess.
It’s just sooo frustrating! I felt like a pressure cooker before exploding… and then it just fizzled out.
I don’t care. I sighed dejectedly.
Honestly, by now, thinking about this made me more tired than angry. I didn’t want to bother with thinking about pointless arguments.
My eyes refocused on the statue. “I already have Steifebrise’s protection,” I mumbled.
Then again, this seemed like a good opportunity for a prayer of gratitude.
“O Goddess of Gale Steifebrise, of the Goddess of Wind Schutzaria’s exalted twelve, I offer thanks and prayers to thee…” I really am grateful. Speed is fun. In the middle of my praying, I realized that I was grinning.
The prayer took a sizable portion of my mana, but otherwise, there didn’t seem to be anything extraordinary around. Just an empty clearing in the middle of nowhere.
“Well, this was probably supposed to be done before the divine protections ritual,” I muttered.
Especially when one lucks out with schtappe acquisition in their third year and doesn’t warn anyone from the younger generation. I shook my head.
I had already produced most of my praying charms, so there was no need to search for all the other shrines. It was kind of relieving. At the very least, I didn’t have to stress about the approaching end of winter, unlike if I had found something really vital and had been forced to desperately fly all around the Academy to reach every point on the map.
As such, I produced my shumil and flew back to our dormitory.