The knights were positioned in a ring around the Luelle tree, and
Smaller magical beasts emerged from every direction. Having traveled to various places to harvest seasonal ingredients and fought monsters along the way, I'd developed at least some sense of how strong they were.
The cat-like Zanze, the slightly larger Ferze, and the squirrel-like Aifint that headed our way now weren't particularly strong. They were just endless in number.
Last year, with fewer knights, their sheer volume had been threatening, but with the Chief Priest and Father, both brimming with Magic Power, it was supposedly an easy win.
I watched everyone's performance from atop my riding beast while waiting for the Luelle fruit to grow large enough.
"Here we go!"
In the next instant, the magical beast whose magic stone had been pierced dissolved and vanished. A single strike. That was all it took to take out several beasts.
"Ha!"
Eckhart brother swung his spear in a wide arc, mowing down the surrounding magical beasts.
Those struck hard by the spear or slashed by the blade weakened and toppled over.
The surrounding beasts, upon seeing this, swarmed not Eckhart brother but the weakened ones, latching on and biting. They were trying to devour the magic stones to gain whatever power they could.
Eckhart brother fixed his blue eyes on the swarm, readjusted his grip on the spear, and thrust it toward the cluster again and again. The spear, moving at high speed, dispatched beast after beast, accompanied by the sound of air being cleaved apart.
Watching Eckhart brother's attacks from above, I let out a soft sigh. I usually only saw him assisting the Chief Priest, so seeing him fight like a knight like this was honestly really cool.
...Whoa, Eckhart brother, so cool. He's probably about third... or maybe fourth in line after my dad in the coolness ranking.
While I was silently praising Eckhart brother's valor in my heart, I heard
I shifted the riding beast's position slightly and turned my gaze toward Brigitte.
"Yaaaaah!"
With a spirited cry, Brigitte planted her feet on the ground and swung her weapon—a halberd-like thing—in a wide arc. A whooshing sound swept through the air, and all the magical beasts within the weapon's reach crumbled and vanished at once.
"Next!"
Without even pausing to confirm the beasts she had just slain, Brigitte's amethyst eyes had already locked onto her next prey. Still in her low stance, she flipped her skirt and twisted her body around in a fluid spin.
The momentum of her hip rotation seemed to pull the weapon along after it, as if the blade itself were racing to keep up.
By the time the long, slightly curved blade swept past her front, several more beasts had vanished.
Each time Brigitte flashed her weapon, the extended blade whipped around, mowing down and slicing through the charging magical beasts all at once. Her unrelenting motion as she swung her weapon was lively and full of vitality, yet possessed an air of refined elegance.
...Haa, gorgeous. Ugh, I want to be strong too.
I knew I could never become like Brigitte, but I wanted that kind of sharp, cool composure. My goal was to become a dependable, elegant older sister.
...Come to think of it, how does Father fight?
I had caught glimpses of Father's fighting style from a distance—once when I was still a blue Shrine Maiden Apprentice and the prayer ceremony was attacked, and again during the battle with Schneetirum, the Lord of Winter.
But both times were from far away. During the attack on the prayer ceremony, he'd finished things with a single devastating move. And in the fight against Schneetirum, there were so many knights and he was so far away I couldn't really tell what he was doing.
With a little flutter of excitement, I searched for Father.
Father seemed to be swinging a scythe larger than himself with casual ease. That was because he didn't look like he was putting much effort into it at all. He strolled around as if mowing grass, lightly swinging the great scythe and cutting down magical beasts one after another.
...Whooooa, Father is strong! As expected of the Knight Commander!
Despite barely looking like he was trying, the great scythe moved with startling speed, and the sound of it cleaving through the air—WHOOM! WHOOM!—was strikingly loud.
The number of beasts that vanished like dew under a single swing of Father's scythe was incomparable to Eckhart brother's or Brigitte's. Over a dozen must have disappeared with each sweep.
Even though his assigned range was the widest, it truly didn't seem like there were many beasts in front of Father—it wasn't just my imagination.
...He came all the way from Ehrenfest just so I could gather ingredients. Of course Dad is the second coolest after my own father—I've decided!
As I clapped my own knees in admiration of Father, a sudden BOOM! explosion rang out.
"Ack!?"
The explosion wasn't particularly loud, but the surprise made me flinch and clap my hands over my ears. Looking around in confusion, I tried to locate the source of the sound.
...It was the Chief Priest.
The beasts in the Chief Priest's assigned area had been completely wiped out across a wide span. There was a gaping, empty zone where not a single beast remained. No mistake—that explosion just now was the Chief Priest's doing.
What could he possibly have done to create such a perfectly blank void? It was so baffling that I focused intently on the Chief Priest's movements.
New magical beasts were charging toward the empty zone in front of the Chief Priest. Was I the only one who, upon seeing him standing there with a calm expression, wanted to scream at the beasts to about-face and flee with everything they had?
The Chief Priest quietly watched the incoming beasts, then threw something. For just an instant, it glinted in the air, and I saw a shape spread wide. The next moment, it vanished from sight, as if dissolved into the air.
...A net?
What looked like a net to me hadn't actually disappeared—it had fallen over the beasts. Across the wide area, the beasts began thrashing and tangling together.
Watching the beasts trapped in the invisible net, the Chief Priest knelt down and pressed his palm flat against the ground.
"Disappear."
With those quiet words, I saw magic power flowing in a mesh-like pattern. The shape of the net materialized in the glow of the magic power, and then another BOOM! echoed as the beasts inside the net vanished, just as the Chief Priest had commanded.
...Scary. Genuinely terrifying.
This was an attack only possible because of the Chief Priest's overwhelming Magic Power. To flood such a wide area with magic power all at once required not just an enormous quantity but also exceptional skill in handling it.
Overwhelmed beyond mere admiration—I felt genuine fear. I shifted my gaze slightly away from the Chief Priest and focused on Damuel, who was fighting between Father and the Chief Priest.
Compared to everyone else, Damuel's fighting was quite plain. He simply took down each beast one by one with the sword he was holding at the ready. There was nothing flashy about it.
But unlike last year, he was undeniably growing. He wasn't hoarding his Magic Power and relying solely on physical strength and endurance to fell beasts, nor was he short of breath or anxiously scanning his surroundings. He stared straight ahead and fought.
Moreover, it seemed he had earnestly taken my advice to heart and trained hard, because he had developed a sense of rhythm in his use of Magic Power. He used slightly more magic power against the larger Ferze-type beasts that had grown a bit stronger, and reserved a lighter amount for the smaller ones.
"Damuel, pull back for a moment and use a potion."
"No, I'm still fine."
Damuel shook his head at Father's words and slashed at a Zanze with his sword. Having two allies flanking him surely helped, but unlike last year, he wasn't just swinging his weapon around—he was finishing targets decisively.
"Don't push yourself, Damuel."
"I'm really okay."
Damuel kept his eyes on the beasts and replied quietly before resuming his sword work.
After fighting for a while longer, he called out "I'm pulling back" on his own initiative and left the rest to the Chief Priest and Father. Then, leaning against the Luelle tree, he drank a recovery potion.
The brief interval before the medicine took effect was Damuel's only short rest.
"Damuel, you've gotten really strong!"
I leaned out from the riding beast and called to him.
Damuel looked up in surprise, and when our eyes met, he gave a small smile.
"That's very kind of you to say."
Then Damuel closed his eyes for a moment. I could tell he was slowly breathing out, as if checking the magic power within himself.
He raised his head with a sharp expression, turned his grey eyes back toward the beasts, griStaff in hand—no, his staff deformed into a sword—and threw himself back into the fight.
It seemed he had gained confidence that his limits had expanded, because he was fighting with more composure than before.
...He must have trained incredibly hard.
Having known Damuel, who had always yearned to grow stronger, I was genuinely happy to witness the fruits of his effort—as if it were my own achievement.
Watching his recent progress, I couldn't help but think how truly powerful the force of love must be. Chuckling to myself a little at another person's romantic situation while savoring Damuel's growth,
"Your Ladyship, it's nearly time. Please pour your Magic Power into the Luelle fruit!"
"Yes!"
I took a deep breath, leaned out from the riding beast, and reached my hand toward the Luelle fruit, which looked like an amethyst.
Dyeing the Luelle fruit with my own Magic Power was extremely difficult. Living things all seemed to have an instinct that rejected magic power from anyone but themselves, and the resistance when trying to dye them with magic was fierce.
I gripped the hard, smooth Luelle fruit tightly in my palm and, with enough force to crush its resistance, flooded it with magic power all at once.
The resistance felt less than last year—perhaps I myself had grown a little too.
Staring intently at the Luelle fruit in my hand, I continued pouring in magic power, overwhelming the fruit's resistance and pushing through.
The translucent purple fruit began changing to a pale yellow with surprising speed. Last year, I'd felt my magic power being pushed back, but this year there was no such sensation—it just kept flowing in.
"Justus, is this enough?"
When I called out to Justus, he had been cutting down an Aifint that was trying to leap toward the Luelle. He came over while keeping watch on the surroundings.
"...That was fast, Your Ladyship. It's fine. Once you've harvested it, put it in the leather pouch immediately."
Still holding the fully transformed Luelle fruit in my left hand, I took the Magical Tool knife in my right and cut the branch.
Then I quickly trimmed the unnecessary parts of the branch and slipped the Luelle fruit into the leather pouch right away. Since the pouch blocked magic power, no beast should be able to take it now.
"Done!"
"Your Ladyship has finished her harvest."
At Justus's announcement, Father gave a large nod.
"Then, let's withdraw!"
"Not yet! Please wait a little longer. Damuel needs Luelle too!"
BOOM! The Chief Priest, having cleared the beasts around us, looked down at me.
"What are you thinking, Rozemine!?"
"If he intends to propose this summer, he'll need a corresponding magic stone, won't he? If he's serving as my bodyguard, he won't be able to go collect one, so he should harvest here."
I puffed out my chest—I'd learned this from reading knight stories, after all—only to be met with lukewarm stares from my guardians. The looks felt eerily like those you'd give a child who couldn't tell fiction from reality, and I blinked.
"...Could it be that I'm wrong?"
"It's not exactly wrong, but..."
The Chief Priest said this while glancing with concern toward Brigitte.
That look told me everything. This was supposed to be something done in secret, not right in front of the person you intended to propose to.
...Aaaah, I was only trying to help, but I've made a huge mistake?!
As I clutched my head in dismay, Father, all the while efficiently dispatching beasts, said, "Keep it, Damuel."
"A magic stone of this quality won't be easy to come by. Perfect for a proposal."
Father continued his monster-slaying with a grin. I imagined I heard him add, "
With the Knight Commander's permission serving as the decisive blow, both Eckhart brother and the Chief Priest also backed Damuel's harvest, telling him to "hurry it up."
I glanced at Brigitte, but she stubbornly refused to look our way and continued silently cutting down beasts. It was too far and too dark to see clearly, but I thought her ears might have been a little red.
...Sorry, Brigitte. I'm really sorry for embarrassing you.
Damuel, granted permission to harvest, rode his beast up to the Luelle fruit, chanted "Messer," and deformed his staff into the shape of a knife.
Unlike me, who needed high-quality magic stones dyed with my own Magic Power, the stones Damuel needed were for his proposal. There was no need to dye them with Damuel's magic right here and now.
Damuel quickly trimmed the branches and harvested two Luelle fruits that were within reach—one for the proposal, presumably, and one for himself.
He narrowed his grey eyes with evident happiness and carefully placed them into his own leather pouch.
"I've never had magic stones of this quality before. I'll take my time dyeing them with magic later."
With Damuel's harvest complete, we withdrew immediately. We returned to the winter estate at Doldovan and slept soundly.
Filled with the sense of accomplishment and satisfaction of having gathered all the ingredients, along with anticipation for my healthier self, I set off toward the Chief Priest's room with buoyant steps.
I had been summoned to come after breakfast—likely to continue the work from yesterday. I intended to throw myself into assisting with all my might so we could begin making the medicine as soon as possible.
...I'll get better. I'll be healthy. I'll be a normal girl. Hehehe.
I was told that Damuel had already gone to the Chief Priest's room, so I headed there proudly alongside Brigitte and
"Good morning, Chief Priest! What shall we help with today?"
My bright greeting fell completely flat. The room was filled with a tense, prickly atmosphere, and I quickly fell silent.
No one in the Chief Priest's room was working. In fact, apart from the Attendant who had been stationed at the door, everyone else seemed to have been sent away—there wasn't a single person who looked like they were doing any work.
Father, the Chief Priest, and Eckhart brother all wore grave expressions, while Damuel looked utterly wretched and murmured, "Lady Rozemine," as if begging for help.
...Wait, Damuel. What did you do?
"Brigitte, Fran. Step back."
As Brigitte and Fran swiftly left the room, I felt a desperate urge to cling to them, but I simply blinked in confusion.
The Chief Priest glared at me coldly.
"You understand why you've been summoned, don't you, Rozemine?"
"I-I don't know!"
I had no memory of doing anything in particular. Was I being scolded by association, simply for being Damuel's lady, since he looked like he was about to be reprimanded by these three?
"What did you do to Damuel?"
"Um... what I did to Damuel? Was it suggesting the Luelle harvest last night? Or the time I secretly gave him snacks the other day? But I gave some to Brigitte too..."
As I desperately tried to recall my actions, the Chief Priest's veins bulged with anger.
"No! That's not it at all! I'm asking whether Damuel's unnatural increase in Magic Power is your doing!"
"It isn't. His Magic Power growth is the result of Damuel's own effort. ...True, I did give him a bit of—well, perhaps you'd call it meddlesome advice—but growth doesn't happen without effort and training."
It seemed the topic was Damuel's growth after all. I was about to sigh in relief, thinking I wasn't in trouble, when Father looked down at me with a stern expression.
"Exactly what advice did you give him, Rozemine? No matter how you look at it, the manner of his growth is abnormal. A lower-ranking noble like Damuel, who's nearly past his growth period, shouldn't be able to increase his Magic Power that much."
"Just as I had Damuel use Gewinnen cards to make military strategy visually understandable so he could grasp it, I simply taught him my method for compressing Magic Power."
Unlike Father and Eckhart brother, who furrowed their brows in confusion, the Chief Priest raised his eyebrows sharply.
"Your method of compressing Magic Power? I wasn't informed of this."
"Huh? I don't recall the Chief Priest ever asking me about how I increase my Magic Power. Besides, it's self-taught, so I don't even know if it's correct. It might have just happened to work for Damuel."
As I tilted my head, Damuel slowly shook his, denying my claim.
"If I could learn Lady Rozemine's method of compressing Magic Power, I believe those still in their growth period would see dramatic improvement. I was concerned that others would learn it, raising the average Magic Power, and I'd be buried beneath them again. I deeply apologize."
No matter how hard he worked to improve, if others learned the same technique and grew just as much, the average Magic Power would rise, and Damuel would fall behind once more.
"A technique that could dramatically amplify Magic Power—if it were a personal or family secret, that would be understandable. I can see why Damuel would want to hide it."
Eckhart brother said this with a sigh.
But if hiding it wasn't the thing worth being scolded over, then what was this all about? I turned my gaze to the Chief Priest, who was watching me quietly with his golden eyes.
"Rozemine, unlike Damuel, you didn't intend to keep this secret from those around you, did you? Then why didn't you consider spreading this method to help with Ehrenfest's Magic Power shortage?"
"When you put it that way..."
It was true that since Ehrenfest was suffering a Magic Power shortage, thinking about how to increase everyone's seemed like the natural next step. But while I had considered spreading books, it had never occurred to me to spread my method of increasing Magic Power.
"Magic Power compression was always a matter of life and death for me—something I did to survive. So I didn't think it was something I should teach to nobles who already possessed Magical Tools. And if this is a dangerous method, people could die. I can't spread something that dangerous."
My words drew a nod of understanding from Father, while the Chief Priest pressed his temple with a puzzled expression.
"Then why did you teach Damuel?"
"Damuel knows my origins and understands the weight and danger of what I did—that I did it while facing mortal peril."
Everyone present here knew my true background. They all wore troubled expressions.
"I see. I understand your reasoning. I also understand you have no desire to spread it. ...However, I'm going to ask you directly: I want you to teach your method of Magic Power compression to the other nobles of Ehrenfest as well. The Magic Power shortage is an urgent problem that must be resolved. If it could increase the Magic Power of the children who will carry Ehrenfest's future, nothing would be better."
I could see something like urgency in the Chief Priest's face.
Over the past two years, since I had begun performing blessings at the prayer ceremony, Magic Power had been plentiful and harvests had increased. Thinking about increasing the Magic Power of the blue priests who assisted made sense. But I didn't understand why it was necessary to urgently increase the Magic Power of nobles.
"You seem quite eager—is there a reason?"
"Not exactly a 'reason.' It's part of our preparations in case
If the Chief Priest said it was part of their preparations, then I supposed cooperation was the right course.
But there were many concerns regarding the compression method. It wasn't something I wanted to hand out casually.
"If it's for the sake of the duchy, I'm willing to teach it. However, I'll be attaching quite a few conditions."
It wasn't exactly peerless, but I hoped Damuel's growth would serve as proof that it worked.
And once Damuel's growth became visible, I'd probably get summoned again.
Next, I was heading to the harvest festival at Ilgner.