The spring baptism ceremony was held, and as I walked toward the altar, I glanced sideways at children who were about the same size as me. Whispers directed my way were nothing new. This time, since it was a baptism ceremony, the children's remarks were far more blunt than at the coming-of-age ceremony.
...Hey, don't say "Wow, she's so tiny!" I can hear you! And don't point and say "Go look for yourself!"
I walked along feeling like an animal at the zoo. Once I climbed the altar, the Chief Priest gave a speech, the blessing was given, and the baptism ceremony was over. Since I had attended the coming-of-age ceremony recently, my family was not waiting at the entrance.
...Turi has work too, so I suppose it can't be helped.
"Is it over?"
"Are you going to shut yourself in the workshop again, Chief Priest? I heard from
Apparently, my great-grandfather and Baron Leyesengaang had been scheming to marry me—considered to be of Leyesengaang blood—off to the Chief Priest, making them the next Lord and pushing back against the
Because I, who had been under their protection, became the Lord's adopted daughter, and because the Chief Priest had returned to secular life after
When Baron Leyesengaang proposed that the Chief Priest marry me, the Chief Priest apparently crushed their scheme by getting
"If Lord
Eckhart shrugged as he said this, glancing at the workshop where the Chief Priest had barricaded himself. It seemed I too should remain secluded in the Temple rather than making contact, to show my posture of "I will do as the Aub Ehrenfest says."
"You seem more at ease when you're in the Temple, so being there is hardly a burden, is it?"
"Indeed. I feel no burden at all. But the same must be true for the Chief Priest, surely? He can research in peace."
Now that the blue priests had begun properly helping with the work, and the backlog left by the former High Priest had been cleared to a considerable degree, it had become easier for the Chief Priest to secure free time in the Temple.
Perhaps because nobles must never say things like "the Temple is more relaxing," he did not open his mouth, but the Chief Priest raised the corner of his lips just slightly in affirmation.
"While we are in the Temple, surely it is fine to spend time on research."
"There is something I must tell you before I return to the workshop."
"What is it?"
"About that ink. Once we finish lunch, we will head to your workshop."
The Chief Priest's expression turned somewhat severe. Had some bad result come of it? I asked
After lunch, the Chief Priest arrived carrying several small bottles containing ink. I opened the workshop door and welcomed the Chief Priest and Eckhart inside.
My guard knights, Angelika and
"I made the same ink myself and conducted various experiments..."
The Chief Priest lined up the bottles with a clinking sound. Each had a label tied on with string. Seeing the labels that read
"I understand the names, but what is this?"
"It is the ink I made with certain attributes removed."
The unusual ink had been created because of the gold powder added at the very end. Since nothing else had been changed, that was only natural. The Chief Priest had apparently made versions with one attribute removed from his own magic and versions with two attributes removed, comparing them all.
...What does "removing attributes" even mean? So fussy...
"As a result, I confirmed that unless one possesses all attributes, the ink will neither swell up nor vanish. Rozemyne—try writing with my ink."
I took the cloth and pen that were offered and tried writing. Unlike the ink I had made myself, it seeped in gradually, and after a short while it began puffing up softly.
"As expected, when the attributes and the color and quantity of magic power are similar, the seepage is reduced. If someone has all attributes, there is no doubt that using another person's ink will still cause swelling."
The Chief Priest gazed at the line I had drawn with great interest. It seemed his hypothesis had turned into conviction. He gave a satisfied nod.
I tilted my head while looking at my own line, because the ink had not produced a clean line when the Chief Priest used mine.
"It seems to me that it seeps more than when the Chief Priest used my ink..."
"It is a difference in magic power. Your magic power is lower. Writing on cloth you have dyed with your own magic power, using ink you made with your own magic power, is by far the easiest way to do it—obviously."
...When there is this kind of difference, it does make sense that you'd want to create magical tools tailored to yourself.
If even a single bottle of ink showed this much difference, of course you would want to make magical tools with your own magic power. I felt I finally understood why the Chief Priest made everything himself.
"This ink is an accidental byproduct created because you wanted high magic-power-concentration ink for dyeing cloth, wanting to avoid embroidery."
"Yes, that is correct."
"We will use it only this once for the garments, and the manufacturing method will be kept secret. It is far too dangerous."
The Chief Priest said this while gazing quietly at me. An ink that allowed magic power to be concentrated and magic circles to be activated even after the writing disappeared had endless potential for misuse.
At his words, I slowly nodded in agreement.
"It would make tampering with Contract Magic far easier, and it could be used to secretly install offensive magic circles—it's incredibly dangerous."
"...I find it frightening that you immediately thought of such nefarious uses."
"But you must have been thinking the same thing, or you wouldn't have forbidden it."
The Chief Priest made a bitter face and nodded. "Yes."
"If you want to use it as vanishing ink, only those who possess all attributes can create it—and only all-attribute holders can use it. In other words, royalty, high-ranking nobles of the central government, and select members of ruling families across the territories. If it were misused, it could lead to the overturning of an entire country or territory."
There was no need to release something so dangerous into the world. The Chief Priest was right. I hated danger and conflict. I saw no problem in keeping secret anything that was clearly going to be misused.
"I fully agree. As long as I can escape having to embroider my garments, I am satisfied."
"I appreciate that you understand the danger and agree to the seal, but as an engaged woman, embroidery is mandatory. Avoiding it is inadvisable. ...Honestly."
The Chief Priest pressed his temple as if to say his head ached, and let out a sigh.
"For the garments with magical tools in the library, embroidery should be done as before. A situation like this one—where a proper handover does not take place—could occur again, so it would be best to have you draw the magic circles in ink first, and then have someone embroider over them with thread dyed with your magic power."
The Chief Priest said that while someone else doing the embroidery would reduce the effect, it would be fine since the magic circles were already drawn in ink beforehand.
"Of course, as part of both bridal training and studying magic circles, you must embroider at least one yourself. ...Your answer?"
"...Y-yes."
Having been glared at and given an embroidery assignment, I hung my head with a defeated feeling.
...In the end, I still couldn't escape embroidery.
The Chief Priest placed the ink bottles in a wooden box meant to hold completed magical tools, then turned on his heel and told me to return the Magical Tool for preventing eavesdropping. It seemed our private conversation was over.
"Eckhart, Damuel, Angelika."
"Yes!"
"The manufacturing method for that ink has been decided to be kept secret. Everything related to that ink is to remain strictly confidential. Understood?"
"Yes!"
Angelika proudly replied that it was no problem since she hadn't remembered it in the first place. Even though she had watched the creation of magical tools up close, she had no interest at all in remembering how—the Chief Priest seemed to find her existence incomprehensible. He glanced at Angelika once, then lightly brushed it off with, "I see."
"Come to think of it, Rozemyne."
"Yes?"
"I received a report from Fran, but apparently you and the lower-city merchants have begun doing something new again regarding the dyeing of cloth."
I had left the reporting to Fran, so had something been amiss? As I tilted my head, the Chief Priest let out a light sigh.
"If it is related to a new trend, make sure to inform Lady Florentzia and
"Understood."
For the two days until Justus returned with news, my afternoons were spent blissfully absorbed in books. It was blissful right up until I was summoned with the words, "Come—Justus has information for you."
"It seems Baron Leyesengaang has finally left the castle."
Baron Leyesengaang, who had been waiting until the very last moment hoping to secure an audience with us before we returned, had apparently finally departed.
"It appears that the declaration you made at the Noble Academy—that Princess Rozemyne does not intend to become the next Lord—combined with the former guard knight Ilkgner
It seemed things had settled in the direction of keeping me within Ehrenfest rather than marrying me off to another territory. My adoptive father's persuasion and efforts had apparently played a role in this.
"Let us return to the castle. There is a meeting regarding the Lord's Conference, and Aub Ehrenfest has requested your presence to discuss plans for the lower city's improvement as well."
"Understood. Rozemyne—we will head back tomorrow."
"Yes. ...Oh."
"What is it?"
The Chief Priest narrowed his eyes at my words.
"What should we do about my personal chef? I am worried about sending a single unmarried woman to the castle kitchen."
Until the Dedication Ceremony,
"If she is alone, she will be completely targeted. Considering she could be made unable to marry, it would be safer to keep her here. Could you not use one or two of the recipes as leverage and borrow a castle cook as a personal chef for a limited period?"
"Is such a thing possible?"
"It is only until the Dedication Ceremony. The period is not long, and if they can obtain new recipes, they should be pleased."
Following the Chief Priest's advice, I decided to leave Ella at the Temple. The less danger, the better.
I explained the dangers of the castle to Ella, told her to remain at the Temple, and had Fran and the others prepare her belongings.
"Safe travels, Lady Rozemyne. We look forward to your swift return."
"I will be counting on you to prepare for the Dedication Ceremony."
Riding in a lesser sky chariot loaded with luggage alongside
"Welcome back, my lady."
Richarda led the attendants in a full reception. A rotation of guard knights took place, and Damuel and Angelika went off duty.
"What information has come in? Please tell me what has been happening at the castle."
Wilfried had apparently been on the receiving end of an indirect slander along the lines of "Should a criminal become engaged to the Saint and become the next Lord?" and was feeling dejected.
"Please comfort and support the young master while he is feeling down. You are his fiancée now, my lady."
"But it is a fact that Lord Wilfried committed an unforgivable crime, is it not? Someone who cannot accept that, put in the effort, and show the nobles up to that extent is not fit to be the next Lord."
"As long as he is marrying Lady Rozemyne, the effort to stand beside her is essential. He falls short."
"...That is up to Lord Wilfried himself to address. I wonder—has Baron Leyesengaang given up?"
I conveyed that I was aware of his desire to make me the next Lord, and asked for information on that basis. Judging from how he had lingered at the castle until the very last moment, I did not think he had given up yet.
Brunhilde, who was a relative and had been asked by my great-grandfather to visit him, told me how things had been at that time. After some small talk in which he seemed to want to learn my preferences, she said he had expressed worry that—as Veronica had persecuted the Chief Priest—he and my adoptive parents were similarly being persecuted, and that he was being threatened with being prevented from becoming the next Lord.
"When I told him that Lady Rozemyne was raised in the Temple and has not adapted to noble society, and therefore has no intention of aiming for the next Lord, he was extremely moved."
"...Moved?"
As I could not understand the notion of being moved by someone raised in the Temple given what I knew of nobles thus far, Hartmut gave a wry smile.
"He said that a princess with immense magic power, such remarkable achievements, and absolutely no issue with her bloodline—how truly admirable. He said there was no one more fitting for the title of Saint. ...The previous Baron Leyesengaang seems likely to accelerate the Saint legend even further."
"He said he would offer his full support so that you would not have to worry about your upbringing. I did tell him that Lady Rozemyne has no such desire, but he is very good at pretending to be hard of hearing, so how much he actually listened to and how much he truly heard is uncertain..."
...Whoa, great-grandfather!?
It seemed my great-grandfather was going to continue scheming behind the scenes to help me become the next Lord.
Once the report on the results of the intelligence gathering was finished, Hartmut brought over documents.
"Here is the compiled material from when we renovated the Noble Academy dormitory, and here is the material from when we renovated the castle and the Noble District."
With my mother taking the lead in responding to the communication I had sent about the lower city's improvement, Hartmut and
"That is very helpful. Then, here are mine as well. This is from my discussions with the
I handed the two of them the documents that Fran had written for me. Since they had been written to report to the Chief Priest, they were essentially minutes recording the entire sequence of events. I asked them to extract only the relevant portions.
Hartmut flipped through the documents with a rustling sound, then narrowed his eyes slightly.
"Were these documents compiled by the Temple's attendants?"
"In the Temple, the attendants also handle the work of scribes. Before Fran and
"That is true. I never imagined the Temple's gray priests had such capabilities."
Hartmut began examining the documents with a serious gaze.
Philine reacted to the mention of the Temple's gray priests and looked at me. Seeing her worried expression and knowing what she wanted to ask, I smiled reassuringly.
"Conrad is doing well. He smiles more now and eats properly, I hear. When I visited the orphanage, he had made friends with a child his age and was being taught letters and arithmetic."
"I see."
Philine pressed her hand to her chest in relief, then blinked several times and tilted her head.
"Um, Lady Rozemyne. When you say Conrad is being taught letters and arithmetic..."
"My orphanage has karuta, playing cards, and picture books, and even before baptism the children can naturally read, write, and do arithmetic. So Conrad, who still cannot do those things, is being taught by the other orphans."
When I said this, Philine was struck speechless, her eyes widening. Hartmut also looked at me in surprise, blinking rapidly.
"Lady Rozemyne—then are the orphans in the Temple receiving a better education than the lower-ranking nobles around here?"
Philine, who after her own baptism ceremony had barely been able to trace letters, nodded vigorously. I thought about the state of the children at the orphanage compared to the children's room at the castle.
"I do not know what kind of education ordinary nobles receive, but if you compare children right after their baptism ceremony, I believe they have roughly the education of a mid-ranking noble's child—magic power aside. The karuta and playing cards were originally used in the orphanage, and once they proved effective there, we introduced them to the castle's children's room."
I added, of course, that comparing them was difficult since the study time and required knowledge after the baptism ceremony were different.
"If one does not shun the Temple, it might be possible to accept lower-ranking nobles' children at low cost and provide them with an education. But the image of the Temple is not favorable, so it would be difficult, I suppose. The Temple school is a project for the future."
"A Temple school?"
"I am planning to eventually teach reading, writing, and arithmetic to commoners as well. It is a plan spanning ten or twenty years, though."
I said this and concluded the topic, then let my gaze fall to the documents before me. At the end of the gathered materials, the magic power and time needed for the lower city's renovation had been calculated.
...For a few years my magic power will be stretched thin, but it's not impossible.
"Um, Lady Rozemyne. What is this dyeing here?"
At Philine's voice, I raised my eyes.
"They say this is a cloth-dyeing method that existed in Ehrenfest long ago. When I was thinking about making the Schwartzes' garments—not just in a single color but in various fabrics—I consulted with the Gilberta Company, and it turned out an old technique existed. I asked the dyeing workshop to see if they could revive that old technique."
That was the simplified version of how it had come about. I explained shibori dyeing and batik dyeing to Philine, but since she had never seen the actual things, they did not seem to register with her. It was Richarda who responded.
"Shibori dyeing and batik dyeing? How nostalgic."
"Richarda, you know about them?"
"Before coming of age, it was common to wear such things. If you search the household's garment room, there might still be some fabric left."
Apparently, items that had been gifted or held sentimental value were not discarded but carefully preserved. I wanted to see what those once-popular dyeing methods actually looked like.
"Please show me sometime."
"Yes, of course."
While I was making that promise with Richarda, Brunhilde spoke in a slightly dissatisfied tone.
"What would you do with such old things? Do not dwell on old things—create new trends instead."
"Brunhilde, the point is to use old things to create something even newer. Whether it can be utilized well depends not only on the skill of the craftsmen but also on our own discernment. We are not simply using the old methods as they are—we are creating new dyeing techniques. Why not not only spread trends but also create them together with me, Brunhilde?"
Brunhilde's eyes widened slightly as if struck by a realization.
She had spent all her time thinking about finding good things and sending trends out from Ehrenfest, but because of her age, faction dynamics, and the fact that my adoptive mother and mother stood above her, she apparently had never considered creating trends on her own.
"I trust Brunhilde's discernment. You accurately selected the quatre-quarts, tea, and the scent of lindshen that I presented to Lady
At my words, Brunhilde smiled proudly and nodded. Her amber eyes, now given a new goal of creating trends, shone with a bright light.
"I will select the fabrics that best suit Lady Rozemyne, and present them to you. And together with Lady Rozemyne, I will create new trends."
Once the Schwartzes' garment-making was done, the fluffy ink would be locked away.
And so it goes that the Chief Priest's vault is full of dangerous magical tools just like this one.
And so I returned to the castle.
The dyeing competition gained some formidable judges.
Next, I speak with Lord Sylvester.