Visiting the Shrines

Even though I now knew the location of the shrines, there was no way I could go there myself, given that my movements were limited to shuttling between the underground archive and the dormitory. What on earth was I supposed to do about this? It would have been easy if I could go for a walk like I had with Hannelore and Hildebrand the other day, but we had been told not to wander outside, so that was out of the question.

With no good ideas coming to mind, I headed for the underground archive. It seemed like Anastasius and Eglantine would be there again this morning, just like always. It was shaping up to be a routine day, and I nodded along with a soft "hoh, hoh" as I gathered my writing materials.

"Lady Rozemyne, please wait just a moment."

"What is it, Lady Eglantine?"

Called to a stop, I turned around. Standing beside Eglantine, who wore a gentle smile, was Anastasius, his expression slightly sour.

"Today, you shall accompany us to the shrines."

"I beg your pardon?"

"I would like to see firsthand how the shrines are cleansed using wide-area magic… and I would like you to try it."

With a delicate, flower-blossoming smile, Eglantine said this to me. When I saw Anastasius looking resigned as he remarked, "You're about the only one who can cleanse the shrines with wide-area magic," I had no choice but to understand that this was the will of the royal family.

…So this is how they came at me.

It must have been because I had been vague about entering the shrine at the tea party. They intended to create a situation where I would definitely enter the shrines, under the surveillance of the royal family.

…I really didn't want to think that Eglantine and Prince Anastasius would resort to such heavy-handed methods.

Feeling as though I had swallowed a stone, my mood weighed down, I somewhat dejectedly left the library accompanied by my attendants and the two royals. I moved on a Lesser Beast so my speed could match theirs. Anastasius appeared to be heading for the shrines beyond the civil officials' building.

"Rozemyne, take this."

Handed an anti-eavesdropping Magical Tool, I looked up at Anastasius. His gray eyes glared at me, clearly displeased.

"You apparently went to a consultation even excluding me, and then kept secrets from Eglantine. Last night, Eglantine was quite downcast, you know."

"…Lady Eglantine asks questions that I simply cannot answer from my position, Your Highness. That is what's cruel."

If I said, "I cannot enter the shrines," I would be asked, "Are you lying to the royal family?" And if I answered, "I have already entered the shrine and obtained the Slate," no one could blame them for calling it treason. It was even more disrespectful than Detlinde's empty threats.

…That's precisely why I kept quiet. And yet they accuse me of keeping secrets.

On top of that, being ordered to accompany them to the shrines and told to try entering—there was no escape for me. I had no choice but to obey a royal command, but being coerced by these two left a bitter taste. I had done my best to act like a proper noble, only to be forcefully exposed. The one who wanted to sink into despair was me.

"I'm sorry, Lady Rozemyne. But this is something I cannot yield on."

Her cute apology did nothing to lighten the weight in my heart. Eglantine may have wanted a secret trick for Sigiswald to enter the shrines in order to prevent conflict, but I couldn't teach her something I didn't know. All I could say was that if one kept reading the Slates, perhaps something would come up.

"After all, you've been praying at the Temple and increasing your divine blessings, so you should be able to enter that shrine. You handle those divine instruments with ease and perform religious rites. There would be no point in hiding it."

"…Not everything is mine to share. Was it not Prince Anastasius himself who told me to understand the value of information? You could at least praise me for improving so much, you know."

When I spoke with a slightly teasing tone, I was met with a glare and a sharp "Rozemyne."

"Are you ordering me to tell you everything?"

"Yes. When you hide things from me, I get the feeling that something dreadful is happening behind my back. Between the two of us, everything was supposed to work well when we laid everything bare. Stop making strange excuses. You handle divine instruments with ease and perform major religious rites so effortlessly—there is no way you cannot enter the shrines."

He didn't praise me for having grown as a noble. Instead, he told me not to hide things. These were consequences of my own past actions, so I had no one to blame but myself. But the truth was, I currently had no solution that would satisfy Eglantine's wishes.

The reason Prince Sigiswald could not enter the shrines was because his Stave hadn't been obtained with all elements. The reason he didn't know there was a trick to gaining all elements in the underground archive was because the royal family suffered from terrible information isolation. The one who had decided that obtaining a Stave could only be done once wasn't me, and I had no power to change that.

I obviously couldn't say something like, "I want to obtain the Book of Mestionora, read it myself, use it to negotiate the avoidance of Ferdinand's associative punishment, and then surrender it to the royal family." The moment it was discovered that I could enter the shrines, the conversation would shift to how a Zent candidate like me should be brought under the royal family's control. There was no way the royal family would leave someone who might obtain Grutrissheit to their own devices.

"…If you considered what the royal family intends to do after confirming that I can enter the shrines, you would want to stay silent too. I have absolutely no desire to leave Ehrenfest, where my family lives, and enter as a third wife to a couple I just blessed at their wedding ceremony only days ago."

Since I had been told not to hide things, I spoke my feelings plainly. Anastasius murmured, "I see. You've started thinking a bit more," and Eglantine giggled, "Oh my, today you're sharing your thoughts without any secrets." Neither of them denied my words.

"I understand what Lady Rozemyne is saying, but the conflict that has finally begun to settle in the central region must be prevented at all costs. Besides, as Lady Rozemyne herself said, Grutrissheit is urgently needed. Lady Rozemyne, you will cooperate with us, won't you?"

Eglantine smiled with her usual gentle expression, and I quietly averted my gaze. I had enough sense not to say "No" here.

While being silently pressured by that smile, we arrived at the shrine.

I returned the anti-eavesdropping Magical Tool to Anastasius and used a Vaschen to thoroughly wash the shrine with wide-area magic. Eglantine watched with an expression of admiration and smiled, saying, "How wonderful."

"Rozemyne, check if this shrine is locked too."

At Anastasius's words, I reached for the door with a heavy heart. The next instant, after the sensation of being drawn into the door, I was inside the shrine. In the center, arranged in a row, were goddesses—the round shield on the left, and the yellow Slate on the right.

"…It's the shrine of the Wind Goddess."

I recited the names of the gods as I prayed, then picked up the already-completed Slate.

"Your prayers have reached me. I recognize you, and grant you the words to obtain the Book of Mestionora from Stellaria…"

The engraved text was the same as the standard passage. The only difference was the words that were granted. As I felt the Slate merge with the Stave inside me and the Slate's text carved into my mind, I opened my mouth.

"Taidihinda."

Immediately afterward, I was outside the shrine. My gaze collided with the eyes of Anastasius and Eglantine, who were staring down at me intently to see whether I had managed to enter or not. Lying and saying "I couldn't get in" would do me no good here.

"…The yellow lines have increased, it seems."

"What?"

The strange lines running across the top of the shrine now included not just blue but also more yellow ones. Seeing the two of them turn to look where I was staring and exchange bewildered expressions, I put on a vague smile.

"Shall we visit the other shrines as well?"

When I asked, Eglantine blinked as if she couldn't believe what she was hearing, then looked at me with concern.

"Are you quite alright?"

"Yes. I'm fine."

Anastasius shut his eyes tightly once, then said, "On to the next," and started walking.

"Mount your riding beast, Rozemyne. You're too slow."

Riding a single-person Lesser Beast, I moved through the forest. Perhaps it was because I had said the shrines were spaced roughly equally apart—Anastasius seemed to have already confirmed their locations too. He walked without hesitation.

Once again, an anti-eavesdropping Magical Tool was pressed into my hand, and as I gripped it, Anastasius declared, "You will marry my brother as his third wife."

"That way, everything will be resolved peacefully."

"Not peacefully at all! I would love to read the goddess's book, but I have absolutely no interest in being Prince Sigiswald's third wife."

The only ones who would be at peace with that arrangement were the royal family. I was not the least bit convinced.

"…Eglantine does not desire conflict centered around herself, and she fears becoming the next Zent. If Eglantine obtains Grutrissheit, the greater duchies led by Klassenburg will mobilize at once."

Anastasius, who was thinking only of granting Eglantine's wishes, annoyed me.

"You would push the seeds of conflict onto me, and if something happens, redirect the resentment of the surrounding territories toward Ehrenfest—then the central region and the royal family would be at peace. But do you really think Ehrenfest would accept that? I have a fiancé, and I wish to remain in Ehrenfest—"

"Ah, you said something similar during the negotiations with Dunkelfelger as well."

Despite my protests, Anastasius showed no sign of changing his attitude, and I pursued my lips.

"…Neither Prince Anastasius nor Lady Eglantine are thinking about Ehrenfest at all, are you?"

"I wouldn't say 'at all,' but when compared to preventing conflict in the central region, it is not particularly important. Ehrenfest's people can think about Ehrenfest's problems."

Just as I could not fully grasp or think on a personal level about the affairs of the central region, Eglantine apparently could not do the same for Ehrenfest.

"What I think about is the royal family, the central region, and Jürgen Schmidt. And then, Eglantine. If it means dispelling Eglantine's anxiety and sorrow, then so be it."

Anastasius said that in pursuit of his priorities, my feelings and Ehrenfest's current situation would be cast aside. After all the cooperation I had given the royal family, the fact that my feelings were not considered at all left a deeply bitter taste.

"If you truly mean for Ehrenfest to handle its own problems, then the central region should handle its own affairs as well. If Lady Eglantine holds Grutrissheit, Klassenburg would back her, and the central Temple would not object. It would have far less impact than a non-royal like me obtaining Grutrissheit. Please do not keep snatching away Ehrenfest's lord candidates one after another."

"You've gone too far, Rozemyne."

Anastasius glared at me, but I glared right back.

"I'm only saying what I'm not hiding. If you intend to command me by royal decree to become Prince Sigiswald's third wife, then at least return Lord Ferdinand to Ehrenfest. Ehrenfest is in dire straits without him."

"Impossible. Ahrensbach would collapse."

My wish was dismissed without a moment's hesitation. Yet he was telling me Ehrenfest should handle its own problems—the inconsistency was striking.

"The treatment of Ehrenfest and Ahrensbach is remarkably different, isn't it? What happened to the promise to treat us as a winning duchy starting from this Lord's Conference? Are my contributions to Ehrenfest and to the royal family really that trivial?"

If he told me that was simply how the royal family operated, then that would be that. But I couldn't help clenching my back teeth in frustration. Eglantine smiled at me with the look one might give a troublesome child throwing a tantrum.

"Lady Rozemyne's contributions are by no means trivial. However, in terms of urgency and importance, Ahrensbach ranks above Ehrenfest."

Ahrensbach was a major winning duchy that managed half of the Werkestock territory. In terms of land area, population, and the only open border gate, its importance was on an entirely different level from Ehrenfest's. And yet it had only two adult members of the ruling family. Including Ferdinand, that made three.

"The one currently propping up Ahrensbach in practice is Ferdinand. Without a Zent who holds Grutrissheit, nothing can be done."

"…What do you mean?"

"A Zent with Grutrissheit must redraw the duchy's borders, carve out Ahrensbach's territory into smaller fiefdoms, and assign lord candidates from each territory as Aub to manage them—only then can Ferdinand be returned to Ehrenfest."

Eglantine nodded at Anastasius's words.

"Starting with the central region, the greater duchies are currently managing the territories of duchies that lost the political upheaval, all without a Grutrissheit. If Ahrensbach were to collapse now, there would be no way to redistribute the burden. Could neighboring Ehrenfest bear all of Ahrensbach's responsibilities?"

Ehrenfest, which had lost nobles in the purge, could barely manage its own territory. There was no margin for taking on additional management.

"If we were not so desperately short on Magic Power, Lady Detlinde's sort of behavior would never have been overlooked," Eglantine explained. "Lady Magdalena was quite furious during her recent visit, after all." Apparently, Detlinde's rudeness that day had been at a level where execution on the spot would not have been out of order.

In other words, once the royal family had some magical breathing room, Detlinde would be the first to be dealt with. It felt as though cold water had been dumped over my head.

"…Then please, at the very least, promise me that Lord Ferdinand will not be implicated in Lady Detlinde's punishment. He was given a royal command to either drive his own brother from power or marry an unwanted partner while being drugged and worked to the bone in Ahrensbach. How would you feel, Prince Anastasius, if you were ordered to either overthrow Prince Sigiswald or forced into marriage with Lady Detlinde? And on top of that, if you were implicated in Lady Detlinde's disrespectful behavior…"

After making an extremely unpleasant face, Anastasius turned his gray eyes on me in a provocative manner.

"If Ferdinand becomes her husband formally, associative punishment is unavoidable. If you want to save Ferdinand from that fate, obtain the Grutrissheit within one year of the postponed wedding ceremony."

I shuddered at the gaze of a man who would not hesitate to use me, then stared back at Prince Anastasius.

"…If I obtain the Grutrissheit, will you return Lord Ferdinand to Ehrenfest?"

"If you can predict and devise countermeasures for all the various consequences of removing Ferdinand from Ahrensbach and returning him to Ehrenfest, and then carry it out, then go ahead. …Look, we've arrived."

Anastasius pointed ahead, cutting the conversation short. What he was pointing at was a water shrine. I obtained the green Slate.

…I would obtain it right now if it meant saving Lord Ferdinand.

The Slate was already completed inside the shrine. I didn't know what I would need to do after obtaining it, but I was determined to give it my all. I would not let Ferdinand be implicated in Detlinde's punishment.

The shrine of life did not have a completed Slate, but after praying inside and offering Magic Power, it was finished. At shrines where Slates were not yet complete, I offered Magic Power and one by one completed and absorbed the Slates. By the time I had obtained all of them, my Magic Power had been significantly depleted, so I drank a restorative potion infused with kindness from the pouch at my waist.

Otilie's face went pale when she saw me reaching for the potion.

"Lady Rozemyne, has the Vaschen placed too great a strain on you? Even setting that aside, today's travel distance seems quite long…"

"Don't worry. This is the last of it. Once Rozemyne has recovered, we'll head back."

Hearing Anastasius's voice, I waved to Otilie, assuring her, "I'll be fine once my Magic Power recovers." I returned a smile to her concerned gaze as I waited for my recovery.

…Huh?

It felt like the sensation of Magic Power overflowing to the point of being unusable was gone. I began compressing my Magic Power little by little. It felt as though there was no problem compressing it the same way I had before the blessing ritual. I stared at my own hand and tilted my head.

…Has my Stave… grown?

"Is something the matter, Lady Rozemyne?"

Eglantine called out to me with concern. I glanced around briefly. She noticed my gesture of being conscious of others' gazes and handed me the anti-eavesdropping Magical Tool. Anastasius, who had sharply noticed that I intended to have a private conversation, came over.

"I think my Stave has grown."

"Hah? What do you mean?"

"It's based on my feelings, so I'm not entirely sure myself, but… Do you remember when I told you that the Stave I obtained as a first-year student no longer suited me?"

Anastasius nodded, saying, "Ah, I recall," and I continued while opening and closing my hands.

"The magic stones obtained in the shrines are very similar to the will of the gods. Once I absorbed all the magic stones, handling Magic Power became much easier. If my Stave is being improved by obtaining the magic stones from the shrines, then perhaps there might be some way for Prince Sigiswald and Prince Anastasius as well."

"Lady Rozemyne!"

Eglantine's face lit up with joy. Even being met with such delight, I wasn't sure if it would really work. More importantly, this would mean a long road of praying at small shrines, endlessly offering Magic Power, and collecting magic stones one by one.

"It would be an incredibly long and uncertain path—praying at small shrines, reacquiring the blessings of the great gods, going to the Garden of Beginning, and perhaps then being able to improve the Stave. I don't even know if real improvement is possible."

"Even so, it's more than having no options at all."

My heart warmed at Eglantine's radiant smile, and I quickly shook my head.

"Lady Rozemyne?"

"We've visited the shrines, but I'm not sure what to do next."

"For now, we're heading back to the underground archive. There isn't much time before the fourth bell."

I returned the anti-eavesdropping Magical Tool to Anastasius and mounted my riding beast. Anastasius ordered his retainers to use riding beasts as well, and together we galloped toward the library.

…Oh!

As we rose above the treetops to travel through the sky, I saw lines of countless colors connecting shrine to shrine, forming a complex pattern—a massive magic circle. I wasn't flying high enough to see its full shape, so I couldn't tell what kind of magic circle it was. But it seemed to cover everything up to the edges of the Royal Academy. The center of the magic circle was the central building. Most likely, the innermost room.

I didn't know what was happening. But there was no doubt that something extraordinary was taking place.

My chest thumped with a sickening sound.

I was taken on a shrine tour by Anastasius and Eglantine against my will.

The next Zent candidate was to be secured by the royal family.

All the Slates had been obtained, and a massive magic circle had appeared.

Next, deeper into the underground archive.