Health Check and Holy Book Creation

"If there are other royals of Lanzenave besides Leonzio, we should move quickly. Let's head to the workshop, Rozemyne."

"Huh? I thought we were going to listen to everyone's reports starting now?"

"That can wait. Tell everyone to report to Justus and Hartmut instead."

For the time before dinner could be prepared, I was relegated to the workshop Ferdinand had been assigned. Ferdinand's room in the west wing had been ransacked by Lanzenave and was still in a complete mess. Scratches covered every surface, and destroyed items were scattered everywhere. I looked around the room and grimaced.

"It's in a terrible state."

"I only had what remained of my belongings moved to the guest room."

"Since Lord Ferdinand needs a separate room to rest in, Zelgius has already moved the undamaged belongings there, and the items we brought from Ehrenfest have been organized in that room as well. I never expected the workshop would be needed this urgently."

Justus shrugged helplessly as he carried wooden crates filled with materials taken from the Library workshop on Ehrenfest—loaded onto a wagon. My brother Cornelius, who had been walking behind me, spoke up.

"Wait, Lord Ferdinand! You intend to lock yourselves in the hidden room, just the two of you? I cannot approve of that, no matter what. At the very least, please have a guard knight or a scholar who can assist with potion-making present."

"Anyone who wants in is free to enter. There's no time—we're in a hurry. Don't get in the way."

Ferdinand took the wagon from Justus and strode straight into the hidden room. Brother Eckhart stopped in front of the hidden room's entrance and stood guard right there, jerking his chin in a "hurry up and get inside" gesture. I nodded quickly and slipped into the hidden room.

...Ferdinand's hidden room has a Magic Power restriction, if I remember correctly.

The Temple's hidden room had been that way. I couldn't imagine that the Ahrensbach hidden room—which required extra vigilance—wouldn't have a similar restriction. Once inside, I waited for my guard knights, including Brother Cornelius, to follow. As expected, no one came in.

"...Lord Ferdinand, it seems Brother Cornelius was rejected?"

"Naturally."

Even as he said this, the Magical Tool for communicating with the outside began flashing, and Brother Cornelius's voice echoed through.

"Lord Ferdinand, please lift the restriction immediately!"

"No. If you want in, raise your own Magic Power. Eckhart—if they make too much noise, tie them up. Don't call me until dinner."

Ferdinand directed those words toward the Magical Tool that relayed outside voices, then cut off the conversation and turned to me.

"Rozemyne, come here. I want to examine you before those noisy people start up again. Assessing your current condition is the most important thing of all."

Saying something rather harsh in a matter-of-fact tone, Ferdinand touched my forehead and wrists and began his usual health check. As he confirmed various things, he muttered with clear dissatisfaction, "You've gotten rather good at masking your condition, haven't you?"

"Oh my—shouldn't that be a compliment? It sounds like you're saying I've become quite the proper noble?"

I pouted, feeling it was unfair to be scolded for getting better at hiding my condition, and Ferdinand lightly pinched my cheek and glared at me. "Well done," he said.

"I don't feel the slightest bit praised, though..."

"Your Magic Power is far more unstable than I anticipated. Could the erratic surge during prayers also be caused by this instability? You shouldn't need prayers on the scale of running out into the city for mourning the dead or healing soldiers."

"I offered prayers to mourn the fallen on both sides, and as for healing the soldiers, I had my eyes closed so I didn't know how much was appropriate."

At my words, Ferdinand looked at me with a displeased expression. "Did you really need to mourn the enemy?"

"...Even if Yurgenschmidt doesn't have that custom, I wanted to do it."

"Ah, a custom from the other side..."

Ferdinand, ever perceptive. That was quick.

"I'm not saying it wasn't saintly of you, but watch the amount of Magic Power. When you heal Commoners who lack Magic Power, an excess can have the opposite effect—actually causing harm. Stop healing with your eyes closed."

"...Was it really that much?"

"It was enough to spread across the entire city."

It might have been because I wanted to heal everyone who had fought in Ehrenfest, but looking at it from others' perspectives, it probably was excessive.

"Right now, you can't draw excess Magic Power into magic stones, so releasing it through prayers is safer in a sense, but..."

Because my clump of Magic Power had been consumed by the Lebe and my body had grown, apparently the danger to those around me whenever my Magic Power became unstable had actually increased. Ferdinand stared at me with a furrowed brow and a grave expression.

"Insomnia, loss of appetite, fear of magic stones... Are there any other symptoms you've noticed?"

"No other symptoms particularly. If only I could do something about the fear of magic stones, though..."

Ferdinand maintained his stern expression as he fired off question after question—what kind of magic stones scared me most, in what situations the fear was strongest, whether the Stab seemed fine or if there were other usable Magical Tools.

"Completely unprocessed raw stones are the scariest. After that, the Ordinances. When I see a living creature turn into a magic stone, the memories of that battle come flooding back all at once..."

"Hmm. The Stab doesn't look like a magic stone, so it doesn't bother you? Now that I think of it, you had your eyes closed when you used the Flutne staff as well. Even a modified Stab—would you still be uncomfortable if it had a magic stone attached?"

"...The process of imagining it in my head made me feel a bit sick, so I looked away."

"But as long as it's not in your line of sight, you can still use Magical Tools, it seems. How about this?"

He handed me a seed, and I tilted my head. The seed rolling in my palm looked like it might be a Scharlach seed.

"The material itself is fine. Try infusing Magic Power into it. I want to confirm whether you can touch it now that you know what the original material is."

Being told to create a magic stone myself, my hands began to tremble. Ferdinand took my hand and guided me to sit on the long chair. I gripped the Scharlach seed and sat down on the hard, unfamiliar seat for the first time in a while. The seed in my hand seemed to be asserting its presence in an odd way.

"Um, Lord Ferdinand. I..."

Ferdinand sat down beside me and patted my shoulder encouragingly. "If you feel you can't manage it, just drop the Scharlach seed or close your eyes—whichever you prefer." Because I had grown, his face was much closer than before. His pale golden eyes gazed at me with concern.

"You're being surprisingly kind. Back in the old days, wouldn't you have been yelling at me to hurry up?"

This didn't seem like the Ferdinand I knew—the one who, when I was feeling unwell or suffering from insomnia, would drive me like a demon if he judged it necessary.

As I let my honest thoughts slip out, he glared at me. "So you'd prefer me to be stricter?"

Absolutely not.

"I knew you were already weak when it came to the loss of blood and life, and yet I chose a direct breakthrough and prioritized saving the knight order at Gerlach. This is the result. You've been burdened with a fatal weakness for a noble—a fear of magic stones. ...If my being a bit soft in how I handle this will help you recover, that would be fine, but I doubt it's that simple."

Ferdinand hesitantly placed his hand on my head. His awkward gesture eased some of the tension from my shoulders.

"It was because you resolved to act alongside us, and because you—capable of casting wide-area healing magic—made the direct breakthrough and rejoined us, that the Gerlach knight order was saved. Don't forget that."

"...Yes."

As I continued infusing Magic Power, the Scharlach seed began transforming into a yellow magic stone. My body stiffened up despite myself.

"It's a seed from a magical tree, Rozemyne. This is a Scharlach seed. It's nothing to be afraid of."

Ferdinand's voice tried to reassure me, but what I saw before my eyes was a magic stone. I managed to transform the material into a magic stone, but the terror of holding one was too much, and I ended up pouring Magic Power into it almost forcefully. The Scharlach seed was reduced to gold powder in an instant.

"K-It seems I can make gold powder, so I should be able to give some to Father for repairs on the Gerlach estate."

"There's no need for that strained, unconvincing smile in here. I'm sorry for scaring you, but I needed to confirm a few things. You should rest and take the medicine I've prepared until I'm finished."

Ferdinand stood, measured out medicine from a cabinet and handed it to me, then began rustling through things—pulling out items, arranging them, preparing for potion-making. He clearly hadn't been exaggerating when he told Brother Cornelius there was no time; his hands moved without a shred of hesitation.

Watching Ferdinand pull out bundles of paper, I sniffed the medicine I'd been given. It smelled different from the recovery potions I usually took.

"What is this medicine?"

"It comes in handy when you need to eat but really don't want to. After this, we can't very well avoid touching the food at Ahrensbach, can we? Take it now."

The thought of eating Ahrensbach's heavily spiced cuisine in my current condition was daunting. I remembered the "healthy meal" I'd been served after being bedridden for two days, and promptly drank the medicine.

"Where is Lady Dietlinde right now? She can't enter the dormitory, and she can't go back to the Lanzenave estate, can she?"

"...The Lanzenave estate has a transfer circle used by the princess heading to the detached palace and the child who will become the next ruler. If she used the transfer circle at the Lanzenave estate, she might be staying at the Adalgisa detached palace? That palace is located in the Royal Academy. It's the perfect place to obtain the Grutrissheit."

Apparently, the Zent at the time when Adalgisa was accepted had refused to provide housing on the central land where the nobles resided.

"How do you know things like that, Lord Ferdinand?"

"It flowed in on its own. Let's hope your Holy Book doesn't contain those kinds of descriptions. There's no need for you to know."

It seemed this was knowledge that had flowed in when he obtained the Book of Mestionora. I checked my own Book of Mestionora. There was virtually nothing—almost literally nothing—related to Adalgisa.

"I want to write your knowledge into this."

Ferdinand moved a low table in front of the long chair and heaped a large stack of paper onto it. The magical paper I'd sent him was covered with writing. Thinking about the fact that we were about to create a book, I felt a small flutter of excitement.

"Grutrissheit."

Ferdinand sat down beside me and pulled out his Book of Mestionora, flipping it wide open. Seeing the large book spread open, I leaned in close to peek. Characters appeared floating on the page—but large portions were full of holes.

"Rozemyne, find the passage about border gates in your Book of Mestionora."

Ferdinand pointed to the hollow sections and asked me to search for "descriptions about border gates." I took out my own Book of Mestionora and began searching. Meanwhile, Ferdinand reached across the table, glanced through several sheets of paper, and picked up the one with the missing passage.

"Here it is."

Comparing the passage that appeared in my Book of Mestionora with Ferdinand's open copy, I confirmed there were no errors. Ferdinand, watching my Book of Mestionora, began transcribing from the magical paper in his hand, filling in the gaps as he went. His hand moved quickly, but writing all of this would be a huge task.

"Lord Ferdinand, what if I used Copycipepettan on the magical paper? Wouldn't copying all of it by hand be exhausting?"

"...Anything to save time would be appreciated. But can you actually do that?"

"Heh heh—just watch."

I placed my fingertips on my Book of Mestionora and designated the starting and ending points.

"Copycipepettan!"

"Rozemyne, the font size doesn't match."

"Huh? Wh-What?"

I had never before used Copycipepettan to fill in blank spaces within existing text. I couldn't stamp the characters at exactly the right size to match what was already there.

"I-It's uneven, but it's still readable, right?"

"It's not beautiful."

"...Yeah, I thought so too."

Having the font size suddenly change in the middle made it look terrible, and honestly, it was hard to read too.

"It's extremely ugly, but since this section is text-only, the different font size is at least still legible. However, for magic circles, if the size doesn't match, they won't connect and the spell won't be completed. That would be a problem. You won't be able to use your new magic."

"W-Wait! Let me try—I might be able to enlarge or shrink it."

"I told you there's no time. It's faster to write it myself."

Ferdinand gave up on Copycipepettan without a second thought.

"It's supposed to be quite useful, you know! Please don't discard it so easily."

"I'm not discarding it. We can study it later. I'm telling you there's no time right now."

"I developed this specifically to save time!"

It would be devastating if it proved useless here. As I argued for its utility, Ferdinand reluctantly turned his Book of Mestionora toward me.

"Very well. Then try copying the contents of your Holy Book into mine. Having to check everything through you one by one is tedious, so if this works it would be immensely helpful. But if it can't be done, give it up for now."

"Understood. Let me try. Copycipepettan!"

I used Copycipepettan on Ferdinand's Holy Book. I tried stamping to fill in the blanks from before. Magic Power was smoothly absorbed along with the characters.

"It worked! It worked, Lord Ferdinand! The font size is perfect, and the knowledge has been completely filled in!"

Looking at Ferdinand with hopeful anticipation—surely this proves its usefulness— he sat with his arms crossed and a troubled expression, deep in thought.

"It's convenient, I'll admit, but..."

"Is there some kind of problem?"

After thinking for a moment, Ferdinand slowly stood and retrieved two test-tube-like vials.

"I agree it's very convenient, time-saving, and logical, but... could you drink this and this first?"

"What are these?"

"You've had them before. If you drink them, you'll understand."

I drank without fully understanding. The first one was sweeter and easier to drink than a recovery potion, but it was a flavor I'd never tasted before. Honestly, I had no idea what it was. The second one, however, I recognized immediately. It was the medicine I'd been given as emergency treatment when my Magic Power was depleted.

"I didn't understand the first one, but I recognized the second—it's the medicine I've been given before. But, um, my Magic Power is fine right now..."

"You didn't understand it? I see. Well, that's fine. Now fill in everything in the sections I indicate."

Ferdinand shook his head slightly, braced himself with a deep exhale, then turned the page with renewed focus. Watching him, I searched and used Copycipepettan to fill in the content. Over and over again.

"...Lord Ferdinand, are you all right? You don't look well."

Following his instructions with Copycipepettan, I glanced at Ferdinand beside me. He was clutching his head, rubbing his upper arm—something was clearly wrong.

"Don't worry about me."

"But I can't help it! You clearly aren't in good shape. ...Ah! After being poisoned, you've barely had any rest, have you? Shouldn't you prioritize recovery over creating the Holy Book..."

"Cornelius is in that state. There's a chance I won't be let into the hidden room next time. As long as the essential sections for official use have been copied, I can handle the rest on my own. Focus on this for now."

He glared at me—there's only time until dinner, you know— and I continued Copycipepettan-ing as directed. Copycipepettan, Copycipepettan.

"With this much done, I can manage the rest on my own. There are steps involving magic stones anyway."

By the time the Copycipepettan was finished, Ferdinand looked utterly drained.