"We're leaving the room, so the rest of you stand down. You're in the way."
"Ferdinand!? Has something happened to
The first to rush over was
…Huh? Could it be that I'm the only one who's oddly self-conscious about this situation?
"I want you all to be mindful of minimizing the strain on Rozemyne's stamina and ensure she doesn't walk around on her own. Depending on the situation, we may not be able to use recovery potions from now on."
"We won't be able to use potions at all? Not even the ones that restore stamina significantly?"
The attendants fixed Ferdinand with intense stares at Hartmut's question.
"The stamina-recovery potions are quite potent, but they don't completely prevent mana recovery. Even a tiny amount of mana recovery causes the divine influence to swell enormously, which becomes a physical burden for Rozemyne. I'd like to avoid using them as much as possible."
Ferdinand said irritably that he didn't have time to research a mana-free recovery potion, then handed me off to
"Rozemyne, it seems like you're in quite a difficult situation."
I averted my eyes slightly as Angelica consoled me in a tone that was hard to read as either understanding or oblivious. The kind of "difficult" everyone else was thinking about and the kind I was thinking about were quite far apart.
…This is no time to be agonizing over how I blurted out something indecent to
Not just Ferdinand, but all the attendants around me seemed completely unfazed by who was holding me. They all looked so perfectly normal that I started to feel embarrassed about being embarrassed.
Come to think of it, I'd been completely detached from anything romantic ever since my days as Tsuwabuki. There was no way romantic drama would suddenly spring up now, and it would be strange to get flustered over something that wasn't even happening.
…I'd rather be in a relationship with books. If my insides haven't changed, then there's no way a total bookaholic like me could handle a proper romance. Besides, the very idea of romance with Ferdinand is absurd, and being weirdly self-conscious about it is just egotism gone wild. Mm-hm.
Having lectured myself, I took a slow, deep breath. My blunder with Eglantine still stung, but apparently those around me weren't taking issue with Ferdinand's contact with me nearly as much as I'd feared.
…Huh? But just a little while ago, I was told to keep my distance. Why the change? Because it's an emergency? No, but it was an emergency back then too, wasn't it?
As I found it puzzling and raised my head to ask, Ferdinand swept his gaze across the attendants and spoke.
"If the gold dust creation today allows us to expend enough mana to reach depletion by tonight, that would be ideal, but based on the consumption rate so far, I can't be optimistic. On top of that, a single night's sleep will recover at least some mana. We need to check how much of Rozemyne's mana recovers, but it's unlikely to recover none at all. Therefore, I want preparations made so we can depart for the trip to fill
No attendant objected to the rushed schedule—rather, their faces grew taut with urgency, as if thinking, *Is there really so little time?* "All attendants with permission to accompany us to Ahrensbach, begin packing your belongings now and return to Ahrensbach to prepare for the Prayer Ritual departure. Since Ahrensbach suffered poor harvests, special care will need to be taken in arranging cooks and ingredients. As for Rozemyne's potions, I will handle them personally so that stamina-recovery potions can be used in an emergency. Hartmut, you are to proceed to the
Ferdinand suggested that we fill all the divine instruments with divine influence while we were at it. Since the Holy Cup's mana would be used up during the Prayer Ritual, the remaining blue priests' mana could be collected using the Holy Cup alone.
"Richharda, knights should be arriving shortly with the materials for gold dust. I'd like you to station Ehrenfest attendants or civil officials at the entrance to receive them. Also, while we're handling miscellaneous Ahrensbach affairs here, it's possible that after today's ceremony, ordonnances may fly directly to Rozemyne. Please decline all meeting requests from archdukes and royals of other duches."
Since nothing was more urgent than depleting the divine influence, Ferdinand said it would be sufficient to discuss matters at the Archduke Conference. At his words, Richharda bowed in acknowledgment.
"Rozemyne, I'm going to prepare several rideable-beast magic stones of roughly equal size using rainbow-colored magic stones. You are to dye them with your mana, fuse them all together to make them bigger, and create rideable beasts that can be used with your current mana."
Even if you fused multiple precious rainbow-colored magic stones to create rideable beasts, they'd become unusable once the mana was dyed. Ferdinand might be able to use them for some kind of concoction, but I couldn't immediately think of a use for rideable-beast magic stones that had been dyed with someone else's mana and weren't even gold dust yet.
"…Won't it be a waste to use so many rainbow-colored magic stones? They'll become unusable right away."
"It may be a waste, but on a journey expected to last many days, it would be a problem if you and your travel-inexperienced attendants had nowhere to rest. We won't be stopping at laynobles' estates, since doing so would waste stamina on unnecessary formalities. Knights might manage, but your attendants have surely never spent the night in a rural winter estate or camped outdoors. We should ensure a place where they can rest as safely and comfortably as possible."
I clapped my hands together. He was right—borrowing a laynoble's estate meant starting with long-winded pleasantries and having to share meals, wasting precious time. Besides, after being told to avoid recovery potions as much as possible, I certainly didn't have the stamina for days of socializing with strangers on unfamiliar land.
And if you were an ordinary noblewoman who wasn't a knight, I doubted any of them had camping experience either. For the sake of the attendants alone, Lesser beasts would be invaluable.
…Ferdinand has finally understood how amazing Lesser-kun really is!
"After you finish creating the rideable-beast magic stones, you are to take the materials brought to your room and convert them to gold dust one by one, consuming as much mana as possible. I'll ask you tomorrow morning how much mana you've recovered after a night's sleep, so always keep your mana levels in mind. And above all, do not do anything that would waste extra stamina or cause strong emotional fluctuations. Sit quietly and turn the delivered materials into gold dust."
With a stern expression, Ferdinand repeatedly impressed upon me that my life was a crisis for everyone who had pledged their name to me. The sound of swallowed breaths came from all around. The weight of life pressed down heavily.
"The nobles at the residential wing will be departing for Ahrensbach in order from now. Once your preparations are complete, you are to move there as well. Richharda, I'm entrusting Rozemyne to you."
"Understood."
Having issued all his instructions, Ferdinand departed at a brisk pace with
"Let us hurry with our preparations as well."
Many attendants were returning to Ahrensbach ahead of us, and while everyone bustled about busily,
"Mother gave me a brief explanation of the situation—that the divine influence is becoming a burden on your body, and it needs to be removed as soon as possible. Will these materials help reduce the burden even slightly? Right now, for your sake, Karssted has taken knights to the collection sites."
Charlotte had her own attendants carry in the bags of materials while her gaze swept over the flurry of activity. Seeing that many of the attendants were prioritizing departure preparations over welcoming guests, I looked to Richharda. I had assumed civil officials or servants would be bringing in the materials, so no preparations had been made to receive Charlotte.
"Richharda…"
"I explained that this was the situation and asked that Lady Charlotte be excused from entering, but she was quite insistent on speaking with you, so I could not dissuade her."
At Richharda's words, I turned to Charlotte. She had a troubled expression, the corners of her eyebrows pulled down.
"I did press Richharda, but it seems departure preparations had already begun before I even arrived. That's somewhat of a relief. When Mother explained the situation to me, I was thinking that it would be best for you to leave the Noble's Quarter as soon as possible, and I had been planning to advise as much."
Charlotte said she was relieved, yet her indigo eyes wavered with concern as she gazed at me. It felt as though Charlotte had noticed something I hadn't.
"Charlotte, what exactly does 'as soon as possible' mean?"
"Didn't you demonstrate it yourself with your words and actions? You showed that the Noble's Quarter, where performing divine rituals causes pillars of light to rise, is the place in
I blinked at Charlotte's explanation. Now that she mentioned it, she was right. I'd known, but I hadn't truly understood. I needed to leave the Noble's Quarter as soon as possible.
"If Uncle is making preparations, then I'm at ease. You always treasure the lives of others so dearly, yet you tend to treat your own life so lightly."
"…That's not true at all. I plan to build a library city and spend my days surrounded by books."
The slight hesitation in my response was because I'd once thought that if I could go to the Goddess of Wisdom's library, death wouldn't be so frightening. But since I'd been banned from entering, I was now convinced I couldn't die until I received permission from
"I want to visit your library city too, Sister. So please, you must rid yourself of the divine influence. I'll take my leave now."
Charlotte quickly withdrew so as not to be in the way of the attendants. I would have liked to talk longer, but there was no leisure for proper hospitality right now. It couldn't be helped.
I plunged my hands into the bags that had been brought in and began converting the packed materials into gold dust one after another. I stirred and scraped away until the solid matter was gone, then plunged my hands into the next bag. Without the divine influence, creating gold dust had been laborious enough, but with it now, no matter how much gold dust I made, I couldn't feel my mana being consumed. I doubted the gold dust creation was even effective.
…I'll do my best for Ehrenfest and my library city, but I don't think my mana is going down at all.
While I was converting Ehrenfest's materials into gold dust, materials from Ahrensbach arrived as well. I converted those too.
At dinnertime, Ferdinand delivered a leather bag filled with rainbow-colored magic stones. After eating, I infused them with mana to dye them, then muttered "wrap, wrap, stick together" as I crafted the rideable-beast magic stones. Perhaps it was the divine influence at work—the Lesser beast that emerged was a rainbow color, not the pale yellowish hue I was accustomed to.
…Whoa. Lesser-kun has evolved in a direction I didn't particularly want. Rainbow is just too ambiguous.
But handling so many rainbow-colored magic stones had made my mana decrease slightly. Feeling a bit cheered up, I busied myself with gold dust creation until bedtime.
The next morning, after finishing breakfast, I was dressed in the High Priest's ceremonial robes and carried to the multi-purpose hall. There I continued making gold dust right up until the last moment while waiting for Ferdinand to arrive.
"Rozemyne, how much mana recovered overnight?"
"…Let's see. The amount used for the rainbow-colored rideable beasts and the gold dust creation has fully recovered."
Even though I'd used mana to create rideable beasts and pushed myself one step closer to depletion, waking up felt like I'd retreated two steps. When I pouted, Ferdinand—whose eyes had been fixed on the pile of completed gold dust—pressed a hand to his temple.
"You recovered that much from a single night's sleep? And what about the pain and effects from the divine influence?"
"It gets worse as my mana recovers, but since my mana is only at about a quarter, I'm still fine for now."
There was no pain so severe I couldn't stand, nor any state where moaning was all I could manage. At most, a slight fever making my head feel foggy, or a sensation of my body being a bit heavy. My words deepened the furrow on Ferdinand's face.
"Even without drinking recovery potions, this much mana returns on its own. …There truly isn't enough time."
As he said this, Ferdinand turned his gaze to my guard knights. The only guard knights in this dormitory were
"Rozemyne will be coming with us. After the Archduke Conference, you are to do everything in your power to ensure that Rozemyne's associates can be promptly relocated from Ehrenfest to the new territory."
"Understood!"
Ferdinand picked me up without hesitation and began walking. At the exit of the dormitory, not only Ahrensbach's knights but also nobles from other duches were gathered. At the sight of me, the nobles dropped to their knees as if blocking the path.
"O Incarnation of the Goddess! Please bestow your wisdom and blessings not only upon Ahrensbach but upon our territories as well."
I didn't even know how to respond—offering a blessing, even a hollow one, was beyond me right now. I grabbed at Ferdinand's clothes. He shook his head sharply with a stern expression.
"This is a plea from the losing side of the political upheaval, asking that they be saved before the very duches that caused this commotion in the first place. We can ignore it. The royals will have to deal with their own political squabbles. More importantly, we need to hurry. Step aside."
Ferdinand dismissed the other duches' nobles with those words while exchanging a glance with the Ahrensbach knights. The knights began pushing the foreign nobles aside to clear a path.
"Don't block the way. Lady Rozemyne cannot pass."
Ferdinand strode briskly down the corridor lined with teleportation doors in the central building. Beyond the door connecting to the royal residential wing, at the very end where the Faeberken seal had been removed, a knight opened the innermost door, and I was transported to the residential wing.
Upon arriving at the residential wing, we moved from one building to the next—the one with latticed windows, which I gathered had housed the princess of
The teleportation circle connecting to Lanzanave's estate was in the collateral royals' building, so Ferdinand passed through without even slowing his pace. The knights advanced steadily through the hollow, silent residential wing.
"We'll go ahead."
Only three could ride the teleportation circle. Ferdinand, Eckhart, and I transferred through together, and on the other side, my attendants were waiting. Ferdinand pushed me off to Angelica, then immediately turned on his heel and headed back to the residential wing.
"Ferdinand is going to perform a final check and completely seal off the residential wing and this estate. We can't risk anyone infiltrating from the residential wing by mistake," Leona informed me.
I'd heard that since a new Zent would be using the residential wing, Ahrensbach's people needed to be prevented from coming and going. But apparently, the official justification was to prevent intrusion by other duches.
"Departure preparations are complete, Rozemyne. We've been ordered to head to the castle first, so let's go by rideable beast. If it would be better to consume even a little mana, would you like to use a rideable beast as well?"
Hartmut asked if it was the new one I'd just made, and I nodded. I had Angelica set me down and unveiled the rainbow-colored Lesser beast.
"The shape hasn't changed, but the color turned rainbow, and it's lost some of its cuteness."
Feeling a bit deflated, I climbed aboard the single-rider-sized rainbow Lesser, and everyone hastened to reassure me.
"Absolutely not! It's quite—"
"It isn't cute, per se, but it's extraordinarily divine. I believe it's a mount befitting the Incarnation of the Goddess."
"Yes! A rideable beast that shines with all attributes—I've never seen anything like it! It's magnificent!"
I'd thought they were being kind by comforting me, but apparently they truly felt that way. Personally, I thought the previous Lesser was cuter. Everyone who had been put off by its Grün-like appearance now seemed overjoyed by its all-attribute radiance.
…Sorry. I guess I still can't relate to how you all see this.
I returned to the castle on my rideable beast while being praised for its divine, Incarnation-of-the-Goddess-appropriate coloring. It seemed that I was the only one who found the rainbow-colored Lesser ambiguous—even the castle residents, not just my attendants, were captivated by the all-attribute radiance.
"I think it's a truly beautiful rideable beast, Rozemyne."
"I can feel the power of all the gods from the new Archduke's rideable beast. How precious…"
…The shape is the same! How is it beautiful!?
"Rozemyne, please put away your rideable beast and take a seat here. You're to infuse the divine instruments with mana first. Then you're told to test whether this Holy Cup can be used."
Still feeling unconvinced, I proceeded to pour mana into the divine instruments Hartmut had brought from the Temple. Instruments that normally took multiple blue priests hours to fill were topped off in no time. My mana had decreased slightly, but I was nowhere near depletion.
"Divine instruments aren't supposed to fill this easily, are they?"
"What a vast amount of mana!"
After that, I picked up the Holy Cup and tilted it, and a rainbow-colored liquid began to flow. Unless I chanted the prayer to the Water Goddess, my own mana would flow out in its original color. During the Prayer Ritual, I'd seen green liquid flow, so this felt rather strange.
"There doesn't seem to be any issue with pouring Rozemyne's mana directly."
"During the Prayer Ritual, it was
"Let's try it."
Hartmut took the Holy Cup and casually sprinkled it across the castle grounds. I stayed seated as I'd been told not to move, but the nobles peered down at the garden and cried out in admiration.
"Look! Flowers are blooming!"
"The green seems a little deeper, doesn't it?"
The rainbow-colored liquid that had spilled from the Holy Cup drew gasps of "As expected of the Incarnation of the Goddess" from the surrounding nobles. The praise was starting to feel somewhat grating. I wanted this divine influence gone as soon as possible. The only reason I was special was because divine power had been stuffed inside me—I wasn't inherently amazing or wonderful. Once the divine influence disappeared, I'd go back to normal. How many of these people truly understood that?
…Even once the divine influence is gone, will these people still acknowledge me as their Archduke?
That worry spread through my chest like a slow stain. I was starting to feel a little afraid of letting go of the divine influence. I even began to wonder whether it might be better to just keep it.
"Lady Rozemyne will use this divine power to purify and fill all of Ahrensbach, won't she?"
Hartmut let out a cold laugh as he looked around at the nobles who were overcome with joy.
"Have you all misunderstood something? Lady Rozemyne is not purifying and filling Ahrensbach for your sakes. She is merely making it suitable for the library city she intends to build for herself. You nobles of Ahrensbach should recognize that you have only two paths before you: either claim your duchy's identity and remain sinners, or worship Lady Rozemyne and become her loyal subjects. It seems your education may be lacking somewhat."
"Hartmut, Clarissa…"
"Lady Rozemyne, in fact, a document has arrived from the new Zent. It requests that you convey your wishes for the new territory's name, color, and crest at the Archduke Conference. Ferdinand said it could wait until after the Prayer Ritual, but wouldn't it be good to decide on the new territory's name now? It would help everyone become aware that they are about to become residents of a library city."
I was asked if I had any desired name worthy of a library city, and I thought for a moment.
The name of a new territory.
A name worthy of a library city filled to the brim with books.
Just thinking about it made me giddy. No matter what the Ahrensbach nobles said, a feeling was welling up inside me—here, I would build my own library city. I caught myself just before offering a prayer to Brünhilde, Goddess of Sprouting.
…No praying. Restrain yourself, restrain yourself.
But even just thinking of a name and designing a crest made me feel one step closer to the library city. The urban plan I'd submitted in the Noble's Quarter was unfurling in my mind.
…Should I go with something like the ancient city of
While I was happily wrestling with my dilemma, Ferdinand and the others returned on their rideable beasts.
"Sorry to keep you waiting. We're leaving immediately."
"Ferdinand, which do you think is more fitting as the new territory's name—Alexandria or Venice?"
"Is that something we need to decide right now in the middle of this emergency?"
After including a brief conversation with Charlotte, I wasn't able to set out for the Prayer Ritual.
Rainbow-colored Lesser beast: born!
Rozemyne is dissatisfied, but its coloring alone has earned surprisingly high praise from those around her.
Ferdinand brings the dreamy Rozemyne, who was excitedly envisioning her library city plan, back to reality.
Next time, it's off to the Prayer Ritual at last.