Chatter During Compilation

"Rozemyne, what do you mean you're leaving the reporting to everyone else?"

"Nearly all the dormitory members came to the training grounds today, and the apprentices under Wilfried and Charlotte were conducting interviews as well, so the content of the reports should be no problem, correct? I need to prepare for tomorrow."

There were plenty of people to deliver today's reports, but tomorrow's compilation would be handled by my retainers. Since the venue had been changed to the tea party room at the last minute, tables and chairs needed to be arranged, and while it wasn't strictly a tea party, Hannelore—a Lord Candidate—would be attending, so I figured some degree of hospitality was in order.

"Regarding the joint research with Dunkelfelger, please inform my foster father that my report will be sent at a later date. I entrust the urgent reports to everyone else."

I left the setup of the tea party room to my Attendants, then went over the compilation method once more with the apprentices, Leonore, and Judith.

"Wait… my sister is doing clerk work!?"

"Theodore, you're too rattled. I used to visit the Temple for guard duty, so while I'm not on Philine's level, I can manage a little."

Judith was pouting at his rudeness—she had secretly asked Philine and Roderick to "please pass these along when you get the chance" so she could avoid submitting documents directly to Ferdinand, whom she found far too intimidating. But out of pride as Judith's older sister, I refrained from exposing that to Theodore.

After all, Theodore was looking up to Judith with such admiration.

"Rozemyne's Guard Knights will be assigned to clerk duties at the Temple. Matthias and Lorenz will have to do the same starting in spring whether they like it or not, so this time, please keep watch on how things flow while you stand guard."

At Leonore's words, Lorenz turned pale. "I became a knight apprentice because I was no good at clerk work…" In a way, Lorenz and Angelica would get along remarkably well. Matthias, on the other hand, didn't seem particularly bothered and nodded calmly.

"Please discuss the compilation method thoroughly today. The Lady must stay here and entertain Hannelore."

"But I'm the one leading the joint research?"

I had intended to participate in the compilation as well, being an apprentice myself, but Richarta shot down the idea. They couldn't exactly put a Lord Candidate like Hannelore to work on clerical tasks, and apparently, having another Lord Candidate like me leave my Attendant alone as her conversation partner wasn't acceptable either.

"Don't you need to hear the details from Hannelore about today's final ceremony? Unlike the songs that can be taught to the knight apprentices, the final ceremony seems to be something unique to Dunkelfelger."

Leonore said she hadn't been able to make out much of what Hannelore had been chanting at the center of the arena when she spun her staff, partly because the words were in an archaic language.

"Hannelore doesn't have the same Temple upbringing as you, Rozemyne, nor is the Holy Book particularly familiar to her, yet the fact that she could recite the ceremonial incantation in the old language so fluidly is truly admirable."

As I nodded deeply in agreement with Leonore's praise, Lieselota handed over a slip of paper with tomorrow's topics written on it, giggling softly.

"Dunkelfelger must have a wealth of ancient texts, given how thick and old their history books are. Why not inquire about that as well? Two book-loving friends are sure to have a wonderful conversation about it."

"That sounds lovely, Lieselota."

Having been counseled to leave the compilation work to the clerks and instead focus on the kind of information gathering only a Lord Candidate could do, I bobbed my head in agreement.

We finished setting up the tea party room before the half-past-two bell.

Space had been secured for the clerks to work, and a separate table was prepared for Hannelore and me to talk. For easy snacking, cookies had been laid out, and the Attendants were ready to brew tea.

When the bell chimed announcing the arrival of guests, I headed toward the door to greet them. Through the door opened by Grethea, the Dunkelfelger students filed in. Naturally, Hannelore was at the front.

"Good day, Rozemyne. Thank you so much for preparing a venue for us today."

"Good day, Hannelore. I'm the one who should be grateful—having Dunkelfelger's people help us is a tremendous aid. Thank you for the trouble."

Guided by Brünhilde, Hannelore and her retainers headed to the table set for tea, while Grethea directed the apprentice clerks involved in the joint research toward the desks where the Ehrenfest clerks had gathered.

"Rozemyne, I received this from Clarissa. It's a letter addressed to Lord Hartmut, written about yesterday's ceremony."

Grethea, who had been showing the clerks to their seats, held out a thick envelope.

"Please check the contents and send it off to Ehrenfest."

"Understood."

There wasn't strictly a need to do it right away, but sending Grethea on a small errand would give her a bit of breathing room—she was visibly tense in front of the students from a higher-ranking duchy. When I told her to step away for now, a faint smile tugged at the corner of Grethea's mouth.

"Now then, allow me to explain the compilation method."

Philine's voice rang out as she explained, and everyone listened attentively. I took a sip of the tea Brünhilde had brewed and nibbled a cookie for show, all the while observing how the apprentice clerks worked.

Trained by Ferdinand at the Temple, Philine flipped through the answers far faster than the Dunkelfelger apprentices. It was amusing to see Clarissa's surprise at Philine's speed.

"Philine, you're remarkably fast."

"I can't hold a candle to Hartmut, but I spent a long time being trained by Ferdinand, so I've gotten somewhat good at paperwork."

When Philine let out a soft laugh, Clarissa pulled a slightly frustrated expression before adopting a serious face and diving back into the compilation. "As an apprentice serving Rozemyne, I cannot afford to lose." Her pride as a senior clerk from an upper duchy had apparently been stung.

"If Clarissa can focus on her work like this, perhaps there was no need for me to come after all," Hannelore said with a wry smile. Apparently, whenever there was new information about me or an opportunity to meet in person—like this joint research—Clarissa got so excited that she became completely unmanageable.

"…This year, the excitement has been so extreme that I've even wondered if it might be an act."

"What?"

"That by emphasizing her status as Rozemyne's retainer and maintaining ties with the fiancé who entered the Temple, she's creating a situation where no one else can handle her."

This must surely be born of Clarissa's deep love, Hannelore seemed to be musing, but the Attendant standing behind her let out a quiet sigh.

"Princess Hannelore, I don't think Clarissa is thinking that far ahead."

…Yeah, I don't think so either. Clarissa was a Hartmut type—she hadn't chosen her romantic partner based on romance.

"Cordula always says things like that, but what do you think, Rozemyne? Writing letters to one's fiancé while losing sleep—surely that's only possible with love?"

From there, the conversation veered into love stories from the Noble Academy. There was apparently a tale of a clerk who, desperate to ensure her letters reached her fiancé's hands directly, seized every opportunity to pass them to her fiancé's superior in person, all while sacrificing sleep.

"I truly hope that Clarissa's love comes to fruition."

…Hannelore, who was rooting for the couple so purely, was just too adorable.

When I had first met Clarissa, she had revealed the whole story—how she had selected a candidate from my retainers, tackled them, thrust a weapon at them, and proposed—and while I did think Hartmut and Clarissa made an excellent match, I couldn't quite believe there was such genuine romantic feeling involved.

The Attendant, called Cordula, portioned out sweets onto a small plate and poured a fresh cup of tea. After sipping slowly, Hannelore changed the subject.

"Speaking of which, the apprentice clerks of Ehrenfest are truly exceptional. They are in no way inferior to Dunkelfelger's."

"You're too kind."

It wasn't just Philine. Roderick and Leonore held their own as well. Muriella and Judith, less accustomed to paperwork, seemed to be struggling a bit, but they were evenly matched against the Dunkelfelger apprentices, who were equally bewildered by the unfamiliar compilation method.

"Pardon me, but it appears that Rozemyne's Guard Knights are mixed in among the clerks…"

Hannelore's puzzled remark told me she recognized the faces of Leonore and Judith, who frequently accompanied the Lady to tea parties despite being female knights. I smiled and nodded.

"Yes. At the Temple, the Guard Knights do clerk work as well, so when we need extra hands like this, they pitch in. I understand that Clarissa is an apprentice clerk capable of guard duty too, so perhaps it's best to think of it along those same lines."

"Something like a clerk more suited to combat… and knights more suited to scholarship?"

Hannelore murmured, looking bewildered. Clarissa had mentioned that Dunkelfelger had many knight candidates, and perhaps while they had combat-oriented clerks, they had no scholarly knights. My own retainer group, led by Damuel, was an environment that mass-produced scholarly knights, after all.

"Hannelore, I'd like to hear more about yesterday's ceremony in detail."

"What would you like to know?"

"Lestilaut said that the staff you used during the ceremony belonged to the Sea Goddess Fehuurmear, but I don't actually know much about Fehuurmear's divine instruments. There are none at the Temple."

"That's only what we've been told among ourselves—we don't know anything for certain. We see the Aub perform it at each ceremony, learn it, and Lord Candidates memorize it. The spell to transform the Stappe is also attributed to the staff, so we have no idea whether it truly is Fehuurmear's divine instrument."

Hannelore said this with a troubled smile, much like Lestilaut had. It seemed they truly didn't know.

"So Dunkelfelger was transforming the staff without even knowing it was a divine instrument? When you were spinning it, I heard the sound of waves, so I'm quite certain it's the Sea Goddess Fehuurmear's divine instrument…"

"You say you heard the sound of waves, Rozemyne, but I'm not sure what that would even sound like. Dunkelfelger has no sea, so it isn't necessarily a ceremony for the Sea Goddess."

What I had heard as the sound of waves was, for Hannelore, simply a strange and jarring noise that had abruptly begun during the ceremony—nothing more.

"Hannelore, would you be willing to share the incantation you recite during the ceremony? If I knew the words of prayer, I could determine which deities the ceremony is meant for."

"Of course."

The incantation Hannelore recited confirmed my suspicion.

"It is indeed a ceremony to offer Magic Power to the Sea Goddess. There was a detailed account of the procedure in a repository accessible only with three keys."

"Really?"

"Yes. The Slate documents said it was a ritual to ward off the heat. But considering what we saw yesterday, wouldn't it have the effect of calming the surroundings through Magic Power offerings? Could it be a ceremony to cool down heat?"

If I could perform that ceremony, then even stealing the Liesefalke eggs on the mountains of Rothenberg might be possible without causing the volcano to erupt. As these thoughts crossed my mind, Hannelore murmured beside me, "I'd like to re-enter the repository and check the documents again." Whether it merely dispelled blessings or could calm surrounding agitation simply through Magic Power offerings was apparently a matter of great importance to Hannelore.

"Still, there are divine instruments that even you don't know about, Rozemyne. I thought you knew everything about the gods, since you can even identify ceremonies by their incantations."

"I only know what's recorded in the Holy Book. The Supreme God and the five chief gods enshrined at the Temple… and as for gods I have a personal attachment to, perhaps Mestionora, from the library. But even then, all I know is that she granted the Grutrissheit to the First King."

There were many subordinate deities, but their specific divine instruments and forms weren't particularly documented. The Holy Book focused on the Supreme God and the five chief gods.

"Then perhaps the books we've brought from Dunkelfelger for this book-lovers' tea party will help you learn something new."

Hannelore smiled happily as she spoke.

"The books we brought are ancient ones from Dunkelfelger—collections of stray tales about the deities who weren't included in the Holy Book. They may be stories that later generations freely added, but there are tales of Mestionora as well. I think you'll enjoy them, Rozemyne, since you're so knowledgeable about the gods."

"I'm very much looking forward to it."

To borrow new books, I had to finish reading the ones I currently had. My motivation surged.

"Rozemyne, the compilation is complete."

I swiftly scanned the results Philine presented. The number of knight apprentices who had received divine blessings was overwhelmingly skewed toward Dunkelfelger, and most of their knights had received combat-type blessings.

"So only a handful fail to receive one each year. It makes sense that Dunkelfelger gets treated as a separate category in the blessing ceremony by the professors."

The fact that there were individuals in Dunkelfelger who had received blessings from multiple subordinate deities or blessings from attributes they had no aptitude for wasn't particularly talked about. That was precisely why so much attention had been drawn when Ehrenfest produced someone with multiple blessings this time—but I felt the other duchies should be investigating Dunkelfelger more closely.

…Though if they did, they'd probably only find Ditter specialists.

Ditter was essential for joint research. Perhaps the other duchies deliberately kept their distance to avoid being challenged to a Ditter match.

"The knight apprentices seem to have received blessings from the subordinate deities in large numbers, but what about the clerks and Attendants?"

When I murmured this almost to myself, an answer came from Hannelore.

"…Even our combat-oriented clerks and Attendants receive blessings, so I believe the number is higher than in other duchies."

I wanted to know the situation within Dunkelfelger as well. How many of the clerks and Attendants had received combat-type blessings?

"I'd like to conduct the same interviews with Dunkelfelger's clerks and Attendants as well. Clarissa, could you gather the same information from those who aren't knight apprentices and submit it to me?"

"Absolutely!"

Clarissa looked delighted to have been given a task, so I asked Roderick to bring the interview forms and hand them to her.

"Looking at the compilation results like this, it really is rare for knight apprentices from other duchies to receive blessings. About seventy percent come from Dunkelfelger."

Even accounting for the large number of knight apprentices in a greater duchy, other territories could produce maybe three at most, so the gap was enormous.

Incidentally, Ehrenfest had not a single person who had received a combat-type blessing. This was the result of knight apprentices who saw no point in learning songs and dances not taking it very seriously, and me not having performed personal prayers to the gods since I was granting blessings anyway.

…I'd been giving blessings too easily, and it had spoiled them. Reflection, reflection.

Looking at Dunkelfelger's compilation results, I felt strongly that the knight apprentices needed to be made to pray more on their own so they could receive blessings themselves. I wanted them to follow Philine's example—she had received a blessing from a subordinate deity outside her own attribute.

"Pardon me, Rozemyne. In the ceremonies performed thus far, it doesn't seem like Magic Power was offered… Is it possible to receive blessings without making a Magic Power offering?"

When I had made a massive Magic Power offering with my Leidenschaft spear, blessings had rained down in abundance, but Dunkelfelger said that blessings had never descended during their previous ceremonies, nor had they ever conducted Magic Power offerings.

"The ceremony itself is essentially a large-scale prayer, and we use a transformed Stappe as a spear, so some Magic Power is likely being offered. All the blessings we've received correspond to the deities listed in the incantation."

Even if there was no visible cascade of blessings, some small amount of Magic Power might still be offered.

"Also, since the ceremony is performed before and after each match, those who participate in more Ditter matches may be more likely to receive blessings. The knight apprentices who received blessings from multiple combat-type subordinate deities also seem to have participated in more matches."

Since the compilation results only showed numbers, it was hard to grasp at a glance. Perhaps creating graphs for the research presentation would make things clearer. As I studied the results and considered what kind of graphs would be most informative, Hannelore spoke up hesitantly.

"Rozemyne, about the ceremony last night… there was a discussion among our group about whether, if we shaped the Stappe into a Leidenschaft spear, even Dunkelfelger's people could receive blessings the way you did."

I nodded slightly. There had been a clear difference from previous ceremonies. Discussions about how to proceed were inevitable.

The discussion in the Ehrenfest dormitory had primarily focused on "how to stop me from running wild" and "how to effectively decline when asked by a greater duchy," but in Dunkelfelger, the talk had apparently centered on "how to restore the ceremony to its original form."

"As you all theorized, if you physically touch the divine instrument, channel Magic Power through it, and form a clear image of its shape, you can create the form of the divine instrument. My retainers who visit the Temple were able to do it. However, it consumes a considerable amount of Magic Power, so I don't think anyone below the high-ranking level could maintain it throughout the entire ceremony."

Both Hannelore and the retainers around her nodded at my words. Would Dunkelfelger's nobles be willing to go to the Temple for the sake of Ditter blessings? Dunkelfelger lived for Ditter, and their standards for things seemed wildly different from other territories—it was a bit bewildering.

…But honestly, you didn't need to go all the way to the Temple and shape a Leidenschaft spear. Just offering Magic Power should be sufficient for the ceremony.

I thought this but didn't say it aloud. If they were willing to go to the Temple for Ditter's sake, then I wanted them to visit the Temple and contribute to its reform. I hoped it might help change the nobility's perspective on the Temple.

"The amount of blessings changes depending on how much Magic Power you offer, so if you need a great many blessings, you need a great deal of Magic Power. However, rather than having one person bear the burden, I think it would be better for a large group to each offer a small amount of Magic Power. Temple ceremonies are prayers offered for others, not for oneself, so no matter how much Magic Power one person contributes, there are no blessings directed at that person."

Hannelore and her retainers' eyes widened.

"Then Rozemyne, who offered that much Magic Power…"

"I did not receive any blessings during yesterday's ceremony. The knight apprentices had trouble moving afterward, but it had no effect on me whatsoever."

Rather than placing the entire Magic Power burden on one person, the ceremony was designed for a large group so that everyone contributed a small share. Hannelore looked satisfied with my explanation.

"However, please be careful when lower-ranking nobles participate in the ceremony as well. If too much Magic Power is drained, lower-ranking nobles could collapse."

"What?"

"When everyone performs the same ceremony together, Magic Power flows more easily. So if there's too great a disparity in Magic Power capacity, it becomes dangerous for those with less. Dunkelfelger seems to be the kind of territory where people want to try everything firsthand, so please exercise caution."

For the sake of Dunkelfelger, they would try first and ask questions later—that was Dunkelfelger for you. If I wasn't careful about what I knew regarding religious rites, things could go sideways before Ditter even came into the picture.

"There are almost certainly reasons why the ceremony has traditionally been performed the day before a match—perhaps to allow time for Magic Power recovery, or to acclimate the body to the blessings received. Hasty changes create greater distortions down the line. To avoid undermining the tradition you've preserved for so long, I encourage you to investigate thoroughly before performing the ceremony."

"Thank you for your counsel. I will make sure to relay those warnings."

Hannelore nodded with a smile.

After Dunkelfelger's group departed, I spent the rest of the time in the multipurpose hall teaching Philine and the others how to turn the compilation results into graphs and create easy-to-understand materials. As expected, I couldn't feel like I was doing research unless I was moving my hands rather than just talking.

I had been happily making all sorts of materials with various graphs, thinking they made everything much easier to analyze, when the other apprentice clerks pounced on me, asking "What is that?" Apparently, graph-based materials had never been produced in the Noble Academy before.

"Rozemyne, isn't that going to cause a stir at the Territory Exchange?"

"Since the joint research with three greater duchies is already a stir waiting to happen, shouldn't it be fine?"

I was starting to feel rather anxious, so I decided to write a consultation letter to Ferdinand: "I'd like to use graphs in my research presentation, something like this…"

I had wanted to do the compilation, but they wouldn't let me.

Rozemyne gathered information from Hannelore.

Hannelore gathered information from Rozemyne.

The habit of scattering bits of information everywhere remains alive and well.

Next up, the invitation to the cousin's gathering.