"Ehrenfest, retreat to your shield for now! Take the wounded and fall back!"
We couldn't tell what our opponents were thinking or how well-prepared they were. On top of that, Ehrenfest's knight apprentices were battered from their battle with
Those who could still move under their own power, even with minor injuries, went to collect the wounded and returned to
Judith, who had been wrapped up in bands of light by a Dunkelfelger knight apprentice, was also recovered. Only someone with more magic power than the one who created the bands of light could cut them. I cut the bands binding Judith with my letter opener.
"
"Please come in right away, Lady Hannalore. What are your escort knights doing!? There should be more important things to do before driving out the intruders."
I glared up at the rain of attack magic pouring down from above and said this, then cleared space for
"I'll cast my healing magic."
I chanted "Streittochorben" and transformed my staff into Fliutreine's staff, then healed everyone gathered in the area all at once. A pillar of green light rose up, and a murmur ran through those overhead. It was a pillar of light that Dunkelfelger and Ehrenfest participants in this Diitta had grown used to seeing, but the people gathering in the sky above appeared to be ones who had never witnessed it.
While a calm part of my mind was thinking about that, I surveyed the knight apprentices inside the shield. Brünhilde, who had lost consciousness, appeared to have regained awareness as well. She got to her feet, grimaced slightly at the dirt and grass stuck in her hair, and began cleaning it with Waschen.
...So nobles don't just dust off dirt with their hands—they use Waschen instead.
The difference in our domestic skills was laid bare. As I felt relieved seeing Brünhilde clean up quickly and return to her usual composed self, my vision seemed to flicker for just an instant.
"Huh...?"
It was only for a moment, but my body must have started signaling that something was wrong. I realized I didn't have much time left.
Thinking I needed to end this chaotic battle quickly, I looked around at the knight apprentices nearby. Their injuries should have been healed by Lungschmear's healing, but their magic power shouldn't have fully recovered yet.
"Please use recovery potions to restore your magic power. Also, check how many recovery potions and magical tools you have left..."
As I was giving out instructions, loud screams of "Watch out!" and "Aaah!" rose from the spectator seats. I quickly looked around and saw a Dunkelfelger knight apprentice who had lost their riding beast and was plummeting down.
The knight apprentice hit the ground with a dull thud and lay completely motionless.
"Ah!?"
"I'll heal them right away! Escort me!"
When Judith saw me reach for my riding beast's magic stone, she immediately brought up her shield, and
"
I mounted my riding beast and headed toward the Dunkelfelger knight apprentice. Ideally, someone would have brought them into the shield, but even though they were protected by full-body armor made of impact-resistant magic stones, they had fallen from a great height. There was a high chance they had hit their head, and moving them carelessly would be dangerous.
"Lady Rozemyne, you're going to risk danger to save a Dunkelfelger knight apprentice!?"
"There is an injured person right in front of me, and I have the power to heal them. Acting accordingly is only natural, isn't it?"
I dismounted and, protected by my escort knights' shields, used my ring to cast Lungschmear's healing. As I gently poured out small green lights, Lorenz suddenly muttered, "Someone tell me this is a lie."
Looking up at Lorenz, I saw all the escort knights gazing skyward. When I focused my eyes to see what was happening, I could see knight apprentices from the Dunkelfelger spectator seats moving one after another into the air above, joining the chaotic battle overhead.
"No matter how many fighting forces Dunkelfelger has, what happens when they start joining from the spectator seats..."
Before Matthias could even finish his fearful words, the attack magic that had been raining down on the arena from above began turning toward the spectator seats as well.
"
Unlike Dunkelfelger, who had remaining martial retainers and attendants among them and had already raised defensive shields for everyone in their spectator seats, the people in Ehrenfest's spectator seats had very low combat capability.
There were the apprentice scribes who had been wrung dry of magic power by
Right after my scream, Wilfried's voice, tinged with urgency, echoed from within Schutzaria's shield.
"Any knight apprentices who have recovered, go protect the Ehrenfest spectator seats! Bring them back here. Those still recovering, stay here and guard us!"
"Yes, sir!"
Knight apprentices who appeared to have finished recovering took off toward the spectator seats all at once. If they could raise shields together and protect the people while making their way to Schutzaria's shield, it would at least be a bit easier to defend.
"It'll be fine," I told myself, and focused on the injured person in front of me.
"...Ah, I'm..."
The Dunkelfelger knight apprentice regained consciousness and immediately tried to sit up. Startled by the sudden movement, I grabbed the knight apprentice's cloak.
"You've been unconscious until now. Please stay still a little longer..."
"No, the Saint's healing has already healed my wounds. I'm fine. I offer you my sincere gratitude."
The knight apprentice knelt briefly to give thanks, then immediately headed back up into the sky.
As I watched them go, my vision flickered again. It was only for a few seconds, but my sight flashed black and white, and the surroundings seemed to lose their color. It was probably because I had used two different types of recovery potions in succession to restore my magic power, then kept spending magic power one after another.
I was glad the knight apprentice had recovered, but at the same time, I couldn't shake a nagging feeling—had there really been a need to rush out of the safety of the shield to heal them?
"Lady Rozemyne, you don't look well at all. Let's return to the shield. Please ride with me."
Leonore said this with a stiff expression, lifted me up, and began heading back to Schutzaria's shield.
"Lady Rozemyne, the recovery potion...?"
"I've already taken too many."
Leonore tightened her arms around me slightly. I couldn't just abandon this place and return to the dorm right now. Charlotte and the others were moving to the shield. The safety of all the noncombatants depended on Schutzaria's shield.
When I returned, Wilfried was inside Schutzaria's shield, desperately trying to stop the chaotic battle in the sky.
"Lady Hannalore, the Diitta must surely be void under these circumstances. Would you perform the Water Goddess's ritual to calm their excitement?"
"Yes. The Diitta has already ended, so that would be appropriate."
Hannalore, who had been looking upward with a worried expression, agreed with Wilfried.
"Then, while Lady Hannalore performs the ritual, we'll conduct wide-area Waschen to keep the attacks from coming down. Egidio, Brünhilde—your magic power should be fine, right?"
Wilfried called out to Egidio, "Get me the auxiliary tool for wide-area magic," and surveyed the knight apprentices remaining inside the shield to decide who would serve as Hannalore's escort.
Suddenly, a loud metallic clang rang out, and Luefen's voice boomed: "Hear me!"
"Ah!?"
"Whoa!?"
Unlike Wilfried and me, who flinched, the surrounding knight apprentices all straightened their postures in unison and turned their gaze to Luefen overhead. Even the knight apprentices who had been in the midst of the melee above immediately stopped attacking and straightened up.
"We made no request, and when we checked via Ordonnanz, there was no order from the royalty either! Why is the Central Knights' Order in the
Luefen's anger-filled voice rang out. Among the various colored cloaks in the sky above, if you looked closely, there were several black cloaks. I had thought there were an unusually large number of death-defying duchies crashing Dunkelfelger's Diitta, but it seemed they had the backing of the Central Knights' Order.
"The royalty is concerned about Ehrenfest's Saint transferring to Dunkelfelger. It is the knights' duty to alleviate the royalty's concerns."
"Yeah!"
The knights in black cloaks shouted their affirmation, and the members of the smaller and medium-sized duchies joined in with similar shouts.
"This is the wish of the royalty."
"If we win, we can obtain Ehrenfest's Saint!"
Luefen looked dumbfounded at the Central Knights' Order's self-righteous reasoning and the knight apprentices of the smaller and medium-sized duchies who appeared to have been incited into action.
"You deployed without any royal orders, for reasons like that!? No matter how you look at it, that's wrong!"
"The Central Knights' Order serves the Zent! We are those who alleviate the Zent's concerns! We destroy those who oppose the Zent! Destroy all enemies!"
One of the knights attacked Luefen. Everyone was stunned by the attack directed at Luefen, who had transferred to the Central Knights' Order and wore the same black cloak. Only Luefen himself dodged the incoming attack immediately and looked down at his students.
"There are no royal orders! I've confirmed it! If any more of you join the knights, I won't be able to protect you! Withdraw!"
Luefen issued these orders to the students in colored cloaks while simultaneously facing off against the Central Knights' Order. Having been warned that they hadn't been acting with royal backing and could face punishment themselves, the knight apprentices of the smaller and medium-sized duchies scattered like spiders fleeing in all directions.
The shadows that had filled the sky all at once thinned out, leaving only three Central Knights' Order knights in black cloaks, Luefen, and the Dunkelfelger knight apprentices in blue cloaks.
"To crash a Diitta without any royal orders is absolutely intolerable! Bind them and drag them before the Zent!"
The Dunkelfelger knight apprentices responded to
The only one who could capture them was Lestilaut, the lord candidate approaching adulthood.
Luefen and the knight apprentices relying on numbers were closing in on one knight, and Lestilaut could be seen having captured another.
"Lady Rozemyne, wouldn't you be able to capture them?"
"Unfortunately, I'd need to get closer for that to work, and right now I'm barely maintaining Schutzaria's shield."
There are things you can do even when counted on and things you can't. If anything, I wished someone would take over maintaining Schutzaria's shield for me. A strange nausea was starting to set in. Honestly, I didn't want to use any more magic power.
As I glared up at the sky thinking this, a large number of black cloaks arrived. Thinking they might be reinforcements for the knights' order, I tensed up.
"I received an Ordonnanz from Luefen and rushed here—what in the world is going on!?"
The voice from among the newly arrived black cloaks was
"I want to hear everyone's accounts. The lord candidates of Dunkelfelger and Ehrenfest and their attendants, as well as both dorm supervisors—stay here! Everyone else, dismiss!"
If I had my way, I'd want this postponed to another day, but Anastasius, who had apparently received an emergency summons via Luefen's Ordonnanz, seemed to have decided to hear everyone's accounts right here and now.
Relieved that the fighting overhead had subsided with Anastasius's arrival, I realized that letting my guard down had caused my condition to deteriorate all at once. I dispelled Schutzaria's shield and stopped consuming magic power, but my nausea only got worse rather than improving.
...Fainting in front of royalty would be bad, right? What should I do?
"My lady!"
Richarda, who had moved over from the spectator seats with Charlotte and the others, took one look at me, her eyes went wide, and she rushed over quickly.
"Let's get back to the dorm at once. Leave the situation here to Master Wilfried and Lady Charlotte."
"But I was told by Prince Anastasius to stay. Going against a royal's orders would be—"
Richarda shook her head with a stern expression at my words.
"If you collapse, my lady, you won't be able to hear the discussion, so wouldn't it amount to the same thing? Tell them your reasons and return to the dorm. It would be far worse to suffer further demerits by fainting in front of royalty again."
Hearing this from Richarda, I asked Anastasius for permission to return to the dorm. When Anastasius looked at me, his face took on an extremely unpleasant expression, as if remembering something, after which he waved his hand dismissively.
"I can see from your face that you're not well. Hurry back."
"You have my deepest gratitude. For Prince Anastasius's generous consideration..."
As I knelt and expressed my thanks while fighting back nausea, Anastasius said in an irritated voice, "Ehrenfest, get Rozemyne out of here quickly!" I was immediately scooped up by Richarda.
"Leonore, Matthias, Brünhilde who stayed inside the shield with us the whole time, and
I gave these orders as I was being carried out of the arena. Over Richarda's shoulder, I could see Anastasius's utterly exasperated face.
When we returned to the dorm, Richarda immediately scolded me: "I saw everything from above. You took more than the prescribed amount of recovery potions, didn't you?"
"I understand it was a battle you couldn't afford to lose, my lady, but compared to the knight apprentices who can receive your healing and drink recovery potions as they please, you—whose dosage was strictly set by Lord
The knight apprentices, who could fully recover with weak recovery potions, could drink as many as they wanted, but since I had almost no effect from anything except Ferdinand's recovery potions, taking too many would upset my constitution—hence the dosage restriction.
"Since there's a high probability that you ended up in this state from taking too many recovery potions, I cannot allow you to take any more medicine. You have no choice but to rest until your symptoms subside."
Richarda and
By the time I was able to move, about three days had passed. To show everyone I had recovered, I ate a meal with them in the dining hall, then moved to the small conference room to hear the results of the discussion with Anastasius and the others.
Present were Wilfried, Charlotte, myself, and our attendants.
"We at Ehrenfest had determined it was a void match because of the interference from the smaller and medium-sized duchies and the Central Knights' Order. However, according to Dunkelfelger, since the judges hadn't issued any instructions, the match was still ongoing, and the contest was decided the moment Lady Hannalore left the formation to enter their shield to escape danger."
Wilfried was saying this was a highly unsatisfying way to win, but I thought it was fine as long as they acknowledged their defeat.
"Ehrenfest doesn't have the stamina to repeat such a large-scale Diitta two or three times. If they feel they lost, isn't that good enough? However, as Brother Wilfried says, the manner of victory is rather tenuous, so regarding Lady Hannalore's marriage proposal, they could simply drop it—and as for us, if they would gracefully give up on annulling our engagement, wouldn't that suffice?"
Wilfried's expression softened with relief at my proposal.
"Mm. That would be the appropriate resolution. Dunkelfelger was saying things like 'the outcome of a Diitta is sacred' and 'agreements must be honored,' but those are matters to negotiate over with the Aub during the interduchy tournament."
Negotiating with Dunkelfelger, who sanctified the Diitta, sounded extremely troublesome, but since we were the ones declared victorious, it should be workable depending on the negotiation.
"However, Prince Anastasius sternly warned me that we must not cause any more problems regarding the engagement annulment. If it happens again, you will be married off to a prince by royal decree."
"What?"
"...I felt that I am powerless to protect you."
Wilfried said this, his shoulders slumping.
"Apparently, Prince
There had apparently been a complaint from Hildebrand that Dunkelfelger was trying to steal Ehrenfest's Saint, whose fiancé had been decided by royal decree. Anastasius apparently told him it wasn't a royal decree but merely permission for an engagement, that it could be annulled based on the Aub of Ehrenfest's decision, and that it was not something the royalty should intervene in.
"If Ehrenfest is determined to send your sister to another duchy, it seems the royalty would desire to take her in..."
It would be difficult for the royalty to take what Dunkelfelger had won through the Diitta, and furthermore, since lord candidate Ferdinand had been sent to
"But they say there won't be a second time. If a similar disruption occurs in the Royal Academy again, the royalty will take me under their protection."
It wasn't just Wilfried who was feeling down about not being able to protect me. My attendants felt the same way.
"It seems we were let off this time, so let's think positively and make sure it never happens again. More importantly, what happened to the knights and duchies that crashed the Diitta?"
At my words, Wilfried straightened his back and composed his expression.
"Because the Zent's name was invoked, the smaller and medium-sized duchies were let off the hook. It seems Teacher Luefen worked very hard on that. As for the Central Knights' Order knights who incited the smaller and medium-sized duchies and crashed the Diitta, they will receive severe punishment from the Zent. They impersonated royalty to incite the students. The Zent's anger and disappointment are extremely deep, given that these knights had been trusted as loyal servants."
"...I would think loyal knights moving on their own without any royal orders would be suspicious, though."
At my words, Matthias raised his hand to request permission to speak. When I granted it, he prefaced his remarks with "There's no definitive proof, but..." before continuing.
"There's a possibility Trook was used."
"Trook, you say... Don't tell me!?"
Trook was a potent plant believed to have been used at
"When I approached Prince Anastasius to pay my respects, I smelled a sweet fragrance from the bound knights. I didn't know what the smell was at the time, but after returning to the dorm and seeing the fireplace, I remembered. I didn't smell it very clearly, so there's a chance I'm mistaken."
"But you only spoke up because you were fairly certain, right, Matthias?"
Matthias was not the type to say whatever came to mind. If anything, he was someone who thought things through carefully and wouldn't speak unless he had a certain degree of conviction.
"It might become clear if we look into their memories."
If Trook, which distorts memories, had been used, it raised the possibility that the three knights had been manipulated as well. Did the royalty already have information about Trook? Was this something that needed to be disseminated?
"...Do you think Trook is commonplace in the Royal Academy or the Central?"
"If it were commonplace, I think it would be more widely known as a plant with dangerous effects. It's probably a plant unique to a particular duchy."
Charlotte's apprentice scribe, who was taking lectures on pharmacology, shook their head in denial. If it was something unique to a particular duchy, the royalty and the Central didn't necessarily know about it.
"Let's report the possibility that Trook was used to the royalty, after seeking permission from my adoptive father."
As I said this and stood up, a cold unease passed through my heart.
Was it a coincidence that an incident where Trook might have been used was occurring so close to the last one?
Could someone in a position to manipulate Central Knights' Order knights be connected to Georgine? If that were the case, Georgine's return to Ehrenfest might be far easier than we had imagined.
I raised my hand and touched my hairpin with its rainbow-colored magic stone. The feeling of the stone swaying made my heart race.
The one who scattered the intruders was Teacher Luefen. It was nice to see him acting like a proper teacher for once.
And then there was Rozemyne, whose condition had deteriorated from the side effects of taking too many recovery potions.
And the Trook that may have been used by both the knights' order and the Georgine faction.
Next up: preparations for the interduchy tournament.