We decided on various small details: that we would convene once the blizzard had calmed enough for a carriage to pass, that I would attend, and that I would prepare documents summarizing our current production output and remaining capacity.
"The blizzard is picking up."
There was plenty I wanted to discuss, but
Watching everyone hurry home through the intensifying snow and wind from the window, I let out a soft sigh.
With so many people around today, I hadn't been able to fuss over
After lunch, I decided to summarize today's meeting and prepare for my meeting with Giebe
"Saam, we'll need to report today's meeting decisions to the Chief Priest, won't we? Could you request an audience for me? Also, please ask to borrow an ortho."
"Understood."
"Monica, please compile a summary of today's meeting before my audience with the Chief Priest.
After assigning tasks to my attendants, I reviewed the Haldenzel materials Fran had prepared. I needed to figure out how far the
I wondered whether Giebe Haldenzel even knew what kind of books Mother was making. Were there books by people other than Mother as well? I was growing intensely curious.
...Sigh, I want to read the books Mother made.
It was driving me absolutely crazy that there were books I owned but hadn't read. Even though staying at the
While I was thinking about this, Saam returned from delivering the wooden request tag to the Chief Priest, wearing a somewhat troubled expression.
"Saam, is something wrong?"
"The Chief Priest has locked himself in his workshop and won't come out. His attendants say he's been shut away since after dinner last night and hasn't eaten anything."
They'd apparently thought that if I went to help at the third bell, I could draw the Chief Priest out of the workshop, but I hadn't gone because of the meeting. So now, with the fifth bell nearly upon us, he still hadn't emerged.
...Among the massive amount of luggage brought to the Temple had been
"The Chief Priest must have been terribly busy working nonstop while I was sleeping, right? Isn't it fine to let him do as he pleases for a single day?"
"He's been locked away since returning to the Temple yesterday, so it's already been another day. And the Chief Priest hasn't taken any meals during that time either."
As Saam looked toward the door with a clouded, worried expression, Fran wore the same troubled look. I always thought this—both Fran and Saam, the Chief Priest's former attendants, loved him far too much.
"Perhaps I should go check on him?"
"That would be a tremendous help. The only one who can order the Chief Priest around is you, Lady
...I had absolutely no confidence that he'd listen to me even if I gave an order.
I sighed, hoping this would at least ease Fran and the others' worries. Accompanying Saam and Fran, who hurried to open the door, I headed to the Chief Priest's room.
"Rozemyne, you came."
The one who greeted me with a smile was
"Eckhart, where's Justus? Don't tell me he pawned his work off on you and locked himself in the workshop with the Chief Priest?"
"No, Justus went back to the castle during the lull in snow this morning. He'd finished the work he'd been asked to do, so—"
Eagerly looking forward to Hirschur's souvenir as I was, the Chief Priest's workshop in the Temple was designed so that only those with quite high magic power could enter, preventing even Father from barging in. Justus couldn't get in, so after glancing bitterly at the workshop, he finished his assigned tasks and promptly returned to the castle.
"Also, I'm doing this work voluntarily. What I'm doing now wasn't ordered by Lord
Eckhart had apparently been willingly helping with paperwork so the Chief Priest could stretch his research time as long as possible. But even that was reaching its limit.
"Rozemyne, you'd be able to enter Lord Ferdinand's workshop, wouldn't you?"
"I could, but not if the Chief Priest doesn't open it for me. I haven't registered my magic."
The workshop in my High Priest's chambers had the Chief Priest's magic registered, so he could come and go freely. But since I wasn't registered in the Chief Priest's workshop, I couldn't enter.
Despite his shoulders slumping in disappointment, Eckhart turned his gaze toward the magical tool used to contact the workshop.
"Could you at least call out to him? If he hears that a guest has arrived, Lord Ferdinand might at least make some effort to respond. When I call out, he doesn't even reply anymore."
With no other option, I lightly touched the magical tool connected to the workshop and called out.
"Chief Priest, it's Rozemyne."
"Oh, it's you. I'm busy right now. Unless it's an emergency, come back later."
"It is an emergency. Please eat something for your health! Both your attendants and Eckhart are worried about you!"
"I understand. I'll eat when I reach a good stopping point, so don't worry."
He shut me down so briskly that I exhaled lightly, moved away from the magical tool, and turned back to Eckhart.
"Skipping a meal or two won't kill anyone, and the Chief Priest said he'll eat when he reaches a good point. As long as he comes out before the Dedication Ritual, isn't that good enough?"
Having been consumed by books during my Reina years and experienced something similar, I understood all too well the Chief Priest's inability to pull himself away. As long as he showed up for the Dedication Ritual, which would cause major problems if missed, wasn't that enough?
Just as I was about to leave him alone until he was satisfied, the Chief Priest's attendants and Eckhart knelt before me.
"Rozemyne, Lord Ferdinand has given the same answer all morning, but couldn't you do something about it? You—surely you have something that could pique Lord Ferdinand's interest?"
Eckhart looked at me as though grasping at straws, and I caught my breath. If I couldn't lure the reclusive Chief Priest out of his impenetrable workshop—like Amaterasu sealed in the Heavenly Rock Cave—Eckhart's pleas would apparently go on forever.
"...It would be easy to get him out quickly, but I'd get scolded for it. I'm reluctant."
When I shook my head, saying, "I was just scolded recently, so I'd rather not be scolded again for a while," Fran gave me a sorrowful look and asked, "Lady Rozemyne, did you do something to anger the Chief Priest?" while Saam encouraged me with, "I'll be scolded alongside you."
...Even so, I wasn't about to willingly throw fuel on the fire of a bad-tempered Chief Priest fresh out of his workshop.
After pondering for a while, Eckhart's blue eyes suddenly lit up. He placed a hand on my shoulder and lowered his voice as if sharing a secret.
"The earlier you get scolded, the fewer the reprimands, Rozemyne. Right now, if you steer the conversation toward the results of the magical tool research, he'll soften his anger somewhat and you can deflect the conversation."
"All right. Let's do it."
If it meant fewer scoldings from the Chief Priest, that changed everything. I lifted my head firmly and addressed the magical tool once more.
"Chief Priest, please come out."
"...You're still here?"
"Let's have dinner together. I was thinking we needed to talk about magic compression. Wouldn't you be interested in four-stage magic compression? There's no one at the Temple besides you and me and our guard knights—people who already know about magic compression—so it should be fine to discuss it over a meal."
The Chief Priest stopped talking. He was probably weighing continuing his research against hearing about magic compression.
"Also, I have something to discuss. I want to teach magic compression to the children of the former
"What on earth are you thinking!?"
Bang! The Chief Priest burst through the door. Sure enough, it was extremely effective at drawing him out of the workshop, but the veins bulging on his forehead were visible at a glance. He looked sleep-deprived, but his eyes gleamed with the manic energy of someone who'd been indulging in what they loved. This was shaping up to be an extra-large thunderstorm of rage.
"I was scolded that reporting, informing, and consulting are important, so I thought I'd properly consult with you. Will you listen?"
"...I suppose I have no choice. Honestly."
The Chief Priest sighed, making no effort to hide his reluctant expression.
"Very well. When the sixth bell rings, I'll come to my—"
"Come to my room. Don't interrupt me any further until dinner."
...He was definitely planning to research right up until the last possible moment before dinner.
I could tell immediately what the Chief Priest was thinking just by the way he eyed the workshop. This was the first time he'd been this transparent.
"Understood. When the sixth bell rings, I'll come here then."
When I smiled sweetly, the Chief Priest returned to the workshop with a sour expression. Averting my gaze from the closed door, I looked around at the surrounding attendants.
"So with that said, please prepare my dinner as well."
"We're relieved, Lady High Priest. It seems the Chief Priest will be joining us for dinner."
Since my dinner also needed to be prepared, some of the attendants immediately sprang into action.
If the Chief Priest was coming here for dinner, my attendants needed to prepare dishes and such, and the attendants and guard knights on duty until the sixth bell needed to either finish an early meal or eat later after the gathering—there were many arrangements to make.
"Lady Rozemyne, let's return to your room for now."
"Very well. Eckhart, I'll come here at the sixth bell."
"Of course, I'll be waiting. If Rozemyne hadn't been the one to call, Lord Ferdinand probably wouldn't have come out. I'm truly happy that you're my sister, since you're the one who can move Lord Ferdinand."
Eckhart praised me with a smile like Father's, saying "Well done," but being praised for something like that didn't really make me happy.
While I was back in my room organizing my thoughts on magic compression to discuss with the Chief Priest, preparations bustled around me, and the sixth bell rang out.
When I returned to the Chief Priest's room, he was already there, having emerged from the workshop with his usual sour expression.
While the attendants prepared dishes, I had to face the ill-tempered Chief Priest alone. Eckhart, standing behind the Chief Priest with a cool expression, was an annoying sight.
"Chief Priest, you haven't been controlling your emotions. Aren't nobles supposed to not show their feelings like that?"
"With anyone else, perhaps, but if I restrained myself around you, my displeasure would be completely lost on you. I'm being considerate enough to make sure you understand."
He was apparently going out of his way to show his bad mood so I'd understand, but I didn't need that kind of consideration.
"So, teaching magic compression to the former Veronica faction—what exactly is that about? Didn't you say you wouldn't teach those who oppose you?"
"I have no intention of teaching the enemy. That hasn't changed. But I realized that until I interacted with the children of the former Veronica faction at the Noble Academy, I hadn't understood how large that faction was or whether information even flowed through it."
Because the former Veronica faction had been the largest, there were many members. There was no way to exclude them all.
"Moreover, there were children who regretted acting on their parents' orders without being given information, which led to
"You'd need to be an adult before you can choose your own faction and act on it."
"But then they'd miss the period when their magic grows the most, wouldn't they? When I've seen people like
The Chief Priest lightly closed his eyes and murmured, "The time when magic grows most is indeed during one's years at the Noble Academy."
"Wouldn't it be possible to recruit just the younger generation by changing the contract terms for those in the same faction through Contract Magic?"
"Even if you change the contract terms, setting the right conditions would be difficult."
"I'd like to leave the fine-tuning to the Chief Priest and Mother, who know the actual faction relationships well. I think we need to be cautious, but we can't afford to discard this many people."
"Hmm," the Chief Priest murmured thoughtfully, then fixed me with a sharp golden glare.
"There must be another motive. Be honest."
"Ugh... By binding them with contracts, if Father and the others could feel at ease, I was thinking of perhaps bringing the former Veronica faction's children into my retinue."
My words made the Chief Priest's eyes widen sharply. Then, with a smile so cold it could freeze you despite standing near the fireplace, he stared at me and spoke in a somewhat lowered voice.
"You really are an idiot, aren't you? Have you forgotten what happened to you? Even if it was two years ago for us, it hasn't even been one season change for you, has it?"
"...I may be an idiot, but the former Veronica faction has talented people too. It would be a waste not to nurture and use them."
I held Lodrique's information-gathering abilities and his talent for improvising continuations to stories he couldn't quite remember in high regard.
"Besides, a dormitory where dissatisfaction and disappointment spread is an unpleasant place to live."
"That's just how dormitories are. Some conflict over factions is natural, isn't it?"
The Chief Priest snorted and said that.
"But as part of the Academic Improvement Committee, I divided everyone into teams by academic track to pass the written exams and set rewards based on how quickly everyone passed and their scores. They were actually cooperating quite well across faction lines!"
At first, things had been a bit stiff, but as everyone actively exchanged opinions and studied together to pass, the multipurpose hall where they gathered took on quite a harmonious atmosphere.
Hearing this report, the Chief Priest's eyes went wide, and he stared at me with disbelief.
"...You were doing something like that?"
"Yes. Father ordered me to improve their grades. Setting rewards and having them compete to raise overall scores is the same as the children's room in winter. ...Oh wait, didn't a report from the Noble Academy arrive from Wilfried?"
I tilted my head, thinking he'd surely already known about this. The fact that such important information hadn't been reported—I really thought Wilfried needed to study how to write reports.
"What reached me were questionnaires about you. Even among the information Wilfried deemed not worth asking about, there seems to be all sorts of important hidden information."
I quietly averted my gaze from the Chief Priest, who was looking at me suspiciously. Was I imagining that I was about to be scolded?
"In any case, at least there's enough exchange within the dormitory that opinions can be shared even with children from the former Veronica faction. I'll think about whether we can bring some of them over by dividing contract terms. If we succeed in recruiting the children about to come of age, the balance of power could shift significantly. ...Of course, that also means taking on risks, so caution is paramount. Until a clear conclusion is reached on this matter, don't make any rash moves."
"Yes."
The dinner conversation was about Hirschur's souvenir. I asked about the magical tool that Hirschur wanted fixed—what exactly was it?
"It's a magical tool used for lectures. I never imagined she was still using it. I thought for sure she'd have made a new one by now..."
Based on the Chief Priest's explanation, I gathered it was something like a projector. By pouring magic power into a magic stone, it could project text written on paper onto a white cloth like a slide, for as long as the power lasted.
"Hirschur is exactly as she is—utterly hopeless with anything that isn't research. Having to repeat the same explanation over and over during lectures irritated her, and the students could only ask questions if they didn't catch something. As the grade level advanced and the procedures grew more complex, memorizing everything became increasingly difficult. So for the synthesis lectures, she created a magical tool that could project the steps so she wouldn't have to explain them repeatedly."
Apparently, Hirschur was always in a bad mood when she returned from lectures, which the Chief Priest found annoying, so he had her make it. Hirschur had been overjoyed, since once the steps were written down, it could be used for years.
"From what you're telling me, Hirschur hasn't changed at all."
"...If I told you the Chief Priest still gets queasy from magic compression, I'm sure Hirschur-sensei would say the same thing. You must have pushed yourself quite hard during your Noble Academy days too, right?"
"I didn't push myself particularly hard. So, what's this fourth stage of magic compression?"
Having been occupied with thoughts of the former Veronica faction, she seemed to remember she hadn't yet heard about the main topic—magic compression—and the Chief Priest looked at me.
When I explained what I'd done during the magic compression practical exam, the Chief Priest shook his head, saying, "Your thought process is completely incomprehensible." Apparently, someone who had already achieved compression thinking of compressing further was simply not normal.
The Chief Priest had initially compressed by visualizing Hirschur's phrase "boiling down magic power," but he realized that packing it in by folding allowed for more to be stored, and changed his compression method accordingly.
"I see. Rather than changing the method, you combined them. You released your magic and recompressed, but if you boiled down the packed magic to reduce its volume, there shouldn't be any problem. Why go out of your way to increase the first stage first? Couldn't you just move it to the end?"
"...It was the easiest for me to imagine."
In my mind, the third stage was a futon compression bag. I simply couldn't imagine boiling that down. If it weren't "boiling down" but rather "drying it out until completely parched," I might have been able to picture it.
As I lightly closed my eyes and tried to see if I could compress magic, Fran spoke in an exasperated voice.
"Lady Rozemyne, Chief Priest, you've both stopped eating. Might I suggest putting the difficult thinking faces away until after the meal?"
Not just me—the Chief Priest and even the guard knights standing behind us had all apparently been trying magic compression. We exchanged glances, shrugged lightly, and I continued eating.
"Combining compression methods—that's a very you way of thinking. Will you teach this fourth stage to everyone?"
"...I'm planning to teach it to my retainers. I think it would be fine to teach the leadership as well, but beyond that... perhaps gradually. I'd like to keep it as a trump card."
After we resumed eating, I also asked about the magic circles on
"There's a similar one in the magical tool I gave you for protection, but I've never seen a magic circle that reflects to multiple targets. However, it requires a great deal of magic power, so while it's worth researching, it's not suited for your everyday use."
The Chief Priest planned to study Schwartz and Weiss's protection to enhance my own. It seemed he intended to experiment on me.
"Without as much spare magic power as you, no one could receive a lecture while channeling magic into a magical tool at the same time. ...By the way, how much have your physical strength and muscle recovered?"
...I'd been prioritizing reading in the library, so not very much.
Faced with a question packed with potential scolding material, I smiled sweetly and deflected the conversation, just as Eckhart had taught me.
"
"...You perform compression effortlessly and keep advancing through the stages. You're incomparable to your peers."
The Chief Priest said it would likely increase even further as my body grew.
"The protection on Schwartz and the others also requires magic power, and since Solange-sensei was channeling magic to protect them, Hirschur-sensei couldn't get close, apparently. She was delighted and transcribed the magic circles when taking measurements. But what did you learn from the magic circles? Did the Chief Priest make any new discoveries as well?"
"Ah, it's truly fascinating."
The deflection was a success. The Chief Priest began explaining, in a slightly faster cadence than usual, about the beauty of the magic circles embroidered on her belly. They were quite complex, with multiple attributes overlaid in exquisite balance.
"Hirschur-sensei said it was full of holes! Can you fill them in, Chief Priest?"
"Not completely yet. But I want to try. Opportunities to see the personal research results of royalty like this are virtually nonexistent in Ehrenfest."
The Chief Priest murmured that if he could go to the Central District, he'd have had the chance. Even wanting to go, his title as a Lord Candidate prevented him—just as my inability to transfer my registration to the Central District meant I couldn't get a job at the Noble Academy's library.
...Well then, why not let the Chief Priest have his way with this opportunity?
"Chief Priest, as the master of Schwartz and Weiss, I need to have new clothing made. Hirschur-sensei says it'll be an assignment that Ehrenfest as a whole needs to work on together so we won't be embarrassed at the Noble Academy. She said it would require many precious materials to add new protection magic circles. Could I ask for the Chief Priest's cooperation in creating clothing that wouldn't be out of place even in the Central District?"
"Hmm. A challenge against ancestors and future generations. How interesting."
He'd start with improving the magic circles, the Chief Priest murmured, letting his thoughts stream out about what should be modified where and how. If I left it to the Chief Priest, he might produce something truly amazing.
*The Chief Priest is seriously amazing!* I was praising him in my heart when Fran let out an extremely troubled sigh.
"You two have stopped eating again. At this rate, the orphans won't get their meals."
...Oh, sorry.
In any case, I teamed up with Eckhart to catch the Chief Priest, who had immediately tried to return to his workshop after the meal.
"Chief Priest, either come out on your own when called, or register my magic so I can enter and exit the workshop freely. Pick one. Being begged to drag you out like this every day is a problem."
"...I suppose I'd rather come out than let you come and go freely. Still, you've become quite pushy—you remind me of Richarda."
"At the Noble Academy, I was dragged out of the library every day, after all."
Standing with my hands on my hips in a lecturing pose, just as Richarda always did, I watched the Chief Priest let out a deep sigh and slowly shake his head.
"Rozemyne, don't cause too much trouble for Richarda."
"I'll return those words, rephrased for your attendants: please don't cause too much trouble for your attendants."
Right after that,
**Today's lesson: If the pheasant doesn't cry, it won't get shot.** The Chief Priest did his best to explain his research results, but Rozemyne couldn't really understand it.
And she didn't realize that even if the Chief Priest improved the magic circles, she'd be the one left to embroider them.
Next time, after the Dedication Ritual, she'll return to the castle.