Mother and Haldenzel's Printing Business

"Then, shall we hurry and change? Lady Elvira is waiting."

I had been bundled up in various layers to stay warm, so I had someone help me change into something more practical for moving around the castle. Then, carrying the box of souvenirs for Mother, I headed to the room Ottile had prepared.

Today's meeting with Mother was about a book that absolutely could not be shown to outsiders, so the only attendant with me was Ottile, with Angelica serving as my sole guard.

Richarta stayed behind in the room to sort through the luggage I had brought back from the Temple. This was because the Chief Priest had told me to manage the items entrusted to me by Hirschur.

"Richarta, this pile has already been processed, and this one is unprocessed."

"It's all right, My Lady. Each item has a label, so I can tell them apart."

Ottile, it turned out, was close friends with Mother and met with her regularly on a personal basis. It was apparently Mother who had arranged for Ottile to serve as my attendant when I came to the castle.

"Thank you for waiting."

Once I had taken my seat, Ottile informed me, "You have been given permission to relax and treat her as family, so there is no need to maintain formality."

I took a small sip of the tea and a bite of the sweets that had been prepared, and after savoring the tea, we got down to business. When our eyes met, Mother's jet-black eyes sparkled as she smiled softly.

"Rozemyne, have you read my book?"

"No, I haven't finished all of it yet. Just one of the knight stories. I haven't had a full day at the castle, and your letter said I could only open it in my room."

I'm keeping my promise properly, I made sure to convey to Mother. She nodded with satisfaction.

"As long as you follow what was written in the letter, that is sufficient. After all, these are books that must never be shown to anyone outside."

"I did flip through it to get a general sense of the content, though… You found a wonderful illustrator. The illustrations were incredible."

…the Chief Priest had marked it up by thirty percent with sparkly glamour.

As I said this while concealing my inner thoughts, Mother's face lit up with delight.

"Hehe, right? I was the one who commissioned them. After all, beautiful illustrations suit romance stories best."

It seemed that my having asked Wilma to draw illustrations using the Chief Priest as the model for the knight stories had inspired Mother to create a collection of knight stories focused entirely on romance.

"However, the books you create need to be kept hidden from Ferdinand, so they won't sell widely, right? I would think the profits would be quite low. Did Gilberte Haldenzel give her permission?"

"The books I gifted to you are specially set aside for my friends. The ones my brother showed and published under the Haldenzel name use illustrations by a different artist, so there is absolutely no problem."

…the same content but different illustrations? Gil and the others—could it be that they were suddenly saddled with an incredibly troublesome rush job?

The initial print run was supposed to have been handled by the Mine Workshop to coordinate with Mother's wishes. I had heard the report that everything had been taken away without leaving a single trace, including all the failed copies, but I hadn't heard anything about there being two sets of illustrations.

"There was no mention of two different sets of illustrations in the report from the workshop."

"I instructed the Plantan Company to keep it an absolute secret and never let it leak. I was wondering how well they could manage, but it seems the people at the Mine Workshop are truly excellent."

Mother said she had been relieved to learn that, while the Plantan Company had been verified as reliable in keeping customer secrets, she had been uncertain how much secrecy the workshop at the Temple—which reported to the Chief Priest—could maintain.

"If Ferdinand were to find out, the Haldenzel printing business could be derailed entirely. And if that happened, I would receive a terrible scolding from my brother."

The books with illustrations that were not of the Chief Priest were apparently selling quite well, and Gilberte Haldenzel intended to continue pushing forward with the printing business.

"I would like to write a story about Ferdinand's time at the Royal Academy next. But even if I change the illustrations, I worry he would notice if he read through it, and I just can't bring myself to take that step…"

"I think he would definitely notice that. It's far too dangerous."

The Chief Priest's legends from his Royal Academy days were full of astonishing episodes. But compiling them into a book would undoubtedly be caught by the Chief Priest.

"There have been stories about Ferdinand circulating even at the Royal Academy. Some topics may come up at tea parties, while others may be things people would prefer not to discuss. I had information gathered, but… would you like to see it?"

I had Ottile bring out the box I had brought as "a souvenir for Mother." Inside was everything that Roderich had diligently compiled from the various legends about the Chief Priest that people had gathered.

Mother exclaimed "Oh my! What a wonderful souvenir!" and happily pulled out the contents one by one, reading through them eagerly.

…I want to read Mother's books too. As long as they don't have illustrations of the Chief Priest.

Mother truly seemed to love information about the Chief Priest, exclaiming things like "Oh, so this is how the ingredient-gathering story is told!" and "The most important romance story isn't included!" as she examined each piece of information, quickly sorting what she already knew from what was new.

"The stories about Ferdinand I know are all from Eckhart's perspective, so it's quite enjoyable to learn how they're told in other provinces."

Time had passed since the Chief Priest was a student, and since the stories were passed along by word of mouth, they had been suitably exaggerated—making them perfect material for stories.

"The one who compiled this is a first-year student named Roderich."

"Roderich… He's from the former Veronica faction, the son of the mid-ranking noble who framed Wilfried during the hunting tournament, isn't he?"

"You know your stuff, Mother."

"Of course I remember dangerous individuals."

"…Roderich had no ill intentions. He was just doing what his parents told him."

"Yes, I'm sure. But the most dangerous kind of person is the one who brings you harm without any malicious intent. If someone is a clear enemy with obvious ill will, it's easy to guard against them."

Mother spoke with an expression that was both troubled and patient, like someone trying to explain things to a child who wouldn't listen.

"When your faction grows large enough that others see an advantage, mid-ranking and lower-ranking nobles will naturally flock to you. They cling to whoever seems slightly more dominant as their way of surviving. I don't condemn that way of life, but it also means you cannot place your trust in them."

Given how dramatically treatment changed based on social status, it was clearly safer to just go along with the flow. The way of thinking was apparently quite different from that of the lord's family and higher-ranking nobles, who had no choice but to become standard-bearers.

"Rozemyne, far too often you judge situations based on emotion rather than self-interest. It worries me endlessly that you might place a lower-ranking noble you've taken a liking to among your retainers, only to be betrayed when the balance of power shifts."

"Betrayal…? Damuel and Philine have served me well."

Neither of them was that type of person. Damuel in particular was a guard knight who had risked his life to protect me. If he were the type to betray, I would have long since been dead.

I shook my head vigorously, and Mother nodded, saying "I know."

"Damuel and Philine's loyalty is genuine. I have enough information to make that judgment."

"Huh?"

I stared wide-eyed upon being told that she had enough material to vouch for the loyalty of Philine, whom I had appointed as a retainer after she entered the Royal Academy. Mother smiled brightly.

"You must not underestimate my information network."

"Rozemyne-sama, Lady Elvira was an excellent civil official, you know."

Ottile said this with a laugh, exchanging a glance with Mother.

Having personally observed the civil-official apprentices struggling at the Royal Academy and having organized the flood of information that came with it, I now belatedly understood how impressive Mother was—gathering all manner of information from all sorts of places through tea parties.

"Rozemyne, as long as you don't treat them egregiously poorly, Damuel and Philine's loyalty won't waver. But you must not assume the same holds true for other mid-ranking and lower-ranking nobles."

"…I understand."

I had hoped that by showing Mother the Chief Priest legends—Roderich's best work—she would acknowledge him and I could recruit him as a retainer. Instead, I had been firmly warned not to trust people so easily.

"Besides, proper compensation means gradually raising it from sixty percent of what you give same-faction members, Rozemyne."

"Huh?"

"You must demonstrate fairness by paying proper compensation even to those in rival factions, while also giving preferential treatment to your own faction members. If you don't make people think it's better to join your side, you won't be able to draw them into your faction. If you treat allies and enemies the same way, there's no point in belonging to a faction. And if someone in a rival faction is treated on equal footing, they generally won't be happy about it. Your understanding of factions may be naive, but you need to remember this, or you'll breed resentment among your own people."

"…Yes."

Just how much of what I did at the Royal Academy was being leaked, and to whom? Neither my adoptive father nor the Chief Priest had ever given me this kind of lecture.

"After you moved to the Temple, a report came in from Richarta. Since the dormitory supervisor Hirschur is almost never around and unreliable, the question has arisen whether to appoint another dormitory manager."

"A manager?"

Ehrenfest had traditionally drawn little interest from other provinces, so even if they tried to set trends, they weren't invited to tea parties. The first year was expected to have limited spread.

However, because of me, unexpected relationships had formed with the royalty, the higher-ranking lord candidates, and the most influential figures at the Royal Academy. Information was needed to assess which provinces Ehrenfest was connected to at the Lord's Conference, but the dormitory supervisor who had begun researching Schwarz and Weiss was utterly unreliable.

"Therefore, an opinion was raised that someone was needed who could report in detail on the Royal Academy's situation and your conduct. This came from Ferdinand."

…So this was the "slightly terrible plan" the Chief Priest had mentioned!? In other words, this means a manager specifically for me!? Not slightly—terribly!?

As I clutched my head in dismay, Mother cast her gaze down toward the compiled Chief Priest legends and let out a soft sigh.

"Even so, to think that this much information about Ferdinand still circulates at the Royal Academy. I'm quite surprised."

"Yes, I was surprised too. According to the people who gathered the information, it seemed the other provinces knew more about him than Ehrenfest did."

Since the Chief Priest had entered the Temple, there were few stories about him, so legends that current Royal Academy students were hearing for the first time were suddenly surfacing in droves. In the Ehrenfest dormitory, it was said that more than half were either exaggerations or stories about someone else entirely.

I couldn't verify the truth of any of it either, so I just let it slide.

"Why is there such a gap in the amount of information?"

"Because Ferdinand's grades were far too excellent, he drew Veronica's wrath, and no one in Ehrenfest dared to speak of him."

Mother said this with a sorrowful cast to her eyes.

Despite being the child of a concubine, the Chief Priest had received his Baptism Ceremony as a lord candidate—the lord's own child. By the time he was attending the Royal Academy and had established an unshakable reputation among the top students, Veronica's two daughters had already married into other provinces.

Only two lord candidates remained in Ehrenfest. If anything happened to Sylvester, the Chief Priest would automatically assume the position of next lord. On top of that, given his spectacular grades that were known across provinces, Sylvester's lack of drive, and the fact that over half his duties had been delegated to the Chief Priest, Veronica's sense of crisis could only have intensified.

"She had been harsh toward Ferdinand ever since the Baptism Ceremony. But during the final year at the Royal Academy, when the previous lord fell ill, and as his excellence only grew more apparent, her treatment became increasingly terrible. Those around her were completely out of control. That was when Sylvester suggested that Ferdinand escape to the Temple."

Come to think of it, I had heard that he had entered the Temple shortly before his father passed away, so he had been unable to attend the funeral as a family member. When I thought about the Chief Priest not being able to be at his parent's deathbed, Veronica's treatment seemed nothing short of cruel.

"If he had been able to stay at the castle a little longer, he might have been able to see his parent one last time. When I think about it, I feel terrible for Ferdinand."

"…I think he probably did see him. Shortly after Ferdinand entered the Temple, the death was officially announced, so in reality, he must have passed on to the afterlife a good while earlier."

Apparently, a lord's funeral was held after the Lord's Conference. The death was reported at the conference, the next lord was approved, and the funeral took place after returning to the province. This was because neighboring lords and nobles needed time to travel. Until then, the body was preserved using time-stop magic.

Because of this, there was apparently a difference between the actual date of death and the publicly announced date. Even if it was publicly known that he had not been at his parent's deathbed, Mother said that in reality, he likely had been.

…I really hope that's true.

"Ferdinand is now active in the open without having to hide. That alone is enough for me."

"…Mother, what makes you so devoted to Ferdinand? Setting aside the present, wasn't it incredibly difficult to openly side with him before?"

If he was that despised, simply supporting him would have certainly earned Veronica's wrath. Mother tilted her head with her hand against her cheek, looking troubled, and Ottile answered in her place, casting her eyes downward sadly.

"Lady Elvira was also despised by Lady Veronica, you see."

"Huh?"

"It's not really a secret or anything, but my mother was Veronica's half-sister."

"Half-sister?"

The reference materials prepared for memorizing noble names were organized in tables, and the family tree I had seen before had been centered on Father's lineage, so I had absolutely no knowledge of Mother's family.

"I heard that Veronica's half-siblings were terribly despised…"

The former High Priest had also been a half-sibling, and the animosity had been so severe that even the collection of his belongings after death had been refused. I never would have guessed that Mother was one of his relatives.

"When the previous lord's brother—my grandfather—married a princess of Ahrensbach, that was the first cause of the current turmoil."

The princess, who had low Magic Power for a candidate of Ahrensbach, had reportedly fallen for the previous lord's brother when he showed her kindness during a visit to watch the inter-province tournament. Thinking that a province with little influence like Ehrenfest would be grateful even for a low-magic princess from Ahrensbach, she had leveraged her father's authority and insisted on the marriage—displacing Mother's grandmother, who was already the first wife with two children, into the position of second wife.

To demote the daughter of the Leisegang Baron, who commanded the greatest influence within the province, to second wife caused an uproar, and the lord at the time, fearing further unrest, had removed the previous lord's brother from the line of succession. Instead, Bonifatius's father was installed as the previous lord, and a daughter of the Leisegang Baron household was married to Bonifatius to appease the Baron's discontent.

Even in these circumstances, the princess of Ahrensbach who had married in gave birth to three children, but she reportedly always wanted to return to Ahrensbach, saying "it's unbearable to live in such a backwater."

…I tried drawing out the family tree, but it's so tangled my head is spinning. The blood relations are a complete mess.

After giving birth to her third child, the princess's health deteriorated, and she passed away, leaving behind her young children. Mother's grandmother, who had been relegated to second wife, was restored to first wife.

The first child, who survived, was male and had the highest Magic Power of all the children, so he was raised as the heir. The second child was Veronica, and because of her exceptionally abundant Magic Power—unmatched in Ehrenfest—she was educated to become the first wife of the next lord.

The third child, born when the princess had forced herself to give birth despite poor health, had far too little Magic Power. There was no asking the maternal Ahrensbach family for support or to take the child in, so the child was sent to the Temple.

Then, a few years later, when the first-born son died, Veronica began frequently contacting her half-brother who had been sent to the Temple, doting on him and growing up dependent on him.

"Once she married in and became the lord's wife, Lady Veronica began harassing her half-siblings. Rather than targeting those older than her, she found it easier to target their children—her nieces and nephews. My brother and I were subjected to various forms of harsh treatment."

Because she was the daughter of Gilberte Haldenzel, it was never quite so overt in daily life, but when she was invited to women-only tea parties, the insidious harassment had been relentless, apparently.

"My grandfather was troubled by this situation and tried to protect me from isolation by arranging my engagement to Lord Karstedt."

That was why Mother had gathered a faction of those despised by Veronica, and had fought to protect Florentzia—who had married in from Frumberg and been bullied by Veronica—and to shield Ferdinand, who was persecuted as the child of a concubine.

"When the previous lord ascended to the afterlife, my brother's Haldenzel was treated even more harshly. Haldenzel is in the northern part of Ehrenfest, isn't it? The winters there are far more severe than here. Higher taxes could mean the difference between life and death for the commoners."

The entire province was already stretched thin, so there was no way to exempt Haldenzel alone. As taxes were raised across the board, Haldenzel's damage was greater than most.

"My brother says it was thanks to you that he survived, Rozemyne."

With the arrival of small Holy Cups brimming with Magic Power, the removal of Veronica who had tormented them, and Mother's faction—led by both the adoptive mother and Mother herself—becoming the largest faction, Haldenzel had been given room to breathe.

"Furthermore, the book my brother had been skeptical about far exceeded his expectations in sales. He wants to expand printing throughout Haldenzel even more."

"That's wonderful."

However, as was only natural, printing required paper. And while Plant Paper workshops had originally been planned to be built simultaneously, they hadn't been created because I had fallen asleep.

This was apparently the same situation for the other lords, who had all rushed to enter the papermaking business after learning of Ilgner's success.

"Also, the sales are bound by Contract Magic, aren't they?"

The merchant contracts I had signed were limited to Ehrenfest's city, but Ehrenfest was where nobles with the Noble District who would buy books could be found. And until I woke up, the lord had forbidden spreading printed materials to other provinces.

The scope of Contract Magic was ambiguous, so without knowing what would constitute a violation, the only option was to sell through the Plantan Company. While the small number of books was manageable for now, this situation would become untenable going forward. That was why the dissolution of the Contract Magic was being sought.

Upon hearing this, I instinctively clenched my fists on my lap.

"Rozemyne, it seems you have been protected by some truly wonderful people."

"Huh?"

"The Plantan Company refused, no matter how much my brother pressed them, saying that for details of the contract they should direct their inquiries to the Aub Ehrenfest."

Even surrounded by higher-ranking nobles, Benno had refused to divulge the contents of the contract—one that might reveal my past.

"It was a contract made with Rozemyne during her time at the Temple, and he said it was necessary to protect Rozemyne as she was at that time."

"…Yes."

Benno had desperately racked his brain to ensure that even if I was taken away to the Noble District, some connection would remain—a chance to meet face to face. And Lutz had signed the Contract Magic knowing it could put his own safety at risk.

"But to protect you now, that contract is surely too small, isn't it? To expand books and printing going forward, don't you need a new contract suited to who you are now?"

"A… new contract?"

"That's right. Even if the contract changes, your relationship with the Plantan Company doesn't change. Why not draw up a new contract tailored to who you are now?"

Even if the contract changed, the bond wouldn't break. All we'd need to do was make a new one.

Mother was right about that.

…But that would no longer be the contract between Mine and Lutz.

In place of words I could say to no one, I let out a quiet breath.

By creating two sets of books, Mother successfully hid her own interests from the family.

And with that, Mother's stern admonishment to Rozemyne comes to an end.

Next, I will meet with Brigitte for the first time in a while.