Entrwikkeln

Philine, Lieserota, and the rest of the group had returned to the castle, but I kept Angelica on my lesser beast and headed straight back to the temple from Haldenzel. There was no point in bringing the Gutenberg crew to the castle.

When I descended at the temple's front entrance, a carriage from the Plantane Company was already there to meet us. I had the Gutenberg crew dismount from our riding beasts and faced Benno.

"Once the reception preparations for Gutenberg are in order and the next destination has been decided, I'll be in touch again."

"Thanks to Lady Rozemyne, this job went remarkably smoothly. I look forward to hearing from you."

Compared to last year's trip, both the travel time and the time spent on work had been vastly different, from what I heard. Benno wore a satisfied smile. Zack and Johann also seemed pleased with what they had gained from their serious exchanges with the craftsmen.

"Before the next time, I'll practice enough so I can explain how to read the blueprints to the craftsmen."

"I'll work harder too, so I can better bridge the gap between Johann and the craftsmen."

After seeing the Gutenberg crew off and turning back toward the temple, I found Fran and the other attendants there, along with the Chief Priest, who had his hand pressed to his temple.

"Welcome back, Lady Rozemyne."

"I have returned."

"...Welcome back, Rozemyne. You have something you need to report to me, don't you? Ordinance reports came flying in from Giebe Haldenzel, Elvira, and Karstedt. Strangely, there was nothing from you, the person actually involved."

The Chief Priest glared at me, and I gulped. From my perspective, I had merely pointed out that things were slightly different from what the Holy Book described, and when I tried following the book, the goddess had come through for me. But apparently, that wasn't how it looked to everyone else. It seemed the situation had been serious enough that everyone felt the need to send Ordinance reports.

"Once you've changed, I'll have you summoned to my room."

"Yes. Since this will concern the High Priest's Holy Book, your room would be more appropriate."

The Chief Priest turned on his heel and left. I left the luggage to Saam and Fran, then returned to my room with Monica and changed into the High Priest's robes. Angelica had already sent an Ordinance to Damuel, requesting that he take up his guard duty at the temple.

I had Nicola prepare sweets and tea, then let out a heavy sigh, my shoulders slumping.

"Though I'm not looking forward to it, please summon the Chief Priest."

"Understood."

Before Saam could bring the Chief Priest back, Fran had placed the Holy Book passed down through the High Priests on the table for me. I opened the large, ornate Holy Book and turned to the problematic page.

"Now then, Rozemyne. Shall we hear your explanation?"

"What exactly would you have me explain? All I did was point out that the song sung by men during the Dedication Ritual at Haldenzel was, according to this Holy Book, supposed to be sung by the Earth Goddess's attendants."

I showed him the Holy Book while defending myself. It was Giebe Haldenzel who decided to have women sing, my father who put me on stage, and the goddess who brought spring to Haldenzel. I hadn't done anything special this time.

"...So this is what it says. This is the first I've heard that the High Priest's Holy Book has different text from the others."

"Hadn't you read this Holy Book before? I was certain you were the one who read it to me the first time..."

"That was because I had the previous High Priest's permission. She told me to read it to you, so I did. Without permission, the text is invisible to me."

According to the Chief Priest, the Holy Book passed down through the High Priests was a type of Magical Tool. It wasn't protected by gemstone decorations but by magic stones. He said it was linked to a key that the High Priests safeguarded through the generations.

The Holy Book he had read to me during our first meeting had only covered the very beginning, so there hadn't been any unusual text in what he showed me.

"It's common for the contents to change during the copying process—old expressions made easier to understand, archaic words rewritten to be recognizable, or slight alterations due to political pressure. You wouldn't notice unless you compared them carefully."

"So you compared them carefully?"

"...The old Holy Book and the new one clearly had different numbers of pages, so I investigated where the differences were."

The Holy Book passed down through the High Priests was large and thick. Even excluding the ornamentation, the one in the library had a different thickness. And the differences varied across different eras.

"It was something I did to pass the time during the era of the Blue Priestess, back when new books were scarce. And while I'm at it—I also looked into the prayer graffiti that someone who seemed to be the previous High Priest had written."

"Prayer graffiti?"

"Prayers were written there so they wouldn't need to be memorized. In the course of looking for others like it, I discovered that the pages with differences between the two Holy Books had the most graffiti."

"...Submit your research findings. Knowing you, you've written some kind of memo or notes about it, haven't you?"

It was a bit frustrating to be so thoroughly seen through, but he was right. I had written down several observations.

"Weren't you going to study the Holy Book yourself, Chief Priest? If you need my permission, I'll provide it."

"...If I have time, I will. But thanks to someone, I have a mountain of things I need to research."

He glared at me, but I pretended not to notice. If only he could learn to focus on what he needed at the time and let the rest slide, but alas, people who liked to think deeply had it tough.

"This discovery may save Ehrenfest. If we can advance the arrival of spring through the Dedication Ritual, many territories would benefit greatly."

Ehrenfest was a territory with harsh cold, deep snow, and long winters overall. The Chief Priest said that if the arrival of spring could be adjusted through the Dedication Ritual, it would be of great help to both the farmers and the nobles who collected taxes.

"Indeed. Giebe Haldenzel was very pleased. As thanks for bringing spring, he gave me Bärenluse fruit as a souvenir."

"Bärenluse fruit? That's an extremely rare ingredient."

The Chief Priest's eyes widened. Apparently, it was a magic tree that was rarely seen due to its connection to the land's element.

"Giebe Haldenzel said the same thing. He gave me two—how about one?"

I took a golden fruit from among the luggage I had brought back from Haldenzel, and the Chief Priest looked at me and the Bärenluse fruit with a deeply suspicious expression.

"...What are you scheming?"

"I just thought it might be a good ingredient for recovery medicine, and wondered if it could be used to improve the medicine."

"Since Sylvester and the others will also need recovery medicine for Entrwikkeln, I might as well make use of it."

I didn't voice my wish that he could have been a bit kinder about it, but my sentiment seemed to come across nonetheless. The Chief Priest promised to improve the medicine using the Bärenluse fruit.

For Entrwikkeln, they needed to store magic power in the Foundation's magic, and to do so, the entire lord's family would apparently have to keep replenishing their magic power while taking medicine.

"As soon as the medicine is improved, we'll head to the castle. In the meantime, store as much magic power as you can in magic stones."

The Chief Priest gave me empty magic stones and recovery medicine, and I was to diligently store up magic power until the medicine improvement was complete.

...Honestly, this was tougher than the Offering Ceremony or the Dedication Ritual!

The medicine improvement was apparently completed within a few days. The Chief Priest emerged from the workshop and said, "We're heading to the castle." The improved medicine was loaded onto my lesser beast along with a bag stuffed full of magic stones.

We were soon summoned to the lord's workroom, where a discussion about Entrwikkeln took place.

"There's more stored up than expected. At this rate, if we gather magic power for another two days, we should be able to carry out Entrwikkeln."

My adoptive father said this while examining the magic stones filled with power that I had brought. While the children had been traveling through the territory for the Dedication Ritual, the lord and his wife had apparently been forcing themselves to recover magic power using the Chief Priest's terrible-tasting medicine while storing up power.

"Please make sure to announce the exact date and time of Entrwikkeln to the lower town as well. If you could contact the soldiers at each gate and the commercial guild, I've already asked them to spread the word to the commoners. Even so, it will take time for the news to reach everyone."

"Hmm. Then let's decide to perform it at the fifth bell, three days from now. Karstedt, handle the notification to the soldiers. Elvira, contact the commercial guild."

"Understood."

After that, we headed to the Offering Room to fill the Foundation's magic with magic power. Each of us brought our own cup into the room so we could drink the recovery medicine.

In the corner of the mysterious room where a massive magic stone floated and a magic circle spun like a celestial globe, emitting light, I could see the Chief Priest setting down a water pitcher and preparing his own cup. A bag of magic stones in leather pouches had also been placed there. Wilfried and Charlotte were to use the magic stones for their magic power supply.

"First, Wilfried and Charlotte. Then Ferdinand and Rozemyne. Finally, I, Florencia, and Bonifatius will go."

The reason for dividing into teams with those of similar magic power levels was that when people gathered with the same purpose and released magic power while offering the same prayer, a synergistic effect made the flow smoother. For someone without magic power, the outflow could become dangerously strong.

If they adjusted the supply once a day to match those with less magic power, this kind of team division wouldn't be necessary. But if they wanted to store as much magic power as possible, having teams was apparently more efficient.

"I am one who offers prayers and gratitude to the gods who created this world."

Wilfried and Charlotte knelt on the circle with the magic stones containing my magic power in their hands and offered their prayers. The two of them had experience supplying magic power using magic stones during the Lord's Conference while I had been sleeping for two years, so they looked practiced.

This was the first time I had watched others offer prayers like this. I stood against the wall, watching as magic power shimmered faintly around them like wisps of steam rising from their bodies.

I could see faint green from Wilfried and faint red from Charlotte. Were these the same colors as when they had dyed the magic stones? Come to think of it, Lutz and my family had told me that when my magic power went out of control, they had seen something like yellowish steam.

"That's enough."

Charlotte's voice rose, and the two of them released the magic stones. Charlotte slowly rose to her feet, came over to the wall, and breathed heavily while rolling her shoulders. Wilfried still looked relatively composed.

"Both of you, your cups."

The Chief Priest held out the water pitcher as he spoke. They needed to drink the recovery medicine and restore themselves. Perhaps because they had drunk it during the Dedication Ritual before, they grimaced as they held out their cups. The Chief Priest poured medicine into each.

Wilfried gulped, then drained his cup with a look of grim determination.

"...It's quite sweet. If it's like this, it won't be hard to drink at all."

"I improved it with Bärenluse fruit. You should thank Rozemyne for providing such a precious ingredient."

"Rozemyne, amazing! Uncle, I'll give you my Bärenluse too, so please make the medicine sweet from now on."

It must have been much easier to drink. Wilfried finished the medicine with a beaming smile. Charlotte also put the cup to her lips, her eyes widening as she swallowed it down.

"With this, I think I can push through the magic power supply too."

Seeing the two of them delighted by the medicine's improvement, both my adoptive mother and father relaxed their expressions. The taste improvement must have been welcome news for the two of them as well, since they had been recovering and pouring in magic power with the Chief Priest's terrible-tasting medicine.

"Rozemyne, let's go."

"Yes."

I performed the magic power supply alongside the Chief Priest, then drank the improved recovery medicine. Inside the sweetness, reminiscent of children's cough syrup from my days as Reina, there was a hint of medicinal bitterness. Compared to the gut-wrenching bitterness and awful taste from before, it was now something you could drink in one gulp without any problem.

...The Bärenluse fruit is incredible! Giebe Haldenzel, thank you!

While I was drinking the medicine, my adoptive father, adoptive mother, and Grandfather began their magic power supply. And so, we took turns in a circle, pouring in magic power. When I finished my third round of supply, I felt dizzy. Unable to stand, I remained seated and held my head when the Chief Priest held out a cup to me.

"Given your stamina, I expected you'd be reaching your limit around now. It would be best to stop here for today."

I nodded while drinking the medicine. My magic power wasn't the issue—my stamina couldn't keep up. Wilfried and Charlotte, who were using the magic stones, looked far more energetic.

"Is Rozemyne all right, Ferdinand?"

"She just needs to drink the medicine and rest. There's no problem."

Even though the Chief Priest said I was fine, Grandfather peered down at me with a worried look.

The Chief Priest compared me and Grandfather several times, then took the empty cup from my hands and set it aside. The next thing I knew, he had scooped me up in a princess carry and presented me to the glaring Grandfather.

"Lord Bonifatius, please form your hands like this. I'm going to hand Rozemyne over to you."

"What!? ...L-like this?"

Grandfather's face stiffened as he watched the Chief Priest's arm position and formed a cradle with his arms. The Chief Priest placed me into them without ceremony. Grandfather's arms twitched.

"Lord Bonifatius, please be careful not to move your hands and exit the Offering Room first. I have other things to bring back, so I'll leave Rozemyne in your care. Handing her to Richarda should be fine."

"V-very well. Understood. I'll exercise the utmost care. Let's go, Rozemyne."

As Grandfather moved forward one stiff step at a time, I nodded while nervously wondering whether I was going to be dropped.

...W-will I be okay?

When we emerged from the Offering Room, our respective attendants were waiting. Everyone turned astonished looks toward me, being carried in Grandfather's arms.

"Lord Bonifatius!?"

"Lady Rozemyne!?"

Grandfather handed me to Richarda, who had pushed through the crowd with enough force to shove others aside. When Richarda took me in her arms, Grandfather let out a relieved breath with a look of accomplishment, as if he had completed a great task.

"Richarda, Rozemyne isn't feeling well. Ferdinand says she's been given medicine, so make sure she rests in her room for the rest of the day. I'm counting on you."

I had been tense the entire time until Richarda took over, but I wasn't dropped, nor was I tossed through the air.

"Lord Bonifatius, I am truly grateful."

"Hmm? Yes. Rest well."

Grandfather gave a soft laugh, then cleared his throat and put on a stern face before re-entering the Offering Room. I was carried back to my room by Richarda and made straight for my bed.

Then, on the day Entrwikkeln was scheduled to take place, my adoptive father announced at lunch that enough magic power had been gathered, so it would proceed as planned at the fifth bell.

I properly recovered my stamina and magic power with medicine and rest in preparation for the fifth bell, then headed to the lord's workroom.

"It seems the notifications to the soldiers and the commercial guild were properly carried out. According to several knights who checked on the lower town from riding beasts, after the fourth bell, all signs of people vanished and the windows of the houses were all tightly shut."

After my father's report, in the workroom where only high-ranking nobles with the lord's blood were permitted to enter, I was seen off by Richarda as Florencia, Bonifatius, the Chief Priest, Wilfried, Charlotte, and I entered the Offering Room.

My adoptive father, as the lord, would apparently head alone to where the Foundation's magic was located. That was where he would perform Entrwikkeln. Our role was to supply magic power to the Foundation, which would be nearly emptied by Entrwikkeln.

"Are you ready?"

Following my adoptive mother's instructions, we waited in a kneeling position on the magic circle when the bell at her waist chimed with a cheerful ringing. It was the signal that my adoptive father's preparations were complete.

"I am one who offers prayers and gratitude to the gods who created this world."

Following my adoptive mother's words of prayer, we offered our prayers as well. Perhaps because the Foundation's magic was nearly empty, I could feel our magic power being drawn out more and more rapidly.

"That's enough!"

At Charlotte's almost-scream, everyone stopped the magic power supply at once. From here on, it was apparently just a matter of gradually adding magic power back in.

When we emerged from the Offering Room, my adoptive father arrived looking completely drained.

"I thank you all for your cooperation. Entrwikkeln was a success. Now it's up to the people of the lower town."

"They'll be fine. They'll keep it clean and beautiful."

Today, I still had plenty of both magic power and stamina.

"Father, I want to go see how the lower town has changed."

"The knight order is heading to the gates to report the conclusion. If you go with them, the guard should be sufficient."

My adoptive father gave me permission to go out with the knight order while drinking the Chief Priest's medicine.

"Just leave the deputy commander here. Karstedt, I'm counting on you for the patrol and Rozemyne's guard."

"Understood."

Damuel, Angelica, and about ten other knights accompanied me as I headed straight for the lower town. The Chief Priest came along too, since he never knew what I might do.

I could see the lower town below me, its windows and doors completely sealed and not a person in sight, but it didn't look particularly clean.

"...It doesn't look like anything has changed at all."

"Only what's underneath has changed. The surface is mostly the same. If you look closely, you can see the spots where waste is disposed of."

Following the Chief Priest's words, I enhanced my vision and looked carefully. At the edge of the road, there were sections with covers like manholes. Those parts alone were white and clean.

"This won't do."

"Perhaps we should have changed everything after all..."

The Chief Priest murmured that this was pointless. I couldn't let him decide that all the previous magic power supplies and coordination with the lower town had been for nothing. I quickly stopped him.

"No, no, wait a moment. You just need the lower town to be clean, right? Let's wash the whole town!"

"...What are you talking about?"

"Look, no one's here right now. Something like this... Wasschen!"

I drew my Stab and dropped a water ball on part of the lower town. Only that section was washed clean. Seeing this, the Chief Priest turned a look of utter disbelief on me.

"Rozemyne, you intend to wash the entire lower town with Wasschen? Are you out of your mind?"

"Having to redo Entrwikkeln and have the entire lower town torn apart would be far worse! If that's the case, I'll do my best to clean the town."

Both the soldiers and the commercial guild had promised to keep the lower town clean, so I intended to do everything I could to set the stage for that.

When I started channeling magic power into my Stab, the Chief Priest stopped me with a "Wait."

"Your method is wasteful."

"Huh?"

"For spreading magic power over a wide area, it's more efficient to use a magic circle. Karstedt, report to the Aub of Ehrenfest that wide-area magic will be used. Rozemyne, pour your magic power into this. ...Stilo."

The Chief Priest drew his Stab and began tracing a magic circle in the air.

Throughout history, spells had been refined to work with short incantations for minimum effect, but for large-scale, wide-area magic, using a magic circle was apparently more efficient in terms of magic power.

While I channeled magic power into the five magic stones that had been handed to me, the magic circle took shape with the Stab. The stones weren't very large, so it didn't take much time to dye them with magic power.

"Rozemyne, are the magic stones ready?"

"Yes."

When I handed the magic stones to the Chief Priest, he threw them one after another toward the magic circle. Not just the five I had dyed, but eight more magic stones were thrown. As if drawn by a magnet, the magic stones flew to specific positions in the magic circle and began to glow.

"O Water Goddess Flutrinel, who brings healing and change, and the twelve goddesses who attend her—I offer a song of joy that celebrates life. With prayers and gratitude, I humbly receive your pure blessing. To restore what should be, let a pure flow come to this land."

With the Chief Priest's prayer, the magic stones intensified in brightness and the magic circle glowed green as it spun around. Immediately after, the magic circle split into thirteen, centered on the thirteen magic stones.

Then the thirteen magic circles flew over the lower town, and from each one, water burst forth all at once. Water cascaded down on the lower town like waterfalls, surging as though causing a massive flood as it rushed through the alleys.

However, the entire event lasted less than ten seconds.

The water vanished, and the lower town regained its brilliance. Up to the second floor, the buildings had recovered the same white as the Noble District, and even the added wooden sections had lost their grimy stains.

"Incredible! This is amazing, Lord Ferdinand!"

"What was used was your magic power."

"But without you, Lord Ferdinand, something like this would be impossible! Right, Father?"

When I said this excitedly while looking at the cleaned lower town, my father gave a wry smile.

"And here I thought you had all been drained from Entrwikkeln, but it seems you had plenty to spare."

"Lord Ferdinand's medicine is incredible. With the Bärenluse fruit, it became much easier to drink and even more effective. Hehe."

"But your lack of stamina is beyond help. You seem unaware of it because you're excited now, but you should rest as soon as possible."

I reported Entrwikkeln's completion to the gate soldiers, then returned to the castle.

As it turned out, I had indeed pushed myself too hard. Just as the Chief Priest had said, the moment I got back to my room and let my guard down, I collapsed.

The day I was fully recovered and given permission to move about freely was the same day the lord and his wife departed for the Lord's Conference.

I never even got to be a house-sitter.

Thanks to Giebe Haldenzel, the medicine became easier to drink, and the lower town was cleaned.

Father, you did your best.

Next time, I'll deepen my bonds with my attendants while watching the house.