Departure to the Royal Academy

After Giebe Hartenzel, person after person came by to pay their respects.

"My Lady Rozemyne."

"Oh my, Giebe Irkner. How have things been since? I had hoped to visit Irkner during the Harvest Festival, if at all possible..."

I had wanted to visit Irkner during the Harvest Festival to see how the papermaking industry had developed and to check on Volck's child, but I had been scolded by the Chief Priest for trying to take on too much by visiting Hartenzel, Irkner, and Gresschel all at once.

The Blessing Ceremony involved distributing Magic Power and giving out small Holy Cups, so no one would complain no matter how much I took on. The Harvest Festival, however, directly affected everyone's share of the results, and apparently the blue priests would raise objections. This year, visiting Gresschel where the Gutenberg lived had been the top priority, so I had given up on Irkner.

"I am well aware that Lady Rozemyne is always terribly busy. After all, you've begun expanding the printing industry. You must be far busier than when I was in your service."

"Then, Brigitte. Would you tell me about how things are at Irkner?"

"Of course."

The Giebe Irkner couple, along with Brigitte and Victoire, told me about the struggles involved in creating new paper and the craftsmen who had been dispatched from Irkner to nearby Giebes to teach papermaking methods. The area around Irkner was mostly mountainous with many forests, and since the water was clean, they hadn't had the same problems as Gresschel, and the papermaking methods had been taught successfully.

"Lady Rozemyne, allow me to pay my respects."

Just as I had finished talking with Giebe Irkner and the others, I heard my mother's voice and turned around. My mother and Aurelia, wearing her veil, had come to greet me.

"Aurelia, your new veil is done, I see."

"Yes. Just as Lady Rozemyne suggested, wearing a dyed veil in the same style has slightly eased the gazes of those around me."

I could hear Aurelia murmur softly about how happy she was that she could now wear the lovely fabrics she hadn't been able to before.

"If it's made things even a little more comfortable for you, Aurelia, then my suggestion was worth it. ...Though, the approval didn't go through, and fish dishes have been put on hold. I made a promise, after all..."

...You miss the flavors of home, don't you? You want to eat them soon? I'm sorry.

My lower-town family had no interest in river fish that required the trouble of removing the muddy taste, so fish never made it to our table and it was always meat. I hadn't eaten fish ever since that time I had Lutz catch some in the forest and ate the muddy-tasting river fish grilled with salt. The fish we had caught together at the time had dried out too much to be called dried fish, and I was even refused the use of it as dashi. My desire to eat delicious fish had existed ever since then.

Aurelia must surely be missing the flavors of her homeland too.

...Because I really miss fish dishes! I completely understand how Aurelia feels!

"Once I return from the Royal Academy, I'll see about getting fish dishes started as soon as possible, so please wait until then."

"To think you would extend such concern even to me, I am truly grateful. I am currently enjoying Ehrenfest's cuisine, so please do not worry."

...Huh?

I had been planning to use Aurelia's homesickness as leverage—she had come all the way from her homeland—to ask the Chief Priest and my adoptive father to teach the cooking methods sooner. But unlike my desperate yearning to eat fish soon, Aurelia didn't seem to be in any particular hurry and was apparently fine taking her time.

...That's strange. My fish plan just got pushed further into the future.

As I tilted my head in puzzlement, Wilfried tugged at my arm and stepped forward.

"Rozemyne, that's enough talk with Aurelia. The stares from over there are painful."

In the direction Wilfried's fingers subtly moved, I could see the group of former Veronica faction members. They seemed to want to approach Aurelia, but with my mother present, it was likely difficult to get close.

"Aurelia, I've heard the details from Lamprecht. Given the current times, you may have experienced some hardship, but I intend to do my best to make your stay as comfortable as possible."

"I am most grateful, Lord Wilfried. ...However, I do not feel particularly inconvenienced in my current life here in Ehrenfest. I spend my days far more freely than I did back in Ahrensbach."

She had been restricted in whom she could meet by her aunt and had spent her days in the detached quarters of her husband's family—there was no way she didn't find that stifling. That's what I thought, but Aurelia genuinely sounded as though she felt free.

...What kind of life had she been living in Ahrensbach, exactly?

When winter's social season began, the adults became busy with socializing. Until the day of departure for the Royal Academy, we children would spend our time in the children's room as usual.

On the first day, I received greetings from the newly introduced children who had just completed their debut, and then I asked Hartmut to assign the upperclassmen at the Royal Academy the role of teaching the new children how to play karuta and card games.

"Please make sure to lose gracefully so you can draw out their motivation. Once they graduate from the Royal Academy, they'll have to deal with shrewd nobles in their work. If you're upperclassmen, you should be able to manage handling the children's moods, yes?"

"Lady Rozemyne says that while deftly flattering the upperclassmen's pride, doesn't she?"

Hartmut gave a light shrug, then went off to call out to the upperclassmen. I asked Wilfried to lead the second-years and play games with the children who had also spent time in the children's room last year.

"Wouldn't Charlotte be better suited for that? She was in the children's room last year too. I don't know many of those children."

"Charlotte has studies with the new first-years. Besides, when it comes to livening up the atmosphere with games and such, Wilfried-brother is better at it than Charlotte."

I showed the prize snacks upfront and left the task of building excitement through games to Wilfried and the second-years, while I went to speak with Moritz.

"Teacher Moritz, please teach the new first-years geography and history today. Here are the reference books I compiled last year."

"I did teach some last year as well, but..."

"This is to ensure fairness in the games held by the Academic Improvement Committee."

I had Charlotte gather the new first-years and told them about the Academic Improvement Committee's activities at the Royal Academy, then encouraged them by saying, "The upperclassmen have already begun their preparations, so please do your best as well."

As students gradually departed for the Royal Academy day by day and the number of children in the room dwindled, I spent my time in various ways—discussing study plans for the children's room when the lord candidates were absent, including with Wilfried and Charlotte, compiling requests to supplement the missing teachers, and reading new stories aloud to the children.

The modern-language translation of a book borrowed from Dunkelfelger—an impassioned knight's story about fighting continuously until victory—proved surprisingly popular among the boys aspiring to be knight apprentices.

...Maybe I should ask Lady Hannalore about whether it'd be alright to publish this modern-language translation as a book in Ehrenfest and spread it as a Dunkelfelger tale.

And during the short period before departure, dinner had become something akin to a meeting with guardians, with Grandfather and the Chief Priest also in attendance. There were many things I didn't know that had already been discussed with Wilfried and Charlotte, so I inevitably needed time to ask questions and make requests.

"Understood. I'll be bringing Ela and Hugo along again this year, so that's fine. Just like last year, Hugo will be moved over tomorrow, and Ela will move on the same day as I do. ...Um, Adoptive Father. Is there a court chef who knows how to prepare fish?"

"Ah, the matter Ferdinand mentioned. If we can confirm that what Aurelia brought in poses no danger, there should be no problem teaching your chef the preparation methods. Last year, it seems she taught several of the recipes your personal chef had created."

I was told to count on them again this year, and I thought of the new recipes Hugo and Ela had been working on. The ones the two of them had created together didn't particularly violate Contract Magic, so there was no issue. Some recipes would surely flow between us as we cooked together at the Royal Academy.

"Either way, that's something to discuss after you return from the Royal Academy."

"Yes."

"Also, last year, because of your efforts in improving grades and spreading trends, we were able to increase the budget for the Royal Academy as well."

With increased trade with other territories, the overall budget had grown, and the Royal Academy's budget had been increased accordingly. The reason for the increase in trade had been the interactions at the Royal Academy, so they were given preferential treatment.

"Use it again this year for grade improvement and spreading trends. ...Well, I told Wilfried and Charlotte this, but what does Rozemyne intend to use the increased budget for? It won't just be for the inter-territory competition, will it?"

"I plan to use it to distribute paper and ink to the lower-ranking nobles."

Just as Damuel had mentioned, the lower-ranking nobles prepared wooden tablets, attended lectures, and when they were done, shaved them down to use again. Depending on how they shaved, sometimes the writing they had carefully recorded wouldn't remain, and after some time it became difficult to review.

"That's why I want to give everyone paper so they can preserve the content of their lectures. To raise the grades of Ehrenfest as a whole rather than just individuals, you need to raise the baseline."

The upper-ranking nobles, out of pride, would produce results they wouldn't be ashamed of even if left to their own devices. They didn't skimp on the effort for that, and they could prepare plenty of parchment and ink, with the resources to preserve what they wrote. They also had many lecture notes left behind by siblings and relatives.

"It's the lower-ranking nobles who need assistance the most, since it isn't easy for them to preserve study records. Of course, for the copying work I've requested, I'll continue to pay for it as before."

In order to assert ownership of the completed copies, it was important for me to purchase them personally, so this was non-negotiable.

When I said I would use the increased budget to raise the baseline for lower-ranking nobles, Charlotte blinked her indigo eyes in puzzlement.

"Sister, what about assistance for the upper-ranking nobles? Wouldn't it be unequal to only help the lower-ranking ones?"

"Of course, I'll provide assistance equally. If anyone asks for paper, I have no intention of refusing. I plan to distribute it the same way as for the lower-ranking nobles. However, it would be hard for upper-ranking nobles to claim they can't prepare stationery for use at the Royal Academy..."

In the end, it would only look unequal. But honestly, I didn't think there was a need to spend extra budget on upper-ranking nobles who didn't need the assistance.

"Also, Adoptive Father. This year, I'm thinking of bringing printed materials to the Royal Academy—though I don't mean reference books for classes, but rather knight stories, romance novels, sheet music, and so on. Would that be acceptable?"

"I have no objection, but if printing becomes known, wouldn't next year's Lord's Meeting become troublesome again?"

"I'll only take out a single copy from the dormitory. As long as it's not discovered that there are many identical copies, it would just be a book with unusually neat handwriting. I don't think the printing technology would leak."

Besides, some of the books were made with stencil printing. Without knowledge of a printing press, they would look entirely handwritten.

"I want to casually introduce them as new-format books made from Ehrenfest paper, with the aim of finding more book-lovers. It's about cultivating a future customer base."

Books printed at Hartenzel, those from the Mine Workshop, Hasse's workshop—printed materials were gradually increasing. By lending these books out and discovering book-lovers through shared reading, I needed to cultivate both a customer base and writers.

The books that appealed to nobles were best written by nobles. I had sacrificed my own romance novel to realize this.

"A casual introduction? If you're the one doing the introducing, you'd get too worked up and I can only predict you collapsing. Wouldn't it be better for someone other than Rozemyne to introduce the books?"

"Uncle is right. If you collapsed while handing the book over right in front of them, it would leave a unpleasant memory. Do you intend to burden Lady Hannalore again?"

At the Chief Priest's calm words, Wilfried nodded several times, adding another blow. I didn't want the borrowing and lending of books to become an unpleasant memory for Hannalore. I wanted to get along with her.

"Then, I'll stop at just writing the book introduction. I'll leave the introducing and spreading to Wilfried-brother and Charlotte."

"That will do."

The Chief Priest nodded, and Wilfried and Charlotte exchanged looks and nodded as well.

Seeing me pout my lips because I had wanted to introduce the books myself, my adoptive father let out a soft chuckle.

"Don't look so down, Rozemyne. After carefully considering your various requests, we were able to have bookshelves installed in the dormitory. Cheer up."

"I'm cheerful now."

The Royal Academy dormitory was a place of learning, so I had argued that it was unreasonable to not have even a single bookshelf, requesting that bookshelves be installed and a reading corner be created. It seemed my request had been granted.

"To make them available to everyone, I'll need to place reference books, of course, and also line them with books printed in Ehrenfest. I'll have to increase the number of books I bring."

...Gradually accumulating books, turning one bookshelf into two, and eventually evolving from a reading corner into a library!

"Bookshelves will be installed, but we rejected the proposal to place a statue of the Goddess of Wisdom Mestionora in the castle library, as we felt it was unnecessary."

According to Teacher Solange, having a statue of Mestionora would bring the benefit of making books gather more easily. Since the Royal Palace Library also had a statue of Mestionora, I had proposed placing one in the castle library as well and praying every day so that Ehrenfest's collection would grow. But that had been rejected.

"A statue of the Goddess is less important than actually putting books in the library. Wouldn't you agree?"

"Then, Adoptive Father. Please give me a budget for purchasing books."

When I requested funds for buying books, my adoptive father made a terribly reluctant face.

"Do you have any idea how much a single book costs? There's no budget for that. You created the legal deposit system, so the collection will grow on its own. Wait for a while."

...Long live the legal deposit system! I'm the one who introduced it first—good job!

What a wonderful system, to have books increase just by waiting. I looked forward to the growth of printed materials.

"We've also had the reading corner installed, and everyone has been working hard on creating reference books, so I think you can expect good grades this year. They should be much better than last year's."

The written studies shouldn't be a problem. If we kept up this pace, we should be able to rank fairly high. If there was room for improvement elsewhere, it would be in the practical skills. I was still in the process of increasing Magic Power, but I had no idea how much each person had grown, and increasing Magic Power and being able to use it well were two different things, so I wasn't sure how much it would translate into grades.

...Also, another area with room for improvement was the Ditter.

I turned my gaze toward Grandfather, who was listening to the conversation with a smile while eating. I wanted to hear about the results of the special training.

"Grandfather, how are the apprentices' coordination?"

When I asked, Grandfather leaned forward eagerly, as if he had been waiting, and told me about the training content and how much they had improved.

"Just as Rozemyne wished, I've trained the knight apprentices quite thoroughly. They're still full of holes, but their coordination should be somewhat better than last year."

"Oh my! Thank you very much, Grandfather. This should improve our Ditter ranking too."

Compared to last year, when there wasn't a trace of strategy, this year it looked like we could practice starting from an actual plan. If we could do useful practice, with Magic Power compression progressing little by little, raising our ranking should be easy.

"Grandfather, were there any promising ones among them?"

"Hmm?... Those showing the most growth are, as expected, the apprentice guard knights from the lord's family who learned about your Magic Power compression. In that sense, there are some who are a shame to see."

The children of the former Veronica faction, no matter how hard they tried, showed differences in Magic Power growth, which must have affected their ability as well.

"Adoptive Father, what happened with the magic compression as a reward?"

I still hadn't heard what had happened with the reward for the former Veronica faction children who had helped prevent the attack during Lamprecht-brother and Aurelia's wedding. I hadn't asked how many knew about the attack plan on the wedding day, so I hadn't put the crucial words into complete sentences, but it seemed my adoptive father understood anyway.

"I thanked them well for providing the information, paid the intelligence fee, and informed them of your request to teach them magic compression."

After that, my adoptive father lowered his gaze for a moment, then fixed his deep green eyes directly on me.

"...At the same time, I conveyed the conditions for teaching magic compression."

"What conditions were attached?"

"That they could dedicate their names to the lord's family."

I heard the sound of people around us swallowing hard. As the people around stared wide-eyed at my adoptive father, I was the only one tilting my head in confusion.

"Um, what does it mean to dedicate one's name?"

"It means to offer a magic stone in which one's name has been sealed, entrust one's life, and swear loyalty."

"Huh?"

"A familiar example is right beside you."

When I still couldn't grasp it immediately, my adoptive father pointed out Eckhart and Justus standing behind the Chief Priest.

"Justus and Eckhart dedicated their names to Ferdinand and swore their loyalty. That is why, even after Ferdinand entered the Temple, only these two continued to be treated as his close retainers."

They had been told it was foolish to dedicate their names to someone shunned by Veronica, who held power, but they had dedicated their names to earn the Chief Priest's trust. Those who dedicated their names essentially entrusted the right of life and death to their master, and apparently could not serve another without the master's permission.

...From my perspective, it was an overwhelmingly heavy loyalty, but for the Chief Priest, who had been surrounded by enemies on all sides, it must have been an invaluable and trustworthy loyalty beyond compare.

Indeed, if someone had loyalty deep enough to stake their life on the lord's family, there would be no problem in teaching them magic compression. But for mid- and lower-ranking nobles who would switch allegiances when those in power changed, dedicating their names in service would certainly be difficult.

While I was thinking about such things, the day of departure for the Royal Academy arrived before I knew it.

"I've packed Schwartz and Weiss's outfits, and the Dunkelfelger books are in as well. I've prepared the Ehrenfest-printed books so I can lend them to Lady Hannalore. ...Is there nothing I've forgotten?"

The retainers attending the Royal Academy had departed ahead of time. Only Ottilie, Richhild, Damuel, and Angelica remained. This year too, Richhild would be accompanying me to the Royal Academy.

"Angelica, what will you be doing here?"

"Training. This year, Master took on the training of the apprentices, so I'd like to receive Master's special training again."

Her blue eyes sparkled with enthusiasm as she spoke about Grandfather's training. And Damuel, who would be training alongside such an angelica, had a faraway look in his eyes as he recalled last year, thinking, "A short, intensive training camp again this year?"

"Um, Angelica. Isn't there anything else you need to do? You're engaged now, and you'll need to do socializing with Eckhart-brother, won't you?"

"As the second wife, I will not appear at social events with Lord Eckhart. Besides training, I plan to embroider my mantle and pour Magic Power into my Stenluke."

...She has no desire to do anything other than enhance her combat capability.

I headed to the room with the teleportation circle.

While my luggage was stacked on the magic circle in preparation for teleporting, I said my farewells to my guardians.

"I hope you have a peaceful year this time."

"Oh my, Adoptive Father. I always hope for peace, you know."

I was given an extremely suspicious look, but I wasn't intentionally trying to cause trouble. I constantly wished to hole up in the library and spend my time reading books. It just never seemed to work out.

"Rozemyne, this year, after lectures end, I've entrusted a few books to Hartmut for you to pass the time until your retainers can move."

"Why give them to Hartmut?"

When I looked at the Chief Priest in shock, he snorted through his nose.

"If I gave them to you, you'd stay up all night reading them before lectures were even over, finish lectures at top speed, rush to the library, and the books meant to pass the time would become useless."

At the Chief Priest's words, Richhild nodded broadly, saying, "That's Lord Ferdinand for you. He knows the Lady so well."

The second floor, where the boys' rooms lined the corridor, was a place I couldn't enter, so apparently it worked out perfectly.

...Grumble... new books!

"Be careful not to inconvenience the Dunkelfelger lord candidates. I've given empty magic stones to Richhild, but there's a limit to the number. Your excitement knows no bounds. Be very careful."

...How am I supposed to be careful when it's only natural to get excited in front of new books? What should I even do?

As I tilted my head, the Chief Priest let a faint, cold smile appear on his face.

"Make sure you don't create a situation where I have no choice but to ban you from the library."

"Understood. I'll be as careful as I can."

And then, urged on by Richhild, I stepped onto the prepared magic circle.

"I'll be coming tomorrow as well, Sister."

"Yes, Charlotte. I'll be waiting for you. Well then, everyone. I'm off."

The moment those words left my lips, the magic circle emitted light, and my vision warped and twisted.

After talking with various people and checking on the children's room, it was time to depart for the Royal Academy.

This time, it had been a while since Adoptive Father had so many lines.

A reading corner was created in the Royal Academy's dormitory.

Various measures were being planned to keep Rozemyne in the dormitory.

Next up is rewards and loyalty.