"...One year's worth of mana for a one-year extension? The original requirement is mana from seven members of the royalty. No matter how much mana
Sigiswald spoke with a gentle smile, explaining the obvious as though enlightening a child who didn't understand how the world worked. I smiled back at him. Even I wasn't foolish enough to think I could provide that much mana on my own.
"I never once said I would provide it all myself. Aren't there quite a few people with mana gathered here right now?"
Sigiswald froze again for a moment, then smiled. This time his smile was slightly stiff, as though he was trying hard to understand, and he repeated my words in a small voice: "...Quite a few?" It seemed that pausing before smiling was his reaction to being caught off guard.
...Something like
To maintain the appearance of being at ease before Sigiswald, who was apparently stunned beneath his smile, I deepened my own grin while frantically spinning through my head to picture my conditions for victory.
The ultimate victory would be to drill into them that the Dedication Ritual was being held not for my sake but for the royalty's, to have them host it of their own initiative, dump all the preparations onto the central nobility, and thereby wring out over a year's worth of time. On top of that, I would have them help Ehrenfest—a territory hopeless at publicity—extend goodwill to every other duchy. Once I had the upper hand, I would push through as many of Ehrenfest's conditions for the adoption as possible.
As a preliminary skirmish, I wanted to start by stalling for over a year's time. This would not be a discussion where obedient little nobles simply nodded along to the royalty's words and commands. I would drag them onto my own turf and seize control of the conversation's direction and initiative.
I fully switched into merchant mode and stared at Sigiswald. The man before me was not royalty—he was a negotiation counterpart. Just look at my adoptive father and adoptive mother to understand: ordinary royalty left negotiations to their attendants, limiting themselves to approval or rejection. In this underground archive, where no attendants were permitted to enter, my odds of success were far higher than if this were taking place outside.
...The minimum goal was to wring out over a year's time by any means necessary, and to obtain a firm commitment from the royalty regarding improvement of Ferdinand-sama's treatment. I can do this!
"Let's hold the Dedication Ritual at the Lord's Conference."
"You don't mean to gather mana from the Aub who have assembled for the conference, do you? That would be completely without precedent..."
Sigiswald's smile tightened slightly at my proposal. However, the royalty already had a track record of collecting mana from students at the
...Take what you can, from where you can, as much as you can. ...Right, Benno?
"Oh my, why are you so surprised? Isn't the Dedication Ritual necessary to fulfill Prince Sigiswald's wishes as well?"
The Dedication Ritual apparently didn't connect to his own wishes in Sigiswald's mind, and his expression clouded slightly with confusion. His luxuriant golden forelocks swayed lightly.
"My wishes...? Then you mean to become the King's adoptive daughter, obtain the
"That's not it. What I heard from the Aub and the attending scholars, Prince Sigiswald, was that you wished to appoint me as High Priest of the Central
Sigiswald was about to counter with "That's..." when I pressed on: "It was you, Prince Sigiswald, who made this very request to the Aub of Ehrenfest, wasn't it?" It was a demand he himself had made just a few days ago—the very one that had thrown Ehrenfest's nobles into a panic. There was no way I was letting him weasel out of it now.
"So you see, I am simply proposing to hold the Dedication Ritual in accordance with the Prince's wishes. The Aub and nobles of every territory who participate in the religious rites will come to understand the importance of the Temple and religious ceremonies, allowing them to increase their harvests and divine protections. The Central Temple has been wishing for religious rites performed by someone with abundant magic power, so they will naturally cooperate... The nobles of every territory who have been arguing that Ehrenfest's Saint should be appointed High Priest of the Central Temple and dispatched to various places to spread knowledge of religious rites, as well as the Central Temple itself, which has been requesting a High Priest rich in magic power because they cannot replicate the rites on their own—I have absolutely no intention of letting any of them refuse to participate in the Dedication Ritual. I will have them all participate as they wished, and wring every last drop of magic power from them."
"This would allow the royalty to raise the standing of every territory, which they consider their top priority, while simultaneously yielding an enormous amount of mana and granting a one-year extension until my adoption. It's a splendid plan that benefits everyone, wouldn't you agree?"
Sigiswald, who had been listening to my words with a straight face, blinked as though suddenly struck by something, then slowly let a smile spread across his face.
"...It certainly does sound like a splendid plan, but when exactly do you propose to hold it?"
The Lord's Conference could take over two weeks. We still had more than a week left, and considering how long the Dedication Ritual at the Royal Academy had taken, that should be ample preparation time. We would prepare in parallel with the Lord's Conference, so the schedule would be rather tight, but the central nobility outnumbered Ehrenfest by a wide margin, so there shouldn't be any problem.
"Wouldn't the final day of the Lord's Conference be ideal? With that much time, I believe preparations are entirely feasible."
"That's far too sudden, Rozemyne. This involves a great many people moving at once—you can't just arrange things on the fly."
It was probably standard practice to allow ample time for scholars and attendants to draw up plans and to live accordingly. Sigiswald, being royalty, had surely never experienced being dragged into someone else's schedule against his will. He was showing clear resistance at the prospect of having unexpected plans forced upon him.
Moreover, I could see that he was at his wits' end, having no one to consult about how to respond to me—this noble-who-wasn't-who kept throwing nothing but curveballs at a member of the royalty. But I had absolutely no intention of easing up on the pressure.
...I'm going to give this everything I've got so that my adoptive father will have an easier time in all future negotiations with the royalty!
I put on a look of astonishment and, pressing my hand to my cheek, let my eyes glisten slightly as I gazed at Sigiswald. "To think that Prince Sigiswald would resist the Dedication Ritual... I never imagined it."
"Weren't you, Prince Sigiswald, the one who said that teaching other territories about religious rites and raising the standard of Yurgenschmidt was the top priority? ...Could it be that the only reason you pushed for an Ehrenfest archduke candidate to be placed in the Central Temple was to silence the Aub of other territories, even though it wasn't actually that urgent?"
My adoptive father had been so troubled by the royalty's demand to make me High Priest of the Central Temple, and yet it turned out it wasn't even urgent... Mimicking
"Wait, Rozemyne, there's been a misunderstanding. It's undeniable that raising the standard of Yurgenschmidt's nobles as quickly as possible is necessary. ...But for a large-scale religious ceremony like that, wouldn't you normally consult with the Central Temple and the scholars beforehand and coordinate schedules for preparations? We had no plans or time for such a thing, and it caught me off guard because it was so sudden."
...Huh. Oh, I see. So that's the argument you're going with?
As Sigiswald made his excuses, my own expression turned serious. While watching him smile and ask, "Do you understand?", I let a cold smirk cross my face.
"Prince Sigiswald, I have a question, if you'll permit?"
"What is it?"
"I understand that the royalty need the Grutrissheit as soon as possible. However, becoming the King's adoptive daughter was never part of my life's plans. Becoming the King's adoptive daughter is something that should, in principle, require a great deal of time for discussions between a Zent and an Aub to reach mutual agreement, with schedules drawn up and preparations made, isn't it?"
I stared at Sigiswald, who had gone completely rigid with his smile still frozen on his face, and continued.
"On one hand, you order a lord candidate to become the King's adoptive daughter without sufficient discussion or preparation time. On the other hand, you order the preparation of a Dedication Ritual for which there is still time before the final day of the Lord's Conference. Which one is truly the more sudden and unreasonable demand? ...Does the royalty consider my adoption to be something simpler to arrange than a Dedication Ritual? Ehrenfest and I must be held in rather low regard indeed."
When I openly criticized the royalty's conduct to their face, Sigiswald stared at me, blinking repeatedly with a straight expression. Perhaps he had thought I was the type of mild-mannered young lady who would simply go along with whatever was said. Or perhaps, until now, no one had ever confronted him with such direct criticism—only ever expressing objections through roundabout noble language.
"Your adoption is genuinely urgent and pressing. We are not taking you lightly in the slightest."
"The urgency stems from the royalty's mana shortage, doesn't it? If the situation is so dire that you can't even wait for me to come of age and are willing to throw Ehrenfest into chaos just to secure the adoption, then wouldn't you be justified in imposing the same unreasonable demands on the Central Temple and the Aub of every territory to prepare the Dedication Ritual? Wielding your own convenience without bothering to ask about the other party's schedules or opinions is supposed to be the royalty's specialty, isn't it?"
"Do the royalty appear to be the sort who only care about their own convenience...?"
"I try to accommodate everyone's interests as much as I can," Sigiswald said with a look of genuine surprise, and I couldn't help but make a face.
"You're here listening to my opinions, so I can at least see that you have some willingness to mediate. But all you do is assert the royalty's convenience while dismissing our circumstances, and you haven't provided us with any benefits whatsoever, have you? In the first place, the need for mana, the need for the Grutrissheit, becoming the King's adoptive daughter, teaching the Aub of every territory about religious rites—these are all the royalty's wishes. Not a single one of them is what Ehrenfest or I want. Do you understand that?"
In truth, I was interested in reading the Grutrissheit if I could get my hands on it, but I wasn't about to bring that up here. To ensure the Dedication Ritual would be held under the royalty's initiative, I kept driving Sigiswald into a corner relentlessly.
"I proposed this troublesome Dedication Ritual for the royalty's sake. Religious rites are something the Aub could handle on their own by examining their territory's temples and figuring things out for themselves. As Prince
Sigiswald, who had been listening intently to my words, tilted his head slightly.
"But isn't the Dedication Ritual being held to buy time with mana? And isn't the one who needs that time not the royalty, but Rozemyne and Ehrenfest?"
"Ehrenfest needs it too, of course, but I believe the ones who truly need the time are the royalty."
The royalty probably couldn't see anything beyond the Grutrissheit dangling right before their eyes—the treasure they had been unable to find no matter how hard they searched. I pointed out the reality to Sigiswald, who wore a look of incomprehension.
"It has only been a few days since I was identified as the person closest to the Grutrissheit, but has the royalty's side even finished preparing for the adoption? I believe that royalty who complete the
A simple contract signing for the adoption might be finished quickly, but if I were to live as the King's adoptive daughter, there would be a considerable amount of preparation: readying the separate palace, moving in furniture and household items, selecting attendant candidates from the central nobility, preparing living quarters for the attendants accompanying me from Ehrenfest, procuring central noble robes and brooches—the list went on.
"I don't see how I could become an adoptive daughter without any preparation at all. Or does the royalty perhaps think that as an adoptive daughter, I don't need a separate palace—that they can simply toss me into the Central Temple as High Priest until I come of age? Or perhaps you've somehow managed to complete every last detail of the separate palace's preparation in just a few days? My, if you have such capable central nobles at your disposal, preparing the Dedication Ritual would take no time at all. How reassuring."
Sigiswald's deep green eyes wavered slightly behind his still-frozen smile, and his gaze drifted toward the space outside the underground archive where the attendants waited.
"...Ah, no. That is... My mother, who would serve as adoptive mother, or I, as your betrothed, were planning to have a guest room prepared in our respective separate palaces..."
As Sigiswald struggled to squeeze out his answer, I put on an exaggerated show of surprise. "Oh my, is it the royal custom to give a biological child their own palace while giving an adopted daughter a guest room in someone else's?" I smiled sweetly.
"I've never heard of such a custom before. When I was adopted by my adoptive father—who, poor man, is rumored to be terribly unfair to his biological children in favor of adopted ones—I was given rooms furnished exactly the same as those of a biological child. But when the King adopts me, I'm to receive a guest room in a stranger's palace? And you're telling me that this treatment doesn't constitute looking down on me or Ehrenfest?"
Sigiswald's expression tightened as though he'd been struck in a sore spot. I could see him desperately searching for words. The royal smile had completely vanished, and I was now certain I had the upper hand as I stared at him down.
"If I keep pointing out the royalty's shortcomings like this, it's entirely possible for me to obtain a year's time even without holding the Dedication Ritual."
Pointing out flaws in the royalty's offer, voicing dissatisfaction, and then insisting "I won't cancel the adoption" would be the worst possible course of action when considering the royalty's impression of me and my future prospects. However, as long as I didn't dissolve the Ehrenfest adoption, I couldn't become the King's adoptive daughter—so if I wanted to stall for a year, it wasn't entirely without options.
"The sudden Dedication Ritual isn't on anyone's schedule, and it's a troublesome and abrupt request—so the royalty might not believe it when I say it's done in good faith. But I genuinely made this proposal with the intent of benefiting everyone while securing one year's time. Should I cooperate with the Dedication Ritual? Or should I find another way to obtain a year's time outside of it?"
I gazed steadily at Sigiswald and posed the question. He stared right back at me. His eyes searched for the truth behind my words.
After a long moment of staring at each other, Sigiswald let out a soft breath.
"...I appreciate your thoughtfulness. I will recommend to the Zent that the Dedication Ritual be held. As for the preparations..."
To prevent the religious ceremony preparations from being dumped on Ehrenfest by Sigiswald, who had apparently made up his mind, I seized the initiative and rattled off everything I could think of regarding the preparations.
"Obtaining permission to use altars and sacred implements would be difficult for Ehrenfest, so I'll ask that the Dedication Ritual preparations be handled by the central authorities. If you keep the stage packed away and simply make the lecture hall available, the attending scholars other than the Aub should be able to participate in the ritual as well."
Sigiswald went rigid for a moment before breaking into a smile.
"Rozemyne, you intend for the attendants to participate as well, not just the Aub? Just how much mana do you intend to take?"
"I was taught to take what you can, from where you can, as much as you can."
Puffing out my chest with pride as I delivered Benno's wisdom, Sigiswald murmured with a look of indescribable bewilderment, "Is this what Anastasius meant when he said someone raised in a temple has a completely different sense of normal?"
...So close! It wasn't the temple—it was the Commoner's Inn!
"Furthermore, I'm told it's even better if you can take benefits on a continuing basis. In this case, for instance, you could make the Dedication Ritual an annual event by dangling the possibility of a re-ceremony for divine protections at every Lord's Conference as bait for the participating territories. The ceremony for divine protections takes quite a while, so only about two territories could be completed per Lord's Conference. But if there were a chance to retry the divine protection ceremony roughly once every ten years, everyone would take religious rites very seriously indeed."
If you truly wanted to raise standards, you had to provide adults with a venue for performing the ceremonies as well. And once adults began praying in earnest, children would naturally follow.
"Also, the Aub of
"Rozemyne, mana isn't something that can be exchanged so easily."
"The royalty are in a crisis severe enough that they can't afford to be picky about their methods, aren't they? Shouldn't you be thinking of as many ways to gather mana as possible?"
My words left Sigiswald with his eyes wide open, completely frozen. It seemed I had made a proposal that was far beyond anything the royalty had anticipated.
"I've been throwing out some ideas, but things like where and how to draw mana from, or whether to make the Dedication Ritual an annual event, are really none of my concern at this point. Shall we move on to discussing the preparations for the Dedication Ritual?"
"...Yes, please go ahead."
For Sigiswald, who didn't seem to be thinking very quickly, I began explaining the preparation process while writing the steps on the paper in front of me.
"Announcing the dates, times, and items to bring to each territory can be done with Ordenanz or invitation letters, so it won't require much effort. Have the nobles remaining at the separate palace prepare empty magic stones, and order the Central Temple to prepare for the religious rites. I don't think it would be much of a burden on the Lord's Conference proceedings. Oh, and there are Holy Cups in both the Royal Academy and the Central Temple, and since the Prayer Ritual is now complete, the small Holy Cups can be used to store magic power as well, so please have the Central Temple prepare those."
I paused my pen and looked up. The moment he saw my smile, Sigiswald's cheeks tightened. He must have had a bad feeling. He was right to.
"One more thing—please make sure the royalty give proper publicity to the fact that this Dedication Ritual is made possible through Ehrenfest's cooperation. Ehrenfest has always been a lower-ranked territory, waiting passively to be promoted, and we're hopeless at publicity."
"Wait. The royalty are going to do publicity for Ehrenfest?"
Sigiswald looked as though he wanted to ask why that was necessary, and I nodded matter-of-factly.
"It's the travel expenses for myself, Chief Priest
Sigiswald pursed his lips, sighed with a troubled expression, and then smiled gently. He agreed to provide cooperation in promoting Ehrenfest's goodwill to every territory. He would be far more effective at it than Ehrenfest's nobles, who were notoriously bad at politics. My adoptive father would surely be pleased.
...Adoptive father. Benno. I did it! This preliminary skirmish was a complete victory, wasn't it?
"All the same, won't the territories be upset if you collect that much mana from them?"
As I handed the paper to Sigiswald, he glanced over the preparation outline for the Dedication Ritual while voicing concerns.
"If you announce in advance that the mana collected at the Dedication Ritual is a participation fee for receiving divine protections—a tuition fee, so to speak—there shouldn't be many complaints afterward. Territories that are unhappy simply don't have to participate."
"Won't that result in fewer participating territories?"
He was worried that fewer participants would mean less mana collected, and whether it would be worth the effort of preparation. Looking at him, I thought: this man really is a prince through and through.
"If they don't participate in the Dedication Ritual, there will be a visible difference in future harvests and divine protections. If you stoke that fear by telling them they can only sit by and watch as neighboring territories grow prosperous, I think they'll jump at the opportunity quickly enough."
Klassenberg, who had discussed holding a Dedication Ritual together with me next year, would surely attend if dangled the Royal Academy's ritual as bait.
"If you could make a re-ceremony for divine protections possible, that would be an enormous incentive. And if you hint at the ritual information we obtained in the underground archive, plenty of territories would leap at the chance. All you need to do is make them think it's worth participating—attracting people will be the easy part."
Sigiswald closed his eyes for about five seconds, let out a slow breath, and then smiled. I had apparently rattled him considerably. Perhaps, to a sheltered prince, my tactics had sounded a bit underhanded.
...Well, my teachers are Benno and Ferdinand-sama, so a little underhandedness can't be helped!
"Oh, and since this Dedication Ritual is meant to teach territories with no prior experience in religious rites, I don't think the royalty, who already experienced one at the Royal Academy this winter, need to participate."
The moment I said that the royalty's mana contribution wasn't necessary, Sigiswald visibly relaxed.
"Understood. We'll have the royalty and central authorities handle the ritual preparations and encourage each territory to participate. However, is it all right to ask Ehrenfest to prepare the recovery potions? The central authorities would like to prioritize the royalty's supply."
"Recovery potions are something everyone prepares for themselves, aren't they? People carry them at their waists at all times—you need only remind them not to forget. That should be sufficient."
Sigiswald looked at me with wide eyes and asked, "Didn't Ehrenfest prepare them for the Royal Academy's Dedication Ritual?" But Ehrenfest's position this time was completely different from back then.
"The Royal Academy's Dedication Ritual was conducted as part of our research collaboration, so we prepared the potions because we felt compensation was warranted. But this time, we are taking on the labor and spending the time to teach those who want to learn about religious rites, in cooperation with the royalty. I feel absolutely no obligation to provide recovery potions. Besides, wouldn't reading through the underground archive's documents be far more important than preparing recovery potions?"
...Because once I returned to Ehrenfest, it was going to be a full year with no time for reading, what with handovers and everything else.
I could only access this underground archive during the Lord's Conference. Reading time was naturally more valuable than making recovery potions.
"I suppose I could consider selling recovery potions for a fee... but if I put out the same ones we sold at the Royal Academy, Drewanchel would probably buy them all up and frantically try to reverse-engineer the recipe. The potions taught in the lectures are highly effective, so I wouldn't mind selling those, but since everyone already has them, it wouldn't benefit Ehrenfest at all."
Even if I had knights gather the ingredients at collection sites and mobilized the scholars, who were already swamped with Lord's Conference duties, to produce recovery potions, it would only be a burden on Ehrenfest with no return.
"...So this is why Ehrenfest became wealthy so quickly. And I can now well understand why the nobles within the territory couldn't keep up with the sudden rise in ranking."
Sigiswald's tired smile made me beam back at him.
"How wonderful that our mutual understanding has deepened. Now then, we've finished discussing the Dedication Ritual preparations. Shall we move on to refining the conditions for my becoming the royalty's adoptive daughter?"
"There's still more!?!"
...Huh? The preliminary skirmish is over, but the actual negotiation hasn't even started yet, has it?
In fact, it truly hadn't even begun yet, Prince Sigiswald.
Unable to keep up with Rozemyne—now in full merchant mode, impervious to the common sense of nobles and royalty alike—he had been dragged into the second half.
Next, Part 2.