Ascendance of a Bookworm

Side Story 1: Ferdinand’s POV - Preparing the temple’s tableware

“Ferdinand, we’ve got an estimate of the costs. This document is for the furniture that will be going into the room at the castle and this one lists all the costs of the preparations required for the baptism ceremony.”

Karstedt’s voice reverberated through my room. Recently, he’s been visiting me every single day so I’ve gotten used to his characteristically loud voice. I stopped labouring away on my temple-related office work and glanced at the wooden board he had placed in front of me. The contents written on it were the budget estimations for Myne to become the archnoble lady, Rozemyne. She’s going to be baptised as the daughter of archnobles before being adopted by the archduke. However, unlike a normal archnoble child, the preparations go far beyond her room in the noble’s district. Her room and clothes need to be prepared before she can move into the castle and the same needs to be done in her High Bishop’s quarters. I was the one who originally proposed that Myne should be adopted by a noble. Hence, I can’t allow Karstedt to bear all the monetary costs by himself. As Myne’s guardian, I will be paying the costs for her room at the temple as well as any costs related to the baptism ceremony.

“…Karstedt, what in the gods’ names is this? Why would you need two outfits for her baptism ceremony? That’s completely unnecessary.”

“I’m just choosing to buy peace at home with a little bit of money. Wouldn’t you say it’s a necessary expense?”

“Perhaps it’s a necessary expense for you but it’s unnecessary for Rozemyne.”

“Fine. I’ll pay for the second outfit myself.”

Rozemyne is currently away from the temple. I passed her over to Elvira so she could be educated in the ways of an archnoble lady while living in Karstedt’s mansion. She needs to have memorised all the knowledge and behaviour appropriate for a young archnoble lady by the time her baptism ceremony comes around. I’m obviously unable to teach her those things myself. It appears that she’s been getting along well with her new family. According to Karstedt, his first wife Elvira and third son Cornelius have taken a liking to her.

…It would be a lot easier if I could just leave her be, but…

Whenever Rozemyne becomes emotionally unstable, it’s easy for her magic to run out of control. She has so much mana that an incident like that could potentially be very dangerous. That has only been further exacerbated now that she has been separated from her commoner family. I visit and check up on her every few days and also receive regular reports from Elvira, however, there have been no signs of her emotional turmoil and her education has also been proceeding smoothly.

…Personally, I’d like nothing more than to be able to lower the frequency of my visits, but I wonder if that’s going to be feasible?

There’s a mountain load of work that I have to do while Rozemyne is away from the temple. In addition to my usual temple-related work, I also have to conduct interrogations of Count Bindewald and the former High Bishop, erase any and all traces of Myne when she was a commoner and do all of those things while preparing for Rozemyne’s baptism ceremony and subsequent adoption by the archduke.

But with all that said, it’s still not a good idea to ignore Rozemyne while focusing on my work. I have no idea what she’ll end up doing if I don’t keep an eye on her. As soon as I turn around, it feels like she always catches a fever, faints and collapses or gets herself involved in some kind of troublesome situation. I’d be troubled if she causes even more problems that she does now. She’s the sort of person who must be kept under surveillance at all costs. As I was considering various things in my mind while carefully reading Karstedt’s wooden board, Fran entered the room.

“High Priest, Lord Karstedt. There’s something which I wish to consult with the two of you about. May I have a little bit of your time?”

It seems like some kind of problem came up while they were preparing the High Bishop’s quarters. I turned towards Fran and nodded to indicate that he should continue.

“I know I was instructed to select Lady Rozemyne’s tableware with the utmost care, but…”

As I listened to Fran’s words, I couldn’t hide the frown that naturally showed on my face. I recalled a time when Myne had asked to eat lunch with me so that she could use it as a reference for a stereotypical noble’s meal. Hence, I had invited her over to eat during one of her regular harspiel examinations. The tableware used at the time should have been no different from those regularly used by nobles. I hadn’t given it much thought at the time, but I believe there shouldn’t be any problems with using that as a point of reference.

“Rozemyne can continue using her personal coat of arms which was embroidered on her apprentice blue shrine maiden ceremonial costume. I don’t think there’s anything worth worrying about.”

“No, the problem here is that Lady Rozemyne hasn’t changed her tableware at all since joining the temple.”

“But when I had a look, it didn’t seem like it was tableware brought from her commoner household. I remember receiving a report stating that the Gilberta Company had prepared various things for her kitchen and bathroom. Did they not also change all the tableware back then?”

Fran withered under my stern gaze as if he found the topic difficult to talk about.

“Until now, Lady Rozemyne has been using the tableware which Sister Margaret left behind in the orphanage director’s quarters. They’ve got Sister Margaret’s coat of arms on them, albeit in an inconspicuous location.”

Looks like her bed wasn’t the only thing that Myne was reusing. Her tableware was also a hand-me-down.

“Considering she’s supposed to be Karstedt’s daughter who was hidden away in the temple, it certainly will be a problem if others find out that she’s been using tableware with someone else’s coat of arms.”

I had heard she’d been using the furniture which was already in the room, but I didn’t think she’d been using the old tableware as well. If she’s willing to pay one large gold to enter the temple’s library, I wish she’d also be as willing to spend that money on the necessary expenses to protect herself. This is giving me a headache.

“From now on, Darmuel is no longer going to be her only guard coming in and out of the temple. You have to make sure to carefully select all the tableware she uses so that others don’t notice anything strange.”

Darmuel knows that Myne was a commoner, however, from now on there will also be various female knights who accompany her. Although her retinue won’t be very big, it doesn’t change the fact that nobles will be entering her living quarters.

Since the title of High Bishop has changed hands, there is also a high possibility of blue priests coming to visit her. If she has any guests, she’ll have no choice but to prepare tea for them so the matter of her tableware is something that needs to be taken care of as soon as possible. That will be one more addition to the list of things for Karstedt to worry about. Fran turned towards Karstedt with the worry apparent on his face.

“I understand that this is a matter of utmost importance, but we don’t have the authority to order something made with the coat of arms of Ehrenfest. I’m sorry to say this, but may I please burden Lord Karstedt with this task?”

Only the castle’s exclusive crastman is allowed to make tableware with the duchy’s coat of arms. It’s illegal for anybody else to imprint the duchy’s crest on their wares. Karstedt nodded in understanding while saying “So that’s why you needed my presence as well”.

“In that case, I’ll just order the same kind of tableware that they use in the castle. I’ll get it done now.”

“There’s no need to be in such a rush, Karstedt. Order something different for the tableware she’ll be using in the temple. I want to give others the impression that she’s been using it for a long time. It’s best to not leave any loose ends hanging.”

As I emphasised the importance of matching the fabricated tale of Myne being hidden and raised in the temple, Karstedt scrunched his eyebrows in irritation.

“Are you telling me to order new tableware with my household’s crest? If we do that, it won’t match the narrative that I was keeping her hidden. Wouldn’t it make more sense to use the crest of Rozemary’s family, Joisontak?”

“Elvira will be named as the mother at the baptism ceremony so it’ll be important to clarify the familial relationships. Besides, although we made up the setting that Rozemyne is the third wife’s child, we already decided that we wouldn’t publicise it. There will be problems regardless of what crest we end up using, but matching her family is probably the safest bet.”

With Elvira’s warnings and advice, we ended up slightly changing Rozemyne’s background story from the original script. A certain degree of ambiguity will be necessary. But even as I gave him my explanation, Karstedt was apparently not willing to budge on his stance of refusing to get new tableware with his family’s crest. As Karstedt sat there frowning, Fran decided to speak up to him.

“Lord Karstedt, there are plenty of blue priests and shrine maidens in the temple who have placed their family crest in inconspicuous locations. Even if most of Lady Rozemyne’s belongings have her personal coat of arms, the narrative will be more believable if Lord Karstedt’s coat of arms were also present in some discrete spots.”

“Is that so…?”

Even with Fran’s added explanation, Karstedt still looked skeptical, likely because he was unfamiliar with customs in the temple. At that moment, I finally understood the problem with Karstedt’s thought process. Among nobles, it’s commonly believed that a child who is hidden and secretly raised will eventually become a servant of the household when they grow up.

“The status of a child who was hidden and secretly raised in a mansion in the noble’s district is different to that of a child who was entrusted to the temple. Most of the blue priests and shrine maidens in the temple have clear connections to their families. They receive an allowance from the archduke and will often carry the tithes that they collected during the Harvest Festival to their family’s domain. It would be very inconvenient for them if they had to hide their relationship to their relatives.”

Even though blue priests and shrine maidens are not raised in the noble district, that didn’t mean they had completely cut off all connections with their family of origin. There’s always a chance that they’d be allowed to return if an emergency occurred.

“I see now. It seems I had some misunderstandings. Very well. In that case there shouldn’t be any problems even if I were to use my coat of arms for Rozemyne’s tableware.”

It looks like we’ve finally been able to ease Karstedt’s worries.

“That will do for the coat of arms, but what about the design itself? I think it will definitely be strange if all the tableware is exactly the same as the ones we have at home. After all, children usually use their mother’s chosen workshop.”

Karstedt’s concerns weren’t unfounded. If the mother’s identity was supposed to be hidden, then they couldn’t use the same designs as the ones at Karstedt’s house which had been chosen by his first wife Elvira. If that were to happen, it’d be the equivalent of saying Elvira has been hiding her own child from herself.

“Well then, what kind of design should we go with…?”

“High Priest, since you are Lady Rozemyne’s guardian at the temple, why don’t we use a similar design to your tableware? I don’t think it would be unnatural to assume that you were heavily involved in her decisions…”

I carefully considered Fran’s proposal. Certainly, this doesn’t sound like a bad idea. It seems like Karstedt arrived at the same conclusion. He gave an impressed nod to signify his approval.

“Ferdinand, what kind of tableware do you use?”

“The same stuff as before. I haven’t changed my tableware in a long time.”

I instructed my attendant Rotal to bring us one of my tea sets. I had been using it from way back, even in the castle before I’d been forced into the temple. As soon as Karstedt saw the large prominent Ehrenfest crest engraved on it, his eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.

“Did you really use this while you were in the temple…? I’m amazed that Lady Veronica didn’t throw a fit over it.”

“Pfft, do you really think she gave permission? She gave instructions to the former High Bishop that people in the temple were not allowed to use anything symbolic of the archduchal clan. As a result, he complained to me about it all the time.”

After chasing me out of the archduchal clan and taking away my inheritance rights, Veronica continued to complain, claiming that I shouldn’t use any tableware that hinted I was a part of the archduchal clan.

“But as you know, I don’t actually have a mother.”

During my baptism ceremony, that person refused to be named as my mother. As a result, she personally ruined any possibility for me to have a coat of arms other than the one for Ehrenfest. If she’d just swallowed her pride and reluctantly agreed, my coat of arms after entering the temple would have been her family, Gibe Groschel’s crest.

“Besides, the mansion I received from my father upon reaching adulthood was the place where Lady Irumhilde originally resided. Obviously, all the crests in that mansion represented the archduchal clan. I don’t have any other crests I can use.”

Lady Irumhilde was the daughter of the second wife of the archduke from two generations ago and hence was my father’s half-sister. She caught an illness during her childhood which left her unable to bear a child. Hence, instead of marrying into another duchy, she decided to work as an assistant to the archduchal clan and was granted a mansion in the noble’s district. If she hadn’t perished just before my baptism ceremony, she would have been named as my mother. But I only barely knew her for half a year so my memories of that time are rather vague. But I remember her being a kind woman with neat and tidy hair. She was very gentle and caring and I distinctly remember that on our very first meeting, she asked me “Do you perhaps feel any discomfort from being touched by me?” while stroking me with her slender white fingers.

“Did Lady Veronica not think of instructing you to design a new coat of arms for personal use?”

“Of course she did. But I entered the temple so I could cut my ties with that woman. Why would I need to follow her instructions afterwards?”

She called the former High Bishop to the castle numerous times but Veronica never stepped foot in the temple herself. As a result, I made it my policy to ignore all her requests and let Sylvester take care of things on his end. Upon hearing my cynical explanation, Karstedt shrugged his shoulders while Fran smiled and decided to return to the topic of Rozemyne’s tableware.

“A mere grey priest such as myself is unaware of the ins and outs of noble society, but if we imitate the High Priest’s tableware, wouldn’t it be rather fitting for a daughter of the archduke?”

“Hmm… Put Rozemyne’s personal crest here and put Karstedt’s crest in some sort of inconspicuous location. Since I’ll be the one placing the order as her guardian, the design itself will resemble tableware used by members of the archduchal clan and it will be difficult to immediately spot the connection to Karstedt.”

As he listened to my mutterings, Karstedt nodded and commented “We’ll go with that”.

“Should we make Lady Rozemyne’s tableware a different colour to yours, High Priest?”

Upon hearing Fran’s words, I stopped and contemplated for a few seconds.

“Tableware for members of the archduchal clan are usually made in the colour of their birth season. If we follow that tradition, Rozemyne’s would be blue. However, since I’m not a child of the first wife, I wasn’t permitted to use the usual shade of green for mine and could only choose a dark green colour. Rozemyne is also a child who was raised in secret and isn’t the first wife’s child either. In which case, a lighter or darker shade… It might be a good idea to slightly change the colour.”

“Hmm… Then how about dark blue? It would also match Rozemyne’s hair colour.”

I simply nodded in response to Karstedt’s suggestion and said “That sounds good to me”.

Fran also jotted it down in his notes.

“High Priest, what is the meaning of the letters engraved inside this cup?”

“They’re acronyms for my name. Everyone in the castle uses tableware with the same designs. This makes it easier for attendants to differentiate between them.”

“Oh, so that’s what they’re there for? There are all sorts of fussy rules for the tableware in the castle and you can’t even make them to your own liking so I’d always let my attendants take care of those things.”

Karstedt gave a deeply satisfied nod as though he had just solved some kind of mystery. This is only something I’ve heard about from others, but until Sylvester was born, Karstedt had been raised in the castle as an archduke candidate. Afterwards, he was probably stripped of the position by Veronica. I’ve heard people say things along those lines. Although, it does feel like Karstedt better suits the description of a knight commander rather than an archduke candidate. As such thoughts were running through my mind, I noticed that Fran was staring at a magic circle on my tea set which had lit up.

“High Priest, I’ve noticed that many of the blue priests and shrine maidens have their clan’s coat of arms in the centre of their saucers or on the outside of their cups, but your tableware has magic circles on them. Is this something that’s necessary for Lady Rozemyne?”

“No, she won’t need anything like that.”

In a hidden spot on the bottom of my cup, I have placed a detoxifying magic circle. It activates if I touch it and supply mana to it. It’s currently activated since I’m holding it.

“You actually made an effort to hide it?”

“Of course. It’s amusing to watch the reactions of the person who poisoned it as they wonder why the poison isn’t working.”

I couldn’t actually make an effective magic circle for this purpose until I was in my 3rd grade of studies at the Royal Academy. It was only in my senior years that I was finally able to hide my detoxifying magic circles without Veronica noticing. Personally, I wish I had this magic circle available to me before I got used to all the poison. Now that Veronica is no longer in power, it’s all gone to waste since there’s no longer any opportunities to use it.

“Alright, I will order a new set of tableware with this design in mind. High Priest, Lord Karstedt, I gratefully thank thee for your generous advice.”

“Fran, write it down on an order slip and pass it to me when you done. I’ll send it over to my exclusive craftsman.”

Since I’m Rozemyne’s guardian, it’s more appropriate if I’m the one to make the order. Fran and Karstedt nodded without any complaints. With the topic of discussion finally over, Karstedt got up and walked from my work desk to the dining table.

“That was a pretty tiring discussion.”

It seems like he wants to take a break. I passed the tea set I was holding in my hands over to Fran.

“Fran, it’s been a while, but may I burden you with the task of preparing tea?”

“Understood. Would some reffel-scented Gruchtee suffice?”

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