Investigating the Bible

Investigating the Bible

Investigating the Bible

Just as instructed, I would stealthily return to the temple without Ferdinand noticing to reclaim my reading time. I talked with Sylvester to arrange a line of communication with the temple, such that he could send over the hairpin order form once it was ready, then went to gather my retainers so they could start preparing.

“Aub Ehrenfest has instructed that I search the bible for answers to the giebes’ questions about the Haldenzel Miracle,” I said solemnly. “From tomorrow morning onward, I am going to be in the temple for some time.”

A smile betrayed my true feelings as I picked up my book from Dunkelfelger, Solange’s documents, and so on. At Sylvester’s orders, I would soon get to indulge in a paradise of reading until the Dedication Ritual. His primary objective was for me to get some rest, so although I would investigate the bible a little bit, there was no obligation for me to actually find anything.

Yippee!

Damuel and Angelica needed to prepare as well, since they were going to be joining me for my duration in the temple. I had also sent word to Ella in the kitchen. Our plan was to depart tomorrow morning.

“This certainly is sudden...” Ottilie remarked.

Rihyarda shook her head with exasperation. “Is milady’s departure for the temple not always sudden? We should be used to it by now.”

“I apologize for the rush,” I said. “My hope is to find answers before the next Spring Prayer, and there simply isn’t much time left. I will need to return to the Royal Academy after the Dedication Ritual, after all.”

That night, I ate dinner alone in my room, since the archducal couple had been invited to a dinner meeting elsewhere. It was strangely lonesome, since I would normally eat dinner with at least Wilfried while I was in the castle. In the end, I started to wish I could return to the Royal Academy—purely to have company during mealtime, if nothing else.

Come morning, my preparations for staying at the temple were complete, and we left while following Damuel and Angelica on their highbeasts. Traveling in the fearsome blizzard was as difficult as usual, and if not for their dark-yellow capes, I would not have known where I was flying. It made me wonder how the knights could make it to the temple.

“Welcome back, Lady Rozemyne.”

My attendants greeted me when I arrived, all standing in the freezing cold.

“And so I have returned,” I replied, walking along the path that Damuel and Angelica made for me while taking care not to trip. This time, I managed to reach the temple without falling flat on my face.

My muscles might be coming back to me.

Although there were fewer stumbles to speak of, the walk to the temple still took me a lot longer than it would a normal person. My coat was covered with snow by the time I stepped inside, so Monika removed it from me and then brushed the remaining snow from my clothes.

As I watched the snow tumble to my feet, Zahm looked around as if searching for something. “Lady Rozemyne, is the High Priest not with you?” he asked.

“He is busy with socializing and will most likely remain in the Noble’s Quarter until the Dedication Ritual,” I replied. “I have returned to investigate the bible, at the aub’s orders.”

“You are to investigate the bible?” Fran repeated, blinking curiously.

“We made spring come early in Haldenzel through Spring Prayer, and the other giebes wish to perform the ceremony as well,” I said, explaining the Haldenzel Miracle. “I am going to be researching the bible carefully so it can be recreated. I already compared those in the book room during my blue shrine maiden days, but I must finish before the Dedication Ritual, so I do not have much time.”

“Time certainly is of the essence, then,” Fran said with a nod.

I entered the High Bishop’s chambers, changed into my High Bishop robes, and then listened to everyone’s reports while enjoying the tea Nicola had poured for me. According to Gil, we had been told to avoid visiting the Plantin Company for a bit, since they had gotten a new lehange. We needed to wait until Lutz came with a message.

“The Plantin Company does not want our information leaking to them,” Gil said.

“Just who is this lehange, anyway?” I mused. They had already allowed the guildmaster’s grandson Damian to get super involved, and I couldn’t imagine anyone we would want to be more on guard against than him.

“It seems to be the daughter of a Klassenberg merchant.”

Um, a Klassenberg merchant? What...? Why would you hire someone like that, Benno?!

“There were some kind of extreme circumstances,” Gil noted. “Lutz said that he doesn’t know the details either.”

“I see. Hopefully everything ends up fine.”

I finished my tea while listening to the reports, then had Fran fetch the fancy, feystone-protected bible for me. He took it from its shrine and placed it carefully in front of me, with the key next to it. I could feel my mana being drained as I slid the key into the lock.

I opened the thick cover while humming to myself, resolved to skim the usual contents of the bible a single time before saying there was nothing more I could do. But instead, I saw something completely unlike what I remembered.

“What in the world...?” I muttered, my eyes wide.

“Is something the matter, Lady Rozemyne?” Fran asked without hesitation. His eyes were curiously flitting between the bible and me, at which point I remembered Ferdinand saying that the High Bishop’s bible was only able to be read by those who had received permission. In other words, Fran couldn’t see its contents at all. At the same time, I recalled that Ferdinand had taken care to ensure that only nobles learned about magecraft and gave a heavy sigh.

“Not at all, Fran,” I replied with a fake smile and then returned to examining the bible. A magic circle had appeared floating above the page when I opened it, but that wasn’t all—above the words written in ink that I had seen previously, there were different words written with mana. I felt a chill run down my spine at the sudden change.

Hold on just a minute. What’s going on here? Has anything major changed since my becoming the High Bishop?

The bible was a magic tool, so I desperately searched through my memories, trying to think of something that might have impacted it. I was now attending the Royal Academy and had acquired a schtappe to become a proper noble—that was probably the biggest change. I had gotten my schtappe, learned to better control my mana, and gained the ability to do a whole range of things.

No, that’s not it...

I started and shook my head; I was confident that I had read the bible since obtaining my schtappe. This magic circle hadn’t been there when I checked the bible with Ferdinand after the Spring Prayer ceremony in Haldenzel. He surely would have mentioned it otherwise.

“Did something happen, Lady Rozemyne? Is something wrong?” Angelica asked and rushed over. She had a sharp look in her eyes as she glanced between the bible and me, and the seriousness with which she had called out spurred Damuel to walk over with an equally curious expression.

“Angelica, can you see what’s written?” I asked.

She glared at the bible through narrowed eyes and then shook her head without even averting her gaze. “I don’t see anything. The pages are all completely blank.”

“Is it not the case that only those with your permission as High Bishop can see the pages, Lady Rozemyne?” Damuel asked. “I recall Lord Ferdinand saying as much.”

I gave a curt nod in response; I was just confirming that they couldn’t actually see it. “In that case... I grant Angelica permission to read the bible,” I said. “Do you see anything now?”

“I see complicated words.”

It seemed that she could now see the words, but not the magic circle. With that confirmed, I then granted Damuel permission to read the bible.

“Do you see anything?” I asked.

“I see the sentence, ‘Here be words granted by the gods.’”

As it turned out, Damuel couldn’t see the magic circle either. I could guess, then, that seeing it had nothing to do with having a schtappe or being a noble. Still, I was far from working out why it had appeared all of a sudden.

“I revoke my permissions,” I said.

“What’s going on, Lady Rozemyne?” Angelica asked.

I gazed up at her. “I see now why you elected to abandon thinking after your graduation, Angelica,” I replied, trying to avoid giving an actual answer.

Right. Guess I’ll need to discuss this with Ferdinand...

Such was my mantra in times of doubt. But first, I needed to read some of the new words.

“Ye who wish to be Zent, read on”? Oh no, no, no. I don’t want to be king.

I replied to the book in my head while reading on. I didn’t intend to become the Zent—which is what they called the king here—but books existed to be read. This text was unknown to me, and my wish was to read unknown text.

I’ll skip the magic circle, though, since it’s too complex for me to understand. I can just ask Ferdinand about it later.

At most, I understood that the circle involved all of the elements at once. I turned to the next page, and more new words rose into the air. There was no magic circle this time. I read the text, which basically said that becoming the Zent would require me to pray endlessly to the gods.

Anyone who wished to be the Zent needed to raise their mana capacity as high as possible, which could be done by offering countless prayers to the gods. I didn’t really understand how that would work, but it was possible, apparently. Once your vessel stopped growing, and your mana stopped increasing, you would pray again, and a path would open that led to the gods. They would then give you what was needed to wield the power of the Zent. Incidentally, if the path to the gods did not open, it meant you weren’t qualified to be the Zent.

But what are those qualifications...?

Once you had the divine strength necessary to wield the power of the Zent, you had to pray to the gods once again. Then, with enough effort, the gods would grant you their wisdom. It was written that only those with both the required power and wisdom could finally be recognized as the Zent.

Somehow, it feels like you do nothing but pray.

These were probably hints for becoming king. I understood the general process, but since none of the details were written clearly, I didn’t entirely follow. It wasn’t as if anyone could become king, and perhaps it was written vaguely on purpose. Maybe this was all obvious to everyone back then, and these roundabout instructions would provide the extra knowledge needed to know what to do.

But, well, I’m not going to be king anyway, so I don’t really care about these instructions.

As unclear as the floating letters were, I knew one thing for certain—they were completely unrelated to Haldenzel’s ceremony.

“In any case, I’ll focus on Sylvester’s instructions,” I said, ceasing to care as soon as I finished reading the text. None of it had anything to do with me. I thought that saving the magic circles would make sense, but I couldn’t work on that while Fran and the others were around, and the very thought of taking this bible to my workshop made me groan.

Eh. I can just wait until Ferdinand comes back. I’ll start looking into Haldenzel in the meantime.

And so, I flipped through the bible, searching for the part where the Goddess of Earth’s subordinate gods prayed to the Goddess of Water, as per Haldenzel’s ceremony. I found it almost instantly—I had read the relevant passages over and over again for confirmation—and then read it again. There were lyrics and the illustration, but still no details about how to make the stages.

Whoever wrote this probably didn’t expect anyone to break their precious ceremonial stages in the first place.

Having finished reviewing the bible again, I decided to spend the afternoon reading the documents I had borrowed from Solange. It was my motto to prioritize reading things that had been lent to me so that I could return them promptly. I read the work reports of the libraries from generations ago with a pen in hand, ready to make notes about any magic tools that were previously used.

The reports were exceedingly fun to read, since they offered a glimpse into the average day of librarians from the past. First and foremost, they needed to ensure the library was ready to be opened before classes began at second-and-a-half bell. It was a morning ritual for the librarians to divide the magic tools among themselves and start filling them with mana. They started with the large-scale magic tools built into the library building itself, such as the light magic tool that indicated the time, the magic tools that cleaned the grounds, the magic tool that quieted loud voices in the reading room, and so on.

Next, the librarians unlocked the reading room, poured mana into Schwartz and Weiss, and then had the two shumils go around opening the doors and preparing to lend out books. That must have been very cute. The very thought brought a smile to my face.

As Schwartz and Weiss were preparing the first floor, the rest of the librarians continued servicing the magic tools, one by one. There were the bookshelves that prevented old documents from rotting away with time-stopping magic, and even a magic tool that stopped sunlight from damaging books. I definitely wanted those in the Rozemyne Library.

Hm... I wonder if the “gramps” Schwartz and Weiss mentioned is one of the magic tools those librarians used to pour mana into.

I thought back to the Grutrissheit-hugging Mestionora statue on the second floor of the reading room. Solange had mentioned before that not all of the magic tools were being resupplied due to the shortage of available librarians, and since Schwartz and Weiss had taken me to that statue in particular, it was easy to assume that this “gramps” was in reality the most valuable magic tool in the library.

It seems I’ve already been doing some proper librarian work.

Thinking about it that way put me in pretty high spirits. I kept reading on, all the while writing down the different magic tools that had once been used in the library.

Once the students began to arrive, things started to sound a lot more familiar. Returned books were put on their shelves, carrels were lent out, study guides brought in by students were looked over, professors sent out ordonnanzes asking for certain documents to be prepared... These reports painted a truly wonderful picture of everyday life in the library.

It’s so nice... I want a life like this too.

As Solange had said previously, having enough librarians meant they had more than enough time to do their jobs, so the reports had mentioned some librarians leaving the library to have information-exchanging tea parties with other professors or with students.

One new discovery was that the archnoble librarians only worked in the Royal Academy until the time of the Archduke Conference, at which point they moved to work in the palace library instead. They moved between the two libraries depending on the season, but mednoble and laynoble scholars simply remained at their posts.

In other words, Professor Solange always works in the Royal Academy’s library, while other librarians are always working in the palace library.

Given that no archnoble librarians were being sent to the work in the Royal Academy’s library, I could imagine the mednoble librarians in the royal library were having a hard time themselves. It would be pretty rough for a few mednobles to keep up with all the magic tools written here.

By reading these documents, I also learned that the older generation was very different from our current one. Back then, students would get their Divine Wills right before graduation, and it was explained that the students would raise their newly acquired schtappes in celebration during their graduation ceremonies.

Yet, these days, even first-years have schtappes.

The reports also mentioned that adult royals had a duty to attend the Archduke Conference and described an instance of one visiting the library. Three archnoble librarians had apparently greeted them.

And now, we have Schwartz and Weiss welcoming Prince Hildebrand. That’s much cuter.

My blissful fantasizing was suddenly interrupted as someone shook me by the shoulders. I looked up in shock and said, “Wh-What is it, Fran?”

Fran silently pointed at an ordonnanz that had landed on my desk. “Rozemyne, did I not ask you to keep an eye on Sylvester?” it said, relaying a message from Ferdinand that was cold enough to be described as absolute zero. Just hearing it made me inhale sharply. “Tell me—where have you gone? Are you with him now?”

It seemed that Sylvester had run away somewhere right after sending me back to the temple.

Sylvester, you colossal moron! I regret improving my opinion of you even slightly! Now I’m going to get an absolute earful from Ferdinand!

I could already picture it—Sylvester casually strolling back into his office just as Ferdinand finished venting his anger. He was a master of skipping work and evading consequences—two areas in which I was painfully lacking. I couldn’t make his expert excuses or deftly sidestep anger as he did.

“Come to me at once,” the message finished. It then repeated itself twice more before returning to the form of a yellow feystone.

“Lady Rozemyne, did you truly return here at the aub’s orders?” Fran asked suspiciously.

I nodded repeatedly, trying to assure everyone that I was telling the truth, but Sylvester had given his orders after clearing the room of everyone, including my guards. Nobody knew that he had told me to return to the temple, and if he played dumb, everyone would assume I was lying.

But I didn’t do anything wrong!

One could argue that I had been too naive, accepting Sylvester’s order for me to return to the temple without suspecting that he was just trying to escape my watchful eyes, but that still didn’t mean I had done anything wrong. The fault was all with Sylvester.

I didn’t do anything wrong, but Ferdinand is going to yell at me, send me back to the castle, and punish me by removing all of my reading time. What should I do? I need to get out of this somehow.

I gripped the ordonnanz feystone, desperately working my head while a cold sweat ran down my back, trying to think of anything I could say to avoid Ferdinand unleashing his wrath on me and making me return to the castle.

Oh, I know! I can show Ferdinand this magic circle! Then, he’ll forget all about being mad at me!

I produced my schtappe and tapped the feystone, filling it with mana and turning it into an ivory bird. “On Sylvester’s orders, I was told to investigate the bible,” I said, speaking my message. “I discovered something of shocking importance and wish to discuss it with you as soon as possible, Ferdinand. Please come back soon!”

As I thought about more excuses to use, the ordonnanz returned from Ferdinand and told me to wait in my room, as he would be heading to the temple immediately. Fran and Zahm went to report this to his attendants and prepare tea in the kitchen. I watched them out of the corner of my eye while focusing on the ordonnanz’s voice and trying to judge how angry Ferdinand was through his tone.

“Mm... It feels like surprise and urgency is overcoming his anger a little bit,” I ventured. “He still seems more annoyed than anything, but it’s hard to say. What do you think, Damuel?”

“Would it not be best to stop this vain struggle and accept his scolding?”

No! No, it would not be!

“I have done absolutely nothing wrong this time,” I argued. “There is no reason for me to be scolded.”

“Then you have no reason to avoid Lord Ferdinand,” Damuel replied, shaking his head as though he didn’t want to deal with this.

I pursed my lips. “I’m trying to avoid his scolding precisely because I’ve done nothing wrong.”

“Then do your best, Lady Rozemyne,” Angelica interjected, clenching her fists in a show of support. “I’m on your side.”

“Okay. You’re on my side, but can you actually do anything?” I asked without thinking.

Angelica’s brow trembled. “Unfortunately, I’m too dumb to counter a lecture from Lord Ferdinand,” she said. “He’s just too smart. I can bring out Stenluke and do my best to fight the losing battle, or I can sit next to you, and we can endure the lecture together. Which would you prefer, Lady Rozemyne?”

Neither!

As we were having our pointless conversation, a bell rang to signal a visitor. Fran and Zahm opened the door, through which Ferdinand entered. He was with Eckhart, Justus, and his temple attendants.

“I did nothing wrong this time, okay?!” I exclaimed.

“Save your excuses for later. Begin with a greeting, as is proper,” he said, lecturing me about something entirely unrelated to the problem at hand, despite my best efforts to avoid earning his ire.

It doesn’t make any sense... How did this happen?

We exchanged lengthy noble greetings, then I offered Ferdinand a seat. He let out a long sigh in response.

“Okay,” I said. “Now that we have finished our greetings, I will repeat my—”

“Enough,” Ferdinand replied. “I was a fool to trust you with monitoring him in the first place. You are single-minded and easy to deceive; all one must do is dangle a book in front of your eyes and you will carelessly leap upon it, thinking nothing of your circumstances or the consequences.”

Eep. I think I just frittered away the last scraps of trust I didn’t even know he still placed in me.

“Um, Ferdinand... I take it back. You can yell at me,” I said, fearing from his thoroughly exasperated expression that he was on the verge of abandoning me forever.

“That would be a waste of time,” he said, now looking very annoyed. “More importantly, what is this shocking revelation of which you speak? The problem with you is that I cannot predict its actual severity from your words alone.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, confused. In my eyes, he was always able to see three steps ahead, so it was strange to hear him say that he couldn’t figure out my meaning.

“Some things that are shocking to you are trivial to others,” he explained. “In other cases, they are so unbelievable that normal men cannot even fathom them. It is nigh impossible to predict which is applicable with you. So, what is it this time?”

“I can’t give you an answer that you’d find useful; they are all shocking revelations to me...” I grumbled to Ferdinand and then opened the bible. Both he and Justus leaned forward in interest.

“Blank, it seems...” Justus commented.

“Can you see anything, Ferdinand?” I asked.

“No, as one would expect,” he replied. “You have not given me your permission as the High Bishop.”

“Milady,” Justus said, “give me your permission too, if you would.”

After confirming that Ferdinand couldn’t see anything either, I said, “I grant Ferdinand and Justus permission to read,” while watching his face carefully. An instant later, his brow twitched—although just a hair. For the most part, his expression remained unchanged, so I couldn’t say for sure whether he could see the magic circle.

“So this is the bible only the High Bishop can read, hm? What makes it different from other bibles?” Justus asked. He was eagerly flipping through the pages, but his response proved that he couldn’t see the magic circle or the text in the air.

“It is a more complete version—or, at the very least, it has more details than any of the transcriptions in the temple’s book room,” I replied. There were several transcriptions of the bible in the temple’s book room, but their page counts varied quite dramatically.

Ferdinand gazed at me and said, “Rozemyne,” in a voice completely without emotion. I turned with a start. His light-golden eyes were looking down at me without betraying even the slightest expression. He shut them tightly once, then picked up the bible. “We cannot speak of this to anyone. You understand, correct?” he asked with a quiet intensity that left no room for debate. And with that, I knew for sure.

He can see the text and magic circle too.

Ferdinand entered the hidden room of the High Bishop’s chambers without permitting any of our retainers to follow. They stayed behind, looking utterly confused as I followed after him.

After setting the bible on the large table for brewing and opening it, Ferdinand swiftly sat in a chair. I pulled a second chair over to the opposite side of the table and then climbed onto it.

“Rozemyne, what do you see?” he asked.

“The same thing as you, I think. There are words and a magic circle in the air.”

Ferdinand started massaging his brow. “These were not there when we read the bible before.”

“I am just as surprised as you are; I came here to read the bible at Sylvester’s orders and did not expect this magic circle to be there at all. Still, you can see it even though Angelica, Damuel, and Justus could not... For a moment, I was starting to believe that only I could see it as the High Bishop.”

After a pause, I stared up at Ferdinand; he had fallen silent, not even taking the time to respond.

“Perhaps there is some condition, or...”

I trailed off awkwardly. Ferdinand was staring at me, still not saying a word, with a face that was completely devoid of emotion. His stony gaze was scarier than any he had given me before, such that I could feel goosebumps rise all across my skin.

“Um... Ferdinand...?”

“‘Ye who wish to be Zent.’ Do you wish to rule, Rozemyne?” Ferdinand asked, his voice colder than ice.

I swallowed hard. He was asking quietly, but I had no idea what he would do depending on my answer. Somehow, I got the feeling that I was standing on an exceedingly dangerous cliff edge.