Winter Life in the Temple

Winter Life in the Temple

Winter Life in the Temple

I was staying in the temple, having received an order from the archduke to investigate the bible, and now I was pouring my all into reading. At the moment, I was partway through the book that Hannelore had lent me. Fey creatures like feyplants and feybeasts were more common in Dunkelfelger than anywhere else, it seemed, so everyone there had to grow strong.

The book featured many different fey species and grand descriptions of the ways they were defeated, mixed in with poems extolling the gods. Rather than knight stories, it was like reading a hunting log with poems attached. The gods that appeared were exclusively Leidenschaft’s subordinates, and the book’s contents gave me the same testosterone-heavy locker-room vibe that emanated from Rauffen.

Dunkelfelger’s love of ditter has never been clearer to me than at this moment.

I also read the love stories that Clarissa had given Hartmut. They were more or less common knowledge in Dunkelfelger, I was told, but unlike the deeply romantic knight stories that Elvira loved so much, these were primarily about women tasking burgeoning knights with hunts to prove their strength. They were more like The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter than anything.

The men of Dunkelfelger expressed their love by enduring the impossible demands and fighting until they defeated the feybeast, whereupon they brought its feystone back and offered it to the woman they loved. No matter how much plotting their women did, no matter how far through hell they had to trudge, the knights’ love never faltered as they charged forward. One had to tear up at how wholesome it all was.

Good luck, Dunkelfelger men!

Ferdinand finished socializing and returned to the temple as I was reading the borrowed stories. It seemed that he planned to spend our time until the Dedication Ritual studying the magic circle Hartmut had drawn out. Preparations for the ritual were being left to Kampfer and Frietack, so in essence, he now had some much-needed time off.

“I’m going to be really busy at the Royal Academy after the Dedication Ritual, Ferdinand—will you not also be able to rest then?” I suggested. “Everyone always seems to be talking about what a gremlin I am, so you might as well make the most of your time not having to deal with me.”

“You fool,” he shot back, a particular coldness in his golden eyes. “Those days are the most stressful of all for me. I must read one report after another about the chaos you are creating out of my reach. How could I ever rest then?”

“Eep. I’m sorry...”

Letting me keep to myself and read all day, as I was doing now, sounded like the solution to everyone’s problems—but things were never that simple in the Royal Academy. Ferdinand turned to his own attendants, took some sheets of paper from them, and then handed them to me.

“Speaking of the Royal Academy,” he said, “we have received the order for the Gilberta Company, alongside a number of questions from Charlotte. They require a response from you.”

I started inspecting the order form; Brunhilde had written out every possible detail with great care. Picking the thread and the appropriate design was going to be much easier thanks to her efforts.

“I shall call for the Gilberta Company when the blizzard next eases,” I said. “I can use the opportunity to order my spring outfits as well.”

I wanted to see Tuuli again; it had been way too long. Not to mention, with neither Hartmut nor Philine here, I could probably soften the atmosphere of the meeting a bit.

My thoughts must have been clear on my face, as Ferdinand gave me a conflicted half-smile. “I have some inkling of your intentions here, but there is no time to do anything about it. Simply send the letter of invitation and the order form alongside it as soon as you are able.”

“Right.”

I gave the order form to Monika and asked if she would tell Gil—who was overseeing the winter handiwork in the orphanage—to contact the Gilberta Company. I watched her leave out of the corner of my eye and then picked up Charlotte’s report.

“Lady Hannelore of Dunkelfelger invited me to a tea party. It seems that she wishes to recommend Royal Academy Love Stories to her friends while we are there. It is your book, Sister, but may I allow others to borrow it? From Charlotte.”

Hannelore had really enjoyed Royal Academy Love Stories and wanted to recommend the book to her friends during a tea party. She would then hold a second tea party at a later date, during which they would discuss their thoughts. I could guess she had mentioned this to Charlotte so that we could make the necessary preparations.

Gaaah, I’m so jealous! I want to be at the Royal Academy, having tea parties with Lady Hannelore!

“Rozemyne, she is simply asking whether she can lend out your book,” Ferdinand said. “Is there truly that much to think about?”

“Ngh... It’s just too cruel that the tea parties I want to attend most are being held while I’m not there. Way too cruel...”

“It was wise of them to schedule the tea parties in your absence—you would doubtless end up collapsing from excitement if you attended them. Did we not agree that it is Charlotte’s job to spread the books?” he asked, giving me an exasperated look.

I pursed my lips. I understood what he was saying—I couldn’t just attend and collapse at every tea party—but still... Was it really so wrong for me to want to attend a tea party where I might make more bookworm friends? Either way, I was a big fan of spreading books in the Royal Academy, so I wrote to Charlotte expressing my approval.

“You may lend them as you will, Charlotte. Please spread them all across the lands. Incidentally, I would suggest that you bring many apprentice scholars with you and collect love stories from the gathered attendees. I am looking forward to seeing what you end up with. From Rozemyne.”

Ferdinand would send my response to her via the castle.

Gil delivered the order form and arranged a meeting with the Gilberta Company for the next time the blizzard weakened. I would gaze out my window every morning to check the weather, excited to see Tuuli again. Until then, however, there were temple matters to attend to—I needed to arrange a lunch meeting with Ferdinand, who was locked away in his workshop again, since his and my attendants had come to me to express their concern.

Ferdinand allowed me into his room with a very unwelcoming smile that made me want to return to my own chambers at once. Really, if anyone here had cause to be frustrated, it was me—my time spent here was time not being spent with my books.

“Please show some restraint with your research,” I said firmly. “Your attendants are so troubled that they asked me to hold this lunch meeting. Not to mention, if you inspire Raimund to likewise abandon everything for his research, everyone will suffer.”

Ferdinand glared at me, his brows tightly knit. “I was informed that we are having this lunch because you have refused to even look away from your books since returning to the temple. You are the one who needs to be more considerate.”

Apparently, Ferdinand and I were equally problematic in the eyes of our attendants. We turned to them just in time to see Eckhart and Damuel clap their hands over their mouths, trying to suppress their laughter.

“So, is Raimund completing his tasks at a good pace?” I asked. Our discussions over lunch normally focused on what Ferdinand was researching at that moment, since he barely responded to anything else.

“Indeed. He has potential. Some of his improvements have been really quite interesting...” Ferdinand replied. He tended to use his abundance of mana to brute force his way through magic circle-related obstacles, so he found these more efficient alternatives to be quite intriguing. Raimund must have been quite the genius to receive praise from Ferdinand, of all people.

“It doesn’t have to be right now,” I said, “but could you task Raimund with improving the mana efficiency of a small teleportation circle? Something like the magic circles that are used for taxes, except for books.”

“To what end?”

“I will distribute them to printing guilds, so they can send the books they produce to me.”

“There are still very few books in print. If you wish to receive copies, the guilds can send them alongside their taxes.”

“It may be true at the moment that only a few books are produced each year, but we should resolve the issue before the number of workshops increases dramatically.”

I needed to get the flow of goods sorted so that I could properly exploit the legal deposit system I had set up. At the moment, it applied only within Ehrenfest, and the giebes could simply bring copies of the few books they printed with them during winter socializing. As more books were printed and the industry spread to other duchies, however, things would only become more complicated. I needed my teleportation circles to be in use before then, so that my legal deposit system didn’t end up deprecating into a law that was entirely disregarded.

“Hmph.” Ferdinand gave a dismissive scoff upon hearing my impassioned explanation. “You make it sound as if your reasoning is grand and important, but in truth, you cannot wait until winter to receive new books from the provinces.”

That’s... entirely correct. He saw right through me.

“Working with Sylvester has taught me that ‘grand and important’ excuses are highly effective,” I replied with a smile.

Ferdinand pressed a finger between his eyebrows and gave a heavy sigh. “Good grief... Why must you learn only the wrong lessons from that man? In any case, who will supply the mana needed for the teleportation?”

“For now, I intend to entrust that duty to the scholars working in the industry. In the long term, it could become a job for those with the Devouring or for gray priests who have mana, such as Konrad. I have always wished to create employment opportunities for the gray priests, so I am thinking that I might be able to use my position as orphanage director to provide them opportunities within the Plantin Company. I also want there to be a way for those with the Devouring and for the children of nobles without magic tools to survive. This will provide a reasonable excuse for taking children without magic tools to the orphanage, no?”

There were so few nobles now that even people without much mana seemed to hold some value, but I was told that we didn’t want the number of nobles to increase like that. And if such people didn’t have the means to survive, I just needed to provide jobs that would allow them to support themselves.

“...I will consult Sylvester,” Ferdinand eventually replied.

“Please do.”

And so, I started putting forward my new ideas, which Ferdinand corrected or outright rejected. This process continued every lunchtime for three days until, eventually, the blizzard subsided enough for the Gilberta Company to visit.

After lunch, I went to the orphanage director’s chambers. The view outside the window was nothing but white; although the blizzard was calmer than usual, the snow never ceased to fall. Still, it was comfortably warm inside—the fires in the kitchen had been lit since morning as Ella and Nicola made sweets, and the furnace on the second floor was burning as well.

I sighed in relief and went up to the second floor, where I awaited the arrival of the Gilberta Company. They ended up coming fairly early, having most likely decided to travel while the snowfall was light. Otto, Corinna, Theo, Leon, and Tuuli were in attendance, and after we exchanged noble greetings, I gestured for them to sit. It was then that I noticed Leon and Tuuli asking Fran where they could set down a number of wooden boxes.

“Did the order form arrive safely?” I asked.

“Indeed,” Otto replied. “And thanks to your early notice, Lady Rozemyne, we had enough time to prepare ourselves and were able to begin without issue. I never would have imagined that we would receive yet another order from royalty this year. Your craftswoman has already begun creating the hairpin.”

Otto turned to look at Tuuli, who seemed a lot more grown up than the last time I had seen her. She nodded with a reserved smile; it seemed that my magic letter had proven useful.

“But unlike last year, I’ve also needed to order an armband. Is that not too much?” I asked. My fear was that requesting the armband for Hildebrand alongside the hairpin Sigiswald wanted to give to Adolphine would end up being too strenuous.

Corinna smiled and then nodded at Tuuli, who immediately took a wooden box, set it on the table, and carefully opened it. It contained not just one, but three armbands.

“Why are there so many...?” I asked, looking up in surprise.

Tuuli beamed a proud smile. “These are spares. When you first said that you intend to give one to your friend in the Royal Academy, I considered the possibility that you might want more in the future and decided to make them in advance. How many would you like now?” she asked, her blue eyes carrying a glint that seemed to say, “Aren’t I amazing?”

Tuuli, you ARE amazing!

As I trembled with awe, Corinna smiled and said, “Tuuli has quite the business foresight.” In a shocking twist, Tuuli had also predicted there being more orders from royalty or top-ranking duchies this year, so she had been coming up with new hairpin designs since spring. Thanks to this preparation, she was able to start work on this year’s hairpin without any fuss.

Tuuli gave a bright smile. “I predicted that you would have more big orders for us, Lady Rozemyne, and prepared accordingly.”

My darling Tuuli is an angel. She’s just so reliable!

Her expression practically screamed, “You can count on your big sister!” And with that proud smile, she fetched another wooden box. “Furthermore, this is the spring hairpin that I made for you, Lady Rozemyne. How is it?”

In a second shocking twist, she had even already made my spring hairpin for me. It evoked the image of delicate new leaves, as per my order.

“If you intend to wear clothing to suit this hairpin, might I suggest choosing from this selection of cloth?” Corinna said. “We have prepared three pieces similar to those made by the three craftspeople you ordered from previously.”

At her signal, Leon took three pieces of cloth out from a wooden box and spread them across the table. The same craftspeople who had come out on top in my “Renaissance” competition had dyed new cloth based on the pieces I chose for my winter outfit, and to my dismay, they were all nearly identical. I didn’t have a clue which one was Mom’s.

And to think I was planning to make her a Renaissance for sure...

I glanced over at Tuuli while debating the choice in my head and noticed that her eyes were locked in a particular direction. Perhaps she was staring at Mom’s cloth. I followed her gaze and went to pick the one I thought she was looking at.

...Nope!

No sooner had I picked up one of the pieces than her eyes began to fill with panic. I pretended to look it over carefully, set it back down, and then picked up the next piece. Again, Tuuli seemed to fret—this time, she looked gravely unwell.