Epilogue

Epilogue

Epilogue

A lone highbeast flew toward Kirnberger. The sky had been bright blue when it departed from Ehrenfest, but now there were dark clouds amassing overhead.

Alexis glared up at the changing heavens, then grabbed a rejuvenation potion from his hip and gulped it down. He wanted to reach Kirnberger before the rain began to fall, so he channeled more mana into the reins he was holding and made his highbeast accelerate.

I wonder, what will Father say when he’s heard my piece?

Alexis was both a guard knight serving Wilfried and the son of Giebe Kirnberger’s second wife. Tonight, he had an order from his lord to find out what the giebe thought about Rozemyne after their Spring Prayer meeting—and to secure his cooperation, if possible.

Giebe Kirnberger had openly declared that he wouldn’t support an archduke candidate simply because his son was in their service, and Alexis was certain that nothing he could say would change that. The most he could do was pray that Rozemyne had made a poor impression—such news would do wonders to cheer up his lord, who had been in a sour mood for quite some time—but he knew that such a wish was craven and despairing.

Alexis had never thought he would one day return home with such a heavy heart. He wanted to delay his arrival at Kirnberger, even if only a little, but the sky continued to fill with dark clouds. The only choice he had was to accelerate.

“Ah, Lord Alexis. We are glad you made it before the rain got any worse.”

Alexis had arrived while the rain was still only a light shower and was immediately welcomed by knights in service to Giebe Kirnberger. These same knights had served as his instructors before he came to work under Wilfried, so he knew them all well. He accepted the towel they held out to him and started drying his red-orange hair.

“So you’ve finally come of age, Alexis,” one of the knights said. “How quickly time travels. Are you here on a mission?”

“Yep. I wouldn’t have been able to leave the Noble’s Quarter without an order from my lord.”

Underage retainers were normally forbidden from leaving the Noble’s Quarter, even when ordered to. The rule had become slightly more relaxed as of late, but only to accommodate the underage archduke candidates involved with the printing industry and religious ceremonies.

Alexis was a new adult, having graduated only at the end of last winter, and this was his first time returning to Kirnberger after the end of Spring Prayer. Being welcomed home by so many familiar faces made him feel proud that he was finally old enough to complete missions on his own. Before he knew it, the burden of his duty felt a little bit more manageable.

“Lord Alexis, how is Judithe doing? She accompanied Lady Rozemyne on her recent visit but spoke almost entirely about her lady. As I recall, she barely said a word about herself.”

The inquiry had come from a veteran knight who had given Alexis a special training session when he was first chosen to be a guard knight. Alexis knew him well but not his daughter, Judithe, since she hadn’t been able to visit the giebe’s estate before her baptism.

Despite them both being from Kirnberger, Alexis had seen Judithe for the first time in the castle’s playroom. They now shared a profession, working as the guard knights of archduke candidates, but their interactions were still few and far between. On top of being different ages and genders, they served different individuals.

I’m just glad she’s an apprentice knight.

Had she been an apprentice attendant or scholar, they wouldn’t have had any opportunities to meet, and Alexis wouldn’t have had anything to say in response to the veteran knight. In their current situation, he could at least see her at the training grounds of the Knight’s Order. Judithe was also famous for her tremendous accuracy—a skill that had brought her to the attention of Bonifatius, who spoke about her on occasion.

“Lord Wilfried is usually in the castle and Lady Rozemyne in the temple, so their retainers seldom have a chance to interact,” Alexis explained. “I only see Judithe at the training grounds, but she is an excellent knight in the making. She even receives frequent praise from Lord Bonifatius. I greatly admire her accuracy and focus.”

“I see,” the veteran knight replied, pleased to hear that his daughter was doing well. “To think that Lord Bonifatius is praising her...”

Alexis was immediately reminded of the days when the veteran knight had declared that his son would follow in his footsteps and grow up to become a knight in service to the giebe. The boy in question was Theodore, who was currently in an unusual situation wherein he served Rozemyne only at the Royal Academy. Alexis smiled to himself, glad to see that the family was as close as ever, then asked after Giebe Kirnberger.

“Is my father in his office? I did send word before leaving Ehrenfest, but...”

“He is. Allow us to take you there.”

“No need. You can get back to training.”

Alexis hadn’t found many opportunities to return home as of late, but he had grown up in the estate; he didn’t need to be led to his father’s office. Still, the attendant and the other knights said that the giebe would scold them if a guest were allowed to wander around without a guide, so he had no choice but to follow them.

“Excuse us, Giebe Kirnberger,” they said.

Giebe Kirnberger often flew around the province on patrol, so his office was usually swarming with visitors whenever he was in the estate. This time, however—perhaps because Alexis had sent word that he was coming—the office was completely empty except for an attendant serving tea, the giebe himself, and a scholar standing behind him.

“Come in,” Giebe Kirnberger said.

Alexis had expected his father to be busy with work, as usual, but this meeting seemed nothing like their ones before. Giebe Kirnberger was acting not as a father welcoming his son home but as a giebe hosting an archducal retainer who had arrived on official business.

The realization that he was being treated first and foremost as a guard knight made Alexis feel the weight of his duty even more keenly than before. He stood up straight as if attempting to shoulder it better.

“Giebe Kirnberger,” Alexis said, “Lord Wilfried has ordered me here to gather intelligence on Lady Rozemyne’s visit during Spring Prayer.”

In response to his son’s formal declaration, Giebe Kirnberger raised an eyebrow, then gave a curt nod and offered the boy a seat. It seemed that Alexis’s attitude had received a passing mark.

“I see,” the giebe replied with a scrutinizing look. “And what intelligence does your lord seek, exactly? Was there some kind of problem with Lady Rozemyne’s Spring Prayer report?”

Alexis stiffened; this was his first time facing Giebe Kirnberger, not his father. Engaging in serious conversations with nobles in the castle had always been the work of scholars and attendants, and those he had interacted with at the Royal Academy had all been underage. In other words, he had very little experience with direct confrontations or needing to weigh up his conversation partner while they did the same with him. He could only swallow nervously under the sharp, experienced eyes of a seasoned noble.

“There was no problem with her report on Spring Prayer,” Alexis said. “Lord Wilfried simply wishes for more information.”

“Hmm. I understand that several of his retainers were relieved of duty over the winter. Is this really an urgent enough matter to warrant sending a guard knight who has recently come of age away from the Noble’s Quarter?”

Venturing off to gather intelligence was the duty of scholars. Of course, a knight who happened to notice something important while on an expedition would report as much to their lord or lady, but it was rare for them to be explicitly tasked with collecting information. Giebe Kirnberger understood all this as well, which was why he had assumed that the circumstances were serious.

Alexis gave a careful nod. “The impact of the purge has been significant. The archducal family cannot remain as it once was.”

“I received your report that the relationship between the archduke candidates has changed but did not detect any signs of that from Lady Rozemyne during Spring Prayer. She spoke in support of Lord Wilfried becoming the next aub and made it clear that she does not seek the position herself.”

Alexis felt a wave of relief wash away all of the tension in his body. His lord had been making all kinds of accusatory remarks. “The Leisegangs aren’t the only ones pushing for Rozemyne to become the next aub; she’s vying for the position herself,” he had said. “She got Father to adopt her purely so that she could take his place.” Things had gotten so bad that only Rozemyne’s retainers and Lamprecht were trying to refute his claims.

The purge had completely shifted the balance of power, such that barely any nobles of the former Veronica faction remained in the castle. Now, it was dominated by neutral parties and those of the Leisegang faction, meaning that Wilfried was isolated and unpopular despite his supposed position as the next aub. Perhaps this news from Giebe Kirnberger would ease his concerns to some degree.

“As a giebe, how did Lady Rozemyne seem to you?” Alexis asked, then shyly added, “As... As an archduke candidate, that is...”

“Lady Rozemyne, hmm?” the giebe replied, stroking his chin with a smile. “She was even better suited to becoming the aub than I had expected. She has all of the innate qualities necessary for the role; she did not cower when meeting me for the first time, and she clearly stated her thoughts. She also considered the opinions of others without allowing them to sway her. I would expect nothing less from Lord Bonifatius’s granddaughter. She would make for a talented archduchess who would take good advantage of her faction without needing to worry about becoming its puppet.”

Alexis took in a sharp breath; the giebe had seen through him and realized that his son was secretly on edge about facing his father in this formal setting.

“Furthermore,” the giebe continued, “as far as the reports on her actions in the Royal Academy and the development of the printing industry indicate, Lady Rozemyne is driven by the desire to create a more comfortable future. She wants to raise all of the students’ grades, ensure that nobles have more mana at their disposal, change society’s views on the temple and religious ceremonies, improve the position of commoners... And she wants more books. Someone with such clear goals will find it easier to secure people who are willing to work for them. As a faraway giebe, I can trust that she won’t simply allow her retainers to take control.”

That was higher praise than Alexis had expected. Giebe Kirnberger had only met Rozemyne once, though. She may have been an ideal archduke candidate on the outside, but a closer look would surely reveal some faults. Perhaps the giebe’s opinion would turn on its head once he knew more of the truth.

“I agree that Lady Rozemyne’s grades and ideas are splendid, but she is far too much of a dissident,” Alexis said. “Her actions and requests are sudden and incomprehensible to the point that she troubles all those around her. Were she to become the next Aub Ehrenfest, none of us would be able to keep up with her.”

This did nothing to faze Giebe Kirnberger; instead, he scoffed. “It is the duty of retainers and spouses to grip the reins of such people—to soften the blows such that their desires can be realized. That is why the archducal family takes the best of the best as retainers, is it not? In fact, we can already see for ourselves that Lady Rozemyne is doing well. Her successful relationships with those in her service are why the entire duchy’s grades have risen, not just her own, and why she has managed to connect with top-ranking duchies and the royal family. You will note that the retainers in question are not at all disapproving of their lady—my own Judithe and Theodore are proud to be serving her. If you mean to tell me that Lord Wilfried takes issue with this, he must be jealous and nothing more.”

Alexis shook his head, his bright blue eyes fixed on the giebe. “Some of her retainers and some of the Leisegangs have taken issue as well. Lord Traugott resigned after saying that he could not keep up with her at all, and the Leisegangs supporting her are pushing for the Ehrenfest students to lower their grades at the Royal Academy. It is hard to imagine her being a successful aub.”

“You would use Traugott as an example? As I recall, Lord Bonifatius was enraged at his grandson and fully blamed him for the incident. I was also informed via reports that the Leisegangs would support higher grades under Lady Rozemyne’s rule. Now... whose words were those? Not yours, I expect?”

Alexis faltered. His father was situated in Kirnberger, a backwater province, yet he seemed to know quite a bit about Ehrenfest’s current state of affairs. Minor nitpicks would do nothing to sway him.