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Just like every Monday evening I read newly released part of AoaB. It was already 7th part of P5V11. Just two more months and one week and I could officially finish the whole series. Unfortunately I didn't have any friends to discuss it with. I wasn't able to talk with anybody about the moments I liked or the ones that made me cry, so long ago I had decided to go for a walk every time I read new chapters. It was already dark when I went outside. Being jobless meant I could take as much time as I wanted and don't care about my sleep schedule. I bought a bottle of cold cola and tried to think about today's chapter. I tried to predict whose side story would be next. I didn't pay any attention to my surroundings and when crossing a road I was hit by a car.

It was a strange experience. It hurt, but at the same time I didn't feel anything. My head was clear as if I reached nirvana. My consciousness was ebbing away until I saw a light again. I was sitting, but my vision was blurry. I couldn't recognize anything in front of me. I felt some weight in my left hand. I was holding something, but I still could see nothing. My head began spinning and hurting like hell. I dropped thing from my hand and kneeled. I felt my stomach turn upside down and threw up.

"!@#$ *%$#@!*?!"

I heard someone's voice, but couldn't recognize person or even language they spoke in. It was too hard to even think, but my vision started clearing. I saw a fancy carpet getting dirty because of me. I felt bad about it, but then my mind was stormed by infinite amount of images… no, those were my memories.

My? Who am "I" exactly?

While I was thinking about my identity, some people ran into the room and kneeled next to me. They were speaking to me, but I still couldn't understand them. Someone grabbed my head and checked my eyes and throat, but their facial expressions were very tense. It was too much movement for my head. At the last moment I turned my head from them, vomited once again, got such a nice carpet dirty again and lost my consciousness.

It was strange. Despite remembering falling uncoscious I could think, but more surprising were all the memories that flooded my head. They were mine, so why would they start flooding me like I was dying? But then they began mixing with other memories. Ones that I didn't recognize. Those were someone's else. I cleared my mind and let them flow.

After some time everything went quiet. I finally could focus and review everything that had happened.

I got hit by a car and lost cosnciousness. Then I woke up in unknown room and started vomiting right away. Memories of my life were flooding my head and I'm at the moment when they stopped and I have time to think.

I tried looking into the other memories that had mixed with mine and it shocked me.

So I really climbed the towering staircase.

I found memories of none other than Cornelius, third son of Elvira and Karstedt. I took over his body and mind just like in "Ascendance of a Bookworm". I couldn't believe it, but at the same time I was overjoyed. I was isekaied to my favourite book universum. At that thought my mind became fuzzy. I could feel my body again and I was in pain. I tried to open my eyes and saw some green colour. My hand was feeling especially heavy but I soon found out that someone was holding it. I sharpened my eyesight and saw a person the original owner of this body called "mother".

"Mmmm..." I mumbled.

"Cornelius!" she shouted. This time I could understand what she was saying. It seemed that along Cornelius' memories I gained proficciency in Yoghurtland language.

"What… what happened?"

"You were poisoned. No-one could recognize what type of poison was used, so we couldn't make any antidote. I felt so helpless. I'm so glad that you recovered. I'm so glad" she said as tears started streaming down her cheeks.

I tried to move my body, but it was a bit stiff. I wanted to reassure her that I'm healthy and it wasn't poison, but she probably wouldn't believe it, so I squeezed her hands in mine and said:

"I'm… alright, Mother. I'm alright. To be honest I'm really exhausted and hungry. Do we perhaps have some meat in the kitchen?"

Elvira smiled and anwered that she will order cooks to prepare something quickly. Then she took small stone from her bosom, tapped it with her schtappe. It changed shape into a little bird and she spoke to it.

"Karstedt, Cornelius have just woken up. He looks alright. I'll be awaiting your return."

Then she swiped her hand and the bird flew off. After a while it came back, made a few circles above our heads and sat on Elvira's hand.

"Understood, I'll be home at fifth bell."

That voice most certainly belonged to my "new" father - Karstedt.

"Cornelius, I'll make sure someone brings you a snack and call for you when dinner will be ready. For now, rest." she said.

"Yes, mother."

She left my room leaving one attendant with me. I smiled to him and went to sleep. But why couldn't I remember his face. He's not in any of Cornelius' memories. Was I too proud and didn't care about my attendant or he's replacement after "posioning" incident? I couldn't care less. I had to make plans considering my future in this world. I had to think of something.

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Some time after mother had left, I heard the third bell ringing. I had whole two bells for thinking. I started with general timeline of books.

It was autumn. It was my guess that I regained memories at the same time as Urano. Myne should have been stuck in lower city for the next two years before she would join the temple. So before we were destined to meet, I would finish my first year at Royal Academy, but I didn't want to follow Cornelius' original timeline. I wanted to learn magic, to be a powerful and respectable knight and to cut down my enemies with sword. Something I had dreamed about my whole previous life.

I needed to start compressing mana, learn to enhance my body like Bonifatius, learn ancient language, try to gain as many divine protections as possible before getting schtappe and maybe, just maybe acquire Grutrissheit. Divine protections were the hardest to accomplish. Without Ferdinand it would be impossible, but I had to try somehow. Maybe trading some living trombe or trombe seeds would make him help me?

There were also few problems. I remembered the names of God of Darkness and Goddes of Light from the book, but this could wait until I enter Royal Academy. I also had been learning german language before and I was not sure if it could help in learning magic or make it worse.

First things first, I could start with the easiest thing - mana compression. It could be done at any moment. Buried under the blanket, I took off magic tool sucking my mana and tried compressing.

Moving the heat, moving the heat. Feel it and try to imagine folding capes made of mana, putting it into a vacuum bag and sucking out all the air.

In Cornelius' memories I found one about how it felt when mana was sucked out of me. Thanks to that I could move it easier. Altough I knew Rozemyne's four-step mana compression method, I hadn't been able do more than two steps before getting sick.

People I needed to make my plans come true were Elvira, Bonifatius and Ferdinand. The last one was impossible for now, so I gave up on him for the time being. I also had to learn names of all gods and start praying.

But I also had to prepare mentally for dinner. I would meet Cornelius' family that somehow now became mine. I didn't even realise when time flew by while I was stressing about everything. Was Dreagarnuhr already playing pranks on me? At least I hoped that gods hadn't yet realised that I took over Cornelius' body.

I got up from bed, got changed with help of my new attendant and went downstairs to eat dinner with my family. Back then I wasn't aware that I forgot one thing from my room.

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When I entered dining room, I was shocked. Everybody were present. By everybody I meant both of my brothers, my parents, my grandfather and my oldest brother's wife - Heidemarie. I hadn't been expeting that. I totally forgot that they would also be younger. I was happy to see Heidemarie with my own eyes. She was never portrayed in books so I felt good that no other reader would ever know, how she looked, but if they all were there for me, I could speed up my plans. I welcomed my family and sat down to eat.

"O mighty King and Queen of the endless skies who doth grace us with thousands upon thousands of lives to consume, O mighty Eternal Five who rule the mortal realm, I offer thanks and prayers to thee, and do take part in the meal so graciously provided."

After the prayer we bagan eating. For a while it was relatively quiet, but in the middle of nowhere Bonifatus spoke to me.

"Cornelius, I heard you were poisoned and knocked unconcious for an entire week. Nobody could find any antidote or even recognize type of poison used and yet you fought it yourself at such a young age. You're strong. I'm proud of you."

I wasn't prepared for that praise, but I quickly composed myself and answered.

"Thank you ever so much, Grandfather. I didn't even know that I slept for an entire week. I'm glad that I can eat with everyone again."

I wasn't a girl, so I was sure he wouldn't like me saying 'I love you, grandfather', but I could now ask him for something, at least until he still felt proud.

"But speaking about strength I'm sure that Brother Eckhart is much stronger than me. He can use enhancement magic so easily. Maybe you could also teach me, grandfather? I don't want to be weak. I want to be able to defend myself."

Eckart, Lamprecht and Bonfiatus' eyes widened. Karstedt was coughing violently, trying not to spit out his food and Elvira was looking at me as if I had commited treason. I had to keep talking or else I wouldn't be able to stand this pressure. I turned to Elvira.

"Mother, I also would like to learn about poisons. I feel powerless and without any knowledge I can't do anything useful. And if it was somehow possible, I would like you to teach me brewing. I've heard that you were very talented scholar in the royal academy"

Now that's something she didn't expect. I could see the surprise in her eyes. I wonder which thing is more unreasonable - enhancement magic or brewing. But instead of an answer, I heard a hearty laugh.

"AHAHAHAHA! That's my grandson! I heard you loud and clear, Cornelius. I will teach you. We can start even tommorow. I'll make a true Linkberg out of you."

"Father, you can't be serious!" Karstedt shouted.

They started arguing with each other. Meanwhile Elvira looked at me coldly. Then she looked at my wrist and again directly into my eyes.

Oh crap! I forgot to put on mana siphoning magic tool after I compressed mana. I'm totally busted now.

"Cornelius, where is the magic tool you always wear on your wrist?" mother asked. At that moment everyone looked at me with either curiosity or worry. Temperature dropped drastically with her glare. I gulped.

Fuck! I'm already 24 years old without counting Cornelius' lifespan. Come on, I can't be scolded like a little child. I've already had my share in my previous life.

"I… I took it off to.. try compressing my mana." I said that in hushed voice, looking away from her.

"You what?!" she shouted. I wasn't expecting her to drop the noble facade so easily, but she regained her composure just as fast and said coldly "Where did you learn that?"

A shiver went down my spine. Every member of my family had that smirk on their faces saying "You're in trouble". They looked happy that it weren't them getting scolded.

"I… overheard some students… in the winter playroom." I answered, feeling shy and humiliated. I hoped this little lie would work.

I was eating in silence for the rest of the dinner. At least until they brought sweets. The one thing I had in common with Cornelius was sweet tooth. Altough… Those sweets were bad in comparision to anything I had eaten on Earth…

Yeah…

I'm already homesick…

Chapter Text

Today was definitely a shocking and mentally straining day.

Firstly, my youngest son fought poison all by himself. Just when I thought I would lose another child, he woke up, looked at me and as if nothing had happened asked for something to eat. He acted so normal that I couldn't believe it. Nevertheless I asked chefs to cook something for him.

The second shock occured during Linkberg's family dinner. He completely abandoned Grammatur's ways and asked for Erwachlehren in enhancement magic and poisons. I was positively surprised by his wish about poisons, but of all the people he could ask for enhancement training... of course he must have asked Bonifatius. Father-in-law would never refuse his grandson's wish to become stronger. His pride as a retired Knight's Commander made him impossible to stop. I suspected that he had been Leidenshaft kin's favourite from his first days in Royal Academy and even now he was overblessed by Angriff.

When I finally composed myself, I looked at Cornelius' wrist. I was furious and scared at the same time. How could my son have learnt mana compression just from hearing someone mention it? He had never been happy to be taught anything and now he was suddenly trying his best. Just what had he seen in Shlaftraum's realm? He was mumbling something everyday, but I couldn't comprehend his words. When he woke up, his eyes were different. He had a new objective… new resolve and I found about it in the worst way possible without any possibility of damage control. All feystones in my pouch were replaced by gold dust by the end of our meal.

After dinner everybody dispersed. I was still holding reins in this household, so nobody could easily go against my word, even supposed head of family, my Dark God, and his poisonous water goddess implanted here by Ehrenfest's Chaocipher. I ordered my attendants to prepare table and tea in my hidden room. Cornelius arrived shortly after. By the time we took first sips of tea, I decided to abandon Grammaratur's ways and be direct with my third son.

"What have you thought? Why would you start compressing mana unsupervised? Children learn it only in the academy under supervision of many teachers."

"After I woke up, I felt so weak. I didn't want to be a weak point of our family. I wanted to become stronger and more dependable so you won't have to worry so much next time something happens to me. I'm sorry, Mother. I didn't think it through and gave you more worries."

I wasn't expecting that. My youngest son just… wanted to live. We still hadn't found culprit, but that posioning must have given him sense of danger. He barely finished his baptism and he already nearly had experienced climbing to distant heights. How could they? What had they done to his innocence? I felt my eyes getting hotter.

"I'm sorry, Cornelius. I'm sorry, my dear. I can't protect you the way I want. If someone doesn't have the strength needed to protect family, it's me. I can't openly oppose Veronica. I can't ensure your future will be bright. I'm sorry, I-" I spewed those words without thinking or filtering them. I just broke down. I had already lost one child. My only daughter. She had been stillborn. I had consumed too much hidden poisons and my sweet little Elyana… I hadn't even told Karstedt about that pregnancy. Only my brother and my head attendant had known. And now, after failing as Entrinduge, I failed... no, nearly failed as Wiegemilch. In the middle of my cries Cornelius stood up, came close to me, hugged me and whispered into my ear.

"Mother, I know that it's not your fault. Father ignoring our family takes part in this all, but definitely not you. You are doing your best for us - your sons, for me. I couldn't imagine having better mother. I love you... mom."

His words made me cry even more. My nearly shattered heart was beating with warmth. When was the last time one of my sons had told me he loves me. After all these years I was rewarded by the words every mother would like to hear. I didn't even remember Lord Karstedt saying those words. I cried for some more time. When I composed myself, Cornelius didn't want to let me go from his embrace. Instead he continued whispering to my ear.

"I didn't say it earlier, but in addition to poisons, I would like you to teach me brewing and magic circles. I…"

There was a hesitation in his voice. He wanted to say something very important to me and despite being in the most private place of all, he still hesitated. I squeezed him harder, showing him that I was there and listening to him.

"I… decied to take two courses in Royal Academy… Knight and scholar course. Father isn't interested in us and I don't want to become completely like him. I want to be more like you."

At those words I squeezed him as hard as I could. Cornelius was my third and only son that said he wanted to be like me. I finally understood how Bonifatius had felt when he was asked about enhancement magic. At long last I was able to say those exact words with my whole heart:

"Mom is proud of you, my son."

I heard him sniffing, but I caressed his hair and let him cry which in turn made me cry. We shed tears together for some time. When we composed ourselves I got back to the main topic of our conversation.

"Are you sure you want ME to teach you?" I asked.

"Yes, I'm sure. I know it won't be easy, but I'm ready. I won't be a burden to you anymore."

I saw a strong resolve in his eyes. Just when I thought I wouldn't be able to be more proud, he went and did it. I couldn't contain myself and hugged him again. It was probably my last chance to do it and feel the warmth of love in my life. I didn't let go of him until my attendant signaled through feystone that it was time for bed. I healed our puffed eyes with magic circle embroidered on a handkerchief before we parted our ways. Then I took a bath and went to sleep with my new motivation. My Dark God's part of bed was cold, but that night I didn't mind. I wanted Dregarnuhr to spin faster than Steifebrise to begin teaching Cornelius and with those thoughts in mind Shlaftraum blessed me with sleep and good dreams.

When I woke up, I still remembered the child in my dream. A little girl with appearance blessed by Supreme Couple that looked like unbaptised version of Mestionora.

Chapter Text

My second teacher had been secured. Bonifatius and Elvira promised to teach me. Now I could progress with most of my plans. I wasn't sure when grandfather would arrive to train me, but knowing him, I had at most 3 days to prepare. When it came to Elvira, I knew that preparing all the things needed for our lessons would take some time and she had to review her own notes from Royal Academy.

I felt tired from all the thinking that day so I asked my attendant for a quick washen, got into my sleeping attire and pretended to fall asleep. By the way, I finally found my attendant's name - Engelbert. He was a mednoble from Haldenzel, my mother's hometown. Elvira must have asked for someone during the week of me being knocked out.

During that conversation in hidden room, seeing Elvira so vurnelable made my heart ache. From all the things I remembered from books, she deserved more than was given to her. I had already accepted my fate and the fact that I won't go back to my world, but at that very moment, when I hugged her, I accepted her as my new mother, my mom. From now on I wanted to show her all the love she was not given. To be her beloved son that isn't embarrased of the love he's given.

Engelbert left my room after he made sure I was asleep. Well, it wasn't too hard to fool him. I just needed to relax all my muscles and stabilize my breathing. Later that night I "woke up" and tried to pray. I wanted to start with a bang.

“O mighty King and Queen of the endless skies,
mighty God of Darkness and Goddess of Light,
O mighty Eternal Five who rule the mortal realm,
mighty Goddess of Water Flutrane,
God of Fire Leidenschaft,
Goddess of Wind Schutzaria,
Goddess of Earth Geduldh,
God of Life Ewigeliebe,
And all Gods that stand by their side,
I ask that You hear my prayers and grant thy blessings.
I offer thee my heart, my prayers, my gratitude, and ask for thy holy protection.
Grant those I love the power to strive toward their goals,
the power to deflect malice,
the power to heal their pain,
and the power to endure trials and tribulations."

That was a prayer I liked the most and had learnt it as the first from my prayers list. Unfortunately nothing happened. My mana didn't move and no blessing shot out from my ring.

No wonder. I'm still a child that had started compressing mana just a few bells ago. Myne had had to have more mana than Sylvester to do it... Then what gods could I envoke in my prayers?

All-element blessing was out of my reach for now. I could only try prayers to each god separately.

"O God of Guidance Erwachlehren, of the God of Fire Leidenshaft's exalted twelve, hear my prayers and bless my mother and grandfather with your divine protection. Let them guide others to greater things."

This time light flew from my ring somewhere, but it was neither direction of Elvira's room, nor Bonifatius'. As if Erwachlehren took my blessing for himself. From what I could recall, gods rarely recevied mana as of late. Civil war should still be progressing and Sylvester surely remained neutral so Ehrenfest was unaffected until Sovereignty would call for blue priests that were so crucial to harvest... Instead of diving deeper into my thoughts, I tried a prayer to another god.

"O God of War Angriff, of the God of Fire Leidenshaft's exalted twelve, I pray that you grant your divine protection to my grandfather."

A blue light escaped my ring and I felt my mana drained, but again it didn't fly to Bonifatius, but somewhere else. I still could continue.

"O Goddes of Wisdom Mestionora, of the Goddes of Wind Schutzaria's exalted twelve. Hear my prayer and grant your blessing to my family. Let them grow with your divine guidance and don't let them stray away from the right path."

This time light was colored with divine colour of autumn and flew in many directions. I hoped that this time I succeded, because I was exhausted from mana expenditure and wasn't sure that I would be able to compress mana in my sleep so I put on my mana siphoning magic tool and went to sleep.

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I was woken up by a loud shout just before the second bell.

"CORNELIUS! IT'S TIME FOR YOUR TRAINING!"

Whole estate was in uproar. Attendants should soon be waking my family members, but at the same time they had to welcome Bonifatius. Engelbert was frightened. He had heard many stories about my grandfather, but it was probably his first time having experience in dealing with him.

As a retired Knight's Order Commander he had too much time on his hands and was always too eager to take part in physical activities. Especially when it was with his family… And I volunteered to become his apprentice. Just now I was realising how thoughtless of me that was. I only hoped that yesterday's prayer weren't cause of his eagerness.

By the time second bell stopped ringing I was ready at the entrance. Bonifatius eyed my clothes and nodded slightly.

"Good, now hop onto my highbeast. Your attendant can ride on his own. We will start your training immediately after arriving."

We mounted his majestic lion and flew off to the training grounds. I didn't know what to expect, but I new I could meet my brothers. While my mind was occupied, we reached knight's barracks, but grandfather didn't stop there and landed between Eckhart and Lamprecht in the middle of their fight. They dodged highbeast descending onto them and widened their eyes at the sight of me with grandfather.

"Cornelius, what are you doing here?" Lamprecht asked with confused voice.

"What do you mean, brother? Grandfather promised to train me, don't you remember?" I answered nonchalantly at an abvious fact.

Lamprecht couldn't say anything. He had 5 more years of experience than me and he still hadn't understood that nothing can't stop Bonifatius when he gets fired up. I heard Eckhart whisper "I knew it would end up like this". Without arguing my brothers made way for us and went back to their fight. I saw other knights stealing glances at me and looks in their eyes looked like… pity? Now I felt like I was sentenced to death.

Wait… Isn't Bonifatius known for crushing skulls when losing control?

A shiver ran down my spine. I wasn't sure anymore that I would survive today, but I didn't have any choice now.

Ehhh… Let's hope he won't make me fight him the very first day.

We found some free space.. Bonifatius walked around eyeing me from all possible angles.

"Hmph. You're too weak. You have to gain some muscles before I teach you enhancement magic." He shattered my 'childish' dream.

"But Grandfather, you promised!"

"And I will keep my promise. You don't have enough muscles. Enhancement magic can strenghten you, but its efficiency depends strongly on your own muscles. Without more, it will be useless for you, so first I'll make your body stronger and then I'll take you under wings if you decide to become a knight."

Sounds reasonable. I had better take his advice to heart. He's a specialist in that topic.

"I understand, Grandfather. Please, train me."

"Huh, it took shorter than I thought." He wispered. "Then let's start with some running. Do two laps around training grounds. I will decide what to do next depending on your performance."

"Yes, sir." I shouted happily. In my previous life I was training martial arts and swordsmanship. Well, being a weeb too engrosed in fantasy stories made me somewhat fighting fanatic with some interest in piano. Running laps was basic of basics. Something that was already part of my soul, so with smile on my face I started running.

Training grounds were bigger than any football stadium I had ever seen. Running one lap was approximately equal to two and half kilometers.

Ahhh, sweet smell of sweat. Not that I like sweaty guys, but it brings back some memories. Oh, wait, I remembered that there had been a proper way of breathing. Inhale through nose, exhale through mouth. Ah, how I missed this.

Before I even realised, I had already finished first lap with light disturbance in my breathing. Bonifatius looked surprised along with some knights. At first there was only pity because of being trained by Bonifatius, but now they looked… hopeful? Proud? Relieved?

What the hell got into them? I'm just running.

My brothers were repeating basic forms when I was passing them and their smirks told me all I needed. Despite having my baptism just last year, an 8 years old kid was training under Bonifatius. Everyone was scared to death and thought that I wouldn't be able to run even one lap. In addition my running pace was faster than normal kid my age thanks to my breathing method and finishing a lap without many signs of exhaustion had made them sure I would like grandfather's training methods, make him happy and most important they hoped that I would make him forget about other knights and focus his attention only on me.

The second lap passed in the blink of an eye. Bonifatius looked at me, probably assessing if I could go on.

"You don't seem to be exhausted, Cornelius. Maybe I will teach you enhancement faster than I anticipated. But now it's hard for me to decide what to do. For now let's return to the mansion."

Just when I was finally having some fun…

My attendant used washen on me, while Bonifatius cleaned himself. Now I was wondering what happened to his attendant. I hadn't seen him since dinner. Lost in thought I didn't hear grandfather calling me, so he just grabbed me and mounted his highbeast.

Elvira was surprised seeing us so early, but she didn't show it. Bonifatius praised me endlessly. We bid him farewell and mother let me have free time until 3rd bell. I felt that my training was lacking in many aspects and my body was also lacking muscles. Thankfully I had my own hidden room. I asked Engelbert to put mirror in there. He looked quizzically at me, but didn't ask anything. Then I entered alone without giving him a chance to change my clothes.

My very own hidden room. I'm glad that I have acces to magic so early, but I'm also sad that Myne have to suffer until I finish my first year in academy.

I sighed to calm my mind and stripped from my clothes leaving only underwear. I needed to finish my training for the day. I had always been a fan of One Punch Man training, but before anything I had to streach my muscles. Japanese radio calisthenics are good for morning stretching, but now I tried to apply things I had remembered from my martial arts training. After some time I began my favourite OPM routine. Since I ran something about 5 kilometres, I wanted to do 50 push-ups, squats and sit-ups.

First were sit-ups. I thought it would be easy, but Cornelius' body was not used to physical exertion. I had to stop after first ten, so I switched to squats. I already longed for my own schtappe, because I was all sweaty. Again, I stopped after ten squats and moved to push-ups and also did ten. After all I did three series: 10, 7 and 3. I felt my muscles burn. It was pleasant. I really enjoyed a pain of training, but I felt sad, that I couldn't do 50. To finish with a bang I tried to do a plank for thirty seconds, but through all of this I hadn't realised a feystone shining that indicated that I had to leave.

While I was midway doing plank, door to my hidden room opened and I heard Elvira's voice. Definitely angry.

"Cornelius, what are you do-" she stopped mid sentence.

I fell on my stomach, leaving sweat all over the floor. I slowly stood up and looked at her. She was exasperated and shocked. I didnt' have any strength left, but I looked her in the eye, but her cheeks… her cheeks were in the color of Geduldh. Then I remembered I was only in my underwear. In Cornelius' memories there was no information if I could be seen by my parents in underwear.

"Cornelius, I hope you can explain yourself."

I didn't want to explain myself, but did I have a choice? Unfortunately no. I walked in front of a mirror and started flexing, looking at my nonexistent muscles.

"Grandfather said that I lack muscles and have to gain more before being taught ehancement magic, but I found today's training lacking and continued it here." I flexed a bit, turned around and then looked her into eyes. "Mother, does father have big and strong muscles? I have never seen his and it's hard to tell when he has his clothes on."

Elvira got even more red on her face. Teasing a grown woman was so much fun, but I should have stopped already. I had many, many years ahead of me to tease her as much as I wanted. Just to be clear, I was NOT into her. It's just… it had been way harder on Earth to make women blush so naturally and adding to that nobles got very ambarassed when it came to even slightest skin contact, so I couldn't stop myself.

"Cornelius, that's inappropriate to ask. Remeber that. If you have too much energy, I will speak with Bonifatius, but you will not have any right to complain if it will become too hard." she probably thought that I would back down, but I gladly accepted her offer.

"I will be really grateful, Mother."

Ha, got ya! Now I will be able to train more.

Elvira hesistantly agreed to relay a message to Bonifatius and chastised me for not coming out of my hidden room when called. As an adult I didn't like it, but her words carried also warmth of love I hadn't realised yesterday at dinner.

After lunch came one of my tutors. This time I was learning history, founding myth to be exact. Gods had created Garden for all the children with mana and Mestionora had given them her Wisdom and that's how royal family had been founded. When I thought about it, it was sad that they had been occupying position of Zent for generations and had degraded meaning of the temple making people stray further from gods.

All this day I had been compressing my mana to be able to reach 3rd step, but I still could only do two steps. Well, one day of compressing wouldn't change that much. Before falling asleep I prayed to all pillar gods at once, which still didn't produce any blessing, so I prayed to each of them separately and it worked. At last I put on my magic tool and hoped that Bonifatius would keep training me everyday.

Next day I found out that my prayer to Angriff had worked a bit too good. After I had left, Bonifatius had had too much energy and had dueled every single knight present at the time. From then on my trainings with grandfather were satisfying enough for me to not exercise in my hidden room. Unfortunately food expenses increased because of another person eating knight-sized dishes.

Chapter Text

In the distant heights, in a place where no human can freely enter, resided King and Queen along with their children, son-in-law and their subordinates. Supreme Couple and their children felt a sincere prayer and looked down at a child praying to them. Said child didn't have enough mana to offer, so gods decided that the sincerity in his words were enough to please them.

They gathered in front a bigest water mirror that was available to try and find out more about that child.

"It's been a long time, since someone prayed so earnestly to all of us at once." began green-haired goddess.

"I'm sad that he don't have enough mana to bless more people. Nonetheless I'm glad that there's a child that pray to us." continued Geduldh.

"Oh my, he reminds me of young Mestionora before she became Shutzaria's subordinate." said Queen of the sky.

"Hah, he's grandson of that man! I expect him to be a fine warrior in the academy, but why is their family born in your land, sister? You are believed to protect, not fight, so why? I'm so envious. Bonifatius is one of the finest warriors still alive."

"Don't cry, brother. Must I remind you that his only rival lives in the Land of Fire? You have whole duchy as your playground. Besides, his family serves as bodyguards for the archducal family so it's obvious that they would live in my domain. And if you still can't get over, we can play ditter as always."

"Sister, mind your manners. You should act more ladylike. Don't propose a fight when you can resolve situation with words." said Flutrane.

"Look who's talking. You also can fight if you want, big sister Trainy. While I'm pretty sure you can fight I don't want to be beaten again by trees. I still remember that night."

Leidenshaft wasn't the only one, who had wanted to take a peek at goddesses during their bath, but it had turned out his older sister can be as merciless as she is gentle. Many gods had pledged to Gebordnung that they will never try peeking again.

Suddenly Erwachlehren along with Angriff bursted into the room shouting.

"Our Lord, somebody prayed to us sincerely and he is none other than-"

"I know, I know. He's the reason why we are here. We were in the middle of an important discus-"

"Auntie! Somebody prayed to me! After all these years somebody wanted my blessing. Finally some quality man of culture! Maybe he will be the one to move their rusty society and make them prepare more books for my library. Ahhh, finally someone truly worthy of my divine protection! Not like those Drewanchels that are only obsessed about their tools."

Mestionora caught them off guard. She started her usual rant about books and knowledge and everything she liked and that was of course more books, but she stopped in the middle of her speech and looked around the room frowning.

"No fair! Why was I the only one not invited to family party? I missed everyone so much. Why would you do it to me?!"

Her mood swings were as astounding as always, but she was quickly silenced by her grandfather.

"Shhhh, my dear granddaughter. We also found his prayer beautiful and wanted to observe him some more. You can join us if you want."

And so they watched a little boy praying to them every single day. Sometimes Leidenshaft would shout something about his favourite disciple or Shutzaria would say that her subordinate Grammaratur heavily blessed mother of said boy. When season passed and Ewigeliebe's power resurfaced to take over their garden, they all came back to their responsibilties, much to the delight of their subordinates who looked ragged from being overworked because of their lords and ladies abscence. And so a reservation list came to life. As to not overuse their "free" time, at most four gods or goddesses at the time could reserve a room with water mirror with time limit. Later Supreme Couple added rule that for larger groups room must be reserved with prior notice and announcement, but in divine realm even Dregarnuhr couldn't tell time exactly.

Chapter Text

Mother taught me about poisons for half a bell after dinner every day. Sometimes Heidemarie also joined her and told me interesting things about feyplants and what I could do with them. Thanks to my 'poisoning attempt' Justus checked everybody's estates for any signs of poison or any ingredients that could be used for it and lo and behold, he found many. He reported it to Elvira and Eckhart and they cleansed their estates, so I already had accidentally changed the timeline and I was expecting good news about my nephew or niece being born in the summer. Justus also took interest in my lessons about poisons and started teaching me himself about those more rare that are often used by Ahrensbach nobles and Veronica faction.

At the beginning Bonfatius had been coming every three days, but soon it changed to every single day. I had been continuing my OPM training if I felt that I hadn't had enough exercises for the day and just before winter socializing I realised that I gained some muscles here and there. Certailny people would be able to see my growth. I also learnt some mana enhancement on my own, but refrained from using it. Compressing my mana was no longer a big deal for me so I barely used my magic tool anymore, even in sleep.

Ewigeliebe once again hid Geduldh under all the snow and ice and it came time for winter socializing and winter playroom. I wasn't sure what to look for when my only prespective was from post-Veronica time. I only knew that Hartmut would there to socialize with me. Without thinking I entered playroom and was greeted by ominous feeling. There was animosity in children's eyes. As a son of the head of Florencia faction people looked down on me as much as their status and faction allowed them. We didn't have any archduke candidates, so we didn't have to stand in a queue just to welcome them, but either way that place was not pleasant at all. I tried to ignore or brush people off, while playing harspiel with Hartmut. Veronicans tried to provoke me saying something about Cuococalura withdrawing his blessing, but I didn't care. They didn't need to know the truth.

After some time I switched to playing gewinnen with Hartmut. Thanks to both of us being archnobles we could play two-stone game. From twenty possible figures I chose 7 swordsmen, 5 spearmen, 7 archers and one treasure piece. We played without scholar and support pieces. It was just like any strategy game and I had never been good with them. It was my intention to strike some conversation with Hartmut and wait for Elvira to take me back home. I positioned lancers as vanguard. Right behind them were swordsmen. On the left and right were 3 archers each and one archer at the back to provide support wherever would be needed.

"Say Hartmut, what course will you choose in Royal Academy? I guess it will be scholar course." I probed him.

"Of course I will follow my father footsteps and you will most certainly take knight course, am I right?"

"Partially yes. I want to take not one but two courses - knight andscholar, so we will be seeing each other all six years in classes." I said with a mischievous smile.

I felt like I had been surprising people left and right since I had woken up as Cornelius. I wondered if Elvira was already suspecting something. Well, I was sure sooner or later she would find out about my memories, but I hoped Hartmut wouldn't be so observant. I wanted to make him think that my "near death experience" changed me.

"Someone devoid of Mestionora can't become her disciple." he said.

Calling me stupid now, huh? Just you wait few years. I'll show you.

"I'm striving to obtain Mestionora, Angriff and Kunstzeal blessings. I won't fail in my pursuit."

"Those are great words for someone not interested in his own life."

"Said the man that can't find anything that isn't dull for him."

There were sounds of harspiel mixed with hushed voices in the background, but there was nothing interesting for both of us - Leisegangs. We could only wait till the end of today's socialazing.

"You have changed, Cornelius. Not that this is wrong, but it's good that you finally have ambitions of an archnoble."

"Great words coming from a dull man like you."

"Maybe Royal Academy will give me a meaning for my life. Maybe you will provide some entertainment for me, Cornelius."

"Thank you, but I have to decline your offer. I will pray that you find what you are looking for."

My small prayer somehow worked and I blessed Hartmut with blue light coming from my ring. Probably Seheweit, because I didn't know any other subordinate of Leidenshaft that could help in searching. Thankfully, someone came to greet us which was a good thing, because Hartmut couldn't question me about blessing. To my surprise it was Leonore. She introduced herself and striked some small talk with us. She reminded me that there were other people I should have known. After scanning my surroundings I found Angelica sitting with some girls, but she looked like a little puppy that did not understand a thing said to it. Veronicans were everywhere. It was impossimble to talk to people openly. They were making fun of us, but I didn't care. I knew what was coming even if I had to endure it a bit more.

"So how was your first day, Cornelius?" mother asked after we had come back to our estate.

"I would prefer to study magic circles. Can we finally start my lessons? Winter playroom isn't the best place to be."

"I know, dear, but you have to get to know both your allies and enemies. You can't function in noble society without this knowledge. Didn't you say that you want to get stronger? This is also part of being strong, so you better get to work."

That completely silenced me. I had to endure whole winter with those idiots. Even my interactions with hartmut were stiff after that blessing. I would love to be able to sleep there like in high school.

And so my daily routine consisted of practicing harspiel and gewinnen, pretending to be polite to everybody and compressing mana. Oh, and training in my hidden room because there was too much snow. Lord of Winter came early this year so we couldn't play outside. Hartmut had never mentioned topic of that spontanous blessing, but I could see him eyeing me sometimes.

My only solace were books in our book room. Elvira had quite the collection of love stories. Karstedt inherited some books from Bonifatius, but I heard that grandfather had kept some more about military and battle tactics for himself. Heidemarie and Justus also lent me books about feyplants and poisons, both filled with notes in their handwriting. Reading helped fight anxiety I developed because of all Veronicans that spat poison in winter playroom. I was on the path to becoming second book gremlin and it didn't feel that bad.

Love stories were… disappointingly boring. Blaunfah's dance, killing feybeasts, embroidering capes. There was nothing interesting. No "lewd" handholding, no kissing… like some kind of soap opera.

I knew nobles were shameful, but come on. My disappointment is immeasurable and my reading is ruined. One day I will have to explain to Elvira definition of true romance and maybe SMUT…

Later I checked some books about ingredients that could be found in noble's forest and memorised most of them. After that came some old notes from Royal Academy about magic circles, but I didn't recognize anything. I had to find another book about sigils of every single god and learn them. I took it with me to my room to read every evening, but it was harder than learning hiragana, katakana and even kanji… Or maybe it was that hard because I had learnt some Japanese in my past life.

Karstedt's books were more military-centered. One explained in detail all possible schtappe tranformations (at least all possible until I and Myne would enter Royal Academy) and the second most interesting was about manablades. Nothing advanced. It covered basics of possible outcomes while donating mana and explained the need for blade to contain all elements. Book also mentioned possibility of engraving magic circle on manablade's feystone.

When I ran out of good reading material, I improved my praying technique. I knew that blessing could fly off from ring if I focused my thoughts on it, so I tried to hum songs I had known from my past life and dedicated one for each pillar god and one small prayer for every subordinate, but without any recipients, so my mana could go directly to gods without shooting blessings on people.

When Flutrane's waves were close to wash Ewigeliebe away, I realised that I had forgotten about parues.

Chapter Text

Spring Prayer was nearing and Elvira proposed that we visit her home province - Haldenzel. I knew they didn't fare well and she probably just wanted to forget about all the bad things that happened during winter socializing. Not that I found out what exactly happened there. She had sent carriages to Haldenzel two weeks prior with all the necessary things. I was given armor feystone to practice creating one. It came to my mind that Earthlings (me and Myne) had more vast imagination than any person in Yurgenschmidt and so my first armor was more in medieval style, but it was enough for our trip via highbeast. I was to travel on mother's highbeast and Lamprecht on his own. Eckhart was holding down the fort and defending Heidemarie from her stepmother and Trudeliede. Karstedt as always stayed at Sylvester's side.

We took off at the second bell. Central District was relatively warm, but Veronica's claws could be seen already in northem part of Reunwalt. Thick layer of snow was still spread widely and closer we got to Haldenzel, the more it looked like landscape from Disney's "Frozen". Nature hidden beneath white fluff and rivers covered in Schneeahst. Reading about and seeing with my own eyes were two different things.

At the entrance to the castle stood our uncle - Claudio. He waited for us alone. When we landed I offered him traditional noble greetings.

"May I pray for a blessing in appreciation of this serendipitous meeting, ordained by the harsh judgment of Ewigeliebe?"

He looked at me quizically, then at Elvira. She nodded and he understood instantly that it was a test.

"You may."

"O Ewigeliebe, God of Life, may uncle Claudio be blessed."

White light flew from my ring, but it was too big. I didn't show it on my face, but I was scared that I unintentionally started something big.

"Stand up, my dear nephew. We prepared a little celebration for your coming back home."

He led us to a big hall with round tables standing in equal distance. The most decorated one near the stage was reserved for me, Lamprecht, Elvira, uncle Claudio and his wife. At the back of the stage I saw an empty altar. There should have been chalices filled with mana, but I was sure Bezenwast hadn't sent any. To my surprise a blue priest from neutral faction arrived right after us and Claudio had to welcome him. It wasn't really much, but he brought one chalice filled to half. Another thing in which I didn't want to intervene until Rozemyne is appointed a High Bishop was doing anything related to summoning spring.

As a tradition dictated, men climbed the scene and sang a song. It was a religious one, so I memorized melody instantly and even I hummed it. From the beggining of winter, I had started longing for a piano and guitar. I wanted to play beatiful songs and sing them together with someone. Whole party didn't last long. Because of poor crops in Haldenzel they could not host long parties and endanger people. During celebration I saw bond between people of Haldenzel. I saw eyes of people that together survived harsh times and became stronger together.

When our table was the only one left, I asked my uncle something that was on my mind.

"Uncle, if half a chalice isn't enough, why don't you fill it yourself?"

He was speechless. Was it blasphemous to say such things?

"Cornelius, only priests know the prayer for filling chalices. We can't do anything. They protect its content quite thoroughly, even neutrals. Only thing I can do is pour my mana into our lands and hope it will be enough for my people to survive another year."

I didn't expect that answer. Books had never covered that aspect of Spring Prayer. I must have had a pained expression on my face, because Elvira joined our talk.

"Don't worry, son. People of Haldenzel are though and even Bonifatius alone wouldn't be able to break them."

"That's… Haldenzel must be really strong to be able to stop grandfather. It saddens me that we have to go back in a few days. I feel here more at home than in noble quarters. Don't you think so, brother?" I asked Lamprecht, because he was silent most of the time. He probably prefered being at his lords side, even if his lord was… a failure as a son of an aub.

"I… don't know. How can you perceive such thing, when you are here for the first time?"

"I don't know. Maybe it's because I can feel here the same aura like when mother shows us her love in very subtle ways that we often do not realise? It would explain how she came to learn to love her sons."

At that Elvira must have had to hide her face in her hands. Despite Lamprecht being already in love, he was yet to realise any love from Elvira. Uncle Claudio had a happy grin on his face looking between me and mother. His wife covered her mouth with her hand to not show her own smile at my remark.

"Dear sister, I'm glad that there is at least one person that properly appreciate you. You raised him well." giebe Haldenzel said with same warmth I always heard from Elvira. They truly were brother and sister. Suddenly he handed me sound-blocking magic tool and asked "Cornelius, I would like to thank you. It's been long since last time I saw an honest smile on your mother's face. At least one man in Linkbergs' estate can see Elvira's commitment to her family. You even called Haldenzel your home. Something that none of your brothers has ever done. As your family, I want offer you something, but is there anything you desire?"

Nobody expected our conversation to be hidden from them. Thankfully they couldn't read lips. Lamprecht seemed a bit jealous, because I was treated better than he had ever been. Mother was still a bit embarassed, but she was slowly regaining composure. Uncle's wife was looking away to give us some privacy.

Yeah. Haldenzel really feels like home…

"Uncle Claudio, I don't know if mother told you, but I'm striving to take knight and scholar course at the same time. In order to make this come true, I have to study many things under my mother and grandfather. It's not easy feat, but I find it pleasant experience. From all the things I would like to get or learn I can't pass the oportunity to inspect chalice from temple. It fascinates me how they work and I want to take a closer look at it."

I kept looking him into eyes to prove my resolve. He agreed fast. I gave him back magic tool and he turned to his wife.

"I have something to discuss with Elvira. My dear, can you show Lamprecht to his room?"

Lamprecht gladly evacuated and left the three of us. I quickly walked to the chalice and looked at the feystones in it. I knew that there was a prayer for Dedication Ritual, but I also remembered that Rozemyne had not needed any set prayer. She just had been saying what she was thinking, so maybe I also could try even if I didn't know original one.

"I am one who offers prayer and gratitude to the gods who have created the world. O King and Queen of the sky and five pillars that stand by their side. Lend me your strength to provide life to this barren land and revitalize it. Let us sing your praises until the day we climb our way to distant heights." I said quietly.

To be honest I didn't expect it to work. I didn't consider myself Rozemyne-ish enough to do anything and here I was standing touching chalice that was gradually taking my mana and shining brightly.

"Cornelius, what are you doing with Haldenzel's chalice?!" I heard Elvira shout. It scared me enough to take my hand off of the chalice. Before I realised Claudio and Elvira were already next to me looking at the chalice.

"What did you…" Uncle Claudio mumbled, but suddenly he shouted "Impossible! Cornelius, you filled chalice to the brim. How… How did you do that?!" he demanded answers.

"Uncle, I don't understand myself. I just prayed while touching it."

"What do you mean you prayed?"

I explained what I had done step by step, but it was hard to believe nearly 9 years old child had just donated mana on its own. After some more discussing we went back to our rooms and spent few days traveling town. Elvira showed me woodcarving workshops. While we were there, I asked her to place an order for two little figures - Linkberg's wolf and Haldenzel's schwänne. I wanted to place them in my room to always remember my roots. At least that's what I had told mother and she gladly agreed to my request.

When the time came for us to go back to Ehrenfest, uncle Claudio surprised us with a present for me - THE BLENRUS FRUIT. Would you believe it? I just got my hands on the one of the purest spring ingredients. He told me that I was practically one of them, because I was Elvira's son. In addition, even if accidentally, I doubled the amount of mana their province received so they assembled and decided to give me, ME presonally, their most prized treasure. I was on cloud nine. Mother promised to keep it and give it to me when I would finally decide to use it for brewing.

We were going back to Central District via carriage. At the second day of our travel I remembered something important. I was still a child. Even if I had memories of an adult, I should act like a child sometimes and so I began my 'annoying child' act.

"Mother, can we visit uncle Ferdinand in the temple?"

I got chastised for two things. One - saying that I want to visit THE temple. Two - I can't call him uncle, because he's only cousin of Karstedt and he left noble society to become priest. None of these arguments were reasonable enough for me so I was asking the same question all the way to Ehrenfest. Lamprecht had had enough after one day, so he got out of a carriage and took off on his highbeast in his armor to protect himself from cold.

I kept pestering Elvira about it, but she was adamant. Even when we got back home her answer was "no", but if I wanted to get my own G-book, I had to be patient and keep asking. Even my attendant, Engelbert, was tired of me after one week of being sent to mother to ask in my stead when I didn't have time to ask her myself. I couldn't count on that poor excuse of my father so I was left alone in my attempts. Of course I had a last resort plan, but I prefered not to use it. Not yet at least.

Chapter Text

My trainings continued as always. I visited training grounds and exercised under grandfather's guidance. When my muscles reached good shape and volume, Bonifatius changed my training plan. At the first half I would do physical stuff and practise using wooden sword. Second half would consist of mana enhancement lessons.

Finally I don't have to hold back. Let's do it and show my skills to Bonifatius.

Because of my little practice in winter, I was an excellent student that exceeded expectations. I somehow mastered full body enhancement in a week, but I still wasted too much mana and I asked some laynobles for advice. Of course Damuel was one of people I asked. He very carefully and thouroughly explained ways to preserve as much mana as possible without lowering my own performance. After another two weeks I had a full control of my mana in ehnanced state. I didn't spill anything anymore. Next step was partial body enhancement, but that was way harder than anything I had tried so far.

At the beginning of summer, I was able to focus my anhancement on one limb at a time, but I couldn't apply techniques Damuel had taught me. Soon our family received great news. Heidemarie gave birth to a healthy boy. His name was Wilhelm. Grandfather was happy about his first great-grandchild, same as Elvira, but I saw in her eyes that she was a little, just a tiny bit, disappointed. I approchaed her and asked what was on my mind.

"Mother, are you perhaps sad because there's still no girl born in our family?"

It took her by surprise, but she looked at me, appraising something.

"Cornelius, you have become too good at reading your mother. Yes, I hoped that I would finally get to have a little girl in our family, but don't tell anyone. I'm still happy that my grandson was born healthy despite Trudeliede's machinations. On the other hand your uncle was not able to repeat your stunt from spring. He will visit us to ask you about details."

It seems someone haven't prayed sincerely.

"Mother, I told him everything when we were in Haldenzel. I don't know why it didn't work when he or auntie tried it. But I also wanted to ask you about things hidden under Verbergen's veil - what about my brewing and magic circles lessons?"

"Your father volunteered to collect some ingredients for you and should bring them here in a few days."

Oof… She sounds pissed at Karstedt. Whatever you did, father, hang in there. Not that collecting for me would help you, but thank you either way… I wonder if she was waiting with my brewing lessons until he would anger her just to use him.

"And if you want to learn magic circles, you have to learn sigils of all primary gods and gradually learn subordi-"

"I have already learnt that, mother. We can start even now."

"I… see… You must have been really bored during winter."

She definitely looked proud, but her eyes showed a tint of sadness. She surely was awaiting our lesson. She really wanted to be my Erwachlehren. I had only one way to comfort her, but…

"Yes, mother. I also read some of your stories."

And so… those words sentenced me to many… many tea parties with Elvira during which we discussed romance. At the same time I was tested for my etiquette, manners and euphemisms. I already felt sorry for future Rozemyne and her reading time.

All this time Elvira kept refusing my requests to meet Ferdinand, so I finally decided to use my last resort. I contacted Heidemarie and Justus. I didn't reach out to Eckhart because he would be chastised by Elvira. I asked Engelbert to give me two blank magic letters. I quickly wrote to Eckhart's fellow namesworns and pictured it as a "request to meet my idol", because Eckhart had always been singing high praises. In exchange for organising meeting, I offered information about two feyplants they had never seen and lo and behold, they worked so fast that after two days I got information that I could meet with Lord of Evil during Harvest Festival. He would probably come back for one evening to meet me and Elvira without prying eyes. Now I could only wait.

Chapter Text

Giebes came to Ehrenfest a week before Starbind Ceremony. At the same time uncle Claudio deliveried my figurines, which I instantly put inside my room. He was proud of me saying that he was glad that I didn't forget my lineage. We had a friendly match in gewinnen where I was utterly destroyed. He once again thanked me and wanted to leave, but in unexpected turn of events father came home. Claudio shot him disappointed look and left without greeting him.

"Father, what did you do to uncle Claudio?"

"I think he's angry about things I didn't do."

I looked at him quizically, but he only waved his hand at me dismissively. Soon after Elvira came down.

"Oh, my dear Lord. I see you collected things your son needed so much, but what took you so long?"

I understood hidden message. He was tasked with my ingredients long, long ago, but collected them only now. Sylvester wasn't a good influence on him, but who I was to judge. Mother redirected my attention to brewing. We went to my room to create my hidden room anew. This time Elvira wouldn't be able enter it herself as was the custom. At least that's what should have been done, but I opposed the idea saying that she should be able to enter anytime if we were going to practice brewing inside. She gladly accepted my idea and helped me create the room. I had more mana this time so I imagined my room much bigger and divided it into four sections.

Resting area where I would put sofa, chairs and instuments (when I order those things), training area where I would put stands with weapons and training dummies, brewing practice area where I would place all my study guides (about potions), ingredients and all books and recipes for potions. Fourth and last one would be area for checkings magic circles and magic overall. The image was clear in my mind, but I didn't predict mana expedinture. I saw on mother's face that both of us were drained nearly empty. We could barely keep standing straight. She gave me the "we will talk about it later" look and ordered attendants to place everything in my now open hidden room. I chimed in saying they should place those things in third room.

I was scolded for the enitre bell and our lesson was delayed for one day to let us regenerate mana. I did one of the most dangerous things in all Yurgenschmidt only second to angering Bonifatius - angered Elvira, but I somehow managed to please her, promising a long talk about romance books and new marriages at Starbind Ceremony. Next day I had to desribe purpose of every section of my hidden room. I decided to call it a section because saying "brewing room in my hidden room" sounded bad.

When we finally stood next to brewing equipment, mother explained to me basics of using knife, scales, brewing stick and why it is so important to stick to the right proportions and order of ingredients. As my first lesson we were going to brew two potions - for mana and stamina recovery. First was mana recovery potion for archnobles. Elvira handed me some kind of fruit looking like wrinkled plum. I squeezed all juices from it which was supposed to act as a base for my potion. Next I cut ginger-like looking root into thin slices and I cut my fingers many times in the process, but didn't care. I just didn't let my blood drip on ingredients. After that I crushed wrinkled plum's seeds in mortar and for the last ingredient I prepared some herbs I didn't recognise. When all was ready, I poured juice to the cauldron first and started stirring while trying to keep my mana flow steady. It was harder than I thought because stick didn't take my mana on its own. I had to push it into it and didn't change amount of mana provided. Pondering about it I tried applying things from my body enhancement lessons and it worked surprisingly well. I was adding new ingredients every time my mix flashed and when it was completed, mother helped me pour it into four vials. She took out scrap of parchment with some magic circle on it. She let one drop of my potion on it and provided mana to the circle, but it didn't react. She probably posion-checked it.

"Seems like you did it on the first try, Cornelius. I'm proud of you. As expected of my son." I grinned widely at her compliment.

"It's because I have such a great teacher."

My words made her more happy and eager to continue, so she gave me commands what to prepare for stamina recovery potion. I was handed a birnbeere - a fruit in the shape of a pear and appearance of a strawberry. I remembered it from book about ingredients available in noble's forest. I once more squeezed all juice and filtered it to separate small seeds from liquid. Second ingredient was some tall grass I was supposed to cut like chives and crush it in mortar. This potion was less demanding so it had only three ingredients needed. The last one was a feyplant I recognized from Heidemarie's lessons - very common "weed" that haunts every gardener in noble district. People hated it for its fast spread, but thanks to Hediemarie's family knowledge, selected people collected them to use for brewing. By selected I meant Ferdinand, Elvira, Karstedt, Eckhart and Justus who always collected them for Ferdinand. Lamprecht was excluded by Heidemarie, because he had been chosen as Wilfried's guard. I read and repeated all steps listed in this recipe. Elvira once again checked potion if it was good to go and gave me a silent approval.

"Cornelius, you must have used most of your mana, so I will let you decide. Do you want to end for today or do you want to learn about magic circles now?"

"Magic circles, mother. I still have much mana left."

I accidentally revealed that I had more mana than I should. Adding yesterday's situation to the equation and mother was glaring at me, but soon her eyes softened and she smiled. Not noble smile, but her genuine smile with a hint of worry.

Does having too much mana put me in danger in this duchy?

I gave her reassuring smile and asked to teach me about magic circles. Her aura changed so suddenly. I felt like I was attending a lecture from a famous professor on university. If she wore glasses, she would make Balunfah dance for many boys in their summer.

"Mother, I think if father saw you right now with glasses on, he would fall for you." I let my thoughts speak.

"Cornelius!" she shouted and flushed with colour of Geduldh more than I had ever seen. It was cute to see that side of her, but I was sure she was now considering it. When she regained her composure, she started explaining magic circles.

"Listen to me, Cornelius, because I don't like repeating myself. You can ask questions after I finish. Understood?" she said it with such authority that I shouted "Yes, professor". She giggled and started her explanation.

"I am sure you have already read basic theory about magic circles in our book room, so I will tell you about more complicated things. We can divide circles into many categories. First two are those that need acceptance from archduke and those that don't need it, but we use this distinction only when speaking about teleportation circles.

Another two are manually and autmatically activated. You can create one that need to be supplied with mana or one that will always drain your mana upon contact.

The last two categories are general and specialized. The most improtant difference between those two you can find in the middle of every circle. General circles do not have sigil in the middle, because their use is very simple and does not need difficult pattern to work. The best example is handchkrief with washen circle. You would think that you just need Flutrane sigil in the middle to create water, right? But it would only create water. You also need to purify all the filth that was gathered, so you have to put sigil of Goddes of Purification. What is her name?"

"Unheilschneide, professor."

"Good answer, my student." Somehow we went form mother and son to professor and student. Not that I didn't like it. It was refreshing after all this time in Yurgenschmidt. "Then you have already two sigils. Do you need any other, Cornelius?"

I wondered about it for a moment. We covered dusting furniture, but what about windows? I would need alcohol to clean windows without leaving trails, but I didn't want to share modern knowledge before Myne's arrival.

"I don't think so. Those are the only two we need."

"Correct. Now draw sigils we need and I will explain how to draw whole circle."

I did as she said and then observed her every move as she drew magic circle. First was small empty circle in the middle meaning that it would be a general circle. Then she drew sigils on two sides and connected them from left and right as if to make them work in both ways - first to purify and then create water or create water and then purify. That was interesting method. She then encircled everything and added "branches" on four sides which were responsible for mana intake.

She showed me completed circle and explained how it worked. I wasn't mistaken in thinking that it could work both ways. In addition after you supplied it with mana, water came from the middle of the circle and spread evenly on the whole circle.

We took a break for a tea, letting our attendants into hidden room. Brewing took us less time than mother had anticipated so we had time for one more thing before dinner. I asked to brew something and considering that we covered my first magic circle, I asked to brew a magic tool. She chose an Ordonnanz. I was tasked with thinking all sigils that would be needed for magic circle. Ordoschnelli in the middle was an obvious choice. For the rest: Grammaratur for words, Dregarnuhr for recording them, Erwachlehren for guiding bird to recipient, Steifebrise for fast travel and Shutzaria carrying bird through the wind.

But of course as a beginner I made a mistake. Erwachlehren wasn't needed, becase he was responsible for teachers and Steifebrise also acted as a courier. Mother drew magic circle on piece of parchment and gave me it with some feystone. Brewing ordonnanz was easier than I tought. I just waited until feystone melted into gel and threw parchment with magic circle into it. I stirred it until some of the liquid evaporated and the rest magically formed itself into feystone and soldified.

Okay, that was the most irrational thing I've seen in this world. How the hell it comes back to being feystone? How am I supposed to underst… No, "if something is stupid and it works, it isn't stupid". That's the only explanation. Hahaha…

I repeated those words like a mantra in my mind. In the meantime Elvira exited my hidden room and tried to send Ordonnanz. It flew somewhere and came back with Eckhart message: "I will come for dinner".

At dinner mother praised me until I got embarassed. Probably that was her revenge for my words about father falling in love with her. It had been very succesful day. I had taken my first step into magic, but mother's praise were so unbearable that I couldn't look people in the face at dinner.

Chapter Text

My brewing slash magic circles lessons were scheduled for every two weeks. Becasue of boredom in that time I was remembering my days on Earth, trying to think of every little thing that had made my time pass faster. I remembered all the mangas, animes and books I had liked and felt nostalgic. I would have sacrificed some of my training time, if I was able to enjoy those things one more time. And then it struck me that I might be able to recreate something. Impossible on Earth should be possible in Yurgenschmidt.

Shonen classics went first. One Piece was out, because I didn't know how to recreate Devil Fruits. Naruto's techniques were hard to achieve. Chakra consisted of physical and spiritual energy, but in here mana played a role of chakra, so Naruto was also out. Next was Bleach… Creating weapons… Manablades…

Eureka! I can create a manablade like Stenluke, but with different power. I might be able to use Senbonzakura while shouting "BANKAI!". Hell yeah.

I asked Engelbert for some wooden tablets and ink and went to my hidden room. I started writing down carefully what I wanted from my future manablade to already have a clear image when I got it in my hands. To simplify things I decided to name my manablade "Byakuya" and after shouting "bankai" I would say "Senbonzakura" and thousand flower petals would fly and attack my enemies. Considering possibility of adding magic circle, I could also try a prayer when adding circle. I quickly drew a magic circle - Vulcanift in the middle to make it a weapon, Efflorelume for flower petals, Shutzaria for carrying petals with wind and Blaunfah with Anwachs for flowers sprouts and their growth. Now considering mana cost, I might have overdone it. After short brainstorming I made new circle, this time without Blaunfah and Anwachs. I didn't want to grow new flowers, but to create flower petals that can be deadly. I would later check out if it worked. I also wrote a prayer just in case - "Efflorelume, Goddes of Flowers, lend me your power to show people that flowers, altough beautiful, can be dangerous".

When I thought about many weapons from anime, I tried to connect them with schtappe transformation. I remembered Fate series' Excalibur and Gae Bolg. Swords from SAO: Alicization. Mjolnir from Marvel's Thor, but I didn't remember any spell for transforming schtappe into hammer.

So what if I tried make those weapons as seperate schtappe tranformations?

I left this idea for my first year in Royal Academy. Next on my list was Dragon Ball and Ki. I didn't believe I could just start gathering my energy to strenghten my attacks, but I could develop sensing. Not mana, but ki sensing. Damuel had been able to detect devouring soldiers, but not normal commoners. I wanted to beat him in that. I exited my hidden room, got changed into something comfortable and went to our garden to relax. I sat in a small gazebo on a bench, closed my eyes, relaxed my muscles and slowed my breath.

I tried to focus, but at the same time clear my mind. I wanted to forget about physical dimension of things. After taking my body out of equation, there was only mana left. I lost myself in the flow of my own mana. I wanted to be one with it, to be free and float everywhere. When I let the flow control me, I felt other sources of mana, but it was just mana. It could have been any feyplant in garden or my attendant. I swam in a river full of water, but that water was of different kinds. Four to be precise. Every kind had its own colour. Green, blue, yellow and gold. Just like my own colo…

Those are my elements I had seen at my baptism medal! I can sense colours! Horaaay!

Because of my happines I jumped into the air startling my attendant.

"I'm sorry, Engelbert. I got too excited. Don't mind me."

Without waiting for an answer, I went back to learning detection. This time was much easier and I could somehow control flow of my elements. I split them into four independent rivers and tried to focus on external sources of mana. With my eyes closed I could "see" elements. I felt one source that had three elements. I opened my eyes to see Engelbert in a place where I detected that source.

"Engelbert, are your elements perhaps fire, wind and earth?" I asked him and saw his eyes nearly escape from his skull.

"Lord Cornelius, how did you know?!"

I didn't answer him and focused on distinguishing all colours around me. Green or Water felt calming. Blue or Fire felt hot or rather stimulating. Yellow or Wind felt strong and inviolable. Red or Earth felt gentle. Gold or Light felt royal. I wasn't able to detect any Life and Darkness elements nearby. It was funny to be honest. I couldn't detect Life despite being surrounded by living things.

Later that day I felt Darkness element from grandfather. It felt like absolute power or dominance. Something you wanted to bow to and I was yet to meet someone with Life element. I also hinted Bonifatius that I had taken interest in manablades and wanted one myself.

Unfortunately I didn't manage to gain ability to detect commoners, but detecting elements was good enough for me, so I stopped trying.

Chapter Text

With Star Festival ending along with Starbind Ceremony, I remembered very crucial thing - taue fruits. I had an idea about them and wanted to gather some for future experiments. I asked some commoners from our staff that were safe from Trudeliede's infulence, if they were able to procure some secondhand clothes for me. Some from north part of city and some from south part. Of course I had to imitate Sylvester and Wilfried to run from Engelbert and so I did.

First time to ask for clothes, giving staff some of my allowance. Nothing much, about 10 small silvers. I needed two pairs of better and worse clothes, so it should have been enough. Second time I ran to pick my new purchase and hide it in my hidden room. Third and most important time I was nearly caught by Elvira, but thanks to my new elements detection, I was able to avoid all noble attendants and silence commoners with my innocent childish smile, even if I felt bad about it.

When I sneaked through our garden to noble's forest I checked my equipment - poor commoner clothes, mana blocking gloves and mana blocking pouch. That was all I needed. I once again avoided all dangers with my new ability and in no time reached commoner's forest. I picked up some weak sources of mana, but those were probably shumils and zantzes. What really scared me, was sheer number of Darkness element sources. There were tons of them and many of those already deep underground. Between all those taues and "almost trombes" I felt enormous wave of mana with mainly Wind element. I instantly knew that it was my future little sister. She was probably making paper with Lutz, but I didn't want to impose myself on them. I collected what I came for and went back to the estate, changing my outfit before entering gardens. Hardest part was being chastised by Engelbert about getting dirty. I was sure he would report it to my mother, so I didn't have much days to experiment with trombe.

In my hidden room I put down everything with mana blocking gloves on.

If I let it explode on the floor it can potentially endanger whole noble district. I wonder how to turn it into Dark element feystones… Normal way is to push your mana into things, but taue is taking mana on its own. Maybe seeds?

I took off one glove and holding trombe fruit with my hand inside chest, I let it explode. It left six seeds in the chest. If I supplied it with mana, it would have started sprouting, but would it do something if I dumped too much mana like when trying to create gold dust?

I gathered as much mana in my hand as I could and tried to overload trombe seed. To my surprise it turned into black nail-size feystone and started draining me of mana. I withdrew my hand quickly and looked at result of my experiment. I found a way to obtain Dark element feystones in big quantity. Created feystone had some of my mana, but I didn't know how to drain it, so I filled it to the brim. The colour of my mana was beautiful dark green. It looked nearly identical to Elvira's hair colour. I felt mesmerised by it. I didn't know how much time had passed before I snapped out of it. I had five more seeds, but I wanted to get feystones without my mana in them or at least with negligible amount of my mana. I found a simple handchkrief and tested another idea - overloading seed without touching it directly. It wokred pretty well, but there was still too much mana in it. I wasted three more seeds before I achieved desired result. Partially filled feystones were saved for later, because they still were precious resources and I had an idea how to utilize them.

Now I moved to whole taue fruits with the same handchkrief. First one exploded because of not enough mana to overload it. Second one was also a failure, but the third one I succesfully tranformed into big round feystones. It looked just like the one Bezenwast used against Myne at the end of Part 2.

Considering that if such big Dark element feystones were very rare, I could get rich with this. Ferdinand surely would buy them in bulk, so I had sneaked out two more times to collect some more taues before I got caught. Thanks to that I got many Dark element feystones in different sizes with the biggest ones being a perfect sphere fitting in my hand. All that in exchange for intensive etiquette lessons with mother and ban for leaving our estate, even to garden.

Chapter Text

Leidenshaft laid down his spear and Shutzaria picked up her shield to protect Geduldh from her husband. Justus had already taught me all he could about poisons. Heidemarie stopped teaching me after giving birth to Wilhelm. Father hadn't shown himself in estate since giving me collected ingredients for my brewing lessons. I also gained more proficiency in mana enhancement. Now I could easily enhane my eyesight and hearing, even though it required the highest level of delicacy and control over mana. My brewing and magic circles lessons were progressing slowly, but I listened to everything mother had been saying. She didn't teach me anything dangerous, but we were brewing now even magic tools that were commonly used by layattendants. Thing that surprised me the most in brewing was shape of magic tools. People drew schematics of them, but at the end of every brew it took the exact shape I had in mind. It pushed me into thinking that most "impossible" things in magic are limited by people's imagination. I upgraded my manablade magic circle after I had been taught about possible relations between sigils in magic circle. Mana could flow in one or both ways. I could add conditions and negate mana, if conditions were not met.

Hunting Tournament was nearing, along with Harvest Festival and so was my meeting with Ferdinand. I wondered what I would need to get into his good graces. I had to get his attention somehow… After two bells of thinking I created another magic circle - nearly identical copy of my manablade's one, but without Vulcanift - as a diversion. I prepared one high quality Darkness feystone and thought of how to present my unique ability.

In the middle of Harvest Festival we left our mansion and traveled via carriage to the temple. As every blue priest had left with their whole retinues to collect their share, only children and adults from orphanage were present in gods' palace. We met smiling Lord Justus at the entrance and he led us to High Priest's chambers. There were six of us. Ferdinand, Justus, mother, me, Engelbert and mother's attendant. I offered first time greetings to Ferdinand, but he refused receiving them, saying that he was no longer a noble in real meaning of that word, but Justus and Elvira pressured him into accepting my greetings. We ate a light meal and talked about nothing. When tea was changed I asked "Lord Ferdinand, could we talk under Verbergen's veil?"

Yeah, yeah, I know. I surprise people all the time. Could you stop looking THAT way at me? It's becoming embarassing.

While my mind was ocuppied, Ferdinand glanced at Justus who nodded slightly and gave me sound-blocking tool. I didn't expect him to agree so fast nor was Elvira prepared for my "little rampage". He smiled at me with a terrifying look in his eyes like I was just an insect.

I see… Enough with being nice to younger brother of his most loyal name-sworn.

"Speak, what do you want from me. I don't have time for playing with children." he said.

I signaled Engelbert to come forth with two wooden tablets. He handed them to Justus who poison-checked them and gave them to Ferdinand. Suddenly he looked at least a little bit interested.

"I am seeking words of Anhaltung and Mestionora. I created magic circle to express my thanks to mother, but because it is supposed to be surprise I need someone's else expertise. Brother Eckhart always sings your praises saying that you, Lord Ferdinand, are the greatest genius in history of Ehrenfest."

"Then why did you show me two circles?"

"When I created the one for mother, I decided to turn something beautiful and inconspicuous into weapon. To always have hidden trick, even if it would only distract my enemy."

"Interesting, but what do you expect me to do?"

"I would like to know, how to optimize and upgrade both circles."

"Is this everything you want?"

"I would be grateful if Lord Justus, brother Eckhart and sister Heidemarie won't play Ordonschnelli. Especially when Lord Justus is blatantly looking at our conversation." I looked at Justus and back at Ferdinand. "I also would like you to become my Erwachehren in magic circles, magic tools and ancient language."

It might have been too much to ask, but where would I find better teacher? Besides I needed him to succed in my plans.

"And why would I agree to that? Hasn't Elvira been teaching you?"

"She has. She will show me as much as she knows, but I desire more. It's not enough for me." I paused for a moment. "I can also compensate you. I can tell you about two feyplants that I-"

"I already know about them. Heidemarie will start researching them when Wilhelm gets old enough. If you do not have anything else, cease your child's play." he sounded annoyed.

"I can also offer some of my collection of Darkness element feystones with the one of best quality being like this one." I signaled my attendant to show to everyone big round trombe feystone. Their eyes nearly bulged. "After first few batches, I can sell you them at lowered price." I let him think for a short moment before striking with my last argument. "In addition I can show you my unique abaility I developed. It allows me to detect elements one posses. Of course it is not limited only to people. It is able to show me elements of any and all ingredients."

Now that I think about it, I haven't found anyone with Life element. He's the first one I know with it. Might as well look it up.

As he was omni-elemental and very well balanced in his colours, I could easily check, how Life feels and it felt harsh and cold. Unlike anything I detected before. Meanwhile Ferdinand pondered for a while and excused himself for a moment. He went into his hidden room and came back with ingredients I didn't recognize. Some of them must have been things won from Heisshitze. He no longer held sound-blocking tool. Instead he just said "Prove it" for everyone to hear so I did prove it.

"Starting from the left. Low purity Fire element, low purity Wind element, high purity Life element, medium purity Light element and the last…" I stopped to think. This one was tricky. "Darkness element with slight traces of Earth element."

He probably hadn't expected me to guess everything, but I knew I was right. He looked at mother and said as if nothing happened.

"Elvira, I would like to take Cornelius as my disciple."

"Oh my, my, my! What has he done to guarantee your interest in him, Lord Ferdinand?" she asked with happy and surprised voice.

"He looks… promising. He also passed test I gave him. He has a resolve to study and wants it himself."

That was shocking to get a compliment from him, but maybe his worldview hadn't been destroyed by Myne just yet. I also might have been just another test subject for him. We established way of contacting with each other - through Eckhart and Justus. It would delay many things but I didn't mind. I just wanted to learn. We had some small talk and left.

Next day I asked Eckhart to deliver Dark feystones to Ferdinand and inquire about my first assignment. I didn't have to wait long. He came back surprised that I was accepted by the Lord Ferdinand. Even Heidemarie couldn't believe it. Either way I got materials for my first lesson, so I began preparations slowly, because Ferdinand hadn't set any deadline for me.

Chapter Text

Assignment delivered by Eckhart consisted of two subjects. Brewing and ancient language. Ferdinand tasked me with finding listed ingredients on my own. Not literally of course. I was allowed to ask people for materials, buy or even trade them. Nothing scary. At least he had sent me magic circle for a tool he wanted me to brew.

Ancient language? It was… disappointing? I received three wooden tablets. One with ancient text, one with that text translated and one with ancient text to translate myself while looking at translated one. The problem was that ancient language turned out to be german, but just with different alphabet and identical fonetics, so I finished it rather fast with my old memories of high school classes.

After my harspiel lesson I visited our book room to search for information about ingredients I needed. Most of them were feyplants, there were listed two feybeasts I wouldn't be able to kill, so I of course asked people that were perfect for this - Heidemarie and Eckhart. Persuading them was like taking a candy from a child. I just mentioned not wanting to disappoint Lord Ferdinand and they jumped right into action. While Eckhart was hunting, Heidemarie, holding Wilhelm in her arms, showed me to her greenhouse and told which feyplants I was supposed to collect and how to do it.

When I had everything I needed I went into my hidden room to begin brewing. I checked recipe and put all ingredients on the table. I prepared a bit more of everything. The recipe listed ingredients needed for a pair of sound-blocking magic tools, but I wanted to have a possibilty of having secret conversation with two other people at a time. Cutting feyplants was easy after all lessons with mother. Crushing claws of feybeasts was something new and refreshing. When everything was ready I placed three feystones in cauldron and waited for them to melt. Next I provided parchment with magic circle and began adding the right amount of ingredients. Whole mix was very mana demanding, so I guessed that Ferdinand was also checking my approximate mana capacity.

At the end liquid flashed and turned into free small bells. I tried pouring mana into them and could feel that they at least took my mana. I tested them with Englebert and asked Justus, who came to check on my progress next day, to show fruits of my efforts to Ferdinand.

I didn't have to wait for long, because Justus dropped another assignment the same day with a smirk on his face. This time I was given instruction on how to create mana metal and task to create anything that look like accessory.

Praise be to the gods! I don't need to create some fancy jewelry!

I tried to complete it next week after geography and theology lessons. I had to sneak out to collect feystones to turn into gold dust. I caught some shumils using mana enhancement and crushing and finished them by piercing their mana organs. On the occasion I collected taue fruits that were scattered around and went back home.

Brewing mana metal was very simple. I just had to mix gold dust with my own liquified mana. Depending on quantity of ingredients you finished with bigger or smaller lump of gold metal. Then you had to carve something from it, but it felt wasteful, so I improvised and tried my theory about using imagination. Created mana metal was fully saturated with my mana and I could attempt shaping it like highbeast, which I hadn't got yet.

Well, first time the charm. Let's hope it won't explode like Myne's Lessy.

Holding lump of metal in my hand I "connected" myself to it with very thin thread of mana and started picturing my desired accessory. Well, it was supposed to be accessory, but somehow the only thing that came to my mind was brass knuckles and so I transformed metal into completely new weapon…

I hope he won't question me about it… Just in case I should speed up my plans to redirect his attention from my "strange" ideas.

I quickly wrote down specifics of research I wanted to do and added it to my assignment.

Chapter Text

I was called one day to Linkberg's estate. There was an emergency. Eckhart's youngest brother was poisoned and no-one could identify what was used. I possibly had the most knowledge about posion in the entire duchy, but even I was defeated. We could only wait and see. Miraculously Cornelius woke up without any complications, but not without a change. He started studying like maniac - fighting, enhancement magic, poisons. Sometimes I gave him tips about more uncommon poisons and even Haidemarie gave him lessons about feyplants. He listened to everything every time someone wanted to teach him something new. He had a firm resolve in his eyes. Between all this I checked Lady Elvira's and Eckhart's new estates for poisons and found some things that originated from Ahrensbach, but it was a dead end. I could not find out who had brought those things.

I observed Cornelius for quite some time and it was always interesting to get new information about him. He blessed his friend in winter playroom out of nowhere, but I hadn't found anything more about that accident. Later in spring someone passed me information that Cornelius received Blenrus fruit from his uncle. Something so rare and yet given to a child. People were tight-lipped and didn't say more than I had already heard.

I swear, this kid is getting more interesting with every season.

Summer was full of surprises. Heidemarie gave birth to a healthy son and Eckhart just lost it. He became a perfect husband and father, staying at home as long as he could and gushing over his firstborn. He didn't want Veronica's claws to reach their estate so he took every possible safety meassure. At the same time Cornelius again did something interesting. He sent me a letter asking to help to arrange a meeting with my lord, adding information about two feyplants I had never heard about, all that just to bribe me. He even ensured to attack from two sides. Heidemarie received the very same letter and judging by her reaction, if not for Wilhelm, she would be already researching those plants. I judged it to be a fair exchange and I convinced Lord Ferdinand to meet young one. I gave him a chance and it was up to him what he would do with it.

Of course one season passed and he was sure to surprise me. He skilfully led a conversation with milord and got what he wanted. He displayed skill I had never heard of and told us that he had not few, but a few dozens of Darkness element feystones with many of highest quality. He must have got them when he had sneaked out from his estate in summer. I had to make sure to find his source. Nevertheless, Lord Ferdinand accepted him as his disciple with rare display of eagerness.

My Lord of course had high demands and first assignement was a test in itself. Cornelius shouldn't have been able to do it fast. No noble would think of asking for help. So instead of expected months of waiting for lord Karstedt to collect ingredients, he asked his own brother and sister-in-law and manipulated them by using their sense of loyalty. Lady Elvira was a scary woman if she taught it to her 9 year old son. Either way he completed his tasks and awaited another.

Milord gave him now something harder to do this time. Cornelius needed to show some level of craftsmanship, but after only one week I was already passing results of his assignment along with boy's original research topic. He on purpose omitted key points to not let anyone steal his idea. Despite my lack of understanding, my lord looked quite intrigued and ordered me to organize a meeting with Cornelius in Linkberg's estate. Of course Lady Elvira was more than happy to host Lord Ferdinand in her household.

When they sat down I erected ranged sound-blocking magic tool. Cornelius was surprised, because we included his mother in the talk. My lord started.

"Cornelius, as you are not even in academy, I deemed it necessary to inform your mother about your research idea. She is a scholar after all. I would be glad if you explained it yourself."

He turned to his mother and looked into her dark brown eyes. "Mother, High Bishop said at my baptism that praying to gods and expressing my gratitude is a key to receiving stronger divine protections. And divine protections are meant to lower our mana expenditure or so I heard. So I proposed to High Priest that I would undergo this ritual at the temple."

"Cornelius, if you looked into that, you should have already known that magic circle needed for this ritual is closely guarded by royal family and even professors at royal academy are not able to inspect it."

She was right, but she missed one thing… or wanted her son to realise that thing.

"I am fully aware of that, but Lord Ferdinand just confirmed my assumptions by coming here and I am sure that he has or remembers that circle. Brother Eckhart always says that Lord Ferdinand is the genius of his generation and adds many other compliments and I have never heard him lie, so I will believe his words and trust Lord Ferdinand's genius."

So Eckhart had managed to open Cornelius' eyes. It was not common for someone to actually listen to Eckhart's rambling about our lord. Most of times people just ignored him and yet this young man believed it. I couldn't wait what he would do in the future.

"Lord Ferdinand, I'm sorry for my son's behaviour. His stupid ideas must have troubled you." Elvira said.

"Quite opposite. I want to test his theory myself. I wanted to discuss this with you as his Wiegenmilch."

My Lord, you are too cruel to your own disciple and how can you give away opportunity to extract information from young boy?

It was a good plan. Pretending the need of getting Elvira's consent. We could extract some information from him for accepting his idea. Especially about his collection of feystones. Elvira looked at her son and asked.

"Cornelius, I will allow you to participate in this research only when you tell me where you sneaked out to."

"The... lower city."

I was a bit disappointed. I thought that Elvira as a scholar would try to extract as much as she could from him, but on the contrary Eckhart had been saying lately something about his brother becoming favourite son and being spoiled. Elvira only smiled and nodded saying "Good." as if it was just a… test. Cornelius' answer was so lacking and yet she accepted it.

As if she…

She was hiding information from us! I misjudged her. She really was a first-rate scholar. Either way my lord had no other choice than to accept that answer and proceed. I was ordered to ordain Cornelius into the temple in secret. I had been ordained by my lord to serve him in time of need. Thanks to that I was able to enter chapel with all divine instruments and prepare everything for young boy. I did everything undetected and waited for my lord. He arrived when God of Darkness was still covering sky with his cape. I saw under his arm a rug. Cornelius was reading a wooden board and mumbling something under his nose. They entered chapel together, but I was forbidden from entering. After some time they opened the door and I saw my lord with red ears and expression I rarely could see. He was really embarassed.

What could have happened in there?

Unfortunately it was not destined for me to find answer for that question.

Chapter Text

In the distant heights all gods gathered around water mirror in anticipation. People climbing towering staircase started to flood reception and yet there was no god to be seen to welcome them. All work was abandoned just to take part in blessing giving ritual. Supreme Couple had to use Entwickeln just to make the room bigger for everyone to have some personal space. On this rare occasion even Ewigeliebe showed up. He of course was allowed to be there by King and Queen for that one event that was out of season. Geduldh was seated between her sisters, who were glaring at her husband, but she ignored them, stood up and sat next to her beloved, taking his arm and resting her head on his shoulder. He smirked at Shutzaria and Flutrane, who had to accept their defeat. When everyone was seated, King stood in front of the water mirror and spoke.

"In this busy time we gathered here to give our blessing to a child. Everyone should already know him, as he prays to us everyday and offers us his mana. I know that you all must be excited, but please, during ritual speak only when your name is called. It will help us avoidu nnecessary commotion."

Suddenly his Goddes of Light put her hand on his shoulder to get his attention.

"My Lord, it is starting."

At her words all gods went silent. They observed in the mirror as boy recited beggininng of the prayer. Then he started to ask every single god to get their blessing. He started with King and Queen of the sky.

"I like him. He found a way around trombe and it is not easy feat for those with mana." said God of Darkness giving Cornelius his blessing.

"I will help him. The envoy of Chaocipher is too strong right now. He need my help." - Chaosfliehe

"He was able to sneak out undetected from his estate without my blessing. I want to see what he will be able to do with it." - Verbergen

Next was Goddes of Light.

"He had my blessing from the start. I hope he will use it well."

"He is too reckles for his own good. I should give him some advice from time to time." - Anhaltung

"The way he organises everything is so beautiful. I want to keep observing him." - Gebordnung

There could be heard whispers in the back saying "Ah, she activated her inner perfectionist".

"His relation with his mother is miraculous! I will bless him." - Wiegenmilch

Then Cornelius asked five pillars, starting with Flutrane. Of course he was born in spring so he received her blessing without problems.

"Their talks about love are always so good" - Blaunfah

"I like him. He realized that flowers can be dangerous." - Efflorelume

"I would like him to open his own bussines, if he could, but his ventures with Dark element feystones should do for now." - Greifechan

"I hope he will use my power with good intentions." - Heilschmerz

"For someone liked by Fire kin he is rather calm." - Verfuhremeer

Now it was time for Leidenshaft and his subordinates, but…

"Dit-ter! Dit-ter! Dit-ter! Dit-ter! Dit-ter! Dit-ter!"

All of them were chanting. Even Vulcanift - the most quiet of Fire kin was with them. It didn't even need any comment. They whole-heartedly gave their blessings in hope that Cornelius one day will show them the best ditter ever. Next was Shutzaria.

"I have high hopes for this youngling form the Land of Wind." she said.

"I hope that he will be more patient with my blessing" - Duldsetzen

"He has the same potential as his mother." - Grammaratur

"I couldn't recognize any of the songs he hummed. I want him to offer one for me." - Kunstzeal

"Every person who sees the value of books is worthy." - Mestionora

"It will be fun carrying stories about his actions." - Ordoschnelli

"He can already keep up with adults in speed." - Streifebrise

Geduldh gave her blessing with a wave of her hand, not saying anything. She wanted to tresure a little time she could spend with her husband. To please his wife, Ewigeliebe also blessed young man.

"Despite being so young, he's already eyeing vize. That's my boy!" - Vantole

"He wants to create a weapon that uses power of ice. I will await that moment." - Schneeahst

"His dreams are always fun." - Schlaftraum

When everone thought it was the end, Beischmacht gave his blessing without saying anything. Gods looked at him, silently asking "Why?" with their eyes, but he offered them only a sly grin.

Chapter Text

Thirty nine gods…

I would say that ceremony went well, if not for one god that decided to give me his blessing. Everything had been going fine. I got blessing from few subordinates of Dark, Light and Water. "Problems" started with Fire kin. I somehow got blessing from every single one, when I only hoped for Angriff, Vulcanift and Leidenschaft. I probably overdid it when promising a good ditter to gods. I knew they would love that prayers, but I didn't think this through, but at least I was now sure they were as ditter-obsessed as all people from Dunkelfelger. As someone from Wind duchy I expected as much with Shutzaria's subordinates. Geduldh gave me her blessing. Fortunately Ewigeliebe did the same, making me omni elemental with blessing from all 7 main gods. I didn't have much expectations for Life subordinates, but the last god…

"Lord Ferdinand, how can a child receive Beischmacht blessing?" I asked what was on my mind, but I soon realised that I asked a grown man, a priest no less, "how can a child have sex?"

He looked at me consterned and I saw his ears turn red.

"Don't speak of it to anyone, especially your mother." he commanded and I gladly agreed.

After that my life came back to normal - training with grandpa, tea parties with mother, learning ancient language, magic tools and circles. Ferdinand gave me many assignments that challenged me. Thanks to that I tested my theory that imagination plays a key part in forming magic tools. People always drew schematics, but they never shaped magic tools during brewing nor they threw blueprints into cauldron, which meant that something different made it into desired shape. And of course my answer was right. While brewing AoE sound-blocking magic tool I pictured a cube in my head. Size of my fist with little feystone on the top and with different carvings on each side except the one pointing downwards - wolf, schwänne, sword and shield. I was also tasked with brewing knife for gathering, magic pen, brewing stick, magic ring and even children's magic tool. It was fun. I didn't even realize that I attended winter playroom, donated mana to Divine Instruments in sectret and Ewigeliebe was once again washed by Flutrane's waves.

Because of spring prayer I was not given any new task. I felt a bit empty without something I had been doing regularly. Even Bonifatius stopped training with me and I had to have sparring matches with Eckhart. Even though he didn't give his all at the beggining, he had to take me seriously when I started attacking. It was refreshing to fight using sword and enhancement magic insted of hand to hand combat.

Everyone were somewhat distanced lately. I didn't understand why. I no longer had tea parties with mother and I was given free time everyday. Even Eckhart stopped training with me. Lamprecht was guarding Wilfried, father was guarding Sylvester. I knew that Archduke Conference was coming, but come on, it is not hard to spend time with a child from time to time… And I realised that I still thought in terms of Earth.

I decided to go on a stroll around commoners forest, this time praying to Verbergen and asking for help with sneaking out and I tell you it was so easy with that prayer. I was walking between trees when I heard voices. I was really thankful that blessing hadn't run out yet. I observed Tuuli, as she was observing and taking care of all children in the forest. In future she would become my sister… Stepsister?

How do you even call biological sister of your adopted sister?

Wondering about how to call my future sister's sister I went to hunting area to get some shumil feystones to turn into gold dust. I wanted to brew a few things before entering Royal Academy. After I was done I sneaked in to my hidden room and left feystones on the table next to brewing tools. When I changed into noble clothes and left, Engelbert was already waiting for me in my room. At some point he had always appeared when I returned from my secret trips. I suspected mother of installing some tracking magic tools in all exits, but I never confirmed it. I was informed that tomorrow I had a mandatory tea party with mother. It was strange, but I was happy that someone had thought about me.

Next day I mentally prepared myself. It was the first time that tea party was mandatory. I was a bit scared if it was about sneaking out. We exited my room and went downstairs, but instead of going to the tea room, we went to the dining hall. Imagine my surprise, when I saw every member of my family already sitting there. With stiff smile I sat between father and Lamprecht. I waited, trying not to fidget on the chair. Room was silent until attendants entered with our meal. Plates were placed in front of everyone, drinks poured and room was cleared. Finally someone decided to say something.

"Happy tenth birthday, Cornelius." said mother.

Tenth… Birthday? Me?

I had a processing error. I had birthday… I had totally forgotten about it. I hadn't celebrated anything since my baptism. I felt warmth in my heart and tried to suppress a smile that was threatening to appear on my face, but it was all for nothing as I beamed the purest childish smile I could. I ate as fast as noble decorum allowed and waited for our plates to be replaced with tea and juice. I could not imagine what presents I would get, except highbeast feystone, of which I was sure.

"Let me go first." started grandfather "Cornelius, since that day you have trained with resolve in your eyes. You have studied more than is needed of you and decided to take two courses in Royal Academy. You are diligent student and you easily mastered basic and later advance techniques of enhancement magic. I couldn't be more proud."

Liar! I know you would more proud if I was a girl, but… well… it's just how grandfathers are.

"Lately you have shown interest in new topic, so hereby I give you this book in hope it will help you." he finished giving his attendant signal. Engelbert received it and gave it to me. It was an old book, probably from Bonifatius' private book room. I opened the first page and read the title - "All things known about manablades". I was so happy. If I ever got manablade I could create the best sword in the world.

"Thank you, grandfather. I'll treasure it."

"If we are going with rank, then I am next" said father. He didn't look too enthusiastic, more like he didn't want to be here. Without any speech or wishes he gave me three armor feystones and highbeast feystone. Of course as a weeb from magicless world I immediately wanted to try create both armor and my very own highbeast, but I showed some self-restraint and tried only creating armor, or to be precise a glove. I filled feystone with my mana and imagined simple leather glove and it formed into one. Being fine with the result I withdrew mana from it and it turned back into feystone. I ignored amused grins from my family and waited.

"It's time for us." said Heidemarie. Her and Eckhart attendants came forth with a flowerpot and a small box.

"As you have studied well under my tutelage, I give you this rare feyplant. Its main element is Life attributee and can bear fruits at least once per season. I also included instruction how to keep it alive. Don't disappoint me." she said giving a proud smile.

"As for me," Eckhart began and his attendant opened the small box "grandfather told me you wanted a manablade, so I brewed one for you with help of Heidemarie."

In the box I saw a grip of a sword without any blade or crossguard. There was only a green feystone in the place of pommel. I grabbed it and channeled a little dose of mana into it. In an instant on the opposite side of the grip a small and sharp bump showed itself. No longer than one centimetre. I quickly put it back into box and saw that attendants came with another, this time bigger box.

"As Lord Ferdinand's disciple, he also sent you a little present saying that you might need it." I heard from Heidemarie.

The box contained ingredients with high purity of each element. I was sad that I didn't get any omni-elemental feystone, but being given high quality ingredients by him is already very good present.

Next was Lamprecht, but as he was not yet an adult, I didn't expect him to do something. "Cornelius, I wanted to give you something useful, so I got you a belt. It can carry potions, bag of feystones and a manablade. Happy birthday, brother."

I instantly put the belt on and wore it until I had to change into my sleepwear. The last person to give me something was mother, but it was strange. If she was our mother, how Eckhart and Lamprecht had higher status than their own mother? Instead of diving into useless thoughts I waited for mother's present. She came forth with a box in which were black robes.

"Cornelius, my dear, your siblings and grandfather gave you all you needed for Royal Academy except one thing. As you want to be a knight, I emroidered quite a few defensive magic circles on your riding clothes in hope you will stay safe. If you ever feel the need, you can ask your mother to emroider your cape when you receive it."

Praise be to the Gods! My mother embroidered my clothes!

I couldn't stop myself from internal screaming from happines and of course a blessing flew out of my ring. Gold light enveloped Elvira. Everyone was looking at me. I once again got closer to the "Saint route". Mother was moved. She looked at me with so much love in her eyes. I could also feel envious looks from Eckhart and Lamprecht. Of course Heidemarie pinched her husband's thigh under the table to get him to behave.

After receiving all presents, we talked for a bit. I asked my brothers to tell me something about academy, but their envy made them tight-lipped. They spoke in general terms that didn't reveal anything. Soon after father excused himself to "get back to his post". As if I would believe him. Sylvester was well aware that Karstedt's son had a birthday and I was sure that father either had refused to accept day off or asked to be excused for one to two bells of time.

After another cup of tea my birthday party ended and I went to my room with all presents. I put them in my hidden room in resting section except for a box with my riding clothes that stayed with Engelbert who put them somewhere with my other clothes. I felt really tired, but I had to check instructions for caring for my new feyplant and I was positively surprised because I only needed to transplant it into a bigger pot and water it regularly, while keeping it in my hidden room. I just watered it and by that I mean I had to order a servant to bring me a watering can full of water, because as a noble I was not supposed to draw water from the well and after long time of waiting I watered my new plant. As it was plant full of Life attribute and was supposed to have white fruits, I named it 'Shiro'.

Right after I asked Engelbert to waschen me and I peacefully fell asleep.

Chapter Text

Next day on training grounds grandfather told me that I had already learnt what I needed and now I had to polish my skills. I was left alone with some knights from Haldenzel who gladly offered to spar with me. I had my new riding clothes and belt given to me yesterday. In addition I was trying to supply my manablade with mana. It didn't take much of it thanks to the number of blessings I received. I was a bit sad that Ferdinand had forbidden me from diving into this topic more, but I had acquired what I had wanted.

Training was uneventful. I lost and won many times. Haldenzel knights were used to fighting many feybeasts, so they never skipped their training. I was already accepted as one of them so I began training with them everyday and sometimes they bestowed me with a knowledge about skinning feybeasts.

After lunch in the estate I went to my hidden room and began my "next level" plan. The first was book about manablades.

"This research is for people who are not limited by noble's common sense." read the first line. It intrigued me.

"In order to create new, powerful weapon I brewed manablades day and night. My mana canals were damaged and couldn't be reapaired anymore. I present my lifelong research results here."

I already had a feeling that author of this research had been some kind of gremlin.

"Throw away any logic. Imagine what you desire while supplying mana to the feystone."

It was very interesting book. It cleared my doubts about adding magic circle to the feystone. I took out a circle drawn on parchment and quickly began brewing. I took out feystone from pommel and threw it into cauldron. It was like brewing Ordonnanz - wait until melt, threw magic circle, stir and voilà, it was ready. I put feystone back into pommel and looked at the whole thing. Prayer was the most primitive way of using magic, so I really, really wanted to use it. My weeb side won argument in my head and I used a prayer I created last summer. Green light flew out of my ring taking considerable amount of my mana.

I think I overdid it. If Efflorelume really bestowed 'power of flowers' to my manabalde, I'm afraid of using it now.

Now came time to shape my manablade. I wanted it to be a katana that used spell "Bankai". I had a clear image in my head, but in one short moment I thought what would my best friend from Earth do, if he could also create weapon from 'Bleach' and a split second later I heard a voice saying:

"You motherfucker, you did it."

I looked around in daze, not believing I heard that voice. There was no one in my hidden room.

"You idiot, don't look around, I'm here! Look at your sword!"

I looked at the green feystone that was flashing every time it spoke. I supplied it with more mana to be sure it wouldn't run out of it.

"I'm glad to hear you again, you charismatic jerk." I said to my manablade.

"Ha, I see your tounge is still sharper than razors."

"Now, shut up, Jacob. I have things to do."

"Yeah, yeah, Michael. We can talk later... Or maybe should I call you Cornelius?"

"Call me Nel in private if you think that my name is too long. I shouldn't get used to being called by my old name. Oh, and your name should be Jacobsen, because nobles have longer names."

I took his silence as consent. I put him on the table to let him "watch". I filled cauldron with water and overflowed it with my mana, creating liquified mana. Then I dusted some low quality feystones from shumils and threw golden dust to create mana metal. I prepared seven lumps of mana metal. Then I shaped one with my technique to create a bracelet that would have 7 different feystones. The other six bracelets had place for twelve smaller feystones and one slightly bigger. When I was finished, I took out all the parchment I bought for this project. My Dark element feystones were selling really good, with a small commision for Justus I was able to afford 85 pages of parchment for brewing.

"Hey, what are you doing by the way?"

"I know I told to shut up, but very well, I'll tell you. I'm preparing bracelets for prayer I'll be using at Royal Academy."

"Ahahahahaha!" I heard his laughter "You, the biggest atheist I know praying? Hilarious! Ahahahaha! And you're back to school, you poor boy."

I knew his personality was based on how I remembered him, but it was too accurate. At least he spoke in Yurgenschmidt's language.

"If only you stopped to think for a moment, you would realise that being in isekai means that gods can exist."

"Touché."

At least he agreed with my statement. I began drawing sigils of every single god on parchments. I needed as much feystones. Again thanks to Justus, money and sneaking out I got 14 feystones of every element except for Earth where I got only one. I brewed first batch which consisted of only Dark element feystones I collected from taues. Biggest one was put into bracelet that had only seven indentations. The rest was placed in another bracelet containing feystones with sigils of God of Darkness and every single one of his subordinates. I looked at Raumleere's sigil. I was yet to find a book that would explain more about his domain - space. I still didn't know if they meant space as cosmos or maybe they meant space as in space-time continuum. If it was the second, I could think of some crazy shit here already. Hehehehe…

"Stop grinning. I can already guess that you have some out of standard ideas."

"When did you become voice of reason? I thought you would like to do stupid things with me."

"I want, but I also want to be mentally prepared for anything you're not telling me."

"Now you sound like Ferdinand."

"You mean that guy whose face is perfectly still? Ouch, that hurt…" he paused for a moment and said "Fine, but don't be suprised when I say something because you didn't warn me."

"Fair enough. Deal."

When he finally shut up, I fed him some more mana, but he… he had to make a sound.

"Ahhhh… More…" he said it like a horny moaning teenager.

"Please, at least refrain from THAT. It's enough that every single noble is so shameful. If they hear my 'shameless manablade'… I don't even want to imagine that."

"Fine, fine. I will keep quiet from now on."

It were just a few minutes and I felt like I was going to have a headache because of him. After I finished making Dark element bracelet I exited my hidden room and asked Engelbert to relay a message to my mother. I wanted her to teach me creating highbeast. She agreed to do it next Earthday.

When the time came, I was in my riding clothes, but I didn't expect Elvira to don hers. It was another side of her I hadn't known about. Light clothes with some protection and allowing maximum mobility. Even in those clothes she had an aura of a perfect noble lady.

As a first wife of Knight Order's Commander she probably didn't have a problem with reserving a training hall, because we arrived at completely empty place and started my lesson at once.

"Take out your highbeast feystone, place it in your hand and imagine it expanding."

She had taught me many times already so she knew the best way is to give me commands straight away. I did as she instructed. I was yet to get my own cage for highbeast feystone, so until now I stored it in a mana-blocking pouch for collecting materials. When placed on my hand, feystone began to grow. Mother didn't stop me, so I continued until it became a big, perfectly round ball reaching my torso. Then I stopped and waited for further instructions. I looked at mother pleadingly, but she was deep in thought. She looked at me with a bit of sadness in her eyes and said:

"I would like you to use a Haldenzel styled highbeast, but first and foremost you are a Linkberg, so you should use a wolf. Now try imagining a wolf. I'm sure you have seen Lamprecht's or Eckhart's highbeasts."

'Imagine wolf' she says, but should it be Earth wolf? Wolf from some anime? Or maybe my favourite breed - husky? They are always so stupid and funny…

After some thinking I decied to mix husky's appearance with the size of Ranga from Tensura. The final result was a fluffy husky that was the same height as me. I instinctively made it lower itself to let me mount it.

Oh, I forgot about saddle.

I quickly "added" saddle and I felt comfortable. I was so happy that I completed my highbeast so fast that my… dog-wolf? Wolf-dog? It started wagging its tail. I felt a little silly, because my own mood was affecting my highbeast. Thinking of a name for it was hard. How to name a big, overgown, dark green husky… I stopped thinking and tried to get into the air. My doggy made one lap around mother, who looked disappointed. I wondered why, but I couldn't find an answer. Finally when it was going to jump into the air, I heard mother say something.

"Cornelius, enough. It won't fly. It doesn't have win-"

She didn't finish, because I was already running above her head. Yes, I was not flying, my highbeast was basically running as if air under its paws was solid and its movements were so natural like a true dog/wolf. That was probably why she had looked disappointed a moment ago. At that moment I decided to name my highbeast 'Okita'. Like a captain of the first Shinsengumi unit in Japan. I landed next to my mother and looked at her. She put on her best noble smile hiding all emotion.

"Dear son, what have you done exactly? Could you explain this to your mother?"

"I created my highbeast and succefully used it, didn't I?" I played dumb.

"Yes… No… I don't have enough strenght to correct this. Let's just end here. Dregarnuhr didn't bless us today with her grace. Mount your new highbeast and come with me to the estate."

When we were about to leave the hall, I heard a voice of someone I completely had forgotten about.

"Cornelius, how can you make your own mother so abashed. Do you not care about her?"

"Jacobsen, I told you to keep quiet." I hissed.

"Cornelius, what was that voice? Who were you speaking to a moment ago?"

"I… I…"

Crap, I didn't want her to find out about my manablade so fast.

"I apologize, Lady Elvira, for late indroduction, may I pray for a blessing in appreciation of this serendipitous meeting, ordained by the pure rivers flowing from Flutrane, the Goddess of Water?"

"You may."

"O Flutrane, Goddess of Water. May you grant Lady Elvira your blessing. I am Jacobsen, Cornelius' manablade and his self-proclaimed best friend." said Jacob and green light flew from him to my mother. It would surely cause me a headache in the future.

"Oh my, how bold of you to call yourself a friend of my son."

"If I may suggest, please do not think about his highbeast. In my mere three days of life I realised that his logic goes beyond common sense. In addition it won't do any good for you, Lady Elvira, to frown so much. For a woman as blessed by Efflorelume, that Kunstzeal had to give her a helping hand, smile is the greatest weapon and the best show of confidence."

"Oh my, Cornelius, I would love to talk to your friend some more. He is quite bewitching with his Grammaratur's dance." I saw my mother blush a little bit.

His personality was too accurate. In my past life, if not for the fact that he had had a fiance he had loved so deeply, he would have been called 'MILF hunter', because he had befriended every of our mothers on the first meeting. Also I didn't know how much knowledge he had gained from me. Did he know about books and possible future? I had to talk to him later. Especially after he had given a blessing.

"Mother, I'm sorry, but he's too uneducated. He can't even keep quiet as he was told. Could we for now go back home? I want to test my highbeast and create something to hold highbeasts feystone."

"Fine, but we will talk about this... friend of yours later."

"Yes, mother."

I somehow got out of trouble for now. We exited training hall and mounted our highbeasts. I saw Eckhart training with grandfather hand-to-hand combat, but they were too focused to realise I was there. The feeling of wind hitting my face was miraculous. I felt so free like never before.

When we got back, I went straight to my hidden room to have a talk with Jacob. I finally processed what had happened in training hall. A manablade with its own conciousness blessed another person. I talked to him a bit. Somehow he had gained the same knowledge as me and it seemed he even received the parts my mind had forgotten, but I still wasn't able to explain how he could use magic on his own. After reaaaaally long talk he promised to not talk to people until Stenluke was born. Being a manablade with his own mind he perfectly remembered all I had read so I was sure he would remind me sometimes, when something was about to happen… or he would skip something to make fun of me.

After all this I forgot to ask mother, where I could get a cage for my highbeast feystone.

Chapter Text

Leidenschaft once again raised his spear high into the sky and it was finally time - time for Myne's baptism. First Fireday of summer. I couldn't sneak out at this time. There were too many nobles in noble's district. I was only allowed to wait, but when it was supposed day of her meeting with High Bishop, I started to worry. I didn't have any source of information. Lord Justus was gathering information and brother Eckhart was staying with Heidemarie in their estate. I was sometimes wondering, if they were just having some fun as a young couple and pretended to "hide from Veronica and her goons".

After not getting a single assignment for over a month, Justus brought me a letter from Ferdinand. He had written that we had to suspend my lessons because of an increase in his duties. That basically told me that story didn't change and just in three or four seasons I would have my own little sister. Surprisingly even mother didn't hear any rumours about commoner shrine maiden. Either Ferdinand hid all the information or Bezenwast was too ashamed to talk about being crushed by a little gremlin.

Because of boredom filling my days I asked mother to teach me again, but this time I asked for a thing I had wanted to learn in my past life thanks to reading AoB series - embroidery. Mix of emotions in her eyes when I said it was so fun spectacle to watch. Suspiciousness, shock, processing error and utter happines. Not wasting any time, in a three days time she invited me for my first lesson and taught me basics with an honest smile on her face. Of course I knew it wouldn't be easy, but I didn't think it would be THAT hard. Even though I regularly played on harspiel, my fingers were not used to such level of precision I needed for my new venture. I ended up with handchkrief in my blood and my hand stinging as if I met a swarm of bees. Of course Jacob accompanied me at my mother's request. He had a good laugh seeing me suffer. On the other hand mother had a great "person" to speak to as he was complimenting her beauty and intellect. She accepted him very easily, but promised to not reveal his existense in exchange for more chances to speak with him during my embroidery lessons.

My first time didn't discourage me and I preserved. I wanted to be able to embroider beautiful magic circles in future. In my free time I would sneak out to collect as many taues as I could, taking Jacob with me to chat with him a bit. I needed to get as much taues as possible to sell Dark element feystones later. Before I realised, Shutzaria's season had come and it was time for tombe extermination. Lamprecht and Eckhart both went on this mission, while Heidemarie was sulking, because she couldn't spend time with her lord. I really hoped they wouldn't pass their "Ferdinand obsession" to little Wilhelm.

From then it was really fast. Noble quarters were bustling with a story of a shrine maiden with abundant of mana and Shikza who died in battle. Of course Veronica had heard original version of those events and was angry at Sylvester for executing son of her "dear" Gloria.

In the middle of this all I asked mother to allow me to go and collect ingredients in noble's forest, but I was denied this opportunity because of two things: lack of schtappe and Trudeliede. I just had to wait two more seasons and I could finally do some actual hunting.

Thinking about it… Winter is right behind the corner so I will soon be able to go on my own rampag…

…

…

…

Why did I think of going on rampage? What is wrong with meeeeee?! Am I becoming a gremlin?

I feared for myself. My first thought was giving trouble to my attendant at the academy, but… maybe I could get loose a bit. I wanted to have some fun and I really wanted to find some Dunkelfelger students just to fight them. When I realised my train of thoughts, I knew… I knew that I would become a walking headache factory for my guardians.

Soon winter socialization came and along with it time for Royal Academy. I received my cape and brooch and waited until it was my time to teleport. As a person with highest standing among first years I was the last one. Surprisingly even my father came to say goodbye, but that was all from him. Mother gave me a few warnings and told me to stick to my brother, who would show me around. When she was finished giving me all advices I stepped onto a magic circle with Engelbert and we were enfulged in black and gold particles. My head started to spin and before I knew it, we arrived at the Royal Academy.

Chapter Text

"Welcome to the Royal Academy, Lord Cornelius." I heard a guard say to me. It was strange, because normally they wouldn't greet anyone from what I had heard, but then I looked at him and his smirk. I also recognised his face. He was one of Veronicans. His greetings were a warning for me to "know my place". It was funny to know that just in less than two season I would be the one smirking.

I stepped out from teleportation hall and entered common room. You could feel the tension between everyone. Fortunately I saw familiar faces from Haldenzel sitting at one table. I had trained with them sometimes and they welcomed me as always. We exchanged some opinions and hopes about this year at academy until Engelbert came to me and said that my room was ready.

I left others and with spring in my steps I went upstairs to check my room. Our family was well off so I didn't have to share room with anyone, even Lamprecht. There weren't any walls between bedroom part and living room part. There were only door to storage where all my clothes were stored along with some accesories and door to room with a bath.

Soon I was called downstairs. Our dormitory supervisor, professor Hirschur, came to give us all information needed and left. Three days from now I would have to participate in Fellowship Gathering. I found out, that along with Anastasius, Dusty would be attending as a fifth-year.

I just hope they won't take interest in me or Ehrenfest.

I was not allowed to go to the gathering spot nor to the library. I spent that time by doing any physical training I could, prayed to the gods without creating pillars of light and donated most of my mana to Jacob. He already looked really nice as a two-handed katana in dark and deep green colour. I just needed a bit more length and he would be perfect.

On the fated day I restrained from any activities except creating my hidden room. I didn't create anything as big as my room in the estate, just two sections - one for resting and second for brewing, training and trying my crazy ideas I was sure to have in future. I left it open for Engelbert to organise the place while I went downstairs to the common area to join other students. We were ranked fifteenth and we had to remember our place. We left the dormitory and carefully went to enjoy the beggining of this year's term in academy out of our parents' reach. It was like moving out of house to another town to go to a university.

Listening to a noble speech was boring, but at the same time I wanted it to last as long as possible to not go to Fellowship Gathering for archduke candidates. Unfortunately I didn't have a choice and along with Lamprecht I went to meet royalty. I silently prayed to Verbergen to not let princes realise anything that could interest them. My prayers were heard and we were sent to our table immediately. We greeted lady Eglantine and felt Anastasius' gaze on our backs. Next was Dunkelfelger and of course they wouldn't let me go so easily.

"Linkberg? Another grandson of Lord Bonifatius? The eternal rival of our previous archduke, Lord Eberhard?" I was asked by an archnoble that showed eagerness to play ditter with me.

"Yes, Bonifatius is my grandfather and my master." I answered.

"Oh, maybe then you won't disappoint us as you even call yourself his disciple." he said, emphasizing word 'disappoint' while looking at my brother.

"I will do my best to uphold my grandfather's renown." I indirectly said that I would play ditter with them.

I hoped that was enough and thankfully they let us go. Drewanchel didn't bother to strike a conversation with us as we were family of knights. Glissenmeyer and Hauchletze also didn't pay any attention to us. Ahrensbach were full of pride and looking down on us as we were "under their protection". The rest of the winning duchies didn't say anything of value. When it was time for us to wait for lower ranking duchies, I could feel their resentment toward Ehrenfest save for Frenbeltag.

After the stressful day I send report to Ehrenfest fully aware that it would go through Veronica. Tomorrow I had my first classes. I reviewed what I could and went to sleep, but of course I woke up too early and was chastised by Engelbert for waking up before him. My first test was math… Two-digit math… I felt like I was in 3rd or 4th class in primary school. Considering my age in this world it was appropriate, but it was boring. I finished quickly and waited for the rest of students. I could see that laynobles were strugling and even mednobles from Veronica's faction had a hard time. Of course Hartmut passed it along with me.

That's the first-rate scholar in the making. I will just have to contain his devoutness to Rozemyne somehow.

At fourth bell we had theology test. We just had to write down King, Queen, Eternal Five and their respective domains. I was surprised when more than half the people didn't pass. Like how could they not remember just seven gods. I would love to show them greek, nordic and japanese mitologies.

After quick break I had my last class for today - mana control. Professor Hirchur gave us feystones and told us to fill them with mana. For someone who had been brewing for quite ome time it didn't pose any challenge. I went to professor and showed her feystone filled with my pale green mana. It became like that after my blessing acquisition ceremony, but I still could not understand why it was so beautiful for me. She ordered me to withdraw mana from a feystone and I did as she had said, passing another class on the first try. At least this class was easy enough for every single student to pass.

After that I returned to the dormitory. I ate dinner with others from Leisegang faction and spent rest of the day in my room offloading mana into my manablade. Next day I had a history, geography and music classes. It was hard to ignore my historical knowledge about Earth that sometimes intertwined with Yurgenschmidt's, but somehow I managed to pass, even if I didn't get the highest score. Geography was easier as I only had to remember names of duchies and their current ranking. Last for the day was music class. I didn't want to be the best, but I was to play only one song of my choosing, so I played a song about Flutrane and her subordinates. As spring was my birth season, I wanted to perfect my performance of that one piece. I started slow and steady, like a river that always keeps its rythm. Next I pulled a string that made a sound like Verdrenna's thunder. I switched between those two tempos and at the end I finished with a calming sounds like Verfuhremeer's waves. After I finished playing, I looked around. People were looking at me, some of girls even blushing. Fortunately I was not invited to music teachers' tea party. I left as soon as professor told me that I passed.

On the third day we had practical classes - mana compression and highbeast creation. Of course I passed compression class inan instant. I just had to realease some compressed mana and fold it into a cape again. Densitymeter jumped to maximum. After fourth bell we gathered for next class. To my surprise I didn't meet Fraularm, but professor Rauffen who were supposed to teach us. I was standing next to Hartmut, already waiting for professor to order me to take a flight. My friend was looking at Okita strangely and he finally asked:

"Cornelius, you are aware that your highbeast doesn't have any wings? You won't pass this class."

"Ah, young Linkberg, your friend is right. How are you supposed to fly without wings?" I heard from behind. It was Rauffen who was also looking at my dear husky companion.

"Professor, I will pass this class if I prove that I can fly with it, right?"

He stroked his chin deep in thought. After a while he finally responded.

"Yes, the only condition is that you make a flight around Royal Academy."

"Then I don't have anything to worry about." I answered confidently.

He looked at me quizzically, but then just called everyone who had already created their highbeast. He told us to mount them and take off carefully. I saw him stealing glances at me along with other students. They couldn't believe that my Okita just ran in the air next to them. Later I was praised by Rauffen for mobility of my highbeast in comparision to others'.

Rumours spread quickly and before I returned to the dormitory, people had already known. It could have passed as a new trend, but nobody was able to reproduce a highbeast without wings, so I was treated more like a rare talent than a trendmaker. Of course students from Ehrenfest wanted me to show them and were relentless at that, so I made a promise to show them someday after getting my schtappe. Hartmut showed much more curiosity about it than I had expected. I somehow felt like I had become his research subject, but after not talking much lately we started interacting more from this point onward.

Evening came and went while talking with Leisegangs and knight apprentices that weren't from Veronica faction. Before I realised, it was Leafday and I had the hardest class in whole Royal Academy cirriculum ahead of me - court etiquette. I was nearly pooping my pants with every step. It felt like I was back in my high school final year, right before the native language exam. Although… I was sure that bowing my head should be easier than remembering grammar rules…

"It is the first time since your winter debut that I see you that stressed." Hartmut remarked with a smirk.

"To be honest with you, this is the only class I am afraid of not passing on the first day." I replied.

"I can do you a favor and help you, if you want."

"Oh, and what would you like in exchange?" I was not so naive to think he would do me a favor and not want anything in return.

"I want you to let me ride your highbeast with you and I would need some help in gathering ingredients after we get our schtappes. I've heard you are quite accomplished as a knight, even though we just started our 1st year."

I put on a noble smile and answered with pride "I think we have a deal."

Later on we had to attend a tea party where teacher pretended to be an archduke candidate. I thanked gods that it was not professor Primevere that was grading us.

Professor Marlene was an old archnoble lady from Drewanchel that had graduated finishing both scholar and attendant courses. She had moved to Sovereignty soon after her graduation and had been teaching in academy for over thirty years. It was an open secret that she stayed true to her Drewanchel's blood and sometimes immersed herself in research for days during off-season. She mostly had been developing magic tools that helped attendants during tea parties and in the chambers of their masters and mistresses.

She told us all we needed to know about arrangements and started calling archnobles from six high ranking duchies first and took them to a seperate room. Soon after students were emerging from that room one after another with gloomy expression in their eyes, trying to hide their dissatisfaction with results of their exam. From the first six duchies passed somewhere around one third of the students.

Next were called students from duchies from seventh to fourteenth as they had less archnobles than grand duchies. They were leaving quite fast, at least those that didn't pass. Whole session took a little bit shorter than the previous one and this time professor graded positively only one fifth of the students. I was starting to panic. I didn't want to repeat this exam.

Finally it came time for the rest of us to enter. Professor Marlene showed an aura of an archduke candidate, probably to intimidate us. As the person with the highest standing among this group of students, I was seated the closest to the professors' chair which was empty for now. She was waiting for everyone in the center. We had to greet her first. When all were seated, I was called to greet professor. I walked to her, kneeled, crossed my hands, bowed and said:

"May I pray for a blessing in appreciation of this serendipitous meeting, ordained by the harsh judgment of Ewigeliebe?"

"You may."

"O Ewigeliebe, God of Life, may professor Marlene be blessed. I am Cornelius of Ehrenfest, here to learn to become proper noble fit to serve Yurgenschmidt. May the future be bright.” A white light flew towards professor, but I didn't dare to move.

"Raise your head. Cornelius, I have heard great stories about your blessings from Fire kin. Many said that you are more of a Dunkelfelger than some of their graduating students."

"Thank you, professor, but it was only my yearning for Mestionora's blessing that have made people say such things. At the same time some people more privy to my life might call me a Drewanchel student."

"Oh, I see." was her only reaction. She sent me away to the table where I was to wait for others to pass or fail their greetings. Hartmut also passed greetings with ease and sat next to me. We patiently waited for everyone, but most students were sent away from the room. There were only two or three people from each duchy left. And so the second part of the test started.

First we were served some sweets from Sovereignty and tea. Our "host" described everything and we began some small talk. Professor started with light topics about typical stuff like duchy rankings from the latest conference and deals that were made public. Then it came time to entertain the host ourselves. I started by asking about her research.

"Professor, I have heard stories about your excellency in designing new magic tools for attendants. How do you come up with such great ideas?"

We began conversation about research and magic circles and also about work of an attendant. Sometimes Hartmut chimed in, but at some point he pinched my thigh without anyone noticing it. I went a bit overboard with my eagerness to hear about magic tools, but professor seemed pleased by our talk. Then rest of the students had their chance to talk next. I sat in silence and pretended to like lumps of sugar that were served to us. When the time came, professor Marlene said:

"It seems Dregarnuhr, the Goddess of Time, has woven today's threads with exceptional speed and grace."

Then she began to tell us our grades. I passed along with Hartmut and four other students from loosing duchies. When we left I gave Hartmut a sound-blocking tool and promised him to repay the favor just as we had agreed earlier. With court etiquette behind me I was not afraid of anything more. I felt relieved. When I came back I put my bracelet with Supreme Couple and Eternal Five's sigils and prayed to them in thanks in my hidden room.

Next day was already a Winday. Four days of exams had quickly come and gone. Today I could rest and just watch people pratice sword dance. I was very interested in observing it. Original Cornelius was selected for his graduation to perform it so I didn't want to be worse. We were led to a spacious hall where students from all years were gathered. First-years were told to only observe. I came closer to place where professor Rauffen and another professor from Ehrenfest were preparing selected third-years for their first try. When all was ready I watched them dance. Most of them were from Dunkelfelger, but I also saw one Drewanchel and two Klassenberg students among them.

I watched with anticipation. It was clear to see for everyone that they had to practice much more to become better. Sometimes someone fell out of rythm or lost balance. What interested me the most was the fact that they were using only one-handed swords and didn't know what to do with the free hand. That made me thinking if sword dance wasn't another ritual just like Dunkelfelger's pre-ditter dance with spears. If they needed Leidenschaft's spear for ritual to work, maybe one person should have held another divine instrument. Chalice would be useless, Flutrane's staff also wouldn't be a good to operate during dance. That left either Ewigeliebe's sword or Shutzaria's shield. Sword would just create feybeasts, but shield… Its properties and uses were not explained in book except for its high above the standard magic circle. After I came back to my room I swore to try sword dance when I finally got my schtappe, which was just around the corner.

When everyone from Ehrenfest had already left, I went further in to find my Divine Will. I finally arrived at the right location where Erwaermen was turned into a tree. My future schtappe was lying next to one of his roots. It was beautiful crystal in all colours of gods. When I picked it up, I started supplying it with mana and right before I saw teachers again, I had fully absorbed my Divine Will. Of course I pretended that I was still holding it in my hands until I entered my room in the dormitory. Engelbert was a bit startled when I said that I had already absorbed it.

After he calmed down a bit I asked him to help me send a letter to professor Solagne. I wanted to register with library as soon as possible. I quickly got an answer. The letter told me to come to library with our dormitory supervisor in five days at fourth bell. With that done I entered my hidden room and tried to manifest my schtappe. I succeded on the first try. I made it appear and dissapear four times and proceeded to turn it into a knife and shield.

Hmm… All good. Now it's time to test one last thing

"Excalibur" I chanted and saw my schtappe disappear from my sight, but still felt it in my hand.

"O kurwa" I heard Jacob express his astonishment in the background.

Chapter Text

"Are you insane?!" he yelled at me. "How did you even do that?"

He hadn't even realised that he had cursed in our native language from Earth. I knew that he had been a big fan of Fate series, but didn't expect him to react so strongly.

"Why are you so surprised? There's magic in this world and imagination can influence its results." I explained calmly.

"I… know, but… you have just recreated sword from legends and anime. Are you planning to become king of knights?"

"Rucken" I chanted to change Excalibur back into my wand "Don't worry, I'm not planning to play Knights of The Round Table. In this country a book is an item that makes someone a king. I only want to someday use Saber's noble phantasm."

"Considering that the first weapon you recreated was from my favourite anime, I'm a bit afraid what you will do in the future."

"You will have to wait a bit to find out." I answered in a cheerful tone, winking at Jacob, who only sighed and remained silent.

I practiced casting rott a bit and I started thinking again.

Can I cast rott in other colours? After all 'Rot' means 'red' in german language, then maybe…

"Blau. Grün. Gelb." blue, green and yellow light emerged from my schtappe and stopped at the ceiling.

It works! Now I can at least give different signals when I become Myne's guard knight.

Satisfied with my results I exited my hidden room and ate supper in my room to pretend that I still hadn't absorbed my Divine Will. Before the sleep came the final test - using waschen after number two. Of course I firstly tried to clean some thing and learn control over this spell. I didn't want to drown in the toilet. Mana enhancement training came in handy, because it had taught me precision in controlling mana. When I was done, I aimed my schtappe behind my back and said "Waschen". I felt cold water on the lower half of my back and nearly jumped from sudden drop in the temperature. Second time I tried to regulate temperature with my imagination and it worked. Warm water cleaned my behind and for the first time since my memories had come back I felt this clean. I probably couldn't control my facial expression, because Engelbert asked me why I was so happy and it was unbecoming to have such a grin on my face. I slept very peacefully that night.

On the Fireday I passed schtappe fundamentals class and awaited registering at the library. Professor Hirschur was very reluctant to leave her lab, but eventually came to help us with registering, but as I had expected she just showed up in the dormitory, took us to the library and left. I, Hartmut and few mednobles were registering. Laynobles didn't have enough money. Maybe from the next year they would be able to afford that after Veronica's imprisonment. After finishing registration process and everone leaving I instantly got to the point of my search.

"Professor Solagne, could you tell me, where I could find documents about flora of southern duchies? I don't mean only feyplants, but also normal plants that can be harvested there."

"Ah, yes, please, follow me." she said and went upstairs to chained books section. She showed me to a bookshelf nearby statue of Mestionora. I stole a few glances at her, but looked away when professor started explaining what books were about topics I wanted to research. "Books within your hands' reach are mostly about feyplants. Those at the bottom are old notes from a certain professor that had spent years traveling through nearly all duchies to document every plant he had encountered. You can read them as much as you want, but remember that materials from this floor can't be borrowed. They have to stay in the library."

"Understood, professor. Thank you ever so much for your guidance. I will strive to gain more of Mestionora's blessing."

"I'm glad that there is someone in this generation that care about knowledge." I heard her comment under her nose while leaving me alone on the top floor. Before I started looking through notes, I approched Mestionora's sculpture and tried giving mana to Grutrissheit she was holding. I gave it half of my mana and from that day I donated half of my mana every time I visited library. On the first day I found notes about Ehrenfest's flora. There was no mention about taue or parue, so I shouldn't have hoped for much from those notes. The only explanation was if the author had visited central district in spring, when paure had been long gone and taues hadn't been yet showing.

My first day in library didn't bring any discoveries. I returned to the dormitory where I was caught by Leisegang's knights, Haldenzel's knights and Hartmut who wanted me to show them my highbeast. I agreed to show them on the nearest Earthday. In the meantime I visited library and Ehrenfest's training grounds every single day thanks to passing all my classes. I practiced just swings and ran a bit around the area. One hundred swings from above head, from the right side and from the left side. I used double-edged sword to not show anybody katana. It was still the middle of winter so I kept my feystone armor on.

On Fruitday I made a discovery. There was a tree in Losrenger that needed warm climate and huge amount of water to bloom. Its fruits were hard and big on the outside, but when cracked open they revealed many small white grains that had hygroscopic properties.

That's it! I found it!

I was sure that I found rice. I had to be it. There was no other option. Altough it was called differently, it had similar enough name - rizzen. It felt strange seeing a picture of a tree with coconut-like long fruits. I had to find a student from Losregner, but first I had to survive tomorrow's show about my highbeast.

As everyone gathered around me, they splitted their roles to watching Okita and scanning surrounding. They had to be prepared for any feybeast or Veronican attacking. I mounted my highbeast and walked a bit, then went up to be just above people's head and froze mid-air.

"Lord Cornelius, how do you keep it in air if it doesn't have wings?" I heard one student from scholar course ask. I hadn't even seen himcoming with us.

"I just walk in the air."

"But… There is no feybeast that walks in the air." I could see the beggining of a processing error in his head.

"I am well aware of that. It's just magic."

My statement successfully shut them up. They didn't know how to refute my argument and just watched as I landed and made Okita act like a real dog. I even let them pet it and feel its soft fur. I then asked them for advice about collecting in our gathering spot and they showed me different feyplants, some of which I recognised from Heidemarie's lessons. They helped me and Hartmut collect some. After finishing collecting ingredients Hartmut rode Okita with me and we were back in the dormitory in no time. I had fulfilled my end of the deal with my friend, but as I had spent too much time outdoors, I wouldn't have enough time to research plants in library today, so I went straight into my hidden room to try different schtappe transformations.

First I used standard spells - streitkolben, schwer, messer, lanze, beimen and stylo. All was working. I had never heard about spells for light bands and mana net, so I just swung my schtappe with intent of creating those and right then they shot from my schtappe.

So now it is time for…

"Excalibur."

Once again I held in my hand an invisible sword. I imagined dispersing the illusion and it disappeared. Blue grip, gold guard and beautiful blade out of a fairytale. I did a few practice swings and it fitted well in my hand. Because I was currently on Fate series my next weapon was…

"Gae Bolg!"

Long, red spear with vein-like carvings appeared in my hands. I remembered that it somehow had been able to pierce people's hearts with every thrust in anime so it must have had some homing ability. I was not so good with spear yet, so I didn't try it out right there. I also didn't want to recreate Gilgamesh's noble phantasm, so I went to another weapon.

"Mjolnir."

This time it was a hammer. The same I had seen in Avengers movies. I threw it and made it come back to my hand pretty easily, but no matter what I tried, I could not use lightning.

Considering that it was using Thor's godly authority over lightning, maybe in Yurgenschmidt I need another's god authority or to be more precise - god's power.

I casted rucken and mjolnir again, but this time I imagined sigils of Verdrenna on both sides of it. When I poured more mana into it, it started making crackling sounds and small violet bolt were zipping around my Mjolnir. Another experiment of mine was succesful. There were two more swords I wanted to try.

"Blue Rose Sword" I chanted in english and now I was holding a sword that looked like it was made from ice. I added Schneeahst's sigil on both sides at the base of a blade, just to be sure. I got to work immediately. I stucked it into the floor and whispered something I had only imagined in my past life.

"Enhance… armament."

Whole floor was now covered in a layer of ice that erupted from my sword, but it was only first phase. I needed to know, if I could use its full power.

"Release recollection."

Small sprouts grew and suddenly enchanting ice roses bloomed in their full splendor. It was not visible to the naked eye, but they were releasing mana as intended, but because there was no living being under the ice, my mana was depleting at alarming rate. I quickly pulled Blue Rose Sword out of the ground and casted rucken. Ice disappeared just like waschen spell, few seconds after cutting off mana supply. I lost too much mana and had to stop my research. The last sword had to be left for another time.

Godslayer's Greatsword from Elden Ring… I wonder if its black flame could be imagined as Amaterasu from Naruto…

I didn't want to oppose gods, but I wanted to create it as a safety measure for the future in case I would need it. Either way I exited hidden room and didn't leave my room for the rest of the day. I didn't want to waste any potions if there wasn't any need to use them. At the end of the day I took a long bath in hot water and fell asleep rather quickly.

Next day I ventured into library and made another great discovery - cacao. It was a common plant in Dunkelfelger with the same name, but written "kakao". It is ignored by people, because they didn't know how to prepare it. To be honest I also didn't know, but I would have Rozemyne as my sister soon and she definitely knew what to do. When I was leaving the library I was approached by a student with blue cape, who I had met during fellowship gathering.

Chapter Text

"Lord Cornelius"

"Ah, Lord Raisenhart, I see that Dregarnuhr, the Goddess of Time, has answered my prayers and woven the threads of our fates together once again. To what do I owe this serendiptous meeting?"

"You are heavily blessed by Verbergen as it was hard for anyone to find you after you had passed all your classes on the first try. I came here to ask, if you wil uphold your promise given during Fellowship Gathering."

"I will gladly take part in the banquet of Leidenschaft. When and where does it start?" I was perhaps a bit too excited to play ditter, because I didn't stop to consider my words.

"Ahahahaha! That's the spirit. As expected of true son of Linkbergs. On the Leafday at third bell on Dunkelfelger's training grounds."

"Then I will be sure to come prepared to show my respect to the pantheon of Fire."

Professor Solagne saw our exchange and she got a bit worried about me - student from fifteenth duchy invited to a ditter by Dunkelfelger student. I assured her that I promised them earlier one match, so there wasn't anything to worry about. I got three days until ditter, so I decided to focus solely on training with Excalibur and Jacob.

Yes, I decided it was hightime for him to show his power. He was in high spirits when I told him about incoming fight and gladly helped me in practice. I also remembered that he had given a blessing to mother during their greetings. I asked him to give me a blessing from Angriff, Schlageziel and Steifebrise. After confirming that it worked well, he nullified those blessings by praying to Verfuhremeer. It took a considerable amount of mana from him (by his standards) and I wondered if he could go through blessings acquisition ceremony to decrease his mana consumption. I was feeling a headache coming from all the questions Ferdinand would ask me, when he found out about Jacob and I had to somehow convince him to let my friend go through the ceremony. I thought about obtaining regisch through Freida and bribing Ferdinand with omni-elemental feystones.

By the way, Lamprecht freaked out when I told him about invitation to a ditter match. He told me stories about getting beaten up by most of their knight apprentices from his year and even having problems against scholars of the sword. As a duchy from lower part of ranking, he could not have refused their invitations, but when they had discovered his strength, they lost any interest in him. We were sitting in one of the rooms that were available for private conversation. I brought my AoE sound-blocking tool just in case Lamprecht wanted to talk about something more private. When he was done recounting events of the past, he looked at my magic tool.

"Cornelius, where did you get that magic tool? It does not look like a standard one and it has Linkberg's and Haldenzel's crests on it."

I activated it and said "I brew it."

"What? You… But how? …So that's why mother…"

"After my poisoning I asked mother to teach me brewing. Lord Justus and sister Heidemarie also taught me about poisons at the same time. I might have learnt a lot, but I still need some guidance. If you want, we can brew something sometimes or I can brew you some potions if you want." I skipped the fact that I had been Ferdinand's disciple for a while. Better not to make him think that I had joined Ferdinand fanclub.

"I appreciate the offer. I would gladly accept some potions. Of course, I will bring all ingredients needed, but brewing… I'm not that good, so I will have to pass. I have too much trouble just working as a guard knight."

Now that he mentioned it, I asked a question that had been in the back of my mind for a long time.

"Lamprecht, why did you choose to become Wilfried's guard knight? You know how archducal family is perceived by most nobles."

He got a bit red and looked away.

"I… didn't want the Trombe to target you again."

I was left speechless. He had done that to protect me - his brother. I felt warmth in my heart because of his words, but there still was an issue with how people looked at his assigned position.

"I think everyone is in sort of a misunderstanding. We have thought that you wanted to work for aub."

"No!" he shouted "I still don't want to work for them, but I also don't want HER to try killing someone in our family again. First it was you, then they found poison intended for Heidemarie. I… I don't want to lose anyone!"

I didn't know that side of Lamprecht. There hadn't been anything like that in books and I hadn't interacted with him too much to be honest. At that moment I thought that I should have spent some more time with him.

"I'm sorry, brother. I didn't know and I judged your decision, not knowing your circumstances. I think we should start hanging out more when you have some time off duty, but for now maybe you want to come and watch my ditter?"

"Not a bad idea. I will carry you on my back when you get beaten."

We laughed together after his words and finished our meeting. I left for my hidden room to think about some tactics to defeat Dunkelfelger students without showing powers of my new schtappe transformations and soon came the time for the showdown. Engelbert was going with me and Lamprecht. I was sure he would send a report to father after today's fight. I at least asked him to bring parchment, which he did without asking any questions. He already knew better not to ask me questions. We quickly arrived at Dunkelfegler's training grounds thanks to Lamprecht's guidance and were greeted by a loud crowd. I saw lord Raisenhart emerging from among students. He stopped us before we could kneel.

"Ah, Lord Cornelius, Lord Lamprecht, no need for lengthy greetings. I'm glad that you arrived. Lord Lamprecht, are you here to ditter along your brother?"

"I'm glad to see you so eager to play, Lord Raisenhart, but I am here only to watch my younger brother's first ditter." Lamprecht said.

"Ah, I understand very well. First ditter is very important event in someone's life. Please, stand back and watch your brother on his big day."

Lamprecht did as he was told and waited to see me receive beating of my life.

Tch, I will show you, brother. I won't lose so easily.

"So, Lord Raisenhart, what are the rules for the ditter?"

"Quite simple. You will play a dueling ditter. One-on-one match to the first blood or till other party surrenders or is unable to continue. As you are a first-year, you will be paired with my cousin, who also is a first-year. Of course he will be taking knight course in the future."

I liked that they didn't underestimated me by making me fight scholar of the sword. But I thought that our ditter needed something more.

"And what are the stakes, Lord Raisenhart?"

He looked at me surprised, but then I saw him smile like a maniac.

"What do you propose, Lord Cornelius?"

"I would like to ask something unusual. I have read about two plants - kakao and rizzen. Kakao is pretty common in your duchy and rizzen is easily found in Losregner which is your neighbor, so I am sure you can acquire some fruits from that tree. In exchange I can offer monetary equivalent of fruits you would provide or I can give you Dark-element feystones."

At the words 'Dark-element feystones' he made a surprised face, but quickly regained composure and thought for a while. He even sent an Ordnonnanz and soon after he got an answer and walked back to me.

"Lord Cornelius, I will provide ten of each fruit you mentioned. In exchange please put into stakes ten Dark-element feystones." he offered.

"Five" I countered.

"What?"

"Five Dark-element feystones. I know their price. Also fruits I asked you for are very common, so you would not spend much money buying them."

"Fine, be it five feystones. Should we start?"

"Firstly, I would like to write a ditter contract. I prepared a single parchment for it."

We specified ditter rules and stakes. I made sure to see a clause added that I only need to fight lord Raisenhart's cousin to win and when our contract burned, I prepared myself for battle. I put feystone armor and helmet on. I was feeling confident enough to not cover my arms and legs, but it was counted as rookie's mistake. Lord Raisenhart stood between me and his cousin - lord Welderen. Lord Raisenhart was our referee. Before we started, I had looked around and had seen many eyes on me. Most students stopped training to see our battle.

Well, if I have such audience, why not show off a little?

"Mjolnir" I chanted quietly and prepared for the attack. People looked fascinated by my weapon. Lord Welderen transformed his schtappe into typical sword. Now we were facing each other and waiting for signal.

"Begin!" I heard lord Raisenhart's shout and instantly threw Mjolnir straight at my opponent. Of course he dodged it with ease and laughed at me.

"Who in their right mind threw their weapon at the start of the battle?"

Students behind him were dumbfounded by the sight of a hammer floating and stopping mid-air. Lord Welderen took two steps towards me and didn't realise that Mjolnir was coming back to my hand. He got hit in back of his head rendering him unconscious. Nobody moved or said anything until lord Raisenhart snapped out of confusion and announced me a winner of this ditter.

Cheers erupted from the crowd and I was attacked by a barrage of questions about my hammer. Of course I didn't say anything and waited until those ditterheads cooled down. Some wanted to ditter with me, but lord Raisenhart stopped them and approached me.

"Congratulations, Lord Cornelius. You won your first ditter. You can be proud of yourself. I am sure everyone wants to fight you now, but first let us discuss details of our contract."

At the word 'contract' people dispersed and gave us some space to talk. Main point was that I would receive my reward at Interduchy Tournament, because preparations needed some time. Well, that was understandable. I even preferred it that way, but before I could leave he asked me something I was not expecting.

"So, Lord Cornelius. If you defeated my cousing so fast, I think you're also dissatisfied with length of your ditter, so maybe you could fight with me under the same rules?"

"I will gladly fight you, Lord Raisenhart, but this time let's do it without stakes."

Without much thinking I accepted his proposal and went to one end of a dueling area and waited. Lamprecht was anxiously looking at me, who was about to face experienced knight apprentice from Dunkelfelger. I wasn't scared. My blood was boiling and I wanted to fight. His cousin was a bit disappointing, but now I could go all-out with enhancement magic.

"Lamprecht, could you be our referee in this ditter?" I asked my brother. I wanted him to have a better view of my fight. He reluctantly agreed and stood between us.

"Cornelius, are you really sure that you want to fight against Lord Raisenhart?" he tried to discourage me, but it just made me want it more.

"Don't worry, brother. Just signal the beginning of the battle, when you are ready." I answered with a smirk on my face.

I transformed my schtappe into Excalibur in invisible state and looked at lord Raisenhart. He prepared sword and shield. Just a thing I would expect from a fifht-year.

"Jacob, give me some blessings, if you could." I asked quietly and he gave me blessings from Angriff, Schlageziel and Streifebrise. I hoped that it would be enough.

"Begin!" Lamprecht shouted and I instantly rushed to attack. I needed initiative, otheriwse I would be dominated. Thanks to blessings, enhancement magic and Excalibur being invisible, lord Raisenhart reacted a bit too late when I took a swing from the right side at him, but as a Dunkelfelger he only took one step back. Instead of pushing further I used force from Excalibur being deflected by shield, steadied my legs and quickly turned around striking from the left. Sparkles flew as our swords collided and I gained an upper hand. I held Excalibur with two hands and lord Raisenhart was using only one. I could overpower him, but my happiness didn't last long. Difference in age and growth of our bodies still showed that I would easily lose if I didn't concentrate.

When lord Raisenhart was focusing on stopping my blade, I kicked him in the gut and he went flying few meters back. I was surprised that I could to such things with enhancement magic, but maybe it was a bit too OP. Not wasting more time at thinking I rushed again at my oponnent, before he could get up. I casted rucken and made my schtappe disappear without anyone noticing. I pretended to take a vertical swing with my full force. Lord Raisenhart quickly raised his shield to protect himself from invisible blade and when he could no longer see my hands or face I moved switfly behind him, took out Jacob and put him next to Raisenhart's throat.

"I think I win this time, Lord Raisenhart." I said while smiling.

He turned his head around to see a manablade next to his throat. He raised both his hands in the air and surrendered.

"Cornelius wins!" I heard Lamprecht shout with pride in his voice and once again I was surrounded by student overblessed by Brennwarme and Angriff. After fending off most of them I thanked lord Raisenhart and lord Welderen for the duels and evacuated with Lamprecht to our dormitory. As we hadn't reserved any private room for the talk, we promised to talk the next day.

I entered my hidden room and waschened myself. I took one potion from my belt and drank it. I didn't feel the need to make up for used mana so I only drank energizing potion in order to have some strength left until dinner. The next day Lamprecht was singing praises for me during our little "tea party". Thankfully everything he said was silenced by my AoE sound-blocking tool. Later we went to the gathering spot to collect some ingredients for potions Lamprecht needed to survive knight course. Thanks to those events I mended somewhat broken bond with my brother.

Few days later Lamprecht finished his practical classes. My victory in ditter motivated him and he did a speedrun in knight course. Finishing classes earlier than he had expected, he became my sparring partner for the rest of the school term. He tried to find out about my unique schtappe transformations, but I didn't say a word. He wouldn't be able to recreate them either way.

Chapter Text

As I was already finished with ditter for the rest of the term, I could go on another venture - selling materials. I had brought two big jars with me to Academy. Both filled with Darkness-element feystones. I also had Engelbert pack separately four biggest ones in my bags and now was the time to earn some money.

Engelbert wrapped one jar in some material to hide its content from curious eyes and we went to experience new adventure. In truth I just went to professor Hirschur's lab. I decided to skip lengthy greetings, because I was sure she would ignore it anyway.

"Professor Hirschur, do you have a moment to speak about brewing?"

…

…

…

Silence. Just as expected.

"Professor Hirschur, I have some rare ingredients for you."

As if a lightning struck her, she stopped brewing and was already in my face with maniacal look in her eyes.

"Oh, Lord Conrelius, please, do tell me more." she said with anticipation.

"I'm glad that you heard me, professor. To be more specific, I collected some ingredients and wanted to sell them. Would you like to take a look?" I signaled Engelbert to show her a jar filled to the brim with black feystones.

"I-Impossible! Those are…" she completely lost her composure.

"Yes, pure Darkness-element feystones. Lord Ferdinand is one of my most frequent customer, whenever I obtain them. Do you want to buy some by any chance?"

"I… I would like to buy ten of them, but you must be aware that students cannot partake in commerce in Royal Academy."

"That is not a problem, professor. I just need to take on some crest-certified work that is stating that I have to provide brewing ingredients. Isn't that right?" I asked with a sly grin.

"I see. Then would you like to do a crest-certified work for me? I need ten Dark-element feystones. I'm paying two small golds and five big silvers."

"I will gladly accept, professor."

We quickly filled needed documents and I got my money. Before leaving professor asked me not to visit Gundolf. She wanted to boast about her newly obtained feystones. I gladly obliged. Next I searched for some students who would want some rare feystones. Strange smell was much stronger here. Suddenly a student ran out of one of labs and huge mass of smoke was right behind him. He had a very intense cough. I ran to him, ordered to close his eyes and casted washen on his face. I didn't say anything about nose, because I wanted to make sure I cleared any possible poison he could have inhaled. I closed the door to his lab with a kick and asked him what happened.

"Fi… Fire broke out, when I added Flammerzung fruit. Ah, my research. All will be gone in mere moments. I can't even do anything now."

He broke down in front of us and I felt a pang in my chest. I decided to help him. I opened the door and flooded source of the fire with waschen. I concentrated really hard to erase only fire. It was something I hadn't practiced much, but thankfully I succeeded.

When everything was back under control, I entered the lab and looked around. My attention was focused on the table where all brewing tools were stationed. They were enormous. As big as Gargamel's cauldron I saw often in Smurfs. I took a look at documents around and saw an interesting magic circle. Cuococalura's and Vulcanift's sigils in the middle. Below it was Leidenschaft's. On the left and right I saw Shutzaria with lines indicating that she was channeling her power (blowing Wind) into Fire. I felt that something was missing. Unrestricted fanning the flames was dangerous in itself. I had an idea how to repair it, but I had to ask that student about the purpose of that magic circle.

"You can enter now. Everything is fine. Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't introduced myself. May I pray for a blessing in appreciation of this serendipitous meeting, ordained by the harsh judgment of Ewigeliebe?"

"…You may." he answered hesitantly.

"O Ewigeliebe, God of Life, may this new meeting be blessed. I am Cornelius of Ehrenfest. First-year. Pleased to meet you."

"I'm Hermanus of Drewanchel. Third-year. Also pleased to meet you. You saved my research project. I want to thank you somehow for that."

"Before that, may I ask what is the goal of this magic circle?"

"Are you interested? From what I heard you are more of a knight, but very well. I wanted to brew new brewing tools, but my magic circle was not complete, as you could have seen a moments before."

"Hmmm… Shouldn't you add Gebordnung to control flow and force of Wind? Also everything would be better if you hid whole mechanism behind Chaosfliehe's barrier as Shutzaria is already used with Leidenschaft."

He paused to look at the magic circle and traced some lines with his fingers on the parchment. Silence was abruptly interrupted by his outburst.

"You're a genius, Lord Cornelius! It's exactly what I was missing in this circle. And the protection of Chaosfliehe. What a modern idea to use it instead of Shutzaria!"

And I had thought that there was no noble in Yurgenschmidt that would be less noble-like in behaviour than Rozemyne when seeing books, but I was only thinking from perspective of a reader, so I wasn't so certain.

"Now, please tell me. How can repay you for your knowledge and bravery?"

The look in his eyes… I had a gut feeling that I had overdone it just like with Dunkelfelgers. Engelbert was giving me a worried look. He could barely contain his worry when he had been watching my ditter and now I was getting attention from Drewanchel student.

"I have and idea. I have brought some rare ingredients that are looking for a new owner. If you could look at them and tell me, who would like to adopt some or all of them?"

His eyes nearly fell out when he saw my jar. He had a processing error, but soon enough regained his senses.

"…I will contact some people in my dormitory, who will jump at the occasion to obtain such feystones. I will contact you in two or three days, Lord Cornelius."

"Thank you, Lord Hermanus. I will await your Ordonannz."

After that I came back to the dormitory and asked Lamprecht to collect some ingredients with me. I wanted to get some feyplants rich with Life and Light elements. Those were the hardest to get in Ehrenfest. In addition we killed some feybeasts and obtained their claws, teeth and pelts. With that I could brew duchy-wide contracts with mother's help.

Two days later before breakfast I received message from lord Hermanus.

"Here's Hermanus. Lord Cornelius, as promised I contacted some scholar apprentices from Drewanchel, but it got out of hand, because now most of my dormitory and even our dormitory supervisor want at least one feystone. What should I do now?"

Message was repeated twice more. I needed to think of something before they start sending Ordonnanzes or pestering me in the hallways. I activated Ordonnanz and send an inquiry to my new acquaintance.

"Lord Hermanus, is there any possibility that I could come to your lab for one bell and finish crest-certified work there?"

Soon I received a positive answer.

"There will be no problem, Lord Cornelius. Thanks to you I finished my research earlier than planned. Is Earthday at 4th bell good for you?"

"Yes, I will make sure to be there half a bell earlier."

When the time came I went to meet with lord Hermanus. To my surprise he wasn't alone in his lab. There was a bunch of people, all with emerald green capes. They were talking with lord Hermanus, who was looking quite scared. I soon recognized those students from Fellowship Gathering. Behind them was standing their lady, who realised I had entered the lab.

"Lord Cornelius, I'm glad that you arrived early. I wanted to speak with you."

Lady Adolphine adressed me directly. I hadn't forseen that she would come with her entire entourage, so I wasn't prepared mentally to deal with archduke candidates from high ranking duchies.

"I have heard about a certain ingredients that need a new owner. I came to make a one-time offer depending on quantity and quality of said ingredients. May I see them?"

"Very well, Lady Adolphine, but please, refrain from touching them without mana-blocking gloves."

I signaled Engelbert to show her everything - both jars and four big feystones. She was appraising them with that glint in the eyes. The same I had seen during my first meeting with Ferdinand when I was telling him affinities of ingredients.

"Magnificent. Truly wonderful. I've never seen such a collection before. Lord Cornelius, I will pay seven big and six small golds for everything without counting them. Remember that it is one-time offer."

Holy shit. I knew that Drewanchels were rich and obsessed with research, but…

That was exorbitant price I had never hoped to get today. Without much thinking I agreed on the spot.

"I will honored. Let us fill out necessary documents."

From there everything went fast. We signed documents and Engelbert received my gold coins in a small bag. With so much money I just wanted to go back and store it in my hidden room, but I was stopped.

"On another note, Lord Cornelius, I have heard from lord Hermanus that you are quite capable person in topic of magic circles. I will await your attendance in scholar course in two years." Adolphine said with a smile like a predator looking at its prey.

I gulped silently, said goodbyes and left as fast as noble facade allowed me to. I didn't want to be in the same room as her. I felt like she was some kind of poisonous snake that would bite me the moment I lowered my guard. I was so glad, when we reached my room and I could finally relax.

For the rest of the school term I was socializing with Haldenzel's knight, lord Hermanus, lord Wedleren and my brother. Slowly playing gewinnen with people while drinking tea turned out to be a good time.

Soon came Interduchy Tournament and graduation ceremony, but Lamprecht wasn't too happy about it.

Chapter Text

I hoped that without two of my sons in the duchy I would have some peace. Sylvester had to read reports daily from Royal Academy, so at least he wasn't running from his office for now and I just needed to stand next to him. Cornelius began his first year, while Lamprecht was entering his final year, but he still hadn't introduced us to any girl. Elvira was really worried about that. I just hoped I wouldn't be dragged into anything because of that.

First report came after Fellowship Gathering and there was nothing we hadn't already expected. We gained the ire from those below us, but Sylvester was happy with just Frenbeltag being friendly. From another report we found out Cornelius omitted in his report a promise to Dunkelfelger knight apprentice which startled me a bit.

Following week we received new reports. One of them I picked up myself as it was report on Cornelius from his attendant. My wife ordered me to check it myself and pass it to her after finishing my shift. Sylvester cleared the room and took out bottle of vize.

"So, how is your youngest faring?" he asked me, pouring me half a glass.

I looked at the report and I nearly spat out my drink. Cornelius passed everything on the first day. I remembered him studying under Ferdinand, Heidemarie, Justus and Elvira, but it shouldn't have affected him that much. I didn't have strength to say anything to Sylvester and just threw the wooden board to him.

"Quite talented son you have there. Is every one of them like that?"

"No, he's the odd one. Ferdinand was teaching him for a while and I'm sure he is the culprit here."

Now I wondered, what would happen after adoption of that little shrine maiden. She had memories of a life in a completely different world, which still was a bit impossible for me to believe. She must have received a good education for a noble in such advanced world and she would surely repeat Ferdinand's feat of obtaing first-inclass six years in a row. I only hoped that Elvira would accept her as a daughter, but I had more than two years until I had to start thinking about it.

Report were coming every week. I didn't have to worry until I saw one word - Dunkelfelger - in the newest one. A ditter… With stakes… And on top of that Cornelius had won. I didn't even show it to Sylvester. He would make some unnecesary comments. I didn't even want to think aboutit so I passed that report to Elvira and threw it out of my mind. My peace didn't last long as Engelbert sent report about Cornelius' interaction with Drewanchel students and their… ARCHDUKE CANDIDATE? Was my son aspiring to become second Ferdinand? And what was with that sum of money?! Big golds? I knew he had been selling some Darkness-element feystones to scholars through Justus, but I could not imagine the price Drewanchels were willing to pay for those ingredients.

From then on everything went rather smoothly. Cornelius was playing gewinnen with Lamprecht, some knights. I was only afraid about those games with Dunkelfelger's first-year, but for the rest of the term he didn't do anything out of ordinary. When the time came, we teleported to the dormitory. I got two days off duty to celebrate Lamprecht becoming a full-fledged noble. Veronica came with Sylvester instead of Florencia, who "was not feeling well" at the time.

I watched students elegantly running and doing finishing touches to our assigned place for Interduchy Tournament. Our first surprise was Lamprecht's behaviour. He asked us to talk in a private room, where he informed us that he wanted to escort a girl from Ahrensbach. Elvira nearly Verdenna's thunder, but Lamprecht continued saying that he understood that it was impossible and he only had promised her to marry her one day which got him a scolding of his life. After that he asked his own mother to escort him and we went outside to look around. Before we could leave Ehrenfest's place, I saw Aub Dunkelfelger approaching with his entourage. It was strange as Ferdinand hadn't come with us here. There were only Sylvester and Veronica, so I decided to stick closer to them, but he scanned our students and smiled upon seeing Cornelius. My wife was trying to calm down. I took her arm and escorted her to where Cornelius was having a lively conversation with second duchy's aub. Thankfully we arrived right after greetings were exchanged. I already saw Sylvester grasping his stomach in nerves.

"I have heard about your blessing from Angriff, young man. Winning against trained knight apprentice from Dunkelger is no small feat, especially during your first ditter."

"Thank you ever so much, Aub Dunkelfelger. Your praise will please my grandfather who have been training me for the last two years."

"Hah! I also heard about your unusual weapons, but I won't pry this time. I will await your attendance in speed ditter in two years. Let us get into the matter at hand."

My mind went blank. Aub Dunkelfelger was praising my son. Elvira was glad and worried at the same time, because Veronica was watching us too much. I really wanted to stay out ot this situation, but Cornelius didn't let me.

"Ah, father, mother, I'm glad you came."

At those words everyone looked at us.

"Lord Karstedt! Dregarnuhr is very magnanimous today. How have you been lately. It's rare to see you without your aub."

He was as energetic as always. We often had been bumping into each other in our school time. Our fathers' rivalry had been the most known Royal Academy legend back then and I couldn't have avoided Werdekraf's ditter challenges until I had been demoted to archnoble after Sylvester's birth. Of course he had been angry, but accepted that outcome when I hadn't shown any regrets.

I saw lady Sieglinde reach to her pouch and Werdekraf suddenly became silent. She knew Elvira very well and wanted this conversation to progress smoothly.

"Lady Elvira, Dregarnuhr truly smiles upon us today. I am always pleased to see you." said lady Sieglinde.

She also knew Elvira from Academy days. They were both skilled in Grammaratur's dance and were always described as a model example for a noble lady. After Elvira had started supporting Florencia, she had been meeting lady Sieglinde from time to time during Archduke Conference. It was best to leave everythng to both of them which I signaled with my eyes to Werdekraf and he happily nodded in understanding.

"Your youngest son, Cornelius, caught attention of my husband's cousin's son. I am sure you heard they dittered with stakes. We came here today to deliever things he won. It should have been young Raisenhart who delivered these, but you know how overblessed by Fire kin my husband is and he wanted to meet your son."

From there things went as smooth as they could. We received two small crates with ten fruits each. I had never seen those before, but Cornelius was really happy about them. As he was first-year, I told him to take creates with Engelbert to his room in the dormitory and come back to watch Lamprecht's last ditter. He was strong enough with enhancement to carry one of these crates even if he was still a child.

Later came time for speed ditter. As a Knight Commander I had to appraise apprentices and see, who could be taken for a trombe extermination in the future. This year's feybeast was a schnesturm. At least this one was smaller than the ones I see once every few years during Winter Lord subjugation. Lamprecht was leading everyone, but he did a poor job at giving orders. Students just attacked when they saw a chance. At least they finished rather quickly. Haldenzel people knew their way around this specific feybeast, so they slew with precision, aiming at every weak point.

After that we had some time to watch other team's ditter and meet old acquaintances. When every team defeated its feaybeast, we gathered to watch Awards Ceremony. We were far from top 3 in speed ditter, our research was nearly non-existent and we didn't have any trends, so nobody from Ehrenfest was called forth. Students were called from sixth year down to receive their first-in-class, first-in-course or honor student reward. Everything was good until they started announcing first-year students.

"This year we have an extraordinary thing to announce. There are two students, who will receive first-in-class rewards."

Murmurs spread through audience. I had a gut feeling that something would happen at that moment. I guessed I had inherited a sixth sense from my father, because I could not believe, what I heard next.

"Professors verified many times and every single one of them agreed that we have two students with the exact same final score. Our Zent decided to award both of them, so please, step forward. Adolphine, the archduke candidate of Drewanchel and Cornelius of Ehrenfest."

Elvira squeezed my arm so hard, I felt my blood stop running to it. She was now dusting her pouch full of feystones.

Thank gods I brought the spare one with me in case something happened.

I waited for a good moment to swap her pouch, but I saw something that made Grammaratur withdrew her blessing. My ten years old son without any fear approached a lady from Drewanchel and like it was nothing escorted her to receive their rewards. My wife was beggining to shake and I had to give her new feystones much faster than I had anticipated. I saw Cornelius say something to lady Adolphine and she gave him the smile. I shuddered a bit. I was sure he had just challenged her to see who would be the best next year.

After the ceremony Cornelius just went to his room to check the crates with fruits. I couldn't understand why he wanted them so much. I hadn't been able to understand him since the poisoning incident, but I didn't care enough to ask about such thing. Elvira was taking care of our household and she would surely ask him.

Before we went to sleep Veronica had demanded Cornelius to become Wilfried's guard knight. When I informed him, his eyes turned in all seven noble colours and I only heard "Over my dead body" and was told to show Veronica my middle finger. He really didn't want to serve anyone from archducal family, but I didn't understand the gesture. Well, Sylvester didn't take it very well. He had to think of something to say to his mother, because I was sure Cornelius would defy aub's order or do something to Wilfried himself. Sylvester somehow managed to convince his mother that Lamprecht was enough and Cornelius would be a good guard for Melchior.

Graduation Ceremony was uneventful. We came back to Ehrenfest without exchanging many words. I just congratulated my son for graduating and left to resume my guard duty. Days went by as everyone started preparing for archduke conference, when Sylvester decided to run away for a few days. Not only that, but he wanted to pretend to be a blue priest during Spring Prayer and accompany Ferdinand and that apprentice shrine maiden. I had a gut feeling that it would not end well.

Chapter Text

I might have reacted too emotionally when father told me to become Wilfried's guard knight, but I think he understood the message and would not ask again. Lamprecht had to part with Aurelia and had a sour mood for the rest of our time here. When we got back, I borrowed time-stopping magic tool from mother and kept it in my hidden room with all the fruits inside. It had to wait just one season and I could get access to brilliant cooks. I might have thought too much with my stomach, but I couldn't stop thinking about all dishes Rozemyne had possibly brought to Yurgenschmidt already.

Pizza…

I was yearning for food from Earth. Paradoxically I had completely forgotten how to make pizza dough, but I could still remember the perfect way to make alcohol from potatoes.

I should write down instructions how to make it. It's better to save for later, when I would be able to go downtown and have a talk with Gustav.

And so I did write down everything on a wooden board. I remembered that Myne had already prepared yeast so I didn't have to worry about that. I left the board next to jars with Dark-element feytones as I was sure mother wouldn't check that place. I was positive she had already seen my little collection, but if she hadn't already commented on it, I perceived that as silent permission to continue.

When I thought about dealing with merchants and talking about my and Myne's ideas, I thought we should create something to project images from our minds to show to others. That would make everything much easier in the future. So I sat down and tried to come up with the right magic circle to project someone's thoughts into some sort of hologram or illusion.

Schlaftraum's sigil in the middle was a given. A "dream" had to become a reality, even if it wouldn't have any mass... On the side note I prepared a reminder on the wooden board to check wheter mana obeyed the laws of conservation of mass and energy and if those laws even applied to Yurgenschmidt.

For the reality part I fused Dregarnuhr and Raumleere. Time and space together controlled by Shlaftraum with some help from Gebordnung should have been enough. I instantly wanted to test out my magic circle, but I didn't want to cause any damage, so I called mother to my hidden room to help me. She told me that she didn't have much time and I had to be quick. I explained her what I wanted to do and I got a little scoding about experimenting with new magic circles, but she reluctantly agreed to help. She chanted geteilt and told me to activate the circle after she positioned herself ready to defend. I felt like she didn't trust my abilities. True, it was my first original magic circle, but I hoped for at least a bit of understanding. Regardless, I activated the circle focusing on my first ditter.

My hidden room suddenly disappeared and was replaced by Dunkelfelger's training grounds in Royal Academy. I saw myself standing in front of lord Welderen. Mother was still holding her shield up, but at the same time I saw her astonishment. She looked around to faces of other students, but they didn't have any faces. Well, I didn't exactly remember all the students that had been watching us, so their faces were nonexistent in my mind, like that of Slenderman.

"Cornelius, what in the name of Supreme Couple is happening?"

She sounded distressed a bit. Maybe seeing people without faces was too much for her and the sudden change of scenery certainly wasn't helpful, but I was excited.

"It's working, mother. My magic circle have worked perfectly."

My first ever magic circle worked. I couldn't help grinning like a little kid. I watched myself throw Mjolnir at my opponent and win the fight. Mother started moving around to not interrupt my interaction with lord Welderen and lord Raisenhart, but she hit the now invisible wall of my hidden room. She was dumbfounded and lost her noble facade completely.

"Cornelius, what is that magic circle you used? Why are we seeing this? Why there are people without faces?"

It might have been a bit too much for her, so I stopped channeling mana into the magic circle. Everything went back to being just my hidden room. Mother was looking around like she couldn't believe, what had just happened.

"Thank you, mother, for helping me with testing my magic circle. Now I know what I should change. As for your question, it's a circle that projects what user wants to show to anyone. I have to make it only visible to people in range, but I am sure Verber-"

"Cornelius, that is enough. I don't want to know how you came up with it, but before you use it next time, consult lord Ferdinand. I don't want an explosion occuring inside our estate. Consult every new magic circle with him, understood?"

"I understand, mother. I will show my magic circles to lord Ferdinand."

I promised only to show them, not to show them before testing. Besides this one wasn't even finished. Around everything I had drawn so far I added Verbergern's sigils on four sides. Now people wouldn't be able to see any projection from the outside. Not that I checked it, but after first attempt with mother I was smug enough to not test changed circle. I wanted to start brewing immediately, but then I realised one crucial thing - I didn't know how to select ingredients for brewing a magic tool. I wanted to ask lord Ferdinand as my previous teacher, but clearly it was not a good time for that. He was preparing for the Spring Prayer and I didn't want to risk Myne hearing my voice. In addition I was sure he would demand showing him that magic circle, so I sent a magic letter to Heidemarie. I wanted to send ordonannz, but I didn't want to wake up little Wilhelm.

She, of course, replied instantly when it came to brewing, even if she was only specialized in potions. As a scholar she had all the required knowledge, but her response was… disappointingly boring. In short it said "better ingredients equal higher quality of magic tool". Ingredients's elements also had to be balanced appropriately, but still I expected something more… exciting in the whole process.

After thinking about design for some time, I decided that magic tool would be just a small orb which I would later place in a holder made from mana metal in shape of three howling wolves. Thanks to that I could grab the orb and change the projection any time I wanted instead of waiting for hologram to end. Thanks to Heidemarie's present for my tenth birthday, I didn't have a problem with Life element ingredient. The rest was easy to obtain and soon I got working magic tool in my hand.

A week later our esteemed aub disappeared along with my father. Ordonannzes were flying to both of them so people were at least glad they weren't dead. Mother and lady Florencia were fuming every time someone asked about their husbands' whereabouts. At the same time a certain woman commonly called "Great Trombe of Ehrenfest" was shouting accusations left and right about lord Ferdinand doing something to her poor son. Of course nobody believed her as everyone knew Ferdinand was currently doing Spring Prayer's tour around Central District.

When father suddenly came back without Sylvester, mother gave him an earful about being a responsible adult AND guard knight of Aub Ehrenfest. Meanwhile I was counting days until Veronica's downfall. I really wanted to go to the commoners' forest and meet 'brother Syl' but was too afraid to change the story, so I stayed and tested my new toy. It worked wonderfully. I could just think of very distant and hazy memory, and it would show me exactly that. For example I watched whole season of Wotakoi along with myself from Earth, much to the distress of Engelbert who was worried that I didn't come out from my hidden room for a long time. I didn't understand how that magic tool could reach so deep in my mind that I was able to watch every episode with subtitles. Later I learnt to extract only video with subtitles from my memory.

From then on I spent every day rewatching animes from my childhood with Jacob, sometimes alternating between training, embroidery and tea parties with mother until one day when Eckhart joined us for a tea.

"Cornelius, we have important news for you." mother began.

Chapter Text

"Cornelius, we have important news for you." mother began.

"What can be so important that even Eckhart has to be here? It is either something about lord Ferdinand or that damn Chaocipher." I said.

That took them by surprise.

"You are... partially correct." Eckhart began, but I could hear discomfort in his voice "Veronica has been arrested and put in the White Tower."

I stayed calm and didn't celebrate early. After all, they had another news for me.

"I can feel that 'but' is coming. I understand that we are bereft of Greifechan blessing, so what was the cost?"

"There is no 'but'. There is an 'and'." Mother chimed in. "Soon you will meet your younger sister."

"But mother, neither you, nor Trudeliede have ever had a daughter. It's imp-"

"It's Rozemary's daughter. Her name is Rozemyne." she interrupted me.

Even though her face was like that of a perfect noblewoman, I felt a great sadness and pain from her. I wondered if my last unfinished statement might have hurt her somehow. Books never said anything about my dead or unborn siblings...

Could it be that I, in fact, would have had a sister if not for some unfortunate reason?

I didn't know how to feel, but... my mind didn't want to stop and if this really was true, I wanted revenge. I wanted people responsible for that to suffer. From there on, it was a bit hard for me to focus on our conversation, but we somehow got to the part where I was told to become her guard knight.

"I am reluctant to become someone's Leidenschaft, especially Rozemary's daughter, but I will save my judgement until I meet and get to know her, but I won't promise anything until then."

Another surprise for them. They knew I didn't want to become a guard for anyone in archducal family, and my partial agreement made them stop trying to force me to become her knight form the get-go. Now it was time for me to ask.

"I have one more question, mother."

She looked at me suspiciously. Eckhart seemed worried that I would say something unreasonable.

"You're telling me that grandfather have had a granddaughter for nearly 7 years and no one has ever played Ordoschnelli for him? I hope that he already knows, because if he doesn't, I don't want to be in nearby proximity, when he finds out."

Eckhart paled, but mother looked calm.

"Do not worry, son. Your father is responsible for putting his own daugther in the temple and he will be responsible for informing your grandfather." she said hiding her smile behind her hand. She surely was happy to make her husband feel wrath of her father-in-law. Especially after all he had done when Rozemary had been still alive and fighting with Trudeliede.

She really wants to throw him under the bus for all his thoughtless behaviour back then… Not that I sympathize with him. I would gladly join mother with her endeavour, but it's the work for one person this time.

Next day, while father was trying to survive the ire of grandfather, mother seemed excited to be able to prepare a room for a girl. She was planning how many dresses she would need to order, what kind of carpet and tapestry she should put in the room and what colour blankets on the bed should be. I also had heard her remark about creating a hidden room with a daughter. She was like that for the entire week, until it was finally time to meet her daughter and my sister.

The fateful day came and we greeted Rozemyne in our estate. We sat down and Ferdinand started talking with mother about her daugther's future education. On the other hand Rozemyne was sitting anxiously, shrunk into a chair with her hands trembling. It was no surprise. She was in an unfamiliar enviroment with strangers who were to become her new family. I walked to her and tried to make her calm down a bit. I positioned myself so Ferdinand and mother wouldn't see my face, kneeled to make our line of sight at the same level, beamed my true, happy smile and said:

"Sounds like you're gonna have a lot of work dropped on your shoulders. If you won't be able to handle it, you can always ask me for help. Father might be a bit unreliable, but with me and mother here you don't have to worry about anything."

"I shall do my best to become a little sister who you can be proud of, Cornelius. I have already made a promise to Lord Ferdinand and Lord Sylvester, so failure is not an option for me.”

"I don’t think you have much to worry about. I know I’ll be proud to have you as my little sister.”

“I thank you ever so much, Cornelius.”

Original Cornelius would have ended this conversation by this point, but I did something "unthinkable" - I patted Rozemyne delicately on her head. She tried not to show it on her face, but she wasn't trained enough yet. She was surprised at first and very happy after the shock had subsided.

"I see you are getting along." I heard mother say.

She gave me a questioning look that signaled questioning later when Rozemyne went to bed. I didn't mind. It was for the best that we speak about Rozemyne's identity. Later in the evening when mother was finished with her, she came to my hidden room for the talk, but I didn't let her take the initiative. I wanted to have an upper hand from the start.

"Mother, I will abandon Grammaratur's dance, because I want to make sure you understand me. I am sure you also realised Rozemyne is not father's daughter. She is a commoner with devouring."

There was a silence for a moment, but I didn't want mother to say anything yet.

"I do not mean to say that I am disappointed or do not accept her. I'm quite relieved that she's not that woman's daughter. I…" I hesitated for a bit. I looked mother in the eyes, but she just waited for me to finish. "I am glad I can become a big brother, even if I don't know yet what it entails."

She didn't say anything for a while. After I finished I was too embarassed to look her in the eyes. I was just standing in my hidden room waiting for her to admonish me or at least do something. When she finally moved I felt her hand on my head. She was patting my head and with whisper she said:

"Thank you, son. I am proud of you."

I looked up at her and saw her smile. That took a weight off my shoulders. She accepted my behaviour earlier… or so I thought.

"But that does not explain the breach in your etiquette. You touched a girl without her permission. I see you need more training about propriety."

Hahahaha! That is the mother that I came to love dearly.

I didn't know why, but it made my day to be scolded by her. My only fear was getting too comfortable with being scolded for anything I do. Like I didn't have future rampages in mind… At least I wouldn't risk my cheeks getting pinched like a certain blue-haired girl..

"And you even bellitled your own father. Even if you did it to make me look better in Rozemyne's eyes, nothing gave you the right to do it."

"I'm sorry, mother, but she looked so scared that I wanted to do something to make her relax. Besides why am I being scolded for telling the truth? After all father is unreliable and absent and he made your role as his Light Goddess even harder because of his blind favouritism."

At my statement she just sighed like a parent hearing about their children's misfits. She said that I was right, but made me promise to not badmouth Karstedt, even if what I had said was true.

When she left I made sure that Jacob understood that he was forbidden to say anything outside my hidden room until Stenluke was "born". He sounded sad, but made remarks that I should start looking for potential fiancé this winter in academy, because when he finally starts talking, he will get any girl he wants… or so he said. I couldn't deny that he was smooth talker and his words might come true in the future. Falling asleep I wondered how many headaches Jacob would cause me in a single term in academy

Next day Rozemyne asked mother to call merchants to buy some rinsham. Benno looked stressed, but I saw him exchange glances with my new sister. Scents were shown and even I wanted to get some for myself, so I joined their conversation.

"Benno, do you perhaps have more masculine scents?"

He paled a little and was quick to apologise for the lack of suitable product, but I assured him that it was not a problem. After that I bought the same scent as Rozemyne and went back to my room to practice playing harspiel. I wanted to play something from Earth, but didn't want to risk of being found out by Rozemyne. Not yet at least. I planned to do it before her Winter Debut or earlier if the needed ever arised.

On Rozemyne's third day in the estate grandfather called me to his mansion to train me personally in hand-to-hand combat using mana enhancement. Even without listening to the end of his ordonannz I knew he wanted to find out something about his first granddaughter and who could be better source of information than his own grandson who had already spent nearly two days with Rozemyne.

As if Greifechan withdrew her blessing, my luck ran out the moment grandfather started his "interrogation". He wasn't satisfied with my answers and he showed it through his punches. He stopped in his tracks when I told him that nobody would let him hug her and vice versa because of her frailty. I tried to console him by saying that there was a chance he might get permission if he learnt to control his strength by taking care of shumil. If he was able to show others his self-control, even I believed Ferdinand would allow it under his strict supervision. Before I knew it, grandfather ran to the forest, leaving only dust behind him. I already pitied all those shumils he would inevitably crush with his grip on the first few tries.

Exasperated attendant of Bonifatius approached me and apologised in his master's stead. As a skilled attendant of a former archduke candidate, he healed my bruises and I went back home. I took a bath, soaking in the water longer than I should have and quietly humming Zombie by Cranberries. After bath I dedicated my free time to embroidery. Next was lunch during which I showed my embroidery to mother who allowed me to start embroidering magic circles. Rozemyne was looking curiously at my efforts and I asked her if she wanted to join me someday to try herself as her bridal training. She refused at first, but mother made her agree. I could see in her eyes that she didn't want to do any needlework for the rest of her life.

After that I came back to my room and practiced emroidering magic circle with washen, but I added Vantole's sigil on purpose. It would definitely help cleaning windows better, but also I would be able to disinfect any wound with that. People didn't understand the meaning of viruses and bacteria. I wasn't even sure if they existed here, it's better to be safe than sorry.

I will have to ask Ferdinand about any possible microorganisms, when he finds out about my memories.

I felt pretty tired after training with grandfather so I wanted to jump into bed and just fall asleep, but before I could close my eyes, I felt strange pressure in the air. I looked around, but could not see anything strange. I decided to use my favourite skill - detecting elements. When I activated it, I was sure there was high amount of omni-elemental mana swirling in one room. I thought something bad must have happened so I rushed to Rozemne's room only to discover mother and Rozemyne's attendant. They were standing in front of the door, not even trying to open them.

"Mother, what is happening? Why are you standing here?" I shouted. I ingored her look telling me that I was dressed inappropriately and shouldn't have been here. When I didn't back down, she relented and answered.

"Rozemyne seems to have a nightmare and she's unconsciously crushing everything and everyone in her room. Thankfully nobody was there when it have started."

That hadn't been mentioned it the books. I didn't know what to do. I could feel her mana rampaging behind the closed door. I knew she was suffering, but what could I do? I pondered for a while and decided to play a cool older brother and rescue my little sister. The only thing I said to mother before entering the room was "Do not enter. I will take care of it."

I admit I hadn't thought this through. The moment I entered her room I felt like I was inside the gravity chamber from Dragon Ball. My whole body was heavy. I enhanced my muscles to try moving and it somehow let me make two steps before I heard Rozemyne's voice.

"Matte, Okaa-san! Matte! Modottekite! Ikanaide!"

Fortunately I still remembered some japanese. I was sure that was seeing Urano's mother in her dream. I strengthened my vocal cords and shouted.

"Rozemyne, wake up!"

I lost some control over enhancement and was crushed even more, but it was worth. It was harder and harder to breath, but she perked up and I had her attention now. I was in the middle between door and her bed. I streched my hand toward Rozemyne, but her face twisted in fear. Now I could barely look at her and wanted to cough, but I wasn't able to even do that. I fell to the floor, my cheeck touching the carpet.

"Do not come any closer! Dad, please, help me!"

She still was half asleep that she even called Gunther hoping he would charge in and rescue her. I needed her to realise where she was right now. In the last ditch effort and with the remaining strength I started singing my favourite japanese song I could still remember after all those years.

♪ Hiroi uchuu no kazu aru hitotsu ♪
♪ Aoi chikyuu no hiroi sekai de ♪
♪ Chiisana koi no omoi wa todoku ♪
♪ Chiisana shima no anata no moto e ♪

With every line I sang, her crushing was subsiding more and more. When I hit the chorus, I was able to stand up and look at her. Her eyes were filled with tears. Still using enhancement I reached her and patted her head.

"It's okay, Rozemyne. You have nothing to worry. Your big brother is here." I said in English.

After my words she finally got her curshing under control with shock on her face. I checked her forehead and she was burning. I didn't have any feystones on me and she was suffering from too much mana. Acting purely on instinct I grabbed Rozemyne and ran out of the room shouting to mother that I would be back soon. It hurt with every single step. My insides were screaming in pain after that crushing.

"Just a moment, Rozemyne. You will get better in no time."

I quickly entered my hidden room and sat her down. I put on mana-blocking glove and took biggest Dark-element feystones I had.

"Close your eyes, please." I said.

She obediently closed her eyes and I pressed first feystone to her forehead. It was nearly instantly turned into gold dust. I took another one and it too became gold dust. The third one was filled to three fourth of its capacity when Rozemyne stopped my hand and opened her eyes.

"Thank you, Cornelius. I feel better now."

I cleaned her face from all gold dust with waschen and sat next to her. We were sitting in silence for a brief moment, but we didn't have much time so I began:

"So… how do you like our estate?"

It felt awkward. I didn't know how to talk to her. Thankfully she giggled and started her story from waking up in unknown room in her small, childish body. She progressed fast to talking about her struggles in making paper, Lutz, Benno, Freida, Ferdinand, her time in the temple, Damuel, trombe hunt and Spring Prayer until attempted kidnapping by Bindewald. She omitted her previous life completely.

"You truly had it rough. On the othe-" I stopped mid-sentence and got on my knees, coughing blood and looking as it was staining floor in my hidden room. It seemed internal damage from her crushing was catching up to me.

"Cornelius!" she shouted.

"Pray to Heilschmerz." was the only thing I uttered. She quickly prayed and green particles landed on me, relieving my pain. When I stood up, feystone near the entrance started flashing. I guessed we had been sitting here for longer that was appropriate. I turned to Rozemyne and said:

"We should go to sleep. We can talk about everything during the day. Just ask mother to have a tea party with me and she will organise one, but for now… O' Schlaftraum, God of Dreams, bless my little sister with sweet and pleasant dreams."

White light errupted from my ring and surrounded Rozemyne, who suddenly closed her eyes and fell asleep. I took her in my arms and exited my hidden room. Mother and Rozemyne's attendant had worried faces, but showed relief when they saw little shumil sleeping soundly. Attendant, whose name was Abigail, took Rozemyne from me and left. Mother stayed with me, waiting for an explanation.

"Mother, I understand that what I did was highly inappropriate, but I didn't have any choice. I needed to drain her mana and my hidden room was the first place I thought about that had feystones."

"No, I… thank you, son. I thought the situation was hopeless. I couldn't even enter her room, but you… you just went there and made everything right. You drained her mana and even if you were inside your hidden room for longer than you should, you acted like a true big brother, while I at the first challenge failed her as a mother."

I couldn't stand her self-acusatory tone. She was the best mother one could hope for in noble society. I knew it. I had seen it myself.

"Mother, I am sure Rozemyne does not see it that way. She needs time to get used to everything. The thing we need now is an honest talk with each other. Just the three of u-"

I couldn't finish the sentence. Before I realised that I stopped talking, I saw my room's floor approaching me dangerously fast. I blacked out right there and then and woke up two days later.

Chapter Text

Florencia - The fall of the Great Trombe

Sylvester had left for the Archduke Conference. As always Veronica barred me from attending it by swaying my husband's opinion to her side. Being his Goddess of Light without a crown was something I hadn't had expected. I had always been under mother-in-law's scrutiny, even if it was her own hunger for power that made me unable to act.

I decided to have a little tea party with my cute Charlotte. Most of the time, I organised those to asses her progress in her studies, but this one was just to spend some quality mother-daughter time.

When we were finished, Leberecht approached me. Usually he was either in Sylvester's office, gathering information or brewing magic tools and potions for me and reported everything during dinner. His presence here could mean only one thing - Veronica had done something so outrageous that this report could not wait and he had to come to my room immediately. He gave me a soundblocking magic tool and spoke.

"Lady Florencia, Aub Ehrenfest has come back from Archduke Conference with Lord Karstedt and arrested both his mother and her brother, High Bishop. Currently Bezenwast is awaiting mind reading, while Lady Veronica was put in the White Tower. I am yet to find out about reasons of doing so. Right after imprisonment he went back to attend the rest of the Archduke Conference. Lord Karstedt has stayed behind and met with Lady Elvira."

I thought that I had greeted Shlaftraum. Sylvester arresting his own mother was something nobody in Ehrenfest would believe, even me, his own wife. Leberecht tried to gather more information, but I couldn't understand what had had happened. I heard about archnoble from Ahrensbach, about an apprentice shrine maiden and also about knights storming the temple. Nothing made sense to me so I waited for Sylvester to come back.

On the first evening after the Archduke Conference he wanted to let my hair down, but I didn't allowed him. He had much to explain, but I felt like I was not ready, when he started explaining. He had adopted high-manaed daughter of his cousin, Karstedt, from his third wife. This daughter had been hidden in the temple upon her birth, because of her low mana, but lately Ferdinand had realised that Rozemyne somehow reached archduke candidate's levels of mana and she was very rich from her industries. It was too unbelievable to be true.

After mind-reading Bezenwast was executed along with one of Veronica's accomplices. I got Wilfried back into my care. For nearly six years he had been held hostage and finally I could become his Wiegenmilch. Sylvester also allowed me to prepare Veronica's cell in the White Tower and with Leberecht's help I showed her my "generosity".

In all this I didn't like the fact that a girl from the temple would be baptised as Elvira's own and then adopted by Sylvester. People from the temple should stay in the temple in order to not infestate Noble Quarters with their... culture. At least Sylvester didn't tell me to adopt and play girl's mother after her adoption, so I would leave it to Elvira. I just hoped neither Wilfried nor Charlotte would have to interact with her much and that she would become obedient minister for her siblings.

Heidemarie - getting back family's treasures

I had thought that Dauerleben would have withdrawn his blessing before Greifechan smiled upon me. When Eckhart brought me what Ordoschnelli had sung, even little Wilhelm started smiling and laughing. Between his cuteness and my husband's news I was feeling elated. Chaosfliehe finally decided to aid me in keeping my family's heirlooms. That posionous water goddess that had been forced on my father had been executed along with that old fart from the temple who was generating only more problems for Lord Ferdinand.

When I got the chance, I left sleeping Wilhelm with his nanny and went to demand justice. In an instant Justus and Eckhart were by my side when I faced my half…siblings. Even thinking about them this way was too much for me. We binded them and locked in one of the rooms of my father's estate. I had kicked them out of my estate the moment Wilhelm had been born and they had to buy new one. As Veronica was no longer in the way, we might have tortured them a bit too much to show our dissatisfaction and years of hatred for mistreating our lord.

Unfortunately they quickly told us where they had sold my books so we had a little use for them. As the last show of my gratitude I asked Justus to administer them a poison I created. Although aftereffects could be cleaned with simple waschen, they had no way to stop a storm that was about to rage inside their stomachs.

Gustav from Othmar Company arrived at our estate after being summoned without prior notice. He looked stressed and at the verge of passing out. I told him to give me a list of stores that were made to buy my family's heirlooms. He produced it from his memory, surely remembering it as a bad experience. Few days later Guildmaster came back, this time with all my precious books. I paid him a hefty sum for retrieving them all.

I made sure our little interrogation never came to light and later informed my cousins from maternal side of family that I got back all of our tresures, especially those that had been kept since Eisenreich era. Adding to my excitement, Wilhelm finally said his first word which was "mama". Now I understood mother-in-law's speech about weaning own child. When Eckhart heard about the news, he grabbed and threw me in the air from sheer happinnes. Thankfully Wilhelm was in his nany arms when that happened.

Ekchart - eruption of Mount Bonifatius

His words were still reverberating in my mind. I had been surprised at first when he hadn't been as much against being Rozemyne's guard knight as we had expected. Nevertheless I could not shake off the feeling that despite it being the season of Flutrane, we were going to face something of Winter Lord's caliber.

"You're telling me that grandfather have had a granddaughter for nearly 7 years and no one has ever played Ordoschnelli for him?"

There was something ominous in that sentence. Mother had assured me that father was more than capable of handling things, but I had that gut feeling that we were about to experience a catastrophe.

As if answering to my thoughts, father came to my office in barracks and handed me sound-blocking magic tool.

"Eckhart, come to the training grounds. In the worst case scenario, I will need your assistance."

"Father, what is happening? What can be so hard that the Knight Commander can't do it by himself?"

"I... I will have a talk with your grandfather about Rozemyne."

"Father, I might have an idea. After the trombe incident we found who is incompetent and not up to standard in the Order. I suggest you gather those and make them primary target of grandfather's ire."

"Excellent suggestion, son. Let us move now." he nearly stormed out of my office, but stopped in the doorway and said "But just to be sure, come with me and intervene if the need arises."

I followed father and looked as he deceived knights into thinking they would be trained personally by Bonifatius. They stood far enough to not be affected by the first strike, if such thing happened. When everyone was in formation, father approached grandfather and passed him sound-blocking tool. At first there was nothing bad. They just talked, but at one moment I saw grandfather's brow twitch and his hand grip magic tool even harder. He didn't need much time to completely crush magic tool and roar with his deep voice.

"YOU LET THAT HAPPEN TO MY GRANDDAUGHTER?!"

A single punch followed his words and father was sent flying until he met with barrack's wall. Someone from gathered knights shouted "Protect the Knight Commander!" and all rushed with swords and spears in their hands to subdue grandfather.

I watched him release his wrath on everyone and it brought me some joy, so I didn't dare to intervene. When most of the knights were lying unconscious, grandfather grabbed father and took him to the knight's healer for basic healing, but from that day I hadn't heard anything about father for about half a week.

Thankfully the same day I came back to Heidemarie's estate and was greeted by my son saying "papa". I didn't understand the feeling that was stirring inside me, but without thinking I kissed Heidemarie. Our attendants were red-faced, but after so much time without winter after Wilhelm's birth, both of us were rather eager to invoke Beischmacht's blessing when God of Darkness overtook the sky and we continued until Goddess of Light graced us with a new day.

Sylvester - The council of the three fools

I was waiting for my brother and cousin to join me in my private office to drink some vize and talk about nearest future and latest events. To my surprise, Ferdinand was the first to arrive, but even he raised his brow when he didn't see Karstedt already sitting with me.

"I don't know where he is either." I said.

Ferdinand sat on my left and I poured him a glass of vize, but he waited patiently for Karstedt before taking even a single sip. When he finally came into the office, we were both shocked to see the state he was in. All bruised and lifeless like he had fought the Winter Lord by himself.

"Karstedt, what have ha-" I tried to ask, but was interrupted.

"Do. Not. Even. Ask."

I stared at him silently, not knowing what to say. I wanted an explanation. With heavy steps he approched the table, poured a glass of vize and drank it in one go. Then he sat on my right and his eyes trailed down to his hands, but he looked dead inside.

"I informed my father about Rozemyne and all the circumstances, but… you can imagine how he reacted at the news of having his first and only granddaughter nearly abducted by noble from another duchy with help from Bezenwast and your mother, not even mentiong the fact of putting her in the temple or hiding her existence."

"You had it rough. I only got alarmed about one wall being destroyed, so at least I would like to know how it is possible Bonifatius hasn't destroyed more of the training grounds."

"Eckhart suggested I bring some knights with me. Mostly of Veronica faction who were found not up to standard. I can barely remember them lying unconscious when I was being dragged somewhere by my father."

"Incopetent fools had it coming." Ferdinand chimed in. He summoned his schtappe and healed Karstedt envoking Heilschmerz. Now he began to look more like his usual self.

"How are the preparations in the estate?" I asked to change the topic.

"Contrary to our expetations, Cornelius agreed to become Rozemyne's guard knight rather quickly and he didn't have to be forced. Elvira have thrown herself into preparations of Rozemyne's room and wardrobe. She seems rather happy considering her animosity towards Rozemary in the past."

That hurt a bit and I was a little angry. Karstedt son had told him that he would rather die than serve archducal family. I guess it didn't count when it came to his own sister. Before I could finish my thoughts Ferdinand began telling his side of preparations without being prompted. "Fran reported that Rozemyne is still a bit unstable emotionally, but she is trying her best to learn everything I throw her way. I don't expect any problems for now. At least until her departure to the Noble's Quarter."

It was time for me to report "Florencia agreed to adopt Rozemyne. Her room will be ready for the time of her baptism. I also plan to appoint Rihyarda as her head attendant in the castle. Everything seems to be heading in a good direction."

"Then let us move to seasonal ingredients gathering."

Hearing what had to be collected to make jureve for Rozemyne made my stomach hurt. She nearly had became a breeding stock for nobles in Ahresnbach, I tore her apart from her family and now she had to kill Lord of Winter for its feystone. I was sure that Wiegenmilch was just waiting to struck me with her divine punishment for so many transgressions against one child. Thankfully I soon forgot about her as we drank more. As always Ferdinand didn't show any signs of being even a little tipsy, while Karstedt was just pouring as much as he could. I decided to drink moderately and help Karstedt get to his estate later.

Chapter Text

"Mother, I am sure Rozemyne does not see it that way. The thing we need now is an honest talk with each other. Just the three of u-"

He didn't finish his sentence. I only saw him as he was falling onto the floor.

"Cornelius!" I shouted out of fear.

Engelbert was instantly by his side checking his vitals. I was scared. After his poisoning I became much more sensitive about his health, but it was the first time since then that he lost his consciousness.

"Do not worry, Lady Elvira. He is just tired and asleep. Altough to be sure I would recommend healer looking at him."

That eased my anxiety. When I looked closely, I saw him breathing steadily. Next day my namesworn attendant took a closer look at him and said that Cornelius sustained internal damage due to strong crushing, but from the looks of it he had been healed and now was just regenerating his strenght., but who had healed him then?

I could not understand the events of the previous night. Firstly, there was Rozemyne's crushing during her sleep. Secondly, Cornelius' actions. Those had not been things I would expect from him, but he had been the one to help his sister. There was also that strange song he had sung. It definitely had made Rozemyne return to her senses, but every word had been incomprehensible, like he was using completely different language.

Rozemyne woke up around 4th bell, so I stopped thinking about it for now. She had a small fever, but after some rest and lunch she was smiling again. She approached me and asked about Cornelius.

"Mother, it came to my attention that brother Cornelius hasn't been here since I woke up. Is he at the training grounds with father?"

She tried to hide her emotions, but it was so obvious that she was worried. Just yesterday she hadn't shown such consideration towards her borther and yet today she was troubled by his absence. Whatever they had spoken about in Cornelius' hidden room, it had made a big difference in their relationship as siblings. We had to have that talk Cornelius had asked for before passing out.

"Do not worry, Rozemyne. He is sleeping after he has expended too much mana and strenght yesterday. A healer took a look at him, but it is nothing serious."

"A healer?" her eyes widened. "But… he coughed up blood yesterday and told me to pray to Heilschmerz and he looked better thanks to that. Is he really okay?"

I felt a shiver going down my spine. Cornelius coughing blood? And praying to Heilschmerz? Those two had much to explain.

"I was told that thanks to healing provided, he will wake up today or tommorow at worst. Considering his state, he will probably ask for some of Cuococalura's blessing right from the start."

"Then, mother, let my cook prepare a meal for brother. I want to thank him for yesterday."

Her idea wasn't bad. If Ella's dishes were good as her sweets, Cornelius would surely devour anything prepared by her, but I was reluctant to let an unknown person into my kitchen. I agreed on condition that someone would watch her. From then Rozemyne checked on Cornelius every bell until he finally woke up the next day right before the 5th bell. Of course he just stretched his arms and asked for food without care. As if nothing had happened.

Rozemyne came along with me, saying that she wanted feedback on one of her recipes called "pizza". Cornelius was surprised to see us both, but he quickly lost focus when he saw food.

"Rozemyne, is that… what I think it is?"

"It is one of my original dishes. I call it piz-"

"Pizza!" Cornelius shouted.

He didn't even wait for regular posion checks. He grabbed one slice with his bare hands and started devouring it like a wild feybeast. I couldn't believe it. As if years of learning etiquette were thrown out through a window in a single moment, but it was not the end of his strange behaviour. Tears started pouring down his cheeks and in his eyes I saw something I didn't understand - nostalgia. How could he feel nostalgic about food he had never tried. Every time the mix of Rozemyne and Cornelius just created more questions.

"Cornelius, I hope you don't mind having a little tea party with your mother and sister in your hidden room."

"No, mother. I am rather pleased that you decided to organise it today." he then turned to Rozemyne "Thank you ever so much for the blessing of Cuococalura, sister. Please, pass the praise to your chef. I will see you both later."

We left his room and headed to one of our tea parlors for Rozemyne's lesson on graceful movement. Being a mother to a girl was a refreshing experience for me. Especially since I became a grandmother. I wouldn't have tought I could become Wiegenmilch anymore and yet Dregarnuhr had crossed my thread with that little shumil. Her learning capabilities were immeasurable and she was able to understand everything except noble euphemisms. That only fueled my puzzlement. She had invented new dish and Cornelius had already new the name of it.

After the lesson we parted ways untill dinner. Cornelius was still recovering in his room so it was only me and my daughter. She used everything I had taught her earlier. I praised her for her efforts. When she left, I heard a report from her attendant. Rozemyne had been looking anxious while alone in her room. She had been observing every decoration, before lying in bed and not moving.

That worried me. She was unstable emotionally. If Karstedt, Sylvester and Lord Ferdinand had laundered her identity completely, I was sure her commoner family had climbed towering staircase long ago. I didn't want to impose on her and replace her mother just like that. It was too easy to understand that she longed for love and affection from her family, but I had to keep my distance. I didn't want her to hate me from the start.

Before leaving for Cornelius' room, I was wondering about my daughter… Would my Elyana also be such a bright child, if she had survived? Would her brothers be protective of her and jumped into danger to rescue her just like Cornelius had recently? With those questions in mind I went to check on the preparations for our tea party. To my surprpise Cornelius was already waiting in his hidden room with the table and chairs prepared for us. I joined him and observed as Rozemyne hesitantly entered. She greeted us and sat next to Cornelius, facing me directly. Our attendants left and we started about light topics such as Rozemyne feelings about her room. I tried to probe her about her food ideas, but she guarded her secrets very well. Cornelius was very eager to talk about pizza, but even his attempts didn't bring any results. After that he said:

"Mother, I think it's time we move to the real talk."

I also thought it was enough chitchat. "I agree, Cornelius. Let's call our attendats to change our tea."

When door to the hidden room were closed again, my son was faster than Streifebrise. He wanted to talk first.

"Mother, I am sure you have questions for us both, but I would like to be the one who answer, before you start questioning us."

He stood up and grabbed something. I recognised the magic tool in his hand as the one he brewed and had shown me some time ago. He decorated it with mana metal in the shape of three wolfs. I was bewildered what he wanted to show me this time, but I was suddenly distracted by Rozemyne's face. She was scared and Cornelius also realised it. He patted her head light, gaining her attention.

"Don't worry, Rozemyne. Just have some trust in me." he said and smiled genuinely. She nodded at him and let him speak.

"Mother, I know that I have been acting strange lately. You must have realised that the song I sang for Rozemyne was in completely different language. Also my behaviour today when I was served pizza was something unacceptable." he paused for a moment, letting me put my thoughts in order. "What I am about to tell will sound... impossible. You might even think that I am joking or have gone crazy, but it is true."

I didn't like where it was going. Rozemyne couldn't look me in the eyes and her hands, placed on her lap, were trembling.

"I have memories of my previous life in a different world, whete I had lived until adulthood. I unlocked them or rather was forced by my mind to remember them. I gained them on the first night of my poisoning."

I... No... My son... He... I didn't know what to think. Poisoning incident. His change in behaviour. I couldn't comprehend how it was even possible, but I feared one thing, so I had to ask.

"Who... Who are you?"

I was scared of his answer. I wouldn't be able to bear the fact that I had lost another child. I looked in his eyes, hoping to find my little Cornelius, but his whole face showed me pain. He was hurt by my question.

"It's still me, mother." he said with a weak smile. "I didn't replace your son. I always have been him. Those memories have always been part of me. They were just sealed. I am the very same Cornelius you gave birth to. I just gained more than twenty years of life experience while still being a child."

His words were a soothing balm for my heart. I was so glad. I relaxed my shoulders and released air from my lungs.

"I have changed my behaviour, because I realised I was just a spoiled noble kid and I hadn't shown any appreciation for anything, but had taken everything for granted. I also understood everything you had done for me as mother, so I wanted to communicate with you more clearly. You are my mother, best mother I could ever hope for and I really love you from the bottom of my heart."

When he was saying everything, he came to my side and prompted me to stand up. When he finished the last sentence, he hugged me tightly. What he spoke of, how he said it, it was all too much for me. The appreciation and words of love were the greatest reward I could receive for being a mother. In that one rare moment, I let some tears escape from my eyes, reciprocating the hug from my third son.

When I calmed down, we sat down and returned to our conversation. I looked at Rozemyne for a moment and she was trying really hard not to cry. I wanted to ask her now, but she was not ready to speak yet.

"Could you explain to me how was it possible to unlock those memories?"

"Yes, it is something that scholars of our old world discovered. When your body detects that it's in danger, it acts on an impulse based on past experiences, but when a body does not have experience like death, it starts searching through all the memories that we have accumulated so far to save its own life. Many people in our world said that they had seen their whole lives flash before their eyes in a life-threatening situation. My guess is that it was exactly what happened with me. Although I don't have any idea how my memories could have helped fighting off poision."

There was too much to process. I had heard in my home province about knights who nearly died and saw their life in a short moment before they were rescued. Now it made sense. I was interested in other discoveries scholars had made in that world he was talking about, but it was not time to ask about it.

"Rozemyne, do you also think like Cornelius? That your memories were sealed?"

"I…" she was looking down, unsure what to say. Suddenly Cornelius's hand reached for her hair and he patted her.

"Rozemyne, mother knows about your commoner roots. She has known from the very moment you were brought to our estate. You don't have to hide anything. You can trust her."

Her eyes widened and she looked at me. I simply nodded to confirm Cornelius' statement. She took a deep breath and started her story.

"I also was an adult in previous life. When I died, I woke up in this body. I heard a voice saying it was too hot and I felt a high fever. I succeded in making the heat go into a tiny box inside me. A woman went into the room to check up on me, but at first I didn't understand her. Soon after I fell asleep. I didn't know how much time had passed, but when I woke up I could understand everything and I knew people that were with me in the house, but the voice in my head was gone. From the beggining I have thought that because of me their daughter disappeared, but when brother said that thing about life flashing before someone's eyes, I understood that it was the same for me." she said with relief visible on her face.

Then she told us about her life since gaining those memories till getting to our estate. I was devastated hearing how she had had to struggle with her mana. Her story was that of unbreakable will to accomplish her goals against all odds. She told us about her job at the south gate, learning alphabet, attempts to create clay tablets, her meeting with merchant from Gilberta Company, her road to creating first page of paper, the talk with her friend and revealing the truth about her identity.

At the story of crushing Bezenwast my noble facade nearly crumbled as I was barely holding myself from laughing. She had crushed Veronica's own little brother and instead of being executed along with her family, Lord Ferdinand had made her a blue priestess apprentice.

Her adventures in the temple had been more interesting, but still dangerous. She was surrounded by enemies, except for Lord Ferdinand, who had been always complaining, but helpful whenever she had needed him as she described him. Heidemarie and Eckhart would surely be surprised to hear about their master helping a commoner girl to do what she wanted.

I also learnt more details about the trombe incident after which Karstedt had been obligated to pay a hefty sum. Now I really wanted to see her robes, if they were worth so much gold.

Hearing about our Aub sneaking out for Spring Prayer made my blood boil. When he was avoiding his responsibilties, his mother was wreacking havoc in our duchy. Lady Florencia would surely hear about it.

Rozemyne finished her story with details of the contract her family had had to sign and about her medical checkup. Talking about her family made her sad, but I didn't know how to make her smile. Altough I couldn't ignore the results of her checkup, which were kept secret from me by my own Dark God, I decided to truly become Rozemyne's mother, not a replacement, but another mother, who could become part of her Geduldh.

My mind was already planning everything I could do to make her warm up to me, but Cornelius' clasp with his hands stopped my mind.

"Now that we cleared topic about otherwordly memories, we have one more thing to discuss."

"Really?" Rozemyne asked, also surprised.

"Yes, we have to talk about your relationship with mother."

We were caught off guard by that and didn't know what to say. Cornelius took Rozemyne into his hands and sat her down on my lap. He knelled to be at her eye level and said:

"Rozemyne, I am positive you still haven't realised it, but mother already accepted you as her daughter. She even told you to call her 'mother'. I know it might sound ridiculous, but listen. At first you were described as daughter of father's third wife who we didn't like and she was very problematic. Even without knowing your true identity she accepted you and now that she knows, she is the best person to guide you as mother in noble society. I understand that it is hard to accept someone as mother just after a few days, but I assure you, she is a mother you can always rely on. She will try her best for her children and will suffer silently if only it will bring her child's safety and happiness."

He gently patted her head while saying that. My heart was threatening to jump out of my chest. My son viewed me as a reliable mother. He came to know me so well. I was really glad he was my son.

Of course I didn't have time to ponder about his words about me any longer, because I had a cute little shumil sitting on my lap.

"Now mother, let's make your maternal instincts kick in. Please, look at your daughter."

I didn't like the way he said it, but did as he asked and looked into those beautiful gold eyes. Rozemyne was blushing now a bit, but her eyes gave her away. She was in an internal struggle to ask me for something. I waited patiently with my welcoming smile, until she decided to speak, although very quietly.

"If… if that would be possible… Could I get a… hug?"

I could barely hear her say the last word, as she looked down at the floor, too embarassed. Acting purely on my instinct, I hugged her tightly. She laid her head just below my shoulder and her tiny hands tried to hold onto me as hard as they could. I then looked at Cornelius who was grinning at the image of me with Rozemyne in my hands, but he again did something unepxected. He came closer and hugged us, locking Rozemyne between us. She was startled at first, but quickly relaxed upon understanding, what happened. Of course he wasn't finished as he had to have the last word in all this.

"Welcome in the family, Rozemyne. We are glad to have you here."

His whisper must have pulled the right string in Rozemyne's heart, because she started crying uncontrollably. She tried to talk through tears, still cluthing to my dress.

"I... I was so scared… that I would be… all alone… in here. Thank you. Thank you. I thank you ever so much."

She got stuck at thanking us and crying until she fell asleep from exhaustion. I felt fulfilled after everything we talked about today and we definitely had spent too much time in here. I wanted to exit, but Cornelius stopped me.

"Mother, considering what Rozemyne told us, perhaps it would be better if she slept with you tonight. I think she needs someone to be next to her right now."

His suggestion made me wonder who was a mother between the two of us. He understood his sister's needs better than me. Probably it was because of their otherworldy memories, but I couldn't let my son be a better mother than me, so I decided to listen to Anhaltung. I wanted to leave, but he, once again, stopped me.

"Before we leave, could you hand Rozemyne to her attendant to change her clothes and stay with me here? I have a question, but didn't want to ask it, when Rozemyne was around. In exhange I can offer to answer three of your questions about my previous life."

I agreed to that. He couldn't surprise with anything more tonight and I could possibly gain invaluable knowledge that could help me with understanding Rozemyne. I gave her to Abigail, ordering her to bring Rozemyne to my room for the night. I closed the door and faced my son.

"What do you want to ask about, Cornelius?"

"Have I ever had a sister before?"

I was wrong. He could surprise me. I didn't how he got this idea. It was painful to remember, but at the same time I didn't want to ever forget her. I hesitated with my answer.

"I know it's sudden, but when you and Eckhart tried to convince me to become Rozemyne's guard knight, I said something and I saw in your eyes that you were hurt by my words. I started thinking and couldn't shake off the feeling that I needed to find out."

He looked me in the eyes. He waited patiently for my answer and I decided that it was now or never to reveal this secret to someone else.

"Her name was Elyana. She was stillborn. I was feeling worse for some time already back then. I decided to visit Haldenzel and spend some time with my brother and sister-in-law. I didn't even realise I was pregnant. Due to high concentration of posion in my body, your sister could never see the light of day."

It hurt. Saying that hurt so much. I didn't see when Cornelius snugled up to me and I started petting him on the head. We had been standing like that in silence for a moment before he spoke.

"I'm sorry mother that you had to remember that because of my question."

"Don't worry, son. Thanks to you, I could share some of my burden with you, but now is my turn to ask. I want you to show me your world with your magic tool. I suspect you wanted to do it while Rozemyne was here, but we never came to that in the end."

Without a word he approched the table and channeled mana into the magic tool. The scenery around us changed in an instant. We were standing in the middle of a plaza, on a stone pavement. It was a bit dark, so it must have been late evening. Around us were many people, adults, teenagers and even children younger than 7, but once again without proper faces. Everyone was "staring" at one thing - a fountain illuminated with myriad of lights. Water was shot upwards at equal intervals and lights were changing constantly. It was beautiful. I had never seen such contraption before. I was asking myself how much mana was used for this short entertainment.

Scenery changed once more and now we were in the middle of nowhere. As far as I could see were only fields full of plants I didn't know, but everything here looked so lively. There wasn't any sign of famine or feybeasts waiting to plunder the fields.

"I have only shown you places from my country, mother. The one Rozemyne is from is also beautiful, but different from mine. I'm sure she will gladly show you how it looked if you ask her." he said as we came back to his hidden room.

"My country"?

"How many countries were there?"

"Over two hundred. Our world was quite big in comparision to Yurgenschmidt."

Walls around us were replaced by black nothingness. When I looked closer I saw many stars shining everywhere. It looked like I was inside Sterrat's realm. Above the place where table had been standing just a moment ago, I saw a ball of blue, green and white in the air.

"This was our world or to be more precise I should say the place in our world inhabited by us, humans. Land was separated by huge pools of salty water that we called [ocean], because it was even bigger than seas."

I didn't quite catch a word he used, but I understood its meaning.

"Every single of those lands contained more than 20 countries, except this one. There were just 3 big countries. And here whole land was one big country." when he said that, he pointed his fingers at some part of land which flashed red to indicate which one he was talking about.

"Before you ask what I meant by 'place in our world', prepare yourself. It might be a mind-blowing knowledge for you. Our world was vast, but uninhabited. At least in the parts that were visited."

He explained to me what [planet] is, then [solar system], next was [galaxy] and the last was [universe] built from many [galaxies]. He showed me how Yurgenschmidt's size roughly compared to his home country, but on the scale of the whole galaxy, we were mere ants that could be stomped on.

"You have one last question, mother."

What? What happened to the second ques… Right, I asked about number of countries.

I wanted to ask about so many things, but there was one thing at the back of my mind.

"Who did you leave behind in that world?"

I knew it was a sensitive question. After all I had been asked something very similar. This time I was the first to approach and hug him. I waited until he gathered courage to tell me. His hands ambraced me and he let his forehead lay on my shoulder.

"Four people. They were the closest to my heart. My two friends, who had always been there for me. They didn't ask questions, when I asked for help. I could always count on them. Jacobsen's personality is based on one of my friends traits that I remembered." he paused for a bit, before speaking again. "I left mom alone. Dad died before I turned 20 so after my death she was left without anyone."

I felt a pang in my chest. Hearing my son calling another woman 'mom' wasn't easy for me, but at the same time I understood that she also had been his Wiegenmilch. She looked as he had grown into fine man. My resolve to live up to his words from before was now burning. I promised myself to be there for him whenever he needed me.

He had listed three people so far. Friends and family. I was sure that the last one was…

"And there was also my love, my All Goddess, whose smile had always melted my heart." he started sobbing as he said it. "I tried. I have been trying to accept the reality that I am no longer able to see her, but I am yet to come to terms with that. There are nights, when I close my eyes and see her face… and her gentle smile that have made Bluanfah dance. I try to reach her with my hands, but when I open my eyes there is nothing in front of me and it hurts every time."

I didn't know what to say. My son already had a goddess, who had stolen his heart. I let him cry until he calmed down, as it was the only thing I could do for him.

"Thank you, mother. For being here for me." he stopped hugging me and looked at my dress, now drenched in his tears. He cast waschen and I healed his eyes with a handchkrief. We went outside to meet with our attendants. I was informed that Rozemyne was already lying in my bed and sleeping soundly.

We parted ways. I took a quick bath and joined my daughter. I laid down next to her and looked at her sleeping face. She looked so cute. I caressed her cheeck lightly, but when she felt my touch she caught my hand in her sleep and didn't want to let go. I got a little closer to her and she unconsciously buried her face in my bosom and whispered "Mom."

She probably was thinking I was her commoner mother. She had told us that her whole family had been sleeping togehter in one bed. She must have carved physical affection after the separation from her true family. Once again that day I steeled my resolve to become truly worthy of Wiegenmilch's blessing.

Next day I woke up shortly after the first bell. Rozemyne would also wake up very soon, so I decided to just close my eyes and wait for either Rozemyne to wake up or my attendant to enter. Rozemyne was first. Even without looking I felt as she was trying to process where she was and what was she doing here. Soon after she put her her down and pretended to sleep to not wake me up.

"I know you're awake, Rozemyne." I said.

"Bwuh?!"

What was that sound?

"Did you have a good sleep, daughter?"

She got embarassed from that question. She probably remembered waking up with her head in my bosom and cluthing tightly to me. She wasn't able to look me in the eye.

"Umm… Would that be possible to sometimes… get… more hugs?"

She looked like a shumil wanting a treat. I got into another hug and answered her plea.

"Of course. After all this is what hidden rooms are for when children are younger. You just have to ask. We will have to start with creating your own hidden room."

At that moment Abigail entered the room. Before she started preparing Rozemyne and me for the day, she reported one thing.

"Lady Elvira, Lord Cornelius has sneaked out from the estate once again."

Chapter Text

My heart was much lighter after the confession. It was much needed talk and I was glad to share those emotions with mother. She also looked like a heavy burden was lifted from her shoulders. I watched as she was leaving my room. Engelbert had prepared a bath which I gladly took.

I was proud of myself for making Rozemyne and mother's realtionship better right from the start. I saw the gleam in mother's eyes when she decided to truly become Rozemyne's Wiegenmilch. I was sure they would spend tomorrow strenghtening their bond, so I had one day to act without supervision. I thought about everything I could do within that day and things I had to prepare.

I pretended to go to sleep and waited for Engelbert to leave. I got out of bed and entered my hidden room. First things first I got to brewing. If my guess was correct I needed potion that calms one's mind. Heidemarie had shared the recipe with mother during my posioning accident and had said that it was okay to teach me that. This specific concoction didn't need mana as it was made from normal plants that could be found even in commoner's forest. I just needed water, herbs and magic circle for heating up things. I brewed five vials and left them on the table.

I also reached for few small trombe feystones and commoner clothes for northern part of the city. I took some small golds from Lady Adolphine just in case and the most important things - AoE sound-blocking tool and magic tool for projecting my mind, but without wolf decoration. I stopped for a moment while holding it. I knew I could just use it to see her, but it would be just cruel me. Even if I really wanted to do it, she would be just a projection of my mind, not the real one.

When I calmed down I checked that everything seemed to be in order, so I quickly jumped to bed and fell asleep. Fortunately I woke up before the first bell, so Engelbert hadn't come to my room yet.

I have to invent a magic tool similar to clock with alarm. It would help me greatly with my sneaking out.

I put on my noble clothes for training and belt. I was glad those were made to be put on quickly by myself. I put three vials in the belt and the rest of things, along with my commoner clothing, into a bag. Getting out of the estate was easy as all attendants were either beggining to wake up or preparing for their job. I left the Noble Quarters and went the same way as always when I was collecting taue fruits, but this time stopped nearby East Gate. I prayed to Verbergen, climbed the wall when no one was looking and dropped down between the buildings. I looked around, but all windows were still closed.

I circled between buildings until I reached the temple. Coming from the commoner's side wouldn't be best decision so I mounted my highbeast and tried to not alarm anyone while flying above temple. I landed in the entrance and was greeted by a grey priest. He looked stressed by my arrival. The second bell was fast approaching and some random noble kid just decided to visit, when he still should be sleeping or waking up.

"I came to see Lady Rozemyne's head attendant, Fran. Inform him immediately and prepare a room for us to talk."

"As you wish, my lord."

He moved quickly, but within appropriate speed limit that was considered proper. I was invited to a small room and seated. One of the grays brought me a cup of tea and informed me that Fran is on his way to meet me. He arrived shortly after with fear on his face. He tried to hide it, but not well enough. We exchanged greetings and I started by asking him to join me for a tea.

"My lord, it is not appropriate for a mere servant to drink a tea with a noble."

"I didn't come here to order you around. I wanted to ask about my sister. Lord Ferdinand's words were very lacking. He only told me that Rozemyne is very frail and she is not in a good health, so I should observe her closely."

I took a sip to let Fran process my words and continued.

"As a noble who was trained to become a knight, I do not have enough knowledge, so I wanted to ask you, her head attendant, for any tips and instructions."

"Lord Cornelius, it is not my place to-"

"Stop it." I cut him off. "The moment she is baptised, she will be adopted by our archduke. Then I will join her retinue as her guard knight. As her brother, I will be the only one able to pass instructions to her future noble attendants. I am sure that they would never listen to a gray robe, so I have to give them any advice as her brother." I looked him straight into eyes. "I just want to ensure safety and healthy enviroment for my little sister."

"I understand, Lord Cornelius. I will gladly share my experience with you."

He finally sat down, but before he could start, I activated AoE sound-blocking tool and said one last thing that had to be stated beforehand.

"And do not worry about slipping up about her past. I know about Myne. She told me everything."

Fran gasped at that quietly, but quickly reagined his composure and nodded. He started his explanation from the things Lutz had warned him about upon their first day. Then he added his own observations and told me about symptoms I should be looking for when checking if Rozemyne should rest or proceed with her plans for the day.

After half a bell we finished our conversation. I asked Fran to be led somewhere where I could change and with commoner's clothes on me, I entered the lower city. I paced on the central street slowly, looking at different shops in the area. I found Gilberta Company pretty easily.

When I heard the third bell, I saw a young apprentice open the door. I was sure it was Lutz. He looked the same as in the anime and books. I entered the store and approached him.

"Welcome, sir. How can I help you?"

He sounded professional. Mr. Mark must have drilled manners in him.

"I came here to talk about a certain book loving shumil."

He looked at me deadpanned. He understood that I meant Myne. He got his guard up, pretending to not know about any shumil. In that moment came Mark, probably to check on Lutz, but he instantly paled, seeing me, but there's a reason he had been Benno's right hand all this time. He quickly offered me a talk in a private room with Benno himself. I gladly agreed, as it had been my goal from the beggining. I only asked that they also invite Lutz for our talk. We sat in the room that was probably Benno's office and by "we" I meant Benno and me. Mark prepared tea and snacks, stood slightly behind Benno and Lutz was behind Mark. I took out my sound-blocking tool and activated it, making sure that everyone was in range.

"Let's cut to the chase." I started. "Rozemyne told me about everything."

I didn't understand why everyone was paling every time I say something. Was it really that scary?

"L-lord Cornelius, we-"

"Nelly." I cut him off.

"Excuse me?"

"Call me Nelly. I'm not here to play a noble. I want to have an honest talk. I understand that you wouldn't believe me, but I have a proof that you can trust me." I looked at Lutz. "Lutz, I am in the same situation as Rozemyne."

He looked dumbfounded.

"Lord Nelly, I do not unders-"

"Just Nelly."

"I apologise. Nelly, I do not understand, what you mean by that."

"I mean it in the context of your conversation with her when you made your first page of paper."

I could see the realisation on his face. At first he was astonished, but then rubbed his temples and muttered.

"Great, another one."

"LUTZ!" Benno shouted.

"Hahahaha" I laughed. "Yeah, I can understand the sentiment. Don't worry, I won't try to strongarm my ideas, but I will come from time to time to do some business. Oh, and while we are at that, here. Drink it Mr. Benno. It has a calming effect."

I took out a vial with calming potion, drank small portion of it and gave it to Benno. He hesitantly took it and drank in one go with his eyes shut. Soon potion took effect and his face realxed. He looked at the vial and gave it back to me.

"Thank you ever so much, Lor… Nelly."

"Now as you calmed down, we may talk business." I smiled at him. "I have some ideas and I would like to put into life. As you are a merchant I am sure you can connect me with right craftspeople."

He didn't say anything. Even though he calmed a bit after drinking my potion, he was reluctant to talk business with me. Thankfully Lutz intervened.

"Master Benno, it is in your best interest that you trust him. Myne wouldn't just reveal everything to someone untrustworthy and after what he has said so far, you can think of him like another Myne, just without obsession about books. At least I think so."

I nodded at Lutz statement. He looked happy that I wasn't obsessed with making books just like his former friend. Benno was looking at our silent talk and groaned.

"Aaaaah, fine." he said, ruffling his own hair and leaving it in a mess. "What do you want me to do?"

"First, I need to find a craftsman who produces music instruments for nobility. It would be great if you could find one with years of experience and maybe one apprentice who wants a challenge. I have an idea for two instuments and enough money to pay."

"That won't be a problem. Klaus is the best in his field. He even gets orders from archducal family and their retainers. He is sure to have some aspiring young apprentice. Anything else?"

"Yes, I will need Zack. He is a blacksmith apprentice that competed with Johann. I have heard he has great skills in drawing designs, so in the end I will need him to cooporate with Klaus."

"What about your status?"

"That is a little tricky. To show him exactly what I want, I will need to use a certain magic tool, so we will have to disclose the truth to them. You can warn them that some eccentric archnoble kid hates when everyone kneel and he just wants to talk as equals."

"Eccentric archnoble kid, huh? It sounds funny when third son of Ehrenfest's Knight Commander is saying that."

"Oh, come on. You survived literal archduke posing a blue priest going on a hunt with orphanage's children. The only way it could get any worse is if zent or one of princes decided to do the same and trust me that those in the highest seat would never even look at any commoner."

I saw Lutz's face paling at my words.

"Arch… duke?"

"Oh, they didn't tell you? Brother Syl is actually Aub Ehrenfest. The one ruling our whole duchy."

"I… I… I ordered… Aub Ehrefest around?"

"Oh, yes. From what I have heard you also asked him to clean whole lower city. You've got some courage, I have to say." I laughed at him, but he looked even more devastated.

"Don't worry. He's a chill guy, when he runs away from his responsibilities in the castle. You don't need to fear for your life. He said he had had fun with you and other children."

Mark cleared his throat to get our attention back to the right topic.

"So," I continued "Now that music instruments are out of the way, I wanted to broach one more topic." I heard Benno gulp. "I will need to be registered with Merchant Guild, if I want to do business in the future, but at my age I need a guardian. Would you like to become one?"

Benno now looked like his brain had a processing error and had to do an emergency reboot. I waited patiently until he was once again able to answer me.

"Why me?" was the only thing he could muster.

"My sister trusts you and from what she told me, you always had her well-being in mind. Even if it was because of your greed. You are far more better than guild master, especially after his attempt to steal her from you by lying about magic tool's price. In addition to you becoming a guardian, I will exact a little revenge on Gustav for that one. What do you think? Do you want to see it?" I sounded like a child planning some mischief.

Benno massaged his temple in similar way to Ferdinand. He thought about it deeply.

"Can you at least promise me that no one will be harmed in any way, killed or executed?"

"Yes, I plan to do it harmless, but stressful way."

"Okay, I can agr-"

"Master Benno, I would like to become Nelly's business guardian." Mark interrupted Benno and shocked us all. He stepped forward and continued. "Master Benno, you will have too big burden to shoulder on your own after lady Rozemyne's baptism. I should help you. I have stayed with you all these years, even in the darkest era of the Gilberta Company. I think I have earned enough of your trust to do it."

Mark cornered Benno without even changing his facial expression. Asking for trust after so many years surely was a deadly blow. Benno couldn't do anything but agree. They wanted to depart immediately to register me, but I stopped them and asked Mark go ahead of us to be a mesenger for Gustav. He had to scare him by saying about my arrival in less than a half a bell. When he left I asked Benno to leave me alone with Lutz in the range of the magic tool. He gladly obliged, but was still loking at us from the outside of the silenced area. I signaled Lutz to sit. He quickly complied and waited for me to say something.

"I have two basic questions for you, Lutz. First one is about the other world. Why did you believe me?"

"Did I have any other choice? She told you about it. There are hardly any people she could trust with her secret and yet here you are, claiming to be in the same situation as her. In addition you're a freaking noble. Do you think I can do anything but agree to your every single word?!"

His outburst was unexpected. I spotted Benno paling when he saw Lutz's behaviour. It made me laugh lightly.

"Hahaha. You're right. I'm sorry for that. Barging into your store and demanding unbelievable things must have been a bit traumatazing."

He was silent for a moment, but then he sighed just like Benno.

"Let's stop thinking about that. What is the second question?"

"Oh, right. Do you want to see our old world?"

He looked shocked and couldn't find any words.

"You… You can show it to me? I can actually see how your world looked like?"

"Yes, I can. I have a magic tool that allows me to show people my memories in a specified range. Everyone outside this range won't be able to see anything until they get close enough. So? What is your answer? This is one-time only offer."

He pondered for a while and answered negatively. I took me by surprise, so I asked for the reason.

"I don't have to see it. I am sure that Myne will bring her ideas to life to make Ehrenfest look more like your world. I just have to wait and observe as she pushes forward."

"That's… very mature of you. I thought that you would say yes."

"I might have said so before she became a shrine maiden, but now? I want to be part of that. Of the world she will create."

Huh. I didn't expect him to have such view. I thought he just wanted to see other parts of our duchy. Guess I have to change my opinion of him.

I held out my hand to him and introduced myself again.

"Let's start again. I'm Cornelius, son of the Knight Commander and scholar. When I wear commoner clothes, call me Nelly. Being noble in lower city sucks." I said with a smile.

"Lutz, son of a carpenter and textile worker. Nice to meet you, Nelly."

Lutz reciprocated my gesture and we started our acquaintance with a handshake and smile. I turned off sound-blocking tool and turned to Benno.

"Don't worry, he hasn't agreed to anything."

He looked at Lutz, trying to determine, if I was lying, but Lutz just nodded and Benno had to accept my words.

"Now, let us depart for Merchant's Guild. I want to do it quickly and meet Gunther and Effa later."

They both looked at me horrified, but I explained to them that I just wanted to reassure them that we are taking a good care of their daughter. Lutz had to stay in the shop to continue his work, so I boarded the carriage only with Benno.

Riding in a carriage wasn't very comfortable. I could feel every bump in the road and it really stank. Fortunately there wasn't so much distance between Gilberta and the Guild. We arrived and were led upstairs where Gustav was already waiting in the best meeting room Guild had to offer. He greeted me politely and showed me to my seat. Benno and Mark stood behind me, acting like they were my retainers.

"What can this humble servant do for you, Lord Cornelius?" he asked. I heard fear in his voice.

"I am glad that you know my identity, but when I'm alone and in commoner clothes, please, call me Nelly. I don't want people to kneel every time I walk into their shop." I waited for him to sit and continued. "I want to be registered as merchant apprentice with Mr. Mark being my legal guardian in these matters. It will make my future endeavors much easier."

"Yes, I will prepare everything immiediately." he said and looked at his secretary. She left and soon after brought one medal that looked just like the baptism one. Instead of stabbing myself with a needle I just poured a tiny amount of mana into the medal. It flashed once and everything was finished. I was given short instructions on how to use it and deposited gold coins I had with me. Nothing much, just seven small golds. Now came time for the topic I really wanted to talk about. It would also be a small punishment for Gustav. I turned on sound-blocking barrier around us.

"Now Gustav, let's talk business. Could you bring your granddaughter here? I have heard about her talents and I wanted to meet her."

He resisted at first, but after asking for her two more times he relented and called for her. He was already sweaty. That was my revenge. Making him nervous and scared for Freida's life. Now he had to watch as his precious granddaughter was facing a noble who possibly wanted to take her for himself.

Freida entered the meeting room and looked around, identifying every person present. When she spotted me, she came closer and introduced herself. She acted exactly as I wanted people to. Polite like towards a possible future business partner, but not overly polite like in case of nobles. She could adapt quickly, even with scarce information. Instead of asking her to sit down, I stood up and gave her personal sound-blocker that I always carried with myself.

"If you have ever used children magic tools, you must know the feeling of moving the mana inside you. Try pouring a little portion of it into this tool. It will make eavesdropping on us impossible."

I waited for her to figure out how to activate it and I did it so myself.

"I will buy out your contract from lord Henrik. I then will make you my scholar and business representative in lower city. I don't want you to become my concubine or misstress. We can, of course, add a clause to a new contract that will ensure it won't happen in the future. I can't promise you anything additionally, but if my plan succeded, I can try to ennoble you by asking someone to adopt you. Of course you can refuse or choose only to be my scholar and business representative. If you agree, I will give you a little test to complete. Think about it and give me an answer at the end of our meeting."

I took the sound-blocker from her and sat down again. Gustav was looking like he was at the verge of heart attack. Freida sat next to him, but didn't say a word. Benno glared harshly at me, indicating that I had overdone it. Maybe, but I did what I had wanted from the beggining.

To give Freida some time, I asked Gustav and Benno about flow of goods and overall mood in our city after Veronica's imprisonment. To my surprise they hadn't known about it. Nobody had told them yet about the shift in power, so I informed them about everything I knew in this matter. They were grateful for it and became more open with me. We talked about future crop yields that were destined to increase from now on as Rozemyne would become High Bishop. When we have exhausted the topics for conversation, I turned to Freida to ask for her decision. Gustav was once again sweating profusely, not knowing what we had talked about before.

"I would like to accept your offer, Nelly. Both of them, if it would be possible."

"Great. Then talk to your grandfather about it when we leave, but for now let's talk about your test. I want to acquire every single fish called Regisch. What matters the most are two things. First, as you have mana, do not touch them. Second, they have to have scales. If you rise to the challenge, I will want every Regisch entering Ehrenfest in the future to be delivered to me. I will await results in one week. Deliver fish to Linkberg's estate and mention that it is for my brewing, but I didn't specify anything else."

"I understand. I will do my best." she crossed her hands and bowed to me.

"And as a show of my good will, Gustav, please reach into my bag and take out one black magic stone and give it to Freida."

He very slowly walked up to me and put a hand in my bag. He took out one small dark-element feystone and handed it to his granddaughter. She squealed at the sudden sensation of being drained of mana. Everyone now looked at her and I quickly explained that it was a feystones that could drain her mana. I also promised her a children's magic tool that wouldn't break, if she completed her task.

I left with Benno and Mark and came back to Gilberta to discuss "some more matters". He demanded from me the content of my conversation with Freida the moment I turned on AoE sound-blocker. I told him the truth and he just sat in his armchair with heavy sigh, not saying anything. I also explained my reasoning for buying fish that could not be cut by any knife. They promised me not to disclose this information. After Benno's interrogation, which showed now how much more relaxed he was around me, I asked Lutz to bring me to Gunther's and Effa's house. He was allowed to leave Gilberta and lead me to the right place.

Tuuli opened the door and was surprised to see Lutz with an unknown person. She called Gunther, who was taking care of his son, but the moment he saw me, he was on guard and ready to attack. Thankfully Lutz diffused the situation by asking for everyone to sit down and talk, but Gunther was still eyeing me all the time. From Effa's absence I guessed she was working at the moment. I decided to introduce myself first.

"My name is Cornelius. I am son of Ehrenfest's Knight Commander Karstedt and older brother of Rozemyne." At the mention of Myne, they were now listening to my every word. "She trusted me and our mother with her secret."

"While I'm glad she found someone to trust, I don't see any reason we should trust you. Are you here to threaten us using her well-being?" Gunther asked with hostility in his voice.

"Not at all. I just wanted to deliver you good news that she is being properly taken care of. In addition I will become her guard knight. As a soldier you can understand when I vow to protect her with my own life. I am her brother and I won't let her down." I looked him in the eyes and tapped my right fist twice on my chest.

His expression softened and he returned my gesture. Lutz assured him that I can be trusted, but he cannot reveal the reason, as only Myne could do it. Gunther and Tuuli proceeded to ask some questions about Myne like her clothes, diet and if she got enough hugs. As the most important thing I explained that Elvira was now in fact the most influential noblewoman in the whole duchy and she was very happy to have a daughter, even if said daughter couldn't accept her as her mother yet.

I had left before Effa came back, but I helped them wash the dishes with waschen before leaving. I thanked Lutz for bringing me here and parted ways with him. I went to the same place I had landed after jumping from the wall near the East Gate. When I wanted to fly above the wall I was caught in bands of light. My highbeast turned back into feystone and I saw Ekchart grab it mid-air. He was holding bands in his hand with stone expression, but his eyes were filled with suspicion and anger. I was brought straight to the temple, thrown on the bench in Ferdinand's room where I got a chance to look around. There was no grey priest in the room. There were only Ferdinand, Justus, Eckhart and Heidemarie, all eyeing me and prepared to use their schtappes at the moments notice. Ferdinand sat opposite of me and looked me in the eyes. The rest of them were standing right behind him.

"Long time no see, Mr. Paranoid." I started. That got me more angry glares from his retainers.

"What were you doing in the lower city?"

"I think it is not conversation for others. I recommend speaking under Verbergen's shroud."

"What could make you think that?

"The use of a certain magic tool during Shutzaria's season. The tool that was borrowed from our Aub after the trombe extermination."

He didn't say anything and I couldn't read his face. Nothing changed except the aura he was excluding. I wanted to be able to read him as good as Rozemyne, but maybe it was not my forte.

Ferdinand gave me a sound-blocker and demanded explanations. He was afraid that someone had found out about mind-reading.

"She hasn't told us about mind-reading, but it is hard to believe that you would trust her words about... Are you sure that I can reveal everything you saw to Justus and Hediemarie? Or do they know already?"

Without batting an eye he signaled them to turn around, only allowing Eckhart to watch me so I wouldn't run.

"Now speak. I don't have all day to play a nanny."

"I know you wouldn't believe her words without seeing it yourself. How was [Japonia]? Or maybe she used word [Nihon]?"

He produced his schtappe and pointed it at me. At the same time Eckhart transformed his into a sword.

"Who are you? What is your objective? Who sent you here?"

"Wow. I was right to call you paranoid. Why do you assume I was sent here by someone in the first place? I died. Just like Rozemyne. You think I had a choice?" I was calm saying that part, which was a bit startling. I looked at my death as a matter of fact and not a drastic part of my life. "At the brink of death memories from my previous life started pouring into my head without my consent." I paused for a moment and continued, answering his questions. "I am Cornelius Sohn Linkberg and always have been. In my previous life I was called Michael. My objective is simple - learn and discover new sides of magic, fall in love, get married and live happily with my wife and two kids. Nobody sent me here. I haven't been able to understand the reason behind having those memories, but I would appreciate some help in discovering the truth."

He decided to lower his schtappe and ordered Eckhart to do the same.

"What do you mean by memories pouring into your head? Your case isn't the same as Rozemyne's?"

I explained to him the concept of seeing all past memories in life-threathning situation. Fortunately he also heard about such stories before. I also told him that after my talk with Rozemyne, we had come to conclusion that it had been the same for the both of us. He asked me questions about some things he had seen in Myne's memory to check if I was telling the truth. When I answered all his questions, he lowered his guard down and broached another topic.

"What did you mean by 'discover new sides of magic'? Are you trying to tell me that you, in fact, were able to use magic in your world and Rozemyne was just so ignorant because of her book obsession that she had never learnt it?"

"I mean that I can offer a new perspective to your research. As someone that lived without magic for 24 years, magic is something foreign to me, but also exciting at the same time. Every child in my old world had dreamed about using magic, but of course their childish dreams were destroyed when they grew up. I may understand Yurgenschmidt's magic in a different way than you do. In addition you, like any other researcher and scholar I saw, are very narrow-minded. You ignore everything that isn't related to mana or magic circles. You don't even understand the world around you."

"Enough. I might have liked the idea of someone capable of adding new point of view to my research, but slandering me won't-"

"I can prove it… I can prove it to you with a simple wooden mug."

I must have caught his attention, because he ordered Justus to bring a single mug and hand it to me. When I got it in my hands, I waited for Justus to turn around and dropped the mug no the floor and said "Explain why this mug fell to the ground, instead of staying in the air."

"Are trying to fool me? You dropped it, of course it would fall."

"Why?"

"Because that's how the world works."

"Why?"

I knew I was petty behaving like a child and asking 'why' to everything he said, but it was the fastest way for him to understand.

"Gods created it this way. It's the rule."

"Yea… and you, the Lord of Evil, don't understand the principle behind it. You treat it as something obvious without trying to understand. And you call yourself a researcher?"

"So you can explain it to me?" he asked intrigued. I probably had strucked a nerve with my remark, because he looked angry.

"Not only that, but many different phenomena. From what I have observed so far, both my old world and Yurgenschmidt are based on the same pricniples, the same laws of nature, despite the presence of mana in here. I offer you an exchange. We resume my lessons on magic circles and magic tools creation and I offer all my knowledge about natural laws that were present in my old world. Together we can test them out."

"And why would I agree to something like that? Why should I trust you?"

"Because the idea has a merit and we both benefit from it. I get to know more about magic and you get to know more about the world. I don't need you to trust me now, but you can decide after checking out the magic tool of my creation in the bag that I'm sure Justus has already gone throught."

He ordered Justus to bring him my bag and took out the magic tool. I explained to him what it did and asked him to try it himself. He showed me the moment Myne nearly had crushed Bezenwast to death and quickly deactivated it. He tried to probe me about the magic circle instantly, but I refused to share anything, except the fact that I didn't use God of Life's sigil. He tapped his temples for some time and reluctantly agreed to "exchange knowledge".

Then I was interrogated about my talks with Freida, Benno, Gustav and Myne's family. I told him the truth about music instruments and Freida's contract, but I withheld from him the part about Regisch. After all I didn't want to share omni-elemental feystones for free.

After everything Ferdinand deemed me trustworthy to some extent so his retainers weren't glaring at me so much anymore. I was also praised by Ferdinand for going out of my way to learn about managing Rozemyne's health and by praise I meant not hearing any snide remark.

I was escorted back to the estate by Eckhart who was ordered to make sure I got inside and to talk to mother about my disappearance this morning. I didn't get scolded, but mother surely awaited report from me, especially when Eckhart was the one to bring me home.

Rozemyne was resting at the time and I didn't want to disturb her, so I went to my hidden room and did some stretching and part of OPM training. The rest of the day was uneventful. I, mother and Rozemyne ate dinner together and talked about Rozemyne's lessons. She was smiling all the time, hearing praise from mother, but she was warned that they would work on her display of emotions later.

Next day I posted a commission in knights' barracks. I wanted them to collect one big jar of grun's saliva and it's glands. I remembered that they smelled like miso for Rozemyne, but I wasn't sure which part of its body was responsible for emitting this scent. I offered three small golds for the commission completed and in just four days I received my jar and glands from none other than Haldenzel knights, who were still in Ehrenfest due to uncle's socializing schedule. They didn't ask questions, but were very happy, when I gave them promised golds to split between them.

Two days later the Othmar Company delivered to our estate Regisch. Six in total. I couldn't believe that there were so many in Ehrenfest. I quickly shut myself inside my hidden room, summoned a shield in my left hand and poured as much mana as I could into the fish in my right hand.

Tear-shaped, rainbow-coloured feystone started falling down everywhere, some even hitting my shield. I checked my mana reserves, but I barely used mana. Soon after all six fishes were stripped from all scales turned into feystones, but not omni-elemental like I thought. Fishes themselves turned into feystones with the mix of water, earth and small amount of dark attributes. Every fish gave me between 14 and 22 scales. With so much feystones I was going to earn big golds in the Academy. Now that I had dark and omni-elemental feystones, I needed only life feystones and I was suspecting parue fruit of being one of the purest feyplants with life element, but it had to wait until winter.

After getting my hands on Regisch's scales I fell back into my routine of looking after Rozemyne, learning to be her knight and learning to manage her health. I was glad to see my sister getting attention and affection she longed for after being torn apart from her family. Sometimes she borrowed my special magic tool and locked herself in mother's hidden room. Other times they invited me and asked me to show them my country.

Both mother and I were quite embarassed when I told her about my experiences in romance and what was the standard in most places on Earth. It was hard to talk about winter stuff with always romance-loving Elvira, but I somehow managed to do it. One time, when Rozemyne wasn't with us during our talk, I told mother about SMUT and oh boy. She was so red on her face I nearly laughed. Our relationship was becoming better with each single day and when I finally felt comfortable with sharing my insecurities and hidden desires I told her that sometimes I also wanted some of her physical affection in the form of hugs or headpats. Mother gladly obliged, but voiced her fears about my future marriage prospects if I showed my liking to physical display of affection. To be honest I didn't care about that. My wife would have to get used to it.

When Dregarnuhr decreed so, I got some lessons in Japanese langauge from Rozemyne. I had been learning it for 5 years in my past life, but due to lack of any Japanese people in Yurgenschmidt, my skills had declined, so now we had our secret language to communicate with. During this time Rozemyne hadn't collapsed even once, which earned me a true praise from the Lord of Evil. Father started coming back home more frequently out of jealousy, after seeing Elvira's reaction to Ferdinand's visit. He was mostly present, just present in the estate, avoiding me and barely interacting with his daughter. Mother was a bridge between us, but she promised me she wouldn't tell him about my memories. I would do it, when the time was right. I just hoped that Ferdinand wouldn't be the first to tell him.

All in all our family was starting to look more normal with both parents present in their children's lives. And the best thing was that Karstedt couldn't disappear due to going out for a milk.

Chapter Text

More than half of spring had already passed. Rozemyne had reached an acceptable level for a freshly baptised archnoble girl in etiquette and euphemisms. Her harspiel skill was getting better and better according to Ferdinand, even though I could not hear the difference as I had been listening to her playing every day. Occasionally I would see her and Mother retreating to Rozemyne’s hidden room to hug and talk about Earth. Mother understood that Myne was very sensitive on the topic of her family, so she was mostly asking her about romance and possible trends they could recreate in Yurgenschmidt. 

One evening I decided to contact Justus. I wanted to try preparing something with rice and miso (grun’s glands and saliva), but I wasn’t sure if I could use it. Just because it looked and smelled like their Earthly equivalents didn’t mean they were safe. When he arrived at our estate, I invited him to my room and brought him one fruit of rizzen and kakao and some of grun’s spoils. He plugged his nose and asked me how I could not smell it. I could sense the smell, but it was miso. It didn’t stink, at least not for me.

I asked him to check everything if it could get poisonous after processing, but he found no issue. I paid him for his time with one omni-elemental feystone. I hadn’t shown my collection of them to anyone so far, and he was grinning a tad too widely. As if he was changing my value on his “interesting and funny things to observe” list. I was sure he would report to Ferdinand that I had a very rare ingredient, but I didn’t care much. I had enough to sell some to him, keep a few for myself and sell the rest in the Academy to Drewanchels. 

Being certain that the ingredients couldn’t poison me or anyone else, I asked Mother for a tea party in my hidden room, and she agreed. Three days later we were drinking tea and talking about nothing. I hated going through proper procedure of tea parties, but with Elvira as my mother I had to become the best gentleman in Ehrenfest, if not in the whole country. 

When our tea was changed, I began slowly explaining to her why I wanted those fruits from Dunkelfelger and why I had grun’s spoils in my collection. I told her about my ideas for dishes, but emphasized that Rozemyne’s country was known for dishes with rizzen and a sauce that smelled the same as grun, so she would have much better ideas for these dishes. I also offered her a trend that would storm ladies’ society like Verdrenna’s thunder—schokolade. 

As she was now in a good mood, I decided to broach the topic I was reluctant to mention earlier.

“Mother, I also promised to sign a contract with a Devouring girl. I wanted to a-” I stopped mid-sentence. I felt mana swirling around me, and I saw my mother’s eyes change colour. I knew I was going to get scolded harshly. 

“Cornelius! I thought I had raised you better than that. Just because you are a young boy doesn’t mean I will allow you to pluck flowers. You are TOO YOUNG for that. To think that my son would…” she continued her speech for some time until I had enough and interrupted her. 

“Mother, please. Let me explain first.” 

She looked at me like I was an animal but didn’t say anything. That was the sign for me to speak. 

“If you remember, Rozemyne had an acquaintance in the lower city—the daughter of Merchant’s Guild’s master. She also has the Devouring. Knowing this, I sneaked there and had an impromptu meeting with her grandfather. Freida, that’s her name, has already signed a contract with a laynoble. She is to become a mistress upon her coming of age. From what she told me, I deduced that she has mana on the lower side of a mednoble or is a tiny bit below that threshold. I offered to buy out her contract if she would be able to complete my task.” 

“Does this have something to do with the fish that was delivered to our estate for you to brew?”

Nothing could be hidden from Mother in her estate. I stood up, went to another section of my hidden room and continued talking. 

“Yes, I had her acquire one type of fish for me from Ahrensbach. Its scales are something I wanted. You can see for yourself.” I handed her one omni-elemental scale I had gotten from regisch. She inspected it carefully and gave it back to me. “I promised her that I will make her my business representative in the lower city and scholar in all but name, but after some more deliberation I wanted to ask you if maybe your namesworn attendant would like to adopt her. I could provide money for her current contractor to baptise her and then Abigail could raise her. Of course I would brew a children’s magic tool for her.” 

After strengthening my bond with Mother during our tea parties, I had been told some of Abigail’s family circumstances. She had married for love with a neutral mednoble, but she had become a widow much too soon and had never bound her stars with anyone again. Her late husband, a knight, had died during Winter Lord subjugation, but she had never believed that. Nobody had seen him charge at the feybeast and his feystone had been found by knights from the Veronica faction. As there hadn’t been any evidence contradicting Veronican’s words, she could not fight for truth. At the time she had been with Geduldh burden, but the loss of her Dark God had been too much for her and she had lost her child. She had been grieving for a long time until she had decided to swear her name to Mother in hope to survive until the day she could see Veronica being executed or thrown into the White Tower. 

A sigh had escaped my mother’s lips before she spoke. 

“I will talk with Abigail about it, but I will not order her to do it. If she agrees and the girl has the requisite levels of mana, you can proceed with your plan. Otherwise you will have to find another way.” 

“I understand, Mother. I will await Abigail’s answer.” 

The next day I received a positive answer, so I immediately got to work and sent invitations to Gustav, Freida, Lord Henrik and his wife. Five days had passed and we were gathered in one of the Linkberg’s tea party rooms at fifth bell. Lord Henrik was nervously observing everything around him and Gustav was looking even more pale than the last time we had met. 

“Welcome, everyone. While etiquette requires me to start with a small talk, looking at you I think I should already state the topic I have wanted to discuss, else you run out of Dauerleben divine blessing.”  

They nodded. I raised a sound-blocking barrier and began my explanation by addressing Damuel’s brother. 

“Henrik, some time ago Dregarnuhr let my thread intersect with that of Freida and Gustav. After a very interesting conversation, I decided to buy out Freida’s contract from you, but since then my plans have greatly changed. I would like you to baptise Freida as your own daughter. I have everything ready for you to sign. I only need to hear the amount of money Gustav has lent you so I can pay off your debt to him.” 

“L-lord Cornelius, what are you talking about? Baptising Freida? As our daughter?” Henrik’s wife stammered.

“I’m sorry, Lord Cornelius, but as laynobles we don’t have enough resources to baptise her,” said Henrik with sweat on his forehead.

“Do not worry, Henrik. I will cover the cost of Freida’s baptism and everything she needs. After baptism she would be adopted by a mednoble, so it won’t be a burden for your finances.”

“Adopted?” this time it was Gustav.

“Yes. From information I have gathered, Freida is probably at the lower side of mednoble in terms of mana. The adoption would be the best for her future,” I said to him.

I know that they didn’t have much choice. I made an order as an archnoble and they had to comply. I didn’t like it, but it was the easiest way to achieve what I wanted.

“U-understood, Lord Cornelius,” said Gustav.

I turned to Bernetts and asked for the price. Two large golds. I handed them two coins and a contract to sign, dissolving their previous arrangement with Freida. As we watched the contract burning, I lowered the barrier and asked Engelbert to bring the tool and told Frieda to come closer. When Engelbert came back, he put a measuring magic tool on Freida’s head and we awaited the results. Some feystones slowly filled up, changing their colour.

“Lower side of a mednoble, barely above the minimum threshold. Nothing that cannot be adjusted with some mana compression.” I said.

Engelbert glared at me, silently admonishing me for admitting that I wanted a seven-year-old girl to compress mana, but I didn’t care. I was sure Frieda was more than capable of light compression. I turned to face her and said:

“It is the last chance for you to retract from the adoption. No matter which path you choose, I will still provide you with a magic tool to manage your mana. Pick wisely. Do you want to stay in the lower city forever and be a merchant or become a noble and show your true potential to everyone in Ehrenfest or even the whole country?”

She was looking straight at me, sometimes turning her eyes towards her grandfather who was trying to hide his trembling hands.

“I… I would like to become a noble,” she said with confidence in her eyes. “I considered all my options for the last few days. I would either become someone’s mistress or be kidnapped to become a noble’s slave. I want to be able to decide my own future and this will be the first step.”

“Very well, then. Engelbert, could you call Abigail to our meeting?”

After he left, I explained to Bernetts that Abigail would adopt Freida right after her baptism, which would be this winter. Until then, I expected them to train Freida in everything she needed to know. If they needed anything beyond that, they were to ask me for that with estimated costs.

Just when I finished explaining everything, Abigail entered the room along with Engelbert. Everyone greeted her and she joined our conversation under the sound-blocking tool. From there it went quickly. Abigail established with Henrik’s wife what would she expect of Freida upon her adoption. They arranged a tea party in three days to assess her education. After the commoner’s summer baptism she would move into her noble parents’ mansion.

We concluded the meeting and I immediately went into my hidden room to brew a children’s magic tool along with a ring for Freida. As her noble baptism would be in winter, I prepared a ring with red stone placed in it. The mana-draining tool was designed like a simple bracelet with space for three feystones and a lantern that could be opened from the top to drop filled feystones there. When I was finished, I asked Engelbert to deliver these to Abigail with four small golds. She would know what to do with those.

Having some free time, I wanted to move a bit, so I changed, went outside to our garden and decided to just do the most basic movement—swing the sword from above my head down in a straight line. For that purpose, I took Jacobsen with me, because I preferred to feel some weight in my hands. While a schtappe was more practical, its near lack of weight made it harder to focus on training precise slashes.

After gods know how many swings, Engelbert informed me that it was quarter before seventh bell. I came back to the estate just to change and went down to eat dinner with Mother and Rozemyne, but unexpectedly Father was also there.

“I’m glad that Dregarnuhr allowed our threads to intersect once again, Father. I rarely have the chance to see you.”

He looked at me guiltily and responded awkwardly “Yes, I’m also glad.”

We were eating while listening to Rozemyne, who was recounting all her recent lessons with a perfect smile. Not her true smile, but the one taught by Mother. I thought that dinner was some kind of test for her, but I kept it to myself.

“I’m proud of you, Rozemyne. You are a perfect image of a young noble lady.”

“Thank you, Father.”

Then, he turned to me.

“Cornelius, if you have a clear schedule, would you like to train with me?”

It caught me off guard. He wanted to spend time with me? I couldn’t believe it. He must have been pressured by Mother, but I would not waste such a blessing from Greifechan. I agreed to a training session in three days at third bell. Needless to say, I was very eager to try myself against Karstedt the knight commander to test my and Jacob’s skills in battle. It would be his first real challenge.

Rozemyne’s voice tore me out of my thoughts.

“Father, can I come with Mother to watch? I have been eager to see real knights in action.”

“Of course you can, Rozemyne. But only if you will be able to clear your schedule. We don’t want you to neglect your lessons.”

“Understood, Father. I will do my best to be able to watch you fight with Brother Cornelius.”

After dinner Rozemyne left with Mother for her lesson about euphemisms, while Father stayed behind to speak with me.

“Cornelius, I intended to train basic and advanced forms with you, but due to Rozemyne’s request, we will have to have a duel. Are you alright with that?”

“Yes, Father. I prefer it this way. I want to test my skills against you. I am sure you are busy, so until Dregarnuhr crosses our threads again, Father.”

I said goodbye to Father and walked straight to my hidden room and shared the news with Jacobsen, who was really happy about finally having a chance to fight. For the rest of the evening I was planning my next two days. There were many things I wanted to do: sharing rice and cocoa with Myne, meeting the harspiel craftsman and training for the duel with Father had the highest priority. As a side project, I also wanted to try growing a tree from Earth in our garden using blessings.

First things first, I sent a magic letter to Benno stating that I would visit in two days to meet Klaus, the craftsman he had told me about. I also hinted at a possible order for special clothes I needed. Next, I asked Mother through our attendants if I could join her and Rozemyne tomorrow. I offered to test Rozemyne’s skill in keeping composure and assured her that I would not bring anything harmful except medicine from Ferdinand if, in the worst case scenario, Rozemyne passed out. Mother quickly sent a positive answer, so I decided to take a bath to relax before going to sleep.

I had woken up early, right after first bell rang. I left my bed and started doing simple stretchings and push-ups. Typical OPM training routine without running. I waschened myself afterwards and went straight to my hidden room to prepare everything: rizzen, grun’s spoils and kakao. When second bell rang, Engelbert announced his arrival to prepare me for the day. After getting dressed up, I went down for breakfast. Today chefs served omelette with mushrooms and soft bread. After the meal I slowly sipped tea, exchanging plans for the day with Mother and Rozemyne. 

I was supposed to practice harspiel and have my swordsmanship training before sparring with Father in two days. Later I could have free time to do as I please until our tea party, which would be a noble etiquette test for Rozemyne (and me, but that was never spoken out loud).

Rozemyne and Mother’s schedules were pretty much identical except for a half bell where my sister could read uninterrupted and Mother had to prepare herself before the tea party.

I asked Rosina for some help while playing harspiel. She gave me some pointers and explained what I had been doing wrong so far. Harspiel wasn’t so bad, but I yearned for piano and guitar. I wanted to play so many songs that just waited to be sung. Ed Sheeran, Imagine Dragons, Linkin Park, Adele, etc. I was sure Ferdinand would be on board with arranging them together. Maybe except the ones too shameless in his opinion.

Next, I got changed and went to the garden to train some stances I wanted to use in the incoming fight. As there was nobody knowledgeable enough about forms nearby, I didn’t have to hide with them. I repeated the basics for katana and longsword, and as I lost myself a bit, I tried doing sword skills from Sword Art Online starting with typical Kirito stance, but quickly realised that it was total bullshit that would not work in real life. It left myself completely open and even considering my speed after using enhancement, it was too easy to hit me.

After training, I waschened myself and fetched a book about intermediate magic circles from our book room. Time flew by quickly as I was enjoying a good lecture, but soon Engelbert reminded me about the tea party. I entered my hidden room and took one rizzen fruit, one kakao fruit and a small sealed jar with the miso-like substance. I made sure that it wasn’t giving off any stench.

Next, I went to Rozemyne’s room. Mother was already there with her in the hidden room, whose doors were open in anticipation of my arrival. I sat down and waited for our attendants to prepare tea and cookies, who left once everything was prepared for the tea party. Mother began with simple chit-chat. Both me and Rozemyne listened to her and pretended to be curious, sometimes asking nonsensical questions. Next came Rozemyne telling us about her lessons so far without giving any hints about her true background. She did it splendidly. When my turn came, I talked about enhancement training and magic circles I had studied. Then finally came time to change the tea. We called our attendants and watched them do their work. When they left, I began the talks.

“Rozemyne, I would like to ask you for a favour.”

“Oh. And what would it be, dear Brother?” she asked like a perfect noblewoman. I could see Mother’s training bearing fruits.

“I have wanted new clothes for some time now. I have thought about something easy to move in and light. Something I could wear inside the estate and to the garden. Something similar to [yukata] would be appreciated.”

Her eyes showed a small glint, but within acceptable range for someone interested in my idea. She took a sip of her tea before answering.

“That’s certainly a fascinating idea, Brother. I can speak with my exclusives, but the development phase may devour a huge sum of money. After all, it must be prepared for an archnoble.”

“You don’t have to worry about my finances, Sister. I am ready to part with some gold for this excursion.”

“Then I’m glad. I will let you know when they prepare the first designs to bring before you.”

“Thank you, Rozemyne. I have prepared a little gift for you for this, of course. The first one is this. Normally our attendants would be the ones handling it, but I wanted to give it to you personally and our tea party is a perfect chance for that.”

I placed a small jar on the table in front of Rozemyne. Mother was watching us closely, not saying anything. Rozemyne reached for the jar, but didn’t have enough strength to open it, so I helped her. When I did that, a tasty aroma filled Rozemyne’s hidden room. Mother’s face contorted in displeasure, while my sister…

“Is that what I think it is? Miso? Real miso? It’s not some kind of trick, right, Brother?!”

She was already too excited, her facade crumbling, but I decided to continue. I dipped my finger inside the liquid and licked it.

“A real one. While it is not collected the same way, it tastes and smells exactly like miso.”

Seeing this, Mother finally exploded. She could not stand it anymore.

“Cornelius! How can you even put something so disgusting into your mouth?! How can you casually talk while smelling this stench?!”

She hid her nose in a handkerchief and looked at both of us.

“But Mother, it’s miso. Oh, how I have longed for it.” She dipped her finger in it and also licked it. Mother looked even more horrified.

“Mmmmm, tastes exactly like home. If only I had rice.”

She momentarily got a gloomy look on her face. I understood her well at that moment. She wasn’t the only one missing her native cuisine.

“Worry not, Sister. I came prepared.”

I put rizzen fruit on the table and split it in two with the help of my schtappe. Small, white grains spilled onto the tablecloth. Rozemyne, with shaking hands, carefully took a handful of those grains. She looked at them closely and inspected them one by one until tears started flowing freely from her eyes.

“For three years… I thought I would never ever have the chance to taste rice again.”

Both me and Mother looked baffled at her. I didn’t expect her to have such a strong reaction. Suddenly she jumped at me and hugged me tightly saying “thank you” in an infinite loop until she passed out and I barely caught her. I looked at Mother bewildered and quickly apologised.

“I’m sorry, Mother. I didn’t think that she would pass out so easily.”

She just sighed and sent an ordonnanz to Ferdinand stating that Rozemyne had lost consciousness once again. We exited the hidden room and handed Rozemyne to her attendant, while ours were cleaning up what was left of our little tea party.

Ferdinand arrived soon after and gave Rozemyne a quick check-up. He administered a potion and gave us another for once she would wake up. Next started the interrogation. I was blamed for the whole situation. I tried to explain that no one could predict Rozemyne would have such an intensive reaction to rizzen. Of course, when I mentioned my spoils from grun, I got the “Are you crazy, you fool?!” from Ferdinand, but he immediately changed his attitude when I showed him rizzen. He demanded one fruit for inconveniencing him and fired a barrage of rapid questions about the fruit. I answered what I could, but he lost interest the moment he realised rizzen was not a feyplant. Nevertheless, he took that one fruit with him back to the temple. 

I once again apologized to Mother and left for my room, taking with me rice that had spilled from the fruit when I had cracked it open. I planned to give it to Rozemyne when she recovered.

The rest of the day I spent studying magic circles. I ate dinner in my room and went to sleep pretty early to wake up before Engelbert. My plan worked perfectly, because I woke up just after first bell, when all the attendants should have been preparing for the day. I quickly changed into my “richer” downtown clothes and sneaked out. I was sure Mother would grill me about it later, but what choice did I have? I wanted both piano and guitar ASAP.

I arrived at Gilberta Company right as they were opening their front door. I was welcomed by none other than Lutz, who didn’t seem surprised to see me.

“Good morning, Nelly. Master Benno is awaiting your arrival in his office. Let me guide you to him.”

I followed him upstairs to Benno’s office. He welcomed me with a tense smile. I sat on the opposite side of his desk from him.

“Lord Corne… Nelly, how can I be of help today? Your letter was rather mysterious about the supposed project for Corinna. While I would gladly take you to Klaus, he opens his workshop at third bell.”

“Oh, I didn’t know that. Then can you tell me if there is any cloth that can be used as additional weights for knights and soldiers? In a perfect situation, I would like to put it on as a first layer of clothing and on top of it put either armor or standard training clothes. I want it to increase the difficulty of physical training.”

He pondered for a moment, but didn’t come up with any idea, so he called Corinna. When she entered, she looked at me suspiciously. Benno introduced me as a potential client who wanted a very specific thing. He explained to his sister the problem at hand without mentioning probable use in noble’s training. She made exactly the same face as Benno while thinking, which I found a little funny.

“There might be difficulty in finding fabric like that. We could use thicker one nobles use for their winter clothes, but it would make it impossible to train in summer. I’m afraid we will be unable to complete such an order.”

I didn’t lose motivation at her statement. Instead, I offered them another idea.

“Then would you be able to create tight-fitting clothes that you could sew in additional metal parts? They would have the role of extra weight, but the seam would have to be very strong and those metal parts would have to be both immovable and irremovable once sewed in.”

Corinna’s eyes lit up at the potential challenge. We talked about more things like even spacing of those metal parts and leaving some space for possible addition of more weights, but our talk stopped when it came to the specification of those weights.

“I will have to stop by some blacksmith and ask them. I should have plenty of time after meeting with Klaus.”

She excused herself after that, and I was left with Benno alone again. He rang a bell on his desk and asked for tea. It was brought to us soon after. When Benno’s attendant left, I put up a sound-blocking barrier.

“Do you want to know anything, Benno? We have some time until third bell.”

“How is she faring?”

“She’s learning fast despite being so far behind other children her age. She has a motivation and desire to learn, or rather read, everything she can.”

“Of course she would…” Benno muttered.

“Mother, being aware of her origins, is very understanding, but at the same time it looks like she already accepted Rozemyne as if she was her own blood.”

Benno looked at me bewildered.

“How? It wasn’t even a full season.”

“I might have given them a little push, but most of it has been Rozemyne’s own charm.”

“Hah… To think it would work out in the end… is she in good health? Does she collapse often?”

“I admit it was harder to manage her health at the beginning, but I have been learning everything I could to make sure she doesn’t lose consciousness. The most recent collapse occurred yesterday, when I showed her a fruit from one of the southern duchies. Judging by her happy reaction, I suspect she will develop a few new recipes before the end of the week.”

Benno’s eyes became ravenous at the mention of new recipes, but lost their edge when he realised that there was no such fruit available in Ehrenfest at the moment.

From there I asked about preparations for the increased rinsham sales after Rozemyne’s baptism and spread of paper-making and printing industries. He answered me without giving many details. Third bell was fast approaching, so I stood up and said:

“I’m glad you got used to treating me like a commoner associate, Mister Benno.”

His eyes nearly popped out when he played our whole conversation in his head. He started ruffling his hair in frustration, but quickly stopped. I reached for my anti-eavesdropping magic tool to turn it off.

“I think we should get going. Unfortunately, unlike our dear Aub Ehrenfest, I will be scolded by my Mother the moment I come back.” I laughed, but Benno didn’t join me. He probably still remembered the day Sylvester sneaked out to go hunting with orphans.

I hid the magic tool in a pocket and waited for Benno to lead me to Klaus’ workshop. We left together with Lutz, leaving Mark in charge of the store. I was wondering how close to the Noble’s Quarters the workshop would be located, but it turned out that we had to go into the Craftsmen’s Alley. Fortunately it was very close to the Central Plaza, so I was still able to see the Merchant’s Guild from the entrance.

I didn’t have any image in mind when I thought about Klaus, but the moment I saw him, I thought he or his parents definitely were from Klassenberg. He had long wavy hair that was nearly all grey, but here and there you could see a light blonde colour. He radiated the aura of a high-cultured person. It was understandable as he had been dealing with high-ranking nobles. I also heard a story that he had crafted the harspiel that Sylvester had been playing in the Royal Academy until Florencia had accepted his courting, but I hadn’t been able to verify this story with anyone yet.

I was introduced as Nelly, but from the look in Klaus’ eyes I knew Benno had explained to him everything about my unique background. Next I met Klaus’ apprentice—Paulo, who was 14-year-old and already engaged to his master’s granddaughter. He was also informed about my status, but seemed to accept my commoner persona much better than his elders. Just like Lutz.

Right after the introduction we got down to business. I used my favourite magic tool to project the image of both upright piano and grand piano, inside and outside with the addition of principle behind wooden hammers. As a prototype I wanted an upright piano. If Klaus’ work was satisfactory, I would take it to my hidden room and place an order for a grand piano.

Klaus was eager for the challenge. His eyes were burning with passion rivaling that of Brennwarme. Paulo was curious about piano, but I gave him another project, namely the guitar. I wanted one built similar to an acoustic guitar. While he was not so happy about getting an easier task, I explained that the hardest part would be placing fretbars in perfect intervals on the neck. Just like his master, he showed his determination. I left one small gold with them and asked them to inform Benno when both prototypes would be ready for presentation or if the funding ran out. Benno wasn’t happy about being a go-between person, but changed his tune when I gave him three magic letters. One for emergencies and two for informing me about prototypes.

Later, we dove deeper into Craftsmen’s Alley. Benno introduced me to Johann. We skipped the fact about me being an archnoble, and Johann proved to be competent in my opinion. I understood that many would hate a blacksmith asking so many questions, but I found him meticulous and hard-working just from his queries. He gave me four different metals to choose and explained each one’s properties. As I wasn’t knowledgeable enough to choose myself, I gave him pointers and he picked one with the highest melting point and density. We determined the size and shape of these weights—the shape and diameter of half of a hockey puck. I ordered sixteen of them and paid on the spot. That order had to be delivered to the Gilberta Company upon completion.

Having finished everything I wanted, I parted ways with Benno and Lutz. They went to inspect new rinsham workshop, while I had to sneak back into the estate. Of course, Mother was already waiting for me and I received another harsh scolding. Listening to Mother, I realised that in the end I hadn’t shown mother kakao… If only Rozemyne was conscious, she might have been able to quell Mother’s rage.