The morning was spent on feh-spielle practice and making reference books. In the
I was preparing for my tea party with the teachers, while the others practiced at their respective levels. Students in other years also had more people who had finished their lectures, and in the multipurpose hall everyone practiced feh-spielle until the third bell. Those who wanted to study during this time were supposed to do so in their own rooms, but the sound was distracting and they couldn't concentrate, so after a while some showed up carrying their feh-spielle.
"We didn't take dedicated feh-spielle practice time like this before, so our practice volume must have decreased. The number of people praised in music practicals kept going down with each advancing school year."
"Then maybe it would be good to set aside time for music practice each year."
While I practiced the piece I would perform at the tea party, Rosina was editing the lyrics for a new song.
"Lady
The Grutrissheit was the oldest Holy Book held by the Goddess of Wisdom Mestionora, and the first king chosen by the gods had apparently been permitted to copy it.
Various things about mythology kept getting added to the lyrics, and correspondingly, my passion for the Library was steadily stripped away and replaced with lyrics praising the Goddess of Wisdom Mestionora herself. At this rate, my own lyrics would almost entirely disappear.
...Well, my feelings toward the Library don't really resonate with the people around me.
"Since we're at it, could Rosina just write the lyrics from the start? If I write them, they'll end up praising the Library, and who knows when a blessing might fly out."
"Oh my, since this is a song praising a god, there would be no problem at all if Lady Rozemyne played the feh-spielle, offered her prayers, and a blessing came out, would there?"
My musician, raised purely in the Temple—the house of the gods—under a Shrine Maiden, seemed to have a slightly skewed awareness regarding blessings. If you let out a blessing at the
"I'd like to avoid having blessings fly out as much as possible."
"...I see. Understood. I'll avoid lyrics about the Library then."
After the third bell rang, we finished feh-spielle practice, and I helped
"Lady Rozemyne, do you intend to take the lectures for civil official apprentices as well?"
"Yes, since I want to become a Librarian, I'll be taking the civil official apprentice lectures alongside the Lord candidate lectures."
I said I had already consulted with
"Lady Rozemyne, aren't you aiming to become the Aub of Ehrenfest?"
"I have never once thought about taking on such a troublesome position. I want to become the Librarian. My current dreams for the future are to remain in the Temple as the Saint of Ehrenfest and monopolize the Temple Library, or to help the Lord with his work and monopolize the Library in the castle."
If possible, more than becoming a Librarian, I would love to marry someone who owned a large Library and live without ever leaving it, but I couldn't very well tell my attendants that dream.
"So, if you feel that becoming my attendant won't lead to any future prospects, please let me know at any time. I'll make it happen as you wish."
The afternoon practical was obtaining a schtap.
The schtap was the optimal tool for handling the Magic Power within oneself as efficiently and freely as possible, and once you obtained it, you could finally become a proper noble.
Many researchers had apparently tried to create a tool more convenient than a schtap, but as the Chief Priest had told me, no such tool had been created yet. The quality of the materials was on a completely different level.
Until about ten years ago, schtap obtaining had apparently been conducted when the third-years were divided into specialized courses. However, since it was considered more convenient to learn how to use a schtap as early as possible, the current King had changed it to take place almost simultaneously with enrollment.
Obtaining a schtap was an important rite of passage. The faces of the first-years gathered in the entrance hall to head to the lecture hall showed a faint excitement.
Meanwhile, the upperclassmen heading out for their afternoon lectures watched the excited first-years with nostalgic smiles, saying "Stay calm" as they passed.
"Everyone here? Then let's go."
At
"...Is it really just first-years who are this many?"
"Since Lady Rozemyne no longer attends the regular lectures, it must feel that way to you."
The noisy lecture hall fell silent the moment the teachers appeared. Primvera stepped forward and surveyed the room.
"It appears everyone has gathered. I will now guide the Lord candidates to the Innermost Chamber, but before that, there is something I must insist you follow."
Today's practical was simple: find the "Will of the God," the raw material for a schtap, collect it, and return. That was all.
"The one thing you must be most careful about is this: after you finish collecting, do not touch anyone else. To make a high-quality schtap, you must dye it with only your own Magic Power. On the way back, keep your distance so you don't bump into each other, and tomorrow on Earthday, spend the entire day carefully flowing Magic Power into it."
When the Lord candidates lined up, Primvera took the lead and began walking. There was a door at the back of the lecture hall, and she entered the room beyond.
...A chapel!
It was a pure white room with cylindrical pillars lined up at equal intervals on both sides. On the far wall, complex patterns in colorful mosaics extended from ceiling to floor, and in the center of the far wall, a staircase of about forty steps rose like a tiered platform to roughly the height of three stories.
On that staircase were offerings to the gods, and of course statues of the gods. At the highest position were the supreme divine couple, then slightly below them the
...How are my Attendants in the Temple doing?
Looking up at the familiar altar, I was struck by a strange sense of nostalgia, as though I had returned to the Temple. I felt a sudden, inexplicable longing for
I had entrusted them with two years of absence, so I knew they were doing their jobs properly without me, but I just really wanted to see Fran.
I seemed to be the only one gazing up at the altar with a homesick sort of loneliness. The others, unfamiliar with such altars, murmured sounds of admiration.
"This is the Innermost Chamber, the place closest to the gods. Each person has only one opportunity to collect. After collecting, please exercise the utmost care not to collide with others."
She said there were two paths so that those going and returning wouldn't meet, and to always use the left path. Then Primvera touched some kind of magic stone.
The next moment, a rumbling sound like something massive moving shook the air, and part of the altar's staircase shifted. A large dark opening gaped wide, allowing access to the depths beyond the altar.
"May the gods' blessings and guidance be upon you."
Prompted by Primvera, the first Lord candidate stepped forward with a tense expression and entered. Wilfried and I followed.
The altar appeared to be made of the same white stone as the Royal Academy and the dormitory, with a neatly squared entrance. Our footsteps clacked as we walked in order. The path wasn't particularly narrow—there was enough room for about three to walk abreast.
After about five meters, the neatly squared passageway suddenly gave way. The white path underfoot remained as before, but the surroundings had become a natural cave with rough, exposed rock faces. Only the white paths for going and returning seemed to float, glowing with a faint light.
"So there was a place like this behind the chapel."
I looked around as I continued forward.
The cave curved broadly as the white path continued, gradually climbing upward. There were several staircases along the way, and after walking for a while, another staircase. Step by step, I could feel my position steadily rising.
...I've been walking briskly this whole time and I'm about to run out of breath.
Even with a body-strengthening Magical Tool, I was only average at best, and with the height difference compared to those around me, I walked slowly. Gradually, a gap opened between me and those ahead.
"Please go on ahead. As you can see, I have quite a height difference with all of you, so it's rather difficult to match your walking pace."
I offered to let the Lord candidates behind me pass. Wilfried immediately said "I'll walk with Rozemyne..." and tried to stay with me, but I declined.
"We won't be able to return together anyway, Brother Wilfried. Please go ahead. And when we pass each other on the way back, if you could tell me how much farther I still have to walk, that would be wonderful."
"...Fine."
Wearing a disgruntled expression, Wilfried walked ahead with the Lord candidates, glancing back several times.
I began walking at my own pace and let out a sigh of relief. I could try to keep up if it were just a little, but walking briskly the entire way on a path of unknown length while trying to look elegant was exhausting.
After the Lord candidates left, after a while, footsteps approached from behind. Upper-class nobles were coming. Seeing me walking alone, one seemed uncertain what to say, so I told them the same thing and let them pass. The Ehrenfest upper-class noble, like Wilfried, looked worried and glanced back several times before continuing on.
Letting the upper-class nobles pass, I continued at my own pace.
After the upper-class nobles came the middle-class nobles. Though they gave me strange looks, I let them pass the same way.
"Lady Rozemyne?"
"Oh, Roderich. Please go on ahead."
As I was explaining the same thing to Roderich, a middle-class boy from another duchy who had been walking a short distance ahead suddenly exclaimed "Found it!" in an excited voice.
"Huh?"
I didn't know what had happened. All I could see was the same cave rock face stretching onward. Nothing different was visible.
But the boy stared intently at one spot, stepped off the white path toward the cave wall, and reached out to touch it. His movements were without hesitation—I could tell he was seeing something I wasn't.
The boy turned around with something in his hand. His fingers were curled as though gripping a cylindrical object.
"Sorry, but could you clear the path a bit?"
With that, he was let through, and with a delighted expression he crossed the path where everyone was stopped and stepped onto the return path, walking briskly. The boy's gaze never left his hands.
"...What did he find? Could you see it, Lady Rozemyne?"
"No, I couldn't see it either."
The first person to find a "Will of the God" had appeared, making everyone around excited. They began walking while carefully scanning their surroundings, which slowed our pace. This turned out to be just the right speed for me, and I chatted with Roderich about what kind of magic stone a "Will of the God" might be as we made our way forward.
After walking a bit further, a girl's excited voice rang out from behind: "I found one!" Ahead, I could also see a boy stepping off the white path and heading toward the wall.
The fact that those who found one moved forward without hesitation confirmed that magic stones called "Will of the God" truly existed.
As people around us found their "Will of the God" one after another, Roderich began looking around eagerly. He had the expression of someone desperate to find his own.
"Ah!"
Roderich's sharp cry pierced the air as his gaze locked onto a point ahead. I still couldn't see it, but Roderich could.
"Did you find it?"
"Yes! It's glowing beautifully."
With a proud smile, Roderich stepped off the white path and ran forward. He slowly extended his hand toward the rock wall, and I could tell he gently touched it.
For a moment his eyes widened in surprise, then Roderich clutched the magic stone I couldn't see against his chest.
"Lady Rozemyne, I'll be taking my leave."
"Be careful not to drop it or bump into anyone."
Roderich climbed onto the return path and walked in the opposite direction from me.
Voices rose around me one after another, and by the time everyone was carefully spacing themselves out to avoid collisions on their return, upper-class nobles began appearing on the return path heading toward me.
Upper-class nobles emerging from the depths meant that my magic stone was probably even farther in.
...I have to walk all the way to the back.
I continued plodding along the now-sparse going path. As people kept stepping off to collect theirs, it became very easy to walk. It was comfortable and my view improved. But with everyone gone, I felt a little lonely.
This area seemed to be where many middle-class nobles' "Will of the God" could be found, and I could see upper-class nobles returning from quite a distance ahead.
As I walked along, climbed stairs, and pushed onward, eventually no one was left on the going path while the return path was packed. Everyone walked with careful spacing to avoid collisions, forming a strange procession.
Then Lord candidates began appearing among the returning upper-class nobles. The faces were all familiar from practical classes. Wilfried was among them.
"You were still all the way back here, Rozemyne? The Lord candidates' magic stones are much farther in."
Wilfried looked surprised to see me plodding along alone, and he too was carefully holding something.
Told that it was still far ahead, I began gradually feeding more Magic Power into my body-strengthening Magical Tool. This made walking easier, but flowing too much Magic Power would have consequences later. The next day, the muscle pain would be so bad that moving would be truly miserable, so I couldn't overuse it for too long.
Increasing my speed slightly, I headed deeper alone.
Soon the Lord candidates vanished from the return path too, and I was truly alone. In the silent cave, only my footsteps echoed—click, click, click, click. The return path was downhill, which was a relief, but my usual lack of exercise caught up with me and I grew utterly exhausted.
"Time for a break. This is really too much."
On a staircase midway, I sat down with the magic stone still clutched in my arms to rest. I had no idea how far I'd come since the scenery was all the same. "I wish the exit were just a little closer," I murmured, leaning against the wall and letting out a deep breath.
Feeling my eyelids growing heavy, I told myself "I must not fall asleep"—and fell asleep.
"Don't fall asleep in a place like this! You'll die if you sleep! Wake up! Get on your feet! Your life is still ahead of you!"
"What—!?"
A sudden booming voice echoed through the cave, making my ears ring. When I startled awake, Lufen's face was right in front of me, fists clenched, calling out to me passionately.
"Good. It seems you've come to."
Lufen said that and stepped back slightly. Behind him stood several teachers.
Apparently, because I was taking so long to return, a search party had been dispatched.
He said it was a straight path so there shouldn't be any way to get lost, but when Hirschur searched, she found me collapsed along the way.
She had found me, but since I already had the "Will of the God," she couldn't touch me. All she could do was call out, but no matter how much Hirschur called, I didn't respond.
Panicking, Hirschur returned to the chapel, brought back several teachers, and came back. It was Lufen, who had the loudest voice, whose calling brought me back to consciousness.
"I had heard your body was weak, so I was truly worried you might be dead."
"I'm very sorry."
"I had heard from Ferdinand that you hadn't fully recovered yet, but judging from your activity at the Royal Academy, there didn't seem to be any problem, so I had let my guard down."
Hirschur said this while urging me to stand up.
The Saint of Ehrenfest, who went to obtain the "Will of the God," nearly ascended to great heights in the Innermost Chamber.
It seemed I had unwillingly carved a new legend into the Royal Academy's history.
I obtained my magic stone safely, but Rozemyne—the only student to become stranded in the Innermost Chamber—had made her name.
Next up: Earthday, a day off at the Royal Academy.