House-Sitting for the Archduke Conference — Part 2

"What was the summons about, Lord Ferdinand?"

It seemed the Chief Priest had returned the very night he was summoned. The next day, lectures proceeded as normal. When I asked what had happened at the Archduke Conference, I received only a curt reply: "Nothing. It's already over."

However, he looked even more sour and stern than usual, and Melchior appeared visibly frightened. Wilfried, who was attending the lectures alongside me, also wore a tense expression—I could tell he kept stealing glances at the Chief Priest's face.

We finished the extremely tension-filled lecture and sat down for lunch. Grandfather noticed the Chief Priest's demeanor and asked the same question I had.

"Ferdinand, what was the matter at the Archduke Conference?"

"...It's something that's already been settled."

"If it truly were settled, you wouldn't be making that face. You must have some concern, surely?"

Told by Grandfather to just spit it out, the Chief Priest let out a long breath before opening his mouth.

"We received a request from Ahrensbach to send a husband-to-be for their near-of-age Lord candidate."

"Huh? You mean a husband for Lady Dietlinde?"

"Who else could it be?"

Glared at coldly by the Chief Priest, I fell silent. He was right. Ahrensbach had only two Lord candidates—one was Dietlinde, and the other was Retzlia, a young girl who hadn't even entered the Royal Academy yet.

"Ahrensbach did make the proposal, but I've already refused. If I were to leave Ehrenfest now, there would be no adult Lord candidate remaining. I am also Rozemyne's guardian. A daughter of the upper nobility is not a suitable match for a Lord candidate who serves as Acting Lord. And there's the matter of Veronica and my relationship—there are countless reasons."

It seemed my adoptive father had fought hard against the Lord and Lady of Ahrensbach to turn down the request. Even so, the Chief Priest had apparently been suspected of being unfairly mistreated—trapped in the Temple while still holding a position there, locked away due to his ongoing conflict with Veronica.

"I hear Georgine said she wanted to hear the answer from the man himself. She suggested that rather than being forced into an unwilling position in Ehrenfest, he might prefer to become the spouse of Ahrensbach's future Aub."

That was apparently why the Chief Priest had been summoned and asked for his intentions. The Chief Priest himself had refused.

"That's why I told you it was already settled."

Then, several more days later, the Chief Priest was summoned again. This time it was the King's summons. One thing after another—how troublesome, I thought as I watched the Chief Priest leave. He muttered "Tell me about it" with a thoroughly exasperated expression before heading to the Royal Academy via the teleportation circle.

"...This time it's taking a long time. I wonder what happened?"

It had already been two days since the Chief Priest was summoned, but he still hadn't returned. As a result, the Lord candidate preparatory studies were on hold, and in addition to my feyspiel practice, I was being made to do the embroidery for my bride training. Honestly, I would much rather be doing practical study than embroidery.

"Can't Grandfather teach me instead?"

"Lord Bonifatius is handling the Acting Lord's duties."

He simply doesn't have the time, Richhilda told me. With most of the key civil officials away at the Archduke Conference, there were too few of them and things were very difficult.

"Then, perhaps I could help Grandfather with his work..."

"The young lady's expression right now is exactly the same as Lord Sylvester's when he tried to escape from his studies and duties. You won't fool my eyes, you know."

...I've been found out.

My adoptive father had been a chronic escape artist since years ago, and Richhilda had always chased him down and dragged him back whenever he tried to flee. There was no way I could fool those eyes. I decided to abandon the deception and try asking outright.

"Richhilda, I would like to read books rather than do embroidery. It doesn't even have to be leisure reading. I want to prepare for next year's Royal Academy term. Please allow me to read."

Philine and Roderick, who were copying borrowed books, lent their support, but Richhilda shook her head with a stern expression.

"You need to prepare for the Royal Academy because you'll be absent during the Dedication Ritual. You're enrolled in both the civil official course and the Lord candidate program."

"That preparation for the civil official coursework was already finished long ago at the Royal Academy. Besides, as for the Lord candidate studies, those are on hold until Lord Ferdinand returns. What exactly would you be studying?"

Being told this by Richhilda, who had a firm grasp on all our movements at the Royal Academy, I slumped my shoulders and went back to my embroidery.

Grandfather joined us for dinner. Perhaps because the Chief Priest's absence meant all the work fell on one pair of shoulders, he looked tired.

"Grandfather, since even Lord Ferdinand was summoned to the Archduke Conference, you must be struggling on your own? If you'd like, I'd be happy to help."

"No, don't worry about it. I'm fine."

Grandfather, who had been saying he couldn't let his grandchild worry about him, suddenly looked up as if struck by a thought.

"...Hmm? Wait. Th-that's right. Rozemyne, you would help me?"

"Yes. I help Lord Ferdinand at the Temple, and during winter I helped my adoptive father as well, so I believe I could be of some assistance to you, Grandfather."

"Rozemyne, you say you helped Father during winter?"

Wilfried looked at me in surprise. I explained that I had been sent back earlier than the Dedication Ritual, and during that time I had helped my adoptive father while avoiding the nobles who kept asking about the Haldenzel ceremony.

"I'll help Lord Bonifatius too. If this goes on, Rozemyne will end up taking over all of the next Lord's work!"

"I won't take any of it."

Rather, she was welcome to take it all. What I wanted wasn't work—it was books. Reading time. I really wished she wouldn't misunderstand that point.

With so few people available and things already difficult, adding Wilfried's education on top might be too much for Grandfather. As I watched him, he nodded and said, "Well, that's fine."

"If he is to be the next Lord, it would be good for Wilfried to learn the work as much as possible. Sylvester lost his father early and had quite a hard time of it."

Grandfather deftly omitted the part about how Sylvester had spent all that time running away from his duties.

With Wilfried now motivated, it was decided that his civil officials would help out as a group as well. Since some of the officials were adults, Grandfather took charge of making it work.

"Grandfather, whether it's with the apprentice knights or with us, you show no hesitation in grooming successors even at your own expense. It's truly admirable. Lord Ferdinand tends to cut loose anyone he deems useless, so I can't help comparing."

The Chief Priest was gradually starting to consider grooming successors and was beginning to delegate Temple work to Kantel and Fritz, but he still tended to pile work onto himself because it was faster to do it himself. I couldn't imagine him ever teaching work to children who would get in his way during busy times when there weren't enough people, the way Grandfather did.

"Is that so? Admirable, you say?"

Grandfather said this with a pleased expression, when suddenly Melchior shot his hand up.

"Lord Bonifatius, I want to help too!"

"I understand you want to do the same things as your brother and sister, but it's simply not feasible for you to help, Melchior."

"...I want to be with my brother and sister."

He probably knew that he would only be a burden. Melchior's shoulders drooped at Charlotte's words. Seeing this, Charlotte let out a resigned sigh.

"Lord Bonifatius, Sister. Would it be all right if I study in a corner of the workroom? I'll make sure Melchior doesn't get in the way—I'll stay with him."

Since both their parents were away right now, he probably feels especially lonely, Charlotte said with a smile. That face looked so much like our mother's—I thought to myself how alike parent and child they were.

Starting the next day, I began helping Grandfather. Mornings were for individual study, and from the afternoon onward, I would help. I did my feyspiel and Dedication Ritual dance practice, then immediately headed to help Grandfather. Since the number of children would increase in the afternoon and things would likely get hectic, I wanted to divide up as much of the work as possible during the morning.

"This is for Wilfried and his civil officials, this is for my attendants, and this is for Grandfather—though I suppose this one could only be done by you."

"Rozemyne, do you actually know how much of the work Wilfried's civil officials can handle?"

"Just the apprentices I was with at the Royal Academy. I'll watch how things go today and gradually assign more if it seems they can handle it."

Since I wasn't sure how much work Wilfried's officials could take on, my own attendants ended up shouldering the largest share. However, I had assigned tasks based on how they performed at the Temple, so everything should be completable within the allotted time.

Once the rough division of work was done for each Lord candidate, I then distributed my own share among my attendants.

"Roderick, Philine, Philine, Roderick, Damuel..."

"Wait a moment, Rozemyne. Didn't you just list someone who isn't a civil official?"

"Huh? Except for Angelica, all of my knights handle civil official work at the Temple as well, so there's no problem. ...Could it be that this is an issue in the castle?"

It wasn't just Damuel. When Cornelius, Leonore, and Judithe came to the Temple as guard knights, they were all roped into helping the Chief Priest too.

My explanation made Grandfather frown.

"Hmm... Using knights as civil officials has no precedent, but for the duration of the Archduke Conference alone, there shouldn't be a problem. The shortage of people is a fact, after all."

If they can do it, use them—he gave such a flexible answer, and I could feel my fondness for Grandfather rising rapidly.

"I'm glad I get to work together with Grandfather."

From the afternoon, we all worked together. However, there was no way all of us could fit into my adoptive father's office—Grandfather, Wilfried, Charlotte, Melchior, myself, and all of our respective attendants. We relocated to the conference room to do our work.

Melchior was practicing his calculations, and Charlotte was watching him, but I freely assigned work to the attendants of both Charlotte and Melchior.

"If Melchior's attendants do their jobs well, Melchior won't feel that he's useless—that's important. Do your best."

Told by Grandfather that it was for the sake of the masters they served, Charlotte and Melchior's attendants began their work too. Wilfried's civil officials proceeded with their tasks under Grandfather's direction.

"Then, shall we begin as well?"

"...So you do civil official work not just at the Temple, but in the castle too?"

Cornelius grumbled, noting that while the other guard knights were standing behind their respective Lord candidates like Angelica or guarding the door, he was stuck at a desk.

"Only while the Archduke Conference has us short on people, Cornelius. Lord Bonifatius said it was fine."

My share of the work was obviously larger than the others, but since my guard knights were also seated at desks and were accustomed to doing work at the Temple, they were faster than the civil officials of the other Lord candidates.

"Done, Lady Rozemyne. Please check it."

"Is this calculated as follows? Any problems?"

"This part... The flow of money here seems a little off. I think you should look into it more carefully."

Damuel discovered a suspicious flow of money that looked like embezzlement partway through, but we agreed to have my adoptive father and the others look into it after they returned.

When the fifth bell rang, we took an afternoon break with tea and sweets that the attendants brought in.

"Brother and Sister are amazing. I want to be useful too, as soon as I can."

Melchior said this while eating sweets, looking at me with admiration. The praise from my younger brother felt wonderful. This meant I had to throw myself into work tomorrow too.

"Lord Ferdinand really puts you through quite a bit of work at the Temple. Honestly, I never imagined knights could handle this much civil official work."

At Grandfather's words, Wilfried and Charlotte nodded as well.

"They've been saying at the Royal Academy that the quality of civil officials is entirely different, but I didn't realize the knights were this different too."

"Lord Wilfried, desk work isn't a knight's job."

Lamprecht said, "Please stop making unreasonable demands of knights by imitating Lady Rozemyne," and Cornelius nodded vigorously.

"I think there are many good things worth imitating when it comes to civil officials, but you should just let knights do their jobs."

"We really should be giving the civil officials more work on a regular basis," Wilfried said. He mentioned the printing business, which they were doing bit by bit. Printing would become one of Ehrenfest's main industries going forward, but Wilfried's involvement in it was still limited. This year, the only attendant among the Lord candidates who could assist at a useful level with printing-related work was Hartmut.

"If he's motivated, then I'll have Elvira, as the person with final responsibility, pass more and more of the work to him. The civil officials involved in printing tend to be low-ranking, so she said she wanted upper or mid-ranking officials who could be brought to the Archduke Conference. Let's train him so he can accompany us next year."

With printing set to be publicized at the Royal Academy the following year, the next Archduke Conference was going to be hectic too, so more personnel would definitely be better.

"If we could send even one adult attendant to the Archduke Conference, they'd understand the atmosphere there. It's reassuring to have attendants who already know all about the Archduke Conference before we ourselves head there."

When I said I was looking forward to Hartmut's report, Wilfried glanced around at his own attendants with a competitive look in his eyes.

"Alright. I'll have them attend the Archduke Conference next year."

...Perfect. I've secured my printing personnel!

After several days, we grew accustomed to the work routine, and during breaks we could have casual conversations. According to Cornelius, by using Rozemyne-style Magic Power compression, apprentice knights had significantly boosted their Magic Power, and their grades had shot up.

"Among them, Matthias, who's been desperately compressing on his own without even knowing the compression method, is really impressive."

"Matthias is capable enough to take over command in my stead, and for a mid-ranking noble, he has quite a lot of Magic Power. If he weren't from the former Veronica faction, he'd be exactly the kind of talent I'd want as my attendant."

Since Traugott had resigned, there was no apprentice knight to take his place, Leonore said with a troubled expression.

Grandfather listened to Leonore's account with a grave look and murmured in a low voice, "...So he's Gerlach's child."

"No matter how skilled he is or how much of a waste it seems, if he hasn't dedicated his name, he can't be taken on as an attendant. He'd be far too dangerous for Rozemyne."

"Grandfather?"

Tilting my head at his knowing tone, Grandfather shook his head lightly.

"I'm saying the former Veronica faction is dangerous. That aside, Rozemyne's Magic Power compression method is truly remarkable. You came up with something excellent."

Grandfather noted that even the adult knights had increased their Magic Power and praised me.

"Without this, a lower-ranking knight like Damuel would never have been able to continue as a guard knight."

Fortunately, his late growth spurt and the Magic Power compression I taught him had aligned perfectly, resulting in unusual growth for a lower-ranking knight, Grandfather said while looking at Damuel. It wasn't actually a late growth spurt—my blessing had been the major factor—but that was a secret between Father and me.

"Is Damuel still growing?"

"No, over the past year or two there's been almost no visible growth. Even accounting for a late growth spurt, he's surely stopped by now. Of course, that's only his capacity that's stopped growing—he can still increase his Magic Power to some extent using Rozemyne-style compression, and by training with combat techniques in mind, his skill should continue to improve."

Damuel's Magic Power had apparently plateaued at the lower end of mid-ranking nobles. Still, considering his original Magic Power, he had grown quite a bit.

"I don't think there'll be any more dramatic growth, but even so—will you still use Damuel as your guard knight?"

As for raw strength, he's about to hit his ceiling, Grandfather said. Watching Damuel clench his fist tightly, I nodded immediately.

"Grandfather, Damuel's strength isn't just about Magic Power. Without Damuel, my attendants wouldn't have come together so well. I have no intention of removing Damuel from his position as my guard knight."

"Is that so? Then we'll keep training him hard from here on out."

Damuel grimaced, but if he wasn't trained, he'd be the one in trouble. It would be tough, but I wanted him to do his best. The day Damuel was removed from his position as guard knight—the one who knew so many of my secrets—I would have to worry about the adults silencing him. I really didn't want to face that frightening prospect.

"Grandfather, please train not just Damuel but all of the apprentice knights as well. Their coordination has improved somewhat, but they still don't seem to understand much about contribution ratings."

When I brought up Judithe's fish-dissection incident as an example, Grandfather said "I see—reviewing the curriculum is essential then," with a slight upturn of his lips as he looked over the apprentice knights gathered there.

"What kind of memories do you have of the Royal Academy, Grandfather?"

On another day, I asked about his Royal Academy memories. Due to the civil coup, even the Chief Priest and I had vastly different experiences. If there was as big an age gap as with Grandfather, the differences would be even greater.

I told him about the old diaries of the Temple Librarian that I had borrowed from Solange, and how different the past was from the present, then asked about his memories.

"You ask about my Royal Academy memories... All I can think of are the times I spent running around for the Treasure-Stealing Ditter."

The civil officials would desperately make recovery potions once they learned the recipe, and craft Magical Tools needed for the Ditter. The attendants were busy with information warfare, flying around on their rideable beasts to resupply the knights with Magical Tools and recovery potions.

Even though I would have thought Grandfather was the type to charge out first during the Treasure-Stealing Ditter, as a Lord candidate he actually took command in the inter-domain tournament and focused on directing his people.

"Of course, in contests that let me show off personal prowess, I went all out."

He apparently got along well with upper-ranking nobles from Dunkelfelger and the now-defunct Bergschtok. He said they even went hunting together.

"Now that you mention it, during one Treasure-Stealing Ditter I broke a shrine in some remote corner of the Royal Academy."

"That's not allowed! Could it be that one of the Twenty Mysteries—about the bad student who kept playing pranks on shrines dedicated to gods scattered around the Royal Academy—is your story, Grandfather?"

"It wasn't me. I only broke one, and I reported it immediately. It should have been repaired by now, surely."

Breaking shrines to the gods isn't allowed, Grandfather—I said this while looking at him, and he waved his hands in a panic, denying it.

"What's that story about? I've never heard of it."

He probably didn't know about it himself. I told Grandfather one of the Twenty Mysteries I had heard from Solange. Melchior and Charlotte listened with keen interest.

"That said—'it should have been repaired'? Haven't you confirmed it, Grandfather?"

"After you graduate, there's almost no opportunity to enter the Royal Academy. It's not like I did anything wrong."

As I was saying "I see" and accepting his reasoning, Richhilda, who was refilling our tea, let out a quiet laugh.

"You can't get away with that kind of deflection, sir. Lord Bonifatius, when you were the Knight Commander, didn't you go to the Archduke Conference every year with the previous Aub's guard knight?"

"Richhilda!"

Exposed by Richhilda, who was from the same generation and knew his past just as well, Grandfather looked embarrassed.

"Then, Grandfather, I'll check on it for you next time. Whereabouts was it?"

"In winter it's buried under snow. You can only find it during the Archduke Conference when the snow has melted."

In other words, it would be difficult to find when I visited the Royal Academy. What a shame. While I was at it, I also asked if he knew anything about the library's locked stacks.

"I don't know anything about any locked stacks. The library was a place where you sent civil officials to retrieve materials—you didn't go there yourself."

Grandfather turned out to be a surprisingly ordinary Lord candidate.

"Lord Bonifatius rarely used the library, didn't he, unlike the young lady?"

"Richhilda!"

Grandfather fell into a sulk. That petulant expression looked a bit endearing, and everyone who had been listening laughed. It seemed that having someone who knew your past nearby made it hard to reminisce.

And so, as the days passed like this, the Archduke Conference came to an end.

We received a report that the attendants of the Aub couple had returned and were preparing to welcome their masters home.

Since I had been worried about the Chief Priest not returning during the entire Archduke Conference, I went to the teleportation hall to greet them. Of course, Wilfried, Charlotte, and Melchior—who were also looking forward to their parents' return—came along.

"Father! Mother!"

Melchior's bright voice rang out. As we waited with excitement, the Aub couple returned. Our adoptive mother wore her usual gentle smile, but our adoptive father had an expression that was close to expressionless, barely smiling at all.

After exchanging greetings, I approached my adoptive father.

"Did something happen?"

"I'll explain at the briefing."

After giving a curt and brief response, I heard a muttered curse under his breath: "Damn it, that idiot."

"Sylvester."

Adoptive mother spoke in a mild, admonishing tone. Adoptive father let out a breath, then put on a smile directed at his children and urged us to leave.

"More people will be arriving soon. Let's leave this area."

As if he had been waiting for those words, the teleportation circle lit up. The one who had returned was the Chief Priest.

"Welcome back, Lord Ferdinand."

"Ah, I just got back."

The smile the Chief Priest wore as he said this was the most perfectly crafted fake smile I had ever seen.

Melchior, delighted to be with everyone again.

House-sitting with Grandfather, working and listening to old stories.

Richhilda's corrections pop in from time now and then. (Laughs) Next up is the briefing.