At long last, Ferdinand acknowledges the worth of my Pandabus!
“Once you have made your highbeast feystone, start turning the ingredients brought here into gold dust. I will ask you tomorrow morning how much your mana recovered during the night, so be mindful of your quantity before you sleep. Avoid doing or speaking about anything that might unnecessarily cost you stamina or disturb your emotions.” He paused, then sternly summarized what he’d told me: “Be patient and simply continue to turn the delivered materials into gold dust. Do not forget that a threat to your life puts all your name-sworn at risk as well.”
Several of the people around me gulped. Their lives were in my hands, and the pressure weighed heavily upon me.
“The nobles in the villa will return sequentially to Ahrensbach,” Ferdinand said. “Everyone, be ready to move to the villa when necessary. Rihyarda, I entrust Rozemyne to you.”
“You may count on me,” she replied.
Having doled out the last of his instructions, Ferdinand marched off with Eckhart and Justus in tow. Hartmut didn’t even wait for them to leave before he turned on his heel and started making his way upstairs.
“Let us hurry as well,” he said.
My retainers sprang into action, moving busily around the dormitory. Many of them would return to Ahrensbach ahead of me. Charlotte arrived with her retainers a brief moment later to deliver some of the materials the knights had foraged from Ehrenfest’s gathering spot.
“Mother explained what a tremendous strain the gods’ divine power is putting on your body and the urgency with which your mana needs to be drained. I can only hope these materials are of use to you. Karstedt just led a contingent of knights to Ehrenfest’s gathering spot, so there are plenty more materials to come.”
Charlotte watched my retainers hurry around the dormitory while her own brought over bags of materials. Time really was of the essence, so we’d expected attendants and scholars to oversee the delivery. We weren’t ready to give her a proper greeting.
“Rihyarda,” I said.
“I advised Lady Charlotte not to come, but she insisted on speaking with you, milady.”
I returned my attention to my little sister; there must have been a reason for her persistence. Her eyebrows met above her nose in a troubled frown.
“I see the preparations for your departure are already being made... I am relieved to see it. Upon hearing Mother’s explanation, I thought it best that you leave the Royal Academy. I came here to propose just that.”
Though she claimed to be relieved, Charlotte’s indigo eyes wavered with concern. Was she aware of something that had escaped my notice?
“Charlotte... Is there a reason for your urgency?” I asked.
“The Royal Academy has closer ties to the gods than anywhere else in Yurgenschmidt. You made that clear to us all, did you not? As did the lights that appeared during its religious ceremonies. I would assume, then, that the gods’ sway is at its strongest here. Going elsewhere should reduce the burden of the divine power on your body.”
I stared at her. That... made a lot of sense, actually. Though I’d already known that the Academy was the country’s holy land, I’d never stopped to consider the impact it might be having on my divine power.
“Knowing that Uncle has set your departure in motion puts my mind at ease,” Charlotte said. “After all, Sister... in your limitless compassion for others, you seldom seem to consider your own needs.”
“I... daresay that is untrue. Going forward, I plan to build my very own library city and spend my days surrounded by books.” I’d paused only because, at one point in time, death hadn’t seemed all that bad. The promise of Mestionora’s library had gotten its hooks into me, and now that I was banned, I’d resolved to continue living for the sake of winning her over again.
Charlotte’s brow furrowed in response. Had she noticed my hesitation? She opened her mouth to respond, then closed it again, her arms crossed over her chest like she was desperately trying not to reach out to me.
“Charlotte?”
“I hope to one day visit this library city of yours, so please... do what you can to be rid of your divine mana. If you will excuse me. I should not like to get in the way of your retainers.”
She departed as quickly as she’d arrived. I wanted to speak with her for a little while longer, but my hands were tied; we really didn’t have the time to host a guest.
I got straight to work turning the materials Charlotte had delivered into gold dust. The process was as simple as sticking my hand into each bag and swirling it around until nothing solid remained. Transforming the materials would have been easy even without my divine power, so my mana barely decreased at all.
I’ll devote my all to making this gold dust for Ehrenfest and my library city... but I really don’t think it’s going to help much.
In the meantime, I received a fresh batch of materials from Ahrensbach’s knights. I pressed on and continued to make gold dust.
Come dinnertime, Ferdinand sent me a bag of rainbow feystones. I ate, then filled them all with mana and fused them together by repeating the words “round, round, sticky clay” in my head. My deity-dyed mana must have impacted the process because my Pandabus ended up not light yellow but rainbow colored.
Uh-oh. Lessy’s taken an unexpected turn. His new complexion looks so weird.
Still, manipulating such a large mass of rainbow feystones had drained some of my mana. I strove to keep making gold dust until it was time for bed.
I ate breakfast before being changed into my ceremonial High Bishop robes and carried to the common room. There, I continued to make gold dust until the very moment Ferdinand arrived.
“Rozemyne, how much mana did you recover overnight?” he asked.
“Well... As much as I spent forming my rainbow highbeast and creating all the gold dust,” I answered, my lips pursed. Any progress I’d made the night before had already been undone, and my night’s sleep had left me feeling worse than before I’d gone to bed.
Ferdinand pressed a hand against his forehead. “You regained that much in a single night? Is the divine power causing you pain or doing anything else of note?”
“As one would expect, it gets worse as more of my mana recovers. I’m still only a quarter full, though, so I’m fine.” It certainly wasn’t as bad as before, when I’d crumpled to the ground and erupted in screams. I just felt heavy and a little absent-minded, like I was battling a fever.
His expression hardened. “For someone who has not consumed a rejuvenation potion, that is still deeply concerning. We are running out of time.”
Damuel and Judithe were my only knights for the moment; the others were in Ahrensbach making the last of their preparations. Ferdinand addressed them at once.