“Lady Hannelore, the preparations are complete,” Cordula said. “Let us depart.”
It was the day of my return to the Royal Academy. I rose to my feet at my head attendant’s call, trying to seem calm and composed, but my spirits were painfully low. As nice as it was to socialize with other duchies, free from parental supervision, it was exhausting constantly having to worry about besmirching my name as an archduke candidate of Dunkelfelger. The past year, in particular, had seen so many changes that going to the Academy now felt more depressing than ever.
“This will be farewell for quite some time, Lady Hannelore,” my adult retainers said, cheering me on. “We look forward to reports of your successes at the Royal Academy.”
Once we had said our goodbyes, I exited my room with Cordula and my apprentice guard knight Heilliese. Our shoes clacked against the white stone underfoot as we made our way to the teleportation hall.
The floors of Ehrenfest’s castle had been adorned with thick carpets when we attended the victory celebration in spring. Here, the floors were completely bare. Dunkelfelger was one of the hotter duchies in Yurgenschmidt, so our carpets were embroidered with cooling magic, and we only brought them out to help battle the summer heat.
“Gathering will start as soon as we reach the dormitory,” Heilliese announced.
I nodded. We had to prepare materials for our classes, but there was also the matter of confirming whether our gathering spot had any to begin with. “We can only pray that we will not need to perform the healing ritual,” I said.
“I wonder how the gathering spot will fare this year. Last I heard, Rasantark had resolved to impress you.”
“I would rather not think about it.”
It was customary in Dunkelfelger for second-years to enter the dormitory before anyone else. The third-years would arrive next, then the fourth, and so on, with the first-years then being the last to arrive. It was an unusual order of doing things by Yurgenschmidt’s standards, but it was the only way for the younger students to stand a chance of gathering what they needed for their classes.
In other duchies, the eldest students would apparently arrive first, then hunt the more dangerous feybeasts to make the gathering spot safer for their first-years. Dunkelfelger, however, was a duchy of warriors, which made that consideration unnecessary. It was more important to keep the sixth-years from clearing out the entire gathering spot, leaving nothing for everyone else.
Not to mention, Dunkelfelger needs more rejuvenation potions than the other duchies, owing to all the ditter we play.
By teaching everyone the prayer to rejuvenate gathering spots, Lady Rozemyne had eased the battle for ingredients to a noticeable degree. Even then, the amount of mana it required meant it could not be performed lightly. Everyone was praying to obtain divine protections, but with the amount of mana that classes required, things were far from simple.
Mother, Father, Lestilaut, and their retainers came to bid me farewell. I could see Kenntrips, my brother’s apprentice scholar and one of the boys chosen to potentially become my fiancé, waiting among them. Our eyes met, and he smiled at me. I smiled back without even thinking.
I can only pray that was not awkward of me.