Lord Wilfried shook his head. “My grandmother took me into her care shortly after I was born. For that reason, I am of a different faction.”
“That is...”
Lord Ortwin fell silent, too stunned to utter another word. I was just as taken aback; being raised apart from his brother and sister made them more akin to half-siblings than anything else. And if Lord Melchior and Lady Charlotte had been raised normally, then I doubted their mother had wanted to give up her firstborn son.
Oh, what a cruel act...
Though I dared not put my thoughts into words, anger coursed through me at the thought of what must have transpired.
“Melchior is considered most likely to become the next aub, having inherited the position of High Bishop from Lady Rozemyne. Praying to the gods should secure him divine protections in abundance, and he won’t obtain his schtappe until after coming of age. As our father is still young and unlikely to cede the archducal seat anytime soon, no matter how hard Charlotte might work, Melchior’s chances are far superior,” Wilfried continued.
Lady Charlotte was a girl, and the schtappe she wielded was from her first year at the Royal Academy. Unless there was a sudden need for the current Aub Ehrenfest to step down, she was at a serious disadvantage against her younger brother.
“In any case, the next aub will need an archduke candidate to support them,” Lord Wilfried explained. “A full sibling is a more reliable choice than the child of a second wife, and Charlotte is better suited to staying in the Noble’s Quarter. As an older brother from another faction, my presence alone would risk creating a divide.”
To summarize, making Lord Wilfried the next Giebe Gerlach was the best course of action for Ehrenfest. Seeing his vacant smile, however, I could not tell whether he would truly be okay with such an outcome.
“Wilfried, these are no more than assumptions,” Lord Ortwin said. “You’re an honor student; there’s no way to know whether Lord Melchior will obtain similarly high grades.”
“My brother excels in all fields. Truly, he does,” Lord Wilfried countered, shaking his head with a bitter smile. “He works as hard as he can, intent on becoming as capable as Lady Rozemyne, and I do not share his dedication. As it stands, he will grow up to be an excellent archduke.”
Lord Wilfried sighed and turned to me. No longer shy or embarrassed, he now bore the countenance of someone who had given up and accepted the truth of his situation.
“Were you an archnoble, Lady Hannelore, or an archduke candidate of a lower-ranked duchy that would not threaten my siblings, I would gladly have taken your hand,” he said. “Or if I had known about your feelings a year ago, I might have worked with maddening devotion to become the aub. That opportunity has passed, however, and Aub Ehrenfest has made his decree. You are an archduke candidate of Dunkelfelger, now the top-ranked duchy in all of Yurgenschmidt; marrying a giebe from Ehrenfest is beneath you.”
“I see...”
If not for Lanzenave’s invasion, Dunkelfelger would never have risen in rank, and I would not be known as a friend of the divine avatar. Gerlach would never have been ravaged, and there would not have been such an urgent need to assign a new giebe to the province. In a world where Lord Wilfried was a normal archduke candidate, not one embroiled in political chaos, he might actually have wished to become the aub.
Could my timing have been any worse?
“The next aub taking an archduke candidate from Dunkelfelger as his bride would do wonders for Ehrenfest,” Lord Wilfried explained. “But as I am fated to become a giebe, I am not worthy of your hand. You would destabilize the authority of Melchior’s first wife and breed a new generation of conflict.”
That is the last thing I desire...
I gritted my teeth, firm in my belief that I had caused Ehrenfest enough problems already. Nobody there or at home would want me to become Lord Wilfried’s first wife.
“Please accept my sincerest apologies, Lady Hannelore. As an archduke candidate of Ehrenfest, I cannot risk sowing seeds of chaos or destruction in my duchy.”
If Lord Wilfried had wanted to become an archduke, I would have done everything I could to make it happen. If he had wished to abandon Ehrenfest and marry into Dunkelfelger, I would have gone to any lengths to convince the relevant parties. But alas, he had resolved to obey his father’s orders and become a giebe; Ehrenfest had nothing to gain from allowing me to marry him.
“I... I see...”
My mind raced in a desperate rush for answers, asking again and again what I could have done to be bound to him. Perhaps because this was my second time being rejected since our game of bride-stealing ditter, or perhaps because I had thought of nothing but Lord Wilfried for the past few days, a gaping hole opened in my heart. From it, mana surged without restraint.
“Lady Hannelore, are you okay?” Kenntrips asked.
I nodded, striving to contain my mana. This was neither the time nor place to lose control. I tensed my muscles and squeezed the charm on my wrist.
“Let us end our meeting here. The attendants keep shooting us anxious glances,” Lord Ortwin said, then put his sound-blocker down and rose to his feet. Lord Wilfried nodded and did the same, spurring Kenntrips and me to follow suit.
“Allow me to offer prayers and gratitude to Dregarnuhr the Goddess of Time for weaving our threads together this day,” I said, speaking solemnly to match the tone of our conversation.
Before I could continue, the charm on my wrist began to shine for reasons I could not comprehend. Made for me by my head attendant, Cordula, it was engraved with the sigil of Dregarnuhr. Its yellow feystone shone, and a light of the same color shot toward the roof of the gazebo. We all stared up in a daze as it started drawing a magic circle overhead.
“What on earth?!”
“What’s happening?!”
The knights rushed into the gazebo just as the magic circle reached completion. There was a bright flash, and in the blink of an eye, I was transported to a vast white void.