I gave a careful nod.
“We will need to use this academic year to determine Lady Letizia’s relationship with Lady Rozemyne,” Father said. “And more, of course; I want to know how the lesser and middle duchies, not to mention Klassenberg and Drewanchel, are approaching the situation, and what they think about the new aubs. Find out as much as you can, Hannelore—and you too, Kenntrips.”
Kenntrips nodded and said, “Understood.” He was a sixth-year apprentice archscholar, which meant we were pinning our hopes on him more than anyone.
“We need as much information about the other duchies as we can get our hands on,” Father continued, a bitter look on his face. “Many will recognize the difficulty of establishing a direct connection with Alexandria and will attempt to reach them through you or Ehrenfest’s archduke candidates instead. They hope to secure Lady Rozemyne’s attention and her assistance in reforming their temples.”
“Indeed,” Mother added. “Our joint research with Ehrenfest has led to plenty of our knights seeking Leidenschaft’s spear from our temple. Many of our other nobles go there too, hoping to obtain more divine protections, but I doubt other duchies would share their enthusiasm. You have a heavy burden to bear, Hannelore.”
My mother was correct. In the event that I married into another duchy, I would surely be lumbered with the expectation of reforming my new home’s temple as successfully as we had reformed our own. I doubted that I would even be able to; a lot of our progress came down to the fact that so many of our knights sought to acquire Leidenschaft’s spear.
Father had almost certainly chosen my two potential fiancés from within our network to preserve Dunkelfelger’s bond with Alexandria and to protect me from being wed into another duchy. My intention had originally been to marry elsewhere, as I was not particularly attached to ditter, but all of my life’s plans had since been turned on their head.
“On the bright side, being at the top of the rankings means that no other duchy can force its demands on us,” Father said. “Had we not been so fortunate, we wouldn’t have been able to refuse that proposal from Lord Sigiswald. If you wish to avoid being married into Korinthsdaum in the future, then you will need to choose either Rasantark or Kenntrips as your fiancé and receive approval for your marriage during the next Archduke Conference.”
I took an instinctive step back in the face of my father’s intensity. Kenntrips and Rasantark must have been the only men in our duchy who suited my mana, faction, and age. They were my uncle’s sons and my brother’s retainers; I was expected to take one of them as a groom and support Lestilaut in the future.
Though, honestly speaking, I would rather not marry either of them.
I did not have anything against them personally—I just was not ready for an engagement that would decide the course of my future. It surely had not helped that when Father announced them as my marriage prospects, my thoughts had turned straight to Lord Wilfried and the hand he had reached out to me.
Kenntrips and Rasantark always speak so ill of Lord Wilfried and Ehrenfest.
I glanced at the green-haired Kenntrips, who stood next to my brother as his apprentice retainer. Although he was exceptionally smart, he was unmistakably a scholar of the sword; he created all manner of violent magic tools meant to secure victory during our ditter matches at the Royal Academy. In fact, it had seemed to me that people expected more of him than they expected of the knights.
“You are the pride of Dunkelfelger, Lady Hannelore,” he said, his smile reaching his gray eyes. “I am proud to have been chosen as a candidate for your hand in marriage.”
Kenntrips had always been so kind. These days, however, it was common to see him with a rather grim look on his face.
Rasantark, my other suitor, had already teleported to the Academy. He was an apprentice archknight in the same grade as me who greatly resembled Heisshitze and seemed to think of nothing but ditter. Choosing him or Kenntrips as my fiancé would almost certainly doom me to a life saturated with ditter matches.
Although, that would still be better than marrying Lord Sigiswald, who attempted to court Lady Rozemyne and ended up separated from Lady Adolphine.
Liebeskhilfe must not have had eyes for me. Lady Rozemyne proclaimed that her love for Lord Ferdinand was purely familial, but that did not change the fact she was now engaged to someone who truly cared about her. I could only hope to find someone who cherished me the same way.
I am more in need of Liebeskhilfe’s divine protection than Dregarnuhr’s. O Liebeskhilfe, Goddess of Binding! I shan’t be so indulgent as to request a romance as dramatic as those in my favorite stories. I simply wish to have other options.
As I squeezed the Liebeskhilfe charm Cordula had made for me, Father gestured me onto the teleportation circle. My head attendant nodded, then helped me into my winter overclothes. It was so hot in Dunkelfelger that I always waited until right before teleporting to put them on.
I stepped onto the circle with Heilliese.
“Hannelore,” Mother called, as if only then remembering something.
“Yes?” I asked, turning around.
“This is Raufereg’s first year at the Royal Academy. He is rather anxious about it, as you can imagine. Guide him well as an elder student and a fellow archduke candidate.”
I fought against the urge to avert my eyes. Had they not thrust too much upon me already?
Raufereg was the son of Father’s second wife. Because his baptism had come after the decision was made for Lestilaut to become the next aub, he was far more a knight than an archduke candidate. My retainers reported that he thought of nothing but ditter.
Truth be told, I knew very little else about Raufereg. He spent his days training alongside the knights, whereas I focused on what was required of me as a member of the archducal family. We were neither the same sex nor in the same school year, so we had never trained together, but he must have been quite rowdy. Although his younger sister Lungtase had been permitted to attend the Grutrissheit transference ceremony, he himself had needed to stay away.
Had he been born two years later, I would not have had to struggle like this. And how nice it would have been for Lungtase to be his elder.
Such meaningless thoughts wandered through my mind as I stepped onto the teleporter. “The time has come for me to depart,” I announced.
“Indeed. Keep a close eye on all that you can.”
I would need to maneuver the changes to the duchy rankings, new curricula, my reputation as the divine avatar’s friend, two potential fiancés, and a half-sibling in need of guidance. It might have been the first time in my life that I was dreading the freedom of the Royal Academy.
A sigh escaped me just as the teleportation circle at my feet lit up. Black and gold swirled around me, distorting my vision.
“We gathered your share of ingredients, Lady Hannelore! Consider your classes prepared for!” Rasantark declared. He had rushed over to me the moment I arrived at the Academy, his chestnut eyes sparkling and orange hair bouncing with each step. “Now we can play ditter! We ask you to permit us to use the training grounds!”
He sounds the same as ever, despite the fact we could one day end up husband and wife. Am I the strange one for thinking so carefully about how I should speak with him?
Kenntrips and I were still trying to navigate the change, but Rasantark seemed to think nothing of the situation at all. Rows of apprentice knights stood behind him, champing at the bit. No pillars of light had appeared back home, no matter how hard we prayed, so they must have been eager to test out the results of their training in the temple.
“Cordula,” I said.
“I shall prepare your room. Please unlock the grounds in the meantime.”
There was no real difference between gathering ingredients and going to the training grounds. I had no reason to refuse, but seeing Rasantark rejoice over ditter made disappointment swell in my chest.
He is not a bad person. Far from it. But as a potential groom...
Conceding to the request, I went to the training grounds with Heilliese. Thus began my fifth year at the Royal Academy.