Published: August 15, 2025
After finishing the karuta contest in the children's classroom with my victory, I spoke to Wilfried, who was stomping his feet in frustration.
“Brother Wilfried, I will be away for a while starting three days from now for the dedication ceremony. Please practice so that you can beat me at karuta when I return.”
“Huh? You’ll be gone for a while? …Everyone, the chance to win has come. This time, we’ll definitely beat Rosemine!”
Wilfried’s voice, focused more on the next victory than on the sting of defeat, fired up several boys who clenched their fists and responded eagerly.
“Yes! We will definitely win, Lord Wilfried!”
“All right, let’s have a strategy meeting! Rosemine, you go over there. You’re not allowed to listen.”
With a rival in the children’s classroom, Wilfried’s naturally competitive personality was working in a positive way, and he was growing steadily. Ever since he set his winter goal to “beat me at karuta,” he’d been gathering teammates and holding what seemed like strategy meetings—very typical innocent elementary school boy behavior, which was endearing.
“How long will Lady Rosemine be at the temple?”
Filine’s young, pale green eyes looked at me anxiously, but I couldn’t give a clear answer. There were many uncertainties: how much the absence of the former head priest would affect things, what would happen to the Lesser Holy Grail that my Foster Father had taken upon himself to handle.
“I don’t know how long it will take to fill all the Lesser Holy Grails, so I can’t say for sure. Filine, if you have time, you should copy down this story as well.”
I handed Filine the second story her mother had told. The versions I wrote would be kept as manuscripts for eventual publication, but the portions Filine copied herself I planned to bind into a booklet for her.
“Thank you very much, Lady Rosemine.”
Filine’s face lit up as she took the manuscript. As we shared a smile, a few girls came running over.
“Lady Rosemine, Lady Rosemine. I also heard stories from my mother.”
“The picture books about the gods are lovely, but I’d like to read picture books of the knights’ tales told by the bards as well.”
Surrounded by sweet girls, I wrote down the stories they told one by one, and as I planned the next book to make, three days slipped by.
“Richarda, it’s a little hard to move.”
“What are you saying, Princess? In such a blizzard, if you want to ride a Mount, you still don’t have enough cold protection.”
The day I returned to the temple was a fierce blizzard with very poor visibility. The snow was so deep that traveling by carriage was impossible, so we decided to move by Mount today.
Richarda worried about my condition and layered on clothes one after another for warmth, but they were tight and made it hard to move.
“My Mount has walls and a roof…”
We brought out a mini bus the size of a microbus, putting Ella, Rosina, and Brigitte, who was there for protection, on board.
Once inside, the snow and wind were blocked out, so it wasn’t especially cold.
The high priest, Darmel, and Brigitte wore full armor with cloaks, just like during the trombe campaign. I wondered if wearing metal armor in this blizzard wouldn’t cause frostbite.
The high priest laughed off my concern.
“This armor is a type of magic tool, so there’s no need to worry about that.”
Apparently, the armor that looked like metal was actually a magic tool equipped with cold and fire resistance. Its performance varied depending on the quality of the mana stone it was based on and the wearer’s mana. I worried more about Darmel than the high priest.
“Lord Ferdinand and Darmel won’t ride the mini bus?”
“No, they need to keep watch around us, so if you can move with that, it’s fine. Let’s go.”
It seemed the knights order often deployed to hunt demonic beasts appearing in blizzards, so both men said they had no problem and mounted their Mounts. The knights order was apparently harsher than I had imagined.