Published: August 25, 2025
“I have bestowed blessings upon you, so you should be able to fight more easily than usual. However, do not initiate attacks from our side under any circumstances. Please focus on defense. Our mission is only to protect Schwarz and Weiss, entrusted to us by Solange-sensei of the library. Ehrenfest is merely safeguarding what has been entrusted to it; we are not fighting because we want to. Understood?”
When making excuses later, it will be important that we did not strike first. As those around me nodded at my words, the shoulders of Angelica and Traugott, who were about to burst forward, dropped.
“Lady Rosemine, if attacked, may we fight back?”
“No unauthorized charges. Our primary objective is to protect Schwarz and Weiss and safely return them to the library. If you fail at that… you will be deemed incompetent for failing to protect what you should, and Lord Bonifatius will scold you. Please act with that in mind.”
“Ugh... understood.”
I heard that during the two years I was asleep, Grandfather thoroughly trained the Guard Knights who failed to protect their wards. They were probably scolded daily. The moment I mentioned Grandfather’s name, Angelica and Traugott tensed up.
“Princess, not enough mana.”
“I need mana.”
“...Huh? I already infused it earlier.”
As I recalled patting them, Schwarz and Weiss each gently rubbed their own stomachs.
“No, the vest.”
“Protect. Fight.”
Following their instructions, I stroked the buttons of my vest, infusing mana into each one. Magical circles sewn into the vest appeared one after another, then disappeared.
“Stronger now.”
“Princess, protect.”
...Huh?
Being told to protect me left me very confused. The ones who must be protected are Schwarz and Weiss, the library’s treasures.
“Anyway, let’s go. Stay alert.”
Everyone readied their staves to be ready to summon at a moment’s notice as we left the dormitory. To negotiate if we met enemies, I placed my elder brother Cornelius and Leonore, both upper nobles and fairly sharp-minded, at the front. Angelica and Traugott, who seemed likely to charge ahead, stayed near me, closer to the center. Surrounded by tense knight apprentices, I walked holding Schwarz and Weiss’s hands.
“We are like treasure-hunting Ditter. We must protect Schwarz and Weiss while entering the library. We do not defeat the enemy; we protect. Do not misunderstand this.”
I hoped there would be no attack. Passing through the main building’s central auditorium, we turned south and approached the corridor to the library. Suddenly, I saw cloaks of many colors.
...This isn’t just one territory!?
Four different colored cloaks fluttered. Against Ehrenfest’s less than thirty people, it looked like there were about a hundred. The blue cloak leading the front was Dunkelfelger.
Narrowing my eyes at the multiple opponents and the appearance of a major territory, I clenched my hands tightly around Schwarz and Weiss.
Stopping at a slight distance, Brother Cornelius stepped forward.
“Restiraut-sama, may I ask why you are blocking the corridor?”
Standing firmly behind was Restiraut, a lord candidate. Although called a candidate, he had the build more fitting a knight apprentice. Restiraut only narrowed his eyes disdainfully and said nothing.
Instead, the voices came from the lesser territory members behind Dunkelfelger.
“What do you mean by this!?”
“How dare you claim the magical tools left by the royal family as your own!”
“We will take back those large staves from Ehrenfest!”
To me, they were villains trying to steal Schwarz and Weiss, but to them, we were the ones who had stolen the royal magical tools.
Seeing the knight apprentices from Ehrenfest falter at the loud voices and words, Restiraut smirked.
“Exactly. Those are relics of the old royal family and property of the noble academy’s library. A mere thirteenth-ranked lord candidate does not have the right to own, steal, and take them from the library! Return the royal magical tools!”