Published: September 6, 2025
“It’s ready! How does this look, Lady Rosemine?”
Just before lunch on the day before the territory competition, Ignatz and Marianne emerged from the alchemy room carrying magic tools. Behind them came a number of civil official apprentices.
“Please take a look,” Marianne said as she set up a sheet of music paper and turned a handle, producing music like a music box. Ignatz combined Nanceve paper with a small, improved teleportation circle to send a book into the writing box as a demonstration.
“There are still several points we want to improve, but as a prototype for exhibition, wouldn’t you say it’s satisfactory?”
It seemed they would need more time to refine it further, as both mana and materials were insufficient. Wilfried and Charlotte, who had been mainly assisting the civil official apprentices, looked a bit tired but everyone’s faces were filled with a sense of accomplishment.
“I think it’s wonderful. You managed to shape this in such a short time.”
“Yes, truly. The senior nobility are amazing. Even if we could offer some advice or suggestions from Lady Rosemine and Raimund’s research, I couldn’t have done the alchemy myself,” Filine said with admiration as she looked at Ignatz and the others. Because the alchemy achievable varies with mana capacity, many concoctions beyond the reach of lower nobility like Filine were possible here.
“While at the noble academy, we use a lot of mana in lectures, so I hope to compress as much as possible from spring through autumn…”
“In the meantime, we will increase our mana capacity even more,” Ignatz said with a challenging smile, unwilling to lose to Filine and the others. I hoped that with this kind of friendly rivalry, everyone’s mana capability would improve.
“Are you ready to practice your presentation?”
“…We will start now. But unlike previous research, this is something we thought up ourselves and made, so I think it will be fine.”
Rather than trying to present highly advanced alchemy and magic tools jointly created by many at Drevannel without fully understanding, they would be explaining magic tools they had built from scratch themselves, so there was no need to worry about the content.
“Lady Rosemine, I’d like to ask you to tell us a little about the Ehrenfest Paper. Only within the permissible range for the presentation, of course.”
Marianne’s request was gladly accepted, and from the afternoon onward, we worked together on the finishing touches of the joint research with Drevannel.
Since I stayed in the dormitory all day, the knight apprentices were able to train all day too.
“The quatre-quarts from Ehrenfest have started arriving. We’ll move them into the meeting room.”
At Brynhildr’s voice, the attendant apprentices sprang into action. It seemed the quatre-quarts and cookies requested from the Otmar Trading Company had begun arriving via the teleportation circle. For the territory competition, they had decided to focus on baked goods that could be prepared in advance. With so many guests, the dormitory kitchen alone couldn’t handle it.
“The castle kitchen must be very busy now as well,” I thought.
Meals for Lord Ferdinand were entrusted to the castle chefs. The bustling atmosphere everywhere truly felt like the excited anticipation before a festival.
“Lady Rosemine, the second volume of the Ferneshtine Chronicles has arrived along with the quatre-quarts. You had promised Lady Hannelore, right? Shall I notify them via Ordnance?”
Liselotte brought over a wooden box containing the Ferneshtine Chronicles. Muliera exclaimed, “Oh my!” and her green eyes sparkled, but the civil official apprentices needed to prioritize preparations for tomorrow.
“I’ll send it myself. Muliera can have it after the territory competition. I haven’t even read it yet.”
“You too, Princess, must wait until after the territory competition,” Richarda warned firmly. I reluctantly responded, “Okay.” Sharing the feeling of wanting to read it quickly, Muliera and I were quite in tune.