Published: September 6, 2025
After leaving the orphanage, we assigned rooms to everyone, discussed how to rearrange the furniture, and decided to entrust the preparations for the reception at the temple to the attendants each of us had summoned.
Back at the castle during dinner, I reported the flow of the inspection tour to Foster Father and consulted with him about moving in the furniture and the budget. Basically, permission was granted, and everything ended without any particular problems.
“The reception of Melchior and the children is complete, but many other issues remain piled up.”
“Problems?”
“We’re lacking personnel to attend the prayer ceremony. Since Lord Ferdinand is gone, the biggest issue is that Melchior can’t participate in the prayer ceremony.”
With Ferdinand gone and no one to fill the gap, the number of azure priests has decreased due to the purge, putting a heavy burden on each individual. We urgently need to figure out how to allocate the prayer ceremony duties.
“It’s unavoidable since Melchior hasn’t practiced enough in mana infusion…”
Originally, there should have been a year of training from last year’s lords’ council so he could participate this year, but Ferdinand’s marriage was decided at the council. After that, priority was given to the temple handover and my education, so they stayed holed up at the temple and didn’t provide much mana supply to the foundation magic.
As a result, the mana poured into the foundation magic was considerably less, and aside from me and Ferdinand, the lord family members had to desperately supply mana. Foster Mother and grandfather had no room to assist Melchior. On top of that, the purge was moved forward in winter, making everyone busy, and since Foster Mother was pregnant, Melchior was confined to the North Wing for safety.
“Charlotte, who practiced rigorously for a whole season, must have also had a heavy burden, right? It’s dangerous for Melchior, who has barely practiced at all.”
“I want to participate next year for sure.”
Melchior said with frustration, but this year, Foster Father and Foster Mother, who were too busy to spare time to practice with him, looked at each other in concern.
“It might be difficult to practice mana supply for foundation magic within the castle, but you can practice while offering at the temple. If you practice seriously, you’ll be able to participate next year.”
It might work out somehow next year, but there’s nothing we can do about this year.
“If I could send my close aides separately to the prayer ceremonies, the personnel issue could be solved, but most of the adults who can go outside the city are guard knights…”
“Surely we cannot risk reducing the number of guard knights.”
At Foster Father’s words, I nodded, “I understand, that’s why I’m troubled.” When I consulted the close aides, Brother Cornelius rejected the idea with the same words.
“We can solve things like carriages, food, chefs, attendants, and ceremonial costumes with money, but personnel is something we can’t fix.”
Wilfried, who had been silently listening for a while, raised his head.
“How about this? Charlotte, the remaining azure priests, and I will visit Gibe, far away, and you and Hartmut handle the direct territories?”
“Eh? But… Brother Wilfried and Charlotte are busy, right? I don’t think it’s good to increase their burden.”
I wondered if it was okay to have such busy people help with the temple matters, but Wilfried shrugged.
“To gain the support of the Reizegang faction, it’s better to increase opportunities to meet them even once so that the nobles see that Rosemine isn’t the only one involved in the rituals.”
Until now, to reduce travel burdens and to make up for differences in harvest with Gibe, the mana-rich lord candidates had been visiting the direct territories. But because of that, the nobles only saw me performing rituals while moving with Gutenberg and others.
“One reason the Reizegang faction might feel only Rosemine is forced to do rituals is that even if nobles talk about Rosemine with Gutenberg’s group and the miracle of Haldenzel, no nobles have seen other lord candidates participating in rituals. Lamprecht, who gathers information on the Reizegang faction, said so.”