Published: August 10, 2026
On the Fire Day at the end of summer.
Today was my coming-of-age ceremony. Instead of my parents, I was sent off to the temple in Arensbach, which had far more people than Ehrenfest, by Lord Ferdinand and Tulli and the others.
...They said I could move after the coming-of-age ceremony was over, though.
When Gutenberg and the others were all set to move at the end of spring, Lord Ferdinand asked me, "Would you like to spend your coming-of-age ceremony with your family, and then move later all by yourself, Lutz?" He was being considerate in a way that felt very much like someone who cared deeply about family, but there was no way I could do that.
My mother sighed and said, "I'm still relieved that Tulli and Gunther will be with you, but I wish I could have seen your starbinding with Tulli." But my father encouraged me in his awkward way, saying, "Are you planning to step away from your work right when you're trying to become a full-fledged adult?"
"Yow—! Isn't this temple way too big!? I couldn't see anything inside at all. Lutz, how was it?"
As soon as I came out of the temple, Uncle Gunther grabbed my shoulders and shook me. My uncle, who was supposed to be celebrating my adulthood, was staring right past me toward the temple with serious eyes, and the answer he wanted was information about the head priest. He really never changes.
"Hey, Dad. Today was Lutz's coming-of-age ceremony, so you should at least congratulate him first."
"Tulli's right, Gunther. We promised we'd celebrate Lutz in place of Deed and Carla, didn't we? Congratulations on your coming-of-age, Lutz."
After being scolded by Tulli and Aunt Carla, my uncle looked dejected. I patted his shoulder and told him what happened at the temple, since he still couldn't get Myne out of his head.
"It was as amazing a blessing as the rumors said. Blue light spread all across the huge temple in a burst..."
"Maybe she was especially fired up today because Lutz was there?"
Tulli giggled and came to walk beside me, taking my left arm and starting to move forward with a "Let's go home." Kamil walked on my right and, with the smug look of someone who knew everything, said, "I heard at Gutenberg rituals that the blessings always get bigger."
"When I was sent to the blacksmith workshop the other day, I heard that Zack's starbinding was incredible too."
Kamil, wearing the apprentice uniform of the Plantin Trading Company, had hair in a color similar to Myne's and light brown eyes, but his face resembled my uncle's, so he didn't look very much like Myne. Lord Ferdinand and Mark-san started walking behind Kamil. Since I'm a Dapla, they had come all this way just for me.
"Well, because you drove off those foreign barbarians rampaging through the city and then, while listening to the commoners' opinions, helped plan a new city, Lady Rosemine, it's much easier for us to work here despite this being a new city. You should properly appreciate her too, Kamil."
"Yes, Lord Ferdinand."
Since the trade with Lanzenave had vanished, the old merchants were all desperate to jump onto the new industries. We were called to Alexandria for that new industry, and the city welcomed us with far less friction than we had expected. In less than a season, the Plantin Trading Company had become the point of contact for negotiations with the nobles. Apparently, because these nobles were so different from the ones before, the city's merchants had no idea how to deal with them.
...And not just the merchants—the nobles' civil officials probably don't know how either.
Lady Rosemine rarely appeared at the meetings with the merchants. I suppose the lord couldn't exactly come strolling around to the commoners' district all the time. Still, Hartmut-sama always attended every meeting, so for someone like me who knew him, things were very easy.
"Still, Lady Rosemine's only just arrived here, and she's insanely popular with the commoners, isn't she, Lord Ferdinand? The fishermen apparently fight a lot at the harbor over who gets to present which fish they caught to the lord, but I've never heard of anything like that in Ehrenfest..."