Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The evening after Rozemyne had met Morgana, she found herself having difficulty going to sleep. Its not that she could not sleep exactly it was more like she didn’t feel tired or the need to sleep as she lay in her bed. She had sent Fran and Rosina off to bed after a couple of hours of trying to go to sleep and decided to read a book to relax herself. She thought maybe the excitement of the day had gotten to her and she was overly wound up to be able to greet Schlaftraum. She managed to go to sleep sometime after midnight only to find herself wide awake and refreshed before first bell had even rung. After a moment of bewilderment Rozemyne decided to get up despite the impropriety of a noble rising before her attendants came to assist them for the day. She padded her way over to her desk and activated the mana lamp so she could start to plan what she wanted to achieve now that she was due to re-entre noble society and take the position of High Bishop. The first task on her list was of course to generate more funds and profit by planning out some new products. She started by writing the fairy tales she had planned to adapt and print to show to Wilma. She would need to know what Wilma could illustrate and what she would need to learn about. After she completed a few manuscripts, she moved onto thinking about products that could be made in her lower city workshop or ordered from craftsmen. She desperately wanted to start working on spring cushions and mattresses but Johan needed to focus on making more letter types so she could have more printing presses up and running.

Rozemyne made the most adorable picture as she sat at her slightly too large desk tapping her pen against her chin. She decided to start with something fashion based that Effa could do and wrote down some dying methods. She chose resist dyeing, stencil dyeing, tie-dyeing and a method for hand painting various scenes and patterns. She considered adding some information on how bleaching already dyed fabric could also provide a different visual effect but decided against it.

After she finished writing down all the information, she could find on dyeing methods that could be used in this world the sun had started to rise and her retainers came in to get her dressed for the day. She wanted to continue the momentum she had built up by drawing some clothing designs for Corina, but she had classes to attend and work to do.

That evening Rozemyne once again found herself feeling like she was not tired and did not need to sleep yet. She used this time to continue planning more products. She decided to take inspiration form several different historical fashions as they would meet less resistance than modern styles. She made designs based on the traditional style of Japan, the traditional style of China’s Ming Dynasty, the traditional style of the Joseon era and a few different types of historical European styles focusing on the baby doll cut, modernized medieval style and the dresses of 18^th century Europe. Of course, all of her references were form the noble classes in each respective culture and designs were made for men and women whenever possible.

Then Rozemyne drew up some blueprints for more instruments, a guitar, a cello, a drum kit, her long awaited guqin (with a special one for higher notes so a pair could be played together), a piano, and to see if it could be done a saxophone. With these made Yurgenschmidt music could change, advance and diversify. Rozemyne also secretly hoped people would start to form bands in time, as lovely as the harspiel and flute were it was a bit dull having no variety.

The last thing she made blueprints for was collapsible furniture, like the type you would take for camping back on earth. They could be made to varying degrees of detail to suit the different social statuses and Rozemyne was sure they would be a hit with the commoners and the knights who had to camp out frequently.

With a fat stack of designs to sell Rozemyne turned her attention to the bigger projects that had been nagging at her. Those projects being schools (for academics and cookery), hospitals, restaurants, tea houses, bars and a brothel. These undertakings would not be completed quickly or cheaply, hence the previous products and Benno opening as many paper making workshops as he possibly could to enable mass printing. Rozemyne thought about what she might need to achieve each of these ventures and made some quick notes in her MMD. She had discovered that is she visualized a blank page with an on-screen keyboard she could make notes in her MMD as well, albeit only in English as that was the only type of keyboard she could clearly visualize. After going over her notes Rozemyne decided that the fastest and easiest one would most likely be the restaurant in the nobles’ quarter once Italy (the Italian restaurant) was up and running they would only need to replicate it but more refined, she planned for to be called France and attempt to recreate the singing and dancing items from Beauty and the Beast once she started learning about magic. Since she didn’t need to do anything major for that at the moment, she looked at her other options, the tea house would also be easy but would have to wait for the right time to open and the same went for the bars. That left the schools, hospital and brothel. Schools would need long term groundwork and a slow build to gain momentum in the lower city where working was the only way to survive. She would have to improve the daily lives of all commoners to a point where the children could go to school for a day or so a week without putting their families at a disadvantage. Her food was not yet well known enough for a culinary institute to be viable, and she did not have enough trained chefs to teach in one, so time would be needed here as well. The hospitals would be even more troublesome, Ehrenfest had ridiculously few doctors even among the commoners and convincing nobles and commoners to work together productively would be a nigh insurmountable task in the current Ehrenfest. At least she now had Lady Morgana who was fixated on medicine to the point of insanity, so research could be pursued in the meantime. That left the brothel, admittedly it was an important service, and she was responsible for dismantling the pre-existing system but that didn’t make it something she eagerly wanted to tackle. Getting or even building a location would be easy and teaching the workers would be even easier. The problems started to crop up when it came to the workers, how could she make sure the people who worked there actually wanted to work there? It would be too easy for people to be forced into that line of work as they were now or choose it out of desperation. Then there was the issue of Sexually transmitted infections, did they even have those here? She could probably ask Morgana about it but if they did exist here how would she keep her workers healthy? After lots of head tapping, sighing and groaning Rozemyne decided to start looking into buildings or potential building locations and deal with the rest as it came up, preparing the venue would take long enough for her to look for solutions to the other issues. With that decision made Rozemyne finally felt like she could go to bed. Tomorrow she would be meeting Morgana again for her medical checkup.

The next morning Rozemyne once again woke up before first bell feeling well rested and refreshed. She wondered if this was going to be her new normal and considered why she didn’t need to sleep as much anymore. Surely it wasn’t good for a growing child to only sleep for four hours a night but even if she tried to go back to sleep it didn’t work. For now, she would just use this extra time to get as much work done as possible while still attending to her expected duties. She got out of bed and put on her dressing gown; it was basically just the outer layer of a cultivation robe made out of thin silk and padded over to her desk. She took out her MMD and started to plip through the pages of a book about classic architectural designs to try and get some inspiration for building her new brothel. As it would be something new to Yurgenschmidt she didn’t see why she should restrict herself to the current style of building. Why these people hadn’t made the simple conclusion of building a brothel to provide the services of a brothel she would never understand but it did give her the opportunity to make one that suited her taste. She finally came across an image that she thought would be perfect with some adjustments.

With a design like this she could produce a fairly elegant and classy establishment despite the nature of the business. The main building could function like a host or hostess club with the workers providing company and entertainment to be enjoyed with good food and alcohol. The actual adult services could be handled in the rear section and there would also be an abundance of rooms available for different uses. The landscaping would have to be a little different adding more water features and gardens and the unique architecture would be a draw as well. Plus, if it was built outside of the city walls nobles and commoners alike could enjoy her flower garden.

Hmm, flower garden. I should give it a name connected to flowers I always wanted one called Ruyi Pavilion, but a flower would sound better. No one will know what a Sakura is here though so maybe…Verlange Pavilion. The Verlange flower symbolises possessiveness or desire and desire is a fitting name for such a place.

With that final thought on the matter Rozemyne had decided she would talk to Benno and Frieda about finding a plot of land to have this built rather than buying a pre-existing building as she had previously planned. Having more time on her hands may not be a good thing as she now had more time to complicate things for herself and others. Rozemyne happily hummed away as she drew up the plans for the building and decided how large the area would need to be until Rosina and Lilly came to get her dressed for the day. After breakfast she practised music with Sister Immogene for a bell before it was time to go to meet Lady Morgana and her father for the medical examination.

Once Karstedt and Lady Morgana arrived at her chamber greetings were given and the attendants were dismissed. Karstedt was radiating anxiety as they watched Morgana spread out a sheet of cloth with a magic circle beautifully embroidered onto it. Rozemyne asked what it was for, and Morgana told her it was magic tool that would allow her to see the flow of mana inside her body. The one she brought with her was her own personal tool that she had embroidered with her mother when she was younger and was the most detailed and precise one in all of Ehrenfest, if not the whole of Yurgenschmidt, much better than the standard ones she had used on Bezewanst. Rozemyne had questioned the need for such an outstanding and valuable tool being used on her and Morgana had launched into a passionate speech about how Rozemyne’s condition was so bizarre it warranted the highest possible level of examination.

Morgana placed four fey stones on the circle in each of the cardinal directions and the requested that Rozemyne strip and stand on the circle. Karstedt looked visibly uncomfortable at the request, but he had been ordered by his wife not to interfere with the examination and didn’t give voice to his feelings. Rozemyne on the other hand felt no such distress and began to remove her clothing piece by piece until she was stark naked and stepped onto the magic circle. Karstedt had promptly turned around at the first sign of Rozemyne disrobing and wished with all his might that his wife had come along to do this instead of him. Morgana tapped the magic circle with her schtappe (Rozemyne had finally learned what the wands in this world were called) and the circle was filled with mana. The circle stated to glow red, and the light rose up from it and through Rozemyne’s body starting at her feet and traveling up to her head making bright red lines appear all over her body.

“Ah, I see you have died before. There are clumps of hardened mana throughout your body.” Morgana let out a massive sigh as she examined the mana lines on Rozemyne’s body.

“Yeah, that makes sense.” Rozemyne replied in a nonchalant tone as if being told you had died was akin to talking about the weather.

“What do you mean that makes sense!?” Karstedt whipped around to address Rozemyne completely forgetting she was naked and how uncomfortable it had made him moments ago. After all he had just heard his daughter had died and she casually confirmed it.

“Well, I had to join the temple after my mana went out of control and I would have died if Ewigeliebe didn’t help me stay alive. He also told me at that time that I died when I was still in Geduldh’s cradle, and he had to keep my body alive until my soul could arrive.”

“I can’t believe what I am hearing. Are you saying the only reason the poison given to your mother didn’t kill you was because the god of life himself stepped in to save you?” Morgana was on the verge of a total shut down caused by the insanity of what she had just heard. If it wasn’t for her voracious curiosity about how Rozemyne was still alive she wouldn’t even be able to function anymore let alone complete her examination.

“…” Karstedt on the other hand did go into shut down mode as he sagged down onto the floor. His daughter had not only died once but twice and if it wasn’t for a god stepping in, she would have climbed the towering staircase both times. This was simply to much for him to bear.

“Hey, hold on something is happening. Rozemyne has anything strange happened to you lately?” Morgana was now staring intently at one of Rozemyne’s legs.

“Not really. I mean I am sleeping less but I don’t feel tiered or anything. Does that help?”

“No, not at all. I just saw one of the smaller clumps in your leg dissolve like it had never been there.”

“Isn’t that a good thing?”

“Yes and no. Its good because getting rid of them will be much easier if the smaller fragments are being absorbed naturally but I can’t tell if the medium sized ones will be affected. The largest one is by your heart and almost completely covering your mana organ. That would explain why you are collapsing after using about half of your mana, it can’t circulate properly with the blockage in the way.”

“I’m going to try something tell me if it makes a difference.” Rozemyne started to do her mana circulation meditation and focused on eroding the blockages with her mana.

“Wow! What did you do? Several of your small mana clumps vanished and it looks like some of the medium sized ones are starting to shrink slowly but the large one is still unchanged.”

“I just focused on using my mana to grind down the blockages, but it seems doing that won’t be enough.”

“I have never seen such a thing. I will be able to research this data for years to come and still probably never solve this mystery.”

“You are here to treat her Lady Morgana, not study her like some lab experiment.” Karstedt finally manged to reboot his brain and snapped at Morgana for her apparent lack of care toward Rozemyne.

“Do not worry Lord Karstedt I already know what treatment she needs but that doesn’t change the fact that this is the most fascinating examination I have ever done.” Morgana gave a small chuckle at the glaring Karstedt and Rozemyne had so supress her own giggle.

“What do we need to do then?” Karstedt asked still annoyed at Mogana’s behaviour and now irritated she had brushed him of so lightly.

“Rozemyne you may get dressed again. She will need to soak in a high quality jureve. That means she will have to gather her own ingredients and make it herself.” Morgana started to pack up her tools and Rozemyne finished getting dressed. Thankfully she could dress herself due to the style of her clothing and do it quickly.

“Well, that shouldn’t be too hard should it, father?” Rozemyne said looking at her father.

“You will have to learn how to make and ride a high beast, but I expect it will be easy enough to do if we can find the ingredients.”

“That should not be an issue, here is a list of the best quality ingredients for a jureve. Call me when you have them all and I will help her with the brewing.” Morgana pulled out a wooden board to write on and Rozemyne quickly stopped her to hand over a piece of paper instead.

Karstedt took the list from Morgana and frowned as he looked it over. “This will take at least a year…”

“That’s why I said call me after you have them all. I will be returning to Kirnberger shortly to continue my research.”

“Wait Lady Morgana would you consider moving to the city and becoming my personal doctor? I will need one anyway and I think you would be the best person to help me in my plans to build a hospital and improve the medical treatments currently being provided in Ehrenfest.” Rozemyne was quick to pounce on Morgana not willing to let the woman go now that she had found her.

“I…do not like staying in the city my lady.” Morgana would have loved to stay with Rozemyne and see what other amazing things would happen around her, but she didn’t want to stay in this city or more specifically she didn’t want to stay in that house.

“Elvira has told me some of what happened to you in the past and requested I ask you to take on the role of Rozemyne’s personal doctor as well. As one of her retainers you would be permitted to stay in our residence for as long as you wished or until we are able to find better accommodations for you.”

“I see… In that case I shall take you up on your offer after I have taken care of some things at home.”

“Fantastic! I am so happy to have you joining me, Lady Morgana.” As always Rozemyne bright smile and obvious joy melted away any misgivings Morgana may have had.

Morgana and Karstedt then left the temple and Rozemyne went back to work. She would be going to the nobles’ quarter in three days, and she needed to take care of a few things before then. She wrote several letters and then summoned Gil to deliver them to Benno and Frieda requesting they come and see her in the temple as soon as they could while also apologizing for the lack of notice. The rest of her day went as normal including her need for less sleep but this time she used her extra time to read and relax after several days of hard work and transcribed some more recipes for food, sweets and some more types of alcohol she wanted the Othmar company to work on, she would be leaving that to them from now on having learned her lesson after getting drunk testing her own brews.

The next day Benno, Frieda and Gustav came to see her in the temple. After greetings were exchanged and everyone was seated, she got down to business updating everyone on what had happened recently. Then she told them that she would be in the nobles’ quarter until her baptism and would not be able to meet with them freely for a while. To that end she had produced several sets of instruction to be sold to various people and places and orders for the products to be made. This was followed by a discussion about when Italy was completed, she wanted to open France in the nobles’ quarter as soon as possible and to start looking for land to build Verlange Pavilion. The blueprints for the pavilion was handed over Gustav so that he could proceed with the project along with instructions to start looking into possible workers and what roles they would be filling once the building was nearing completion. The entire project would probably take the better part of a year to be constructed so they would start looking for staff in the following spring and start training chefs now in Italy. Rozemyne also requested that a couple more chefs be sent for training in her kitchens in the temple so that they would definitely have enough of them to open the various different locations she was planning as well as potential teachers for her culinary institute – the food in this world was in dire need of improvement.

Rozemyne was allowed to spend her last couple of days before leaving the temple as she wished. She used this time to practice playing music on the three instruments she had with her, filled out the paperwork to officially buy Fran, Rosina and Wilma and snuck out of the temple under her Verbergen cloak to go and visit her commoner family. She could get away with this at the moment as all of her attendants were busy preparing for the upcoming changes.

Rozemyne woke up on the day she was due to return to the nobles’ quarter and after finishing up the last bit of work she had she got dressed into a set of robes that had been made in a way fit for nobility. Her sleeves were long enough to almost touch the ground and fluttered beautifully whenever she moved. She had chosen to wear the black and silver set with light blue inner wear. She had her long soft leather boots put on and then had her hair ornaments added, today she would be wearing three, one was that went on top of her head and two for the sides with cascading flowers on chains. The overall effect was it looking like she was wearing a circlet made of flowers all with small beads that would glitter in the light like dew drops. She had chosen this particular set on purpose, she wanted to look as regal as possible to make a good impression on her family and enforce her status should any unexpected people be present. She didn’t actually think there would be surprise visitors, but she wasn’t going to take the chance either.

Wilma would be staying in the temple as an interim orphanage director while Fran and Rosina got dressed to join Rozemyne in her new home. Everyone headed downstairs and Rozemyne saw all of her attendants kneeling to send her off. Rozemyne felt her cheeks warm along with her chest at the show of loyalty and care from her.

Karstedt was waiting for her at the temples entrance along with Bonifatius who had taken some time off specifically to escort her back to the nobles’ quarter. When she arrived both men were left speechless by her appearance as neither one of them has seen her go full noble before. Bonifatius recovered first and escorted Rozemyne into her carriage and sat next her with a massive smile on his face.

When the carriage arrived at their destination it made its way through a massive garden, almost a park really, and Elvira was waiting for them at the front of the house. Elvira was very happy to see Rozemyne come home at last and almost told her not to bother with the greetings, but she held back as she needed to assess Rozemyne’s etiquette progress. Elvira was amazed by the quality of the blessing and the perfect execution of Rozemyne bearing, she was already capable of functioning at the level of an archduke candidate. Elira’s joy would be short lived however as she would soon learn that being capable of something did not mean Rozemyne would be bound by it.

Rozemyne adjusted to her new environment with some difficulty. While she loved all the creature comforts that come with living in a noble’s mansion, like a proper toilet, she didn’t like how restrained she was in the Linkberg estate. She had to dress up everyday instead of wearing whatever made her comfortable, and she constantly had to keep up her noble façade watching every movement and action she made. She was never left alone and always had at least two people with her and Fran wasn’t even allowed to put her to bed anymore. She had spent five agonizing days like this before she snapped and ordered one of her attendants to send an ordonnanz to Bonifatius so she could go do some training. She put on her European pants suit and had her hair braided without putting any of that gunk in it before grabbing Staubmacher and marching downstairs. Elvira almost fainted at the sight of her but managed to keep herself under control.

“Rozemyne dear, what in the world are you wearing?” Elvira asked her voice straining against her desire to shout at Rozemyne for such a shameless display.

“My favourite fighting outfit. I have asked grandfather to come and help me with my training as it has been several days since I was able to do any.” Rozemyne was polite but also made sure to put on her best isn’t it obvious face. She didn’t want to get into a fight with Elvira, but she was all to aware of this world’s archaic view on women wearing pants.

“My dear you cannot wear such a thing in public. It will ruin your reputation, at least allow some adjustments to be made to it so it is not quite so offensive.”

“I’m afraid I cannot allow you to do that mother. My deepest apologies but if I allowed such a thing to happen it would be ruined. Besides plenty of people have seen me wear it already including the Aub’s son Sylvester, if any damage was going to be caused it has already happened. I should probably also make it clear that I don’t care about my reputation grandfather has already signed a contract stating he cannot force me into a marriage and any man I might choose to marry in the future will be one who loves me not what I wear,”

“Be that as it may I cannot allow you to leave this house in such clothing.”

Rozemyne sighed “Mother I was really hoping to avoid this but if you insist on forcing the matter please call father home as your representative and he may duel me on your behalf.”

“You’re willing to go that far over an outfit.”

“Yes, mother I am. I’ll go insane if have to keep repressing myself.”

“Repressing….” Elvira sounded like someone had just punched her as she took a step back in shock. “Very well you may wear what you wish if you can best Karstedt in a duel. Prove you are strong enough to handle the repercussions of this choice”

“Thank you, mother. I promise that I will not do this often and follow your expectations at all other times.” Rozemyne dropped onto one of knees and crossed her arms in a bow to Elvira.

Elvira pulled out a fey stone and sent a message to Karstedt. “Come home and spar with Rozemyne she wishes to go out in public dressed as a man.”

“Let it go Elvira, I have no wish to die over clothing” Karstedt’s reply came quickly and carried a clear note of pleading in his tone.

“Now Karstedt.”

“At least bring her to the training grounds so our estate isn’t demolished.” Elvira raised an eyebrow clearly confused by her husband’s attitude towards the whole affair. She was starting to doubt if she had made the right call by not listening to him in the first place, but she just couldn’t bring herself to drop this.

Bonifatius arrived quickly as he had rushed to see his lovely Rozemyne the moment he had received the ordonnanz requesting a training session. When he arrived, he found Elvira waiting with Rozemyne and after processing her attire was informed of the duel set to take place between Rozemyne and Karstedt. He was very excited to see the duel and pulled Rozemyne onto his high beast in a flash before setting of to the training grounds as fast as he could. Elvira and their retainers followed behind but could not keep up with Bonifatius’s excitement and speed making them arrive a little later than the other two.

When they arrived at the training ground a large crown had already gathered after hearing about the knight commander’s hidden daughter coming to spar with her father. Most of the knights’ order was there along with the apprentices and to everyone’s surprise Sylvester and Aub Ehrenfest had also come to spectate since it was their guard knights who had requested to leave for this spectacle. Rozemyne jumped off of Bonifatius’s high beast and looked around the training grounds. When she spotted Sylvester, she gave him one of her mischievous smiles and nodded at him in recognition. Adelbert on the other hand was frowning as he watched Rozemyne thinking that this girl looked more like a Chaocipher than a Flutrane and would need to be put in her place soon to prevent these outbursts from occurring again.

Rozemyne and Karstedt stood in the middle of the field and faced each other.

“Rozemyne please try to go easy on me, I tried to dissuade your mother.” Karstedt was almost begging but he manged to keep his noble bearing and his dignity as a knight commander.

“Do not worry father I will give you some help and if you do get injured, I’ll be sure to heal you after.” Rozemyne raised her hand to call on Angriff and Steiferise to bless her father causing murmurs to run through the crowd.

Karstedt let out a silent groan knowing that this meant Rozemyne would not be holding back against him and wanted to have a serious duel. He readied his sword and shield to indicate he was ready to start. Rozemyne did the same and unsheathed her mana blades causing another wave of murmurs to run through the crowd and Bonifatius was practically vibrating with desire to examine Staubmacher when he shouted for the duel to start.

Rozemyne was incredibly worked up by this point she was finally in a position where she could test her abilities in an appropriate environment without restraint. As soon as the call was made for the match to start, she launched herself into the air to bring both blades down on Karstedt. When Karstedt raised his shield to block her, she vanished, reappearing behind him instantly and bringing her leg around to kick him. Karstedt wasn’t the knight commander for nothing he had good instincts and reflexes so despite the sudden and unexpected change he still manged to bring his shield down in time to block her attack. The impact was strong enough to send a shockwave across the field as Karstedt was sent sliding across the dirt kicking up a dust cloud in his wake. Rozemyne had a massive grin on her face and was shining so brightly in her joy the onlookers were captivated by the sight of her. Rather than waiting for the dust to settle she spun around with her swords crossed and pulled them apart sending a gust of wind toward Karstedt to blow the dust away. Once he was visible, she used her mana enhanced speed to dash forward and bring down a rain of sword blows onto Karstedt. Karstedt for his part was barely managing to keep up with her, deflecting her blows with both his sword and shield as he started to sweat with concentration. Rozemyne wasn’t leaving any openings for Karstedt to counterattack as she wore down his stamina with quick successive blows. As soon as he started to falter, and his breathing became heavy Rozemyne went in for the final strike. Rozemyne used a diversion to cause Karstedt to raise his sword and shield before she slid between legs and pivoted to kick her leg up into his back. Karstedt was lifted of the ground and Rozemyne jumped up to deliver another kick sending him higher up. She used the mana released from one of her swords to push her higher into the air to follow him and land another kick repeating the same manoeuvre with her other sword. Now several meters in the air she shifted her body to reappear above Karstedt where she did an aerial front flip bringing the heel of her boot down onto Karstedt’s chest sending him rocketing toward the ground. The force with which Karstedt hit the ground was strong enough leave a crater and send another shockwave full of dust and debris through the field. Karstedt laid on the ground battered and bleeding when Rozemyne landed next to him.

“Do I win father, or can you continue?”

“You win Rozemyne, I yield.”

Rozemyne waved her hand over her father and called for Heilschmerz healing and helped him to get back onto his feet. The crowd was stunned into silence, they had never seen such a sight before and the one responsible for it was only on the cusp of her baptism not even a full-fledged knight. Bonifatius on the other hand was shouting Rozemyne had won, and his excitement was busy flailing one poor unfortunate knight around in the air. Elvira was in a state of total disbelief at what she had just witnessed and could not even begin to process the events that had taken place. Sylvester was on his feet applauding Rozemyne’s display in a most un-noble like fashion. Adelbert had gone deathly pale as he stared at the happily smiling father and daughter pair.

“She is even more terrifying than Bonifatius…” Adelbert could not stop himself from voicing the thought quietly to himself as felt a chill run down his spine. This girl was not someone to mess with, that much had been made abundantly clear. He would have to be extra cautious when trying to manipulate her to serve his purposes.

Unknown to everyone else present there was one young man in the crowd who was not shocked or surprised by what had just happened. He stood there watching the duel with his usual passive face that looked like it was carved out of jade by the gods themselves. He had only been surprised when he saw who the hidden daughter was, she was the one he had come here for, the one he had been waiting for. He knew her and that sword well; they had been extremely close in his past life.

Bonifatius ran over to Rozemyne and threw her into the air several times as he sung her praises for all to hear. She was his precious granddaughter; his beloved adopted daughter and he expected nothing less from her as a member of his family. After Bonifatius settled down and the crowd started to disperse the beast-like grandfather and granddaughter pair spent the rest of the day training and sparring with each other laughing all the while.

To make it up to Elvira after her day of unladylike behaviour Rozemyne invited the Gilberta company over to the Linkberg estate so that she could order some rinsham for Elvira and show her other products as well. She had some of her own to keep her hair clean and glossy, but she didn’t have enough to give to Elvira, and she wanted her mother to be able to pick her own scents. Elvira loved the smell of the rinsham as well as the plant paper with flowers in it and even ordered some custom hairpins for herself. Rozemyne insisted on paying for it all herself as an apology gift to her mother and shared a conspiratorial look with Benno as they secured their first archnoble customer, the queen of ladies’ society to boot. When Elvira had used the Rinsham she was all a titter about the results and praised Rozemyne for the wonderful gift. They spoke about spreading the new trends and even conceded that they would have to send some to the Archdukes wife as a gift as well after her baptism. Elvira even spent time talking to Rozemyne about how she would be required to have meals with the Archducal family from time to time and the dangers that would entail. As a result of this new information Rozemyne decided to try and recreate some of the super spicy food from Korea and China to serve to the first lady, this would mean that her chefs had control over the food making poisoning harder to achieve as well as allowing Rozemyne to be passive aggressive against the woman who had caused her birth mothers death.

Rozemyne spent most of her days leading up to her baptism learning about the nobles she would meeting soon. She had to learn their names, family connections, faction affiliations, where they lived and what jobs they were responsible for. She was also forced to focus on playing the harspiel every day and was given little to no time to play her other instruments. Elvira had planned to give Rozemyne new clothes for her baptism but was shocked to find that Rozemyne already had a plethora of clothing options that were sophisticated enough to put any noble in Ehrenfest to shame. Elvira instead decided to work on adjusting the clothing Rozemyne already had in small ways to elevate them even further and pairing them up with the various accessories Rozemyne had collected over the years.

With how busy Rozemyne had been preparing for her baptism she hadn’t had time to meet her brothers yet and a family dinner had been planned for the night before her baptism to make sure they could spend some time with each other. Elvira had three sons, Eckhart was eleven and served as a guard knight to the Aub’s youngest son and then there were the twins Cornelius and Lamprecht both of whom were currently 9 and not yet attending the Royal academy. As Eckhart served a lord already, he spent most of his time with his master and Lord Ferdinand stayed at the Royal academy year-round with only a few visits home when he was required to attend an event, like her baptism tomorrow. Cornelius and Lamprecht spent most of their time at the Knights barracks or in their rooms studying for when they would attend the Royal Academy. Due to all the siblings being busy they had barely seen a glimpse of each other over the previous couple of weeks, so this dinner was a welcomed opportunity to spend time together. They had a pleasant evening together chatting and sharing stories over dinner and after meal tea, of course the boys were all overjoyed at the improved food and snacks in the home now that Rozemyne’s chef was in the kitchen and sharing Rozemyne’s recipes. Rozemyne went to bed that night filled with warmth and comfort feeling loved and accepted by her family and had one of the best nights sleep she had ever had, even if it was short as had become the norm.

On the day of her baptism, she was fetched early to bathe and given a quick breakfast of easy to eat foods before being dressed in her designated baptism outfit. It was made with various shades of blue to match her birth season and covered in detailed and complex embroidery. Her hair was delicately braided into a half up style and three hairpins were used to make her look like she was wearing a crown of flowers. Elvira had painstakingly planned the whole image so she would look elegant and refined as opposed to trashy and overdressed. Once she was ready, she made her way downstairs to a waiting room for her baptism ceremony and Karstedt took her mana ring before she arrived so that he could present it to her during the ceremony. Elvira and Karstedt did a quick recap of what was expected during the ceremony and then they waited to be called into the hall.

A small bell rang on the other side of the waiting room door, and it was opened by an attendant. Elvia and Karstedt stood up and started to walk towards the door with Rozemyne following along behind them. When they reached to door Rozemyne saw that the room was filled with hundreds of people, all of whom were staring at her. She didn’t mind all the attention, and she walked forward with grace and poise. The High Priest, Emmanuele, was standing in front of an altar that had been set up against the back wall with the divine instruments placed on top of it. There was a long carpet leading up to the altar and the three family members made their way towards the High Priest. As they walked some of the women in the room started to whisper about Rozemyne’s appearance, her glossy hair, her hair ornaments and the new dress design she wore. Rozemyne continued to walk behind her parents with her clam noble smile firmly in place and resolutely ignoring all of the whispers about her. As she got closer to High Priest, she saw the archducal family sitting in the front row of seats. They were all dressed in elaborate clothing, but Rozemyne felt like they looked lacking in comparison to her attire, and she had a moment of panic as she thought about the possible consequences of a noble outshining the archducal family. It didn’t last long though as she surreptitiously studied the faces of the family. Sylvester was beaming at her looking prouder of her than her own brothers had. There was a boy sitting next to him with sky blue hair and pale golden eyes staring at her in a way she could not decipher, he must be the archduke’s youngest son. The archduke himself was smiling warmly at her but it did not reach his eyes, his eyes reminded her of the former High Bishop, they were filled with greed, but also carried the sharpness of a cunning man who would use people and toss them aside once he was done with them. The first lady of Ehrenfest on the other hand was openly glaring at her with a scowl on her lips behind her veil. Rather than being cowed or scared of this woman Rozemyne found herself smiling slightly wider at the sight, pleased that the woman had done nothing to hide her true nature.

When they reached the altar Karstedt reached out a hand and led Rozemyne up the stairs to stand in front of the High Priest. Once she was in position Karstedt escorted Elvira down the steps to their seats and the High Priest began to speak.

“Rozemyne, today you turn seven years old.” He pulled out a white medal and long thin stick before he asked for her hand.

Rozemyne held out her hand and the stick was placed into it. As soon as she touched the stick it started to glow, and the people present started to clap but the stick continued to steadily get brighter and brighter the longer she held it. The crowd stopped clapping as they looked on in awe, yet another unheard-of phenomenon was occurring before their very eyes. Sensing this might become a problem the High Priest hurried on and instructed Rozemyne to touch the stick against the medal he had in his hands. Rozemyne did so and as soon as she did the stick stopped getting brighter, but it did not dimmish either and she was instructed to put it down by a subtle eye movement from the High Priest.

“Rozemyne, you have the blessings of all seven pillar gods in perfect balance. Congratulations you are now officially recognized as Karstedt’s daughter. A new child has been born in Ehrenfest.” The High Priest announced, and the room erupted with the susurration of hundreds of nobles whispering amongst themselves. Karstedt stood up and presented Rozemyne with her mana ring.

“Rozemyne, may you have Leidenschaft’s the God of Fire’s blessing.” The High Priest gave Rozemyne the traditional blessing showering her with blue lights.

“I am honoured High Priest. I pray the Leidenschaft the God of Fire blesses all those in attendance, and the High Priest for celebrating my baptism.” Rozemyne returned the blessing to the High Priest and all those who had come to the ceremony. Several large balls of mana came out of Rozemyne’s ring and circled the room before exploding into a dazzling shower of little blue lights that fell down on all those in the room. Once again, the audience was given another surprise as they all openly gaped at the amount of mana Rozemyne had just produced and this time exploded into a full-blown din as the commented on what had just occurred.

Bonifatius stood up and walked up in front of Rozemyne. The sight of yet more things occurring was enough to cause the crowd to settle down into silence once again and Bonifatius announced that he would be adopting Rozemyne and raising her to the status of an archduke candidate.

“As you have all seen Rozemyne has an enormous amount of mana within her. Her mana is in fact so great that Karstedt deemed it necessary to hide her and have her raised in secret to protect her from any danger. I am sure you all remember the former High Bishop bemoaning her presence in the temple and upon failing to learn of her true family name began groaning and complaining about a commoner blue shrine maiden in the temple disturbing his peace leading to him entrapping several nobles of Ehrenfest and one from Ahrensbach in his machinations. Rozemyne was raised humbly and was unaware of her true status, apart from being a noble, for her own safety. Despite this she has a compassionate heart and pitied those who lived in worse circumstances than herself, she cared for the children living in the orphanage and did what no one else would do by giving them food and work to live a better life. Aub’s son Sylvester was sent to personally investigate the rumours that had spread because of her and what he found there was a small girl being worshiped and honoured as a saint for her good deeds. Not to mention that the work she work she gave to the orphans is something that could become a new dutchy industry. With all of this taken into consideration it was decided that the best place for Rozemyne was to be a part of the Archducal family where she would be able to spearhead these new industries and help Ehrenfest prosper. She is now officially my successor as the next interim archduke and the new High Bishop. Please welcome Rozemyne, child of the Gods and the Saint of Ehrenfest.”

Another stir ran through the crowd as they discussed everything that had just been said. Everyone had heard the tall tales about the blue shrine maiden in the temple but very few had put any stock into them, but the brother of the archduke had just announced everything to be indeed the truth. Ehrenfest had been sent a child of the Gods and she would save their dutchy. The crowd then burst into cheers as Rozemyne was led out of the room so that the servants could prepare the area for lunch to be served. Rozemyne was given another quick meal that was eaten in haste before she was taken back out to greet the nobles.

Rozemyne was led back into the room that had now been rearranged to serve as massive dining hall and took her place on the altar to greet the various nobles. The first, and most important, group to come and greet Rozemyne was the archducal family.

“This is Lord Adelbert, the archduke, and his first wife Lady Veronica. Beside them is Lord Sylvester, the first son of Lord Adelbert, and Lord Ferdinand, the second son of Lord Adelbert.” Karstedt made the introductions as he motioned to each person in turn.

“I am Rozemyne, it is a pleasure to meet you all.”

“So, you are the reason my brother was executed.” Veronica as always ignored propriety and spoke before her husband could say anything, giving a snort at Rozemyne as she turned up her nose up like there was an unpleasant smell in the air. “You are nothing special girl and should learn place quickly before something should happen to you.”

“While it saddens me greatly that you had to lose your brother Lady Veronica, I must question the wisdom in blaming me for the deeds he committed. After all it is not like I was the one who told him to commit such crimes.” Rozemyne gave a sad smile as she looked at Veronica leaning fully into her saint persona and expressing empathy for the loss of a family member, even if that family member was Bezewanst.

“Veronica not now.” Adelbert hissed at his wife under his breath not failing to notice how the entire Linkberg clan had placed their hands on their swords at Veronica’s blatant threat. “I have heard much about you from my son young Rozemyne it is a pleasure to finally meet you as well.”

“I look forward to working with you Aub Ehrenfest as we strive to improve our dutchy.” Rozemyne had to supress a giggle when she saw Adelbert’s eyebrow twitch while he squeezed Veronica’s arm to stop her from exploding on the spot at the mention of the duchy not being solely theirs.

“Rozemyne, you are as brazen as ever. Congratulations on your baptism.” Sylvester let out a small sigh but still looked quite amused at her antics. It was becoming very clear that Sylvester had no idea what kind of terrible things his parents were doing on a daily basis and didn’t even notice when they were mentioned in front of him.

“I thank you ever so much Lord Sylvester. It is always such a treat to see you.” Rozemyne gave a small giggle as she covered her mouth, if she could blush on command, she would have done so but alas. It was important for the Aub and his wife to think she had an interest in Sylvester and wished to marry him in the future so that they would see her as a useful ally instead of a potential threat.

“Congratulations on your baptism and adoption Lady Rozemyne it is a pleasure to meet you.” Ferdinand was the last to speak as the youngest member of the family and unlike the others he didn’t make any comments about her and gave the standard greeting. He had been watching her closely the entire time though and Rozemyne could not tell what his intentions were.

“I thank you ever so much Lord Ferdinand, I look forward to getting to know you.” Rozemyne thought Ferdinand was absolutely gorgeous, his androgenous features did nothing to hide the fine man he would surely one day grow up to be. She didn’t even mind that his eyes and bearing gave off such a freezing cold aura, he was exactly her type, and she would go out of her way to pester him. It was always fun to tease the uptight ones, they gave the best reactions once you manged to get a rise out of them.

The archducal family then left so that she could continue to greet the other nobles. First up were her knights Damuel and a woman she had not seen before. The woman was introduced as Brigitte and was the same age as Damuel and was a med knight. Rozemyne was informed that these two would accompany her to the temple and beyond as underage knights normally wouldn’t be allowed to follow her out of the city. That being said there was one exception her first apprentice knight had been given blanket permission from his family to follow her wherever she might go.

“This is Lukas an arch knight from the Liesegang province. He is nine years old and has been living in the city this year to start his knight training.” Karstedt introduced Rozemyne to the boy who had just stepped forward. He was tall for his age and wore his long black, hair in a half up style with a bun on top of his head and the rest of his hair cascading down his back. His eyes were a deep rich gold, and he was wearing very pale blue clothing.

“…It’s good to see you…” Rozemyne couldn’t believe what she was seeing. It was him, her best friend from her second life. The first person who ever showed her what it was like to be loved and cared for, the first person to help her put together the pieces of herself after she had been broken beyond recognition. He was just as beautiful as he had been back then, he had the same face and still looked just as emotionless despite being a person who felt things more deeply than she ever could.

“Mm.” Lukas gave her a small gentle smile as he locked eyes with his old friend for the first time in a very long time.

“Don’t mind him Rozemyne, he doesn’t speak much.” Karstedt quickly supplied so that Rozemyne would not get offended by the lack of a greeting.

“I know father, it’s okay.” Rozemyne was smiling warmly back at Lukas simply enjoying that one sound she had heard so often in the past until one day she didn’t.

Elvira, Karstedt and Bonifatius all noticed the look that passed between them and of course assumed they were watching Bluanfa dance for these two children completely unaware of the deeper bond that existed between them.

Her three knights immediately took their stations behind Rozemyne as she continued to greet the other nobles. Group after group came up to meet her and by the end of it, she felt drained and weary.

Rozemyne was allowed to spend the next two days freely allowing her to spend more time with Bonifatius in the training grounds and playing what ever music she wanted. She also spent a lot of her time reading the new books she now had access to enjoying the smell and feel of a real book in her hands. After her two days of relative freedom, it was time to return to the temple with her guard knights. It was time for her inauguration as the High Bishop. She was led by to her new chamber by Carl, the room had been completely redecorated and didn’t even look like the same room anymore. All of the furniture and decorations had floral motifs and curling vines giving the room a fantasy princess vibe. Rooms had also been prepared for her guard knights as they would be staying in the temple with her. The boys were given plain and functional rooms while Bridgette was given a cute and colourful room.

Rozemyne was dressed into her High Bishop robes and despite the luxurious feel of the fabric and the exquisite embroidery, she felt disgust coiling in the pit of her stomach at the thought of having to wear the former High Bishops robes. She normally didn’t mind where clothes came from or what past they had but in this particular case she found it highly off-putting and couldn’t wait for her new ones to be made.

The inauguration was led by the High Priest with all of the blue priest and any grey robes who had come of age in attendance. He told them all that the pervious High Priest had been dismissed and that Rozemyne had been appointed as the new High Bishop but did not give them any details. Some of the Blue Priests would already know thanks to their families but there was no need to recount the crimes that had been committed to lead to this situation. After she was announced as the new High Bishop, she entered the chapel to meet the priests. When she was introducing herself there was only one blue priest who burst out shouting that this must be some sort of farce as Rozemyne was nothing but a commoner. Rozemyne didn’t want to waste her time explaining and was going to use her crushing to make a point when the High Priest stepped forward stopping her and explaining Rozemyne’s origins. After that the crowd settled down with a mixture of resignation and awe.

Rozemyne had to spend the rest of her day in a frenzied study session as she was piled with boards upon boards of rituals and prayers she needed to know as the new High Bishop. The next day she was due to meet with her merchant contacts and get updates on the progress of her industries and products.

When it was time for the meeting Benno gave his report on the locations he had visited while looking to set up more paper workshops and the possibility of using the local orphanages the same way they had used the one in the temple. Rozemyne immediately dismissed this idea after learning that only the capital city had a temple.

“We can’t go around uprooting people from their lives. The orphanages out in the towns follow a different set of rules and expectations to those in the temple and trying to force our way on them will only cause problems in the long run. We would be better of setting up separate workshops and hiring the workers for it.”

Everyone had listened to Rozemyne and saw the merit in her suggestion. They then they discussed how it didn’t actually matter what they did as the noble scholars involved in the project had already proven themselves to be a hinderance if not an outright hazard to the project. As long as the archduke tried to exorcize blind control over the industry it was doomed to fail.

They then moved onto the less problematic projects. Italy was well on its way to being completed and land outside the city had been bought for the Verlange Pavilion and construction was now underway. The fairy tale books were almost ready to start printing, but they were having a problem with the amount of paper that could be produced currently. The Dying guild had started to disseminate the new techniques and production was now underway albeit in a limited capacity due to lack of demand. Corina had been ecstatic to receive new clothing designs and was in the process of altering them further to fit Yurgenschmidt ideals. The carpentry guild was now producing the collapsible furniture, and it was selling well among the commoners, but no nobles had shown an interest yet. Rozemyne thought this issue could be easily solved my having her attendants carry a set for her and demonstrating the convenience of having such items while out and about. New chefs had been trained to a barely acceptable level and more training would be for the best. The Othmar company has made great strides in the production of new alcohols having now perfected distillation in addition to fermentation and was now waiting to see the results of different aging methods. The craftsmen tasked with making the new instruments were unfortunately having a harder time creating what she had requested except for the guqin as it was a simple instrument to reproduce. The two she had ordered had been completed and Rozemyne was amazed by the quality of the engravings that had been added to the body. She spoke with Gustav about how Frieda was doing, feeling guilty that she had not been able to keep her promise of visiting her frequently. Freida was having a hard time compressing her mana as Rozemyne had predicted and was currently fighting of fevers almost constantly but had reported to Gustav that she could feel her mana quantity growing.

After the meeting she called for Lukas to come and see her. She presented him with one of the guqins, the more traditional one that played notes in the bass register. His eyes opened ever so slightly with surprise as he gazed at the instrument not expecting to see one in this world. Rozemyne spent the rest of the day playing music with Lukas as the world melted away around them containing nothing but the melody of a rekindled friendship and unmatched contentment.

Soon enough it would be time for Rozemyne to return to the nobles’ quarter for the Starbind Ceremony and everyone was busy preparing for it and the upcoming opening of Italy. Rozemyne got to spend some time with her commoner family outside the temple and was full of pride as they told her all about how hard they were working to improve themselves so they could still be close with her despite her now being a noble. Gunther had been promoted, Effa was working hard to learn the new dying methods and Tuuli was immersing herself in learning to be a seamstress with Corina. Rozemyne also spent a fair amount of time in the orphanage assisting Wilma with her preparations and making sure Dirk was still doing well. There had been a whirlwind of change in the temple during the short time Rozemyne had been the High Bishop. New rules and regulations had been put in place enforcing fairness, compassion and devotion to the gods. It was not a smooth process, and more than one blue priest had to be sent up the towering staircase while the ones who obeyed had been rewarded before her new changes had been fully accepted. Rozemyne had proven to all in the temple that she was adept at using both the carrot and the stick to get people to do as they were told.

The Starbind Ceremony for the commoners in the temple was a resounding success. After the couples present had gotten over the sock of Rozemyne, a child and a member of the archducal family, being the new High Bishop things went as usual. That is until it was time for her to give her blessings, and everyone looked on in shock. As it turned out very few of those present had seen a true blessing before as the most priests and the previous High Bishop couldn’t give blessings without using a divine instrument.

With the commoners Starbind Ceremony completed it was time to head back to the nobles’ quarter. Rozemyne was not looking forward to it, the archduke had insisted she stay in his castle for the night despite her not being a part of his immediate family. She felt like something was afoot with this demand, and how could she not after having met the archducal couple. As you would expect from a castle the place was large and opulent with large, lush gardens and ornate decorations. Rozemyne was pleased to see that the archducal couple did not come to greet her. She knew it was rude for them to not come and greet her as their invited guest and that they were doing it to try and prove their superiority over her but that was not how it made her feel. To her this petty display only served to reinforce her view of them as weak, pathetic people who stepped on other people to make themselves feel bigger than they were.

Rozemyne was given new guard knights to fill in for Bridgette and Damuel as they would have to socialize this evening as unmarried adults. The twins Cornelius and Lamprecht had requested the assignment despite not yet attending the academy and a newly baptized girl who was the living embodiment of ‘the lights are on, but no one is home.’ Rozemyne found it a little odd that the knights she had been given were all children but decided not to question it, she was capable of protecting herself so there was no reason to believe other children couldn’t do the same. She was then introduced to a woman named Ottilie who would be serving as her head attendant who quickly whisked her off to bathe and dress in preparation for her stay in the castle.

After getting dressed Rozemyne was led to the dining hall to meet the archducal family and have dinner with them. Rozemyne was not thrilled about the prospect of having to eat with these people, well mostly just with Veronica, and she had made sure to bring some prepared food with her in a time stopping magic tool. She made checked and double checked that she had her anti-poison amulet on fully expecting the viper who lived in this castle to try and poison her food. She knew she was right the moment she walked into the dining hall and saw Veronica’s face. The woman was giving her a warm, happy smile! Bonifatius was attending as her adoptive father rather than as a guard knight and raced over to scoop her up into his arms as soon as she arrived, he even tried to make her sit on his lap for the meal so he could feed her. The look on his face when he had to let Rozemyne sit on her own chair was priceless but also incredibly endearing. Ferdinand greeted her politely with his usual flat expression but something in his eyes made Rozemyne think he was worried about something. Sylvester was seated directly next to her and happily chatted away as they waited for the food to be served. Rozemyne smiled when she saw the look in Adelbert’s eyes as he watched the two of them together. She could tell he had taken her bait hook, line and sinker and was trying to foster a romantic relationship between her and Sylvester, so she played her part as the innocent damsel trying to hide her obvious rafel.

When the meal was brought out Rozemyne couldn’t stop herself from visibly recoiling at the sight of it with a look of disgust on her face. Veronica had taken offence at the display and tried to insist that Rozemyne eat what was provided as a show of respect.

“While I know it is incredibly disrespectful, I cannot eat this. I wouldn’t even feel this to starving zantze.”

“Such insolence!” Veronica screeched causing Rozemyne to flinch at the sound. Nails on a chalkboard would have sounded celestial in comparison.

“Fear not Lady Veronica, I suspected this might be the case so had my chefs prepare a substitute meal in advance. Coincidentally these are dishes I plan to sell in my new restaurant once it is established.”

Veronica was no longer smiling happily opting to stare daggers at Rozemyne instead while Sylvester praised the meals he had eaten with Rozemyne during spring prayer. Fran entered the room along with some other attendants and they presented the food Rozemyne had brought with her. She had cone out of her way to provide as much variety as she could not knowing what the preferences of the archducal family were. She had prepared several different types of salads, soups, appetizers, mains, deserts and a ridiculous amount of amuse-bouche to display her superior food standards. It goes without saying that she included at least one type of excessively spicy dish in each category that she could offer to Veronica. Despite the tense atmosphere the had been hanging in the air due to her rude behaviour everyone was interested in the new foods that had been put on display. Rozemyne even had to supress a triumphant grin when she heard several stomachs growl at the now fully laden table of food. Rozemyne made sure to direct Veronica to the spicy meals and warn the others that these dishes were not for the fain of heart. Bonifatius, Ferdinand and Rozemyne all took great pleasure in watching Veronica sweat as she tried to eat the heavily spiced meals. The rest of the family happily ate what their attendants served them from the veritable buffet that had been provided and ended the meal with a look of pure bliss on their faces.

Seriously how bad is the food Veronica makes you eat normally.

The Starbind Ceremony for the nobles was completed without any problems and once again there was sock and awe when she gave her blessings to the newly married couples. Rozemyne was taken back to her room and bathed to be put into bed. She was unable to sleep that night expecting the archducal couple to pull something in the night, but nothing happened. The next she was exhausted and couldn’t focus properly on anything she tried to do and ended up being incredibly unproductive but at least she got to leave the castle and go to Bonifatius’s estate. Bonifatius hovered around her all day like a worried mother hen after seeing her exhausted state trying to convince her to go and get some rest. Rozemyne stubbornly refused knowing if she slept for a few hours during the day, she would be awake all night stuck in her room alone and she wanted to avoid that. The next day she was allowed to go back to the temple.

A couple of days later it was time to open Italy, and the first set of customers would be Rozemyne and other nobles with the investors of the establishment. Sylvester and Karstedt arrived early due to Sylvester being an over excited man-child. Karstedt had to apologize on his behalf explaining that he had done his best to hold him back as long as he could. Due to their early arrival, they ended up having tea and cookies as they waited for the departure time. Sylvester noted how Rozemyne was acting differently to how she was when they had dinner in the castle together. Rozemyne was not amused by how wilfully ignorant Sylvester was being when it came to his family and explained how she could tell his father wanted them to get married so she was playing along to save herself unnecessary grief until she could find away to put the matter to bed entirely. Sylvester initially looked confused before understanding dawned on him and his entire being radiated relief. Apparently, he had been stressing himself out thinking that Rozemyne truly held a rafel for him and he would be forced to marry her.

On their way to the restaurant Sylvester complained about the state of the lower city and the carriages asking Rozemyne if she could do anything to fix it. Rozemyne admitted that she did have plans to improve the carriages, but it would be a while before she would have the time to deal with it due to the other work she already had piling up. She also told Sylvester that fixing the lower city could easily be solved with by the dutchy spending more money on sanitation and building some sewer systems and designated areas for waste disposal along with employing people to clean the city. Sylvester had scowled at her knowing that it wouldn’t be as easy as she made it sound.

When they arrived at the restaurant a crowd started to gather due to the obscene wealth their group possessed. Rozemyne made sure to take as long as possible before the party entered Italy milking the free publicity for all it was worth. Soon the news would spread that not only did nobles eat at Italy, but the archduke’s eldest son was a customer as well. Rozemyne could practically see the river of golden coins flowing her way. They made their way into the restaurant and Rozemyne was pleased to see how it had been tastefully decorated and each table had its own small vase of flower with origami napkins available. They sat down to have their meal, and everyone enjoyed what was served. Frieda in particular was drawn to the fluffy bread as she had never seen it before. Rozemyne was happy to see that Frieda had managed to make it, as it turned out she had drained just enough of her mana to allow her to attend, and she would resume compressing her mana after she returned home. Despite being such a young child (with the mind of a child) Ferida had been putting her all into growing her mana capacity to improve her status once she was adopted as a noble.

Once the meal had been completed the discussions turned to more serious matters. Sylvester brought up the matter of the archduke wishing to expand the printing industry immediately and was pushing for new workshops to be opened as soon as possible. Rozemyne was a little confused when Sylvester requested her to draw up a blueprint for the new workshop immediately. Surely taking it didn’t need to be drawn up right at this moment, it would still take time for the building to be constructed. Rozemyne did as she was asked despite her confusion and presented the plans to Sylvester. Sylvester looked at the plans and made some minor adjustments to it before standing up and announcing that they would be building the workshop immediately. Rozemyne was extremely excited to see what Sylvester planned to do and happily mounted his high beast before they flew off.

Sylvester flew them off to the nearby town of Hasse and asked where Rozemyne wanted to build the workshop. They flew around for a while as they surveyed the area until Rozemyne spotted an ideal location with close access to a forest and a river. Sylvester landed near the location and warned everyone to stay where they were before heading off to where they intended to build the workshop. Rozemyne watched him go with an analytical eye as she studied what he was doing. Sylvester stopped and pulled out his schtappe before performing the most amazing magic Rozemyne had ever seen. In no time at all there was the skeleton of a new workshop standing before them. It still needed to have its water wheel, doors and windows put in along with tools and furniture, but it was still a whole building that had been made out of thin air from Rozemyne’s perspective. Rozemyne was fascinated by what appeared to be creation magic and was eager to learn how to do it and was almost heartbroken to hear she would only be able to learn it in her third year at the royal academy…almost.

After setting up the workshop in Hasse, Rozemyne had been taught how to raise money in noble society and she found the entire ordeal to be off-putting. It felt like taking money for nothing and it left a bad taste in her mouth. She didn’t mind taking money from people, but she didn’t like the idea of just taking it like she was some sort of charity case, she already had enough money that she could fund the start-up of the printing industry by herself, but she didn’t want to bear the financial burden by herself while sharing the profits with other parties who didn’t contribute. Rozemyne spent the next few days trying to come up with a solution to the problem of getting people to give her money without feeling like she had given nothing in return. Rozemyne eventually decided that the best course of action would be to sell things that people wanted and the hottest commodity she had at the moment that were not available to the public were her recipes and her music.

Rozemyne wated no time in selling her recipes to the archducal family, Karstedt and Bonifatius. She was delightfully surprised when a cheeky Justus approached her wanting to buy some recipes on Ferdinands behalf. She had heard from Lady Elvira about Justus and thought he might be a good choice as a potential adoptive father for Frieda but held her tongue for now as she would need to see what mana capacity Freida could achieve before her baptism. If she couldn’t make it to the level of an archnoble there would be no point in asking her family or Lord Justus and she didn’t know any suitable mednobles at this point.

Rozemyne had managed to gather enough funding to finish the Hasses workshop and half of another one by the time she was done learning how to gather donations in women’s’ society and selling her recipes but it was still not enough. She could sell music scores but some of her songs were incredibly hard to play and others were written for the instruments she had only recently introduced so almost no one knew how to play them yet and learning how to play a new instrument was not something a lot of nobles would be interested in since they were all content with simply being able to play the harspiel. That’s when it her, she could hold a concert to advertise the new instruments and her songs to a large group of people, but she would need a hook to get people to attend. Lukas who had been standing nearby listening to her muttering offered up a suggestion.

“Ask Sylvester.” Lukas never said more words than he needed to so there was no explanation given with the suggestion.

Rozemyne decide to go and talk to Elvira about it to see if the idea of a concert would even hold water in noble society. She was pleased to learn that it most likely would be a hit, at least amongst the married noble ladies who were constantly on the lookout for new entertainment. Rozemyne also found out from Elvira that Sylvester was a bit of a heart throb in the eyes of most women thanks to his passionate, single-minded pursuit of his fiancé. Apparently, since most nobles married to form alliances rather than for love Sylvester’s display of dedication toward his fiancé was seen as something of a fairytale, something every woman dreamed of but seldom achieved. Knowing that Sylvester would be happy to participate in any new or fun event Rozemyne and Elvira immediately started working on a plan to host a concert.

As Rozemyne was now officially baptised as a noble and needed to learn how to make a high beast, magic classes had been added to her studies. Emmanuel was serving as her primary instructor but Bonifatius, Morgana and Elvira would also be assisting. Today she was being taken to the training grounds by Bonifatius to learn how to make her high beast. She was taken into a large, cavernous room where she was handed a large fey stone and told to pour her mana into it. Rozemyne opened the metaphorical box that held her mana and pushed as much into the stone as she could making sure that she didn’t overfill it and destroy the stone. Bonifatius almost dance with glee when he saw how quickly the fey stone was dyed and had restrain himself from swinging Rozemyne around in joy. She was then instructed to place the stone on the ground while trying to maintain the connection while making it grow. Rozemyne didn’t have any issue with this and soon enough the fey stone was the size of boulder, and she was told to stop growing it. The next step in the process was to practice changing the shape of they fey stone. Rozemyne was told to make several shapes and eventually she started to make shapes of her own. By the end of the day, she had managed to turn the fey stone into animals and mystical creatures from her first life relishing in the discovery that she could turn the fey stone into anything she could think of. She tool particular joy in making something similar to power armour or iron man’s suit making Bonifatius’s eyes bulge with incredulity. After that her training was put on hold as Bonifatius made her teach him how to do it as well.

Before Rozemyne could have another practical magic lesson, she needed to give all her attention and effort into making her charity concert a success. To that end she decided to work on improving her wax stencils so that she could print pictures and music scores to sell and increase the amount of funds earned. To that end she needed to borrow Lutz to work in the workshop and grow sprout some more trombe to make the trombe paper they would be using to make the thin paper to make the stencils. Once enough trombe wood had been gathered she found herself with some rare free time and made her way to the book room. As the High Bishop she now had access to the books that were locked away in the cabinet that only the High Bishop could open. What she found there was a pleasant and also revolting discovery, the books in the cabinet were not books at all but a well disguised container. Rozemyne looked down at the letters in the box with conflicted emotions, on one hand she really wanted to read these letters and on the other hand she was concerned about what she would find in them. After a while of internal conflict and weighing the pros and cons of reading them she eventually decided that she would read them before disposing of them. Rozemyne was amazed by what she read in the letters, they seemed to be love letters and they told an intriguing story of a girl who worked hard as the successor of a family only to be cast out and married off to another dutchy when a son was born. Rozemyne was amazed to see how kind and caring Bezewanst was to this mystery woman, and it made him seem almost human. Rozemyne decided she would not destroy these letters just yet and put them back where they came from. She was considering looking for a writer to turn these letters into an original novel that she could print and sell.

The next day Rozemyne was due to meet Johan and speak to him about the possibility of him making a waxing machine for her. With a waxing machine she would be able to improve the stencils used for printing pictures and music scores even more. When Johan arrived, he had brought along another smith who seemed to have a one-sided rivalry going with Johan. They discussed what a waxing machine was and what it would be used for and Rozemyne provided sketch of what the machine needed to look like. Unfortunately, she had no idea how the machine was made and therefore could not provide an actual blueprint for it. Johan looked frustrated when presented with the task but quickly resolved to face the challenge head on, Zack however looked like he had stars in his eyes at the prospect of the challenge. While she waited for them to complete their tasks Rozemyne worked on selecting songs for the concert and start printing the programs along with the music scores.

It didn’t take long for Johan and Zack to complete the task of designing blueprints for the waxing machine. Zack produced the superior blueprints that would make the best machine however he did not have the skill to make it. Johan however was the one who now had stars in his eyes at the prospect of making such a technical machine. Rozemyne had to step in to prevent Zack from causing an issue out of jealousy and noted how she would have to encourage this incredible duo to work together. With Zack’s creativity and Johans precision she would be able to make anything she wanted.

Finally, it was time for Rozemyne to attend her next practical magic class and complete her high beast. She started by practicing changing the shape once again and then she had to decide on what type of high beast she wanted. She considered what she wanted and the first thing that came to mind was an alicorn but dismissed the thought as being too common and predictable. She considered what other types of animals she could make when a tough struck her, she just needed to make something that she could ride and could fly. Rozemyne considered her options, she wanted to use the power armour she had made but she considered that a more versatile shape might be a better choice. Rozemyne decides that there was no reason for her to settle on one type of high beat, she could make both and just use whichever one suited the situation she was in. Since she already knew how to make the armour version, she decided to practice making something based off of cat-bus except she would use a different animal. She considered using the lion as it was animal associated with Ehrenfest and the wolf as it was the animal associated with her family but neither of them really seemed to call out to her. Eventually after a painfully long deliberation period she decide to make something based on the eastern dragon, it was easy enough to visualise thanks to the dragon dances she had seen before in combination with the template shape of cat-bus and thus Falkor was created.

Soon enough it was time for the charity concert to take place. It was held in the largest garden attached to Karstedt’s estate. The venue was decorated with swaths of fabric, knitted flowers and scented candles. Rozemyne opened the concert with a speech about the printing industry and the purpose of the concert. Programs went on sale so that the attendees could see the benefits of printing and also see what songs were going to be played. Sylvester was the harspiel player, Lukas was playing his guqin and Rozemyne would be playing the violin. They would all perform solo as well as with each other. The concert was a resounding success and Rozemyne sold all of her merchandise before the attendees left. They made an obscene amount of money that day and would not need to do anymore fundraising for quite some time to come.