Woah, what? Blau getting tired so quickly back when we used to play together was because of me, not because she was weak? Huh.
“Learn to control yourself better this time. If I understand Ferdinand’s reports correctly, Rozemyne is a lot weaker than that shumil.”
“Weaker than Blau? I’ll believe it when I see it.”
Seriously, I’m blown away here. I thought Blau ran away from me because, as a feybeast, she understood my true might, but really she was just scared for her life. I can’t believe it.
“...I’m sure Rozemyne’s already forgiven me for all that teasing. I just saved her life, after all.”
“You were messing with her as hard as you could to see how much patience she had with strangers, right? Well, she wasn’t amused by that. And you just ripped her apart from her family, remember?”
“Ngh...” I held my tongue, having noticed Ferdinand’s attendant pushing a serving cart carrying drinks this way. The cups made a light clink as he lined them up on the table, and I shook my head in disappointment.
I’ve never seen a more boring guy in my life.
All of Ferdinand’s attendants were men, and probably thanks to how strictly he trained them, they always blandly did their work in the most efficient way possible. They were skilled at their jobs, but there was nothing fun or interesting about them at all.
“Ferdinand, how about you get a shrine maiden as an attendant for a change?”
“I have no need for women attempting to seduce me for status, and a single woman would be out of place and make it harder for everyone else to work.” Ferdinand immediately shot my idea down, pretty much saying that he didn’t need a spark in his life at all.
“Arno, clear the room. Don’t let anyone near.”
“As you wish.”
The arrival of the outsider noble, the imprisonment of the High Bishop, and Rozemyne’s name change and adoption had all happened so abruptly; we would need time to discuss things before he informed her attendants and the other priests.
Once the presence of people outside the door faded, Ferdinand let out a slow sigh. “And so, our plan worked. We’ve accomplished our goals.”
“...Yep.”
We’d secured Myne, who had refused to sign with a noble and tried running away for as long as she possibly could; secured just cause to execute the High Bishop, who had been breaking the law in increasingly visible ways; put Mother, who was protecting the High Bishop, under house arrest; and taken into custody a noble with connections to the High Bishop, which would serve as a powerful trump card against the archduke of Ahrensbach. All in all, the events of today would no doubt serve to quiet the faction of nobles supporting Mother over me.
“Not too shabby. I’ve got a real bad taste in my mouth, though.” If you ignored how awful it felt to purposefully lead my mother into a trap and then rip apart a happy family, then sure, today was a pretty good day.
“Don’t be so hard on yourself, Sylvester. This was the best possible outcome.”
“The end doesn’t always justify the means, y’know?” Whenever something happened that led to me getting called black-hearted or cold and calculating, you could bet that Ferdinand’s plots were to blame. Most of the time, anyway.
“I have no love for Bezewanst or your mother,” Ferdinand said, wrinkling his nose dismissively. They were family to me, but to Ferdinand, they were just obstacles. I knew that, but it still hurt to hear him say it to my face.
“What about Rozemyne, then? You don’t feel anything about erasing Myne from existence and turning her into Rozemyne?”
“...I think this is the fastest and most efficient means of giving her a brighter future.”
So he said, but his expression was a little more concerned than it had been a moment ago. The warmth and love in Myne’s family was unthinkable among nobles, who prioritized glory and the continuation of their house above all else. Even Ferdinand felt some guilt over ripping apart a family that sincerely cared for each other.
“She will be emotionally unstable for some time, I believe,” Ferdinand said with a troubled grimace. He had said that even just staying in the temple over the winter had led to her being so unstable that he could see her mana stirring, which meant he’d had to keep his eyes on her at almost all times. It was rare for the emotionally distant Ferdinand to be so considerate of others; maybe having Rozemyne around would be good for the man obsessed with results over everything else.
“I’ll leave comforting Rozemyne in these trying times to you two. I can’t get involved here.”
“Sylvester?”
“I am Aub Ehrenfest. Just as I do not spoil my true son, I cannot spoil my adopted daughter.”
Spoiling Rozemyne will just make me want to start spoiling my own son, who will one day have to bear the heavy burdens I carry now. But I’m told that I mustn’t pamper the future archduke so often that it’s exhausting. Unlike Ferdinand, I’m not so great at cutting off my feelings and acting rationally. There’s so much I can’t do thanks to the position of archduke binding me.
“Clumsy as ever, I see,” Karstedt said with a wry smile. It would have been better for a cold and calculating man like Ferdinand to be the archduke.
Yet another day where I curse that Ferdinand was born to a mistress instead of the first wife.
“More importantly though, is Rozemyne alright? She called on the Father, Mother, and Eternal Five all at once—that’d be enough to knock out even a healthy person. Are we sure she’s not dead?” Karstedt asked, glancing at the door.
I crossed my arms and followed his gaze. One didn’t normally pray to multiple gods at once; it required more mana, and the chances of success dropped hard, especially since the God of
