Ascendance of a Bookworm: Hannelore's Fifth Year at the Royal Academy Volume 1 (eBook)

Miya Kazuki (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2025
250 Seiten
J-Novel Club (Verlag)
978-1-7183-5973-4 (ISBN)

Infos

Half a year has passed since Yurgenschmidt inaugurated its first underage aub. Hannelore, now an archduke candidate for the country's top-ranked duchy, is in the midst of a crisis. Despite her natural indecisiveness, she finds herself pressed to choose from a growing list of marriage candidates. Her father suggests Kenntrips and Rasantark-her childhood friends-but then her half-brother Raufereg throws his hat into the ring. And what about Wilfried, the apple of her eye? Convinced that Liebeskhilfe the Goddess of Binding is toying with the threads of her fate, Hannelore turns to her dear friend Rozemyne for guidance.

In the debut volume of this battle fantasy, the divine avatar fights to settle an engagement! Features two original short stories and four-panel manga by You Shiina.

Textauszug

Prologue

Toward the end of autumn, the merchants visiting Dunkelfelger for trade started returning to their own duchies, while the nobles of the castle began preparing for the weeks to come. Knights went on expeditions to the northern barrier, where they hunted feybeasts intent on sneaking into the duchy for the winter, and scholars informed the dormitory supervisor of new students, collected information from Sovereign nobles visiting home, and scheduled meetings with the aub and giebes over winter. Attendants, meanwhile, prepared to welcome nobles for winter socializing, brought cleaning magic tools to the Royal Academy’s dormitory, and checked the furniture there for any issues.

Cordula, head attendant of the archduke candidate Hannelore, was making her way down a busy hallway inside the castle. She had received a summons from Sieglinde, the archduke’s first wife, requesting that she head to the noblewoman’s chambers.

Lady Sieglinde would normally be in her office around now. What must have happened for her to summon me to her chambers instead?

It must have been important, but Cordula kept her uncertainty from seeping through as she passed into the castle’s restricted area, where the archducal living quarters were situated.

“Lady Sieglinde, it is I, Cordula,” she announced upon her arrival.

It was not particularly rare for a mother to summon her daughter’s head attendant for a report. On top of that, Cordula had previously served as Sieglinde’s attendant, and she had spent plenty of time educating Hannelore, so she knew the chambers reasonably well.

“Yes, come in,” Sieglinde answered. “Please take a seat. This might take a while.”

Cordula did as instructed, albeit with some hesitation. Being summoned was not particularly rare, but being told to sit was. She took a few deep breaths to steady her nerves while waiting for Sieglinde to speak.

“We have decided to select marriage candidates for Hannelore,” Sieglinde announced at last.

Cordula inhaled sharply. In her third year at the Royal Academy, in the heat of a ditter match, Hannelore had taken Lord Wilfried of Ehrenfest by the hand and abandoned her team’s base despite being its treasure. She had, at that moment, resolved to marry into Ehrenfest.

However, during the Interduchy Tournament that followed, Ehrenfest had stated that they wanted only an end to the ditter challenges being thrust upon them. They had no interest in taking a bride from Dunkelfelger, as they lacked the means to accommodate a greater duchy’s archduke candidate, and thereby rejected Hannelore’s proposal.

The two parties’ negotiations had been anything but normal, but nothing changed the fact that Ehrenfest had won the ditter match. Dunkelfelger had needed to accept the refusal, and Hannelore had proposed that they could start by taking a step back and working out what would be of actual value to Ehrenfest.

“Did we not tacitly accept that milady would focus on looking into what Ehrenfest truly wants?” Cordula asked.

There were many reasons Hannelore’s parents had elected to leave her to her own devices despite Ehrenfest’s rejection. First, society looked harshly upon archduke candidates who brought defeat upon their home duchy. Second, it had been Lestilaut, not Wilfried or Rozemyne, who initiated the ditter match at the heart of the matter. Third, they wished to acknowledge Hannelore’s decision to work on fixing their relationship with Ehrenfest. And fourth, they believed that Dunkelfelger had much to gain from being on good terms with Ehrenfest, especially considering Rozemyne’s increasing closeness with the royal family.

“Indeed, that was the case.” Sieglinde sighed. “But not anymore.” Plenty had occurred over the past year. Most notably, Hannelore had led knights into the war between Old Ahrensbach and Ehrenfest, securing the latter’s victory.

“I thought the plan was to wait and see the general opinion now that Hannelore has made up for her shame,” Cordula said, her brow furrowed. “Has the situation changed yet again?”

Sieglinde pressed a hand to her forehead. “The problem is that Hannelore absolutely refuses to bend. Cordula, has she said much about Ehrenfest of late? Have there been any exchanges of letters or gifts?”

“No, my lady. Nothing of note has transpired.” Anything sent to Hannelore would have gone through all sorts of checks before reaching her, and if she had met with someone from Ehrenfest, Cordula would have reported it at once.

Sieglinde let out another, heavier sigh. “I see. What in the world is that girl thinking?”

Dunkelfelger had no way of probing into the status of Hannelore’s potential engagement—not when Ehrenfest had ordered them to “be silent as losers should be.” The most they could do was demonstrate Hannelore’s value. If that turned out not to be enough for Lord Wilfried to accept her, then there was nothing else to be done.

“Ehrenfest did not speak about Hannelore during the Archduke Conference, nor did they have any of their merchants bring her letters or presents,” Cordula stressed.

“And now that the merchants have returned home, we have no reason to expect any contact.”

Cordula nodded. The only conclusion they could draw was that Ehrenfest had no intention of ever welcoming Hannelore.

“How unfortunate,” Sieglinde mused. “I was hoping we could speak about our worth to Ehrenfest and what it might mean for us, but that no longer seems to be in the cards...” Hannelore continually defended Ehrenfest, insisting that she did not want to bother them further and that Lord Wilfried was “a kind soul,” but she refused to think about her own future or answer any questions about it.

“Your intentions completely escape her, Lady Sieglinde. Milady is so afraid of being scolded that she tends to close her ears and stubbornly refuse to take notice.”

Ehrenfest did not share their opponents’ reverence of bride-stealing ditter, so they had simply overturned whatever customs would inconvenience them. Many in Dunkelfelger had seen that as deceitful, asserting that the rules were in place for a reason and that their actions constituted trickery. As a result, Hannelore had begun repeating her defense of Ehrenfest almost on instinct whenever the subject came up, making it almost impossible to communicate with her.

“Given the circumstances, I would say that I have been more than patient enough,” Sieglinde proclaimed. “Hannelore has spoken with Ehrenfest and Lady Rozemyne personally, has she not?”

Hannelore had answered Rozemyne’s call to battle, played a key role in securing her victory, and then accepted an invitation to Ehrenfest’s celebrations. She had exchanged promises with Rozemyne and received a special invite to both the transference ceremony and her inauguration during the Archduke Conference.

“And yet, Hannelore said nothing of the good she can do for Ehrenfest. Strange, is it not? I am starting to question why I was even told of her invitation—and why I approved it.”

Hannelore was valuable to Ehrenfest—they had made that much clear when they invited her to their celebration. Rozemyne’s obtaining the Grutrissheit meant that Ehrenfest’s nobles had expected her to go to the Sovereignty, so her engagement to Lord Wilfried had secretly been canceled. There would have been no better opportunity for Hannelore to bring up marrying into the duchy.

“If she had the time to petition Ehrenfest’s archducal couple to let Lady Rozemyne and Lord Ferdinand marry, then she had time to at least broach the subject of her own engagement,” Sieglinde opined. “Why did she not ask Lady Rozemyne to support her marrying Lord Wilfried? Instead, she merely accepted the offer of a hairpin. What a wasted opportunity.”

Cordula understood Sieglinde’s frustration all too well. Her head had started to spin when she first received Hannelore’s report.

“Hannelore had nobody to advise her on what to say to Ehrenfest’s archducal couple,” Cordula said. “We neglected to send any attendants or scholars with her, for Lady Rozemyne had said their true ditter would be concluded in a matter of two bells.”

Hannelore had gone into battle in a position that would have allowed Dunkelfelger to sever ties with her if necessary. It would have been ideal to at least assign other retainers to her for the celebration, but Ehrenfest was much farther away than the castle of Old Ahrensbach; they had not stood a chance of keeping up with Hannelore’s group using the teleportation circles they had access to.

“If only we could have reunited her with her retainers when we learned of her trip to Ehrenfest, where the knights were going to finish venting their enthusiasm...”

Because that news had coincided with reports of their knights draining the region’s food and alcohol stocks, they had hesitated to add more noncombatants to the mix. More than that, though, they had not wanted to send more personnel while Rozemyne was unconscious following her theft of Old Ahrensbach’s foundation.

“We could not have predicted that Hannelore would be invited to a celebration immediately after the fighting,” Cordula said. “Furthermore, we did not expect the knights we sent with her to provide no assistance whatsoever.”

The knights who had joined Hannelore for the celebration had gone straight to the castle’s...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 23.5.2025
• Reihe/Serie: Ascendance of a Bookworm: Hannelore’s Fifth Year at the Royal Academy
• Illustrationen: Miya Kazuki
• Übersetzer: Miya Kazuki
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Fantasy / Science Fiction ► Fantasy
• Schlagworte: battle junkie • cute • Fantasy • Isekai • Light Novel • Medieval • Romance
• ISBN-10: 1-7183-5973-X / 171835973X
• ISBN-13: 978-1-7183-5973-4 / 9781718359734