Private Tutor to the Duke’s Daughter: Volume 18 (eBook)

Riku Nanano (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2025
250 Seiten
J-Novel Club (Verlag)
978-1-7183-8632-7 (ISBN)

Infos

As the dust settles over the imperial capital, Allen gains new insight into the life of Rosa Howard, the murdered mother of his first pupil. A hard-won clue sends the young tutor and his allies back to the northlands where their story began, in search of the elusive Shiki archive. The ancient knowledge it contains could finally put them a step ahead of the church. But to claim it, they'll have to succeed where centuries of searchers have failed, and time is running out. Even the bookish Felicia leaves her desk to join the search party, bearing a message that not even she understands. Her business acumen might not amount to much in the wilderness, but her determination to help her friends-and her crush-is second to none. Yet as a grave threat looms, she finds herself wishing that she too could fight alongside everyone...

Textauszug

Prologue

“Then the report was true?! The kingdom’s forces dealt the Knights of the Holy Spirit a crushing defeat on the Lacan Plain?!”

“Preposterous! Do you mean to say they initiated hostilities, disregarding not only our counsel but Her Holiness’s call for restraint? What could justify such folly?”

“And what has it gotten them? The kingdom’s raiders have struck nearly up to the walls of their holy keep!”

“Apostle Edith, Commander Dale the Dauntless sends his apologies, written in blood, along with his request for permission to fight a decisive battle. How shall we respond?”

A clamor of voices filled the austere chapel at the sacred heart of the pontiff’s domain, east of the Wainwright Kingdom—the seat of the Church of the Holy Spirit’s ultimate authority. Moonlight filtered through the stained glass window before which I, the least of the apostles, knelt in prayer. I rose silently and let a moment pass before answering the group that had once persecuted me for my half-demon, half-wolf ancestry.

“Do not panic. Remember where we are.” I carefully adjusted the hooded robe of pristine white that Her Holiness had granted me and turned around. My sleeves’ crimson trim brushed past the corner of my eye.

The faithful could not keep the alarm from their faces.

Is this any way for Her Holiness’s messengers to act? Have they no shame?!

“This defeat pales into insignificance in the grand scheme of things,” I said, sweeping my hand in a bold gesture. “The knights retain the bulk of their best fighters, and the holy keep stands strong. We have achieved our major objectives in the Wainwright Kingdom, in the League of Principalities, and just recently in Lalannoy. Yet at the same time, if by some remote chance, word of this matter should reach the ears of Her Holiness...” My beast ears stiffened under my hood. I stood straighter in spite of myself, recalling the Saint’s august words.

“Help me to fully restore the great spell Resurrection and make a world where no children cry.”

Forgive me, Your Holiness. Your humble servant will do her duty. And what duty could take precedence over protecting your sacred person?

“In her infinite mercy,” I continued calmly, left hand on my heart, “she will doubtless return to the Knightdom of the Holy Spirit to tend to the wounded. That would mean a defeat for us. What we need now is reliable intelligence. Go.”

“Yes, Apostle.” The faithful bowed low and left the chapel as one.

I remained, as did an old man clutching an antique crosier. Sumptuous robes swathed the wizened body of Pontiff Theobald III, and a slim circlet of gold crowned his gray hair. News of the unforeseen defeat seemed to lie heavily on him.

“‘The enemy vanguard reached the first gate, yet morale among our knights soars high as the heavens,’” he quoted, worry pooling in his eyes. “‘Though shame tests our endurance, we beg the guidance of the most holy church.’ It sounds as though Dale can barely restrain those calling for another battle.”

“This is merely reconnaissance in force. No doubt the knight commander knows that as well as we do. But many of his knights remain ignorant of the battlefield—and the dangers of challenging kingdom forces led by Howard the ‘god of war.’” I spat the last words and made for the door. The tap of a crosier on the stone floor trailed after me.

Damn! How could the knights on the front have slipped their leashes?

Leaving mass-produced spell-soldiers to guard against the kingdom’s elite forces had backfired, I supposed. How I longed to go purge the fools who had flouted Her Holiness’s command that very instant, but circumstances denied me the pleasure. The greater apostles had scattered to the four winds, pursuing their own missions in utmost secrecy, while two lesser apostles had gone rogue in Lalannoy. That left no one else to guard Her Holiness.

How could Ibush-nur and Ifur turn apostate? I still can’t believe it.

“Even the mighty Wainwright Kingdom can only muster so much military power,” I told the old pontiff without turning to look at him. “They’ve already committed troops to the empire, the league, and Lalannoy. They won’t seek a decisive battle with the Knights of the Holy Spirit.”

“I fully concur,” he said, “but news of the defeat will spread through the eastern nations. As will the apostles’ defection, in time, although we still know little enough of that ourselves. May I suggest that we take steps to stiffen their resolve before it does?”

The east had no large nations, excluding the Knightdom of the Holy Spirit, but its people had long revered the church and its teachings. If the kingdom sniffed out what had happened with Ifur and Ibush-nur, they would inevitably start maneuvering to undermine that faith in secret, forcing us to perform more damage control in their wake.

I nodded at Theobald over my shoulder. “I leave that to your discretion. Let us both strive to ensure Her Holiness’s peace of mind.”

“I thank you for showing such faith in my old bones.”

With that, the ostensible head of the church bowed and hurried from the chapel.

Oh, the irony.

The demonfolk and beastfolk blood in my veins made me no better than trash in the world he had always believed in. His heart might give out if he ever saw the horns and ears beneath my hood. I pictured the scene to distract myself as I gazed from the dim light of the mana lamps on the stone walls to the twinkling stars outside. How was I to tell her whom I served of the knights’ defeat and the apostles’ defection? Days had passed, and I felt no nearer an answer.

“Oh, I wouldn’t report to the Saint now if I were you.” A flippant voice cut into my reflections. “You’ll walk into a whole heap of trouble. The prime apostle’s dragged himself back from the empire, and he’s in a foul mood.”

A shock rattled my nerves. I had been alone in the chapel. I knew I had been alone. Yet the mana emanating from behind me seemed so potent it must have covered the whole church complex. How had it not tripped even one of my wards? It was like a bad joke. The former fourth apostle—the elder vampire Idris, who had died fighting Heaven’s Sword and Heaven’s Sage in Lalannoy—had been a freak in his own right, but his replacement was beyond the pale.

And how dare he refer to Her Holiness with so little respect?!

I turned, ignoring the new apostle I had just detected in the upper reaches of the great bell tower. On a bench wrought by the House of Shiki—a relic predating the age of strife, on which only the reigning pontiff had a right to sit—rested a white-haired, crimson-eyed young man with his legs crossed. The dhampir’s white robe matched mine except for the color of its trim. He also wore a single-edged dagger at his side.

“Fourth Apostle Zelbert Régnier,” I said.

“That’s Isolde outside,” he noted, wiping his spectacles with a scrap of cloth. “A real firecracker. Her father’s Yz—formerly Miles Talito, the Heaven and Earth Party leader who invited the church into Lalannoy in the first place. She’s adopted, though. They’re our new numbers five and six, respectively. Yz rushed off to see the prime apostle downstairs, but the girl and I are on standby here for the moment. I hear some ‘rats’ are poking their noses into the pontiff’s domain, and we’re the ratcatchers. Anyway, I know we outrank you on the battlefield, but you’ve been around places like this longer than we have. Give us any odd jobs you see fit.”

I held my tongue. He had headed off my questions and left me with more. I still didn’t even know what the prime apostle and his party had been doing in the Yustinian capital. Did their return—news to me—have something to do with the departure of Her Holiness’s loyal guard Viola and Third Apostle Levi? And what “rats” were we meant to catch? I had so much to ask. But first...

“Tell me one thing, Régnier.”

“Apostle Ifur—or former Marchese Fossi Folonto, if you prefer—was leaking information,” the dhampir interrupted me, pausing to breathe on his spectacles. “I guess that ex-earl from the east of the kingdom had been investigating on the sly. Rupert, I think his name was. Pretty quick on his feet for a guy with all that blubber.”

I couldn’t recall the corpulent man’s face on the spur of the moment, but he had struck me as typical ex-aristocratic scum. I would never have pegged such a nobody as a secret investigator.

“And Ibush-nur—Raymond Despenser—was an apostate as well?” I pressed.

There was a long pause. Then...

“Yeah.” Régnier put his spectacles back on and gazed up at the ceiling. His hand reached for The Advent of the Holy Spirit, a masterpiece of stained glass that caught the feeble glow of the mana lamps. “He flew at me and Isolde out of nowhere when we had Ifur dead to rights. We told him we’d spare his life if he came quietly, but he fought to the bitter end anyway. The bodies ended up blasted to bits, and we still don’t know who they were passing info to. They both did their jobs in Lalannoy so well that I never suspected a thing.”

My own reaction gave me pause. I had known Ibush-nur—or at least known of him—since before Her...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 20.11.2025
• Reihe/Serie: Private Tutor to the Duke’s Daughter
• Illustrationen: Cura
• Übersetzer: William Varteresian
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Romane / Erzählungen
• Schlagworte: Academy • action • aristocrats • Comedy • Harem • Light Novel • Magic
• ISBN-10: 1-7183-8632-X / 171838632X
• ISBN-13: 978-1-7183-8632-7 / 9781718386327