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Given how things were, Ferdinand expected things to be way worse.
Sure, they could be better. Not being dragged to Rozemyne's crazy adventures would have been a much more desired outcome. But it seemed that the Eternal Five themselves were trying to keep that from happening.
The Saintess of Frenbeltag was undoubtedly an interesting case. One that was more annoying to solve than it had any merit.
In all fairness, however, Ferdinand should have known to run away, when she'd first spoken to him. The girl was nothing but trouble and a constant sludge of headaches. Given the chance to turn back time, he would stop himself from even reaching out for that stupid book.
But, as things are never that easy when they had both reached out for the same book, Ferdinand did not want to give it up.
"Were you interested in this book, Lady Rozemyne?" he asked, politely, hoping it would incline the young-looking girl to give up the book.
"Yes, how troublesome," she replied, gently cocking her head to the side. "I would hate to deprive someone who wants to read such a marvellous book of the pleasure it brings..."
Ferdinand smiled, an attempt to charm the woman into giving up the book. He desperately needed it for the newest research he was doing on a magical circle. From what he'd heard, she wasn't particularly interested in said topic - much more aligned to temple customs than science - so he was certain to get his way.
However, that was the first instance the girl took him by surprise.
"How about we read it together?" she asked with a wide, happy look on her face.
"Lady Rozemyne!" her attendant quickly chastised. Ferdinand would consider it uncouth for an attendant, of all people, to be the one to so harshly criticize her own lady. But given the undoubtedly strange suggestion Lady Rozemyne had just made...
Well, he could understand the reaction.
"Did I say something wrong?" she asked. From the looks of it, she was completely unaware of her own misstep.
"It'd be preposterous for two archduke candidates to share a book," her attendant explained. "Usually, laynobles would transcribe whatever their Lord or Lady needs".
In fact, Ferdinand wanted to add, that no archduke candidate would even be reading in the library. The only reason Ferdinand had such liberties was the unwillingness of any attendant to properly serve him, thanks to Veronica. But Lady Rozemyne, on the other hand, seemed to have perfectly capable attendants who would be much less bothered to run this errand.
Such a basic concept, yet it seemed to fly right over the girl's head.
"But this is the only book that I need to complete this section of the library!" she exclaimed. She seemed very unwilling to relent the book. It was more of a headache than Ferdinand originally thought.
"We could not possibly bother Lord Ferdinand this way, Lady Rozemyne-"
"But Lord Ferdinand is from Ehrenfest, isn't he?" another one of her attendants interjected. "It would be even more inappropriate for our dear Saintess to relinquish her book to someone of his status".
"I will not be using my title to steal books from others, Grisselda," Lady Rozemyne said. "Only a villainess would do such a thing".
What a headache, Ferdinand thought, as all three girls tried to decide who would be using the book.
"We shall share the book," Ferdinand said, finally.
Her attendants were, obviously, quite alarmed. Lady Grisselda looked particularly displeased, but upon seeing her Lady's smile, she relented.
"Really? Thank you, Lord Ferdinand!" Lady Rozemyne exclaimed.
"I just need to read a section on the properties of the Light Element," Ferdinand said casually. "It's in the second chapter, so you can tell me when you reach it and I'll look at it".
"Sure-"
"I strongly advise you to read along with my Lady, Lord Ferdinand," the first attendant said. "She has the unfortunate tendency of getting lost in her reading, she would finish the book before even considering telling you she's reached the second chapter".
"That's so mean, Lucielle..."
"May I remind you how many times you've claimed you'll only 'this one chapter' and then you'd eat, Lady Rozemyne?"
"Ugh..."
Ferdinand found it more of a hassle to deal with such a thing. But given his need to finish his project soon, he'd decided to comply with what Lady Rozemyne's attendants said.
He sat next to Rozemyne. Her small hands looked even tinier next to the gigantic volume she was holding. For a second, he wondered if he should be the one to flip the pages, but he figured it was better not to. The language of the book was quite complex, so she might struggle to read it. Besides, Ferdinand already knew most of the contents of it, either way.
It came quite a surprise when Rozemyne easily read through the pages, almost at the same pace as Ferdinand. For a second, he wondered if she was just pretending to read, to try and impress an older student into thinking she was more advanced than her looks suggested.
When they reached the second chapter, he stopped her. He needed to write down some of the things in the book. He wasn't going to stick around much longer, but Lady Rozemyne said something quite curious.
"Huh, if the Darkness element can suck out mana, I wonder if it would be useful to dry out tree fibres...".
That was. A weird comment.
"Sounds inefficient, if you intend to simply 'dry' it. On itself, it would require mana, and it would essentially kill it. More than drying, it would be destroying it".
"I see, then it would have to be another element"
"If it's drying, I suggest simply enhancing it with the Fire element, after all, it would substitute the heat required for it".
"Oh! You're right!"
"Although, I would find it a waste of mana," he simply said.
"You're right...Uhm, well, if it's a waste of mana, shouldn't we use low-level feystones? Even commoners can catch those"
"You'd need a magic circle for enhancing them, I supposed," Ferdinand said, now deep in thought.
Rozemyne let out a huge sigh, which caught Ferdinand off guard.
"I wish I knew how to make magic circles already".
That, in particular, caught Ferdinand's eye.
"You don't know how to use them, despite your familiarity with elements?"
"I got taught the basics back in Frenbeltag, along with the archduke’s biological children," Rozemyne replied. "Everything I've learned beyond that has been through the books in the castle".
Ferdinand looked at her. Really looked at her, for the very first time.
Rozemyne was a first-year student, while he was already a third year. Her short stature made her look even younger than she was, but that was not the point. This girl was more than capable of learning such complicated material through simply reading. The fact that Frenbeltag hadn't utilized her yet, was quite surprising.
"Are you familiar with them, Lord Ferdinand?" Lady Rozemyne asked.
"I am," he replied, although it was an understatement.
"Could you help me?" Lady Rozemyne said, suddenly very excited. "I am trying to create some plant-based paper, but I haven't been able to do any. I want to make it so that even commoners can make it!"
"That's not feasible," Ferdinand quickly shot her down. "Parchment is made out of animal skin".
"That's what everyone tells me, but that makes them just too expensive," she complained. "Even Frenbeltag cannot afford as many books as I wish there were. The Royal Academy is the only place where so many books can be accessed!"
Oh . Ferdinand quickly realized. This girl is a weirdo.
Still. A plant-based parchment?
Before he could continue, the bell that signalled their return to class rang. He got up from the table, finally having his materials ready for his projects.
"I hope you find success, Lady Rozemyne," he said and left.
He thought that would be the end of that strange interaction.
But, oh, how wrong was he…
It became immediately apparent, that the Saintess of Frenebeltag had taken a liking to Lord Ferdinand.
Everyone could see them stuck to the hip, constantly muttering to each other different things.
It had all started when, during a potions class, the Saintess had changed an ingredient out, making her potion extremely effective. Lord Ferdinand approached her, asking just how did she come up with such a concept.
"It was in a book, I think," she explained. "It said that this particular potion needed something to make you alert, right? Well, the kaffee plant has similar properties, doesn’t it? I just thought mixing them wouldn't do much of a difference”
“How could you know that? It’s not a common plant, it only grows in certain duchies”
“Huh? It does?”
And so, they would argue day after day on the nature of potions, and magic circles.
“That would not work”
“Well, it worked for me, didn’t it?”
“It doesn’t make sense”
Ferdinand was at his wit's end. Lady Rozemyne had the ability to think up solutions to problems in the most unconventional ways possible. Most people argued that it was simply her temple upbringing. Ferdinand begged to differ - it was clear that she had a framework so completely out of sync with what any noble could conceive, that it bordered on the insane.
But it wasn’t until she came forth with the idea of embroidering her cape with ink rather than thread, that Ferdinand finally had enough, and forced her to come to the laboratory to properly understand her, quite frankly, absurd idea.
Hirschurl was perhaps, the first one to voice her surprise.
“I hadn’t expected you to bring someone else here,” she commented.
“Regrettably, Lady Rozemyne has valuable insight,” Ferdinand answered. “And she lacks the knowledge to implement it”.
“Hard to imagine that Frenbeltag’s archduke candidate would come to Ehrenfest laboratory.”
“It wasn’t difficult to convince her,” Ferdinand said “I just had to offer to lend her one of my research papers so she could read them”.
“Ohh? You offered to lend someone your research?” Hirschurl asked, clearly amused.
“A small price to pay,” he replied. “She has one of the most strange ideas I’ve heard, and she might just be able to pull it off”.
He should have known that was the beginning of the end. Because of course, of course, Lady Rozemyne would be the only one to actually pull off the magic ink cloth, and not only that but also drag him along it.
He was sure he would lose years of his life worrying over what the little gremlin was planning.
“From now on, if you have any new idea, run it with me first,” he said in a very harsh tone.
For a moment he thought such a fragile-looking girl might be bothered by it. But, much to his surprise (he should really stop being surprised though, Lady Rozemyne’s everything was an anomaly) she just nodded, looking very guilty.
At least, it seemed like she knew how much of a problem she was to deal with.
He didn’t want to, but it got to the point that Lady Rozemyne’s retainers would come to him whenever their lady got in trouble.
“Lord Ferdinand, Lady Rozemyne got invited to a tea party with princess Eglantine!”
“Lord Ferdinand, Lady Rozemyne performed a blessing while playing the harspiel!”
“Lord Ferdinand, Lady Rozemyne’s mana got out of hand and now she can’t control it!”
One headache after the other. He wanted, so desperately to just leave her to her own devices. It wasn’t Ferdiand’s problem to begin with but…
“You seem close to Lady Florencia’s little sister, Ferdinand,” Sylvester said to him, while they were eating. “Are you interested in her?”
“Quite,” he said, to what Sylvester swallowed, and choked. He heard him loudly cough, much to his own amusement. “She’s an interesting test subject”.
“Does your mind only think about research?” he sighed, looking at Ferdinand with a defeated attitude. “She’s quite cute too, such a shame”.
“Were Lady Florencia to hear you, she’d take your comments to mean you’re after her sister, not her”.
“Hey! Don’t tell her that!”
Ferdinand simply shrugged and got up. He had to run to the library to get a book for his research.
When he arrived, he quickly spotted Rozemyne. The girl didn’t. She was engrossed in a book, to no one’s surprise.
“Ah, Lord Ferdinand,” Lady Lucielle called. She said as much while shaking Lady Rozemyne enough to snap her out of her trance.
Lady Lucielle had grown to trust him after he helped clean up after one incident with the royal family Rozemyne had been involved in. Nowadays, she insisted Rozemyne to greet him, as a way of thank you. He could really go without the headache of listening Rozemyne tell him which new problem she’d created in the mere days they hadn’t seen each other.
“Ah? Ah, Lord Ferdinand, you’re here!” Lady Rozemyne called.
“Lady Rozemyne, I see you’re enjoying your reading time,” he said, hoping to end the conversation. “I was here to read about the Night of Schutzaria”.
“Oh! I know a book that talks about it, it should be...Right here”.
She picked out a book from the corner of the bookshelf. Usually, Ferdinand would go to the librarians for directions on where to find books. But he’d come to find that relying on Rozemyne was more effective when she’d read said book already.
“Thank you”
He was about to take his leave, when he realized that Rozemyne was holding a particularly interesting book.
“Is it about feybeast?”
“Yes, the ones most commonly found in Ahrensbach, it’s quite insightful”.
Ferdinand pondered a bit, thinking back on the last match of ditter he had, where the opponents guarded a feybeast that they hadn’t been familiar with. Knowing more types of feybeast could help during the matches.
“I will read it with you”
“Lord Ferdinand!?” Lucielle exclaimed, taken aback by the comment.
Much to her distress, however, Rozemyne saw nothing wrong with it. She simply smiled back and said, “Okay!”
"But...But!"
"Never mind, Lucielle. It's more time-efficient this way. I doubt I would be able to acquire the book now that your lady has hoarded it".
He heard Rozemyne mutter, "How rude, I would lend it to you...probably" but paid her no mind.
Ferdinand sat down next to Rozemyne and started to read. Her reading speed was a tad bit faster than Ferdinand’s own, but not as long as he stopped her hand from turning the page, she would comply.
The book was insightful, indeed.
“Oh, what is Lord Ferdinand doing here?” someone asked. He recognized that voice, as one of the children of the Veronica faction.
He ignored them, preferring to engross himself in the book he was reading with Rozemyne rather than pay them any mind.
“Hey! I’m talking to you!”
But alas, they weren’t the smartest kids in the Royal Academy.
Ferdinand was forced to look their way when they grabbed the book.
“Wha-!?” Lady Rozemyne was clearly confused.
Ferdinand didn’t want to drag this on, especially not with Rozemyne present. The girl was frail and sickly, still looking like a recently baptized girl. If a fight were to break out, the first to get injured would be her, not to mention the one in problem would be himself.
“Ridiculous,” he muttered.
“Hey, you bastard child, do you think you can ignore us?”
“Such crude language,” Lucielle complained, looking at their way with disgust.
The boy from Veronica’s faction didn’t seem to hear, or care for her words.
“What are you doing bothering Lady Rozemyne like this? A bastard child like you shouldn’t be hanging out with someone of her status”.
Ferdinand got up from his seat, intending to take this away from Lady Rozemyne. However, just as he was about to, he felt a strong pulse reach him.
He turned, surprised, as Lady Rozemyne’s cold piercing eyes glared at the kids from the Veronica faction. They immediately fell to the ground, holding their head.
“Lady Rozemyne, I know you hate such language,” Lady Grisselda said, with a sigh. “But refrain from crushing them too severely. It could impact your saintly image”.
"Is that so?"
Ferdinand shot a look at Lucielle instead. He knew Rozemyne cared close to nothing about her image. But Lucielle knew her inside out, if anyone was capable of getting her to calm down, it was her.
Lucielle heard him loud and clear and went to whisper something in her Lady's ear. It had the desired effect, and Lady Rozemyne closed her eyes, letting the boys go.
“Apologies,” she said, although Ferdinand could clearly see that she was not sorry at all.
At least try to look sorry, you fool, he wanted to say.
“I just hate to be interrupted when I’m reading,” she said with a smile. It was icy cold, to the point it made the kids shiver. “And I particularly hate when my people get insulted in such a manner”.
“We are sorry, Lady Rozemyne,” the kids said, looking away. They pushed each other and returned the book to Ferdinand. Afterwards, they left.
Ferdinand sighed.
“Your behaviour is truly incorrigible,” he said, moving to put down the book on the stand once more. “And I’m not your people.”
Ferdinand put down the book and turned to the page they just left.
“Anyone who helps me with the printing industry is my people,” she dismissed with a wave of the hand. “Now, hurry, let’s read”.
Ferdinand complied. He almost didn't hear the two girls whispering nearby.
"What did you tell my lady, Lucielle?"
"Oh, simply that Lord Ferdinand could be harmed if she let her mana run out of control," she replied. "You know how particular she is about those things".
And if he sat a bit closer than before, or let himself slouch the tiniest bit, not even Lucielle would dare to point it out. And if Rozemyne's hands touched a bit too close to his own, he pretended not to notice. After all, who would dare say something to the Saintess' people?