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Ferdinand
I felt a large portion of my magic power get sucked out of my vessel as I slammed my magic power into the huge magic circle that was floating above the Royal Academy, which roughly spanned the diameter of the Academy proper. The season now was early winter, and while I was here at the academy, almost all the students were at home in their respective duchies, but in a week, students would be pouring in from all over the country into the dormitories, and there would be watchful eyes, factional fighting, and harsh gazes everywhere. Though the conflict between the first and third Princes was ongoing, school had to continue, as tense as it would be.
It was unclear exactly what this magic circle did, but given that it had only been completely visible to me once I had completed circling the shrines, as directed by a diary of a past Zent in the Library's underground stacks, and that the golden Shumil told me to first activate the circle, I had a fairly decent idea of what the magic circle was for, but I did not know what would happen next.
Regardless, today was probably the last day I could find out about the function of this magic circle, as the commoner servants, chefs, and other overhead were quietly moving into the academy in order to prepare for the next school year, and since I had ordered Justus and Eckhart to take care of tasks elsewhere.
A pillar of white light erupted from where I struck the floating magic circle, when suddenly, an entrance to a magical space surrounded by light opened up, floating above the top of the dome. I increased the mana flow into my lion highbeast, to fly over to above the central building, dispelled my highbeast, strengthened my legs, and dove into the magical space.
Looking around, it seemed that I was back in the white courtyard where I had gotten my divine will from one year prior, and the courtyard that the staircase that had opened up during my blessing acquisition ceremony two years prior.
In front of the large white tree, which, according to the underground archives, was Erwaermen, a man made of ivory appeared.
"You, rude person," his voice echoed, "Quinta, you have forced your way into the Garden of Beginnings. Though I would normally smite you on the spot for your blasphemy, the foundation has lain unclaimed for longer than usual, and with no Zent living candidates that I am aware of, your temperament has still been judged as safe regardless. Pray now and accept Mestionora's wisdom".
Quinta was not my name, though it was the name of a lonely child who could not leave his room, and whose only interest was looking at the great big world outside his window. Regardless, it was an order, and I did not need to be told twice, so I manifested my schtappe and prayed.
"Neigunsch"
"Tolrakeit"
"Teidihinder"
"Willedeal"
"Kraeftark"
"Rombekur"
"Austrag"
"I am one who offers prayers and gratitude to the gods who have created this world. O God of Darkness Schicksantracht, O Goddess of Light Versprechredi, O mighty Eternal Five who rule the mortal realm, O God of Life Ewigeliebe, O Goddess of Earth Geduldh, O Goddess of Water Flutrane, O God of Fire Leidenschaft, O Goddess of Wind Schutzaria. To you who have granted my words for my obtainment of the Book of Mestionora, I pray once more, please grant me the wisdom of Mestionora."
A torrent of knowledge came flooding into my head; there were so many useful magic circles that would not be written down anywhere else, because someone deemed them too unsafe to be for anyone other than Zent candidates, and other extremely useful magic circles that were lost to history. History was also present in the torrent of information that was flooding into me, but I was focused far more on sorting the thousands of magic circles.
"Clear your mind, do not spill information," Erwaermen ordered.
Clear my mind? It was extremely hard to not focus on the magic circles, as they were the main reason I wanted this book. If my possession of the book were to be discovered, I would be sucked into the three Princes' conflict, and most likely lose my life. Much like Zent Aeussewahl's children, which I was learning about now, and judging by the information flooding my head, after a long conflict, Prince Tollkuehnheit, being a sore loser in his bid for the throne, fled the country and established a colony by taking over the country of Lanzenave through the darkness gate.
Of course, such a move was extremely short-sighted, but he lost his train of thought when the wall of the women's entries into the book of Mestionora slammed against his mind. Because anyone who had a large amount of magic power, and had a schtappe, upon death, Mestionora would search, scrap their memory for novel discoveries, summarize, and enter all relevant information into the Book of Mestionora. Since many of the women in the Adalgiza villa would receive education and a schtappe at the Royal Academy before being left there until they could no longer bear children, simply put, there was a lot.
Memories from before my baptism surged, memories that had been locked in a box and pushed to a corner of my mind long ago, suddenly broke free.
That's the place I was born in. So that was why I was born.
It's too much…
"STOP!" I screamed.
Erwaermen was saying something, but I was not listening. Instead, I threw up on the pristine ivory floors of the Garden of Beginnings.
"Quinta, why is part of you now on the floor before me?" Erwaermen asked curiously.
There was only one conclusion to be made from the information that was poured into my head and my long-forgotten childhood memories.
I mumbled something to Erwaermen and took off on my highbeast, going through the opening in the ceiling, uncaring of the breached etiquette.
As the ground and main building got further and further away, I could hardly find it in me to care much about anything anymore.
The frosty wind howled, stinging my face and numbing my nose, fingers, ears, and toes. A tear fell from my eye and promptly froze to my eyelash. I noticed that I was probably thinking more slowly, but I could hardly care.
What reason did I even have to cling to life?
Ehrenfest was nearly inhospitable, due to Veronica's endless harassment when she would scheme her way into situations where we were alone in the supply room, and force me to supply until my limit, as well as the endless tampered meals and retainers forced upon me, who would later betray me. I could hardly blame her; my father had brought me to Ehrenfest from the Adalgiza villa when the alternative was doing nothing. All he said regarding this matter was that I was brought to Ehrenfest because of the "Guidance of the Goddess of Time", whatever that meant. Perhaps he had a raffel for Seradina, the woman who could hardly be called my mother.
My mana was churning and bubbling faster and faster, pushing harder and harder, at the edges of my vessel.
My highbeast hit a rough gust of wind and snow, but my hands were too numb to maintain my hold on the reins.
My highbeast turned back into a feystone, and it and I started to fall.
There probably was something I could have done, but instead, I accepted the god of life's icy embrace.
Rozemyne
"Well done, Rozemyne, for completing this three-day-long break in his thread. I am noticing that Justus has recorded information about the future, so I will be destroying any tablets that alter history. Do try to take care to prevent things like this from occurring in subsequent repairs." Ventuchte, the goddess who wove the tapestry of history, said.
"For the next break in the one you call Ferdinand's thread, you will be going to Ersterde, around one year after Ferdinand obtained his divine will,"
"I understand. Please send me to that point, Lady Dregarnuhr, Lady Ventuchte."
My body once again unravelled like a thread, and got sucked into the loom of history, in what was a really scary sensation, but I had more important things to do than to complain about the sensation to some goddesses who were fundamentally different from humanity. Just because the gods and goddesses made the world run, it did not mean that they actually needed to care very much about the people within, further than what was their duty—a lesson that I had very much learned the hard way.
In reality, they did not care much about Ferdinand; rather, they cared more about the break in his thread, as repairing it would be easier than scrapping the weave and starting anew.
That absolutely can't happen! There's no guarantee Ferdinand or I will even be in it!
The world swam before my eyes, then I felt a chill of cold snowflakes flying against my face and landing in my hair. I opened my eyes and found myself in one of the forests outside the Academy, with enough snow on the ground that it looked about halfway up my shins from the bottom of my feet.
Wow, Ferdinand's temperature regulation magic tool really works!
One of my favorite charms that had been given to me by Ferdinand was the temperature regulation charm, as he was worried about my health on hot days, but due to Ferdinand's good foresight, it would keep my body at the right temperature no matter the temperature outside.
Next to me was Schutzaria's shrine, which I had last been to when Eglantine and Anastasius had made me do the shrine tour. I shook my head to push away those rather unpleasant memories. I had to find and save Ferdinand from dying.
I formed Lessy, pulled up off the ground, and looked, as I could not sense his mana nearby. The very first thing I noticed was a pillar of light in the center of the magic circle above the academy. Given that I had seen this before, this could only mean one thing: Ferdinand was currently receiving the 30% of the Book of Mestionora that he held.
As I flew closer towards the Academy Central complex, the pillar of light disappeared, when about ten seconds later, he flew out of the magical entrance formed on top of the circle, at a reckless pace, and angle. I instantly envisioned the windshield wiper speed of Lessy increasing, and put the accelerator pedal to the floor, and pushed a lot more of my magic power into Lessy, and sped off towards Ferdinand.
He was flying at a higher altitude than I was when I saw his highbeast dissipate, and he started to fall.
My blood froze.
I need to hurry!
As I was approaching him, he was still falling, but I was too far from him in Lessy, so I bound him with bands of light from my schtappe from this distance, so that I could reel him in like a fish.
With this, his fall was successfully broken. Unfortunately, due to my inertia and the tension of the bands of light, his downward motion was largely redirected sideways. Ferdinand flew towards a tree, to which he promptly broke through the upper branches, somewhat breaking his speed, and then slammed against the base of another tree, making a sound that would definitely occupy my nightmares for the foreseeable future.
"Shit!" I cursed.
My head empty, I landed Lessy near him as quickly as I could, and did the closest thing I could do to running with my weak body and enhanced legs. I immediately formed Flutrane's staff with Streitkolben, and began healing him.
Ferdinand
Everything ached. My eyes flitted open as I drifted in and out of consciousness. My ears rang as I watched a beautiful woman fuss over me. She had kind, deep golden eyes, and with the snow in her hair, it was akin to a starry nighttime sky. She reached towards me and pressed her hand to my forehead.
For some reason, she seemed to be trying to drag me somewhere. It seemed like my bones and wounds had already been healed, but the residual blood on my clothes seemed to be leaving a trail of bloody snow. Additionally, due to her most likely strengthening her legs, she was also accidentally channelling magic power into me, which, for some reason, was without resistance.
When I came to, I was laying down on a soft bed of some kind, with a furry ceiling that I did not recognize.
"Ferdinand! You're finally awake!" the unfamiliar woman exclaimed. I sat up and groaned, uncaring of propriety.
"Who are you? Get away from me!"
The strange woman backed away from me a decent amount, hands outstretched as if to placate me. "Lord Ferdinand, though it is not my real name, please call me Roz, just for now," she explained. "In truth, though it is hard to explain, I am your fiancée, and I'm here to protect you, because I am the messenger of the Goddess of Time. You could say that my saving you is the guidance of the Goddess of Time".
It was hard to believe, but the phrase "Guidance of the Goddess of Time" was something only my father and I could possibly know. If she did turn out to be an assassin or someone sent to harass me, I didn't particularly care at this point, and I would probably let her.
However…
Given the knowledge that I had just received, there was no denying that the gods very much existed beyond vague forces and existed as real figures that I could contact. It would not be impossible for it to be the case that "Guidance of the Goddess of Time" was a concrete reality and not a euphemism. I remembered from earlier that she had accidentally pushed her magic power into me without any resistance.
I blushed at the implication.
"You have my name," I said, feeling a new layer of magic power surrounding me that was not there before.
"Yes, I do. You gave it to me," Roz said.
She was clearly being honest; it was clear as day, with how expressive her face was. Roz was clearly someone who wore their emotions on their sleeve, something quite uncommon in society. He did not dislike it, as he found, though it did make him worry about ill-intentioned people taking advantage of it.
"I see." I tapped my temple.
"Um… Ferdinand? May I ask you a question?" she asked, brow furrowed.
"You may"
"Why did you fall from your highbeast after you received the Book of Mestionora?"
My eyes widened; not only did Roz know about the distinction between the Grutrissheit and the Book of Mestionora, but she also knew that I had just received it. She probably had it too, so she was definitely someone who should not be underestimated. I decided to be truthful.
My voice steady, I explained: "I had flown out from the garden of beginnings, but with my hands cold, I failed to hold on to my highbeast when I unexpectedly encountered a gust of wind".
She narrowed her eyes and silently looked at me for a long time.
"You wanted to die, didn't you." she accused.
I couldn't bear to meet her eyes, so I looked away.
She exhaled. "Ferdinand," she whispered. Roz pulled me into a tight embrace, to which I awkwardly let my hands rest on her back. As awkward as I was, it did not feel uncomfortable, and she did not seem to mind. My mind wandered, and I couldn't help but wonder what the nature of our relationship was, as her hair was still down, which meant that she was significantly younger than me. Additionally, I had noticed that her cape was navy blue, which did not match the color of any known duchy at the moment.
I tried to pull away, but she enhanced her arms to hold on tighter, and in the process, accidentally pushed more magic power into me.
"Hey, Ferdinand." she whispered. "The god of life is neither fair nor unfair. Life just happens to us, icy winds or warm breezes. It's all we can do, as people, to persist. Perhaps if your fate were sealed and you knew the pattern of the weave, and knew that you were guaranteed to not have even one happy day again, I would understand."
"But if you can't rule out the possibility of a happy day, I would think that it's not worth it."
"Right now, I have the luxury of knowing the pattern of the weave, and I can confidently state without hesitation that many happy years are ahead of you. So I beg of you now, please promise me, that you will never do something like that again."
Roz let go of the hug and instead held both his hands in hers. She seemingly searched his eyes for something, her eyes filled with unshed tears.
"…I understand," I whispered, "I promise."
"Though the Goddess of Time will steal your memory of this moment, I am positive that you will keep this promise unconsciously," she explained.
I froze. "I don't want to forget you; it isn't fair."
"I love you," she said suddenly, her eyes widening after she said it, as if she was surprised at her own words, before continuing: "You'll be okay in the end, Ferdinand, you will have a safe duchy, and eat safe and delicious food, be allowed to research to your hearts content, and have a family that loves you."
Can I have hope for the future?
Though it seemed that these days were far away, my heart was heavy at those things I had longed for but never could have.
"Speaking of family, may I ask you something?" I asked.
"Of course," she said.
"Why do you love me? You've read Mestionora's Book, you know what kind of place I am from," he spat.
"I do not buy into that line of philosophy," she said, "rather, I believe that though we cannot choose our birth, it is who we become that matters the most. Both in the present and here, you're a very fine man, I would say."
"And," she added, "I would say the crimes of existence of the Adalgiza villa, says vastly more about the two Royal families than about their victims."
Rozemyne
My heart ached for this version of Ferdinand. He seemed so vulnerable at this age, as his confidence in himself that the Lord of Evil had, had not manifested yet. He was no longer small anymore from over-compression, like the Music teachers had once told her over tea. Judging by the quality of his voice, his voice had dropped fairly recently.
He was all soft-looking, and I could not help but just want to squeeze and squeeze him, and run my hands through his braided hair, and…
I shook my head to dispel the image and brought my thoughts back to the matter at hand.
"I do not think I can stay here much longer," I said, "I think Dregarnuhr will call me back soon".
I had no real proof of thisw of course, other than a gut feeling.
"Hey, Ferdinand." I said, "You should call over Justus now to escort you back to the dormitory. Don't mention me to him," thinking about Ventuchte's warning.
"I understand. Ordonnanz", he chanted, pulling out an ordonnanz feystone. "Justus, I require your assistance. I am currently outside, please use ordonnazes to track my location."
Which was promptly followed by a reply that said "Understood."
The two of us disembarked Lessy, which I returned to a feystone, which I did my best to not look at when I returned it to the cage on my waist. I flinched when I saw the trail of bloody snow, and promptly vashened it away.
"One more thing, could you please take off the bracelet that I placed on your right hand? It is a temperature control tool that you made for me to help regulate the human body temperature. I needed to use it to warm you up after you lost a lot of body heat."
As he outstretched his hand with the bracelet magic tool, I seized the opportunity to surge forward and planted a kiss on his right cheek. We both immediately blushed, but no words were spoken. Suddenly, my body started glowing, and I turned into thread once more, as the forest around us faded away; it seemed my time with this Ferdinand was up.
Ferdinand
I opened my eyes to find myself sitting in the Gazebo of the Goddess of Time.
What?
I had completed my Wisdom in the Garden of Beginnings, and subsequently fled the Garden of Beginnings after discovering the truth of my childhood.
For some reason, my mind wandered to what Irmhilde had said to me before her passing: "Because someone wished for you to live, Ferdinand. My own wish is for you to keep living, grow up healthy, and one day meet that person."
In truth, the nature of my childhood history mattered very little to me now. Right now, there were many things I still had to do, namely, discover who Lady Irmhilde was referring to, but more pressingly, investigate the Gazebo of the Goddess of Time, as I did not know how I got here.