Reflecting on Failure and Countermeasures

Upon returning from the Harvest Festival, Justus and I were immediately summoned to Lord Ferdinand’s mansion. At present, we are former retainers and not officially in his service. Therefore, we are treated as Lord Ferdinand’s guests, provided with seats, and graciously served tea by his attendant, Lasfam.

“Here you are, Lord Eckhart, please have this. You prefer viscasaft over tiefgaft, do you not?” Lasfam, being considerate as he is, prepared the tea I preferred. However, with Lord Ferdinand’s stern gaze upon me, I could hardly savor the taste. Despite being treated as a guest, I found it much more comfortable to stand behind him as a guard knight than to be glared at head on.

…Why am I not Lord Ferdinand’s guard knight right now!?

Damn it, if only I had swiftly rid ourselves of that overly paranoid, constantly anxious, mentally unstable mother of the archduke…

Cursing inwardly at the reason that prevents us from remaining as Lord Ferdinand’s retainers, I took my cup in hand. We couldn’t proceed to the main topic without first taking a sip of tea.

“Now then, Justus, Eckhart. Explain the reason why the collection of the ruelle fruit ended in failure.”

Lord Ferdinand, who did not tolerate any vagueness during reports, demanded the reason for our failure as soon as Justus and I took a sip of our tea. Justus glanced at me briefly and gave a small nod. It seemed he would answer first.

“In short, the situation was vastly different from the information we had gathered beforehand. I believe the lack of information regarding the special properties of the night of Schutzaria, as well as the insufficient number of guard knights compared to the amount of feybeasts, were the causes of our failure. Having only three guard knights, with one of them being a layknight, was inadequate for the situation.”

Lord Ferdinand furrowed his brow deeply at Justus’s response and, with his brow still furrowed, turned his gaze towards me.

“Eckhart, what are your thoughts after fighting the feybeasts?”

“Each individual feybeast was weak, but there were simply too many of them, making the battle extremely difficult. The most troubling aspect was that if we inflicted partial wounds, the wounded beasts would be eaten by the surrounding ones, causing the ones that devoured them to become stronger.”

I paused there to take a breath.

“Despite this, we had successfully gathered the ruelle fruit, but in a moment of slight complacency, a feybeast managed to approach Rozemyne, and the ruelle was stolen. I believe the main reason for our failure was the insufficient combat ability of the guard knights. Failing in our duty to protect her and having to rely on Rozemyne to fend off the attacks of the now-giant Goltze made me feel utterly pathetic.”

When Lord Ferdinand assigned me to guard Rozemyne during her gathering mission, I thought it would be a trivial task, but the result was disastrous. I currently lack the precision to accurately target the mana organs of smaller enemies, the stamina to keep fighting, and the technique to defeat a large number of enemies at once without wasting too much mana.

”… I see. I chose the Night of Schutzaria to maximize the Wind attribute, but the situation differed significantly. It was my mistake for lacking sufficient information on the changes brought upon by the Night of Schutzaria.”

Having finished listening to our explanation, Lord Ferdinand sighed, pressing a hand to his forehead. His severe expression seemed to stem from self-reproach. It is not uncommon for people to die from a lack of information.

In this regard, he regretted having endangered those who went gathering due to the insufficient information about the effects of the Night of Schutzaria.

“Because I had previously gathered ruelle fruits, I neglected further information gathering and underestimated the uniqueness of the Night of Schutzaria. I must tighten my resolve as a scholar. What surprised me the most however was the difference with the ruelles we gathered.”

“Differences with the ruelles?”

Lord Ferdinand’s eyes widened slightly. Justus nodded, donned leather gloves, and retrieved one of the ruelle fruits he had collected from a leather pouch. Watching this, Lasfam offered mana blocking leather gloves to Lord Ferdinand, saying “Please use these.”

“Unlike Milady, we collected these without dying them with mana.”

Lord Ferdinand put on the gloves and took the ruelle, turning his wrist to examine it intently.

”… Is this not purple? The ones you previously brought back were…”

“Yes. This yellow fruit here is from the previous gathering. It seems that the color differs between a regular full moon and the purple moon of the Night Schutzaria.”

On the table, a pale yellow fruit and a purple fruit rolled and settled next to each other. Lord Ferdinand picked up both fruits and stood.

“Let us begin by examining their attribute values.”

We all moved to the brewing room, where Lord Ferdinand placed the ruelle fruits on the magic tool used to measure the elemental levels of materials, examining them both. Justus recorded the levels on wooden boards as they were measured.

“The Wind attribute value is at its peak. The mana capacity is also exceptional.”

Lord Ferdinand’s lips curled up as he held the purple fruit. It must be quite the excellent material to put him in such a good mood. Internally, I praised Justus for gathering the ruelle fruit as a gift for our lord. “I was considering harvesting the traditional yellow ruelle during another full moon, If it were less dangerous. However, with levels like these, it’s worth devising a strategy and attempting it again next year.”

If Lord Ferdinand has decided so, I would also need to develop countermeasures against the feybeasts. However, since we can’t increase the number of knights accompanying us to ensure we protect Rozemyne’s secret, we must focus on strengthening our current forces as much as possible.

“We will undergo strengthening training for dealing with swarms, but it may still be challenging with only Damuel, a layknight, and Brigitte, a medknight.”

As I pondered the kind of training regimen to impose on the two knights, Lord Ferdinand lightly tapped his temple and muttered, “Indeed, we need to bolster our forces.”

“We managed to buy enough time for Rozemyne to complete her gathering with just three of us. Having an additional knight would certainly provide much more leeway, however…”

The issue is that Rozemyne creating a jureve is not something to be openly disclosed. We require a knight who can move discreetly. For a moment, Lamprecht’s face flashed through my mind, but my brother is busy diligently studying, worrying about whether his master will be disinherited. Moreover, having previously told him, “You’re not suited to be Rozemyne’s guard knight,” it would be difficult to ask him now to guard Rozemyne and assist in her gatherings.

“No need to worry. I can join midway through the Harvest Festival next year,” Lord Ferdinand declared. Considering he also took the knight course at the Royal Academy, counting him as one of the knights wouldn’t be a mistake. However, I felt a strong aversion to troubling him with such a task.

“But…”

“Having Lord Ferdinand accompany us would indeed be reassuring. We should also consider the need to be cautious during the Night of Flutrane while gathering the spring material,” Justus added.

He suggested that a similar phenomenon might occur during the spring material gathering. Lord Ferdinand lightly tapped his temple and closed his eyes for a moment.

“I intended to gather information about the Night of Flutrane, but if an emergency beyond our expectations arises, we might also want to consider enlisting Karstedt’s assistance.”

“My Father?”

I never expected my father, the commander of the Knight’s Order, to become involved. Not only I, but even Justus was wide-eyed in astonishment. It seemed like an excessive show of force.

“Karstedt is a knight who knows about Rozemyne’s circumstances and is officially her biological father. It’s possible we could mobilize him for his daughter’s sake. The problem lies in Sylvester potentially tagging along for amusement. However, with that woman’s fall from grace, the factional disputes among the nobles are intensifying. There are ways to keep him in check.”

Though the Aub often neglected his duties to wander around, it was only possible because his mother, who desired to control the nobles and wield power, was supporting him. Now that his mother has lost her power, Lord Sylvester has to personally handle the duties she used to interfere with himself. Frankly, it serves him right, and I think he should quickly give up and have Lord Ferdinand assist him by getting him out of the temple and bringing him back to noble society.

“We did manage to collect the materials this time, so if Lord Ferdinand accompanies us, I believe we won’t fail in securing the ruelle fruits next year. More importantly, Lord Ferdinand, if you’re planning to use these purple fruits for the jureve, wouldn’t it be better to find winter materials with a higher elemental attribute than the opas fruits?”

To create the highest quality jureve possible, to a certain extent, it’s desirable to have materials with matching elemental values. We should only have candidate materials with attributes similar to the yellow ruelle fruits on our list currently. ”…Then we should look to use the Lord of Winter’s feystone. We likely won’t find anything with a higher Life attribute in Ehrenfest.”

The Lord of Winter is the strongest winter feybeast that appears every year. It possesses an immense mana capacity and can summon blizzards. If it isn’t hunted down, the arrival of spring will be delayed. Thus, as soon as it appears, the entire Ehrenfest Knight’s Order, leaving only a minimal number of knights to guard the castle, must hunt it down.

“We’ll have Rozemyne deliver the final blow after the knights have weakened it.”

“And that’s how we’ll obtain the feystone? Won’t the Knight’s Order have complaints regarding that?” Justus asked worriedly, but Lord Ferdinand simply waved off his concern.

“We’ll buy it at a high price; there won’t be any complaints. Although we hunt the Lord of Winter every year, the knights don’t receive the materials as individual rewards.”

Indeed, that’s true. The Knight’s of the Order undertake the mission as part of their duties, but the materials aren’t distributed to individuals. Instead, the duchy purchases the materials, and the knights receive additional pay as a form of compensation for the hunt.

“Even so, isn’t it difficult to have Lady Rozemyne, a noble lady, accompany us in the midst of a fierce blizzard? It will also be the midpoint of the winter socializing season. If Rozemyne isn’t at the castle, some nobles will begin to criticize her, and others will wonder why she isn’t there,” Lasfam pointed out.

Lord Ferdinand shook his head slightly. “That’s not an issue. Rozemyne is already scheduled to go to the temple for the dedication ritual. She won’t be in the castle to begin with, so if she goes directly from the temple, the nobles won’t have any grounds for criticism. Besides, her blessings are beneficial. If it makes the battle even a little easier, the knights will welcome her.”

“That unusual highbeast of hers is also perfect for avoiding the blizzard,” Justus laughed, prompting a disgusted expression from Lord Ferdinand. Though the unusual shape of her highbeast didn’t align with my lord’s aesthetic sense, it seemed that it would be useful in certain situations.

“I wonder which feybeast will be the Lord of Winter this year,” I mused.

“Since we’re going to the trouble of obtaining the Lord of Winter’s feystone, I’d prefer a stronger one like a Geschtelf or a Schnestrum rather than something relatively weak like an Iszamir,” Lord Ferdinand remarked, focusing solely on the quality of the materials. However, for the Knight’s Order that has to subdue it, a weaker feybeast would be more welcome.

“If the Lord of Winter is too strong, the Knight’s Order will have a hard time. For creating an individual’s jureve, an Iszamir feystone should suffice,” I pointed out with a wry smile, thinking of the knights’ efforts. But Lord Ferdinand dismissed my concern, saying, “It will serve as good training.”

Lasfam seemed to notice something and tilted his head slightly. “Lord Ferdinand, when obtaining the Lord of Winter’s feystone, what weapon will Lady Rozemyne use? The knife you prepared for harvesting the ruelle fruit won’t reach the beast’s core, will it?”

Lord Ferdinand paused, considering this for a moment. “You’re not wrong. The knife I prepared for the gathering certainly won’t suffice for this. We’ll need to equip Rozemyne with something more appropriate. I’ll look into acquiring or crafting a suitable weapon for her.”

Ensuring Rozemyne had the right tool for the job was essential. If she was to deal the finishing blow to a powerful feybeast, her weapon had to be capable of penetrating its defenses and reaching its core.

Everyone fell into thought. That’s certainly a problem that exists. To obtain the feystone, the weapon needs to make contact with the mana organ. If it was essential to ensure that only Rozemyne’s mana touched it, Rozemyne herself had to dismantle it or directly strike the mana organ.

Thinking about Rozemyne, who had been holding her small knife, shorter than the length from my wrist to my elbow, with a proud look on her face, compared to the Winter Lords I had previously subdued with the Knight’s Order, made me want to hold my head in despair.

“A weapon capable of dismantling the Lord of Winter, for Rozemyne? Is there any weapon she can hold with those exceedingly frail hands?”

Rozemyne’s arms were pale and thin, with no noticeable muscles, as she is weak and often bedridden. She couldn’t lift anything heavy, and there was even the time when she complained that, “Noble clothes are heavy,” with a displeased look on her face. Even the knife Lord Ferdinand prepared for this gathering was extremely lightweight. It was hard to imagine any weapon Rozemyne could wield. “If only she had a schtappe. Weapons made from a schtappe don’t feel particularly heavy since they are created using one’s own mana.”

Even Justus, who seems to know a lot of peculiar things, couldn’t think of any suitable weapons. He crossed his arms and pondered deeply.

“Use your own mana… Hmm. I have something in mind, so I’ll prepare it here,”

“Oh? What is it?” Sensing the scent of unknown information, Justus gazes expectedly at Lord Ferdinand.

“You’ll know when the day comes.” Lord Ferdinand waved his hand dismissively at Justus, looking thoroughly annoyed.

“I am not a knight, so I cannot participate in the subjugation of the Lord of Winter, can I?”

“You can ask Eckhart for details later.”

Since he avoided answering here and now, It seems like he plans to use something that will pique Justus’ curiosity greatly. His brown eyes were starting to sparkle with excitement, and his breathing has become more rapid, indicating his increasing anticipation.

“Please tell me, Lord Ferdinand. What will milady use to obtain the Lord of Winter’s feystone?”

“How irritating. Justus, do you wish to be forced to be silent?”

Lord Ferdinand cast a cold gaze towards Justus and reached for the name swearing stone at his waist. Having been ordered to “Shut Up!” by the name swearing stone, Justus grimaced in frustration, groaned, and reluctantly fell silent.

“Ugh… Eckhart, I’m expecting some interesting tales from you.”

It can’t be helped. I’ll at least share some interesting stories, once the hunt is over.