Ascendance of a Bookworm

Volume 7, Chapter 9: The Missing Two Persons (Part 1)

Damuel didn’t return for two days. I was told not to leave the house so I had lots of time to spare. I decided to spend the time to brainstorm the contents for my third picture book and sew up the stuffed animal for the rattles with Tuuli. She wanted to give hers to Corinna’s daughter, Renate.

“I will give it to her the next time we visit. We will see her soon, right?”

“It would be impolite of us to not visit after everything the Gilberta Company has done for us, and Benno did give Kamil a gift when he was born.”

I was planning to see Corinna after everything had been settled and the town was safe, Tuuli was looking forward to coming along too. Babies girls were probably cute too and I wanted to see how Otto fawned over his baby girl.

“…Ah, this looks bad. Myne’s one looks cuter.”

Tuuli compared the two rattles and pouted. Her rattled looked something like a polar bear while mine resembled a little bunny. They looked a little misshapened because we had to stuff them with cloth instead of cotton.

“Your better at sewing them together.”

My stitching looked bad and messy, but I had to agree with Tuuli that it did look cute. I puffed up my chest in pride at my craft when Tuuli leaned her head over and shook her head.

“You’re not going to get married if you don’t improve your sewing.”

“Who cares! I only need books in my life.”

The ideal wife in this world was someone who was healthy, capable of doing chores and was good at sewing. I didn’t possess any of those qualities so I knew and wasn’t expecting to get married anyways. I would be just like I was as Urano, books would be my only companion in this life. Frankly, I’d rather make and read books forever than get married to someone and be forced to sew clothes for my family.

We’re just missing the bells to complete these toys, I sighed to myself. But I was surprised by Lutz’s visit on the third evening of being stuck in the house.

“Johann came over to deliver these. What are you going to use them for?” he asked as he rolled the bells around in his hand. They made a soft jiggle as the small balls moved inside.

Wow. Johann does it again.

“They’re small bells that will be going in these toys. They’ll make jiggling sounds when you shake them.”

The bells had to be stuffed together with the toys so that they wouldn’t be ingested by kids. The eyes and mouths were made with thread, I did not sew on extra cloth so that they couldn’t be pulled off. I had left a small hole on the toys so that I could slip the bells in, and Lutz watched me swiftly complete the toy.

I shook the toys and they made a cute jingle from the inside.

Mission complete.

“Kamil, look at this. Do you hear it?”

I shook the stuffed rabbit next right at Kamil’s ears which made him blink curiously. He couldn’t raise his head up and look at the toy yet, but I could see his eyes swirling around to figure out where the sound was coming from.

“Ah so cute! Kamil’s so cute.” I couldn’t help breaking out into a smile when I saw his reaction to the toy. And in the next second, he broke out crying. It seemed that I had lots to work on becoming the best sister.

It took a total of five days before I saw Fran and Damuel again in the morning. They had came together to take me out my house.

“Good morning Fran, Sir Damuel.”

“Good morning, apprentice.”

Damuel nodded his head to acknowledge my greeting and he turned around to address Dad. He was still home since he was only on the afternoon shift today.

“Please pardon my intrusion, I am here to escort the apprentice.”

“I leave her in your care, sir.” Dad saluted by hitting his chest twice with a first. Damuel returned the gesture with a grim expression before speaking.

“Gunther, Lord Ferdinand has a message for you. The archduke has left the city on business and will not be present to grant entry to any nobles at present. There is a chance that you may come across forged passes, take extra precaution. Do you follow?”

“Understood, sir!” Dad nodded with a resolved look. My dad always looked so cool whenever he was working.

“I’ll get going, see you later, everyone.”

“Take care.”

~~~

Lutz was waiting for us in the square and we walked to the temple together. We were approaching the temple and I saw Fran from a distance and noticed that he had a grim look.

“Are you ok, Fran? You’re frowning.”

“I will brief you on the situation later. It is something that shouldn’t be discussed out here,” that was all he said before he went silent and pursed his lips.

“Everything will be revealed later in the temple, you cannot avoid hearing about it,” Damuel spoke after.

I raised my head and saw that he was wearing his noble smile, which was pretty much a poker face. His poker face didn’t reveal provide me any clues on what to expect.

“Ok, I’ll get going first,” said Lutz.

“Alright, see you.”

Just like always, Lutz parted from the group at the front of the workshop and the rest of us walked back to my chambers. I waited and watched Fran open the door for me like a noble lady would, but I was stunned by the stillness in the room.

“…It’s feeling awfully quiet in here.”

It was quite an awkward tension in the air. If this were like any other day, I would be greeted by Dirk’s crying or Delia playing with him, or the sounds of people shuffling about the room. However, the room was completely still. It was so quiet that I could hear the chefs moving about in the kitchen at the other side of the room. I thought that the room was quiet because Dirk was napping and crept up the stairs.

I walked up to the second floor and saw Rosina cleaning the table. The sight of that shocked me because Rosina was so careful with her fingers that she only played music and helped with the paperwork. That was why Delia took charge of lightweight chores.

“Good morning Rosina. Is Delia not around? Is she sick today?” I asked and shift my eyes around to search for her.

Rosina averted her gaze and set the cloth she was using down onto the table before walking to the closet.

“Delia is gone. She has returned back to the High Bishop and took Dirk along with her.

“What?”

This was such a sudden piece of news that I struggled to understand it. I stared at Rosina with a blank look on my face as she held my robes. I could tell she was struggling to find the words to say. In the end, she just gave me a melancholic smile and said, “Sister Myne, we’ll talk more after you have changed. You will have to change before Fran can come upstairs.”

I was assisted into my robes by Rosina, and she waited for me to sit down before ringing a bell. After which, Fran came up the stairs with some tea he brewed and poured it into a cup for me. I took a sip of it, Fran’s tea always tasted good, but this wasn’t the time for tea appreciation. I placed my cup back down and raised my head towards them.

Rosina was the first to speak. “It all started yesterday. Fran and I had retreated back to our rooms to nap, but when we woke up, Dirk’s cushion and diapers were missing. Our worries were fueled on when we noticed that Delia was missing too. I went to the orphanage but Dirk was not there too. Wilma said that Delia had taken Dirk as she said that they had some family bonding to do.”

Wilma didn’t think too much about it and let her go. She thought that Delia was working hard for Dirk given that she had practically forced herself to enter the orphanage she despised so much to see him. Never would she have ever imagined that my attendant would take him anywhere else but my chambers.

“Rosina said the same to me too, so I quickly sought a meeting with the High Priest. I felt that the disappearance of an apprentice’s attendant was an important matter to report, and that a search was needed to be done as soon as possible,” Fran spoke in a hushed voice.

I understood why he did that because Delia might have taken away by a blue priest. However, Fran said on his way to meet the High Priest when he saw Delia carrying Dirk, and she was walking next to the High Bishop. He approached her but was stopped by the High Bishop. In the end, he had to ask the High Priest about it.

“How could he do that? I understand why Delia would return to the High Bishop since she used to be his attendant, but Dirk has to stay in the orphanage, right?”

Just sometime ago, I had been told that Dirk couldn’t be taken out of the orphanage to meet the High Priest, and frankly, the High Bishop looked like someone who called children disgusting and lock them in the orphanage until they were baptised. It was extremely odd that Dirk was seen in the part of the temple for nobles only.

That was when Fran revealed, “Dirk has been adopted.”

“What?”