Ascendance of a Bookworm

Volume 7, Chapter 3.2: Plans For Dirk (Part 2)

Next day, on the chime of the third bell, the High Priest came to my chambers, accompanied by Arno. Since we knew they were visiting, we had well-fed Dirk and changed his diapers beforehand. Well… he does dirty his diapers whenever we change them, but we couldn’t do anything about that.

But there was something special about Dirk, he rarely cried. As long as he had clean diapers and was well-fed, he would always have a cheerful smile. He was easy to put to sleep and was generally easier to care for than most babies, which everyone was thankful for. Kamil was completely different, he loved to cry. He was very fussy whenever he was sleepy, and needed Mum to rock him to sleep in her arms. I didn’t know if their difference was due to their age difference, or if it was because they had dissimilar personalities.

Right now, Dirk was in my room, napping on a small mattress we made from straw-stuffings. Delia sat next to him, watching over him as he slept. This tiny mattress was Dirk’s bed and was compact so we could easily move him to the first floor whenever it was Fran’s turn to look after him. After that, he would be moved to the second floor, into Rosina and Delia’s rooms respectively.

I heard a creak at the front door and Fran’s voice, “Good morning, High Priest.”

“Where is the child?”

“He is upstairs, I will guide you there.”

Delia seemed to have realised that the High Priest had arrived because her face hardened and she frowned at the staircase. I saw the High Priest as someone I could rely on whenever I was in trouble or in need, but Delia would beg to differ.

“Thank you for coming here.”

“Myne, have everyone step down.”

Arno placed a magic tool onto the table, crossed his arms and moved away. The tool was a circlet with small mana stones embedded onto it, it resembled a divine instrument.

“Everyone, please leave the room.

I had everyone leave the room. But Delia tooked reluctant to do so as she kept her gaze onto Dirk as she slowly made her way down the stairs. With everyone gone, the High Priest passed me the sound-blocking mana tool.

“Having everyone step down is insufficient, we will need extra reassurance to make sure we are not heard from downstairs,” he explained.

I nodded my head and took the sound-blocking tool. I walked towards Dirk while the High Priest followed behind with the magic tool that measures mana. He placed the circlet on his head and it shrunk down to perfectly wrap his head. This small event didn’t surprise me anymore.

“Oh, their colours are changing.”

I was more than familiar with how mana stones changed colour whenever you sent mana into it. Apparently this method was used amongst noble children to measure the amount of mana they had at birth. The stones slowly stopped changing colour and the High Priest proceeded to remove it and count how many of them had their colours changed.

“Hmm. It would seem that his mana is comparable to a higher-ranking midnoble.”

“…A midnoble? I actually thought he had more mana than me.”

Myne survived till five years old with the Devouring, so I had assumed that Dirk’s Devouring was much more severe since he was already in a life-threatening state, but that wasn’t so.

“A baby is easily influenced by its own emotions, so it cannot compare to a girl who can repress her mana with sheer mental strength. Furthermore, you have been controlling your mana without any help before, right?”

The High Priest enlightened me as to how people with control over their mana could better suppress their mana in their body. He hypothesized that Myne’s mana was strong enough to consume her when she was five. Dirk was probably born with more mana. Only when I took over her body did her mana get compressed down, which allowed more room for growth. Everytime the mana attempted to take over my body, I pushed it deeper down in me, allowing for more growth everytime. I had did this so many times that I now possessed a ridiculous amount of mana.

The High Priest continued to explain that the amount of mana I stored in my body was beyond human comprehension. In fact, compressing mana was something only nobles were trained to do in the Royal Academy before they reached adulthood…

“Wait, so every noble can increase their mana capacity if they start training at a younger age?”

“Stop trying to make it look easier, you bonehead. Having your mana reach its capacity before compressing it with sheer mental force is playing with death itself. You’re more than familiar with that, am I right?”

“Yes, you are.”

I couldn’t recall how many times I had struggled to push the mana back into my body. As a result, my mana capacity had grown tremendously. It took me a year and a half before I entered the temple as Myne, and I had spent every day playing with death.

“It is not an easy feat to compress one’s mana if they do not have sufficient mental strength. So of course nobles would wait for their children to reach of age before they teach them how, right? There have been countless students every year who fail to control their mana and end up in life-threatening situations.”

Being so close to death was already part of my daily life, but nobles were different because they were given magic tools from birth to help them with this. They only needed to transfer their mana into these tools and they would continue to do so until they learned how to control it in the Royal Academy. Blue priests never got to go to the Royal Academy, so they didn’t know how to control or increase their mana, they pretty much spent their entire lives offering their mana.

“Well, you’re an exception. Some nobles might be willing to adopt a child with lots of mana due to the current mana shortage situation. However, your safety is our utmost concern, so it would be dangerous if others were to learn that we are trying to find an adoptive family for a child with the Devouring.”

If adoption wasn’t an option, I would prefer that Dirk signs a contract with someone who would take good care of him. I firmed my gaze towards the High Priest.

“H-high Priest, would you offer a contract to Dirk?”

“I am capable of doing so, but will not. I have no need for such mana.”

The High Priest explained only nobles that lacked mana would offer a contract to a Devouring child. They needed this mana to manage their land and to activate their magic tools. They wanted to keep his contract hidden, so better cared for children would become servants or concubines-to-be, and mistreated ones would be locked away in the basements… So that was why the guildmaster spent an arm and leg making sure that Freida received noble-training. I bowed my head down in sadness, I was worried about Dirk’s future. The High Priest noticed this and sighed.

“I can tell you greatly care for him. You can offer him a contract after your adoption by Karstedt.”

“…Me?” I was completely stunned. I didn’t think that I could enter a contract with Dirk after I received my noble title.

“You will receive the authority to do so when your adoption has gone through. You can keep his Devouring a secret and raise him carefully in the orphanage in the meantime.”

“That’s great, thank you.”

If I was going to offer Dirk a contract, no one could accuse me of being biased towards a single orphan. But I would still have to receive the High Priest’s and Karstedt’s permission in doing so (especially Karstedt because he was going to become my adoptive father). I only needed to keep his Devouring condition hidden until then. His future was looking much better now.

I was overjoyed at this. The High Priest frowned at me though, seemingly annoyed.

“Myne, do not get careless. The High Bishop will definitely do something if he were to discover that this baby has the Devouring. You are able to tarry his attacks, but a baby cannot do so. He will take actions to acquire him. To keep him safe, you must do well to keep his secret hidden.”

It was not out of the picture for the High Bishop to exploit Dirk for himself. If the High Bishop demanded that I had him over, I was powerless to stop him.

“Always keep this in mind, you future and safety in the temple depends on how well you can protect this baby.”

“Ok, I understand.”

The High Priest reassured me that Dirk’s mana would be suppressed for now because the mana measuring tool had absorbed some of it. He made his way out my chambers after that. After that Delia quickly rushed back to the second floor.

“Sister Myne, what did the High Priest say?! Will Dirk be fine?”

“He will be fine,” I continued on while shaking my head, “The High Priest said that we can continue looking after him.”

“Ha… Thank goodness.”

Delia’s shoulders slackened and she picked up Dirk, hugging him close to her body. Seeing this further entrenched in me the thought that I couldn’t let anyone else adopt Dirk, or enter a contract with him.

“Sister Myne, I am here to pick up Dirk.” a voice rang out.

“Thank you, Wilma.”

Fran and Rosina usually took their breaks in the afternoon, they were always anxious around Dirk, so we thought it would be better for him to return to the orphanage. Delia looked depressed seeing Dirk leave with Wilma.

“Delia, you are more than welcome to follow him to the orphanage.”

“But Fran and Rosina aren’t here right now, and Gil is at the workshop. You would not have any attendants to tend to you if I am not around, Sister Myne.” Delia glared daggers at me when I suggested that.

“I have no qualms tagging along.”

“Sister Myne, I am sure you know that I do not wish to return to the orphanage ever again,” she shot me down immediately.

“Yes, I am aware,” I gave a nonchalant reply and walked back to my desk.

It was surely not a wise decision to leave my chambers without Fran or Rosina, so I thought that I should focus on thinking of a new black and white picture book for Dirk. Dirk was much older than Kamil. He was already old enough to start rolling over by himself soon, so he could see and recognize pictures soon.

“Sister Myne, I wonder what Dirk is doing right now.”

“He’s probably sleeping.”

I used a pen and ink to draw some images consisting of circles and triangles on a blank piece of paper. After that, I would only need some of the hide glue we made over the winter to attack the paper onto a board. I had to wait for Fran to return from his break and ask him to get me some hide glue. Dad could punch some holes into the boards and tie them up with a string. After that, the book would be completed.

“Sister Myne, is Dirk crying now, or maybe he’s feeling lonely?”

“I doubt he would be lonely with the children around, but he might find it difficult to sleep with all that noise.”

“But he needs to sleep!”

“There’s no point telling me this. Frankly, I do not know if it is actually noisy there,” I continued to reply nonchalantly and focused on making my to-do list in my diptych.

Number one, I needed to order as many types of wax available from the wax workshop. Mimeograph stencils were usually made from a combination of resin and wax, which also made them much stronger. This time I was only going to use wax to roll out the letter. How great would it be if that worked out?

“Sister Myne, are you not worried about Dirk?”

“Nope, I trust that Wilma will take good care of him.”

Secondly, I needed to consult someone from an ink workshop about the idea of making coloured ink. The orphanage didn’t have anything good for making it, the workshop might have a better idea on that.

“You can’t just assume that. Urgh! Sister Myne, are you even paying attention to me?” Delia erupted because I was so monotonous with my responses.

I broke away from my diptych and sighed in annoyance.

“I can tell that you’re worried about him, why don’t you head down and check it out yourself. Wilma will be glad to welcome you.”

“…But I don’t want to be in the orphanage.” Delia bit her lip.

I could clearly tell she was torn between wanting to go and not.

“If that’s so, I can check on him on your behalf.”

“T-That’s so unfair!”

Delia tugged on my sleeve, and that sent me giggling. I said that because I knew she would fine it unsightly for me to leave my chambers without an attendant, and it would appear that she fell for the trap.

“Then, will you accompany me Delia?”

Delia’s pupils trembled and she shook her head, which sent her red hair swishing about. She looked back at me with tear-filled eyes and nibbled on her lip again.

“…I don’t want to.”

I returned a shrug and went back to my diptych, I wasn’t going to tease her anymore. Delia remained silent after that. She kept walking back and forth from the room. It was a little cute to see her this troubled, but I knew that she was inevitably going to give in and run to the orphanage.