"Welcome, Lady Tohsaka." Brigitte said as she, Angelica and Elysia greeted Rin upon her arrival at the Ehrenfest dorms.
"Thank you for the warm greeting. I trust everything has gone well." Rin said.
"...Does My Lady want the truth or just for us to say yes." Brigitte said flatly, familiar enough with Rin to not bullshit her and to act sarcastic to dumb questions.
Rin smiled, knowing that it was a sign that Brigitte trusted the relationship that they had built up over the last nine months.
"Sorry for all the trouble. Did you at least have fun, Angelica?" Rin asked the young girl.
Angelica gave her the most beautiful of smiles. "Yes, it was. I ended up going to lots of tea parties and everyone was really helpful too."
Rin bet they were as she looked around the dormitory.
There were several individuals in the Ehrenfest dorms who looked to be on the verge of a mental breakdown, and Rin was fully aware of why.
Angelica had drawn far too much attention to herself and Elysia, resulting in her getting tons of tea party invites, not just from higher ranked Duchies, but also higher ranked individuals of all of those Duchies. The number of invitations increased again when she started to share the sweets the cook Rin had sent with her with the other participants and explained about her hair being shinier because of shampoo.
Angelica had been made to play out the part of an Archducal Candidate, despite being a Mednoble and meet with all kinds of very important individuals, and the entire dormitory had been forced to stand behind her and support her, lest Angelica ruin their Duchy's reputation, or worse, start a cold war between them.
Rin had received several requests to recall Angelica in order to mitigate the damage… but found it too funny and decided to just leave her there.
Angelica, innocent as she was, barely even worried about the damages she was causing. She didn't care at all for any of the politics that were going on. So long as she wasn't being a disappointment to Rin, nothing else mattered.
Rin was her one and only loyalty, except for to her baby sister and Elysia.
If it wasn't for the fact that she was told that she would be viewed as Rin's representative and that rejecting the invitations would look back on Rin's party, Angelica would probably have just ignored all of the invitations in order to spend more time training.
"Hopefully all of the preparations you all did with helping Angelica has prepared you for the Interduchy Tournament. Given the waves Angelica made, it is doubtless that Ehrenfest will be getting a lot of visitors this year. If you are all good hosts, Ehrenfest will rise in the ranks. If not, it might even end up falling." Rin said, getting looks of worry from the surrounding students.
"Could you please not say it like it is someone else's problem?" Sylvester said as he entered behind Rin, his things immediately being taken to his room as he walked away from the small teleportation gate.
"I have no way of assisting them more than I already have. So it really is their battle to fight." Rin replied innocently. "I have given them an opportunity. If they can't capitalize on it, then I suppose Ehrenfest wasn't deserving of an increase in its rank."
That was the purpose of the Interduchy Tournaments. They were a chance to show off the skills developed by the various students, with attendants playing host to nobles from other Duchies while Scholars displayed their research and exchanged information. Then after that would be the Ditter Tournament where the knights would show off their stuff and the graduation/award ceremony.
The tournament was the entire reason Rin was even at the academy, as she was being asked to display various bits of research in order to boost Ehrenfest's reputation.
It annoyed her, but she went along with it under the condition that Ehrenfest nobles would be the ones explaining the results, showing that they actually understand them.
As such, three of the Scholars that Rin had trained were now going to be drilling students on the information for the two days leading up to the start of the tournament.
If they had any questions, they could ask Rin.
None of the stuff was research on magic, so Rin couldn't care less about it being presented. She mostly agreed to come simply so she could gain some early access to the Academy's library.
Speaking of which.
"Moritz, get all of the presentations set up. Rihyarda, Theresia, I want the two of you to assist the attendant class students in preparing for hosting the other Duchy's nobles. Make sure no one harrasses Nicola. She is my servant, and I will not stand for her being pressured." Rin said, handing out orders and letting the gathered students know that there would be consequences if any of them so much as insulted Nicola.
"Of course." Rihyarda said, not permitted to talk back in front of such a crowd, even though she wanted Rin to take more attendants than just the untrained Lieseleta.
"If you all need me, I'll be at the library. Angelica, Brigitte, lead the way."
Professor Solange was tired, much like she had been at the end of every academic term these last three years, since the death of the other four librarians who used to work together to keep the Royal Academy Library running before the purge.
Now she, a Mednoble, was doing the job once done by three Archnobles and two Mednobles. She lacked the mana and the political influence to properly do her job.
It seemed like a hundred students were choosing not to return their rented books this year, or had flat out stolen them in the first place, much like the year before.
So she was fairly sure she was just delusional when the oddest party she had even seen walked through the door, including four apprentice knights, two of which were wearing the black capes of the Sovereignty while the other two had Ehrenfest's yellow, a seven-year-old girl, what looked like a four-year-old girl, a girl with a cat's ears and tail, a girl with squirrel ears, a fluffy tail and horns, and what looked to be a giant deep blue Shumil wearing a maid outfit.
"Excuse me, you are Professor Solange, the Academy librarian, correct?" The tiny child said, walking up to Solange with a bright smile.
"That is right. How may I help you?" Solange replied.
"Let me introduce myself. I am Tohsaka, daughter of Aub Ehrenfest. I'll be staying at the academy for the duration of the Interduchy Tournament." She said, giving a slight bow. "I was hoping that my retainers and I could read some of the documents stored within the library. Is there some sort of protocol we need to follow?"
"Well, for use of the library, there is a registration fee, though you only need to pay it once. After that, you can continue to come here at any time." Solange said. It was odd, having such a small child wanting to visit the library. There weren't really any books that were appropriate for beginners, but she had no reason or power to argue with an Archducal Candidate, even one that barely reached her waist. "The fee is one small gold per person."
"That is reasonable." The child said before taking out her card which was used to transfer money. "Brigitte, Abigail, and Sylphina are likely already registered with the library, so I will be paying for myself, Angelica, Lieseleta, Taiga, Elysia and Tabitha. That's six people."
"...Very well." Solange said before going to get the paperwork that would need to be filled out and accepting the payment.
It seemed that Tabitha was the name of the giant Shumil.
Normally, Solange wouldn't have allowed pets into the library, but the Shumil seemed to know how to read and write and understood human speech… So what the heck. Besides, there was some nostalgia to it.
"Is there anything in particular you were hoping to find today?" Solange asked, curious more than expecting.
"A few things, actually. Descriptions of old rituals. Maps of the wild mana channels within the Kingdom. Records of the changes brought about by previous civil wars. And anything to do with the border gates and teleportation circles." Tohsaka listed off for the woman, much to her surprise. "Do you know where I could find such documents?"
"...I'm not entirely sure. Old rituals and records might be scattered about in the second archive through that door back there. The map, if such a map exists, would probably be part of an old professor's research notes, which would mean it would be located somewhere on the second floor." Solange said, pointing towards the door in the back of the first floor and the stairway leading up to the second. "As for materials related to the border gates and teleportation circles, those would be restricted access, either in the first archive or the underground archive. Only royals would be permitted access to them." She then hesitated. "I wish I could help you find exactly what you want, but I have no idea where those particular documents would be housed, as they are rarely used."
"Is there not some kind of record of what documents are kept where? Or a logic behind their organization?" Tohsaka asked.
"No, I'm afraid. There had never been a need for one in the past, since Schwartz and Weiss would know where everything was, but they are no longer active." Solange said with a sad shake of her head.
"Schwartz and Weiss?" Tohsaka asked, unsure of what Solange meant.
"Those." Solange said, pointing towards a black and white pair of bipedal Shumils that looked much like Tabitha, dressed in their maid-like outfits, only with a pair of visible Feystones lodged in their heads.
"Shumils!" Lieseleta squealed, dropping her calm elegance worthy of a high ranking noble attendant at the sight of the cute bunny-like creatures that were sitting up against a wall. "They are so cute." The girl said, almost drooling, before she felt a tug on her sleeve and looked down to see Tabitha staring up at her with large golden eyes full of hurt. "Ah, but not as cute as you are!" She quickly said to placate her pet's hurt feelings.
"Interesting. They are golems made to look like Shumils." Tohsaka said as she made to take a closer look.
"Please do not touch them!" Solange warned them quickly. "Their clothes are covered with defensive enchantments in order to defend them from thieves… Which is actually part of the problem. No one save for their master and those their master has given permission to can touch Schwartz and Weiss. So when their previous master died without giving permissions to anyone, it became impossible to assign them a new master, even if there was an Archnoble Librarian here to look after them."
"Is that so?" Tohsaka said, a smile spreading across her face as she reached into the folds of her dress and somehow pulled out magic tools that were far too large to have been hidden out of sight there. "That sounds like a challenge. Let's see if we can't get these golems running again."
"I… What?" Solange said in shock. "Pl…Please don't."
Tohsaka ignored her and Solange lacked the authority to stop an Archducal Candidate. So she quickly sent a message to the Royal Family hoping for assistance.
She soon got a reply from the Zent himself.
'Do not interfere with Tohsaka. Just watch her and report everything you see her do.'
…Solange's day had just taken a very odd turn.
""Welcome to the Library, Milady!"" Schwartz and Weiss said together as Rin finished imprinting her mana signature of them. The way the pair clumsily bowed to her made Lieseleta squeal again, putting a rabbit's pout on Tabitha's face.
It had been a multi-stepped process, of first draining the mana from their defenses by setting up a mana dead zone around them with a magic circle. After that, she had used a magic tool to analyze and replicate the signature of their previous master stored inside of the Feystones, the same as she had once done with Ferdinand's secret room. Then she used that to bring them into functioning order, with them believing she was their previous master, and then assigned herself as the new master candidate before filling them up with mana.
"That wasn't too bad." Rin said, puffing out her chest. It had taken around two hours, but that was significantly less time than she would have had to spend looking through the archives for the right books.
"Milady, when are we going to get new clothes?" Schwartz asked with a tilt of her head.
"Clothes?" Rin said, puzzled by the request.
"It is… tradition that they get new clothes whenever they are assigned a new Master." Solange said, staring in disbelief at the Shumils as they moved around once again.
"Is that so? Lieseleta, I'll leave the production of their clothes to you and add on the defensive magic charms myself later on." Rin said.
"Yes, Lady Tohsaka!" Lieseleta said, brimming with happiness, causing Angelica to giggle.
"Now, would you two be so kind as to lead us to any documents involving maps of the Kingdom's wild mana?" Rin asked the pair.
"Yes, Milady. This way." Weiss said, before leading Rin towards the stairs.
The Shumils guided her to a table where there were several chained books and showed her which ones were related to her requested topic, before going and grabbing loose papers and bringing them back to Rin.
Rin read through all of them in the course of two hours, while the others got to work designing Schwartz and Weiss's new clothes, Lieseleta showing off her expertise in Shumil clothing and Angelica her steady drawing hand.
"I see. It's as I feared." Rin sighed as she finished looking over the last of the maps.
"What is it?" Brigitte asked.
"Nothing. The data is too sparse and varying in accuracy. I'll need to design tools to measure it myself." Rin lied.
She'd confirmed that the flow of the mana in the Kingdom was not what one would call natural, and the positioning of the Duchies' Foundation Stones had something to do with it.
It was like it was creating a whirlpool effect, which was preventing high ether density mana from escaping, which was the reason for the fact that crops required purified mana in order to survive and spawning more powerful Feybeasts at a higher frequency, while the lands outside of the Kingdom's gates didn't have any such problem.
Such a thing couldn't have been a coincidence.
Had it been established by the nobles of old in order to insure that the commoners couldn't rise up against them, by making their existence key in order for the kingdom to survive?
No. That didn't quite make sense.
It also didn't take into consideration that the Kingdom, its foundations and its walls were all created by the Goddess of Wisdom herself, through the hands of the First King.
Given that, Rin was pretty sure that the Kingdom's existence served a purpose to the Gods themselves. Perhaps as a place to gather human prayers… or maybe… a seal.
If that high ether density mana was not natural, then it had to come from somewhere, or something. A creature, similar to Typhon, the father of monsters from Greek myth, who was locked away in Tartarus. Only with the noble's acting as part of the seal's self-maintenance system.
Assuming that was the case, how would the loss of the Goddess of Wisdom's instruction manual affect the seal? And what would happen if it broke? Likely a Ragnarok kind of scenario, with the Gods fighting against whatever was trapped inside, and with humanity likely caught in the crossfire.
"Shirou, I need you." Rin whimpered to herself in Japanese before slamming her head on the table.
Even if it was a battle with the Gods on the field, she'd feel a lot better about it if she had Shirou in her corner.
"Schwartz, can you lead me to where documents about the political climate around previous revolutions are kept?" Rin asked the black Shumil.
"Of course, Milady. Follow me." Schwartz said before waddling cutely along towards the stairs on the opposite corner of the building.
"Why did you want those?" Abigail asked her.
"Knowing the kinds of events that happened in the past might let us predict what will happen now, and prevent the worst of it." Rin offered, which the Knight accepted.
Really, she wanted to find what the difference between the Royals now and the Royals back then is. To find out why the Grutrissheit was not lost back then when a holder was killed.
Originally, Rin had planned to seek out the Grutrissheit eventually because it was just something she wanted to possess. A book created by the Goddess of Wisdom herself with instructions on how to create the Kingdom, as well as all of the original legends of the Gods of this world.
Such a thing was invaluable for a researcher, even if it hadn't been her top priority, compared to the Second True Magic.
Now she wondered if she was going to have to change priorities in order to prevent a possible end of the world situation.
At the very least, she didn't want the world to end while she and her loved ones were in it.
"Milady, please offer up mana to Grandfather." Schwartz said, much to Rin's surprise as they stopped in front of a statue of the Goddess of Wisdom holding a stone replica of her book, inlaid with Feystones, some kind of magic tool.
Normally, Rin would be interested, but she had other things on her mind.
But Schwartz seemed insistent on not moving. "Pray and offer up mana to Grandfather." Schwartz insisted again, pointing towards the stone book with a pawed hand.
Understanding that Schwartz wasn't going to move until she did, Rin gave in, put a hand on the stone and prayed to the Goddess of Wisdom, having a frankly irresponsible amount of mana drained out of her as she did so, enough to kill your average noble.
Rin felt slightly drained by it as she removed her hand, looking towards the happy Shumil Golems. "Grandfather is happy." They said before continuing on as if nothing had happened.
Rin wondered one last time about what the magic tool was and why the Shumil called it Grandfather, before pushing the thought back and continuing on. She had three days of researching ahead of her. She couldn't afford to waste a moment of it.
To answer the question of why people would live in such a death trap, it is because while the Kingdom falls apart if you don't have mana, it is living on easy street if you do, with crops growing reliably no matter how much you abuse the soil.
It's also the only place in the world where you can get a Schtoppe (their magic wands) and therefore the only way to get access to magic other than prayers or shooting mana bolts out of rings.
So the country is a pretty sweet place to live for both nobles and commoners... until it isn't.