Rihyarda and Lieselita were already waiting for Rin by the time she reached the castle in her Highbeast car, as well as Lieselita's shumil familiar, Tabitha.

While the ceremony to establish a familiar bond was a success, Lieselita's magic power was only a fraction that of her older sister's at this point, let alone RIn's, and the imprint wasn't as strong, resulting in a shumil that had grown from one foot tall, to three feet tall, and gained the ability to understand Lieselita's commands and walk on its hind legs.

This was still enough to send Lieselita over the moon though as she seemed to have a love of shumils… a serious love for them.

Seeing Tabitha dressed in a hand stitched maid outfit was a sight to behold.

Rin wondered if the shumil's magic signature will have stabilized or if it would start to change again as Lieselita continued her own growth. Would the changes be gradual, or would they see, sudden break points.

Rin was curious.

"Welcome home, Milady." Rihyarda said with a bow as Rin and Angelica exited their ride, with Brigitte dismounting from hers as well. Taiga and Elysia also hoped out, the two Feybeasts having returned to their former appearance as a zartze and eifinte.

Rin had found it interesting that the pair could switch back and forth by suppressing the change to their magic signatures, but it wasn't entirely unexpected.

Cat-Sith were a common type of familiar created using the corpse of a dead cat, which could freely transform between a human-like body and its original shape of a cat.

But while their ability to transform wasn't unexpected, it was certainly convenient. As no one would expect a cat and a squirrel to obey court etiquette. And letting the pair observe them while they moved about the castle was likely to be their best way to learn.

Surprisingly, while no one batted an eye at Tabitha or Elysia, they gave Taiga dirty looks as they walked past.

It seemed that zartze were famous for stealing Feystones and other magic tools that caught their attention, and they grew more powerful and dangerous the more of them they ate. There were tales of zartze who stole a woman's wedding necklace, before evolving into a siltze the size of a large carriage and smashing the woman's mansion to pieces. So while shumil and eifinte were not uncommon pets for nobles, with shumil being extremely popular, no one wanted a zartze around.

Rin picking such a Feybeast was completely unintentional, but oddly appropriate. A Feybeast who loved Feystones.

"How long will preparations be before I meet with Father?" Rin asked, fully expecting to need around an hour to 'freshen up' before they would deem her ready for a meeting with the Archduke, something which never failed to annoy her.

So she was both pleasantly surprised and slightly worried by Rihyarda's next words. "Actually, your father has requested that I take you straight to his office upon arrival."

"...That is unexpected. Is anything wrong?" Rin asked, no longer suspecting that she had been called to the castle in an attempt to pressure her into providing more mana to the foundation, or to give preferential treatment to some noble or other for her business, or to try to trade her personal chef to them. The first two would have been annoying, and the last one was not going to happen.

She didn't care if he was the Archduke, he couldn't have Nicola. Rin had seen the castle's kitchens and she wasn't sending sweet little Nicola into that vipers pit full of sausages.

"I'm I expected to have to stay long?" Rin asked.

"I believe so." Rihyarda nodded.

"Then Lieselita, please find Ottilie and work with her to see to the arrangements with the castle staff for mine and Angelica's stay. If I am here for long, we might as well arrange for a tea party with Wilfried and Charlotte as well. Observe Ottilie and learn everything you can from her." Rin suggested.

"Of course, Lady Tohsaka." Lieselita said with a proper bow before heading off to do as she was told.

"What about me?" Brigitte asked quietly, noticing that no arrangements had been made for her stay.

"I want you to send word to Benno that I may be stuck at the castle and check with your brother to make sure everything is ready for the railroad's test run." Rin replied.

"Of course." Brigitte said, before taking off.

Most would consider leaving their charge unusual behavior for an escort knight, even at the castle, but Brigitte had come to accept that her lady was not a normal child, and could defend herself. Much like Ferdinand, Rin didn't need a guard.

Angelica was also there, and she was surprisingly skilled for her age, and easy for attackers to underestimate.

"Rihyarda, please escort me to Father." Rin ordered the old attendant.

"Of course." Rihyarda said before guiding Rin to Sylvester's office.

Rin was surprised when she was actually taken to Sylvester's office and the man himself was really there. He was even sitting behind his desk and doing paperwork. It must have been the first time she had ever seen him doing his job.

Another bad sign.

Sylvester looked up from his desk, seeing Rin before putting down his pen and standing up. "Good. You're here. Everyone, clear out. I wish to speak with my daughter alone." Sylvester ordered his attendants, scholars and knights.

Rin perked up a little at this. A once in a lifetime chance to be alone in the room with the Archduke.

…Fuck. She'd left the magic tools needed to perform a thorough brainwashing back at the Temple. The spells she had on hand wouldn't work against someone with as much magic resistance as the Archduke.

While she lamented this loss, everyone left the room, save for Angelica.

"You too Angelica." Sylvester said.

Rin's knight turned her head towards Rin for confirmation, only leaving once Rin gave her the okay.

Rin smiled internally at this, as Angelica would not accept orders from anyone else, not even the Archduke.

After Angelica left and the door was closed behind her, Sylvester's noble mask fell and he performed the legendary double facepalm, letting out a long, four second groan/whimper.

"...Dare I ask what the disaster is?" Rin asked as she awkwardly climbed up onto an armchair, once it became clear that Sylvester wasn't going to be the first to speak.

"...The Starbind Ceremony is going to be held in three days." Sylvester said after a moment's pause.

Rin raised an eyebrow. She was vaguely aware of the Starbind Ceremony as being a sort of marriage ceremony that happens once a year during the Summer. There was nothing off about it. It was just a normal group wedding as far as Rin could tell, and if it was inappropriate for her to preside over a baptism, it was super inappropriate for her to be the one doing the Starbind.

Usually, kids would not be allowed at it at all.

"If someone asked for me to perform the ceremony, just tell them no." Rin said.

"That isn't what is going on." Sylvester said with a shake of his head. "A Laynoble from Frenbeltag is marrying into a family in Ehrenfest. And for reasons unexplained, my older sister is using the opportunity to visit. And so is Count Traeburg."

…It took a moment for the name to register with Rin, but when it did, her eyebrows shot up. "My grandfather?"

Count Traeburg was the father of the woman whom Rin was claiming to be the daughter of.

"Uncle, actually. The previous Count Traeburg had dementia and retired last year. The current one is your mother's half brother, born to the first wife, while your mother was born to the third." Sylvester said, filling Rin in on the latest news from Frenbeltag that Rin was not yet privy to. "Do you know what his relationship with your mother was?"

"No. I don't remember her ever mentioning her family, or having ever met them myself." Rin replied with a shake of her head. "I can't imagine them being close though. No one ever came to visit us at the third wife's villa."

Rin was aware that her claimed mother had been low down on the totem pole, being a daughter of a third wife and a third wife herself. It made Rin's story about being a hidden child easier for people to believe, as children of the first wife are almost always publicly announced, while children of the second and third wife would normally remain secret until their baptism.

Rin's abnormally high magic power during a time of unrest would also be a reason to hide her existence.

Rin was pretty sure that Sylvester had already realized that her background story was full of holes, but was willing to play along anyways.

"Well, regardless, it's pretty clear why they are coming here. They are going to try to claim you." Sylvester said seriously.

"...That wouldn't make sense. Even if they are blood related, they passed up on the chance to adopt me, and unless you revoke your adoption, they wouldn't be able to." Rin said with a frown. "What are they going to do? Claim that you kidnapped me?"

"..."

"You're joking. Frenbeltag is currently surviving on Ehrenfest charity, as laughable as that is. They can't afford to pick fights." Rin said, forgetting to fake respect due to her shock. Not that Sylvester seemed to care.

"The people who would try to do it aren't looking at the bigger picture. They are only concerned with their own territory, not their Duchy as a whole, and gaining a child who has enough mana to be adopted by an Archduke under their thumb would help their own province even if the entire rest of the Duchy crumbles." Sylvester said with a shake of his head.

"And what of your sister? Do you have a good relationship with her?" Rin asked, expecting the answer to be no.

She was surprised.

"Constanze is going to complain my ear off about all of the trouble I am causing her and tell her I am going to owe her even more favors for helping us out after this." Sylvester said with a sigh. "You don't need to worry about Constanze trying to force you to leave. But we are going to have to think of a way to make it up to her, since she is going to be the one to deal with the political fallout in her Duchy if she sides with us against Count Traeburg."

Rin was taken aback. She had assumed that Slyvester would have been on bad terms with his older sister, as he was named the heir on account of his gender despite being the younger sibling.

Not that there was no reason for boys to be preferred over girls for such roles. Not when the main job of an Archduke is to provide mana, and a pregnant woman couldn't do so without harming the child.

Even Rin understood that if she wanted to have a baby, that would mean nine long months of no research and minimal use of magecraft. And with a noble woman expected to have four or five children, that is a lot of time spent unable to perform one's duties.

"But the real question is, what do you want to do?" Sylvester said, looking at Rin with serious eyes. "If you want, you could go back to Frenbeltag."

"Hm…" Rin hummed as she thought the proposal over.

While Frenbeltag was in a politically worse position and had less mana, those weren't really a concern for Rin. The place did have a better climate than Ehrenfest, but that wasn't really much of a concern for Rin either. Count Traeburg would be a safer and more easily manipulated guardian than Aub Ehrenfest, but if they were willing to pull something like this, they probably had enemies or some kind of debt.

And in the end, she was quite well settled into Ehrenfest. She'd be giving up a lot of money, power and freedom to go to Frenbeltag. Not to mention the orphanage, Angelica and Lieselita, and Tuuli. She'd likely never see them again if she went to Frenbeltag.

If Frenbeltag was a more powerful territory with a long history of research with which to entice her with, that would be different. If it was Central asking for her and offering her access to their research labs and documents, Rin would truly be conflicted, but as it is, it would be a step down in every aspect of Rin's lifestyle.

"No thanks. I'm pretty satisfied with life at the Temple." Rin finally said.

"D…Did you really have to think about it that long?" Sylvester said nervously before sighing. "I mean it though. If you want us to, your mother and I will let you go. As much as we would hate to see you go, we want you to be happy."

…Was this some kind of inept con? He knew she wouldn't want to leave so he was pretending to be willing to see her go in order to win points with her? Does he think she's stupid?

"That's alright. I don't really have any happy memories of Frenbeltag anyways, and I never met anyone from my mother's family." Rin replied.

"...I suppose so." Sylvester said a little solemnly. "Well, if you don't want to leave, that is that. But I'd like for you to stay in the castle until they have all gone back to Fernbeltag."

"You think they would try to kidnap me?" Rin asked, not at all shocked by this.

"I'd just rather not take the chance. Just stay at the castle and don't go anywhere without a guard." Sylvester told her.

"I understand." Rin said, nodding her head. She was annoyed, but there wasn't much that could be done about it, and the Frenbeltag nobles would be there for a week at the most. "I'll need to make a quick trip back to the Temple in order to grab my research materials, for while I am waiting."

"Alright. And bring those cooks of yours too while you are at it." Sylvester said, earning a deadpan look from his adopted daughter. "What?"

Ferdinand came to Sylvester's office slightly after Rin had left. "So, what is the verdict?" The High Priest asked his half brother.

"It's like you suspected. She doesn't seem at all interested in her mother's family. Though not for the usual reasons. She just doesn't remember any of them." Sylvester said with a shake of her head.

It wasn't uncommon for third wives to feel either abandoned or used by their families, leaving long lasting feelings of resentment, which they pass on to their children. Only Tohsaka hadn't displayed any of that. She didn't hold any sort of grudge, she was just completely uninterested.

"Considering how unlikely it is that she really is the daughter of the former Count Zartedt, it is not surprising that she doesn't hold any real love for them." Ferdinand said. "Also, Justus has reported his finding on house Zartedt's former head."

"And?" Sylvester asked, knowing full well that Justus was a far more competent scholar and spy than any of his own men. Any information he dug up was worth paying attention to.

"The formal reason why the man was sentenced to death was because of his connections to members of the Rebel faction making him a suspected collaborator. Part of the evidence given for his guilt was a large amount of materials that he purchased being found at the residents of rebel faction members." Ferdinand said. "Could be planted evidence, but it is very damning all the same. As for Tohsaka, there was no evidence in the former Count's movements that would suggest that he had a child to his third wife."

"Are you suggesting adultery?" Sylvester asked.

It wasn't an impossibility. Not among Archnobles who rarely checked in on their less popular wives in the first place.

"No. Something a bit more inconvenient to us than that." Ferdinand said with a shake of his head. "No one ever found Princess Aelita's body, and if the girl was alive, she'd be around Tohsaka's age."

"...Oh shit." Sylvester said, realizing what his half brother was suggesting, that Tohsaka was really the missing princess, who had been stashed away in the villa of Count Zartedt's third wife and ended up convinced that the woman who was taking care of her was her mother.

If true, this wasn't just bad. This was terrible.

If the Zent found the girl in Ehrenfest, it could get their entire Duchy's loyalty called into question. They could all be accused of treason.

"Are you sure?" Sylvester asked.

"Of course I'm not sure. Nothing about Tohsaka's background is for sure. We only know that her being an Archnoble's daughter is basically impossible. No child of two Archnobles would have as much mana as she has, or possess all of the elements. In the last hundred years, there has only been twelve individuals who were born with all the elements, and all but one of them was a royal." Ferdinand reasoned, not bothering to mention that he was the 'but one'. "There are other possible royals from before the purge she could be the daughter of, but for the sake of safety, I would suggest sending a message to the royal family explaining our suspicions. It will stop us from being accused of treason later, when the girl is baptized and her number of elements becomes a commonly known fact."

"...Shouldn't we talk to Tohsaka about this first?" Sylvester asked.

"Do you think she would tell us the truth, even if she knew it?" Ferdinand countered.

"I suppose not. But I don't want to work behind her back. I don't want to add to my own daughter's trust issues." Sylvester said with a shake of his head.

"You would risk the safety of our entire Duchy for something like that?" Ferdinand asked him.

"Didn't our father do the same for you?" Sylvester asked back, getting the smallest of reactions from his half brother. "I don't want politics to ruin my family, and for that, I'm willing to do what I have to, even if it isn't in the best interest of the Duchy. I promised Florencia that before she married me, and I intend to keep that promise."

"How did a love struck fool like you ever become Aub?" Ferdinand said with a sigh, palming his eyes.

"You have no one to blame but yourself. If I didn't have to try my ass off to impress my baby brother, I would have never made it." Sylvester replied with a smile.

Ferdinand shook his head. "Fine. It is your right as Aub to do what you wish, but my advice stands." The High Priest said before leaving Sylvester alone again in his office.

Neither of them had noticed the small red bead that had been lodged into the folds of the armchair, and since it would desolve as soon as its magic energy ran out, no one would ever find it.

Rin was surprised and annoyed by Ferdinand's conspiracy theories about her origins, as they could only cause trouble for her.

While being in the Sovereignty would have its benefits, she didn't want to deal with the even greater hassle of being a royal princess. There was no way anyone would leave her alone to do her research then.

Though when Sylvester openly declared that he wouldn't try to work behind Rin's back… she had been surprised.

She couldn't believe it. She had assumed that the man and his wife were always putting on a face whenever they said that she was like a true daughter to them, but Sylvester couldn't have known that Rin had been listening in on his conversation. Why would he continue the act even when she wasn't in the room?

…Was he actually for real?

"Lady Toksaka?" Lieselita said, pulling Rin out of her trance. "Your bath is ready."

"Thank you, Lieselita." Rin said with a smile before glancing towards Angelica, Taiga and Elysia. "Come on. The bath is big, so we can all take one together."

She had time to worry about Sylvester later. For now, she just wanted to relax in a nice warm bath.

Brin: "Given there are about 300 noble families in the duchy, ~100 children up to the age of 5 sounds about right. That most are boys simply means that those 300 families produce about 150 to 200 children every 5 years - if anything that is a low figure. Only 5 or 6 would mean only 1 additional child born per 300 families every year - which is just unrealistic. Rin just wasn't thinking clearly - or was imagining births based on modern Japan (with its notoriously low birth rate)."

There is something you are not getting here, and that is that if 100+ children up to the age of 5 made it to the orphanage, that means more than four times that number had already died. A child with untreated mana managing to survive until the age of 2 is very unusual, and would only happen for those of the lowest mana quantity. Not to mention that not all families would be involved in simply allowing their children to die. Also, the 300 families include those who are too old to have children and too sympathetic to just want their children die.

So it is more like 50 children from 100 family every year are left to die a slow a horrible death.

The fact that 800 nobles produced more than double the number of orphans as the 300,000+ commoners (not including the ones that are already dead) is an absolutely insane number, and shows just how heartless the nobility really is, especially since while it costs 5 small gold coins to buy the magic tools needed to raise a child to become a noble, just keeping them alive is basically free. All you need to do is press a Feystone to them and then remove the magic power from the Feystone afterwards. This is shown in one of Freida's side stories.

While the magic tools she uses costs 5 small gold coins (2.8 because it is a used one) it can be recycled endlessly, and she only needs it because she doesn't live with a noble.

It is just that the nobles don't view a child who can't offer anything to the family as being worth being kept alive, as they are just an embarrassment or harmful towards family politics.

Also, people don't seem to understand that half-siblings can marry in this world, and Rin being suspected of being the half-sister of the Princes would probably increase the odds of her being forced to marry one of them.