"You… passed." Rauffen said in astonishment as he watched the young child who had passed her practical lessons on the very first day, the first time such a thing had happened in a decade.

Not only that, the one who did it wasn't an Archducal Candidate of a Greater Duchy, or even a talented Archnoble. She was a Mednoble from a middle-of-the-road Duchy.

Of course, Rauffen had had his eye on this one since her sword dance from before. The grace with which she moved was easily on par with the fifth and sixth-year knights' course students, which coupled with her fairy-like appearance made her stand out among her peers.

"Oh. …What do I do now?" Angelica said, tilting her head slightly.

"You don't need to do anything. You've passed. You passed all your classes in the first week, congratulations!" Rauffen laughed as he smiled down at the young lady.

There were whispers filling the room because of just how absurd her achievements had been, as while her grades in the written courses weren't the best, and all Archducal Candidates and most Archnobles passed those on the first day, the practical classes were a different sort of beast.

Most of the Archducal Candidates had already dropped to their knees unable to continue after only reaching the halfway point, but Angelica looked completely fine.

"I see. …What should I do now?" The girl asked again.

"...Well, usually when you finish is when socializing starts, but since you finished so early, most people will still be having classes." Rauffen said, scratching his chin. Angelica gave him a worried look, waiting for him to give her a more clear instruction. "So… What is it that you would like to do until others are done?"

"...Is there anywhere I can go to fight with strong people?" Angelica asked.

Rauffen blinked before bursting into laughter. "Girl, you are speaking my language!"

Angelica was happy that classes weren't that hard. She would have hated to have been a disappointment to Rin.

While Rin had said that she would always keep Angelica as a retainer, even if she failed her classes and was demoted to a commoner servant, Angelica wanted Rin to be proud of her.

In order to be a Knight worthy of Rin, Angelica would become the strongest. If she managed to beat all of the other Knights, that would prove that her Master was the best there was.

So to that end, she followed behind Rauffen after class as he led her towards the Knights' training field… a large group of girls following behind them, for some reason.

"She's so cute with her fluffy tail!" "What even is she?" "How do I get one?"

Oh. They were all admiring Elysia. Yes, she was very cute.

Elysia had been getting a lot of attention, even while they were in Ehrenfest, with many being extremely jealous of Angelica and Lieseleta for serving a Master who gave them such amazing gifts.

Most had wanted to be Rin's retainers, but other than her and Lieseleta, none were given the chance. She had a very high standard for who she would take… a standard that Angelica didn't pretend to understand as what kind of standards would have allowed for her.

"You can't be serious!" One of the boys who looked to be a fourth year Knight from Dunkelfelger shouted, snapping Angelica out of her musings.

She hadn't really been paying attention when Rauffen had been talking to the apprentice knights.

She observed the boy, who was roughly a head and a half taller than her, being a shocking six foot two at the age of thirteen, and probably weighing twice as much as Angelica did. His arms were long and shoulders broad and he wore his platinum hair cropped short.

Angelica wasn't too worried about him. While his size was large, which would add weight behind his swings, that weight would also slow him down. It would only be his wide horizontal swings she would need to look out for, but those who leave a large opening if she managed to avoid them.

No. She shouldn't assume that. The Knights from Dunkelfelger are supposed to be the best in the Kingdom. She would have to take them seriously.

Since Dunkelfelger only allowed the best of the best to become Knights, this boy naturally had to be an Archnoble.

"What's the matter?" Rauffen asked the boy, hands on his hips.

"This tiny little girl is supposed to train with us!? She doesn't look like she could even pass the tryouts for the Knights' Course! She looks like an Attendant! Why should we train with her?" The boy said.

"Because she is a determined youth who is here to learn, the same as the rest of you." Rauffen said, giving the boy a slight frown.

Here to learn? Now hold on a second, Angelica thought she was here to train, not learn.

She started to worry that she had gotten herself into a study group by mistake. "I'd like to fight against strong opponents." Angelica said, trying to remind Rauffen as to why she was there.

"Ttch, arrogant brat. You think you can keep up with us?" The boy clicked his tongue at Angelica.

"Mm. Shouldn't be that hard to keep up." Angelica nodded.

Speed was her speciality after all.

Though this didn't seem to be the response that the boy had wanted, as many people laughed.

"Knock it off! I say she can participate, and my word is law for you kids while we are at the academy!" Rauffen said as he crossed his muscular arms. "Now everyone start your warm ups! Two hundred push ups, sit ups and squats, and then two laps around the academy! Hope to it!" There were groans from the less experienced but Angelica just prepared to start. "Hold it right there Angelica. You need to wear these."

Rauffen held out a few weighable weights to Angelica, seeming to be around five pounds per limb. Not really that big of a deal. Angelica just nodded, put the weights on and got to her warm up.

Many of the Apprentice Knights were snickering for some reason that Angelica didn't understand. Had someone told a joke while she wasn't paying attention?

The laughter died down though as she finished her sit ups and was moving on to squats, though lots of people were still looking at her for some reason. She wondered why.

Angelica didn't realize that the students had assumed that Rauffen was setting her up to fail, since a normal first year wouldn't have learned body strengthening magic yet and with only just having learned mana compression and with rookie levels of mana control, they would quickly be burned dry even if they did now it.

Even basic body strengthening magic would use up all of their mana in a few minutes.

But with Rin's training, Angelica could keep hers on for hours. At least she could for her reinforcement-type strengthening magic.

Augmenting-type strengthening magic wasn't as easy.

While reinforcement-type strengthened the body by filling in the gaps and boosting your muscles to their fullest, augmenting-type worked by adding the concept of strength to your body.

The effect was not as dependent on your body's natural limits, and would work just as well for a muscular person as a skinny person. The trade off was that it was more difficult to cast and more costly to maintain.

Angelica had six magic tools, gifts from Rin, with mana reserves meant to be used in an emergency to strengthen herself with augmenting-type magic. One on each limb that would boost her physical strength. A belt that could add the concept of weight onto her body to help with blocking and putting weight behind her attacks. And a necklace containing a powerful blessing that would boost Angelica's overall capabilities, from her strength, speed and reflexes to even her mana circulation, for about a minute.

Not that she would tap into those for something as simple as a warm up.

With her reinforcement magic, she completed the warm up without breaking a sweat, while many of the newer Apprentice Knights had long since collapsed.

"Good hussle!" Rauffen shouted proudly before looking at the others. "Does anyone still have a problem with her being here!?" People grumbled and gave Angelica looks she didn't understand. "Alright then, break up into pairs. It is time for sparring."

Angelica's ears practically twitched with delight at those words. But as she looked back and forth she frowned. "Where are the practice swords?"

"Are you stupid?" The boy from before said as he walked out in front of her, taking out his schtappe. "Only children use practice swords. Schwert!"

"...Oh." Angelica said, seeing the sense in that.

Normally, one didn't start knight's training until the third year, so a spell learned in the second year was basically a prerequisite. Well, that was fine.

"Messer." Angelica said, causing a large but dull knife to appear in her hand.

It wasn't a sword, but it was the spell she had practiced.

"What is that supposed to be!?" The boy laughed mockingly. "Are you intending to fight me with that!?"

"...You'd like to spar with me?" Angelica asked with a tilt of her head, her glassy blue eyes locked onto the boy.

"Of course! I'm going to show you what a real knight can do!"

"Aren't you an apprentice?"

"S…Shut up!" The boy shouted, his cheeks turning red.

"...When do we start?"

"Right now!" The boy replied, not bothering with introductions, just pulling up his sword and rushing forward.

He put his weight behind a powerful two-handed swing… which Angelica immediately parried, stepping inside his striking distance and slamming her knife into his exposed stomach.

Even if the blade was dull and wouldn't cut him, the force of it knocked the air out of him and tossed him back. The boy curled up on the ground, cradling his stomach as Angelica returned to a neutral stance.

"First point is mine." She said calmly as she waited for her opponent to get back up.

…He didn't.

"Charles, that idiot. I can't believe he let his guard down in front of a little kid." Other knight apprentices said, shaking his head as the medical team showed up to help the fallen boy.

"That was a good parry." Rauffen said as he walked up to her, before seeing the disappointed look on her face. "What's the matter?"

"Hoping for strong opponents." Angelica said with a cute pout.

"Charles isn't exactly weak, but you're right, he doesn't take things seriously." Rauffen nodded. "Don't worry, we'll find someone better for you."

"...Can I fight you?" Angelica asked, puzzling Rauffen.

"You want to spar with me?" He asked, getting a vigorous nod out of Angelica.

Rauffen laughed. "If it is a fight you want, I'd be more than happy to bring it!" He formed his own sword and took up a stance in front of Angelica. "Come at me when you are ready."

That was all the invitation Angelica needed and the fight began.

Rauffen wasn't anything like the boy from before. His foundation was solid and he didn't waste movements or use large attacks that would leave openings. Despite it being dirty, he took full advantage of his weapon's superior length and his greater weight to keep Angelica from being able to get close enough to do anything. His speed and strength were not anything to scoff at either, as his powerful muscles allowed for fast movements just as much as Angelica's light frame did.

Not that Angelica minded at all, she was having a blast dancing around him, making faints and peppering his defenses, looking for something she could take advantage of, dodging or parrying his attacks whenever she felt his mana flaring from his own body strengthening magic.

Partial body strengthening magic was considered an advanced technique, which allowed one to conserve mana by only strengthening the parts of the body that were about to be used.

But even if they didn't create waste by strengthening the entire body, it was still a flawed technique as the pairs of the body that were strengthened would light up for someone who was in tone with their opponent, telegraphing their attack.

Angelica danced around with him for several minutes, the students around them stopping to watch in shock, with Elysia cheering for her master in the background.

Both Angelica and Rauffen had wide smiles on their faces as they both started to work up a light sweat.

However, it would be Angelica that made the first mistake.

Rauffen's mana was flaring, giving the impression based on the body parts he was strengthening that he was preparing for a quick slash from the upper right, but as Angelica moved to anticipate the attack, he readjusted his stance using strengthened muscles, producing a much wider swing as he stepped forward.

Angelica was caught off guard and had to block the attack, but with Rauffen weighing roughly three times as much as her, she was easily thrown off her feet and sent flying backwards.

She tried to readjust by pushing mana out of her legs in a technique Rin calls 'mana bursting'. She curled into a ball and used her added momentum to do a backflip and land on her feet in a beautiful display of acrobatics. Too bad Rauffen had chased after her and she found herself sticking the landing only to not have the stance ready to stop herself from being straight to the ground, this time with a sword in front of her chest.

"I… lost." Angelica said with a happy smile as she looked up at the instructor.

"You're good! I'm surprised you've already learned to read an opponent's mana flow to predict their moves! And with how well you manage your own mana, if things went on the way they were, I might have just ran out before you!" Rauffen said, stretching out a hand in order to help Angelica up. "But don't assume that you know exactly what your opponent will do. If they figure out that you are doing that, they can easily set up a trap."

"Thank you for the lesson." Angelica said, ready to ask for another round, only to be interrupted.

"Angelica!" Brigitte shouted as she ran over, her face pale.

"Are you alright, Brigitte?" Angelica asked with a tilt of her head.

"You… You were supposed to return to the dormitory right after your classes were over, and Elysia was supposed to stay in your room." Brigitte said, scolding her.

…Angelica adopted her most genuine puzzled face and smiled an apologetic smile. "Sorry. I forgot."

"You…" Brigitte said with a sigh before turning to Rauffen and bowing. "I'm terribly sorry for any trouble she has caused. I'm supposed to be looking after her, but I was stuck in my own exams and couldn't fetch her myself."

"You don't need to worry about it. It was a blast fighting her. She shows a lot of promise. I hope my students learned a thing or two by watching her." Rauffen said, brushing off Brigitte's apology. "But tell me, Angelica, you were trained by the Lord of Evil, weren't you?"

"...Rin isn't that evil." Angelica said with a frown.

"Rin?" Rauffen said, blinking in confusion.

"She means our Master, the Lady Tohsaka. She was the one who oversaw Angelica's training and education before she came to the Academy." Brigitte explained.

"Oh. So you weren't trained by Lord Ferdinand?" Rauffen asked, seeming a little disappointed.

Oh! Ferdinand was the Lord of Evil. That made sense. Rin was always saying how evil that man was at his core.

"No. I wasn't trained by the High Priest. He is the enemy who I must protect my Lady from." Angelica said with determination.

She was pretty sure she wouldn't be able to take Ferdinand by herself just yet, but with Brigitte, Elysia, Taiga, and Rin's help, they could probably beat him.

Nothing was for sure on the battlefield though.

"High Priest? Enemy?" Rauffen said in confusion.

"Our Master has a very odd rivalry with Lord Ferdinand. They enjoy tormenting each other, but they aren't truly enemies." Brigitte said, flushing as she tried to pinch Angelica's side, but failed due to body strengthening magic.

Angelica wondered why she had tried to do that.

"Who is this Lady Tohsaka? I've never heard of an Ehrenfest Knight by that name. When did they graduate from the Academy?"

"She hasn't. Though she's supposed to start to live here at the Royal Villa after her baptism this Summer." Angelica said as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

…Why was everyone staring at her?

"Master! Save me!" Elysia cried as she stormed into the room while Angelica was reading her tea party invitation letters, and trying to decipher what these 'bridal challenges' she was receiving from some Dunkelfelger boys were about.

At first she thought they were challenges to a duel, but they kept telling her to show her skill with embroidery, host a tea party and extract information of value from a certain individual.

She couldn't make heads or tails of them, and her great aunt, who was her one allotted attendant while at the Academy, had only asked her which of the boys she liked the most.

How was she supposed to answer that? She didn't even know who any of them were.

It was at this time that Elysia came running into the room on all fours, despite being in her human form, the hair on her tail standing on end.

Angelica immediately drew her mana blade and stood between her familiar and the doorway, ready to defend her again whatever attacker was coming their way.

Though when the intruder arrived, Angelica was momentarily struck dumb.

"Hm… How interesting. You seem to share a similar mana signature as this creature. No… You've imprinted on it, haven't you? How curious. It should be impossible to dye a living Feybeast." The woman said as she adjusted her monocle, a pleased smile on her face, which looked familiar to Angelica, while at the same time different.

The woman was a bit over forty years old, with slight crows feet at the corners of her eyes, demonstrating that she didn't keep up with her appearance as diligently as most nobles. Her hair was jet black, long, but tied up in a loose and simple fashion, as if she had done the job herself rather than counting on attendants. Her robes had stains around the arms that were obvious despite their black color and she held herself with an air of confidence that was unmistakable.

She looked like an older Rin.

She was a professor, but not one that Angelica could recall having seen before.

"Hirschur, what are you doing here?" Angelica's attendant asked in shock.

Hirschur? Who was Hirschur?

Since she was able to enter the Ehrenfest dorm, she must have been related to Ehrenfest, but Angelica had never heard of her.

But the woman completely ignored the question. "Child, tell me. What is that creature that is hiding behind you?"

Angelica was confused and didn't put her weapon away, but she didn't see a reason not to answer. Though in accordance with etiquette, she needed to introduce herself to a higher status noble first. "May I pray for a blessing in appreciation…"

"Stop wasting my time and just answer the question!" Hirschur snapped.

"...She's Elysia, my eifinte familiar." Angelica said, puzzled by the woman's lack of etiquette.

Then again, Rin had often done the same thing with Benno.

"An eifinte, you say. Yes, her pink hair, tail, ears and horns do match that of a eifinte, but how has it obtained a human form? How did you dye it in your colors and maintain that dying?" Hirschur said as she scratched her chin.

"...I don't know." Angelica readily admitted.

"What do you mean you don't know? How could you manage it without knowing?" Hirschur pressed her with a hard stare from behind her monocle.

"My Lady was the one who set up the ritual. All I did was channel my mana into the circle." Angelica told the woman. "If you want any of the details, you'd have to ask her, because I simply do not know them."

"Is that so? And who exactly is this Lady of yours?" Hirschur asked with a smile that was so much like Rin's whenever she was curious about something. She even adopted the same unlady-like stance with her hips cocked and her arms folded, disregarding normal noble posture.

"My Lady is the Lady Tohsaka."

"Princess… Must you?" Rihyarda said uncomfortable as Rin dressed herself.

"Probably not. But I am going to." Rin said as she pulled on her short cut, dark red jacket over her white blouse. She was also wearing a black shirt that went down to her knees, some warm black spandex leggings and a scarf made from bamboo fiber.

At least two of her articles of clothing were made with methods never seen before in this world and couldn't currently be bought on the market, and Rin decided to show them off herself. They didn't fit the current trend among the nobility, even if the patterns sewed into the jacket and dyed into the leggings and scarf using a stencil design would meet the world's standards for fancy.

They were way too sporting for most noble ladies.

Did she think it was pop off? Not really. Noble society was obsessed with high quality and showing off money, not comfort or convenience. In fact, the more inconvenient and showy it was, the better in their eyes.

Rin was just tired of wearing frills every single day. She was also tired of clothes that felt restrictive on her body and that she could neither put on or remove by herself.

She was a little embarrassed that she spent a whole two large gold coins to make herself spandex leggings and underwear, but that was the price of comfort. It was so much warmer than what she had been wearing, and it was damn cold outside, despite this being the mildest Winter that Ehrenfest had seen in a hundred years.

Rin checked her reflection in the mirror… and was disappointed.

She was six. It was going to be a long while before she would be turning any heads with her womanly beauty, even ignoring the issue of her height.

Well, that didn't matter. It still looked pretty good on her, even if she would stand out like a sore thumb.

"Nya! Master is right, this feels so much better than those silly dresses!" Taiga said as she stretched out her arms, taking full advantage of the range of movement provided by the less restrictive clothes.

With tight pants instead of a skirt, her slight height advantage, and her feline features… it all looked a whole lot better on the catgirl than it did on the pint sized Rin.

Taiga would have to be her poster girl for the new fashion.

"Looking good. Now, time to see the children." Rin said proudly, Rihyarda sighing, as she knew she was powerless to stop Rin from doing whatever she pleased, if she really wanted to.

For the last month, Rin had been busy with the Dedication Ritual, working at it pretty much every day in order to stockpile mana. She'd even been tapping into her supply of potions in order to restore her strength and generate more mana.

By the time the window for doing the Dedication Ritual closed, Rin had filled enough mana chalices to satisfy Ehrenfest twice over, getting Sylvester to sell the others to Fernbeltag and Ahrensbach in order to play for the Lord of Winter's Feystone, while at the same time getting Ferdinand to continue to spread railroad tracks across the Duchy and into Fernbeltag and Ahrensbach.

Last harvest had gone extraordinarily well, and in the next year, there would be ample resources needed for Benno to increase the number of trains from one to six.

After that, business really would be booming.

But because she had been so busy, she hadn't been interacting with any of the nobles at all for Winter Socializing since the Dedication RItuals had started.

Now that she had a gap in her schedule, she wanted to go and check on Charlotte.

Rin hadn't exactly been invited, but she felt like dropping in with a few snacks was just fine. Otherwise some of the children's parents might get weird about it.

So the knight at the door was very flustered when Rin asked if she could be allowed in and quickly opened the door for her.

Charlotte was there with several other children, girls around her own age or a few years older, who were all likely candidates for becoming her retainers. They were all gathered around a table, playing karuta while Professor Moritz read the cards.

"Tohsaka." Charlotte said, smiling brightly when she saw Rin enter the room.

"Good afternoon. I hope everyone is doing well." Rin said, smiling back at the young girl. "I'd recently finished my duties for the year and decided to check on you all. I've also brought a few sweets for everyone to try."

The children and their overseers were all happy to hear that as Nicola, who had become Rin's personal chef instead of her Temple attendant, and two other chefs, wheeled out a few zilt nut cakes, covered in a simple frosting.

Zilt nut's were a type of nut in this world that was the closest thing that Rin could find to cocoa nuts.

While they didn't produce real chocolate, no one in this world was familiar with real chocolate, so they thought it was amazing, instead of an unfortunate substitute. When they were mixed with the cake batter, they turned it a bright shade of red, which people thought was appropriate for Winter, given that red was supposed to be the seasonal color.

Rin and the children ate their dessert, while she quizzed them a little to see how their education was going.

Their ages ranged from four to six, with Charlotte only having recently turned four herself, though she was already almost as tall as Rin was. …It didn't bother her. It didn't bother her, really. Shut up already!

The children all knew their letters, could read a little and knew how to count and add small numbers together, which was acceptable to pretty good for their ages.

Charlotte asked Rin if she would read to them and play some harspiel for them. Rin entertained the children for a while until fifth bell, when it came time for many of them to start to leave with their parents.

At that time, Professor Moritz approached Rin. "Professor Tohsaka, may I have a word?" The young Professor asked her nervously.

"Of course. Do you have a question for me?" Rin asked the man, expecting to be asked about educational materials, or a question of scientific theory. So she was surprised by his next words.

"It is actually something… sensitive. Best to be discussed in private." Professor Moritz said, rubbing his hands together as he looked around at the attendants and guards that served Florencia and Charlotte.

"...I see. We can speak in the bookroom then." Rin said before leaving with the family tutor. They went to the bookroom, which as usual was basically abandoned and sat down at one of the tables. "So. What is it?"

"It is about Lord Wilfried." Professor Moritz said.

"Is there something wrong with him?" Rin asked, honestly not knowing.

She'd only seen Wilfried on a half dozen occasions and while he hadn't left the best of impressions, always seeming to be throwing some kind of childish fit about how life wasn't fair, Rin didn't really know much about him.

"To be frank, yes." Moritz said bluntly. "Lord Wilfried has been skipping his lessons. ALL of his lessons. He has been refusing to learn entirely. Despite almost being six years old, he has yet to learn the alphabet."

"What!?" Rihyarda said in shock.

"...This seems more like something that should be brought up with his retainers and with Lord Sylvester and Lady Veronica." Rin said, now seeing why the man had been hesitant to talk about it in front of Charlotte and all her retainers.

Because of political games, such people might have actively attempted to sabotage Wilfried in order to improve Charlotte's chances of becoming Archduchess in the future.

"His retainers know about it but refuse to discipline him, and every time I tried to bring it up with Lord Sylvester and Lady Veronica, they don't listen." Moritz miserably.

"Why isn't anyone doing anything about this?" Lieseleta asked, surprised by the fact that Lord Wilfried was so far behind in his studies.

"It is because Lord Sylvester has already named Wilfried as his heir. None of his retainers are motivated to make him study to be the best candidate for the position, because he has already been guaranteed it. As for Lord Sylvester and Lady Veronica, they just think that Lord Wilfried is like his father." Moritz replied uncomfortably. "…Also, I had hoped that Lady Tohsaka would change her mind in the future and supplant Wilfried in order to become the Archduchess."

"Does Wilfried himself not feel embarrassed by his shortcomings?" Rin asked.

"He's kept in his own little world, where all his retainers keep reassuring him that he is a genius and can do whatever it is that he wants." Moritz admitted with a sigh.

"Did the blow he received to the head from Angelica teach them nothing?" Rin sighed, palming her face. "Well, it can't be helped then. Just make sure you train the young siblings to take his place once it is all over."

"What? Are you not going to do anything?" Lieseleta asked in shock.

"Leesey, I might be able to help to teach Wilfried all of the knowledge that he is missing, but that wouldn't fix the problem. I mean, would you trust Angelica with being Archduchess, even if I managed to get her to pass all the courses?" Rin asked the girl. Lieseleta quickly shook her head, imagining Angelica as Aub, mindlessly letting people do whatever they wanted because she didn't want to think and attempting to run off to fight the Lord of Winter by herself. "With his personality and his retainers, it would be better for Ehrenfest as a whole if he simply shames himself and is replaced. Otherwise we are just going to end up with another Lord Sylvester, an Aub who skips out on work and has a large number of retainers who are absolutely worthless."

Was that brutal and cruel? Not really. It wasn't like Wilfried would die or anything. He'd just not inherit the seat of Aub. And the needs of the whole of Ehrenfest had to come before that of just one boy and his lazy retainers.

"He's got almost two years before his debut, if the situation changes before then, then maybe there was nothing to worry about. Otherwise, him and his retainers couldn't have been trusted with Ehrenfest in the first place."

The position of leader was one of duty, not of right.

That's why Rin had no interest in it.

Maybe I don't have her personality down right, but I don't think Rin would bother trying to save Wilfried.

She'd just write him off as not being the right man for the job and let him get disinherited and all his retainers get kicked to the curb. Which would honestly be fair, since even after a massive Spring cleaning, his retainers kind of suck, much like Sylvester's.

Doesn't help his case that she's barely had any contact with him and she's leaving the Duchy anyways.