Ferdinand 3rd Year Royal Academy

After all the small devices were placed on the table, I glared at them. Most of them had a similar feel and design implying that they were made by the same person. However, the two extra on Eckhart had differences in both mana quality and design. It made me think that there were three separate people who were placing these devices on my people. Lasfam words made suspect that one of those people was Peter. It would be fairly easily for him and his lady to place devices on Lasfam, Heidemarie, and Eckhart. But then, how did Werkestock locate him? Too many questions and not enough answers. Then perhaps I should go to the source. Seeing as Lady Minerva usually had trouble masking her emotions, it would be child's play to pick up information from her. I reached into my pouch and pulled out an Ordonnanz, tapping it once with my schtappe, before speaking into the little bird.

"Heisshitze, this is Ferdinand. I would like a meeting with your lady. To discuss her scholar's mischief." Then I sent the bird off with a flick of my schtappe. Heidemarie Justus, Lasfam and I began studying the little tools in more depth. First confirming that there weren't more functions to them, like the ability to listen. We were just confirming that for the first tool when the little white bird returned and perched on my shoulder. It was unnerving how quickly it had returned, but I tapped the bird. The response was a very familiar female voice instead of Heisshitze's boisterous tone.

"Little Flower, we will welcome you in two days' time, at the Dunkelfelger tea party room. Bring all of your retainers."

We, I frowned at that. Normally, it would be a meeting between Lady Minerva and myself, with obvious implications that there would be chaperons, but Minerva implied at least one of her siblings would also be there. The swiftness of the meeting was another interesting point, implying that this was of far greater importance than I had initially thought.

"We need to prepare. I do not want surprises." My scholars collectively nodded and got up. The sight of Lasfam joining the other two instantly had warning bells going off in my mind. "Lasfam, you will over see the results of my project, Verdränner's Wrath. I want everything written up and, on my desk, before I go to bed." That should keep him busy and out of harm's way for today. My quiet laynoble scholar crossed his arms in a proper bow, and even seemed to smile. Perhaps I had been too obvious in my attempt to shield him.

"As you wish, My lord."

My other two scholars came back not long before the bell tolled. The God of Darkness had once again spread his cloak across the sky. But both of my scholars had satisfied looks on their face despite being gone for a while. They also both refused to eat before presenting their intel. Justus went first presenting information on Dunkelfelger's response to the incident. It seemed Lord Werdecraft had spoken to Peter about the rumors that were flying that the scholar had 'assaulted' Lasfam. People believed Peter to be a young Ewigeliebe who was jealously lashing out for the time I spent training with the elder Dunkelfelger princess. Ridiculous, I nearly scoffed, but I kept my noble mask in place. Justus, on the other hand, did not bother. He chuckled. When I raised an eyebrow, he answered my unspoken question.

"I certainly don't think the Dunkelfelger scholar 'attacked' poor Lasfam because he is a young Ewigeliebe. However, I cannot say the description is inaccurate. Too many 'accidents' happen to the princess' enemies when he is around. Malfunctioning magic tools, corrupted magic circles, rips in clothing, broken glass vials, little things that can be brushed off because they seem like mistakes. Nothing major ever happens other than minor inconveniences or embarrassments, so no one looks closely." Until Justus noticed. His words also implied that either Peter was creating tools small enough for minor sabotages or he had inside help. Possibly both. I remembered him singing and charming many young ladies.

"Did he try to defend himself?"

An odd look passed over my hidden scholar's face. "Not at all."

I tapped two fingers on my temple. Why would someone as smart as Peter expose a potential weakness like this? He could have at least danced around it to help ensure that not only did people not look too closely at me, but not reveal his lady as his own weakness. They would target… My mind raced a head and I had to fight the urge to grin. Of course! What better way to draw out your enemies than by baiting them to attack a stronger force. Lady Minerva had already made a name for herself dueling. She also was adequately skilled in gewinnen, despite being female. And while she was poor at Grammalatur's dance, she quite capable at using Verbergen's cloak while facing Schlageziel's challenges.

"I see." My smile was all the encouragement Heidemarie needed. She beamed before laying out the details of her own report.

"According to what I over heard from Magdalena's guard knights; she is not pleased with her twin's perceived inability to handle her people. The general feel is that Lady Minerva causes a lot of trouble for her younger sister." A sentiment I very agreed on. "However, there is a lot of speculation as to whether or not Peter actually did anything at all. They heard what Lasfam claims and the bruising, but they seem to think he was pressured in answering thusly. Many seem to believe it is Werkestock continuing to try and make trouble for the elder Dunkelfelger princess to deflect from their issue with Klassenberg, and also throw mud at Lady Minerva who has long been in conflict with Lady Isabella the current front runner for the Aub's seat."

I wrinkled my nose at that and tapped my temple. The pieces were slowly fitting together. They painted a picture of a scholar so love sick he attacked a laynoble of a much lower ranked duchy. Making him look petty and jealous. That Minerva allowed this to some small extent. Who benefited from this? Who was hurt? Werkestock definitely took the brunt of the negative consequences, what with their strained relationship with both the of two highest duchies. By not quickly denying and shutting down the rumors Minerva and Peter both suffered. But as for benefits… an uncomfortable feeling churned in my gut. I did. This act pretty much ensured that students of Dunkelfelger would have to be extra careful so as not to make it look like they were picking on a lower rank. It would also allow me to bargain with Dunkelfelger to avoid having this issue brought before the royals. Yet I could not shake the feeling I was missing something very important. The why of the matter.

I did not like leaving such things to chance, but I could also tell my entourage was exhausted and most of them had not even eaten. So, I dismissed my attendant and scholars leaving only Eckhart to guard me. We made our way to my room at the end of the hall. Just as I was opening the door Eckhart shouted,

"Lord Ferdinand!" Then I was yanked away from the door. A black liquid splashed the spot I had been mere heartbeats earlier. Instead of hitting me the offending substances hit Eckhart splattering across his side, arm, and much of the side of his face and hair. Instantly I cast a waschen removing the substances from Eckhart as quickly as I could, but it stained anything that was cloth, leather, skin, or hair. "Did it land on you?" His wide eyes searched me up and down looking for any trace. I scoffed.

"I am fine." It was true, but I was no less unsettled.

Eckhart summoned Lasfam and Justus, both of whom came immediately upon receiving his Ordonnanz. Both of them were angry. Justus was furious when he saw the state of the hall and Eckhart, which was only tinged with relief after he also checked me over. Lasfam quietly simmered with impotent anger, but quickly busied himself with collecting samples of what had attacked us. The other two methodically combed my room; which had also been splattered in the attack. It took almost a half bell to clean my room. After which two more magic circles had been found. One under my bed, and another under my desk. The bedding was a complete loss. Any notes on my desk were soaked through and completely useless. Thankfully all of my research, clothes, and important tools were kept safely in my hidden room. The walls had been easy to clean, but the carpet would need replacing as well. It looked like another night spent sleeping in my hidden room. I sighed and laid down on the hard bench. A potion would be needed tonight.

I woke jolting up my heart thundering against my ribs. The bitter taste of poison filled my mouth as green eyes peered at me from across a long table. A dream! A dream, I reassured myself, just an effect of the potion. The moment my eyes opened they scanned the room looking for an enemy or threat. But this was my hidden room. I took a deep breath through the nose and let it out from my mouth. That anxiety left with my breath; my heartbeat was back under my control again.

"Lord Ferdinand." It was Justus's voice that came through the door to my hidden room.

I opened the door and gave Justus a charm to allow him to enter my hidden room despite the barrier to those with lesser mana. My attendant swiftly helped me dress and inquired if I had taken a nutrition potion yet. He knew full well I would not be willing to eat with the other students especially so soon after an such traps had been left in my room.

"I will. Tell me what you found out last night." I could easily see he at the very least had not slept. I doubted if any of my entourage had.

"It was ichor from a Sepiida." A Sepiida, if I remembered correctly was a green and blue striped creature. They were composed of a single oval shaped body about the size of an adult male's hand. Their movements resembled that of a slug. Though unlike a slug they could also swim in lakes and rivers. These creatures preferred wet climates, but were rather indifferent to temperature changes so they could be found here at the academy year-round. As I recalled, they were largely considered pests because of the way they spat ink at predators and people alike. The blue green liquid burned and blinded. "Seems someone found a way to dye it black so it would stain both skin and cloth." I resisted the urge to wince. So, Eckhart hadn't been able to wash it off. "Whatever was used to dye the ichor also deluded the acidic quality of it significantly reducing the threat of the trap."

"The other two circles however were a different story. Under the desk was a fire-based circle that would have burned badly. Not lethal." I caught that while it would not have killed, I might have wished for death had it been triggered. "The one under the bed was a mixture Vantole and Schlaftraum. It seems it would have caused night terrors and a state of drunkenness. Something potions would not have been able to get rid of. The combination would have been… dangerous." I already slept poorly so I could easily see why this had become dangerous.

"Have regular sweeps of my room. Nothing of value is to be removed from my hidden room."

"It will be done." Justus crossed his arms before bringing over my won cloak.

"No." Justus stopped clipping the Ehrenfest cloak. "Use the Dunkelfelger cloak then the Ehrenfest one." It would be a not-so-subtle slap in the faces of the archduke candidates that their knights still hadn't beaten me. And I was very tired of people thinking they could push me around like I was a simple gewinnen piece. Justus grinned mischievously.

"As you wish."

Once the cloaks were in place, and I had taken the necessary potions and then moved back into my room. In the morning light the damage was both worse and not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. The whole bed would need to be scrapped, while the carpet had mostly been cleaned. Then I saw Eckhart. At some point last night, he had changed and bathed. The affected skin was still clearly stained a light grey, and you could definitely tell where in his hair it had gotten, but the clothing he wore now was pristine. He looked relieved to see me.

"Everything is ready, my lord."

I nodded. "Then let's not keep Dunkelfelger waiting." I collected Heidemarie and Lasfam at the base of the stairs and we walked through the common room while the rest of the Ehrenfest students were already eating lunch. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed several students looked up to watch us go. A few snickered at Eckhart's appearance. I was certain at least one among them was the was the culprit behind the circles in my room. But that was something to deal with later since most of them were knights it would be easy to return the favor during ditter. I noticed beside me Justus and Heidemarie also noted the chuckling knights. Perhaps I would have to order them not to do anything rash. Thankfully, no one was foolish enough to confront us or even attempt to follow us as we made our way to the Dunkelfelger tea party room.

I was greeted by Lady Minerva, Lady Magdalena, and Lord Werdecraft. Each of them had a single scholar, attendant, and knight; probably so as to not overwhelm me and my entourage. Their expressions upon noticing the cloak ran a mixture of thoughtfulness, amusement, and censure. They all understood what I was trying to convey with the cloaks. And two of them had the desired reaction, no need to guess who was the odd woman out.

And so, we began with small talk. Lady Minerva tested the tea and sweet fruit dish. The latter was not nearly as sweet as I expected. Usually, this dish tended to be made with a lot of sugar, but it seemed the recipe had been toned down for this meeting. I wondered which of them knew I didn't care for sweets. After a few general points of discussion and Peter had finished laying down an area anti-ease dropping tool, all our entourages; except Peter and Lasfam, were dismissed.

"Lord Ferdinand, about the Ordoschnell that has been flying about with a discordant note-." Lady Magdalena was already going to try and sweep this under the rug. Something I was not going to allow.

"They are hardly rumors, especially since the person in question did not even bother to deny the claims."

She made a face that was the noble equivalent of a wince. Beside her Lady Minerva's mouth twitched, her face clearly saying, 'I told you so'.

"I believe Chaoscipher has twisted the events."

I smiled my Demon King smile causing both Magdalena and Werdecraft to stiffen. "Hmm, perhaps. So let us look at the facts." I held up one finger. "Lady Minerva's scholar was left alone with my scholar after removing Lasfam's recovery potions from him." Second finger. "Then Lady Minerva's female guard and attendant escorted my scholar to the Ehrenfest viewing platform, preventing my scholar from seeking medical treatment, and interfering with my ability to ditter." I made that last comment to see if Minerva had in fact told her siblings that Peter had not actually struck Lasfam, but neither brother nor sister reacted. Why withhold that from them? "Is it normal for Dunkelfelger to interfere thusly with those not involved directly in ditter?" I reached up and touched the cloak. "Have I not been honoring Heisshitze with plenty of chances to win his cloak back." Did you plan to cheat here was essentially what I was asking. Lady Magdalena bristled at the accusation. While Werdecraft looked both perturbed and impressed. I didn't even bother to look at Minerva who I knew was grinning broadly.

"That was not our intention, Lord Ferdinand." I got the impression that Werdecraft believed those words too.

I sighed. "I wish I could believe that, Lord Werdecraft. But sadly, Verbergen and Vulcanift seemed to have colluded with Chaoscipher." With that Lasfam placed a little vial on the table between us. The bottle itself had a special circle pressed into the cork to prevent the little tracker from putting out a signal. Peter stepped forward and did the proper inspections before passing it to Lady Minerva.

"(*Not one of ours*)." Peter whispered in another language. The sounds were slightly similar to Yurgenschmidt's language, but with so few words I could not even begin to guess the meaning. Perhaps it was an older version?

Lady Minerva responded with a snort and in the same language. "(*That much I know. Seeing as I placed all of ours except one.*)" She then handed the bottle to Magdalena who was watching her twin with a look of mild frustration. So, it was unlikely Magdalena or Werdecraft understood what she was saying. (*Who then, if not us? I would recognize my siblings and their people's touch.*)

Peter became thoughtful. "(*Give me a day and I can figure it out. I have a few guesses.*)"

"(*I'm sure that stupid bitch had a hand in this.*)"

Peter's lips quirked up. "(*That is likely.*)"

"(*The question is, how do we stop it from happening again?*)"

"(*Your search method would work.*)"

"(Won't he discover ours? I'm not sure I want to give up that extra safety net. We don't have the time or resources to protect them all at all times.*)"

"(*Normally it would be an issue, but because of where you placed them, they won't register*)"

"(*Seems like a pretty big flaw*)"

Peter shrugged. "(*I'm working on it*)"

"(*Of course, you are. I need some of my thread if I am going to do this.*)"

Peter nodded and left the area of the anti-ease-dropping tool. But everyone's eyes were now fixed firmly on Lady Minerva. She smiled prettily at us. "It occurred to me that we can't really prove that Dunkelfelger had nothing to do with this magic tool." She nodded to the vial that Lady Magdalena was still holding. "Short of providing samples of everyone's mana to compare to that. But that would not be worth the effort. Peter reminded me that I could simply provide you a method of easily finding any such devices." Her eyes then wandered to over my shoulder where Eckhart was standing. "It would also be affective in various kinds of ditter." Werdecraft looked especially pleased by the idea of having more challenging ditters. Only her twin looked displeased.

Peter returned carrying a spool of silver thread. Judging from the slight sheen to it, the thread was mana thread. Lady Minevra took the thread and swiftly unwound a couple feet of its length. "Imagine your mana as this spool of thread. Let the end of the string drift out in front of you." She ran her mana through the thin line and used it to slowly sweep the string side to side across the table. Immediately I tried to do the same with my mana. It took a moment to fix the imagine in my mind, but once it was there it was relatively easy to feed my mana forward. Right away I felt the tingle as my mana touched the thread on the table. It was that same uncomfortable itch feeling when I first placed the Dunkelfelger cloak on my back. My eyes instantly went to Lady Minevra's. Her expression was mildly amused, but she swiftly drew the thread back and wrapped the thread once more. "Just be careful. It will trigger magic circles it touches depending on the perimeters of the circle."

If only I had had this last night. I could have stopped Eckhart from being humiliated. On the outside however, my noble smile was in place. "This is certainly a fine start to repaying the debt."

Lady Magdalena nearly gaped at him. As if she couldn't believe he would have the nerve to ask for something more. Before she could say anything Werdecraft nodded his agreement. "What of Peter's punishment? This is his mess after all. Under normal circumstances this would warrant at the very least reconsideration of the marriage and his position as Lady Minerva's scholar." I was surprised when it was Lady Magdalena and not Lady Minerva who looked horrified by this news. Actually, Minevra looked almost bored.

"You are correct, brother. I have no desire to give up Peter as my husband nor scholar, so I will have to think of something else." She drummed her fingernails on the table's glossy surface thinking. Her gaze wandered briefly over all of my entourage before it settled on Lasfam. "I have no need of scholar who cannot follow my directives and is too full of jealously and pride, so, how about I lend Lord Ferdinand, Peter's services." Then her gaze turned to Peter. "For the rest of the month you may use Peter as your scholar. If anything, untoward happens to you, your entourage, your things I will fire Peter and pay a cost to Lord Ferdinand equal to what you spent on all the tools in the last ditter. It doesn't even have to Peter that causes it." I nearly blinked at that. Peter's abilities if they could be turned to help me it would be no small boon. Even Justus spoke well of the other boy's genius. And this would essentially force Peter to protect no only myself and my retainers, but my research as well.

I swallowed back my urge to smile. "What about reparations?"

"You-!" Magdalena nearly shot up from her chair. Only her twin's hand held her in place and quieted her outburst before it began.

"What has been brought forth was a way to not prove that Dunkelfelger was not involved with tracking my and my people's movements, and punishment for Peter's actions." Lady Magdalena meat my hard look with a cold glare of her own. "But I lost out on much due to Peter's actions."

"I assume you have some thoughts on a payment?" Werdecraft asked.

I nodded and Lasfam presented a board with a list of materials. Even Werdecraft paled a little at the list. He swallowed and looked like he was going to try to protest, so I added, "I will also allow Heisshitze to continue his challenges for his cloak and not consider it more harassment." The eldest sibling swallowed whatever he had been about to say.

Minerva glanced over the list. "This would also include Verbergen's protection on the matter, I suppose."

I smiled brightly. "Of course."

Her lips quirked up. "You shall have everything by the weeks end."

"I am relieved that Gebotordnung could bless this meeting." I told the three siblings.

This time Minerva did cackle. "Quite some poison you spit, Little Flower."

I glared at her.

"I have one request. I wish to speak with Lasfam." She held out an ease dropping tool to Lasfam. He looked to me and I nodded, though I wondered why. Surely, she heard everything from Peter and her other two people. Why would she ask a laynoble about something that her archnoble attendants had already spoken about. Judging by her siblings looks of this was not an uncommon occurrence with Lady Minerva. I watched the exchange carefully being sure to keep an eye on Lasfam's demeanor. He was nervous, but he was slowly relaxing as he spoke. Once he was done Lady Minerva nodded and thanked him before taking back her tool.

"I believe this concludes our meeting."

And with that I was promptly dismissed. And by the looks on Magdalena and Werdecraft's faces, they were going to have a long talk with their wayward sister.