I kind of expected Wilfried to essentially become the next Bonifatius, i.e. remain in the noble’s quarter as both the next Knight’s Commander, and a backup archduke candidate, should someone need to fill in for the aub, while one of his siblings becomes the Aub and the other the High Bishop, and Henriette as the fourth child and young enough for the royal decree that forbids marrying out of Ehrenfest to run out, by the time she can marry, most likely going to be married into another duchy.

I suppose I can see the arguments for becoming Giebe Gerlach, but with their numbers and especially their combined mana pool having diminished by Rozemyne and Ferdinand departing the duchy, can they really afford to turn Wilfried into an archnoble, and thus lock him out of supporting the foundation and all else that comes with being an archduke candidate?

This seems especially odd, with them just having had a front-row seat and getting caught up in the whole mess of Ahrensbach - a greater duchy - falling apart in no small part due to their archducal family shrinking to a dangerously small size.

This feels like Sylvester is being a bit naive and idealistic, prioritizing faction politics and emotions over partical issues again, like his refusal to take a second wife did for a far too long time. If Florencia’s latest daughter and one or two children from Brunhilde were already baptized, I’d fully understand it, but in this situation it’s rather iffy to me.

If I had to make a guess, I’d say it’s more alike to someone being summoned to Erwaermen, either via the statue of Mestionora in the library or from between the statues of the gods in the chapel.

It certainly doesn’t appear to have the invisibility and time-distortion effect of the large shrines, that left those outside unaware the zent candidate was gone for even a millisecond, which would have been the only other instance, where we’ve seen something roughly alike happen.

Either way, since a prayer to a goddess caused this, I strongly suspect that a deity received the call and summoned her… but the question is, whether the god or goddess did it out of the kindness of their heart, or if they have a task for a mortal and Hannelore just happened to be the first one to stumble into qualifying.

Those still holding out hope for him becoming the successor after all, would surely rejoice. Those who faithfully serve him, for his sake, like Lamprecht after his straightening out, I can see going three possible ways.

• Happy that he’s getting a good wife, who’s probably going to be able to keep his impulses in check (he’s got to be easier to deal with than the ditter-heads Hannelore is used to dealing with).
• They might resent her for the damaged reputation, as you said.
• They might take issue with the finally calmed down situation around his succession surely getting heated up and complicated again.

I don’t really know enough about any of them, not even Lamprecht, to make any educated guesses.

It’d be both hilarious and cute, if she ended up appologizing for being so forward, while still on top of him. :3

Though more realistically, she’ll only appologize afterwards, but I’m sure she will appologize in some way or another… and be blushing so hard that she’ll light up the place like a lightbulb. ^^

I’m surprised that Kenntrips didn’t take into account how Sylvester won over his own wife and consequently mentioned as much to Hannelore. He seemed convinced that Hannelore would need Dunkelfelger’s rank to essentially force Sylvester to agree to the engagement with Wilfried. But considering how Sylvester fell in love and moved heaven and earth to marry his love, no matter what, there’s at least a chance that Sylvester might agree to a romantic partnership of his son. It’s probably not enough by itself, but Hannelore is also a real catch for Ehrenfest and will help the duchy, even if it’ll complicate the succession again. But the situation since the bride-stealing ditter has changed and they are now further along in the generational shift, and Hannelore would no longer be his second wife, which lessens one of the previous problems and eliminates the other entirely, that the original engagement would have had.

There of course the biggest problem would be, whether Wilfried actually returns Hannelore’s feelings, or if he truly was acting solely out of courtesy and the deference to higher ranking duchies that was hammered into him, plus whatever else Veronica more subtly weaved into his (mis)education, since she did raise him to be her puppet at least as much as she unintentionally spoiled him.

For a moment I found Luitpold’s timing to be a bit too fortunate, to give Hannelore hope, after she lost all, and consequently considered whether this was a ploy by Kenntrips, but I can’t imagine either of them being willing to invoke Lady Sieglinde’s name, even if it was indirectly. She’s probably have their heads… or certain other round objects on their bodies, if she found out they used her name to manipulate Hannelore. :P Maybe Dregarnuhr is finally taking pity on Hannelore, since if this request would have come after the meeting with Ehrenfest, she truly could have blamed her usual cursed timing. Still a bit odd, he waited until this moment to ask.

It’s kind of cute and endearing, but at the same time a bit disturbing, that Hannelore’s thoughts went straight to pinning Willfried down, without even talking first, or trying to get Rozemyne to help (which I’m sure she’d be only too happy to do) and how she thinks he’d even try to fight back. In all due likelyhood he’ll be so flabberghasted, he’ll just freeze up. Not that he’s likely to fight back against her out of courtesy and deference to higher ranking duchies in the first place. Now his retainers are more of a legitimate concern, but if she picks a moment in the archduke candidate course, that obstacle is out of the way… she’d better time it to happen at the very end of class though, to not further antagonize Professor Anastasius. ^^

But damn… this isn’t going to make things easier for Charlotte. With both Wilfried and Melchior potentially getting wives from Dunkelfelger, her chances to remain the successor are probably going to take a hit. I suppose there’s the upside of Wilfried not wanting to become Aub, but even so, him marrying the daughter of the first wife of the first ranked duchy, it will cause friction, and maybe even enough internal pressure that Wilfried will be unable to refuse to be the successor, much like happened when he was engaged to Rozemyne, no matter how much he dislikes it.

Melchior is potentially marrying “only” the daughter of Aub Dunkelfelger’s second wife, probably causing a little less pressure than Hannelore’s marriage would, but even so, Lungtase is still an archduke candidate from the first ranked duchy. Plus Melchior doesn’t carry the stigmata of past crimes and misbehaviour like Wilfried and we have no idea whether he might want to become archduke, plus the recent increase in prestige of his High Bishop’s position, so his marriage might well be the bigger issue for Charlotte.

Well, at least I’m quite sure that it’ll only be one marriage or the other. If Hannelore manages to snag Wilfried, that by itself will get Werdekraf the archduke candiate level connection to Ehrenfest he wanted and thus make Lungtase and Melchior’s engagement unnecessary, which will free her up to be married into another duchy for even more connections.

It’s a cute picture, but why is it showing Schwartz and Weiss? Her new shumil magic tools are green, brown and red… Also Rozemyne is still wearing an Ehrenfest cape, instead of the new midnight blue of Alexandria. Also Rozemyne looks like she didn’t yet go through Anwachs’ growth spurt, so it’s more like a year 4 or earlier pic.

Considering how she’s now in charge of her own duchy, and thus her enviroment has to adapt to her, and how she’s regularly interacting with commoners, which other nobles don’t do… not to mention the special privileges and different treatment she receives from being the divine avatar and owning the name-stone of the Zent, I don’t think she’ll ever be exactly on the same page as regular nobles.

Then again, what is a “regular” noble anyway. Just look how eccentric Dunkelfelger and Drewanchel are in their own ways.

Sure, but the tea party was on Earthday, on which there are no classes.

I’m also pretty sure if she went anything below 100%, Ferdinand would be upset and her cheek would suffer for it. :P

Awww, look at Rozemyne using euphemisms correctly and effortlessly… right after her common sense once again being out of touch with the rest of Yurgenschmidt’s nobility. :3

I am glad, they are adressing the sugar and spice situation. I was actually wondering how being cut off from the Lanzenave imports might affect Alexandria and Yurgenschmidt as a whole.

I do not envy Kenntrips and Rasantark. Hannelore is most likely very pissed about being embarressed like that in front of her friend and kind-of partial idol. It’ll be interesting to see the usually quiet and shy little lady explode. ^^

I am slightly disappointed, we were only introduced to the magic tool “retainers.” Between the Human retainers that stayed in Ehrenfest and the political situation, Rozemyne is pretty much guaranteed to have taken on a couple of Alexandrian apprentice retainers, for the academy, and yet they went entirely unmentioned.

Ah, Rozemyne and Wilfried are still as oblivious as they’ve ever been to anything remotely romantic, when it’s about themselves and each other. But good on Wilfried to be a nice wingman to his friend… if Hannelore does end up choosing Wilfried, this will hopefully also curtail their friendhship suffering too badly over it, since it’s clear Wilfried was both oblivious of Hannelore’s feelings and genuinely trying to help his buddy.

But what’s up with Korinthsdaum? How can an entire duchy be so universally incompetent? And we can’t even solely blame Sigiswald for this, since less than a full year under his rule would surely not be enough to turn previously competent and properly behaved nobles into such idiots. It is certainly in part his failing, for most likely not even noticing how they don’t know their place, much less doing something about it, but even so, this feels off.

I have the sneaking suspicion that the new retainers Rozemyne wants to show off, are in fact shumil magic tools. Why else would she call them adorable? I mean, she surely does have a couple of new Human retainers, between those who remained in Ehrenfest and those who graduated, she would need some new apprentices for the royal academy, even without considering the political implications of not having native Alexandrian (i.e former Ahrensbach) retainers. Not to mention that she was always rather on the low side for an archduke candidate of Ehrenfest’s rank to begin with and her now being of the 6th ranked duchy.

On one hand they are in the Royal Academy, which used to be called the Land of the Gods in the past.

On the other, Hannelore didn’t seem to have put any mana into her prayers, so they should have had only a minimal effect, if any at all.

Maybe her suiters have nothing at all to do with the gods. Kenntrips and Rasantark have been fond of her since she entered the Royal Academy, Raufereg is more interested in opening up his own chance to play ditter against Rozemyne than any genuine romantic feelings. Which leaves only Ortwin, but with them being in the same grade and course, not to mention a good political match, it wouldn’t be that surprising if he had developed feelings for her since before she started praying, but just managed to keep them hidden until now.

I wish someone would clear things up for Kenntrips in regards to Wilfried. He seems to believe that Wilfried either intentionally caused Hannelore hardship, or did so due to a lack of care and consideration for her, when it was the exact opposite.

Everything Wilfried did with the whole engagement debacle, was done out of courtesy to Hannelore, since he wrongly assumed she did not want to marry him and was being forced into it against her will.

If Kenntrips wants to hate him, at least hate him for his ignorance and lack of foresight and awareness, not for mistaking his intentions for the exact opposite of what they were.

I’d say Hannelore is indeed quite equal to Rozemyne in matters of romance, i.e. very perceptive in romantic matters concerning others, but almost entirely blind to their own. Just like Rozemyne, Hannelore needed someone else to open her eyes to what was going on.

And to be fair to Rozemyne, she is far less familiar with noble romance, since when she should have been taught, she was in a coma and afterwards both her noble mothers assumed the other one would do it, leaving her hanging. And Ferdinand is a master in masking his emotions, not to mention rather inexperienced in romantic matters himself and only having come around to making outright advances pretty much during the war.

Meanwhile Hannelore was taught well, understands the noble euphemisms around love and had her romantic prospective partners either mess up and show their feelings openly by mistake (i.e. Ortwin’s blunder) or just state them straight up like Rasantark, with either little or no room for misinterpretations.

Oh almost forgot. We did get our answer about whether Ehrenfest kept it’s relative rank - i.e. went down to 10th alongside the other duchies after the insertion of Blumenfeld and Korinthsdaum - or if they kept their absolute 8th place, it’s the latter. That means that they overtook two more duchies and are now the third highest middle duchy, after Korinthsdaum and Hauchletzte, with the rest of the top 7 all being greater duchies, if I’m not mistaken.

It also means that Gilessenmeyer fell at least 5 ranks, since we know they were the 4th and we also know the current top 8 and they aren’t in it, meaning they are at most on the number 9 spot. Oh well, at least that means they won’t focus all their negative emotions over their loss of rank on Ehrenfest alone, which might be the case for Gaussbuttel, who Ehrenfest also overtook now.

Still? The question is, whether he ever loved her to begin with, or if he was just being courteous to someone from a higher ranking duchy and/or a girl with a weak appearance.

Ah, look at her, collecting suitors like Rozemyne collects books. ^^

Hmm… I wonder if the students have to call Elgantine professor or zent, when she’s teaching them. Usually professor overrides all other titles during lessons, but does this apply even to zent?

Elgantine teaches the sixth year and Anastasius the fifth year archduke candidate course… and what about the third and fourth years? Would they be able to get Trauerqual or one of his wives to stand in for that, despite them no longer being royals? I doubt that Nahelache and Sigiswald would be able to help, with them being the only members of their archduke family, bar a 1 year old child. And I doubt they’d want Sigiswald as a professor anyway, though Nahelache as someone who already did one year of teaching the archduke candidate course, would be well suited, if she could help out.

Or can they put anyone into that position, who finished the course in their academy time? Professor Gundolf would come to mind for that.

Why is Hildebrand still wearing schtappe sealing bracers? Weren’t they going to make a ring for him, that would do the same thing without standing out? Did his father and mother really not have the leeway to make or order one made in three full seasons?

I’m glad Hannelore put down Raufereg for calling Wilfried a coward. It’s annoying enough when experienced warriors say it, but this little twirp, who has yet to stand his ground before his first opponent has absolutely no right to call anyone else a coward, especially not someone who not only fought ditter against a duchy many ranks above them (keep in mind that Ehrenfest got it’s rank primarily by their academic performance and new trends and products, while their knights were well below the duchy rank in ditter outcomes, back then), but who fought in a real war. Those knights he was up against might only have been a diversion force, but they still fought to kill.

If Wilfried wasn’t four years older and had a schtappe, while Raufereg doesn’t, I’d hope for a duel in which Wilfried destroyed the loudmouth, but beating someone four years your junior is hardly a way to rid yourself of accusations of cowardice.

I’m unsure of how to feel about Raufereg. Should I be annoyed that he thinks only of ditter and doesn’t consider the if, when and how to do things, as well as the consequences of his actions? Should I feel sorry for him, since with the archducal pair needing specifically an archnoble and not an archduke candidate if Hannelore is to marry within the duchy, taking him out of the game from the very start? Or should I feel endeard that his obsession isn’t only with playing ditter himself, but also protecting Hannelore from the “horrible fate” of not being able to play ditter anymore, should she marry out of the duchy?

Probably more of the former two, with only a light smattering of the third. ^^

With Kenntrips on the other hand, it’s a lot more straightforward. He’s a really nice guy, so much so, that part of me kind of wishes, he’d end up with Hannelore, since that much care for her is something rare in Yurgenschmidt’s noble society, and would probably bode well for a pleasant marriage, even if his feelings turn out to be non-romantic.

Unless of course he turns out to be a particularly cunning villain, who’s just been playing a really long-perspective game of ingradiating himself to her for some nefarious purpose, but I really don’t think that’s the case, even though I can’t fully rule out the possibility.

To be honest, I’m more interested in Hannelore meeting Wilfried again. Her relationship with Rozemyne is… more or less known to us already, and I don’t expect any particularly big upsets there. Hannelore might have some worries, but Rozemyne will surely do her best to keep their friendship, despite the changed circumstances her new rank bring with it, as unchanged as she can make it.

With Wilfried on the other hand, there are probably more unknowns and we also get a chance to not only see what she does and says, but also what she thinks and feels, since it’ll be from her perspective. Does she still have a crush on him? Has she given up entirely on marrying him, or is there a lingering desire, that she only doesn’t act on, because she doesn’t want to bother Ehrenfest? Did Kenntrips words about supporting her attempt to marry into anther duchy, should she make one, set some thoughts in motion?

The problem with the mana compression was, that they were effectively cut off from Ferdinand, when he moved to Ahrensbach, which is no longer an issue, so they can just meet up at the border gate, or organize a visit to modify or even nullify the magic contract, if they wanted.

Come to think of it, that would be a good idea either way, since as the contract was, it would also prevent Rozemyne from spreading the method in her own duchy now, even to her own children, if/when she has them.

Alternatively, with Georgine dead, the magic contract protected her compression method should be void now, allowing Matthias and Laurenz to spread that one instead. While it might not be as good as the full Rozemyne method, it was still quite something in it’s own right. Georgine learned it from some old book, so they wouldn’t even necessarily have to visit Ehrenfest to pass it back there, if Rozemyne permitted it.

What I wonder is, what’ll happen to Ehrenfest’s rank. They were locked in place for one year, when they would have gone up from their efforts, if Sylvester hadn’t negotiated to avoid that. But now, there are two new places created above them. So does that mean they went down 2 spots, or that they held their spot, with the two ahead of them being put below them?

Even if you put all of Rozemyne’s actions to Alexandria, Ehrenfest still lent support to the defense of the Royal Academy, so if they were allowed to keep their rank and have two other duchies pushed below them, nobody could really complain (too much), what with even Klassenberg falling lower and Dunkelfelger also being rewarded for what they did in the invasion… but would Sylvester want that?

Wait… Ehrenfest was #8 before… so if they held their place and Alexandria just inherited Ahrensbach’s place, plus push down from the two new duchies, Alexandria would be one spot behind Ehrenfest…

Anyway, Alexandria has a lot of kudos to coast on for defeating the traitor duchy Alexandria, at the side of Dunkelfelger and Ehrenfest and the return to the country’s religious roots, thanks to Rozemyne. Plus having a Grutrissheit (well, technically a full one and another one with 60ish %, but that’s under wraps) would surely make a good justification for a higher rank too.

But on the downside, Ahrensbach coasted on the imports from Lanzenave for a long time now, which is a thing of the past with the country gate closed and never going to be reopened to Lanzenave. Maybe it’ll be reconnected to a new area, but that would mean having to build relations with the locals, or forming farming/harvesting camps if it’s uninhabited, which will take time to have any effect on Alexandria’s economy.

But then again, Rozemyne revitalized both the land and ocean, meaning that their agriculture and fishing industry will soar to levels that haven’t been seen since the civil war, or maybe even beyond that. And while the printing industry will take some time to fully take off, they’ll surely be able to get at least one printing workshop up and running in pretty short order, which means that they are one of only two duchies with printing… though for a little while they’ll be playing catch-up with Ehrenfest’s numerous established workshops.

So many unknowns…