Our story continued last week with Rozemyne and Ferdinand setting out to stop the Lanzenave ships and rescue the captured nobles. They first attack a ship that is still at the port and is under assault by Ahrensbach commoners. Rozemyne heals the injured commoners and provides the surrounding citizens the aub's protection. Dunkelfelger knights then blind and sweep the Lanzenavians into the sea with magic tools and a large scale waschen. Hannelore and two squads of knights remain to rescue hostages and retrieve feystones while everyone else continues to the next ship.
The next ship they reach is subjugated by infiltrating Dunkelfelgerians. Two more squads are sent to assist with the hostages and feystones. The rest head toward the remaining two ships which are approaching the country gate. One ship prepares to teleport by changing its silver tiles to black. At that moment Rozemyne gives the aub's protection to those onboard. Then Ahrensbach and Dunkelfelger knights unleash a coordinated mana attack and destroy the ship. The protected Ahrensbach citizens are then rescued. The remaining ship launches a volley attack and remains covered in silver. Unable to use mana against it, Rozemyne and Ferdinand discuss how to deal with it. It is decided that Ferdinand will modify the magic circle used for summoning spring to instead summon winter and Rozemyne's retainers will use Ewigeliebe's sword to freeze the ship.
Rozemyne uses five feystones to activate the magic circle summoning winter surrounding the ship. Cornelius, Matthias, Laurenz, and Hartmut wield Ewigeliebe's sword—summoning at least seventy winter subordinates that freeze the ship and water surrounding it. Four Dunkelfelger knights summon Leidenschaft's spear and attack the frozen ship. The heat of Leidenschaft's spear causes the silver metal to contract causing a breach in the ship's defenses. Rozemyne is then able to provide the aub's protection to the captured nobles onboard. Eckhart makes an opening in the bow of the ship allowing Dunkelfelger's knights to infiltrate. Letizia is rescued and Rozemyne decides to treat her with forgiveness and generosity.
Letizia is tasked with preparing somewhere for everyone to rest while Rozemyne and Ferdinand go to close the country gate. Ferdinand proposes four different options for Rozemyne's future. Rozemyne decides she does not want a nightmarish marriage to Sigiswald or to rule Yurgenschmidt. Since Rozemyne feels she can not return to live in Ehrenfest, she determines it would be best to give the magic tool Grutrissheit to the royal family and remain as Aub Ahrensbach.
It's been a long day for everyone and it's not over yet. What do you predict will happen in this week's chapters?
I feel like the story has been nonstop adrenaline for a good number of chapters now and we might be getting a respite and planning session this week. Mana needs to recover and supplies restocked. Maybe a meal and a quick nap too. The Ahrensbach citizenry should probably be informed of the aub change and the circumstances behind it. Correspondence with Ehrenfest and the Sovereignty will be necessary to update everyone on the current situation.
I'm predicting that Rozemyne will discuss adopting Letizia. I think it makes sense for Letizia to become the aub when she's able to fulfill the required duties. Then Rozemyne can retire and become a librarian after building her dream library.
I'm pretty sure that to adopt someone, you need to be of age first and preferably married, so that does not seem an option, at least not for the next couple of years. Now a guardianship, like she has for Philine and Roderick on he other hand is entirely possible... but would that cut it?
In terms of recovery, Rozemyne said she can only drink 3 rejuvenation potions without getting sick, but isn't that based on experience from even before the second Jureve, not to mention before getting grown by Erwaermen and Anwachs? Without a dire need, or a completely non-critical enviroment I wouldn't want to experiment in her position either, to find out for sure, but I think she can take at least one more rejuvenation potion now.
Honestly Rozemyne may be the first ever under age aub so there's probably never been a precedent for needing to adopt as underaged. If she's not allowed to adopt anyone then she'd have a very small archducal family until she comes of age. Her plus possibly Cornelius and Eckhart? Anyway, I still think the topic of adoption will come up.
With Ferdinand already supplying Ahrensbach's foundation, even while only engaged, but not yet married to Detlinde, there is a precedence that such things are at least tolerated, so I don't think having a small archdukal family for 2 years will be too much of an issue, especially not for a mana capacity monster like Rozemyne, who'll need considerably less support than most other archduke candidates her age would need to keep a foundation supplied with sufficient mana.
Though that does leave me with a question about marriage. If they decide to leave Rozemyne as the Aub, that means Letizia's engagement to Hildebrand AND Rozemyne's (not yet official) engagement to Sigiswald are both off the table. I'm sure marrying Hildebrand to Rozemyne is on the table again... much to his delight I'm sure.
That is of course, if Rozemyne accepts that the four ways Ferdinand proposed are truly the only ways open to her. She might still come up with a different way he didn't consider, so she might yet give the Ahrensbach foundation over to someone chosen by the Zent, in which case pretty much anything goes.