Chapter Text
In a mansion near a walled gate…
Lives a family of five, and one servant. One family triple-timing servant from the Lower City, and a daughter-in-law.
The family of five in question, is a family of one bedridden father, two sons with a large age gap, a daughter-in-law and adopted daughter.
Their mansion is also…sparsely decorated and furnished, even if it's of high quality in material, but plain in design.
See, this is a family of Laynobles.
There are four tiers of nobility in the society of Yurgenschmidt below the Royal Family. Archduke, Archnoble, Mednoble and Laynoble. And those that govern a province, are given the title Giebe + name of province they govern. But sometimes, it’s just Count, Viscount and Baron.
And the order of status is decided based on their mana capacity. It’s magical power.
Mana nourishes the land, and keeps magic tools functioning in their daily lives. Thus, their worth is solely based on Mana Capacity. And treatment is based on their status + how useful they are. This is also shown in how close one lives near the Archduke’s Castle, and the lower your status, the closer you are to the Gates leading to the Lower City where Commoners live. That living near the Gates, makes you no different in their eyes.
Thus, for the Bernett Family, they are the lowest of the low among Laynobles living in the Noble’s Quarters. They have the lowest mana in the Noble Quarters, thus treated as insignificant.
Lowest of the low they may be, but they are very savvy to compensate for being poor by noble standards that they are willing to do anything to stay comfortable while still within budget.
They studied the ways of Commoners just to DIY most of their needs, but when it came to clothes, they had to get it Tailor and Shoemaker-Made. And make their own magic tools if they can help it. Due to that, they are mostly scholars and its rare for a Bernett to be a Knight due to their mana issues.
And to have a big family by standards, they tend to try for children every twelve years. This is so by the thirteenth year when their child gets their schtappe, their younger sibling is born and can then inherit their mana-draining tool!
The eldest child is Henrik, second child is Damuel, and the third child is an adoptee. The third child was when Henrik spotted a sad family carrying their child to the Temple and she looked very ill, when he went to the Lower City to shop on his own. He just got married to his fiancee Julianne after he saved enough money to be able to support a wife and child as his family has done.
Alarmed as any noble worth their salt would know what goes on in there as long as the current Archduchess is in power, so is her High Bishop of a younger brother in that temple...and what happens to girls in there, he can only imagine her future in there!
Thus, the newly-married Henrik approached the couple; a blue-haired man with gold eyes, and a woman with light green hair and dark green eyes.
‘May I ask what you’re taking your daughter to the Temple for?’
‘Our daughter is too sick. Constant fevers, body pains, her skin sometimes bubbles . It happens every time she is emotional. The last attack is so bad that…we have no choice.’ said the man somberly. His words allowed Henrik to quickly deduce the girl’s situation.
The daughter is a Devouring. Nobles would be Devouring too, if they didn’t have access to Magic Tools, they’d all be no different from this girl!
‘To the point she dreams of a different world where she can walk freely and live as normally as her sister does. The way she talks about it is like it's a different country yet it's in her dreams…it must be where the Gods live and the Gods want our daughter badly.'
‘The Temple is not good for your daughter the way it is now, mister.’ said Henrik somberly. He warned the couple what goes on in the Temple that got them horrified.
‘I-its a house of the Gods and yet…’ the woman squeaked in horror. ‘That’s allowed?!’
‘Our ruler is a lovestruck, spineless fool to his tyrannical wife.’ said Henrik with a bitter laugh. ‘Perhaps how filthy this city looked is a reflection of their rule.’ he said. ‘And the sickness your daughter has, is a Devouring.’
Henrik explained what a Devouring is to the couple.
Children possessing mana or magical energy, need to periodically drain their excess mana with the help of feystones or magic tools. Because if they are ‘too full’, it causes severe strain and stress in a young body…to the point they don’t live up to seven years old, and die in an explosive death.
To treat this at childhood, regular draining periods must be done. But the magic tools are expensive. To commission a Child’s Magic Tool, it costs 5 small gold.
‘That’s…beyond our ability…’ the poor father whimpered. ‘Had Myne stayed with us for longer, we’d come to her blown-up body and a destroyed house?’
‘Then, shall I take in your daughter so she has a chance to live?’ Henrik offered. ‘I am a noble with resources and we can certainly take your daughter in. She will live a lot longer and get an education only a noble can have. We have magic tools at home to make it happen.’
They do, they just lack the power to keep them on!
‘But once your daughter becomes a Noble, she cannot go back here to the Lower City unless it’s about business concerning her future occupations.’
The couple exchanged looks.
They took the chance for their daughter Myne. So she could live a longer life.
Thus when Myne woke up, she received memories of the adoption process. And it has been a week since, and took her a while to heal from illness after she was drained of her magic.
“OK, so I died from being crushed by books and woke up to memories of this girl…it’s something out of anime!” Myne thought dryly.
But still, her adoptive family of brothers may be kind, but poor by Laynoble standards.
They have a mansion, but sparsely decorated and furnished.
Not a single book at home to her horror as handmade goods are expensive.
Myne was adopted days after her fever was so bad that she heard a little girl’s last words complaining of pain, before she took over this body.
Poor kid died, replaced by a girl who just died in Japan.
She has two new brothers. Henrik, the college-looking guy who adopted her, and Damuel, a guy who was thirteen years younger than him. He is seven years old and she’s five.
And Henrik has just married his fiancee who would adopt her as her daughter. But thankfully Myne won’t be taking money meant for HER child’s Mana-Draining tool! She instead, would supply the Magical Tools in the house!
And considering she has enough to keep them all full, she was estimated to have the mana capacity of a high-end mednoble. And with her being a Devouring, she has no color, thus when getting married, she would be very easy to dye by her future husband…but would need a Jureve for her well-being. So adopting her is quite the boon. That their ailing father can sleep in a cozy warm house in his remaining years.
The boys have a father who’s sick in bed and their mother’s long gone. But with his blessing, Myne became Myne Tochter Adotie Bernett. Paperwork filed and passed to make things legit. The Bernetts weren’t sure how her original parents spelled her name, Henrik forgot to ask, that his sick father dope-smacked him. How could he forget such a crucial detail?!
So they made their own spelling in a way that it looked fancy enough. That Myne became Maine .
Thus Maine was drained to activate all their tools at home, so that Damuel can keep his magic tool.
He also just got baptized on the first Windday of Autumn and would soon prepare for his Winter Debut…which is four months away and he’s nervous. Henrik took extra Music Lessons in his student days, just so he could teach his brother better and tutor him himself for his debut.
And when she fully-recovered, she learned what a noble should know and how a Laynoble lady should behave from her new mother Lady Julianne.
Magic existed.
What led to her adoption. Her poor parents! Maine could only imagine how her parents must have felt before getting desperate so she could live, while losing her at the same time, and she's seen enough drama in TV and anime...and now she's in such a situation herself that she had to adjust to.
The Bernetts and Julianne are Scholars by occupation. Laynoble Attendant life is just asking for misery as higher-ranking nobles enjoy making their life difficult that they’d rather be a Scholar or Knight.
Maine noted that they’re very bitter about it. Treatment towards them must be horrible that they don’t want to be a Retainer any day soon.
They would have been her teachers both, but Henrik must get a job ASAP while being Damuel’s Music Teacher, leaving Julianne to teach her how to be a Laynoble Lady starting…now. She teaches her Etiquette as her first lesson in the household, while Damuel learns from his brother.
Julianne taught her Life Lessons, and about the horrible lot in life Laynobles deal with that Maine must learn to endure, no matter what as fighting back, even if you’re in the right will get you in trouble, unless someone who’s of higher status than your bully speaks up for you. Thus it is crucial to socialize in order to have someone to rely on when in dire need. But in turn, you must act when needed for the one who saved you.
And about the social situation that’s basically a cold civil war, yet the bad guys are backed by their ruler?! And the so-called Veronican Faction are distinguished by the way they dress—the fashion style of Ahrensbach, while those loyal to their duchy wear the fashion of Ehrenfest’s trends like they do. That even if it’s hard, the least thing they can do is NOT scorn their homeland! But these guys do!
That can’t be any good?!
Then Alphabet, Writing, Vocabulary, Spelling, Pronunciation and Grammar. Once she masters this, they would proceed to Theology Lessons, so Maine can understand how Noble Language works. She has a deadline: before she turns seven because she must master Noble Language to write a song to sing in her Winter Debut, an event called Unveiling by Nobles.
The Unveiling is held after the winter baptism ceremony for children who are baptized that year. Each child offers music to their birth season deity in celebration of joining the nobility and prays for God's protection in the future. And this is why she must take music lessons SERIOUSLY...
Then Numbers of 0 to 9, then what’s basically…Japanese Kindergarten Math and Money Math ala Victorian England Style, due to their coinage. That, and prices of products and services nobles must have. Lastly, the DIY knowledge to prepare for Winter.
After that is playing the Harspiel.
It’s basically a half-pear-shaped instrument that’s like a Bandura in Maine’s opinion.
The harspiel is the most popular instrument among nobles because it provides a musical base for learning other instruments. Nobles are required to learn the harspiel. It is quite expensive, so normally no other people besides nobles can play the harspiel.
In Ehrenfest, it is tradition for freshly baptized nobles to perform a song at their winter debut before all the gathered nobles of the duchy. For this they are expected to both play on the harspiel and sing the lyrics all on their own, while their music teacher stands behind them.
Generally, the children of higher ranking nobles tend to perform better, due to their parents having better access to highly skilled tutors and higher quality instruments. Among laynobles, it is not uncommon for the family to lack the finances to hire tutors at all, forcing the parents to teach their children themselves, but naturally they can't afford to devote as much time to this as a professional music teacher.
To perform significantly worse than what is seen as normal for the rank of a young noble is considered a great shame and embarrassment and can even negatively impact the entire family in extreme cases.
‘I had to take additional lessons from Professor Pauline because of finances,’ said Henrik with a wry smile. ‘Because when I marry someday, who will teach my brother and future children? I’m sure my brother and wife think the same.’
‘Little uncle, what do Commoners do? I wouldn’t know, I’m always in the bedroom and unable to go out back then with my former family. I never see what they do beyond the door.’ Maine asked Damuel.
‘I heard from Becky it’s a lot…they’re a lot poorer than us, so they make things they need themselves.’ said Damuel. ‘They don’t have magic tools like us, so unlike us who only gather food, they gather what they need so their winter isn’t dark and cold. It is also the time when housewives make their family’s clothes and children do handicrafts to sell.’
So that’s the life of her birth family in her second life…she just had to be born in a medieval fantasy world!
Thus Maine’s daily schedule beginning from the first week of autumn was:
2nd bell: Wake up, get dressed and have breakfast. After that, it’s her first class of Noble’s Common Sense and Language.
3rd bell: second class in Math and third class in Ehrenfest Geography.
4th bell: lunch of thirty minutes and after that it’s fourth class in Music
5th bell: Magic Basics and Law
6th bell: Ehrenfest History
After that, it’s her free time to do as she pleases, because her new parents need to work. Leaving her and Damuel to spend time with their ailing elderly in the house. To her adoptive father and little uncle, he is their father. To her he is her adoptive grandfather, Marcus Sohn Bernett.
He is still young, but years of being a Potioneer and trying to create a new potion compromised his health. He had Henrik at age twenty-six. This was because he spent years earning money after graduation to pay off the Bridal Wealth his fiancee’s father demanded. After that, he and his wife worked to save a nest egg to afford children. Henrik was the first child…and thirteen years later, Damuel.
But during Winter Socialization when Damuel was four years old, a horrible accident occurred. Lady Linnea was assisting her husband in his experiments…needless to say, it did not end well and the horror of it all caused their father to fall ill from both potion damage they could not cure, and grief from losing his wife who got the worst of the explosion. He also aged from terrible stress from pain. And he’s only forty-three at the time. He considered his condition his lifelong penance to his family for his wife’s death that Damuel lost his mother too young.
But considering his condition, he was considered ‘elderly’ out of Potion Poisoning.
She got to know her new family.
Bitterness from mistreatment aside from higher-ranking nobles, her grandfather is a stern, but well-meaning man and treated her kindly, likely seeing her as a daughter he would never have as his wife died young and it’s his fault. But at least he got a granddaughter while he’s still alive.
Henrik is an honest man with a calm, gentle demeanor. Unlike most nobles, Henrik does not appear to look down on commoners and generally treats them with respect. He did to her parents, and genuinely treats her well as his adoptive daughter.
Julianne was someone who clearly suffered abuse — and she did back in her Academy Years, from Veronican Girls in the school dorm. That her teachings were mostly warnings. And clearly hardly anyone spoke up for her, no thanks to the Veronicans’ protection from Chaoscipher and her most faithful servant, the Aub!
She knew what’s expected of a wife, but feared for her children who would suffer as she did. It gave Maine a rather bleak outlook on her future as a noble. She may be Laynoble in status, despite her strong mana. She would still get the short end of the stick.
So she has to earn her keep here in her own way to make her worth adopting.
Other than that, Maine took to spending time with Aunt Becky, the triple-timing Caretaker, Nanny and Cook. So her salary is quite considerable given all her jobs. She earns three large silver for her work. And her money goes to her family. She saves it up, and goes to visit before Pork Processing Day in Autumn to give her money to her husband so her family can have a good winter.
And as long as Maine is too little to do everything herself, too weak from the Devouring while gaining strength, she is to dress and bathe her when needed. Otherwise Becky is always with the bedridden House Head. Unlike Archdukes, Archnobles and Mednobles, Laynobles learn how to be self-sufficient due to inability to afford servants other than one who can triple-time.
‘What do commoners do at home eh?’ Becky mused. ‘We have to obtain in the forests the daily needs we need to survive winter.’ she said. ‘Oil for cooking and lamps. Wax for candles. Plant fibers to spin and make our own thread. We also weave our own fabric and sew our own clothes. We also prepare to make food preserves in winter.’
‘What about eggs? Milk?’
‘Well, eggs are hard to come by in winter, eggs and milk are a luxury for us poor, but for Nobles with Time-Stopping Magic Tools, we could save up on eggs and milk, so we amass it too in this household.’ said Becky.
‘Then what is Ehrenfest Food like? It’s too sour and salty.’ Maine complained. ‘I can hardly eat it even in my old house in the lower city.’
‘I know…been this way since I was young.’ Becky pouted. ‘I learned from my mom who learned from her mom and so on…we just didn’t question it, rather than sleep hungry.’ Becky sighed.
‘Can I try some ideas?’
‘Anything new would be welcome. It's also hard for Lord Marcus in his condition as of late…’
So Maine, wanting better food, asked about vegetables. But she also asked if anyone has ‘food they cannot eat or get sick.’ She described what an Allergy is.
‘Well, nobody told me anything if there’s food they like or dislike, but for now, play it safe.’ Becky advised. So Maine did just that!
She instructed Becky to make a hearty vegetable soup recipe. Becky once wondered why Maine cried to stop when she was about to throw the broth away.
‘Huh? We do it to get rid of the dirty froth on top.’
‘Just skim it off with a spatula! No need for a health hazard just to throw away something so little! Then after washing that spatula, taste the broth.’
So Becky did…and found herself pausing.
‘Oh my…it's sweet and something else I can’t describe, but delicious on the mild side!’ she exclaimed, amazed with the wonderful taste she never experienced before her whole life.
“THAT’S BECAUSE YOU’RE THROWING AWAY NUTRITIOUS UMAMI FOR YEARS!!” Inner Maine cried in exasperation. ‘Then add salt as needed, pinch by pinch until it’s just right. No need for vinegar!’ so it was up to Becky’s judgment until she got it to her satisfaction.
‘Then lastly, put eggs in a bowl and mildly stir it, just enough to break the yellow round thing. And then while the soup is still boiling, stir at a moderate pace while pouring in the eggs so it cooks quickly and we’re done.’ hello Vegetable Egg Drop Soup! Very nourishing for malnourished medieval people no thanks to their dumb way of cooking!
And when that soup was served for dinner…
‘You’ve outdone yourself Becky!’ Marcus exclaimed as he never had such soup in his life. It’s delicious!’
‘It’s sweet and a flavor I can’t describe, but I feel I can eat it for thirds!’ Julianne gasped out, enjoying herself. Is this food the rich enjoyed, she wondered. The brothers were hurrying up in blowing a spoonful just to have more because it was still hot. But they want more of the good stuff!
‘Ohoho! Little Miss asked me to make some changes for this to happen.’ said Becky, beaming at Maine.
‘You’d make a future good cook, Maine! Your future husband would gladly have you in the house, had you remained a commoner.’ Henrik chuckled. ‘Unlike us nobles, an ideal beauty for commoners is a wife who is great with the needle and the kitchen and is often fought over.’
‘Erm, my former parents aren’t that bad in lovelife drama…are they?’
‘Well, status still matters, when your parents told me about their history for you to learn.’ said Henrik wistfully.
Gunther was the son of Woodworkers but found himself pushed by Angriff to join the Civil Military when rampaging Feybeasts attacked his home village outside the capital, orphaning him early. He could still keep his house growing up and support himself, until he had to sell his family’s property come adulthood to afford the Bridal Wealth demanded by Effa’s father: buying a house in the capital so his daughter is safe within and close to home. No house, no deal! He is currently a Captain in the South Gate, earning one large silver a month.
Effa was a Fabric Dyer. Her family was in the Civil Military for generations, while women of her family worked as the military’s Uniform Makers. So their status was quite high compared to Gunther’s. But Effa was heavily blessed by Ventuchte that she didn’t want the dullness of making the same thing over and over, the only thing changing being sizes! And she didn’t want to dye the same colors over and over again.
She would have become a Seamstress at the Tailor Workshop she applied for come adulthood, but she was very unlucky.
A lot of Fabric Dyers were murdered alongside their families for defying their tyrannical Archduchess for using and selling Ehrenfest Dyed fabrics and clothing techniques when she enforced Ahrensbach Techniques with an iron fist, forcing her workshop to select by raffle drawing Fabric Dyers. Her mother got unlucky to become one and Fabric Dyers earn less than Tailors. Thus would pass her dream to her eldest sister Tuuli, now that the city has enough dyers by the time she hits adulthood.
‘...wow. What a bitchy old hag.’ the adults and other child cringed at her vulgar term, but that very term suited the most hated lady in Ehrenfest well. ‘And my poor mother who got her dream ripped away by bad luck by consequence.’
‘While quite apt , we sadly cannot voice our true opinion lest we be forced to the heights, dear.’ Julianne warned Maine. ‘And no lady should say such vulgar things, even if your target deserved it. We must maintain class in our bearing even if we are laynobles. We must appear a better person than the bully, no matter what it takes even if it’s painful.’
‘Yes, Lady Mother.’ Maine pouted. So their only method of fighting back is to be passive-aggressive eh? She can do that, humph!
But given the ingredients and costs, she asked Henrik for a favor for when he next goes out shopping with Becky for food.
‘...Myne gave us these?’ Gunther tearfully asked Henrik, holding the stack of wooden boards containing recipes as if it were a newborn infant. His youngest hopes for them to eat the same food she does now, to get stronger.
‘Yes. Your daughter has a great gift in the kitchen.’ said Henrik to the tearful father. ‘If not for the bad luck of being born with the Devouring, no doubt you’d have your hands full when she gets suitors.’ he chuckled. ‘With that, she hopes you would eat well without paying a ransom. Each of those doesn’t cost more than two large coppers.’
‘Sniff, when Myne sees us again at some point, she will see we’ve grown stronger as she hopes.’ Gunther swore to Henrik. ‘But she should think of herself first, for she nearly became a star too soon.’ he fretted. ‘We nearly lost her on that day so we are forced to make a decision back then,’ he said bitterly. ‘She should have the same chance as her sister to grow up and live long. Out of our six children…only those girls survived past winter.’
‘...it goes without saying I cannot tell Maine that she lost four siblings before they were born.’ Henrik remarked.
Gunther and Effa married at eighteen. And tried for a child every year...at twenty-one they had Tuuli, and after her a miscarried child of four months, followed by Myne exactly at the end of the same year making the two girls over a year apart in age and both are Summer Babies. And they are currently twenty-seven years old. A few years older than Henrik now.
‘Yes…two before Tuuli, a girl and a boy. Another boy after her, then Myne…and another sister. We couldn’t tell Tuuli either. How can we?’