I never really thought about it before, but the moment when Wilfried had the "What... I want?" moment made something finally click: Ever since his birth, Wilfried only ever lived out what others had planned for him. This is the first time in his life, when he is allowed to pick his own path.

He was caught and torn between what other people wanted of him, apparently not even noticing that he was only working and struggling to meet other people's goals for him, without even knowing what he himself wanted.

This makes his constant flip-flipping between good and bad, obedient and rebellious a whole lot more understandable and also why he is so easily influenced by others.

Putting him on the same level as Detlinde is quite uncalled for in my opinion. Detlinde is soooooo much worse than Wilfried ever was. Wilfried has time and again shown small glimpses of having at least some decency in him, where Detlinde is utterly iredeemable in my eyes.

Just take the reward ceremony as an example. Despite having been involved in one of the two research projects, albeit in only a small manner, Wilfried refused to go up and take credit in front of the king, for what was primarily Rozemyne's accomplishment.

Detlinde on the other hand, had no issue at all with not just sharing in the praise for Raimund's accomplishments alongside him, but going up there and taking all the credit for herself and leaving Raimund completely out of it, dispite the sum all of her involvement being to chastise Fraularm a single time for getting between Raimund and Ferdinand's communcations and otherwise not even being aware of what exactly he was even doing, until right before the presentations.

Also with Wilfried, it's primarily his retainers that cause the problems, while with Detlinde, it's the retainers that are desperately working to prevent the troubles from happening, but being unable to contain that tornado of terribleness.

In light of this new knowledge, I find Drewanchel a quite fascinating issue. In the past the Zents (and thus presumably also the Aubs) were chosen regardless of lieage, purely on merit, to the point that the concept of a royal family didn't even exist.

Somehow Drewanchel stumbled into going back to kinda-sorta a similar way of choosing their Aub, by pure accident and presumably without even knowing about how it was in the past. And while they are being looked at as that weird and unusual duchy, in actual fact, it's probably the closest to how duchy's were run near the founding of the country out of all currently existing ones.

Congratulations Leonzio, you managed to shoot up to the top of most hated people in the story, even above Detlinde! I hope you are proud of yourself. I was kind of hoping he'd be disgusted by how aweful Detlinde is and only playing the love-stuck fool to manipulate her, but nope, he seems to be at least as evil as her, taking outright delight in tormenting Letizia... except that he didn't get tortured and abused by his mother his enough life, like Detlinde was, to turn him into this monster, which makes him even worse than her to me.

I hope his death will be exceptionally painful and drawn out over a long time.

Not sure whether to put Georgine on his level or slightly below him though.

Looks like I guessed correctly, that they hid an antidote in the candy, so facilitate balming Letizia. Still nice to see that Ferdinand's first instinct was to kick Letizia out of the poison cloud to protect her. Though I was clearly wrong about Ferdinand initiating the contact with Rozemyne intentionally. Seems like his shouting of her name, was a reaction to her mana surging out of the charm, rather than a deliberate act to show her what was going on, as I had assumed.

I'm also glad Ferdinand has Jsutus. That idiot Eckhart was so lost in his own little world once again, that he nearly betrayed Ferdinand for his own need for revenge. If it wasn't for their long history together, I would be tempted to have Ferdinand send Eckhart packing, for being too thought- and reckless to the point of being in danger of being a hindrance rather than an asset, unless very tightly managed. In this regard Hartmut is faaaar better as a retainer.

I didn't have much time for Sigiswald before, but this chapter form his POV really made me dislike him a whole lot less. He certainly is a lot sharper and aware than either Rozemyne's or Adolphine's POVs made him out to be and also a lot less selfish and more concerned about the country. Still far from a paragon of good behaviour, but hardly anything too far out of the ordinary among the majority of Yurgenschmidt nobles and a whole lot better than certain other individuals who showed their colours this volume. This once again brings me be back to one of Ferdinand's earliest lessons to Myne, about getting information from all sides, before making up your opinion.

Though I would have liked the Sigiswald chapter to go on a couple more sentences, explaining why Sigiswald immediately allowed Rozemyne to depart, rather than getting at least a perfunctury explanation

I just belatedly realized something: Rozemye has been forcefully grown to look her actual age... but her actual age is one year older than what noble society believes her to be. So from other people's perspective she didn't just catch up to where she should have been, but like she's actually unusually well developed for "her age" now.

I bet she's going to turn quite a few heads now, with her the boys of her grade. ^^

She should also be very careful with how much she tells the Royal Family. If they learn the full truth either they, or Raublut, might take it upon themselves to kill Ferdinand and either trick or force her into absorbing his feystone.

That being said, I am a bit confused how the Wisdom of Mestionora can be split in two. We know for a fact that in the past multiple people could hold a Grutrissheit of their own, at the same time. After all that's how Tollkühnheit was able to create Lanzenave in the first place, while his brother ruled over Yurgenschmidt. Is it because the gods aren't capable of telling Ferdinand and Rozemyne apart, or is it because Ferdinand pissed them off so much with his behaviour ten years ago, that they'd rather see him dead, than give Rozemyne the remaining parts of the bible themselves?

Bonifatius casually hitting his enemies with half a forrest was hilarious. Silver cloth? Black weapons? No problem, I'll just hit you with mother nature! >:D

Oh, you want to sneak through the forest? No, we'll have none of that, we'll just make that forest disappear. Have fun sneaking through completely open ground! ^^

I bet Ortwin is more frustrated, than happy, about being first-in-class solely due to Rozemyne being absent, rather than managing to beat her. Oh well, at least he managed to stay ahead of Wilfried, if nothing else.

But speaking of which... can someone who's taking post-regular semester classes due to circumstances out of their control, rather than failing like Angelica did, still be made first-in-class after the fact, despite having missed the award ceremony? I don't want Rozemyne's streak to be interrupted.

"I don’t want to hear you complaining when you didn’t even keep me in the loop.” THIS! So much this!

Sure Rozemyne didn't tell him either, but first of all, she didn't exactly have a choice, but was more or less forced to obtain the Grutrissheit, first by the royal family and then by unexpectedly being dumped in front of a god. And unlike Ferdinand, she was explicitly orders not to tell him by both the royal family and Sylvester. Meanwhile Ferdinand chose to not tell anyone all on his own, so I'm absolutely with Rozemyne.

I hope in a future chapter/volume, Ferdinand goes to complain about Rozemyne, only for Sylvester to tell him he really can't complain about Rozemyne keeping this from him, what with Ferdinand starting his plan more than a year, before Rozemyne is roped into obtaining the Grutrissheit by the royal family, her being ordered to keep quiet and at any rate, can you really blame the disciple to take after the Mentor? He was the one who drilled into Rozemyne the need to not give away anything, so in that sense, she's just doing exactly as he taught her. ^^

I'm surprised Rozemyne didn't even consider just not giving Ferdinand a registration feystone and leaving him locked inside the replenishment hall, so he can recover properly. Push some blankets, food and drink through the barrier, while making sure not to put any of your limbs through it, so he can't pull you inside and he'll be fine for a good long time. But I guess I understand, why she wouldn't want to face the fury, that would instill in him, once they let him out eventually. ^^

I'm with Ferdinand on the issue of trusting Gervasio. Sure, he was not the one who came up with and ordered the massacre of the Ahrensbach nobles, but neither did he appear to try to stop it, or even mind it too much, beyond considering it distasteful. As the king of Lanzenave, he surely would have had the authority to order Leonzio to desist, regardless of the political factions and even if Leonzio hadn't listened, he is much stronger. I suppose it is possible he learned of it only after the fact, but I doubt it.

Also when Raublut talked about killing those who oppose him, right in front of him in the auditorium, he just started to belt out blessings, without a single word against the killing or any attempt to negotiate a somewhat peaceful settlement.

I think it is very well within his established peronality. He really has absolutely no time for useless and/or stupid people. Just remember his reaction to Wilfried's first half day of switching places with Rozemyne. The imcompetence and ignorance Letizia seemingly displayed was in excess of what Wilfried showed. After all Ferdinand didn't seem to have realized that Leonzio dugged and partially brainwashed Letizia. I hope he will learn of this fact and adjust his opinion accordingly.

Nah, no overthinking. Considering how we just learned that Grausam was already devoted to Georgine, before giving his name and unlike many of his peers gave his name voluntarily and eagerly, I think that's a good observation. He's nowhere near as fanatic as Hartmut I'd wager, but then Georgine only distinguished herself through simply being better than a, at the time, whiny spoilt brat who actively tried not to become Aub, and the shared Ahrensbach ancestry. Meanwhile Rozemyne is showing genuine signs of being god-sent.

I don't think so.

Sure, they don't necessarily need to get her into that room behind the barrier anymore, but now that she has the Grutrissheit, there's all the more reason to make sure to get her into the fold of the royal family, so that nobody else can get her.

And I'm not even certain that they don't want to get her into that room still. We don't know what's in there after all. For all we know, it could be physical copy of a past Grutrissheit, which contains much, if not all, of what Rozemyne is missing to get to the 100% without having to do anything to Ferdinand.

I wonder what will happen if/when Gunther and Hartmut meet. It'll either be a moment of joy, where they both gush about Rozemyne's greatness, or a moment of extreme tension, with both of them being jealous of the other and exchanging barbed remarks about how Rozemyne favours them more. Either way it'd be hilarious to read about. ^^

To leak anything, he'd have to learn of it first, so the burden for the time being is on the archducal family. With Wilfried having risen out of his pit of despair, confusion and self-pity for now... I think he'd be well enough inclined not to give anything away willingly.

Even if they got the information, I don't see how it would benefit any of Wilfried's retainers to leak it, with one exception: Barthold. I'm still not sure whether he's just trying to ingratiate himself with Wilfried, to make his own life more comfortable and he ended up sabotaging Wilfried out of idiocy, or whether he's intentionally sabotaging Wilfried.

We know that Giebe Dahldolf for example is living freely, as if he had his own name, while his name is actually held by Veronica, so Wilfried being locked up in the Ivory Tower could be a rather attractive outlook for someone who only gave his name to him to escape punishment by association.

Alternatively, he could have hoped that should Wilfried be disinherited, he would be forced to give the names he got back. Not an entirely unrealistic theory, since they were meant to swear themselves to the archducal family, which in such an event Wilfried would no longer be a part of. Of course this carries the risk that Sylvester might insist that those who regained their names from Wilfried, pick a new archduke family member to swear themselves with, but with how much of a softie Sylvester is, and how the danger of the Veroncia faction is pretty much gone, there is definitely a non-zero chance he might just let Wilfried's ex-name-sworn keep their names.

If he wants to please Wilfried for better treatment, it would be in his own interest to keep quiet. But if he wants to sabotage Wilfried, he's sure to leak it, if he manages to glean the truth. To maximize the potential damage to Wilfried, he would need to rile up the Leisegangs, while they believe they still have a chance to keep Rozemyne in Ehrenfest, because those geezers very obviously have no clue how the nobility and royalty outside of their duchy actually works, as Rozemyne realized this very release.

*wrong name corrected

I wonder what's up with Letizia being "invited" to the Lanzenave estate and getting sweets and toys from Leonzio, without Detlinde going through the roof.

At first I thought that Leonzio was also drugging the girl, but she shows no sign of infatuation with him, changed behaviour, or gaps in her memory, so I think that guy is only using the gifts to get closer to her, but hasn't escalated to chemical warfare with her (at least not yet).

What really surprises me however, is how Detlinde isn't just allowing it, but actively enabling her sweetheart giving another female gifts.

Does that mean she's in on whatever Leonzio is trying, or is she just so high on whatever Leonzio is giving her that she's just doing as he says without resisting or complaining anymore.

Or could the happy drugs he's giving her, make forget all about how much she hated Letizia just a few weeks earlier and she's inviting her, because there is no one else she can bully into sharing her happiness with her, no one who has high enough status for her to consider taking along anyway?

Forget the biblical fundamentalists, the Rozemyneites are coming!

To be fair to Rozemyne, when Ferdinand wrote the letter, he wouldn't have known that Georgine is already poised for striking Ehrenfest and that she has a way to take their foundation. Nor would he have known that Rozemyne likewise has a way to steal Ahrensbach's foundation and would be able to get Dunkelfelger on their side for the assault on top of getting permission from the royal family to go through with the attack... well technically we haven't heard the royals actually giving that permission yet, but with how much the royals want to get rid of Detlinde and how much they stand to gain from this, I think that's just a formality.

Nor would he have known, that Ahrensbach would be so considerably weakened, by the slaughter that Georgine and Detlinde have planned for any noble who's not following them unconditionally. This slaughter is planned for the exact same night, in which Rozemyne plans to launch the assault. So in the worst case, Ahrensbach's defenses will be in weakened and in disarray, and in the best case there will be Ahrensbach nobles, who realized they are on the chopping block, but are still alive and thus will likely ally with the attacking force, further bolstering the strength of the attackers.

How fortunate that is, is a matter of perspective... Clarissa is an oddball even within her oddball duchy, so taking after her, might not be all that good an idea. Especially for someone in Philine's cicumstances. She'll have a hard enough time being accepted in the Sovereignty just from being a laynoble alone, so she certainly doesn't need to be seen as weird on top of that.

I would imagine that Lutz got a far less detailed version (just a momentary flash really), because he isn't a mana wielder. Either that or it was because the Trombe was sucking out Myne's mana. After all, the "transmission" did cut off from Ferdinand too, when the mana began being sucked out of him.

Why would the charm against physical attacks work against a silver knife? Did it only look silver in the moonlight, while being made out of regular steel?

Or maybe the handle was wrapped in wood or leather and that was enough to activate the charm, so it was the handle that was deflected, naturally taking the connected blade with it?