Count Bindewald/Story

# Part 2

He planned an assault to obtain Myne during Spring Prayer, using his Devouring soldiers. Thanks to the unpredicted presence of Sylvester and Karstedt, the ambush failed, but with all attackers either being killed or successfully fleeing, the puppet masters' identities remained secret.

The following year, Bindewalt schemed with an assortment of Ehrenfest nobles, including Gloria, Grausam, and most importantly Bezewanst, the High Bishop. They intended to abduct Myne and force her into a submission contract, while Sylvester and Karstedt were absent for the Archduke Conference.

When Bindewald tried to enter the city of Ehrenfest like usual with just a letter of invitation by the High Bishop, he found out that the rules for entry had been changed and only a personal invitation of the Archduke himself granted entry into the city.
Bezewanst managed to convince his elder sister Veronica, the mother of the Aub, to forge such documents, which allowed Bindewald and several of his Devouring soldiers to enter the city, thanks to the negligence of the Gate Commander of the eastern gate, who had been warned about the possibility of forged documents, but unlike the commanders of the other gates failed to inform his subordinates of this in a timely fashion.

At the temple, Bindewald signed a submission contract with the Devouring baby Dirk, disguised as an adoption contract.

Meanwhile, the first group of Bindewald's Devouring soldiers tried to capture Myne in the city streets, but since they hadn't been given a detailed enough description, they ended up capturing Tuuli along with Myne. Either way, they were overcome by Damuel and Gunther.

After the attackers were defeated, Myne, Damuel, and Gunther headed to the temple to seek Ferdinand's protection, but were intercepted by Bindewald, Bezewanst, and the remaining two Devouring soldiers before they could make contact with Ferdinand. Despite his lack of physical fitness, Bindewald's much greater mana capacity allowed him to easily toy with Damuel for a while and eventually defeat him. While Myne was able to use her Crushing to incapacitate Bezewanst and hold even Count Bindewald at bay in a mana duel for a short time, the greater numbers of power of Bindewald, Bezewanst, and their subordinates were too much for Myne and her companions to overcome. Just when everything seemed lost and Bindewald was about to force Myne's bloody hand onto the submission contract, Ferdinand emerged from his chamber.

Bezewanst accused Myne of attacking nobles, a crime punishable by death for a commoner. Reluctantly, Ferdinand moved to subdue Myne, but quickly found out that Myne had already stamped her own blood on a charm that Sylvester had given her, before the encounter with Bindewald started. This meant that Myne was already the adopted daughter of the Archduke and thus well within her right to defend herself against Bindewald and Bezewanst. In fact, this turned the situation around, since attacking a member of the archducal family was a serious crime, even if the attackers did not know at the time whom they were hurting.

Now free to act against Bindewald in accordance with the law, Ferdinand moved against Bindewald. Initially, the Count was confident and arrogantly mocked Ferdinand, believing that as a mere blue priest, he would have neither the training nor the mana capacity to put up much of a fight against someone who graduated from the Royal Academy, but to Bindewald's surprise and dismay, Ferdinand summoned his own schtappe and used it to restrain Bezewanst with ropes of light.

In the following mana duel, the two Devouring soldiers and some of Bezewanst's attendents were vaporized completely, leaving no trace behind. Bindewald was badly injured and captured by members of the Knight's Order, who arrived shortly afterwards. While technically the crime of attacking a member of the archducal family is punishable by death, Sylvester decided to put him in a dungeon instead, due to the delicate diplomatic relations with Ahrensbach, where he has remained to this day.

# Part 3

Due to the mana scarcity, Sylvester began to drain mana from Bindewald and use it for Ehrenfest's sake. Among other things, his mana has been used to fill some of the small harvest chalices for Frenbeltag.

His contract with the Dirk was later annulled.

After his imprisonment, thirteen of Bindewald's Devouring soldiers were used in the attempt to kidnap Rozemyne from the Archduke's castle. They were left behind in Giebe Gerlach's province, when Bindewald moved through on his way to Ehrenfest, and later transferred to Viscount Joisontak, without the latter knowing they were Bindewald's, until after he had already used them try to kidnap Charlotte. All of the Devouring soldiers attacking the castle were killed in the incident. When the first of their number was slain by Bonifatius, it triggered some kind of fail-save enchantment that blew up the others in a chain-reaction.

# Part 5

## Part 5 Volume 3

A couple of years later Rozemyne learns that Count Bindewald's wife - the younger sister of Professor Fraularm - has been punished in some form that Fraularm considers "nightmarish" as a result of her husbands diplomatic incident in Ehrenfest, which makes it very likely, but so far unconfirmed that his title of Giebe has since been revoked by Aub Ahrensbach and someone else was put in charge of his home province.

< Count Bindewald

# References

1. ↑ Ascendance of a Bookworm. Part 5 Volume 3. Chapter 3: Raimund’s Research and Hirschur’s Warning