Egmont/Story

# Part 2

He was instructed by Bezewanst to obstruct Myne, so that she wouldn't participate at the Harvest Festival. Following his order, he brought the library into a chaotic state, leaving Myne furious. They crossed paths, when Myne was on the way to the library, and he on his way to his carriage to depart for the Harvest Festival. He was pleased by Myne's submissive act and mumbled, that he wouldn't need to have bothered with what he did just a moment ago.

# Part 3

Later when Rozemyne became the Temple Hierarchy#High Bishop, Egmont lost his support in the temple. After the inauguration ceremony, Rozemyne found Egmont and crushed him a bit, remembering the library incident. Egmont stated that he solely acted on the previous High Bishop's order and didn't have any ill intentions.

After Ferdinand redistributed the areas that each Blue Priest would visit during the Harvest Festival, he complained about losing out on profit, but to no avail.

# Part 4

## Part 4 Volume 9

Egmont's noble family has long since been closely associated with and under the influence of the house of Dahldolf. Furthermore' Egmont is on good terms with Gloria, the Viscountess Dahldolf, on account of having been part of the same social circle as the late Shikikoza, Gloria's deceased son. When the viscountess requests to be informed when both Rozemyne and Ferdinand are outside the temple and to be invited at exactly this time, Egmont is only too happy to provide the information and invitation.

While Rozemyne and Ferdinand are away for a visit at the Italian Restaurant, Egmont receives Gloria in the temple, not knowing that at the entrance she had already captured and abducted the four grey priests on guard duty. She lays out her plan to steal the High Bishop's bible from the temple and replace it with an empty fake to embarrass and humiliate Rozemyne, once the next ceremony comes up and she discovered that she lost the bible in front of an audience, speculating that this will be almost guaranteed to see her removed from the position. She also says that she will advocate for Egmont to become the new High Bishop.

Egmont is somewhat receptive to the idea, but is too wary of nobles to accept right away. Only when the viscountess puts the plan into a magic contract, does he agree and throws his full support behind her. To celebrate the occasion, Gloria gifts Egmont a magic ring and states that this makes him a true noble, since he can now use the mana within himself.

Egmont has some of his attendants distract and delay Rozemyne's retainers, while others use the servant's entrance to sneak into the High Bishop's chambers and unlock them from within, giving Gloria and Egmont access. They also search for and manage to find the key for the bible in Fran's room. The viscountess attaches a magic tool to the bible, which forms into an outwardly indistinguishable copy of the book and registers the bible's key with her own mana, after which the attendants put it back where they got it. She then strokes the fake bible with her gloved hands, which unbeknownst to Egmont, applies a deadly poison to it that will kill anyone who touches it after a short delay. Following this, the pair returns to Egmont's quarters to keep up the appearance of regular socializing, after which Gloria leaves for the Dahldolf winter mansion with the stolen bible via highbeast, while the coach she had come in sets out southward with the kidnapped grey priests inside the luggage compartment.

Upon their return from the restaurant visit, Rozemyne and Ferdinand quickly discover that something is awry and start to gather information. Their first priority however is to chase down the coach with the captured grey priests, which sees them quickly leave the temple again. In their absence, Hartmut begins to question the blue priests about the incident. In the course of this interrogation, Egmont spouts rather unfriendly comments about Rozemyne and claims she is a commoner, which enrages Hartmut, who jumps on Egmont, binds him, and holds a knife to his throat.

It is in this position that Ferdinand and Rozemyne find the pair when they return after the successful rescue of the four grey priests. They tell Hartmut to release Egmont. At this point, Rozemyne notices the magic ring on Egmont's left hand, and Eckhart quickly cuts off his hand to make sure he cannot use it or self-destruct. Egmont is then put into a time stopping magic tool, so he can be brought to the castle unnoticed for further interrogation. There a memory searching magic tool is used to look into Egmont's memories to uncover the truth. One of the discoveries is that Egmont only knew and cooperated in the theft, but didn't know about the assassination attempt. Furthermore, Ferdinand uncovers that Gloria cheated Egmont. The seeming magic contract that she and Egmont signed, that was supposed to guarantee him her support for becoming the next High Bishop was in truth a double-layered parchment with a standard submission contract underneath, effectively making Egmont her Devouring soldier. The ring she gave him meanwhile is engraved with the crest of Gerlach.

Soon after Gloria commits suicide rather than being captured alive, thus breaking Egmont's submission contract, although he is presumably still imprisoned.

< Egmont

# References

1. ↑ Ascendance of a Bookworm. Part 4 Volume 9. Chapter 9: New Perspectives
2. ↑ Ascendance of a Bookworm. Part 4 Volume 9. Chapter 10: Viscount Dahldolf's Estate