Damuel/Story

# Part 2

Damuel's failure to protect Myne, during the extermination of the trombe, causes him several issues. He was forced to borrow money from his brother to help pay for his part of Myne's replacement ceremonial robes. He was also demoted to apprentice knight and was assigned to serve the shrine maiden Myne in the temple. This caused friction with his fiancée, and they separated.

During his time at the Royal Academy, Damuel would write study guides for fellow students instead of hunting. Writing study guides enabled him to make money to help him pay his way through school. He did this rather than hunting as he made more from the study guides, than he could from hunting the creatures. Ferdinand finds out about him writing study guides and that he is also in debt, and asks him to help with the temple paperwork, while Myne is in his office, which he will pay him for.

During his time with Myne at the temple, he kept a low profile, and not many people knew he was a noble. During the confrontation in the common lower city, he surprised Otto by pulling out his schtappe and calling for help. When they were trying to get to Ferdinand's office in the temple and were intercepted by the High Bishop and Count Bindewald, the High Bishop was surprised to see a knight protecting her.

# Part 3

He is currently serving Rozemyne as a personal bodyguard with Brigitte.

Damuel developed a crush on Brigitte and eventually even asked her to marry him. Their difference in mana capacity prevented their marriage, and as such, he requested a year to achieve a similar mana capacity as Brigitte. He succeeded in reaching his goal and wished to marry Brigitte, however, he could not move to Illgner as he wouldn't be able to protect Rozemyne as her guard knight.

It was revealed by Ferdinand that should Damuel have accepted the marriage proposal and moved to Illgner, then he would have come to an early death, since he knew too many of Rozemyne's secrets.

# Part 4

While Rozemyne is attending the Royal Academy for her first-year courses, Damuel is mercilessly trained by Bonifatius. Even when Rozemyne returns and Damuel is there to greet her when she comes through the teleportation circle, he's covered in cuts and bruises. Rozemyne remarks how he looks a lot stronger, thinking to herself that it is not just due to the muscles he put on, but also a more determined and self-assured look on his face

## Part 4 Volume 5

In the summer after Rozemyne's first term at the Royal Academy, Matthias, the son of Viscount Gerlach, finds out about an ambush that his father plans on the carriages carrying Rozemyne's grey priests and the Divine Instruments to the wedding ceremony at the border gate with Ahrensbach, but is unable to arrange a meeting with Lady Rozemyne due to being repeatedly turned down by her guardians, he gives a letter to Roderick, who is to pass it on to Philine during a shared lesson for scholar apprentices, so she can then inform her master.

When Roderick hands the letter to her, both she and Damuel - who is guarding her at Rihyarda's request, due to worries about so many members of the former Veronica faction being present, while a considerable portion of the Knight's Order and Florencia faction members are on their way to the wedding - assume it is a love letter. Only once Philine reads the letter in her room, does she realize the gravity of the situation and immediately storms to the others to inform them, at which point Damuel immediately contacts Lord Bonifatius via Ordonnanz. Thanks to everyone's quick reactions, Bonifatius is able to inform the Knight's Order in time for them to prevent the ambush from succeeding, and he praises them for their good coordination.

Once Bonifatius has been informed and the situation is calming down, Damuel expresses his sympathies to Philine, that it had not been a love letter after all, Philine nearly bursts out in tears, leaving Damuel deeply confused and floundering. Philine shouts at him that she wishes for him to not find a girlfriend or wife until she comes of age. Damuel retorts that she is being just too cruel, after which Damuel is further teased by Rozemyne's female attendents, due to him still failing to pick up on something that he just can't seem to figure out.

## Part 4 Volume 9

In late autumn after Rozemyne's second year at the Royal Academy, an unknown noble woman infiltrates the temple while Rozemyne and Ferdinand are absent for a visit at the Italian Restaurant. While they are gone, the noble captures the grey priests on guard duty at the noble's gate, steals Ehrenfest's High Bishop's bible, and replaces it with a poisoned fake. Once the ruse has been discovered and the poison neutralized by Eckhart and Justus, the gathered nobles learn from Konrad that the missing grey priests have been taken alive, rather than killed. From reports from commoners like the gate guards and the Othmar Company's Jutte, they furthermore learn that a suspicious coach has only recently left via the south gate. Rozemyne, Ferdinand, and most of their retainers - including Damuel due to his ability to sense low-level mana-wielders - set out on highbeasts to intercept them and rescue the kidnapped greey priests.

Soon after, the group spots the culprits at a crossroad. After the coach is stopped by Angelica, one of the Devouring soldiers inside appears to hold one of the grey priests hostage with a blade to his throat. While the other knights hesitate, not wanting to risk the life of the hostage, Damuel confidently strides forward and thrusts his sword right through the hostage. Due to having served at Lady Rozemyne's side for so long, he is utterly confident that he recognizes all the adult grey priests in the temple, and thus correctly deduced that the hostage was in truth one of the enemies disguised in the robes of one of the kidnapped priests.

Once the enemies inside the coach have been neutralized, Rozemyne and her guard knights chase down a second cart that has suspiciously been moving toward a now empty farming village, despite all the residents already having moved to the local winter mansion. Together, the guard knights once again stop the vehicle from moving, and Angelica starts to question the driver. However, the moment he starts to talk, a ring hung from his neck on a chain starts to glow, and the man is consumed in flames, apparently having been bound by a very strongly worded magic contract reinforced with a magic tool. Thankfully, the effect only centers around the driver himself and leaves the rest of the cart unburned. Inside, Damuel finds the missing grey priests, albeit naked due to the soldiers having taken their clothes for their deception and to make it harder for them to flee in the icy weather. Despite some of the robes being in poor state due to the fighting, Justus recovers them from the site of the coach and brings them over, where Rozemyne cleanses them with Waschen, and they all return to the temple.

Both the abducted grey priests and Wilma profusely thank the knights for saving them, never having expected nobles other than Rozemyne to care for their lives. To this, Damuel just shakes his head and replies that it was only due to Rozemyne's orders, and if anything like this were to ever happen again, they would not intervene unless she once again gave the order, but is still glad to be thanked. Rozemyne naturally replies that there is no worry, since she WILL give that order without a doubt should it ever come to this again.

At some point of this year, Philine asks Damuel for romantic advice, since her desired partner seems blind to her advances. Being his usual dense self, Damuel completely misses Philine's intentions and starts to believe that she has a secret crush on Roderick and later confides as much to Lady Rozemyne.

< Damuel

# References

1. ↑ Ascendance of a Bookworm. Part 4 Volume 2. Chapter 15: An Order to Return to Ehrenfest
2. ↑ Ascendance of a Bookworm. Part 4 Volume 5. Staying Home at the Castle
3. ↑ Ascendance of a Bookworm. Part 4 Volume 9. Chapter 6: Commoner Testimonies
4. ↑ Ascendance of a Bookworm. Part 4 Volume 9. Chapter 7: Rescue
5. ↑ Ascendance of a Bookworm. Part 4 Volume 9. Chapter 8: Evidence
6. ↑ Ascendance of a Bookworm. Part 4 Volume 9. Chapter 13: Preparing to Leave