Detlinde/Story

Detlinde first meets Rozemyne and Wilfried at their first year fellowship gathering at the Royal Academy, where the archduke candidates of different duchies formally greet one another. She greets her cousin Wilfried warmly, but ignores Rozemyne and shows contempt for her.

They later meet again at dedication whirl practice, when Detlinde invites Wilfried to a “cousins tea party.” Reluctant to let him face such a risky social situation alone, Rozemyne points out that she’s also Detlinde’s cousin by adoption and tries to argue her way into being invited as well. However, Detlinde rejects her and plainly says that she does not consider her a cousin.

When Rudiger, Detlinde and Wilfried’s cousin from Frenbeltag, asks to join, Detlinde agrees after some hesitation. However, her vindictive smile suggests that she only agrees to spite Rozemyne.

At the cousins tea party, Detlinde grills Wilfried about how the Ehrenfest students raised their grades so drastically in such a short time, why Lamprecht's marriage was denied, and whether Wilfried is already engaged. While Wilfried later describes it as an amicable meeting, Rozemyne suspects that Detlinde’s veiled insults might have gone over his head.

At Ehrenfest’s joint tea party for all other duchies, Detlinde attempts to damage Rozemyne’s reputation by exposing her background in the temple and revealing that she was absent from the Royal Academy because of the Dedication Ritual. However, Wilfried and Rudiger chime in to support Rozemyne. They explain that both Ehrenfest and Frenbeltag face such a serious mana shortage that archduke candidates are needed to conduct such tasks, and the guests feel sympathetic for their unfortunate situation.

Later at the same party, Rozemyne hands out small samples of rinsham to Eglantine and her friends. Detlinde asks for a jar to use herself. When Eglantine chides her for her making demands after being blatantly rude moments before, Detlinde insists again on the basis that Rozemyne is her cousin. Rozemyne reminds Detlinde that she previously told her to her face that they were not cousins.

However, Justus signals to Rozemyne that she should give Detlinde a jar anyway, and she realizes that it will benefit Ehrenfest to reinforce its familial relationship with Ahrensbach in such a public setting. She gives Detlinde the rinsham, saying she values their relationship as cousins.

In Georgine and Gieselfried's side story, it is revealed that they want to arrange a marriage between Detlinde and Wilfried because Letizia, Detlinde's niece, has already been chosen as the next Aub. To avoid civil war in the duchy, they want Detlinde to marry a husband who lacks the ambition to push her to fight for the title of Aub herself. Wilfried, whose reputation was tarnished after entering the Ivory Tower and who carries Ahrensbach blood, suits their plans perfectly. Unfortunately, Wilfried has already received the king's approval for his engagement with Rozemyne.

At the Archduke Conference following Detlinde's fifth year at the Royal Academy, the king orders the marriage of Detlinde and Ferdinand of Ehrenfest. Due to exceptional circumstances, the usual preparation time will be cut short, and the pair is to marry right after Detlinde's coming-of-age and graduation next year.

This comes as a bad surprise for Detlinde. Over the last year, she had become romantically involved with a young Sovereignty knight, who had been sent to Ahrensbach to investigate the Ternisbefallen attack on the Royal Academy and the subsequent rebellion. With her betrothal ordered by the king himself, she has no choice but to break off her relationship with him and prepare for her upcoming marriage.

Come summer, Detlinde and her mother visit Ehrenfest, officially to allow the two betrothed to grow closer. Once in Ehrenfest, Detlinde uses the opportunity to order a hairpin for her graduation. Despite her wishing to spend more time there, the visit is cut short when an emergency message from home arrives, and Georgine decides they need to return immediately.

Due to barely even knowing her father, she has essentially no feelings toward her father's collapse. Since she had fun in Ehrenfest, she only thinks that he should have collapsed at a less inconvenient time.

The entire Ahrensbach retinue leaves the city of Ehrenfest by coach, though after riding for one day and resting at an inn, Georgine decides to hurry ahead with a smaller group on highbeasts and leaves the majority of her retainers with the slow going coaches. They travel at a speed that soon exceeds Detlinde's stamina, leaving her feeling sick and unable to continue. She tries to show no weakness and insists that she can continue, but her mother says they will take a break in Gerlach to allow Detlinde to recover. This catches Detlinde completely off guard, since in the past her mother always insisted on her working and studying no matter how ill she was.

Georgine exchanges Ordonnanzes with Giebe Gerlach, in which he informs her that he already has other guests, and thus is unable to accommodate even the small party that moved via highbeast. He claims to only be able to accommodate Georgine, Detlinde, and one guard knight and one attendant for each of them. Despite the present knights strongly arguing against traveling with so little protection, Georgine accepts this offer.

Initially, Detlinde ordered a hairpin specifically more glamourous than the one Adolphine received as a gift from Prince Sigiswald. Nearly everyone present, including her own attendants, tried to convince her to change her mind, so she would not be perceived as insulting the royal family, but she would not budge on the issue, stating confidently that she would be the next Aub. Even Wilfried, who would usually be only too happy to stay far away from any discussions involving fashion, decided to caution his cousin that an Aub should know how to show restraint, but to no avail. Only when Brunhilde, one of Rozemyne's attendants, suggested that she could wear multiple hairpins at once, did Detlinde relent and agree to order hairpins that individually were less fancy than Adolphine's hairpin. Ultimately, she settled on ordering five of them, each featuring flowers similar to the ones Adolphine chose for herself.

During whirling class, Detlinde witnesses Rozemyne beginning to shine. During the cousins tea party, she questions Rozemyne about the incident and is able to extract the information that Rozemyne accidentally did this by leaking mana into feystones. Wishing to put up a display at her own graduation, she forms the plan to also cover herself in feystones to replicate the effect.

< Detlinde