City of Ehrenfest

Ehrenfest (エーレンフェスト Ērenfesuto) is the capital of the duchy of the same name and it is the medieval city where Ascendance of a Bookworm initially takes place. It's ruled by nobles with magical powers and has a rigid class system. Buildings created by the Archduke or a member of his family with magic are all coloured in a shade of white.

The city originally consisted of only the area now known as the Noble's Quarter. When the first Aub of Ehrenfest dethroned the previous lord 200 years ago, the city was expanded to include the lower city as a show of power and wealth of the new lord.

Prior to the expansion of the city, the temple was originally an inn that served as a front gate while travelers were investigated. The gate that once led to the old city is now called the Noble's Gate.

The lower city is the southern half of Ehrenfest, separated from the northern half by the temple. The lower city is the location of the homes and businesses of the commoners; the level of quality of the buildings ranges from “rundown shack” to “grand manor”.

The lower city section of Ehrenfest does not have a school; instead, children receive an education in a particular career through a business apprenticeship following their baptism.

Due to a complete lack of plumbing it is common for citizens to just dump their waste out the window, leading to the lower city being constantly dirty and smelling bad.

Spoiler from Part 4 Volume 3 According to traveling merchants, this poor state of the commoner parts of the city is not a normal state of affairs in the entire country. They report that at least some other duchies have much clearner lower cities. In preparation for Ehrenfest increasing it's business contact with other duchies thanks to Rozemyne's new products, the leaders of the duchy decide to clean up the lower city, so that visiting nobles and merchants wouldn't get a bad impression from the state of the commoner's areas. Since due to the mana shortage evacuating the citizens for a day and completely re-building the entire part of the city was ruled out. Instead the Merchant's Guild has been tasked to hire commoners to manually clean the streets, starting with the main street running between the eastern and western gates since it has the most amount of merchant traffic. They also discussed implementing rules that require commoners to regularly bathe, but no definite decision has been made in this regard yet.


 * Gilberta Company
 * Italian Restaurant
 * Lutz's House
 * Merchant's Guild
 * Myne's House
 * Myne Workshop
 * Othmar Company
 * Plantin Company

The Noble's Quarter is located in the northern half of the city, separated from the commoners southern half by the temple. The Noble's Quarter is an opulent suburb, with all residential buildings being large mansions most having a big garden.

Like the lower city, the Noble's Quarter doesn't have a school. Tutors are called in to teach the children until they reach the age of ten. In winter they gather in the children's room. At the age of ten, children are sent to the Royal Academy each winter until graduation. A noble is only considered a true noble if they attend and graduate from the Royal Academy. This school teaches nobles magic related things and prepare them for social gatherings.

Unlike the lower city, the noble's quarter is being kept meticulously clean, mainly by the use of magic tools.

The Knight's Order is a battalion of knights who serve as the primary defense force of Ehrenfest. The Knight's Order is made up entirely of adult nobles who can wield magic. Knights live in the knights' barracks, located in the general area of the Archduke's castle, alongside several training grounds.

Karstedt is the current commander of the Knight's Order, though the former commander Bonifatius is still active in training knights even after stepping down.

The temple is the primary place of worship of the gods and contains the Ehrenfest Orphanage. It sits directly on the border between the lower city and the Noble's Quarter.

The bible is kept there and read during each of the different ceremonies which happen each season.

Many religious ceremonies are held at the temple for the commoners of the city.

The priests within the temple mainly fall into two groups: nobles, and orphans who had nowhere else to go. They are identified by the color of their robes; blue for nobles and gray for orphans.

Within the temple, there is a hierarchy of command, from highest to lowest, the hierarchy goes:


 * The High Bishop
 * The Head Priest
 * Blue priests
 * Apprentice blue priests
 * Grey priest attendants
 * Apprentice grey priest attendants
 * Gray priests
 * Apprentice gray priests
 * Unbaptized orphans

Blue priests hold high authority within the temple and are the ones who conduct religious ceremonies. Gray priests, however, do manual labor around the temple and work as attendants of the blue priests.

The caste system also plays a part in how food is distributed. Blue priests eat first, then their attendants get their leftovers, the orphans get the leftovers from that which are distributed equally in the orphanage as divine gifts.

The Archduke's castle lies beyond another wall separating it from the Noble's Quarter. It looks around three to four stories high from the outside and has much land surrounding it. On the land are several facilities for tutors and forest rangers to live in, training grounds and barracks for the Knight's Order and gardens for tea parties. The Archduke's family lives in the castle with their attendants. It has an entry on the northern side for private visitors and the Archduke's family themselves, and an entry on the southern side for workers.

The castle itself is also subdivided into several wings, connected by corridors.

The central building is where the Archduke and his first wife reside and also houses meeting rooms, ball rooms and similar facilities. Inside of the Archduke's office is a room that allows access to Ehrenfest's foundation magic. The northern building is where baptised children of the Archduke live until they get married. The connection corridor to the main building terminates on the second floor. Beyond the entry area, this floor is reserved for boys, with the third floor being for the girls. The first floor is only used by servants. The Easten building until recently was used to house the Archduke's mother, meaning it is probably reserved family members of the Archduke other than wives and children. The Western building is where the second and third wives live.

Prior to moving to the nothern building upon their baptism, the Archduke's children usually stay with their children, though in recent history Wilfried has been raised by his grandmother Veronica and accordingly lived in the eastern building with her until turning seven.

Spoiler from Part 4 Volume 3 The meeting rooms inside the main building are divided into ranks so that a meeting room appropriate to the expected guest can be chosen, with the ones for archnobles being much more richly furnished and decorated than those meant for lower ranking nobles.

As the castle is big, there are many corridors and stairs which won't lead one directly to their destination. For that reason, Rozemyne is permitted to use her highbeast Lessy inside the castle so that she won't faint or would have to be carried all the time.


 * Suzuka has noted that the north side of the lower city would look like Rothenburg, Germany in the Manga Part 2 Volume 1 afterword.
 * Rozemyne's room in the castle is located directly by the stairs. It looks like her room in Karstedt's estate.