u/JouleV

Everything in the academy is decided by noble rank (archnobles over mednobles over laynobles) and duchy rank. For example access to the library carrels, [newly released kiss day short story] >!the gazebos!<.

But it's not like there is any visual identification that says someone is a laynoble, a mednoble or an archnoble, is there? Then how can a mednoble know whether someone is an archnoble to yield, or whether someone is a laynoble to force them out, if that someone is not of the same duchy? They can't possibly be required to remember the face and rank of everyone in the academy can they?

[The new short story (it doesn't spoil anything whatsoever if you have read P4 because it is pure worldbuilding, but I'm marking it as spoiler regardless)] >!mentions that laynobles cannot use the gazebos because they get stared at by archnobles, but how can that archnoble know that the person inside is a laynoble and not a fellow archnoble?!<

In the Archduke Conference following H5Y, Korinthsdaum and Hauchletzte (and Gilessenmeyer) are basically guaranteed to drop terribly in rankings.

Which would mean Ehrenfest will, almost certainly, become the 6th ranked duchy. (Could be 5th if the harvest in Blumenfeld is particularly poor, but very unlikely imo, now that they have a proper archduke.)

It will be

• At the same rank that their bully Ahrensbach used to have
• The top ranked middle duchy. All duchies above it are greater duchies.

Somewhere in the castle, Sylvester is probably thinking, “wait, did I just win by doing nothing?”

I'm re-reading the story from P4V1 onwards in Japanese and realised that adoptive children call their adoptive parents with "養父様" (tousama) and "養母様" (kaasama) – the pronunciation is explicitly provided via furigana by the author.

For example instead of using "Sylvester" or "Florencia," Rozemyne simply uses tousama and kaasama.

Eglantine also calls the previous Aub Klassenberg, her biological grandfather and adoptive father, "養父様" (albeit without the explicit tousama annotation) in certain settings (e.g. in her tea party with Rozemyne in P4V2).

So with Letizia set to be adopted by Rozemyne in 2 years, we could see her referring to Rozemyne, only 4 years her senior, as kaasama. I wonder how Rozemyne would feel, first time being called that way by Letizia.

issuing orders to someone not under his service? And the 4 guard knights had abandoned their duties by following such orders?

Ferdinand pretty much chased all of Rozemyne's guard knights away during the magic training session. The exact same thing happened to Angelica during the medical examination in P4V3, and Angelica even described the event in details in her POV short story in Royal Academy Stories - First Year (still one of my favourite short stories in the entire series).

Then, wouldn't what the four guard knights did in S4E4 be equivalent to abandoning their duties?