episode_0003

“Baron, this is not as easy as you think. No matter how I make it, I can’t just give it to the Baron.”

I’m busy working on a project to save my family’s finances, but some time ago, other nobles started coming to me asking me to draw Cinderella.

“Look, Rupert, if I keep going like this, my daughter might starve to death! Please do this.”

Baron Sleepy grabs my shoulder with a desperate look on his face.

I heard from my father that he owns a wealthy estate and has a very arrogant and cocky personality.

‘You’re such an exaggerated man because your daughter starved to death.’

I managed to release the Baron’s grip on me and calm him down.

I thought I should refuse more sincerely, so I explained one by one the reasons why I couldn’t do it.

“First of all, there are more tools needed to create a book than you might think.”

“I will support all of those tools!”

“Besides, it takes quite a bit of time because you have to draw each page yourself.”

“No, if you have the original copy of the book you drew, wouldn’t it be okay to make a copy at the Magic Tower Printing Shop? I will ask for it directly from the Magic Tower!”

What, this guy is really desperate.

And is that something that can happen in the Magic Tower?

Of course I knew it was a world with magic, but I never imagined that there would be a magic tool to print books.

Then, the work will definitely be reduced a lot.

The Cinderella I made was for Ada, so the main character’s name is Cinderella Ada, and her appearance is based on Ada, so you only need to modify those parts.

But I don’t have time to spend on that right now…

“Of course, I’m not asking you to do it for free. I will reward you generously!”

“Good! Let’s give it a try.”

***

After the Baron returned, he received a list of all the noble families who wanted a Cinderella fairy tale book from his father.

Then, when I asked the noble families listed on the list to send me the names and photos of their daughters, everyone seemed to be in a hurry, so they quickly sent me the requested items.

They even sent me a reward in the form of an advance deposit, saying it was an expression of good faith, but the amounts were all different.

The person who sent the largest reward was Baron Sleepy, who seemed the most earnest, and sent a whopping 5 gold.

‘The average family’s living expenses per month were 20 silver, and 100 silver is 1 gold… I’m going crazy. ‘This much in one book?’

I couldn’t help but click my tongue and be surprised.

As far as I can tell, my family’s living expenses are approximately 3 gold per month.

The income was much more than that, but the operating expenses for maintaining the mansion and territory and repaying the money borrowed through fraud were all lost, and he had to live with the remaining 3 gold.

But I can’t believe I earned an amount of money from just one book, well over a month’s living expenses.

Other nobles also sent at least 1 gold, so the total already exceeded 10 gold.

“I got the money, so I should start right away.”

Even in a different world, professional cartoonists keep their promises to their customers.

First, I sat down at the desk and checked the tools that Baron Sleepy had sent along with the reward money.

The first thing I saw was a feather pen with a delicate metal tip that looked luxurious and had a fairly thick black ink.

In Isekai, drawings were done only with a brush, not a pen, so the pen was not optimal for drawing.

But since what I’m going to draw this time is a children’s book, I was able to draw it well with this feather pen.

‘It would be nice to have something like a thin spoon pen, but this is also useful.’

Although I didn’t have a metal pen, I was fortunate to have a feather pen that did a similar job.

Unlike the feather pens on Earth, the feather pens in this world produced consistent ink without overflowing.

Because of this, it was difficult to control the strength or softness of the lines, but the drawing itself was possible.

Colors had to be applied with brushes and paints, but of course there were paintings in this world, so the tools there were of excellent quality.

In fact, it seemed better than the brushes and paints on Earth.

“But I didn’t know I would be so fascinated by children’s books.”

When I saw the original copy of Cinderella, which had already become Ada’s No. 1 treasure, which I brought for reference, I remembered the hard work I had gone through to make it.

***

The setting of the romance fantasy ‘The Youngest Son of the Royal Family’ was not much different from our medieval times.

So, of course novels and the like existed, but the difference was that children’s storybooks did not exist.

To be precise, there were storybooks written only in text, but modern children’s books with illustrations did not exist.

The only books with illustrations here were illustrated books, such as plant guides, monster guides, or weapon guides, and story books were just densely written in rows and rows.

‘Ada, this is boring, I’m not going to read it.’

When I was playing with Ada before, I was trying to read a storybook to her, but when I saw Ada quickly get bored and complain, the storybook came to mind.

This is because young children who do not read books often read children’s books with pictures.

So I decided to make a pretty illustrated children’s book for Ada.

‘The day will come when I will be able to use what I learned about book art through a club in middle school.’

It was helpful for me to apply to the computer club, which was the most popular club in middle school, and to join the book arts club, which I was forced to fall short of after losing at rock-paper-scissors.

Using my memories of making simple books such as notebooks and children’s books in the book arts department, I confidently started producing them myself.

Creating a book was a daunting process.

‘The only thing I can do is sell all the leather in the master’s house… .’

I asked the butler for leather to use as the cover of a book, and what I got back was an unknown leather with some stiff hair still on it.

Later, I found out that it was the skin of a monster called ‘Gnoll’, but it was so useless that it was discarded.

It’s okay, because the cover is only visible from the outside anyway. The important thing is the content, so I rationalized it and asked for paper.

‘I have paper. But this is a little… .’

God, I never wanted the quality of modern white paper (used for high-end books, high-quality printed materials, etc.) or off-white paper (paper used mainly for books) on Earth.

However, I was astonished at the quality of the paper, which was not even reusable as waste paper and was worse than newsprint.

There was no doubt that if I tried to draw here, the whole thing would be torn apart.

‘But I can’t get money from my father… .’

As it is now, both the cover and the content will become a mess of a book.

Rather than making something like that, it’s better not to even do it. After thinking about it for a while, I decided to sell all the books I wasn’t reading.

Anyway, I’m past the age of reading storybooks, and Ada says storybooks are boring and doesn’t even want to read them, so if I just sell these, I can cover the cost of the materials.

The storybooks at home were purchased when my family was aristocratic, so they were of high quality and could be sold at a good price even though they were used.

‘With that money, we can pay for food this month…’ .’

When I saw the butler and the head maid drooling over the money they received from selling books to a merchant, I was slightly pricked by my conscience, but I still decided to use it for Ada.

My heart ached every time I saw Ada looking envious at the gorgeous jewelry and dolls brought by the daughters of the neighboring estate who occasionally came to visit.

Even if my father and I were adults and could endure poverty, Ada, who was still a child, did not need to experience such deprivation, at least not yet.

After purchasing leather for the cover and paper for the inside from a merchant, I carefully wrote down the story of Cinderella as I remembered it, word by word.

On the opposite side of the paper, an illustration was drawn that matched the content.

Cinderella wearing a fancy dress and glass slippers, fairies and pumpkin carriages, a beautiful palace ballroom and a handsome prince, etc.

The paintings were so detailed and fantastic that it was hard to believe I had drawn them.

‘Rupert, this bastard has such talent, but the most he can do is draw portraits of heroines and present them as gifts.’

Since I originally drew webtoons, I had some confidence in my drawings, but I was honestly impressed by the art skills of Rupert, the original owner of this body.

A portrait of a beautiful middle-aged woman hangs in the center of the entrance as soon as you first enter the house.

It was Rupert who painted the portrait, which had vivid, realistic, and beautiful colors, as if it had been painted by a famous Renaissance artist.

It is said that Rupert painted it himself to commemorate the Countess of Somerset, wife of the Earl of Bradley and the mother of Rupert and Ada, who died of illness.

There was a description in the novel that he was good at drawing, but I didn’t know he had this much talent because all he did was draw pictures of the female protagonist and give them to her.

It wasn’t until I possessed Rupert’s body that I realized.

If this guy had really delved into painting, he would have become a truly great artist.

However, in this world, painters were not a profession that was treated very well.

As cameras using magic replaced the role of painters, the typical life of a painter was to make a living by painting portraits or murals of wealthy nobles.

Therefore, it was understandable that Rupert did not pursue a career as a painter even though he had such talent.

“Now that you have possessed me, I will put your talents to good use.”

Fortunately, my original talent did not disappear after being possessed, and my drawing skills were much improved compared to my previous life.

These were drawings that made me think that if they returned to Earth in this state, they would be able to dominate not only the webtoon world but also the comic world and the art world as a whole.

Thus, my experience and Rupert’s talent came together to create the first children’s book, Cinderella Ada.