episode_0047

Quixote. This is the first literature from my past life that I plagiarized in this world, and the first modern novel.

Last article literature.

The Spanish Bible. The novel most loved by writers. The first bestseller. A long-lasting steady seller that will be immortal as long as language exists and as long as the culture of novels exists.

A novel that signals the end of the Middle Ages.

The main character in the novel, Don Quixote of La Mancha, was now standing before my eyes. He pretended to be a knight-errant, something that only existed in the Middle Ages, and wore a helmet made of paper.

“Nice to meet you. I am none other than Andy, the Duke of Carpeter.”

The man introduced himself as Andy, Duke of Carpeter.

A duke was a nobleman who owned one of the few permanent fiefdoms in the empire, a constitutional monarchy.

Modern–that is, the ‘Counts’ of this world are nobles who belong to the ‘Court Count’ in the classical title system. The history of this goes back to the days of the old emperor called ‘King Fair’, but the important thing is that the rights of the nobles are all vested in the ’empire’.

It was possible to own a ‘manor’, a means of production, but it was impossible to become the secular ruler of a specific fiefdom.

“Please feel free to call me Andy.”

But this person named Andy, or ‘Duke’, was different.

They are the secular rulers of the fiefdoms, and are granted absolute rights and absolute responsibilities within the limits set by the constitution of the empire.

And my father, Count Frieden, evaluated these ‘dukes’ like this.

“You are the Duke of Cafeter… ?”

“That’s right.”

“Well, judging by your behavior, it looks like you’ve been doing the article for quite some time. Do you mind if I ask you one question?”

“Speak comfortably.”

“How do you run your territory? ?”

They are poor human beings who are tied up in their territory and do nothing but work 24 hours a day.

That was actually the case.

In the case of duchies, the empire also pays special attention to audits. This was because the empire’s ‘constitutional monarchy’ order, which had been maintained since the reign of King Fair, could easily collapse.

The nobles in parliament were also ready to bring the duke down to the same position as them at any time.

So, in order for the duchy to be properly maintained, everything had to be done perfectly, like crazy, without a single mistake. Because of this, the workload of the dukes was truly beyond imagination.

I asked a question with that kind of doubt in mind.

Duke Carpeter’s answer was simple.

“I left it with my son.”

“Yes?”

“He’s a smart guy, he’ll take care of it.”

“Aha… . I think your son is very capable.”

“That’s right. I left a letter before leaving for the article, so I’m sure he’s doing something on his own.”

“Uh, handover or something like that… .”

“Do you really need to do that?”

“… … .”

hmm. Despite his demeanor as a knight-errant, this Duke of Carpeter was no ordinary person.

Maybe it was my own pace, even more than my father’s.

Duke Carpeter seemed to have noticed my gaze and continued speaking with a grin.

“They say that what is truly important cannot be seen.”

“You read The Little Prince… ?”

“I am constantly looking for and reading books while working as a knight. This is especially true if it is a book by author Homer.”

“Thank you.”

“That’s why. Do you mind if I ask you a favor?”

“Ah, yes. If there’s anything I can do… .”

Duke Carpeter took out a book and placed it on the desk.

Don Quixote Part 1, the first edition that can no longer be obtained even with a thousand gold coins. The sides of the book were a little worn from how many times I had read it, but there were no stains on the cover or paper.

It was a book that made one feel the affection for the work.

Holding out the book, the Duke proudly declared:

“Please sign.”

“… Yes?”

“This is one of the goals I wanted to achieve the most during my knighthood. Getting Homer’s signature on ‘Don Quixote’. Even if you defeat the evil dragon, it would be meaningless if you couldn’t receive this.”

“Ah, yes… . I’ll just sign it for you.”

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The Duke of Carpeter was a very interesting person.

“I saw quite a lot during my travels. I went to the World Tree, which is said to be the hottest place on the planet, and the entrance to the underground, which is said to be at the pole.”

“Ho… .”

To be precise, he was a person who had many interesting experiences.

Duke Carpeter, who had been traveling around the world as a knight for several years after publishing Don Quixote, seemed to have literally ‘traveled the world’.

“There are no boats going there, so how did you get there?”

“I got rides from various people… If there is no road, just walk on water. I happened to take a wrong turn and ended up on a strange path.”

“On the water… ?”

“A small talent. No knight can carry out his will through action.”

Duke Carpeter responded as if it was no big deal.

“I see… . If you don’t mind, could you tell me a story?”

It was an opportunity to obtain valuable information that could not be found in old travelogues or merchants’ memoirs.

It could have been helpful later when writing ‘Gulliver’s Travels’ or ‘Around the World in 80 Days’. The new story was interesting in itself.

For me, who remembers life on Earth, this world itself was close to fantasy.

So the travelogue of this world sounded like a fantasy novel in itself. I think it would be a good idea to ask them to write a travelogue.

“Hmm, yes. I don’t know where to start the story. In fact, the reason I was able to move around like that was largely thanks to this ‘Don Quixote’ costume. People who read Don Quixote knew that I was a knight and would give me rides on trains, carriages, and balloons. I’ve been to so many places, I wouldn’t have enough time to explain them all.”

“You can only tell me about things that leave an impression on your memory.”

“Hmm. Okay. okay. Then it would be better to start by talking about the World Tree… . The World Tree was a huge tree that grew up to the sky. It was in the heart of a dense jungle in a very hot place. The natives called it ‘the center of the world’. The pole and the center of the pole, the place at the top of which the world revolves. It is said to be the equator where the sun passes overhead.”

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The World Tree did not have leaves that were green and full of life, as in many legends.

Rather, it had dull gray leaves. Because the branches of the World Tree with its leaves hung above the clouds, it always seemed like black rain was falling around the World Tree.

A gray rain that absorbs all light.

The ‘gray leaves’ that come down from the heavens land in the forest, mix with the soil, rot, and become nutrients for the forest to grow.

“If you see a high mountain, wouldn’t it be natural to want to climb to the top? I also climbed the World Tree and tested how high it could grow.”

“I see. How high was it?”

“To the imperial unit system… Well, I’m not familiar with the newly created unit system, but I think it’s around 30,000 km.”

“… yes? Did you say 30,000m incorrectly?”

“No. It was a slightly shorter distance than orbiting the planet once, so it’s probably right.”

“Do you mean the height of the tree? ?”

“When you go higher than the sky, you can see the aurora, and from then on, the distinction between night and day disappears. All I can see is a night sky filled with stars. It was hard to breathe and my skin was sore, so it wasn’t a place where I could last that long.”

uh. If the height is really right, wouldn’t I not be able to hold on for even ‘a moment’, not ‘long’, and die?

Apparently, Duke Carpeter’s body seemed to have transcended human limitations.

I have seen wizards who make tea without fire and fantasy performances that shake one’s mind, but the existence of such ‘superhumans’ felt more fantasy-like than magic.

“There were endless twigs, splitting and splitting into hundreds of millions of twigs. The thick branches were larger than any tree seen on earth, and the furthest branches were as small as the branches of an ordinary tree. There, gray leaves hung in abundance, covering the night sky.”

“I see… .”

“And then, I learned that there are beings living in that tree. A fairy from legend… They were beings called elves.”

“Yes?”

“They were not as beautiful as the legends say.”

fairy. It is said that the moment the elves encountered Duke Carpeter, they became frightened and hid inside the tree.

Inside the tree, there was a narrow tube that brought water up from the planet—that is, a plant capillary through which water circulated. It is said that fairies travel between space and planets through the pipe.

The moment I heard that story, the first thing that came to my mind was ‘orbital elevator.’

A cosmic elevator that connects geostationary orbit and the planet.

The World Tree was an orbital elevator, like something out of biopunk science fiction, that spread out branches in geostationary orbit and used solar radiation to photosynthesize. The gray leaves were also probably the result of evolving to be able to absorb light of all spectrums.

No, the expression evolution was not appropriate.

It was impossible for such a huge and unique tree to have been created as a result of ‘natural selection’. So it was something a little more of a fantasy kind of thing.

It is a mystery of this world that I cannot understand.

“Just as humans cannot survive long at the top of the World Tree, fairies also seem to have difficulty surviving on the ground for long. It seems that the old myth that fairies and people communicated with each other was a lie.”

“Huh.”

“And, um. This is what comes to mind about the World Tree. I don’t know how to explain in more detail because I don’t have the gift of words.”

“I see.”

“Oh, on the other hand, at the coldest pole on the planet, there was a hole that went underground. Below it was a huge empty space, a cavity.”

“Were there any Nazis?”

“Hmm? What is that?”

“Oh, no. Please keep talking.”

“Anyway, there were dwarves living down there─.”

Duke Carpeter’s explanation continued.

I could see that this world is made up of many mysteries beyond what I knew.

and.

I thought that perhaps making this mystery widely known to people might be an opportunity to bring about the literature of this ‘world’.

“… Duke Carpeter.”

“Mmm. Please tell me.”

“Have you ever thought of publishing your travel story as a novel?”

This is not a story that can be captured in ‘Around the World in 80 Days.’ There may be some similarities with ‘Gulliver’s Travels’, but this was not enough.

A completely new story was needed.

I felt like I needed to get help from writers.