episode_0056

“Well, it’s not a question I was asking for a particularly plausible answer. In the end, this is probably a matter of history rather than a matter of any wisdom. In the end, the Haren people just need a little more time… .”

“… Yes.”

Proof that the sloth king inherited the blood of the dragon, his vertically split pupils flashed.

The royal family of Haren needs no laws, violence, or authority to rule over the people of Haren. It was the birthright of the dragon descendants to rule in the skies of Haren, established as the principle of this world from the moment the Sloth King was born with dragon eyes.

It was a natural right that could not be usurped by either a constitutional monarchy or republicanism.

So why does the ‘descendant of the dragon’ reign as the master of the Haren people? Was there some kind of pact between the dragons and the Harenites in the past?

No, not in the first place.

What exactly is this being called a ‘dragon’?

“… Your Majesty, do you know about animals that are born with vertical pupils?”

“Hmm? Well, isn’t it like a snake or a cat?”

“Small predators such as snakes, crocodiles, foxes, sharks, lizards, and cats are usually born with vertical pupils. Vertical pupil is advantageous for adapting to brightness and allows for high-sensitivity vision even at night, but because the surrounding scenery is distorted, the disadvantage is far greater than the advantage for large predators. Even in animals of the same family, this tendency of ‘vertical pupil’ varies depending on body size.”

“This is my first time hearing this information, but it seems quite reasonable.”

“But aren’t dragons in mythology pretty huge beings?”

“Well, according to the records handed down in Haren, it is recorded that the ancient species called ‘Dragon’, the ancestor of the royal family, was a being so large that it used the entire mountain range as its nest.”

I’m not sure that such accounts of the existence of ‘dragons’ are accurate, but somehow I have a feeling they might be right.

A creature of excessively large size, far beyond the realm of evolution.

I have already seen one such creature.

A tree-shaped orbital elevator─, a ‘world tree.’ It was clearly a structure created with a purpose. It was a huge stepping stone that would later help humanity advance into space.

In that case, there was a high possibility that the ‘dragon’ was also a being given some kind of role.

So, before answering Sloth King’s question.

First, I had to listen more closely to the premise.

“Your Majesty. What on earth is ‘dragon’?”

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After returning to my dorm after my conversation with the Sloth King, I stared blankly at the ceiling.

In the end, I didn’t know the correct information and couldn’t give a plausible answer. Only a strange feeling of discomfort remained in my heart.

– “I don’t know either. The ‘old covenant’ is a story from 1200 years ago when the Kingdom of Haren was founded. It’s no different from a myth.”

– “… Isn’t it pretty close?”

– “It was a thousand years ago that the Savior came down to this earth… If it’s far, it’s far, and if it’s close, it’s close. In the first place, this is the history of the founding of the Kingdom of Haren.”

It is said that the dragon made a master-servant oath with the Haren people 1,200 years ago and established the ‘Kingdom of Haren.’

Of course, 1200 years is a very long time… . From the perspective of history, it is also a time when we can ‘look back’ to some extent.

However, in this world, there were almost no records of the period before the ‘Savior’.

It was like that in the Empire, and it was like that in the Kingdom of Haren. It was as if someone had erased it.

“Is there a Big Brother that controls this world? .”

My head was pounding, so I left the dorm and walked outside.

I was thinking of going to the bookstore. I read most of the books in the bookstores around here, but the only thing I could do was read.

If you check to see if a good new book has been released, you will soon feel at ease.

Thinking like that, I walked a long distance. The people of Haren consider quietness a virtue, so unlike the streets of the Empire, it didn’t feel that noisy.

and.

From somewhere, there was the scent of old paper. It’s the kind of scent you might feel in an old bookstore or library.

I was drawn to that scent as if I was possessed. Was there a library nearby that I didn’t know about?

“… Church?”

Contrary to my expectations, it was a church. The source of the book scent was coming from a pile of bound books piled up in the yard belonging to the church.

Several priests and believers were busy organizing the church.

It looks like they are doing some general cleaning. Maybe he’s trying to move. I do not know.

As I was staring blankly at the church, a priest who was carrying luggage approached me and spoke to me.

“Nice to meet you. Brother. The church is a little chaotic right now, isn’t it?”

“Ah, yes. Are you planning to move the church?”

“Haha, no. The church building seemed too large, so they were planning to clean out the unnecessary rooms and turn it into a workhouse.”

“Yes?”

“The doctor’s door must never be closed, and the priest’s door must always be open.”

“A line from Les Misérables… ?”

“Oh my, I got caught. Haha, I think you also read the novel Les Miserables with great interest.”

The priest laughed, touching the rosary on his arm as if he were embarrassed.

He then looked back at the other people who were moving their luggage and continued speaking.

“Intellectuals were talking about Les Miserables being a republican novel or something… Actually, I’m not sure about that. Just, well, isn’t there something that moves your heart when you see people trying to be good?”

“Yes… .”

“I would certainly be happy if His Majesty remained our bishop forever… If you are so busy looking up that you can’t see your surroundings, you can’t be more sorry to God than that. Even if this order is wrong, if there are more people like Bishop Myriel who reach out to Jean Valjean, wouldn’t that mean the peace of the Lord will descend on this world?”

“… … .”

“So they created a workhouse… I’m trying to help people like ‘Jean Valjean’. We try to teach skills and find jobs for those who want to learn skills to work, those who have committed a crime and have no one to trust them, and those who are poor and cannot even learn to read. Among the believers in our church, there are quite a few people who work in factories or businesses.”

“You are doing a good job.”

“This is something I should have done a long time ago. In fact, it is said that these things are already being done in the Empire with the support of a writer called ‘Homer’. He is the author of Don Quixote and The Little Prince… Do you know?”

“Ah, yes.”

The foundation created in the empire played a similar role.

Thousands of gold coins were being poured into the universal education of children every month alone.

It was all because of my greed.

The desire to develop the world’s literature and enjoy more literature. Whether it was universal education or welfare, from my perspective, it was just a means to increase the number of ‘writers’.

Wouldn’t it be nice if children who learned to read grow up to be great writers?

“Recently, this ‘literature’ is changing society so much that I think perhaps this too is a gift given to us by God.”

“… I see.”

“Ah! If there is a book you would like to read among the books piled up here, I will give it to you.”

“It’s okay. Because they are all books I have read.”

“All… ?”

The priest burst into laughter, probably thinking my answer was a bluff.

I nodded appropriately and left the church grounds and started walking again.

And then I returned to my accommodations and slowly, leisurely re-read Les Miserables, just like I did every time I traveled.

But for some reason, I couldn’t concentrate well today.

[“Don’t forget. We must not forget that He promised to use this silver to become honest people… . My brother Valjean, you no longer belong to evil, but to good. What I buy with this silver is your soul.”]

“The greatest intellectual in the empire… .”

Literature doesn’t change anything. Literature is not a magic book, and it does not provide any direct usefulness.

If literature were truly useful, I would have become a fairly decent human being after reading tens of thousands of pieces of literature. However, the result is nothing more than a translator and plagiarist who is obsessed with literature.

But despite all its futility.

Literature was truly about changing the world. Literature will at least let us know that we ‘don’t know’ something.

So it was actually a simple story.

“I don’t know what I was thinking so seriously about in the first place… .”

Whether it is the magic that makes up this world, the World Tree that is rooted in this world, the existence of Big Brother who tries to lead the fate of this world in one direction, or something transcendent that reincarnated me into this world.

As a writer, plagiarism was not a problem for me to worry about.

Will the Kingdom of Haren prosper under an absolute iron monarch, or will it become its own master and republican citizen?

It wasn’t a problem for me to worry about.

Ultimately, that is a problem outside of literature. There was only one thing I had to think about.

Are such issues helpful to ‘literature’?

And the conclusion was also simple.

“No matter how hard I try, I won’t know, so I’ll have to commit first and see.”

Anyway, people who are better, better, more talented, and more outstanding than me will do something.

So, as a writer, I plagiarize.

All we have to do is provide this world with literature for them to refer to. People will make their own interpretations.

Because there is no right answer in literature.

So, I started plagiarizing new literature.

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[Big Brother is watching you.]