episode_0060

Count Frieden’s younger sister─.

Julia Frieden was a sincere person. Working as a bureaucrat in the western part of the empire, she was also a fairly capable administrator. Although it did not match the nature of the National Assembly, it kept its distance from the center.

In that respect, Julia Frieden was a ‘Frieden’ type of person.

It was a long-standing tradition of the Frieden family to keep a distance from the central nobility. It was like this even before there was a thing called ‘parliament’ in the empire.

After the creation of the National Assembly, this tendency became particularly severe, and Julia Frieden was also not very bright about information about the capital. At best, I only knew about a few big events.

Because of that, Julia Frieden could not understand the conversation among the young nobles whispering at the wedding.

“Eric’s younger brother is reading a book over there… Isn’t that the author? I think I saw it at the ‘Holmes .”

“It’s probably just a similar person.”

“No, it’s real… . I was sitting in the front row at the awards ceremony at that time. How much did I spend to get an invitation to that event?”

“Then why don’t you go and ask in person? Go and say you’re a fan.”

“How dare you do that! It’s blasphemy for me to speak directly to you!”

“Is Eric’s younger brother Homer? What is blasphemy?”

“Honestly, isn’t Herodotus ahead of others in terms of pure fun? ?”

“What. Are you not afraid of the 10 million Homeric Christians in your empire?”

“Why is this pseudo-religion so big?”

“There are still only a few hundred subscribers, but all Homer fans can be said to be potential Homer Christians.”

Several young nobles glanced at and whispered to their nephew Ed. It seemed like he was talking about a writer, but his eyes were constantly focused on his nephew, Ed.

Maybe it’s because my nephew is handsome.

When I was young, I thought I just looked sweet and cute, but my nephew, whom I saw for the first time in a while, had lost his youthful appearance and looked quite stoic. I think he has a look that would make a lot of women cry.

If you see him reading a book in the banquet hall without any interest in socializing, it seems like you don’t have to worry about that.

In fact, it was to the point where I was worried that I would ever get married.

Shall we talk about it? I approached my nephew who was reading a book and spoke to him again.

“My handsome nephew, what book are you reading?”

“Ah, yes. Aunt. It’s just a book about war.”

“Really? I guess it’s because he’s a boy and he likes things like that? My aunt also likes books. Is it okay if I read it with her?”

“Yes.”

I sat next to my nephew and looked at the book.

But I couldn’t read the contents of the book. This is because it was written in a language that Julia Frieden did not know.

I know the Harenese language, the indigenous languages used in some principalities, and the ancient and religious languages used in the Bible, but this was a language I had never seen before.

In the first place, the shapes of the letters were all different, so they looked closer to pictures than letters. Are they hieroglyphs?

“Nephew? What language is this?”

“Ah, it is ‘Roavik’ spoken in the desert south of Haren Kingdom. When I visited Haren Kingdom, there were a few related books, so I learned them.”

“I see… ?”

“The characteristic of the Loavik language is that it is basically an ideogram, that is, a mixture of ideograms and phonetic writing methods. It is probably an expression method that was solidified during the transitional period when hieroglyphs moved from ideograms to phonetic script. I think that. The reading order is also interesting because the first letter starts in the middle, right? So the meaning expands from ‘center’ to ‘outside’, and this is probably related to Roavik’s religion─.”

“Well, I see. Interesting.”

“Yes, yes. This page describes a battle that occurred over the river that runs through the center of Roavik, and the way the number of troops is expressed is─.”

So, Julia Frieden had to listen to lectures on ‘Roavik language’, ‘Roavik hieroglyphs’, and ‘Roavik numbers’ for a long time.

In the process, I also heard about how Roavik’s language, religion, and writing system are connected to each other, and how we can guess what kind of worldview and culture the people of Roavik have.

“Okay. Very interesting… .”

“Yes, yes. Oh, I’m sorry. The explanation was too long, right?”

“No, no. Was it fun? Well, nephew. It’s good to talk about books, but since it’s been a while since we’ve seen each other, how about we talk about what we’ve been up to for a while?”

“Yes.”

“For example, now that your nephew Eric is married, is your handsome nephew seeing any women?”

“Ah, yes.”

“Things like women’s tastes or preferred dating methods… ? What do you think about arranged marriages?”

“Uh, I don’t know.”

“If it’s okay, my aunt could arrange for a few people… .”

“I don’t have any thoughts yet.”

“I see… .”

“Yes.”

Short answer. Julia Frieden let out a weak laugh at the response that seemed to show no interest in anything other than the topic of ‘books.’

If you think about it, my nephew has been like that since he was young.

After growing up, whenever I visited Frieden Mansion, I sat in the library, and whenever I went out, I always had two books in my hands. When I playfully took a book out of my nephew’s hand while he was reading, he raised his head without saying a word and stared at me with cool eyes, then took another book from the bookshelf and sat down again to read.

Again and again.

Compared to back then, my nephew now feels very human. My nephew at that time… little… .

Because it was like a ghost.

Anyone who saw a child who had been blank and expressionless suddenly smile in front of his parents and ‘act’ to love his family would feel instinctive fear.

Fortunately, as I grew older, that feeling gradually disappeared. So I also completely forgot about Julia Frieden. Sometimes, even when memories of that time come to mind, I think it was just an illusion.

Words filled with such complex and subtle feelings flowed from Julia Frieden’s mouth.

“My nephew has no interest in anything other than books… ?”

“It’s just a hobby, well.”

“It’s good to enjoy hobbies, but shouldn’t you be so absorbed in your hobby that you miss out on other things?”

“That doesn’t work out as well as I thought… . But recently, I’ve been going to see performances with my family, um.”

“Huh?”

” Now that I think about it, that was 4 years ago… No, was it 5 years ago?”

“Huh?”

I guess it was wrong.

It seemed like my nephew was going to spend his entire life with books. Since I had no interest in anything other than books, no matter how many people around me talked about myself, it was meaningless.

But I still have to get married… , No, wouldn’t it be better to become a monk? I like reading books, so maybe it might be a good fit for me.

In the mind of Julia Frieden, who had been thinking for a long time.

Suddenly, a memory flashed by.

“Ah! Nephew. Then what about our isolette?”

“Yes?”

“Weren’t you two pretty close when you were young?”

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.

.

Isolette. It was a name I hadn’t heard in quite some time.

Come to think of it, I was friendly with a girl with that name when I was young. That child is…

“Are you your aunt’s daughter?”

It was my cousin.

“Okay. That child also likes books. I couldn’t come to the wedding because I’m currently in the Duchy of Carpeter with my boyfriend, Mr. William.”

“… So, you want me to draw a line with my cousin?”

“It doesn’t necessarily mean that. It’s good to be friendly. I thought it would be nice to just meet and talk comfortably!”

“Ah, yes.”

“That child also writes novels… .”

“Let’s go see it right away.”

“Huh?”

.

.

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When I think about it, the first literature I plagiarized in this world was not ‘Don Quixote’.

Somehow, I felt familiar with it while writing ‘Andersen’s Fairy Tales’ for my older brother. I had already plagiarized a fairy tale when I was very young.

For a child I was close with.

It seems that my aunt and father interacted quite commonly at that time. This was before my aunt was assigned to the western part of the empire as an administrator, and my aunt, Viscount William Reinhardt, was also living in the capital, not in the Duchy of Carpeter.

So, my aunt’s daughter, Isolette, often came to the Frieden Mansion. And I put it in a room with kids of similar age so they could get along with each other.

It was difficult because I wasn’t a ‘real’ kid.

I don’t think I had any talent for playing with children. So, I was reading books as usual. I tried to read it.

– “Why don’t you play with me… ? I hate it… ?”

– “… … .”

– “Huh… .”

However, Isolette burst into tears, and no matter how uninterested I was in the surroundings, I was not so cold-blooded as to read a book with a crying child next to me.

So the fairy tale written to soothe a crying child was [The Little Mermaid].

– “Isolet. How was the fairy tale?”

– “Yes! It’s sad that the Little Mermaid’s love didn’t come true… . Letting your loved ones go with a smile is also an adult’s job! lol. I think the Little Mermaid would have been happy even if she became the wind… .”

– “Huh? Why did you think that?”

– “Yes… ? Well, I just think I would have done the same… . The Little Mermaid’s love failed, but her heart was very beautiful… . The Little Mermaid knew that her love would be difficult to achieve, but she chose to cut out her tongue and become human. She had the chance to turn everything back around, but she chose to throw herself into the sea instead of stabbing the prince with a sword. Then, wouldn’t it be the heart itself that is important, not the result? ?”

– “… Haha!”

– “Woong?”

– “You were a great guy!”

– In “?”

In other words, Isolet was the first reader of the story I ‘plagiarized’.