Count Frieden’s sister─.

Julia Frieden was a diligent person. Working as a bureaucrat in the western part of the Empire, she was quite the competent administrator. Although her personality didn’t quite mesh with the council, so she kept a safe distance from the center.

In that sense, Julia Frieden was a very “Frieden” type of person.

Keeping a distance from central nobility had been a long-standing tradition of the Frieden family—dating back even before the Empire had a thing called “Parliament.”

Once Parliament was established, this tendency became even more pronounced, and Julia didn’t know much about the goings-on in the capital. At best, she was only aware of a few major events.

Because of this, Julia Frieden found herself utterly baffled by the whispers of young nobles at a wedding.

“Isn’t that Eric’s brother over there reading? Isn’t he the author? I think I spotted him at the Holmes X Lupin contest a few years ago….”

“Meh, just someone who looks like him.”

“No, I’m serious…. I was in the front row at the awards ceremony. You have no idea how much that invitation cost me!”

“Then why not just go ask him? Tell him you’re a fan.”

“How dare you! That would be blasphemy!”

“Is Eric’s brother some sort of Homeros? Talk about blasphemy!”

“Honestly, for sheer entertainment value, isn’t Herodotus above all?”

“What? You’re not scared of the ten million Homerists in this Empire?”

“How the hell did that cult get so big?”

“There are only a few hundred members, but every fan of Homer is a potential convert.”

A group of young noblemen were whispering while sneaking glances at her nephew, Ed. They seemed to be talking about some author, but their eyes remained glued to Ed.

Perhaps it’s because he’s quite the handsome guy.

When he was younger, he had a cute, innocent look, but after not seeing him for a while, he had matured into quite the good-looking fellow. He probably could have made quite a few women cry with that appearance.

However, given that he was sitting in the ballroom reading a book without any interest in mingling, she figured that was nothing to worry about.

In fact, she was more worried that he’d never get married.

Should she go break the ice? Approaching her nephew with the book, she struck up a conversation again.

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

“Oh, yes, Aunt. Just a book about war.”

“Really? Is that a boy thing? I see you like books, just like your aunt! Mind if I check it out with you?”

“Sure.”

She sat down beside him and leaned over to look at the book.

But she couldn’t read it. The text was written in a language Julia had no clue about.

She had some knowledge of Haren and a few indigenous languages of the duchies, as well as ancient and religious languages used in the Bible, but this was entirely foreign.

The letters were all so different they looked more like pictures than text. Was it hieroglyphics?

“Hey, nephew? What language is this?”

“Oh, it’s Roavik, spoken in the desert south of the Kingdom of Haren. I learned it when I visited and found a few related books.”

“I see…?”

“The interesting thing about Roavik is that it’s basically a combination of ideographic—with a hint of phonetic  writing. I think it’s a remnant from the transition when hieroglyphs were changing from ideographic to phonetic. The reading order is kind of fun too; the first letter starts in the center, so the meaning spreads from the ‘center’ outwards. It likely connects to Roavik’s religion—”

“Whoa, interesting….”

“Yes! This page discusses a battle over the river that runs through the heart of Roavik, and the way troop numbers are represented—”

So Julia Frieden endured a lengthy lecture on ‘Roavik language,’ ‘Roavik hieroglyphs,’ and ‘Roavik numbers.’

Along the way, she learned how the Roavik language, religion, and writing systems were intertwined, leading to insights about the worldview and culture of the Roavik people.

“Yeah. Very fascinating….”

“Right? Oh, sorry if I rambled on too long!”

“No, no, it was fun! But you know, nephew, since we haven’t seen each other in some time, how about we catch up a little?”

“Sure.”

“For instance, now that Eric’s nephew is married, what about our handsome nephew? Any special girl in your life?”

“Oh, yes.”

“What about your preferences? How do you like to meet them? What’s your take on arranged marriages?”

“Uh, I’m not sure.”

“If you’re open to it, Aunt could arrange a few introductions…”

“I haven’t really thought about it yet.”

“Oh….”

“Yeah.”

Short answers. Julia Frieden let out a weak chuckle at his indifference, only clearly interested in ‘books.’

Thinking back, her nephew had always been this way.

Once he grew up, every time he visited the Frieden estate, he’d sit in the library, and whenever he left the house, he always had two books in hand. If she jokingly swiped a book away while he was reading, he’d just look at her with a cold stare, not saying a word, then grab another book from the shelf and sit back down to read.

Over and over again.

Compared to back then, her nephew now seemed quite a bit more… human. That former nephew was… a little strange.

He had the kind of ghostly presence that would make anyone instinctively feel a chill if they saw a blank-faced child suddenly smile and “pretend” to love their family in front of their parents.

Thankfully, that eerie vibe lessened as he grew older. So Julia was able to mostly forget it. Whenever the memory flickered to mind, she brushed it aside as merely an illusion.

Such complicated feelings bubbled up and escaped Julia Frieden’s lips.

“Looks like my nephew really only cares about books…?”

“Just a hobby, I guess.”

“Enjoying your hobbies is great, but you shouldn’t get so absorbed that you miss out on other things, right?”

“Well, it doesn’t go as smoothly as I imagined…. But recently, we’ve been going to family shows and stuff… um.”

“Huh?”

“Thinking back, that was four years ago… or was it five?”

“Huh?”

Oh boy, something feels off here.

It seemed like her nephew was destined to be a lifelong bookworm. How could he remain so disinterested in anything else? It made any attempts to nudge him towards marriage seem futile.

Still, he really ought to marry someday… or hey, maybe becoming a monk wouldn’t be such a bad idea? I mean, he loves reading, so it might be a perfect fit.

As Julia Frieden pondered this, a sudden memory flashed through her mind.

“Oh! Nephew! What about that Isollet girl?”

“What?”

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

.

.

.

Isollet. It had been ages since she heard that name.

Thinking back, she remembered being friends with a girl who had that name when they were little. She was—

“Your aunt’s daughter?”

Ah, my cousin.

“Exactly. That girl loves books too! Right now, she’s off in the Duchy of Cafeter with Mr. William, so she couldn’t make it to the wedding.”

“…So, you want me to have a chat with my cousin?”

“Not exactly. It’d just be nice to reconnect. I thought it’d be lovely for you to spend some time together!”

“Oh, right.”

“She’s also  writing stories and….”

“Let’s go see her right now.”

“Huh?”

.

.

.

Now that she thought about it, the first piece of literature she’d ever “borrowed” in this world wasn’t Don Quixote.

No wonder it felt familiar, even while writing The Complete Andersen Fairy Tales for her brother; she had indeed “borrowed” a fairy tale when she was just a little girl.

All for a girl she was close to.

Back then, her aunt and her father were interacting quite a bit. This was before Julia’s aunt was assigned to the western part of the Empire and her husband, Viscount William Reinhardt, was living in the capital, away from the Duchy of Cafeter.

So, her aunt’s daughter, Isollet, used to come over to the Frieden estate quite often. They’d shove the kids of similar ages into a room together for companionship—

But it was a struggle since Julia didn’t quite have the knack for playing with children.

She wasn’t cut out for entertaining kids, so she just kept reading as usual, trying to focus on her book.

– “Why don’t you want to play with me…? Do you not like me…?”

– “……”

– “Waaah….”

But Isollet broke down in tears, and even if she ignored the girl, she wasn’t cold-hearted enough to just sit there reading while a child cried beside her.

So, she ended up writing “The Little Mermaid” to soothe the crying kid.

– “Isollet, what did you think of the story?”

– “Yes! It’s sad that The Little Mermaid’s love didn’t come true, but…. Sending off someone you love with a smile is an adult thing to do! Hehe. I think The Little Mermaid would have been happy even becoming the wind….”

– “Huh? Why do you think that?”

– “Um…? Well, it’s just how I feel it would be… The Little Mermaid’s love may have been doomed, but her heart was truly beautiful…. She chose to sacrifice her voice to become human, fully aware her love wouldn’t fulfil, and she had a chance to turn it back, but instead of stabbing the prince, she threw herself into the sea. So maybe it’s not about the outcome, but the heart of the matter…?”

– “…Hahaha!”

– “Huh?”

– “You were something else!”

– “Huh?”

In other words, Isollet was the very first reader of the story she “borrowed.”