Chapter 102
I’d seen something like that before.
A meme about locking an author in solitary confinement, feeding them nothing but fried dumplings for all three meals, and not letting them out until the manuscript was finished.
It was used when the writer was being irresponsible, or, on the contrary, when the story was so fun you wanted them to keep writing all day.
When I saw that meme, I just thought, Well, okay, and moved on. I figured it had nothing to do with me.
But now it did.
“Hang in there, strength. Hang in there, strength. Leon, fighting!”
Aurora was cheering me on enthusiastically.
I was sitting at her desk, busily writing away.
It was my mistress’s order to write in her place, and the force of that command meant I couldn’t budge from the chair.
‘I never thought I’d end up being the one involved.’
I’d never imagined I’d be the one getting locked away instead of the one doing the locking.
“What happens next? What kind of reaction will the Grand Duke have? I can’t wait to see it.”
“……”
“Should I ask? Hmm, no. Waiting like this is part of fully enjoying a work—it’s part of the charm. I can wait as long as I need to.”
Aurora was making a one-woman racket, utterly giddy.
Aurora was too busy fighting her own battle, torn over whether to sneak a peek at the manuscript being written in real time across from me.
“Um, Your Imperial Highness?”
“Hm? Why? You’re already done?”
“That’s not it. Shouldn’t Your Highness be the one writing it yourself? What’s the point of me writing it?”
I heard she told everyone at the salon that she’d written this novel, but not a single part of it had actually been touched by her hand.
My role was strictly that of an assistant, the lead writer’s helper.
But this wasn’t ghostwriting. I was writing the whole thing from start to finish.
It was simply my writing.
“Leon, why say something so hurtful? What you write is what I write, isn’t it?”
Aurora flashed me a deliberately casual smile.
I frowned at the nonsense she was spouting.
“Why is this something Your Highness wrote?”
“Listen carefully. Right now Leon is holding the pen and writing. In that case, was the novel written by the pen, or by Leon?”
“Obviously I wrote it.”
“Why do you think that?”
“Because the pen is just a tool.”
“Exactly. That’s right.”
Aurora nodded as if that settled it.
“Leon is my slave, after all. Slaves are treated like objects. In other words, anything a slave accomplishes is unquestionably the master’s. Do you understand now?”
“……”
A miraculous syllogism.
I was so dumbfounded I couldn’t even manage a dry laugh.
I moved my lips, trying hard to find some way to argue back.
But under imperial law, it was a perfectly sound argument, with nothing even slightly strange about it.
Because a slave is the master’s private property.
Anything a slave produced was naturally the master’s.
“If people find out, they won’t just sit idly by. They’ll call you a fraud.”
“It’s fine. That will never happen. Who would even imagine a slave could write at this level?”
That too was an undeniable truth.
If I went out to the square and shouted the truth, it would be dismissed as the ravings of a madman.
In fact, I was more likely to be executed on the spot for tarnishing the princess’s honor.
‘I thought this woman was at least somewhat normal.’
I’d thought she was just some spoiled hothouse flower, but apparently not.
She was a Venus flytrap with a natural talent for bleeding people dry.
There’s a saying that a novel is the author’s child.
Today, my child was stolen from me.
***
Leon had to hole up in Aurora’s study for several days and write.
Sitting still and writing something he wasn’t even good at brought back memories of his days as a gladiator slave.
‘Back then, I really went through hell too.’
Of course, writing like this was far better than being a gladiator slave.
It wasn’t a life-or-death battle, and food, clothing, and shelter were all top-notch.
The only problem was that trying to come up with plot ideas all day felt like his brain might explode.
The one saving grace was that, with the new role assigned to him, new skills had begun to level up.
======
【Speed Reading Lv.4】
【Shorthand Lv.3】
【Thinking Acceleration Lv.2】
【Immersion Lv.2】
======
If he didn’t even have these, he’d already have died from brain overload.
So he devoted every moment except sleep to writing.
“I... finished it.”
At last, Leon completed the next installment.
“You’re done?”
“Yes…….”
“That’s incredibly fast. How can you write so quickly? Are you using magic or something?”
“When you try to survive, there’s nothing in the world you can’t do.”
Aurora smiled with satisfaction and gently patted Leon’s head as he lay slumped over the desk.
It was a casual gesture, as if she were treating him like a younger sibling.
“Good work. Go back to your room and rest well. I’m going to read this.”
“Neh...”
Leon got up unsteadily and headed off to his assigned private room.
Aurora flopped down into the chair Leon had just been sitting in.
She looked at the draft in her hands.
A freshly finished novel, hot off the presses.
Who knew it would feel this good to be the first to read it?
Aurora barely suppressed her excitement and turned the first page.
She even forgot to breathe.
She forgot to blink, too.
Like someone starved for days, she gulped down the words with her eyes.
And so, an hour passed.
Only the sound of pages turning filled the room.
Aurora set the manuscript down on the desk.
“……”
Her eyes were glazed from being so deeply immersed, and her body, still soaked in lingering afterglow, remained motionless for a while.
Then, before long.
“No way……”
A gasp barely escaped between her trembling lips.
In her unfocused, vacant blue eyes, a gleam flickered on as if a switch had been flipped.
“No way, no way, no way!”
Aurora sprang up as if launched, not caring that her chair toppled over.
“This is crazy. This is seriously crazy!”
She began rifling through the manuscript like someone who had seen something impossible.
The opening of the story.
It was a section she had already read several times. Just looking at it made her seethe with all the frustration and injustice it contained.
Every time Isabella suffered absurd humiliation and misunderstandings, her chest tightened painfully.
So much that she wanted to tear the paper to shreds on the spot.
But right after Isabella declared the divorce and left the Grand Duke’s estate, the story’s mood changed drastically.
The Grand Duke panicked when the once-docile Isabella announced a divorce.
With Isabella gone, the Grand Duke’s estate, which had run so smoothly, began to creak and falter.
The banquet that had been right around the corner got canceled because it couldn’t be properly prepared.
With no mediator, the servants’ disputes broke out every other day.
Before long, as the servants left the manor one by one, even the Grand Duke’s breakfast stopped being served properly, turning the whole thing into a farce.
Only then did the Grand Duke realize.
The peaceful daily life he had enjoyed had been maintained thanks to Isabella’s devotion.
He searched for Isabella only after it was too late, but she had already gone. Only then did he realize Isabella was terminally ill.
What followed was regret, and ruin.
“So good……”
As a princess, she shouldn’t make other people’s despair her entertainment.
But watching the Grand Duke, who had lived smugly on his own self-satisfaction, fall apart in real time filled Aurora with uncontrollable delight.
“Ahh, who knew someone else’s tragedy could be this sweet……”
Aurora let out a sweet sigh.
Is this what they call a regret-and-obsession story? I think I’m discovering a new genre.
“I can’t keep something like this to myself.”
Aurora had scribes make copies of the draft.
She sent them to acquaintances who attended the salon and also distributed them to the maids staying in the imperial palace.
“Mother will like it too.”
She took the novel and went to see the Empress.
The Empress and her younger brother, Aither, were in the room. The moment she saw him, Aurora frowned.
“You’re still in the palace instead of going to the academy?”
“I stopped by before leaving. I’m going soon, so mind your own business.”
Even though they were prince and princess, their relationship was no different from that of ordinary siblings anywhere else.
Aurora, disapproving of her lazy younger brother, shook her head with a sigh.
“What brings you here, Aurora? And what’s that you’re holding?”
“It’s a new novel.”
“I see...”
The Empress nodded slowly.
She knew Aurora was completely absorbed in romance novels.
And that she occasionally wrote novels herself.
However.
Aurora was catastrophically bad at writing. Setting that aside, as a mother, she supported whatever her daughter wanted to do.
She could go into politics, she could cook, she could do anything—as long as she didn’t write.
“Please give it a read. Everyone said it was fun. As for you, well, read it or don’t.”
Aurora handed one copy each to the Empress and Aither.
“All right, I’ll read it when I have time later.”
“No. Please read it now.”
“……?”
“Read it now. In front of me.”
Aurora’s feelings right now were exactly that—the feelings of someone who had found something fun and wanted to share it with others.
Aurora’s eyes sparkled with anticipation. Unable to withstand that pressure, the Empress swallowed her discomfort.
Respecting a daughter’s hobby is one thing, but reading the finished result and giving feedback requires an entirely different level of patience.
Still, there was no way to refuse. The Empress reluctantly turned the page.
Aither, sitting beside her, also opened his book. He planned to skim it and find something to tease her about.
But only ten minutes after the two of them began reading the text.
“……”
“……”
The atmosphere in the room subtly changed.
The Empress took her eyes off the book and exchanged a look with Aither.
Their gazes soon turned toward Aurora.
“Aurora?”
“Yes, Mother.”
“Did you write this?”
“Why do you ask? Is it because you can’t believe I wrote it?”
The Empress flinched at the direct hit, but tried hard not to show it.
“Of course not. Our daughter is also very good at writing. It’s just that the atmosphere and phrasing are so different from what you usually write.”
“I see.”
Aurora nodded. Fortunately, she didn’t suspect the Empress’s inner thoughts.
“That’s right. Actually, I didn’t write it. Leon did.”
“Leon?”
“Leon... you mean the slave knight you brought back recently?”
“Yes.”
“Haah, that guy. He really does have all kinds of talents.”
Aither already knew Leon well, so although he was surprised, he also reacted as if it were only natural.
But the Empress was quite shocked.
“A slave can write at this level...?”
“Right? Our Leon is amazing!”
“Why is Leon your slave? He’s Lady Edelheid’s slave.”
“Leon is a slave Father himself officially acknowledged as my property. Stop talking nonsense and get to the academy already.”
Aurora brushed Aither off lightly.
“So, Mother, I want to finish this novel and publish it as a book. What do you think?”
“Hmm. I’m not really well versed in novels, but I think it should do well enough.”
“You think so too, Mother, right? Got it. I’ll have Leon write the rest right away.”
Aurora shot to her feet and was about to dash off to Leon, who was resting in his room.
“Sis.”
“What?”
Aither called her back.
“You’d better not rely on Leon too much. He’s far too capable.”
“What are you talking about? If he’s capable, then you use him. Are you stupid?”
It was serious advice in Aither’s own way, but Aurora paid it no heed.
After all, slaves exist for their masters.