Side Story 1: Love and a Tail

Monica sat on a bed softer than any she had ever known, wearing silk nightclothes she had never once put on before. Feeling awkward beneath the intense gaze fixed on her, she turned the pages of her novel.

After finishing the last page, Monica breathed out softly and rubbed her tired eyes.

Then Isabelle, who had been sitting beside the bed all this time, spoke up, her eyes sparkling.

"How was it? Marone Filil's best-known work, 'The White Rose Maiden Sleeps in the Garden'!"

"Er, um..."

Monica faltered, her eyes wandering as she struggled to come up with a reply.

"Th-the phrasing is... rather unique."

"It is, isn't it? Marone Filil's poetic language is so beautiful, and above all, her descriptions of the scenery and the heroine's inner thoughts are marvelous. But the story is wonderful too. Why, the farewell scene in the third chapter is impossible to read without shedding tears!"

Monica had somehow read that very third chapter without shedding a tear, and felt terribly guilty about it.

Monica had never been in the habit of reading stories, even as a child, and was poor at the distinctive phrasing found in fiction of this sort...