Ascendance of a Bookworm (LN) - Volume 1.1 - Chapter 7

Paper: Unobtainable 

I kicked my legs around while clinging to Ralph’s back and eventually the outer wall’s gate came into view. The outer wall protected the city, and up close I saw that it was really tall. It was about as tall as a three-story Japanese building and was fairly thick. There were gates at the north, east, south, and west sides of the outer walls and several soldiers at each one checking those who came inside. 

We had reached the south gate and we could see several of those soldiers. One of them should be my dad. I couldn’t tell which was him, but Tuuli could somehow. She hugged the wrapped-up thing to her chest and ran toward him, waving hard. “Daaaad! You forgot something. You need this, right?” 

Dad blinked in surprise as Tuuli handed him the thing with a bright smile. So... So nice. You’re way too nice, Tuuli. All I cared about was avoiding Mom’s wrath over him forgetting what she worked so hard to find. 

“Yeah, I do need it. Thanks... Wait, did you leave Myne alone?!” 

“Nuh uh, I brought her with me. See? Ralph carried her on his back.” 

Dad, eyes wavering due to feeling bad about having not noticed me, plopped a hand on Ralph’s head. “Thanks for carrying her, Ralph.” 

“We were on our way to the forest anyway.” Ralph lowered me to the ground, looking a little annoyed at how Dad was ruffling his hair. He then took back his stuff from Fey and Lutz. 

“Thanks, Ralph. You too, Lutz and Fey.” 

After seeing Ralph and the others through the gate on their way to the forest, Tuuli and I were taken to a waiting room within the inner gate.

The outer wall was large enough to fit a room of about nine square meters of size inside. It wasn’t that big, but there were apparently other waiting rooms and a room for those on night duty too. Our waiting room had a simple table, a bench, and a single cabinet with shelves. 

I looked all around, feeling like a tourist in a foreign country, and soon one of Dad’s coworkers brought in cups of water for us. “You certainly raised your daughters well, I see.” 

It took about twenty minutes for a child like Tuuli to walk from home to the gate, so I appreciated the water. I gulped down the water in the wooden cup and let out big sigh of relief. “Haaah. That was tasty. Finally, I can rest my sore legs.” 

“You barely walked on your own, Myne,” said Tuuli with pursed lips, causing everyone to burst into laughter at once. I hmph’d, but since everyone had seen Ralph carrying me, I couldn’t say anything back to her. 

As I drank down a second cup of water, a single soldier entered the room. He took out a toolbox-looking thing from the cabinet and immediately left. It looked like he was in a hurry, so I looked around. “Did something happen out there, Dad?” 

“Probably just someone needing special attention at the gate. Nothing to worry about.” Dad waved it off, but his hurried behavior did get me a little worried. Would things really be okay? I mean, a soldier guarding this gate is hurrying around. Doesn’t that spell trouble? 

In sharp contrast to me, Tuuli tilted her head in confusion without looking worried at all. “Someone needing special attention? Have I ever seen someone like that?” Despite passing through the gate frequently, Tuuli couldn’t immediately imagine someone who would make a guard rush that much. 

Dad rubbed his stubble and searched for the right words. “Aaah, yeah. Think someone suspicious-looking who’s probably a criminal, or maybe the opposite and it’s a noble we need to inform Lord Ehrenfest about before letting them in.” 

“Wow...” Apparently, they just judge people on their looks. Well, I guess there’s no helping that. This world doesn’t seem like it would have a robust information network or anything of the sort. Soldiers had no way of researching the background of anyone coming inside. 

“We have them wait in a separate room while the higher-ups decide on whether or not to let them inside.” 

Aaah. So that’s why there are so many waiting rooms by the gate. I get it. I bet the waiting room for nobles and the waiting rooms for suspicious-looking people are totally different in size and furnishings. 

My thoughts were interrupted after the young-looking soldier with dark brown hair and gentle, calm brown eyes came right back carrying the box and something rolled up into a tube shape. His expression lacked any sense of emergency. Dad was right, it apparently hadn’t been anything that serious. 

The soldier, bundling up the box and roll in his left hand, stood in front of Dad and tapped his right fist against the left side of his chest twice. Dad stood up, correcting his posture, and repeated the same fist-tapping gesture. That was probably the salute of this world. 

“Otto, your report?” 

I let out a tiny awed noise after seeing Dad make a serious expression unlike anything I had seen at home. He usually looked so lazy and relaxed it was a real change of pace. When serious, he actually looked pretty cool. 

“Count Lowenwalt is requesting entry.” 

“And his seal?” 

“Checked and confirmed.” 

“Alright, let him through.” Otto gave one more salute before sitting in the chair on the opposite side of ours. He put the box on the table and spread out the roll beside it. It was as smooth as paper and had a distinctive scent that had my eyes locked on it. 

...Parchment?! I didn’t know for sure if it was parchment, but it definitely looked like paper made from animal skin. I was used to paper made from plants, but older paper was often just dried animal skin called parchment. This world’s language was written on it, though I couldn’t read the letters. 

As I stared at it with wide-open eyes, Otto took a bottle of ink and a reed pen out of the toolbox and began writing something on the parchment. 

AAAAAH! Writing! There’s someone who knows how to write in front of me! He’s the first man of culture I’ve met in this world. I definitely want him to teach me this world’s lettering system! 

Dad rustled my hair and asked “What’s wrong?” as I stared at Otto’s moving hands. 

I looked up at him and pointed at what I believed to be parchment. I had to learn what it was called in this world’s language if I wanted to talk about it. “Dad, Dad. What’s this?” 

“That’s parchment. Paper made from goat or sheep skin.” 

“And this black stuff?” 

“Ink. He’s writing with a pen.” 

I knew it. I’ve found my ink and paper. I’ll be able to make books with this stuff, no problem. 

Holding back the urge to jump with joy, I squeezed my hands together in front of my chest and looked up at Dad. “Um, Dad. Can I pleaaaase have them?” 

“No. Those aren’t toys for children.” My full-power begging using all of my childhood cuteness was shut down instantly. 

Of course, I wasn’t the kind of girl who would give up after being told no once. Back when I was Urano, people said I was the most stubborn and persistent person they had ever met. It was time to show Dad just how fierce I could be when it came to books. 

“I want to write just like that. I want paper and ink. Pleeease?” 

“No, not a chance! You don’t even know your letters, Myne.” It was true that ink and paper was useless to someone illiterate. Which is exactly why Dad’s statement was the perfect chance for me. 

“Then teach me. I want to learn. Will you give me ink and paper if I learn?” 

If his young-looking subordinate could write, then Dad could definitely write. He was, like, their captain. I didn’t expect anyone in a house with no paper would know how to write, but that seemed to be a fortunate misunderstanding on my part. My dreams of reading books in this world might come true soon if Dad taught me to read. 

As I beamed a bright smile, feeling as if I had taken a giant leap toward what I wanted more than anything else, I heard a chuckle. I turned toward its source and saw that Otto, who had been listening to us while writing, had burst out in helpless laughter. 

“Hahaha! Teach you...? Heh, don’t you barely know how to write, Captain?” 

The moment I heard that, I felt a crack run through my very soul. Even I could tell that my smile had frozen in place, as if a bucket of cold water had been dumped over me. “Wha? Dad, you don’t know how to write?” 

“I can read and write, a bit. I need to know how to read parts of the paperwork I deal with, but that’s it. Best I can do is write down the names I hear.” 

“Oh...?” I looked at Dad with cold eyes as he made excuses with a sullen expression. So basically, in terms of my original world, he kinda knows the alphabet and can write the names of his friends, I guess? Since Otto said “barely,” he’s probably like a first grader who’d miswrite even those names. 

“Hey now, don’t look at your father like that.” Otto, the culprit behind my respect for Dad shooting up and then immediately dropping down, chastised me a bit with a somewhat worried expression. Then, as if covering for Dad, he began to explain what kind of work soldiers did. 

“Soldiers work to preserve city peace, but when it comes to important business involving nobles, it’s really the knights who take care of the paperwork. A simple spoken report suffices for less important incidents, so his work rarely involves reading. Just being able to write names is more than enough.” 

Dad puffed out his chest with pride, his mood brightened by Otto’s follow-up. My cold gaze had cut him surprisingly deep. 

“Rural townsfolk are even worse off. Usually only town chiefs can read at all, so your dad’s plenty amazing.” 

“Okay, my amazing dad. I want paper and ink. Pleeease give me them?” If he was that amazing, then he should show it by giving his cute daughter about one hundred sheets of paper. 

But my begging was met by Dad taking a fearful step back. “Wh-Who would dump a whole month’s wages on a piece of paper for their kid?!” 

Wait, what?! A month’s wages? J-Just how expensive is parchment?! I can see why he’s so hesitant to give me some now. That also explained why there was no paper in our house or why I couldn’t find any bookstores. Parchment was just too expensive for commoners. My family was already just barely scraping by; there was no way they’d spend their precious wages on paper to make a book. 

I slumped my shoulders, depressed, and Otto ruffled my hair. 

“In the first place, I don’t think that there are any stores that sell parchment to commoners. Paper is used by nobles, government officials, and rich merchants with connections to nobles. If you just want to learn your letters, why not use a stone slate? I can give you the one I used to use a long time ago.” 

“Really?! I’d love it!” I immediately nodded and he graciously promised to give me his old slate. While I was at it, I wiggled my way into having him teach me. “Thank you, Mr. Otto! I’m so glad you’re going to teach me letters!” 

As I beamed a broad smile, Dad looked between me and Otto with a fairly pathetic look on his face, but I pretended not to notice. I was very excited to learn letters and own a slate, but what I really wanted was a book and the paper to make one. 

After all, you couldn’t store information on a slate. It was like a chalkboard that you wrote on then cleaned off. Perfect for learning letters, but nothing compared to a book. 

Still, the fact that stores didn’t sell paper to commoners came completely out of left field. How could I make books without paper? Or in other words, what would I do if I couldn’t get paper? There was only one answer: I would just have to make some myself. 

Ngggh, the road to getting a book is so long!