Sophia in the Twisted Original World
On the day of her condemnation, Sophia Holpert thought, Something’s gone terribly wrong.
She had laid out every piece of the board in advance. From childhood, she had inherited her mother’s innate talent for charming people, and she had used it to turn every student at the academy—noble or commoner—into her ally. Naturally, she had also driven wedges between Milene’s supporters and their families until they, too, stood at her side. Her father had always despised Milene’s mother, so beginning with him, the manipulations had been almost effortless. She had analyzed both the prince’s and Milene’s personalities down to the smallest detail. Prince Schwald was wrapped so tightly around her finger that he could no longer function without her. Milene, she had judged, would weep pathetically on the day of judgment, crying out about the injustice and desperately pleading her innocence.
She had planned to trigger the incident during a social gathering while the king and queen were abroad on their tour. The enraged prince would have punished Milene at once, and Sophia could have moved on without delay. Instead, that wretched Milene had confessed to every sin, revealed her own magical attributes, and willingly walked into prison.
Because of that, the discussion had not been about punishing an unrepentant young lady, but about how to handle a noblewoman who was reflecting on her crimes and showing genuine remorse. The proceedings dragged on endlessly. Sophia had even arranged for the duke to keep the royal couple detained overseas, yet somehow the king learned of it and returned at once, delivering a furious reprimand to the prince.
How could this possibly happen?
The sole consolation was that Milene had supposedly withdrawn of her own accord. Having been expelled from the Holpert family, she had nowhere else to go, so perhaps it was inevitable. Yet even though Sophia had taken Milene’s place, neither the king nor the queen acknowledged her. On the contrary, they had summoned the other princes to the capital, turning the crown prince position that should have been Schwald’s into an open competition. The aftershocks had reached Sophia as well.
“This is completely unacceptable. What sort of gait is that? Can you not hold your chin up any higher?”
Sophia’s etiquette instructor snapped her fingers and stared at her with icy contempt. She was supposedly being given the chance to receive the queen’s education, yet this was what it amounted to. Why was everything so difficult? Had Milene truly mastered all of it?
“Sigh. Lady Milene understood ten things the moment she learned one.”
Once again they were comparing her to that discarded older sister. Rage surged through her. In the original plan, even after the king returned from his tour, she would have mobilized the full power of the Holpert family and used her silver tongue to charm the palace staff. But now—
The instructor gave a small, derisive laugh. It wasn’t funny in the slightest. From the beginning, this so-called queen’s education had never been a real opportunity. It was clearly meant to make her understand her place, since she was bound to fail. Of course, Sophia, unaware of any of this, could only clench both fists until her knuckles turned white.
Slaves I never asked for in this life had ended up under me.
I should have acted as shamelessly as that Sophia woman. If I had simply torn up the slave contract on the spot and bolted, wouldn’t that have counted as more than half a success? It wasn’t as if they would repay my kindness by stabbing me in the back the way Rion had. That would have been far better. I had been far too complacent. This was reality. Variables were everywhere.
“All right. Fine. You lot—what can you actually do?”
“I am skilled at cooking.”
“Good, good. And the rest of you?”
“We excel at physical labor.”
“I can use magic. Simple household spells, mostly.”
They all seemed to possess some kind of ability. Yet even after hearing them list their skills, nothing particularly useful sprang to mind.
“I see. So that’s how it is.”
Since things had reached this point, there was no avoiding it. The person I needed right now was Jerry. Actually, he was the only person I could think of to consult, so there was no helping it. I knew nothing about this world; if I wanted information on employment or anything else, he was the obvious choice. If that failed, I could always ask the kind-hearted prison guard uncle.
I summoned Jerry, and—
“So in short, you spent fifty million linos—a fortune—to free these slaves out of pity, but they claimed they had nowhere to go and insisted on remaining your slaves?”
“Yes. I’m worried they’ll start clutching their stomachs later, whining for food and calling me Master. I’d like to find them some kind of work. Is there any job that even people like them could handle? Manual labor, perhaps?”
It would be unpleasant if they began threatening me for meals later. Especially if the situation reversed and I ended up begging them to leave.
“Hmm. They appear to be children capable of physical labor.”
“Yes, and the girl knows household magic as well.”
Yet Jerry suddenly seized both my hands and bowed his head. What was this? Had something happened that would move him enough to grab my hands? Or was he about to say their relationship had been short and it couldn’t be helped? No—from what I had seen of Jerry’s character so far, he wasn’t the type.
“Thank you truly, Author.”
“Pardon?”
“The mages handling our printing are demanding a daily wage increase to forty thousand linos. But raising their pay that much on top of the existing sixty thousand would strain even Portmus.”
In other words, the mages in charge of printing had gone on strike for higher wages. I never imagined I would witness a labor strike in this world. It was genuinely fascinating how the story outside the novel could be just as interesting as the novel itself.
At any rate, the situation seemed dire. But hadn’t they told me printing was done with magic?
“Ah, setting a precedent would be dangerous, I suppose. But didn’t you say printing was handled magically?”
“Household magic is sufficient. We can train them, and there are portions that can be managed with regular manpower.”
Oh. That was fortunate. In that case, it would be better to hand over the slaves currently under me to Jerry, wouldn’t it?
“Ah, so it’s not pure magic but actual physical printing.”
“Exactly. The precise number of workers you currently have with you, Author, matches the exact shortfall we face.”
Well, that worked out nicely.
“They have nowhere else to go, so they would be happy with just a place to sleep. Still, why strike all of a sudden when they were already being paid well?”
“Well… this may sound like I’m shifting blame, but it appears they were influenced by your work, Author.”
Jerry scratched the back of his head, looking troubled.
“My work?”
“Yes. That section about the wicked landlord disguised as a human.”
Oh no. Was it the part where the tenants asked the evil landlord (disguised as human) for a wage increase, only to be beaten and reduced to slavery instead? They had seen that and—? No matter how many mentally deficient lunatics this world contained, that was ridiculous. To imitate it so literally?
Certainly the president of Portmus was no monster but a highly successful human publisher. Perhaps he had tried to wring something out of the situation. Still, though.
“Ah. But Portmus isn’t an evil landlord, is it?”
Considering how much money they had poured into me, weren’t they already paying the crucial printing mages generously? Sixty thousand linos a day came to 1.8 million a month. Of course that might not count as high wages here, but if the work was done by magic, shouldn’t it be easy? Or was it more difficult than I imagined?
“Yes, exactly. That is why. Our president was the one who initially offered generous pay. Truthfully, the printing itself is not difficult work. To be precise, even mages considered novices by mage standards can perform it. Moreover, sixty thousand per day equals 1.8 million linos per month. That is already more than what most adventurer-mages earn on average.”
By this world’s standards that was average pay, and they were still complaining? They must be spoiled.
“So they decided to take advantage of the president who gave them high wages from the start?”
“That is part of it, but currently most of the mage workforce has left for external jobs—subjugating monsters and the like. That falls outside our field, so I don’t know the details, but the situation is what it is. We have inquired everywhere possible. You happen to possess exactly the number of people we need.”
Organizing the situation once more: while they were contemplating a modest wage increase, they read my novel and were influenced by it. With the mage shortage hitting at exactly the right moment, they decided it was worth trying and charged ahead. Something like that.
“Oh. That’s fortunate.”
It felt slightly strange to hear that my novel had influenced them, but at least this meant I could provide the slaves with proper jobs.
“Still, there is no telling how long this will last.”
“We simply have to tame them. We only need to endure until the regular mage workforce returns, correct?”
“That is true, but these are skilled workers. If they go to another publishing house it could become dangerous.”
“So it would be best if they bend on their own at the appropriate time.”
But would they? Weren’t these the same people who had already chosen to strike?
“Similar. Work leaks are covered by contract, so that is fine, but they may defect to rival publishers.”
“Doesn’t Portmus hold a virtual monopoly?”
“The romance market is not controlled solely by our company. Unfortunately, at this very moment everyone and their mother has begun entering the publishing business.”
“Ah, I understand the situation now.”
Sophia went around spreading rumors of her love with the prince in every corner of the capital. Thanks to her efforts, the tale of their romance became famous throughout the royal city.
Come to think of it, in the original story Sophia had spread those rumors everywhere. In reality, the snowball had simply rolled further than expected.
According to the original plot, Schwald was meant to become crown prince and Sophia the heroine, so after the condemnation incident their roles would have grown considerably. In truth, the condemnation only appeared near the end of part one. During the middle of part one—while the academy arc in which the prince and Sophia genuinely fell in love was at its peak—the rumors had gradually spread until the story of their love echoed across the capital. That was probably why Schwald had grown so arrogant.
In the end, the love story between Sophia and the prince had caused the romance novel market to boom. If I had entered this body any earlier, none of this would have happened. Then again, if that were the case I would have had no reason to write novels in the first place. Wait—wouldn’t that be a problem?
That novel was my livelihood. My literal meal ticket. If Portmus ran into even the slightest trouble because of those mages, what then? Wouldn’t that mean I couldn’t write anymore? Damn it. Somehow, I had to persuade those bastards.