Chapter 25
Translator: True Detective
Chapter 25: Desire is the Mother of Invention
Honestly, Noel was a bit worried.
Taking responsibility for a person is never an easy task.
Let alone rehabilitation?
Although she decided to help Clara Vence avoid going Death-wa, she had many worries about how to teach her love and goodwill.
But seeing how things are going… she doesn't think she needs to worry that much.
In the first place, Clara Vence isn't a psychopath with no emotions and shattered social skills.
Rather, she is a figure more emotional than anyone and longing for sociality.
So, as long as there is an opportunity, they can form a bond as much as they want.
Although she had been lukewarm unlike other young ladies who would faint even watching romance novels or plays until now, it was different now.
The Tear-jerker Pure Love Story 「The Diary Inside My Heart」 written by Noel.
Through that, Clara realized one by one what affection is, what favor is, and what was lacking in her life.
Unlike existing novels, Noel’s novel, which pours emotions directly, moistened even Clara’s sensibility, which was distorted beyond being dry.
If it’s so even for Clara who has distorted sensibility due to unfortunate family history── how would it be for people with normal sensibility?
“Pardon? Confessing to me…? So, gentleman, have you read 「The Diary Inside My Heart」? You haven't? Ha! Would a person who hasn't even read 「The Diary Inside My Heart」 even know what love is? Rejected!” “What on earth is the love I knew until now? Did I love my woman properly as much as Lawrence? Reading 「The Diary Inside My Heart」, my contemplation on love deepens.”
“Look at the appearance of Enya, who is progressive unlike the traditional image of women. Isn't this appearance of confidently winning her own love exactly what we women should aim for?”
“Author Homer’s new work this time is dangerous. It is a text that completely destroys traditional views on women and dating styles. So… it’s fun!”
Regardless of women and men, people who saw 「The Diary Inside My Heart」 poured out various exclamations.
Tears wouldn't stop after reading this work.
It made me think about what sublime love is.
Every phrase was a famous scene and famous line.
It was a situation where such favorable reviews continued endlessly, and naturally, the more it was like this, the more fans who liked Author Homer’s works couldn't help but puff up their chests.
Conversely, those who sarcastically said Author Homer didn't know what love was had their shoulders shrink.
What could they say seeing 「The Diary Inside My Heart」, which seemed to perfectly refute what they claimed?
Still, their mouths were alive,
“I admit it is not a bad story. But there is a sense of being excessively overheated. It is a text with many shortcomings, but there is a feeling that they sanctify 「The Diary Inside My Heart」 too much just because emotions fluctuated.”
There were those who said things like this.
Of course, fans clicked their tongues at this evaluation saying they didn't know how to admit coolly and slandered until the end, but,
“Accurate, isn't it?”
This time too, Noel was shouting acknowledgment.
It was to the extent of admiring that the critics of this world shouldn't be ignored either.
Because it is true she used a trick to make people mistake it for a masterpiece beyond actual artistic value based on strong emotional consumption.
Readers are praising 「The Diary Inside My Heart」 as a masterpiece blindly, as much as their emotions fluctuated while tasting the pinnacle of melodrama, the Tear-jerker.
At the point where they can evaluate that coolly without being swayed by emotions, at the point where objective evaluation is possible in an era with low dopamine resistance, the critics' skills were worth acknowledging.
But that is strictly Noel’s thought.
“How dare they?”
Other people, especially Clara, thought differently.
“Disparaging the work that moved me── ahem! The work containing my drawings?”
She hated voices devaluing the work she watched deeply impressed while shedding tears.
It doesn't matter if that is a fair evaluation or forced criticism.
She just wants mindless empathy, but she really didn't like the critics who needlessly talked back instead.
But she couldn't oppress them just because she was a noble….
While wondering if there was any good way,
“Saintess? The Saintess is coming?”
News of the Saintess visiting the Empire began to spread in earnest not only to high-ranking people but also below them.
And the reason for that visit was none other than,
“To discuss Fog Disease at that?”
At the fact that she wanted to talk about the disease that gained public recognition at once as the disease the heroine of 「The Diary Inside My Heart」 suffers from, Clara clapped her palms loudly with her fan instead of clapping hands.
“This is it!”
A method to legally shut the critics' mouths without forcing with authority flashed through Clara’s mind.
It is to form public opinion that cursing 「The Diary Inside My Heart」 is exactly ignoring the patients and families fighting the disease called Fog Disease.
Then it would be hard to say useless things minding the atmosphere.
That fair criticism births development, isn't that too much?
Regardless of era or world, over-immersed fanatic fans don’t think about such things.
Especially to Clara, 「The Diary Inside My Heart」 was special.
Lawrence whom she empathizes with, and Enya who lives as if pioneering her own life.
It caused extraordinary resonance in Clara’s heart.
Considering her mother who, unlike Enya, was passive and lived only hoping her husband would give love, and eventually committed suicide, it couldn't be helped.
‘If my mother was a person like Enya….’
She cannot avoid having such thoughts implicitly.
Clara was immersed in the work to that extent, so those speaking ill of such a work, whether fair or unfair, were bound to be annoying.
Clara hardening her fighting spirit to solve the problem neatly through this Saintess’s visit.
Then she,
“Lady Grace is hiring painters in large numbers…?”
Heard news that she couldn't just pass by as an artist who became a fan of Homer through 「The Diary Inside My Heart」.
The incident occurred just a few days before the Saintess’s state visit became officially known.
Although called an incident grandiosely, the trigger was trivial.
“Ah~ I want to read comics.”
While autographing 「The Diary Inside My Heart」 containing Clara’s fluent illustrations── no, drawings, such a thought occurred suddenly.
Because Princess Lydia said it would be good to sign and gift it when the Saintess comes, she was signing, and she just had such a thought out of the blue.
Eventually, as per Clara’s demand, lots of illustrations were inserted, and the cover also had a picture without compromise, completing the book.
Looking at it, it really reminded her of Light Novels she encountered on Earth, and thinking of Light Novels made her want to read comic books.
10 illustrations caused homesickness in Noel’s soul.
At first, she tried to pass it over asking what comics, but….
‘Ah, I keep thinking about it.’
If she hadn't thought about it, she wouldn't know, but once she recalled it, it kept hovering in her head.
What happened to that comic she enjoyed reading in her past life?
Did it end?
What was the next development?
As such thoughts arose, her head became full of thoughts about comics.
The problem is… even if she wants to see, there is no answer.
Let alone comics, there aren't even Light Novels here.
If one had to argue, in a situation where 「The Diary Inside My Heart」 is the first Light Novel, comics, what comics.
It was a world full of people who didn't even know the concept of comics, and Noel, the only one who knew comics in such a world, writhed in agony.
“Uugh….”
The agony only grew larger and didn't disappear even after a few days.
To such a Noel, Sophie Ember, who was conducting emergency etiquette education ahead of the upcoming talk with the Saintess, expressed doubt.
“Is something wrong, Lady Noel?”
Although she couldn't hide her boredom usually, Noel’s learning attitude itself wasn't that bad.
But she couldn't focus on class at all right now.
At first, she wondered if even the carefree Noel Grace couldn't help it at the news of the Saintess coming, but it felt somewhat different.
So to Sophie asking why, Noel hesitated for a moment and opened her mouth.
“If it were you, Teacher….”
There is something you really want, something you absolutely cannot erase lingering affection for, but people in the world don’t even know what that is.
In that case, what would you do? At that somewhat philosophical-sounding question, Sophie fell into thought for a moment.
‘I never thought I’d be doing such counseling….’
When tutoring other young ladies, at best it was romance counseling or counseling asking if there was a way to manage weight easily while eating the latest trendy desserts to their heart’s content.
She knew Noel was peculiar… no, special, but her worries were indeed unique too.
“Hmm, I don’t know what that is, but──.”
You want it but it doesn't exist.
Others don’t even know what it is and only I know.
Then what can one do?
“If you absolutely cannot erase it from your heart no matter what, you would have to become self-sufficient at least.”
You have to make it yourself.
Wouldn't letting the world know what it is come first?
“I think I would do that.”
Sophie said so.
Hearing those words, Noel closed her eyes quietly and fell into thought.
‘As expected, is that the only way?’
It feels like she has come too far now, but thinking about it, at first, she intended to enjoy it together once the world knew dopamine and started producing it themselves.
Noel, finding that original intention she had forgotten for a while, hardened her resolve.
‘Let’s make comics.’
Honestly, these days, worrying about the aftermath or thinking about patching things up started to become bothersome too.
Throw it first and think later, it’s not too late; Noel is gradually throwing away restraint.
Comics, let’s just throw them refreshingly.
Then those who see and copy that will start drawing comics, and she can see comics as she wanted.
This is what a comic is.
Fun, right?
Now, if you know what it is, do some creative activity so I can enjoy watching.
Thinking doing this was best, Noel took immediate action.
The worry was long, but the decision was fast.
Amidst the noise that the Saintess is coming to the Empire, only Noel is busy conceiving a new ‘culture’.
Not sure if she should call this lucky, but coincidentally Noel knows roughly how comics are made.
Because she has experience acting as a webtoon story writer in place of the adapter who ran away mid-work in her past life.
Webtoon and Comics.
Different if different, same if same, so she just needs to make comics based on that experience.
‘The core is unraveling the story with pictures, not writing.’
If it’s a story, she has it.
The problem is pictures.
Noel’s art skills are zero….
So Noel wanted to find people who would become her brush and draw pictures instead.
She means to find artists just like when she did webtoon adaptation in her past life.
For that work, Noel decided to receive some help from her patron.
“Pardon? Painters?”
“Yes, Princess.”
The benefit of having a top-tier patron called a Princess; if not at times like this, when would she see it?