Chapter 44
Translator: True Detective
The Novel the Literary Circles Highly Praised and an Elder Extolled
"Hooo...! This is...!"
The Oblige of Deception, which made Robert Burton let out an exclamation of admiration, was set in the early days of the Magical Revolution.
The birth of a wealthy commoner class that succeeded in riding the tide of technological development and the current of the times.
It was a story of the time when the previously solid class system was shaken by that.
An era when rural areas weakened and population and wealth were concentrated in the cities.
The cynical story featuring men and women working in a factory as protagonists made Robert nod his head naturally.
Was it because he had seen poor works that dizzy the eyes one after another?
The Oblige of Deception drew his interest even more because of the contrast effect.
'Are the sentences... the influence of Homer? It lacks elegance and is a bit blunt, but considering the theme and nature of the work, it actually feels like it suits it well.'
It is a piece of writing that exceedingly well expressed the phase of the times, which was the transition period itself where existing orders and values collapsed.
Robert smiled broadly, thinking this is what literature is, and this is what literary arts are.
'Anna Moore, a promising talent has appeared.'
Personally, Robert wanted to give a literature award to this work.
There were few participating works due to Homer's influence, there was nothing satisfactory among those few participating works, and bonus points were attached to being a newcomer.
However, even taking those into account, the artistic value of the work was purely good.
Robert reading calmly with a mind to appreciate rather than judge.
The story begins with Saran, the eldest sister of six siblings, leaving her hometown and going up to the city to find a job to reduce the mouths to feed and support her younger siblings.
Saran, who barely succeeded in getting a job at a factory producing various magic tools.
If you go to the city, you can become rich!
Saran realized firsthand by going up to the city how much of nonsense those words were.
Working 12 hours a day, she suffered from a meager salary.
Her health deteriorated, and it was ultimately an exploitation structure that only filled the belly of the factory owner.
The propaganda that you could take as much as you worked was all an illusion.
The unfunny lie of capitalists exploiting workers.
Still, it was ironic that the situation was better than staying in the rural areas.
The transition period when the times and society change is always like this.
It was people like Saran who suffered in the chaotic gap before systems and laws settled in.
When will I be able to end this poverty?
While having such thoughts and heading to work today as well, Saran heard this from a factory colleague.
「How about sharing a room? You should save whatever you can.」
「Share a room?」
「Two people using one room together. Then you share the rent, so the burden is much less, isn't it.」
「You mean to live together? But... the room I live in now is too cramped for even me to lay my body down.」
「That's why it's good to find someone from the night shift. While you use the room, the roommate will work at night, and when that person sleeps during the day, you'll be out working.」
Days of grueling labor.
This story she heard then was very tempting.
Rent is cut in half?
The money she could send to her family home would also increase by that much, and she would have more leeway in life.
Living together with a stranger was a quite uncomfortable matter, and finding a roommate she got along with wasn't easy, but still, Saran decided to do it.
If she could reduce the economic burden, was the discomfort of cohabitation a big deal?
However, the problem was that the person from the night shift who wanted to share a room...
「A man?」
Was that it was a person of the opposite sex, not the same sex.
No matter how much she wanted to save on rent, living with a man was something hard to readily agree to.
Even if their working hours were different, there would be overlapping times, and it would be uncomfortable in many ways.
「Yeah, his name is Ancelo, and you don't need to worry. He's a good person and his reputation around is not bad either. Goodness, would I introduce just anyone to you?」
「Is there anyone else? Among women.」
「Unfortunately, there isn't.」
「Hng...」
「What will you do? If you don't want to, I'll introduce him to the other girls who asked me to introduce them to someone even if it's a man.」
Saran, who was conflicted by her colleague's words telling her to do as she pleased since the choice was hers, eventually nodded her head.
As this month's living expenses and such popped into her head in a flash, it made her nod her head automatically.
In the end, Saran ended up sharing a room with a man who was a stranger.
She was worried at first, but fortunately...
「I am Ancelo. I look forward to your kind cooperation.」
Her colleague's favorable review was not a lie.
He was a man of a style with very good manners and a gentleman, honestly one Saran had never met before until now.
Hearing he was popular among the female factory workers, it was understandable.
Naturally, Saran could also not help but harbor interest in the man named Ancelo.
So she grasped Ancelo's personal information through stories she heard in passing.
A poor young man who was an orphan with nowhere to rely on.
Good personality, good manners, and especially kind to women, so he was a perfect score in popularity among the female factory workers.
Even to the point where other female workers were jealous of her, who got to share a room with such Ancelo.
「Jealousy, you say...」
Saran unable to hide her dumbfounded feeling.
It was true that she was interested, but that interest was closer to the kind of interest one feels as a person to a person; at least for now, she hadn't looked at Ancelo in that way particularly.
A relationship where they were merely living together to reduce the burden of rent.
Even that was living together in name only, as they were living as if working in shifts, so there wasn't that much time to see each other's faces.
But to think she was receiving jealousy.
『They really have a lot of free time.』
She couldn't help but think it was absurd.
Saran has five younger siblings she has to support.
As the eldest sister, she's dying of busyness working frantically for her family, but love or whatever...
Unable to help but think it was foolish, Saran continued the bizarre cohabitation with Ancelo.
While doing so, Saran gradually built a friendship with Ancelo, sometimes eating meals together during the times when their schedules overlapped.
At first, she intended to just turn off her attention and think of him purely as a roommate who just happened to use the same room, but a human heart isn't like that.
Without realizing it, incidents increased where Saran waited until Ancelo returned from finishing his night shift to see his face before going to work.
No other meaning, purely... to check in on him.
She deceives herself saying she was just checking because it would be troublesome if his health was bad and he caught a disease and passed it on to her.
『What romance is there in my fate.』
Excluding her parents, there are five family members she has to feed.
Saran had thought things like romance or love were a luxury, but emotions are not logic.
She comes to feel herself being increasingly drawn to Ancelo.
Feelings like romance sprang up, and actually, such an air began to flow between the two.
If the partner was a diligent, sincere man with good manners like Ancelo, wouldn't they be able to overcome this grueling poverty together?
Looking at herself starting to harbor such thoughts, Saran felt her heart helplessly leaning towards him even while being flustered.
When should I confess?
Does Ancelo feel the same way as me?
By any chance, if I wait a little, won't he confess first?
Her head was complicated.
Still, one thing was certain.
To bring up the matter rather than missing him by dragging her feet unnecessarily.
Having firmed her resolve, Saran took half the day off to meet Ancelo and confess that day.
A day she got off work early, even doing grocery shopping to specially cook a little something.
Ancelo welcomed Saran, who returned home with a fluttering heart.
「You came early?」
「Y-Yes, ahem, I felt slightly tired today so.」
At those words saying she came early intending to eat heartily and rest, Ancelo nodded his head.
「Actually... I had something to tell you, Miss Saran, so this turned out well.」
Hearing these words, Saran felt like her heart was fluctuating.
Could it be?
Harboring such expectations, Saran displayed her skills and had an early dinner with Ancelo.
Saran, who was waiting for Ancelo's story with a fluttering heart wondering what on earth the story was, ended up hearing words that felt like a bolt from the blue.
「Actually, I am a noble.」
Before inheriting the title and leading the territory, he was working in a factory hiding his status to experience a commoner's life to understand how the world turns.
He had received contact from home saying this much was enough, so he would return tomorrow.
「I was able to learn many things while sharing a room with you, Miss Saran. Thank you. Thanks to you, I have gained confidence that I can become a good lord.」
It wasn't that Ancelo hadn't ever looked at Saran as a person of the opposite sex.
Such feelings, honestly, he still had even now.
Saran is a good woman.
However, more than that, the worlds they lived in were different, and saying that while Saran might be a good woman, she couldn't become a good noble lady, Ancelo bid farewell and left.
The remaining Saran felt devastated.
Should one say it was like being forcibly awakened from a sweet dream...
「A commoner experience, you say?」
Poverty that follows her like a shadow even if she wants to run away from it.
At the fact that such poverty becomes an 'experience' for a good life experience for someone, Saran couldn't know what to say.
Saran was out of her mind from the shock for a while, but what brought her to her senses was, ironically, that poverty.
Because the roommate she was sharing the room with disappeared, and she had no choice but to work diligently to pay the rent that increased again, she didn't even have the luxury to drown in sentimentality.
Thus, Saran came to return from the sweet dream to cold reality.
The worlds they live in are different.
She understood the words Ancelo had said before leaving to the point where she hated it.
「I feel like even my poverty was stolen.」
The story that ended with that monologue.
The moment he turned the last page, Robert clapped his hands without realizing it.
"This is exactly the reason for literature's existence."
He had already chosen The Oblige of Deception as the number one pick in his heart.
He seemingly hadn't even dreamt of who the real author of the work he was highly praising right now was.
And the moment he learned the identity of 'Anna Moore', who revealed herself at the award ceremony of the Aurelion Golden Tablet Literature Award──.
"Noel Grace? No, why is that Lady...?"
"A-Anna Moore was... Homer?"
Many elder writers, including Robert, felt as if the world was collapsing.
To define this situation in one word from Noel's perspective, it would be this.
It was truly refreshing!
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