A Gentle Noble's Vacation Recommendation

Lizel watched Arim, who was staring fixedly down at a book in front of him.

They were still at the stage of using the picture-book materials Lizel had made by hand, but sometimes he would also pick out easy passages from that particular book and have Arim translate them. Since it was the book that had first led him to the ancient language, being able to read it would of course make him happy and help his motivation—or so Lizel had judged when he chose this teaching method.

He had no way of knowing what someone completely wrapped in cloth was thinking, but when he had told Arim “Try translating this,” the reply had sounded just a bit pleased, so the method must be working. Seeing him struggle a little, Lizel smiled and dropped his gaze back to the thin book in his own hands.

It was the ancient-language diary he had made Arim start keeping a few days ago. It hadn’t been that long since they’d begun lessons, yet the highly capable Arim could already write short sentences of two or three words fairly well. Apparently, by comparing the picture-book sheet music Lizel had prepared with the original picture books, he had mastered all the words within that scope.

(Once you teach him something, he remembers it. He really is talented.)

However, Arim’s diary entries were the same from day to day.

You could say it couldn’t be helped, since he basically holed himself up in the archives all the time, but it was less a diary and more like a string of book reports. Or else his impressions of the performances he continued to listen to every day.

Well, with only simple vocabulary available, it was bound to turn out that way, Lizel thought as he marked and corrected the errors. Somehow he could easily imagine him writing the same sort of thing even after he had fully mastered the ancient language.

“I’m done.”

Arim, who had been converting the ancient language into sheet music and then translating from that, seemed to raise his head.

The pile of cloth swayed with a soft rustle and the vivid embroidery slid smoothly.

“I, stared, at him, for one hour.”

“That’s persistent.”

Lizel would have preferred if he had questioned that while translating.

“This isn’t ‘for one hour,’ it’s ‘for a moment.’ The nuance that feels most natural is ‘for a bit.’”

Reaching across from the other side of the table, Lizel ran a finger over the sheet music as he gave a detailed explanation.

Strictly speaking, it would be better if Arim got used to reading the ancient language directly instead of converting it into sheet music first, but since he didn’t need to converse with anyone in it or read it quickly, there was no real problem. These days, only the elves still used the ancient language, and the people of Astarnia—like everyone else—considered the elves legendary beings that didn’t truly exist.

If that ever became a hindrance, Arim would have to deal with it himself. Lizel only intended to teach him enough to open the doors of the labyrinth, so he had no plans to be that thorough.

“—…—”

“‘For one hour’… no, ‘for a bit,’ rest… break?”

He repeated under his breath what Lizel had just softly hummed, then spent a dozen seconds or so thinking.

When he arrived at the right answer, Lizel smiled in praise and, still reaching from across the table, closed the ancient-language book that had been lying open. Obviously, Arim was not yet at the level of self-study in the ancient language, so if he didn’t decide to take a break, Lizel couldn’t rest either.

He gave a wry smile at the faint air of dissatisfaction seeping from the mound of cloth and handed back the corrected diary.

“By the way, is there a continuation of that magic book you recommended before?”

“You, liked it? U-fu, fu.”

The slow, flat, almost mechanical laugh didn’t sound delighted at all, as usual, but this was Arim honestly laughing for joy. It was simply, straightforwardly, a pleasure to have someone to talk to about research treatises and theoretical works that almost no one in Astarnia read. And of course, Lizel could also read other genres, understand their content, and exchange accurate thoughts on them.