Side Story - D World
I was going to post this story all at once but I've been super busy and I'm already behind schedule so I figured I'd post what I had so far instead of waiting until I finished the whole thing and it just so happened that I was almost exactly at the midpoint of the story :p That being said, what I have so far is almost the length of a normal chapter so it's not so bad ^-^;;;; Anyway, I’m just titling this one as ‘D World’ because that was the title on the cover of this and the English subtitle provided under it is a bit strange. Also, there are a lot of footnotes~
D World
Part 1
It came fluttering down from the sky
One piece of paper
Like a miracle
I took it in my hand
A letter? I read it and from that moment on
I was a Poison Lady
“‘There aren’t any bars. There is no entertainment. Not too many horses come through either.
I wake up in the morning, wash my face, eat a little bit of beans and water.
I have no meat, too. I have no alcohol. A carriage comes once a day.’” (1)
Wolfram had suddenly started reading aloud as he sat on the lawn hunched over and staring intently at a book with a troubled look on his face.
“What did you say?”
After I catch the apple I had thrown in the air while I laid on my back, I look at Wolfram. His blonde hair is shining in the afternoon sunlight.
It’s very peaceful.
“‘This village, I hate it. I hate this village.’”
“Yeah, you’re going to Tokyo right? And then you’re going to buy a cat in Tokyo.”
It might not have been a cat that he bought, but if it weren’t for the girly pronoun, it’d be a story that sounds like my dad drunkenly letting off steam by singing a parody of a song. (2)
What he has in his hands is a book that isn’t even a centimeter thick. It’s flexible enough to be rolled up in your hands and is more like a notebook than a book.
“What is that? A diary? You shouldn’t read other people’s diaries, Wolfram.”
“Of course not! I would never do such a tasteless thing. To begin with, I have no interest in diaries that aren’t yours.”
I might need a lock on my drawers. I don’t have a private diary, though.
“It was left in a corner of the anteroom so I borrowed it thinking I would read it. I thought it was the new Poison Lady book.”
“That?”
My voice came out strangely.
If we’re talking about the anteroom, it’s where the soldiers stand guard. Well, there are hardly any disturbances inside the castle so it’s like surveillance at a museum.
When Wolfram and I are there, sometimes Lord Weller drags a chair in and sits around.
If it was left behind there, it might belong to Conrad. He’s a fan of the Poison Lady series as well so it’s possible that he got his hands on the newest book before everyone else. A so-called advance copy.
“I’ve never seen this title so it probably isn’t a previous volume… Maybe it got published while we were away from the capital,” Wolfram says.
“Even so, isn’t it a bit thin? The writing style is different than usual too. It’s a bit too broken up or a bit too much like a war photographer’s report… or a bit bad.”
“But look,” Wolfram says as he closes the book and turns it so I can see the title on the cover.
I am a Poison Lady from the Countryside
No, something is wrong. Not just ‘something,’ everything is blatantly wrong.
In the first place, the binding itself is completely different. Usually it’s a lot bulkier and the surface is covered in red or green cloth. The limited collector’s edition has an extravagant leather binding and normal edition Poison Lady books have better quality paper.
On the other hand, what Wolfram has in his hand is rough and grey and not thick enough to be called a cover.
The title also isn’t very malicious and it’s different than the normal poisonous feel. Even though it’s Poison Lady!
I wonder if it’s a version for someone other than little girls and teenagers.
“Is that really part of the Poison Lady series?”
“It says so, doesn’t it? I don’t think a novel with an eerie title like this wouldn’t be.” Wolfram lightly tosses it to me. I missed it and it landed on my stomach.
If it was from the normal Poison Lady series it might have smashed my solar plexus and I’d be writhing around on the ground. Normally, they’re that thick and heavy.
Surprisingly, the binding wasn’t the only thing cheapened - the papers inside were of considerably poorer quality as well. It was of a quality that made it seem like if a sweaty person turned a page it would get worn out from just that. And then, the beginning of the story was as so:
I, Poison Lady.
“Ehhhh!?”
“Don’t get surprised by the first line. The rest is even more difficult to understand.”
Actually, it was not difficult to understand at all. Rather, it was brief or maybe simple, no, the sentences were short and kind of brief…
I, Poison Lady. Eighteen years old.
I pick flowers every day. It’s work. Because, thread comes out of the flowers.
My family has seven people. Me, Mom, Grandma, and then two younger sisters and two younger brothers.
I don’t have a Dad. I have one, but he’s not in the house.
That’s okay. It’s okay. It’s normal.
I’m not married yet. If my younger sisters get married, I might too. After my younger sisters.
We live near a flower field. My village.
My village is…
And from there it connected to what Wolfram had read aloud. An introduction to the village and that ‘I’ hate it. There’s nothing in a countryside town and ‘my’ family is poor. This main character’s home life is different than Poison Lady’s so far.
“… Isn’t this story a little depressing for such a light way of speaking? What if she meets a boy and they fall in love and elope and pretend that it’s a shotgun marriage but really they’re just going to cross over a pass and catch some crabs?” (3)
“There aren’t any crabs, wouldn’t you think?”
While I was wondering if I should keep reading, someone came running from far away. Rather than footsteps, I could feel the tremors in the lawn gradually increasing against my back.
“… Stop!” He yelled breathlessly. “Stop reading immediately!”
“Eh, what?”
It was Lord Gwendal von Voltaire coming barging in as if he was going to do a head slide. Normally he doesn’t come along with us on our afternoon break so this is a strange turn of events.
“Hey Gwen, what’s with that look on your face? How did feeding them milk go this- whoa!”
Before I finished speaking he had snatched the book away. He must have came running in a big hurry because his hair is stuck to his cheeks and his buttons are undone. Wait a minute. Why are his buttons undone in the middle of the day exposing his chest to an almost strange degree?
“No way, were you in the office kitchen doing…”
It’s the kind of situation my mother would like. However, Gwendal was looking around oblivious to my discomfort and he tried to shove the book he stole from me into his open clothes.
He tried, and failed.
The Poison Lady from the Countryside that he failed to hide fell to the ground with a dry sound. And then, something reddish peaked out from over his shoulder.
“Is thaaaat where it iiiiis?”
When Gwendal caught sight of his arch-enemy who had appeared without a sound, his face turned pale. It looks like he can’t even turn around.
“A-Anissina.”
“Trying to hide from me in the castle is a futile endeavor for someone as large and ungraceful as you. No matter how well you hide, your cute tail will always stick out.”
“I, I don’t have a tail.”
“Really? Yes, I would think so. A cute creature with a tail would never think to hide its mistakes before someone found them, after all.”
Wolfram had leaned forward to backup his older brother whose shoulders had slumped, but he still wasn’t brave enough to get involved.
When Miss Anissina moved in front of Gwendal, she picked the book up from the lawn. She gingerly grasped it with just two fingers as if she were touching something disgusting.
After holding it before her sky-blue eyes and examining the cover, the Poison Lady sniffs shortly.
“Honestly. I told you to absolutely not take it out, did I not?”
“I’m sorry, I hadn’t intended to leave it behind.”
“I turned it over to you because you said you were going to use it as data on the climates of various regions. I had wanted to tear this disagreeable thing and burn it, bury it in the ground and feed it to the Earth Skeleton Tribe, after all.”
“The Earth Skeleton Tribe don’t eat ashe-”
“I was obviously being sarcastic. It was a metaphor for saying that it is useless. It is unnecessary to explain the ecology of demons to me!”
Lord von Voltaire shrunk down even more.
Normally seeing a large man having his spirit broken by a petite woman would be funny. However, when it’s Lady Anissina von Karbelnikoff, the extraordinary Poison Lady, it’s a completely different story.
There are few men who can stand tall before her even if they are actually very tall. Or rather, there is next to no one.
“In the first place, you end up doing things like dropping this in the garden somewhere because you went out to give milk to small animals with it in your pocket. I am always warning you, am I not? You cannot put kittens and handheld communication devices in your pocket and warm them up. Books are the same. They are not your boss’s shoes so there is no reason to warm them.”
“I didn’t drop it in the garden.”
“Ugh, enough with the excuses. I understand, Gwendal, so hurry up and go back to giving out milk. The cute, hungry kittens are likely waiting for the kind old man to feed them.”
Miss Anissina waved her right hand a few times as if she were driving him away. The man who holds the most power in the nation (my assumption) has been treated like a puppy and he sullenly turned his back and walked away.
“Um, I hate to interrupt, but…”
Fortunately, Miss Anissina’s attitude towards me is reasonably gentle. I suspect it’s not so much that she has respect for me as king, but more that I’m a long way from being chauvinistic. I mean, after being raised by my mother I don’t think that I could possibly measure up to women.
“Why are you so angry? How bad is that thin book? Is it top-secret information of the country?”
Now I want to ask ‘with that writing style?’ but I’ll put that aside for the moment. Maybe I mistook it for the description of rural life and there’s actually an important code inside it.
“Is there an outrageously important code written into the new book in the Poison Lady series?”
After hearing my question, Miss Anissina paused for a short breath before answering. In an annoyed tone of voice.
“It is absolutely not classified information.” She stopped pinching the book between her fingers and then rolled it up. It looks like she can use it as a megaphone or use it to hit someone over the head. “In the first place, who exactly said something random and humiliating like this book being the new volume in the Poison Lady series?”
“Eh, so it’s not.”
“Of course not!”
“Then why is Poison Lady in the title? What is that? Who wrote it and where did it come from? Is it an imitation from some publisher other than The Central Literary Institute of The Great Demon Kingdom?”
The one and only Poison Lady in this world shook her head vehemently. Her bright red ponytail swings vigorously.
“It is something I want to forget.”
“Something you want to forget?”
“Look here, Your Majesty. Here, at where the author’s name is. What is written there?”
She points to the bottom of the book cover with a neatly trimmed nail. There is brown text there in a row. It’s in a slightly unfamiliar typeface. If the letters and printed papers I normally read are in print, then this is cursive. It’s that sort of style.
Even so, it’s not so bad that I couldn’t read it.
“Um, The Poison Lady Committee.”
If Murata were here with his world-wide knowledge that he’s proud of, he would probably say ‘Ah, it’s a production committee system.’ Actually, he had murmured to himself ‘the production committee’s system list has been added to, huh’ after seeing an advertisement for a movie. I don’t really remember the way it works very well, but it’s probably something like when a bunch of people get together and jointly produce something.
“Huh, so that means that this time it wasn’t you who wrote it? So other authors write Poison Lady.”
“Certainly not! Just who exactly would be able to think up such a wonderfully poisonous story besides myself? In the first place, what do they mean ‘production committee’? There are both good and bad literary works.”
… Was that a pun!? Before I could even interject, the original Poison Lady made a declaration after breathing in roughly through her nose. (4)
“In other words, this is plagiarism!”
“Pervertism? Isn’t that like when an old macho guy wants to dress up in women’s clothes?” (5)
“I know a few muscular men who like women’s clothing but if you ask me whether they are old or not I would be slightly troubled,” Miss Anissina answered with a faraway look. He does that for his job so you should be forgiving. “That muscular man that likes ladies’ clothes… well in short he is Gurrier, but one night he dropped by and left this with me. He said something like ‘Hey, I picked this little something up in another country.’”
That sounds like him.
“But,” I pick up the thin book that was left on the lawn and flip through it again. “This might be a completely different series. I only glanced through the pages, but the writing style is too different. The title and the main character’s job are the only things that are similar.”
‘Ah, a setting under a kingship,’ Murata is saying.
After being flushed away and landing in a foreign world where he got confused about the customs and then all of a sudden became king, he’d just explain it all away by saying ‘Yeah, kingship, it’s a common story.’ After having gone through it myself, I couldn’t just wrap things up by saying it was a common story, though.
Therefore, a career called ‘Poison Lady’ might be popular in this world and I just happen to not know about it. If that’s the case, then it wouldn’t be strange for one to become the heroine of a novel and it wouldn’t be odd for Poison Ladies to have a category.
Now that I think about it, don’t I feel like a lot of the time I’ve heard the titles of Miss Anissina’s books somewhere before? (6)
“Yes, I thought so at first as well. Even so, I have definitive proof that this is plagiarism. Wolfram, read starting from the third line on page twenty.”
“Me? Ah, yeah, um… I was shocked and tried to escape. But my legs didn’t move. I looked in the eyes of a big man. They were blue. He laughed. Why? Because I’m weak woman. I said this. ‘Oha, ohaha, you make me laugh. Did you think that the Poison Lady would retreat? Just like physique is not the only thing that decides the outcome of a battle, gender does not equal a weakness. Do not underestimate me because I am a woman. For a large and thick-witted man unable to move properly, you are more of an overgrown cat than a lion. You are not my enemy!’... Oh?”
“Huh?”
Wolfram and I spoke at almost the same time.
It wasn’t that the sentences were strange or that there were errors or that the tone suddenly changed way too much. I definitely remember hearing, no, reading the words that the main character just said.
“This is what the Poison Lady said to Gwe Dal isn’t it..?” (7)
“I think so,” I say.
If I remember correctly, after this the insulted party, Gwe Dal, is supposed to yell ‘Don’t insult kitty’s parents! I don’t care what you say about me, but the parent kitty definitely isn’t thick-headed and isn’t overgrown.’ And then he challenges the Poison Lady to a sumo match in order to protect the honor of the parent kitty and ends up being completely defeated.
It was such a shocking plot twist that I even remember Dal’s last line.
It was ‘gyahun!’
By the way, the winning move was him getting carried out of the ring.
Well, to tell the truth, the reason I remember this much so distinctly wasn’t because I was surprised by the winning move. It was because I had left the book open while I was doing other things and had inadvertently scribbled on the middle of the page so I thought I should buy another one.
Pencil use hasn’t spread much so careless scribblings can’t be erased.
“Your Insensitive Majesty and Lord Fiance lacking in literary education should realize the truth after reading this far. Yes, this book is copying lines from the already published book Poison Lady Anissina Side Story: Poison Lady Anissina and the Sumo Step ~Now the Strongest After Learning a Foreign World’s Fighting Technique~ verbatim. In other words, this is,” Anissina says proudly as she ignores our confusion and places her hands on her thin hips, “plagiarism!” (8)
“No, but, these few lines might be coincidence…”
“Is there anyone who laughs this openheartedly and cheerfully outside of my Poison Lady books? Furthermore, the misappropriation is not only in this one section. Dal’s excuses and last words are used in three places after this. Even so far as the ‘gyahun.’”
“Hm.”
I could only hum.
When I watch variety shows at dinnertime the comedians generally tell the same jokes and say famous lines from dramas to get a laugh out of people. I doubt that they got permission for everything. If that is accepted as parody then calling this Poison Lady from the Countryside plagiarism is an exaggeration.
“Well, maybe only the person concerned would know for sure,” I say.
“So then, what?” Surprised, I look to my side at Wolfram who is complaining about this complicated topic. “Did you just let the person who used your book go without a word?”
“Of course not. Do you think that I am such a weak woman? If so, that is an outrageous insult. Unspoken agreements and giving up meekly are words that do not suit me at all. Of course this Poison Lady Committee or whatever is to blame and I immediately went to their location.”
Eh? You went all the way to a faraway country over a few lines? Contrary to my slightly apprehensive sentiment, Wolfram was deeply interested. He is energetically captivated as he leans in Anissina’s direction.
“You did go! So, what happened? What were they like?”
If it turns into an adventure story I’d like to hear, but if it turns out to be a story of her arbitrarily cornering someone it would be rather unfortunate and I don’t want to hear it. With mixed feelings, I lean back against the tree behind me.
And then, my shoulder is tapped. When I turn around, I see someone who was in town all this morning on business smiling with his finger to his lips.
“Conrad.”
“Shh, it would be bad to interrupt Anissina’s story.”
Lord Conrart Weller stuck only half of his body out from behind the other side of the tree in order to not distract the third son and the Poison Lady.
“I came to tell you that your break is over, but,” he whispers in a voice that I can only just hear, “you seem to be having fun so bringing you back would be mean.”
“No, it wouldn’t be mean at all. It’s work after all. My dad always says work is important. Although I am a bit curious about how Anissina settled the problem with the Poison Lady imitation.”
“Ah, the thing about Presley.”
“What’s that?”
He stands up from his stooped over position after saying ‘No, it’s a story from a long time ago.’ I follow suit and stand up as well and walk quietly away so the fervently speaking Anissina and the attentive Wolfram wouldn’t notice.
“Are you alright with this?”
“It’s fine. If he’s involved in something fun he should prioritize that. Even though it’s my job, I’m always making Wolf keep me company after all.”
I’ll have him tell me the end of the story later. He’ll probably tell Greta about it too, so I’ll just listen together with her then. Although hopefully I can stay awake in bed.
“Besides, Conrad, why do you know about the Poison Lady imitation?” I ask as I brush off the grass stuck to my bottom. “Was it that big of an incident?”
“It wasn’t really, but, well, I went along on her expedition.”
“Huh? By expedition do you mean the trip she took to ask about the imitation?”
“That right, although Anissina used frightening words such as ‘suppression.’”
“Wait a minute, why did you go?”
“Hm, well, I happened to have free time. You might not be aware of this,” he says in a contrary tone that says ‘You know, don’t you?’, “but when you are away, I don’t have much to do.”
“Free time, huh. But even so, you didn’t have to go with her, did you? Miss Anissina is like ten brave men all by herself. She’s a Poison Lady, though.”
“Yes, of course I didn’t go with the intention of being a bodyguard or escort. If I had to say, it was the opposite.”
Lord Weller moves behind me and lightly brushes off my back as we walk. Damn it. I was lying on my back so I’ve probably got grass all over me from my head to my toes.
“The opposite?”
“The diplomatic relations with the country where Poison Lady of the Countryside was written aren’t very well established, so apparently Gwendal thought it would be bad if Lady von Karbelnikoff suddenly went there and tarnished the image of the demons. However, Gwen certainly couldn’t go with her and Günter was busy with various duties here and there so it fell to me since I had a lot of time on my hands because Your Majesty was absent.”
“Ah… Well I guess if the first demon they had contact with was Miss Anissina then that might cause a lot of misunderstandings.”
Even though that’s the reasoning Gwendal gave, on the inside he was probably worried about his dear Anissina. In any case, Conrad was told to go along with her to the author’s location while she investigated the matter of the Poison Lady series’ imitation.
“The Countryside. They wrote ‘countryside’ but in reality it wasn’t all that rural there.”
“Eh, then that was just to appeal to people’s compassion to get them to sympathize with the character? I mean, they’re pretty good. I guess that’s a given.”
“Like I thought.” Conrad tilts his head with a slightly troubled look. Then without looking he dodges a child that came running by. “You’re more interested in Anissina’s tale than paperwork.”
“No, no that’s not it. It’s okay if I hear the end of it later!”
“I’ll tell you.”
“Eh? You will?”
He sighs as if he’s saying it can’t be helped. That reminds me of the eldest son, but the part of Conrad that is somewhat amused isn’t the same. His sigh wasn’t out of exasperation, but more of giving in or even a bit like he was having fun.
“Well then, I’ll tell you. I’ll go over all the facts in great detail. However, in between breaks at work, okay? After you resolve three cases or when the documents thin out a little, like that.”
“Like running to the next telephone pole even though you’re exhausted.”
It was a really effective technique during my elementary school’s harsh marathon race. However, unfortunately the city’s electric cables are being moved underground lately so it’s a technique that’s gradually becoming unusable.
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(1) Linguistic note! The person in the book that Wolfram is reading from is speaking a bit haltingly and uses a word for ‘I’ that indicates that they are female (atashi). They also leave out a lot of particles and they don’t use much kanji in the writing so it’s made fairly obvious that they are either very young or haven’t learned how to write very well. I’m guessing it’s the latter. Most of it gets lost in translation although I did keep the few, tiny grammatical errors, but the best I could do style-wise was try and make the sentences as brief as possible. Anyway, just wanted to call attention to that.
(2) This is a reference to a song called ‘Ora Toukyousa Igu Da’ (I’m going to Tokyo) by Yoshi Ikuzou. By the way, this name is a pseudonym that means ‘Alright, let’s go.’ What Wolfram has been reading out of the book is very similar to the song’s lyrics. The animal the person in the song bought was a ‘beko’ (cow) which is a word from his local dialect in Aomori prefecture. The standard word is ‘ushi.’ The reason Yuuri says cat is because ‘beko’ sounds a lot like the Japanese for cat --> ‘neko.’
(3) The general consensus among me and everyone I asked is that this is definitely a reference to something, but we can’t figure out what it is XD
(4) So there was a pun in what Anissina said that I couldn’t really work an English one into. Production committee in Japanese is ‘seisaku inkai’ and what Anissina said was ‘seisaku iinkai’ which then means ‘Is the production good?’ So, in the end, it reads as: In the first place, what do they mean ‘is the production good’? There are both good and bad literary works.
(5) Puns again~ Plagiarism and the word used for perversion here have the same pronunciation, ‘tousaku.’
(6) Just in case you forgot or you’ve skipped ahead to this story, all of Anissina’s Poison Lady books are parodies of Harry Potter titles.
(7) The man’s name here is written in kanji (具 上樽) and the pronunciation is written on the side of these characters as ‘Gu Uedaru’ which is essentially Gwendal’s name without the ‘n’ (Guuendaru). The kanji mean tool, above/up, barrel, but I’m fairly sure that they were just picked for their pronunciation ^-^
(8) The book title, or part of it, is a parody of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows which is Harry Potter ‘to shi no hihou’ in Japanese. The Poison Lady book is Poison Lady Anissina ‘to shiko wo fumou’ which means to do the shiko in Sumo which is the ceremonial leg stomps that wrestlers do before a match that is supposed to drive away demons.
*.*.*.*.*
The place where Lady Anissina von Karbelnikoff and Lord Weller landed was a country that bordered The Great Demon Kingdom but was faster to reach by going down a river on a ship than by travelling over land. After the two oarsmen steered the boat down the narrow and winding river, they arrived in a country that was mostly whitish-brown and green.
A country where the residents were weak and thinning and vacant-eyed children and dogs sat along the roadside… was not the sort of land it was.
The fields rich with water were flush with uninterrupted greenery and the women going back and forth on the well-tread dirt roads were healthy and while their clothes were old, they were clean.
The lined up houses were small, but they had roofs and walls and the men were doing things on the patios like amusing themselves with games or leisurely drinking tea and alcohol. Children with baggage were running around and there were no people struggling for the basic necessities to be seen.
In other words, it was a country that was wealthy in its own way.
“This is unexpected.” Anissina’s shoulders slump. “I had imagined a country with nothing.”
“Like I said before,” said Lord Weller who had travelled to various lands in all directions. He listened to the local dialect of this country he hadn’t visited in a while. “This isn’t a poverty stricken area on the continent. If you travel by horse for a while from this harbor you’ll reach a farming village, but even there it isn’t difficult to live. That’s right, it’s about the size of a mid-sized village in The Great Demon Kingdom. Although it is definitely rural.”
“But this letter shape is a calligraphic style used widely in this region and the name of the publishing origin matches up.”
“I think so. However, I’m not a scholar.”
Thinking that they should first head to the publisher, Anissina and Conrad hire a stagecoach and head out from the harbor towards the capital.
The reason I’m not saying the name is because I had a hard time pronouncing it. It’s not only long, it requires the sophisticated technique of rolling r’s so I end up biting my tongue when I repeat it three times. The proper nouns are really complicated. Although my kingdom’s official name has a ridiculous amount of letters in it so we’re both the same in this regard.
“Is this city Nmosserakkomohirohee Nonnanadoanmitchigroggeyabibaz?”
“Yeah, this is Nmosserakkomohirohee Nonnanadoanmitchigroggeyabibaz.”
“Then where is the Nmosserakkomohirohee Nonnanadoanmitchigroggeyabibaz Publisher?”
“I’ve never heard of Nmosserakkomohirohee Nonnanadoanmitchigroggeyabibaz Publishing, but there’s a bakery called Nmosserakkomohirohee West Nonnanadoanmitchigroggeyabibazpablishing.” (1)
“Then where is that Nmosserakkomohirohee West Nonnanadoanmitchigro-ow!”
Like that.
She was speaking crudely, but she was a middle-aged woman with a good physique. She wasn’t merely overweight; her upper arms and shoulders were solid and she had enough strength to easily control two horses. Her glossy cheeks were sunburned red and she laughed at her customer who bit his tongue without any malice.
“It’s difficult for foreigners.”
Anyway, Anissina and Conrad showed her I am a Poison Lady from the Countryside in order to locate the publishing company. When they did, the stagecoach driver said ‘ah’ with a big nod.
“I’ve heard of that. There isn’t anyone who doesn’t know about that book because a lot of people have read it.”
After hearing the driver’s answer, the two of them looked at each oth… er, or they would have but instead Anissina let out a bold laugh and Conrad drew back his shoulders with a bad premonition. Their reactions were completely opposite. It seems this pair won’t work together smoothly.
“Be that as it may, if many people have read it that means that the people of this country have high educational standards.”
“Educational… what? Well, there are a lot of people who can’t read or write, but to make up for that they went to have it read to them. Once every ten days there is a read along meeting. There’s a large stone building on the outskirts of this town and they have people read stories to them. It’s called the Poison Lady Palace.”
“The Poison Lady Palace?”
This time, the timing of their outbursts was perfect.
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(1) I’m abbreviating the town name for this footnote to N. N., lol. Anyway, Publisher/Publishing in Japanese is ‘shuppan’ and then the person Conrad asked said she doesn’t know of ‘N. N. chuppan,’ which doesn’t really mean anything and was likely them mishearing, but instead knows of a ‘N. West N. chuupan’ bakery. Chuupan here is written like it’s part of the name (and thus meaningless), but it sounds like ‘kiss-bread’ in Japanese (chuu + pan).
Aaand, that's where I'm cutting it off. I'm not entirely sure why Conrad is telling his story while referring to himself in the third person o.O;;
Next Chapter -->
D World
Part 1
It came fluttering down from the sky
One piece of paper
Like a miracle
I took it in my hand
A letter? I read it and from that moment on
I was a Poison Lady
“‘There aren’t any bars. There is no entertainment. Not too many horses come through either.
I wake up in the morning, wash my face, eat a little bit of beans and water.
I have no meat, too. I have no alcohol. A carriage comes once a day.’” (1)
Wolfram had suddenly started reading aloud as he sat on the lawn hunched over and staring intently at a book with a troubled look on his face.
“What did you say?”
After I catch the apple I had thrown in the air while I laid on my back, I look at Wolfram. His blonde hair is shining in the afternoon sunlight.
It’s very peaceful.
“‘This village, I hate it. I hate this village.’”
“Yeah, you’re going to Tokyo right? And then you’re going to buy a cat in Tokyo.”
It might not have been a cat that he bought, but if it weren’t for the girly pronoun, it’d be a story that sounds like my dad drunkenly letting off steam by singing a parody of a song. (2)
What he has in his hands is a book that isn’t even a centimeter thick. It’s flexible enough to be rolled up in your hands and is more like a notebook than a book.
“What is that? A diary? You shouldn’t read other people’s diaries, Wolfram.”
“Of course not! I would never do such a tasteless thing. To begin with, I have no interest in diaries that aren’t yours.”
I might need a lock on my drawers. I don’t have a private diary, though.
“It was left in a corner of the anteroom so I borrowed it thinking I would read it. I thought it was the new Poison Lady book.”
“That?”
My voice came out strangely.
If we’re talking about the anteroom, it’s where the soldiers stand guard. Well, there are hardly any disturbances inside the castle so it’s like surveillance at a museum.
When Wolfram and I are there, sometimes Lord Weller drags a chair in and sits around.
If it was left behind there, it might belong to Conrad. He’s a fan of the Poison Lady series as well so it’s possible that he got his hands on the newest book before everyone else. A so-called advance copy.
“I’ve never seen this title so it probably isn’t a previous volume… Maybe it got published while we were away from the capital,” Wolfram says.
“Even so, isn’t it a bit thin? The writing style is different than usual too. It’s a bit too broken up or a bit too much like a war photographer’s report… or a bit bad.”
“But look,” Wolfram says as he closes the book and turns it so I can see the title on the cover.
I am a Poison Lady from the Countryside
No, something is wrong. Not just ‘something,’ everything is blatantly wrong.
In the first place, the binding itself is completely different. Usually it’s a lot bulkier and the surface is covered in red or green cloth. The limited collector’s edition has an extravagant leather binding and normal edition Poison Lady books have better quality paper.
On the other hand, what Wolfram has in his hand is rough and grey and not thick enough to be called a cover.
The title also isn’t very malicious and it’s different than the normal poisonous feel. Even though it’s Poison Lady!
I wonder if it’s a version for someone other than little girls and teenagers.
“Is that really part of the Poison Lady series?”
“It says so, doesn’t it? I don’t think a novel with an eerie title like this wouldn’t be.” Wolfram lightly tosses it to me. I missed it and it landed on my stomach.
If it was from the normal Poison Lady series it might have smashed my solar plexus and I’d be writhing around on the ground. Normally, they’re that thick and heavy.
Surprisingly, the binding wasn’t the only thing cheapened - the papers inside were of considerably poorer quality as well. It was of a quality that made it seem like if a sweaty person turned a page it would get worn out from just that. And then, the beginning of the story was as so:
I, Poison Lady.
“Ehhhh!?”
“Don’t get surprised by the first line. The rest is even more difficult to understand.”
Actually, it was not difficult to understand at all. Rather, it was brief or maybe simple, no, the sentences were short and kind of brief…
I, Poison Lady. Eighteen years old.
I pick flowers every day. It’s work. Because, thread comes out of the flowers.
My family has seven people. Me, Mom, Grandma, and then two younger sisters and two younger brothers.
I don’t have a Dad. I have one, but he’s not in the house.
That’s okay. It’s okay. It’s normal.
I’m not married yet. If my younger sisters get married, I might too. After my younger sisters.
We live near a flower field. My village.
My village is…
And from there it connected to what Wolfram had read aloud. An introduction to the village and that ‘I’ hate it. There’s nothing in a countryside town and ‘my’ family is poor. This main character’s home life is different than Poison Lady’s so far.
“… Isn’t this story a little depressing for such a light way of speaking? What if she meets a boy and they fall in love and elope and pretend that it’s a shotgun marriage but really they’re just going to cross over a pass and catch some crabs?” (3)
“There aren’t any crabs, wouldn’t you think?”
While I was wondering if I should keep reading, someone came running from far away. Rather than footsteps, I could feel the tremors in the lawn gradually increasing against my back.
“… Stop!” He yelled breathlessly. “Stop reading immediately!”
“Eh, what?”
It was Lord Gwendal von Voltaire coming barging in as if he was going to do a head slide. Normally he doesn’t come along with us on our afternoon break so this is a strange turn of events.
“Hey Gwen, what’s with that look on your face? How did feeding them milk go this- whoa!”
Before I finished speaking he had snatched the book away. He must have came running in a big hurry because his hair is stuck to his cheeks and his buttons are undone. Wait a minute. Why are his buttons undone in the middle of the day exposing his chest to an almost strange degree?
“No way, were you in the office kitchen doing…”
It’s the kind of situation my mother would like. However, Gwendal was looking around oblivious to my discomfort and he tried to shove the book he stole from me into his open clothes.
He tried, and failed.
The Poison Lady from the Countryside that he failed to hide fell to the ground with a dry sound. And then, something reddish peaked out from over his shoulder.
“Is thaaaat where it iiiiis?”
When Gwendal caught sight of his arch-enemy who had appeared without a sound, his face turned pale. It looks like he can’t even turn around.
“A-Anissina.”
“Trying to hide from me in the castle is a futile endeavor for someone as large and ungraceful as you. No matter how well you hide, your cute tail will always stick out.”
“I, I don’t have a tail.”
“Really? Yes, I would think so. A cute creature with a tail would never think to hide its mistakes before someone found them, after all.”
Wolfram had leaned forward to backup his older brother whose shoulders had slumped, but he still wasn’t brave enough to get involved.
When Miss Anissina moved in front of Gwendal, she picked the book up from the lawn. She gingerly grasped it with just two fingers as if she were touching something disgusting.
After holding it before her sky-blue eyes and examining the cover, the Poison Lady sniffs shortly.
“Honestly. I told you to absolutely not take it out, did I not?”
“I’m sorry, I hadn’t intended to leave it behind.”
“I turned it over to you because you said you were going to use it as data on the climates of various regions. I had wanted to tear this disagreeable thing and burn it, bury it in the ground and feed it to the Earth Skeleton Tribe, after all.”
“The Earth Skeleton Tribe don’t eat ashe-”
“I was obviously being sarcastic. It was a metaphor for saying that it is useless. It is unnecessary to explain the ecology of demons to me!”
Lord von Voltaire shrunk down even more.
Normally seeing a large man having his spirit broken by a petite woman would be funny. However, when it’s Lady Anissina von Karbelnikoff, the extraordinary Poison Lady, it’s a completely different story.
There are few men who can stand tall before her even if they are actually very tall. Or rather, there is next to no one.
“In the first place, you end up doing things like dropping this in the garden somewhere because you went out to give milk to small animals with it in your pocket. I am always warning you, am I not? You cannot put kittens and handheld communication devices in your pocket and warm them up. Books are the same. They are not your boss’s shoes so there is no reason to warm them.”
“I didn’t drop it in the garden.”
“Ugh, enough with the excuses. I understand, Gwendal, so hurry up and go back to giving out milk. The cute, hungry kittens are likely waiting for the kind old man to feed them.”
Miss Anissina waved her right hand a few times as if she were driving him away. The man who holds the most power in the nation (my assumption) has been treated like a puppy and he sullenly turned his back and walked away.
“Um, I hate to interrupt, but…”
Fortunately, Miss Anissina’s attitude towards me is reasonably gentle. I suspect it’s not so much that she has respect for me as king, but more that I’m a long way from being chauvinistic. I mean, after being raised by my mother I don’t think that I could possibly measure up to women.
“Why are you so angry? How bad is that thin book? Is it top-secret information of the country?”
Now I want to ask ‘with that writing style?’ but I’ll put that aside for the moment. Maybe I mistook it for the description of rural life and there’s actually an important code inside it.
“Is there an outrageously important code written into the new book in the Poison Lady series?”
After hearing my question, Miss Anissina paused for a short breath before answering. In an annoyed tone of voice.
“It is absolutely not classified information.” She stopped pinching the book between her fingers and then rolled it up. It looks like she can use it as a megaphone or use it to hit someone over the head. “In the first place, who exactly said something random and humiliating like this book being the new volume in the Poison Lady series?”
“Eh, so it’s not.”
“Of course not!”
“Then why is Poison Lady in the title? What is that? Who wrote it and where did it come from? Is it an imitation from some publisher other than The Central Literary Institute of The Great Demon Kingdom?”
The one and only Poison Lady in this world shook her head vehemently. Her bright red ponytail swings vigorously.
“It is something I want to forget.”
“Something you want to forget?”
“Look here, Your Majesty. Here, at where the author’s name is. What is written there?”
She points to the bottom of the book cover with a neatly trimmed nail. There is brown text there in a row. It’s in a slightly unfamiliar typeface. If the letters and printed papers I normally read are in print, then this is cursive. It’s that sort of style.
Even so, it’s not so bad that I couldn’t read it.
“Um, The Poison Lady Committee.”
If Murata were here with his world-wide knowledge that he’s proud of, he would probably say ‘Ah, it’s a production committee system.’ Actually, he had murmured to himself ‘the production committee’s system list has been added to, huh’ after seeing an advertisement for a movie. I don’t really remember the way it works very well, but it’s probably something like when a bunch of people get together and jointly produce something.
“Huh, so that means that this time it wasn’t you who wrote it? So other authors write Poison Lady.”
“Certainly not! Just who exactly would be able to think up such a wonderfully poisonous story besides myself? In the first place, what do they mean ‘production committee’? There are both good and bad literary works.”
… Was that a pun!? Before I could even interject, the original Poison Lady made a declaration after breathing in roughly through her nose. (4)
“In other words, this is plagiarism!”
“Pervertism? Isn’t that like when an old macho guy wants to dress up in women’s clothes?” (5)
“I know a few muscular men who like women’s clothing but if you ask me whether they are old or not I would be slightly troubled,” Miss Anissina answered with a faraway look. He does that for his job so you should be forgiving. “That muscular man that likes ladies’ clothes… well in short he is Gurrier, but one night he dropped by and left this with me. He said something like ‘Hey, I picked this little something up in another country.’”
That sounds like him.
“But,” I pick up the thin book that was left on the lawn and flip through it again. “This might be a completely different series. I only glanced through the pages, but the writing style is too different. The title and the main character’s job are the only things that are similar.”
‘Ah, a setting under a kingship,’ Murata is saying.
After being flushed away and landing in a foreign world where he got confused about the customs and then all of a sudden became king, he’d just explain it all away by saying ‘Yeah, kingship, it’s a common story.’ After having gone through it myself, I couldn’t just wrap things up by saying it was a common story, though.
Therefore, a career called ‘Poison Lady’ might be popular in this world and I just happen to not know about it. If that’s the case, then it wouldn’t be strange for one to become the heroine of a novel and it wouldn’t be odd for Poison Ladies to have a category.
Now that I think about it, don’t I feel like a lot of the time I’ve heard the titles of Miss Anissina’s books somewhere before? (6)
“Yes, I thought so at first as well. Even so, I have definitive proof that this is plagiarism. Wolfram, read starting from the third line on page twenty.”
“Me? Ah, yeah, um… I was shocked and tried to escape. But my legs didn’t move. I looked in the eyes of a big man. They were blue. He laughed. Why? Because I’m weak woman. I said this. ‘Oha, ohaha, you make me laugh. Did you think that the Poison Lady would retreat? Just like physique is not the only thing that decides the outcome of a battle, gender does not equal a weakness. Do not underestimate me because I am a woman. For a large and thick-witted man unable to move properly, you are more of an overgrown cat than a lion. You are not my enemy!’... Oh?”
“Huh?”
Wolfram and I spoke at almost the same time.
It wasn’t that the sentences were strange or that there were errors or that the tone suddenly changed way too much. I definitely remember hearing, no, reading the words that the main character just said.
“This is what the Poison Lady said to Gwe Dal isn’t it..?” (7)
“I think so,” I say.
If I remember correctly, after this the insulted party, Gwe Dal, is supposed to yell ‘Don’t insult kitty’s parents! I don’t care what you say about me, but the parent kitty definitely isn’t thick-headed and isn’t overgrown.’ And then he challenges the Poison Lady to a sumo match in order to protect the honor of the parent kitty and ends up being completely defeated.
It was such a shocking plot twist that I even remember Dal’s last line.
It was ‘gyahun!’
By the way, the winning move was him getting carried out of the ring.
Well, to tell the truth, the reason I remember this much so distinctly wasn’t because I was surprised by the winning move. It was because I had left the book open while I was doing other things and had inadvertently scribbled on the middle of the page so I thought I should buy another one.
Pencil use hasn’t spread much so careless scribblings can’t be erased.
“Your Insensitive Majesty and Lord Fiance lacking in literary education should realize the truth after reading this far. Yes, this book is copying lines from the already published book Poison Lady Anissina Side Story: Poison Lady Anissina and the Sumo Step ~Now the Strongest After Learning a Foreign World’s Fighting Technique~ verbatim. In other words, this is,” Anissina says proudly as she ignores our confusion and places her hands on her thin hips, “plagiarism!” (8)
“No, but, these few lines might be coincidence…”
“Is there anyone who laughs this openheartedly and cheerfully outside of my Poison Lady books? Furthermore, the misappropriation is not only in this one section. Dal’s excuses and last words are used in three places after this. Even so far as the ‘gyahun.’”
“Hm.”
I could only hum.
When I watch variety shows at dinnertime the comedians generally tell the same jokes and say famous lines from dramas to get a laugh out of people. I doubt that they got permission for everything. If that is accepted as parody then calling this Poison Lady from the Countryside plagiarism is an exaggeration.
“Well, maybe only the person concerned would know for sure,” I say.
“So then, what?” Surprised, I look to my side at Wolfram who is complaining about this complicated topic. “Did you just let the person who used your book go without a word?”
“Of course not. Do you think that I am such a weak woman? If so, that is an outrageous insult. Unspoken agreements and giving up meekly are words that do not suit me at all. Of course this Poison Lady Committee or whatever is to blame and I immediately went to their location.”
Eh? You went all the way to a faraway country over a few lines? Contrary to my slightly apprehensive sentiment, Wolfram was deeply interested. He is energetically captivated as he leans in Anissina’s direction.
“You did go! So, what happened? What were they like?”
If it turns into an adventure story I’d like to hear, but if it turns out to be a story of her arbitrarily cornering someone it would be rather unfortunate and I don’t want to hear it. With mixed feelings, I lean back against the tree behind me.
And then, my shoulder is tapped. When I turn around, I see someone who was in town all this morning on business smiling with his finger to his lips.
“Conrad.”
“Shh, it would be bad to interrupt Anissina’s story.”
Lord Conrart Weller stuck only half of his body out from behind the other side of the tree in order to not distract the third son and the Poison Lady.
“I came to tell you that your break is over, but,” he whispers in a voice that I can only just hear, “you seem to be having fun so bringing you back would be mean.”
“No, it wouldn’t be mean at all. It’s work after all. My dad always says work is important. Although I am a bit curious about how Anissina settled the problem with the Poison Lady imitation.”
“Ah, the thing about Presley.”
“What’s that?”
He stands up from his stooped over position after saying ‘No, it’s a story from a long time ago.’ I follow suit and stand up as well and walk quietly away so the fervently speaking Anissina and the attentive Wolfram wouldn’t notice.
“Are you alright with this?”
“It’s fine. If he’s involved in something fun he should prioritize that. Even though it’s my job, I’m always making Wolf keep me company after all.”
I’ll have him tell me the end of the story later. He’ll probably tell Greta about it too, so I’ll just listen together with her then. Although hopefully I can stay awake in bed.
“Besides, Conrad, why do you know about the Poison Lady imitation?” I ask as I brush off the grass stuck to my bottom. “Was it that big of an incident?”
“It wasn’t really, but, well, I went along on her expedition.”
“Huh? By expedition do you mean the trip she took to ask about the imitation?”
“That right, although Anissina used frightening words such as ‘suppression.’”
“Wait a minute, why did you go?”
“Hm, well, I happened to have free time. You might not be aware of this,” he says in a contrary tone that says ‘You know, don’t you?’, “but when you are away, I don’t have much to do.”
“Free time, huh. But even so, you didn’t have to go with her, did you? Miss Anissina is like ten brave men all by herself. She’s a Poison Lady, though.”
“Yes, of course I didn’t go with the intention of being a bodyguard or escort. If I had to say, it was the opposite.”
Lord Weller moves behind me and lightly brushes off my back as we walk. Damn it. I was lying on my back so I’ve probably got grass all over me from my head to my toes.
“The opposite?”
“The diplomatic relations with the country where Poison Lady of the Countryside was written aren’t very well established, so apparently Gwendal thought it would be bad if Lady von Karbelnikoff suddenly went there and tarnished the image of the demons. However, Gwen certainly couldn’t go with her and Günter was busy with various duties here and there so it fell to me since I had a lot of time on my hands because Your Majesty was absent.”
“Ah… Well I guess if the first demon they had contact with was Miss Anissina then that might cause a lot of misunderstandings.”
Even though that’s the reasoning Gwendal gave, on the inside he was probably worried about his dear Anissina. In any case, Conrad was told to go along with her to the author’s location while she investigated the matter of the Poison Lady series’ imitation.
“The Countryside. They wrote ‘countryside’ but in reality it wasn’t all that rural there.”
“Eh, then that was just to appeal to people’s compassion to get them to sympathize with the character? I mean, they’re pretty good. I guess that’s a given.”
“Like I thought.” Conrad tilts his head with a slightly troubled look. Then without looking he dodges a child that came running by. “You’re more interested in Anissina’s tale than paperwork.”
“No, no that’s not it. It’s okay if I hear the end of it later!”
“I’ll tell you.”
“Eh? You will?”
He sighs as if he’s saying it can’t be helped. That reminds me of the eldest son, but the part of Conrad that is somewhat amused isn’t the same. His sigh wasn’t out of exasperation, but more of giving in or even a bit like he was having fun.
“Well then, I’ll tell you. I’ll go over all the facts in great detail. However, in between breaks at work, okay? After you resolve three cases or when the documents thin out a little, like that.”
“Like running to the next telephone pole even though you’re exhausted.”
It was a really effective technique during my elementary school’s harsh marathon race. However, unfortunately the city’s electric cables are being moved underground lately so it’s a technique that’s gradually becoming unusable.
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(1) Linguistic note! The person in the book that Wolfram is reading from is speaking a bit haltingly and uses a word for ‘I’ that indicates that they are female (atashi). They also leave out a lot of particles and they don’t use much kanji in the writing so it’s made fairly obvious that they are either very young or haven’t learned how to write very well. I’m guessing it’s the latter. Most of it gets lost in translation although I did keep the few, tiny grammatical errors, but the best I could do style-wise was try and make the sentences as brief as possible. Anyway, just wanted to call attention to that.
(2) This is a reference to a song called ‘Ora Toukyousa Igu Da’ (I’m going to Tokyo) by Yoshi Ikuzou. By the way, this name is a pseudonym that means ‘Alright, let’s go.’ What Wolfram has been reading out of the book is very similar to the song’s lyrics. The animal the person in the song bought was a ‘beko’ (cow) which is a word from his local dialect in Aomori prefecture. The standard word is ‘ushi.’ The reason Yuuri says cat is because ‘beko’ sounds a lot like the Japanese for cat --> ‘neko.’
(3) The general consensus among me and everyone I asked is that this is definitely a reference to something, but we can’t figure out what it is XD
(4) So there was a pun in what Anissina said that I couldn’t really work an English one into. Production committee in Japanese is ‘seisaku inkai’ and what Anissina said was ‘seisaku iinkai’ which then means ‘Is the production good?’ So, in the end, it reads as: In the first place, what do they mean ‘is the production good’? There are both good and bad literary works.
(5) Puns again~ Plagiarism and the word used for perversion here have the same pronunciation, ‘tousaku.’
(6) Just in case you forgot or you’ve skipped ahead to this story, all of Anissina’s Poison Lady books are parodies of Harry Potter titles.
(7) The man’s name here is written in kanji (具 上樽) and the pronunciation is written on the side of these characters as ‘Gu Uedaru’ which is essentially Gwendal’s name without the ‘n’ (Guuendaru). The kanji mean tool, above/up, barrel, but I’m fairly sure that they were just picked for their pronunciation ^-^
(8) The book title, or part of it, is a parody of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows which is Harry Potter ‘to shi no hihou’ in Japanese. The Poison Lady book is Poison Lady Anissina ‘to shiko wo fumou’ which means to do the shiko in Sumo which is the ceremonial leg stomps that wrestlers do before a match that is supposed to drive away demons.
*.*.*.*.*
The place where Lady Anissina von Karbelnikoff and Lord Weller landed was a country that bordered The Great Demon Kingdom but was faster to reach by going down a river on a ship than by travelling over land. After the two oarsmen steered the boat down the narrow and winding river, they arrived in a country that was mostly whitish-brown and green.
A country where the residents were weak and thinning and vacant-eyed children and dogs sat along the roadside… was not the sort of land it was.
The fields rich with water were flush with uninterrupted greenery and the women going back and forth on the well-tread dirt roads were healthy and while their clothes were old, they were clean.
The lined up houses were small, but they had roofs and walls and the men were doing things on the patios like amusing themselves with games or leisurely drinking tea and alcohol. Children with baggage were running around and there were no people struggling for the basic necessities to be seen.
In other words, it was a country that was wealthy in its own way.
“This is unexpected.” Anissina’s shoulders slump. “I had imagined a country with nothing.”
“Like I said before,” said Lord Weller who had travelled to various lands in all directions. He listened to the local dialect of this country he hadn’t visited in a while. “This isn’t a poverty stricken area on the continent. If you travel by horse for a while from this harbor you’ll reach a farming village, but even there it isn’t difficult to live. That’s right, it’s about the size of a mid-sized village in The Great Demon Kingdom. Although it is definitely rural.”
“But this letter shape is a calligraphic style used widely in this region and the name of the publishing origin matches up.”
“I think so. However, I’m not a scholar.”
Thinking that they should first head to the publisher, Anissina and Conrad hire a stagecoach and head out from the harbor towards the capital.
The reason I’m not saying the name is because I had a hard time pronouncing it. It’s not only long, it requires the sophisticated technique of rolling r’s so I end up biting my tongue when I repeat it three times. The proper nouns are really complicated. Although my kingdom’s official name has a ridiculous amount of letters in it so we’re both the same in this regard.
“Is this city Nmosserakkomohirohee Nonnanadoanmitchigroggeyabibaz?”
“Yeah, this is Nmosserakkomohirohee Nonnanadoanmitchigroggeyabibaz.”
“Then where is the Nmosserakkomohirohee Nonnanadoanmitchigroggeyabibaz Publisher?”
“I’ve never heard of Nmosserakkomohirohee Nonnanadoanmitchigroggeyabibaz Publishing, but there’s a bakery called Nmosserakkomohirohee West Nonnanadoanmitchigroggeyabibazpablishing.” (1)
“Then where is that Nmosserakkomohirohee West Nonnanadoanmitchigro-ow!”
Like that.
She was speaking crudely, but she was a middle-aged woman with a good physique. She wasn’t merely overweight; her upper arms and shoulders were solid and she had enough strength to easily control two horses. Her glossy cheeks were sunburned red and she laughed at her customer who bit his tongue without any malice.
“It’s difficult for foreigners.”
Anyway, Anissina and Conrad showed her I am a Poison Lady from the Countryside in order to locate the publishing company. When they did, the stagecoach driver said ‘ah’ with a big nod.
“I’ve heard of that. There isn’t anyone who doesn’t know about that book because a lot of people have read it.”
After hearing the driver’s answer, the two of them looked at each oth… er, or they would have but instead Anissina let out a bold laugh and Conrad drew back his shoulders with a bad premonition. Their reactions were completely opposite. It seems this pair won’t work together smoothly.
“Be that as it may, if many people have read it that means that the people of this country have high educational standards.”
“Educational… what? Well, there are a lot of people who can’t read or write, but to make up for that they went to have it read to them. Once every ten days there is a read along meeting. There’s a large stone building on the outskirts of this town and they have people read stories to them. It’s called the Poison Lady Palace.”
“The Poison Lady Palace?”
This time, the timing of their outbursts was perfect.
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(1) I’m abbreviating the town name for this footnote to N. N., lol. Anyway, Publisher/Publishing in Japanese is ‘shuppan’ and then the person Conrad asked said she doesn’t know of ‘N. N. chuppan,’ which doesn’t really mean anything and was likely them mishearing, but instead knows of a ‘N. West N. chuupan’ bakery. Chuupan here is written like it’s part of the name (and thus meaningless), but it sounds like ‘kiss-bread’ in Japanese (chuu + pan).
Aaand, that's where I'm cutting it off. I'm not entirely sure why Conrad is telling his story while referring to himself in the third person o.O;;
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