1st Person POV (Ekaterina)
It was no wonder that Alexei looked at them with a curious expression on his face. In the Imperial Kingdom, where there were only quill pens, it was only natural that he wouldn’t know what this was at first sight.
“Big Brother, this is a pen for you?” (Ekaterina)
“A pen?” (Alexei)
“It’s a glass pen made out of glass. It can suck up more ink than a quill pen, so you can write more letters in a row. You use it like this.”
With a chuckle, I pulled out my own glass pen. I have carefully chosen one of the prototypes Rev had made that fits my hand. By the way, I was carrying it in a long, narrow wooden box that Mina found for me, stuffed with cotton.
I borrowed the ink pot, got myself a sheet of paper, and when Alexei suggested I sit down, I borrowed a nice leather chair and headed for the big office desk. I felt as if I was sitting at the president’s desk, but I guess I still had too much of the corporate spirit in me.
I dipped the tip of a glass pen into the ink pot and filled the grooves with ink.
Oh, what should I write? I can’t draw my family’s coat of arms in the workshop well enough to show Big Brother, so I don’t want to… I want something that shows I can write a lot of words.
Well, there you go.
Quickly, I run my pen across the paper.
I’m writing the lyrics to the theme song of a certain something. It was repeating like an earworm in my brain so much that I had to translate it into the imperial language to clear my head. It was quite difficult to translate the lyrics so that it would fit the music and be easy to sing, but I think I got it down to a decent level.
I breathed a sigh of relief as I was able to write the entire first verse with just enough ink to dip the glass pen into the ink pot once.
“Once you dip the tip in ink, you’ll be able to write so much more than a quill pen.”
“That’s revolutionary.”
Novak groaned, and that’s when for the first time Ekaterina was startled to realize that the office desk was surrounded by the duke’s executives.
They were all looking at the glass pen with great interest.
Well, um…
“Um, Big Brother, try it out.”
Ekaterina stood up from the leather chair and motioned for Alexei to sit down.
Sitting down in her seat as her sister had told him to, Alexei looked closely at the glass pen. She picked up one of the pens, which resembled a dagger.
“Fate, luck, competence.”
Alexei muttered and Ekaterina tilted her head.
“What are those?” (Ekaterina)
“It’s the meaning of the Astra words inscribed hereーーthe last of which can be translated as virtue, courage, prowess, and mettle, in addition to competence. These three words are often written in pairs, as both good fortune and personal prowess are needed to overturn fate.” (Alexei)
“Well, it would seem so, wouldn’t it? I don’t know Astra at all, I’m ashamed to say.” (Ekaterina)
It was a pity that I never received any form of education as a noblewoman. In the past, Astra was a compulsory subject for nobles, and even now, it was natural to be able to read at least the major words. Maybe I’ll get ripped off in class one of these days.
“You have nothing to be ashamed of. There are plenty who can read Astra, but my sister is the only one who is wise enough to understand it.”
Thank you, Big Brother’s siscon filter is performing well today!
