Klad’s face crumpled slightly when he heard the name.
Did he not know that name? Though they were a famous person, it was only natural that Klad, who had lived in the duke’s castle basement for so long, wouldn’t know.
Jake personally explained to him about ‘Neria.’
“Neria is the author of forbidden books that revealed some of the true history to the world. I managed to obtain and read several of their books, and you can’t imagine how shocked I was to find that it was accurately recorded that the ducal house had hidden history and covered it up with lies.”
He didn’t know how they had learned the truth. But the elation he felt when he realized he wasn’t the only one trying to reveal the truth to the world was beyond words.
“Father called this person a ‘futile dreamer.’ He could have just ignored them, but Father designated every book this person wrote as forbidden.”
There were more fearless people spouting nonsense than one might think. There were also those who compiled it into books or made it into songs to spread. But this was undoubtedly the first time someone had openly targeted the ducal house, and everything they babbled about was the truth.
“There was a time when I thought this person was a descendant of the ducal house.”
What if the previous Hero had learned the truth about the ducal house and, like Jake, became enraged and tried to fight back? If they hadn’t forgotten that rage even after being driven from the ducal house, they might have told their children and their children’s children about the ducal house’s true nature even after settling into an ordinary life.
That’s why Jake had suspected that the author Neria might be a descendant of the duke who had heard that story.
If they had started writing books revealing the truth because they couldn’t bear the world being deceived and their family receiving unfair treatment, it would have made sense.
“But the fact that you said there was a time when you thought they were a descendant means you don’t think so now. What made you change your mind?”
“They revealed their identity.”
“What? Is that true?”
“You know that far to the east, there’s an unknown land so dangerous that attempts to pioneer it have failed, right? This person called Neria once published a book explaining the ecosystem and monsters inhabiting that place. It was written that their grandfather was from a nearby village, so they spent their childhood there. That place and Audrit are on completely opposite sides. It’s certain that the previous Hero headed to Audrit, so if this person were a descendant, it wouldn’t add up.”
“Didn’t you think that book might be nonsense?”
“This person doesn’t compile nonsense into books. Everything they’ve written has been the truth, so that must be the truth as well. In fact, several explorers reportedly used that book as a reference to find the unknown land and successfully explored an area corresponding to 3% of the entire land. It’s a historic achievement, the first since the founding of the Empire. It couldn’t have happened if the book were false, could it?”
“It would be better not to explore there.”
“Hm? What did you just say, Klad? Your voice was too quiet, I couldn’t hear.”
“It’s nothing.”
Though the author Neria’s books were forbidden, there were many people who wanted to read the books even if they had to pay a fine. Among them were plenty who blindly believed anything Neria said.
“I don’t know this person’s identity, but they’re surely someone like me, striving to reveal the true history to the world. Since we’re of like mind, if I ask for help, they’ll surely cooperate.”
“They might.”
“They’re someone who knows a lot of information obtained from who knows where or how, so wouldn’t it be easy to dig up Father’s plans? No, perhaps they already know everything happening in the ducal house!”
It seemed Jake was one of those ‘plenty of people who blindly believe anything Neria says.’
“Even before meeting you, I once thought of finding them and asking for help. But I gave up because there was no way for me to find someone Father couldn’t find. However, the situation is different now.”
Jake clenched his fist, excited at the thought that he might be able to meet Neria.
“This person is very interested in true history, and they must be keeping a close eye on the movements of the ducal house that controls and manipulates that history. And currently, incidents and accidents are constantly occurring in the ducal house.”
Among Neria’s books, there was an unusually large amount of content dealing with the Hero and the Demon King. Since they enjoyed Hero-related incidents so much, they must have welcomed the appearance of the Demon King in the same era and been watching the Hero’s activities.
In doing so, they would have naturally learned. That this generation’s Hero, Jake, was a West who went against the Wests and dug into the truth—a person of the same kind as themselves.
Just as Jake had taken an interest in Neria, it wouldn’t be strange if they too had taken an interest in Jake and were watching him.
“Since they’re hiding their identity, it’s hard for me to go find them first, but my activities are exposed, even those from within the past few days. If I let it slip that I want to meet them, they might come looking for me first.”
“That’s all just speculation.”
“I can’t guarantee it, but isn’t it worth trying!”
They had to wait without moving far until the wanted notice rumors died down anyway. If so, it was better to find an ally than waste time.
“You’re not planning to go around brazenly showing off that you’re the Hero and spreading rumors about being here, are you? The duke might learn of your whereabouts before Neria does.”
“You don’t need to worry about that part. I’m guessing this person is an excellent mage. If so, even if I leave minimal traces, they’ll find me somehow. If they don’t have enough skill to find me while I’m hiding, then they’re not valuable as an ally and I don’t need them.”
“How are you certain that person is a mage?”
“Because of their books.”
There were three representative methods of making books.
First. The method of dipping a quill pen in ink and writing directly one by one on paper or parchment. It meant handwork. It took a long time to produce and couldn’t produce many copies, but it had the advantage of reduced costs. However, typos often occurred.
The second method was using magic like making maps. It was extremely convenient and useful for mass production, but expensive. Unlike maps, which were needed by various occupational groups, books weren’t sought after by many, so using this method was wasteful.
The last, third method was replicating text with a special potion concocted by alchemists.
After writing with ink on parchment, when you applied the potion, the liquid became sticky like jelly. When you placed it on another piece of parchment, identical letters were inscribed. You couldn’t print as many copies at once as when using magic, but since there was no need to make thousands of copies of the same book anyway, it was the most preferred method at printing houses.
While it was up to imperial citizens whether they wrote on paper and kept it to themselves, if they wanted to replicate it, compile it into books, and distribute it, they had to go through a printing house.
All books made at printing houses underwent censorship. Making books outside of printing houses was prohibited, and all printing houses were in the capital.
It was probably the imperial family’s tyranny to limit the information and knowledge imperial citizens could obtain. Perhaps the ducal house’s influence was involved. Now that he knew the imperial family and the ducal house were in cahoots, it was meaningless to determine whose fault it was.
In such a difficult environment, how were books designated as ‘forbidden’ made?
Most forbidden books appeared in the world packaged as romance novels.
Novels that weren’t history or educational books, especially novels dealing with love, had simple censorship procedures. Sometimes the censor would approve them after only reviewing the beginning and ending parts without properly reading them.
Some authors exploited this loophole to publish books that pretended to be romance novels while criticizing the world or denigrating specific nobles.
When this fact was later revealed, the book in question was classified as forbidden. If unlucky, a wanted notice could be issued for the author.
Then how were forbidden books other than social criticism novels disguised as romance novels made?
It was surprisingly simple. They just had to be made outside the capital, avoiding the pursuit of the emperor and nobles.
However, since they couldn’t receive help from printing houses, they had to make them by dipping quill pens in ink and writing directly on paper, one character at a time.
Because of this, there was a limit to the number that could be produced, so the number distributed was extremely small.
Since there often weren’t copies, if they found and destroyed all the distributed books and burned the original manuscript as well, that book would disappear from the world forever.
However, Neria’s books were a bit different.
“I once collected and examined multiple copies of the same book by the author Neria. When written by hand, even if written by the same person, there are bound to be minute differences on each page. But their books showed no such characteristics at all. It meant they weren’t written by hand.”
“It could have been made with the potion.”
“Potion production has the characteristic that books can only be compiled with parchment, not paper. However, their books were bound with paper without exception. What do you think this signifies?”
“You think they used magic to make the books.”
“Correct.”
If they had wanted to, they could have hidden the traces of magic use, but they clearly didn’t do so in order to reveal that they were a mage.
It must have been an intention to let none other than Duke West know that they were a mage who could freely perform document replication, which was notoriously difficult.
Thanks to that, even when Neria published books criticizing the House of Duke West, the duke couldn’t mobilize the knights. There was a big difference between catching a person who produced forbidden books and catching a grand mage who produced forbidden books.
When the books were collected and burned, Neria produced even more copies and scattered them throughout the world.
After several attempts, the duke stopped pursuing the author of the forbidden books, Neria. Rather than clumsily investigating and having Neria’s existence revealed to the world and their books become more widely known, he judged it was better to let them remain an existence known only to those who knew.
“Since they’re someone bold enough to throw down a declaration of war against our ducal house, it wouldn’t be strange if they’ve been following my traces until now. What do you think of my deduction, Klad?”
“……”
Klad couldn’t answer.
Jake’s opinion was perfect without room for objection.
