When I finished negotiating with the Dwarven King, I literally took a breath.

　I used the Second Legion as bait to nail down the Alliance of Kings, and in the meantime, it was a dizzying amount of busy work: the raid on Ismus across Rosalia, the rescue of Günther, and the negotiations that followed.

　Honestly, I almost wanted another body of my own.

'Could you ask the Commander to make me another one?

　That would cut your work in half.

　I said this as a joke, but Sati, the maid beside me, raised all her hands in agreement.

'By all means do so.

　At any rate, he said, that way he won't have to spend all his spare time while I'm away fighting.

'Speaking of which, what does Satie do while I'm away?

I'm basically cleaning up.
You do that all the time.
We'll be more careful than usual.

　I'm the only one who lives in the house, so he says that when I'm gone, there's really nothing to do.

　I'm the only one who lives in the house and I'm the only one who lives here, so there's nothing to do but clean the house more carefully than usual or pet the cat that's recently settled in the garden.

　It's a pity that he has no taste for it.
　It's true that this other world is different from the last world, and there is almost no entertainment.
　Of course, there is no internet and no TV.

　There are theatres and acrobats and the like, but Ivalice is a small town and a frontline city, so they don't come around that often.

　But even if there was a theatre in this city, it's unlikely that Satie would go there.

　This girl is humble, or rather, surprisingly greedy.
　Even if I gave her money to go see a play, she would probably buy a gift for me or give it to the poor.

　That's the kind of girl Satie was.

Well I've got to get her a hobby somehow.

　That's how I arrive at this idea.
　From now on, I'll be away from Ivalice more often than not.

　If Satie is diligent in cleaning up every time, the dust may be swept from this mansion.

　In fact, the house was unusually clean.
　There wasn't a single piece of dust on the floor.
　I went up to the bookshelf and traced the edge of the bookcase with my finger.

　I looked like a mother-in-law in a Japanese TV drama, but I didn't get any dust on my finger like in the drama.

　That is to say, the room was cleaned that carefully.
　I don't say that you shouldn't clean, but I don't think it's necessary to do this much.
　I can't help but think that there is no need to go this far.

In the first place, this bookcase is full of books that I read once. It's worth getting rid of.
Are you going to get rid of it?
...or is that too good to be true?

　Books are precious in this world.

　Since there is no such thing as letterpress printing, they can only be transcribed by hand one by one, or copied by a magician using the magic of 《copying》.

　As I was thinking about this, Sati made an unexpected remark.

''But Sati can't read, but she loves books.
'Does Satie like books?'

Yes, sir.
'Yeah. So why don't you read a book while I'm gone?
I can't do that.

　She assured him.

'Borrowing your master's things without permission is something you shouldn't do as a maid. Besides--'

　She continues.

'Sati likes books, but she can't read. It would be pointless to borrow them.'

"...I see, Satie can't read.

　That's right, I don't know much about the literacy situation in this other world, but at least in this Ivalice, there is nothing that can be called an educational institution.

　Mages and scholars hold private schools and teach children to write and do simple calculations, but that would be the limit.

　Besides, Sati is a slave child.
　She probably doesn't have even that kind of minimal education.

'By the way, why do you like books if you can't read?

'I like the smell of books. And just looking at the spine of a book makes me feel like I'm getting smarter. Also, sometimes I'll flip through a book and see an illustration, and I'll lose track of time just looking at it. There are pictures of places I've never been, or beautiful women drawn.

　Unusually, Satie's words don't stop.
　I guess that's how interested she is in books.
　She is a clever girl to begin with.
　She may be more inquisitive than anyone else.
　So I decided to teach her how to read.

Well, are you sure you want to?

　She asks back, excitedly and apologetically.

'Oh, Lord Günther is writing a letter to the dwarves around the city right now. We have some time before it reaches the dwarves and they come to our city. Until then, I'll teach them the letters in between office hours.

'Really?　I'm so happy for you!

　She is so happy that she doesn't jump up and down.
　Satie is a girl who never shows her emotions. It's rare for her to be so expressive.
　When I see her, it makes me happy too.
　Satie said, "I want to learn to read.

I want to read this book first if I ever learn to read.

　When she says this, she goes to the stacks and holds a lot of books in her hands.
　Her appearance is like a child who received a present from Santa.
　The first thing she unfolded was a cookbook.

''This is a cookbook, isn't it?''
Yes.

If you can learn to read it, you will be able to make many more dishes for Ike. And I'll be able to make it even better for you.

　Without giving her the time to say so, she continued.

　The next book I opened was an adventurer's Eastern Observations, a diary-style reading of a real person who existed a hundred years or so ago, and who had ventured to a country called Seika in the east of this continent.

'Yeah, I read that one too. I don't know how much of it is true and how much of it is a lie, but it was quite interesting.

　Sati had never even been outside the city of Arsenum before she met me.
　Maybe she yearns for this kind of adventure story.

'Yes, Satie would like to have an adventure, even if it's just once. I want to ride a horse and travel to a strange land.

'You're surprisingly dynamic. I thought you'd be girly and prefer romance novels.

'I want to read that too. Anyway, Satie would like to read a book.

　Sati declares emphatically, but then realizes that one of the books she has brought with her is a book of some sort of sensual fiction.

　--that the previous lord had left behind.

　For now, I decided to hide all of those dangerous books for now, and I immediately decided to start teaching her the letters.

　The characters in this world are complex and bizarre.

　There were many discrepancies in pronunciation and spelling, as in English, and the grammar was noticeably flawed.

　It may be more difficult to learn than Japanese.

Well, it's better than Satie's lack of time.

　When I said that, I decided to teach him from the simplest letter.
　It's the 'A' in the alphabet or the 'A' in Japanese.
　Satie listened intently to my lecture.
　She's a smart girl.
　She'll be able to read a simple book within a year.
　I thought so, but her cleverness was beyond my expectations.


　--a month later, she came to me with a happy little run.

'Ike-sama, Günther-sama taught me how to write.

　Apparently she can not only read, but she can even write.
　She hands it to me.
　The words on it are in poorly written letters, but they are decent.


"Goshujin-sama, I love you.


　-- I'm sure it didn't mean anything deep, but it was a word that made me feel somewhat embarrassed.

　Anyway, at this rate, Sati will be a reader in less than six months.

　It's a different world with little entertainment.
　A maid should be allowed the luxury of reading a book.
　With that in mind, he taught her to read and waited for the dwarves Günther had called to gather.