CHAPTER 69: LEARNING THE LANGUAGE, LIVING THE ROLE

"I was thinking maybe I could help with your work," Shiao Yi replied. "I mean, look at Louis—he doesn’t seem good at office stuff at all. He’s not great at organizing either. And you, Dominic, don’t exactly seem to have time for all those small, detailed tasks. I got a pretty good idea just by looking at your desk in the office at the fortress."

Dominic couldn’t find the words to respond. It was true—he was terrible at desk work. To be honest, he hated it and wasn’t good at it at all. If Shiao Yi could handle the paperwork, it would really help him a lot. Louis would probably be thrilled, too.

If that were the case, Dominic thought, he could officially appoint Shiao Yi as his assistant. That way, they could be together all day, every day. His heart jumped at the idea.

"Alright. I’ll arrange it right away," Dominic said.

"If you have a dictionary or anything like that, I’d like to borrow it too," Shiao Yi added. "Once I understand the structure of the language, I don’t think it’ll take me too long to learn it."

...

On a sunny terrace, Shiao Yi sat flipping through a thick dictionary he had received from Dominic. The pages were made of very thin, stretched parchment, and the printing wasn’t done with moveable type. Instead, it was an etching method, where copper plates were carved directly.

Since handwritten manuscripts were still the standard in this world, even dictionaries and other books followed that tradition. As a result, books were extremely rare and expensive.

Perhaps because of that, books were often decorated with ornate designs. In fact, this dictionary looked more like a piece of art than a practical tool.

For practicing writing, Shiao Yi used a blackboard about the size of an A3 sheet and chalk. Although the parchment was tough, it was thick and hard to use casually. There was also paper made from wood fibers, but it was mostly low quality and fragile. Handmade, high-quality paper was more beautiful than parchment, but also more expensive. People usually saved that kind of paper for special private letters or formal occasions.

The letters without understanding their pronunciation or meaning were nothing more than symbols. But since they were used to form sentences, they followed patterns and rules. If he had a computer, he could analyze those patterns to translate the language, but of course, nothing like that existed in this world.

Using what Aaron had taught him, Shiao Yi wrote the different types of letters on the blackboard. They were like this world’s version of the alphabet. But Aaron was often busy and distracted—he was more interested in learning about chemical symbols, chemical formulas, and their reactions. Teaching Shiao Yi often became a low priority.

Shiao Yi already had a basic understanding of chemistry, something he had learned as part of his general education. And as part of his military training, he had been taught specialized knowledge—especially about explosives. If he wanted to, he could probably make a bomb from just the materials lying around.

Learning languages had also been part of his training. After all, enemies didn’t always use Intercosmo, the shared galactic language. In fact, most of them didn’t. To infiltrate and gather information, he had to be able to read the enemy’s language. So mastering foreign languages was a crucial skill.

What Shiao Yi needed was a full understanding of the structure of the language—the arrangement of letters, the meanings of words, and the grammar. Through for spoken conversation, he had already picked up the basics of how the grammar worked. What remained was matching those sounds to the written characters.

Since the dictionary wasn’t printed using movable type, the letters inside were written in a script style that looked handwritten. As he tried to mimic those characters, he practiced writing the alphabet and various words he picked out from the dictionary on the blackboard.

While he was in the middle of his practice, Jude arrived carrying tea.

Autumn had deepened, and the leaves on the trees had begun to change color and fall. But part of the terrace was protected by a glass windbreak wall, allowing warm sunlight to shine in. In this world, glass was handmade in workshops. It was produced by digging up quartz and melting it down. The resulting glass was thick, uneven, and often distorted—but even so, it was clearly a luxury item.

From where he sat, Shiao Yi could see a garden surrounding a pond, filled with trees both large and small. The garden was well-maintained, and it was obvious that a dedicated gardener cared for it with great attention. There were few flowers—mostly lush, green shrubs. To Shiao Yi, it felt too comfortable—so much so that it made him feel a bit restless.

Jude, by this world’s standards, was considered slim, but from Shiao Yi’s perspective, the man was tall and had a well-built frame. He was a refined gentleman with silver-gray hair and a neatly kept mustache that suited him perfectly. As he arranged the tea set on the table, he spoke politely.

"A tutor will be arriving this afternoon. It seems that Lord Dominic arranged it quite quickly."

"Thank you," Shiao Yi replied.

For some reason, whenever he spoke to Jude, Shiao Yi naturally ended up using polite language. It was strange, because he had no problem being casual—even blunt—when talking to Dominic, who was technically the superior. But Jude just had that kind of presence.

There was something Shiao Yi had been meaning to ask, and now seemed like a good time.

"Jude, is it really alright... for me to be the one acting like his wife? I mean... Dominic is supposed to be the heir to this household, isn’t he?"

"Madam, to be honest, I had always hoped that Lord Dominic would choose a woman as his partner. That was my true feeling," Jude said sincerely. "But more than that, I’m simply overjoyed that Lord Dominic has finally brought home someone he sees as his companion. That alone is enough for me."