Rosetta-sama, You're Overdoing It! - Chapter 20

Chapter 20: Rosetta Falls for the Cool Beauty Elf?!

I woke up in the morning.

I do radio calisthenics and go for an early morning run.

I do flexibility exercises, side rolls, and somersaults.

Breakfast is with the family. But parents, isn’t our seating arrangement strange?

I still think it’s weird to eat at this long table. It feels like I’m eating alone, you know? Am I really alone even after coming to another world?

In the afternoon, it’s reading time. But there are only difficult books left, so I have to start deciphering them.

By the way, are these characters from this world? They’re totally different from the ones written in picture books.

In other words, ancient characters, maybe? Isn’t there a dictionary or something?

In the end, since there was no ancient character dictionary, I had no choice but to go buy one from a store that sells grimoires.

There are three, but the one with the most likely reference materials or dictionaries is probably the one owned by the elf brother.

The old lady’s place seems to have deep, difficult books, but probably not ones for deciphering.

I’ll definitely get fooled into buying fakes at Momite’s magical tool shop.

Strike while the iron’s hot, I promptly stopped reading and took the carriage with Lionetta to the elf’s shop.

Honestly, I’d prefer to run there, but apparently it’s not good for a noble to be without a carriage.

And it’s better to have a guard with me, so I reluctantly got on the carriage.

The guard knight is, once again, that knight. His muscle body smells sweaty.

“Hey, please give me a deciphering book.”

As soon as we arrived at the shop, that was the first thing I said. I went to the counter and leaned forward, making my plea directly to the elf guy.

Naturally, the elf guy reacted with furrowed brows.

That expression, I can’t tell if he’s being sincere, angry, or annoyed, which is a little unsettling. But his facial features are too handsome, it’s so cute.

“Suddenly, huh. What kind of deciphering book do you need?”

“Spells, grimoires, maybe? A dictionary of ancient characters would be nice. I have some books at home that seem to have ancient characters, but I can’t read them.”

“I’m sorry, but we don’t have books like that. Deciphering ancient characters is primarily done by scholars and kept secret, so you’ll have to decipher them yourself.”

Seriously!? What the heck, no dictionary? This world is so behind.

Damn, I guess I’ll have to find the patterns myself.

But even on Earth, deciphering ancient texts was complicated because there were so many different methods. Some took decades just to decipher them.

“We do have children’s books in Elvish, though.”

“Huh? Really?”

“They’re mainly for teaching Elf children how to read. Some humans also want to learn Elvish, so we sell them in the store.”

“Please. I’ll learn Elvish.”

I got the Elvish dictionary. Ta-da!

It was a children’s dictionary, so it was quite cheap. It was only 3,000 sacres.

Is that okay? I mean, there are probably a lot of people outside of the elves who would want it, so even if they said it was 3 million sacres, wouldn’t it be reasonable?

“Are you sure about this? And it’s so cheap.”

“It’s a fair price. I could probably sell it for more, but I want to sell it at the regular price.”

He seems like a very responsible person. He must have a lot of worries.

If he doesn’t make a bit more profit, he might go out of business, you know?

In fact, that rip-off shop and the old lady’s shop usually have some people, but there’s absolutely no one here, huh? Maybe it’s just when I come.

“By the way, isn’t it dead silent here?”

“What? I don’t get what you’re trying to say.”

“Oh, um, I’ll be straightforward, do you actually have sales here?”

“Ah, I see, that’s the code word. It’s decent. …I’d like to say that, but as Miss has guessed, it’s as you say. It seems that human nobles don’t particularly favor fair prices.”

I see. If you’re a noble who cares about appearances, you’d go to the rip-off shop, and if you’re a noble who seeks uniqueness, you’d head to the old lady’s shop.

But this shop with fair prices is just normal, for better or worse. It seems that nobles who seek something different tend to avoid normal things.

“That’s a shame.”

“Indeed. But as an elf, I have plenty of time, and I receive meals regularly from my companions. I mostly just buy and stock up on depleted magical tools, so the maintenance costs aren’t that high. I’ve been buying and selling here for over ten years now.”

“I see. I’m impressed.”

“You seem concerned.”

“No, I’m the one who spoke out of turn, I apologize.”

“However, it’s true that the business situation is pretty bad. I should consider moving to the commoner’s district, or no, maybe it’s time to consider withdrawing from the city altogether? I do like the atmosphere of this country, though.”

The elf smiles cynically for a moment.

Ugh, his sighs are so handsome, it’s so cute.

I almost feel like shouting, “Please marry me!” or something.

But if I said something like that, he’d definitely dismiss me with just a word.

And if it’s between an elf and a human, the elf would definitely live longer and end up separated by death, so I’d probably be avoided anyway.

If our preferences don’t match, I’ll probably be rejected outright from the start.

I take a deep breath to calm myself down.

Let’s settle the bill and leave here.

Staying too long might lead to being teased.

Oh no, Mr. Elf. If you keep playing that cool tsundere role, I might just end up confessing to you.