kscans

Chapter 78 - An Exposed Diary (Part 1)

If you were to call it carelessness, it would be carelessness. However, it was also unreasonable to expect Yuri, who had lived as a recluse deep in the mountains for five years since his reincarnation, to grasp the circumstances of the outside world. What was this about, you ask?

"...Yuri-kun, what are you doing?"

"Oh, Adon-san. I’m writing today’s events in my diary."

""""""A diary!?""""""

(Huh...? Did something happen?)

As mentioned before, Yuri, or rather Isarai Yuuri in his previous life, was a record-keeping fiend. He made it a daily routine to jot down everything he saw, heard, and thought throughout the day in a memo pad he always carried, and then transcribe it into his diary at the end of the day. Furthermore, any information he thought should be recorded separately was written down in another notebook. This personality hadn’t changed after his reincarnation into the Forea world, and he had been transcribing daily trifles from his memos into a diary. However, from yesterday to today...

(I've been so busy with one thing after another, I've hardly had time to take notes. I need to write it all down before I forget.)

That was the sequence of events that led to the opening scene.

Now, a little explanation is needed as to why Adon and the others were so surprised.

First, the custom of keeping a diary was rare in this world. In fact, literacy itself was considered a special skill. Merchants might keep a memorandum-like record of daily events in their ledgers or record various information including transaction details in a "diary book," which in this era was a kind of memorandum for merchants, but it could not be said to be a common habit. To begin with, paper itself was not yet cheap. To consume it by writing down trivial matters was the height of luxury. Why would Yuri, a child with no relatives, have such an extravagant habit? It was beyond unnatural.

Second, where had Yuri, who was supposed to be living a self-sufficient life with no contact with the outside world, obtained paper? It was reasonable to assume he made it himself, but that would mean Yuri knew how to make paper. In this era, the technique of papermaking was, while not exactly a secret art, well within the realm of specialized skills. It was not something a twelve-year-old boy would have acquired.

Third, if Yuri had made the paper himself, where did he get the raw materials? In this era, paper was exclusively made from rags. The technology to make paper from wood pulp, let alone from plant fibers, was not generally known, at least not in this country. It was unnatural for Yuri, who even made his own clothes, to have enough rags to spare for papermaking.

Fourth, there was the quality of the paper in question. As mentioned above, most paper made from rags had a dirty-looking color, and paper with a high degree of whiteness like that in Yuri’s "diary" was not in circulation, with the exception of some high-end products.

Fifth, Yuri was not using a pen and ink for his writing, but a pencil, specifically, a charcoal pencil using powdered charcoal as its core. Yuri had completely forgotten, but even on Earth, records of pencils didn’t appear until the sixteenth century. And in this era of the Forea world, pencils were likewise unknown. Yet Yuri was using this novel writing instrument without a second thought. The way he wrote smoothly without needing to dip the nib in ink was nothing short of a shock to Adon.

And sixth, this was something only Adon, who had shamelessly peeked at Yuri’s diary, would know, but the characters and writing style Yuri was using were completely unknown. It was Japanese, of course, and Yuri was writing it vertically, from right to left. While not unusual for a Japanese text, for Adon, who only knew horizontal writing from left to right, this too was nothing but a surprise.

As an aside, Yuri's "diary" was made of self-made paper saddle-stitched together, in almost the same form as a so-called "university notebook." And, as astute readers may have guessed, no similar "notebook" existed in the Forea world. What was sold for diaries and ledgers was bound in leather, just like a regular book. This was the seventh point.

Now then, where to even begin?

"...Yuri-kun, I have a mountain of questions, but... first, that paper... no, more importantly, what is that pen?"

"...Yes?"

(Huh? Was it a bad idea to bring out the pencil? No, but Kudol-san and the others didn’t say anything, right?)

In fact, he had been taking occasional notes on the way here, but it wasn't particularly unusual for an adventurer to jot down reminders. Moreover, peeking at such notes was a breach of adventurer etiquette. So, Kudol and the others hadn't stared at it closely, and as a result, hadn't noticed the pencil's existence. However, upon closer inspection, the advantage of a pencil, which could write without ink, was obvious. Furthermore, in this era, it was common to use wax tablets for simple notes. These were wooden boards coated with colored wax, on which one could write with a thin metal stylus or erase the writing by smoothing the wax with the rounded opposite end. They had casually assumed that what Yuri was using was something of that sort, but...