I had a sudden, terrible realization when I turned two.
Sure I’d been extremely slow to notice it, but this world had no TV or internet. That meant I was faced with the huge dilemma of what I was meant to do with my free time.
There was chess...and there were books—though the books weren’t printed like in Japan but transcribed from someone’s original version using magic. Naturally, they had protective magic in place which prevented people from copying books without permission. Paper was expensive, so while the books that nobles read were made from only the highest-quality materials, commoners had to read books made from rough, yellowed paper that were as flimsy as magazines.
A commoner’s life was spent waking up at the crack of dawn to go to work, and then, after work, going out drinking with their friends. Once they were appropriately drunk, they would go to bed, only to repeat that all again the next day.
Instead of using their time on labor, nobles would spend their days improving themselves, going to tea parties and soirees and balls. At least, that was how the adults spent their time. If they were married, then there were all kinds of ways to spend their nights, if you catch my drift. Wait, what are you making a two-year-old say?
Speaking of two-year-olds, my nights consisted of eating my dinner and then, after a short reading session, being told to go to bed, even though I wasn’t tired since I took naps during the day. After that, all I could do was roll around and laze about in bed.
I’d pass time by reaching out my arms trying to catch my spirits while giving them mana. I wasn’t actually trying to catch them—any time I was about to grab them, I’d pull back—and my spirits seemed to understand that, so they’d adjust their speed appropriately for me.
“Huh?”
On a certain night when I couldn’t sleep and was passing time with my spirits, my hand stretched into the air above me while I lay on my back, and then something suddenly flashed. I heard a little beep, and then this clear floating screen with writing on it appeared, just like I’d seen in sci-fi films. It was like a tablet was floating in the air, but only the screen part.
“Whoa, it’s in Japanese. That’s nostalgic.”
The markings I was seeing were Japanese characters, lined up in alphabetical order.
Out of curiosity, I typed in “Azelian Empire,” and what do you know? All the info I could have ever wanted appeared—about its founding, major historical events, its industries, domestic arts, previous rulers... There were even links to pages about the imperial family.
Hang on. This is just Wi**pedia.
This is what you’d call an OP skill, right? This is that thing you get as the strongest main character sent to another world! I’m not going to become a fighter, though! I’m not going to get involved in politics either!
Wasn’t it strange to give me an ability like this? Why reincarnate me with something like that? We should have been leaving the people native to this world to develop it naturally.
Or, what? Are you telling me the greats of our world back on Earth were all people from different worlds themselves? Is that just how things work?
Even if that were the case, all I wanted was to live a healthy and peaceful life together with a wonderful husband—at least this time! Last time I hadn’t even gotten to experience love properly! I’d only had 2D boyfriends! No, I’m not crying!
Maybe I hadn’t ended up transported to a game world, but I’d been transported to a world with handsome men all around me. I just needed to snag one of them. Could the world not have given me the ability to, say, make anyone I threw a rock at fall in love with me? I’d have preferred that way more than Wiki**dia. It would just need to work on one person. One person is all it would take.
I know what you want to say. My partner should have the right to choose as well, right? Damn it all!
Anyway, I wanted to fall in love during this life. Instead of just experiencing romance through dramas and stories, I wanted to experience it for myself. I wanted to be blessed by my family, get married, have kids, and make my parents overjoyed upon seeing their grandchildren. I wanted to live a long life too. I wanted to spend my golden years at peace. That was the sort of calm life I was after.
There was no time for me to be fighting using some overpowered skill; trying to enter a happy marriage and live an idyllic life was already going to be hard enough.
No point looking a gift horse in the mouth, though. I’ll take what I can get. It gave me something to read to pass the time, and it would ensure I wouldn’t lose my Japanese ability despite being unable to use it in this world.
What I read about the empire surprised me. The current ruler of the country was an empress by the name of Ephenia who was currently twenty-eight years old. When the previous ruler had passed away, she’d been only seventeen, and her younger brother had only been five. Under those circumstances, empires would usually have declared the brother emperor under a regent, but it turned out the women of Azelia were higher in status than they’d been in most places back on Earth, with three whole empresses having existed in their history.
To add to that, Empress Ephenia was a very talented woman. Upon noticing that foreign countries were taking advantage of the chaos surrounding the question of succession to prepare to invade and snatch territory from Azelia, she’d stood up and declared herself empress. Then she had used her powerful leadership to eliminate those stuck in conservative ways of thinking and unite the country.
The man standing by her side was her husband, General Maximilian, who’d formerly been the younger son of a marquess.