Kalon led Ael to a room at the end of the corridor on the top floor. As he opened the door, Ael couldn’t help but gasp.

“Wow…!”

As the door opened, a gust of wind mixed with the scent of the sea blew in. And before Ael’s eyes appeared a beautiful room.

Beyond the open doors of the balcony, with thin curtains fluttering, the view of the harbor and the sea spread out at a glance.

“I hope you like it.”

“Am I really going to work here?”

At those words, Kalon’s expression turned serious.

“Yes. We’ve brought in the largest desk separately. If you don’t like this place…”

“No, that’s not it. Can I really work here? In such a nice place?”

Ael looked around the beautifully decorated room.

She had seen rooms like this in magazines that Elize occasionally read and discarded. It looked like the rooms in the new luxury hotel that had recently opened at the harbor.

Moreover, there wasn’t just one room. Kalon opened a door in the middle of the room to show the other side.

“This is originally a room for guests of the company, but there are no scheduled visitors for now, so we reorganized it yesterday for you to work. If you get tired while working or want to rest, please use the next room. We left the sofa and bed as they were there.”

Listening to Kalon’s explanation, Ael just blinked her eyes.

The view beyond the balcony was already amazing, but what about this room?

‘Can I really work in a place like this?’

Ael approached the desk. She touched the dark, heavy material. Judging by its elaborate decorations and size, it was clearly an extremely high-end piece.

On top of the desk were neatly arranged clean paper, an imperial fountain pen, and several bottles of ink in various colors.

It was the ideal desk setup that Ael had always imagined in her mind.

“Is there anything lacking or not to your liking?”

At those words, Ael slightly raised her hand as she looked at the desk.

Something important was missing.

“Is there a problem…?”

Kalon quickly scanned the room. He had personally directed the preparations yesterday and checked the desk, chair, and stationery several times until this morning.

He had even carefully inspected the cleaning condition and the state of the decorative flowers.

Moreover, given Ael’s personality, she didn’t seem like she would say something was lacking unless it was really significant.

What could be lacking enough for her to mention it right away…?

“Well, after looking at the documents you showed me yesterday, I think we need ancient language dictionaries for more accurate and faster decoding.”

The people of Ash Company had written a contract yesterday and honestly told Ael exactly what work she would be doing, and why it had been difficult to find someone until now.

After hearing their explanation, when Ael remained silent with a stern expression, the three people became flustered and assured her that they would definitely protect her identity, and asked her to tell them anytime if the work became too much or too difficult.

Of course, as they said, she was afraid of her identity being revealed. But there was a bigger reason why Ael was tense.

‘This job has more responsibility than I thought.’

Even the first document she had decoded was about granting tax-free land lease for a long period in recognition of past services.

Land is the largest and most expensive thing that can be traded. Especially since the foundation of noble power comes from the produce, taxes, and manpower from their territories.

To think that she needed to check if there were any problems with acquiring such things.

‘Moreover, Ash Company has already suffered great losses, they said.’

They said a lease certificate had been passed off as a sales certificate. That’s why they had been looking for someone skilled in ancient languages to prevent such incidents from happening again.

So from now on, she would have to decode all ancient documents related to transactions, and if there were any problems with her decoding, it would all result in losses for Ash Company.

When she heard the amount Ash Company had lost in the previous transaction, she felt dizzy and breathless even though it wasn’t her own money.

When Ael turned pale and trembled, the three of them tried to comfort her saying they would never hold her responsible, but it wasn’t comforting at all.

‘So… I must work without any mistakes.’

Decoding at the level of the ancient document she saw yesterday wouldn’t be a big problem.

But there would surely be more difficult documents than that. Then she too would need to refer to as many resources as possible.

‘I need to study again too.’

For that, she needed ancient language dictionaries and grammar books.

“There are some old dictionaries in the study at home. I should bring those for now at least.”

“Then would new books be better? I’ve heard that ancient language dictionaries have new revised editions every year.”

“New books would be even better. Is it possible to get them?”

Occasionally, when she went out to the square for errands or to buy food ingredients, she would pass by the bookstore.

Although it was only recently that the imperial common language became widely used and wealthy commoners started reading books, books were still considered noble possessions.

So the large bookstore in the square tried to decorate its window with the largest, thickest, and most boring books to stimulate the intellectual desires of the nobles.

The ancient language dictionary perfectly fit those conditions.

Every time Ael passed by the bookstore, she would blankly stare at that book which came out new every year. Not only was the cover beautiful, but the content of the open pages was also good.

‘If only I could study more with that.’

How many years had she been passing by thinking that?

‘They must have bought that book!’

Since Ash Company had been struggling with ancient languages, it made sense that they would have such books on hand.

“Of course we have them. Please wait a moment.”

Saying that, Kalon left the room. Meanwhile, Ael stood alone in the room and then went out to the balcony.

“Wow…”

She could see the tops of the masts of sailing ships below her feet. It was just amazing to see things that had seemed to pierce the sky when viewed from the ground now beneath her feet.

Although she was looking down just the same, the feeling was completely different from viewing from a hill because they were so close.

As she leaned further out with her arms on the balcony railing, she could see people busily passing through the harbor.

A scene no different from usual. But why did everything feel so different when viewed from above?

After staring down for a long time, Ael returned to the desk and pulled out the chair to sit.

When she rested her arms on it, it felt comfortable as if it had been made with calculations for her use.

The desk in her room at home was rotting away with age, and the chair didn’t even have a backrest, making it impossible to sit for long periods. Of course, she didn’t have time for that anyway.

How much had she envied her father’s desk and chair in the study.

But the chair she was sitting in now was a top-quality item that couldn’t even be compared to her father’s.

‘In a place like this, I could work all day without sleep.’

After all, the time spent sitting in this chair would be happier than the time spent sleeping.

‘Since I came to work late today, I should work a bit longer than the given quitting time.’

She had already told Jena that she might be late, so she planned to do as much work as possible to make up for the morning before going back.

At that moment, Kalon returned. In his arms were thick books almost covering his face. Despite what must have been quite heavy, he entered with light steps and placed the books he had brought on Ael’s desk.

“For now, I’ve brought everything that Ino had bought before.”

Ael examined the contents as he put down each book.

They were all clean, probably all newly purchased by Ash Company. Some even looked like they had never been opened, without even a crease on the cover.

Kalon, who had gone downstairs and scolded Ino for not having more books in his office before bringing these up, spoke up, worried that Ael might say it wasn’t enough.

“If you need more, how about borrowing from the Academy for now?”

“The Academy library?”

“Yes. I think you probably know how to use it. Come to think of it, that book I threw at our first meeting was also from the Academy library, wasn’t it?”

“…”

The moment those words were spoken, Ael’s expression darkened.

Those books were borrowed by secretly taking her father’s ID.

After being caught then, the viscount had hidden his ID somewhere. So now she could no longer enter the library…

“Um, about that… I lost the ID that would allow me to enter the library…”

But he responded as if it were no big deal.

“Don’t worry about that. We can borrow books under Ash Company’s credentials. We also handle the import of books from the Empire and other kingdoms that go there. They granted us access as a gesture of gratitude. We haven’t had a need to use the Academy library yet, so we haven’t applied for it, but it should be issued right away if we apply. Shall I apply?”

Ael nodded vigorously.

“Then can I use that while I’m working?”