“Always judge the book not by its cover.”

Was it really true? I guess it’s true only when the book in question was already popular. That quote itself was the indication that the book was already well-known to the public.

But it wasn’t always the case.

That quote was a bluff. There were some readers who were patient to see through the plot. Sad reality was… the majority was the opposite.

I’m also a reader who did the same. I ditched works that didn’t caught my interest from the first arc. Some had very long arcs that never end. Sometimes, it ended in a paragraph.

For the readers’ tastes, what wraps the skin fleshes up to the bones. If the cover nor even the first part didn’t attract a reader, there’s the chance that it would be dropped.

For my case in my past life, I had a few fans reading my works. I mostly had interactive experience with them. They even corrected some of my mistakes or suggested a proper fix to a plot hole.

Even if they’re few, it satisfied me and motivated me to update my stories. Whenever I knew that someone was interested in my work, I swore to myself that I’ll improve my writing more.

Though the market and my competitors were harsh, I continued every story I did and saw through all its end. I never let anyone stop me from writing.

Even though I never had fun in my previous life, I lied. For some reason, I regret denying the fun that knocked the door into my heart. That calming feeling I had before was too pleasant and addicting that I longed for it.

And the fate gave me another chance to live my life to the fullest.

I woke up in the morning, sitting straight at my bed, and greeted the sun that made everything around me lively. The first thing I did was shout.

“Elara!”

Bang! A breathless maid opened the door and rushed at me. “M—Miss Veniara, what happened… Wait, why are you grinning?”

“Elara, I’d like to request something to you…”

Since I couldn’t get out of the castle, I could only ask her for help. She ran out my room, accepting my request.

Ten in the morning, I asked Teacher Jes to met me at the library. I requested for my magic training to be postponed for a request.

“THIRTY ENTERO DOFLAIN INK SACS!? Are you building an organization to strangle me!? Perhaps, am I discovered!?”

“N—No! You’re overreacting! And you’re already discovered ever since you’ve made your first issue about me.”

“You really are angry at me, Princess… You’re even planning to raise a cult to take me down. You’re suspicious…”

“I told you that wasn’t it! My reasons were pure personal. I don’t care about your headlines as long as you don’t conceal my identity.”

“I’m confident about that,” Jes smirked. Confident, huh? A die-hard tabloid fan decoded my identity already.

“I’m going to print a book.” Ever since I transported into this world, I think I should use this chance given to me to live my life to the fullest. My first step was to create a book.

The demand for inks was too high. I’m pinched between the massive numbers of press and institutions racing to get our prints ongoing. It was the reason why storybooks are less.

Rather, storybooks here lack not only quality but also word count. Most of the published works were children’s fairy tales, and the maximum I could count was twenty pages, all with huge fonts.

“So? Why did you call me? I’m completely unrelated to that,” Jes asked.

“Inks are scarce, right? How you print your tabloids without wasting ink? Was it man-made? Mechanical? Magical?”

“Confidential files, mi seniora.”

“I’m willing to donate ten extra sacs.”

“If I taught you how, are you willing to donate extra five sacs?”

“A little price to pay.”

Jes smirked and stood up. She took a random book from one of the shelves and a blank paper. She placed both over the table, opened a random book page, and hovered her hands over them.

“Print.” From gray to black, the ink carved itself into the paper. The page cloned itself as it is.

“That was easy!” I exclaimed with my glimmering eyes. I couldn’t hold my grin from this amazement.

“That was only for printing. You need a reference material for it, though I guess you would give up after swelling your hand from writing.”

“Don’t worry. I got it covered.”

“Hmm… What you’ll do seems interesting…”

By noon, I stopped by the workshop and asked the snoring man who leaned on a rocking chair, covering his eyes with a cloth.

“Hugbert, wake up. You have a work to do.”

“Huh?” Hugbert groaned, removing the cover from his eyes and peeked.

Hugbert became the kingdom’s personal engineer based on my recommendation. Since the church knew that he was already detained, we could utilize him as a prisoner to the full extent.

Judging on how he’s concerned with me being jailed, I guess he wouldn’t have plans to rebel. Mom undoubtedly accepted him and his knowledge in crafts. How he’s amazing? He created all his equipment on his own.

I gave him a small ink pouch. “You have a project to work on.”

“I’m have no knowledge in crafting poison.”

“If that’s the case, I shouldn’t have asked you. You will create a device that will print letters on a paper with a button press. Don’t worry, I have confidence for engineer.”

“What a delusional kid. Was the thing a collection of stamps.”

“That’s the vague idea, and we’ll call it the typewriter.”

I might’ve accidentally started the technological revolution in this world.

***

“Why am I here?” Dion asked as he stood over the lake where he last ran off. He wore a light leather armor used for training knights.

“The princess might have forgiven you, but I don’t. You still had a price to pay for my pouch,” Elara said.

Elara brought Dion on the lakeside to hunt ink sacs. She only watched Dion in fighting the countless tentacles waving out of the ground.

Dion danced with the slams of the two giant octopuses and evaded each hit. He didn’t utilize his sword in his clammy hands.

“Aren’t you a knight? A knight should offer their life for the royalty! Why the heck are you shaking?” Elara shouted.

“It’s been only a week after I became a knight! And—It wasn’t even my decision!”

“You aren’t protecting anyone if you’re just going to evade everything. You aren’t employed in a circus! Does a thief only knows how to run?”

“I am not a thief!” He shouted. His trembling vanished as he gritted his teeth. “I will show you how I’ll raise myself to be the strongest! AAARGHH!!”

He charged towards the monster with a war cry, but he didn’t notice that he fell into the enemy’s trap. His foot landed to a hole, for which the tentacle grabbed and raised it in air.

Dion hung in the air, shouting. “I’m sorry, Elara-san! I will respect you! Please save me!”

Elara pinched her forehead and sighed by watching him. A dagger pierced through the tentacle holding Dion. He fell down after the tentacle lost its strength.

Elara muttered, “I don’t only have one, but two troublemakers. If I’m going to learn parenthood early, I should’ve searched for my man.”

***

A week later…

I stood on the workshop and stared at my sketch and the prototype simultaneously. It had buttons carved with letters and a spring supported each underneath.

It also had a refillable and replaceable ink compartment. The placement of the letter could be adjusted, but in default, it runs from left to right.

To test it, I placed a paper and typed my name. I repeated the same thing three times, but in the brink of excitement, I forgot my goal and started writing my story instead. The typewriter created a fast tempo like I was in full auto.

“You’re too obvious,” Hugbert said.

“T—That’s not it! I’m just testing this device!” I cleared my throat. “Well done, Hugbert! As expected, you did this without flaws! I could flex this to my Dad, and he’ll give you a praise.”

“I only put your idea into a device, milady. I don’t deserve such praise.”

“Since you’re already working here. You should practice getting praises every time. Your embarrassment would only shame the family though I don’t know why.”

“As you’ve said, milady. By the way, may I ask? Where did you get such an outstanding idea? Even in your first try, it was perfectly engineered.”

“Secret.”

Tac! Tac! I spent my whole afternoon in my room, flooding every corner with sounds of clicking. Elara entered my room with her squint.

“Princess Veniara, for once I thought mosquitoes swarmed your room.”

“Shut up, Elara. I’m in creative mode.”

Elara gazed over my manuscript worth of forty pages of text. I took a sudden break and gave her my ten pages which contained my first chapter.

“Elara, can you read this? And tell me what you think of it.”

“I think… the text was small.” Since storybooks contained huge texts, my manuscript should be weird for her… But we’re in the starting age of technological revolution.

“Just read it. Wasting extra paper was never convenient.”

I continued writing. Since Elara couldn’t focus, she took out my manuscript with her. After gathering another thousand words, she came back.

Elara pressed the paper hard that she left marks on it. She pressed her lips and fidgeted her feet like she’s rushing into something. She leaned at me and asked.

“Milady, what will happen next!? I couldn’t eager to wait!”

That was how I got my first reader in this world.