"It was about time," Edwina said, quickly hiding the regret in her eyes. "Although you probably don't need to eat... would you like to try the ship's dinner?"
"No, I do," Alice said solemnly. "Children need to eat and sleep on time, or they won't grow taller."
"...All right." Edwina's expression gradually lost its initial calm and became increasingly complicated.
She led Alice out of the collection room and toward the dining hall. Halfway there, as if she had suddenly remembered something, she asked, "Why didn't you suspect Roselle's Travels was written by Roselle?"
"Huh?" Alice looked bewildered.
"Gehrman asked that," Edwina explained.
Alice looked up at the ceiling cosplaying as a cabin roof, then explained:
"There are two main reasons.
"First, if Roselle had written this thing, he would have shouted about it everywhere. He would have wanted the entire world to know he wrote it.
"Second... this book, uh, this book is terribly written."
It was obviously not a classic. It was even too terrible to be a webnovel. Could it have been written by the Great Emperor in his previous life...
Could he have starved to death because he couldn't afford food after writing novels?!
Alice lowered her head and began to think. Edwina glanced at her and asked curiously:
"Why does it sound like you know Emperor Roselle very well? Hmm, do you admire him?"
"...Why would you think that?" Alice raised her head in confusion.
"You said this book was written too badly, so it didn't seem like something he wrote..." Edwina said as she looked at her.
Alice opened her mouth, as though she Wanted to Say Something, but ultimately swallowed her words. Instead, she nodded solemnly.
"Yes, I admire Emperor Roselle very much. He did many things I have No Way of imagining.