How To Live As A Writer In A Fantasy World

If Einstein had heard some of the statements being thrown around, he wouldn’t have just torn up the theory of relativity—he’d have thrown it straight into the trash.

Still, I somehow managed to get through it.

I’m not a science person; I’m a humanities guy, and I don’t know the first thing about the magic of this world.

No matter how hard I try to explain things, it’s useless in front of Cecily and Arwen.

But just like when I told my family, sharing bits and pieces of knowledge about Earth got them just as surprised.

The very idea of operating airplanes and steamships purely with mechanical power, without mana or magic, must seem like “magic” to them.

On top of that, Cecily is a demon, and Arwen is an elf. Both races have magic deeply embedded in their daily lives.

For humans, tools are an inseparable part of life; for them, magic holds a similar place.

So when I asked if teleportation was possible without magic, they turned the question back on me.

“Isaac, can you write without using your hands?”

“…That’d be really difficult, wouldn’t it?”

“That’s what magic is to us. It’s an inseparable tool, like an extension of our hands and feet.”

Hearing that, I nodded in understanding. At the same time, I couldn’t help but think:

What an utterly overpowered race.

While other species painstakingly developed science, these people just handled everything effortlessly with magic.

No wonder they consider teleportation—something practically impossible on Earth—to be trivial. The starting conditions are just completely different.

And if someone like Hitler or Stalin had been born in Helium or Alvenheim… and if it had led to a race war… just imagining it is horrifying.

“Considering history, it wouldn’t even be surprising.”

Helium had suffered persecution from all races for over a thousand years, and Alvenheim had been defeated in war, forced to accept humiliating terms from the human alliance.

It’s an environment where an extremist ideology could easily take root. In fact, Helium did see the rise of radical demons.

If those radicals had taken full control, they would have likely tried to dominate the entire world, while Alvenheim would have desperately resisted.

If those two clashed, wouldn’t it play out like a fantasy version of the Eastern Front in World War II?

Just as I was deep in those thoughts, Cecily suddenly asked me a question.

“So, even if you count your past life, you’re still younger than us, right?”

“Huh? Oh. Yeah, that’s right.”

“What about Mari, Adelia, and your family? I can just call them as usual, but wouldn’t it be a bit awkward?”

“Don’t worry about that. We decided to keep it the same. The present life is what matters most. I haven’t told Adelia yet, but I plan to ask her to do the same.”

Of course, I did take some emotional damage when Mari called me a kid, but I let it slide.

People naturally adapt to their environment, and as I settled into this world, my mental age adjusted too.

Maybe if I had lived longer in my past life, things would be different. But since I died young in my twenties, it wasn’t much of an issue.

“Alright. From now on, keep calling me ‘noona.’ Got it?”

“I mean, I will, but… is that really such a big deal?”

“Of course it is. Do you have any idea how… haah.”

Cecily stopped mid-sentence, shivering slightly. Then, she closed her eyes and let out a deep, almost excited breath.

It was a reaction that felt oddly suggestive yet filled with a sense of accomplishment—impossible to decipher.

While I stood there dumbfounded, Cecily opened her eyes and gazed at me with a look of pure bliss.

Her deep red eyes, soaked with emotion, made me flinch, but her next words completely floored me.

“It’s… it’s so electrifying.”

“…Electrifying?”

“Yeah. It’s hard to explain, but it just is. I’m basically the only demon that gets called ‘noona’ by Zenon, right? And if you whispered it in my ear… I don’t think I could handle it.”

“Uh… okay.”

“T-That’s quite an unusual preference you have there. I personally prefer things the way they are now.”

Even Arwen, who was around the same age as Cecily, seemed unable to comprehend her.

Her face turned slightly red from Cecily’s sultry aura, but judging by how she subtly edged away, she was definitely feeling uneasy.

Anyway, the naming issue was settled, so now it was time to talk about my world.

More than science or technology, what interested them most was culture—not just traditional cultures of different nations, but global pop culture.

For example, the one thing Helium was rapidly advancing: movies.

“So, instead of acting in a real background, you create the background separately?”

“Yeah. Thanks to that technology, we can portray different time periods and settings, and even simulate the past and future. I don’t know exactly how it works, but just understand that it expands the possibilities of filmmaking.”

“That’s a brilliant idea. If we had that technology, we could manipulate backgrounds and environments at will. I need to get in touch with the Matrix Theatre Company soon.”

As everyone knew, Helium was supporting the film industry at a national level.

After showcasing movies at the Zenon Festival, they were now pushing full-speed ahead to create a Zenon biopic.

But whether magic could replace CGI was another question. CGI wasn’t about creating a background from the start—it was about post-processing everything after the acting was done.

Watching Cecily already brainstorming ideas, I decided to clarify.

“But you don’t make the background while acting. You use a special screen behind the actors, then add everything in post-production.”

“Oh? So you don’t create the background from the start…?”

“In that case, mirage magic should work perfectly.”

“Huh?”

Arwen, who had been silently listening, finally spoke up.

Both Cecily and I turned our attention to her.

Seeing our gazes, Arwen smiled confidently and began to explain.

“The method you described is very similar to mirage magic.

It was developed by historians to gain a more detailed understanding of the past. It’s especially useful for examining ruins.”

“A mirage? How does it work?”

“It’s a high-tier magic, so it’s hard to explain. But I can tell you this: you can’t physically touch it, but it perfectly depicts a scene.”

Unlike CGI, which involves filming first and editing later, mirage magic apparently creates an entire virtual reality from the start.

If used properly for large-scale war scenes, it could drastically cut down on unnecessary manpower.

In particular, Arwen explained that it would be essential for depicting the World Tree explosion in the Zenon biopic.

Hearing that, I couldn’t help but think:

“What kind of ridiculous magic is this?”

But then again, this was a fantasy world.

Instead of tedious CGI work, they were planning to film everything in a magically created virtual reality.

“Christopher Nolan would lose his mind if he heard about this.”

And that wasn’t just an exaggeration.

Nolan was known for his obsession with realism—everyone knew how he actually blew up a building for that hospital explosion scene.

As I was left speechless by the conversation, I noticed Cecily looking just as dumbfounded.

Demons were known for their firepower, but when it came to precision—as with mirage magic—they were a bit lacking.

Helium’s isolation from the international community had also led to some gaps in their academic foundations.

“Is… is that really possible?” Cecily asked, unsure.

“Of course. If Helium requests it, Alvenheim would gladly cooperate. Especially for the Zenon biopic.”

“…We’ll discuss this privately later.”

“Understood. It should be an interesting conversation.”

I wanted to join in, but as a magic-illiterate muggle, I had no choice but to stay out of it.

Compared to my family, where I at least felt slightly superior, in front of these two, I was just a clueless human putting on a show.

They were already making high-quality films in a world without an industrial revolution, and now they were using magic for theater productions.

No wonder scientific progress was slow.

Why bother with science when magic can do everything?

“Other than movies, do you have any other fun games?”

“Games… The only one that comes to mind is Go.”

“Go?”

There is a game here similar to chess, one of the board games.

In fact, it’s just a different name, but it follows the same rules as chess.

However, Go and Shogi do not exist.

No matter how hard you look, there is no country similar to the East, so they simply don’t exist here at all.

Anyway, while the origins of Go are unclear, it is generally believed to have come from China.

It is particularly famous as a game that can ruin lives.

Even though it’s considered an old-fashioned game, once you get into it, you can never escape—it’s a devil’s game.

There is a famous story about Guan Yu playing Go while having poison removed from his bones.

At first glance, it seems to highlight Guan Yu’s superhuman mental strength, but the fact that he chose to play Go out of all possible activities is telling.

“You’ve seen words like this in ZenonChronicles, right? Byo-yomi (countdown), fuseki (opening strategy), self-atari (self-capturing move), playing for life and death—things like that.”

“Ah, I have seen those. At first, I didn’t know what they meant since they were unfamiliar words. Luckily, thanks to the footnotes, I was able to understand them.”

“Those terms actually come from Go. I didn’t make them up.”

Since Go doesn’t exist here, those expressions obviously don’t exist either.

However, there were no alternative words to express those concepts, so I just used them as they were.

Because of this, critics made a big fuss about me supposedly inventing new words, which was really embarrassing.

Technically, I did create them by combining elements of the local language, but they were essentially borrowed from an existing source.

I actually learned how to play Go as a child, so I know the rules. In fact, the rules are so simple that it would be strange not to understand them.

The problem is the sheer number of possible moves—it’s overwhelming.

I glanced between Cecily and Arwen before asking casually,

“I can explain how it works, but I’ll tell you a bit later. The rules are simple, but the game itself is harder than it seems.”

“Alright. I suppose I can ask Princess Cecily about it later, then.”

“But first, why don’t you go win that board game match?”

“Hah. Do you really think I didn’t let you win last time?”

Wait, when did they even play a board game?

I barely managed to stop the two from fighting on the spot.

If they start playing Go now, I can’t even predict how far this will escalate.

That’s just how addictive Go is.

Anyway, I continued introducing them to various cultural aspects.

Since their species use magic as naturally as breathing, it seemed like they were more interested in culture than science.

One of the topics that came up was sports—specifically, football.

Games involving a ball are widespread across different nations. They simply lacked the concept of organized sports.

“Playing purely with physical abilities, without mana enhancement? Interesting… but…”

“Wouldn’t that make beastmen too strong? And wouldn’t it be unfair for dwarves? It seems quite limited.”

The issue was fairness.

Due to their unique physiques, dwarves would be at a disadvantage in most sports, whereas beastmen would be overwhelmingly strong.

Even Leona, who looks delicate at a glance, weighs over 80 kg. There’s no way a human could compete on the same level.

So it was obvious that sports would mainly be popular among humans, demons, and elves. In the end, we decided to skip the topic.

“Hmm… I guess we should wrap this up soon. Do you have any last questions?”

“Just one. This is what I was most curious about.”

As soon as I asked, Cecily raised her hand gracefully. Arwen flinched slightly before lowering her hand.

I turned my gaze to Cecily, who sipped her tea leisurely before placing the cup down.

Unlike the lively atmosphere just moments ago, the room suddenly became serious. Even the aura surrounding her felt different.

As I subtly smirked, wondering what question she would ask, Cecily locked her deep red eyes onto mine.

She had a breathtakingly beautiful appearance, and her enchanting voice soon followed.

“You said that in your world, there are no other species—only humans, right, Isaac?”

“Yeah.”

“Then… was everyone equal? I don’t mean differences in status or ability, but discrimination on the level of entire species—was there anything like that?”

“There was.”

I didn’t say there used to be—I said there is. Present tense.

Cecily seemed startled by my wording and asked in a slightly urgent tone,

“Why? Isn’t your world far more advanced in science and culture than ours? Democracy? Didn’t that system completely eliminate class distinctions?”

“It didn’t eliminate power. And democracy gave birth to another form of class division—capitalism. It didn’t completely erase inequality.”

In fact, socialism and communism were created to abolish class distinctions, but as history shows, they ultimately disappeared.

While the ideology itself had merit, the problem lay with those who implemented it—like the Soviet Union and Stalin.

Of course, this applies strictly to social class.

When it comes to discrimination based on ethnicity or even species, there are definitely groups that have been persecuted.

“You asked if discrimination existed on a species-wide level, right? It still does. Even now, people face hatred and contempt simply because their skin is dark.”

As expected, I was referring to Black people.

These days, anyone who openly discriminates is met with heavy backlash, but unfortunately, racism hasn’t disappeared.

And this is better than it used to be.

Cecily, clearly shocked, muttered to herself,

“If their skin is dark… wouldn’t that make them like the Southern people?”

“Something similar.”

“I heard there’s a saying that you should never provoke the Southern people…”

Just as Cecily said, the Southern People are a group similar to Black people. They mainly inhabit the desert nation of Gultan or live as nomads.

And they are insanely strong.

Not just metaphorically—literally the embodiment of a warrior race.

Maybe it’s because they’ve survived the harsh desert and fought off countless monsters, but they are seriously powerful.

Fortunately, they aren’t aggressive by nature and are actually quite polite. As a result, they cooperate well with the Minerva Empire.

There are even rumors that people seek their help to cross the Gray Desert.

In short, as long as you don’t provoke them, they’re incredibly reliable allies. But if you make an enemy of them, you’re finished.

“That’s just how things work in this world. In my world, they were discriminated against for different reasons.”

“Who did that?”

“If I started explaining, we’d be here all day. Besides, didn’t your world also have slavery in the past? Humans are just like that.”

“So… is humanity the root of all problems…?”

That was harsh.

In this world, discrimination between ethnic groups was less pronounced due to the presence of different species.

But on Earth… well, let’s not go there.

While Cecily was still reeling from that thought, I turned to Arwen.

She immediately met my gaze and nodded, as if understanding my unspoken question.

“There’s something I’ve always been curious about. Do you remember the speech you gave me?”

“Of course.”

“Who gave the first speech, not the second one? The first speech left a much stronger impression on me.”

“Uh…”

I was at a loss for words.

Because the second speech I gave her was Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.

It was a speech meant to uplift a despairing people and fill them with pride.

“Who on earth delivered such a powerful speech?”

“…”

The first speech I gave her… was from a certain mustached man with a side part.

‘…What do I do?’

In the end, I just told her that she would find out when she read my next book.

And that… was not a lie.

“I’m looking forward to it. I wonder who it could be. If it’s in your next book, they must be an unforgettable figure.”

Oh, trust me.

They are.

★★★★★