Chapter 406: Chapter 406: Fairy Tale Writer_1
Rose Iron Prison Library, Asenna sat in the librarian’s seat, her head bent low as she feverishly wrote on a piece of paper.
After finishing a section, she happened to lift her head and noticed Sera absentmindedly sweeping the floor with a broom.
Asenna watched her for a while and then spoke to remind her, "You’ve swept over this spot three times already, and you haven’t even touched that corner over there."
Sera jerked back to reality and hurriedly apologized, "Ah, I’m sorry! I was daydreaming."
"I already knew you were spacey and ditsy, but today you really look like someone used a soul summoning spell on you," Asenna’s tongue was as sharp as ever. "Is it that the fever from yesterday hasn’t subsided, or has your brain been fried by now?"
"I..." Sera hesitated, "I had a nightmare last night..."
"A dream that left you so disoriented?" Asenna’s face was expressionless, but her tone carried a hint of disdain, "What a Princess and the Pea."
"Princess and the... Pea? What do you mean?" Sera didn’t understand the metaphor.
"One of the classic fairy tales from ’Children’s Dreams’ by ’The Watcher,’ you haven’t read it?" Asenna slightly frowned.
"What’s ’Children’s Dreams’?" Sera blinked.
Asenna pointed toward the reading room, "That’s what that kid over there is reading."
Sera looked toward the reading room, which was currently occupied by a few juvenile offenders from the core area. These inmates, not having reached working age, didn’t need to work, but they attended classes daily. Outside of the classroom, the prison also arranged some extracurricular activities, reading being one of them.
Sera saw the girl from Cell 11 holding a magazine upright, its cover emblazoned with "Children’s Dreams" and an oil-painted illustration, thoroughly engrossed in reading it.
But suddenly, as if immediately aware of her gaze, the girl glanced up and looked in this direction.
The girl’s eyes showed only a hint of curiosity, but Sera felt an unexplained palpitation and instinctively looked away.
"Don’t stare at others like that, that kid used to be a top assassin and is very sensitive; you could disturb her reading," Asenna said.
"Her? An assassin?" Sera’s eyes widened.
"The infamous Filthblood Reaper, you must have heard of that... Don’t look at me like that, it’s true. Haven’t you noticed the color of her prison uniform? That kid used to be the warden’s golden hitman."
Sera gradually recovered from her shock and continued the earlier topic, "So ’Children’s Dreams’ is the magazine she’s reading?"
"Yes, a public welfare magazine published by the Autonomous State’s official welfare agency, mainly featuring illustrated stories, fairy tales, and nursery rhymes, with the proceeds going to the operation of the official orphanage. The orphanage gets free copies too, and the kids there can read each issue without any cost," Asenna informed her, "By the way, prisons holding juvenile offenders can also order the magazine for free, which I highly recommend you to read."
Sera didn’t respond, thinking Asenna was mocking her, remembering how Asenna had said she was only fit to read fairy tales.
"I’m not mocking you this time, it’s just a sincere recommendation," Asenna discerned her thoughts, "The magazine is quite well put together, featuring many classic stories, especially the fairy tales contributed by ’The Watcher.’
"The Watcher?"
"A pen name. A well-known author in ’Children’s Dreams’ in recent years, who has contributed dozens of fairy tales, all masterpieces. Yet, the author didn’t take a single cent in royalties, claiming all proceeds, along with the magazine’s earnings, should go to the orphanage. ’The Watcher’ mentioned in the magazine’s letters column that these fairy tales weren’t written by him but were collected during his adventures," Asenna explained slowly, "But to this day, no one has been able to verify the exact sources of those fairy tales. It is said that even the editors of ’Children’s Dreams’ do not know the true identity of ’The Watcher,’ as mysterious as ’The Adventurer’ magazine’s signature author ’The Dreamer.’
"You seem... quite familiar with it?" Sera noticed that Asenna seemed to know a bit more detail than one would if not particularly interested.
"I’m quite well-read, and I don’t avoid reading fairy tale magazines," Asenna replied nonchalantly.
"I see..."
After the conversation came to a close, a temporary silence enveloped them, Sera felt a touch of awkwardness and quickly picked up the thread of conversation again, "Um, what were you writing just now?"
As soon as she asked this question, a slight thaw appeared on Asenna’s icy face, she lifted her hand to flip over the manuscript she was writing and said coldly, "That is none of your business."
Sera felt the pressure emanating from the other’s eyes and astutely nodded her head, "Okay."
"Mind your own affairs," Asenna said looking at Sera, "You do have an answer for your own matters, don’t you?"
Sera’s eyes dropped as visions of the previous night’s dream began to surface in her mind.
"Everyone can only write their own story; you are responsible for your own ending, and don’t make decisions you’ll regret," Asenna finished speaking and pointed to a corner deep in the library, "Go sweep that section over there."
As Sera walked towards that direction, pondering, a prison guard came in and stopped her, "Prisoner 0168, the warden wants to see you."
"Eh?" Sera was momentarily stunned.
"Don’t just stand there, the warden has summoned you, leave your work for now and hurry!" Asenna reminded her.
Sera came to her senses and left the library with the prison guard.
Only then did Asenna flip the manuscript back over, inadvertently turning over a piece of letter paper underneath as well, on which was written, "Thank you for submitting your story to ’Childhood Dreams’. We regret to inform you that your submission has not been accepted..."
Asenna looked over the feedback on her submission again, shook her head gently, tore up the rejection letter, crumpled it, and threw it into the wastepaper basket.
In her spare time, besides reading, she also had an interest in writing poems and stories.
She had always believed in her own writing talent, as the few short stories she had carelessly written in the past and submitted to a horror magazine had always been well received.
But why was it that the stories she earnestly wrote and submitted to her favorite fairy tale magazine were rejected? Asenna couldn’t figure it out.
"Is a story with a ghoul as the protagonist really not okay?" Asenna sighed inwardly, then lowered her head to continue her struggle with the manuscript.
...
Sera was brought to the front of Aiden’s office, and the prison guard knocked on the door.
"Come in," Aiden’s voice came from inside.
The prison guard opened the door, and both Sera and the guard walked into the office.
And then Sera was stunned. In the office was a female guest.
The guest wore a police uniform vastly different from that of the prison guards.
Sera’s head buzzed suddenly, and the vivid nightmare from the previous night naturally emerged in her mind.
She couldn’t remember the face of the person in the office from her dream, but she remembered the uniform — it was identical to the one the guest was wearing.
"It’s okay, we are almost done here, come in and take a seat," Aiden motioned to them.
