……I’m sure I just heard this writer call the story of the unrewarded mermaid princess a comedy. I’m seriously starting to doubt that he’s really the great author Andersen. Maybe he’s a fake that just has the same name?
Andersen :: Hmph. I’d certainly feel better if that were the case. My god, you readers really tend to get more fanciful than the authors. Which is why even though it’s practical for business, I want you to pardon me the illusions I spin, when they go too far. The contents of a book and the face of the author are different things. What else do you expect? Do you think that an author who writes the story “one day, my long lost sister showed up with not ten, but one hundred men” really had that happen to him? Even a city girl shouldn’t be that naive. Though to their authors books are essentially selling your soul bit by bit, there are different degrees of that. The stories we want to write and the stories we have to write are different things. What an author enjoys more than anything, letting his wildest thoughts take flight, that’s “what we want to write.” What pains an author most, crucifying him with thoughts, that’s “what we have to write.” Most readers don’t understand that. You can explain most of the fairy tales I left behind that way. I’ve been horribly cursed, thanks to them. My arms are scarred by burns and my legs are covered with the scales of a mermaid.
So saying, Andersen pulls up his pant-leg slightly. Underneath, it really was covered with mermaid scales —
Andersen ::
Now you see, the disgusting results of that slander! “The person who wrote this book must have been so very lonely –” The lot of you make whatever assumptions please you, and I’ve been transformed to match them. Do you understand? All the curses of those who read The Little Mermaid fall on me. So who could I be but its author. Well then, dimwit less perceptive than a town girl. I’ll give you this. It’s a file summarizing my career. Read it carefully, so you don’t ask me any more stupid questions.
Andersen hands over his matrix information, looking displeased. I kind of feel like we just exchanged business cards.