Ever since a series of agricultural laws had been announced, Paul Greiman had been living a busy and fulfilling life. Besides reviewing the Farmers' Association construction reports sent by Affairs Officers from various regions every day, he occasionally rode out to inspect the villages around Lakeheart Town.
A letter disrupted this lifestyle. It had come from Mellon Garnard, the lord of the Bairdin Territory—in other words, his childhood friend.
The letter had been written on New Type Paper produced in Arda. Paul stroked the letter, secretly pleased. The paper he had "invented" was gradually making its way into people's lives.
At first, the contents seemed unremarkable. They were nothing more than inquiries about each other's well-being, followed by some interesting events that had recently occurred in his territory. However, some of the sentences were rather awkward, and reading them made Paul grit his teeth.
"Honestly, anyone who didn't know better would think this was written by a child who had just begun studying."
The earl shook his head and ruthlessly mocked his childhood friend.
Wait. Paul thought it over. In his memories, the two of them had exchanged letters before, and that fellow's writing skills hadn't seemed this poor.
Unless it was that kind of situation...
He rushed back to his bedroom and began rummaging through everything. After a frantic search, he finally found the thing from his memories. It was a box. Inside, after he opened it, lay several thin wooden sheets. What made them unusual was that each sheet had numerous small rectangular holes cut into it in an irregular arrangement.
This was the "secret code" he and Mellon had devised in the past, used to hide little secrets in their letters that could be shared only between the two of them.
For example: "I got spanked again