Precious Bird Guano

"Education can sharpen the mind, making it easier to accept new things. In view of this, I suggest..."

Paul Greiman, the newly ennobled Marquis of the Auldo Kingdom, was bent over his desk writing. A thick stack of papers had already piled up on the right side of the table.

He weighed in his mind what could and could not be said, while turning the things he could say into words on paper.

Sometimes he struggled over how to phrase something, occasionally crossing out a sentence he had already written, or simply crumpling the entire sheet into a ball.

Although this was written for the king to read, Paul subconsciously treated it as a work of scholarship, one that might very well be published for the world to see someday. The Marquis did not want people to find even a single sentence of elementary-school grammar in his book.

Just as he had been stuck on a certain passage for a long while and was rubbing his temples, preparing to end his morning's work, an attendant came to report.

"Captain Glan requests an audience with you. There's good news—he's brought back the members of the Exploration Team who were captured before."

"Glan?" Paul jumped up from his chair. "They've arrived in Crystal Radiance?"

"Yes. The fleet is still resting at Franklin Harbor, while Mr. Glan sailed south aboard the flagship to find you."

"Quickly, invite them into the Reception Room."

A year ago, the Western Exploration Fleet had completed the first Around-the-World Voyage in the history of this planet's civilization.

They had discovered another unknown continent, inhabited by all kinds of strange races. Some had the heads of bulls, while others had the heads of cats. Compared with the beastmen of the Old Continent, these seemed to be the true beastmen.