In the eyes of most professionals in Coriel, the flow of information was relatively slow.
Most of the information ordinary people received in their daily lives amounted to things like whose donkey had given birth again in the knight's domain, or how Gou Sheng from next door had finally gotten married. Even if the knight lord's youngest son had taken advantage of some farmer's daughter for free, people would pass the matter around in "astonishment" for half a year.
Even in prosperous city-states, one of the few entertainments available to many commoners was listening during breaks from work to wandering bards recount all manner of adventure tales and legendary epics, kneaded together through who knew how many hands of "creative" revision.
In this regard, the people living in the major city-states of the Northlands were undoubtedly fortunate.
Ever since Levis had Vina serve as editor-in-chief forty-six years ago and tinkered out the Water-Drawing City Evening News, this medium—capable of delivering same-day news compiled from information sources provided by Mages, Rangers, and other professionals—had swiftly won the favor of merchants.
They could often spot more business opportunities through such firsthand, up-to-the-minute information.
Before that, all they had to rely on were handwritten newsletters put together voluntarily by groups of merchants, issued exclusively to princes, nobles, and merchants.
With newspapers as a new love that was proper, dignified, and high-class, they naturally cast aside their old love soon enough.
Ordinary commoners, meanwhile, were more interested in gossip from the upper classes or job postings.
Thus, newspapers soon became wildly popular in Minas Tirith, Water-Drawing City, Neverwinter City, and the Silvermoon Federation, while countless imitation gossip rags sprang up in their wake.
Yet whether in the past or now, this was only true for commoners. Magic existed in this world, and it had