"Are you kidding? How is that possible?!" After being educated, Solam finally got a definite answer from the bald sage: Faerun really had no such thing as movable-type printing...
But Solam refused to believe it! Was movable-type printing really that difficult? Wasn't it just an extended application of seals? How could Faerun possibly have failed to invent it? For fuck's sake, Faerun even had stockings, and you're telling me it didn't have movable-type printing?
Or was Great China truly the chosen race? Had they actually crushed the intelligence of these fantasy races that had even created magical civilizations?
The bald sage found it strange too. He wondered whether there was something wrong with Solam. This guy had questioned whether he had ever studied history, yet now he was perfectly demonstrating what it meant to be a historical idiot. Wouldn't Solam know whether movable-type printing had ever appeared on the continent?
While Solam foolishly questioned his life, the bald sage was also wondering whether he had been too blind. Could an idiot like this really invent movable-type printing?
It was only after nearly half an hour that Solam's doubts were finally cleared up by the bald sage.
Faerun truly had no movable-type printing. That was certain.
The reason was perfectly simple: there was no need for it, and no market for it. As had been emphasized all along, books had always been luxuries in Faerun, from ancient times to the present! Ordinary people simply could not afford them. More importantly, they had no desire to buy them!
In Faerun, it actually was not difficult for commoners to learn to read. Many churches offered such programs. Priests from quite a few good-aligned churches traveled through villages and rural areas to spread their doctrines, and while doing so, they also taught the