A King's Life and a Kingdom Overview

April in the tropics marked the end of the dry season. Cloudy days gradually became more frequent, and a thread of moisture entered the wind. As the foremost event of the year, the busy spring plowing was about to arrive.

Wave after wave of messengers ran through the Lake Kingdom. They traveled north all the way, crossing lively fields and passing lakes where fishing boats wove back and forth, until they finally reached the River Mouth Fortress and delivered reports from all across the kingdom into the king's hands.

In the residence at the center of the fortress, Xolotl sat cross-legged, reading through documents from every region.

They were called documents, but in truth they looked more like illustrations with captions. On tough bark paper were drawn little figures in different poses: some gripping weapons, some holding farming tools, some carrying cotton cloth, some presenting corn, some quarrying stone, some smelting metal, and others praying. Beside the little figures were various counting symbols and native kana, with a few marked by square Chinese characters. The kingdom's writing system had not been popularized for even two years. Even the simplified native kana was only mastered by some priests, and those familiar with Chinese characters were even fewer.

Since writing had not yet spread widely, the "picture books" were somewhat lengthy. Large rolls of documents were piled on the two desks before the king: one stack had already been read, and the other waited to be examined.

The two desks were low, flat solid-wood blocks, hard in texture, with a black-green base color. The wood surfaces bore unique natural grain, their sheen shifting with the lines. At a glance, the two solid desks looked like dark jade, heavy and ancient. In fact, because the wood was too hard, the kingdom's craftsmen had