Roland stood on the stage, gathering his thoughts as a clamor rose around him.
Somewhere in the unseen, a voice seemed to tell him that he was on the right path.
His legendary destiny of carrying on civilization and bringing prosperity to all stirred, growing ever clearer and more concrete.
The flood of inspiration awakened memories in his mind. His many experiences, from this life and his previous one, appeared with perfect clarity, as though an immense electronic archive had been etched into the depths of his soul.
The term "fiction" had originally referred to minor tales and remarks gathered from hearsay, things that had never been considered worthy of serious attention.
On Blue Star in his previous life, it had only matured during the Ming and Qing dynasties, when a greater number of celebrated works emerged.
Still, as the saying went, people could be alike, and things could have their counterparts.
Fiction existed in this world too.
Roland had previously seen several classic works adapted from histories of interplanar wars in Ovesto's study, along with adventure stories about knights and mages.
Here, too, fiction was distinguished from fables, historical biographies, storytelling scripts, and similar forms.
But because the profession of bard existed as a complete substitute for storytellers, the distinctions were less pronounced. Similar literary forms were often lumped together into a single category.
After all, literature as a whole received little attention in Atrelin.
They could only classify it all as "other literary forms."
"Magicless... fiction?"
At that moment, in a mage tower in a distant city, the renowned bard Poietes's eyes lit up.
He had crossed paths with Roland before and received several selections from the Book of Songs from him. They had remained in contact by mail until quite recently.
This was his first time hearing