“Grehn, go over to those protesters. Hang out on the fringes of the crowd.”

After hearing the passionate speech this dude gave, how could I ignore it? Apparently, there were others here in Yiwi who wanted to topple it. The question was: how do I make use of them? Is it possible that they could become allies? Well, not full allies. Could they really considered our allies if they didn’t know we existed?

I certainly wouldn’t be trusting a bunch of unknown variables with our plans and intentions. But there is plenty that a group of rebels could do for our cause. Unfortunately, our actual goal wasn’t revolution. It was discrete infiltration. So unfortunately, we still wanted to keep the power structure in place.

Grehn fit in well with the small crowd gathering around the protesters. The mercenaries wore dull clothes while the citizens wore bright and colorful threads. Both were a common sight in the plaza, so the mixture in the protesters’ crowd was not unusual at all. As for the protesters?

They were… a motley bunch.

The guy who was making the speeches was a scrawny little thing, whose appearance was way younger than I was expecting. Dude couldn’tve been out of his teenage years. Despite it all, he sported a brilliant smile which contrasted his furrowed brows. A young woman who was using Mind to carry several signs above her head accompanied him. She didn’t seem as young as the speaker, but she didn’t seem that far off. Her frazzled hair and eye-bags painted quite the picture. And to top it all off was a bodyguard. A fairly buff guy who couldn’t have been more than half Grehn’s height. Not that Grehn’s massive stature was attainable, but this guy was short.

So our brave protesters were nothing more than a trio of tiny teenagers? Well, that was deflating. Though, to be fair, teenagers tend to be notoriously overpowered.

“Haven’t seen these kids before. But I recognize the name of their organization.”

“Oh? Do tell, Grehn.”

“The Yiwi Fighters, also known as the YIWI. A group who advocates for less government power over the markets and better working conditions in factories. They don’t get along well with mercenary companies, but their main target is the City Lord’s establishment.”

“How the hell does the acronym ‘YIWI’ come from Yiwi Fighters?”

“Hm? Er, they are the Yiwi Protectors Forced to Fight, as it says on some of their signs.”

That made even less sense. Hm. If I checked what Grehn said, in Somuian he said something like ‘Yiwi Introyenda Widro Irden’, which did in fact form the acronym YIWI. And which translated to something like ‘Yiwi protectors to fight forced’, which got reformed in translation.

Well, whatever. I could just call them the Fighters.

“Good citizens! Without the forest, there is no more wood! No more animals! No. More. Fruits! Many are already feeling the effects on their wallets and stomachs. And even you, mercenaries! We must join hands! I spoke of animals, and what of monsters?! The Vultures themselves?! It is no coincidence that the Shroud disappeared after the Burning! I know your wallets have also taken a hit! Join us!”

Well, if nothing else, they were eager. So basically, they were taking advantage of the recent events to garner support for their cause. A good strategy. Their original goals were already in line, at least to some degree. If we took their words at face value, the forest was a valuable source of income for the city. Even for mercenaries.

“I think we’ve heard enough, Grehn. I don’t want to get involved with them just yet, but we need to keep tabs on them. Do you know a way we can do that?”

“Simple.”

One thing I hadn’t noticed was that the trio had a stack of aluminum cans (?) nearby, and Grehn quickly went around the crowd and grabbed one. Just as quickly, he strolled away, once again heading towards the circular building.

Stolen novel; please report.

“Phew. Glad nothing happened.”

“Huh?”

“We, or rather I, were being watched. Since I joined the crowd. Things got a little tense when I moved to grab the scroll, but thankfully, nothing happened. Plus, I didn’t want to get called out by the speaker kid. That would be mortifying.”

Was this guy more nervous about getting into a fight with mysterious watching people or about getting called up on stage? I think I knew the answer. And…

“I understand you, Grehn. We are the same. But who was watching?”

“I’m not sure. My guess would be actual agents of the Fighters, observing and taking stock of the crowd. However, they could also have been employed by the City Lord. He would presumably not be a fan of their organization, regardless. And with their new rallying cry, well…”

That was my main concern. I had been considering the City Lord’s animosity towards the Fighters and decided I didn’t want to get too close. Hm?

The City Lord’s animosity. Yes… that was a great angle! I’d have to tell Beatrice about this revelation! I’m sure she could make up some splendid plans using the Fighters. Er, I guess I wouldn’t actually have to tell her. I could just send her the info. Would be easier if Queen finished her B-box info package project.

Now, what the hell had Grehn snatched? He had called it a ‘scroll’, but it was much more like a matte metal cylinder, reminiscent of an aluminum can. There were etchings on it, presumably using the Somuian language and alphabet. The only thing I could discern was four large letters, which must have been the YIWI acronym. I’d have to tell Queen to start a B-box project to learn Somuian, both the written and spoken word. Considering how they work, it should be a simple task.

But forget all that. What was up with this ‘scroll’?

Grehn was holding the thing, so I barely noticed him shift it in his hand, and as soon as he did, information bloomed in my head. Schedules, times, descriptions, locations.

“Alright. Now we just have to tell the others, and we can go to some meetings or something.”

“Whoah whoah. What was that?”

“Ah. I suppose a bee would have no need for this. Scrolls are our way of communicating. We use them to transfer information in an efficient, lightweight and scalable manner.”

“So you guys use fucking metal cylinders as paper?! What a damn waste!”

“Paper?!” Grehn looked seriously thrown off. I had rarely seen him so flabbergasted, though I hadn’t known him for long.

“Paper? As a means to convey information? Surely you must be joking.”

“Why? It’s light, can be easily compiled and stored. It’s easy to write on too!”

“Are you serious? Paper is too flimsy and fragile. And it certainly doesn’t have the retention properties of the metal scrolls are made from. You say it is easy to write on, but for what?”

I think there was a misunderstanding taking place on both our ends. Fine, I would cave this time. B-boxes, give me the knowledge!

Half a dozen lifetimes’ worth of experience flooded me, which was a bit disorienting after absorbing the scroll’s knowledge. Mostly because my information was much more structured and organized. Hah! Take that, human ingenuity.

Alrighty. Grehn was not lying. Scrolls were like a replacement for paper in this world. They came in a variety of standardized sizes, depending on the amount of information that was meant to be stored in them. So, the pamphlet scrolls that the protesters were handing out were fairly small, being slightly smaller than an aluminum soda can. But they could be really huge.

Scrolls worked more like USBs as far as I could tell. Human had devised a way of ‘infusing’ Mind into objects, which was part of the technology used in scrolls. People learned from a young age how to ‘write’ in scrolls with Mind, which was a task so simple that Locks and Abilities were not necessary. So, like with a USB, people could upload data to a scroll, hand them to people, and they could just read the info with their Minds. Then the information could be deleted or moved from the scroll so it could be re-used.

And re-used they were. How interesting. Most people could clear the information stored on scrolls easily enough, but the etchings were another matter. Apparently, it was common for households to have a small device that could hold scrolls, smooth their surface, and print new etchings. Those typewriter-like devices were fairly new, and before, people had to go to a library to use their scroll re-formatters.

Another interesting tidbit was the etchings. Writing was not a thing here. Well, not entirely. But physical writing was not customary for people of this world, and even the Somuian written language wasn’t meant for lengthy or detailed writings. Instead, it was designed around brief, efficient descriptions to reduce the physical footprint on scrolls.

What the fuck? How did that even work? How did people spell? How did they demonstrate the spoken language without writing it? As someone who lived in a world without psychic abilities, I was struggling to comprehend how that would work. Since every single person in this world was apparently capable of using Mind to some degree, some things were just completely unnecessary. But then why did people even speak, if they could just talk telepathically? Why did they develop any writing at all?

And that was only the beginning. I kept hearing about the importance of the Vultuous Forest, about the economic impact on Yiwi, and so on. I was confused about Grehn’s insistence on the inferiority of paper. And now I knew why.

This world… it wasn’t normal. Or it was nothing like my world at all. Obviously I knew that when I saw tree-sized vultures, but the extent hadn’t been made clear to me until just this moment.

This world had no trees.

That was barely an exaggeration. The country of Dreva had no trees. There were no trees in the countless smaller countries surrounding Somuia and Dreva. Across the mountains to the east, there are said to be no trees. The mountains themselves sport no trees. The wastelands to the southeast had no trees. The island nation of Rikitan had no trees, and there were no trees in any of the Riktish Empire’s colonies. There was only one place. The Vultuous Forest in Somuia.

That was why Yiwi was so wealthy. They were the only place in the known world that exported any materials associated with trees. Not even other cities that bordered the forest could protect, gather, and process materials from the forest, like wood or fruits. Paper was a luxurious material not meant for everyday use. It was fleeting and rare; using it to write a simple note or pamphlet would be an extraordinary waste.

And metal, on the other hand? Metal was everywhere. Why would they waste metal spikes to attack the forest? Because why not? Cheap metal like that was as common as grains of sand on a beach. Of course you would use an alloy for making scrolls; it had properties that made them durable and lightweight while also having some ethereal quality that let them store Mind energy.

So what did this mean? It meant that the City Lord, and, if the Fighters were to be believed, the king of Somuia himself, were responsible for destroying the only tree-filled forest in the known world.

But why?