Fantasy Writers 1860

"If he's really after the Illusionary Book... should I avoid his attacks?"

Dorian let out a soft hum.

They've really bitten off more than they can chew.

He had only just joined the Royal Academy of Literature, and they were already offering him credit?

Why would a gangster be so interested in the Phantom Book? Do they want to get their hands on one too? The Academy's policies shouldn't allow the Phantom Book to fall into the hands of gangsters.

This matter must be reported to higher authorities; perhaps it could even earn us some credit.

Dorian leaned back and collapsed onto the bed, the more he thought about it, the more reliable the idea seemed.

So the next morning, he deliberately got up earlier than usual, left the apartment earlier, and instructed the driver to take a longer route. After confirming that no one was following him, he turned into a quiet alley and stopped in front of a small building with the words "Our Cats and Dogs Magazine" on it.

The Taiwan Creative Content Agency (TDC) has offices all over the country, and this disguised magazine is one of them.

Of course, it's not entirely a disguise. This magazine publishing house is actually operating and publishing a magazine; it's an industry under the Taiwan Creative Content Agency.

The magazine is called "Our Cats and Dogs".

Yes, this is a pet magazine.

Dorian was initially quite surprised, not expecting that there would already be dedicated pet magazines in this era.

He got off the carriage and reluctantly paid the driver 2 florins and 1 ass in paper money—it wouldn't have cost that much if he hadn't deliberately taken a longer route.

As soon as the coachman behind them left, another postal carriage followed closely behind.

It seems to be another letter from a reader.

Perhaps due to a lack of entertainment options, Dorian felt that people in this era especially loved writing letters after reading books and newspapers, particularly housewives from middle-class families.

This is because the main subscribers of this pet magazine are middle-class families and a segment of the aristocracy.

In this day and age, the cost of properly raising a pet is not something that the average family can afford.

The driver got off the carriage and opened the back door. Dorian went there as well, ready to help carry the letters.

"No, no, no, sir, you don't need to do such rough work anymore." The driver's tone was quite sincere.

Before Dorian could ask any further questions, he raised his head and shouted at the sky, "Wake up! The company didn't buy you here to sleep!"

The carriage swayed slightly from side to side, and a dark figure jumped down from the roof, landing between Dorian and the driver.

Dorian looked closely and realized that she was... a catgirl.

Although it's hard to hold back, this description is truly the most apt.

The other person had short orange hair, a pair of equally orange cat ears standing on their head, and a tail swaying behind them, looking exactly like the catgirl from the anime in my previous life.

This is the "demi-human race" of this world.

Of course, not all of them are catgirls; there are also animal-eared girls (or boys) with ears and tails of various kinds, such as wolves, foxes, and dogs.

The most common explanation for how demi-humans came into being is the creationism found in mythology.

Before the birth of time and space, only the formless, intangible, neither existent nor empty, uncertain chaos—the Primordial Light—shone. Before it extinguished, it transformed into seven shooting stars, which fell into the newly born world.

These seven meteors split into seven Origin Gods, commonly known as the Seven Origin Gods.

They walked on the newborn earth, creating with the power they each inherited from the primordial light.

For example, Thrall, the goddess of self and will, created concepts like "joy," "anger," "tenacity," and "unyielding" from fire and lava; Norn, the goddess of life and procreation, sculpted humans and various plants and trees from the earth; and Orbis, the goddess of reflection and reversal, created mirrors and all "opposites"...

This is the First Age, an era in which gods and all things coexist.

In this more common legend, the white deer with ten thousand wings and a thousand eyes [Aion, the goddess of nature and vision], after seeing Norn create humans, also planned to create some intelligent little creatures like this.

So He, taking humans as His model, endowed some of the animals He created with intelligence, and this is how demi-humans came to be.

Darwin of this world would be in for a real headache; he really doesn't know how natural evolution could have led to this.

"Hurry up and move it!" the coachman shouted at the catgirl in front of him.

At her command, the catgirl carried a large sack from the car, labeled "Our Cat and Dog Magazine."

"What's going on?" Dorian asked the coachman.

"Oh dear, recently the officials at the newspaper finally took pity on us and bought a batch of demi-humans from the slave center to work as porters. The volume of mail is getting bigger and bigger, but the officials are unwilling to allocate more postal vehicles or hire more people to carry it, so they have to compromise and buy some demi-human slaves to do the work."

In the short time it took to speak, the catgirl demi-human had already strode towards the back door of the magazine office with a sack in her arms, as agile as a real cat, moving lightly even with a heavy load.

Dorian noticed a faint red mark around her bare ankle, as if it had been strangled by something for a long time.

"Sir, please go inside. These chores will be done by the slaves." The coachman's tone was casual, as if he were talking about something perfectly natural.

Boom!

Dorian was about to say something more when he was interrupted by this sudden loud noise.

Looking in the direction of the sound, it was the catgirl porter who had tripped and fallen, tearing a hole in the sack she was carrying, from which a large number of envelopes flowed out like water.

"How many times have I told you! Be careful!" Without saying a word, the driver pulled out a short whip from his waist and swung it at him.

Seeing this, Dorian instinctively stepped forward to restrain the coachman and snatched the whip from his hand: "What are you doing? He just tripped and fell!"

"Sir, these demi-humans aren't very bright. They won't remember their mistakes unless they're given a good beating!"

"Rather than blaming, what's really important now is to pick up these letters!" Dorian said, then tucked the whip into his pocket, stepped forward, and helped the cat-eared girl to her feet.

"Are you alright? What's your name?" Dorian asked in a low voice, trying to make his voice sound as kind as possible.

"Lenora..." the girl answered softly.

"It's alright, let's pick them all up." Dorian smiled and bent down to begin gathering the scattered letters from the ground.

Seeing Dorian bend down and start working, the cat-eared girl lowered her head and let out a soft whimper.

"Um……"

Just as Dorian and the cat-eared girl named Lenora were gathering the letters on the ground, in the attic on the top floor of the editorial department, Lily stood expressionless by the window, parting the blinds and witnessing everything that was happening at the door.

Not long after, she closed the fan blades again with a blank expression, and then disappeared without a trace.

……

Dorian and Lenora placed all the letters and packages in the magazine's designated area for storing readers' correspondence, and then headed towards a room marked "Contact Office."

The room was empty except for a magic crystal lamp on the wall, with only a teleportation array engraved on the floor in the center.

This is a teleportation array leading to headquarters.

Just like I saw in the Department of Culture, Arts and Libraries that day, all the outposts were connected to the headquarters by a teleportation array.

When he passed through the teleportation array and stepped back into the central office hall, he was slightly surprised to find Lily there as well. She was sitting in the same spot where he had repaired the typewriter on his first visit, quietly typing away.

So that was her spot, and that typewriter was hers too...

Dorian suddenly remembered what the young man had said that day about how to explain things to Lady Lily, and it dawned on him.

That table had been empty for the past few days, and he hadn't seen Lily since the first day of training.

According to other colleagues, she is the field team leader and spends most of her time outside. Although a workstation was reserved for her, she is rarely seen there.

Dorian stepped forward, about to report his situation, when he glanced inadvertently at the contents of the typewriter paper and was momentarily dazed:

A review of several popular dog foods on the market recently.