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A man stood in front of the Somerset Family’s main gate, taking deep breaths and mumbling to himself.

“This is my last chance…”

Perhaps feeling nervous, he clenched his trembling hands into fists and finally approached the guard stationed at the gate.

“Stop! This is the Somerset Family Mansion. Uninvited guests cannot enter.”

“I’m Lambus! I made an appointment through the Yuren Merchant Association as Ashley Lambus.”

“Please wait a moment.”

The guard, having halted the man claiming to be Lambus, took out a notebook to check the list of guests scheduled for today.

‘Ashley Lambus.’

Upon confirming the name mentioned by the man, the guard continued.

“Please show your Identity Token.”

“Here it is!”

After the guards examined the name written on the Identity Token, one of them went inside the mansion to deliver the news.

“Huuh…”

Having just finished the strict identity verification process, Lambus let out a sigh of relief.

This appointment was a precious opportunity arranged thanks to his uncle, the manager of the eastern branch of the Yuren Merchant Association, whom he had begged for assistance.

Thanks to his uncle, who had worked for the Yuren Merchant Association all his life and maintained a friendship with the guild leader, Esteban, Lambus finally managed to secure an appointment with Rupert, who was notoriously difficult to meet even for nobles of the Empire.

“Mr. Rupert has asked for you. Please follow me.”

“Yes!”

While he waited, the guard returned and led Lambus into the Somerset Mansion.

As it was Lambus’s first visit to such a grand noble’s mansion, he found himself lost in wonder.

‘Is that the famous Somerset Workshop?’

In one corner of the mansion grounds loomed a massive three-story building.

“Are you Mr. Lambus?”

Caught up in the sights, Lambus soon arrived at the mansion’s entrance, where he was met by a sharp-looking young man with blonde hair.

‘Is that him, Mr. Rupert?!’

Rupert’s appearance was already widely known as he was a famous figure in the Empire.

Cold-eyed with blonde hair, Lambus immediately recognized the person before him as Rupert.

“Mr. Rupert! Hello, I’m Ashley Lambus from the east. I came today…”

“Please come inside. I don’t have much time.”

“Ah! Yes, thank you!”

Interrupting Lambus’s flustered greeting, Rupert guided him inside the mansion and soon led him to the reception room.

‘By how he’s dressed, he doesn’t seem to be a noble, is he just another person here asking for a book?’

Although Esteban had asked Rupert to reluctantly arrange this appointment because someone was very eager to meet him, Rupert couldn’t shake off his worries.

He had experienced all sorts of things with those who had come to see him.

“My child loves the author’s fairy tales so much that having a limited edition would be a dream come true…”

After the tale spread about the card created for the Great Duelist, Joy, people began to swarm, demanding limited edition cards for themselves.

But upon verification, none of them actually had sick children.

Moreover,

“Mr. Rupert, this is truly a top-secret matter, but we discovered traces of a gold mine in the mountains north of Somerset Territory. If you could invest just a little…”

“Wait… aren’t you the one who tried to scam my father with a silver mine last time?!”

Perhaps due to the recent rumors that the Somerset Family had been raking in money, all sorts of con artists had begun to swarm.

As a result, Rupert found himself unintentionally doubting those without guaranteed status.

‘Better than those kinds of people though…’

However, among them, the ones Rupert feared the most were none other than his enthusiastic fans.

“Are you the author?”

When he was outside the mansion, they would sneakily approach and express their discontent with his works, which was the polite version.

Some even went as far as to scale the walls of the Somerset Mansion to catch a glimpse of the next chapter.

And at the pinnacle of such zeal,

“What if we kidnap the author, lock him in a room, and make him draw all day? Wouldn’t that make the works come out faster?”

“What a genius idea! Let’s do it!”

Even with Rupert’s superhuman writing speed, there were those dissatisfied, plotting to abduct him just to get more works made.

Thankfully, those plots were discovered early and came to nothing, but just hearing about them still sent chills down Rupert’s spine.

After experiencing all that, as he looked at Lambus following him into the reception room, he wondered if he had acted too hastily in bringing him in. Yet, he decided he might as well hear him out now.

“What business did you have in searching for me urgently?”

Offering tea to the tense Lambus, Rupert gave him a moment to collect his thoughts.

When asked about his purpose for visiting, Lambus hesitated before putting his hand inside his pocket.

Seeing this motion, Rupert flinched slightly, but fortunately, it was just a piece of paper, not a weapon.

“A map?”

“Yes, that’s correct. This is one of the most detailed maps of the continent’s territories.”

“Why are you showing this to me?”

“Mr. Rupert, do you know what lies east of the continent?”

“Well, there’s the sea, and beyond that, the Eastern Continent.”

“Exactly.”

“That’s right. They refer to our Sylvania Continent as the Western Continent over there.”

As Lambus replied, he pointed to a section of the map roughly depicting the Eastern Continent.

However, his hand did not stop there; it moved further east.

“Then, what if we sailed even further east from the Eastern Continent?”

“Excuse me?”

“Could you take a look at this?”

This time, Lambus took out several notebooks from his bag and opened them for Rupert to see.

“Is this a constellation?”

“You can tell! Yes, that’s right. These are drawings depicting the movements of constellations in the night sky throughout the year.”

Rupert was impressed by the constellations depicted in the notebooks Lambus showed him.

Although they couldn’t be called meticulously drawn, they were undoubtedly records showing how things moved over time.

Considering that, unlike Earth, there are currently no scholars studying constellations in the Empire, this was indeed a rare record.

‘Originally, the study of constellations developed for agriculture.’

The study of constellations, or astronomy, was closely related to farming.

Investigating celestial cycles to understand seasonal changes and assisting agriculture was how astronomy began.

However, in Another World, magic and blessings had already been applied to farming, making the study of astronomy unnecessary.

In a way, this was similar to the existence of video stones, which rendered painting development stagnant.

“Some say the world is flat, but I don’t think so. The world is definitely round!”

As Rupert showed curiosity toward the constellation records, Lambus, filled with excitement, continued.

“So, I thought! If there’s something beyond the Eastern Continent to the east, wouldn’t it be quicker to go west instead?”

“That’s an interesting idea, but why are you telling me this?”

“That is….”

Lambus’s argument certainly had its merits, but Rupert didn’t believe he had come just to express that thought.

In the first place, as he was neither a scholar nor an author, he thought it would be meaningless for himself to hear it, so he wanted to understand the real reason.

“I want to sail the uncharted western sea to prove my theory right.”

After a moment’s pause, Lambus’s voice continued, much quieter than before.

“I’ve visited other guilds and tried to meet potential investors, but they all said they wouldn’t spend money on such nonsense.”

Even with the recent sailing craze kicked off by the Great Treasure, no one was willing to invest in an uncertain venture to the western sea for Lambus, who had yet to show any results.

“So that’s why you came to find me?”

“Yes. I heard that the Somerset Family is building a ship, and with a last-ditch effort, I thought I’d…”

“That ship is being built for another purpose.”

“Ah….”

At Rupert’s words, Lambus’s expression fell quickly.

Having considered this his last chance, it was natural for him to feel let down.

“It’s awkward for me to say, but if you were to say you were seeking the sea god’s curse or treasure, I think there would be people willing to invest.”

“That’s true. But I didn’t want to deceive anyone.”

His acquaintances had actually recommended he spin tales of going after the sea god’s curse or treasure from the Great Treasure, but his pride wouldn’t allow it.

“When I say I want to sail the western sea, people laugh at me as if I’m a fool.”

Lambus recalled the past as he sought his last hope in Somerset.

His father used to say that all a fisherman needed to do was catch fish.

The merchants who claimed there was nothing beyond the Eastern Continent.

Friends who mocked that the end of the world was just an abyss.

“But from a young age, my dream has been to sail out there and explore the sea.”

-You can’t lie to your dreams, can you?

Lambus let out a soft laugh as he uttered his final words.

“Mr. Lambus.”

“Yes.”

Rupert looked directly into Lambus’s eyes.

He too had heard the same words back on Earth.

“These days, it’s tough living off drawing comics.”

“Webtoons? A minuscule number of webtoon authors succeed.”

“You should think about working steadily rather than getting caught up in those fanciful thoughts.”

Every time he heard such things, Rupert had vowed that if he ever encountered someone like him, he would offer help instead of advice or abandonment.

“Have you ever been on a long-distance voyage?”

“Yes? Ah, of course. I participated in a few trade trips to the Eastern Continent.”

“You must set a clear plan.”

As Rupert stood up, he said.

“Huh?”

Lambus, taken aback by Rupert’s words, asked again, and Rupert replied.

“We must go seek the romance.”

Rupert decided to support Lambus.