Hail to you, Princess Daisy of the Four Lands of Sarasaland! Heaven has chosen your forefathers of the illustrious House of Gänseblümchen to rule our Lands with justice! I shall thank you for your interest, and dearest request, for my work. It has been a little break from all that sports practices, and that royal conduct-training-sessions, and all those royal speeches and meetings, is it not?
I am Piang, the Commissioned Surveyor of the Four Lands. I am a Pionpi, by birth, and my ancestral land is Chai, the Royal Capital-Land of Sarasaland. I will tell you more about all this later.
My treatise of the Four Lands has been wrought forth from my humble mind, desiring to preserve the memory and traditions of the inhabitants of the Four Lands, however strange we are. As I looked in the Royal Library through all the records of our Four Lands, most of them are from the Gänseblümchenisch people, Our Implanted Rulers. Any of our native (mostly, sadly, of Chaian origin) accounts are usually 'broken': incomplete either by damage by unknown, mischievous assailants* ; or by choice - mentioning only of Chai, or having a fragment of our history, not being entire, 'legendary-or-not'. Much of them seems interlaced with mere legends and fairytales, while the earliest origin myths survive among the classic I had just previously read** .
I continued through my project in the course of seven years, three months, two days (minus festival days and days-of-illness-or-critical-need). Wandering across the land, beaten by the blazing sun and the dry winds; scorned, harassed, and mocked by countrymen of all sorts*** ; I nonetheless collected information from many accounts and mouths throughout the Four Lands. (Thank Heaven that I survived, with my documents, intact)
Thank you, Your Majesty Volltoenendus Gaenselbluemchen, for your request for my project. And I shall thank the peoples of the Four Lands for helping me in protecting and preserving their history; I do it for the sake of all of Sarasaland. Finally, I shall thank Heaven for the Providence that was Bestowed upon you, Your Majesty, your House, and all the inhabitants of the Four Lands.
Oh, and I shall thank you too, again, for refusing to allow me to do the ancient customary Knockings; I have to appreciate your righteous beliefs and your scientific progress!
Appendix: Translation and Notes are by Doctor Venanzio Voltavenuio of Toad Town, Regio Primus, Mushroom Kingdom.* They may be rival scholars and historians, however proud of their history and culture, who may have caused this damage. Being a hired palace official, especially as one who deals with documents (in Chai) may be a very notorious thing; you might risk having your work scorned, or biased by/in future works. You might even get murdered, if your rank gets higher.
** The Royal Library of Chai, of Chai, was burnt in a fire, deliberately started by either the irresponsible last King Shun-Cho of Chai, his bickering scholars, or the advancing Gaenselbluemchenisch troops, during the Conquest of Sarasaland. It may have been both, on separate-but-coincidental incidents. Those you can find in the Daisy Castle may have been stored (and damaged/worn off) away in the damp Royal Library. It looks a bit like a prison cell, or a huge dungeon, judging by my last visit.
*** As stated earlier, the Chaians are arrogantly proud of their long [but lost] history. Much of whatever that is known, by the time of Royal Commissioner Piang's writing, was filled with unbelievably wonderful legends. They had (formerly) reviled Piang for 'falsifying' their 'true' [sic] history.
(I am now attending to my daughter, who is now under dysentery. I will be back in five days.)
ESTO VIGILANS!