Ascendance of a Bookworm

Volume 6, Chapter 1: The Printing Guild

The head priest used a magic tool to look into my memories of my previous life. That really surprised me, but I understood his reasoning really well. There wasn’t a better way to prove that I was innocent and not a threat. And that magic tool was shown to be more than incredible. Using that tool, I could reed any book I previously read by simply visiting that world in my mind.

I asked the head priest to use the tool again, but he strongly refused.

…I know he only saw my memories to see how valuable I was and if I was a threat, but still, what would be the danger in doing me a favor let me play sometimes. Head priest you stingy.

I was complaining a bit, but honestly, I was thankful that the head priest decided I was no longer a threat and allow me to continue inventing new products under Benno’s supervision. Thanks to that I was able to keep living as if nothing happened.

…without mentioning that I learned a lot from all of this.

I learn how much my mother was looking out for me, and how much my current family is taking care of me. I want to repay my family in this life, to compensate for what I did in the past. I want to cherish my time with them, instead of thinking about it as mundane and ordinary.

“Myne, we started printing the illustration books yesterday, together while making paper”.

It was the day after my experience with the dream world and Lutz was telling me about how the Myne Workshop was doing while on our way to the Gilberta Company, for what it seems the first time in a long while.

“So, Lutz, how many illustrated books do you think we can do? how much paper do you have?”

“I think that eighty books is the best we can do and that is if we also use the paper we are doing now. We can make seventy-five with what we have now… seventy-six in the best case, but I know you said you want to do as many as possible at the same time”

“Uh, Huh, thanks. It’s going to be harder now that it’s cold, but I’m counting on you”

According to Lutz, the second printing of the children’s bible would end up having around eighty copies. It wouldn’t take long to finish since the gray priests had already learned how the printing worked the last time we did it together. with that done, we just need a way to sell the illustrated books.

I looked at my feet and mutter “maybe we should make a new guild for this”

“a new guild?”

“Uhn, Like a printing guild or an editorial guild… the books we are doing in the Myne Workshop are different from the books that the nobles have, right?”

The books that existed before ours were packs of parchment, each made individually by hand. They attached colorful and detailed illustrations to the pages and the studded leather covers were decorated with gold and gems, making the books into pieces of art with an extravagant cost attached to them.

“The books we are making can hardly be called art, yes” and Lutz pointed out “Well we do children’s books after all…”

“And the production method is completely different. I only know this because the Head chief told me but, other books aren’t made by a single workshop”

Until now, each step in the process of creating a book had required the contribution of numerous craftsmen and different workshops- someone to write the text, someone to draw the art, someone to gather the paper and strap it together, someone for the leather cover, someone to decorate it with gold and gems, and so on and so on. Due to this, there wasn’t a workshop dedicated to books in this world.

However, the books made by the Myne Workshop utilized Myne’s printing technology which meant that one single workshop was able to do many copies of the same book at a time. That would introduce a completely new line of work. the Stokebrokers profession was born overnight, and it was necessary a guild to guaranty the rights to the technology and the profits, and to organize workshops to handle a certain standard.

“First I need to talk with Benno but… Well”

If I started to sell books, they will have to pass through Lutz to be sold to the Gilberta Company. In which case, Benno would be the one that has to add the printing guild to his list of jobs. After all, it was hard to imagine entrusting that kind of job to another person. Maybe that would be too much.

“the Gilberta Company is a clothing Shop right? Then you have the Rinsham workshop, the plant paper guild and his workshops, the Italian Restaurant that we hope to be open by spring…” I counted all jobs I know Benno had surprised at how he was basically involved in all of them. “There is a lot to do and we add the printing guild on top of that, I’m afraid Benno might get so busy that he may collapse”

If Benno Died from overwork, would I be the culprit? Luts shacked his head while I was turning pale with concern.

“Master Benno is busy because he wants to be. It’s not something that should worry you. We only have to worry when Mark starts to intervene”

Having in mind that Benno took the extra work by choice, while Mark simply followed him to make sure everything was going fine, I decided that I should be more concerned about Mark dying first due to work overload.

“Myne! What the hell did you do this time?

A thunderstorm from Benno fell the moment I entered his office. I hadn’t even mentioned the printing guild yet- in fact, I had come to speak with him before I did something myself, so I had no idea why he was so angry. All I could do was shake my head, blinking confused, while shaking in fear.

“W-wha-what are you talking about?! I haven’t done anything yet!”

“I received an order from an Archnoble- they are telling me to make new ceremonial robes for you as soon as humanly possible. Of course you did something! Spit it out ten! What happened!?

I immediately understood what Benno was referring to and I clapped my hands.

“Ooh, by an Archnoble do you mean Lord Karstedt, right? He is the captain of the knight order, you know. I’m happy he kept his promise”. I was a bit worried that he wouldn’t… What a relief.

“Not for me! My heart almost stopped when an Archnoble summoned me out of nowhere!” Yelled Benno. “Tell me when this kind of thing happens!”

After imagining what he felt, the blood drained from my face. Being summoned by an Archnoble out of nowhere without knowing anything would be scary.

“I’m Sorry! I was in bed with fever and completely forgot”

Without mentioning that I shouldn’t discuss things related to the order with no one, so I hadn’t give Lutz all the details yet nor to my assistants. The idea of informing Benno didn’t even cross my mind.

“Well, whatever. I almost had a heart attack, but now I have a connection with an Archnoble. I’m going to take advantage of this as much as possible. Anyways… didn’t we just finish your ceremonial robes just the other day? What happened to those?”

“They told me not to say anything because it involved the knight order, but in short they are completely destroyed” thinking about the torn robes in my mind, I let my shoulders down and made a <X> with my arms in front of my chest.

Benno Scratched his head

“That doesn’t help, then. I can guess it’s one of those things that is better not to know. That said, if you are not here for the robes, what do you have for me?”

“We started the second round of printing for the children’s bible and thought it would be better to talk with you about how to sell them. You made a plant paper guild for the paper we created, so I wonder if you would like to do a printing guild for books”

I explain why I thought a printing guild was necessary while looking at my diptych, and Benno just nodded while stroking his chin.

“A printing Guild, eh? That will be necessary sooner or later, and we don’t want no one stealing the rights to your inventions, we could go ahead and create one now. Myne, how many books can you sell at this moment”

“…I can use some of the ones we are about to make as textbooks, so we can sell the twenty I made before if necessary”

In the end, I hadn’t had the need to sell any books when I was buying clothes. I had given five books as presents and the other five in the dining hall, but the other twenty were in the workshop.

“Lutz,” Benno said, “go get the ones in the workshop. We aren’t getting permission for the printing guild without real examples”

Lutz ran to the temple, leaving me behind to answer any question that Benno had about opening the new printing guild. He looked so busy while scribbling on the wood tablets that I couldn’t help but frown, worried that I was really giving him too much work.

“…Benno, isn’t the printing guild and all the other work I piled on you too much to handle?” I asked worried “will you be alright?”

He looked at me and sigh

“Don’t worry about it, We could be making a guild here but that’s not gonna mean the creations of new printing workshops”

“What? Why not? I need more workshops to appear so they can fill the world with books”

“In the first place, the market is too small; Not many people buy books. Second, there aren’t many plant paper workshops yet. No one even knows how to make printing ink. Things haven’t developed enough yet to make more workshops possible. That’s why making a new guild won’t give me too much extra work.

Benno was extremely busy when he created the plant paper guild since he had to fight back against the created interest and at the same time create workshops before anyone else could do it. But that wasn’t the case with the printing guild, not much would happen since the necessary components for printing weren’t widespread yet.

“I can’t believe I’ve worked so hard to make printing happen and it isn’t giving place to new books. I’m happy you are not busy Benno, but I’m displeased to hear that the printing guild won’t be able to prosper”

“The fact that the printing guild ends busy or not would depend on how much people like those books you are making” mutter Benno while writing.

I started to reflect on our client base and the alphabetization rate on the country

“I believe that the bibles for childer will be really appreciated by the noblemen with small kids… particularly the laynobles and the mednobles, since they aren’t as rich in general. For that reason, I plan on to keep making illustrated books about the gods and knights, and such for a while”

“I had thought about it while on the bed. Particularly about the magic weapons that the knight order had used in the fight against Trombe, the divine blessings, and the healing ritual. The bright staffs that everyone had most likely were catalysts to use magic, since changing its form with mana should be very easy, But when it comes to blessings rituals and other bigscale magic uses, it was essential to use the name of the gods. All the difficult prayers that I had to memorize included them, as did the one utilized by the knight order to enchant their weapons with the good of darkness blessings. I had even given an accidental blessing by mentioning the name of one god in my prayer.

In other words, in the noble society is absolutely necessary to learn the name of the gods to use any type of significant magic.

“The nobles have to learn the name of the gods, whatever happens. And the owner of big stores with connections to the nobles also have to memorize the name of the gods, right? I remember that you said the name of a god when meeting the head priest, Benno. I believe we could sell our books to both nobles and rich merchants if we focus on how productive the learning would be”

“…You have been learning about nobles little by little over there. If that is what you think, I’d say you are probably right. But it’s still not looking good enough. You should really work on getting leather cover for them” Benno said

But I shook my head

“No. it’s fine as it is. I believe it’s going to be better if anyone that wants a leather cover to get one in a workshop that already makes leather covers for books”

“Your reasoning?” Benno’s gaze got sharper, his red eyes shined in the dark

I raised a finger, pointing directly to the roof.

“First, to spread the workload. If you order the leather covers through the Gilberta Company, you’ll have to ask all of them to the same workshop. I don’t believe that placing all that pressure in one workshop is going to be good for the quality or fast deliveries. The principle of economic competition is really important here”

“Oh right, you hate exclusivity and all that”

Benno seems to have interpreted from our discussions about the Italian restaurants me hating dedicated workshops. However, I didn’t hate the idea by itself.

“Actually, I believe it’s ok to have a preferred workshop, but not when that prevents to order from another workshop, even when you know your favorite workshop won’t be able to handle the amount of work, not to mention that I believe that letting a workshop monopolize the work will lead to conflict” I frown my lips while Benno let out a sigh.

“Next?”

“Second, let the client adapt their books to their own preference” I continued explaining now with two fingers raised “if they are going to spend so much money on a book, they will like it to be exactly as they want, Right? I think the clients will be happier if we let them choose the type of cover they want. That way they won’t have to take out what we place to have their own cover. Books made in our workshop are sewed with thread so it’s easy to pull them apart and personalize them”

While explaining, I thought about the second batch of books. My intention was to use the fur glue that we made to make the books, but if we are going to make the books with personalization in mind I think it’s going to be better to keep using a string.

“Third is about the time. It’ll take much more time to make books if each of them needs a fancy leather cover. The key strength o the Myne Workshop is that it can produce a large number of identical books in a short amount of time, which would be undermined by the time it takes to create leather covers. I’d prefer to use that time to make more books”

I was more worried about the number of books in the world than making sure that each book was a work of art beautifully crafted, that’s why I hate the idea of a book taking so long to be made. That was just personal preference, but even then,. I won’t budge on that.

“Fourth is the price. If the books aren’t cheap, our small client base won’t increase, and the most important thing for us is to sell the books in the first place. Not to mention that even poor noblemen that would only want them for the pride of having them, can shield themself by saying that their favorite workshop is busy, and I’m sure that there are some clients that are interested in the content of the books, not their appearance”

Benno frowned his brown when I finish listing all the reasons as to why I don’t want leather covers.

“I understand that you want to sell the books as cheap as possible, to expand books as much as you can. It’s a shame that that is the exact opposite of what a merchant would do. I want to raise the price as much as I can and get all the profit I’m able to”

Benno says that it is a common practice to focus on the aesthetic side to raise the value of a product. the price would increment until the clients are almost unable to pay it, to get the most amount of money possible.

“…My way won’t work?”

“If you only stay in the city, then probably not, but is not a really bad idea if you are talking about selling it in the whole country” You only have to focus on how are they different from the current books. Benno briefly closed his eyes and then looked at me with the look of an opportunistic merchant

“I’m talking from my trader instinct her but… I have a feeling that when it comes to books I should just let you do as you please while it’s possible. I only wanted to hear your reasoning, since this is new territory for everyone” he said, giving me permission to sell my books bind as they were.

“Alright, then, let’s drop the price as much as we can without leaving the point of balance”

“No. we are still going to profit here. expand the books while earning money, you idiot”

…Grr, it’s always about the profit With Benno.

Lutz came back with a bag full of books, just when we finish the paperwork. I sold them to Benno and got three big gold coins. On one side I was a bit sad because there was still a lot of time before could sell at a lower price, but on the other side, I felt safer by having a decent amount of money again. With this, I will be able to buy a bit more food for me and the orphanage before the snow began to fall.

“Myne, we’re heading to the merchant’s guild”

Benno gave the books to Lutz and picked me up as he always did when we headed to the guild. The moment when stepped outside, we were met by a row of carts filled with crops. The farmers sold their products when the city started to prepare for the winter, and since a lot of people were buying crops the streets were livelier than ever. There was an awful smell from all the people making candles.

“actually, Benno – do you think that nobles would buy candles that don’t stink?”

I’ve heard that nobles used candles made from bee wax, but maybe nobles were interested in a cheaper alternative maybe they would be like normal candles that didn’t smell. I asked Benno what he thought about it while thinking about the candles we have made in the orphanage, and he raised his brown while looking at me with an unbelievable face.

“candles that don’t smell you say?”

“Oh, Myne, are you talking about the candles you salted and then mixed with herbs? I haven’t used them yet, but the candles themselves smell less than the normal ones”

“Lutz! you didn’t tell me about this!”, Benno shouted, which made Lutz’s green eyes open wide.

“What…? I told you about them when I gave you my winter preparations report for the orphanage. You might have ignored it since you were so focused on the skin glue”

“Aaaah… that, that might be possible”

The glue made out of skin was much more interesting than the candles to Benno that he had all his mind place into it. The glue already existed in this world, but people usually bought what they needed when they had to, and no one did it outside of the workshops that needed glue for their products.

“Nobody in my neighborhood sells their candles because we are poor, but I was wondering if rich people salt their candles. Benno, are the candles you use yellow? or are they white?”

“They are light yellow, half of it is fat and the other half is wax”.

“Tahat means that even rich people don’t salt their candles, then”

Benno had mentioned that he used the money to take care of most of his winter preparations. If he wasn’t familiarized with salted candles then, it should be safe to assume that nobody in the city should be.

“I simply buy my candles instead of making them, so you probably should sell that information to a wax workshop or a guild”.

“Ok, I’ll sell the information to a wax workshop in the spring, I’ll ask them to help me make some waxed paper too”

While we kept talking about the paper, we went through the bussy second floor from the merchants guild and went to the third. While Benno was speaking with the receptionist about the registration of the printing guild, Freida came out of a backroom with her apprentice uniform, her pink twin tales fluttering while smiling. Maybe due to her growth since the last time I saw her in the summer, she looked much more adult than what I remembered.

“Ah, ah! Is good to see you Myne”

“Long time no see, Freida how are the cake sells doing?”

The last time I saw Freida was during the sampling event last summer. It was a big success, with the name <Pound cakes> and the diverse range of flavors spreading like a wildfire through the high-class society, skyrocketing Freida’s and Leise’s reputation in the process.

“they are selling magnificently – even the nobles love it. Many have asked if I have more sweets under my sleeve. Myne, would you like to answer their pledge? I’ll buy the recipes at the right price for the market” said Freida with a wide smile.

I looked at Benno. the moment we made eye contact, he glared at me with a death stare, which I inmidiatly understood as “no”. although, to be honest, I would have sold some recipes in the act if I were still broke. Having a financial margin is very important.

“I think Benno would kill me if I do, and I have enough money at this moment, so next time maybe”

She might have expected that Benno wouldn’t give me permission since she only placed her hand on the chick and said “oh well” without looking dissapointed

“…I worried a lot when I heard you entered the Temple, but I can see you are doing well. Has devouring calm a bit? have you found a noble that wants to sign?”

“Thank you for thinking about me. My devouring is ok now, but I’ll definitely not sign with a noble, I prefer to be with my family”.

“Oh really? Surely there has been a lot of petitions for you” said Freida, while tilting her head a bit confused.

I was also confused; not a single noble had ask me about or anything of sorts. “No one has made a petition for me, and in any casy I have no intention to sign with them. I mean I’m having a little brother on spring. How would I sign with a noble when I’m about to be an older sister?” If i sign now I wouldn’t be able to see his face. That’s simply would be too much.

“My God, congratulations. Tell your mother I wish her the best. By the way come visit us when you are free Leise is waiting for your visit”.

“… Mm, I will be bussy for a while. There’s so much I need to do”

I had been extremely bussy since I started to go to the temple. Excluding the days I had free due to sickness, I was so bussy that there was no day I could just relax at home.

“This new guild you are trying to make, does it has to do with the reason you are so bussy, Myne?”

“Uh huh. Is what I want to do the most, so… ”

We were using thick paper as template now, but I wish to start proper mimeographic printing and if possible I also wanted to try movable type printing. there is still a lot of work to do to upgrade the paper, without mentioning the ink. My mind was obseced with books, even though I’m bussy, I’m still having fun.

“It is what you want the most…? It involves books then?”

“Yes!I finished my first book. I’m going to make and sell lots of them now. you should also buy some Freida”

“I’m afraid I can’t promise anything without seeing one first” Freida answerd with a small smile lightly shaking her head.

Not even our friendship was enough for her to buy one just by the pitch. just what I expected from an apprentice that even Benno has to raise his guard from-

I took a kids bible from the ones that Lutz brought here and gave it to Freida. she has the insight of a rich lady raised by merchants, and I wanted to take advantage of this chance to hear what she thought about them.

“here, one of the books,What do you think about it?”

Benno must have thought the same since he stop filling the form and directed his eyes to Freida. She looked at the books with merchants eyes.

“… It is certantlya book” remarked Freida while scamming the pages. “But just the insides of one. it seems”

I had place flowers in the cover. but it seems that in the eyes of someone used to books a paper cover was as good as nothing.

“That page with the flower is the cover. The plan was for the clients to ask for the cover they wanted from their prefered workshop. Those who don’t have a prefered workshop can ask for one to the Gilberta company.

“It’s good I don’t have to depend on Gilberta company favorite workshop” said Freida, while looking at Benno “How much is the book then?”

I looked at Benno so he could answer insted of me. I didn’t know how much profit he wanted to get out of the books.

“A small gold and eight big silver, Intrested?

“Yes, happily”

Freida inmediatly touched cards with Benno to buy the kids Bible. I was surprised she was ok with buying it on the spot, but even more that Benno had the objective to make three big silver from each book. Maybe I should’ve rise the price to get a bit more money for myself.

While I plunged in disappointment, mad with my self for not being a good enough merchant, Freida closed the book and smiled.

“Myne, I would recomend that your next book be about the Gods of each season. It has been really difficult to memorize the subordinates gods from the Five Central Gods”.

The picture book I made discussed about the Darkness God and Light Godess, and the five central gods that made up the seasons. The multiple subordinate gods didn’t appear at all. By making this reques, Freida was telling me what rich and noble children probably liked. Requests like this made easier the decition of what books to make next.

“Thanks for the idea Freida. My next book will be about the subordinate gods”. I wrote it down into my diptych, which made Freida ope her eyes a bit. She looked from above with her eyes focused on the pen.

“Myne, what is that? does Benno has the rights for it already?”

“… You really have a nose for buisness, little girl” Benno let out a sight of admiration while looking at Freida. who in turn exhale with disappointment.

“I trully lament that you found Myne before me, Benno. A sharp nose means nothing if the sweets at out of your reach”.