That day's dinner was to be held at the Giebe's residence. Whether Giebe
...I really wanted to eat with everyone in the detached building.
Even if I couldn't casually chat with
Here, too, the topics that came up during meals were all about
Once the probing-filled dinner was over, a proper report on Groschel's printing and papermaking industries was given.
Over post-meal tea, a civil official who had been appointed by Giebe Groschel and put in charge of the printing industry delivered his report, which the Giebe himself, along with the visiting civil officials on their inspection tour, listened to with nods.
"The printing industry in Groschel appears to have started up without any particular issues. I looked at the books printed as a trial run, and they didn't seem particularly different from those purchased at the castle."
"If it's running without issues, then Groschel's craftsmen must be excellent."
My mother, who knew that Haldenzel had failed to produce a qualified blacksmith, was impressed, but the Groschel civil official's report was quite different from what I'd heard from Gutenberg.
...Huh? There were actually quite a few problems, weren't there?
When I involuntarily tilted my head,
"This seems quite different from the report I heard from Gutenberg alongside Lady
"What do you mean?"
Giebe Groschel's expression turned suspicious as he looked between the civil official and Hartmut. Hartmut, checking his notes, gave a concise summary of Gutenberg's report.
"Same as Haldenzel, none of the blacksmiths passed the qualification for metal movable type. It seems colored inks aren't easily sourced from materials in this area either, so research using local materials will be needed. Furthermore, while Groschel's water quality makes papermaking possible, I've been told the quality is poor."
At this report of things not being done, Giebe Groschel's face twisted in displeasure.
"Are you saying Groschel's commoners are incompetent?"
...No, no, no matter how you look at it, the civil official who gave the easy report is the incompetent one.
I fired back internally without a moment's hesitation, but as the lord's adopted daughter, saying that out loud would surely extinguish that civil official's future in an instant.
Now, what could I say to bridge the gap between aristocrats and commoners? If I left this alone, they would certainly pin all the blame on the commoners.
"Giebe Groschel. Groschel's commoners are not incompetent."
With my statement, all eyes turned toward me at once. Most of those glances were questioning whether I was defending commoners, and a few were warning me not to say anything unnecessary.
"They simply have talent but lack sufficient time. During winter, my Gutenberg has offered to bring the blacksmiths to Ehrenfest for training. The lodging expenses would be borne by Giebe Groschel, of course, but if given the time for proper training, the blacksmith issue should be resolved."
My proposal carved deep furrows between Giebe Groschel's brows.
"You want me to spend even more money on commoners...?"
I knew better than anyone just how much money had been invested in attracting the printing industry, since I had been the one to start it all. I understood the reluctance to spend more, but if he balked here, all the investment up to this point would be rendered meaningless.
"Metal movable type suffers heavy wear and tear, so if there are no craftsmen who can make them, Groschel will have to keep buying them indefinitely. In the long run, I think it would be better for Groschel's own craftsmen to be able to produce them, but that is entirely up to Giebe Groschel's judgment."
It wasn't as if printing couldn't be done without training blacksmiths—as long as they kept buying metal type, the press was already there. By presenting both options as equally viable, I gently slid away the easy choice of simply crushing the craftsmen.
"Hmm..."
"As for Groschel's papermaking industry, I believe it will be necessary to either bring in clean water or purify the dirty water. However, this is something craftsmen cannot solve on their own. Lord
I wanted to impress upon Giebe Groschel, who was deep in thought, that the issues with papermaking were absolutely not the commoners' fault—before he could thrust some unreasonable demand on them.
"How to guide Groschel forward is for Giebe Groschel to decide, so I shall refrain from further interference."
Not sure exactly how far I could safely go, I treaded carefully—defending the commoners while being mindful not to speak too freely. I never knew which single word might shatter an aristocrat's pride.
...If I could say what I wanted, I'd say: "Groschel is your land, Giebe, so instead of lording over your residence and shifting blame to the commoners, why don't you actually watch over things and give proper support?" Or maybe: "Take a page out of Ilgner or Haldenzel's book and actually engage with your commoners properly?"
After finishing dinner, I asked Hartmut on the way back to my guest quarters to compile the day's report from Gutenberg. I needed to report Groschel's situation to my mother and ensure the printing industry progressed smoothly without damaging aristocratic pride. My mother, who was far more knowledgeable about aristocrats than I was—someone not particularly skilled at finding the line between too much and too little—would be better suited for this.
"Understood."
When I returned to my room,
"Since Lady Rozemyne was raised in the
The candy-colored eyes I saw in the mirror truly looked bewildered, and I could tell she genuinely believed her own statement was correct. I could not hide my surprise.
At dinner, I had carefully wrapped my words in sugar-coating to avoid bruising Giebe Groschel's pride, and I thought I had managed to say less than half of what I wanted. But for them, the moment I had prioritized Gutenberg's report over the civil official's, it must have been incomprehensible.
"...I sent Gutenberg specifically to make the printing industry a success, so I am simply thinking about what needs to be done to achieve that. Gutenberg, who has actually worked in Groschel's downtown, gave the report—naturally, I would prioritize it over the words of a civil official who never even goes down to the lower town."
"But Gutenberg is a commoner, isn't he?"
"Yes, he is a commoner. But Gutenberg is my right hand in spreading papermaking and printing in Ilgner and Haldenzel."
...Ah, this won't work. My papermaking and printing methods are simply not compatible with Groschel's local culture.
In Ilgner, a laid-back rural area where the distance between lord and people was close, the new paper had been a runaway success with new types being produced one after another. And it had worked in Haldenzel, a territory managed by the high-ranking Giebe Haldenzel. So I had vaguely thought that even if I didn't mesh with the nobles of the Noble District, success was possible under a Giebe's rule—but apparently, that was not the case.
"...If Brunhilde's thinking represents the average view of Groschel's nobility, then perhaps it would have been better not to introduce papermaking and printing to Groschel at all. My way of thinking, shaped by my Temple upbringing, is probably unsuited to this land."
If they stopped papermaking and bought everything rather than making their own supplies, they could probably limp along with just printing for a while. But compared to producing everything within their own territory, the cost of printing would be astronomically different. Once printing spread to the surrounding areas, Groschel's overpriced printed goods would surely decline quickly. And then the commoners would be branded "incompetent," and in the worst case, unjustly condemned.
...I might need to come up with some countermeasures to minimize harm to the commoners.
As I was deep in thought, imagining the worst-case scenario, Brunhilde set down her comb with a soft clack and knelt on the spot.
"Lady Rozemyne, you believe Groschel's printing industry does not have a very bright outlook, don't you? Why? What is different between Ilgner and Haldenzel on one hand, and Groschel on the other? Please, tell me."
If she asked me to just tell her and I could do so, I would have simply laid everything out for Giebe Groschel at dinner. But having managed to avoid saying it there, it would be pointless to spill everything now.
"If I speak my honest thoughts as they are, there is a high chance of damaging the pride of the nobility. As a noble of Groschel, Brunhilde, you would not feel very good about it..."
"I want to avoid Groschel becoming the first failure case. If there is still time to turn things around, please tell me."
Her candy-colored eyes, looking up at me with a steady gaze, were earnest. I could see the urgency—she needed to make the printing industry, which had been launched in Groschel, succeed.
Because Brunhilde was my attendent and also related to Haldenzel through family ties, Groschel had started the printing industry with access to somewhat more information than usual. And yet failing even with that advantage would surely be a blow to aristocratic pride as well.
...People can't see their own blind spots without someone to point them out.
The differences between yourself and those around you are hard to see on your own. Sometimes it takes a third party to point them out before you can finally see. Whether you can accept it or not is another matter, but if you don't know how you're different, you can't change. Coming from someone like me, who doesn't understand common sense, this must be true.
"...I feel that the nobles of Groschel, compared to those in other territories, do not think about their people."
"That is not the case at all. My father..."
"For Giebe Groschel, commoners are not people to be protected, are they? Not people to live alongside. Am I wrong?"
"They are commoners. We do not live alongside them."
Brunhilde said this as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, and I let out a quiet breath.
"In Ilgner and in Haldenzel, aristocrats and commoners celebrated the Harvest Festival and prayer ceremonies together. The Giebe had the pride of a territorial lord who wanted to protect the commoners living on his land. But I sense none of that in Groschel. You seem far closer to the nobles of the Noble District than to a Giebe who protects his land."
"They are both nobles, though...?"
Brunhilde murmured, perplexed, unable to grasp the difference between a Giebe who governed a territory and a noble who resided in the Noble District.
"I've heard that territorial nobles and Noble District nobles are different. That is precisely why I requested that the civil official in charge of printing be selected from the local nobility. My mother told me that such an official would take the task seriously, working to enrich their own land and guide their people."
Someone accustomed to dealing with commoners, who would devote themselves to developing their own territory—that was the kind of person who should have been chosen as the printing official.
"But Groschel's official was different. He didn't have a firm grasp of the project's progress, didn't go down to the lower town to check conditions, and whenever something went wrong, he pushed the blame onto the commoners."
"But commoners are..."
"Yes, no matter how aristocrats treat commoners, the commoners wouldn't complain. Even if an absurd amount of work were forced upon them, even if they were declared guilty when completely innocent, the ones expected to endure it are always the commoners. In fact, there isn't even the slightest awareness that they're being made to suffer. Because for aristocrats, that is simply how things are."
Brunhilde nodded in agreement. She even seemed somewhat relieved that I, who clearly understood the difference between commoners and aristocrats, had affirmed this.
I shattered that relief with a single sentence.
"But if that is how it is, the printing and papermaking industries will never succeed."
Brunhilde's eyes went wide, as if she truly could not comprehend what I had just said. She blinked several times. Then, her face having gone slightly pale, she asked in a small voice.
"...Why?"
"You don't understand?"
Brunhilde couldn't quite bring herself to say "I don't understand," so she pursed her lips and looked at me with a troubled expression.
"Making paper, making ink, making metal type, making the printing press, printing the books, selling the finished products—it's all done by commoners. If you won't even look at how the printing industry is faring in the lower town, won't even try to understand it, and just crush the commoners by burdening them with blame after they've done everything as they were told, printing will never succeed. Brunhilde, as a born aristocrat, it's not your fault for being unable to understand the feelings of commoners. But if you won't even look toward the lower town or try to learn anything about it, I don't think things will go well."
At the words "never succeed," Brunhilde flinched. The fear of failure, the terror visible on her face—it was a look I recognized.
...Ah, right. A failed new venture would be a stain on an aristocrat's reputation too. And not just personally, but for all of Groschel.
Thinking about it that way, I could fully understand Brunhilde's urgency. At the same time, I found myself thinking that Ilgner had really stuck its neck out by diving into papermaking—a venture with no guarantee of success—even if it had been looking for a way to turn things around.
"The improvements necessary for making papermaking and printing succeed are what I discussed with Giebe Groschel at dinner. Whether to incorporate my suggestions or to continue as before—that choice belongs to Giebe Groschel."
Brunhilde clenched her fists tightly and stood up, saying, "Thank you for telling me. I am truly grateful."
She guided me toward my bed and continued preparations for sleep, but Brunhilde was clearly still turning many things over in her mind. Her candy-colored eyes were submerged in a sea of thought.
"Brunhilde, I can see your pride as an aristocrat, and your determination to ensure that Groschel's noble reputation remains untarnished. That is a very admirable quality. But I ask you to accept that what you must protect as Groschel is not merely its aristocrats, but the land given to Groschel and everyone living upon it."
The next day, we would observe the tax collectors' work, and if there were no particular problems, bring Gutenberg back to Ehrenfest.
Watching the tax collectors' work was my duty as High Priest, so what I had with me were Monica and
The supplies that had been brought to Groschel's summer residence were being checked by the tax collectors, who then had the male servants line them up on the teleportation circle.
As I watched the items being moved one after another,
"Lady Rozemyne, Giebe Groschel has arrived."
When I turned around, I could see Giebe Groschel and Brunhilde approaching with my mother and Hartmut.
Wearing an expression that suggested he had made up his mind, Giebe Groschel knelt before me.
"Lady Rozemyne."
"Yes?"
"I would like you to train Groschel's blacksmiths."
Behind Giebe Groschel, who had declared he could not afford to let the printing industry fail, Brunhilde, my mother, and Hartmut all visibly relaxed their shoulders with a measure of relief. They had probably all been working together to persuade him.
What choice Giebe Groschel had made, and how he intended to change—I didn't know. But I could tell he was thinking about how to make the printing industry succeed. If that was the case, then all I had to do was cooperate as much as I could to help it succeed.
"Very well. I shall ensure they can produce metal type and return them to Groschel."
I immediately asked Fran to convey the Giebe's words to
Watching Fran hurry off toward the detached building, I continued observing the tax collectors' work while telling Giebe Groschel what he should do to ensure the success of papermaking and printing. At the end, I tacked on a small bonus piece of information.
"As long as the downtown area is cleaned up and maintained in a way that doesn't make aristocrats recoil at entering it—just as in Ehrenfest—then with the increase in merchants from other territories, Groschel, situated along the main road, could well develop as a trade city. The skill of Giebe Groschel will be put to the test."
Giebe Groschel blinked in surprise at this unexpected remark.
Brunhilde's family wanted to spread trends, and there simply weren't enough towns that could accommodate merchants. I truly hoped they would work hard to develop the town.
"Now then, please load the cargo."
Once the tax collectors' work was finished and we had eaten lunch, we would return to Ehrenfest. If I summoned the Lessus in front of the detached building, Gutenberg and the others would load cargo with practiced ease.
"I've brought them, Lady Rozemyne!"
In the midst of all this, Johann returned from going to fetch craftsmen from the blacksmith shop in the lower town. Behind him stood two blacksmiths.
"Good work, Johann. Now then, please climb aboard. Let's return to Ehrenfest."
Johann, who had only recently grown accustomed to the Lessus himself, watched with a laugh as the two young blacksmiths nervously clambered aboard.
Hearing Zach's laughter behind me as he watched Johann, I set the Lessus in motion.
Upon returning to the Temple, my usual routine resumed immediately. Music and dedication dance practice, assisting the Chief Priest, and in the afternoon, giving instructions on winter preparations for the Temple and orphanage, while also contacting the Plantant Workshop and the Gilberta Workshop. The copies for
"...Lady Rozemyne, you are busier here at the Temple than you would be at the castle."
"That is because I am expanding the printing industry. If it means more books, I intend to give it my all."
As I answered Philine, I found myself pondering with a furrowed brow.
The papermaking that had started with just Lutz and me had gone through mass production at the Mine Workshop, the
Similarly, printing, which had been run solely through the Temple workshop, was becoming a lord-led enterprise. Not only Haldenzel, but once Groschel's printing industry was on track, and with multiple Giebes already showing interest, it would only be a matter of time before it spread further. The number of books would likely grow exponentially.
Even though I was involved in the printing industry, there was almost nothing left that I could personally do. It had already reached the stage of entrusting everything to the craftsmen—even the management of the workshops was being handed over to others.
"Once Groschel's printing industry is on track, perhaps it will be time to move on to the next phase."
Hartmut picked up on my murmur, and his expression turned curious.
"Lady Rozemyne, what do you mean by 'the next phase'?"
If I was asked, there was no avoiding it. As my attendent, Hartmut would be involved in the printing industry for the rest of his life. There was no harm in telling him about my plans going forward.
I puffed out my chest and declared my vision. When there are more books, one thing becomes necessary.
"I intend to construct a library. For that, I will need to make preparations."
"...Lady Rozemyne, I am terribly sorry, but I cannot connect Groschel's printing industry with the construction of a library."
Hartmut tilted his head in incomprehension, but I couldn't understand why he didn't get it.
"It's simple, isn't it, Hartmut? When the printing industry spreads, there will be more books, right? And when there are more books, you'll need a place to store them. See? Isn't a library necessary?"
The library in Ehrenfest's castle wasn't all that spacious. It could hold several hundred books, but it didn't have the space to house everything that would be printed going forward. No matter how you looked at it, storage space was far too limited.
"Once I complete the courses for a lord candidate and learn creation magic, I want to build a library, just like the Chief Priest who built the Hasse small chapel."
Building it with creation magic—this would be a library of mine, by mine, for mine. Just thinking about it made my heart leap. What a wonderful plan.
Here, there were magical tools that didn't exist in my life as Reina. I might be able to create something even more amazing than the libraries I had seen in Reina's era. No—I would build the finest library in the whole country.
"To create the perfect library, first I should research what kind of libraries exist in other territories."
"...Research libraries? Aren't libraries simply places where you store materials? Wouldn't bookshelves suffice?"
When Philine and Hartmut exchanged glances and said this, I shook my head vigorously in denial.
"A library is not merely a place to store materials! First, you must collect as many materials as possible, organize them for easy use, preserve them carefully, and provide appropriate access to users. I will thoroughly investigate how libraries are run in other territories, especially the Central District, and build the finest library possible. I will create a Rozemyne Library here in Ehrenfest that rivals even the Central District's library with the largest collection!"
As I spoke passionately of my ambitions, Philine nodded with a serious expression.
"You will need Lord Ferdinand's permission."
...Gah! I don't feel like I can clear that first hurdle!
That concludes my conversations with Giebe Groschel and Brunhilde.
The gap between aristocratic common sense and my own is deep and wide.
I can only hope that Groschel's nobles will come to feel genuine affection for their land. With that, our discussion of the printing industry comes to an end.
What Rozemyne aims for is the next stage!
Next up—the completion of Schwartz and the others' outfits.