Dedicating the Book to Benno and the Fitting

Today I had to go to the Gilberta Company, so I put on my apprentice clothes. My apprentice clothes and the other nice outfits I own are all thin long sleeves, so they're a bit too cold for this time of year. Lately I've been living in the hooded poncho Benno gave me last winter, but I can't stay in this outfit forever.

"We should buy some winter clothes soon."

"Winter clothes?"

I nodded at Tuuli's words. I'd been bedridden a lot at home recently, so honestly I didn't need everyday clothes as much anymore. But with all the trips to the temple and the Gilberta Company, I did need proper winter wear to match.

"Invite me when you go shopping. This time I'll definitely win."

Come to think of it, Tuuli and Lutz used to tie, didn't they? Since then, Tuuli had gotten quite enthusiastic about looking at clothes.

"Oh, Tuuli. I was planning to go present the book to Benno today and then head out to buy clothes afterward, so—"

"...Today I have work, you know?"

Yesterday was her day off, so I'd had her help at Myne's Workshop. Today Tuuli was working. Smiling at the resentful look she was shooting me, I placed the finished picture book into my usual tote bag.

"Don't give me that face, Tuuli."

"But—"

"We need to buy winter clothes for the attendants too, so let's go together when our days off line up. If you're going to teach sewing lessons, shouldn't you have at least one set of winter clothes yourself?"

"Huh? For me!?"

Tuuli had been a huge help — teaching cooking classes, taking the children into the forest, and now she'd be teaching sewing lessons too — but I'd never properly paid her for any of it.

Lutz's situation was more like a secondment from the Gilberta Company, and I gave him a little extra on top of his wages, plus a share of the new product revenue, so I'd been thinking it was about time to give Tuuli something as well.

"Think of it as payment for being a teacher."

"...I can't really teach anything worth that much, though."

She pouted and puffed out her cheeks, but they were tinged rose, and her expression was clearly pleased. As long she was happy about it, that was fine. I'd splurge on her.

"Let's go, Myne."

Lutz had come to pick me up, so I grabbed my bag and headed outside. I could feel the wind growing steadily sharper against my skin.

"Morning, Lutz. ...So you decided to use yours after all?"

Lutz had shot up quite a bit over the past year, and he used to complain that the poncho was getting tight and he didn't want to wear it anymore, but apparently he'd finally surrendered to the cold. He was wearing a poncho in a different color from mine.

"I was just telling Tuuli that when our next days off line up, we should go buy winter clothes together."

"Yeah, you do need clothes at this point."

Lutz glanced down at his shrunken poncho and let out a small sigh.

For reference, I'd grown a little too. The poncho that used to hang off me like a scarecrow's oversized clothes was only a touch loose now.

I think it was because I'd been faithfully offering my mana, which meant I collapsed from self-consumption less often. I was still frail, but even a small decrease in collapsing meant more meals of actual food. On top of that, the meals at the temple were lavish enough to rival what nobles ate.

The result of collapsing a little less and getting to eat filling, nutritious food was that I'd gotten a bit bigger. Thank you, Liedenschaft, God of Fire who governs growth!

"Pray to the gods!"

"What the—!?"

"Ah, sorry. I don't know why I did that."

It seemed I'd gotten rather used to the habits of the temple. I was now naturally doing the blessings-of-Gu— in public. I needed to be more careful.

Drawing looks from passersby, I wiped away an embarrassed sweat and arrived at the Gilberta Company alongside Lutz.

"Good morning, Mark. I have something I'd like to show Benno — is he in?"

"Yes, Sir is in the back room. Please wait just a moment."

Mark announced our arrival, and Lutz and I headed into the back room. Benno was at his desk, furiously scribbling away at something.

"Good morning, Benno."

"Good morning, Sir."

We waited until Benno's hand movements reached a natural pause, then greeted him. He set his pen down and returned our greetings. Stretching his back and loosening up, he gestured for us to sit at the table.

"Understood."

Lutz said this, then told me to sit as well before vanishing through the inner door connecting to Benno's home.

"Benno, where's Lutz going?"

"Oh, I sent him to have the servants prepare tea."

Benno moved over to the table as well. He spoke as though it were the most natural thing in the world, but it was the first time I'd seen Lutz go up through that inner door.

"Is it okay for him to just go in there?"

"Just go in...? Lutz is a Bluepriest, you know. He's still a child, so for now I only have him help with lunch and such. His parents send him here to work, but once he's an adult, he'll move in like Mark does and take care of day-to-day operations."

"Huh..."

Having not become a merchant apprentice myself, I still didn't have a clear grasp of the difference between Blueshirts and Bluepriests. I could only think of them as roughly equivalent to contract workers versus management-track employees.

"Your knowledge really is skewed in the strangest ways."

Benno let out an exasperated sigh almost at the same moment Lutz returned. Lutz hesitated, uncertain whether to stand behind Benno or sit next to me.

"Lutz, since we made it together, sit here this time."

I patted the chair beside me to call him over, and Benno gave a slight nod. Lutz sat down next to me and smiled softly.

"So, what is it you want to show me?"

"Ta-da! Here it is — a picture book of the Scriptures for children."

"...It's done."

Benno murmured in disbelief as he took the picture book I held out. He flipped between the front and back covers, squinting at the binding thread.

"This is held together with just thread? You didn't use any glue?"

"The glue isn't ready yet. I considered starch paste too, but it would drive up the cost even more, and the orphanage children protested, saying flour would be a waste. They told me they'd rather eat it than turn it into glue."

Having seen how hungry those children were, I couldn't bring myself to use flour for paste.

"Hmm," Benno said, running his fingers over the embossed flower design on the cover.

"Still, a cover that isn't leather is unusual. This is the same flower embossing from the gift you gave me before, isn't it?"

"Yes. Since it's a cover after all, I had some adjustments made. If I could add color, I could make it even cuter, I think. I considered extracting dye from nuts and such, but the orphanage children always prioritize food over everything else."

These were children who had started working from a place of wanting to eat their fill. Naturally, food meant more to them than books. This time I'd prioritized getting the book finished, but when I had time, I needed to figure out how to extract dye from inedible nuts, plants, stones, and tree bark. That was a challenge for the future.

"How far did you get with just black and white?"

Saying this, Benno turned the cover, flipping through the pages. The most striking image inside was Wilma's illustration. Benno's eyes widened as he stared at the picture.

"...This illustration is incredible. What is this technique?"

"Hehe. You cut thick paper with a cutter, then splash ink over it from above. Um, a stencil? A cutout? Something like that. Wilma worked hard to develop this new technique. Amazing, right?"

I puffed out my chest, proudly showing off my attendant's work, and Benno buried his face in his hands with a groan.

"A new technique... Once again, you went ahead without consulting anyone... one thing after another—"

"Now, now, don't look so pained about it. Plant paper books are already new in themselves, so isn't it kind of a 'what does it matter at this point' situation?"

There were books made from parchment, but books made from plant paper would be a first. Adding a new illustration technique on top of that shouldn't be cause for complaint.

"'What does it matter,' she says..."

"Think about it — this is the very first children's picture book of the Scriptures, made with new plant paper, new ink, a new illustration technique, and a new printing method, bound with nothing but thread in stab binding. There's almost nothing traditional about it."

Benno stared at the picture book as though looking at something unsettling, then scratched his head vigorously.

"My head hurts. ...So, what's the price?"

"If we want to recoup the initial investment, I'd say one small gold coin and five large silver coins. If we keep making picture books, the initial investment gets spread out, so eventually the price would settle around eight large silver coins."

We'd gathered the soot ourselves this time too, but actually producing soot and making ink from it would drive up raw material costs. When you factored in the initial investment, raw materials, labor, and handling fees, that price seemed about right.

In practice, we'd made the paper ourselves and bought everything through Lutz at the orphanage, so we'd saved on Benno's handling fees — but still.

"Hoh..."

"If Foren paper circulates a bit more, the price should come down, right? Then maybe the book's price could drop a little too? But the ink... Unless linseed oil gets cheaper, there's nothing we can do about that part. It really is expensive."

I threw my hands up in resignation, and Benno shook his head lightly.

"Books that nobles buy run four to five large gold coins, so this is cheap by comparison. You could call it a bargain. The content is simple too, so it's well-suited for children learning to read."

"If you wanted to make it fancier, we could try covering just the cover in leather — it wouldn't be impossible. But I'd rather have more content inside than a fancy cover."

Buying books was something only those living like nobles could afford. But if a slightly cheaper version existed, there would certainly be people who wanted one as a status symbol. Vanity-driven wealthy merchants would absolutely bite if the cover were made a little more luxurious.

"I see. Wealthy merchants would indeed be interested, at the very least. ...Do you have plans to make other books?"

"For now, I plan to make several picture books like this one. Cutting out the letters is tough, so I'd like to keep the text short. Besides, my illustrator can only draw certain things. Wilma is a sheltered girl who's never left the temple, so she can't draw anything remotely ordinary."

Recently she'd started making soup, which helped a little, but even for food, many items looked nothing like their original form. Household tools were also scarce at the orphanage — they didn't even have proper tools, sewing supplies, or the knives and baskets needed for forest excursions.

"...That is rather extreme."

"It can't be helped when our living environments are that different. The best approach is to have Wilma draw what she's best at. I just need to come up with stories that suit those subjects. There are plenty of stories about the gods, after all."

"But a diet of nothing but god stories would get old..."

"It'd get kinda boring, right?"

I smiled wryly at Lutz's words. It was the kind of story that was most accessible and appealing to the orphanage children, but it apparently fell flat with the general public.

"Also, if I'm going to make text-only books, there are some things I want to create first to improve efficiency and enable mass production."

"What would those be?"

"One is a master stencil for stencil printing. You coat plant paper — thin and uniform enough to be see-through — with a mixture of wax and pine resin, spreading it extremely thin. Honestly, both parts require the skill of a trained craftsman. There's no machinery either... At minimum, I'd need cooperation from the wax workshop. I don't think it would be possible without that."

I honestly didn't expect it to be easy. There would be tons of failed plant paper, and the wax mixture would require endless trial and error. The thin coating would be difficult to achieve, and we'd exhaust ourselves in the process. But once completed, you could carve text just by writing, which would make things enormously easier.

"Wax, huh. ...Not possible this season, I'd imagine? The workshop is too busy."

"Right? And the other option is movable type printing. Right now I'm weighing whether to start with the master stencils or begin making type for movable type printing."

"What exactly is the problem?"

Benno tilted his head. Lutz did the same.

"If we can get Johann from the smithy, making the type itself wouldn't be too difficult. But movable type printing requires heavy labor — you'd need to operate a press. It'd be a bit too much for the orphanage children."

It was said that newspapers came to be called "the press" because of the pressure applied during printing. If we tried to do movable type printing here, it would be grueling physical labor.

"On the other hand, stencil printing is hard because making the master stencil is difficult, but once that's done, even a child could do the actual printing."

"Mm, this is tricky."

Both Benno and Lutz furrowed their brows in thought.

"See? Well, either way, I need to save up money before any of it matters. This time I spent quite a lot. This picture book is going to be used as a textbook at the orphanage, so there's no profit in it..."

"Hah!? You're not selling it!? Myne, what on earth are you thinking!?"

I'd been hoping that if the orphanage's winter handicrafts sold well, I might recoup the costs. Instead, Benno's thunder crashed down on me. My shoulders trembled as I blinked several times.

"Huh? Huh? Benno, what are you talking about? If I sell them, there won't be any textbooks left!"

"Then why make something that isn't for sale!? It looks like it would sell, so sell it!"

"No way! I'm using them as textbooks! Besides, raising literacy rates is a perfectly legitimate initial investment! We're cultivating future customers!"

This winter, I'd decided to experiment with whether a temple classroom could be set up at the orphanage. I absolutely was not selling the textbooks. If anything, I wanted to buy multiple slates and abacuses.

I made my case as hard as I could, but Benno shook his head with a thoroughly exhausted expression.

"I can't understand the way you think."

"...Besides, we don't even know how well this picture book will be received by the town's children, do we? I think the reason the stories haven't really taken root is because people have only heard them at the temple up until now. If that's the case, I'd rather make a new picture book with broader appeal and sell that instead. That would be better."

If the textbooks were going to get seized anyway, I'd rather make a new, commercially viable picture book.

"A new picture book?"

"You're already thinking about the next one?"

Both Benno and Lutz looked thoroughly shocked, but I didn't need to think that hard — I had a stockpile of stories. The number would only shrink when I had to match them to what Wilma could draw.

"I think Wilma, who used to serve a noble lady, could draw a princess-type story. Once I write an outline, I'll have the High Priest review it and turn it into a picture book."

I figured I could make a picture book based on Cinderella. If I had Christine as the model for the princess's appearance, it would look the part. As for the prince... I wasn't sure how that would work, but during the Star Festival, all the attendants had gone with their masters to the noble's quarter, so it would probably be fine.

"Well, selling it is something to worry about after it's made. So, how much do I owe you for this picture book?"

"This is a dedication to someone who's helped me, so you really don't need to pay..."

When I hedged, Benno raised the corner of his lips slightly.

"...What are you asking for this time?"

"On Tuuli's next day off, I want to buy winter clothes. Please take me to the secondhand clothing shop you took me to before."

"Ah, understood. I or Mark will make sure we're free. Anything else?"

Prompted by Benno, I took out my writing board and opened it. I looked down at the list of things I'd wanted to ask him about.

"It's about the pork processing at the orphanage. We'll need salt and spices too, right? How much should I prepare? When pork was being processed before, I was usually bedridden and barely remember anything. This is the first time we'll be doing it at the orphanage, so I think everything including the tools needs to be procured from scratch..."

"...That will cost money. You'll be all right?"

Benno looked at me sharply. I met his reddish-brown eyes and nodded firmly.

"I'm prepared for it to eat up all the profits from the Trombe."

Myne's Workshop, Orphanage Branch had been created so the orphanage children could live independent lives. Most of the money set aside for their labor costs and the workshop's profits could be spent on the orphanage without issue.

"Understood. I'll get everything together. In exchange, I'll work the men hard — we're short-staffed over here."

"Got it. ...Also, what's the status on the ceremonial outfit? I'd like you to confirm with Corinna."

I lowered my gaze to my writing board and raised my other concern, and Benno clapped his hands as though remembering something.

"Ah, yes — Corinna mentioned that too. If you have time, go see her today. She said she wanted to do a fitting."

Benno stood, went to his desk, rang the bell, and called over a female servant. He told her to ask about Corinna's schedule and to let her know I was here. The woman went up and down the stairs, then returned to say Corinna would need a little time to prepare, and went back up again.

"Benno, if you need to get back to work, please do. We're done talking."

"Sorry about that."

With the winter preparation season approaching, logistics were booming, and Benno, as the head of the large Gilberta Company, was busy. It would be rude to keep him any longer now that our conversation was finished.

While I waited, I chatted with Lutz about the Cinderella story and started writing out the picture book's text.

The sound of a bell echoed from somewhere. Benno looked up and said simply, "Lutz, take Myne to Corinna," then lowered his head again.

Guided by Lutz, I went through the inner door and up the stairs to Corinna's home.

"Corinna, it's Lutz. I've brought Myne."

"Welcome, Myne. Lutz, you can head back now."

Unlike the times I'd seen her before, Corinna was wearing loose, comfortable clothing that didn't restrict her belly. Perhaps because of this, her stomach looked a bit bigger than before. It was reassuring to see things going smoothly.

"Aren't the embroideries lovely?"

The blue fabric Corinna spread out had rough cutting lines drawn on it, and along those lines, a flowing water design and the flowers of spring, summer, autumn, and winter had been embroidered.

"It's beautiful..."

"Now, here's the fitting garment. Try it on for me, please. I want to make sure the length isn't a problem."

I slipped my arms into the fitting garment, made from different fabric than the real thing. Since it was sewn to precise measurements, it fit almost perfectly. If the final garment were tailored to these exact dimensions, it would be unworn in no time.

After all, I was growing. Hehehe.

"Corinna, could you make the fabric a bit longer and add tucks?"

"Tucks?"

"I'd like it tailored with room to grow, so it can still be worn later. Something like folding it over and stitching it here, or taking up pleats..."

When I pinched the fabric around my waist and folded it in, Corinna tilted her head thoughtfully.

"You mean like the clothes from your baptism ceremony? But the ceremonial outfit shouldn't have extra pleats, should it?"

"That dress was... adjusted to fit Tuuli's measurements, so it's similar, I suppose. But once you cut the fabric with scissors, you can't add more later, can you? I'm not asking for actual pleats — just fold and stitch extra fabric at the waist, shoulders, and cuffs so it can be let out..."

When I pinched the fabric at the sleeves and shoulders to demonstrate, Corinna blinked in puzzlement and tilted her head.

"If it no longer fits, you can just have a new one made, can't you? Fashion changes, and clothes need to fit the body properly to look good."

With kimono, you'd add tucks at the waist and shoulders when tailoring children's clothes so they could still be worn as the child grew. But here, the custom was to sell clothes that no longer fit and buy new ones, so longevity didn't seem to be a priority.

"Corinna, that's a noble's way of thinking, isn't it? No matter how much I grow, I can't afford to have something this expensive remade over and over."

Even this time, it worked out because Benno happened to give me the fabric as a gift, and the only costs were dyeing and tailoring. But if I were buying fabric outright, the cost of thread and weaving would double the price. I didn't have the kind of money to remade such expensive fabric repeatedly.

"That's true. I suppose I've gone numb to it, since the only garments I've ever tailored from such luxurious fabric were for the upper nobility. You're not a noble, after all, Myne."

"The ceremonial outfit has a simple design, so I doubt it would be affected much by fashion. Please prioritize longevity when making it."

"Understood."

Corinna nodded as though convinced.

"Then, would you show me the tailoring methods you know? Do you know what kinds of tucks look neat from the outside?"

"Well, first at the shoulders..."

After that, we discussed how wide the tucks should be and how to construct the garment, then completed the fitting.

...Ah! If I told Tuuli the fitting was done, would she cry?

The finished children's Scriptures picture book was going to become a new source of headaches for Benno.

Next time: presenting the book to the High Priest.