The next day, we had to process the hide delivery and peel the black hide into white skin, so I brought along a board, a pot, and a bucket.
Working by the fire, occasionally dipping my hands into hot water to warm them up, I peeled the hide with a knife.
"I'll say it clearly—I don't want to do this outside of summer. My fingertips are going numb."
"Yeah. Getting in the river is tough."
Grumbling away, my hands kept working steadily, finishing the white Trombe hide. Even after turning white, I couldn't spot any mold-like blemishes, and I let out a breath of relief.
"...Looks like there's no mold on this one either. That's good."
"I told you Forin aside, Trombe would be fine, right?"
"Because it's a dangerous plant?"
After peeling the hide, we went gathering in the forest. Apparently there were herbs you could only pick during this season, so I followed
"Hey, Lutz. Shouldn't we be picking these red berries? Are they poisonous?"
I noticed that Lutz was avoiding red berries on the ground, each about the size of the first joint of an adult's thumb. They might be dangerous poisonous fruit. Keeping my finger pointed at them without touching, I asked Lutz.
"Oh, you don't need to touch TAU fruit. They're almost entirely water inside. You can't eat them, and if you bring them home, the water just evaporates and they dry up. There's no use for them right now."
"Right now?"
"When summer comes, they grow to about the size of a fist. TAU burst with water when they hit something, so people throw them at each other for fun."
I figured they were like natural water balloons. Bringing them home was pointless—they'd just dry out. And you had to leave them alone for them to grow, apparently. Weird fruit.
"Adults and kids mix together in the streets and throw them at each other. You know how crazy the Star Festival is, right?"
Even though I'd supposedly been here for over a year, I had no memory of any such festival.
"...Hey, Lutz. I've never heard of a Star Festival? Was there a festival in summer?"
"Last Star Festival, you were practically dying, remember? When I went to invite you, your mom said your fever wouldn't come down at all, and after the festival I went to gather bamboo."
Ah, that time.
Lutz's words clarified when exactly it was that I'd nearly died. It was when my wooden tablets were burned and I first became acutely aware of the feeling of being swallowed by Self-Eating.
I'd apparently been unconscious for days, and even after that I'd been bedridden for a while, so even if there was a festival, it wasn't exactly a priority. Probably the same for my family too.
"Turi would have wanted to go too, but she couldn't because of me, right?"
Maybe I was robbing Turi of happy childhood memories. When I hung my head at the thought, Lutz shrugged and shook his head.
"No, your mom was watching you, so Turi actually went. She and
"Oh, really? That's good."
"This year, I hope you can join in too, Mine."
"Yeah."
I promised to take better care of my health this year and try to attend the Star Festival, then finished our gathering.
Even after making the promise, I wasn't sure my parents would let me participate in a water-throwing festival.
Starting the next day, we worked in front of the storage shed.
The water was freezing, so we repeatedly dipped our hands in hot water while we worked, making Forin paper with the Screen Frames the size of a contract document.
While letting those dry over several days, I also started making paper from Trombe white hide in the meantime.
"The Forin paper has dried. It was nice and sunny today."
"Trombe needs to air-dry for a full day tomorrow, right?"
We confirmed the process back and forth, then split the 26 finished sheets of Forin paper in half with Lutz. Receiving his 13 sheets, Lutz furrowed his brow with a troubled look.
"Hey, Mine. Why are we splitting them here? Can't we just give them to the boss and split the money in half?"
"Because I want the actual product.
If I tried to buy paper after selling it to Benno, I'd lose 30% in commission. So it was better not to sell that portion in the first place.
"You mean you're not selling yours?"
"I'm only selling half. I'm keeping the rest to collect paper and make books."
Now that we'd settled on the recipe and were getting more practiced, failures were becoming rare. I wanted to make books, but without enough paper that was a problem. Lately, my mother had been telling me all sorts of stories, and it was getting harder and harder to keep track without writing them down.
Since the work was done, I decided to take the finished paper straight to Benno while returning the storage shed key.
"Oh, it's done?"
Benno took the Forin paper from both Lutz and me and counted the sheets. Lutz had 13, and I had 6. He frowned at the obviously different numbers.
"Yours is fewer, Mine. What happened?"
"I wanted to keep the paper, so I took it as my share. If you'd bought the raw materials for us, that'd be one thing, but we gathered the raw materials ourselves, so it should be fine, right?"
"...Fair enough. I don't mind regarding the materials you gathered yourself, but what exactly are you planning to do with it?"
Benno's expression was a bit guarded as he questioned me.
"I want to make books. That's why I wanted paper."
"Books? ...What good are those? They won't sell."
"Huh? I'm reading them myself?"
Benno and I looked at each other and tilted our heads in mutual bewilderment. There was no way Benno, who couldn't understand using expensive paper for something that wasn't a product, and I, who didn't care about profit and just wanted books, could see eye to eye on this.
"Well, fine. One sheet of this size sells for one large silver coin. Commission is 30%. How much is your cut?"
Lutz still didn't fully grasp the proportions. As he started to panic, I immediately gave the answer.
"Seven small silver coins."
"Haah!? Seven small silver coins!? Wha— wait, isn't that too much!?"
Lutz apparently hadn't anticipated this at all, and upon hearing the amount, his jaw dropped.
"...Lutz, calm down. It might feel like a lot right now, but we only get to keep our share until the
"Don't worry about it, you—"
I was trying to calm him down, but Lutz just started rolling his eyes even more in disbelief.
"Today you sold 13 sheets, so that's nine large silver coins and one small silver coin. I sold six, so I get four large silver coins and two small silver coins."
"Yeah, nine large silver coins doesn't exactly sound like 'pennies' to me."
"Huh? Then should I lower the selling price?"
Seeing Lutz look like he was about to chicken out, I tilted my head slightly and made a suggestion, but Benno, sitting across from us, made a bitter face and shook his head, rejecting it.
"Don't lower the selling price. It'll create friction with the vested interests. Keep it the same for now. Once it's circulating to a certain degree, I'll figure out the selling price. If you're scared of handling large sums, I could add extra commission on top?"
At the end, Benno grinned at Lutz.
"We don't have any say in the pricing, so I'll leave that to you, Benno, but I won't accept a commission change. Right, Lutz? If you don't want the money, I'll take it for you."
"I'm taking both! It's just that it was a lot of money and it freaked me out a little!"
Clutching his guild card against his chest, Lutz barked out. Since the guild card identified its owner through blood, no one else could use it. It was a pretty safe place to keep money.
"If you leave it with the guild, you'll never have to see the cash yourself, so there's nothing to be scared of."
"Dammit, I'm jealous of how thick-skinned you are, Mine."
"Thick-skinned? That's mean!"
Back during my time as Reina, I'd saved up, and in this world I'd already received small gold coins and spent them on Magical Tools that consumed most of it, so I was simply used to large sums changing hands. I wasn't thick-skinned at all.
Still pouting, I settled up with Benno and my card. I decided to give five large copper coins to my family and received the rest in cash. Lutz similarly split his share into a family portion and savings, then finished his settlement.
A few days later, Lutz, who had gone to borrow the storage shed key, came back with a letter and a large package. Technically it wasn't a letter—it was an invitation written on a board. And inside the package was a cloak-like garment with a hood that you threw over your head.
"What's this?"
Lutz held up ponchos in different colors, brow furrowed. I read through the invitation. The meeting place and the reason were listed concisely in bullet points.
"They want to meet at the Central Plaza at the fourth bell to go buy clothes."
"Huh? Clothes?"
"...Apparently there are people coming to complain about the paper we made. They want to discuss how to deal with the situation, but they want to avoid the other party noticing our existence. Our appearance would stand out at that shop, so they're telling us to come wearing these."
"What? What's that all about!? Is something dangerous going on?"
We both tried on the poncho-like garments that went over our heads. They were quite warm and hid most of our clothes. As long as they concealed our ragged outfits, that was good enough.
With the hood up, our hair and faces would be mostly hidden, so we decided to wear the hoods whenever we went out. My hairpin was apparently very conspicuous.
"I'm not sure if it's dangerous or not, but if we're meeting
As I checked the condition of the Trombe paper, Lutz glared at me in exasperation.
"Mine, why are you so carefree about this!?"
"Huh? But starting something new was always going to clash with vested interests. I expected it. The reaction was faster than I thought, though..."
"Vested interests?"
Lutz frowned, repeating the unfamiliar term on his tongue.
"Groups that already hold the right to make profits. Benno told us, remember? That lowering the price would clash with vested interests. This time it's probably the people who make parchment."
"So what if they make parchment? Our paper is made from trees, so it's got nothing to do with them, right?"
From the standpoint of how they were made, there seemed to be no relation at all, but their uses and customer base were exactly the same. Until now, there had been no threat to their profits whatsoever, so I imagined they were panicking at the existence of an unfamiliar new paper.
"Well, see, until now they were the only ones who could make paper, so no matter how expensive it was, everyone had no choice but to buy parchment for contracts, right? But if another type of paper comes along, it's going to take away their existing customers."
"Yeah, that's true."
Lutz nodded in understanding. When an item with the same purpose appeared, it was only natural that some customers would look that way.
"And then, their sales wouldn't be the same as before, right? That's what they're afraid of. Besides, when something starts selling in large quantities, prices tend to go down."
"Is that so?"
I drew a simple graph on the slate. Two straight lines for the X and Y axes, plus two curves representing supply and demand, and I explained the relationship.
"This shows the relationship between 'demand' and 'supply.' This is the 'demand curve,' and this is the 'supply curve.' 'Demand' is the people who want a particular product, and 'supply' is the product itself."
"Oh."
"When many people want it and there's little product available, the price goes up."
Pointing to the tops of the two curves, I said that, and Lutz showed he understood: "Yeah, when supply is low, anything gets expensive."
"Then, as more product becomes available, the people who want it gradually get their hands on it, so the number of people who still want it decreases, right? That's why the price keeps dropping."
As I explained, I slid my finger along to where the two curves intersected.
"When there's more product than people who want it, then no matter how much you prepare, it won't sell, right? So the price just keeps falling."
Moving my finger further, the demand and supply curves completely reversed their positions.
"See? The more paper we make, the more the price of paper drops just like this. The people who make parchment don't want to lower the price of parchment, and they want to secure their current profits, so they're coming to complain about the new paper."
"Hey, isn't this bad?"
I smiled and shook my head at Lutz's worried expression.
"If Benno is trying to hide our existence, it means we should leave dealing with those people to him. You don't have to worry, Lutz. We won't know the details until we hear them out, though."
By the meeting time specified in the invitation, we had 24 sheets of Trombe paper ready, but I decided to leave them in storage to see how the other party would approach things.
"Lutz, make sure to keep your hood up so they can't tell your hair color or facial features."
The fact that Benno was sending us clothes to wear meant he was being cautious—and that being caught up in something dangerous wasn't impossible either.
A little on edge, I waited in the Central Plaza, and after the fourth bell, Mark arrived.
"I'm sorry to keep you waiting. As promised, let's go buy the clothes you need for your apprenticeship."
"Thank you very much."
I wasn't going to become an apprentice, so I didn't really need the clothes, but it might be a good idea to buy some that wouldn't stand out when visiting Benno's shop.
While I was thinking about whether that would be a waste of money, Mark mistakenly thought I was unwell and suddenly scooped me up into his arms.
"I can walk on my own!?"
"You were groaning, so I just got worried. Please let me do this for my own peace of mind."
"I was just lost in thought! I'm perfectly healthy!"
Without breaking his smile, Mark picked up his pace slightly. He had absolutely no intention of listening to my protests.
"Please, feel free to continue thinking."
"Lutz~!"
"That's faster, so just stay put."
Even my plea to Lutz was rejected, so I gave up resisting.
Ugh, this is what being surrounded by enemies feels like!
The three of us entered a shop that dealt in Western-style clothing, and the shopkeeper greeted us warmly. Both the staff and customers wore refined, well-kept clothes. If Lutz and I had come alone, we'd have probably been turned away at the door.
"Oh my, Mark. Welcome. For an apprentice?"
"Yes, that's right. I'd like to place an order for two sets of clothes."
So the apprenticeship clothes were custom-made here? The shopkeeper smiled and nodded at Mark's concise order.
"Huh? Two sets? Including me?"
Lutz aside, I wasn't going to become an apprentice. But Mark nodded without wavering.
"If you enter and leave the shop dressed like that, you'll inevitably stand out. I'm sorry to trouble you, but please make them. Even if Mine isn't becoming an apprentice, she'll be coming and going to the shop, so it's convenient to have one set."
"...That's true."
Even if I wasn't becoming an apprentice, my opportunities to visit Benno to develop new products, discuss profits, or consult on home-based work wouldn't change from now on. Yet the idea of Lutz in a nice apprentice outfit while I stayed in rags was disheartening. I had the money to spend now, so maybe it was worth getting clothes made.
Lutz, who was pulled into the back of the shop before me, was stripped down to his underwear and had his entire body measured.
I was pulled into a different room and had my clothes removed too. Being measured here and there was exhausting.
"The deposit will be one small silver coin."
"Yes."
I ordered a full set of clothes like what apprentices wore—from top to bottom, including shoes—and paid the one small silver coin deposit with my guild card. Just as Benno had said, the final price would be just under ten small silver coins. That would get a complete apprentice outfit.
After the order was placed, Mark took us to Benno. Benno had been staring at the paper with a slightly troubled look, but when he saw us, his expression softened.
"Oh, you're here. Things have gotten complicated, so I've been second-guessing whether this was overkill, but I'm staying cautious. You two do the same—don't let your guard down. When profit is involved, there are people who'll do anything, no matter where they are."
It seemed like even Benno considered this excessive caution, but with profit at stake, he told us not to be careless. He added that since we were children before our Baptism, wearing apprentice clothes meant we probably wouldn't be noticed lurking around the shop.
"The vested interests mentioned on the board—was it really the Parchment Association people?"
"That's right. A complaint was filed from the Parchment Association to the commercial guild."
"To the commercial guild?"
I tilted my head, not quite understanding the relationship between the Parchment Association and the commercial guild. Benno briefly explained that mediating—protecting vested interests and resolving friction with new businesses—was one of the commercial guild's jobs.
"Yesterday evening, a complaint was apparently filed with the commercial guild saying that someone outside the Parchment Association was making paper without joining or paying fees. They received a request to crack down on these lawless individuals acting on their own."
"I see, and then?"
There was no way Benno would just take that lying down. He must have found some sort of middle ground. Without worrying much, I prompted him to continue, and Benno raised the corner of his lip like a triumphant predator.
"I lodged a proper counterargument. This isn't paper made from animal hide, so it has absolutely nothing to do with the Parchment Association. I told them to back off."
Benno's aggressively combative attitude sent a chill down my spine.
Instead of finding a middle ground, had he just picked a direct fight with the vested interests?
"Huh? Um, you didn't try to feel out some kind of compromise?"
"Don't be stupid. If you come in soft from the start, they'll walk all over you. Besides, we didn't steal their manufacturing method, so there's no reason for us to pay licensing fees. There's no way paper made from animal hide and paper made from plants could be produced the same way, and there's no hierarchy between them. They just want to monopolize every right related to paper and, if possible, drain our profits too."
I understood that this was how Benno operated and that complaining wouldn't help, but couldn't he have been a little more diplomatic?
"Well, parchment uses animal hide as its raw material, so I don't think they can suddenly ramp up production. If the commercial guild acts as a mediator, couldn't you work out an agreement that parchment is the official paper for formal contracts, securing their existing sales channels and profits to a reasonable degree?"
"You're as soft as ever."
Benno snorted.
If they secured their sales channels and profits and parchment was officially recognized as the proper paper, wouldn't they settle down? Or was that too naive?
"I don't like pointless fights. Besides, ideally I want to increase the circulation of paper so it can be used for all sorts of things. Not just contracts—books, notebooks, drawing pads, origami... I want to make things that even children can use easily."
"That's a remarkably grand dream."
Benno muttered, eyes widening in exasperation.
"Huh? Grand? If we can make it in large quantities, I think it's achievable. That's why I think we should boldly set Forin paper cheaper than parchment and use it for things other than contracts. For example, those reports over there. Putting them on paper would make them much easier to carry and store. Easier to write on than a slate, too..."
"Interesting, dividing uses by paper type... I suppose I could put it forward as a proposal."
This time he didn't call it naive. Benno narrowed his eyes with a scheming look, as if something had struck a chord with both his aspirations and his profit calculations.
"If we're dividing uses by paper, would Trombe paper be the premium line? Honestly, I think it's better quality than parchment."
"Yes. I'm planning to set the Trombe price considerably higher than parchment."
"Considerably?"
At Benno's words, my eyes went wide, and he narrowed his in return, looking back and forth between me and Lutz.
"...You two, are you perhaps not aware?"
"Of what?"
"Lutz, what are Trombe's characteristics?"
At the sudden question, Lutz flinched, then rattled off everything he could think of.
"Huh? Characteristics? It's a tree that sucks up the nutrients from all the surrounding soil at once and grows at an incredible rate, and it's hard to burn."
"Oh, wait! ...Is paper made from Trombe hard to burn?"
Come to think of it, Father had said furniture made from Trombe was hard to burn and often survived fires. He'd said young, soft wood wasn't good for furniture, but apparently it was fine for paper.
"Yeah, that's right. Compared to normal paper, it's overwhelmingly hard to burn. It's not completely fireproof, of course, but it's the ideal paper for national secrets and state-level public documents. Paper that's hard to burn is naturally going to be expensive."
That was certainly a special paper, and being expensive was only natural.
Even in
"Understood. ...So how much is Trombe paper?"
"Five large silver coins for a contract-sized sheet."
"Whoa..."
The aggressively high price gave me a headache, and Lutz was so stunned he couldn't even speak, but Benno said it matter-of-factly: "Paper that's hard to burn and rarely available—of course it'd be this much."
"Also, until the negotiations with the Parchment Association are settled, don't show your faces at the shop for a while. There's a reason I want to keep you hidden. If the method of making paper leaks out and strange distribution channels form, there could be deaths."
"What?"
At the suddenly serious talk, I blinked in shock. Benno brought up the Contract Magic I'd completely forgotten about.
"The Contract Magic stipulates that Mine decides who gets to make paper, and it's sold through Lutz. If someone who doesn't know about the contract starts making and selling it on their own, there's no telling what will happen."
"Huh!? Contract Magic is that dangerous!? And it covers even people who don't know about it!?"
I clutched my head at this completely unexpected development. I'd never imagined that the Contract Magic, which I'd sought out to secure our livelihood, could have such dangerous ramifications.
"It's something that guarantees rights to nobles, you know. Even someone who doesn't know about the contract faces some kind of penalty the moment they violate it. So we're keeping Mine and Lutz's existence hidden, declaring to the commercial guild that our shop has a contract to produce and sell paper, and using that to keep the Parchment Association in check."
Perhaps the Contract Magic hadn't secured our livelihood after all—it might have invited danger toward us instead. The right to decide who could make plant-based paper, which I held, and the right to sell it, which Lutz held—perhaps we were actually in a rather dangerous position.
"We want to keep hidden that you two hold these rights. I'll leave the storage shed key here, so don't come to the shop for a while. Once the talks are resolved, I'll contact you through
At Benno's dependable words, Lutz and I nodded without a second thought.
Things were getting a bit dicey, but Benno would handle it.
After all, Benno had only made an upfront investment and hadn't taken any profit from the paper yet, so there was no way he'd consider canceling the contract.
Next time, we choose a papermaking workshop.