Ascendance of a Bookworm

The next day I took the plates, pans and buckets because I had to take the skin in and peel the black skin into white skin.

While it hits the fire, sometimes I peel the skin with a knife as I warm it with my hands on hot water.

"Clarify me, you don't want to do anything but summer. Fingertips jingle"

"Right. It's tough going into the river."

While zeroing stupidity, the hands move firmly to complete the white skin of the trombe. I did not see any particularly mildewy spots, even on white skin, and I exhaled a relieved breath.

"... it looks like you didn't even grow mold in particular. Good."

"Whatever Follin said, Trombe's fine, right?

"It's a dangerous plant, isn't it?

When you are done peeling, collect in the woods. They say there are medicinal herbs you can't take unless this is the time of year, so I picked them up and walked with them while Lutz taught me.

"Hey, Lutz. You're not actually picking up this red fruit? Poison?"

I noticed that Lutz avoids passing through red fruits that are falling into the woods, about the size of the first joint of an adult's thumb. Maybe it's the fruit of a dangerous poison. I ask Lutz with my fingers pointing out not to touch.

"Oh, you don't actually have to touch Tau's. This is mostly water inside. I can't eat it, and when I take it home, I just run out of water and it's crunchy, and now I don't have a use for it."

"Now what?

"In the summer, I'm getting about as big as a fist. Tau can play water when he hits something, so he plays with each other."

I gave an idea that it would be like a natural water balloon. It just withers when I take it home, and if I don't leave it like this, it doesn't seem to get any bigger.

Weird fruit.

"Grown-ups and kids get messed up and bump into each other all over the city. Look, it's a great time for a star festival, isn't it?

I'm supposed to be here for over another year, but I don't remember any of those festivals.

"... Hey, Lutz. I've never heard of a star festival? Were there any festivals in the summer?

"You were dying at the previous star festival. When I went to ask her out, she said the fever wouldn't go down at all, and after the festival, I picked up the bamboo."

Oh, that time.

In Rutz's words, it turns out when he was dying. It was the first time I realized clearly what it felt like to be burned and swallowed by a tree jane.

He didn't return to consciousness for days, and he slept for a while afterwards, so even with the festival, it wasn't the other way around. Maybe the same thing for my family.

"You're supposed to want to play Toori too, but you couldn't go because of me, could you?

Maybe I am taking away the pleasant memories of Thuri's childhood. With that in mind, Rutz shook his head with a shoulder clasp.

"No, my aunt was watching about Mine, so Thuri was in. Ralph and I were fighting ahead, picking up tau in the woods."

"Oh, yeah. Good."

"I hope Mine can join us this year"

"Yeah."

I finished collecting this year, taking care of my physical condition as much as possible, promising to attend the star festival.

Though I tried to promise, I don't know if my parents would allow me to participate in a festival that would bump water together.

From that next day on, we'll be working in front of the warehouse.

The water was cold and I worked with my hands on the hot water many times, but with a contract size girder, I would wear Follin paper.

It took me a few days to dry it and in the meantime I also started making paper with trombe white skin.

"The Follin paper is dry. 'Cause it was so sunny today."

"Trombe's gonna be naturally dry all day tomorrow, right?

While checking each other's work processes, I split 26 pieces of Follin paper that I could make up into half with Rutz, holding 13 pieces of paper handed over, frowning like Rutz was in trouble.

"Hey, Mine. Why are we splitting this up here? After I give it to my husband, you just have to split the money in half, okay?

"Because I want the real thing. We can't have Mr. Benno buy the ingredients for himself, but if we prepare the ingredients for ourselves, I can have them, right?

If you try to buy paper after you sell it to Benno, they will take 30% of the commission. Then you don't have to sell it from the beginning.

"You're saying I'm not selling mine?

"I will only sell it in half. Collect the paper and make the book."

After a well-defined formula, I've gotten used to it little by little, and it's less of a failure. Then I have trouble wanting to make a book. My mother tells a lot of stories these days, so it's hard to write them down.

Now that the work was done, I decided to return the keys to the warehouse and take the paper I had made to Benno as soon as possible.

"Oh, you got it?"

Benno received the Follin paper from me and Lutz, respectively, and counted the sheets. There are 13 Lutz, and I have 6. eyebrows at an obviously different number of pieces.

"You don't have a lot of mine. Hey, what's up?

"I want paper, so I got the real thing. Whatever you bought the ingredients for, I'm picking the ingredients myself now, okay?

"... right. I don't mind if we take the ingredients ourselves, but what the hell are we going to use them for?

Benno asked me with a slightly alarmed look.

"I'm making a book. That's why I wanted paper."

"Book?... what are you gonna do with making something like that? They're not for sale, are they?

"Huh? I read it myself?

Benno and I tilted each other's necks as we looked at each other. I can't possibly understand Benno not being able to use expensive paper for something that doesn't become a commodity, and I just want a book for profit.

"Well, fine. One large silver coin for a piece of paper this size sells at a price. 30% commission. What's your share?

Lutz isn't quite sure about the percentage yet. Um, next to Lutz panicking, I gave an immediate answer.

"It's seven small silver coins."

"Ha!? 7 small silver coins!? Hey, man... Huh!? Aren't you getting too much?

Lutz apparently didn't anticipate it at all, asking for the amount and pampering his mouth.

"... Lutz, calm down. You might feel like you're getting too much now, but it's not until the christening that we benefit, is it? Because you don't have to worry about it because it's insignificant compared to the profits that Mr. Benno will get from selling paper for a long time to come"

"You don't have to care..."

I was going to calm him down, but Lutz just started making me unnecessarily glance at him when he couldn't believe it.

"Lutz sold 13 pieces today, so 9 large silver coins and 1 small silver coin. I sold six, so four large silver coins and two small silver coins."

"No, I don't think nine large silver coins is a trivial thing to ask, no matter what?

"Huh? Then lower the selling price?

Seeing Lutz as I feared I noticed, I tilted my neck a little and suggested, Benno looked bitter in the front and shook his head and dismissed it.

"You can't lower the selling price. vested interests and useless disenchantments arise. The same price is fine now. I think about the selling price after it has become somewhat circulating. If you're scared of a lot of money, why don't I raise your fee?

At the end of the day Benno laughed niggly at Lutz.

"We have no right to decide on the price, so I'll leave it to Mr. Benno to change the price, but I won't allow the fee to change. Hey, Lutz. If you don't want money, why don't I get it for you?

"Give it to both! Too much money, I'm just a little freaked out!

Trying to hug my guild card, Lutz barked. Guild cards are made to recognize themselves with blood, so they cannot be used by anyone other than themselves. It's a pretty safe place to keep your money.

"If you keep it in your guild, you never see cash for yourself, so you're not afraid, are you?

"Damn, I envy diagrammatically thick mine in weird places"

"Graphic fat is terrible!

I was saving up in the Reino era, and I was already getting small gold coins in this world, or paying for magic equipment that would almost go away, so I was just used to big numbers of money moving around. I'm never trying to be fat.

I settle card after card with Benno, who laughs furiously. I decided to give my family 5 large copper coins and I got them in cash. Lutz finished the actuarial by dividing the amount he would give to his family as well as the amount of savings.

Then, a few days later, Lutz, who was going to borrow the keys to the warehouse, came home with a letter and a big wrap. It's not exactly a letter, it's an invitation written on the board. And the contents of the package were like a jacket with a hood on the poncho to be worn from the top.

"What, this?

With a different color poncho, Lutz frowned. I look through the invitation. The meeting place and the reasons for it were briefly bulleted.

"He wants to meet me at Central Square on the 4 bells because I'm going to get some clothes."

"Huh? Clothes?

"... there are people who are complaining about the paper we made. I'd like to discuss how to deal with it, but I think they want to stand around unaware of our existence. We'll float in that shop, so bring this on."

"Huh? What, it!? Something dangerous, too?

I'll try on something like a poncho that you both wear from the top. It's very warm, and my clothes almost hide. For one thing, it looks like we should hide our worn clothes.

If I wear a hood, my hair and face tend to hide, so I decide to wear a hood when I go out. Because my jaws seem very conspicuous.

"I don't know if it's dangerous, but if we're going to meet Mr. Marc, shall we incorporate him early so that we can finally sell the trombe paper, too? Oh, but shouldn't I carry the fact that I don't want to be noticed?

Lutz was so mad at me to see how the trombe paper was made.

"Mine, why are you so swallowing!?

"Huh? But it was within my expectations to bump into vested interests when I started something new. I know you're responding faster than I thought..."

"vested interests?

Rutz frowns and repeats the less familiar words on his tongue.

"About an organization that already has the right to profit. Mr. Benno said that, didn't he? Lowering the price would collide with vested interests. This time, I think they're probably making parchment."

"What's with the guy making parchment? It doesn't matter because we make our paper out of trees, does it?

From the way it's made, it doesn't seem to matter at all, but the uses and customer base are exactly the same. Until now, there should have been absolutely no existence threatening our own interests, so I think the other person is panicking about the presence of strange paper.

"Um, we could only make our own paper, so no matter how expensive, we all had to buy parchment when we were on the contract, right? But if there's another piece of paper out there, they'll take all the customers you've ever had, right?

"Well, yeah"

Lutz nods as convinced. If you get the same product for the same purpose, it's natural to have customers who look you in the eye.

"And then it wouldn't be the same sales as before, would it? I don't like that. Besides, when they sell a lot, the price of things goes down."

"Really?

I write one diagram on the tablet. Explain the relationship by pulling two straight lines, the X-axis and the Y-axis, and a concise line of demand and supply expressed in two curves.

"This shows the relationship between demand and supply. This is the Demand Curve, and this is the Supply Curve. 'Demand' is someone who wants a certain product, and 'supply' is a certain product."

"Ah."

"If there are many people who want it and there are few products for sale, the price of the product increases."

Showing the beginning of the two curves and saying it, Lutz showed an understanding that "anything gets higher when it's thin".

"So when you have more products for sale, you get more and more people who want them, so fewer people want them, right? So the price is going down"

As I explain, I slip my fingers to where the two curves intersect.

"When you have more products than people you want, you won't be able to sell no matter how many products you prepare this time, will you? And then the price goes down and down, right?

As we move our fingers more and more, the upward and downward relationship between the demand and supply curves is completely reversed.

"You know what? If we make paper, we just make it, and the price of paper goes down like this. People who make parchment don't want the price of parchment to be lowered, and they want to make sure their profits so far, so they're coming to complain about new paper."

"Hey, isn't that a bad idea?

I laughed and shook my head at the anxious Lutz.

"Mr. Benno's attempt to hide our existence means we can leave them to Mr. Benno. You don't have to worry about Lutz. I don't know until I hear more about it."

I could have had 24 pieces of trombe paper by the meeting time specified in the invitation, but I also decided to leave them in the warehouse to see how they came out.

"For once, Lutz is wearing a hood so that he doesn't know the color or face of his hair."

Being so vigilant that Benno sends his clothes doesn't mean he can get caught up in anything dangerous.

Waiting in Central Square nervously for a few moments, Marc came after the 4 bells rang.

"Thank you for waiting. As promised, go buy the clothes you need for your apprenticeship"

"Yes, thank you"

I don't need clothes because I'm not going to be an apprentice, but I might as well buy some discreet clothes to get into and out of Mr. Benno's shop.

Walking around wondering if that would be a waste, Marc held me up a little by mistake for not feeling well.

"I can walk myself though!?

"No, I was roaring something, so I just got anxious. Let me do this for my peace of mind."

"I was just thinking. Because there's nothing wrong with your health!

Without breaking his smile, Marc increases the speed of walking just a little. Seems totally unwilling to listen to me.

"Please, think thoroughly"

"Lutz!"

"It's faster, so stay put."

I gave up my resistance because I was rejected even when I asked Rutz for help.

Mmm, it feels like a song on all sides!

When the three of us entered the store dealing with clothes, the store owner greeted us with a smile. Both clerks and customers wear elegant and decent clothes. If just me and Lutz come, they're gonna pay for it.

"Oh, Mr. Marc. Welcome. Apprentice?

"Yeah, that's right. Order clothes for two, please."

Did the apprentice's clothes match here, and the store owner smiled and nodded at Marc's concise order.

"Huh? You two know, me too?

Regardless of Lutz, I am not an apprentice. But Marc nodded without breaking his grin.

"When you go in and out of the store in that kind of way, it really stands out. I'm sorry, but you'll make it. Mine doesn't have to be an apprentice to get in and out of the store, so it's convenient to keep one."

"... so is that"

Though I'm not an apprentice, the opportunity to develop a new product or go talk to Benno about profits or work from home should be no different now. Yet Lutz is a beautiful garment for an apprentice, and I am sad as a borough. Now that I have the money I can give, I might as well make some clothes.

Lutz, who had been pulled to the back of the store before me, had been stripped of his clothes until he was in his underwear and had begun to measure his entire body.

I am also pulled into another room, stripped of my clothes. They just measured me over there and over here, and I'm so tired.

"The advance will be one small silver coin"

"Yes."

I ordered clothes like the one the apprentice was wearing from top to bottom, to shoes, and paid an advance on one small silver coin with my guild card. As Benno said, the price you end up paying is less than 10 small silver coins. So they have all the apprenticeship clothes.

After finishing ordering clothes, Marc took us to Benno. Benno, with a slightly more difficult face, was staring at the paper, but he looked at us and soothed his expression.

"Oh, are you here? Seems like it's been a hassle, so I also think it's been overdone, but I'm on guard. Try not to be too vigilant. I don't know what to do when rights are involved. He's everywhere."

It seems to be over-alerting for Benno, but don't be alarmed just because the rights are involved, he said. We are children before baptism, so I don't think we can be seen wandering around the store if we wear apprenticeship clothes.

"Is the vested interest that was written on the board, after all, a parchment person?

"That's right. They got a complaint from the parchment association about a commercial guild."

"To a commercial guild?

When he leaned his neck because he didn't really understand the relationship between the parchment association and the commercial guild, Benno briefly explained that it was also the business of the commercial guild to defend his vested interests, dissolve his grievances with new businesses, and mediate.

"He complained about a commercial guild yesterday evening that there was a guy who didn't join the parchment association and was making paper outside of ourselves without paying. I've been contacted about a request to take control of an outlaw who does something unsolicited."

"Ha, so?

Benno can't be getting hit quietly. We must be finding the right drop point. When I urged him to continue without much worry, Benno lifted the edge of his lips like a victorious carnivore.

"I made a clear objection. This is not paper made of animal skin, so it has nothing to do with the parchment association. Pull me in."

I'm a little bloody distracted by Benno's attitude, which is too belligerent.

Instead of finding a drop point, are you selling fights from the front to vested interests?

"Huh? Um, didn't you, like, probe each other for dropouts?

"Fool. If you get out poorly from the start, you can lick it, right? In fact, if I didn't steal the other way to make it, I wouldn't be tempted to pay the technical fee. There is no way that paper made from animal skin is made in the same way as paper made from plants, nor does it have an upward or downward relationship. They just want to monopolize all their rights to paper and, if possible, suck our profits."

Here's one, Benno has Benno's way, so I don't think I can help complaining, but can't it be a little more serene?

"Um, I don't think parchment can suddenly increase production because animal skins are raw materials. If the commercial guild will come between us, why don't we make an arrangement that the paper on the formal contract is limited to parchment, so that we can have some assurance of our previous sales channels and profits?

You're as sweet as ever.

Benno snorted at Hung.

I think if you secure a sales channel and a profit and the parchment is certified to be official paper, you'll make it look great, but can't you?

"I hate futile strife. Besides, I, if possible, want you to increase the circulation of paper so that you can use paper for all sorts of things. It's not a contract, it's a book, a notepad, a painting book, origami... I want it to be easy for kids to use."

"That's a grander dream than I expected."

Benno opened his eyes and groaned as if he were frightened.

"Huh? Is it magnificent? If I could make a ton of it, I'd think it would happen. So I guess we should try to make Follin paper a cheaper price than parchment paper thoughtfully and use it for something other than a contract. For example, the report there. It's pretty easy to transport and store on paper. It's easier to write than a board..."

"I see, divide the uses by paper... Let's make a suggestion."

Now they didn't say it was sweet, and Benno narrowed his eyes to try something. Apparently something touched the harp line of the mind and the profit calculation in the brain.

"If we divide the uses by paper, would Trombe paper be a luxury route? Honestly, I think it's better than parchment."

"Right. Trombe is going to price considerably higher than parchment."

"Huh? Pretty?

When I open my eyes by listening to Benno's words, Benno opens his eyes lightly on the contrary and alternates between me and Lutz.

"... you guys, maybe you haven't noticed?

"Huh? To what, is it?

"Lutz, what's so special about trombes?

After suddenly asking the question Rutz made his body jump viciously, he began to line up as many of Trombe's features as he could come up with.

"To? Characteristics? It's a tree that sucks up the nourishment on one side of the soil all at once and grows with tremendous momentum, hard to burn"

"Oh, maybe!... Is paper made of trombes hard to burn?

Speaking of which, my father also said that furniture made in Trombe is hard to burn and sometimes remains in fire. He said the young, soft tree won't be furnished, but it's on paper.

"Oh, yeah. Overwhelmingly less likely to burn than regular paper. Not exactly burning at all, but paper that is desirable for use in state secrets and public documents at national level. It's expensive not to burn paper."

That's certainly a special piece of paper, and it's expensive and natural.

Not all paper was of the same price in Japan. When the hands were on, rare or special, some sheets of paper were surprisingly expensive.

"I'm convinced....... So, how much is the trombe paper?

"Make 5 Large Silver Coins in Contract Size"

"Wow..."

I even had a headache over the too strong pricing, and while Lutz was so surprised that he couldn't even speak out, Benno said with a natural face, "If it's a piece of paper of rare value that rarely picks on top of it's hard to burn, it's like this".

"Then don't show your face to the store for a while until you're done discussing it with the parchment association. There's a reason I want to hide you guys. If the way the paper is made leaks and distributes strangely, there will be dead people if they suck"

"Huh?"

Suddenly it was a noisy story and blinking my eyes, Benno came up with a story of covenant magic that I had completely forgotten.

"Mine should decide who makes paper out of contract magic and be selling it through Lutz. If someone who doesn't know the contract exists makes it on his own and sells it on his own, he doesn't know what's gonna happen."

"Yeah!? Is contract magic that dangerous!? Does anyone who doesn't know anything fall within the scope, too?

I hold my head in a situation I never imagined. I had no idea that contract magic, which sought to stabilize our position, would act in such a dangerous direction.

"It's a pledge of rights to noble opponents, isn't it? Even those who don't know the contract get some kind of punishment when they violate it. So keep the presence of Lutz and Mine hidden, and declare to the commercial guild that we have the contract magic to make and sell, and keep the parchment association in check."

Maybe it was contract magic calling for danger to ourselves, not job stability. I wonder if I, or Lutz, who has the right to be able to decide who makes the plant paper, are actually in a pretty dangerous position.

"I want to hide that you're the ones who have the right. I'll keep the keys to the warehouse, so don't go in and out of the store for a while. Once the discussion is resolved, I will contact you through Otto"

Me and Lutz nodded without one or two to the words of our trusty Benno.