A Trombe Appears
The season had become such that waking up and getting out of bed in the morning was quite the challenge. As I lazily stayed in bed, thinking about how cold it was, my dad finished getting ready for work.
“Myne, how’re you feeling?”
“Mmm? Same as always. Why do you ask, Dad?” Maybe he misinterpreted me staying in bed as me feeling sick. I lazily sat up and Dad looked at me with concern.
“Otto wants to have a winter meeting with you and asked if you could come today.”
“Okay, I can go. I’m not sick right now and I don’t have any business with Benno.”
Dad left to get to the gate before it opened at second bell. After seeing him off, I got out of bed to quickly change. “Mom, Tuuli. I’m going to the gate today.”
“Got it. There won’t be much to gather in the forest soon, so I think you should be fine not going there anymore this year.”
“Tuuli is right. We don’t want you catching any unnecessary fevers around this time of year, Myne. You should stop going to the forest for now.”
As the temperature dropped and catching colds became more normal, it became increasingly common for me to have days where I just didn’t feel good. Pushing myself just led to those around me having to take care of me, so I decided it was best if I indeed stopped going to the forest.
“Hey, Myne. Going to the gate today?” said Lutz after seeing me leave my building with just my tote bag. I was bundled up in clothes to not catch a cold, but in contrast, the other kids were all wearing relatively light clothing. Bundling up made it harder to move freely and it was important to gather as much firewood as possible in this brief period of winter right before the snow came.
I walked to the gate along with the other kids. As of late I could more or less keep up with them, ending up only a little behind. Though almost every time I decided to try and catch up, Lutz would stop me.
“Alright, I’ll be passing by the gate on my way back, so be sure to wait for me.”
“Uh huh. Good luck with your gathering, Lutz.” Everyone else was going to the forest, so we split at the gate. I didn’t see my dad at the gate, but the guards recognized me by now. I saluted at one of them and they took me to the usual night watch’s room.
“Mr. Otto, are you here? It’s me, Myne.” I opened the door and saw that the shelves along the walls were already filled with budget-related boards. Otto was surrounded by the boards, sorting through them.
“Heya, Myne. Good to see you here.”
“It’s been a while, Mr. Otto.” I gave him a sharp salute and moved to the chair closest to the furnace. After basically climbing up the decently sized chair, I took out my slate and pen from my bag.
“So, let’s talk about our winter plans. How often do you think you’ll be able to drop by?”
“Umm, I talked to my dad about it, and he decided that I can come when I’m feeling good, it’s not snowing, and he’s on morning or noon shift.”
First of all, it wasn’t common for me to feel good during the winter. I was stronger than last year and could pray that I wouldn’t be bedridden with colds as much, but it was impossible to predict.
Second of all, there was the weather. There were constant blizzards during the winter. Dad said that it didn’t have to be completely sunny and I could go when there was just light snow, but I knew he would go back on that the second he saw a snowflake. He was just too overprotective.
And finally, Dad worked the night shift on a third of his working days during the winter.
“I think I’ll be able to count on both hands the total number of times I can visit the gate during the winter.”
“...Well, that’s about what I expected. I was just hoping for more since even that one time you helped last winter made a big difference. I hope you drop by as often as possible.”
“Uh huh.” Doing some math was all it took to earn some slate pens, so I didn’t mind. I would need more slate pens this year than the last since Lutz and I would be studying together, so my plan was to work hard and earn a lot of them. “Oh, and by the way, the pens I use here don’t count as part of my pay.”
“Pf, hahaha,” laughed Otto. “Thinking like a merchant now, I see. Don’t worry, the slate pens you use doing work won’t count. Relax and write out all the math you want.” He may have found that funny, but regardless, it meant a lot to me. I rolled up my sleeves so they wouldn’t erase the letters and readied my slate pen.
“Here’s your work for today.” Otto placed a stack of boards in front of me. They were expense ledgers for the supplies used by the department of higher-ups who managed the guards. It seemed that Otto was in charge of the budgets for the entire department. He told me with slumped shoulders that it was easier to do all the work himself rather than run the risk of pointing out the mistakes of his superiors. Being careful not to make any mistakes myself, I got to work summing the numbers up while double checking the calculations.
“You there, Otto?! Take your place at the gate immediately!” A soldier burst into the room looking rushed. Otto drew a sharp line on the board to save his place and, after telling me not to let anyone touch the calculator, ran out of the room.
There seemed to be a commotion throughout the entire gate. I could hear a ton of footsteps rushing by on the other side of the door, sounding louder than usual footsteps due to the stone floors reverberating. Everyone was so rushed that I really couldn’t just open the door and ask someone what had happened.
I had visited the gate many times before to help Otto, but never before had things gotten this intense. Uneasiness crept into my heart, which wasn’t helped by the fact that I was all alone in the room.
...I’m going to be okay here, right? I breathed deeply, and as I looked around the empty room, I felt a faint dizziness. Not about to let even the slightest failing of my spirit pass by unnoticed, the heat within me went on a rampage. The heat trying to burst out from within me felt like it was pointing out my weakness. Frustrated, I tensed up my body to force the heat back down. I imagined putting a lid on the fire and sealing it within me.
“...Haaah. So tired.” Fighting back the devouring took so much out of me that my anxiety faded a little.
I continued doing math and Otto soon returned. He finished up the board he was working on and started packing up his share of the paperwork.
“Seems like a trombe showed up. A kid came running for help so half the guards here went off to the forest. I have to stand at the gate until they come back, but could you keep working here while I’m gone? Also, I’ll send anyone with letters of introduction your way. I trust you to take care of them.”
Knowing what had happened calmed me down enough that I could do my work without worrying so much. Speaking of which, Lutz had mentioned earlier that trombes generally started showing up in the forest after late autumn. Maybe we could get more trombe wood to turn into paper.
...Mmm? But if it’s matured enough that soldiers have to join the fight, maybe the wood will be too hard for paper? Who knows. The last time a trombe showed up it only took some kids to cut it down, so I didn’t feel nervous at all. I just got back to work lining up letters and doing math. Eventually, I heard a noise outside the door again.
“Myne, it’s Lutz. He says he has something he wants to talk to you about.”
“If he got some trombe wood, I need to go home to talk to him about it. I’ve finished the math from here to here.”
“Thanks. You’re a big help.” The kids and soldiers must have returned together, as I could see them hanging around the gate with trombe wood in hand. I looked around for Lutz and saw Dad rushing my way with a large log on his shoulder.
“Myne! Look, your dad cut down a trombe this big!”
“Wow, that’s pretty big. Are we going to use that for firewood?”
“No, trombe wood doesn’t burn well, so it’s not good for firewood. We’re going to carve it into furniture. That furniture will survive a house fire, so wood like this is pretty valuable.”
“W-Wow, I see. Interesting.” I should expect nothing less from a weird fantasy plant. It could hardly be called wood if it doesn’t even burn in a fire! As I shook my head in both exasperation and admiration, I saw Lutz gesturing at me from behind Dad. “Yes, Lutz?”
“What, you only got tiny branches like that, Lutz? Take a look, Myne. Your dad’s a lot cooler.” Dad puffed out his chest with victorious pride after seeing the trombe branches in Lutz’s basket, but I would really rather him not try to compete with a little kid. And unfortunately for him, Lutz had exactly the kind of thin, young branches I wanted.
I let out a sigh, but in reality, since trombes got harder to cut the larger they got, those who had managed to chop off large logs were considered heroes by the kids and soldiers. I could see people comparing the wood and competing to see who had thicker wood and larger branches.
“These branches suck!” One of the kids, bullied over his small branches, threw his trombe wood on the ground in a tantrum. Trombe wood didn’t make for good firewood and the young, soft branches weren’t strong enough to be made into furniture. It was considered useless to just about everyone. But for me, it was necessary to make high-quality paper. I wasn’t about to miss a chance to get some for free.
“If you don’t want it, can I have it? Do you really not want it?”
“...’Course not, it sucks!” Embarrassed by all the attention that he was drawing, the boy left it at that and ran off. I picked up the abandoned trombe wood and other kids started taking their own wood out of their baskets.
“You can have mine, too. Bringing it home with me won’t do much good.”
“You may have mine as well. I don’t need it.” A fairly large amount of wood ended up piled around me.
“Lutz, looks like we have a lot of it now.”
“...Yup.” Lutz gathered up the dropped trombe wood with me and packed it all into his basket.
Dad, stunned by what he had seen, furrowed his brows and looked at our baskets. “...Myne. What’d you want that stuff for?”
“The wood I use needs to be soft and young. Let’s go, Lutz.” I turned my back to Dad and started walking off.
Lutz followed, scratching his head. “You know, I brought back some of the trombe ’cause I know we need it, but uh... We gotta use cut wood within like, five to seven days, right? How’s that gonna work? I don’t wanna get in the river when it’s this cold and we can’t waste the firewood we’d need to boil water for a whole bell. Should we just give it up?”
I knew that there wasn’t much firewood lying around the forest in this time of the year, but I knew for sure that Benno would be furious if we wasted trombe wood just because of that. “...I know what he’s going to say already, but let’s talk to Benno about it first.”
“He’d definitely get mad if we just threw it all away. Haaah... I’m not gonna go into the river when it’s this cold.”
We headed to Benno’s store, but the guard naturally said Lutz couldn’t go inside looking like he did. He would have to wait outside. The guard called Mark, who followed him back to the door and then went inside with me. We entered the store just as a customer left Benno’s room. The customer glared at me in my poor-person outfit and let out an audible “hmph.” Mmm, I really should buy a change of clothes soon. I don’t want people to sour toward the clothes Benno sells due to me. Which means I need to save up my money fast.
Benno blinked in surprise after seeing me walk into his room. “What’re you doing here? We didn’t have a meeting planned.”
“This is an unplanned visit, but I have something I need to talk to you about. Turns out a trombe showed up in the forest today,” I said, and immediately Benno stood up with a clatter and leaned forward.
“A trombe?! Did you get any wood from it?!”
“Yes, we ended up with a lot of wood. But, the thing is... it’ll be hard to turn it into paper.”
“Why’s that?” Benno narrowed his eyes in suspicion, not understanding how it could be hard. Despite knowing it would make him mad, I explained my reasoning.
“Ummm, well, we don’t have enough firewood to boil water for a whole bell, and the ri—”
“You idiot!” Before I could finish explaining that the river would be too cold to enter, the impatient Benno dropped his lightning on me. “Think about how much cheaper firewood is than rare trombe wood! Don’t even try to tell me you can’t even understand the concept of investing in materials for more profit later!”
“...I thought you would say that. Can we go to the lumberyard with Mr. Mark to buy firewood?” I looked so young that even if I went to the lumberyard asking for wood, I would look suspicious and get turned away.
“...Where’s Lutz?”
“He’s outside. We came here right after he got back from the forest, so he’s a little too messy to come inside...” I said, immediately after which Benno rang the bell on his table to summon Mark.
“Mark, ask Lutz if Myne’s doing well enough to go to the lumberyard today. Myne, you write the supply order here.” Benno took out a board and ink for me, so I started writing the supply order.
“Mr. Benno, I just need enough wood to boil water for an hour, what should I write?”
“Just write that. They’ll sell you a little more than you need and that’s ideal.”
I nodded and kept writing, at which point Mark returned from talking to Lutz.
“It seems that Myne would do well to not walk any further today. If she has finished writing the supply order, I will go to the lumberyard with Lutz.”
“Thank you, Mark.”
After giving Mark the supply order and seeing him off, Benno handed me several boards. “Read these if you’re bored.”
“Gladly!” The boards were basically advice for merchants and discussed a lot of key points about contracts. Pleased at the opportunity, I pored over them while humming, and eventually I realized something weird.
“Mr. Benno, does the wood Mark’s buying count as part of your initial investment in us?” Benno turned to silently look at me, but didn’t say anything. “Also, I thought it was kinda weird, but why did you say that you were done investing in us after we finished our prototypes? Didn’t the magic contract we signed say you would pay for everything until our baptism? Shouldn’t the expensive suketa count as part of that?” I thought about why Benno would have me read boards about the contracts and the only thing that came to mind was the details of our magic contract.
“...Finally noticed, huh?”
“What?! Why’d you trick us?!”
“I didn’t trick you. I tested you, to see if you remembered what the contract we signed said. Let’s just say I was curious to see how you’d react if I broke the contract. You didn’t say anything so I figured you forgot what it said.” He snorted and glared at me while drumming his fingers on the table.
For a single moment I was at a loss for words, but then I managed to return his glare. “I just thought it made sense for you to stop paying us after we finished the prototypes. I never expected that you were tricking us, and since magic contracts burn up after being signed, I couldn’t double check.”
Benno snorted again and shrugged with a smug grin. “It’s exactly because the contracts burn up that you have to write it down somewhere else or burn it all into your memory. You were naive.”
“...I’ll try not to make the same mistake again.” Benno wasn’t wrong. I should have either written the contract down or memorized it. It was entirely true that all that talk of the magic punishing those who break the contracts made me let my guard down.
“You followed up on it, so I’ll pay for your stuff.”
“That’s what you agreed to do anyway. Wouldn’t not paying be a breach of contract?” I pursed my lips, pouting, and Benno looked down at me with the gleeful smile of victory.
“It’d only be a breach of contract if I refused to pay. You not following up is your own problem. Now that you’ve followed up, I’ll pay. It won’t be a breach of contract if I do. Be sure to remember all this if you want to be a merchant one day.”
“...Guuuuh.”
Benno’s lips curved into a broader grin as I groaned with frustration and said, “If you hadn’t noticed after reading all that about contracts, I would’ve wrung you dry,” with a laugh. I understood that he was trying to help me grow as a merchant, to the point of giving me hints to help me along in the right direction, but it was still frustrating.
As I looked over the boards once more, intent on not letting him deceive me again, Benno paused his work and spoke to me. “Aaah, right. Could you start your winter handiwork a little early?”
“My family’s already finished preparing for winter this year, so we could, but why?” Our winter preparations were swung every which way by my dad’s work circumstances. Every soldier at the gate needed time off to prepare for winter, but not everyone could leave work at once, so they took days off in shifts. Last year his shift came fairly late, so we were preparing right up until the blizzards were hitting, but this year his came early and we managed to finish fairly soon.
“Could you make somewhere around ten to twenty hairpins of varying colors soon? The guildmaster bragged so much about his granddaughter’s hairpin that I’ve got a lot of people asking me about them. And some of those people I can’t refuse, either.”
“Won’t that ruin the special feeling for Freida of being the only one with a flower hairpin during the winter baptism ceremony?” I didn’t know if it was smart to ruin the reason we had for overcharging them, and judging by Benno’s shifting eyes, he didn’t know either.
“...Her hairpin will be the only one made to match her outfit. Store-bought ones are completely different.”
“In that case, I think I’ll charge you extra for them, given the change in schedule.” I smiled while requesting a higher commission fee, leaving Benno at a loss for words. “When you get the chance to earn money, take it and profit as much as you possibly can, right? I’m learning from your example so I can be a fine merchant one day.” I laughed to myself and Benno frowned bitterly.
“Ten middle coppers per hairpin. You can’t complain about twice the pay, right?”
“That won’t do. Choose eleven middle coppers or thirteen. Splitting the money won’t work out smoothly otherwise, considering the different work Lutz and I are doing.” We had already told our families two coppers for the flower part and one for the pin part. Lutz and I were splitting the difference and having an odd number of middle coppers left over would be a real pain.
“Fine. Eleven middle coppers. You dirty merchant.”
“I am positively delighted to receive such lavish praise from one of your esteem.”
“...Seriously, where are you learning all those words?” said Benno, looking equal parts exasperated and amused.
I shrugged. “Oh, could I have the pay for one of the hairpins now? I could take them out of my savings, but I would prefer early pay.”
“That won’t be a problem, but why?”
“I need to cast a spell on my family to make them work fast.” I would need Mom and Tuuli’s help to finish ten hairpins before snow fell, and if I wanted their help, I needed to motivate them. My mom in particular had done winter handiwork for most of her life and thus would know very well just how ridiculously high the pay for these hairpins was. Which meant that she would probably feel suspicious about whether or not I was being tricked, that we would make them and then not get paid. If I could show her that I was getting paid for each hairpin properly, both her motivation and trust would shoot up at the same time.
Suddenly, a knock came on the door. “We have returned, sir. The ordered firewood will arrive today before the store closes. We will have it carried to your storage building by tomorrow, Myne.”
“Thank you very much.”
“Goodbye, and be careful about the cold.”
Mark saw me outside and I saw Lutz standing there with his mostly empty basket. They had dropped the trombe wood off in our building while on the way to the lumberyard. That explained why they elected not to bring me with them.
The two of us slowly walked home between buildings, the sky darkening faster than usual thanks to the season. I really wanted to rush home since it was so cold, but if I moved around like that I would definitely collapse with a fever in no time.
We trudged home, and along the way I talked to Lutz about our winter handiwork needing to be done early. I told him that Benno promised to pay immediately and that we could get to work as soon as I got my family’s help.
Lutz nodded once, then lowered his eyebrows, worried. “I could make all those pins on my own without my family’s help. I’m more worried about the trombe wood.”
“The trombe wood? Why?” I tilted my head in confusion.
Lutz slumped over and let out a heavy sigh. “...Hey, Myne. You think you’ll get to go to the forest to help me now that your family’s told you to stop? I’m gonna have to make it all myself, aren’t I?”
“I was planning to work in the storage building this time, so we can make it together. I’m not sure what my family will say about me going outside for a whole bell, though.” I didn’t think it’d be too hard to get outside if I told them I was going to Benno’s store and that I wouldn’t be leaving the city. But the longer I was outside the more likely it was I would catch a cold and get a fever, which was a problem.
“The storage building...? Don’t we need the river?” Lutz opened his eyes wide in surprise. But it was clear as day that Lutz wouldn’t be able to carry the pot, steamer, and firewood to the forest.
“It was more efficient to work in the forest before since we had to get our materials and firewood there, but now we have everything in the storage building. There’s no reason to work in the forest, and carrying everything there would be too hard anyway.”
“Ah, right. I would’ve had to carry everything.” Lutz had been so worried about working alone that he had forgotten to consider just how much stuff he would need to carry.
“We won’t have the river to dunk the steamed trombe wood, but that was all just to make the bark easier to peel by exposing it to cold water after getting steamed. Right now the well water will do just fine. We’ll have to get fresh water from the well several times to keep it from warming up, but that’s better than going to the forest, right?”
Despite all I said, Lutz’s expression was still dark with worry. “Yeah, it’ll be easier. But what about after that? Just storing the white bark, right?”
“I’d like to store it after peeling it down to the white bark, but it’s not like black bark can’t be stored too, so it’ll be fine. It might be more annoying to peel the black bark, but going into the river in this season would be suicide, so let’s not even think about it.”
With all his worries gone, Lutz’s expression brightened again. “Whew. What a relief,” he said to himself repeatedly, walking a bit faster than before.
...I’ll ask Mom and Tuuli for help once I get home, then I’ll work on steaming the wood tomorrow. I walked on while thinking about my plans for tomorrow, but my thoughts started to drift, maybe because I was hungry. We have a steamer, so I kinda want to eat a hot sweet potato with melted butter on it... I don’t know if there are literal sweet potatoes in this world, but there are things similar to potatoes. If I bring potatoes tomorrow and Lutz brings butter, I guess we can eat buttered potatoes tomorrow? That sounds nice. Both my body and heart agree. Okay, let’s do it.
We arrived at the well by our homes in no time as I drifted off in sweet fantasies. Lutz stopped and turned around. “Myne, I’ll come get you after the wood’s delivered and I’ve grabbed the key. Just wait at home until I drop by.”
“Uh huh. Don’t forget to bring butter tomorrow, okay?” I gave him a big wave goodbye and rushed into my building.
As I climbed the stairs, I could hear Lutz shouting in shock from outside the windows. “Huh?! What?! Butter?! Why butter?! What for?!”
Waaait, did I not tell him about it? Whoops, whoops.
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