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Ascendance of a Bookworm (LN) - Volume 1.2 - Chapter 20




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Myne Collapses 

I knocked on Lutz’s door. “Hi, Mrs. Karla. Is Lutz there?” 

Since Lutz said that his family wouldn’t help him, I decided to visit and help him out a little bit. 

“My my, hello Myne. Lutz! Myne’s here!” Before Lutz could react to his mother’s call, his older brothers were already crowded around the door, eyes shining eagerly. 

“What’s up? Got a new recipe?” 

“We’ll help you. What’s step one?” 

Sorry to disappoint. I was just visiting to convince them to help Lutz with his winter handiwork. “I’m not here for cooking. I’m just bringing Lutz his pay.” 

“His pay?” 

“Uh huh. Lutz is helping me with my winter handiwork and this is his pay.” I pushed through the wall of brothers and stood in front of Lutz. I then slowly paced one middle copper after another onto his palm in full view of his brothers. 

“You made five pins, so you get five middle coppers. One, two, three, four, five. All there?” I could tell that his brothers all had their eyes locked on the clinking coins in Lutz’s hand. I even heard one of them gulp. 

“Hey, Myne. By helping with your handiwork, are you talking about like, the pointy wood sticks Lutz was making earlier?” 

Hook, line, and sinker, I thought while smiling at Ralph. “Uh huh. I’m making hair ornaments and he’s making the pin part of them for me. One middle copper per pin.” 

“He’s getting a whole middle copper for those?!” shouted Zasha, his eyes going wide and then locking onto Lutz’s palm. 

Sieg shook his head in disbelief, then looked me square in the eyes. “...Myne. It doesn’t have to be Lutz helping you, right? Can I help too?” I could imagine that Sieg was speaking for all of his brothers in that moment. They were each looking at me with grim determination. 

Still smiling, I nodded at them. “Of course, anyone can help. But they all have to be the same size and smooth enough to not get stuck on hair, so lazy work won’t cut it.” 

The moment the brothers heard that, they all started to brag about their carving skills. 

“Myne, I’m way better at working with wood than Lutz. I do it at work every day, y’know.” 

“Hey, I’m better than Lutz too.” 

“And I’m more experienced than any of y’all, remember?” 

Lutz listened to his brothers brag with pure shock in his eyes. “Hold on, hold on. Didn’t all three of you say you’d never help me with something as boring as making pins? Didn’t you all blow me off and tell me to do it on my own? Actually, I remember you all calling the pins stuppghhpph!” 

Zasha clamped his hand over Lutz’s mouth and glared at him. “You didn’t tell us nothing about the pay.” 

“You were gonna try to keep it all to yourself, weren’t you?” 

I could guess that Lutz had actually told them about the pay, but they had either ignored him or thought he was making it up. It felt bad seeing him surrounded, so I went ahead and gave him a helping hand. “So you three will make them instead? Five each, please. I won’t be able to keep up if you make more than that, so don’t try to make too many. I’ll come for them in three days. Is that enough time? I know you all have jobs, so...” 

Lutz’s brothers dropped him immediately and grinned shining grins at my suggestion. They thumped their chests and said it would be no problem. 

“Yeah, leave it to us. Won’t even take three days.” 

“Yeah, we’ll be done in no time.” 

“Quality is more important than speed,” I said. “I won’t be able to use poorly made ones, so those’ll just get thrown out. Oh and also, ask Lutz about what wood to use and how big to make them. Bye bye! See you in three days.” 

I pumped a fist in Lutz’s direction, silently wishing him good luck. Everything was ready for him now; his brothers should be ready and willing to do his handiwork. I had done all I could, it was up to him to follow up and make sure things went smoothly. Good luck, Lutz. Think like a merchant! 

Three days passed after Lutz’s older brothers promised to make the pins for the hair ornaments. I spent those three days inside, sewing small flowers. The devouring heat within me was getting more active, stirring inside of my body and making me feel bad enough that I didn’t really want to go outside. I would be hit with fevers in the middle of the night and left exhausted until morning, leaving me unwilling to move. To be honest, I was in constant fear of being attacked by the devouring heat and collapsing at any moment. 

Amid all that, I finished two ornaments while stuck inside. I ultimately made just three out of the twenty that Benno wanted, and Mom and Tuuli made the rest. The difference in our speed was stunning. The two of them at some point began to compete for speed while sewing the flowers. Tuuli sped up, and by the third day they had collectively sewn twelve sets. They were now in the middle of finishing the last two. 

“Mom, Tuuli, I’m going to Lutz’s for a bit. They’ve made the pin parts for our hair ornaments, so I need to pay them too.” 

“Be safe.” The two of them replied in unison, both so focused on sewing flowers that they didn’t even look up. 

I put fifteen middle coppers in a pouch and left home. I climbed down the stairs, left the building, cut through the plaza by the well, and started climbing the stairs of the building almost directly across from mine. 

Lutz lived on the sixth floor, but they were renting two floors’ worth of space, so his place was larger than mine. There were a ton of stairs inside, but they were wide enough that even with four boys it didn’t feel cramped. Though according to Lutz there were a lot of tools lying around, and they had rented the extra space specifically to have makeshift workshops at home, so there wasn’t actually a ton of living space. 

I knocked on the door and said my name. Soon, the door creaked open and Karla poked her head out. “Hi, Mrs. Karla. I’m here to buy the pins, are Lutz’s older brothers here?” 

“You bet, they’ve been waiting for you since morning,” said Karla with a smile, before her face clouded over a little and she lowered her voice. “...Now, Myne. Is Lutz really trying to become a merchant? He’s being so stubborn about it that everyone’s all tense at home. But no matter what, he won’t give up on it. Which is ridiculous, a silly dream isn’t worth fighting with your family over. Don’t you think so?” 

I had heard from Lutz that his relationship with his family wasn’t great, but it was even worse than I had expected. I was worried for him, but he probably wouldn’t give in to the pressure. He had resolved to become a merchant even if it meant becoming a live-in apprentice. 

“I don’t know what to tell you, Mrs. Karla. Lutz’s future is up to him.” An outsider like me butting into a family’s problems would just make things worse, so I just shrugged it off. 

Karla’s mouth bent into a frown, signaling that she had expected ready agreement from me. “Goodness gracious. Daughters always listen to their parents, but boys will be boys. I’m getting real tired of it.” 

“And you have four boys, too. That must be rough.” 

I kept to myself that I had no intention of living my life according to my parents’ wishes either. As long as Karla kept complaining, her children would hide inside the house to avoid getting wrapped into listening to her like they probably had to all the time already. 

If I wanted to get inside, I’d have to smile and nod until she was satisfied. Unlike my Mom, who was quite fine spending ages talking with other mothers by the snowy well, I had no interest in standing inside a cold doorway just to talk. 

“I wonder if there’s any way I can make my boys realize how much I struggle for that. Not too long ago, I was...” 

Ooooh no. I feel like she’s going to keep going for a while. Just as I started to debate leaving and coming back later, Lutz called out from within. 

“Hey, Mom. Myne came to buy the pins, didn’t she? We’re in kinda a hurry ’cause the snow’s about to fall. Also, she gets sick easily. Let her inside already.” 

“Ah, good point. Come on in.” 

“Thank you.” 

Lutz and I exchanged glances that said “I owe you my life,” and “Sorry, my mom likes to talk a lot,” before shrugging. 

I had broken through the gatekeeper and successfully entered Lutz’s house. As expected, it was warmer than the outside. 

“Lutz, are your older brothers finished? Have you practiced your math?” 

“Yeah.” 

“...Myne, are you teaching Lutz math?” said Karla in a sharp tone, having been listening in on us from behind. 

I ignored the clear displeasure in her voice and smiled. “Uh huh. I’m doing math work to help out at the gate, so...” 

“Right, you help your father’s job. Sure wish Lutz would help his father too.” 

Women of this world generally helped their parents’ work, married a man introduced to them by their parents, and then helped their husbands work. If this were a farming town in the country, they would help with farm work, marry a farmer, then become a farmer themselves. 

In other words, as the daughter of a soldier, it was expected that in the future I’d work a small job while primarily supporting my soldier husband. Soldiers had such unstable work hours that being married to one was quite difficult, and having a soldier relative was a big qualifier for becoming a soldier’s wife. 

Karla likely interpreted me working at the gate with my father as me preparing for my future in various ways. Unfortunately for her, I was charging right toward a job as a merchant apprentice and had absolutely no intention of becoming a soldier’s wife. 

Inside I saw Lutz’s brothers holding their pins and waiting eagerly. I walked up to them and immediately they all thrust their carved pins in my direction. 

“Look, Myne. All done.” 

“Wasn’t nothin’ for us.” 

“Pretty sure these are all perfect.” 

“Woah woah woah! Line up! Oldest first!” 

Having all the pointy pins jabbing toward my eyes was honestly scary. I waved my hands in front of my face to avoid them. The three of them quickly lined up in order of age and I paid them while checking each pin individually. None of them had slacked at all. I reflexively smiled as I saw the smooth, well-carved pins. 

“Yup, these pins are all better than the ones Lutz made. I expected nothing less from pros. My sister and mom are better at me than sewing, too. Which brings me to my main point. Do you three want to make these same pins as your winter handiwork? It’ll take until spring before I can pay you, but they’ll be worth the same amount.” 

“Yeah, leave it to us.” The three of them agreed with broad grins. Now, Lutz could focus entirely on his studying. 

“Lutz, did you do the math? How much was it?” 

“Six thousand lions, or six big coppers. Right...?” 

Lutz’s older brothers had made fifteen pins. Each had a handling fee of four middle coppers, which totaled six large coppers. The handling fee alone was worth a lot. 

“Uh huh, that’s right! Keep studying math just like that and you’ll be fine. I’ll take these pins home and finish the hairpins today so we can go to the store tomorrow, okay?” 

“Sounds good.” 

By the time I got home with the pins, Mom and Tuuli had finished their last sets of flowers. I sewed the flowers onto the pins and they were done for real. 

“I’ll bring these to the store tomorrow and get paid for the rest. You two were so fast I couldn’t keep up with the money he gave me.” 

When Benno gave me his request I thought we would make ten at best, but here we were with twenty of them. I hadn’t expected Mom to speed up so much after seeing the money, and I hadn’t expected Tuuli to be so fast after getting used to making them. 


“Eheh, I got pretty fast, huh?” 

“You were amazing, Tuuli. We’ll get lots of winter handiwork done this year.” 

“Mhm, I’ll do my best and make lots of them!” 

I could only applaud as Tuuli took another firm step forward on her journey toward being a sewing beauty. Her path was one I could not follow, but it was one I could respect.

The next day, I took the finished hair ornaments to Benno’s store with Lutz. We walked along the stone road and Lutz broke the silence. 

“Hey, Myne. Do you know about anything else we could sell?” 

“Lutz?” 

“Benno told me that curing the devouring costs a lot of money. I’m thinking the paper will sell a lot once spring comes, but like, maybe having more stuff to sell would be smart. If you can think of anything, I’ll definitely make it, no matter what.” 

I could tell that he was sincerely worried about me, so I decided to try and think of new products to sell in hopes of curing my devouring. 

“Mmm. Out of everything we’ve sold so far, luxury products for the rich were worth the most.” 

Rich people could naturally spend more money on household goods than poor people. The hair ornaments, for instance, increased significantly in value when better designed and made using more expensive thread. Paper, too, was more valuable when made with trombe wood. Which meant that the best way to make a lot of money would be to make products that the richer classes wanted. 

“But I’m not sure what the rich people here want. Rinsham, hairpins, and even paper were all extremely common things in my old life.” 

“The world you came from must’ve been a wild place.” 

Lutz knew that I was from another world and seemed more interested than weirded out by my past memories, so when it was just us, I didn’t go out of my way to not talk about Japan. I was so nostalgic for home that I only ever said positive things about it, so Lutz’s impression of Japan was probably biased toward it being some kind of paradise. And to be fair, it was a paradise to me, given how it was filled with libraries and books. I would still like to return there if given the chance. 

“Maybe I could use (dollar stores) as inspiration and make improved versions of daily necessities? Like making better soap, or making fancier candles? The herb candles I made last year were pretty good, all things considered.” 

“Herb candles?” Lutz furrowed his brows in confusion. 

“The candles we were making last year for winter smelled bad, so I put some herbs in them to balance it out. It made some of the candles smell nice and some of them smell even worse. My mom banned me from doing it again this year thanks to that.” 

While stuck in bed I’d offered to help with the candles, and not only did she immediately say no, she forbade me from getting out of bed at all. She was definitely more worried about the candles than my health. 

“You sure are doing a lot of things I don’t know about, huh?” 

“Ngh... You can’t avoid a little trial and error sometimes. Anyway, people like the lace and baskets I made, so maybe I should bust out some more tricks I learned from doing (arts and crafts)... Mmm, I can’t make (bead accessories) without (beads), art made out of pressed paper probably wouldn’t sell, and I can’t make (tole paintings) without paint, sooo...” 

“Yeah, I don’t understand a word you’re saying. Did you think of anything or what?” 

In order to follow up on any of my ideas, I would need to start with making tools, just like I did with paper. The thought of that alone killed my motivation. I just couldn’t bring myself to care about things that didn’t have a direct positive impact on my life. 

“Um, Lutz. I just realized something really bad. The biggest problem with thinking of new products to sell is that I can’t get fired up about making tools for things that aren’t important to me personally.” 

“Get fired up! Do you wanna die?! We’re talking about your life here!” roared Lutz. 

“Don’t worry, I can still get fired up over things that are important to me, so how about we sell books next?” 

“Hold up! You’re the one who said that books won’t sell since nobody but you cares that much about them! Think of things that will sell!” said Lutz, getting so agitated that tears formed in his eyes. 

I patted him on his shoulders. “Lutz, you’re getting too riled up. Calm down.” 

“You’re the one riling me up, Myne!” 

“That’s true. Sorry, sorry,” I said, consoling my friend, when suddenly someone clamped their hands around my head from behind. “Hyaaaah?!” 

“Just what do you two think you’re doing? Having a comedy show for laughs? You want people to laugh at you, huh?” 

I snapped back to reality after hearing Benno’s familiar voice and looked around, seeing that indeed people were looking at us and laughing. Blushing red in embarrassment, I glared at Benno purely to vent my frustration. “And why are you here, Mr. Benno?” 

“On my way back from checking out my workshops. What about you two?” 

“We were bringing you the finished hairpins to sell.” 

“Alright. Let’s go then.” Benno, impatient as he was, hefted me up and began briskly walking forward. I could see over Benno’s shoulder that Lutz was jogging to catch up. 

He didn’t set me down once we entered the store. He carried me all the way to his office before setting me down at the usual table. I climbed onto the chair to sit and took the hairpins out of my tote bag, lining them up on the table one by one. “These plus the past ones add up to twenty hairpins. Please check to make sure.” 

“...Alright, that’s what I needed. My clients are in a big hurry since the baptism ceremony’s next Earthday.” 

Nobody in my family was participating in this baptism ceremony so I let most of that go in one ear and out the other, but then I realized he had said a word I didn’t know. “Um, Lutz. What’s Earthday? I’ve never heard of that before.” 

“Huh?! Whaddaya mean ‘What’s Earthday’...? Earthday is Earthday. Right?” Lutz looked at Benno helplessly, unable to explain on his own. 

Benno sighed and explained for me. “Waterday, Sproutday, Fireday, Leafday, Winday, Fruitday, and Earthday alternate on a cycle, yeah?” 

Um... You’re acting like I know this, but I don’t. I’ve never heard any of those words before. I guess I can just think of them as the days of the week. 

“In spring, snow melts into water that gives life to sprouting plants. In summer, the sun burns like fire and plants grow leaves. In autumn, the cool wind chills fruit as it grows. In winter, the life and earth of our land sleeps. That’s why Earthday is considered a day of rest and stores are closed on it.” 

In other words, Earthday is this planet’s equivalent of Sunday. I had figured that such a day existed since Mom regularly had a day off each week. But our home had no calendar and nobody had ever said the days of the week, so I never had the opportunity to learn them. ...Okay, the days of the week do have names. That’s a relief. 

According to Benno, the baptism ceremony was held on the first “seasonal day” after a new season started. Spring’s seasonal day was Waterday, summer’s was Fireday, and winter’s was Earthday. 

Lutz nodded over and over, impressed. “Wow, so that’s what the names meant. I knew’m, but I didn’t know all that.” 

This world lacked anything like a weekly garbage day, so all I had to remember was that workers had a day off each week. I managed to go this long without learning all that since it was never directly relevant to me. When making plans with adults they always spoke in relative terms for convenience, which made me question whether the names of the days were in common use. The way Benno phrased things made it sound like they had something to do with the religion here. If I was going to learn more at my baptism anyway, I didn’t need to push the subject. 

“Okay, I understand now. Let’s get back to business.” 

“Yeah, you don’t usually say the names, so sure.” 

I sold the hair ornaments to Benno and put the middle coppers I would be paying Tuuli and Mom with into a pouch, which I then put into my tote bag. Everything else I sent to my savings by tapping my guild card against Benno’s. 

“Thank you again.” With that done, I went ahead and started to leave so as to not disturb Benno’s work, but before I could he grabbed my arm firmly. 

“Did you think up any new products? I heard you two talking about that on the road.” 

I didn’t know when he had started eavesdropping on us, but I could tell from the anticipation in his eyes that he had pushed Lutz in this direction during their little talk. Well, I can’t get too mad about that. It’s true that I need the money. 

Over the past few days the devouring heat within me had been getting so much more active that merely containing it took most of my time and energy. To be honest, at this rate, it was hard to imagine that my body would last long enough for me to save up money. Nothing would come from me voicing my pessimism, however, so I just shrugged and rolled with Benno’s subterfuge. 

“What do you think would sell well, Mr. Benno? I think that to make the most profit, we should entice the richer classes with unusual items or squeeze them dry with expensive perishable goods.” 

“You’re not wrong.” Benno nodded with a grin. 

“A product sold for its rarity will lose value once everyone has one, but perishable goods have to be bought constantly and will keep making money forever. Thinking about it that way, rinsham sure will make a lot of money, won’t it?” 

“Heh, probably.” Benno had complete rights over the rinsham, so he just kept smiling confidently. He had finished making high-quality rinsham and was about to start selling it. I could imagine that something like that would make a lot of money for a long time. 

“Most of the things I can think of are beauty products, I guess. We girls just love to obsess over beauty.” Makeup was expensive, but regardless, there were a lot of women who wouldn’t hesitate to drop whatever money they had in the hopes of looking a little prettier. I had no doubt that nobles and the wealthy in particular would gladly fork over cash if the products were effective. 

Benno must have agreed with me, as his eyes gleamed and he leaned forward. “You got something?” 

“Well... Personally, I would like high-quality soap with nice smells. Then there’s the candles we use all winter. Maybe we could dress them up with herbs and colors to look fancier? Some of the herb candles I experimented with last year ended up looking pretty good.” 

I listed off everything I could think of, counting on my fingers as I talked about potential products. Lutz’s eyes were gleaming now, too. “Hey, Myne. Do you know how to make all those things?” 

“Mmm, mostly. It’ll be hard to get all the tools and materials, just like it was with the paper. And we’ll need to do some trial and error first to iron out the problems, but it should be fine.” 

“Alright, let’s do it.” Benno pointed a finger at me and grinned. I could tell from his expression that he was calculating profit in his head. 

I muttered “Don’t count your chickens before they hatch” to myself and rubbed my temples. “Sheesh. Hold your horses, Mr. Benno. I can’t even go outside until spring comes, and honestly... hyaaah?!” 

...Honestly, will I even last until spring? Isn’t my devouring getting pretty bad? The second those thoughts crossed my mind, the devouring heat within me exploded out of the internal container I had forced it into. 

What’s going on?! This isn’t normal! It felt as if my entire body had turned into a pillar of fire. The devouring heat was so strong that I couldn’t even try to contain it like usual. As I panicked internally, the heat rapidly spread through my body. 

“Hey! Myne!” Lutz, realizing something was wrong, stood up with a terrified look on his face. 

I lifted my head up and turned to him, but I couldn’t stay in control of my body. It just kept shaking and shaking. My entire body felt hot and I knew that if I kept shaking I would fall right off the chair, but I couldn’t stop. I couldn’t force the heat back down. 

When I fell off the chair, I only knew because I could see the ground rushing up to me. 

“Look out, Myne!” 

Even after hitting the ground, I felt no pain. The burning of the heat was too intense for me to feel anything. My eyes were still open, though, and I saw two pairs of feet rushing toward me over the carpet. 

“Myne, are you alright?!” Lutz shook my body, and after briefly letting go in surprise from the sheer intensity of the heat, started shaking me again. 

Benno turned to the door and shouted, not wanting to waste the time it’d take to ring the bell. “Not good! Mark, send a messenger to the geezer!” 

“C’mon, Myne! Didn’t you say you were gonna make a book?! Didn’t you say you won’t lose yet?! Myne! Stay strong...” 

“Mark, get... carriage... to, hurry...” 

Their shouts faded further and further into the distance. I eventually couldn’t understand what they were saying anymore. And then, my consciousness flickered out. 



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