Working Toward Wax Stencils
Despite living in the castle, the only time I saw my adoptive family (aside from when I was summoned by them) was during dinner. We ate breakfast in our own rooms, and during lunch Sylvester and Florencia would usually go to meetings that I wasn’t allowed to attend. As a result, dinnertime was my one opportunity to talk to them.
“Sylvester, I will be returning to the temple tomorrow and shall remain there for about a month.”
“...Why’s that? Isn’t the eatery done now?” Sylvester asked with a piercing gaze. It wasn’t hard to tell that his deep-green eyes were searching for something fun to do.
“In order to improve printing technology, I will need to frequently meet and discuss matters with those building the tools. I will immediately return to report our findings whenever a new piece of technology is made.”
Sylvester put on a regal expression and nodded, but I was sure that he’d make up some random excuse to come and “observe” me regardless.
“Sylvester, if you elect to come and observe the process, please do not fail to inform me ahead of time.”
“I know, I know,” Sylvester replied. I swallowed the urge to say that he definitely didn’t know, and instead just finished eating.
Once we had said goodnight, we headed back to our rooms. For Wilfried and I, that meant heading to the northern building together.
“No fair, Rozemyne.” Wilfried had looked sullen all through dinner, and was now glaring at me with his deep-green eyes that really resembled Sylvester’s. But I wasn’t sure what he was calling unfair.
“...What’s not fair, might I ask?”
“I’m saying it’s no fair, which means it’s no fair!” he exclaimed. It was so far from an actual answer that I had no idea what he was trying to say.
I looked up at Lamprecht, confused, but he just gave me an uncomfortable frown. It seemed that now was a bad time for him to explain.
As soon as we arrived at the northern building, I started climbing the stairs to my room. “My sincerest apologies, Wilfried. I will be away for the following month, and I hope that you find peace in my absence. Good night.”
Wilfried angrily shouted “You don’t get it at all!” from the floor below, but I ignored him; I had things that needed doing.
Once in my room, I headed to my desk, grabbed a piece of paper, and started writing down everything I needed to finish while I was staying at the temple. Then, I listed everything that I needed to bring with me.
“Guuuh... I wish I had my diptych. This is such a waste of paper.”
My own diptych had been returned to my family as part of Myne’s belongings. Lutz mentioned that Tuuli was using it now. But even if I did have a diptych on me, it was hard to imagine that anyone here would let me use what was essentially an unadorned block of wood. Considering that it could have just been disposed of as something unfit for the archduke’s adopted daughter, I was lucky that Tuuli had been given it at all... but I still wished that I had one myself.
...I know he’s busy so this’ll probably annoy him, but I’ll ask Benno to order one for me.
With that decision made, my eyes fell on the cabinet that Rihyarda had put the books from Ferdinand in. It hurt so much knowing that I had new books so close to me but couldn’t read them.
As I continued to stare at them regretfully, Rihyarda cleared her throat. “Please rest for today, milady.”
Fine, fine. But I’m waking up early tomorrow so I can start reading.
The next day, I did indeed wake up early in the morning. But when I tried to get a book, I found that the cabinet wouldn’t open. It was locked.
I ended up having to painfully wait for Rihyarda to come, and when she eventually did, she scolded me for not getting enough rest. And, to make matters worse, she sent me off to the temple as soon as I had finished breakfast. Her reasoning? “If you start reading, milady, you’ll forget about your promises. Ferdinand told me that.”
...Curse you, Ferdinand!
With pursed lips and dark feelings stirring in my heart, I got into my carriage and headed to the temple. Brigitte and Damuel were accompanying me, so even though we weren’t in the same carriage, I was with my usual squad.
“Welcome back, Lady Rozemyne,” Fran said on our arrival.
“It is good to see you, Fran,” I replied as we made our way to the High Bishop’s chambers.
“I was told that you would be staying in the castle for some time, so I was quite surprised yesterday when the High Priest informed me that you would be returning.”
“I was surprised too when he instructed me to return,” I said bitterly, my frustration at being summoned back without getting so much as a chance to read growing fiercer with each passing moment. The stack of books Ferdinand had given me belonged to the castle’s book room, and as taking them outside the castle was forbidden, I would only get to read them when I returned. In other words, I was being denied books for an entire month.
“Lady Rozemyne, you appear to be quite upset. Has something happened?”
“Ferdinand is standing between me and my books; he forced me to come back before I even had a chance to start reading them. He must have a truly fierce need for those compositions and recipes,” I said angrily, causing Fran to widen his eyes in surprise.
“...Is that so? He instructed me to contact the Gilberta Company since you had finished gathering donations. I believe they should be arriving soon,” Fran said, throwing me off entirely. I had certainly been thinking I should give the money to Benno as quickly as possible since he would need it soon, but I hadn’t expected Ferdinand to set up the meeting for us. “Shall we go to the orphanage director’s chambers once you are finished changing? Nicola is waiting with sweets prepared.”
“Oh, is she? I am quite looking forward to that,” I said with a laugh, causing Fran to put a hand on his chest and let out a sigh of relief.
Monika changed my clothes while Fran counted the donation money we had gathered, and once we were done, I headed to the orphanage director’s chambers. I inhaled deeply once I was there, feeling more relaxed in a room I was used to, then opened the door to my hidden room.
“Monika, please clean this room and bring in some writing utensils.”
“As you wish.”
Fran was maintaining a composed expression, but I had noticed him stiffening up a little whenever he was around the hidden room, so I was entrusting Monika with cleaning it and such.
“Fran, where are Gil and Wilma?”
“Gil is at the gate, waiting to welcome the Gilberta Company. Shall I go and summon Wilma so that you may speak to her?”
“I do want to ask Wilma to draw something for me, but it can wait until I’ve finished talking with Lutz and the others.”
Fran began informing me what had happened while I was absent, and, soon enough, Benno and Lutz arrived. There was apparently so much work to do involving the monastery that Mark had decided to stay behind in the store.
“Lutz, Benno—thank you for coming. Follow me. I ask that Gil attend me and Damuel guard me.”
We walked into my hidden room, and as soon as the door was closed, I leapt into Lutz’s arms. I could guess that he had already seen it coming, as he accepted the hug without a trace of surprise.
“Lutz, Lutz, Lutz! You’ll never believe it, but Ferdinand is a huge jerk!”
“...I’m really dang busy right now, y’know?”
“I’m busy, too! I had to hold a tea party to gather donations, and gave so many fake smiles that I ended up bedridden! Then Ferdinand forced me to start magic training because he’s mad at me for something that’s not my fault, and now he’s being a huge bully out of spite! It’s really hard for me right now.”
Lutz narrowed his eyes. “The High Priest is bullying you? How? What’s he doing?”
“He showed me a huge stack of books that I’d never seen before, then gave me so much to do that I didn’t even get a chance to touch them. He even got someone to keep an eye on me to make sure I wasn’t reading them! Isn’t that just cruel?!”
“...Gotta say, I admire his courage. I’d be fearing for my life right now if I were him,” Lutz said, shooting me a somewhat nervous glance. He had seen firsthand what kind of rampages I went on when books were taken from me. But his eyes only wavered for a second before he gave me a gentle pat on the head. “You’ve done a good job holding it in. Yep. I’m proud.”
“Actually, I decided that I’m not going to hold it in. I’m so annoyed that I’m going to finish the wax stencils.”
“How are those two things even connected?!” Lutz exclaimed. But that wasn’t important. What mattered to me right now was finishing the wax stencils and making Ferdinand feel more awkward than he had ever felt in his entire life.
“That doesn’t matter. Let’s just make them together, okay?” I asked, clinging to Lutz.
That was when Benno’s eyes shot open, and he unleashed his thunder on me. “You absolute idiot! Don’t you know how busy the both of us already are?!”
“I need wax stencils for my scheme! Benno, don’t you know how hard it is to gather money in noble society?!” I barked back.
Benno widened his eyes in surprise. His momentum had been completely blown away, and I didn’t miss the opportunity to pile it on thick. Not even his thunder would shake my anger at being denied books.
“This is my only opportunity to make this kind of money. Wax stencils will bring in a stupid amount of profit if we can have them ready in time. So, basically, I’m borrowing Lutz for a month,” I declared, wrapping my arms around him even tighter.
“Hey, don’t decide something like that on your own,” Lutz chided, before flicking my forehead. I put my hand over the spot where he’d flicked me and pursed my lips at him.
“You make the things I think up, don’t you, Lutz? Are you really okay breaking that tradition?”
“Nah, but...”
“As much as I’d like to lend you Lutz, we’ve seriously got our hands full. We just don’t have the stuff or the money we need,” Benno said while scratching his head. The surplus from the Rozemyne Workshop apparently wasn’t enough to keep them going anymore, and he had been talking to the guildmaster about how much of the load they would each be carrying.
“Don’t worry about money, Benno. I gathered some donations which I’ll be giving to you in a bit. It’s enough to cover all of the initial costs.”
“...Come again?”
Raising money was always the biggest problem for merchants, and that was especially true now given how much money we needed. As such, nobody could blame Benno for looking stunned when I mentioned that I had managed to solve the issue while he wasn’t looking.
“Alright, I’ll lend you Lutz. It’ll be easier to make the orders with the money on hand, and fishing out the materials we need shouldn’t be any trouble. If you need his help to raise more money, then have at it,” Benno said with gleaming eyes. He had given me permission to use Lutz, and I would use that permission to its fullest.
“By the way—here. Consider this my thanks for connecting me with those nobles. You need one of these, don’tcha?” Benno jutted his chin out while Lutz gingerly took out something rectangular that was wrapped in cloth, which he then held out toward me with a mischievous smile.
“Please accept this gift, milady.”
I took a surprised step back, before accepting the bundle from his hands. I then undid the cloth, wondering what the hard square thing inside it was.
“...Wow! A diptych!”
It was an extravagant diptych fit for a noble, ornately carved and polished to a shine with something like varnish. As I excitedly looked it over, Benno gave a laugh.
“I know that Tuuli’s using your diptych now and figured you’d need a new one, so yeah, I had this made. We’ve put the crest of the Rozemyne Workshop on the front, the crest of Lord Karstedt’s family on the back, and the crest of the archduke where your name would usually go,” Benno explained while pointing at various spots on the diptych.
Lutz then pointed at the metal stylus that was attached to it. “We gave Johann an order to make the same one he made you before, so it should work just like you’re used to.”
“I really wanted a diptych. Thanks, Benno! And you too, Lutz!”
I giggled as I held the diptych, which was just big enough to fit perfectly into my hands. The joy of being gifted something right when I really needed it brought a natural smile to my face. It felt so nice to know that somebody was thinking about me, and that they knew me so well.
“So, where’s that donation money of yours?”
“I entrusted it to Fran, so we’ll have to leave the hidden room. I kind of want to recharge a bit more with Lutz, but since he’ll be in the temple for a whole month, I guess we can continue this tomorrow. Eheheh.”
Thanks to the diptych, my heart was soaring. I stepped out of my hidden room in a great mood, but since Brigitte was there, I still needed to act like a noble when I spoke to Fran.
“Fran, please give the donation money to Benno. Benno, I intend to let my mothers know how this donation money was used, so I ask that you give me a detailed report on how you spend it.” The way I saw it, a detailed report that informed donors where their money went might make the next donation drive easier. “That is all the business I have with you, Benno. I imagine that preparing the monastery will be difficult, but I have complete faith in your abilities. Lutz and Gil, I would like to discuss matters of the workshop with you both, so stay here, if you please.”
“I am honored,” Benno said as he accepted the bag containing over three large golds, before putting it into his pocket and letting Monika escort him out of the temple.
I took a seat at the table. First, I wanted to hear how the wax stencils were progressing in the workshop. “Gil, how is the workshop? Are you making paper thin enough to be used for wax stencils?”
“We can make fairly thin paper using the wood from those growing trees. We tried using normal paper, but it just doesn’t work. It will be a challenge unless we can find another kind of wood to use.”
Gil mentioned that they could now make fairly thin paper out of trombe wood, but using that would make the stencils unreasonably expensive; the wood was rare and not something we could use so freely. The most ideal option would be to use a tree native to this region, like the volrin tree, but it seemed that volrin wasn’t suited for making wax stencils.
In this one case, however, we could still make a profit while using trombe paper since the Ferdinand illustrations would no doubt fetch a high price. I also didn’t really mind the increased production cost if it meant we’d be able to finish the wax stencils, so I decided to go ahead and make an experimental stencil using trombe wood.
“Have you had any luck using the iron that Johann made? I suppose that not even changing the type of wax helped to make the layer uniformly thin?”
“Not only does the wax not end up uniform, but when we tried cutting the stencil on top of the file Johann made, the wax cracked and became unusable.”
Those cracks were forming either because the wax was too thick or too hard—in other words, I would need to add some kind of tree sap-like resin to soften it.
...What were the ratios for that again? I don’t really remember... Either way, I guess it doesn’t really matter since the wax and resin of this world will be made of slightly different stuff, especially due to all of the impurities.
“Lady Rozemyne, back when you put wax on the normal stencils to protect Wilma’s illustrations, I remember you mentioning that it wouldn’t be an issue if the thread from the cloth left an imprint on it. Is that true for wax stencils as well?”
“Absolutely not.”
I had used baking paper back in my Urano days, but I couldn’t make those here. I couldn’t even think of something that could be used as a makeshift replacement. The only thing that came to mind was the wax coating machines that craftsmen used to make wax stencils on Earth: they pulled the paper between two rollers pushed against each other, which created a thin, even layer of wax.
“I think one of those wax coating machines will be necessary here, but... I wonder whether Johann would even be able to make one.”
While I could roughly explain the concept, I didn’t know enough to be able to draw a detailed blueprint or anything. We’d have to gradually make it through a process of trial and error, but I had no idea whether Johann could manage that given that he always needed detailed blueprints.
“Lutz, I would like to discuss this with Johann. Please call him over tomorrow. For now, I will head to the workshop to confirm whether the paper you have made is acceptably thin.”
I stood up, and my two guard knights naturally stepped forward to follow me. But having Damuel and Brigitte come to the workshop with me would cause problems.
“...Could I ask you two to wait here, since there are business secrets at stake?”
“I am afraid not. You must have at least one guard with you at all times, Lady Rozemyne.”
Unable to argue with Brigitte, I looked between her and Damuel. “In that case, I must ask that only Damuel accompany me. I have much to blackmail him with, and thus imagine that I would be able to silence him no matter what he sees.”
“...Lady Rozemyne, do you not trust me?” Brigitte asked harshly, looking at me with a stiff frown.
I closed my eyes. “I appreciate that you are willing to accompany me, even to the lower city that all nobles consider unbearably foul, and so far you have served me well and true. But this is a separate issue.”
Brigitte gave me a confused look; it seemed that she wasn’t following me in the least. I knew how she felt about her family, and I did want to help her however I could, but this was a business matter. And considering how many obligations nobles had, I couldn’t give them information this valuable for free.
“I do trust you, but you are directly connected with a landowning giebe. It is still beyond me to say whether you would be able to keep valuable information a secret from your family once it is in your possession. Damuel, on the other hand, is not from a family that owns land. And since his family lives in the Noble’s Quarter, it will be much easier for me to control him if need be.”
“...Understood.” Brigitte looked at me with newfound fear in her eyes, then shot Damuel a sympathetic glance.
“Lady Rozemyne, when you say that you have much to blackmail me with, what might you be referring to?” Damuel asked.
“Ahaha. I shall keep that a secret for now.”
With the now trembling Damuel as my guard, I headed to the workshop with Lutz and Gil, where the gray priests and children were making paper as usual.
“Continue your work, everyone. Pay me no mind,” I said, before having Gil bring me the thinly made trombe paper so that I could examine it. As expected, trombe paper was a league above everything else; it felt so much better than volrin.
“There’s such a huge difference in quality... Oh well. We might as well give it a try anyway.”
As I looked over at the taue fruit stacked in one corner of the workshop, Lutz shot a glance at Damuel. “Are you sure this is a good idea?”
In all honesty, I wasn’t. The fewer people who knew this secret, the better. But as I needed to have at least one guard with me at all times, Damuel was our safest bet through the process of elimination.
“Damuel, you must not speak of what you see here to anyone. Not a single person can know. Not my father, not Ferdinand, and certainly not Sylvester. Can you promise me that?”
Damuel’s eyes wavered anxiously.
“If you speak a word of what you see, I might just let my tongue slip, and what a shame it would be if Sylvester learned of something that would make him tease you mercilessly.”
“Wh-What? Erm, Aub Ehrenfest himself...?” Damuel asked, wearing a pitiful expression as he thought back to his time as a living sacrifice during Spring Prayer, when he had been teased nonstop by Sylvester.
“You’ll keep this a secret, won’t you, Damuel?” I asked with a smile.
Damuel gave a pained grimace, as if completely torn up inside. He then shut his eyes tight, knelt down, and crossed his arms over his chest. “I cannot make that promise. As a knight, I cannot keep my silence if ordered to speak by a superior. So... I ask that you allow me to keep my eyes closed.” As Damuel couldn’t report what he didn’t know, he had concluded that the best course of action would be to remain completely ignorant.
I nodded. “In that case, do not leave the workshop under any circumstances. I pray that curiosity does not lead to your ruin.”
“Thank you,” Damuel replied.
And so, I went outside with Lutz and the others while Damuel and a few gray priests stayed behind inside the workshop.
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