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Ascendance of a Bookworm (LN) - Volume 3.3 - Chapter 2




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The Gathering of the Gutenbergs 

Having decided to include metal in the printing press to help with Ingo’s improvements, I asked Benno to bring Johann and Zack with him next time. 

“...Are you sure about this, Ingo?” Benno asked in disbelief, despite the fact that calling over Johann and Zack was nothing unusual for me. It was apparently exceedingly unusual for a smithy to be involved in the designing process of a job given to a carpentry workshop. Under normal circumstances, since it was the carpentry workshop doing the job, they would design the product themselves and only contact the smithy to order the required parts. 

“The problem is, I only deal with wood, so I dunno how the metal should be used here. The best thing to do would be to get an expert involved from the start, since all that matters is making a product that satisfies our customer, the High Bishop,” Ingo replied, firmly announcing that he was willing to collaborate with craftsmen from another field—something which was nigh unprecedented. 

“...Is it not normal for people from different fields to share their opinions?” I asked. 

“We order nails and hinges from smiths when making furniture and doors, but we never talk to people from other fields when making the design. In fact, we don’t even talk to other workshops. If we did, there’d be conflict over who was actually given the job and who should earn the money from it,” Ingo explained. I could imagine that the whole “exclusive business” stuff had been established for similar reasons. “Guess I can’t expect a noble like you to know too much about craftsmen though, huh?” he continued, giving a shrug and shaking his head. 

I could see Benno and Lutz glaring at me from behind him, as if to say, “But she should know by now.” 

...Sorry, Ingo. I wasn’t even raised a noble and I still don’t know. 

My dad was a soldier, and while my mom and sister were employed by workshops, they weren’t involved with the giving and taking of jobs. Though maybe it was possible that I was just so obsessed with making books that I hadn’t bothered to learn anything about how the world actually worked. 

“In that case, I will try to think of as many possible improvements as I can,” I said. 

“Yeah. Thanks.” 

Once Ingo was gone, I tried to remember as much as I could about printing presses, writing down every improvement that came to mind. It was all notes and doodles, since I couldn’t form an actual schematic, but I hoped that it would at least help them to come up with some ideas.

Ingo returned to my chambers a few days later, this time joined by Johann and Zack, who were looking all over the place. Johann just looked scared of what might happen to him, but Zack was curious and obviously looking for anything neat that might be lying around. 

“And so, I have summoned you both because I would like to use metal to improve the printing press. Your assistance will be needed,” I explained. 

Johann nodded at once, but Zack furrowed his brow. “I understand the circumstances, but this is a job you’ve given to a carpentry workshop,” he said. “It’s not a job for my workshop, so what’s in it for me?” 

“I mean, I do intend to pay you,” I responded, but Zack shook his head. 

“Money isn’t the only problem here; helping other workshops won’t raise our standing in the Smithing Guild. That’s why Johann’s reputation is so poor—all he does is help other people with their work without getting many jobs for himself. Those he helps and their workshops get a reputation boost for a job well done, but Johann’s own reputation doesn’t improve at all. I don’t want to end up in that situation too,” Zack explained, thus teaching me why Johann’s reputation was so poor despite the quality of his work. 

“You say that it won’t help your reputation, but is that really true? It should benefit both your and Johann’s reputations if the metal parts are ordered through your smithing workshops—or at least, that is what Ingo has told me.” 

The order for the printing press had been given to Ingo’s workshop, and the orders for the metal parts would be given to Zack’s and Johann’s workshops. It wouldn’t be that much different from a normal job, but maybe I was wrong about that. I glanced at Ingo, but he nodded to reassure me that I was in fact right. 

“...But Johann’s way better than me at precision work,” Zack murmured, giving the roller that had been used for the wax paper as an example. 

The machine that Johann had made was definitely a lot easier to use, and I knew that Zack had been beyond frustrated that he could not create the machine that he himself had designed. It was frustration born from an understanding of just how superior Johann’s smithing ability was. 

“The orders for the parts are all gonna go to Johann. It’s not gonna help my reputation at all,” Zack concluded, lowering his gray eyes at the thought that all the work would be stolen away. 

Zack had shown his designs to Johann in the past thinking that he would never be able to make them, but now that he knew this was not the case, he was extremely on guard. But that was a problem for me. By having them on guard around each other and refusing to work together, it would be harder to create new inventions. And I was relying on Zack’s creativity to turn my vague explanations and wishes into concrete form. 

“Johann may be superior when it comes to making parts, but you are overwhelmingly better at coming up with ideas and designing schematics, Zack. I am relying on your creativity to improve the printing press. Will your reputation improve if I buy the schematics through your smithy?” 

Zack’s eyes widened in surprise. “‘Buy the schematics’? The heck are you thinking? They’re not a product,” he said, so surprised that he had stopped using polite language entirely. I myself was hit by a wave of culture shock; buying designs and schematics apparently wasn’t normal here. 

“You would be thinking up the schematics, would you not? I want to create the product, so it only makes sense that the schematic would have value. I would thus like to buy your schematics. Surely that would help your reputation, no?” 

“E-Err... So in other words, you wanna order a schematic from me and then buy it...? Lady Rozemyne, you sure say some ridiculous things sometimes...” Zack replied, blinking in surprise a few times before dismissively waving his hands. I really didn’t understand what was so strange about it. 

Johann, seeing me cock my head, clapped a hand on Zack’s shoulder with all the confidence of someone who had experienced this exact thing many times before. “Zack, it’s not just sometimes that Lady Rozemyne says ridiculous things—it’s all the time.” His voice then dropped to a murmur. “Better this than her launching into a prayer out of nowhere.” 

I pursed my lips in response, but Zack’s gray eyes gleamed as he watched us. “Schematics are made during discussions with the customers, and the schematics are never sold since they’re only used during the production stage,” he said. “If a customer wants something you’ve made in the past, they’ll be introduced to your workshop by whoever you made it for, so you don’t sell the schematics to other workshops either... I never thought about selling schematics before, but if you order one and buy it, then that will definitely help my reputation.” 

And so, we agreed that I would buy the schematics from Zack through Benno, which secured his assistance in improving the printing press. 

“What do you want me to improve, then?” Zack asked once we had gotten all that in order. 

“Our current printing press model is made entirely of wood, but we were hoping to start using metal parts for their strength and ease of use,” I said, spreading out my notes covered in writing and drawings of everything I could remember. “First, I would like a movable stand like this for the press. I want to be able to put the forme on it, then place the paper here. I would then lock this board after folding it, and move it under the printing plate like this...” 

I pointed at various illustrations and gestured with my hands as I explained. Zack was mumbling something as he listened, while Johann was watching with a serious look on his face. 

“At the bare minimum, I would like to incorporate metal so that it slides smoother.” 

“Well, I can do that,” Johann said with a relieved look, but Zack’s gray eyes were gleaming with determination. 

“...‘The bare minimum’? What’s the best-case scenario, then?” 

“We would ideally be able to move the stand by turning a handle in a circle, but is that too hard to picture?” I asked, trying to aid my description by turning an invisible handle in the air. 

Zack crossed his arms and fell into thought. “Moving the stand with a handle?” 

“There should be a way to move the stand in the same way that you would turn a spool of thread. Is that comparison at all helpful?” 

“A spool of thread, huh...? Everything’s coming together,” he said, which implied that he had thought up an idea of some kind. I would expect nothing less from the creative genius that was Zack. He truly was worthy of his Gutenberg title. 

As I waited for Zack to finish putting his thoughts together, Ingo looked at me with his bright-blue eyes. “Is there anything else, High Bishop? Putting aside whether they’re actually feasible, if you have any more ideas for improving the printing press—or anything else that you’d want me to make, for that matter—just lemme hear them.” 

But despite his enthusiasm, it was hard for me to imagine that he would understand any of my explanations. 

“You really don’t mind me saying anything that comes to mind? I can’t imagine everything I suggest will be possible to make,” I replied. 

“It’s not about whether it’s possible or not; a single word of yours might make me realize that there’s something we can do, like what just happened with Zack. There could always be something else I can do, so just say anything that comes to mind,” Ingo said. 

Zack gave a firm nod of agreement, before looking at me with eyes full of anticipation. If that was their attitude, then I decided that I might as well be unreasonable and suggest improvements that may have actually been impossible to make. 

“Very well. In that case, please consider using (springs) as well.” 

“Using what?” 

“They’re these little metal coils that I’m sure smiths use. They look like this,” I said, drawing one and explaining how it was used. 

At that point, Johann clapped his hands together. “Ah right, springs! How would they be used in the printing press, though?” 

“I have no idea.” 

“What?!” Johann exclaimed, looking at me with shock. But what did he want me to say? I had read books about the history of the printing press and how it had been improved over time, but it wasn’t like they contained detailed blueprints. And even if they had, I wouldn’t have remembered the precise details after such a long time. 

“All I know is that they help with moving the printing plate up and down to apply pressure. How they are used in the future printing press, or whether they will even be used at all, are decisions that I entrust to the both of you. The springs would be convenient if implemented properly, but they don’t absolutely have to be included.” 

All I could do was list things that I remembered from history, and I had no doubts that there were all sorts of minor improvements I didn’t know about. But if they could take my advice and actually figure out how to implement it into the printing press, then we would be able to leap one or maybe two hundred years ahead in printing history. 

But I just thought it would be nice if we could. It wasn’t essential, by any means. 


“Oh, also, there’s one more thing...” I began. 

“There’s still more?!” Zack exclaimed, his eyes wide open. I didn’t know why he and Ingo looked so shocked when they had specifically told me to say everything that came to mind. 

“This will require changing the printing press on a fundamental level, so it doesn’t need to happen immediately. Right now, the press is dependent on screws since it’s based on a juice squeezer, but a future printing press would ideally just use the (principle of leverage).” 

“Right, that thing you mentioned before,” Ingo said, his brow furrowed as he remembered not having understood the last time I mentioned it. 

I once again explained how leverage worked, just as I had previously done with Ingo. When I explained that it was probably being used for things like construction and provided a few examples, everyone finally nodded in understanding. 

“I get what you’re talking about, but I have no idea how it could be useful in a printing press,” Johann admitted with a shrug, but Zack shook his head with gleaming eyes. 

“The hell are you saying?! This is brilliant. You can move huge things with only small amounts of force. Moving the plate requires the most energy for the printing press we have now, right? If we can get them to move using less force, operating the press will be way easier. And the same design could be used for a lot more than just printing presses, right?” Zack raved enthusiastically. 

“Your creativity is as impressive as I expected, Zack. As you say, we can use both leverage and springs in other inventions as well. I would personally like for beds to be made using springs, but the printing press comes first. The printing press always comes first.” 

Books were more important than a comfortable mattress to sleep on. They could use leverage and springs to make other things once the printing press was done, but they could do that without me. 

“In any case, I’ll try drawing up some schematics. You will buy them, right...?” Zack asked, looking a bit uncertain. 

“Of course. I shall send an order to your workshop for printing press schematics, and then I will buy all of the ones I like,” I reassured him. 

Zack’s expression quickly became one that made it clear that he was deep in thought. It seemed his mind was already overflowing with ideas. 

Seeing that, Ingo let out a heavy sigh. “Whew, you young’uns sure are impressive. I didn’t understand a word of what the High Bishop was saying.” 

“Johann and Ingo, you can leave all of the creative designing work to Zack. All you need to do is pick the most feasible printing press from his designs and actually make it. It’s all about leaving the right job to the right person,” I said, proudly puffing out my chest. 

Johann let out a sigh and shook his head. “Is there even a need to improve the printing press right now when you’re only making picture books anyway?” 

“If we don’t finish the printing press now, it’ll be a problem for us later, won’t it? What are you even saying, Johann? A proper Gutenberg should never say something like that.” 

Johann responded by giving me a look that screamed, “I don’t want to be a Gutenberg,” but I simply ignored it. He was a Gutenberg and that was that. 

“Ingo and Johann, I have another request for you two while Zack is busy making the schematics,” I said as I held out some blueprints. I went ahead and ordered type cases and a typesetting stand from Ingo, as well as composing sticks and some interline spacers. 

“Type cases and a typesetting stand...? And what’s a composing stick?” 

“A type case is a box for putting metal letter types into, designed to account for the quantity of each type and the frequency with which it is used,” I explained. “The typesetting stand is what the types are set into, named as such because this process is called typesetting. You fit the letter type cases here, put the manuscript here, and then typeset them like so.” 

Ingo nodded. “What about the stick and the interline spacers? They’re a lot smaller than the cases and stand.” 

“The composing stick is a long, thin box used to line up the letter types. You made one for me before, remember?” 

“I do, but I had no idea what it was being used for.” 

The composing stick was open on one side, so it technically wasn’t a complete box. It was about five or six centimeters wide and as long as the short side of an A4 sheet of paper, making it easily holdable in one hand, and it was used to assemble the letter types into words and lines. These types would be lined up in the stick on top of the typesetting stand. 

“If you put the letter types into the composing stick, then what’s the interline spacer for?” 

“It’s a thin board that you put into the composing stick first. It marks the length of a line and keeps the space between each line consistent,” I explained. It was a bit shorter in height than the letter types so as to not interfere with printing, its length was used to govern the length of a line, and its width was used to determine the space between each line. It was important to have multiple copies of the same interline spacer, since they were always placed between consecutive lines. 

“Ingo, since your workshop was capable of making numerous boards of the same size for winter handiwork, you should be able to make interline spacers as well. Right?” 

“It’s surprisingly hard to keep everything the same size. It’s good practice for the apprentices, but...” Ingo trailed off and simply accepted the job, but Johann was looking at the design documents with his reddish-brown eyes narrowed. I had ordered some whitespaces and setting rules from him, but I didn’t think either would be too hard to make. 

“Johann, is there something you don’t understand?” 

“Lady Rozemyne, what’s a setting rule? It seems to be a really thin plate of metal.” 

“That is correct. Once you put the interline spacers into the composing stick, you tightly press the setting rules against them. It’ll help the letter types to move more smoothly,” I explained. In order to accomplish this, each setting rule had to be a thin, flat plate of metal. My hopes were fully placed in Johann’s talents. 

“Also, haven’t I already made a lot of these blank letter types...?” 

“You have made spaces, but you haven’t made quads or justifiers yet, have you? Plus, we’ll need furniture at some point if we’re going to make a book that only contains words.” 

Spaces were for creating a thin gap between words. These spaces weren’t full-width themselves, and quads were used at the end of lines when you needed two letters or more worth of space. We had just been using a bunch of spaces in a row thus far, but since quads came in all sorts of varying lengths, it would be much more efficient to use them for long spaces. 

And then there were justifiers, which were used to make several consecutive rows of blank space. You could line a few up together if you wanted space for a small illustration, or even fill the entire box with them if you wanted a completely blank page. They were hollow on the inside to make them lighter. 

“Furniture” was a typesetting term that didn’t refer to house furniture, as one might assume at first glance. Rather, they were blank spaces even larger than the justifiers, used for when you wanted multiple blank pages—such as for a big illustration or a two-page spread. They would also be important for making top and bottom margins. 

“We haven’t needed them before now, since picture books only have a fraction of the pages of normal books, but they’ll be necessary once we move on to adult books that are packed with text. And since we’ll need a lot, it’s better that we start preparing them now rather than later. The deadline is quite far away, but building the printing press will start midway through it, so the sooner you can finish them, the better.” 

“You sure like to plan ahead,” Johann said, scratching his head and clutching the schematics close to his chest.

About ten days later, Benno sent another letter. Zack had finished his schematics. I sent back a positive reply, and they once again arrived on the scheduled day, with Zack holding seven boards of schematics. He was wearing the grin of someone who had just tasted success. 

Ingo and Johann were with them, too. 

“Now then, Zack—I shall examine these schematics you have brought,” I said, rifling through them until I found a printing press closest to the one in my memories. 

“This is it! Can you make this?! It’s the closest one to the press I know! Incredible, Zack! I can’t believe you could make something so close to the original with my terrible explanations!” 

As I continued piling my praise onto Zack, he looked over at the schematics with a confident grin and started showing me what modifications he had made, and why he had made them. It seemed that he had also paid close attention to the improvements that the gray priests had requested, having heard them from Ingo and Gil. His care and attention to detail made it clear why he had so many customers. 

“Hold on a second, Lady Rozemyne. This one uses leverage, so it’s a lot more impressive,” Johann said, examining the boards and picking up a different one. 

“...Are you purposefully looking for the hardest one to do?! All you care about is the one that requires the most precision!” Zack exclaimed. 

Johann grimaced for a second, but then he pointed at the board with a gleam in his eyes. “I can do it. I can make this one,” he said firmly. 

 

“Alright, listen up, you three. Calm down and wait just a second,” Ingo said, spreading out his hands to stop us. I looked up at him, blinking in surprise, and he scratched his head awkwardly while looking over us. “First up: Zack. I really didn’t think you’d make so many schematics, and such clever ones, too. You did good. I never would’ve been able to make schematics like these.” 

“Er, well... It’s my job... And what I’m best at,” Zack said with an embarrassed smile at the explicit praise. 

Ingo smiled back, then looked at me with a small frown. “High Bishop. You picked that one ’cause it’s the closest to what you’re used to, but you should look over the others for their strengths and weaknesses. I get that you’re happy, but you’ve gotta calm down a bit.” 

I glared at Benno and Lutz, who were stealthily grinning at me being scolded, then reached out to the other schematics. 

“And finally: Johann. As a craftsman, it’s important to want to test yourself on hard jobs, but are you thinking of which design will actually be best? Which will satisfy the customer the most? That’s what’s most important when it comes to making a product. Not showing off your skills.” 

“...Sorry,” Johann mumbled. 

After Ingo’s lecture, we all went back to looking over the boards. We discussed removing some parts, adding others, and modifying parts of the designs while Zack redrew the schematics over and over again. The result was a blueprint for a fairly advanced printing press. There wasn’t much doubt that we had managed to advance printing technology two hundred years in a single day. 

“There’s gonna be a lot of work to do over the winter,” the craftsmen said, eyes gleaming with motivation to get this printing press made. They were all patting each other on the back and saying they would get it done by spring no matter what. 

...May my Gutenbergs be blessed by Mestionora the Goddess of Wisdom. 



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