No Rest for Us
Snow had just started to fall when Gil stopped me on my way out of the workshop, handing me a few letters with a dark, clouded expression. He stressed that I needed to be extremely careful with them, and that I should only read them in the presence of people who were “in the know.”
He didn’t need to explain what he meant by that; Gil only ever became this emotional over things to do with Myne, which was why I always went straight to her place when he gave me letters like these. I raced all the way to the stairs to her home and up to the front door, all the while wondering what they might say.
“Hey. It’s Lutz. Is everyone home?”
“Uh huh. Oh, wait... Is this...?”
I nodded at Tuuli, who had answered the door, and showed her the letters in my bag. Her blue eyes instantly lit up, her braid swishing behind her as she spun around to those inside the house. “We have letters!” she cried, the excitement clear in her voice.
To nobody’s surprise, Gunther was the first one to react. He burst out of the bedroom, still wearing his bedclothes and looking a little sleepy—he had probably just gotten into bed for a nap before his night shift. Meanwhile, Effa wiped her hands, having finished up something in the kitchen, before coming to join us.
Seeing everyone gathered around the kitchen table, Kamil reached out his arms and went, “Up! Uuup!” I waited for Effa to heft him up before spreading out the letters for everyone to read.
The letter for me started with, “I’m going to use the potion that’ll make me healthy, which I think will put me to sleep for about a season. Take care of the workshop and the Gutenbergs for me.” It was written in a very casual, Myne-like tone, and went on to give some more detailed instructions for the Gutenbergs.
There was also a letter for her family, which opened with a message addressing them all: “I’ve made a potion that’ll make me better, which means I’ll finally be a normal girl. I’m going to be asleep for a while, but don’t worry—everything’s going to be okay.” Below it were more personalized notes, one for each of them.
“So she’s finally gonna be healthy, huh?” Gunther said.
“I can hardly believe it...” Effa added.
“Lutz, what’s with this other letter?” Tuuli asked. “It’s written by Fran, and while I can read the words, I don’t really get what they mean...”
Fran’s letters were always so rife with noble euphemisms that it was little wonder Tuuli was struggling. Meanwhile, I studied noble euphemisms in the store, and my recent trip to Illgner had given me some valuable experience, so I could understand them better than most. I took the letter and started to read it.
“No way...”
“What is it...?” Tuuli asked, tilting her head quietly. Gunther, in contrast, must have noticed my expression stiffen, as he leapt up from his chair with a tense look on his face.
“What happened to Myne?!”
“She was attacked by someone at the castle and poisoned...” I explained. “The High Priest thinks she’ll survive, but now the potion will put her to sleep for over a year...”
The letter also asked us to tell Master Benno, but that wasn’t important right now.
As I sat there in silence, Gunther snatched the letter from my hands. It seemed that he wanted to confirm things for himself, but he couldn’t read it either. He slammed it back onto the table, his brow furrowed, then forced out a long sigh as he thumped a fist against his forehead over and over again. He was most likely trying to vent the anger building up inside him.
“She’ll be asleep longer, but her life’s not in danger...” I tried to reassure him. “It could be worse.”
Tuuli was starting to look concerned. “Will Myne really be okay...?”
“She’s a strong girl. She’ll be fine. I’m sure she’ll be fine,” Effa replied, repeating the words with a forced smile. “Whenever she was sick and bedridden in the past, I always worried that she wouldn’t make it through. But she always did in the end, didn’t she? This’ll be just like that. All we can do is believe and wait. She’ll be just fine...”
I could tell that she wanted to go and check on Myne, but that of course wasn’t an option. She couldn’t even ask for updates. It made perfect sense that she was overcome with worry.
Kamil looked fearful as well; he didn’t understand why everyone was wearing such grim expressions. Our eyes met, and he reached an uncertain hand toward me. “Lutz, Lutz... Toy...?”
“Sorry Kamil, I don’t have any toys for you today. Your big sister’s sick in bed and can’t make any new ones right now,” I said, giving him a pat on the head. I folded up my letter, putting it back in my bag to show Master Benno tomorrow, then turned to the others still gathered around the table. “I’ll ask Gil for more details when I see him next. That’s all I can do, but—”
“You’re doing more than we could ever ask for,” Effa said, cutting me off. “You should head on home; it’s getting late. And here, as thanks.”
I accepted a pork sausage from her and then left Myne’s, running down the stairs, through the plaza with the well, and up the stairs to my house.
“Welcome home, Lutz. You’re back late today.”
“Hey. Had to drop by Myne’s for something. Here, this is from Mrs. Effa.”
I handed over the sausage I had just been given, which Mom took with a small smile. “It’s been two whole years since Myne died, but you still call it Myne’s place. Weird, that, ain’t it?”
“Old habits die hard... It’ll take some time to adjust. Anyway, I’m hungry. Boil that sausage for me if there’s no food left.”
“I saved some for you, don’t worry. Go put your stuff away,” Mom said, chuckling at my awkward attempt to change the subject. But what else could I have done? The words had come out of my mouth without me even realizing.
I went into the bedroom. It was cramped and uncomfortable, since four growing boys had to share it. The one sliver of good news was that Zasha had found someone to marry, which meant he would soon be leaving to live in his own home. That was the only thing keeping me going.
That said, I’ve got enough money that I could leave right now, if I really wanted to.
I had enough saved up that I could rent a room on my own and even hire a servant to handle chores for me; in fact, I could even rent a bigger place for my whole family to move into. But doing that would make it harder to deliver letters to Myne’s family, and since I was a leherl, I would be moving into Master Benno’s place when I turned ten anyway. I was going to stick with my family until then, and that resolve had only grown stronger after seeing Myne be ripped away from hers.
After setting my bag down, I headed to the table for supper. Ralph gave me an annoyed look the moment I sat down; he had already eaten but was staying seated solely to complain at me. I already knew what he was going to say.
“You went to Tuuli’s again, didn’t you?”
“Yeah, ’cause I had to deliver something from the workshop,” I answered casually, pulling a bowl of soup in front of me and starting to eat.
Ralph had been grumbling about my relationship with Tuuli a lot lately. He looked at me like he had more to say, then started rapping the table with frustration. It was honestly pretty annoying. I just wanted to enjoy my meal.
“Y’know, Ralph... If you care that much, why don’t you just go ask her to hang out?”
“It ain’t that friggin’ easy!”
Tuuli had turned ten and signed a contract to be a leherl for the Gilberta Company. She was a rising star, having moved up shockingly high in the world for someone born in the poor side of the city. In other words, she was such a beauty that nobody else here could even hope to compare. More than enough boys had set their sights on her now that they were turning ten and thinking about the future, Ralph included.
“Even when I ask her to hang out in the forest on Earthdays, she just turns me down most of the time,” he continued.
Ralph had fallen head over heels for Tuuli; she was getting better at sewing and became prettier by the day, not to mention she actually kept herself clean. He probably wanted to use his position as her childhood friend to stay close to her, but they had to work every day except Earthdays now that they were both ten, so meeting up wasn’t easy.
“I mean, she doesn’t have the time to go to the forest...” I explained.
“Why not?”
Myne’s family didn’t have to pay for medicine now that she was out of the house, and as a leherl for the Gilberta Company, Tuuli was receiving special hair stick orders from the archduke’s adopted daughter herself, so they were no longer so poor that they needed to go out of their way to gather in the forest. Their new financial situation meant they even had the money to move to a better area if they so wished, but they had decided to stay for the sake of stability and to preserve their memories of Myne.
Not that any of this mattered to Ralph, of course.
“Tuuli’s working hard and putting her all into becoming a first-rate seamstress. She’s even going to the Gilberta Company on her days off to learn from Corinna, so she’s real busy right now.”
“Gaaah! I know it’s just because of work, but it really ticks me off that you know more about her than I do!”
“What, want me to stop talking about her?”
“...No. Tell me everything you know. Everything.”
I gave the pouting Ralph a brief explanation of what Tuuli had been up to lately. There wasn’t all that much I could say though, given that we worked at different stores now.
“Oh, right... If you really want to ask her out, Ralph, you don’t have much time left.”
“Whaddaya mean by that?!”
“She’s a leherl, remember? She’s commuting from home ’cause the Plantin Company split from the Gilberta Company last summer, but once spring comes, she’ll be moving to live up north.”
When the Plantin Company had gone independent, it started moving locations to another store—albeit one that was still close to the Gilberta Company. The move was being done gradually day by day, and enough progress had now been made that Master Benno and Mark could finally start living on the second floor of the new building, with winter preparations and the like now all completed.
Once all their remaining belongings were put away, Corinna’s family would relocate from the third floor to the second. I had heard they were planning to do this move during the winter, while they were locked inside anyway due to the snow. Tuuli would be given a room as a leherl apprentice come spring when they were done with that.
“Just wait for me, Tuuli!” Ralph shouted into the wind as I continued eating my soup. Boys in love sure were a pain.
I do kinda want to support Ralph, given that he’s my brother and all, but I really doubt Tuuli’s going to marry anyone from around here when she has the favor of the archduke’s adopted daughter.
The next day, I headed to the Plantin Company for work.
“Good morning, Mark. I wish to speak to Master Benno regarding the High Bishop.”
Mark nodded and instantly sent word to Master Benno, who told me to come to his office. As always, I was impressed by the speed and precision with which Mark worked. I wanted to learn by his example, but his talent was still way beyond me.
Master Benno cleared the room of everyone except Mark and me, at which point I told him that Myne was expected to be asleep for over a year.
“But she’s not going to die or anything, right?”
“No. According to the letter, the High Priest expects her to be asleep for over a year. It’s all written here.”
Master Benno read the letter with Mark, then muttered, “I see.”
“I suppose there won’t be any new businesses established for quite some time then,” Mark said.
“Yep. This is good timing if you ask me,” Master Benno agreed, relaxing a little.
I grimaced. Myne was going to be asleep for a whole year, and the only thing he had to say about it was that it was good timing? That was just messed up.
My thoughts were suddenly disrupted as Master Benno flicked me on the forehead. “It’s way too easy to guess what you’re feeling from the look on your face. You know as well as I do that Rozemyne tries to move things along at an unreasonable pace. She’s sown the seeds for more than enough big new things, and they need time to settle. We all know she’s gonna start another rampage the moment she wakes up, so we should use this time to stabilize the work we’ve already started.”
I had assumed we would continue expanding the industry in her absence, but that apparently wasn’t the case.
“We’ve gotta study the things from Illgner, develop new ink, proliferate the hand pumps, and introduce new kinds of books. Go and tell the Gutenbergs that we’re gonna be focusing on what we’ve already got on our plates instead of expanding out more. I’ll get the lehanges up to date.”
I responded with a big nod, then got to work writing out letters of invitation to the Gutenbergs, having the new lehanges who had just joined the store deliver them.
“Hey, Johann. You sure this is the Plantin Company?”
“Uh huh, this is the place. Excuse me! Can we talk to Lutz? Huh...? I’m Johann. The, er... The Gutenberg...”
On the day of my meeting with the other Gutenbergs, I heard two familiar voices coming from near the Plantin Company entrance and rushed out to welcome them.
“Johann, Zack—thanks for coming despite the heavy snow. Right this way.”
We had all assembled in a meeting room. There were Johann and Zack, the smiths; Ingo, the foreman of a carpentry workshop; Heidi and Josef, the ink craftspeople; Gil and Fritz, representatives of the Rozemyne Workshop; and finally the three of us from the Plantin Company. Only now that we were all together did I realize just how many Gutenbergs there were now. It felt like an eternity ago that Myne and I were struggling to make paper by ourselves.
Now that I think about it, I could really do with some buttered potatoffels right about now...
As I remembered how extra tasty they were during the cold seasons, I offered seats to Johann and Zack, then sat down myself.
“I’ve got some bad news for everyone. It’s about Lady Rozemyne...” Master Benno began, going on to explain that she had entered a long period of recovery. Once he was done, I read out the letter I had received from her.
“...So basically, she wants us to keep up the printing and invent some ink that goes with the new paper,” I summarized. “Ingo, she wants you to make the bookshelf she talked about before. Johann and Zack, she wants you to make more metal letter types and circulate those hand pumps as best you can.”
The moment Heidi understood the meaning of the euphemism-laden letter, she stood up and started pumping her fist in the air. “Yesss! Time to make new ink! I love Lady Rozemyne sooo muuuch!”
“Good gods, Heidi! Calm down! Learn to read the room!”
Josef desperately tried to contain his wife, whose eyes were positively glowing with excitement. He forced her back into her chair before awkwardly scanning the room, suddenly noticing that Johann was staring forward with wide-open eyes.
“Lutz... Aren’t the letter types and hand pumps both my thing? Am I going to be the only busy one here? What’s Zack going to be doing?!”
Maybe he had a point. It was Johann’s job to handle all the precision stuff, so he was usually the one who had to make the things Myne ordered. But before I could agree, Zack grimaced, digging a finger in his ear as he shot Johann a glare.
“Listen up, pal—I’ve gotta think up how to make mattresses with springs in them, and she’s asked me to make carriages less rocky. I’ve got tons to design, and unlike you, Lady Rozemyne’s not my only patron. I’ve got plenty of other work to get on with, so how about you stop complaining and just be grateful you’ve been given something to do? If you don’t like it, get some new customers.”
Only a patron interested in extreme precision work like Myne would understand Johann’s value, so he didn’t have much choice here except to give up and handle the work.
“Look, if you really hate making the same thing over and over again, why not train a successor to take your place?” Zack continued. “Lady Rozemyne’s gonna have tons of new orders for you when she wakes up.”
Johann paled, his body starting to tremble. “N-No way... She won’t... No way...” he repeated in a desperate attempt to reassure himself. But Zack made a good point—Myne was adamant that she would wake up healthier than ever, and without the risk of collapsing keeping her at bay, there wouldn’t be anything to stop her from going on an endless rampage.
Bleh... Just thinking about it gives me a headache.
As I cradled my aching head, Master Benno looked over to Ingo. “What was that about a bookshelf? Another new invention?”
“Yup. It’s a real crazy one, too—there are wheels on the bottom so it can be moved around. There’s also this ‘high-density mobile shelving’ thing she was talking about. She sent a ton of concepts my way, so my plan’s to finish those up alongside my other jobs. Her rough designs mention a few metal parts, so I might be asking for your help Johann, but...” He shot the poor boy an awkward look; Johann was only looking sicker and sicker. “Eh, what can I say? We’re in this together.”
“Wait, wait...” Johann murmured weakly. “Doesn’t that mean... I’ll have even more work?”
“Congrats. Looks like you won’t just be making letter types,” Zack said with a grin.
Heidi enthusiastically chimed in as well. “New work is so much fun, right?! Let’s all work hard together!”
“I HATE THIIIS!” Johann yelled, tears welling up in his eyes.
The room was soon awash with laughter, and with that, Master Benno brought the meeting to a close. “So yeah—everyone, get your work done before Lady Rozemyne wakes up. The High Priest is handling her funds for now, and we’re always ready to pay, so just keep doing what you’re doing.”
“Right!”
The blizzards lasted longer this winter than the last, but spring still came around eventually. It was halfway through the new season that Gil came to me to discuss something—they had nearly gone through all the stories Myne had prepared for them to print.
“I spoke to Fran about this as well,” he explained. “He got the High Priest to give us the stories she got from the noble children at the castle, but they’re all written how a kid would talk, so they’re pretty hard to read. Seems like Lady Rozemyne was fixing up the text to make them readable enough to print, but, er... I don’t really know how to do that...”
Their problem sure was a tough one: we couldn’t print books without stories to put in them. Our main products were picture books for nobles, and we had even started selling them to rich merchants, who had started to express interest purely because the nobles had them. Stopping printing now wasn’t an option.
“...Pretty sure she gave Tuuli a handwritten book. I’ll ask if we can borrow it.”
“Alright. Thanks. If we make a lot of new books, Lady Rozemyne might actually wake up faster to read them. That’s why I want us to print as many as we can for her.”
“Makes sense. She might just leap out of that thing if there’s a stack right next to her.”
After my talk with Gil, I went to the Gilberta Company where Tuuli now lived to ask her about borrowing the book.
“I don’t mind, since I know Gil and the others will treat it with care, but... Myne wrote it specially for us, her family; I don’t think it’ll make a good product,” she said, taking out a book titled Mom’s Stories. It was a compilation of all the tales Myne had written onto clay tablets way back when.
I flipped through them and recognized several as the stories she had told me on the road to the forest. The nostalgia hit me so hard that I wanted to cry. I missed those days so much.
“You’re right that these are a lot different from the other picture books,” I agreed, “but can I borrow it anyway?”
“I don’t mind. But will you do something for me too?”
It was rare for Tuuli to ask for a favor in return. I started to blink in surprise as she steeled her resolve and looked up at me, her blue eyes now brimming with determination.
“I want to learn proper etiquette. You’ve been doing so much better ever since you learned from the gray priests in Illgner, and now you can even read letters with complicated noble euphemisms in them, right? Mrs. Corinna said that she’ll start taking me to noble estates once I’ve learned proper etiquette, but I don’t know how to do that on my own. So how about this: I’ll lend you the book if you introduce me to a gray priest who will teach me.”
The gray priests had trained me alongside the servants in the Illgner mansion. I personally hadn’t noticed myself getting that much better, but both Master Benno and Mark had praised my improvement, and my movements were apparently so much more elegant now that even Tuuli had taken notice. Given that she was born as poor as me, I understood why she was so concerned.
Before Myne had entered the temple and started her workshop, both Tuuli and I had looked down on the gray priests and shrine maidens for being orphans, somewhere deep inside of us. Myne of course had started to respect them purely because they let her into the book room, but she was a natural exception—I could guess that everyone in the lower city would feel the same way about the priests as we originally had. Once you really got to know them, however, it became apparent that they had learned extreme etiquette to be presentable to nobles, and they were all well-educated. They knew things that we could never hope to learn without their help, no matter how much money we had.
“Alright. I’ll speak to Gil and Fritz about this.”
The Rozemyne Workshop’s focus on printing meant it now worked with the Plantin Company rather than the Gilberta Company, so Tuuli—a leherl working for a clothing store—couldn’t enter the temple without an invitation from Myne the High Bishop. We would need to send word ahead of time before she could come.
When I next went to the workshop, I handed Gil the book I had borrowed from Tuuli and told him what she wanted.
“So yeah, could you help Tuuli out with her etiquette somehow? C’mon, Gil...”
“Uh... If she wants to learn, she’ll need a shrine maiden to teach her, not a priest. I’ll ask Fran and Wilma about it. Tuuli’s been a big help, so I do wanna pay her back.”
Tuuli had been breaking her back to help the children in the orphanage, going out of her way to teach them how to sew and cook, not to mention traveling with them to the forest. She was used to spending time in the orphanage too, since she had visited the temple classroom several times over the winter.
Fran and Wilma were both quick to agree to help her out, as thanks for everything she had done for them. The only condition was that she needed to stay with me when she was coming to the temple; she couldn’t be here alone.
Since I was going to be with Tuuli anyway, I decided to learn alongside her. There was no denying that my time in Illgner had taught me all sorts of things, but there was still a huge gap between my skills and those of an attendant like Gil. I needed to work harder too.
“And that’s what happened, Master Benno. I’ll be going to the orphanage every Earthday to work on my etiquette,” I explained.
“Just you two? We can’t send anyone else along with you?”
It seemed that Master Benno wanted to use this opportunity to have leherls at the Plantin and Gilberta Companies learn etiquette as well, but with Myne asleep and unable to give her permission, I doubted anyone else was going to be allowed in.
“I don’t think so. Fran and Wilma are making a special exception here as thanks for how much Tuuli has done for the orphanage.”
“Hah. Can’t believe I’m saying this, but I sure wish that rampaging little gremlin was awake...” Benno sighed. His expression then turned serious. “Lutz, learn everything you can while you’re there. It may not last forever, but right now you’ve got a tight connection with the archduke’s adopted daughter. That’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity; don’t hesitate to milk it for everything it’s worth.”
“Yes, sir!”
“Also, Rozemyne mentioned this before, but...”
Master Benno went on to give me a list of warnings, then granted me his permission to buy a few things. Once he was done, I went to Corinna’s workshop to deliver the letter of invitation from Master Benno and call Tuuli over.
“Tuuli, they said okay. They’ll teach you etiquette.”
“Thanks, Lutz! I’m gonna do my best and learn everything I can!” she exclaimed, clenching her fists and giving me an enthusiastic smile. Myne had taught her how to handle certain situations in the past, but she didn’t have anything resembling a full education. What’s more, the etiquette Corinna had taught her was the bare minimum to stop her sticking out in the workshop; her main focus was, of course, teaching the apprentices about sewing.
“Alright, let’s go shopping. You’ll need some clothes with big sleeves, used or not. They’re going to be important for when you’re learning to carry yourself properly.”
“Whaaat?! I don’t have the money for that!”
Tuuli had a guild card as an employee of the Gilberta Company, and due to her being a leherl working for the archduke’s adopted daughter, she earned a lot more than other girls her age. But even so, she didn’t have enough to just casually buy clothes with big, fluttering sleeves made for the daughters of rich families.
I looked at my own guild card. I had enough money to cover the costs myself, and the fact that I’d been too busy to go out and buy anything lately meant it was only piling up.
“I’ll pay for them this time.”
“I couldn’t ask you to do that.”
“Don’t sweat it. When Myne wakes up, I’ll just subtract it from her old savings,” I said, waving a dismissive hand as Tuuli predictably tried to refuse my offer.
“Her old savings...?”
“The same money I’ve been using to buy the rest of your clothes. Myne was saving up before her death so that her family could use it. What’s important here is you getting a proper education, and developing the skills you need to meet Lady Rozemyne without having to depend on anyone else, right? Myne won’t complain about us using the money to buy the study materials you need.”
“Study materials...? But clothes with big sleeves are expensive, aren’t they? This isn’t like paper. They’re a waste of money,” Tuuli replied, shaking her head and then fixing me with a glare. But they weren’t a waste of money.
“You won’t get a proper feel for things without the sleeves. They’re necessary. If you think they’re a waste of money, you should just give up on learning etiquette entirely. You’re lucky enough that the orphanage is willing to teach you this stuff; under normal circumstances, you’d need to shell out a ton of money and hope there’s a teacher willing to educate you, y’know?”
“...You’re right. Let’s go buy the clothes, then.”
Tuuli and I went to buy the frilly clothes needed for our practice. I took this opportunity to also get her a few normal outfits to wear at the sewing workshop, and she let out a shriek upon seeing the mountainous pile of girls’ clothes.
“I don’t need this much, Lutz!”
“There are a lot of rich apprentices at both Corinna’s workshop and the Plantin Company, right? Myne was worried about the two of us sticking out, so she always butted in to tell me what clothes to get and when. Master Benno pointed out that I need to worry about these things myself now that Myne’s gone, so... yeah. This is my share.”
I added my clothes onto the pile as well. I wouldn’t have given what I wore any consideration either had Master Benno not mentioned it, so I needed to be careful as well.
“I had no idea...” Tuuli murmured, now looking at the clothes in a whole new light. She gave a small smile, then reached for them with tearful eyes. “Myne always said she was buying the clothes to reward us for helping her shop for her attendants, but she was actually looking out for us as well... How was I supposed to know that? You have to say that kind of thing out loud. In fact, she was always so busy with things that I sometimes wondered if she’d forgotten about us... I feel so dumb now.”
“You guys may not realize this, since you can’t speak to her directly, but it’s crazy how much love you all show for each other. She loves you as much as you love her. Gotta say, my family aren’t at each other’s throats or anything, but I don’t have the same thing with my brothers at all.”
Just like that, I was using my Earthdays off work to go to the orphanage with Tuuli and improve my etiquette. Fritz taught me, while Wilma taught Tuuli. This, of course, meant that Tuuli and I were spending all our days off together, which earned me even dirtier looks from Ralph. Nothing I said ever helped my situation either, so I decided to at least test the water with Tuuli, for his sake.
“Out of curiosity, have you been thinking about love and getting into a relationship at all? The girls you know are getting into those things, aren’t they?”
“They are, but my hands are honestly too full right now. I’m so busy trying to catch up to Myne that I’m just like, ‘Don’t get in my way with this love junk. I have stuff to do.’”
In other words, she knew that she was of the age where most girls started to get excited about romance, but she wasn’t very interested herself. She didn’t want other people wasting her time with it, either.
“Yeaaah, I know how you feel. I’m too busy for that stuff as well, so...”
There had been plenty of country girls in Illgner, but there was so much on my plate right now that, like Tuuli, I just didn’t want to pursue any sort of relationship.
Sorry, Ralph. Seems like nobody has a chance with Tuuli right now.
It was near the end of autumn, about a year after Myne had gone to sleep, when Master Benno hurriedly summoned the Gutenbergs together for an emergency meeting. Everyone seemed to be varying levels of annoyed about being called over in the midst of winter prep, but they all straightened their backs after seeing the serious look on his face.
“Lady Elvira—that is, Lady Rozemyne’s mother—wants to establish her own printing workshop. Her side of the family, the Haldenzels, are making a big move to establish the industry in their province. The High Priest said they’ll be constructing a paper-making workshop, a private ink workshop, and a printing workshop. Seems like she’s saying it’s her duty as Lady Rozemyne’s mother to spread the industry as much as she can.”
Heidi tilted her head to one side. “So, um... what does that mean for us?”
“All of you are gonna be participating in a large-scale operation planned to last from next spring until autumn. Spend this winter making sure your workshops and stores will continue functioning without you, and send word to your respective guilds. I’ll deal with the guildmaster of the Merchant’s Guild.”
Every expression in the room changed in an instant—nobody had expected such a huge workload to be pushed onto them out of nowhere.
“Isn’t this all too sudden?!”
“The original plan was for us to start now, so you should thank me that you have as long as you do. I managed to delay things until spring, since we don’t have any connections with the workshops in Haldenzel to help us out, and the rivers being frozen over means we wouldn’t have been able to make paper anyway.”
As it turned out, he had managed to buy us an extra season of prep time by agreeing to do their printing in the Rozemyne Workshop during the winter. That was Master Benno for you.
“Lady Elvira is a natural-born archnoble. Unlike Lady Rozemyne, she wasn’t raised in the temple, and she doesn’t care at all about our commoner circumstances. To make matters worse, the only person who can stop her is currently comatose. Get ready to leave the moment spring comes around.”
Myne was asleep, but now her family was going on a rampage in her place—a family of archnobles we commoners had no way of stopping. We burst out of the meeting room in a panic and with pale faces; it seemed we Gutenbergs would never get any rest after all.
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