Ascendance of a Bookworm

Volume 7, Chapter 6: Struggling to Make Wax Stencils (Part 2)

“It’s a pleasure to see you again, Benno. How can I help you today?”

“Could I get some of your cheapest wax in these?” I asked while gesturing towards both Gil’s and my diptychs.

The foreman still remembered my last visit, he nodded and starting working on it right away,

Gil kept staring at the wax with eager eyes. Though he still couldn’t touch the wax because we told him he had to wait for it to hardened, he was already grinning away. He would occasionally try to blow out puffs of air onto the wax in attempts to speed up the hardening. That was quite adorable.

“Gil, if you keep blowing on it, the surface won’t be smooth after it hardens.” Gil jerked when he heard me speak and turned his head towards me.

“Yes, you should listen to her,” Lutz commented,” she kept touching hers that it was full of bumps after it dried.”

“Shut it, Lutz!”

I was furious at Lutz for exposing all my secrets, which made Gil back away from his diptych and lurched forward laughing. Gil probably didn’t want to mess up him diptych like I did.

“Oi, Benno. Don’t tell me you went out of the way to contact us just for this? You’re planning to get something else, right?,” the foreman asked Benno after packing away his tools.

Benno nodded and replied,“Yeah. I want a small box of every kind of wax you sell here.”

“Every one of them? Aren’t you going to place an order for candles?”

“Don’t mess up the order. We’re ordering wax, not candles this time.”

The foreman looked absolutely shocked by what Benno said. After all the owner of one of the largest stores in town, who always ordered candles of a specific size and amount was now sending in an order for every wax. It was natural for him to be surprised.

“Why do you even require the wax for?”

“Ah, that’s confidential,” Benno smirked, which provoked the foreman into deep thinking.

He was aware that Benno had been pushing out new products one after another, so he was curious if he was up to another.

“Deal. We’ll have them delivered tomorrow.”

“Would it be alright for us to get a sample of what’s already available here?”

“Sure, I’ll get them for you now.”

The foreman left to speak with his workers and returned with two boxes of wax. We left the workshop right after that.

“Well then, you have everything you need now, right?”

“Yep. Thanks, Benno.”

When we got back to the Gilberta Company, I tapped my card with Benno’s to return him the cost of the wax. After that I have him the recipe to the paper and discussed a deal for having him handle the negotiation. We also agreed that Benno would handle discussions with the wax workshop on my behalf too.

“Alright, we’ll start work when we get back to the workshop,” I instructed Gil as I handed him the wax.

Lutz’s expression turned thorny and he held me back with his hand.

“Hold on, Myne. What do you mean? What are we going to do? You still haven’t told us what we need to do. Update us before returning to the temple.”

It was forbidden for me to do any work in the temple, so I had to give them my instructions first. My initial idea was to do the work in my chambers, but it be wiser to discuss the details at Gilberta Company if I didn’t want others learning about this. I agreed to Lutz’s suggestion.

“We’re going to apply a thin layer of wax on the thin paper we’ve already made. We only need to sprinkle pieces of wax onto the paper and melt it down with an iron. And tadah! Simple, right?”

“Myne, what’s an ron? And where do we find one?”

Lutz was absolutely befuddled by my dumbed down explanation. He seemed to not understand what ironing meant.

I sifted through my memory and did my best to describe it.

“Uh… It’s just a lunk of metal with a flat surface on the bottom that gets really hot. It’s supposed to iron out the wrinkles on cloth. Is there something like that? They are probably quite common in clothing workshops or among the rich.”

I recalled how my robes, that Corinna made, were wrinkle free, so they probably did exist. Benno chirped in.

“Yea, Corinna has one in her workshop. You need it?”

Benno explained that the irons the rich and clothing workshop had resembled large pots which they filled with hot charcoal. It was similar to the charcoal iron from my old world. Of course my family didn’t have one since we wore old and shabby clothes, Lutz was the same too.

“Benno, does the Gilberta Company sell irons?”

“Unfortunately, no, they have to be specially ordered from a smithy. It’s not a common everyday item, and no one needs that many anyways. But I have to say… irons are a disaster if you’re not good at them. Are you sure you want one?”

It turns out that the ash would spill out these irons and cause a huge mess if you weren’t careful. Honestly, I wanted an electronic one right now, but I didn’t have enough knowledge to make one.

“Well, I’ll see if I can make a better version and have Johann make it.”

I wouldn’t be getting an iron anytime soon, which put me in a slump. Lutz felt the same and crossed his arms whilst deep in thought.

“We already have the drive and knowledge to go, but not the right resources. This whole situation feels familiar. Myne, think carefully, do we have everything we need?” Lutz enunciated his words slowly. He seemed to have recalled how much we struggled the first time we made paper because we had the wrong tools. I cupped my face with my hand, trying my best to recall everything about making wax paper.

“Hm… We first need to shave the wax and scatter the bits onto the paper. We can easily do this step with a steeper from those teapots at the market. After that, we’ll…”

My words trailed off and jerked in realisation.

Lutz is right. I forgot an essential item.

I dropped onto the ground and grabbed my head.

“NOO!!! We’re missing the cooking sheets!”

“Wuah?! What?”

I assumed that this method would be the easiest, but we didn’t have any cooking sheets. And we couldn’t make anyway right now, or that I didn’t know the formula behidn it.

“…It’s over.”

“Why don’t you try thinking it over again? Don’t give up this easily. Is there something else that can be used as a substitute?” Lutz asked.

I drew my eyebrows together. Before cooking sheets came around, aluminum foil and paraffin paper existed. But both weren’t an option. Aluminum foil gets wrinkles that would crease the wax, and paraffin paper was basically a paper coated with wax, which was precisely what we were trying to make right now.

“Hmm, it’s supposed to prevent the wax from sticking all over when it melts, but a normal paper might get the work done too, right. I hope I’m not getting my hopes too high. How does that sound, Lutz?”

When I was still Urano, a normal sheet of blank paper could typically be used to cover the wax, so the paper here might now work too. Well, I hope so.

“Don’t ask me, I don’t know anything about this. Do you need any other tools?”

“We pretty much have everything else covered to make the wax paper. But I would like to see if we can get a mimeograph stylus and a cutter made as a stencil.” (Note: I’m not sure if I got the tools’ name right)

Making wax paper was a very succinct process. We only need to melt and dry the wax on the paper. Getting some wax stuck on the iron wasn’t the most concerning issue, it was weather the wax paper could be used to make stencils.

“A stylus and a cutter… Will Johann be making them?”

“Yep. That’s in his line of expertise.”

I got back up and nodded. Benno cracked a smile at this.

“I’m starting to feel bad for all the Gutenbergs.”

“Benno, you’re a Gutenberg too. Johann isn’t the only one. Why do you keep thinking you’re not one too huh?” I provoked Benno and that quickly turned his smile upside down. He grabbed my hand and let out a harsh voice.

“Everyone who you have dubbed Gutenberg is suffocating with all the work you’ve given them. Is this how you should be speaking to those who have been working hard in your stead all day, every day?”

“Wha? Uh… Well…” I stumbled and looked back and forth from Benno to Lutz. I couldn’t think of a reply.

I could feel the daggers in their glare poking at me, they were waiting for my response. They weren’t giving me clues of what I should say.

‘Let’s do our best to spread the joy of books across the world?’

“That’s not it! Give us your thanks!” Benno yelled out and drilled his fist onto my head.

“Thank you! Thank you! It’s thank to you and Lutz that I am able to do all these!. Thank you for staying with me throughout all the hardships I have given you both!”I roared out with tears in my eyes.

Benno was trying to make me feel guilty for overworking all the Gutenbergs, but my time with Kamil was too short. I was not going to delay making the picture books by a second, I was even considering turning it up a notch.

Johann seemed like he wanted to do anything else but make letter pieces when we last visited to get Gil’s stylus. This time I gave him some drawings of the iron, mimeograph stylus and cutter we will be needing. When he realised that all of them were going to be used for printing, he finally reached the understanding that was going to be a true Gutenberg. So much so that he yelled out in joy.

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