Ascendance of a Bookworm (LN) - Volume 1.2 - Chapter 11

The Guildmaster and the Hair Ornament 

“That’s...” murmured the guildmaster, frozen in place. The only time Tuuli had worn this hairpin was during her baptism. What had happened then? 

The sight of the guildmaster’s unfaltering smile vanishing in a split second made me so nervous that I turned to Benno for help. Judging by the carnivorous expression on Benno’s face, he was far from worried about the guildmaster freezing up. For a second it looked like he was about to lick his lips hungrily, but then he was back to his normal dark merchant smile. 

“Is this perhaps the pin you were looking for, guildmaster?” 

“You’re going to sell this?!” The guildmaster’s eyes shot open in surprise and he looked between Benno and me. His desperate expression bereft of a smile was so scary I gasped at the sight of it. 

...Lutz, no fair! Why do you get to hide behind Benno?! I tried escaping behind Benno too, but he grabbed my shoulders and pushed me forward. 

“Yep. The plan is for them to make more over the winter.” 

“Winter handiwork, then...? In that case, I would like to buy that hairpin immediately.” The guildmaster leaned forward to take Tuuli’s hairpiece from me. The gleam in his eyes made it clear that he would never give it back if he got his hands on it, so I hurriedly put it back in my bag. 

“That won’t work. I made this for my sister, Tuuli. I can’t sell it.” 

“I’ll give you this much.” He sharply held up three fingers. That was probably indicating some price, but I had no idea what. I timidly looked at Benno, who was grinning hard. 

“Hm, well... If you make it worth our while, we’ll make getting you a hairpin our top priority. What do you think, Myne?” 

“I-I agree with Benno.” I couldn’t think of anything else to say. I could only follow Benno’s lead with a forced smile. 

“If we start making it now, we’ll easily have enough time to make one before your granddaughter’s winter baptism. Right, Myne?” 

Ah... I get it now. His granddaughter saw Tuuli’s hairpin during the summer baptism and wanted one herself. Benno’s hint finally helped me realize what was going on. As the guildmaster of the Merchants’ Guild, this man normally had more information than anyone else regarding products in the market, but he couldn’t find the hairpin. My family had made this hairpin for Tuuli without selling it and no store in the city was selling anything similar. He had probably grown increasingly worried as the winter baptism ceremony approached. 

“...There’s only one month left. Is there enough time to make a new one?” 

Making the tiny flowers took a surprising amount of time and thread. My mom had said that she was fine making them in the winter, when we were locked inside without much to do, but any other season would be too busy for her. That said, I had no doubt whatsoever that her attitude would change if making the flowers was work that paid well. It would take some time to buy the thread and ask his granddaughter what kind of hairpin she wanted, but even so, there was plenty of time until the winter baptism ceremony. 

“Yes. We can’t sell this one, but there won’t be any problem with us making a new one. Isn’t that right, Lutz?” 

“Yeah. No problem.” Lutz and I both nodded in agreement. 

Benno, who had been nodding with a grin on his face, followed us up. “That said, neither of them are registered yet. Too bad they can’t sell you the hairpin like this.” 

“Ngh... Very well. I will order the hairpin after temporarily registering them.” The guildmaster’s defeat was settled in moments. 

Pleased that he had succeeded in registering us without undue complaints or leaking information about the paper, Benno started to leave the room. 

“Hold on. The kids can wait here until their guild cards are ready. I’ll order the hairpin right after.” 

Benno clicked his tongue under his breath and turned around with a smile. “They’re too young to be left on their own, I’ll stay here with them.” 

“That won’t be necessary, they seem quite well behaved. They’ll be fine without you. Right?” The guildmaster’s smile looked gentle, but it was clear he was planning something. 

I would probably be wrapped up into some plot of his if I was on my own, so I reflexively grabbed Benno’s hand. “Th-This is a new place to me, so I want to stay with Benno.” 

“Heh. You heard the girl.” Benno, wearing a victorious smile, sat on the hard sofa-like chair in the guildmaster’s room. He picked me up and sat me on his lap, then whispered “Good job” and patted my head. He was pretty pleased. 

Afterward, I moved to sit next to Benno, and Lutz sat next to me. The guildmaster sat in front of us and began discussing business. “I’ll have one hairpin, then. Please finish it before the winter baptism ceremony.” 

“Mmm, what color flowers do you want? Maybe your granddaughter’s favorite colors, or colors that will match her hair, or...” 

“That is outside my area of expertise. Just make it like that one,” said the guildmaster, pointing at my tote bag. 

But even if it was “outside of his area of expertise,” it was important information. Benno was probably going to be overcharging the guildmaster, so I at least wanted to make a hairpin that would make his granddaughter happy. The smile of a happy granddaughter would be priceless for a grandpa who worked hard to find a certain present for her, after all. 

“Um, if possible, could I meet your granddaughter and ask her what she would like? I think she would be happier that way.” 

“I want to keep it a secret and surprise her.” 

Oh no, it’s happening! He’s going to ruin the gift by forcing it to be a surprise! The only time a surprise gift would make someone happy is if you knew their tastes perfectly and gave it to them at the exact proper timing. Pulling that off would be way too hard for a grandpa who didn’t even know his granddaughter’s favorite color. 

“...Um, but the hairpin will need to match her clothes and hair color too, and she might end up really frustrated if you give her a hairpin after she’s already prepared another one.” The winter baptism ceremony was close enough that she had probably already prepared an outfit for it. It wouldn’t be surprising if she and her mother had already bought a hairpin. 

“We’re going to be making one from scratch, so I think she’ll cherish the gift more if it suits her tastes, rather than one she doesn’t look very good in. Don’t you think a happy smile will be more wonderful than a look of surprise?” 

“Hmm, I see...” The guildmaster stroked his chin and looked up, thinking about something. “Myne, was it? Would you be interested in coming to my store?” 

“Not a chance!” said Benno immediately, rejecting him instantly before I could react at all. 

“My store is larger than Benno’s and has a more storied history. No conditions, either. As you have not been baptized yet, you are not an official apprentice and can easily switch to my store. What do you think?” 

It was an attractive offer in some ways, but I had no intention of abandoning Benno after he helped us get so far. Not to mention, the guildmaster was kind of scary. “I owe Benno more than I can ever repay him.” 

“Hmm. In that case, I will repay him for you.” 

“Bwuh? Ummm...” I had intended for that to be a firm rejection, but he was still going. 

Benno’s mood plummeted as I wavered beneath the guildmaster’s sheer force of will. His brows furrowed until his forehead was creased and he glared at me while thumping his fingers against his temples. “Myne, answer the guildmaster. Say you decline.” 

“I, I-I, I decline!” 

“That’s unfortunate, but I will give up for now. You won’t be able to give an honest answer with an intimidating guard by your side.” 

Wh-What do you mean, for now?! And I am being honest here! 

“Are you free to speak with my granddaughter Freida tomorrow? The sooner the better, I imagine.” 

“Um, can I go with Benno?!” Today’s meeting had firmly taught me the lesson that I should not meet the guildmaster alone under any circumstances. It was dangerous without someone who could deal with his force of will and authority. 

However, the guildmaster shook his head. “Unfortunately, Benno and I both have a meeting tomorrow. But in either case, would you really want an adult around when meeting with a girl your age?” 

“...Well, okay. If it’s just us kids.” I had become so exhausted from my battle with the guildmaster that I reflexively nodded at the idea of it just being a meeting between two girls of the same age. The second I did, Benno clicked his tongue. ...Bwuh?! What’d I do wrong?! 

The furrows in Benno’s brows deepened and the guildmaster’s smile returned, making it clear that I had made a careless mistake. “Just us kids” meant that Mark couldn’t come along with us. My head started spinning desperately for a solution. I looked around and then realized something. 

“L-Lutz is making the hairpin with me, so I think he should come with me! H-He’s a kid too, so...!” Going in there alone was too scary. My suggestion to bring Lutz along made Benno’s expression loosen up a little. 

In contrast, the guildmaster raised his right eyebrow in amusement. “Very well. How does meeting at the plaza tomorrow at third bell sound? I will send Freida to get you.” 

“Okay.” 

An employee walked in with our temporary membership cards, as if he had been waiting for our conversation to settle down. Our temporary registrations had apparently gone unhindered. 

“This is a temporary membership card for our very own Merchants’ Guild. It is a type of magic tool and will unquestionably be necessary when conducting business. Ask Benno for the details. Your cards are the same that merchant apprentices get, so you can now reach the upper floors on your own.” 

The thin metal membership card reflected a rainbow of covers when held under the light. It was ridiculously different from anything I was used to dealing with, and from every angle looked like the kind of thing that could only exist in a fantasy world. The more I heard about it, the more awed I became. I could only blink in surprise at the awesome powers of magic tools. 

“As the final step, please press your blood onto the card to confirm your link with it. Afterward, others will be unable to use it.” 

“Bwuh?! Blood?!” Was blood essential to make magic work? I still remembered having to press my blood to make the contract magic work. 

“Give up, Myne.” 

“Luuuuutz...” 

“C’mon, hold out your hand. I know you can’t do this on your own.” 

“Awww...” I timidly held out my hand, whereupon Lutz poked it with a needle. When a droplet of blood pushed out, I pressed it against the card. The second I did, the card shone brightly. “Hyaaah?!” 

The shining lasted only a moment before the card was back to normal, identical to how it had been beforehand. And by identical I meant that it was free of both blood and my thumbprint. It was completely clean. ...Magic tools were convenient, but scary. 

Perhaps due to having seen me panic over all the blood and the card shining, Lutz seemingly made it a point to finish his registration quickly and expressionlessly. 

“Your registrations are now complete.” 

“Thank you very much.” 

Benno started to leave the room, as if to say he had no more business there, and we hurriedly followed after him out of the Merchants’ Guild. A simple registration had completely worn me out.

“Welcome back. It seems the registration was successful.” 

When we got back to Benno’s store, we found Mark waiting for us. He occasionally wore the dark smile of a calculating merchant, but he was so often our ally that his smile brought light to my heart. 

“Yep. Thanks to Myne, it was a complete victory.” 

“Oh? That’s quite rare.” 

“Though now that geezer’s got his eyes on us.” 

“...This might end up problematic.” It seemed that even Mark found the guildmaster troublesome to deal with. I could empathize with him from the bottom of my heart. “Please, follow me. I have prepared for the prototype paper to be purchased.” 

“Alright, let’s get this over with.” 

Mark opened the door to Benno’s room and gestured us inside. The fact we were getting paid made me pump my fist. 

“Okay! But first, I have a request. Can you teach me about money?” 

“Say what?” Benno narrowed his eyes, as if not understanding my intention. Mark looked similarly confused. 

“Umm, I haven’t actually touched money before now... I know numbers, but I don’t know the connection they have with money. For example... I have no idea how to express five thousand six hundred and forty lions in copper coins.” 

“What?!” Both Benno and Mark let out genuine yells of surprise. “You’ve never touched money...? I mean, you’re not a merchant’s daughter, and you’re still young, so I suppose that’s not surprising? Wait, no, it’s definitely surprising.” 

“...Ah, right. Myne’s parents don’t send her on errands. She’ll collapse on the way there,” said Lutz, making everyone sigh in understanding. 

“I’ve never actually seen a merchant trading at the gate, and when ordering the tools with Mark I just touched the orders themselves, not the money. I’ve seen my mom use small coins at the market, but I don’t really know what value they have,” I said, upon which Mark walked next to Benno, put a bag on the desk, and spread out coins onto it. 

“Very well. I will begin by teaching you the types of money.” 

There were three types of brown copper coins, then two types of silver and gold coins. Lutz gulped, and I could tell he was staring at the gold coins on the desk. 

“A small copper coin is worth 10 lions. The medium sized copper coin with a hole in the middle is 100 lions, and the large copper coin 1,000. The small silver coin is 10,000 lions, and this continues onward with large silver coins, small gold coins, and large gold coins.” 

The monetary system was very easy to learn thanks to how it worked in multiples of ten. As I nodded to myself, I heard Lutz groaning quietly beside me. It seemed that the scale had gotten so large that he no longer could grasp what was going on. He had a long winter of studying ahead of him, but since he would learn to calculate money while working as an apprentice anyway, I was sure he would be fine. 

Benno grabbed the six pieces of prototype paper and lined them up on his desk. “A piece of parchment is worth a small gold. Parchment the size I use for contracts is worth a large silver. Paper this big will be worth about two small silvers.” 

...A piece of paper the size of a postcard is worth two small silvers? I had known that paper was expensive, but I didn’t really get it until I saw the money in front of me. Speaking of which, Dad once said that a piece of paper the size of a contract was worth a month of his salary. 

“For now, we have to rely on the price of parchment to determine the price. Volrin paper is worth two small silvers, and this trombe paper’s high quality enough to be worth four small silvers. As a handling fee, we’ll subtract thirty percent of that, and to be clear, the money we invested in you until these prototypes were made is separate from the cost of the new suketa you want. We’ll garnish your pay for the cost of the suketa. About fifty percent, considering its price.” 

Now that our prototypes were ready, we would have to keep track of the price of the materials and tools we were ordering. I nodded and Benno grinned. “So we agree that your pay will be twenty percent here? We’ll have to go through this again once the paper enters the market and the price of wood changes to match, but for now, this is it.” 

“That’s fine.” I nodded again and looked at Lutz, who nodded as well with an expression that made it clear he had no idea what was going on. 

Benno set a calculator on his desk with a thump and pushed it to Lutz. “Lutz, do you know how much the three pieces of volrin paper and three pieces of trombe paper will add up to?” 

Lutz fiddled with the calculator, working in the three pieces of volrin paper, but then just stopped and shook his head, disappointed. He could do calculations that involved a single digit, but when the numbers got too big and the types of paper too many, he was at a loss. 

“And you, Myne?” 

“Umm, (three times two is six and three times four is twelve), so it should be eighteen small silvers. With fifty percent of that going to the suketa and thirty to the handling fee, we get twenty percent. That ends up with a total of three small silvers and six large coppers, which means we each get one small silver and eight large coppers.” 

Benno stared at me, blinking, and Mark gave a wry smile. “Correct. It’s very impressive that you could calculate that instantly on your own.” Personally, I didn’t know how to use a calculator and would have to learn that over the winter with Lutz. I wanted to fit into my environment as much as possible. 

“On top of that, there’s the slate and slate pen for Lutz. We’ll take that out of his pay.” Two large coppers in total. Lutz handed back two large coppers and received a slate and slate pen in return. 

“I can give you the money here or I can deposit it to your guild card if you don’t have a place for it. Which do you want?” It seemed that the Guild functioned partially as a bank. Walking around with a lot of money was a scary idea, and I wanted to save up my earnings to buy a book one day. 

“I’ll store the small silver on my card, but please give me the large coppers. I want to give them to my mother.” 

It had been a dream of mine back on Earth to donate some of my first earnings to my family in an act of filial piety. I was fine with having that dream granted here. 

“Got it. What about you, Lutz?” 

“I’ll do the same as Myne.” 

“Alright.” I took the eight coppers from Benno and pressed my card against his. I heard a sound like a string being plucked, but the card didn’t look any different. 

“You can now get your money from the Guild’s third floor. I’ll need to take you there and show you how it’s done soon.” Benno grinned at the sight of me turning my card around and Mark agreed. 

After Lutz went through the same process, he was given six large coppers. The cold weight in my hands excited me so much it was hard to contain. “This is the first time I’ve ever held money before.” 

“We earned this money, huh?” Thinking back to the numerous failures which had paved our road to paper made the money in our hands feel all the more meaningful. 

“Hey, Lutz. When spring comes, let’s make lots of paper and make a lot of money.” 

“Yeah!” 

I looked at Benno full of satisfaction, my heart swooning from my first time touching money. “Now that the paper’s finished, we’re done with the Guild, right?” I said, which made Benno scrunch his face up and flick my forehead. 

“Don’t be stupid. Your fight starts tomorrow. You have to go to that old geezer’s house and duel it out with his granddaughter without any adult support, remember? Is now the time to relax like an idiot?!” 

“Wha? But we’re both kids, and both girls, too.” I didn’t think that our meeting would turn into a fight or anything. After all, I was just going to ask what kind of hairpin she wanted. It wasn’t a meeting and the guildmaster wouldn’t be there, so why would we end up fighting? 

“This is the granddaughter that old geezer dotes on, and I hear she resembles him more than anyone else in their family.” 

“Sh-She resembles her grandfather?” I tried imagining a little girl with the guildmaster’s face, but it just didn’t work. 

“Just be glad you’ve got Lutz with you. Don’t let her suck you up. Lutz, don’t feel compelled to join their conversation, but if you see Myne getting thrown off like she was today, get in there and stop whatever’s happening no matter what. Who knows what traps the geezer has lying for us here. Got it?” 

“Got it.” Lutz nodded hard with a serious expression on his face, but I didn’t get why they were both being so dramatic. I mean, we were dealing with a girl who hadn’t even been baptized yet. As I tilted my head in confusion, the coins in my hand noisily clinked together. 

“...Speaking of which, how much are we charging for Freida’s hairpin? I didn’t understand the hand sign the guildmaster gave me.” 

“The sign he gave meant three small silvers. When I said ‘make it worth our while,’ that went up to four small silvers,” said Benno, stunning me. Even considering the price of thread, that was ridiculous for a single hairpin. 

“Wait, wh-whaaat?! That’s scamming him!” 

“Do a good job here. It’ll be good advertising for your winter handiwork and impact the price we can sell them at.” 

“Um, c-can we lower the price...?” My desperate request was shot down with a single glare. 

“You think I would do that for that geezer?” 

“No, not at all.” I slumped over after answering. Having to make a hairpin worth four small silver coins was a lot of pressure. 

“The price of materials, my introduction, and the handling all add up to about fifty or sixty percent. Cheer up, it’s fine. The price comes from the fact that by not selling the hairpin he had been looking so hard for, you gave him the impression that it would be even harder to obtain than expected. On top of that, there’s the guilt of making you start your winter handiwork early while winter preparations are still going on. There’s good reasons for why the price is so high. It’s nothing for you to worry about.” 

...There may be good reasons for the price, but it’s still ripping him off. Sorry, guildmaster...