Ascendance of a Bookworm (LN) - Volume 1.2 - Chapter 15

Winter Handiwork 

“Hey, Myne. Why are you saving the small silvers with the Guild every time? Why not just bring it all home?” asked Lutz suddenly. We were on our way home from the Merchants’ Guild after leaving the carriage. “I’m doing the same thing ’cause I figure there’s some point to it if you’re doing it, but... I always thought I’d take all the money I made back home, so it feels kinda like I’m doing a bad thing...” 

The idea of saving money was a distant one to poor commoners who barely scraped by as it was. At most they would start stashing a bit of money away during autumn for winter preparations, and that was a lot different from registering in the Guild to store money there. Naturally what parents did became common sense to children, and most of them brought their apprentice earnings back home to help their family. 

“I’m saving for the next time we need to invest in a startup fund.” 

“Say what now? Startup fund?” said Lutz, tilting his head in confusion, so I tried to explain it to him in the simplest possible terms using our own experience as an example. 

“Remember how hard it was to get a single nail when we wanted to make paper and didn’t have any tools, money, or even adults to help us?” 

It wasn’t too long ago that we asked Otto for help and ended up with Benno yelling at us. Lutz, remembering that, nodded with a bitter expression. 

“We were lucky enough that Benno bought my (simple all-in-one shampoo) and paid all the money we needed for stuff, but you understand how expensive all our tools were, right? In order to start something new, you need a lot of money.” 

“A pot, lumber, ashes, thread, bamboo work... Yeah, that must have been really expensive.” Thanks to all the places we’d been going to lately, Lutz had come to understand the prices of things sold in stores, not just stands at the market. He paled at the thought of how much starting up our paper-making venture would have cost. 

“So, I’m saving up my money for next time. Benno said he was done paying for our stuff once we finished the prototypes, right? If we want to expand our paper-making process by buying more tools, or if we want to start something new at all, we’ll need a lot of money. Everything costs money. Even moving on to making books will need new tools.” 

“So it’s all for the future, huh...?” I peered at Lutz as he made an expression that made it seem like he kinda agreed and kinda didn’t. He must not have realized that he had a much more pressing and important reason to save money than I did. The thought must have been escaping him. 

After thinking for a few moments, I started to speak slowly. “I don’t really want to say this, and I don’t even want to think about it, but... if your family still won’t let you become a merchant after your baptism, what will you do? Have you thought about your future...?” 

After scrunching up his face miserably, Lutz murmured in a weak voice, “...I was thinking I’d ask Benno to let me be a live-in apprentice.” 

“That’s all you could do if you want to be a merchant. I’m glad you didn’t say you would give up.” I smiled, which made Lutz let out a little sigh of relief. It would take a lot of guts for a kid his age to run away from home, and I was sure he was still debating it in his head. But regardless, he was fighting for his dream. And fighting for his dream would take money, of course. 

“But think about it, Lutz. After you’ve run away from home and become a live-in apprentice, there’ll be time before you get your first pay, and you’ll need to both survive until then and afford your apprentice clothes. Your life will be a lot different depending on if you have your own money you can do anything with.” 

Lutz’s head shot up, as if he finally understood. We made eye contact and I nodded. “There’s nothing wrong with saving the money you earned yourself. You might feel guilty since everyone else is using all their pay to survive, but you’re not even old enough to be working yet and you’ve already brought home thirteen large coppers in just five days. You’re bringing home more money than Ralph is, and he’s an apprentice, right? So it’s fine. It’s all okay.” 

“Right... I am making more than Ralph, huh,” said Lutz, grinning with pride. Ralph had just begun his apprentice work and thus probably made around eight to ten large coppers a month, which was far less than what we had earned already. “Thanks, Myne. I feel a lot better now.” 

“I’m glad,” I said with a smile before Lutz suddenly turned around and crouched. “What’re you doing, Lutz?” 

“I’ll carry you on my back. You must be pretty tired by now, huh? You’re looking kinda sick,” said Lutz, making me reflexively touch my cheeks. They didn’t feel hot, so I wasn’t suffering from a fever yet. 

“...I look sick?” 

“Not too much, but we’re going to see Benno again tomorrow, so you shouldn’t push yourself. Don’t forget, Myne, my most important job is keeping you healthy.” 

“...Okay. Thanks.” It was true that we had walked around so much today that I was getting exhausted. If Lutz was getting worried, then I was definitely close to being in a dangerous state. 

I got on Lutz’s back and he carried me home. I naturally climbed the stairs on my own, but when I started falling over on the way there, he took my hand and helped me up. To be honest, the last set of stairs before my floor were the hardest part of any trip. 

“I’m home, Mom.” 

“Oh, hello Lutz. It’s rare for you to come all the way up here. Is Myne feeling okay?” 

“We were just gonna show Benno the hairpins, but we met with the guildmaster and ended up going to his place. Since he wanted us to deliver the hairpins ourselves, I mean. Thanks to that, Myne ended up pretty tired.” 

“I see. Thanks as always, Lutz. You help us more than you know,” said Mom while putting a middle copper into Lutz’s hand. Which reminded me that I had my own money to hand over. 

“Oh, that’s right. Here Mom, before I forget.” 

“Myne, what in the world did you do?” Mom paled as she saw the five large coppers I had. She froze in place with her eyes wide open, having naturally not expected the hairpins to be worth that much money. 

“This is part of what we were paid for Freida’s hairpins. Didn’t I mention that they were paying a lot since nobody else sells them?” 

“You did, but I still didn’t expect this much money...” 

Sorry, Mom. I guess I really shouldn’t tell her that this is less than half of what we were paid, and that I’m keeping a small silver for myself. 

“Is she telling the truth, Lutz?” 

“She is, Mrs. Effa. I have just as much since I helped her make them. We split the pay halfway,” said Lutz, showing Mom his own large coppers. That was enough for her to believe us and she sighed in relief. Um, Mom? Do you not trust your daughter at all? 

“Also, Benno told us to see him next afternoon, so we’re going to the store again tomorrow. Try and get her to rest as much as possible.” 

“Thank you so much, Lutz.” Mom shut the door after seeing Lutz off, then sent me to bed with her eyebrows arched a little with anger. “How many times have I told you not to push yourself? But in any case, you certainly sold those hairpins for a lot of money, didn’t you?” 

“Mhm. Freida’s rich and we used expensive thread, not to mention that we made two hairpins instead of just one. Also, since this is a busy time for winter preparations, they paid us extra. Nobody else would have paid us this much.” 

“I see. They were considerate since now is a busy time for us, then.” It looked like my Mom was now imagining Freida and the guildmaster to be honorable rich citizens who were considerate even to us poor folk. She would probably never meet them in real life, so I felt no need to crush her dreams with reality. 

Mom, having finally came to terms with her child coming home with a ridiculous amount of money, left the bedroom to start preparing supper. Now alone in the bedroom, I realized that I really had been pushing myself pretty far, and started drifting off as soon as I rested my head on the pillow. I ended up falling into a deep sleep and missing supper entirely.

When I woke up, it was morning. Since we were visiting Benno’s store in the afternoon, I was basically stuck in bed until then. Probably due to how much I had been walking around lately, my body felt really heavy and sluggish despite how well I had slept. It was clear to everyone that I was on the verge of getting sick with a fever, and even after starting winter prep, my family wouldn’t let me help them. 

“Stay in bed, Myne. You’ve been working too hard lately. You trying to make more than me, huh?” said Dad while checking the window shutters. 

Mom and Tuuli, spreading out and drying the winter blankets and carpet, were no different. 

“You’re going to Benno’s today, aren’t you? You’ll collapse on the way there if you don’t rest right now.” 

“You can’t help much during winter preparations anyway, so conserve your energy for where it’s useful.” 

None of them were about to let me leave the bed. Having no other choice, I snuggled up underneath the blankets and watched my family work busily. Hmph... I think I would be at least a little helpful since I learned a lot about winter preparations last year, but sure, whatever. 

They were probably being overprotective since I fell into a deep sleep right after coming home with five large coppers. Inside the house I couldn’t do much, but in the span of five days I had brought home thirteen large coppers, then passed out and missed supper. I could imagine that they interpreted that as me overworking myself. I guess that wasn’t too far from the truth, since simply walking around was pretty hard work for me. 

When fourth bell rang, signifying noon, I bundled up in warm clothing and left with my tote bag. I climbed down the stairs and saw Lutz, who immediately grimaced. 

“Myne, you’re not looking too good. Maybe I should go to Benno’s alone?” 

“I think it’s because we’ve been so busy lately. But still, Benno said he wants to determine the price of the hairpins today, so I need to go. If it were just the thread you could get it on your own, but I really want to be there when deciding on the price.” 

“...Yeah, the price is a bit, uh, much for me. I still don’t get how that stuff works.” Since Lutz still didn’t know all his numbers, deciding on the price would be too much for him. It was especially important that I go today and negotiate with Benno on the price of the hairpins. “Alright. At least let me carry you, then.” 

“Huh? I couldn’t make you do that. You just carried me home yesterday...” 

“I’ll be carrying all the thread on the way back and that’ll probably take all I’ve got. You should save your strength.” 

“Aww. But I was in bed all morning, I’m fine.” 

“At times like these, you never know when you’re fine.” 

And at times like these, you’re so stubborn that you never give in, I murmured to myself internally while getting on Lutz’s back. I myself had barely grown at all, but it felt like Lutz’s back was even bigger than yesterday. It was a little frustrating that despite he was growing so much more than me despite being the same age, even taking my sickness into account. 

“Lutz? Is Myne not feeling well?” After seeing Lutz carrying me on his back, Mark’s eyes widened and he quickly walked up to us. Mark had grown sensitive to my health. I had actually traumatized him by collapsing unconscious in front of him, and suffice to say, I felt pretty bad about it. 

“...She’s been leaving her house every day and that’s taking its toll on her. She’ll probably end up in bed for a while starting tonight. So we want to finish our business here as soon as possible.” 

“Understood.” Mark gave a single nod and guided us to Benno’s room. “Sir, Myne and Lutz have arrived.” 

“Let’m in.” 

Mark opened the door with a creak and walked in with us. “I have been told that Myne’s health is poor right now. It would be wise to finish this meeting as soon as possible.” 

“Got it. Take a seat, you two.” Once we reached the table and sat down, Benno started discussing our winter handiwork right away. He told us the price of the thread, I estimated how many hair ornaments we would be able to make from this amount of thread, and from that we decided the price. 

“Mr. Benno, I don’t want to make the selling price of these hair ornaments too high. We’re using cheap thread here and I would like for a lot of people to buy them.” 

“I understand how you feel, but I’m not gonna sell them cheap from the start. Their market price will drop as more of them enter the market and starting cheap isn’t gonna help that. We’ll make a lot more money starting high and working our way down. Three large coppers should be good.” 

That was just expensive enough that even my family could afford one if we tightened our belts for a bit. The idea was that poor families would be able to just barely justify it by having sisters pass it down over the years, and over time we would slowly drop the price. 

“That seems fair. Okay.” I nodded and the conversation moved on to our share of the profit. 

“For each hairpin, after taking out the handling and materials fee, you will earn five middle coppers. That’s me being generous, since you’re the only ones that can make these and it’s a new kind of handiwork that’s never been done before.” 

“Five middle coppers when you’re being generous?! I knew you were overcharging Freida!” If we had been working with Benno’s initial price, we would be making around five small silvers for every two hairpins. That was a hundred times more money, literally. 

“That was the price the geezer asked for himself, so who cares? He did it to himself.” 

“...Okay, how much are things made as winter handiwork usually worth?” I had helped Tuuli make baskets last winter but was never paid for my efforts, so I never really thought about how much each basket was worth. 

“We merchants take our handling fee, and then the bosses of carpenter shops or sewing shops take their handling fee too, so usually the people making this stuff get a single middle copper per product if they’re lucky. Usually it’s less. You’re making a little more since we’re not dealing with the boss of any shops, but still.” 

“Bwuuuh?! Not even a single middle copper? Isn’t that way too cheap?!” My immediate reaction was shock, but after a moment I remembered that homemade crafts were pretty cheap even in Japan. Bead straps, for instance, were generally only priced at a hundred yen or less. With that in mind, a single product being only worth a middle copper or less wasn’t odd at all. We were making a killing with our five middle coppers. 

“Usually only the boss of a shop has the right to buy and sell products like that. Profit will change a lot depending on how large of a handling fee that boss takes. Don’t you have experience with this kind of thing? I figured you did since you’re the one who brought up making hairpins as your winter handiwork,” said Benno, which made me think back to last year’s handiwork. 

“Last year I helped my older sister Tuuli with her handiwork. But I just made the stuff without knowing how much they were worth, how much of a profit they were making, or how much a handling fee the boss was taking. I wasn’t paid anything. Wait, speaking of which, don’t you need to be registered with the Merchants’ Guild to sell things you’ve made? Is my mom registered?” My mom had taken our baskets off somewhere, but I had never heard of her visiting the Merchants’ Guild. She even seemed interested when I mentioned going there myself. 

“What, does your mother run a market stand?” 

“No, she just works at a dye workshop.” 

“Then whatever you did was probably handiwork her workplace gave out. Since the boss is paying them for work done, the craftspeople themselves don’t have to register with the Guild. Only the boss has to register and they’ll do all the selling themselves.” 

Apparently, handiwork given by a workplace was considered a part of work, so the workers themselves didn’t have to register with the Merchants’ Guild. But they did have to be registered with the respective guild related to their craft. 

“So basically, my handiwork last year was given to my mom by her workplace. She left it to Tuuli and then I helped her.” 

“What’d you make?” 

“I made baskets like these. They were pretty simple since I didn’t have much experience making them, but I had a lot of spare time to spend on them, so some ended up looking really nice.” I held up my tote bag with pride and for some reason Benno grimaced, rubbing his temples. 

“...You again?” 

“Bwuh?” What does he mean, me again? You know, I get the feeling I’ve seen him grimace like this several times before. Did I maybe do something wrong again? 

“I remember seeing some fancy baskets in the middle of all the normal ones being sold last spring. For handiwork, you get paid based on quantity, not quality, so most people made pretty crappy baskets to make as much money as possible. Yours stood out a lot compared to them.” 

“NOOOOOOOO!” I had put some extra effort into the baskets since I had the time and Tuuli wanted to learn, never expecting in my wildest dreams that they would end up standing out in the marketplace. 

“I went all the way to the workshop to ask who made them, but they had gathered all the baskets at once and didn’t keep track of which worker made which.” 

“Whew! That’s a relief.” I was, in fact, self-aware of my own weirdness and tried my hardest to blend in, but I got the feeling that wasn’t really working out. 

“People making their own baskets naturally put more effort into it, so your bag didn’t stick out to me, and it lacked the decoration for me to make the connection. Y’know, all the odd things I’ve come across this past half a year have led back to you, Myne.” 

As I thought of the fancy baskets, hairpins, shampoo, and plant paper, I couldn’t help but grab onto my head in agony. Benno was making me realize that nothing I had done was the work of someone trying to blend in. I felt so awkward that I couldn’t help but give a small apology. “...Um, sorry.” 

“Eh, don’t worry about it. More importantly, I see that you have a habit of putting more effort into things when you’re bored. Listen up. When making these hairpins, follow the same design you used for Tuuli’s and don’t change it up. This isn’t negotiable. Understand?” 

I hadn’t expected the bags to stand out like they did and I didn’t want the same to happen with the hair ornaments. Keeping the design identical for all of them should dodge that problem entirely. “Okay. They’ll be different colors, but they’ll all be the same design.” 

“Alright, that should be about it. Oh wait, one more thing. You said you wanted to study over the winter, right? Here, I’ll lend you this. Take a look once you get home.” 

“...What is it?” I started to look at the wooden card Benno gave me, but he squeezed my cheek. 

“I said look at it after you get home! Understand?” 

“Yesh!” 

“Sheesh. You can give it back once your fever’s gone down. Get home as soon as possible. Lutz, don’t take your eyes off this idiot. I get the feeling she’ll try to read the card on her way home and end up in an accident.” 

I, remembering the time in my Urano days when I got hit by a car due to reading a book on my way home from school, kept my mouth shut and looked away. 

Mark had put the thread we’d ordered into a box, which Lutz carried on the way home. We left with Mark watching on, looking worried. As we took our time walking slowly, I started to talk to Lutz about something I wanted to discuss before I ended up bedridden. 

“Hey, Lutz. About our share of the hairpin money...” 

“Yeah?” 

“The flower parts take a lot more time to make, so would you be fine if I take three out of the five middle coppers?” 

“Sure. Heck, I’d be fine taking just one of the coppers.” 

A one and four split more accurately reflected the amount of work being done, but my reasoning for the two and three split laid elsewhere. “That’ll make the math a lot harder for you, so let’s go with two and three.” 

“Math?” 

“Uh huh. I think we should hire our families to do this work with a pay of two mid coppers for each flower part, one mid copper for each pin part. We can split the other two mid coppers.” 

“Huh? Our family?” Lutz looked confused, so I continued. 

“Mmm, given how fast my family works, I think we would only be able to make about thirty hairpins per month at best. We don’t want a bunch of leftover pins, so I thought about how you could ask your family to make thirty pins a month and take a handling fee for them.” 

“You want me to do this so I can be a merchant?” Lutz understood what I was getting at after remembering how I had described the difference between a worker and a merchant. 

“That’s right. Don’t you want to try copying Benno? You’ll have to study hard over the winter if you want your apprenticeship to go well, and that won’t be possible if you’re spending all your time making pins. Though you would get more money if you did.” 

I understood that it didn’t feel great to take money from your family, but if you weren’t willing to do business with them, then becoming a merchant would be a lot harder. 

After hearing my explanation, Lutz glared at the ground for a bit, then his head shot up. “...I’ll give it a shot.”

The thread needed to be stored in my place, so Lutz carried it up the stairs for me. My family was naturally surprised to see me come home with a bunch of thread, and thus stopped their work to take a look. 

“Lutz, why all the thread?” 

Mom... Why are you asking that to Lutz and not me, your daughter? Peeved by the difference in trust Mom felt toward us, I began to explain. “This is thread to make hairpins. Benno bought it for us so we could sell the completed products to him. This is going to be my winter handiwork, so please don’t use it on other things, okay?” 

“Mhm. Thanks, Lutz. Have some of this, if you’d like.” Mom handed a tiny jar of freshly made jam to Lutz. He took it with his eyes shining and raced home. 

“I’ll take this to the storeroom. You go ahead and sleep, Myne.” Dad carried off the basket and pushed me into bed. 

“Aww. At least let me wash myself first. I didn’t get a chance to yesterday and I’m feeling gross since I went out yesterday.” 

Tuuli called over, “I was just heating up some water and I want to get clean too, so let’s wipe each other down together.” 

“Thanks, Tuuli.” 

Tuuli and I had been washing each other for about a year. By this point she started to feel uncomfortable after about three days of not washing. She prepared the bucket of bathing water near the hearth, the warmest part of our house, and talked to me while wiping herself down. 

“A year ago you were doing a bunch of weird things I didn’t understand, and now you’re going out and working for money. I don’t know what to think about all this, really.” 

“Are you making baskets again this year?” I asked Tuuli while wringing a wet towel above the bucket. 

She moved her braid aside and washed behind her neck while answering. “The handiwork Mom’s job gives pays more than my job, so yeah. I was planning to start cutting the wood and peeling off the bark for it.” 

“Wait, what? You don’t have to do your job’s winter handiwork?” Wasn’t it mandatory work given by the boss? I had thought from Benno’s explanation that people had a quota they had to fill. I tilted my head in confusion and Tuuli giggled. 

“It’s just a side job to earn a little extra money. Some people make a lot of extra and others are so busy making clothes for their family they can’t spare the time, so it’s not mandatory or anything.” 

“Ohhh, okay. Everyone’s in a different situation.” I had been planning to ask my family for their help after they finished their quota, but if there wasn’t a quota in the first place, maybe Tuuli could help me from the start. I looked at her and smiled. “My handiwork is going to be making more of those hairpins. I can get two middle coppers for each complete flower part I make for them.” 

“What?! Really?! That’s a lot of money. Can I make them too?” 

“Mhm, let’s do it together,” I said, causing Tuuli to start jumping for joy. Her green eyes were shining as she planned to make tons of flowers and earn a lot of money. 

“Hey, hey, Myne. What do I need to do to get ready?” 

“Benno gave me all the thread I need and Lutz is making the pin parts, so nothing really. We just need thin needles to sew them.” 

“That’s really easy.” Tuuli started to laugh, but then she froze in place and pointed behind me, blinking rapidly. I turned around to see Mom, who was standing still with her hand on her cheek. She was thinking really hard about something. 

“Myne. Could I join you two after finishing your special dress?” 

...Um, Lutz? My mom looks really pumped about starting this. We might need more pins.