Bierce, having seemingly hoped Benno would take up the job, slumped forward in disappointment and shook his head. “I wish I could, but this is all stuff the guildmaster’s store was dealing with in the past. Then Wolf monopolized things the second he became head of the Ink Guild. You can guess what’ll happen if I go to him, right?”
Benno grimaced, having immediately imagined what kind of an attitude the guildmaster would have. “He’d wring you dry. I can see that geezer’s nasty grin already.”
“Yeah. That’s why I wanted to ask you.”
It wouldn’t be strange for the Gilberta Company to start selling ink as they were already selling books made by the Myne Workshop, which had invented the new ink in the first place and was guaranteed to become a large customer. But Benno just rubbed his temples and shook his head.
“It’s not that simple. There’re gonna be nobles wanting me to keep up whatever shady stuff Wolf was doing, and if I start selling ink, the guildmaster’s gonna give me an even harder time than he already is.”
I looked up at Benno. “So you’d let someone else take the business?”
I could understand Benno’s hesitation, but if another store started doing business with the Ink Guild, I would have to do business with them too. It was exhausting just thinking about how long it would take for them to not judge me based on appearances and start doing real business with me.
“We already know that I’ll need a lot of ink when I want to start printing with the Myne Workshop. I would rather do business with you than anyone else, Benno.”
“See? The girl’s saying it too. C’mon, Benno.”
“Mmm, but, y’know...” Benno protested, a conflicted expression on his face, but his refusal was weaker than before. Sensing that, Bierce looked at me and pleaded desperately.
“Could you dig into him a little more for me, girl?”
“...I don’t mind helping to convince Benno, but only if you help me develop colored ink.”
“Colored ink? What’re you talking about?”
While Bierce blinked in confusion, the girl next to him shot up a hand. “I’ll do it! That’s why I’m here!”
“Umm... Sorry, but can I ask your name?”
“It’s Heidi. She’s my daughter, and she’ll be running my workshop one day. She loves making ink and discovering new things. She didn’t even calm down when she turned twenty. She and her husband are the ones making the ink you invented for plant paper.”
Even though she only looked about fifteen at a glance, she was actually over twenty and already married.
Wowee.
“Your ink’s so new and fresh, it really rocked my world. Lookin’ forward to working with you.”
“My name is Myne. I think we will do great things together.”
“Right now, nobody’s buying plant paper ink except your workshop. Buy lots and use lots, okay?”
The only real problem with normal ink was that it damaged the plant paper a little too much—it wasn’t useless or anything, which meant that even if more people started buying the somewhat cheaper plant paper, most would probably just keep using the ink they were used to. There was no need for them to go out of their way to buy separate ink. And most importantly, what I taught the Ink Guild to make was highly sticky ink specifically made for printing; it was hard to imagine anyone else but me would want any right now.
“I guess I’ll have to hurry up with making my second picture book, then.”
“Yep. And by the way, I thought this while making the plant paper ink, but it definitely seems like you could make different colored ink the same way.”
Heidi had figured out that you could make colored ink, but wasn’t able to experiment with it herself. This was because her dad, Bierce, had told her that the Gilberta Company had signed an expensive magic contract to transfer rights to the black ink, and that they might have already done the same with colored ink. But she had wanted to make colored ink so badly that she convinced him to go talk to Benno to discuss whether or not they could experiment. Benno barely knew anything about making ink, which is how this meeting with me came to be.
“It is indeed possible to make colored ink. Please, feel free to make as much as you want.”
“Well, it’s also, like... what materials should I use? I came here hoping you’d have some ideas for me. I got a lot of materials used for paints and dyes together, but which would be good for ink?” Heidi asked, her gray eyes gleaming as she looked straight at me.
I started to open my mouth to answer, but Benno clamped a hand on my shoulder. “Myne. You get how this works by now, right?” His eyes were saying it loud and clear: Don’t talk for free.
I shut my mouth and gave Benno a nod before turning back to look at Heidi. “I will take one tenth of all profits from the colored ink as payment for my information.”
“That’s way too much! It’ll cost us a ton of money to develop the stuff before we can even start selling it!” Heidi exclaimed, almost shrieking. She had a very good idea how much research and development would cost.
I tilted my head in thought. “I will take one tenth of the profits from the colored ink, but will cover half of the research and development cost.”
“Okay! You’ve got a deal!” Heidi thrust out a hand on the spot, her face shining. Negotiations complete.
But when I went to shake her hand, Benno grabbed onto my head just as Bierce smacked a hand onto Heidi’s. “That’s not for you two to decide!”
Heidi and I both looked at our respective guardians, hands on our heads.
“...But why not? Wasn’t that a fair deal?”
“Not at all. You were being stupidly
