“Okay, I’ll have these test results compiled by the day after tomorrow.”
“Thankee, thankee. I don’t know how to write, so that’s all up to you.”
Heidi and I shook hands and exchanged a smile before going our separate ways. I wanted to go straight home to start compiling our results, but Gil pulled on my sleeve while acting kind of hesitant.
“What’s wrong, Gil?”
“Sister Myne, I want a diptych too...” Gil murmured, his eyes lowered. That reminded me—I had said I’d make one for him once spring came since he had learned to read.
“Okay, let’s stop by Johann’s smithy to order a stylus for you. Then I can go home and compile the results.”
The ink workshop wasn’t too far from the smithy since both were in Craftsman’s Alley. Johann might not be happy to see us since we’d be visiting right before lunch break, but we headed for the smithy nonetheless.
“Good morning. Is Johann here?”
The foreman glanced away from the customer he was dealing with to look over at us. The second he saw me, he stifled a guffaw and forced out a “Heya there” before gesturing toward an empty seat.
“I’ll go get Johann for you,” he said. “Heeey, Gutenberg! Your patron’s here!”
“Pfff!” Lutz and Gil hurriedly covered their mouths to stop themselves from laughing. It seemed that “Gutenberg” had stuck as a nickname for Johann in the smithy.
“Foreman, I told you to stop calling me that!”
I thought “Gutenberg” was quite a respectable name, but Johann clearly didn’t like it too much. He came bursting out from the back, meeting the foreman with narrowed eyes and a big frown.
“Good morning, Johann.”
“Oh, Lady Myne. Welcome.”
“Sorry for coming right before lunch. Do you have time to take an order?”
“...I’m still not done with your last order,” Johann said with an uncomfortable expression. He was still working on the additional letter types I had ordered, but that wasn’t a huge deal since the High Priest already put a stop to movable type printing. Johann could take his time making a ton of them over the next couple of years.
“Please prioritize this order. I would like you to make a stylus for Gil, just like the ones I ordered previously.”
“Absolutely!” Johann said, his face beaming. He even pumped a fist into the air. “It’s been so long since I made anything but letter types... So, so long...” he murmured, an emotional tear dripping down his cheek.
...Honestly, I feel kinda bad now. Sorry, Johann.
Since I was his only patron, he had apparently been making nothing but letter type after letter type. And on top of that, not just the foreman, but now all of his coworkers made fun of him for his “Gutenberg” title.
Maybe I should pop in every now and again just to give him different things to do.
“I’ll try to give you orders for things other than letter types soon.” I needed an iron for the wax stencils, as well as a stylus and a file for the mimeograph. There were a lot of things I would want his help to make, but all of them were tools for printing.
“I’m very much looking forward to working on something other than letter types.”
Johann’s smile at getting the stylus order made me feel just a little guilty; no matter how I looked at it, he wasn’t going to escape his fate as a Gutenberg.
Having ordered Gil’s stylus, we left the smithy just as fourth bell rang to signify noon.
“You’re going home, right, Myne?”
“Uh huh.”
“I’m hungry and wanna get back to the store as soon as possible. Get on, let’s hurry.” Lutz crouched down for me to get on his back. Apparently he’d end up getting less food if he wasn’t back soon.
Knowing that I would be dead weight and just slow him down otherwise, I climbed onto his back without protest. He stood up and dashed off in a half-run to the plaza where our well was.
“You stay inside and start compiling the test results after lunch. I’ve gotta go check up on the Myne Workshop and give Master Benno a report on all this. Don’t go outside, okay?” Lutz set me down in the plaza and put his diptych into my hands before immediately running off toward the Gilberta Company. It looked like he really was worried about his lunch.
After seeing him off, I turned to look at Damuel and Gil, who were both blinking in surprise. “Sir Damuel, Gil, thank you for accompanying me. You may both return to the temple, since I won’t be going outside any more today.”
“Alright. You’ll want to come to the temple tomorrow, I take it?”
“Yes. I would really like to go to the ink workshop, but Rosina would be very unhappy if I missed too much harspiel practice.”
I put Lutz’s diptych into my tote basket and climbed the stairs home all alone. “I’m home,” I whispered while quietly opening the door, though there was no escaping the creaking of the rusty hinges.
“Welcome home, Myne. You’re back early,” Mom said after I slid inside. She was probably preparing lunch, given that she was standing in front of the hearth.
“Mom, how’s Kamil? Is he sleeping? Did I wake him up?” I asked, glancing over at the bedroom.
“Don’t worry, he’s fine,” Mom replied with a small smile and nod.
I snuck into the bedroom to have a look at Kamil’s face, then put my stuff down and washed my hands before eating lunch with Mom. We were only halfway through when Kamil started to cry in his tiny voice. Mom hurriedly finished her food and sped over to him.
“Sorry, Myne, but could you clean up for me?”
I cleared away our dishes before starting to copy the results of today’s experiments from the diptychs onto my notepad made of failed paper. The seemingly nonsensical results began to take a more sensible form once I had them all lined up together. Linseed oil tended to make blue colors, mische green colors, pedgen red colors, and eise
