This declaration caused the leherls to erupt in cheer, and they started chugging beer and munching enthusiastically through the food on the table. I myself downed my mug of behelle in one go.
We had made and sold the ink that the Gilberta Company wanted so that we could form a connection with them, which led to us being able to leave dealing with nobles to them and the guildmaster. Along the way, we had even found a patron for Heidi’s research. If we’re not gonna celebrate today, when will we? Our hard work’s finally paid off a little; we can save the rest for tomorrow. Heidi has a long, rough road ahead of her... That is, as long as we don’t tick off our tiny patron.
I thought back to the tiny girl who had helped us with our colored ink research earlier today. Lady Myne was kind of a weirdo herself, having quickly become friends with Heidi the research nut, but I couldn’t yell at Lady Myne when she did something weird like I could with Heidi. I had to show more restraint and work that out with her attendants. Not to mention, if I didn’t stop Heidi from researching day in and day out, we’d eat up all of Lady Myne’s funding and be in a real bad spot if she refused to give us more.
Even while drinking behelle among all the festivities, my head was still filled with thoughts of tomorrow’s work. Heidi and I had been entrusted with researching the new ink, which meant I would be doing all of the work except the research itself. It was probably obvious by now, but Heidi was utterly useless outside of research; it took her way too long to do anything, and her lack of progress would just end up annoying everyone around her.
“That’s some nice chugging there, Josef. You must be happy that the ink we made is selling so well, huh? I bet you wish we could eat with everyone like this every day,” Heidi said with a grin, taking a swig of her own behelle. She loved eating with a ton of people like this, especially the other leherls, but in our workshop, Bierce’s family and the leherls usually ate separately.
“How many times has Bierce told you that the boys need some time to relax without him being around? Give it up, this is only ever gonna be for special occasions.”
“I’m jealous of the leherls. I wanna eat where Dad can’t see me sometimes too,” she murmured while eyeing Bierce furtively. I laughed and looked his way too. It was true that the leherls wanted to at least relax and eat meals without him, their boss, watching them. His decision to normally eat separately from them was the right one to make.
That said, I had experience with both sides since I had married into Bierce’s family through Heidi, and well... It was safe to say that there was a big difference between what the five leherls ate and what we ate. Eating separately was convenient to Bierce in part to save on the leherls’ food costs.
There were a lot of reasons and excuses for us eating separately, but regardless of all that, we ate dinner together when there was important news for the workshop. It was the best and worst of times for the leherls, who loved the better quality food but feared Bierce’s news.
This time it’s good news, but last time it was because Mr. Wolf had died, so yeah...
The last time we had eaten with the leherls was when the former head of the Ink Guild, Wolf, had died under mysterious circumstances, and Bierce ended up unable to refuse the position of guild head. If this meant he had to pick up all the shady, underhanded deals that Wolf had been making, then it wasn’t strange to think that Bierce would have to start dealing with nobles himself.
Naturally, the leherls all paled after hearing that; the workshop would no doubt crumble without Bierce. The lehanges could run away when their three-year contracts ran out, but the leherls didn’t have it so easy. Their fates were tied to the workshop. His daughter and successor, Heidi, only cared about research, and since I, her husband, wasn’t qualified to be a beruf yet, everyone had been reasonably terrified.
...I gotta get my beruf certification as soon as possible.
One needed the title of “beruf” to be a workshop foreman. Anyone could inherit the workshop when a foreman died, but without this title, the successor’s position in the guild would weaken, and he’d have restrictions placed on him. Furthermore, he wouldn’t be able to hire any new leherls or lehanges, and lehanges wouldn’t be able to renew their contracts with him.
Everything was decided by skill in the world of craftsmen, and it was a harsh world indeed. You couldn’t own a workshop without being a beruf, since talentless people owning workshops would damage the reputation and development of the entire area. You could technically get around this restriction if you had friends in powerful places—a personal workshop not belonging to any guild, generally established by a rich merchant or a noble, could be run by a foreman who wasn’t a beruf—but that didn’t apply to most people, and in general the death of a foreman meant the death of a workshop.
...Like Wolf’s own ink workshop.
Since Wolf was the only one in his workshop who was a certified beruf, his workshop rapidly deteriorated after he died. Limits were put on trade, and due to rumors coming out about his dark past, several lehanges canceled their contracts once spring came.
I can’t let our workshop meet the same fate.
I was a leherl married to the workshop’s successor—I was tied to it no matter what happened, and I didn’t have the luxury of slacking on getting my beruf certification, lazily watching Heidi go nuts over research. Bierce had been forced to become head
