It was a cloudless morning, and the sun was slowly beginning to peek over the horizon. The city was still asleep, but Marca was already up and working in her shop. After going through multiple applications and tests, she finally was granted a place that served not just as her new ho but also as her shop.
The second floor was for her and her husband, while the first housed her little store, and in the back, she even got her personal workshop set up by the Ministry. In there, she could try mixing her herbs and working on her concoctions, finally experinting in the way she had always wanted. To help her out, her husband, Isharia, has begun taking up lessons in school and applying for a permit to beco a local trader. When he finally finishes, he will be allowed to travel the region, buy or harvest ingredients from the farmlands, and bring them back to the city.
She was a bit bumd out when he failed the test to acquire the permit to leave the region and trade with other parts of Ishillia, but it was enough. Most of her herbs and plants ca from locally anyway. What she was most happy with was that they let her sell her dicine and even encouraged her to experint. However, the Pri Minister did send over a small, printed booklet detailing all the rules and regulations she must follow.
"Today is going to be a nice day!" She moaned with a smile hanging on her face, the door to her shop wide open, just finishing sweeping the floor. Looking at the shelves and her counter, filled with little bottles with printed labels, Marca couldn't help but smile even wider.
It was sothing new and unusual, and she was amongst the first batch of store owners who were given the unique opportunity. Around a week ago, the Pri Minister invited her and a dozen others to a conference where they got to et their king, no, their Sovereign, Leon. It was sothing none of them expected; she even panicked a little, not wearing her best clothes.
What surprised everyone was that he went around, shaking hands with everyone, showing them around, explaining the printing machines and how they were developing sothing new and wanted us to test it. All of them, including Marca, had a chance to design so-called 'posters' or 'labels' for their shops, which could then be applied to their products, shelves, or windows for what the Sovereign called: Advertisent.
When it was her turn, she went ahead and designed sothing that she could stick onto her bottles, detailing everything the custors had to know. With the printing press, she was floored by how easy it was to create and copy words onto paper, and she was allowed to do multiple tests until she got it right. She even had a chance to et with her Queen, Sasha, who was maybe the most well-known woman in the region, as everyone knew she had risen from being an urchin to the most powerful woman in this part of the Empire.
It was she who helped her create the tags she envisioned by making a new set of small tal letters and decorative shapes, printing out the instructions on a downsized label, sothing that would be easy to fit on her bottles. It was at that mont Marca finally realized why learning to write and read was mandatory. It was already impossible to return to a ti when very few were bothered to gain these precious skills.
"I wonder..." She murmured, looking towards her workshop, gripped by a new idea since she returned from the eting.
When she got her order, they ca with instructions. She received a jar of... sothing. A thick, odorless, and colorless cream that was a newly developed invention made from demonic beasts' liver fluids. She knew because she asked what it was and was given a fully detailed description of it. She only had to spread it over her bottles, apply it thinly, stick the paper label onto it, press it hard for a minute, and then it was stuck to it. The only way to get it off was to use soap and warm water.
"I may be able to recreate it..."
For the past day or two, she has been experinting with grounding down multiple flowers and plants, trying to co up with a similar solution. Magical beasts are available in limited quantities, not to ntion the danger they pose. If she could create sothing with the sa properties, she could help the city and earn so recognition. Her na may be morialized just like Perth's.
...
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......
"Did you even sleep?" Asked a kind, gentle voice, making Perth jolt out of his thoughts while sitting beside a stack of burnt-out candles.
"Huh? Sorry, I was zoning out."
"Put it down, dear."
He only nodded, letting his wife take the drawings out of his hand, organizing them into a stack, and beginning massaging his shoulders, almost making him fall asleep at once.
"Oh, it is already morning?"
"Yes, so co, it is ti for you to rest!"
"I will need to finish these plans so-"
"No. Sleep! Now! Your deadline is in two months! Relax a little. First, they will begin building the temple anyway. You have ti to finish the plans for the decoration."
"Yes, but it will need to be submitted, reviewed by Minister Rennar, and approved by Minister Mikan. What if it gets rejected? Then I need to rework it, and I will go over my deadline then!"
"That does not an you can work yourself sick!" His wife said commandingly, getting angry and dragging him to bed. "If you appear like this in the palace, they will kick you out. You look like your friends when they leave the tavern every night. I wouldn't lay with you looking like this, hmph!"
"Heh... got it, got it... And they are no longer my friends. The mont they learned I was working on the temple, they called ... nas."
"They were never your friends then. They should have been happy about your promotion, and you could have also lifted them up the sa way! It is their loss, dear. Our son will soon be of age to attend school, and I want him to grow up to be soone who will beco a minister!"
"Huh... is that even possible?" Perth asked, smiling, but his wife's eyes were deadly serious.
"In Avalon, everyone has the chance to beco soone!"
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"Slowly... that's it..." I whispered, not wanting to be a nuisance for Sasha, but I couldn't help contain my excitent.
I was with her in the workshop, letting Karus and the other head blacksmiths look on as she operated the forge. What we were doing was sothing that only she could accomplish, being utterly immune to the heat, handling molten tal as if it were nothing. I honestly don't know if this is because of her magic affinity or because she is special. Elyzien's words are still scraping against the back of my mind, and I was honestly beginning to believe she was unique.
With her delicate fingers, she was crafting tiny gears and thin pieces of watch hands made from gold because we were constructing a pocket watch. The idea ca to from Luna, who one day complained we didn't have any towers with a clock on them. She always had to guess the ti, which made realize the issue. I was so used to just looking at the sky, concluding it was morning, day, or evening, that I totally forgot about it. Thinking back, I knew we had one big clock in the castle that was, funnily enough, not working.
Father said it was there way before he beca the owner of the castle, and it has been broken ever since, so it wasn't a big deal for to deconstruct it. There was nobody here to fix it anyway. From that, along with Sasha and Kraus, we drew up a rudintary blueprint and got to work. It took multiple days for Sasha and I to refine it, making it smaller, smaller, and even smaller, until we finally had sothing I could call a pocket watch, at least on paper. It would still be the size of a hand-held calculator, so it's not exactly pocket-friendly, but oh well. It would still be a novelty because, going by Luna's words, the most miniature clocks were still human-sized.
Finally, we reached the point where we could begin creating the first prototype, which Sasha made by hand. While crafting it, we had the opportunity to iron out all the problems and devise the tools Kraus and the rest would need if they wanted to reproduce it. When all the parts were done and finished, it was my turn to sit down, assemble it, and hope that nothing went wrong in the process. anwhile, Luna had the task of setting up a sundial in the palace's garden so I could determine the ti of noon and help set my first watch.
When, after a lot of cursing and mumbling to myself, I finished it and I winded it up for the first ti and saw its hands beginning to tick, I felt a kind of accomplishnt that I could not explain. It was nothing like anything I experienced before, and I couldn't help but hug and shower Sasha with kisses. It was a perfect job. All the miniature gears and whistles it needed worked perfectly. Putting it together was a nightmare, but all of it was worth it!
"Can I get one too?" Luna asked as she looked at it, her eyes sparkling, watching the gold chassis and the clear glass over its polished tal face. I made sure it was looking good, so the numbers were all painted gold, too, contrasting with the darker color of the tal dial. What was maybe the most challenging part was creating the glass for it. What we could do in my region was only colored or rough-looking glass, nothing that clear I was used to in my ti. Still, I lted down so of the clear glass reliquaries brought away from the old church from the ti when we raided them.
"Soon." I smiled, rubbing Luna's head. "This one is going back to the workshop. This is just the first prototype. It will be what the others can study, take apart, and put back together. It was ant to be theirs, so they learn how to make it."
"Whaaaat?! This could be worth a lot! Sasha worked hard to make it!"
"And I can't be always there, making it. This showed that the blueprints work; this watch can be replicated. Now, they must develop the thod and precision to make it themselves!"
"Exactly!" I nodded, smiling at my wives, "They are probably already bored with making tal pipes day in and day out, so this will be perfect, occupying them for a long ti—especially those who want to aim for the Forgemaster role later. Making the tal parts for the printing press already gave them the basic tutorial on making miniature items; this will be the advanced part."
"We still have around a year... Besides the glue and this watch, we can co up with a few more luxury items for the nobles."
"Glue? Really?" Luna smiled, twitching her mouth, but Sasha just patted her head.
"You would be surprised! In manufacturing, it would be very useful. Mikan told us when we asked her about glasses that people who can make clear glass or know the technique to engrave on it are all sought-after craftsn and guard their secrets close to their hearts. Now, you can just print out a label and stick it on things. Much cheaper! One tub of our glue could be used around a thousand tis before going empty. What do you think then?"
"Hmmm..."
"It can be a flop." I interjected, chuckling, "We don't know, but we will try. No bad things can co from it; we will see what sticks!"
"Hey!" Arrived Yuri's voice, interrupting us, entering the garden. "The Head Kiddo has co to report sothing!"
"rlin?" I turned towards her, a bit surprised. "Did he say what happened?"
"Yeah, he said that soone made a surprising discovery."
"Don't tell it is another gold mine?" I quipped as we walked over, watching her shake her head.
"Nah, he said that a woman made sothing sll nice."
"And?" Luna shrugged, "We already have scented soap."
"How nice?" I asked, my mind racing about what it could an, and then I slled it. "Waaaait..." Stepping closer, Yuri simply grinned, showing a V-sign, "This is nice..."
"True..." Sasha murmured, also leaning in, sniffing at Yuri.
"He brought so samples! They are in small bottles. Pretty cool, if you ask ! I like it!"
" too..." I whispered, my thoughts already counting the coins we could earn with this. My scented soap was lovely, but it was a rudintary little thing... this? This was full-on perfu from the modern days... what the hell?
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