novelraw Chapter 167 : Chapter 167
Chapter 167 : Chapter 167
Chapter : 167
There were no woodblocks.
Only people’s hands.
And even then, an educated person who had learned the Ancient Empire language (usually a clergyman.) had to painstakingly hand-copy it, stitch by stitch, to make a book.
Absurdly enough, this was how books were made in [Pangea Universalise].
“…Call in the dwarf craftsmen.”
“Yes? You said you were making a book, but why are you suddenly calling dwarf craftsmen…? Of course, dwarf craftsmen also do know the Ancient Empire language, but.”
“How long are we going to make books by human hands. Naturally, if you are human, you should use tools.”
“Ghn. Tools?”
Treasurer Palmer tilted his head as if he could not understand at all.
Tools, what tools?
Did I mean tools like a ruler to make it easier to keep spacing when copying a book?
Of course, my heart as I looked at Treasurer Palmer was boiling with stifled irritation.
“Treasurer Palmer.”
“Yes? Ah, yes. Lord.”
“Stop spouting nonsense, and call them quickly. Understood? Or do you want to work more? The judges are asking for someone who knows administration well to be assigned to them, so if you want, I will introduce you spec. ial. ly.”
“Eeeek! No, sir. I will go at once, Lord.”
Then Treasurer Palmer flinched in alarm, wiped his slick scalp, and dashed out the door.
Good grief, seriously….
I really wanted to smack that shiny forehead of his, just smack smack. With how it glistened with grease, it seemed like it would stick with a perfect SLAP SLAP.
---
“Oh! Lord! You are finally calling us! We have been waiting for this day. Hohahaha.”
The dwarf craftsman who saw me laughed heartily as if he was extremely glad.
How many masterpieces had we made together with this human lord so far!
Some fools with eyes like cow’s eyeballs said it was nothing special, but you only saw as much as you knew. The dwarf craftsmen knew very well the beauty of the mechanical devices the lord devised.
That was why, at Treasurer Palmer’s words that I was calling them, the dwarf craftsmen stopped what they were doing and came running at full speed. What strange and fun thing would he show them today?
Swelling with anticipation, the dwarf craftsmen only stared intently at the lord’s mouth.
But I….
‘Mm…. This is incredibly burdensome.’
The sight of these dwarves was so uncomfortable.
Think about it.
Bearded dwarves, and especially those short, stocky dwarves who boasted truly brawny bodies, with muscles bulging from grueling labor, were looking at me with sparkling eyes.
If you did not feel pressured, you were not human.
“K, ahem. You do not have to welcome me so passionately.”
“Oh come now. How could we do that. We should serve you with utmost devotion. Is that not so, fellows?”
“Hohahahahut! Of course. If it were not for you, Lord, who would give us the blueprints…. Mmph mmph mmph-!”
When one dwarf carelessly blurted out what he truly felt, punishment came immediately. No matter what, blueprints to the lord, a great noble!
“Hehe. That fellow drank too much….”
At the dwarf craftsman’s glib words, I could only be left speechless. Then, perhaps embarrassed, the dwarf craftsman began to clear his throat.
“Ahem. Ahem. So why did you call us, Lord?”
“I…. called you because I had a request.”
“Oh!”
“See? I told you. Hahaha. It is new design drawings!”
“You lot. Can you not be quiet? It is before the designer, no, before the lord. You brats.”
“…….”
They were beating the drum and playing the janggu all by themselves. Did they really find making things that fun and good?
No, maybe this was better.
How good was it to do productive work without causing trouble, unlike certain people. That was better.
“Enough, enough. Calm down.”
Thinking that, I settled the dwarf craftsmen down.
“What I am asking of you is to make something called a printing press.”
“A pri….nting press?”
“What is that?”
“Have you ever heard of it?”
“No. Then have you?”
“How would I know.”
Then the dwarf craftsmen all began to murmur at once. It seemed they found it strange because it was a word they were hearing for the first time.
“A printing press is a machine that prints books.”
“You print them with a machine? So, books? Are you engraving some kind of magic? A machine that writes letters, wow.”
“Mm? We do not know how to carve magic circles.”
“Hey now. Be quiet. Even if you do not know, you should pretend you do, so we get work.”
“Oh, that?”
“……”
Why did this worldline keep shattering my fantasy-world expectations more and more?
It was the elf knights who jumped into battle like barbarians screaming, and it was also our dwarf craftsmen whose mouths were so light and talkative like children.
“Ghn…. It is not writing letters, but stamping letters that have been engraved in advance.”
“……?”
“Stamping?”
“Engraved in advance?”
Then the dwarf craftsmen all widened their eyes. And seeing their eyeballs roll around restlessly, it looked like they were imagining what I had said in their heads. Then one dwarf craftsman cautiously asked me.
“Do you mean pressing down hard from above? Like the press machine that manufactures coins?”
“Oh, yes. You saw it exactly!”
In [Pangea Universalise], wealthy city-states often used a press machine to compress and stamp their city’s symbol when making currency like gold coins or silver coins.
The printing press I would make would also use that method, so it was similar.
No, in fact, what I meant to reference was Gutenberg’s movable-type printing press, so it was roughly correct.
Gutenberg had originally worked as a metal craftsman in Mainz, then saw metal casting and got the idea.
“If we cast the type in advance, fit it into a plate, and stamp it like pressing with a press machine, would it not be easy to make books?”
“Oooh!! That method!”
Before I could even finish speaking, the dwarf craftsmen all let out exclamations.
And at the same time.
“Ahh. Then we can definitely stamp it.”
“Right. And we can make a large standard plate and insert the type we made separately into it, then recombine it depending on the book’s contents, too.”
“Then it is better to use metal than wood, right?”
“Considering durability, that would be better. It would be easy to make it out of wood, but if it takes force repeatedly, it will break.”
They whispered among themselves, and before I knew it, they had already set the direction all on their own.
‘Ahh. Yes, this is it.’
Was this not exactly the dwarf craftsmen you saw in fantasy novels. Excellent. Now, if I just tossed them an idea, they made it well on their own.
They truly were excellent slaves(?), no, technicians.
---
“Hohahaha! Lord! Now, wait. Our masterpiece!”
It did not take very long for the first printing press prototype to be made. Structurally speaking, it was not very complicated.
For the structure, we could already reference the press machine used to manufacture coins, and what was a bit complex was producing dozens of pieces of type and various punctuation marks, and how to fix them into the frame.
At first, there was an opinion that we should melt wax on the bottom of the frame to fix them, but the wax was not as sturdy as expected, so it was rejected.
So what came out was this.
“We made grooves inside so it stays fixed. Thanks to that, it takes a bit longer to grind the type, but in terms of sturdiness alone, it is absolutely the best! Hohut-hut.”
“Mm, yes. That seems like a good choice. It certainly is very sturdy.”
I said that while shaking the fixed type-plate frame.
“Then shall we try printing? Our hands have been itching. We wanted to print and make it right away. Still, should not the joy of the first production be done by you, Lord, our patron?”
“Hehe, you did not have to do all this.”
Goodness, has this dwarf craftsman gotten a taste of society? To think he could butter me up this well.
“Fine. Then let us make one. Now, print it.”
“He says to print it! Hurry and turn the lever!”
“HYAAH HYAAH. HYAAH HYAAH.”
At the shout, the dwarf craftsmen began to turn the handle attached to the printing press body.
CREAK CREAK.
With the sound of metal friction, the press began to crush the type plate from top to bottom.
SQUISH. THUNK.
It stamped onto the paper, and then, along with the sound of a spring snapping, the type plate rose upward and the stamped parchment thrust forward.
But that was not the end.
CREAK. CREAK.
The dwarf craftsmen kept turning the handle in succession, and now the parchment began to go into the printing press, get stamped, and spring back out repeatedly.
It was a kind of semi-automatic machine.
“Oh?”
Thanks to that, I let out an amazed exclamation. To think they could create such a mechanical device in such a short time.
As expected, dwarves of technology.
“How is it, Lord? We used our heads a lot.”
“It is excellent. I did not even expect it. A semi-automatic machine like this. It really is an amazing invention.”
“Hohut-hut. Ah, you flatter us too much.”
Even as the dwarf craftsman waved his hands as if he was embarrassed, his face was grinning from ear to ear.
As expected, they were a race whose emotions were easy to read.
Leaving that dwarf craftsman behind, I walked up to the printing press.
“Still, if it is like this, we can stamp at a very fast speed. We will make books quickly…. Hm?”
But then a problem occurred.
And it was a very serious problem.
“No…. What is wrong with this?”
“Yes? Is there something strange?”
“Look at this.”
“Mmm? Eek?”
“No, why is it all smudged???”
That was right. The first print was decent, but the further it went, the ink was all smudged.
“Then we cannot use it, can we?”
“Is the speed the problem? If we reduce the speed, will it not prevent the ink from smudging.”
“Oh, then try it.”
At those words, we adjusted the speed again and turned the printing press.
CREAK. CREAK. THUNK.
CREAK. CREAK. THUNK.
“How is it?”
“We reduced the speed by half.”
“Mm, it is hopeless.”
But even then, in this case, even the first page was completely smudged with ink. Thanks to that, the dwarf craftsmen and I wrestled with an unexpected worry.
“What is the problem?”
“Should we slow it down more? Will it have much meaning? Honestly, it was slow enough this time too.”
“Is the parchment the problem, maybe?”
“Oh? You are right. The parchment quality was bad. Does that not happen sometimes even when hand-copying?”
This time, we tried replacing the parchment. It was still the same.
We brought high-quality parchment, but once again, the ink smudged.
At this point, stubbornness kicked in. So this time we adjusted the pressure of the pressing machine.
But.
“Gaaahhh!”
“It is not here either?! I am going to lose it.”
“Do we need to slow it down more?”
It failed again.
Thanks to that, we all clutched our heads and screamed. What was the problem!
But unexpectedly, we found the solution.
“Hm. Is that not just an ink problem? If the parchment, the speed, and the pressing force are not the problem, then you just used the wrong ink, that is all.”
“?!”
“……?”
“Oh?!”
It was Magician Azuela, who had come to the workshop to hang around because she was bored, casually tossing out that remark, that was the key.
“That seems right. Try it.”
“We can use ink with higher viscosity, right? It was a bit thin.”
And not long after.
-Ding-a-ling!
[You have developed a printing press.]
[The printing press was an invention that played a very large role in accelerating society and reducing the information gap. By inventing the printing press, the world will now bring about the exchange of knowledge a little faster, and more broadly. But be aware. Sometimes, a foolish public is easy to control.]
[Notification : In step with the spread of the printing press, chaos increases across the continent.]
At last, I completed the development of the printing press.