Ascendance of a Bookworm Chapter 136

“Wow! It's Wilma! Wilma is here!”

“Wilma, Wilma, I just helped prepare the pigment!”

When the children saw Wilma, who had never left the orphanage appear in the workshop, they all cheered around her and began to talk about what they were doing and what they could do now. The children inadvertently formed a s.h.i.+eld, making it impossible for the gray-robed priests to close to Wilma. So, while I was determined to protect her, I had no chance to show up.

“… let's start printing.”

Without the need to protect Wilma, I dropped my shoulders unwillingly and walked toward Lutz. Wilma followed me, surrounded by a s.h.i.+eld formed by the children.

“Lutz, can you print the t.i.tle page first? I want to see if we can apply the pigment evenly with the roller.”

Lutz placed the paper on the printing worktable and covered it with a template. The worktable was about A4 size and the template was A5 size. This time I was going to separate the ill.u.s.tration templates from the text templates.

“Is that right?”

Lutz confirmed with me, gently lowered the wooden frame with the net and took out the pigment. He mixed the pigment with oil on the marble table, and then rolled the roller over it.

When he was ready, he gave me a look. When I nodded, he placed the roller on the net and began to roll it slowly. After several rolls, he placed the roller on the marble table and lifted the wooden frame. Because of the pigment, the template stuck to the net, leaving only the printed paper on the worktable.

The text was actually printed on the paper, and the pigment was not uneven or dizzy.

“It's perfect. Please put it on the drying rack.”

After examining the printed t.i.tle page, I handed the paper to a gray-robed priest and asked him to place it on the drying rack. Lutz immediately placed another piece of paper on the worktable and continued to print diligently. The templates made of thick paper could not be reused, so we must print as many as possible this time.

I intended to print thirty copies first, including one for my family, one for the Dean's Office, one for Lutz, one for Benno and one for the Head Priest. The rest will be sent to the orphanage as textbooks.

“Go on to the inside pages and ill.u.s.trations. Please get ready.”

Hearing my instructions, Wilma's face showed a trace of tension. Lutz discreetly removed the t.i.tle page template and replaced it with the ill.u.s.tration template. For ease of reading, picture books took the form of text on the left and ill.u.s.trations on the right. In addition, because the paper needed to be folded in half during binding, there was a s.p.a.ce between the text and the ill.u.s.tration.

I noticed that Wilma and Rosina were both looking at me, so I looked back and nodded to them. Lutz's expression was as tense as Wilma's. He took the roller and started printing. My heart was beating as fast as his movements. Would the ill.u.s.tration be beautiful when it was printed? Would it satisfy Wilma? Finally, Lutz dropped the roller and raised the frame, and in that instant I felt the people around me catch their breath.

“… wow! How beautiful!”

The first people to express their admiration were the children around Wilma.

This ill.u.s.tration vividly showed the encounter between the G.o.d of Darkness and the G.o.ddess of Light in black and white. When I saw the template, I foresaw that the printed ill.u.s.tration would be great, and my hunch was further confirmed by the stark contrast of black and white after coloring. The G.o.d of Darkness in a cloak as black as night which was to envelop the G.o.ddess of Light, and the G.o.ddess of Light who illuminated the G.o.d of Darkness, both seemed to come alive. Shadows and folds were not noticeable on the template, but were delicately presented after printing.

“It's so beautiful.”

While admiring, I turned my eyes to Wilma, only to find her staring with tearful eyes at the printed ill.u.s.tration.

“Wilma, are you all right?!”

“I'm sorry, I… I'm just so relieved and happy that…”

Wilma wiped away her tears and said in a broken voice. In order to comfort her, the children patted her on the back in perplexity and said to her, “Wilma, don't cry.” Wilma who was unable to control her tears of joy, and the children who were comforting her — I thought this scene was more like a masterpiece of religious drawing.

… Wilma was really a saint.

So all eyes turned to Wilma with rosy cheeks and glittering tears. Finding herself in the spotlight, she blushed and turned to leave.

“Master Maine, I… I'm going back to draw the next ill.u.s.tration.”

After the success of the first ill.u.s.tration, whenever Wilma finished an ill.u.s.tration, we printed it. During the time that Wilma devoted herself to the ill.u.s.trations, the children were working hard to make papers, and the gray-robed priests were working hard to make pigments. At the same time, we dried the fruits and mushrooms collected from the forest and began to buy wood for the winter.

“Maine, all the Scriptures have been printed today. What will you do next?”

Lutz said as we were walking home one day in late autumn. Oh, my G.o.d. All the inside pages were printed. After printing, it was binding. Books were finally coming!

“The next step is binding! I must go to the workshop tomorrow!”

“You needn't go. I just want an explanation.”

I was ablue-robed trainee priestess, so whenever I was present, the gray-robed priests had their concerns, and I only interfered with them. But how could I suppress my desire to partic.i.p.ate in the process of making books? After all, the next step was a brand new one.

“It doesn't matter if I can only partic.i.p.ate in the beginning. I want to partic.i.p.ate. I want to see it with my own eyes. As long as I make sure everything is going well, I won't step into the workshop again as I did in the printing process.Promise me, Lutz, please!”

“… only in the beginning.”

“Hha, hooray!! My books! Books!”

I was so happy that I began to spin. Lutz took my arm and walked on, I followed him but kept giggling. Seeing this, he released his hand and took a board out of his bag.

“Ok, you explain… what is binding? ”

“Binding means connecting the pages. Because the inside pages were printed with text on the left and ill.u.s.trations on the right, fold them in half. Be careful to fold the text and ill.u.s.trations inwards. This task requires flat worktables, so it might be better to do it in the orphanage canteen.”

I explained slowly as I watched Lutz's writing speed.

“Make a pile of papers when you're done. Remember, never disturb the order of the papers or turn them upside down. Oh, yes! Don't forget to cut the t.i.tle and back pages with the penknife first.”

The next afternoon, I waited in the orphanage canteen. Soon the printed papers were carried in. Every table in the canteen was scrubbed to keep the papers from getting dirty. Looking at the stacks of paper in front of me, I was overjoyed. The smell of new paper and pigment really made my heart skip a beat.

“All right, team leaders, come and take your share.”

In order to facilitate management, I divided the workshop interns into several groups, led by the gray-robed priests to supervise them. As for children too young to be interns, Gil suggested keeping them out of the job because we didn't know if they could handle it. So the young children were cooking soup with Wilma.

Lutz explained to everyone what to watch out for, such as the edges must be aligned, not folded backwards, and taken to Master Maine for inspection when finished. Then work began.

“Please align the edges a bit more neatly. First press here and here, then like this…”

I walked slowly through the groups, teaching them how to fold paper. In this city, paper was very expensive that people couldn't see it in their daily life, so it was natural that no one had ever folded paper. So even the gray-robed priests couldn't fold the paper neatly.

Ah… My precious pages were ragged!

In the face of this reality which could not be ignored, I scratched my head in distress and whispered to Lutz.

“Lutz, can't I do it myself?”

“Just bear with it for a while.”

… Uh-huh! I should have let everyone practice with wastepaper!

I wondered what would happen? I watched with trepidation as more and more pages were folded. After the inspection, I returned the bad ones and asked the staff to fold them again. How could those jagged pages be made into a book, even if others could accept it, I couldn't!

All the pages were folded and arranged on the table. The first step in binding would be  completed by stacking the pages from top to bottom in order.

I was asked to make little manuals when I was still Urano, so it wasn't new to me, but it was a first for everyone else.

“Please take the last page first, then move to the side, take another page from the next stack and cover the last page, move to the side again… keep doing this until there are no more pages.Never turn the pages over or take two at a time. Please be careful.”

As I spoke, I whipped out a page. If I could staple up the pages, it would be done quickly, but there's nothing that convenient here.