Oh My, I Messed Up the Story

Chapter 147: Toy and Books

Adam proudly showed off his car and Abby felt her heart burst. Too cute! How was she supposed to handle a cuteness attack of this level?

Katie mock whispered, "He shows it to everyone he likes."

It was official. She melted into a puddle of sentimental goo. Her nephew liked her right off the bat! He was very trusting considering his mother barely told him they were family, which proved he was a happy and well-adjusted kid.

What kind of childhood did he have living out here in the middle of nowhere? Katie had obviously commissioned that toy for him but what about his other toys? Were there any picture books? What sorts of things did little kids even do in this world in the absence of a playground?

"Who made it for you?" Abby asked, gesturing to the car.

Katie was a bit embarrassed. "Ah, I got one of the carpenters who moved here from Rowenhilde to do it. He made a few others toys like this for him and other kids started wanting them too so now there are wooden cars all over town. We even started selling them in bulk to the merchants who pass through here after one of them bought one on a whim for his grandson."

Wow. Such a small thing ended up widespread because she wanted something familiar for her son to play with. Abby couldn't help but wonder exactly how much influence her sister had managed to have on this world by accident.

She was very curious about Katie's life here and wanted to know more. Seeming to sense this, Katie excused them (Al and Blaise were still deep in discussion) and showed her around the house.

In addition to a modern bathroom, there was also a fairly modern kitchen. There wasn't a microwave or a proper fridge but Katie explained that there was an ice box of sorts in the cellar outside for keeping things cold.

Adam had a few more familiar toys as well. His wooden car wasn't the only vehicle he had. There was also a wagon pulled by a wooden horse and a rudimentary truck. He had a teddy bear too; stuffed animals did exist here though bears weren't the most popular. Most children had stuffed rabbits for some reason.

There were also wooden blocks to build towers and bridges with. Everything else appeared to be carvings of various animals found in the mountains, such as deer.

"You guys use a lot of wood, don't you?" Abby asked dryly.

Katie shrugged. "We're surrounded by trees; lumber is one of our best resources. Wait until you see the wooden playground I convinced someone to build! All the kids in town love it."

She was fairly certain she knew what kind of playground her sister was talking about. When they were younger, they visited a historical park where the playground was almost entirely made of wood and shaped a bit like a castle. They used rubber and plastic a little bit for slides and rope courses but that was it.

Her sister wasn't the most creative person in the world by any means but she was full of a lot of random knowledge. Getting other more talented people to act on that knowledge had yielded quite the results and she had hardly seen anything yet.

"What other things have you convinced people to make for you?" Abby asked in awe.

It was a lot more than expected. Katie told her how this started when she was still back in the palace because she wanted sweaters and fuzzy pajama pants to get through the winter. While she was still there, she also commissioned a hat loom to be made so she could crochet.

Abby already knew that because of the novel, as well as the attempts at pizza and hamburgers. What she didn't know was everything that happened after coming to the Kanta region.

Since coming here Katie had worked together with a variety of people to create street lamps, light bulbs, a hydroelectric generator, children's toys, swing sets, different types of handy kitchen utensils such as oven mitts, and more. She even managed to improve on the makeshift snow clothes she had made back in the palace.

She also created the concept of a public library and recruited a few talented minds to help her create fun little picture books for children. The children's books that existed here were almost entirely of the educational variety, aside from a few traditional stories that were meant for older children to read on their own.

When she realized she was pregnant not long after moving here, Katie refused to let her child live in a world without age-appropriate fiction. She found a few people who were good at drawing to turn traditional oral children's stories into book form.

Under her guidanceapparently she had read a ton of Wikipedia articles about the history of crayons, colored pencils, and markers out of boredom while laid up in bed several years agoa few innovators had managed to recreate those as well.

The first books made solely for the Kanta were painted or colored in with markers or crayons. but once they began mass producing them and had to use a printing press they were all too bulky. Once the traders found out about these books and wanted some for their own children, the business grew.

There was now a full printing press/publishing office set up in town. They used engraving plates to mass produce illustrations and had to use colored pencils to color everything in by hand because they were the thinnest tool available.

Katie confided that the Kanta became much more involved with the outside world largely because they needed to trade for materials to help recreate things from home but that it had ended up benefiting everyone involved. Unbelievable. An entire economy set up because of the desire for some kids' books.

Abby was astounded by how much she had accomplished in such a short time. A mind like hers had been wasted back in their world.

She majored in political science because it was one of the shorter programs and her health made taking on more than twelve credits per semester difficult. She had no idea what she wanted to actually do with her life and ended up taking the first part-time job she could find post-graduation.

A benefit of working in a school is that you have a lot of time off. Three day weekends, spring break, Christmas break, summers Katie admitted that she went with that job in no small part because of all the time off for doctors' appointments, physical therapy, and plain old recovering from exhaustion.

Her time was entirely consumed by going to work, going to the doctor, and consuming as much media as possible. Because she was a curious soul, instead of wasting all of her time on Netflix like some people she primarily focused on nonfiction.

Her memory for details was incredible. There was no way Abby would have been able to remember enough about random things like crayons and markers enough to actually make one later.