Steel and Mana

Chapter 64 – Everydays

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 home 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 experimenting 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 become 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 bummed 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 came from locally anyway. What she was most happy with was that they let her sell her medicine and even encouraged her to experiment. However, the Prime 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 something new and unusual, and she was amongst the first batch of store owners who were given the unique opportunity. Around a week ago, the Prime Minister invited her and a dozen others to a conference where they got to meet their king, no, their Sovereign, Leon. It was something 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 something 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: Advertisement.

When it was her turn, she went ahead and designed something that she could stick onto her bottles, detailing everything the customers 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 meet 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 metal letters and decorative shapes, printing out the instructions on a downsized label, something that would be easy to fit on her bottles. It was at that moment Marca finally realized why learning to write and read was mandatory. It was already impossible to return to a time 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 meeting.

When she got her order, they came with instructions. She received a jar of... something. 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 experimenting with grounding down multiple flowers and plants, trying to come up with a similar solution. Magical beasts are available in limited quantities, not to mention the danger they pose. If she could create something with the same properties, she could help the city and earn some recognition. Her name may be memorialized 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 come, it is time 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 time 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 mean 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 moment they learned I was working on the temple, they called me... names."

"They were never your friends then. They should have been happy about your promotion, and you could have also lifted them up the same 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 someone who will become 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 become someone!"

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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 excitement.

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 something that only she could accomplish, being utterly immune to the heat, handling molten metal 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 came to me from Luna, who one day complained we didn't have any towers with a clock on them. She always had to guess the time, which made me 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 became the owner of the castle, and it has been broken ever since, so it wasn't a big deal for me to deconstruct it. There was nobody here to fix it anyway. From that, along with Sasha and Kraus, we drew up a rudimentary 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 something 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. Meanwhile, Luna had the task of setting up a sundial in the palace's garden so I could determine the time of noon and help me 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 time and saw its hands beginning to tick, I felt a kind of accomplishment 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 metal face. I made sure it was looking good, so the numbers were all painted gold, too, contrasting with the darker color of the metal 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 time. Still, I melted down some of the clear glass reliquaries brought away from the old church from the time 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 meant 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 method and precision to make it themselves!"

"Exactly!" I nodded, smiling at my wives, "They are probably already bored with making metal pipes day in and day out, so this will be perfect, occupying them for a long time—especially those who want to aim for the Forgemaster role later. Making the metal 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 come 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 craftsmen 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 times 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 come from it; we will see what sticks!"

"Hey!" Arrived Yuri's voice, interrupting us, entering the garden. "The Head Kiddo has come to report something!"

"Merlin?" I turned towards her, a bit surprised. "Did he say what happened?"

"Yeah, he said that someone made a surprising discovery."

"Don't tell me it is another gold mine?" I quipped as we walked over, watching her shake her head.

"Nah, he said that a woman made something smell nice."

"And?" Luna shrugged, "We already have scented soap."

"How nice?" I asked, my mind racing about what it could mean, and then I smelled 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 some samples! They are in small bottles. Pretty cool, if you ask me! I like it!"

"Me too..." I whispered, my thoughts already counting the coins we could earn with this. My scented soap was lovely, but it was a rudimentary little thing... this? This was full-on perfume from the modern days... what the hell?