Ascendance of a Bookworm Part 1 Volume 2

Starting to Make Paper

It was finally time to kick the paper-making into next gear, and I had more than enough motivation. In fact, I was so excited that Lutz had to tell me to calm down.

Today's job was to cut down the types of wood that we had decided on using based on the lumber yard foreman's advice and the information Lutz had gathered. Once we had our wood, we needed to boil it by the river, soak it in water, then peel off the outer black bark while still in the forest. We would bring the peeled bark back to our storage building and dry it.

We were just making postcard sized pieces of paper here, so we didn't need that much in the way of raw materials. Excluding firewood, which we needed a lot of to keep the water boiling for hours at a time as was necessary. Thankfully, since we were working in the forest, it wouldn't be too hard to get as much as we needed, and we could just go get more if we came close to running out. The one problem was that Lutz needed to carry the pot and steamer to the forest and back, which wouldn't be easy.

Thus, we began today early in the morning, going straight to borrow the storage building's key so as to get the pot and steamer. We would be working in the storage building after getting back from the forest, too, so we went ahead and told Mark that we'd be keeping the key for a while. We were completely ready, but things took an unexpected turn.

"Are you okay, Lutz?"

"...Yeah," replied Lutz, but he didn't look okay at all with both the steamer and pot tied to the basket on his back. He looked like he was about to be squished flat at any moment.

The root of our failure was simple. When purchasing both the pot and the steamer, we had made sure to aim for a weight that Lutz could carry. And indeed, at both points, Lutz picked it up and said he would be fine carrying it. But we had never considered how heavy they would be when tied together on the basket to be carried all at once.

"Should I carry the steamer?"

"It's too heavy for you." If it was too much for Lutz, it was definitely too much for me. All I could do was give him emotional support while taking care not to overexert myself on the walk to the forest.

Just like always, Lutz and I began our journey to the forest with a large group of children.

"What's that, Lutz?"

"What're you gonna do in the forest?"

The children, having never seen a steamer before, were curious about the stuff in Lutz's basket.

"We're gonna make something with this pot and steamer." The basket must have been enormously heavy. Lutz's answer was short and simple, which made him sound angry, but the intrigued children kept on asking him stuff.

"Huh? What're you gonna make? Something cool?"

"...No. This is part of a test for me to become an apprentice. Try not to get in our way."

"Oh, okay. Got it. Good luck, Lutz."

I'd thought the storm of questions would never end, but once the kids learned that Lutz's apprenticeship was on the line here, they immediately gave him space. I asked Lutz why that was later, and apparently, despite most jobs being decided by the introduction of one's parents, more popular workplaces tended to be swamped with applicants. Sometimes in situations like that the parents would turn to another option, but otherwise the applicants were given a test to determine who would get the apprenticeships.

It was an unspoken, but firm agreement between children that they wouldn't interfere with those apprenticeship tests. That ran the risk of their own test getting messed with in revenge, and it would be harder for them to find a job themselves if rumors of them interfering with tests spread. Hm... Neat, neat. I guess every society like this will have popular workplaces that people fight to get into and try to improve their odds with.