Ascendance of a Bookworm Part 1 Volume 2

Winter Handiwork

"Hey, Myne. Why are you saving the small silvers with the Guild every time? Why not just bring it all home?" asked Lutz suddenly. We were on our way home from the Merchants' Guild after leaving the carriage. "I'm doing the same thing 'cause I figure there's some point to it if you're doing it, but... I always thought I'd take all the money I made back home, so it feels kinda like I'm doing a bad thing..."

The idea of saving money was a distant one to poor commoners who barely scraped by as it was. At most they would start stashing a bit of money away during autumn for winter preparations, and that was a lot different from registering in the Guild to store money there.

Naturally what parents did became common sense to children, and most of them brought their apprentice earnings back home to help their family.

"I'm saving for the next time we need to invest in a startup fund."

"Say what now? Startup fund?" said Lutz, tilting his head in confusion, so I tried to explain it to him in the simplest possible terms using our own experience as an example.

"Remember how hard it was to get a single nail when we wanted to make paper and didn't have any tools, money, or even adults to help us?"

It wasn't too long ago that we asked Otto for help and ended up with Benno yelling at us. Lutz, remembering that, nodded with a bitter expression.

"We were lucky enough that Benno bought my (simple all-in-one shampoo) and paid all the money we needed for stuff, but you understand how expensive all our tools were, right? In order to start something new, you need a lot of money."

"A pot, lumber, ashes, thread, bamboo work... Yeah, that must have been really expensive." Thanks to all the places we'd been going to lately, Lutz had come to understand the prices of things sold in stores, not just stands at the market. He paled at the thought of how much starting up our paper-making venture would have cost.

"So, I'm saving up my money for next time. Benno said he was done paying for our stuff once we finished the prototypes, right? If we want to expand our paper-making process by buying more tools, or if we want to start something new at all, we'll need a lot of money. Everything costs money. Even moving on to making books will need new tools."

"So it's all for the future, huh...?" I peered at Lutz as he made an expression that made it seem like he kinda agreed and kinda didn't. He must not have realized that he had a much more pressing and important reason to save money than I did. The thought must have been escaping him.

After thinking for a few moments, I started to speak slowly. "I don't really want to say this, and I don't even want to think about it, but... if your family still won't let you become a merchant after your baptism, what will you do? Have you thought about your future...?"

After scrunching up his face miserably, Lutz murmured in a weak voice, "...I was thinking I'd ask Benno to let me be a live-in apprentice."

"That's all you could do if you want to be a merchant. I'm glad you didn't say you would give up." I smiled, which made Lutz let out a little sigh of relief. It would take a lot of guts for a kid his age to run away from home, and I was sure he was still debating it in his head. But regardless, he was fighting for his dream. And fighting for his dream would take money, of course.

"But think about it, Lutz. After you've run away from home and become a live-in apprentice, there'll be time before you get your first pay, and you'll need to both survive until then and afford your apprentice clothes. Your life will be a lot different depending on if you have your own money you can do anything with."

Lutz's head shot up, as if he finally understood. We made eye contact and I nodded. "There's nothing wrong with saving the money you earned yourself. You might feel guilty since everyone else is using all their pay to survive, but you're not even old enough to be working yet and you've already brought home thirteen large coppers in just five days. You're bringing home more money than Ralph is, and he's an apprentice, right? So it's fine. It's all okay."