Ascendance of a Bookworm Part 1 Volume 3

Preparing for Lutz's Apprenticeship

"Myne, what's your plans for today?" asked Lutz. "The weather's bad."

I looked out the window and saw thick, dark clouds that signaled a bad day for paper-making. I had the option to go to the forest just to gather, but if rain fell along the way, I'd be the only one who would struggle to get home. It would be smarter for me to just sit today out.

My spring had been spent making paper on sunny days and walking around the city with Mark on cloudy days to help get the workshop ready. But the workshop was mostly finished and they knew how to make paper themselves now. The other day they had made a prototype that I checked and confirmed to be a success, so there was really nothing left for us to do.

"Benno said our baptism is next Fireday, so I wanted to finish making our last batch of paper. But it looks like the weather's not cooperating."

"Hey, even without a last batch of paper, I'm so rich right now I can hardly believe it."

Each sheet of paper was worth a small silver, and whenever we sold paper, we brought some of the money back for our families. We bought enough to improve our food situation and not much else, but we both had a stunning amount of money saved in the Merchant's Guild. That was thanks to the high price of trombe paper and the overall good weather that helped us make a lot of batches.

After the last batch we sold, my savings had surpassed two large golds. Lutz was just about to hit two large golds himself. No matter how you thought about it, that was too much money for pre-baptism kids to have. But well, once our baptism's over, I won't be earning much money for a while.

I started to think about if I had forgotten anything we needed to do before our baptism ceremony, when suddenly I realized something. "Lutz, let's go to Benno's today. We totally forgot something."

"Huh? We didn't promise to go there today."

"Our baptism is next Fireday, right? We should check now to see what you need to be an apprentice. Your parents aren't merchants, so they won't have any tools to give you."

"...Ah!"

Apprentice work began after the baptism, so it was customary for parents to give them work clothes and tools as a baptismal gift. It was to encourage their children and give them a head start on their journey down the same career path that their parents once traveled themselves. Tuuli, for example, had been given work clothes and a sewing set after her baptism since she was becoming a seamstress.

But in Lutz's case, his parents wouldn't prepare anything for him. In part since his father was still against him becoming a merchant and in part because his parents didn't know what tools to get him, since they weren't merchants themselves.

On top of that, we didn't know how much money it would cost to prepare Lutz for his merchant apprenticeship. Benno had said clothes were important and ordered us outfits, but that alone probably wouldn't be enough. It was likely that Lutz would need tools and other things beyond clothes to be a merchant. Luckily, he had enough savings that he could buy what he needed on his own. All we had to do was ask Benno or Mark what we needed.

"I don't know what tools you would need, really. Maybe a calculator and a stone slate, since you'll have your apprentice lessons, but what else?"

"I can buy pretty much anything right now. You were right, Myne. Saving up money was the right idea."

Karla was on Lutz's side now, but she still didn't know what one needed to be a merchant. She didn't have any connections with merchants, and his dad was as unsupportive as ever. Though Lutz said that he was more comfortable at home now that his mom was telling his brothers off.