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Vol 01 Chapter 19: Paper

「Wow, so this is a horse.」

「Yes. Is it your first time seeing one?」

「Yeah. It’s amazing.」

Ron said this as he petted the horse. The horse, seemingly unconcerned, continued to eat grass.

「Hey, brother, can I ask you something?」

「Hm? What is it?」

「Who is that woman?」

Roswald pointed at a woman brushing a cow.

「Oh, her? That’s Lia. She’s a slave. We got her as a gift.」

Horses are valuable. Both cows and horses serve as labor, but horses are faster.

Horses are superior in terms of moving with loads. However, handling horses requires a fair bit of skill.

Unfortunately, it seems Soyon-chan’s family has never owned a horse. That’s a problem. When I mentioned this to Ainz-san, he said:

「Then I’ll give you a slave who can take care of them as a present. In exchange, let’s keep a good relationship.」

That’s how it went.

And so, I took in a female slave named Lia. Choosing a woman was probably his way of suggesting she could be used for that sort of thing… but I dislike forcing someone to sleep with me just because I’m her master.

「She’s from an equestrian tribe far to the east. I can communicate with her thanks to the [Blessing of Language], but she can’t speak the local language. So if you need to tell her something, let me know.」

「I see…」

Roswald glanced at Lia from time to time. She was nonchalantly taking care of the cow, unaffected by our conversation.

Is this guy in estrus too…?  

Ron and Soyon have been finding every opportunity to flirt with each other lately.

The fifteen-year-olds are starting to become adults. I know I should be happy about their growth, but still…

「Almus-san! I’ve caught a wild boar!!」

A loud voice reached my ears. Looking towards the source of the voice, I saw a large man carrying a wild boar on his shoulder.

It was Gram.

He has grown taller than me, with broad shoulders. There is no trace left of the stuttering boy he once was.

He has changed so much that you wouldn’t be able to recognize him. Well, archery does require significant strength.

「Hehe! My magic was really useful, wasn’t it? Isn’t it amazing? I’m the strongest, right?」

Next to Gram, a small girl puffed out her flat chest.

She is Lulu, a thirteen-year-old girl, skilled in magic. In terms of casting curses and creating barriers, she’s the best in the village.

Lately, she’s been spending a lot of time with Gram.

「Hey, Almus. When are those slaves you bought from King Rosais coming?」

「In a month.」

「Are you going to use them as sex slaves?」

「Of course! Not!! I’m not going to do that, and the slaves I bought are male.」

Like I’d waste money on something so foolish, stupid.

「That’s a relief.」

Tetra said as she hugged me.

…

It’s hard to know how to respond to such obvious displays of affection.

◇

「So, what are you going to make this time?」

「I’m thinking of making paper.」

Paper. It was one of the four great inventions of ancient China.

It’s still used as a medium for information, even in modern times.

In this region, there’s no paper. What’s being used are wooden tablets, parchment, and papyrus.

There are two types of paper: Japanese paper (washi) and Western paper. The difference lies in the raw materials; Japanese paper uses tree bark, while Western paper uses the inner part of the tree. The fibers in the tree’s inner part are strong and require special chemicals to dissolve, so I’ll be making Japanese paper this time.

Making refined, high-quality paper involves a complicated process, but primitive paper can be made quite simply.

Cai Lun reportedly made paper by boiling hemp waste, nets, and tree bark to loosen the fibers and then scooped them up to form paper.

Unfortunately, we don’t have hemp, but we do have plenty of tree bark.

「Why make something like that? We don’t really need it.」

「Well, we don’t, but other do.」

In this region, where hardly anyone can write, paper is probably unnecessary. 「Aren’t wooden tablets good enough?」 would be the common sentiment.

But it should be different for the Kirisians. If they have such advanced technology, paper would be very useful to them.

Paper is light, which is advantageous for trade.

And we have an excess of the raw material, tree bark. We’ve cut down many trees to make charcoal and to use as fuel for baking pottery. We can use the bark from those trees.

「Well, first off, how should I start… I guess I should peel off the black part of the tree bark first, right? Let’s soak it in water to begin with.」

First, I immersed the tree bark in water.

I’ve never made paper before, so this is partly guesswork. Still, I’ve seen a bit on TV, so I think I can make something reasonably good.

「It has been soaking in water for a day, what do we do next?」

「Peel off the black part. Probably.」

We all worked together to remove the dark parts, leaving only the white fibers.

「What’s next?」

「We need to boil this… I think it was supposed to be boiled in an alkaline solution.」

By alkaline, I mean water mixed with ash. It’s lye. It’s weakly alkaline, so it should dissolve more easily.

「I think all we need to do now is boil this…」

As I watched the tree bark boiling in the pottery. I felt like something was missing.

「Hey, aren’t we trying to break down the fibers in the wood?」

「Yes, that’s right.」

「Then, shouldn’t we pound it or tear it apart?」

Right, there was such a step. Tetra is really on the ball.

「For now, let’s take it out and crush it with a mortar.」

We took out the boiled tree bark, crushed it with a mortar, then put it back in the pottery, boiled it again, and then took it out and crushed it again.

We repeated this process several times.

「Alright, it’s starting to dissolve.」

The tree bark no longer retained its original form. It had turned into a mush.

「All that’s left is to scoop this out.」

I carefully scooped the mixture onto a wooden board. It had to be evenly spread to maintain a consistent thickness…

It’s quite challenging.

「Now we just need to let it dry.」

I placed the wooden board in a sunny spot. The rest is up to the sun.

◇

「It’s light and strong. This is amazing,」

Ron said as he touched the paper.

「It’s white, so it looks easy to write on. You’re amazing, Nii-san,」

Roswald commented while carefully peeling off the paper.

「Are you going to sell this?」

「Yes. I think it could sell for a decent price.」

Honestly, as someone who knows modern paper, I can’t say this is great quality. It’s white, but only better than what’s used around here to a certain extent.

「Did we really need this, though? I thought the money we were getting from the honey was more than enough.」

「Well, it’s enough for our usual needs. But you never know what might happen. Someday, the wheat could be wiped out by pests or any other disaster. And we can’t rely on Griffon anymore. I want a way to secure food in case of emergencies.」

In the worst case, we could buy grain from the Kirisians to stave off hunger. The more ways to make money, the better.

「Um… can we add beautiful colors to this paper? I think that would increase its added value.」

「Like for fan materials?」

「That’s a good idea! Also, can this be used for that thing?」

「It’s light and portable!」

Soyon, Tetra, and Lulu started getting excited.

「Hey, can you make a stronger version of this? I don’t mind if the color is dirtier.」

「What are you going to use it for?」

「Well, how about for boxes? Wooden boxes are heavy, right? If this can substitute the wood, they would be easier to carry, wouldn’t it?」

「But there might be issues with its durability.」

Ron and Gram started discussing.

Lately, these guys have been getting more flexible in their thinking. It’s a good trend.

「Ah!!!」

A scream rang out. It was an unfamiliar voice. Let’s see, this is…

「Lia! Are you okay?」

Roswald rushed over to the screaming slave girl.

Man, you’re too quick to the rescue.

I also turned towards Lia. She was teary-eyed. Next to her was a goat, munching away on something.

「Nii-san, what is Lia saying?」

「…She says the goat ate the paper.」

「I-I’m sorry.」

Lia bowed her head and apologized to me.

「Don’t worry about it. It’s the goat’s fault, not yours.」

I replied with a smile.

I’m still not quite sure how to treat a slave. Well, it seems the kids don’t know either. Just treating her normally should be fine. It’s less trouble.

But is it okay for a goat to eat paper? At zoos, there are signs saying not to give paper to animals because it can upset their stomachs…

I hope it doesn’t die. It’s an important asset, after all.