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Translator: Kazumi
Editor: Kabur & Silavin
Kousuke was groaning in front of the book written by Cecil and Arisa.
The book was so good that he wanted to make more than one book, but he was reluctant to do so because it would cost a lot of money.
Shrein came up to Kousuke and said, “Kousuke, this is the first book I’m going to make.
“Kousuke, can I borrow this book for a while?”
In Shrein’s hand was a book.
It must be one of the shared books that were put out by the tower’s function.
The books on the administrative floor were treated as shared property, but they had to ask permission if they wanted to take them out of the administrative floor.
“I don’t mind, but… That’s unusual.”
“Mm. It is very informative for vampires. I would like to make a copy of it and give it to each of the families, if possible.”
“I see. That’s fine. But it will take a long time to make a copy, right?”
In Kousuke’s image, it would take quite a long time to finish a book.
Since there were currently three clans of vampires, it would take a lot of time and effort to copy three books.
However, Shrein tilted her head curiously at Kousuke.
“Sure, it’s a lot of work, but it won’t take much time, you know?”
“….Heh?!”
Hearing this unexpected response, Kousuke raised his voice.
“What? Wouldn’t it take too much time if they had to write and copy each book one by one?”
Shrein’s eyes widened at Kousuke’s words.
“That’s only for Handwritten Transcriptions!?”
Seeing this, Kousuke finally realized that the manuscript he was imagining was different from the one Shrein was referring to.
“Ah…. I don’t know if this is a new thing, but can I ask you how to do a codex?”
“Of course we prepare the tools and materials and use magic, right?”
Kousuke’s shoulders slumped at this simple answer.
It had already been nearly four years since he came to this world, and yet he was still sorely disappointed by the new common sense he was discovering.
Seeing Kousuke like this, Shrein finally realized that Kousuke had hit a wall of common sense.
Shrein carefully explained to Kousuke how to do a codex.
The explanation itself, however, was simple.
Prepare materials such as ink and paper, and use a magic circle that was used in making a copy.
Kousuke tilted his head at the simplicity of the method.
“It sounds simple enough, but why is the price of the book so high?”
If copying was so easy, then there was no reason why the price of the book, which could be widely available to the public, would be so high.
But as far as Kousuke could confirm, only a few could be found and prices were very high.
“First of all, it takes a lot of time to prepare.”
“Preparation? Don’t you just need to prepare the tools, right?”
“Oh, no, it’s not about preparation. First, the magician who performs the transcription has to read the book and check its contents.”
To use the magic of the transcription, the magician must have a proper understanding of the contents of the book.
If the book was a children’s story, there was no need to worry about it, but if it was a specialized book, the magician himself must have good knowledge about the book’s contents.
But there was another hurdle to be overcome with manuscripts: the magic of the manuscript itself.
“The magic of the codex itself can exclusively be used by a very high-ranking magician.”
“Ah. I see.”
A high-ranking magician was someone who could be counted on two hands in each country.
Most of them were highly paid and served their country or belonged to some organization, so it was safe to say that none of them would work exclusively for manuscripts.
Of course, you could ask them to do it for you as a private request, but of course, the fee for that would also be expensive.
It was for this reason that basically, the state took the lead in the use of magic to transcribe books.
Although it was possible to use the Holy Law to copy the books, the church had needed the human resources to copy scriptures and other materials, so it was rarely used for common books.
In the case of non-magical manuscripts, the time and effort required was not comparable to that of using magic, since the manuscripts were handwritten by each individual.
“So that’s what I know. Perhaps it is still the same now?”
“Okay. I’ll check with Schmidt next time.”
“I’d appreciate that.”
Shrein nodded at Kousuke’s words.
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“… So that’s what we were talking about… is there anything different about it for normal people?”
I told Schmidt what I had heard from Shrein and asked him about it.
Schmidt did not know that Kousuke was not born in this world, but he had guessed that he was not familiar with common-sense thinking that it was because he was a living god.
“No. It’s not different from what I know.”
“So, what you said before about the manuscripts taking a long time?”
“Of course, it means that it takes time to find someone who can work the transcript magic,”
Kousuke’s shoulders slumped at Schmidt’s answer, wondering if he was right.
This was not at all what Kousuke had in mind.
But that didn’t change the fact that transcribing the manuscript itself was time-consuming.
“If it is necessary, I will copy it myself.”
Shrein, who was present at the meeting, offered to do so, since there was no difference from what he knew to be the norm.
“I appreciate that, but it’s not a fundamental solution. If I could, I’d like to copy a lot more than just the books those two made.”
For one purpose, he would like to have many books, if possible.
But that would be difficult unless the books become readily available.
“Speaking of which, how is the price of ink and paper?”
The paper and ink that Kousuke usually used for his research was supplied by Schmidt.
He was unaware of the detailed prices.
Besides, he could use the function of the tower to produce them if necessary, so he did not pay much attention to the price.
“Here’s what I have.”
The price Schmidt quoted was not extremely high.
If he checked, he would find out that even ordinary households send letters on important occasions.
However, it was not something that was exchanged frequently, as it was only used for important occasions such as weddings, funerals, and ceremonial occasions.
However, listening to this, Kousuke thought that it was entirely different from what he had expected.
He had thought that books were expensive simply because paper and ink were expensive.
Even though he had been in this world for quite some time, the fact that he had never noticed this before must have been completely due to Kousuke’s assumption.
“Hmm. I see. Then it’s too bad we can’t print them.”
If it were possible to print books by the dozens, the price of books could be relatively lowered, even if mass production was not possible.
However, once the technology of printing was introduced, it would bring about a major change in this world.
Besides, there was a big problem with printing in the first place.
“Printing, what is that?”
Schmidt’s eyes lit up as he picked up Kousuke’s mutter.
With his merchant’s instincts and his past relationships, he must have thought it would be a good source of money.
“It’s a technique that allows you to create multiple copies of the same text or picture at the same time…”
Schmidt and Shrein tilted their heads, not understanding what Kousuke had just explained.
“Unfortunately, with the knowledge I have, I don’t have useful information about it.”
At best, the only knowledge he had was that it was printed using something or that it was ink used on paper cutouts.
The rest is just making something like a seal, lining it up to form a sentence, and printing it.
Since he had only half-baked knowledge of each of these, it would take a lot of trial and error to implement them.
To put it bluntly, Kousuke didn’t have an opportunity to spend that much time developing printing.
Schmidt suggested to Kousuke, who was troubled.
“If you have an idea, I could ask a craftsman to try it out?”
“I’m just saying it’s an idea, I don’t know how long it will take to succeed, will that be fine?”
“Fortunately, I can afford some time off from Crown. If we are going to try it, I think it’s a good idea to try it now.”
At Schmidt’s suggestion, Kousuke thought for a moment.
But no better idea came to mind.
“All right. Then, let’s proceed with the printing by having the craftsmen try various things by trial and error.”
“Yes, sir. I’ll bring Dulles in to talk to you next time.”
“Yes, that would be great.”
Kousuke agreed, and the project on printing technology began at Crown.
However, Kousuke’s knowledge was limited, so it took some time for the printing process to take shape.
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