Ascendance of a Bookworm

Volume 7, Chapter 5: Learning How to Make Coloured-Ink (Part 2)

And so the next day arrived. Gil, Damuel, Lutz, and I headed to the ink workshop with the paper, brushes, and the rest of our parue oil from the winter. Heidi was pacing in front of the workshop. It wasn’t hard to imagine that she had been dying waiting for us. The second she saw us, her face lit up and she gave a big wave.

Heidi was impatiently pacing back and forth the workshop, she must have been fervently expecting us. When she noticed us. she dashed over with a bright smile and waved.

“Good morning, Lady Myne. I was looking forward to seeing you again.”

“Good morning Heidi. I’ve finished up analysing the data.”

I showed her all the work I had done when we got into the workshop. She was excited to receive it, but her expression quickly turned into one of disappointment.

“I can recognise some of the words, but I can’t read most of them.”

“Well, this occurred to me when looking through my notes…”

I began reiterating to Heidi all the things I wanted to try, and she approved it with an excited nod.

“It didn’t occur to me that we can use parue oil too since they are only harvested in the winter. We might get some interesting results! Let’s work on it now!”

Heidi and Joseph worked together to mix the parue oil with different materials. Heidi mixed in red things while Joseph worked on the blue ones. They grounded and poured them in and mixed it thoroughly, but there were no changes. They both produced the exact same colour as the material mixed in.

“All the parue oil made the colours we were looking for. That’s fascinating,” I was so surprised that my eyes grew wide. So far, everything we did had made such weird colours that now direct and expected results surprised me. Heidi gave an impressed whistle at the final product.

“The red looks really bright too. It would be great if parue was around even when it isn’t winter.”

I agreed with Heidi. Our hands were tied when it came to working with parue oil since it was only available on sunny winter days. This was the best oil so far, but it could not be used for mass production.

Heidi and I were wallowing in misery about this while Joseph interrupted us with the next experiment.

“Shall we test the ink we’ve made on the paper, then?”

Heidi and Joseph took out all the ink we had made. I whispered to Lutz while they worked on that.

“Hey, Lutz. Do you think we can try making some parue plant paper?”

I asked with high expectations since the parue oil had worked so well for the ink. Just like how trombes that were feyplants had made such good paper, there was a possibility that parue trees could do the same too.

“That’s impossible. Parue trees melt away when they get close to anything hot. Nothing would be left if you tried to steam the wood, we wouldn’t get any bark from that.”

“…Are parue trees that weird?”

I was never allowed to go to the forest during the winter so I never got to see a parue tree. I hear from others that they were weird but beautiful trees that only existed on winter mornings that were sunny. But that was everything I knew about them.

“Lady Myne, we’re done.”

Heidi called out to us and I gestured for Gil to tag along so that he could test if the ink worked with his brush and paper. I brought along some failed paper that were made of volrin and trombe so we could thoroughly test them out. The picture books weren’t going to be made of trombe paper, but there was no harm testing it.

“…Huh.”

As expected, the ink’s colour changed when it was written on different types of paper. The colour didn’t change much on the trombe paper, but it appeared washed out on the volrin ones. You couldn’t really tell the different unless you compared them next to each other.

I tried to brush it off, but the colours kept fading as the ink dried.

“We might have to make and test other kinds types of paper.”

I was close to tears when I saw the difference in colours on the trombe and volrin paper. But Lutz seemed unbothered by it.

“We’re only able to use volrin paper for now, so why don’t we just use colours that work for it?”

That sounded right. The Myne Workshop could only make trombe and volrin paper, so if we wanted to get the picture books done we needed to make coloured ink that worked well on volrin paper.

“The red looked so rich and vibrant, but it looks really dark when it has dried on paper. We can draw blood with that.”

“What use do we have for that?!” Lutz berated.

I puckered my lips. Maybe a colour to draw blood wasn’t that bad after all. Stories from religion tend to be pretty brutal.

“…This is getting real difficult,” Heidi blurted out and crossed her arms with her gaze boring down on the ink.

“Now I know why all those paint workshops are so obsessed with trying to keep their paint recipes a secret.”

Making ink from scratch and without help was a demanding task. Benno had previously mentioned that making paint was not restricted by any magical contracts, so anyone, including workshops, were free to make it. However the workshops tend to keep the recipes to paint a secret and they did not sell them in the lower city.

All the paint ordered at workshops were made by nobles, and they had the paint delivered straight to their estates. Rosina was the one who told me this because she herself had served a shrine maiden who adored the arts. Certain colours could only be purchased from the original workshops, so Sister Christine had been a frequent of many.

“Lady Myne, we should try to find out what is changing the colours.”

“I said this before, we are only concerned about the final product.”

I found it commendable that she was so passionate about researching, unfortunately my priority lied in trying to make the picture books for Kamil. I had no plans on getting sidetracked with research right now. I needed to get the ink ready right now.

“We’ll experiment with layering the ink now. Please, Gil.”

“Yes, Sister Myne.”

Gil dabbed the pen in some blue ink and drew across the colours we had tried on the paper. The layered parts quickly darkened. The colours didn’t turn black, but it was definitely a shade darker that what it was previously. None of the new mixture of colours had a bright shade. This moment called for a “Warning: Do not mix ink” sign right now.

“…Now what?” Gil asked as he held up the paper doused in ink.

We were all stun locked by the results that we could only stare at it in silence. Joseph was the one who spoke first.

“Looks like we will have to keep the inks separate for now,” he shook his head with woefully.

“Painting will still require some ink to be blended together. There must be some secret to making the paint that art workshops make.”

Heidi made a strong point. There was no way we could make paintings seen in the temple if all the ink turned black when mixed together. I had to find out what was the secret behind the paint in this world.

“Let’s wrap it up then. All our efforts will be futile if we don’t figure out what turns the ink black.”

We should consider taking a peep at the secret to making paint from an art workshop, I pondered. My shoulders drooped down, disappointed at how we couldn’t finish making the ink. Today was a failure because the ink was still incomplete.

~~~

I made my way back home with a heavy heart and told Tuuli about what unfolded today as we prepared dinner together.

“…The ink we made can’t be used. I’m at a loss right now.”

“Yeah, the ink can’t be turning black when mixed.”

“I know right? I’m at a dead-end right now. No matter what I do, the ink can’t be used for printing.”

I pursed my lips as I continued to mix the ingredients into the soup

Mum was watching us cook as she fed Kamil, after hearing this she cupped her cheeks and asked.

“Did you not use a fixing agent when writing with the ink?”

“…A fixing agent?”

I did come across the word ‘fixing agents’ when reading about photos and paintings back when I was still Urano. However, I was absolutely clueless about what fixing agents were used for here. Mum could tell that I didn’t know about it, so she responded while looking at Kamil.

“A fixing agent is a type of liquid we used to set the colours in cloth dye so that it doesn’t fade over time.:

“Mum, could you explain more? How do you make a fixing agent?”

My eyes lit up hearing about this, but Mum responded with a gaze of worry.

“Will it be fine for me to tell you more?”

“After this, I’ll go check if the recipe is restricted by any magic contracts.”

“…Alright, it shouldn’t be a big deal anyways. I’m sure that you know how to take care of yourself.” Mum sounded a little hesitant but continued on anyways.

It turns out that the fixing agent was basically made from extracting the sap from a genade tree and boiling it with the stem of a flower plant called heylene until it turns into a thick solution. After that you have to dissolve it down to one-twentieth with hot water.

“But you need to alter it so that it can be used on paper, and not cloth.

“Mhmm, thank you, Mum. I’ll do my best.”

~~~

With this new profound knowledge in hand, I quickly got Lutz to gather all the ingredients we needed. Seeing how his look of surprise, Lutz definitely didn’t know about fixing agents too.

“I never heard about that before. Thank goodness that Mrs Effa had works in a dye workshop.”

“You’re right. I want to get all the things ready as quick as possible and get things cooking now that Mum has told me how to make them.”

I was buzzing with excitement to start work, but was interrupted by Lutz and Gil.

“You just need to tell us how to make it.”

“That’s right, we should be the one making it. No need to go out of your way to make it, Sister Myne.”

I wasn’t going to be able to get hands on with the fixing agent if we were going to make it in the Myne workshop. I pouted my lips in indignation.

I made a request to Benno to see if the fixing agents were bounded by any magic contracts in the Merchant’s Guild. He also gave us his assist in gathering the materials we needed.

On that very day, Lutz and Gil were about to erupt from sheer joy at what they were going to do. I had all the instructions written down on a board for them, and that was all I could do. But I wasn’t happy that I was left out, so I ranted about the coloured ink to Rosina after our harspiel practice to left off some steam.

“It’s so unfair that Lutz and Gil get to make the fixing agent right now. Don’t you think so too?”

I was expecting Rosina to sympathise with me, but she just looked at my in surprise that I didn’t know about fixing agents.

“Huh? Sister Myne, you didn’t know about fixing agents?” she asked looking flabbergasted. “You need them for every painting. It’s near impossible to paint one without it.”

I was left stumped, someone this close to me in the temple knew about fixing agents too. They were an essential ingredient when it came to painting. But Rosina didn’t know how to make them since she only every worked it pre-pared ones.

“… Pardon my rudeness, but do you perhaps not know how to use fixing agents too, Sister Myne?”

“Unfortunately not. Could I get you to teach me, Rosina?”

Mum only used fixing agents for dying clothes, but I needed to know how to use it to paint art on the picture books.

My blunt and desperate request made Rosina giggle.

“You need to cover the paper with the fixing agent and set it to dry first. Drying it is important so ink doesn’t smudge when you put it on. Sister Myne, you always seem to be omniscient about everything, I was surprised that something this simple has slipped past your nose.”

“Well I haven’t tried painting or making ink before.”

“That is right,” Rosina whispered out. She clasped her hands together and gave me a gentle smile.

“Well then, it would be much better to have Wilma instruct you how to draw once your ink and fixing agent are complete. Art is an essential piece in every woman’s upbringing.”

“I will note it down.”

I didn’t want to give a direct answer to her recommendation because I already made up my mind.

No way, I’m already busy enough as it is.

But some part of me was fighting that thought, that it would perhaps be a wiser choice for me to learn it now. I was becoming a noble’s adopted daughter in two years.

With the recipe on how to make a fixing agent, paired with Rosina’s instructions with how to use them, we were able to paint layers of colours without any of them turning black or getting miscoloured. We had successfully made coloured ink.