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A couple of weeks passed since he’d earned Anabella’s accord. Without making too much of a ruckus, he converted the storehouse into a woods workshop. Spending his savings on high quality material and metal, he crafted himself a set of excellent tools. Ranging from various chisels, to modern-looking measured benches and precision tools, he put his heart and soul into completing it.
Deciding to work on high quality products tailored for nobles, he naturally wouldn’t settle for anything less than perfection. Musical instruments required great finesse, and the only reason he even sought to tackle this was because he had Materia.
Using his enhanced perception, he could effectively study the core of the wood with microscopic accuracy. Using the second tier, he could even perform small-scale transmutations. He couldn’t quite yet turn lead into gold, but could oxidize some metals and cause them to rust or vice versa. He could also dry wood to a perfect degree, skipping the tedious process of having wood dry in the sun for two summers and two winters.
In any case, even without the magic aspect, just the tools alone would make master artisans balk in envy and cry in shame. The only thing he lacked was practice, but hammering a chisel would never be harder than controlling internal energy through his heart meridians. He had perfect control over his force, and this gave him an undeniable advantage when it came to sculpting things.
Having burned his savings on metal for the workshop, he became bankrupt with nary a dozen tari left to his name. Even so, he was happy. Looking over the newly painted door, he smiled with satisfaction.
A massive steel lock ensured the privacy of his workshop, one he took a great deal of time and care crafting. Medieval locks were too easy to pick, prompting him to fiddle with pins until his head hurt. A sacrifice he deemed worthy, because he had serious trust issues when it came to the orphans. At least he wouldn’t need to worry about having his designs or tools stolen. If they were to appear in the open, it’d surely cause a commotion. Even the orphans and Anabella would be barred entry. No matter how innocent they were, loose lips were pried easily.
A painted logo on the door displayed his ambition in full. “DAEDALUS”, dubbed after the legendary craftsman from mythology. The creator of Icarus’ iconic wings — a symbol of humanity’s insatiable greed. That noble overreach to the sun perfectly represented what he sought to achieve as well.
The trademark itself would be stamped on every product he made. It was a black circle containing a contrasting white sun in the middle. A pair of wings were just barely visible, their burning radiance overshadowed by the sun.
Knowing full well the importance of a brand and the greed of nobles, Leonardo decided to play them through fake scarcity, by pushing a smaller number of superior products. The masterworks would appear in exclusive market every once in a while, only to be snagged by the rich in auctions. They would then display these works of art to their friends and boast, making them sigh in envy. His products would those become sought-after and their prices would increase dramatically, despite being worth pennies to manufacture.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
This would of course require some finesse on his part. Distribution was not something he could access without risk. Leonardo didn’t want to draw attention to his location or identity, lest he end up enslaved to someone else’s whims.
To that end, a plan would need to be hatched to achieve this perfectly.
‘Ah, for now I’d best grow the chicken before trying to sell eggs…’
Wandering like a boss through his workshop and greedily inhaling the air as if for the first time, for once he really looked forward to the future.
“Let’s get started!”
Closing his eyes, he honed his senses on Yuki’s room and projected his voice akin to a whisper in her ear. This was another application of Spatium and Elemental (Sound) that he came across. In a world without phones, it was very practical, albeit a little risky in terms of karma.
Having summoned his assistant over, he prepared a batch of materials and pondered briefly on what to make, just to settle for flutes. For one, he had some experience in making and playing them. Secondly, stringed instruments required high quality metal. In order to make violins, guitars or trombones, he would need to invest far more resources. Alas, he was dirt poor and could only rely on pure woodworks to start with.
There were plenty of trees in the forest, and with some basic transmutation, any random branch would fit his criteria as long as it was thick enough. Altering it to be sturdy and resonate properly was a matter of course. He needed more practice with Materia spells anyway.
“I’m here, big brother!”
His mood instantly brightened as Yuki cheerily walked into the workshop. She seemed just as excited as he was to put their entrepreneur spirit to use. After the obligatory pat on her head and locking the doors, he sat her down and started to seriously teach the little girl.
“Look here, little fox. When it comes to musical instruments, timber is like wine. Normally, you would need to age it well, but I have a special oil that can let use any wood. Make sure to keep that a secret, lest the greedy nobles steal it from us.”
Despite his willingness trust Yuki, he couldn’t share his magic secrets with her. She was too young to know the implications and threats the inquisition posed, so he could only dupe the innocent child by making stuff up on the fly. He always happened to have a special oil, herb or tool that the greedy nobles would want. Luckily, the girl trusted him too much to question his nonsense.
“First we’ll need to chop this chunk of wood into an appropriate length. About the size of a forearm is what your layman would say. In my workshop we use proper measurements. Three big and three small lines. How much is that?”
“Thirty tree centimeters?” she seemed somewhat unsure as she sized up the ruler.
“That’s right, little fox. We’ll be doing a piccolo for starters. 33cm in length. Just like so,” he demonstrated by sawing the appropriate length, before blowing the saw dust off and continuing. “Now, we will bring it to shape. Flutes are meant to be smooth and round, so we’ll do just that.”
Scrapping off the unnecessary corners, he rotated the wooden chunk with precision and constantly cut away pieces of it until a perfectly symmetrical round cylinder remained in his hand.
“This will be your task in the future.”