...

Laboratory (Basement), Alexander's Mansion

"Good morning, my dear worker!"

"G... good morning, Mr. Alexander!"

Alexander came joyfully into his basement, where the development and production of the mana ink was happening. It was somewhat chaotic with one poor guy standing there, all surprised to see him coming inside unannounced.

Since Alexander wanted to finish up all of his older projects after becoming well again, his first choice was obviously the one that lay on ice for quite some time: Mana Ink.

Ultimately, the mana ink was practically finished. Still, Alexander, who discovered his inner pedantic artist years ago, wanted something he was happy with, which resulted in a lot of menial work of combining the ingredients quantitatively and qualitatively to create different kinds of black tones. It was a petty endeavor, which he acknowledged but went through nonetheless.

Fortunately, though, he instructed Aurum to find someone loyal from the estate who would do this work for him before he got injured. This someone was a pelican-kin who stood nervously before him.

Alexander smiled at him, trying to joke to calm him down, "Why so nervous? Had a long enough break?"

It seemed not to work as the pelican-kin became more tense, fluffing his wings and stammering heavily, "N... No, Mr. Alexander! I wouldn't d... dare!"

Alexander stopped his attempts, being an amiable boss, and concentrated on the project at hand. He asked him more directly while gesturing to calm down, "Okay, fine, I believe you. Where are the color samples?"

The nervous pelican-kin walked slightly to the side and pointed to a wall with hundreds of prepared samples pinned onto it with all kinds of black tones. Alexander immediately walked towards it and looked at every sample meticulously.

The ink was used on his made paper and dried for some time, which was perfect since it showed its color after being fully oxidized. The combinations were many and distinguished a lot, which was terrific since he had many options to choose from.

After over an hour, he found his favorite coloration and pointed at the sample, far to the side, "Number 38, I want this one."

The skittish pelican-kin came closer while holding half a dozen pamphlets, "Y... yes, it was..."

Alexander turned his head slightly to the pelican-kin and was confused about why he was so anxious, "Everything alright?"

The pelican-kin hesitantly nodded, "I... yes and no."

Alexander raised an eyebrow, being confused, "Explain."

The pelican-kin started to shuffle through dozens of pages, and out of nervousness, he let them fall as he became overly flustered, "Ah!"

However, Alexander quickly used an air contraption to catch them in mid-air. Not only that, but he also sorted them and gave him the pages back by letting them float into his hands softly, "Calm down... what's your name?"

The pelican-kin stuttered, "Ca... Carl."

Alexander gestured for him to calm down more while trying to smile as amiably as possible, 'Why is he so nervous around me? However, all the other servants, who had little contact with me, were also somewhat timid...'

When he went for a stroll through the estate some days ago, he remembered that the lower servants or soldiers were highly respectful toward him, even though they had barely any contact with him.

From gossip, he knew his personal servants were quite talkative and loved exaggerating everything he did, like the fight with his Grandmother, 'I will ask later, Francesca. She usually brags and gossips the most.'

While it was somewhat heartwarming that his people were always trying to put him on a pedestal, it could lead to problems where others would become fearful of him. His goal was to build a reputation like that of his Father, who was respected but also had a somewhat casual streak, where people could come to him openly. Yet, it looked like he was about to build something akin to his Mother, who was respected, too, but also much more unapproachable.

Alexander's reasoning was quite simple as to why he wanted to be more like his Father: He liked such bosses much more and disliked the ones who were too far out there, with whom he couldn't have a beer and some casual chat.

After a minute, where Carl relaxed a little, he tried again, "Okay, Carl. What is the problem?"

Carl quickly looked up the right page and started reading, "Well... Mr. Alexander, sample 38 is something I made just for fun in my free time and... I am so sorry!..." He quickly bowed down and was about to kneel.

However, Alexander got annoyed by this behavior, pushing him upwards with his air contraptions, "Okay, calm down. It's fine if you made it. You can probably make it again, right?"

"Yeah... but..."

Now, he needed to force himself not to bash Carl against the floor, "But what? Can you talk normally for once?!"

Even though Alexander would generally entertain the idea of getting to know his people better, letting them have much more time to acclimate around him, he was in a time crunch right now. He wanted to visit the smithy, the carpenter, and the mana chambers Ocilia was working on. He had no idea how far they had come and if he would need to put some time into finishing them. While it was fine if the carpenter and blacksmith required more time, he readied himself for some sleepless nights for the mana chamber project to get done.

The reason was simple: Since Patricia and Scarlett would leave in a few days, he wanted to prepare presents for them. As such, he needed to be a little bit more pushy than usual but also couldn't overdo it, as servants were rather skittish and fearful if he became annoyed.

After what felt like an eternity for Alexander, Carl answered carefully, "I made it, but it is more expensive, and it is a combination of multiple products..."

Alexander took the list out of his hands, without any reservation, and read it. After a moment, he returned the sheet and looked at him sternly, which made Carl flinch.

However, Alexander smiled at him and opened his arms, "Well, Carl, you are now my ink guy, and I want you to make some batches of number 38."

Carl smiled slightly and nodded, becoming more flustered. However, he looked around the workplace, but before he could say more, Alexander already understood the problem, waving his hand in dismissal, "Don't worry. You will get some more workers. I will talk to Mom and send them here. You will also get a new contract with a wage raise. Are we done?"

Carl nodded, and before he could kneel, Alexander was already walking away, "We will talk later—one thousand bottles of mana ink and normal ink. You can begin calculating and planning out how we can produce it more efficiently. See ya later."

However, as he almost walked out of the door, he could hear how he kneeled nonetheless, "Thank you for the chance, Mr. Alexander!"

Alexander turned around, "Be at ease..." He then looked Carl in the eyes when he raised his head stoically, "...I don't care about etiquette or manners. I need only loyalty and skill. Do you understand?"

Carl started to shiver and only nodded at him. After seeing this, Alexander smiled at him, "Good! Till later or tomorrow."

...

Outer parts of the estate, on the way to the smithy

"Do you know who it was? Is it truly a good idea to give him such responsibility?"

"If you want to talk, show yourself first."

Lili appeared beside him, like out of nowhere, "I don't know why you don't like me being invisible, Mr. Alexander."

Alexander shrugged, "I don't want to look like I am crazy, talking to myself."

Lili chuckled, "From what I saw, I thought you wouldn't care about what others think."

Alexander smirked, "I need to learn to care, sadly, but let's not dig into this topic."

Lili nodded, "Okay, Mr. Alexander. So, why do you trust the pelican-kin with such a massive task even without him signing a more thorough contract first?"

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

"Carl."

Lili tilted her head slightly in confusion, "Pardon?"

"His name is not Pelican-kin but Carl."

Lili thought it visibly through, and going by her facial expression and how she pronounced his name, she didn't like it, "Why do you trust Carl with such a massive task even without letting him sign a more thorough contract beforehand?"

Alexander looked at her and didn't say anything about her manners, but it was clear that she was highly degrading towards everyone who was not part of their family or close to them, like their retainers. In his mind, she probably saw this as an exclusive club that not everyone could enter. The same was true for Ipe, who looked at Green and all other nature-dwellers with disgust but also at everyone outside their household.

He knew that his Grandmother was someone who looked down on all commoners heavily, even regarding them as trash. Only through a lot of work and sacrifices could even his Father become a part of their household, but if he were not a druid and maybe only some simple warrior, there would probably be no chance in hell that she would accept him into their family.

Lili and Ipe, his two babysitters, had visibly the same mindset and saw everyone who wasn't at least part of the guard households as lesser, which heavily collided with Alexander's ideals, 'This will be fun.'

He quickly ignored his thoughts since such a mindset couldn't be changed by debating one out of it. He shrugged at Lili's question, "I don't think he would steal the recipe."

Lili tilted her head, askingly, "Why do you think so, Mr. Alexander?"

"He could've already done so and be gone. The alchemical formula is a really simple one. I even bet that the current contract has more than enough loopholes to allow him some wiggle room in describing the ingredients without any problems. Also, Mom or Salyna probably put him in this position after Aurum asked for a worker for me. I trust they judged him well enough, so I don't need to worry."

"So, it is pure cynicism, hm..."

"Partly."

"Partly?"

Alexander sighed as he basically repeated himself again, for what he felt like the hundredth time, "If you reward people for hard work with chances to grow, who in their right mind would risk something stupid like abandoning a safe future to become a fugitive."

Lili visibly thought about it but didn't say anything, only to become invisible again, "I hope you are right, Mr. Alexander."

He smirked and looked arrogantly down at the air where the mana moved weirdly, "I am."

Alexander, of course, understood what he thought was very idealized, but it worked most of the time if done right. In his opinion, loyalty shouldn't come from anywhere and should precede him doing something. Be it like his Grandmother, saving the lives of Ipe and Lili, or like Ocilia, who was exceptionally devoted to him because he built her up without any expectations.

Again, it was idealized, but there was also some cold cynicism, like Lili said. He was a noble, the absolute government in their fief, with exceptions. His trust getting betrayed meant betraying their system, which meant he could get rid of anyone like that in a heartbeat, and it would be morally right in this society.

So, someone actually going against him was far more unlikely than someone on Earth selling company secrets and afterward fuck off to some country so as not to get canned by the law for corporate espionage or something similar.

Besides that, there were also more fail safes in this world that he had already thought about, which he wanted to implement, but he would let Aurum handle such things.

...

Outer Leonandra Estate, Smithy

"Hello? Anywhere here... ugh, so fucking hot."

"Who da fuck is 'ere? Of course, it's hot, you moron! This is a darn smithy!"

Alexander stood in the front part of what looked like a warehouse, filled to the brim with weapons, armor, and other miscellaneous stuff. He could see that deeper inside was some kind of smithy from which he heard metal clanging and felt how the heat flew out of there.

"Hey, Ore! Go see who it is!"

A grunt escaped someone who sounded young, "On it! Damn it, I was almost in the zone!"

Alexander heard a bang, followed by, "Ow! Wha' tha' fo'?"

A more bassy and rough voice sounded annoyed, "Zone? Com' again in a hundred years with you' shi'! Now move! There is a reaso' I call you Ore!"

Alexander heard someone hurrying toward him while cursing up a storm, 'Huh, this will be fun.'

While waiting, he inspected the storage room and took a sword made of relatively cheap iron, 'No wonder there is only one guard outside, barely staying awake.'

There were multiple smithies around the Outer part of the estate and one inside. They were segregated by how important they were. The one on the inside had blacksmiths who could be counted as experts or masters.

In contrast, the ones on the outside were far less important with, at most, decent blacksmiths who would do work that was non-military related, or if it was, their made equipment was mainly used for either training purposes or meat shields, so to say, convicts judged with heinous crimes and sent to the front to die.

However, Alexander was kept from pushing his projects onto the blacksmiths inside the estate as they had their hands full with supplying the East with armor, weapons, and other miscellaneous metalware.

So, Aurum, before he was gone, gave Alexander's blueprint to this smithy, and by looking at the ware, Alexander wasn't so sure if the essential part of his book press was here in good hands.

He came out of his thoughts when he sensed someone coming to greet him at last. It was a young bear-kin, swearing and frowning, "Which idiot is annoying Mast..." However, when they made eye contact, he suddenly opened his eyes wide and was visibly shocked, "...h... h... hello."

Alexander smiled back while slowly patting the sword he inspected beforehand, "Well, hello there. How are you?"

The bear-kin nodded, not even daring to move, "Am fine, Mr. Alexander, and... you, my highness?"

Alexander came slowly forward, wanting to be a little childish, "You see, I had a really good day until I entered..." He stopped before the far bigger bear-kin, not stopping the patting of the blade, "...so, how about you get your Master to come out before my day becomes a bad one? Sounds good?"

The young bear-kin nodded, suddenly drenching in sweat and walking backward while awkwardly bowing down, "Of course, Mr. Alexander..." He suddenly turned around and ran back to where he came from.

Alexander though could hear him how he suddenly tripped, cursing, "Fuckin' shi'!" This made him chuckle, 'I should probably stop playing the asshole, but it's fun nonetheless.'

From inside the smithy, he heard how, who was probably the young bear-kin's Master, screaming, "What the fuck is goin' on?! What..." He suddenly became silent, and Alexander heard how they whispered and, afterward, how someone walked toward him.

After a moment, another bear-kin came, as big as his Father, but to the contrary of his apprentice, was somewhat casual, "Mr. Alexander! Why didn't you say you were here? Haha!"

Alexander smiled back at the enormous bear-kin, "Well, yeah. How's life up there?"

The smith first looked confused but then laughed out loud, "Hahaha! Fine, like always!..." However, he then looked confused again at Alexander, "...so, this is Mr. Alexander..." He rubbed his chin, thinking aloud, "...a little on the meager side, not like the Lord..." After another moment, though, he nodded, crossing his arms, "...how ma' I help?"

Alexander ignored the comments and even liked that someone was this casual to him, "My assistant gave you a task, and I wanted to know how it's going?"

The blacksmith nodded, turning around, "Follow me. I worked with the carpenter, and we finished your weird apparatus, but I have no idea what it does or how to test it."

Alexander was joyfully surprised that he did not need to visit the carpenter, which would save time. He was thankful to Aurum for making it clear to the artisans that they should work together, not separately. Sadly, though, it was now a crab shot if the apparatus worked since the artisans didn't know what it was for.

The smith walked to the side, to another door, and into a smaller storage room. Arrived, he took a blanket that lay over a giant machine and pulled it away, revealing the first step to Alexander's dream of spreading information, "I dunno wha' it is but is fine like it is?"

Alexander walked closely and inspected it, smiling, 'Yes, this is the shit!'

The first things that he gazed at were the multiple sets of blocks made out of metal with slits on the side and behind it. On top, they had the letters of the beast-kin dialect alphabet protruding out.

One of the more revolutionary things about a book press was that one could rearrange the layout to create whatever one wanted to write. Afterward, the arrangement of letters would be coated with ink and pressed onto a paper.

From history at school, he knew that the Guttenberg press wasn't first invented in Europe but in China. Yet, since they didn't have the alphabet, which could be rearranged how one wanted, it was relatively unproductive and not used to the extent as in Europe.

He took one letter block and analyzed it more closely, 'Good work.'

It was finely made and looked like what he had described and drawn in the instructions. One thing which he was the most worried about was the font and if the blacksmith wouldn't make it how he wanted. It was actually one of the things he worked the longest on, as he tried to make it as commoner-friendly as possible while having some inkling of nobility with a bit of cursive.

His reason was that too many writings looked very artistic and beautiful, but reading them was a pain in the ass. Sometimes, they were so curly that it was impossible to decipher what letter it was supposed to be without any context.

So, his choice was a combination of Times New Roman and Arial. Later, he would create many more fonts for different circumstances, but one was more than enough for now.

He put it back, looked at the press itself, and saw the genius of Johann Gutenberg, made out of metal and wood, 'Beautiful.'

He walked around it and inspected it more thoroughly. The principle was basic but elegant, a stroke of genius. First, you arrange the page you want to print by putting the single letters into a metal tablet and spreading ink over them.

Then, you lay down the piece of paper on a moving conveyor belt and push it forward to the exact position where the tablet would press down. The last thing was just a simple lever. You pull it, and a force of multiple hundreds of pounds will be pressed on the paper. Pushing it away, it would rise again, and you will have your first print.

Alexander was walking around it, trying the book press out by imagining and replicating the process. It worked perfectly, 'I can't believe it.'

Even though it was far from any modern press, with only being able to print one page at a time, he couldn't believe that the world would soon experience what it meant to distribute information more efficiently.

It was captivating and the first step to educating the whole world, 'I know what the first book will be.'

Alexander was enchanted, patting the future slowly, "Yes..."

"Mr. Alexander? Ar' you alright?"

He came out of his thoughts and looked surprised at the smith, 'Right, I have shit to do...' He cleared his throat, "Ahem, bring this to my mansion, and give it to others and say they should bring it into the ink room, and tell them to be very careful with it and..." He opened his arms wide, "...if this works as it should, I will obviously reward you greatly!"

The blacksmith scratched his head and nodded, obviously not knowing what kind of wonder he had actually created, not taking the young noble seriously about the reward, "Sur', Mr. Alexander."

...

Outside the state, on the way to Ocilia

"The colors are much more vivid, don't you think so, Lili?"

Beside him appeared the husky-looking guard, "Mr. Alexander, is everything alright?"

Alexander walked to a flower, sniffing it, "Ah..." He straightened up and smiled at Lili, "...yes. It is more than alright. In the next months, you will see something fantastic, and if you live long enough, you will see the world change to something..." He opened his arms wide, wanting to hug the whole world, "...incredible!"

Some servants from his mansion walked beside him and only became surprised as he became louder, but ignored him quickly, knowing he was prone to act out sometimes.

However, Lili only frowned, "I understand, Mr. Alexander, but I don't have the foresight to see how some pieces of wood with metal letters will change the world."

Alexander nodded and began to walk again towards Ocilia, "You will see..." After months of torture, he was again so joyful, like when he created the process for the papermaking, "...everyone will see!"

Lili only raised an eyebrow, sounding very unsure how she should share his joy, "Sure, Mr. Alexander..."