“What do you think?” Anne asked without looking at the lazy familiar stretching over the counter.

The blue creature rolled up and yawned before moving closer to his mistress. He knew she cared little about his actual opinion but failing to provide it would result in her ire, so he had to say something.

For a bookmancer, deciding on new spells for their grimoire was akin to a life-and-death decision. The spellcasting book, which was tied to their soul, would increase in blank page numbers as their soul power grew. One chapter for bookmancer essentials, one for self-defense, save half for emergencies, and the rest could be distributed according to her career plan. That was the rule passed by her grandfather and former master.

As far as Anne knew, a regular archivist would reach 120 pages throughout their life. Her grandpa, the last master who lived the craft glory and downfall, had reached 210 pages, entering their line’s podium as the fourth strongest bookmancer. As a humble beginner, she only had 32 pages before opening the bookstore, only three more than when she finished her apprenticeship. The nail-pace growth was expected since her journey would only officially begin after establishing her domain and practicing the craft.

And now, the theory was verified as she experienced the growth of six pages after only three weeks of work and three customers. Which brought her current conundrum; six blank pages, and an infinity of spells to choose from.

“Mistress, being practical is always the right choice. I wouldn’t dare to comment on your craft, so I can only point an option in the matters of your personal needs. Food, cleaning, and organization take time and effort, so anything that would improve those can be considered worthy…” Moruh said in an academic-like tone. He even tidied his hat to appear wiser.

“Is that so?” She replied absentminded. Her question had been purely perfunctory since she wouldn’t delegate such an important matter to others.

Still, something in the familiar’s words had resonated with her ideas. As usual, she didn’t pay careful attention to the answer, so only the words ‘food, cleaning, and organization’ sparked from it. The trouble of arranging everything by herself was exhausting. Moruh would help with the books and her work, but housekeeping could only fall over her back.

The words of her grandpa, abhorring the squandering of pages in mundane tasks passed through her mind earning a rare nostalgic smile. Regardless, she was her own bookmancer and would pave her road to success on her terms. Housekeeping might be mundane, but spending time on those tasks would take a tool in the long run.

With that in mind, Anne got a note scroll and started listing her requirements and potential research books. Ten minutes later, her eyes focused on three book names circled in the scroll: ‘The house witch’, ‘Homunculus Codex’, and ‘Summons’.

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Watching from the side, Moruh was sweating and staring at the words in distress. As always, his mistress had taken a simple option and transformed it into the most complex arrangement. By giving the suggestion, he was thinking of something like a cleaning spell or one that could help knead the dough. He should have known that Anne would go to the extent of her creativity and knowledge to search for the most perfect housekeeping spell ever recorded. That’s her, a crazy innovative bookmancer.

While retrieving the books, Anne recounted her logic and the research she had read on the subject. The first book, ‘The house witch’, was a biography of the mage Negil Housemaster written by a bookmancer of the previous era. Negil was the creator of housemancy, which earned him the ancestral line name of Housemaster. The craft was a set of magic techniques to perform every possible housekeeping shore and was almost as rarely practiced as her own.

The second, ‘Homunculus Codex’, gathered the most successful rituals used to create an autonomous artificial being. This practice had been banned from most countries at some point in history, either deemed sacrilegious or too dangerous, but nowadays only the Lyn Theocracy would prohibit it.

Last, the book ‘Summons’ was an enthon of elemental summoning arrays. To retrieve it, Anne had to unseal the golden-wooden chest which stored all of her enthons. This type of book was extremely precious as it would contain several one-use drawings. After checking the books inside, Anne took out an ancient book with an exquisite pale wooden cover and resealed the chest.

Reviewing the books was the first step. Then, she dived into the codex and the biography searching for the most appropriate ritual.

Unsatisfied by the specifications of the rituals, which were already of world-class difficulty, she decided to go for a combination and customization.

The follow-up work took a week of research, five other books, and a lot of note scrolls. Fortunately, her work wasn’t wasted and she ended up with a satisfactory design. In truth, it was a masterpiece, even Moruh was surprised by the boldness of his mistress.

The design could only be called an artifact and would take all the six new pages of the grimoire. The first two pages would be reserved for the body of the homunculus. Since it would be used for housekeeping, she decided to go with woodmancy. Although it would be weak against fire, she didn’t expect it to cook anything. One page to tie the wood and another to make it movable.

The next two pages would be spent on the summon. One to bind the summon to the body and the other to power it up. She chose to summon a Spring spirit to give life to the homunculus due to its bright energy and affinity with water and plants. The power core would be connected to her domain circle, preventing any following energy shortage problems.

The last pages would control ‘Spring’ and give it a minor double elemental power over water and wind. The so-called control was a work around the usual time-decaying command over the summon.

To improve the homunculus, Anne carved all the wood parts with symbols of power and used a soul tea seedling as a vessel for the Spring spirit. Initially, the artificial autonomous artifact known as ‘Spring’, looked like a child-sized crude wooden doll without a face. However, when the summon was bound to it, it bloomed. Vines breached from its core coating the wooden body, and flowers bloomed on top giving it a nice refreshing feel.

The unexpected situation made Anne even more proud of her creation. A satisfied smile spread on her lips, the six new pages had been well spent!

“Mistress is truly… the mistress!” Moruh marveled.