Anne stared at the fat piece of meat lying on a table as if it was her worst customer. Cleaning, seasoning, portioning, and storing would take some work and more earth essence materials than she had access to. Of course, she could ignore this step and just do some regular processing, but in doing so, the meat would lose properties and spoil faster.
The 10 kg of meat was within her’s and Moruh’s means of consumption, even without the proper essence processing. Still, the bookmancer didn’t want to eat boar every single day, and wasting the meat would fall even lower in her list of nos. Living in the borderland was too impractical. How good it would be if she could just cross the street and get some essence goods.
Fortunately, the wilderness also had its perks. Every night, she would get to sleep soundly. That not-so-rare noisy mess of Emperor Seat wasn’t something she would miss. Like her grandpa used to say, ‘Pros and cons, that’s what life is about’.
Against her better judgment, Anne decided to leave the ‘meat’ situation for later and moved to attend to her newest project. She had scored big this time, one of the books Ceres bought was a compendium of papermancy. Sadly, the book was too damaged and incomplete. A blessing followed by misfortune; balance was still the law of the universe.
However, not everything was lost. Repairing the book was possible. It would require her fullest attention and a higher mastery that she was yet to show, but possible nonetheless. In fact, the task would stretch her abilities and possibly push her up to the next step.
Furthermore, Anne could already foresee the addition of a few pages upon completing the project. Just touching the subject and planning the restoration, awakened the familiar ich on her soul. It was similar to the pain of strengthening a muscle but invigorating.
The bookmancer went upstairs and sat on a wide table located in the floor's largest room. Two weeks ago, she had organized and reserved this area for bookmancy crafting. With the help of Spring, the wood homunculus, she could finally repurpose more facilities and keep them clean. She had chosen the room because of its space and the big double window, which provided the illumination needed for her work.
The dilapidated book was already lying on the large table surrounded by her notes on restoration ideas. The first step of the restoration was gathering the right resources. In the case of the compendium, knowledge to fill the missing parts, cohesion thread to stitch back the unfillable gaps, paper for the pages, ink to preserve the work, and energy to power everything.
Knowledge would come from studying and research, the thread would be spelled from her bookmancy ability, and the rest were a matter of preparation and materials. The paper used was the standard for that era and place, a wood essence plant fiber.
Anne retrieved a similar blank paper from her collection and cut it to the book size. Then, she placed the blank paper on top of the first page and moisten it evenly with wood essence oil.
“Apograph, Transfero, Apio!”
Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.
Her power spread from her hands through the page. The new oiled paper started to shine as it merged with the damaged page until they became one. She checked the other side of the page and nodded satisfied after verifying its integrity. That was the easy part; now it was time for the real challenge.
The compendium was written in ancient solarium, the mother language of papermancy, which made her job harder. The first chapter explained papermancy and presented a brief history of the craft. It was simple, but also the key to learning this art. Instead of starting with the definition, which required comprehension, she decided to start with the history. Through research, Anne had some clues about it, and the book itself still conserved some context.
With her grimoire at hand, the archivist started mending the content of the page. The pen and ink worked alone as if an invisible hand was writing the words, while Anne focused her free hand on controlling a magical thread that connected the old and new words at a conceptual level.
The parts that she knew were quickly written, and those that she was uncertain about would take longer since she had to decide on a guess for them. However, the true obstacle was the unknown parts; when faced with them, she could only use the thread to make a bridge between the knowledge. Like a path that had been abruptly interrupted by the abyss, she had to brave the unknown and cast a way between.
Breaching her limits, the sweating bookmancer continued to work the chapter until it was done. Some time ago, she had heard voices coming from downstairs but her work couldn’t be stopped. Also, Moruh could take care of her regular customers, and in the face of a new one, he would come for her.
With the first chapter of the book done, she could take a break and recharge her energies. Unexpectedly, the growth that she estimated for the end of the restoration had come early. She would need to check, but the grimoire should have expanded by two or three pages.
***
“Welcome, dear guests. How may I help you?” Moruh said forcing a wise tone. When they entered, he had stopped playing with his tail and straightened up to pass a more professional impression.
Hakon observed the familiar suspiciously, while Iris and Cyrus looked interested.
“Well, we wanted to consult the storeowner on something.” Iris replied hurriedly. They had agreed beforehand, but she didn’t want to give Cyrus the chance to speak out of hand and embarrass them.
“I understand. The mistress is occupied at the moment. Is it something that I can help you with? May I assume that it’s about your current shortage of resources to pay for the book lending?” He asked directly. The magic beast severely lacked the basic common-sense needed to smooth the conversation toward a delicate subject. That’s the reason why Anne would never allow him to serve new customers.
Iris’s lips twitched in awkwardness while Cyrus looked down in embarrassment. When they first came, the storeowner had let them study the books for free as a first-time gift. She even gave the syllable to the warrior. However, they were informed the subsequent studies would need to be paid for, which was more than fair.
Because of their renewed excitement and hope, they returned to town anxious to take a few jobs and then resume their studies in the shortest time. Unfortunately, Mountainend didn’t have any guilds or announced adventuring jobs. Still, the party wasn’t ready to give up. They were already prepared to make a trip to Riverend Town to get the funds when they heard about a successful local expedition to the forbidden forest.
Common knowledge stated that this area wasn’t fit for adventuring, but the recent events had proved otherwise. After asking around, the three adventurers heard rumors about a lousy hunter turning prosperous after attending the bookstore. If they could, it was better to stay here where food and lodging were free than to humiliate themselves in that damn town again.
So, they came looking for Anne to know the truth of the matter.