CH 224

Chapter 224 – The Saint And Manuscript

“You look very tired, don’t you?”

The next day. After finishing breakfast, I was walking toward the courtyard when I bumped into Ellen. Today, too, she is dressed in a saintly white robe with gold thread decorations, which is so divine that it is almost dazzling.

“Oh… yeah.”

However, I could only reply with a weak and tired body from early in the morning. After all, my maximum strength and stamina are less than a third of what they used to be. I was already exhausted.

“Good heavens, what are you doing without me?”

“I wonder what it is…”

Ellen grumbled and held out her hand toward me and began to shoot out a light. Aah~, I don’t know what it is, but it feels good. I suddenly focused my attention on the gauges of strength and stamina displayed in the corner of my eye; the maximum value is recovering at a very fast rate. This must be that miracle of revitalization I was told about before.

“It helped.”

“I’ve done enough activation to completely heal five normal people from serious wounds.”

“Is that so?”

“You still have the life force of a cockroach, aren’t you?”

“Can you stop treating me like a cockroach? But thank you.”

I was completely recovered, and I honestly expressed my gratitude to Ellen. It takes me about half a day to recover from that state. If I eat properly and rest, I will gradually recover, but it’s simply hard to be dull for half a day.

“Speaking of which, I heard that you had a meeting with the envoy of the Dragonis Mountain Kingdom yesterday.”

“Yeah. Do you have any thoughts on the matter?”

Her tone seemed to be slightly inclusive, so I asked her about it, but Ellen shook her head.　

“No, not particularly. The main believers in the dragon faith are subhumans such as lizardmen and lamia, so there is not much overlap between them and our own Adolianism. I hope we can maintain mutual respect, or worse, non-interference.”

“You seemed very serious about it.”

“I was afraid that if you were treated as a saint even there, you would be competing with us.”

“I see. Well, I think it will be alright. They don’t seem to be thinking of restricting me or Grande’s activities.”

They just want to respect us as we are. I guess we are their idols in the right sense of the word.

“I hope that’s the case… So, how are your preparations for the trip coming along?”

“Well, reasonably well, I guess. The air board has been modified, and the personnel on our side have already started familiarization training. What about your side?”

“The selection of personnel has been completed. Right now, we are all reading the new scriptures and examining their teachings.”

“I see… Are there enough scriptures? Not only do you all have to read them together, but you have to distribute them as well, don’t you?”

If you are going to spread a new (essentially old) teaching of any kind, you must widely distribute the scriptures that contain that teaching. There would also be the question of what to do with the scriptures containing the current mainstream teachings and what to do with those who refuse to follow the new teachings.

“I must confess that getting the right number of scriptures is a little difficult. We are working on manuscripts, but there are limits to what can be done with handwritten manuscripts. And we don’t have enough time to print them on woodblocks.”

“I suppose that’s true.”

Although woodblock printing seems to have made some progress in this world, it does not seem to have the productivity to mass-produce thick scriptures in just a few weeks. First of all, woodblocks for printing must be made in large quantities, and even if woodblocks can be made, printing and binding require a certain amount of time and effort. Of course, it is still much faster than copying by hand.

“Well, one of the manuscripts discovered at the ruins is still in my inventory.”

“Well, I mean… it’s a very valuable book, though.”

“Well, well, well.”

While appeasing Ellen, who was looking at me with a stern look, I took the manuscript out of my inventory and headed for the work shed in the courtyard. This is my work shed that I have built in the corner of the courtyard, and I have various work tables set up inside.

“What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to use the workbench to mass produce this.”

“Can you do that?”

“I don’t know, so I’m going to give it a try.”

I opened the menu of the golem workbench and put the manuscripts in the workbench’s inventory, as well as a large amount of paper mass-produced from plant fibers and black ink crafted from soot, charcoal, oil, etc., in the inventory of the workbench.

“Mmmm… roar, my microcosm…!”

“Kosm…?”

Ellen, who has a dubious look on her face, is left aside for now and concentrates on item creation. When I say concentrate, I just have to think, “be added to the crafting item column.” I still don’t know the right way to do item creation. It’s kind of like if you just think about it, you can do it, you know?

“Is there something to it when you say roar?”

“Sometimes there is. Sometimes not.”

“What is that?”

While Ellen looked a little stunned, I scrolled through the list of craft items on the golem workbench to see if there was anything added to the list that I wanted.

・Manuscripts of the Adol Scripture Omit Kingdom Year 109――Materials: Ink x 2 Paper x 10

“It’s done! The scripture manuscript!”

“Really?”

Ellen leaned forward. Oh, she smells so good.

“Where is it?”

Her red eyes stare at me from a distance with a sullen expression on her face.

“Oh, you’re so impatient. I’m mass producing it now. Just give me a minute.”

In the meantime, I’m going to reserve a hundred copies for crafting. It seems to take three minutes per book, so that’s 300 minutes for 100 books. That’s five hours to get them all done. Isn’t it amazingly fast to have a bound book in just three minutes?

“I mass-produced a hundred books, for now, so give me a minute. It takes three minutes per book.”

“A hundred books? Three minutes per book means you can make a hundred manuscripts in only five hours?”

“That’s the math.”

“…That’s a tremendous power. In some ways more tremendous than the direct production of food and weapons.”

“Really…? When you put it that way, maybe.”

Knowledge is power. And unlike weapons, armor, or money, it is a power that can never be taken away from you as long as you live. And books are one of the best tools for acquiring that knowledge. The ability to mass produce it may mean creating a large number of people with power that can never be taken away from them.

“But my power, if used without consideration, may endanger other people’s lives. A production system that relies on my power alone is distorted, and I can’t and shouldn’t diversify too much.”

“That’s reasonable. It would be better to use it to make up for what is lacking to the extent that it does not disturb the world.”

While we were talking like this, the first book was completed. I took the finished manuscript from the golem workbench and handed it to Ellen.

“…The text is very legible.”

“Which one? Oh, indeed. It looks like a typeface.”

The size and shape of the letters are all the same, making them very easy to read. It is completely printed.

“The date of publication in the back of the book is still the year 109 in the history of the Kingdom of Omit.”

“It’s a photocopy. I’m sorry, but you’ll have to do something about that by hand.”

“Yes. I don’t know what to do with it, but, well, it’s not much trouble.”

Although I don’t know what she is going to do, she will probably add the date of the duplication by hand or something like that.

“And you are the only one who can take it out, right?”

“Yes.”

“Five hours from now…”

“No, I don’t have to stick around here, you know?”

The rest will be made automatically, so all I have to do is come back in five hours to retrieve it. In the meantime, I can do other work.

“…Do you really hate being with me that much?”

“I don’t hate it at all, though, do I? I just thought you might be busy.”

“It’s fine. Even if you get a little dizzy, it won’t be a problem if you bring a hundred manuscripts with you.”

The red eyes look up at me from a very close distance. My plans for today, well, there was nothing in my schedule that would have required me to meet with anyone. That’s something I have to do in preparation for the expedition, but there’s a lot I can do here in the work shed.

“…Okay, then, let’s slowly and carefully work on the manuscripts.”

“Yes.”

With a slight blush on her cheeks, Ellen gave a small nod. Well, then, I guess I’ll clear off the workbench I’m not using right now and set up a table and a couch.