Chapter 157 - White Vessel
Updated: 5 hours ago
There are no clocks on the continent of Eruo, and people's activities are determined by the position of the sun.
The light streaming in through the slightly open curtains was like an alarm clock.
The blades of light falling on the dry room seemed to reflect the coldness of winter.
"......Uh......"
I looked next to me and saw Eve asleep, her mouth covered by a blanket.
I'm sure that after the play was over, Eve secretly slept away from me, but it seems that in the middle of the night, she approached me.
I was cold and unconscious, and the heat of the human skin must have lured her.
I kissed Eve's forehead as she slept, making a difficult face with her eyebrows in a figure eight, as if she was being raped by me even in her dreams.
"Hmm~......"
Then Eve's face relaxed and she let out a sound of relief. Then she continues to talk in her sleep,
"Mom ......."
I think she mistook my kiss for Rave's kiss.
"Hmph~"
Every time I kiss her, Eve smiles and lets out a lovely sleepy sigh.
Her carefree smile was like that of a young child, and it aroused my protective desire. My penis, which had been erect in the morning, faltered slightly.
"I'm going first, Eve."
I said goodbye to the warm blanket and her soft body by calling out to the sleeping Eve.
Unfortunately, I have a lot of work to do, and I can't just start shaking my hips in the morning like a bored college student.
I'd like to have a day where I can hold Eve all day long.
After cleansing my body in the morning bath and finishing my breakfast, I decided to head to the pioneer society.
The purpose of my visit this time was to see the "white plate" that Eve had mentioned.
The pioneer society has a year-end and New Year vacation.
Originally, it was a small group of people who worked under my direction, so when I couldn't see them for a while during the year-end and New Year holidays, we closed all together so that there would be no trouble.
Nowadays, the number of employees has increased and the executives have grown to the point where my absence is no longer a problem, but the custom of long vacations still remains.
As expected, all the employees don't take a vacation at the same time like they did in the past, but they seem to be able to rotate it well.
Since we had informed them yesterday that we were going on an inspection tour, the executives had come to work in spite of the vacation.
While the most senior employees of the pioneering society were all here, there was no one else.
There was no sign of Mimon, so he was probably enjoying his winter vacation with his family. Maybe I can come by later and add to their family.
Along with the executives, there was another person who was not supposed to be in the main building of the pioneer society.
He was the real star of the show.
"Looks like you made it, huh?"
"Heh, heh."
That was the head of the potter who was supposed to be in the production department.
The kiln is far from the production department, so it was nice to hear from the potter himself at the main building. I lightly praised the employees for their good arrangements.
"Now, let's see what they come up with, shall we?"
I thought I had said it in a joking tone to ease the tension, but the room was filled with a tense atmosphere.
I regretted it a little, thinking that it was inevitable that a nobleman would say something like that.
While everyone was silent, the potter's head took a deep breath, clenched his fist and opened his mouth.
His words were small but strong, as if he was proud of his work.
The lumpy, knotty hands of the craftsman laid out the plates and bowls on the table.
The rugged, knotty hands of the craftsman laid out the plates and bowls on the table.
"Oh!"
As I listened to the potter's explanation of the vessels, I picked up one of them, a white plate large enough to hold a piece of toast.
The color was a little different from what I had imagined, but the impression was not bad.
"It's not the same as old-fashioned white, but ...... it's a nice, gentle color. It's a friendly white."
Old pottery, the white vessels that were made in the Holy City more than 200 years ago, is crisp and white. If I were to use an analogy, it would be "hospital white. It has a cool, inorganic, refined color.
On the other hand, this finished dish gives me the impression of "hot milk white. The color is soft and warm with no corners.
When I traced the surface of the plate with my finger, it had the smooth texture of porcelain.
I checked the surface as if I were licking it around, but there were no particular scratches, and the white color was even.
It looked like something you would find in the tableware section of a 100-yen store, and it made me feel a little nostalgic.
It may be considered a high-class white plate by the people living in the continent of Luo, but I think I can use it rather easily.
"...... Mm, this is good. Well done."
The head potter and the rest of the executives exhaled in unison.
The air in the room seemed to relax a little, as if they could tell that I was genuinely satisfied.
"So, how many of these can you make? How many do you have at the moment?"
If it can be mass-produced, I would like to immediately appeal to it as a new industry in the Quadrant.
In the spring, we will go to the royal capital. I'm sure there will be opportunities to have tea with nobles from all over the country there. ...... No, there definitely will be.
This is the reason why you need to have a white tea utensil. It's a good idea to have a look at the website to get a better idea of what's going on.
If I were to suddenly present a new, white, not old-fashioned, bowl to the tea party, they would be somewhat surprised.
It is said that my father's diplomacy is to disrupt the pace of the other party and then turn on the poison.
"That's ......."
One of the employees began to explain about the production situation with a scowl on his face.
According to him, there are still a lot of failures, and they are still trying to find a stable way to produce a large number of pieces. They don't have enough kilns to start with, so mass production is difficult at present.
"I see. I see. It's not that easy."
The land for the production department must have been quite cramped, so it would be difficult to build more kilns.
It might be better to ask my father to give me a piece of land somewhere.
In the meantime, I've instructed him to make a set of tea sets first. If we can ignore the number of failures, it is possible to make the tea set itself, so I want to get it ready as soon as possible.
"...... And make sure you bring one set of plates and bowls to the castle. I will present them to my father."
"Very well, sir."
Since I can't just ask for land out of the blue, I'll show you the results first and then tell you what I want.
After giving detailed instructions on how to use the rest of the vessels, I decided to ask the last thing that was on my mind.
"What did you end up with?"
I had seen a question on a Japanese quiz show in a previous life: "This coffee cup is made of the bones of a certain animal, what animal is it? I had seen a question on .......
The answer was a cow.
This project started with a hint of that memory from a previous life, but I couldn't get it right, probably because the quality of cows is different between Earth and the continent of Eruo.
I don't even know if they are really the same cows as on Earth, because I just call them cows because they look like cows.
So for the past few years, the potters have been experimenting endlessly by combining animal bones with various types of clay from the territory of Quardenze and firing them.
As the president of the company, he wanted to know the identity of the bones because he had spent a huge amount of money on the research.
"It's a thick-haired rabbit."
The potters had tried unsuccessfully to use the bones of various animals such as horses, boars, and bears, and one day, out of desperation, they used the scraps of a thick-haired rabbit they had eaten as a material.
Of course, this did not produce a perfect product out of the blue, but it did produce a slightly better result than the others.
So he focused on the bones of the thick-haired rabbit, and after a lot of trial and error, changing the clay and devising a new kiln, he was finally able to produce something he was satisfied with.
"I see. We have to be careful about information leaking out."
Although it was unlikely that the product would be immediately produced just because the material was discovered, there was no better way than to be cautious.
We can't afford to let other territories take over our new industry, or we won't be able to recover our investment.
We have to be more careful about information management.
It may be fortunate that the material was not beef but thick-haired rabbit bones. It's not so unnatural to purchase them in large quantities.
I think it's more of a labor issue than a food culture ...... issue on the continent of Luo, but the commoners don't eat much beef.
Cows are expected to serve as agricultural tractors, not meat. It's not that beef is forbidden, though, so they eat it when they have the chance.
If they were stocking a large amount of cattle, which they are not supposed to eat, one might think that there is something wrong with them. Some of us might wonder if something is going on.
On the other hand, the thick-haired rabbit is a livestock that even commoners have many chances to eat, so it is easy to collect bones. The employee who said he was glad it wasn't a cow was right.
But basically, rabbits are livestock that farmers raise while they work, and there are few farmers who specialize in raising rabbits. There are very few farmers who specialize in thick-haired rabbits, and even if there were, the scale of their operations is limited.
It might be a good idea to set up a dedicated ...... facility.
If the sale of the white vessels takes off, it will eventually become difficult to obtain the bones. We may need to take action sooner rather than later.
The hair becomes thread, the meat is delicious, the feces is fertilizer for the fields, and the bones become vessels. It doesn't matter how many thick-haired rabbits we have, we can use all of them.
It would be interesting to build a facility like a huge poultry farm and start raising a large number of thick-haired rabbits.
"Um, the land is ......."
As I listened to the apologetic voice of the employee, I was thinking about how to beg my father.
After receiving the report from the pioneer society, I finished the morning with some light work that had accumulated.
I decided to return to New Nellie Castle in the afternoon and had lunch at the villa before heading out into the city.
The restless atmosphere at the end of the year was the same in the city as in the castle, but there seemed to be many smiling faces on the streets.
"It's lively."
"Yes, it is. It's almost the New Year."
Minith, walking diagonally behind me on the right, replies to my words.
She had some business to attend to at the castle today, so I invited her to come back with me.
The New Year's Festival is the most anticipated event of the year for those who live in the castle. Everyone is looking forward to the knight's arrival.
"Is that so?"
Minith said that the New Year's celebration in New Nellie City starts at the same time the knights from all over the country arrive, so the commoners in the castle are waiting anxiously for the knights to arrive.
The children go to play near the castle gates at this time of year and look out at the city with greedy faces.
When they see a group of knights in the distance, they race home together. When we see a procession of knights in the distance, we race home, thinking that the festival will start soon. They would brag about it to their mother and father as if it was their own achievement.
Minith squinted as if looking into the distance, and said in a slightly melancholy tone.
Incidentally, except for New Nellie City, all cities in the Quardenze hold their New Year's festivals in February.
It is held when the knights return from New Nellie City. There was no way they could start the festival without the knights.
It is said that some vendors stay in New Nellie City in January and then move to major cities such as Gatoren to accompany the knights to the New Year's Festival.
Every year at the end of the New Year's Festival, the boys of New Nellie City always say, "I want to be a peddler in the future. Minith's brother had once said something like that, too.
"So, you know."
Minith's voice was bouncy as she talked about her memories of the New Year's Festival. I could hear that she was very happy to be able to talk to me.
I could almost picture my dog jumping on me with his tail wagging and wagging when I returned from my trip.
He keeps a certain distance from me because the baby gets jealous ......, but it is interesting to notice that he comes so close to me that the backs of his hands almost touch each other.
"I've heard that the young master has prepared an event this year, and everyone is looking forward to it."
"Oh? What are you going to participate in?"
The role of the Quardenze family at the New Year's celebration in New Nelly was simply to serve food and drink.
Basically, they said, "Let the citizens make their own noise. We'll give them a little food and drink," was their stance.
But since the citizens were having a good time, I wanted to get involved in some way.
"A millionaire, that's what my brother likes to do."
So I planned a card game.
The pioneer society also made playing cards, so only those who bought them could participate in the card tournament organized by Quardenze Wilk.
There are several events, such as millionaire, seven-sided card game, neurasthenia, baba-rufu, etc., and the winner will receive a gold envelope directly from me.
It seems that wealthy people and merchants who want gain my recognition, the heir to the Quardenze family, are desperately buying up playing cards.
If we were to do such a thing on the scale of New Nellie City, the number of people who would participate would be outrageous and it would be impossible to control, but since playing cards are reasonably expensive, the number of participants should not be that large.
However, since playing cards are reasonably expensive, the number of participants should not be that large. Playing cards made by pioneer societies are not affordable for ordinary people. They are not unaffordable, but they are expensive enough to make you hesitate to buy them.
As for why Minith's brother has such an expensive toy, I heard that when Minith's entry into the villa was officially confirmed, money and goods were presented to his parents' house, and I think that playing cards were among them.
"The playing cards were also made by Young Master, weren't they?"
"Yes. I wonder how many years ago it was ......."
In Eruo continent, there were several entertainment games that the nobles enjoyed, such as chess-like board games, but there were no games like playing cards. At least, not in the Quardenze territory.
The reason why I decided to make playing cards and spread them throughout the continent of Eruo was quite simple. It was a publicity stunt.
Only the wealthy, knights, and noblemen can enjoy playing games without a care in the world. In other words, the spread of playing cards would spread the name of Quardenze Wilk to those people.
The plan was to increase his fame throughout the continent and become the next de facto head of the family.
However, such a naive plan soon turned out to be a dead end.
If you want to make a normal playing card as people on Earth imagine, you need smooth and thin paper. However, New Nellie City did not have the technology to make such paper.
Thus, my playing card making turned into paper making, and my budget for research was rapidly disappearing.
When I succeeded in making paper prototypes after spending a lot of money, I hired a good painter to draw on them, and as a result, I ended up with something that could more accurately be called a magical tool or a work of art than a game product.
When I wanted to use it to play bubba with Fanny, she refused, saying, "It's not good to play with art."
I wanted to have a good time with my cute sister, so I decided to leave the paper alone and focus on making something that looked like playing cards.
What I ended up with was a playing card made of animal tusks.
It looks completely like a mahjong tile. It could be said that the design of the mahjong tile was simply replaced by the design of a playing card.
When I showed the completed playing card tiles to Fanny, she responded well, and I was able to pull off my long awaited Bubba Draw.
There are many craftsmen in New Nellie City, and it is relatively easy to process tusks, so it was rather easy to make a prototype. What was all the trouble up to that point?
Realizing that there was no need to stick to paper, I decided to commercialize the playing card tiles as they were.
At first, I was troubled by the lack of sales, but recently, I've heard that sales have been increasing little by little, and we've been wobbling around the break-even point.
As such, the playing card tiles are the original playing cards on the continent of Eruo.
Sometimes my father, mother, Fanny, and I play cards together, and I think we probably look like a mahjong family to people on Earth.
In Eruo, where there is no concept of intellectual property rights, pirated playing cards will probably become popular without my knowledge, but that's okay. I've already anticipated this.
In fact, since I'm expecting the appearance of counterfeit products, I've deliberately written the common standard for playing card tiles on the box.
The back of the box must include the sentence, "Playing card tiles invented by Quardenze Wilk," as a standard, and I'm sure that disciplined copyists will copy that sentence as well.
It's a nice protocol to spread my name even if it's not playing cards made by a pioneer society.
While I was telling Minith the story behind the development of the playing cards, we arrived at the castle.
I visited my father after receiving a white dish that had arrived in the inspection room, probably delivered by the employees in a dash.
"This is ......, and this is the finished dish."
"This is ......."
I lined up the old white plate from my collection room and the white plate made by the pioneer society.
"This is the first time I've ever seen such a thing. Can you mass produce it?"
My father's eyes were glued to the plate, and he did not look at me.
It seemed that I had won his favor.
"No, we've only just begun to produce products of this quality, so the numbers are still small. The production department is getting smaller and we can't secure enough kilns."
"Is ...... not enough?"
I nodded my head, assuming he was referring to the land.
The fact that my father is asking me means that he is planning to make accommodations.
"I see. If it's that land, ...... no, ummm ......."
I could tell by the way my father's head was twisting that he had a good opinion of the white plate, but I wanted to make sure I heard him right.
"What do you think of the bowl, father?"
My father seemed to notice that he hadn't told him what he thought of it.
He gave a small cough and smiled.
"It's really wonderful. I'm proud that such a beautiful vessel was born from the land of Quardenze."
Today, pottery from Mamshred is highly prized in the Leviathan and Zinkhaen empires, as it has replaced the old pottery techniques that were lost.
The main characteristic of Mamshred ceramics is the high level of painting.
"I have a few Mamshred platters myself, and even the untrained eye can see the quality of the intricately painted flowers and plants on them."
I had read in the past that the Mamshred region is so polluted by magical beast disasters that there is no room to choose the best clay for making ceramics.
As a result of trying to add value to the pottery by painting on it, rather than pursuing the quality of the pottery itself with poor quality clay, the pottery technology of Mamshred may have evolved in a different direction from that of old pottery.
Although the high level of technical skill is evident in Mamshred ceramics, surprisingly, they are not as popular as old-fashioned ceramics.
This is a matter of values. The aristocracy of the Luo continent prefers clean vessels with no paintings on them.
The raw material for ceramics is soil, and soil is the earth.
I believe that the aristocrats see their values, justice, principles, beliefs, and creed in the white vessels.
"I'll think about the land."
"Thank you."
The way my father proudly gazed at the white vessel, I could consider my plea a success.
Later, I'll send a document full of requests to my father's civil servant.
After all, my father seemed to be interested in pottery, and he kept asking me detailed questions about raw materials and manufacturing methods.
After we had talked for a while, my father moved his arm and pointed to an old pottery on his desk for comparison.
He moved as if to say, "I'm going to change the subject now."
At the same time I was paying attention to his fingertips, my father slowly opened his mouth.
"What do you think happened to the old pottery that came into New Nellie?"
