Oh, that's a horse.
　Yeah. Is this your first time?
　Yeah. That's great.

　Ron said as he flattened his horse.
　The horse is eating grass with a look of not caring.

　Hey, brother, can I ask you a question? Can I ask you a question?
　Hmm?　What?
　Who is that woman?

　Rosward pointed to a woman brushing a cow and said.

　'Oh. 'This is Leah. She's a slave. She was given to me.'

　Horses are valuable.
　Cattle and horses are the same in that they provide labor, but horses are faster.

　Horses are better at carrying loads and moving around.
　However, handling a horse requires a certain amount of skill.

　Unfortunately, Seo-yeon's family has never owned a horse. This guy is in trouble.
　When I told Ains about this, he said, "I need a slave to take care of the horses.

　I'll give you a slave to take care of him," he said. In return, I want you to be good to me from now on.
　And that is what happened.

　Thus, I took in a female slave named Leah.
　The fact that I deliberately chose a woman probably means that I can use her for a thing-like purpose, but.......
　I don't like to wear the umbrella of being a master to force such actions.

　'She's a horseman from all the way east of here, apparently. In case you're wondering, I have the 'language blessing' so I can talk to her, but she doesn't speak the language around here. So if you want to tell her something, you can tell me.

　Heh, yeah...
　Rosward glances at Leah. Leah is tending to the cows everywhere.

　Is this guy in heat too....

　Both Ron and So Yeon have been flirting with each other whenever they see an opening these days.

　Lately, the fourteen year olds have been growing up.
　No, I know that I should be happy with their growth.

　'Mr. Alms!　I've killed a wild boar!
　A loud voice came into my ears.
　When I look at the direction the voice came from, I see a large man carrying a boar on his shoulder.

　It's Gram.

　He is long past me and his shoulders are wide. There's nothing left of his stammering days.

　Who are you?　Condition.
　Well, a bow uses a lot of muscle power.

　Hmph!　My spell worked. Isn't that great, huh?　I'm the strongest, right?
　A petite woman stretches her poor breasts next to Gram.
　She is Lulu. She's a twelve-year-old girl, and she's good at spellcasting.
　She's the best in the village when it comes to casting curses and setting up wards.

　Lately I've been spending a lot of time with Gram.

　Hey, Almus. When will the slave you bought from King Loseys come?
　A month from now.
　Do you make out with a s*x slave?
　'Yes, yes!　That's not true. I only asked for men.

　I'm not going to waste my money on that kind of thing, a**h*le.

　Yes, that's a relief.

　Tetra hugged me.

　....

　It's hard to deal with this kind of blatant display of favoritism.


_______________________________________________.


　So, what do you make this time?
　I'm going to make paper.

　Paper.
　It is one of the four great Chinese inventions.

　It's an information medium that is still used today.

　There is no paper in these areas.
　What is used is wood strips, parchment and papyrus.

　There are two types of paper: Washi and paper.

　This is because of the difference in raw materials: Washi uses the bark of a tree and paper uses the contents of a tree.
　The fiber inside the tree is strong and needs special chemicals to dissolve, so it is Washi that we are making this time.

　It is necessary to go through a lot of troublesome processes to make real beautiful paper, but it is easy to make primitive paper.

　It is said that Cai Lun boiled hemp shavings, nets, and tree bark, etc. to loosen the fibers, and then made paper.

　Unfortunately, there was no hemp, but there was plenty of tree bark.

　'Why do you make that stuff?　You don't have to.
　Well, not to us.

　It would be unnecessary in these parts where few people can write in the first place.
　A wooden letter is fine, right?　That's what it means.

　But the Cilician should be different.
　If they had such superior technology, of course they would need paper.

　Since paper was light, it was easy to trade with.

　And if it was made from tree bark, there was a huge amount of it left over.
　A number of trees have been cut down to make firewood for fuel for making charcoal and sueware.
　We can use the bark from those trees.

　　So what do we do now? We just dip it in water and puff it up?

　First, dip the bark of the tree in the water.
　I've never made paper, so I have a half intuition.

　However, I've seen it on TV or something, so I think I can make something good out of it.

　So you soaked it in water for a day. What are you going to do about it?
　"Peel off the black parts. Maybe,

　Everyone takes off the dirty parts. Only the white part remains.

　Now what?
　'I'm going to boil this but I'm pretty sure I could have boiled it in alkali.

　You can think of alkali as water mixed with ashes, in essence. It is lye.
　It's weakly alkaline, so it will dissolve easily.

　I guess all we have to do is boil it and...
　I look at the bark of the tree being boiled in the earthenware bowl.
　I feel like I'm missing something.

　'Hey, you're taking apart that fiber in the wood, right?
　Yeah, I do.
　So why don't you just hit it or cut it to shreds?

　Well, come to think of it, there's a procedure for that.
　That's the Tetra.

　"Take it out once for all. Crush it in a mortar.

　Take the bark out of the boiled wood and crush it with a mortar. Then he puts it back into the earthenware bowl and after boiling it for a while, he takes it out again and crushes it.

　This process is repeated many times.

　Okay, it's starting to melt.
　The bark of the tree has already lost its original form.
　It's dull.

　All that's left to do now is to extract it.

　Put the wooden boards inside and carefully scoop them out.
　I'm pretty sure they have to be even in thickness...

　It's pretty hard.

　All I need to do now is dry them off.

　Put the wooden boards in a sunny spot. Now we just need to rely on the sun.

________.


　It's light and strong. It's amazing.
　Ron says, flipping through the paper.

　'It's white, so it's easy to write on. That's my brother,
　Rosward said as he carefully peeled off the paper.

　'You're going to sell these?'
　'Yeah. I suppose we could sell it for a reasonable price.

　To be honest, I can't say it's good quality if I'm speaking from the point of view of someone who knows modern paper.
　Although it's white, it's only better than the stuff they use around here.

　'By the way, did you need it?　I think the honey would have been enough.　
　Well, enough to live a normal life. But you never know what's going to happen. A pest could wipe out the entire wheat crop. We can't rely on the gryphon anymore. We need to be able to find food when the time comes.
　Worse, buying grain from the Cilicians will help to stave off hunger.
　The more industry, the better.

　'Um ... can't you put some beautiful colors or something on this paper?　I think that would add more value.
　Fan material?
　'That's a good one!　By the way, could you use this for that?
　It's light and portable!

　Seo-yeon, Tetra and Lulu start to get excited.

　'Hey, can't this one be more durable?　The color doesn't have to be dirty.
　What's it for?
　Here, how about a box?　The wooden box is heavy. Wouldn't it be easier if we could use this instead?
　But you've got a strength problem.

　Ron and Gram start arguing.

　These guys have been getting soft in the head lately. It's a good trend.

　'Oh!!!!'

　There was a scream. An unfamiliar voice.
　Um, this is.....

　Leah!　Are you okay?
　Rosward runs up to the screaming slave girl.

　You're rushing in too fast.

　I turn to Leah, too.
　Leah is in tears.

　There's a goat beside Leah, munching and eating something.

　'Brother!　What does Leah say?
　I heard the goats ate the paper.
　I'm sorry.

　Leah ducks her head and apologizes to me.

　'Don't worry about it. It's the goats that are to blame.

　I smile back. I don't know how to treat a slave for the life of me.
　Well, the kids don't seem to understand it either.

　I don't know if I should be treating them like they are. It's just too much trouble.

　I don't know if it's safe to eat paper.
　At zoos and such, they have a sign that says not to raise the paper because it will upset your stomach...

　I don't want you to die. It's a valuable asset.