{And now, how do I actually do it?} While I may have been raring to go and even planned for everything, I found myself blankly staring at the cedarwood block. Oh, I was clear about the steps to follow, but there was a small or a big, depending on one's view, problem. I had not thought through how to begin.

{Well, if I screw up, I will merely need to buy another block. So, let's do something and see how it goes.} Deciding that three silvers were not a reason to worry, I took a deep breath and truly began. The Count's reward turned out to be a two-faced coin indeed. After all, I would never think of just spending such an amount before!

***

A barrel of weight block of wood was something like a very thick board. Slightly over a meter long and half that in width, it would require a bench and tools to be worked. Thankfully, it wasn't a problem for me as I planned to use [Shaped Mana] to cut out or separate the parts according to the design directly.

The softer wood was for the main body, and the latter's central part was nothing else than a simple box without a bottom or top. The only questions were the dimensions. And so, to make it simpler, I decided to make the prototype for the [Lover's Lament] size of paper.

After a few moments, I had four five cm thick boards united by the corners in an uncomplicated jigsaw manner.

With the square finished, I decided to wait with the rest of the body for now, and first create the two pressing plates, to make sure everything fitted together. Here I met a problem. The cedar was easy to "cut" with shaped mana, but the ironwood turned out to be a challenge.

But after using two spells one after another, I divided the plank-like 50 cm long, half that wide, board into three. [Lover's Lament] was something about half of an A4 sheet, and while I did not measure it, I would say it was somewhere like 20 cm wide and 15 cm tall.

The first one of my ironwood plates, with some pressure, became the bottom of the box-like construct. The second one would be the pressing plate itself. As for the third one, with a couple of spells more, I turned it into thin lines.

I planned to use them as line breakers and hold the letters in place. And would do so by "carving" a hole on the pressure plate and inserting them there. But that part of the plan would be left for later, as I first had to create the letters themselves.

The plan was to use it over a desk, so there would be no problem with the lower hold. Still, after some thought, I got another piece of cedarwood and created an extra bottom.

{Haa, twenty-four points of mana and over an hour, and only this? I am disappointed at myself, heh.}

***

The project had started, and while I wasn't sure about its success, I was still in a good mood when I left the room to eat.

After taking a sip, I gave out a compliment to Kierra for the simple-looking but delicious stew. But I had no chance to enjoy it for longer as someone knocked on the door.

"I wonder who came." I muttered, and noticing that Kierra was standing up, shook my head and added, "I will go check."

***

As I opened the door, my first thought was, {Did I cross the path of some criminal lord?}

And indeed, what else could I think as the man that stood outside our house was practically the image of a gang member. The man had the stereotypical shaved head and unfriendly face. Plus, dressed in a sleeveless shirt that showed signs of mending, but at the same time, expensive-looking leather boots with steel plates on them. But most importantly, even more than the number of visible scars, the sheathed sword in one of his hands.

{Weren't weapons forbidden in town? The girls are out of the question, but I don't recall picking up fights with anyone either, so who the fuck is he? And most importantly, why is he here?} A few questions arose in my mind, but I squashed them and decided to ask. It wasn't that I felt intimidated by the man, yep. And even though his stats were decently impressive.

NAME (TYPE) LEVEL - Hiding anything below average Strength (Base) 14 Danger-Sense (Adventuring) 11 Identification (Adventuring) 13 Slashing (Martial) 16 Piercing (Martial) 14 Close-Quarters (Martial) 18 Feint (Martial) 13 Dodge (Martial) 12 Parry (Martial) 15 Counter-Attack (Martial) 13 Teacher (Other & Special) 17

"Are you, Lindar?" But the man took the initiative, asking first.

"I am." Taking my unusual appearance into account, I felt that it would be moronic to lie about my identity. So, I chose to confirm and then waited silently for a continuation.

"Aison, swordmaster. Gris asked me to lecture you on not killing yourself with a sword." Taking the silence as a cue, the man explained.

"Oh! I am sorry for my manners then. Please come in." I did ask Gris about that. But after the events at her house, I assumed she would forget about it. Still, it seems that she did not, and a day after, she did send me the instructor.

"No offense taken, but thank you." Aison nodded and followed me inside.

Kierra and Angelique, hearing me and someone else speaking, came into the reception room. During the introductions, I saw how Aison changed entirely in both tone and manner. He even smiled. And as he smiled, his previously unfriendly face turned out to be not so bad. Or maybe I just assumed the worst, so it affected my first impression. Who knows?

Aison did not share much about himself. But in short, he was a retired soldier of the Kingdom's Capital army. And now, he trained the mercenaries, a few nobles, and even Guild's guards here in Megvuroz.

A few minutes later, Aison left after agreeing we would meet at the Guild's training ground tomorrow morning. He had already gotten permission for all the day. Speaking of which, I didn't know that the Guild had grounds for their guards to train.

***

"He seems like a good man." Kierra concluded as we returned to the paused meal.

"Well, he comes recommended by Gris, so I think you are right." I am unsure what determined goodness for Kierra, so I just brushed it off.

"But Lindar, why did you decide to train? I thought you did not plan to enter the army or the guards." While I did share most of my plans with the girls, I never did mention fighting as part of them, so Angelique's question was logical. And I indeed did not plan it initially, so what could I answer her?

That Lieade turned out to be more dangerous than I expected?

That I feel my, still undisclosed, religion-making will probably require being able to wield a weapon?

Or that I found out that I learned everything quickly and so wanted to test it?

"I feel that some training will be good even if I do not plan to use a weapon for living. You two do remember I want to travel more, and considering how it went the last time, the better I can defend myself, and you two, if you go along, the safer we will feel." A slightly low maneuver, but it was true anyway.

"Mmm." Both girls nodded, though I could not know what they actually thought about my words.

"Anyway, thank you for the meal. I will go back to my project now. But before I forget, do you need any money or something else? I will be staying holed in until night, so..."

"No, everything is fine." Kierra disliked taking money for some reason, but I trusted that she would when it was required.

"No, but..." Angelique started to say something but then shook her head and clipped the but.

Still, by now, I was acquainted with her curiosity, so I knew what she would ask. Thus, I answered what I felt she was about to ask, "Until it's finished and working, I will say nothing. But when I finish, you will be the first to see and know."

"Got it." She smiled, confirming that I wasn't wrong.

***

Returning to the room, I first confirmed how much mana I had left before quickly making a goal to finish with the 20 remaining points. And I would have used far less before if not for the several spells that I used before to confirm that [Shaped Mana] was assuming the correct forms and measurements, as well if it could cut the wood, especially the ironwood.

{But now that I am sure that the imagined form is translating 100% exactly even when I don't see it, I should move far quicker.}

I could say that the testing wasn't needed, but in truth, it was. After all, I wanted to cut out the letters as a single spell and not use 27 (the number of letters/runes for Common) for every single set of letters. And to do that, I had to make sure that what I imagined, especially the details, did not suffer any changes when translated to a physical, or well mana, form.

Before anything, it was time to finish the body. For that, I had to add the bar to hold the pressure plate and solve the issue of how to lower it.

Gutenberg and all of the other early presses I could recall used a screw-like system, but I had no clear idea how to create one. And while a few experiments would allow me to, I did not want to spend much time on that. First, I had to check if I could create one and confirm it was a viable business. Only then should I think of improving it by starting to order more professional parts and made of better materials as well.

When I was drafting the idea, I had thought of simply putting weight on the plate, and by making the channels, it would lower itself evenly on the paper. But as I was working on it now, I considered that such a system would not allow to raise it quickly, which would probably lead to damage to the paper, too much ink, or whatever else could go wrong.

After modeling a few in my mind, I decided to go with a simple lever system. The pressure plate would have a skeleton connected to a fixed handle. By raising the handle, the frame would follow the channels and go down, and by lowering it, the pressure plate would travel back up.

On a grander scale, this system would not work, but for now, it was enough.

***

"Done!" I could not help but exclaim as I finished what I would call the [Book Machine]. Thanks to the use of [Shaped Mana] and a system of puzzle-like joints, it not only looked good (and one-piece) but did not have even a single nail.

Five letter sets were also ready, so it was time to test!

After preparing the ink and using less water than when I was writing, I adjusted the machine on the table inside my room. I had no idea what to print, but after a few moments, I decided to go with something I could show off to Zelindo, so I recalled the scrolls from Churg's Guild.

{The information about the religions and what to sell them was something fairly common, so I would not show off anything rare, but at the same time, it was practical enough for them to hold a scroll about it, right?}

What I did lack was a brush to apply the ink. So this time, I decided to use a cloth, not without making a note to buy a brush, urgently.

...

"Damn!"

...

"Fuck!"

...

"Screw it, if this does not work like that, then maybe..."

...

"Can I make a less diluted ink? I wonder."

...

"Well, flour should be usable in place of starch..."

Between issues with too much pressure time, drips of ink, some wrongly placed letters, etc. I was close to giving up.

But, I did not, and so, a couple of hours after sunset, I managed to print ten identical copies of the [Notes on Religion] I had decided to use for the test.

Several changes to the machine and process, like better lines to hold the letters or an almost paste-like ink, had to be made for it to work, but still, it was doable.

The girls usually went to sleep around this hour, and between the mess in the room and a few other things, I decided not to show the [Book Machine] today. In turn, after I finished cleaning them, I started arranging the letters into something else.

{Angelique has the gift of magic, so...} I thought as I recalled the introduction to the magic book that Sepyre had given me and decided to stress test the machine by printing it.

On the next day, as soon as I heard the girls wake up, I wrapped one of the copies, as I made two of the [Magic Introduction] book, and left the room.

Angelique was in the corridor, so I called for her and invited her in.

"That's the project I had been working on."

"Ink? Letters?" She mumbled and cocked her head to the side while examining the traces of ink and the matrixes.

I did not say anything to find out if she could determine the use, and if she did, then find out if she had heard of something like that. After all, who knows, maybe it was not true that all books were handwritten as I thought?

For the former, Angelique did not disappoint, spending only half a minute to determine that arranging the letters would allow one to pass a text on paper.

As for the latter, thankfully, I was wrong. Angelique had never heard of anything like that, and hopefully, no one did. Something that grew more believable when she looked at the printed pages, she could not help but say it was the first perfectly orderly text she had seen. And while we met on a small farm, Angelique and her non-blood sister were allegedly from a city and decently educated. Thus, I believe that she does know what she is talking about.