Chapter 157: The White Vessel
There are no clocks on the continent of Eluo, and people's activities are determined by the position of the sun.
The light coming through the slightly gaping curtains was like an alarm clock.
The light blades falling in the dry room seemed to reflect the coldness of winter.
I looked next to her and saw her mouth full of fur.
Looking next to her, Eve was sleeping, her mouth covered by a blanket.
After the play was over, Eve should have been secretly sleeping at a distance from me, but she seemed to have approached me in the middle of the night.
She must have been cold and unconsciously lured by the heat of human skin.
I kiss Eve's forehead as she sleeps, making a difficult face with her eyebrows in the shape of an eight, as if she is being raped by me even in her dreams of her.
Nn~……”
Then Eve's face her relaxed and she let out a sound of relief.Then she continues to talk in her sleep, “Mother…….
She seems to have mistaken my kiss for Rave's kiss.
Mmmm~.”
With each kiss, Eve smiles and spills a cute sleeping breath.
Her carefree smile Her was like that of a young child, and it aroused my desire to protect her.My morning erection wilted a little.
“I'll go first, Eve.”
By calling out to the sleeping Eve, I said goodbye to the warm blankets and her soft body of her.
Unfortunately, I have a good deal of work to do, and I can't just sit up and shake my hips in the morning like a bored college student.
I would like to set aside a day to hold Eve all day long.
After cleaning myself in the morning bath and finishing breakfast, I decided to head straight to the pioneer association.
The purpose of this visit was to see the “White plate” That Eve had mentioned.
The Pioneer Association has a New Year's vacation.
Originally, it was a small organization that worked under my direction, so when I couldn't show up for a while during the year-end and New Year holidays, we closed all together to avoid any hassle.
Nowadays, the number of employees has increased and the senior management has grown to the point where it does not matter if I am absent for a while, but the custom of taking long vacations still remains.
As expected, it is not possible for all employees to take vacations at the same time as in the past, but they seem to be rotating them around.
Since the company had announced yesterday that they were going on an inspection tour, the executives were at work even though they were on vacation.
While the executive-level employees of the pioneering association were all present, there was no one else in the office.
Mimon was nowhere to be seen, so she must be enjoying her winter vacation with her family.Maybe I could barge in later and give the family a boost.
And along with the executives, there was a person who should not have been in the main building of the pioneer association.
He was the real star of the show.
“You succeeded, didn't you?”
“Heh, heh.”
It was the head of a group of potters who were supposed to be in the production department.
The production department was far away from the kiln, so it was good to hear from the potters themselves at the main building.
Now, let's see how good the product is going to be.
I meant it in a joking tone to relieve the tension, but the room was filled with a tense atmosphere.
I regretted it a little, wondering if it was inevitable that a nobleman would say such a thing.
While everyone was silent, the head potter inhaled vigorously, clenched his fists, and opened his mouth.
This way. Finally, I've made something I'm satisfied with.
His words were small but powerful, as if he was proud of his work.
The rough, knobby hands of the craftsman were arranging plates, bowls, and other vessels on the table.
“Hou.”
As I listened to the potter's explanation of the dishes, I picked up one of them, a white plate that was the perfect size for 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 the white of old pottery, but …… This is a nice, gentle shade. It's a friendly white.”
Old pottery, white vessels that were made in the Holy City more than 200 years ago, are a crisp white. If I had to use an analogy, I would say it is like the white of a hospital. It has a cool, inorganic, refined hue.
In contrast, this newly completed dish gives the impression of “The white of hot milk. The color is soft, angular, and warm.
When I traced the surface of the plate with my finger, it felt smooth to the touch, which is typical of porcelain.
I checked the surface as if licking it, but there were no scratches, and the white color was not uneven.
It looked like something you would find in the tableware section of a 100 yen store, which made me feel a little nostalgic.
It may be treated as a high-end white plate by the people living in the continent of Eluo, but I think I can use it rather casually.
I'm sure you'll be able to find a way to use it.
The head potter and all the executives exhaled in unison.
The air in the room seemed to relax a little, as if they could tell I was truly satisfied with the work.
The air in the room seemed to relax a little.
If we can mass-produce them, we would like to promote them as a new industry in the territory of Quordenze.
In the spring, they would go to the royal capital. There will be opportunities to have tea with nobles from different parts of the country. …… No, for sure there will be.
The most important thing to remember is that the tea ceremony is not a simple affair. I don't want to have tea with the Levios royal family and other great nobles of the kingdom without any preparation.
If I suddenly and unexpectedly present a new white bowl that is not an antique ware at a tea ceremony, they must be a little surprised.
I would like to refer to my father's diplomacy technique of disturbing the pace of the other party and then peeling off his poisonous fangs of his.
That's……”
One of the employees, with a scowl on his face, began to explain the production situation.
According to him, there are still many failures, and a stable firing method that can produce a large number of pieces is still undergoing a trial and error process.
He also said that there are not enough kilns to start with, so mass production is difficult at the moment.
I see. I see. It's not that easy, is it?
The land for the production department must have become quite cramped, so it would be difficult to build more kilns.
It might be better to ask my father to give me some land somewhere.
For the time being, I instructed him to just make a set of tea sets first. If we don't worry about the number of failures, we can make the tea set itself, so we want to get it together as soon as possible.
I'd like to have it ready as soon as possible. “…… And bring one set of plates and bowls to the castle. I will present them to my father.”
Yes, sir.
I don't want to ask you to give me land out of the blue, so I'll show you the results first and then tell you what I want.
I gave him detailed instructions on how to use the rest of the vessels, and finally I decided to ask him what was bothering him.
I asked, “Speaking of which, what did you end up with for the ingredients?”
On a Japanese quiz show in a previous life, I had seen the question, “This coffee cup is made from the bones of a certain animal, now what animal is that?”
The answer was a cow.
This project started with the memory of that previous life, but I couldn't get it right because the quality of cows is different between the Earth and the Eluo continent.
Well, I am not even sure if they are really the same cows as on Earth, since I just call animals that look like cows “Cows” On their own.
Therefore, for the past few years, potters have been conducting endless experiments by combining animal bones with various kinds of soil from the territory of Kuordenze and trying to fire them.
As the president of the company, he wanted to know what the bones were, because he had spent a huge budget on his research.
It is a thick-haired rabbit.”
The potters had failed using bones from various animals such as horses, boars, and bears, and one day, in a fit of desperation, they used the scraps of a thick-haired rabbit they had eaten as the material.
Of course, they did not suddenly produce a perfect product, but the result was a little better than the others.
He then narrowed his focus to the bones of thick-headed rabbits, and through trial and error, changing the clay and devising a 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 is unlikely that the product will be produced immediately if the materials are discovered, there is no better way to be cautious.
We cannot afford to lose our new industry to another territory, and we will not be able to recover our investment costs.
We must be more careful about information management.
It may be fortunate that the material was thick-horned rabbit bones and not cattle.
The food culture of the Eluo continent…… Is more a matter of labor than a matter of food culture, but commoners do not eat much beef.
Cattle are expected to serve as agricultural tractors, not as meat.
If they are buying a large amount of cattle, which they are not supposed to eat much, some people may think that there is something wrong with them.
On the other hand, thick-haired rabbits are livestock that even commoners have many opportunities to eat, so it is easy to collect the bones. The employee was right when he said he was glad it was not a cow.
However, thick-haired rabbits are basically farmers' livestock that they raise while they work, and there are few farmers who specialize in thick-haired rabbits. Even if there were, the scale of their business is very small.
It might be a good idea to build a facility dedicated to …….”
If sales of white vessels take off, it will eventually become difficult to obtain bones.
The hair becomes yarn, the meat is delicious, the feces is fertilizer for the fields, and the bones become vessels. Thick-haired rabbits, whose entire body can be used without limit, have no problem no matter how many there are.
It would be interesting to build a facility like a huge poultry farm and start mass-raising thick-haired rabbits.
Um, the land is……”
I was thinking about how to make a request to my father while listening to the apologetic mumblings of the employees.
After receiving the report from the pioneer association, I finished the morning with some light work.
In the afternoon, I decided to return to New Nellie Castle and had lunch at the villa before heading out into the city.
The atmosphere in the city was the same as at the castle, but there seemed to be a lot of smiling faces on the streets.
It's lively, isn't it?
Yes, it is. Yes, it's almost the New Year.
Minit, walking diagonally to my right, replies to my words.
I asked her to come back with me since it seemed that she had something to do at the castle today.
I'm sure you've heard that the New Year Festival is the most exciting time of the year for those of us who live in the castle. Everyone is looking forward to the arrival of the knight.
Is that so?”
According to Minute, the New Year Festival in New Nellie City starts at the same time as the arrival of the knights from all over the country.
Therefore, she said, the commoners in the castle are anxiously waiting for the knights to arrive.
It is said that at this time of the year, children go to play near the castle gates and look out at the outside of the city with greedy looks on their faces.
When they see a group of knights in the distance, they all race back home.When we see a parade of knights in the distance, we all race back home.He would brag to his mother and father as if it were his own achievement him of.
Minute squinted her eyes as if looking somewhere far away and said in a slightly melancholy tone.
That, all cities in the territory of Kuordenze except New Neri hold their New Year's festivals in February.
This means that the festival is held at the same time as the knights return from New Nerry City.
Some peddlers stay in New Nelly in January and then accompany the knights to Gatoren and other major cities for the New Year's festivities.
Every year around the end of the New Year's Festival, the boys in New Neri always say things like, “I want to be a peddler in the future. Minute's brother said he once said something like that.
And so it is.”
Minute's voice Her is bubbling as she talks about her memories of the New Year's Festival.I can feel how happy she is to be able to talk to me.
I could almost picture the scene of her dog jumping on her tail when she returns from her trip.
I keep a certain distance from him for the reason that the baby gets jealous ……, But it's funny that I find myself so close to him that the backs of my hands are almost touching him.
I heard that Young Master has prepared an event this year, and everyone is looking forward to it. My younger brother said he would be there too.
“Oh? What are you going to participate in?
The role of the Quardenze family in the New Year's celebration in New Neri, however, is simply to serve food and liquor.
Basically, “Citizens are citizens, and they can make noise on their own. We'll provide a little bit of food and drink.
But since the citizens were having such a good time, I wanted to be involved in some way.
I wanted to be involved in some way. That's what my brother likes to do.
So we planned a card game.
Since the pioneering association also made playing cards, only those who purchased them could participate in the tournament organized by Quardenze Wilk.
There are several events, such as “Millionaire,” “Seven in a Row,” “Nervous Breakdown,” And “Bubba Dummies,” And the winner will receive a gold envelope directly from me.
I heard that wealthy people and merchants who want to sell their face to me, the heir apparent of the Kuordenze family, are buying playing cards in a desperate bid to win the tournament.
If I were to do such a thing on the scale of New Nellie City, a tremendous number of people would participate, and it would be difficult to control the situation.
Playing cards made by pioneer associations are not at a price that ordinary commoners can easily afford. They are not so expensive that they are unaffordable, but they are so expensive that one would hesitate to buy them.
As to why Minit's younger brother has such an expensive toy, it is said that when Minit's entry to the villa was officially confirmed, money and goods were presented to his parents' house, and the playing cards were probably among them.
'The playing cards were also made by the young master, weren't they?
'Yes, he did. How many years ago is it now?
At least, not in the Quordenze territory.
The reason why they decided to create playing cards and spread them to the Eluo continent was quite simple.
Only the wealthy, knights, and aristocrats could enjoy the game. If the playing cards spread, the name of Quardenze Wilk would spread among them.
He was planning to become the de facto next head of the Quardenze family by increasing his fame his throughout the continent.
Well, such a naive plan soon ran into a deadlock.
To make the ordinary playing cards that people on earth imagine, one would need smooth, thin paper. But 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 melted away rapidly.
When I succeeded in making a prototype of paper with a large budget, I hired a good artist to add a design to it, and the result was a product that could more accurately be called a magical tool or a work of art than a game item .
When I tried to play “Bubba” With Fanny using it, she refused to play with it, saying, “It's not good to play with works of art, is it? I wanted to play with my cute little sister.
I wanted to play Bubba-Dubba with my cute sister, so I decided to leave the paper alone for now and focus on making something that looked like playing cards.
What I ended up with was a playing card made from the tusks of animals.
It looks exactly like a mahjong tile. It could be said that the design of the mahjong tile was simply replaced by the design of the playing card.
When I showed the completed playing cards to Fanny, she responded well, and I was able to achieve my long-cherished dream of playing Bubba.
There are many craftsmen in New Nellie City, and the processing of tusks is relatively easy, so it was relatively easy for me to make a prototype. What were the difficulties that had been encountered up to that point?
I decided that there was no need to stick to paper, so I decided to commercialize the playing card tiles as they were.
At first I had trouble selling them, but recently sales have been gradually increasing, and I hear that they are hovering around the break-even point.
This is why playing card tiles are the original playing cards on the El O continent.
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 the continent of Eluo, where there is no concept of intellectual property rights, pirated playing cards will spread without my knowledge, but that's okay.
I have dared to write the common standard of playing card tiles on the box because I expect the appearance of copied products.
The back of the box is marked with the sentence “Playing card tiles invented by Quardenze Wilk”, So the conscientious copyists will copy the sentence as well.
It's a nice protocol to get my name out there even if it's not a Pioneer Corporation playing card.
While I was telling Minute the story behind the development of the playing cards, we arrived at the castle.
After receiving the white bowl that had arrived in the inspection room, probably delivered in a dash by the employees, I went to visit my father.
'So ……, This is the finished dish.'
This is……”
I put together the old-fired white plate that was in my collection room and the white plate that I made at the pioneer association.
Can it be mass-produced?”
My father's eyes were glued to the plates and he did not look at me.
It must not have been my imagination that there was a hint of excitement in his quiet whispering of him.
It seems that my father's eyes were satisfied.
No, we are only just beginning to produce this quality of product, so our numbers are still small. The production department is getting smaller and smaller, and we don't have enough kilns.
……Not enough?”
I nodded, deciding that he was referring to the land.
I nodded, deciding that he was referring to the land.
I nodded. If it's that land, …… No, umm …….”
I was not sure what to expect from my father, but I wanted to hear his opinion of him.
“Father, what do you think of the dish?”
I was so excited to hear his words that I realized I had n't said what I thought of it.
He gave a small cough and smiled.
It is really wonderful,” He said. It is a proud thing that such a beautiful vessel was born from the land of Quardenze.
At present, Mamusled ceramics are highly prized in the Levios Kingdom and the Zinkaen Empire.
The loss of ancient pottery techniques has brought Mamusled ceramics into the limelight.
The greatest feature of Mamusledan ceramics is the extremely high level of painting.
I have several Mamusled platters myself, and even an amateur eye can see the quality of the paintings of flowers and grasses that are so well drawn on the platters.
I had read in a book that the Mammuthred region has not been able to afford to be selective about the soil used to make ceramics because a great deal of the land in the region has been contaminated by the Mammuthred disaster.
As a result of trying to create added value by painting on poor quality clay rather than pursuing the quality of the vessel itself, Mamusud ceramics technology may have evolved in a different vector from that of old-fired ceramics.
Although Mamusledan ceramics can be seen as a product of such high technology, surprisingly, it is not as popular as antique ceramics.
This is a matter of values. The aristocrats of the Eluo continent like beautiful vessels with nothing painted on them.
The raw material of ceramics is clay, and clay is the earth.
The pure white, unblemished, beautiful vessels of old pottery are connected to the aristocrats' ideal of an “Unblemished earth.
I believe that the nobles see their values, justice, principles, beliefs, and creed in the white vessel.
I'll think about the land.
Thank you.”
Judging from the way my father looked proudly at the white vessel, it seemed safe to assume that his begging was a success.
Later, I would send a document to my father's secretary with my request written down in full.
My father seemed to be interested in the vessel, and after that, he asked me in detail about the raw materials and manufacturing process.
After we had talked for a while, my father suddenly moved his arm and pointed to an old pottery on the desk for comparison.
It was as if he was about to change the topic of conversation.
As soon as my attention was caught by his fingertip his, my father slowly opened his mouth.
What should I do with an old pottery that wandered into New Nellie's?
