Published: August 3, 2025
Today is a day where I get to experience both heaven and hell at once—the high priest’s lecture and finally going home after a long time. I’m so looking forward to the evening when Father and Tulli will come to pick me up, but just thinking about enduring the high priest’s lecture makes my stomach feel heavy.
“Myne, come here.”
“Y-yes…”
Together with Fran and Darmel, I went to the high priest’s room. Just as the letter said, I was immediately taken to the hidden room that had been turned into a lecture chamber.
As usual, I was made to sit on the long bench. The high priest took a wooden tag from the desk, placed ink on a small stand, picked up a pen, crossed his legs, and stared at me with an interrogative gaze.
“I didn’t call you here just to scold you. I told you I have questions to ask and things to say. First, tell me in detail about the printing press you’re trying to make.”
He had a list of questions prepared—things he couldn’t ask during the Myne workshop tour—about the quantity and speed of books the printing press could produce. However, I couldn’t give clear answers to any of his questions.
“I haven’t made a single printing press yet, and to produce books full of text, I’d need a lot more metal movable type. Also, for now, printing is only possible if we make the paper and ink in the workshop ourselves. Even if one printing press is completed, we won’t know how fast or how many books it can produce until we actually try.”
“I see.”
The high priest lowered his gaze to the wooden board he was writing on.
“Then, about the point that history will change—if printing begins, what happens to books that have been copied by hand until now? In your world, what happened to those whose livelihood was copying manuscripts?”
“If it’s just a hobby, that’s one thing, but as a livelihood, they were gradually pushed out by mechanization and faded away. It took about a hundred to two hundred years, slowly. It’s definitely not a matter of ten or twenty years.”
The high priest frowned as he jotted notes on the board.
“You said everyone in your country studies, so everyone could read and read books naturally, but it must not have been like that from the start. With increasing literacy and the spread of books, how did society change?”
“A lot changed. But the effects differ depending on the country and social circumstances. Since the world is different, I think it’s not really applicable here.”
“For example, how did it change?”
I thought about the history from my Reno days. There were many examples, but I wasn’t sure if the high priest would understand without the background knowledge.
“There are cases where the people, sharing information and gaining knowledge, overthrew their rulers and started governments by the people. On the other hand, some leaders scattered printed papers with information advantageous to themselves, manipulating public opinion to incite the masses. While it’s clear that literacy changes communication drastically, how things change depends on who uses the information and how—they’re unpredictable.”
“I suppose it depends on how it’s used, but the impact is so great that no one knows what will happen. Troublesome…”
The high priest muttered this while continuing to write.
“Unlike the world I know, this is a place where life can’t go on without nobles who possess mana, right? Even if literacy rises and books spread, I can’t imagine the common people’s movements being the same. Rather, wouldn’t it be good to make known in books how much the nobles are working hard for the people? Of course, if nobles or priests aren’t serious about their duties, it would backfire.”
“What do you mean?”
The high priest looked at me quizzically. I shrugged lightly.
“People in the downtown area surprisingly don’t know much about what nobles do. In villages, prayer ceremonies are held; mana is filled into the Holy Grail right before their eyes, which directly connects to their lives. Because of this, their faith in the gods is deep, and unlike downtown, they seem to offer prayers to the gods normally.”