Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 451 - 450: Dawn of the Printing Era

The development of technology often unfolds in a branching pattern. Once a critical technological hurdle is overcome, a multitude of products behind this hurdle naturally begin to evolve one after another. To Gawain, the "Arcane Transcription Cylinder" created by Rebecca and Nicholas Egg is just such a critical technological challenge—it seems like a core component of a printing machine, but what it actually resolves is a key step in transforming traditional illusion magic into an industrial printing product.

Once this key step has been taken, various printing technologies based on the principle of "Arcane Transcription" would naturally develop.

The only thing that surprised Gawain was Rebecca’s keen ability to "discover new things," and her free-spirited, unrestrained thinking.

He explained the concept of fax and networked printing to Rebecca, and the girl was particularly delighted, cheerfully expressing a slew of her ideas and subsequent improvement plans. In the end, she even ran directly to Gawain’s desk, grabbed paper and pen, and began drawing a bunch of sketches—to construct her imagined Magic Web fax workflow and the matching, small-scale printing devices with communication capabilities. Gawain actually felt that such devices should be called "printers" instead... but in the face of the arcane transcription apparatus’s peculiar working principle, he decided not to quibble over this conceptual issue.

"Ancestor, ancestor, do you think this is feasible?" Rebecca, holding the sketch she just drew, happily ran to Gawain. Because she had drawn in such a hurry, her face and hands were smudged with ink. "I think besides machines capable of mass-producing newspapers, places like the Administrative Office also need smaller printing machines for printing documents and such. These machines could all be connected..."

Gawain looked at Rebecca, at the ink accidentally smeared on her face, at her exuberant and animated demeanor, and couldn’t help but recall something Aunt Heidi once said—

Although the Cecil Clan is not closely associated with other aristocrats, the trend of comparing among the nobility is always prevalent. In the southern aristocratic lady’s evaluation circles, Rebecca is always known for her "clumsiness." Her awkwardness in etiquette classes is regarded as the epitome of "innate stupidity," and her enthusiasm for "adventuring" and studying mechanics in the castle makes her always appear before others in a messy state, further reinforcing her negative image as the "last descendant of the Cecil Clan"...

Gawain’s mouth curled up—how could those noble ladies, who could only drink tea and grow flowers in the castle slowly and needed eight steps just to touch a pair of scissors, possibly be smarter than his Rebecca?

"Ancestor, why are you smiling?" Rebecca asked curiously, "Is there something wrong with my design?"

"No problem, I believe this setup will play a significant role in the Administrative Office’s operations," Gawain waved his hand with a smile, "but we’ll still have to take it step by step. First, let’s produce a prototype of the large printing machine and solve the bottleneck in newspaper and book printing."

It’s been over a year since the implementation of universal education in the territory, and the results are certainly evident. However, with the rapid increase in population and the swift expansion of the territory, the existing model of universal education is bound to face challenges, and one of the most important challenges is textbooks.

Gawain needs a large number of cheap, standardized textbooks, and only by allowing these textbooks to cover the entire southern borders along with universal education can he successfully dispel the ignorance clouding his people’s minds.

The textbooks currently used by the Cecil General Academy are still "emergency" products printed in small batches using traditional methods and are already struggling to cope with the current scale of teaching. To print enough textbooks to meet the need for literacy among millions, possibly even tens of millions in the southern borders... without industrial printing machines, it would be an impossible task.

That’s why Gawain places so much emphasis on the printing machine project led by Rebecca.

He turned to Nicholas Egg: "Nicholas, how long will it take to create a prototype?"

The silver-white orb floating nearby responded confidently: "A day and a half at most—that includes time for debugging and drawing the assembly line breakdown diagram. I have a ninety-nine percent chance of success on the first try—because the most critical arcane transcription cylinder has already been resolved; the remaining structure is no more difficult for me than forming a few gears."

"Very good, produce one prototype as quickly as possible."

The silver-white orb gently bobbed up and down: "You will see it very soon."

Afterward, they briefly discussed the work at the Magic Guide Technology Research Institute and finalized the reward plan for members of the research team who made outstanding contributions. Satisfied, Rebecca left Gawain’s study with the sketches she just completed.

Humming a casual tune, walking with a brisk pace, the heir of the Cecil Clan walked down the corridor—not a behavior befitting an orthodox noble lady, neither the humming nor her lack of poise. However, everyone in this mansion had long been accustomed to their Lady’s unique style, and even the usually rigorous Aunt Heidi had given up trying to correct Rebecca’s demeanor by now.

As she passed a corner in the corridor, Rebecca suddenly stopped—she saw the door not far ahead was slightly ajar, with light spilling out from inside.

Recognizing it as Betty’s room, she walked over lightly, curious about what Betty was doing.

Upon pushing the door open, she saw the little maid, who had muddle-headedly followed everyone out from the old estate and remained by her side ever since, sitting at a small writing desk beside the bed, focusing intently on something.

The room’s furnishings were simple, with only essential bed, table, and chairs, along with a small wardrobe and two boxes in the corner.

A somewhat old frying pan hung on the wall beside the bed, looking rather odd, but it was Betty’s treasure—now no longer the lowest-ranked kitchen maid, Betty had hung her prized frying pan in her room, forbidding anyone from touching it.

Rebecca gently knocked on the door frame, and the sudden noise startled the little maid, who looked up and quickly stood up upon seeing Rebecca. However, before she could bow, Rebecca interrupted her: "It’s okay—I just wanted to see what you were doing."

With her signature dazed expression, Betty pointed to the small writing desk: "...reading."

Rebecca leaned over curiously to take a look and saw a book titled "Wizards and Potion Bottles" opened on the desk. It was an easy-to-understand read. Despite the "wizards" in the title, its contents mainly comprised simple short stories. She remembered owning such a book when she was younger—one of the earliest introductory readings for the offspring of wealthy families of this era.

The book was old and had evidently been read many times; some of the letters were slightly blurred, and the edges of the pages were quite worn, yet it was still clear that it had been meticulously cared for and preserved to this day.

"This is... Mr. Santis lent it to me," Betty explained the book’s origin, "I’m almost done reading it, and I have to return it after."

Rebecca glanced at Betty with some surprise. At that moment, a thought suddenly arose in her often daydreaming mind:

Betty was only two years younger than her.

However, this girl who was only two years younger than her had just started to recognize basic words and had just begun to enjoy a book that Rebecca had finished and grown tired of when she was seven years old.

If it weren’t for her ancestor’s insistence on spreading general education, this little maid would probably never have the chance to come across this book in her life.

Rebecca blinked; she had never treated Betty as a "lower class person." She interacted with everyone in the castle like family, including the lowest stable hand and Betty, the kitchen maid. When she was very young, she even organized small castle explorations with Betty and other maids of similar age, playing like sisters.

But why had she never noticed before... that Betty didn’t even own a book?

Rebecca was puzzled. She couldn’t understand why she hadn’t noticed such things in her life over the past decade, but she felt that she noticed today because the success of the "Arcane Printing Machine" was imminent.

Her ancestor had said before that once printing machines became common, the era of printing would arrive, breaking the monopoly held by a few over knowledge and its dissemination pathways. By then, even the most ordinary and impoverished households should have their own few books.

Industrial printing is an essential step in spreading Cecil Clan’s "general education" across the southern borders.

"Betty, do you want a book? A book that’s yours," Rebecca asked.

Betty was puzzled, but after thinking carefully, she nodded vigorously: "Yes."

Rebecca laughed: "Then soon I’ll give you some books!"

She could actually give Betty many books now, whether simple primers or real magic books, she had them all. But she felt those books didn’t meet her expectations—she wanted to wait until the printing machine was practical and the first batch of mass-produced industrial books were printed before choosing the right ones to give to Betty, which would be more meaningful.

After hearing Rebecca’s words, Betty was confused for much longer before she hesitantly said, "But books are precious..."

"No, books won’t be precious like that anymore. My ancestor said knowledge can be valuable but should not be noble, and even less should be expensive," Rebecca shook her head and noticing Betty’s puzzled eyes, smiled. "It’s okay if you don’t understand. Soon you’ll see first-hand—from now on, every ordinary person on this land can not only read, not only read newspapers, but also own their own books! Lots and lots of books!"

Betty widened her eyes, looking a little dazed at this "Viscount’s daughter" who had grown up with her, and finally said: "Miss... your way of speaking is a bit like the master."

Rebecca scratched her hair: "Haha, really, I think so too."

...

The completion of the first usable industrial printing machine was earlier than Gawain had expected.

On the afternoon of the second day, he saw the large machine, personally processed, assembled, and fine-tuned by Nicholas Egg, at the Mechanical Research Station’s "Mechanical Roundtable."

Along with Gawain to inspect the equipment at the Mechanical Research Station were Aunt Heidi, project leader Rebecca, and Godwin Orlando, the president of the Cecil Newspaper Agency and head of the news publishing department.

The new printing machine appeared like an iron beast squatting on the ground, with long metal grooves extending from the front and back, which seemed to be the structure for transmitting paper. At the center of the machine, one could see the crucial "Arcane Transcription Cylinder," fixed by a movable bracket above a flat plate in the machine’s center, with the outline of gears and connecting rods vaguely visible inside the bracket.

Below the transcription device is a guide slot for the passage of paper, and at the very bottom, the ink plate.

Aside from these main structures, the printing machine also had an "attachment structure" on the side, like a separate machine. Atop the square, half-human-high metal box, Gawain saw the "large palette (keyboard)" Rebecca had mentioned, and the "editing mechanism" for controlling the internal projection crystals of the Arcane Transcription Cylinder. Its dazzling array of numerous keys arranged in a fan shape installed on a slanting metal panel, while at the top of the metal panel, a small projection crystal was visible.

That projection crystal should be for providing a "preview."

Just from the appearance, the complexity of this setup far exceeded any previous magical machinery made on the territory.

If it weren’t knowing Nicholas Egg’s capabilities, Gawain would never have believed this thing was made in one day.

"Look, I told you—you’d see it soon!" Nicholas Egg floated beside the new machine, speaking with rich pride.

Gawain gazed amazedly at the industrial printing machine before him, but he was even more astonished by Nicholas Egg’s form—this originally perfectly spherical silver metal ball now appeared somewhat square.

Although still not angular, it was indeed somewhat square.

"Why have you... changed shape?"

"Oh, been busy tinkering with this printing machine lately, turned square from fatigue—no problem, a good sleep will fix it," Nicholas Egg replied.

Gawain: "..."

What’s wrong with this ball?