Chapter 450: The Dawn of the Printing Age

Technological progress often branches out like a tree. Once a critical technical hurdle is overcome, a whole series of related innovations naturally follow. In Gawain’s eyes, the “Arcane Transfer Cylinder” created by Rebecca and Nicholas was precisely such a breakthrough. On the surface, it looked like just a core component of a printing press, but what it truly achieved was a crucial step in transforming traditional illusion magic into an industrial printing process.

Once this key step was taken, various printing technologies based on the principle of “arcane transfer” would inevitably develop in succession.

What surprised Gawain most was Rebecca’s keen ability to sense new possibilities and her wildly imaginative, unconstrained thinking.

When he explained the concepts of fax and networked printing to her, the young woman lit up with excitement. She rattled off a flood of ideas and plans for future improvements. By the end, she had even rushed over to Gawain’s desk, grabbed some paper and pen, and began sketching out a flurry of diagrams—blueprints for the magical network fax workflow she envisioned, along with matching compact printing devices equipped with communication functions. In fact, Gawain thought these devices should really be called “printers,” but given the peculiar working principle of the arcane transfer apparatus, he decided not to get hung up on terminology.

“Ancestor, ancestor, do you think this could work?” Rebecca asked eagerly, holding up her hastily drawn sketches. Ink smudged her face and hands from her rush. “Besides machines that can print newspapers in bulk, places like the government offices will need small printing machines for documents and such. All these machines could be connected together…”

Gawain looked at Rebecca—the ink stains on her face, her animated gestures—and couldn’t help but recall something Hetty once said.

Though the Cecil family didn’t mingle closely with other nobles, the culture of comparison among aristocrats was strong. Within the circles of southern noble ladies, Rebecca was known for her “clumsiness.” Her awkwardness in etiquette classes was seen as a sign of innate dullness, and her enthusiasm for “exploring” the castle and tinkering with machinery often left her dirty and disheveled in front of others. This only deepened the negative impression of her as a “Cecil family outcast.”

Gawain’s lips twitched into a smile. How could those noble ladies, who spent their days daintily sipping tea and tending flowers, needing eight steps just to pick up a pair of scissors, ever be smarter than his little “deer”?

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

“No, no problem at all. I believe this system will play a huge role in government operations,” Gawain said with a wave of his hand. “But we have to take it step by step. First, we need to build a prototype of the large printing press to solve the bottleneck in printing newspapers and books.”

It had been over a year since universal education was introduced in the territory, and the results were clear. But with the population booming and the domain expanding rapidly, the existing education model faced new challenges—one of the biggest being textbooks.

Gawain needed large quantities of cheap, standardized textbooks. Only by distributing these books alongside universal education throughout the southern region could he hope to dispel the fog of ignorance hanging over the people.

Currently, the textbooks used by the Cecil Common Academy were still emergency editions, printed in small batches using traditional methods. They were barely enough for the current scale of teaching. Printing enough textbooks to meet the literacy needs of millions—possibly tens of millions—across the south would be impossible without industrial printing presses.

That was why Gawain placed such importance on Rebecca’s printing press project.

He turned to Nicholas’s silver orb floating nearby. “Nicholas, how long to build the prototype?”

The orb emitted a confident tone. “At most a day and a half, including debugging and designing the assembly line schematics. I’m 99% sure it will succeed on the first try—since the critical arcane transfer cylinder is already solved, the rest of the structure is no more difficult than assembling a few gears.”

“Excellent. Build one prototype as soon as possible.”

The orb bobbed slightly. “You’ll see it very soon.”

After discussing some details about the Magic Technology Research Institute’s work and finalizing the reward plan for outstanding team members, Rebecca happily hugged her sketches and left Gawain’s study.

Humming a carefree tune and walking with a light step, the Cecil family heir crossed the corridor. Neither her humming nor her unladylike gait was typical of a noble lady, but everyone in the manor was used to her style by now. Even the usually strict Hetty had long since given up trying to correct Rebecca’s behavior.

As she rounded a corner, Rebecca suddenly stopped. She noticed a door slightly ajar with light spilling out.

Recognizing it as Betty’s room, she walked over to see what the little maid was up to.

Pushing the door open, she saw the small maid—who had followed them out of the old territory in a daze—sitting at a tiny desk by the bed, head bent in concentration.

The room was simple: a bed, a desk and chair, a small wardrobe, and two small trunks in the corner.

An old, somewhat battered frying pan hung on the wall beside the bed—a strange sight, but Betty’s prized possession. Now that she was no longer the lowest-ranking kitchen maid, she had hung her most treasured pan in her room, forbidding anyone else to touch it.

Rebecca gently knocked on the doorframe, startling Betty. The maid looked up, quickly stood, but Rebecca stopped her before she could bow. “It’s okay—I just wanted to see what you’re doing.”

Betty gave her trademark vacant expression and pointed at the desk. “…Reading.”

Curious, Rebecca leaned in and saw an open book titled Wizards and Potion Bottles. It was a simple, easy-to-understand book filled with short stories. Though the title mentioned “wizards,” the content was basic. Rebecca remembered having a similar book as a child—it was one of the earliest educational books for the wealthy youth of this era.

The book was old and well-worn, with faded text and frayed edges, but clearly cared for and preserved.

“This was lent to me by Mr. Santis,” Betty explained. “I’m almost finished. I have to return it soon.”

Rebecca looked at Betty in surprise. Suddenly, a thought struck her—a rare moment of clarity amid her usually scattered mind:

Betty was only two years younger than her.

Yet this girl, just two years her junior, was only now learning basic words, only now able to read a book Rebecca had finished and grown bored of at age seven—and was enjoying it.

If not for her ancestor’s insistence on spreading universal education, this little maid might never have had the chance to even see this book in her lifetime.

Rebecca blinked. She had never thought of Betty as “lower class.” She treated everyone in the castle like family, from the lowliest stable hands to kitchen maids like Betty. When they were very young, she had even organized little castle adventures with Betty and other girls their age—they played like sisters.

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

Rebecca was puzzled. She couldn’t understand why she hadn’t noticed this in all her years, but she felt that today’s awareness was tied to the imminent success of the arcane printing press.

Her ancestor had once said that when the printing press became widespread, the printing age would dawn. The monopoly on knowledge and its transmission held by a few would be broken forever. Then, even the poorest ordinary families would have a few books of their own.

Industrial printing was an indispensable part of spreading Cecil’s universal education across the southern lands.

“Betty, do you want some books? Books of your very own.”

Betty looked confused but thought seriously before nodding firmly. “Yes.”

Rebecca smiled. “Then I’ll give you some books soon!”

In truth, she could already give Betty many books—simple primers or even real magic tomes—but she felt those wouldn’t be meaningful. She wanted to wait until the printing press was practical, then select the first batch of mass-produced books to give to Betty. That would be special.

Betty was silent for a long time, then finally said in a daze, “But books are very precious…”

“No, books won’t be so precious anymore. My ancestor said, knowledge can be valuable, but it shouldn’t be noble, and it definitely shouldn’t be expensive,” Rebecca shook her head. Seeing Betty’s confused eyes, she laughed. “It’s okay if you don’t understand now. Soon you’ll see for yourself—every ordinary person in this land will not only be able to read and see newspapers, but also own their own books! Lots and lots of books!”

Betty’s eyes widened as she stared at the young lady who had practically grown up alongside her. After a long pause, she said, “Miss… that sounds like something the master would say.”

Rebecca scratched her head. “Heh, yeah, I guess it does.”

…

The first usable industrial printing press was completed even earlier than Gawain had expected.

By the afternoon of the very next day, he stood at the “Mechanical Round Table” in the Mechanical Research Institute, gazing at the massive machine personally crafted, assembled, and fine-tuned by Nicholas.

Accompanying Gawain to inspect the equipment were Hetty, project leader Rebecca, and Gawain Orlando, the director of the Cecil Newspaper and Publishing Department.

The new printing press resembled a steel beast crouching low to the ground, with long metal chutes extending from front and back—likely the paper feed paths. At the center of the machine was the crucial “Arcane Transfer Cylinder,” held by a movable bracket above a flat plate. Inside the bracket, the outlines of gears and linkages were faintly visible.

Beneath the transfer device lay the paper guide slot, and at the very bottom, the ink plate.

The printing age was about to begin.

Besides the main structure, the printing press had an “attachment” on its side that looked like a machine all on its own. At the top of that boxy, waist-high metal case, Gawain spotted the “large color palette (keyboard)” Rebecca had mentioned, along with the “editing mechanism” used to control the arcane transfer cylinder’s internal projection crystal. Dozens of dazzling buttons were arranged in a fan shape on a slanted metal panel, and perched at the top of that panel was a small projection crystal.

That little crystal was probably for providing a “preview.”

Judging by its appearance alone, this device was far more complex than any magical machine previously built in the territory.

If Gawain hadn’t known Nicholas Egg’s capabilities, there was no way he would have believed this thing was made in just one day.

“See? I told you—you’d get to see it soon enough!” Nicholas Egg hovered beside the new machine, his tone brimming with pride.

Gawain stared in awe at the industrial printing press before him, but what surprised him even more was Nicholas Egg’s form—this silver-white metal sphere, originally perfectly round, now looked somewhat square.

Not quite angular, but definitely a bit boxy.

“How… did you end up like that?”

“Oh, I’ve been tinkering with this press nonstop lately. Got a bit ‘square’ from the exhaustion—don’t worry, I’ll just catch some sleep later and be fine.”

Gawain: “…”

What’s wrong with this ball?

(End of chapter)