Ezra had a budding headache—well, figuratively.
The week prior, Noren, Vendis, and Raydall had come to Ezra. They talked about getting a job from a merchant named Orlund. Orlund had been so interested in their calculation techniques that he offered not only to pay to attend the classes in Helio, but also to buy the textbook they carried, even after they explained it was property of the castle. The man had mentioned buying it five times.
What was supposed to be a contained system only for the children of Bren was slowly getting acknowledged by external sources. The influx of merchants wanting to profit from the press didn't help. After the rollout of the first batch, since only one press was allowed per merchant or noble house, there had been a flood of requests from lesser merchants begging for access.
Other merchants, hearing about the restrictions, sent requests to domains outside Fulmen for access to a press. Those who had obtained one charged exorbitant fees, but because they had only been issued a single machine, a bottleneck formed. Backlogs kept growing. Requests from the noble houses—who had their own uses for the press outside of standard publishing—pushed the lesser merchants back even further.
There were now countless requests plaguing the Press Office. But where Ezra saw a headache, Reitz saw coin.
Reitz, in his fervor, sent a message to the people who had successfully acquired a press set. He asked them if they were interested in leasing a few more—now at a heavily inflated fixed price.
Ezra had just arrived at his own study when he found Reitz already there, grinning from ear to ear.
"My boy!" Reitz said loudly as he rushed toward his son and ruffled his hair. "My golden goose. My firstborn. My heir."
Ezra didn't know how a golden goose was remotely related to the string of words he had just said.
Still, his heart skipped a beat at being adored on by his father, but unlike in his infancy where he would try to drown the feeling with mana, he let the feeling sit.
Ezra smiled involuntarily. But then he frowned.
"Dad," Ezra used a more informal word to refer to Reitz since there was no one else around. "My staff is getting overworked. You keep pushing things we haven't discussed. Wait, what... what are you writing?"
Reitz, caught a little off guard, shifted his expression. "Uhh. I was writing a letter."
"It's about the Press Office again, right?" Ezra's frown persisted.
"Yes. I was just concerned about whether they want another set," Reitz replied.
Ezra put his palm to his face hard enough for it to echo. "You didn't tell me about it again."
"Well... I just wanted to take the initiative. I received reports from Kestel about the number of merchants entering Bren to request copy orders. There were even some requests for full publications," Reitz replied, smiling. "I also received word from Aaron that his own press is overused already. If there were this much merchants flocking to Bren, leasing more to the charter holders would also ease the load on Bren."
Reitz cleared his throat. "While I know you manage the supply perfectly, ensuring the current presses never run out of ink and the resin stencil sheets... I think we should be supplying more hardware. It's about time, right? I was thinking we provide them five presses each to be leased. I've already discussed this with Corvin."
"But you haven't discussed it with me," Ezra pouted. "You are doing the exact same thing you did during my fourth birthday. Can't you see half my staff is overworked? Now you are giving them more things to do on top of it."
Reitz's stance shifted slightly.
"Also, I bet you only discussed the 'price' with Maester Rufus, not the actual logistics, manufacturing, or anything else important."
"B-but that's why they're there, right? They handle their offices. I sign and smile... and fight sometimes," Reitz replied, completely caught off guard.
"You should have called a High Council meeting at least," Ezra said, frustrated. "That way either Maester Rowan or Maester Corvin could have told me." Ezra huffed. "Besides, it feels like you don't have the time lately. We barely see you around unless it's very important. What are you up to, Dad?" Ezra's violet eyes stared directly into Reitz's.
Reitz's gaze became serious. "I have pressing matters I need to attend to. I am going to leave for Rexasticus. I don't have a specific date yet, but it's going to happen. The Censurae has been strangling us ever since we triggered the audit, with no grounds at that. I want to appeal to Rexasticus directly."
Ezra furrowed his brows. "You are leaving for Rexasticus?"
Reitz nodded. "Don't worry. I am working out the logistics of it. Aaron will be here for the duration of my absence. That is one of the things I am sorting out before I leave. We need to get the timings right. I've also talked to Aerwyna about it. While she was very much against it, she conceded once she knew Aaron was coming."
Ezra stared at Reitz for a beat. It felt as if there was something else he wasn't telling him. It didn't make sense to leave now, right when he was finally starting to offset his losses on the mines through press leasing and copy requests. Maybe Reitz was simply that greedy. That made sense.
But Ezra decided not to press it.
"Anyway, what brings you here to my study?" Reitz asked.
"Several things," Ezra muttered. "First, the production capacity of the presses is suffering. We need more people."
"Outer ring, right? Then more workers will be needed. Consider it done," Reitz said. "As long as the final assembly is done in the inner ring and the important pieces are kept privy from outsiders, I can sign the order."
"Second. The publication requests. We need more hands for the Press Office."
"Manual laborers or scribes?"
"Both."
"We can't let outer ring citizens inside the castle for now. It's too dangerous." Reitz furrowed his brows.
"Since the press set has two separate mechanisms, we can set up an office in the inner ring that allows outer ring laborers in. That office just handles the physical pressing."
"That works," Reitz nodded.
"However, I still need literate clerks for the Press Office."
Reitz sighed. "The scribes are spread thin. With the influx of merchants wanting copies of books, a lot of them are being recruited privately. According to Kestel, the job postings have tripled and the cost of hiring a scribe has quadrupled in the outer ring. In fact, scribes from other parts of the Empire have been flocking to Bren just because of this. And I won't have any adult of unknown background vetted. I don't want another Catalyna. They are free to stay in the outer ring, but any foreign scribe who is literate will not be permitted inside the castle, or the inner ring for that matter."
"You mentioned adults," Ezra said. "But what if they were children?"
Reitz looked baffled. "What do you mean?"
"Remember the children from the pilot batch we had for Helio?"
Reitz furrowed his brows. That program was costing him coin, making it an unpleasant topic.
"Some of them are exceptional. The whole batch is turning out really well," Ezra continued. "Though the inner ring children..."
"The Kanzlei ones?" Reitz interrupted.
"Yes. Some of the older ones are slower than expected, but they are gaining momentum. I suspect it's because they need to unlearn some of the things they were previously taught."
Reitz rubbed his chin. "Very well. They will be searched thoroughly and then allowed inside the castle. I doubt any commoner child would pose a threat, as long as they are vetted residents and do not bring anything dangerous inside. I will allow it."
Suddenly, there was a knock on the door.
"Enter," Reitz called out.
It was Corvin.
"Milords."
"Was there something urgent, Corvin?" Reitz asked.
"No, Sire. Actually, I was looking for Lord Ezra. A clerk mentioned he would be here."
Ezra looked at Corvin with a questioning gaze. "What is it?"
"It pertains to the estimates on the external lessons that we could charge for. I wanted to speak to you about it."
Ezra immediately motioned for Corvin to stop talking before Reitz could fully process it. But Corvin didn't understand. He just looked at the boy quizzically.
"Charges?" Reitz asked, raising a single eyebrow.
"Yes," Corvin said happily. "Lord Ezra came to me with a proposition."
Ezra waved his hands, desperately trying to get Corvin to stop. He knew when Reitz smelled profit it was like a shark smelling blood. He didn't know if battle instincts and merchant instincts were correlated, but for some reason Reitz's intuition for profit was high.
Ezra knew that this project was going to be pushed to his office again, because he was the one that initially proposed it. Ezra sighed. He thought of eliminating child labor in Bren, but he didn't know that he too would be affected and would need to be shielded from it.
"It seems that according to his students, there has been interest both in the book Fundamentals of Arithmetic and the Helio classes." Corvin cleared his throat, completely missing Ezra's signals. He just noted it as one of the odd, random movements Ezra sometimes made. After all, he was still a child.
Corvin, ignoring Ezra entirely, turned back to Reitz. "Yes, my appraisal is that we can make coin off of selling the book, and by charging a fee for the lessons being taught by the scribes."
Reitz's befuddlement slowly transformed into a massive smile.
Ezra saw the twinkle in his father's eyes. The dollar signs had started to show again. He closed his own. This is child exploitation! So much for my anti-child labor advocacy. I didn't know that I would be the most overworked child in Bren.
"Master Corvin," Reitz said, his voice dripping with sudden interest. "Please, continue."
"Lord Ezra's inquiry wasn't the first, actually. Some merchants heard the heralds we placed regarding the lessons for the children during Helio. As you know, we now have five hundred children being taught by the Press Office clerks and scribes. They have been divided up, and the logistics of the whole event every Helio is quite impressive. But amidst that commotion, a few merchants have occasionally crossed the field. I had a clerk in the vicinity who was actually asked how to gain entry to those classes. A few of the merchants even sat down and listened to the lecturers. Captain Ashen, thinking they were spies, had them detained and interrogated, but found no issues with them."
"Yes, I am aware of that incident," Reitz nodded. "I treat each of the reports from Ashen seriously."
"The interest from the merchants has been a growing trend," Corvin continued. "Actually, a few have been actively seeking out the children who have attended the lessons. They have been inquiring at the Office of Rolls, the Office of Works, and my own office, asking if there were any students we could recommend due to the looming scribal prices. It was an inquiry I didn't have an answer to."
Ezra, now certain that this would be pushed to him regardless, spoke up. "I have a solution for that, actually."
Both Reitz and Corvin stared at Ezra.
Reitz still bore a toothy grin. "Oh? I never doubted you for a second. My oh-so-capable heir. What is it?"
"We already have it in place. Remember the tests we did for the children?" Ezra sighed. "We can standardize those, and if they pass, then we can recommend them. But this should be handled by Works, not the Press Office. We can give the standard tests, but the applications and inquiries should be handled by Works."
He didn't want to handle more paperwork than he already had, so he pushed it to Draffen instead. He had already thought of test standardization beforehand, intending to implement something akin to the sophisticated bureaucracy of the Chin Dynasty, but he didn't expect it to happen this quickly. He had estimated that the intelligence of even the commoners here was higher than the standard baseline on Earth, but at this point, it was too hard to tell. Maybe Kestel's initial selection was just based on excellent appraisals. Yes, Noren, Raydall, and Vendis were exceptional for their age, but the others in the cohort were not that far off. If he were to estimate based on the current scores, the median student would catch up to those three in four months.
He had not foreseen the consequences of the printing press escalating to this extent. With Reitz's writs in place and his own practical demonstrations, it had spiraled into something beyond his control. Initially, he estimated it would take two or three years for the socioeconomic effects to manifest. But between the influx of merchants from outside Bren and his own underestimation of how heavily the Imperium relied on bureaucracy, the consequences of his actions were ramping up exponentially.
"But you will help with the initial processes, will you not?" Reitz asked.
"Fine."
"Hahaha! See, that is why you are my favorite son."
"I am your only son, and your only child for that matter," Ezra huffed.
"So, good Maester, what else can we charge for?" Reitz asked, turning back to Corvin.
"Several things, actually. First is the book Fundamentals of Arithmetic. We can sell copies of this for a hefty sum to merchants."
Reitz nodded.
"Next, we can charge a fee for the Press Scribes giving lessons."
Ezra cut in. "If you are going to monetize my staff's lessons, then I want that building in the Inner District."
Reitz looked at Ezra and gave him a nervous look. "Ezra, my son... Uhh, we—we can do this much later on, right? We can't do it right now, we are bleeding coi—"
"Bleeding my backside. You keep on charging everyone for everything except for breathing!" Ezra raised his voice. "You better give me a budget for the building I want."
"Ezra..." Reitz followed up, nervousness still lingering in his voice.
"No buts."
"Fine." Reitz sighed, like he was gravely wounded. He finally relented and turned to Corvin immediately. "Since my son is quite selfish."
Excuse me? Ezra thought.
"Make sure that any costs will be offset by the profits. Have heralds announce this daily, also have it pinned to all the notice boards. Have them say that this will make them profit more, or something. I don't know. You handle it, Corvin. You have told me how much this has helped you in your work, yes?"
"Yes, Sire."
"Okay, next?"
"We can have merchants inquire to us for possible job postings, charge them for a fee, and then have students sent to them."
"That works," Reitz said, smiling from ear to ear.
Ezra closed his eyes again. He hadn't expected that Reitz would actually be this good at playing capitalist.