kscans

Chapter 113 - Various Stories of Paper ~The Paper Situation in Another World~ - 4. Papercraft

"Yes, this should do it."

Back at Adon’s mansion, Yuri was blowing on a pinwheel. It was a toy with a small pinwheel attached to the end of a thin handle, designed to spin when wind was blown on it. Among the various papers he had bought in bulk at the bookstore, there was some that was a little thicker and sturdier, so he had made it using a needle and a tree branch. It was a souvenir for Sena, the younger sister of Saya, who was employed as a maid-in-training.

The two sisters had been forced to leave their hometown due to famine, but the life of a traveler on the verge of starvation had apparently been too much for the seven-year-old Sena, who now spent her days alternating between sleeping and waking due to chronic malnutrition and exhaustion. Adon was a good man for allowing this, but he also had an ulterior motive of using the young sisters, who were from the same country as the refugees from the neighboring land, to obtain information about the papas potato. Incidentally, it was Yuri who had given him the idea. The older sister, Saya, was in the middle of learning her duties as a maid-in-training, so Yuri felt that the young Sena did not need to be so concerned, but she herself seemed to be more overcome with a sense of apology. He had made the toy wondering if it would help relieve Sena of some of her worries, but…

"Yes, it looks much better with some color."

The paper handled at the bookstore had all been ecru, and there was no colored paper available. So what had he done? He had used a magic tool he had purchased the other day.

Yuri had visited a magic tool shop run by an old woman named Inba and had purchased several magic tools there. Among a batch of items sold for a lump sum was a niche item, a magic tool for dyeing handkerchiefs. It was advertised as being able to beautifully dye a piece of cloth the size of a handkerchief, but there were not many eccentrics who would go to the trouble of using a magic tool for such a thing, so it had been gathering dust in a corner of the shop. It was faster and cheaper to buy a ready-made one. One had to wonder what the creator was thinking, but because the shop also carried such strange items, it seemed there were regular customers who were eccentrics themselves. The craftsman who made the strange item was able to make a decent profit, so it seemed to be contributing to the training of magic tool craftsmen and the local economy. At any rate, Yuri had purchased this curious magic tool, and when he tried using it on paper, he found that he could dye it beautifully and without any unevenness.

"...Hmm. A pinwheel by itself is a bit lonely. I think I’ll make some origami to take with me."

It was nothing to brag about, but in his past life, Yuri had spent a long time in the hospital. In a hospital life where he was forced to rest, finding ways to pass the time was essential. Many of the girls did things like handicrafts, but origami was popular regardless of gender or age. So Yuri was confident that he could fold more than just the basics. Well, he did not want to show up with something too elaborate and weird them out, so he folded a paper crane and a few other basic things to bring along, but…



"Yuri-kun, this is!?"

Hmm… Adon-san is being really intense… could it be that origami was a bad idea?

"Um… it’s origami… a toy, or a child’s pastime, made by folding a square piece of paper…"

"A child’s pastime!?"

"I can hardly believe it…"

Behind the eager Adon-san and the weary-looking Audel-san, Sena and the others were playing contentedly. Hmm… it seems they like the origami and the pinwheel. …Ah, Eto likes the paper popper…

"To think you can create such a work of art just by folding paper…"

"Yuri-kun, is that something we could make too…? With practice, of course…"

"No? You don’t need any practice. You should be able to do it right away."

""Eh?""

Leaving the two who had let out a dumbfounded cry in unison, Yuri called over the four young people behind him, the sisters Saya and Sena, Eto, and Dona, and asked if they wanted to fold origami together.

"That’s right, if you don’t fold the corners neatly, the finished product will look messy."

"Hmm… this is quite difficult…"

"Big sister, do this part for me."

"Ah, look, that part goes like this…"

"Mmm… I’m not very good at this kind of detailed work…"

"It’s tough when you get old, isn’t it…"

"Is this right, Yuri-sama?"

"Yes, yes, hold it there and swing it forcefully."

The paper popper that Eto had made opened with a pan sound.

"Oh! I did it!"

"Wow, Eto-onii-chan, you’re so good!"

"Mmm… he beat me to it…"

What Yuri had taught them were the basics of origami. Starting with the paper crane, he had shown them how to make a helmet, a frog, a paper balloon, a paper popper, a paper airplane, and other very basic things, but seeing what they had made themselves, the fact that it was truly folded from paper, and the fact that such three-dimensional shapes could be made just by folding a single sheet of paper, made everyone re-recognize the reality of it.

"Hmm… this is…"

"With plain paper it’s a little lonely, but if you use colored paper like Yuri-kun, couldn’t it be used for small decorations?"

"Ah, like decorating a corner of the dinner table?"

The casual remark Yuri had made about a "dinner table decoration" seemed to have stimulated something in Adon. He slowly turned around and addressed Yuri.

"Yuri-kun, I have a proposition for you…"

"Yes?"