kscans

Chapter 188 - A Rare Wood's Welcome 2. The Dawn of Rosewood Trinkets (Part 1)

The people who made such requests, while not wealthy, were apparently folks Ems had regular dealings with, making it difficult for him to refuse them outright.

"Wouldn't scrap pieces be fine?"

That was what Yuri thought, but...

"It's not that simple. Just having a piece of scrap wood is useless, so you have to carve it or do something with it. But Rosewood isn't something an amateur can handle. You have to give it to a craftsman, but it's too much for any half-baked artisan to manage..."

In the end, their only option was to take it to a cabinet maker or a sculptor, but these people could not afford such labor costs. Even before that, since it was just scrap wood, there was not enough volume to make anything proper.

Listening to the story, Yuri could not help but feel bewildered. As far as he could tell from Ems's words, small wooden accessories did not seem to exist. In his past life in Japan, he had seen quite a few women wearing wooden brooches.

"Hmm... Do you have any good ideas, Yuri-kun?"

"...Before that, please tell me. In this country, do you not have things like wooden brooches?"

When he asked just to be sure, the two of them returned blank stares.

"Well... no matter how eccentric, I don't think there's a woman who'd be happy just sticking a wood chip on herself, you know?"

"Accessories are meant to be gems or precious metals. ...At least in this country."

Nodding in understanding, Yuri then asked if small wooden figurines existed.

"Well... in the first place, with ordinary wood, no one would even think of putting it on display, you know? It's because it's Rosewood that people want to display it, but Rosewood is hard, so regular craftsmen can't work with it."

"Even before that, are there no small wood carvings?"

"Ah, Yuri-kun. Only the somewhat wealthy would think of displaying such things, and they prefer materials other than wood. ...Though Rosewood like this would be an exception."

"Poor folk don't even think about decorations from the get-go. ...Though Rosewood like this is an exception."

I see, Yuri understood. It seemed there was no demand for such things in the first place. In that case, there probably were no craftsmen who would take on jobs for small carvings.

"So you don't have things like netsuke either?"

""Netsuke?""

"Ah... how should I put it..."

Figuring it would be faster to show them than to explain, Yuri took a wooden netsuke out of his magic bag, which was actually his Storage. It was a wooden one he had made as a side project when he carved a netsuke from a monster bone. ...He would not be so careless as to pull out a bone netsuke imbued with various effects. Yuri, for all his eccentricities, was a cautious person.

"...Well now... for something so small, it's quite elaborate..."

It was a wood carving of a rabbit inspired by the famous Chōjū-giga scrolls, but to Ems's eyes, it appeared to be an intricate piece of work.

"...Yuri-kun, what is this for?"

"Um... when you hang a tobacco pouch... I mean, a small container, from your waist..."

He explained that you attach this netsuke to the end of a cord tied to the small item, pass it under a belt, and hook it so it does not fall off. The two men's mouths fell open.