kscans

Chapter 190 - The Land of Paper 1. The Tobacco Pouch and the Notebook

On the way back after leaving Ems's workshop, Adon, who had been lost in thought, posed a question to Yuri.

"The structure of a tobacco pouch... you ask?"

"Yes. Over here, it's common to carry what you need in a small leather pouch, but it was different in your hometown, wasn't it, Yuri-kun?"

"It's less my hometown and more... something my grandfather talked about. I've never seen or touched one myself."

This was not entirely a lie. In his previous life, Isarai Yuuri, who had passed away at the age of thirty-seven, had not been a smoker, and more importantly, he had spent a long time in the hospital. His only exposure to tobacco pouches was from seeing them in period dramas. But even with that limited knowledge, he could convey the general structure.

"I see... a fabric over a core... What is the core made of?"

"Well... I don't know for sure... maybe something like paper?"

"Paper... In your hometown, Yuri-kun, it seems you use paper for many things, doesn't it?"

"It... seems so. Now that you mention it..."

He had never consciously realized it, but in his previous life in Japan, paper was indispensable to daily life. Not just consumables like toilet paper, tissues, paper towels, and paper filters, but also folding fans, flat fans, shopping bags, wrapping paper, paper boxes, cardboard, paper plates, paper cups, letters, envelopes, stamps, and various certificates. The high-denomination currency itself was paper money. It was also used for decorations like papier-mâché and papercraft. To the people of this world, it would indeed seem to be on an almost bizarre level.

"Well, as for the paper products of your hometown, I'll be sure to ask you about them in detail later..."

Ah, so a thorough interrogation is already the plan, Yuri thought, his gaze growing a little distant.

"What I want to ask about now is the structure of the tobacco pouch."

"Are you going to make a tobacco pouch?"

"No, I was thinking it could be used not for tobacco, but for a notebook cover."

It turned out the situation was this.

As was known, Adon was planning to start selling pencils and notebooks, but he could not sell the notebooks bare. In this world, it was common for books and notebooks to have leather bindings. Adon understood that, but...

"...My company doesn't deal in leatherwork. I have no choice but to rely on the cooperation of other companies... but having the notebook's exterior controlled by another company is... displeasing in various ways."

The preparations for both the pencils and notebooks for their debut at the spring market were already complete. He had a leatherworker he did business with make covers for the sample notebooks, but the craftsman did not have the production capacity to handle a commercial route. However, if he were to entrust the leather binding to a single company at this point, it would, in a sense, be like giving them a stranglehold on his notebook production. Adon said he wanted to leave open options other than leatherwork to maintain a strong negotiating position.

"When it comes to textiles, we have a decent number of connections. Above all, not creating a weakness against our counterpart is a good thing."

Here, a crucial misunderstanding arose between Yuri and Adon. Adon was thinking of using cloth-covered boards as an alternative to leather binding, but Yuri, based on his experience in his past life in Japan, was imagining a removable notebook cover. It was only after their conversation started to feel slightly mismatched that Adon, noticing the discrepancy, pressed Yuri, who was then forced to confess about the notebook cover.

"...But Adon-san, it seems to me that notebook wouldn't be very useful unless you carried it with you all the time?"

Based on their conversation at Ems's workshop earlier, did merchants not have a habit of carrying small items? Pockets were not common in this world, and Yuri had no intention of letting that slip, so how did he plan to carry it?

"That is where the netsuke you mentioned comes in, Yuri-kun."

"...Huh? You're going to walk around with a notebook dangling from your waist?"

An image of a clerk from a period drama, with a large ledger tied to his waist, running around to collect debts, floated in Yuri's mind. It was certainly befitting of a merchant, but...

"No, no, not the notebook itself. I was thinking of hanging a case containing the notebook and pencil from the waist."

I see. That would be a more presentable look. Even so, was there a need to go to the trouble of using a netsuke? Would it not be fine to just hook it to a belt with a hook, as was the conventional method?

"No, no, that hook comes off the belt surprisingly easily."

While it was easy to hook onto a belt, it also came off just as easily, he said. Dropping a notebook filled with business ideas would be a disaster. Hearing this, Yuri recalled the ALICE clips used by the U.S. military, but he kept a straight face and said nothing. He wanted to avoid any more unnecessary questioning.

"You seem to be concerned about it swinging around, Yuri-kun, but soldiers and adventurers hang their swords from their waists in the same way. I don't think many would mind..."

Adon did not seem entirely confident either, and so they decided to actually make a prototype and try it out. Just then, the carriage arrived at the mansion.