Since Duke Kanglan had gone to the chapel, Eno, who disliked a stifling atmosphere, brought Lulumia to the garden courtyard for a short rest.
Lulumia took the opportunity to bring up her request to rent a house.
“You want to rent a house?”
Eno, who was in the middle of tucking her bangs behind her ear, paused and frowned at Lulumia.
“Is someone at the temple bullying you?”
“No one is bullying me. I want to open a newspaper office and I need a place for it.”
“A newspaper office? What’s that?”
Faced with Eno’s curiosity, Lulumia explained once more what she had told Xinleila before.
Taking into account the conflict between Eno and Xinleila, Lulumia didn’t mention that Xinleila was backing the newspaper.
She also left out the part where she borrowed money from Xinleila, saying only that she was using her own savings to start the newspaper.
Evidently, Eno was not as sensitive in these matters as the royally born Xinleila. Her bright face was full of doubt.
“Can you really sell this thing? Commoners wouldn’t spend money on something that can’t fill their stomachs.”
“The audience isn’t just commoners, you know. There are also merchants.”
The capital is a city of six hundred thousand people, somewhat dependent on river transport.
Odd news and gossip were only one aspect of a newspaper—published commercial information could also attract readers.
From ancient times, merchants have always been the group most willing to pay for information.
With so many people in the capital, even a small fluctuation in prices could bring huge profits, and river transport made prices even more unpredictable.
Take the linen clothes most commoners wear, for example.
If a ship loaded with linen that was supposed to come to the capital sank at sea, the price of linen in the capital would inevitably rise due to insufficient supply, causing everything that required linen—rope, cloth, clothes—to go up in price.
If a merchant learned this information in advance from the newspaper, they could hoard linen before the price rose or go to neighboring cities to buy linen, transport it to the capital, and sell it for a profit.
Of course, that example is rather extreme.
A more common situation is that merchants need to know shipping schedules to decide when to release or stock up on goods—shipping schedules refer to the arrival and departure times of ships.
Still using linen as an example, if a ship loaded with linen docked, linen prices in the capital would remain sluggish for a long time, causing merchants who hoarded linen to take a loss.
But if a merchant got the shipping news from the newspaper and learned of the linen’s arrival in advance, they could clear out their stock before the ship docked, instead of reacting only after prices plummeted.
Besides that, the issuing of new decrees, wars in distant lands, harvests in neighboring territories, outbreaks of monster disasters—information that was previously scattered and unreliable—could be regularly and publicly disseminated through the newspaper.
People are naturally interested in news that may affect their own lives, and these things are closely connected to everyone, so there would be no shortage of buyers.
After Lulumia finished explaining the principle behind it, Eno’s eyes widened in sudden realization.
“Mia, are you a genius?”
“Of course.”
Lulumia shamelessly enjoyed the crystallization of “her predecessor’s” wisdom.
“A newspaper office needs at least a warehouse, two or three workrooms, and a courtyard, so I want to rent a place big enough to serve as a workshop, and the closer to the commercial district, the better. That way, it’s easier to move materials and products. Eno, do you know any housing agencies?”
“I know one. It’s still early—after training this afternoon, should we go take a look?”
“Mm.”
As expected, in a big city with a population of six hundred thousand, there would naturally be real estate agencies.
Lulumia nodded in agreement.
Just then, a familiar figure led several white-robed scholars through the central courtyard, and finally stopped as they passed by Lulumia.
Wearing a tall white hat and a gilded long robe, Sandel stood bathed in the morning sunlight.
The grandeur of his white priest’s robe radiated the holy aura of a clergyman.
Grandpa Sandel—Lulumia wanted to greet him that way, but Eno acted faster.
Eno stood up almost instantly, placed her right hand over her left chest, and bowed deeply to Sandel.
Seeing Eno salute, Lulumia hurried to her feet and copied Eno’s bow as best she could.
“No need.”
Sandel waved his hand with authority and turned his gaze to Eno.
“What are you doing here?”
“Reporting to Your Excellency the Bishop, I was teaching Lulumia combat skills. Lulumia ran out of magic, so I brought her here to rest.”
“Mm.”
Sandel nodded calmly.
Lulumia, standing to the side, felt as if she had turned to stone.
B-Bishop?
There were only two bishops in the capital’s diocese: the outward-facing Cardinal, and the Cardinal Bishop who handled internal affairs.
Sandel had approached Eno before and scolded Sharina.
Judging by his duties, he could only be the Cardinal Bishop whom Eno often mentioned.
Today, Eno explained to Sandel that she’d actually gone hunting monsters in the Great Forest a few days ago, but last night Lulumia had lied to Sandel, saying Eno was absent because of illness…
It’s over.
Remembering what Eno had told her about the Cardinal Bishop’s stubborn and rigid character, Lulumia instantly felt a chill run down her spine.
The innocent and lively image she had in Sandel’s mind must have been utterly destroyed.
Not only would she lose his help, she’d also have offended Sandel.
Tsk.
A miscalculation.
But who would have thought that the kindly old man was actually the number two of the capital’s diocese?
“It seems your master recovers with remarkable speed—out of bed in a single night and off to the Beato Great Forest to hunt monsters.”
Is he mocking me?
Sandel looked down at Lulumia from above, his tone revealing no emotion.
“I discussed your machine with several scholars. We believe it is of great value to the Church. The work of improving the font is still ongoing; it won’t be abandoned halfway.”
“Okay…”
Lulumia replied cautiously.
Judging by Sandel’s words, he was definitely angry, but he hadn’t put things too harshly, nor was his tone heavy.
He even publicly affirmed the value of the printing press…
Watching Sandel’s figure recede, Lulumia’s mind was working at lightning speed.
“Mia, you know the Cardinal Bishop?”
Eno’s eyes were full of disbelief.
“Mm, Grandpa Sandel is very interested in my printing press. We’ve discussed ways to improve it together…”
“You call him what? Grandpa? He allows that? But why was he upset just now?”
Eno stared in shock, then seemed to realize something, and her expression suddenly changed.
“Sharina said last night that you helped her deal with the Cardinal… Just now, he mentioned my illness… Don’t tell me you lied to him last night, saying I was absent because I was sick?”
“Yes…”
“Tch!”
Eno clicked her tongue heavily, finally realizing how she had unwittingly put Lulumia in such an awkward situation.
She grew anxious.
“You should have told me earlier, and why didn’t Sharina mention it! No, there has to be an explanation. I’ll go apologize—it started because of me, I can’t let you take the blame.”
As she spoke, Eno was about to chase after him to apologize.
Fortunately, Lulumia had regained her composure.
She grabbed Eno and made up her mind.
“Eno, don’t blame yourself. Grandpa Sandel isn’t that angry.”
“If he really shows his anger, it’ll be too late! Mia, so many people want to call him Grandpa, but he doesn’t allow it for anyone. Tsk, this is all my fault.”
“Let’s not worry about that now, Eno. Just take me to the real estate agency in the commercial district first.”
“How can you still think about real estate at a time like this!”
Seeing Eno was about to get tangled up again, Lulumia simply pushed her by the back, urging her along.
“Then, as an apology, you can just give me more pocket money, Eno!”
“You…”
Eno was momentarily lost for words, looking at Lulumia with an expression somewhere between exasperation and helplessness.
“Do you know how important it is to call him Grandpa?”
“But it’s too late to talk about this now. If you apologize in front of so many people, it’ll just embarrass Grandpa Sandel. Let’s calm down first and think about how to make it up to him.”
Eno’s brow was deeply furrowed.
After thinking for a long while, she finally let out a frustrated sigh.
“I guess that’s all we can do. I’m sorry, Mia, I didn’t think things through.”
She never really had any way to deal with Sandel anyway, or she wouldn’t be used as a model for criticism by Sandel all the time.
As for Lulumia, the one involved, she was even calmer than Eno.
A crisis could be an opportunity—what she needed was a way in.
“It’s all right, really! When the time comes, just leave it to me, Eno.”
With a playful wink to the worried Eno, Lulumia almost had to coax Eno out of the central cathedral.