View source for On a Godless Planet:Volume3B Chapter 37

==Chapter 37: Klax==
[[Image:Godless_3B_p209.jpg|thumb]]
–''Add it to the pile and move on.

●

Souko sighed.

[[Image:godless_socal.png|50px]]

“I think the end is in sight now.”

She had lost count of how many times she had said that now. Whenever she thought she was done, she would find something new she had to do. Sometimes she even had to redo the whole thing.

That had been especially common this time. She had started making it all herself, so she had to do the parts she used to let the upperclassmen handle.

She still got some help with the worldbuilding, story, characters, and the actual work on the storyboard, roughs, and drawing, but she always had to get it started.

She hadn’t known how hard it all was.

[[Image:godless_socal_awate.png|50px]]

…''And I’m not even done yet!

But the manuscript itself was complete. She had all 24 pages done from beginning to end.

[[Image:godless_socal.png|50px]]

…''Yes!

Once the rest was done, she would go to a convenience store, make copies, and then staple them together into books.

There was no point in going to a print shop and getting real printed versions done.

She hadn’t finished in time for Comiket.

In that sense, she wasn’t “done” even if she did complete this.

[[Image:godless_socal.png|50px]]

…''If only Touto-senpai’s suggestion had been accepted…

●

Revert this divine world’s time to before Comiket.

●

If that had happened, her manuscript here would actually mean something.

[[Image:godless_socal.png|50px]]

“That must have been why Touto-senpai joined that meeting of the gods.”

But it hadn’t worked. Just like the manga club had its circumstances, Balancer had their own circumstances as manager of the divine world.

This world was generally focused on the human.

[[Image:godless_socal.png|50px]]

…''Then what if I could convince the human?

Could the world be moved for the human’s convenience?

She wasn’t sure. The terraforming and the terraforming lead’s convenience would matter as well, but this world really did revolve around the human.

[[Image:godless_socal.png|50px]]

“Would that work?”

She barely knew anything about humans. Even in the mythological age, she had mostly been an “ornament” and didn’t have any real stories about her.

And yet she was a creator god. Human “convenience” seemed far too dangerous for her liking. But…

[[Image:godless_socal.png|50px]]

“Would that work?”

Could she ask the human?

●

Human “convenience” had made a creator god out of an ornament.

This divine world was managed based on that same convenience.

[[Image:godless_socal.png|50px]]

“––––––”

''So would it work?'' she wondered.

[[Image:godless_dareka.png|50px]]

“Souko. I’ve finished the pages you left with me. Let me know when the rest is ready.”

[[Image:godless_socal_awate.png|50px]]

“Oh, um, thanks. …Wait, the rest? What?”

She had already finished all 24 pages.

What else could there be?

But her confusion received a head tilt from her friend and fellow club member.

[[Image:godless_dareka.png|50px]]

“The 24 pages you’ve done are the interior pages. ''You haven’t done the covers yet, right?'' Or were you planning to do the covers all on your own?”

●

[[Image:godless_socal_awate.png|50px]]

<span style="font-size:125%">'''…''Oh, nooooo!!'''''</span>

She had forgotten about the cover and back cover.

If you had the interior pages, you needed a cover and back cover.

And both covers would have a reverse side, so that was a total of 4 pages.

With the 24 interior pages, the total would be 28.

[[Image:godless_dareka.png|50px]]

“It’ll be hard to make a copier book with that many pages, so why not send it to a copy shop? We have your book in the budget, so that should be fine.”

[[Image:godless_socal_awate.png|50px]]

“Does the convenience store near the school do double-sided printing?”

If it didn’t, she would have to print it with the left and right pages on a single sheet of paper. Then she would fold the printed sheet in half to create “2 pages”. And once it was bound, the actual thickness would be 4 pages’ worth.

So with double-sided printing, 28 pages would only use 14 sheets of paper.

But when copying and folding, 28 pages would only use 14 sheets of paper, but it would effectively be 28 once folded.

That thickness would lead to a certain problem.

[[Image:godless_socal_awate.png|50px]]

“How many pages can you kachunk together for a copier book?”

[[Image:godless_dareka.png|50px]]

“With a stapler, you mean? Anything above 25 is risky. So why not use a copy shop?”

[[Image:godless_socal_awate.png|50px]]

“If I leave the inside of the covers blank, I could print the covers on a single B5 sheet and just barely get by with 26 sheets.”

[[Image:godless_dareka.png|50px]]

“You can get by without a table of contents, but you need a colophon.”

That was a good point.

So to sum up her situation…

[[Image:godless_socal_awate.png|50px]]

“A print shop, you say?”

●

Unsurprisingly, it was still raining when we returned to the divine world.

[[Image:godless_senpai_awate.png|50px]]

“Since this is only the first day of the rain, I get the impression it could keep raining forever if we don’t do something about it.”

[[Image:godless_TJ.png|50px]]

“That is not a pleasant thought. It would get all our manuscript paper damp.”

[[Image:godless_boku.png|50px]]

“Oh, yeah. You did mention Comiket, didn’t you? What kind of stuff do you all draw?”

[[Image:godless_TJ.png|50px]]

“Whatever each person wants to. Creativity is sometimes emphasized in a gakuman, but I just let everyone do whatever.”

[[Image:godless_senpai_awate.png|50px]]

“What is a gakuman?”

[[Image:godless_balancer.png|50px]]

<A school-affiliated group that creates manga.>

[[Image:godless_TJ.png|50px]]

“It’s one of the application categories at Comiket.”

[[Image:godless_balancer.png|50px]]

<The link between Comiket and gakuman is an old one. From its beginning, Comiket has been an event “by the fans for the fans”, so it has aimed to be an event focused on the independent and non-exclusionary fans. Some believe this helped support the increase in gakuman-created doujinshi at the time. In fact, nearly half the participating circles in the first Comiket were gakuman.>

[[Image:godless_boku.png|50px]]

“Are you talking faster than normal?”

[[Image:godless_senpai_awate.png|50px]]

“I thought so too.”

[[Image:godless_balancer.png|50px]]

<The topic is related to this very time period, so I did a lot of research. To elaborate, gakuman became its own category at the 32nd Comiket in the summer of 1987. Gakuman primarily exist as university clubs, but now, in the summer of ‘90, a new generation is taking over after the category was established, and they are reaching their initial peak as a school activity.>

[[Image:godless_TJ.png|50px]]

“In that sense, gakuman has created a major stage for us to express ourselves. And it really is time for the next generation to take over.”

There was a subtle mixture of happiness sand sadness in TJ-san’s voice and I felt a little jealous.

[[Image:godless_senpai.png|50px]]

“Our game club doesn’t have a stage like that. I imagine that not experiencing the sorrow and joy that comes with that stage has its pros and cons.”

[[Image:godless_TJ.png|50px]]

“As long as you can keep your motivation up, I think it’s better to have a system you can keep at forever.”

[[Image:godless_tenma.png|50px]]

“Excuse me, but I have an interest in books. What kind do you make?”

●

“Well,” said TJ-san, her arms crossed. She didn’t seem to mind the way everyone was edging closer.

[[Image:godless_TJ.png|50px]]

“Our main product is the gakuman book the entire club makes together. It’s a collection of our art. We each do at least a page and there is no upper limit, so at times the whole book can be 128 pages and split into two books. For us, around 112 pages is normal.”

[[Image:godless_tenma.png|50px]]

“At 112, the cover and back cover must be nice and thick, which should make for a satisfyingly sturdy book.”

[[Image:godless_TJ.png|50px]]

“It does. We also all draw whatever we want and, if it’s an original work, the club will pay for 20% of the printing. Those are usually 16 or 32 pages.”

“I see,” I said, but a question did occur to me.

[[Image:godless_senpai.png|50px]]

“The page numbers all seem kind of…unique?”

[[Image:godless_kido.png|50px]]

“They are all multiples of 16.”

[[Image:godless_boku.png|50px]]

“So they’re 16 bit! The modern age yearns for 16 bit! I think we could be friends!”

[[Image:godless_TJ_akire.png|50px]]

“Yeah, I guess that is the first thing the game club would think of.”

[[Image:godless_raidou.png|50px]]

“So does it use hexadecimal somehow, or is that part of the unit structure?”

[[Image:godless_senpai_awate.png|50px]]

“What does that mean?”

TJ-san nodded. She opened a Revelation Board in the air, but instead of writing something or displaying something…

[[Image:godless_TJ.png|50px]]

“You fold it.”

●

Folding. TJ-san performed that common household task on the Revelation Board.

[[Image:godless_TJ.png|50px]]

“Look. First, you take a rectangular sheet of paper. Think of this Revelation Board as the paper.”

She took it and folded it.

[[Image:godless_TJ.png|50px]]

“Fold the right end to the left end.”

[[Image:godless_kido.png|50px]]

“After folding, the opening should be on the left and the fold on the right, correct?”

[[Image:godless_TJ.png|50px]]

“That’s it. Next, rotate it 90 degrees to the right so the opening is at the top.”

[[Image:godless_senpai_awate.png|50px]]

“Um…that makes it a lengthwise rectangle, right?”

[[Image:godless_TJ.png|50px]]

“Right. Now fold that the same way as before. Bring the right end to the left end.”

[[Image:godless_shinobu.png|50px]]

“Oh, I think I get it now.”

[[Image:godless_TJ.png|50px]]

“Right? Anyway, you repeat the process a total of three times.”

[[Image:godless_senpai_awate.png|50px]]

“Three times!? If you do that…”

TJ-san quickly demonstrated and showed us the result. The thrice folded and rotated Revelation Board had…

[[Image:godless_kuwajiri.png|50px]]

“Stacked folds. I more or less understood it already, but seeing it myself, the multilevel structure is quite clean.”

[[Image:godless_TJ.png|50px]]

“It is. Senpai-san, do you know what this is?”

The folded shape she held up looked kind of like something.

[[Image:godless_senpai_shinken.png|50px]]

“A book?”

●

[[Image:godless_TJ.png|50px]]

“That’s right,” replied TJ.

Each fold had been along the center, so it was shaped like a binder. So… 

[[Image:godless_TJ.png|50px]]

“Next you cut away the overlapping parts while leaving the back intact and open it up. That gives you…”

She opened it, creating…

[[Image:godless_TJ.png|50px]]

“With nothing more than folding and cutting, you’ve made yourself a 16-page book.”

●

[[Image:godless_kuwajiri.png|50px]]

“That is a bookmaking process to create 16 pages out of a single sheet of paper. The folded book is called an octavo.”

TJ nodded at Kuwajiri’s explanation.

[[Image:godless_TJ.png|50px]]

“The print shops use the process to make their books. Depending on the format…the size of the book you’re making, there are other terms like quarto, sextodecimo, folio, and duodecimo, but the standard is the 16-page octavo.”

“Oh,” said a voice.

[[Image:godless_senpai.png|50px]]

“Is that why the page numbers for the gakuman book and other things were mostly in multiples of 16?”

[[Image:godless_TJ.png|50px]]

“Right. The print shop does accept multiples of 2 or 4, but since the 16-page octavo is standard, it’s less wasteful for the print shop if you bring them a multiple of 16.”

[[Image:godless_senpai_shinken.png|50px]]

“Wasteful how?”

TJ nodded. This bookmaking method was sort of an art form, but there was a problem with it.

[[Image:godless_TJ.png|50px]]

“If you don’t have a multiple of 16, then there are blank pages leftover that are generally thrown out.”

●

[[Image:godless_shifu_akire.png|50px]]

“Eh!? Then what if you made a 17-page book?”

[[Image:godless_TJ.png|50px]]

“When it ends in an odd page number, a final blank page will be added to even it out, so it would be an 18-page book. But…”

But…

[[Image:godless_TJ_akire.png|50px]]

“The book can only be printed in units of 16 pages, so 18 pages would need two octavo sheets, which is enough for 32 pages. And because '''32 – 18 = 14''', an extra pages would need to be thrown out.”

[[Image:godless_shifu_akire.png|50px]]

“Wow, that’s really something!”

●

[[Image:godless_TJ_akire.png|50px]]

“Yeah…that was the thing that shocked me the most in this divine world. Egypt is the country of papyrus, right? So when I learned about ‘paper’ as the storage medium that inherited papyrus’s place, it seemed really disposable to me.”

[[Image:godless_ki.png|50px]]

“We used clay tablets, so when I saw paper it was like, ‘Hm? What’s this otherworldly material?’, but I guess you’d see it differently if you had something similar.”

[[Image:godless_shinobu.png|50px]]

“We mainly used parchment and tree bark, so my first thought seeing paper was ‘neat, so that’s what it’s like now’.”

[[Image:godless_kido.png|50px]]

“But I had heard Norse mythology was compiled in the 13th century. Did you not have paper yet?”

[[Image:godless_kuwajiri.png|50px]]

“If you mean Snorri’s Edda, the original no longer exists, but the early copies were done with parchment. We are from Sweden and Iceland, both places it took a very long time for paper production to reach.”

●

Everyone’s brief silence told Kuwajiri that her “turn” had come.

[[Image:godless_kuwajiri.png|50px]]

…''I’m getting better at sensing these things. This time, they want me to talk about paper.

She remembered talking before about it in terms of how it reached Japan. This time, it was about Europe.

They didn’t really have to discuss this now and they could easily look it up in a book.

But they all wanted knowledge.

The gods were old beings. Most of them predated paper. They could accept what they found in the divine world because you couldn’t deny what was there in front of you, but they wouldn’t know why it was there.

[[Image:godless_kuwajiri.png|50px]]

…''That’s why knowledge gods like us exist.

When most occupational gods arrived in the divine world, they found their “occupation” from the myths no longer applied. Construction, production, and combat all required different things thanks to newer technology.

But knowledge was different. It would always be necessary. So she began to speak.

[[Image:godless_kuwajiri.png|50px]]

“Paper began in China, traveled through the Middle East, and after a very long time made it to Europe.”

[[Image:godless_gil.png|50px]]

“The Middle East? Since it came from China, I assumed it arrived along the Silk Road.”

[[Image:godless_kuwajiri.png|50px]]

“The most common story relates to the Battle of Talas in which the Abbasid Caliphate ended the Tang Dynasty’s westward conquest in the year 751. It’s said a Tang artisan taken prisoner in that battle taught the Islamic people how to manufacture paper. That region is a part of the Silk Road, so if the Tang paper making technique was not allowed outside the country, it would mean the Abbasid Caliphate followed that stance and prevented the technique from reaching Europe.”

But…

[[Image:godless_kuwajiri.png|50px]]

“In truth, a Tang damage report after the Battle of Talas says none of the prisoners taken knew how to make paper. There are no Islamic records of it either. Also, it is known that paper was manufactured and used in the nearby Islam-controlled city of Samarkand before the battle.”

●

[[Image:godless_demeter.png|50px]]

“Speaking of Samarkand, that’s where that kid Alexander attacked a fortress on pure momentum and found a bride.”

[[Image:godless_TJ_akire.png|50px]]

“What in the world…?”

[[Image:godless_athena.png|50px]]

“She’s referring to the Siege of the Sogdian Rock, which is located near Samarkand. The fortress was located atop a cliff, but Alexander scaled the cliff in the night. When he had the fortress surrounded and the enemy’s morale had fallen, he demanded they surrender and they agreed, but the enemy king’s daughter Roxane was inside and she fell in love with him, becoming his first queen.”

[[Image:godless_shinobu.png|50px]]

“Sounds like he took an impregnable fortress with brute force and momentum.”

[[Image:godless_demeter.png|50px]]

“That’s right. 300 men attempted the climb, but 30 of them fell to their deaths during the night. He really wasn’t one for thinking ahead.”

[[Image:godless_tenma.png|50px]]

“If the climb took six hours, that’s five falls per hour.”

[[Image:godless_raidou.png|50px]]

“I mean, I guess that’s fewer deaths than if he attacked it the traditional way?”

[[Image:godless_boku.png|50px]]

“Daisenryaku has a few maps like that.”

●

They’d gotten off topic. Everyone really got into it when talking about the way things were “back then”.

[[Image:godless_kuwajiri.png|50px]]

…''I need to keep better control of the conversation.

Each of the gods would be interested in how their myths and peoples “traveled”.

And by interacting with so many different mythologies in this divine world, Kuwajiri had come to realize that…

[[Image:godless_kuwajiri.png|50px]]

…''The gods want to know what happened to the humans they knew and how their own stories were passed down.

This ‘90s era divine world was like the final answer, but there was a missing link in between.

Kuwajiri herself was interested in some aspects of their discussions filling in that blank.

There were things she couldn’t know from only a Norse perspective. Having an underclassman who would step up was nice. With that in mind, she continued speaking.

[[Image:godless_kuwajiri.png|50px]]

“Anyway, paper had been produced in Samarkand since before the story I mentioned supposedly happened.”

[[Image:godless_ki.png|50px]]

“Hm? What does that mean?”

[[Image:godless_kuwajiri.png|50px]]

“The paper made at Samarkand was actually made with a different technique from the paper made by the Tang Dynasty.”

Everyone froze when they heard that. And finally, Senpai-san spoke up.

[[Image:godless_senpai_awate.png|50px]]

“Um, but paper…is paper, isn’t it?”

[[Image:godless_tenma.png|50px]]

“Even Japanese paper can differ depending on the materials used to make it. Is this something like that?”

That response gave the answer.

[[Image:godless_kuwajiri.png|50px]]

“Right. Chinese paper at the time mainly used plant fibers, but the paper made in Samarkand and the surrounding area was made from the old linen, which was common in the region. In other words, it was made from old rags. Broadly speaking, you could say that too is a plant fiber, but the Samarkand paper was a recycled product.”

●

[[Image:godless_beset.png|50px]]

“So Samarkand already had its own paper that differed from the Chinese type and that area was already controlled by Islam. But then what was all that bout the Battle of Talas?”

[[Image:godless_kuwajiri.png|50px]]

“The Battle of Talas happened in 751. It was won by the Abbasid Caliphate, which was actually a new caliphate born from overthrowing the Umayyad Caliphate in the previous year of 750. They then prospered until the early 15th century. Now, the story about the Tang artisan at the Battle of Talas was written in the 11th century. It was written by Al-Tha’alibi, a Persian teacher and authority on poetry and prose, but he was talking about – to him – 250-year-old information, so you can’t expect it to be all that accurate.”

[[Image:godless_balancer.png|50px]]

<That Al-Tha’alibi’s name means “fox” and it was said that came from either him or his father selling fox fur, but it turns out that wasn’t the case and the meaning of the name is a mystery.>

[[Image:godless_TJ.png|50px]]

“Maybe it was like a pen name.”

[[Image:godless_beisu.png|50px]]

“So he was a fox lover? I like the sound of that, but I guess I’m actually a lion.”

[[Image:godless_raidou.png|50px]]

“So to sum up, the ‘it came from Talas’ theory isn’t very reliable. Then where did the Samarkand paper come from?”

Kuwajiri spread her arms a little.

[[Image:godless_kuwajiri.png|50px]]

“The Samarkand paper also originally came from China.”

●

“Hm?” Everyone tilted their heads.

[[Image:godless_senpai_awate.png|50px]]

“Didn’t you say the Samar-whatever paper was different from Chinese paper?”

[[Image:godless_kuwajiri.png|50px]]

“I did. Senpai-san? The paper making process arrived in Japan in 610, but paper itself had been part of trade before that. Now, what was Japanese paper like in ancient times?”

[[Image:godless_senpai_awate.png|50px]]

“Um, it was made from the fibers of plants like the paper mulberry?”

“Right,” Kuwajiri replied. And she turned to look at someone else.

[[Image:godless_kuwajiri.png|50px]]

“Tenmanko-kouhai.”

[[Image:godless_tenma.png|50px]]

“The paper making process that arrived from China apparently used hemp as its primary material. But other plants were easier to come by in Japan’s environment, so the paper mulberry was chosen as the primary material, leading to a uniquely Japanese type of paper.”

“And,” she continued.

[[Image:godless_tenma.png|50px]]

“Japanese paper has a unique culture. Instead of making paper from the paper mulberry or some other plant, the paper known as sukigaeshigami was made by breaking down used paper and remaking it as a sort of recycled paper. The practice began in the Heian period when personal letters would be recycled and used to make copies of Buddhist sutra or to mass-produce paper for memos or for simple notices. One note about this recycled paper is that it was used to recycle old rags and other fibrous trash.”

Hearing that, Kuwajiri asked everyone a question.

[[Image:godless_kuwajiri.png|50px]]

“You can find the answer in what Temanko-kouhai just said. How could Samarkand paper and Tang paper be different while the Samarkand paper ''came from China''?”

[[Image:godless_poseidon.png|50px]]

“It was recycled?”

Kuwajiri looked over and he continued despite saying that with a question mark.

[[Image:godless_poseidon.png|50px]]

“Japan had two kinds of paper, right? There was the one with paper… mulberry? Well, the one made with plant fibers. And there was the recycled paper made with trash and stuff, right?”

[[Image:godless_kuwajiri.png|50px]]

“What do you think that means?”

[[Image:godless_shifu_akire.png|50px]]

“Oh, is that it?”

Kuwajiri nodded at Shifu’s surprise and then the sea god nodded too. After a pause, he continued.

[[Image:godless_poseidon.png|50px]]

“Japan made a different plant paper because it used a different material, but that’s pretty standard when it comes to learning how to make paper, right? In that sense, recycled paper made from scrap cloths is a bit of a leap…so how did that method spread?”

●

That was a good question, so Kuwajiri spread her arms a bit ans answered.

[[Image:godless_kuwajiri.png|50px]]

“When paper technology reached Japan, it didn’t directly arrive from Tang. It is said a Goryeo priest brought it to them. That paper was mainly made with hemp, but since the Han period, China had shifted from hemp to more fine fibers and their paper quality changed in the 800s. And…”

And…

[[Image:godless_kuwajiri.png|50px]]

“China established effective paper manufacturing in 105, thanks to Cai Lun, but his method was a mixture of plant fibers and recycled items, so it included tree bark, hemp debris, scraps of cloth, and discarded fishing nets. So paper was manufactured as a recycled product from the beginning. Narrowing it down to only good materials came later.”

[[Image:godless_athena.png|50px]]

“Then the Samarkand paper…”

It sounded like they more or less had the answer already.

[[Image:godless_kuwajiri.png|50px]]

“The Samarkand paper was primarily made from cloth scraps. So the primitive paper manufacturing method arrived in Samarkand from China or India, but paper in China was then improved into something else.”

So…

[[Image:godless_kuwajiri.png|50px]]

“If a paper manufacturing technique did pass from Tang to Samarkand during the Battle of Talas, it was something delicate that had grown past even hemp paper. But Samarkand paper was primarily made from cloth scraps even after that. In the Islamic world, the tradition of recycling cloth scraps to make paper continued even after the use of plant fibers was introduced.”

[[Image:godless_shinobu.png|50px]]

“So what they were forced to use became tradition, a lot like sturdy coveralls?”

“That’s right,” said Kuwajiri.

[[Image:godless_kuwajiri.png|50px]]

“In fact, Europe received the Middle Eastern form of paper, not the Chinese, so European paper was primarily made with cloth scraps. Furthermore…”

[[Image:godless_kido.png|50px]]

“There’s more?”

[[Image:godless_kuwajiri.png|50px]]

“Yes. While Europe received paper from the Middle East, it was actually the Iberian Peninsula that first used paper as a part of European culture.”

[[Image:godless_kido.png|50px]]

“Hm? It jumped straight from the Middle East to the Iberian Peninsula? Why?”

“Oh,” said a voice. And a hand went up.

The answer came from someone who hadn’t spoken yet.

[[Image:godless_anne_awate.png|50px]]

“The Islamic dynasty… on the Iberian Peninsula?”

●

“Right,” said Kuwajiri, opening a Revelation Board and displaying a map of Europe.

First, she zoomed in on the Iberian Peninsula.

[[Image:godless_kuwajiri.png|50px]]

“Europe’s oldest paper document is a Christian missal which was allowed under Islamic rule in the eastern Iberian city of Xativa. It dates to sometime before 1080. The paper was made from a mixture of cloth scrap and hemp, but since a paper mill began running on the Iberian Peninsula in 1056, it must have been made sometime between 1056 and 1080.”

[[Image:godless_raidou.png|50px]]

“To put it another way, if there was any paper in Europe before then, it was a trade good from the Middle East and there must not have been enough of it for any documents to remain, right?”

[[Image:godless_kuwajiri.png|50px]]

“Right. Now, Xativa is located in the Spanish province of Valencia and Valencia was liberated by the Reconquista in 1086. They must have acquired paper making technology from Xativa during that process because a paper mill was built in Toledo in 1085.”

[[Image:godless_anne_awate.png|50px]]

“I knew the Reconquista was important…because it brought Islamic civilization to Europe…but does this mean it also finally brought…the Islamic printing technology to Europe too?”

[[Image:godless_kuwajiri.png|50px]]

“It does. France sponsored the Reconquista, and they had a paper mill in the country by 1190. The maneuvering between countries over this must have been a sight to behold.”

Anyway, the rest was more fluid.

[[Image:godless_kuwajiri.png|50px]]

“Europe’s paper making technology spread from west to east. That’s not too surprising since it started with the Reconquista, but it went in this order:”

*'''1276: Italy

*'''1320: Germany

*'''Around 1340: Netherlands

*'''1432: Switzerland

*'''Around 1490: Britain

*'''Around 1576: Russia

“Others took longer, but this gives a good summary of who got there first.”

[[Image:godless_kido.png|50px]]

“There are a few clusters. Like around 1100 and around 1300.”

[[Image:godless_kuwajiri.png|50px]]

“Because even with a mill, you need the materials to make the paper. Hemp wasn’t easy to come by in Europe and they were fighting a lot of wars, so using cloth scraps became the mainstream method.”

[[Image:godless_shifu_akire.png|50px]]

“Hey, Kuwajiri-chan?”

[[Image:godless_kuwajiri.png|50px]]

“Do you have question, Shifu-senpai?”

[[Image:godless_shifu_akire.png|50px]]

“This whole discussion was about why it took so long for paper-making to reach Scandinavia, so when did Sweden get a paper mill?”

Kuwajiri averted her eyes from her superior and added the date to her Revelation Board.

*'''1612: Sweden

●

[[Image:godless_shifu_akire.png|50px]]

“Wow! We were really late to the party on paper, weren’t we!?”

[[Image:godless_senpai_awate.png|50px]]

“In fact, isn’t that 1000 years later than it officially arrived in Japan!? How were you making records for those thousand years!? Oral traditions!?”

[[Image:godless_boku.png|50px]]

“With gestures! The body remembers history!”

[[Image:godless_raidou.png|50px]]

“Hey, Kuwajiri. They’re treating us like primitive barbarians.”

[[Image:godless_kuwajiri.png|50px]]

“Well, we could get paper through trade. The nearby Poland build a paper mill in 1491 and the Hanseatic League was at its peak at that time.”

[[Image:godless_neptunes.png|50px]]

“But if it was all 11th century or later, I can see why Norse mythology wasn’t written on paper.”

[[Image:godless_kuwajiri.png|50px]]

“It really shows why paper was one of the most surprising things in the divine world for us.”

[[Image:godless_raidou.png|50px]]

“Computers were more than I could even hope to understand at first and trains just felt like an advanced form of wagon, but paper’s a really analog thing and I could kind of tell what it was made from, so it really hit that sweet spot of new but not too new.”

[[Image:godless_boku.png|50px]]

“I bet you all didn’t want to bring it up because you knew someone would make a joke based on kami meaning both god and paper in Japanese.”

[[Image:godless_kuwajiri.png|50px]]

“Unfortunately, I nearly made one of those jokes myself but thought better of it. Yes, unfortunately for you!”

[[Image:godless_boku.png|50px]]

“Damn! I’ll get you next time! I’ll give you the worst deadpan look from diagonally below you as soon as you say it!”

●

“Anyway,” said Kuwajiri, realizing her “turn” had ended.

There was still plenty more she could say about paper, but that wasn’t needed here. But she could say one thing.

[[Image:godless_kuwajiri.png|50px]]

“The style of paper-making that developed in Europe is one reason Europe has always had such a strong culture of using recycled paper. That kind of paper arrived in Japan during the Bakumatsu period and it overtook Japanese paper in use because it was more useful for writing calculations and such.”

[[Image:godless_TJ.png|50px]]

“So they developed a method that didn’t need as much original material because less material was available to them. And that meant the adhesive was stronger, allowing for tougher, thinner paper.”

“But,” said TJ.

[[Image:godless_TJ_akire.png|50px]]

“Our gakuman activities wouldn’t be possible if everyone still used Chinese or Japanese paper. …If anything, Europe’s environment being poorly suited for paper making is what allowed paper to become so ubiquitous around the world. Humanity does some wild things…”

[[Image:godless_kuwajiri.png|50px]]

“Makes it feel like only the result really matters. And I think one problem with humanity is how they let their cultures and civilizations run wild without considering where they will end up.”

●

[[Image:godless_ki.png|50px]]

“For gods like me, it feels like you’re talking about another world altogether.”

[[Image:godless_demeter.png|50px]]

“Same for us since we only wrote things on clay tablets or pieces of pottery. What about you, Eshtar?”

[[Image:godless_eshita.png|50px]]

“I just accept whatever life throws at me. None of it seems too surprising.”

[[Image:godless_gil.png|50px]]

“Did you suspect something like this would exist?”

“No,” said Eshita, pulling something from inside her coat.

[[Image:godless_eshita.png|50px]]

“But look at this Karamucho bag. It’s a miracle of technology. And so easy to open too. Look, um, you just go like this and it, um, opens so, uh, easily…”

After a few tries, Eshita held the bag toward the lifespan goddess.

[[Image:godless_eshita_warai.png|50px]]

<span style="font-size:125%">'''“Open it!”'''</span>

●

Balancer spoke while the lifespan godless wordlessly opened the bag.

[[Image:godless_balancer.png|50px]]

<Bags for potato chips and similar snacks have the interior coated with aluminum to prevent oxidation from the oil. The process is called aluminum vacuum deposition. The earlier PET bags were replaced with aluminum metallized bags, starting in 1975 with Calbee potato chips.>

[[Image:godless_eshita_awate.png|50px]]

“Eh!? Is Calbee divine too!? I knew it!”

[[Image:godless_ki.png|50px]]

“You should just become Japanese at this point.”

[[Image:godless_balancer.png|50px]]

<Wouldn’t that be a nuisance for Shinto?>

[[Image:godless_eshita_awate.png|50px]]

“I am not a nuisance! But if I do join Shinto, I’d treat you great! I’d always show the proper gravity and respect when we faced each other! Because of my relationship with Karamucho!”

[[Image:godless_raidou.png|50px]]

“Why can’t you be like that in your own mythology?”

[[Image:godless_gil.png|50px]]

“I am really sorry…”

[[Image:godless_kido.png|50px]]

“So anyway, the biggest surprise for me in this divine world was how paper technology and the newer packaging technology had so much overlap.”

[[Image:godless_boku.png|50px]]

“The biggest surprise! I know exactly what you mean! I’d give the award for biggest to Shifu-senpai, the award for motherliness to Kido-senpai, and the award for beautiful balance to Senpai!”

''Why did that cause so many level up Revelation Boards to appear?'' wondered Kido, but apparently that was just how the system worked.

●

“That about sums it up,” said TJ with a nod toward Kuwajiri.

[[Image:godless_TJ.png|50px]]

“We know just how amazing paper is, so we generally do it in units of 16 pages. If we are going over that, we’ll add a unit of 8 pages. If we’re going past that, then we’ll go up to the next unit of 16. I figure that will put less of a strain on the divine world.”

[[Image:godless_balancer.png|50px]]

<Fantastic! If only a certain monkey could hear you say that.>

[[Image:godless_boku.png|50px]]

“Yeah, and if only a certain screen would create a world with more plentiful resources so the manga club didn’t have to limit themselves like that!”

While the human and screen began some serious arguing, TJ saw the door to the art club open.

Kunugi emerged.

[[Image:godless_kunugi.png|50px]]

“Hey, you should’ve told me you were back.”

[[Image:godless_raidou.png|50px]]

“Oh? Do you have something for us?”

[[Image:godless_kunugi.png|50px]]

“You’ve decided that we – or rather TJ as the Egyptian representative – will deal with the flooding, right? In that case, the flooding solution will be ready by tomorrow, so tonight you’ll be resting until that’s ready.”

[[Image:godless_TJ.png|50px]]

“Then you can all grab something to eat and get your rest.”

[[Image:godless_kuwajiri.png|50px]]

“Our club can offer some beer.”

What did this mean exactly?

The wall clock visible from the courtyard said it was 6 PM. It was currently raining, but…

[[Image:godless_senpai.png|50px]]

“It’s past the bon festival and this would normally have been the perfect evening to hear the cicadas crying.”

[[Image:godless_boku.png|50px]]

“Senpai, you want to hear cicada cries!? Then I’ll see what I can do! Where should I cry from to really set the mood!? Maybe hanging down from the edge of the 2nd floor balcony hallway!? Yeah, that should do the trick! And if you look up at me from below, I can get a rare bird’s-eye view of your boobs, which I just know will be amazing even if I can only imagine it for the moment! I’m all fired up! I bet I could win first prize in a national cicada contest!”

What was he even talking about?

[[Image:godless_raidou.png|50px]]

Don’t hang off of things like that. You could roll back if you fall.”

[[Image:godless_kuwajiri.png|50px]]

“Won’t he be fine if it’s only from the 2nd floor?”

[[Image:godless_ki.png|50px]]

“No, the human would die in a subconscious attempt to be funny.”

[[Image:godless_shifu_akire.png|50px]]

“I hate how plausible that is…”

[[Image:godless_kido.png|50px]]

“I will catch him if he falls, so it will be alright.”

[[Image:godless_kuwajiri.png|50px]]

“Sorry, Kido-senpai, but knowing that idiot, there is no way it would turn out alright.”

[[Image:godless_demeter.png|50px]]

“I see it going like this: she catches him → he bounces off her boobs → he ricochets around like a wild horse → a truck outside hits him → he falls in the water and a boat hits him.”

[[Image:godless_beset_awate.png|50px]]

“Oof, that feels like an attack on me!”

Everyone turned to look at Senpai-san for the final verdict.

She patted the human’s head with a smile.

[[Image:godless_senpai_warai.png|50px]]

“How about you help Kido-san and the others prepare dinner? That should be relatively safe.”

[[Image:godless_boku.png|50px]]

“Okay! Big boobs in an apron! The best way to enjoy an open-air summer evening (with pouring rain)! It’s perfect! 5 billion points!”

Kuwajiri-shi opened a Revelation Board and began writing out a process for how outdoor cooking could lead to death, but that was overthinking it.

●

Souko was vexed by the voices she heard outside.

[[Image:godless_socal_awate.png|50px]]

“Units of 16 or 8 pages!”

She currently held 24 pages. That was 16 + 8, so it did meet the conditions.

And the inner pages and the cover were usually separate. The cover and back cover would use tougher paper, so they weren’t counted unless they did use the same kind of paper as the interior pages.

So with the covers being a separate sheet of paper, she had thought her 24 pages would work. But…

[[Image:godless_dareka.png|50px]]

“What about the title page, table of contents, and colophon?”

The cover was a separate sheet, so she could have the table of contents or colophon printed on the other side of that sheet. That would mean no title page, but that would still work. However…

[[Image:godless_socal_awate.png|50px]]

“After all this work, I really want to give it a title page and everything a real book should have…”

In that case, she would need two more front-and-back pages for the title page and colophon. In other words, four more pages. That would increase the total number of inner pages to 28.

[[Image:godless_socal.png|50px]]

“For the 16-page units, 32 pages would be best, so I’m short 4 pages!”

[[Image:godless_dareka.png|50px]]

“Does it really matter that much?”

It did.

Because…

[[Image:godless_socal.png|50px]]

…''Touto-senpai is probably planning to retire as club head after this.

As creator god in training, Souko knew she had to show she could do things right. So…

[[Image:godless_boku.png|50px]]

“Hell yeah! Grub tiiiiiime!”

As she heard the human’s cheerful voice through the door, she decided she was going to do this right no matter what it took.

●

[[Image:godless_socal.png|50px]]

“I’m going to add 4 pages. And I need to consider revising and adjusting what I’ve already done. …I will finish this tonight no matter what it takes.”

[[Image:godless_dareka.png|50px]]

“Tonight? Isn’t that pushing it? Why does it matter?”

[[Image:godless_socal.png|50px]]

“Touto-senpai said earlier that we’ll have the human read it once it’s done.”

Once Touto-senpai fixed the flooding, the human would leave this building.

And Souko more or less understood why Touto-senpai had asked Balancer to turn back time.

Comiket. That was where their books were meant to be. She must have meant to call the human there.

For gods, it meant a lot to have a human see their “ability”. Souko had never really thought about it before, but it had occurred to her today while she listened in on the meeting of the gods in the courtyard.

The others must have sensed it too.

[[Image:godless_dareka.png|50px]]

“I see. Summer ‘festivals’ are meant for humans to make offerings to the gods.”

They had done their best to give physical form to the things they liked, but…

[[Image:godless_socal.png|50px]]

“Now we have a person here to see it.”

Touto-senpai had realized that.

But it hadn’t happened.

So it had to be tonight.

[[Image:godless_socal.png|50px]]

“Yeah…”

Touto-senpai’s request to Balancer made so much sense.

[[Image:godless_socal.png|50px]]

“If only we could turn back time to Comiket…”

Then she could have let the human see her work in the place it was meant to be seen.

<noinclude>
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