Better Than the Old Days — 2
At the mere mention of Cronus, Thalia shrank in on herself.
"I-I heard about him from Grandfather. E-even the other gods got tormented by Cronus..."
"There was even a story that if you didn't listen and didn't do your studies, Cronus would come and carry you off."
Cronus must have been a real terror to her. The moment Aglaia playfully growled, Thalia trembled and burrowed deeper into my arms, and Euphrosyne, the middle sister, tried to look composed only to betray herself by clutching a fistful of my clothes.
"So humans would like the Olympian gods better, then?"
"Well, from our point of view, yes."
"You mean you don't liiike the Titan gods...?"
Tears welled in the great wide eyes of the little goddess clinging to me. Lorventus, catching sight of them, shook his head in a panic.
"Ah, no! That's not what I meant! Lord Oceanus and Lady Tethys! Lady Eurynome and the three goddesses — of course we love them too!!"
As if an excuse that thin was ever going to persuade Thalia.
"Hiiing..."
"Aigoo... Goddess...!! I-I'll go make some delicious pudding right away!!"
Lorventus bolted for the kitchen as if he were fleeing for his life. Aglaia let out a snort at the sight.
"Lorventus. Didn't he say he was the man in charge of Lemnos Island? And he falls apart like that just because our Thalia sniffled a little."
"If I thought I'd made a granddaughter of Oceanus cry, I'd do the same."
"Heh. Hephaestus. So if I cried, would you scramble around like that for me too?"
I nodded, fussing over Thalia, who was still whimpering.
"Of course."
"O-oh. R-right. Ahem. Yeah. Good. If some other goddess tries to bully you, I'll protect you. Me. Aglaia."
"I'm touched to tears."
A little later Lorventus emerged with the pudding and cookies I had made ahead of time.
"Lorventus. I know your loyalty. But don't forget — a stain of suspicion doesn't wipe away so easily."
"I know it well, I do, I do."
Taking a scolding from me was far preferable, for him, to making excuses to the goddesses. Sure enough, he looked almost relieved.
"Goddesses, please enjoy! And the moment I learn another fine dish, I'll offer it up to you first, I will!"
"Yeah!"
"I'm counting on you!"
"Hehe. I shall look forward to it."
"Hey. Hey, Lorventus. If you're my worshipper, shouldn't you be offering it to me first...?"
He turned on me a look of pure, desperate pleading. Fine. I'd call it saving a life and keep my mouth shut.
Even with the goddesses visiting, I was hardly without work. I was putting my back into automating the labor, turning out a few more waterwheels, when the cry came.
"Aaaah...!! O great and mighty god!!"
The scholars of Miletus had arrived. Anaxa, whom I had met before, and what looked like a dozen others besides, with the servants attending them pouring into my laboratory in a flood.
"We have brought offerings for the great god of wisdom, Lord Hephaestus!!"
They had brought a great deal. Ore, grain, meat, hides. No small quantity of parchment and papyrus, either. And no small number of people.
"I thought it was only the scholars coming..."
"We have brought the people of our households, our servants, and craftsmen and farmers as well!!"
"Oh. Is that so."
Anaxa declared it with blazing confidence.
"And from this day forth, we wish to live here as believers who serve Lord Hephaestus."
"Do as you like."
More worshippers was a good thing. For me especially, set on raising the technological level of humankind, a growing number of renowned scholars could hardly hurt.
"G-great god. Might we be permitted to see the waterwheel and the water channels you are said to have made?"
"Of course. I've got my hands on something at the moment and can't step away, so — Lorventus."
"Yes!! The First Hammer of Lord Hephaestus, Lorventus, is here!"
Since when are you my First Hammer. But he was so magnificently sure of himself in front of the scholars that I couldn't be bothered to correct him, and I let it pass.
"Come, come, follow me! I shall show you the wisdom the great Lord Hephaestus has bestowed upon mankind!!"
"Ooooh...!!"
The scholars who had swarmed in swarmed right back out again. I could leave them to Lorventus. I turned my eyes back to the workbench.
What I was working on was a pulley. Ancient Greece used pulleys too, but theirs sat a long way from the knowledge I carried, so I was improving this one. After tinkering until I had something I was reasonably satisfied with, I glanced out the window. The sun was going down. The scholars who had gone out had not come back.
What in the world are these people doing?
"Hey! Lorventus! The sun's down and the scholars haven't eaten—"
I reached the waterwheel and found them scribbling like madmen across stone tablets and papyrus.
"...What are you doing?"
"We are recording the wisdom of the great god!!"
"Right, but why are you writing it there? You're not using the paper?"
"We could not possibly use so carelessly a precious thing the god himself made."
"Indeed! The paper wrought by the great god exists for sacred knowledge that will illuminate the world..."
Listening to them hold forth with such fervor, I sighed. I had given it to them to use. Why weren't they using it?
"Just use the paper. I'll teach you how to make it, so if you run short, make more yourselves."
"...Pardon?"
I had been hoping a swift spread of paper would make the passing on of knowledge a little easier. How else was human technology supposed to rise?
The next day, paper production began. I brought over the materials I had stockpiled behind the laboratory.
"Use the waterwheel, and you can cut the hard labor down to almost nothing."
"Oh..."
I separated the fibers from the wood, then set the waterwheel's stamp mill to pounding the stock.
"Why do you do that?"
"The fibers inside have to be loosened until they're fine. Then you suspend this in water and draw it up in a thin sheet."
The parts that would have eaten time — the drying, above all — I settled with the authority of Fire. A few processes later, a broad sheet of paper lay finished.
"This is paper."
"Heavens..."
"The method's a little involved, but the price is cheap."
Scrap fiber and wood were enough to make plenty of it.
"Th-that's right!!"
"If it can be made in this fashion... the transmission of knowledge will become easier still!!"
Lighter than a heavy clay tablet. Cheaper than parchment or papyrus. A new means of carrying knowledge had come into the world, and nothing could set a scholar alight quite like that.
"Such precious knowledge... why would you share it with us mere humans?!"
Anaxa cried out as if the words were torn from him. The other scholars seemed to feel much the same.
"Because it's necessary?"
Humanity had to grow. Technology had to rise, and so did productivity. Only then could I actually use the things they made.
"Knowledge is treasure, and it is power. Why do you not keep it for yourself alone?"
"Hoard it and all you've got is dead knowledge and dead technique. Doesn't it develop further once countless people are using it? That's what I want."
They spoke as if I were taking some enormous loss, but it wasn't really so. Ways to make money were endless in any case, and being worshipped raised a god's authority and strength all by itself. Teaching them papermaking served both my goals and the growth of my power. There was no reason not to.
"...Ooooh...!!"
Anaxa and the scholars with him threw themselves down before me and, in the end, began to weep.
The scholars who had gathered around the knowledge bestowed by the great god looked at one another.
"To hand over knowledge this precious so casually..."
"Knowledge and technique are living things. They must spread to many, and widely benefit humankind..."
"How could we betray his noble will? Friends. Let us make the method of papermaking known to the world."
Most of them agreed. Those who did not belong to that majority spoke more quietly.
"But if it's the knowledge of making paper, couldn't wealth come with it?"
"What if we left out the important parts when we passed it to those who aren't with us...?"
"If we shared it only with scholars who truly follow Lord Hephaestus, wouldn't his believers increase of their own accord?"
A few of them ventured the opinion with care. The gazes that answered — Anaxa's among them — were cold enough to cut.
"Have you forgotten what the god declared?! From of old, to lose one's faith is to court death...!!"
"So the wreckers were among us!!"
"Drawing them to follow of their own will is far nobler than forcing them to obey...!!"
"Those who come to learn and master this will become Lord Hephaestus's believers on their own...!! How can your thinking be so small?!"
In the end the scholars who had spoken shrank back, and the matter was settled. Anyone who wished to learn — anyone who meant to make human life better — must not be neglected when it came to the spread of knowledge.
"I will write to my disciples and colleagues in every land at once."
"And I shall do the same."
And so the scholars moved.
"Lord Hephaestus. How shall we prepare a place for the scholars to live?"
"Good timing. You showed up just when I needed you."
The pulley was finished. It was about time I put it to use. I called the laborers over with the thing I had roughly thrown together.
"I only called the laborers."
"How could we merely stand and watch!"
"We can work as well!"
The scholars shouted that they were ready to labor, flexing as they did. More hands were never a bad thing, but still.
"But what is that?"
"A pulley."
"It seems quite different from the pulleys I know..."
"I improved it a little. I mean to use it when we build the place where you'll live."
A compound pulley. I had joined the old fixed pulleys to movable ones, so that even heavy loads could be lifted with ease.
"And you used to haul the rope by hand. Try this instead."
I had fitted a winch as well, a device that turned without much effort.
"Tie it to that rock over there."
"Yes!!"
The puzzled pirate-laborers rigged it as I had explained and made the rope fast to the stone.
"It's done!"
"Good. Then turn this."
Laborers and scholars together turned the handle I had indicated. The winch revolved, the rope drew taut, and it began to move — a deep, grinding rumble — and the rock that had not budged an inch started, slowly, to shift.
"Huh?"
"That's impossible..."
"What's impossible about it? Those pulleys cut down the force you need. Well. With this, we can put up a decent enough building, can't we?"
"...Yes! Yes! Of course! First we must raise a temple to Lord Hephaestus, and make it enormous!"
"Damn right!! A vast temple worthy of the great god...!!"
"...Just build a place for yourselves to live. Don't sleep out in the rain."
"Ooooh...!!"
"O merciful god...!!"
"For our merciful and wise god, we must raise a statue a plethron tall..."
What?! A plethron?!
My eyes flashed at the sound of some scholar running his mouth.
"Who was that? Who said plethron?"
One plethron is a hundred pous. And a pous? The length of a grown man's foot. Are you kidding me. Daring to drag that filthy system of units into my domain... Unforgivable. Absolutely unforgivable.
"All of you, gather round."
I called the craftsmen and the scholars together, then brought from the laboratory a ruler one meter long — made from the authority of Creation and the memories of my past life — and held it up for them to see.
"From now on, length is measured by this ruler."
"Ooooh...!!"
"Are you declaring a new unit?!"
"The length of this ruler shall be called one meter. Divide it into exactly one hundred equal parts, and that length I name one centimeter. I'll set the other units in order and distribute them, so commit them to memory."
With that, there would be no more confusion over units of length.
"I'll organize the units for weight and volume before long as well. From now on, you follow those."
"Ah. Yes. I-I understand."
"If you want to go on seeing a merciful god, watch yourselves."
From this day forward, the standard of measure in this world would be the Metric System.
A unit that took a foot for its standard?
Never.
I would not tolerate it. Not under any circumstances.