Rorschach was a man who believed in sharing. After all the hard work of creating colored glass, his first thought wasn’t to monopolize it, but to release it to the public as quickly as possible. Even if he charged for it, people would still say, "Mage Rorschach, you’re a real stand-up guy."

In this era, especially in Bayern where the Guilds were still powerful, the true meaning of "knowledge is priceless" was that you couldn’t buy it even if you had money.

But Rorschach’s spirit of sharing terrified the Guild President. The three largest workshops in the Guild relied on their monopoly over the production processes for Forest Glass and cobalt Blue Glass, selling plate glass to the southern Churches at exorbitant prices. This allowed the three of them to take turns holding the presidency.

Tracing their origins, these three workshops were founded by three apprentices who had struck out on their own from the same Master. In the Empire, once an Apprentice graduated, they became a Guild-certified artisan. They would then leave to travel and work in other workshops, further refining their skills before returning to the Guild or opening their own shop elsewhere.

This "journeyman apprentice system" promoted technical exchange and progress, but to Rorschach, ’it’s the same old story!’ At the end of the day, the Magic Guild was still a Guild. But Bayern stood apart from other places, which made it particularly stubborn.

At Rorschach’s request, the Bayern Glass Guild convened a temporary meeting. Some of the glass workshops weren’t located in town, so at the Guild President’s behest, Rorschach and Pierre waited two days. Mr. Hasse and a representative from Balderom also arrived.

The Guild President was probably making some moves behind the scenes during this time, but Rorschach couldn’t care less.

Mr. Pierre said, "Mage Rorschach, the Guild President has gathered all the Workshop Masters."

"Good, have them wait a bit. I’ll be there as soon as I’m done with this." With two days to spare, Rorschach had made another trip to the Tower of Secret Techniques to prepare more colored glass materials. He also gathered a few Apprentices who were somewhat interested in Alchemy to test and record the process of refining associated ores.

Rorschach had become slightly obsessed with making small glass crafts. Using Mage’s Hand with tactile feedback combined with the Stone Shaping Skill made creating small models even easier than molding clay. Once he mastered the "Mapping" method for glass, he could create whatever he imagined.

"What is this? A Demon Warrior?" Mr. Pierre carefully picked up a glass humanoid figure. He could make out a head, torso, and limbs, but he had never seen armor like that, or the object it held in both hands... a Hand Cannon? A Magic Weapon?

"Ah... yes, yes it is." It was actually a Zaku... Rorschach had forgotten to put it away. Facing the merchant uncle from this Otherworld, he felt the specific shame of a niche hobby being discovered by a nosy visiting relative.

"Alright. Let’s go meet with these industry experts."

For the past few days, Rorschach had been staying in the Town Mage’s tower. As a student of Ouyeni, the Town Mage was happy to host him. The Guild’s temporary meeting was held at the town hall, which wasn’t far from the tower. The moment the Mage entered the Meeting Room, the Guild President, the town mayor, and Mr. Hasse all rose to their feet. Seeing this, the others couldn’t remain seated and all stood up to greet him as well. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

’Am I the one in charge here?’ Rorschach didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. He walked to the head of the table, sat down, and gestured with both hands for everyone to be seated. "My apologies for being late."

"Not at all, not at all! We were just early." ’You’ve got the makings of a real bootlicker, Guild President. I’ve got my eye on you.’

The other Workshop Masters suppressed their astonishment. This was a town built on the glass industry; it could do without a town hall, but not without the Guild. For this reason, not even the town mayor would receive such deference from the Guild President.

Rorschach began by gifting everyone a small glass craft he had tinkered with. Though it was like showing off one’s ax skills to a master carpenter, Rorschach was wielding a Magic Axe. Those who received one could only click their tongues in wonder—many of the details were impossible to create with traditional techniques like blowing, pressing, pulling, and stretching.

Under his control, more than twenty little trinkets floated gently to each person. The Workshop Masters caught them and began to examine them closely.

The shopkeeper who had sold Rorschach the little white horse—he now knew her name was Jenfni—was seated at the lower end of the round table, but she received a "Staff Mage." The Guild President took note of this.

"My apologies, Mage, but... we can’t produce goods like this." One Workshop Master thought the item in his hand was a sample. He held an amber-colored glass Dragon, and he couldn’t imagine how one could create the fine scales and sharp teeth on a palm-sized Dragon.

A low buzz filled the Meeting Room.

Rorschach raised his hand again, and the noise immediately died down. ’If only my students were this obedient...’ "Everyone, you’ve misunderstood. I said these were gifts, and they are just that. What we truly need you to make is this."

Rorschach took out a bottle he had "designed." Its waist was cinched, with a beautiful, perfect curve that made it easy to hold. The moment Mr. Pierre had picked it up, his eyes had lit up. Since the Coca-Cola Company’s IP lawyers couldn’t reach the Otherworld, Rorschach had of course shamelessly replicated the classic design.

"We can certainly handle an order like this, but why was it necessary to summon all of us?" a bearded Workshop Master asked bluntly.

"First, we require that Guild members do not supply glass bottles of this shape to any other beverage merchants. Second, our initial production volume will be fifteen thousand bottles per month."

The sample bottle was passed around among the Workshop Masters. Upon hearing that number, the man currently holding it almost dropped it.

This figure was the result of calculations by the two merchants, Pierre and Mr. Hasse. Riding on the prosperity in Valois, sales of "Hercules" soda had reached twenty-five thousand bottles per month, and those were large bottles, not the small ones Rorschach had "designed."

Bayern’s tourism and commerce were well-developed. While it lacked the purchasing power of the Valuvanan people, Hasse conservatively estimated that the entire Duma Alliance could consume that much, possibly even matching the Holy Kingdom. And with Bart’s influence, if the "Energy Potion" was distributed to the Southern Empire Army as a military supply...

In short, the market was huge. Rorschach had only given them a conservative number, but to these artisans, it was astronomical. "Impossible, sir! We couldn’t finish that even if we pushed aside all our other orders!"

"I know you can’t. I’ll turn the floor over to Mr. Pierre."

In truth, there was already existing Valuvanan experience with bottling and canning plants. Rorschach, as a board member, had even proposed the concept of an assembly line. There was no rush to build the core production line for extracting the plant-based ingredients. Following the advanced methods of the soft drink giant from his previous life, they would ship concentrated syrup from the main factory in Valois, then dilute, bottle, carbonate, and cap it locally. The sales network would be handed over to the Balderom Chamber of Commerce to coordinate with the Logistics Guild.

But there were always obstacles when implementing new practices. Rorschach had cleared the first hurdle; now it was Mr. Pierre’s time to shine.

Mr. Pierre announced the plan to form a company. The initial investment capital would be provided by "Hercules" and "Balderom," who would collectively hold 51% of the company’s shares. 29% of the shares would be available for purchase by the workshops within the Guild, and the remaining 20% would be allocated to an employee stock ownership committee, to be awarded to employees or offered for them to purchase. The committee would buy back shares from employees who left the company.

"So what we need to do is..."

The Guild President coughed. "Guild members can subscribe for shares themselves. Participation is optional. Even if you don’t want the 29%, I’ll buy up the rest!"

Once the Guild President said this, a stir went through the room.

"For the new company, you can also receive shares by contributing technology or personnel. We don’t need highly skilled Masters; Apprentices will be enough!" All processes would follow the Valois model. In theory, the bottles would be produced using a standardized mold-blowing method, which only required skilled workers. They could then hire new workers, who would be trained by the experienced ones, to rapidly increase production.

"You’ve all heard Mr. Pierre. Who agrees, and who objects?"