The forest of fireflies’ guardians were all let inside the publishing house this time. They were invited into the meeting room and were given black tea. They sipped the nice smelling, but bitter brew, and wondered why they were all here when Larriel had done the negotiations last time.

Finally, Callan Perry, the chief editor, as well as Danika Summers and Nathan Reed, came into the room and sat at the head of the table. In Callan’s hand was a book.

“You must all understand that if word got out, I am trying to replace grandpa Thinker’s encyclopedia Plantanica with the writings of a toddler, I will get a severe backlash.” Said the chief editor.

The adventurers were about to protest. They had read some of the notebooks and found no problems in them. But Mister Perry raised his hand to quiet them.

“But the alternative is to rob said toddler of her fame. I will take the risk and hope for the best. This is the combined work of both notebooks, printed and with a nice front cover made up from drawings we found in the notebooks and some finishing touches by our artists. You can give this back to little Theanore.”

“You will publish her work?” Asked Lena, amazed. The mage was ready to jump from joy right then and there. Little Theanore was going to be so happy!

“We will need to discuss marketing, printing cost, the cost for the book cover, and due date but yes. We will publish Theanore’s leafy friends and how to grow them, Miss Lena.”

The adventurers began shaking each other’s hands and clapping each other on the shoulder. Callan Perry coughed and they all turned to him, looking sheepish.

“Now, for the overall cost. How many copies do you want to be made for the first year?” Asked the chief editor. With the mana-powered printing press, the cost was reduced but they still needed to pay for the paper and the ink, not to mention the mana crystals.

“How much would 10000 copies cost if we provide the mana crystals?” Asked Lena.

“Well, 1 mana crystal is needed for every 100 copies. So that would be quite the amount, Miss Lena. Can you really get 100 mana crystals?” Asked Mister Perry. Lena grinned.

“The kids will have to hold off on enchanting for a couple of days. They have a mana fountain that never runs out. We will bag what they already have and we will pitch in for the rest.”

One mana crystal is made of 5 mana so Theanore alone could make around 80 crystals in a single setting. Plus, the 60 Marinus could make and the children would not even have to wait to get back to enchanting. But the adventurers didn’t know that and they thought they could expect 20 crystals from each child as a reservoir of 100 mana was the smallest among for a child of two.

“Hm. The book is 543 pages long. That is 5 430 000 pages in total. 10 coppers per page plus the expenditure of 5 copper for ink per page and that will make 81450 gold coins.”

All the adventurers paled. They didn’t have this kind of money. No one in Mirstone, including the bank owner, did!

“Can you perhaps foot the bill and take it out of the sales? For how many coins can you sell a volume?” Asked Lena, the others were too shocked to speak but she was not the mage of the party for nothing.

“Absolutely not, sorry. I am already risking the good name of the publishing house with this book. And I landed on the bad list together with these two editors. You have a month to come up with the money. Take this already made book as a present to the little girl. Let it be a nice memory for her, at least.”

With that, the editors went out, but Danika and Nathan lingered at the door. They shared a look and turned towards the adventurers.

“You can start a Kickstarter campaign. And you said that the children can enchant? The Emperor is looking for something at level 1000 on the scale. He is willing to pay 60000 for a single enchantment. He will give more for a dual one. But you have to be quick. I saw it in the paper just this morning and if I did, so does grandpa Thinker.” Said Nathan. He really wished there was more he could do. Danika and he already split the cost of the prototype book with Mister Perry.

“Thanks, we appreciate the info. We have a month. That is better than nothing.” Said Jasper. He clapped his hands together and spoke. “The kids have already made us 10000 gold coins since the business started. I say it’s time we gave back to them. They can give us back the money from the sales of the book. Plus, they must have something saved up. It is not like there are a lot of shops in the forest of fireflies.”

For every five gold coins, the adventurers made, they gave three to the family. One per family member. That meant that they were looking at about 6000 gold coins in the piggy bank of Theanore’s family.

With the Emperor’s reward, they would total up to 76000 coins. The rest 5450 coins will have to come from the Kickstarter and perhaps a sale of enchanted items. They needed to hire more merchants to spread the word around the villagers. The costs kept piling up.

“We can do the Kickstarter campaign here in Mirstone. With volunteers from the publishing house.” Said Danika, smiling reassuringly at the adventurers.

“That is very nice of you.” Said Larriel. She had to bring these two to meet the family after they had pledged to do so much for them.

“Grandpa Thinker is a real tyrant. He withholds information from those he dislikes. We need to put an end to it. One book at a time.” Said Danika, already thinking up a nice charity fair where people could have fun and donate to the noble cause.