It Ended up Working
“And also, please take a look at this,” Maria said, pulling out some animal hair. When I touched it, it felt similar to wool.
It turned out to be Guush fur.
“Guush fur… we always threw it away because it was too coarse to use, right? But this one feels soft.”
Apparently, Natalia had brought it in for consultation.
The Great Forest near Helios Village, where beastfolk live, has a lot of Guush. Their meat is just like mutton, and they look like sheep, but their wool has always been too stiff to use, so it was simply discarded.
It seems that when the Guush fur was gathered for disposal, a slime had eaten and regurgitated it over and over.
Another new slime, huh. I appreciate it, but why does it always happen in my domain? How strange.
The regurgitated Guush fur was surprisingly soft, almost like wool, so they thought it could be used for weaving. But when they tried soaking it in hot water to make yarn, it hardened and couldn’t be spun. Still, thinking it might have some use, they brought a sample to Maria.
“So it hardens when heated?”
“I think so, yes.”
“Maria, do you have an iron?”
“I do.”
I spread out the Guush fur and divided it into three portions. Then I had her iron them at low, medium, and high heat to test the firmness.
At low heat, the fur only clumped a little and tore apart easily when pulled by hand.
At high heat, it became rock hard.
At medium heat… it formed something like a thick fabric—felt?
“Young Master Reinhardt, this is amazing! We’ve made thick cloth!” Maria exclaimed with joy.
“Maria, I don’t think this has much durability. It’s not twisted together like yarn.”
“You’re right. But maybe it could still be used for something.”
She immediately began making sheets of felt, adjusting the thickness.
Felt… I seem to remember it being used for mascots and small goods. Which means—plushies.
It feels decent to the touch too, and if we make it three-dimensional and stuff it with cotton, it could work.
“Maria, how about using this as fabric for plushies?”
“Plushies, you say?”
“Yes. I was planning to make plushies of my contracted monsters as souvenirs for the hot-spring town. Since this is a unique material, different from the usual plush fabric, it might work well.”
“That’s a great idea. Let’s pass it to someone who makes plushies and have them craft samples. We’ll need a variety of colors though. Dyeing will be tricky, since we can’t use hot water, but I’ll test if it works with cold water.”
Also, I wonder if the rock-hard version from high heat could be used for mascots. I tried with a dryer too—same result, it hardened under high temperature. If only we could shape it properly…
“Maria, do you think we could make a palm-sized plush entirely from Guush fur?”
“What do you mean?”
I explained: we could shape Guush fur into a small animal, then harden it with high heat at the end. Add a string or necklace chain, and it could become a keychain or bag charm.
“That would be cute. But unfortunately, I’m not good at sewing or making small accessories. Is there someone else?”
Well, I usually ask Rosarina, one of the maids, to do embroidery on ribbons and handkerchiefs.
“Maria, you get along well with our workers, right? Don’t you know any girls who like making small crafts? Otherwise, we’ll need to consult Raziel.”
“Yes, I feel like we really should consult Raziel.”
“Yeah. Otherwise, we’ll both get lectured. Let’s call him.” We nodded in agreement.
“So this is cloth made from Guush fur?” Raziel picked up the felt fabric and ran his fingers over it.
We explained everything that had led to this point.
“Since Guush fur is normally just discarded, this is quite a breakthrough. But does it still harden after becoming fabric if you apply heat again?”
“We haven’t tested that yet,” Maria said, then ironed the felt at high heat—but it didn’t harden.
Next, she ironed the low-heat-made felt with high heat, and that one did harden.
“So it only changes once it’s exposed to a certain high temperature, and after that, further heat won’t affect it?”
Raziel was probably right in theory, but it was still such a strange fabric.
“At least this looks usable for plushie fabric. Though really, I wanted to recreate my kids’ fluffy fur…”
“It might not be possible right away, but I’ll work on it while listening to everyone’s opinions,” Maria promised.
“Young Master Reinhardt, if we’re going to make plushies out of this fabric, we’ll need a large amount of Guush fur. Can that be secured?”
“Would we really need that much?”
“Souvenir shops will want plushies in small, medium, and large sizes. There’ll be at least 8 shops, and possibly more than 20. Plus, this fabric could be used for cushions or small items too. Products made from a material exclusive to the hot-spring town will definitely sell.”
“Are Guush as common in the Great Forest as Cocottes?”
“It’d be quicker to ask the knights. Or maybe the Adventurers’ Guild.”
“Got it. I’ll ask Captain Meyer or Captain Kyle. Once I know, I’ll report back to you and Maria.”
With that, I left the workshop.
What do you think about this chapter?
