Although Domnal and Dier slept in Old Tosh's tavern for a night due to drunkenness, they still got up the next day despite the discomfort of their hangovers.
They both still had work to do, work related to Moscow's military construction, and time could not be delayed, otherwise Prince Rostislav would deal with them.
Fortunately, both of them were energetic warriors. Although the hangovers made them very nauseous, they did not affect them much, and there was no problem continuing to work.
Dier went outside Moscow. The Rostov Camp, full of new recruits, really couldn't do without him, especially since the only officer he could rely on, Yegor, had left today due to an urgent matter.
Domnal went directly to Red City. The soldiers on duty at the city gate enthusiastically greeted the Captain of the Guard's deputy, but the Gael just waved tiredly; he was truly exhausted.
However, after entering the city gate, he saw his father-in-law accompanying the Prince walking past him, which startled Domnal.
If his father-in-law found out he hadn't returned home all night, he would be yelled at terribly. He had been disciplined for this many times in the past few years, so the guy subconsciously hid.
Fortunately, neither his father-in-law nor the Prince noticed him, which made the Gael breathe a sigh of relief. Then he noticed the two of them walking into an inconspicuous house next to Rostislav Palace.
This house was just an ordinary brick and tile house, but it occupied a large area and was usually full of the Prince's personal guards.
And thinking of those personal guards, Domnal felt a little annoyed. These people were essentially just Bodyguard Unit members, so why did they act like they were independent from the Bodyguard Unit all day long? The young people here even dared to contradict him.
However, their annoyance didn't last long. The two who had passed by made Domnal a little curious. Why were they going there so early?
As the second-in-command of the Bodyguard Unit, Domnal knew what the Prince was doing there, but unfortunately, he only knew what he was doing there.
As for the specific details, only Gvaran of the Bodyguard Unit knew.
However, Domnal's curiosity didn't last long. He had to quickly gather his subordinates to start the morning drills, lest the Prince and his father-in-law arrive and find nothing.
If Domnal could enter that house, he would find that not only the Moscow Prince and his Captain of the Guard were there, but also the Moscow Bishop, and the Abbot of the Monastery, whose reputation was growing stronger throughout Northeast Rus', were all there.
These people were now gathered together, watching a set of parchment books being bound into volumes, and behind them was a machine that was quite strange for this region, and if an Easterner were present, they would certainly recognize its name.
A printing press.
However, unlike the block printing popular in the East during this era, the printing press placed here was a movable type printing press that should not have appeared in this era. The Cyrillic letters on the machine could be disassembled and reassembled.
As the Bible was bound, Rostislav was the first to take the Bible, open its parchment pages, and a satisfied expression emerged as he looked at the slightly simplified Church Slavic text on it.
After the Prince finished reading this Bible, he handed it to the Bishop and the Abbot next to him. The two carefully examined the Bible, confirmed that there were no printing errors, and their faces also showed satisfied expressions.
"Now all those scribes in the church can be freed up, and we will have more people to devote to missionary work. This is truly, Rostislav, I didn't expect you to have such an idea. This has truly saved our cause."
Moscow Bishop Luka said with emotion. If according to history, this Bishop would have passed away long ago, but it is unknown whether it was due to the influence of Rostislav, a visitor from later generations, Bishop Luka is still alive and well, and works with enthusiasm every day, striving for the conversion of Northeast Rus'.
"In this way, more people can see the Bible, and more people can see the Lord's teachings, Prince Rostislav, thank you so much. Your invention will surely make your name known for generations. And I must apologize to you, I shouldn't have considered your work useless at the time."
Hilarion, the Abbot of the largest Monastery in Northeast Rus', said, his words full of gratitude.
And he couldn't help but recall how Rostislav had entrusted him a few days ago to simplify Church Slavic as much as possible, which simply meant that although simplified, it could still be understood by those who used Church Slavic.
At that time, Hilarion thought this was a useless endeavor, but now his view had changed. This Bible, produced at a speed far exceeding that of scribes, showed him the importance of simplifying language and writing. Rus's cultural sphere would surely usher in a period of expansion.
And looking at the emotion and encouragement of these two top religious figures of Northeast Rus', Rostislav couldn't help but feel satisfied; his goal had been fully achieved.
In fact, the reason Rostislav brought out movable type printing was very simple: in the current cultural sphere of Northeast Rus'—to be precise, the Church—there were simply not enough people; there was a shortage of people everywhere, and no one to use anywhere.
Rostislav had to find a way to increase the number of personnel in this area, and after much thought, he only came up with one solution.
That was to use movable type printing to free up those scribes and let them participate in the spread of religion and culture, filling those gaps as much as possible.
In this era, producing a book was very troublesome, requiring scribes to spend a lot of time copying and even drawing. Many people who should have been on the missionary battlefield were thus diverted.
So Rostislav wanted to use movable type printing to free them up.
As direct beneficiaries of this liberation, Hilarion and Luka were both overjoyed. They immediately gained a group of people who could be put into the now nominal parishes.
Both of them had great ambitions. They came to Northeast Rus' at such an old age to prove themselves. Otherwise, wouldn't it be better to enjoy life in the city?
"It's just a pity that our parchment is completely insufficient. It seems we can only import it, and I don't know where we can buy these things in large quantities..."
After the joy, Rostislav then spoke of another problem, which was the insufficient quantity of paper. The parchment they currently had could at most produce a few dozen Bibles before running out.