Volume 3 Chapter 15.19 - Sequel 2.2

Volume 3 Sequel 2.2

Translator: Reflet

Editor: Weasalopes

「At the current moment, it seems like it’ll be tough to mass produce bikes, mate.」

「Why’s that？」

「We gotta get a gear-cuttin’ machine or some sorta contraption or else it’ll be super tough to make a bunch of high-precision parts, I think.」

「……I’m getting the feeling that we’ve suddenly plunged our way into the world of modern-day technology. You agree?」

「Hey mate, ya can’t worry about li’l things like that.」

They were finally done eating. As they drank their tea, Hiroshi and Tatsuya discussed the work they’d been doing. Rayna came back after being gone for a while and invited Makoto to join the knights in their training. Makoto, who had no crafting skills other than the one she gave up on early on, didn’t have any reason to get into making things, so she usually had a surplus of free time in situations like this. This resulted in her going solo or Tatsuya accompanying her a lot, since he also had too much time on his hands.

Haruna and the others either said they’d be attending lectures after lunch or cleaning up, or taking a nap because they were kids, or whatever reasons they had, so the two men were the only ones here.

「So what’s the issue here？」

「The most troubling part would be the bearing cause ya gotta make the precision of the ball inside super good or else it’ll overlap and won’t rotate.」

「But isn’t it lighter than just stabbing in the axle?」

「Guess I can try it, but I don’t think it’ll get all that heavy.」

Tatsuya attempted to steer Hiroshi’s thoughts away from his bad habit of trying to replicate current technology. This world was already quite advanced, but much of its advancements were due to magic and had strange controls. Even inventions that Hiroshi considered to be safe were quite revolutionary here.

And the bearing was the newest example of this. Fast-moving golem parts could always be substituted. In addition, with carriages or carts, no one really cared if the axle shook a bit too much or if it was too heavy and stiff. So technology that you lightly revolved with your hand was hardly valued, and the current technology simply relied on magic whenever you were in a pinch.

So even without super precise technology from the modern period, Hiroshi could just make something with the concept and construction of a bearing without anything extra.

「And is there even any point in making such a complicated bike？」

「Whaddya mean？」

「I feel like one of those super primitively designed ones you’d find in a museum would be great to start with. How about it？」

「Maybe not for the feet-pedalling ones, but I’m purty sure the tires directly connected to the pedals would be way too inconvenient.」

Things went out of fashion for a reason. Everything other than the initial stage foot-pedalling variant was directly connected in the current bike genealogy (front pedals attached to the front wheel). But even those ones had issues with user friendliness and had gone out of fashion to where you couldn’t find them in any town.

「You can go ahead and make the basic structure the same as present-day bikes, but I don’t think it’ll ever reach the feet of commoners unless you make the design simple enough to where the workshop can make it too.」

「Yup. I did think I might wanna go further with the heavy industry approach, but that’d prolly be a bit much.」

「Well then again, I get the feeling you already passed that threshold when you made that instant ramen.」

Hiroshi just grimaxed at Tatsuya’s comment. The instant ramen production line also came about because of the royalty and knights fiercely pushing for it, which ended up making it quite the business.

They were currently in the middle of discussing where to put the production line, but there were plenty of other aspects in discussion such as what other kinds of ramen to make, the ratio between bagged and cup noodles, how much to produce, wholesale or no wholesale, and so on.

And the most pressing of all these issues was whether to leave it all to Merizza Trade Guild or not. Merizza Trade Guild had recently become a sort of purveyor to the imperial household. They definitely couldn’t just leave the rights to instant ramen in the hands of one guild. In this world, where you could just enchant food with Prevent Rot, packed food wasn’t as much of a thing. Instant ramen, which could immediately be eaten as long as you had a pot, water, and fire would make quite the impact in this world.

And Merizza knew just how much of an impact it would make, which was why even she hesitated to handle all of the involvement in this business. This was the same reason why she chose to not monopolize the curry powder, soy sauce, and miso. While it could certainly expand the business, she also knew that having too much of a say in the business would make things impossible to handle by herself.

「Anyhoo, first we make the trial products and then simplify ‘em to where Teres and the others can also make ‘em.」

「Yep. For now, ignoring the first one, the second one should be prioritized so that Fum and Lime can ride on it.」

「An why’s that again？」

「Well dude, it’s super taxing to get from here to the east gate with those childlike legs of theirs.」

「Ah, right.」

Hiroshi nodded, understanding what Tatsuya was saying.

「Either way, this time we have all the parts here for the manual labor, but scrapin’ away scraps from the gear with a file is a real drag, so if we gon’ make a bunch of ‘em we best have a simple gear-cuttin’ machine around, plus there ain’t gon’ be any decent equilibrium with the axle unless we open up a perfect hole, so I guess it’s best we have a lathe on hand. We also gotta cut the corners at the tip of the axle, so we’ll need a milling machine for it.」

「No, like I said, that’s overdoing it…」

「Ya got a point with the gear-cuttin’ machine, but this world’s actually got a close equivalent of the lathe.」

「……Really？」

「Yeah, water wheels ‘n all that. Uses natural energy when it spins around, it ain’t stable, ‘n on top of that it turns slowly an can’t process things as accurately, but it’s plenty useful for diggin’ a hole in the axle.」

Tatsuya sort of understood what Hiroshi was referring to. This was, by the way, the processing method used in their own world.

「It’s just, I don’t know too much about this, but aren’t lathes dangerous? Every so often I hear some pretty graphic stories of deaths at the places I conduct business with.」

「It ain’t just lathes. Machine tools are just generally purty dangerous mate.」

「Then shouldn’t we be more careful in making these things? There are children here after all.」

Hiroshi just grimaced at Tatsuya. True, the lathe was the cause of about as many deaths per year as the press machine. However, the majority of cases would never occur as long as you followed the proper procedures, and it’s just common sense to not be careless next to a moving machine. Besides, if you were just manufacturing bicycle parts, you didn’t even need that big of a machine. You didn’t have to worry about earthly standards when making it yourself, and there was always the option of not making a machine big enough to engulf your whole body.

Still, no matter how careful you are about ensuring safety, accidents happen. Therefore, all that really matters is how thoroughly you educate people on safety training.

「I get that yer worried, but there are a ton of other dangerous jobs out there like potionmakin’ an alchemy. Heck, the smeltin’ or forgin’ that we’re gonna teach ‘em later is the best example of a situation where ya can’t let yer guard down for even a second. There ain’t really no work that ain’t a bit physically dangerous when it comes to makin’ things.」

「Well yeah, that might be the case, but still……」

Tatsuya still appeared to not be content with the persuasion. Not knowing how to explain it to him properly, Hiroshi grimaced again and drank his tea dry. Tatsuya was probably just really concerned, especially with this being an unfamiliar genre and all. No amount of explanation would cure this sort of concern.

「Welp, I’ll go ahead ‘n complete the first one for the time being.」

「Got it.」

Still not satisfied, Tatsuya was left on his own in the dining hall.

From there time went by. It was now approaching evening.

「Alright, got the first trial product done, mate.」

Hiroshi had ended up crammed in True Furnace Tower for nearly the whole day, appearing in the garden near the workshop carrying two bicycles: one for an adult and one for a child.

「That was unbelievably fast for putting everything together by hand, but for someone like you, that took quite a bit of time.」

「Well, that’s cuz I put together a buncha other test projects.」

「Other projects？」

「Just l’il toys. Like this thing right here or this thing over here.」

As Hiroshi answered Tatsuya’s question, he pulled out several varieties of sports equipment like a pogo stick or a unicycle. There were also stilts made from leftover steel pipes and things made alongside the bearing prototype like skateboards, roller skates, inline skates, etc.

「Whoa, a pogo stick? That takes me back.」

「I see, you were working on all that too.」

「A small amount of mill ends came out, ya see. Figured I may as well make some tools for kids to play with usin’ their bodies.」

Haruna nodded at Hiroshi’s comment, reaching to the stilts before the bicycle. The play equipment was still in use at her relatives’ house, but she had hardly ever seen something like that near her house.

「Going for that first now, are we, Haruna-san?」

「I played with these all the time back at my relatives’ house. Hadn’t seen them in a while and sorta wondered if I can still ride them.」

As she said this, Haruna skillfully took balance and began taking a short lap around the area, stopping when she got in front of Hiroshi and the others. Seeing how effortlessly she pulled this off, all were reminded once again of the truly amazing specs this lady had.