CH 326

Remuneration

The pending reward for Sabine-chan’s part-time job of confirming the contents of the recording. Which was a bit concerning.

The reward seems to have been decided.

And the reward decided by Sabine-chan is……

“Eh? The same type of carriage I have?” (Mitsuha)

“I’m a princess. So, I too, sometimes travel in a carriage because of my role as a princess or for personal use.

And now that I know how comfortable Oneesama’s carriage is, no matter how good the royal carriage is, your carriage is way better overall, even more so than a regular carriage…… Do you think I can put up with this country’s carriage anymore?” (Sabine)

“……Indeed……” (Mitsuha)

I know what Sabine-chan means, as much as I hate saying it.

The shaking goes from my buttocks and to my organs when I’m in this world’s carriage…

Also, while I can endure it for 30 minutes or an hour, I have to continue to ride for several days, when I go long distances in a carriage…

And aside from the royal capital, the roads on the highways are bumpy…

I’m not too fond of it either, so I had a customized carriage built on Earth.

Certainly, it’s much better than being asked for a car or some other high-tech product from Earth. Sabine-chan probably took that into consideration and chose “Carriage” with the intention of holding back. If it’s a carriage, it’s not a strange thing that stands out in this country…

Even if it looks a little different, it is not so strange for a carriage specially made for a princess. My carriage has a slender and lovely appearance.

…But there was a big problem with using that as a reward.

That’s because……

“It’s… expensive… It’s very expensive to make that thing.” (Mitsuha)

Yes, it’s very expensive because it uses a lot of duralumin and titanium, and the suspension is reinforced to protect it from bows and arrows, and spears. The windows are third-generation bulletproof glass, made of multiple layers of glass and plastic materials.

A used car could cost several hundred thousand, but that carriage is more expensive…

“So it’s not good because the manufacturing cost is10 or 20 times more than the price of a car…” (Sabine)

“Yeah…” (Mitsuha)

Yeah, I guess Sabine-chan probably thought it was far cheaper than a car.

For Sabine-chan, cars are a product of super science, and my horse-drawn carriage is just a slightly evolved version of the ones they have in this country, or so she thinks……

No, it doesn’t……

But on the downside, it’s certainly a good choice.

Except that it’s expensive…

A regular off-the-shelf product with a solid suspension and no bulletproof features like mine would cost a few million yen…

But as a reward for working all night for several days, it’s out of the question……

Sabine-chan didn’t seem to think it was that expensive either, so she’s frozen.

As expected, this is impossible…

“……Then, what if I pay the actual cost?” (Sabine)

“Eh……” (Mitsuha)

Tha-. Indeed, that’s fine with me.

A carriage would not distort the progress of civilization in this world, and no matter how expensive it is, if it’s a princess’s carriage, it would be trivial in terms of the national budget. Even if it were made in this country, it would probably be a rip-off price anyway, with all the useless fancy decorations and stuff……

“Well, then, I guess that’s possible…… I’ll get an estimate of how much it would cost later, so if we can get the king’s permission.” (Mitsuha)

My first carriage cost me a lot because of all the review meetings, and the trial and error to add the new features, so a second one would cost less.

“Yeah, I know!… But I think it’s probably okay. If I explain Mitsuha-neesama’s carriage’s defensive capabilities… Also, the comfort of the ride.

Later, let’s take him for a test ride in Oneesama’s carriage!” (Sabine)

“Ah, yeah, that’s fine and all, but…” (Mitsuha)

******

“””Approved!”””

After showing them the estimate, giving them a test drive, and explaining the performance and the equipment, the King, the Prime Minister, and the Minister of Finance gave their approval all at once.

No, it’s fine though. They are going to pay all the actual costs, so there’s no loss for me, I just have to order from the place that made my carriage…

Eh?

They also want to order a carriage for the king, a carriage for the prime minister, and a few more?

You want to give a diplomat who travels a lot a “carriage that doesn’t hurt your butt” you say?

…Well, that’s good and all, but…

I’ll get a commission fee, right?

If it doesn’t have bulletproof features, fancy decorations, or anything like that, that’s going to cost them less, but if they’re going to make something rugged and large, it’s going to be priced accordingly.

How many bulletproof features, how big, how sturdy, how light, and how well it performs in various other ways?

These things need to be discussed in detail with the king and the others, and coordinate it with the manufacturer……

But, well, it’s better because they didn’t tell me to send the camper “Big Lorry”…

******

“…So, where is the actual item?” (Man)

“Eh?” (Mitsuha)

This is the home of a former sailing ship engineer from a certain country on Earth, where Mitsuha has been asking many questions about building sailing ships.

The reason for their being acquainted was that Mitsuha happened to meet… a girl…12 years old, who happened to be the girl’s grandfather and used to be involved in the construction of sailing ships… Mitsuha asked her to tell him a story.

And the old engineer, who was completely taken with the exotic-looking girl with “a strong interest in sailboats and an unusual wealth of knowledge about their construction for a girl of her age, asking about making sailboats”, The girl who was a friend of his granddaughter (in this country, she seemed to be about the same age as his granddaughter) he asked her questions over and over again, and she always answered them with a smile…

“That’s a question only someone who’s actually tried to build something and it didn’t work can answer! Spit it out!

Missy, you ain’t just asking a lot of questions out of curiosity!

……You’re actually making one, aren’t you?…….

There’s no country that is currently building sailing ships at the level of technology that you are talking about.

Even though the construction of large sailing ships is something of a pastime for rich countries, they all have a lot of engineers around my level.

And there are no shipyards that use little girls for shipbuilding and technical information gathering!

Where’s that ship you’re building? Why don’t you show it to this old man? Because I’ll give you some proper advice……

It’s absolutely impossible for an amateur to make a decent ship.

……Yes, where is it? Where are you secretly building it?

Is it some kind of secret shipyard underground on an isolated island in the South Sea? Huh?” (Man)

“Where is the undersea warship Gotengo!?” (Mitsuha)

…However, no matter how many actual samples were available, the construction of a large sailing ship without a professional shipbuilder was indeed impossible, and the project was at a standstill. It’s not like the prototype small sailboat that was built for the purpose of learning technology. The prototype sailing ship… also has a number of problems, notwithstanding its appearance.

That’s right, it’s about time we seek the help of an expert.

There is also the issue of the canvas.

The canvas for the small prototype sailing vessel was purchased in the new continent via the Rephilia trade.

However, it’s too suspicious for a small start-up trading company with no connection to the shipbuilding industry to purchase canvases for a large sailing ship. They would be suspected of reselling the fabric to other countries and would be scrutinized in a lot of ways.

And not only new ships are needed, but also for Eras, which has lost all its sails, and for replacement sails of the other captured ships.

Besides, I was going to use the sails of the first domestically produced large sailing ship from the earth.

Sailboats are all about the sails after all.

Therefore, we want to compensate for the inferiority of the ship’s manufacturing technology with the performance of the sails.

……But Mitsuha had no connections to such industries.

So Mitsuha thought, this former sailing ship engineer might have contacts with those manufacturers.

“Umumumu umumumu……” (Mitsuha)