Arc 19: With Preparations, There is No Need to Worry

Chapter 147: Train Project and Gathering Raw Materials

「Uuwaaaa ! Amazing~ ！It really is flying !」

「Nee~nee~, Heika! Magic !? Is it magic! ?」

「It isn’t magic. This is dynamic power… Basically, it’s flying with power of the wind.」

Even so, this is different from an authentic one. While pulling the string in my hand, the kite is then smoothly made to rise. The children are looking at kite rising in the skies with sparkling eyes.

Eventually, I hand over the kite to one person and make other kites one by one for the other children who are looking with envy.

Everyone immediately starts to manipulate the kites skillfully when I teach them the trick how to raise it.

While they were doing it, I searched for the figure of Alba-san, the merchant who might seem to appear before I knew it, but I didn’t find him. Well, there is surely no way he will suddenly appear all the time.

I sit in the shade of a tree while being careful not to entangle the string. It’s a spot separated from the town, so I won’t hinder people even if raise my kite too.

It is really peaceful. It would be good if every day continued to be carefree like this, and yet.

Rosetta and Monica are fixing the broken black knight since they have rejected my opinion that it would be okay to convert the whole frame into a new article.

It looks like the mobility and the magic reaction speed will rise if I continue using the same frame. It will then seem possible to port the experience data that will pile up at the time we transfer it into a new type of machine somewhere in the future.

Though from the looks of it, the transfer of data will probably take a whole week. In the meanwhile, the ma.s.s production done by [Workshop] will stop, and if this happens every time I break a Frame Gear, it will take an unbearable time. Repairing it in a usual way is by far easier.

Well, it’s all the same though. I also can’t just easily destroy Frame Gear.

I guess it’s like destroying a game machine every time it starts up.

Every time a replacement for a game machine is bought, the game will always start at the initial starting point. Even if the memory is extracted and inserted into a new game machine, it won’t start up for a whole week, I suppose.

You know, If I had a skill that allows me to mend the failure, I would mend it myself. The only problem is, I don’t have this skill. This then leads to leaving it to others. If someone orders others to [Fix it] each time it breaks down, surely people will get quite angry.

Despite this, it would be nice to make a distribution copy similar to a game memory.

Rosetta’s reason seems to be that she herself very much doesn’t want to swap memory as a matter of fact. When I asked “Why?”, she returned quite an incomprehensible reply stating that “Even if you s.h.i.+ft the brains of a trained swordsman into a poor magician’s body, he won’t become a first-cla.s.s swordsman”. It doesn’t look like it’s entirely pointless since he will have the [experience] of a superior swordsman.

When the memory is changed, it won’t necessarily be the same old machine that has been used until now even if the said machine is the same type as previous one. It will probably take some time to get used to the new machine.

That reminds me of an old comic that I read where there was an adversary who changed bodies. But because that character did not take advantage of getting used to the (new) body, he ended up being defeated since he could not draw out the full power of the new body.(Airs: he is talking about Deu in Jojo Adventure)

「If anything, the balance must be important, I guess」

Pilot’s experience, frame’s experience. It’s similar to a game, and when you know how many levels you have risen or something, it still surely feels comfortable.

I wonder if there’s a magic or something that allows someone to see those parameters. Something that convenient probably doesn’t exist. That’s the extent of the world of games. If something like that exists, I will totally doubt the existence of this world itself.

As I have thought, the bottleneck is due to the small amount of repair staff, I guess….. If it’s somehow changed, then we should be able to conduct sham battles or something and acquire experience.

When I tried asking Rosetta’s group whether something can be done in any way, there seem to be mini-sized autonomous golems that can do the repairs automatically. Furthermore, their amount looks impressive.

「Since they exist, doesn’t this resolve the problem？ So, where are they?」

「「Warehouse」」

「Unuu！」

She is overdoing the safekeeping of everything and anything, don’t you agree?….. That professor surely didn’t appear to be so methodical.

When I was absentmindedly thinking such a hopeless thing, I heard a voice calling out for me from somewhere.

「Touya-sa~n！」

「Touya-sama！」

「Yumina? Also, Rue ?」

As I rise up, those two clung to me from both sides while I am clapping the dust off my trousers.

At this moment, these two officially became my fiancees. They randomly come sticking to me as a result of no longer having to hesitate anymore since our relations.h.i.+p has become publicly recognized. Honestly, I feel shy, but I allow them to keep doing that without being able to tell them to separate from me too.

「When I was thinking where you went off to, I was able to see that thing. I then believed that you must definitely be here ~wa」

Rue points to the kite rising and flying high in the skies. I see. The one who has made that thing is only someone like me, I guess.

「You leaving us alone and going off to play with children is not good. Touya-san should value his wives more」

(TL: it is not explicitly said whether she refers to herself or all his brides, so… )

「You are not my wives yet, but……」

「That’s the plan for us to soon be those, you know？To become a happily married couple with Touya-sama, like branches of entwined trees…. Ara? Isn’t that situation a bit different, I wonder? 」

(TL: unless ‘連理の枝’ is an idiom coming from old korean movie (Now and Forever), I have no guesses here)

Well, it might be so. Both wings and branches are numerous. When I bitterly smile at Rue who is tilting her head, a merchant party comes by from the opposite side bringing along several coaches.

The line of coaches crosses by before our eyes in succession and advance towards the direction of Belfast.

The merchants riding on coaches were looking at kites raised up by the children in wonder. I guess this is not good. The kites will be seized by a business similar to Alba-san’s because of this. It will have to be.

「That’s a merchant party from Regulus. Look, the guard-soldiers are following them from behind」

「Even so, there are a lot of them. They might be carrying something.」

The cargo is probably expensive like a high-cla.s.s furniture or works of art for there to be guards. I guess this sort of transportation for general goods is difficult. Though there won’t be problems for someone like me who has [Gate]. As I’ve thought, I would be able to earn if I made a service like an express delivery company and used [Gate], though only being able to service the places I had been to would be the limit.

It will be convenient if there is something like a truck since lots of things can be transported at once. Well, in that case, the freight train would be….

「Train……？」

「Touya-san？」

Train…. The train! Won’t it be considerably convenient even if it’s only pulling along the railway? In the case of something like a steam locomotive, won’t Rosetta be able to make it if I request her… No, will the train be hazardous if it’s present in this world?

Someone who doesn’t know anything about the railway might jump into it. There is also a possibility that train robbers will appear. The rails might also be destroyed if stones or anything similar are placed into the railways.

U~n, when I think about those issues one by one, I can’t do anything about them. I absolutely have to think about [Safety] by all means, though I say it at this late hour after creating something like Frame Gear.

Muu. I guess the train project I hit upon will be halted. Then…..

「Ouch-ouch-ouch！」

「……What other matters are you thinking about? You are leaving us alone.」

While I was concentrating on my thoughts, Yumina pinched on my flank even though there was no need to pinch me.

《Lord, can you hear me？》

《Yes? Kohaku？》

While I was rubbing the pinched side, telepathic communication arrived. Because I stopped my movements, Yumina puffed out her face with “Puu” thinking whether I was brooding over something again, but I showed with gestures that it was different.

「What’s wrong？ Did something happen?」

In order to show the two people that I am receiving a telepathic communication, I raise my voice to reply on purpose.

《Master, this is Rosetta. The orichalc.u.m used in the ma.s.s production of the Frame Gears is exhausted, so I would like it replenished, but…..》

I heard Rosetta’s voice through Kohaku. Orichalc.u.m, that is. You say that the amount obtained from Alba-san is already used up completely. It can’t be helped. I guess I will have to obtain it somewhere else.

「Understood. I will prepare something on my side」

《Thank you》

「What has happend？」

After I cut the telepathic communication, Rue asked me this because I was thinking about something mysteriously.

「It is a request from Rosetta for orichalc.u.m. Now then, I wonder where can we obtain it… 」

「I think if we go to places that sell ore, some can be sold to us. But that amount probably won’t be enough, right?」

「Orichalc.u.m is a rare metal to acquire. The price will also be considerable」

It’s possible to buy it though. I have obtained the money collected from Behemoth extermination the other day. But, when thinking about the future, I would like to save it. Though there is also some mithril remaining. Ah.

「Does something like an Orichalc.u.m golem exist？」

I tried asking the two people while thinking that it might be possible to collect orichalc.u.m at once if fellows like the Mithril Golems existed.

「Orichalc.u.m golems？ I haven’t heard of those……」

「I as well. Even if those existed, I also have a feeling it might not be amusing though」

U~n. So such a convenient thing doesn’t exist?

Just in case, should I call out the map and try looking it up, I wonder. Though I have never seen one, if something called Orichalc.u.m golem exists, it must be a golem whose whole body is built with gilded orichalc.u.m. One might understand it at glance.

「Search. Orichalc.u.m golem」

『Searching….. Finished』

The pins fall down with “Sutototo” on the map that has been displayed.

「……They properly exist, all-right」

「They do ~nee……」

Unexpectedly, The pins drop and we are surprised for a moment. The world is probably vast. If you look good enough, it is full of places where humans don’t seem likely to live like high mountains or deep valleys. I wonder if they inhabit the places where they are likely not to be seen.

「Let me see. Shall I go hunt one then? 」

「Ah, then, we also…..」

「No, I will go there by myself. Since it’s a place where I haven’t been to yet, I will go there by using [Fly]」

When they hear [Fly], both of them keep silent. Do they dislike it that much?

First of all, I send the two people to castle with [Gate] and open the map once more.

「N~, Is there a place which I have been to on some occasion close to this place…. Ishen, I guess」

They (tl: Golems) are within the mountains a little to the west from Oedo in Ishen. Though Ishen resembles the j.a.panese archipelago in some ways, I wonder if there is a Mountain Fuji there.

If that’s the place, I apparently might be able to fly from Oedo easily. Okay, I should go.

I wonder if I should eventually create a gilded Frame Gear or something when I obtain a large amount of orichalc.u.m. Could it be something like a golden knight? That sounds gaudy.