Chapter 101
Takarakuji Ch . 101 Top Speed
September 1, 2020oniichan69
5 days later, in the morning .
After returning from the mountainous region, Kazura was in his room with Liese and Nelson, organizing his materials .
Until now, they had been working in Nelson’s office (made of stone with no windows), but even though it was low in humidity and covered with stone, it was inevitably hot during the day .
So, since we had brought in an air conditioner, they decided to try working in Kazura’s room .
A long table was brought into the center of the room, and there was a shelf for documents .
The room was moderately cooled by the air conditioning and is very comfortable .
「But this air conditioner thing is really quite impressive . 」
Nelson put the papers in his hand on the table and turned his attention to the air conditioner that kept blowing out cold air .
「I never thought I’d be able to work in such a comfortable environment . 」
「It’s been too hot, no matter how hot it is . Next time I come back, I’ll bring another air conditioner with me and we’ll set it up in the next room and use it as a workroom... it’s a little dim, isn’t it?」
The windows are completely closed off to allow the air conditioning to work .
The room is quite dimly lit by candles and lanterns .
「I’d prefer it to be a little darker, but I’d rather be cooler . I’d rather stay here forever now . 」
Liese says as she picks up a silver cup filled with tea and drinks it through a straw .
The contents of the cup are cold barley tea that she had made in the fridge .
Liese is showing her bare hands to Kazura even in front of Nelson, but Nelson doesn’t seem to have any particular intention of saying anything about it either .
At first, he looked at Liese with surprised eyes, but he concluded that she was getting along with Kazura, although he wasn’t sure, so he didn’t mind .
「Next time I come back, I’ll bring something else to light the room . It’s too dark as it is now, it’s just too dimly lit . 」
While talking about such things, they each take care of their own work .
However, since it’s only a matter of photocopying and confirming documents, they were all leisurely chatting and drinking tea while they work .
Soon, Kazura will be leaving for Grisea village, and by now the preparations should be steadily underway in the mansion .
Since she would be bored in the carriage during the ride, she made extra copies and brushed them aside as a reference to look at in the meantime .
Zirconia was not here and she went to the military department .
She is in a great hurry to digest the work that has accumulated during her time away from Isteria .
「This printer is a really great tool . It’s really amazing, this printer is such an amazing tool, all you have to do is press a button and a bunch of papers with the same thing on them comes out . 」
Liese placed the leather paper in the scanner part of the printer and pressed the start button .
Immediately, with a peculiar mechanical sound, a copy of the paper with a complete copy of the contents came out .
Liese stretched the fuselage over the copied material, wrote the headline on it, punched a hole in it with a hole punch, and stored it in the file .
「Photocopying the text takes a tremendous amount of work, but with this tool, it’s quite a cost-saver... rather, it seems possible to even rule a country with this one tool . 」
Nelson picked up one of the sheets of copy paper on the table to check the texture and then turned his attention to the cardboard box next to the printer .
Inside the cardboard box were A3 and A4 copy paper wrapped in wrapping paper .
There must be five thousand copies in all .
「Rule the country, sir?」
「Information is power . I believe that whoever controls information controls the world . With this printer, we will be able to disseminate a great deal of information at once, one after another . 」
Hearing that, Kazura thought of newspapers .
In a world like this one, where all printed material was handwritten and transcribed, the way information was passed on would be oral .
But that makes the scope of the spread of the information mixed, and the accuracy of the information very questionable .
By the time the information reaches one end of the country to the other, it may be completely different from the original information .
Legend and fairy tales are examples of this .
If we can accurately spread the information we intend to, it will be much easier to guide the will of the people than it is now . But that’s assuming we can mass-produce the paper cheaply and have a monopoly on its methods .
「I see ... it sounds like it could be quite useful commercially . 」
「Of course, you do . If the paper can be mass-produced and easy to copy, then books can be mass-produced . Books are very expensive, so selling them alone could generate huge profits . However, if the amount of information and knowledge the people have is increased rapidly, it may be difficult to guide them to the will of the people . 」
「Do you want to advance economic development through increased knowledge, or do you want to give up economic development in favor of ease of governance? In my opinion, I would prefer the former . 」
「I suppose it would be more beneficial in this climate . 」
「Uh, do you have a minute?」
Leise, who had been listening to the conversation, interrupted to see if she had an idea .
「How about we hand out a piece of paper here and there with some text about the shops in town . The ones with the contents of the signs all over town, and hand them out to houses all over for free . 」
「Oh, yeah, your leaflets . Liese, that’s brilliant . 」
「Hmm, that’s a good idea . 」
Receiving Liese’s suggestion, Kazura and Nelson nodded in admiration .
The only way to get information about what is sold in which stores in Isteria is to go directly to the stores or look at the signs in the city .
Most of the signs are wooden or stone slabs with the bare minimum written on them, and the information you can get from them is quite scarce, and they don’t update their contents much .
At best, they say something like 「This is an Inn」 or「Clothing store with fine fur . 」
There are signs with leather paper stuck to a wooden board and written in ink all over them .
However, to update the content of the signs, they had to be rewritten from scratch on leather paper .
This is not only time-consuming but also not very cost-effective, which is probably why we rarely see these signs .
「I’ve never had anything like that, and I just wish it was easier to find out what’s on sale and where . I think people will go to the stores on the other side of town if they know where to get what they want . 」
「Then I’d like to see some kind of transportation system like a horse-drawn carriage in the city this time . If we can make the fare cheaper, and make the carriages go around the city in circles, people will take advantage of it . 」
「The economy will be revitalized if there is more exchange within the territory . I’d love to do it once the measures we’re working on now are settled and there’s room for improvement . 」
As they talked about this, the three of them organized the documents and stored them into files .
Nelson flipped through a large plastic file with dozens of documents bound together and nodded with satisfaction .
Apparently, he liked it very much .
「It would be very handy if there was some software to write in the language of this world . I’ll see if I can find a supplier when I get back to Japan . 」
The thought came to Kazura when he was talking about printing, and he thought about it vaguely while looking at the materials in his hand .
It would be easier to create such advertising leaflets if he could use spreadsheets and writing software to create documents in the native language .
We could also introduce methods such as woodblock printing and letterpress printing, but we have a printer, a machine with superior performance, at hand .
Printers make sense for mass printing because there is no concern that the printing technology will leak out if you use them .
If you really want to print in large volumes, though, you’ll need to install a toner-based commercial printer .
Incidentally, woodblock printing is a method of printing where text and pictures are carved out of a wooden board, dipped in ink, and pressed against paper .
In letterpress printing, the text is made by lining up stamps of letters made of metal, dipping them in ink, and pressing them onto paper to print .
Both of these printing methods do not exist in this country .
「Kazura-sama, we are ready to go . 」
As they continued to work for half an hour, the door to the room opened and Marie walked in .
In order to accompany Kazura this time again, Marie is wearing light clothing for the trip .
「Are you ready with the cloth bag you used last time?」
「Yes, sir . We have a transport wagon waiting for you . Mr . Isaac has rounded up his troops and is waiting in the square . 」
「I understand . .........Well, I’ll be away again for a while, so please take care of the rest . I’ll be back as soon as I can . 」
With that, as Kazura stood up, so did Nelson and Liese .
「Silently . Take care of yourself . 」
「I’ll get as much other work done as I can . Also, take care of yourself . I don’t know if Kazra will get hurt or sick . 」
「Thank you . I have the good luck charm Lise gave me before, so I’ll be fine . 」
Kazura took out the ‘Endearment Bracelet (Red)’ that Leise gave him from his pocket and put it on his wrist .
「Eh...... . . 」
Liese’s eyes fluttered in surprise at the sight .
Nelson looked at Liese with a jittery look .
「What’s wrong?」
「Uh-uh, nothing . Have a good day . 」
「Yeah . I’m off . 」
Kazura smiled at Liese and Marie took her out of the room .
「What do you mean...?」
「(Oh, I thought you and Isaac were in love...)」
A stunned-looking father and son were left in the room .
Two nights later .
Kazura was greeted by Balin and the other villagers at the entrance to the village of Grisea .
A drawbridge had been built over the entrance to the village, and the watchtower, which had been in the process of being built last time, had been completed .
A mortar aqueduct had been built over the moat, leading to a channel inside the village .
The canal leading into the village was much larger than the one we had seen before .
The walls were completely mortared and must have been at least a meter wide .
The depth of the channel has increased and the water volume seems to be higher and faster than before .
It looked as if it had been constructed by a professional contractor .
「Mr . Kazura, thank you for your long trip . Please wait a little while as I prepare dinner for you . 」
「Thank you . Um, where’s Miss Valetta?」
As he said this to Balin, Kazura looked around .
Among the villagers who greeted me, Valetta was nowhere to be found .
「Some of us were holed up in the mountains, doing some charcoal burning and resource gathering or something . We sent for them as soon as we saw the unit’s torch, so I’m sure they’ll be back soon . 」
「Mountains? Is there a mountain nearby?」
「Yes, It’s right over there . 」
As Kazura tilted his head, Balin pointed to a mountain in the distance .
That mountain, vaguely outlined in the moonlight, was a mountain in the mountainous region to the northwest of Isteria .
He had a rough idea of the distance from the map he’d borrowed from Nelson, but I’m pretty sure it was at least forty kilometers away from here .
Well that mountain is pretty far away, isn’t it?
「It’s a long way, to be sure, but it seems to take half an hour or so to get there if you run . I haven’t been there yet, though . 」
「No, you’re running half an hour and you’re running at about 40 kilometers an hour, right?」
「Well, I don’t know about you, but we can run a lot faster now than we used to . Valetta will be back sooner or later, and we’ll be in the mansion . 」
「Yeah, well...」
I feel like I’ve heard something horrible, but I decide to pack my bags and go to the mansion anyway .
I called out to Isaac and Havel, who were waiting for a little ways away, and they immediately ran up to me .
Marie, who was next to Havel, also followed Havel in a small run .
「Well then, I’m going back to God’s country tomorrow . You’re free to do what you want until I come back, so each of you can get some rest . 」
「Very well . How long do you think it will take?」
Havel’s question reminded Kazura of what he needed to do in Japan .
He would be able to receive the construction plans soon, but the number of days it would take to purchase the supplies was not yet determined .
We may be able to receive the de-oilers that we are ordering from the home center .
In that case, it would take at least a day for them to order it .
「I think it will take at least one day to receive it . Maybe . 」
「Yes, sir . I’ll be spending some time with my sister, fishing . 」
「Oh, that’s nice . If you catch a lot of fish, you can treat me to some too . 」
「I’ll do my best to make it worth your while . 」
「Good luck with that, Marie . 」
「Yes, sir! I’ll do my best!」
Besides the three of them, who are having a most heartwarming conversation, Isaac is looking at the villagers as if he’s looking for someone .
「Isaac-san, you need to get some rest once in a while . 」
「Haha . I’ll be resting up . 」
「Are you looking for someone?」
「No, no, I mean...」
When Kazura asked Isaac, who seemed to be concerned about the villagers, Isaac stammered and slurred his words .
「Oi! I see Ms . Valetta!」
At the sound of the voice that came from the watchtower, Kazura and the others turned their attention towards the mountains .
Above the earth illuminated by the moonlight in the distance, they could see some black dots creeping about .
「That’s... something coming towards us, isn’t it? And that’s pretty fast too . 」
Havel tried to stare at the shadow that was getting bigger and bigger .
「Eh, is that Miss Valetta?」
「No, no way...... . . by how it looks, it faster than the rata in terms of speed . 」
Havel eyed the figure suspiciously, answering the voice that Kazura had let out .
Next to him, Isaac was also staring at the shadow .
In the meantime, the shadow keeps getting bigger and bigger .
As they waited for a bit longer, Valetta ran past Kazura and the others at a furious speed in front of them .
Apparently, she was running too fast and couldn’t stop .
Valetta finally stopped about ten meters away and walked up to Kazura, breathless and embarrassed .
「Ha, ha...oh, welcome back...Kazura-san...」
「I’m home . That was fast... no, that was too fast . Are you okay?」
「That’s okay I heard you were back Kazura and I rushed back... I’m tired...」
Havel and Marie stared at Valetta, who was breathing with her hand on her chest, with a stunned expression on her face .
Some of the soldiers and followers who were preparing for the encampment around them also seemed to be watching, and they were standing there with expressions on their faces as if they were dreaming .
Valetta’s shortness of breath quickly subsided and she turned her bright smile to Kazura .
「Let’s go into the village for now . Have you eaten your dinner, Kazura-san?」
「No, I haven’t eaten yet . We’ve been on the move since lunch . 」
「Then take a bath first, please . I’ll get you something in the meantime . 」
「What? Did you build a bath?」
「Yes . I made a Goemon Bath from a book . I’m proud of it . 」
Havel watched the two persons walk into the village as they talked about such things, and Havel looked blankly at them .
Isaac patted him on the shoulder and went back to the encampment .
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