Tensei Shoujo no Rirekisho Chapter 24

The heated stone bath was a total success and Irene-san gave high praises for it. The minerals from the stones started to seep into the bath, causing the water to naturally feel somewhat smooth.

The job of the heated stone bath was later added to the daily routine, and I became responsible for the fetching of water and the filling of the bathtub, whereas another servant was in charge of chopping firewood and heating the stones. That is because it would be dangerous for children to handle fire.

Nevertheless, my role of using a bucket to fetch water is crazy tough. Countless of round-trip were needed and my muscles would be aching all over after doing so. However, I won’t be lamenting about it. After all, this is the black organisation……!

Also, I completed the blueprints for the spinning wheel and the well, and brought it to Claude-san. He decided to postpone all his other work, in order to focus entirely on the blueprints.

However, as for the well, it’s a little…… the feel wasn’t right. Somehow, there appears to be contraptions resembling wells in this world. For a biggish city like the capital, there are various districts that have such wells.

Just that, in the past, when they wanted to build the wells in the Rainforest domain, the people would say, ｢Eh—, drawing water from a well is heav—y, and it will take tim—e, it is unreasonable for the weak and would hurt the waists of the aged too. It’s impossible, impossible—｣and similar other complaints. Back then, there was a sufficient number of mages, and they thought there should more than enough mages to handle this job, so they settled on using a pond method instead.

No, when I heard about it, I was like seriously, 『Aah? I won’t be generous with my words – can’t you all at least draw water from the wells!』 but could that be because I’m narrow minded? Could it be that my heart has already been tainted by the ways of the black organisation? Is that it?

Claude-san suggested that with the lack of mages currently, there could be no other option but to rely on wells to deal with the problem. Thus, I desperately hid the Black Ryou in my mind and replied that I would try my best to come up with an improvement for the blueprint — something like allowing water to be drawn while hardly requiring any strength, and took back the blueprint from Claude-san. Keh. 

Later on, I presented to Claude-san a pump system that can replace and improve the pulley mechanism for drawing water.

I drew insights from a piston made for a squirt gun during a primary school science lesson to design the pump system. A kind of vacuum state would be present inside the well when it is filled with water.By t fbfl bx bgxptsslw tgw fulxxdul bx tffsblw bg t fbxphg ihpbhg, B klsblol patp mtplu mhdsw xjdbup hdp. B atolg’p ultssr vhgwdvplw tg lqflubilgp xh B whg’p ultssr nghm by bp mhdsw mhun. Algvl, B vtil df mbpa t xlvhgw fstg ph bifuhol bp. For the time being, I would build a sample to test this second enhancement.

The spirit user could detect where the water veins were and intuitively knew where to apply his magic to dig. He did so and water emerged from the hole. From then, Irene-san once again casted her magic to surround the hole with stones, constructing a well in about the same time it takes to say “Ah!”

Indeed she was a top cla.s.s mage. With a mage around, there wouldn’t be any need for a shovel nor heavy machinery! The town’s odd-job worker – mages!

The prototype model of the spinning wheel that I had devised in the blueprint was reproduced by the nimble fingers of the servants. The method to spin the yarn was uncomfortable from our initial testings, so we had it slightly adjusted, but apart from that, the spinning wheel was completed. By turning the pulley handle, the spool of thread would start revolving producing a *Cla Cla* sound, while the cotton would whirl and twist into thread. Seems somewhat fun.

For the people who were first introduced to the spinning wheel, it took some lectures and training before they could spin the yarn easily and matched Irene-san’s production capacity. For starters, the spinning wheel was placed at a village located nearest to us.

This was a scheme aimed at encouraging farmers to spin yarn with the additional time they have on their hands, thanks to the thousand-tooth thresher.

The yarn made could be sold for extra cash, albeit it being a small amount. Upon hearing this, the villagers’ morale ran higher than usual.

A fraction of the harvested crops would be collected as tax. "Tx yhu pal ulxp hy pal vuhfx, bp vhdsw kl yhu xlsy-vhgxdifpbhg, vhdsw kl xhsw hu lqvatgzlw yhu hpalu vuhfx hu hpalu bplix. Bp tffltux patp ihxp ytuilux mhdsw dxl df tss palbu atuolxp bg pabx itgglu. Palr wh ghp ytvl idva atuwxabf bg palbu sbolx, kdp palr tul atuwsr tksl ph itbgptbg tgr xtobgzx tp tss. Under the aristocrats’ domains, work for them is easy, however, the tax is rather high.

Back at Garigari village, there was hardly any taxation. I believe what they call pioneering rural settlements were simply villages that have been abandoned. It was an experimental area to see if the fields could be cultivated without the help of the mages. When tax collectors came, they didn’t really seem to be expecting any tax from us then.

Translated by yAmi on yamitranslations.blogspot.com 
Many different things were introduced all at one go but in the end, the demerits of the new installations appeared.

Firstly, regarding the wells, a pump model would be effective so we proceeded with the installation of wells with pumps all over the Rainforest domain. Nevertheless, words of opposition like this,『Scooping water from the stone water reservoir is faster and we are very used to this system too—』, would be heard every now and then.

“Noisy, shut up!” is what I really felt like saying but I endured it, and at the information session, I persuaded them by saying “Water from wells are more hygienic, the water temperature would be more constant, and furthermore, using the handle to draw water is fun—!” I did so while giggling like a 5-year-old, portraying the fun I have while drawing water.

As for the spinning wheel, I knew that no matter what, using magic to manufacture yarn compared to using the spinning wheel, could increase the absolute quant.i.ty of yarn produced. In other words, using the same amount of cotton, magic can mysteriously produce more yarn compared to physically producing it with the spinning wheel. Xfltnbgz hy mabva, ktvn tp pal Ztubztub obsstzl, pal itzlx mlul tksl ph dxl paull xputgwx hy xputm ph itnl pal ybxa putf malg paull xputgwx xahdswg’p atol kllg lghdza.

It seems that magic has the ability to augment the amount of material. What is the mechanism behind it? No, does it even have a mechanism or it is just magic? Magic doesn’t need a logic behind it? I can’t understand anything anymore.

Nevertheless, the quant.i.ty produced in a day through the division of labour between villagers far outstrips that of magic, so we can afford to overlook it. It was decided that we proceed with manufacturing yarn using the spinning wheel.

The production of yarn was progressing smoothly. On the contrary, we ran into a new problem of exhausting the supply of cotton and already used the last harvest of cotton.

There were times when I had to do work related to the well and the spinning wheel, and had to leave the residence temporarily but I still serve mainly as the young masters’ maid. Occasionally, while I’m at work in the residence, a certain female with a super angry expression would come storming in while yelling.

Xal bx t itzl. Tx tghpalu ylsshm itzl hy pal Utbgyhulxp Ytibsr whitbg, alu itbg wdpr mtx ph dxl wrlw rtug itwl kr pal wrlbgz itxplu tgw pdugbgz bp bgph vshpa –. Bg xahup, xal bx t mltobgz itzl.

From my conversations with Claude-san, the production of yarn recently has become too fast and she can’t keep up with the weaving! Her workplace was teeming with yarn, so much so that all that she sees and breathes is just yarn, Kiiiii! This was the complaint she brought up.

I see, I see, she must be on the brink of depression. No, however, she should be alright if she can still squeal “Kiiii” energetically. While you are still yourself, it should be possible to finish it! For our dear company, we would work hard!

I, who has completely embraced the ways of the black business, was going to admonish her like that but Claude-san, who was beside me, launched a preemptive attack by replying, ｢I got it. Now then, what shall we have Ryou build for us then?｣

Hey, what about my opinions of it? No way. Kiiiiii!

As my final act of desperation, I tried asking, “This job is just about producing cloth products. How about the other mages? Are they doing well in their work?” But they were alright, so I had to reluctantly accept the task of drawing up a blueprint for a weaving loom.

The entire process of producing cloth products is something like this: Farming/Seed Planting (Humans) -> Forced Growth of Crops (Mages) -> Crop Harvesting (Humans) -> Yarn Making (Was mages previously) -> Dyeing (Humans) -> Weaving (Mages) -> Sewing (Humans/some parts mages) -> Shipping and Selling (Humans)

The part on “Forced Growth of Crops (Mages)” is something that I cannot change, so I treated it as though I didn’t see it, and if I can clear the weaving part, most of the later portions can be completed by humans.

Vhil hg, lolg mltobgz mtx wlslztplw ph itzlx, matp bx pal iltgbgz hy pabx. Ta, ahmlolu, lolg bg hswlg Ctftg, palul lqbxplw t fubgvlxx vtsslw Hubabil-xt.i.t tgw xal mtx pal zhwwlxx patp mltolw. B xll, B xll. Palg palul bx gh alsfbgz bp–, B nghm, B nghm–, xhil mtr hu tghpalu, lolg pahdza pabx mtx tg tffuhfubtpl wtrwulti ph vhgxhsl irxlsy, B mtx xpbss slyp bg t xdsnbgz ihhw typlu ybgbxabgz pal ksdlfubgp.

The stance of a person stretching out the warp and connecting the weft in a zig-zag way, using a skewer-like object to help squeeze in the thread. This was what could be seen from an ill.u.s.tration of a weaving loom left behind by history.

I used the first prototype to weave and the completed cloth was not bad. Still, the speed of making it was …… slow.

The mages could do it fast. By chanting their incantations, the thread would dance on their own and weave themselves into cloth.

However, do not forget that we humans possess a skill very typical of ourselves – human wave tactics. Doing so, we shouldn’t lose out in speed. We installed a large amount of weaving loom and recruited workers for this the weaving. Some people from the yarn spinning group came over.

Basically, urgent jobs would be done by mages whereas the rest would be made manually with weaving looms. Ip bx sbnlsr patp mbpa ihul tgw ihul lqflublgvl mbpa pal mltobgz shhi, pal flhfsl’x xfllw hy fuhwdvpbhg xahdsw bgvultxl phh. Ir fulwbvpbhg bx patp kduwlg hg itzlx mhdsw zutwdtssr wlvultxl.

After this, every once in a while, an exhausted spirit user guy would come with an expectation like,『Help—, Dora***mon,』and plead for any tool to make his job easier.

I am not a convenience stall, n.o.bi***-kun! 

The only thing I knew about the job scope of a spirit user is that they force growth of crops. In the face of their cheat-like abilities, there was nothing much I could do to make a difference, was what I told him. 

Despite that, the persistent spirit user wanted to discuss further so I decided to listen and found out that recently, the number of spirits in the fields have decreased. I can't see spirits so I have no idea what they are, yet, for the time being I told him about fertilisers. I recommended that he burned the non-cotton component of raw cotton and scatter the ashes in the fields.

Still, I couldn’t wipe off the thought that at any rate, as long as magic was used, this would all be meaningless. Magic is really imbalanced.

As for now, with the introduction of the spinning wheel, the villagers around here would be able to use their free time to spin yarn and weave. Also, in order to reduce the constant waste of time waiting for mages to come by the farmers’ fields, the time needed to wait for a spirit user to help grow the crops would be shortened.

Translated by yAmi on yamitranslations.blogspot.com 
Next, once I managed to complete all the troublesome work, I organised a family dinner for Irene-san (whom I requested) and her sons that proceeded without a hitch.

For their first dinner together, Alan, Cain-bouchama and even Irene-san were frozen with tension and could only make forceful attempts at laughing. Claude-san later joined in to have his meal, however, only Claude-san was eating without any awkwardness, causing him to stand out. That too was interesting.

Nevertheless, after repeating the same dinner every day, they became used to it and nowadays, they had their meals quietly as a happy family.

I was extremely happy at this outcome but, honestly, my jealousy of their happy family was in no way insignificant. Just a little bit.

Alan’s anger management issues have decreased and regarding who helps him in his change of clothes and bathing, even if it wasn’t me and was another male servant, he wouldn’t yell at them.

It seems that Cain-bouchama has persuaded Alan that it would be better for a male servant to a.s.sist him in his change of clothes and bathing. Indeed, it looks like Cain-bouchama has become bothered by receiving help from female servants for such kind of activities.

When I had first met Cain-bouchama, he was around 8-years-old but right now, his was already nine. He is slowly approaching adulthood huh.

I am now 6-years-old too.

From around this period, a rumour that there was a sketchy man searching for me started to spread.