Kays Translations

Chapter 145: We Started Making Magic Cars

The morning after the highly successful mahjong tournament, many residents gathered near the main gate of Klaufendam.

“I’ve been taken care of for a long time. This territory is great. The food is delicious, there’s a bath, mahjong is fun, and most of all, Orihime is adorable. I don’t want to leave.” 

“We appreciate your kind words, but you really can’t stay away from your territory any longer.” 

Selfers replied with a wry smile.

Due to the expected continuation of good weather, Zvar, who had been delayed, was finally preparing to return to his territory. He had grown quite accustomed to life in the Klaufeldt territory over the past three days and was reluctant to leave.

“Well…”

“Please come visit anytime. We’ll come to visit you soon, bringing Orihime along.”

“Nyafu…” 

Isamu said to the still reluctant Zvar, who was holding Orihime.

Orihime also purred softly, pressing her cheek against Zvar’s hand as he stroked her.

“Ah, please do come. I’m also leaving with a wonderful gift. It’s sad to say goodbye, but it’s time to go.” 

“Please send me the prototypes when they’re ready. Take care on your journey.”

“Yes, and thank you, Selfers, for everything. If anything comes up, contact me immediately. There’s likely to be a lot going on for a while.”

“Thank you. Please send my regards to Lord Bisseling.”

After exchanging farewell greetings, Zvar and his entourage left Klaufendam, led by Diluc on horseback, with a large crowd of residents seeing them off to the border of the territory.

“Fufu, it was the first time I had a chance to talk to him at length, but he were quite a fun person.”

“Yes. Although famous for his martial prowess, he was also quite sharp.”

“Indeed, as expected of a margrave. By the way, was it okay to commission the production of mahjong sets? You could build a fortune just from that.”

“Yes, it’s fine. I don’t intend to make a huge profit from mahjong. It’s a game meant to be enjoyed by many people. However, I did request that they strictly prohibit gambling with money, as that could cause major problems.”

“That’s true. If people start betting money on it, things could get out of hand. It might be a good idea to present the noble versions to the royal family and have them issue a decree against gambling.”

Mahjong has significant potential as a form of entertainment, but as was the case on Earth, it pairs exceptionally well with gambling. If left unchecked, it could lead to high-stakes gambling and financial ruin for some. While it might become a game of cat and mouse, it’s best to impose strict regulations from the start.

—

After Zvar’s departure, Isamu and his team began working on a prototype vehicle using a “wind manipulation orb.” This magic tool can generate effects similar to fans or blowers but without any moving parts and no resultant force. They had mostly finished analyzing the orb, discovering it could create wind of specified strength within a designated range. However, the higher the wind speed, the narrower the affected area, preventing it from being used as a wide-area weather weapon. Additionally, no shockwaves were produced even at maximum speed, indicating it couldn’t exceed the speed of sound.

The first prototype was a vehicle resembling a land yacht, a three-wheeled contraption with two rear wheels and one front wheel, similar to a yacht with wheels.

“This is similar to the ship we rode before, right?” 

“Yes. It runs by directing wind at the sail for propulsion. We’re mainly testing the operability of the wind manipulation boat.” 

As Isamu explained, a land yacht runs as long as it has a sufficiently large sail and receives strong enough wind. While it works fine for leisure, the sail’s size would be cumbersome for replacing carriages. Therefore, they made this test model to test the wind adjustment function integrated into the wind manipulation orb.

“Alright, let’s give it a test run!”

Isamu climbed onto the land yacht at their usual training ground, raised his hand in a signal, and activated the wind manipulation orb. The air around the orb, mounted at the rear of the vehicle, began to move due to magic, generating a gentle breeze. The wind’s area was slightly larger than the sail, and the force was akin to a light breeze. As the sail caught the wind and formed a neat arc, the land yacht began to move smoothly.

“Oh!!!”

“””Ohhh!!!””””

Despite knowing it would run, Isamu couldn’t help but exclaim in amazement, echoed by the onlookers.

The land yacht accelerated to a jogging pace, and Isamu steered it by moving the front wheel with his feet, making wide turns. Unlike a traditional land yacht that requires constant adjustment of the sail with ropes to catch the wind effectively, the prototype, with its consistent wind direction from the wind manipulation orb, needed no such adjustments. Simple steering adjustments and slight weight shifts were enough for easy maneuvering.

After about five minutes, Isamu became accustomed to the speed and control, so he decided to increase the speed. Touching the non-elemental magic stone at hand, he increased the magic output, causing the mast to creak slightly as it caught the stronger wind. The firmly caught wind accelerated the vehicle.

“Whoa, whoa!!!”

With the low ride height making the speed feel faster, Isamu’s voice involuntarily escaped. After thirty minutes, Isamu increased the wind speed to three times the initial level before stopping the wind manipulation orb. Without brakes on the prototype, the land yacht gradually slowed down and eventually came to a stop.

“As expected, it ran well.”

Eto approached Isamu, who had disembarked from the land yacht.

“Yes. Perhaps because it was for one person, it was faster than expected. The wind manipulation orb’s speed adjustment also worked fine, so we can now move on to serious testing of the magic car.”

“Indeed. By the way, Isamu, may I also drive this land yacht?”

Eto, who had been restless, promptly climbed into the land yacht as soon as he asked.

This led to a grand test drive event by the gathered onlookers. The training ground echoed with joyful voices until sunset.

The next day, the full-fledged prototyping of the magic car began.

The model with a sail required height, which made it inconvenient for forest paths where it could get caught in trees, and its efficiency dropped significantly in headwinds. Therefore, another method was needed.

“Hmm, if it worked like a blower, we could just mount it facing backward, but that’s not the case here…”  

Isamu murmured, arms crossed.

“Maybe the most efficient way is to directly use the wind power to turn the wheels. The issue is how much torque we can get.” 

There are several approaches to harnessing wind power for propulsion, such as using a propeller for lift. However, Isamu wanted a simpler method, so he decided on using wind power from the rear to directly turn the wheels.

“How about something like this?” 

“Wow! As expected of you, Eto-san, it’s perfect!” 

Isamu exclaimed upon seeing Eto’s prototype.

Eto had created a windmill mounted on the axle to turn the wheels. The structure was simple: the rotation direction of the wheels aligned with the wind direction. From the side, it looked like an asterisk (*), but with curved blades for better wind capture, it resembled a swastika shape more closely.

They attached this to the axle and sent wind from the rear to rotate the wheels.

“Shall we test it with just the base first?” 

“Yes, let’s start with the lightest possible state to see what wind power level is needed to move it.” 

They removed the carriage box, leaving just the base, mounted the windmill, and set up the wind manipulation orb behind it.

To keep the setup light, Eto sat on the carriage, handling the ON/OFF and magic power adjustments for the wind manipulation orb.

“Alright, here we go” 

Eto said confidently as he activated the wind manipulation orb.

Unlike the previous land yacht, the wind was concentrated to match the windmill’s blade size, creating a focused stream from the orb.

“Looks like this level of wind won’t move it…” 

Isamu noted as the windmill didn’t budge with a gentle breeze.

Eto gradually increased the wind power.

When the wind grew strong enough to be felt on his cheeks, the windmill seemed to twitch slightly.

“Hmm? It looks like it’s starting to move!”

“Really? Let me give it a push. It’s said that starting a stationary vehicle requires much more force than keeping it moving.” 

Indeed, moving a stationary vehicle often requires 1.5 to 2.5 times the force needed to keep it moving, similar to pushing hard on a bicycle pedal to start moving.

Since the windmill and wind manipulation orb were at the rear, pushing from there was impossible. Isamu moved to the side and pushed the carriage forward. With minimal effort, the carriage with Eto on it began to move.

“Oh! It’s moving!!” 

Eto shouted involuntarily.

The cart, which had started to move slowly, began to accelerate gradually as it caught the wind from the wind manipulation orb.

Thus, the full-scale prototyping of the magic car began.

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