Kays Translations

Chapter 215: From Refrigerator to Freezer

　The next morning, as I prepared to leave for the royal castle, Brother Alex came to see me.

　“You are going to the castle again today? You need to get some rest too.”

　He gave me a wry smile. He must have realised how unconvincing his words sounded even to himself. Brother Alex was constantly moving without taking a break too.

　“Thank you. I will rest properly, of course. Today, however, we are testing the icehouse's cooling system. I'm sure everyone is looking forward to it.”

　They were looking forward to it, weren't they? Probably. What if I was the only one excited? That would be depressing. They had to be looking forward to it, right? A new magic tool might be born from this work. Huh? Maybe I really was better suited to becoming a magic-tool maker…

　“I see. Very well. But don't push yourself too hard.”

　Brother Alex smiled as he spoke, but I could hear the warning behind the words. His voice dropped slightly on the second half.

　I would have to be careful. Improving the icehouse and turning it from a refrigerator into a freezer didn't count as pushing myself too hard, surely.

　“Julius, are you going out? I was thinking of having a little rendezvous with you today.”

　“I'm sorry, Lady Meeka. I have business at the royal castle.”

　“What a pity.”

　That was close! Had she come to the townhouse partly to see how good my swordsmanship was? What was she planning to do after seeing my ability? Train me in return for the medicine?

　“I would have liked to spar with Julius at least once.”

　Brother Cain approached with a disappointed expression. Why did he want to know how strong I was too? I had a bad feeling about this. I didn't know exactly how strong the two of them were, but they were probably weaker than Lionel, commander of House Heine's territorial knights. That meant they were weaker than me.

　Sparring with them would be difficult. I had to make sure Brother Alex and the other two didn't discover my true strength. I needed to escape no matter what.

　“You would gain nothing from sparring with me. I must be going.”

　“Have a safe journey. Heh, you managed to escape.”

　Brother Alex! Don't say that. Now the two of them really thought I had run away.

　I hurried into the carriage and left the townhouse as though I were fleeing.

　“That could have become troublesome.”

　“You look as though you've already had a difficult morning. What happened?”

　“Brother Cain's fiancée is staying at the townhouse. Apparently, she wanted to give me some training.”

　Axel and Ijidol's faces scrunched up when they heard that. Female knights certainly existed, but comparatively few came from noble houses; most were commoners. They were probably imagining a young lady built like a gorilla. Lady Meeka looked like a rabbit no matter how you looked at her.

　“You are in a difficult position.”

　“Yes… rather.”

　I answered vaguely. I didn't want to say too many bad things about Lady Meeka. I especially didn't want to say anything bad about her breasts.

　We entered the room where the icehouse materials were stored. The required supplies were steadily accumulating there.

　“We need to complete the cooling test soon, or there will be nowhere left to stand.”

　“There is a great deal of wood here. Everyone must have worked hard to gather it.”

　“They can make money from something that used to be useless. The suppliers probably decided that if they were ever going to sell it, now was the time. In any case, let's begin the test.”

　“I've been waiting for this!”

　Good. There was someone else who had been waiting for the experiment. I was relieved that I wasn't the only one looking forward to it. Axel began preparing with obvious excitement, and Ijidol happily joined him.

　“All right, we'll begin. Please stand well clear of the magic circle. Here we go.”

　I tested the smallest enhancement magic circle first. We placed a glass of water close to the cooling magic circle to measure the effect, and condensation immediately formed on the glass.

　“Good. This should be enough to cool a small room.”

　The water didn't freeze, but it became cold enough to make my finger ache when I touched it.

　Next, we tested a slightly larger circle. This time, a thin layer of ice formed across the surface.

　“Look, ice is forming. Fascinating.”

　Even while Ijidol touched it, the layer of ice slowly grew thicker. Did this speed seem about right? A circle of this size seemed ideal for the current icehouse.

　Finally, we tested an even larger circle. This time, the water in the glass began freezing all at once. If this one were used carelessly, people entering the icehouse might freeze too. Dangerous.

　We decided not to test the enormous circle that had produced diamond dust the previous day. It was simply too dangerous.

　We settled on the second-smallest enhancement magic circle. That should do the trick.

　My impression remained the same: enhancement magic circles were difficult to use. Their output was hard to regulate. I decided that larger versions shouldn't be used again. With that settled, we completed one wall of the icehouse.

　Three magic circles were mounted on a wooden panel and covered with sturdy rectangular slabs of stone. With help from the royal magic-tool craftsmen, the work finished sooner than expected.

　“One wall is complete. There are three walls left… and if we include the ceiling and floor, that makes five more surfaces.”

　Axel's gaze became distant. It sounded like a long road, but from here we would merely repeat the same process over and over. We would get faster as we went.

　“It is still progress. Let's begin the next stage. First, we'll process all the wood we've gathered.”

　We returned to the storage room and immediately began cutting the wood into planks. I cut the wood while Axel and Ijidol carried each finished plank to the designated place. By midday, we had finished installing the wooden layer on all four walls.

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