Kays Translations

Chapter 50: Will This Be All Right?

While bathing with Rosalia, a troubling thought suddenly occurred to me.

Did this world have a magic circle that produced water? Such a circle was essential to the shower I intended to build. What would I do if it didn’t exist?

I questioned the servant who was assisting with our bath.

“How’s the water for this bath supplied?”

“We use a magic tool that produces hot water.”

“Such a thing exists? Is it expensive?”

“Yes. I believe relatively few noble households possess one.”

So the technology existed but was uncommon. After the bath, I would ask to examine the device. If I could open it and see the internal arrangement, I should be able to understand the basic design.

Depending on what I discovered, I might need to revise the shower blueprint.

“What is it, Big brother?” Rosalia asked.

“I’ve just had an idea about the magic tool.”

“You truly love magic tools, don’t you?”

“I suppose so.”

That was slightly misleading. I personally preferred making magic potions. There were still materials I hadn’t tested, and the potion-material encyclopaedia listed several substances unknown to me. I wanted to obtain them as soon as possible.

Once we had washed and warmed ourselves, we left the bath, dried off, and changed into our nightclothes. The servant then showed us the hot-water magic tool. Naturally, Rosalia came along.

“So this fills the bath? It’s enormous.”

“I didn’t know magic tools could be this large,” Rosalia said. “It’s amazing.”

It was impressive, but impossible to move and, frankly, rather cumbersome. Still, I was glad I had seen it before completing my design. If I had built the shower head to produce hot water directly, as originally planned, I might have caused a technological revolution.

I needed to study this world’s existing magic tools more carefully. I had assumed that knowledge was unimportant because potion making was my main work, but that was clearly wrong.

A device I created on a whim could cause an enormous disturbance. I had underestimated the value of my knowledge from the game and had nearly made a serious mistake.

“May I open it and look inside?”

“What? That would be…”

The servant hesitated. Naturally, anyone would be alarmed if a nine-year-old child asked to dismantle an expensive magic tool. I would have to reassure him.

“It’ll be fine. I only need to remove the iron panels covering the outside. I created the Starry Sky magic tool, so I know more about magic tools than the average craftsman.”

“I understand, but please be extremely careful not to damage it.”

He reluctantly gave permission. I removed the outer panels and looked inside.

I see. The water was slowly increasing, probably because of a water-producing magic circle. A separate heating circle then warmed it.

However, the hot water was generated so slowly that the machine required a large storage tank. That explained its enormous size.

Once I had identified the magic circles, I replaced every panel exactly as it had been.

“Thank you. That was very useful.”

Because I finished so quickly, the servant stared at me in confusion. I didn’t need to understand every part of the device. I only needed to know which magic circles it used.

Rosalia had looked inside with me but appeared equally puzzled. The structure was still beyond her.

Back in my room, I began revising the blueprint. Like the bath apparatus, the shower system would store water instead of generating it at the point of use.

We could construct a reservoir in one corner of the training ground, fill it with well water, and heat only the amount required.

That would reduce the system’s magical demands. A stronger heating circle could also warm the water quickly.

Instead of heating water inside the shower head, I would place a smaller tank immediately before it and incorporate the heating circle there.

The completed installation would be fairly large, but that was acceptable for the knight order. We would also need something like a pump to move water through the system. A wind-powered magic tool could rotate blades and force the water forwards.

This project was becoming far more complicated than I had expected.

“You look happy, Big brother,” Rosalia said.

“Do I? I was thinking that I’m going to be very busy.”

“I’ll help you.”

I instinctively stroked her head. I knew I should stop doing it so often, but I couldn’t resist. Seeing her smile made me smile as well. My little sister truly was adorable.

“Big brother, I’m finished.”

Rosalia looked up from the iron plate on which she had carefully copied the magic circle. Expectation and anxiety mingled on her face.

“Let me see… Yes, this should work. Shall we test the light?”

“Can it light up even though it isn’t a lamp?”

“Yes. The shape of the casing doesn’t create the light.”

I placed a small magic stone on the iron plate. After a moment, the drawn circle began to glow faintly.

“It’s shining!”

Rosalia clapped and jumped with excitement. Her personal servants watched with widened eyes, their hands covering their mouths.

The light was weak because the magic circle was imperfect and the stone was tiny, but it was still a genuine lamp magic tool.

“You did very well, Rosalia. An ordinary lamp magic tool is simply a refined version of this circle, placed inside a convenient casing.”

“Is the Starry Sky magic tool the same?”

“Yes. Its circle produces more light, and the casing projects star-shaped patterns into the darkness.”

“Magic tools can do such amazing things.”

Their possibilities depended entirely on how one combined ideas and magic circles. That was what made them interesting. Magic potions were much the same.

Calming Rosalia after her success was difficult, but I eventually managed to put her to bed.

Naturally, she was sleeping in my bed. Apparently, she had decided that she would sleep beside me for as long as the rest of the family remained in the royal capital.

I had a feeling our parents would be angry if they discovered this.

Would it really be all right?

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