Kays Translations
Just another Isekai Lover~
Chapter 91: Innovative Technology Can’t Be Stolen
Marches agreed to coordinate with the craftsmen while they built a refrigerator prototype.
Once it was complete, they would take it to the Merchants’ Guild and register the invention for patent protection.
Tauro had devised a safeguard for the magic circles drawn between the two boards. One circle was drawn on the upper board and another on the lower one. They functioned only when the boards were placed together; if anyone separated the joined boards, the circles would disappear.
That should prevent anyone from copying the design.
At Aeris’s suggestion, they also bound the craftsmen with magical contracts, making it extremely difficult for them to leak the secret. Apparently, the contract spell was one of the abilities granted by her [Priest] skill.
Aeris had proved useful in an unexpected way.
Another advantage of the refrigerator was that ordinary scrap magic stones were sufficient to power it.
Scrap magic stones were small stones unsuitable for processing. They were often harvested from the weak monsters encountered on F-rank quests. The Adventurers’ Guild bought them because they still had uses, but the smallest ones sometimes fetched next to nothing.
A refrigerator could be powered simply by opening the lid of its magic-stone compartment and dropping them in, so its running cost would be low.
The magic-circle licensing fee, the craftsmen’s labor, and the materials would make the refrigerator fairly expensive, but continued use would quickly repay the initial cost.
Food had always been discarded after spoiling, and many foods tasted better chilled. Tauro therefore planned to produce everything from small household models to large commercial units.
The timing was fortunate: a Merchants’ Guild branch had just opened in Dansas.
Perhaps the guild believed the developing village had a promising future. The branch was still small, but it could register patents, sparing Tauro a journey to town.
Once the prototype was finished, Tauro tested it and determined that it was practical enough for real use. He promptly took it to the new guild branch for registration.
The guild clerk handling the application stared back and forth between the revolutionary refrigerator and the boy claiming to represent its inventor. After confirming Marches as the guarantor, however, the clerk completed the registration without delay.
Thus, the revolutionary refrigerator was registered in the name of Giro Sugar—the supposedly famous creator of special Reversi boards and Tauro’s pseudonym.
Giro Sugar had originally been entirely fictitious, but the head of the Garfish Company had anticipated future needs and quietly completed the paperwork required to make him officially “real.” The name therefore passed the Merchants’ Guild’s review without difficulty.
The Dareder branch of the Garfish Company had signed a contract with the Marches Company to handle the refrigerators. When it took one to a magic-tool shop in town, the shop’s reaction was enthusiastic.
After all, the refrigerator could use magic stones without requiring them to be processed.
The shop immediately purchased one.
Considering its enthusiastic response, the Garfish Company found it odd that the shop bought only a single unit, but sold it without comment.
After a short interval, the shop ordered a second refrigerator.
Even if the first had already sold, another one-unit order seemed suspicious. Once again, however, the company said nothing and completed the sale.
The Garfish Company then sent an errand boy to pose as a customer at the suspicious shop. He reported that no refrigerators were displayed for sale.
Just as they had suspected.
The company representatives were now certain that the shop was dismantling the refrigerators instead of selling them.
The technology was so revolutionary that the shop was trying to uncover its secrets.
Tauro’s anti-copying safeguard must have ruined the first refrigerator as soon as they took it apart, prompting them to buy a second. According to Tauro, even he could no longer inspect the circles after the boards had been joined, so there was little risk of the design being stolen.
Future dealings with the shop were another matter.
If it refused to display the refrigerators, there was no reason to give it priority. The company would be better off approaching smaller magic-tool shops or selling directly to businesses that handled food.
A few days later, the same shop placed an order for a third refrigerator. The Garfish Company confronted the owner about the absence of refrigerators from his shelves. When he couldn’t explain himself, they denounced his conduct and terminated their business relationship.
Having angered the Garfish Company, the shopkeeper spent the following days visiting the company repeatedly to apologize.