Chapter 136 Cute Subordinates…
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
Meanwhile, Ayumu had no time to breathe. Day after day, he threw himself into the work of the Magic Engineering Division, wearing the title of chief researcher like a chain around his neck. Not that he could complain—his schedule was overflowing. Mornings were swallowed by hand-to-hand and sword training under Yoluminette. Afternoons buried him in the paperwork of a feudal lord. And when that was done, he slipped straight into the workshop, hammering away at projects, one after another, with not a sliver of free time to his name.
Just recently, the petroleum refinery had finally been completed, so he was now busy cobbling together a low-pressure boiler and an ammonia refrigerator.
Of course, both were intended for use at his residence—the old government office building that doubled as his home. The boiler, being relatively simple, was designed with an open-air tank connected to the heater shell to prevent accidents. The refrigerator, meanwhile, had to make do with ammonia as a refrigerant gas. Synthetic fluorocarbons were still out of reach, and besides, he wasn’t aiming for commercial rollout anyway. Awkward, dangerous—yes. But practical enough.
Still, if he could have only one, he wanted that boiler first. Bathing in freezing water in the cold land of Yugan was already harsh, but worse—lately the household servants had managed to carry in fleas, lice, ticks, and, gods forbid, even the blood-sucking kissing bug, the dreaded sashigame-san. Ayumu had been having an absolutely miserable time of it.
The surest way to deal with fleas and lice was to keep the body clean. Add in the risk of infectious diseases spread through those vermin, and the need for a shower or bathhouse became urgent. Very urgent. Public hygiene, too—baths were a must. If Keldan was to survive without plague sweeping through, public bathhouses would have to be installed across the city.
Water could be distilled from seawater using the boiler. Impurities filtered out with charcoal and sand. Then disinfect the reused bathwater with chlorine produced by electrolyzing brine. That would do for a day at least.
The real problem was the wastewater itself. Dump it directly into the sea, and plankton would bloom out of control, red tides choking the fishing grounds. And in Keldan, where food was already scarce, the last thing they could afford was dwindling catches.
And if that happened, it wouldn’t just hurt Keldan. Their neighbor, Duke Ralka of the state capital Livonia, would suffer as well. And crossing the Duke—no, throwing away a future economic ally—was the last thing Ayumu could allow.
For all those reasons—
”…yeah. That girl who just got dispatched to me recently is going to have to work hard, huh?”
Only a short while ago, another subordinate had been sent from the Imperial Court. Though now a lord of Keldan, Ayumu had kept his chief researcher title, which made sense. After all, his appointment as lord had only ever been about safeguarding Crown Prince Aare’s health.
The new subordinate was a girl named Sarasa, her chestnut hair shimmering like roasted sweet chestnuts in sunlight. And somehow, unbelievably—she had been a passionate admirer of none other than Madam Rhines, Ayumu’s late mentor.
In fact, she had once begged Rhines to take her on as an apprentice. Unlike with Ayumu, however, Rhines had refused. When word of the old woman’s death reached her, Sarasa had been lost… until she heard whispers of Ayumu. Then she came here, determined to learn from him instead.
Which, personally, Ayumu found… troubling.
(She admired Rhines? Really? Doesn’t she have any eye for people at all?! What could she possibly expect from me? I barely spent two months under Rhines’s wing! Apprentice? I never did a single thing that counts as training!)
He had tried to refuse, as politely as possible. But Sarasa’s insistence brooked no refusal, and in the end, he’d been forced to accept.
SarSar—as she came to be called—was a kindhearted girl. A little soft, even. Her pale blue eyes welled up at the sight of someone suffering, tears gathering with helpless sympathy. But as gentle as she was, she was also hopeless. A true genius-disaster.
Just the other day she had burst into the alchemy lab on the verge of tears. Once he calmed her down, he learned she had botched a simple mixing process, wasted the ingredients, and nearly cried over it. Another time, she proudly carried him a healing potion—only for Ayumu, peering through one of Rhines’s old disposable lenses, to see:
[Healing Potion (Poison): reduces HP by 1 every 20 seconds.]
A healing potion in name only, a poison in practice. A talent for disaster, indeed. He had been impressed, in a way—something so wrong that he never could have stumbled on it himself. But thank the gods no one had drunk it.
The mislabeled potion was swiftly bottled into a poison vial, and in his heart, Ayumu snapped a mock salute to Madam Rhines in the afterlife. SarSar has made her first poison. Mission accomplished, teacher.
It was in the middle of that thought when Sarasa herself returned from the errand he had entrusted her with. Right—time to be serious. No, wait. He was serious! Always serious!
Yugan, after all, was home to Lake Vaekal, named long ago in the beastfolk tongue of the Lusrith as “Lake of Abundant Life.” Fed by snowmelt from the distant Birene Peaks, it harbored over 2,500 endemic species. The fish caught there—whitefish, sturgeon-like creatures that produced a caviar equivalent—were so prized that Emperor Rai and his kin ate them every morning, fresh from the lake.
Ayumu himself, back when he still served the Imperial Court, had once tasted the smoked whitefish in the leftovers from the royal guard’s table. Even as scraps, the flavor had been unforgettable—delicate, refined, without a trace of fishiness. Rumor had it that Second Princess Ronafermia herself enjoyed caviar spread on white bread every morning. For royalty, such luxuries made sense.
He shook off the memory. The point was, Vaekal’s waters were pristine. Their clarity came from sponges, algae, and plankton filtering and purifying them. Which was why he’d sent Sarasa, via the northeastern hub town of Eltsuk, to Restovanka, to collect water samples.
”Well then. Let’s see if you managed to finish your little errand, hm? Good job, good job.”
＊＊＊
Of course, he hadn’t let her go alone. He’d assigned guards. Unfortunately, the guards were People of Birene—and so Sarasa had endured discrimination, the guards had knocked out locals in retaliation, and she herself had nearly forgotten the samples she’d been sent to fetch.
The mission had succeeded. But the Marquis of the territory, Lord Dol, had sent a furious letter demanding apology and reparations.
”…what the hell are you guys doing?” Ayumu groaned, rubbing his temples.
In the end, he’d had to pay one hundred gold coins out of his own pocket. But with his duties as lord and chief researcher pulling him in all directions, he couldn’t leave Keldan himself. At least Sarasa had brought back the samples. That was something.
Sponges would be shipped from the site, and with algae-derived agar, they could culture bacteria and plankton. Then came the real project.
”We’re building a sewage system, damn it!”
And so, thanks to the efforts of his cute but hopeless subordinates, the sewage treatment facilities were finally completed. Yet few understood the meaning behind the tears that welled in Ayumu’s eyes that day.
Notes:
• Rhines – A weary apothecary who serves as the protagonist’s mentor at the Alchemist Guild.
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Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
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