Magic revolution of a Young Noblewoman Starting Over ~ The Executed Villainess restores her Ruined Family ~ Restraint? Prudence? I'm more interested in magic tools than that! - Chapter 89
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- Magic revolution of a Young Noblewoman Starting Over ~ The Executed Villainess restores her Ruined Family ~ Restraint? Prudence? I'm more interested in magic tools than that!
- Chapter 89 - New Initiatives and Workshop Tour
New Initiatives and Workshop Tour
☆
In the royal castle, Theo and I met for the first time in half a year.
Three days ago, I’d heard that he, along with his elder brother Bernardo the Crown Prince, arrived in the royal capital as a member of the ELarion Kingdom’s diplomatic delegation.
“Then I’ll be off now, Otou-sama.”
“Ugghh… yeah, be careful, ok?”
With a face that looked like it might even start shedding tears of blood, Otou-sama saw Theo and I off.
From here, we took the carriage prepared by the royal Family, and I was supposed to guide Theo around our workshop.
So, how did this end up happening?
Of course, it was Theo’s wish to tour the workshop, but it also seems that the Elarion Royal Family made an appeal to His Majesty in the form of an express 『request』.
According to His Majesty, Theo’s Otou-sama — in other words, the King of Elarion — was greatly surprised by the magic rifle (equivalent to a Model 2 prototype) and flying boots sent a while ago, and developed an interest in my magic tools.
Well, in short, a business meeting was held.
The other party wanted even more information.
They wanted concrete information on the production capacity, support system, how much of an improvement can there be from here on, and such.
And then, if there aren’t any other useful magic tools.
It seemed like he wanted to ascertain the current and future potential.
Be that as it may, many of the techniques I’ve developed qualify as highly classified information of the Heielland Kingdom.
The techniques probably won’t get stolen in just a simple tour, but just in case, we agreed on the condition that 『Just Theo, who isn’t yet an adult, can tour as much as we allow him to see』.
Thus, I ended up showing Theo around our workshop and territory.[1]
However, just one problem arose here.
Otou-sama insisted that he’d 『come along too』.
But, right now Otou-sama is His Majesty’s advisor.
When His Majesty said he’d 『be troubled if he wasn’t there for diplomatic discussions』, he tearfully gave up coming along with us.
“So today, I’ll show you around the royal capital’s workshop, as well as my shop I opened three months ago.
“Yeah. Counting on you, Letty.”
Hearing my words, Theo showed a delighted expression.
As we were exiting the room while having such an exchange, I felt like I could hear a sad 『Uughhh…』 from behind, but it must’ve been my imagination.
☆
Ti-ring, ti-ring.
When we opened the Royal Capital Workshop’s door, the bell to notify them of visitors rang,
“——— Hi, welc-… O-, Ojou-sama! It’s been a while!!”
and with a pleasant greeting, the young man who previously had been managing the workshop’s clerical work all by himself came rushing out from the back.
“Haha. The last time we met wasn’t even a month ago, Workshop Chief Roland.”
I laughed, and the youth who followed in Duncan’s footsteps as workshop chief scratched his head with a wry smile.
“Recently, there’s been so many new things starting that even a month ago feels like forever ago.”
“Certainly. This past six months, we’ve started on various things, huh.”
With the beginning of the photo studio’s opening three months ago, new initiatives had begun, such as the Royal Capital Workshop beginning improvements of the daily life magic tools, the beginning of magic armament production, and the beginning of opening preparations for a magic tool store in one corner of the photo studio.
“And are the magic tool improvements going well?”
“Yes. Everyone is so eager, that the only problem is coming to an agreement… But once that’s decided, it’s quick from there. I think we’ll be able to show you a prototype product next month.”
“I’ll be looking forward to it! And the store preparations?”
“We finally began the store’s remodelling the other day, and the new employees have begun their customer service training.”
“I see. The next store will have a dramatically different atmosphere from the existing magic tool stores, so even the employee training is going to take time.”
I nodded, going yep, yep.
At that time, a resentful voice came from behind for some reason.
“Hey, Letty. You didn’t by any chance forget about me, right?”
“N-, never! There’s no way I’d do that.”
I hurriedly turned back to face Theo.
… yeah, sorry.
I actually did forget about you for a bit.
“Come now, let me show you around our prided workshop!”
“Yaaay, I am looking forward to it.”
Saying so, Theo’s smile was subtly lukewarm, but I’m sure that’s just my imagination.
Yep.
☆
While calling out to all my Royal Capital Workshop friends who I hadn’t seen in a month, I guided Theo around.
(Nevertheless, the number of people has increased.)
Last time I came there were three new people receiving training, but now that has increased even more, and it seemed that the number of people had increased by double what the Royal Capital Workshop had originally.
“There’s quite a lot of people here.”
“That’s because we did our best to increase the number of people this past half-year. Magic rifles have begun being mass-produced in the Owleyes main Workshop, but conversely, other magic tools are being made here as much as possible. If I had to say, this is still far from enough people.”
“What do you make in this workshop?”
“Magic swords and spell swords, and also daily-life magic tools, I guess.”
“Daily-life magic tools?”
“Yeah. Like taps that have hot and cold water come out when you twist it, or stoves that make fire without burning any firewood.”
“You’re even doing those things?!”
“The one who made it was my great-grandfather though. It’s something with a magic stone consumption so high that only a portion of the upper-class nobles and wealthy merchants buy it, but now, this workshop is trying to improve that.”
In short, they’re tackling an energy-efficient design.
I spoke with everyone about the energy-efficiency techniques I knew from Japan, and had them consider which of those would be usable ideas.
“I see. I’d heard that your Family had been making magic tools for generations, but it seems you’ve been making things like that since long ago.”
“That’s right. Regardless of whether they’ve sold or not, our Family has always carved out new eras for magic tools. That’s why, I’m really proud of the Ainsworth name!”
Puffing out my chest, Theo smiled, saying 『I see』, looking this way like he was looking at something dazzling.
☆
And so we toured the Royal Capital Workshop.
We held a Q&A session with Workshop Chief Roland in the conference room on the second floor, then once again boarded the carriage and headed for the central square.
“Where are we going next?”
“The 『Photo Studio』.”
When I responded to Theo’s question, who was seated opposite me, he tilted his head, murmuring 『Photo?』.
“It’ll be faster to show you, but… To explain it simply, a 『photo』 is the recorded image of scenery and people, transcribed to a thin metallic plate. A photo studio is a store where those photos are photogra— recorded, and the recorded image is transcribed.”
“…… yep. I definitely don’t get it.”[2]
Hearing his response, I said 『I told you so』, sighing.
“Well, you’ll understand when you see it. 『A picture is worth a thousand words』, huh.”
“What’s that?”
“It means 『See it and be amazed』.”
My words made Theo burst out laughing.
“Haha. That’s so like Letty.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means 『looks promising』.”
“Jeez.”
In such an atmosphere, we laughed together for the first time in a while.
☆
The carriage past from the workshop district into the central square in the commercial district.
And then, it came to a stop in front of one particular shop facing the public square.
“Letty, your hand.”
Getting down from the carriage ahead of me, the small gentleman offered his hand to me who was getting down next.
“Thank you, Theo.”
Seeing his face turn red from embarrassment, an unconscious smile slipped through onto my face.
Alighting on the pavement, I walked up to the store, and this time introduced Theo to my prided store.
“And here we are, our 『Photo Studio』.”
Looking up at the building, Theo said a single word,
“A jewellery store?”
murmuring as he tilted his head.