Chapter 29: Young Boy Period
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Well, let’s put everything in perspective.
Right now, the things I am doing are:
- I am giving supervision and instruction to the others in how to manufacture the rubber properly.
- Improving the quality of rubber goods.
- Development of new rubber products.
- Training with the sword (However, only doing practice-swings)
- Magical training (Expending MP in order to grow the MP capacity; if possible this is done 3 times a day for maximum efficiency)
- Disposal of any spies that might try to get into contact with Myun.
All in all, these are the 6 things I classify as important work. Ah, well from number 4 onwards, it’s not really accurate to call it work I suppose.
Where did the Children’s Welfare Act go to? Such a thing doesn’t exist here.
Let’s think about these things sequentially.
First let’s start with number 1. In this aspect, there has been no problems arising out of supervision. If I just make sure to use a combination of Earth, Wind and Void magic to create the mould for the others, even though it takes a huge amount of MP consumption, the rest becomes pretty straight forward. I just have to make sure that no one receives any injuries, and I just have to make sure that the rubber is poured into the mould before it hardens and make sure this is done properly. This doesn’t take very much of my time.
Next is number 2. Even if I say I am improving my rubber products, if there is no request from the buyers to improve a certain product, I won’t actually alter any of the current products. At any rate, the only products I sell are things that I myself would be satisfied with, therefore, unless it’s pointed out by somebody that they would like additional improvements, I won’t go out of my way to do it. Well, there are those rare occasions when I discover that a product can be improved, so I guess I won’t say that I never improve it. Aside from this, the point is that there isn’t much work in this department unless there is a request.
And now moving on to number 3. In this aspect that are various kinds of developments. There is a mountain of things I came up with. Although, I still can’t make the rim for the wheels so I am still suspending the development of the tyres for the time being. Soon it might be time for me to create rubber products for general merchandise. In all honesty, simple things like rubber bands are actually really useful. If a thin elastic band is made, it can be used to tie up and easily bundle several books together, or if a thin rubber-cloth is made it can be used to bundle up clothing and easily carry them around. Unless people actually used these products, most of them wouldn’t know how useful it could be… Another thing is that a condom is also important. In Bakuddo Village, there isn’t any venereal diseases however, since ancient times, the act of copulation is source of infection and illness and the potential destructiveness cannot be underestimated. It is definitely something important to create.
Now number 4. This is something I need to find time in order to do. Well because the amount of time that I have to supervise the others when working is not that much anymore, there isn’t really any problems for me to find time to do sword practice. After all, I am only doing practice swings. As long as I had approximately one tatami mat of space, I would be able to swing my sword.
After that let’s talk about number 5. I still do my magical training and after waking up in the morning and consuming breakfast, I would expend all my MP. Recently, I’ve been filtering out metal from the earth in order to expend my MP. After that I would also expend my MP after Dinner and also wake up in the middle of the night and do this again. There are times when I go out hunting together with Myun in the evening and so occasionally I cannot expend all my mana.
Lastly point number 6. Up until now, I’ve disposed of 1 spy. After that I didn’t get rid of the next spy, but considering that Myun already gave him information about the dispatch of troops for the expedition, there should be no more problems for at least 10 years, right? That’s what I want to believe. However, this isn’t really a permanent solution. There are three fundamental ways to solve this problem permanently. One method includes completely destroying the Saguaru family which is the source of the spies in the Debasu Kingdom. However, this is extremely difficult to accomplish. Method two involves eliminating the man called Beguru, who resides in the city of Keel. In comparison to the first method, this is probably easier to accomplish, however, this may not be sufficient to provide a permanent solution. The third method involves making the spy organisation believe that Myun has died. Is this the most realistic method? I think that if I get the timing right, and when the contact liaison comes the next time in order to see Myun, if I can just make it appear as if Myun died right in front of his eyes, and he reports this to the upper branches, it will be case closed. After that, if I can also take care of Beguru, that would be even more perfect. Presently my focus is on making money, and considering the time span we have, this is not really the most pressing issue.
Therefore, this probably means that the most pressing matter out of the 6 subjects is point number 3, which is development of new rubber products. Other than this, there isn’t really any other problems. Let’s begin at once, shall we? If I can create a variety of new products by the time both Hegard and Sharl comes home, wouldn’t they be pleasantly surprised?
The tuning adjustments for the various rubber products have been going well and so I wanted to produce the condom for health and hygiene reasons, but it hasn’t been going very smoothly. This is because it’s not like I can try it on myself, and I cannot really test it on anyone else either. If I wanted my parents to try out the product, I wonder what kind of face they would make……? Well, I guess this has reached the point where it became sort of a hobby for me, and since it’s not like I would need such things until the distant future I’m not too worried about it. Even today, I am trying hard to improve the condom’s membrane, but, even trying to produce a membrane that has the same thickness is such a hard thing. Not just that, but there is also the complicated issue of what kind of shape the membrane should take. Well, I guess I should give up for the time being and just delegate this to a past time hobby thing that I do whenever I have some spare time?
I was secluded in the home warehouse under the pretence of developing new products as I absentmindedly thought about these things, when suddenly a flash of inspiration came to me. Up until now, what I’ve done is use earth magic in order to form the exterior of the condom, by consistently adding the proper dosage of rubber to slowly solidify the shape. At the same time, after forming a cylindrical shape, I would close the tip of the condom with a lot of rubber. Therefore, the tip of the condom would have an excess of rubber and become distorted, and this would cause the thickness of the rubber to vary especially near the spearhead of the condom. Because of the difference in thickness, it actually causes a lot more friction and therefore makes it easier for the condom to tear. In that case, let’s change my way of thinking and let’s think of a new way to recreate the external surface of the membrane. First I need a sufficient amount of rubber as a base, and then I need to use wind magic in order to immediately send air down the condom to stretch out it’s cylindrical shape and at the same exact time use magic in order to dry it and complete it in one go, I wonder if this would work?
Because this needs wind magic in order to accomplish, only I would be able to create such a thing, but, I’m sure that in the near future, there will be someone from the village who will be capable of using wind magic, I think that this might actually work out? Alright, let’s do a trial experiment right now.
Because it feels like it will take a long time before a perfect model can be made, for now let’s just aim for a useable model. Pour the raw rubber……….and use wind magic in order to dry it! ………How is it? Thought not quite satisfactorily, for the time being it’s not too bad. There isn’t a difference in the thickness and it looks like beautiful job. I blew air into it and made it into like a balloon, and then using water magic I poured water into it and tried making it into a water balloon as I played around with it. Well, I wasn’t intending to make a water balloon to begin with, and I noticed that it was really huge when it got filled with water. However……. Isn’t this a success?
Uhiyoo~ I see the light. As long as I pay careful attention and properly make the external form, I think that this will work. It doesn’t’ really require a huge amount of raw rubber, and as long as you could use a sufficient level of wind magic, I think that it won’t be too hard to start mass production. …….No, it requires quite a huge amount of MP, so it might not work? Well, I guess I can’t really start worrying about that right now or there would be no end to it. For now, this is a success.
It would be bad if I just played around and made these hygienic rubber goods all the time, let’s also think about the other types of goods. How about making a life buoy? Or perhaps, I can make a rubber boat, that also sounds pretty good. Is it called a valve? or even if I made a cork stopper, this invention would also be very useful I think. Let’s see, what other stuff can I make? Maybe a rubber glove will be good? But, what’s the purpose of rubber gloves anyways? Well, I guess there no need to be troubled by it, let’s just try experimenting!
Creating various interesting rubber products and going hunting at night with Myun exterminating the leeches, before I knew it four months have already passed, and the expedition force with Hegard and the others in it have already returned to Bakuddo village. There were 0 casualties in the war, this was a joyous performance. The moment that the dispatched army returned to the village under the guidance of Hegard and Sharl, everyone returned to their homes and immediately rested, I suppose they must be feeling very tired right? After about two days of rest in order to recuperate, Hegard started to assemble those of them who participated in the expedition.
「First of all, Everyone, you’ve worked hard. Although it was quite the intense battle, the fact that nobody died is the most important thing above all」
Everyone was paying attention to Hegard.
「And now. In relation to the armor you have on you, if there is anything that you want improved, please be sure to say it. The person who made these rubber protectors is Al, therefore, if you have any requests it would be better to directly talk to him about it. Al if you have any questions yourself, don’t be afraid to ask them as well, alright?」
「My lord, In regards to that particular matter, I think it would be better to talk about it? I bet that Al-sama would be surprised when he hears about it!」
One of the retainers, Beckwiz suddenly raised a new topic and wanted Hegard to bring it up. Uh-oh, is he going to immediately start talking about the improvements I can make to the protectors? I haven’t even brought my memo with me.
「Ah, oh. Alright. Al, you should be happy. Even the leader of the knights Sendohel-sama, used your boots and sandal products and was very satisfied with the quality and excellence of the product. Not only that, he also praised us in relation to the cushion that was being used on top of the horse saddles. Because sandals and boots are expendable supplies, he would probably need around 300 to 100 respectively of each of the products every half a year, and from now on, he is going to extensively adopt and use these products. Therefore, it’s been requested that 300 sandals and 100 boots be delivered to him within the next 3 months. He also wants 500m of the rubberized cloth」
Ohh, this is amazing. Well for now, this amount is still doable with how much we are able to produce.
「After that, on our way home, we also visited Viscount Kindo. The Viscount was also really satisfied with our products. Next time, not just the sandals, but he plans to purchase the boots and the cushion as well」
Muu, now that I remember, we also delivered goods to Viscount Kindo… Is this getting a little too much?
Perhaps Hegard noticed the look in my face, but he strangely said.
「Hm? What’s wrong? if we start selling, we will make a huge profit, we can even start buying horses ……..Is there something bad?」
Near the end, he was speaking kind of timidly and even though Hegard is my father, I thought it was kind of cute.
「No…… If we are talking about this much quantity, then it is likely that we will barely be able to reach the quota for production. But there will be no room for mistakes」
I’m sure that he understands what I am worried about right? I think that Hegard has understood the seriousness of the situation now.
「Mu….. Is that so? That’s going to be troublesome isn’t it….. If we want to increase our rate of production, what can we do?」
「Hmm let’s see. The only way for us to do that is to claim new plots of land, and plant more seeds of the rubber tree, in order to increase the number of trees, this is the only thing we can do. However, I have never tried to do that so, I don’t know how well it will work out…… Moreover, even if it did work out successfully, for us to be able to obtain and harvest the sap from the rubber tree, we would need to wait who knows how many years before the tree is fully grown. Therefore, it would be really difficult to suddenly increase the rate of our production. If it is absolutely necessary, I can forcefully cut more of the tree in order to collect the maximum amount of sap from a single tree, but if this is done too often, the tree itself will be damaged and there is a possibility that the sap will not come out any longer. Until then, we must succeed in increasing the amount of rubber trees by planting them」
As expected, I also answered in a serious tone of voice.
「Fumu…… is that so…..? I guess we need to clear out and cultivate new land….」
Somehow the atmosphere turned dark. I really hate this kind of atmosphere.
「Apart from that, in regards to the improvement of the rubber protectors. I actually forgot to bring my memo, so I’ll bring it and come back right now」
I tried to shake off the dark atmosphere by speaking out in a bright manner and I went to get the memo board.
After that the atmosphere became more peaceful, and everyone was boasting about their particular stories as I listened to how they wanted the protectors to be improved. There were some aspects of improvement that I wouldn’t have expected. I think that it will take some time in order to do the improvements. The biggest issue the majority seems to have is that it feels stuffy. Although the elbows and the shoulders are quite alright, the chest area, abdomen area and thigh area was made from ebonite materials and was really quite wide and so apparently it was really stuffy. Similarly, the groin area was also in need of improvement. In regards to this particular aspect, there isn’t much point for me to make a hole to create more breathing room as it would defeat the purpose and function of the protector, so perhaps it would be better to just remove it? Or perhaps I can give it a bit more ventilation on the backside to create some breathing room, although this would probably require more rubber and make it a little heavier, perhaps this will help with coping with the stuffiness? I guess I will experiment with this later.
Additionally, it seemed that the people who wore the protective gear wanted some sort of design and or other types of materials added to it. Well at the very least, everyone seems to say that it has been very useful in actual battle so I was relieved knowing this.
In this way, I continued to develop rubber products and improve them, along with hunting with Myun a couple of times each month, I was now over 6 years old.
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