Chapter 6
Akion's head spun at the sight of the envelopes piled up in front of him.
He wanted to tell Goldie to throw them all away immediately, but
“Ugh…!”
Apparently, failing to reply to these would cause trouble in aristocratic society… Clutching his aching head, he began opening the envelopes with Goldie.
“Let’s see….”
Once they checked the contents, they found that, apart from the senders, the letters were all much the same.
“Goldie.”
“Yes, Young Master.”
“Why have I become a filial son who took the initiative to reconcile with Lady Lucretia, and why has the portable fan taken from you become a gift?”
They wanted him to sell them the portable fan he had given(?) to Lucretia, too!
Countess Lucretia Enersis must have laid the groundwork for that. Had she considered it a gift when Goldie handed it over?
“Young Master. Goldie doesn’t know, either….”
“Right….”
She had stolen it, so how was it a gift?!
And after doing that, she had bragged about her maternal affection for Akion in public?
In Akion’s seventeen years of memories, Lucretia was the woman who had insulted him, calling him an incompetent motherless brat.
Of course, now that he had awakened the mindset from his previous life, he could just coolly move past it—
“I suppose I’ll have to get revenge.”
It really got on his nerves. Honestly.
So he decided to plan his revenge.
Of course, a blunt revenge in his reply saying, ‘I’m not on such terms with Lucretia,’ would be satisfying, but it would hurt Enersis, whose stock had been rising lately.
What then? The count might cut the research budget because of his reduced income.
Akion had once experienced his budget drying up to the point of gasping for breath in his previous life. In other words, this was a serious matter…!
And more than anything, this was a family matter. Whether by aristocratic standards or otherwise, it would be improper to expose it to outsiders….
“I’ll get under her skin within the family.”
“Huh? How?”
“I have my ways.”
He decided to needle Lucretia inside the house.
She had dared to obstruct an engineer’s research, so she must have been prepared to face the consequences.
- Bang bang bang! Rattle!
Akion rolled up his sleeves once more and began assembling something with a clatter.
*
One week later.
“Father, Mother. Thank you for your hard work on your long journey.”
The household retainers came out to welcome the count and countess home.
“Hoho! Akion! You came out, too!”
“I’m your son, too, you know.”
Akion was there as well.
‘What is he up to?’
Akion had not shown his face at an occasion like this since he was seven.
First there had been Lucretia’s pressure and mistreatment, followed by his siblings’ ostracism and the servants’ disregard.
On top of that, Delford had neglected him, using his busy schedule and the competition for the countship as excuses.
She had hoped he would keep himself tucked away on his own… Lucretia clicked her tongue inwardly while smiling brightly on the outside.
“Hoho. I never expected you to think of me that way.”
‘How dare someone like you call me Mother?’ was what she meant.
There was no way a young master who had spent his aristocratic life shut away in resignation could understand that.
She could still smile at that point.
“Yes. So… I’d like to give the count and countess a present I made this time.”
Until two portable fans appeared in Akion’s hands.
“I developed them first, but it took some time because I had the servants test them. These are—”
Two luxurious portable fans, carefully carved from fine wood and coated with resin.
Lucretia’s smile began to crack.
“Isn’t that a portable fan?”
“Huh? How did you know, Father?”
The noblewomen had secretly told only her, ‘I sent your son a letter.’
So he should not have been unaware of the situation, and yet he…!
“Have you… ever given one of these to anyone?”
“Aside from Goldie, you’re the first people I’ve shown the actual item to….”
“No, no. Ahem.”
He had just reported her to the count in front of everyone.
The solid-wood portable fan Lucretia was holding had not been a gift!!
“Or perhaps you recognized it immediately from my explanation last time…. As expected of you, Father.”
“You needn’t flatter me so much. Hoho, in any case, I’ll accept it gratefully.”
Of course, only the count and countess knew what had really happened.
The count and countess accepted the gifts. Both were smiling, but
“My lady.”
“Yes, my lord.”
“After you change your clothes… come to the head of the house’s study.”
“……Yes.”
Their eyes were not smiling.
The count was furious,
and the countess was ashamed on top of that.
As they were ushered into the mansion, Lucretia noticed Akion looking at her.
The moment their eyes met, he—
- Heh.
“You little…!”
Sneered at her.
He had definitely sneered!!
Lucretia wanted to freeze his mouth shut right then and there, but
“My lady.”
“Y-yes!”
Because Delford looked angrier than expected, she hurried into the mansion.
*
“So… Lucretia took yours from you.”
After hearing the whole story, the count soon summoned Akion to the head of the house’s study and brought it up.
“It seems your treatment was harsher than anything I saw or heard.”
“No, Father. Ever since the ceiling fans were installed, the servants have been trying to look after me.”
“Naturally they would.”
- Whummm….
A ceiling fan spun from the ceiling of the study, accompanied by a quiet hum.
Its handsome wooden propeller spun, circulating a cool breeze.
Since Akion had provided such an expensive thing for everyone in the mansion, the servants could not help but like him.
“I’ve made it quite clear, so you won’t be mistreated anymore.”
“Thank you for your help, Father.”
“Mm-hmm. If you have any complaints, be sure to tell me.”
“Yes, Father.”
Akion Enersis was truly the golden goose laying golden eggs for House Enersis.
But that woman Lucretia had stolen something Akion had given to the maid who looked after him?
There was no way Akion was unaware of it. The count had heard that over a hundred letters had arrived for Akion.
So the present during their return just now had been a devastating blow indeed.
The family elders must have heard about it, too, so there would be plenty of discussion and argument.
For Akion, who had quietly insisted he would do nothing but research, to take revenge like this….
The count was relieved that Akion had given up his claim to the countship. If he had not, this would surely have caused an enormous uproar.
“Right. And you want to establish an additional production line for this thing you developed this time, the motor?”
“Yes. It’s an engineering component with an enormous number of uses.”
In any case, enough of the gloomy talk.
Akion, who raised the family’s honor and brought them new ways to make money, had brought another proposal.
There were two in total. The first was the construction of a new, large workshop for motor production!
Just look at the incandescent bulbs. Ever since the production line was built, every one made had been sold immediately.
And Akion’s share? He had asked that it be used to bestow benefits upon the residents of Enersis County.
Akion’s intention was to distribute incandescent bulbs to their homes as well.
Thanks to that, Enersis’s reputation and the residents’ loyalty were soaring higher by the day!!
That was why Delford’s face immediately broke into a broad grin when he saw Akion’s proposal documents.
“You mean something like a sewing machine?”
“Ah, yes. How did you come up with that?”
“As you said, rotational motion can ultimately be converted into vertical motion as well. That gave me the idea. And perhaps it could dramatically increase not only production speed, but daily output, too.”
“As expected of you, Father.”
Perhaps thanks to that, Delford was a wonderfully helpful corporate chairman in Akion’s eyes.
Give him one piece of academic knowledge, and he understood ten; he immediately grasped the purpose behind whatever Akion developed.
And he was shrewd enough to calculate its usefulness in a flash.
“So, Father. This time, I’d like to improve the toilets.”
“The toilets?”
A chairman like this? For the people on the ground, he was the best.
That was why Akion promptly handed Delford his second proposal.
“More precisely, I’d like to overhaul the toilets and bathrooms as well. Using this motor.”
“Hmm. Go on.”
In any case, since the count was the master of the mansion, Akion always needed Delford’s permission to renovate any rooms.
Along with the materials he had brought, Akion explained what he had in mind.
After about thirty minutes,
“Hahahaha! Do as you wish!”
- Thump!
With Delford’s broad grin, permission was granted, and Akion left the study in high spirits.
“Young Master, Young Master.”
- Buuuuung~!
Goldie had been waiting outside, cooling herself with her portable fan.
“Are you the only one who’s hot? Blow it this way, too.”
“Yeees. But, Young Master. Judging by how bright your face is, I suppose you got permission?”
“Yep. He told me to do as I pleased again.”
The implementation of the flush toilet—the motor’s primary development goal.
He had just secured approval for the project budget to make it happen.
Of course, he had only made the motor so far, and had not installed a water tank to draw up and store water.
And what about installing water pipes throughout the toilets? It would be horrendously difficult.
So,
“Let’s think about that later.”
“Huh? Then should I not call the guild people…?”
“We’ll have to call them in to discuss it. But the schedule will obviously stretch out, so there’s no point calling them now….”
He would put all of it off for later.
Akion himself had no particular expertise in architecture or interior design, either.
So the first field the engineer Akion needed to tackle was—
“Then are you going to make something to transport the water first?”
“That’s right. A turbopump.”
A pump that used the motor’s rotation to turn an internal propeller—an impeller—and draw up water using the pressure differential.
“We could make a swimming pool with this, too.”
“What’s a swimming pool?”
“Ah… You don’t know.”
At last, he planned to make the pump motor, the second stage.