Chapter 80
On another note, Akion recalled the history of coffee in the Middle Ages.
Apparently, Christians in the past had called coffee “the Devil’s drink”…
Akion wondered what the clergy here would think of it.
“Saint. Are you in your right mind?!”
“Oh dear.”
It seemed they weren’t much different after all.
The moment the Saintess returned after taking care of her business, she snatched the coffee away from him!
“Do you have any idea how bad this black water is for the human body?!”
“No, I mean, I know that, but….”
“If you drink it before the sun goes down, you’ll have to lie awake all night!”
“Ah. So that’s what this is about.”
She disliked it for the sake of her health.
More precisely, it was a culture that looked unfavorably on drug-induced alertness and the like.
“We consider relying on drugs to stay mentally alert a sign of weakness.”
“Then what about potions used when you’re injured?”
“Saint. You use medicine because you’re in pain in the first place.”
Of course, they didn’t prohibit ordinary people, including clergy, from drinking coffee.
Still, everyone was taught that sort of thing from childhood, before becoming a member of the clergy.
“So that’s why demand for coffee beans was so low….”
“Those who like it still make sure to drink it. I hear the cadets and professors of the Faculty of Magic drink quite a lot.”
Besides, no matter how much of a world of knights and mages this was,
they were but a speck compared to the total population of the Empire.
That had driven down both demand and supply, which was why coffee was so expensive as well.
“But it’s essential for working late.”
“Saint? Are you saying you’re going to pretend you didn’t hear me?”
“But coffee is delicious….”
“Tsk, then you should at least drink it only during the day!”
But now they lived in a world with incandescent bulbs.
Apparently, the reason the professors of the Faculty of Magic liked Akion was that those incandescent bulbs let them work late properly.
At the cost of grinding their graduate students into the dirt, apparently….
“Saint, promise me. Never! Drink! Coffee! At night!!”
“Geez, all right. I only have to stop, right?”
“Akion…?”
“Why are you looking at us and saying that…?”
Thanks to that, the project schedule had been shortened, so it was all good!
With that in mind, Akion realized that if he wanted to keep drinking delicious coffee… he couldn’t just make machines.
“We need demand…!”
“Demand for what?”
“The development of a coffee drink delicious enough to win over both His Holiness the Pope and His Imperial Majesty the Emperor!!!”
Ultimately, he needed demand as the foundation for mass production,
and to achieve that, they had to persuade the most powerful figures in every field…!
*
Before that, they needed a machine to pull espresso shots to serve those people.
With time to spare, Akion dumped an espresso-machine development project on the lab.
“I think I’m going insane! I think I’m going insane! I think I’m going insaaaaane!!”
“Heeheeheehee, revise the design, revise and revise it, then revise what needs revising after that and revise-revise-reviiiiise.”
“The young ladies are broken….”
“They haven’t even been used that long. Why did they break?”
Among them, there was one device Akion was aiming for.
“You’re putting piping through a hole in the boiler, so how are you supposed to keep it sealedooooooh!!”
“Ugegegegegekh, gegekh!!”
It was a heat exchanger.
Piping running through the inside of a boiler that stored steam.
Water would be sent through it and instantly converted into hot water over 90 degrees Celsius.
“That’s odd. It shouldn’t be breaking yet….”
“Seven days of working overnight would break even Goldie.”
“Whoops.”
A double-boiler system, which separately managed the high-temperature, high-pressure water for extraction and the high-temperature, high-pressure water for steaming, would be good too. It had advantages for temperature control.
But Akion wanted to use this opportunity to establish the principle of heat exchange.
“Still, it’s good to master this if we’re going to make air conditioners later.”
“What the heck is this air conditioner you keep talking about?!”
“Ugh, Hermione, calm dooown…!”
Later, when making air conditioners, it would serve as the foundation for all sorts of principles, such as releasing the latent heat of condensation caused by phase changes….
The moment his sisters heard about them, they would have a fit and tell him to stop spouting nonsense.
“Tchhhh…! Then you try making that thing leakproof!!”
“Sure.”
“Huh?”
And to do that, they needed perfect airtightness.
So, although it was a little late… Akion decided to develop that technology now.
“Looks like we need to make welding rods.”
“Welding…?”
One of the indispensable technologies for joining metals together: welding.
Specifically, arc welding using coated welding rods.
* * *
During his first year, Akion had once been dragged off to the Department of Mechanical Engineering, where he learned the principles and practice of arc welding.
It was because the department mixed together all sorts of majors under names like Robot Convergence Engineering, but anyway.
“Just mix sodium silicate, calcium carbonate, silicon dioxide, and feldspar in the proper proportions~”
“You brat, explain it in a way even I can understand.”
Add materials such as rutile and a deoxidizer, and you got the arc-welding rods that appeared so often in welding YouTube videos….
“This sticky paste is what makes the metals stick together…?”
“No.”
It doesn’t.
More precisely, it forms that rough coating on the outside of the welding rod.
The coating melts along with the rod, improving the quality of the weld.
Fortunately, the materials weren’t difficult to obtain.
“Limestone gives us calcium carbonate, silica sand gives us silicon dioxide, and feldspar gives us potassium…. And for the deoxidizer, we just roast this silica sand and iron scraps at an ultra-high temperature, like in a Korex furnace.”
“Goldie doesn’t understand….”
“I’m saying to send a letter to the main family by express owl. I’ll give you the deoxidizer recipe, so tell them to make it.”
“Aha! Goldie will go!”
The basic formulation was simply a matter of mixing those ingredients evenly.
Of course, the ratio of coating materials was a trade secret that made welding-rod manufacturers their money….
“I worship you. Guidelines….”
“What in the world is wrong with Akion?”
“This isn’t my first time seeing him like this. If you leave him alone, he’ll return to normal on his own….”
There were formulation-ratio guidelines provided by the American Welding Society (AWS).
In his previous life, Akion had found out about them while searching for patents as part of his research,
and he almost wanted to pat himself on the head for still remembering them.
From here on, all they had to do was repeat trial and error.
“……”
“……”
“What? Is he dead?”
“He’s asleep, Saint.”
“Akion, you’re truly cruel….”
Akion then worked Hermione and Asterra so hard that even saying he had ground them up and drunk them would have been an understatement.
“Why am I cruel? I worked through the nights with you too.”
“That’s why you’re cruel.”
“Young Master Akion, that’s… Hmm.”
Of course, Akion himself led by example. He was sleeping only two hours a day, after all.
Aysirel, the Saintess, and Flare, who watched this unfold at close range in real time,
“At this rate, won’t he kill someone? The young master will ruin his health too….”
“The human body is sturdier than you’d think, Your Highness the Princess. But….”
“Of course, as Your Highness says, this is still bound to wear him down. Sigh, perhaps we should set a date and make the Saint rest….”
All three clicked their tongues and began secretly conspiring for Akion and his sisters’ sake.
*
A few days later.
- Crackleee…!
A copper welding rod covered in coating was dangling from the tongs Goldie held, spewing sparks wildly.
- Zzt, tick!
“Eek, it stuck!”
“Don’t stop the lightning; keep it steady. Try pulling it away firmly.”
They were currently practicing arc welding for the pressure boiler that would go into the espresso machine.
The preparation stage had gotten absurdly long, but since it was necessary, Akion was making everyone who could use lightning magic, including Goldie, practice.
Or perhaps he could use something like a power bank; Akion was seriously considering battery production when….
- Tap.
“Saint.”
The Saintess stopped him.
“Yes, Saintess?”
“How about taking a short break? You’ve been going back and forth between your quarters and the laboratory alone for over two weeks now, haven’t you?”
Because she wanted Akion to get some sunlight, for goodness’ sake.
In fact, Akion had set an example by spending nearly two weeks going only between his quarters and the laboratory,
or between the laboratory and the professor’s office next door.
“Aw, I’m fine. If you eat properly, a person won’t die from sleeping only two hours a day.”
“……”
“I tried it, and I didn’t die.”
“……”
Thanks to that, Hermione and Asterra couldn’t say a single word, perhaps because overwork had given them aphasia.
- Glare…!
More precisely, they were simply too tired to spend the energy on speaking or getting angry.
Their murderous gazes bored into Akion.
“What? If you have a complaint, say it quickly.”
As if that would erase the karmic debt from the years they had spent tormenting Akion.
Besides, Akion had taken scientific and engineering knowledge hostage too… making him the ultimate tyrant where mages were concerned!
“Tch.”
“Uing….”
They had no choice but to follow him without complaint.
And the Saintess, who had been watching this tyranny, nevertheless, as a clergyperson serving the Heavenly Lord─.
“Do you want to work yourselves to death?”
“Tsk.”
Afraid he might really kill someone, she immediately dragged Akion outside.
“You two as well. Come on.”
“Th-thank you, Saintesssss…!”
“Sob, sob, I’m finally going to bed….”
She had also been watching them nearby and gauging when it would be about time for them to rest.
As Akion’s two sisters fled in tears of gratitude, the Saintess grabbed Akion by the scruff of his neck and dragged him along.
“Um, Saintess. I can walk on my own….”
“I know you’ll wander off somewhere if I let you.”
Thanks to the sharp-eyed Saintess, Akion couldn’t even find an opening to escape.
Before he could be reminded of the shameful fact that, despite being a man, he was weaker than her….
‘That’s right, the Heavenly Lord blessed the Saintess, didn’t He? And I heard she personally slaughtered a dark mage too….’
Realizing that he didn’t stand a chance to begin with, he decided to adopt a positive mindset.
So he wasn’t embarrassed even when people around them whispered and pointed fingers.
- Thump thump!
“I brought the Saint here!”
“Why go all the way to the quarters….”
Anyway, after being dragged along like that, Akion arrived at his quarters.
Then he….
- Click!
“W-welcome.”
He was confronted by the, ahem, risqué sight of Aysirel in a cow-print bikini apron.
- Steaming~!
And steam was even rising from the mug she held in her hand, filled with hot milk.
“Ahem! You’re tired, right? I heated some milk for you in advance. Come on in!”
“……”
What on earth was this situation?
Akion began to break out in a cold sweat.