Chapter 88
Willis Carrier.
His other name is God.
“Lord Carrier, thank you once again for creating such precious technology….”
“Who on earth is this Carrier…?”
“The Young Master praises him as highly as he worships the Heavenly Lord, you know?”
“What, are you saying the Saint believes in a god other than the Heavenly Lord?!”
Of course, as soon as summer ended, he got an earful for being the culprit behind global warming.
Even so, as the developer who established the large-scale cold-storage warehouse system, he was the GOAT among GOATs.
“Saint Akion. I have something to confirm. Who exactly is this Carrier fellow?”
“It is the name of the angel who told me about this vapor-compression refrigeration method while I was speaking with the Heavenly Lord last time.”
“Wha-wha-what!!! Did you say an angel?!! Oh my Heavenly Lord, just as I thought, you're turning the Saint into a saint—!”
“No!!!”
[Hey!! How am I supposed to clean this up!!]
Akion (+ the Heavenly Lord), who had been trying to make up a plausible explanation about Carrier, nearly caused an even bigger disaster.
He sat back down at the desk in his lab and stared intently at the various components laid out before him.
"There are quite a lot of things to make, and they're pretty complicated.”
No matter how small he made it, an air conditioner's principles were absurdly advanced.
“Good grief. Workshop Master, are you saying you intend to cram this many parts into something this small?”
“C-could we actually finish this…?”
Finding the refrigerant to put inside in the first place.
An evaporator to evaporate that refrigerant.
A compressor to compress the low-temperature, low-pressure gaseous refrigerant into a high-temperature, high-pressure superheated vapor.
A condenser to release its heat and turn it into a liquid.
Then there was the expansion valve: when the liquefied refrigerant passed through it and its pressure dropped, it became a low-temperature, low-pressure wet vapor. That was what provided the cooling.
“Uwaa. Akion, I really can't do this.”
“You can, Sister Hermione.”
“……You almost can't, yes. Because the odds of you managing it are less than one percent!!!”
And as this process repeated, it cooled the bowl inside the ice cream machine.
Even Hermione, who had reached the point of analyzing turbulence, got angry at just how insane the difficulty was.
He had made them work on something filthy difficult called an espresso machine right up until now,
so why was he giving them another extreme-difficulty version where an entirely different heat-exchanger principle was applied?!
“B-but somehow, I feel like we could do it if we tried….”
“Aaaagh!! If Sister Astera says something like that, what am I supposed to doooo—!!”
Of course, just as Astera said, even Hermione could see that the difficulty wasn't completely impossible.
The problem was that it was damnably difficult to implement with their current technology,
and it was hard to say whether they would even be able to properly return to their lodgings while implementing it.
“But thanks to the espresso machine, you two submitted excellent reports this time, didn't you?”
“……”
“……”
Even so, the two sisters had made great progress as mages during the development of the espresso machine.
Professors from other departments had lavished admiration and praise on the midterm and final reports the sisters had submitted in their first semester.
Some professors had even made secret offers.
They had brought contracts already drawn up and offered extravagant terms, inviting the two of them to join their labs.
“I do grind you both without mercy, but the output is good, isn't it? Are you still going to complain?”
“Nngh….”
“Wuu….”
And neither of them was foolish enough to accept so readily.
They barely had time for their own research, but if they just threw themselves into Akion's assignments, their rank rose, didn't it?
On top of that, what about the scientific and engineering theories Akion taught them while they worked on the assignments?
Since they could apply them directly to their own research, honestly, escaping would only put them at a disadvantage.
“If you understand, go get things ready.”
“Siiigh….”
“I hate you, Akion….”
“You should be grateful I haven't harmed you two.”
*
After sending his sisters away for a while,
Akion revisited the words he had said.
‘Harmed them.’
The revenge that had surfaced earlier, like a stream of consciousness.
The thought that if he hadn't awakened the memories of his previous life… he might have taken revenge on his family, perhaps by learning black magic.
“Saint? Your complexion is a little dark….”
“Isn't this just you sorting through your thoughts again?”
What if it had been only knowledge, rather than memories, that had been transferred?
Perhaps he really would have developed something resembling firearms and shot them dead.
His heart had been festering right up to the brink back then.
“No, the Saintess is right. There was a little murderous intent….”
“Saint. You really are all right, aren't you?”
“Ah, yes. I was just thinking about those dark-mage bastards for a moment.”
His family had made things difficult for him in his previous life as well,
and it was ironic that awakening his past life now had given Akion the patience to accept it calmly.
“I'm back─ Hm? Young Master, were you thinking about something sad?”
“It never stops surprising me, but Goldie, you're incredibly sensitive to changes in emotion….”
How had he not fallen apart?
Akion wondered if he had somehow become a Buddha.
“Ahem, it's part of a maid's qualifications!”
“Of course. Akion, if something is troubling you, tell me about it. If you don't wish to tell me, then telling someone else is fine too.”
“Y-yes.”
Of course, he had only barely held together because there had always been one or two people to support him like that.
“That's good. Cut ties with your family while you have the chance. I'll help you.”
“Pardon?”
“○○. Though I have a narrow view of the world from having lived only as a professor, I know it's foolish for parents to block a child who has a bright future ahead of him. Don't cling to your family. If you're short on living expenses, I'll connect you with an institution, or, if need be, raise your salary, so become independent.”
To the Akion of his previous life, that had been an exploitative professor.
Perhaps that was why Akion had never escaped, no matter how brutally he was worked.
* * *
Putting a stop to his melancholy reminiscing,
Akion began in earnest to develop the vapor-compression refrigeration system.
“A compressor is a machine that compresses.”
“……So it's a compressor, isn't it?”
“Why go out of your way to say something so obvious…?”
“Because it's sexy.”
A compressor was, literally, a machine that compressed low-pressure refrigerant to high pressure.
Based fundamentally on the first law of thermodynamics and the ideal gas law, it was an indispensable component in most refrigeration machines.
“Even so, this one is fairly simple. I'll make it a reciprocating hermetic type.”
Since the one going into this ice cream machine didn't need to be large enough for a warehouse, he planned to make a relatively small reciprocating type.
Above all, the advantage of this reciprocating hermetic compressor was….
‘It could be used in refrigerators, too.’
It could be used in household refrigerators as well. In fact, it was even a type once used in air conditioners!
Of course, modern residential and commercial air conditioners mostly used rotary or scroll compressors.
Some had inverter functions added, while others used magnetic force to push and pull the piston, making them quieter. In any case.
“Ho-ho-ho. It's not nearly as complicated a structure as I expected, is it?”
“As the crankshaft rotates, the piston reciprocates, and the resulting pressure difference simultaneously draws in, compresses, and expels the refrigerant.”
“Ha-ha. It's easy to say, but….”
With a reciprocating compressor like this, he would be able to make not only an ice cream machine,
but refrigerators as well—the sort Scarlet would be clamoring to buy more of.
More importantly, what if he popularized such refrigerators among nobles and restaurants?
“Still, Lord Clad, just imagine it. A machine that freezes whatever you put inside, letting you store it for a long time…!”
“Hmm, that truly is a mouthwatering proposal. In fact, since we have no space to stockpile meat, it's a shame that we have to eat it immediately after slaughtering it or cook it all for long-term storage.”
As Clad, who had recently secured a postdoctoral position in Akion's lab, put it,
most people would be extremely enthusiastic about having a means of storing various fresh foods for long periods.
“And we could eat ice even in summer.”
“Really, Akion? Summers in the capital are hot, so I really need ice…!”
Above all, together with Aysirel, who was especially sensitive to heat, he would be able to enjoy cool water and ice even in summer.
Flare, who had been listening to this conversation from the side,
“Couldn't we just have an ice mage maintain the cold-storage warehouse?”
“Hah─!!”
“Eek! I-I understand! I won't argue!”
Akion gave her a thorough scolding for making such a thoroughly unromantic reply.
“How dare you open your mouth, Your Highness the Princess, when you should not utter even a word against the technology of the great Lord Carrier!!!”
“Kyaa! Someone restrain this young master! Please!”
Having thoroughly scolded Miss Flare, the research lab intern,
Akion pulled Astera over and drew up a more detailed blueprint.
“The motor's rotational motion is converted into linear motion….”
“L-like this?”
The motor's rotational motion became the piston's linear reciprocating motion,
and the piston kept moving back and forth through a space where it simultaneously sucked in, compressed, and expelled air,
requiring piston rings to seal the space through which it moved, one-way valves to maintain airtightness, and so on….
“Huh. Convert rotational motion… into linear motion? Hmm, now that I think about it, it's similar to a waterwheel.”
“Ah! I finally understand thanks to the Tower Master's example!”
Everyone in the lab, young and old, male and female alike, first marveled at how such a simple principle had been woven into something so complex.
“Where does Akion learn things like this…?”
“Lady Aysirel. Surely it comes from the Heavenly Lord, don't you think, Princess Flare?”
“I just think Young Master Akion is a genius to the point of being insane….”
Sometimes—no, in fact often—everyone wondered what was inside Akion's head.
Especially Hermione and Astera, being graduate students.
“I never would have thought of that… He knows how to use something so obvious in a way I never considered. Then this could be used in reverse too, couldn't it? Hmm, wait. Then it's the same as what's used in a sewing machine, isn't it?”
“O-or maybe something like… a carriage that runs automatically…?”
“Oh. Bonus points for you, sisters.”
Of course, perhaps intuition was an Enerysis family specialty, because they instantly thought of other ways to use it as well.
Akion smiled with satisfaction at how clever his two sisters were.
“Let's make it now. We have a month before the second semester starts, right? Let's produce a prototype within that time.”
“You son of a─!”
“W-wait, Hermione!”
Good thing he had chosen these two for the job.
“You son of a bitch! You know perfectly well I'm bad with materials, and you're doing this on purpose, aren't you?! Huh?!!”
“C-calm down, Hermione…! If this keeps up, Akion is going to…!”
Of course, because of the consecutive all-nighters last time, Hermione was already worn to the bone.
Never mind the karma she'd accumulated—she threw an enormous fit, stubbornly demanding that her right to survive be guaranteed.
“Don't worry.”
As for that, Akion admitted his own fault.
He figured he should have called in an expert for work involving materials like this.
“So I called Brother Juan. I lured him by saying there was a major project that absolutely required him, and he bit right away—apparently he's taking an express carriage here?”
“Yeeeees!! That eunuch is going to die with us too!!”
“H-Hermione…? So our deaths are confirmed, then…?”
“Ah.”
Thus, yet another victim was making his way up to the capital.
“Saint. You know, right?”
“Yes. Work him just hard enough that he won't die.”
“Is it okay for a Saintess to say something like that…?”
Without knowing that a certain silver-haired young professor's research lab at the Imperial Academy in the capital was harboring a conspiracy….