Plasma Cutter

We had come to Sobana, the city on the border. We had cleared away the earth and debris blocking the pass, so our work was done.

Since we had gone to the trouble of coming to an unfamiliar city, we were enjoying ourselves as tourists, exploring the market and doing some shopping.

Along the way, we had found a blacksmith's shop run by dwarves. I had bought the beastfolk some excellent equipment, but what I really wanted was the enormous sword being used as the shop's sign.

I was thinking of mounting it on a piece of heavy machinery.

However, they said production of the orders the shop had received was stalled because they lacked materials.

So it seemed they were considering destroying the enormous sword—their shop sign—and using it as material instead.

I decided to buy a used dozer blade from Shangri-La, give it to the dwarves as material, and buy that enormous sword in exchange.

But the dozer blade for heavy machinery was too large to fit in the shop's furnace. That meant I would have to cut it, but...

"Now, what should I do?"

Not that there was any choice but to cut it. What should I use?

A disk grinder? An air saw? Neither would cut a steel plate this thick.

Hmm... In a situation like this, a plasma cutter was the obvious choice.

A plasma cutter was, as its name suggested, a device that blew air ionized into plasma by high voltage onto the base material, cutting through it with temperatures of tens of thousands of degrees.

The principle sounded impressive, but they were normally available at home-improvement stores, and Shangri-La naturally sold them too.

I took the plasma cutter I had bought before out of my Item Box and tried using it.

I also took out the blue generator and a compressor.

"What is that?" "Magic?"

The dwarves began shouting too, but when I tried it, the machine was completely underpowered.

—In that case... I would have to buy a more powerful machine.

I set my sights on a model made by a famous Japanese manufacturer, costing around 700,000 yen. They were famous for home appliances, but apparently they made machines like this too.

It was an expensive purchase, but I had money, and it was cheaper than a spellbook.

Shangri-La's description said it could cut mild steel up to 40 millimeters thick. Apparently, its performance was somewhat lower with steel plate.

But the 40-millimeter figure in the catalog specifications meant it could make a clean cut. If I only wanted to hack through it, it should handle something thicker.

This one used 200 volts, but the blue generator could output 200 volts too—no problem.

All right, this was the one.

"Here goes."

With a heavy thud, a gray machine fell out of thin air. I immediately connected the generator and compressor to the plasma cutter.

I switched on all three machines and connected the ground clamp to the dozer blade.

Then I pulled the trigger on the nozzle, and dazzling blue plasma spurted out.

"Whoa!"

"I'll use this magic tool to cut through this steel plate."

"Y-you can do that?"

"Just watch."

I held it against the dozer blade with its blue light blazing. A shower of orange sparks erupted, and the plasma pierced through to the other side.

Sparks really did pour out like a waterfall. It looked like a sparkler going full blast.

"Waaah! What the hell is this?!"

"Nyaaah!" "This is incredible!"

Everyone around me was making a fuss, but it worked perfectly well. As I moved the plasma nozzle downward, sparks spurted out after it.

"All right, it works."

I continued slowly, and after about ten minutes, I cut a long, narrow block of steel from the dozer blade.

"There. This will fit in your furnace, right?"

I held out the strip of steel plate to the dwarves.

"Whoa! Master, this'll work!"

"At this rate, I'll cut the entire block of steel into long strips."

"Much obliged!"

"If this works out, sell me that sword, all right?"

"Of course! All right, boys! Get to work!"

"Aye!"

They were loud! And scary.

"Boss! If you can cut a block of iron that easily, can it cut people too?"

"No, this only cuts iron."

Basically, it sent an electric current through the material to generate plasma, so a plasma arc could not form in anything that did not conduct electricity.

But if I grounded a suit of plate armor and hit it with the plasma, it would probably pierce through to the other side. Even if it failed to cut through, burns from plasma at tens of thousands of degrees were a certainty.

Of course, it had to be pressed tightly against the target, and it obviously could not be used as a weapon.

"But it might be able to pierce a dragon's scales..."

I bought a thin iron plate and sandwiched one of the lesser dragon's scales between two pieces.

Then I connected the ground wire and pulled the nozzle's trigger.

Along with incredible sparks, the blue light pierced through the dragon scale and the iron plates together.

Of course it did—the blue torch reached tens of thousands of degrees. Even ceramic would develop a hole if I did this to it.

"What?! It pierced a lesser dragon's scale, Boss?!"

"Yeah, it seems so. But using this as a weapon would be a little difficult."

"Good grief! That's astonishing..."

The dwarves were amazed by the plasma's power—but more importantly, I had to keep working.

"Myaree, Nyamena, go on ahead and tell Primula I'll be home late. I think I'll be back before dark."

"Got it, nya!" "I'll tell Miss that Boss's bad habit has surfaced again."

"Please do. What about you, Anemone?"

"I'm staying with Kenichi."

I asked the beastfolk what they wanted to do with the armor they had bought.

"You can leave it in your Item Box. We won't use it in the city anyway."

"That's right, nya."

"I'll take my time fixing it when I'm bored."

"Nya."

"Do you know the way back?"

"Nya-ha-ha, beastfolk don't get lost." "That's right, Boss."

Their keen noses made them sensitive to smells too, but apparently they could sense directions instinctively. Was it some sort of homing instinct?

After seeing the beastfolk off, I handed Anemone a tablet. She had nothing to do, so she would read in a corner.

I also had Bell, who had been sitting quietly by the entrance, sit beside Anemone. She seemed more comfortable here than inside the shop too.

But she was yawning hugely, looking bored.

I was about to return to work when I remembered something.

"Come to think of it—dwarves are supposed to love alcohol, right? Should I give you some to raise your spirits?"

"You've got alcohol too?"

"Yeah—I probably have the strongest alcohol in the world."

"What? The strongest drink in the world is dwarf firewater. You mean you've got something stronger?"

"Probably."

"Interesting. If you've got such a drink, let's see it. If it's really true, I'll cut the price of that sword in half."

Of course, that included the dozer blade too.

I searched for a certain drink on Shangri-La, bought it, and handed it to the dwarf master.

"This is it."

I twisted off the screw cap and handed it over.

"A glass bottle—it looks awfully expensive..."

The master took a swig from the bottle, then exhaled forcefully.

"Well?"

"Waaah! What is this?! If dwarf firewater is a bonfire, this is a blast furnace! Hahaha!"

That was only natural, since I had handed him Spirytus, a 96-percent alcohol drink.

They could never produce alcohol with such a high percentage in this world—or rather, they could with the magic tool I had that separated liquid components.

I wondered whether such alcohol simply wasn't made despite having the necessary tools—or perhaps they had no concept of water and alcohol.

"How do you make something like this?"

"We use alchemy to compress the alcohol."

"Aha... I see."

He seemed more or less satisfied with that explanation. If there were dwarves who practiced alchemy, perhaps this would give them a hint for creating a new drink.

But the other dwarves had begun fidgeting after seeing the master's drink. Dwarves were crazy about alcohol, and they seemed intensely curious about this beverage they had never seen before.

"Then I'll give everyone a bottle."

"Huh? Are you sure?"

"If it helps you work faster, I'll get to take the sword home sooner, right?"

I handed each of them one bottle of Spirytus and one bottle of vodka. There were seven of them, including the master. Each bottle of alcohol had cost around 2,000 yen.

The total came to 28,000 yen—cheap enough if it got me that incredible sword.

"Whoa! Just like the master said, it's a blast furnace in my mouth!" "This stuff is incredible! It feels like my breath's going to catch fire!"

"I'm serious—it probably will catch fire, so you shouldn't drink it in the workshop. You'll go up in flames."

"Seriously?"

Whiskey burned too, and vodka was flammable as well. At 96 percent, alcohol was no different from fuel.

And since the flame was blue, it was hard to tell that it was burning, making it dangerous.

After giving everyone alcohol, I continued cutting the dozer blade. It took about ten minutes to cut out one strip. Splitting it into about twelve pieces should do.

There were eleven pieces left, so ten more cuts would take 100 minutes—about two hours with everything else included.

I had sent Myaree and Nyamena home ahead of me, but I should still make it back to the estate before dark.

The nozzle tip seemed to be a consumable, so I had replaced it once, but otherwise there had been no trouble.

As expected of an expensive Japanese-made machine. If it broke, though, there was nowhere to file a complaint and no way to repair it.

I had no choice but to buy a new one if that happened.

In a different world like this, simply being able to use an online shopping site like Shangri-La was already impossible enough.

"Master, I've finished cutting it."

"Really?"

"Yeah, those pieces should fit in the furnace."

"I can't thank you enough!"

"Make sure you finish my sword too."

"Give me about three days. I'll finish it while I'm working."

According to the master, they would use dwarf magic to do something to the adamantite.

That part was apparently a trade secret, so they would not tell me.

"All right, I'll leave it to you. Bell, Anemone! Let's go home."

"Nyaa!"

"Okay!"

I took the La○d Cruiser out of my Item Box in front of the shop.

"Oh! Is that one of your familiars too?"

"Yeah. It runs on command and carries people and things."

"Handy fellow."

When I climbed into the driver's seat, Anemone and Bell got into the passenger seat.

The sun was already fairly low, but would it still be light enough not to turn on the headlights? Would driving with the lights on cause a commotion?

Well, I decided we should head back early.

I said goodbye to the dwarf master and started the car.

I drove through the dimly lit city. Here and there, I could see the orange glow of kerosene lamps.

They said blue light was magical light, but I couldn't see any here.

As we approached the market, there were more people on the streets, so I got out of the car and decided to walk for a while.

"Now, do you remember the way?"

"Nyaa."

Bell began walking at the head of our group. Apparently, she knew the way.

But when I looked behind us, a whole procession of beastfolk was following.

"Whoa! What's with you guys?"

"Well, we wondered if something might happen if we followed Forest Cat-sama..."

"Nothing is going to happen. We're returning to where we're staying. We seem to have forgotten the way, so we're having Forest Cat guide us."

"Boss, where are you staying?"

"On the duke's estate."

"Huh?!"

The beastfolk all reacted in shock at once.

"Boss, are you some important person?"

"Anemone is a mage, and so am I. Forest Cat is my familiar."

"Wow!"

"If you want to see Forest Cat, you might be able to do so if you come near the estate."

After walking with the beastfolk in tow for a while, we reached the main street leading to the ducal estate.

"Oh! Thanks, Bell! I know the way from here."

I took the car out of my Item Box again, and we all climbed in. It had grown quite dark, so I turned on the headlights.

The beastfolk and the surrounding residents murmured in astonishment, but it did not turn into a major disturbance.

They probably thought it was some kind of Light magic.

"Well, see you."

"Is that vehicle also made with your magic, Boss?"

"Yeah. It's my familiar. It carries me wherever I want to go."

"Wow!"

I said goodbye to the beastfolk and drove down the main street.

There were many people and carriages, but the road was wide and easy to drive along. We reached the estate in a few minutes.

But when I looked behind me, the beastfolk were still following. Perhaps they wanted to confirm that I really was staying at the duke's estate.

Once I had the gatekeepers open the gate, we entered the estate. Since I had given them alcohol and a little something under the table, they responded promptly.

When the gatekeepers changed shifts, I should give the replacements something too.

That sort of thing worked very well in this world.

"Hey! I'm back!"

When I got out of the car, the three who had stayed behind were sitting in chairs and relaxing.

A white table stood in front of the house and shed, which I had placed beside the black iron fence in a corner of the ducal estate's garden.

It was already dark.

"Oh, you're back, nya." "Kuro, I win."

"Tch, nya."

Judging from their conversation, they had been betting on something.

"What did you bet on?"

"We bet on whether Boss would spend the night with the dwarves."

"I thought Kenichi would get caught up talking with the dwarves about smithing and magic and not come home, nya."

"I finished the work sooner than expected."

While we were talking, Primula prepared dinner for us.

Bell got canned cat food and some of the monster meat Primula had roasted.

"Thanks, Primula."

The menu was lesser dragon soup, roasted lesser dragon, and bread I had bought from Shangri-La.

We ate the roasted dragon with barbecue sauce I had bought from the site.

As expected, properly bled meat was delicious. It was almost entirely lean, with hardly any fat, though.

When I chewed the meat, its juices and savory flavor spread through my mouth and mingled with the sauce.

"They told me you bought an enormous sword...?"

"I was thinking of making it a weapon for one of my familiars."

"If you swung that sword around, Boss, you could cut down a huge tree in one stroke."

"Apparently, the edge is made of adamantite, so it might even cut a dragon."

"Wow! That's incredible!"

The beastfolk were jumping around excitedly. Actually using it might be a little difficult, though.

But the romance of a man's dream was calling to me. Primula, on the other hand, seemed to have trouble understanding it.

Perhaps I should butter her up a little? Besides, I had bought light armor for the beastfolk and a spellbook for Anemone.

It would be unfair if I didn't buy Primula a present too.

I searched Shangri-La for a necklace. Since pearls seemed to be valuable in this world, perhaps one with a single pearl would be best.

I bought one with a pearl hanging beneath a crescent moon set with a small diamond—the chain was 18-karat gold, and it cost 10,000 yen.

Even a large pearl was just a plastic ball inside, covered with a pearl coating.

The thicker the pearl layer, the deeper its luster—and the more expensive it was.

"Primula, this is for you."

Primula stared in surprise at the pearl I held out.

"I-is that a pearl? For me?"

"A necklace with a whole string of them would be fit for a national treasure, but a single pearl should be all right."

"But isn't it incredibly expensive...?"

She held the pearl up beneath the half-moon that had just risen.

"I bought Myaree and Nyamena armor, and I bought Anemone a spellbook. It wouldn't be fair if I didn't give you something too, would it?"

"Something cheaper would have been fine..."

"Come on, take it."

"Thank you very much."

I was glad Primula was happy.

Come to think of it, I had also promised to make necklaces for the beastfolk.

—After dinner, I took the wyvern's corpse out of my Item Box.

First, I cut its fangs with a hacksaw, but they were huge! Each fang was about ten centimeters long.

Then I hollowed out the pulp inside, took a drill press out of my Item Box, and drilled a hole through it.

The beastfolk watched me work intently.

"Kenichi can do anything, nya."

"Yeah. Even without magic, Boss could make a living just fine."

But without Shangri-La and my Item Box, I thought it would be a little difficult.

"Anemone, could you dry this for me?"

"Okay! Dry!"

I polished the whitened, dried fang with a rotary tool until it shone, then drilled a hole in it. I had thought of stringing together about three fangs, but they were so large that one was enough.

Then I bought an 18-karat gold chain from Shangri-La.

"You just thread the gold chain through this."

"Boss, we don't need a gold chain like that. We'd regret it if we lost it." "That's right, nya."

"Really? Then let's use an ordinary braided cord."

I put the gold chain back in my Item Box and bought two braided cords from the site for 1,000 yen.

"There, it's finished. A wyvern-fang necklace."

"Wow, I can brag about this!" "It's a huge fang, nya! Nobody else has one like this, nya!"

"Of course not. Just the size alone shows that it's no ordinary thing."

Anemone looked as though she wanted one too when she saw it.

"Do you want something too, Anemone?"

She did not say anything, but nodded silently.

I searched Shangri-La and bought a necklace with a golden cat and a small pearl on it. It cost 6,000 yen.

The design was quite cute.

"Is this all right?"

"...It's cute. Is this a Forest Cat?"

Apparently, she liked the necklace too.

But by the time we finished making the accessories, it had grown completely dark.

"Well—I'm going to sleep at home for the first time in a while tonight."

"Ooh!"

"Having that princess around makes my shoulders tense, nya."

"Even beastfolk get that?"

"Of course, nya."

Since the princesses' luggage was inside the house, I stored it in my Item Box.

Then we lined up the beds and all jumped onto them.

"Today is Primula's day—come here!"

"Um..."

"What is it? Should I let someone else have a turn?"

At that, Primula jumped onto me with a heavy thud.

"There, there."

I stroked her body, but she remained silent.

"Um, nothing is happening..."

She seemed puzzled that my natural Heal did not activate when she hugged me.

And she looked a little disappointed too.

"Oh, I bought a ring that suppresses my power. Now we can interact normally, right?"

"...That's a little disappointing."

Ah, so that was why she had hesitated.

"What? Then should I take off the ring?"

"W-wait a moment! Not with everyone here..."

She was fidgeting, but did that mean it would be all right if nobody else were here?

When I lay down on the bed, Primula climbed on top of me. I grabbed her soft bottom through her skirt and gave it a little squeeze.

"Eeeek!"

After she cried out, Primula began trembling.

Apparently, the ring could not block my power completely. It was like putting a faucet on a water pipe that had previously been pouring water everywhere.

Normally, the ring dammed up my magic power, but if I exerted a little force, it overflowed.

Hearing Primula cry out, Anemone hugged me too.

"Nothing's happening?"

"Unless I exert force, the ring keeps my power dammed up."

"Then exert force?"

"No, no."

Anemone complained, but today was Primula's day.

But with her face buried in my chest, Primula began apologizing.

"What are you apologizing for? Did something happen?"

"About that talk of Kenichi becoming a noble... If you don't want to, you don't have to force yourself to become a noble..."

"Oh, that. But if I don't return to the capital and accept my title, it looks like there will be trouble, so you don't need to worry about it."

"But..."

"You and Marrow Trading Company can handle the business and management of the territory. Then we'll go adventuring."

But Primula stared intently at me after hearing that.

"That still frustrates me a little, though..."

"Even so, I only have one body. Pick one or the other."

"I want to do business! And I want to follow you too, Kenichi!"

"Primula, you're being selfish."

Anemone muttered that under her breath.

"Kenichi! Please insult me horribly! I'm a terrible woman!"

Primula hugged me as tightly as she could.

"There, there—you want me all to yourself, don't you? I understand how you feel, but everyone here feels the same way."

"That's right, nya. If we take advantage of the confusion and get rid of Tiger, Kenichi will be ours."

"You bastard, Kuro! Don't say things like that, even as a joke!"

"We can't do both business and adventuring. Besides, I'm not suited to business."

But the beastfolk seemed to disagree with me.

"Really, nya?" "I think you'd do just fine as a merchant, Boss..."

"I'm a selfish, short-tempered man. I spend money without keeping track of it—you probably don't understand what I mean. I'm careless about managing money too."

"You do suddenly buy expensive things we can't make sense of, but you have your reasons, don't you, Boss?"

"Sometimes I think things through, and sometimes I do them on a complete whim. From the perspective of a born merchant like Primula, I'm a little strange, right?"

"Um... yes..."

"But, nya—"

They seemed puzzled that, despite calling myself short-tempered, I did not get angry with royalty.

"Of course I get angry. I'm especially furious with that queen."

"You gave presents to the royal family too, nya?"

"Because it would have been dangerous if I hadn't placated them. They're the sort of people who can kill someone without a second thought."

"As I told you before, Primula, it would not have been wise to rampage there."

"What you say is true, but the situation is a little different now. We reopened the pass and saved the princess's life. I also became something called a 'Holy Knight.' If I can poach mages from the Empire, I'll be able to deal with the royal family as an equal and negotiate with them—or at least, I should."

"I agree."

The beastfolk exchanged glances.

"So, Boss... If something like that happens again, you won't forgive them anymore...?"

"Of course not! Besides, I understand the royal family's circumstances much better now. For example, the queen is a master swordswoman."

"If Kenichi fights, I'll fight too, nya!" "Of course I'll fight too!"

"The knights aren't much of a problem. My familiars and Anemone's magic could sweep them aside. The problem is the queen."

"That queen is no ordinary person, nya." "She's a monster."

"Monsters don't have intelligence, though. It isn't that simple when your opponent is human. And the queen has an Item Box."

Primula was startled by that.

"She has an Item Box?"

"Yes. The princess told me, so there's no mistake."

"—Then she could cut us with a sword that appears from anywhere, nya."

"Boss, don't you have a plan?"

"I do! I'll need your help when we fight, so let's work out some tactics."

"Leave it to me, nya!" "Yeah! A fight against royalty? My blood's racing!"

One thing I liked about beastfolk was that they did not hesitate in situations like this.

They could not handle complicated formations, but they could at least feint from both sides.

We had projectiles and explosives too. We could even stick explosives to her with birdlime.

It felt a little too ruthless, but our opponent was that queen. If we were going to do it, we had to do it without hesitation, or we would be the ones who got killed.

Naturally, if it came to that, we would also have to consider abandoning this country.

If the Japanese-looking person in the Empire joined our side, we would have two people with cheat abilities—we should be able to manage somehow even against the kingdom.

After all, apparently that person had defeated a genuine dragon—a red dragon—and was known as the 'Dragon Slayer.'

But killing royalty would be a last resort. The queen was the only real threat; the rest were just a rabble.

If it came to that, I would force the queen into a one-on-one fight. Then perhaps I could somehow incapacitate her without killing her and make her submit.

Was that too naive?

Still, it would be better if things did not come to that—but since the princess had used the secret power passed down through the royal family without permission, trouble seemed inevitable.

There also seemed to be something called the Round Table Council. If things came to that, there was a good chance the hostility would be directed at me too, since I had received the power.

—So, tomorrow after we eat, let's do some combat training.

"Got it, nya!" "Yeah!"

"Me too?"

"Of course, Anemone."

Now that we had made plans, we decided to go to sleep.

—Now, I wonder when I'll get the permit to cross into the Empire?

The princess should be negotiating for it, but...