Let's Secure Fuel for the Heavy Machinery

Most of the work around the house is done.

Half a month has passed since we settled here, and nothing has gone wrong.

The scenery is beautiful, the sunsets reflected on the lake are gorgeous, and there's nothing to complain about.

Unlike the forest we lived in before, this place gets plenty of sunlight, so the crops are growing well. And there's plenty of water too.

All that's left is—

Shall I take a shot at refining biodiesel fuel?

If this succeeds, I can use salad oil, which costs one-tenth as much, as diesel fuel, making the heavy machinery far easier to use.

We could live without heavy machinery, but the power of machines is worth a hundred men. Since I have the fruits of civilization at my disposal, I might as well use them.

First, since I'm about to conduct a dangerous experiment, I need to secure a place for it away from the house.

Next, I need an isolated space. It would be a disaster if curiosity-driven Anemone or one of the forest cats came wandering in while I was handling chemicals.

Besides, apparently the reaction that produces biodiesel fuel takes some time. I need somewhere to leave it while that happens.

In that case... I'd like a shed with a roof.

When I searched Shangri-La, I found a windowless shed for sale for 35,000 yen. It was another assembly kit.

But it was far simpler than the house I'd built. It was about two meters by two and a half meters, and involved screwing metal fittings onto lumber.

With help from the strong Myaree, I screwed the fittings on one after another with an electric screwdriver.

I raised the assembled frame to create the shed's framework. Then I attached plywood to the walls and roof, added a door to the entrance, and it was finished.

Since ventilation would be necessary during the experiment, I left part of one wall uncovered, creating an opening.

It was incredibly simple—well, it was just a box made of plywood.

For serious use, I could put waterproof sheets over the roof and walls, then cover them with corrugated metal. That would make it perfectly perfect (an outdated term).

Once it was built and stored in my Item Box, it could serve all sorts of purposes. It could even be used as a simple lodging facility.

It should be safer than a flimsy tent, at least.

The assembly was finished in a single day.

------◇◇◇------

――The next day.

Before starting the experiment, I warned Anemone and Myaree over breakfast.

"Starting today, I'm going to conduct some slightly dangerous magic experiments, so stay away from the shed."

"Nya?"

"Because I'll be using deadly poison."

"Scary..."

"So don't go near it. Understand?"

"Okay..."

Anemone looked like she understood, but Myaree looked doubtful. I'd have to keep an eye on her.

They say curiosity killed the cat, but she's a cat person, after all.

After breakfast, I cleaned up and bought a pure-white chemical protective suit from Shangri-La. One cost 1,000 yen.

That was fairly cheap, but protective suits like this were disposable. Once the work was finished, they would be disposed of.

In my case, I could just toss it into the trash can on the status screen.

I tried it on—it pulled completely over my head, giving me the appearance of some futuristic person wearing a silver suit.

Next, I bought an organic-vapor mask—a set consisting of goggles and a mask—for 1,200 yen.

I also bought six replacement filters at 1,100 yen each.

I put everything on—it reminded me of something I'd seen on TV. Wasn't it the scene of a nuclear power plant accident?

"This is going to be pretty hot."

It would probably feel like wearing rain gear, with the inside becoming steamy and drenched in sweat.

Besides, I'd be working inside a closed-up room, and the shed I'd built had no windows. I could probably add windows later, but this time I decided to prioritize getting the work done.

In any case, I wouldn't know whether it would succeed unless I tried.

"Nyahaha! What a funny outfit!"

Myaree clutched her stomach and laughed hysterically, but—

"This outfit protects me from poison. I'd be fine even against a whole swarm of bees—probably."

"What about tentacles, nya?"

"Tentacles?"

"Nya, if they wrapped around you and stung you, it would hurt terribly, nya."

"Well, I think I'd probably be fine."

What was that supposed to be? Was that a monster too? Some sort of land anemone? Monsters sure came in all sorts of varieties.

I took off the protective suit for the moment and gathered the equipment I needed from Shangri-La.

First, I bought a large stainless-steel container that held 65 liters. It cost 40,000 yen. Since I would be using alkaline chemicals, an ordinary iron or aluminum pot would corrode.

Then came the alkaline chemical—sodium hydroxide, two kilograms for 4,500 yen.

There was a warning saying that I needed to sign a toxic-substance transfer form, but when I pressed the 【Purchase】 button, I was able to buy it normally.

All that remained was methanol. Eighteen liters, in other words one standard eighteen-liter can, cost 2,700 yen. They really did sell everything.

I had all the equipment, but synthesizing a large quantity right away would be too hasty. First, I needed to experiment with a small amount and build up some experience.

I decided to start with one liter.

I bought a small stainless-steel container from Shangri-La and began the experiment.

First, I bought a graduated cylinder, measured out 200 cc of methanol, and added 3.5 grams of sodium hydroxide to create a substance called sodium methoxide.

Apparently, this stuff was deadly poison. Its vapor was toxic too, so a gas mask was essential.

But it wasn't dissolving easily, so it was taking time—perhaps I should make my own tool for stirring it.

A mixer used for concrete or mortar might work. If it rotated too quickly, I could use a general-purpose inverter.

A small inverter suitable for the job was available from Shangri-La for around 20,000 yen.

When people talk about inverter control in home appliances, what they mean is controlling the frequency of alternating current.

Put simply, suppose you have a motor that turns fifty times per minute when supplied with household AC at 100 volts and 50 hertz.

If you use an inverter to lower the AC frequency to 10 hertz, you can reduce the rotation to ten turns per minute. Of course, setting it to 0 hertz would stop it entirely.

When you control a motor's rotation by changing its voltage, you waste energy as heat through resistors or a Variac transformer—

Removing those means eliminating that waste. In other words, it saves energy.

That was a slight digression, but I poured one liter of salad oil—canola oil—into the stainless-steel container and heated it.

Apparently, around 50 degrees Celsius was ideal. Once it was warm, I added the sodium methoxide I'd made earlier and stirred it.

Gradually, reddish-brown sludge began to solidify at the bottom of the stainless-steel container.

"What are you doing, nya~?"

"Ah! Hey, I told you I was handling poison! Don't come near me!"

"Fugya! What is that smell, nya? Is that a witch's big cauldron, nya?"

――A witch's big cauldron. Looking at it from the outside, it really might have seemed that way. That was an apt description.

This sludge collected at the bottom of the container was glycerin, the substance that interfered when vegetable oil was used in a diesel engine.

Once the glycerin had separated, the liquid floating above it became biodiesel fuel.

"I did it. It worked."

Before celebrating, I needed to make sure the experiment had really worked. I would have to test it with the diesel generator.

The book said I should mix in some two-stroke oil, just to be safe.

Two-stroke oil was cheap. I bought some from Shangri-La, measured out the proper amount, and added it.

Before that, I took off the chemical protective suit and jumped into the river. I was drenched in sweat from head to toe.

"Damn, it's hot!"

I poured an enormous amount of water over my head. I might as well heat up the bath tonight.

Still dripping wet, I took the diesel generator out of my Item Box and poured in the fuel I'd just made.

I pulled the decompression lever and then the recoil starter. The engine started with a deafening roar and belched white smoke.

It seemed to be producing rather a lot of white smoke, though...

"It works."

A fragrant, tempura-like smell drifted through the area.

"Smelling this makes me want tempura. How about we have tempura for dinner?"

This time, I had processed one liter of oil, but if I multiplied that by fifty, I could process fifty liters of salad oil and produce biodiesel fuel.

I also learned that I would need all sorts of equipment for that.

But was it really worth going to all this trouble to make biodiesel fuel?

Still, cutting the price of expensive fuel to one-tenth was appealing. Money was important, after all. That said, I spent money on all sorts of things... It was an investment in the future—an investment.

There were many things in life you couldn't understand unless you tried them, so for now, the important thing was to give it a try.

If I kept building up experience, the day would eventually come when it proved useful. That was my policy.

As I pondered all sorts of things, I tossed the chemical protective suit I'd removed into the trash can on the status screen.

I wondered whether it was really safe to throw incredibly poisonous substances into that trash can. If someone were processing them on the other side of the screen, it could cause a tremendous disaster...

I'd thrown away all sorts of garbage and waste fluids so far, but I'd never received a warning.

There wasn't even a warning like that in the first place.

I imagined that the trash was simply dumped into some subspace and broken down to the level of elementary particles—a science-fiction-style process.

Because of that, I thought it would probably be fine to throw away sarin, tabun, soman, VX, and so on too—probably.

By the time I finished testing the synthesized fuel, it was already beginning to grow dark. That was enough for today.

I wanted to take a bath too, so I lit the fire under the drum-can bath's stove.

I boiled water for soup over a campfire, but since I was making tempura today, I also brought out a cassette stove.

It was difficult to adjust the heat of a campfire or stove, so the cassette stove was more convenient.

I heated sesame oil in a pot. Using sesame oil was a personal preference, but its high price was a drawback.

Now, the batter called for eggs and flour, but to save effort, I mixed mayonnaise into the flour.

Mayonnaise was made with eggs too, so it produced a similar result. I also added a little kombu stock as a secret ingredient.

The mayonnaise added a bit of salt as well, so the tempura could be eaten as-is without salt or noodle soup base.

While I was cooking, Myaree and Anemone came out of the house.

"That smells good, nya~ What are you making, nya?"

"Tempura."

"Tempura, nya?"

They had probably never eaten it. This world hadn't even had fried chicken, after all.

For the tempura, I used vegetables from my original world. The vegetables from this world didn't taste very good and were hardly fit to eat even in a salad.

Besides, it seemed that eating raw vegetables wasn't much of a custom here in the first place.

Still, some strongly flavored plants, such as wild greens, became delicious when made into tempura, so I decided to fry several kinds of vegetables from this world too.

As I sang Matsutoya Yumi's "Chinese Soup" while cooking, Anemone sang along with me.

She'd memorized it because I always sang while cooking.

"It's done! Now let's eat."

"Nyaa~!"

"Yaaay!"

Everyone swarmed around the food laid out on the table. The bread and soup were instant, and the tempura had just been made.

I wasn't sure whether bread went with tempura. Come to think of it, I didn't think I'd ever eaten tempura with bread in my original world either.

"It's crispy, sweet, and delicious, nya!"

Myaree was eating sweet-potato tempura.

"It's fragrant and delicious."

"Oh! The vegetables I bought at the market are delicious as tempura too. Maybe frying them removes some of their bitterness. This might catch on if we serve it to everyone."

This was a pleasant surprise. Anemone and Myaree both liked it, so it should suit the tastes of the people in this world too.

Still, oil itself was expensive in this world, so it might be difficult to popularize it.

While we were eating dinner, the temperature sensor installed in the bath began beeping.

"The bath's ready. Myaree, if you go in first, there won't be any hot water left, so go last."

"Nya."

"Anemone, it's about time you started bathing by yourself."

"..."

"Don't make that sad face again. You'd be embarrassed to get naked in front of a man, wouldn't you?"

"It is embarrassing, but... it's okay if it's you, Kenichi."

This wasn't a question of whether it was okay or not. She thought I'd give in if she made that sad face, didn't she?

But I gave in! Damn it! Twitch, twitch.

Holding an LED light, I entered the bath with Anemone in the dimness.

It was too dark to see around us, but the sounds of the river and waterfall echoed through the darkness. Once we went inside the house, I didn't notice them anymore.

Honestly, this would be completely unacceptable in my original world. It would be a child-endangerment offense.

Incidentally, whenever I went to a public bath in my original world, there were fathers who brought girls about this age into the men's bath. Please stop.

Thank you for your cooperation.

As the two of us took turns in the drum-can bath, Myaree came over naked too, wagging her tail. She was wearing fur, of course, so she didn't look particularly naked.

"Anemone, tell me right away if your head starts itching."

"Okay."

I thought we'd gotten rid of the lice on her head, but she could still pick them up somewhere.

"But if beastfolk get lice or fleas, that would be terrible."

"It'd be a nightmare, nya!"

"But you can get bedbugs and fleas from an inn too, can't you?"

"All the time, nya! There were even times when I left immediately without staying the night, nya!"

According to Myaree, inns of that sort were ranked within the beastfolk network from A to D based on their reputation.

"It's a serious problem for beastfolk."

"Exactly, nya."

We all washed our bodies with soap, and finally I poured a tremendous amount of water over Myaree to rinse the suds from her.

I took a jet heater out of my Item Box for Anemone and Myaree to use.

I'd like to dig a ditch so the bathwater would drain into the river too.

As warm air roared out, the girls dried their hair and fur.

Afterward, we studied together while keeping warm so we wouldn't catch a chill from the bath.

Perhaps because she'd taken a bath, Anemone fell asleep almost immediately.

I decided to go to sleep too.

------◇◇◇------

Starting the next day, I began making biodiesel fuel.

Once I had a general idea of the process, I made an agitator and other equipment and began synthesizing the fuel.

For the agitator, I used one intended for mixing mortar and similar materials, and chose a corrosion-resistant stainless-steel propeller for stirring.

I supported it with a homemade wooden frame and used it for stirring.

For rotation control, I used a general-purpose inverter—I decided to go with a M○tsubishi model.

I cut the power cable, stripped off the vinyl insulation, and connected the equipment.

The setup was: engine generator—inverter—agitator.

――Then I processed fifty liters of canola oil twice and succeeded in obtaining approximately ninety-five liters of biodiesel fuel.

That should keep us supplied with fuel for a while. I sent the glycerin produced as a byproduct straight to the trash can on the status screen.

I could have made soap from the glycerin, but I could buy as much soap as I wanted from Shangri-La... I decided it was more trouble than it was worth.

It was organic matter, so apparently it could also be used as fertilizer.

But because I'd been completely occupied with refining biodiesel fuel, I had ended up neglecting Anemone.

As a result, she was in an exceptionally bad mood.

"Come on, Anemone, cheer up."

"I don't know."

She gave me a curt reply as I tried to coax her into a better mood.

"I'll buy you a new picture book."

She twitched at that, but it didn't seem to be enough.

"Then how about we go to the city of Astrantia?"

"Really?!"

"Really, nya!"

"Yeah. The prey Myaree and Bell have caught is starting to pile up in my Item Box, after all."

"Yaaay!"

She was laughing again before her tears had even dried. She really was still a child.

For some reason, Myaree was celebrating along with her.

While we're at it, I'll register at the adventurer's guild in Astrantia too.

As for the merchant's guild... Since I won't be doing business in Astrantia, I don't need to bother.

You only need a guild's permission to do business within that city. You don't need permission to sell things by the roadside or trade while traveling between villages.

Still, merchants normally display their guild insignia even in rural areas and along the roadside, since it gives customers a sense of security.

I decided to take the road along the cliffs to Astrantia.

According to Myaree, who had explored the area, there were no monsters along the cliffs.

"Shall we go to Astrantia, then?"