CH 97

Translator: Nisarah    Editor:Fleeting

T/N: Hi, Nisarah is here! So yesterday, I accidently posted unedited chapter 104 instead of chapter 96, I’m really sorry! It was fixed so please re-read it.



“Um… is something wrong?”

“Ah, no, it’s nothing.”

Her serious stare on my face made me blush. Ah, really, the damage of her smile was catastrophic!

I hurriedly turned my gaze away and began to think. If I could get Lily-san to help with the design process, I could free up some of my time. I had a lot of things to do, so freeing up some of my time was like a dream come true.

“Lily.”

“Y…Yes?”

“Can you get this amount of the soft bread dough from the kitchen? Use a tray to bring it here, if it’s possible.”

“Bread dough? I understand.”

She looked confused at my request, but I guess my expression told her I wasn’t joking, so she immediately left the office. 

Let’s wrap it up before she returned. I moved the boxes containing the prototype to the guest table, then I sat on the office’s main seat, put away everything on top of the main office table, and started to write. Just as I finished writing, the door was knocked.

“My apologies for making you wait.”

“Thank you. Lily, you are still in the middle of learning about many things, including manners, right?”

“Um… Yes. I have also been learning math…”

“Can I trouble you to draw something for me in between your study?”

“?”

I took the tray with bread dough on top of it from the confused Lily-san. This bread dough was a replacement for clay. Bringing bread dough to a noble’s office might be problematic, but I think it was better than bringing clay. Plus, I didn’t know where I could get clay in this world.

I wanted to create a model with this bread dough, since it was easier to explain things with a model. My hands would get dirty from shaping the dough, but it was fine. I have many perfect trash papers that I could use to wipe my hands.

First, I took some of the dough and then spread it thinly across the tray, creating a plate-like shape. After that, I made several dents on the top of the dough plate by poking it with my finger. I adjusted the position so it would look like a plate with several marks, like dents, when viewed from above.

After that, I took some dough again and used it to create some balls that have a similar size to the dents, and placed the balls inside the dents. Each dent was deep enough for half of the ball to fit into it.

“What is this?”

“Here, let me show you how to use it.”

I placed another tray, which was used to bring the tea, on top of the dough plate. After that, I slightly rotated the tray with my index finger and then the tray started to spin. Thus, a small rotary table was finished! I used bread dough to create it so the rotation wasn’t smooth though.

“Wow…”

“Actually, it should have used metal balls and there should be an axis on its center, so it doesn’t shift to the side. If created properly, you can even rotate bigger objects with this. It’s kind of hard to explain it with words.”

When I took the prototype golf-sized metal ball and rolled it on the table, Lily-san kept staring at it with great interest. Li… Lily-san’s face was too close!

“Want to hold it?”

“C…Can I?”

“Sure. It’s pretty heavy, so be careful.”

When I put it on top of Lily-san’s hand, she let out a yelp, but she didn’t drop it. After that, she rolled it using both hands, lifted it up, then peeked at it from below. She was like a puppy poking at a new rare toy using her hands and nose to check it before playing with it! Ah, I felt relaxed. No, no! Stay alert, me!

Actually, the history of the rotary tables in my previous life was quite long. The Tyrant Emperor Nero once created a ‘rotatory dining room’ powered by a waterwheel. It was said that the diners could enjoy the panoramic view of Rome while eating their meals. This wasn’t a legend, but an actual historical event that happened in Ancient Rome.

I heard that in the remains of the rotatory dining room, there was a trace of clay in its hole that was used as a lubricant. Whoever designed that dining room must have done a pretty precise calculation to make it work.

I used the same principle as that rotatory dining room, which was to use the metal balls to rotate stuff, but just on a smaller scale. I mean, I didn’t think I needed to create something as big as the rotatory dining room.

(T/N: You can check out what the MC is talking about and what he made in this video.)

Not long after, Lily-san returned the metal balls to me. After that, while looking at the makeshift rotary table, I told Lily-san about my request.

“I have to go to the palace tomorrow, so I wonder if in the meantime you can draw me an illustration of this plate? Please make it so that the illustration shows the metal spheres rotating inside the dents. I will talk to my mother and Norbert to lighten your workload for tomorrow, so you have the time to draw.”

“I understand. As for the size of the drawing…”

“Ah, you don’t need to worry about the measurements of the metal balls or such. I’m going to explain how it works using these prototypes as a base.”

After saying so, I opened another box. Inside it was a metal plate. The size of this metal plate was different compared to the real rotatory plate I was planning to create, but I could just explain to the craftsman later. 

“Understood.”

“I would also appreciate it if you could draw the earlier lamp illustration on proper paper. Please make this part of the handle thicker, so it looks more sturdy, and please also make this part triangle-shaped…”

“Yes, sir.”

I asked her to create drawings of the rotary table, the machine’s main body, and the lamp. I felt bad for giving her extra work with this many detailed explanations, but for some reason, Lily-san looked happy.

“I’ll pay you separately for the drawing.”

“Ah, no! I do not need any payment!”

“No, I need to pay you.”

Mother, who was the madam of this mansion, handled all the servants, including the maids. However, drawing for me wasn’t included in Lily-san’s job responsibility as the maid, so of course, I need to pay her for it.

There might be some noble houses that were lax about this, but not Zeavert house. We were quite strict in this kind of thing, or rather, how could a house become a minister’s house without being strict in this kind of thing? Plus, Lilly-san’s drawing was really on the level where she could sell it for money.

“Wu…”

She let out a small groan. You didn’t need to be burdened, Lily-san, because it was natural to pay people for their work. Honestly, with the salary that I received as a Viscount, I could even pay you with my own money.

“I’ll tell Norbert about this job, but I hope you can keep what you draw a secret.”

“Of course, I will keep it a secret.”

I guess she would have kept it a secret even if I didn’t mention it. Anyway, I ended up giving more jobs to her, so let’s show her that as a little compensation. I passed a paper to her.

“And this, for you.”

“What is this? A table full of numbers?”

“You see. This is…”

I took 2 small dough balls that I used to make the earlier makeshift rotary table and put it on the tray. I took 2 more dough balls and put them next to the earlier 2 dough balls, and I took 2 other dough balls and put them next to the fore dough balls.

“With this, how many dough balls are there in the tray?”

“Six, I suppose.”

“Then in that table where the vertical space is the number 2, and the horizontal space is the number 3, what number was written between them?”

“It is a 6… Ah!”

Yup. The paper I gave to her was the multiplication table. I was surprised when I learned multiplication tables didn’t exist in this muscle-brained world.

This should somehow help her with her study.

“Wow, this is amazing. It is easy to understand. Thank you very much.”

“Ah, yeah, no problem. I’m glad this could be of any help.”

She kept thanking me. I forgot that the literacy rate of this world was pretty low, so even this simple multiplication table would be a great help for a villager. If you went to the slums, you would find many people who couldn’t understand written letters or numbers. Still, being admired for something simple like this multiplication table made me uncomfortable somehow.

“I know that I have asked you to do tiring work, but I’m counting on you.”

“Yes! I will do my best.”

I’m glad she seems to be motivated, but it makes me wonder if this kind of positivity was a trait of the Hearthing family or something. After that conversation, I asked Lily-san to put away the bread dough, and I began to pick up the trash on the floor. Now then, let’s revise my plan for the future.

I wonder if I should make an abacus in this world. It could sell for a good price… That was worth trying, but I didn’t have enough time right now. Let’s add it to the list of stuff I would try if I survived the demon king’s invasion.

After that, I got a complaint from Mother via Norbert that if I knew the multiplication table, I should have told her earlier so it could be taught to the servants. I didn’t tell anyone about the multiplication table because I thought it was nothing great, but having a table that could show you the result of the calculation in an instant was certainly useful. In the almost 20 years I lived in this world, I experienced multiple culture shocks. Today’s reflection: I should stop thinking everyone knew what I knew.
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