CH 92

It would be faster if he saw the product directly.

I took Rotonoa to town and led him up to the second floor of an inn. The mansion was still under construction.

Rotonoa: “Is this…..ice, sir?”

Luke: “Yeah. I enchanted ice with Magic, and now it won’t melt.”

Rotonoa: “Won’t melt?”

Rotonoa tilted his under though you couldn’t see his neck, and gently placed a hand on the ice.

Rotonoa: “It’s cold! ….but….wait, there’s no water on my hands at all.”

Luke: “Yeah, it’s cold, but it won’t melt.”

The ice touches the air and evaporates. And with the cold air from the evaporation, it cools the air coming out of the Wind Stone.

And at the same time, the enchanted ice is collecting water from the air and refreezing itself.

Thus, it is melting and regenerating at the same time.

Rotonoa’s guards must have been suffering from the heat as they touched the ice too receiving some relief from its coolness.

But, Rotonoa himself stood there deep in thought.

Ha! I’m not done yet with my presentation.

Wait till you see this! It’ll blow that expression right off your face!!

I throw the Wind Stone against the wall to activate it. Wind started blowing in our direction.

Now, if I place the ice behind itーー

Rotonoa: “?! Whaーー oh! OHHHHHH!!”

“Ahhhhh…. how amazingly refreshing! It’s like coming back to life!!”

The two guards’ faces now melted in ecstasy with the release from the sweltering heat.

And Rotonoa wasーー

Rotonoa: “Whー Whaー Thー How coulー What is this?!”

Luke: “Ha! You catching on quickly.”

Rotonoa: “ーー!! But of course! How could I not! Sir Lou Quain, how does this work?!”

Luke: “This stone here is a Magic Stone. And with this Magic Stoneーーactually, this is proprietary information.”

Rotonoa: “Pro-pri-e-tary information?”

Oh, I don’t think they have intellectual property laws or concepts here.

But regardless, it’s a secret.

Luke: “You think we can sell this for a profit?” Rotonoa: “Yes, we can.”

There was no hesitation in Rotonoa’s tone.

Rotonoa: “Will this Magic Stone function indefinitely?” Luke: “No, there’s a limit to how long you can use it. If you use it for 5-6 hours per day, then……hmmm.”

Eri: “It’s the 5th day, but it’s still working just fine.”

Sia: “Shaーーmmmfff!!”

I quickly cover Sia’s mouth with my hand.

I can’t have her spilling the Sheepoo’s name here.

Understanding my predicament, the Princess led Sia back to the first floor.

Rotonoa: “The Magic Stone is a required material then. And with this size, you can use it for at least 24 hours. I see, I see.”

Rotonoa began mumbling quickly to himself about how much Magic Stones cost, and what would be the right price for a Wind Stone and Enchanted Ice.

When Princess Aires and Sia came back, the Princess mentioned that with this size of a Wind Stoneーー

Eri: “With this size, you should be able to use it for a full 3 days.”

ーーis what she said.

Rotonoa: “I see, I see. If you’re going for this size, you can pick one up on the 2nd Floor of a Dungeon. One would be approximately 5L.”

Eri: “IーIs it that cheap? What can you do with 5L?” Rotonoa: “An Adventurer would be able to eat one meal, your Highness.”

After that, Rotonoa pulled out an abacus and began checking the numbers.

Hearing the wooden beads click and clack was nostalgic and reminded me of the abacus in Japan.

Rotonoa: “We do not know how the Stone or Ice is made, so we can keep that confidentialーー oh, please don’t misunderstand. In this line of business, it’s very common to keep these things secret.”

Luke: “I’m glad to hear that. And how much could we sell it for?” Rotonoa: “Yes, about that…….since we cannot sell it as a single unit, we will sell the Magic Stone of this size at 20Lーー”

20………..that’s pretty cheap.

But it is something they will have to continually purchase, so making it too expensive would break our business model.

If a Magic Stone worth 5L is sold at 20L, then I should be okay with that.

Then how about the Enchanted Ice?

Rotonoa: “The Ice would beーーat least one Large Silver. What do you say?” One Large Silver? 500L?!

Let’s seal the deal!

But before I can say anythingーー

“Gov’nerーーyou hereー? I brought you that test model you asked forー”

Gredd came by.

<<<<>>>>

Rotonoa: “OHH!! What a wonderful work of art!!”

What Gredd brought was a piece he said he carved out of a log to hold the Air Conditioner.

There’s even a holder for the Wind Stone.

It looked like vines….? No, it is vines.

When you placed the ice down, it looked like vines wrapped around it, and he also engraved flowers into the design.

Rotonoa: “How beautiful. This is good….no great! Is it possible to make more of these?!”

Gredd: “Ohーー yeah, no. With just me, I can make one every few days. And I don’t plan on making this my main occupation. If you can find some craftsmen that can mass produce this, that’s fine. I’ll even give you that as a sample.”

Rotonoa: “Are you sure?! Then…….I’ll buy this for 10 pieces of gold!”

Gredd: “TーTEN?! WHAーHUH?!?!”

Gredd’s eyes grew large at the sudden offer.

Yeah, 10 pieces of gold would be 10,000,000 yen (～$10,000 U.S.). That would shock anyone.

Rotonoa: “Sir Lou Quain, is that alright with you?”

Luke: “If Gredd says it’s okay, then I don’t mind. It’s a test model anyways. And the size and design is great too.”

Gredd: “But I’d like to make it more simple if I can. It took me 2 days to make this one.”

I’ll leave that to Gredd, and with this, my business deal with Rotonoa was sealed.

He told me that he’ll write up and bring all the contractual paper by tomorrow.

In short, he’ll be spending the night on the island.

Rotonoa: “Oh! Sir Lou Quain. There was someone on board that was eager to meet you.”

Luke: “Me?” Rotonoa: “Yes, sir. He said he was a former servant of the Marquis, but would you like to meet him?” A servant from the Lonneberg Family? Why would someone like that be here…….

But well, if it’s just a meeting, it can’t hurt.

I didn’t think too much of it as we left, and I saw Roku bring someone with him to come meet us.

Luke: “Hey, Roku. Apparently, there’s a former servant from our mansion here? Would you like to meet him too? It might be someone you know.” Roku: “Yes, that would be swell. It was someone I knew, Young Master.”

And with a wide grin, Roku pushed the man that was with him forward.

“IーIt has been a while, Young Master Lou Quain. I am the butlerーーor rather, former butler Jopin.”

<<<<>>>>

CHONKY TL LiT (Lost in Translation)

Abacus (算盤) (ソロバン)

A calculator made of beads where the bottom beads represent 1 and the top beads represent 5. Every time you fill up four beds (each bead represents one unit) and need to increment by 1, you push down all four (which removes it from the equation) and lower the 5 down (to include in the equation) to represent the number 5. The next row represents the 10s, 100s, and so on. It doesn’t matter where you start, but abacuses typically have a middle starting point. It is possible to do addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Or rather, that’s as far as I know. Back when calculators and cash registers were not available, shop keepers would use an abacus to calculate your purchase. There are official certifications and levels in Japan, and most would be able to perform mental math with an imaginary abacus as their hand would mimic the movement of the abacus in the air, and they would be able to see the outcome of the beads in their head without doing any actual math. The key was that you would memorize how the beads move depending on what numbers were said (i.e. 3+6 or 4+7 would move the beads a certain way), and after a while, you were moving beads systematically rather and the resulting beads were correctly calculated. An official would spout out several 3 and 4 digit numbers consecutively (something that would be difficult to add up mentally) and you would be required to have an answer as soon as they are done speaking (i.e. 1243+1329+1238+3421) during an abacus certification exam. There were specific abacus courses and electives too that you could take. All in all, you wouldn’t need a calculator anymore to do a simple calculation that may be difficult without pen and paper.