Chapter 39 - Do Refrigerators Dream of Rapid Freezing?
The summers in the capital of the Kingdom of Ordine were fairly hot. The humidity was low, but the temperature was rising.
Even though it was still early summer, the days had increasingly grown warm enough to break a sweat.
The biggest challenge during this season was food preservation.
Dahlia took out the vegetables from a basket she had used because they wouldn’t all fit in the refrigerator. She had bought them two days ago, but they had already wilted and shriveled, leaving them fit only for soup.
Sipping lukewarm tea, she glanced out the window at the slightly discolored sky.
Her appointment with Volf was supposed to be today, but a letter had arrived yesterday saying that an expedition had come up.
He apologized for not being able to keep the appointment and promised to contact her once he returned.
The letter, which had probably been folded while still damp, showed faint smudges from the dark blue ink.
The work of the Monster Subjugation Force was usually like that.
The area they covered was vast, extending from the capital to the border, and monsters could appear without warning, making expeditions sudden.
She had heard that some expeditions could last anywhere from a single day to over a month, so the fact that it was happening didn't surprise her much.
However, she was disappointed that she couldn't test the enchantment of the dagger today.
At the moment, she was only concerned about a few things: the weather, the travel conditions, and what Volf might be eating.
She certainly did not doubt his strength, especially since he had remained unscathed while donning the Scarlet Armor for subjugation missions.
Dahlia shook her head lightly and closed the window before heading downstairs to the workshop.
Even with the window open, the workshop was stiflingly hot. Dahlia immediately turned on the air cooling fan.
The most popular magical tool recently has been this 'Cool Wind Fan.'
The device, developed by Ozwald, came in two types: water-based and ice-based. They were named the 'Cool Wind Fan' and the 'Cold Wind Fan.'
The cold wind fan hadn't spread much yet, but it offered a coolness that reminded her of air conditioners from her past life. It will surely become popular soon.
Magical tools that made life more comfortable were hard to give up once experienced.
In the workshop, a large silver box, built for testing, sat quietly.
What Dahlia wanted to create was a 'refrigerator with a freezer.'
There were already refrigerators as magical tools, but there were none with freezers attached. Also, the capacity was small. She decided to improve on this and ordered a box from a workshop she was familiar with.
She had thought it might take about five days, but because the design was simple and they had some free time, it arrived in just two days.
The silver box, designed as a prototype for the new refrigerator, had three shelves, each with a door.
In her previous life, Dahlia's refrigerator had had a cooling section on the top, followed by a vegetable compartment, an ice maker, a chilled section, and finally, a freezer at the bottom.
For this prototype, considering that cold air naturally falls, she planned to arrange it with the freezer on top, followed by the refrigerator, and then the vegetable section.
Upon checking the inside, she found that the adhesion process had finally settled down.
The inside was lined using a treatment similar to the one used for waterproof cloth, using blue slime that had been processed.
The translucent blue color was slightly eerie, but once the doors were closed, it would look perfectly fine in a kitchen.
She couldn't help but think of mold when seeing that peculiar blue, but since she couldn't think of an alternative, she decided to move forward with it for now.
Turning to the back, she saw that, despite having only asked for a rough design, the magical tubes had been arranged in a neat grid, wrapping around the interior. A magic stone pocket for setting the magic stone was already attached to the side.
The craftsmen who built the exterior of such large casings had been working with her family since her father's generation.
Even with just a rough sketch, they seemed to have anticipated exactly what needed to be made.
Dahlia tied her red hair back and put on gloves with built-in cold-protection features.
She placed the ice magic stone into the pocket and calculated where and how much magical power to flow while channeling the cold air through the grid of tubes.
She adjusted so that the cold would flow through the upper section strongly, just enough for freezing, the middle section would have a less stronger flow, and the bottom section to make use of the cold air falling from the middle section.
When she closed the door, she noticed a significant amount of cold air leaking, so she used kraken-made tape, enchanted with magic, to seal it.
Kraken tape, which resembled rubber, made an excellent seal.
However, every time she opened or closed it, a faint squeaking sound could be heard, which made Dahlia imagine a small kraken was living there.
Though the mini kraken, in her imagination, wasn't particularly cute.
She realized she needed to improve her imagination for cuter things.
Once she confirmed that the cold air had circulated properly, she placed a wooden cup of water on the top shelf, a bottle of wine on the second shelf, and an orange on the third shelf. Then, she decided to wait and see how things progressed.
If the refrigerator worked well, she hoped to eventually add an 'automatic ice maker' function.
By properly placing ice and wind magic stones, she might be able to create a cordless refrigerator with an automatic ice-making function, unlike anything in her previous life.
The most challenging part would likely be controlling the wind magic for transferring the ice.
Another issue would be the cost of maintenance because of the ice magic stones, but if she focused on sealing and efficiency, it might be manageable.
While considering these points, she kept making notes.
Suddenly, she had an idea as she gazed at the silver refrigerator.
She might be able to add another ice magic stone to the freezer section.
If she used two ice magic stones together, could she possibly create 'rapid freezing'? Her curiosity surged.
It was often the case that using two stones had a synergistic effect, enhancing the function.
For just cooling, one stone would suffice, but having a 'rapid freezing' feature could be quite useful.
Though it wasn't something she had planned, this was a prototype.
If it was a prototype, she should test out the ideas that came to her.
Backing her curiosity with slightly questionable logic, she decided to try it.
The casing was within the safety threshold, but she carefully adjusted the magic stone pocket with her magic, reshaping it to fit two magic stones. To regulate the flow of magic, she channeled magic power from her fingertips into the mechanism.
Just then, a distant thunderclap echoed from outside the window.
The sound unexpectedly made her think of Volf, who was away on an expedition, causing her concentration to waver for a moment.
A sharp *crack* echoed—a distinctly unpleasant sound.
Then, after a brief pause, a faint crackling sound followed.
In a panic, she removed the ice magic stone from the pocket, but the one inside had split cleanly in half.
It seemed she had sent too much magic power into it. This was a disastrous failure, one she had never experienced before.
Carefully, she opened the freezer, just a few centimeters, to check if the inside was damaged.
"Wow... there's so much ice."
Through the gap in the door, she could see a beautiful wall of ice.
As a result of the rapid freezing, the upper compartment was now completely filled with ice. What was she supposed to do with this? Nothing else could fit inside.
Dahlia sighed, then put her head in her hands.
The door could only move a few centimeters, and she couldn't pull it open any further. There was nothing she could do, so she decided to wait for the ice to melt.
This time, she decided to abandon the rapid freezing function. Once the ice melted, she would rebuild it using just one magic stone. With that in mind, she placed another bottle of tonight's wine into the properly cooled lower compartment.
The wine she added was white.
She figured tonight's wine might be a little too dry.
Comments
Post a Comment