Chapter 111 - A Beautiful Garden Factory
"Is this the Ultimate Curry? It's incredibly delicious!"
We've brought the Stamina-Restoring Spring water to the eighteenth floor of the No-Hunger Dungeon, and Commander Shield is treating us to some curry.
It really has become astonishingly delicious. I'm amazed Commander Shield managed to come up with such a blend. Her sense of taste is truly incredible.
"The most important step is leaving the curry overnight in a room cooled with ice to let the flavors meld. Honestly, the proportions of the curry ingredients aren't all that important."
Commander Shield says this as she soaks in the hot spring water brought to the eighteenth floor, recovering her stamina.
"Really?"
"Yes. It seems that every variety of curry has already been carefully formulated. I think choosing one simply comes down to personal preference."
"...Then why did you bother blending all those different curries?"
"Because the situation was such that declaring one particular curry to be the most delicious would likely have caused some serious friction...
All I did was mix together different curries favored by gourmets who seemed to have refined palates, adjusting the proportions until they worked well together. ...Please keep that between us."
Well, how should I put it? That was a rather noncommittal answer. It sounds like bureaucratic work to me...
"Well, never mind the curry. The curry can wait. More importantly, have you heard anything about Lady Auf developing a new distilled liquor?"
"Lady Auf is more of a scientist by nature. It's not as though she devotes herself to making alcohol...
As she continued researching sealed containers and pipes for channeling steam, the efficiency of distilled liquor production apparently improved dramatically as well.
She did show me a liquor she'd produced by pushing the alcohol concentration to its absolute limit in an experiment. It was strong enough to catch fire and burn."
"Alcohol can catch fire?"
"It was burning."
"And how did it taste...?"
"It just burns your throat. It's not delicious in the slightest. At that point, it's nothing but poison."
It tasted as though all the burning sensation of alcohol had been concentrated into a single, overwhelming blast. The instant it touched my tongue, my instincts told me that this was something I absolutely should not swallow.
Even after hearing all that, however, Commander Shield's eyes were sparkling with excitement.
"...Ah, Lady Auf is truly magnificent... As I thought, she is destined to forge the future of alcoholic beverages.
I shall have to visit her residence again soon."
Lady Auf is now working on numerous inventions that go far beyond the realm of alcohol, but this woman doesn't seem particularly interested in anything that doesn't involve liquor.
In any case, I'm glad she seems to have taken such a strong liking to Lady Auf.
That said, she is the commander of the knights of the Kingdom of Marponwear. Surely she's merely putting on the appearance of a harmless liquor enthusiast while quietly keeping an eye on classified information that hasn't been made public... Right? She is keeping an eye on it, isn't she?
"Hey, that curry smells great, Vihita. The bath... Ah, Commander Shield is using it."
Captain Touji has arrived as well.
Captain Touji has also been tirelessly transporting hot spring water from the eighteenth floor to this location to strengthen the knights of the Kingdom of Sepans.
"Hey, Vihita, does it look like we'll be able to process the rainbow ore? Has your lady said anything about it?"
As she ate the curry she'd been served, Captain Touji asked me the question with eyes sparkling with excitement.
What is with you two? When did you both become such huge fans of Lady Auf?
"At the moment, it seems we can only do basic processing, such as carving away part of the ore to create a depression. We still can't polish it into weapons like rainbow swords or rainbow spears."
Even so, simply being able to carve out small depressions in the ore has made it considerably easier to produce weapons such as hammers and maces, in which the ore can be securely fastened to a handle.
We should be satisfied that we can now mass-produce weapons capable of holding their own beyond a dungeon's twenty-fifth floor.
"Oh? So weapons made from rainbow ore will soon be mass-produced... Was it really all right for you to share that information with me?"
Commander Shield responds with what seems like only mild interest.
"Anyone who sees the processed weapons will figure it out immediately anyway. In fact, it seems the plan is to announce that the ore can now be processed and start selling weapons made from rainbow ore.
Though I doubt anyone in the Kingdom of Marponwear would need them."
"Well... We do use it for things like breaking up bedrock, so it's not as though there's no demand for it in our kingdom..."
Commander Shield makes it sound as though the ore is useful for construction work but unnecessary for dungeon exploration.
A country capable of producing as many Red Swords as it wants probably has little need for rainbow ore as a weapon material.
"...Was the processing method for rainbow ore also one of Lady Auf's inventions?"
"...I wonder. It might be Lady Auf's invention, or it might have been developed by the scientists she somehow gathered from who knows where.
If we consider them a team, though, I think it would be fair to call it one of Lady Auf's achievements."
"Lady Auf is involved in the plans for the transport road they're building now, too, isn't she? She's taking on too much work. Is she going to be all right?
Even Her Majesty Yuzha has been unable to keep up with her recent workload and is clearly starting to lose it."
"...Lady Auf often gets so absorbed in her hobbies that she works herself to the point of collapse, so she might not be entirely all right."
Lady Auf has very little stamina, yet she often works until she collapses. Naturally, that worries me.
When Her Majesty Yuzha reaches her limit, she at least gives the necessary minimum instructions, leaves the rest to others, and goes to sleep. At least she knows how to manage herself, which makes her somewhat better off.
Once this hot spring water transport mission is over, I'll have some time off. Perhaps I should take it easy on collecting liquor for myself this time and return to the estate early.
...Lately, even on my days off, I haven't been returning to the estate right away. Instead, I've been staying in the dungeon for a while to collect liquor and chocolate.
I feel like I'm being manipulated into doing exactly what the Dungeon Will wants, and that makes me a little sad.
♨♨♨♨♨
When I returned to the estate, I found Lady Auf and several burly, engineer-looking men assembling some kind of mysterious metal contraption in the courtyard.
I had no idea what they were building, but I was very concerned by the fact that Lady Auf looked as though she hadn't slept in ages.
That said, unlike Her Majesty Yuzha, who tends to look utterly exhausted, she was working with a joyful smile despite her obvious fatigue, so I couldn't bring myself to say anything.
All around them, burly workers continued laying railway tracks through the garden.
Conducting secret experiments with steam-powered iron vehicles requires a fairly large plot of land enclosed by walls. Naturally, there are only so many places that fit the bill.
And Lady Auf, the person in overall charge of these experiments, is the daughter of a duke.
After weighing all the factors, the decision was made to foist the testing grounds for these steam-powered iron vehicles onto the grounds of the Duke of Nausa's estate.
Now, railway tracks run all the way around the beautiful garden on the estate grounds, while countless engineers continue manufacturing various iron components in a crude, industrial-looking factory built right on the property.
Before me lies an incongruous, surreal sight: a beautiful garden surrounded by railway tracks, a factory, and a horde of burly workers.
Ah, whatever happened to that magnificent garden the Duke of Nausa was so proud of? It was so beautiful and picturesque that nobles flocked there to hold tea parties. Where on earth has it gone?
The Duke of Nausa has worn a strained smile ever since this whole affair began. However, the project has now become a national policy initiative personally championed by Her Majesty Yuzha, leaving the duke unable to protest.
"It's doooone!!"
"Woooooooh!!"
"Every single part fits the measurements perfectly! Just as calculated!!"
Apparently, they had finished a component that looked like some kind of oversized steam boiler, though its purpose wasn't immediately obvious to me.
Lady Auf and the craftsmen were absolutely ecstatic.
"We did iiiit... Huh? Oh, Vihita, you're back? Welcome home!"
"I've been watching from behind you this whole time. What exactly is that... thing?"
"It's a new engine! If we install this in a steam-powered locomotive and couple freight cars behind it, then according to our calculations, we should be able to transport hundreds of tons of cargo!"
"...Given that one of the vehicles you built in the past went out of control and smashed through the walls of the ducal estate, I have no doubt this thing will move with considerable force. ...Will it be safe this time?"
"We're planning to test how much weight it can handle before breaking, how many days it can keep running before it breaks down, and how fast we can go while still maintaining control. So no, it's not safe at all?"
Lady Auf says something absolutely terrifying as though it were the most natural thing in the world.
"Testing speed control would be far too dangerous, so we're not planning to do that on the estate grounds, at least... First, we need to find out how much stress the wheels that the Hot Spring Dungeon Will told us about can withstand... right...? Yaaawn..."
"My lady?"
"Ugh... I might be at my limit. When it's... almost time to start it... wake... me... up..."
With that, Lady Auf promptly fell asleep, pitching forward as she collapsed.
I'd more or less anticipated this, so I managed to catch her before her face hit the ground and supported her.
"Honestly, she really does push herself too hard... I'll take my lady to bed, so I'll leave the rest to you all."
I carried Lady Auf into her room and laid her down in bed. A few hours must have passed by then.
A maid came to report, "Um, the craftsmen say they're ready to start that machine..."
That was far too soon.
"You saw how exhausted my lady was earlier. She was so tired that she actually collapsed, remember? Please let her rest a little longer."
I replied to the maid from outside the room in as firm a voice as I could manage.
While lying sprawled out on a mattress and beddings I'd spread across the floor in front of my lady's bedroom door.
...Yes, please, just let her rest a little longer. At least a few more hours... Yaaawn...
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