Konbini Ossan Volume 7 Chapter 16 — Magitek Carriage
Six months after the three of them began developing a new product, its full form was finally revealed.
The name of that product was the Magitek Carriage. In short, it was something like an automobile that runs on magic power.
That said, it was not a steel automobile like those seen in modern-day Japan.
Instead, it was a vehicle developed by modifying an existing horse-drawn carriage so that it could move on its own without being hitched to a horse.
In fact, it seems that a magic tool with a somewhat similar structure already existed.
Apparently, there is something called a golem carriage, which uses a golem for pulling in place of a horse.
However, this came with several problems, and as a result it never became widely used.
First, the amount of magic power required is enormous.
Unless one possesses a tremendous amount of magic power, they can only manage to keep a golem moving for about an hour at most. It can hardly serve as a replacement for a horse.
Second, it is extremely expensive.
Golems are not man-made products but are instead captured from dungeons, neutralized, and then modified for use, making them unsuitable for mass production.
(E/N: That's right, in the usual fantasy stories, earth mages can easily make a Golem from soil and dirt, easily incorporating sentience in an earthen doll… In reality (fantastically), that is a task with a high hurdle and needs extensive research and practice.)
For these reasons, golem carriages were apparently treated as little more than hobbies for a handful of nobles.
Some high-rank adventurers also own golem carriages.
Since such parties often include members with exceptional magic power, they are sometimes used for long-distance travel.
In any case, golem carriages never became widespread for those reasons. Still, the idea of a carriage that moves without horses, operated solely by humans, already existed.
Shirley and Maria possessed knowledge of such things. After hearing Arisa talk about the new magic devices she had learned about, the two of them came up with an idea.
That idea was the Magitek Carriage. A simple concept: instead of using a golem, why not make the carriage itself capable of self-propulsion?
However, in a world where the fixed notion prevailed that carriages are pulled by horses and vehicles are something that must be towed, this was not an idea that came easily.
On the other hand, Maria and Shirley were in an advantageous position.
Through their conversations with Arisa and myself, they had at least some familiarity with the culture and knowledge of modern Japan.
Among those bits of knowledge were stories of steel vehicles that move at high speed on their own; automobiles.
Using that faint, secondhand knowledge as a starting point, they connected it with their understanding of golem carriages and arrived at the idea of a carriage that moves under its own power using magic.
Naturally, Arisa understood the usefulness of automobiles as well, and the three of them immediately began taking action to realize the idea.
They leveraged connections and personal networks to gather people who manufactured carriage bodies, while Arisa designed the magic conduction circuits for the control system.
Involving many people along the way, the Magitek Carriage project steadily progressed.
Since Arisa herself was a novice when it came to circuitry, she sometimes proceeded by trial and error, and other times learned from me, gradually completing the circuit portion of the Magitek Carriage.
It seems the «Calculator» was also helpful during this learning process.
Once she had the necessary knowledge, understanding the answers was not particularly difficult.
Arisa absorbed knowledge at an astonishing pace, eventually reaching the point where she could design simple circuits on her own.
With several favorable conditions lining up like this, the new product known as the Magitek Carriage was successfully completed.
“This is the completed Magitek Carriage?”
I was led by Arisa, Maria, and Shirley to one of the warehouses on the factory grounds.
There stood the finished Magitek Carriage. While it had yet to be painted, it was apparently complete enough to be ridden and driven.
Its outward appearance was much the same as an ordinary four-wheeled carriage.
However, there was no mechanism for hitching horses, and the driver’s seat was equipped with both a roof and doors.
In addition, the underside appeared to be packed with mechanical structures, giving it a thicker, bulkier lower body than a normal carriage.
“There are two power sources; a hybrid of human-derived magic power and magic power from illumination stones.
…
That’s why there’s a panel for illumination stones mounted on the roof. One of the reasons the driver’s seat has a roof is for that.”
Saying this, Arisa lightly patted the body of the Magitek Carriage with a pon.
“For someone with average magic power, it can run for about three hours on their own magic alone. And with what the luminescent magic stones store, it’s fifteen hours on a sunny day. If it’s raining, about eight hours.”
Nodding at the explanation, I stepped closer to inspect the structure of the Magitek Carriage.
“I see. You combined illumination stones to cover the power problem.”
“Yeah. Unlike solar power, this thing doesn’t just stop generating because the weather’s bad. That’s why it was really convenient as a power source.”
Just as Arisa said, unlike solar power, illumination stones do not rely on converting sunlight itself, so their efficiency in gathering magic power does not drop drastically even in rainy weather.
As a constant energy supply, there really was no better choice.
“And the maximum stored magic power is about fifty hours’ worth. Even if it runs out and you have to travel at night, it’s designed so it can still run using the driver’s magic power.”
“Monsters attacking at night isn’t exactly rare. That makes it safer.”
As I spoke, I continued observing and checking various other parts of the Magitek Carriage.
It was well designed, highly versatile, and depending on the vehicle’s shape, it could likely be used as a cargo transport as well.
That, in turn, explained how it would improve factory efficiency too.
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E/N:
For transporting minerals and heavy raw materials, a Magitek Train would be even better! What about a Magi-lev Trains?! But Dracium is rare as it is…
😂 This is fun!
Stay tuned!
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