Magicraft Meister Part 1

The short autumn days are almost over and the wind is getting colder.

"Behré, what are you going to do today?

Jin asks if he is staying at the house or not. There was no furniture or bedding to be seen.

As Jin wondered what he had done for lunch, he suddenly heard a cute sound.

"Ah......"

Bele blushed. It was the sound of her stomach growling.

"...... Okay, Behle. Me and Elsa are staying here tonight with the mayor, come with us."

"Yes, but ......"

Behrle hesitates at Jin's invitation.

"No problem. "Just come with us as our lady-in-waiting and no one will complain.

With such an offer, there was no way she could refuse. Behle accepts Jin's offer gratefully.

Then one of them came to him.

"Ah, Jin-sama, Erza-sama. What are you doing here?"

"......, Barrow..."

I'm here for Behré.

Barrow was worried about Behle and came to see her.

"Come on, come on. They're already waiting for you."

"Yeah, but ......

"Why are you being so modest now? You don't know our guys either, right?

"Yeah. ......"

Bere glanced at Jin and the others as Barrow tugged on his hand.

"Oh, that's good. Behré, we're going to stay at Barrow's tonight, aren't we?　...... Barrow, will you take good care of him?"

"Yes, of course!"

"......"

In contrast to when he was working at Nido Castle, Bele is now being led by Barrow.

Jin and Erza watch with a smile as their shadows move away from them.

"Behle, you were not well.

Erza muttered to herself.

"The opposite of usual."

"Ah, I guess he's a bit small-minded."

"Small in stature?"

Jin explained what he guessed to Erza, who asked him in a parroting manner.

In a sense, a village is a closed society. In such a place, being alone without family must be a bit of a burden.

Jin recalls how it took time for new children to fit in when he was in the orphanage.

"It's hard to be ...... alone."

Erza nodded as she recalled the time when she abandoned her home and became a prisoner of the Unified Party.

The wind was getting colder and they went back the way they had come. Reiko followed silently.

* * * *

Returning to the village chief's house, Jin was confronted with reality.

Since this is a village where water is scarce, there is no bath, and he only wipes himself with water. At best, using hot water was a luxury.

"......Well, that's the way it is."

When the pump was repaired earlier, the depth of the deep well was about 20 meters.

"<>"

Jin decided to search underground just to be sure.

He found a layer of soil and sand, a layer of gravel, and bedrock. Below that was a layer of gravel, and then bedrock again.

The gravel layer below the first bedrock layer is the permeable layer, i.e., the layer through which groundwater flows. This layer is called <, which means that there is almost no pressure and water cannot be obtained unless it is pumped up.

If you dig deeper and hit a pressurized layer, it can be blown up, but it is difficult to maintain.

"Hmmm, I don't know what to do: ......"

Pumping up too much groundwater can cause land subsidence and other adverse effects, but from what Jin has seen, there is plenty of water and the usage is low due to the small population.

While thinking about such things, Jin was conducting <> when he found something.

"...... natural copper?"

Copper ores are mostly sulfides, but natural copper, like gold sand, is rarely found. In Chichibu, we can imagine that the production of copper was high in the past when the Wadokaichin was made. It is also documented that large amounts of copper were collected in Michigan and Arizona in the United States.

"This is a bit deep, but this could be an industry."

Jin immediately visits the village chief.

The tax collector, Frix Becker, was also there, and he told him that a deposit of natural copper was lying deep underground.

"What!　There is copper under this village?"

The chief was delighted. After all, there was an abundance of copper beneath the ground in this poor village where only corn and beans were harvested.

"If we can dig it out, it will be good for this village and, by extension, for the country!"

Frix is enthusiastic.

"It's a bit deep, though, so we'll have to dig the tunnels carefully.

I give him the obvious precautions.

"Yes, it will be necessary to have a professional and solid construction.

This will lead to the development of this village, but that is a little further down the road.

So, here is the main question.

?"

Both the mayor and Frix tilted their heads, wondering what else there was to talk about besides natural copper. But...

"Can we dig out enough copper for our needs and mass produce the pumps?"

"What?"

Jin knew that the village was chronically short of water due to the lack of wells, although there was an abundant underground water vein.

He dug wells at appropriate locations and used the resulting natural copper and some tin to make bronze, which he then used to make another pump, a bicycle operation.

This is also the result of Jin's personal desire to take a bath.

There are Japanese who dig up the riverbanks where hot spring water flows out and make baths. Jin was no exception.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

It was late that day, so the digging of the well was to begin the next morning.

With Elsa and Reiko as his assistants, Jin started to select a suitable site. The three of them searched around the village and asked the village chief if the area off to the east looked good.

He said, "That area is a wasteland, and it will take time and effort to turn it into a field, so you can do some trial digging there.

Hearing these words, Jin let Erza practice <> again.

"Listen, there is another bedrock under the bedrock. We need to check under the bedrock."

"Yes."

Elsa nodded and used her ground search magic.

"I found ....... There is underground water in the deepest part."

"That's good to know. We need to dig a hole for it, but we also need to dig out the natural copper above it.

"Okay."

Thus, Jin dug a deep well to practice on Elsa. Natural copper came out and some tinstone from another layer. Tinstone is an important tin ore. Bronze can be made from it.

Erza's magic power has also increased since she was cured of her hypermagic condition. Jin thought that this was probably due to her improved ability to manipulate free magic element (ether).

"So, the sister of the Magi Craft Meister is a top-notch Magi Engineer, huh?

Frix, who was observing the event, said in a tone of voice that was almost unbearable to hear.

In the two hours since we started, the of the well bore, the of the ore, the of the metal, the of the pump, and the of the deep well were completed.

Well, I let Reiko help me with the installation since it was mostly hard work, but it was a task that clearly showed the improvement of Elsa's ability.

Jin and his team install two more deep wells at the same location.

This time, Hitoshi also helped, and the work was completed in less than an hour. A total of three deep well pumps were installed.

The village head was amazed to see the total of six deep wells, including the three that had been installed so far. He repeatedly bowed to Jin and Elsa.

Jin, however, only asked the chief for permission to take a bath tonight using the water from the well. Of course, the chief readily agreed.

The chief agreed to do so.

"Ah, it's nice hot water!

The temperature of the water was 15 degrees Celsius. Jin, who had heated the water with his own magic, was enjoying his bath without any worries.

Perhaps because his cells have been activated, Jin loves taking a bath even more. One of the reasons for this may be the fact that his inactive cells have been able to produce as much dirt as human cells, whereas they had not been able to produce much.

"Home, or ......"

Jin thinks about the distant place to which he can no longer return.

"...... but now ......"

Kaina village, Horai Island, and <.

"...... I'm a lucky man."

Jin mutters to himself as he looks at Reiko, who is taking care of the bathtub beside him.

The sky is twilight, and the early stars are beginning to twinkle.