Magicraft Meister Part 1

The distance from the village of Magyruz to the village of Kalz in Reinhardt's territory is about 120 km in a straight line.

It is a three-hour trip at 40 km/h.

With Lake Tosmo on the left, we cross the sky over Banne and lose altitude.

The village of Kaltz is located a short distance from Elsa's parents' home in Exi.

"Jin, welcome."

Reinhardt's house, <>. The airship descends into the large front yard.

"Hello, miss!　You look well!"

"Hi, Grandpa. ...... you too."

Adberg,...... former butler to Elsa and now secretary to Reinhardt,...... who had greeted her with Reinhardt, took Elsa's hand and wept.

Over lunch at the <>, Jin informed Reinhardt and his wife about Count Kuzma and Bina's wedding.

"Well, Louis and Bina, they are going to make a good couple, aren't they?"

"Yes. Yes, I caught a glimpse of Reinhardt's gift carriage. When did you make it?

"Ha, somehow I found the time."

And when I told him that Erza's < had been completely cured, Adberg burst into tears of joy.

"Thank you, Jin-sama, for saving my daughter. ......!"

Adberg bowed his head over and over again, and Erza's eyes were moistened as she watched him do the same.

The mealtime is over.

Then a maid of honor arrived.

"Mr. Reinhardt, you have a visitor.

"Oh, just in time. Show him to the workshop.

"A visitor?"

When Jin looks doubtful, Reinhardt smiles and explains.

It's Mr. Toa. I heard that you are going to make a desiccant plant.　You're going to develop it so that it can be made available to the general public, aren't you?"

Jin agrees.

I had already given Reinhardt an outline of what we were going to do through the manacam, and Toa had said that he would cooperate with us.

"As for the limestone, Toa-san came to me the day before yesterday and told me that he had found a promising deposit.

Toa, who should have been here a few days ago, was indeed very impressed.

"It's a rocky hill near Lake Tosmo, and it's almost entirely limestone," he said.

"That's great!"

The material is as good as solved.

In Japan, the mountains in the Chichibu area are made of limestone and have been cut down to make cement. Takekou, for example, has even been reshaped.

So I sent someone out yesterday to do a little mining.

"Oh, that's great."

Reinhardt has also become a lord of the small village and is doing a lot of work for the village.

"I was just thinking about how I could start some kind of industry," he said.

It was a good thing, Jin thought.

"Let's do it right after this.

"Here we go."

"...... Jin and Rai are very lively."

Erza muttered in a whisper when she saw the two excitedly, and Bertsch followed her up.

"Ummm...he was so excited last night, you could see it in his face. He's happy to get away from his daily political duties.

Reinhardt's last sentence was a complete disaster.

After a short break for lunch, Jin and Reinhardt arrived at the workshop they had built on the grounds of the Lanken Houses.

"Hello, Jin, Mr. Reinhardt.

"It hasn't been ...... long enough."

Toa usually addresses Reinhardt as , but here she is afraid of people's eyes and calls him .

And Stearina was unusually well dressed.

Her copper-colored hair was tied up in a high bun, and she was wearing a light purple one-piece dress with ankle-length hem and a white summer cardigan-like jacket.

She was returning from a visit to Toa's late wife's family, the Marquis Theoderic's family.

Stearina left the workshop saying that she was going to talk to Bertsche.

"Mr. Toa, you found the limestone.

Jin said and Toa scratched his head.

"Well, collecting materials was originally a part of my job. I know a lot about the resources in the country.

He is indeed a first-rate alchemist.

"So, I have prepared the materials here.

Reinhardt prepared limestone, magi crystals, and stones for the furnace.

"I heard that you used a carbon crucible in your experiments?"

"Yes. Yes, but they're not very common. Any material that can withstand temperatures of 1,100 degrees Celsius is fine."

In modern science, ceramics, superalloys, carbon-based materials, and other materials have been developed as < in fields such as aeronautics, space, and energy technology.

"Mr. Toa told me how to make it. The principle is simple, but we need to think of a way to mass produce it.

Jin's abilities as a Magecraft Meister, a magical engineer, have led him to perceive things in a way that is often out of tune with the way ordinary people think.

In order to compensate for this, he asks for Toa's cooperation this time.

"The most common refractory materials are several kinds of rocks.

Toa pointed at the rocks on the table.

"First of all, tuff.

Oyaishi is a member of this group, and its strength does not deteriorate until about 1,000 degrees Celsius. It is a little short of the calcination temperature of 1,100 degrees Celsius for quicklime.

Sandstone

Sandstone" can also be used up to about 1,000 degrees Celsius.

There were also andesite and serpentinite, but none of them seemed to be strong enough to withstand 1100 degrees Celsius.

"Well, we've stumbled on something," he said.

"It's hard to make it an industry for the people, isn't it?"

Jin and Reinhardt are puzzled.

"If it's carbon or zirconia or platinum or something, it would be good. ......"

Such expensive materials are not enough to make it an industry.

Erza looked at Jin and Reinhardt, who were struggling unusually hard, with a somber face.

"......And, wasn't there a heat-resistant stone? ......"

Jin also desperately tries to remember.

"Heat ...... furnace, or ......."

The thought of furnaces, such as blast furnaces, still gives me a little shiver. A small crucible like the one I was in the other day is nothing to worry about, but when it comes to a furnace large enough to hold a human being, the mere thought of it gives me goosebumps.

It is not surprising, since I almost lost my life when I fell into the ladle of an electric furnace.

Jin felt a little pathetic, though he was not afraid of fire and flames.

Erza noticed that Jin's shoulders were shaking a little, and remembering how he almost died in the other world, she gently took his hand.

Not exactly thanks to that, Jin remembered a stone.

"It's olivine.

A rock mainly composed of olivine and peridot, a type of plutonic rock formed deep underground. It is highly heat-resistant.

The melting point of olivine is 1910 degrees Celsius, and the sand from which it is crushed is used for sand mold casting.

Good quality olivine is extracted from the Inad mine near the village of Kaina. However, it is of the level of a gemstone, which makes it expensive.

Therefore, it was thought that olivine could be used as a material for the furnace.

"Orchidite or ......"

Peridotite is an igneous rock, i.e. volcanic rock, different in origin from limestone, which is a hydrothermal (sedimentary) rock.

The Shoro Empire is rather rich in sedimentary rocks, especially in the area around Lake Tosmo.

Andesite, for example, was found in relatively close proximity, but there were no mountains nearby where olivine could be extracted.

"Importing heavy stones is a price problem, isn't it?"

As one would expect from a man who has poured money into his collection of materials in the past. He seems to have cost in mind.

"Hmmm... ......"

They have realized how much Houraishima and magic is a cheat, or <>.

Jin continued to worry, "If I had the materials, I could at least allow them to be processed by magic.

"Why not iron?"

Jin nodded at Toa's question.

"Yes. If we talk only about the melting point, it would be fine, but if iron is heated to such a high temperature, it would quickly oxidize and fall apart.

Iron easily compounds with oxygen, especially at high temperatures.

"It's surprisingly difficult, isn't it?"

Toa crossed his arms and pondered whether there were any good materials.

"I guess the only thing left to do is to put up wards. ......

The only other option would be to put up wards, which would increase the initial cost and make maintenance more difficult.

"That should be a last resort."

Thus, everyone was pondering.

Then, one of them looked into the workshop.

"What are you guys doing?