Hand Pumps

Hand Pumps

Hand Pumps

Having completed the summer gathering without issue, we returned to the temple, where I stayed in bed until my fever finally went down.

When I discussed my schedule with Fran the next morning, he delivered the bad news that there was a ton to do—both Ferdinand and me being away for so many days, on top of me ending up bedridden, had resulted in a load of work piling up.

“It’s unfortunate that just a few days of absence leads to such a buildup,” I said with a sigh. “Hopefully it won’t be long before Kampfer and Frietack are able to handle Ferdinand’s work for him.”

Damuel shook his head with a bemused smile. “Lady Rozemyne, I believe that is too tall of an order... Not even other nobles can easily accomplish what Lord Ferdinand does.”

“True. I definitely wouldn’t be pleased if someone told me I needed to take his place somewhere.”

Covering for Ferdinand obviously wasn’t something a single person could do, which was why we needed to train a group of people who would divide the workload among themselves such that the temple could operate without us. And now that Ferdinand had returned to noble society, it was clear as day that he would be leaving the temple more often than ever to do things like visit the castle.

Benno and Mark were coming from the Plantin Company today, so I went to the orphanage director’s chambers with Fran, Monika, and Nicola right after lunch. It was only when I placed my hand on the door, pouring mana into it so that preparations could be made inside, that I realized something terrible.

Oh no! Gil isn’t here!

Out of all my attendants, only Gil and Fran knew about my commoner past and relationship with Benno’s squad, meaning they were the only ones I could drop the noblewoman act in front of. Fran, however, seemed to have some very bad memories of the hidden room and stiffened whenever we got near it. I knew he would steel his resolve and enter if asked, but I didn’t want to put him in that situation.

“Lady Rozemyne, will we not be preparing the hidden room?” he asked curiously when I drew back my hand.

I faltered for a moment, then disguised my hesitation with a smile. “I was just thinking... you know, why not converse out here today?”

“...I will accompany you inside in Gil’s place.”

“I appreciate the thought, Fran, but you don’t need to force yourself,” I replied with a shake of my head, but Fran continued with a calm facade that made it clear he was indeed going to force himself.

“Lady Rozemyne, this may inconvenience you, but I ask that you help me conquer my fears. You are doing your best to be the archduke’s adopted daughter, and as your head attendant, I cannot allow myself to remain stuck in my ways forever. I wish to overcome my trauma.”

Had Fran been insisting for my sake, I could have just ordered him to stop. But now that he was asking for my help, well... I couldn’t say no.

“In that case, I shall help you. But if you begin feeling unwell, I ask that you tell me immediately. You need not force yourself; it wouldn’t be too much of an inconvenience for us to hold our meeting outside the hidden room.”

“As you wish,” Fran said, nodding with a faint smile.

Nicola cackled behind him. “It’s like your roles are somehow reversed here.”

To ensure I wasn’t in the way while the hidden room was being cleaned, I was served my tea at a table outside and facing away from the door. Some documents had been prepared as well, so it seemed there was work for me to do in the meantime, but I glanced back to take a peek every time I sipped my drink.

Monika pushed the door wide open and stepped through, with Nicola following close behind. Fran, however, stopped just outside. As expected, he really didn’t look too good.

I anxiously continued to watch him when, all of a sudden, he turned back to me, perhaps having felt my gaze. He gave a slight smile when our eyes met.

“I believe I shall be just fine, Lady Rozemyne.”

Fran looked stiff and pale as he stepped into the hidden room himself, but once inside, his normal expression returned. He cleaned and started preparing tea, looking totally calm all the while, but I knew he was good at hiding his emotions. Maybe he was just desperately masking how much he was hurting inside. I leaned over the back of my chair to watch him as he cleaned and brought in sweets.

Eventually, we made eye contact again. This time, he smiled like he was holding back laughter.

“I truly am fine.”

Hm... He’s not forcing himself, is he? Is heee?

I narrowed my eyes and kept watching him suspiciously, but before I knew it, Fritz—who had been standing by at the gate—was guiding Benno and Mark into my chambers. Once we had exchanged noble greetings and were making our way into the hidden room, I turned my head to check on Fran, but he simply placed his hands on my shoulders and said, “You must keep looking ahead.” That was how he always acted.

Mm? I guess he really is okay.

He served tea to Benno and the others, his expression remaining unchanged despite being inside the hidden room. When I sipped my own tea, it tasted the same as always—no imperfections born from fear or anxiety.

“This is just a message from Zack,” Benno began, “but he’s finished a prototype for that well pump thing. I dunno what it’s for, but I’m guessing it’s another one of your weird inventions?”

“Wait, he finished a prototype ? Not just the schematics?” I asked, blinking in surprise.

Benno rubbed his chin, allowing his eyes to wander a little as he tried to remember exactly what Zack had said. “He designed it using the principles you told him about, but he wasn’t sure whether it would actually be able to draw water, so he just up and made one. I hear he’s already put it on the Verde Workshop’s well and has made a few revisions.”

“That must mean it won’t take long at all to spread the hand pumps everywhere. I want to share the schematics with the Smithing Guild so that all smiths everywhere can make them. It’d bring in too much profit for a single workshop to monopolize, and drawing water sucks for everyone, so I want there to be a pump on every well in the lower city as soon as possible.”

I had asked Zack to make the schematics as simple as he could. There was still one part so precise that only Johann could make it, but in general unless the hand pumps were quick and relatively easy to make, they wouldn’t catch on at all.

“You’re seriously doing this again...?! Come on! Think of the profits!”

“Oh, but I am. I may be trusting the schematics to the Smithing Guild, but I won’t be letting them spread the hand pumps for free. I intend to sign a magic contract with them such that Zack and I get paid for each one—him for designing it, and me for coming up with the idea. The contract will also say that the Smithing Guild has to pay a similar fee if the schematics are ever used without permission.”

“Huh, alright. So the plan’s to have the Smithing Guild take total responsibility for the pumps throughout the city,” Benno said, sounding satisfied now that he knew I wasn’t just giving the pumps away. Implementing a system where I charged a fee for the use of my schematics would also help pave the way for the copyright system I intended to put into place later.

I have my own secret plots and ambitions, you know. Eheheh.

“And that’s that, Benno. Can I ask you to make the magic contract with the Smithing Guild for me? I’ll cover the costs, of course.”

Benno blinked at me in utter confusion, then massaged his temples as if attempting to ease a splitting headache. “Hold on a second, that’s one large-scale magic contract. It doesn’t make any sense for me to handle it when I’m not even involved here.”

“I suppose, but you’re the only person I know who’s used to making magic contracts.”

Benno had sorted out every magic contract I had signed thus far; he was the only person I could go to about making the one I needed for my business.

“Don’t ask me. Ask your adoptive father.”

“Hm? Sylvester?”

“All magic contracts have to go through the archduke first anyway. Not to mention, if you want to popularize something new, you’ll want to start at the top of the social hierarchy, right? Wouldn’t things end badly if nobles found out you started this trend among commoners?”

“Good point...” I replied. I could already imagine Elvira getting mad and Sylvester poking my cheek, asking why I had hidden something so interesting from him.

“If you’re going to take the lead with this, you’ll want to go with the duchy-wide magic contracts that nobles use, not the city-wide ones we merchants use. This’ll help intimidate the Smithing Guild into cooperating. Things will also go a lot smoother if you give a pump to the archduke first. That should give him a good impression of Zack and the Smithing Guild,” Benno explained. It seemed that he had offered up some plant paper to Sylvester for this very reason when reporting the magic contract.

“If that’s how merchants do things, then I think I should follow your advice. Okay. Go ahead and tell Zack to make a hand pump for me to give to Sylvester. And while you’re at it, you might want to give the Smithing Guild some notice about this, since its head will need to come to the castle to sign the contract if everything goes to plan. I’ll schedule an audience with Sylvester through Ferdinand.”

Zack and Johann started working on a new pump as soon as they heard about our plans from Benno, apparently weeping at the thought of making something directly for the archduke. Meanwhile, I reported that the hand pump prototype had been completed to Ferdinand, who promptly took me to his hidden room and scolded me to no end, demanding to know why this was the first he was hearing about them.

“I was going to tell you once the schematics were complete, but they went ahead and made a prototype on the spot. It won’t have much to do with nobles directly, since it’s just a tool to make drawing water easier, but I think commoners will really appreciate it.”

I covered for myself even further by explaining my plan to profit from the pumps and the details of the magic contract I had just discussed with Benno, then I asked him to arrange a meeting with Sylvester for me.

“Benno told me that using a noble’s duchy-wide magic contract instead of a merchant’s one would make it easier to spread the pumps, so I would like to schedule an audience with Sylvester. The plan is for there to be four signatures: mine, for obvious reasons; yours, because you’re my guardian; Zack’s, because he designed it; and the head of the Smithing Guild’s, because he’ll be managing the schematics.”

“This certainly does seem to be significantly large-scale. But before I speak of this to Sylvester, I would like to see for myself just what kind of tool this is. Instruct the Smithing Guild to show me a prototype before progressing things further.”

“Okay.”

No sooner had I passed this request onto Benno than it was decided the secondary prototype planned to be attached to the well by Johann’s workshop would be brought to the temple right away. Zack and Johann were apparently going to explain how it worked while putting it into place.

“Now then, this is the well you are going to install the pump onto,” I said, at which point the group of smiths sent from the guild silently got to work setting it up. Everyone looked too afraid to speak. I grabbed Johann’s arm as he tried to slide away into the group, and took Zack’s trembling hand as he stood frozen in place with the schematics.

“Ferdinand, these are two of my Gutenbergs. They are smiths who have designed and crafted many tools essential to the printing process,” I said, puffing my chest out with pride. The two smiths in question immediately froze in place, fear and confusion plastered onto their wide-eyed faces as Ferdinand looked down at them with an exceedingly sympathetic look.

“...I imagine the road ahead will not be easy with Rozemyne dragging you about, but stay strong, you two.”

“Y-Yes, sir!”

“I believe she said you have the schematics? Show me.”

Zack spread open the schematics with still trembling hands and explained to Ferdinand the principles behind the hand pump’s operation. He was trying his best, speaking as politely as he could manage, though he had to keep biting his tongue and messed up his grammar a few times in the process. Johann—an even worse speaker—used that opportunity to slide away and quietly help the other craftsmen with their work.

“Fascinating... Moving this lever like so will cause this valve to open, then? How does that work?” Ferdinand asked. Since he was a researcher at heart, the previously unknown physics principles at work in this new tool were making him livelier than ever.

Zack continued to stammer his way through the questions, but it wasn’t long before he became overwhelmed. “Erm, it’s important to make a... well, Lady Rozemyne used the term ‘vacuum’ here... So you need to make a vacuum, and... You see, she explained it all to me and, um... she told me to make it as simple as possible. This one part can only be made by, um, someone with Johann’s level of skill, since there can’t be any gaps, but... A-Anyway, I think you’ll need to ask Lady Rozemyne how it really works!”

It seemed that he had finally given up, instead throwing the ball into my court—not that I had enough knowledge to withstand Ferdinand’s barrage of questions either.

“It’s ready, Lady Rozemyne.”

“Ah, right. Add the priming water and work the pump.”

Johann did as instructed and started pumping the handle. After several pumps, water began gushing out of the spout and into the bucket.

“Oh...?” Ferdinand seemed to be impressed.

“This will make drawing water much easier. And while we’re here, let’s have a girl try using it. Monika, draw some water using the pump, if you will.”

“U-Understood. Right away.”

Monika, looking a little nervous now that everyone’s eyes were on her, stood behind the pump and gripped its handle. This time, water poured out almost immediately on the first down stroke. She let go in surprise, her eyes wide as she looked between the bucket, the pump, and her hand, then looked at the craftsmen with visible awe and respect.

“I can’t believe it comes out so easily... This is incredible. Drawing water is just so easy.”