Another World Metal Factory

Chapter 22

Even after that, Tehez continued to marvel at the tools inside the factory, sketching them and showering the Factory Manager with questions. The Factory Manager soon grew tired of her immense curiosity.

However, answering Tehez’s questions, even roughly, was a typical Factory Manager-like behavior.

“Are you there?”

-Welcome!-

Someone entered the factory, and the black sword hanging next to the door quickly greeted the guest. The old man who had just entered flinched in surprise when the sword suddenly hanging on the wall spoke.

The old man was wearing a somewhat worn brown robe, and his attire and shaved head indicated that he was a priest.

“What brings you here?”

When the Factory Manager greeted him, the old man, after staring intently at the sword, approached the Factory Manager.

“Ah. I brought something I’d like to have repaired.”

The priest took something out of the old leather bag he was carrying. It was an ornament that had been discolored to a near-black color.

Judging from the wooden base at the bottom, it seemed to be a tabletop ornament.

“It’s a sacred object that symbolizes the God of Light. It’s a very old-fashioned design.”

Tehez recognized it and spoke up.

“Oh. Someone who knows. It’s a sacred object that’s over 300 years old. It’s a little different from the ones used these days.”

“It has eight lines representing the extending light and three circles. Nowadays, they use a simplified version with four lines and two circles.”

“That’s right, Sister. This is a sacred object I inherited from my teacher. My teacher said he inherited it from his own teacher. It’s turned black with age, but I heard it was quite splendid in the past. According to the legend, it was entirely gold, and there was a red jewel embedded in the center, so it shone brilliantly when it caught the light. Of course, it was already black when I inherited it.”

The priest closed his eyes as if he were recounting something he had witnessed himself, and the Factory Manager, after watching the old man, received the sacred object.

“Hmm…”

“Can you do it?”

“Yes. I think it should be possible.”

The priest smiled gently and took the Factory Manager’s hand.

“Thank you. I don’t expect it to shine gold. But I would be happy if you could just take care of this black discoloration. How much should I pay you?”

The Factory Manager thought for a moment and raised a finger.

“I’ll receive one gold coin.”

“Oh. Alright. Brother. Here you go.”

The priest smiled gently and untied the pouch at his waist, taking out a gold coin.

“Please take good care of it.”

“Yes. Please come back tomorrow at this time.”

The priest bowed repeatedly and went out of the factory, and the Factory Manager, after examining the gold coin he received, placed it on the workbench.

“Channing. Go get the handpiece and polishing compound.”

The Factory Manager spoke, and Channing walked to the toolbox in the corner of the factory.

Meanwhile, the Factory Manager examined the sacred object and then used long nose pliers to carefully separate the upper ornament from the lower base.

By the time the Factory Manager had separated the ornament, Channing had brought the handpiece, polishing compound, and a container filled with handpiece burs.

“I’ll use this to scrape off the surface and remove the rust.”

The Factory Manager attached a fine stone bur to the handpiece.

“What kind of tool is that?”

Tehez approached and asked, and the Factory Manager plugged in the handpiece’s power cord and explained.

“This is called a handpiece. The thing attached to the front spins rapidly. There’s a motor inside the part you hold in your hand. By changing the head, you can use it for various purposes. First, I’ll use this to lightly scrape off the surface of that rusted object.”

The Factory Manager flipped the switch, and the handpiece started spinning with a whirring sound.

Since it was a small tool mainly used in dental labs, the sound wasn’t loud, but Tehez was startled by the sudden spinning and stepped back.

“Oh my! Is it magic?”

“Technically, it’s science. Don’t ask about the principles. I don’t have the confidence to explain it in a way you’d understand.”

The Factory Manager carefully began to scrape the sacred object with the handpiece.

Because it was a very fine stone bur, it didn’t damage the surface significantly, and the black part on the outside began to disappear. A silver surface started to reveal itself underneath.

“As expected. It was silver.”

“Seems like you figured it out. You’re a sharp girl.”

“I’m familiar with precious metals. So, the silver turned black with age.”

Under Tehez’s watchful eye, the Factory Manager polished every nook and cranny more meticulously, and the sacred object regained its silver shine to some extent.

“It seems the small crevices aren’t getting polished completely.”

“We’ll have to use acid treatment for those areas.”

The Factory Manager brought a large glass bowl and poured a liquid from a red container into it.

“Don’t come too close. It’s diluted hydrochloric acid, but it’s dangerous if it splashes.”

The Factory Manager placed the sacred object in the glass bowl and started heating it with a butane gas burner.

“Oh! What’s that?”

“It’s to slightly melt the surface with acid. This will clean up the black rust and the surface we just polished. Of course, we’ll have to polish it again with polishing compound afterwards.”

“What exactly is acid?”

The Factory Manager was momentarily flustered by Tehez’s question. Knowing a concept and explaining it to someone else are two different things.

“Hmm… Well, the sourness of fruit or vinegar, those are acids. And if those are highly concentrated and more potent, they can melt metal.”

“Oh… So you can melt metal without applying heat. That’s amazing.”

Tehez started jotting things down in her notebook again, and the Factory Manager, watching her, sighed, turned off the flame, and took out the sacred object.

It had clearly regained its silver shine, but it wasn’t sparkling.

“Now we need to polish it with polishing compound.”

The Factory Manager applied a generous amount of the polishing compound that Channing had prepared onto a cloth and rubbed it all over the sacred object. Then, he replaced the bur on the handpiece with a wool bur.

As he started polishing the sacred object coated with polishing compound with the white wool bur, it began to develop a luster.

After polishing every nook and cranny on the front and back, the sacred object started to shine brightly in silver.

“So this is what it looked like. It’s beautiful.”

“It’s amazing how it turned so shiny…”

Channing and Tehez exclaimed in admiration, and Illia also came over and stood on tiptoe to look at the sparkling sacred object. The Factory Manager smiled and handed the sacred object to Channing.

“Go wash it thoroughly with detergent.”

“Yes, sir.”

Channing took the sacred object and moved to the sink, and the Factory Manager started gathering other items.

“Oh. Isn’t it finished?”

Tehez, about to close her notebook, asked, and the Factory Manager shook his head while collecting other tools.

“You’ll see. Channing! Bring that!”

Channing brought the wet sacred object, and the Factory Manager quickly dried it with a torch.

After gathering various equipment again, the Factory Manager poured a liquid from a plastic container into a large glass bowl.

“This is a liquid called potassium gold cyanide.”

“Is that also acidic?”

“It’s a strong acid, I think? Maybe? I don’t know the details.”

The Factory Manager answered Tehez’s question and started wrapping a wire around the sacred object.

He wrapped the exposed copper wire at the end, not so much to tightly bind it, but rather to connect it for electrical conductivity. Then, he connected a piece of metal to the other end of the wire.

After that, he immersed both wires into the potassium gold cyanide solution.

“What’s this process for?”

Tehez, taking notes in her notebook, looked over, and the Factory Manager stopped her.

“Don’t get too close. It’s dangerous.”

Bubbles started forming on the sacred object submerged in the solution.

Tehez continued to stare at it with a curious gaze. A strange phenomenon was occurring on the sacred object within the slightly golden liquid.

“Why is this happening?”

“Because I’m running electricity through it.”

“What’s electricity again?”

Tehez’s curiosity was endless.

He had been getting by with rough explanations to Channing, who seemed to understand, and Illia, who was fascinated by the moving objects in the factory but not particularly interested in why they moved. However, bombarded with questions from the ever-curious Tehez, the Factory Manager was starting to feel exhausted.

“Lightning strikes, the tingling sensation you feel when you touch metal in winter. That’s electricity. Almost everything in this factory runs on the power of electricity.”

“Uh… So you’re harnessing the power of lightning?”

“Hmm?… Well, similar… I guess?”

The Factory Manager thought about explaining generators and other methods of generating electricity, but then stopped.

He figured that if he started explaining it to this curious young lady, even a whole day wouldn’t be enough.

The Factory Manager gently shook the sacred object in the liquid and turned off the electricity.

“It’s mostly done now. Channing! Fetch some water in that bucket.”

Channing quickly went to the sink and filled the bucket with water, and the Factory Manager quickly took the sacred object out of the glass bowl and immersed it in the bucket.

Moments later, the sacred object that emerged from the bucket was shining gold.

“Gah! Oh my! Ho… How?!”

Seeing this, Tehez was so surprised that she screamed loudly, and Illia, who had been sweeping the corner of the factory with a broom, came running over in shock.

“You… You… You made gold?! You turned silver into gold! Oh my!”

Tehez dropped her notebook in astonishment and started moving around frantically. The Factory Manager signaled to Channing, who quickly grabbed Tehez’s shoulders.

“Calm down, Miss! You’ll get hurt by the machinery!”

“Hey! Gold was made! Gold!”

Seeing Tehez’s frantic reaction, the Factory Manager sighed and detached the wires from the sacred object, wrapped them around another piece of metal, and immersed it back into the potassium gold cyanide solution.

He flipped the switch, and bubbles started forming near the metal.

Tehez stopped her frenzy and leaned in closer again.

The Factory Manager took out the metal, and a gold-shining piece of metal emerged from the solution.

“See! It turned into gold!”

“Look, Miss. This isn’t gold. It’s plating. It’s just the surface that’s gold.”

Tehez looked surprised at the Factory Manager’s explanation.

“Pl… Plating? Isn’t that done with mercury and gold leaf? Or by applying molten gold?”

“This is electroplating. I can’t explain the detailed principle, but it’s a method of using electricity to attach gold dissolved in potassium cyanide onto the surface of a metal.”

“That’s impossible. The surface shines so cleanly with a golden hue…”

Tehez said, looking at the second gold-plated piece of metal, and the Factory Manager, without saying a word, clamped the metal piece in a vise and struck it hard with a hammer.

The metal piece broke in half with a clang, and when he showed the broken pieces, Tehez carefully examined the cross-section and sighed.

“It really is just iron inside…”

Tehez, after carefully examining the iron piece, sighed and sat down on a chair, rubbing her face.

“Haa… I really thought you had turned silver into gold.”

“It’s impossible to turn one metal into another. Unless it’s some kind of magic.”

The Factory Manager said, watching Tehez sigh, and carefully examined the sacred object.

“It feels a bit harsh to say this since it was your family’s lifelong dream, but making gold is impossible, no matter what. Think about it. If you could turn iron into gold, you should also be able to turn iron into copper or silver, but that’s impossible, right? You can’t turn lead into iron either.”

“Then what has my family been doing all this time?”

Tehez, still covering her face with her hands, spoke, and Illia approached and patted her back. Seeing this, the Factory Manager looked at Channing, who shrugged.

“Well, I’m sorry for shattering your dream…”

The Factory Manager said, and Tehez removed her hands from her face and stood up.

“No. I feel a bit relieved. If someone who runs a workshop like this says so, then it must be true. But I’m a little disappointed. I grew up watching my grandfather and father experiment with all sorts of metals to make gold. It makes me feel sorry for their lives. That’s a bit…”

Hearing Tehez’s melancholic voice, the Factory Manager scratched his head and pondered for a while before speaking.

“You see, I’m not from this world. I’m from a different world. My factory somehow got connected here.”

Tehez’s eyes widened in surprise at the Factory Manager’s sudden words, and the Factory Manager, scratching his head, took out a cigarette and continued.

“Well, my original world is more technologically advanced. As you can see. Anyway, the alchemists like your father and grandfather played a significant role in the advancement of that world. They experimented with all kinds of metals and chemicals in pursuit of creating gold or the Philosopher’s Stone. In fact, thanks to the efforts of those alchemists, methods like the plating I just did and the way to remove silver tarnish were invented. It’s the achievement of none other than the alchemists who were full of the spirit of challenge.”

The Factory Manager placed the gold-plated sacred object in Tehez’s hand.

“We wouldn’t have known how to do such clean gold plating without the research of those alchemists and their descendants. Their lives were definitely not in vain. Tehez, your knowledge, your eye for metals, and your observation skills. You inherited all of that from your father and grandfather. I don’t think it’s right to deny their lives just because you found out that gold can’t be made.”

Tehez’s eyes started to well up with tears at the Factory Manager’s words.

“Don’t cry! Factory Manager-nim!”

“Sister. Don’t cry.”

“N… No… I…”

The Factory Manager was flustered by Channing and Illia’s urging, and seeing this, Tehez suddenly burst into laughter, clutching her stomach.

“Hahahaha!”

The Factory Manager, Channing, and Illia looked bewildered at Tehez, who suddenly started laughing. The Factory Manager was the most flustered of them all.

“Hahahaha! I feel so much better now. Thank you. And once again, please accept me as your apprentice.”

Tehez bowed politely.

The Factory Manager scratched his head, wondering what to do, and looked at Channing and Illia.

Channing shrugged, and Illia nodded.

That settled it.