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Chapter 522: Takumi, Laeva, and the Struggle
What awaited me when I returned to the Sanctuary from Volton was a large order of bike parts.
「The number of alchemists that Papeck Company had secured were few, so they have requested that we sell them the parts for the time being.」
「……I suppose so.」
The papers that Jeeves handed had been written with the types and number of each bike part.
「If they’re an alchemist, they only need to transmute it once.」
「Takumi-sama, no ordinary alchemist can do such a thing.」
「Yeah, probably not. Even though it’s just about understanding and visualizes its structure. These so called Alchemists only synthesize materials, don’t they?」
「Laeva doesn’t know any ordinary alchemists which is why I can’t say anything about it, but I can’t help but think that they are just as you say.」
The alchemists hired by the Papeck Company apparently couldn’t reproduce the ball bearings among the bike parts.
The bearings would, of course, fail at the slightest imperfection. But it must have been difficult for the alchemists of this world who don’t have its image.
「Looking at this order form, it seems they can somehow manage the handle, frame, saddle, pedal, and breaks.」
「It seems so. We can make all sorts of tires, as well as the gears and hub bearings.」
「And the chains too.」
I would like to say that they should prepare the materials for each bike and transmute one at a time. In Laeva and my case, we have to transmute each part individually to be able to solidify the image at first, and then we we’re able to transmute multiple at a time.
「Okay, I’ll transmute the front and back wheels, Laeva, you do the chain please.」
「Understood.」
After that, Laeva and I devoted ourselves into making the parts for the bike.
After all, there were a lot of orders. Papeck-san seemed intent on selling to large cities simultaneously.
The kinds of bikes he’s selling were mainly the mamachari type. Their target audience were not just the women, they had judged that it was easier to ride compared to the cross bike or the mountain bike.
「Takumi-sama, it’s been a while since we’ve had a full course mana potion meal.」
「You’re so right. It’s been a while since I drank mana potions while making things.」
I’ll make the tubeless tires, hub, spokes, and rim out of monster materials in one go.
I transmuted the front and rear wheel sets 10 at a time.
Laeva also transmuted several chains with each cast.
Perhaps I thought like this because I was Japanese, but the population of Valkyra Kingdom wasn’t that big for its size.
This world is one where they must fight with monsters as they expand their livable space, but even so, there was a lot of residents in the large cities like the Royal Capital and Volton City.
What I was trying to say was that we have to make an enormous amount of parts.
「Oh yeah, does the Papeck Company not want to make bikes for children?」
「Tadahhh!」
I pulled out another order form and showed it to Laeva.
Of course, we had also received an order for parts for children’s bikes. We also a orders for a small number of parts for cross bikes and mountain bikes. I heard these few would be built-to-order.
「Uhyaaa…… t-this is a huge undertaking.」
「Right? I was also shocked. It feels like Papeck-san was too invested into this.」
Papeck-san said that he would sell it as much of an economic prices as he could, but they were still undoubtedly an expensive product. Moreover, I heard that they were going to sell frames of a different material intended for the nobles and wealthy merchants as luxury items.
He already had a terrifying smile as he talked.
When it comes to Papeck-san, that meant that he was going to make a huge profit.
Bowling alleys could only be built in cities which can afford to use huge plots of land. That’s why its profits directly correlating to its size was a bottleneck.
Especially in fortress cities, it was normal for buildings to be so tightly packed that there weren’t many gaps. Naturally, there wouldn’t be space in the bowling alley.
The same holds true for the Royal Capital, the slums exist right outside its outer walls. Well, even if it was outside of walls, monsters hardly appear near the Royal Capital, but even so, there wasn’t that much land left in it, and even if a new noble wants to build a mansion in the city, they have no choice but to search for a used property.
Actually, there was a place where the bowling alley could be built in the Royal Capital. It was in the estate of a high ranking noble.
The estates inhabited by nobles of Earl or higher ranking occupied enormous plots of lands. If it’s in one of those noble estates, they could build several bowling alleys and tennis courts. This world didn’t have tennis though.
Then, Laeva and I had auditory hallucinations of Papeck-san’s loud laughter as we transmuted bike part after bike part.
Whether or not we respond to additional productions is something we would think about at that time.
***