Chapter 67 - The Steelworks Plan and Amber’s Return (1/2)
Chapter 67: The Steelworks Plan and Amber’s Return
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Often, Rebecca found that she couldn’t quite understand her Ancestor’s thinking. However, there was something good in being a stubborn girl, and that was not forcing herself to understand stuff that she could not. Anyway, Ancestor can’t be wrong; she’d just do as he said.
Watching Rebecca who’d happily left after receiving the order but did not even inquire why she had to burn rocks, Gawain could not help but rub his chin and muttered, “Indeed, the innate gifts that every person was born with are limited. Having more or less of it all depended on the dice. In Rebecca’s case, she’d probably rolled once and topped up her gifts in mathematics and imagination, then she was born with everything else at number one…”
But that didn’t matter since the blueprints and operation method had been assigned to her, he’d let her figure it out herself. The actual case of project Magic Web 1 had proven that other than being candid, stubborn, having low EQ, and occasionally coming up with thoughts that were asking for a beating, this young lady really had an astonishing talent in mathematics and creation. Such a gifted player should be thrown out and left to crash headfirst into it. As long as she didn’t fail, there’d usually be unexpected gains, and giving her a bunch of restrictions and fetters would instead easily restrict the outcome.
Besides, even Gawain himself wasn’t sure how many of those indigenous methods that he’d restored through his memories of Earth could succeed…
After casting the mission of ‘burning rocks’ to Rebecca, Gawain headed to the farm to have a look at their cultivation progress and confirm that production of the waterwheel had begun. Following that, he made a trip to the blacksmith store and tossed the modern furnace he’d designed to the old blacksmith, Hummel.
The old blacksmith revealed astonishment towards the blueprint that Gawain took out. He was truly surprised.
Hummel knew that the Lord was concerned about the modern furnace, and he remembered that Gawain had gathered some opinions and suggestions regarding the production of modern furnaces from him a few days ago. However, in his concept, coming to this extent for an aristocratic lord was already the utmost limit. Subsequently, he would, at best, send several craftsmen over to help him with the building of the new furnace and check on the progress occasionally. He’d never expected that Gawain would come to him directly with the blueprint.
Upon hearing the lord’s words that the blueprint for the furnace was ready, Hummel’s first reaction other than shock wasn’t surprise; neither was he very touched; instead, he felt nervous and troubled.
He maintained his stance. A duke, a great aristocrat, a figure who ought to be seated in a castle and eating using golden bowls, did he really have proper knowledge of forging, of building furnaces? Could the blueprint that he’d come up with really work?
What should he do if it couldn’t? Who would dare to comment? But if they were to forcibly use it… whose responsibility would it be?
The old blacksmith took the blueprint that Gawain handed over with a slightly woeful look. He quietly made up his mind: if this furnace was too impossible, he must not reveal it. At the worst, he would first agree, then work hard to build a furnace with a similar outer appearance but entirely different on the inside. If the Lord were to discover anything fishy and questioned him, he’d claim that the illiterate apprentices and slave laborers were too stupid, that they could not build the new furnace properly…
This thought lasted until he had a clear look at the blueprint with deft structures and a logical layout.
Gawain took in all of Hummel’s reaction and smiled.
He was not a blacksmith. To be honest, even if his experiences in his previous life had nothing related to smelting or forging, which internet powerhouse coming from an era of information explosion wouldn’t be able to come up with a bunch of theoretical knowledge?
Of course, an internet powerhouse with only theoretical knowledge would not come in handy, but that was all right; he still had the memories of Gawain Cecil.
Gawain Cecil was not a blacksmith, but the first Duke of the East was. And an important piece of bragging material for the Duke of the East when he treated everyone to wine was knowledge in smelting. Add to that their intimate friendship, Gawain Cecil had numerous experiences of being dragged by the Duke of the East to the furnace to practice his skill. He naturally knew what kind of structure a qualified furnace ought to have.
With two layers of knowledge combined and suggestions from Rebecca and Heidi, as well as minor damage to his hairline, drawing out a blueprint was at least possible.
However, confidence was confidence; Gawain wasn’t at the extent of being blindly conceited. He knew the drawbacks of a non-professional leading the proficient and understood that his identity could easily keep the true specialists from giving their honest views. Hence, he volunteered, “This blueprint is just something I modified according to some furnaces from the Gondor era, so it might not suit the current situation. It’s only meant to give you a line of thought. As for how this furnace could be operated, it’s your business. Feel free to reconstruct it as you wish, as long as it fulfills my demands.”
“No, no, no, this design is already very logical,” Hummel said hurriedly. “It has all the components that a furnace should have, and they all seem to connect very well. And this idea of continuous smelting… So long as there is a steady flow of ores into it and the slag is cleared, it can burn on?”
“That’s right. It’s continuous.” Gawain nodded. “But in doing so, the work pattern of ‘a blacksmith and a few apprentices rotating around a furnace’ might no longer be suitable?”
This evidently had not come to Hummel’s mind before this; he was still immersed in the intriguing concept of the modern furnace. With this reminder by Gawain, he was suddenly aware of what an extremely efficient furnace that didn’t need to be extinguished meant.
As if it was a certain instinct stemming from his occupation, he realized that a deep gap had appeared between the former clanging blacksmith stores and this furnace before his eyes.