The Main Family Is About to Die Out, so I, from a Branch Family, Am a Seed Provider (WN): Chapter 68

 

Chapter 68: Reasons Why it's not Feasible

"You're late."

 The sun had long since set over the mountains, and it was late at night when no one was out and about in the village.

 It was darker than usual because of the new moon, but Gruja, the owner of the house and the head of the village, greeted me when I came home from the coal mine.

 He had a head of gray hair and countless wrinkles etched on his face due to age.

 He was dressed in a pair of bright navy blue overalls over white clothes, which are relatively common in this village, and reminded me more of a person who takes care of livestock in a fairy tale than a village chief.

 He was waiting for me with a walking stick in his right hand and a simple lantern in his other hand.

"I'm sorry, I got carried away doing all that stuff."

"No, no, it's good to be enthusiastic about your work."

 Gruja speaks with a soft smile, but for me, this person in front of me is, in a sense, the person who holds the power of my own life and death.

"However, you have to be home on time."

"I'm really sorry."

 I don't know how he feels about it, but when he says it like this, it makes me cringe. That's the thing, he has a strange air that is different from my work colleagues, Dunkel and the others.

"That's right, Dad! If I hadn't come to pick him up, he would have been working all day! I have an early morning tomorrow, too, you know?"

 When I bowed my head to Gruja, Alice suddenly popped up from behind and jumped in front of me, saying that in a slightly surprised tone.

"I'm really sorry. Thank you, Alice."

"I'm glad you understand."

 For some reason, Alice nodded with satisfaction, puffing her modest chest forward. I'll play a little prank on her in return. I thought about it, but this time it was my fault, so I refrained from doing so.

"So what were you doing? By any chance, were you digging ore for tomorrow's quota?"

"Ah, um, it's not like that..."

 Gruja asked me again why I was late, and I explained the situation to him.

 For a while, after I parted with Frankel in the mine, I was working on repairing the trolley that was in the mine.

 The reason for this was simply to get the ore out of the mine on the trolley.

 I was also working on an idea for a power source to move the trolley, but once I got started I was hooked, or rather, I couldn't find a time to stop and kept going.

 And then Alice, who has been standing next to me looking at the stars in the night sky since a while ago, came into the mine and picked me up.

 ……The inside of a mine is not a good place for a girl to come in the middle of the night, is it? I thought so, but I kept quiet. Well, it can't be helped because it's totally my fault (second time)

 As soon as Alice found me, she yelled, “There you are!” and charged at my back, almost crushing my fingers with the tool I was holding in my hand......

"Well, I'm glad nothing happened. Come on in. I'm sorry about Alice, too."

"No. It's okay, Dad."

 No, it's not all right at all. When she came to pick me up, Alice almost took one of my fingers.

 My inner resentment voice of course would not be heard.

 I followed Alice and Gruja into the house where I'm freeloading.

 As I stepped over the front door, the warm orange light from the fireplace in the back of the house illuminated the room.

"It's almost time for the weather to get colder."

 As I sighed in secret in front of the normally unlit fireplace, Gruja muttered as he put the lantern away on a shelf next to the front door.

 The room layout is not very large, with a living room, Gruja and his wife's room, and Alice's room upstairs. Incidentally, my room is facing Alice's room.

"I guess you should start preparing a meal. Alice."

"Yes."

 Alice is heading for the kitchen in the back of the house, and Gruja and I are sitting across the table from each other in the living room, watching her back.

"Anyway, are you going to move the trolley in the mine again?"

"Yes, because it's too much work to carry all those crates by hand every time they fill up."

 The center of the conversation is to move the trolley that was left broken inside the mine.

“If we could use that trolley, we would be able to work more efficiently and increase the amount of ore we can quarry per day"

"That's true, but without replenishing the gears used to power it, won't it be useless once it's fixed?"

"That is true. But I have an idea......"

"An idea?"

 While the fire in the fireplace dyed the stone table a bright orange color, I said that again and placed a piece of parchment in my pocket on the table.

"This is?"

"It's an idea for a new power source. It's not manually operated with pulleys, but completely self-supporting."

 Gruja picked up the slightly sooty parchment and read the contents in silence for a while.

 The contents are quite simple.

 The trolley was originally driven by manpower using the principle of a pulley, but how could it be moved without the use of manpower?

"I see. You're using the windmill."

"Yes, that's right."

 The answer was to reuse the windmill hut that is no longer in use, which I often use when I take a break.

"If the gears of the windmill and the pulley of the trolley are skillfully connected, it should move if there is a natural wind blowing."

"......"

“If we can transport the coal automatically, we can increase the amount of ore mined per day and, above all, we can improve the efficiency of the operation by eliminating the need to go back and forth through the mine.”

"I see. That's fascinating."

 Gruja muttered, then put the parchment he was holding on the table, crossed his arms, and closed his eyes lightly.

"......"

"......"

 A slight silence flows between us.

 With the crackling sound of firewood burning in the fireplace echoing through the living room, Gruja, who had closed his eyes for a while, looked up and muttered with a smile.

"It's not a bad idea."

"Do you think so too, Gruja?"

“Yes, I think we could do it if we wanted to, since you have written some estimates for securing the materials.”

"Yeah."

 The response was positive. In other words, he seemed to accept my idea, and that it was not a mistake at all.

"Then, based on that, I have a proposal to consult with Gruja..."

 So, as if to press the issue, I opened my mouth to say that all I had to do was to get the cooperation of the head of this village.

"But it's actually impossible."

"Eh?"

 The words that came out of Gruja's mouth were words of denial.

"W-why?"

 My voice rose a little as I faced Gruja's unexpected reaction to the good feeling I'd had during the discussion.

“There are two problems. The first is that it is not sufficient as a power source. The power of the wind is certainly strong. However, the load capacity of the trolley, which is written on the parchment, cannot be covered by wind power alone."

"If that's the case, we can reduce the amount of cargo to be loaded onto the trolley......"

 The moment I said that, I thought of what the village chief would say next.

"Then it's the same as the manual type, isn't it?"

"Yes."

 Yes. I calculated that we could achieve the daily quota in half a day with the self-supporting system.

 However, I calculated that the quantity on the trolley was just about the limit of what I had written on the parchment, and I concluded that it was impossible to put more than that on the trolley.

 So Gruja's point was that if we reduced the load we could put on the trolley, the time it would take to reach the quota would be no different than the time it would take to reach the quota for a broken and abandoned manual trolley.

 Moreover, it is obvious that the greater the error between the amount of mining and the amount of transportation, the lower the efficiency.

 If the objective is changed for the sake of the means, there is nothing to be gained. In that sense, it may be a waste of time.

“Then why not move the waterwheel too?”

"Eh?"

 As I was inwardly pondering what to do about my own naïve outlook, Alice mentioned it as she placed the wooden tray she was holding on the table.

"A waterwheel? Where is it?"

"Are? Onii-chan, maybe you don't know?"

"Eh?"

 Alice tilts her head in a cute gesture.

 I ask as I watch her place a plate of black bread and soup for dinner from the tray in front of me.

“You know that windmill hut Onii-chan always rests in was originally a watermill hut, right?”

"Is it so?"

"Yeah. Aunt Lydia told me that before Uncle Burk renovated it for the last time, it was a watermill and they used to make wheat flour there."

 The Aunt Lydia that Alice mentioned was a woman in her 40s who ran a general store here in Vu-alheit.

 I was only able to visit the store once, but I was quite impressed with the small compass and other relatively rare items on display.

"Huh? But was there a waterwheel over there?"

"It's been removed now and left at Aunt Lydia's house. Also, Onii-chan, thanks for the food."

"……Thanks for the food."

 When Alice said so, I hurriedly placed the pieces of bread I had torn off and put my hands together.

“So you're saying that if I can get Burk to install the waterwheel in the hut, that's going to solve the problem?"

 I asked while pouring Alice's homemade soup into the crumbly bread, which I can't even say is delicious.

 But Alice shook her face from side to side and looked a little sad, or rather, her expression turned gloomy, which is unusual for her, who is always cheerful and innocent.

"Uncle Burg passed away a long time ago."

 The moment Alice muttered that, Gruja's face, who was sitting in front of her, stiffened slightly.

"Was he sick, perhaps? Or was it the war?"

 I have no memory of it, but to my knowledge, there are many nations hostile to the empire that rules this village of Vu-alheit.

 The Federation in the west, the Principality in the north. And the kingdom in the center, which has the longest border.

 The kingdom in particular must be at war with the empire for years. If he did not die of illness, there is a possibility that he may have died in battle as a soldier.

"Umm, it's not like that."

 However, Alice's attitude implied that it was neither of those things, but she seemed somewhat reluctant to say so.

"...I'll talk about the rest. And that includes the other reason why I have declared this idea impossible."

"Eh? What do you mean?"

"It's simple. Because..."

 As if to help Alice, Gruja, who was facing her, changed from the friendly atmosphere he had been in a moment ago to a grave one, and gave an answer that went beyond my imagination.

“Lydia's... son-in-law, Burk. Because, of all people, I am the one who killed him.”