By the next day following Elsa’s birthday, Jin had officially received the reward and a certificate.
The certificate listed that he got the credentials of a ‘Honorary Magi Craftsman’, the badge, and a half coat.
The standard for nobles and magi knights was a robe, and for knights a coat was the standard. However, for Egelia Kingdom’s Magi Craftsmen it was a half coat.
On the left side of the chest and on the back of the coat were tiny crests of Egelia Kingdom.
The certificate was a mithril plate on which to begin with Jin’s name was carved, and the rest of the contents said that the King of Egelia guarantees something or the other.
The badge with a piece of Elradrite fitted into it he got yesterday was something he could pin to the collar or the chest of his everyday clothes.
Finally, not as an extra prize or anything but, they said Jin would granted a carriage and a horse for his own exclusive use.
Then, very appropriately for a Magi Craftsman, when Jin said he wanted to manufacture it himself the minister of Domestic Affairs laughed and acknowledged that, then wrote up a grant for the necessary materials.
“Let’s see, now that it’s come to this should I be getting serious?”
After yesterday’s award ceremony, Reinhardt had scared Jin by saying there’ll surely be many difficulties from now on, so he decided to build a carriage that possesses at the very least the defense capability against unfriendly contact.
“Basically the frame will be of Light Silver, and the contact surfaces will be coated with Adamantite. Horse golems will do the pulling.””
You could already imagine how just that would make for a preposterous carriage.
“Wheels also made out of Light Silver, with Adamantite ball bearings.”
However, there was one problem. It was that this castle’s storehouse didn’t have that much Light Silver.
“Now, what to do about this?”
Here Jin thought of an idea. It was installing a Warp Gate inside the carriage.
Originally, he planned to establish a Warp Gate to Hourai Island somewhere so that he could at least have important materials brought to him.
If he installed a Warp Gate small enough for only one person to go through in the corner of the cabin or the luggage space he could go home at any time.
And then Jin decided to bring materials from Hourai Island.
And so, first he built a temporary cabin. This would have served its purpose after finishing the carriage proper, so he built it unseriously.
Installing a Warp Gate inside was extremely difficult.
Fortunately he had Reiko with her small body do most of the heavy work, and he could alternate between applying [Fusion] and [Joint] to the materials.
About an hour later the temporary cabin and the Warp Gate was complete.
Reiko was told to promptly warp to Hourai Island and fetch the needed materials.
“In that case, see you later, Father.”
With those words Reiko warped to Hourai Island.
Today, Reinhardt and Elsa had been invited by Reinhardt’s acquaintance for a visit, and similarly Earl Kuzuma and Beana were invited by the Earl’s friend for a visit. Both Reinhardt and the Earl asked Jin to come with them, however, Jin said he wanted to build the carriage and so he was left behind by himself.
Until the materials were gathered Jin decided to review the details of the carriage.
“Hmm, I think it would be bad if I didn’t excercise a little restraint.”
He thought of something admirable, but even from the current state anyone could foresee that the end result would not turn out restrained, however, there was no one there who could point this out to him.
“Independent suspension for the four wheels…is no good. Then if I used a trailing arm instead…”
He added trailing arms that had a long stroke to both the front and rear, with the axle serving the purpose of the so-called torsion bar.
As the axle was fixed the wheels did the revolving and so turning was also improved.
“Now what to do about the damper. Building an oil damper would just be foolish, right. I guess using some viscoelastic material as the damper’s spring would be fine.”
Et cetera, he kept muttering his monologue while finishing up his plans until Reiko came back.
“Father, I’m back.”
“Oh, Reiko, just the right time, these plans look fine to me.”
“In that case I will have the materials carried in at once.
Reiko said, then spoke to the [ManaCom] in her hand.
“This is Reiko, Topaz-2, send out the materials.”
“(Topaz-2, roger that.)”
Surely waiting on the other side of the Warp Gate, a few seconds after Topaz-2’s reply,
“They’re here.”
From the Warp Gate, ingots of Light Silver warped in. Reiko took them and put them next to Jin.
“Yes, go on.”
Reiko issuing orders through the [ManaCom] with Topaz-2 following them and sending in materials. In a flash a heap of materials had piled up.
Jin had been watching said,
“Alright, stop for now. If it turns out to still not enough I’ll tell you.”
“Yes.”
Reiko gave a command, and the flow of materials temporarily ceased.
(Ah, Reiko and the others having built-in communications function is handy.)
Jin faced the material pile while thinking about such things.
“Let’s start with the cabin, I suppose.”
He decided to start from building something with a living room-like atmosphere. He pictured a minivan which six people could ride in.
The dimensions were: inside width, 1.8 meters; length, 4 meters; and height, 1.9 meters. It should be enough for even Reinhardt to not bonk his head on the roof.
The frame was all made out of Light Silver, the walls, the floor, and on top of their honeycomb structure he added wood, and so it looked as if it was wooden.
Until now, no people were seen. Building in the desolate location behind the guest house was effective.
“Uhh, now to transfer the Warp Gate.”
He removed the Warp Gate from the temporary cabin and installed it. Its size was so that Reiko could go through it without trouble, but Jin had to crouch a little to fit. However, there was no problem with the functionality.
He camouflaged it well so that even if someone took a glance, no, even if someone took a good look at it they wouldn’t notice what’s being concealed.
He added windows that weren’t glass but muscovite, and installed frames that could open and close. He also prepared a skylight on the roof that could be used to opened to look outside or use as ventilation.
The body frame was increasingly complete.
“Let’s add wheels to begin with.”
Considering how it was going to run over bad roads, having wheels with a large diameter was good, but too large and it would affect the overall height, so made them 60 centimeters in diameter.
He built them out of Light Silver, then blackened them.
“I think it’d be better if the stroke was on the larger side?”
He was considering the length of the swingarms. Then, he hit on a good idea.
“I’ve got it, I’ve got it!”
There was no particular reason to imitate this world’s carriages, and neither was there a need to reproduce modern Earth’s suspension mechanics.
“A golem’s arm…”
That was his solution. The arms of the golems Jin made had skeletons and muscles. Muscles would work as a spring or a damper.
That is to say, when an external force was applied to them they would retract and take away the force, and if the external force disappeared they would speedily return to their original position.
“That’ll be good.”
And so, using Magical Muscles on reinforced Light Silver as the skeleton, after all the four wheels got independent suspension.
He covered the exterior with Light Silver, so from its appearance there was no way anyone could imagine how the internal construction was.
Furthermore, Jin added a reclining function to the seats starting with the coachman’s seat.
He also installed brakes that he had forgotten about when remodeling the carriages with Reinhardt. Well, as he was putting golems’ arms to use, the construction was simply a palm-shaped part that attached to the brake pad and pushed on the wheel to stop it.
Then, he made headlights using the [Light] magic, and a ventilation system using the [Breeze] magic.
Even more, he added [Heat] and [Cooling] and the equipment turned out to become an air-conditioner.
To finish up, he made the horse that would pull it. That is to say, a horse golem.
“No way I could equip it with a golem engine, after all.”
He thought something like that, and you could almost hear someone complain “haven’t you heard of the idiom ‘six of one, half a dozen of the other’!?”
As he had built many horse golems already, he finished one in a short time. Then,
“…Oh good. I made it in time.”
A voice like that could be heard.
When Jin looked, there stood Elsa gasping for air.
“I, wanted, to, be, the, first, one, to, see, the, carriage, Jin, kun, built.”
Elsa must’ve come running, as she was gasping and out of breath, looking at the carriage with gleaming eyes and a sweaty forehead.
“Is, this, Jin-kun, ‘s, carriage?”
“Elsa, did you run here?”
“Mm.”
Despite being a little astonished by Elsa’s unusual shape,
“I thought so. Well, you can drink this if you want.”
When Jin had begun the construction and had become absorbed in it, Reiko had prepared a light meal for him, and Jin picked up the Citran juice and gave it to Elsa,
“Thank, you.”
Elsa thanked him and chugged the sweet-looking juice without stopping.
“Ohhh.”
Elsa handed the emptied glass to Jin and tried again,
“The carriage Jin-kun built. I want to ride it. Can I?”
Putting it like that, Jin couldn’t refuse. It hadn’t yet been moved, but there didn’t seem to be any particular problems so,
“Alright, there’ll be a test run after this, so if you want you can.”
Jin said, and hurried back to work to finish the last adjustments.