Automating some of our work.
Where stuff is done by machines if this were the modern age, but people were different in the past.
Automation was before the industrial revolution and the development of machines.
It’s the waterwheel.
Waterwheels are powered by the flowing river
It can’t perform complex movements like machines, but it can perform monotonous tasks.
For example, breaking seashells, or scooping water.
Making the waterwheel itself isn’t that difficult.
We’
We’ve got enough technique to make it.
It’s time for blueprint drawings.
「 It’s complete, over! 」
Yoshiokada completed the blueprints two days after I came up with the idea of making the waterwheel.
Meaning, it’s already Tuesday, October 15.
Coincidentally, it’s the 90th day of our life in this other world, a memorable third month.
「 I never thought that we’d be talking about making waterwheels three months after coming to this world 」
I mutter while we’re having dinner.
「 It just shows how much of a great leader Hokage-kun is 」
「 Eri-san’s right! Hokage-san is amazing! 」 says Hinako.
I smiled and thanked them, and checked the blueprint.
「 This is good 」
Yoshiokada’s growth has been remarkable.
His work speed has improved dramatically, and I have no problems with the quality.
The blueprint made was something we could construct with our tech.
「 At this rate, procuring the building materials is going to be the problem 」
Procuring building materials is time-consuming.
it’s not just a matter of cutting down trees and calling it a day.
We have to cut the wood and file them to a uniform shape.
Naturally, the tools used for these tasks are also self-made.
Even preparing a small number of building materials was already a painstaking task.
And for that reason, we have made only three products with the blueprint.
Two monkey houses on stilts and one fishing boat.
We worked hard on that.
「 Leave the logging to me! 」
「 Then, Tanaka can do the rest 」
「 Roger that! 」
And so, we’ll start making a waterwheel tomorrow.
◇
Constructing a water wheel is simple.
The only thing we need to take care of during the production is the vertical rotating part turbine to be installed in the river.
If the turbines are successful, we can successfully make rotations using river water, so it’s practically complete.
What’s left is to connect the gears to the turbine and it’ll work automatically.
We made the waterwheel.
The location is the river flowing in the eastern part of the hideout.
It’s different from the river Arisa’s using for fishing.
Although we call it a waterwheel shed, it’s actually more of a waterwheel box.
The box is just to protect the mechanism from the wind and rain, and the interior is small, with no room to lie down.
The space for people to move is just about the size of two public phone booths.
The work this waterwheel is doing is grinding.
The giant hammer moves with the rotation of the turbine.
It’s designed to poke the mortar equipped below it.
We crush a lot of stuff in our livelihood here.
Basically, shells are the main ingredient but there are also other foods, like buckwheat.
Automation of milling is quite significant.
I threw in the shells I collected into the mortar as a test.
Then, the moving hammer began to slowly crush the shells.
The shells gradually turned to powder.
Seeing that, we all cheered in admiration.
We’re impressed to see something we created actually working.
「 My expertise is now gone! 」
Tanaka mutters as she watches the finished waterwheel.
Milling was his forte.
It’s a steady monotonous, yet time-consuming process.
Tanaka was in charge of most of those.
「 It’s not a problem. Tanaka can do other things now 」
Tanaka’s clumsy as ever, but he’s still a great asset now.
He just feels that he’s doing worse, but he’s got no problems from an outsider’s perspective.
In team Byakuya’s former rankings, he would be ranked second.
「 The water wheel will be used to mill seashells. We plan to build two more water wheels in the future, one for threshing food, and the other for silk spinning. It’ll take about a week to complete, taking into account the time needed to procure the building materials, but once completed, our work will be better. Let’s do this!! 」
「 「 「 「 「 「 Oooh!! 」 」 」 」 」 」
◇
Then, we continued working on making water wheels.
We’ll temporarily consume the stockpile, but we’ll ignore that for now.
We already stockpiled enough to last us through the winter.
「 It got complete sooner than I expected 」
It took us five days for the remaining two water wheel sheds to be completed.
「 Our building materials is gone though, 」 says Arisa
「 You did a great job, Muscle-kun 」
Meiko said.
We all nodded.
We’re able to gather the building materials in such a short time thanks to Muscle Takahashi.
He goes shouting “muscle!” while cutting down trees.
The rest of the team, including me, did our best to process it to building materials.
「 I’m glad that I’m of use muscle! 」
Takahashi makes a bodybuilder-like pose.
And every time he changes his pose, he speaks “Muscle,” proudly.
「 Sorry that I wasn’t useful 」
Mana apologized.
She’s finally recovered from her menses.
「 Don’t apologize for that 」
I told her flatly.
「 Mana was in bad shape, but we had to start using the waterwheel sooner or later. After all, we’re a small team. We’re maintaining the status quo by continuing to work hard that even black companies would pale in comparison. That’s why I want to thank you for reminding me of the importance of water wheels 」
「 I didn’t even know what a water wheel was! 」
Arisa laughs while saying some lines I don’t get.
「 Thanks, Hokage. Everyone too 」
「 Likewise. I’m grateful to Mana and the monkey army 」
Now, our water wheels are completed.
「 We’ll be using tomorrow and the day after as compensation holiday. It was supposed to be yesterday and today, but we used it up all for work 」
「 「 「 Uoooohhh!! 」 」 」
Everyone got excited.
◇
October 21, Monday.
97 days since we came to the other world.
The end of October is finally approaching.
The temperature is clearly lower than the last month or the month before.
The summer heat is gone, and the winter is about to start.
We changed from short sleeves to long sleeves.
The fur coat for extreme cold seems to be well underway
At that time, there was a change in one of our farming activities.
「 Hokage-kun, come here! 」
Eri drags me to the lake early in the morning.
Then, she points at the earthenware planter we set up by the lake.
「 It’s finally here. 」
She looked at me and I speak up.
The tomatoes I planted in the planter have started to bloom