episode_0169

When I heard that the weaving mill, which would be the start of my new main business, the textile business, had been completed, I decided to immediately take a look at the weaving mill.

However, the need to visit weaving mills has increased considerably. To be precise, the number of people visiting had increased.

At first, I was only going to take Jienna and Amy, but I thought it would be good to see Valan as well, so six elves were added, and then the princess was added, who wanted to see the building as it was built through cooperation between alchemists.

In addition, the alchemists also came forward to tour the building if they could help, so a fairly large number of people came to visit the weaving mill.

“Wow… … . Andrew, how big is this place? I didn’t know that I didn’t come this way often, but it’s really big.”

“There are more than one or two buildings. Are these all textile mills?”

“Lord Danjerk. I think the place where the knights were training last time was about this size… … .”

“It’s a bit less majestic than the Magic Tower, but it’s still enormous. After all, we are alchemists!”

And, those who saw the weaving mill right in front of them could not help but wonder with their mouths wide open. Everyone had different reactions, but the common feeling was that they were overwhelmed by its size.

Moreover, since there were not one but five large buildings, I couldn’t help but feel even more overwhelmed.

Although it was a building with only one floor above ground and no basement, it was about 4 meters high. Moreover, it was very wide. The largest building was a little over a hundred meters wide and about sixty meters long.

These buildings were created thanks to the generous use of iron bars, called iron bars, meaning that they became the tendons of the building and supported the load, lime paste, alchemy, and even magic. It was also thanks to the fact that the thick pillars were spaced at regular intervals inside the building and contained plenty of rebar, allowing the thick pillars to function properly.

Although the size of each building was slightly different as it was built for different purposes, the sight of a total of five buildings gathered together gave a quite grand feeling. Especially in this world, where construction technology is not as advanced as it was in my previous life.

Anyway, after looking at the buildings built according to my special request for a while, I immediately led everyone on a tour of the textile mill.

The first place was a warehouse to store raw materials and finished products. Of course, there was nothing special about it, it was just a large space, but the inside was still quite filled.

It was none other than the flax that the elves had recently brought back after completing cultivation, and it was half times longer than the flax that had been used to make fabric as a test piece previously. Perhaps because they were raised with great care by the elves, their size was unique.

Moreover, the flax had been soaked and dried using spirits, which the elves provided as a service, saying it had a better effect on quality. It felt like they thought that only then would I care about bringing back their own people.

Just looking at it now, they were approaching a high pile of flax and stroking it as if to subtly appeal that they had grown it.

“… … Great, they haven’t started production yet, so there’s nothing more to see here. Let’s move on to the next building. First of all, it is called the preprocessing building.”

I gave a cursory nod to the elves and went straight to the next building. There was nothing to see in the warehouse to store materials or finished products, but it wasn’t anywhere else.

The place called the preprocessing building was a place where flax, the raw material, was processed and converted into a state suitable for making yarn. To put it simply, it was a place dedicated solely to separating stems. It was decided to separate the space itself because pieces of the stem could fly around and get caught in thread or fabric.

Thanks to this, the inside was full of various tools, but it only filled half of the space.

Perhaps that was why the princess immediately expressed her doubts.

“Viscount Steel. Why is this place blank? One side is left empty, as if only half will be used.”

“The only thing I can use right now is flax, so I left it blank because I plan to use cotton later. Half of it is processed into flax, and the other half is processed into cotton.”

“Ah.”

He smiled lightly at the sight of the princess nodding her head as if she understood, and immediately gestured to the skeleton mage who was hiding in the corner.

Then, a skeleton moved and grabbed something that was sticking out in front of the passageway connected to the warehouse. It looked like a handle, and the skeleton immediately twirled it around. As it spun around with a clanking sound, the long protruding thing spun.

“Um, what is that?”

“It is a transportation tool called a conveyor belt. Is this something that transports raw materials from the warehouse to here?”

The princess didn’t seem to understand the term “transportation tool,” but she was surprised to see bundles of flax appearing at regular intervals on what she soon called a conveyor belt.

“How is that possible?”

“The details are confidential.”

“Ah… … .”

“To put it simply, you turn a long belt made of leather and move the object on it.”

“Ah!”

Although she was disappointed to hear that it was a secret, when I explained the simple structure, the princess observed the conveyor belt with great interest. Of course, the part responsible for movement was covered with leather, so it was impossible to fully understand the structure.

However, the structure was much simpler than expected. The reason why the conveyor belt was created was because of an idea that came to mind while making a tool used in the process of separating stems among the tools used to process flax.

After seeing flax moving along a gear wheel, the researcher rolled a cylinder like a gear wheel and placed leather on it to make it move along.

Still, despite its simple structure, the conveyor belt was very helpful in producing goods. The idea was that the skeleton in the warehouse would simply place the raw materials on the conveyor belt and they would then be moved to the preprocessing unit.

Of course, not only the warehouse and preprocessing building were connected. Elsewhere, conveyor belts were connected in accordance with the production process.

Anyway, the flax that came over the conveyor belt was immediately pushed into the tool for separating the stems. Since cotton and flax were processed separately, there were two conveyor belts, and one of them was directly connected to where the flax stalks were separated.

The flax that fell from the conveyor belt immediately fell between tools full of gears, and the stems were separated with a crunching sound. There was a lot of broken outer skin on the bottom, and the stems that were separated in an instant were piled up at the tip of the tool.

Next, it was neatly combed with a large rotating comb, leaving only very clean, loose stems. Of course, since the combed material can be used as a textile material, it was planned to be reused.

Then, the separated stems and combed things were caught in the hands of the skeleton and moved again on the conveyor belt to the next building.

The next building was named the Spinning Building, and was a building dedicated to the yarn spinning process. Whether it was cotton or flax, the process of making thread itself did not differ much, so it was a commonly used part.

The spinning wheels that filled the interior were spinning with a clicking sound, already spinning yarn. We could see the stem that arrived before us being instantly transformed into thread by the skeletons.

But other than that, there was nothing else to see, so we headed straight to the next location. Like the spinning building, it was named the weaving building to match the process, and it was full of loom skeletons.

Of course, because the automatic movement of the drum with the weft thread greatly increased productivity, it was not possible to actually show it in operation to the princess and others. It was obvious that if this information was passed on to the Marquis of Kurid, his production would also greatly increase.

The princess looked a little glum, as if she was disappointed that she couldn’t see the loom in action, but she couldn’t help it.

“Viscount Steel. So is that last building over there a secret too?”

“It’s not a secret, but… … . I can’t show you.”

“Why?”

“The smell is pretty bad. That’s the post-processing building in charge of the dyeing and washing process, and the smell of laundry detergent, oil, and dyes used for dyeing is not very nice… … .”

If you had just one, you could smell it on its own, but with several different types mixed together, it didn’t smell that good inside. Moreover, because the boiling process was necessary, a fire was lit, and the atmosphere inside was at a truly terrible level. So much so that no one but the undead could survive.

Since the elves have knowledge about dyeing, I first built a post-processing building to test it out, and it was no joke.

Still, the princess seemed to be full of curiosity, but when a skeleton was summoned from inside, she quickly gave up her curiosity.

There was a smell from the skeleton as well, and when I saw that the bones all over the body were dyed in spots, I gave up going in. I don’t know if I really care about the clothes I’m wearing, but I don’t want them to get dirty.

“… … Andrew, didn’t you make that a few days ago? Has it already been dyed like that?”

“Is it because there are only bones? The dye appeared between the cracks in the bones. I was just trying to check if the dyeing worked well.”

We finished our tour of the textile mill with the princess and others, leaving behind Amy, who was looking at the mottled skeleton bones with curiosity.

Perhaps because she thought it was a fascinating sight, the princess led the alchemists toward the magic tower, looking quite happy. Because the magic tower was right next to it, the princess’s appearance disappeared in an instant.

After the princess and the alchemists left, I sent back the remaining slave elves and moved towards the mansion with Jienna and Amy.

And at the same time, the full-scale operation of the weaving mill began. Thanks to the elves’ hard work growing and producing flax, there was no shortage of things to run a weaving mill right away.