Volume 2 Chapter 20 (1/2)

Volume 2 Chapter 20: Tour through Workshop and a Bit of Competition

After getting the reward from Wilhelm, using the occasion I was taking a tour of the shipbuilding guild.

I thought that before we left I should get more familiar with the inner workings of such guilds, as it might come in handy in the future. It seems that Berzelia and Saki approved of my idea and were barraging a female staff member with questions.

Or so I thought, those two—

『Please wait. I will collect at least one bit of information that will be useful to Master. 』

『Then I will bring at least two or three stories that will be of use to Axel. 』

「Mmm. Guess I’ll bring six.」

『——Then I will bring seven. 』

『……』

『……』

After staring at each other with smiles they went on asking all sorts of things, almost as if they were competing.

Well, I would be glad to have lots of information, so I don’t mind them going at it as long as they don’t cause trouble to the guild.

And while I thought so—

「Your party is quite lively.」

Wilhelm who was walking next to me said with a wry smile.

「It became this lively only a few days ago. Anyway, sorry if we are causing too much of a fuss.」

「Well, with all that bam bam bam it’s a noisy workplace to begin with. This much wouldn’t bother anyone.」

As Wilhelm said, in this guild house, or rather, shipyard, the noise never ceased, even for a moment. The sounds of hammers and voices of people, who seemed to be shipbuilders, could be heard constantly.

「I can see ships under construction all over the place, but you are constructing them at a pretty high pace.」

「Well, you know, during the great war with the demon lord they would get destroyed as soon as we finish them. And we still have production and repair lines operating at full capacity.」

With those words, Wilhelm points at the surrounding docks. In addition to ships under construction, there were also some damaged vessels.

「That is a repair line, huh? So you are repairing ships trashed during the war?」

「Basically. However, there are a lot of accidents in the sea recently. So we are quite hectic with all those repairs but we should also work on developing new models… And as a result of our rush… That happened.」

In front of a frowning Wilhelm was a metal box covered in black soot.

「What’s that?」

「The heart of the ship, the magic engine. A new type. The one that you carried from there.」

「Ah, there was something like a box.」

「Thanks to that we determined the cause and ways of improvement, so it’s a great success in its own way. Were it to sink it wouldn’t be that easy. …Well, we lost the ship, so we first have to replace it, making use of this information comes a bit later.」

「Is that so. But I’m glad that I could help you.」

「Haha, helped? For our guild, you are basically a savior. Remaking an engine’s core would’ve also taken a ton of money and time. ……The vessel itself is not that much of a problem, look, we already recovered that much.」

Following Wilhelm’s gaze, I saw a large ship. It’s the same shape as the one that sank a few days ago.

「Oh, even though it was destroyed just recently, amazing. It’s already finished?」

「About half, there is still a lot of work left.」

Exchanging such words we approached the new ship.

Then, I saw that there are about a dozen or so people gathered around it. Or more precisely—

「One…Two…!!」

They were trying to lift something like a long silvery pillar.

「What are they doing?」

「Working on the new model that I mentioned earlier. In order to make the ship sturdier, we are trying to incorporate in the construction an alloy with a mix of magic stones——」

As we spoke, voices came from the men that had the pillar raised a few millimeters above the ground.

「Nuoooh……! It won’t go any higher……!」

「——No good! Let go of it!」

Along with that voice, the pillar fell to the floor with a loud bang.

All of the participating men were breathing heavily.

「Looks like they cannot lift it.」

「Yes. Originally a mage that can use a strength buff would assist them, but he got heavily injured during the incident the other day… You guys, don’t overdo it!」

When Wilhelm called to them, the men turned our way.

And after seeing me and Wilhelm they awkwardly laughed.

「Haah……Haah……Sorry, Chief. That is a sorry display before our guest.」

「We don’t have the people needed so nothing can be done about it. But, it can’t be lifted after all? If you need more people I can help as well.」