Fun Territory Defense by the Optimistic Lord (Novel) - Chapter 130 - The Completion of the Furnace

Chapter 130 – The Completion of the Furnace

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Translated by Sylph

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Because I changed the furnace’s height to twenty meters, and because the dwarves did the powdering of the magic stones, which had been the hardest part, the upper part of the furnace too was finished in a single day.

In truth, it looked like it could have been completed in half a day, but because Habel and the others made me do absurdly fine adjustments, it ended up taking a full day.

However, as expected, the completed furnace was finished incredibly beautifully because they were so particular about it. It was perfectly left-right symmetrical, and the smooth curves from the hearth base up to the upper section, as well as the perfect roundness of the cross section inside the furnace, were flawless.

“…All right, not bad!”

“Indeed, not bad!”

After checking every corner of the furnace, Habel and the others folded their arms and said that. Apparently it had turned out to their satisfaction.

Just when I thought they had finally accepted it, they immediately began talking about the air-blast boxes.

“There will be eight air holes in the lower section, four in the middle section, and four in the upper section. We will open and close them according to the state of the furnace.”

“It would be better to keep all of the lower section open.”

“If you send in too much air, there are times it cools it down, but in the lower section, where it reaches high temperatures, there should be no problem. We will always send in air so that the air holes do not get blocked.”

“How many air-blast boxes are we making? After all, it would be better to make four, would it not?”

“Of course. If we make four, then we can deal with both the case of operating two and the case of operating four.”

Apparently dwarven furnaces burn the inside of the furnace by sending in air manually. In Japan it would probably have been called fuigo.

What is called a dwarven air-blast box is a device that sends wind by using changes in air volume inside a highly airtight container fitted with intake and exhaust valves.

The air-blast box is well thought out, and it had been made so that the interior of the box was divided into two chambers at the center and air could be blown in alternately. Since there are also weights, a single person could probably keep sending air in for as long as their stamina held out.

However, even so, it is still hard work. While listening to Habel’s explanation and looking at the blueprint he had only just drawn, I thought there might be some way to do it better.

When it comes to things that move automatically, there is electric power, wind power, and water power. In this Seat Village, water is always flowing from the river. If that is so, then should we use water power?

“…Maybe I will try modifying it a little.”

When I muttered that, Habel and the others furrowed their brows and tilted their heads.

“Huh?”

“What are you talking about?”

Habel and the others looked blank. No, half of them were looking at me with exasperated or mocking eyes.

This might call my dignity as lord into question unless I get a little serious.

I decided to make a mechanism using the water drawn from the river. I made it so that a waterwheel would move two bellows alternately. Rather than changing air volume by stepping, it uses a format where air is blown in by moving walls from the left and right and thereby changing the air volume.

By making it into a structure like the pedals of a pedal boat, the power of water can send air into the furnace.

When I actually made it, Habel and the others widened their eyes and fell silent. For the time being, I left Habel and the others, who were not moving, alone and started making the piping up to the air holes. I made a sealed box to store the wind supplied from the waterwheel and installed manually opening and closing valves there. Beyond that, several pipes branched out and extended around the furnace.

“Where should I make the air holes?”

When I turned around and asked Habel and the others that, what came into my sight were their exasperated faces while still folding their arms.

“…That really is cheating.”

“It is unbearable.”

“I want that magic too.”

The dwarves were muttering various things, but Habel punched his own face and then called out.

“All right! Right now we are building the furnace! We will think about the location of the air holes!”

When Habel said that, for some reason the dwarves all punched their own faces together and crowded around the furnace.

“The lower and upper sections can be the four directions.”

“Shall we stagger the air holes in the middle?”

“Yes. That way the air will go in evenly.”

“Oi, put marks on the furnace wall.”

While noisily discussing, the dwarves drew black circles on the furnace wall.

“All right, it should be about like this.”

Perhaps it had progressed to some extent, because Habel looked up at the furnace and said that. At that, the dwarves nodded.

“Yes, not bad.”

“This is not bad.”

They are noisy with this ‘not bad, not bad.’ Does it mean it turned out well?

While thinking that, I made something like an iron straw.

“So then, should I attach something like this for the air holes?”

When I asked that to make sure, the color of the dwarves’ eyes changed.

“No, no!”

“Do not cut the end of the air hole at a right angle! It will clog right away!”

“You should narrow the middle, and deliberately widen the tip. That prevents reverse flow.”

“In any case, after half a year the tip melts and has to be replaced. Since iron and stone both melt, you know.”

Hearing that conversation, I somehow thought perhaps we should protect the area around the air holes, and so I tried processing it.

This time I made a larger straw and tried hardening the area around it with the same material as the furnace wall.

“Oh? You are doing something interesting. But that will not do. If only the metal part melts, it becomes the cause of the air hole getting clogged.”

“I see. Ah, then, what if we made this from the same material as the furnace wall in the first place?”

When I asked that, the dwarves groaned with difficult expressions.

“We naturally tried that too, but if you use it for a long time, it gradually collapses. And then, if it is metal, it melts and comes out by itself from the extraction opening, but if part of the furnace wall collapses, it does not melt, so it clogs it. When that happens, the furnace has to be stopped once and the fire has to be put out. If it comes to that, the furnace cannot be used for two months.”

One of the dwarves answered that with a sigh mixed in.

Once the fire is put out, it has to be cooled, then someone has to go inside the furnace to clean and repair the interior. The air holes too have to be remade. Furthermore, when it comes to firing it up again, apparently it takes a considerable amount of time.

Even so, it would be troublesome to stop the furnace and remake the air holes every half year.

“…All right. Then let us research an air hole that does not need to be remade.”

When I muttered that, Habel and the others reacted immediately.

“What?”

“It is not something that can be done so easily.”

“How many hundreds of years do you think the Dwarf Kingdom has researched that?”

While hearing those skeptical looks and words, I smiled fearlessly.

“Because for me, experiments that even the Dwarf Kingdom could not do are possible.”

When I said that, Habel and the others went still for a while, then cried out, ‘Ah!’