~Side Ryouma~
I put the things I bought into my item box, went back to our lodging and started working.
First off, I rubbed the Sticky Liquid of the Sticky Slime on the surface of the cloth, and then through a combination of the basic Wind Magic, Breeze, and the basic fire magic, Fire, used the magic, Dryer, to dry a large number of waterproof cloths.
Like this the afternoon passed. When it comes to managing the magic power, it’s easy if it’s just the same attribute, but it becomes difficult when different magic attributes are being combined.
In the past when I made a mistake controlling Dryer, the wind of Breeze mixed with Fire and created an amazing blaze. In that way I was somehow able to fire off an attack magic, Flame Thrower but, if I do something like that here, it won’t be funny.
Next, I had the Sticky Slime spit me some threads, and then wound it on that unwound spool of thread I bought. The strength of the Sticky Slime’s thread depends on the ratio of the Sticky Liquid to the Hardening Liquid. So it’s quite easy to change the strength of the thread to match one’s goal.
If one sets the ratio of Sticky Liquid to Hardening Liquid as 7:3, then the thread will become a pretty and soft sewing thread. At 6:4 it becomes a robust thread. At 5:5 it becomes a kind of thread that can be used in traps because of its elasticity, and possesses strength that will break when animals and people were to pull on it. At 4:6 it becomes a lethal string that can be used to strangle animals and people.
In this past when I went to check the strength of the 4:6 thread. I set up several strands of it between two trees and lured the Black Bear there. The Black Bear was only able to endure once and small incisions could be seen on the Black Bear’s body.
At that time I thought that depending on the usage, this thread could become a horrifying trap, so I agitatedly put it in the back of my head. I mostly haven’t used it since encountering the goblins.
An exception to this is that I tried to create a guitar from my previous world using a tree and a trimmed down version of this string as guitar string. There’s strength but as long as you only touch it, it won’t cut you. From here on out if I look for it, there should be ways where it can be safely used.
Going back to the topic
After completely spooling the 6:4 robust thread, what’s next is cutting the waterproof cloth. So I cut and divided the waterproof cloth into several parts.
What I want to make、 is the jumpsuit and the waders (waterproof pants) from my previous world. Starting tomorrow I’m going to be cleaning the latrine pits, and even if I left it to the Scavenger Slimes, and even if the Cleaner Slimes could clean me, I still don’t want to go there in my normal clothes. So I figured I should prepare beforehand.
After finishing the pseudo-waders, I heard someone knocking on my door.
“Ryouma-sama, I have heard that you have returned but how are you doing?”
It was Sebasu-san so I hurriedly opened the door.
“I’m here”
“Is everything ok?”
“Yes, there’s nothing wrong in particular”
“According to the servants, Ryouma-sama went out in the morning, came back in the afternoon, and without having lunch, have isolated himself here all this time”
Ah… now that I think about it, I didn’t have lunch, huh?
“I’m sorry, I was a bit overzealous with my work and forgot about lunch… did I make you guys worry?”
“If it’s alright please show your face to everyone. Especially to the madam and the Ojousama. And also, if it’s something like sewing then Ryouma-sama could do that in the Madam’s room and the 2 maids could even help out”
Perfect. I was just wondering how I could try to move the conversation to that direction. I toss the tools and the cloths into my item box, and go to the room of the Duke’s Family along with my Slimes.
As soon as I got to the room, Elia and the Madam jumped at me.
“Are you alright!? Nothing happened!?”
“Ryouma-kun! Are you alright? You’re not hurt?”
“Now, now, you two, please calm down.”
“Ryouma-kun won’t be able to talk if you press him like that you know?”
Interjected Rheinbach-sama and Rheinhart-san as they stopped and separated the two.
“My apologies for making you worry. There are no problems in particular, I just became caught up with my work and forgot to have my meal”
The madam heaved a sigh of relief,
“I see, that’s good”
“And I thought something had happened”, pouted the Ojousama.
“Ho, ho, ho, isn’t it good that nothing had happened?” chuckled, Rheinbach-sama.
“What work are you talking about?”
“It’s sewing. I made some clothes for doing some janitorial work.”
As I said that, I took out the tools from my item box and showed it to them.
Rheinbach-sama looked at it scrutinizingly and said.
“Fumu… by the looks of things you also applied the waterproofing treatment on these, huh?”
“Yes, I started working on these, as soon I got back and ended up spending the rest of the afternoon. After that are these things which I’m still making.”
“Why did you suddenly start making those things?” inquired Rheinbach-sama.
Hearing that, I explained what happened today while sewing.
“… and so I ended up accepting that janitorial request. Since It’d also be troublesome if diseases were to start spreading around, so I want to get started as soon as possible”
“Mu…”
“I understand your reason, and I’m also grateful to know this. The public office of this town didn’t mention anything like this… we may have almost been tricked. Sebasu” said Rheinhart-san as he called Sebasu-sean.
“Yes”
“Go out into the town and gather some information on whether the public office really did what was mentioned just now. If it’s true then the administrative expenses should have gone down this year. However, according to the report today, it hasn’t been changed. So there’s a possibility that someone’s taking advantage of the decrease in the mining rate of the mine and is embezzling funds”
“Understood”
As Sebasu-san said that, he left the room.
“Ryouma-kun, thank you. Because of you we may actually end up uncovering a conspiracy.”
“Umu. I could forgive simply embezzling, but embezzling the money that should be used for the townspeople and harming them is not something I can forgive. In the first place we have already decided on how much to pay the people living in the slums decades ago. That they would actually try to bargain it down, unforgivable! Wasting my efforts…”
“Rheinbach-sama’s efforts?”
The one who responded was the madam,
“In order to help out the people living in the slums, in the past my father-in-law went through great pains to establish those people living in the slums as the ones in charge of cleaning the community toilet”
Hearing the madam’s words, Rheinbach-sama continued,
“In the past I notified the prefectural governors of all the towns and made them construct facilities. And being unable to believe the words that the people of the slum would be employed, I had to go several times all the way to the management of the slum and negotiate. In the end it took 30 years to give all the jobs relating to construction to them. That’s why, when I think that all that effort is being put to waste, I can’t help but find it mortifying”
Rheinhart-san hearing his father’s frustration spoke
“Dad was once famous for being a good feudal lord. There were many nobles who came to study the management of territory. That’s why, if this really is true, then it won’t be forgiven. Even if other’s forgive it, the Jamil Household will not forgive it”
Rheinbart-sama looked at me and spoke again with a hint of gratefulness on his face.
“Ryouma-kun, truly, thank you. I’m glad we were able to get wind of this information while we were here. At the very least we were able to confirm that something is amiss. Besides if everything went exactly as we had planned for it to go, this kind of request shouldn’t have come out.
“You’re welcome”
“Umu, let’s have the maids help you out with making those clothes. Aro-ne, Lilian, please help him out.”
The two maids replied synchronously
“Understood”
With the maids about to help me out, I explained to them what we will be doing. The gloves were assigned to Lilian-san, and the jumpsuit, to Aro-ne-san. I started to knit the cord that will be used for a variety of things but as soon as Aro-ne-san and Lilian-san saw the threads they asked me.
“Ryouma-sama, what kind of thread is this? I’ve never seen such a thin, robust, smoth, and pretty thread”
“Ahh… This is a Sticky Slime’s thread?”
“Do Slimes spit out threads!?”
“Just Sticky Slimes, and also, it’s probably only my Sticky Slime. I wonder if I could create something out of the Sticky Liquid and the Hardening Liquid, so I tried mixing them up and ended up with that thread, and then I wondered whether the Slime will also be able to do the same thing, so I had the Slimes try it out and it seems they were able to. It was especially convenient when making clothes in the forest.”
After I said that, I called the Big Slime over and had spit some thread.
“See, it can spit out thread in this way. Moreover you can modify how strong the thread is by changing the ratio of the two kinds of liquid.”
After showing the two maids, several sizes of threads, the two maids ended up wanting to buy some of the threads.
“I couldn’t possibly do that. I’m already imposing on you like this, so if you want some threads, I’ll make as much as you want.”
When they heard that, the two were greatly overjoyed. Apparently, despite having served the Household of the Duke for a long time and making countless clothes, Aro-ne-san has never seen a thread this good. Well since I’ve always seen synthetic fibers back in Earth, I never really noticed.
Afterwards, Rheinhart-san decided with me, to start selling the rain gears along with this thread. As we continued to converse, I found ou