The Archmage’s Restaurant

# 128

Chapter.30 Watch

“What is this…?” ?”

The dwarf asked with wide eyes about something he had never seen before. I am not surprised by objects that suddenly pop out. There’s a dragon next to you, so you shouldn’t be surprised by this.

“It’s a watch. “I plan to spread proper time in this world.”

There is a sundial in the imperial palace of the capital. However, it divides time into six major periods and is only used in the imperial palace.

And organized time is only for me in this world. There is nothing good about monopolizing the concept of time. Everyone must know it for it to be effective.

“clock?”

On the outside, it is just a wooden box. Although the hands of the watch on the front are made of metal, they do not look sophisticated on the outside. That’s why the dwarf’s expression was somber.

“Come here.”

So I called the dwarf behind the clock. Then he tore off the back plate and showed it to me. A world of elaborate gears. The arrangement was so beautiful.

The dwarf made no reply. I just stare blankly at the backboard.

My body was shaking. A chain of cogs that precisely interlock and rotate with each other. The dwarf’s expression is even ecstatic. It’s as if you and your lover are at the peak of their emotions, staring at each other and trying to get closer.

“Do you have the confidence to understand and create the concept of time, which divides a day into 24 hours and each hour into 60 minutes, and a machine that expresses that?”

The dwarf slowly turned his head to me. He tries to touch the cogwheel with very trembling hands, but stops himself.

Due to the characteristics of the dwarves, their attitude toward these types of items is different from that of any other race. Now Randol even kneels down with a more earnest expression than when he met his grandson.

“I have never seen such a beautiful machine. Even if I die, I will understand. Absolutely!”

Mechanical grandfather clock. The principle of the pendulum clock was invented by a Dutch astronomer and physicist named Huygens by applying the regular pendulum movement discovered by Galileo. Even in this world, a wind-up grandfather clock using brass gears is as simple as understanding the principle. It would have been possible to implement anything.

Especially if you are a dwarf who has been making elaborate crafts for over 200 years.

“great. Please come to the factory in a place called Deadran City for the time being. Please spread the technology you understand there and develop engineers. If you want, you can also bring your grandchildren. “The salary will be paid very generously.”

Randall nodded his head unconditionally with an expression as if he were fascinated. If I had shown this watch from the beginning, I probably would have jumped at it regardless of whether I was human or not.

But that is only a temporary interest in watches. Understanding and teaching this technology to human engineers is not my area of expertise nor do I have the time.

I’m also busy working at the restaurant and taking care of the dragon.

If we follow along as sincerely as we do now, we will be able to introduce watches to the world faster.

Leaving the dwarf, who was engrossed in the large grandfather clock, I approached Lurin, who had remained on the sidelines since the dwarf had not come out in defiance today.

Lurin was drawing a picture with a tree branch on the floor, probably because she was bored.

“What are you drawing?”

When I looked closely, it looked like a picture of a dish.

“It’s meat!”

I think that’s the correct answer. Rurin threw the tree branch and jumped up, clinging to me.

“hungry?”

“hungry. you. “Are you done?”

“huh. it’s over. great job. Let’s go back and I’ll give you a lot of the meat we just drew. “Thank you for your hard work.”

“Oh oh! Meat, meat, meat, you, you, you!”

“Why me? “Do you want to eat too?”

“Hehehehe.”

Lulin smiled and used teleportation.

***

Great City and Deadran City.

Mt. Gray on the border. A huge watch factory was built on vacant land owned by the Gray family in the area.

He also purchased a mine that produces resources including brass, a major metal used in watch parts.

As watches spread across continents in the future, the value of resources used for parts will naturally increase. Currently, copper is only used to make crafts, but if the demand for copper for watches increases, its value will be completely different from what it is now, so it could be seen as a kind of investment.

“Lurin, I will soon change this brass to gold and paint it on rare.”

“Were you an alchemist? “Even dragons can’t do that!”

Lurin was so surprised at hearing the sound for the first time that she dropped the meat she was eating and opened her mouth.

“No, it’s not like that. “That’s a lot of royalties coming in.”

“royalty? “What is that again?”

Rurin tilted his head, not understanding modern terminology.

And a month later.

Randol, who understood the principle along with various materials I translated, finally created a prototype.

The gears of a grandfather clock do not feel like a small, elaborate world like those of a wristwatch. Therefore, Randol, who has 200 years of accumulated technology, created a watch in just one month.

There is a difference between thinking and inventing for the first time and understanding something that has already been invented.

After confirming for a few days that the grandfather clock’s mainspring was functioning properly and passing time, he ordered a prototype to be made.

The prototype was a special limited edition, emphasizing its extravagance by using real gold on the front where the second and minute hands are located.

There is a reason for this.

If we just put this out in Deadran City, it could take a century for it to spread across the entire continent.

If you take the time, the rewards of your work will appear quickly.

“As a result, it has to come from the top, where the most influence is, in order for it to spread quickly to the bottom.”

“Is that so?”

Gray Boy, the owner of the factory site and the city where the factory is located, simply nods. The boy first suggested distributing this watch to the people of Deadran City free of charge, and I objected to that policy.

“There is no point in saving on the price of a watch. We must make the watch industry the main business of New Lake City. I’m going to the capital. If you want to learn, follow me.”

“Of course I will go!”

The Gray boy clenched his fists and nodded.

And so the journey to the capital began with a special edition watch. Because the Gray Boy and other workers were with him, he deliberately did not use teleportation, so the journey was quite long.

However, since clocks would actually be supplied to the capital from Deadran City through this route in the future, there was a clear need to experience it once.

The boy who left Great City to Verna for a while, me, Rurin, and Randol are the main characters on this journey.

From top to bottom.

In a class-based society, this is the best method. Special items used by the royal family quickly spread among the nobility as a trend.

This is because one of the main desires of nobles is to feel vicarious satisfaction as if they were royal family members by using the same items used by the royal family.

And what the nobleman used quickly became popular among the common people as well as wealthy merchants and landowners with money. This is because they cannot become nobles, but since they have a lot of money, they try to imitate what nobles do.

And since they are, after all, common people, their influence spreads to other common people in the same way.

On the other hand, starting from the common people, the nobles tend to regard it as trivial, so it takes quite a long time to spread it properly.

That is a characteristic of a caste-based society, and since the place where I live is a society with a strict caste system, I have no intention of doing something foolish and trying to spread it against it.

When you come to Rome, do as the Romans do.

Isn’t that a saying that is used everywhere?

However, I have no intention of gifting this to a nobleman for free. The fastest way to spread the word is for the nobles to know the value of this watch and purchase it themselves.

So how do we sell this to the nobles?

It is really troublesome to go to influential nobles one by one and sell them.

Even if I give one to the emperor, I want to encourage the rest to gather together and buy it all at once.

However, I have no intention of revealing my identity. That is truly an act of suicide.

Since there were such limitations, I had no choice but to get help from Medrine, who knew everything about the capital, to decide which method to use.

Of all the connections in the capital, Medrine was the one who could be used in utmost secrecy.

After arriving in the capital, we had a meeting at Medrine’s house. Of course, we here are just me, Lurin, and Medrine.

“What is this? The round part resembles a magic circle, but maybe… ?”

Medrine looked at the magic circle, curious as to whether it was a magic tool.

“Unfortunately, that is not the case. “This is something called a watch.”

“A watch?”

I slowly explained the principles and effectiveness of the clock. In a way, this watch is of great help to wizards.

Needless to say, the importance of measuring time in magic experiments is often important.

Therefore, Medrine’s face changed from disappointment that it was not a magic tool, and she looked at the gold-covered grandfather clock with great interest.

“Oh, that’s yours. It’s a gift. “I was planning to give one to the emperor and you in advance.”

“Thank you. “I will leave it in the magic tower and use it!”

Medrine answered with a happy face. But that’s not the point.

“Rather than that, isn’t there a way to sell all of this to the nobles at once? “It’s a good way to get nobles below the duke’s level to compete with each other to buy this.”

This was business. No matter how much I think about it, I can’t think of an event that would bring nobles together without revealing their identities.

Move the emperor or reveal his identity. In a situation where there were only two options, I asked with the hope that Medrin, who knew the situation in the capital well, might come up with another idea.

“Umm, I don’t know.”

However, Medrine, who had failed to meet her expectations, stroked her chin with an embarrassed look on her face.

“ah!”

“huh?”

“there is!”

Medrine clapped her hands and made a fuss. There is? It was something I was happy to hear, so I was pleased and asked back.

“What?”

“There is something called an auction in the capital. It was created after the war, and it is a place where each merchant travels around the entire continent and sells the precious items they have collected by first showing them to the great nobles. Coincidentally, an auction is scheduled for this month. Because I am also invited… .”

“Right.”

In any case, Medrine is also a count and is in line with a powerful duke, so of course she is a noble worthy of being invited. Why are you blurting out my words while looking at my eyes?

I nodded and asked for further information.

“How do I participate there as a sales side member?”

“I understand that any merchant registered with the merchant association can do so.”

“firm?”

“If you use the power of your family, it might be possible to make a solo exhibition, but… .”

“No, that’s okay.”

Naturally, you should be surprised and buy a watch, but it would be difficult if the halo of the duke’s name were attached to it. In any case, if you try to sell watches as a deadlock official in the future, it is natural that you will need a trading company, so just make one.

Since it wasn’t a difficult task, I nodded again.