Chapter 139 – Lotte’s Remodeling
The next day, Jin was very busy starting from the morning.
“Jin-sama, His Highness Ernest has summoned you.”
Immediately after breakfast summons from the Prince came, and Jin left for the inner royal palace. There was the third Prince Ernest along with lotte.
“Oh, Jin, repair Lotte properly at once!”
The third Prince Ernest said. It seemed like a royal’s selfishness, but as Jin treasured Lotte whom he built himself, he laughed and agreed.
“If possible, I’d like it if you made her more durable than before.”
The Prince said to Jin.
“More durable? Not stronger?”
Jin replied with a question.
“Uh huh, make no mistake, her being stronger would be good but before that I don’t want her to be broken.”
The prince replied. Jin was pleased with his answer. He then said,
“Understood, I’ll give it all I got.”
The prince was greatly delighted.
“You will? In that case, you can use any of the materials in the storehouse! With my permission you’ll be let to take them!”
He said and went off, and immediately came back holding some documents in his hands.
“If you show these, the manager will let you in.”
He said and handed the permit to Jin.
“Well then, I wonder what kind of materials there are.”
After obtaining the permit, Jin first borrowed the workshop inside the royal palace. It seemed to be a place that was usually used for the maintenance of knight golems.
He had Lotte wait there, and from there took a cart for transporting materials and pulled it half excitedly to the royal palace’s raw material storehouse. It was in the corner of the inner royal palace grounds. Two soldiers were guarding it, and official was closely managing who was allowed in.
Jin showed the permit he got from the Prince and was immediately let in. The official followed him in just in case to watch out for theft, but Jin had absolutely no intention of doing that. Because at any rate, the materials would be several levels behind ones in Hourai Island.
Even so, materials valuable in their own way were also stored within.
Jin took plenty of aluminium and bronze, within limits. In addition he decided to use a little bit of Adamantite, four Magi Crystals, and a Sand Worm’s leather.
He glanced at the official in charge who was muttering something about how if Jin didn’t have the Prince’s permit. Jin the pushed the materials cart back to the workshop lent by the Prince.
When he got back it wasn’t just Lotte but the Prince too.
“Your Highness!?”
“Ahaha, I wanted to see Jin repair Lotte, so I ended up skipping today’s studies.
It seemed the Prince Ernest was very fond of golems. Or maybe he was just fond of Lotte.
“Is it fine if I watch from here?”
“Sure, go right ahead.”
Jin didn’t hold any dislike towards this Prince who genuinely loved golems.
Jin suspended Lotte’s Magic Energy and,
“First, let’s reinforce the skeleton.”
With that explanation he went towork.
“Ah, that’s aluminium, isn’t it? And that over there is Adamantite.”
As might be expected after he said he wanted to make his own golem in the future, the Prince was reasonably informed.
“Yes, first I’ll change the steel skeleton to an aluminium one.”
Jin said, and began to form a replacement for the skeleton identical in dimensions. Usually the work would be over just like that, but for the Prince’s sake he took it easy.
“Oh really, Lotte’s skeleton was like this.”
“It’s close to a human’s.”
Jin kept working while sometimes giving explanations. After that he coated the surfaces that moved along other surfaces with adamantite.
“Ah, I see. Partially using adamantite to prevent wearing down.”
The Prince also was rather quick to understand.
Next was the work on the muscles. Forming fibers of Sand Worms’ leather, Jin intertwined them together to make ‘Magical Muscles’.
“Amazing, I’ve never seen this technique before…”
The prince said as he kept staring at Jin working. The current look of the golem with the muscles attached was frankly ominous, but the prince wasn’t concerned about it one bit.
Then was the most important bit: inserting the Magi Device. This was just a simple transplantation of the already existing one, or so the Prince thought, but,
“Your Highness, this structure protects Lotte from the [Subordination Rewriting Magic].”
He said and held out the Magi Device in front of the Prince to show it well to him.
“Hmm, so this is the centralmost part of Lotte. …Could this container be Mithril? There’s some Magi Formula carved on it too?”
“Yeah, it’s a Magi Formula to protect against outside magic.”
“There’s a Magi Formula like that!?”
The Magi Formula was of the same nature as a [Magic Barrier]. The effective area was the inside of the component instead of an airspace though.
Jin was going to teach the method of protecting against the [Subordination Rewriting Magic] to the Minister of Magic later, he said, and resumed the work.
He put the Magi Device in its proper place in the chest and covered the surroundings well with Magical Muscles.
“Now the first step is over.”
Jin said, and waited for questions. As he thought, a question came from the Prince.
“Hey, if the Magi Device is covered with Mithril, outside magic may not influence it, but doesn’t that also mean Magic Energy can’t get out from the inside?”
A rather good question. Jin found it easy to understand why the Prince asked it and replied,
“Usually that would be the case. But, see these wires coming out from it?”
Jin pointed at the six wires protruding out.
“Mh-hm.”
“These are conducting wires that transmit Magical Energy to all of the body parts. They’re linked to each of the arms and legs, the head, and the torso.”
“Oh, I see. But can’t the magic travel through those wires to the other direction?
The Prince’s understanding was excellent. Jin was glad and began one of his explanations.
“It cannot. These wires are made out of Mithril, and while they let Magical Energy through, they don’t let magic through. If you want to know why, then…”
Magic Energy was simple waves of energy, but magic was an energy with substance in a sense, so traveling through this thin wire would be difficult for it, he explained.
It seemed the Prince still only understood about half of the explanation, but at the very least it was conveyed that that’s the way things are.
“You’re amazing, Jin. You seem to know more than my teacher.”
The Prince Ernest looked at Jin with respect. Jin smiled and resumed his work.
“Now, Lotte’s restoration, entering the final stage.”
With that notification, he removed the exterior of the ex-Lotte, and moved it over to neo-Lotte. While replenishing the missing parts with the bronze he brought.
Seeing Lotte return to her original form in front of him, the Prince was also delighted.
When the transplantation of the exterior was finished, only the steel skeleton was left. Everything else had been recycled.
“Alright, shall we do the final finishing touches?”
Jin said and returned the steel skeleton back to an ingot.
“Woow, how magnificent.”
The Prince observed the process of turning the skeleton into an ingot and praised Jin. Even this was just tenth of Jin’s normal working speed. Normally the transformation would be over in the blink of an eye.
“Let’s separate the zinc. [Smelting].”
He separated the zinc used as an anti-corrosive. What’s zinc, the prince muttered, but as expected he was too slow to get an explanation as Jin had already started the work before he heard the Prince.
“[Forming].”
He turned the separated steel into the shape of a disc. That’s right, it was a tray. Jin felt playful and thought that a maid needs a tray. However, this wasn’t enough for Jin.
“[Heat Treatment]. [Hardening]. [Surface Treatment].”
“Wow, it’s a tray.”
Jin’s special-made weapon usable for throwing and as a blunt instrument.
With the leftover steel Jin made a number of knives.
Even so, there was still some left, and after thnking for a while Jin made a mop. A steel mop. As a blunt weapon it was a rather effective thing. At the tip he made a tassel out of the remaining Sand Worm leather.
Finally, he called for the Royal Secret Maid Laila who had abstained from entering the workshop. Even though she had work today too, she knew to maintain a reasonable distance to Jin.
“U-u-u-umm, wha-what are your orders?”
Laila was a little nervous being summoned to a place where the Prince was too. Actually, ‘a little’ doesn’t begin to cover it.
“Huh? If I’m not mistaken, aren’t you the little sister of the magus knight Airi?”
As a reply to the Prince Laila said,
“Yy-y-y-y-y-yy-es! I am the little sister of Ai-ow!”
She spectacularly bit her tongue. It seemed to be painful.
“I thought so! You look a lot like Airi!”
“I’m not as capable as onee-ch…my elder sister…”
Laila hung her head in shame. It appeared that her sister had a rather high status in the magi knight troops.
But as Jin had business with Laila,
“Your Highness, could we first finish with this matter?”
He said, politely interrupting the Prince’s talk,
“Ah, sorry! Laila, it seems Jin has something to ask of you.”
He told Laila.
“Y-yes, what is it?”
Jin then spoke of his task.
“Let’s see, I want a complete maid outfit your size. …Including underwear.”
“Eeh!?”
When Laila turned bright red and looked downwards, Jin thought that she had misunderstood, and
“Listen, not ‘your’ maid outfit. I want a brand new maid outfit ‘your size’. “,
He spelled it out for her. The Prince also backed him up, saying
“Come on, take a look. They’re to dress that golem up. Isn’t that right, Jin?”
“O, oh, so they’re for her, I was sure that, I…”
You were sure that you what. That was on Jin’s mind, but he didn’t say it.
Laila said that she’ll soon be back, left the workshop, and it really didn’t take more than five minutes for her to return.
“E-excuse me, but was that all?”
“Yeah, thanks.”
Jin took the maid outfit she presented to him and thanked her, then first started up lotte.
“Lotte, [Activate].”
“Yes.”
“Eek!”
Laila, who was looking from the side was surprised and let out a little scream. It seemed she wasn’t accustomed to and got scared by Lotte who was lying down suddenly getting up.
“Lotte, how’s the state of your body?”
Jin asked.
“It is excellent, Father. Thank you very much.”
After replying she turned towards Ernest, kneeled, and
“Your Highness, thank you for your concern.”
she greeted him. The prince rejoiced,
“Lotte, it’s good that you’re alright now!”
He said and hugged her. He then spoke with surprise,
“Lotte, why is your body warm?”
The one who replied was Jin.
“Your Highness, to tell you the truth, I inserted a Magi Circuit that warms her to a body temperature.”
This was a function that Jin included in almost all of his golems after the manufacture of Reiko.
The purpose was to remove the cold feeling when touching a golem made out of metal.
“Ooh, Jin, like I said, you’re amazing!”
The Prince’s respect grew even more. Jin said to Lotte,
“Lotte, put those clothes on.”
He ordered, and soon Lotte was a fully clothed maid golem.
With a knife on her thigh under her skirt, a tray under one arm and holding a mop in the other, Jin’s imagined battle maid was complete.