Data Center (5)
JH Research.
I was handling work in the CEO's office.
Two weeks had already passed since I sent the LPU modules to the Nano World.
On Earth, the remodeling would wrap up in a few more days, and we would be ready to install the modules. Everything was moving along in order, without a hitch—building renovations for the data center in reality, electrical work, coolant systems; mithril coating in the Nano World.
"They're working hard on both sides."
Bzzzzt.
My smartphone buzzed—the one linked to the Nano World.
I answered, and Illys's bright voice came through as always.
"Constellation! The work is complete!"
"Already?"
I had expected it to take much longer, but they had been remarkably fast.
"We put every other job aside and put every worker on the mithril coating first."
"Ah, I see. Thank you. I'm looking forward to this."
"Really?"
"Of course. An LPU with a mithril coating will have electricity racing through it at incredible speed. The old Blue Tower was mithril-based too."
"Hehe. That was a compliment, right?"
"Absolutely. Very much a compliment."
"Heehee!"
Illys's radiant smile filled the large screen.
"Illys. Is there anything you want to eat?"
"Food?"
"Yeah. I've sent all kinds of things over the years. I was curious which ones you actually liked. This time, you pick."
"Hmm……."
After a moment of thought, Illys spoke.
"The ice cream you sent last time."
"Yeah?"
"The one with that soft blue-green color. There were little black rocks scattered through it—hard ones. They scraped a little when you bit them, and they were a bit bitter."
The ice cream she was describing…
"Ah… so you're Team Mint Chocolate!"
"Huh? Team Mint Chocolate?"
"That ice cream is pretty divisive over here too. I sent a bit of everything, and mint chocolate turned out to be the winner."
I wheeled myself back toward the refrigerator. When I opened the lid, the mint chocolate ice cream was still there—only a tiny amount had been sent to the Nano World. I was half-and-half on mint chocolate myself, so I had never touched it.
I scooped up the barest speck of mint chocolate with a spoon.
"Sponsor!"
A few grains vanished.
"Illys. I sent it."
"Ah! Thank you!"
I had sent the food she liked, but she wasn't the only one who had worked hard.
"Illys. Is there anything the workers need?"
"The workers?"
"Yeah. They put in the effort too."
"Hmm… wouldn't a simple 'well done' be enough?"
That felt a little too cheap.
"Kids light up if you pat their heads and say good job, but these are adults. They deserve something that actually helps."
"Ah… you pat their heads?"
"Huh? We do that here. When you praise a child you're close to, you sometimes ruffle their hair."
"I see."
"Yeah. It's a kind of culture. Want to go ask the workers? I'll follow along on the screen and watch."
"All right."
Illys started walking. She left the prayer chamber and stepped outside into the castle grounds.
I zoomed the view out a little—high enough to look down over the fortress. The view here was always a feast. The sky was transparently clear, sunlight trembling over the castle spires and banners.
At some point she had changed out of her white prayer robes; Illys now flew across the plain with her cloak streaming behind her.
As she ran, a vast round lake came into view beside her path. It was the lake made from the plastic bottle cap I had sent. Rodriguez territory already had a bottle-cap lake, and they had asked for one here too, so I had delivered. A castle ought to have at least one lake.
Beside the bottle-cap lake, the nano-people had built a little water playground scaled to their size. Children had kicked off their shoes and were racing around beside it.
"Kyaa!"
"Catch me if you can!"
Splash, splash.
A peaceful scene.
As Illys sprinted past, soldiers snapped to attention in unison.
"Salute the Lord!"
"Hail!"
Illys raised a hand and kept running. At the speed of a 5-Circle Mage, the scenery shifted in moments.
A colossal steel structure. A vast industrial district. An industrial zone that stretched beyond sight. A single building was as large as a sports field, and those buildings stood in rows by the dozens, the hundreds.
And inside those buildings were countless workers.
"Zone Three finished?"
"Just fifty more copper pillars to set!"
"Zone Four?"
"We're still collecting worker signatures here!"
A factory district running at full tilt. Soldiers who spotted Illys here, too, snapped off salutes.
"The Lord has arrived! Salute the Lord!"
"Hail!"
Workers among the semiconductor buildings bowed deeply to her as well. Illys approached them.
"Is the work hard?"
The worker she asked shook his head vigorously as he answered.
"Not at all. Not even a little. We're grateful to be working."
"Really?"
"You provide three meals a day. How could we ask for more?"
"That's right. We have our pride, too."
"This place is a dream."
The worker smiled brightly.
"I don't want to go back to how we lived before. My child… since you came, my Lord, has grown ten centimeters."
"Mine has even put on a little belly fat."
Illys walked slowly through the factory interior. Satisfaction was written on every face. No matter whom she asked, there was no complaint—only gratitude.
"Constellation. I'm sorry, but the workers all say they're completely satisfied?"
"Hahaha. I see."
On the big TV, a moment of work: several teams were just then raising copper pillars.
"Two, three!"
"Heave!"
They put their strength in together as if by long habit. Setting copper pillars was no easy task; beads of sweat stood out on the workers' brows.
Come to think of it, there wasn't even a fan in this place.
"What if we put some fans in?"
"Fans?"
"Machines that blow air. It would be nice to stay cool while you work."
Illys tilted her head.
"You mean a continuous Wind spell? If you asked me to make one or two devices like that, I could, but there are far too many workers."
"Ah… I wasn't asking for magic."
Hmm. How to handle this.
To explain, I would have to get her to understand the structure of a fan—and that inevitably led to motors.
"Illys. This week's study topic is fans."
"Ah! Knowledge from the Constellation?"
"Something like that."
"Thank you. I get to learn something new again."
Illys and I had been studying together for some time—a kind of study group, you could say. I explained the principles of semiconductors; she talked about the structure of magic and the flow of mana. I couldn't cast magic myself, but just listening felt like peering into the underside of the world.
This time, though, was a little different. A lesson for building a fan.
I jabbed an awl into the magnet inside a bottle opener stuck to the side of the fridge and pried a piece free.
"Sponsor."
The offering has been delivered.
In the Nano World, the magnet dust became a massive magnetic boulder.
"The materials are a rod, copper wire, and a magnet."
"Yes. Prepared."
"Good. Now wrap the copper wire around the rod. Wind it as tightly and evenly as you can."
Illys moved her hands carefully, following my words. Like winding a spool of thread, the copper wire settled neatly along the rod.
"Well done. Now, if you run electricity through it, the rod becomes a magnet. We call that an electromagnet. Electricity turns it into a magnet."
"A magnet? So… it pulls things toward it, like a mana stone?"
"Similar. Do you remember the magnetic boulder I sent before?"
"Yes. That black stone."
"Bring that close, and you'll get a force that either pushes or pulls."
"How do I run electricity through it?"
"That……."
I let the sentence trail off, then smiled.
"You're a mage, Illys. Try flowing a little mana through it. It should be close enough to electricity."
Illys nodded. She raised a fine thread of mana at her fingertips.
Zzzt—!
For an instant, the rod trembled. The wound copper wire glittered with light.
"Oh my! It's moving!"
Illys's eyes went wide. Vibration traveled through her fingertips, and the rod turned a little.
"Well done," I said with a smile. "That right there is the first step of a magnet that moves on electric power—a motor."
Illys stared at the rod as if it were a wonder.
"It's not magic, and it's not alive… yet it moves."
"Right. We use this to make wind. Attach blades to that rotating shaft, and you've got a fan."
"So… you can make wind even without mana."
"Exactly. The wind of electricity—magic from this side of the world."
"Ah… the Constellation's knowledge… may I try making several of these?"
"Of course. That's so the workers can work in comfort."
Illys used the Constellation's knowledge to build something called a "fan."
It moved well enough, but nothing that truly satisfied her came out of it. Then, suddenly, she thought of Ralph.
Among all races, dwarves stood second to none when it came to craftsmanship. Illys summoned him.
"You called for me?"
"Yes. The Constellation taught me knowledge of something called a fan."
Illys brought out the papers she had written and drawn while studying with the Constellation—diagrams of motor structure, commutators, even the direction of electromagnetic force.
"What is that?"
"A tool that makes wind."
Ralph's eyes lit up.
"May I try building it?"
"Heh. That's exactly why I called you."
Ralph stared holes through the fan blueprints the Constellation had sent. And a few days later, he produced the first prototype.
"I have made a fan."
Illys examined the machine Ralph had built. The body was gray mithril and bronze. Every metal piece was smooth; the fan blades formed soft, graceful curves. When she pressed the button, the blades began to turn.
Wheeeee.
"Ohhh, wonderful! It really spins!"
"The Constellation ordered these for the workshops, you said?"
Illys nodded with a smile.
"That's right. I think He was worried about the workers overheating. Our Constellation has a kind heart, doesn't He?"
Ralph's eyes grew serious.
"My Lord. May I carry out the Constellation's command myself?"
"Of course. No—I'll ask you to."
"Understood. Then I will install fans in the workshops. I'll give it everything I've got."
At those words, a gentle smile spread across Illys's face.
"I won't leave it to you alone, Ralph. Every mage—and I myself—will help make them."
"Understood."
A 5-Circle Mage, her subordinate mages, and every dwarf throwing themselves into the work—building fans did not take long.
A few days later, the semiconductor workers of the Nano World got a shock.
"Huh! There's a breeze."
The fan project had been simple: provide materials, teach the method, and tell them to build. Making a basic motor was the kind of thing that came in elementary-school craft kits. There was no way dwarves would fail at something of that level.
Of course, a dwarf-made fan was never going to stay at that level. What the dwarves produced from those blueprints were, quite literally, masterwork fans.
Wheeeeeee.
Huge fan blades turned in the workshop, generating wind. The body was meticulously wrought from mithril and alloy. Fine runic characters were carved into the outer surface, glowing with a soft light. The blades were thin, transparent crystal; with every rotation, light fractured and rainbow shards scattered through the breeze. The handles were carved from wood, with tiny grooves cut into the surface to drink up the sweat of a hand.
The dwarf craftsmen spoke.
"Ten units per floor and you can make the whole space completely cool."
As the fans spun, the workshops grew cool. The beads of sweat vanished from the workers' brows. Facing the cool wind, the workers spoke.
"Ahh… that feels good."
"Haha. What is all this?"
A worker standing beside them with a copper hammer asked, "What is it?"
"A thing called a fan."
"What's that?"
"Something the Lord, the mages, and the dwarf craftsmen built together. A thing that makes wind."
"Ho. Remarkable."
The breeze was strong enough to set the tips of the workers' beards trembling.
"Do you know why they made these?"
"No idea."
"You don't? The Constellation Himself said we should be able to work in comfort. That's why."
"What? Truly?"
"Truly."
For a moment, the workers fell quiet. Every gaze turned to the fans. The blades turned gently, spreading the wind. The workers felt that breeze as if it were the Constellation's blessing itself.
"What are you all doing?"
"Huh?"
"We ought to pray to the Constellation."
"Right you are!"
The workers clasped their hands and bowed their heads.
"Constellation. Thank You for sending us wind."
"Three meals a day, and now a cool workshop on top of it……."
"We are grateful, and grateful again."
"This is a dream workplace."
Over the hum of the turning fan blades, their low, earnest prayers rolled through the entire workshop.
Illys watched those workers in quiet silence. And I, too, watched that scene from the other side of the screen.
Illys spoke to me.
"Constellation. But semiconductors—especially HBM—have a heat problem, don't they?"
"That's right. Sometimes they even dunk them in freezing seawater."
"I just had a thought. What if we installed the fans we just made on the HBM?"
"Fans?"
"Yes. Fans make wind to cool things down. In the last lesson, You said heat was the problem with HBM. Power will be supplied to the HBM, so I think we could make the fans spin on that electricity."
As expected, a 5-Circle Mage did not think with an ordinary head.
"That's a good idea."
"Heehee. I thought well, didn't I?"
"Of course. Very much a compliment."
On the 114-inch TV in 8K resolution, Illys's shy, bashful face filled the frame. Then she tilted her head just a little. Through the screen I could see the crown of her head. What was that? She seemed to want something.
Ah! I knew what she wanted.
I reached a hand toward the TV and said, "Pat-pat. Very good job."
"Dehet!"