Chapter 51
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 51
Chapter Title: New Rat Village Reforms (3)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Inside the tent of the temporary village hall.
A large sheet of paper blueprint fluttered open energetically across the table.
I sat huddled around it with Mani, Sena, Hilde, and rat girl technicians from various fields.
The very first presenter at this ambitiously convened village agriculture development meeting was me.
I confidently presented the farm tool blueprint I'd scraped together from my shallow carpentry knowledge from my past life.
"Behold, the Automatic Seeder! Just have a beast pull it, and the gears will till the field and sow the seeds on their own. Miracle farm tool, right? What do you think?"
Brimming with anticipation, I looked around.
What came back was icy silence.
No one could bring themselves to speak up right away, until a dirt-streaked fingertip hesitantly pointed at the blueprint.
A critique flew from a rural-born rat girl seasoned in farming.
"Um, Village Chief."
"Yeah?"
"If you set the hoe blade at that angle, the beast—or person—will collapse from exhaustion before finishing even one furrow."
"Roti, the joints are a problem too. You think wooden pieces can handle that load without being iron? It'll shatter in half a day and end up as firewood."
The blacksmith Mani drove the final nail in with her merciless assessment.
A barrage of painful critiques from the practitioners utterly demolished my amateur past-life knowledge.
Was the whole 'modern guy rampages through another world with past-life knowledge' thing just fantasy after all?
I'd succeeded with the bowgun thanks to hands-on experience from my past life plus Mani's buffs, but anything more complex was beyond me.
I quietly rolled up the blueprint.
'Gotta give up on this one.'
My face burned with embarrassment.
That's when the beastkin girl in charge of the kitchen clasped her hands together and jumped in to salvage the mood.
"B-But the stove you designed, Village Chief, is seriously the best! It uses way less firewood but the flames roar up huge, and no smoke so it doesn't sting the eyes!"
"Right? Rocket stove efficiency! That's no joke."
In the face of her tearful praise trying to boost the village chief's spirits, I nodded as if I couldn't help it and hurriedly moved on to the next item.
"How about raising livestock for food self-sufficiency? Let's keep chickens for protein!"
"Yes! I want fried eggs!"
"Chicken! Chicken stew!"
Drooling sounds erupted from all around.
The chicken farming proposal passed unanimously.
Chickens provide both meat and eggs, making them crucial.
As the excitement heated up,
a rat girl from the capital's slime silk rubber factory raised her hand high with sparkling eyes.
"Hey, what about slime farming? Process the slime mucus into tough rubber or glue. It's so expensive in the capital they can't keep it in stock. We'd be rolling in money!"
"Are you insane?!"
Hilde abruptly shoved back her chair and shot to her feet.
"You want to unleash slimy, gross monsters spewing mucus right in the middle of the village?! If even a drop splatters on my uniform, you're taking responsibility! Absolutely rejected!"
Hilde's vehement opposition, her face pale as a ghost.
On top of that, safely raising and processing slimes required massive facilities—a harsh practical barrier.
The slime farming dream was tabled on the spot.
The real issue was motive power.
There was plenty of land to clear, but not nearly enough beasts to turn over the rock-hard soil.
"Those donkeys completely collapsed yesterday, legs giving out. I let them rest for now."
Sena let out a deep sigh.
"But buying horses? The feed and upkeep costs are impossible."
That's when Mani, who'd been glaring at the blueprint, suddenly looked up.
"Remember what the chief said yesterday?"
"Oh, that?"
A wild idea I'd tossed out carelessly last night. Even I thought it was nonsense at the time.
But seeing Mani's gleaming eyes, it felt like she'd crunched numbers furiously all night.
Something that ignited the engineer's heart?
"Right, make the whole hamster wheel roll."
Scratch scratch.
Charcoal raced across the rough paper like a pencil gone mad.
"First, the wheel itself is the body and acts as the front wheel! Hang the cockpit from the center axle in the back, and a cauldron behind that!"
Grotesque yet genius lines sprang up, revealing the skeleton of the design.
"Like this...rolling a giant hamster wheel!"
Motive power one: two legs. A pair of sturdy ratkin climb inside the massive wooden wheel and run like hell.
Motive power two: steam.
A makeshift steam engine from a junkyard cauldron adds thrust, pushing the wheel hard with exhaust pressure.
And motive power three: magic.
"Hey, half-elf."
"Ugh, seriously! Trying to work me again!"
Hilde irritably tousled her hair but peered over the blueprint anyway.
Spirit magic smooths the wheel's rotation and blows tailwinds to aid the cauldron and auxiliary steam engine.
"Ngh...guess I'd have to engrave magic circles too."
Even so, Hilde didn't say it was impossible. With spirit magic assistance, it was feasible.
And so, the maddest farm machine never seen before was born.
A blueprint fusing magic, steam, and ratkin sweat: the hamster wheel tractor.
"Alright. Let's carve a small model first."
"Agreed!"
Testing a scale model to nail the frame beats jumping straight to full-size and failing.
Hot energy reignited around the table.
In the days it took for the scale model hamster wheel tractor to take shape in one corner of the clearing,
small miracles visited the village.
A modest hamster wheel cathedral woven from planks and bricks.
Thanks to Rodentia's holy power gently spreading from its roof? The wild field and sewer rats prowling the damp forest now had intelligence gleaming in their eyes.
"Whoa, another one?"
"Chit!"
A girl tilling the field tossed a bread crumb, and a plump field rat waddled over to snap it up.
Miraculously, they never touched human crops or granaries.
Instead, they nimbly picked off field-ravaging pests and tough weed roots.
Once full, they'd flop at people's feet, flashing white bellies and playing cute.
The biggest spectacle was around the village spring.
Splash! Splash!
"Chit chit chit!"
As if terrified of being chased off as filthy beasts, they huddled neatly by the clear water.
"These guys...are bathing?"
Guided by a resident, I arrived in awe.
Rats lined up, dipping tiny front paws in water to frantically groom whiskers and fur.
Sunlight gleamed off their glossy, fluffy coats mid-wash.
They even squeezed dry by the bank as if waiting for it.
"Chit! Behold! Enlightened by my light! Become fine, clean citizens!"
A cheerful hum leaked from Rodentia's lips, floating in the air.
She was visibly overflowing with delight.
[Very impressive!]
Soon, the first scale model hamster wheel tractor finally revealed itself.
For the handcart-sized prototype demo, I shoved a summoned spirit horned rat into the small wheel.
"Ignition!"
Mani struck flint to light the mini-cauldron boiler.
Hiss hiss—the rough sound of pressure building as Hilde chanted at the wheel.
"Go! Sylphid!"
Invisible wind spirit gently sucked into the mini-cauldron behind the wheel.
That instant, the spirit horned rat inside instinctively pounded its feet into a frenzy.
Screeech!
A burst of thick white steam with a harsh metallic screech.
The mini hamster wheel tractor started rumbling forward.
Slash!
The sharp plow blade on its rear dug into the earth.
A small but neat furrow emerged.
Like a rat tail scratching the ground.
"Success!"
"Woooah!"
Cheers exploded from the villagers holding their breath.
'It...works!'
Scale it up tenfold with this design?
Turning rocky fields and paving rough paths would just be a matter of time.
Riding the momentum, we dove straight into building the full-scale Giant Hamster Wheel No. 1.
"Once this is done...that huge field!"
"Let's plow it ASAP!"
Mani spread her wings of imagination in excitement.
"If this works? We'll make a hamster wheel train. Lay rails and...power it with hamster wheels!"
"Didn't think of that."
One hamster wheel vehicle idea sparks endless others.
Meanwhile, Sena whispered with eager anticipation.
"With all that open field, we gotta plant potatoes and sweet potatoes quick! No, fruit trees too? Like apples!"
"Whatever works!"
I grinned leisurely.
"Polly's caravan arrives this afternoon. Show him this rolling, and he'll faint."
Time to stockpile seeds till the warehouses burst. Funds are still plenty.
"Hope he hurries! While at it, snag plenty of chicks and hens!"
Mani giggled, swinging her hammer in the air.
Villagers' gazes unanimously turned north to the road.
Anxious yet thrilled eyes waiting for the caravan's dust cloud.
Behind, glossy-furred field rats waddled between furrows, nibbling weeds.
The little central cathedral's bells tolled worship time, scattering softly on the breeze.
Lazy afternoon sun warmed the village's red roofs.
Rat girls' clear laughter sliced the air amid the fields.
A flawless, peaceful daily life without gaps.
"No more going hungry."
I smiled contentedly, hands on hips.
'Hurry up, Polly.'