Another World Metal Factory

Chapter 24

Tehez woke up in a new room and got out of bed. It was because she became a new employee at the metal workshop.

Tehez, who was sharing a room with Illia on the second floor, couldn’t sleep because she was amazed by the electric lights, boiler, and other various household items.

Feeling as if she had entered a magical palace, she looked around, jotting things down in her notebook to satisfy her curiosity. Tehez finally turned off the lights and went to sleep only after late in the night when Illia started to doze off.

Waking up early in the morning, Tehez looked at Illia lying next to her.

Seeing the Mazoku girl sleeping soundly in cat-shaped pajamas, Tehez smiled and brushed her hair back.

-You’re up early-

“Ah. Did you sleep well, Mr. Talking Sword?”

Tehez brought her gaze closer to the sword.

“Amazing. A talking sword. How can you talk?”

-I don’t know. I’ve been able to talk since I was created.-

“Hmm… What’s the principle behind it? Ah! Come to think of it, would you still be able to talk even if you were melted and solidified again?”

-What?! You’re going to melt me?!-

The sword shouted in surprise, and Illia woke up from the sound.

“Uuugh… Good morning.”

Illia, who woke up rubbing her eyes with both hands, greeted her.

“Ah. Sorry. I woke you up.”

“No. Haaaam! I should be getting up soon anyway.”

Illia said, stretching and pointing to the clock hanging on the wall. The clock pointed to 6:30.

******

After finishing breakfast with the soup and bread Illia had made, the workshop members started their daily work.

“Then what kind of work will I be doing?”

Tehez asked the Factory Manager who was preparing for work, and he led her to the office.

“First, put on these clothes.”

The Factory Manager handed Tehez a work uniform wrapped in plastic.

“I brought the smallest size, so it should fit roughly.”

“Wow! What is this transparent paper? How can you see through it so clearly? Besides, it’s incredibly smooth, unlike paper. What is it made of and how is it made?”

“I don’t know! Just go upstairs and change your clothes!”

The Factory Manager shouted as Tehez started pouring out questions again, and Tehez smiled and went up to the room.

The clothes that came out of the rustling transparent plastic were gray-blue pants like the ones the Factory Manager was wearing, and a gray jacket with elastic bands at the sleeves and waist.

Tehez first took off the dress she was wearing and hung it on the wall, then put on the work pants.

“This feels quite nice. The fabric looks luxurious too. Is it okay to work wearing clothes like these?”

She muttered to herself, feeling the texture of the clothes, and fastened the belt. Then, she took out the jacket and looked it over before putting her arms through the sleeves.

She thought the feeling of the elastic band tightening around her wrist was quite unique and looked for buttons to fasten the front. However, there were no buttons on the jacket, so she was momentarily flustered.

“Uh… Huh? How do you fasten the front of this?”

“Sister. I came to help you.”

While Tehez was wondering what to do because she couldn’t zip up the zipper, Illia entered the room. Illia grasped the situation at a glance, seeing Tehez.

“As expected, you can’t zip up the zipper.”

“Huh? Huh? Is this called a zipper? I was wondering how to do it because it wasn’t a button.”

“Yes. You can zip it up like this. I see you haven’t pulled up your pants properly either.”

Illia pulled up the zipper on Tehez’s pants and showed her how to zip up the jacket.

“First, you insert this part into the bottom part on the other side. And then you pull it up to close it.”

“Oh?! That’s amazing! This is the first time I’ve seen clothes fastened like this.”

“The Factory Manager said you have to wear clothes like this to work in the factory. I’m not working in the factory, so I just wear regular clothes.”

Illia, who was wearing a dress and an apron, said, and Tehez smiled and patted her head.

“Good! Then shall we learn a new job?!”

Tehez said so and went downstairs.

******

The task given to Tehez was to polish the blades of kitchen knives by applying abrasive to pieces of cloth, which the Factory Manager called ‘boru’ (industrial rags made from recycled scraps or old clothes).

Polishing the blades while wearing thick safety gloves was quite tiring and difficult.

It was simple, repetitive labor: placing the blade on the workbench, fixing it with a clamp, applying abrasive to the ‘boru’, and then painstakingly rubbing it to polish, flipping it over, and polishing again, then moving on to the next one after finishing one.

Tehez finished polishing more than a dozen blades and sighed while rotating her arms.

“What is this…”

“What is what? Polishing, of course. When you make blades with a press, scratches appear. You have to clean them off neatly. Then you have to take them across the street to Mr. Popper.”

“No. I mean, I want to learn how to make something or something like that!”

At Tehez’s complaint, Channing shrugged and pointed to the machines.

“Look at those machines running. What do you think would happen if your hand or something got sucked into them? How can they let someone who just arrived handle machines in that situation? You start with errands like this. It’s the same in other workshops.”

Tehez glared at Channing, sighed, and picked up the cloth again.

After spending a considerable amount of time, Tehez finally finished the polishing work, carefully placed the blades in a plastic basket, and lifted it.

“Then I’ll be going.”

“Okay. Be careful.”

At the Factory Manager’s words, Tehez smiled and walked out the door. She was going to take the finished blades to Popper’s blacksmith shop.

Popper would heat-treat the blades, attach handles to them to complete the kitchen knives, and then send them to the knife merchants who ordered them.

“So, if I cross the main street and go a little further to the right, it will be there…”

Tehez walked, picturing the route in her mind.

Although Tehez was still unfamiliar with the neighborhood, she was the only one who could go because the Factory Manager and Channing had to keep the machines running.

The Factory Manager had explained the route while drawing a map, so she roughly knew the location, but that didn’t mean it was easy to find.

Tehez continued to look around, matching the map with the surrounding scenery to find her way. As she walked, looking at the buildings, she…

“Ouch!”

…bumped into someone.

Because the man was quite large, Tehez fell right onto the ground.

With a clanging sound, the knife blades scattered everywhere.

The sudden commotion startled the people around, and Tehez, who had fallen on the ground, closed her eyes in pain. The man shouted at Tehez.

“What the?!”

“Ah! I’m sorry.”

As Tehez apologized while rubbing her sore bottom and opened her eyes, she saw a man with an incredibly fierce face standing there.

Tehez was a little surprised. Seeing the long sword and the small shield called a buckler hanging from the man’s waist, she thought he didn’t seem like a very good person.

As if reading Tehez’s thoughts, the man approached with an even fiercer expression.

“Hey! You hurt my ankle! How are you going to apologize?!”

When the man spoke in a scary voice, Tehez’s mind went blank. She was too startled by the bad-looking man yelling with a fierce expression.

Passersby, seeing the scene, subtly moved away as the man glared at them.

“Huh? Are you just going to apologize with words and be done with it?!”

“No… Well… Uh…”

As Tehez, still sitting on the ground unable to get up, stammered, the man approached menacingly and shouted, and Tehez looked at him with tears welling up in her eyes.

“Why don’t we go somewhere and have a drink together? We can slowly listen to your apology and have a good time.”

The man suddenly lowered his voice and smiled with a scary face.

And as he whispered like that, Tehez was even more startled and tried to back away, but another man from his group blocked her way.

There was no one to help Tehez.

At that moment.

“Who’s causing trouble in front of my blacksmith shop!”

Popper rushed out of the blacksmith shop, shouting. Kelper followed him, carrying a large hammer.

Surprised by the sudden appearance of the dwarves, the man stepped back slightly before puffing out his chest and putting on a fierce expression again.

“Shorty dwarves, step aside!”

“What was that?!”

As Popper raised the one-handed hammer he was holding and shouted, the man stepped back again.

“More importantly, that young lady is a workshop employee working with our blacksmith shop, and you’re saying it has nothing to do with you? These knife blades scattered all over the floor because of you were supposed to come to our blacksmith shop! If any of them are damaged, are you going to pay for them?!”

At Popper’s roar, people started to gather around one by one. Among them were Oscar, the restaurant owner, and Karutz, the butcher.

Oscar pushed through the crowd and spoke up.

“What’s going on, Popper? What’s all the commotion?”

“Oh, Oscar. Karutz. Those good-for-nothing guys are harassing the black-haired girl’s employee.”

Popper answered, tapping the hammer in his hand, and Oscar and Karutz turned their shoulders to look at the thugs.

“Oh? Really? They must be riffraff who don’t know the fear of Cladis Street in Polchis! They probably came here trying to make a quick buck during the upcoming festival, but they’ve come to the wrong place!”

As Oscar punched his own hand and spoke intimidatingly, the thugs stepped back slightly.

They felt the intimidating presence of Oscar, who looked slow and clumsy because of his weight, but had once roamed battlefields as a mercenary.

Karutz, standing next to him, also wiped his hands on his bloodstained apron and stood beside Oscar.

“Yeah! Oscar! I can’t let you have all the fun! Karutz of the Red Hand is here. Kuh. Kuk!”

Karutz brought his hand to his chin and made a strange laughing sound, and Oscar looked at him with an expression as if he had seen something he shouldn’t have.

“Hey… You… You did that on the battlefield too, so stop it… It’s been 20 years already.”

“Kuk! I can’t help it. My. Blood. Is boiling.”

Karutz, who had returned to his younger days, said with a smile, and the thugs stepped back even further at his unknown energy.

The surrounding onlookers also looked at Karutz with goosebumps.

In the end, seeing the strange atmosphere and the people gathered around, the thugs left Tehez alone and retreated completely.

“We’ll… We’ll see you again! We know who you are, so just you wait!”

Saying so, the thugs ran away, and the onlookers also started to disperse. Karutz relaxed his posture with a slightly disappointed expression.

“Damn it. I thought I was going to release the seal of my left hand after a long time.”

“No. Karutz. You released that damn seal enough on the battlefield, so don’t release it again.”

Oscar replied to Karutz’s words and approached Tehez, who was still sitting on the ground.

“More importantly, young lady. Judging by your clothes, you’re from the black-haired guy’s place, but you’re a new face?”

“Ah… Yes! I’m a new employee starting today. My name is Tehez…”

“Aha! No wonder he asked me to send one more portion starting today! It was for you, young lady!”

“Oscar! Stop flirting with the young lady before your wife sees you and kicks your butt, and help pick this up!”

At Popper’s scolding, Oscar smiled and helped Tehez get up and started picking up the scattered knife blades on the floor.