Another World Metal Factory

Chapter 27

The factory, as always, was bustling with activity.

The Factory Manager was operating the sheet metal press, Channing was running the milling machine, and next to him, Tehez was handling the grinder with somewhat accustomed hands.

Sparks flew as Tehez, her face tense with concentration, carefully moved the grinder, smoothing the weld surfaces of the metal.

After finishing grinding one weld surface, Tehez took off her safety glasses, wiped the sweat from her brow, and set the grinder down. At that moment, the sword hanging by the door shouted.

-Richel is here!-

“Hello! Take a break and eat!”

The door opened, and Richel entered, greeting them cheerfully.

“Wow! Food! I was starving.”

Channing quickly removed the cut piece of iron from the milling machine and spoke, and the Factory Manager also stopped the press.

Illia quickly set up the table, and Richel began taking out the meal from the basket.

That day was also an ordinary lunchtime.

Everyone gathered around the table and started eating, and as always, Richel took a seat at one end. It was the picture of an ordinary lunch.

Sitting on a chair, flipping through a magazine next to her, Richel casually spoke to the Factory Manager.

“Come to think of it, Factory Manager, do you ever go on business trips?”

Richel asked her question while watching the Factory Manager dip a piece of bread into his soup, and the Factory Manager, who was about to bring the bread to his mouth, widened his eyes and looked at Richel.

“Business trip? Why a business trip? Did something break down at your house again?”

“Ah, well. My mom’s older sister, my aunt, runs a small inn in a town called Palapilos. But it seems that because it’s quite old, people don’t really visit. She came to our house a while ago and talked about it. After hearing that, my mom wondered if you, Factory Manager, could go and take a look.”

The Factory Manager put the piece of bread into his mouth, chewed, and looked around at Channing, Illia, and Tehez.

“Palapilos… That’s the place with the volcano, right? The one you reach after about two days by carriage. I heard a story about a massive eruption there a long time ago.”

“It’s famous for its hot springs. They say the well water is hot. It’s a fascinating town. I’d like to go and investigate sometime, even if it’s not magic or anything. They say the water there has mystical properties. There was a section in my grandfather’s research books about the water there.”

“I’ve been there before. The water has a strange smell.”

The Factory Manager nodded as he listened to Channing, Tehez, and Illia. He thought it must be a famous village if everyone knew about it.

The Factory Manager pondered for a moment before speaking.

“Hot well water… It must be a hot spring. Well, it wouldn’t be bad to go and see. Two days to get there?”

“Yes, by carriage.”

“Carriage… Well, I guess I can’t take a truck from this town. Orders? I can’t just go and look for nothing, can I? Don’t they need anything?”

At the Factory Manager’s words, Richel thought for a moment before speaking.

“First, she said she wanted the pot you made for our house. Besides that, iron plates and cups too. She seemed to really like them. Ah! She also said iron spoons would be good.”

The Factory Manager pondered and looked at Channing.

“Channing! Are all the urgent orders finished?”

“Uh… Yes, for now. Once we finish this doorknob work, we have the round iron rings ordered by Tong’s house, but the delivery for that is two weeks later.”

The Factory Manager got up from his seat and walked over to the calendar hanging on the wall.

A calendar with schedules marked with a whiteboard marker. It was a large handwritten calendar that could be found in any factory.

Looking at a section with various schedules written in blue and red marker, the Factory Manager picked up a red pen and drew a long line. A red line was drawn horizontally across a section spanning almost a week.

“We’re taking this much time off.”

“Uh… Next week?”

Channing asked, and Tehez looked at the schedule with the red line drawn across it.

“Master, what about the items we were supposed to make then? There’s the carriage shop order and the iron stake order, and we have to make the knife blades for Mr. Popper too.”

“What else can we do? We have to finish it this week. Everyone’s working overtime.”

“What?!”

Channing jumped up from his seat and screamed. Tehez, startled by his sudden action, looked at him.

“Overtime, oh no!”

“Huh? What’s overtime?”

Tehez, who didn’t know the word ‘overtime,’ asked, and Channing clutched his head and shook it.

“It means working at night. After dinner. Until 10 o’clock.”

“What?! What’s that! We usually finish work at 5!”

Tehez was also surprised and looked at the Factory Manager.

For the people of this world, who were accustomed to resting and sleeping as soon as the sun set, the fact that they had to work until 10 o’clock at night was an unbelievable event.

“If we work until 10 o’clock, what about the next day? Can we wake up late?”

“We have to wake up on time. There’s no such thing.”

Channing answered Tehez’s question instead of the Factory Manager, and Tehez widened her eyes and looked back and forth between Channing and the Factory Manager.

The Factory Manager, as if it were nothing, took out a cigarette, lit it, and spoke.

“You’ll get overtime pay. And we have to clear out the workload to take a break next week.”

“Break? You’re taking us on a business trip.”

“We’ll rest when we get there. We’ll finish work and rest comfortably at the inn. Anyway, that’s how it is.”

The Factory Manager went outside to smoke, leaving Channing and Tehez alone, looking at the calendar with expressions of despair.

2.

From that day on, the factory switched to a night shift system.

After the workday ended at 5 o’clock, they had an hour for dinner, and then work resumed at 6 o’clock. They had a 30-minute break at 7:30 and finished work at 9:30.

Only after finishing cleaning up for about 30 minutes could they take off their sweat-soaked work clothes, wash up, and go to bed.

******

After a week of overtime, they finally finished making all the ordered items and cleared out the workload, and Sunday morning arrived.

While waiting for Channing and Tehez, who had gone to church, the Factory Manager was looking over the carriage he had purchased at a low price. It was a typical cargo carriage with a wooden cargo bed and four wooden wheels.

However, since the axle was directly attached to the body, it was an object that couldn’t be called comfortable, even in jest.

The Factory Manager was so disheartened by the thought of traveling for nearly two days in such a thing that he had been making carriage parts in his spare time at night since the day he bought it.

“Heave-ho! Let’s give it a try.”

The Factory Manager put out his cigarette, brought over the hoist, securely fastened the hook to the carriage, and slowly pressed the hoist button.

The hoist hanging from the ceiling activated, pulling the wire, and the hanging hook slowly lifted, beginning to raise the carriage.

Since it was only fixed on one side of the carriage, the carriage tilted to the side.

The Factory Manager stopped the hoist for a moment, slowly walked over, and tied a rope to the side of the carriage that was slightly suspended in the air.

Then, holding the rope in one hand and the hoist remote in the other, he carefully began operating it.

By pulling the rope and alternately winding and releasing the hoist, the carriage flipped over and landed on the ground. The metal axle caught the Factory Manager’s eye.

“No shock absorbers, the axle is just attached to the body… This won’t be able to handle any force… And the axle is made of wood? How can it gain any speed like this?”

The Factory Manager clicked his tongue in disapproval, critiquing the carriage, and then tied the rope securely to the axle where the wheels were attached and fixed it with the hoist.

Then, the Factory Manager took out a cut-saw (electric saw) from his toolbox. It was a power tool used to cut objects by rapidly reciprocating the saw blade attached to the front.

Just in case, the Factory Manager put on his safety glasses and immediately started cutting the metal parts that fixed the axle to the body with the cut-saw.

To be precise, he was cutting the head of the ridiculously large rivet (bolt) that was holding the part in place.

“Damn, they used a really strong rivet.”

The Factory Manager grumbled, tilted the cut-saw blade, put his weight into it, and started grinding the rivet. With a loud metallic sound, sparks began to fly.

After cutting one rivet, he cut the other rivet next to it, and the axle began to move.

The Factory Manager kicked the axle with his steel-toe-capped boot, and the fixed part came loose from the rivet.

“Damn, that was hard.”

The Factory Manager grumbled, lifted his fogged-up safety glasses to wipe the sweat, and started cutting the remaining rivets. Once the last rivet was cut, all the carriage wheels came off.

The Factory Manager took off his safety glasses and lit a cigarette.

“I need Channing to come back so I can put him to work…”

The Factory Manager muttered as he lit his cigarette and inhaled the smoke.

******

The majority of the residents here had a religion that believed in the God of Light. Except for Orcs, Goblins, and some Dwarves, almost all the residents believed in the God of Light.

Channing, Tehez, and Illia were the same, so the three of them went to the Central Cathedral on weekends.

It was a day when everyone on the street rested and went to the Central Cathedral, and in the afternoon, they met with their friends and relieved the fatigue of the week.

The Factory Manager went out the back door with a cigarette in his mouth, enjoying the late morning sunshine and the breeze.

“The wind is getting hotter. It looks like summer is coming.”

The Factory Manager commented as he exhaled smoke. It was late spring, and summer was slowly approaching. He thought it was about time to turn on the air conditioner and subtly moved into the shade.

“Hey! Didn’t you go to church?”

Someone casually spoke to the Factory Manager from over the back wall. It was Popper, the blacksmith from the blacksmith shop across the street.

“You know I don’t go. You go to church. What are you doing here at this hour?”

“Well, I just follow my wife since she goes. I took a break today.”

Popper rested his chin on the low wall and asked.

“By the way, don’t you have any good alcohol these days? We should have a drink.”

“Hey, you bring some over!”

The Factory Manager grumbled at Popper’s words, and Popper burst into laughter.

“Alright, alright. I’ll ask my in-laws to send over a bottle next time.”

“The alcohol from your in-laws must be good.”

Popper nodded.

“There’s a pretty famous brewery there. It’s distilled liquor aged in barrels that used to hold wine. It’s not easy to get since the quantity is limited, but my father-in-law managed to get a whole barrel a few years ago. I’m going to ask him for some.”

The Factory Manager smiled brightly and tossed away the burnt-out cigarette butt.

“Wow! You could get such good alcohol, and you were trying to freeload off me?”

“Hahaha! What a temper! I’ll contact you as soon as it arrives, so let’s have a drink again. Let’s grill some meat like last time.”

“Okay. Bring your wife this time. I heard Oscar’s wife made a scene last time.”

Popper sighed and nodded.

“I had a hard time too. She kept asking why only the father and son were eating delicious food. She said, ‘Don’t you know I like alcohol?’ She didn’t talk to me for days.”

“Both Oscar and you are in trouble. Looks like we’ll have to make it a bigger event this time.”

“Yeah. Let’s ask Oscar to bring some alcohol too. You bring out something good if you have any.”

The Factory Manager nodded.

“Ah, Popper. I have a favor to ask.”

“A favor? Why suddenly?”

The Factory Manager thought for a moment and spoke.

“Can you borrow a horse to pull a carriage somewhere?”

“A carriage? Why a carriage all of a sudden? You don’t have a carriage at your workshop.”

“I have somewhere to go tomorrow, so I got one. But I don’t have a horse to pull it.”

Popper also thought for a moment and nodded.

“You’re finding a horse pretty quickly for someone who’s leaving tomorrow. Alright. I’ll look into it.”

“Okay. I’ll leave it to you.”

While Popper and the Factory Manager were talking, the church bell rang in the distance.

Hearing the bell, Popper slightly frowned and said.

“Ah, it’s over. I’ll get going then. My wife will nag me if I’m not home when she gets back.”

Popper said as he moved away from the wall, and the Factory Manager nodded.

“You’re really whipped.”

“A man without a wife is the lucky one. Look at you. How nice.”

“Nice my ass… Hurry up and go!”

The Factory Manager retorted and watched Popper leave before entering the back door of the factory.