Morning came and I woke up.
Despite my mind being fuzzy, I quickly stood up from the floor beside the bed and stretched my body.
"Good morning."
"G-Good morning."
Looks like I was the last one to wake up. Mary and Nina greeted me as soon as I stood up.
"Un. Good Morning."
I returned their greeting with a smile.
"F-Food will be served a few hours later, sorry."
Mary was acting fidgety all of a sudden.
"It's okay. I'll go and head towards Orga's place then. Later."
I got out of the door and breathed in fresh morning air. The air of this forest was so fresh that I just stood there breathing for a few seconds.
When I decided to walk down, I heard some soft mutters from inside the door.
"(… Nazo… He really looks cuter when he smiles…)"
"(I told you…)"
Since the voices were too soft, I really couldn't make out what they said. I just ignored it and walked down the stairs, then jogged towards Orga's house.
I reached it in less than 15 minutes. As expected, a kilometer was too short a distance for it to take hours to reach. Of course I greeted everyone who greeted me as I ran. I can't remember their names though.
Names. This was what I realized when I mulled over my memories.
All names of persons I knew of cannot be remembered. Names of pets, animals, objects and places were fine but I couldn't remember names of humans.
I also tried remembering where I lived at but unsurprisingly enough, I couldn't remember. Even whether I had parents or not, I couldn't remember.
Though the cause of me not remembering the names of villagers here was the sudden introduction of over hundreds of residents, it gave me a hint on what I forgot about the previous world.
"Oh! You came! You're earlier than expected!"
Orga shouted with a loud voice as he saw my figure from afar.
"I just went on a morning jog and decided to stop by. Did you manage to prepare what I asked for yesterday?"
"Of course! It's all set inside. Wanna start?"
"Please take it easy on me."
I was led inside the workshop once more.
Just like yesterday, it was a mess… Though cleaning it would probably not do any change.
Atop a small table was the tools and materials I requested.
"Uhmmm… Okay, looks like you managed to gather all of it."
"Oh! Then we're finally starting?!"
Orga's tension was quite high. Probably because I told him that I will be making some drawing tools.
"Okay. Then, let's start with the ruler."
I picked one of the wooden planks set on the table. I chose a thin one so that I can easily cut through it.
I learned yesterday that metal processing already existed. However, as it takes a lot of effort, it's not that widespread.
Though metal tools like saw, chisel, nails and others are available through merchants travelling, the technique for metal processing isn't spreading.
"First, we'll need to cut about this long from this plank."
I indicated a length of about 50 centimeters. I didn't speak about it though because I already knew that they didn't use standard units in measuring length.
After cutting it, I was now holding a 50cm by 6cm plank with a thickness of about 5mm.
"Now, we will be using a plane to even out the edges and make it smooth."
I passed the piece of wood to Orga as I was not that particular on how to properly use a plane. After about 5 minutes, he returned the plank to me. Its edges was already smoothed out.
"As expected of a Carpenter… Next is the last step. Carving the graduation lines."
I marked a total of 51 long lines exactly a centimeter apart from each other and another 50 smaller line in between each. For ease of manufacture, this is enough.
I once again passed it to Orga and he carved the lines up to the edge just as I instructed. In less than 15 minutes, a ruler was done.
"… Looks good enough."
"Hahaha! To think it was this easy to make drawing tools! I may be making it big in the capital if I sold these!"
"Just be careful of inflating the supply too much. It may cause large price fluctuations."
"I don't really get what you say but I got it! Hahahah!"
I smiled wryly looking at him with an extremely happy face.
"Okay, then let's move to the next one."
"Oh! Leave it to me! Hahaha!"
Then, we spent the remaining 30 minutes in making a compass. Orga was laughing loudly as we finished it. He really is full of humor.
With this, Mary's drawings would surely be much more accurate than before. I smiled to myself while thinking so.
I left Orga for a moment and ran back home. When I arrived, breakfast was already set at the table. A piece of bread with a cup of hot milk. Matched with vegetable salad and what looked like barbecued meat.
The food this time seemed much extravagant compared to the humble soup yesterday.
Of course I didn't hold back and ate what was served clean.
While I was savoring the aftertaste of the food, Mary and Nina was washing the dishes.
"Oh, by the way, Mary? Can I ask for a portion of you Manadite chalk?"
I remembered something and asked Mary on the spot. She was bewildered with suddenly being talked to without warning but still answered courtly.
"I don't mind. But may I ask what you'll use it for?"
I couldn't tell her that I was planning on making a mechanical pencil as she wouldn't understand…
"… I'll try making a writing tool. It's better than holding the manadite chalk alone if I succeeded."
"… Not only drawing tools but even writing tools? I can't even wonder how to thank you enough."
"It's for my sake too, as I was asking you to teach me about magic circles."
After getting permission, I took 2 ores of medium size from the white box and went back to Orga's place.
When I arrived, what greeted me was the loud and proud laugh of Orga.
"Hahaha! Took you long enough. You're so slow that I managed to make two more rulers and compasses!"
I peeked at the table and really saw 3 rulers and compasses. I was out for just a little over an hour and he managed to triple the numbers… He really was enthusiastic about this.
"I only need 2 sets each so you can keep the last one for reference."
"Oh! How generous of you! Hahaha!"
"Consider it as thanks for the help. But still, I have one more thing to ask of you. Is that okay?"
"Oh! Anything you say! Just leave it to me! Hahaha!"
With his assurance, I explained to him what a mechanical pencil was.
I already imagined how it would be without springs so I thought of other materials to replace it. I decided to use thin strips of rubber to act as springs.
Since the tension on the rubber needed to be a bit high, I added a design that prevents the contents from being pulled out.
It took a dozen of minutes just by explaining it.
"… It sounds a bit complicated for a small tool… But don't worry! I'm sure that I can make it! Hahaha!"
He sounded confident but I'm sure that it would be difficult. There were many parts that were small and there were parts that was originally made of metal or plastic. To only use wood to construct it was a bit hard.
Orga suddenly went inside his house.
After a few minutes, he went back while holding a ton of sheets of paper and a black box. The black box seems to contain charcoal.
Then, without saying anything, he started drawing on the paper using the charcoal.
Looking closely, he was drawing the parts of the mechanical pencil as I had described. I corrected some parts after that and then it became a series of drawing and redrawing.
After an hour, all the parts were drawn in a single piece of paper. The scaling used was about 1:100 with front, side, top and cross-section views.
As I was wondering what he would do with it, he walked to the back of the workroom and pulled out a large machine.
It was a machine made of metal. It looked a little like a photocopying machine with the flapping top cover, the glass cover below it, and the tray on both sides.
Orga placed the piece of paper containing the drawings on top of the glass. Then, he placed a block of wood about 10cm x 10cm x 30cm on the left tray.
He closed the lid and touched what looked like a simple magic circle. The machine gave off a faint sound and the block of wood on the left side slowly entered the machine through a hole.
A minute passed and the churning sound continued. Orga warned me that it will take quite a while to finish but I said to him that I would wait. I am curious as to what this machine was for.
Then, after 30 minutes roughly passed, the churning sound stopped.
On the right tray, something was placed. It was very familiar… Oh! It was the parts of the mechanical pencil!
"This is a fabrication machine passed down to our family. It is basically an heirloom."
A 3D printer! It was even much advanced than what is on earth. I didn't think magic can be used like this.
But with this, many ideas started to pour like running water. Not only mechanical pencil, but even many other tools could be made! I drowned in my own world, thinking of all possibilities I could make.