Automation

I had built the waterwheel to make producing Sentataki Ointment easier.

Not only that, I had customized it into a milling shed to make milling wheatgrass easier too.

That’s right, with this, I could turn wheatgrass into wheat flour in no time at all.

I was curious about the fact that it had something called a “Limit Penalty,” but with a level over 100, it was still an extremely high-quality result.

Now then, let’s try it out right away and see just how amazing it is.

While Maachan, Payper, the principal, and the vice principal all stood there stunned, I removed in one go the stopper that had been keeping the waterwheel from moving.

…gogogogogogogogogogogogoooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!

The waterwheels began to turn, as if giants that had been frozen solid were drawing breath again.

Along with that, the machines, like a giant’s internal organs, began pulsing into action.

All throughout the waterwheel hut, a lively cacophony of whirring and clanking began to play.

I carried the bundles of wheatgrass from the cart into the waterwheel hut and stood in front of the thresher, the starting point.

A foot-powered thresher was the norm, but this one was an excellent machine that rotated automatically using the power of the waterwheel.

“Now all I have to do is place the wheatgrass here…”

…baribaribaribari!

With the force of something being shaved bald, the wheatgrass was stripped down to a single bare stalk.

The grains and branches dropped onto the belt below the thresher and were carried along with a clattering sound to the next stage.

Maachan and Payper both cried out, ““Aaah!?”” at the same time.

“C-could that possibly be a magical conveyor belt!?”

“Pa… Paaah!? T-that’s absurd!? A magical conveyor belt is only installed in the most cutting-edge factories in the Royal Capital!?”

“Looks that way,” I answered.

“When I was in elementary school, I once went to a factory on a social studies field trip, and I saw one there. I tried making one as an experiment, and it worked better than I expected.”

While we were talking, the wheatgrass grains carried by the conveyor were put through a hull sieve.

Only the small grains fell onto the conveyor below, while the husks too large to pass through the sieve eventually fell from the sieve frame and piled up in a box outside the conveyor.

Only the grains were properly sorted out and sent on to the final stage.

The grains sucked into the millstone that kept turning were ground with a grating sound and became flour, which rode onto the final conveyor.

The final conveyor followed a route that brought it back to the starting point.

Wheat flour poured steadily into the wooden receiving tray beside me.

It shone so beautifully that it could have been mistaken for gold dust.

“Eh… Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeehーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーー!?!!?”

The wheat flour made by the Automatic Milling Device was somehow High Quality.

The shining wheat flour rode along the belt to my side and built up into a golden mountain.

It looked just like a mine that had struck an enormous gold vein.

The surroundings were in a gold rush frenzy.

“Eh!? Eh!? Eh!? Eeeeh!? No way, no way, that can’t be true!? High-Quality wheat flour is something offered up to the king, right!? So then why!?”

“Pay!? I-it should normally only be made very rarely, by a court-exclusive ‘miller’ hand-milling the world’s finest wheat flour…!? T-there’s no way something like that could be made in this run-down shack!?”

“H-how much would this be worth if you turned it into money!? How much would it be worthーーーーーー!?!!?”

The inside of the milling shed had become total panic.

More than that, though, I had already started worrying about something else.

…At this rate, the receiving tray will fill up…

If all the wheatgrass were turned into flour, it would come to roughly 3.5 tons.

If this kept going, the whole shed would be buried in wheat flour.

Once the receiving tray filled up, I could stop the waterwheel and transfer it somewhere else, but…

If I wanted to finish milling by noon, I wanted to keep the waterwheel running as continuously as possible.

Isn’t there some good solution…?

The moment I thought that, I was wrapped in the light of leveling up, as timely as a boat arriving just when needed.

“I’ve finally hit the major milestone of level 20! The Jack-of-All-Trades skill has increased too!”

Muttering to myself amid the uproar, I immediately checked the effect of that skill.

“So basically, this means I can use my feet like another set of hands…?”

If so, the efficiency of craft work done while sitting would double.

And while I had been worrying about what to do with all the wheat flour filling up the milling shed, I had just gained the perfect job for it.

“‘Seamstress,’ huh. With this, that problem gets solved all at once…!”

Using two wooden boxes of different sizes inside the shed as a desk and chair, I took my place in front of the thresher.

Then I activated Jack-of-All-Trades’ Dexterous Job Change and changed into the job I had just acquired.

“All right, let’s try it out right away. I’ve got the materials too, at just the right time.”

Watching the threshing from the corner of my eye, I started another task.

I took out the Gisu Wooden Mallet from my coat pocket and tapped the threshed wheatgrass to soften it.

Once it had softened, I twisted the wheatgrass together and gathered it into a single strand…

Maachan asked suspiciously,

“…Could that possibly be rope?”

“Yeah,” I answered, while setting fresh wheatgrass into the thresher.

I braided the wheatgrass that had just finished threshing into a second rope.

“I didn’t know you could make rope from wheatgrass… Could this be a kind of knitting too?”

“Yeah, it’s called ‘straw weaving.’”

“But at a time like this, what are you making rope for?”

“To make bags. Before the wheat flour in the receiving tray overflows, I’m going to transfer it into bags and carry it outside.”

The wheat flour steadily piling up beside me had already reached about the height of me sitting down.

“Ah… I seeee…!”

While Maachan was still impressed, the rope was finished, so this time I began weaving it together with “straw weaving,” in other words, the Soft Seam skill.

The long cord that had been a strope became a single sheet of fabric.

“All right, that finishes it…!”