Refuse Harem
Translator: Tsukii
Editor: Prius
Read at Watashi wa Sugoi Desu!
Chapter 138 – Dear Tenma, This is the First Hurdle IV
A/N:
I don’t understand the explanation (/・ω・)/ Feel free to skip the explanation if you think so.
There’s no effect to the general plot even if you do so!
Rather, perhaps that’s the correct way of reading it!! Such is how I boast (｀・ω・´)ゞ
The three students left after that and, with Luca standing by the hallway, the topic entered the main subject, which made the content naturally deep.
“As for the candidate site, it is confirmed to be the location near the Orte River that Sophie-sama proposed.”
The location that Lorenzo pointed to on the map of the royal capital was certainly the spot that Sophie first proposed.
“I’ve obtained the permit, please check it.”
Sophie received sheepskin paper from Nert and read the contents. Sophie could see the seal of approval from the king and aristocratic council. With this, they got approval that they could move publicly.
“For this project, all of the silver stars will give our utmost cooperation, so please take care of us.”
After such awe-inspiring words, Nert laughed with a nice face. It was a smile that made people feel relieved.
“Sophie-sama, I have a suggestion.”
As Sophie felt relieved seeing Nert’s smile, Lorenzo made an unexpected offer.
“Regarding the device to stir the sewage, could you please adopt our simplex method?”
“Simplex method… is it?”
The activated sludge method, which was used in Sophie’s previous life, was a method of absorbing and decomposing organic matter contained in sewage by feeding it to aerobic microorganisms. It was important to stimulate the movement of the microorganism in this method, so the device that delivered oxygen to them was important.
In Sophie’s previous life, where technology was more advanced, the oxygen was supplied by a small bubble through a diffuser method. Although the dissolution efficiency of the diffuser method was high, Sophie judged it was impossible to apply it in this world due to the high requirement of cost and power. Therefore, although the purification efficiency was reduced, Sophie intended to use a method known as the stirring method.
The first method that Sophie proposed was a method of stirring the sewage in the tank with a water wheel, which was known as the paddle method. This also required power, but Sophie suggested attaching two turbines to a straight pipe, one using gradient hydraulic power to move another turbine that moved the waterwheel.
As for the simplex method that Lorenzo suggested, it involved making the sewage splash in all directions above the surface of the water with horizontally mounted rotary blades, causing the waves produced to make air pass through it.
“Why do you suggest the simplex method?”
“It’s because the simplex method uses the least amount of electricity.”
“Eh…”
Both the simplex method and the paddle method had their respective drawbacks, so these methods were abolished in her previous life. However, they also had their advantages. One of the advantages of the simplex method was it consumed less power and since the machinery was built outside the water, it was easy to inspect and perform maintenance.
“Does Lorenzo-sama think about running this using electricity?”
Sophie certainly heard there was a prototype generator at the Institute of Medical Science, but she didn’t think it was actually usable. The things that Sophie suggested were methods that didn’t require electricity.
“I have no intention of saying money is everything in the world like a gold star would say. However, I think that using more innovative technologies for attempting something new would be easier to move people’s hearts. And if that happens, money would move along with it— Don’t you think so?”
Lorenzo’s rusty indigo hair gently fell to his shoulders. The smile that formed on his lips and projected to his eyes certainly felt magical.
But as Sophie recalled his sub-zero smile he showed earlier, she screamed in fear inside.
She was so agitated that her smile might leave her face.
Even though it was a beautiful smile that would make the young ladies from “The Queen’s Rose” blush, Sophie could only see it as a bottomless, devilish smile, and she felt a cold smile flowing off of him.
Although Sophie often cussed at handsome dudes she met to just explode inwardly, Lorenzo felt different from them. Lorenzo’s smile felt like a sweet poison.
His handsomeness might have felt closest to Christina’s, but just from the difference of gender, it felt that much different, and Lorenzo’s smile made her instinctively flinch instead.
“Gold stars would be the first to jump on new technologies. It is especially so if it’s groundbreaking and has a lot of potential to generate money. Even without us personally requesting it, those people would spread the news on their own.”
…In other words, Lorenzo-sama is aiming for donations from the gold stars and aristocrats who heard the rumor.
It made Sophie think this man was trying to exploit gold stars, but there was a logical purpose to his suggestion.
The cost of construction, funding for equipment, and technology development in the future would be enormous. Even the treatment facility suggested by Sophie also had a lower purification rate compared to the technology of her previous life. If they were to consider the future, it was better to secure as much funding as possible.
Above all, it would be a royally-funded facility, which would be visited by all the famous aristocrats. If they explained the electrical equipment at that time, the aristocrats would be drawn to the new technology. It was true that people’s hearts would move easier with electricity that could visibly show its power than a plain sewage treatment facility, which was directly connected to their daily life but its importance was difficult to understand.
“I understand. Then let’s use the simplex method instead.”
“Thank you very much. Since our side is the one who proposed it, we will do our best to prevent technical problems.”
Lorenzo smiled again.
As Sophie smiled back, she inwardly begged him to stay expressionless instead.
This is weird. I heard that Lorenzo-sama isn’t a person who shows his expressions very much… As expected, rumors are nothing but rumors, after all.
As Sophie thought of that, Nert, who had a bad mouth despite his seemingly harmless appearance, sighed and apologized for Lorenzo’s remarks.
“I’m terribly sorry for his remarks that lack consideration for Sophie-sama’s father, who is also part of the gold star. Our director has a twisted personality after all. I hope you don’t feel offended about it.”
“N-no… there’s no such a thing…”
Sophie wished Nert stopped making remarks that she had a hard time responding to.
Although Nert was certainly older, his status, pedigree, and number of stars he earned were inferior to Lorenzo, yet he still spit poison toward Lorenzo, which made Sophie think Nert might be the scariest person in the Institute of Medical Science.
His appearance, which appeared to be a smile of relief, felt dangerous to Sophie.
Although Lorenzo could feel offended, he didn’t show such a thing at all and instead said, “Maybe I had a bad school experience,” as he stared at Sophie.
“If only a person like Sophie-sama were present then. I’m sure those boring days would have been brighter. It’s a shame,”
Lorenzo muttered as he ignored the poisonous remarks said toward him.
“I-I don’t think this lowly me could…”
Sophie felt an indescribable fear for the smile she saw many times today, so she instinctively looked at Nert to rely on him, but Nert didn’t seem to feel her gaze and instead kept looking at the documents Sophie gave earlier.
These two…
Sophie had heard the gold star students mention, “The people of the silver star generally don’t listen to other people talking to them, and they don’t care about how people think of them,” before, but it might not have been a mistaken evaluation.
Want early access to Cannon Fodder, Melancholy of the Demon Army Officer, and I Was a Man Before Reincarnating, So I Refuse a Reverse Harem? Support the translator on Patreon!
Thank you for your work!