Kays Translations
Just another Isekai Lover~
Chapter 220: Transmitting Magic Power
“Thank you, Anne. You’re cute, kind, a first-rate magician, and on top of all that, you’re so smart! Heh, it seems I’ve married the best woman ever!”
While still hugging Annemarie, Isamu whispered in her ear.
“Huh? C-cute!? Uh, I… I… um… thank you?”
Surprised by his unexpected words, Annemarie blushed even more.
Isamu, undeterred, continued to hold her tight.
“Hah, I’d love to stay like this, but I need to finish the motor too. Eto-san, Willem-san, could you bring me a copy of the magic circles from the Golem Writer?”
After about fifteen seconds, Isamu finally released Annemarie and spoke to Eto and Willem.
“…You’re still the same, huh?”
“…The copy, huh? Got it.”
Though they were both amused, Eto and Willem walked over to a bookshelf in the lab, took a box containing a copy of the magic circle, and handed it to Isamu.
Isamu turned back to the magic motor, carefully touched the rotating magic stone, and stopped the motor.
“Nyaa-hh~”
Meanwhile, Orihime, still watching Annearie’s flustered state, let out a single chirp, as if to say, “Good grief.”
“This is the one.”
“Thank you!”
Isamu took the box from Eto, pressing small buttons on the box with numbers written on them.
Beep-beep-beep, Ziii… Click
A small noise came from the box, and when Isamu opened it, he took out the copy of the magic circle.
“Really handy, huh?”
Eto, watching the scene, couldn’t help but mutter.
“With the number of these increasing, we should add a bit more security.”
The box had implemented a security mechanism based on a primitive number lock found in ruins in the Innocenti territory.
When they cracked the number and took it back for research, they discovered that not only could the number input be read, but also the magic circle that formed the locking mechanism.
The one found in the ruins had no limit on attempts, so they increased the digit count to eight and set the maximum number of tries to five for the new lock.
Even if the box were stolen, they had ensured that it couldn’t be easily opened with basic security measures.
“Uh… where was it…? Ah, here it is!”
Isamu flipped through the papers rapidly and stopped at one.
“Since this part changes the movement into a transmissible magic form, maybe I can simplify and remove the part that converts the movement magic pattern.”
He muttered to himself, spreading out the surrounding papers and began sketching out the magic circle.
The first generation of magic giants, Golems, used a magical device to capture the magic movement of the user and output it externally, starting with capturing the magic pattern.
The captured magic pattern had a complex structure that couldn’t be transmitted directly, so it was converted into a neutral magic form to be sent out.
The magic being transmitted would change depending on the movement, but it would always be neutral magic.
Therefore, if they used neutral magic from the activation magic stone, in theory, it should be possible to transmit it.
“Alright, it’s done. Well, theoretically, the magic used for the activation circle is supposed to be very simple, so converting it to a transmissible form shouldn’t require too much energy.”
Though not as clear as magic used by humans, Isamu could somewhat see the flow of magic in the magic circle. To him, the magic in the activation circle seemed very simple.
“Well then, let’s see if this works…”
Isamu said, attaching the magic stone to the new magic circle he had added to the case and activated it.
The simple magic circle glowed faintly, and after a brief moment, the windmill inside the case began to slowly rotate.
“Whoa—!”
The four people watching cheered in unison.
“It moved.”
“It really moved.”
“It’s working!”
“This is an amazing discovery! The possibilities for applications are endless! Anne, thank you so much!”
Isamu embraced Annemarie again, his face filled with gratitude.
“A-ah, I’m happy I could help…”
Annemarie, once again turning red, stammered as Isamu continued to hold her.
With this new system, not only could the production of magic tools with difficult structures be simplified, but things like remote controls could be made, and the power for multiple magic tools could be managed from one central location.
If they mastered it, this could be a groundbreaking development for magic tools.
Thus, by solving this issue, the prototype magic air motor was completed for the time being.
“Now, next up is the gearbox…”
After conducting several successful operation tests and confirming everything was fine, Isamu began to remove the outer casing of the completed prototype motor, murmuring to himself.
“Gearbox?”
Eto asked, unfamiliar with the term.
“Yeah. In simple terms, it’s a mechanism to balance power and speed. Since I made the power source smaller, I’m guessing it might lack enough power if we keep going like this.”
“Hmm. Well, compared to the current magic car, it seems the power would be reduced because the windmill is smaller…”
Since the power source had been downsized, they compensated by increasing the number of air blades to cover a larger area.
With the weight reduction, the maximum rotational speed should be higher than the existing magic cars, but the torque seemed a little lacking.
Power shortages might occur during startup or on slopes.
While the current magic cars use brute force to make the body lighter, Isamu wanted to address this issue fundamentally.
The first thing that came to mind was a gear-based transmission system, like those found in cars or bicycles.
This system efficiently uses the characteristics of the reduction mechanism. When torque is needed for starting, a low-speed gear is used, and when speed increases, the high-speed gear is engaged, making it an excellent way to use power efficiently.
However, while making gears might be possible, creating the entire transmission system seemed like it would be a much higher hurdle.
For starters, a manual transmission used in automobiles is practically impossible at this stage. It requires a clutch for gear shifting while driving, and since the mechanism is not well understood, it doesn’t seem feasible to create one easily.
So, what about using chains or belts, as seen in bicycles and similar vehicles?
The transmission system for this seems simpler, but the trouble comes with making the necessary roller chains, which would be tricky to create with the required precision at this point.
Thus, I gave up on the gear-based transmission system and opted for a friction drive and stepless transmission mechanism, which doesn’t use gears.
Friction drive doesn’t transmit power through meshing parts like gears. Instead, it relies on friction between two metal discs—when one disc is rotated, the other turns as well.
Compared to gears, the structure is much simpler, and by changing the point of contact, it’s easy to create a stepless transmission mechanism due to the difference in the circumference of the discs.
The CVT (Continuously Variable Transmission) commonly used in small Japanese cars is a development and application of this kind of system.
However, friction drive has a significant drawback: its energy transmission efficiency is worse than that of gears.
Compared to the solid engagement of gears, the contact surfaces of friction drive can slip, leading to power loss.
Therefore, the CVTs mentioned earlier mostly use belts or chains to transmit power.
On the other hand, in this world of Ethersia, belts like those don’t exist, and the exact structure of CVTs is still unknown to me.
But, this world has magic and monster materials.
By using the properties of a certain monster material I happened to discover, I may be able to significantly improve this issue.
“Ah, this is Metal Leech, huh?”
“Yes. However, it’s only lightly coated with Metal Leech, so the amount used is much smaller than it appears.”
Isamu took out a disk-shaped metal part with a hole in the middle.
Using the characteristics of this material, which becomes softer when magic power flows through it and adheres tightly to metal, the surface was thinly coated with Metal Leech.
“I realized the necessity of lightning magic after fighting the magic giant Golem, and I finally learned lightning magic the other day. But I just remembered that I hadn’t tried flowing lightning magic into Metal Leech yet.”
Isamu explained.
Previously, he had experimented with flowing magic attributes into Metal Leech, discovering various effects. However, since he didn’t know lightning magic at the time, he hadn’t tested it yet.
“So, I remembered and quickly gave it a try, and here’s what I found.”
Isamu touched the disk-shaped part and flowed lightning magic into it.
“Hmm, this should do. Eto, please give it a try.”
“Uh… is this safe?”
Eto hesitated when hearing it involved lightning magic.
“Hehe, it’s fine. As long as it’s magic power, nothing will happen. When I infused fire magic, it didn’t get hot, right?”
“Now that you mention it, you’re right. It doesn’t look any different, but let’s see… Huh? It feels like my hand is sticking to it.”
“May I try as well? …Oh, I see. It doesn’t slip at all, it feels strange.”
Annemarie also touched the surface after Eto, repeatedly rubbing it in wonder.
“Exactly. It seems that when lightning magic flows through, the surface’s friction increases. Watch this.”
Isamu stopped infusing magic for a moment, then placed a small metal cube on top of the disk.
Tilting the disk, he continued speaking.
“Without doing anything, the cube slides off like this.”
When Isamu slightly tilted the disk, the cube started to slide off.
“But when I flow lightning magic…”
He repositioned the cube and started infusing magic again while tilting the disk in the same way.
This time, even with a steep tilt, the cube stayed in place.
“Ah, it’s definitely not sliding anymore.”
“Right. With this, I think we could transmit power more efficiently. And the fact that it slides when no magic is infused is also a good thing.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes. This time, I’m planning to switch between power-focused mode and speed-focused mode, but it’s a bit tricky to switch while driving.”
A type of friction drive that uses disk-shaped components transmits power by making another disk contact the rotating disk vertically.
By contacting the outer part of the power-side disk, which is spinning faster, the speed increases. If contact is made toward the inner part, the speed decreases and torque increases. If the contact is made on the opposite side from the center, reverse rotation occurs, enabling reverse movement.
This system is very simple because it only requires moving one of the disks left or right to change gears, and it was used in early locomotives on Earth.
In fact, Isamu came up with this method after seeing such a locomotive in Nagano Prefecture.
However, moving across the rotating disk creates a lot of resistance, requiring force, and if done poorly, the axle could become distorted or, in the worst case, break.
It would be ideal if there were a mechanism, similar to a clutch, that could turn the power transmission on and off, but since such a mechanism doesn’t exist in this case, it would defeat the purpose.
In the worst case, I considered shifting in three stages: first, moving the disks apart so they wouldn’t be in contact, then adjusting and re-engaging the contact. But thanks to the properties of Metal Leech material, this problem has been solved.
“When there’s no lightning magic flowing, it actually slides quite well, so it seems we can change gears smoothly.”
While it doesn’t eliminate resistance completely, it’s within an acceptable range.
“And there’s one more, quite surprising characteristic I discovered.”
“Another one?!”
“Yes. Normally, when two metals rub against each other intensely, what happens?”
“Two metals? …You’d hear a sound, and both would gradually wear down.”
“Right. And they’d heat up as well. So, I initially made everything out of Metal Leech, thinking the wear would be manageable. But when I tested it, it didn’t wear down at all, and there was almost no sound either…”
“What?!”
Eto couldn’t help but exclaim in surprise at Isamu’s explanation.
“It’s unbelievable, right? And since it didn’t wear down, I thought maybe I could coat the surface of another metal with it, and when I tried, it worked perfectly. There’s some heat transfer, so the base metal does get warm, but it’s manageable.”
“Well, that’s just incredible.”
It’s something that looks like metal but isn’t quite metal, so it might sound unbelievable, but it’s definitely extraordinary.
“Exactly. Strictly speaking, it doesn’t seem like the friction is increasing. The exact principle is still unclear… But thanks to this, I think we can mass-produce it with the materials we have on hand, which is a real blessing.”
Although they brought back a reasonable amount of Metal Leech from the ruins, if they made all the disks out of it, they’d only be able to make about ten units. After making a few prototypes, they would need to experiment with various materials and choose the one for mass production. However, this was no longer necessary for the time being.
Although it’s an expensive rare material, and alternatives will be considered for mass production, it’s great that producing enough units for practical use by the Klaufeldt family is not an issue.
Thanks to the exceptional performance of Metal Leech, Isamu and his team solved several challenges, and later, they effectively used it for prototypes of frames, handlebars, and other components. By the following night, they had successfully created the prototype of a magical motorcycle.