The Abandoned Duchess Seems to Want a Peaceful Life - Chapter 135

Chapter 135: The Hand Pump Invention and a Flash of Lightning

“Lady Melfina, would you like some tea?”

Following those words, Julius and Rena emerged from the children’s room after Marie and Cedric.

Nid’s house was often used for gatherings, so it had a table and several chairs, a rarity for a commoner’s house. Rena sat half-way on a chair, and Julius, after receiving the tray from Eli who was preparing the tea, carried it over with an air of familiarity.

“Lord Julius, you’ve become quite a part of this house.”

“I’m quite good at cooking and making tea, Lady. Measuring ingredients precisely, applying heat for specific durations, and separating them individually—the process is almost identical to potion brewing.”

Well, that makes sense.

If Julius had been born in Melfina’s previous world, he might have become a scientist who brewed coffee in beakers in his lab.

What they brought out was warm barley tea. Although the temperature was starting to rise, the cloudy weather had persisted, and a warm drink felt soothing.

“Speaking of which, Rena seems to have a proposal for you, Lady.”

“Rena? Well, let’s hear it.”

Turning her gaze towards Rena, she saw her blush, mumbling, “Oh, no!” as if surprised by the topic. She then nervously rubbed her fingers against the table with her flushed cheeks.

“Umm, I was wondering if we could make a bigger version of the spray bottle Lady Melfina made the other day.”

“If it gets too big, it’ll be hard to carry around. That’s why we’ve been relying on people who can use wind magic.”

“No, it’s not about moving it. I thought we could attach it to a well. It wouldn’t be fine mist like that, but water would come out directly. I thought it would make drawing water easier than now.”

Rena scrambled down from her chair and dashed into the children’s room, returning with a sheet of plant paper clutched to her chest.

“Juli-oniichan drew this for Lady Mel’s spray bottle. If you make the container part into a well, enlarge the water passage, and flip the pushing part from top to bottom, I think water would come out.”

Next to the diagram of the spray bottle—presumably drawn by Julius—was a cross-section of a well, a pipe reaching down to the water level, and a mechanism for drawing water up.

It was a near-perfect design for a hand pump. Marie and Cedric, intrigued, gazed at the paper spread out on the table.

Certainly, the structure of a spray bottle—a type of atomizer—and a hand pump differed slightly in their intricate mechanisms, like screws and valves. But they were essentially the same in terms of applying air pressure by pushing a handle, creating a vacuum within the pump, and drawing up water.

“That’s a fantastic idea. Did Lord Julius design this?”

“Actually, Rena is the one who drew this diagram. I just made minor adjustments when I copied it.”

“Oh, my…”

The mechanism, where the valve inside the lever opened when it was pushed and the valve installed in the water suction pipe opened when the lever was pulled up, was likely added by Julius. Nonetheless, it was remarkable for young Rena to have come up with this concept.

Julius, with his knowledge only of the noble society, wouldn’t have thought of making water drawing easier from a well. They were truly a good team.

“Umm, well, even if we made it, I don’t know if water will actually come out…”

As Rena stared intently at the diagram, she spoke anxiously. Her shyness, typical of a child her age, was evident in her fidgeting fingers.

“Rena, you and Lord Julius should take this design to the blacksmith workshop and have them make this. I’ll sponsor it as the lord.”

Rena’s face lit up, and she beamed.

“Really!?”

“Yes, I think this will be groundbreaking.”

Currently, drawing water from wells was done using a pulley system. Fetching water from the river was too laborious, so most households depended on well water for their daily needs.

And water was heavy, making it a physically demanding task. The hand pump, if widely adopted, would make life much easier.

“Once drawing water becomes easier, everyone will be grateful to you, Rena. Have you decided on a name for it yet?”

“Umm, a big spray bottle… But it’s not mist, so it’s like a water spray? But that sounds like cleaning, doesn’t it?”

As she struggled with words like ‘water discharger’ and ‘water puller’, everyone at the table couldn’t help but smile.

Despite coming up with ideas that adults wouldn’t think of, Rena was still a child.

“How about a ‘water pump’? It means a device for drawing water up.”

“I like that!”

Rena’s eyes shone with curiosity as she gazed at the pump design.

Julius, standing next to her, looked at her with the same eyes as if he were gazing at a treasure.

—Perhaps, these two will drastically change the Enkar region in the future.

With Melfina as the main source of technical ideas, it was challenging to implement everything at once. She had postponed many developments due to her duties as the lord.

Having new developers emerge was a wonderful thing.

It was both strange and heartwarming that it was the girl who called her “Lady Mel” with a lisp last year.

* * *

As the conversation subsided, Julius yawned, covering his mouth with his hand and rubbing his eyes.

“Sleepy… I should probably excuse myself.”

He seemed to have been suddenly struck by overwhelming drowsiness, even his voice had become slurred.

“Juli-oniichan, do you want to go to your room?”

“Yeah, I’ve reached my limit today.”

Julius slowly got off his chair and lumbered towards the inner room. Rena walked in front of him, opening the room door for him.

At that moment, Sara’s cries echoed from the children’s room, which had been left open.

“Excuse me for a moment, Lady Melfina.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ve overstayed my welcome. We should be going soon ourselves.”

Melfina had initially come over to check on Julius and see Sara, but their conversation had stretched on longer than anticipated. She remembered the pile of settlement statements and pending documents in her office that needed to be taken care of.

“I’ll call for the carriage then.”

As Marie headed towards the door, a low rumble resonated through the air. A moment later, a loud boom echoed. Everyone flinched, and immediately exhaled.

“That was a loud clap of thunder. I wonder if it struck nearby.”

Embarrassed by her startled reaction, Melfina turned her gaze and noticed Eli, huddled over, shielding Sara in her arms.

“Eli, what’s wrong?!”

As she got up in alarm, she finally noticed that everyone present had gone pale.

Cedric, the only one with a neutral expression, seemed tense nonetheless.

“Everyone, what’s wrong?”

“No, it’s just that… thunder struck nearby.”

Marie, trembling beside her, was clearly shaken. Melfina instinctively put an arm around her, pulling her close. Marie’s frail shoulders shook violently, revealing an unexpected tremor that was unlike her usually calm demeanor.

“It’s okay. Lightning rarely strikes people, so there’s no need to be so scared.”

“Lady Melfina, aren’t you afraid of thunder?”

As Melfina tried to reassure her, Marie asked in a choked voice, her face pale.

While she was startled by the loud sound, thunder wasn’t something to be fearful of. The probability of a direct strike was low, and with the Enkar region being close to a forest with tall trees, it was unlikely to hit people or houses.

It would be a concern if it struck a forest and caused a wildfire, but it was the rainy season, and both the trees and the ground were constantly wet. There was little to worry about.

That was her thought, but then she noticed that everyone was staring at her, and she couldn’t speak.

Melfina had never received such looks, no matter how outlandish her ideas.

They were looking at her as if she were something alien, something different.

It was clear that she was the only one who wasn’t afraid of thunder. It was due to her knowledge about lightning, but she could sense from the palpable fear and the strange atmosphere that their fear of thunder wasn’t simply due to their lack of knowledge.

Her throat went dry involuntarily.

She felt that if she said that thunder wasn’t something to be afraid of, something would irrevocably change.

“Of course, I’m afraid too. But I’m more worried about everyone being so scared.”

With that, a sigh of relief escaped, though it was unclear who had uttered it.

“….Perhaps, I should stay here a little longer. Until the thunder passes.”

Melfina took Sara from Eli’s trembling hands and helped her stand up to sit on a chair. Eli, with worry in her eyes, held Sara tightly. Her arms, clutching the swaddled baby, were still trembling.

“It’s okay, it’s okay.”

Melfina stroked Eli’s back soothingly, but Eli couldn’t bring herself to look up.

She felt an intense fear that even Marie and Cedric, who had always been closest to her, now seemed different, alien to her.