Carts. They were platforms on wheels, pulled by either people or horses. Some had two wheels, while others had four. The two-wheeled variety offered maneuverability, whereas the four-wheeled ones were better suited for heavy loads. Perhaps because of the many slopes in Village Five, I saw the two-wheeled type quite often there.
And now, the Mountain Elves had built one.
Of course, it was no ordinary cart. For one thing, it required no person or horse to pull it. It was a four-wheeled model that moved automatically toward a special tracking jewel. If a person tucked that jewel into something like a belt, the cart would follow the person wearing it wherever they went.
It was incredibly useful. I was genuinely surprised that the Mountain Elves had suddenly produced something so practical. I didn't want to be rude, but they had truly caught me off guard.
I wondered what had prompted this.
As it turned out, they had been burning through precious materials and a massive portion of the budget on research for Multi-purpose Humanoid Mobile Heavy Equipment—also known as Artie Horses—and internal combustion engines. Consequently, the glares from the Civil Official Girls had become increasingly painful to endure.
Personally, I thought it was important to keep research moving forward; profits could always come later.
"As expected of the Village Head! You really understand us!"
That said, it was still a problem if they had absolutely no results or revenue to show for their spending.
"Ugh... You're right about that."
The elves sighed. I looked at them closely.
"Is there something else?"
I knew the Mountain Elves well enough to know they wouldn't stop doing what they loved just because of a few glares from the Civil Official Girls. They were exactly like the Elder Dwarves when sake was involved. There had to be another reason.
"Ahaha. Actually..."
They had caused an explosion accident.
Come to think of it, I had received a report about that a while ago. It had stated there were no casualties, but...
"There were no human injuries, but we blew up some extremely rare materials. We can't get replacements unless we ask the Civil Official Girls, and well..."
I see.
"This cart also serves as our way of saying 'sorry'."
So, they had developed something they thought would sell easily. That was the origin of this cart.
"Lu-san and Tia-san also collaborated with us on the project."
I wondered if those two had also been worried about the glares from the Civil Official Girls. No, that couldn't be it. Those two wouldn't be bothered by a few looks.
"The two of them were also involved in the explosion accident."
Ah. I see.
To summarize: the Mountain Elves had built the physical body of the cart, while Lu and Tia handled the magical components. The Lizardmen had also assisted with the field testing.
"Lu-san and Tia-san mentioned they had a hard time preventing the carts from running over the Lizardmen's tails or crashing into people when they stopped suddenly."
I could see how those would be major issues for an automated tracking system.
"Yes. We eventually set it to maintain a distance of about an adult's arm span from the tracking jewel."
"Hmm."
"That actually led to a rather funny bit of trouble where the person wearing the jewel couldn't actually reach the cart even if they wanted to."
I laughed at that. To fix it, they had added an on-off function for the tracking.
"We also had to work hard on sensors to detect slopes, road widths, and obstacles so the cart would know what to do if the path was blocked. It was quite an ordeal."
Looking at the sheer number of prototypes, I could believe it. For instance, the power output had to change whenever the cart hit a slope to keep it moving at a stable speed. To handle ascents and descents properly, they probably needed a gear system as well.
"We also couldn't have it rolling away on its own due to its own weight. Making it stay put when it needed to was surprisingly difficult."
"Hmm."
As I looked over the inventions, I noticed one that didn't have wheels. It had legs.
"We wondered if a multi-legged type like Zabuton-san would be better for traversing mountain paths."
I understood the logic, but hadn't they made a multi-legged Golem once before?
"There was that unfortunate accident, yes."
I remembered.
"Recalling that, we decided to leave it as a prototype. We packed so much tech from the Artie Horses into it that mass production would have been impossible anyway."
"That's a shame."
"It is. We also tried to see if we could avoid obstacles entirely by making it float."
It was essentially a miniature Floating Garden modified for automated transport.
"We thought that would be the ultimate form... but production would require Lu-san to do almost everything by hand. Between that and the difficulty of gathering the materials, the manufacturing costs were astronomical. It wasn't something we could actually sell."
"I suppose not."
"After considering stable production and sales, the wheeled type became our flagship model."
"So that was the Mountain Elves' conclusion?"
"No, that was the final word from the Civil Official Girls."
I figured as much. If it were up to the Mountain Elves, they would have likely pushed forward with the floating or multi-legged versions regardless of the cost.
"Lu-san and Tia-san both looked quite frustrated about it."
I could imagine.
Now, the reason they were showing this to me was likely to lay the groundwork for a mass production system. I wondered if they planned to set it up in Village Five.
"No, it's still too early for mass production. We have a lot more testing to do first."
"Then why show it to me now?"
"The opinion was raised that it was about time."
"Time for what?"
"For you to name it, please."
Of all the tasks I performed, this was always the most difficult.
I officially named the invention the "Tracking Cart."
I was fully aware that it wasn't a very exciting name. However, well... it wasn't as if giving it a bizarre name made it any better. Simple and easy to understand was best.
Improvements continued on the Tracking Cart, focusing on mass production and cost reduction. Since it moved automatically, the team had to account for every possible scenario. They also began drafting operation manuals in parallel.
When we tried using it in the Village of the Great Tree, it was a massive hit. Everyone loved how convenient it was for transporting harvested crops. The Civil Official Girls asked if the loading and unloading could also be automated, but the idea was scrapped after the team realized it would drive the price too high.
Instead, they designed dedicated unloading sites. By stopping the Tracking Cart at these specific locations, a mechanism would automatically unload the cargo. Of course, once the goods were at the site, they still had to be moved elsewhere.
"If we integrated the unloading site with the storehouse..."
"We could automate the movement of goods inside the storehouse, too."
"But how would the system decide where to put everything?"
"We'd need to record things like the date the goods arrived, wouldn't we?"
The Mountain Elves were starting to look like they were about to spark a logistics revolution. I wondered if it was really okay to let them keep going.
To prevent signal interference when the carts reached mass production, each special tracking jewel was assigned a unique ID number. Lu and Tia had initially suggested a four-digit system, but I advised them that a twelve-digit system would be much better. Even if we didn't use all the numbers immediately, it was better to have the extra capacity.
There was also the issue of speed. Depending on the pace of the person wearing the jewel, the cart might fall behind. We ran experiments to see exactly how far the cart could be from the jewel before it lost the signal.
By my reckoning, it could track from about a hundred meters away in an open area. If there were obstacles, that range dropped to about thirty meters, depending on the environment.
Upon seeing these results, the High Elves suggested the tech could be used for search and rescue operations in the forest. If a lost person was carrying a special tracking jewel, rescuers would know exactly where they were as soon as they got within thirty meters.
That was a solid point. We couldn't give a jewel to everyone, but it might be worth having adventurers carry them when they headed into dangerous areas—especially if they were on a mission for Village Five. I made a mental note to look into it.
We also discovered that if we equipped the Tracking Cart itself with a belt containing a jewel, we could link multiple carts together in a train.
The fact that even a child could use the Tracking Cart increased the hopes for mass production even further. The Mountain Elves, however, looked a little overwhelmed by the sudden pressure.
Michael-san from the Goroun Company happened to see the Tracking Cart during an operational test and went straight to the Civil Official Girls to place an order. It was helpful that he wanted a thousand units, but I was a little worried that he hadn't even asked about the price.
Wait... a thousand units by the end of the year? And even more next year?
It looked like we really needed to get that mass production system running as soon as possible. I decided I'd better ask Lu and Tia for a detailed list of the materials they were going to need.