It was the 18th day of the third month, spring.
Having overcome the Golem Incident sparked by the Master-Slave Rewrite Magic during the Golem Party in Fortress City Asunt, the capital of the Kingdom of Egerea, Jin and his companions were now traveling toward the Shouro Empire—the homeland of Reinhard and Elsa.
Since Reinhard had concluded his diplomatic duties, they were enjoying a leisurely journey, even taking time along the way to stop for lunch in a grassy field blanketed with flowers that closely resembled Chinese milk vetch.
After spending a night in the regional city of Rashur, they passed through Pean Town and Cartor Town before returning to the main highway. From there, they made their way through the regional city of Bazard, Flagran Town, the regional city of Dogran, and the regional city of Dizier, finally securing lodging in Giaral Town on the 24th.
When the morning of the 25th arrived, the party departed Giaral Town and set off toward their next planned stop, Delid Town.
"Hm? Did something happen up ahead?"
Just before noon, someone who appeared to be a soldier signaled them to stop on the highway. Judging by his uniform, he was stationed in one of the regional cities.
"Is something the matter?"
Reinhard, riding in Jin's carriage as usual, spoke up on behalf of the group.
"Ah, my apologies, but the road ahead has collapsed and is completely impassable. Repairs will likely take nearly ten days. We ask that you take a detour instead."
Because it was spring, rain was frequent. Though today was overcast, it had rained heavily for the past two days, which had likely caused the unstable ground to give way.
"Nothing to be done about that, then."
Reinhard's party was not particularly familiar with the back roads. Still, figuring he would fare somewhat better, they decided to let Reinhard's coachman take the lead.
After having the coachman ask the soldier for directions, the group turned onto the side road with his carriage leading the way.
The side road was narrow and full of uneven bumps. To make matters worse, the recent rain had gouged deep ruts into the dirt, making travel difficult.
While Jin's carriage remained perfectly comfortable, Reinhard—who had returned to his own vehicle—quickly retreated to Jin's carriage once more. Even with dampers installed, the difference in ride quality was simply too jarring.
"Haah, Jin's carriage really is the best!"
It truly seemed that once a person grew accustomed to luxury, there was no going back to how things used to be.
As they continued along, rain began to fall once more.
"This is bad. Rain again?"
In this mountainous region, rainfall tended to pour down in short, intense bursts. In the blink of an eye, it turned into a torrential downpour.
The road instantly dissolved into mud, and the ruts vanished beneath the sludge. The coachman in the lead carriage struggled to pick out a path as they pressed forward.
However, abandoned trails and animal tracks intersected the route, and amid the blinding rain, the group wound up heading in a completely wrong direction.
＊ ＊ ＊
The rain finally cleared just past midday. With his vision restored, the coachman driving the lead carriage was the first to panic.
"T-This is awful!"
He scrambled down from his carriage and hurried over to Reinhard—which meant running to Jin's carriage.
"Lord Reinhard, I am terribly sorry! It seems I took a wrong turn."
Bowing his head so low he looked ready to drop into a dogeza right there in the mud, the coachman begged for forgiveness. Reinhard held up a hand.
"Whoa, hold on. What on earth happened? Explain properly."
"Y-Yes, my lord. I can see a small village or settlement up ahead, but according to the directions I received, we were supposed to reach a town around evening. There was no mention of any small village like this."
Reinhard, however, showed no sign of anger.
"Well, it can't be helped. If there's a village, let's just plan on resting there rather than pushing ourselves. If you look at it another way, as far as getting lost goes, this turned out quite well, didn't it?"
Given the heavy rain and confusing paths, Reinhard was not petty enough to berate a subordinate over an honest mistake. Breathing a sigh of relief, the coachman replied:
"In that case, we shall make for that village."
With their destination decided, the party headed toward the small settlement.
"It's quite a rustic place."
It was a truly tiny village, straddling the line between a village and a mere settlement. The residents appeared to eke out a modest living farming crops like wheat.
"Hmm. It's not that far from the highway, so you'd think it would be a bit livelier."
Reinhard tilted his head in thought.
"Well, no use overthinking it."
The party entered the village. Wooden stakes had simply been driven into the ground to mark the rough perimeter, and there were only about twenty households in total. It was even smaller than Kaina Village.
"My, are you travelers?"
As they parked their carriages in an open clearing and took in their surroundings, an old woman happened to walk by.
"Are you from this village?"
When Reinhard's butler asked, the old woman nodded.
"We would like to stay the night in this village. Could you tell us where the village chief lives?"
When the butler asked with courteous manners, the old woman pointed toward a house nearby.
The village chief turned out to be an elderly man with a head of white hair.
"Noble guests, are you? This village has nothing but old folk, so we can't offer any proper hospitality, but..."
"That is quite all right. As long as you can spare a place to sleep, some water, and a bit of food."
Since they carried several meals' worth of preserved rations, the butler kept their requests to the bare minimum.
"A place to stay, is it...? There are a few vacant houses, so if those will do..."
With that, the village chief stood up and guided the party toward two stone houses in the back of the village, offering them for the night.
"They might be a bit dusty, mind you."
He had said "a bit," but it was an understatement.
"The dust is dreadful. Ojou-sama, please do not step inside until we finish cleaning."
Led by Mine, the three women—including Reinhard's two lady's maids—divided up the tasks and began cleaning.
However, cleaning an entire house was no small feat. On top of that, there was still a second house waiting for them.
Unable to just stand by and watch, Jin spoke up.
"Reiko, could you lend them a hand?"
Reiko nodded and sprang into action.
"I can handle this one entirely on my own."
No sooner had she spoken than she set to work on the other rented house.
Since she had no need to breathe, she paid no mind to the billowing dust.
"『Breeze』."
Using wind-attribute magic, she whipped up the dust and blasted it right out the open windows.
Seeing that, Jin tapped Reinhard on the shoulder.
"Hm? What is it, Jin?"
"Reinhard, let's build a vacuum cleaner."
＊ ＊ ＊
"So, we use wind-attribute magic to create suction like this..."
"Mm-hmm."
"And then we filter out the debris that gets pulled in."
"I see! I'm always amazed by the things you come up with, Jin."
Hearing Reinhard's earnest praise gave Jin a slight twinge of guilt. After all, it wasn't his idea, but rather technology refined over centuries by the world he had originally come from.
"Hm? What's wrong?"
Seeing Jin lost in thought, Reinhard checked on him.
"Ah, no, I was just wondering what materials we should use."
"Hmm, fair point. We're traveling, so we don't have access to anything fancy."
Jin played it off, though materials were indeed their biggest hurdle.
"How about this?"
Reinhard pulled out an old leather bag.
"Ah, that looks useful. And I found this over here."
When Jin casually cast 『Analyze』 on a rock that caught his eye, he found that it contained a substantial amount of iron.
"We might be able to use this, too."
Reinhard offered up an old coat as well, so the two decided to give it a shot.
"『Extraction』. 『Smelting』."
Jin separated the iron from the rock.
"『Forming』. 『Forming』. 『Joint』."
Reinhard shaped the leather bag into a flexible hose.
"Jin, is this about right?"
"Yeah, maybe just a little narrower?"
"Right, got it. 『Forming』."
Since leather retained a degree of plastic malleability, 『Forming』 worked on it just fine.
Jin then forged the main body from the extracted iron. The design he envisioned was not a cyclone model, but a standard canister vacuum cleaner.
The reason was simple: Jin had never actually used a cyclone vacuum cleaner before.
Once they fashioned a filter out of Reinhard's old coat, the rest was smooth sailing.
For the power source, they used a magi-stone that Jin had brought along for emergencies.
Since the underlying principle of a vacuum cleaner was straightforward, Reinhard happily lent a hand, and they completed the prototype vacuum cleaner in about an hour.
"Now then, shall we test it out?"
With the device in hand, they headed over to the rented houses.
"Father, I have finished."
The house Reiko had taken charge of was already spotless, right down to the wiped surfaces.
They moved on to the house Mine and the two maids were working on.
That side was only about half-finished, so...
"Mine, give this a try."
Reinhard held out the prototype vacuum cleaner.
"Lord Reinhard, what is this?"
Reinhard's lady's maids also looked on with curious tilts of their heads.
"It's called a 'vacuum cleaner.'"
Reinhard activated the mana supply.
"You use it to suck up dirt and dust like this."
He demonstrated by vacuuming a section of the floor.
"My goodness!"
"That's incredible!"
"What a lifesaver!"
All three women gasped in amazement, offered their thanks, and immediately set to work cleaning the remaining rooms with the new machine.
＊ ＊ ＊
The cleaning wrapped up around five in the evening, just as the spring sun was beginning to dip below the horizon.
Their hard work was well rewarded: the rented house had a small bath, allowing everyone—especially the lady's maids—the welcome relief of washing away the grime from a long day of cleaning.