Steel and Mana

Chapter 220 – Typewriter

"The lottery is proving to be more successful than we first expected!" Merlin exhaled, explaining it to me as we walked in my garden while my wives played with the kids in the soft grass. Leyla and Arthur were playing jousting, sitting on Luna and Sasha's backs, going against each other with stuffed swords in hand. "We should host more like this; the revenue is more than we expected."

"Spend it on the city." I answered him calmly, watching my beloved family. "I want to raise the education level and add a second, optional school to Avalon very soon. It should produce people who, in time, will be the preferred figures for ministry positions and for emerging, much more complex jobs."

"Would it be more subject-focused?" He asked, already having an inkling of what I was thinking about.

"Yes. It would produce people who would be doctors, teachers, engineers, lawyers, and so on. Just like there is an Academy in the capital city of Ishillia, there will be a University here. I want you to start preparing for it and lay down the funding subjects, lessons, and career paths. You know best who amongst the past and current students stands best suited for higher education, so recruit them. By the time my kids go to school, I want them to go through all the grades right to the top."

"You will send them to... our school?" He looked at me, surprised because he thought they would be home-schooled.

"Of course!" I laughed, glancing at him with a smile. "What would it tell others if I didn't send my children there? I told everyone it is the best place in Avalon to learn, and I meant it! They will enroll in it and study there like every other child. Why should I deprive them of interacting with others just because they are mine? Because they are nobility?"

"Well... yes?"

"No." I answered solemnly. "If I don't put my kids through what regular people do while growing up, they will be detached from reality, and they won't understand what people need. How can they rule over them if they don't know them?"

"..."

"Use the extra money we earned to prepare books. I will write them up and send them to you to be printed. As we are waiting for the factories to finish construction, I have time to pen them down. Haaah..."

"What is it, Leon?" He stopped, looking at me to see why I let out a tired sigh.

"My wrist. Writing so much hurts it just by thinking about it."

"Only if we could make hand-held printers..." He mumbled, thinking, making me slap my face so hard I felt giving myself a concussion. "Sovereign?!"

"Typewriter..." I moaned, pulling on my face, "Why didn't I thought about it yet? Damn, I'm stupid..."

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"A machine for writing..." I murmured to myself, wanting to find a reason why I never thought about it beforehand. I should have made it when printing was brought up! I will use the fact that my mind was filled with mechs and magic, so I totally forgot about typewriters. And because I am used to hand-drawing my blueprints, a typewriter never occurred to me to be useful beforehand. And not because I am forgetful... nu-uh!

"You are making faces again." Sasha giggled, entering my office, here to call me to dinner. "Are you done sulking and arguing with yourself? What about the plans?"

"Yeah, yeah... I am!" I moaned, stretching, letting her walk over to me and after giving me a kiss, she took a look at what I drew up this afternoon.

It was the outline of the device, reminiscent of the early typewriters from my past life, the ones I saw in museums. But this version would be different—better. I wasn't going to deal with the very first versions and their heavy, cumbersome machinery within. I decided to improve the design before I wore out my fingers while typing on them. So, for starters, I introduced lever mechanics, a more refined mechanism beneath the keys.

"Leverage," I muttered to Sasha, seeing her fingers trace the layout, the word giving her direction. "If I can increase the mechanical advantage, I can reduce the force needed to press the keys."

She continued caressing my drawing lines, reading my lever system for each key with her finger. Instead of directly connecting to the type bar, I designed a series of interconnected levers and fulcrums that would amplify the force the typist's fingers applied. With this setup, even a light touch would generate enough force to lift the type bar and strike the ribbon.

Then, I carefully added tension springs to each key and designed them precisely to what I thought would be the most ideal. This way, the springs would be longer and thinner, requiring less force to compress. I calculated the perfect tension for an hour—just enough to return the key to its original position without making it too difficult to press down.

Next was reducing friction. I realized that friction within the mechanism was another major source of resistance. So, I sketched out the internal components, replacing the basic metal joints with miniature ball bearings at critical points. These bearings would allow the parts to move more freely, reducing the overall resistance that I would feel while using them.

"Ball bearings," Sasha spoke, understanding it without me needing to voice my ideas. "They'll keep everything smooth and light."

"You are beautiful..." I whispered, feeling that I was falling in love with her once again, seeing her focused face as she studied the plans of a simple machine, learning and exploring it... I wanted to make love to her right then and there. "Khm." I fidgeted, returning to my plans, not wanting to disturb my wife when she was so lost in studying something new.

Following her gaze, I knew she was at the part dealing with the carrier's automatic return and the paper's spacing. For the carriage return, I needed something reliable yet simple. So, I sketched a recovery spring that could automatically pull the carriage back into position after completing each line. But instead of a heavy-duty spring, which would be difficult to use, I developed a system where the energy from each keystroke would gradually wind a small, coiled spring.

With that in place, I added a ratchet mechanism, which would engage when the carriage reached the end of the line, releasing the stored energy from the spring and smoothly returning the carriage to the starting position. This system would also advance the paper without requiring the typist to manually move the carriage or paper.

"This looks simple at first glance... but it will be complicated to manufacture!" She exhaled, her eyes burning with excitement, wanting to make it herself. Hearing her speak, I couldn't help but smile, caressing her face.

"It's all theory until it's built!" I admitted it aloud. "I would need to prototype each component, testing the balance between the spring tension and the leverage of the keys. If the springs were too weak, the keys might not return quickly enough; too strong, and the effort would still be too high." With that, I reached for another paper, putting it before her.

"Testing instructions?"

"Yep. I noted down a plan for experimenting with different materials and spring tensions, envisioning a process of iterative refinement. Each prototype would bring me closer to the ideal balance—enough resistance to feel satisfying under the fingers but light enough to allow rapid, comfortable typing. Just how I like it."

With the major issues addressed, I was confident she would be able to make it. Her delicate fingers could shape metal like nothing else, and what I came up with here would indeed need her experience, skills, and expertise to make it perfectly. Without the use of magic, every piece had to work in harmony, with each gear and spring carefully tuned to create a machine that was as easy to use as it was reliable.

"Tomorrow, we start building!" She decided, rolling up the final blueprint. I knew that she could already picture the finished machine, sleek and efficient—a typewriter that anyone could use, regardless of strength or skill. And perhaps, later on, it would be another design that we could introduce to the public.

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"Where is mom?" Leyla asked, walking up to me and pulling on my leg to get my attention while I was preparing Lancelot for a bath.

"She is working, my dear." I answered her, looking down and rubbing her sleepy head. "Mikan is in the church, giving a sermon. Luna is making breakfast, and Yuri is out exercising. "Why?"

"Hungry..."

"Ahaha, you want milk, don't you?" I laughed, picking her up, giving her a big kiss, enjoying her laughter. "Wait for later, okay? Be a good girl; wake your brother up. I'll bathe you all three, and then we'll go have something for breakfast!"

"Okie-dokie!" She bobbed her little head, pulling her growing red hair into pigtails. Then, with another laugh, she hurried away, taking a giant leap and landing on her brother like a wrestling champion.

Luckily, neither of them was hard to handle, and after they tussled a little, they quickly threw off their clothes and got into the bathtub. I don't know how other babies are, but Lancelot wasn't afraid of the water and enjoyed being in it. Although he was still tiny, his siblings always tried to play with him, even if it was just tickling him or holding him so he would not go underwater too suddenly. If not for their size, I would be confident in having them hold and carry their little brother.

After finishing our little morning routine, it was time for a good breakfast, and I wouldn't let anyone else cook for us than Luna. Her cooking was impeccable, and even if I only vaguely described some food I liked in my past life, she replicated it, including one of my all-time favorites: pizza. Which was precisely today's breakfast... hell yeah! Good thing they don't look at it as junk food.

"Want!" Leyla yelled, stretching her arms towards Yuri and making me gently pat them.

"Girl, that is for Lancelot!" I grumbled while she ended up in a pout, being denied Yuri's breasts, who was feeding our son at the table.

"If Lancy leaves any in them, you can have it!" She giggled, which in turn resulted in him sucking on her nipple even harder.

"You are pampering them." I added with a shrug, looking at Luna, hand-feeding Arthur, who was being spoiled just the same. "Eh, whatever."

"What, you want us to satisfy you, too?" Yuri asked back, making Luna flinch and expectantly look at me.

"Not before the kids..." I answered in a whisper. Horny succubuses, both of you... But they weren't wrong. Sasha will be focusing on working for the following days; I know that look she gave me yesterday. She is totally in the zone, just like Merlin. Sooo... We could molest Mikan a little. A three versus one... Sounds... Promising.

"You thought something exciting." Yuri giggled, reading my mind, and before I could say anything, Luna also chimed in.

"Your face can be read easily! Yuri is right! Teehee sounds fun; I'm in!"

"Fun?" The kids looked at us expectantly, making me shake my head, "Kiddos, would you want to visit grandma?"

"Yey!" Leyla and Arthur answered at once, raising their hands in the air, because if anybody besides us, it was my mother who truly spoiled them...