Chapter 167 - Chapter 167: Reincarnation
Nick lay on the bed. Beside that bed stood Steve.
Nick was a frail figure, nothing but bone and skin. Seeing him, Steve had also turned mostly white with age. Neither of them could go against the flow of time.
Steve spoke to Nick.
"Today's treatment is finished."
"Every day, I'm so sorry, Wakasama."
"Don't worry about it. It's payment for your work up until now. Though, even my magic can't reverse aging, so this is the limit."
Steve used Healing Magic every day on Nick, whose body had grown weak. Nick, who could no longer move freely, had also lost his resistance to illness aside from his physical strength, so Steve used Healing Magic on him daily.
There was no real need to use it every day, but wanting to spend even a little more time with Nick, who could pass away at any moment, he made it a daily routine.
Steve himself had already retired from his position as head of the family, so there was less work than before, and it wasn't difficult to carve out time for Nick.
"You don't need to worry about it, Wakasama. I feel like I've lived too long myself."
"Right. Then you should go meet your wife over there soon."
Nick's wife had passed away five years ago.
Hearing Steve say that, Nick weakly waved his hand to show his refusal.
"If I can, I'll find a younger, nicer woman in the next world."
"You'll be sent straight to hell by your wife."
Steve laughed. Nick smiled for a moment, but then his face turned serious.
"The truth is, I want her to be with someone who cares more about family next time, and be happy. If she ends up with a man like me, who only cares about work and ignores his family, she won't be happy."
"I have some responsibility for that. I made you work too hard, Nick."
"No, it was a happy life for me. A simple village blacksmith being called a god of metalworking, and requests to become my apprentice came not just from all over the country, but from all over the world. There's nothing more wonderful than that."
Even after retiring as Factory Manager, Nick taught metalworking to those who wanted to become his apprentices. The machine tools created by Steve, such as lathes, milling machines, benders, and presses, were unprecedented, and Nick, who used them first, became the leading expert.
Naturally, many people flocked to Nick to become his apprentices. He continued to guide his disciples right up until the moment he became bedridden.
Nick was grateful to Steve for allowing him to live such a life. It was only because of Steve's magic.
"If only I could operate a lathe with my own hands one more time."
Nick murmured sadly.
"When your health improves, maybe we can try some exercise to restore your physical strength."
"Yes, that would be good."
The two made that promise, though they both knew that such a time would likely never come.
"I should head back now."
When Steve said that, Nick, still looking at the ceiling, asked him a question.
"Wakasama, do you think reincarnation exists?"
"You mean rebirth?"
"Yes."
Steve struggled with how to answer Nick's question. Since he himself was a reincarnated person, it would be easy to say yes, but he had kept that secret hidden all this time, and he wondered if it was right to tell even Nick, who was on his deathbed.
And so, he decided to be vague.
"I think it probably exists. But there's no way to confirm it."
"I see. If there is rebirth, I could depart without regret. I still have things I want to do. Even while lying here, I wonder what would happen if I processed it this way. If I could reincarnate, I could try it there again. Not being able to do that is frustrating."
"If you tell me that idea, I'll try it."
"No, I can't leave something that interesting to others."
Nick smiled weakly. Steve had no retort, so he watched Nick for a while, but eventually, Nick fell asleep, so Steve decided to leave.
One week later, Nick traveled to the heavens.
From then on, 150 years passed.
The factory established by Steve continued to exist as Archibalt Heavy Industries Co., Ltd. It was the core company of Archibalt Holdings. Archibalt Holdings was a zaibatsu, holding various companies. There were banks, trading companies, travel agencies, railways, food processing, and more.
After Aurora passed away, the Sowell family was not blessed with talented people, and House Archibalt expanded its influence rapidly to fill that gap.
Now, the Archibalt Territory was the largest in the west, and had developed to a level comparable to the Royal Capital in the Kingdom of Cascade. It was no longer a place where citizens starved as in the past, or where only weak merchant guilds came.
The work as the lord was undertaken by Christina's lineage for generations, while the president of the Holdings and the presidents of each subsidiary were undertaken by the lineages of Nancy, Julia, and Camilla. Since it was a corporation and House Archibalt was the major shareholder, if there were no talented people among the descendants, the management could be recruited from elsewhere. As long as the shares were not sold, the management rights were held, so when a talented descendant appeared later, House Archibalt could return to the presidency.
However, only the top of the Holdings was occupied by descendants of Isabella for generations, keeping a watchful eye on the group companies.
A young man named Nick entered Archibalt Heavy Industries as a new employee.
Nick was a name given frequently in the Archibalt Territory and the Kingdom of Cascade.
This was because many parents wanted to emulate the first Factory Manager, Nick. Of course, the name Steve was considered too awe-inspiring, so it seemed to be permanently retired from use.
Nick was being guided through the Archibalt Heavy Industries Memorial Hall along with many other new employees. As part of the general affairs department's new employee training, there was an exhibition about the history of Archibalt Heavy Industries in the memorial hall, where the company's history was explained.
A male from the general affairs department explained in front of a displayed lathe.
"This universal lathe was loved by the first Factory Manager and was used to conduct numerous prototypes together with the founding president."
Hearing that explanation, cheers of "Oh!" rose from the new employees.
The founding president was Steve. As a universal lathe used for the legendary achievements of the two who had become legends, the interest of the new employees was particularly high.
Nick also looked at the universal lathe with interest. The more he looked, the strangely nostalgic he felt.
Then,
"Welcome back."
A voice was heard.
When he heard that voice, a flood of tears poured from Nick's eyes. And, disregarding the eyes of others, he began to weep loudly.
Seeing this, the male from the general affairs department, worried, spoke to Nick.
"What's wrong? Are you okay?"
"Yes. I just felt very nostalgic, and I can't stop the tears."
Nick answered while wiping his tears.
The general affairs man looked at him as if he were a parent looking at a child.
"I see. Every year there are those moved by seeing this universal lathe, but this is the first time I've seen someone cry this much. Don't forget that emotion, and work hard."
"Yes."
As Nick nodded, the scene of using the lathe with Steve long ago floated in his mind.
Thank you always for your typo reports. This is the final chapter for now. I started writing this as a tribute to the president of a cooperating manufacturer who passed away two years ago, and many people read it. In several contests, it passed the preliminary selection, and I was surprised that it was well-received despite being a difficult work to understand as a subject. Even so, the next work will be about using APQP in another world, which is an even more difficult theme. Thank you until now.
[Addendum] As of 2024/3/25, I thought it was 11th in the Fantasy Department Daily Ranking, but it rose to 8th, becoming 2nd in the Completed Fantasy Department Daily Ranking. Thank you.
[Addendum 2] As of 2024/3/26, 1st in the Fantasy Daily Completed Class! (Like Nissan. It came from 7th to 6th in the Fantasy Department). On 2024/3/27, it finally reached 5th.
[Re-addendum] As of 2024/4/1, 4th in the Fantasy Department Daily Ranking.
Just in case, the origin of the country names:
Kingdom of Cascade: Takizawa Iron Works, the author's company also has a lathe.
Kingdom of Forest: DMG Mori Seiki. There is a company still using their NC lathe with paper tape as a main unit.
Yellow Empire: Fanuc. Yellow.
Kingdom of Cryptomeria: Sugino. They use their lathes.
Kingdom of Pasture: Makino Milling Works. Lots of sensors, so many anomaly detection cases. Since they aren't for molds, I want to kill some sensors.
Kingdom of Merda: Mitsubishi Electric. I bought wire.
Kingdom of Pinebay: Matsuura Machinery Works. Image of high-speed cutting.
Kingdom of Beach: Hamai Industries. I haven't seen their lapidary machine, but their machining centers are in every company I visit. Even though Hamai's machining center is so niche.
Kingdom of Palesfield: Miyano. It's gone now.
Kingdom of Meizack: Yamazaki Mazak. We did prototypes of a world-famous product with this composite lathe.
Kingdom of Saturate: Toyoda Works. They used a niche lathe called the Toyoda-Oakuma vertical lathe. Well, Toyoda was the one being sold, so it's different.
These are machine tool manufacturers.
The middle names are based on various standard names.