Chapter 231 - Chapter 231: The Secret Story of the First Domestic Car
Michael was a designer employed at Merda Motors. Merda Motors was an automobile manufacturing company of the Kingdom of Merda, and its scale was one of the largest in the world.
He had reached a dead end at work and had taken a vacation to visit the National Automobile Museum.
There stood a single old car. It was the first domestically produced car, and its name was 'Sherry'.
Whenever Michael hit a wall at work, it had become his habit to come and see this car, which had been made over the course of approximately one hundred years.
Beside the displayed car was a small room. Inside, a video compiling episodes from when this car was developed was shown on a loop.
Entering that room and sitting on a chair, the beginning of the video just started playing.
"Displacement 3.0L, output 40 horsepower, maximum speed 60km/h. Although these are specs so low they are unimaginable today, there was a car praised as innovative technology for its time. 'Sherry', the first pure domestic car given the name of the Queen Consort. This is the story of the young people who were involved in the development of the first domestic car nearly 100 years ago――――"
As the narration began, Michael focused his attention on the screen.
――――
The Kingdom of Merda had been defeated by the Kingdom of Cascade. A large portion of its territory was ceded, and it was forbidden to maintain an army. Furthermore, the King abdicated, and the consort of the newly enthroned King was a princess brought in from the Kingdom of Cascade.
Every citizen of the nation was in despair that this country would become a colony.
However, the Queen Consort disappointed expectations in a good way.
Because many nobles had lost their status due to the war, a chance to reform the feudal society had arrived.
The Queen Consort immediately changed the recruitment of officials from a nepotism system to a merit-based system via examinations. This opened the path to becoming an official for commoners as well.
However, since commoners were not educated to begin with, those who became officials were mostly nobles with excellent abilities but low family standing. Nevertheless, free education was gradually advanced, giving opportunities to commoners as well.
Furthermore, there were a massive number of soldiers who had lost their jobs, and they were given employment through public works projects.
The nation rapidly regained its vitality.
And in proportion to that vitality, the popularity of the Queen Consort rose.
However, at one point, a situation occurred where the Queen Consort was attacked and kidnapped during a foreign visit. Through a miracle of God, the Queen Consort returned safely, and a parade demonstrating her health was scheduled to be held.
At that time, a vehicle sent by the Queen Consort's younger brother arrived. It was a carriage with a groundbreaking shock absorber suspension for that era.
The Queen Consort was deeply moved by the ride quality and immediately devised a plan.
She requested another unit as a spare.
In fact, this was an additional unit intended for disassembly. Once the spare carriage was sent, the Queen Consort immediately summoned the Minister of Industry.
"Make something identical within 10 years."
The Queen Consort gave the order.
The Queen Consort had intuitively thought that this would spread explosively in the future.
The Minister of Industry nodded, but was confused inside. It was a carriage that gathered the pinnacle of the Kingdom of Cascade's technology. It would be difficult to make the same thing within 10 years.
Ten years might seem long, but research and development cannot be done in a single day or night.
A budget was immediately drawn up, and a development team was organized at the Royal Research Institute.
They were young people gathered based on ability, free from the constraints of their backgrounds.
However, the development was difficult.
Springs that broke immediately.
Steel plates that did not become thin enough.
Vibrations that would not settle.
Even though they had disassembled and measured them, they could not make the same thing easily.
Time passed like this, and after about five years, voices of doubt began to rise regarding the budget even within the country.
"It should be allocated to the public works budget."
"The budget for clinics for low-income earners should be prioritized."
The wind against research that yielded no results was severe.
It was the Queen Consort who suppressed it.
"This research is seed. If you use the seed for next year's planting to satisfy hunger now, you will be in even more dire straits next year. However, if you endure here, you can obtain much more food next year."
Thanks to the Queen Consort's words, the research budget continued, but the increase requested by the research team could not be granted.
And in that year, a turning point arrived for the research team.
Jim Clymer, who had been studying abroad in the Kingdom of Cascade, returned to the country and joined the research team.
He was an excellent researcher, and the Kingdom of Cascade, his study destination, had asked him to stay as a chief researcher.
With his entry, the research moved forward.
However, the budget was still insufficient.
The exact composition of several types of steel used in the vehicle was unknown, and much of the budget was consumed by repeating prototypes many times.
The following year, Jim clashed with the finance officer, Peter Tucker.
"Give us more budget."
"No. We cannot prioritize the Royal Research Institute. There are other important cases."
"This is research initiated by Her Majesty the Queen Consort."
"That same Her Majesty the Queen Consort is in a difficult position because of this research."
Both deeply revered Sherry, and there was a conflict arising from their different positions: they wanted to succeed in the research and did not want to be put in a difficult position regarding the budget compilation.
"You ignorant fool! You haven't done research, so you don't know how much money it costs!"
Jim said that and applied for a vacation.
He judged that being dominated by feelings of anger would hinder the research.
And so, his first holiday.
When he went out into the town, he saw Peter standing on the street.
Looking from a distance to see what he was doing, he was soliciting donations.
"The research budget for the Royal Research Institute is insufficient. If you have a surplus, please make a donation."
Bowing his head, he was making that request.
Before he knew it, there were men doing the same thing a little distance away.
Jim hurriedly ran over to Peter.
"What are you doing?"
Jim asked that.
"We cannot do anything about the national budget, but we can redirect donation funds. I've spoken to the finance officers, and we are standing on the streets like this on holidays. Also, a law to offer tax preferences for those who donate is currently being drafted."
Peter smiled awkwardly.
Then, a boy came over there.
"This is a little bit of the money I got from my father."
"Thank you."
"Will this make the country better?"
When the boy asked that, Peter nodded.
"Of course."
Saying that, he winked at Jim.
Seeing that scene, Jim felt something rising in his chest. He felt ashamed of himself for having stopped thinking just because of a lack of money, cancelled his vacation, and returned to the institute.
Shortly after, he received a report from the Mage Management Bureau that a mage of Measurement had been discovered.
Measurement equipment of this era was analog, and verification of whether it was measuring accurately was insufficient, so mages of Measurement were desired by every country as if they were reaching out with their throats.
With this, the research accelerated.
And 9 years and 5 months after the Queen Consort's order, the carriage was finally completed.
A presentation before the Queen Consort. The Queen Consort was very satisfied, but at the same time, she presented a new challenge.
"In the Kingdom of Cascade, they say cars are moved by engines instead of horses. Complete that."
Thus, the next research began.
And 22 years after the start of the first research, the automobile was finally completed.
With permission from the royal family, it was an automobile named after the Queen Consort whom he respected.
At the unveiling event, the Queen Consort spoke words proudly.
"This success does not belong only to the researchers. The citizens who endured by providing a budget even when it was unknown if it would succeed. The officials who stood on the streets for free to squeeze out the insufficient research funds. The people who donated. Thanks to all of them, the first domestic car has been completed like this. This success is the power of the Merda citizens."
Jim's diary for that day recorded as follows.
'The one who believed in the Merda citizens more than anyone else was the Queen Consort who came from a foreign land. We must not betray that trust from now on.'
After that, the automobiles were mass-produced and became the main industry of the Kingdom of Merda. Furthermore, from the research at that time, fields such as materials, machine tools, measurement equipment, and working oils also developed, and now generate many jobs.
By not eating the seed of the following year back then, a great fruit was born.
When the video screening ended, Michael stood up.
And just as he left the museum, he spotted the face of his junior, James.
"I thought you would be here."
"Why did you know?"
"Whenever you hit a wall at work, I always tell you to go to the automobile museum, don't I?"
"That's right."
After that, while having lunch at a nearby cafe and listening to James's consultation, he returned his vacation for the afternoon and headed to the company.
I wanted to write something like this, but before I knew it, it had become a story about fighting in the futures market and the stock market.