Published: January 13, 2026
By changing the height of the furnace to twenty meters and having the dwarves handle the most challenging part—powdering the magic stones—the upper part of the furnace was completed in just one day.
It would have realistically taken only half a day, but because Havel and the others insisted on extremely detailed adjustments, it ended up taking a full day.
However, as expected from their meticulousness, the finished furnace turned out incredibly beautiful. It was perfectly symmetrical from left to right, with smooth curves from the furnace bottom to the top, and a flawless circular cross-section inside.
“...Alright, not bad at all!”
“Indeed, quite good!”
After inspecting every corner of the furnace, Havel and the others said this, arms crossed. It seemed they were satisfied with the result.
Just as they seemed finally convinced, they immediately started discussing the wind delivery boxes.
“There are eight air holes at the bottom, four in the middle, and four at the top. We will open and close them depending on the furnace’s condition.”
“It’s best to keep all the bottom ones open.”
“If you blow too much air, it might cool things down, but the bottom part gets so hot that shouldn’t be a problem. We’ll keep air flowing constantly so the holes don’t get blocked.”
“How many wind delivery boxes should we make? Four seems necessary, right?”
“Of course. If we have four, we can operate two or all four, adapting as needed.”
The dwarves apparently rely on manual air-blowing to fuel combustion inside their furnaces. In Japan, this might have been called a bellows.
The dwarves’ wind delivery box is a highly airtight container with intake and exhaust valves, using changes in air volume to blow air in.
The design was clever: the box was divided into two chambers in the middle, allowing alternate air blowing. With a weight, one person could keep blowing for as long as they had the stamina.
Still, it was a tough task. Looking over the freshly drawn blueprints and listening to Havel’s explanation, I thought there must be a better way.
When it comes to automation, there’s electricity, wind power, and water power. This Seato village had a river flowing through it constantly. So, why not use water power?
“...Maybe I’ll try to modify it a bit.”
When I muttered this, Havel and the others furrowed their brows and tilted their heads.
“Huh?”
“What are you talking about?”
Some looked bewildered, while about half looked either exasperated or amused, almost mocking me.
I felt I had to take this seriously or risk losing face as the lord.
I decided to use water drawn from the river to create a mechanism. Using a waterwheel, I made it so two bellows could be operated alternately. Instead of increasing or decreasing air volume by stepping, the design moved walls from left and right to change air volume and blow air.
By structuring it like pedals on a pedal boat, the power of water could push air into the furnace.
When I actually built it, Havel and the others stared wide-eyed in silence. Leaving the stunned Havel behind for the moment, I moved on to building the piping up to the air holes. I created a sealed box to store air supplied from the waterwheel and installed manually operated valves there. Several pipes extended out from there, spreading around the furnace.
“Where should we put the air holes?”
I asked, turning to Havel and the others, and saw them with arms crossed, wearing exasperated expressions.
“...That’s really cheating.”
“Unbelievable.”
“I want that kind of magic too.”
The dwarves muttered among themselves, but then Havel slapped his own face and called out.
“Hey! We’re working on the furnace now! Let’s decide the air hole locations!”
At his words, all the dwarves oddly slapped their own faces, then swarmed around the furnace.
“The bottom and top should have four holes on each side.”
“Should we offset the middle air holes?”
“Yeah, that way the air circulates evenly.”
“Hey, mark the spots on the furnace walls.”