Chapter 11:
After sealing the deal Subaru prepared to leave, he did not need to get anything about electricity thanks to Anastasia's intervention, so he sent Emilia off and then had Beatrice drive the carriage to the town for now.
Beatrice: "This is fun I suppose. But why do I have to drive I wonder?"
Subaru: "Because I have to translate this book. It's going to literally save us decades in development. Look at this, high pressure steam engines and real trains. Ivan will think I am smarter than I actually am."
Beatrice: "Weren't the books encrypted? Why can you read them so easily if so?"
Subaru: "A small lie, I got the idea from Julius and used it as an excuse to take the books with me."
Beatrice: "When did you get so good at lying I suppose?"
Subaru: "The secret is to sprinkle lies on a bunch of truth to bend the truth to your will."
Beatrice: "My contractor is scary sometimes."
Subaru: "Beako you know it was necessary. For now, I will get translating the designs for trains and the steam engines they use, then I will get driving."
They went out of the capitol and headed back to the town, after another 3 days they entered the town and noticed something was off. Many merchants where hauling materiel from the town. The two entered the town and found in the marketplace iron at a quarter of the price it normally had, cotton at a fifth and steel at a tenth. Then they saw stacks of black smoke coming from where the house and factories should be in. They rushed as fast as they could so see what had happened.
Once they arrived, they were relieved to find that the smoke was coming from the chimneys and were greeted by Ivan who briefed them on the events of the last 6 days. The cotton factory was running smoothly and now they were turning in a sizable profit from selling cotton, iron and steel. However, Ivan was sad to tell them that since he had to manage stuff with William, he couldn't get any further breakthroughs with the train design. Subaru showed him the design he got from the book and Ivan's jaw just dropped his face filled with answers.
Subaru: "It's good to see you like it. But I want to know how the railway is going."
Ivan: "A yes, as you requested, we increased the number of workers to triple the amount and now we have some 30 kilometers done, we could expect the railway to be completed in a week or week and a half."
Subaru: "Good, but it could be less time Ivan. I asked Emilia to commission the building of another set of rails in Elior forest and 3 days ago they had a kilometer laid down."
Ivan: "So we meet them and connect the rails?"
Subaru: "Yes, though they will advance slower since they lack a train."
Ivan: "Still a good thing. Does that mean we can start transporting coal as soon as we are connected?"
Subaru: "Probably, it seems like we are using lots of it right now."
Ivan: "In the last week we used the same amount we previously did in a month."
Beatrice came back from the house. She had left the books and metias in the room she and Subaru used. They headed to the mill where William was overlooking the production of both Iron and Steel. The sound of the fires was too loud to speak without yelling so they went outside.
William told Subaru that the mine collapsed at night a few days after they left and that now they had an open pit mine that allowed an even bigger output of iron ore and was for the most part safer. Subaru then told Ivan and William that they would now focus on making the new train design and its high-pressure steam engine. While he and Beatrice would overlook and manage operations in the factories. Subaru also commissioned the construction crew to build 2 new building one exactly like the steel mill and one exactly like the factory. One would be used to refine ore into iron leaving the steel mill to only make steel and the other would be a paper mill.
Then Subaru noticed that cotton supply in the area was still growing despite his factory working hard so he planned to make to factory work even harder, he organized 12 hour shifts to have the factory pumping out cotton fabric all day long. 2 shifts a day, with 30 minutes in the middle of each shift for workers to eat and to get the machines lubricated. 6 days a week the factory would work while 1 day would be left for any required overhaul, updates or repairs. He would then post the new jobs in town.
For the mill he noticed that demand for steel was low so they will mostly use steel for trains and machinery rather than sell it. Other than that, he did not do any changes to the mill since the mine was working at its limit just to supply the mill.
Subaru would also post new jobs for the construction of 2 new railways that will connect the Town center with the factory area and the iron mine with the factory area.
A while later Subaru noticed that a building was being built kind of close to the factories, he asked Ivan if ordered it, but got a negative answer. He then headed for the building to see what it was, and it seem like a small version of an apartment building, he had seen them in Priestella and the capitol but not in a small town like this one. He got closer and asked a man that seemed like the leader about the construction.
Man: "This? It was commissioned by a group of workers from the smokestacks and the Mathers themselves paid for it."
Subaru: "But why?"
Man: "It seems like they don't want to walk all the distance from the town to here and decided to live close to the stacks."
After the brief exchange Subaru went back to the factory area. He noticed that no mayor oversight was needed since the workers already learned not to mess with the machines so he left Beatrice as the supervisor and dedicated himself to translate the book about Victorian era politics and society so that Emilia could study it.
At night fall a messenger knocks on the door and hands Subaru a letter. He had been called by the lord that managed the cloth fabricating guild of the town for a negotiation tomorrow morning. Subaru told Beatrice to wake him up early tomorrow and that she will accompany him. 'I almost forgot that only half of the nobles are the landowner type, the rest are these merchants, better get him to shit his pants.'
The next day Subaru and Beatrice went to negotiate with this lord at his mansion in the middle of the town.
Fuchs: "Oh, Sir Natsuki Subaru and Great Spirit Beatrice I am delighted to have you attend our negotiations. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Christoph Fuchs, but everyone calls me Mister Fuchs."
Subaru: "Very well Mister Fuchs I say we jump straight to the negotiations."
Fuchs: "Seems like you don't like betting around the bush, I like intelligent men like you Sir Natsuki."
Beatrice: "Enough flattery, why did you call us here I wonder?"
Fuchs: "Ah yes, you see I think we could help each other a lot in our endeavors from now on seeing that Sir Subaru decided to jump into the cotton industry."
Subaru: "Help in what way?"
Fuchs: "I am glad you ask. I mean help like increasing our profits, you see your entry has been very disruptive to say the least and I am still surprised on how much fabric you are selling along with such low prices. But unfortunately, we can't keep up with your prices."
Subaru: "Are you asking me to increase the price of the fabric my company sells?"
Fuchs: "Yes, I hope you won't sell bellow the profit margin anymore just to get me out of business that would harm you and your candidate's reputation as saviors after all."
Subaru: "I know what you mean mister Fucks, but we are not selling below the profit margins, in fact we are profiting with the prices we have." Fuchs was caught off guard by the misspelling of his name.
Fuchs: "E-even if so, will you at least consider increasing the price to keep not just my business afloat but also the people that work in it?"
Subaru: "Or you find a way to make it cheap or your out of business if you are so worried about your workers tell them I have jobs for them."
Like that the talks break down and no agreement was made. Fuchs was furious at Subaru's attitude and lack of ambition. He would have to fire everyone to not lose more money.
Meanwhile Subaru was worried that Fuchs could retaliate in a more violent way and discussed with Beatrice on how they could avoid or handle any physical confrontation.
Once they made it back, they told all the workers that next week they will start to work on 12-hour shifts, the same they already had but with the day shift starting at 8:00 and ending at 20:00 and the night shift starting at 20:00 and ending at 8:00. The two then started spreading papers where they would register for one of the two shifts. Once all of them where registered Subaru found odd that a full quarter of the people chose the night shift but was glad that he would have experienced workers in that shift.
At lunch William and Ivan asked Subaru for permission to extend the railway toward the mill since the train would be built there and rails are the only way to move such a huge machine. Subaru of course gave permission and immediately decided where he would make the first proper train station.
Subaru then went to the mill to see the progress with the train, according to Ivan it would take 4 days to get it done, but William insisted that 3 days are all they need. The mill had half of the cauldron making steel for the train. As for the railway they had already made a bit right next to the mill and on it were a few wheels that would eventually be the train. Subaru then walked some 20 meters away from the mill and marked the terrain. He then told the architect of the construction team to make a concrete platform 1 meter high, 70 meters long and 20 meters wide. It was going to be a long rectangle parallel to the mill and factory, the future railway would go on the opposite side of the factories leaving the other side as the loading area.
After detailing the desired layout of the future railway Subaru got to translating the book for Emilia the rest of day.
At night Subaru heard a faint sound of people talking outside. He ran out of the bed waking up Beatrice who immediately confirmed the presence of unknown people in the area. Subaru got his whip and woke up Ivan and William. William picked up a metal club and Ivan a broom. They went outside leaving Ivan in the house guarding the door. They instantly noticed the light of torches and a group of people outside the mill and factory. Apparently, they did not know where the cheap high-quality cotton was made and were debating if they should burn one building or both. "Bloody reactionaries get out of here!" Shouted Subaru. The group immediately stop making any noise. They then started to throw rocks in the windows of the mill and then torches in hopes of setting something alight, but nothing caught on fire. Beatrice then used Minya to cut off the escape of the group that was now in shock.
Subaru: "What are you doing here, and you sent you!?"
Man: "Please forgive us, we are desperate we all just got fired today!"
Subaru: "What are you doing here then!?"
Man: "We got fired because of the work you made here, we can't make fabric as fast and cheap as you, so we were going to burn the place down to get our jobs back!""
Beatrice: "Who gave you this stupid idea I suppose?!"
Man: "Lord Fuchs told us that if only your way of making fabric got destroyed, he could keep us hired!"
Subaru: "Enough! Tell me, are all the ones that got fired here?!"
Man: "No Sir Subaru, a few decided to stay home at peace today."
Subaru: "This goes for all of you so tell them to!"
Man: "What is it?!"
Subaru: "If you wish to get a new job still in the area of fabric making, I can hire you, just come here tomorrow and you can start working immediately."
Group: "What?!" "Is he going to hire us?" "He is truly kind." "Was it this kindness what brought down the whale?" "Etc. Etc."
Beatrice: "Now that you have your message be gone in fact!"
Subaru: "Thanks for the support Beako. We will now have to discuss the formation of security forces."
Beatrice: "Sooner than expected I suppose."
Subaru: "Can you send a letter to the mansion? I really want to sleep now."
Beatrice: "Will we still ask Roswaal for a group of loyal volunteers from the his security forces?"
Subaru: "Yes but since that will take time we will hire a few mercenaries as a stop gap solution."