Chapter 9:
A bit more than a month has passed since they arrived at the town and Subaru is feeling a bit homesick 'I did not make it all the way from Vollachia just to leave them a few weeks after we regrouped.' He was walking in town and feeling slightly guilty but knew this was his own doing 'I can't just go home right now. I need to make sure the iron shortage is over and the factory running.' But he couldn't convince himself. 'I still miss them a lot maybe I shouldn't have left so soon.' He stumbled on a poster. 'Huh? A plantation festival?' He read the poster and answered his questions. 'It makes sense, this town lives primarily on cotton export.' Then suddenly an idea struck him.
Subaru: "That's it!"
Beatrice: "Do you care to explain what happened in fact?" She was walking alongside Subaru all this time but was ignored by him.
Subaru: "I have to send a letter and quick."
Beatrice: "Subaru, why do you ignore Betty I wonder?"
Subaru: "Oh. Beako I'm so sorry." He held Beatrice up and hugged her.
Beatrice: "This makes up for it in fact. But now what idea did you get?"
Subaru: "I will tell you later, now let's focus on the task at hand."
They went to the central plaza to meet their new miners and contracted transports. They introduced themselves to the group of about 35 potential miners and 6 carriages that will provide logistical support. They all boarded the carriages. Once they arrived at the outskirts of the town Otto received them, he had found a good rout and was guiding them.
Once they arrived, they found William who had already scouted the mine a bit. Fortunately, the mine was divided into 2 different trails one had a steep slope and had taken all the water that would otherwise flood the mine and the other was less steep and was rich in iron. The men where quickly instructed by William on how to identify iron ore and on tips of how to extract it. William also indicated the pattern they had to follow to avoid a collapse.
Subaru: "We are lucky to have you Will."
William: "What do you mean Sir Subaru?"
Subaru: "We would have to wait a few weeks for a miner to arrive and do what you did or risk people getting crushed."
William: "Any other smith can do that, right?"
Subaru: "No, the ones in town do not mine minerals, they just buy them from merchants. You are kind of unique in a way."
William: "You think too much of a commoner like me sir."
Subaru: "You think I am actually nobility?"
William: "How else can you be knight sir?"
Subaru: "Well in reality neither me or Emilia were born into nobility, we were just commoners until the stone chose her as candidate and she chose me as her knight." Subaru had a warm smile.
William: "So that is why Lady Emilia talked about making all citizens equal."
Subaru: "Yes. But she does not know that a society with a layout and economic foundations like the ones this world has cannot do so, no one does and it's not her fault this world doesn't know any better yet."
William: "So you are going to change the world just to make her happy?"
Subaru: "Not just her Will, most of the people will be better off and happier we just need to avoid the path my homeland took."
William: "Sir I was just happy to work for you but now you have my full support for both you and Lady Emilia. I am proud to serve you." He kneeled.
Subaru: "Come on, didn't you hear? I'm just a commoner with temporary nobility titles just treat me like an equal."
William: "Very well si…Subaru."
They saw a few men come out of the mine with sacks and William went to inspect the sacks he had so make sure they were not throwing in random rocks. After checking the sacks, they got onboard a carriage the carriage headed back with a merchant, Subaru, Beatrice and Otto. William was left behind to oversee the mining for a few days and Otto was to leave today but Subaru wanted to give him a message and a letter for the others first. They took the iron to the town and left the merchant when he went back to the mine. The trio went to the house and found Ivan.
Ivan: "Boss I have this…"
Subaru: "Not now, give me 30 minutes and we can talk."
Ivan: "Yes boss."
The trio then went to the map room that was serving as Otto's room.
Subaru: "Otto I need to know if the others are very occupied."
Otto: "Well really they aren't, we have not had any incidents in a while now."
Subaru: "Do you think they can come here for a few days?"
Beatrice: "You miss them I suppose, don't you?"
Subaru: "Yes, so Otto."
Otto: "I don't know if everyone can come here for a few days. Even if so, for what Natsuki-san?"
Subaru: "This town has a few days of festival to commemorate the start of spring and the planting season and was hoping that you guys could come."
Otto: "How much time do we have to prepare everything?"
Subaru: "A week, here." He hands Otto a poster.
Otto: "I say everyone is overdue for vacations anyway."
Subaru: "Thank you Otto."
They got packing Otto's luggage and then sent him off with a letter and a poster. Then Subaru and Beatrice went with Ivan. He had prepared a dragon carriage with Patrasche, on the carriage was an odd-looking steam engine, it lacked the fireplace for the coal and instead had a weird mechanism on it.
Subaru: "So Ivan what did you want to talk about?"
Ivan: "I want to test this, it's a steam engine that burns something different. I think you could like it."
Subaru: "Then let's go to the testing ground we are free for the day since we have no iron yet."
They arrive at the testing ground and Ivan sets up his steam engine. On the place where the coal fireplace would be, was a vertical rod with some pincers and a horizontal needle pointing to what ever the rod would hold. This had caught both Subaru's and Beatrice's attention, the 2 where in the trench and all of the sudden Ivan took a fire stone from a bag and placed it on top of the rod making sure it was well held by the pincers and he made the needle touch it all while Subaru was frozen in fear and Beatrice was wondering what Ivan was doing and what happened to Subaru. Ivan pushed the needle slightly to barley pierce the stone and let its magic out and ran towards the trench.
Subaru: "Why?"
Ivan: "Boss are you ok?"
Subaru: "You have just doomed us all!" He sat at the floor of the trench and hid his face between his legs.
Ivan: "Why is he so scared great spirit?"
Beatrice: "Maybe it has to do with the first time he saved Emilia without being a meat shield I suppose."
Subaru: "Do you know what will happen if that blows up?!"
Ivan: "Oh, a real problem if not handled properly but I took the precaution to…"
Subaru: "Idiot! We are lucky if the explosion wipes us out! If not at this distance our lungs would just burst!"
Ivan: "He is not even listening."
Subaru: "Maybe we won't have our lungs burst if we stay in the trench." He started to calm down.
Ivan: "Seeing you regain your senses…"
Subaru: "No, not getting our lungs bursting would only leave us to die in the fire!"
Ivan: "…"
Subaru: "Do you know how people caught in a fire die? They don't die to the flames. They die because the hot air burns their air ways!"
Beatrice: "Subaru! Now calm down look we are ok." She hugged Subaru not wanting to hear more nonsense from him.
Subaru: "Huh?" He finally regained his senses. "We haven't blown up?"
Ivan: "Yes boss, like I said. I took care because of how dangerous these stones are."
Beatrice: "By the way Subaru one stone can make a big explosion but not as big as the one you survived."
Subaru: "So…Ivan how did take care exactly?" He was finally calming down for real.
Ivan: "Had I known you had this trauma…Any way I made precise measurements to the stone to have the needle hardly scratch the surface liberating just enough heat to make the engine work without coal."
Subaru: "Ivan you are a bit of an idiot sometimes."
Ivan: "What do you mean boss? It works fine."
Beatrice: "Betty agrees with her contractor in fact."
Ivan: "W-why?"
Subaru: "These engines are supposed to be reproduce in the hundreds if not thousands around the kingdom."
Beatrice: "Do you think every human is as carful as you in fact?"
Ivan: "Well, but with enough training this can be better than coal, right?"
Subaru: "It would only give any saboteurs a huge target. Even bigger than the steam engine."
Ivan: "Well looking at it like that…"
Beatrice: "You must also remember that humans are clumsy and dumb, Subaru says that accidents in factories are common I suppose. Imagine someone tripping over a stone and a few engines working right next to the other in fact."
Ivan: "It is suicidal…I get it now."
Subaru: "Still a good job. This could be good for long distance travel on train, but its use would have to be limited since its very hazardous."
Ivan: "Understood boss it will never happen again."
Subaru: "Thinking about it, if you could find a safe way to make a liquid version of the fire stones, we could maybe make a car."
Ivan & Beatrice: "Really?!"
Subaru: "If you find a way to make a liquid version. But more important would be a way to make a powdered version of it."
Beatrice: "Why would a powder version be better than a liquid one I wonder?"
Subaru: "To have something like gunpowder for weapons. Afterall, I don't know the recipe for gunpowder."
Beatrice: "Gunpowder…for the guns you mentioned?"
Subaru: "Yes, but that would be far from now, we have to focus on having a good industrial basis first."
They turned the engine off, packed and went to the house, they were mostly plotting for more machines they could use in the future, and discussed about how to make better the engines they had. Since they didn't have neither William nor Iron at hand, they could only plan and eventually got sick of it, except for Ivan who was still planning.
Late in the afternoon arrived William with a caravan of iron ore filled carriages, they all unloaded. William told everyone he would oversee the mine the next day to make sure the miners learned well, but that the miners learned quickly and well. The iron shortage was not over in the town, but it was in the project grounds and Subaru wanted to get started as soon as possible on making the engines and machines for the fabric factory.
They decided the next day William would go to the mine to oversee the progress. Subaru and Beatrice would go the town to see how the expanded cotton fields were going and try to recruit workers for the future factory. They planned on paying the workers 70% of the average wage of artisans across the country. Ivan was to commission local artisans on making and selling one of his inventions, a machine that would plow 3 rows at once, make holes and plant seeds all in one to make sure they would cover or surpass the projected cotton production.
The day had ended and Subaru was having trouble sleeping. He was anxious of the answer the rest would give. 'Damn letters take so long to travel, once we finish the railway to Elior forest we have to make one to the mansion that way we can move and communicate faster.' He then thought about how his old world communicated fast and effectively and wished to implement phones to this world. 'Phones are a longshot, but maybe we could make something like telegraphs but first I need to ask Ivan if he even knows what electricity is and how to make it.' He soon fell asleep.