Chapter 14: Back to normal

With the 'Great Exhibition' behind, Subaru's staff would now focus on getting the machining plant properly running. Since they only had 3 small milling machines and were lacking a big one to make the largest components they need.

'Forging consist of heating up metal enough to compress and hammer it into a desired shape creating metal products with generally higher strength that are typically tougher than metal processed in castings, this comes at the cost of making complex shapes and structures expensive at best and impossible at worst. While in casting, molten metal flows into a cavity in a mold or die, which allows for more complex shapes to be easily produced but the cost is that once the metal cools its dimensions change and may result in internal tears, alloy segregation or unwanted stress on the structure. Lastly there is machining, it consists of taking parts away from a metal piece either by drilling or some chemical and/or electrical process, it benefits on being the most precise of the methods ideal for complex assemblies where tolerance to errors is to be minimal, but at the cost of needing specialized machines and the associated maintenance along with the difficulty of recycling the scraps.' That was a note from one the books Subaru got ahold of.

'Now we need the machining plant to fix the train, some of the smallest parts are troublesome and unreliable. We won't just machine everything though, we will just machine the troublesome components that result from the casts in the steel mill to make them more precise and in turn the train will be more reliable. Along with that it will allow us to make other more precise and reliable machines.' Subaru thought as he went to see the construction progress of the second fabric factory and of the machining plant.

He walked through the industrial center and saw 5 buildings, one was incomplete and would be a new fabric factory, there was also the completed fabric factory, another two buildings were the steel mill and the ore refinery, the last building was the soon to be machining plant.

He saw that the new fabric factory was almost finished only missing a few parts of the roof. The machining plant was working on making the components for the big milling machine and the train. Subaru then went to ask the leader of the construction team to make six more buildings, a third fabric factory, a paper mill, 2 porcelain factories, a shoe factory and the last one would give Subaru more wiggle room to expand where needed.

Now the construction team was very quick to make the new buildings, using both magic and the experience from making the other factories the 6 new buildings where projected to be ready in 2 weeks.

Before midday Subaru and Beatrice received 120 new workers that came in answer to jobs posted in the exhibition. They would all work on making the new railways, for now only two, one to Roswaal's Mansion and then later to Priestella, and another to the Capitol. Not wanting to oversee the new workers to much Subaru divided the newcomers in groups of 20 and assigned them to the 6 best railway workers he had so far.

The rest of the day was paperwork. Subaru dreaded the task so he had Beatrice get a good person to manage the paperwork. Beatrice intelligent as she was decided to find the man that managed the paperwork of the company Subaru killed. She searched in the town for the man the entire afternoon and did not find him. As a last resort she went to ask the town leader if he knew where the man could be found. The answer Beatrice got left her baffled, apparently the man was working in the cotton factory for the dayshift and went unnoticed. 'Searching here all the afternoon and he was already there.' Beatrice lamented that she did not run straight to the ex-workers of the now dead company asking for the man.

Once she entered the factory, she noticed that the shift was almost finishing. She only had a few minutes left so decided to lose no time and yelled the man's name, a few moments later the man in question appeared in front of her. He was slightly old, some 55 years according to his new ID card.

Man: "What happened great sprit-sama? Did I mismanage any of the machines?"

The man was worried that he may have wronged something.

Beatrice: "Calm down in fact. I the great spirit Beatrice have learned of your exploits and wish to change your position within the company accordingly I suppose."

Man: "What? You mean I will get to do paperwork again?"

The man seemed happy at the prospect of doing paperwork.

Beatrice: "Yes, but first. Why do you desire to work in paperwork I wonder?"

Man: "I have done it all my life, and now doing this and standing up all day is quite exhausting."

After that Beatrice took the man to where Subaru was still agonizing over the paperwork. Subaru was very quick to have the man manage the paperwork, telling the man that he would start tomorrow with triple the wage, transporting the paperwork to his house the man would work from home until the company had a real office place. The man seeing the lack of a real office as an issue asked a simple question.

Man: "Excuse me Boss, but why don't you buy the office of the old company?"

Subaru: "Because we want everything to be here, packed together in a single place making it easier to manage."

Subaru then told William to prepare everything to make 4 new trains and to start making the parts that did not require machining.

The next day Subaru hanged out in the house of the new accountant to make sure he was trustworthy and to guide him through any mishap he made while he was managing the paperwork. Subaru also worked on translating a book about 'The Great War' to give Julius a good book to munch on and to try and have Anastasia lose interest in the books.

2 days went by, and now the iron supply was once more below the demand due to the increase demands for materiel by the railway construction teams. Wood was not an issue since the large expansion of the cotton fields required tearing down the nearby forest, but for the iron issue, Subaru sent William to Elior Forest since he knew where they could extract iron there, William was to lay the groundwork to make a new iron mine and ore refinery in Elior Forest.

Once William arrived at his old village where the Elior Forest station was, he was surprised to find it was now 4 times bigger and buzzing with activity due to the establishment of the coal mine he guessed. He would then ask questions, now he needed to take the mining team to the iron deposit in the forest and so he did. The mining team scouted the nearby area looking for any potential hazards but found none and soon got to work. After seeing that the miners did their work well William decided to head back to the village to see how much his home had changed and select the place to start making the ore refinery.

He chooses the place where his old house was for the ore refinery and communicated so to the construction team sent with him.

In the Village William noted that the store was at least twice the size, 'It's probably due to the notable inflex of people and resources from the coal mining.' Thought William as he entered the store. He found the shopkeeper and they started to chat.

Shopkeeper: "Will it's good to see you, I thought you wouldn't ever come back."

William: "Yes man, I am right here and it's good to see you to, I have a few questions. Where did all these people come from are they all outsiders?"

Shopkeeper: "Oh, they are not outsiders, they are all from the nearby villages.

William: "What do you mean?"

Shopkeeper: "Once Lady Emilia arrived and told us to extract coal, she also brought along a new migration policy. We are basically merging all the villages and towns in Elior Forest into a large town or maybe a small city near these important mineral deposits."

William: "So now that the town has no need for hunters what happened to them?"

Shopkeeper: "We still keep a few hunters since they are the only source of fresh meat, but they are being outcompeted by the train bringing meat from the south recently. Most of them went unemployed for a while and got hired to work in the mine and now even more of them will go unemployed."

William: "I kind of feel sorry for them…anyway, now that I think about it, you said the part of merging the people in the forest as an ongoing process. Why?"

Shopkeeper: "I don't know the exact amount of people still to move in, but from what I heard these are only from the nearby villages like I told you. Even more people are expected to come in once its guaranteed that a house is waiting for them."

William: "Is that a part of the policy?"

Shopkeeper: "Yes, but most people are not patient and they are just pouring in. They are desperate to escape the miserable life of subsistence this forest offers and flocking in since news about the White Whalers hiring spilled about."

William: "Lady Emilia and Sir Subaru have really helped out our village, haven't they?"

Shopkeeper: "Yes, I have never been happier to at least give the girl some minimal decency a few years ago."

William: "In a way I guess the village is in debt to you?"

Shopkeeper: "I don't care at this point. Business is booming like never before."

They kept on chatting for a while longer since William had nothing to do for the rest of the day.

Back in the industrial center, Subaru was thinking about how good he chose the location of his project. 'Since the town I chose had very few artisans we are unlikely to have another incident like the first one Fuchs orchestrated. This town was mostly agricultural after all. I can imagine how much trouble I would have if I had chosen a city instead.' He then remembered that the leader of the town told Subaru that he was allowed to choose a name for the town. "How about…Rhineland like the industrial spot in Germany…or maybe Wales like the one in England…or Ueno Park like the place of the first industrial exposition in Japan…maybe Emilagrad, since the USSR was the fastest industrialized nation, taking what like 10 years?...Maybe I should extend more to fiction…Reach like the industrial planet in Halo Reach…or Korriban the Sith home world from Star Wars… Macragge like the capitol of the Realms of Ultramar sounds nice…Fuck I have to many options now…I better ask Beako to help me choose." He thought aloud. He then went to ask Beatrice.

Beatrice: "First one off the list is Rhineland it sounds too much like Reinhard I suppose, also Ueno Park, this a town that could transform into a great city not a park in fact and…Reach? What are we reaching out for?"

Subaru: "Sometimes I feel like you're too harsh Beako…"

Beatrice: "Emilagrad is also out of discussion, it's just ridiculous."

Subaru: "Any other name you don't like Beako?"

Beatrice: "No, this will leave us with Wales, Korriban and Macragge. I say Wales is the best option since its easiest to spell I suppose."

Subaru: "Then we will make it difficult for historians…hm…Macragge seems to be more difficult to spell. What do you say Beako?"

Beatrice: "Macragge sounds nice, by the way where did you get the name?"

Subaru: "It's from a game I played when I was younger it was called Space Marines or something like that."

Beatrice: "Let's not choose the name yet, we have to be sure to make it memorable I suppose."

Subaru: "Tomorrow we can discuss it with the leader of the town."

The conversation was interrupted by a messenger that brought a letter. Subaru saw it was from Emilia and started to quickly read it 'Dear Subaru I hope this letter find you well. Anastasia and Julius are at the Mansion right now, they have brought the electric making machine from Kararagi and wish to see you and how you use it to power the metias. They are willing to wait for your return. I am therefor recalling you to the Mansion with urgency.' Subaru also found a smaller paper in the envelope 'PD: Anastasia was overseeing the righting of the first letter. I must warn that they also demand to know about the books and that I told them that you went on a vacation trip and would take some 6 days to arrive, you have a few days to make something credible about the books.' Subaru was surprised by the speed at which Anastasia brought the electric making machine from Kararagi but hoped it lived up to his expectations. Fortunately, he had already started to translate the book bout the Great War so he could make up excuses as to why he should keep the books or maybe even buy them. Subaru was also glad that Emilia had got him time to settle everything down in the Town.

Subaru: "Beako, considering that we have to leave things settled we will give this town a name today."

Beatrice: "Macragge it is I suppose."

Subaru: "Badass and memorable. Let's find the leader."

The duo went to find the leader of the town to tell him the name of the previously unnamed town. The man liked the name and had signs announcing the name be placed all over and around the town.

Subaru: "I actually hope this place manages to rival the current capitol."

Beatrice: "Maybe you are not too optimistic about rivaling the capitol's population and economic might in fact, but I doubt we could have this place wield anywhere near the political or military power of the capitol in your lifespan I suppose."

Subaru: "Once I make Emilia-tan King I will convince her to move the capitol here, she would love to be close to her homeland, right?"

Beatrice: "But first we have to convince Vollachian nobility not to attack us."

Subaru: "Yes, I don't know if it's possible to deter them, but I feel sad for Vincent being forced to cede power to the nobles and letting them have their way."

Subaru spent the next days arranging everything for the time he would be absent, he left Ivan in charge of overseeing the progress of industrialization regarding the new buildings and railways, and William to oversee the extraction of raw resources and output of the factories. Subaru then told the head of his security forces to be on high alert since he wouldn't be around.

Once Subaru had everything tied up and delegated properly, he, Beatrice and Patrasche headed out of Macragge and to the mansion to meet Julius and Anastasia.