Chapter 16: Impact

Some 20 kilometers before arriving at Macragge Beatrice and Subaru notice the railway and the many workers expanding it. The two also comment on the even bigger movement of dragon carriages compared to when the left.

They enter the town at noon and see that the smokestacks have increased in number, they also see a large number of people rushing into the train station to get to the factories.

'I wonder how many factories we have running right now.' Thought Subaru.

They then arrive at the factory district and are greeted by Ivan who briefs them on the situation.

Ivan: "The second cotton factory and shoe factory are running and we have arranged the leather imports for the shoes like you said. The railways have expanded to 20 and 15 kilometers in length and the iron shortage was solved. The ore refinery at Elior Forest is running at half capacity but is expected to be at 100% by the end of the week. Finally, the first porcelain factory should be ready to open by the end of the week."

Subaru: "How about the third fabric factory?"

Beatrice: "And what about the papermill I wonder?"

Ivan: "They are expected to be operating in 2 weeks time. We are currently waiting for the machines to be made, the construction teams have been very efficient."

Subaru: "Anything else we should consider?"

Ivan: "Hm…I don't consider this to be critical, but we are about to hit full employment in Macragge. I know Lady Emilia promised to bring more people in, but it has to be quick."

Subaru: "Once we hit full employment, we will be forced to pay a lot more. I'll send her a letter urging her to send people in quick."

Ivan: "I think that all."

Beatrice: "We also have a new job for you in fact."

Ivan: "Really what is it?"

Beatrice: "We need you to replicate a machine we brought."

Subaru: "We can't show you here, let's go to the house."

They go inside and Subaru brings in the alternator and proceeds to briefly explain how it works. Subaru then tells Ivan that he will first have to reverse engineer the alternator and then start working on a direct current generator that Subaru found in one of the books.

After that Subaru Writes the letter to Emilia urging her to apply the migration policy. Little did Subaru know that Emilia had already started the advertising campaign of Macragge and the first immigrants would arrive in a week.

Subaru then decided to take a walk around the factory complex to inspect the progress himself. He was at awe when he saw a small cottage with a red cross on the door, so he entered.

Once inside he saw the interiors where quite clean, as clean as could be for a fully wooden structure. He was greeted by a tall man.

Man: "What can we help you with mister?"

Subaru: "Subaru, Natsuki Subaru, what is your name?"

Man: "Oh, so the boss finally arrives."

Subaru: "What?"

Alexander: "Sorry for my bad manners. My name is Alexander, Alexander Fleming and I am the healer hired by your company."

Subaru: "What? Why didn't Ivan tell me? Why do we need one?"

Alexander: "Firstly I say that Ivan probably forgot about hiring me. Secondly you need me to tend to all the people damaged by the machines, your machines are quite dangerous if manned improperly."

Subaru: "Uh…we haven't lost any one yet, right?"

Alexander: "Not yet, we have had severed limbs and crushed bones, but no one has died yet."

Subaru: "I'm sorry for having you do such a gut-wrenching job."

Alexander: "No need to feel sorry, I love this part of my job. It makes me feel like I have a purpose…"

A man it brought inside by two other men, his foot in a weird position.

Man1: "Mister, he got behind the machine while it was still running and his leg got snaped in half."

Alexander: "Don't worry, it seems fixable to me."

Man1 & Man2: Thank you mister.

The 2 men go outside to resume their work.

Alexander: "I'm sorry Sir Subaru but I have a patient to tend."

Subaru: "Its ok. See you later."

Subaru exits the medical cottage and continues to go around the area until nightfall when he decides to go back to the house. Subaru then greets everyone and goes to check the profits only to be greeted by the sharp increase consequence of the shoe factory's inauguration.

Subaru: "Does anyone know why almost half of our profits are from the shoe factory?"

William: "Sir I believe it was because it's the first finished product we are selling."

Ivan: "I have to agree with him boss."

Subaru: "What do you mean? Why does that matter?"

Beatrice: "Subaru have you never noticed the difference in price between raw material and manufactured goods in fact?"

Subaru: "But cloth is a manufactured good right?"

Beatrice: "No its not in fact! It is used to make clothing, beds, bedsheets, curtains and a plethora of other things."

Subaru: "I think I got you."

Ivan: "Yes, it wasn't that hard!"

William: "Also sir, everyone uses and needs shoes unlike fabric, that for the most part only artisans and merchants buy."

Subaru: "We should shift then to a more finished product-oriented production."

Beatrice: "I agree in fact."

Ivan & William: "So do we!"

Subaru: "I think one of the books had a name for it…consumer goods if I'm not wrong."

(Consumer goods are finished products bought by regular individuals and households, examples are clothing, food, and jewelry. Basic or raw materials such as copper are not considered consumer goods because the must be transformed into usable products.)

The next day Subaru tells the construction team to start building houses in the town side that's closest to the factory area to house the future work force. Subaru also had all his administrators, managers and clerks meet to talk about reinforcing security measures. Accidents had become quite common and blood had become an issue since its very corrosive and hard to clean. Security would be reinforced by overlooking the workers more to prevent them from being too reckless and by means of covering moving gears and machinery instead of leaving them exposed.

A week passed by and the first immigrants from Emilia's propaganda effort came into Macragge and got immediately employed to work in the cotton fields that had their workers drawn away by Subaru's factories.

Within the past week Ivan hadn't made any breakthrough in reverse engineering the alternator, so Subaru decided to get him to make a sowing machine to accelerate production of the shoe factory and to eventually make a clothing factory. Subaru also finally decided to make the last spare building a train factory and to commission the making a train cart factory.

A week after the arrival of the first immigrants Beatrice noticed that Macragge was lacking just about everything in the stores, so Subaru decided to go ask the newly appointed mayor about the issue.

Speaking with the mayor Subaru discovered the reason of the general shortage. Since everyone of Subaru's workers was being paid a modest amount instead of the bare minimum the merchants hadn't been capable of keeping up with the increased demand. To make matters worse the amount of money Subaru was paying his workers was actually causing inflation.

Subaru decided to discuss the next with Beatrice in the HQ.

Subaru: "In the end we can do two things, lower everyone's wages to stop the inflation in its tracks or start making new factories that make toys, furniture and other consumer goods that people could buy."

Beatrice: "Can't we just stand by and let the merchants eventually flood this place with goods in fact? Aren't shoes and porcelain enough?"

Subaru: "Porcelain and shoes alone won't cut it. Also, what you said first is an option, but I don't like it, I feel it's too risky."

Beatrice: "Remind my why we have such rampant inflation I suppose."

Subaru: "Because we have many people working and getting paid a modest amount. Since so many people have money to spare, they already bought everything in town at such speed the merchants are incapable of keeping up. So we have a lot of money floating around but nothing to buy!"

Beatrice: "We shouldn't decrease the wages of everyone in fact, but we could reduce the wages of a few let's say…the miners."

Subaru: "To stop the inflation a bit?"

Beatrice: "Just a bit, but it should buy us time to get new consumer goods factories running I suppose."

Subaru: "Then once we have the consumer goods factories running and the inflation controlled, we return to the miners their original wages."

Beatrice: "Or…we could leave them the new wages and increase the profits in fact…"

Subaru: "It's quite tempting but I will not allow the errors of my homeland to be repeated here."

Beatrice: "Just how bad was it compared to other countries from your world?"

Subaru: "A lot better than none industrialized nations, but my homeland focused too much in making profits and being efficient. It had a population that was shrinking because having sons made the parents unproductive and is quite the economic burden resulting in the newer generations having to work very hard and underpaid to maintain the older generations as well as the countries perceived technical superiority."

Beatrice: "So your people decided to stop having kids to work harder and the few kids they had ended up having to take care of their parents and nations prestige?"

Subaru: "Quite a grim future…I wonder how we ended like that…or if they fixed it…"

Beatrice: "We are getting quite a bit off the point now in fact. Is the resolution to temporarily decrease the workers of the miners working in the company until we make consumer goods?"

Subaru: "Yes that is the resolution, I will tell the construction team to make new factories and you tell the clerks to arrange everything for the wage decrease."

Beatrice: "Don't forget to tell Ivan and William so they make the new machines in fact."

Like that the two shot out of HQ to take down the ghost of inflation.

Subaru told the construction team to build some 8 new factory buildings. Instead of notifying William and Ivan of the change of course he went into a random factory and asked the workers he could about what product they desired the most to be available in town. Once he had a list of 10 products, he went to tell William and Ivan.

The 10 items on Subaru's list where:

-Toys

-Books

-Musical Instruments

-Clothing

-Board Games

-Carpets

-Furniture

-Lamps

-Hunting Gear

-Pencils/Quills and Inc.

Subaru tells Ivan to start designing the machines required and to simplify his magic printing press so it could enter mass production. He then tells William to get his men in the machining plant and the steel mill to make sowing machines and pieces of a board game called 'Chess' as well as 'Checkers'.

The next day the first board games come out of the steel mill and into Macragge's markets slowing down inflation a bit, but not enough. Subaru also went to personally tell the miners that due to unfortunate circumstances their wages would be lowered temporally much to the miners dismay. In the end despite the miner's arguments, they agreed to accept the new terms.

Along with that Subaru could see that the town was rapidly growing in population, from 8.000 to 8.400 since the start of Emilia's propaganda campaign. A growth of 5% in only a few weeks. Considering that the campaign was merely starting the amount of people that could potentially come streaming into the town was starting to concern Subaru. 'It's still good though, that means we can make the new consumer goods factories without worrying about having or not any workers for them.'

Concerned about this perceived issue Subaru sent a letter to the Mansion asking for all the construction workers and architects from all around the domain to be sent to Macragge.

He also told William and the construction team that they would need a new Steel Mill and Machining plant to meet the demand of machines expected from the first rapid industrialization effort.

The same day, gates of the Royal Capitol:

(What calendar system should I use for this? Normal world dates and month? What should be the reference year or year zero? Before and after Great Calamity? Before and after arrival of Subaru? Before and after royal selection? By default, I'm inclining for before and after royal selection. But what to you say?)

A large fleet of dragon carriages could be seen coming out of the city carrying a very special cargo. People, the fleet of a hundred transports moved people out of all things.

Girl: "Father why are we leaving another city again?"

Man: "Because it is said this place has work for people like us."

Girl: "How can you be so sure it won't be like the last 3 places we went to?"

Man: "It must be different. I believe the hero will actually have something waiting for us…"

Girl: "Will I get to meet the Hero?"

Man: "Sure, I heard he is good with kids…I hope in a good way though."

Girl: "Will mom and brother come with us later?"

Man: "If we find a good place to stay and I find a good job they won't take too long."

The fleet headed at full speed towards the Mathers Domain.

(I am terribly sorry for such a stupidly long delay, something absolutely ridiculous happened a few days ago. A llama out of all things ate the only fiberoptics cable that comes to the region I live in, so we lost all access to the internet. I learned that the phone towers also use the fiber optics :). Any way it is solved so now we should be back to normal.)

(Also I must say I'm sorry to bring out such a short chapter. I'm kind of lost on how to keep writing without having it seem like filler o being too boring.)