Chapter 25: Telegraph?

Macragge: 10:05 hrs. 01/10/1538

Failure, that was all Ivan had encountered for the past weeks. He knew that his generator could turn the light on and that closing the circuit anywhere would do so, but as soon as he tried making the wire longer, he noticed that the light would grow dimmer, until eventually it would not turn on. He tried making the cable thicker, but it didn't work, he used other materials but they where all worse than copper. He was now installing a hollow cable to try out. This cable like the ones before it would go out from the factory area, to the town, around the town and then back for a grand total of 4 kilometers (2,49 miles). He was making the final preparations for his tests.

12:40 hrs.

A new test, the generator was turned on, a light had turned on signaling the availability of electricity. Ivan closed the circuit, the electrons rushed through the cables, into the town, the copper was still resisting, with each meter they advanced fewer electrons were making it, only a handful of them made it all the way back but failed to ignite the light, they were too few, they were a failure.

"Please work…please work" Ivan plead to his machine, which refused to give any sign of live. "The most expensive cable so far…maybe we should do something to the generator?" asked an assistant. He got no response Ivan was opening and closing the circuit like mad. He then reached for the end of the cable wondering if he would feel the shock he had felt sometimes on accident. He did not. "NOTHING! ONCE AGAIN THERE IS NOTHING! GET ME A PENCIL NOW! I WILL FIRE WHO EVER GAVE ME THIS IDEA!" he shouted enraged. His assistants fell quiet and where now somewhat nervous, they had never seen Ivan this mad before, the one that was handing him a pencil accidently tripped and got one of his hands stuck on the switch that closed the circuit. The assistant had a ring on said hand that casually had a small mana crystal decorating it, luck would have it release a small amount of mana into the small aperture of the hollow copper cable for a brief moment before said assistant pulled his hand off due to it getting shocked. "Are you alright assistant?" Asked Ivan to which the man nodded. "Chief I think the light turned on briefly." Said another assistant. "You saw it to?" Asked a third. The room was briefly filled with a triumphant air.

Ivan: "Let's not get ahead of ourselves. You, what did you do?"

Assistant: "I just fell and my hand got caught on the switch."

Ivan: "You didn't cast any magic when falling or to minimize the pain from the shock?"

Assistant: "No chief, I don't know what I did."

Assistant 2: "Maybe his ring it got caught on the cable."

Ivan: "Hm…your ring seems to have a mana crystal."

Assistant: "A gift from my mother…and on closer inspection it seems to have released some mana."

Ivan: "Close the circuit. I'm personally going to give it mana."

The circuit was closed, like before the light did not ignite. Unlike before Ivan got his fingers close to the cable. He released a very small amount of mana into the aperture. The mana flowed into the cable and followed the electrons wherever they went. As the mana moved through the cable, it was pushing the electrons that had stopped from the resistance, all the way to the end the mana managed to push the electrons. Finally arriving at a room where it would dissipate while the electrons continued for the last stretch of wire to ignite the light. This time there where many of them and they managed to turn on the light. Ivan saw it worked. "3 short signals!" shouted Ivan before releasing 3 small amounts of mana for less than a second each. The light turned on and off three times on rapid succession. "Received Chief!" shouted an assistant. "3 long signals!" shouted Ivan before releasing again 3 small amount of mana for 2 seconds each. "Received Chief!" shouted the assistant once more. "Lastly 3 short signals again!" shouted Ivan as he released the mana. "Received all successfully Chief!" The room erupted in cheers following the first successful test in a long time.

14:30 hrs.

Subaru: "You made progress with the telegraph? I was expecting it to take longer."

Ivan: "Yeah…I can see that now that I'm looking at all the copper you bought…I thought we were behind schedule boss."

Subaru: "Oh that…I told you that to motivate you and the boys, we are really going faster than expected. So, the next days will be to explore the details you talked about, right?"

Ivan: "Oh yes. Particularly regarding the exact mana amounts needed to send a message and if the cable needs to be hollow at all."

Subaru: "Good, don't forget to poke holes into the cable and figure out if it needs to be airtight, I really hope it doesn't have to."

Ivan: "It would be nightmare to install hundreds of kilometers if it was."

Subaru: "It would."

Subaru then proceeded to inspect the machinery that will be sold to James. The engine was modified to make it more tolerant to rust and require less maintenance, but in turn it was somewhat underpowered. 'I really hope James doesn't decide that maintenance is too expensive.' Thought Subaru while he moved a piston. Everything in the factory was alright but as he was about to exit the building a messenger came in to deliver a letter to him. It was from Crusch, so he put it in his pocket to read it later.

Roswaal's Mansion: 15:00 hrs. 01/10/1538

Emilia was sending and writing letters instructing the merchants hired by the company to take the products to the Kararagi City States instead of selling them within Priestella until Ram interrupted her to deliver a letter. It was from Anastasia and Emilia opened it, it said Ana wanted to go talk with her about new knowledge that she was made aware of. 'Ek! She knows about the train! I knew it was a bad idea to lie!' She thought while scrambling to write a letter to Subaru. "But she tried to help us…the mana crystal she got us hasn't quite brought you back, but she tried to help…I should try too." She told her mana crystal hoping that it would answer, it did not.

Roswaal's Mansion: 10:00 hrs. 04/10/1538

Anastasia had finally arrived at the Mansion. From the moment she arrived she grew suspicious due to the fact that Subaru wasn't there. 'The brains of this operation is not even here….' She thought to herself wondering just how to get what she wanted as she was guided to her guest room. 'Emilia should be here any moment. She is friends with Ram and wouldn't like to be seen as selfish by her…Ug…it's not a very strong hook…I really hope that either Garfield or Otto accompany her.'

11:00 hrs.

Anastasia was finally summoned to Emilia's room. She stepped inside for the first time and it wasn't to glamours, nothing to go crazy about. The only thing that drew her attention was the huge number of books all around the room and the desk where Emilia was sitting seemingly content with herself was full of papers and letters. They both looked at each other in silence for a few minutes, Ana looked searching for anything useful, any sign of insecurity, of deception…all she found was the eagerness with which a younger sibling looks at his elder brother. She finally gave up her examination.

"So, Emilia, why do you look so eager?" Emilia's eyes where somehow even brighter, pleasantly surprised that Ana wasn't beating around the bush.

"I wish to apologize Anastasia." Emilia stated with eagerness.

"So, you did know…" Ana said lowly. "I guess you know how expensive the expedition was?" Ana continued.

"I do, so as an apology I have something I consider of equal value to offer." Emilia stated confidently.

"What is your offer? It has to be something very valuable for you to use singular." Ana said defiantly to which Emilia nodded positively.

"Does a locomotive sound expensive enough?" Emilia was now bosting huge amounts of confidence.

"A what?" Asked Ana, to which Emilia confidence took a blow.

"You know the head of a train, that pulls all of the cart behind." Emilia quickly replied

Ana was somewhat confused not expecting one of her demands to be accepted without her even saying and not knowing that a train could be split into parts. "So, you are offering me a train?"

Emilia hesitated for a moment "I am. One locomotive with 2 passenger carts and 2 cargo carts. But you will have to build the railways yourself to use it." Emilia said.

"You mean the iron roads? With the price of iron these days it will be easy. I accept. But more important I have another demand!" Anastasia stated, seizing the momentum. "I want to have exclusive rights for transportation of my company's goods between Priestella, the Capitol and any stops in between!" She said pretty sure that Emilia would accept if she was as guilt ridden as she seemed. Emilia seemed to be unsure and took a few moments to reply giving Ana more hope that her demand will be met.

"I can't do that, how about priority for transportation above other companies?" This was music to Anas ears since she recently learned that no other companies where moving goods on train in the first place it was a huge step to be the first company in doing so, she was now wondering how far she could push.

"Can you do exclusive right to transport the goods on this list?" She handed a list to Emilia, who read it for a few minutes and shook her head replying, "No. Priority over other companies and your own train is all I can offer." Emilia held out her hand indicating the end of negotiations. 'Who taught you?' Wondered Anastasia as she shook Emilia's hand indicating the agreement. They would spend the rest of the day reviewing the details of the train transfer and looking at the timetables to find any empty space for Anastasia's goods who was shocked at the shear amount of material moved and produced in Macragge.

Macragge: 20:00 hrs. 10/10/1538

Ivan had finished with all his testing, the result being that the wire had to be hollow, but that it was alright for it to have small holes as long as they weren't too many. It was also discovered that the average mana pool was enough to transmit all day long without any issues, so anyone capable of expelling mana at will, could send signals. Subaru had assembled an army of workers that would start installing the wires to lay the first line from Roswaal's Mansion to Macragge. Ivan was tasked with refining and coming up with a simpler design for the "communicator" to use at both ends of the line.

Subaru also had to figure out where to place all the people that where now coming to Macragge from the Capitol and all the people that would come once Crusch released them. As well as the food to feed them, Subaru made double shifts on railway project to the central valley famous for its food production to have it ready before any famine could start. He was also occupied in searching for any spare train to give to Anastasias due to an agreement that had Hoshin Company's goods coming into Macragge helping to reduce the inflationary pressures and increasing revenue via transport fees.

Capital City: 10:52 hrs. 11/10/1538

A man could be seen entering the Train station on the outskirts of the grand city. Since he has been a farmer all his life working in the Karsten family's domain, it was natural for him to be surprised by the huge amount of people moving about to go on or even just see this so called "train". He looks at the paper he couldn't read, "Ticket they call it…What did it say?" he asked his companion, a friend of his from the farm. "Uh? Oh! Capital City to Macragge, it seems to indicate our origin and destination." The man could tell it was more than that, but he couldn't care.

Suddenly he noticed people started to gather near the end of the floor and in general, commotion. He wondered what could be causing it. He then heard it, the loudest, most terrifying thing he has ever heard, he covered his ears to not hear it…yet it only grew louder, the people on the end of floor seem to ready themselves for something…he looked to where they where all looking. A huge metal behemoth was charging straight for them spewing awful black and white smoke trying to burn them alive. He wanted to run, to hide, do anything…but his body did not move. Paralyzed by fear he looked at to what he assumed was doom, destruction, annihilation, oblivion…Until it stopped right next to the end of the floor and the most bizarre thing happened…people started to pour out of it…and people started to get inside. The man did not understand what he was looking at. He turned to his companion for answers who was crouching with his eyes closed and trembling. Another man in uniform approached them and asked for their tickets. He briefed the two through what a train was and the basics of train travel. Once he was done the two reluctantly boarded the train to finish their journey.

Capital City: 13:00 hrs. 15/10/1538

The machinery had finally been provided to James, after a weeklong course for 6 of his workers and himself. The machine was now at last being drilled into his workshop to stop it from jerking around and shaking too much. Much to his displeasure he was required by contract to keep a mechanic permanently in the workshop with exclusive rights to fix and maintain the machinery.

He suspected that the mechanic is just a spy, but he would have to let it slide for now since without the machines he would have to cutdown his operations substantially.

Macragge: 17:40 hrs. 03/11/1538

Finally is was done, the telegraph line between Macragge and Roswaal's mansion was finished, after painstakingly slow progress for the first days due to the ease of breaking the hollow copper wires, they found a more pipe like wire was better suited for the job, still only 7 mm (0,78 inches) wide is was considered quite a big achievement by everyone involved and it would be tested today. With Subaru on one end getting to receive the first transmission coming from Emilia on the other side, both of them would have a team of operators trained to interpret and send the intermittent lights.

Everyone had agreed to start signaling at 17:45 and were now running around checking everything for one last time before the test began.

Roswaal's Mansion: 17:42

Silence was all that could be heard occasionally interrupted by taping and papers moving. Emilia, Roswaal, Ram, Petra, Frederica and the two signalmen were in the room now used for telegraphing. Everyone was looking at the clock begging it to clock faster, but it didn't, it couldn't, so they kept looking at it, one of the signalmen was making sure his pencil would right but was visibly sweating, nervous.

Macragge: 17:44

Dead silence, nothing could be heard other than the distant humming of a generator stored on a different room. No one was moving waiting for the minute to finally pass. Subaru was wondering if this would fail, he knew it was quite expensive but the fact that Roswaal's endless pocket could take the hit didn't bring him any peace. Beatrice was calm, if it failed, they could just fix it and get back to it in less than a week. Otto was wondering just how fast the signals would come through, Subaru told him it would be instantaneous but that was absurd, 'Nothing can move that fast' he reassured himself. Garfield was calm, absolutely sure it would work and if it didn't it was because some of workers installed some stretch of wire wrong, an easy fix 'Captain will surprise us like he always does' he thinks to himself.

Roswaal's Mansion: 17:45

The long signal was sent as per protocol, and with every passing second, they grew more anxious. Did it fail? Did the signal not make it through? Could the other side have problems with their generator?

They receive a short signal back, indicating that the other side was on standby ready to receive the message.

Everyone was silent waiting for Emilia to tell the signalmen what the message would be.

Emilia hesitated for a moment, seemingly forgetting what she wanted to telegraph.

Macragge: 17:45

The signal had been sent on their end, was the other side receiving it? Why are they taking so long to start telegraphing? Everyone was growing anxious as one second passed, then 4, then 10.

Suddenly the light flickered on and off rapidly, a message. The first signalman looking at the light started to talk. "T" "H" "E" "Y" while the other signalman listened and took note, "SPACE" continued the first signalmen.

17:47

The mansion had finally stopped telegraphing and the signalmen that took note readied himself to read aloud: "They await my words. What should I tell them? You are sending? What great things we can achieve when we know what we are doing let us hope we always know."

Subaru waited no time and started to dictate a reply.

AN: (For anyone wondering why I chose these words it's because 1. The ones used IRL don't fit, they don't precisely have a god, rather a dragon. 2. Because Emilia froze her people when she did not know what she was doing it would be natural for her to try to know more to avoid the same happening once more. It will (Kind of) if I don't decide to change that part later on.)

Mansion: 17:48

Everyone was silent waiting for the response, hoping there would be any. Emilia was visibly nervous, had she stunted her chance at saying good first words over such a revolutionary apparatus? She didn't have to worry for long and neither did the others have to wait to much for the light started to flicker on and off rapidly and the signalman looking at the light started to say seemingly random letters while the second man took note.

After a few minutes they had a message and the second signalman cleared his throat to read it out loud. "Yes, I knew Emilia-tan would have a wonderful first message for us. Please reply as soon as you can to see if this is as fast as I hope."

They kept on sending messages for the next two hours to test both accuracy of the message, reliability and response time. They even tried to have just one signalman interpreting and writing the message and it failed spectacularly reducing the accuracy of the message dramatically.

Macragge: 20:00 hrs. 03/11/1538

They had finally finished testing for the day. Ivan approached Subaru and asked him "Why did you decline the expansion of the telegraph line to Priestella and the Capital? Do you not like how it worked?" Subaru was caught off guard by the man's sudden crisis of confidence but then remembered 'Right I am a hero, the one everyone looks at to be reassured.' "It worked very well, actually I'd say it worked better than I expected." He reassured Ivan who then asked, "Then why not keep expanding?" Subaru simply replied, "We ran out of copper and all of our supply comes from Gusteko, I'd say we even drained the markets in the north of the nation of all copper for a few months."

Ivan seemed a bit let down, they had so far managed to source every material that they needed by themselves, but this was literally impossible to solve in any direct manner in the short term. He realized that this invention would take a long time to truly change people's lives.

"Don't feel so bad." Subaru's sudden words surprise Ivan who thought he had left. "We have changed the lives of many people for the better, just think about all the people taken from the slums that are now working for us." Subaru reminded him.

"They seem a lot more happier now. Heck they actually seem to be enjoying life." Ivan told himself.

"See? I must leave now, I promised Beako that I would get some cakes she liked. Did I give you your to do list?"

"You did, farewell. Hero." Ivan waved off.

Next Chapter: "Pandora part 1"

AN 1: (So this chapter is named "Telegraph?" because the machine we see isn't exactly a telegraph, it uses mana and electricity, has no batteries and doesn't beep. The last part will be explored later on.)

AN 2: (I feel terribly sorry for such unjustified delay, I had a bit a distraction in the form of Star Wars that made me uncapable of thinking in this story until I could write/read my thought off my head. Other than that, let's hope that I can upload at least one chapter per month from now on. The next 2 or 3 chapters are going to be so much fun! I hope you guys enjoy! Until next chapter!)