Chapter 416: Chapter 2.134

Deep underground, I sat on a comfortable chair, legs crossed and looked at Albert who was putting a whole lot of magical stones into his machine.

“So, what did you do during the last night?” I asked, not interested in his machinery, but very keen on showing him my general interest in him.

“I did manage to build a prototype using my steam engine.” He said, presenting me a rather long conveyor belt which went through half the room.

“And? What is it for?” I asked feigning to look at the thing while my eyes were more or less glued to my timetable.

“It’s for transportation, specifically transporting ore. The first steam engines weren’t used to power trains, but rather found their application in mines and such. With this conveyor belt, we can transport a lot of ore over a horizontal distance while we can use a lift to carry ore vertically. Like this, we can increase production by a wide margin, decreasing the price of metals and magical ores in the process.” He said proudly and pulled a few levers. Instantly, the conveyor belt began to move and steam was ejected out of the machine.

“Wouldn’t we oversaturate the market quite quickly?” I asked, already wondering how I could test how deep we could go into the demon territory without stretching our supply lines too thinly.

“Not at all! That’s the best part! We either find new applications for the ores, or the commoners get access to fridges and stuff as well, taking a huge portion off the market.”

“Wouldn’t that make it a zero sum game?” If consumption increased and supply as well, there wouldn’t be much left, would there?

“Not at all? Just because we have no surpluses of magical stones at the end of the day, it doesn’t mean society as a whole didn’t progress. The more energy we consume as a society, the more developed we are. It has always been like this. First we used coal, then oil, gas and nuclear, then we switched over to solar and wind, only to see that replaced by nuclear fission and in the end, dark matter reactors. The more energy we consumed, the more options we had as a society!” He said, strangely proud of his explanation, even though I had a hard time accepting it.

“I see … but isn’t the opposite true as well? The more energy a society consumes, the more destructive it gets?” I asked, remembering very well how he spoke about bombs capable of obliterating entire planets.

“The further a society progresses, the less willing it will be to use this destructive potential.” Albert explained, even though I could see he was hesitant to do so.

“That’s an interesting idea. So you want me to sell this steam engine to increase the mining output, so that we consume more energy … got it.” I said, looking back down onto my timetable and crossing out a useless meeting.

“And? What is your decision?” Albert asked meekly.

“The same as Wednesday. I truly believe you did well in constructing that, but it’s not what we need right now.” I explained gazing into his eyes.

“And what do you need?” He asked, tripping from one toe to another like a little girl.

“A way to scout beyond ten kilometres in the demon kings territory. All out scouts don’t return past this point …” I explained, looking at him with a mixture of hope and interest in his emotions to be close to me.

“What about a hot air balloon?” He proposed, throwing a few more words I didn’t know into the room.

“A what?” I asked, tilting my head to the side.

“A balloon rising into the air thanks to being lighter than the surrounding air. The air inside is hotter, mea-“ Holding my hand in front of me, I signalled him to stop explaining me everything. I wouldn’t get it most of the time anyway. “It can fly.”

“And how is that better than Hannah flying up?” I asked and raised my eyebrow slightly.

“Everyone can use it.” I still wasn’t convinced with his proposal but as he had nothing better to do anyway, he could make that thing as well.

“Then construct one of these.” I said, finally closing my timetable completely.

“That’s going to take time … I need to get enough coated fab-“ Once again, I stopped him from speaking any further as I stood up, walked over to him and patted his head affectionately.

“I need to go now, so take care of yourself.” I explained and smiled amused as he nodded repeatedly.

“You too.” He said, to which I could only nod as well. Turning around on my heels, I ascended the stairwell again and met Hannah in the hallway.

“On a usage scale from zero to ten, where do you put him?” Hannah asked, following by my side leisurely.

“I don’t measure the value of my kin.” I answered, but Hannah just kept on looking at me. “3. Before you ask, Tom is a seven and you are a six.”

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“Ouch … can I improve my standing?” Theoretically, she could but I didn’t want her to be too focused on my evaluation of them.

“No. I rolled these numbers with dices. Is everything prepared?” I asked, looking out of the window to see a saintly white carriage waiting in front of the mansion.

“I made the arrangements.” She said, opened the door for me while I took out a small notebook from my backpack and wrote down a few more things that needed to be done.

Shortly afterwards, we were sitting inside the carriage and I placed my backpack underneath my seat. Rumbling across the city, I used that time to write the pope a letter and handed it over to Hannah right away. “Deliver this as fast as possible.” I said and noticed how she nodded eagerly, taking the letter out of my hands near instantly. Opening the door, she stepped out of it, mumbling something underneath her breath and jumped out. A strong gust of wind entered the carriage, annoying me somewhat as Hannah flew right back where we came from.

“Okay …” I mumbled a bit stunned by her eagerness and closed the door once more. Grabbing underneath the seat to my right, I took out a white hat and put it on my head. Scribbling in my notebook a bit more, I noticed how the carriage halted, stuffed my things back into the backpack and left the carriage in front of a massive building in the commoner district. Outside, there was already a tall, strong human waiting for me right away.

“Your holiness, it is a pleasure to meet you.” At least he didn’t fall on his knees, which meant I could merely smile at him and everything would be alright.

“The pleasure is all mine. You are the best adventurer in the capital city right now, am I right?” He was indeed a bit surprised from my words and nodded quite happily.

“Indeed I am. Please follow me.” He said and guided me towards the door gently.

“Thank you … but you have to tell me. What is the strongest demon you have slain?” I asked, not even bothering about the completely empty adventurers guild as we strode through it.

“That was undoubtedly a dragon with three others.” A mere dragon? That was a bit disappointing, but I didn’t complain. Instead, I complimented him for his achievements until he knocked into a door and guided me inside without following me.

“Your holiness. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” The rather old guild master said and slid a cup of tea over to the opposite site of where he sat.

“It does seem my reputation of speaking from eye to eye travels faster than me.” I said laughingly and sat down opposite of him.

“I hope you don’t mind this casualness.” No, I certainly didn’t. The less time we wasted with formalities, the faster I was out of the room again.

“No, I welcome it. It is easier to talk about important matters like this.” I answered and picked up the cup of tea, only to twirl its contents around a little.

“How can we be of service?” The white haired man asked and looked at me with a piercing gaze.

“I need an army.” I explained and casually took a sip of tea while the guild master neatly fell backwards.

“Excuse me?” He said, barely containing his surprise. His eyes gave him away easily though.

“In a few days, we will announce a planned incursion into the demon kings territory, among other things. And for that, I need the best adventurers I can get.” I explained, crossing my legs leisurely.

“You want to do what? No adventurers has ever returned from scouting past a few kilometres.” He said, not believing in my mission fully.

“I am aware. But these were single persons, not an army.” I explained, hoping to get him on my side.

“And how do you want to supply them with rations? That place is filled with demons!” Is it? How could that even be possible?

“That is frankly speaking not possible. Even if they had developed farming equipment and such, there cannot be more of them than what we can muster.” I said a bit unsure myself. They did have a strong frontline but beyond that it was hard to imagine too many demons as they had to fed as well.

“Fine … I will create a nationwide quest the day you announce it.” He said, relenting to my request right away. Well, it wasn’t that he had any choice either as he couldn’t risk that I didn’t look at the adventurers favourably.

And with that, the second meeting of the night basically concluded. And after that, it was only three more …

I liked giving orders, don’t get me wrong. But I hated ruling. If done properly, it meant I would work all the time which is exactly what happened that night. I could task others with it as well, but I knew unexperienced humans could only make it worse …

 

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