When Nestor Vogel found out about the airship, he was ecstatic. In his own words, his life had been boring as hell. He had to endure silent treatment from his siblings, pressuring him to leave so that they’d receive a bigger piece of the pie. Apparently, he was quite close to Daniel Flissing who referred his case to his father, and ultimately he let him tag along to the capital to meet up with Ewald. It was also Daniel’s idea to use General Goss as an excuse to join. Nestor was a bit too honest to a fault.
He and Cezary got along well pretty much instantly. He understood whatever Cezary was trying to accomplish and worked together to refine the design.
As for the public library, let’s say that the carpenter went blue upon being told that he also needed to construct another building. Thankfully, a mason did arrive in Laufeld. He didn’t come alone; He had a full crew with him. A total of six men arrived to settle down in the town. Interestingly, a merchant named Julian arranged the transport who also requested an audience. Ewald and Cezary received him in a study.
“First of all, I thank you for going out your way to bring the men to the town. We’ve been in dire need of masons for some time,” Ewald said from behind his desk with Cezary standing next to him.
“The town needs a lot of things, it looks like,” Julian responded with a smile. “Which is why I’ve requested this meeting.”
“Yes, I do have a feeling that you want something from us.”
Clearing throat, Julian replied, “I do not seek anything materialistic. I simply wish to be granted an exclusivity.”
“An exclusivity?” Ewald repeated.
“I would like to become the merchant of Laufeld.”
Ewald crossed his fingers. “Could you explain what you are trying to accomplish?”
“Certainly.” He bowed with a palm on his chest. Getting back up, he continued, “I would like to be given your permission to set up a shop here. My shop will be different in the fact that I have your blessing and have the right to retain monopoly for 15 years. I will do the best in my ability to bring in goods to improve the living standards of this town. In return, I would like you to grant me an ability to kick out any other merchants who attempt to encroach on my business.”
“For 15 years, huh…”
“Yes, during that time, I will use my money to invest and rightfully earn profit. I shall be honest. I stand to gain a lot if your future vision aligns with my own. At the same time, you will also gain a lot. It is a mutual business partnership I am proposing. You cannot do everything. I am merely taking over the business side of the town.” Then he emphasized, “On your behalf.”
“Very well. I am convinced but I’d like to talk to my advisor for a moment. Please wait outside.”
“Of course, do take your time.”
Bowing once again, he turned around and left the study.
“So, Sir Waszak, your take on this?”
“He is correct that we both stand a lot to gain - if - Laufeld grows. He is going to have to invest his own money to develop trading routes. It’s something we would have to do on our own if no merchant is willing.”
“So, we should let him then.”
“Yes, but I’d like to reduce the exclusivity to ten years. Fifteen years is a bit too long if he fails to live up to his claim.”
He felt that Cezary had a point. If the guy couldn’t do the job properly, they’d be stuck with him for over a decade.
“Ideally, five years of exclusivity is probably the best for us, but not for him. He wants fifteen after all. Ten is probably the middle ground we can agree on.”
“I see your point. Very well.”
Once Julian was allowed back in, Ewald proposed ten years of exclusivity which he reluctantly accepted without much fuss. He probably foresaw this outcome.
“I thank you. I shall construct my own market stall as well as my new home nearby.”
Ouch, good luck, Mr. Carpenter.
There would be even more work. He indeed had so much to do. Right at the moment, he was building the barrack which was nearing its completion. Then he was to work on the public library. The masons were also planning to build their own workshop and were currently living in a local tavern. They would probably need a few houses as well. All in all, the guy had so much work filed up that he was pretty much set for the next decade. Faro would learn a lot along the way which was a nice bonus.
Speaking of Faro, Ewald did pay his mother a visit and inquired about his situation. According to Vilma, while he did want to become an adventurer and work his way up to becoming a knight, the reality was that he would need to work. In a farming community like Laufeld, everyone over the age of seven worked, and he was already having a hard time finding boys of his age to play with. Thus, he eventually accepted that he had to work. It was either finding a job or going back to farming with his dad. He chose the former. It was clear that he just did not like farming for whatever reason. The truth was, however, Macomaco farming was probably one of the most luxurious jobs. Once planted, you’d barely touch the soil. All you’d touch is its leaves. The plant itself was very resistant to diseases and drought, thus it required little micromanagement. You’d just let it be and harvest correctly ripe leaves. Of course, perhaps to a child, farming was farming, period.
Ewald walked outside toward a platform the carpenter’s son was building. It was an elevated platform meant for the airship to park and let its passengers come in and out. It had two levels. The first level had a pair of stairs on each end with the upper level having another pair of stairs leading up to the top. The airship was sitting on the top of it. As per Cezary’s instruction, the airship was always heated ever since its construction. He wanted to test the durability of the linen balloon. The sewing job wasn’t perfect and emergency patchwork had to be done here and there.
image [https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img922/919/GWx4Ue.png]
The platform was located between the market and the manor. The town itself was slowly developing. The most notable change was the cobblestone road. There were a lot of smaller stones left over from building the foundation of the barrack that the masons were immediately able to start building a cobblestone road. They started from the gate and were slowly pushing toward the market. Cezary insisted that The road was the most important infrastructure, which Nestor also agreed with. It would make traveling merchants easier to traverse, not to mention it would also prevent roads from being muddy after rain. The latter was especially important for a town like Laufeld where muddy roads would become … smelly due to manure.
image [https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img922/6854/Gw91eM.jpg]
The development of the airship as well as the active development of the town meant that Ewald, the lord of the town, was literally penniless. As soon as any profit was earned, it went straight out. Thankfully, the tax from wheat kept them fed at least. Even then, a large chunk of the money was taken out to finish the airship faster.
He approached the platform, and there were Cezary, Nestor, and Marat on the platform. Marat was on the ship part where she was inspecting the interior while Nestor was inspecting the exterior. Cezary was holding up the schematic.
“Is it done?” He casually asked Cezary.
“Yes, pretty much. Nothing has been leaking for a while. We are going to take a test drive soon.”
“Who’s going to pilot it?”
“You, Milord.”
“Me?”
“You and Marat. You are the best one since, in an absolute emergency, you can get out easily. Marat knows how to handle the ship.”
He did have a point.
“And after it becomes public?”
“We will have someone trained. I think at least three crews are required: A pilot, an engineer, and a guard protecting the pilot’s room.”
He nodded along. “I see. What will be our first destination?”
“I haven’t quite decided that yet. But we should not choose Lux for the time being.”
He needed to lay low from Edmund’s eyes as long as possible. Even if he wanted Ewald back now, he wasn’t going to comply. Still, there was no need to create a conflict if avoidable.
“If we are avoiding Lux, Rokk is the only option, isn’t it?”
The three closest settlements were Lux, Keviel, and Rokk. Both Lux and Keviel should be avoided in order not to draw too much attention at once. That left only Rokk.
image [https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img924/5375/DYWn2I.jpg]
“Well, we could try an Estana settlement as well.”
Makarlika was in fact the closest settlement. But there were some issues. Firstly, Estana and the Kingdom of Egra did not share the same language. That was big enough of an issue. Secondly, their culture was also quite different. How different, he didn’t know; He was simply told that the way Estanians did things was quite different. The cultural difference was what sparked a prolonged peace between the two nations because conquering each other’s territory was deemed pointless. It’d take so much effort to integrate a settlement that war was seen as a pointless endeavor.
“Do we trade? I mean with Estana.”
“Rarely. They have iron which we used to want. Now that we have Maiava, we don’t really have a reason to trade.”
“Do they offer anything else though?”
Cezary folded the schematic. “Their land is mostly arid. Only those close to the border can farm properly. From my limited knowledge about them, they always tried to sell spices.”
“Spices? What are they?”
He had never heard of it.
“Not quite sure. I believe it makes food hot?”
“Hot? So, spice is some sort of magical item that makes food hot?”
“No, no.” Cezary turned to Ewald. “Not temperature wise. It tastes hot.”
Having never tasted any form of spicy food, the meaning was completely wasted on him.
“It tastes hot? What does that even mean?”
“I suppose you wouldn’t know unless you taste it.”
The cuisine within the Kingdom of Egra was basic. That was probably an understatement. The most common dishes were vegetable soups and roasted rabbit or hare hind legs. Neither required any sophisticated cooking skills. The upper class involved slightly more advanced dishes such as bread, sausages, and butter. Still, their entire cuisine was quite basic and had no need for spices.
“Hmm, now you’ve made me curious. I do wish to try out this ‘spice’.”
“Traveling merchants from Estana rarely come here, if ever. You are going to have to ask someone, like Julian, to import some.”
He was to be the merchant of the town after all. Keeping the mental note, he looked over the airship once again. They had come a long way until this point. Everything began from Ewald discovering that heated air always went upwards. He wasn’t meant to invent this airship thingy however. He wanted to invent a way to refrigerate food. However, it was no longer a priority for him since the main product of Laufeld was wheat which had a long shelf life on its own without a need to keep it cool.
The airship was piloted from its captain’s compartment which was in the back. Inside was basically a small room where there were two pipes, one out into the linen balloon and the other out to the back. A fire crystal was installed in the pipe that led into the balloon, and a wind crystal was installed in the pipe leading out to back. The latter was basically a wind tunnel. It would propel the airship to move in a direction. There was also a flap at the end of the pipe which could alter the direction of wind generated by the crystal. As for altitude control, on top of the oval-shaped balloon, there was a blowhole with a weighted wooden cap. It was weighed precisely to keep the airship to a certain altitude. The blowhole could also be opened manually from the captain’s room so that it could reach the ground when required. Finally, there were the dirtbags. They were tied to the ship to simulate the weight of passengers. The weighted blowhole had a static limit, meaning it could not adjust in case of having passengers, thus more weight. Therefore, the limit was calibrated as if the ship was full by using the dirtbags. This was the part Cezary wished to improve upon. He wanted a dynamic blowhole. Nestor suggested a completely manual control of the blowhole from the captain’s room, but there was a risk of damaging the linen balloon if the control was left to a pilot completely because a pilot would need to sleep or take a break during a longer voyage. Therefore, the current static blowhole was to stay. At the moment, the current passenger limit was eight people. Since three slots would be required for the crews, that left just five passengers. It was still a far cry from what Cezary envisioned originally; He wanted an enormous airship that was capable of ferrying a hundred people. It was getting there albeit slowly.
“We can start as soon as you’d like to, Milord. We can start even right now,” Cezary said.
“We can?” Ewald looked at Nestor and Marat who seemed to be busy inspecting the airship. “Are you sure?”
“We can only test so much while grounded. A real test flight will be much better.”
“Who will accompany me?”
“Marat as an engineer, and you should take Raem as your guard knight. I want you to reach Rokk and see how long it takes.”
He looked over the sky; It looked to be around noon.
“Alright, let’s do this then.”
Cezary called Nestor over to patch Raem and then started to explain the controls once they went aboard the airship. The captain’s room was indeed tiny. It was just large enough for a lone person to stand. There was a stool in a corner to sit down. There was a hollow iron pipe on the ceiling and another on a back wall. Both had a spot to insert an elemental crystal.
“You place a wind crystal in the rear pipe. And a fire crystal above. I am sure I don’t need to explain to you why.”
Ewald nodded. He knew exactly why. There was a small iron lever right below the rear pipe. Pointing at it, Cezary explained.
“You use the lever to change the direction of the wind. Now, I must warn you that changing direction is slow progress. Keep that in mind and plan ahead.”
Then he pointed at a pipe that was coming down from a small hole in the ceiling.
“Pull that rope, and it will manually open the blowhole. Doing so will decrease the ship’s altitude manually. It’s to be used when getting down to the ground.”
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Ewald nodded along. The controls seemed simple enough.
“I do have a question. You could call it a concern.”
“Yes?”
“How do I know which direction to go? I mean I can tell at the start. But, when I am in the middle of nowhere, I don’t think I will be able to tell the direction easily. And what about at night?”
The compass was yet to be invented in this world. Direction was determined by the sun which wasn’t always available unfortunately.
“The best way is to go in the direction you want to go and never deviate too much. You will be high in the air, so you will be able to spot settlements from very far away. Unfortunately, we do not have a way to tell directions reliably.”
Crossing arms, Ewald stroked his chin, trying to think of a way to tell directions easier.
“Perhaps, smoke might help?” He threw his idea in the open. “It might need to be pretty large though.”
“It might work, for the time being at least. The crystals are stored in the boxes over there.”
Cezary soon got off the ship, and Raem got on. The airship was already pretty much ready to go. The only reason it wasn’t ascending was the fire crystal installed in the top pipe was a tiny one, just enough to keep the air warm but not hot enough to provide enough buoyancy. He swapped out the crystal and threw the tiny fire crystal into a metal bin nearby. Using a small pickhammer that was attached to a wall, he cracked the new fire crystal. It started glowing upon the impact.
“We are off!” Marat declared.
Ewald inserted a wind crystal into the rear pipe and cracked it with a pick hammer. The crystal started glowing in green, and he could feel the pipe sucking wind out.
“Woah, woah!” Raem exclaimed. It was his first time flying after all. “I think I am getting a bit dizzy.” He stayed well off the edge while Marat seemed very used to height.
There was a window on each side where he could determine which direction to fly. Using the orientation of Laufeld’s only gate, he adjusted the rear lever to change the direction to Northeast.
I think my job’s done at this point? There is nothing for me to do until we reach Rokk.
Having determined that there was little he needed to do in the captain’s room, he walked out of there to the deck. The room was too small to stay in for a prolonged period.
“Nice ~”
A bird's eye view of the wilderness came to his view. It looked peaceful from above, but he knew that it could get ugly if he went down there. Looking back, he saw Laufeld becoming swiftly smaller. The speed of the airship didn’t seem as fast as the spell levitation, but it seemed to be faster than a horse.
“Um…” He trailed off as he saw Raem sulking in a corner. He had his knees close to his chest and was pale. “Raem, are you feeling unwell?”
“I think… I think I am afraid of heights.”
It turned out that he was the worst person to have brought aboard. He looked at Marat for help but she shrugged.
“Do we have anything to eat here by the way?”
She replied, “We do have a water barrel up there. That’s it. Food was an afterthought.”
This reminded him that there was no way to do number one and two. For men, number one shouldn’t be an issue. For women, however… He made a mental note of this slight issue.
Overall, their journey was peaceful. They were able to reach Rokku soon after midnight and had to wait until the sun would come up before attempting to make it down. The town looked quite similar to Laufeld but it had no walls and houses were scattered around a manor which was presumably the lord’s house. All in all, it looked like they would be able to reach Rokku from Laufeld if they departed early in the morning.
“We don’t need to go down, do we?”
“We don’t but …” She trailed off.
They had two problems. First, they hadn’t eaten anything since they left. Two, Raem was down as in completely down. He was unconscious. He was afraid of heights and was feeling too dizzy to even stand up. He was basically sea sick. Now, being hungry wasn’t a big of a big deal for them since water was present. They could hang on, but Raem’s condition was a big question mark.
“It’s your call, Milord.”
Additionally, he wasn’t sure how people would react to the airship. There was a chance that people would get violent and attack them. Probably not, he thought right after. But that didn’t change the fact that it was completely unknown how people might react. Considering how people in Laufeld reacted, there wasn’t probably much to be afraid about.
“Let’s get down.” Having said so, he went into the captain’s room. He took out the fire crystal with a pickhammer and started a slow descent near the manor. Soon, people noticed that something was coming down the sky and started to follow the airship. By the time the airship was pretty close to the ground, guards from the manor were waving peasants off. There was a man with silver hair which he presumed as Isaac Knell.
“Lord Knell!” Ewald shouted from above.
“Lord Fenchel?!” Isaac uttered with a bewildered expression on his face.
Ewald looked back at Marat. “Can you handle this? I am going down.”
“Do you want me to keep the ship afloat at this altitude?”
“Can you?”
“There are smaller fire crystals in the box. We can use it to keep the buoyancy neutral.”
At the moment, the airship was about ten meters above the ground. This was a safe distance. No human would be able to reach the airship but close enough to see what it was about.
“Do it. I will come back soon with some food.”
“Understood.” She dashed into the captain’s room.
Ewald jumped down and landed gracefully by casting a spirit version of levitation.
“Lord Fenchel, what is going on? What is that… thing?”
“It is called an airship. It is a form of transportation.”
“Transportation…?” Isaac couldn’t take his eyes off the airship.
“Safe and fast transportation,” He added.
Being a smart guy Isaac was, he swiftly caught on the possible implications of such an invention.
“No way…,” He uttered, still shocked to his bones. What was deemed impossible was right in front of his eyes: flight for everyone. A safe transportation for everyone meant free migrations. A small town like Rokk may be able to grow.
Blinking his eyes, Isaac snapped out and invited Ewald for a talk.
“I cannot stay here for too long. Would you give us some food first? We are starving.”
Ewald explained that this was the maiden flight for the airship, and that the lack of food was an oversight. Isaac ordered some bread which Ewald brought to Marat by using levitation. Raem was still out cold but looked no longer pale. Once that was done, Isaac and Ewald went into the manor which was eerily similar to his own back in Laufeld. Basically, it could barely be called a manor. A large two story house was more fitting. Likewise, the interior was modest as well, not much different from his Laufeld manor.
“That thing…, an airship, you say?”
“Yes, we’ve been working on it for a year or so.”
“We?”
“I and Sir Waszak, a scholar of mine.”
They were having tea at a table. It was just regular tea.
“How long did it take from Laufeld to here?”
“We departed at noon and arrived at midnight. If we departed early in the morning, we would have arrived by evening.”
“Fascinating…” Isaac’s eyes narrowed. “Pray tell. What are you trying to achieve?”
Ewald acted as if he was drinking tea but he wasn’t. He was being cautious. “Migration has not been possible. But the airship will change that. You do understand what I am trying to say, don’t you?”
“Those from the North… may want to migrate to the South,” Isaac replied after a moment of silence.
“Precisely. Traditionally, a settlement like Rokk, Laufeld, and Tantan has had absolutely no way to develop further. With the airship, as long as there is a will, there will be a way.”
Isaac felt like this was just a big dream. He pinched his thigh discreetly to make sure that he was indeed not dreaming. He also realized that Karsten was correct in his assessment of wanting to tie him down to the royalty.
“Pray tell. Do you plan to sell the airship?”
“We are going to sell the schematic soon. The airship you saw today is just a prototype. We are going to need to make it bigger to make any meaningful impact because right now, all it can carry is eight people.”
“Migration isn’t the only usage,” Isaac said. “Communication would also be a lot faster.”
Indeed, so far, unless it was urgent, a regular messenger on a horse was used to communicate. Wind mages were used in emergencies and whatnot.
“True, I suppose.”
“How much will you charge for the schematic?”
“Like I said, Lord Knell, it’s only a prototype.”
“It wouldn’t matter. How it functions is all I need to know. I can work based on that.”
He had a point. The size wouldn’t matter; how it functions would remain the same regardless. But he was not in a position to declare a price. He would need to consult with Cezary.
“Please send a formal letter to Laufeld in order to discuss the price.”
Isaac was hoping to pressure him into giving him a rough price and use that as a base of negotiation. Obviously, his plan didn’t work.
Sipping his tea, he let out a long sigh and proclaimed, “Lord Fenchel, this is going to change the world. The world as we know is going to change.”
Pretending to sip his tea, Ewald smiled in return. “Of course, it will. That is what I am hoping to accomplish.”
“Does anyone else know about it?”
“No, sir. Rokk was the first destination we chose to reach. So, you are the first. We don’t plan to travel anywhere else with the airship for a bit.”
The airship needed improvements but it was almost there.
“So, there will be plenty of time for us to negotiate the price,” he added, and Isaac narrowed his eyes.
Placing the tea cup back on the table, he stood up. “I shall take my leave. I thank you for the treat. I am sure we will talk soon.”
As he made his leave, Isaac’s focus was on Ewald’s tea cup. It was clear that he didn’t drink any of it. He had absolutely no intention to harm Ewald, and certainly there was no poison in it. Regardless, an eleven year old was fully aware of what kind of situation he was in. He entered a foreign domain and was meeting with a foreign lord. He couldn’t have known that Isaac meant no harm. Additionally, he did not land the airship as if wanting to leave an escape route. He didn’t let his guard down at all. Isaac had goosebumps all over his body. Karsten was indeed truly correct. The boy should have been tied down. A second princess was ultimately wasted on an average boy in Daniel Flissing.
“Darling.” Sylwia, his wife, entered the room, waving her long charming red hair. She was a maid no more and wore a fine dress. Her belly was also giant, indicating she was close to giving birth.
He stood up and welcomed her with open arms. “My dearest! Please, take it easy.”
“The baby is kicking so hard,” She said with a giggle, and Isaac embraced her belly. Indeed, he could feel the baby kicking inside.
“It has got to be a boy, my dearest.”
“That would be truly wonderful,” She replied warmly.
He had no grand ambitions. His only goal was to make his family prosper and make his wife as happy as possible. And, for that, Rokk needed to prosper. At the moment, they were living beyond their means. Their current living style was possible only because he had saved up bribes while he was working for the king at the royal castle. While he still worked at the castle, his job was being the king’s advisor which freed him from doing miscellaneous paperwork where he accepted bribes, meaning he could no longer accept dirty money. Tax from Rokk was so insignificant that their living standards would barely match that of a merchant. He had been racking his brains to find a source of income. In the end, he didn’t even need to think hard after all, for the solution visited itself.
Of course, a settlement had to have something to draw people in. Isaac had been surveying the nearby mountain and found traces of metal which turned out to be copper. It was not in demand but it was a resource nevertheless. Like Laufeld, Rokk was predominantly a farming community. However, instead of wheat, they farmed mostly vegetables. Its main products were cabbage, spinach, and carrot. They were all perishables, thus Keviel didn’t take much of them. With the airship, it was going to be possible to sell them to other settlements. And, with the copper, Isaac may just be able to earn enough for a life befitting for a noble.
When Ewald was back on the airship, Raem was awake. Marat was still tending him though.
“Feeling better, Raem?”
“My apologies for being utterly useless.”
“Well, I hope you are getting used to this because we still need to go back.”
“Ugh…”
His eyes searched the deck for something. His stomach had been protesting for a while. He was feeling lightheaded even.
“Um, is there anything left for the bread?”
Marat looked troubled. “Uh.., you didn’t eat at the manor?”
“I didn’t. I didn’t know the guy’s intention.”
“I am sorry, but we ate all…”
Welp, I am going to starve for two full days.
“Well, let’s head back.”
Raem did manage to stay awake this round and he seemed to fare better. Still, he wouldn’t stand up, fearing to look down. As they sailed in the sky toward Laufeld, something hit the back of his mind.
“Have you ever seen any airborne monsters?”
“No, I haven’t,” Marat replied.
“No, but I’ve heard that they exist,” Raem replied.
In his whole life, Ewald had never seen one. Even in his former life, he never saw one, either.
“They exist?” Repeating what Raem said, he turned toward him. “Where and what kind?”
“Well, for one, the dragon in the Siwen legend is an airborne monster, no?”
“That’s true.”
As far as he knew, that was the only dragon mentioned in history. No other dragon was mentioned.
Raem continued, “I’ve heard, from the guild, that they do exist but they are mostly found in the North near the mountain Siwen.”
He stroked his chin. He hadn’t really thought about it but -
“Do any of you know what’s north of the Siwen?”
Neither knew the answer.
“It gets colder the further you go North, no?” Marat said. “I don’t think there is a country north of the Siwen.
Maiava was brutal already, and he had been to Puras for the peace negotiation before. The climate was indeed hard to live in.
For us maybe… Monsters are different.
Still, as powerful as monsters could be, they still had to eat. Without any adequate food source, even monsters wouldn’t be able to survive even if they could beat the weather.
Perhaps, Cezary knows more on this subject.
He probably did. After all, he was from the Siwen.
“We are back,” Marat announced. At this point, both Ewald and Raem were down. The former was down due to starvation. The latter was down from motion sickness. Seeing both of them down, she quickly prepared to descend to the wooden platform. Needless to say, she failed to land on the spot and veered off. Thankfully, she didn’t crash the airship.
After she let Ewald take several sips of warm veggie soup, colors started to return to his face soon. Meanwhile, Raem was left alone on the deck. The cure to his motion sickness was leaving him alone after all.
“God…, starving for two straight days is hard,” He said weakly.
“My deepest apologies, Milord,” Marat said.
Cezary and Nestor arrived. Lara soon followed to take Raem. Marat informed them that Ewald collapsed due to the lack of food.
“Ouch, what an oversight,” Cezary lamented. “We prepared water but forgot to prepare food.”
Nestor was inside the captain’s room, checking things to see whether anything was broken and whatnot.
“It looks like the airship held well. I think it can even fly right away,” He remarked gleefully.
Once the immediate issues were taken care of, Ewald rested for a day for a full recovery, during which he had discussed the schematic pricing with Cezary.
“The price will vary depending on the buyer,” Cezary said. “For example, for poor lords, it should be cheaper.”
I really do want to give a deep discount for Lord Weber. The guy is suffering enough because he was too loyal.
Sending 500 men out of 2,500 population was insane, he thought.
“What do you suggest for Lord Knell then?”
“I don’t know his net worth because he was too recently appointed.”
They were in Ewald’s personal room with him laying down on the bed. Cezary was by a window, occasionally looking out.
“His manor looked modest. I don’t think he is rich.”
“Perhaps, but you can never tell. He used to work in the royal castle, yes? He could have saved up a lot from bribes.”
“Bribes?”
In his eyes, Isaac didn’t look like he was that kind of character. Cezary explained that, to get anything done back in his hometown, he had to bribe officials. Otherwise, it’d either take too long or be outright discarded.
“Granted, I don’t feel this country is as rotten as the Siwen, but I assure you that castle scholars would take bribes simply because their basic wage isn’t probably enough.”
He contemplated what Cezary said and responded, “Do you take bribes as well then?”
“Yes.” Unexpectedly, he admitted rather freely. “But only if they shove it in my way. I don’t demand it. I am not naive enough to refuse money coming my way, Milord.”
“I see…”
“Not everything is black and white, Milord. The wage is often simply not enough if you have any sort of ambitions.”
He folded his arms on the bed, letting out a sigh.
Cezary continued, “Now, before we offer the schematic, there is something we must do.”
“Which is?”
“We must stock up on quartz because its price will skyrocket once demand for it goes up. I’ve already informed Julian about this. He is going to spend all of his wealth to stock up on quartz as we speak.”
“I see. Anyway, I expect Lord Knell to send a messenger our way soon. I suppose we will decide when the time comes.”
“We should offer it to everyone at this point. If we don’t, Lord Knell might claim it as his and sell it to others.”
Ewald rolled his eyes for a second and realized he was correct. The only way to claim that the airship was their invention was to let everyone know that it was theirs to start with, and the only way to accomplish that was offering the schematic to everyone.
“I will leave the pricing to you, Sir Waszak. But I do wish to give it to Lord Weber for free of charge.”
“May I ask your reason?”
He explained what he learned about Lord Weber’s situation from the royal party.
“I wish to give him a break,” He concluded.
“Not for free, Milord, but I will come up with a very reasonable price.”
“Very well, I will leave it up to you.”
Bowing with his palm on his chest, Cezary left the room.
Shoot, I forgot to ask about monsters. Oh, well, next time.
As soon as he left, Flora entered the room after knocking.
“How are you feeling?” She asked softly. She had a book in her hand. She wasn’t wearing a dress anymore and was back in her usual tomboy getup. He had no problem seeing women in such an outfit since Fionara was quite a tomboy as well.
“I am fine. It’s just for precaution.”
Taking a chair from his desk, she sat down next to his bed.
“Would you like to hear a story?” She crossed her legs and placed her book on her lap.
“Certainly.”
With her voice playing in the back of his mind, he slowly dozed off.