The Emperor and his wives had been away for the last three weeks but, honestly, only three people in the entire Empire were slightly inconvenienced. Normally, the inconvenience would be their own problem however two of those three people were very important. One of them was Lady Lanka, the Arch Priestess of Eriar, and the second was Olivia, the scientist, teacher, and student at the Royal University of Avalon. The young Half-Elf was restless in her quest to pursue knowledge, new applications of magic, and magitech. Lately, her work had come to an abrupt stop when her prototype mana reactor exploded and killed every single Fairy in the secret research facility. Since the facility was technically underground and only accessible through Dungeon Movement, she was conducting her research remotely. It was Empress Amber's idea and, while Olivia protested at first, she sheepishly admitted her Lady was correct. Olivia thought she knew why the reactor exploded but she needed the Emperor's approval to continue her research.
It was debatable if the third one inconvenienced was a person at all but, for all intents and purposes, she was considered one. In any case, she was, probably, even more important than the two others. Scion Stella was ordered by her Master to study and develop magic. That pursuit was something that gave her immense satisfaction. She also became a teacher and the unofficial headmaster of the Royal University. Recently, she had locked herself in a sealed laboratory and begun testing the first principles of the Gravity Magic they obtained from Metaka. While the concept alone was trivial and the magic spells and forms were incredibly easy, to her growing frustration, the spells weren't working at all. At first, she considered that the Metakans provided them with faulty manuals. However, the sheer amount of books and notes provided by the Emperor's ally contradicted that suspicion. In her mind, that could mean only one thing: her knowledge about the nature of things was lacking. Again.
"I'm soooo tired," Lanka complained. "I always thought that nobless were just waving their hands and their entourage dealt with everything! No one told me about the work!"
"To be fair, the nobles always said that we were ungrateful for their hard work." Olivia sighed.
"Well... Yes." Lanka threw her hands above her head. "I bet they just said that to justify why they levied such high taxes! We are different!"
"I guess..." Olivia shrugged and looked at the Faé Queen. "What brings you here?"
"I found another glass ceiling I cannot breach during my research. I'm afraid I won't be able to move forward without help." Stella reached for a large cup of hot chocolate, took a sip, and hummed in delight. "That brew is wonderful!"
"What kind of help do you need?" Olivia asked, almost automatically sensing a learning opportunity, but Lanka kicked her in the ankle.
"Do you have extensive knowledge about the rules that keep us firmly on the ground?"
"Well, yes! In fact, I know a lot thanks to the research of my Fall Absorbers."
"I read your summary, Miss Olivia. However, that wasn't what I was looking for."
"Girls, please. Before you leave me alone once again, I want you to help me with these reports." Lanka sighed heavily.
"I still don't know why you wanted my help, Lady Lanka," Olivia admitted and picked up a description she had no idea what to do with.
"Oh, please. You are one of the most brilliant minds of Arcadia, far more intelligent than I." Lanka shrugged. "I want you to review the reports from the train network construction and see if everything is going smoothly. I don't even know what every third word means!"
Lanka furiously rubbed the sides of her head and her cat-like ears twitched in frustration.
"As far as I can tell everything is proceeding smoothly..." Olivia skimmed through the progress report, which was full of technical jargon. "Hmmm... Shouldn't Lady Idna or Lord Knys look at those reports?"
"I don't know!" Lanka covered her head but her tail was lashing around, betraying her otherwise well-hidden fury. "Idna is trying to coordinate the Adventurers' parties who would like to undertake the protection quests in the deep wild across the railroad network. There are many identified monsters' nests and we don't really like to use the army to purge them. Idna said that's something for the adventurers and I fully agree with her. Knys has his hands full with the administrative matters of Avalon! So that leaves me and Gloria as the highest-ranking nobles who are allowed to make any decisions."
"Oh..." Olivia looked softly at Lanka. "What about Scions?"
"Do you really want me or Morrigan to start governing the lives of the Mortals?" Stella almost laughed and Olivia paled. Scion Stella was enough of a menace as the teacher and dean.
"I withdraw my stupid question!" The Half-Elf shouted in panic, provoking a laugh from Lanka and Stella. "These reports look fine to me but I have never seen the construction process so I can only extrapolate on the theory I know."
"Wanna see it?" Stella flashed her even teeth.
•••
Captain Sam Johns of RFA Titan was whistling merrily as he oversaw the unloading of the fifteen-metre-long railroad piece. It was a bit of a delicate process but not very complicated. Unloading parts from the vast cargo hold of Titan was similar to using a much smaller personal storage space. It was commonly believed that normal storage space was akin to a flat space in another dimension where you could place any item that didn't exceed the particular storage capacity. However, the current understanding of that magic disagreed with the historic two-dimensional explanation of storage space. Modern thoughts were in favour of four or, even, five-dimensional theories depending on how advanced the storage space was. Simply put, it wasn't a rough square or a flat piece of space where you stored your item but, even the most primitive storage spaces, were akin to a three-dimensional cube. So, in essence, they had volume instead of area. The next crucial factor was any time dilation included in the space which slowed down or stopped contents aging based on the storage device’s grade. The more sophisticated storage spaces could reduce or cancel the weight of the stored items.
Putting things inside a storage space was as easy as touching them. But retrieving them was the tricky part especially if you needed one particular item. The user had to imagine the inside of the storage space and how the items were arranged inside. They could then 'call' the desired item and it would materialise on top of their hand ready to grab. The spatial cargo space of the auxiliary ship worked on the same principle. Its storage was one of the most sophisticated models that could be crafted by Arcadian Artificers which meant it could hold up to forty hundred tonnes of cargo with a ninety percent weight reduction. Ten thousand tonnes more and they, theoretically, could store Dauntless. Anyway, getting a fifteen-metre-long railway section that weighed roughly three thousand tonnes on top of anyone's hand could be a very poor start for their day. After close to a two-week trial-and-error period, the most brilliant Artificers of Arcadia managed to figure out how to control a large piece so it could be safely retrieved from the Titan’s storage space.
At least it was safe for the person retrieving it. It took another two weeks to figure out how to prevent damage to the ship and the retrieved railroad section. Fifty Mages, who specialised in Telekinesis, would grab the piece and gently place it on a prepared spot where Earth Mages would fuse it solid with the previous section. It was a grueling process but it seemed to be the most efficient way to assemble track. It also required a huge amount of focus and coordination so, for various safety reasons, the construction teams were constantly protected by the experienced, at this point, parties of Adventurers and Eagles of Avalon. RFA Titan was laying track between Wolf Manor and Maple City on the eastern border when they received a call from HMS Claymore.
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"Why the fuck is a warship is here?" Captain Sam Johns asked his first officer who shrugged a reply.
"Dunno, Chief. I got some reports about a higher-than-usual monster activity in the area but that shouldn't be anything that requires the Navy's involvement." Yannik Smith scratched his dark beard.
"Claymore is still undergoing its trials so maybe they just want to inform us about their presence in the area?"
"And that's why they haven't said a word through the radio?" Yannik sighed and gave an incredulous gaze to his captain.
"They’re here now so we’re going to learn their business soon."
The destroyer was closing in fast as it skimmed the tree canopies. Its light grey hull blended with clouds on the horizon but it was easy to spot the Arcadian ship if you knew what to look for. Especially since they weren't using their active illusion camouflage.
"I still can't believe we can build something like that." The first officer shook his head and affectionately patted the wooden railing of their galleon. "I mean, not so long ago, a ship like Titan would be considered the pinnacle of shipbuilding."
"I totally agree with you." The Captain nodded with a smile as they watched Claymore slowing and approaching them in a boarding procedure. "Huh? What the hell do they want now?"
"Board us? They want to train a boarding action?" Yannik tried to guess.
"I'm going to blame those clowns for any delay they cause us..."
The much larger ship than their Titan gently stopped and extended a boarding ramp. A single officer crossed and saluted them with respect.
"Captain Sam Johns, I'm Lieutenant Commander Ron Davis, CO of HMS Claymore. I am very sorry for interrupting your duties but I was ordered to bring an inspection team without notifying you."
"At ease Captain Davis!" Sam saluted back as he noticed a small party of dignitaries following him across to the deck of his ship. "That explains your radio silence. I was going to yell at you about delays to our schedule but I see you have a solid excuse. I thought that Lord Verni was away..."
"That's true." Davis switched to a casual tone and shrugged. "But it's hard to say no to her."
He pointed toward a tall beauty who seemed to gently float as she crossed the deck. Captain Johns and his first officer’s eyes went wide in shock as they realised this was Scion Stella. The Faé Queen was smiling warmly and looked as if she were secretly judging everything she saw. Behind her were three women: two Nekomis and a Half-Elf. Two of them were very well known to the crew of Titan and the Captain couldn't help but smile widely.
"Lady Olivia! Lady Shirley! It's a pleasure to see you again!" He opened his arms in a warm and welcoming gesture but he stopped at regulation distance and executed a flawless salute to the Scion. "Welcome aboard! Lady Stella. It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm afraid I don't know one of your friends..."
"Captain Johns..." Stella saluted back with a smile and gestured for him to turn more casual. "I'm sure you know of them but you couldn't place a name to a face. Please meet Lady Lanka."
"It's an honour to host the Arch Priestess of Eriar on board." He smiled and bowed with respect. "How I may be of service to you, my Ladies?"
"We would like to watch the process of laying the railroad if you don't mind," Stella explained, making him smile.
"Ah, of course! Captain Davis, I need you to move Claymore at least two hundred metres away from Titan."
"Right away!" Davis nodded and returned to his ship. "Just radio us when the Ladies finish their inspection."
"Could you explain the entire process?" Lanka asked with a warm smile.
"Of course, my Lady!" A few moments later, the warship steered away, and Titan was, once again, cleared for manoeuvres. Captain Johns took out his whistle and blew it, signalling the resuming of their work. "As you can see, our work is rather simple but requires a lot of preparation from the ground teams we follow. Deforestation, while hard, is vital for the subsequent teams who stabilise the ground. Their job is very dangerous because of the pace of the work to meet our schedule. Then, a team of engineers and Earth Mages prepare the ground for us to lay the track. Special runes are burrowed along the tracks to actively repel the wildlife and monsters while also funnelling them toward evenly placed wildlife crossings at the same time. Without those crossings, we would inevitably disturb the natural migration paths which would end in disaster. On the other hand, we can't allow monsters to simply use the railways as their paths because that would be a serious safety hazard to a speeding train."
"It took me all day to figure out how to make a low-intensity repealing rune!" Shirley smiled as they followed Captain Johns to the bow of the ship.
"There are other runes along the track but the most important would be the alarm runes and maintenance runes. The first are connected with the hubs in nearby cities to inform the operators that the tracks are operational while the latter, slowly, self-repair the chipping and minor damage of normal usage." The Captain explained with pride as Titan repositioned forward. When it came to a stop, a huge slab of a concrete railroad piece appeared hovering in the air slightly off the bow of the ship. "Each piece is taken from the cargo hold of Titan by a technician who is stationed on the special mezzanine beneath us. They are accompanied by two Telekinesis Masters who help to stabilise and guide the piece into place. However, for safety reasons and to avoid magical recoil, the rest of the Mage-Team are using Telekinesis from the ground. As you can see, the single railroad piece consists of two tracks that allow traffic in two directions without any delay."
"I see that you are currently assembling a curve?" Olivia took a better look and her eyes went wide upon hearing a thundering thump as the piece rested on its final spot. "That was loud! Isn't that attracting monsters?"
"Yeah..." The Captain admitted with a slight shrug. "But there is no real need to silence the construction efforts any further. Most monsters are not a concern because of the Adventurers who scour the surrounding forests. They are also cataloguing any interesting spots and herb locations. Also, Titan is not defenceless. She is armed with sixty 24-pounder long guns and two Phalanx CIWS so we are, pretty much, covered."
"Any troubles so far?" Shirley asked with concern while her tail flicked nervously.
"Not really..." Yannik waved his hand dismissively. "The Adventurers are doing excellent work and we haven't been bothered by anything so far."
"Hmmm... Once you place the piece on the ground, do you fuse it with the last piece or simply anchor it to the ground?" Olivia ignored any possible monster attack comments as she was entirely consumed by the construction process, while Lanka went to the side and was soon joined by Shirley.
"Both." Captain Johns grinned. "The Earth Mages are fusing elements together. Once the elements are fused, five-metre-long stone pins are placed in position and forced into the ground. Of course, the pins are treated with magic so they behave as if they were made of steel but retain the durability and mass of stone. Depending on the size of the piece, we will use up to ten pins to hold it in place. For a piece like that one, we will use six pins."
As he was speaking, a long stone pin materialised in the air and was captured by the Telekinesis field. A slight, purple glow of magic covered the pin as it gently glided through the air. It was slowly guided towards its socket where it was snugly affixed. One after another, pins were summoned from the ship's cargo hold and levitated toward their sockets. Each one of them was, at least, twenty centimetres in diameter but they were pushed into the ground as if they were sharp thin nails.
"Hmm..." Olivia hummed and looked inquisitively at the middle of the element that was pinned to the ground. "Why not simply fuse it to the bedrock?"
"It would make the entire construction too rigid." Yannik quickly explained. "The initial tests proved that construction fused with bedrock was too brittle. In fact, on specific terrains, even fusing the elements together might make them too rigid and prone to cracking. That's why the maintenance runes are so important."
"I see that you cheat physics with magic." Olivia hummed. "Since the track is made of concrete, the eventual repairs shouldn't be too expensive or problematic. I believe that this particular rune uses actual materials to source its fixes so, I guess, you will just drop cement on the tracks and let the runes do the work?"
"Precisely!" Johns agreed with a wide smile and nodded.
"So you are deploying the whole railroad network like this?" Olivia asked after scribbling something into her notebook.
"Oh, no. That would be impossible." Captain Jons chuckled. "The crossings, junctions, or railway sidings are too complicated and way too big to be premade. They are constructed to site specification while we are deploying typical building blocks like straight or curved sections."
"Hmmm..." Olivia tapped her notebook with the other side of her pencil. "I must talk with Verni and Ian when they return. There might be a few things worth implementing here..."