My mouth is dry and I feel really tired despite my sleep. I scoot my leg over and feel the empty keg next to me. Truly an impressive feat considering I had supper last night. I have no idea how that all fit inside of me. Someone gently grabs my shoulder and shakes me and Mekare's voice gently calls out for me,

"Wake up master!"

This is not how I want to be woken up. I pull my head off of the dining table where I fell asleep last night. I unfortunately remember last night in full and still, my gut sinks a little remembering just how fucked I am now. Getting hitched to someone I do not know beyond their name and some general knowledge. Mekare gives me some water which I am thankful for and guzzle it down, quickly a new and full glass is in my hand. She holds her hand on my back and rubs me gently, then she says with the thickest level of sarcasm I've ever heard come from her,

"Congratulations master, for your accepted proposal to the young mistress of the Hasslerouge family."

I grunt and ask,

"And how do you know this?"

She laughs and replies sweetly,

"Well, it's currently the talk of this villa, and I'm sure will be the talk of the academy soon. I let out a long groan as I hold my head in my hands before I ask Mekare,

"Don't you have like mind control or something?"

She shakes her head and replies,

"No... sorta. What I can do is increase emotions and some minor mental... manipulation, but mind control is only for elders of my kind or large rituals."

I nod and then ask,

"Use what you can against Zeyras servants, man or woman, any means necessary. Get me some blackmail on Zeyra."

Mekare is quiet for a moment before I hear her lips part in what is absolutely a wide and probably beautiful smile. She then says confidently,

"Yes, my master... it will be done, but why do this? I know you are not close to Zeyra and I believe you did this action as a heat-of-the-moment type thing. What is your reasoning?"

I drink heartily of another glass of water and reply with a satisfied gasp,

"I'm strangling Hasslerouge with my chains."

She makes an odd noise which somewhat sounds like a stifled laugh and she responds,

"It will be done, at my soonest convenience, this chain thanks you for the opportunity to... perform her duties."

I give a single laugh and go and get cleaned up and dressed for the day, a little grumpy but feeling a little better than before. Once dressed I mentally prepare myself as I hear movement and voices in the main room. I silently pray that Zeyra is being tactful and will handle this in a professional manner.

I step out of my room and my face immediately goes red I look toward the floor as I accidentally make eye contact with Zeyra and her grin is one I do not like. She then speaks loudly,

"There you are, my love! I was worried when you hadn't come to bed!"

Later, I sit across from Violet in her small study on campus which was granted to her as a professor. I rub my tired eyes, drained even more than my slight hangover did. Zeyra had really gone out of her way to fuck with me. Getting all sappy and acting to the younger two sisters like we had been lovers for a very long time and how deeply in love we were. Hell even Zandra was shaken by this, they had never seen their older sister act in this way, her eyes locked onto mine conveyed her true intentions, and she wanted me to be embarrassed. Admittedly, it probably was funny as hell to watch me get all bashful, even though in reality it was slight regret and self-punishment about my foolish decision the night before.

Violet managed to rescue me by claiming we had some work to do elsewhere in the academy before class started again. This excuse got me out of there, and safe from the clear rage toward me Zindri was building.

Sitting in this office I was clowned on for another few minutes, as expected from Violent when she suddenly got really serious and asked,

"Alright, what's your game? As little I know about you and your actions so far, you rarely do anything just because, and you have never once shown interest in Zeyra, nor have you spoken with her aside from the time I was with you. As her sister, as estranged as we are from one another, she doesn't like you and still doesn't. What's the game?"

I sigh and reply,

"Sorta... kinda...was an accident. I mean I can probably make use of it...but I had forgotten about the... consort or husband aspect of my adoption or whatever you want to call it. I saw an easy out, she is qualified for the task... and well...I was rather frustrated at her bitching."

Violet holds eye contact with me for a moment before she lets out a long breath and leans back relaxed. She then expresses,

"Well... that's some weight off of my chest. Thank you for that. I never wanted to inherit the family title and all that. I want to follow my own path, and I especially didn't want to have to break your little heart."

We share a short laugh and she continues,

"Yes, your choice was pretty good. None of our other sisters would bother Zeyra about this. She is second oldest behind me, and stronger than all but me... well unless we fight at a distance, she's got me beaten there. Smart, cunning, and powerful, all the things needed to be the next head. With that whole competition out of the way I can relax a little, People will stop asking me when I will take my duties to be the next head more seriously rather than focusing on my own training.

I also think you took a lot of weight off of her shoulders. She will stop being propositioned by other noblemen or proposed to. Plus she won't have to worry about whether or not her work and training will go to waste. All in all, a fairly good outcome."

I nod happy I am not completely retarded, but still that sinking feeling in my gut remains. I then ask,

"How long do I have until the wedding you think?"

She thinks for a few moments before replying,

"Well... about a year... probably. I doubt anyone is going to be rushing around, plus all the invitations that have to be sent and received and a reply sent."

I sigh in relief and then say,

"Well, I guess I'll take my leave. I need to distract myself."

Violet nods and motions for me to piss off and I leave her office and head to the big Hangar building. Over the night lots of supplies arrived. Not everything of course, but one of the rooms has a large table placed inside of it, and also has large sheets of parchment, a blackboard, chalk, and some quills and ink.

I grab some chalk and begin work.

My first idea is to help my workers become more efficient. This will be done through the creation of steam power. The mechanical aspects of it I understand, as they are easy, but the more technical aspects are far more difficult. This includes things such as the thickness of boiler walls, fail safes, gear ratios, and fuel source and how to get that source.

I go through some documents I had procured which is the kingdom's stocks and yearly intake of coal. It's decent for things like smithing on a large scale, but not for fueling steam engines. Mekare finds her way to me to tell me something stupid, so I put her to work. She makes dozens of trips to the library on campus to gather books for me. I am looking for potential alternative fuels, and how to make them. Anything that has to do with fire, even magical stuff that isn't casting magic is my goal. Big rituals and alchemy is the main goal. Something I or any frontiersman can make and deal with.

I find many different alchemical fuels within the contents of the many books and start doing math on the blackboards to see which one offers the most energy which I measure in calories. The energy required to heat 1 gram of water 1 degree Celsius. This is difficult to do because of the measurements the alchemists are using in their writings. What the fuck is a flagon? A fucking Potte? I have Mekare procure containers of these volumes for me. I eventually manage to get ahold of what is supposed to be a liter-sized container from the alchemy supplies, no idea how Mekare got it from them, but I won't ask. Using this as a control I can do my math a little easier. With water being 1 kg/L, everything is much easier.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Basically, I measure the amount of fuel needed to boil the container of water. 100 degrees, and since water won't change temperature until every single molecule is the same the energy change is easy to find. Then I look through the amount of material used, and again I have to have Mekare bring containers based on the measurements the alchemists use, which is rarely constant.

I then find every single fuel is fucking useless to me. While many of these fuels are good accelerants, they only burn for a few moments, based on the measurements I figured out. The alchemists of the past, fortunately, measured how many seconds different fuels burned for. All of them average at about 1 second per gram of any substance. Great for starting fires, but awful for prolonged fueling, and since I barely understand the methods used to make these fuels I cannot figure out how to make them slow release.

Defeated I look through the books another time, quickly checking to see if I fucked something up, or maybe some alchemist did make a slow-release fuel. Still nothing, then my eye is caught by a reference to another text. One alchemist writes about a different author, an artificer, and apparently, they worked together on different things. I have Mekare find me this man's books.

Artifice is a practice I looked into a while ago and found no personal use for it as my runic stuff is far better. Artifice is an unholy mixture of clockwork and magical enchantment. I am unable to enchant things due to a large lack of magic. Also, artifice is outdated in the current world so just like runesmithing, texts and examples are rare and are seen as redundant and outdated. In desperation, I decide to look through the only texts remaining on campus. All three books are dusty and falling apart. I carefully open them and after a few hours of looking at useless artifices that produce nothing of use to me.

Then I find something, very interesting, incredibly so.

Something called the light of Serena. It was meant to be a sort of lantern replacement but was found to be way too unstable. The artificer who made it has only made fist-sized ones, but he lost his entire workshop and lots of skin in the resulting explosion after the outer shell of the artifice exploded. The author noted it required ice or water magic constantly in order to keep it from exploding, but not just that, it seemingly "eats" the water. The internal light-creating bit is like a small sun. I immediately note what is being described is similar to an incredibly small fusion reaction.

I take note of the containment, it is a heavily enchanted construct of interlocking rings that keep the micro sun contained. I take note of the materials used along with the enchantments. It's no wonder it exploded. While I cannot completely understand the magical theories behind this object, the explosion occurred after one of the rings melted and failed. The steel used is quite easy to melt, plus the enchantments used are weak, and I can think of two runes that can work in a similar manner. Mixed with better materials and constantly submerged in water this thing could work, considering the author stated that lots of steam is formed when the object is submerged.

I then decide to get to work.

My first goal is to create some protective armor. I have one of the older leatherworkers in my employ create a full suit of leather. It's fairly heavy leather armor and leaves no gaps on it aside from the air vent on the back of the helmet. Moving in said armor is also difficult, but doable. I then inscribe runes across it based on thermoregulation and heat resistance. One of the strongest heat resistance runes I can make so I don't cook, and the strongest rune for material protection. I test the heat resistance of the armor by sticking an arm into a forge. It's hot enough to melt steel, and I don't feel a thing other than some warmth. The leather is protected by its runes as well which keeps the armor from failing and cooking me anyway. Now I can work on my little project.

I conscript a bunch of Frontiersmen metalworkers and other craftsmen. I have them build my steam engine. Along with this project comes an aqueduct. The flying island of the academy has some sort of magical spring coming from its center. It powers all the plumbing of the academy, from fountains to the sewage system. I don't know how the spring works, but it's unlimited clean water. An aqueduct allows us to utilize it. I have the duct go into a reservoir in the big hangar for future use if needed and it also branches with one branch going into the massive boiler. A huge cylinder that towers toward the ceiling about five meters tall and two meters in diameter. In the center and towards the bottom is a slot where the heating element will go. Since the burning center cannot be quenched according to the artificer I will have the water flow in from both sides of the core, and fit tightly over the top is the chimney which runs through the entire height of the boiler and connects to a horizontal oriented fan which will give rotational force to whatever is needed like a good turbine. I have a few closed-off, but easily openable steampipes also put in for future expansion.

Right now the spinning blades of the turbine are being used to assist the aqueduct in its duties and to have a small fountain form in the reservoir, not really useful but it is proof of concept and I couldn't think of anything better at the moment. Both of these constructs took around 2 months to complete and I had started class, which took up so little of my time. Aside from the theory and combat classes, I am pretty much left to my own devices. Unfortunately no one I know is in any of my classes as they are freshmen level because I can't use magic. People do try to talk to me, but this leads them to get a long and detailed explanation of my current obsession, which is creating my own Light of Serena, which I have renamed to something more correct, the fusion or steam core, depends on who I'm talking to. No one, not even Mekare wants to hear anything about I am doing aside from those few involved.

During this time I noticed Godiva never tried to find me. Odd of course, but that can be dealt with later, my work is pressing and I cannot move forward without getting the steam engine done.

For the core I improve upon the design in any time I have to freely do so. I am constantly carrying around a blank book loaded with notes and diagrams, along with materials required for this thing to work. I decided that the frame is to be made out of ceramic, and then plated in steel. Rather than being a series of rings the containment will be done by a large singular piece with three holes, two big ones on the sides and a smaller one on top to increase the pressure of the steam produced. Since the containment construct is partially responsible for the continued fusion reaction, a singular piece means failure should result in a much smaller explosion hopefully.

I have my design sent to a trusted Frontiersman pottery maker, she is happy to help and creates a nearly perfect version of my diagrams. This is not to say my diagrams and designs are good, or even close to reality. While I instruct these craftsmen to work on my designs, the leader of each group who is a master at their craft has to interpret what I wanted made. All parties performed beautifully, and despite my obsessive nature, they coordinated perfectly and all parts fit, now it is time for me to finish the core.

I coat the ceramic core in one centimeter of hardened steel. This is done by heating a metal plate till it is soft and I wrap it around the ceramic sphere, I then poke holes into the metal, using steel tools to remove the excess. Then using the heat of the forge I connect the seam and close it off completely. This leaves a mostly perfectly covered containment sphere. I heat the whole thing up and smooth it up until it looks almost flawless.

The entire thing is only 18 inches across, the size of a smaller soccer ball. I then take the complete containment sphere and begin inscribing my runes, replicating the specific ones that should work the same as the enchantments used in the writings, but my cooling runes and structural strengthening runes are far stronger. With that done, I need to start the reaction in the middle.

I mix chemicals, make potions, and draw a ritual circle. That is all that is required to start it all. I place the physical parts into the sphere which due to my runes begin to float in the dead center in a perfect sphere only one inch across. From what I can tell once I complete the ritual the reaction should self-sustain on the air or water around it. My idea is that due to the extreme temperatures, the water is split into the hydrogen needed for the small sun to survive.

I don my heat armor and have everyone leave the hangar so I don't accidentally hurt anyone but myself. I cover the eyes of the heavy suit with metal coverings with thin slits to see out of so I might not go immediately blind. I start the ritual, putting down the proper sacrifices and reagents, There is an audible click, and then brilliant light...

Once my vision returns I see that I succeeded. A small white star sits in the center of the sphere and is quickly heating the steel surrounding the ceramic. I have no time to wait, I have to quench it. I grab the sphere with my armored gloves, even the powerful runes are no match for the unmatched power of the sun. I scream in pain as my hands slowly begin to cook inside the armor, and my whole body begins to sweat and will soon start burning as the small star begins to grow in intensity. I can barely see through the brilliant light as I march to the steam engine. The core slot is open for the world to see and I shove the core into it. I stick my arm deeper into the hole, pushing the core deeper still, careful the line the holes to where they need to go. The core insertion tube begins to glow red with heat. My arm is just a little short to put the core into place. I have a long rod on hand just for this but I have to work quickly because the rod will melt quickly once in contact with the core. With a final push, it is into place and the holes are locked perfectly in place with where the water and steam will go.

Just as the insertion tube begins to warp due to heat I pull with all my might using my burned hands against the two handles on either side of the insertion tube. The metal squeals as it pulls against itself, the weight of the water trying to hold it in place, then suddenly it gives and the heat drops immediately as the cold water hits the core. There is an initial steam explosion as expected, loud clanging comes from the angry turbine but soon it spins as needed and more water is pulled into the boiler, and the fountain begins to spray meters into the air. I quickly climb the boiler and open one of the spare valves that leads to the outside which lowers the steam load on the turbine and the fountain sprays up in a more manageable way.

I inspect the engine and boiler but notice no more glowing steel, even the steel exterior of the core remains normal colored, but clearly still at the cusp of becoming red hot. I watch it for a few minutes before I close the heavy door of the insertion tube and lock it. The engine is complete... and I am hurting.

I call in all the craftsmen who rush in and cheer upon seeing their hard work complete. They don't understand just how impressive this machine is, but they understand the effort put into it and are happy. I peel myself out of the now wet suit and some of the people begin helping me with the blistering wounds on my hands and forearms, despite the pain I have a wide smile on my face. I am beyond happy with this job done... the future is now.

I have an old metalworker pull a rope nearby twice and the sound I was excited to hear rings through the building...

CHOOOOOO.....CHOOOOO....