I step out of the Schneemacher villa shivering like a leaf, never at any point was I offered a coat or anything similar. That shit was cold, cold. Despite how random this meeting was, it does help me moving forward. She made one major mistake when asking for my help. If she had simply pretended to be offhandedly interested in my services she could've led the negotiations, but showing me that her condition requires my services for prolonged survival, ruined any power she had over negotiations.

In the end, I have gained resources and connections. I will pull my favors when they best suit me, and currently, the Schneemacher family should be working on something for me. I march back to my villa and head directly to bed, I do notice a stack of papers on the desk in my room. Mekare is at my desk and without speaking I understand that stack of paper is a collar for my fiance. Mekare did well... I guess I can give her something nice... but within reason.

I wake up and it's a break day so I have no required duties aside from those outside of classwork. I get up with a big stretch and find Mekare dutifully sitting in the chair. I ask sarcastically,

"Enjoy watching me sleep much?"

She responds casually,

"You try not to stare at a meal sitting in front of you."

I laugh awkwardly and reply,

"Noted."

There is a moment of quiet and I reach for the stack of papers. I begin to read through them, they are not reports written by Mekare, they are documents detailing massive amounts of corruption, illegal business dealings, and outright murder. I take note most of these actions were ordered by the Duke himself. So it appears we are the same in a way. I then ask Mekare,

"So... this is very good work. I won't ask how, but I will ask, what do you want as a reward... I am not on the table."

Her eyes widen for a second before she quietly says in a surprisingly shy voice,

"I would like to go to the Royal Merchant District and get myself some tailored clothing..."

Without saying anything I procure a blank piece of paper and write what is effectively a check. I make it known to the recipient that Mekare is to be given a handful of golden coins. I give the paper to Mekare and tell her,

"Have fun!"

She happily stands up, a beaming smile on her face and she all but sprints out the door. I never thought she would ask for something like this, but I won't complain because it is a price I am willing to pay. I lean back and sit there for a while before deciding to go and get something done. I stand up and try to remember where someone I need to talk to hangs out. I leave the villa and walk across the campus toward a hidden corner of the campus. Once I arrive I find a young man sitting on the ground drawing in the dirt. I approach him and he doesn't look up at me.

I speak to him,

"Good morning. How are you?"

He simply grunts and keeps working on what I now see are mathematical equations. I sit on the ground away from his math and stay silent. I had heard he was a little... odd, I thought this young man would simply be eccentric or something, but now I realize. He has some manner of autistic spectrum disorder. Across from him, I begin writing my own things. I draw triangles and place numbers on sides with one side still unknown, unsolved algebra problems. I do this as he appears to be getting close to creating the Pythagorean theorem, or at least rediscovering it, and I know algebra overall doesn't exist in any meaningful capacity in this world yet.

It takes him a moment and I wait patiently. He notices my writings and scoots over to me to look over the strange scribbles I put in the dust. He begins trying to solve the problems and manages to get some of the algebraic ones correct, but the triangle still stumps him it seems. After a few moments, he looks up at me and asks,

"You write these things... this arithmetic is strange... you would not have written these if you hadn't known the answer. Can you tell me your method?"

I nod and begin to draw a new triangle, each side labeled with a letter and then I write the squared letters equalling the squared letters of the unknown side squared. I leave it for a bit, not wanting to solve it for him, he needs to learn it and figure it out himself. He stares at the letters for a moment and faster than I expected he figures it out. He then speaks to himself,

"That makes sense... the long side equals the other two... twice..."

Immediately he begins drawing his own triangles and solving them for himself. I leave him to it for a while as he begins to add algebra to them, far and beyond what I can do easily without a calculator or a sheet of scratch paper. He slowly proves this math to himself and when he is convinced he looks me in the eye and says,

"Tell me... who are you and what do you want?"

I smile and respond,

"I am Isa Hasslerouge. I simply wished to test you. I wanted to see if you really are as smart as people say you are. You proved me right."

He shuffles his behind on the ground for a moment before he speaks,

"Oh! I am Markus Pollosta... Nice to uh meet you."

I nod and then ask him,

"I heard the Pollosta family are well known for their skyship construction. Is this true?"

His face lights up immediately and he beams,

"Yes, we are! We create the best ones around I remember helping Father design the ...."

He rambles on about his craft for a while as he admits he hasn't been able to create his dream ships due to not yet fully cracking the idea of certain math, he probably would've on his own if left at it, but I simply helped speed it along. I also know just by listening to him I can gain insight into how skyship or airship construction is done, and I gain his favor by listening to his ramblings which I assume is rare for someone to do.

From what I gather, skyships work in a similar manner to both blimps and regular boats. There is a central core which works like a hydrogen balloon but is usually found deep in the center of the ship. This core changes the properties of I guess physics that effectively makes air the same density as water just on the surface of the ship and the Archimedes principle comes into effect for this reason. To change altitude the air core or whatever changes the buoyancy or something so the less dense air higher up works the same as the more dense stuff below, so basically, a blimp that has nearly zero weight limits... or shouldn't have weight limits, but since it follows the displacement principle of Archimedes there is some mass and volume limits and rules.

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Eventually, Markus gets tired of speaking and looks really happy. I then take my shot and ask,

"It's awesome to hear how much you know about building these things... I have an offer then that might interest you."

He furrows his brow and replies,

"I-I'm sorry, my parents told me not to let people convince me of things. I'm not able to discern when people want to take advantage of me."

I shake my head and then reply,

"I am not going to take advantage of you. I want to hire you. I will pay you handsomely for your services."

He thinks for a moment before asking carefully,

"What for?"

I smile warmly and answer,

"I want a ship... a ship that has never been made before. I have the resources, the financing, and the technology to build it, but I don't have the expertise. You have that expertise and I will pay you for it."

He clearly is interested and then asks,

"What makes it never done before? "

I say flatly,

"A full metal ship."

His eyes go wide and I see an excited fire enter his eyes. He looks at the ground, at the math and I can almost hear the gears turning in his mind. He then nods and asks,

"Show me that you have this all for me."

I motion for him to follow and stand up before heading to the hangar complex. He walks behind me looking more and more excited as steam and smoke belch from the various chimneys that were recently built. We enter through the big front doors and the sounds of industry hit us like a truck.

The steam boiler unleashes a terrible roar, moaning while under pressure. Steam screams through the horrible network of pipes that run across the entire building. The steam turns great turbines that work billows that feed blast furnaces that belch flame and smoke. The terrible clang of metal being pounded into shape rings through the building as someone has figured out how to create a steam-powered hammer reducing the work of the smiths. Dozens of workers shout and communicate as they continuously expand and modify the steam network, finding new and amazing uses for it.

Markus stares in awe at all the machinery. A few of the workers wave toward me and I return the gesture. I let Markus look at everything for a while before I ask, nearly shouting,

"I'm sure you're able to understand how this all works?"

He slowly nods and says slowly,

"I...I am figuring it out. From what I can see the concept is simple enough... I just don't think anyone has thought of this before. If you have this... what does it have to do with building a metal ship?"

I reply,

"I want to use the power source for this building in that ship. No sails, I want to defy the wind."

He nods slowly thinking about my statement before he says,

"I wish to go under your employ."

I smile and motion the foreman of the building to come over. The old man limps over wiping his brow of sweat. He looks at both of us and then asks,

"What's up boss? Who's this?"

I tell him,

"I found us a ship designer. He's good, I tested him. I want you to make sure the workers listen to him. You are his keeper."

He looks the boy up and down for a moment as Markus stares at the floor. The old man switches to the Dance of Diplomacy language and asks me,

"He... different ain't he?"

I nod and reply in the same tongue,

"Yes, but he comes from a long line of airship builders and he is a savant when it comes to their construction. He will blow your mind with what he knows and what he can figure out, but my main reason to hire him on is so we can learn the art of construction of these airships. While he may be very loyal and may become a good friend, I simply want you all to take as much knowledge from him as possible, so that we may produce our own.

I want you to make sure the boys don't chew him up."

He nods and slaps a greasy hand on the boy's back and loudly says to him in the language of the kingdom,

"Alright! I'll show you around so you can get familiar with the hangar! The boss will probably give us an idea of what he wants!"

They walk off, into the crowd of hard workers as I head into the side room I designated as my drawing room. I dig through some of the designs I sketched up. I had begun designs on my dream boat a while ago. Of course, I have zero hard measurements on any of the designs but instead have features and soft measurements that can be changed as needed. After all, I am a businessman, I come up with concepts and ideas and let the geniuses I hire figure out how to make them a reality. The technology is there, they just need to apply it.

The design I finalized is rather interesting. Most airships are designed exactly like water ships. A top deck and a rounded bottom like any other boat. The issue I have with that is that air isn't as 2D of space as water is. Fights can happen above and below the ship so the ship needs to fight both below and from above. Currently, there are sometimes gondolas that mages can occupy on the bottoms of ships to attack downward, but most ship battles are line battles where everyone does broadsides with all the mages onboard.

I took inspiration from various ironclads from my old world. I first thought of a CSS Virginia design but found that one lacked flexibility as it was more of a traditional broadside ship. I thought of an early dreadnaught design but decided turrets may be a little... complicated. In the end, I decided on an abomination. I call it the flat-top-bottom. It is simply 2 USS Monitors strapped together at the bottom. The ship would have one upper and lower turret, but due to the bi-symmetrical design the center belt is massive so I put gun ports along the side so that the ship can broadside still. To call it ugly is an understatement, but it should work. I also put a better bridge on the ship as well as smokestacks for excess steam. Although the concept of cannons hasn't been invented yet, I understand the ship will take months to build, easily. I have enough time to develop the technology.

I take the plan and find Markus inspecting the towering boiler under the careful watch of the foreman. I hand him the plan and Markus stares at it for a while before he looks at me confusedly and asks,

"What's with the massive turn tables? "

I reply,

"I am hoping to develop a new siege weapon to mount inside of there. Please keep them large and with openings available. I also plan to mount similar ones along those ports in the side."

He thinks for a moment before asking,

"Why not use mages?"

I hold out a hand and shout,

"Fireball!!!!"

Nothing happens and I then explain,

"No Frontiersman can use magic. I wish for this ship to not entirely rely on the use of mages. Of course, feel free to add locations for mages to cast spells from."

He nods deep in thought for a while before he asks,

"Can I go to a study and... improve on these?"

I nod motioning to the drawing room and he sprints there giggling like a schoolgirl. The foreman and I share a smile and the old man goes off to yell at some poor bastards who are on break. I then head to the alchemy room I had set up during my escapades to find fuel for the steam engine. The room has been left alone after the development of the fusion cores since a whole different room was commandeered for their production alone. Three books sit wide open, all of them having the recipe for a fuel I want. I bookmarked all of these fuels because of their intense energy release, and not only that but how quickly that energy is released. All of these potential fuels work nearly identically to smokeless gunpowder, aside from one that produces more smoke than black powder somehow.

My first order of business on this front is to figure out a firing mechanism and strong rifled barrels. I plan to skip the whole smoothbore flintlock phase of firearm technologies. That is for a later date, today I am simply getting my papers sorted. With some random, admittedly shitty designs, all stacked from worst chance of success but cheap, to best chance of working but expensive.

With that task done I leave the hangar and take note that Markus and the foreman are discussing the plans along with various other old craftsmen. I leave the building happy that my projects are already beginning.

As I walk outside I look out at the open sky surrounding the academy's floating island. I see some dark shapes in the distance but assume them to be some airships on a journey somewhere. I go looking for Godiva just to see what's going on. It feels so strange to have nothing planned for the rest of the day.

I do find Godiva quickly, and close behind her Blake follows like a lost puppy per usual. We all greet one another and agree to go find a nice place to hang out and relax. We find a somewhat secluded area with some trees and simply shoot the shit and just hang out. Suddenly a well-known face is shown, my aunt found our hangout spot and with her brought a bunch of snacks. I embrace her in a big hug and find out Henna is at the academy for the day as to deliver some requested items. She joins us in our little picnic and she shares some funny stories from back in the day. Overall, I find this all so... normal.

Then the entire island shakes as a gargantuan explosion flashes for an instant. Quickly we all rise to our feet and sprint to the main area of campus. There, sitting silently in the sky over a burning building is a fleet of airships, on their sails is the crest of the Kingdom of Lusthardia. On the bow of one of the ships stands a figure wearing pristine white armor, a long golden cape flying in the wind, and with an ethereal glow around them. They then speak in a feminine but booming voice,

"People of the Heretical Alrius Kingdom. We have arrived to bring judgment upon you for the crime of harboring our traitors.

As the hero of Lakkin, the God of Justice, I will bring onto you holy judgment."

I stare up at the figure and without thinking for another moment I sprint to my villa, I need my gear....