Steel and Mana

Chapter 188 – Booming Industry

At first, Merlin felt like he was sinking into the unknown, but after relaxing and letting his thoughts settle, he was finally back in the same library he had visited before. Since coming to terms with his past and meeting his own first incarnation, it became much easier for him to access this place at will when he decided to meditate.

"Welcome back. What do you need?" the Emperor of Magic asked, sitting at a table and holding a book with its title highlighted by bold, golden letters.

"Knowledge?" Merlin murmured, realizing that his past self was reading his new understandings as a book, getting access to what he went through the previous day.

"Yours. I already know why you came. It is about the ship, yes?"

"It is." He nodded, sitting down with his old self, waiting for his explanation, for his old memories to resurface.

"The ships... They are contributed to me as my inventions, but the original blueprints could be traced back to the Vasa bloodline. You see, they were masters of manipulating the body and channeling magic through it. They had mastered transmuting human flesh. They were opening their own bodies, transcribing magic circles onto their bones, replacing their organs and limbs, and making slots for CC to insert into themselves, just as beasts have their cores. They studied the creatures on the other side of the mountains and copied their evolution. Those who were too weak to handle it were transformed into abominations. Living flesh weapons or just become fuel for their spells."

"They had these kinds of ships? Why didn't we have remains of those then?"

"No, they didn't have them, but they had tamed monsters that could fly. When I say tamed monsters, I mean their minds were dominated and enslaved. Our ancestor, Ishillia, led the alliance that rebelled against their powers and their inhuman practices... the rest became history."

"Soooo... the ships are your inventions still... no?"

"Yes and no. I used the remaining knowledge and studies the Vasas had about the flying beasts of the other world. They dissected many of them and recorded hundreds of variations. After studying them all, I destroyed the knowledge and began replicating it my way."

"Why did you destroy them?"

"Shipslaves." He sighed, closing the book that was Merlin's memories of that day. "It seems like I wasn't thorough enough. To control the ship, the core formation needs intelligence. We are not Gods, so we can't create life, but we can bind already-intelligent consciousnesses to it so it can function. When I was alive, I was smart enough to link up with it and control it via my mind, so I skipped that step."

"Others must have recreated it after you were gone..."

"Yeah. It is clear that they did. I don't know what it would be to exist like they do... but I wasn't barbaric enough to make them. Not that it matters now!"

"I see... I wonder if I would have made them." Merlin murmured, closing his eyes, thinking about his own mistakes and the day when he used a prisoner and looked at him like nothing more but an experiment. Remembering that feeling was making his body shiver at the thought.

"You would have." The 'old' Emperor exclaimed with a smile, "I am not judging. Every life is different and an experience in itself, be it bad or good."

"We stopped one shipslave and undressed him. Can you tell me more about him? The way it was made?"

"I can. Will you replicate them? No, don't answer! I will see it either way, do what you must. It is your life, and you must live it the way you want." He nodded, raising a hand before beginning to explain all the magic tattoos Merlin saw, deconstructing them via old lore, the one that the Vasas left behind and what the Emperor of Magic purged from the world.

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"When can I await your letter?" Mirian asked, standing before me as we said our goodbyes.

"Give me time, Empress Mirian. Merlin is working on it, and the moment we have everything in writing, I'll send a caravan over with it. Deal?"

"Deal." She answered, stretching her hand forward, and I took it, shaking it with a smile. 

"I want to thank you for saving my life." Milan spoke up, standing next to Mirian, making me slap his shoulders and nodding at him.

"No need. Plus, the one who did it was my wife; it is her credit."

"Still. We ought to thank you too!" His father, Garbank Kustov, echoed his son's thoughts, coming down from the ramp and looking at me with gratitude, not just because of what we had done to his son but because he no longer needed a cane to walk. "The ship is ready, Empress Mirian."

"We are allies." I said while firmly looking at them, "We should start acting like it then!"

With that, I watched them climb into the fancy royal yacht, closing the door behind them. After they lifted up, I stood between the Lion and the Princess, looking toward the southern horizon, and remained there until the ship disappeared from view.

The tour of that massive ship was fruitful, to say the least. After returning, Merlin decided to isolate himself so he could meditate on his findings, not waiting for a second to spare. I knew he was trying to bring out old memories, and I was expecting some juicy news when he reemerged. As for me, now that the Empress was gone, I headed back to my office to draw. I had to recreate the ship from memory so we could examine it thoroughly and start dismantling it to create our own version without the human sacrifice part.

That made my skin crawl whenever I recalled their hollow gazes and sunken-in faces. People were made into instruments and tools in a literal sense. They were nothing but dried-out meatsticks, controlled by an inorganic magical formation. Hell no... I am no saint, but there are lines I won't cross.

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"Ugh..." Merlin moaned after reappearing from his room in his own home, feeling his head throbbing from the new knowledge swimming around within it. He felt as if all those formations were knocking against his skull, making him dizzy. 

"Come, this will help..." Said a soft voice, pulling him down as two sets of fingers began gently massaging his head.

"Mmmmh... Goood... Eh? Elena?!" He flinched, finally realizing who was the one who pulled him into her lap.

"Who else? I haven't got my own place yet."

"I... I just thought... you know, you were avoiding me..."

"I wasn't! Kind of... Ugh... Whatever!" She mumbled and continued massaging him. "I'm glad Dad made a pact with Avalon... This place is much better than the capital city. I also don't get what my brother likes about that horrible bitch!"

"The Empress? She isn't that bad. She cares about him!"

"Is she? The things Milan told me... ugh! That woman was hit in the head when young."

"Mmm... Maybe, but she still loves and cares about your brother. I understand her in that regard..."

"You do?" She asked, as her fingers slowly stopped. She kept looking down at Merlin, who leaned back and peeked up at her with an honest smile.

"I do."

They didn't need to say more, just sit there as he enjoyed Elena's fingers and scent, letting it wash away his headache.

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"That's thick!" I whistled, seeing the folder that Merlin brought to me, so I raised him my own, which was double in size.

"And that isn't?" He laughed, pointing at mine.

"Is this what a dick-measuring contest sounds like?" Yuri asked, interrupting us, barging in with a cup of coffee, followed by Luna, who was bringing in a big tray with my breakfast. She was happily humming while serving it up, swinging her butt left and right, enjoying my headscratches like a cat.

"It isn't..." Merlin mumbled, lowering his head and blushing. "And it is still growing! I am growing!"

"Woah, woah, I didn't even say anything about who would win!" Yuri giggled, further embarrassing him. "Sasha will be back around noon, and she is bringing the kids and Mikan home from grandma. Say, are we really going into an alliance with Ishillia now?"

"Isn't it better to make friends than enemies?" Luna asked while feeding me by hand, climbing onto my lap to do so. "Ishillia is a big, sturdy shield!"

"I wanted to kick their teeth in..."

"You will have the chance, Yuri. The only difference, it will be the older generation of Ishillians. You can bully them to your heart's content!"

"Really? Awww, you are the best hubby!"

"And you will be able to do it even better!" Merlin exclaimed proudly, already going through the documents that I made, comparing them to his own. "You will also get your own tattoo."

"Woah, woah, wait!" Both of us exclaimed at the same time, "We aren't turning my wife into a husk!"

"Who said we would?" Merlin asked, surprised and shocked. "I simply derived a ton of useful information from our discoveries. We are NOT going to make ship slaves. That method is crude and barbaric."

"Agreed." We all answered and were happy to be on the same page.

"Though, we are going to fuse the method we used on Mikan and connect the pilot's mind to the machine. Then, we can cut down the required formations to build one! Also, implementing the Marker into a mech will be through the tattoo! It would further refine the feelings, the reaction time, and the senses of a pilot, making it as if they wear the mechs as a suit!"

"Dangers? Drawbacks?" I asked because I wasn't willing to just let him experiment on my wife or on my father.

"Should be none or minimal. We can use volunteers from the pilot program, though! We already have a dozen who completed their tests and went through all the hoops and whistles to be eligible to become Knights in Waiting. The moment they have their mechs, they will be officially knighted!"

"I'm fine with testing it!" Yuri interjected, "You can draw on my body~!"

"First, let's make the formation, okay?" I interrupted them before it got out of hand. "We need monster blood too! Without it, forget the chances of making anything anyway. We have time until winter, so don't rush it!"

"Tsk... Gimme one, too!" Yuri mumbled, groaning, leaning in and letting Luna push a bite-sized bit into her mouth.

"We still have a lot to do." I continued, raising my cup to sip on my coffee. "We are going to face off against Duke Jauwn first. He won't have time to realize what is happening because the Empress will bring down her boiling wrath on him the moment she gets back."

"Are you sure...?" Luna asked, tilting her head, munching on a muffin.

"Oh, I am. I saw it in her eyes. She is good at controlling her emotions, but she is ready to blow. She will make an example out of him. I have already sent Pion to the Silver Region to meet with the Zimmermann family and notify them that they are now under Duke Kustov's rule and will export half of their output directly to us."

 "Are we ramping up production?" Merlin looked at me from his papers, splitting his attention and continuing to memorize everything while listening to me.

"Yes. We will build a second factory and incentivize my people to have children. I want every family to bear at least two to three kids. We are going to prepare for war and showcase our military might in the coming years. I have already called Elliot, as he will be responsible for the basic manual labor of the first railways with the steel we are importing. Our workforce is much more educated, so I will put them to start making the first train instead of building the lines. I want it ready for the time we move against Pascal and be able to support our troops. We will construct the first line as we march..."

"I can't wait!" Yuri squealed, already way too excited, but it would probably take years to happen.

Still... I understood her mood. I also felt fidgety because I wouldn't just sit and watch... I already had a blueprint in my drawer, one for my very own mech.