Chương 22: Chapter 21 - Rumours... Rumours...

.. Rumours...

Multiple carts rolled along the paved road in the Church City of Frae. Groups of mercenaries browsed around the buildings deciding on which inn to stay and where to eat and drink. Pilgrims moved about asking for minor healing spells for their weary feet near the central fountain of the city. Bishop Owen was one of them. Never had he seen the busy-ness of the streets ever reach this many people. Most were coming from the borders of Lyra rather than from the north western border that led to the annex of Pandor.

Walking along the street, away from the fountain, he stopped and saw a couple buying holy water from one of the vendors. However, it seemed they didn't have the money for it, though it was 2 silver per bottle the size of a fist. The priest behind the wooden stall's counter seemed to be telling them to go away by waving his hands.

"What seems to be the problem, Junior Priest?" Owen asked after walking up to the stall.

"Bishop Owen... this couple doesn't have the silver to pay for the holy water... I'm afraid I cannot give it to them." Turning to the couple, Owen asked, "And may I ask what you need the holy water for?"

"I'm really sorry for the interruption, Bishop, but my husband was hurt by a skeleton. The undeath plague is taking him over," the woman said.

"I see." Owen looked at the man's forearm. It had a bite mark from a human skeleton. Around the mark, the skin had turned purple with veins turning black. It was indeed the undeath plague. Turning his eyes back to the Junior Priest, he said, "Can you not see the man is suffering and needs the holy water?"

"But Bishop... I was told to not give holy water freely," the Junior Priest said.

"It definitely isn't free," Owen smiled.

"Is it not part of our church to give salvation to those in need?"

"That was part of our initiation, so yes."

"Then why have this couple not been given salvation when they are in front of a priest of the church?"

"But the Archpriest said we must not give out Frae's holy water without compensation" the Junior Priest said.

"Why must it be without compensation?" Owen said.

"Do you not have coin in your own pockets?" The Junior Priest stammered. His eyes glanced between the priest and the holy water.

"So?"

"I understand, Bishop," the Junior Priest bowed.

"This is the will of Frae."

"Ah, that is indeed the will of Frae. Then carry on. Give the ones in need the salvation they deserve." Putting his hands into his own robe's pocket, the Junior Priest pulled out 2 silver coins. He handed two two coins over to the woman.

"Junior Priest, I would like to have a bottle of holy water for my husband, please," the woman extended her hand with two silvers to the Junior Priest, who accepted them reluctantly. Having accepted the transaction, the Junior Priest gave the woman a single bottle of holy water. She immediately uncorked it and splashed it onto her husband's arm. The purple skin slowly retracted, and the veins along his wounded arm regained their normal colour. Owen knelt down to meet the couple eye to eye.

"May Frae's Light give you order." The woman teared up but managed to speak.

"And may Frae give you eternal light, Bishop Owen." He nodded, and then stood up to walk back to the cathedral once again. Once he was out of sight of the couple and the Junior Priest, a frown appeared on his face. The issues with the Church of Frae had gone on for too long. The church was once a place to provide and heal those in need. Now, his own juniors could not even hide their greed behind their eyes. 2 silver was an astounding amount for a simple bottle that cost priests 5 mana to produce.

Though the cost of mana was not small, were the lives of the people not worth such sacrifice? Without the donations and worship of the believers, what would be the meaning and purpose of the church?! This has gone on for too long. Owen sighed. Yet what has he done? He merely forced the junior to pay for the bottle rather than pay for it himself. A hypocrite they might call him, but a necessary cost of teaching the juniors.

Even if undone by the corrupt Frae Theocracy, the Order of Light must hold the line against those that disturb Frae's true words. Arriving at the cathedral, he saw Bishop Romano waiting for him.

"Bishop Owen, we must discuss an issue," Romano said.

"What issue requires yourself to wait in front of the main cathedral?" Owen asked.

"Shh, do not speak so loud, Bishop," Romano whispered.

"We must take this discussion to the quarters. Follow me." Bishop Romano walked hurriedly as they entered the cathedral. Through the main worship area, they walked past the main altar into the teaching halls and out the back. Once outside, they walked to the wooden building where the living quarters of senior priests were. After arriving, they entered a private reception room and then sat down on either side of the chairs.

"Bishop Romano, what urgent news may there be?" Owen asked.

"Have you not heard of the rumours at the Hadstead mountains?" Romano asked.

"I have not."

"It seems a new power has emerged, yet the Theocracy has not even dared to verify its alignment."

"Is that not why we must continue to show the Church the light?"

"It is, but then who will keep the corruption from the north at bay when it invades where Frae's light reaches?"

"But how are we so sure that the new power is not just a Legend's trail of violent wind?"

"That we do not know... then I assume you've not heard the rumours of the recent flock of dark birds?"

"I have not," Owen said. Truthfully, he cared more about patrolling and managing the streets to protect them from the greed of the theocracy. He couldn't bear to see the people coming to their church and not gaining the salvation they sought.

"Rumours say Pandor has summoned a demon," Romano said.

"A demon? Are you telling me the flock of dark birds was a singular demon?"

"I am, Bishop Owen. A stable hand has confirmed such. Gave him the King of Pandor's large Fraedium Gem for a horse. Now, the King refuses to be seen in public. However, the citizens know why."

"He's injured?"

"Exactly, Bishop Owen. Times of conflict are abundant, yet the Theocracy's greed knows no bounds, not even daring to verify the new power at the mountain range."

"I've also heard of a mad man that was tended to in the past couple of days."

"The man's name in question was Kromer, a warrior of Pandor. His face was... disfigured."

"Was he healed?"

"Unfortunately not, but he uttered incomprehensible words about...

'her grace'. He begged continuously for her grace to forgive him. And something about breaking a contract."

"Did he answer who 'her grace' is?"

"He did not. His sanity waned further and further until we had to forcefully calm him down. But it seems he also came from the Hadstead mountain range, his partner said."

"A pity... but why the mountain range specifically..." Owen said. There was nothing in the Hadstead mountain range other than bandits. Unless... the legend or demon has enslaved the bandits. In that case, even bandits who have sinned against Frae still deserved salvation.

"No one knows, but what we do know is that the flock of dark birds had been seen to flock towards the Hadstead mountain range."

"Surely, the new power at Hadstead cannot be involved with this demon," Owen laughed. The two places were in opposite direction of each other. It made no sense why the flock would directly go to the mountain range.

"That itself is the issue. Our holy army has not even been called to arms to verify. What has the Theocracy done, but sit on their asses and watch their scroll sheets bloat?"

"Indeed, that is problematic." Owen sighed.

"Bishop Romano, may I ask you a favour?"

"Of course, Bishop Owen."

"Gather the other bishops and priests. In 6 days, we gather at the usual place. I shall inform the Cardinal of our intent."

"I understand, Bishop. May Frae's Light give you order."

"And upon to you, Frae's eternal light." ☕︎ ☼ ☕︎ ☽ ☕︎ In Alex's hand was a single stone cube the size of a fist, embedded with a Fraedium gem the size of a rice grain. The stone had a transmitter and a receiver function specifically attuned to a specific mana signature. It worked the same way as connecting different mana structures to a battery, except it didn't take mana from the battery. All it did was exchange mana at different rates, therefore, creating a binary-like language for mana structures.

The transmitter would send mana at a specific frequency and receive the same amount of mana in return. The transmitter cannot receive, only the receiver can. Therefore, there was no confusion. If the receiver receives the same message on the transmitter, the message was successful. Since mana travels at the speed of light and ignores all objects between the transmitter and receiver, the quality of the reception was impeccable.

As this also needed multiple ways to target different receivers/transmitters, each one also had its own mana signature. Pressing the side of the cube would light up an ether projection that would allow the user to punch in their mana signature ID. Thus, the Mana Communication tool was born. This method of data transmission could probably recreate the internet in this backwater dump of a world, but that wasn't the goal.

The United Knights did tell her to fuck off when she proposed the implementation to speed up the 'goddamn slow interwebs'. Well, guess what, knights, how about you fuck off. Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. On another note, Alex, with Aurora, rode a carriage on its way to the interstate stop. The purpose was to obviously install this device and test it herself while also auditing the smoothness of the brick road.

Conclusion: if it didn't destroy the iron-plated wooden wheels, then it was good enough. As the wheels were fine, the inside of the carriage had also gotten much smoother. The product would be in a much safer state when travelling long distances. Alex could now, with some concentration, sip her Cafe Mocha from the teacup that Aurora had just given her without spilling. Success. Pressing the side button of the cube, Alex typed in 1-000-0001.

"Testing, testing, Grey do you copy? Over." The communicator crackled before Grey's voice came through.

"Testing, testing. I copy you loud and clear, my Lady. Does the Lady copy? Over." After Grey's voice stopped, the communicator crackled again.

"Copy, loud and clear. Over." Alex ended the call then. Truthfully, she added the crackle as a joke to see if it would sound more 'authentic', but all it did was annoy her after she had her laugh. Note to self, the idea of having a crackle after the other party finishes speaking was a bad idea. Remove that later. However, the device seemed to be working as intended for now. The moment of truth was about how far it would reach.

"My Lady, half of the northern bandit fields have been converted to Hadstead sugar stalks and are growing. However, current processing techniques are too slow to keep up." Alex took another sip of her Cafe Mocha. There was still a bit of a slight off taste compared to the real drink back on Earth. That was due to the current sweetener being a 'caramel' or, in this case, the syrup of boiled down Hadstead stalk juice. The sweetening effect was adequate, but it did not quite meet the clean taste of the real thing.

White gold was essential. Problem was that this needed many more mana structures. A press, another distillation facility, and then a centrifugal separator. There was a way to recycle the steam coming out of Distillation Facilities #1 and #2, but that would not provide enough output for the press. Then what about creating an engine? Not accounting for the size of a cylinder and the energy needed to move a crankshaft, a 4 stroke engine would need to fire 400 times a minute at 1600 rpm.

That was around 1200 ether per minute. Multiply that by 10 for the size of a 10L cylinder, then it would be 6000 ether per minute, which would equal 100 ether per second. They would be down from the remaining 246 ether per second to 146. It was once again, adequate. Then the issue became how to get the materials for such an engine and the other mana structures? Simple stone would not do.

"Aurora," Alex said.

"Yes, my Lady."

"Are there any mines around the Hadstead mountain range?"

"There are quite a few, though they are currently controlled by Viscount Magnus, 5 days northeast of Sleider's coast. There's also Count Mourier just south of the capital of Lyra at the yet undeveloped roads of I-15."

"What kind of ores do they mine?"

"Iron is the largest export, then there's Yin, Cinders, Mithril, and Adamantite. Fraedium is very rare within the eastern Hadstead mines." Unfortunate that Fraedium was not so easy to come by. These gems made for easy artificing. Mithril and Adamantite were self-explanatory. What the hell were the other two? First time hearing those ones.

"What are Yin and Cinders?" Alex asked.

"Yin ores are regarded as useless metal. It's distinct as it comes out pure white with no imperfections. The only way to forge them is to repeatedly hammer them into shape without heating them."

"Why?"

"It absorbs heat endlessly, my Lady. Yet even though it absorbs heat, it does not protect the wearer of Yin armour from fire unless fully covered in the metal. In that case, it becomes meaningless in combat."

"Sure. And Cinders is?"

"Cinders is black metal. It absorbs light and has a slight mana nullification effect. It's ideal as armour against mages, but Fraedium gems cannot be socketed into the metal, therefore making the metal useless."

"Yin ores, eh..." Alex muttered.

"How much is that one?"

"I'm not sure, my Lady. Grey would have a more accurate price, though the last time I checked it was around 9 copper per ore."

"Is that good?"

"It is the cheapest out of all ores." That didn't say much. Ore was of course not a measure, but they seem to be treating it as a measure. Whatever this medieval world used, an ore could be a kilogram, a pound, or a yard—or who the fuck knows. Though, Yin ore being the cheapest made sense. Forging something out of the material would be a nightmare for this world. However, its properties were too valuable to be just 'useless' forever. She needed to identify how it could absorb heat endlessly.

If it was harmful, then throw it away. Otherwise, monopolize it while it was cheap. The conversation then came all the way back to the engines. It could power spinning shit, hammering shit, or bending shit. Once again, the complete lack of materials put a hold on everything. Since the death of 55 knights, Alizia hadn't let the King send any more knights. Lyra wasn't much of a militaristic kingdom to fight her. Lastly, Pandor was too far. War was a highly profitable short-term business venture.

The downside was that people's purchasing power decreased. Ultimately, war should be avoided. In this case, the only logical solution was to buy the ores. The carriage came to a halt, and the wooden skeleton of the interstate stop came into view. Multiple barbarian men and women hauled wooden logs, plywood, and carpentry tools. Banging of hammers echoed throughout the area. One thing that Alex liked about the barbarians was their excellent woodworking.

Turns out, the former dead leader of the southern bandit camp had led most of the construction work of the camps as he was of barbarian descent. Barbarians did live out in the wild as well, which meant resourcefulness was an innate skill. Woodworking was a standard skill they had. Definitely didn't see that one coming. Before getting out of the carriage, Alex tested the communications device. She pressed the button on the side and dialled 1-000-0001 again.

"Grey, do you still hear me? Over."

"Chief Operating Officer Grey, reporting. I hear the Lady loud and clear. Over."

"Grey, fetch me 1 gold worth of Yin metal from Viscount Magnus. Over."

"Right away, my Lady. I shall have the metal in 2 days' time."

"Cool. Hanging up now. Over." Alex said, disconnecting the call. Well shit. 2 days was almost at the speed of Amazon's delivery with modern logistics. Even that much competence came close to frightening Alex. More so because how the hell does one negotiate with bureaucracy at that speed? Aurora opened the door of the carriage and exited. She extended her hand to guide Alex down the steps. Accepting the hand, Alex took the carriage's step and landed on the ground.

Her eyes glanced around the wooden fenced area of the construction site. A sign demanded hard hats be worn at all times inside the area. To her side, Aurora already wore a bright yellow hard hat made of 'Plaedis'. A type of extremely hard wood that needed to be heated before cutting into, otherwise, the woodworking tool would break. Inside the helmet was a cushion made of rubbery material and cloth. Alex only gave documentation to Grey for such an item.

Her Chief Operating Officer then took that documentation to Elador to 'research' materials that were light and durable enough to be called a hard hat. Then, this monstrosity of an OSHA compliant hard hat was born, much to Alex's dismay. Once again, damn you, OSHA! Aurora grabbed the other yellow hard hat and handed it to Alex.

"My Lady, we must comply with OSHA. For your safety."

"Sure. Whatever. For safety," Alex grumbled as she grabbed and put on the hard hat. They both moved to the entrance of the fence and pushed it open. Entering the construction site, Alex saw the burly men and women working in the fields with their fur clothes and yellow hard hats. They all lifted with their legs and wore proper gloves that provided ample grip for the logs they carried. At the centre, there were two buildings in their skeletal wooden forms.

The actual Star Cubs store and, beside it, was to be a 'for lease' restaurant of sorts. An interstate stop wouldn't be complete without providing food, after all. Sanders was already searching for candidates to take the lease.

"How's Sanders doing with finding future business owners for the restaurant?" Alex asked.

"My Lady, he's currently found a couple of owners that have sent their intent to run the tavern. Surprisingly, the three were from the Barony of Lois."

"And what type of food did they wanna cook?"

"The Barony of Lois is known for its fishing industry, I can only assume it would be seafood, My Lady."

"Oof, that's one posh restaurant," Alex said.

"Make sure to control item prices with Grey on that. We don't want our customers travelling hungry if they can't afford."

"Of course! The people deserve their bellies to be filled!" Aurora bowed. Walking over to the ongoing construction site, Alex saw the pipes that led towards I-10 and eventually to the corners of the western Hadstead mountain range. This was meant for sanitation as the grey water flowed towards the sanitation plant. That sanitation plant was also currently under construction, with Aurora being the head. In Nulfrae, apparently, slimes were part of the natural sanitation ecosystem. How did that work?

Alex didn't ask questions if things worked as intended. All she heard from Aurora was something about slimes creating nutrition soups based on what they absorbed. What's released from their body is water and 'air that cannot be breathed', most likely referring to CO2. A barbarian woman sitting by a bench, pouring brown liquid into a cup, caught her eye. What she held looked like a thermos, except it was wooden. And the cup was a wooden beer cup.

"My Lady, your products are very popular with the employees and allow them to keep on working through their 9-to-7 job. The most popular is the Cafe Mocha, followed by the Arabelum Refresher."

"Are they paying for those?"

"Of course, my Lady. However, I have denied Grey's suggestion to give our employees a discount."

"Aurora, it's okay. Our workers need our product. Give them a 1 copper discount," Alex said. A happy employee was a productive employee. A caffeinated employee was an even more productive employee. What was even better was they actually paid for their own drinks, unlike those goddamn Starbucks Baristas! Other than that, the construction was proceeding smoothly. The roads passed the test for smoothness. The mana communication device was properly calibrated for long-range communication.

The Star Cubs retail store was starting to take shape. At most, it would take another 5 days to finish construction and another week to finish the interior. The sanitation pipeline would reach the sanitation facility after construction finished. The sanitation facility's completion needed to be checked, but Alex trusted Aurora's progress. It was just a bunch of deep ponds filled with slime anyway. All she needed to do now was just hand over the mana communication device to Yulka and be on her merry way.

Once both stores were done, it would capture the traffic of I-10 and I-15. The two paths with the most traffic as they led directly from Duke Tanison and the Capital of Lyra to the only path to the Capital of Dragus. The convergence point was only a day away from the first interstate stop thanks to the newly bricked roads and secured pathways. Everything was for pure maximum value extraction out of the interstates' road. Alex could see the copper, silver, and gold flowing into her coffers already.

But before a maniacal laugh could form in her core, the sound of marching horses from the east could be heard outside the fence. Alex and Aurora turned their heads in the direction of the entrance. Quickly walking forward to the fence, the march grew louder and louder. Alex pushed through the entrance and saw two squads of knights and robed men, assumed to be mages as they all had staves, passing through the bricked path.

Since there were no signs of conflict on their weapons and armour, she assumed they paid the toll. Otherwise, there would be consequences.

"There was a rumour of conflict between the Baroness Lois and the Count Mourier." Alex turned her head as the squad passed by the construction site.

"Go on."

"I believe the conflict was about the Baroness continuing to charge the Count premium prices for the fish they provide, even though the fishery has begun to thrive again."

"Was it not thriving before?" Alex asked.

"No, My Lady. If you remember, Greenie caused havoc in the western Hadstead mountain range, which caused the fishery of the Baroness to decline."

"Oh," Alex said. However, it shouldn't be that simple. There was no way displacing a simple orange dragon (Greenie) could cause a conflict between nobles.

"There's more to it, right?"

"Yes. The Count is blaming the Baroness for making a deal with a devil to rid the region of Greenie. A flock of dark birds had flown into the region more than a month ago, which was when the fishery became ever more abundant in resources."

"Cool. I got the gist," Alex said. The very basic witch move: make her boss clean up her own mess. Who knows what other kinds of fallout or mess the bitch made on her way with her 'flock of ravens' here. And now, the territory that would supply her with business owners for her store was in jeopardy. In addition, that was also the direction of the Path's sanitation facility. If those pipes get broken, her sanity might just wane a little too close to blowing something up.

A blue outline appeared on both Alex and Aurora.

"My Lady?" Aurora asked. Alex snapped her fingers once. In an instant, they were in the air, hovering above a town just outside the exit of I-10. Aurora held on to Alex's arm, in fear of falling down. Even the active chaos of events below didn't come to mind as she hovered. A town was under attack by multiple squads of knights and robed mages. At the rear of the town, a woman and a man were running for their lives as a robed man chased them with a gleeful smile.

The couple ran south west through the rocky meadow and into a sparse forest. After exiting the forest, a woman in white armour saved them from the mage chasing them, cutting him in half.

"I believe that woman is titled the Lighthouse of Lois. Her name is Marine Fontaine, and she is currently a ranker with a prowess of 356."

"Cute name," Alex said. Seriously, it was. Just as Marine helped the couple to get back up, she gave them a few copper coins and pointed them to run south-east towards the toll booths. But before they could, a squad of 2 knights and 6 mages surrounded her. A mage sent an earthquake at her, shredding rocks and trees where she had dodged from.

"Aurora, we're intervening." Alex's eyes twitched. They were ruining the surrounding area of the sanitation facility.

"As you wish, My Lady," Aurora said. Alex snapped her fingers again.