Road to the Crown

Chapter 149: Tour with Elia

29th April 1574

"This one looks awesome, but to be completely honest, it's already obsolete. Unless we find ourselves in need for some liquid pump, I don't think we will ever use this design again."

Holding Elia by her waist, I slowly moved around the place, showcasing everything that we did here ever since my arrival. Since some of the stuff was quite complicated to understand, I decided to go by the order of production rather than the importance, to let her see how this entire place grew from just an open space near the mines to the most industrialised area in the entire world!

"And how does this even work? Like, I can see that it has something to do with that big furnace at the bottom But if it really was as hard to make as I can judge from your proud expression it was, wouldn't it be easier to just use waterwheel to make this wheel spin?"

What I thought would be a great shock for my wife, turned out to be nothing but a misfire. To be honest, when she put it in this way, I realised that I might have been a little bit too focused on reaching the industrial grade of power, ignoring the fact that the entire blast furnace could be powered up with said waterwheel in the first place!

Considering how outside of being the example for the Overlord to prove that I could produce what I claimed I could, its power was simply too small for me to use it in literally anything different than pumping the water or spinning the fans, if not for the pressure to achieve something, creating a simple waterwheel would be a way better option!

"Ah, I didn't mean to say it. It's really awesome!"

Most likely noticing how her words put me in deep thought, Elia had to misinterpret the expression on my face for disappointment with how she instantly changed her approach, hugging herself even closer to me and showing me a face full of amazement.

"Dear, don't bother acting like that. Now that I think about it You are completely right! If not for the fact that crafting something else would take way too long given the time constraints that I had for Governor's visit, then creating this piece might be just a waste of time and resources!"

Rather than accepting her attempts to placate my mood with her clinginess and fake expression of awe, I stepped out and did what I considered to be a man's way to go around it. I admitted to making a mistake.

"Well, since this bit didn't get the impression I wanted from you, let's move on. This next building is the blast furnace I mentioned earlier. While in itself, it's nothing new or surprising, thanks to this steam engine you just saw, we could turn the bellows into fans, which resulted in the faster smelting rate, with the end product being a pig iron of higher quality, capable of reaching the level of bad steel."

Maybe because Elia still felt bad for extinguishing the fires of my enthusiasm earlier on, or maybe she liked the idea so far that she didn't return to her previous position, but as we followed through the paths made by the workers themselves who simply used the shortest routes between their destinations to move around, killing most of the vegetation that dared to block their path.

As her entire body pressed against my side with her head resting on my shoulder, the feeling I last had back on the shore where we reunited after quite a long time of not seeing each other, returned, filling me with a warmth that only the familial fire could produce.

"This rundown shed that looks like a house brought here directly from some kind of slums, is the carpentry plant. Since we ran out of the concrete, I decided there was no point in trying to make it any better, as in the relatively short amount of time we should be able to start building a proper one."

Even though from the outside it looked quite shabby with all the wood planks, blocks and dust lying everywhere around, by the time most of the people were focused on bringing the mark two steam engine to its finish line, the group that I directed all the way back when I first introduced the concept of this plant to the carpenter managed to finish everything up.

Despite how bad it looked when walking on the outside, I still brough Elia to its inner part, allowing her to see how the blades and chains that Governor brought with himself from the Sandomir were now spinning at high speed and turning the logs carried by several men at once into orderly planks in a matter of seconds!

"Woah! That's actually quite impressing!"

Even though this was absolutely the worst looking place, that any other noblewoman would consider a direct attack on her dignity if forced to get inside, Elia could actually see how insane the design was. With how working the entire log of wood down to the finished parts of it could take several hours for any normal carpentry workshop, being able to cut it into desired pieces just by moving it through the cutting table meant that this single, shabby shed could outproduce entire regions worth of workshops!

"Wait, did you say that you want to turn it into a proper plant? What did you mean by that?!"

Only now realising the implication behind my earlier words, Elia suddenly detached herself from me and moved to my front, grabbing my head between her hands and forcing me to look her straight in the eyes as if she wanted to gauge whether I was cheating on her or not.

"As I said, this place is too small and slow to satisfy what I have in mind for it, so as soon as we get our hands on the concrete plant, I plan to turn half of the cost into a big manufactory that will breathe in simple logs and breathe out finished products like furniture, bows, floor tiles and so on. But to understand the scale of this project, there is still one thing that you need to see."

Considering the insane output of the ready-to-sell products that this future plant would produce, I had no other way than to locate it right on the shore. In fact, if everything would go according to my plans, then rather than building separate plants for other production or crafting, I would simply expand the building to either of its sides, connecting it all with a simple set of conveyor belts. In my vision, the end-stage for this entire place would feature a line of buildings by the shore, puking out finished products that would be automatically moved to the lines of barges or even their modernised sisters that I planned to somehow produce, while all the flatlands currently occupied by either my measly projects or just free vegetation, would turn into a complicated labyrinth of smelters, miners and powerplants that would provide everything the end factories would need!

"Okay then, I'm already impressed. What do you want to show me then?"

"You just wait!"