Chapter 571 — Expansion
Blade of Dawn · Page 1 of 4
Inside a manor south of Carroll City, the great shed that had once served as a warehouse blazed with light.
This was the property of the great merchant Corde. The shed and the several buildings around it had all been warehouses, used to store fodder for the horse caravans and goods passing through in temporary transit. But since the spring of this year, the warehouses had changed purpose—the great merchant had bought five magic-drive vehicles in one go and assembled a new-style fleet. The original horse-drawn freight wagons had been cut by half at a stroke, and the remaining carts were reassigned to itinerant traders in the countryside. Fewer carts meant less fodder needed, and so the old warehouses had been converted into new facilities—workshops and laboratories.
Corde walked into the great shed, his thin coat buttoned and his hair combed to the last strand. The magic-crystal lamps hung from the shed's roof poured out a brilliant radiance that made the interior bright as day. The shed's broad space was divided by chest-high low walls into several sections, and in each section the newly purchased simple machine tools hummed along merrily. The clatter of metal parts mingled with the buzz of magical mechanisms, and threaded through it all was the peculiar smell of lubricating grease—the great merchant passed through these sounds and smells and went straight to the compartment at the end of the aisle.
Several young people in short robes were busy at the workbenches. Seeing Corde appear, they all turned to bow in greeting, but Corde hastily waved his hand. "No need for ceremony—just go on with what you were doing."
The young people returned to their work, and Corde came to the side of the workbench and watched them bustle about.
These were mage apprentices and rune craftsmen he had recruited at high prices—apprentices and craftsmen were not in themselves expensive employees, but they had studied at the academy run by the Ministry of Administration, and had moreover passed the examination for a magic-drive technician's certificate, which was enough to multiply their worth several times over.
Hiring these people had cost no small sum, but in the great merchant's view the role they played was worth every coin.
On the workbench, a once-whole magic-drive device had been broken down into a pile of parts. Several rune base plates and a series of control, power-supply, and linkage mechanisms lay spread out in neat order, each part tagged with a label noting its function. And to one side of the workbench were piled great quantities of draft paper and scrolls, covered densely with calculations and records—an ordinary person, after a single glance, would likely have fainted away.
"Sir, we have completely disassembled the M-2 general-purpose magic-drive terminal and worked out the function of every rune base plate," said a young magic-drive technician with a mop of short, messy hair. "Right now we're using rune logic to calculate the power and interference coefficients of the ice-spike base plate inside it. We believe that with a proper adjustment of its projection field, plus a casing with decent insulation, it would be entirely feasible to build a container that can preserve food..."
"Very good, very good," Corde said, nodding again and again. "Any difficulties?"
Another young man spoke up. "We need a more stable mana source—the magic-net units we had before were all secondhand goods we'd bought up, and some of them have already started to fail. They're really not fit for use."
"Rest easy. I've already sent Parr to purchase new magic-net units. No more secondhand goods this time—all of them brand new."
"Then there's no problem."
The technicians returned to their work, and Corde stayed where he was by the workbench, watching them busy themselves around heaps of runes, draft paper, and formulas.
He could understand only a small part of it, but that did not stop him from being utterly absorbed.