315 Recycled Dreams

After saying their goodbyes to Camille, Will teleported Elizabeth and Edward to Gadreel. He and Elizabeth planned to drop off Edward, before heading to Tirana for the birth of King Roland's first child.

When they returned to the manor, Edward scrunched his face in worry. Building up his courage he asked, "Father, what can I do to get stronger?"

Will smiled after hearing his son's question. Determination was evident in his voice. Unknown to Edward, Will knew of his late-night sword practices, his secret trips to Elder Thaddeus's cottage for extra tutoring, and his penchant for conditioning with Bubba and the city guards.

Standing in front of Edward, Will reached out and firmly grabbed Edward's shoulder. Looking him in the eye, Will grinned and said encouragingly, "Son, you're doing fine. What you need most is to exercise your mind and let your body recover. Take some time to socialize with your friends or see a girl you like. While I'm away, take some business and math classes at Valley A&M Academy. Study hard son, one day my financial empire shall be yours to govern."

With a stern face, Edward nodded at hearing his father's suggestion. "I'll do it, father. I'll study hard."

"Good, I'm happy to hear you'll study as hard as your train your sword. I love your Edward. I'm proud of the man you are. It's comforting, knowing I have such a capable heir," Will said embracing his son.

Edward looked away. But Will could tell he was hiding his misty eyes and red cheeks. Feeling his eyes mist too, Will cast "Gate" and announced, "Ahem, Elizabeth let's go."

In Tirana, Will and Elizabeth stepped out into the palace.

Will could also see maids running with towels and buckets of water frantically.

"I had a feeling you'd be here. Did Camille get settled in okay?" asked Duchess vont Whitby.

"Yes, mother. Camille is on her own. I'm worried about her staying in that large house by herself," Elizabeth said to her mother.

"I felt the same emotions when we left you and your sisters. But, she'll do well," comforted Duchess Charlotte. "Now follow me to the birthing room."

In Terra, men were not allowed to be with their wives during birth.

Elizabeth followed her mother into the room, and Will went to stand next to King Roland, Duke Francis, and Earl Francis II.

"How was Camille when you left?" Duke Francis asked.

"She and Elizabeth cried. I'm confident she'll be well," Will said.

"It's to be expected, mothers and daughters share a special relationship. And where is Edward?" Duke Francis asked.

"Studying business at my academy and economics over the summer," Will replied.

"You are grooming him. He's managing your territory and businesses, and now taking lessons. Don't you think you're being overbearing?" Earl Francis asked.

"Edward shall be fine. We all know his manager title is more ceremonial. Will's clerks are as good or better than the palace's," King Roland reminded them.

A scream began coming out of the queen's bedroom.

"Your majesty, the queen's labor started," informed a nurse.

"Go, make sure my son is healthy," King Roland ordered.

"Yes, sire," she curtsied and ran back inside.

The men stood quietly outside. After waiting for an hour, the nurse came outside.

"Your majesty, the doctor is ready to see you now," she said with a curtsy.

"Come, lay eyes upon the next king," King Roland laughed happily.

However, when they entered, the queen's chamber they could tell the mood inside was not festive.

"Congratulations Your Majesty on the birth of your…daughter," the doctor declared nervously, dread etched across his face.

"Daughter?" King Roland angrily repeated.

"Yes, sire," the doctor gulped, beads of sweat parade down his face. Standing up, he delivered the princess to King Roland.

"…"

Everyone waited for King Roland to speak.

"Rollie say something," said Queen Ashley Maria after 15 seconds of silence.

"How should I reply? I'm both upset and disappointed. Physician, I thought you said it was a boy?" King Roland interrogated.

"My lord, sometimes the signs are wrong. All signs pointed to having a boy. She was carrying weight around her waist," advised the doctor.

Tension in the room was palpable. The maids held their breath afraid the king might explode with anger. King Roland took a deep breath, visibly struggling to compose himself. He gently cradled the baby in his arms, looking down at the tiny face with a mixture of conflicting emotions.

"Unexpected, to say the least," he finally spoke, his voice carrying a blend of disappointment and acceptance. "But I recognize her as my child."

Christina, Elizabeth, and Charlotte were quick to remind King Roland that daughters were blessings, and not to fret, as it was normal to have a daughter or two before a son. 

After those comments, the tension in the room began to dissipate, replaced by patience and determination. 

Despite the disappointment evident in her eyes, Queen Ashley Maria nodded in agreement. "Both mother and baby need to rest. I think it best we leave them alone," the queen said placing the baby in the mother's arms.

As he left, King Roland motioned to Duke Francis, Will, and Earl Francis to follow him. Entering his royal office, the king looked sorrowful at his cousins. "Cousins, truthfully, I have no patience for waiting. Heavy is the head that wears the crown. Find me acceptable wives and concubines. I will fill this palace with offspring until I have a line of heirs!" 

"Leave this to me to handle. I scour the kingdom and empire for acceptable brides," Duke Francis said.

"Father, I'll help as well," Earl Francis smiled excitedly.

"Then cousin, I wish you success on future matrimonies," Will congratulated, before leaving the office to find Elizabeth.

He found Elizabeth in the nursery looking at the sleeping baby. When she saw Will entered, her face shifted to sadness, and asked, "What did Roland say?"

"He's impatient and asked Duke Francis to build him a harem. Are you ready to head home? I'm sure news about the harem will be major news by evening."

Elizabeth sighed, then stood up. Looking apologetically, she confessed, "I feel bad for her. I feel bad for what I did to her. She has suffered so much pain in her lifetime. And now, she must battle for her position and her children's inheritance."

Will comforted Elizabeth before teleporting her back home to Gadreel. Then he returned to Tirana and gave Diego tomorrow's headline, before returning home again to visit Bradley and Rupert.

Gadreel had grown immensely since the Congress of Nobles. Thanks to Rupert, Bradley, and their employees, the city was now in its golden age. Moreover, Will's other holdings also benefited from their inventions.

In Gadreel, they developed the blast furnace. Using the coal from Kukes, a blast furnace could do the job on 10 blacksmiths and smelted a ton of iron in half the time. In Durres, Rupert and Bradley invented a swiveling harbor crane and astrolabe for Will's trade ships. The crane improved the efficiency of loading and unloading of crates, and the astrolabe helped the sea captain navigate at night. Finally, in Lezhe, they built an aqueduct to increase the supply of fresh water.

Yet, Gadreel remained the epitome of Fermion's wealth and ingenuity. The prevailing zeitgeist, Gadreel was the world's intellectual and industrial capital of the world. Philosophers, and researchers, came to converse runes with Rupert, and engineering with Bradley. Only in Gadreel, was it normal to see mixed-racial groups having a sophisticated conversation of runes, artificing, and engineering.

Gadreel was Terra's sole metropolis. Gadreel was the only city in the world where it was normal humans, elves, beastmen, and dwarves working, living, and socializing together. Walking down the street, one could find as many human restaurants and shops, as dwarven, elven, and beastmen.

Will walked inside the Alms & Zepplin Research and Design Company, a subsidiary partially owned by his Silver Phoenix corporation. Standing at the entrance, he called out, "Hello?" before entering the large warehouse.

The warehouse was massive and divided into small workstations, only Rupert and Bradly, and offices. Looking around, Will noticed there were 40 researchers busily occupying their workstations. So busy that they failed to notice him walk by. Due to the secrecy of their work, each researcher took a vow of silence upon employment.

Will's destination was Bradley and Rupert's private workshop at the back. As he walked towards the back, he noticed the variety of projects. Some he could make out, but for others he had no idea what was being built and for what purpose.

"Hi Will!" Rupert said running up to greet his friend. "Did the king have a boy or girl?"

"Girl," Will answered, before adding, "When we get to your workshop, I need to see a list of everyone's projects, rationale, and the ledger."

"Oh, is this an inspection?" Rupert asked nervously.

"Not really, I just came to check on your progress. But I give you two a lot of money and I don't want to see it go to waste," Will explained.

"Well, then you came at the perfect time. We've just had a breakthrough! Bradley is in the back, testing the box truck," Rupert said excitedly, grinning from ear to ear.

Hearing that, Will smiled and followed Rupert to the workshop. However, just before they entered the workshop, Will saw a pile of rubbish.

Pointing at the trash, Will asked Ruppert, about the pile of scrap metal, bolts, and wires.

"This is our Recycled Dreams. Instead of disposing of projects that don't work, we recycle the parts. This way the researcher gets closure, and other people can use the parts. We store all the designs in case someone else gets inspired to continue the project. I like to say, dreams never die, they get recycled," laughed Rupert at his own philosophy.

"Has anyone salvaged another's dreams?" inquired Will, as he analyzed the scrap pile.

"On rare occasions, but more than likely it's scraped for parts," Rupert said sadly.

As Will analyzed the rubbish, something caught his eye, a crescent-shaped device, that resembled an old telephone receiver. Curious, he picked it up from the pile and asked, "Ruppert what's this?"

"Another failed dream, I'm afraid. One of our engineers, Alexis Bell's invention. She is working on a device that plays music. Instead, she built a device that receives sound. Comedy, right? She later solved the problem, and now she is working on a prototype that transmits sound. It's impressive, want to see it?" Ruppert asked, leading him to Alexis' workstation.

Will was momentarily stunned that such a magnificent invention was tossed away like trash. To think he fished a trillion-dollar industry out of the trash bin, made his eyes glow green with avarice.

"Will, are you alright?" Ruppert asked, stopping to check on him. 

"I'm fine. Sorry about that. I guessed a dazed off for a bit," Will apologized.

"It's fine," Ruppert said, before introducing him to Alexis.

Just from the introduction and a brief exchange of greetings, he could tell Alexis idolized Ruppert. To many, Brandley and Ruppert were rare geniuses. But Will could also tell she had a hearing impairment based. Alexis used an ear trumpet to hear, and he could see her focusing on his lips. An ear trumpet was a medieval earring aid formed from a hollowed-out ram's horn. Hoping to establish a good impression, Will made sure to speak slower and enunciate.

As they spoke, Will saw a sea of blueprints and prototype devices on her workstation, including an early gramophone. The music player was a box with a conical horn atop, with a hand crank on the side. The prototype worked, but the disc did not. He could see Alexis was frustrated by her lack of success. Yet, Will could tell the gramophone would soon be introduced to high society.

"Alexis, your music player is impressive. I look forward to listening to music in my own manor," Will praised, before investigating the telephone blueprint. "This is curious, can you tell me how your…" At once Will's grin disappeared because he'd forgotten to get the invention's name.

"Etherphone," Ruppert revealed.

"Thank you, Ruppert. Yes, can you tell me how the Etherphone works?"

She explained the Etherphone was constructed from a magical alloy that could transmit sound. It had a mouthpiece to talk into, an earpiece to listen to, and was infused with resonating crystals that could carry voices across great distances.

At the heart of the Etherphone were these resonating crystals, rune-crafted gems powered by eternal crystals. The mouthpiece channeled a person's mana directly toward the crystals, which were then captured and converted into magical energy. Once activated, the Etherphone would connect to a central location, where people had to manually connect the corresponding Etherphone. Once connected, the people could speak to each other from anywhere in Fermion.

Will's heart pounded as he listened. This description perfectly matched his expectations. But he still had one question, "why did you discard the device if it worked?"

"Too expensive and letters work just fine," she explained.

Will at once understood that the upfront cost was exorbitant. Only an industrialist like him had the funds to install telecommunication lines across the kingdom and pay clerks to connect phone lines. And now that he knew the device worked and how it worked, he had to have it.

"Tell me, are you having any hardships or difficulties, I can assist you with?"

"Money, my budget is too limited," she complained.

"I would be happy to tell Bradley and Ruppert to increase your budget if you could sell me the Etherphone blueprints."

At that announcement, everyone in the warehouse turned to listen in on Will and Alexis' conversation. While researchers had jealous faces, Alexis eyed him suspiciously and asked, "Why?"

"Because it's an incredible invention. With your invention, people may be able to communicate over long distances. If you sell me this invention, not only will I increase your budget, I'll also promise to let you keep full profits from your music player," Will bargained.

"Congratulations, Alexis!" Ruppert said smiling happily for her achievements.

Seeing Rupert's wide grin, she smiled as well and nodded in agreement. Soon Will had the paperwork signed and the blueprints and patents registered under his business. The Silver Phoenix already monopolized the financial, logistics, and energy industries, soon to be next were telecommunication and automotive.

"Congratulations, Alexis!" Bradley praised walking over. "If you're done with your purchase, do you want to check out our profess on the truck?"

"Are you any closer to finishing it," Will inquired.

"There were several times that we doubted this would work. But in the end, we got it to work," Bradley grinned excitedly.

"Show me how it works. How many beast cores did you use? What's the estimated cost?" Will asked.

Rupert and Bradley let out a satisfying chuckle. Will could tell they were very proud of themselves.

Bradley turned a key and the truck lifted off the ground and hovered in the air. The truck had manual windows, air brakes, and comfortable leather seats.

"Brilliant. Tell me how it works," Will demanded.

Rupert looked at Bradley and spoke first. "To understand how this works, you have to understand how our airship works.

The key to flying is energy management. The airship needs the power to stay up. The wyvern cores we use generate lift and to maintain speed we use aeromancers. As long as your engine is working, this is straightforward."

Then Bradley picked up the conversation. "Compared to our airships, the trucks need less lift but more torque. We examined thousands of cores to see which core could lift the car.

That's when we uncovered the bad news. Only wyvern cores could lift the car, but that would be a waste of resources.

So, we went back to the drawing board and found a faster way to process rubber and make tires. Just like you requested. Along with the combustion engine, were able to finish the truck."

Rupert cut back in, "To keep the truck gears lubricated, we had to synthesize a lubricant. That's when we found we could process that black oil to not only full the trucks but also to grease the gears."

"And how does it travel?" Will asked unsurely.

"I wrote a simple go rune on mana stone. Bradley engineered the petals to either increase or decrease the truck's speed by releasing more or less mana from the stones. I'd say the fastest it would travel is 97 kilometers per hour," Rupert explained.

"Tell me the total cost to produce a single truck?" Will questioned.

"Including the iron for the body and engine, gas, oil, beast core, and eternal crystals, I think roughly 60 gold. Maybe less," Bradley guesstimated.

"Wait why a beast core?" Will asked.

Right away, Will noticed the changes in Bradley and Rupert's behavior. Their faces transitioned from pride to embarrassment.

"So, the truck has power, and can move, it's but we're still struggling to transmit the energy from the engine into the drive axel. So instead, we modified the train transmission. Not only did it make the vehicle lighter, but it could also drive like a beast core. For example, beast cores from speedy animals make the truck faster, likewise, beast cores from strong animals give the truck more torque," Ruppert explained.

"This is exciting. We can finally do something about that smell!" Will applauded.

In Fermion and other medieval fiefdoms, horses were the dominant form of transportation. While majestic creatures, they routinely defecated on the streets. Fancy carriages, like Will's, often came with a poop shoot. However, it was common for workhorses to shit in the street. Worse yet, the greater the population, the larger the problem. And it was a major problem in Gadreel, Tirana, and Durres.

The same problem existed on Earth. Despite hundreds of solutions, none worked until the invention of the car. As cars became more ubiquitous, fewer and fewer horses were needed. Besides his desire to control the Rhaziesian oil field and automotive industry, he also wanted to rid the smell of horse shit from the streets. The smell was rancid, especially during summer.

With the truck finished Will turned his attention to building an assembly line. He was virtually positive he could cut the cost of the truck in half. And if that happened, he'd sell the trucks for 90 gold, a 600% profit margin. He also envisioned his brand of Bradley cars, vans, trucks, and box trucks hitting the road.

"Well done you two. I have been waiting for this news for a long while.

Reroute your men to this project. I want a fleet of trucks assembled and painted with my sigil.

Once you're done give Kurosawa the blueprints. I'll have an assembly plant built in Gadreel. For your effort, I'll raise your budget. And don't forget to raise Alexis' budget as well. Keep me posted on any worthwhile inventions," Will ordered.

"Rupert let's take everyone out to celebrate!" Bradley said.

"Yes, it's always best to share good news over a meal," Rupert agreed.

They gathered everyone and set off leaving Will alone with the ledgers. When he was finished reviewing the books, took one look around, and returned to the front lines.