A Treacherous Courtier Manages the Empire Well

35 – Make Me into a Body that Cannot Live Without It

The comrades of the Northern Expedition. The fact that the Dwarves planned to build a steel mill was quickly known to the members of the Ironblood Legion, thanks to Caria.

“The massive amounts of steel they produce will make the Empire stronger and more powerful! It goes without saying that our soldiers’ weapons and armor will become even tougher and stronger! Now! Are there any who will go to help our comrades in the north?”

When Caria spoke with a majestic voice befitting a commander, I whispered with a cunning voice, showing my loyalty.

“Double the usual pay. Perfect provision of breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Twice a week. Pizza, hamburger, chicken provided free of charge. Also, on weekends, we will have a free movie screening. You know the new movies that were recently released, right? You’ll be able to watch those. Everyone.”

The response was explosive. In an instant, all the engineering units and the Northern Spirit Mages led by Tameer Khan supported them, and I sent them all to Clea Bay. That wasn’t all.

“Karl Hansen!! Gather all the skilled builders and send them to Clea Bay!”

“Of course! hahahaha!”

I also gathered all the skilled builders and sent them to Clea Bay. The gathered construction manpower amounted to a total of ten thousand. A tremendous number of manpower who could be deployed as labor around the clock. And the immense amount of money I provided.

With the addition of the Magicologists and the Dwarven tribes sent by Princess Selene, the construction work began at a terrifying speed.

“Noah. Make this land flat for me.”

[Understood. Contractor.]

Especially the elementalists from the north made a great contribution. With a single gesture, the land was chosen and the speed at which the enormous and heavy materials were quickly moved using wind elementals was at a level that modern large-scale cranes couldn’t match.

“So, should we make the mold like this?”

“That’s right! Excellent!”

“We will use heat-treated pig iron and coke together, melt them in a giant furnace. We will need a fan to blow air under it, right?”

“That’s it! That’s the basic structure. The molten iron that comes out of there needs to be poured into the ladle, and oxygen needs to be blown in to remove the carbon content and remove impurities.”

“Ladle… We need the alchemists who can extract only the oxygen in the air and manipulate it. Let’s start developing the magic circle right away.”

“Oohahahahaha! These guys are really talented! Very talented!!”

Furthermore, the alchemists, scientists, and magicians that Celeine sent were also highly capable. They quickly developed various unique magic circles and mechanical devices suitable for the steel mill.

“Today is pizza!”

“Today is hamburger!!”

“Great job!! Let’s give a bonus today!”

“Hooray for Lord Lendor!!”

And I gave them gold coins to motivate them to sell more.

“Complete it as quickly as possible! The existence of this steel mill will change the history of the Empire and our tribe! If we fail, we will all perish in the hands of the Clea!”

I strengthened the inspection on the trade route.

Thanks to that, the spies that Sultan sent started getting caught, and I caught them one by one and either imprisoned them or executed them if they were particularly wicked. The competence of Seric and Karia, well. Needless to say, it was outstanding.

Two months passed with all of that overlapping and adding up.

“….Kara Ham Longbeard. You’re really a crazy person. You built this giant steel mill in just two months?”

“Well, the magicians, engineers, builders, and our tribe members all worked day and night on it, so of course, hahahaha! And not to mention the elementalists of the Iron Blood Legion. They’re really crazy folks. 70% of the completion of this steel mill is owned by them.”

The coastal village of Clea, which had nothing before, had transformed into the empire’s largest steel mill in just two months.

“It’s completed in just two months?!”

The news of completion immediately reached the capital, and Adran and Selene rushed to Clea like bullets.

“This steel mill will be remembered forever as a symbol of development in the empire’s history! It is a praise to the great dwarf artisans and the efforts of numerous people!”

With Selene’s splendid dedication, the steel mill began operating.

Iron ore and coal were delivered from all over the empire to the steel mill, and the iron ore was heated by high-efficiency magic circles, went through the smelting process with coke, and poured into the blast furnace together with the finished coal.

The blast furnace, where high-purity steel was processed, received a tremendous heat injection, burning coke to reduce the iron ore to pure molten iron, which was then moved to the converter. After carbon removal and impurity removal, it transformed into steel.

We witnessed every process of those operations with our own eyes, and then everyone rushed forward to touch and knock on the first steel produced.

“…Perfect. It’s perfect! Such beautiful steel!”

All the dwarf artisans confirmed the quality of the produced steel and embraced each other, cheering. Selene, Adran, Karia, Karl Hansen, and I also shouted with them.

The celebration party unfolded in the form of unlimited drinking, Daorg style, and everyone raised their glasses and shared grand joy before the next day.

The five people who made all of this happen.

Karia, Karl Hansen, Adran, Selene, and I gathered at the palace and started discussing what to do next.

“Do you remember the super-sized coal vein I mentioned last time? We need to develop that place on a large scale. If we want the steel mill to continue operating properly, coal is essential.”

“To develop that place, we’ll need large-scale mining equipment, right?”

“That’s correct. It used to be impossible to mine there, but now it’s possible because we can develop large-scale mining equipment with high-purity jadeite.”

“Excellent! Princess!”

Adran continued Selene’s words.

“And now, if we want to transport the goods produced from the steel mill to the entire empire, carriages won’t be enough. We need something much larger and capable of transporting goods in large quantities.”

Selene clapped her hands.

“I have a design for a large-scale transport vehicle that can carry multiple cargo containers! We haven’t decided on a name for it yet.”

As soon as I heard that, I laughed. I already knew what to name that means of transport.

“Princess Selene, how about calling it a train?”

“Train. Train, huh? It doesn’t sound bad. I like it!”

“Let’s proceed with the train project in earnest. However, that is a secondary matter.”

I pounded on the table, drawing everyone’s attention to me.

“The most important thing at this point is to create items that people on the Western continent cannot live without. We need to hurry and sell them. Before the Emperor reveals his ambitions and before we solve the three problems that prevent us from being invaded, we must completely dominate their market with our products.”

Caria asked me a question in response to my words.

“Lendor, did you bring this up because you have ideas on items that people can’t live without?”

“Yes, I do.”

Everyone looked at me as if to ask what it was. I smiled at their gaze.

“The Western continent is hot. It’s so hot that even dragons easily tire. The terrain is full of deserts that you can’t find in the Eastern continent. I think what they desire the most is probably something cool.”

Even Korea gets hot in the summer. When is the happiest moment then?

Is it when you turn on the air conditioning?

“A machine that emits cool air instead of the hot air from a magma furnace. Let’s create that and sell it!”

People of the Karamba Empire.

Now, make us unable to live without air conditioning.

Saldin’s eldest son.

Prince Rashid frowned as he read the report that had been presented to him.

“We failed again to secure teleportation technology?”

“Yes, Your Highness. It’s regrettable. The security level of Matap has recently increased significantly, making it difficult for outsiders to easily access.”

Rashid sighed deeply upon hearing the report from the intelligence chief.

“What about the analysis of fertilizer ingredients?”

“We have identified the use of nitrogen, but… since it’s not magical, the sorcerers are quite confused. Scholars are making efforts to extract the synthesis method, but it is predicted to take a considerable amount of time.”

“Do you think there will be no progress during that long period of time? What about stealing the fertilizer production technology from the Eastern continent’s factories?”

“That too has failed.”

“Failure after failure! Why is that?”

The deputy intelligence chief lowered his head sadly.

“A formidable opponent has appeared. Hunters from the southern continent. Those guys with black eyes and white hair have been constantly interfering with our intelligence activities. Over the past month alone, nearly 20 of our members have been exposed and captured.”

“Their memories have surely been erased, right?”

“Of course. But the damage is not just that. Moreover, the inspections on the trade route have become stricter lately… It’s not an easy environment for intelligence activities, Your Highness.”

Rashid burst into laughter as if he couldn’t believe it.

“Ailam was undoubtedly an empire in decline just a few years ago. Under the influence of traitors, the trust between those who needed to cooperate was gone, and everyone was in a position where they had to worry about betrayal. How can a once weakened empire move so swiftly?”

After the failed attempt to smuggle out the method for taming dragons from Countess Linea, the inspections on the trade route had noticeably intensified. Moreover, annoying white-haired hunters were constantly monitoring Lord Elond’s command, making it difficult for me to move around as freely as before.

“Lendor… that annoying guy.”

“It is time to change tactics.

“Chief of Intelligence.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

“The risk of sending sorcerers has become too great. Now we must use other people.”

“Yes. Who should we use?”

“Let’s use the workers and merchants who have completely succumbed to the other side while conducting business. And among the doctors, there are infiltrators we have planted, right? Use them. Doctors frequently go to Matop, so let’s try to extract teleportation technology using them.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

“Make sure to move as inconspicuously as possible.”

“I will keep that in mind.”

Even after giving orders to the Chief of Intelligence, Prince Rashd kept pacing back and forth, feeling anxious.

“Why is it so quiet?”

Randor and Prince Adran are clever and quick-witted. They would have already known that the Karamba Empire was secretly moving from behind.

So why is there still no response?

“What are you preparing, Randor?”

Fortunately or unfortunately, he didn’t have to wait long for an answer.

“Your Highness!”

“What is it?”

“There… strange products are being released in the market!”

“What nonsense is that?”

“There are machines that emit cool breeze being released in the market! They say it’s something you can’t buy now because it’s sold out!”

“…. What?”

Rashd had to put on a blank expression.

A machine that emits cool breeze?

He thought it was some kind of nonsense, but it didn’t take long for Rashd to feel a sense of horror. It was because that strange product started selling at an alarming rate.