Monarch's Rebirth: Chapter 29

"Let's set off now. We can't keep them waiting."

Everyone had finished breakfast and we lounged in the living room. We had nothing to do till the carriage was ready. Alexander's mother made tea for us and chatted while we waited for the carriage.

"The carriage should be ready by now." I said while getting up from the sofa. "Thank you for the tea, Miss Damian."

She smiled and nodded. "You can call me Lady Lia too if you want. Or Miss Lia." She told me as I left the room with Alexander.

"Oh, alright then! I will try to get used to that."

The two of us walked outside and found Felix and Vincent talking amongst each other. They looked at us and smiled.

"Is the carriage ready?" I asked them, hoping to set off early and meet the team I would be working with.

"Yes, my lord. We can set off now." Felix says while bowing down slowly.

"Great! Let's set off."

Vincent opened the door and we entered the carriage. I still felt sleepy even though it was nearly eleven in the morning. Nevertheless I stayed awake as we went past the town.

I looked outside my window and saw the busy streets outside. People buying and selling goods while some jesters put on a play. The town seemed to be quite close knit and wholesome. Children played on the streets or watched shows being put on. Most of the children were already attending school so only the really young ones played outside. It was a really wholesome scene.

"It's been a while since I saw Caelfall's busy streets." Alexander said, seeing my curiosity from staring at the window for an extended period of time. "You haven't been home in a while. It must be comforting seeing your people still be as busy as before."

"It's nice. It means the economy is growing. Though I wish Lady Iris would help us make the roads bigger. The forest elves have always had issues with roads. They're always small but most of the kings and the emperor herself don't care about it much.

Alexander isn't wrong. Most of the roads I've seen here are narrow and can barely fit a single carriage. Surprising to think they can still function.

"Hm, have you tried to recommend the idea of broadening the roads?" I asked him. "We have. But to no avail, she disregarded them as minor issues."

"Maybe try once more. If it doesn't work then I'll take it to Alaric."

Alexander panicked when I mentioned Alaric's name. "It isn't that bad! We will suffice for it ourselves. No need to get a foreign king involved."

"Fine. But ask me if you need help with it." I offered him my aid.

Alexander smirked and nodded. "Sure. Might as well use your power as king."

The carriage left the city and we were again on the road to somewhere. I stayed awake and looked outside while the carriage moved along slowly.

It was calming hearing the many birds and insects calling and howling. I saw many unique creatures such as the bird sized griffins once more. I was curious how many new creatures there may be.

"Papa! Look at that lizard! It's so big!" Amelia exclaimed while looking at an albino lizard. I raised my eyebrows from surprise as I stared at it resting on the root of a tree that stuck out of the ground.

"There are a lot of creatures here. Are most of the creatures under a law protecting them from hunters?" I asked Alexander who was dozing off.

"They aren't. Some are like the elusive crystal horned moose. They are placed under a law to stop hunting them."

Crystal horned moose? That's an odd creature.

I smiled out the window and lost myself in thought. Alexander dozed off and slowly fell asleep as I thought to myself about arbitrary things.

"Where are we going, papa?" Amelia asked me while hugging me. "The laboratory. We need to meet the scientists and engineers there. It won't be long." I answered her question.

"I'm tired. I wanna go home." She said like a child.

"Just today. We'll leave today." I told her, calming down her homesick feelings.

I don't like travelling. It's getting annoying moving around so many places. I want to go home and rest.

"Master Artorius. We are nearly at the laboratory. Please be prepared." Felix's voice rang out from behind me. Alexander also woke up from Felix's sudden notification.

Alexander yawns and slowly wakes up from his nap. "Ah~ good morning, Artorius. How much further?" Alexander asked, looking around him.

I chuckled from how sleepy he was that he didn't realise. "We're nearly there. It's afternoon by the way."

"I slept the entire way, huh. Let's get ready to meet the team then." He said while stretching his arms out.

The carriage stopped and Vincent came to open the door. "We made it, my lord. The team is already waiting outside."

"Papa… I have a bad feeling. Something is wrong." Amelia spoke out to me.

Not again.

"What is it this time? Another bomb?" I asked her, skeptical this time if there really was something wrong.

"No. I hear something else. A blacksmith sharpening a sword." She replied back.

She's speaking in encrypted signs. This must have a meaning behind it. An assassination using swords or knives perhaps?"

We stepped out of the carriage and took a look at the laboratory. It looked like any science facility with a giant dome shaped roof. It covered a large area of land around it. Some of the areas are used for experiments. The entire place was surrounded by a protective wall that is guarded all day and all night. What danger could come from this facility?

Alexander took the lead and walked up to the front gate where many elves and human scientists awaited our arrival.

"Greetings! Master Alexander. We have been waiting for you." One of the older scientists spoke out.

They all wore their lab coats and looked quite older, possibly in their thirties and forties. They were a group mixed with humans and forest elves. It was quite an odd group to be working with.

"Greetings, your majesty. It is an honour to be in the king's presence. The scientists said after I stepped forward, in front of Alexander."

"Peace be upon you. Let's get started with the project." I told them while walking past them.

I wanted to waste no time and get started with this project. They all followed me inside but the scientists took the lead. The facility looked quite stylish with a flag of the Luxanor empire and the Triveni kingdom flying high. It had a sign that said the name of the facility

"Darkwell science facility." I said in my head. "Wasn't it a laboratory?" Amelia asked me, hearing my thoughts.

"I thought so too. I guess laboratory and science facilities don't have much of a difference."

Amelia stayed on guard and I was alert at all times. Alexander didn't catch any wind of this and I wanted to keep it that way. But I had to tell Felix about this.

I got closer to Felix and whispered to him. "Amelia says there's another bad feeling about this.. What are the chances of an assassination this time?" I asked him.

He looked at me confused. "This is a science facility. I don't think there will be an assassination here. Since it's Lady Amelia's feelings we should stay on guard." He replied back softly.

I nodded and moved away from him. Amelia checked the surrounding areas and saw nothing suspicious and no one was in a different mood. They were all nervous and happy but none were thinking of any devious plans.

We entered the laboratory and looked around the entire place. It was ginormous and had many experiments happening all together. Many scientists are testing and experimenting with wildlife and plants. Seems like this world hasn't advanced too far.

"This place is cool! There's so much happening it's difficult to keep track!" Amelia exclaimed from excitement. "It really is. I haven't been to a science facility in my life."

"Here is the biologist area. We experiment on different plants and animals here to find new revelations about them. Please come through here as this is where the engineering team is." Said one of the scientists that was leading the group of us.

"This place is really nice! A lot is happening all the time. We might experience one of the experiments becoming a success!" Alexander said while looking around the vast room full of different experiments.

We entered through a door and saw the engineering room. It was much more different than I thought it would be.

"This is the engineering section. Everyone from mathematicians to chemists work in this room. Which is why it is the biggest in the entire facility!" The leader of the group spoke out.

"Papa! I see a man with a purple aura again!" Amelia suddenly spoke out.

I guess she's never wrong.

Amelia pointed at the person who was an artifact specialist. He seemed to be doing an experiment with artifacts and some test tubes. So he is a chemist as well.

We walked further into the room and made many heads turn. We caught the attention of pretty much everyone around us, obviously. It made me feel more suspicious of everyone around us as we got to a table with some sketch paper and pencils.

We suddenly stopped and the scientist called out. "All engineers and scientists in the engineering room! Come to the centre! King Artorius and Master Alexander have arrived!"

This is the perfect time to catch him.

Suddenly we get crowded by people that were working on experiments. They all dropped their experiments and came over to us. I was unfazed as this isn't the first time I got flocked with people.

"Please listen to what his majesty, King Artorius has to say." The scientist said before handing me the mic artifact.

Why do I have to be in the spotlight all the time? It's getting annoying.

"Good afternoon. I have nothing much to say to be honest. Today I want to work with all of you to create the first ever steam locomotive so that we can cut travel time from weeks or months to mere days or hours. It is a pleasure to be working with such great minds. I will be in your care."

The crowd claps at my short speech, not sure why I had to do it in the first place. But I hand the mic back to the scientist and look at the empty sketch papers.

The scientists were of many races. Humans, forest elves, dark elves, beast people. They were all here to help me make the project come true.

"Sire, do you have any plans?" The leading scientist asked me.

Here's my time to shine.

"Yes, I do. Listen to me thoroughly as I explain to you my idea." I told him with a smirk on my face.

The entire crowd listened to me carefully as I spoke. I explained to them how the steam engine worked and even drew some rough sketches of how it worked. I knew the visuals as I had a near picture perfect memory of it. I learnt it in engineering class from my past life and it seemed to be paying off!

Everyone except Vincent, Alexander and Felix were shocked as they heard this idea multiple times. Alexander smiled with satisfaction that the entire facility is willing to listen to my idea and even agree that it all made sense.

"This… This is really a revelation! This idea can really send us far! This can help the economy skyrocket! This is genius!"

That's it. Come into my trap. Once you get excited about it, it's game over.

"Now that you all have understood this idea. I give you all four days to plan it out and work on this on your own. I want to see the blueprints that the genius of this world can come up with." I told them with a smug smile.

I knew they were all not up for the job. I had the most superior idea and that's the only one that will be approved.

The engineering team was motivated to work on it at once. "Yes, my lord!" They all shout before instantly picking up their blueprint papers and pencils.

The science team now had to be tasked to the engineering team to improve the design to give them the most out of this project. I could now just lay back and watch them all work together.

"A-Artorius… Is this really going to work?" Alexander asked, skeptical of my plan of making everyone else do the work.

"Why wouldn't it? If all else fails then I'll design it myself." I told him and patted him on the shoulder. "Just because I'm lousy doesn't mean I'll make others do all the work."

"Papa. The suspicious person is coming towards us." Amelia suddenly said through telepathy.

This is what I was waiting for.

"Good afternoon, my lord. I just had to ask about something I am unclear about." He said.

I looked at him with a skeptical look. "Ask away." I told him.

"How does the steam pass through to the piston?" He asked me.

"Take this sketch. The steam enters the main steam pipe and goes down to where the piston is. The piston is located in the cylinder which has the piston which is connected to the driving rods. These rods move with the piston to complete a single rotation. Understood?"

It was a difficult thing to explain to even me at first. Now it's become more simple than ever.

The suspicious scientist's face lit up and he smiled. "Thank you for teaching me! I will get to work as soon as possible!"

"Good. I'm waiting to see your final result." I told him with a smile which hides my suspicious outlook of him.

"Oh, I forgot to ask. It's more of a favour." He said before looking back at me with an annoying smile.

"Whatever, just ask."

"Say hello to my brother for me, in hell."

I knew it.

He moved in to stab me with a knife that he concealed under his lab coat. It's a smart move but I can react faster than him. I knew it would be a close ranged attack using a knife due to Amelia's prediction and the fact he had his hand in his coat the entire time. Amateur.

The knife he used was too small and I hadn't realised that he stabbed into my arm already. It wasn't fatal and I had his arms in my grasp. I was not letting him go and he could not hurt me anymore. In mere seconds he failed to complete the one task he had

Felix and Alexander moved quickly and tackled him down. He was no match for the two who have trained their whole life. Before he could fall to the ground I took the knife out of his grasp and looked at it.

"You need a bigger knife than this if you want to even scratch me. Vincent, take him away. Make sure he speaks out everything before being tossed into a cave."

The two had pinned him to the ground and kept him from moving. He was weak and did not even fight back when being pinned down, except give me death glares while grunts from pain.

"You… mon…ster! You killed my brother and father! They both fought in the Aberdeen army! Curse you and your kingdom!" The scientist shouted in anger.

I gave him a condescending and mocking stare. "So you're from the Aberdeen kingdom? Vincent, nevermind what I said. Get answers out from him and send his ashes to the Aberdeen kingdom."

"As you say, Master Artorius."

A crowd gathered around seeing the commotion and became freaked out. I was bleeding out of my forearm but it was much more of a papercut than an actual knife cut.

Felix and Vincent take him away and they look at him with concern and fear. "Tch. People can't let go of grudges." I muttered out as he was taken away.

"Really thinking that assassinating a king like you is easy. They really are ignorant." Alexander said as leaned onto the table behind him. "I should really get myself a security team."

"My lord! We are sorry for allowing a traitor to be in the midst of us! Please believe us! He was one of the best alchemists and artIfact specialists!" The scientist that led us through the facility said.

"What's your name?" I asked him since he never introduced himself.

"M-my name is Derek, my lord. I'm sorry for not introducing myself before!" He said while bowing down.

"Derek. You are one of the high ranks here?" I asked him. "Yes sire! I lead the engineering team."

I give him a nod of approval. "Alright, Derek. Continue with the work. I want you to keep the entire place in check. If one more person from here tries to another assassination. I will be dropping the project and finding myself a new group of people to work with. King Alaric has funded this project himself if you don't know, so work with that in mind, okay?"

I patted his shoulder and gave him a smile that should keep him on his wits' ends. I wanted to send a message to everyone here to not mess up this project.

"Y-yes, your majesty… I will m-m-make sure of that." He said, stuttering on his words.

"Let's go, Alexander. I'll have lunch at your place before setting back off to my own kingdom."

Alexander gave me a smirk and followed behind me. He looked at Derek one more time and gave him a condescending smile. "I have the power to shut down this facility. Keep your people in check."

He gave him his word of advice before following up behind me. We slowly walked out of the engineering room but before I left I had to tell them to get their work back on.

"Get started with work. You don't want to be known as the team that failed, now do you?"

Everyone shrieked and panicked to start work again. It was humorous seeing a group of scientists trying to scurry and try working so that they don't fail on the first day.

We stepped out of the room and got stared at for the commotion that happened. I felt slightly irritated by the stares but I'd rather not start another scene and just walked out of the facility.

"Where did Felix and Vincent go?" Alexander asked me. "No clue either. If they keep mercy the assassin may have a chance to see the Aberdeen kingdom once more.

We walked outside of the facility and Felix walked up to us, putting his white gloves back on.

"We have some intel. Vincent will take him back home." Felix said with a sweet and equally terrifying smile.

I smiled at him and walked past. "Let's go back. Back home."

The carriage was already ready and Felix opened the door for us. Alexander took his seat and I melted into mine. "That's the second one. People really hate me."

"It's expected. War ends but more violence brews. I just hope you catch onto these before it ends up damaging you." He said, sounding quite wise and mature.

"Amelia is helpful for these. Seems like her senses can detect danger even when danger isn't seen by the naked eye." I said while looking down at Amelia.

"I will protect papa!" She exclaimed while smiling at me. Her tail wagged with excitement and joy as she stared at me with a huge smile

I pet her gently and told her, "Without you, I would've been dead."

The carriage starts to move and I finally feel at peace again. I do not want to visit this laboratory ever again. I will work from home from now on. The world is a scary place and I am not dealing with whatever it wants to throw at me.

"Say, Artorius. How was sis in the academy?" Alexander asked me out of the blue.

I panicked because I don't know at all. "E-eh? Ask your sister. I can't remember much about your sister since I barely paid attention to her in class." I told him, trying to avoid the question completely.

"Really? But I heard you and sis became close and acquainted in class. She used to come home and always talk about how you both messed around in class together."

Stop it! I don't know!

"She was just as she is now. Quiet but slightly mischievous." I told him, making up all of it.

Alexander laughed hysterically before calming down and saying, "I expected nothing less. You two seemed to have an odd bond." He said while scratching the back of his head.

"Yeah… I noticed that too." I said, agreeing even though I have no clue what he means.

The carriage slowly trotted along the same road we came here from. I wanted to leave with a good impression but now I just have a sour taste in my mouth.