Monarch's Rebirth: Chapter 36

FELIX'S POV

"Seems rough! At least Lady Alyssa forgave you for betraying." I replied to Vincent after hearing his long story of how the trip went.

Vincent had been away for quite a while due to some issues with the Aberdeen kingdom. He was not allowed to leave until he resigned from his position as an assistant. The paperwork took a few days but he was allowed to leave. He still didn't take any chances and left at night when no one was around.

"At least my family could come back and live with me now at Faunus kingdom. I have to talk about moving them back here somehow." Vincent said before taking a sip from his tea.

I thought deeply about what he said before replying. "Your family hasn't moved here yet? Why?" I asked him. "I just haven't had the time. I still send letters notifying them of my whereabouts and what's happening so they are not completely clueless."

A small smile broke out on my lips as he talked more about his family. "It's nice having a family, isn't it?"

"It's nice but it can get quite tiring. Especially when they live in another empire." He replied while laying back on the sofa. "What about your family? You never talk about them." He asked me back.

"I… have no family. I guess Artorius is the only person that I could call family." I replied with a sorrowful tone. "I'm sorry for asking something so insensitive. May I know more about it though?"

I nod in response before clearing my throat to tell my life story. "My father was a soldier and my mother was a housewife. We lived in a little village called Dewscar. During the second war against the Aberdeen army, my father, unfortunately, died due to fatal injuries…"

I took a moment to compose myself and not break down. "My mother, who was fond of my father, couldn't bear it. She… took her own life after a week."

Vincent listened along and looked at me with a sad expression. "I'm… Wow… you've had it rough." He said, finding words to express his feelings.

"When I found her body early in the morning, I wasted no time in burying her before running away from the village. I've not gone back since then. I don't know if her grave is still there or if the village even exists. All I know is that I never went back after running to the capital."

A tear came out no matter how hard I tried to keep it in. I wiped it off my face and cleared my throat again. I felt my heart sink and tears form in my eyes. This is the first time I've told someone about my past.

"Felix… It's okay to cry. I lost my family at a young age too. It's okay to let it out right now. I'm here to listen to you."

His words cut deep.

"Thank you, Vincent. Luckily this is where the sad part ends. King Theo heard my story and took pity on me. He took me in and trained me as a servant and swordsman. By the time I was ten Artorius was born. Since his birth, I pledged loyalty to him, even if it costs me my life to protect him."

Vincent smiles as the story becomes more lighthearted and happy. "Protection? He's the one protecting us!" He cried out. "That's true. I don't need to protect him anymore, I just need to serve him."

Vincent looked down, feeling guilty and sad for a reason I couldn't figure out.

"I'm sorry about Lady Rosalyn. I knew of the plan but I couldn't do anything about it." Vincent said, admitting to his guilt. He looked quite regretful that he couldn't save Lady Rosalyn.

I give him a comforting smile to make him feel better. "It's not your fault. You had a duty just like me. We are pretty much the same people. We work for a person and without them, we would be nothing."

He chuckles and says, "It's true. But I still feel guilty about being part of Lady Rosalyn's killing. She was one of the nicest people I knew of."

"She was. She was quite humble, she came from a line of commoners and farmers. Surprisingly, King Theo would go for someone like her.

"The Dorman family has an odd liking to commoners rather than aristocrats or nobles.

I raised my eyebrows in curiosity. "What do you mean?" I asked him. "King Theo married the daughter of a farmer, Artorius seems to have grown a liking to a florist."

Then it hit him who he was talking about. I burst out laughing as he hadn't realised who Lady Kathlyn was.

"No! Goodness! Lady Kathlyn isn't a commoner. I knew her since she was young. Her father was a close friend of King Theo."

Vincent's jaw drops as I mentioned who Lady Kathlyn was. "You're kidding! So why is she just a florist now?"

I take another sip from my cup to moisten my throat. "There's history behind her. Her father was a general and fought alongside King Theo. He sadly died when on a mission and the families grew distant. It seems they had a fall from grace and now just lived the commoner's life."

Vincent gawked at me with his mouth open as I told him the story that I knew of.

No one knew of Lady Kathlyn's story, except me. I knew it because I was alive to witness it all happen.

Artorius seemed to have forgotten her but they were quite close. King Theo used to have her father over at the palace quite often. Artorius and Lady Kathlyn grew close at a young age but now those memories might've faded.

"Goodness me! Strangely, they act like strangers." Vincent said after finally being able to talk. "They were quite young. I suspect Artorius forgot her because of that."

I took out my pocket watch to take a look at the time. It was nearly lunchtime which meant I should probably go and notify Artorius of it.

ARTORIUS' POV

All of these designs are what I expected. The report states that they came up with these after a heavy debate. These are the most efficient designs of the entire locomotive. They were pretty much the same as from my past world.

"Something is missing…" I muttered under my breath and I scratched my chin, looking through all of them together.

Then it hit me. The ramp in front. The ramps were important because they helped with removing any snow or dirt mounds in front of it. It's a must-have.

I quickly took out the drawing that I drew for the locomotive. It was the perfect design for the steam locomotive, even taking aerodynamics into account.

The front would have a stretched-out nose, which I had turned into the ramp. This would help with both aerodynamics and getting rid of anything in front of the train.

"Perfect… and… done!" I exclaimed as I finished the sketch. It was a front view of the locomotive and would be vital to the project.

Unlike the steam locomotives in the past, I'm thinking of making this as perfectly simple as possible but also creating it in such a way that it would beat out the past design.

Taking inspiration from another form of transportation, the bullet train, I made the front of the locomotive shaped the same as a bullet train. This also meant it would give it more aerodynamics, making it more efficient.

But the shape wouldn't matter if it was as heavy as mountains. This is why I am going to use aluminium rather than steel and iron. The boiler and the rest of the internal parts will be made of steel and iron due to the heat, other than that the body is completely made of aluminium.

People hadn't discovered how to use aluminium yet. I knew how to make use of this aluminium because I had studied it in chemistry.

Aluminium is a light material that is strong enough to withstand the speeds this locomotive could reach. It could clock in at about 110 miles per hour, as an estimate. That is mostly due to it being lightweight and needing less power to run.

The pistons would be moving at a speed that could make the locomotive move at much faster speeds due to the weight. This would make it the perfect vehicle.

But this makes it harder for me to work on it. It means I have to somehow make aluminium, something that this world does have but does not know how to refine.

"Damn it! This is frustrating!" I shouted while scratching my head. I had been working on this since the morning and still couldn't figure out what to do.

"If I use aluminium it will be harder to make because it will be a completely new material that I had to make…"

"Why not use wood? It's quite light and can withstand high wind resistance I'm pretty sure." Amelia suddenly said as I sat on my chair, pondering on how to refine aluminium again.

"Wood is thick. We're also working with fire here. It will be dangerous to have wood so close to the fire."

Her idea wasn't bad. If I used sheets of wood rather than planks I could shred the weight quite well. Though it wouldn't be as good as aluminium because the wood can be brittle. The chances of the sheets being damaged from natural causes or hitting something too fast is too high.

"You know it isn't that hard. Aluminium is found right underneath the surface. If you take out the alloy and just refine it like normal steel and let it out to age a bit, it turns into a hard piece of aluminium."

"Wait what."

That's a simplified version of how aluminium is made. But there are more steps than just refining it and setting it out at room temperature to age. "That's not how it works. There are more steps."

"That's how it works. What material do you think those door handles are made of?"

"Iro- you have a point."

In this world, does aluminium work like that? It's just found in chunks and refined to become aluminium? This is wonderful!

"We just need to find the right temperature and leave the refined aluminium inside a room with the same temperature for a few days, soon enough it will be just as we planned," Amelia said while looking at the plans herself.

If what she says is true then this just gets rid of my worries about how to make aluminium usable.

Suddenly the door flings open and the wind coming from the door flings away the papers that I spread across my desk.

"Artorius~ Did y- What happened here!?" Vincent says as he looks at the mess in my office.

I sigh and start picking up the papers that dropped on the ground. "A storm, and you caused it. What is it?"

Felix steps forward and helps me pick up the multiple pages of sketches and reports from the ground. "Goodness. You've been busy." He says while looking at the sketches.

He places them all on my desk and so do I. "Most of these are good ideas, I still had to make some adjustments. Here's the sketch that works best."

I hand Felix my report and sketch and he takes a thorough look at it. His eyes widen as he reads through the report and looks at the sketch.

"T-this is amazing! How did you think of using aluminium?" He asked me, bewildered by my genius.

"Well the idea came from me, Amelia helped me figure out how to use it."

Felix seemed pleased with it and showed it to Vincent. Vincent was also surprised when he saw the sketch. "This looks extraterrestrial!" He simply exclaimed.

An egotistical smirk breaks out from my lips as they compliment me on the genius idea that I stole from my past world.

"Well, why are you both here anyways."

"Well, it's nearly two o'clock. It's time for lunch, you also have to notify Lady Kathlyn of our little plan." Felix says while blankly staring at me.

I picked up Amelia and walked past him. "Oh right. Give me that envelope. That's the letter that you told me to write to her." I told him before turning back around.

Felix handed me the envelope and I put it in my pocket and walked out of the room. I lost myself at work as usual and didn't realise how much time had already passed.

"What work do you have for me?" he asked me as he came up from behind me and walked beside me. "Become Wilkins' assistant. I have work with him today so you're coming with me to the pub."

"Why can't I just work with you?"

I sigh with disappointment, expecting him to catch on to my plans by now. "I don't want to keep you on my payroll. Get yourself a job and build up your reputation again instead of trying to work with me."

We walked down to the dining room as Vincent thought more about what I told him. "But isn't it going to be easier for me to work with you?" He asked me. "Yes but I'd rather not pay you."

"I can work for free!" He told me, getting slightly irritated as to why I wouldn't hire him as my assistant. "You can be my assistant for free and live here. But your main job will be with Wilkins."

He smiled with happiness, knowing his family can be living in luxury at the palace. "That's great! So, what's my job?"

"You work for both me and Wilkins. You will just work as an assistant for me and Wilkins in our new business."

He seemed curious about the business that I and Wilkins have. "What business are you planning?" He asked me. "The liquor business."

Felix coughs to catch my attention as I spoke to Vincent about his job. "Ahem. I heard that Astrid seems to be not cooperating with us. He sent a letter today that I haven't shown you."

He slid a letter onto my table and I opened it. I expected another lengthy letter about how he won't pay me the contracted money which was around twenty thousand gold coins.

"I will not be cooperating with you no matter what. Do what you want."

Did he waste so much paper just to tell me to fuck off without facing me? Coward.

I shrugged off what he said and continued eating my meal. Felix, seeing that I was not reacting, became confused.

"W-what should we do?" He asked me, bewildered that I wouldn't take action. "What do you want me to do?" If he doesn't want to pay I won't force it on him. "

Even if he didn't pay for it I wouldn't have an issue. I can find other investors so that I wouldn't have to take the money out of my pocket.

I could pay for the entire thing on my own, especially after Alaric handed me ten thousand gold coins. That would be more than enough to get the aluminium extraction done. The reason I wasn't sure about taking money from my vault is that I want to use it on the kingdom rather than on this project.

I pondered the entire time as I finished my meal, thinking of how to fund the project. I finished my meal and still kept wondering.

"Felix, we need some investors," I spoke out as I stood up from my chair. "I-investors? For what?" He asked, surprised by my sudden planning. "The locomotive."

"B-but why would people invest in something!?" Felix exclaims as I walk out of the dining room.

Investing is something that is still new to this world. People don't think of long-term earnings since there's no stock market. Everyone owns all of their property without any shares.

This idea of being an investor is new in this world. If I can make it mainstream I can probably get investors in the project. Sharing percentages between investors on earnings.

"How do I make investing an actual thing in this world…" I muttered under my breath.

"Doesn't this sound like gambling? People place money on a project and if it succeeds they get money from what the project earns." Amelia said as she heard me talk. "Wait…"

Where does she keep getting so many strange yet perfect ideas?

"Felix, do you know what investing is?" I asked him. "Is it the act of putting money on something?" He replied.

"Pretty much. It's pretty much gambling but with more long-term gain."

"I'm not clear about this idea of yours. What are you planning?"

I looked at him with a mischievous grin. "I'm planning on funding the entire project with the help of others," I told him while looking back at him.

We walked out to the courtyard and talked more about it. I planned to get rich aristocrats to fund the project. Once the train is done and we earn money from selling tickets for travelling we can split it between the investors.

"How is this profitable to us? If we sell everything that we own of the project we just get nothing in return.

"That's where you're wrong. We don't sell all of it. We sell off some percentages of the project and keep a big chunk. If we own more than 51 per cent of the project then we still earn from it."

Felix was confused about what I was talking about. "Wait let me get this straight. You will have people fund the project by betting on its success. When it succeeds we start using it for travel and charging money for people travelling on it. That money that we earn per ticket we split between ourselves and we take whatever share we get from the split?"

"Precisely."

Felix scratched his chin as he thought about it. "If it doesn't succeed?" He asked. "If it doesn't then we pay them back whatever money they gave us for funding."

"That's a huge risk! We will lose loads of money like that!" He exclaimed, not realising that the chances of failure in this project are next to none.

"That's if it fails."

We took a walk outside to go meet with Wilkins who we assumed was coming back today. I usually don't take walks so it was a nice change of pace as well.

Amelia was still quite excited about taking a walk like before. She has a strange balance between being childish and mature. Sometimes she can come up with genius ideas but most of the time she acts like a child.

"They're all staring at us again… I hate it…" Amelia said, shaking from anxiety.

"I thought you were used to the staring. Just don't look at them."

Seems like she has social anxiety. Strange considering she's a dragon.

While walking through the city I was recognized a lot. Everyone waved at me with joyful smiles on their faces. Seems like I've changed the public's opinion, but not Alaric's opinion.

Suddenly I was approached by two men wearing a trench coats and one wearing a fedora. They had books with them and they frantically opened them as they ran up to me.

"Sire! Can we ask you a few questions? We are journalists who write for the newspaper! People are really curious about you nowadays!"

Damn journalists. Always being annoying.

I pulled out a fake smile and agreed to their questioning. I'd rather not make my public image go bad after I just made it better.

"Ask ahead," I told them, acting enthusiastic about the sudden interview. I just wanted to meet Wilkins but I have to deal with this now.

Both the journalists quickly flip through the papers in their notebooks, looking for questions to ask me. I already knew all the questions they would ask because I've been reading the newspapers, and most of the questions are some I'd rather not answer.

"W-well! Firstly, people are really curious about your new pet fox. You still haven't mentioned anything about it." One of them asked, finally finding a question.

I scoffed at their question, so obvious. "Oh, right. This furball here is Amelia. I found her wounded after the war and brought her home to heal up. Her colour caught my attention as it was similar to my hair. It makes me feel connected to her/"

The journalist wrote down everything as if the teacher was erasing the board. They finished writing down what I just said and looked through their notebook once again for questions.

"These people don't know how to ask questions," Amelia said as I caressed her head. "True. I can guess all of their questions before they even ask.

"Recently, after you came back from your trip to the capital you had killed Sir Astrid's son. What was the reason behind it?"

Wasn't it obvious? How are people still confused?

"Bjor went feral and killed two guards that day. He was about to kill an innocent florist. Luckily I came right on time to stop the chaos. There seemed to be a misunderstanding and he was being a threat. The easiest solution was to kill him." I told the journalist with a blank expression.

"Speaking of the innocent florist. Rumours have it that you have a close relationship with her. You were seen dancing with her at the festival as well. Can we get more insight on that?"

"Nope."

"Okay."

Without wasting a second I walked past the two of them and kept walking. "S-sire! We still have more questions left!" The man shouted out as I walked away. "We have work to do. Please refrain from getting in our way. If you want to ask questions you can request a private interview with him at a later date." Felix told the men before catching up to me.

The reason I walked away is that they had no further questions. The next question would be about the steam locomotive which I want to keep more secretive.

I wanted people to invest in the project but I didn't want commoners to do it, I wanted the rich to do it so I can make a profit. This is why I had to keep a good face up at the party. The party is not just a place to celebrate, it's also a place to make deals for the filthy rich.