Steel and Mana

Chapter 187 – Budding Alliance

Chapter 187 – Budding Alliance

"How was your previous two days?" I asked, meeting with Empress Mirian and Milan once again.

"Inspiring." She answered simply, sitting opposite me, acting nonchalantly. Despite her carefree attitude, I knew full well that she had observed everything she could in detail. She was constantly pushing her boundaries to the limit outside the palace. She multiple times tried to enter places she wasn't allowed to; she even tried to pressure others to let her enter the water-purifying castellas to inspect them.

"I am glad to hear. While you were out terrorizing my subordinates–"

"Most of your citizens didn't even recognize me as their Empress." She interrupted me with a smirk. She would be correct if she hadn't arrived with her massive, flying ship, so I wasn't buying it.

"They know. It is just that we are no longer subordinates to you."

"Heh, we haven't come to an agreement yet, Sovereign Leon."

"But we will." I spoke up, and Sasha pulled out a thick folder, pushing it before her, waiting a few seconds before beginning to explain calmly and clearly.

"We drew up the borders we want in exchange for helping you clean out the capital city."

"You don't want more territory?" She asked, surprised as Avalon didn't even claim the regions around us, leaving them within Ishillian borders.

"No, but we want guarantees for our trade routes." Sasha continued, "We highlighted the ones that lead outside of the Empire, through the League, and onwards. I want a written, stamped, and sealed guarantee with no expiration date. It must allow us to accompany our caravans with our military to protect them, be it against bandits or some of your overachieving nobles."

"Huh... So you just want to waltz through the Empire as you see fit?"

"It would benefit you too." I interjected, leaning in and tapping on some of the routes that lead toward her city. "What if I tell you we could build a highway that would enable you to travel back and forth between here and there in a day?"

"I would think that you are lying."

"It is your loss." Sasha smiled provocatively, making Mirian furrow her brows before her face slowly smoothed out.

"How would that benefit me?"

"I would allow you to tax it appropriately for the line that goes through YOUR territory. Also, we are willing to let you expand on it as you see fit within Ishillia, and we are also willing to sell you the trains we build."

"So it is called trains..." She whispered, flipping through the drawn images of them. Of course, they did not include any accurate measurements or functional descriptions. I even added some overexaggerated details and wrongly placed parts so that if she could memorize it, she would build it in a way that would make it useless. "And you claim that this machine could travel from here to the capital in a day?"

"Yes. I am certain of it. Also, it uses no magic, so it would be easy to build and cheap to maintain. Compared to the regular caravan today, one engine could drag along ten caravans worth of items."

"Or more..." Sasha chuckled, watching Mirian finally understand its importance as a lightbulb turned on above her head.

"Depends on your support, Empress Mirian. Six years? A decade? It is up to our access to resources and nothing else."

"I'll sign it." She stated, thinking for only a brief moment, "As for resources, that is a different deal, Sovereign Leon. We will need to sit down again and work it out."

Hearing her say that, I wasn't angry. I also wouldn't want to just freely throw everything at someone who wanted to rebel against me. It was... a funny situation if you had a special kind of humor. But it was a start! That is what mattered the most.

"Tell you what!" I chuckled after we came to an agreement on the first half and on our independence. "Visit us in the winter."

"Why?" She looked at me curiously.

"In the past few years, we slain beasts that were anything but ordinary. This year will likely be the same. We still have their skulls, you know. Do you want to see it?"

"Beasts..." She inhaled sharply, "Yes. I do want to see them!"

...

....

......

"I am surprised you are letting me up here." I exclaimed honestly while Merlin and I were walking up the ramp and entering the insides of the flying jewel of Ishillia.

"It is a selfish reason," Mirian replied plainly, leading us into the luxuriously decorated machine. "This machine was built in a way that we can't replicate. The rest are also one of a kind; we still can't reliably replicate their main magic engine. That is why we can't replace one that has been destroyed... We can only repair it and fix parts that break, but if the ship goes down, it will be lost for us forever. This? This was the Emperor of Magic's personal vessel... He made it, drove it, was the only one who knew how it worked and never shared it. The others we have are nothing but the prototypes he left behind after repurposing them. It took my family a century to make them fly again after his death!"

"What a jerk..." Merlin mumbled, making me laugh, and Mirian also cracked a smile but remained silent.

"Seeing your machines, I want you to take a look and share them with me. In exchange, whatever you learn will stay yours to do whatever you want with. Those monster skulls are no joke. I am surprised you stopped them and not just let them through."

"You are being awfully generous. We stopped them because that is the sensible thing to do."

"I see..." She hummed, "So! We are going to work together, yes?" She looked at me with one eye while speaking. "Then let this be our first joint project and the proof that we will be able to trust each other and work as allies."

"Fine by me–" I was about to strike my hand out for a handshake, but I had to stop. I watched a bald, thin man in white robes walk towards us, cutting through our group as if we were not there. His head was wearing a metal ring around it, while a magic tattoo was going around its neck... He was no longer a human, and I could feel it... See it. Its eyes were hollow, just like its body, while he passed by us. Watching the back of its head, I saw that it had a slot for CC, and it even had multiple threads going into its skull, with more tattoos hiding under its robe, making me shiver at its mere existence.

"What... is that?" Merlin asked the question that was ringing alarm bells in my mind.

"A shipslave." Mirian answered, "The Emperor of Magic was known to adhere to only one principle: Everything for knowledge. These... things are what make the ship work... They are part of it and are no longer living beings. Functionally speaking, they achieved immortality because some of them date back to his days."

“Holy... shit...” I cursed while I looked at Merlin, remembering when he blew up our prisoner. Unlike in this age, back in its first life, there was nobody who told him to stop... And it showed.