79 A Rare Delicacy

Roland was enjoying some very nice food this afternoon. It was something he hadn't been able to eat in a long time. As he finished one plate, now filled with shells, he reached for a second. As he continued to eat the clams, Nightingale popped out of her mist and reached down to nab one before disappearing again.

Roland sighed. "Nightingale, if you really wanted to eat some you can just sit down here and eat them with me."

Immediately, Nightingale appeared again and sat down. However, rather than sitting down on the empty chair on the other side of the desk, she sat down directly on Roland's lap. Then, she proceeded to grab another clam off of the plate.

Roland was surprised for a brief moment, but he was already familiar with Nightingale's antics. He didn't even try to get Nightingale to sit down on a chair.

Nightingale put the clam in her mouth and started eating it. "Mmm." She found it very delicious and she started squirming around in Roland's lap as she enjoyed the snack.

Roland tried to ignore the distractions and grabbed another clam to eat. He pulled open the shell and took out the meat. As he started bringing it to his mouth, it was suddenly snatched from his grasp. When he looked down, he saw that Nightingale had taken it.

Then, Nightingale twisted her body until she was facing Roland. Her hand holding the clam meat moved toward Roland's mouth. Roland opened his mouth and Nightingale stuck the clam in. Then, Roland closed his mouth, his lips closing around two of Nightingale's fingers before she pulled them out of his mouth.

The clams tasted quite good and Roland was glad that he was now able to eat them. It had been quite difficult to be able to eat them before. These clams were a speciality of the Northern Region of Graycastle and one would have to travel there in order to be able to eat it. Of course, with his responsibilities as king, Roland couldn't casually decide to leave and go somewhere else whenever he wanted. As a result, he hadn't been able to eat these clams in the past.

The fact that he was now able to eat them was primarily the result of two developments. Before, it simply was not possible to transport these clams to Neverwinter for consumption. It took a long time to travel from the Northern Region to Neverwinter and during the course of such a long journey, the clams would end up going bad before they reached their destination. With primitive transportation technology that relied on horse pulled carts or sail powered ships, it was impossible to move goods quickly.

The first major breakthrough which changed the situation was the expansion of the railroad network across the kingdom. Back during the war, all of the focus was on building up the defensive line and laying down track for military purposes. With most of the industry concentrated in Neverwinter, there was not much reason to build rail elsewhere. During such a precarious time, there were no resources to be spent on secondary needs.

Now, the rails of the defensive line had been finished and the construction crews now had nothing to do. With this labor source freed up, Roland was able to begin construction of railways connecting all parts of the kingdom. The north, the south, the east, and even the deserts region in the far south were integrated into the railway network which was centered at Neverwinter.

The construction of railway lines proved greatly beneficial for the economy of the kingdom. Trade became much easier and merchants could now sell their goods across the entire kingdom easily. This also meant that it was no longer necessary to concentrate all industry in Neverwinter. Factories could be built in the major cities in the other regions and the produced goods could still be transported to the rest of the kingdom.

After the advent of industrialization, one major change in the demographics of a nation would be increased urbanization. New farming tools reduced the number of farmers needed and those unemployed farmers would move to cities to find work in the factories. This meant that cities all across the kingdom began swelling with population which were being put to work in the new factories. If the only place with industry had been Neverwinter, all of those people would have to move there which would put a significant strain on the city.

Now, the kingdom was prospering as a whole and was experiencing a large population boom from the increased food supply that came from agricultural advances. The increase in people meant more industry could be created which boosted the output of the kingdom.

Still, the rail network would not have been sufficient to bring clams to Neverwinter. Even with the vastly reduced travel time, it would have still taken far too long to bring harvested clams from the Northern Region to Neverwinter. The clams would taste quite bad after time had passed. The only other way was to make preserved clams, but those were not as tasty.

Then came the greatest advance in food preservation: refrigerators. Roland designed a refrigerator that would run off of electricity. The refrigerator worked off the basic principles of physics by circulating a cooling medium.

The cooling medium begins as a gas and it would be compressed into a liquid, causing it to heat up. The hot liquid was piped to the back of the refrigerator where it exchanged its heat with the outside air, causing it to cool down. Then, the now cool liquid would go back inside the refrigerator where it would be decompressed. The rapid decompression would cause it to absorb heat, cooling down the inside of the refrigerator. The now gaseous cooling medium would then be compressed again, continuing the cycle.

With the aid of the refrigerator, the clams inside could be kept cool in any season and the rate of spoiling was greatly decreased. This allowed the clams to be brought back to Neverwinter and put onto Roland's plate while they were still good.

The refrigerator was still a novelty, and thus there was no need for an entire refrigerated train. There was only one cart which had a refrigerator, powered by one of Mystery Moon's generators since a conventional generator would be too large and bulky for a train. This cart would be attached to the relevant train and be sent off to get whatever was needed. After it returned, the food would be moved into the palace refrigerator.

Currently, food transported through refrigeration was not yet available for public consumption. At the moment, Roland was the only one with access to it. There were perks to being the king after all.

While he and Nightingale were enjoying the clams, Anna walked into the room. For a moment, she stood in silence. Then, she cleared her throat loudly. The other two occupants of the room suddenly noticed her presence. "I see you two have been having fun without me."

"Uhh… Well…" Roland was stuttering. He didn't know what to say. Meanwhile, Nightingale had a smug smile.

Then, Anna closed the door and locked it. She decided to join in the fun as well.