35 Life in Leningrad (Part 1)

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*DING* *DONG*

The loud ringing from the clock tower signalled that it was now 8 am, the beginning of a new work day. At over fifteen metres tall, the clock was visible to all who lived in the micro district. Every micro district had its own clock tower which rang every 6 hours, to help the people keep track of time. While smaller clocks were being produced in some workshops in Leningrad, the production capacity was very slow, since they were hand crafted, and only a few expert watch makers could make them. As such they were quite expensive and it would still be some time before every household had its own clocks.

"Its morning already?"

A man in his late thirties yawned as he woke up from his slumber, thanks in part to the clock tower and the sunshine coming though the window. Stretching his body he walked towards the window, gazing at the street below him with sleepy eyes. Many people had already begun their daily routine, shops were opening, and carts selling various items had already started their business for the day.

"Dear! Are you awake yet? Come down for breakfast!"

The loud call from his wife reminded him of his work and he quickly went to wake up his little daughter. After a trip to the washroom, he made his way towards the kitchen where his wife had already prepared breakfast for him. Bread, fresh jam made from local fruits and a glass of milk, a humble meal but one which he liked a lot.

"Thank you dear"

Cole said, suddenly hugging his wife who was in the kitchen causing her to blush. They had been married over ten years now, yet her husband was still ass lovey-dovey as he had been all those years ago.

"Hey! Stop that what if our daughter comes!"

She pushed him aside and escaped causing Cole to laugh lightly. Even though many years had passed, he found his wife as lovely as the time when they first met. As if on cue, their nine year old daughter came into the kitchen rubbing her sleepy eyes.

"Jenny, come sit down, eat your breakfast quickly or you will be late for school!"

"Yes mom…"

The sleepy girl sat down on her chair beside Cole who rubbed her hair causing her to smile. The father and daughter were soon joined by the mother and they had their breakfast while discussing random things.

"So, as I was saying, we found a new vein of iron ore the other day, its bigger than any we have found till now!"

Cole who was a miner proudly explained while his wife just nodded knowing how much her husband liked his job. Cole worked as a team leader at an iron ore mine in the hills. But his job caused his wife no little worry as the region was infamous for monsters and the very act of mining itself was risky, she had heard of many who had died as a result of mine collapses. Ever since he had taken the job a year ago, she had been worried.

"Dear, are you really sure that it's safe for you out there? You know how dangerous those hills are…"

Cole smiled, his dear wife, Tessa had a habit of worrying too much but he knew how much she loved him. Shaking his head he held her hands and assured her.

"Don't worry dear, there are soldier's from the army protecting us miners. The Lord takes great care about our safety and till now not a single mine has collapsed. Thanks to the new system of mining the Lord introduced, it has become much safer."

Cole wasn't exaggerating. Since mining of minerals was of paramount importance to the development of Leningrad and also the main commodity of trade, Add had made a lot of investments into the mining sector. Aside from strict safety rules for miners, he had provided with new technologies to make their work safer and more efficient. For example, he had demonstrated that when digging a mine in lose rocks, hammering long iron bolts into the substrate helps stabilize the walls of the tunnel. Every mine had to be examined by a geological survey officer before full scale mining could begin.

While the mining itself was still done through hand since Add hadn't allowed the use of explosives just yet, the miners did have simple machines to help in their job. For more dangerous tasks, such as exploring natural caves, or digging in unstable rock, criminals were used as miners. Their equipment had also improved, with new smelting methods, the pickaxes and other items were much more durable and strong allowing the miners to work with more ease. Similarly, he introduced simple machines to crush the mined ores into powder. Where previously the tiring work had to be done through hand, now a steam engine was used to crush boulders containing the ore into powder.

Thanks to these things, miners like Cole had a much easier time now. Previously he was a small miner in one of the copper mines, but thanks to his experience and knack for guiding others, he had got this new job which was much better than his previous one. He worked five days a week in 12 hour shifts, and while it was a demanding job, he did make a decent earning from it. Thanks to that he was able to take his family and move into Leningrad, and but a small two storey house through the state sponsored loan. His wife also started a small weaving store on the ground floor with some of her friends which added to the family's income.

"Alright I am leaving now!"

"Be safe dear!"

After finishing the breakfast Cole bade his wife farewell and took his daughter to school. She studied in the local Public school which was operated by the Department of Education under the Ministry of Human Resource Development. These schools took a small fee and provided education to any interested children. Each micro district had one such school within it. In order to encourage more children to attend school regularly, they provided lunch to the children as well. In the future, when the state had more money to spare, the small fee which was currently charged would be waivered, to allow poor children to attend.

While these schools only taught up to the equivalent of seventh grade, for the current society this was already more than enough. In these seven years, the children were taught the basics which they would need in their lives, such as simple math, science and language. There were plans to gradually increase the level of education as well, but for now it was enough. But from the perspective of this world where the class system was absolute, the schools could only be attended by nobles or the very wealthy people. The so called commoners and serfs couldn't even dream of their children attending a school. In The SRR however, even those families who weren't nobles and didn't have a lot of wealth, could enroll their children in these public schools.

The school was around a ten minute walk from their home and the father-daughter pair soon reached it. On the way, Cole had bought Jenny a sweet similar to a lollipop which she relished in delight. At the school gates, he kissed her lightly on the cheek and bade her farewell. Jenny hugged him and then ran into the school waving him good bye.

"Now then, let's get to work."

After completing his daily routine of dropping his daughter off at the school, Cole made his way towards one of the larger roads outside the micro district. This road was one in the grid of wide roads which were made for heavy traffic and passed through all the areas of Leningrad, linking various micro districts together. After walking along the road for a while, he came across a line of carriages waiting by the side of the road. He hastened his steps lest he missed his ride.

"Heya Cole, on time as usual eh?"

One of the coachmen called out to Cole, he was a man in his late forties, who was chewing on a piece of grass. He had a short trimmed beard and overgrown moustache, and thanks to the hat on his head he looked like a cowboy. He was tending to his two horses, making sure they were ready for work.

"Yeah Bob, cannot be late for work now can I?" Cole replied. He had been a regular customer of Bob who drove his carriage to the mines where Cole worked.

Bob grinned and signalled him to get on. The carriage was a simple one, made to carry no more than six people with light luggage and one coachman. However, this carriage wasn't just any other carriage; it was part of a system never before seen on Iseria. If one looked at the other carriages around it, they would realise that each looked identical to the others, they were of the same design and coloured in black with only a large white number painted on their bodies, allowing people to distinguish them. These were in fact, part of the proto-Public transportation system instilled by the government.

Since there weren't trains and busses for now, Add had used the best thing he had, and ordered a fleet of a hundred carriages to be built, which along with horses were then rented to coachmen in lieu of a small deposit. They also had to pay a monthly fee to the government. Once they had a carriage, they had to take care of it and the horses as well, and if the carriage was damaged or the horses injured or died due to their negligence, then they would be charged and punished.

The fares were decided by the Government, but with the involvement and feedback from the coachmen employed under them. While there had been a small number of private coachmen who provided taxi services across Rigel and its surroundings, they were few and not many could afford a carriage. Now thanks to the government providing the carriage and horses, the fares were low enough that the common people could use their services. All of this was managed by the State Transport Corporation, a state owned company.

Everything was not so easy however, many coachmen who owned carriages protested to this development as their livelihood came under threat. Most of them had purchased their carriages through loans and they had to charge higher fares to pay off their debts. To appease them, the government had offered them to join their fleet after which the government would subsidise their debt payments.

The State Transport Corporation also didn't have enough carriages to operate on all routes as such, they only operated on the major routes in and around Leningrad and Rigel and the private coachmen were the only ones to operate on all other routes. While there were still some protests, most of the coachmen chose to compromise with some joining the public transit system while others focused on the other routes.

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Cole boarded the carriage and took his seat, the carriage had leaf spring suspension to ease the shocks and the seats which were padded with plant fibres and covered with leather, allowed a decent riding experience. There were already 4 people in the carriage, all of which were familiar to Cole. As the carriage went its way, the men chatted and discussed heartily about their work and mundane affairs.

"Sigh, I never imagined I will see such days in this life."

An old miner said; his eyes hazy as he remembered the difficult days which were now a thing of the past.

"Ever since Lord Adolf took charge, things have gotten so much better. My nephew who lived in another town in the south, returned only recently and he couldn't believe that it was the same place."

"Yeah thanks to Lord Adolf, my daughter can now go to school and my work has become much safer. If not for him, I would still be struggling in that old shack of mine, not living in this beautiful city." Cole added.

Such thoughts were widespread across the general populace of the SRR. The lives of the common people had improved drastically over the past five years. With the development of Leningrad there were lots of jobs in the construction sector, and the boom in agriculture had also allowed the prices of food to stabilize.

"I hope things stay the same way as they are now, I cannot imagine going back to those times when some of us had to starve in the winters…" Another man added.

While things had been getting better, nobody had forgotten the place they lived in. One stroke of bad luck, a failed harvest, an attack by strong monsters and a myriad of other factors could easily destroy all that had been achieved, and they could only hope that such things would not come to pass.

"Now now don't you kids start worrying about the future, those things are beyond our abilities, you all better focus on mining!" The old miner laughed, causing the others to bicker with him non-stop.

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After a long day, David had just finished his work of the day. It was already evening and under the dim light of the lanterns used to light his office, the man kneaded his aching head. He had just formed two teams as instructed by the Lord Marshall and sent them off to do their respective missions. David let out a tired sigh as the head of the KGB and trusted aide of the Lord Marshall his responsibilities and workload was immense. Currently he was overseeing all the directorates of the KGB since he didn't completely trust the Deputy Directors yet. And he knew that all of that workload was bound to increase in the future.

"I need to find some trustworthy people to help me…" he whispered.

"Oh, so the director also gets tired hmmm?"

David turned to look at the person who had suddenly entered his office and gave a tired smile. To enter the Director's office so casually and without permission, if it were someone else, they would surely be punished for indiscipline.

"Clara, you're off work already?"

"Yes you workaholic. I came to take you back; it's already over 10 pm you know." She said and pointed at the wall clock.

David looked at it and shrugged, he was supposed to get off work at eight but he was so immersed in his work that more than two hours had passed without him noticing. The girl smiled; locking the door behind her she made her way towards David and stood behind him. Without any words she began massaging his shoulders causing the later to relax into his chair.

"You always know how to comfort me don't you?" he asked closing his eyes, enjoying the massage.

"Hmm, after all who else would look after a stone faced man like you?"

She teased. David smiled and shrugged his head as he felt the day's worth of exhaustion slowly melt away under the work of her soft hands. Clara and he went way back and while neither of them showed it on their faces in public, those with good eyes could see that they had a deep connection between them, their relationship was not simple.

"What do you think of the new girl, Sylvia?"

David asked. He knew that the Lord Marshall had assigned Clara to give her basic education.

"Why? Don't tell me you are smitten by her?"

Clara asked sounding menacing her hands pinched into his shoulders causing him to grimace lightly. David shook his head in response.

"No, you jest. The Lord Marshall himself brought her along, and even if he didn't how do I dare look at her. I have one life after all…"

"Humph, looks like you know your place after all."

While it sounded serious, this was the way they were with each other. Still David didn't dare provoke Clara as nothing good would come out of it. EVER.

"Anyway, I just wanted to know if you find her suspicious or strange. I mean, I don't doubt the judgement of the Lord Marshall, but I want to be sure she doesn't have some hidden agenda, since he seems to put a lot of importance on her."

Clara thought for a while and replied.

"I don't know… She is a woman of few words, even though I introduced her to many things, and tried to have conversations with her, she didn't speak much and even when she did it was only a few words at a time. I cannot say for certain, but I feel like she looks down on us, not me in particular but humans in general. Maybe because she is an Elf?"

Thanks to her current appearance, Sylvia was mistaken as an Elf by everyone who saw her. And Add let it be that way, having an Elf in a human city was acceptable, but having an Arachne would be a significant emotional event.

"Is that so… then we can only keep our guard up and wait. If she acts in any suspicious ways, be sure to inform me at once."

"Yes yes, now relax you're already off work hours. Geez! How did I ever get stuck with a guy like you?"

As the pair joked among themselves, a hurried knock at the door suddenly broke them away from their relaxed mood. Clara immediately took a seat before David appearing upright and composed. David adjusted his clothes and expression making sure he looked every part as stoic as he could. Opening the door, he saw one of the junior officers of the KGB before him. The man appeared quite haggard but he immediately straightened himself and gave salute.

"Who are you and why are you here at this hour? You better have a good explanation for this." David stated coldly. He didn't tolerate indiscipline. The fact that his sweet time was disturbed wasn't important at all. Absolutely not.

"Yes Sir! I am Faust from the Directorate of Technical Operations. I am sorry to disturb you at this hour but I bring very important news!"

David raised a brow, wondering what important information this man had to deliver that he couldn't wait for the next day and had to come at this hour.

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