Uncertain Futures

Malius and Conrad had stayed overnight in Runia and were now on the way back to their territory in their magic carriage. Malius kept his eyes on the road while Conrad fiddled with the box Kye had given them. Conrad's curiosity was killing him yet he couldn't open the box, due to a congenital problem Conrad couldn't channel mana at all. Runic locks were uncommon in the world as they cost a lot of money to make but they were famed for their security. Only a person who resonated the correct frequency of magic could unlock them, with each elemental magic type having its own frequency. This one was likely keyed for arcanists who could freely manipulate their mana frequency so even Malius, who was a prodigious earth elemental user, couldn't open the lock.

"What do you think is in there, my son?"

Conrad thought back to what he and Kye had completed on the board in his workshop. The engine he had designed there was even more powerful than his steam engine but the power required to run such a device was beyond even Spellweave crystals.

"It's probably the key to the future."

Malius was taken aback by his son's statement.

"You mean that whatever is in that box is the future of this world?"

"I'd be willing to bet on it. It seems as though I have been beaten, father."

Malius took one hand off the steering wheel and used it to roughly ruffle his son's hair.

"You might have been beaten in intellect, but at least you gained a rival, right?"

"Rival huh? I can't help but feel such a future would only lead to pain on my side though. I think I would prefer to be friends."

Malius gave a small smile.

"Well, friends are good too."

The magic carriage rolled onwards at a brisk pace back to the Friedhand territory. Conrad felt like he had to meet Kye again soon, there was so much he could learn by Kye's side that he felt like the ancient texts he deciphered for his current knowledge couldn't compare.

'Well, I just need to be patient. Kye will continue making progress and so will I, our fates are connected.'

With those thoughts, Conrad stowed the box away safely in his bag and closed his eyes. The shaking of the carriage made it hard to sleep but he closed his eyes regardless, hoping that the long trip back would be over once he opened his eyes.

-

Kye was back in his workshop with Vanessa. His idea for the engine was completed so he gave blueprints to Kyla so that her team of smiths could get to work getting him the parts he needed. In the meantime, Kye shifted his attention towards creating civilian products. The immediate ones he thought of was an improved burner for cooking meals and a large portable source of water. The burner was relatively simple to engineer, the simple design of what a normal hotplate would give you was enough but having a pronged stovetop would also make doing things in pots and pans easier. In the end, Kye decided that a burner system with both a hot plate and stove burner would be best. He could even ask for them to be manufactured individually and then to make them detachable from one another for easy portability or even if someone only wanted one half.

Kye already knew how these devices worked with magic already, so drawing blueprints wasn't hard, nor was doing the runes. A simple ignition rune that would adjust the temperature based on how much energy was being fed to it through a knob on the front would be all it took. The knob would activate a tiny matrix that could adjust the energy being fed to the ignition rune. Truthfully, Kye had put off these designs for so long as he knew they would be simple in design and he craved more stimulating projects.

The burner blueprint was completed and would be sent off to the factories within the next few days. Once enough units were accumulated, Kye would contact Amatiya and start selling them through her company. He was willing to sacrifice the profits from the recharging right now as taking on the subsidiary was too much work for him. He would be in soldier training for two years after his tenth birthday and that didn't afford him a lot of time to manage a company. He could probably rely on Layla for the management of the company but Kye had to be tactful with how he approached this.

After this, he would make another condenser and ask for his family to make a factory for more condensers in the future. He would sell fire and water Spellweave crystals freely but weaken them on purpose to prevent them from being used for unscrupulous deeds. They would be enough to power the devices for a lot longer than elemental mana stones but Kye needed to make sure there was a limit on how many people bought and that they kept these stones for later once he had his recharging stations ready.

Truth be told, this was a big gamble on Kye's behalf. He was moving his plans forward as he knew that his parents were spending a lot on his experiments and yet there was nothing to show for it monetarily. This latest trade deal with the Friedhands was a blessing for Kye but now that Spellwaeve was officially being shipped outside the territory, he had to move up the civilian sector so this didn't become something nobles took monopoly on in their regions.

"Uncertain times ahead. If it wasn't so critical I wouldn't have agreed to sell Spellweave crystals at this time at all."

"Then why do it, master?"

"The industry income is important for the territory. While 50% is ours now, it's more than we had before because of the efficiency of the new factories."

"So, in the end, your plans were pushed forward because of your care towards your family?"

"Well... yeah."

"I see."

While Vanessa didn't say anything, she smiled at Kye's willingness to work around those he cared about. It was a good sign for the future, however uncertain Kye claimed it to be.