Real State

Felipe decided to stay the night in the club after going through final changes on the manuscripts he created during his Travel from the Colombian Empire's Northern coasts to the USA's southern coasts.

He has given quite the inspiration to keep writing; after all, he has not found so many fans as he found that day. He has seen the number being sold, but he would have never guessed his books were so praised.

"… Nancy, Nancy…" Felipe thought out loud as he just smiled at her innocence. In a world so cruel and wild, women are normally protected by men to the point they would never see the bloody reality.

In the end, Felipe closed the manuscript and titled it: [Son of a God], which was more realistic and based on reality Persey Jackson's story. Still, mixing fact and magic was one of his favourite things to do.

His books have been banned by the catholic church from either spreading ideas they do not agree with or stating satanism. In his Empire, the priests and the cardinals would not say a word, and the Vatican would not say a word either; that was the power of a psychopath's determination, willing to kill anyone that does not agree with their first reform to the country, rich, poor, priests and nuns alike.

The church was de-emancipated and was mostly under the emperor's thumb, and the only thing that the Pope could do not lose a huge branch of the church was ignore the disrespect and insults.

"Fuck them." He thought as he imagined their reactions to it.

He could only do so much before he felt tired enough to make him blow out the candles and go to sleep. He had to translate his work from Spanish to English and started translation to French, he would normally give that work to workers, but more often than not, they would have problems with expression and much more.

--

Next morning.

Felipe woke up after his sleep voided out of nightmares; he had begun to see a pattern of how sexual satisfaction would correlate to him not having nightmares; extensive exercise was a very good way, yet, it was not a foolproof method, but it did not always work.

Opened his door and saw Morales and Casablanca standing still, working as guards. His guards looked at him, though they had been trying to look professional and not look at their emperor; nevertheless, he looked at them.

"Gentleman."

"Your majesty." X2.

"How has been your time in this nation?" Felipe asked with a smile.

They looked at each other and looked back at their emperor, not knowing what to say.

"Well?" Felipe asked.

"Everyone uses wigs here... even commoners," Morales said.

"Ah yes, I hate them." Felipe chuckled. "The French and the British were annoyed when they could not sell many, especially the British with their free market and stuff. After a few years, not even the nobles wear nobles… my fault."

"Ah, I see." Casablanca nodded.

"Their houses… are all made of wood, even the big ones," Morales said.

"Later in the winter, the mud freezes and gets buried with snow. The wood keeps them warm better than mortar and brick."

"How?" Morales asked weirdly.

"Have you put on a ruana?" Felipe asked.

"Yes…"

"What would you prefer? A ruana made out of wool… or made out of tiles? What would keep you warmer?"

"The wool, of course."

"The wood works as the wool of the Ruana. Keeps the heat from escaping and even the heat from entering… that is why it is quite warm right now. Aside from that, they have a dense virgin forest they have yet to devour; we are doing that, actually."

"Ah… I see." The soldier didn't know what to do with such information. He was now looking to his emperor, waiting for such an answer.

"Well… lets go… I am tired of seeing wigs."

"Yes, sir."

--

"Governor, I am afraid this is the end of our visit to the state alongside you. I would like to go through see my own installations before going." Felipe said as he finished having scrambled eggs.

"Yes, your majesty… I understand. I hope my plans to visit the state were not inconvenient to you."

"It was initially, but I have found quite the insights here. I thank you." Felipe nodded politely.

"Well, I am glad to be of service." He said, very proud of himself.

"Quincy will help you in any other matters regarding the state. My support for the one that supports me will always be true as long as my source of money for weapons is secured." Felipe said in a low voice as he looked around to see if someone was nearby.

"…" The governor just nodded. He was not that stupid; he, of course, could feel that Felipe was a completely different person from what he thought. Princesses of Europe normally dwell on alcohol and are rude, childish and entitled. Felipe was none of that; he was more of a philosopher than a prince.

The governor expected much about Felipe when he left with Miss Nancy to the second floor, but after a while, he discovered that he had just talked with her and drank so much. Who in the right mind would just talk with a woman instead of fucking her?

'Then again, the prince talked about a woman with opinions and knowledge… his Empire is also making all women go to school. They have had too much of the French poison of liberty.' The governor thought as he saw the prince slowly leave after he got inside his carriage.

"Well, your excellency. Thank you for hosting us." Quincy paid respect to the governor and nodded back before quickly climbing on the carriage again.

"…"

--

The manufacturing process of matches looked like a normal factory of the industrial revolution; there was a high chimney letting out smoke. Felipe made sure to make it quite huge so the workers would not have too many health concerns.

Nonetheless, it looked more like a very big carpenter shop; for once, they found multiple carriages bringing a lot of wood.

"Aspen wood, we used in the north, we are using Pine here… similar softness and girth," Quincy explained.

"Yes. A shame, really, we lost most of the operational capability of the north." Felipe was annoyed that his golden goose was killed; matches were no longer expensive, a competitor broke his monopoly, and 2 of his three factories were burned down.

But he was not dwelling too much on it. He has matches factories in other continents, but none have as good conditions as in the USA. The number of forests that have not been destroyed and the number of natural resources yet to be pillaged was amazing.

"In Florida, I know there will be a large sediment of phosphorus. We have to increase the level of operations to support this here." Felipe said as he was annoyed at the lack of money; he should have "invented" more in less time.

"Yes, as your majesty has said, the condition for the expansion of the factory has been limited by the requirements of your majesty for the building shape and the elevation above sea level," Quincy explained. "But, as planned through letters, we are currently increasing the processing capabilities of the place by 100%, good jobs of woodchoppers and carpenters basically."

"Um."

He knew very well how stupid and crazy the storms can et on the east coast of the USA, so he just took way ahead prevention measures and made it costume for the construction of circular sound structures, and they have shown to be the ones that make it through hurricanes.

Not long before they arrived at the factory itself, Felipe saw many pipeworks everywhere stockpiled in the open.

"This… we can go through this in 4 days. The loggers make long trips and stockpile wood on another site before bringing them here; that way, they can concentrate on doing one thing at a time; it has increased productivity quite a lot this way."

"Those are the permanent facilities in the very west of the state?" Felipe quickly remembered the state, which was taking expenses for maintenance for very few months.

"Yes, those ones exactly. We still have 5 in the north…. Most of the stream revenue from the north is through logging… that's what they didn't burn."

"I don't see how you will be able to take on this much wood in 4 days, knowing the output of this facility," Felipe said, quite skeptical.

"With the final expansion finalized, we can go through all this in 4 days. As you can see, the foundation has now been laid, and it has started the final part of the building." Quincy, caught in his white lie, quickly rectified himself.

"That makes more sense." Felipe didn't care about him and just looked at the large pieces of metal and cement that were quickly erecting another building, a bit separated but quite similar.

"What about the equipment it has been produced?" Felipe asked.

"Yes, all the production equipment has been produced and currently sitting in the NewYork storage area. We have also salvaged many previous machines from the other facilities and transported them to the steel mill to recycle." Quincy explained.

Felipe looked at the quiet, opened factory, mostly wood peeling and chipping with the power of fixed steam engines able to produce enough power to easily mangle the wood like it was nothing.

"We have had orders about the wood peeling machines and the wood shipping, mostly for the creation of timber for construction; most of them have been completed by the steel factory."

"Don't we have a bunch of facilities to chop wood? We get a larger profit margin if we are not processing them ourselves. Even better, make houses by ourselves; Manhattan, for instance, is fated to be densely populated, and so is everything along the coast."

"Ah… yeah…"