The Alchemist Chapter 15

Chapter 15

“So the material I’m going to make is called Kevlar,” I said. “It’s a trade secret in my world, and besides I’m not educated enough to know how it works yet.”

Rachel nodded, taking notes on a piece of paper.

“So, what this material is made of are thousands of interlocking fibers, each with a tensile strength ten times that of cotton. If you make the fabric thick enough, it can stop a blade without much effort.” I paused. “But we’re going to have to figure out the specifics ourselves.”

“We have two months,” said Rachel. “If we allot one month for research and development, we can have one month to actually deliver the goods.”

“How much are we getting paid?” I asked.

“One hundred cris per suit,” said Rachel, “Totaling two hundred thousand cris.”

So, we’ve become part of the military industrial complex, I thought. Well, money is money. And we’re making armor, not weapons.

The next month would be dedicated to working out exactly how Kevlar was created.

During the month, we doubled down. Most of my day was spent prototyping. Sometimes I went fishing with Itrim, and sometimes Claude had a small order for me to fill.

Every Thunksday, I gave an hour long lecture at the Royal Society, usually about things that people in my world learned in middle and high school. The periodic table, chemistry, a little bit of trigonometry. All of it was revelatory to the members and scientists. They were all much smarter than I was and picked it up fast. I also learned the basics of magic with Moray.

And then, a little less than a month after we started the prototyping process, we had a material that was comparable to Kevlar in almost every way. Rachel hired a dozen weaver mages and a dozen earth mages to work on creating the actual product. I was still the one who had to extract the oil and make the plastic, but they could take the ingots I made and turn it into my Kevlar facsimile. I decided to call the material “fiber-steel,” a non-assuming brand name in a world that had no real brands—yet.

Then we went into production. We encountered bottlenecks and problems, all of which went into the process of running a business on a tight schedule.

The day came when it was time for the royal army to pick up the armor. The last two months had passed in a blur.

A high-ranking officer entered the shop. Rachel greeted him.

“Sir Rawley,” she said. “Your order of armor is complete.” She showed him into the back room where we were storing the armor.

When Sri Rawley saw the armor, he looked both surprised and disappointed.

“This is but fabric!” he said, picking up a chest plate. “I know this plastic material is light, but this is too light! I do not see how this could protect my soldiers in the field!”

Rachel took a breastplate and put it on, pulling it over her head. She pointed to Sir Rawley’s sword.

“Stab me,” she said.

“But,” said Sir Rawley.

“Do it,” said Rachel.

Sir Rawley took out his sword, reluctantly, and then stabbed Rachel in the chest. Rachel let out a breath of air.

“Oof!” she said.

Sir Rawley withdrew his sword. “I am truly sorry, my lady …” He paused, looking at the shining clean blade of his sword. “What in the name of …” He looked at Rachel. “There’s no blood!”

“The weapon didn’t go through,” said Rachel. She took off the breastplate and showed it to Sir Rawley. “See?” she said. “No hole.”

“Wonder of wonders!” said Sir Rawley. “Yes, these will give our crusading troops an enormous advantage in combat!” He paused. “We’ll take them all. Your payment will be transferred to you through the royal bank.” He turned away, and then turned back. “I would like to take one of these with me for my personal use.”

“Go ahead,” said Rachel. She led Sir Rawley into the back room for fitting.

I sat down on a crate, grinning. The previous two months’ work had been fruitful. Now a bunch of medieval crusaders were going to go into combat with Kevlar armor. Such an anachronism!

But it was all towards my main goal: video games. Since I had at least several hundred years to work with, and since I had connections with a lot of smart and talented people, I knew that I could do this.

With the purchase of the two thousand suits of armor, I was now a rich man. I could invest in many things.

I decided my next goal was to scale up production of the printing press. We needed an outlet for the production—newspapers and dime novels.

For that, we needed to create an education program that would teach people to read.

With my fortune, I knew what I would do. I would create a free school to teach people how to read. The next step in my inexorable march towards video games.

I approached Rachel with my idea.

“You’re not a noble,” she said, frowning. “So your influence is limited. Money isn’t the only thing.”

“Can I, like, buy a noble title?” I asked.

Rachel tilted her head. “Buy?” she said.

Ah, I got it. I was too used to the social mobility allowed by my world’s governmental system. This world was still feudal.

So I had to figure out how to negotiate to open a school. Then I could get people hooked on dime novels and newspapers.

A day later Claude came by and ruined any plans I had for opening a school for the foreseeable future.

“The Guardians are on the move,” she said. “Our incursion is beginning. The Demon King has been active and we can’t wait any longer.”

“Do you really need me?” I asked.

“Your powers are critical to our strategy,” said Claude. “Just having someone who can manipulate the elements will save countless lives on the battlefield.”

“What happened to the two thousand pieces of fiber steel I sent to the Royal Army?” I asked.

“They’ve all been shipped to Tucan,” said Claude. “That’s where the sixth crusade is going on.”

“I have ten suits left,” I said. “We’ll add that to our incursion arsenal.” I turned to Rachel, who was also in the room. “Can you take care of the shop while I’m gone?”

Rachel saluted. “Of course,” she said.

“Use the payment from the royal army to upgrade and create more printing presses. I’m trusting you. Also, you can sell as much fiber steel armor as you want.”

Rachel smiled, nodding. “Of course.”

I turned to Claude. “Did you bring Hypo?” I said.

“I did,” said Claude. She turned around. “I’ll send Tanna over here to pick up the extra equipment as soon as possible.”

We left the building, climbed onto the waiting Hypo, and took off.

After leaving the city limits, Claude turned to me. “I hear you’ve become a rich man!” she said.

“I have!” I said. “How has the starsilver mine worked since I last asked?”

“As always, we’re making a lot of money,” said Claude. “Boomstack is growing rapidly.”

Boomstack was the name for the boom town that had built up around the starsilver lode. It was a half and half mixture of human settlers and elvish natives. Both sides had, surprisingly, managed to coexist for these past few months. Though there were overflows of racial dislike, there hadn’t been any major incidents yet.

We landed at the volcano base after an hour long flight.

“Where’s the army?” I asked. I hadn’t seen head nor tail of it while flying over the landscape.

“Blasé is bringing it,” said Claude. “About two thousand people have volunteered for this mission. Clothing, feeding, and transporting them is going to be hard, but with the money we made from the starsilver lode I think we can manage.”

“How big are the armies of the Demon Lord?” I asked.

Claude was silent for a long while. “We estimate thirty thousand,” she said.

“And you’re going at him with two thousand?” I said. “Why don’t the governments of humanity band together to defeat him?”

“They’re too occupied with the holy war,” said Claude.

“Against who?” I said.

I really need to get up to speed with this place’s history, I thought.

“The Tasmanians,” said Claude. “They are followers of the sixth goddess, the one who was cast from the pentatheon.”

“Yeah, yeah, religious schisms and all that,” I said. I sighed. “Look. I think that fighting an actual evil demon lord is more important for killing people who think a bit differently than you do.”

“Tell that to the nobles and priests,” said Claude. She sighed. “I believe that too. The Demon King is a much more pertinent threat to our survival than mere heathens.”

“I was brough there to fight him,” I said. “I just remembered that. So I’m on your side all the way.” I paused. “When is the incursion happening?”

“A week from now,” said Claude.

“By then, I’ll have our army equipped with a weapon that could change the tides completely,” I said.

“I’ll take you up on that offer,” said Claude. “If you can manage to create a weapon like you’re promising, I’ll pay you whatever you ask.”

“I don’t want money,” I said. “I want connections and assistance. Take me back to the shop and I’ll have you furnished with cannons by the end of the week.”

“Okay,” said Claude. She called Hypo with a whistle.

Hypo landed next to me with a soft whump. He purred.

“I’ll be back to pick you up in eight days,” said Claude. “Go, and good luck.”