A few days later.
An old man had finally arrived at Loustein, and the first city he encountered was the half-destroyed city.
"Seriously? This is the city?" The Sword Arbiter couldn't help but furrow his eyebrows. "There are indeed some activities on the wall, but I don't think this city will last long. Let's check it out, shall we?"
The Sword Arbiter surprisingly walked to the city from the front even though his power was enough to sneak inside without being noticed.
Duke Lorelei was wearing a white military uniform and a big mantle hanging from his shoulders. There was a big Lorelei Family's crest on that mantle, so his appearance confused the soldiers a bit.
When the soldiers started to gather, Duke Lorelei stated out loud, "Open up soldiers! I am Evan Lorelei, the Duke of Lorelei. I hereby order you to open your gate."
"!!!" The soldiers panicked when they heard about the old man's status. However, they didn't receive any warning or see any carriage, so they were a bit skeptical about the old man's identity. There was a chance that he was lying.
Seeing the wariness of the soldiers, Duke Lorelei took out a badge and skillfully threw it up. The momentum was just enough to reach the top of the wall, allowing one of the soldiers to catch it.
It was the Arbiter Insignia as a symbol of their status. It caught the captain's attention, considering Noel had told him that a few important people were going to visit, but Noel didn't tell him who they were.
It appeared one of them was Duke Lorelei. So, the captain hurriedly opened the gate while making his way down to formally greet Duke Lorelei.
As soon as the gate was up, the captain politely placed his hand on his chest. "Good morning, Duke Lorelei. I am the captain of Luna City, Hansen. It's a pleasure to meet you. Lord Earl has informed me about your arrival, so I have to inform him first about your arrival."
"That's fine. I'm here just to look around." The Duke nonchalantly shrugged his shoulders. It seemed that because he had stepped down from his position, he really didn't bother to keep his image. "Why don't you introduce this city while your subordinates inform him about my arrival?"
"I understand, Sir." Hansen nodded in agreement and signaled his soldier to rush to the mayor's mansion. Meanwhile, Hansen extended his hand and politely said, "This way, Sir."
Evan couldn't help but look at the wall and say, "The city doesn't look that good."
"We are in the middle of rebuilding the city, Sir. We apologize for showing you such a disgraceful thing." Hansen bowed, but his tone was filled with hope as though he implied the condition of the city was going to be something in the past soon.
Evan was amused because it hadn't been that long for Noel to take over this territory, but it seemed that he had gained the trust of the people living in this land.
It was at that time that he noticed something different. He saw a carriage with a lot of rubble on the inside. But the carriage didn't have a horse or anything to pull it. Instead, they only had a steering wheel that actually controlled the movement of the front wheels. The back wheels just followed the movement.
Its speed wasn't that fast, but it was clearly faster than a horse pulling it.
"What is that?!" Duke Lorelei gasped in shock. "I can sense the Spiritual Energy fluctuation coming from that thing, but how does it move without being pulled?"
"That's… the first automatic carriage. I can't disclose any information about its mechanic, but I can say that the Lord is using the rune to make it possible. And the one who is steering it is the number one coachman this town has. He is still training and getting used to it." Hansen explained.
The concept wasn't that big of a deal. Noel just used the Enhance Forward Rune to make it push forward. Since there was gravity that would make the carriage remain on the ground, the wheels would be the ones doing everything. In other words, Noel had just changed the horse to Enhance Forward Rune.
Ever since Noel had come into this city, he had been creating one invention after another. Of course, he only tried everything before thinking which one would be the best for the city without burdening the cost.
Since the automatic carriage only required an Enhance Forward Rune, it only needed one Low Level Demon Crystal and a manual brake to operate it, which was pretty cost-effective.
And that alone was enough to shock Duke Lorelei.
Horses were quite hard to produce, especially high-quality ones. So, if they could actually change the horses to the Demon Crystals, there would be nothing better.
"It seems that the Earl is doing a lot of things in this city." Duke Lorelei furrowed his eyebrows.
"Yes, Sir."
"It seems that you have a lot of things to show me." Duke Lorelei smiled excitedly, wondering what kind of surprise he would get from this city.
"Unfortunately, I have to remind you that I can't disclose any secrets of the city. The only thing I can say is the one showing on the surface."
"That's fine. So, show me everything." Duke Lorelei nodded without hesitation.
"Then, this—" Before Hansen could continue, Duke Lorelei noticed the platform that could go up the wall without any mechanism due to his sharp vision.
"Wait. What is that thing?! The one that can go up the wall?!" Duke Lorelei asked.
Even Hansen could barely see it. "Do you mean the one hanging on the wall, Sir?"
"Yes, that one."
"That is called Rune Elevator. As its name implies, it's a device that allows you to reach an elevation that you want. Currently, it's used to bring a few workers up the wall along with the materials. We're currently fixing the west wall." Hansen explained.
"What? How does that work?"
"I can't say anything other than Runes." Hansen shook his head.
"…" Duke Lorelei was speechless. These two alone would definitely stir up the entire kingdom. In fact, if Noel actually sold these innovations, he would without a doubt become the richest man in the world, surpassing his father who only reached the kingdom's level. "I'm more and more curious about this city. He must want to use this city as his base of operation…"
"Ah, I'm sorry, Sir. We are just the gate to Lounstein. We are not the main city of this territory."
"Huh? Seriously?" Duke Lorelei was confused, but if all these revolutionary things were implemented not in the main city, what kind of wondrous technology would the main city have?
Instead of jealousy, Duke Lorelei could see the future. Of course, once the method was known, there would be a lot of people making their own creations. But for the time being, Noel would be able to monopolize them for a bit.
If he wanted to be ahead of the others, he had to find a way to procure these things and might be able to ask for the secret from Noel.
"I guess my retirement will be a very exciting one." Duke Lorelei pointed at the front. "Alright. Let's continue and show me more!"
Unfortunately, due to their limited time, Noel only made a total of five inventions. The first three were the water storage, the Rune Elevator, and the Automatic Carriage.
Hence, the first place that the captain brought him was none other than the water storage.
After the early completion of the main storage, they had begun operating the main water storage, meaning that a lot of people would line up to get their portion of water.
"This is… Are you in trouble or something?" Duke Lorelei asked Hansen about the people who lined up in front of a building while carrying a bucket.
"Ah, that's just our water facility. It's still in the early stages and I don't know how they are going to continue, but the lord said that he wants to create a water storage system where every single building in this city has an unlimited amount of water without the need to go out to fetch some water."
"What? An unlimited amount of water without the need to step out of the house?" The Duke didn't manage the house anymore, but when he was the family head, he remembered that the maid would come out to get a lot of water for daily use. If what Hansen said was true, then it would definitely create a city like none other.
The people didn't have to waste their time getting water anymore, and they could spend that time doing something.
When various conveniences had been improved, there would be a time when an ordinary family didn't have to do unnecessary things and spent that time to improve themselves. The kids might not need to help their parents and could go to school and do other things.
As someone who placed his bet on future generations, even if he couldn't see it, he could envision the wonderful land of the future.
At the current stage, ordinary children would have a hard time going to school, but if they could focus there. It meant that there would be a lot of smart people in this territory.
"This is crazy." Duke Lorelei sucked a cold breath. In fact, Noel should have isolated this territory first so that they couldn't study these inventions and even steal them from him.
It seemed that the soldiers had informed Noel. There was someone coming in their direction at a fast speed.
Duke Lorelei couldn't help but raise his guard. His hand was already on his sword's handle, ready to cut this insolent person.
But Hansen actually bowed his head to greet the person.
That action made the Duke calm down and observe what was actually happening. The person who came to him was none other than Anna. And she was actually floating a few centimeters above the ground.
When the duke looked down, he found a plate that made it happen, including the runes that were embedded on it.
As soon as she was about to reach him, she stopped and deactivated the plate before greeting the duke.
"I apologize for such unladylike behavior because I'm in a hurry."
Instead of Anna, the Duke's eyes were fixated on the board. "What is this… What is exactly happening? Did you just fly… no float? But that speed is quite fast."
"Ah, this? It's just a floating board. It's faster, more convenient, and exciting to move by using this board, so I'm using it to go around the city. Because of the state of the city, we have to move around so much after all." Anna explained.
"Ah!" Duke Lorelei had just realized that he was extremely rude. Even though they hadn't married each other, there was no one as close as Anna to being the lady of Lounstein. So, he hurriedly apologized, "Excuse me for my behavior earlier. I see, so you are here, Anna Stargaze."
"Yes, Sir. He is currently occupied with another project, so I came here to greet you. I can lead you if you want to meet him, but I apologize if it takes some time." Anna smiled while nodding her head to Hansen as if telling him that she would take care of this.
Hansen saluted Duke Lorelei before leaving them. Meanwhile, the Duke nodded his head while saying, "If you don't mind guiding this old man…"
Anna noticed that the Duke was looking at the board. Noel made it first so that both of them could fly together with this board, but it seemed that Noel had this thought in mind.
Without hesitation, Anna offered, "Certainly. Would you like to test this, Sir?"
"Can I?"
"Of course. But because it's mainly for personal use, I hope that you can maintain your balance."
"Don't worry about that." The duke excitedly stepped on the plate, followed by Anna.
After checking if he was ready, Anna began infusing the Spiritual Energy into the plate, but she had to start it slowly since she brought the duke.
He was quite excited to see himself floating, but he soon regained his composure and coughed a few times. To start the conversation, he asked Anna, "I heard that you're planning to give an unlimited supply of water to everyone in the city without taking a step out of their house. How is that possible?"
Duke Lorelei didn't know that he would get the shock of his life when Anna answered him.
"We just used Runes, Sir. The initial investment might be big, but to maintain it… it shouldn't cost more than 50 Advanced Demon Crystals a month."
"50… what?!" Duke Lorelei lost his balance due to the shock, causing him to fall off the plate. Falling on his butt was the least of his worries, as the most important thing was what he heard earlier. "You what?!"
Duke Lorelei didn't realize that Anna was actually smiling inside her heart. Everything was truly going according to their plan.
