Steel and Mana

At the same time Polo and the rest of the pilots' summer camp started, I told my ministers to host the bathhouse competition. To be honest, I didn't expect it to be so popular. I ended up receiving twenty-five submissions, and it took days to choose the winning one. Still, there could only be one winner, so after bringing in my wives to see which design they would choose from the five best, I finalized my decision, announcing it in the next week's paper.

What surprised me was that the construction began on the same day, without pausing to celebrate. I couldn't help but laugh, realizing how fired up my builders were now that the future coal plant was being constructed by newcomers to Avalon. It brought everyone who ever worked on creating Avalon together once again, making it into something like a community event. When I say that thousands were working on it, I mean it.

By the end of the first month of summer, under the golden glow of the afternoon sun, the closest part to the eastern side of my city's wall, all of my elite artisans were working on overdrive as if their lives depended on it. It was now not just any bathhouse but one destined to be the finest building in our city, in their home. It was to be a place of opulence and beauty, built to rival even the palace within Ishillia's capital.

I watched as tall scaffolds appeared like a magic trick as they surrounded the rising structure and as the gleaming white stone facade was carved with intricate motifs of sculptures. That part wasn't a surprise, though. Our choice landed on this one because the one submitting it made sure to include heroes from Merlin's books, giving it an even bigger grandeur. Beneath my workers' hands, the stone seemed to come to life—by the third day, muscular heroes in flowing robes and beautiful women with serene expressions were decorating the outer, circular wall of our new bathhouse.

The entrance alone was a marvel: a grand archway nearly fifteen meters high crowned with an ornate pediment depicting the Lion and Princess's figures as they stood in triumph, the mechs' legs stepping on the skulls of horned beasts. Below the pediment, the heavy, polished, metallic doors were being fitted with actual gold, each panel embossed with scenes of lush gardens and tranquil pools, awaiting the touch of those who would bathe within. When I said I wanted something grandeur, I wasn't lying. I was willing to splash because something like this would raise the pride and confidence of my people. I needed them to be as strong-willed as possible for what was to come.

When it was time to take a look inside, even when I was walking along them, the workers moved as if performing a dance. By now, all of their tools were enchanted, nullifying the weight of the stones, granite, and polished limestone they were working with. Because of CC and its indestructibility, it was also the perfect tool to carve and cut anything to the appropriate size on the first try. I wonder if Mirian would be befuddled if she saw we were using the mages' favorite resource as masonry tools.

Within the bathhouse, beauty, and function were the most crucial parts I focused on when I chose the final plans. The central hall, nearly forty meters wide and twenty-five meters tall, had already begun to take on its final form, a grand rotunda beneath a coffered dome that rose even higher above. Sunlight streamed in through cleverly designed skylights, casting beams of golden light across the tiled floors, which shimmered with patterns of deep blues, greens, and gold, an artistic tribute to our rivers and the sky.

"We'll finish laying the mosaic by dusk." said Rennar, my Minister of Architecture, walking with me, explaining everything I was seeing. "With Nero winning the competition, he has been making sure everything will be like on his plans that you have chosen, My Sovereign."

"Just make sure they don't overwork themselves." I chuckled, "Don't forget, this is to gather the best of the best."

"It will be done, My Sovereign."

Nero. Of course, after looking at the winning name, I looked everything up I could, grinning to myself, hoping he wouldn't burn it down... Khm. Anyway, he counted as a veteran craftsman by now, starting out when the city was first built. He quickly became the leading figurehead when we laid down the first aqueducts. After years of constant work, he was also influential amongst the other builders, who didn't even question why it was he who won when we announced his plan as the winner.

Looking at him, his bulky and burly body kneeling, his tied up, long black hair, he was wholly lost in his craft, laying the mosaics, his hand moving at a dizzying speed while not even noticing us. I couldn't help but smile because this is how a master should look like... Someone who is devoted to his craft with every fiber of his being. His pride was visible in every flick of his wrist as the mosaic floor beneath the dome slowly blossomed—a depiction of...

"Wait... that's... me?" I asked because the plans did not describe it in that much detail, simply stating: A mosaic about our hero. Well, I blinked my eyes to make sure it looked like me, and yeah. It did. I was being all heroic and whatnot, standing there with a shield, a spear, and a long, flowing cape behind me. Damn... I felt myself blushing!

Before Rennar could say anything, I just raised my hand, signaling that it was all good. Double damn. I didn't know that ass-kissing could feel this good! Walking onward, I tried to suppress my sudden embarrassment, but it was hard to do. So, instead of lingering there, I went to check the multiple pools on Nero's design... Just so I could see the four main baths named after my wives, their visages looking back at me with a kind smile because their lifelike mosaics decorated the bottom of the pools!

"Rennar..."

"Yes, Sovereign?"

"Don't tell my wives about this. Let it be a surprise." I grinned, finally no longer feeling embarrassed.

As I stood there, grinning like a clown, I knew that the steamworks and piping were already in working condition underground. They would fill the bathhouse with water or, if needed, heat it up, their pistons hissing faintly beneath the ground, keeping the temperature perfect at all times. They were installed with the same efficiency, hidden beneath the marble and gold surface. As my eyes scanned the space, I looked at the pools' edges adorned with golden lion heads, from which water would flow into the pools below, a nod toward my father's title. It seems Nero designed it to be a tribute to me and my family, and I was starting to love it. Did he intentionally not mention this in the details of his plans? He didn't want to... use it as an advantage? If it is true, I am going to respect him even more.

"If they are this good with a bathhouse, I have even higher expectations of what they will do later!" I mumbled, smacking my lips, feeling a bit giddy.

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I think the bathhouse was the fastest we had ever built anything. Edmund's invention provided ample light to work in, so the thousands of builders organized themselves into multiple shifts, working day and night without stopping. It was still the middle of summer when it was already finished. I didn't want to believe it, but it was there—standing. The steam engines were working beneath the ground, pumping water and filling the pools. Everything was... working. I was worried there were injuries that I didn't know about or cutting corners, but... no. Nothing like that. I guess there weren't even any OSHA violations, huh? Although I never introduced the latter, so... Uh... Whatever, I won't question it. They did it; it's all that matters!

I wanted to name it Nero's Bathhouse, but he refused, so it became The Lake of Avalon... and I made sure Nero had a golden nameplate on it as its architect. Its grand opening was advertised in the newspapers and in the Sovereign's Sessions. For the first summer, I made it so that people could visit it for free. I made sure everyone knew that after that, the entrance would be two silver coins per person and one for kids, but to celebrate the work of our people, it was free for now.

As for the workers, I had a completed list of the most effective and efficient workers under my rule—more than 3,000 names from the 8,000 who worked on the bathhouse. For them, I had already had a new job, joining those who were chosen to operate my Earthbreaker, looking for the perfect place... and they found it pretty quick.

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The cavern's ceiling loomed nearly two hundred meters high, casting jagged shadows under the flickering light of a hundred Edmund Lamp that dotted the vast, rocky space. The chosen workers moved like ants along the stone floor, their faces covered in grime from dust and sweat, their hands stained with the scent of metal and coal. The Earthbreaker had done its job well the moment they thrust it against the mountain wall. The hard rocks had split before its CC-fitted drill as if it were made out of paper. At first, they thought they would have to push the machine deep and then go at it by hand to excavate the space their Sovereign wished for. Yet, only after a week, they broke through a wall, separating it like a simple veil, revealing a natural cave behind it. It stretched for at least eight hundred meters wide with multiple hundred stalagmites connecting the ceiling to the bottom, wherever the initial crew who discovered it looked. It was like entering a wholly different realm.

"Enough space for an entirely new city if the Sovereign wanted..." muttered Nero when he first saw it. He was now the head of the brigade, getting their instructions not from the ministry but directly from their Sovereign. As he surveyed the immense chamber after its discovery, his voice echoed loudly within, swallowed up by the vastness of the cave. He held an Edmund Lamp in his hand, letting its light illuminate the darkness, following the line of sight of his eyes.

The magic-enhanced tools they wielded so perfectly only weeks ago soon became the instruments to compose their new underground symphony as they began working, breaking off the stalactites while nullifying the crushing weight of the excavated boulders and slabs of stone, carting them out. While most of them worked inside the new cave, those who first began drilling were working just as hard to expand the entrance as per their order; it had to be tall and wide enough. What they didn't know was that one day, the first airship would fly through it before ascending to the skies on the outside.

"The railway's got to be straight!" called out the foreman, his voice rising over the rhythmic clinking of tools. His name was Amon, and he was none other but the one who began it all, operating the Earthbreaker and being Edmund's now proud father. "We must haul the rock out fast and bring materials in quickly. These rails are our lifeline until the base is complete, and our Sovereign's masterworkers are no slouch! We must keep up with them!"

No one argued as they were just as excited to be chosen for this secret work as their comrades within the depths of the mountains. The fact they were here proved to them that they were also one of the best of the best. Their hands moved in unison and wasted no energy. Each step, each stroke of a tool, was a deliberate part of a grander design, flattening the ground and widening the sides of the cave.

"Mark it!" Amon barked and raised his lamp high, casting light on the area where the tracks would run. "Review it twice! Make no mistakes!" The first phase of the project demanded at least 400 meters of flat ground—enough to bring in the Sovereign's supplies and, later, enough room to house the assembly lines for the manufacturing of future miracles.

A sense of purpose filled the air as the Edmund Lamps flickered everywhere, casting a bright light on the carved-out space. This wasn't just an excavation anymore—this was the foundation of something greater, something that would remain hidden beneath the mountains, protected from monsters... and from people who would come to take away their inventions, their city, their lives, everything they could get their greasy hands on. No. Nobody would allow that. They were no longer Ishillians. This was Avalon... and they were Avalonians.