The Thousand Year Dynasty
22. Presentation: Opening
Then at noon they returned to Lucia's house. But not with Aksa. The young man accompanied by Orland lived in the palace library.
While at the place Lucia was waiting for seven people who had not been known by Nata and Lily.
"Include me, this is Nata and Miss Lily. There's one more Aksa's name, but now he's in the palace library with Orland's uncle" Lucia opened the conversation.
"It's nice to meet you Miss Lily. My name is Amithy. I'm Lucia's aunt, her mother's sister. Thank you for looking after Lucia until now" said Amithy as she bowed gracefully greeting Lily. Her hood waved slowly.
"I'm Parpera. I am the bodyguard of lady Amithy. Lucky to know you Miss Lily" said a Morra girl with shoulder-length hair in a ponytail, dressed like a witch but invisible carrying a cane, standing beside Amithy.
"It's nice to meet you lady Amithy, Miss Parpera" Lily replied politely.
"Include me Helena Silver, the captain of the noble knight Silver Rose" this time it was Helen who knew herself. Her wavy hair was left pretty raked along her back.
"oh, the Silver family. Pride to know the descendants of General Lunet" said Lily while bowing small.
"The pride was mine Miss Lillian" soon Helen replied in exchange for a small bow with her right hand raised to the chest.
"Please call me Lily now"
"I understand Miss Lily"
"Me meet Madron Deveruex. And this is my son, Constantine" this time Madron who introduced himself and introduced his son to Lily.
"Proud to know you Miss Lily" said Morra's tall thin youth with a pointy face like Madron, bowing politely.
"It's great to know the Devereux family"
"Me meet Dirk Macay. It's an honor to be acquainted with you Miss Lily" Dirk bowed in small acquaintance.
"Together Mr. Dirk, I am also honored to know you"
"Include me Caspian Ortega.Thank you for taking care of Lucia's daughter during this time" then Caspian's turn to introduce himself.
"Oh, another family of heroes, it's nice to get acquainted with the descendants of the great General Aslan. There's no need to feel sorry for Mr. Caspian"
"I'm very happy to meet a war legend like you Miss Lily" Caspian replied with a small bow.
"Well then, now I invite you all to explain what I will do about the land of Pharos and then ask you for help" then Lucia began the core topic of the meeting.
"We are listening" said Amithy.
"So this friend of mine will explain it to all of you. Please Nat" said Lucia handing over to Nata.
"Thank you princess. Greetings to my name Nata. This time I will try to explain how we will build the land of Pharos and its future possibilities" Nata searched, "we do not want to ask for your help all selflessly. In return we will give a reward. In any form that allows us to agree on together"
"Do you mean to assume our help is a debt? Or a form of trade cooperation?"
"Good question Mr. Dirk, it is not wrong that you are touted as the most successful garment trader in this city. Your question is really sharp" Nata searched for a moment.
"So it depends on our agreement later. Whether the aid wants to be considered a complete debt with interest, or will we consider it as a form of trade cooperation with the distribution of results or others. But the most important thing is to let me explain everything first. After that, how do you decide"
"Basically the land of Pharos is a very strategic land, maybe as you all know. But unfortunately, the land has problems in the condition of the terrain. So the plan is we will build a tool to facilitate us through it. That way the rest of the problem will be easily solved" explained Nata.
"You think it's just that easy?"
"No, therefore we need help" Nata replied. "The help is reasonable and has a clear calculation" he added then quickly when he saw the facial reaction of Madron and Dirk who seemed to want to debate it.
"Forwardly?" This time it was Amithy who spoke.
"We need the cost to buy materials such as iron, copper, wood, and other materials to build. And also workers who are experts in their fields" continued Nata.
"And we were able to refund that fee within twenty months" he added later.
"What's right?" The room started to get boisterous.
"Because I can guarantee that the land will become a trade route between the northern and southern regions within twenty months from the time the work begins" Nata replied confidently.
"Your words sound absurd, Mr. Nata. What are the basics that make you sure about this?" Finally Madron was impatient and spoke up.
"Indeed, if only words will not be easy to believe. Therefore, I have brought something to make you all at least will feel a little optimistic with just saying it"
Then Nata took out some items from inside his bag, which he had prepared beforehand. There were dozens of metal bars of various sizes, and a strange iron ball-shaped device the size of an adult human head was located on top of an iron cube that had four small wheels on each side.
With help from Lucia, Jean, Lily, and Cornelius, Nata began assembling the metal rods into a miniature skeleton of an elongated bridge in the room.
The miniature frame of the bridge is only as high as the seat backrest. And although not too straight, but extends across the room by passing the furniture in the room. Like sofas, chairs, tables.
The legs of the bridge were adjusted when passing through the furniture so that the height of the bridge did not change much.
"So as you can see, this is a simple form of tool that I will use to pass through the cliffs and ravines that are in the land of Pharos" said Nata who likens the furniture in the room as a form of cliffs and ravines of the land of Pharos.
"I understand you mean Mr. Nata, by making a straight bridge across the land of Pharos eat the journey will be much easier and faster because there is no need to go up or around the valley and cliffs" Dirk interrupted.
"That's exactly Mr. Dirk"
"But still building a bridge along the land with very difficult conditions like that is something that we cannot finish in a year or two. We need decades" Dirk said again.
"Not to mention the materials needed. Also a worker" Madron added this time.
"I understand gentlemen. But the first thing I want to say is that we don't want to build a bridge like a stone bridge or a wooden bridge in the city and other cities. What we want to build is a skeleton of a bridge like this. That way we don't need other materials like when we're going to build a stone bridge. That will cut our material costs.
"Secondly, with the lack of building and construction that does not have to wait dry or have to make a complicated pile of stones, then the time we need to build it will also be reduced" Nata said, when Dirk heard him interrupt.
"Then what's the point of making a bridge frame like that if it can't be passed by a horse carriage? You intend to get everyone through on foot?"
"Not Mr. Dirk, this bridge is not for horse carriages, what else for pedestrians. This bridge is the path for the tool we're going to make" Nata seemed to be preparing something, "the so-called steam train" he added later while showing the wheeled cube with the iron ball. It's mounted right above the miniature skeleton of the bridge.
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