The Mechanical Era

16th of Procidens, 5018.

It was a bright, sunny morning. Kant was found in his office, with an open book on his desk, a sheet of paper on his table, and a pen in his hand. He was finally learning how to read and write in cursive. He had previously struggled and even refused to learn it.

He blamed the teacher, who his child self classified as to be the Devil incarnate, for wanting to torture him for fun, by punishing him for every tiny mistake he made. Even though they did get rid of her, he was traumatized by the experience. Now, he had moved on from that trauma and started to learn cursive once again.

As he was in the middle of his self-taught lessons, Kant hears a knock on his door. He puts down the book, paper, and pen before he allowed whoever is on the other side to enter. Alan enters the room and bowed down to greet Kant with a good morning.

"Good morning sir! I got some news for you!" Alan told Kant.

"I see. Sit down," Kant ordered. Alan made his way to the chair and took his seat.

"What news do you have for me, Minister Alan?" Kant asks.

"Well, first I got to tell you, sir, about those train experiments they had done," Alan replies. Kant sits straighter on his chair, upon hearing the word 'train'. It had been quite a while since he last heard of it.

"What about it."

"They have managed to get a series of successful tests yesterday. The project managers informed me that they should be able to arrange a demonstration on the 20th of Procidens, about 4 days from now," Alan replied.

"That is great news. I am delighted to hear that. Is there anything else?"

"Yes sir. There are experiments with void crystals. Recently we had a bit of a supply issue, but you no longer have to worry about it because I managed to find a new supplier.

They will be sending about 50 grams of Void crystal to the city this month, and another 80 grams of it next month. It will arrive on the same date as the train demonstration; on the 20th. Should I set up an experiment date later in the month?"

"Yes. You shall. I would like the experiment to be conducted on the 23rd. Although, please do check their calendars to see if it is possible for them." Kant replied.

"I will sir."

"Alright then. Is there anything else, or is that it?" Kant questions Alan.

"No sir. There is one final thing I wanted to inform you about. I think you will find it very important, sir."

"Is that so? Tell me. What is this piece of news?"

"Mr. Carl I Anastasia said he will be coming over on the 24th. When do you think you can comfortably arrange the interview, sir?" Alan asks Kant. He opens his drawer and takes out a black book. There, he scans the pages for a minute before placing them back down and making eye contact with Alan.

"The 26th or 27th will work fine by me. It will give him some time to... look around the city." Kant answers Alan's questions. Alan keeps that in mind in his mental notebook, before continuing.

"Alright then. Well, sir, that is all the news I have to tell you about. Is there anything you want me to do?" Alan questions. Kant leans back on his chair, and thinks.

"Yes. I do. Considering the SELT project may be coming to a close, I will need to build a network of rails throughout my kingdom to connect them with each other.

This would require a team to survey the land, and draw up a proper map, to build the rail lines on.

I also need people to construct railway stations across the kingdom to connect the towns together to the capital city. This would allow more free movement of people into this city." Kant explained.

"So, can you manage that?" Kant asks Alan.

"Of course sir! I know a few guys that can do the job easily. They have detailed maps of the kingdom, as well as the manpower to do the job. Consider it already done." Alan replies.

"I assume that is all, sir?"

"No. That is not it."

"Oh? Is there anything else?"

"Yes. Though it is a little minor. Can you get a maid to refill my coffee? I already ran out." Kant requests.

"Right away, sir." With that, Alan gets up from his chair, and leaves. Kant takes out his paper, book, and pen again, and starts to practice how to write in cursive once more. A good 30 minutes pass by before he hears another knock on his door. Assuming that it is the maid with his coffee,  he lets her in without removing the books.

"Good morning your majesty. I have brought you your coffee." the maid told Kant. He points to his empty cup and pot.

"Fill both of them up for me," he instructed while keeping his eyes on the paper and book. The maid walks over and pours the coffee into his cup and pot. Once she is done, she decides to walk away.

Kant's mechanical pen stops working. He starts to swing it around, to get the ink to come out. On his 6th swing, he accidentally hit the pen on the table, causing the pen to break.

"Excuse me, maid. Can I get ano..." Kant turns his head to face the maid. Just then, he realizes that the maid was not someone he recognized. The maid was unusually attractive, with long black hair, and ice-blue eyes.

"Is there something wrong, sir?" she asked. Kant stayed silent for a minute before speaking up again. From his memory, he did not remember seeing her face.

"Are you new here?" he asks the maid, a little suspicious of her.

"Yes, I am sir. Is there something wrong?" she asks. Kant stares at her eyes for a minute, before talking again.

"What is your name?"

"Um... Alice. Sir. My name is Alice."

"Alice... why did you come to work here, of all places?" Kant questions her further.

"Because I need money, sir. You see, I have a dream of becoming an actress. However, I need this job to make money to achieve that dream, and to send my family some money."

"I see. I wish you good luck with your dreams," Kant remarked.

"Thank you, sir."

"Anyways. Can please get me a pen? It is in the cabinet next to you." Kant requests. The maid happily delivers Kant the pen, before heading on her way.