Technomancer: Genesis - 87 A Tour of Bren Part 1

The next day Ezra woke up at sunrise, and he attempted to do his daily routine but to his surprise, Hestia was already up two hours prior. Apparently, there was a commotion in the east part of the castle as she had practically barricaded the entire east wing.

The guards on patrol demanded that they enter their posts. The commotion woke up Aerwyna as the insistent castle guards argued with Hestia’s escort. Thankfully nothing awful happened as Aerwyna allowed Hestia to occupy the eastern wing until her manor was constructed.

An envoy asked for the castle guards to be flogged for even daring to question the Princess’ escort but Aerwyna just smirked and told the envoy politely that they would be next time. The guards knew that she was keeping a front, and they would not be whipped for doing their duty.

Thus Ezra, accompanied by his guard, was standing by the towering double doors that connected the castle to the east wing. The guards donned the emblem of Regaladeus, wearing expressionless faces as they wielded their halberd.

Ezra looked at the weapons the two were holding, he was intrigued as they didn’t seem to be the typical steel weapons.

“Excuse me are those weapons made of steel?” Ezra asked.

The guards stood there expressionless and didn’t answer Ezra at all. They wore distant gazes as if an insect asked them a question.

“Hey! Didn’t you hear Lord Ezra? She is the princess’ betrothed show some respect and answer him!” Rycharde bellowed, he was quite on edge since the castle guards were turned away, the condescending figures before him didn’t even bat an eyelash.

Rycharde strode domineeringly he wanted to punch their faces.

“Didn’t you hear Lord Ezra,” repeated Rycharde as he stepped forward.

“Easy Rycharde, don’t cause trouble for Lord Ezra,” Evered tried to reign him.

“These common guards don’t even answer our Lord, of course, I’m angry!” Rycharde answered Evered.

Evered then made a gesture and Rycharde stopped in his tracks. It was a signal between their group when they were in the Blackfyre Guard. Rycharde yielded and furrowed his brows, he didn’t comment anymore instead he went back to formation.

“Don’t sweat it Rycharde. I was just curious. If they don’t want to answer my question, then that is okay.”

Suddenly the door opened as it creaked Hestia was in a light attire yet it was magnificently dazzling. Red and blue hues striped her clothing it was both resplendent and regal. She strode forward with her handmaidens in tow. They looked meek and humble and didn’t even look up to Ezra and his guard except for what seemed to be the head stewardess.

She looked tall and snobbish, her clothes were dull and grey which complemented her greying hair and sharp piercing eyes. Ezra had the impression that she was a hawk.

Hestia opened her mouth. “Good day, Ezra Blackfyre,” she donned a bright smile and it seemed that the event yesterday was out of her mind already.

“Likewise, Princess Hestia. I have prepared a short tour of Bren for you so that you will be acquainted as with our city.”

“Yes I have heard from my brother that you have prepared it, I hope it won’t disappoint. Will the lord and lady be accompanying us today?”

“No princess, I planned this so that we may be able to spend time to get to know each other.”

Hestia’s eyes twinkled as she tried to hide her blushing cheeks.

“Oh, that is good. I’ll introduce you to my actrix, she is my head stewardess,” she turned to the hawk-faced lady. The woman stepped forward. “This is Dame Erela.”

Erela bowed.

“Well met, Madame.” Ezra nodded.

Ezra then introduced his guards and vassals in turn.

“That reminds me where is Earl Rosenkrantz? Is he not your vassal?” asked Ezra.

“Oh, brother will meet us shortly, he has obtained lodgings in the inner district.”

Ezra wanted to ask why he did not sleep in the castle but he thought this was too private so he did not bother.

“Very well then shall we go?”

“Yes let’s.”

They went out of the castle only escorted by Ezra’s vassals and guards. There were four guards of Ezra and two guards of Hestia.

“As you know this is the inner district, this is where the wealthier denizens reside. There are a few shops here that cater to luxury items.” Ezra explained as they toured around the district. There was nothing that fancied the princess’s eye in the shops so they went to the next site.

Ezra tried his best to watch his actions and at the same time observe the expressions of Hestia. He didn’t let any silences last and kept conversation constantly.

They arrived at the smithing district. Hestia frowned.

“Why are we here Ezra?”

“Well this is a tour of Bren, so I intend to show you all of the districts,” Ezra looked at Hestia nervously. He didn’t want her to erupt into a tantrum again. “We won’t stay long if you don’t want to.”

Hestia contemplated for a bit and nodded. “Very well, since this is a tour, I shall allow it. I hope that this place won’t get my clothes dirty.”

Ezra nodded, “Don’t worry princess.”

A few children saw Ezra’s party and they hurriedly greeted Ezra.

“Lord Ezra you’ve come,” the children exclaimed merrily.

“Oh, Raydal, Noren, Vendis, Good day.”

Hestia looked like she wanted to say something as she raised her eyebrow but she refrained.

“We’ve done some of the exercises in the book you gave us,” Noren replied.

Ezra glanced at Hestia first before he replied.

“Noren,let’s talk tomorrow I’m kind of busy today as you can see. Oh, this is Princess Hestia, pay your respects to her first before you go.” The three children nodded and bowed.

“Your Highness,” the three said in unison and then they ran away.

Once they were gone Hestia spoke.

“Your subjects are too lax when they speak to you Ezra, they are overly familiar with you.”

“Recently, I have been teaching a few subjects some things. They were my students”

“Students? Why would a lord such as yourself teach commoners?” asked Erela.

“I believe, education is the key to progress. I plan to make an institution to educate the masses in the future when I have the funds for it.”

“But what use would a few commoners know reading and writing? Besides nobles are more intelligent than they are.” Erela frowned, “I think that would be a waste of treasury gold.”

“Well you can’t see it yet, but in the future, you will, I am pretty sure.” Ezra didn’t want to elaborate because he might get in a fight with Hestia. He was determined that if it would lead in a dispute he would just concede and let go if they thought they were correct. Thankfully Hestia seemed to be in a pensive mood.

The actrix stood silent and contemplated. While Hestia pondered on what Ezra said.

They stopped at a building, the smell of burning was evident but it was not pungent. They went in. “This is our family’s smith, Arran.”

Arran was a big man with a massive frame, his biceps bulged as he donned as a sleeveless leather shirt. He was not working and immediately bowed to the princess.

Hestia nodded.

“How goes the new metal I gave you?” Ezra asked.

“Very well milord, I haven’t seen anything quite like it. It is metallic and very light. What did you call it again?”

“Aluminum.”

“Yes, but it is so light I don’t think I can make good armour with this. I’ve seen the sample you gave me which was very hard and even dented one of my best blades. That material was clearly superior.”

“I told you the key lies in the other metals I gave you,”

“You mean zinc?” asked Arran.

“But that thing is even worse, I tried to heat that thing and it disappeared.”

Ezra chuckled, zinc had an extremely low boiling point for a metal, if the blacksmith cast it in the furnace it would most definitely disappear.

“Could you stop experimenting with the metals I give you? The point of the project is if you can successfully make the metals into an alloy. I gave you the method didn’t I?” Ezra chuckled again, he liked Arran very much he had an inquisitive mind and liked to investigate the ores Ezra gave him. At first, Arran was utterly shocked at how this kid knew so much about metals. But after a while, he just attributed this freak’s mind to magic and he conceded to the ideas Ezra gave him.

“That’s no fun if I know what is going to work already, better just make me work on armour,” Arran frowned. “I remember the precipitation hardening method you gave me and it worked all too well,”

Ezra had conducted an experiment about extracting Aluminum using magic crystal and fire cores. He used aluminium oxide and a typical carbon reduction method of extracting the metal. On earth, it was not cost effective to do it this way and extraction was mostly done through electrolysis of bauxite.

Ezra’s eyes twinkled. “I know you did it, show me!”

Arran frowned. “Well, you caught me, milord. Here I made a gauntlet out of the stuff. What will you call the alloy sire?”

“Let’s call it Titanol, the alloy of the gods.” Ezra smiled.

“It’s on the display rack.” Arrum pointed as he shook his head.

Hestia was curious.

“You want to see?” Ezra asked her.

She nodded.

“Wow its so light. This is amazing! But is it a good armour?” Hestia exclaimed.

“May I borrow the gauntlet, Princess?”

“Sure,” Hestia handed it to Ezra.

“Rycharde, demonstrate please.”

“As you command milord,”

Rycharde grabbed his war hammer and used all his might to smash the object. There was a loud bang and a few pieces of the metal flew.

“What?” Ezra was shocked. This metal was supposed to withstand the blow. If the blacksmith processed the metal correctly it would yeild a tensile strength of 700 to 710 mpa.

When Rycharde released the hammer. It was seen that the gauntlet was intact and didn’t even have a dent. They discovered that the fingers from the gauntlet were dislodged and were the ones that flew away from the shock.

Arrum’s ears turned red.

“I am sorry milord. This material is new so I am still learning on how to make it into armour, so I used steel rivets.”

“Don’t worry about it” Ezra waved his hand. He was thoroughly satisfied with the result. If he could mass produce this technology it would benefit Bren immensely as they could trade this with the other fiefdoms.

Hestia was lost for words in awe as she looked at Ezra, the boy that she was to marry, was truly a genius.