Chapter 1020 New Type of Transport
"I think this is the best we can do for now." Roel spread his arms, showing off the creation he had painstakingly created in the last two weeks.
There were a total of nine long trailers, divided into three types.
Roel made two trailers for both the passenger type and the pulling type. The remaining five were of the transporter type.
"Mhmm… They are quite good." Anna looked at them with a serious expression. "Still, shouldn't we make them out of steel or something to make them sturdier? For the passenger type, having a comfortable inner part is good, but the rest doesn't really matter, right?"
"That's actually the problem." Roel scratched the back of his head. "We don't have enough iron right now. What we have the most right now is money and wood, but there's not enough iron. Even most of our weapons are made of wood, which is easy to break."
Anna contemplated for a moment. "So, that's how it is. It seems that we have to find a way to procure iron. Is there any place where we can get them? Maybe the Greenwood Kingdom?"
Anna thought about asking the Greenwood Kingdom for iron, but Roel shook his head helplessly.
"I have asked Balott about this before, but it seems that the Muivell Kingdom is planning to isolate us. While we can get a lot of money right now, if we can't spend it to gain a lot of resources, the money will be useless." Roel explained. "The Greenwood Kingdom doesn't have a lot of iron ore deposits."
"Zaecuria Kingdom?"
"It's too far away from here."
"Atracaeca Kingdom, huh?" Anna's expression turned serious. There was a conflict between Noel and the Atracaeca Kingdom, so she couldn't really make an agreement with them. "I will think about this for now. The wooden one is still strong enough, right?"
"Yes. With the help of those runes, it should be fine as a prototype. Once we get enough materials for the rest, we can proceed with upgrading them."
"Alright." Anna nodded. "I will draw the runes on each of them. Once done, we can start releasing them."
"Understood." Roel asked the rest to leave first. There was a difference in drawing the Spirit Enchantment and Runes, so only Roel had the privilege for this one as of now.
This was also an opportunity to teach Roel so that he could gradually get a few disciples for this craft.
The process didn't take too long. After about an hour, both of them opened the workshop's gate and took the first one out.
Of course, the first one to come out was none other than the pulling type.
The pulling type had a steering wheel inside.
"This is quite amusing." Anna pointed at the steering wheel. In the automatic carriage, the steering wheel was made of a single wheel, so a round steering wheel was a first for her.
"Actually, I came up with this idea after hearing Duke Briton steer the ship. The round steering wheel was actually a much better design."
"So, you rotate this to the right…" Anna poured a bit of spiritual energy so that the trailer would move forward. Then, she rotated the steering wheel, which turned the front wheel slightly. "Oh! This is rather interesting."
"Yes. More importantly, a normal person can drive this thing. I believe that far in the future, being a driver will become common. I mean, you can think of a carriage. Right now, we're using it as a wagon, but the carriage is usually used for bringing people, mostly nobles.
"The carriage itself might be expensive, but it won't be as expensive as a house. The most expensive thing about the carriage is actually a horse.
"For an automatic carriage, that can be ignored. So, there is a possibility that in the future, the common people could actually buy this."
Anna's expression turned serious. "What do you mean?"
Roel raised three fingers. "For example, the normal carriage for common families; a carriage where common people could travel a long distance together with their family. And since this is a private carriage, you don't have to meet people other than your family. This is a much better way to commute between cities.
"Then, you can actually use this as public transportation, bringing people from one place to another. It'll be different from this passenger type trailer, where you will meet a lot of people. This smaller one offers comfort and privacy.
"Last but not least, the last type I have in mind is a mix between the passenger type and the cargo type. You can say that it's the same as the normal farmer wagon. They cater to the workers."
"That's interesting." Anna nodded. She could imagine all these types, considering it was just a modification of the existing carriages. "Still, we have to succeed with this one first. Once we get the hang of it, we can gradually proceed with those."
"The passenger type can have 30 seats. If it doesn't go at a high speed, we can actually allow people to stand up, which will increase the number of people."
"Understood. In that case, I think we should try moving these carriages. I guess you're going to attach them…" Anna came out, trying to see the joint that would connect the two of them.
"There are three types of joints. While we don't have enough for the whole thing, we use iron for these."
Anna could see the metal rods with a peculiar shape that would lock onto each other. The second one was multiple chains, but it seemed that this would be secondary. The last one was like a metal plate that could be bolted together, but this one was rather a stiff joint that couldn't allow a lot of maneuvering.
Roel only attached them to the first one and said, "There we go. Would you like to try it?"
"Alright." Anna nodded with a smile. As soon as she got back to the driver's seat, she started pouring spiritual energy into it.
The new vehicle started moving forward before they felt a bit of restriction coming from behind. However, it was only for a brief moment as once both trailers were moving, there wasn't any more impact.
"Let's go out…" Anna drove this to the outside, startling all the people who had been waiting for them outside.
"This is…" The blacksmiths gasped for air. Although they had been working on this, it was the first time for them to see this behemoth moving.
The trailer itself was three meters high, so people could easily stand up inside. With a width close to three meters, a single trailer looked like a beast that could easily destroy a house or two.
"Amazing."
"To think that we've been working on something this amazing."
"Long live the Ardagan family!"
"Long live the Ardagan family!"
They were cheering, only to stop after they saw the second trailer coming out. This time, it was the cargo trailer.
Anna carefully steered it to the right and made a turn, but suddenly, someone shouted, "Stop!"
Anna frowned and stopped pouring the energy into the rune, which slowed them down.
"What's wrong?" Roel raised his voice, thinking that they were rude for stopping Anna.
But when he came out and saw the person responsible actually pointing his finger at the workshop's gate, he couldn't get angry anymore. The distance between the carriage and the gate was only one meter left and it was shrinking. If this continued, they would collide with each other. He didn't care about the workshop gate that much, but he definitely didn't want the new invention to get damaged.
"Hmm…" Anna looked at this matter seriously. "It seems that we have to be careful when driving this thing. It's something that we have never done before and there will be a lot of accidents if we use them carelessly. For now, we will have to take this out manually. Once we're outside, we can test it a bit better."
"Yes. But I can see a few problems here. First of all, it's going to be impossible to make a big turn inside a city. If they want to make a turn, it needs to be done gradually over a long track… maybe a few hundred meters or even kilometers.
"Second, this will also cause some inconveniencegot since we will need a big U-turn if we just want to turn around. Or maybe we can place another pulling type on the back, which faces the opposite side.
"Still, all of them will require a lot of money. And it would be troublesome if they get attacked on the way."
Anna contemplated for a moment. "The security can be enhanced with proper guards and runes. So, you can focus on the first and second problems… I will also send a letter to Noel about this. Oh, you also need to prepare for airship development."
Roel nodded. "I can delegate my apprentices to work on more carriages while we're solving the two problems. I'm a bit curious about the airship as well, so I think I'll focus on it until the Lord orders something else."
"Yeah." Anna hurriedly made an arrangement for the people to bring all nine trailers outside the city. She also wanted to test how much the carriage could pull before it was too much.
Obviously, the people couldn't help but watch these behemoths coming out of the city, thinking that the Lord must be planning on another good thing.
And the one who was most excited about this was actually Layla.
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