Previously: Teruya finally finished drafting his grand plan. The only step remaining is to present the fruit of his labour to Queen Julia.

"Julia! It's done at last!"

It took another three days before Teruya was ready to present his draft to the Queen. Mostly because he had reached the nadir of exhaustion as he had penned the final strokes and had fallen into deep sleep nearly immediately after. When he finally awoke three days later, he had his breakfast and set out to request an audience.

"I see. It is done then."

"Yes. I call it the "National Railway Construction Initiative." We will build a rail network that spans the country to promote the circulation of goods and boost prosperity. Getting there will involve a great deal of hards.h.i.+p, though."

"There is no difficulty too great for us to pull through. May I hear the details?"

"As I mentioned, we will lay down a great amount of track throughout the land."

"Is that really it? Well, let us put it up for a.s.sembly and have it approved post-haste."

"Up for a.s.sembly? But it's a complete package already?"1

"The Royal a.s.sembly, Sir Teruya. A gathering of ministers held in the presence of the ruling monarch. It is the most important decision-making body in the land."

"…And I will attend it?"

"You shall indeed do so. Sir Teruya will announce his plans to all present there."

"I… what?!"

The unexpected revelation left Teruya at a loss for words.

"Wait. Hold on a moment," he said. "I am sixteen, still just a kid. Entirely unfit to discuss the Kingdom's affairs in such a company."

"From the point of view of a fifteen-year-old queen of this country, I would say that Sir Teruya is not as unqualified as he thinks."

"Fifteen years old…"

Fair was fair. If a girl a year younger than him could carry the burden of a country on her shoulders, he should be able to build a railway. It did not seem nearly as difficult in comparison.

"Nevertheless," he tried playing his final card, "Miss Julia is the daughter of a king, born to succeed the throne. I'm just a suspicious young n.o.body from G.o.d knows where. Is it really alright to let me implement a plan that can determine the fate of the country?"

"The founder of this country, the first king, gained his fame and the crown by defeating a tribe of barbarians while in his early teens. According to what I was told at least. Therefore, the notion that age defines ability is pure nonsense," a.s.serted the queen in reply. "So unless your plan is a tapestry of dreamt-up, unworkable theories…"

"Absolutely not!"

Teruya might have been just a sixteen-year-old high-school student, but he already had a decade of experience as a train enthusiast under his belt that dated all the way back to his kindergarten days. His pa.s.sion was more than just riding trains and taking photos, it involved a lot of self-taught knowledge regarding the history, technology, and management of rail. He was confident that he had enough information in his head to be able to lecture on the subject at a university.

This particular project was built based on an exhaustive investigation of the on-the-ground reality of the Kingdom's situation. It wasn't just a bunch of haphazard a.s.sumptions, but a feasible, meticulously-planned idea.

"There is no problem then. Let cowards cower in fear, we shall move onwards," said Julia in an attempt to encourage Teruya.

"Y-yeah."

Fear gripped Teruya firmly. The stakes were terribly high – after all, building a fully-fledged railway system like the one he envisioned, and at a national scale no less, was not something just anybody could do. But seeing this beautiful woman cheer him on made Teruya re-gather his resolve and decide to grasp the reins of the project. In the end, there was nothing that could make a train-otaku happier than this.

"I will do it. Please let me do it!"

In the end, it took mere moments for Teruya to gleefully accept the a.s.signment.

"—and this is why I present you the National Railway Construction Initiative."

It was three days since Teruya's audience with the queen, and he was in the middle of his presentation to the a.s.sembly. Just the name of the plan alone was enough to raise a commotion among the gathered ministers.

"The Initiative entails building a railway network spanning the whole kingdom."

This elicited audible exclamations of surprise.

"Why on earth?! The railway was a death's knell to our commerce. Laying more tracks will just end up bleeding us dry!"

The Prime Minister, Antonius, was the first to voice his opposition.

"Transport by rail is cheap. Transporting local goods by train will make them cheaper and more affordable."

"A foolish notion."

"Please take a look at these then," replied Teruya handing out several sheets of paper to the gathered dignitaries.

"To sum things up – transport via a horse-drawn wagon costs three times as much. s.h.i.+ps are comparable in cost, but noticeably slower and more expensive when sailing upstream. All this expense, when added to the base cost of the local commodities, make the Imperial imports be cheaper. This is why you cannot compete at present."

The ministers all fell silent.

"This is why the plan involves extending the railway to all corners of the Kingdom. It will reduce the transportation costs and promote the internal circulation of goods. In the end, all that is stopping your goods from being bought is the price. And if it's easier to transport, it will be easier to get it to the market too."

"But it is impossible to just build a railway all over the country at once."

"True enough. That's why we will start by laying track in the areas where we expect a lot of traffic."

"Areas with a lot of expected traffic?"

Teruya pointed a stick to a map of Lutetia prominently on display.

"First of all, we will convert the gauge on the existing Royal Railway between St. Bernard and Coltuna."

"Convert the gauge?"

"Remake the track to match the width of the Imperial Railway."

"Will the Imperial not exploit that change?"

"It will be to our benefit if they do."

"What if that alone is not enough?"

"The Royal Railway operates at a loss currently because of the issue of trans.h.i.+pment. Merchants greatly dislike having to deal with the ha.s.sle involved. Once that problem goes away, the number of customers should increase."

"That sounds like wishful thinking."

"It's like with big vessels that cannot enter a small ca.n.a.l. Once the waterway is enlarged, the larger s.h.i.+ps can pa.s.s through increasing the cargo capacity of the route in the progress. Above all, the c.u.mbersome transferring onto smaller boats for the last leg of the route is entirely out of the picture."

That made the Prime Minister wince and silenced him at last. Antonius was an amateur when it came to rail, but he was very well versed in the matters of water transport which had served as the backbone of the Kingdom until now. This comparison between the rail and maritime logistics convinced him at last and stayed his objections.

"Once the gauge is converted we will lay new track from Coltuna along the south bank of the river."

"Using the riverbank earthworks?"

"Exactly."

"But that was erected to stop floodwaters."

"Using it will greatly lower the cost of laying the tracks. Moreover, it will also shorten the amount of time needed."

"But if the earthworks break down, the outcome will be catastrophic."

"Having the track there will not affect the embankment negatively. If anything, the heavy trains pa.s.sing along its crown should compact the earth further reinforcing it in the process. It is the same principle as having a person walk along the top of an earth mound to compress it."

In fact, it was not an uncommon thing in Teruya's world. There were many ways for a thoroughfare to organically emerge along the top of an embankment, travellers treading its course on foot over the years being one.

"What is the reason for using the south bank? Will that not make it pa.s.s through the Royal Capital?"

"The planned route has it go south along the Rubicon, bypa.s.s the Capital along the southern sh.o.r.e, and end up at the port town of Traja.n.u.s in Ostia."

"Ostia? Meaning the trains would carry goods currently ferried up the Rubicon on board of a s.h.i.+p?"

"Precisely."

In the past, the Kingdom had flourished thanks to the fact that it had a monopoly on transporting merchandise from foreign countries along the Rubicon, to the capital, and then further on to Coltuna from where they would be exported to Empire through St. Bernard.

"Thanks to that," continued Teruya, "the internal circulation of goods will improve."

"But the income from riverboats will disappear."

"Income from the new railway will more than make up for that."

"What makes you say that?"

"First of all, vessels travelling upstream are at a disadvantage not shared by the train. Secondly, most of the trans.h.i.+pment issues vanish. Currently, the goods have to be transferred from the seagoing s.h.i.+ps to large riverboats at Ostia, then to smaller riverboats at the Royal Capital, then to the trains at Coltuna. With the new rail, everything will end up on the tracks from the get-go, shaving off significant cost carried by all the manpower involved in the process at the moment."

Trans.h.i.+pment sounded less complicated than it actually was. People were needed to move heavy cargo from vessel to vessel. A lot of people when tens of thousands of crates of goods were involved. Increasing exponentially as the amount of cargo grew. And all that manpower required money to hire, adding to the transportation costs.

"What will happen to the people who will lose their jobs?"

"They can be employed by the railway. Be it cargo handling, maintenance, train operation… The railways always hunger for manpower and can absorb any amount of people."

"Would that not nullify the gains you just mentioned?"

"The railway will be able to carry way more overall. Rough calculations suggest ten times the current capacity."

"Preposterous!"

Antonius refused to believe the outrageous number.

"Your head is lost in the clouds!" exclaimed the Prime Minister. "All the railways in the Empire as a whole do not have that kind of capacity."

"We can achieve it."

"Let's, for argument's sake, a.s.sume you can. Where would you even find that much of cargo to carry?"

"Even if the goods in such amount do not exist at present, we could create more. No, we will create enough!"

"Your Majesty! We should put an end to this outrageous farce at once! I sincerely advise beheading this person here and now!"

"We give Our a.s.sent."

"Splendid!" exclaimed the jubilant Prime Minister turning towards the queen. "Shall we have it done right now, Your Majesty?"

"We give Our a.s.sent to Sir Teruya's proposal. The Kingdom will not last with the way things are, we need to take initiative."

"But this is foolishness! One we cannot afford in the first place."

"A problem that can be remedied," said Teruya, interjecting into the exchange.

"Wh… And how would we go about that, pray tell?" asked the highly sceptical Prime Minister.

"We will take a loan from the Empire."

"Can you make that happen?" asked the queen.

"I can. If that is what it takes to build the railway."

"I understand," said Julia, raising from her throne. "We shall borrow funds from the Empire," she informed her ministers.

"Your Majesty!"

"We have made Our minds, Your Excellency," she said, cutting the Prime Minister short. "If a loan from the Empire is required for the railway to be constructed, we shall have that loan. No effort shall be spared to accomplish that task."

"In that case, I'll borrow that effort without further ado, if you please."

"Pardon?"

Not just Julia, but all the ministers present expressed shock at those shameless words. The outcome of this meeting had been prearranged between him and the queen, but her warm expression of trust and confidence set Teruya's soul on fire.

Footnotes

Localized the joke here.

御前會議 – imperial council

午前會議 – morning meeting

Which are both p.r.o.nounced as ‘gozen kaigi'.