Leona gathered whatever courage she had left in her heart as she heard the inventor’s words.

“...If I’m to be completely honest, it’s not going well.”

While the tactician barely knew much about blueprints and schematics, she had some knowledge regarding inventions and patenting since her mother was involved in many cases of dispute with other noble families in the production of arms, namely muskets.

“What is going wrong exactly?”

Athena scratched the side of her head, visibly frustrated as her pride somewhat got in the way of expressing the evident problem.

“We have no idea how this new manafication engine works. When I say that we don’t understand the workings, I don’t mean the engine itself as it is a common mechanical process. While I’m not completely oblivious to what mana is and how it works to fuel spells and whatnot, I’m not familiar with how it can affect machinery as… well… let’s say it’s not common to use mana in those in the first place.”

“Oh, that kind of problem. I see, for a moment there I thought it was much bigger.”

“On a side note, Lawrence asked if I could invite you to come to the workshop instead to talk. Since he was the only person we could rely on to understand the schematics I decided to leave it to him and let’s say he stayed overnight to work on it.” She proceeded to leave a few copper coins on the table before standing up. “Thank you for the food Jano. Let’s go Leo.”

The tactician gave a bow towards the chef who responded with a satisfied nod and headed off with the inventor. On her way out she noticed a few soldiers wearing the Londrian blue navy overcoat uniform, their faces were covered with black balaclavas while some of them were wearing a hat with a hard cap. One of them, supposedly the one leading the group, stopped and made way for Athena as she exited the door.

“Excuse me ma’am.”

The soldier said in an apologetic tone. She in turn simply nodded and made her way through the group while Leona followed closely behind. The tactician noticed just how respectful they were acting towards her but that could only be because of Athena’s attire.

A royal military uniform consisting of three golden aiguillettes tied from the left center of her chest, underneath the pristine white jabot around her neck, towards the edge of her left shoulder pad. Around her hips there were two thick brown leather belts holding what seemed to be the rest of the coat closer to her body as the rest fell around her legs like a skirt, underneath it, she had a pair of thick black trousers and high dark leather boots.

Leona could certainly see the impact of a uniform that standed out so much.

“Say Athena.” She couldn’t hold back her curiosity. “Where is the clothing you’re wearing right now from?”

“Oh this?” She picked one of the aiguillettes before dropping it on top of her breast. “It was gifted to me by my former instructor. He said to me to wear it proudly when I become a captain, but let’s say that never happened.”

“You’re still somewhat high in the rankings aren’t you?”

“Second lieutenant, not quite high but high enough to have authority over the common foot soldier. Not that I use said authority for anything, it just means that they don’t pick a fight with me.”

“Do they abuse their power as keepers of peace? You make it sound like it’s a recurring problem.”

The lieutenant disappointedly sighed.

“Unfortunately yes, because most of them come from noble families you can already imagine what is the sort of problem the common folk go through.”

“It’s the same back in Arcadia. Not all the knights use their power for evil but some of them are just prone to making others suffer for their own amusement. It’s deplorable.”

“Nothing we can do about it I’m afraid. Unless the higher ups do something about it, it’ll stay that way.”

Athena reached for the small satchel on the backside of her lower belt and grabbed a small paper packet and pulled out a thin rolled piece of paper filled with a dark fibrous substance, holding it between her left index and middle finger. She then picked from the same satchel, a metallic lighter and opened it with her right thumb, revealing a small metal stub with a round piece beside it.

After rolling the striker a few times, the stub caught fire and remained lit. She then placed the rolled paper against her mouth and the lighter before inhaling. When the rolled paper lit up she closed the lighter and pocket it inside the satchel. Then when she took it off her mouth, she blew a puff of smoke from her mouth.

Upon smelling the acrid scent Leona instinctively moved her face away from it, taking a few steps to the side in the process before asking.

“What is that foul smell?”

“Oh, I’m sorry.” She threw it on the snow and stepped on it. “That was a cigarette.”

“Is it normal to smell that bad?”

“Well… yeah. It’s more of a stress relief if anything.”

Leona couldn’t quite understand how inhaling such a foul smelling substance would relieve anyone of stress, but nevertheless she decided to leave Athena to her own devices while they walked.

The darkened clouds cast an ever lasting shadow throughout the city which made the atmosphere feel gloomier than usual. However, the tactician knew most of the problems within the city was the stillness of ambient mana, not only that but people’s ignorance regarding magic also contributed to the lack of actions taken against such phenomenon.

‘I feel like I’ve read something about this before…’ Leona tried to recall everything she knew from lessons regarding mana back in the capital. ‘And if it makes any sense, then the reason why they are facing such cold temperatures and harsh weather must be that death angel. But then, if a single death angel is creating such drastic changes in the weather, there must be something more to it…’

The bone chilling wind made every hair follicle of her skin stand up in an attempt to keep her body temperature stable. Upon seeing how she was beginning to rub her hands against each arm, Athena decided to give her some advice.

“Maybe the hot drink’s effect is running out. You should drink some more if you got them.”

“Ah. I forgot about that, thank you Athena.”

Leona reached for the back side of her coat and pulled out the reinforced glass jar filled to the brim with a bright red liquid. She opened the lid with a pop and began to drink it while they walked.

“I remember back when Lawrence was trying to come up with something that could help the body fight off this cold, while also making it enjoyable to drink. It used to have quite a disgusting taste.”

“Mmm.” Leona finished half of the drink before she closed the lid and pocketed the rest inside her bag. “How was it back then?”

“How can I describe it? It’s like trying to drink mud but with a strong bitter aftertaste that makes your tongue tingle.”

The tactician’s face grimaced at the thought of such horrendous flavor.

“Yep that sounds disgusting alright. I prefer the mild sweet taste it has along with this soothing warming effect. I should ask him how he managed to improve mana circulation through the usage of a beverage.”

“I’m sure he’d be glad to share it with you, he’s very open about the things that he does, even the king a few years back awarded him a generous reward in coin in order for him to keep his research going.” She abruptly stopped, Leona did the same but almost slid on the slippery sleet and managed to catch herself on the wall adjacent to her. “Here we are.”

The tactician only noticed they were on another completely different street when they stopped. Unlike the fancy entrance with carved wooden double doors, the back of the building was made with a more practical purpose in mind rather than appearances. Wooden boxes were stacked against the wall under a large tarp to protect its contents from the weather, the spacious street were mostly filled with what seemed to be cargo from a myriad of different places as each stack of crates were slightly different from each other in the way they were constructed.

“Woah… what are all of these?”

“Just materials for engine production. Most of these crates are empty due to the blockage of export items. For some ungodly reason they decided to do that now of all the times.” Athena sighed deeply. “Anyway, follow me and be careful where you step, sometimes there are pieces on the ground and whatnot so don’t trip.”

The inventor reached for the lock that held the workshop door and lifted up. As she did, Leona saw a large amount of metal parts and schematics pinned against the far wall sized cork board, it was an impressive sight, it reminded her much of the time she spent looking at the strategic plans her mother and father used to put in practice in the war room back at the mansion to teach her basic army formations.

On her immediate right, there were tables with similar mechanisms she saw back in the other workshop but it seemed to be already in production as there were tools lying around a half finished engine.

“So Athena, where are we exactly?”

“This is the ‘main’ workshop so to speak. We make the engines and a few other things that are used by the Londrian army.” She pointed to the left side of the building and there were countless firearms hanging on the wall while many others scattered around different tables with many tools lying around the general vicinity. “I work both as a mentor and chief of the firearms production line over there. Thankfully today’s a day off so many of the people that would be crowding this place are at home.”

“Wait, so then why are you working?”

“Well… let’s say a direct order refrains me from taking my days off, but it’s fine. This time we are certain this engine can work for a flying vessel. To which I say, huzzah! I finally made an impact in the creation of something other than weapons.” While she was trying to force herself to smile, there was a sense of tension in her words. “Nevertheless, we are short of materials and manpower for this endeavor so you Leo, as the only mage I know, I’d like to have you help us run a few tests and if possible and also help me gather some valuable materials from a private mine not far from the capital.”

“Huh? Wait… we are going out in this cold?”

“I can arrange you some better clothing.” She looked at Leona from head to toe and noticed the various shredded bits of cloth hanging around her clothing. “I’m sure you’ll need it.”

“Oh… you two are here already.” A very tired Lawrence stood up from behind a few boxes stacked near one of the tables that had a half finished engine on top. “Huh… I, ah. Now I remember, Leona I have a few inquiries regarding the manafication engine. Could you entertain a few of my questions?”

The tactician was somewhat worried for his health as both his hair and glasses were tangled together in a way only going through a storm would be able to achieve that result.

“Sure. Don’t you want to take a bit of time for yourself though? You seem tired.”

“No, I'll see this to the end before I actually fall asleep. I just need more of my coffee.” He reached for the table and picked a thermic bottle but the moment he popped the lid open and tried to drink its contents, nothing but a single drop of cold coffee hit his tongue “Oh.”

Athena sighed.

“I’ll go make some more. Leo I hate to do this with you but could you find a suitable place to sit? I’ll be over in a minute.”

Leona nodded before going off to find a place they could sit and talk in the messy workshop.

‘I wonder what Phoebe is up to…’ She glanced at one of the small windows that allowed a bit of the weak sunlight to reach inside. ‘I hope she doesn’t get into any trouble.’