Chapter 509: Gawain’s Alternative Plan
After pinpointing the source of the problem, the next steps were a series of repairs, redesigns, assembly, and testing…
Thanks to the super-precise, god-tier lathe known as Nicholas, everything proceeded at lightning speed—basically, it took only a minute or two from designing a part to producing the actual piece, which could then be installed into the machine.
Watching the mechanical scholars and mage technicians bustling around the platform, retesting the entire system, Hetty couldn’t help but shake her head and sigh. “Rebecca… that girl is way too impulsive. She should have done thorough testing before reporting back to you.”
“I told her to come to me as soon as she had a prototype,” Gawain said with a smile, watching Rebecca dart among the experts, occasionally barking out orders. “Of course, a more rigorous testing process and formal regulations are definitely the future for the R&D department. That’s up to Rebecca’s future work… but so far, she’s doing pretty well.”
Even Hetty, who was usually very strict with Rebecca (though strictness hadn’t really worked), had no argument. She gazed from afar at Rebecca, who was completely absorbed in the mechanical world, and after a long pause, sighed softly, “Yeah… she’s really done well. And she’s trained so many talented apprentices. If someone had told me two years ago that Rebecca could achieve all this, I would have thought they were trying to scam me.”
“There are many talented people in this world, but not everyone finds a place to truly shine. Fortunately, Cecil can offer these people opportunities. So our next step is to attract more capable individuals to join these projects,” Gawain said, then asked, “How’s the recruitment and training going lately?”
“A large number of craftsmen and low-level supernaturals or apprentices have responded to the government’s call. The fact that the Cecil family has unified the southern territories gives them confidence, and new publicity methods help draw them out from all over. But turning these people into qualified mechanical scholars and mage technicians will take a long time… Their skill levels vary widely, they come from different schools of thought, and they lack a standard industrial mindset. Recruiting a thousand apprentices takes just three days, but training them to work in factories takes nearly half a year. Getting them into labs is even harder—mostly relying on talent, with a pass rate below ten percent,” Hetty said with a worried expression. “Like you said, to truly solve the talent shortage, we have to expand basic education—only schools can mass-produce high-quality, standardized talent like factories produce goods.”
Gawain knew what Hetty was about to say next and nodded slightly. “But right now, we don’t have enough schools… not enough teachers, and not even enough government staff to figure out how schools should operate, right?”
“Exactly. The gap is so huge it’s almost hopeless. We can build houses faster by working overtime, and if machines aren’t enough, we can use manpower. But training teachers… that can’t be rushed,” Hetty frowned, her tone serious. “After the industrial printing press was introduced, we finally solved the textbook shortage, but there still aren’t enough teachers. The junior teachers recruited from the public basically only know spelling and basic arithmetic that can be used in schools…”
She paused, then continued, “Right now, the biggest shortage is teachers who can teach basic runology, mage industrial knowledge, Cecil social studies, and integrated thinking. These are all new fields. Teachers have to study for half a year before they can barely teach others, and even then, they have to keep taking classes themselves because new knowledge keeps emerging.”
This was one of the most serious problems facing the expanded Cecil territories—one that couldn’t be “solved quickly.” The entire southern region was building numerous general education schools centered around four new industrial cities plus Cecil’s main city, arranged along cross-shaped axes. But every school faced a severe teacher shortage. The government had thrown massive resources into recruiting enough literacy and arithmetic teachers, but anything more complex…
Who outside Cecil City even knew what mage industry was? Who understood the full Cecil legal system? Who could teach runology?
Beyond these seemingly specialized courses, social studies was also a huge problem. In most areas outside Cecil City, people didn’t even know how to turn on winter heating, how to use a magic crystal lamp, how to operate water pumps for irrigation, or how to use threshers…
When these new technologies were introduced, the first problem was that ordinary people were too afraid to use them. Those who dared didn’t know how, and those who knew didn’t trust the machines. For every ten people the government sent to install water pumps in the fields, they had to send another ten to go around convincing people that the pumps wouldn’t eat them…
And the government itself was short-staffed.
Gawain sighed softly.
In this land of untapped potential, where brute force alone could establish authority, as the founding hero with the greatest power and prestige, it was easy for him to found a principality—but building that principality? That was a whole different story.
He could establish a nation in a year, but governing it would take many years…
Though the problems were tough, they weren’t unsolvable. The hard time costs might not be compressible, but just as slime excrement could serve as a rubber substitute, some “alternative solutions” could bypass, or at least partially circumvent, the current difficulties.
Gawain looked up at Rebecca, who was happily bustling in the crowd, and said slowly, “There is a way to rapidly spread knowledge even when educational staff are insufficient.”
Hetty’s eyes lit up immediately. The wise ancestor did not disappoint—she had a solution so quickly. She eagerly asked, “You mean…”
“Remote education,” Gawain said. “Using the mage network to deliver knowledge.”
Thanks to the unique development path of mage technology, and the world’s own technological accumulation—who would have thought that in a society structured like the Middle Ages, a remote holographic communication network could appear even before highways?
Hetty was smart; she just hadn’t thought in this direction before. With Gawain’s slight hint, she instantly understood the ancestor’s intention.
“This is…” Her breath quickened. “This method is brilliant!”
“Don’t get too excited. I’m not sure how effective it will be,” Gawain cautioned, calming the slightly overenthusiastic Hetty. “Let’s first try adding an ‘education’ program to the mage network broadcasts—live-streaming general school courses. Also, organize a team—pull some people from the general schools—to compile basic essential knowledge like social studies, record it on crystal recordings, and broadcast it on a regular loop. Additionally, publish books covering these topics, focusing on how to farm, build houses, and use mage machines, then distribute them throughout the region.”
Currently, the overall literacy rate in the southern territories might not be high enough for people to learn from these books on their own, and most ordinary people lacked the motivation to study proactively. But after next year’s harvest, those who actively learned new knowledge and responded to the government’s efforts would reap real benefits. The “benchmark effect” would then kick in, greatly boosting the motivation of ordinary people to learn. Waiting until then to rush the preparation of teaching materials would waste at least a year of “golden time,” so Gawain wanted to prepare in advance.
“Yes,” Hetty nodded immediately. “I’ll have Mr. Gawain and Mr. Santis organize the personnel for this.”
A clanking mechanical noise came from nearby, interrupting their conversation.
After a team of technicians made urgent adjustments and Rebecca ran a quick test, the previously stalled mage carriage started up again and came to a smooth stop near Gawain.
“Ancestor! Look! It’s running again!” Rebecca called out happily from the simple driver’s seat, one hand on the steering wheel, the other pulling a lever. “And look, I just had Mr. Nicholas add a bell to warn other vehicles and pedestrians…”
As she spoke, she yanked a lever beside the steering wheel, and a drum-like device on the side of the carriage began to spin, producing a loud, clanging racket of steel plates hitting each other.
The noise was far more grating than the carriage itself. Hetty immediately covered her ears. “Turn that thing off! Did you install it just to torture people’s ears?”
But the viscountess was clearly proud of her invention. “But now the driver won’t have to shout like a coachman to warn pedestrians to get out of the way!”
“I think the noise your carriage makes is already enough to let everyone know where it is,” Hetty complained, rubbing her aching ears. “My goodness… you came up with a new torture device in just a few dozen minutes…”
“Is it really that noisy?” Rebecca scratched her head. “I thought it was pretty handy—much smaller than the bells in mechanical clocks…”
Gawain watched their exchange with a wry smile. Honestly, he hadn’t realized the prototype mage carriage had no horn—if Rebecca hadn’t had the idea, the world’s first mechanical car would have relied on the driver shouting to warn pedestrians and other vehicles. But on the other hand, he agreed that Rebecca’s new “warning bell” was a bit too loud…
“This device is useful, but you should try to optimize the noise. If that’s not possible, use an airbag connected to a copper tube to make a horn—that’d be better than stuffing a bunch of steel plates and hammers into a drum,” Gawain said with a smile. “You can get down now—I have something to tell you.”
“Oh,” Rebecca jumped down immediately. “What is it?”
“We want to teach basic knowledge about mage machines to ordinary people,” Gawain said. “The very basics—what repulsion devices are, what mage engines are, how mage furnaces work, and so on.”
Rebecca blinked. “Oh, I know that! The General Academy has courses on that, and I’ve even taught some!”
Hetty stepped forward and tidied the girl’s messy hair. “But now we need to teach these things to more people… so go wash your hair first!”
(I’m about to recommend another book! It’s a supernatural novel called Drank This Bowl of Meng Po’s Soup. I’ve recommended it once before—it’s surprisingly still going strong and might even be getting a new release soon. After some thought… I’m recommending it again. Stories that don’t burn out after one boost often have something special in the sequels, and this one is a niche supernatural tale worth looking forward to. Haha.)
(End of chapter)