Civilization Chronicles: Rise of the Divine Creator

Once dinner and dessert were finished, Louise headed to the bathhouse, where she proceeded to wash off the sweat of the day and cool off from the late-summer heat.

The Second Queen, her Mother Natasha, had already build several of these showers in the palace and even a couple bathhouses in the city. She had also been vigorously promoting their use, so Louise was already familiar with how to operate the showers and with the scented soaps and shampoos made available.

The facilities here weren’t nearly as grand or ornate as the ones in the palace, but they were extremely convenient, which was something the highly-practical First Princess appreciated.

When she was a child, Louise had always found bathing to be bothersome, especially when several maids were needed to fuss over her. At some point, though, she had gotten used to it, but with the advent of showers, she never wanted to return to the time when it took 3 people working together just for her feel clean again.

Louise’s room in Disciples House was smaller than the one she used in the palace, but larger than the one she slept in at the headquarters of the Golden Flower Chamber of Commerce, the trade company she had founded. As such, she didn’t really find it inconvenient.

After dismissing her servants and assistants, Louise spent a little while writing in her journal about all of today’s experiences.

As for what came next, the First Princess didn’t really know.

She was told that there was something her Aunt Celestina needed her help with and that it might take several months or even a few years.

Louise didn’t want to spend so long away from her still relatively new trade company, but while her father had phrased it like a request, she knew that it was actually an order, so she had tried to look on the positive side of things.

Her jewelry business was in its infancy stage, and the vast majority of her suppliers and buyers were natives of her home country, which was limiting her potential for growth.

Misty City, on the other hand, was a major trade port where merchants from both the Darr Kingdom and the countries further to the east first arrived in Rockwell Kingdom. This assignment might be an inconvenience, but it was also an opportunity. If Louise could secure a few deals with foreign traders and establish some new markets for her products, then spending a year or two away from the capital probably wouldn’t be too big a deal.

On top of that, there was... a certain reason she didn’t want to be in Rockwell City right now, so having an excuse to get away was actually something of a relief to Louise.

"If only Tina was also here, that would have been better," Louise mused to herself.

Despite Louise being the eldest, while Tina was the youngest, they were probably the closest pair among their numerous siblings. Perhaps the vast difference in their ages actually allowed them to feel more comfortable around each other, or perhaps it was just that their personalities meshed well.

Whatever the case, Louise was actually quite defensive of Christina and doted on her a lot. The fact that she was here, but her little sister was actually gone, deployed as part of the military to Amherst, was something the First Princess was quite disappointed about.

"Well, she’s supposed to be back before the end of the year, so I suppose I’ll just have to be patient," Louise sighed before closing her journal, turning off the Spirit Lamp, and slipping into bed.

There were a great many things she was still wondering about, like what her real purpose in Misty City was, what kind of task was she going to be assigned by Marquess Balfour, what other strange and wonderful things had her little sister’s boyfriend come up with, and so on and so forth.

At least I won’t be lacking for distractions, Louise thought to herself, imaging that she would probably be quite busy in the coming days.

The poor princess had no idea how right she was on that count.

.....

Sitting in his room, Lucas was reviewing his plans for the new few months, and as usual, there was a huge number of things he had to get done.

Projects that were demanding his attention, research that needed to be conducted, businesses that had to be managed, training that had to be completed...

It was a wonder he was getting any rest at all given how busy his schedule currently was.

Today, for example, had been another whirlwind of activity.

Between troubleshooting the new boilers for the next generation of steam engine and trying to increase production of precision harvester parts, Lucas had spent the morning buried in industrial projects.

Insufficient supplies of iron and other metals was becoming a more noticeable problem, but there was very little Lucas could do in that regard.

He had already shipped a pair of LBM Mark 1’s to Torren Ridge where Marco and Adam were overseeing their installation along with a makeshift mine-cart system. This would help to improve mining efficiency, but it didn’t solve the refining problem.

Unfortunately, Lucas’ inherited memories didn’t seem to contain much useful information in this regard, possibly because the smelting industries of the Rockwell Kingdom were just too primitive, or possibly because his benefactor from the other universe simply hadn’t learned much about metallurgy.

Whatever the case, it seemed Lucas would either have to depend on others, like Spirit Smith Eda, to figure something out.

"Either that, or I could ask the Royal Ancestor for help," Lucas mused.

The Kore Sovereignty apparently had much more advanced iron refining technology, but the question was, how could he acquire it?

Glass-making was another important industry Lucas wanted that was well developed in the Sovereignty but basically non-existent in the Rockwell Kingdom.

Then, of course, there was imbi oil for his soaps and shampoos.

And, most importantly, only in the Kore Sovereignty could Eris’ arm be fully restored.

"Looks like we’ll need to make a trip there at some point in the future," Lucas decided, though he knew it wouldn’t be that simple, at least not with all the issues still needing to be dealt with in the kingdom.

Just as he was letting his mind wander a bit, a faint knock on his door brought Lucas back to reality and caused him to glance over at the corner of his room where a tall mechanical contraption was producing a quiet ticking sound.

The pendulum clock he and Braxton had attempted to make was pretty inaccurate, which wasn’t surprising seeing how neither of them really knew what they were doing, but it worked well enough for Lucas to understand it was already after midnight.

That being said, who could be knocking at his door so late?