Chloe's entire diary froze, its pages trembling slightly.
"Are there still illiterate people in Castel?"
Castel had carried out universal education so many times that no one even knew how many anymore. Forget basic literacy—most people had even completed advanced classes.
But Machine Souls... really had no such requirement.
"What would Machine Souls need literacy for? As long as the stokers can read, they can please the Machine Souls, control the machines, Machine Souls, Machine Souls..."
Theus stopped halfway through.
"Wait, wouldn't it be good for Machine Souls to learn how to read too?"
"Exactly!"
"If Machine Souls could read, maintenance wouldn't require so much manpower. Just let the machines follow the maintenance manuals and do it themselves." Theus stroked his chin, his eyes gradually lighting up.
"And they could monitor the production lines themselves. Engineers would only need to tell the Machine Souls the relevant procedures, and the Machine Souls would work overtime on their own."
"Hiss... That makes sense. If people can work overtime, why can't machines?"
"Exactly!"
Nini looked somewhat worried. "Wouldn't the Machine Souls rebel if we pushed them too hard?"
"Impossible, absolutely impossible. Machine Souls are the spirits of machines, and machines were made to work. If you round it off, Machine Souls were born to work overtime. We're merely doing what suits their nature!"
Theus could not help applauding in admiration. "As expected of a cult leader. You really are good at bewitching people's hearts... machine hearts."
"Not at all, not at all."
"Then I'll assign you a self-propelled cannon. Start with that one and teach it to read first."
"I wouldn't dare... Wait a minute!" Chloe suddenly realized. "You want me to teach a cannon how to read?"
She had finally come up with an idea, so how had it ended up backfiring