From east to west, from south to north.
Liszt took A Ke riding the Landwalker Loki and swiftly toured Black Horse Island, admiring every thriving town hard at work, as well as the increasingly orderly plantations and workshops.
"This is white paper. Its quality has only just barely reached the standard for writing, but the process still needs further improvement. Once the process is truly refined, it will be the age when white paper replaces Parchment. This technology will become an important pillar industry after I found my nation."
A Ke stroked the whitened paper. "It's amazing. Just bark and straw can be turned into paper that looks even better than Parchment."
"Of course. Magic may be miraculous, but technology is also a force that cannot be ignored."
"Mm. Brother has said many times that once the power of steam is developed, it will change the whole world."
Liszt had spoken of the Industrial Revolution, of how Watt's invention of the steam engine had sparked the eighteenth-century Industrial Revolution. Naturally, he had presented it as speculation and a vision: "Rio is an Elemental Dragon and cannot produce gems or metals, so developing industry with his super-magic is the fastest way to turn its value into reality."
Actually, that was not the fastest way—the fastest way was to plunder, to launch a Pioneer Order, just as the Sapphire Grand Duke had done.
If the industrial impact of white paper was still rather faint, more like a handicraft workshop—
Then when they visited the glass workshop, A Ke saw stones transformed under the scorching Fire Dragon super-magic into liquid like balls of flame, then taken out by workers, stretched, processed, and slowly cooled into different glass vessels. The impact on her was tremendous; for the first time, she felt the immense potential