"Ah Ha! I finally get to meet the infamous Sir Reed Demonslayer!"

 

Ryan glanced over as the loud exclamation caught his attention. It came from a tall man with short grey hair, a short grey beard, and matching steel grey eyes. A man in his late thirties, he wore a fine dark blue outfit befitting a count. Smiling broadly, the man approached Ryan with hand outstretched, "It's about time I got to meet my benefactor." Ryan turned to meet the offered handshake in turn.

 

Grasping firmly, Ryan responded, "I'm sorry. You are...?"

 

"Count Colfur Cornwold." He shook energetically, "You have been a godsend for my county."

 

Ryan pulled his hand away slowly as he stared off into the distance, "Cornwold... OH! Yes. Where we set up the cannery! How's that been going?"

 

The count smiled broadly, "Brilliantly! Oh, yes, the lightning elementalist is constantly complaining about wanting time off. I feel sorry for him, considering he is the linch pin. However, we just got that enchanted forge that you sent, so we can give him some time off."

 

Ryan nodded, "Ah. It's working out? I wasn't sure if it would."

 

Colfur slapped Ryan on the arm and looked around, "He wasn't sure!" He laughed heartily, "Output has improved by a factor of ten! We're having that thing work around the clock now!" He sighed, "I could use about ten more forges like the one you sent us. We simply cannot make enough of that miracle metal."

 

Morgan had been slowly approaching to listen in. At that last statement, he interjected, "Miracle metal?"

 

The count looked over at the prince and bowed, "Your highness! A pleasure to meet you!" He straightened up, "Reed here calls it a luminum. It's lightweight, easy to work, remarkably flexible, and more importantly..." He paused to nod slowly, "It doesn't rust!"

 

Ryan added, "Aluminum. One word." He turned to Morgan, "It doesn't have much use in a military sense currently, but it has amazing application for food preservation."

 

The count looked at Ryan and laughed, "This boy! So humble!" He shook his head, "It's a miracle metal! If you put food in a normal iron can, especially if you add salt, said can would rust and the food would become inedible in a matter of hours." He raised a finger, "But this Luminum made from lightning-"

 

Ryan interrupted, "It is PROCESSED with lightning, not made from it."

 

The count looked at Ryan, "I stand corrected." He turned back to Morgan, "Processed with lightning, it is perfect! We've opened cans of food from months ago and the food is still as fresh as when we canned it in the first place." He looked back at Ryan, "In fact, I would say the beef stew you suggested tastes even better after it had aged for a few months."

 

Ryan looked a little surprised, "Really."

 

Morgan looked back and forth between the two, "How long would you say the food is good for?"

 

"Theoretically? I'd say four years, if the process is done correctly." Ryan explained, "Making sure the food goes in at the proper temperature and is one hundred percent sterilized before the can is sealed is the key to longevity."

 

The count snapped his fingers, "Actually, we've solved that." Ryan looked at Colfur, "Really?" The count nodded, "You aren't the only genius in the country. My son took your 'assembly line' concept and has been working on it for months now. We've completely used up our surplus of cans. The choke point is the manufacturing of the metal."

 

He raised a hand up and held up two fingers barely not touching each other, "That earth elementalist the king recommended figured out a way to make the cans even thinner to save on metal." Ryan frowned, "You know, we discussed this. The cans need some thickness to maintain ridgity."

 

The count nodded, "Yes, but remember your 'card board' project? Well, we figured out how to use the stalks from the corn my county makes to make pulp for paper. Rather than using trees as you suggested. Yes, the quality is lower, but we don't need it to be that strong." The count started gesturing as if holding a can, "Wrap the can up in a coating of your corrugated cardboard and it's so much more resistant to dents and being punctured."

 

Ryan looked surprised, "I never thought of that."

 

The count smiled, "We only need the metal for the inside. We hope to exceed our quota!"

 

Morgan interrupted, "Quota? What quota?"

 

Ryan looked back at Morgan, "An army travels on its stomach. The goal here is to stockpile years of food. The stew I suggested is heavy on fat, electrolytes, and corn starch. Not that appealing to eat, but everything a fighting man needs to march miles and have the energy to engage in battle."

 

The count nodded, "And the amazing thing is, we were losing so much food to spoilage and rot that now that we can store all this food for the future, we aren't actually decreasing the amount of food that goes to market!" He raised a finger, "In fact..." he looked at Ryan out of the corner of his eye.

 

Ryan looked back, a little puzzled, "What?"

 

"We did a test run with your suggested fertilizer." He grinned, "I've never seen so much corn in my life. The harvest is going to be amazing! I'm so glad you created that harvester. We wouldn't have the manpower without it." He looked at Morgan, "I'm going to have to talk to your father about exporting the surplus. Expect food prices to drop dramatically this year. We have so much food, if we didn't have the cannery, we'd have to leave half of it rot in the field."

 

He snapped his head around to look at Ryan, "Speaking of! I wanted to ask..." He looked around for a second, then leaned in closer to Ryan, "I happen to LOVE fresh fish, but we live so far from the coast, getting fish that doesn't taste like the bottom of my boot is impossible. The local fish you can catch are so boney, you have to pulveritze the damn thing or risk eating a punctured stomach.  I know you were talking about something like a... what was it you called it... Refrigerator box... car?"

 

Ryan held up his hands, "I really want to push the train project next, but we just don't have enough iron in the country to justify the expense." He thought for a moment, "But... if you are willing to pay in advance... I could refit the Zeppelin to carry a small load of frozen fish and have it delivered to you." He sighed and his face fell as he remembered something unpleasant, "It's not like I'm using it for anything."

 

"Oh!" Ryan snapped his fingers, "I almost forgot." He raised his arm up high, held out four fingers with his thumb tucked into his palm, swung his arm around in a wide circle, then brought his arm down in a chopping motion. Across the yard where the servants were waiting, Charity responded by holding up her fist then bringing it down sharply.

 

She arrived shortly thereafter carrying a wooden box. It was obviously high quality, well polished and stained black. The lock on it wasn't anything that anyone had seen before. It was a series of numbers on tumblers. Ryan took the box and fiddled with the rollers setting them to all zeroes. He offered the box, "The instructions for resetting the lock is inside." Morgan took the box and eyed it with some trepidation.

Ryan just smiled, "Happy birthday. You're gonna want to take your coat off and roll up your sleeves." Morgan walked over to a nearby table and put the box down. He carefully pushed on the button under the numbers and a series of clicking sounds went off. The box slowly opened on its own.

 

 

 

Like a music box, it started to play a tune.