Chapter 188 – A Desert of Magic

After passing by the noble district, Louie and Sisna arrived in front of two newly built houses. From the designs, he could tell that they were among the selected houses that were rebuilt according to his instructions.

The owner of the house was a young man in his twenties. Although he had never seen Louie in his human form, he knew Sisna as one of the celebrities of Dragon City.

Beautiful elves were already sought after by everyone, let alone Sisna who was probably one of the top beauties among them. Even if they knew that there was an unbridgeable gap between them, men would always have unrealistic expectations and long for the cold and awe-inspiring elven ranger.

After seeing Sisna standing respectfully behind a young devilishly handsome man, the resident could faintly guess Louie’s identity. He carefully welcomed the two into his home.

For the city lord and Lady Sisna to enter his humble home, this resident felt that it was the greatest honor in his entire life.

Louie did not let out any excessive arrogance towards his own people. He did not need to pretend to be arrogant in front of mortals. The residents who lived close to the noble district were those that had made contributions to the city. He just slightly nodded at the nervous you man and brought Sisna to a brick construct.

“Eh? You actually have coal here?”

Sisna’s eyes moved to the corner of the room and noticed a pile of coal.

The resident hurriedly said, “Milady, the lord had ordered every family to store coal… We didn’t dare disobey the city lord’s orders, so every family collected some.

This young man knew how to read the mood. Since Louie did not disclose his identity, he did not point it out. As for why their lord had turned into a human, he thought that it must be one of those magical abilities of a dragon. After all, they were mysterious creatures.

“Very good. I like people who can listen to orders.”

Louie gladly said. Even if there wasn’t any punishment for his orders, the resident still obeyed them. This meant that his prestige among the people had already reached an incredible level. Even if his orders were strange, the residents would still obey his orders.

“Are you planning to have them burn these?”

Sisna immediately guessed Louie’s thoughts and raised her eyebrows skeptically.

“That’s right. I had the people explore every inch of the city and found that there was a large coal mine on the north side. The place is very easy to mine. The San Soliel Mountain Range is really rich in resources,” said Louie.

“But these things called coal will produce poisonous gas when burned. If the poisoned person does not see a doctor or priest immediately, they will die. Coals are normally used by dwarves in the forge,” Sisna argued.

“I know what you are thinking Sisna and I have long considered this.”

Coal-burning caused carbon monoxide poisoning, but Louie did explain in detail. In any case, Sisna did not understand science.

“Coals burn faster than firewood, and you, elves are a race that loves nature.”

Hearing Louie’s words, Sisna was flattered and said, “I can’t thank you enough for thinking of us, but we elves are not unadaptable. Except for some druids, we do not mind if other races cut wood and dry them for heating. Even elves sometimes use firewood.”

Louie raised his hands to stop Sisna from continuing. Instead, he approached the brick structure and said, “This is a heatable brick bed. If you burn coal in it, the coal would produce heat. If you look inside it, you can see an exhaust that would discharge the poisonous gas outside. The entire thing is covered in bricks and smoothed with cement. By placing a mat on top, the heat will pass through and warm the person on it.”

“You, go call the people who are still at home. Then tell them to throw the coal and light it.”

Louie casually commanded the young man.

The young man moved quickly to call his neighbors. Some men and women in simple shabby outfits came into the house and threw the coals inside the brick bed and lit the fire under Louie’s watchful eyes.

“The fire is burning slowly.”

Louie frowned. He was dissatisfied with the speed at which the coal burned. He used his hand and cast a spell, causing the fire to spread.

The citizens of Dragon City showed fear and reverence. They trembled at the mysterious magical abilities of their lord and felt fear.

As the coal burned, Sisna could see that the poisonous gases were indeed being sent out through the exhaust just as Louie said. The house also gradually warmed up.

“Sit down for a try.”

Louie grabbed Sisna’s delicate jade-like arm.

Sitting on top of the brick bed, Sisna’s face was full of surprise. She revealed a look of joy and opened her mouth as she faintly whispered, “So comfortable.”

As her expression became slack, the citizens, regardless of gender, all looked down and blushed.

“It turns out that you have long planned ahead on how to deal with the cold winter and created such a magical thing.”

Sisna looked at Louie with admiration. She admired Louie’s wisdom of thinking of a way for the people to cope with the long cold winter in advance. It also showed that Louie was paying attention to the people.

“You really have the wisdom of a hundred dragons.”

Sisna sighed in awe. She was thoroughly convinced and developed a heartfelt admiration.

Louie’s original city design seemed incredible to Sisna. She never would have thought that there were such hidden secrets in the design. Perhaps there were many other things about the design that she did not know of.

“Praise the dragon, this is amazing.”

“The house has become warm all of a sudden.”

“And I was wondering what the use of the strange bed was. It turns out to be for winter.”

“The city lord is really as great as a God.”

The citizens of Dragon City looked at Louie with admiration. They whispered about Louie’s wisdom that could even cause the beautiful Sisna to slacken. There were even people whispering a prayer to Louie, allowing him to gather faith.

“This is just a minor thing that’s not worth mentioning.”

Louie casually waved his hand since this was just a borrowed idea.

However, Louie did not blush at all as he accepted the residents’ worship.

“Do you all know how to use it now?”

He looked at the residents.

“Yes, milord..”

“Very good. Then I will give you all a task. Teach everyone you know how to use the heatable brick bed. By the time winter comes, I hope everyone knows how to use it.”

“Yes, milord.”

Everyone knelt down respectfully.

“The cold inside the house had been solved, but everyone will need winter clothes to go out. It’s too late to make a large amount of winter clothing right now. It seems we might need to trade with other countries to make up the deficit.”

Louie murmured.

Then as if he suddenly thought of something, he asked, Sisna, is there any news on the black, sticky liquid that I asked you to look for?”

“Apologize, milord! I have never heard of that liquid before. Even after searching through the Elven Royal Library, I found nothing.”

“In other words, it does not exist?”

“Perhaps it does not exist in the main continent. As for other realms, I don’t know.”

Sisna said awkwardly.

“It’s good that it doesn’t exist…”

Louie muttered words that Sisna could not understand.

What he asked Sisna to find was naturally oil. Since oil did not exist in the world, it meant that San Soliel would not be able to use the same technology as Earth. The most famous development of technology was the creation of the steam engine, and oil was one of the most important components that could allow it to move.

Naturally, there might be some alternative in this world that Louie did not know yet.

But Louie believed that Earth was a desert of magic while San Soliel was a desert of technology.