Chapter 1121: The Most Genius Invention
Simbady looked at Rex the way he looked at all Fjords people now — with the specific wariness of someone who had watched too many of them turn a friendly opening into a loss.
Mojins had been cheated before. Everyone at the Iron Sand City knew it. Fjords merchants were sailors first and merchants second and everything else not at all — clever, peripatetic, and oriented entirely toward profit. The Festive Harbor’s recent troubles had been a practical education on the subject. You did not let your guard down.
“Are you done?” he said. “I’m busy. Talk to someone else.”
He glanced at Mulley — the come on, let’s go glance — and she didn’t take it.
“Hold on!” Rex said quickly. “I’ll pay gold royals regardless of the result.”
“Simbady.” Mulley put her hand on his arm. “Let him finish. I find it interesting. He doesn’t look like a fraud.”
His heart did something inconvenient. He said, “But — ”
“Ten gold royals,” Rex said. His voice had shifted into the rapid, pressured clarity of a man who had one chance to make his case. “I just need the exact location. That’s the whole ask. And here — ” He produced a coin and held it forward. “Deposit. Right now. Help me, and I’ll pay twenty more. Thirty total.”
Simbady looked at the coin.
Thirty gold royals. That was ten years of work at his current salary, compressed into whatever information Rex needed from him. Fjords merchants never paid upfront. That was one of the rules everyone knew.
“I’d like to buy some new clothes for the children in the clan,” Mulley said, not quite making a face, but making something with her eyes that Simbady had never been able to say no to.
He took the coin. “Fine. But if you’re running a game on us — ”
“You won’t lose anything,” Rex said at once. “Questions only. That’s all.” He flipped the gold royal over in his fingers before releasing it. “No better deal exists.”
Simbady pocketed it. “What do you want to know? And why are you with Mulley? And what does ‘improving the reputation’ mean?”
“From the beginning,” Rex said, and cleared his throat. He had the manner of a man about to deliver a prepared talk. “As we walk. First question: what do you think of the sea?”
Simbady looked at the water. “It’s the mother of Three Gods. The cradle of everything.” He paused. “It’s volatile.”
“I find it mysterious,” Mulley said. Her voice had that particular brightness it got when she was thinking about something. “Nobody knows how wide it is, how deep. There are still places in the Southernmost Region no one has set foot. It could take a thousand years to explore it all.”
“You’re both right,” Rex said. “But Fjords people see it as a treasury.” He was warming to it now, the words coming faster. “Wrecks on the seafloor. Lost ruins. Gold and silver that’s been sitting down there for centuries, and nothing guarding it. Whoever brings it up is the richest person in the world.”
“You make it sound simple,” Simbady said. “The ocean itself is the obstacle. You’d need to breathe underwater like a fish.”
Rex pointed at him. “Exactly. That’s the problem. And the Society of Wondrous Crafts exists to make impossible things possible.” The excitement in him was unmistakable now, and Simbady noticed, almost against his will, that it didn’t look like the excitement of someone running a scheme. It looked like the excitement of someone who had actually built something. “We’re not explorers. But we can do what explorers do — no, we’ll exceed what explorers do, because we solve the problem at the root.”
“I’m not following — ”
Rex lowered his voice. “A diving suit. I call it that. With it, a man can stay underwater as long as he wants. Like a fish.”
Simbady stared at him.
“I found them testing it at the beach,” Mulley said. “They were staying under far longer than any person should be able to. That’s when I went to ask.”
So Mulley approached him. Something sour in Simbady’s stomach. He swallowed it.
“I was testing the suit for several days before she noticed,” Rex continued. “It works. It will change the salvage industry entirely. Right now, deep-sea recovery is almost pure luck. With this suit, it becomes a craft anyone can learn.” He looked at Simbady directly. “But I need to find something good before anyone else does. Something that will catch the King of Graycastle’s attention.”
“If you’ve already succeeded, why do you need me?”
Rex paused. “Because the suit needs visibility. King Roland’s campaign for extraordinary discoveries — an honorary title for whoever brings him something genuinely remarkable. Once I have that, everyone will want my invention.” He balled one fist. “But I need the right find. Something the king hasn’t already catalogued. Mulley told me you once saw a cave — at the base of the cliffs. Light reflecting off water on a moonless night. I want to know where it is.”
The cave at the cliff base. Simbady had almost forgotten he’d mentioned that.
“I saw it,” he said. “It’s only visible when the water recedes. The sea is several meters deep there, and I don’t know how far the cave runs. It might just be jellyfish.”
“I’ll pay you whether we find anything or not,” Rex said.
They had arrived at a stretch of beach beyond the harbor. A knot of people waited there — sailors, Rex explained, hired only for errands, no involvement in the actual test. At the center of the group stood two others: a man with a distinctive eye-covering and a woman in a distinctive hat. Rex’s two assistants. Members of the Society of Wondrous Crafts.
Between them, laid out on the sand: the suit.
Simbady had expected something. He had not expected a metal helmet the size of a man’s torso, connected to a leather body-suit by a collar seal. Two rubber hoses sprouted from the helmet’s crown like the antennae of a large crustacean — impossibly long, their far ends connected to a black iron machine that Simbady recognized from Neverwinter ships.
A steam engine.
“Is that…” he started.
“The diving suit,” Rex said, with the exact tone of someone who had waited his whole life to say those words. “My most ingenious invention.”
Chapter 1121: The Most Genius Invention Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
“Huh?” Simbady twitched his lips, staring at Rex suspiciously. Even a clansman from a small tribe like him knew that Fjords people were notorious for their craftiness and trickery. They were all cunning merchants expert in sailing, who had an insatiable lust for money.
Many Mojins in the Iron Sand City had been scammed by Fjords merchants, so every Sand National knew they had to be extremely careful when dealing with them. Their stereotrype of Fjords people was further confirmed by what had happened in the Festive Harbor. Simbady did not believe a single word Rex was saying. He said gruffly, “Are you done? I’m busy here. Go talk to someone else!”
With these words, Simbady cast Mulley a glance, eyeing her to come with him.
“Hold on!” Rex said immediately. “I’ll pay gold royals to you, regardless of the result.”
“Simbady, just let him finish,” Mulley said, grasping his hand. “I find it very interesting. He doesn’t look like a fraud.”
Simbady felt his heart pumping in his throat violently as Mulley touched him. He said hesitantly, “But…”
“Ten gold royals! As long as you tell me the exact location, I’ll pay you ten gold royals!” Rex said breathlessly. To show he was not lying, he produced one gold royal from his pocket and proclaimed, “This is the deposit! If you could help me, I’ll pay 20 more. How about that?”
Simbady was stiffened for a second. It was unusual for a Fjords merchant to pay upfront, let alone paying 30 gold royals in total. Simbady quickly revolved the idea in his head. It would probably take him at least ten years to earn such a large sum of money with his current salary.
“I also want to buy some new clothes for the children in the clan…” Mulley said imploringly while blinking her big sparkling eyes.
Unable to turn down Mulley’s request, Simbady agreed resignedly, “I see. OK then. But if you dare scam us…”
“You won’t lose anything,” Rex confirmed quickly and tossed the gold royal at Simbady. “You just need to answer some questions of mine, and that’s it. There’s no better deal than this.”
Simbady now saw how Fjords merchants tricked people. He caught the gold royal and asked, “What do you want to know from me? Why are you with Mulley? What do you mean by improving the reputation?”
“I have to start from the beginning,” Rex said on a clearing throat. “Let’s talk as we go. First, what do you think of the sea?”
“What do I think of the sea?” Simbady echoed. “It’s the mother of Three Gods, the cradle of everything, and it’s… volatile.”
“I find it mysterious,” Mulley said brightly. “Nobody knows how broad and how deep it is. There are a lot of places in the Southernmost Region not trodden by human beings yet. It may take us more than 1,000 years to fully explore the sea.”
“You’re both right. However, Fjords people view it as a treasury.” Rex said smilingly, “There are numerous treasures down at the bottom of the sea, including tons of gold and silver royals, and the lost ancient ruin. Nobody is guarding them. They’re just waiting for us to salvage. I won’t be surprised if someone gets rich overnight. That means the one who gets the treasures will be the richest person in the world!”
“You sound it so simple,” Simbady shot back contemptuously. “Nobody’s guarding them? The ocean itself is a huge obstacle. How can you dive to the bottom of the sea as freely as a fish?”
“That’s right. That’s exactly what our problem is!” Rex replied in excitement. “The mission of the Society of Wondrous Crafts is to make everything impossible possible. This time, I want to show everyone that the Society of Wondrous Crafts isn’t an organization of nutters, and certainly not an organization of cravens! Although we aren’t explorers, we can do just as well as them… No, we’ll do better than them!”
“I don’t quite follow you — ”
“A great invention.” Rex revealed his secret anxiously. “I call it a ‘diving suit’. With this, men can stay under water as long as they want like a fish!”
“What?” Simbady exclaimed in dismay.
“I found them stay under water for quite a while when I went picking shells at the beach. They stayed there for more than a person normally can,” Mulley rejoined. “That’s why I went to ask him what they were doing.”
” So it’s Mulley who talked to him first… ” Simbady thought, feeling a bitter jolt in his stomach.
“I was very surprised at the beginning, because I know Sand Nationals fear and respect the sea,” Rex continued. “I’ve been testing this diving suit for several days. It’s been working really well. Needless to say, this will change the entire salvage industry. A job that used to highly depend on luck now become an adventure everybody could participate in!”
“Since you’ve already succeeded, why did you ask for my help?” Simbady asked in bewilderment, trying to suppress his disappointment and jealousy.
“Ahem… the thing is, Mr. Simbady… that this diving suit just needs a little bit of exposure. We can take advantage of King Roland’s campaign to advertise it. That’s why I need to get some real good stuff before anyone else — something that will catch the King of Graycastle’s attention,” Rex said
while clenching his fist. “Once I’m granted the honorary title, thousands of people will jockey for my invention!”
He broke off at this point and then continued, “But I don’t know where the treasures are. His Majesty’s post doesn’t indicate what exactly he wants. Technically, anything strange or insteresting is fine. Apparently, the king won’t be interested in any random thing. He doesn’t want to collect the crap you would normally find at the beach or in the corals, so we don’t know where to go. All we can do now is to slowly search along the beach. Then I saw Miss Mulley, and I had a ray of hope. She told me you saw a strange cave once. You saw water reflect off light on a moonless night. I want to know where it is!”
In other words, these Fjords people came here because of the chief? Simbady said irritably, “I did see it. It’s at the bottom of the cliff. The cave is only visible when water recedes. Having said that, the seawater is several meters deep, and nobody knows exactly how deep it is. It might only be an ordinary cave, and the light may be just a bunch of jellyfish.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll still pay you even if we don’t find anything,” Rex returned.
They had just reached a beach beyond the port.
There was a knot of people.
“Those are the sailors I recruited who have nothing to do with the test. They only run errands for me,” Rex explained. “I only have two assistants: Eyemask and Tophat. They’re also members of the Society of Wondrous Crafts.”
Simbady thought they had really strange names. He swept over the man and the woman at the center of the crowd and finally fixed his eyes onto the strange suit in front of them.
The suit had a huge metal helmet that did not coordinate with the rest of the outfit. The top and the bottom parts were connected, making it very hard to wear. The most distinctive feature was two tubes sticking out of the helmet
which reminded Simbady of two shrimp tassels. They were incredibly long, with the ends connected to a large black machine.
Simbady had seen the same machine on Neverwinter ships before. Sailors called it a steam engine.
“Is this what you talked about…”
“Ah, yes,” Rex said self-importantly, “This is the ‘diving suit’, my most ingenious invention!”