Chapter 1278: A Historical Moment

A week later, two pieces of good news arrived together.

The first: Iron Axe had repelled the demons with napalm and held them back, at least temporarily. The commander-in-chief’s letter described the explosion with the careful precision of a man who still couldn’t fully account for what he’d witnessed. The blast had exceeded the test by a wide margin. This was not the first time in human history that fire had turned a battle — in the first Battle of Divine Will, they had torched forests at the rear, and the wildfire burned for days, dispersing the Red Mist above and buying the human forces a foothold. The demons had learned from it: after that war they systematically destroyed forests, meadows, and farms to deny future disruptions, then built small stone outposts within the Red Mist’s edge to maintain fighting capacity even when rear positions burned. Iron Axe and the General Staff had studied that history and built something new from it.

Napalm was portable. It burned in thin air, and water wouldn’t touch it. Roland hadn’t anticipated that a city-scale deployment would produce a detonation of that magnitude.

He wanted Summer to reconstruct the scene. If the mechanism could be isolated — precisely what had caused the chain reaction between the napalm and the Red Mist — there might be a way to replicate it deliberately, on a larger scale. But the Tusk City would be blanketed in Red Mist again by now. A second penetration was nearly impossible.

He also winced at the arithmetic: more than 500 barrels consumed in one engagement. Fuel itself was not the constraint — manpower scaled that up quickly enough. The bottleneck was the rubber worm slimes, which had to be mixed with animal blood, and only the Ministry of Agriculture could farm them. The supply line was narrow.

The refugees from this campaign were what mattered most. He wrote back to Iron Axe with uncharacteristic warmth and included a transfer order for another hundred barrels.

The second piece of news came from Anna.

The plant assembling the Fire of Heaven had completed the first biplane.

Roland was in the plant within the hour.

It had been built alongside the Aerial Academy, designed from the beginning for precision manufacturing rather than bulk production. The steam engine plant from two or three years ago was good honest industrial construction — slabs, bricks, function over form. This was something else: steel-framed, spacious enough to assemble and repair a dozen aircraft simultaneously, floor tiled with polished stone, illuminated well enough to work under at any hour. It consumed most of the electricity in the industrial zone. Without the Mystery Moon devices, he would have had to shut down every other plant in the district just to keep this one running.

It showed what five years of development had produced. Visitors who knew nothing about manufacturing stopped at the entrance and stared.

The workers who’d been recruited here knew it. Barov had told him they took pride in the assignment in the way soldiers took pride in elite postings — not just a job, but an indication of what they were thought capable of.

Assembly moved station to station: frame first, then wings, parts, skins, testing last. Roland had designed the process around the limits of his workforce — every part numbered, every step drawn out in sequence like a model assembly kit, specialized ports machined into parts that could be confused for each other to prevent errors. Single riveted joints throughout, simpler than the traditional double-riveted construction. He had tried to make it nearly foolproof.

One plane in half a month.

“Any problems?” he asked, reaching Anna.

“I have many problems,” she said, with the flat resignation of someone who has lived inside a problem for weeks. She didn’t list them.

Roland studied the biplane — light gray body, two logos on the fuselage: the royal family’s coat of arms and a knight, arms spread, holding a spear aloft. It was extraordinary. It was also, somehow, incomplete.

He looked at it for a long moment before the absence resolved.

“Get the ribbon.”

Someone produced a bright red length of fabric. It was tied in a bow around the nose propeller, and the ribbon itself ran the length of the fuselage. Roland stepped back and looked again.

Now it was ready.

He made a speech to the assembled workers — all of them, managers and line workers together, the ones who had wasted materials in failed attempts and the ones who had found the tolerances and the ones who had simply been present for the longest number of hours. He cut the ribbon. Soraya summoned her magic brush and held the moment still: Roland, Anna, Tilly, the workers who had built it, and the Fire of Heaven behind them, numbered 001, wearing its ribbon.

Tilly had been watching Anna.

“You’re actually very happy,” Tilly said. “There’s finally one real plane.”

“I knew you’d see through me,” Anna said, but the corner of her mouth moved.

“If there’s one, there will be a second. Once the workers understand every stage, production will accelerate.” Tilly’s glance slid to Roland. “If you praised her now, it would help.”

“I don’t expect him to praise me,” Anna said flatly.

Roland looked between them, slightly baffled by the direction this had taken.

“Your Majesty.” A guard at his elbow. “The first Fire of Heaven is ready for the ceremony.”

He turned back to the plane and its red ribbon and its number stenciled clean on the body, and let himself feel it — all of it, the years of work and the materials squandered on failed attempts and the arguments about tolerances and the very long distance between an idea and a thing that flies.

“One, two, three,” he said, and looked at the camera.

Soraya recorded the moment in paint that would not fade.

Chapter 1278 - A Historical

Moment Translator: Transn Editor: Transn A week later, Roland received two pieces of good news. One was that Iron Axe had repelled the demons with the napalm and thereby held the demons back temporarily. The commander-in-chief described the explosion of this new weapon in his letter in great detail. The blast was even more spectacular than the test. In fact, human beings had already used fire to repulse the demons back in the first Battle of Divine Will, where they had set the forest on fire at the rear. The massive wildfire raged for several days and dispersed the Red Mist in the sky, which, in the end, helped human beings gain a small victory. The demons thus learned their lesson and destroyed the forests, meadows, and even farms to avoid future disruptions of the Red Mist. They also built small stone towers similar to outposts in the area covered in the Red Mist just in case. With sufficient Red Mist on the campsite, they could then keep fighting even when the rear was ablaze. Without a doubt, Iron Axe and the General Staff were inspired by the previous battle and developed this plan. The strength of napalm was its portability. It could burn in the thin air, and it was extremely hard to extinguish with water. Roland had not expected, however, that the fire would result in such a magnificent explosion in the whole city. Roland wished that Summer could reconstruct the scene. If he could find out the reason why the explosion had occurred, he could possibly exterminate the demons using the napalm. However, the Tusk City should have already been enveloped by the Red Mist again by now. It was almost impossible to get into the city for a second time. Also, Roland’s heart ached at the fact that he had consumed more than 500 barrels of napalm all at once. It was not hard to produce fuels, as he would simply need to invest more manpower. However, the key to produce napalm was to mix the slimes of the rubber worms with animal blood, and only the Ministry of Agriculture could farm rubber worms. Nevertheless, the refugees from this battle were most important to Roland. Roland heaped praises on Iron Axe in his letter and also sent another 100 barrels of napalm to the front. The second piece of news was that the plant assembling the”Fire of Heaven” had finally assembled the first biplane. Roland immediately visited the plant in person after receiving the news from Anna. This brand new plant was built at the same time as the Aerial Academy. Compared to the steam engine plant built with slabs and bricks two to three years ago, this plant was designed for technologically demanding products. The steel frame provided the plant with a spacious area, which enabled workers to assemble and repair a dozen planes at a time. The plant was equipped with adequate illumination devices. The floor was tiled with polished slabs, and the whole plant looked phenomenal. Even Tilly was impressed with it when she entered the plant. Lay men might view it as a palace. Roland also invested the best equipment and hired many elites for the operation of this plant. He had sent the most experienced managers and workers, and equipped the plant with the third generation machine tools powered by electricity to meet the production need. As such, the plant consumed most of the electricity in the industrial zone. Thanks to the Mystery Moon devices, otherwise he would have had to suspend the operation of all the other plants to keep this one running. In a way, this new plant displayed all the technologies developed in Neverwinter over the past five years. Barov had told Roland that Neverwinter residents took pride in working here. When the new plant was in operation, each workstation would be responsible for assembling one part. The plane assembly would start from the first workstation to the last. Workers would start with the frame, and then wings, then parts, then skins, and finally to the testing stage. However, the plant was far from ideal. There was only one”Fire of Heaven” waiting to be assembled at the workstation closest to the exit at present, and the other workstations were all empty. “Is everything OK? Did you have any problem?” Roland asked as he walked up to Anna. “I have tons of problems,” Anna answered while shaking her head. “I don’t know how many parts and materials workers had wasted before they successfully produced this plane.” Roland was amused at the resigned look on Anna’s face. He had foreseen the difficulties when he had made the decision to create planes. It was practically impossible to learn about new materials and techniques in a short period of time, despite that he had tried his best to simplify the production. For example, he had, specifically, created an assembly line to produce various drive rivets and break mandrel rivets for the single riveted joints on the plane. Compared to traditional double riveted joints, single riveted joints were much easier to assemble. Roland had also numbered all the parts of the plane and drawn out every assembly step like those model assembly kits in his previous world. He had even installed user-friendly portsf or parts that could be easily mixed up to reduce the possibility of assembly errors as a result of carelessness. Despite all his efforts, the workers only managed to produce one plane in the past half a month. Obviously, the assembly task was too hard for them to handle. “Do you need my help?” Tilly asked suddenly. “No, that’s fine…” Anna said while shrugging. She would only shrug and be less”lady-like”in front of a few people. “Roland asked me to supervise the workers, so I must solve the problems all by myself, no matter what they are, although I did want to give up a lot of times.” Tilly smiled and said, “So, you’re actually very happy, aren’t you? Finally, there’s one real plane.” Anna curled up her lips and replied, “I know you’d see through me.” “If we have one plane, we’ll have a second. Once all the workers have learned about the assembly process, we’ll soon have more qualified planes,” Tilly said as she glanced at Roland. “If you could praise her now, that’d be even better.” “I never expect him to praise me,” Anna said while twitching her lips. “Huh?” Roland was dumbfounded. What had just happened? Why did they suddenly switch the subject from the plane production to him? Just then, a guard trotted to Roland and reported, “Your Majesty, the first ‘Fire of Heaven’ is ready. We can start the celebration ceremony anytime.” Roland thus rested his eyes again on the biplane and saw two logos on the light gray body, one the coat of arms of the royal family and the other a knight holding a spear while spreading out his arms. The whole plane looked extraordinary, but Roland felt that something was missing. He pondered for a while and suddenly realized what had missed. Then he waved his hand and said, “Get the ribbon!” Soon, a bright red ribbon was tied to the plane, with a red ribbon flower attached to the propeller at the head of the jet. Roland then nodded in satisfaction. Now, the “Fire of Heaven” was ready to meet its audience. After that, he made a speech, cut the ribbon, and took a photograph with Anna, Tilly, and all the workers who had participated in the design and manufacture of the plane, as well as the brand new aircraft itself, which was now numbered 001 and parked behind them. “Now, look at me. One, two, three!” Soraya summoned the magic brush and recorded this historical moment.