Chapter 44: The Prime Minister’s Audit

The detention cell beneath the Grand Registry smelled of stale water and rust.

The iron bars were thick enough to withstand a troll’s punch, and the heavy stone walls completely dampened any sound from the city above.

We were locked in the dark.

We had absolutely zero coin left to our names, and a massive bounty hovered over our heads.

Kaelith paced the length of the cell like a caged predator.

Her boots made soft, rhythmic scuffs against the stone.

"Pacing will not melt the iron," I said calmly, leaning my back against the damp wall.

"I should have gutted him," Kaelith hissed.

"I could have cleared the room before those clockwork sentinels even drew their weapons."

Rolf gripped the iron bars. His biceps bulged as he tested their strength.

"I can bend these. Give me a minute to build up some momentum, boss."

"Nobody is breaking out," I commanded.

Nyssa sat on a narrow wooden bench.

She buried her face in her hands.

"He took it. That bloated, corrupt hack took my life’s work. He is going to erase my name and present it to the council as his own."

I walked over and sat beside her.

I placed my right hand on her shoulder.

"That is exactly what I am counting on, Nyssa."

She looked up, her emerald eyes filled with confusion and lingering anger.

"What do you mean?"

"Think about it," I said, looking at the rest of the squad.

"Morvath is a mid-level clerk. He is greedy, but he is not a genius. By confiscating that blueprint, he just entered a revolutionary piece of technology into the central government building of a tech-obsessed kingdom. The Registry is a machine. A machine processes data. Morvath introduced a high-tier anomaly into that system. Someone higher up the food chain is going to notice it. We just have to wait."

Three floors above the detention block, Prime Minister Marquee Hardsteel walked the pristine, marble-tiled halls of the Registry.

He was a towering man.

The entire left half of his body had been replaced by advanced, humming clockwork and polished brass armor.

His mechanical eye glowed with a faint, blue light, scanning every document and ledger he passed.

He was conducting a surprise audit, but his motivations were entirely personal.

Hardsteel’s mechanical lungs filtered the toxic, coal-choked air of the capital perfectly.

But his young daughter, Elara, did not have that luxury.

She was currently confined to a sterilized room in his estate, suffering from the late stages of Aether-Lung.

It was a fatal, rotting disease caused by the city’s severe industrial pollution.

The apothecaries had given her weeks to live.

The Prime Minister was desperate.

He was searching the patent archives for any clean energy submissions, any advanced filtration systems, or anything that could replace the city’s dirty boilers before the smog took his daughter’s life.

He pushed open the double doors to the Senior Inspection office.

Inspector Morvath practically jumped out of his velvet chair.

"Prime Minister!" Morvath stammered, bowing so deeply his monocle nearly fell out.

"What an unexpected honor."

"Save the pleasantries, Inspector," Hardsteel rumbled. His voice was a deep, metallic bass.

"Show me your highest-rated submissions for this quarter. I am looking for energy efficiency."

Morvath’s eyes gleamed. This was his moment. He reached onto his desk and unrolled a freshly confiscated parchment.

’YESS!! This is my chance to shine.’ thought Morvath.

"You are in luck, my Lord," Morvath said smoothly.

"I have just finalized a personal breakthrough. A closed-loop, high-efficiency steam turbine. It produces zero toxic emissions."

Hardsteel stepped forward.

As a politician, he was ruthless.

But as an engineer, he was a master.

His blue mechanical eye scanned the elegant curves of the turbine blades.

He traced the complex pressure dynamics mapped in the margins.

He was instantly mesmerized.

It was beautiful.

It was exactly what he had been praying for.

"Fascinating," Hardsteel murmured.

He tapped a heavy, brass-plated finger against a specific equation in the corner of the blueprint.

"Inspector, explain this secondary valve sequence to me. The pressure drops significantly here, yet the kinetic output doubles. You have mapped an arcane variable into a purely mechanical system. How does the mana interact with the steam condensation?"

Morvath froze. The color completely drained from his face.

A bead of sweat rolled down his fat cheek.

’I did not think I will be interrogated directly by the prime Minister?!’

"Well, you see, Prime Minister," Morvath stuttered.

"The steam... it pushes the valve. And the arcane energy... it simply enhances the push."

Hardsteel slowly looked up from the parchment.

The temperature in the room seemed to drop ten degrees.

"You do not understand magic, do you, Morvath?" Hardsteel asked quietly.

"I... I am an inspector of physical sciences, my Lord. The arcane is..."

"The arcane is the entire foundation of this blueprint," Hardsteel interrupted.

His voice was dangerously low.

He grabbed Morvath by the collar of his velvet robes and lifted him off the ground with one mechanical arm.

"You did not draw this. You do not even understand the math required to read it. Who drew this blueprint, Inspector?"

’I’m sorry, Lord Valerius! My stupidity got me here!’ Morweth blamed himself for not understanding such obvious flaw in his plan.

Heavy, metallic footsteps echoed down the stone corridor of the detention block.

Kaelith instantly materialized her daggers from the shadows. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

Rolf stepped in front of Nyssa, his muscles tensing for a fight.

I stood up, adjusting the heavy piston arm bolted to my shoulder.

The heavy iron door did not just unlock.

It was kicked open with enough force to warp the hinges.

A massive man, half flesh and half clockwork, stepped into the dim light.

He dragged Inspector Morvath behind him.

Morvath was weeping quietly, his wrists bound in heavy, glowing, magic-suppressing cuffs.

Hardsteel tossed the corrupt inspector to the floor.

He looked at Kaelith, then at Rolf, then at me.

Finally, he held up the rolled parchment.

"Who mapped these fluid dynamics?" Hardsteel demanded, his voice echoing in the small cell.

Nyssa stood up, pushing past Rolf.

Her academic pride burned brighter than her fear. She looked the giant Prime Minister dead in the eye.

"The variable on the secondary valve requires a D-Grade mana injection to stabilize the thermal expansion," Nyssa recited flawlessly.

"Without the arcane anchor, the physical pressure would shatter the casing within three seconds."

Hardsteel stared at her.

A genuine, relieved smile broke across his scarred face.

"Guards,"

Hardsteel called out over his shoulder.

"Take Inspector Morvath to the interrogation cells. Confiscate all his assets. Leave us."

The clockwork sentinels dragged the sobbing inspector away, and the heavy iron door clanged shut, leaving us alone with the most powerful man in the Kingdom of Iron and Steam.

Hardsteel looked at me, taking in my green skin and the sophisticated industrial prototype attached to my shoulder.

"You are the anomaly everyone in the underworld is whispering about," Hardsteel noted.

"The goblin with a ten thousand gold bounty on his head."

"We are Arcane Engineers," I replied smoothly, crossing my arms.

"And you are holding our property."

"I am holding a miracle," Hardsteel corrected.

He stepped closer, the humming of his gears filling the quiet cell.

He explained his situation.

He spoke of his daughter, Elara, and the horrific reality of the Aether-Lung disease slowly drowning her in her own bed.

He spoke as a desperate father, not a politician.

"I do not care about your bounties.

I do not care who you angered at the Zenith Academy," Hardsteel said. "I care about saving my daughter’s life."

He held the blueprint out to Nyssa, returning it to its rightful owner.

"If you can build a working prototype of this turbine," Hardsteel offered, his blue eye glowing with intense sincerity.

"If you can install it in my private estate and completely filter the air in Elara’s wing, I will grant your entire cell absolute State Protection."

I looked at my squad. Kaelith lowered her daggers.

Rolf relaxed his stance.

Nyssa clutched the blueprint to her chest, a triumphant smile spreading across her face.

State Protection.

It meant that any assassin, any bounty hunter, and any noble from the Zenith Academy who laid a finger on us would be committing an act of war against the Forge itself.

It was the ultimate political fortress. Valerius’s gold would be completely useless here.

I stepped forward and extended my right hand.

"You have a deal, Prime Minister," I said, my voice filled with absolute confidence. "You will not regret this investment."

"I hope your brilliant mind will prove useful for the Kingdom Of Iron and Steel!"

He looked at me who had made such a blueprint that would be the Harbinger of Industrial Revolution.

Hardsteel gripped my hand, his mechanical fingers cold but firm.

The hunted had just become the protected class.

Our real work in the Kingdom of Iron and Steam was finally about to begin.