What!? The crowd erupted into cries of shock. They had not expected him to come out in such a way.

"And so the rumors are true."

Dragon blood!? Could it be!?

Yes, it was Lord Kururi, after all. Yes!

The place suddenly became very animated. Yes, yes. You know you want to believe it.

However, perhaps they were getting too excited now, and they would no longer listen to what I had to say. And so I signalled to Eli.

She then took the lids off of some large pots that had been carried into the warehouse, and then she and the wives fanned the steam so that it wafted towards the crowd of men.

The smell reached the stage as well. I wanted them to smell the scent of boiled herbs that had a calming quality. They continued to talk pa.s.sionately for a while but then started to calm down. This was an herb that you smelled before bed in order to sleep well. And so all of them were now quite in the mood to go to bed.

I saw this clearly and so decided to start talking again.

"Of course, having dragon blood does not mean I can do anything special! There is just one thing that I can do that the rest of you cannot."

"What is that?"

Said the young man who I had planted there.

"I can speak to dragons. The truth is that the dragon who sleeps underground is my cousin. The blood relation is a little more complicated than it is with humans, so I will not go into that. However, my cousin is definitely not against the construction of the railways!"

"Why is that!"

Said the young man from the craftsmen's district. Hmmm, I would have to reward him well once this was over.

"I a.s.sume you all know about the magic stones we will be using for this railway? Well, let me tell you this, those things are good for sore shoulders."

Even the young man from the craftsmen's district was shocked by this and unable to answer properly. The others were much the same.

"About the mountain where these stones were discovered, the base of my brother's neck is deep down there. This means that having a lot of magic stones there helps with the blood flow around his neck. Of course, it is for dragons only. So you must not try it at home."

Now, I was nearing the end.

I made the sign for Eli to stop with her aromatherapy fumes.

Instead, something else was brought out.

It was a 2-meter long sheet of paper that we used for blueprints of the magic train. Today, it would be used for something else.

It took three to four people to unravel, and when it was open, it revealed the entire body of a red dragon. It was based on the dragon that Rahsa had ridden. Poobe wouldn't have looked as cool, and so we had to choose a different one.

"This is my cousin. And here is where the magic stones were."

I point to the area around the neck.

"As my cousin's shoulder trouble has been fixed a long time ago, we started removing the magic stones from here. And then, we will lay them down thickly over here."

I traced a line across the paper. It was a smooth line that traced the dragon's back and went all the way to the tip of its tail.

"And by distributing the magic stones like this, their power will have a positive effect on blood circulation so that it goes along his spine and through his entire body. That should be tremendously comfortable. It is as if he were being constantly ma.s.saged!!"

The crowd cried out in amazement.

"It is not as if we want to lay out the rails here. We are just doing it in consideration for my cousin's body. Yes, I have made a decision. It will no longer be called a railway. It shall be called the 'Dragon's Spine.' And whenever the magic train goes over it, the perfect amount of pressure will be applied to his back, and he should continue to sleep soundly. He will forget everything that is happening in the human world. What do you think!? Surely you can not continue to be against such a wonderful plan as this!"

"No! We are not against it!"

The young man from the craftsmen's district cried. And then the others followed after him.

"Yes to the railway! I mean, yes to the Dragon's Spine!!"

"Yes to the Dragon's Spine!!"

"Yes to the Dragon's Spine!!"

Their chants echoed throughout the warehouse.

Their enthusiasm remained as they all left. I was confident that they would pa.s.sionately explain the reason back in their own districts.

Hehehe. It was a huge success. Now our plans for the magic trains would gain even more momentum.

I was sure that more people would help with construction.

"You did very well. I will grant you anything you want as a reward."

Once the group of men had left, I went over to the young man who had helped me.

But when I offered him a reward, he did not look very pleased.

He looked quite troubled.

Uh, was he going to ask for something ridiculous? It would not look very cool if I made this offer and then had to refuse him.

"Um… I don't want anything in particular."

"Money?"

"No, nothing like that. Uh, I want a job that will last. And this magic train plan will take a long time, won't it? I want to be a.s.sured that I won't be cut off at some point. I enjoy my work here and I want to stay until the end, when there is a train that goes all the way to the royal capital."

What was wrong with him? What a weird thing to say with s.h.i.+ning, hopeful eyes!

I thought that humans hated work by default! And why would we cut off important members when we didn't even have enough workers to begin with!?

Well, this was all much better than anything I could have hoped for.

"What's your name?"

"Huh? Oh, I am Grash."

"Alright, you can work with us until the end, Grash. We're counting on you."

"Thank you so much. I will stick with you until the end."

This young Grash would eventually become someone who is very important to the magic train plan.

Ultimately, he would be elected as the General Manager, but that was after it was completed, which was a very, very long way off.