Time moved on.
Out on the open plains beyond Lunaria, the designated test zone had come alive. A long stretch of track cut across the flat ground, and beside a waiting locomotive, Paste and Antru stood with a small group of researchers and staff, breath misting in the cold air.
"Excellent." Paste's eyes gleamed as he surveyed the scene. "Now we find out what we've actually built."
He had set aside his original project entirely over the past weeks, throwing himself into the research and testing of the train, and the anticipation had been building ever since. The weather was still cold, and patches of stubborn snow clung to the ground between the rails.
"Come on, let's get it moving!" Antru rubbed his broad hands together. "I've waited long enough."
"Don't rush it. The final adjustments still need to be made."
Paste pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose, and behind the lenses, his eyes were faintly red with excitement. He held a document dense with rows of data, scanning it one last time before giving the order.
The first railway experiment had officially begun.
A long whistle cut through the cold air as the locomotive shuddered to life, its wheels finding the rails and beginning to turn with a steady rhythm of metallic sound. Slowly at first, it rolled forward across the plain, then began gathering pace, picking up speed until detection instruments mounted along the body lit up one after another, logging data as the train ran its straight section without a hint of trouble.
"It's moving!" Antru's face split into a wide grin.
The locomotive ran smoothly and fast, faster than anything on the road, and for a moment, everything felt like a triumph. Then came the bend.
The instant the wheels hit the curve, everything broke apart. A shriek of grinding metal tore across the plain, the body lurching violently outward as its stable posture collapsed in an instant.
"It's going to derail!" one of the researchers shouted.
The crash that followed shook the ground beneath their feet. The locomotive tore free of the rails and slammed onto its side, sending up a rolling cloud of dust and a spray of sparks. Detection instruments shattered on impact, components scattered wide across the frozen earth, and the whistle cut off mid-cry into sudden silence.
The plain went quiet. Only the wind moved, sweeping across the wreckage as those watching stood frozen in place, their breath the only sound between them.
Antru's grin was gone. He stared at the overturned locomotive with his mouth open, unable to find a single word.
Paste walked to the wreck and stood over it with his head lowered, running figures through his mind in silence. The counterweight was wrong, and the wheel-and-rail design needed rethinking from the ground up. He catalogued the problems one by one, then let out a quiet breath.
"We oversimplified it. The direction is right, but several things need to be redesigned."
There was only one person worth consulting on this. He needed to speak with Alto.
Back in Lunaria, the joint vehicle line from the Rune Workshop and Blacksmith Workshop had recently gone on sale and was drawing attention from across the region. The workshops had kept their focus on structural redesign and exterior work rather than deep engineering, which made development straightforward, and the results had landed well. Four models were now available: a top-tier custom version built from the finest materials, a vehicle of unmistakable prestige in the manner of a luxury carriage fit for royalty; a sleek, fast model that turned heads wherever it went; a heavy off-road build suited to rougher terrain; and a standard model aimed at a broaeder audience, though still beyond the means of most ordinary citizens.
The prestige model had already won over nobles and merchants across the territory, with buyers traveling to Lunaria from distant regions just to place orders, while the fast model drew the eyes of younger elves who could admire it more easily than they could afford it.
Paste wasted no time arranging a meeting. Alto's schedule left little room, but when he heard it concerned the train experiment, he made time without hesitation. Paste walked him through what had happened and laid out his technical questions, then the two of them went together to the site.
Alto took a careful look at the wreck and offered several observations. The locomotive had used wooden structures in several places to cut material costs, and the rail curvature was poorly matched to the current design, two problems that fed into each other and made the derailment almost inevitable. As they talked it through, Paste felt the pieces click into place with every exchange, the fog of the failed experiment lifting.
He gripped Alto's hand and held on with both of his.
"Master Alto. Let's become partners."
Alto thought it over and agreed. After a thorough discussion, the Rune Workshop and the Blacksmith Workshop joined with Alto to form a new Mechanical Workshop. Since Alto had no capacity to manage it directly, he contributed ideas and technical knowledge as his equity stake, taking twenty percent of the shares, while Paste and Antru would handle funding, equipment, and the work of research and development. The existing vehicle line was folded into the new workshop as well, with its primary focus set on developing the magically powered train and managing its operations going forward.
Armed with Alto's input, Paste spent the night revising a significant portion of the design. A second experiment would follow soon, and if it worked, transportation costs across the territory would fall, and travel between regions would become a very easy proposition.
With the Mechanical Workshop settled, Alto turned his attention back to the trading company, where things were moving well. With steady financial backing and the franchise model running smoothly, the rollout across the Moon Elf Territory had gone without serious trouble. Alto's name carried real weight, merchants had lined up to join, and most storefronts were already operational.
His game catalog was still thin, though, and that needed addressing. Between everything else, he carved out time to build a few smaller titles: Liar's Tavern, Monopoly, and Poker were all compact, entertaining, and quick to put together, none of them demanding the kind of effort a major project required. Full online connectivity wasn't in place yet, so multiplayer functions were limited to local connections for the time being, but players could face NPCs, invite friends, or pull nearby players in from the main world for a match. It wasn't the full vision, but it gave the library some much-needed variety while the larger work continued.