I Became a Witch and Started an Industrial Revolution

When she first heard the Bear Tribe Chief say that they were doing it to protect them, Mitia had subconsciously thought of Eagle Sauce’s crocodile tears.

That was until she personally watched the little thing Lilian trip three times in a row at the exact same spot, each time going splat onto the soft carpet.

She believed it.

Sure enough, the Bear Tribe people were naturally warm-hearted. She even suspected that if it were not for the Bear Tribe’s intervention, this thing might very well have managed to fall herself to death.

She had heard that life would always find its own way out, but she had never heard of life actively seeking its own death.

However, when Eliza led her vast army of pets and grandly occupied the Empress’s Palace for the second time and saw Lilian again, the animals’ reactions far exceeded everyone’s expectations.

Almost all the small animals went up to her to show affection the moment they saw Lilian, crowding around her as cats begged for pats and hugs.

Big dogs carried her around the room, running wild, with a massive gang of cats following behind her in full boss-like fashion. Even Eliza could not help but feel sour as she watched. “These little brats—when I hugged them before, they were completely unwilling. Now look at them, rushing up on their own.”

Mitia turned her head and glanced at the cat-girl secretary, whose eyes were shining as she stared at Lilian. A guess formed in her heart. Perhaps the Bear Tribe protecting them was not purely out of gratitude.

Perhaps this was their greatest reliance for survival and continuation.

Ankargas

Ever since the Kingdom of Paria announced its complete incorporation into the Seris Alliance, the war-ravaged and devastated Ankargas State also welcomed the Alliance’s large-scale investment in aid.

The massive infrastructure plans required a complete railway network to provide channels for transporting and delivering raw materials, so railway construction was the most important project and also the earliest to begin.

However, railway construction required time as well as enormous manpower and material resources, and Ankargas itself did not produce the raw materials needed for rails.

Therefore, in the first Five-Year Plan, Ankargas could only manage to open a double-track line responsible for transporting raw materials back and forth with the former Dwarven Kingdom’s mining areas, gradually expanding later to cover other sectors.

So although it had been incorporated into the Alliance, aid deployment was relatively difficult. Orders at the airship transport department were fully booked every day, with high-intensity deliveries of grain and daily necessities across various regions.

The railway department, meanwhile, transported raw materials into the state day and night to maintain the operation of newly built large factories, producing all kinds of construction materials needed for development.

At the same time, old factories and mining operations under the jurisdiction of the new states still needed to be liquidated and rebuilt—roles redefined, equipment replaced, employees trained, and so on.

In other words, everything needed to be done, but everything also required time.

‘Good evening, Comrade House.’

“Good evening, Coren. Once this shift rotation is over, let’s drag Ris along and go have a drink.”

‘No problem! To keep myself in shape, I haven’t had a drink for quite a while now. Sigh, not being able to drink in this cold weather is really unbearable.’

The moment Coren heard about drinking, his eyes lit up and he readily agreed, complaining a bit along the way.

Because the transportation pressure was too great, trains in Ankargas ran around the clock with people changing but trains never stopping. When a train needed inspection, the locomotive would be swapped out directly.

The three of them were train drivers in the same shift group, each responsible for eight hours of work.

Train drivers’ wages and benefits within the Alliance were among the higher standards within the working class.

Of course, this was also because other factories were eagerly waiting for freight cars to deliver raw materials so they could start production, which meant the railway department constantly received various products gifted by factories. Life was quite comfortable.

House still remembered the excitement of his entire family and the envy and jealousy from surrounding neighbors when he was confirmed and assigned to the position of train driver.

However, House felt that he deserved it. It was not in vain that he had once stayed up all night attending night schools and literacy classes, working hard to learn how to read and study diligently.

He could proudly say that he had seen what Ankargas looked like at four in the morning, and he knew it very well. His hard work had earned him returns that satisfied him.

After he officially passed his probation, matchmakers began to visit frequently, worrying about his lifelong marriage prospects. He knew very clearly what everything he had today was built upon, so he treated his work with extreme seriousness.

That was why, even though the shift change was at dawn, he had arrived at the station two hours early to begin preparations.

While eating his late-night meal, many colleagues in the cafeteria were discussing recent real incidents. Several sections of track in various places had seen multiple cases of suicide by lying on the rails, making many drivers uneasy.

As long as the driver had not done anything wrong, they would not be held responsible for such sudden incidents, but they would inevitably be subject to a period of investigation and questioning. No normal person wanted to be dragged in and interrogated.

House did not pay much attention to the gossip. After changing into his work clothes, he walked a couple of rounds along the tracks and chatted with long-distance drivers from other states about what they had seen elsewhere—this was what interested him most.

Having grown up, House had never left Ankargas. Everything about the outside world felt novel to him, especially when others talked about things that caught his interest, stirring in him an urge to go out and make his own way.

‘Comrade, you have no idea—beastfolk women in Vimat can do backflips! Their flexibility is terrifying, and the number of usable positions is just… tsk tsk.’

Seeing the other party’s suggestive smile, House’s face flushed red as he stammered, “I, I still prefer women who are relatively petite.”

Who would have thought that the man would directly put an arm around his shoulder, hand him a cigarette, light one for himself as well, take a puff, and laugh:

‘Looks like this little comrade has tastes similar to mine~ Sigh, Dwarven women are way too hard to deal with, and even the ones in that line are very expensive. But after you try them, it’s really not bad, hehehe…’

‘It’s just that after coming out, I feel completely empty—both my body and my wallet are empty. If it weren’t for the fact that we get meals and occasionally receive some small local specialties, I’d be sleeping on the streets by now.’

House’s face turned even redder. Although the man spoke vaguely, men were extremely gifted in this area and he immediately got what the other party was talking about. Still, the other man had misunderstood his meaning.

House explained, “What I meant is that this is my requirement for my future wife. I hope she’ll, um… be a bit petite. I like cute types.”

‘That’s difficult then. Dwarves live much longer than us—roughly around four to five hundred years. So anyone under three hundred, don’t even think about it. But anyone over three hundred, you definitely can’t beat; you’d easily get beaten up at home.’

‘And there’s also something you can’t avoid— even at three hundred, ordinary humans like us aren’t worthy. We won’t outlive them. So the Dwarven side basically prohibits intermarriage with humans. It’s bad for both sides.’

“Stop talking about Dwarves all the time! Others are fine too. For example, aren’t beastfolk about the same lifespan as us?”

‘Tsk…’

The older guy took a drag on his cigarette, scanned House up and down, and shook his head.

“With your build, that probably won’t work either. Beastfolk have similar lifespans to us, sure, but with your beanpole figure, you can’t handle them. Playing around is fine, but bringing one home—you’d get drained dry.”

The man bluntly said the words “you can’t do it,” and House almost lost his composure.

But after comparing physiques, the other guy was broad and sturdy, while House barely weighed over sixty-five kilos at most. If he took one punch from the other man, the guy would probably have to kneel down and beg him not to die.

Forget it, forget it. They were all comrades—use words, not fists.

After having the one thing men could never be questioned about questioned, House wore a gloomy expression when handing over his shift to Coren, leaving Coren looking rather curious.

Coren did not ask much, though. He was exhausted. After the handover, he yawned, hugged his tea mug, and left.

The station had personnel specifically responsible for shunting and coupling cargo containers, adding water, and filling the magic crystal arrays. House only needed to observe the procedures from the side and keep proper records.

Steam trains powered by magic crystal arrays had higher load capacity and range than those using coal and other combustible materials, and they did not cause carbon buildup that reduced maintenance intervals. Therefore, at heavy-duty nodes, magic crystal trains were basically always used.