Eisen tapped his foot on the ground as he stared at the large vehicle in front of him. The metal plating that he had made to cover the locomotive in was definitely strong enough structurally, but he wasn't all too happy with how it looked just yet. Though he didn't know exactly why.
The thing with the trains was that they didn't only have to be extremely functional, though that was of course the main focus at the end of the day.
But for the time being, it was also vastly important for them to be visually appealing and impressive. The people would end up making the decisions about introducing the trains into the countries of the central continent were all of a high class. Their carriages and ships were all visually stunning and complex, so a train that was nothing but functional wouldn't impress them quite enough.
What Eisen was aiming for was a combination of a surreal first impression, together with the functional details to back it all up.
Of course, he did know how to make things complex and visually appealing; but he had never made something like this before. The thing that came closest was the bit of work he had done on a car in the past, but that was also only assisting one of his mechanic friends in fixing up some old-timer his friend got at an auction.
Though, he was sure that Evalia would be able to help him make it all visually appealing, so he would rely on her expertise for most of it. But even so, he wanted the general shape of the train's locomotive to still be appealing, but not be too overly complex that it would increase the cost unnecessarily. Though, at the very least, the locomotive's prototype was functionally done.
Everything was greased up and ready to go, and the battery was currently being filled up with mana that would make the whole thing actually work.
"The hell is this?" someone asked, approaching from the direction of the workshop. Eisen turned around, looking at the devil Satel with a raised brow, "That's an ugly-ass... house? Carriage? Or is it some kind of giant weapon or something?"
Eisen thought for a moment, just shrugging in response, "Carriage would be the most accurate. It's a train. A self-propelled Carriage, basically. Or, actually, I guess this part specifically is more of a replacement for the animald drawing the carriage? We're going to put this on rails like those of a minecart, and it's going to pull a bunch of, well, carriages to transport goods or people."
Satel looked over at Eisen, unsure if they understood correctly. A bit confused, they looked back at the locomotive, "But... why? Won't rails make it really annoying?"
Eisen shook his head, "I know what you're thinking of, but no. The rails and the train's motor will allow it to travel a lot faster than any carriage while drawing a much heavier load than normal. And at the same time, it will be a much more comfortable trip."
Satel nodded their head impressed, "Alright, sounds great. So when's it gonna be ready?"
Satel sighed, rubbing the bridge of their nose, "That's not the point I'm trying to make. Basically... well, Ambriel, an angel that used to be the incarnation of virtues like all those other sticklers up there, is acting more like... me.
There's nothing wrong with that in general, obviously, but I've got a couple thousand years of practice being an addict and a slut, and they're trying to catch up to me. I seriously don't know if they're be in a state to potentially influence the fate of two whole continents."
"I get it, don't worry," Eisen replied, thinking about what to do, "I guess we could do without them. It's not like I made the plans completely counting on Ambriel, or even you at that, so we should be able to find another way. But they've actually been somewhat... excited for it? To me, it seems like Ambriel feels quite useless the way things are at the moment.
They're shadowing us all at work to see what they might be able to do, and what they want to do. And if they want to help, I wouldn't really want to take that away from them. Especially cause I made use of them for this exact sort of thing when they didn't want to help. I don't want to make them think they were more useful when they tried everything they could to not help us."
"Yeah, but if we do let them help, then they might make it all a lot worse. And if they mess it all up somehow, that's not going to be great for them either."
"...It's still a little while until the peace treaty meeting anyway," Eisen pointed out, "I'll come up with something. Until then... just make sure they don't do anything too stupid, alright?"
"I mean, I can try, but I'm not their babysitter," Satel replied, and Eisen raised his brow slightly. The devil rolled their eyes, "Yes, fine, I'll make sure they don't do anything too stupid."
Eisen smiled lightly, "So, how is it going otherwise with you two?"
Satel thought for a moment, "They're not the worst roommate, I guess. They could be a lot cleaner, but after living alone in an empty jail for so long, just to then get locked up in another one under your castle, that... well, it's to be expected."
The old man continued to smile, locking eyes with the Devil, who quickly realized what he was trying to say. They immediately shook their head, "No, it's not like that, seriously."
Eisen stayed silent for a few more moments, and Satel slowly looked to the side.
"...Fine. not yet, at least."