Chapter 27: The Mines of Eisenwald

When the first glimmers of dawn roused Seraphine from her sleep, the young heir dressed quickly and silently, leaving Vivienne still sleeping sweetly amid the bedding of her chamber.

Today promised to be exceptionally demanding - Seraphine intended to head into the mountains in person to oversee the deep-shaft expansion of the iron ore mines and adits.

She did not even have time for her morning strength training today.

For the next two or three weeks, her quarters were to be the workings near the settlement of Eisenwald.

Eisenwald lay under the direct governance of one of Adelgarde Karsfeld’s vassals, known as Lady Ulrike von Eisenwald.

It presented an ideal opportunity to leave a favorable impression upon the petty noblewoman and her court.

After all, beyond the confines of Karsfeld proper and the circle of those who dealt with her directly, damaging rumors still circulated portraying Seraphine as a sickly, indolent, and capricious heir.

After hastily devouring some bread with roast meat that the castle cooks had prepared for her at dawn, Seraphine departed the fortress, leaving behind a brief letter for her mother and the Baroness explaining her absence.

She was a woman of action - having resolved to see to this investment personally, she had no intention of squandering time on hollow farewells, particularly since she would be returning in a few weeks.

As she boarded the traveling carriage and glanced up toward the tower, she caught sight of Vivienne’s stunning silhouette in the window of her bedchamber, sleepily waving down to her. Evidently, the chill of the empty sheets had stirred the woman from her slumber.

In reply, Seraphine blew her a predatory kiss from below, after which the carriage set off to join the heavy convoy of wagons laden with tools and powder.

Several hours of grueling travel deep into the alpine valleys awaited her.

When the caravan reached the estate in Eisenwald, Seraphine stepped down from the carriage to greet Lady Ulrike and her household.

She had dispatched a mounted courier beforehand with formal notice - as heir to the barony and future sovereign, she was bound to uphold feudal protocol upon entering a vassal's fief.

The moment she stood in the manor’s courtyard, the hosts' forced, rigid smiles were instantly replaced by unvarnished shock.

Seraphine looked entirely different from what they remembered from years past. Though her fitted feminine tunic concealed the full extent of her athletic musculature, her erect posture, proud gaze, and the healthy glow upon her milky-white complexion offered unmistakable proof that the frail invalid of old had vanished without a trace.

Ulrike von Eisenwald bowed low before the heir. Despite old prejudices, Seraphine was the firstborn of the Baroness of Karsfeld and stood incomparably higher in the feudal hierarchy.

"My lady, it is an honor to welcome you to our humble halls."

Ulrike was a burly futa in her thirties, with rugged features and dark-blonde hair gathered into a simple knot, having recently inherited her title following her late mother's passing.

Her wife - a gentle-eyed woman nearly a decade her junior - cradled an infant in her arms, with two adolescent daughters standing at her side.

The young girls gazed at Seraphine in mute enchantment; it was their very first time seeing such a statuesque, distinguished noblewoman from the baronial capital up close.

Seraphine waved a gracious hand, the corners of her lips turning upward:

"I appreciate your hospitality, Lady Ulrike. However, I arrive on strictly economic affairs and will spend the vast majority of my time directly at the adits. I will not turn away food or shelter, but bear in mind that my duties will consume me entirely, leaving no room for courtly pleasantries."

The heir’s words were carefully measured: she showed no disrespect to her vassal, yet firmly established her priorities. In truth, Ulrike breathed an inward sigh of relief.

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

She remembered the Seraphine of old as a spoiled, tiresome creature and had dreaded the prospect of entertaining her with salon trivialities. Yet the transformation in the heir's demeanor left her profoundly astonished.

When Seraphine signaled her desire to proceed to the adits without delay, Ulrike sent her family back into the manor and offered her own services as guide. If this young noblewoman was to direct the mining expansion on behalf of Adelgarde Karsfeld, it was far better to keep a close eye on her and avert disaster.

Riding in the carriage toward the craggy slopes, Ulrike could contain herself no longer:

"What, then, are your intentions for our workings, my lady?"

A confident smile bloomed upon Seraphine’s lips.

She began laying out her plan: the introduction of rigid mine supports with dense timber prop-work to prevent cave-ins, the deployment of miners' safety lamps with wire gauze shielding against gas explosions, fair wages disbursed directly from the Baroness’s treasury, and a strict ban on dispatching children into the narrow subterranean passages, for which she had already secured Adelgarde’s consent.

Next, she explained that she intended to employ black powder to shatter solid bedrock and uncover the deeper veins of ore.

Lacking access to dynamite as of yet, she had to rely on black powder, and in substantial quantities at that. It was a hazardous undertaking, yet properly placed charges inside drilled boreholes would drastically accelerate excavation.

Fortunately, owing to production for the militia, she commanded a considerable reserve of powder, which she vastly preferred putting to fruitful use blasting stone rather than leaving it to sit idle in the fortress cellars.

Ulrike listened with wide eyes. This supposedly useless heir had brought with her a comprehensive engineering scheme for modernizing the mines on an unprecedented scale!

Hitherto unemployed peasant women brought in from Karsfeld were to bolster the excavation sites as an additional labor force. Until Seraphine could engineer steam engines and lay the first iron rails down the line, she required manpower on the ground.

To top it off, Seraphine handed her vassal a thick scroll of parchment outlining the four-field crop rotation system, guaranteeing deliveries of ground phosphorus slag fertilizer from Sabine Keller's ironworks.

For now, she withheld the technology of the irrigation conduits - until the fields surrounding Karsfeld itself were fully linked by the network, she preferred keeping that secret close to her chest.

Yet four-field rotation and fertilizers could readily revolutionize harvests in Eisenwald. Increasing food production throughout the valley was the vital cornerstone for sustaining the factory workers in the manufactories.

Ulrike leafed through the diagrams, nearly breathless:

"Did you... devise this entirely on your own, my lady?"

Seraphine smiled with courtly modesty:

"I formulated the theory, and a seasoned farmer, Marta Reiss, helped me test it in the soil. This year’s harvest will prove its efficacy. There are no catches in this system."

The vassal was struck with wonder. The heir was bestowing priceless agronomic knowledge upon her that would double the estate's revenue, without demanding anything in return.

"What do you require in return for these scrolls?"

"Nothing beyond what is fair" Seraphine replied. "The more grain this soil yields, the fewer women must toil with hoes. The freed hands I shall direct into the mines and furnaces. I hold grand designs for the iron here, and I will require every single pickaxe."

Ulrike bowed with reverent respect:

"I humbly accept your plans, my lady, and shall implement them across our villages without a moment’s delay."

Seraphine nodded. Ulrike von Eisenwald knew her place in the hierarchy and could appreciate sound judgment - a rare virtue among feudal lords.

When they reached the workings, an encampment pitched at the foot of the sheer cliff face came into view.

The miners, unable to return to distant cottages each day after exhausting shifts, had erected primitive shacks known as the “Mining Village.”

The sight of squalor and filth struck a chill into Seraphine - she swore to herself that she would build proper brick barracks here, complete with hearths and a bathhouse. The introduction of capped working hours would soon put an end to working oneself to the bone.

As the two noblewomen stepped from the carriage, the laborers froze in astonishment at the sight of their lady accompanied by the tall, golden-haired heir of Karsfeld.

"Back to work!" Seraphine barked curtly, wasting no time on idle speeches.

Moments later, workers began unloading timber props, iron pickaxes, barrels of powder, and safety lamps from the convoy wagons.

Seeing that an unfamiliar futa in fine garments was ordering even their own lady about, the laborers quickly grasped who was pulling the strings and set to work without a murmur.

Throughout the remainder of the day and into the night, Seraphine never left the excavation sites. Leaning over a map of the adits unrolled across a barrel, she analyzed veins of quartz and iron, marking spots for blasting and shoring up.

She intended to knock these mines into proper shape, if only to make it back in time for her engagement gala with Rosalie.

Only when the blare of the horn announced the end of the shift did Seraphine permit herself to rest.

She did not retreat to the warmth of Ulrike’s manor - she lay down upon a makeshift bed beneath a canvas awning right by the adit entrance, setting an example of iron discipline.

Gazing into the star-studded alpine sky over Eisenwald, she reflected upon her past life as an engineer and her present futa form, slowly drifting into sleep with thoughts of the two devoted women awaiting her return within the walls of Castle Karsfeld.