Chapter 294: The Council Beyond Worlds

Iron had barely taken a few steps down the street when Helda hurried over to him. Slowing down slightly, she looked at him and said with some embarrassment:

"Hey, Iron, listen... could you help us out? We just can't seem to make decent clothes. Everything keeps going wrong."

Iron stopped.

"What about Eliza?"

Helda let out a heavy sigh and shook her head. "She's not doing much better, to put it mildly. The fabric keeps tearing or bunching up, and we're starting to lose hope."

Iron said nothing and simply headed for the little shop. Realizing he'd agreed to help, Helda immediately followed him.

A few minutes later, they entered the shop, passed the empty front counter, and Iron pushed open a wooden door and stepped into the back room.

Eliza was sitting there, focused on trying to stitch a piece of coarse fabric together. A whole pile of crumpled scraps lay in front of her.

Iron walked over and looked over her shoulder.

"You're pulling the thread unevenly," he noted calmly, consulting his scanner as he picked up a piece of fabric from the table and pointed out the mistakes. "Your stitches are too far apart, and the pattern is crooked. If you cut along the grain, the fabric won't wrinkle. Watch."

With a few quick, confident movements, he demonstrated the correct angle and stitching technique, explaining how to maintain even thread tension and cut the fabric properly. Eliza watched his every move closely.

"Got it?" Iron asked briefly.

"Well... I think so..." Eliza replied uncertainly.

"Just don't give up, and you'll get it right," Iron said, turning away and silently heading for the shop's exit.

Iron had barely stepped out of the shop when he was intercepted by Clerk, who seemed to be in a hurry. Spotting Iron, Clerk let out a relieved sigh and spoke.

"Oh, Iron! Glad I ran into you. The guys at the square... you know, that water structure you told us about? They've hit a dead end. They just can't figure out how to get the system working properly."

Iron nodded silently and gestured with his hand.

"Lead the way."

They walked several blocks to the square, where work was in full swing. Marek and a group of workers were gathered around an almost-finished architectural structure. A column stood in the center of the square, flanked by two intricately carved statues: one depicting a child, the other a girl reaching forward with bowls in her hands, like scale pans.

When he noticed Iron, Marek immediately greeted him.

"Oh, Iron! It's been a while!"

The engineer simply nodded in silence. Beside him, Clerk wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand and unfolded the blueprint.

"We've carved everything and assembled it according to your markings, but we just can't get the water from the reservoir to rise the way it's supposed to. Sometimes it floods the base, other times the pressure drops. What did we miss?"

Iron stepped closer and examined the statues and the central column. Then he crouched down to study the joints and channels carefully.

"You haven't accounted for the pressure or the closed-loop circulation system," he explained calmly, pointing to the channel inside the column. "The water needs to be pushed up from below by a concealed flow of mana, travel through the central conduit all the way to the top, then cascade into the statues' bowls and flow back into the underground reservoir to be reused. If you just let it flow freely, the entire square will turn into a swamp before long."

He stood up and added, pointing to the lower section:

"One more thing. Here, where the blocks join at the base of the column, make the seal a little tighter. If you leave even a tiny gap, the constant mana pressure will cause a leak there within a couple of months."

Marek listened carefully, nodded, and immediately turned to the workers.

"You heard him! Redo the joints and install the circulation system according to the new instructions!"

Once Iron was satisfied that they had no further questions, he turned and continued down the street at an unhurried pace.

As he walked, Iron pulled Abel's sealed envelope from his inner pocket and muttered thoughtfully under his breath:

"When is that portal finally going to appear?"

Without wasting a second, Iron snapped his fingers. The space around him contracted, and the next moment, he materialized deep in a dense forest, surrounded by tall tree trunks.

A few steps away, Noah was in the middle of a powerful sword swing. Iron's sudden appearance triggered his instincts, and Noah instantly changed the trajectory of his strike, his blade slicing through the air with a shriek as it swung right beside Iron's head.

The blade stopped barely half a centimeter from his neck.

Recognizing Iron, Noah immediately lowered his sword and continued training.

"I'm invited to some kind of council today," Iron said without any preamble. "You're coming with Elyria."

Noah narrowed his eyes and opened his mouth to ask a question, but Iron cut him off before he could get a word out.

"There will clearly be some very strong opponents there."

Noah gave a short nod as he swung his sword.

"All right. I'm in."

Iron disappeared again, returning instantly to his office. He settled into the chair by his desk and closed his eyes for a moment. Calling upon Lumon, he shifted his vision into the pocket dimension, where Elyria was meditating beneath a tree.

Not wanting to disturb her too much, he called out softly in her mind:

"Elyria."

She frowned slightly without opening her eyes and grumbled in reply:

"What do you want?"

"I'm expected at a council meeting, and I'll need you there. They might even try to attack me."

With a sigh, Elyria cracked one eye open and nodded.

"Fine, all right. Now stop distracting me."

Iron opened his eyes, once again seeing the walls of his own office before him.

Opening the left drawer of his desk, Iron took out a large scroll containing the village's overall blueprints.

The plans already included detailed layouts of the streets, residential buildings, and sanitation systems. He spread the scroll across the desk, picked up a thin pencil, and confidently added three key projects, detailing how each would work down to the smallest detail:

Aqueduct and water supply — laying enclosed channels and pipes from the nearest river directly to residential areas to ensure a steady supply of clean water and fill utility reservoirs.

Trade and logistics hub — establishing a central facility to track resources, standardize building materials, and organize internal trade.

Production network — setting up interconnected workshops to enable the rapid, large-scale production of parts and components.

Beside each new project, he added brief notes on the required materials and its long-term impact on the village's economy. He also carefully sketched a diagram of a pipe junction.

Leaning back in his chair, Iron critically examined his sketches. The village was growing rapidly, yet they still had no clear organizational structure, division of responsibilities, or even basic job positions. People simply did whatever they were good at, adapting to circumstances as they went.

"We should probably hold a general meeting..." he muttered to himself, leaning back in his chair with a soft clunk.

Iron got up from his desk, intending to walk around the village and gather people who could actually help him establish an efficient management system. He had just taken a step toward the exit when the air directly in front of him suddenly crackled with sparks.

A rift appeared a couple of steps to his side, glowing bright blue around the edges and darkening to a deep blue-black toward the center.

Iron stopped immediately and snapped his fingers. The space beside him trembled, and Noah and Elyria materialized out of thin air. Noah finished a wide sword swing from the momentum of his movement, while Elyria was still sitting with her eyes closed, deep in meditation.

Noah swung his blade a couple more times, then blinked as he realized he was no longer in the forest and turned to look at Iron.

Iron glanced at the portal and said briefly:

"Well, here we go. I didn't think it would appear so soon."

Then he looked at Elyria and called out to her:

"Elyria, hello? Elyria."

She opened her eyes slightly, gave her surroundings a displeased look, and drawled:

"What, already?"

"Looks like it," Iron replied, taking a step toward the portal.

"Stay alert," he told them.

With that, the engineer stepped through the portal and disappeared completely. Noah and Elyria followed him inside, and the passage sealed shut behind them the very next moment.

At that very moment, back in the little shop, Eliza threw her hands up in delight. On the table in front of her lay a neatly cut T-shirt, stitched together with even, tight seams.

"Look, look, Helda, look! I finally did it!" Eliza exclaimed excitedly, showing off her finished work.

Helda smiled as she admired the result.

"That's great. It looks really nice!"

"I finally understand how it works! Let me explain everything to you," Eliza offered enthusiastically.

"Go ahead," Helda said, holding up her work. She already had a needle, thread, and a prepared piece of fabric ready.

Eliza immediately began demonstrating the correct movements, thread tension, and stitch angle, completely absorbed in the process.

Iron was the first to emerge from the blue rift. He took a couple of steps across the smooth surface, stopped, and looked around. Noah followed silently, then Elyria stepped through after him. The spatial passage behind them collapsed without making a sound.

An endless expanse stretched out around them, indistinguishable from outer space. Bright stars hung everywhere, while nebulae and galaxies slowly rotated in the distance, with lone planets scattered among them. Beneath their feet lay a massive circular platform carved with geodetic patterns.

At the very center of the platform stood a long rectangular table made of a dark green material. Its surface appeared almost black, but flashes of lightning-like light occasionally flickered deep within it, illuminating the geometric patterns engraved across it.

Servants stood beside the tall columns lining the space.

Iron discreetly activated his scanner, but the device displayed nothing but blank fields. The system couldn't identify them as humans or any other known race. All the readings were completely empty, yet even without the scanner, each of them radiated an incredibly dense, oppressive aura.

Chairs lined both sides of the table, occupied by all manner of entities.

At the head of the table, in the central seat, sat a young man who looked around eighteen to twenty years old. He wore an ordinary white T-shirt and white trousers, and his dark hair fell slightly over his forehead.

Iron walked forward at an unhurried pace, pulled out one of the empty chairs on the near side of the table, and sat down calmly.

"So, which one of you here is Abel?" he asked.

At that very moment, the young man with yellow hair and matching yellow eyes, seated on the right side of the table, broke into a grin and cheerfully waved at Iron.

However, a large, muscular man rose from the other side of the table. Rough scars marked his cheeks, and a deep scar ran across his forehead. He turned toward the young man in the white T-shirt, jabbed a finger in Iron's direction, and snarled:

"Are you seriously bringing this brat here, Abel?"

The man continued, looking at Iron with contempt.

So I was right. He's Abel, Iron noted to himself, his expression unchanged.

"We don't need useless weaklings like him," the man said threateningly.

At such blatant disrespect, Elyria immediately shot forward, flaring with anger.

"Who the hell do you think you are, talking to Iron like that?! He could take you down with his left hand!"

At that very moment, her gaze accidentally fell on someone seated farther down the table: a girl with light blue hair, wearing a dress that looked as though it had been carved from a single piece of shimmering crystal.

"Nivea...?" Elyria added, her voice dropping to a stunned whisper.

Noah stood slightly behind Iron, leaning against the engineer's chair. In an even, icy voice, he said:

"Yes, Iron really is strong."

Then Noah turned his cold, heavy gaze directly toward the muscular man and snapped:

"So shut your damn mouth."

The man froze for a moment, then burst into deafening laughter, sending a faint vibration through the entire hall. Pointing a finger at Iron, he said with a sneer:

"Oh, is that so... Then let's have a little fight, my esteemed friend."

Iron tapped a finger against the table without even raising an eyebrow and calmly replied:

"No problem."