The manufacturing operations of the Trinity Housings were in full force as all thirty production operators employed by the company began producing haven units one after another, overseen by a manager hired by Feidin.
At the same time, the advertisement team that would demonstrate the haven products in the depths of the Slums was fully trained on how to act and how to operate the haven units with proficiency to make the product look better.
They also had to adopt a manner of acting that drew more attention, rather than hiding from attention the way that people in the slums usually did. This was something that each of the people that Trinity Housings hired for the promotion campaigns needed to unlearn.
It was also a risk that they would necessarily need to undertake, as attracting attention in the slums was not a good idea. However, Cæ had ensured that they were being paid well enough to voluntarily apply for the task. On top of that, while it was dangerous, these men understood how to minimize the risk, having spent their entire lives in the depths of the slums.
Within a few days, all the preparations had been made.
"And… that makes forty-eight," Feidin's tone grew enthused as he scribbled in the notepad in his hands, while sauntering past an array of haven units lined up within their base. The production lines of the factory had taken their first daybreak since starting, as the workers sat about, drinking water while wiping sweat from their foreheads.
"Quality control protocols and check-ups are all great," Seliphaz nodded as she readjusted her circular spectacles, shifting a tuft of her blue hair behind her ears as she carefully read through pages of tabulated data, making sure that all the standards were well above board.
It was especially important that none of the existing units that would be utilized for advertisement were faulty in any way, as they simply couldn't afford to have that kind of liability stain the product's image in its very first advertisement campaign.
Cæ, who stood beside them, turned towards the forty-eight individuals that had been selected after careful vetting and then trained under Dlint for the advertising protocols. Each of them donned patched clothes with rough fabric, of poor quality and virtually no embroidery or design of any kind.
Their expressions were guarded and steely while their eyes were wary.
It was a guarded state of mind that Cæ was all too familiar with.
"Do not worry," Cæ remarked with a knowing gaze. "As long as you adhere to the protocols that Dlint and I have created, you will not face much danger. The outer districts are not that inhospitable, as I'm sure you all know."
They nodded curtly.
"Alright, Cæ, I think we're all ready," Feidin nodded. "The products and the quality controls are all in line, the last of the transport arrangements that we have made have arrived, and each of the advertisement team members is also here on time, so we're ready to commence at any time."
Everything was ready around them, the advertisement team stood ready behind him while Cæ's eyes ran across the array of haven units spread out over him.
"Then…" his eyes sharpened. "Let's begin."
CLASP
He grabbed at the wand tucked in the holster at his waist, as did Seliphaz. Magic circles appeared before them as they lifted each and every single one of the forty-eight haven cases, with simple first-circle magic circles appearing before them as they lifted many of them all at once with the magic of the Fundamental Form of Manipulation.
It was cheaper to dock them by themselves with magic than to hire people with actual money. Mana would return slowly after expenditure, after it was 'refilled', while money paid was money gone.
WHOOSH
The havens gently rose in the air as they slowly floated out of the factory base, while the non-mages reacted to the elegant display of simple but extraordinary magic nonetheless. Feidin heaved a soft sigh of envy while many of the laborers grew deeply moved by the sight they saw.
The members of the slums were especially shocked.
Their eyes widened while they gasped, moving out of the way of the floating haven units that drifted to the open door behind them and towards one of two large transportation magitrucks that waited outside for them.
Cæ and Seliphaz slowly hovered outside as with their wands and magic circles fully in function, carefully and neatly stacking the haven units within the truck with graceful motions of their wands.
Even the normally flustered and socially anxious Seliphaz was as cool as a cucumber as she wielded dozens of haven units at once, being a senior mage while Cæ himself could only handle barely over half a dozen.
Of course, with his pure magic, he could handle all the spells at once, but he couldn't blow his cover as a recently graduated apprentice mage fresh out of university, so he limited himself relative to Seliphaz.
The gap between the senior and apprentice mages was high, as seniors were an order of magnitude more effective than apprentices, on average. A single senior mage could match the output, in terms of eidos and mana-motive force, of ten apprentices, making for an astonishing gap between the two ranks.
It would be quite absurd if Cæ was able to match a senior mage in terms of eidos complexity.
CLACK
Soon enough, the last haven unit was neatly placed within the transportation magitrucks as they heaved a sigh, putting their wands away, only to realize that they had garnered attention from not just the employees and the people in the factory, but also the pedestrians around them that stopped what they were doing as they gazed at the great sight with awe and envy.
Seliphaz immediately turned red as she grew flustered and nervous, her social anxiety catching up to her very quickly, while Cæ didn't so much as blink at the attention they received.
"Alright, all the units have been docked," Cæ remarked. "In them, food and water, and the disposable excretion and urination units that we purchased to last a day. You won't need to worry about anything except focusing on your task as per the training you have gotten, got it?"
The advertisement nodded with a serious expression before heading over to the other unoccupied truck, quickly filling it up and closing the doors.
VMMM…!
The trucks revved with power as they headed away, carrying all forty-eight haven units and their respective advertisement team with them.
"Huff…" Cæ heaved a deep breath. "Well, let's see how it goes."
Feidin nodded, scratching his head with a sigh. "Let's just hope that all that training fully pays off and they execute it perfectly. And more importantly, let's hope that the people of the slums love it."
Cæ's gaze shifted up as his eyes studied the sky.
It was covered with a large blanket of dark clouds.
RUMBLE…
The thunder was loud and prominent as the chilly breeze brushed past them, and icy pangs tingled on their skin. One didn't need divination magic to know that it was going to rain, and rain particularly heavily.
Meanwhile, the men of the advertisement team traveled on a long journey across the entirety of the inner city, dropping off at the entrance of one of the forty-eight districts at a time.
"Tsk," one man complained with a dissatisfied expression. "Pay ain't bad, but I ain't happy about going back to the slums."
His grumblings earned a wave of muted approval.
He wasn't the only one among the advertising team who felt the same way.
Dlint turned towards him with a stern expression. "If you want to escape the slums, then be grateful to Trinity Housings. They are paying you well for a job that you have basically done your whole life. You won't be able to make money as easily as this with any other job out there. Almost none of you would be even eligible in the first place with the education and experience requirements."
That was one of the primary reasons that they couldn't the out of the slums, they had nothing to offer except for manual labor, but the wages for manual labor were far too little to make a viable living in the inner city were the price of even renting a decent small bedroom was beyond them.
It ultimately forced them to return to the outer districts, the slums.
VMMM…
The truck stopped at yet another district, as Dlint, the closest one to the door, got up and out of the truck, nodding at his subordinates and friends before shutting the doors of the truck.
He immediately headed over to the first truck parked a little ahead, opening the doors to their back storage area to reveal the array of haven units that Cæ and Seliphaz had stacked neatly with magic.
He quickly unfastened one of them, before quickly unlocking the wheel feature that Cæ had Seliphaz put for the haven unit, before slowly dragging and lifting the housing unit out of the truck and placing it on the side of the road.
THUD
Despite its volume, Dlint found the haven unit to be surprisingly light to move around. This was a feature of the product, not just to make it easier for the residents of the slums to move it around, but also to reduce material costs.
VRMMM…
The two magitrucks zoomed away after Dlint flashed a thumbs up to the drivers. Dlint heaved a sigh as he turned behind him with narrowed eyes, gazing deeply in that direction.
CLASP
He grabbed the little handle at the very front end of the haven units as he dragged the housing unit on wheels with him while walking in the direction he knew he needed to go. The district that he was in was one of the outermost districts of the inner city and thus one of the poorest districts that weren't quite slums yet simply due to the fact that they had access to the magigrid and the maginet.
And yet, the shift in infrastructure and the very quality of civilization was still something that Dlint never quite got accustomed to despite having made the transition many times. The districts of the inner city, even the poorest ones like the one he was in, still had decent roads and sidewalks; the homes were certainly small and diminutive compared to those of the inner districts, but they were still well-maintained.
There wasn't an evergreen risk of them crashing and falling on the heads of the residents. He could even spot some small magiscooter and even a small, albeit run-down, magicar among the residents of the district.
It was a relatively clean environment, with small amounts of ill-maintained bags of garbage and trash stacked on the sidewalk.
It wasn't the worst place a person could be.
And yet, the transition to what was to come was quick, yet indistinguishably smooth, as he left the inner districts and headed to the outer districts of the city, things changed in a rapid, yet clean flow.
The cleanliness degenerated as an increasing amount of human waste, organic and non-organic, flooded what was left of the streets that began slowly eroding with each step he took, eventually disappearing into the soil beneath.
The air grew putrid and fetid while the faint scent of certain familiar chemicals tickled at Dlint's nose.
SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT
The recent storms that washed over the Colohen City had rendered the entirety of the land of the slums to an unpleasant and dirty marshy, wet, and muddy terrain, while the size of homes had reduced from actual homes to unstable, constructed huts.
The glint of darkness in the eyes of the people who directed a pointed, inspecting gaze at him as he entered the block of the slums, however, was the greatest indicator to him that he was back to where he started from.
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