Building a Viking Empire with Modern Industry-Chapter 142: City Titan

While Ragnar was enjoying a peaceful life in City Titan the West Saxon invasion had spread to the other corners of the Midlands.

Luckily for Ragnar, his position was secure for the moment; as such, he spent his time overseeing the usual activities.

After finishing his breakfast with Gyda and Elfwynn Ragnar had moved onto the main highlight of his day, which was presenting the architectural designs of his newest project to his favorite engineer.

With the Industrial Reformation in full effect, Ragnar wanted a symbol of his movement. As such, he decided to make a Grand Cathedral in City Titan to represent the new era of Productivity.

While Ragnar was far from an artist, he still could draw some rudimentary blueprints.

The style he had in mind was that of Victorian Industrialism mixed with Gothic Revival.

Ragnar had already begun implementing such designs across City Titan for all of his major architectural projects, for example, the Governor’s Mansion, which was primarily based upon the designs of a retro-futuristic fortress from his previous life.

As such, he was currently in a meeting with his favorite Engineer who had been overseeing a lot of his projects within Titan.

The man’s name was Leif the Elder, and he was a master builder who had fled to Ragnar’s domain during the early days of the Viking expansion, where Ragnar immediately noticed his talents for load-bearing structures and put him to work.

At the moment, the two men were discussing the details of the Iron Cathedral with each other as they went over the designs. Leif being the first to voice his opinion.

"As usual, Director, you know how to build a basic schematic, but you are completely lacking in soul. I am afraid to say you design buildings like they are factories."

Leif was a man in his early sixties, with a beard like a snowdrift and hands calloused from decades of stone-carving.

He was an unusually blunt man; even to someone of Ragnar’s position, he was not afraid of voicing his true thoughts, which Ragnar honestly enjoyed.

Ragnar was constantly surrounded by too many yes-men who told him his profit margins were perfect. As such, Ragnar merely laughed at the older man’s comment and expressed his concerns.

"Yeah, yeah... I know I am not meant to be an artist; the question is, can you make something magnificent and structural with the designs I have presented you?"

The older man began to contemplate for a few moments while rubbing his bare chin before sighing.

"It will take a lot of work to fix your mistakes but I promise you, by the time I am done with this Iron Cathedral of yours, it will put anything the Vatican has to shame! It will be a temple to Industry!"

Ragnar chuckled upon hearing the man’s confidence and patted him on the back as he brought the topic to interior design.

"For the interior, I was thinking Stained Glass... but depicting gears and steam engines instead of saints. I have a soft spot for machinery."

Leif snorted when he heard those words before interjecting his opinion on the matter.

"Of course you want gears; everyone knows you worship the Machine Spirit! Far be it from me to question the Director’s brilliant obsession!"

Leif was bitter about the topic, though Ragnar did not know why, and frankly, he did not care so long as his vision was brought to life.

Thus Ragnar switched the topic to the time frame it would take to complete it.

"How long will it take to be finished? I want the ribbon-cutting ceremony before the next fiscal quarter."

Leif immediately scoffed at Ragnar’s remarks; the young Director was always rushing him on his projects; despite the vast wealth and resources at his disposal, it was not like the man could pull a miracle and complete such a large project overnight.

Despite his inner monologue, Leif gave his best estimate.

"Considering you have me running around the clock building your Dry Dock, and now I have this damn Cathedral on top of it, it will take at least two years!

You are lucky you pay me in stock options and allow me the freedom to express my creativity, or else I would have retired to a farm long ago!"

Ragnar was not the slightest bit upset by the level of informality in which the Engineer spoke to him; in fact, it was pretty refreshing listening to someone who did not bow and express meaningless flattery in every comment they made. As such, Ragnar let the man’s seemingly foul attitude slide.

In reality, Leif was very passionate about his work and was glad to have the near-unlimited resources at his disposal which Ragnar provided him.

Not to mention the freedom in which he was allowed to tinker with the rudimentary designs Ragnar had provided him, giving him the opportunity to turn them into true masterpieces of engineering.

Leif was right about one thing: though it might take two years at the earliest to complete, it would be far grander than anything the Vatican had at the moment.

As such, the man was immensely proud to stick it to those old Luddites who had denied him his dreams when he was a young man in Frankia.

After hearing that it would take at least two years to finish construction, Ragnar was pleased; it usually would take years, maybe even decades, to construct such an extensive project.

However, Ragnar had introduced essential materials that significantly reduced construction speed and increased structural integrity over the traditional form of masonry.

That was, of course, Reinforced Concrete and Steel Beams.

With these two materials, his construction crews could create grand projects such as this Cathedral in a far shorter time frame, with greatly enhanced sturdiness.

If one knew what they were doing, they could make a steel-reinforced concrete building look as attractive as any stone cathedral. As such, Ragnar made use of these advanced construction materials to build his city rapidly.

Despite being pleased with the estimated time frame, Ragnar liked to mess with the older man; considering Leif’s naturally crotchety attitude, Ragnar put on an authoritative facade and said in a stern voice.

"That is too long; it needs to be constructed in half that time! I have shareholders to impress!"

Upon hearing such an impossible task, Leif nearly had an aneurysm as a large vein protruded from his forehead while he was seething with anger.

However, before long, Ragnar broke out into laughter after seeing the older man’s twisted expression, and Leif instantly realized that Ragnar was screwing with his head. As such, he forced himself to calm down and responded to Ragnar’s jest.

"You know you are not half as funny as you think you are, right? Stick to the spreadsheets, Director."

Ragnar, however, had a great smile across his lips; the look on Leif’s face just now was priceless. After all, Leif was one of the few people he knew who he could joke around with like this.

With others, Ragnar had to maintain his prestigious appearance as the "Iron Father," yet Leif was different; he did not care in the slightest for the face of the Directorate.

After playing his prank on Leif, Ragnar noticed what time it was and realized he had to be at a Strategy Meeting regarding the Scottish expansion in a few moments, and as such, he let Leif get back to work.

"Well, Leif, as always, it has been a pleasure, but I am afraid I am needed elsewhere; I will let you get back to your work! Don’t forget to install the Central Heating pipes."

Leif snorted when he heard this and responded in a cold manner.

"Just make sure my overtime is calculated correctly!"

Ragnar chuckled when he heard this response and walked away, leaning on his cane, leaving a rhetorical question in his wake.

"Have I ever failed to balance the books?"

With that, Leif was left with a basic outline for Ragnar’s Iron Cathedral, and he had a lot of work to do on revising the design into a proper blueprint before he could begin construction.

Of course, this Cathedral was not the only project he had to work on; after all, Project: Leviathan was still under construction, thus the man had his work cut out for him.

However, he was pretty happy with his place in City Titan and had no plans to leave; as such, he rolled up his sleeves and got to work on the new project presented to him.