Ice Vapor Goddess

Chapter 58 Mastering Steel
“Bang!”

A sound like something knocking against the glass came from inside, and Xilun turned over.

“Bang!”

There was another knock on the window. Xiren opened his eyes slightly, but there was only darkness, so he closed them again.

"Bang! Bang!!"

The voice became more urgent, and Xilun finally realized something was wrong. So he did his best to open his aching eyes, ending his mere two and a half hours of sleep.

He looked out the window and saw a "snowman" wrapped up like a rice dumpling, holding a stick and banging on his window.

Xilun stared at him blankly, then suddenly remembered—it was so cold, and he was all alone outside.
So he quickly put on his clothes, but the snowman got even more anxious when he saw him getting dressed, gesturing and shouting something, leaving Xilun completely confused.

Thirty seconds later, Xiren, wrapped in a robe and coat, pushed open the door, and a fierce blizzard rushed in instantly, seeping in through every gap in his clothes. The icy snowflakes landed on his neck, which he had forgotten to wear a scarf, making him shiver several times.

The sky outside was still dark, with only the streetlights casting a faint glow in the gloomy snow. The dark sky seemed to press down, turning the world into an iron cage.

Xilun shouted at the "snowman," "What's wrong?!"

The snowman looked at him and shouted, "It's alright! Go back! Someone has arranged for you to have a window-knocking service at six in the morning!"

Then Siren remembered that he had arranged with his subordinates to depart from Speyside at seven o'clock in the morning to go to the site of the train crash. Perhaps someone was worried that he wouldn't be able to get up, so they ordered a window-knocking service.

Alarm clocks in this era were extremely expensive, belonging to the category of sophisticated mechanical luxury goods. Moreover, the alarm time could not be set freely. If you wanted to wake up at six o'clock, you had to buy a special alarm clock that would ring at six o'clock. If you wanted to change it to wake up at seven o'clock, you had to buy another one.

Therefore, the "window knocker" is the real alarm clock. These hardworking people would get up in the early morning or even late at night and knock on the windows of their customers one by one according to the wake-up time requested by the customers.

"Would you like to come in and sit down?" Xilun asked, feeling a pang of pity as he looked at the person knocking on the window, who was wrapped up like a ball and covered in snow.

"No, I still have another place to go. I've already wasted more than ten seconds," the person knocking on the window said, then staggered away, leaving behind only deep snow pits and a silhouette struggling to walk in the dark wind and snow.

Xilun gazed at his retreating figure, sighed, and a holy healing spell fell upon the person knocking on the window.

The snowman paused for a moment, turned around and gave Xilun a thumbs up, then quickened his pace and soon disappeared from sight.

Xilun turned around, about to go home and pack his things.

Suddenly, two intense beams of light pierced the night sky, accompanied by a deafening roar, and the enormous steel monster revealed its form in the wind and snow.

Its most striking feature is a huge, riveted steel frame, its dark surface covered with a layer of frost and snow, but near the boiler there is only melted snow and wisps of white smoke rising.

The massive crosshead slider and piston rod reciprocate powerfully on the precision-machined guide rails. The lubricating rod drips viscous grease rhythmically onto the hot components, producing a slight "sizzling" sound and emitting a distinctive metallic and oily odor.

A short, thick chimney stood upright from the back of the boiler, spewing out dense black smoke mixed with sparks. Next to the driver's cab with its three glass windows, two rifles were fixed in place.

Aldridge opened the car door and called out, "Your Excellency, your car!"

Looking at the tractor, which exuded industrial dynamism and mechanical beauty, Xilun actually felt a sense of anticipation for farming for the first time.

Of course—this thing was definitely not built for farming. These exaggerated modifications and weaponry are to deal with any emergencies that may occur along the way.

Xilun hurriedly went back to pack his things and then climbed into the car.

After Celen squeezed into the driver's seat, Aldridge stood behind him and asked, "Can you drive?"

Siren shook his head regretfully. Aldridge pointed to the massive brass steering wheel with its cast iron rim in front of him: "This controls left and right turns."

Then he pointed to the two vertical brass levers on the left with ratchet positions: "These are the accelerator and gear shift levers."

Finally, he pointed to the huge iron plate under his feet: "This is the clutch."

Then he pointed to the seats: "Now, let's start."

"Isn't this a manual transmission?" Xilun sat down confidently. As a driver with a C1 license but who had never driven a car in a day, he announced that he had completely mastered the car in 10 seconds.

He slammed his foot on the clutch, but the metal plate didn't budge; only his foot was jolted and ached.

"Uh... is it stuck?" he asked.

“Oh, that’s a bit heavy, you’ll have to use your strength,” Aldridge said.

So Xilun used all his strength, his face turning red, but he could only manage to step down a little bit. In the end, he even stood up and jumped on it, pressing himself down against the iron plate next to him, before he finally managed to step down.

Fortunately, his physical strength increased slightly after he was appointed as one of the two royal knights; otherwise, he wouldn't even be able to press the clutch.

Pulling the gear lever to forward, the tractor's roar suddenly intensified as the boiler operator in the rear compartment shoveled in new anthracite coal, and the steel behemoth let out a deafening roar!

Xilun gripped the accelerator tightly, feeling the intense steel heartbeat through his gloves. The platform beneath his feet vibrated constantly, and he could even feel the pulse of the machine's power output with each stroke.

The deep rumble of the boiler echoed in his ears, the steam hissed in the pipes, and the rhythmic thumping of the pistons, the meshing of gears, and the crunching of the tracks over the ice and snow constantly assaulted his eardrums.

The smells of hot metal, burning coal, volatile lubricating oil, and cold, clean air filled Xilun's nostrils. He looked at the lampposts piercing the darkness ahead and the swirling snowflakes. Behind the glass cover of the dashboard, the needles trembled wildly in the dim light!

He seemed to be taming a wild beast!

"Let's go!" Aldridge announced.

As Xilun watched the steam tractor gradually accelerate, a smile slowly spread across his face.

Even if you can't drive the Steel Angel or the walking mech, driving a tractor isn't so bad!

The moment he gripped the accelerator, he felt as if he were sitting on an iron throne.

But the intense white light from the kerosene lamp, focused by the Fresnel lens, shone on the building's walls—a turn was needed ahead.

Xilun pulled the heavy cast-iron rudder, but only his own bones made a "click" sound.

“Turn left!!” Aldridge shouted.

"I'm turning left!" Siren shouted, his eyes wide. Standing in front of his seat, he put all his strength into the steering wheel and frantically pulled it to the left, his waist and arms tense.

"We're going to crash!!" Aldridge lunged forward and spun the steering wheel, finally managing to get it turning.

The left wheel disengaged from the clutch, and through the speed difference of the front wheels, the steel behemoth narrowly grazed the wall in front of it and drove onto the wide road ahead.

But the heavy rudder wheel had such great inertia that Xilun couldn't stop it at all. He was thrown off and crashed heavily to the ground, his whole body trembling with pain.

“I said…” Xiren rubbed his back and struggled to stand up, “When you modified this thing, did you design it based on your own strength?”

　I've seen the changes to the romance storyline; there have been quite a few, mainly in chapters 55 and 56. Also, to meet the needs of the plot, the setting for the use of divine magic has been moved there. Please forgive any misalignments or omissions in the chapter descriptions. ORZ
　　
　
(End of this chapter)