The next few days were a time of rapid development for Alara's yet unnamed city. Alto and Lance, the assistant manager of construction efforts, returned with numerous skilled laborers and equipment. The elven workforce totaled around fifty, at the end of the first day. They decided to camp at the construction site, so Nina made temporary shelters for them as well as the wolf-kin.
After Alto and Lance returned from their trip, and under the cover of a large invisibility spell, I made five new passenger-only railcars and attached them to the original railcar with jointed linkers. Then, I modified the main railcar's control plates to accommodate the new setup. The result was an actual train that could carry over 140 passengers. To my surprise, its speed and magic efficiency were not significantly reduced.
With their full elven workforce, Art and his team split the wolf-kin into groups based on construction specialties and began training them on the first day.
After a day of training, less than a hundred of the original wolf-kin were deemed competent enough in construction specialties to retain. The rest were teleported back to their village in secret at nightfall, and given the wages I promised.
While the wolf-kin were being trained, Alara and Art were surveying the valley and finalizing the city layout. They found three other appropriate mountain passes at the north, west, and south borders of the valley that they deemed worthy for train stations – I clearly marked for them where the terminal loops for the railways would go. Based on that, it was decided that the city would have two main streets, connecting the north/south and east/west train stations.
They also decided that these streets would merge with a circular street in the middle of the valley. It would be large enough to encircle numerous city-owned (Alara-owned) buildings, while land lining the streets elsewhere would be allocated to private shops and businesses.
The land away from the streets in the resulting quadrants would be mostly for private housing, with some of the outlying land reserved for city-owned storage warehouses and processing facilities.
In particular, the valley lake is in the southwest quadrant. I suggested establishing a park that runs between the circular street and the lake. The remaining land in that quadrant would be for private housing, with the lakefront land being reserved at a very high price point.
Though it's not high priority, I also suggested that we pre-build neighborhood houses in one of the other quadrants for quick settlement. These suggestions were approved by Alara, and Art seemed to support them as well.
After city layout was established, construction began on the three main streets of the city – they were red brick, a novelty. At the east train station, the street was widened to run along the edge of the railway, and stone waiting benches were preemptively built for future train passengers.
The streets were built similarly beside the other three planned train stations, in anticipation of their construction. At present, these main streets' construction is finished.
At the same time, construction began on the large city-owned inn at the center of the valley, and it's currently about halfway finished. It's planned to be three stories, curved along the inside of the circular street, and facing the east train station. It will have over a hundred rooms, and be affordable with basic accommodations.
In addition, there will be a kitchen and large dining room for guests, and gender-specific public showers. According to Art, these are more sanitary and easier to deal with the water drainage from than public baths. The drawback is that they can't get the water as hot, so showers are lukewarm. I thought it was fine since baths are kind of a luxury in this world anyway.
The final focus of construction over the first few days was the hot spring resort. At my suggestion, it was decided that the southern half of the large hot spring will remain an unaltered natural hot spring for mixed-gender use. The northern half will be reserved for private hot spring experiences.
To accommodate the latter, several wooden walkways that traverse the northern section of the hot spring have been constructed just above water level. Between these walkways, various private jacuzzi were added by placing circular stone 'booths' into the hot spring, such that their tops are barely above the water line. They are approximately four meters in diameter, can seat up to ten people, and there are over a dozen of them in the private section of the hot spring.
At present, we have three main construction efforts underway for the hot spring. First is transportation. Nina created a zig-zagging stone staircase up the side of the mountain for people to reach it on foot, but it's quite a laborious journey. Percivil and I have been brainstorming how to transport people more efficiently up the mountain, but to no avail so far.
Second is constructing small changing rooms right next to the hot springs. These are almost finished, and they haven't been problematic. Finally, there is the 'privacy' feature of the private hot spring booths. I have an idea for this, and Nina and I are currently on our way to the hot springs to test it.
"Mizuki, explain to me what you intend to do again?" (Nina)
I sigh internally. We are standing over one of the booths on the walkway. It's early in the morning, and the workers seem to not have arrived yet for the ongoing changing room construction.
"Sure, but first, why don't we climb into this private hot spring booth here?" (Mizuki)
By the time I even turn around after asking, she's already undressed and climbing into the jacuzzi. I chuckle and then follow suit. Nina gives me a seductive smile as we sink into the water next to one another.
"Fufufu…now explain again before I get other ideas." (Nina)
"Sure. Basically, I want to add an enchanted item to these that makes it so people inside still see everything outside like normal, but people outside can't see inside." (Mizuki)
Nina gives me a skeptical expression.
"Hmm…are you going to try it now?" (Nina)
I nod at her with a confident smile, then I use my alchemy spell to synthesize a small, square copper plate. I gesture to the border of the jacuzzi opposite the walkway we climbed in from.
"Can you make a slot in the stone there that this fits snugly into?" (Mizuki)
Nina nods smugly and does as I ask. I try to slide the plate into the slot on the top of the jacuzzi…it's a perfect fit.
"Perfect, thank you. Now, could you reform the stone so that it covers the edges of this plate? Basically, we don't want people to be able to pull this plate out of the stone." (Mizuki)
"Fufufu…these tasks are too easy for my talents, Mizuki." (Nina)
I suppress the urge to roll my eyes, and Nina complies with my request. I check the plate's security, and I'm satisfied with it. I nod at Nina appreciatively.
"Okay, now for the fun part!" (Mizuki)
I place my hand on the copper plate and prime it for an enchantment, then I channel my magic through the plate into a spell that forms a thin magic dome over the whole jacuzzi.
I will the magic dome to convert any visible spectrum radiation escaping from inside into infrared radiation as it exits the magic dome. I also focus on giving the enchantment the property that magic can be increasingly pre-invested into the spell to make it last longer unsupervised. After, I charge the enchanted item so that it's active.
"Okay, Nina, the privacy spell should be active now!" (Mizuki)
Nina gives me a strange look.
"Uhm…how are we supposed to tell if it's working, Mizuki?" (Nina)
I nod agreeably…I'm sure that would freak customers out if they can't confirm it. Without answering her, I use several spells to synthesize some silicon dioxide, heat it until it has melted, then cool it in a flat rectangular shape. Finally, I alchemize the thin outer layer to aluminum. The result is…a small mirror. I show it to Nina, and she loses it.
"Mizuki! Is this me!? Fufufu…you have quite the sexy lady in your life, hmm?" (Nina)
I smirk at her.
"You're right, I do. By the way, that device is called a mirror, and it lets you observe yourself. So, you've seen what you look like from in here. Now, slowly extend that mirror outside of the jacuzzi and watch how your appearance changes." (Mizuki)
Nina looks at me curiously, but she does as I suggest. Just as the mirror passes outside the threshold of the jacuzzi, its surface turns black. Nina's eyes go wide in shock.
"Mizuki, what happened!?" (Nina)
"Fufufu…that's what we look like from outside the jacuzzi. It appears like a black dome is covering the top of the jacuzzi, hiding us from view." (Mizuki)
Nina keeps moving the mirror in and out of the jacuzzi and watching its surface change. She's obviously thrilled with the experience, but I cut it short.
"Okay Nina, can you position that mirror barely outside the perimeter of the jacuzzi, then seal it inside a stone casing that's fixed to the side of the jacuzzi? I want people to see the surface turn black, so they know the privacy dome is working, but I don't want them to steal the mirrors." (Mizuki)
Nina nods her understanding, then takes a couple of minutes to carefully execute my instructions. After she's done, I inspect her work from multiple angles, and it seems to do the job perfectly. I nod at her approvingly, and she lights up with pride.
"Thanks Nina, you're the best. Alright, now we just have to repeat this process for the rest of the jacuzzi." (Mizuki)
Nina nods her understanding, and we go jacuzzi-hopping, repeating this process, until they all have functional privacy domes. Afterwards, we get dressed and I teleport us back to the mansion. Nina made a zig-zagged staircase up to our mansion, but nobody really uses it.