I'm Confident

The meeting with the king lasted nearly another hour.

By the time Ernest and Hollen finally emerged from the royal office, the afternoon sunlight had already shifted noticeably through the palace windows. Servants escorted them back through the same corridors they had walked earlier that day, though everything somehow felt different now.

Perhaps because Ernest had entered the palace as a wealthy industrialist.

And was leaving it as a baron.

Beside him, Hollen remained unusually quiet.

Actually, that was not entirely accurate.

The older man looked as though his mind had simply stopped functioning somewhere between receiving a royal title, acquiring five thousand hectares of land, and accepting responsibility for building a machine capable of sending messages faster than horses.

The palace servants led them through another grand hallway before finally arriving at the main entrance where their carriage waited.