Mason smiled and unlocked the car , he then reached in to pop the hood .
" This is a car , a sedan to be specific and it is powered by what I call the internal combustion engine which produces between five hundred and seventy to six hundred horsepower."
Mason then closed the hood and opened the passenger door for the Prince.
" Do you mind if we go for a ride your highness?" Mason asked .
The Prince nodded and sat in the car which proved difficult at first till Mason adjusted the seat which made it more comfortable .
He then started the car and the engine roared to life , Mason could hear the low rumbling of the V8 engine.
He quickly put the car in gear and started driving slowly at first , but when he left the gate he sped up changing gears as he spread through the outskirts of the castle.
The Prince sitting in the car was beyond thrilled, never in his wildest dreams had he thought of a vehicle that could move that fast.
After about twenty minutes, the duo returned back to the palace.
" When I heard you came with a horseless carriage, I thought it was just a regular carriage powered by magic stones or something but this ... I never expected it to be like this." The Prince said clearly impressed with his experience then he asked, " can you make more, I would like to purchase one . "
Mason smiled ," it would be possible, but I need some things ."
" Like what exactly?"
" I need to be removed from the imperial gifted program. I would like to serve the empire infact all of humanity but to do it as well as I need to , I would need to not be under constant surveillance." Mason replied.
" Is that all ? " The Prince asked .
" This would sound rude as I have just met you and haven't really offered anything of value other than empty grandiose promises, but I would like you to endorse my company."
The Prince sighed, he had thought that this youth standing in front of him was just battle hardened, he had plans on how to use him effectively but now here he was proposing a business deal .
For some reason , it didn't feel wrong to support him despite his previous convictions. But he needed to gain something from this deal.
" What do I or rather the imperial family tend to gain from this deal?"
" If I am provided with land and support , within a few years I would help you claim a large portion of the south American continent . That alone should be greater than any taxes or profit shares I would provide, I will also be providing five percent of my profits to the imperial family. All I want are assurances that my technology would not be infringed upon." Mason replied.
In a world where patents were not respected as people could be bullied and pressured into providing trade secrets he wanted to be secure .
He had heard instances of great forgers and rune smiths going into obscurity due to pressure from large guilds . It was also the reason the runesmiths and forgers usually align themselves with guilds and it was partially the cause of the technological stagnation that plagued this world .
Eventually the Prince agreed to this deal , he had the gnawing feeling that the car he saw in front of him was just the tip of the iceberg and that more incredible things were coming and if it was so he wanted to be a part of it .
During the engagement ceremony the Princes first son Marcellus was finally engaged to the daughter of a high chief in the Oyo empire and during that period, different nobles of the Prussian empire got word about the car that Mason drove to the event, they even saw the car in action and were so impressed that they started placing orders for the cars on the spot but so as not to be disruptive to the event talks were moved to a later date .
Two day after the engagement ceremony Mason was now taking meetings with nobles who were actually now staying in line to order the vehicles . It was ironic in some way that nobles who it took months to have a meeting with were now waiting in line for him.
During the meeting several things were discussed as Mason wanted to follow the Rolls-Royce marketing strategy of vehicles customization .
He discussed and gave ideas on engine performance and the different kinds of cars to choose from.
The SUV , sedan and coupe were the options offered and they could be customized based on preference for speed or comfort.
By the time he was done , he had signed contracts with over twenty nobles and was expecting a twenty percent deposit on cars ranging from two hundred thousand marks to one million marks .
Realistically the cost price of these cars remained in the ten thousands so the rest of the money he would receive would go towards other projects.
From the contracts he signed , the cars were to be delivered between the time of three months to a year .
After the meeting was over , he met again with the Prince who informed him that the house of Kufstein who were staunch supporters of the imperial family had offered land where Mason could set up his factories.
Mason thought about it long and hard and decided to reject the offer . His reason was that he had already established a logistics pipeline that supplied petroleum products from Siberia to Munich where he was currently based and moving it on such short notice would stall his progress.
Although he didn't actually reject the land proposal outright, he made sure to delay any form of move .
Now that all the deals were done , Mason went in to tackle the most pressing problems which was manpower . If he wanted to meet up with the projected timeline, he would have to hire hundreds if not thousands of workers.