Chapter 246: A Costly Chaos

After Lia left, the meeting room of the newly established “Kingdom Traffic Planning Department” fell into a long, deathly silence.

Masters Hoffman, Orville, Alistair, and Baron Baden looked at each other, each seeing the same bewildered expression in the eyes of the others.

Those few concise formulas on the blackboard were like runes from another world, radiating an indisputable logical brilliance, yet they left the men feeling as if they had nowhere to begin.

“Kinetic energy grades…” Master Hoffman muttered to himself.

His mind was filled with his own “Pioneer I”—according to Professor Lia’s formula, the maximum kinetic energy of that thing was not small.

“Determining liability through the conservation of momentum…” Baron Baden’s face looked grim.

He felt that the legal knowledge he had spent his life studying could find no opening against these simple symbols.

“Gentlemen, have we… drifted off topic?” he began with difficulty.

“We are formulating laws, not conducting a physics seminar.”

“No, My Lord Baron.” Alistair’s eyes, however, flickered with light.

“Professor Lia has shown us the direction. Rules must be built upon a solid foundation; otherwise, they are but castles in the air.”

Master Orville also echoed excitedly, “Exactly! Defining rules using physical laws—this is brilliant! No one can question the impartiality of mathematics!”

Baron Baden held his forehead, feeling his worldview collapsing.

***

Over the following month, the sound of arguments rang out many times in this conference room.

“No! The top speed cannot be lower than forty kilometers per hour!” Master Hoffman slammed the table.

“The design speed of my ‘Pioneer’ is thirty kilometers per hour; you are stifling innovation!”

“Forty kilometers?!” Baron Baden blew out his mustache and glared.

“Do you have any idea what the consequences would be if an out-of-control iron box plowed into a crowd at forty kilometers an hour? I suggest it should not exceed the running speed of an ordinary horse carriage.”

“And the air routes must be layered!” Master Orville spread out a massive sketch covered in complex lines.

“Ten to twenty meters is the lane for private aircraft; thirty meters and above belongs to the Kingdom’s Gryphon Knight Order. They absolutely cannot be mixed!”

“The control logic for the signal lights must be unified!” Alistair held his design draft.

“I suggest establishing a central hub in the heart of the capital where all signal lights are networked, automatically adjusting red and green light durations based on real-time traffic flow.”

Arguments persisted from day until late into the night.

They debated vehicle widths, the assessment standards for driver’s licenses, and the amounts for fines.

The three large crates of legal codes Baron Baden had brought became dog-eared from being flipped through, yet they found not a single clause that could be directly applied.

To protect his commercial interests, Master Hoffman practically lived in the conference room.

Meanwhile, Master Orville argued until he was red in the face with the liaison sent by Duke Roland over the issue of “air traffic control rights.”

Ultimately, after King Augustus personally intervened to mediate three times, a fifty-page thick document titled the Kingdom Magical Vehicle Management Law (Draft) was finally produced a month later.

***

The law stipulated an entire system ranging from vehicle registration and driver’s license assessment to road division and accident liability determination.

Among its most eye-catching features were the traffic signals—humorously dubbed the “Three-Color Oracles” by mages—and the driver’s license assessment that many found intimidating.

King Augustus ordered a week-long trial run using the intersection of the bustling “Golden Avenue” and “Royal Avenue” as the pilot site.

On the first day of the trial run, the capital’s traffic met with an unprecedented disaster.

The newly appointed traffic assistants, wearing conspicuous uniforms and holding small flags, blew their whistles at the top of their lungs.

However, their commands appeared pale and powerless against the chaotic flow of traffic.

A noble youth driving his newly purchased “Pioneer” did not slow down when the yellow light came on; instead, he slammed on the “accelerator”!

He attempted to rush through the intersection.

As a result, he collided with a traditional horse carriage that was making a left turn.

The “Pioneer” only suffered a dented bumper, but the wheels of the luxurious horse carriage were snapped off instantly.

The two startled horses went out of control on the spot, dragging the half-carriage as they rampaged through the intersection.

Immediately following, vehicles behind that were unaware of the situation suffered rear-end collisions one after another.

Within ten minutes, this most important traffic hub of the kingdom was completely paralyzed.

“Why should I stop? Isn’t the yellow light just a warning? By the time I saw it, it was too late to brake!” the noble youth said righteously to the City Guard arriving to handle the accident.

“He hit my horses! My horses are purebred Swiftwind horses, worth five thousand gold coins each!”

The captain of the City Guard felt like his head was swelling.

He flipped through the Management Law (Draft) and found the definition for the yellow light: “A warning signal reminding drivers that the signal is about to change.”

“This definition is too vague. Is one supposed to stop or go?”

Similar problems continued to play out within the pilot area.

On the second day, a giant freight wagon—specially built by an alchemical workshop and far wider than a normal horse carriage—got stuck while attempting to pass through a narrow road section, directly causing a blockage of the entire street.

On the third day, a young mage who had just received his temporary license became nervous and mistook acceleration for deceleration, driving his vehicle straight into a roadside fountain.

Over the course of the week, a total of forty-three accidents, large and small, occurred in the pilot area, with cumulative congestion time exceeding thirty hours.

“The Truth” used the phrase “A Costly Chaos” to describe the trial run.

***

A week later, the atmosphere in the conference room of the Kingdom Traffic Planning Department was terrifyingly oppressive.

Master Hoffman fell silent; his factory had received over a dozen requests for returns.

Baron Baden’s face was darker than the bottom of a pot; the accident reports made him feel as if he were already a criminal of the capital.

“Where did the problem lie?” Master Orville’s voice was hoarse.

“In the details,” Alistair said, striking the nail on the head.

“Our framework is perfect, but we underestimated the complexity of reality and overestimated people’s ability to understand and adapt to the new rules.”

“The definition of the yellow light must be revised,” Master Hoffman said listlessly.

“It must be explicitly stated that when the yellow light comes on, vehicles that have already crossed the stop line may continue, while those that have not must stop.”

“Vehicle dimensions must be standardized!” Baron Baden slammed the table.

“I suggest His Majesty the King immediately order that the width and length of all newly produced magical vehicles must not exceed stipulated values! Otherwise, they are banned from the roads!”

“An ’emergency hazard avoidance’ item must also be added to the driver’s license assessment!”

“For aircraft, we need a stricter airspace application system!”

This time, there was no arguing in the conference room, only efficient discussion.

The bloody reality had united them like never before.

Three days later, an optimized version of the Kingdom Magical Vehicle Management Law (Official Version) was placed on King Augustus’s desk.

Simultaneously, King Augustus signed two new decrees.

The first established the “Kingdom Road Survey and Design Institute,” overseen by the Minister of Works, to immediately begin replanning major roads in the capital and across the country.

The new roads would be clearly divided into automatic carriage lanes, traditional carriage lanes, and sidewalks, with space reserved for future rail transit.

The second promulgated the “Regulations on the Standardized Production of Magical Vehicles,” making mandatory rules for key parameters such as length, width, height, minimum turning radius, and braking distance of all magical vehicles.

Once the news broke, the entire kingdom was shaken once more.

In the mage tower, Adèle was cheerfully reporting the interesting tidbits from outside to Lia and Klein.

“Lia, let me tell you a joke!” Adèle laughed so hard she was doubled over.

“I heard there was a coachman who failed the ‘hill start’ eight times and finally went home crying.”

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