It didn't take long for it to become apparent that political jockeying was going on the in background of the human continent. New alliances were formed around the northern end of the continent and diplomatic and mercantile systems began to rapidly shift. I continued teaching classes while also having to regularly attend minister meetings and fulfill assigned duties. The political landscape is shifting quickly, and we're coordinating with Kao as to how to handle everything.

Every few weeks, it seemed like another country along the border of this new human economic bloc would sign onto their treaties and agreements until it swallowed up a sizeable portion of the center of the continent. The exact reason they were all being so agreeable wasn't readily apparent until a few months passed, and a more moderate country closer to the southern region informed us of exactly what the negotiation terms were.

It seems the terms were presented first with the promises of improved economic prosperity and safety. By signing onto the economic bloc, fluorite machines would be provided free of charge to expand manufacturing capabilities. Additionally, modernized military equipment will also be installed in defensive positions. After describing all that, there were also terms that had double meanings as threats to those who wouldn't sign on. Things along the lines of 'those along our borders who conspire to harm the new alliance will be dealt with swiftly'. If you were in the alliance, then this is a promise of safety, but if you reject the offer, you're now a border state that could easily be overthrown.

Those who joined on also surrendered certain state functions like foreign negotiations to a board of individuals representing the bloc, which was why getting information took so long. One could view this new faction as being akin to either a federalized state or a soviet republic, depending on your viewpoint on the matter, though I suppose the dwarven nation also works in a similar manner, though dwarven warlords have more autonomy than these states do.

It wasn't until sympathetic southern states started to be pushed to join in this new bloc that the terms finally leaked out. Though it wasn't out of good will. Instead, the first southern state to tell us of this offer was looking for a counter offer. Basically, if we couldn't match or exceed the offer they were presented, then they'd join on. I can't really blame them either, the prospect of free industrialization under the threat of being overthrown if you decline is a hard deal to pass on.

So, the dwarves and us combined are having to present an alternative that is at least as appealing. Knowing what I do about the outcome of the cold war, the best alternative is to offer to industrialize them, provide a defensive treaty similar to the other side, but instead of forming a closed economic bloc, we allow them to conduct their own state practices and retain full control of their own country without surrendering any functions. The main restriction we put on them for joining our deal is that they are restricted from leaving the agreement without consent of all other signed on nations, and certain technologies are prohibited from being sold to the adversarial bloc.

In a ministers' meeting, we agreed to work cooperatively with the dwarves in halting this threat, which includes providing them schematics and assistance with making fluorite growth chambers. In many regards, the academy is now an even greater benefit to us than it was previously, since we already have a pathway to provide skilled individuals for rapid industrialization of other countries.

As part of this process, we're planning on trying to double our faculty and student admission rate over the next year to include countries that have signed on to our deal. As things are shaping up, I don't think there are going to end up being any truly neutral countries in this exchange. The elves have not formally signed or pledged support in any regard, but it is very obvious to both sides whom they are supporting and backing.

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Due to the threat of impending world war, I've also started to shift the focus of engineering clubs towards military needs. The automobile club is now working on tank platforms and tool production and efficiency is being changed over to firearms. From everything we can tell, there isn't any truly revolutionary technology on the other side. There is no evidence of them growing mana crystals, and their vehicles are modified versions of our own, which actually leads to some worse performance since they likely don't have hybrid engines to use in tanks. Though they could theoretically use natural mana crystals to emulate our engineered solution.

By the end of the semester, every human country had chosen sides. There were serious concerns of war breaking out immediately along the border, as both sides moved military equipment there to discourage any form of pre-emptive invasion from the other side. Thankfully, neither side was confident enough that they'd actually win an engagement, and so things remained tense but quiet. If I had to put numbers to it, however, I'd wager that if the other side had attacked, they'd have about an 70% chance of driving us off the continent, and a 20% chance of us defeating them thoroughly enough to push them back to their manufacturing base in the north.

If I was the leader of the other side, I'd have risked it. Even if they have a higher overall potential for manufacturing given their larger amount of total land, I'd have thought it would be apparent that given time we'll outpace them technologically again, and that we would likely gain an insurmountable edge. Though there is the potential for internal strife that they'd have to contend with as well. If they did drive us off the continent, in most cases casualties would be high for both sides, but we'd still have the dwarves and our own islands, so it wouldn't be a complete victory for them. Internal strife could slow down their own development heavily, which might make longer term outcomes worse, though this is just a guess as to why they didn't actually engage us in total war.

Coordination with the dwarves is going well. They have dozens, if not hundreds, of underutilized fluorite deposits that can be combined with iron to provide source crystals for machinery. With everything that has happened, it has become apparent to the general populace that we were telling the truth about fluorite, and that the risk of health problems from proper management is minimal.

Rather than risk spies discovering all the secrets of manufacturing mana crystals, we've opted to keep portions of their manufacturing process limited to Kembora, where spies have little hope of reaching the facilities. We're planning to drastically expand our mana crystal production by building more air separation, floatation separation, and vacuum growth chambers. Smaller crystals are great for hybrid engines, and large crystals make our limited land space far more productive than average.

There is heavily renewed interest in building out railroads as well now that everyone is focused on industrial integration. Unlike the northern alliance where all the manufacturing seems to be dictated from the top down, we intend to supply the infrastructure and knowledge of manufacturing, but allow independent nations to make their own decisions on what they want to manufacture. While that may slow down military production, something that the north is heavily focused on, it leads to more rapid overall industrialization, since the nations themselves have better understandings of their own resources.

We also still hold certain technological advantages that makes attacking our alliance dangerous, even if we're numerically outgunned. From what I can tell, they don't have fused explosives or primers, meaning our guns still fire much faster than theirs. They do seem to have replicated nitrocellulose and nitroglycerin however, meaning they've replicated those processes.

I'm certain that they'll be iterating on various design processes, which is something we're only now starting to have individuals work on. Until now, each technology I've launched has been largely half-baked. It is clear that the timing of all of this was probably planned, or at least the other side recognized that they were running out of time. If I'd been able to run the academy for another ten years, I doubt we'd have to scramble to find personnel. Though there is a cost associated with drawing the line between sides so early. If they had waited those ten years, they'd have an easier time poaching individuals trained on new technology, and would be able to more thoroughly copy us. As it stands, I'm sure they'll find defectors anyway, but there are quite a few technological developments that we made between expelling the elves and finishing the war on the dwarven continent that they are now missing out on.

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