The Limitations of an Era

"Come take a look at these crystals."

As soon as he saw Heti, Gawain tossed a standard-issue pale purple crystal into her hand.

The lady glanced curiously at the object in her hand, and her face immediately showed surprise.

"This is what you told me about before, from the treasury in the mountains..."

"That's right, I got it from there," Gawain nodded. Although he hadn't brought Heti with him this time, he had already told her about the treasury in the Dark Mountains when they were in Tanzan Town. "These crystals are technology from the Gondor Empire era. See if you can figure out their runic structure."

Any mage with a sound mind would realize how valuable these crystals were upon seeing them. Heti was immediately captivated by the beautiful pale purple crystals, but after playing with them affectionately, she could only shake her head slightly with shame. "Ancestor... I'm sorry, I'm ashamed... I'm just a Level 3 mage, I'm afraid I can't manufacture something this profound..."

Gawain looked into Heti's eyes. "I'm not asking you to manufacture it, just to analyze its runic structure—and if possible, to draw out that runic structure. As for manufacturing, I'm afraid no one in this era can make anything similar: these were directly infused with Magic Power from the Azure Well."

"The Azure Well..." Heti couldn't help but repeat the famous name, then looked at the crystal in her hand with eager eyes. "If it's just about reading and arranging the runic structure inside, that's not difficult. All it takes is a set of crystal resonators to project what's engraved within. But just reading the runic structure... is there any point? Without the corresponding infusion technology and activation methods, the runic structure is just a pile of geometric shapes..."

"We'll talk about that later," Gawain said, nodding. "These crystals can't be produced anymore. At least, before they're all used up, I want to preserve some data."

Heti said "Oh" and put the crystal away. The weariness on her face was still there, but the mental uplift from learning the exact news about the "mountain treasury" made her look much better. Gawain then took the opportunity to inquire about the camp's construction.

"The tents will all be set up before sunset, and we can also put up a fence. I plan to set up some magic traps and warning runes around the perimeter, which should be more than enough to defend against wild beasts. The lumberjacks found a lot of high-quality timber in the forest to the west. The rough timber they've cut so far is temporarily piled up upstream of the White Water River. After cutting more tomorrow, we can just let the logs float down the river. Also, according to the information you provided, I sent two people east, and they did find iron ore, but we don't have the smelting capacity yet, so we'll have to take it step by step. The most important issue right now is the shortage of manpower. The vanguard team is mainly here to investigate and establish an outpost; resource gathering will have to wait for subsequent reinforcements."

"The main force will arrive in three days, and then the manpower shortage will be alleviated—and the tools and supplies will catch up," Gawain said, turning his head to look at the camp that was gradually taking shape.

He had many plans and many solutions. The broad perspective of a transmigrator and the rich knowledge of Gawain Cecil filled him with confidence. Therefore, looking at the nascent camp, he couldn't help but feel a surge of ambition.

Tents were neatly arranged according to the plan, and surrounding drainage ditches were dug within the camp. Once the water from the White Water River was diverted into these ditches tomorrow, they could be used to prevent fires, which were the most dangerous threat to a new camp. Craftsmen were processing lumber, nailing them together to form the most basic and crude fences—these fences wouldn't offer much protection against real monsters, but they would be somewhat useful against wild beasts. The lumberjacks who had gone to the western forest to cut timber had already returned and were resting...

Everything seemed fine.

But as he walked into the camp and looked around carefully a few more times, Gawain couldn't help but frown.

He saw the numb and fearful expressions on the faces of the craftsmen and civilian laborers, as well as their various not-so-clever ways of slacking off. On the seemingly neat and orderly tents and fences, there were everywhere signs of shoddy work and perfunctory effort—missing a few nails was the most common occurrence, and some tents weren't even properly secured.

The craftsmen could still complete their work accurately under Heti's supervision, but the civilian laborers who were helping were just messing around—Gawain had actually anticipated that most civilians in this era were uneducated, unable to read or count, so he had explained in detail to each person how the tents should be set up and how the entire camp should be planned. But now, it seemed that apart from placing the tents and fences in the locations he had strictly designated, almost every individual metric in the camp was substandard!

Did they not know that these tents and fences were their only protection in the wilderness, their livelihood for the coming period?

Gawain thought angrily, then suddenly realized:

Yes, they didn't know.

Because these things belonged to the lord, not to them. Even though they would live in these tents, they didn't believe they would live there forever—sooner or later, once the wasteland was surveyed, they would be driven into the wasteland, and the tents would be dismantled and used for the lord's castle and stables.

This was the general rule of this era, and everyone firmly believed it.

Despite experiencing the disaster of the old Cecil Territory, despite following the team into exile here, and despite having started building a new home, for these civilians and serfs who had survived in this stiff and decaying era, they had long adapted to hardship and become accustomed to maintaining numbness during hardship. Therefore, they neither harbored much hope of great fortune after great disaster, nor did they possess any vigor and vitality for building a new home.

Gawain realized that he had been too naive before, and at the same time, he realized that some of his plans, which he had worked on for a long time, might not be easily realized.

He immediately called Heti and Rebecca over.

In front of a tent that looked acceptable but was missing several supports upon closer inspection and was entirely askew, he pointed to the perfunctory work. "What do you think of this?"

Heti didn't immediately understand Gawain's meaning and thought he was going to reprimand her, so she immediately lowered her head. "I'm sorry, Ancestor, I was supervising..."

"No, this isn't a matter of supervision—you can't watch them nail every nail," Gawain interrupted her. "This is a matter of the workers' attitude."

"Lord Ancestor, you can't expect too much from those civilians and serfs," Rebecca said after thinking. "Most of them are ignorant. Apart from the work their ancestors were accustomed to in the fields and mines, they can't master any other, more complex tasks. The vast majority of these people have never set up a tent—especially since you've specifically stipulated the specifications and functions of the tents, as well as the overall camp layout. This is too complicated for them."

Gawain shook his head. "Is this really that complicated?"

Heti nodded slightly. "Only armies camp this strictly. These civilians and serfs can't do it."

"No, this isn't complicated at all. I've broken down every step they need to take to the most basic level. Each person only needs to do one thing—hammer a nail, tie a rope, or saw a piece of wood. They don't need to know the overall camp plan at all, and what they need to do is no more complicated than doing manual labor," Gawain said, looking at Rebecca and Heti. "Do you think civilians and serfs are so foolish that they can't even grasp this?"

Heti and Rebecca exchanged glances. They could see that Gawain was very displeased now, but they hadn't realized where the crux of the problem lay. As for Gawain's question—it was perfectly reasonable in their eyes, especially in Heti's.

Civilians and serfs are indeed foolish.

They were born in this era, grew up in this era, and neither of them were particularly knowledgeable or exceptionally gifted enlightened individuals, so they couldn't possess insights and understanding that far exceeded this era.

In fact, Heti and Rebecca were extreme progressive exceptions among the nobles of their time—Heti never allowed the knights or soldiers in her family to arbitrarily plunder the property of civilians and serfs and tried to ensure that everyone in the territory had enough to eat. Rebecca had even broken the ironclad rule of lifelong serfdom, arranging a path for them to become free citizens, and also allowed civilians and serfs to move freely within her territory and permitted civilians to conduct business freely...

Each of these scattered systems could be considered a challenge to convention, but the overall ideological constraints still prevented them from completely breaking through a fixed mindset: civilians and serfs are inferior.

Perhaps they didn't think so themselves, but subconscious biases cannot be dismissed simply by verbal denial.

Gawain knew this, of course. That's why he called the two great-granddaughters over, not to scold them or to enlighten them ideologically. He wasn't so naive as to believe that he could transform the civilians and serfs in this camp into clear-headed, motivated, and spirited citizens with just a few words.

This would be a long process, and for now, he just needed these people to complete the work he had assigned as quickly as possible.

"Gather everyone—civilians, serfs, soldiers, all of them," Gawain instructed. "While there's still plenty of daylight."

Those who were working and those who were resting were quickly gathered, and even Amber, who was telling Betty about her adventure in the mountain treasury, came over curiously—a bewildered Betty followed beside her.

No one knew what this ancestor from seven hundred years ago wanted to do. Even Heti and Rebecca were in a state of confusion.

As for the civilians and serfs, they numbly obeyed the order and gathered together, civilians in one group, serfs in another, with soldiers standing nearby to maintain order.

Many people thought that their "new master" had new orders, possibly more complex than the complicated "tent-setting system." Thus, some people started to look glum, thinking they could sleep after finishing their work.

Gawain stood on a large rock, looking down at the more than a hundred people below. He saw Amber, who was sneakingly hiding in the crowd. He thought about pulling out this troublemaker who could cause trouble at any moment, but after thinking about it, he remained silent.

Then he cleared his throat and said loudly in a voice that everyone could hear, "Vassals of Cecil, I have something to say—about your future, and the new laws of Cecil Territory!"