Chapter 32

After the people from the Trak Kingdom had more or less all been settled.

Walker led Bana and the other knights to Gaina on "business" to continue recruiting people.

The weather gradually grew warmer.

All across Visas and Komoy Fort, people began bustling about.

The five-year urban construction plan was initially put into action.

Residential districts, administrative districts, commercial districts, and so on were planned out first. The spatial layout and land use of the two cities also needed to be arranged reasonably.

There were simply too many factors to consider.

Xia Zuoyi had Conrad convene the engineers at the guild whenever necessary to hold meetings, discuss matters, and work out solutions.

Everyone needed to write a detailed and precise proposal. Conrad would then compile them and submit them to Xia Zuoyi.

After all, collective strength was like steel, and the wisdom of the masses was like the sun and moon.

The engineers: increasingly bald.

Fifteen days later, after repeated revisions, rejections, and further revisions...

Xia Zuoyi finally settled on a complete plan and set of blueprints.

He decided that the first areas to be built in both cities would be the residential districts. Once the housing problem was solved, everything else would be easier to handle.

However, when it came to materials for constructing houses.

Xia Zuoyi rejected Conrad's suggestion to use wood for everything.

"No. Komoy Fort aside, Visas is close to the sea. If everything is built with wood without proper waterproofing and moisture-proofing measures..."

"Over time, the houses will easily be corroded by dampness and vulnerable to fire. Their usable lifespan will certainly be very short."

Besides, the construction workload for houses in the city's residential districts would be substantial. Finished lumber was bound to become scarce.

"No, that won't do." Xia Zuoyi rejected the idea again.

Conrad felt helpless and troubled by this as well.

"But if we don't use wood, we'll have to use rammed earth..."

Rammed-earth houses had even worse strength and durability. They were more easily eroded by moisture than wooden houses, and might even collapse after heavy rain...

Although the laws of the Gadayat Kingdom did not prohibit commoners from using stone materials in construction, it was an unwritten convention.

Besides, commoners could not afford stone.

If they chose stone buildings, the budget they had roughly calculated would need to be worked out all over again.

Xia Zuoyi said, "What if we crush the stone and add earth and other raw materials to it... Could we make a new material suitable for construction?"

—Bricks.

This world really had been formed because of a novel, just as 098 had said, leaving its worldline incomplete and fragmented...

Though its setting was that of the early Western Middle Ages, parts of its historical development differed greatly from and diverged from the real Western Middle Ages.

For example, red bricks had been invented by the ancient Romans long ago.

There was no Rome in this fictional world, so even bricks were gone?

As a building material, bricks offered good heat retention, insulation, and breathability, as well as decent water absorption.

Most importantly, they were sturdy, resistant to wind and sun, durable, soundproof, easy to source, and cheap.

The only problem was that they would also need to build a kiln for firing bricks.

Xia Zuoyi gave them sufficient hints, then had Conrad return and find people to research the matter in detail.

He had originally thought it might take more than ten days before news reached the castle.

But eight days later, Conrad came to the castle and said, "My lord, the kiln has been built."

Xia Zuoyi looked up in surprise. "That fast?!"

"Yes, my lord. Would you like to go into the city and take a look?"

Xia Zuoyi said, "Mm, I do."

Ever since Xia Zuoyi had proposed crushing stone and mixing it with earth and other materials, Conrad had been continuously thinking about how to make a suitable building material.

He went to the place in the city where stone was piled up and accidentally noticed that the stones there were being crushed very quickly. After asking an artisan, he learned that someone had invented a convenient tool for crushing stone.

The artisan brought Conrad before a machine that stood about half a person tall and was roughly two meters long.

It was a stone-crushing tool made up of two iron wheels rotating toward each other.

The iron wheels had uneven, blunt ridges on their surfaces. They were hollow in the middle, allowing a wooden crossbar to be fitted through them to turn the wheels.

Before using the tool, large stones first had to be smashed with hammers into smaller pieces, which were then tossed into the sunken gap between the two iron wheels.

The uneven ridges on the wheels meshed together as they turned, grinding the stone into finer pieces and saving considerable labor and effort.

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Conrad immediately asked who had invented such a tool.

"The people from the Trak Kingdom," the artisan said.

"They made two of these stone-crushing iron wheels over there. We thought they were useful, so we borrowed one to use. As for exactly who made it, I don't know..."

"But if you go ask the guildmaster, you should find out."

Conrad personally made a trip to Komoy Fort and successfully found the person who had invented the iron wheels.

Afterward, he discovered that this person was very clever. Despite having worked as a temporary artisan for such a short time, he had already created many small tools that saved effort.

Moreover, every tool was ingeniously designed.

So Conrad invited him to research the problem Xia Zuoyi had raised with him.

On the road, Xia Zuoyi heard Conrad mention the man's name.

When they met, he confirmed that the man was indeed Renogue Masi.

Xia Zuoyi inspected the kiln and every tool, secretly marveling that Renogue Masi truly was a talent.

He asked, "How did you come up with all these things?"

Reinog said, "I've liked tinkering around since I was little... After growing up, I kept thinking about it every day... and eventually came up with them."

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Xia Zuoyi said, "..."

Perhaps every genius achieved what they had through constant thought since childhood, along with a bit of inspiration.

Conrad said, "My lord, the new material you mentioned has also been fired. It's right here. Please take a look."

He led Xia Zuoyi outside the kiln, where a neat pile of failed and successfully fired bricks lay on the ground.

Pointing to one pile of intact bricks, Conrad said, "Because they needed to be shaped, Renogue made a square mold. Each one is about half an arm's length."

"We conducted several repeated trials. The material from the final batch was the strongest and comparable to stone."

At this point.

Joy could not help appearing on Conrad's face, and he vigorously described Renogue's contributions to the research.

Xia Zuoyi expressed his satisfaction and asked, "What reward do you want?"

Reinog froze for a moment, then rubbed his hands together. "I-I can ask for any reward?"

"Of course."

"Then, then can I leave... leave..."

Seeing how hesitant he was, Xia Zuoyi could not help saying it for him. "You want to be freed from slavery?"

Reinog's heart jolted, and he nodded involuntarily. "Y-Yes."

Xia Zuoyi said, "You can. Your contribution this time was significant."

"I have always been fair. Freedom from slavery must be exchanged for sufficient merit, and you have met the standard."

"From this moment on, I will certify you as a free citizen."

Reinog was both shocked and delighted, unable to figure out how to maintain the expression on his face.

He stood there completely stunned, his heart filled with indescribable surprise and excitement.

Reinog had never expected that these things, which he had once thought would be of little use, could become the merit he wanted most now.

After all, as an illegitimate child, Renogue had often been scolded for lacking ambition and spending all day researching worthless junk.

Xia Zuoyi said, "Are you interested in becoming a consultant for the Artisans' Guild? You will receive excellent treatment in every regard... Would you consider it?"

Reinog: There was such a good thing?!

Of course he wanted it!

Xia Zuoyi: Good. Very good. Exceptionally good.

From this day onward, Renogue officially joined the ranks of the "increasingly bald."

Reinog: Just keep smiling.

When the weather began to grow even hotter, Walker finally returned to Visas from Gaina.

He brought back more than three hundred and fifty people in total, who were settled separately in the two cities.

When Walker came to the castle to report, he said, "My lord, a bit of unrest broke out in Gaina. One of the princes with succession rights has died."

Ferdinand was also present, and he frowned upon hearing this.

Xia Zuoyi asked, "How many princes does Gaina have?"

"I remember Bruno Green is a direct descendant of Gaina's king and has succession rights, but his chances of inheriting the throne are not high, correct?"

Ferdinand nodded. "Gaina has three princes in total."

"The old king of Gaina has lived a long life. He is already over sixty and still on the throne. The second prince died young, while the third prince crippled his leg in an accidental fall from a horse."

"Bruno Green is the third prince's son."

Xia Zuoyi said, "Then the dead person was the eldest prince?"

Walker wore a somewhat strange expression and shook his head. "No, the one who died was the third prince."

Seeing this, Ferdinand asked, "Do you suspect that the third prince's death was related to Bruno Green?"

"It's a reasonable suspicion," Walker said.

"Bruno Green is very ambitious. Gaina's old king has lived a long life, while the eldest prince is no longer young and is in poor health. He now frequently needs physicians to treat him."

"When I left Gaina with the others, word came from the royal city that the eldest prince was critically ill. The city's physicians had all been summoned into the royal palace by knights."

Xia Zuoyi: Fine, he's done for. The eldest prince is definitely going to die.

Walker said, "Once all the first-in-line heirs to the throne are dead, there will be far fewer people standing in Bruno Green's way."

"The old king of Gaina has lived this long, but he should be close to death as well. When that time comes, the next king will naturally be chosen from Bruno Green's generation."

If Bruno Green ascended the throne...

It would become even more difficult for Ferdinand to take revenge.

Two days later.

Gadayat.

A shocking piece of news suddenly came from Kaies, the royal city—the old king had passed away.

After a king's death, his body needed to remain in a coffin for three months before burial.

During those three months, the king's coffin would be placed in a church, where clergymen would personally conduct the funeral rites, sprinkle holy water over the coffin, and ring the death knell.

The lords of the Gadayat Kingdom were required to enter Kaies, the royal city, to mourn deeply for the old king, Duke Patch.

Before setting off.

098 slung its little bundle over its back again and said to Xia Zuoyi, [Host, I'm going traveling again! I'll bring you a gift when I come back. Remember to miss me, mwah.]

Xia Zuoyi said, "Be careful and come back early."

He watched 098 wave its tiny matchstick hands before jumping into the cosmic mailbox and vanishing from the system interface.

Seeing him sitting in his chair in a daze, Judith could not help asking, "My lord, how many knights and soldiers do you plan to bring to the royal city this time?"

Xia Zuoyi considered it. "Ferdinand will stay in Visas."

"Walker will take Taylor and Bana with me. Also send two platoons of soldiers to follow... No, have one platoon follow at a distance and wait outside the royal city while I enter to mourn the king."

Though Judith did not quite understand, she still nodded. "Yes, my lord."

Xia Zuoyi: I hope I'm overthinking it. The death of old King Duke had better not be connected to the death of Gaina's third prince...

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