Episode 44
“You’re planning to drill through a mountain?”
“And bring in river water by constructing some kind of gate? Hahaha.”
The dwarves and wizards were incredulously responding, as if to say, are you out of your mind? Logan just chuckled confidently, replying,
“It’s entirely possible. So I would like you to carry it out as planned.”
Harmar and Clayton’s skepticism wasn’t unfounded.
The McLean domain bordered the Southern Mountain Range, a place so vast that no one claimed to have seen its end. To the north, relatively shallow hills formed a series of undulations blocking the Luther River from flowing southward.
There were no rivers nearby heading east or west, and as a result, the land around the castle was barren waste enveloped by wilderness.
Logan’s plan was to create a massive tunnel through the northern hills to draw water from the river.
To the people of this era, it sounded more plausible to push the mountain over than to drill through it. Regardless, Logan continued his explanation unwaveringly,“We’ll create a tunnel, 30 meters in diameter, directly connecting to the Luther River, which will be used as a sluice. It’s a civil engineering method used in the western continent, they call them ‘dams’.”
Although small dams were indeed being used in some parts of the western continent at the time, precise trends of flood control would only become widespread in the Empire 20 years later.
The plan was based on a dam he saw at a fortress in the northern Empire, which used the mountain itself as a natural embankment, crafting sluices through tunnels.
‘I may not know the detailed principles of construction, but…’
Logan had dwarves and wizards to offset his lack of knowledge.
In the future, the Empire would demonstrate incredible feats, such as diverting the course of a mighty river within a few months for massive construction projects.
But for now, McLean didn’t need such grand undertakings.
‘Just a portion of the Luther River’s flow will suffice.’
With that, it would be possible to convert the western wastelands of McLean Castle into fertile plains for agriculture.
Knowing full well that it was no easy task, Logan had planned around the use of a large number of magical scrolls and wizards, including mobilizing the domain’s residents for the construction.
“Haha…”
Even after the explanation, Clayton remained skeptical, but Harmar’s demeanor differed,
“…We must choose the location carefully. The condition of the ground is critical. We also need to consider the water level and waterways. Hmm, to prevent the tunnel from collapsing, we’ll need to construct an arched structure and get assistance from wizards…”
As the perplexed dwarf mumbled, Clayton looked at Harmar with a stupefied gaze, and Logan was brightened.
“That means it’s possible?”
“Eh? Ah… Haha. What did I just say? Hahaha. Lately, I’ve been saying nonsense without realizing.”
“It sounded plausible even for someone like me, who doesn’t know much about construction work.”
“Hahaha. I think my mind’s gone funny from staying in mines too long, Master. Ah ha, ha, ha.”
Harmar tried to cover up with an awkward laugh, but Logan had already grabbed his hand eagerly,
“See, I knew it was possible. I’ve seen much bigger things than this!”
“…Yes?”
Harmar responded with a look that read, what are you talking about?, but Logan already seemed too far gone to hear it,
“If humans can make it dozens of times larger, why can’t dwarves? Right?”
Truth be told, if Harmar said it couldn’t be done, Logan was prepared to push over a small mountain and carve out a channel himself.
It would take significantly more time, but it was a definitive method that even an uninformed outsider could accomplish.
‘Although, it would have cost much more.’
He probably would have been better off using that money to buy a hundred years’ worth of food.
That is if you didn’t consider the need to prepare for war.
Regardless, Logan’s confident demeanour forced Harmar’s complexion to grow increasingly ashen, but pride stumbled over reason as he blurted out,
“It would require a tremendous amount of manpower and money! Drilling through a mountain isn’t as easy as…”
Before his rational mind could regain control, it was too late.
“We have magical scrolls and wizards.”
“That’s not something a few scrolls can handle…”
“We have 120 each month.”
“What?”
“There are 120 Fourth Circle Collapse Scrolls every month. That’s enough to use four a day without rest. Plus, we also have Lord Clayton here, a Fifth Circle wizard. Isn’t that sufficient?”
With that, the last desperate defiance of logic was futilely crushed.
“Come on, now we have to find a mountain suitable for drilling that tunnel. The easiest place we can start.”
There was still time before the arrival of the supplies and scrolls. If they prepared thoroughly in the meantime, there would be no issue.
“Am I supposed to find the place too?”
Logan was not privy to that knowledge either.
“Then who will?”
“Huh…”
With Logan’s natural retort, Harmar slumped down powerlessly on the spot.
Two weeks later,
“Really, here? Is this the right place?”
Logan asked wearily on the ridge of the second-lowest mountain amongst the northern hills of McLean.
Not only was he forced to ride a pony due to his stature, but his spirit seemed greatly diminished by the sheer amount of work. Over the past fortnight, Logan had personally been mounting Harmar on a horse and traveling around.
To visualize the dam he remembered from the future and apply the dwarf’s geological capabilities, it was an unavoidable decision.
And now, he was feeling the strain of it all.
“Ugh. Yes. The ground and geological conditions are even, and the land is low. Plus, it’s close to the Luther River, making it a good place to dig a waterway.”
Fortunately, Harmar finally nodded.
Despite Harmar’s expression being one of utter exhaustion, his face seemed to relax a bit.
But, then again.
“Alright, let’s head back and prepare for the construction.”
“Let’s rest a bit! Human!”
To the excessively demanding master, Harmar’s complexions once again turned steely and deathly.
However, Logan, ignoring his weary dwarf, lifted him back onto the horse with an indifferent expression,
“Lucky it’s low ground with a trail already. It should make it easier to drill the tunnel.”
“That means the ground is harder! Don’t speak so loosely if you’re not going to do it yourself!”
Ignoring the tired dwarf’s protests, with a refreshed look, Logan drove the horse back towards the castle.
***
Three days later, at dawn, those obligated for conscription were summoned. At McLean Castle’s outer west gate, at Teslon Castle’s outer east gate. Those without a valid excuse for non-compliance…
The sudden proclamation caused an uproar amongst the denizens of both domains.
“It’s finally…”
“All nobles are the same.”
The citizens of Teslon Castle, which could be considered a conquered land, had a sense of impending doom.
They began to dread the notion that the conqueror was starting to plunder, but the mood at McLean Castle, the true realm of the conqueror, was even worse.
“If I’m sent to compulsory labor, my children will starve to death! Please stop it! Lord!”
“Barely surviving war, now our lord wants to kill us. Ah, my goodness…”
“Should we just run away?”
“Is there a place nearby to live?”
“Either die trying to flee, labor to death, or starve. Is this the choice we’re being given?”
Amidst this dire situation, with no real options left, they faced a choice of how they wished to die.
The residents, who had lived passively all their lives, were forced to obey their ruler’s command, filled with desperate imaginings but with no other alternatives.
Three days later, at the castle gates.
“See if there’s a chance to escape or…”
“Maybe purposely hurt ourselves to get out of work…”
Some of the gathered residents were looking around anxiously, trying to find a way out.
“I can barely keep my children fed with only watery porridge, let alone have the strength for labor!”
Amidst their fear and desperation, cries and pleas erupted from the crowd.
“Gathered nearly four thousand strong, why not just revolt?”
“Even if the knights, or rather bastards, barrage in…”
“Anyway, we’re all done for. Right?”
“Yeah, might as well take a stand now.”
The turbulent air grew thicker, and the weak-willed subjects’ eyes began to fill with madness.
Seeing the ominous atmosphere among the residents gathered outside McLean Castle, Dwain sighed atop the ramparts.
“Was it necessary to issue a conscription order? You could have just offered to share the food.”
“If it had been that simple, less than half of them would have shown up.”
“What?”
“They wouldn’t have believed us. Not in us.”
Dwain couldn’t understand Logan’s bitter smile and response.
“Really? I don’t mean to boast, but our domain has always prided itself on fair and sound administration.”
“But this isn’t an issue of doing well or poorly.”
Logan knew very well that his father had never exploited the people of the domain for selfish or unfair reasons.
The McLean family had fallen from grace due to the atrocious deeds of an ancestor four generations back.
Even though they were a Count family at the time, the Count McLean of four generations ago caused the domain to suffer greatly by squeezing the people for a war effort, only to be betrayed and defeated. The following Count McLean desperately attempted to redeem their past by becoming even more ruthless, but ultimately he failed, and the rest of the retainers turned their backs on him.
That was the reason the direct McLean line ended up settling in what is now McLean Castle, sometimes used only as a fortress.
That’s why Padric McLean, the current head of the family, had no interest in repeating the mistakes of his predecessors and had yet to do so.
Logan was certain of that.
“The issue is more fundamental.”
“What is it?”
“We’re nobles.”
But Logan, in his previous life as a mercenary who spent a long time among the commoners, understood their lives.
Nobles regarded their subjects as property, and those who prided themselves as sensible nobles contended that it was their duty to protect their subjects, believing themselves to be fulfilling that duty suitably.
‘Like my father.’
However, for the commoners, a good noble was just one who took a little less from them, and a bad noble took more. Dwain couldn’t grasp this distinction.
“What does that have to do with anything? In this barren land, I am confident in our best policies. That couldn’t be!”
Feeling his life’s work being invalidated, Dwain couldn’t help but become angry.
“Is the well-being of the domain residents foremost in father’s mind? It isn’t. It’s the knights.”
“Th– that’s because Lord…”
“In this barren land, a slightly better policy means it’s just slightly less tough.”
Unable to refute the undeniable truth, Dwain was silenced.
Padric McLean was a man who thought in terms of knights when it came to the strength of the domain.
That’s why, even when budgets were tight, he maintained a knight order of over fifty knights. Their salaries alone accounted for over 1.5 million gold each year.
Over half of the domain’s budget was spent on the wages of the knights.
The bitter realization was that even so, the McLean knights’ salaries were still below the average of other domains.
So, the knights couldn’t be blamed.
As the treasurer, and knowing better than anyone that without the support from Kairos, the domain would have already gone bankrupt, Dwain could no longer question Logan’s explanations.
“So we have to force them together and show them. Make them believe.”
“Huh…”
“Time’s up. Just keep watching.”
As Logan spoke, Dwain turned his gaze down from the ramparts.
Rumble, rumble.
“The gates are opening!”
“You all know, right? Stick together to live, scatter to die!”
“In times like these, conscripts of what?!”
“Alright! Everyone, brace yourselves. Get your strength up!”
The villagers, no matter how untrained, were filled with a sense of resolve born from hunger and the fear of death.
As they patted each other on the back, watching the gates with eyes beginning to gleam with ferocity.
Rumble, rumble.
Boom.
The gates opened, and a procession of countless carts appeared,
“Charge! Hurry up!”
The clamor of armored knights directing the procession could be heard. The remarkable length of the caravan, seemingly stemming from the outer east gate to within, was approaching the gates without end.
“What are all those?”
“Looks like grain?”
The presence of the unfamiliar convoy made the gathered residents’ murmurings grow louder,
“Where are those going?”
“They’re coming this way?”
Their astonishment was palpable, and the murderous intent that had been surging faded away.
“Halt!”
“Alright, get the distribution ready!”
As the wagon train halted, sack after sack of grain was delivered, carried by unfamiliar hands and becoming a mountain in front of the residents.
“What’s that?”
“Are they giving it to us?”
“Stop dreaming! What noble would…”
“But why now?”
“Wha, who knows.”
As uncertainty began to permeate the crowd, hope hesitantly started to take root. When tables set up and the grain piled behind them, that hope neared affirmation.
Soon, one of the knights commanding the procession bellowed with a thunderous voice,
“This decree by His Grace Logan is to provide a month’s worth of grain to the family of each conscript!”
The words created a brief silence, but it was soon broken by an uproar even greater than before,
“Wha, what did he just say?”
“They’re distributing grain?”
“Could it be true?”
“Commencing distribution now. Form an orderly queue, please.”
The knight’s voice echoed amidst the confused residents.
Woah!
With a thunderous cheer, the people surged towards the tables,
“Stop! You must form a queue or there will be no distribution! Hey, you there! Get in line!”
What could have turned into a riot was quickly quelled by five knights brandishing their authority.
“Is this really grain? Are we truly being given this?”
“Yes. As long as you participate in the construction, your family will receive this every month.”
“Every, every month?!”
“That is the will of His Grace.”
“Whew, we’re saved.”
“Thank you, sir knight!”
“Not me – it’s His Grace’s will.”
“Still, thank you! Truly…”
As one resident after another received their grain, doubt vanished, and their cheers grew louder. Eventually,
– Long live Logan McLean!
This ordeal, led by Logan, was praised by the echoing chants in front of the outer castle walls.
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