Chapter 44
As this was the first time I heard about the water shortage in the capital, I was surprised to the point I failed to control my expression. Its fortunate that no one pointed out my expression here.
As I was feeling relieved, Duke Seyfart continued his explanation, You see, the water supply cant keep up with the population growth. But it will be an embarrassment for the government if they are unable to provide water for the citizens so all this time the government used mages and magical tools to the extreme so the citizens didnt notice that the capital is short of water.
Even with that, its still hard for the poor and the people that live in the lower class districts to get any water.
Then, His Highness added, We need to protect the face (1) of this kingdom so getting water to the noble houses and trade points in the capital where foreign merchants come and go is the priority. As such, many nobles didnt notice anything. Though your father, knows about this.
(Note: face here means dignity.)
Ah, since as the Minister of Ceremonies, Father knows how important the kingdoms face is. I see. Its true if the news of the capitals water shortage reaches the ears of the merchants, the news will spread to other countries. Wait, does that mean Im no good since I dont notice anything!?
This water shortage has been one problem for the kingdom to accept the refugees. If 5000 people worth of water is given to the refugees even only temporarily there wont be any water left for the citizens of the capital.
Really, it would be better to just hurry up and throw the refugees to the nobles.
Your Majesty, your words are too blunt! Anyway, the reason that His Majestys face is bright is that he finally found a way to solve the water shortage.
Still, to think that I never noticed that the capital had had a water shortage for years. I deeply feel my lack of knowledge. Even if its something that the kingdom purposely tried to hide, as a noble, I shouldve realized that something is amiss.
Thats enough reflection. Its not the time for me to feel down.
Minister of Works, research the maximum height difference that can be applied to Viscounts Zeavert technology. You will not have time to sleep for a while.
As you wish. I know that I will not be getting any sleep, Your Majesty.
Your Majesty, do you know that your words infringed the employees rights? Well the right itself didnt exist though. Working until you lack sleep might be common in this world, since the knights Ive interacted with before also seem to not be getting enough sleep, especially when they are busy discussing military affairs.
His Highness continued His Majestys words, Director of Waterways, create an aqueduct drawing plan that incorporates Viscount Zeaverts technology. No need to change the aqueducts basic structure. Complete the plan in 3 days,
Understood.
3 Days!? Thats my initial reaction but after thinking about it more, thats not unfeasible. The Director only needs to draw some modification since the capitals water and sewage system is already complete. The technology of the water system of this world is pretty good after all.
You need a precise calculation to build an aqueduct. That calculation depends on the length of the aqueduct, especially if its a gravity-flow water system aqueduct. Even in Rome, its hard to create 10 km with 2 meters height difference, so creating a drawing plan to build an aqueduct from Krumsche to the capital from scratch in 3 days is partially impossible. But as the Director seems to be confident in completing His Highnesss order, the research to transport water from Krumsche must have been going on for quite a while.
Its best to leave this kind of thing to the specialists so I wont interfere, or rather I hope no one asks me to interfere.
Still, I wonder if the water shortage is more serious than I thought. Because of the tax yields, the kingdoms know the number of the populations but since the data about the family registry isnt open to the public so I dont know the rate of population growth in the kingdom.
Viscount, I wish you can offer this technology to the royal family. Of course, you will receive proper compensation.
In short, hand it over to us. No, maybe its closer to present it to us. I do understand their position. In order to keep the power balance, the royal family wont want a single noble to monopolize this kind of convenient technology. Before long, Im sure other countries will copy it though.
In this world where patents didnt exist, you cant complain if others copied your work. But its a different story if your work has a license from the royal family. This kind of work cant just be recreated as you please. Plus, the word compensation is quite tempting not to mention that if its the royal family then it is easy for them to take away the technology by force
From now on I need to make preparations for the future. I can just think of the compensation as a budget, a.k.a my temporary income for the sake of those preparations. HmmYup. Its more beneficial for me to just obediently hand it over to the royal family.
I humbly accept your kind offer.
Thank you, Viscount. Duke, be prepared for a change in the number of people that will be deployed for the refugees.
Yes.
Good work, you two. You both may return.
Thank you very much.
Because of Dreax, the kingdom cant just decrease the number of people that protect the capital so it makes sense for the number of people that will be deployed for the refugees mission to be the one that is being decreased instead.
With His Majestys permission, I and Duke bowed once and left the room. On our way through the endless corridor to return to the meeting room for military affairs, the Duke suddenly says, sigh its troublesome for the number of people to decrease in this kind of mission but what can I even do
Pardon me, is it alright if I offer a suggestion?
Hm?
I conveyed my plan simply to the Duke. I think that it might be hard for the knights of this country to accept this kind of plan, yet, after putting his hand on his chin while thinking for a moment, the Duke nodded.
As the situation is quite urgent and the knights that will be the center of this mission are knights from the various noble houses, not the kingdoms knights, I can consider your suggestion. Submit it in an official proposal letter to me.
Understood.
Well, the kingdoms knights are probably going to be the guard for aqueduct construction, so who else but the nobles knights can be deployed? Its a good thing if my suggestion can be accepted. Though that also means I will burn the midnight oil tonight to write the proposal.
Since this is a good opportunity, though it might be a rude question, I asked the Duke about how the fountains in the palace are operated.
The fountains used a magic pump to rise up.
Unexpectedly, it was done by brute strength.
Its one of the royal court mages duties to pour mana into the 38 magic pumps that are used to pump water from the underground water wells to the entire palace, once in the morning, once in the afternoon as well as checking if there are any abnormalities to the pumps.
The daily job of the royal court mages is unexpectedly boring I guess its not like they trained their magic 24/7.
Also, it seems like the reason there are almost 40 different pumps working together is that the waterworks system used to pump water for daily activities like cooking or laundry can be differentiated from the waterworks system used for the inner palaces and the garden. I mean its going to be a problem if one pump malfunctioned causing the water in the entire palace to stop flowing or to overflow.
In the case of the overflowing, apparently, it was caused by the imbalance of mana distribution. This will happen once in a while when several magic stones are used in the same place. I never knew that. It seems like my knowledge about magic stones is still lacking.
Theres this story thats not widely known. It was said that in the past, a king beheaded a person in charge of the palace water system because the palaces courtyard was submerged in water and one of the kings favorite concubines precious flower beds was submerged along with the courtyardThats not a laughing matter!
What the heck is this scary dark history of the royal family!?
Other than pumps, the royal court mages are also responsible for the magic lamps that are used throughout the palace.
Duke, you seem to be having fun telling that to me. I mean the unexpected twist of the glorious royal court mages boring job is kind of funny. I think my impression of them showed in my face. Just how many lamps did the mages have to check every single day?
Including the spare lamps and lamps that are used for the night patrol, there are about 100 lamps.
Whoa
Is my face that easy to read? Its kind of creepy so Duke, can you not answer my question before I even asked it!? Anyway, to think there are that many magic lamps in the palace, no wonder the trade of magic stones in the Adventurers Guild is booming.
I wonder if the legendary Babylon sky garden also has magic pumps and mages The number is so unreal that I ended up thinking about a completely unrelated thing. But wait, if this worlds battery, a.k.a magic stones disappeared can this world even survive?
Just thinking about that makes me feel tired and I dont even want to know these things!
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