Prologue
Prologue
It was early morning, just as dawn was breaking.
The laborers who had gathered for the drainage construction were not preparing for work at all. Instead, they smoked, drank, and busied themselves with anything but the job.
The reason was obvious.
“Does this really even work?”
It was clear that the work foreman, Bram Gus, had ordered that no preparation was necessary.
“How many times do I have to tell you that it works? During last summer’s monsoon, our village didn’t flood thanks to this drainage channel.”
At the time, the waterway had been so small it was almost embarrassing to call it a drainage channel, but I said it anyway to persuade him.
“That could’ve been coincidence. Does it even make sense that digging the ground a little—like kids playing around—would reduce monsoon damage?”
“It wasn’t children playing around. It’s a waterway built through systematic design.”
I spat the words out.
“Even the lord acknowledged the effectiveness of the drainage channel and approved the construction.”
“The lord just didn’t know any better and got fooled by your sweet talk. It doesn’t work on me.”
Bram Gus looked me over with a displeased gaze.
“Not only did he approve some ridiculous construction he’s never even heard of because of some clueless girl’s words, he even sent you here as the supervisor. Tsk, tsk.”
The fact that he called it a construction he had never heard of before made it clear: this world had no concept of drainage channels.
Yet a large city like this had managed to survive without them until now. It was probably thanks to magic.
“You might ruin those delicate hands of yours, so just go home quietly. If you want to play with dirt that badly, go work in the fields.”
Ha. Being looked down on for being a woman here too.
The hand gripping the hammer trembled.
I could understand that they didn’t believe in the drainage channel’s effectiveness—they had never seen one before.
But bringing up my gender and belittling my ability was something I absolutely could not understand.
“So you’re saying you won’t do the construction?”
“It’s not that we won’t do it—we can’t. It’s obviously going to be a waste of effort, and I don’t want to suffer for nothing.”
“Then go tell the lord right now that you can’t do the construction. Tell him the drainage channel is useless.”
I stepped aside to signal that he should go say it immediately, but Bram Gus merely flinched, his long beard trembling. He didn’t take a single step.
So he’s afraid of the lord.
A typical bastard—strong against the weak, weak against the strong.
Whether in reality or in novels, these kinds of bastards always exist.
Then I’ll leave it to the lord.
If this were my old world, I was just a powerless office worker. I would have tried to placate the foreman somehow and push the construction forward.
But here, I didn’t have to.
No matter how much I explained, he wasn’t someone who would listen anyway.
Just as I was about to step back and leave this man’s punishment to the lord—
A quest window appeared before my eyes.
[Q. Strike the back of the annoying foreman’s head.]
[Reward: 0/10,000p]
The first time I saw it, I had been extremely startled. Now it didn’t bother me anymore.
So you earn points depending on the strength of the hit.
After reading the additional explanation written in the quest window, I grinned.
I had already wanted to punch that bastard once. This was heaven-sent.
Using a weapon instead of my hand would increase the impact strength, right?
My gaze naturally shifted to the hammer in my right hand.
[Warning. Killing is prohibited.]
A red warning window popped up.
Well, yeah. If I struck the back of someone’s head with a hammer, they might die.
I had no intention of becoming a murderer because of a guy like this.
So what other weapon could I use?
Looking around, my eyes stopped on a shovel lying in a corner of the construction site.
…If I hit him with the handle of the shovel, he wouldn’t die, right?