Chapter 53
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Translator: Prime Works
Chapter: 53
Chapter Title: Must Unite to Sell (3)
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“Young Master Lloyd!”
“What should I do?!”
“Lord! Give me work too!”
“I’ve brought all my shovels and pickaxes!”
“I’ve brought all my sons!”
“We’re here as a couple!”
“We’re here too, oink!”
Murmurs rose, voices clamoring noisily.
It was early morning.
Normally, a peaceful time to prepare for the day in quiet.
A time to set the morning meal amid the mist of early autumn, to loosen a somewhat stiff body, and wash one’s face.
But today was different.
The area in front of the baron’s mansion was in an uproar.
Hundreds of farmers had gathered.
Each one shouting at the top of their lungs, hoisting shovels, pickaxes, and the like high.
At a glance, it looked like a peasant revolt that would turn every lord’s face pale.
But that wasn’t the reality.
These were farmers who had gathered not for rebellion, but to volunteer for construction work.
Baron Frontera watched the scene from the window of his office, feeling stunned.
“You foresaw this?”
“Hmm, honestly, I didn’t expect it to be this big.”
Lloyd replied to the baron’s question with a wry smile.
It was the truth.
He hadn’t anticipated that the proclamation announced last evening would have this much impact(?).
He was the one who had advised the baron yesterday to draft it.
He had suggested objectively and transparently informing the territory’s people about the despicable deeds of Viscount Rionero Racona and the demands of his threats.
‘But the baron’s writing skills(?) were way better than I thought.’
To sum it up, the baron had tremendous literary talent.
Even a plain proclamation had a subtle power that tugged at the reader’s heartstrings.
Reading it?
One’s heart started pounding unconsciously.
Fists clenched in outrage, a surge of emotion welled up.
Even he, who had grown cynical from the world’s hardships, felt that way—so the aftermath for the simple farmers who read it was beyond imagining.
‘Maybe the baron was born in the wrong era.’
For a moment, he wondered what it would be like if the baron had been born in Korea.
He might have become a popular web novel author on a site like Naver.
Lloyd set aside such stray thoughts and spoke.
“Anyway, since the proclamation’s effect is better than expected, the work should proceed much more smoothly.”
“The thing we talked about yesterday?”
“Yes. The temporary reservoir construction. Shall we start right now?”
The territory people’s fervor was at its peak.
A shared outrage against the viscount’s atrocities had formed.
Missing this timing would be a loss.
No, it would make him a fool.
Lloyd promptly left the baron’s office.
He stepped out of the mansion and stood before the territory people.
He didn’t bother with flowery speeches.
Instead, without a word, he showed the way forward with action.
He raised a steel shovel high in front of everyone.
It meant: let’s start the construction together!
“Woooaaah!”
“Uooo, oink!”
Human farmers and orc miners.
All raised their shovels high with all their might.
They marched after Lloyd, crossing the territory. No, they advanced.
And at the spot Lloyd pointed to, they immediately began work.
Overnight.
Lloyd had already completed the surveying and design on an empty lot.
There, Lloyd first summoned Ppoding.
He fed it red sunflower seeds.
“Come on, Ppoding?”
“Ppoding?”
“Time to eat?”
“Ppoding!”
Thwuuung-!
Ppoding, having eaten the red sunflower seeds, grew to a 10-meter size.
The territory people cheered at the appearance of the sturdiest heavy machinery summon.
Amid the cheers, Ppoding began digging the ground.
“Ppodingdingdingdingdong!”
Whooshwhooshwhoosh!
Ppoding’s plump butt wiggled.
Each time, its cute yet massive front paws moved like the wind.
The ground was dug with thuds.
Soil exploded outward.
After about 30 minutes.
Where there had been an ordinary empty lot, a rectangular pit 50 meters wide, 100 meters long, and 2.5 meters deep had formed.
It looked just like a swimming pool.
Lloyd issued work orders.
“Alright, Engineering Corps Team 1, refine the pit Ppoding dug. Make the surfaces flat. Corners at right angles. Deploy!”
“Uooo!”
Engineering Corps Team 1 stripped off their upper garments and charged into the pit.
Lloyd’s gaze turned to the gathered territory people.
“Now then, Engineering Corps Team 2 and everyone else, gather flat stones and bring them here! The bigger and wider, the better. See this? Flat stones like this are the best. But don’t overdo it and get hurt—be careful!”
“Yes, Young Master!”
The territory people sprang into action.
No distinction between men, women, young, or old.
No distinction by occupation.
Elderly farmers and young woodcutters.
Shepherd boys and hunter girls.
All scattered across the territory, gathering flat stones.
Some brought stones as big as dining tables, others heaps of palm-sized pebbles. Even toddlers waddling along clutched pebbles in their tiny hands, holding their mothers’.
Lloyd joined the territory people, gathering and carrying stones himself.
Thanks to that, after two hours or so.
A sufficient pile of stones had accumulated beside the rectangular pit.
“Good. Engineering Corps Teams 1 and 2, and territory people, take a break. Engineering Corps Team 3 and the plasterers, move the stones into the pit and lay them flat on the inner floor and walls. Deploy!”
“Uooo!”
Engineering Corps Team 3 and the plasterers moved.
They laid the flat stones like tiling a swimming pool. Laid them. Stuck them with plaster.
Of course, not haphazardly.
“There! Too high! Lower it! Maintain the slope!”
It was a facility to serve as a temporary reservoir.
A place to hold everyone’s drinking water.
Hygiene demanded good drainage.
So they sloped the floor gently toward one side.
The same went for laying stones and creating the drainage channel for water to exit one side of the reservoir.
‘Of course. Otherwise, the water would stagnate.’
Stagnant water rots.
Not a meme—it’s real.
Rotten water breeds all sorts of bacteria and algae.
Drinking it thoughtlessly is a surefire way to catch diseases.
Thus, the reservoir’s drainage was truly, vitally important—worth emphasizing repeatedly.
“Alright, then orcs? Deploy for transporting rocks for the sluice gate!”
“This is the moment we’ve waited for, oink!”
Lloyd shouted after completing the drainage channel.
The orcs, who had been waiting eagerly, responded.
Three orcs carried a rock as big as an elevator.
They set it down with a thud where the reservoir met the drainage channel.
It fit the drainage channel perfectly.
Like a wine bottle cork.
Or a bathtub drain plug.
A rock to plug and hold the reservoir’s water.
Of course, to drain the reservoir’s water, just coax the exercise-loving orcs to gently(?) lift that rock.
And so, the 50×100m swimming pool—no, temporary reservoir—was complete.
They had started construction in the morning, and it took only half a day.
‘Hoo. This construction speed is unreal.’
Cheers from the territory people.
Amid them, Lloyd stuck out his tongue in amazement.
But his work wasn’t done yet.
They had built the reservoir; now it was time to fill it with water.
“Everyone, hold on. Oh, and don’t get too close to the reservoir, or you might get squished by Hamang. Step back a bit. Haviel?”
“Yes.”
“You come with me to fetch water. Drive the horse.”
“Understood.”
He mounted the horse Haviel drove.
The Prona River crossed the territory north to south.
They followed its course southward.
Passing Marez Reclaimed Land, bypassing Viscount Rionero Racona’s territory.
They arrived upstream where the river water was still unpolluted.
He released Hamang into the clear-flowing river.
“Come on, Hamang. You know, right?”
“Hamang! Hekhekhek!”
From the moment it saw the flowing river, Hamang’s eyes sparkled. Its butt wiggled furiously.
Like a dog eager to plunge into a long-awaited walk.
Lloyd perfectly responded to Hamang’s desperate wish.
“Come on, one-shot!”
“Hamang!”
Splash!
Hamang’s fist-sized body plunged into the river.
But Hamang didn’t float away downriver.
Instead, the river surface dipped downward sharply.
“Hamamamang-!”
Roooaaarrrrr!
It was a literal storm of suction.
Hamang swelled in real time as it sucked in the river water.
It quickly surpassed its previous max size of 50 meters.
It ballooned to a full 60 meters.
‘Good. The one-shot skill grew even more while making Marez Reclaimed Land.’
Hamang’s one-shot skill was now Level 3.
It had risen a full two levels.
If the previous water balloon limit was 50 meters, now it was 60.
In terms of sphere volume, it could hold nearly twice as much water as before.
“All full? Let’s go! Hya!”
He tapped the front saddle’s Haviel on the shoulder.
Haviel spurred the horse.
The horse neighed and galloped.
Hamang rolled after them, tumbling along.
Crushing all terrain under its body.
“Hamamamamaang!”
Kugugugugu!
A terrifying(?) 60-meter water balloon rolling along.
Thanks to that sight, Haviel’s horse ran at full speed.
Lloyd had to endure the sensation of his pelvis disintegrating against the saddle.
Meanwhile, fierce impulses arose.
‘Part of me wants to just charge Hamang straight into the viscount’s territory.’
Or lead the allied Iron Sand Orc Tribe and storm it outright.
But he held back.
The villain was Viscount Rionero Racona.
Not the innocent territory people living there.
He didn’t want to vent on them unnecessarily.
Besides, realistically, doing so would bring massive backlash.
Legally and financially, it was obvious.
“This way!”
From the rear saddle, he grabbed Haviel’s shoulder and directed.
Unlike the way there, they looped around the viscount’s territory and headed north.
They safely returned to the territory.
The territory people roared in cheers at Hamang’s immense form.
When the water Hamang expelled filled the temporary reservoir in one go—and overflowed massively—the cheers turned to shouts of triumph.
They now had plenty of clean water for the time being.
‘Of course, this is just a stopgap.’
Cheers from countless people.
Even amid them, Lloyd kept a calm expression.
No, his mind raced busier, calculating the next steps.
‘The territory people participated better than expected, so we built the reservoir in one day. Great. But this won’t do. Stopgaps have limits.’
Building the reservoir and using Hamang to fill it with clean water.
It seemed plausible at first glance.
But it had a flaw.
Namely, it required him and Hamang.
‘Hamang, as a fantasy species, only listens to me. No one else can control it easily. Meaning I have to stick with Hamang and regularly fill the reservoir.’
In other words, he couldn’t leave the territory for more than a few days.
And if something happened to him or Hamang?
If they couldn’t fill the reservoir?
Everyone in the territory would suffer headaches again, drinking polluted wastewater.
‘That’s why it’s just a stopgap. Hurry up and build the waterworks.’
Time wasn’t on their side.
No reason to dawdle.
The next day, Lloyd immediately began preparations for waterworks construction.
Starting with the first phase: surveying expedition.
He ascended the Eastern Mountains with Haviel.
The destination was clear.
“We’ll go straight to Capua Lake like this.”
Lloyd spoke as they climbed paths sometimes gentle, sometimes steep.
Capua Lake was a mountain lake midway up the Eastern Mountains.
Haviel, following behind, tilted his head.
“Capua Lake, huh. But I have one question.”
“A question? What is it.”
“Why Capua Lake specifically.”
“Why specifically? Is there a problem?”
“Yes. Have you heard of King Stoma?”
“King Stoma? Of course. That’s a super strong, vicious monster, right?”
“Then do you know Capua Lake is King Stoma’s territory?”
“Yeah.”
Lloyd nodded.
And added.
“Also, King Stoma is currently in hibernation.”
“Hibernation?”
“Yeah. Probably sleeping soundly for the next 50 years or so.”
“How do you know that.”
“Iron-Blooded Knight said so.”
“……Iron-Blooded Knight?”
“Yeah.”
“Who’s that.”
Who else?
It was you, the protagonist from the novel.
Lloyd smiled instead of answering.
Then, he suddenly recalled the contents of the novel Iron-Blooded Knight.
‘Around the time Lloyd dies in the novel and Haviel just leaves the territory.’
Probably.
At that time, Haviel was a wanted man.
Right after the baron couple’s deaths, he had slain two moneylenders at their funeral.
Later, the moneylenders’ abuses came to light, his loyalty was considered, and he was acquitted—but at least right after Lloyd’s death, Haviel was a fugitive.
Even when he built Lloyd’s grave.
The guards stormed the cemetery.
They rushed to arrest him.
Of course, Haviel subdued them without injury.
He fled into the Eastern Mountains to evade pursuers.
The hideout Haviel stayed at then was the shore of Capua Lake.
‘And he had a monologue like that, probably. Lucky that King Stoma happened to be in hibernation.’
Just as in that monologue, Haviel safely hid by Capua Lake for a month.
Finally shaking off the pursuers, he crossed the mountains.
“Anyway, Capua Lake is the optimal intake point. Eternal snow on high peaks melts regularly, keeping water volume steady year-round. Clear water, low turbidity. Plus, the ground from the lakeshore to the territory is stable and gentle for laying water pipes.”
Lloyd sat on a rock for a break.
He wiped sweat and surveyed the surrounding terrain.
As he said, the mountainside his gaze reached was mostly gentle.
Except for one spot.
Haviel pointed to it.
His eyes filled with questions.
“So how do you plan to lay the water pipe there.”
The spot the silver-haired knight indicated.
There was a valley where the terrain dropped sharply.
The valley was about 80 meters wide.
Cliffs dozens of meters high faced each other on both sides.
Yet the water pipe route Lloyd gestured across with his hand crossed the cliffs to the opposite side.
Haviel felt doubt.
‘Passing the water pipe over that valley? How?’
It didn’t make sense.
He wondered if it was even possible.
But he didn’t doubt.
Lloyd had shown bizarre construction methods countless times before.
From ondol to paved roads, mines, stone ice storage, and Marez Reclaimed Land. He was the one who had produced results beyond imagination.
So this time too……
“Do you have a specific method in mind?”
He figured there must be.
And sure enough, Haviel’s guess was spot on.
From the young master he served—the once wastrel Lloyd—he heard this reply.
“Of course. We’ll build it: an aqueduct.”
“An aqueduct?”
“Yeah. Siphon principle won’t work to get water across that valley anyway.”
Lloyd’s lips curled up slyly.
The method to overcome the mountain valley terrain.
To stably lay water pipes across the valley.
What he had in mind.
It was the glorious legacy of the Roman Empire from real Earth’s history: the Roman arch aqueduct.