“The sea breeze has become so cold.”
While gazing at the boundless ocean surface, Garcia Wimbledon said while stroking out her wind tangled hair with a feeling of regret in her voice.
“Because the winter is coming,” she said, looking back at the handsome man standing behind her and giving him a reply. “Although this is the south, it is not the deep south. There, people don’t understand what winter means.”
“During the winter our fleet cannot be in the port, the ocean current will hold them down, we will be unable to move a single step. So at this time, they should be at the last voyage.” The woman turned around, “Ryan, how much time has passed since the Blacksail Fleet has set sail?”
“Two months and four days,” the man answered without hesitation, “if nothing else happens, within three days they will arrive at the Port of Clear Water.”
She laughed, “I hope they can give me a sufficient surprise.”
Ryan looked at the woman in front of him, his heart was filled with emotion. When reflected by the autumn sun, her gray hair had traces of silver in it, her long and narrows eyes were a reseda green. While looking at her, you would feel an indescribable sense of oppression. Due to staying at the coast for a long time, her skin had gotten slightly rough, it was not longer as white as all the other women of the royal family were, but Ryan did not complain. In his eyes, Garcia had the temperament that cast any other beauty into the shade.
Compared with those inbred idiots from the Graycastle flock she appeared to be different, rather the daughter of King Wimbledon III was a true genius. She possessed the wisdom and pride of a noblewoman, however unlike the other nobility, who would scrupulously abide by common sense, on that point, she was even a bit like the civilians – breaking away from the ordinary, filled with expectations, with an extremely rich spirit for adventure.
Of course, no civilian would have this kind of ability and vision, to join the rank of a duke right away, compared to her even the other aristocracy appeared to be lacking in foresight.
All of the trade income of the Port of Clear Water was to be reinvested into the fleet construction, no coin was to be left in their treasury, the light of a miser would not shine very far.
‘Hiding a gold royal in the cupboard would be without any meaning, when you don’t use it, it will be like a stone. Only when you take it out, can it reflect its own value. The point is to spend it wasn’t equal to losing it, as long as the investment is on the spot, the reward you gain, will go far beyond your own investment.’
This auspicious method, Ryan could still deeply remember her telling it to him, it was almost like she was anointing his head with the purest balm, it easily broke through all the inherited concept of his former teachings.
Compared to those nobles who spent their whole day saving and trying to increasing the amount of their gold royals, Ryan had the feeling that this was the true method of a ruler.
So he has boldly placed his life under Garcia’s command, vowing to follow her to the Port of Clear Water.
After they had arrived here, Ryan had found out, that the third princess was far more than her philosophy — not only was she a person of philosophy, furthermore she was also a person of action. At the center of her plan was her Blacksail Fleet, and on the path to her ambitions, there was no hindrance that was allowed. Already five years had gone by, Garcia’s forces have infiltrated the Port of Clear Water, organized and prepared her Blacksail Fleet – and then, her father, Wimbledon III started the strive for the position of the King. In other words, even from the beginning, she had already walked in front of all the other heirs.
“Let’s go back inside the room, the wind is becoming more and more powerful,” Garcia said. Her palace was located at the Blue water Port, above the natural harbor. The tower-like building seemed to be a protector stationed above the shore. On the top of the tower was a circular terrace, with an unobstructed field of view, it was possible to have a bird’s-eye view from the entire harbor, seeing the coming and going of the merchant ships.
Today, after her five-year operation, the business plan in the Port of Clear Water had already begun to take shape, every six months a barque would be launched. Furthermore, she had already obtained the people’s trust. While the third princess seemed to be in good mood, Ryan hesitantly raised his biggest doubt, which has haunted him for months.
“Your Highness, there is one thing I do not understand…” he said as he shut the door, leaving the roar of the sea breeze outside.
“You may speak,” she nodded while smiling.
“How could you have foreseen all of this, even before the king has announced the King’s order?” He had also thought that it would be impossible that her father Wimbledon III would mentioned it to her in advance, but even after having carefully thought this matter over he still hadn’t come to a conclusion. Everyone knew, that the second prince was the heir that the king valued the most, the King’s Order had been set up for him. This point could be seen by everyone, since the second Prince had gotten Valencia as fiefdom.
Could she have guessed all of this on her own, furthermore already having started five years ago laying out her plan? God, she was only eighteen years old!
“Foreseen?” She showed a funny look, “do you take me for a witch? I don’t have that kind of ability.”
“Erm, but……”
“Furthermore I did not know that my father would declare the strive for the King Order, paving the way for his treasured second son. In fact, there exists no connection between the strive for the King Order and my plan”
There was no relationship? When Ryan suddenly become aware of this aspect, his mouth became wider and wider.
Seeing the expression of disbelief on Ryan’s face, Garcia smiled. “Don’t tell me I should have waited for my father, to first tell me that I should fight for the throne, would I have then have had the ability to fight for the throne? Similarly, would it really in the end have been the one who govern his town the best be the one to sit on the throne of Graycastle? I thought you understood my plan when you had seen the Blacksail Fleet.”
So that’s the reason, Ryan murmured, her fleet is not only for the battle of the throne. This fleet belonging to the third princes could change the sails after leaving the port, robbing the ships from other cities and countries. Similarly, the third princes encouraged the people to go out to the sea, to participate in her Blacksail Fleet. She promised, all the loot would become the property of the ship’s captain, the Port of Clear Water would never collect any tax toward this profit.
This move would bring her huge wealth, so this time she had simply ordered the Blacksail Fleet to sail straight south, to plunder any ship which passed the endless Cape, as well as the people of the southern Shamin.
And these measures were not just for money. She did not take the plundered wealth to build cities or expand the land trade, she just invested it back into the yard and continued to build more ships.
In the past few years, she had gained a large number of experienced sailors and fierce warriors, and also embraced the people’s hearts and minds — if she couldn’t continue to govern, all those who had participated in the plundering of the ships and villages would also be sent to the gallows.
“The best in governance of his territory would end on the Throne of Graycastle?” No, Ryan now knew, to be able to sit on the throne, she would need to posses numerous warships and soldiers, then she could follow the Sanwan River, even reaching out to pressure the City of Golden Harvest.
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“You knew that you would be assigned to the Port of Clear Water?”
“This, contrary to what one might think was unexpected, a deal to increase the business value of this place,” Garcia shrugged, “originally it was a pay back to the church who tried to fool me… ”
Related to the church? Seeing his counterpart haven’t said anything more, Ryan also did not dare to question further. But he knew, even if Garcia had not come to Port of Clear Water, this place would still have followed her will, and moved according to her desired direction.
“Putting those matters aside,” she poured herself a cup of black tea. “The little trick from before seems to have failed.”
“Ah, yes,” Ryan who hurriedly recovered his thoughts, replied, “There is only news coming from Border Town, they reported that the pills have failed. There is no news from the other places.”
“No news should mean they were killed by my brothers, nothing to be surprised about. Originally they were chess pieces who had been easily arranged, only to be used in the meanwhile. However…” She changed the subject, “for other pieces to fail is normal, but I would not think even my fourth brother would still be safe and sound. To tell the truth, I’m a little disappointed.”
“Kingfisher said in the secret message, that the prince certainly ate it, but…”
“A failure is still a failure, I don’t want to hear any excuses,” Garcia interrupted, “soon it will be the time of the Months of the Demons. Our lovely brother will have to go searching for refuge in Longsong stronghold, right? When the moment arrives that the demon beasts invade, I am afraid that he will need to stay for a long while inside of the stronghold. Write to her, tell her to take hold of this opportunity. I would like to see, whether the goddess of fortune will stay by the side of fourth brother once again.”
“Yes, your highness.”
“You go ahead,” Garcia waved her hand, when Ryan was about to leave, the princess called to him once more. “Ah, yes. I seem to recall that the pill had been bought from an alchemist master, wasn’t it?”
Ryan nodded.
“What did he say back then? The pill will be colorless, tasteless, and will melt inside water, if it enters the mouth it will be incurable, a guaranteed death, it was his latest alchemical achievements, right?”
Garcia yawned, “hang him.”
Roland stood by the kiln, waiting for the first batch of cement.
The brick structure was designed for cement production, about 15 meters long and four meters wide. It had a front and a back door. The front door was designed wide enough to allow the transport of materials and people coming in and out of the room. The back door, on the other hand, was only large enough for one person and functioned as Anna's secret entrance.
To this end, he also built a wall surrounding half of the kiln and stationed guards at the entrance and exit. They were all Carter's men and he had no doubt about their loyalty.
The cement production process was easy to explain. First, limestone was crushed into powder, and then mixed with clay or iron powder. It would result in a paste whether they use the wet or dry method. After combining it with gypsum, the cement would be ready for use. Raw materials were readily available and no iron powder was included for it was difficult to produce. The key was in the calcination temperature.
Roland could not remember the specific temperature required to melt the cement. Thanks to the fact that he did not have the necessary tools like an infrared thermometer or a thermo coupling temperature gun needed to measure the said temperature, the process was made incredibly difficult. He only knew that the melting point of cement was similar to that of iron, and that the calcination process was also a tricky factor when it came to making cement.
For such an era of undeveloped technology, it was a huge problem to simply maintain the temperature of the blast furnace. The common open furnace would result in great heat loss and it was difficult to keep it burning above 1,200 ℃. As for the reverberation furnace, it required an inner capable of sustaining higher temperatures, but he did not know how to create the refractory bricks. The traditional blast furnace used for iron was even worse. The temperature may suffice, with only a narrow furnace cavity available to calcite the cement, but they could not produce enough cement before the end of Months of Demons.
With this in mind, Roland designed a kiln that needed no heating and relied on Anna instead.
Broken particles of limestone and clay were mixed with water to form a paste, which was spread evenly throughout the firing room. Then the knights locked the door and cleared out the laborers. Anna then entered through the back door and heated the ground beneath the paste until the iron bar placed inside the room also melted.
Roland was becoming restless. This was his first step in guarding Border Town. If he could not produce any cement, his plan of building a city wall in three months would just be empty words. Without a wall to protect the town, he worried that no one would be willing to stay in this godforsaken place. Whether in history or fictional literature, a stable base was necessary for agriculture.
"Your Highness, you're saying that this material can hold stones together?" asked Carter Lannis, who stood near Prince Roland. Even though the prince had said this was the result of the latest research by the alchemical workshop in Kingdom of Graycastle, he was nonetheless skeptical. After all, that group of people was never famous for being useful.
"Who knows? That's what they said," Roland replied.
In this world, alchemy and astrology were known as the sage arts, and were very popular in the mainland. The royal family would generally keep their own alchemists and astrologers to predict and improve their fate. For ordinary folks however, such knowledge was beyond their comprehension and thus had little enthusiasm for them. Keeping this in mind, it was only natural for Roland to claim that the cement was a product of the alchemical workshop. He did not care about whether the chief knight believed it or not.
The flame in the window eventually died down. The firing of the cement seemed to be complete.
Roland stood up at once. Sending Carter away to the yard, he waited alone in front of the brick house.
The iron door creaked as it opened and Anna stepped out, naked. Roland draped a robe over her at once and handed her a glass of water. "How was it?"
The witch's face was painted a dusty gray. Even though wet cement would not produce much dust, it would still appear when the cement was burning. Since she could not wear a mask, it was uncomfortable for her to stay inside for tens of minutes. She coughed twice and nodded. "The mud has turned gray."
Roland was too impatient to wait for the temperature to be lowered. Wetting a towel, he wrapped it around his head and grabbed a shovel. He then went in through the back door.
Hot air instantly engulfed him and he found it difficult to breathe. The skin on his hands was burnt raw. Fortunately, shoveling the ashes took only a short moment. Otherwise, he might really experience thermal shock had he stayed any longer.
"Is this what you want?" Anna asked, staring at the material. She had already put on her witch's robes.
"Looks like it." Roland flattened the powder and tested the temperature with his fingers. "I wouldn't know for sure until we use it."
"What's the use of this thing?"
"To build houses and bridges and to repair roads. There are too many uses for this thing. If it succeeds, people won't have to worry about the cold or the rain and snow damaging their houses." Using his other hand, he patted the girl on the head. "It's all thanks to you."
Anna lowered her head. He wasn't sure if it was just an illusion, but the girl's breathing seemed to have sped up a notch.
In theory, the fired material should be grinded with gypsum as to adjust its hardening time. But there was no need to think about so much right now. After a short break ,Roland picked up two shovels and called for Carter, who was standing outside the courtyard. Roland told him to mix the gray ash proportionally with the river sand in a ratio of 3 to 1 to prepare cement mortar.
The chief knight did not mind doing menial work. In his opinion, it was much better than fighting or chasing after the noble ladies for His Highness in the Kingdom of Graycastle.
As there was no iron powder in the raw mixture, the resulting paste looked off-white. Roland piled the paste on a brick and placed another brick on top of it. It would usually take around four hours for the cement to become solid. As this was merely a trial run, he decided that it would be best to wait until tomorrow to test the mixture.
The next morning, Roland hurried to the kiln room, bringing Carter and Anna with him. When he opened the door, he noticed that the cement appeared solid and the bricks seemed to have stuck together. The surface of the material seemed rugged and part of it was covered in white frost.
Roland squatted down. It was natural for the alkalization process to result in some white frost. He pressed onto the hardened cement and his heart leaped. The cement was rock solid, completely different from the texture of the solid clay. Even when he pushed into the cement firmly, there was no mark on its surface.
After getting the signal from Prince Roland, Carter first tried to lift the bricks. He then attempted to kick the bricks until they gave way. The cement dislodged from the ground, yet the bricks remained stuck firmly together. He ended up using the hilt of his sword to knock them apart, but he succeeded in only knocking off a small corner of the bricks.
"So this is the effect of the so-called cement." The purpose of the material dawned on Carter. "It's simply incredible. It flowed like wax from a melting candle yesterday, but in just one night it had become as strong as a rock. With this, we can build the wall as fast as we want. As long as we have enough bricks, we could even build a wall around Border Town in less than five years!"
"What's the use of that?" Roland asked. "A tall wall would not be able to stop enemies from within. I'd rather turn the old wooden huts in Border Town into solid cement houses, so my subjects would no longer have to worry about losing their homes in natural disasters."
"..." The chief knight was stunned. He did not expect Prince Roland, who was known for his many aristocratic vices, would suggest such a thing.
"You'll understand it in the future." Roland reaffirmed the path he was taking. For many people who travelled through time, technology was the gate leading to productivity. But here, the witches were their path to the future.