CHAPTER 73: My boulevard
The next morning Mr. Marset, like the rest of Obon, received a surprise. Mr. Papadopoulos’ men started digging up the eastern roadway, laying a firm foundation of gravel then placing thick paving stones over it. The rectangular shaped bricks came in assorted sizes and were coloured a lovely shade of dark blue. The townsfolk loved the pattern and quietly stood there watching the new road unfold, mesmerised by its beauty. The rocks had a rough-cut surface pattern, arranged in a tight irregular pattern on the ground, giving it a pleasant aesthetic feel. The men placed an even line of rocks with a fine sandy textured surface, parallel with the new paving and terminating about a meter wide on both sides of the road. Despite the lovely road, it still lacked a pavement and drainage, something I intended resolving on another occasion.
When the townsfolk asked the work foreman who commissioned the paving, he simply said it wasn’t Mr. Marset just as I instructed him to say it, knowing people were going to ask. Obviously, Mr. Marset quickly got wind of the construction activities and soon went stomping out there with some armed men. He curtly demanded answers from Mr. Papadopoulos since he suspected that the sudden work commission was related to the recently missing silvers. Naturally, Mr. Papadopoulos couldn’t answer any of his questions simply because he didn’t care where the money came from. Why would he? Besides, I tied him into a non-disclosure contract.
When Mr. Marset tried to stop the work by throwing threats at Mr. Papadopoulos, the team of twenty burly men suddenly stopped work, lifted their pickaxes, and surrounded Mr. Marset and his posse of armed thugs. We warned Mr. Papadopoulos that conflict might follow, so we prepared him with a tiny bit of valuable foreknowledge.
“Listen here.”
Said Mr. Papadopoulos to Mr. Marset.
“You may want to think carefully to what I’m about to say, and that includes your armed cronies.”
All the armed men suddenly stopped, not expecting such a stern response from Mr. Papadopoulos. Usually their diminutive victims asked for clemency or behaved diminutively. Understanding they perhaps misjudged the situation and stepped on the tail of a deadly tiger, they listened to Mr. Papadopoulos’ words.
“Do we look like pigs you can easily poke at? You may want to first consider that we do grunt work daily hauling heavy things half your weight, in sun, rain, and snow. With one hand, we can swing a pickaxe faster and harder than you could swing a sword with two. I doubt any armour you’re wearing now could protect you from a decent blow from one of these picks. And after saying all that, if you still feel like you want to have a go at us, then consider this before you start, if you’re injured, how will you pay someone to look after you? From what I hear, Mr. Marmot over here hardly got a copper to his name.”
I’d purposefully given Mr. Papadopoulos the wrong name for the mayor. Mr. Marset, who also hearing his name misspoken, started fuming. His face wobbled in anger as he turned a bright colour of red.
“What…? That’s an outright lie.”
“You all you trust him because he paid you all in advance, right?”
Doubt started to cloud the faces of the thugs. Mr. Papadopoulos knew that the information we gave him wouldn’t be enough to put all the thugs off fighting, so he offered one last bit of advice.
“If you’ve never had the misfortune of crossing the Worker’s Guild then you should know we are members of it, the largest union in the kingdom. Any person causing the union problems has got some serious issues finding work in future. Good luck when employers discover the union blacklisted you. Nobody will kill you, but you’ll wish you were dead. If you’re desperate enough, you could always join the bandits, but their retirement plans are poor and sickness benefits really suck. I’d suggest you think carefully here, before you do something you’ll regret. Oh, and by the way, once blacklisted, always blacklisted. Decide now if Mr. Marmot over here is worth all of that.”
The thugs might not have been the brightest, but they knew that when the worker’s union discovered a blacklisted person working in a town, they immediately instructed their members and other contractors to boycott the company that hired the blacklisted person. It was a rare occurrence, but when it happened, the company rarely survived.
The workers all lifted their pickaxes, ready to defend themselves. As if to emphasise his words some of the workers swung their pickaxes around as if they were holding chopsticks. None of the mayor’s thugs had faced that dilemma before. One by one they started to back off as they realised this situation wasn’t going to be in their favour. Had the mayor decided to employ decent professional soldiers, the chances would have been more favourable for him. Professional soldiers never left their tender, but then they always wisely asked for their payment up front. They walked away without a word leaving the thunderstruck mayor standing there on his own. Mr. Marset then realised there was a major power shift in his authority levels and his grip of fear over the people was starting to slide downhill.
“Where are you going? Do you think you are going to get away with this?”
He shouted to no one in particular. With no more opposition of concern, Mr. Papadopoulos walked up to Mr. Marset and looked straight into his face.
“If I were you, I would rather start worrying about how you are going to pay all those people you owe money to now…”
Like the rat he was, Mr. Marset turned tail and scurried off. Unfortunately, if we thought this would be the end of that troublemaker, we were in for a surprise.
Hana and I sat with a perplexed looking Alma and Orilay. A few open wooden boxes of various sizes lay in front of Alma on the floor, a surprise for her I arranged through Karato.
“What’s this Shane?”
“It’s everything you will need to become a seamstress. Call it an investment from Hana and I, we both contributed to it.”
There was a long period of time where we nervously waited for her to say something. She seemed so overwhelmed it took a while for her to understand what she was looking at. She could identify all the equipment she needed to start her own business. Whomever selected the sewing kit knew what they were doing, there lay scissors and cutting tools for trimming, including many rolls of thread. Only the best makes of needles lay neatly arranged in a velvet box that also seconded as a pin cushion.
“I can’t believe you did this for me.”
Tears ran down her face as Orilay placed his hand on her shoulder. It was easy to appreciate her tears of joy.
“This is not a gift by the way, I feel it’s better that we call it an interest free investment.”
Orilay chuckled at the overwhelming feelings that surged through him.
“Heck Shane, I’m don’t know if we’re ever going to be able to pay you back for what you’ve done for us. With the more than sufficient equipment you’ve supplied and the heaps of material, we can make sure the kids are properly clothed.”
“No need to worry about the cost, just look after the kids for me as best you can. Alma, I’m sorry that you didn’t have a say in the material that was selected. I just told Karato to speak to Schneider and let him pick something out.”
“From what I can see, he has a particularly good eye. This material is both practical and good quality.”
Hana and I shared the cost for the sewing equipment. I think something about that household reminded her of her family. I felt that we planted something special, something that would bear a lot of fruit in the future.
Around the evening of the same day Mr. Papadopoulos and his team started installing the road pavers, Hana and I ate supper at the Screaming Banshee and couldn’t help when we noticed two particularly boisterous female adventurers. Both looked well-muscled and well armoured. The blonde lady of the pair wore her hair in a braided ponytail. Most male adventurers wilted under their radiance of strength. They were drinking copious amounts of alcohol and from what I could make out from the conversation, they were celebrating a good run in the dungeon. It had been a while, and I didn’t say anything, but I was sure the blonde female was Sustelia. The same woman who caused such a ruckus on the Shimmerstal road with her team and her employers. For some reason she picked on me that whole time. Another reason I preferred not to talk with her, preferring to let old dogs lie.
Later that foggy night when I went to do my usual washing routine outside the inn, I was surprised to see one of the two cubicles already occupied. Usually when I washed, I was the only one there. The towel draped across the entrance meant that I couldn’t see who was on the other side. Once in the cubicle I realised that the partition’s palisade fencing dividing the shower wasn’t particularly private. Trying to be as unintrusive as possible, I still managed to glimpse a woman’s massively scarred back as she sat, washing herself. From her neck to her waist something with serious claws had raked her. I stood aghast, wondering just how she survived such serious wounds when her strong female voice suddenly said,
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“You’re Shane, the young man from that camp on the road with the black hair, right? If you are that interested, I’m more than happy to accommodate you. I’m sure I can entertain you for the night?”
My goodness I was not prepared for that. Firstly, she remembered who I was, which meant she recognised me during dinner. I didn’t know what to say, but I was certainly not interested in anything like that. I just stammered,
“N, n, no thank you. Nice to meet you again.”
Nice to meet you again, was that the best I could say?
“That’s pity, I was sure you were giving me the eye.”
“Err, sorry...didn’t mean to give the wrong idea.”
“Well, if you change your mind let me know. We’ll have great fun.”
I thought it wiser to keep quiet at that point. I suspected she might take a no for a yes. Note to self; get the town to make better bathing facilities for the inn.
Trying not to pay more attention to the situation, I decided to carry on as if nothing happened. If I thought that was where the situation would stay then the following evening, as Hana and I entered the inn’s dining room, Sustelia, sat at one of the tables near the entrance. As soon as she noticed me and on the top of her voice she said,
“Hey! Secret admirer. Have you heard? They’ve upgraded the bathing facilities outside. If you want to have a good look at me bathing now, you’ll have to ask me first…”
The whole place broke out laughing. I wanted to die. I felt that I could liquify and drip to under the floorboards. Hana looked surprised, totally unaware of the history between the blond woman and I. However, she realised how uncomfortable I looked.
Knowing Sustelia, I suspected she had disseminated her version about our small encounter in the bathing facilities to the rest of the crowd and now there was no point in trying to back out of it. It was all in good humour, so I didn’t take it personally. I did take the liberty of looking after all, but that didn’t mean I was going to take her derision lying down. I could give as easily as I could take.
“Ah, Ms. Showerer.”
I suddenly kneeled onto one knee in front of Sustelia as if in a theatre play, saying in a gruff falsetto voice,
“I, Sir Bathalot, your humble servant could never be worthy enough to gaze upon one as beautiful as you.”
The whole place erupted with cheers and laughter so loud that even Haruhime came to look. Hana realised the commotion I was creating and without missing a beat she grabbed me by the ear while pulling me back out the dining room door.
“Come Sir Bathalot, first come wash clothes for your wife before exposing your washing habits in front of other women.”
“Ooh!”
Came the chorus from the crowd followed by a roar of laughter. The sudden appearance of an unexpected actor to the stage act caught everyone off guard. The saga suddenly grew more interesting for them.
“Ow, ow, ow.”
I cried aloud. My ear was genuinely burning. She was taking this acting thing way too seriously. Howls of laughter followed me into the corridor. Only then did Hana let me go. Perhaps holding on to my ear a little too long.
“You really shouldn’t be looking at other women like that.”
“Oh, no. Sorry it was an accident.”
I hoped that it wouldn’t cause any issues with her. I realised that Haruhime also watched the entire performance. And why did Haruhime smile at me like that?
Earlier that day I asked Mr. Papadopoulos to improve the washing facilities for the inn following my situation with Sustelia the evening before. I didn’t realise they had finished it so quickly. When I checked, the shower looked superb. I didn’t know Mr. Papadopoulos’ men were that skilled. I certainly couldn’t fault the workmanship. The perfectly cut timber made the wall finish look amazing, and I discovered a mosaic on the floor? I couldn’t see it properly in the dim lamp light. The wooden wall panels fitted perfectly into each other and there were even a couple more cubicles added to the two existing ones. Although I shouldn’t be surprised because the quality of the road paving was just as fabulous. Obon certainly needed incentives, other than money, for skilled artisans to work and live there.
The road paving would take a while still, but it was worth waiting for. The paving bricks were of superior quality and wouldn’t wear out quickly or easily crack meaning they could be there for hundreds of years. Mr. Papadopoulos had opted for a more serviceable arrangement by laying out the bricks in a staggered formation making the finished road look more stunning than the roman apian highway, simply amazing, his understanding of civil aesthetics was admirable. He would have made those romans proud.
Already the completed pavers looked a mixture of blue hues which started to give the town a different feeling of life. Even the town folk could feel the. People were constantly hanging around Mr. Papadopoulos’ men, appreciating the change and watching the construction as if watching a reality show. One shop had already hung flowers in baskets outside the shopfront. For Obon shopfront flowers were already a miracle transformation.
The next morning, we invited Mr. Papadopoulos over to the Dryad workshop and showed him my model town, something I knew he would appreciate.
“That’s a fine piece of work you got there Mr. Karosaki. I’m also a planner at heart, but I wish I had your modelling abilities, it certainly would have made some jobs of mine far easier if I could show our clients what we were building.”
“Thanks for the compliment. I wanted to show you this so that you could appreciate what I am doing here is not limited to a few sideroads and a fancy boulevard.”
“Aye, right you are at that. I’m no fool Mr. Karosaki, back in I suggested you build a boulevard with these stones and a few moon cycles later I’m building it for you. What’s more, I believe you’re going to give these folks a show like no other when we’re done. How exactly are you planning to achieve all this?”
“Do you know that I’ve met His Majesty in Shimmerstal? Do you know what he insisted I call him?”
He shook his head.
“Greg…how many people do you know that can call Gregory Leopold, the ruler of Aryonne, by his first name? If I have that relationship with His Majesty, how difficult do you think this task would be for me?”
I know I was boasting but I wanted to get Mr. Papadopoulos to understand that I wasn’t playing around.
“You are an enigma Mr. Karosaki.”
“I sense some destiny between you and I. You’ve made a commitment to come here under difficult circumstances, and as an investment I would like to offer you to invest in the future Obon by working and living here with your family and friends.”
That was no small request I made. He fully understood my meaning.
“It’s one thing to build a road Mr. Karosaki, and entirely another to pull up the family anchor and move to another town or city, especially one as sparse as Obon.”
I waited for that moment. Here was a pivotal moment in history, where I earned my future muscle by using my brains now. Understanding people for who they were, and most of all appreciating what they wanted out of life would help attract the people we needed in Obon.
“I agree. Why take a chance using cheap bait to hook a big fish?”
I asked and pointed to the empty triangle in the model.
“Do you know why that part of town is empty? Because I want you and your family to live there. How would you like a blank canvas of your own for you, your family and even your extended family?”
“Are you saying you would give that part your town to us, to do with whatever we want?”
“Yes, and not only that. I’ll pay for whatever house materials you need for your family to move over and live here.”
“Why would you do something like that for me?”
“I’m no fool Mr. Papadopoulos, I know when I’m looking at a worthy investment and what would a man be without his family to support him?”
“Thank you, I appreciate your sentiment. Would you mind telling me how exactly are you planning to pay for all of this, I wouldn’t expect it would be cheap?”
“Do you remember me telling you where I got those paving rocks?”
“You said something about a Mesa some distance from Shimmerstal.”
“Right. What if I told you I own the mining rights to that mesa for the next ten summer seasons, tax free?”
Mr. Papadopoulos’ handlebar moustache twitched as it bounced up and down in his form of reserved maniacal laughter.
“You don’t say.”