As there was a lot more free time for everyone, including Iris, there was also a lot more boredom now. No one had to worry about starving to death or fighting off invaders and the city was already done being built. Most of the inhabitants of this world had grown up without much entertainment, so they were used to such things. However, Iris still had plenty of memories of how things used to be in the modern world.

Summers were a time for fun and relaxation. Kids would have water balloon and water gun fights, soaking each other so badly they'd have to spend the rest of the afternoon out in the sun just to get their clothing dry again. Yet, it was fun and well worth the cleanup they'd be stuck doing after the matter. There were even public pools and water parks where people would spend $10 or more just for entry to the pool for the day so they could keep cool and have a little fun. Of course, such places were often crowded and also meant shelling out money for ice cream and drinks or planning ahead to bring your own, but it was still a fun pastime.

Unfortunately for those living in the beastworld, they didn't even have the basics like fans or air conditioning units to help keep them cool. The stone brick houses would end up sweltering while the cave homes were only a bit better thanks to being underground and far away from the sun. There was no way Iris was going to make Caspian provide ice to every home in their city either, so most people didn't even have the luxury of an iced drink unless they were willing to brave the heat to go and buy an overpriced pitcher of something from Holly's teahouse. That left most people just plain miserable as they endured the sweltering heat.

So, with the combination of there being more people free to help with any new projects Iris wanted to work on as well as a very obvious project to work on, she got to work.

"Alright, I've arranged for a few males to work on this building you were wanting. Can you explain exactly what we're building again?"

Hazel asked. They were once more having a family meeting, even if it was for a rather minor matter. Ash, Fern, and Basil were all absent, but the others had set aside some time to entertain Iris's whims. Smiling happily, she explained

"Well, I've just been trying to come up with ways to combat this summer heat. I know we have hot springs bath houses, but those tend to be too hot to enjoy this time of year and won't really help anyone cool down. So, I was thinking we could build a public swimming pool.

Since we are already done with the inner city, I was able to reuse the magic blueprints I was given by the Beast Deity. I just cleared it out and then used it to design a large public pool house for us to build in the business district. There is a drainage system so we can pull a plug of sorts from the bottom of the pool and have the water drain out. Normally, it would be ideal to have a water elemental fill the tub or an ice elemental with fire magic to melt the water. Then a fire elemental could use enough fire magic to evaporate the water so fresh water could be put in. However, it isn't like we have several dozen people with elemental abilities in the city or anything and I don't want to overwork the few people we do have.

So, if it became necessary, males could be hired to carry water from the nearby river and fill the pool with it. They could also take the excess water and remove it before using it in the fields. Then the rest could be drained into the soil below the building. Draining too much water wouldn't be good since it could flood the soil and cause the whole area to sink into a pit, but having a few inches of water soaked into the ground on rare occasions would be fine.

Outside of that, the pool is designed so that some areas would be more shallow than others. There would be stairs that gradually lead into the water at the shallow end and ladders carved out of the pool wall in other areas. We would also have large slides carved from stone set up along the poolside. They, alongside the top-most portion of the pool ladders, will need to have special supports made. Probably something along the lines of small, but long holes drilled into the floor where support pillars can be lodged before being sealed up with dried clay.

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

We would also want to make some leisure furniture like special poolside lounging chairs for people to lay back on and round tables with chairs for people to sit at. Maybe even have a section of the pool building built with bathrooms for changing and an area for a kitchen. We would have to make sure there is sufficient separation of the bathroom area and pool area so no problems arise and add it to the sanitation workers' work rotation, but it should be useful.

Of course, that does bring up another concern, which is pool accidents. We would have to completely ban cubs from using the pool to reduce the chances of them going to the bathroom in the pool. We will also have to have the pool cleaned if there are any sort of accidents. In my world, we would use special pool solutions and have filtration systems, but that isn't realistic here. So, we might have to specify that people have to use the bathroom before entering the pool to reduce issues. We don't want to have to close the pool down entirely just because issues keep arising."

Hazel took the blueprints from Iris to look them over as she spoke in length about her plans. He was still busy looking things over when she finished speaking, so Caspian replied instead.

"A lot of people are indeed having difficulties due to all of the heat. I hear the clinic has even been a bit overwhelmed by the number of heat stroke cases due to how large our city is growing. Those living in the mountains have an easier time of it, but most of the males still go out to work during the day time."

Iris frowned as she asked

"Is it hotter than usual this year? Surely there should be some sort of method people normally use to avoid such issues before this."

Caspian shook his head before replying

"No, it's not any hotter than previous years. It's just that most tribes and cities tend to see people remaining at home and only leaving the house to hunt, seek medical help, or entertain their females. Having jobs like farming and people running their own businesses means that more people than is typical tend to leave their houses, regardless of the weather. I'm not sure how medium cities like Red Wood City handle so many people either, much less a large city. It seems unsustainable to always have only a single witch doctor."

Iris nodded, thinking about how much of a shame it was that Ash wasn't here. Perhaps he would know more about the subject. Basil had come from a small city and most of Iris's other mates had only ever lived in small tribes before. Ember cleared his throat before speaking up to say

"I've only ever been to a few medium cities myself. Since you have to be a five-star beast to even enter the city, it is indeed difficult to get the full picture of what living in one is like. I've seen several instances where there are multiple witch doctors in the city, but it's always males who are siblings or are all mated to the same female. It makes it easier for them when it comes to power struggles while still allowing them to handle more patients in a given day. However, you also have to remember that it is pretty common for them to refuse to treat males at all or else to only do so when paid high fees and at the request of a female. Single males wouldn't even be given the time of day, but that doesn't tend to matter as much since having a stronger celestial beast tends to make it easier to resist such small inconveniences as temperature changes."

It was rare for Ember to even talk about his experiences traveling, so it was easy to forget that he had spent his youth doing so. Of course, it was also rare for him to speak at such length about anything, so that wasn't surprising. Still, his insight proved invaluable.

"I see, I suppose that makes sense. It's a bit difficult to get Basil to budge on the subject of how the clinic is run any more than he already has, though. So, it's probably just best to focus on what we can do, for now."

As such, they continued to iron out some of the final details for the pool house before moving on to other topics.