I was so engrossed in my work that I would often just stay till late at night in the training yard.
With the palace's strict curfew in place, it meant that I would end up sleeping there on the ground. Even going back to the room that I got assigned to in the servants' wing would risk me needless troubles with the guards. I knew some would recognise me and just let me go if I flashed the lord's token, but even more would just be happy to enforce regulation on a child.
Two people were greatly annoyed by my stay. First was Gelcaria. She was unhappy to have to look for me in the evening and then spend the night on her own while worrying about my whereabouts.
Soon enough she started roaming around the training yard too after her training sessions. She would either sit cross-legged and silently train her Chi-sensing ability, training her moves on the wooden dummy, or just watching over my shoulder what I was up to, rarely asking a question. She could tell when I was focused and didn't want to be disturbed.
I must say the dummies weren't lasting long under her assault, the power of her punch was scaring me, I better not ever give her a reason to sucker punch me once again. There was something unsettling to see such a frail girl be able to pack enough power to split wood with her bare hands. Chi was so world breaking, again, I was swearing at the cruel fate that was keeping me out of it.
Second was the head maid. Having a boy sleep in the wing of the princess was deemed: “indecorous and improper.” it could “bring shame to her maidenhood.”... In her dreams.
Sure the princess was cute, beautiful even by Earth's standards, but she was a 9 years old, not even a teenager and I was an almost 7 springs old. Seeing something suspicious in me sleeping in a training yard was a bit too far-fetched.
The princess thought so too. She laughed at the idea and had her grandfather brush it away. Instead, I even got a futon to sleep on spot and even a windscreen. The old lord was fathoming how important my work was. I had put my god's blessing on the line when I promised him that this could change the stalemate with monsters and he wasn't worried that the boy I was was going to prey on his granddaughter's virtue.
Now that my powder was good enough and before producing it in greater quantity I needed to make a gun.
Not a real gun, not even a rifle. Calling it a musket would even be too flattering, I just needed a metal tube that could be used as a rudimentary gun barrel.
Going for a cannon would be even better but would cost more, this would come in a second time, for now, I needed to prove that was I was working on was worth the investment.
I knew making grenades wasn't going to impress them enough and would be too wasteful of what little gunpowder I could make for now. If I could only make a few grenades, the low volume would hinder my claim. Whereas a gun needed less gunpowder to prove effective against a single target.
So what I needed was a hand cannon. I wasn't going to build a big one from the get go but just a small thing as proof of concept.
When they would acknowledge the veracity of my claim, I could have them fund the real thing. At first, a rough iron bombard would do but soon enough I would have them make steel, it was a good way to coax them into steel-making.
This was something that has been creeping in the back of my mind for a while: they mostly used bronze but they clearly had access to iron and there was coal down there in the mine.
There should be a way to extract enough of both to make a small supply of steel. They had bricks so I should be able to have them build a refractory brick furnace. I was contemplating why no one ever found a way to make steel. Was the amount brought back from the mines not enough for experimentations? Or maybe were there no lucky alchemist?
All of this will be a heavy investment. I first needed to present something worth justifying the silver they were gonna have to shower me with.
* * * * *
The construction crew came back successfully after ara (10)days out there.
The renovation of the busted nighthaven went better than they thought. Not only could they fix the breached walls but they were also able to reinforce and expend them a bit.
This meant that by next week a garrison will winter there, securing the area, scouring it from monsters and the land would be ready for farmers to settle back by spring.
The cement was a great success and already the prince was planning on other uses. Not for construction in the city but rather for outside where it was troublesome to bring squads of mages. Having commoners be able to quickly repair their own fortifications was a boon but the second prince was also planning on expanding the defences of the Shieldom: building more nighthavens to secure more arable land and also some smaller watchtowers, as relays for travellers and to set small safe havens for patrols to rest in.
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This would help secure the routes and enhance our scouting and reconnaissance abilities. The monstrous tide from two years ago could only reach the city because there just weren't enough patrols in the wild to spot it in time.
I had to call him back to Earth by reminding him that there wasn't going to be enough cement as is. We needed more lime and our exploitation of the river had limits. Already, there were fewer predators in it because of how much we were hunting chogsus and other shelled or beaked beasts down.
If we wanted more, we would have to either import shells from the sea or look for limestone in the mine or surroundings.
Operating a quarry wasn't a viable operation, it would require military protection from beasts and monsters and the stone wouldn't be worth the cost. It would be a heavy investment at least. In my opinion, it would be worth it in the long term, giving us better defences, more land to grow crops on, and securing our trade lines.
The other limit was the need for more kilns, more fuel for said kilns, more competent crew, etc... We couldn't cut down the whole forest just to make enough charcoal and even if we wanted to, monsters would make that a hard endeavour.
What we needed was coal from the mine and to build new kilns, more efficient in the use of fuel, we needed to make the most of what little we had and prioritise what buildings were going to benefit from cement first.
* * * * *
Our plans with the prince were disrupted as this month's daynight slowly approached. It was Fallost, last month of Fall and we were going to celebrate Arteus. This was even more important for the palace since Arteus was the patron god of this city AND the patron god of the Kirinavati family.
Our city was known for its metal-working and craftsmanship, both were under the domain of Arteus.
The Shield's family were all lightning-based magic users. The current Shield was a fire user but he wasn't born in the family. Be it the old lord, the prince, the third princess, or her older sister, all were using either lightning or tempest as their magic core style and the legend was that it was taught to their family directly by a Kirin that denied the monster god.
In my wildest dreams, I would use the princess as a battery to either electrolyse water or produce aluminium. Those were just mad thoughts, at best I would get the help of low-level mages, which also meant they wouldn't be of much use.
I knew nothing about the younger two siblings of the Kirinavatis, I just knew there were a fourth prince and a fifth princess and that they couldn't be old enough to already wield magic. They must reside in the Lord's quarters in the innermost parts of the palace.
The celebration of Arteus was a big deal for the palace. Not only was there going to be a party, even more important than the one for Fortan, but also there were going to be delegations from other countries and diplomats attending the event.
Of course, the Empire's representatives would be there but also deputies from the southern free cities, scyllas of the Nereians, Beastkins sages of the Empire of mist, Trollkins pillars, diplomats from the elven court but also more scarcely seen people: shamans of the western tribes, Agarics from the Fungi clusters on the other side of the ocean, far to the west, Sultans from the southernmost continent etc...
Among all these people were some of the representatives of one of the races I've never met so far: the Fungi. They were dryad-like beings, attuned to nature and known for their connection to both Fusaad and Tupu. Although called Fungi, they were in fact plant-based and a lot were even living off of photosynthesis if I am to believe the “travel reports of Master Herck” describing how some of them just won't eat.
Was there a distant relationship with how Godzilla was also able to harness the Sun's energy? This world knew nothing about the evolution theory or phylogeny, one of the things I'd like to do once this world is safer, is to travel the world as a zoologist studying all their beasts and animals, figuring out how they are linked with one another and maybe how much strange abilities they have.
Melodi was the most enthusiastic of all. She always had been a curious one. “We are going to see mermaids, “ she was singing as she was springing around us.
“Stop it, you're making me dizzy,” complained the princess, though she was smiling at the young kitten's enthusiasm.
The princess was far less thrilled than her sparring partner. She had seen these people before and it only meant more political shenanigans for her. “I don't want that fat count from the Empire to propose once more,” she complained. The thought just gave her even more energy for training, only strength would let her choose her path. She lightly punched Gel in the shoulder, “back to training you lazy bunch, the delegates aren't there for a hex, you'll have more than enough time to get excited about them.”
While the girls were bruising one another without restrain, Balout was smart enough to avoid the storm and came to ask me more about the Fungi. I had read about them a bit more than he did since I had translated far more books than him. I gave him a brief summary of Master Heck's works, my memory of it was almost perfect.
The Fungi were living mostly on a continent far away from here, in the southern hemisphere but there were some settlements a bit everywhere. They were sought out for their knowledge in farming, diseases, and their woodworking. They were fighting back monsters, just like the rest of us sapients were, but they weren't actively fighting them back and were rather opting for a more defensive stance. According to the travelling scholar, their cities were impregnable. This was something I'd like to see. I always thought ours were, until the tide proved to me that our thick walls weren't enough against all leviathans.
Balout was also eager to catch a glimpse of all these strange visitors, sadly, this was just too high-level an event for simple commoners like us to attend to. Even as a member of the princess' entourage we just weren't worth attending the party.
This event was highly secured and participants were limited in number and even in the power level of each of their followers. Gathering so many important people would always bring risk. It was a great opportunity for some to strike at their enemies or for brazen heretics to score high.
I would only be able to watch the delegations from afar as they arrive in town. Not much, but that will have to quench our curiosity. Ideally, I would find an occasion after the party to discuss with each delegation. I expect the old lord to talk about the alphabet and numbers with them and this should give me the opportunity to ask more about their resources.
Who knows? Maybe the Empire has huge quarries of limestone, or the elves know about steel, or someone in the free cities can help supply us with saltpetre, etc...
There must be smart people out there and I needed to use alphabet and numbers to lure them in and have them help me. Even with my now perfect memory, I couldn't figure everything out on my own, there were holes in so many subjects. I blamed myself for not reading enough back then, even if I had just nonchalantly glanced at a history book about gun making, it would come in handy now.
No such luck, I could tell the number of ventricles in a alligator's heart though, or all about the nervous system of cows and enteric fermentation and methane emissions.
But when it came to engineering, there were huge holes in my knowledge. When I was lucky enough to have parcels of informations, I would still lack some requirements or just the technical precisions to directly apply the knowledge.
That's why I was ready to risk the diffusion of my secrets, with just me they were mostly useless, but with enough smart people, who knows how high we could reach?
When you are the smartest one in the room, it means you are in the wrong room.