Chapter 41: Let's Pioneer!

I’ve been thinking about various problems since my father talked about the territory, but I can’t think of any concrete solutions. Just thinking about it in the safety of my home seemed to be useless, so I decided to go to the site and see it with my own eyes, and got permission from Father to do so.

Even though I’ve made my social debut, I’m still not allowed to go out on my own terms. I am a sheltered girl. Maybe Father is overprotective. He listens to my selfishness and does everything for me and makes things convenient for me. I wonder if he’s a guy who always says that fathers should always be sweet to their daughters.

Well, anyway, I got permission, so I’m going out right away. Reflecting on what happened last time, in addition to Helmut, Erich and Dominic will accompany us as escorts this time. The two of them are my swordsmanship instructor and bodyguard, so it’s probably fine, but I feel kind of bad about throwing away their usual work and going along with my selfishness.

Isabella has domestic duties and it’s not good to take a woman who is quite old into the dangerous forest, so she stays at home. Just in case, I also change into clothes that are easy to move in and put on some simple protective gear. When I was fighting the mad horned bear, I was saved because I had armor. If I wasn’t wearing armor, I might not have a right arm by now. With that in mind, armor is no joke. 1

“Now then! Shall we head out?” I said.

“Miss Flora, wouldn’t it be better if your hair was trimmed short as well?” Helmut asked as he pointed it out and tried to touch my hair.

My long hair is just flowing out. This will get in the way when the time comes for action.

“You’re right,” I said “Shall I tie my hair together and put on a hat or a helmet?”

“Haha…” Dominic laughed dryly like he was playing along with a joke.

I don’t know what he was really thinking, but I think it was a subtle laugh. Anyway, I tied my hair up and kept it in a bun. This will now not get in the way in case of emergency.

Thus, we headed for the northern forest together.

I don’t want to stand out too much, but it’s afternoon now and the farm and ranch should have effectively finished work in the morning, so I decided to head out and then start clearing out the northern forest for the workers’ safety, starting with the area where the mad horned bear appeared.

Originally, it would have been easier to gradually start reclamation from just north of the farm, but as expected, it would be completely visible from the town of Carruzan if it were to start clearing land here. I’ll be the one who will take the lead in the future, so I’m going to be seen a lot, so I’m thinking of starting the reclamation from a point a little further in the forest instead.

We walked into the forest for a while, but it looks like normal woods with nothing special. There are signs of wild animals, but I don’t feel like there are any dangerous beasts. There are no monsters, and soldiers patrol the area a little further from the forest, so it’s likely to keep out beasts from here.

When I went to the place where the soldiers were patrolling, the footing was bad and it was growing thicker and thicker. It seems that from here on out it will be completely wild.

“If I were to start, it would be around here…” I said.

“Yes, that’s right,” Helmut said immediately.

Did he really think that? It seemed as fast as a call and response. Well, that’s fine…

First of all, people need a source of water to live on… the relatively large river, which is also the water source for Carruzan, must go further west from here. Roughly speaking, there is a mountain in the northwest direction as seen from Carruzan. The highest point is in the northwest, and the altitude gradually decreases from northwest to north, and from northwest to west. Conversely, the southeast is the lowest land elevation, and the ground gradually rises from the southeast to the north, and from the southeast to the west.

Roughly speaking, if you have a square flat surface, if you think that the northwest is high and the southeast is low, you can imagine that the other sides will naturally tilt.

The river on the north side of the farm is really small, so even the workers who are going to work there will not have enough drinking water. Moreover, if human beings live there, the amount of water is completely insufficient as a main source. So I think I’ll start with water and sewage first.

Cut down the trees around where we are now, open up the land, and build a shack or a log house. We will gradually expand the reclamation area from here, but first, we will draw clean water from the river in the northwest and let it flow in the northeast direction. To return the water to the river in the northwest, it would be difficult to dig due to the height difference, and since the sewage would be drained at the same time, it would not be possible for us to drain the sewage first to the river where Carruzan is taking its water supply.

So, first of all, cut down the trees in the forest and dig and bury the water supply and sewage with a slope from the northwest to the northeast. Since the direction has been made naturally decided somehow, it is good to think about how to do so.

First of all, the funds will have to draw from the farm and ranch’s proceeds. The Knight of Caan has no other financial resources. My pension? There’s no way that’s enough, right~?

We have no choice but to rely on Kruck Trading Firm for manpower and engineers. If I keep borrowing too much, I’m going to be in trouble later, but I can’t help it because I don’t have anyone else who I can borrow a lot of help from.

So, water supply and sewage is the main issue… I think we should use ancient concrete or Roman concrete? Maybe? Something like that must have been invented in the past. They said on TV that Rome’s Pantheon and Colosseum are still standing because this ancient concrete is excellent.

However, with the fall of the Roman Empire, ancient concrete was no longer used in Europe, and bricks and other building materials began to change. It wasn’t until after the industrial revolution that concrete was made again. Medieval Europe was a dark age. Technology was declining. The ancient countries are much more developed than it.

Well, it doesn’t matter now. Concrete is probably not used in this world either. If there is concrete, it may be easier to install water and sewage- systems, but… I vaguely remember the materials, so I have no choice but to ask Kruck to collect the materials and then test them here.

Can you make bricks, which is a relatively major building material in this country, or reproduce concrete? Until the results come out, let’s start by creating routes and a base of operations by cutting down trees and burying them. Once that was decided, I immediately decided to go to Kruck and asked them for help.

I asked the Kruck Trading Firm to arrange for laborers and engineers. Victoria easily accepted, but I wonder if it’s a good idea. I’m not sure if I’ll always be able to pay what these craftsmen are worth for their work. From the start, if a ten-year-old child were to start a business and ask for labor and materials, who would respond with, “Yes, we’ll get right on that.”?

At the same time as worrying about the goodness of Victoria’s staff, I am grateful that she trusts me so much. If she trusts people so easily, I think Victoria has been deceived more than once or twice.

My vague recollection is that ancient concrete was a mixture of lime, volcanic ash, and seawater, maybe? I was told that they could prepare those materials, so it would be good to try out some recipes somewhere first.

For water supply and sewer systems, a proposal was made to dig a hole, pour concrete into the formwork, and then lay bricks or something like that as a path for water to pass through. Let’s try some patterns on a trial basis and then put them into practical use.

I just don’t have enough budget. It looks like it’s going to be a pretty big project, but I don’t have enough money just to sell beet sugar and salad oil imitations. It seems that if you sell the felled trees as lumber, you can recover a certain amount of money, but even we need to use lumber for construction, and the lumber has to be dried first, so we can’t use it immediately as soon as it’s cut down.

After all, we first had to use materials purchased from somewhere instead of cutting down trees for our worker’s shacks, and it took a considerable amount of time for the wood to dry and turn into money.

So I decided to sell not only farm stuff, but also ranch products. The number of cows has increased considerably, so we can produce quite a bit of dairy products. You can sell the milk as is. Milk doesn’t last long, so I didn’t go to the royal capital to sell it, but if Kruck sells it in Carruzan, I can start selling milk too. It’s the same with eggs.

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Milk, dairy products, beef/pork, eggs, chicken, and other items that can be harvested from the ranch have not been sold until now, but they will be sold to secure the budget.

After that, you have to think about which formula to adopt while looking at the test results. It doesn’t take a lot of money to prepare for them, so let’s start by felling trees on the route and various other tests.

A log cabin was quickly completed at the point where I had decided to enter the northern forest from the farm and make it my base. Well, it’s not like a log cabin. It’s just a shack. This shack is basically where I am and the workers’ base is built separately. This is for reporting something to me and discussing it with the master builders of each type of craftsman.

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I’ve been here quite often lately, so the desks, chairs, and document shelves are arranged as they should be. Other than the fact that it’s a small hut, it’s freshly built, so it’s not so tattered and there’s no inconvenience.

“Miss Flora, a letter has arrived for you at my family’s manor,” Isabella said.

“Is that so? Thank you, Isabella,” I said.

Isabella doesn’t usually come here and now she’s brought me a letter. Recently, the development of this area has progressed, so dangerous monsters and beasts won’t come out, but Isabella doesn’t come here much, probably because she wasn’t supposed to accompany us in the first place.

Anyway, I remember the last time that a letter addressed to me was mailed through Isabella’s family home. When I debuted in society, I had to debut as Sir Caan, not a member of House Carruthers, so I couldn’t even say that my home was also the Carruthers’ home. So I decided to borrow Isabella’s House as a postal address for letters and errands.

Therefore, if Isabella’s family home receives a letter addressed to me, it can only be from a person I gave my contact information to on the day of my social debut. In other words, that would be…….

“I knew it! It’s a letter from Alexandra!” I cried.

Yes. It was a letter from Alexandra, who looked like an arrogant young lady, but had a kind heart inside (or so I like to think).

I read the letter as soon as possible. From the beginning, there was a long and redundant series of sentences befitting nobles across three pages, but the content was very simple. If you summarize the contents, “Can I go out to play next time? If you don’t mind, please let me know when it’s a good time for you.” If that’s the case, then it’s fine to write like that, but isn’t it a waste of paper to write useless niceties over three sheets of paper?

Anyway, my hand stopped when I was about to write a reply saying “Yes”. I can’t tell Alexandra that I’m from House Carruthers. I rented Isabella’s family home as a means to contact me, but Isabella’s House now has a different family head, and it’s someone who serves House Carruthers, not one of my vassals. Isabella is currently the only person who directly serves House Caan.

“Wha-Wha-Wha-What should I do?!” I stammered.

“Calm down, Miss Flo—no, Sir Floto,” Helmut said. “House Caan does have a home here, doesn’t it?”

Helmut said it with his chest puffed out in pride…… but is it okay to put Alexandra, the daughter of a high-ranking noble, in a forest like this?

“Will everything be alright?” I asked.

“Goodness, there’s no problem at all,” Helmut said.

“Well… if Sir Floto says there is no problem, it should be fine…” Isabella said doubtfully.

I don’t know what they mean, but if you two say it’s okay, it’s okay.

“Understood! Then I’ll write a reply to Alexandra!” I cried.

And so, for the first time in my life, I was able to invite my friends over to my house. Katharina’s situation was different, so it was different from having a friend over…

As Victoria looked out the window and watched Flora leave after a new business meeting, she found herself lost in thought.

Flora is really rather fascinating. She thinks and does strange things. What’s more, it’s amazing that even though the idea is like a fantasy that no one has ever thought of, she has prepared things that can be practically implemented.

Even someone like Victoria who has been involved in various projects for so long has never heard of this “Concrete”. Flora said that it was not yet at the stage of practical use, but if such a thing actually existed, the common sense of architecture up to now would be fundamentally overturned.

Besides, she can’t think of the courage of a child to be able to throw in a huge budget that ordinary nobles can’t prepare. A normal aristocrat wouldn’t spend such a huge budget to cultivate a forest like that. In the unlikely event that it fails, it won’t just mean the collapse of that House. The financial strength to secure such a budget without the help of House Carruthers, and the decision-making ability to actually invest in it, are unthinkable.

“Really… I wonder if you could be my child…?” Victoria muttered to herself.

However, if she tried to adopt Flora, she would be hated by House Carruthers, the royal family, and the Kreff Duchy. If you turn that many people into enemies, the Kruck Trading Firm would be easily crushed.

There is no war recently, and there is no demand for capital investment or special war demand. The economy is gradually getting worse, so if Flora can do such a big project, the surplus manpower will be saved by the new work opportunities.

“’Concrete’ and ‘water supply and sewage systems’… what will you show me next?” Victoria said.

Victoria never thought she’d ever become excited by the unknown at her age, now she was able to enjoy living, wondering what Flora would come up with next.

“Even so…”

And after listening to Flora who came to consult with her, one question came up. The dress that House Carruthers had ordered for Flora’s social debut from so long ago had suddenly had its work suspended, and Flora ordered a new dress instead. Victoria was surprised when another dress was ordered on the day she was due to come in to try the original one to see how it fit.

She just thought that Flora had earned her own money, so she decided to prepare the dress with that money. However, she couldn’t understand being asked for a simple carriage without a coat of arms and even a coachman to drive it. Then, she finally heard the reason.

Even though Victoria thought it was strange, if it was just the dress, she probably wouldn’t have asked. It wasn’t until Flora requested a carriage and coachman that Victoria realized it was too unnatural. She said that “His Majesty the King ordered I should make my societal debut Sir Caan without relying on the power of Margrave Carruthers.”

That’s strange. Why would King Wilhelm, who likes Flora so much, go out of his way to say something that would inconvenience Flora at such a time like that? When she had a business meeting in the royal capital, King Wilhelm said that Flora was recognized as an adult noble and as the head of the Caan Knighthood even though she was a young child, and not as a daughter of House Carruthers. Nowhere in that statement did it say that she couldn’t have borrowed House Carruthers’ help.

Something is not right.

“How about… we do a little bit of research…?” Victoria said.

As Victoria thought Flora was like her grandchild, she thought it would be necessary to take a bit of initiative for her sake.

T/N: For those who forgot, King Wilhelm has two wives. His first wife is Ludwig’s mother and is part of the strongest faction that has secured Ludwig’s ascension to the throne.

His second wife has two sons who could also ascend the throne if Ludwig gives up his inheritance or is killed, but her faction is not strong enough to make a play for the throne while Ludwig is still the heir. She’s already established to have sabotaged all of Ludwig’s prior engagements behind the scenes. Ludwig was just content to let her mess about as he couldn’t have cared less about his previous prospective fiancees.

Remember: it takes 2 weeks to get from the royal capital to Carruzan if you’re going as fast as humanly possible with no stopping and constantly changing horses. If you choose a more regular messenger route that takes about a month or more, there’s plenty of time to change a message with a correction being far too slow to get there in time.

Footnotes

Flora is correct. Advances in armor and protection greatly increase the incidences of serious injuries, because fewer soldiers are dying outright and making it back to be treated and recorded.

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