Chapter 42: Alexandra Has Arrived!

I wrote a letter to Alexandra, and while my heart was pounding, I entrusted that letter to Isabella. Going outside as a noble is not an easy thing. It doesn’t work as friends did in Japan, where it would be “Ask me today and I’ll tell you tomorrow.”

I’ve been learning a lot from my private tutors, so I managed to write a letter to Alexandra using aristocratic phrasing. I’m pretty exhausted… it’s just like Japanese business letters and e-mails, I wish I could just ask something like, “Well then, how many days till you get here?!”…

Anyway, for the first time in my life, I invited my friend to my house to play. My heart is pounding from now on. If it’s convenient for her, I’ll get a reply within a few days. It’s still a while away, but I have to prepare a lot from now!

Playing with Alexandra is also important, but right now was not the time to focus on that. We must also proceed with the reclamation of the northern forest.

In the Edo Period, there were many areas where wells could not be dug due to a large amount of reclaimed land and landfills. In order to carry clean water to these areas, many buried water channels in the ground carried and stored water in places like wells.

This forest is also in the middle of a waterway, so if you dig, you’d think that water would come out eventually, but it seems that the soil is bad, and the only water that comes out is muddy and smelly. I haven’t seen well digging, so I can’t say anything about it, but I think that the water that comes out of any well is muddy when it’s first dug, so if you keep it quiet after the water fills up the hole, the mud will eventually settle out.

The only problem seems to be the smell and taste of the water. The water that comes out of the forests around here has a strange smell and taste, and it’s not really drinkable. I’m not an expert, so I don’t know the details, but it’s possible that the water isn’t properly filtered due to the accumulation of decaying leaves and other strange things mixed in the water.

Anyway, at least in this forest, digging a well doesn’t seem to work. As a result, this forest has not been cultivated, and Carruzan has not been expanded past where the stream stops. Sugar beets grow better in well-drained soil, and Carruzan doesn’t seem to have a lot of water, so they supply water to the town from the river that runs west of it.

So I wanted to bring water to the settlement from the same west river, but since it was quite a distance, I decided to imitate the Edo Period water supply system. The only difference is that in Edo, wood pipes were buried, but I’m thinking of using concrete or bricks. Wood will eventually rot and there are other applications I need them for, so I can’t just use wood.

Basically, although this area is a gentle slope from northwest to southeast, it doesn’t get deeper as you go, but you still have to think about the angle. Since water flows from a high place to a low place, it is natural to think that if you want to bury a waterway in the ground, the further downstream you go, the deeper the ground becomes.

However, the longer it goes, the deeper it needs to be as you go further, making it difficult to create and maintain afterward. Therefore, instead of just making a straight channel with a slope, we will make water storage in the middle to store the water. If you’re wondering what it’s for, it raises the water level.

Let’s say you start burying a waterway 10 centimeters below the ground. It slopes down to a depth of 1 meter after 100 meters. Then, if the gradient is the same, it would be difficult to bury it 9 meters below ground 1 kilometer ahead. So let’s say we made a reservoir at the 100m point. Water is stored in the water storage part until the water volume is 10 centimeters above the ground. Then, from there, you can make a slope that sinks to a depth of 1 meter in 100 meters.

This is an example, and it’s an extremely simple one at that, but in terms of the image, it’s something like that. If you repeat this, you can carry water far away without burying the pipes deeper and deeper to keep the water flowing. Water is poured into a hole dug like a well, supplied by this underground waterway. It looks like a well, but the point of this water well is that it covers everything to the bottom. If the bottom is missing, it will become the same as a normal well, and the water will seep in and escape, or it will flow out and mix with the ground.

The groundwater transported in this way will be poured into several wells at reclamation sites that have been roughly plotted after examining the site. If there is a well along the main street, it will get in the way, so let’s build structures along the main street and line up the wells behind them.

We create the sewer lines at the same time as the drinking water pipes. If you think about sewage treatment systematically in advance, you will be able to reduce environmental problems later. In the same way, by creating a water storage part and raising the level of sewage, we will create a mechanism that allows it to flow far without digging deep. Then there is another important thing about sewage.

It is an initiative to prevent the clogging of sewage and to clean the drainage as much as possible by not just storing water and raising it and draining it, but by making it like a septic tank and pumping up sludge and other pollutants.

Therefore, it would be better to think of it as a septic tank rather than a well for storing water. We have to make a mechanism to clean it from the ground so that it can be scooped up.

We discussed those plans every day with Victoria and the master builders of the various kinds of craftsmen and engineers. At first, there were many things that the staff didn’t understand, but when they finally understood what I was saying, the number of staff who agreed with me increased, and the reclamation started to progress smoothly.

Today is the day Alexandra will finally come to visit. Isabella is now out of the forest to meet her at the farm. I was anxiously waiting for Alexandra’s arrival.

“Pardon my interruption,” Isabella said as she knocked and called out from outside. “Lady Alexandra has arrived.”

When I nodded at Helmut, Helmut opened the door and welcomed her in.

“Welcome to my home, Lady Alexandra,” I said.

“Thank you for inviting me, Sir Floto,” Alexandra said.

Hmm… this is stiff. It doesn’t feel like a friend is visiting. Alexandra’s expression also seems to be cramping. In the end, I wondered if it was a bad idea to invite a noble daughter into the forest…

I am a knight without hereditary rights, whereas Alexandra is the daughter of Count Lingerburg, even though he is the vassal of a higher noble. If Alexandra is an adult or married, her status will be higher than mine, but she’s just a daughter of a nobleman and I’ve been knighted already.

However, if you act arrogant because you are of superior status at the present, you will be in trouble in the future when your opponent becomes an adult. That’s why people of low social standing can’t be arrogant even if they’re underage or not awarded a peerage at the moment. Even those who were originally guaranteed their status under the status system would be taken advantage of, and as a result, they would make other people able to manipulate them even more.

Having said that, I know that in the future my guest will definitely be higher than me, and I don’t know what kind of revenge she’ll enact if I act more arrogantly than necessary and earn her ire. This is a difficult issue.

Anyway, I want to treat Alexandra as a friend now. Am I the only one who wants to be friends with someone who doesn’t care about whose status is higher? Will Alexandra get angry if I say that?

“Lady Alexandra, I would like to become friends with you,” I said.

“I-I think so as well!” Alexandra said immediately.

Seems we’re both in agreement. Well, you wouldn’t go out of your way to visit someone’s house if you didn’t think that.

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Everyone should be busy at this time of year. Children who have made their social debut are visiting each other’s family homes around this time. Of course, ostensibly, it was an exchange to get to know people of the same generation who you met at social gatherings.

But in reality, that’s not all. There may be reasons like that, but the purpose behind those visits is to research the other person’s House and gather information. What kind of House is your host’s family? What is the status of their family? How is their hospitality? What do they serve?

Does your host have money? Do they have material wealth? Do they have power? Is it safe to keep interacting with that person from now on for your political interests?

Now is the time to find out about each other.

Exchange contact information at social gatherings, visit the other party and examine their personality and consider your future relationships. I can’t say for sure that there will ever be someone who can become true friends regardless of the difference in their social statuses. But most of them visit to investigate the host in order to consider their connections and how to behave around them.

What about Alexandra? At least I don’t think she came all the way to check on me. From the point of view of a Count, even if they were a vassal, a knight without hereditary rights is someone you don’t even need to be bothered to investigate. In that case, isn’t Alexandra’s purpose to become friends with me?

“Then please, just call me Floto. Now then, why are we still standing and talking? Please, have a seat here,” I said, trying to guide her to a seat.

“I-I understand Then I will call you Floto! And don’t speak to me like that, Floto! You may call me Alexandra as well,” Alexandra said, bright red.

She’s kind of cute. After all, Alexandra might look like an arrogant young lady, but she must have a kind heart.

“Yes, understood, Alexandra. Shall we sit down and talk?” I said.

I held out my hand, and Alexandra took it while looking down and still red-faced.

How could this good time pass so quickly? The sun is about to set. There’s still time until sunset, but the danger increases after sunset in a forest like this. Besides, I can’t keep a count’s daughter at my home forever. I’m sure her parents will be worried if she comes home too late.

The conversation with Alexandra was pleasant. Alexandra might be misunderstood because of her looks, but when I talked to her, I realized that she was a very good girl. I shouldn’t be judging by her appearance and should talk properly like this.

“Alexandra, it’s dangerous around here when the sun goes down. I’ll see you outside,” I said.

“Floto… it was a really fun time. Thank you very much for today,” Alexandra said.

I got along quite well with Alexandra, but she’s the daughter of an aristocrat, so we can’t be friends like we could be in Japan. She seems fine but I’ve only spoken to her privately for one day. I hope I can get to know Alexandra even more in the future.

“Well then, good day to you, Alexandra,” I said, outside in the forest now.

“Yes, good day, Floto,” Alexandra said, thanking me with the elegance befitting a young lady.

I saw her off to her waiting carriage and watched it drive off.

I just have a little concern. When we were saying our goodbyes, I think Alexandra’s coachman was glaring at me with a terrible look on his face. I’m probably not crazy.

Does it mean that someone like a knight shouldn’t talk intimately with a daughter of a count’s family without even using titles? Or did he think that letting Alexandra into the woods might have put her in danger?

Recently, workers coming and going in the forest, so there are almost no monsters or beasts. Also, House Carruthers, including myself, are hunting dangerous monsters and beasts, so even those dangers rarely come to the place where my shack is currently built.

But that’s just my opinion, and from the perspective of those in charge of Alexandra’s safety, if they were told that their mistress would enter such a forest, they would likely object.

… Huh? But no one, not even Father, objected to me going into the forest, right? Even though we have Erich and Dominique as guards, we entered the forest with only four people including Helmut…

Hmmm… well, it’s fine, right? Leave me out of it. Alexandra is better than that. We promised to meet again. But judging from the atmosphere of that coachman, her parents will probably be informed about today. Of course, the coachman didn’t listen to our conversation in the shack, but from what I’m feeling right now, I have a feeling that her parents will tell her to reconsider his relationship with me in the future.

I wonder if I should prepare a house somewhere other than here… right now it’s only Alexandra who comes to visit me, but there’s a possibility that there will be more in the future. In the social circles around here, there won’t be anyone who will talk to me any time soon, but there’s a high possibility that the number of people involved in various senses will increase in the future.

I wonder if I have to ask for help from Kruck Trading Firm again… for some reason, I feel like I’ve been relying only on Victoria since I was told not to rely on the power of House Carruthers. It’s not very good… Victoria is kind and she’s willing to help me with anything, but it’s not good if she’s just pampering me.

I have to think about not only my House but also my future…

Alexandra came to visit me and should have had a good time, but I’m worried about unnecessary things again. Today, let’s just rejoice that we hung out with Alexandra for today. I’ll start thinking about it again starting tomorrow.

T/N: One of my family members has tested positive for COVID and is symptomatic. It’s highly likely I’ve already been infected, but hopefully, the entire household being triple-vaccinated (2 doses plus booster) will make this as painless as it possibly can.

Still, be warned that updates may slow or stop until we’ve all tested negative for it, eventually.

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