Chapter 50: CH 44

As this was the first time I heard about the water shortage in the capital, I was surprised to the point I failed to control my expression. It’s fortunate that no one pointed out my expression here.

As I was feeling relieved, Duke Seyfart continued his explanation, “ You see, the water supply can’t keep up with the population growth. But it will be an embarrassment for the government if they are unable to provide water for the citizens so all this time the government used mages and magical tools to the extreme so the citizens didn’t notice that the capital is short of water.”

“Even with that, it’s still hard for the poor and the people that live in the lower class districts to get any water.”

Then, His Highness added, “We need to protect the face (1) of this kingdom so getting water to the noble houses and trade points in the capital where foreign merchants come and go is the priority. As such, many nobles didn’t notice anything. Though your father, now about this.”

(Note: face here means dignity.)

Ah, since as the Minister of Ceremonies, Father knows how important the kingdom’s face is. I see. It’s true if the news of the capital’s water shortage reaches the ears of the merchants, the news will spread to other countries. Wait, does that mean I’m no good since I don’t notice anything!?

“This water shortage has been one problem for the kingdom to accept the refugees. If 5000 people worth of water is given to the refugees even only temporarily there won’t be any water left for the citizens of the capital.”

“Really, it would be better to just hurry up and throw the refugees to the nobles.”

Your Majesty, your words are too blunt! Anyway, the reason that His Majesty’s face is bright is that he finally found a way to solve the water shortage.

Still, to think that I never noticed that the capital had had a water shortage for years. I deeply feel my lack of knowledge. Even if it’s something that the kingdom purposely tried to hide, as a noble, I should’ve realized that something is amiss.

That’s enough reflection. It’s not the time for me to feel down.

“Minister of Works, research the maximum height difference that can be applied to Viscount’s Zeavert technology. You will not have time to sleep for a while.”

“As you wish. I know that I will not be getting any sleep, Your Majesty.”

Your Majesty, do you know that your words infringed the employees’ rights? Well the right itself didn’t exist though. Working until you lack sleep might be common in this world, since the knights I’ve interacted with before also seem to not be getting enough sleep, especially when they are busy discussing military affairs.

His Highness continued His Majesty’s words, “Director of Waterways, create an aqueduct drawing plan that incorporates Viscount Zeavert’s technology. No need to change the aqueduct’s basic structure. Complete the plan in 3 days,” 

“Understood.”

3 Days!? That’s my initial reaction but after thinking about it more, that’s not unfeasible. The Director only needs to draw some modification since the capital’s water and sewage system is already complete. The technology of the water system of this world is pretty good after all.

You need a precise calculation to build an aqueduct. That calculation depends on the length of the aqueduct, especially if it’s a gravity-flow water system aqueduct. Even in Rome, the longest water system is only 10 km with 2 meters height difference, so creating a drawing plan to build an aqueduct from Krumsche to the capital from scratch in 3 days is partially impossible. But as the Director seems to be confident in completing His Highness’s order, the research to transport water from Krumsche must have been going on for quite a while.

It’s best to leave this kind of thing to the specialists so I won’t interfere, or rather I hope no one asks me to interfere.

Still, I wonder if the water shortage is more serious than I thought. Because of the tax yields, the kingdoms know the number of the populations but since the data about the family registry isn’t open to the public so I don’t know the rate of population growth in the kingdom.

“Viscount, I wish you can offer this technology to the royal family. Of course, you will receive proper compensation.”

In short, ‘hand it over to us.’ No, maybe it’s closer to ‘present it to us’. I do understand their position. In order to keep the power balance, the royal family won’t want a single noble to monopolize this kind of convenient technology.  Before long, I’m sure other countries will copy it though.

In this world where patents didn’t exist, you can’t complain if others copied your work. But it’s a different story if your work has a ‘license’ from the royal family. This kind of work can’t just be recreated as you please. Plus, the word ‘compensation’ is quite tempting not to mention that if it’s the royal family then it is easy for them to take away the technology by force

From now on I need to make preparations for the future. I can just think of the compensation as a budget, a.k.a my temporary income for the sake of those preparations. Hmm…Yup. It’s more beneficial for me to just obediently hand it over to the royal family.

“I humbly accept your kind offer.”

“Thank you, Viscount. Duke, be prepared for a change in the number of people that will be deployed for the refugees.”

“Yes.”

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“Good work, you two. You both may return.”

“Thank you very much.”

Because of Dreax, the kingdom can’t just decrease the number of people that protect the capital so it makes sense for the number of people that will be deployed for the refugees’ mission to be the one that is being decreased instead.

With His Majesty’s permission, I and Duke bowed once and left the room. On our way through the endless corridor to return to the meeting room for military affairs, the Duke suddenly says, “sigh… it’s troublesome for the number of people to decrease in this kind of mission but what can I even do…” 

“Pardon me, is it alright if I offer a suggestion?”

“Hm?”

I conveyed my plan simply to the Duke. I think that it might be hard for the knights of this country to accept this kind of plan, yet, after putting his hand on his chin while thinking for a moment, the Duke nodded.

“As the situation is quite urgent and the knights that will be the center of this mission are knights from the various noble houses, not the kingdom’s knights, I can consider your suggestion. Submit it in an official proposal letter to me.”

“Understood.”

Well, the kingdom’s knights are probably going to be the guard for aqueduct construction, so who else but the nobles’ knights can be deployed? It’s a good thing if my suggestion can be accepted. Though that also means I will burn the midnight oil tonight to write the proposal.

Since this is a good opportunity, though it might be a rude question, I asked the Duke about how the fountains in the palace are operated.

“The fountains used a magic pump to rise up.”

Unexpectedly, it was done by brute strength.

“It’s one of the royal court mages’ duties to pour mana into the 38 magic pumps that are used to pump water from the underground water wells to the entire palace, once in the morning, once in the afternoon as well as checking if there are any abnormalities to the pumps.”

…The daily job of the royal court mages is unexpectedly boring… I guess it’s not like they trained their magic 24/7.

Also, it seems like the reason there are almost 40 different pumps working together is that the waterworks system used to pump water for daily activities like cooking or laundry can be differentiated from the waterworks system used for the inner palaces and the garden. I mean it’s going to be a problem if one pump malfunctioned causing the water in the entire palace to stop flowing or to overflow.

In the case of the overflowing, apparently, it was caused by the imbalance of mana distribution. This will happen once in a while when several magic stones are used in the same place. I never knew that. It seems like my knowledge about magic stones is still lacking.

There’s this story that’s not widely known. It was said that in the past, a king beheaded a person in charge of the palace water system because the palace’s courtyard was submerged in water and one of the king’s favorite concubines’ precious flower beds was submerged along with the courtyard…That’s not a laughing matter!

What the heck is this scary dark history of the royal family!?

“Other than pumps, the royal court mages are also responsible for the magic lamps that are used throughout the palace.”

Duke, you seem to be having fun telling that to me. I mean the unexpected twist of the glorious royal court mages’ boring job is kind of funny. I think my impression of them showed in my face. Just how many lamps did the mages have to check every single day? 

“Including the spare lamps and lamps that are used for the night patrol, there are about 100 lamps.”

“Whoa…”

Is my face that easy to read? It’s kind of creepy so Duke, can you not answer my question before I even asked it!? Anyway, to think there are that many magic lamps in the palace, no wonder the trade of magic stones in the Adventurer’s Guild is booming.

I wonder if the legendary Babylon sky garden also has magic pumps and mages… The number is so unreal that I ended up thinking about a completely unrelated thing. But wait, if this world’s battery, a.k.a magic stones disappeared can this world even survive?

Just thinking about that makes me feel tired and I don’t even want to know these things!

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