CH 187

Yesterday’s visit to Carruzan was very meaningful. It’s so good that Louisa is reunited with her childhood friends who are still in Carruzan and that she’s been able to unwind. I finish my morning routine as usual and talk about today’s schedule while eating breakfast with everyone.

By the way, my eldest brother Friedrich is not here. Apparently, he didn’t come home yesterday. In the first place, I have almost no memory of meeting my eldest brother. When I was young, I saw him training at the parade ground behind Manor Carruthers, but I don’t think I’ve seen him much since then. I wonder if it was a reunion after how many years since we met yesterday.

Anyway, that’s my plan for today. Today I have to go to inspect the river south of Carruzan. It’s not like today’s inspection is confidential and we can’t leak any information, so if anyone wants to accompany us, they can accompany us, but I don’t think we’ll be able to see anything interesting.

“I don’t think there’s anything particularly interesting, but what do you want to do?” I asked.

I explained the places I’m inspecting today and get their opinions. Of course, my parents and Gabriella will not accompany me like yesterday. Father, or rather, House Carruthers and Carruzan, have something to do with this, but they don’t need to go with me for today’s inspection, so they won’t come now.

“Of course, I’m going with you, Flora!” Mikoto said.

“Indeed,” Alexandra said. “I’ll be coming with, as well.”

I don’t think there’s anything interesting because we’re just going to see rivers and forests, but Mikoto and Alexandra seem to be going with me. I don’t have any reason to oppose it, but I don’t think it would be interesting to come…

“Then we’ll all hang out today,” Claudia said.

No, no, Claudia? It’s not like we’re going on a picnic… well, it’s okay to take some time and have a picnic, but…

“What will you do when we see the river?” Louisa asked as if it were so simple.

But, I can’t say anything specific yet. I have no problem going on an inspection tour with them, but what am I going to do? It’s still a secret about what we’re going to see and what we’re going to do.

“Well then, let’s have a picnic…” I said, “no, let’s hang out…”

Actually, I’m not going to go on a picnic, but I’ll follow Claudia’s idea and let everyone have a picnic. Then everyone can come and have a little fun.

Since it’s close by, I thought I’d check out the river to the south and then visit the farm north of Carruzan and the ranch near Manor Carruthers, but it’s a little impossible. If you plan to have a picnic, you need to prepare accordingly. I was planning to leave for an inspection right away, but I can’t leave right away because I have more preparations for a picnic.

“Then, everyone else will be coming with… please take a short break after we eat,” I said.

For some reason, Christa seemed to be looking forward to the picnic, too, so in the end we went out with the same members as yesterday. I’ll get everyone to rest and while I’m at it I’ll start preparing the picnic.

I don’t have to do it, but I make the lunch. The House Servants will prepare the sheet to be laid down and the awning. In the meantime, I make a quick and easy boxed lunch. From now on, I can’t do anything fancy. If there’s one thing that’s easy and perfect for a picnic… it’s this one.

While I’m arranging things that take a little time and effort, I quickly finish things that can be done easily. At first, I was going to make it a super easy dish, but when I made it, I ended up increasing the menu.

Much later than originally planned, I went to the south river for an inspection, and everyone went out for a picnic.

We leave Carruzan and head south. It wasn’t too far away, so I quickly reached my destination. A small river flows in front of us.

Well, even though it’s a small river, it’s not like the small stream that flows east to west in the north of Carruzan. To call this a river… well, it’s a river, but I don’t know what to call it… in modern Japan, it’s like a river that flows together with the sewage, bare on the ground in a small stream.

This river in front of us has a decent amount of flow and is quite large in scale. However, it is small compared to the Dierbe and Welzel Rivers.

It originates from Hexennacht and flows west of Caanburg and Carruzan from north to south before turning east down south of Carruzan to join the Dierbe River. Both Caanburg and Carruzan draw water from this river. The river that sustains the life of both cities is called the Aster River.

This is the point before the Aster River flows into the Dierbe River. We have come to a place where the flow changes to the east. The reason I came here for inspection is of course to excavate and expand this place as part of the canal.

The Dierbe and Welzel Rivers are not connected to each other. And the exits are also different. If the Dierbe River, which flows into the Hulk Sea, and the Welzel River, which flows into the Hermann Sea, can be freely traversed within our territory, it will produce tremendous effects. The candidate site for the canal that connects the two is the Aster River.

It is difficult to suddenly dig all the places where there is nothing and connect the Dierbe and Welzel Rivers. The impact on the environment will also increase. Therefore, excavation and expansion will be carried out using this part of the Aster River, which flows in the east-west direction, and also flows into the Dierbe River.

Of course, the Aster River is not connected to the Welzel River, so it is necessary to excavate a new channel from there. I thought that there would be various merits compared to digging up all the empty places. Above all, it has an important meaning in where and how to connect.

The waterway is the same as the road, and the choice of where and how to pass is very important. When building a road, you want to pass through somewhere that is as easy to travel through as possible. However, there is no point in just passing a road through a place where there is nothing to see on either side or on the way. Where it passes is also important. It’s the same with waterways.

Of course, connecting from Floren to Caanburg in the shortest distance has its own merits. However, considering the distribution and actual construction work, it’s from Floren to Carruzan to Caanburg. And if it becomes a major distribution channel that connects Caanburg to Lubek and Cien, there will be great benefits for both sides.

In that sense, the question is whether the Aster River can be expanded today. What should I do if I want to expand? I also came to inspect the channel from the Aster River to the Welzel River and whether it could actually be dug.

Have everyone accompanying me to enjoy a picnic, walk around the forest and watch the river. In the meantime, I discuss with construction specialists, master craftsmen, officials of House Caan’s related departments, budget matters, and so on.

First and foremost was the legal issue. I had House Caan’s Legal Affairs Bureau investigate, but there are no laws or rules regarding canal construction in the Kingdom of Ploiss. This is because there is no precedent for a local lord to independently construct a canal or redirect a river.

It seems that Ploiss has a history of building small-scale canals since ancient times. However, construction such as flood control, canal construction, and river replacement are all carried out by the kingdom as a national project. There is no precedent for a local lord to do it alone. Since there is no precedent, of course, there is no law about it.

It’s not as simple as saying that if there’s no precedent and there’s no law, just do whatever you want. This is not an issue that should be carelessly dabbling in because it concerns legal rights and obligations.

For example, in Ploiss, the authority of the lords of each region is extremely strong. Simply put, it is a sovereign state composed of a collection of independent nations. 1 And it’s not only Ploiss that has such a national system, but also any country in any era where rights and obligations are clearly defined.

To put it very simply, the residents who live there are obligated to pay taxes to the state and the Feudal Lord. However, as long as you pay taxes, you are guaranteed the right to live there and the right to be protected from invaders from other countries. In the same way, Feudal Lords are also obliged to pay taxes to the state but are granted various rights in turn.

Then, of course, there are also the rights of the state. In the Kingdom of Ploiss, even if Feudal Lords are on par with independent nations, the political center of Ploiss has diplomatic rights. Regarding the governance of the territory, the Lords have the same authority as an independent nation, but negotiations with foreign countries, AKA diplomatic rights, are the royals of Ploiss, and these Lords are obligated to obey them. There is such a thing as sovereignty and jurisdiction, and to go against them would be a rebellion against the Kingdom of Ploiss.

Considering that, if flood control work and canal construction were a “Right of the State,” House Caan is nothing more than a Local Lordship and could not do it arbitrarily. That the country has never sanctioned local lords to undertake such projects on their own is because it takes a huge amount of budget and effort that are beyond their means.

If I did not accept such a thing, you could say, “Right of the State makes this difficult, so I, as a local lord, will conduct a national project on my behalf.” or “Military Action will be difficult, so I will arbitrarily organize a national army on behalf of the country.” You end up admitting things like, “Let’s lead this country how we want to.” You can see that the country cannot easily accept such a “Substitute for the Right of the State.”

Hence, as far as Caan’s Legal Affairs has investigated, there is no precedent for local lords to build canals on their own, and no such law exists. However, there is no law specifying that it is the Right of the State.

Besides, even if you don’t understand the canal construction, you are allowed to use water. As you can see from the fact that Caan territory is fully equipped with water and sewage systems, the use of river water in the basin of rivers, in other words, the use of water and water intake is freely permitted. The government does not undertake the construction work for water intake one by one, and it can be done arbitrarily within the territory without the need for an application.

Of course, it is not permissible for each village to use the water without permission. If you want to draw water from the river to the village, you need to ask the Lord. It’s not written down, but judging from these, flood control is the Right of the State, water utilization is the Right of the Lord, and it’s the residents who actually use the water.

“I will be the one to ask His Majesty the King,” I said. “First, consider and confirm the route for constructing the canal.

Even if the construction of canals was the Right of the State, the Lord could carry out the maintenance of roads within the territory. Public roads, or so to speak, national roads are laid by the central government, but prefectural roads and municipal roads can be laid by us. In that case, there is no problem in proceeding with the “road maintenance” from the Dierbe River to the Welzel River.

It would be a waste of time to just wait until Wilhelm and Dietrich make a decision. In the meantime, it would be better to clear the forest to secure the route of the canal and start the maintenance of the surrounding area.

“Ah, and let’s proceed with the expansion of the Aster River around here,” I said.

Let’s proceed with the expansion of the Aster River south of Carruzan. Even if flood control work and canal construction were National Rights, Lords could make them local projects if they used water. The name is… well… shall we expand the Aster River to bring in the waters of the Dierbe River and build a farm to the south of Carruzan? In this case, there is no reason for the country to complain.

Well, I’m the Lord of Caan territory, not the Lord of Carruthers territory, so I don’t have the authority to decide the water usage of Carruthers territory on my own, but… there’s no problem with that because Father will probably allow it later. We will pay for the construction, but…

“Lady Flora! After conducting a field survey, the route was…”

“Lady Flora, regarding this construction method…”

“What about this…?”

Gab, gab, master builders and officials both gather. I don’t know even if they ask me something too technical. There are a lot of things to think about, such as height differences, work efficiency, and ways to keep construction costs down. The height difference is especially troublesome. In modern times, I think it would be nice to build a water lock but I wonder if this country’s construction technology can build a lock…

How to inject water into the lock in the first place? Draining is easy. Water flows easily to lower areas. But what about raising the water level? It is not possible to inject water with a pump like today. The old method would be to build a reservoir in the highlands and drain the water from there. But then you would have to build a reservoir. Besides, the amount of water in the reservoir is a problem.

It’s still good now. There will be little traffic of ships, and the hull is small. However, if the number of ships increases and the size of the water increases, a small reservoir will not be able to handle it. You can’t say the canal is impassable until it rains because the reservoir has run out of water.

The route hasn’t been decided yet, and I don’t know how much elevation difference there will be. But the more I think about it, the more problems there are… well, even in the history of the earth, canals have been built for a long time, so there’s nothing that can’t be done now…

It was a picnic morning on a long vacation day… and right now, I almost said, “I keep working but the work just never disappears.”