CH 189

Yesterday was fun. Playing in the water with the girls and having “tee-hee, haha” times is exactly what I imagined for my youth.

As expected, I can’t let Christa get soaked, so I didn’t aim at Christa, but I think Christa enjoyed it as it was. Walking with Helmut while putting her feet in the river a little away from us, imitating us, and splashing a bit of water on Helmut… when I saw it, I felt something sweet and sour.

I don’t want to go out with guys, but it’s not so bad to watch people do it. No, if it was me in my previous life, I would have said, “I hope you explode!” or cursed them out. But yesterday I was also engaging in some “tee-hee, haha” fun times and intimacy myself, so I guess I was able to forgive Christa and Helmut for doing couple things.

Anyway, we got wet, and even though it’s the warm season, it gets cooler once the sun goes down, so we returned to Manor Carruthers before sunset. After that, everyone took a bath to warm themselves up, but I didn’t have time to play around.

After that, I was very busy listening to the reports of the surveyors who came back and making plans and budgets. I said I don’t have to attend the field survey, but I have to listen to reports, give advice, and make final decisions.

The official route hasn’t been decided yet, but after a rough survey, the tentative route has been decided. It was said that it would be possible to excavate the route and secure the construction zone. However, there are two big problems that come to mind immediately without thinking deeply.

First of all, as I said at the start, there is a height difference. If the newly dug canal is higher and the Dierbe or Welzel are lower, all the water in the canal will run off and it will just be a dug-out road. If there is a river or water source in a high place and a canal that connects to a low place, it would be relatively easy, but if the canal we are digging this time is higher than sea level, we will have to think about something such as securing a water source.

And it’s not as simple as saying that if the canal is higher than the sea level, why not dig deeper? For example, if one side is high and the other is low at the connecting part of the Dierbe River and the Welzel River, water will flow in and out.

If it flows out, the flow rate downstream will decrease, and if it is not done well, the river may dry up. On the other hand, there is a risk that the water level will rise and the riverside will be submerged. Connecting canals is not just a matter of digging and connecting them.

The second is the bridge. Digging a canal in a place that was originally connected to the land would cut off the land route. Of course, you’ll need a way to get across. Well, it’s true that we should build a bridge, but it’s not that easy.

First of all, as in Japan, it is very difficult to build bridges over rivers and canals where large ships pass. It is necessary to devise some way so that the ship must pass. There are two main measures. Either make the bridge very high or make it so that ships can avoid it when they pass.

Considering modern building technology and traffic efficiency, they often choose to raise the height of the bridge. But there are many problems with doing this.

The first thing that comes to mind is the problem of construction technology. I don’t really know how hard it would be to build a high bridge for ships to go under. I’ve never built a bridge before. But I can imagine that it won’t be easy. But it’s not just building bridges that’s the problem. There is also a problem with those who cross the completed bridge.

If you are a modern person, it may not be so obvious, but if you want to cross a high bridge, you have to climb it. In today’s world, all you have to do is step on the accelerator of your car. But can a carriage with heavy loads climb such a steep incline? Also, can you go down safely without brakes?

A human would be able to walk up even if it was a bit difficult. But it’s pointless if things like wagons that support distribution channels can’t cross. If it’s a shared carriage, there are times when customers get off and push the carriage up a slope. Even if a steep and high bridge is built in such an era, it cannot be used properly.

Moreover, sailing ships with high masts were the mainstream in this era. Unlike modern large ships that are shorter, the masts are long and stretch upwards. If the bridge were to be above them, it would be a very tall bridge for this era.

So what is the other solution? That is to make it a movable bridge. However, the movable bridge is not so easy.

First of all, lift bridges are useless among movable bridges. A lift bridge is a type of bridge that rises horizontally. As I said earlier, considering that sailing ships with high masts pass through, this means that it has to be lifted to the top. That’s too much-wasted effort and it’s hard to lift.

A swing bridge would be ideal. A swing bridge is, as the name suggests, a bridge that swings, that is, it rotates to open. The advantage of this is that if you open both sides of the bridge from the middle, you can get a wide area where the ship can pass, and there is no height minimum because there is no need for vertical clearance.

But moving the bridge itself will require a strong support structure that can withstand sufficient loads to keep the halves up. It also didn’t have a motor like it does today. The problem is how to get the power to move the bridge itself.

Is the drawbridge the most realistic? A drawbridge is also called a lift bridge, and the most obvious example is the one that is pulled by chains over a castle moat, as you’d often see in historical images. Such bridges often appear in anime and manga.

These are also built in the Kingdom of Ploiss to prevent enemy invasion. It is technically already in existence and has the highest possibility of practical application. On top of that, you don’t have to worry about the height because you can flip the bridge up. If there is a problem, is it the length and strength of the part to be flipped up, or the structure for flipping it up?

Drawbridges, such as those at the gates of the ramparts, are short and small. A weight is attached to the opposite side of the bridge to make it easier to lift.

However, if you want to open the bridge so that a large ship can cross the canal, the part to be flipped up will be long and heavy. You need a structure that can pull it up and a strength that can keep it up as long as you need it to be.

Of course, if you make it double-sided, the part that can be flipped up on one side will be half of the total length, but even so, the scale is different from the drawbridge that crosses the moat of the castle walls.

Well, first of all, there’s research and prototyping… it will take some time before the canal is dug and opened. Until then, there is no choice but to budget for research on several bridges and create a feasible model. In the worst case, it might become something like a ferry service across the water, but that would be too inconvenient.

It is very likely that ships will continue to grow in size in the future. It will also increase traffic. Ultimately, we may have to build a high bridge, but for now, we have no choice but to think about things that can be put to practical use.

That’s why I had a lot of meetings, thoughts, and advice after that. I didn’t just spend yesterday going “tee-hee, haha.”

Anyway, today is a spare day. I have 1 day left. I have a full schedule! I don’t think that there are days when I am free and say something like that. This is an important day.

In this country in this era of this world, it is more difficult to move on schedule. Carriages break down, horses get tired, things collapse and block roads, and many other terrible things happen. And unlike today, if a train is delayed due to an accident, it is not possible to travel by bus as an alternative transportation.

Our House Servants are excellent, so they maintain our carriages properly, and we don’t skimp on our budget, and if it looks like it’s going to break, we don’t hesitate to replace parts or commence repairs immediately. Horses are also being maintained so that they can change animals by building stations here and there. Some people patrol the roads and take measures against landslides and fallen trees.

And it’s just that people are working every day, so it’s been going smoothly without going off schedule. Still, there’s a good chance something might happen along the way. That’s why I set up a backup day to prepare for an unplanned accident. Filling up all the schedules and stuffing them so that there is no spare time is nothing but planning for disaster.

So today is a backup day in case there are any accidents or delays in the schedule so far, so the schedule is not packed. However, yesterday’s inspection seems to have been half done, so let’s use it to make up for the delay today.

“Today I am going to visit the farm and ranch that I was supposed to inspect yesterday,” I said. “What do you all think?”

“Ah! I want to go!” Louisa said. “I was able to meet everyone on the farm again, but there are still things I want to talk about!”

She’s quite eager to go. Farms and ranches are not so secret as to be strictly controlled locations. Well, how to make cheese and how to make fresh cream and butter are originally secrets, but Louisa works at a ranch in the royal capital, so there’s no point in hiding it from her.

“Is that shack still there? If you’re going there, I’d like to go with you,” Alexandra said.

“Ah… so let’s go over there, shall we?” I said.

Apparently, Alexandra wants to go to the place of memories of the two of us, the shack I used during the cultivation of Caanburg. That place is still maintained, so it should be pretty clean. There is nothing wrong with going.

However, if it were me, I wouldn’t mind taking everyone else to the place where we shared memories, but I wonder if Alexandra wouldn’t mind taking others to such a sentimental place. Well, Isabella and Helmut were together with me anyway, and even Kaspar has been here before, so it’s not like I want to hide it from others or keep it a secret.

“Then I should go too,” Claudia said.

“It can’t be helped. I’m coming with,” Mikoto said.

In the end, everyone’s coming… I thought so, but apparently not.

“I’m sorry. My brother and I aren’t free today,” Katharina said.

“Right… I understand. Then let’s just have Isabella and an escort,” I said.

I knew the reason without even asking. Katharina and Helmut will probably return to House Royce, to their parent’s house. Originally, today was a spare day for them, too, so I can’t force myself to have Katharina and Helmut follow us. Besides, I don’t need to go with a large group because I’m just going out there for a while.

“I’m sorry, Floto,” Christa said. “I’d also like a break for a little while.”

“Christa?” I asked.

She doesn’t have to accompany me, but I was surprised that she wouldn’t be going even though everyone else was going. Could it be that something is wrong?

“Are you feeling unwell? It’s been a series of journeys and trips so far, so maybe you’re tired?” I asked.

Let’s take a little look at Christa. Her complexion is good and she doesn’t look particularly tired. However, there will be pain and suffering that only the person themself can understand, so it is forbidden to overdo it.

“Don’t worry,” Christa said. “I’m feeling fine. I just have some errands to do so I’m leaving for elsewhere.”

“Is that so? That’s fine, but… please don’t overdo it, okay? If you feel unwell, tell me right away, okay?” I said.

It’s fine if you’re not really sick or tired, but if you can’t say it without hesitation, I just told you to tell me right away. It’s rude to say it too persistently, so I have to say it to a certain extent and then leave it to Christa’s judgment.

Well, Christa might have acquaintances in Carruzan, so she probably has something to do. If you only have escorts and guides, you can leave them free after that. In the first place, if there is a place you want to visit because you came for sightseeing in Carruthers and Caan territories, then you should respect the person’s intentions.

After removing Katharina, Helmut, and Christa from the usual set of faces, we headed north toward the farm. Today’s tour is really easy because it’s really just a little tour of farms and ranches. It’s not a hard job like yesterday’s pre-construction meetings or field surveys.

Children were still working on the farm, partly because we had gone in the morning. Everyone spends their time watching Louisa talking to the children during breaks.

After that, I headed to the ranch to see how the horses, cows, sheep, and other livestock were growing. After seeing the ranch, we headed to the shack before noon.

You’d think it would be a strange order of rotation. The ranch is the closest to Manor Carruthers. From there it leads to the farm and the shack is a little further into the woods. Why did you leave the farm first? The reason is for lunch.

I got some cheese and milk at the ranch I visited later. Using this to cook in the shack, was the reason to make such a detour.

As expected, it is a small shack, so it is not possible to cook such complicated dishes. What I made today is something like gratin. I think it’s probably quite different from the real gratin. It’s like using milk to make something like a white sauce, topping it with cheese, and baking it.

“So good!”

“Hot but delicious!”

“Fuuh, fuuh.”

“The cheese keeps dripping.”

Everyone was stuffing their cheeks with hot gratin-like dishes. Alexandra seems to be having trouble with the cheese constantly escaping her attempts to eat with elegance.

“What should we do in the afternoon?” I asked.

It’s already past lunchtime because it took a long time to prepare lunch. We spent the remaining half day playing around while discussing what to do next.