CH 234

A few days after adding to and changing the road construction plans, today I have to go to the royal castle before going to the site.

Originally, highway maintenance was the responsibility of the Feudal Lord, and it was both an obligation and a right. It can be said that if the lord does not properly lay down the road, it is the people, the merchants, and in some cases, the kingdom’s and the royal family’s obligation to scold them for it. But at the same time as it is an obligation, it is also a right not to be violated by others.

A Feudal Lord must properly govern his territory, pay taxes, and maintain roads. But on the other hand, they have the right to open up towns and build roads within their territory.

Now I am trying to violate that right. I was trying to lay a highway to the royal capital that crossed into the royal domain. It is a violation of another person’s rights. So we need to talk before we get into trouble.

Actually, I don’t have much free time to come to the royal castle, so if I could send even send just a letter, I would like to do that, but as expected of trying to infringe on another party’s rights, I can’t just end things with a single letter. It doesn’t make sense unless you at least meet face-to-face and talk.

“Please wait here for a while,” a royal castle guide said after seeing me in.

“Thank you,” I replied.

When I told him that I wanted to stop by the royal castle on my way home from school and meet the King or Dietrich, I was guided here. If we can’t meet right away, it’s fine if we can meet later, but… I have to go to Charlottenburg, so I don’t have much time to relax here.

“I heard that you were coming, Flora…?”

“Your Majesty King Wilhelm, I hope the day finds you well,” I said.

And after a while, Wilhelm arrived in the room, I stood up and greeted him. Dietrich also followed after him, so after I greeted Dietrich next, the three of us sit around the table and took a short tea break.

“Now then…” Wilhelm said, “shall we ask about the business you have with us today?”

As usual, after drinking tea and chatting a little, it’s time to bring up the main subject. I’m not free either, so I just want to get things done quickly! I can’t help thinking that, but I’ve been really busy lately, so it wouldn’t be bad to take a break like this for a while.

“At once,” I said. “In truth, I would like to build a road to Charlottenburg.”

“I heard in your previous report that it will connect to the nearest highway?” Dietrich interrupted.

Originally, I reported that it would be connected to the nearest existing highway, as per the construction plan. This is because the royal domain must be intruded on to directly connect Charlottenburg to the royal capital. But this time it’s a little different than last.

Asking for permission to connect to an existing highway is something that must always be done when laying a new road. So it can be said that this happens all over the world. When laying a new road and connecting it to an existing road, if the Lord of the connecting road is different from the Lord that wants to lay down a new road, discussions will be held.

If the connection point is extremely long, both parties will discuss and decide the burden ratio and if they will be able to complete the construction. The other party wants to connect to the highway, so they may tell you to invest 100%, or they may tell you they will lay the part that passes through their territory, then you can lay the rest yourself once it crosses into your land.

It is a discussion between the two, and there is no fixed solution. However, as far as the precedents are concerned, in most cases, if the distance is short to some extent, the person who wants to establish a new connection bears the full cost. No Lord would want to spend money on roads laid by others.

In the case of long distances, the story will change again, so I’ll leave it aside, the first planned connection to the highway was a short distance through the royal territory, so we planned to just contact them and lay it out at 100% of the cost to us. But if you change it and connect to a straight line than a detour, the matter changes.

Under the revised plan, a significant portion of the total extension is within the royal domain. In this case, it cannot be said that it is a connection to the existing highway from Charlottenburg, and the conditions will change. As a result of the investigation, it seems that this case will be classified as the construction of a new main road from the royal capital to Charlottenburg.

I’m not going to say anything about the classification of construction in the Kingdom of Ploiss or why it’s like that. However, if I wanted to pass a direct road to the royal capital as it was, this was not just a connection construction, but I had to discuss it properly with the other owner, the royal family.

That’s why I came to the royal castle at this time even though it’s been several days since I decided to change the plan. First of all, we had to change the design and reconfigure the partitions, and then check the precedents to confirm what to do in this case, so it took this much time.

First of all, I will briefly explain to Wilhelm and Dietrich what will happen in terms of changes, precedents, and legal interpretation.

“Hmm… does this mean the royal family will have to shoulder part of the construction here?” Wilhelm asked.

“No, we will do the construction ourselves,” I said. “To be honest, the surface of the old highway is terrible, so we decided to build a new one instead. Also, considering the finish of the road surface, if it wasn’t our House’s work, we would just go out of our way to build a new one, so there is no point in resurfacing the old road. Therefore, we will prepare the cost and workers. However, in order to lay it out, we would like to obtain permission from the royal family, who rules this territory.”

Certainly, both in terms of precedent and legal interpretation, the royal family should lay down a new road in their royal domain. And that’s why it’s not so easy to create a new highway. If you are told to build a new highway without permission due to the convenience of the other party, you will have to bear the portion that crosses into someone else’s territory. The other party may get profits by laying down the highway, but there are few people who want to spend money on unnecessary construction to the point of hurting their pockets.

In reality, the construction of highways will increase the convenience of transportation, and there will be benefits such as increased distribution and peddling, but there are not many people in this era who can think about such things and make such drastic policies.

And from our point of view, the roads laid by other Lords are so bad that it seems that there is no point in spending time and money to improve them. Our roads don’t make carriages shake even if you throw them headlong at full speed, and even if it rains, water doesn’t accumulate and the undercarriage doesn’t get dirty from mud and splashes. I want a road like that, and if it’s terribly surfaced and muddy, there’s no point in paying a lot of money to resurface it.

“Officially, the royal family is laying out a new road, and you’ll let me finish the construction. I will bear the labor and expenses,” I said.

This does not mean that you can do whatever you want because the other party will pay for it from the start. You should be able to understand at least that it is not acceptable for the other party to hire a construction contractor at their own expense and have them work on another person’s territory without consequences.

Of course, if the land is shared between two individuals, for example, if one person’s home is located in the back of another’s home, one must always pass through the land of another, and you have the right to build a path to access it. If you ask them to let you shoulder the cost of construction by yourself, you may be able to get that permission.

But when it comes to Feudal Lords, if you pay for it, why not don’t you just do it all on your own? They won’t allow it. Allowing someone else to take full control over construction in their territory, even if the other party pays for it completely out of pocket, is the same as having their rights violated.

Otherwise, requests such as, “I will pay to build a town here.”, “I will pay to build a factory here.”, “I will pay to build a warehouse here.” “I will make it on my own.” will all pass thanks to the precedent. If it’s alright because the other party pays for the expenses, it means that everyone with the means is allowed to do as they please on your land, and it will develop into a problem instead of a benefit just because someone else is footing the bill.

“Hmm…” Wilhelm said, “then let’s do this. Regarding this new road, we will let House Caan build it. And there, we will have our engineers and craftsmen learn new road construction techniques from them. For this reason, House Caan will take the lead for the sake of sharing their technology and techniques. That way, we’ll be able to suppress opposition from the surrounding territories.”

I see…. well, fine by me. Considering that the roads in various places will be neater in the future, it won’t hurt even if our paving methods are leaked. Regarding road construction technology, rather than keeping it a secret, it would be better for the country to distribute it better, and as a result, profit would come back as you do business and trade.

I didn’t intend to hide it from the start, and if I can sell that info for a high price, then all the better. It’s probably just the right time. I don’t think I can sell road construction technology any higher than this, and I don’t think there’s any demerit to selling it at this rate.

“Understood,” I said. “Then let’s teach the construction method to the royal family’s engineers for this new highway construction.”

“Ooh! I see!” Wilhelm said. “Then it’s settled. Let’s work out the details with Dietrich.”

“Indeed. First of all…” Dietrich said.

Now that his turn has finally come around, he began to speak enthusiastically. In the end, the conversation with the king and company took longer than I expected, so I didn’t have time to go to the construction site. However, one issue was resolved because the highway rights conflict was settled. I have a lot of other things to do, but it’s nice to get at least one thing done.

After I went to the royal castle and settled the matter of laying down the road, I started construction work on the plateau in a good mood. Since the clearing teams of the lower village is all finished, the workers will dig up the ground and construct the underground facilities.

The changes to the highway affected the ground leveling and infrastructure planning, but several proposals had been put forward before they started digging sure paths, so we could have avoided big confusion over the change.

The planned construction period for the palace and mountaintop fort is only 2 years. It will take longer to complete the entire town. However, the palace, the surrounding government buildings and aristocratic districts, and the major parts such as the commercial district, industrial district, river port, etc., are to be completed at the same time, after the palace is unveiled.

As for towns, the residents build their homes themselves, so the plots are sorted out so that people can live in them, but whether they are residents or merchants, who will live where and when, and how they will build the buildings, we do not control. We will make decisions about residence and construction permits, but we will ask the residents, warehouses, and factories to work hard on their own.

After working hard at the construction site today, I listened to the reports after returning to the Carruthers Residence. These days, meetings are held after dark. I want to work as much as possible during the day, so meetings and consultations that can be done even after the sun goes down will be held then as much as possible.

“There is a little problem with the Havel River,” one of the experts said.

Suddenly, troublesome news came. I thought that using the Havel River, which is connected to the Dierbe River, would make it easier to travel to and from the Caan Knighthood, but it seems that it won’t be so easy.

“First of all, there are several places where the water is shallow, and there is a risk that not only large ships but also medium-sized ships will run aground. There are also places where there are obstacles in the way and it is difficult to pass.”

“I see……”

Well, I guess this is just to be expected. If there are medium and large ships coming and going at the moment, I should have known about it long ago. Small ships with shallow drafts can pass through, but large ships with deep drafts have difficulty navigating.

“Draining the riverbed, widening the river width, and replacing the bridge would require a considerable amount of money, labor, and time,” the expert said. “Even if it’s possible, just replacing the bridge will be a bit of a hassle.”

“Hmm…” I said.

Even if we can’t make it in time for the opening of the town of Charlottenburg 2 years from now, we won’t be able to secure the waterway if we don’t move forward with the construction work. It will take time and money, but I can’t help it.

“Since river construction was also stipulated during the canal bill, it should be fine to modify the river,” I said. “The problem is replacing the bridge…”

Bridges are still important. As the word “bridgehead” suggests, a bridge also has great military significance. If the royal family or a new Lord like me meddles with a bridge that is important both in terms of distribution and military, it could cause a backlash from the Lords along the river basin. On the other hand, if we leave it as it is, we will not be able to secure the waterway no matter how long it takes, and it will be a problem.

I’m not going to pull up a galleon here, but I need a small ship that can load a lot of cargo and weight and is fast. In addition to the construction of rivers and bridges, it may also be necessary to develop new medium to small ships…