CH 282

Now then, it’s been a long time since we’ve been home. My mansion in Caanburg is probably the main residence now, but this is still the place where I was born and raised.

“Welcome home, Flora.”

“Big Brother Georg! I’m back,” I said.

It seems that my brother came out to meet me because I informed him of my schedule in advance. Since there are also preparations for the House Servants, we had to inform them in advance of the places to visit and the times we expected to arrive. Even Manor Carruthers contacted us in advance on the day we would return.

If we could have, Mother should have been with me too… but I informed them that she went to the Kingdom of Polsky, no, to the Caan Knights Nation. Even my second brother, Georg, would know that.

“Um….. is Big Brother Friedrich also here?” I asked.

“Huh? Big Brother? No, he’s been out for a few days and hasn’t come back,” Georg replied. “I don’t know when he’ll be back. Did you have any business with him?”

“No, it’s fine if he’s not here,” I said.

There was no need for Friedrich. I didn’t want to meet him, so I just asked about him. And it would be convenient if he wasn’t here. Big Brother Georg is a good person, but I don’t get along well with Friedrich. I hate him, frankly.

He’s still my brother, so if I can get along with him, I’ll try to get along with him, but I don’t like his overbearing and condescending attitude. I don’t know how good of a man Friedrich is, but he doesn’t strike me as that good. I wonder if someday he’ll get a painful reprisal for his actions.

Big Brother Georg is too good-natured, or rather, I think he’s too shy. He would be unsatisfactory as the heir to a large noble House. Compared to that, Friedrich really feels like a high-ranking aristocrat, so he might be able to get along well with other aristocrats…… but I personally don’t like Friedrich very much.

I wonder what my father is going to do… there is no such thing as primogeniture or eldest son inheritance in the Kingdom of Prussia. Georg is in a country where it wouldn’t be strange for him to become House Head of Carruthers.

However, if I inherited it instead, it would be fine up to my reign, but if my descendants inherited it, it would become a female lineage. If the descendants of Georg and Friedrich are going to succeed me, then it’s fine as it will continue as a male line, but in that case, Friedrich and Georg should be the successors from the start, and there’s no reason to put me in the middle of this lineage.

The Kingdom of Ploiss is the same as Europe on Earth and doesn’t care if the female line succeeds and the dynasty or family line breaks off. But from my point of view, having Japanese common sense and sensibilities from Earth, replacing the lineage with the female line is the same as discontinuing the family lineage.

Well, it doesn’t matter what I think, so it’s okay. It’s true that I and Georg have the right to succeed, but Friedrich will probably succeed first. I already have my own territory and country, and Georg will be treated as a backup to Friedrich, terrible as it is to say it.

“Are you tired?” Georg said. “Come then, let’s not stay outside and head in instead.”

“Right,” I said.

At my brother’s urging, we enter the house. Once in a while, a calm day like this is not bad.

After spending the night at Manor Carruthers, I’m going out to inspect again today. In the end, Katharina came back yesterday without resting. It’s her parent’s house, and they’re talking about her brother’s marriage, so I wish she could have taken it easier…

Come to think of it, how are my older brother’s marriage prospects going? He’s old enough to get married normally. Georg lives at home, and he doesn’t have a wife living with him, so I guess he’s not there yet. Friedrich said that if he became the House Head, he would decide my marriage for me, so Friedrich may be thinking of using Georg’s marriage prospects as part of his political strategy.

I’m already a separate aristocrat, so I don’t have the right to say anything about it to Friedrich, but it must be hard for Georg. Yesterday I spoke with him for the first time in a long time, but he didn’t say anything in particular, but… I think he must have had many difficulties. I’m not in a position to interfere with House Carruthers’s affairs, so I have no choice but to ask him or my parents to do their best.

I finish my paperwork early in the morning, leave the house in the morning, inspect Carruzan for a short time, and then head to the canal construction site. I don’t have authority over Carruzan’s management, so it doesn’t make much sense to inspect Carruzan. At most, it is to the extent that we use it as a reference.

The only thing that bothered me a little was that Carruzan was not too… no, it’s fine. That’s a problem beyond my scope. I shouldn’t interfere in the ways of those who are taking care of things in my parent’s absence. One thing I can say is that I couldn’t find anything useful even after inspecting Carruzan.

That’s why I came to the Astal River. It seems that the original river will not be expanded yet. I wonder if this will also be included when the excavation part is over. Well, I’ve got the itinerary, but it’s still possible that it will change. It can change depending on the progress.

The area west of the original Astal River has been cleared and excavation has already begun. The excavated earth is piled up for canal embankments and towpaths. Of course, just piling up soil would cause it to crumble and break, so it was built from the ground up with wire netting and piled stones.

“Welcome, Lady Flora. Ah, no, would you prefer Lord Floto instead?” a man said as I was at the site.

“Kuh,” I huffed as he approached. “It doesn’t matter which one, Sigmund. It’s been a while.”

As I said before, Sigmund, who was one of my tutors, and now been hired as an adviser to House Caan. And I put Sigmund as one of the people responsible for the construction of this canal.

Sigmund was my tutor in History and Domestic Affairs, but he was originally a bureaucrat and a court noble, so it was convenient for him. The construction of the canal has support from the royal family and the kingdom. But that, conversely, means that negotiations with the royal family and the kingdom are also necessary.

Sigmund isn’t an expert in canal construction, but I’ve appointed him as one of the people in charge to make use of his past experience and knowledge. If it’s Sigmund, he’ll be able to get along well with the bureaucrats and court nobles of the kingdom, and since he was in charge of internal affairs, even if he can’t direct the construction himself, he’ll be able to help the construction go smoothly in other ways.

After that, I will meet with the superiors at the site, exchange greetings with the people dispatched from the kingdom, and then look at the site. Today, I plan to take a look from end to end, from the Dierbe River to the Welzel River.

I was a little worried about the labor force, regardless of the funds, but the work seems to be progressing smoothly with the support of the royal family and the kingdom.

As mentioned above, the revetment and the riverbed seem to be piled with stones instead of concrete. The reason is cost and resource issues. Sure, you have plenty of money, but that doesn’t mean you can spend unlimited amounts of money. If you can cut the cost, it would be better to cut it.

Besides, using Roman concrete means using resources. There is a limit to the amount that can be prepared here, which is not as mechanized and industrialized as modern Earth. I’m sure there are still reserves left untouched, but just digging them up and processing them to make them usable is a lot of work.

There is a lot of demand for concrete and other things, and if you can save money, you want to save it. It would be pointless if the canal immediately collapsed as a result, but it seems that there is no need to worry about that. Masonry would be fine if it had sufficient durability or service life.

This canal will be quite large because it is a premise that large ships will pass through it. It seems to be a battle with spring water because it is quite wide and deep. Excavation has already started, but if you dig deeper, water will spring up and it seems to be difficult.

On the first day, we proceeded from the Dierbe River’s side to the Welzel River’s side while inspecting, and decided to stay at an accommodation facility on the Welzel River’s side.

This lodging facility is for workers and site supervisors to stay overnight. If you go back to town one by one, sleep at home, and then come back in the morning, it will take time just to move about. That is why such facilities are secured near the site.

Of course, there was a maid who said it wasn’t suitable for me to stay overnight, but I can’t say that. Going back to town now would be a hassle and a waste of time. I have another visit tomorrow, so it’s better to stay here.

Of course, many of us are women, and it’s not like we’re sleeping in the same facility where the workers are sleeping. I don’t think there are any idiots who’ll try to attack us, but it’s not just a precaution, it’s a natural consideration.

When I wake up the next morning, I have breakfast and then show up for the morning meeting. Meetings are held at the site every morning and evening. It isn’t just talking to each other. In addition to confirming today’s work, we also discuss the balance with other places and future processes.

After participating in the meeting, go east again and go north on the way. I’m going to inspect the place where the reservoir is being made by branching off from the Astal River.

It would be nice if the canal continued to flow from one side to the other, but no, that’s not good either, but anyway, this canal is high in the middle and gets lower as it approaches both rivers. Therefore, water flows from high places to low places, keeping it from going in the opposite direction.

Water doesn’t flow all the time, I close the gate and manage it, but it’s not like a drop doesn’t cause it to flow out. Therefore, the water level is secured by using a wheel to fill up a reservoir from an upstream branch of the Astal River. Today, I’m going to inspect the reservoir over there.

After inspecting the fork of the Astal River and the reservoir, I return and spend the second night at an accommodation facility near there. I went upstream on the Astal River, so I’m back near Caanburg. I managed to persuade the maid that if I were to stay here overnight, I would go back to Caanburg tomorrow. Considering tomorrow’s schedule, it’s better to get back here today.

And on the morning of the third day, I returned to the canal and returned to the Dierbe River’s side. I looked around and could see that the work was progressing smoothly. After all, securing a labor force is important. At first, I thought it would be a big construction that would take 5 or 10 years, but the current construction plan is to finish it in 2 years.

I didn’t think that such a construction would be completed in 2 years without heavy machinery, but after all the power of numbers is amazing. Even if humans do it manually, most things can be done if sufficient numbers and time are invested into it. Even on Earth, past canals, embankments, flood control work, the Great Wall of China, and pyramids, we have successfully completed construction that would be difficult even in modern times.

“Why is the expansion of the Astal River postponed?” I asked Sigmund as we returned to the vicinity of Carruzan. It suddenly caught my attention just then.

“Oh, that’s right,” Sigmund said before he explained.

And I agree with his reason. If the Astal River were to be expanded, people would not be able to pass through it. The current bridge will also be demolished, and it will have to be expanded as well.

That’s why it seems that the new canal’s side will be maintained to some extent and a detour will be set up there. A detour will also be made for the Dierbe River, and after it becomes possible to detour from either side, the Astal River will be expanded.

That’s right. There are people coming and going across here. I wasn’t thinking about that. If you don’t prepare a detour first, some people will have trouble living out their lives.

Even if you prepare a detour, it still is more time to their usual route, and it will be inconvenient, but not even preparing a detour is out of the question. I just think about things on my desk, so I lacked that kind of perspective. After all, it’s no good just thinking about everything just from your desk. It doesn’t work. If you don’t get the people in the field to think about problems and accept their solutions, you’ll end up making an unexpected mistake.

I’ve returned to the vicinity of Carruzan, so I’ll be commuting to the site from Manor Carruthers for the next few days. I don’t have to force myself to go to another region. This office is in charge of everything, so you should show up there. If you have any problems, all the information will be collected here.

That’s why I went to the canal construction site for about 3 days to inspect, study, and direct.

The long vacation has already entered its 3rd week. I can’t just look at the canal forever. So I’m going back to Caanburg.

“Leaving already? Please do come back again,” Georg said as he showed me off.

“Yes. I will come to see you again before I return to the capital,” I replied.

It seems that Houses Royce and Reingen will still remain in Manor Royce at Carruzan. I heard that they will move to Helmut’s mansion in Caanburg after a little while.

But though the two families are still staying here, Helmut seems to be following me. Christa said she wants to stay with both of her parents and remain behind as well.

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Alexandra seems to have met with her mother Gabriella several times, but each time it seems to have been brief. She was soon back at Manor Carruthers. I also wanted to go and greet her, but Gabriella came over and greeted me, instead, so I didn’t visit Manor Lingerburg after that.

With one more than when we arrived at Carruzan, Helmut, we headed north by land and entered Caanburg. But… I feel like something is wrong with the town. It’s feeling less energetic than usual?

I haven’t heard of any particular problems. Is it by chance? I felt like the town had a strange atmosphere… but I soon found out why.

“What the? Flora? Why are you here?”

“Big Brother Friedrich…”

When I returned to Manor Caan, what I saw was Friedrich camping out in our garden, accompanied by roguish-looking ne’er-do-wells.