CH 136

Meanwhile, Marcus, who didn’t seem to be nervous at all, raised his hand and opened his mouth with a relaxed attitude.

“Hey, ojou-san. It might be late to ask now, but why was I also called here? I don’t think I’ll be able to understand any difficult conversation here, you know?”

Both Lars and Firth who sat beside him looked at Marcus with widened eyes.

For both Lars and Firth, whose complexion paled because they were too nervous, Marcus’ frank attitude that was no different from his usual state despite the presence of the highest peak of the silver stars was something astonishing for them.

“It’s okay. You can just ask every time you don’t understand something.”

The discussion with the students was scheduled for about half an hour.

Sophie had no intention of speaking about difficult topics, as she only wanted to make them understand why she was granted the purple star and why she came to “The King’s Sword” to the three.

Most of the students in “The King’s Sword” didn’t know exactly what task required Sophie to come to that academy. However, since the document Sophie submitted at the flower festival was kept confidential, the details weren’t explained to them yet. However, Sophie had no intention of ordering them around while they had no idea what they were trying to achieve. That was why she intended to hold the general explanation in this place.

“My apologies, Lorenzo-sama and Nert-sama, but I’ve been ordered by His Highness to promote the growth of them, the next generation. I’m sorry to take your precious time away, but I beg for your understanding and explain along with me.”

“Please don’t mind it.”

Lorenzo replied with a cool smile, but his gray eyes behind his silver-rimmed glasses seemed to say, “Then let me enjoy it as well.”

As expected, I can’t let my guard down against him, just like with the Golden Lion, thought Sophie with a stiff smile.

As Sophie stood up to be more enthusiastic about it, she gave a lady’s greeting to the people there. At the same time, she also greeted the group that came along with her with a clear voice and entered the main subject.

“I have received a command from His Highness this time and received the extraordinary honor to realize it. His Highness gave me one command: allow everyone to be able to drink the water in this nation safely.”

Lars’ group, who had no idea of the content of the task Sophie bore, were dumbfounded for a moment before muttering, “Water…?”

“Yes, water. —Water is indispensable in human life. Without water, humans can’t survive. If one didn’t drink water for just a day, their body would rapidly lose its water content and cause dehydration. Once that happens, the body would generate a fever and if it went to a severe degree, they might even die. That’s how important water is to humans.”

Humans can’t survive without water.

At the words Sophie said, she recalled the childhood of her previous life.

Were it not for the water flowing in that mountain, Tasuku might have died back then. If he died like that, even if Tasuku still reincarnated as Sophie with the memories of her previous life, Sophie was sure she wouldn’t be here right now. When she thought that, she felt like smiling.

Sophie was glad she didn’t die back then.

Sophie continued to explain while thinking that.

“In our nation, the water of the Orte River is pumped and supplied. However, the quality of water obtained is definitely not good. The only measure applied at the moment is the sewage is drained downstream through a sewage ditch, but that would only treat the sewage temporarily and it couldn’t be considered sewage treatment at all. If the sewage is not cleaned and is discharged into the river, the organic substance contained in the sewage water would cause water pollution, creating foul odors and spreading infectious diseases. Collecting all the sewage, including that from the slum regions, then sending them to the sewage treatment facility for purification is the purpose of…”

Sophie stopped explaining there because Marcus already had an expression that said he was already at a loss at what Sophie was talking about. Rather than not understanding the topic, it was more that he had a hard time understanding due to the jargon that Sophie used to explain.

Lorenzo, who sat next to Sophie, gave her a smile.

“Sophie-sama, you are the purple star. There is no need for you to be considerate toward us. You can just use the tone you use between you students when explaining the situation.”

It might have been the pleasantries of an adult, but Sophie still said her thanks and chose to accept his words.

“Basically, we don’t want to flush dirty water back into the river, but clean it first before doing that!”

The moment Sophie used casual tones to explain, both Lars and Firth were finally released from their nervousness and sighed in relief. Beside them, Marcus was tilting his head.

“Is it necessary to clean it?”

“That’s right. If we keep flushing dirty water, won’t the river eventually become dirty as well? The dirty river would eventually kill the fishes and aquatic insects that live there and start to stink. Anyone who drinks such water would get sick. I want to prevent that. And if sickness becomes widespread, the first to suffer would be those at lower statuses.”

Marcus’ lips distorted at Sophie’s last sentence.

His parents passed away due to illness. In this world, where medical care wasn’t developed, a serious illness was hard to be completely cured once contracted.

“I don’t want such a future to happen to this nation. That’s why I want the dirty water to be cleaned first before returning to the river. The water drawn from the river is also to be cleaned first before drinking. I want to establish such a system.”

“You want to do something to the pumped water too? Then wouldn’t it be okay to not clean the water when it is flushed into the river? We can just clean it before we drink.”

“That’s not good. It only has meaning if both are done. Not only doing one side isn’t enough, cleaning dirty water is hard, you know?”

“But neither is done at the moment, right?”

From Marcus’ perspective, he wondered why such a necessary measure was never done until it was mentioned now. Sophie thought a little then answered with, “You’re right. I also think our nation’s capital is better terrain-wise compared to the cities of other nations.”

“Terrain-wise?’

“The Orte River that flows in the capital brings water from the mountain, right? Unlike a river from the plain, a river from the mountain flows faster due to height difference. Due to the faster flow, it is harder for things to stagnate in the river. However, if we consider the fact that the population of Orlando Kingdom keeps increasing annually, the benefit of nature alone is already at its limit. Don’t you find things stagnate in the water terribly on days without rain?”

“Ah… You’re right.”

Marcus frowned as he remembered the stagnation of the dirty water during the dry season.

“As the population grows more and more and the industries develop, the water will grow dirtier. That’s why we have to put a stop to it now or else the damage will only increase. Besides, this is not something that can be done immediately in a few days. It will require large-scale construction and facility maintenance after all.”

When Sophie explained that much, Nert, who had been silently listening until now, opened his mouth.

“Um, Sophie-sama. Pardon me for interrupting your conversation…”

“Yes?”

“I’m certain the plan that Sophie-sama wrote about only involved sewage treatment and it didn’t mention anything about the treatment of pumped water, right?”

Nert only heard about the sewage treatment beforehand.

Nert looked at his superior Lorenzo because he never heard about pumping water treatment beforehand, but Lorenzo didn’t seem to be surprised about it in particular. Looking at him, Lorenzo seemed to have heard of it in advance, which made Nert’s complexion pale.

“P-please wait a moment. Due to the balance report of national expenses regarding the construction and management cost, it’s not possible to combine the sewage and pump water into a single report… but is there a budget estimate for the pumped water treatment?”

“It’s in the documents I passed to you earlier. That’s just the guideline for the annual cost, though.”

It was something that was passed to the two, and the three students didn’t receive it. Sophie was planning to explain that matter after Lars and others left the room.

A/N:

I wanted to avoid writing about technical terms as much as possible, but there are tons of explanations in this chapter. It might make readers feel weird that the expected chapter update only contained this, so I will do my best to update another chapter tomorrow. ( ;∀;)