Chapter 64 (1/2)
Starting the next day, the dwarves of the Daroun clan began work with tremendous fervor.
But with that said, it's not like they immediately went straight to construction.
Some were tasked with surveying and confirming the exact topography between Jiiteias Castle and Senpu Village. Some began planning and listing the needed raw materials and tools, as well as drafting a plan for the transportation of said materials to the work site. And of course, then there were those drawing the actual architectural blueprints.
The dwarves proved to be far, far more sophisticated than humans in terms of civil engineering and metallurgy techniques. And they had overflowing pa.s.sion, attacking even the boring foundational preparations with seemingly bottomless energy.
When they showed me the list of tools that they were going to prepare, I even saw human-powered cranes and elevators that used pulleys and cogwheels.
Dwarves are freaking amazing.
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Even while the foundational preparation was going on, the Forest Giants were being utilized effectively.
In order to secure the necessary open s.p.a.ce for the safekeeping and transporting of raw materials, they were first tasked with clearing all of the nearby trees.
Huge trees wide enough to need several adults to encircle lasted no more than 3 minutes against these 8m tall giants and their gigantic axes. After the tree falls, it gets picked up by another Forest Giant, who quickly removes all the branches and turns it into a log. The more than 3m long roots left inside the ground are get mercilessly attacked with a pickaxe, following which a hoe immediately smooths over the gaping hole and makes the ground all even.
The logs and branches were naturally stocked up, to be used later as the castle's fuel source and also to build temporary lodgings for the workers.
I can just imagine how much flak we would get in modern j.a.pan for this amount of environmental destruction.
Incidentally, what I originally had in mind was just a plain, unpaved road. But due to the Forest Giants' incredible work efficiency and the dwarves' sudden increase in motivation, the plans were upgraded to an extravagant, two lane wide road with stone paving and even outfitted with drainage. It wasn't me who said to do this, they just up and changed it on their own initiative.
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”Oooi, Margils! Wizard! Take a look at this!”
Amongst all that, the dwarves brought a suggestion to me as the castle lord.
Apparently not satisfied with only building the road for the trade route, what they brought to me was a blueprint for a ma.s.sive scale reclamation of the area around Jiiteias Castle and the design of a surrounding town.
”This is quite grand indeed……”
I am mulling over the blueprints that the Daroun Clan Chief Valbo had laid in front of me with his face beaming with confidence.
According to these diagrams, a large area around the castle would be leveled, and on that ground would be built inns, residential homes, storehouses, and many other facilities. Of course, the entire area would be surrounded by a castle wall, and the castle itself would also be expanded by about 30%. The entirety of Mount Foresight would become a single fortress city about 10 times the current size of Jiiteias Castle.
According to the penned in numbers, the population capacity of this city would be 1,000 plus 500 visitors. The castle itself would be able to hold 500 soldiers.
”Uhaha! With those Giants as reinforcement, being unable to do this degree of work would get me beaten to a pulp by my ancestors!”
”I think it looks fine, but…… this project, how long and how much money is it going to cost?”
”The time would be greatly reduced…… It's good timing that the entirety of the Daroun clan isn't handling any large jobs at the moment. No more than 3 years! But the cost wouldn't get changed much, since we'd still need the same amount of stone and iron. Hmm, it'll be about this much.”
So saying, he spreads his thick, tough hand all the way open.
”500,000 gold coins?”
”Nah, 5 million.”
Umm…… this doesn't mean much, but if I were to convert it into yen, then it'd be 50 billion yen. Not that you can build a city in j.a.pan with only 50 billion in j.a.pan though.
But fact is, even I don't have that much money on hand in my Infinity Bag.
I cross my arms and wrack my brain about how this 5 million gold coins job can be achieved.
It's not really that I want to live in a huge castle, but the desire to develop my domain has already taken seed inside me.
”If would be great if a good stone quarry just conveniently happened to be found nearby, but……”
”...... Stone?”
A lightbulb went off inside my head at the dwarf's mutter.
Though it's another rule-breaking idea that any castle lord who built his castle in the proper way would shout abuse at me for.
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”By means of this spell, may there be a firm wall of stone before me of thickness 60cm, width 15m, and height 5m. [Wall of Stone]”
”Uoh!?”
Just like before, we are in the open area outside the castle. After my chant, a seamless wall made of pure stone appears before us.
Valbo is taken back for a second, but immediately dashes over to the stone wall and begins touching and slapping it.
”Ooh, this is good! It's a bit too hard, but there is no fault at all! Though it takes the fun out of it, the processing time would be greatly shortened, and there will also be no problems in regards to durability! Oi, how many stone walls like this can you create?!”
”I can't produce it infinitely, unfortunately.”
”Y-, yea I guess so…… But with only this amount, it wouldn't affect the overall—”