216 Trouble in Paradise (1/2)
All this time, Corco had held dreams of city simulations. Now that his dream had finally come true, he understood the harshness of reality.
”No, King Corco, so far progress has been slow. Despite our best efforts, there have been some significant problems in the construction of the new sewer system. Even now, barely any progress has been made, especially close to the Mayura River. Thus, the workers are far behind schedule and will not be able to finish as planned.”
His whole body a puddle of sweat, Wasikato the architect stood in front of Corco's desk inside the king's studies. As he explained his difficulties, a constant shiver governed his hands.
Back when Corco had taken over Saniya, he had given Wasikato, together with a number of other architects, control over the infrastructure planning within and around the city. After all, he himself had been too busy to handle these matters himself. He had only given them rough plans and left them to build houses and roads, comparatively easy projects they could plan and complete with their previous experience alone. However, now that he was back and in demand of more advanced building projects, things were going less than smoothly.
”So what's the problem?” Corco asked with a frown.
”For one, the soil around the river bank is too... soft and there is too much water in the soil this close to the Mayura River and the Verduic coastline. We have found that carving out a hole below the city's roads is quite the challenge. There have been multiple attempts in different places, but all of them have collapsed after only a few days. This mortal's own project lasted five days, but sudden rainfall washed away the dirt and loosened the pillars we had erected inside. At least the incident happened at night, so none of the valuable laborers were lost. We cannot even consider building below the city until we manage to solve this issue.”
As it turned out, playing city simulator in real life was a lot less fun than on PC. He couldn't even set off a volcano or death robot whenever he felt frustrated. The whole thing was a wash. Corco's head began to hurt as he thought about all the lost man hours, as well as the waste of money it represented. At least Wasikato valued the lives of his workers, though maybe only because they were irreplaceable cultivators doing forced labor.
After he had spent a good ten seconds to probe the recesses of his brain for a solution, a concept dimly entered his mind.
”You can't put in any rods to stabilize the soil?” he asked, his mood brightened by the sudden inspiration.
”How... how would that work, exactly?” a nervous Wasikato asked. ”Excuse this mortal, King Corco, but this is a technique that is unknown to this lowly one.”
”Well, you know?” Corco asked as if everyone would. ”If you stick a bunch of metal rods into soft soil, the soil compacts and the friction... improves stability? I think?”
The king's presence disappeared into his own world while he tapped his upper lip to jog his memory. Meanwhile, his attendant who had sat to the side in silence all this time entered the conversation to help out the architect.
”Since Master Wasikato is unaware of this phenomenon, it would be best to do some experiments,” Fadelio finished Corco's thoughts, before he turned towards Wasikato. ”Master, you have permission to use the testing beach on Chukru Island. There, you should create a small-scale model to test out this phenomenon before using it on a grand scale. We should also install some pumps inside Saniya like we have done along the Mayura, to lower the water table along the river banks.”
”Yeah, that seems like a good idea, huh?” Corco said after he had returned from his own world again. He was thankful that Fadelio had brought them back on track, but his trip down memory lane still had yielded some results. Thus, he turned towards Wasikato and added some requirements.
”Anyways, if you're building below the city, don't forget to leave plenty of room for future infrastructure. Several different pipes and cables will run below the city in the near-ish future, so it'd be best to prepare early, right?”
”Of course, King Corcopaca,” Although he was visibly confused, the architect still affirmed the king's request.
”Later I'll give you details on how much room to leave in what places. I'll write you a little checklist, so just stick to it.” Rather than force the architect to understand why they would have to future-proof the city, or what that would even mean, the king would simply instruct him to do as ordered. At the moment, he was the king's contractor after all, and the customer was always king.
”Very well.” The architect sounded obedient, but his legs shuffled back and forth on the expensive carpet to show his discomfort.
”If there aren't any other problems, you can go now,” Corco said and waved towards the door.
”Well,” Somehow, the architect managed to look even more troubled than before, but he still continued after Corco impatiently motioned him to go on. ”This servant has looked at King Corcopaca's new plans for the city, and... not to sound too forward, however...”
”Yes, you're allowed to talk. Rather, I'd prefer insults and curses over whatever this is.” Corco waved in Wasikato's vague direction to encompass the man's indecision. Somehow, the architect amassed enough composure to get out his concerns.
”To be honest, the roads planned for the city just seem excessive, both in scale and volume... at least to the eyes of this humble, incompetent architect.”
”That's because you're lacking imagination.” Corco turned and looked towards Fadelio. ”What's our current population, around fifteen thousand?”