That a new environment could quickly change a man was true. Only six months ago Karl was still carefully trying to hide himself, clearly busy running away from trouble. But now, as an experienced project commander who had personally been in charge of several people, even his gestures showed some hints of him feeling in power. But what Roland appreciated the most, was that he was always still willing to accept the thoughts of other people.
Roland acknowledged his greeting with a smile, “Please sit, and come take a look at his.” He handed him some sketches that he had previously drawn, “You see, I need you to build something new for me.”
“This building looks like a warehouse. Well, building it with its base placed on stilts it would be safe against incoming floods,” Karl quickly swept over the first sketch and then turned to the second one and after looking for a while he asked, “Is this supposed to be a furnace?
“Yes, I need you to build more than five of these furnaces near the North Slope Mine, they will be needed to calcine the cement and to burn clay bricks. So, you have to find an empty spot which still has good transport channels and the area should be spacious enough so that we can still later build some more furnaces there.”
“I understand.” Karl now turned his view to the last sketch and immediately frowned after he saw it, “This… seems to be sewers? No, there is also a roof and walls… and the area behind it looks like a pond. Your Royal Highness, I seem to be unable to make sense of this.”
Roland laughed, “This is a toilet, and will also be your construction project of the highest priority.”
“A toilet?” Karl thought about it, “Your Highness, where do you plan to build them? For this, you already have chamber pots placed in your castle, and your attendants are responsible for cleaning them on a regular basis. Most of the villagers don’t even use them, instead, they are doing it directly outside of their houses,” Karl explained. “The same is also true for the serfs, which can directly discharge their filth into the Redwater River, and the river will then take their filth away.”
“Uh… bad habit?” Karl still didn’t seem to understand what the Prince’s meaning.
For a commoner who was accustomed to urinating at any place, it was naturally hard for them to understand, how beautiful a casual stroll could be without having to fear stepping on a landmine, Roland criticized privately. “Anyway, you only have to follow these sketches, I have already roughly marked their size, so you only have to use this distance. Within the vicinity of the wooden shed district, you should build at least four toilets, always two side by side. In addition, the wall in the middle of the ditch should be built out of brick, while the outside walls and the roof have to be built out of wood, like this you can save a lot of cement.”
“Your Highness, you want to build them side by side… that…,” said Karl slowly, evidently, he thought that talking about this dirty theme with His Highness was clearly degrading the royalty’s dignity. “But what should we do when they don’t use them?”
“I will issue orders which they will have to follow. You just have to build them; I will take care of the rest.”
“Alright if that’s the case,” Karl said, nodding his head. “There is another matter I want to discuss with you, Your Royal Highness.
“You may speak.”
“The mason’s guild was forced to disband and now there are many people like me, who all chose to leave King’s City. I would like to write a few letters to those masons who already know where I went and try to recruit them to Border Town. They all have their own area of specialization, for example, for the furnace, Lesya would be the best at it. However, Your Highness I do not know… ”
“That’s no problem at all,” Roland said immediately. ” I will recruit all the masons you’re able to attract, and they will be paid according to their experience and skills, and they will also have the possibility to enter the town’s hall.”
“Thank you for your generosity,” Karl bowed once more then he left.
When the mason had stepped out of the hall, Roland began to write down his plan for the managing the serfs and how he wanted to disband the slavery system.
Border Town’s population had already started to rapidly increase with no end in sight, but as long as they had to dependent on importing food, the town would be in jeopardy if a natural disaster was to occur or the road to the other cities was cut off. Therefore, in addition to increasing and developing industry, development in the area of agriculture was an even higher priority. Border Town had to achieve the level of self-sufficiency as soon as possible.
