Chapter 159: Sweetness in the Air (2)
“It’s about the seventh operation in the east, Your Majesty.”
In the most luxurious and secretive conference room of the Magentano palace, Sir Elkamo read down the report with fierce eyes.
“First of all, Your Majesty, the previous operations focused on defeating the monster herd that caused damage in the eastern region, but the latest one concentrated on sweeping the remaining monsters in the areas that we have defeated.”
“And?” asked Queen Magentano.
“We have eliminated the remaining monsters in parts of the Sortino fiefdom and Adrano fiefdom. In the process, we have discovered three monster colonies that have settled in the borders of the Vasto fiefdom.”
“Was there,” the queen asked, “an unplanned battle?”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“How was the damage on our side?”
“77 deaths and 182 injuries from the 20th infantry and 16 injuries from the ranger special forces, Your Majesty.”
“Those are considerable numbers.”
“I ask for your forgiveness,” said the secretary of the military and hung his head.
Sitting on the upper seat in the conference room, Queen Magentano waved her hands.
“It is not your fault, so do not be too distraught. Focus now on transporting the injured and dispatching additional troops to the area. Do your best in managing and dispatching the supplies.”
“Your words are my command.”
The secretary took his seat, and the queen secretly drew a sigh under her breath.
Damn those monsters.
The monster domino phenomenon had swept the entire eastern region, and the kingdom still suffered from the aftermath of the destructive disaster. Of course, there weren’t any more monsters laying siege. The phenomenon itself was over, but the issue was nonetheless still ongoing. That was because the monsters that crossed the eastern range remained instead of peacefully returning to where they came from after destroying the human fiefdoms. Instead, they settled and found homes in the regions ravaged by their attack.
And we cannot just let them be.
And so, the kingdom was at its seventh attempt in launching a large-scale sweeping operation against the monsters. But the end had yet to come. Queen Magentano, pinching the space between her eyes, looked at the secretary in charge of the kingdom’s internal affairs.
“Next,” she ordered.
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
Rising from his seat, the secretary reported to the queen about the reconstruction efforts in the east and the assistance given to Frontera county. Aside from that, many more reports were given to the queen. Once the representative of internal affairs was done, the speaker for external affairs stood, and in a slightly high-pitched tone, he reported the brazen response of the sultan kingdom in the east, how it still claimed innocence to the monster domino phenomenon, and how it dismissed it as an accident. The queen furrowed her brows as she heard the report.
Sultan… How brazen.
For a second, she wondered if she should resort to force or give him a final chance. Queen Magentano considered filing a formal complaint against the sultan kingdom and sending an envoy who could return with a diplomatic reward. Suddenly, one person came to her mind.
Lloyd Frontera.
She thought about putting the gutsy man in the delegation. Surprisingly, that idea didn’t seem bad, and his sly silver tongue would be helpful. Moreover, sending Lloyd with the delegation sounded appropriate and reasonable, as Frontera county was one of the fiefdoms directly affected by the monster domino.
It actually sounded promising. She should consider it more seriously.
She was still deep in her thoughts when all the officials finished giving their report. Once it was over, she chaired a regular meeting for the next half a day. A small question popped into her head, and she decided to ask it later after the meeting was over. Once it did, she called the secretary of internal affairs, who was about to exit the conference room.
“I have a question I would like to ask you,” said Queen Magentano.
“I am at your service, Your Majesty,” said the secretary and waited for her to speak.
“The members of the nobility fall under the jurisdiction of the internal affairs, right?”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“I have recently heard,” continued the queen, “from a noble that a handful of proposal letters have been sent to Frontera county. Do you know what happened afterward?”
“Yes, Your Majesty. The response letters arrived at the House of Peers yesterday, and they were delivered to each family, Your Highness.”
“I see.”
Responses have arrived? Lloyd Frontera, that sly fox. I wonder what family he will choose to marry into.
She secretly wished that the family Lloyd would form a relationship with would be helpful to the reconstruction of the fiefdom. That way, the foundation of her kingdom would be more robust and act as a reliable shield in the east. As such, the queen was excited when she learned that the letters had arrived.
A few more days passed, and the sludge treatment facility neared completion. Its overall shape resembled a giant bucket buried in the earth. The process went like this: a basic layer of concrete was laid firmly on the ground, and then a granite mold was set in place. The granite was a giant mass more than fifty yards across, one Javier had laboriously and irritably sculpted and chiseled for four straight days until it became bucket-shaped. That masterpiece was the body of the gravity thickener. Once it was finished, Bibeong moved the object to the treatment facility.
“Bibeobeong! Bibeong!”
Everyone cheered as Bibeong’s 3,000-ton buttock wiggled. Moving such a rock was not easy, even for him. Even if it was empty inside, the rock was still half the size of Bibeong. It was like trying to push a car that had run out of gas a few feet forward just to get it moving again.
“Bibeo… beong!”
Bibeong sweated profusely on his feet, but he didn’t give up or express any difficulty. Why? The reason was simple. Bangul was there watching him.
“Bibeong!”
A true man, Bibeong believed, never appeared weak in front of his first love. Even when his back was about to snap in half, breathing became hard, and his legs trembled, he only wanted to show his good side to his crush. As a man, that was Bibeong’s sincerity towards his first love.
“Bibeo-beo-beo-beo-beong!”
He clenched his front teeth, and finally, he succeeded in planting the sludge thickener into the earth.
Bam! The sludge thickener fit into the ground with a rumble like a perfect puzzle piece. The sludge treatment facility was now completed. But the construction of the sewer wasn’t.
Sludge treatment requires a lot of water.
The principle was the same with the flush toilet, which needed constant running water. That was how lumps of bodily waste could travel to the sludge treatment facility. Otherwise, all the bodily waste and sludge would eventually dry up and stick to the pipes, piling up filth and clogging them. Once that happened…
Best not to think about that…
Lloyd quickly pushed the thought away as he was going to lose his appetite. Anyway, from then on, Lloyd proceeded to construct the water pipes that extended from the Prona River to the shafts. This took five days. A portion of river water was made to travel through the pipe until it reached the shaft, which sat in the central village of the fiefdom, and flowed through the main sewer. This was the completion of the first section of the sewer. That day, Lloyd summoned the residents living in the central village.
“Okay, I am sure you all know why I gathered everyone here.”
The summer sun was fading, and about 300 residents gathered around, each holding a large bucket in their hands. Inside the bucket was…
“Did you all collect what I requested in advance?” asked Lloyd.
They nodded instead of speaking aloud. Every single one had towels or clothes over their nose and mouth. Not a single exception. Why? The bucket contained a few days of bodily waste and sewage. Lloyd quickly pinched his nose.
“Okay… Good job. From the smell, I can tell that everyone worked very hard to complete my request. I am pleased. We just have to successfully finish this test today. Then, you can stop collecting starting tomorrow since all the waste can be thrown away into this shaft right away. Got it?”
Everyone nodded, and this time, their nodding was more hurried than before. It was because of the stench. The weather was searingly hot, and the heat had fermented the bodily waste for several days. The stench was no less awful and terrorizing than any biological and chemical weapon. So, everyone hoped that Lloyd would skip his speech and save everyone. Lloyd didn’t betray their sincere wish.
“My gosh. I can barely breathe,” said Lloyd with a frown. “You all don’t mind if I skip the speech, right? Line up, everyone, and pour your buckets into the shaft one by one. But don’t rush. We don’t want them to splatter. Okay?”
Swoosh!
Once again, everyone was silent. Any more delay and their olfactory senses would start degrading. Everyone moved in a hurry instead of answering. The residents poured the bodily wastes that they meticulously collected for the past few days into the shaft. Later, Lloyd walked down into the shaft through the manhole together with Javier.
“Is there a reason why you had to come down yourself?” asked Javier.
“Of course.” Lloyd shrugged after he spoke. “I have to check with my own eyes whether the sewage travels well, and how it flows. Otherwise, it could turn into a disaster.”
Lloyd was telling the truth. Even if he built a giant sewer, he must never be relieved because this structure was a pathway for waste materials. As such, it was imperative to check whether it was solid and free from clogging.
“The thing with the sewage pipes is that you don’t notice they’re clogged until after a few days when a funky smell hits you or sewage surges out. Once that happens, whew, it’s too late. It’ll probably be a hundred times harder to clear that than when we constructed the sewer,” said Lloyd.
That was the reason why Lloyd had personally come down here. He planned on checking whether the large volume of bodily waste the residents had just disposed of traveled to the sludge treatment facility without any problem. However, Javier remained serious and grim even if Lloyd kindly explained his presence.
“Then, is there a reason why I am down here with you?”
“Uh-huh,” drawled Lloyd.
“What is it?”
“It’s unfair if I’m the only one down here.”
“…”
“Cover your mouth and nose with this before you start to retch. But obviously, it won’t really matter if you do vomit. It’s going to flow along the sewer anyway,” said Lloyd with a mischievous smile as he held out a handkerchief to Javier.
Lloyd had already covered his lips and nose tightly with a towel. That was the only way for him to breathe. But even so, it was still hard to breathe.
This is seriously no joke.
Dozens of feet under the ground, Lloyd and Javier were walking along the narrow sewage pipe that led to the main sewer. It was so narrow that the sidewalk only had room for one person, and a large volume of rotten and fermented sewage buoyed away beside. The mere sight of it churned both of their stomachs. The stench was worsened due to the lack of ventilation, and since Lloyd was a mid-level sword expert, his heightened senses agitated him even more than before.
This is nuts. If I could, I’d get rid of my nose. No, I just want to reset my manaheart skill. The heck with being a sword expert. I take it all back.
Covering his face with a towel barely worked. It was torturous. How bad was it? Lloyd was as tormented as when he entered a gas-filled CBRN room at his military boot camp and removed his mask to let the tear gas assault his senses, jumping up and down and singing the national anthem. So, Lloyd made a resolution.
If ever I have the chance, I’ll reject leveling up as a sword expert.
Actually, Lloyd had planned to stay at his current level even without this experience. It was because of the sword master syndrome.
Javier had terrible insomnia because of that.
All your senses became so sensitive that they pushed past human limits. So much so that you couldn’t control their heightened senses. For 24 hours a day, you could hear everything around you, even the sound of a needle dropping to the ground. Furthermore, all your other senses like smell or touch were equally heightened. It was the same for your vision.
Your eyes become as sharp as an eagle’s. You can even see the pores of the person in front of you.
Lloyd wondered if Javier had been perceiving him that way all along. Chills ran down his spine. Lloyd shook his head and turned around to face Javier.
“Here, aren’t you going to take this?”
Javier didn’t accept the towel Lloyd held out to him. But his face appeared too calm and nonchalant without it. Lloyd was about to ask why when Javier spoke first.
“I am all right,” said Javier.
“Really? Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
Javier nodded with a scoff on his face.
“I have blocked my sense of smell the moment I entered here with you.”
“You blocked it…?” asked Lloyd, goggle-eyed. “Your sense of smell? On purpose?”
“Yes.”
“How is that possible?”
“Well, since I am a sword master…”
“Are you saying that you’re not smelling this stench at all?”
“No.”
Lloyd was dumbfounded.
“Actually, I can adjust my senses and change the stench to a floral scent.”
“Good for you,” blurted Lloyd.
“Thank you,” said Javier with a smile.
“…”
All of a sudden, Lloyd was gripped by the desire to flop down and throw a tantrum, but he had to walk ahead nonetheless even when all his happiness was draining out of him with every passing second. Lloyd and Javier walked along the long pathway filled with bodily wastes and sewage from more than 300 people. They ambled to the sludge treatment facility and observed and studied the inside of the main sewer. The outcome greatly satisfied Lloyd.
Good. There’s no blockage at all. Everything’s flowing smoothly like a drain cleaner was used.
From that moment onward, Lloyd entrusted the remaining sections of the sewer construction to Sir Bayern. He instructed that the shaft be built in the remaining villages, the apartment complex, and the count manor.
The bodily wastes collected from the shafts will travel through the Cholera canal sewer pipes, the main sewer, and then, finally, arrive at the sludge treatment facility.
This was the sewage system Lloyd had designed. Time passed by, and the structure expanded one section at a time. One day, two days, ten days, two weeks… Meanwhile, the residents in the central village, who were the first to enjoy the sewage system, continued to produce bodily wastes and toss them into the shaft. As days passed by, sewage started to pile up at the sludge treatment facility, and about a month later, when the solid and liquid waste became completely separated…
Kaboom! Solitas breathed fire at the northern border of the fiefdom after opening the lid of the sludge treatment facility. The lump of the sludge was made to float in the air with magic. Solitas breathed out hellish fire at the lump.
…!
Flames measuring tens of thousands of degrees engulfed the lump of bodily wastes produced by roughly 300 residents in the central village. Then, not giving the stench any time to spread, it was scorched to ashes in a flash. Just then, a welcoming message appeared in front of Lloyd’s eyes.
Ding Dong!
[You have successfully constructed a collective sewage treatment system for the first time in the Lorasian continent with your mysterious foresight, delicate engineering knowledge, and assistance of the strongest race on earth.]
[The Lorasian continent encounters the concept of “public health” for the first time in history due to the sewer system you have constructed.]
[Your impressive accomplishment will be passed down for many generations.]
[You earned a new title reflecting the blood, sweat, tear, and resentment of future civil engineering and public health students.]
[A new title