Chapter 163: A City on a Cliff (1)

“Have you ever heard of the slope stabilization method?”

“Excuse me?” asked lady Namaran.

“I knew it,” said Lloyd with a wistful look. “You have not heard of such a great thing? There’s nothing more unfortunate than that.”

“…”

With one leg on the door to stop it from closing, he used the signature tactic of salespeople in South Korea. Lloyd put on a plastic smile. Lady Namaran, upon seeing his smile, thought to herself whether he had lost his mind. But Lloyd didn’t care about what she thought. He simply got ready to fire his sales pitch.

“If you do not mind, may I enter and talk inside?” suggested Lloyd.

“What if I mind?”

“Then, we will converse just like this.”

“What if I do not wish to continue this conversation?” asked Lady Namaran.

“Then, you will be missing the perfect opportunity to solve the biggest conundrum your city faces,” said Lloyd confidently.

“You speak as though you can see through my hometown.” There was vague annoyance in her tone.

“Why wouldn’t I? Is there a law that forbids outsiders from knowing the problem with building a city on top of a cliff?” rebutted Lloyd.

“Of course, there is no such law.”

“Yes, you are right. And that is why…”

Thankfully, Lloyd was able to strike a conversation, and it was time to lay an attack. In a straightforward tone, Lloyd got to the heart of the matter.

“I will take care of your cliff problem.”

“You will?”

“Yes, I will.”

Lloyd shrugged. He was brimming with confidence to persuade her to trust and leave the matter to him.

“Your city is built on the cliff, but the foundation is weak. So, it is crumbling very slowly but surely, and in ten more years, the foundation of the city walls will be in danger of toppling. Am I correct?”

“…”

“Surely, Count Namaran must be striving hard, resorting to every means possible to find a solution. He probably tried planting trees on the cliff and plastering them with clay. But I would be surprised if it was effective at all.”

“You talk,” said Lady Namaran, “as though you can take care of it.”

“Because I can.”

“…”

“The slope stabilization method. With this method I mentioned, I can solve the problem. How about it, my lady?”

“What is this…”

Lady Namaran was surprised and at a loss for words. Truthfully, she was flustered by Lloyd’s abrupt appearance in her room and his aggressive and slightly hostile behavior and suggestion. These two factors were strange enough to make her doubtful of his intentions.

Who is this man?

She wondered if he was flirting with her. But she soon shook her head after a second.

It doesn’t seem likely. He firmly put an end to the discussion of an arranged marriage earlier.

And more than anything else, he seemed too sincere for someone who was making a haphazard offer. His gaze and attitude were proof of it. To add to that, the queen had bestowed the title of mastery on this man.

I heard he built a bridge under the queen’s order that makes you feel like you’re walking in the sky. What’s more, the people of Cremo admired him for his work in their city.

This man was the queen’s favored engineer. Lloyd’s name was well known all throughout the kingdom, so she was very familiar with his reputation. It seemed he could be trustworthy, maybe.

“Your suggestion, are you serious about it?”

She asked him as she remembered her hometown, Namaran, a city that was erected on a steep cliff similar to a pyramid. But it had not been a large city from the beginning. About 400 years ago, Namaran was nothing but a small fortress built to watch over and supervise the trade route between the south and east.

However, the location was too perfect. Since it sat in an excellent location to watch over a major trade route, many merchants began to rest and unwind around the fort as it was safer than staying outside with mountain thieves, wild animals, and various monsters. Soon, inns started to appear in response to the group of resting merchants in the area, which also led to the construction of restaurants and multiple facilities. The fort grew in size as a result, expanding on and on. More people came rushing in, and the fort grew more vibrant. Once again, that led to another influx of merchants. A trading post was eventually established as well. From then on, Namaran was no longer a rest stop for traveling merchants. It became a destination for trade. The city explosively developed until the current problem arose.

It was never meant to develop into a large city in the first place.

The fort had only ever been meant to monitor trade. But it gradually grew larger to become a city, and the problem wasn’t that the land on the cliff was narrow. It was that the city grew too big and expansive to the point that the cliff couldn’t house it all. Making things worse, the soil on the cliff wasn’t strong enough to bear the city’s giant weight. That was when its slope started to crumble and fall apart, the process going on for decades. Slowly yet surely, the top of the cliff started to narrow.

That was where they were at now. The foundation of the wall was in danger of falling to pieces. Give it a few more years, and the people’s fears of the wall collapsing completely could come true. Lady Namaran waited for Lloyd to answer as she went over the situation in her head. Lloyd’s answer was clear.

“Yes.”

He could do it. He knew he could solve this problem. He said everything that needed to be said and tried to appeal to her as much as possible. It would be pointless to persuade or explain anything more. That would only make him look pathetic and clingy. As such, he pulled away, so the ball was in her court.

“Whether to trust me or not is your decision. So, please sleep on it.”

Lloyd removed his leg from the door and retreated as though he never approached her in the first place. He flashed a nonchalant gaze. The choice was for her to make. He had nothing to lose. He smiled in a relaxed manner.

“I will take my leave now. Thank you for having me.”

Without so much as a glance behind, Lloyd left.

“Wait, what-”

She wondered if this was what it feels to witness a passing storm. With the door left half ajar, her gaze was filled with daze as it stared at the door. The next day, Lloyd’s strategy proved to be effective.

“I am thinking of leaving the construction to you,” said Lady Namaran.

“Have you decided?”

“Yes.”

Lady Namaran, who came to meet Lloyd the following day, nodded.

“I thought about it after you left.”

The truth was that she didn’t sleep a wink because of the issue. Lloyd couldn’t be any more on point about the problem in Namaran. The confidence he manifested, and his reputation. She decided to trust him. It didn’t sound like it would harm herself or her homeland, Namaran.

This might be the chance to impress my father.

Lady Namaran was actually forced to travel here by her family as they insisted on forming a good relationship with the eldest son of the Frontera family. They reminded her that this was the opportunity to solidify their family status. She recalled how her father escorted her with the evident expectation the day she left for this place. She felt pressured. She hated the idea of an arranged marriage. So she planned on returning home empty-handed, but at the same time, she felt apologetic. But not anymore.

I’m not going empty-handed at least. Though I’m taking him home not as my husband but as an excellent engineer.

Even though she wouldn’t be satisfying her father’s wish for marriage, she’d be able to make him happy by solving the ongoing issue of her city. That would be a good enough accomplishment.

“I am thinking about going with you on your return to Namaran. How does that sound?” suggested Lloyd.

“I welcome it, of course.”

Lloyd flashed a bright smile at her. Mission success. Now, all Lloyd had to do was fix the Namaran city, save the people there, and squeeze money out of them.

The preparation for departure was simple. Prior to the day, he gave several instructions and notes about the apartment complex and sewage section construction to Sir Bayern. He entrusted the latter with the remainder of the project, and then bid farewell to the ladies in the manor. Afterward, the count and the countess sent him off on his path with Lady Namaran. Lloyd climbed mountains, traveled over the sea, and crossed a plain during his 12-day journey until he arrived at Namaran. The average altitude off the ground was 1,000 meters. And at the center of the high area, there stood a pyramid-shaped cliff.

“Ah… I’m craving a Drumstick cone…”

As soon as his eyes took in the city, he was reminded of his favorite ice cream in South Korea. The cliff that carried the city looked just like an upside-down ice cream cone. Javier, listening to him on the side, cocked his head to the side.

“What is a Drumstick cone”?

“Don’t worry about it. It’s a type of ice cream,” Lloyd said lazily.

“Do you mean the cold dessert that the royal family enjoys in the palace?”

“Yeah. Something like that.”

Lloyd nodded as he looked up at the cliff and the Namaran city at the top. The pyramid-shaped cliff reminded him of a melting Drumstick with cream spreading down the cone.

In other words, the cliff is a Drumstick cone melting upside down, and the city is one strawberry that was precariously placed on top.

The wall and the city looked exactly like what he just described. At the same time, Lloyd could easily figure out the reason behind its continual deterioration.

It’s as I expected. Most of its foundation is made up of sandstone and slate.

Sandstone was a sedimentary rock that formed from compounded sand particles. Slate, the metamorphic rock, was a solidified form of shale after it was pressurized and heated. The two varieties couldn’t be classified as hard rocks.

Yet, they built a city on such a foundation. No wonder the ground is unstable.

Lloyd climbed the cliff and looked around the ground using his survey skill. The way up was comparatively easy because the paved and wide road twirled around the cliff perimeter, allowing Lloyd to look in advance at almost all areas with his skill. So, he was able to naturally come up with a plan for what kind of work this city needed.

Retaining walls won’t be enough in this case. No matter how much I build the walls on the outside to support the weight, it won’t last long. It goes the same for Ggoming’s spider web. I can cover up the cliff as much as I can, but it won’t last.

This place was fairly sloped, and since the rocks were on the softer side, wrapping the outside would only be a band-aid solution. As such, the solution lay within.

I’ll use piles and anchors. With it, I need to bind the surface and base foundation of the slate together. That way, I can properly support the pressure coming down from the crumbling sides of the slope and prevent a collapse.

The outline of his plan was formed in his head. Lloyd considered the necessary equipment, labor, time, and budget. He even thought about the construction process and timeline. He climbed to the top of the cliff as he came up with a broad idea in his head. But when he entered the castle gate, a slightly peculiar scene caught his eyes. More than a hundred people were gathered in the plaza of the inner part of the castle. Most were raggedly clothed, and Lloyd caught a whiff of a nutty smell in the air. This scene seemed familiar.

That’s…

“It is the meal center mister Cannavro runs.”

Lloyd didn’t realize that the window of the carriage was slightly opened. Inside, Lady Namaran was grinning.

“You did say the first time we met, right? How you came to respect mister Cannavaro after hearing his rumors,” she said, “Yes, that is right. That is the meal center he runs for free. Most of the people who fled from the east are in debt to his kindness.”

“I see…”

Lloyd studied the people in the center a little more. In contrast to their ragged clothing, everyone looked healthy and well, which must be due to good rest and diet.

But they must be ignorant of what his favor actually means.

Lloyd was scared for a second when he thought about how they’ll be sacrificed as an experiment. But completely oblivious to it, they were gathered around the center with happy smiles on their faces. Their eyes danced with gratitude as they looked at the one scooping up the food. Just then, Lady Namaran spoke.

“Oh, he’s just over there.”

“Excuse me?”

There? Who?

“Mister Cannavaro is there,” she said with a laugh. “Over there.”

“…”

Lloyd’s gaze followed her finger outside the carriage window. The meal center. The focal point of people’s gazes and smiles. A man holding a ladle with his sleeves rolled up. He was plump and looked meek. His warm smile toward the people thanking him could not be warmer.

“Do you see him? He is mister Cannavaro. Like always, he is taking good care of the refugees.”

Lady Namaran’s voice contained satisfaction and pride as though she was speaking of a city monument. But Lloyd could not agree with her. Was it because he knew what Cannavaro was? Or was it because he suddenly remembered that this man killed Lady Namaran in the novel? No. There was another reason why he clamped his mouth shut.

The grim reaper with a black dragon head.

There was a symbol embroidered on the shoulder of his clothing. At a glance, it looked like an ordinary family symbol. But Lloyd knew what it was.

The undead mastodons.

It was the symbol the necromancer that buried them used. Also, it was the symbol Queen Magentano selected in the novel after becoming a tyrant. And that sinister and ominous symbol was also on Cannavaro’s clothes.