Chapter 84: Julian Frontera (1)
“Let’s start from here.”
It was an exceptionally bright afternoon. Lloyd created a shadow with his hand to protect his face from the blazing winter sun. He narrowed his eyes under his makeshift shadow and surveyed the Magena River.
Measure. Crackle…! A mysterious aura filled Lloyd’s eyes, and the sight in front of him changed just then. Countless pieces of data floated on the scene straight ahead of him, and it was like he was looking at the world through augmented reality technology. Thanks to this skill, Lloyd was easily able to figure out the topographic information of the land that spread along the Magena River.
The sloped river bank is covered with flat stones. There’s a road for people and carriages to travel on the bank, and right across the road is occupied by buildings… Hmm, this seems like a challenge.
The Magena Rive flew through the center of the royal capital, much like the Han River in South Korea. But one thing was different, and it was that the river was closely flanked by the city district. The distance between the roads and houses and the river bank wasn’t much, and quite a lot of areas were only about three feet apart.
In that sense, this river’s more like the Seine River of Paris, France, or the Danube River of Budapest in Hungary. It wasn’t that he had been to Paris or Budapest. But he did encounter them when he read materials about city development. Anyway, the crux of the matter was that this place he had just surveyed was far from being unpopulated. It was poles apart from the river banks that remained uninhabited and untrodden. Just then, a horse-drawn carriage passed by, the horse neighing and coughing and heaving a sigh. And to top it off, she relieved a heavy lump of feces on the road and clip-clopped away.
But that wasn’t the end of it. Several groups of merchants walked past Lloyd, which reminded him of Hongdae street on Friday night. Even more, several clusters of people suddenly stopped dead in their tracks and started to murmur among themselves, throwing a gaze at Lloyd’s side.
“Oh, my! Would you look at him?”
“How can a man be as handsome as a sculpture?”
“The sun is shining brighter because of him…”
“Hmm, how handsome. His face shines in handsomeness, much like when I was young.”
“My lord, you still shine even right now.”
“Hahaha, is that so?”
“Yes. Your balding forehead does shine bright against the sun.”
“Hmph! Tell me, do you wish for today to be your last day at work?”
The people continued to gush all around them. Dozens, hundreds of sets of eyes, both men and women, glimmered in adoration, and they were fixated on one thing. Javier.
Woah, this is nuts. Lloyd heaved a heavy sigh, and he threw a blaming gaze at Javier beside him.
“Hey,” Lloyd called.
“You called for me, Master Lloyd?”
“Yes, I did.”
“What can I do for you?”
Javier spoke nonchalantly with a straight face. Lloyd bitterly retorted at Javier, saying, “What can you do for me? Well, can you keep a distance when you follow me?”
“Excuse me?” Javier arched one of his brows.
“Excuse me, my ass. Will you look over there?”
“…”
“What do you see?” asked Lloyd.
“I see people,” Javier said casually.
“Right? And what are they doing?”
“They are murmuring as they look at us.”
“I am sure you can hear every word among the murmurs, right?” asked Lloyd.
“Of course.”
“So, do you not feel anything?”
“I do,” Javier replied nonchalantly.
“I think I should get a basket before we go back to the quarters in the palace.”
“A basket?”
“Yes.”
“Why?” Lloyd asked, the corners of his lips gradually rising in contentment. He was surprised to hear that Javier would come up with such a thoughtful idea. A sense of pride rushed through him. Even now, the groups gushing over Javier’s appearance were quickly growing. Lloyd was distracted by Javier’s groupies, who seemed to be seconds away from forming a fan club. They were getting in the way of surveying.
“Do you plan on wearing it and covering your face?” Lloyd added.
“Since you plan to wear one, it’d be good if you cover yourself with a large basket.”
Lloyd beamed as he threw a joke. However, Javier didn’t laugh for some reason. Instead, he simply quirked his head and spoke as if he couldn’t understand what Lloyd was referring to.
“Wear it over my head? Why should I cover my face?” retorted Javier.
“Eh…?”
“I would like to inform you in advance that the basket is not for such purpose,” said Javier.
“Then what is it for…?”
“It is,” answered Javier, “to take the things I’ll receive back to the room with ease.”
“The things you will receive? Wait a minute…”
“Yes, I am talking about my love letters.”
“…”
“When I receive a handful of them, I do not mind at all. But it becomes a problem when they start to stack up. You see, the size of the letters and envelopes all vary. On top of that, there are some women who write something down at the spot and give the letters to me.”
“So,” huffed Lloyd, “you’re getting the basket to carry love letters?”
“Yes.”
“…”
Javier nodded much too confidently, as if there was nothing strange or extraordinary about this whole situation. Lloyd found himself biting his underlip.
Ha, how I despise handsome guys. They were the most cunning people in the entire world. Lloyd wished in his mind that they would get hemorrhoids and better if they suffered from chronic constipation. Holding such a small wish in the corner of his heart, Lloyd spoke, almost growling.
“Fine. Do what suits you with the basket. Just make sure that you keep your distance from me.”
“Why should I do that?” demanded Javier.
“Because I can’t focus.”
Lloyd was speaking the truth.
“Sure, they have the liberty to chatter in groups, but they’re blocking most of the view. Seriously, what’s up with those people gathering around like they don’t have a job?! Don’t they have work to do?”
He huffed.
“I need to take time and go around the riverside and the bank to do the surveying and view at the land. But, look, it’s like they came to a celebrity meet-and-greet or the zoo to see a monkey. Haah, what in the world is this.”
“Are you saying that they’re disrupting your surveying?” asked Javier.
“Of course.”
“Will you be less distracted if I walk keeping some distance away from you?”
“Probably.”
“Then I cannot do what you order me to do.”
“Why not…?”
“It is somewhat amusing to watch you get in a bad mood out of jealousy.”
“What?!”
“It was a joke.”
“It didn’t sound like one. Not at all,” Lloyd said and narrowed his eyes.
Javier, who was still wearing a straight face, replied, “It is a joke. I am your personal knight, and this place bustles with people. I think it is imperative for me to be close to you to prepare for any unexpected situations.”
“And amuse yourself by getting the taste of my foul mood, yes?” said Lloyd.
“Is that how you feel?”
“Yeah. Sure, you protect my body, but you beat the heck out of my mind. How fun, right?”
“You’re right on the dot, Master Lloyd.”
“…”
“Heh.”
“…”
I should just shut up and survey. Berating his fate of having a ridiculously handsome man by his side, Lloyd focused on surveying. In actuality, the onlookers did distract him from doing his job. But since he couldn’t sweep them away, Lloyd decided to move around and pivot here and there to observe and gather data. As he did so, he naturally came to one realization.
There was a reason why the bridge kept collapsing. Several areas around the riverside held traces of regular flooding. He wouldn’t have noticed them with his naked eyes, but the survey allowed a vivid look at them because of the trace ingredients left in the stones and soils.
Though it’s very few, the soil of this city district and the one in another land remain a little just up to the level the river rose. Its alien component is something I could find in the slope colluvium in upstream.
It seemed that the soil composed of different ingredients that sat in the river upstream flowed down here by the flood and left small remaining sediments with the rising flood. But the water level was higher than Lloyd expected.
When the water level reached its peak, the piers, flat surfaces, roads, and carriages became submerged under the flood. An ordinary stone bridge wouldn’t be able to withstand that kind of force.
The beam was the part of the bridge where people crossed, and such a high water level was detrimental to the bridge. Since the structure was long and wide by design, the massive amount of flowing river water put pressure onto the bridge’s crossway. Not only that, it was also affected by the buoyancy of the full swelling water. The force of balance that kept the bridge intact was completely thrown off as a result.
And even if that was the case, there was a reason why they couldn’t construct a tall bridge.
In order for the stone bridge to be constructed high, the piers that supported the deck had to be equally sturdy and large. But that would disrupt the flow of the river water because of their sheer size, which exposed them to a significant amount of water pressure. The sturdier the builders attempted to construct the bridge, the stronger the water pressure became. Thus, the efforts to build a bigger bridge ironically led to equally high risks. That was the dilemma.
I knew I was smart to argue for the construction of the suspension bridge. Lloyd quietly nodded his head, thinking about the suspension bridge he had asserted to the queen. Most of the issues plaguing this stone bridge would be fixed, and it would evade the misfortune that fell on the bridges that came before. It was because suspension bridges didn’t need to be built in the middle of the river.
The river is about 260 yards wide. I think I can erect the bridge towers on both ends of the bank without having them submerged in water. That was the plan. First, he would erect the bridge towers and lay a cable through them. The cables would be used to support and float the bridge in the air, and that would almost eliminate the possibility of the structure getting struck by the flood. That was what Lloyd had estimated in mind. But, of course, the job wasn’t a walk in the park. In fact, in all honesty, it was an extraordinary challenge.
Since Lloyd knew how critical the task was, he isolated himself in his room in the palace since that evening after he came back from surveying. Through the nights, Lloyd engrossed himself in building the suspension bridge. He made countless models and ran simulations to test them out. This process was repeated several times. The most important matter in this design was the production of cables, which were a sort of rope made by intertwining thick metal wires.
“Hey, Bangul.”
“Bangul?”
Lloyd was contemplating over how to produce cables when an idea hit him. So he asked Bangul, who was goofing around beside him.
“About your steel dung.”
“Bangul!”
“Can you make it come out more thinner than usual?”
“Bba-bangul?!”
“Uhm, if you ask how thin… This thin?”
Lloyd closed his thumb and index fingers near his eye, and it was about 0.2 inches thick.
“Just this thick,” announced Lloyd.
“Baaangul?”
“Can you do it?”
“Banguuul?”
Bangul tilted her head in a snobby manner, which made Lloyd wonder if that was a yes or no. Her response was ambiguous. At the same time, she seemed to be wanting something.
So Lloyd carefully asked, “Are you saying you can if I do something for you?”
“Bangul!”
Bangul excitedly nodded up and down. And she gushed forth as if she was happy that Lloyd understood her.
“Bba-bangul! Bangul! Bangul Bangul Bangul! Bba-bangul! Bba-bang Bba-bangul!”
“What…? You need a 1:1 proportion of oil-based clay and stone power clay? And you need sand rich with magnetite, decomposed granite soil, and pebbles?”
“Bangul! Bba-bangul! Bangul!”
“And you’d prefer everything to be made in the shape of a pizza?”
“Bba-bangul!”
“The clay should be spread like a dough? And the others on top?”
“Bangul!”
“Are you saying that while I’m at it, I should get basalt, obsidian, azure stone, talcum, and tin as toppings?”
“Bba-bangul!”
“My dear client, anything else you need? Red clay cheese crust, perhaps?”
“Bangul!”
“I’m glad that’s all you want…”
Bangul was explaining that only the right types and proportions of dirt allowed her to produce thin and elastic metal bars like wires. To his relief, the materials Bangul enumerated weren’t impossible to get his hands on.
“Okay. I’ll tell the people in the palace that I need those materials,” said Lloyd.
“Bangul!”
Lloyd headed to visit the relevant official in the royal palace and requested the said materials, adding that they were essential to building the suspension bridge the queen had ordered him to construct. Maybe it was the mention of the queen’s name. The official told him that it would just take a few days for everything to be ready.
I know it’s a bit much, but those thin wires are a must. That was the only way to produce cables. In particular, the 0.2-inch wire he had requested Bangul to create was essential to this construction project. It would be used to make a Parallel Wire Strand (PWS).
Whew… I think I’m all set for now. Lloyd had been giving up sleep and struggling over the design for a few days after isolating himself in his room. So it was his first time to come outside since starting the project. As the pent-up tensions loosened in his body, Lloyd’s head felt a bit dizzy and empty.
I need to rest my brain for a bit. I should rest today. Lloyd massaged the back of his neck which grew tense and strained. Actually, he still had a mountain of tasks for the project to finish. However, he knew that he’d be the one who would get finished first if he continued this arduous, back-breaking work.
And luckily, I have some other business I can take care of during this stroll. Suddenly, a bitter smile escaped him. It just dawned on him. A reminder he had completely forgotten about as he was engrossed in the work given to him by the queen.
“Once you arrive at the capital, do give this to your brother. And make sure to tell him that we love him.”
A memory of the day he left for the capital popped into his head. He also remembered the baron couple’s reminder. They had handed him a huge bundle, which contained all sorts of items.
Homemade bacon slices from the fiefdom, a winter coat, a blanket, and so many other small items… Goodness. It’s not like I’m a bundle merchant.
His smile deepened the more he thought about it. Lloyd could see so clearly the image of the baron and baroness busily getting ready to fill this bag. And so…
I should move around and get some air today. Lloyd returned to his quarters and left again, carrying the large bundle he had accepted out of courtesy from the baron couple. He then cut across the capital city district and headed to the Royal Academy, the Magenta College, in the capital to fulfill his errand.
Julian Frontera was mentioned as the brother of Lloyd in The Knight of Blood and Iron. He was this unfortunate talent whose time came too early despite his studious years in the academy. And now, the moment to meet this mysterious younger brother was closing in.