Ch.87Bourgeoisie (3)

“Ah, it’s already gotten so late. Make sure you don’t forget the precautions and things to avoid that you heard today.”

“Thank you for your instruction…”

When I heard His Majesty would teach us personally, I was initially so nervous that his words barely registered. Fortunately, since the lesson proceeded with His Majesty writing the content on something called a blackboard, I was barely able to keep up with what I had missed.

He gave us paper and pens to take notes, which was slightly fascinating as I had never seen either before. The paper was stiff with a slightly rough surface, almost like touching the cleanly cut surface of stone, and the pen didn’t use ink but rather had a long piece of charcoal inside like a core.

Perhaps His Majesty created this new type of paper because the existing paper was difficult to write on with these charcoal pens. At least I appreciate not having to worry about ink smudging.

[Bloodletting is only for butchering, and air enemas are useless nonsense, so abandon them. These will be prohibited by law, so if such treatments are in your head, forget them all. We’re not eating human flesh, so why drain blood, and putting air into the rear end—what kind of peculiar fetish is that? Good grief.]

“Pfft…”

As I review the lesson in my mind, laughter threatens to burst out.

I shouldn’t be doing this… but His Majesty’s manner of speaking and what he said was too funny. Even the officials in my rural hometown would be more dignified.

Above all, it’s truly surprising that there were doctors who actually prescribed such things. No wonder His Majesty initially asked me about bloodletting and similar practices.

Ugh… I must hold it in. This is no time to laugh.

‘Things we shouldn’t do… hmm, most are easy to understand, but I should memorize them anyway.’

Having never seen mercury in my life, until His Majesty’s lesson, I had thought it was some kind of panacea.

Given how much I don’t know, I should just memorize everything without question.

‘Cover nose and mouth with cloth when meeting patients… wash hands with water before and after seeing new patients… boil patients’ clothes and bedding for a long time…’

These are such obvious hygiene concepts in the modern world, but in this place where such concepts haven’t fully developed, they’re not obvious at all.

As a result, Claude’s instructions prompted many doctors to ask why they should do these things, and Claude used the keyword “smell” that he had discovered in his conversation with Ellen to explain the reasons.

The doctors already knew from experience that bad smells were not good, so they readily believed Claude’s words.

Of course, things that didn’t smell, like bloodletting or enemas, couldn’t be explained by smell alone, but in those cases, Claude chose to impose his authority rather than explain. After all, scientifically debunking the superstitious four humors theory would take an extremely long time.

“Hmm… so…”

“Surgical tools must be immersed in boiling water before and after use…”

Not just Ellen, but everyone present murmurs as they review what they just heard in the lecture.

Though doctors from various regions have gathered and might normally gossip about their medical experiences, they refrain because what they’ve just heard is new knowledge.

While they call themselves doctors, except for Ellen, those present are closer to medical scholars than physicians, and naturally, for scholars, new knowledge is far more precious than mere gossip.

Of course, after organizing this new knowledge in their minds, they soon begin to share their opinions with each other, becoming quite boisterous.

……….

‘How could you suddenly arrange something like this…’

I can vaguely guess the reason. Seeing how rumors about the toll had already spread throughout the city when it was still just being discussed and not yet confirmed, His Majesty must have wanted to maintain maximum secrecy this time.

But still, this is too much. Regardless of the reason, it’s a terrible thing for me to have to plan excavation work without any preparation.

I came to work as usual, and suddenly as soon as I sat down, decades’ worth of work fell into my lap. Anyone, not just me, would think the same. Save me.

“Now… the teams have been organized and everyone seems to have their shovels, so I’ll explain what you’ll be doing. You see the white stone powder sprinkled on the ground? Just dig along that powder. The depth should be about waist-deep, and the width wide enough for your waist to fit. We’ll adjust it later, so you don’t need to be exact.”

“Excuse me…”

A scruffy-looking man timidly raises his hand.

Though his appearance suggests nothing more than a rural serf, the fact that he waits until after the instructions to ask his question shows he has at least some basic manners.

Probably a citizen of Dijon who has fallen to the lowest social rung due to misfortune.

“Yes, your question?”

“Um… how will we be paid? Is it a daily wage? Or does it increase based on performance… that sort of thing.”

“Ah, of course you’d be curious about that. The salary will be a daily wage to allow for flexible workforce management. The basic rate is one silver coin for working from sunrise to sunset, and this can change based on performance. That performance will be judged by supervisors like me who will be walking around.”

Obviously, we can’t check on everyone.

Though supervisors will be monitoring, there are far too few of us compared to the number of workers. Since we can’t watch them all, we need to show some teeth to make them work harder.

Of course, I’ll walk around and observe, and if I catch a few lazy ones to make examples of them, that should be sufficient.

“One silver coin? Isn’t that too little…”

“In addition, we provide breakfast and lunch. Each meal includes two pieces of bread guaranteed, and the rest will vary depending on the available ingredients each day.”

“Oh, I see… I apologize for troubling you with my presumptuous question…”

“No, no. I was going to explain that anyway.”

This feels nostalgic.

Since His Majesty’s ascension, I’ve been buried behind a desk, so I’d forgotten that I’m actually in a position high enough to make ordinary citizens nervous.

Hmm… back then, people’s constant bowing made me uncomfortable, but experiencing it again after so long, I feel no burden—just a subtle sense of elation and satisfaction. I didn’t realize I had this side to me.

“Also, if you encounter rocks or bedrock while digging, please inform a supervisor. In that case, your team will need to break the stone with pickaxes, but as I mentioned earlier, this counts as performance, so you’ll receive additional pay.”

I keep thinking this, but the industrialized forge is truly remarkable.

My efforts before being ground down were worthwhile after all. It’s amazing that they can produce enough tools—not just shovels and pickaxes, but hammers and nails too—to distribute to all these workers in such a short time… Wait a minute?

Hold on, even with a factory, it’s impossible to produce this many tools instantly. This means they must have been making them for a long time, which suggests the factory knew what was going to happen well in advance.

…This is really too much. They could have informed me in advance as well.

Of course, the factory probably just followed orders to make tools and knew nothing about development outside the city walls, but it still leaves a bitter taste. There must have been a way to involve bureaucrats like me in the development plans without keeping us in the dark.

Sigh… complaining won’t help. When they say dig, I must dig.

“Finally… any questions?”

None.

I can tell just by looking at their eyes. Everyone’s expression is screaming that they want to get to work quickly.

At this rate, they’ll be as excited to find rocks as if they’d discovered gold.

Well, for them, finding rocks means higher wages, so that’s not entirely wrong.

“If there are no questions, we’ll begin work now. Each team, follow your supervisor.”

This needs to finish quickly.

This is work to install sewers under the newly constructed city, so any delay pushes back the construction of all buildings. If possible, I’d like to have the workers labor through the night, but that’s impossible even if they were all slaves.

I considered hiring more workers, but the construction site is already at capacity, so that’s a bit difficult too.

Hmm… if they can’t work through the night, what about hiring different people for night work?

Hiring separate groups for daytime and nighttime work… the more I think about it, the better it sounds. Good, I should make a note of this so I don’t forget.

It will be extremely cold at night in winter, but I’m not the one who’ll be working, so what does it matter?

‘If I submit this idea to my superiors, I could score some points.’

Moreover, if I complete the sewer infrastructure work perfectly along with this idea, I’ll receive a high performance evaluation from my superiors, which could lead to an easier promotion.

Of course, there are limits since I’m of common birth, but I’d be satisfied with that much.

Alright, let’s work hard.

When Claude saw this administrator’s idea for two shifts, he was very pleased and immediately ordered all administrators to implement it, which resulted in the two-shift system being applied not only to the workers but also to the administrators supervising them.

And naturally, the administrator who came up with the idea, being a field worker himself, was included in the two-shift system.

The administrator came to curse his past self for uttering those empty words.