Ch.99Bricks stretching out in rows

“Add color to… bricks?”

The bricklayers tilted their heads at the instruction to add color to bricks.

Not just coating the bricks with color… but adding it meant mixing pigment into the clay during molding, which would make the clay harder to work with and inevitably lower the quality of the bricks.

“Yes. Ah, just to be clear, I’m not talking about blue or green, but adding gray. Look, see this?”

“Huh…”

While it was fortunate that they weren’t being asked to make full-color bricks, the bricklayers still responded lukewarmly to the instruction to make gray bricks, as the red brick was still what came to mind when one thought of bricks.

“Here. I’ve brought the pigment, so add this to the clay and mix it well. And just so you know, it won’t have any negative effects on the quality or molding of the bricks, so don’t worry.”

The supervisor added this reassurance that there would be no issues with the brick quality.

“How much should we mix in?”

“From above, they said… add 100mg per 1kg and mix it thoroughly.”

At those words, the bricklayers couldn’t help but laugh.

It was nice that they were given specific measurements, but this was a brick factory, not a pottery workshop.

1kg? What a joke. A single brick weighed 2kg, so when would they have time to measure and mix all that?

“100mg per 1kg… I’m sorry, but…”

“I anticipated that, so I’ve already brought extra-large scales and measuring equipment. Nothing to worry about.”

“…”

But this was Amurtat, where nothing was impossible under the rule of a wise and enlightened monarch.

The bricklayers sighed as they watched hundreds of people confidently bringing in a massive machine that could hold dozens of tons of clay. When they lit the firewood and started the machine, they sighed again as they saw the clay and pigment being mixed in exact proportions.

What’s so special about the Industrial Revolution? This right here is the First Industrial Revolution.

“Now, everyone get to work.”

With the supervisor’s final words, the bricklayers began moving the endless piles of gray clay that poured out of the machine.

Rumble! Boom!

The giant mixing machine continued to operate without rest, and likewise, the bricklayers’ hands moved without stopping.

Until this machine stopped—no, until there was no more clay for it to spew out—today’s labor would continue. This would become the daily routine of a factory that had evolved beyond a mere workshop.

The bricklayers would not be able to go home until today’s quota was completely filled.

*

Inside the palace of Amurtat, in the monarch’s office, the ruler and his advisor were examining documents, deeply discussing the budget expenditures for the year.

The main topics were the remaining budget, where the spent budget had gone, and the utility gained from those expenditures. Next was the increasingly visible water shortage problem in Amurtat.

“How is the budget looking?”

“It’s tight with all the machines and equipment we’re making… but the productivity increase is worth the cost.”

“Think of it as an investment. To draw water, you must first make a bucket.”

“Very wise words, Your Majesty.”

Just as you need to pour in priming water to draw water from a manual pump, technological development brought increased productivity, but such development could only occur with the accumulation of capital to guarantee it.

For example, if you were to predict technological advancement between two nations with identical conditions except that one invested 100 units of capital and the other 1000, without exception the nation that invested 1000 would achieve higher technology.

On Earth, Western powers were the first to successfully accumulate capital, while other nations failed, and most are still paying dearly for not seeing even the smallest fruits of that effort. Considering this, Tiberius’s aggressive investment strategy made perfect sense.

With complete knowledge from the game, he had the tremendous advantage of being able to handle virtually any situation, rendering any scheme against him useless.

The advisor didn’t know this, but after the critical blow in the first year, he had become convinced that Tiberius had either made contact with or become some unknown entity, and unlike before, he no longer challenged the ruler’s opinions.

Tiberius, having gained a trustworthy minister in his advisor, had abandoned his former role as a stubborn tyrant and instead explained his plans in detail to his subordinate. What could be more beautiful than such a relationship between ruler and subject?

“By the way… water is becoming a problem now.”

“Indeed. Though there’s frequent rain in the northern mountains and numerous streams, with the hydraulic hammers we’ve installed in the steelyard, we’ll soon deplete our water supply.”

Hydraulic hammers, which use water pressure, can forge with much greater force than human strength, more regularly and uniformly.

If you’re wondering what that is… it’s like those blacksmith competitions you see on YouTube, where metal is hammered without lifting a finger, just going tap-tap-tap on heated iron.

However, as the name “hydraulic” suggests, it uses water pressure, so it was much cruder and rougher than modern versions. Nevertheless, it was still “mechanization,” making it far more efficient than a blacksmith hammering away.

Now steel frames were starting to rise in Amurtat’s construction, with steel replacing wrought and cast iron everywhere. More steel would be needed in the future, and if they continued forging in the traditional way, the blacksmiths’ arms might turn to slime.

In fact, even setting that aside, securing water resources was obviously necessary simply because the population had grown.

Humans drink about 2 liters of water daily, and use even more for washing dishes, showering, and so on.

Add industrial and agricultural water use, plus water for cooking and cleaning, and it becomes staggering. With nearly 2 million people now living in Amurtat, a stable water source was essential.

If the water flowing from the northern mountains disappeared, the steelyard and boneyard would immediately cease operations.

“Do you have any locations in mind?”

“Hmm… well…”

In truth, finding water is simple. You just dig down until you find it.

But digging until you reach groundwater is inefficient, and the amount of water obtained this way is limited.

That’s why a facility capable of storing large amounts of water was necessary, but building a reservoir would only collect wasted water, not increase the water resources themselves.

However, in this blessed starting position, nothing needed to be wasted.

If there’s no water, why not create it?

The answer was “seawater desalination.”

When you think of seawater desalination, you might imagine concrete structures by the sea with noisy pipes sticking out everywhere, but desalination isn’t actually such an advanced technology.

Seawater is salty because of various inorganic salts flowing into it, so if you remove those salts, seawater becomes clean enough for agricultural, industrial, and even drinking purposes.

So how would one build such a desalination facility?

The answer was simple.

“We need to build a seawater desalination facility. Bring me the Archmage.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

Just use magic to create a large-scale purification magic circle, and it’s done.

Magic materializes specific concepts as long as there’s mana, so considering that modern Earth’s desalination has the side effect of releasing concentrated inorganic salts into nearby seawater, increasing salinity, this world’s desalination method could be considered more environmentally friendly.

“Magic really is convenient, isn’t it?”

“The power to make the impossible possible. That’s what the discipline of magic is.”

“Indeed.”

In this world, magicians were objects of fear, but not persecution.

This was due to the angelic faith rooted in this world; people believed that aura and magic were powers bestowed upon humanity by Bilitina, the Archangel of Possibility.

In other words, knights and martial artists who wielded aura, and magicians and magic users who wielded magic, were literally apostles of god to the people of this world.

Then what about the monarch?

That’s simple, isn’t it?

Only a god can make apostles kneel beneath them, so monarchs who wield the power to create places for humanity to live are the embodiment of god descended to earth.

In other words, a “human deity.”