Chapter 79: Black Death: The High Latency of Large Infrastructure [VIP]
The road leading to Gaola is flanked by lush forests with dense leaves, tangled branches, and thick trunks, appearing almost pristine, as if they had never been touched by humans.
In the early morning, the air was moist and cool. In the forest without smoke from cooking or the shadow of farmers, the chirping birds were frightened by the footsteps of travelers. They spread their wings, brushed against the leaves still covered with night dew, and flew away.
The travelers were a group of scholars wearing brown and black cloaks, and their carriages were filled with their years of academic hard work. They were also accompanied by five mercenaries hired by them to protect them.
The group of people following behind the scholars, dressed in rags like beggars, were landless farmers, or pioneers, who, after learning that the brigade's destination was Gaola, brought their remaining belongings with them, hoping to go to Gaola to reclaim new land and start a new life.
The scholars, who had been serious and dull all the way, couldn't help but feel cheerful and started talking excitedly when they thought that they could stand on a high place and look at Gaura on the other side of the Kashi River after passing through this forest.
"I heard that because his family is the leading academic patron in the Western Continent, and his chief advisor is the youngest professor at the Royal Academy, Professor John Dill, the Grand Marquis places great emphasis on academics. As long as they pass a simple review, scholars can receive free housing and an annual living allowance in Gaola. They can also access the castle library and read the Holy Family's precious collection of books."
"Compared to the capital city where even the most basic academic application requires filling out over twenty forms and waiting for approval at an indefinite time, Gaola's openness and encouragement towards all new ideas are simply amazing."
"And the Grand Marquis himself is a rare all-rounder. Not only is he proficient in military affairs, combat, medicine, agronomy, mechanics, architecture, music, and art... he is also exceptionally humble, tolerant, kind, and gentle. No matter what suggestions his subordinates offer him, he listens attentively, carefully considers them, and then finds something feasible to implement."
"Oh my god, is there really such a perfect lord in the world?"
"Of course, there wouldn't normally be such a perfect lord, but he comes from the Holy Family—we all know that the Holy Family are descendants of God. They have the blood of God flowing in their bodies, so naturally they possess the virtues of God."
"For various reasons, the Holy Family has long enjoyed a distinguished status but been unable to possess worldly power. They have been universally regarded as beautiful flowers, delicate vases adorning divine authority. Now, with the help of His Highness the Grand Duke, the Grand Marquis has transcended the Holy Family's restrictions on worldly affairs and has demonstrated remarkable excellence... Palace rumors circulate that His Majesty is extremely jealous of the Grand Marquis and has repeatedly threatened to execute him for treason, seal his head in a magical crystal, and give it to His Highness the Grand Duke as a special gift."
"Then...if something like that were to happen...His Highness would be in so much pain that he would be unable to live..."
“We will also be unable to survive because of this.”
The scholar said solemnly, "Even though Queen Mother Catherine is still alive, His Majesty dares to treat his cousins, who are related to him by blood and whose status and lineage are no less than his own, in this way. His attitude towards us commoners will only be more cruel and ruthless! He even doesn't even consider us human beings!"
"Although His Highness the Grand Duke claimed that he left the capital to live in Maga to recuperate, we all know that the truth behind this is not so gentle."
"...Folk rumors say the emperor is possessed by a terrifying demon, his heart transformed into a monster. He now repeatedly targets and suppresses the Holy Family because he wants to sacrifice their bloodline to the demon god, in exchange for the demon granting them eternal life in darkness and eternal rule over the world."
"Such a ridiculous story—"
"I believe the emergence of such rumors among the people shows that the common people have a great fear and cannot understand the rule of the emperor and the Yula Dynasty. In their cognition, the increasingly cruel emperor is a terrible demon—"
"—Scholars, the story of a demon possessing the emperor is not just a rumor!"
A middle-aged mercenary traveling with them suddenly spoke up.
He told the scholars, "Half a year ago, I was hired by the Maga City Hall to patrol Lake Lilia during His Highness the Grand Duke's birthday. I was checking the boats parked by the lake to prevent assassins from sneaking in. I unexpectedly witnessed an extremely terrifying scene!"
"What?"
"There are monsters disguised as humans within the Royal Knights!"
The mercenary said in horror, "They're covered in human skin and look just like us, but I saw with my own eyes that they transformed into monsters twice our height! Their bodies are covered in dark green scales, and their heads don't resemble the dragons in heroic legends so much as a combination of a snake and a lizard—ugly and ferocious! They even stink of the sulfur of hell!"
"Luckily, the bard they were besieging was actually the Grand Marquis in disguise. Under the golden light of his sacred bloodline, the monsters were quickly defeated by him, and the body fragments were taken away by the magicians who arrived later. I took advantage of the night to pick up half a scale from a gap in the grass."
The mercenary took out the carefully collected monster scales with a sulphurous smell on the surface and handed them to the scholars.
The scholars carefully examined the scales, and while passing them around, they were thinking.
)
(He wants to sell the Holy Family and our homeland to the devil!)
…
…
, the sun is about to set.
Looking at the turbulent river in front of them, those who did not dare to risk crossing the river late at night stopped their team. The men set up tents and made bonfires, while the women collected firewood and picked wild vegetables, preparing to spend the night on the west bank of the Kashi River.
As night fell, travelers ate wild vegetable and mushroom soup around the campfire and saw the twinkling lights of Gaola on the opposite bank.
Surprisingly, the lights are not limited to the castle on the hill, the villages along the riverbank are also lit up.
even--
"What is that!"
Someone pointed at a bright light on the other side of the river and exclaimed.
People looked in the direction of his finger and saw a construction site on the cliff on the opposite bank that was brightly lit even at night. Hundreds of people were working together and sweating on the site.
Because the distance was too far, people on this side of the shore could not see clearly what people on the other side were busy with, but it was certain that Gaola under the rule of the young lord was a land full of vitality and miracles.
…
The sun gradually rose and the all-night lights on the construction site went out one after another.
The ferry arrived, and after agreeing on a price, the members of the group boarded in an orderly manner. One scholar, unable to contain his curiosity, asked the crew, "What are those people sweating so much about?"
"Are they building a bridge?"
"Build a bridge?"
"Um."
The crewman proudly pointed to the emerging bridge frame ahead and explained, "The Grand Marquis said that if Gorakhpur wants to develop, it can't rely solely on the meager shipping profits brought by the Kazakhs. He wants to build a bridge across the Kazakhs, so that Gorakhpur will no longer be the dividing line between the civilized world and the wilderness. He said, 'To get rich, build roads first, and bridges are also a kind of road.'"
"To get rich, build roads first? Bridges are also a kind of road?"
The scholars murmured and repeated.
Lord Gaola's ideas not only made them feel novel, but also gave them a sense of sudden enlightenment and comfort.
They looked at the east bank and saw that the workers on the cliff were working together like ants, moving logs one after another, wrapping these horizontal logs together with specially woven thick ropes, and then tying the logs to the back of the boat and dragging them to the high ground opposite the river bank.
"The Grand Marquis said that he and his advisors planned to first construct a sturdy wooden bridge floating on the water using crossbeams and thick ropes. They would then gradually replace the ropes and crossbeams with iron chains. Finally, they would pour a thick layer of sand and crushed stone, a building material he called quick-drying concrete, over the cables. It was a mixture of sand and crushed stone, resembling marble but not quite. Tall concrete pillars would be erected at each end of the bridge, and thick iron chains reinforced by alchemical methods would work together with the concrete pillars below to support and pull the bridge across the Kass River."
"Quick-drying concrete cement?"
The scholars watched in awe as the boats dragged logs and ropes across the turbulent Kazi River toward the west bank. In the face of the turbulent Kazi River, the boats and the bridge they were building seemed so small and incredible.
"What is your attitude towards building a bridge?"
"manner?"
"After the bridge is built, the ferry business will definitely be greatly affected—"
"Scholars, this is your first time in Gola, so you don't know how dangerous the Kashi River is. This section of the river alone claims at least three hundred lives every year. Every day, someone drowns while crossing or is captured and eaten by the monsters in the river! After the bridge is built, the ferry business will undoubtedly be affected, but we can do other, safer things! The Grand Marquis has also promised us that once the Kashi Bridge is completed, he will distribute land to the affected boat owners."
After hearing this, the scholars who were already full of yearning and curiosity about the rumored Marquis Gola became even more eager to meet him for the first time.
(What kind of person is the Grand Marquis?)
(I've heard that all direct descendants of the Holy Family possess inhumanly beautiful features. I've seen the Holy Archduke from afar. He's beautiful and graceful, like the moon hanging high in the night sky, but...)
(Perhaps, only by meeting the Grand Marquis himself can we——)
"--ah!"
The crew suddenly screamed, interrupting the scholars' thoughts.
"What happened?"
"There's a body! There's a body in the river!"
"What's so strange about the corpse?"
The scholars were unimpressed: "You just said that people are drowning in this river every day or-"
"It's different! It's completely different!"
The crew interrupted the scholar, pointing at the swollen corpse fixed to the hull with a hooked bamboo pole, and shouted at the top of his lungs: "Look carefully! What is that! What is it!"
"That is..."
The scholars squinted their eyes at the corpse in the water, whose skin was strangely dark blue and whose limbs were twisted and deformed, and immediately gasped.
"...The Black Death! It's the Black Death! The Black Death is coming!"
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