Chapter 36: Archimedes (Part 3)
Blackstone had just completed its very first advanced smithy.
For the past week, exactly forty-two villagers, alongside several demon hounds and cattle, had been dragged into Archie’s construction project.
Construction, logistics, measurements, crafting, every single thing had been dictated down to the smallest detail by the old mathematician.
And now, as the smithy finally stood completed, the villagers burst into loud applause.
The waterwheel turned steadily beside the river, the automated bellows pumped air into the furnace on their own, smoke rose proudly from the stone chimney. Some villagers even looked close to tears.
Not because of pride, not because of accomplishment. But because they thought it was finally over.
Relief spread across the crowd like a divine blessing. Relief that they would no longer have to hear Archie’s voice barking measurements into their ears every waking hour.
The past seven days had been absolute hell, not because Archie beat them. Honestly, several villagers secretly wished he would. Instead, they learned something far crueler than violence. Precision.
If a measurement was slightly wrong, even by a finger’s width, he would make them dismantle the entire thing and rebuild it again.
And again. And again. And again, and again, and again.
School did not exist yet in Border Prison. Yet somehow, the villagers had already learned to fear an academician. Which was exactly why the applause became even louder.
“Tonight, we celebrate our new smithy!” Tara shouted proudly as she stood beside David and Erika near the entrance.
“YEAAAAAHHHH!!” The villagers roared in pure joy.
“No ve’re not.” Archie’s flat voice cut through the celebration like a knife.
The cheering stopped instantly, even the clapping died mid-motion.
“Vhy are ve wasting time on something so useless?!” Archie continued irritably. “Do you think ze materials vill shape themselves?!”
He pointed toward the enormous pile of logs, stones, sand, and construction supplies stacked outside the smithy.
The villagers slowly turned toward it, their smiles disappeared one by one.
“Thirty minutes break,” Archie declared. “Then ve continue with ze wall perimeter construction.”
He immediately started pointing around.
“Blacksmith, carpentry, and crafting teams vill begin making ze crane and lever.”
“Logistics teams start procuring more logs, stones, and sand.”
“Move faster this time. Your previous pace vas embarrassing.”
After delivering his orders, Archie simply turned around and walked away from the smithy without another word.
The villagers stood there frozen for several long seconds.
“I-I thought those were leftover materials…”
“Wait… we still have to work?!”
“But I already told my wife today was the last day!”
“Chief Tara literally just said tonight we celebrate!”
Murmurs of despair and complaints immediately spread across the crowd.
“A-alright everyone,” Tara said with a strained smile, quickly stepping forward before the crowd’s mood got any worse. “You heard the man. Take your thirty minutes break first before continuing the work.”
“Uhh, remember everyone,” Erika added beside her, forcing out the gentlest voice she could manage, “this is all for the good of the village.”
Meanwhile, David, Greta, and Matheo had already started moving into position between Archie and the workers.
At this point, it had become an unspoken routine inside Blackstone. Ever since Archie took over the village development, somebody always had to calm the workers down before they collectively decided to send Earth’s greatest mathematician back to the underworld.
Worker unions had not even been invented yet, yet Blackstone somehow already experienced labor unrest on a daily basis.
Archie, meanwhile, either did not care or genuinely failed to notice that the murderous frustration behind him was directed entirely at him. The old scholar simply kept walking toward a nearby log where two exhausted figures were resting. Theo and Delilah.
Theo was lying flat across the log, completely asleep, snoring without restrain.
Beside him, Delilah sat while hugging her staff loosely against her shoulder, her head repeatedly dipping forward every few seconds as she struggled to stay awake.
“Vake up!” Archie barked.
“Ara?! Yes! Yes! Just put the wood there so I can dry it!” Delilah jolted awake instantly and answered on reflex.
“Not you,” Archie replied while pointing his measuring stick toward Theo. “Ze boy.”
“Ah… pheww…” Delilah exhaled in relief, immediately sagging again.
Even the elf druid had not escaped Archie’s tyranny after he learned her magic could manipulate the growth and condition of organic materials.
Theo, however, remained unconscious.
Archie immediately started shoving him aggressively.
“Vake up already!”
“Y-YES?!” Theo shot upright in panic with bloodshot eyes. “I’m sorry! Pi is 3.1415 and I still can’t remember the rest!”
His reaction was even worse than Delilah’s.
Unlike Delilah and the other villagers, who could at least return home and sleep eventually, Theo had spent the past week trapped directly under Archie’s supervision.
Two hours of sleep per night, that was all he was allowed.
The rest of the time had been spent with Archie relentlessly squeezing every piece of mathematics and physics knowledge out of his brain.
Theo had visibly lost weight over the week. His face looked thinner, dark circles hung permanently under his eyes.
And at this point, his body had started developing random micro-sleeps and panic reflexes every time someone raised their voice near him.
“It’s not that, you dummkopf!” Archie snapped before smacking Theo’s head with the measuring stick.
The hit immediately forced Theo’s brain back into reality.
“Huh? Oh…” Theo blinked repeatedly while looking toward the smithy. “Is it already working?”
“Of course it vorks,” Archie replied impatiently.
He grabbed a flat wooden board and a sack resting beside the log, then placed the board across his lap before pouring sand over its surface.
A portable sand table.
A common tool among ancient Greek scholars for calculations and diagrams since parchment back then was far too expensive to waste every time a mathematician threw a tantrum halfway through an equation.
“Now,” Archie said while folding his arms, “continue vith ze law of inertia.”
Apparently, draining Theo’s mathematics knowledge had not been enough.
Now Archie had also moved on to physics. Which unfortunately for Theo, was another subject he had scored reasonably well in back on Earth.
Theo stared blankly at the sand table for several seconds before slowly drawing formulas into the sand like a robot with severe loading time.
Not long after that, Tara and David approached them.
“The workers are angry,” Tara reported with a tired sigh. “Especially after hearing there won’t be any celebration tonight.”
“Not my business,” Archie answered immediately. His eyes never even left Theo’s scribbles.
Tara’s fist tightened hearing Archie’s answer, but she forced herself to stay calm.
“We managed to settle them down,” she continued carefully. “They’ll return to work in thirty minutes.”
Archie gave no response. He simply kept staring at the equations Theo was writing, occasionally narrowing his eyes whenever Theo hesitated too long.
“But we can’t keep going like this when the other village chiefs arrive,” Tara tried again. “There needs to be a feast prepared for them, and I’ll need Theo helping with the other preparations.”
“Nein.”
Archie’s answer came instantly. Flat and absolute.
Tara’s jaw tightened hard enough that even David glanced at her briefly. For a very small moment, Tara about to reenact the Roman soldier who killed Archimedes despite the order to bring him alive.
David quietly tugged her sleeve and shook his head slightly. Tara exhaled slowly through her nose before turned and walk away together with David.
“This is bad,” Tara muttered quietly once they were far enough. “Theo’s mind isn’t even here anymore.”
“Aye,” David replied casually. “Might be time we start thinkin’ of a special plan for dealin’ with Archie.”
“How?” Tara frowned. “Theo’s practically turned into his livestock at this point.”
“Well ma’am, back in my shepherd days,” David said casually, “when a bull starts becoming too troublesome for the rest of the herd, we usually castrate it or slaughter it.”
Tara slowly turned toward him. David then pulled Tara to his halfling level so he could whisper into her ear.
“But since we can’t exactly do either to Archie,” David muttered, lowering his voice further, “might be better if we separate him from the thing he wants most.”
Tara’s eyebrow twitched.
“Theo?”
“Aye.” David’s grin widened slightly as he continued whispering.
And so, a special plan was born to rescue one sleep-deprived college student from the greatest mathematician in human history.
Surprisingly, the plan worked.
---
Perimeter Wall Construction Site – Present Day
Back to present day, after being tied up for two straight days during the scavenger chiefs’ visit, Archie had finally regained his freedom.
Which unfortunately also meant the villagers lost theirs.
Now the old mathematician could be seen at the perimeter wall construction site, squatting beside a freshly completed wall section while holding a measuring stick in one hand and his self-made archipendulum in the other.
Around him, the villagers watched nervously.
Archie narrowed his eyes at the wall angle, rubbed his chin, then checked the pendulum again.
“Nein,” he declared firmly. “Ze angle is unacceptable.”
Every worker nearby looked like their soul had just left their body.
Archie rose to his feet and pointed at the newly built wall section ten meters wide.
“Take down ze whole section and rebuild it from ze base.”
Silence.
Then collective despair.
“Nooooo…”
“I miss old man Shum…”
“Please just let him drink himself to death again…”
“Ugh… I still got yesterday’s hangover…”
A wave of exhausted complaints spread through the workers and Archie still ignored every single one of them and walked away without the slightest guilt.
“So when do you think it’ll be completed?” Tara asked.
She and David stood near the construction site watching Archie walk over from the freshly condemned wall section.
Theo was also there technically. The necromancer was currently having his episodic micro-sleep while standing.
“Supposedly ten days,” Archie scoffed irritably, “if not because of your and this halfling’s little kidnapping scheme.”
“So twelve days then,” Tara replied smoothly, already too experienced to react to Archie’s complaints anymore. “Good. That means we should be ready for whatever comes after fall.”
“Is ze vinter truly that terrible here?” Archie asked.
Tara smirked.
“I’m not talking about winter,” she said. “…I’m talking about the agros.”
“Oh. Politics.” Archie immediately waved dismissively. “None of my business.”
Then he turned toward Theo.
“Boy! Vake up!”
“Huh?!” Theo snapped awake violently as usual. “Integral! I still remember!”
“Good enough,” Archie cut him off. “Back to ze tent. Ve continue.”
Theo’s face visibly lost hope.
“…Y-yes…”
Then he slowly followed behind Archie with the posture of a condemned man.
Tara and David watched them disappear toward the tent. For a few seconds, neither spoke.
“Are you really sure about starting a fight after winter, ma’am?” David finally asked.
“Well, it’s not like we got much choice anymore,” Tara muttered. “Once the other villages relocate here, there won’t be enough food left to hand over tribute to the agros.”
Her eyes drifted toward the unfinished wall perimeter.
“And when they come demanding it by force,” Tara continued, “we’ll answer with force of our own.”
David smiled casually.
“Sounds simple enough to me, ma’am.”