Chapter 44: Thinking About the Future
While Arthur was busy planning, the builders had already begun their work. Although only a few hours had passed, they had demolished the old walls and laid the foundations for new ones. Their work pace was fast—thanks to their sheer numbers, they resembled diligent ants.
Arthur gathered the designs he had drawn, looked at the builders for a few minutes, then suddenly frowned, a hint of discomfort flickering across his face.
Octavia noticed and asked politely, "Is something wrong, my lord?"
He shook his head oddly. "No, it’s... something else. Not worth thinking about right now."
"I see," she replied, though in truth, she didn’t understand what he meant. Still, she knew well enough that he was likely mulling over some strange idea again.
She wasn’t wrong. The short time Arthur had spent observing the builders was enough to reveal multiple issues—foremost among them, the complete lack of safety measures. The second issue was the poor quality of materials. The stone foundations and walls were being constructed using unevenly shaped rocks, bound together with a basic mortar made from clay, sand, and plant fibers.
There existed a better type of mortar—lime mortar—with far superior quality. But Arthur had no plans to use it for three reasons. The first was time: lime mortar was more complex to prepare and required longer curing, which meant more money spent. The second reason: he had other plans, and this workshop wasn’t particularly important to him, it could easily be discarded.
But the main reason was the goblin army attack that would take place two months from now. In the novel, it was said the city was devastated and most of its buildings destroyed in the fierce and brutal assault. Simply put, he didn’t want to waste much effort on something that would likely be reduced to rubble. Everything he was doing now was just experimentation, to identify potential problems, possible solutions, and future improvements.
After a brief silence, he stood up calmly and gestured to Octavia. "Let’s take a tour of the area."
"As you command, my lord."
As they walked through the city, Arthur observed everything with curiosity, unlike his first tour, which was just to see the general layout. This time, he analyzed the design of every building and mentally drafted improvements, even noting where a sewage system might pass in the future.