บท 47: Paving the way for lucky incidents

Chris wanted to continue his speech. He wanted to promise that every house would have their own faucets in the future. He wanted to guarantee this would distribute water 24/7 for everyone. But he soon stopped as he noticed that everyone was so excited it wasn't necessary to add anything else. It was best to save it for later for a better effect. He wasn't even sure if he could raise his voice above the crowd's rabble.

[I guess I am in their way.] Jested Chris before he stepped aside and motioned the opening to the public.

Most people rushed to the faucets, the smarter ones had already left for the others spread out in the camp. Guards walked up to keep order and make sure people were lining up properly. It was bound to be a little crazy the first day, so Berg had made the appropriate preparations to keep order.

"Upstaged by my own creation." Joked Chris as he walked back to Mia and the others with an embarrassed smile.

Mia looked at him from the corner of her eyes and finally said. "Don't feel bad. Take it as a huge success. Look at everyone's face."

"About that. Isn't everyone way too excited about this? It's just water, it might have been rationed before and the heat didn't help either, but it's not like they didn't have any." Wondered Chris.

"I don't think it's just the water." Said Cat as she joined in. "To them… No to us, this looks like magic. Even after seeing the pump and magic tower… I still don't fully understand this."

Mia also joined in. "To see it is really incredible. To think of the potential for our cities.. I am blown away…" She paused and added. "But I'm not sure I like the name."

"Really? That's my favorite part." Teased Cat.

Chris wanted to mark this special occasion by giving his first real project in this world a special name. Sure, he drew the plans for the wheelbarrows and gave a rough formula for the mortar. But those were simple things that didn't have much to do with his own skills.

However, this project, was a mixture of his own skills and the ingenuity of ancient times. Brought for the first time in this world. It really was special and worth the name he thought.

So he turned to Mia with a proud expression and said. "For now there is just one water tower and one pump for our small camp. But every new village and cities in the kingdom will be connected to this system. It will grow and improve but never be replaced for centuries and more. Don't you think it's worth a special name?"

Chris was of course trying to win points with Mia. But something weird started happening during his small speech.Villagers started to bow in Mia's direction as they left with their vats full of water.

He didn't pay attention to it at first, but it seemed that more and more of them bowed before leaving.

"Huh? What's going on?" He finally said.

Chris wasn't the only one surprised as Mia and the rest were also wondering about the villager's actions.

"Could it be that… People think miss Mia is the originator of the project because of the name?" Said Berg with a smile as he tugged pensively on his mustache.

"N-no way…" Chris turned to Mia who appeared as surprised as him. But her expression quickly changed into a smiling one as she used Chris' favorite expression when he received underserved praise.

"I'll take it!" She said while thumping her chest.

The boys were left speechless as this was very much unlike Mia's usual attitude.

[I guess she is in a good mood.] Thought Berg and his subordinates.

"Do you want us to correct the people's mistake?" Whispered Berg as he pulled Chris away from Mia to ask.

"Nah. She got me on this one." Answered Chris with a smile.

"Are you sure my Lord?" Insisted Berg. "You are clearly not the type to rule with fear. So an increase in popularity would be very useful to you."

Chris looked at Cid and Ferlin who both nodded.

"It's alright guys. They will be fine and work hard as long as they can feel their efforts improving their own lives."

"And this…" He pointed to the faucets. "Is just child's play compared to what I have planed."

"And besides, you guys wouldn't let anything happen to me right?"

"Huhu." Berg chuckled. "I guess not anymore. But we were on the fence the first few days." He half-heartedly joked.

"Really?" Sighed Chris.

"Well, you don't have to worry anymore. Don't you know? The King inherits all the popularity of the Queen once they get married. That's common sense!"

Ferlin and Cid couldn't help thinking they didn't share the same common sense as their king.

But Berg nodded. "Ah to be in love. I understand how you feel my Lord. After all this old man is still pretty active, just the other day...."

"Aaah! Don't want to hear it!" Shouted Chris as he plugged his ears and went back to Mia's side. No wants to hear an old man's dirty tales after all.

Ferlin took the opportunity to ask. "What happens if the screw pump breaks?"

"Good question." Chris paused for a while and continued. "I will design something to alert us in the city. For now, let's have the fishermen check on it."

"I will take care of it, my lord." Said Ferlin.

"How many faucets did we install?" Wondered Cat.

"Currently, we have 30 faucets spread out in groups of five in the camp. Each of the 6 groups has a temporary water evacuation dug beneath. It should hold for a while if people are careful. But we'll need to make something more permanent soon if we don't want the ground to turn into mud." Answered Chris.

"On top of that, every workshop has their own personal faucet. This should help their productivity." He added.

"We can add more faucets if this is not enough, of course. But every faucet opened will decrease the water pressure. So we might need to make more water towers and pumps soon."

He suddenly turned to Mia. She was startled and didn't react in time as he took advantage of her surprise to grab her hand. "That reminds me! I have a little surprise, let's go!"

He pulled her with him as he started running.

"H-hey, let go of my hands!" She said.

Chris was very proud of himself, so he ran with a big smile. [I knew a sneak attack would work better than a frontal assault!]

All his previous open attempts had met with failure, and she had managed to avoid his hand every time. His only success was on the water tower where he was sneakier.

[Being shameless really pays off!] He thought. [Hurray for sneak attacks!]

He brought her behind their tents where a faucet was waiting.

"Look! I had them install one just for us!" Said Chris.

Mia took the opportunity to free her hands in one tug. She was a little mad at him so she said with pinkish cheeks. "Isn't that misuse of government resources?"

"Come on, shouldn't I be able to get my own faucet as a king?" He said as he pretended to grumble.

He didn't tell her but he had other big plans for that faucet. Soon he'd have Rinat build a small room around the faucet, followed by a bathtub and an evacuation for waste water and he'd have a bathroom! A mixed bathroom just for them!

The public mixed bath idea was vetoed. But she didn't say anything about private bathrooms!

[I have found the perfect loophole.] He rejoiced. [Huhu. No one can tell what kind of lucky incident might happen.]

******

In the forest north of the Kunall camp.

If people paid enough attention, they could sometimes spot a dark shape jumping from trees to trees. It was an elf hurrying back to her camp as she had an important report to make.

She slowed down only when she finally saw the host tree the camp was on.

With a few more jumps she was finally on top of that tree and in front of a dome of branches and leaves. She moved forward, and the branches moved to make places for her.

The inside of the dome was mostly flat and empty, only a few people were inside, chatting, sleeping, eating and waiting their turns to go out.

The inside was arranged with their magics. It was a simple task to move around the branches to create living space that way for the elves. If needed they could even boost the vitality of the tree to create new branches and leaves to improve their hideout.

Magic, this was one of the advantages the elves and faes had over the humans.

"Sir Camus!" She said.

"Sana? Back already?" Camus looked at her with raised eyebrows. She was his right hand, and he always made sure to give her the most important tasks. She was with him since the moment they entered the human kingdom. [If Sana is back already then, something important happened.]

And sure enough, she made her report. "Twenty Kunall scouts left their main camp this morning. This was routine, but two of our people followed them discreetly. They were ambushed and defeated four hours later by humans!"