Chapter : 65

The reactions were polar opposites, but there was no significant opposition.

After all, wasn’t it the lord’s prerogative to hire people? Besides, it wasn’t the first or second time I had done something bizarre(?) to develop the domain.

The vassals had somehow resigned themselves to it, thinking, ‘it is what it is’.

Of course, apart from that, there were other reasons as well.

“M-my Lord. Could you perhaps send Professor Vesalius? My child fell off a horse and his ankle…”

“Hmm…. I didn’t hire Professor Vesalius as a doctor, though?”

“S-still…. I beg you.”

“Goodness, I’ll mention it to him.”

“Th-thank you!”

Like this, his surgical skills were incredibly outstanding.

“Oh, Chamberlain Hamil, what is it? Hmm? Is Treasurer Palmer behind you too?”

“Hoho. Would it be alright to use the Moorish technicians a bit more?”

“That’s right, my Lord. They are great at reading and writing, and their skill with numbers is truly top-notch for administrative officials.”

“The Moors have other work to do.”

“Oh, my Lord…. Please. I think I’m going to die at this rate.”

And their academic or technical skills were so exceptional that they were wanted in every field.

“Goodness, when did you start… after acting so uncomfortable at first.”

“Hoho. Isn’t it all thanks to you? It is said that vassals come to resemble their lord.”

“Ugh….”

Thanks to them, I had become quite bothered.

I already had a lot to do preparing for the war, but I was receiving all sorts of improper requests.

“Still, I’m glad they seem to have settled in well.”

“That’s right, Magician Agpiel.”

To be honest, I had been a little worried.

Magician Agpiel had a great reputation and was a forest magician whom everyone liked, so there was no problem.

But Vesalius and the Moors were different. Vesalius was someone who wanted to dissect corpses, which people detested, and the Moors were, in the first place, people of color with different skin tones.

If the vassals or the people of the domain had ostracized them to the end, I was even considering taking drastic measures.

“Well, there are still some who seem somewhat uncomfortable, but that will get better over time.”

“I hope so.”

Thinking that, I tried to wrap up this issue.

With all the things I had started, all sorts of accidents were breaking out.

On top of that, with the war preparations, the administrative capacity within the domain was hitting rock bottom.

It was so bad that I was even deploying priests to administrative tasks, giving the greedy goat beastman Bishop Marco a hefty reward(?).

“Mehehehet! This is an indulgence~! Merr! An indulgence personally certified by the faithful Performer of Miracles! Meeeh~.”

Thanks to that, Bishop Marco was happily and diligently proselytizing(?) to the nobles and merchants with that reward in hand.

‘Hmm, maybe that’s better.’

It was clear that he would only be a hindrance if he were by my side, so that was better. Securing finances was also quite lucrative.

Anyway, those things weren’t what was important right now.

There was only one task I was focusing on with the utmost concentration.

Public hygiene.

As the army gathered to subjugate the heretics, and more people began to trade in the relay market, the sanitary conditions were gradually becoming serious.

Fleas were rampant, and swarms of rats infested the area. Even bedbugs were becoming a nuisance, so it was truly driving me crazy.

And that wasn’t all.

The filth that poured out every day.

They say the history of a city is also the history of its filth, and as the population began to concentrate, the river was also becoming more and more polluted.

“Actually, there’s something more serious.”

“I know, Magician Agpiel.”

An unexpected problem was giving me another headache.

I didn’t realize it when we were on the move, but now that we were stationed, I could see why an army was called an extremely ruthless group of consumers and destroyers.

The urine and feces produced by nearly 5,000 soldiers were literally devastating the land.

But if I just dumped it in the river, it seemed the river would turn into a river of dung, not water.

‘I see why so many wars are lost due to epidemics….’

In this state, if a disease broke out, everyone would catch it and die.

“Improving public hygiene is urgent.”

Disease does not discriminate.

The epidemic in Canton before was a waterborne disease, so it was easy to prevent, but if it were the plague spread by rats or an influenza epidemic, it would be a different story.

If an epidemic broke out, not even I could avoid it. It was necessary for my own survival.

“Well, is there any good way? It seems to me that you’re already doing as much as you can.”

In fact, I was well aware of this problem and was already in the process of dealing with it.

I was digging deep sewers, creating pits for filth to manage excrement separately, and even carrying out a rat extermination campaign, offering rewards for rat tails.

But it still wasn’t enough.

Because people simply wouldn’t wash. What good was managing the pollutants when they didn’t wash the hands and bodies that touched them-!

“Well, that’s because it’s not a trivial matter to draw water. For those who live day by day, washing is not an easy thing.”

I was well aware of what Magician Agpiel was saying. So I was planning to take drastic measures.

“What about distributing soap and building public baths? Magician Agpiel.”

“Hmm? Soap? Public baths?”

Magician Agpiel tilted his head.

“Wouldn’t it cost a fortune to buy and distribute soap?”

“We’re getting the city of Mangtong this time, aren’t we? Since it’s a port city, wouldn’t it be good for making soap?”

Contrary to popular belief, soap already existed in the Middle Ages.

And in [Pangea Universalise], which pursued a reality-based game, soap, although a little different from modern soap, was something that could be produced as a specialty product in coastal areas.

“Well, if you do that, it would be quite possible. But public baths are a bit…”

“Public baths? Why are they not good?”

“Isn’t that far from being clean? In fact, the contaminated water might stagnate and cause diseases to spread even more.”

“Aah-. It’s a misunderstanding.”

I thought I knew why Magician Agpiel was trailing off. He was probably thinking of the traditional baths in this region.

But the bathhouse I was planning to build was completely different.

“The public bath I’m talking about is not like that.”

“?”

“It’s a much cleaner and more hygienic place where the water flows continuously.”

“Was there such a bathhouse?”

At my words, Magician Agpiel tilted his head. In his knowledge, there was no traditional bath that met that description.

Well, there was something similar called a ‘sauna’ that the northern elves enjoyed.

But after hearing my next words.

“Of course, there is. The bathhouses of the infidels across the sea.”

“What?”

“As I know it, the infidels value cleanliness very much and are very good at making public baths. Since we have Moorish technicians, wouldn’t it be possible to build one using them?”

“????”

At the following words, Magician Agpiel was momentarily stunned.

“So…. you want to build a public bath used by infidels in your domain?”

“Yes, if we remove all the infidel symbols, who would say anything?”

“So you, who are praised as the ‘Realizer of Miracles,’ will do that?”

“Yes! What do you think? Agpiel. My idea.”

“……”

Magician Agpiel was so flabbergasted that he was at a loss for words for a moment.

Was this young noble being serious? But no matter how he looked, he seemed to be speaking sincerely.

In the end, Magician Agpiel could only let out a deep sigh.

“…Have you perhaps been possessed by Satan?”

It was the first time he felt the sorrows of the clergy.

* * *

There were some twists and turns, but to speak of the result, the public bath was accepted.

A few well-traveled people noticed that this public bath was in the ‘infidel’ style. But no one was bold enough to mention it.

Not only was it being used comfortably by everyone from nobles, to merchants, to the common people of the domain, but the person who pushed for it was me, the one famous as the ‘Performer of Miracles’.

-Tiring!

[You have introduced the concept of public hygiene. Until the early modern period, when plagues swept through cities, countless people died. But improved hygiene concepts and cleanliness saved people from the attacks of these epidemics. Your achievement of introducing soap and public baths will be remembered for a long time.]

[Notification: Prestige increases by 5.]

[Notification: The risk of plague is reduced.]

Thanks to that, along with the system window notification, the hygiene in my domain improved rapidly. Considering the past three months of hard work, it was a truly sweet reward.

In addition, while distributing soap to the army as a priority, I also had Vesalius train a large number of quack surgeons.

Now, with just a signal from the Holy See, I was fully prepared to dispatch troops at any time.

And a week later.

A mobilization order was issued from the Prince-Elector of Bohemia.

The location was Avignon, a Holy See city in the south of the Elang Kingdom.

The lords each led their promised number of troops and headed there, and among them, I was also included, leading a force of 5,000.

As over 30,000 troops gradually gathered in Avignon, and the tents stretched out endlessly, the Elang Kingdom began to stir.

-Where on earth is that large army headed?

-Are they going to attack the King of the Elang Kingdom as the Holy See’s movements suggest?

-But why did the Prince-Elector of Bohemia join this subjugation?

Without any concrete evidence, only rumors spread like wildfire, one leading to another.

Thanks to this, the nobles within the kingdom were all thrown into confusion.

And the Prince-Elector of Bohemia, at the center of the chaos, was intentionally leaving it unattended.

“Hmm, he’s a person of deeper thoughts than I expected.”

“Who do you mean?”

“The Prince-Elector of Bohemia.”

“Ah, the king of those wandering elves. It would not be an exaggeration to say that he has spent his entire life on the battlefield. There is always a reason why one survives on the battlefield for a long time.”

“Hehe, that’s true.”

In the first place, there were no secrets in army movements.

As long as there were Jubo merchants following the army and traders moving between cities, information could not be controlled.

That’s why the Prince-Elector of Bohemia’s method of letting it all out actually confused people more.

And this confusion was of great benefit to the southern heretic subjugation force.

While our enemies were dithering, we had successfully completed the mobilization of the targeted 50,000 troops.

As everything went according to plan, the Holy See immediately dispatched a special envoy to the southern region.

Excommunicatio!

They had declared excommunication on the southern region on all fronts.

The Prince-Elector of Bohemia, holding the sacred banner given by the Holy See, formed a crusade to eradicate the heretics.

The southern lords, realizing that they, not the king, were the target, hastily mobilized their forces for defense, but it was already too late.

There were no mercenaries to hire.

Nor were there any allies to help them.

The season of a bloody free-for-all had arrived.

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